Auriel will clamber up on top of the vehicle dismiss his sword and shield, then crawl forward towards the cab.
Lt. Hamilton swears and turns to get up out of his seat and go confront the would be hijackers. Instead he faces an Atlas model combat cyborg, weapons ready to shred him in two, even with the armor he is wearing.
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Lieutenant Hamilton slowly disengages the drive function of the APC and the vehicle grounds to a halt. He places his armored hands on his armored head and turns to kneel. "The Coalition will have your heads for this. I don't know who you are, but rest assured High Command at least knows your face. They will come for you."
Auriel says nothing but instead climbs down and opens the back doors, summoning his blade to do so.
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Jazz slides down a ladder into the APC proper. She scoffs at Hamilton as she walks up, looking miles less intimidating than the Atlas. "Yeah? Do they know my face? Ooh, I'm so scared." She walks up, staring at Lieutenant Hamilton with something like revulsion as Auriel opens up the doors behind her. "The Coalition has done its best to take away everyone and everything I care about. So LT? You take a real good look." She spits on the ground in front of him. "Someday, I'll be coming for them."
She turns around in a huff, taking a few steps away and letting her active gadgets drop. The adrenaline surge seems to subside as she touches her comm piece. "Hey, Attie got the Lieutenant," she says, glancing back at him kneeling on the ground. "I think we need to have a huddle about this." She draws her gun and taps it, her hand sparking as she charges the battery.
Auriel slices open the back doors and reveals several of the blue elfin creatures that are huddled together in the rear cargo area, each one chained to the next. Their eyes flit back and forth among you, and especially to your weapons.
Burgurk searches the Lieutenant, looking for the keys to unlock the prisoners. Assuming he finds them, he goes into the back to free them.
In response to Atlas' question, he says "I sort of know how to drive one, having had to hijack one once to get away with some foodstuffs to feed the hungry. But I only know the basics, I can't do any fancy maneuvers or anything."
Auriel moves into the cabin and begins cutting them free, saying "It's okay. We're going to get you out of here and someplace safe." He will again cycle through the languages he knows: American, Atlantean, Faerie Speak, and Dragonese.
Jonis releases the APC and starts to scout around for more Coalition troops, while the others deal with the DBess and the Coalition officer.
Burgurk finds the keys and begins unlocking the D-Bees, each of whom lay their hands on your shoulders in thanks. For his part, Hamilton remains quiet, the only sound coming from him is the recycled air from his helmet rebreather.
After releasing the prisoners, Burgurk heads towards the front of the vehicle, clears the glass from the driver's seat, sits down and surveys the buttons, knobs, and dials, and says over comms "So, where do we want to take this thing?"
"we should disable it. They can most likely track it. We should, however, take what we can from it."
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"I can take a look through and see if I can disable any GPS or tracker," Jazz says. Glancing back at the lieutenant, with a nasty smile, she adds "Then we can take it home, take off all the skulls and paint kittens and bunnies and rainbows all over it. Take that, Coalition."
Jonis silently let them go away, without informing the others. She wouldn't want to kill them if they are retreating.
Jazz feels rather than sees the wires in the machine, noting each ones voice as it calls out to what it is connected to, what it powers, what it controls, and.. bingo.. There's the transponder. As she works to disable it, the Lieutenant speaks up.
"You think this is a game? When the captain hears what you have done, she will send the entire division down here to rid this place of you vermin."
"Got it," Jazz says, elbow deep in wiring and cables. She extracts her arm briefly, and extends a righteous bird. "I think you're bluffing. The Coalition doesn't care about people. They never cared about people. They don't care about you." She traces a fake tear drop down the side of her face. "Big Mama High Council doesn't give a hot f!*~ about you, Lieutenant."
She dives back in, ignoring him for a few minutes before pulling out a gizmo with a bundle of wires attached. She lifts it up, dragging her face along it for a moment, then sighing and collecting herself. She drops it, imperiously, in front of the Lt, and stepping on it. Levering her whole bodyweight up on to it, she grunts for a second, then quietly mutters, "Attie? Could you crush that please? Thanks."
Auriel takes a pair of the binders that the D-Bees had on them and cuffs the lt. Without comment. He then escorts him into the holding area in the back and restrains him there.
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Burgurk does his best to steer the vehicle back to their home base, using roads when he can, but going off-road when he has to.
"I will, Attie."
She thinks for a second about the coalition officer. What are they gonna do with him?
She won't let them harm him, not after he has been capture. Release him? Try to turn him to the "good guys"?
She don't say anything. Yet.
The next three days are spent driving along what might be considered roads, or destroyed sections of what the pre-Rifts people would have called highways. Most of that in the last few hundred years has been grown over, but the APC's high tech suspension is able to handle it. Every once in a while you stop to get food and water, after ransacking the stores in the APC. Feeding a large group of people, plus yourselves with the little edible food in the area reminds Auriel of a story when he wanted something so bad...
"So my master loved to get us to do things by adamantly refusing to let us do them. I remember a time that my best friend on the ship and I wanted to land to go fishing. Our master said that the pla...ce was too dangerous and that we should be training, not fishing. We begged, pleaded, and tried talking rationally, but nothing worked. Finally, Cascuss and I decided to just sneak down to the place and fish. We waited until our master was meditating, and then we snuck out. We thought we were very clever, Cass especially" as Auriel tells the story, he gestures with his hands, and occasionally his shirt will shift to show pieces of the various tattoos on his arms and torso.
"So there we were, two clever young men, when we get to the place, the LARGEST Trillhorn anyone had ever heard of broke the surface of the water. It was looking right at us like we had stolen one of it's clone-young. Then it roared. We both started looking for weapons, but realized that all we had were our poles. This" he says"Was before I received my tattoos. We were both scared out of our minds, and I thought for sure that I was going to die, when a blade flew out of the air and landed in our boat. I took the blade and Cass took the one that followed, and we dove into the water and engaged it in melee combat. It was a rough battle, but every time we were about to die, the creature's attention would be diverted for just a moment to allow us to reassess the situation or catch a breath. When we were finished, we wearily climbed back into our boat and sprayed water on our master's boots."
"As I recall, I got stuck cleaning halls for a month straight. It was worth it, thought; That was how Cass learned to swim."
Jonis hears the story as if drinking every word and lets out a small laugh at the end.
"What's a flotation device?"
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Jonis sighs...
Eventually, you can see Castle Refuge in the distance. This is about the time when the border patrols should be showing up, and sure enough, your comms come alive just as the thought crosses your mind.
"Coalition vehicle, you are a long way from home and trespassing on sovereign territory. I suggest you turn around or become part of the scenery." Though the off-color joke seemed funny, the voice was serious enough.
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Atlas takes up the call on his Core electronics package and replies on the frequency with his internal radio. ***Attention Castle Refuge patrol. This is AssaultMech Atlas Twenty One Dash Twelve returning with the recon patrol. We were sent on a reconnaissance mission by Major Gundar Grimjack. We encountered a Coalition vanguard and...neutralized them. We have claimed this vehicle as spoils of conquest.
Also, we have a prisoner. Lt. Hamilton. His soft, squishy organic form is currently functioning, and he has been rendered immobile. You may consider him ready for interrogation. I considered enhancing his compliance with Pain Enforcement, but withheld, so he has a maximum number of sensitive nerve nexi still functioning.***
Something about that last part struck Atlas as wrong somehow...but he wanted to be accurate.
"This is Jasmine Greyjune, Techno-Wizard for the Tomorrow Legion," Jazz chimes in over the comms. "We have a large group of civilian D-Bees, refugees from the Coalition States who need medical care and food."
"I would also like to initiate a formal request to strip off all the damn skulls on this APC," she adds after a second. "Acceptable replacements include hearts, kitties, rainbows and puppies, but pinup art is acceptable."
Auriel spend the trip watching the captive. ignited sword scoring the troop back metal and ceramics at his feet. He said nothing to the prisoner, but let the threat be shown clear.
A brief pause and then, "Refuge copies. Stand by for clearance to docking bay 3. "
Not much time later, the hangar doors open for you to drive the big machine into. Once inside, a swarm of technicians and Legion troops surround the vehicle. Amongst them is Grimjack. He stands there with his usual sour face, but the sensitive among you can feel the pride coming from him.
The soldiers take Hamilton into custody and then start helping the DBees by offering blankets and cloaks. They are led away to a holding area to be checked over by Legion medical personnel.
Grimjack looks at all of you. "Debrief in ten minutes, you've earned it. "
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As the vehicle parks and docks, Auriel "sheathes" his blade and then walks Hamilton to the guards.
Turning to his companions, he says "So, our first mission is a success. What do we do now?"
"After the debriefing, await our next assignment."
"I am just glad we are all safe and back here."
"Stock up, check all our armor and weaponry to make sure it's in working order," Jazz says, counting on her fingers. "Do our best to rest up if we have time before the next mission. Any of you have any hobbies?"
"I like knitting." - says Jonis while blushing.
You arrive in the room you had met Major Grimjack in almost a week ago. Though he isn't smiling, his usual gruff demeanor isn't as apparent. When you are seated, he begins speaking.
"Well, command is impressed. Commandeered and retrieved a relatively intact Coalition APC, fought off practically a whole platoon of the Deadies, rescued several civilians and captured an enemy officer. None of which was on your list of things to do. Still, brass says 'good job' and that 'we will be watching you.'" The dwarven man sighs, his beard seeming to sigh with him. "We've been told by our more magic inclined teams that they have detected a burgeoning rift near where you just were. They believe that by the time you get there, it should be about ready to open up. Command wants you to go check it out, see if you can figure out where it goes and come back. Easy, right? Get to it." He doesn't wait and steps down from his lecturn and goes to leave.
"I guess we're headed back there." Auriel will requisition some manacles and a stun weapon.
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Jonis smiles at the dwarf.
"We will do our best, sir."
She turns to Jazz.
"We need to fix the APC. Unicorns you said?"
"You knit?" Jazz asks incredulously, then nods about t6he APC. "Oh yeah," she says, rapidly nodding. "I'm pretty sure I can get all the skulls and stuff off, but I'm not much of an artist..."