Not having heard anything in a bit, Jingu moves to the entryway of the depot, and goes quiet, listening for any noise. Since he can speak without making sounds, he sends a quick mental ping.
●Flash?●
Everything's good down here. We found a boy stockpiling items in a hidden basement, and...a *Glitterboy* armor. What have you found?
Captain Deloso eventually makes his way down to Burgurk and Trent. ”We’re clear, far as I can tell. So what did this one have to say for himself?”
"Sir, it seems like he's just a junk-collecting kid, using this secret space to store his stuff. What do you want to do with him?"
Deloso nods, putting his hand on his chin. ”Perhaps, but from what out intel told us, this young man also has a few contacts with some shady dealers.” He looks at Trent for a moment, almost daring him to lie. ”Isn’t that right Mr. Trent, or as your other friends call you, Rugburn.”
The words sunk into Jonas’ head as you can see the wide-eyed look one his face turn from surprise to fear. ”Wh.. what are you going to do? I..I didn’t want to Coalition to catch me with all this stuff. Weapons trafficking is punishable by death if it’s theirs.”
Deloso furrows his brow. You can sense his psychic energies starting to surge. ”That’s all fine and dandy, but we’re after something else you have. Information. We want to know about the Faelerin. Or at least, tell us who does know about them.”
Trent shakes his head. ”I’ve heard some whispers about some blue skinned folk being moved around a lot and when your people brought some through a while back, I thought you might have been part of it. I didn’t want nothing to do with trading people, so I stayed away. I did overhear some of the CS soldiers talking about them though. Something about a shipment into El Dorado.”
”Then that is where we are headed.” Looking at you, he says,”Sergeant, this young man is coming with us. He is going to get us an audience with some of the folks dealing in those Faelerin. We will need to get a Legion clean up crew here to pick up all these supplies. I’ll contact them as soon as we can. In the meantime, take him topside and check on Jingu.”
Trent goes to protest but a look from Deloso, including a spark of flame in his eyes, stops him short.
Burgurk clasps a large hand on the boy's thin shoulder and says "Come with me" and takes him up topside. Seeing Jingu, he tells him "Deloso says we're going to El Dorado, and this young man is coming with us. He'll be up in a few minutes, but we should get everyone ready to leave."
Trent follows you up begrudgingly, notably looking around to see if there are any more soldiers. He is taken aback by the sight of Jingu. ”I have never seen one of those before. What are they?”
Jingu gives a buzz of his wings and turns his head silently to acknowledge he understands he is being spoken to. After a moment he responds with his thoughts, broadcasting them to the group so all can hear them.
●I am Jingu, and I am a "he," not a "they." I am the scout attached to this unit.●
Jonas Trent stammers a bit, not familiar with being contacted telepathically. ”That’s.. I mean.. wha.. “ You can see that he appears to be distraught by this. ”I.. I am sorry. I didn’t know.”
Jingu can't smile, but he clicks his mandables a few times to show he's friendly.
●No offense taken. It took me a while to get used to creatures that put their bones on the inside, and their squishy bits on the outside. Seems like poor design to me, but you seem to manage. I can't make your speech, so I speak with my mind.●
He turns to Deloso, ●Really? After all the trouble here, we're just going to pack up and leave? Can I at least do another search for refugees? We can't have accounted for all of them already...●
Jonas nods and attempts to stifle his fear. ”I guess we are all a little different here.”[/‘b]
When Captain Deloso returns to the surface, he listens to Jingu’s questions. [b]”I can respect that Jingu, but between us, we don’t have the manpower to do a full sweep and take care of anyone we find. Besides, I am certain you would have spotted them by now. If there was anyone left, the Coalition has them or they have found somewhere to hole up. Either way, we do not have the people to get the job done. I have contacted Castle Refuge and a salvage team will be sent here, but our main mission remains the same. Find out just what Trent here knows and find out what is happening with those blue folks.”
Looking to Burgurk, he adds. ”Not necessarily to Fort El Dorado, at least I hope not. We don’t want to risk open war with the Coalition. We’re going to seek out another Market operation and get some intel first. We may have to get our hands a little dirty to do it.”
Sighing, he turns back to Jingu. ”Make one more sweep. Bellerophon can help you. I will get Josiah to help gather what we can, but most of it will be picked up by Legion forces as soon as they can get here. What we found down below can certainly help the Legion.”
●Roger●
Jingu lifts off, using a bit of energy to amplify his speed and vision, giving him the best chance of spotting anyone still in hiding.
He starts doing a once over about the town, then moving out in concentric circles. He switches his optics to Thermal every second pass to help spot any irregularities.
Jingu flies over the remains of Garnet Town and spots little other than his squad and Trent. In the distance, he can see a herd of Rhino-Buffalos, but for the moment, they seem to be grazing happily. Other than that, at least for a mile or two out, there seems to be nothing to threaten the small group. As Jingu turns to head back and report however, his keen senses pick up a speck in the distant sky. Watching it for a moment, he realizes it is getting bigger as it approaches. He can see a distinct metallic black painting on the aerial vehicle and as it gets closer, several smaller versions of it seem to be surrounding it. More than likely, it is a Coalition Transport, with escorts.
Jingu checks his armour's adaptive camaflage to make sure it's active. While they are probably too far off for him to worry about being spotted, there is no point in taking chances. He takes a range finding, waits a moment, and then takes another, in order to get a guess at their speed.
He then makes a report to Captain Deloso, ●Inbound transport with escorts, likely coalition. At their current speed, they will arrive in (estimated time).●
If he has time, he'll finish his sweep, though if the new arrivals are due in minutes, he'll move back to the unit to help get them ready to move.
Josiah pulls Elsie up to the entryway to the bunker and it's equipment stash.
"You want all thisin here loaded up, Cap? Hmm, grunts can move move of the boxes. That Boomer is going to be the problem, and the biggest priority, I reckon. I take it she's not workin' under her own power right now? Buzzbee could probably lift it with his brain mojo if he were down here, but I probably gotta use a winch. But then, that tractor beam I rigged up the other day might do the job, though I think it shorted out. Though, I should be able to rebuild it..."
Josiah uses his odd looking projector to wrap the Glitterboy in some sort of softly glowing energy field. He guides it up the stairs and on to Elsie's flatbed, next to all the parts he salvaged from the Enforcer robot. He then hops up, and with the help of a few of the grunts, starts working on securing the load.
”Then I guess it’s time we get a move on. Josiah, get the truck running, we’re leaving in less than five minutes. I want to be out of sensor range before they get here.”
With that, the Captain rounds up everyone and you pile into Elsie, along with Jonas Trent. ”Trent, it’s your call, but make it quick, where is the next place to go checking for your friends?”
Trent stammers for a bit and then says, ”West. Head West and we’ll get to a little town that’s out of the way, has a small trading outpost that I sometimes get merch from.”
”You heard him, Josiah, let’s go.”
Josiah takes to the wheel and the truck speeds out of Garnet Town Ruins as quick as it can, cutting across a rough bridge of dirt and stone. Peeking back at the incoming transport, you watch as two SkyCycles break off from it and start heading in your direction. For a brief moment, you think they have you, but then each one veers off and heads in a circle around the site. They are obviously looking for something, but it isn’t you. At least for now.
You spend the next couple of hours looking back, making sure that no one is following you. Finally, Trent calls out, ”Make a left here and follow the road. It’ s a bit bumpy, but it’ll get us there.” He was right about the road, as Jace complains about the boring ride less now that he is being jostled about. Still once you reach the edge of an overgrown forest, it opens up into a valley that contains several ramshackle buildings, all single story and all made of wood. It looks as if it something from ancient times, but no sooner you drive towards the outskirts, you can see that this is certainly not an old site, as several human men armed with laser rifles point them at you as they come out of their homes. Trent says, ”I don’t know these guys. What do we do?”
Captain Deloso looks to each of you. ”We play this cool and calm like. Even with Elsie, they may have more than we can handle and we don’t want to upset the locals if we have to come back here. Trent, stay in the cab.” With that, he checks the charge on his sidearm and slowly opens the door and steps out. He motions for Burgurk and Jingu to flank him.
”Gentlemen,” he starts. ”I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. Captain Deloso, Tomorrow Legion. You folk live here?” Though the question was obvious, Deloso seemed to be fishing for something.
One of the men, and older human with a scar across his forehead, steps up, keeping his weapon trained on Deloso. ”We haven’t heard of this ‘Tomorrow Legion’ and we don’t want whatever you’re selling. Take your truck and get gone.”
When they see Burgurk and Jingu step out, some of the men bristle and speak up. ”D-Bees! That there is a Simvan. They eat people. And that looks like a giant wasp!” You can see that their trigger fingers are itchy. ”Let’s just roast them before they can melt our minds!”
You can see Deloso’s hand move to his sidearm.
Burgurk holds up his hands over his head and says "Many rumors float around about my race, but I can assure you I don't eat people."
Seeing Burgurk put his hands up, the lead speaker gains some courage. ”The rest of you, hands up too. All of them.” He looks pointedly at Jingu.
You get a telepathic message from Deloso. ”You sure you want to play it this way?”
Deloso and Jingu raise their arms as well. The other men come and collect any visible weapons and then march you along a path towards one of the houses. Once inside the dingy shack, you can tell that these people don’t have much. The weapons they carry are old and most of their tech is definitely older than pre-Rifts. The lanterns and mostly wooden furniture tell you as much. They have you sit in the center of the room as they gather around. The main speaker hands his rifle to another and then sits in a chair opposite you. The creaking you hear is either his bones or the chair, you aren’t sure which is older.
”Go ahead and put your arms down, you look silly with them up like that. You look military, but the only military we’ve seen in these parts is Coalition. As you can guess, we don’t get many out-of-towners like yourselves either. So either someone led you here, or it was your dumb luck that got you here. Either way, it’s unpleasant for us. I am guessing that this Simvan is without a tribe, as they usually travel in packs. Can’t say I recognize the other one.” He looks over the weapons they’ve collected from you. ”These aren’t CS standard, so either you’re lying about who you’re with and you’re some kind of scouting party for raiders or you’re telling the truth and this Legion of yours is too cheap to give you anything worthwhile. The rig you have outside is nice though. My boys are going to go check it out while you tell me what’s going on.”
You realize that if they do that, they will find Trent and Josiah in the truck. You think about what to do next..
Altho my racial instinct is to kill them, doesn't the Legion frown on unnecessary killing of civilians?
"I'm surprised you haven't heard of the Legion. We are a group made of many races, all working together to fight the Coalition. We were just peacefully traveling to our destination when we ran across your...village. We have no quarrel with you. If you'll give us back our gear, we'll be on our way. And, this is not meant as a threat, but to show you our good intentions, I could kill you with a thought." Burgurk smiles, knowing that it would intimidate as much as console.
= 4
Some of the men shudder a bit, but the talker only raises a single eyebrow. ”Be that as it may, We have a vested interest in keeping ourselves away from the likes of any sort of military. What’s stopping you from bringing more of your… commune.. and taking over our home?”
Deloso returns with, ”We do. The problem is Trent said his contact was here. We need to press them for more.”
"I assure you, the Legion only offers help to those who ask for it. We are too busy fighting the Coalition to 'take over' anybody. And to be honest, it doesn't seem like this place has anything worth taking. We are merely looking for someone that a friend of ours knows, to do some business with him. He may or may not be living here."
As he doesn't carry any weapons, Jingu has nothing to surrender. His armour has retractable blades on it, but only because that's the way the make it in Navada, not because he ever uses them. All the same, he keeps his hands visible.
He broadcasts to everyone present, ●I'm afraid I can't speak your language, so I apologize for the direct mental messaging. My people come from further north. They are called the Malliferan by your kind. We fight the Xicicix mostly, but I found my way to the Tomorrow Legion. What they say is true; they only get involved with folk that ask, and they work cooperatively to try and help anyone that joins. It's a small alliance, but growing. And unlike the Coalition, they'll accept anyone, not just humans.●
To his teammates he adds, ●Sir, Josiah is not going to let anyone inspect or threaten his truck. "Elsie" is like a child to him, and he's about as likely to allow them to take control of her as you would be to let them take your daughter...●
Sure enough, a moment later the sound of Josie's Nova rifle can be heard. The lack of a following explosion would suggest he fired it in the air.
The distant voice that drifts through can be heard shouting, "If you wantta keep those grimy little dirt diggin' hands attached to your ditch diggin' corpse, you better get 'em off my baby and in the air, right high!"
”What’s your friend’s name? Maybe we can..” He doesn’t finish as Jingu finishes his faster than thought message. You can see several of them holding a hand to their head and looking at each other and then at Jingu. When Josiah’s weapon discharges, they come back to their senses and point their weapons back at you. ”I’m going to guess that is one of your friends. Let’s go say hello.” He has the men stand behind you with their weapons pointed at you and walks you outside to meet Josiah and Trent, who specifically did not listen to orders and stay in the truck.
The men that went to check on it are now behind the cover of rocks and houses, pointing their rifles at Elsie, but they seem to be waiting on a command. You know full well that their weapons will barely scratch the paint on Elsie, but even that will get Josiah angry enough to open fire.
The leader speaks. ”Seems we have some difficulty keeping ourselves civil. How about you come down from there and we can all talk like this Legion your friends have been telling me about. Else, I’m afraid we will have to consider you firing your weapon an act of aggression and retaliate in kind, starting with your comrades.”
Trent is visibly shaken as some of them have laser rifles pointed right at him. Jace looks as if he is about to burst out of his skin and rip apart the man behind him. You see his fingers clench and unclench over and over so fast it blurs. The speaker awaits the answer.
Deloso sends a message to Jingu. ”I can only reach one of you at a time. We need to get information out of these people and that’s not going to happen if they’re dead. Pass that along to Josiah.”
Out loud he says, ”Josiah, they aren’t going to touch the truck as long as we respect their right to privacy as well.” He looks at their leader pointedly. ”We’ll talk this out and move on, as we said we would.”
Josiah gives a gap toothed smile, and sizes up each of the settlers.
"If you's is sayin' so, Cap'n. Don't look like much o' a threat to me. Just a bunch a bedraggled rift-leavings. Handsy-mc-bumpkin o'er there came out all like 'I'm a commendeering this vehicle,' and I'm just letting 'im know there's a freezer for his corpse in the back if 'e tries it. No 'arm done, so long as peeps keep their hands to 'emselves."
"Yeah, no need for anyone to get hurt...and if someone's going to get hurt, it won't be us..." His tone indicates that he believes what he's saying.
After a moment, looking at what is facing him and his men, the leader puts up a hand to tell them to lower their weapons. It seems he realizes that though he has more people, you have him outgunned. ”Alright, now that we have that established, no more surprises.” He looks at Deloso pointedly. As the men hesitantly lower their weapons, he extends a hand. ”Let’s try this again. My name is Marcus Albright, the chosen spokesperson for our establishment. You must understand that we don’t usually get visitors around these parts unless they want trouble. Considering how well armed you are, we could only assume the worst. Lots a folk have come through pretending to be nice and all that.” He pauses and you notice Trent looking around nervously. So does Marcus. ”So, your friend over there seems a bit uptight. What’s his deal?”
Deloso responds, ”Says there used to be a contact of his in town a while back, but it seems they aren’t here anymore. So as we said, we’ll be on our way as soon as you return our weapons.” You note that a couple of the men in the crowd seems to shuffle anxiously themselves. You also realize you haven’t seen any women or children in the area.
Must have been mistaken I guess. Happens a lot in this world.” Marcus motions to the other men to return your weapons. ”Best get going though, you don’t want to caught out at night in these wilds.”
It is clear to you that they are holding something back, but Deloso seems to be okay with just leaving.
"Just curious, where are your womenfolk and kids? Did you send them all to the root cellars when you heard us coming?"
Without skipping a beat, as if he knew the question was coming, Marcus responds. "Our women and children are safe and if you are just moving on, then that is all you need to know." He smiles, but you can almost sense a malice coming from him. The other men look at each other nervously.
= 10, a Raise
Burgurk gets the feeling that Marcus is genuine about protecting his people, but he is certainly anxious to get you moving along and to stop being questioned. Looking at the rest of the men, Burgurk feels as if some of them may not agree with how Marcus keeps them 'safe'.
"Ok, look, I know we're strangers, and you have no reason to trust us, but the Legion helps anyone in need. Are there any problems here we can help you with? We can protect you from just about anything." He directs the question and the following statement at the group of men, not at Marcus.
One of them men, an older man than Marcus hesitantly steps forward. He looks first at Marcus, who nods at him, and then back at Burgurk. ”Coalition soldiers that came through here a while back said the same thing you are. They could protect us and all that, we just had to give up our guns and some of our crops. We sent them away. They came back again in larger numbers and said the same thing, but they were more insistent. We sent them away again. Finally, a few days ago, they sent one soldier. He killed three of our livestock and then left without saying a word. We don’t..” Marcus interrupts him.
”We don’t know exactly what they want, but they seem pretty certain about it. We are nowhere near a ley line and we have no D-Bees here. If your Legion is as all-powerful as you say, can you keep the Coalition out so we can stay independent?”
●Sorry if we gave the wrong impression, but the Tomorrow Legion is far from All-Powerful. We are a cooperative collective; basically just a bunch of people, tired of getting pushed around by the Coalition, Vampires, Splugorth, or the Federation of Magic, and banding together for mutual protection. It's a new thing, so we are far smaller that the Coalition. However, we are at the far edge of the Coalition's influence out here, so we've had a lot of good luck holding them at bay, and out of our safe zones.●
●The Tomorrow Legion is the defense force for Castle Refuge, and they are good people. The location is not a secret; we can give you directions if you want to check them out. They let you keep what you bring, and allow you to use whatever skills and resources you have to trade with the rest of the collective. We all end up better off because of it. And they let anybody join, so long as they come in peace.●
He waves a hand at himself, and makes a meaningful nod towards Bugurk as he transmits his thoughts.
●The Tomorrow Legion is a volunteer group for defense; no draft, no pressed service. But once you see people working together and everyone benefiting, some of your number will probably want to join. The pay isn't terrible either.●
●It may be small, but we have a solid start. A safe place to live, farms, shelter, medical care, and power, as well as a force for mutual defense. You could do a lot worse.●
"Jingu, if you're suggesting that these people travel to Castle Refuge, I don't think that's a good idea. One, because we can't travel with them to protect them on their trip. Two, because there's something here the Coalition wants, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let them have it without a fight."
Turning to the men he says "We will protect you, and you don't need to give us your guns or *anything* in return. That's what the Legion does."
Marcus and his men listen to your description of the Tomorrow Legion and Castle Refuge. Some of them nod in appreciation of what might be something that could help them, others are concerned. Marcus speaks for them.
”That all sounds well and good, and perhaps we may some day take you up on that offer, but for the time being, we’re an independent operation. Secondly, you said you came here looking for someone that your friend over there knows, but you haven’t told us who that might have been or why you were looking for them. We feel that it might be something to do with what the Coalition wants.”
"As we've said, the boy told us that he knew someone here who we want to talk to. Kid - what did you say his name was?" He glares at Trent, hoping to convey the idea that he should only answer specific questions of him, and not volunteer any information.
Trent looks over, the trembling in his voice betraying the fear in his body. ”I.. I was coming to meet Harridan, a friend of mine.”
Marcus looks Trent up and down and then back at his men before settling back on the rest of you. ”Harridan is no longer with us. He was taken by the Coalition.” He looks pointedly at the rest of the men, especially the ones that seemed to be interested in help from the Legion. ”Whatever you wanted with him, he is with them now and probably didn’t survive the trip. Sorry, kid, but you’ve reached a dead end and I think it’s high time the rest of you get a move on.” He pats the rifle across his chest.
Just then, a man comes running from behind the group, out of breath and panicked. ”They’re coming back!,” he yells. ”They’ve got more troops!”
Marcus stands and looks at you. ”I guess now is the time to show us what your ‘Legion’ is capable of.”
Burgurk asks which direction they are coming from, and sees if there's any nearby cover he can get behind that would give him line-of-sight to the troops.
When they're within 12", he will Force Blast the group. Depending on how much his Psionics gets boosted, maybe within 24"