"That remains to be seen. Until we can better communicate with them, we don't know the full story, but suffice to say, we don't need any more cooks in the kitchen. " He looks you over. "Unless there is anything else, Grim has your next mission. "
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Turning to the girl, Auriel will say "We are going to be going to very dangerous places and doing dangerous things. I would like to keep you here where it is safe. Will you wait for us here?"
The girls nods slowly, apprehensive but trusting.
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Jonis lips tighten.
"We can't judge her people. They were scared, under attack. What they did was wrong, but we should not judge them for trying to save the lives of many more children."
She looks at the girl, and smiles at her, worry in her eyes.
"Is she going to be safe here? Is the Tomorrow Legion going to be safe with her here? Maybe we should take her with us... I feel responsible for her."
Major Deschesne nods. "She will be safe. Serena herself has assured me of that. She says that this girl plays an important role for the Legion and I've learned to trust half of what that elf says. We will be keeping her separate from her kin for now. We hope that they haven't completely shunned her." He lowers his eyes and then his comm beeps. "I have to take this. Leave the girl, she is in good hands. Grim is waiting in the briefing room." He waits until you leave to answer his call.
The briefing room is packed with more than your team. Some of the other teams you have seen are here as well. Grim clears his throat as you take your places.
"Alright, here's the situation. Seems we stirred up a hornets nest. CS chatter is talking about a group of bad news demons that have made it through a Rift and are causing trouble on the borders. We're sending your teams out to see if you can find evidence of their passing and what threat they are to the Legion and any surrounding towns. Also, we want to know what the Dead Boys are doing about it. Questions?"
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Jonis smiles at Grim and shakes her head, her hair waving around her head.
"We won't fail you. You can trust us."
"If the opportunity to thin the herd presents itself, take it, but take no extra risks."
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Auriel hugs her then says "We will be back soon." before heading to the briefing room.
"Are we to engage the demonic forces if we see them and they do not see us, or is this purely a reconnaissance mission?"
"Recon In force as it were. As I said, if the opportunity presents itself, thin either herd."
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At the word "either" Jonis seems confused for a second, but then she understands he is talking about the Coalition soldier.
She puts an uncomfortable face but doesn't say anything.
Satisfied that you are done with him, the man dismisses you and you walk right out into a meeting with Grim, who was waiting a little too close outside the door.
"That was quicker than I expected.." He doesn't continue with that train of thought. "Rescue mission, you're up. Seems a couple of scavs found themselves in trouble when they went off the reservation and walked into a nest of some kind. That's all we got when the radio transmission cut out. Coords are in your tracking systems, shouldn't take you more than an hour to get there at top speed. Captain Tiller is waiting." He turns to leave.
Jonis salutes Grim.
"We will do our best, sir!"
She goes out, get into her Glitter Girl, and lets out a small prayer, hoping they won't need to kill anybody (except demons or evil supernatural creatures).
"Let's be about our mission of mercy. The sooner we resolve this, the better."
You load up into Tiller's TechnoWizard helicopter once again and you are quickly off. This time he doesn't say as much to you, and you notice that the pylons are loaded with ordnance this time. If questioned, he simply states, "Forearmed is forewarned."
Soon you approach the coordinates on your trackers and find that you are coming close what appears to have been a battle of some kind. There are giant insectoid bodies all over, steaming from fires all around and several armored bodies laying about as well. This looks like it might have once been a farmstead, but the smoldering ruins of it tell you that is no longer the case.
Tiller releases the Glitter Girl and then lowers the heli so you can get out. He then takes off in a hurry...
As soon as she touches down Jonis scans around for threats and/or survivors. Her voice comes out on the radio.
"From the crater over there! There seem to be survivors."
Se moves towards the sound, trying to provide cover if necessary.
Auriel nods to Jonis and begins quietly moving in that direction.
Not hearing quite as clearly as Jonis, Jazz nonetheless follows up, trauma kit in hand. "Oh man, oh man," she mutters, taking awkward, hopping steps over tangled limbs. "Someone alive in there?" She asks once she makes it to the edge of the crater.
Burgurk doesn't notice anything, but follows the others, to see what they heard.
Jonis' voice comes on the radio.
"Attie, please don't fire unless fired upon. The person there might be hurt, and in need of help."
As you approach the crater, you look at the armor that the dead ones are wearing. None of them are the distinctive black of the Coalition. Most of the armor is either camouflage or painted in a drab color of some kind. The only thing that stands out, at least at this point, is that their right shoulders are all painted silver.
When you reach the edge of the crater, you see inside a person in armor that looks to be a repurposed piece of Coalition Soldier armor. Instead of black it is painted a dull Gray. It does not have the silver shoulder. Their helmet is on, so you can't see their face, but they slowly reach for the laser rifle next to their leg. They stop when they see the combat Cyborg's weapons pointed at them.
"He..help..mee.." that's when you notice an expanding pool of blood underneath their back.
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Jonis' voice sounds on the radio.
"Xiticix... insects that invaded north of Tolkeen. Very aggressive. Normally they are not this far south. If they manage to build a nest we are all in huge problems."
Auriel will slide into the crater to try and stabilize him.
Trying to stabilize the wound, Auriel will call up to the group at the top of the crater with "Help me please! I can't stop the bleeding!"
Burgurk leaps down into the crater, and roughly shoving Auriel aside, lays his hands on the prone figure and says "Let me concentrate for a minute..."
And heals the creature of 1 Wound. Or removed his Incapacitation/Bleeding Out, if appropriate.
Burgurk's power manages to stop the bleeding for the time being, though it will take time for this person to recover fully.
"Th..thank you...", manages to escape from the speaker on the helmet. "Who...who are you..with?"
The voice doesn't hesitate. "Corporal Harris, 3rd Legion, 1st Cavalry. Recon Patrol from Chillicothe. Followi....*cough cough* Following reports of aberrant Rift activity. The..they came out of nowhere..."
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Auriel will disarm him and say "I'm taking these for now so you don't do anything foolish. We are not from the Coalition. We are those who care for innocents, regardless of origin. As of this moment, you should consider yourself a prisoner of war. We will insure that your wounds are treated, you are fed, and protected, and in exchange you will need to submit to us at this time. Do you have any questions?"
"Did anyone else in my unit survive? ", is all the soldier says. He doesn't resist when you take his weapons.
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"It does not appear to be so, but we should probably do a search to make sure. How many people would we be looking for?"
The soldier shutters a bit, coughing before continuing. "My unit had eighteen in it, including myself."
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Jonis lets a tear out... so many dead...
"Okay, let's try and quickly account for 17 more people. Attie, you mind pulling security on our prisoner?"
Burgurk joins in looking for 17 human bodies.
Jazz wrinkles her nose at the soldier. She seems to be fighting the urge to spit on him. She puts the trauma kit away, letting Burgurk stabilize him, and seems resolved to not patch up the rest of his wouunds. Taking several deep breaths, she looks at the bodies surrounding her and tries real hard to empathize. Without realizing she'd ever opened it, she clicks her revolver holster closed and joins the search.
"So Xitkicx," she says over the comms. "Never seen one before this. Are they just bad news because of the numbers advantage, or...?" She awkwardly steps around the bug bodies, helping to count the humans.
"Very well then. I will stay here and guard him."
To Jazz' question, Auriel says "I have never heard of them before."
It takes you some time to account for Corporal Harris' squadmates, but you do. Most of them were kept intact by their armor, but some were not so lucky. A shredded arm here, a ripped off leg there. One was completely split in half. The bugs didn't fair all that well either. You count twenty seven of them in all. Though most of the soldiers' equipment is destroyed, you do manage to gather up enough did stuff for salvage when you get back to base.
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Jonis answers the question about the Xiticix.
"They are so aggressive. So devoid of emotion. And reason. They just keep coming and attacking, never trying to talk. Never answering for pleas of mercy or peace. And if able to hold on to a new terrain, they multiply, devouring everything..."
The young man visibly squirms in his armor, blatantly terrified of the giant metal killing machine questioning him. "I... I don't know. We were on patrol and sudden... *cough cough* suddenly the bugs came out of the sky and attacked. I don't know if anyone else was around, I was too busy... hiding..."
"You are correct. We should also signal our ride to have them pick up our friend here. I'd hate to haul him into a battlefield with his arms and legs bound."