"Affirmative, sir."
Borax pauses for a moment to gaze in the direction of the seemingly forgotten mystery man. Then he turns towards the building with the broken window as if assessing the jump.
In what some might argue is an ill-advised move, Borax attempts to jump across to the next building.
Finally, something that makes perfect sense. Rosa nods. "Understood sir." Being on the ground level already, she picks her way through the rubble toward the bloodstain. Hopefully there will be something that leads to the victim. And maybe they can explain something about what's been happening in this city.
"Yes, sir," Jackalyn says calmly, and clambers her way down to the bloodstains, and attempts to make use of some of her survival training to follow them.
Borax lands on the opposing wall with a fair bit of grace, and he barely feels the rubble shift as he pulls his weight up farther onto the collapsing roof. "Bohan, is it stable? I'll send the rest over once they're done if it is." The lieutenant's voice comes through the broken window, as he watches Jackalyn and Rosa move to inspect the bloodstains. Gavril, for his part, slings his LMG across his back and clears out a bit more of the glass around the window's edge before backing up a few feet and launching himself through the open window much like Borax. While the roof groans a bit under the brawny man's weight, it doesn't so much as begin to buckle as he climbs his way up to Borax. "Chase, Vasquez; you might be able to climb up there from your position instead. See if that blood trail leads over to the next building."
While Jackalyn and Rosa examine the bloodstains, it looks like the blood dropped from a fair distance and splattered quite heavily onto the street below. It's definitely consistent with someone trying to jump from one building to another, and the lack of blood smeared on the side of the building would suggest that whoever attempted this first likely succeeded. As for climbing, the rubble from other buildings gives you enough height to be able to at least attempt the climb.
Rosa looks up and nods. "Right. We'll be up in a moment." She swings her pack behind her so it doesn't get in the way as she climbs and carefully makes her way up to the rest of the group.
Jackalyn gracefully leaps across the buildings, landing likes cat. As soon as she lands, her Eagle and knife are out.
"Jumping across is probably not the safest route, sir."
Borax begins looking for tracks.
"Understood, Bohan. I was going to send a few men with you all, but I'll tell them to hold off. Kristophson and Farrell are both on their way over, then you all can head out." As the lieutenant finishes speaking, Jackalyn lands on the roof, which begins to sag slightly under her weight. However, she lands successfully and the two are able to pick up the blood trail while they wait for the last two members of their group to get to them. Whoever hurt themselves seems to have dropped down through a portion of the collapsed ceiling into the room below, but where they went from there isn't visible from the rooftop. However, getting out has few options, you can tell from up here that rubble blocks most of the visible exits.
Kristophe motions for Jacob to follow and he hustles across to the next building and begins clearing the bottom floors.
Peacekeepers! We are here to help! he shouts in his heavily accented English.
"Looks like down is the only way we're going to find anything." Rosa moves over to the hole and takes a look inside, not going down quite yet.
Jackalyn clambers down the hole, her eyes sharp for any trouble.
The last of your group lands on the collapsing roof, and although it groans the rubble remains stable. As Rosa looks down and Jackalyn drops into the hole, it's immediately apparent where whoever took this escape route must have gone; a larger trail of blood leads back through the house, away from the rubble you spotted from the rooftop. "Looks like you all made it over okay; I'm holding off on sending anyone else, that roof looks like it's about to cave in if someone lands on it like that again. We'll fan out from here and look for other survivors, but stay in contact. If you find anything else out of the ordinary, make sure to pass that information along." Inside the house, the same sense of eerie quiet overtakes you.
As the lieutenant speaks, Jackalyn follows the trail of blood to the back of the house, where one of the walls has broken, leaving a hole large enough to slip through. Peering through, the next house in that direction has collapsed over into the street--this appears to be what broke a hole in the wall in the first place--and a few splotches of blood, as well as a bloodied hand print, can be spotted; it looks like someone might have climbed down to escape the building.
Jackalyn radios the rest of the team. "I'm following the blood trail. This much blood loss means that the survivor is no longer among the living, but it might give us a clue about what happened, over." Jackalyn continues following the blood trailer.
"Agreed," Rosa says. "I'm curious if he was simply injured in the rubble or if he met something like whatever caused the scene in the other building." She lowers herself down and follows the blood trail along with Jackalyn.
On my way. Kristi kors it's hot. Kris says, hustling to catch up with Jackalyn and Rosa.
Borax stays with the group.
As the group makes their way down out of the hole in the wall, they manage to track the trail of blood through the rubble-strewn streets for quite a while, before it eventually stops at a door, only halfway on its hinges. A bloody hand print is on the door frame, and it looks like several sets of footprints are leading into the house; all human looking, as far as you can tell.
"This is the lieutenant; you found our subject of interest yet? We found another set of those tracks like the ones you spotted, I sent a team to check it out." The radio comes to life just before you reach the door, with a crinkle of static. "It looked like it might have been headed in your direction, I wanted to give you a heads-up."
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"H~&@@!+@#... either the bleeder is a sumo wrestler of the blood isn't his. You could bath yourself thrice with this amount." Jacob comments before answering the Lt. "Subject not found sir, but the trail's hot. And bloody. We proceed with the chase."
"Prepare yourselves boys, we have multiple tracks going inside. I'll take the lead, trust you to help me make it to retirement. This time we shouldn't announce ourselves until we know if they are hostiles or survivors, I am allergic to ambushes."
And so he goes in, barrel ready and finger near the trigger.
As Jacob pushes the door forward, it creaks slightly on its hinges until it finally comes to rest again the wall behind it. As you all move into the house, wary of an ambush, you hear a noise from one of the rooms upstairs, sounding like some sort of movement, followed by the sound of shushing and the sound of someone speaking. The floor creaks a few times, the sound of someone coming down the stairs, before one hand pokes out from behind the wall of the staircase.
"من فضلك، لا تطلقوا النار!" The man calls, before sticking his head out from around the wall. He sticks out his other hand soon after, trying to show he carries no weapons. "من فضلك، ويضر عائلتي! لا تطلقوا النار، أحتاج إلى طبيب!" He winces as he comes all the way out from behind the wall, a bloody rag tied about his thigh; he seems to be quite injured. "Doctor? Is there doctor?" The man musters up some broken English, coming down the steps slowly with his hurt leg. "Need doctor, medicine!"
"He says his family is injured, they need medical attention," Gavril says, lowering his weapon. "That would explain the amount of blood; more than one injured party."
Borax lowers his weapon and attempts to provide the man some first aid.
"I am the doctor," Rosa says, speaking slowly and moving to the front of the group. She sees Borax performing rather decently at first aid and decides to let him handle the man for the moment so they can find whoever else needs help. "Who else needs help?"
"أصبت في ساقي، والقفز من النافذة." The man winces as Borax removes the cloth to inspect the wound, clutching at his chest. The wound, while not deep, is bleeding quite heavily. The man's calf has been shredded, likely by the glass in the window, and some of his muscle tissue has been torn as well. However, while the wound is serious, it doesn't look to be immediately life-threatening, provided you could get him back to camp to have a surgeon look at his calf. However, for right now, a fresh wrap with some gauze will keep him alive, and his wound clean, until you can escort them. While Borax doesn't have a first aid kit on him, you're all aware Rosa does, and she almost certainly has the materials required to treat the wound for now.
"زوجتي، وقالت انها تؤذي نفسها أيضا. ولكن بناتي ... من فضلك، يجب مساعدتهم." His breathing is heavy, the blood loss from his wound clearly taking a toll on him. He shakes his head, sinking slowly on the wall with Borax's and Gavril's help. "و... الرجال الرمادي، وأطلقوا النار عليهم ... وحرق لحمهم، والجدار وراء منزلنا. أخي، وقال انه لم يهرب. كنت أسمع صراخه، ولكن كان لدينا لتشغيل. أنا لا أعرف من أين ذهبوا ..." He holds his head in his hands, his palms coming away sweaty. Both Borax and Rosa know this man needs medical attention quickly, or the blood loss will likely kill him. "واحدهم مصاب بجروح زوجتي، ولكن أخي تغلب عليه مع كرسي. اعتدي عليه وجروه ... جره على الدرج."
"He's hallucinating, I think." Gavril stands up, turning to Rosa and the others as Borax cleans the wound. "He's talking about little grey men, shot his daughters? Said whatever they shot them with burned them and the house beyond there's... I'm guessing they live where we found the casualty. That was probably his brother, said he tried to save his wife before whatever attacked them dragged him up the stairs." the large Romanian man crosses his arms across his chest, before looking at Rosa. "We should check on his family, upstairs."
As Borax cleans the wound, he keeps an eye out for an weapon fragments or residue that might yield more information as to what they are up against. Borax then steps back and let's Rosa take over.
Borax listens intently to Gavril, seemingly unsurprised at the answers.
"I've got some more questions, but they can wait. Gavril, Rosa and I will need you to translate for us upstairs. Let's keep at least two people down stairs."
As Borax examines the man's wound before stepping back, all he manages to find are a few shards of glass that seem tangled up in the man's muscles; while he doesn't have the tools to pry them out himself, he can easily point them out to Rosa before she takes over. "Once he's patched up, we can head upstairs," Gavril says, agreeing with Borax. "If he doesn't know much English, it's unlikely his wife or daughters will either."
Rosa nods silently as Borax steps aside and she quickly takes a look at the man's wounds. She pulls some antiseptic, a rolls of gauze. and some medical tape from her bag and begins to clean and bind the wounds. "He might be in shock," she says. "He's certainly displaying some of the signs and wounds like this could easily cause it. Regardless, I should tend to his daughters. If they're suffering from burns, they'll need treatment sooner rather than later. We can ask questions once I treat them and we can move them somewhere safe." She finishes working on the man and closes her bag again. "Let's go." She gestures for the man to lead the way.
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"Gray little men with scorching weapons... I'll be damned if this is some Star Trekk s@~+ going on..." mutters Jacob as the "doctors" treat the wound. "I'll secure the upper floor, wait ye there Docs." he says as he heads upstairs.
"Lieutenant, we got a civ. Wounded. We may have more if his family is where he said, we'll report soon." he radios.
Jackalyn remains impassive as always, although she raises an eyebrow at the man's story. "Eh, I've always been more of a Doctor Who fan myself, Jacob," she replies jokingly as they move up the stairs. Apparently, she's warming up to the crotchety old Irishman.
Kris nods to Jacob as the Irishman heads up the stairs. Let's go get his family ya. and then Gavril, ask him what their names are.
As Jacob heads upstairs, presumably followed by Borax, Gavril, and Rosa, you catch the scent of what can only be burnt flesh. An older woman, likely the man's wife, has several cuts and scrapes along her arms, but also what looks like a very nasty wound along her rib cage. Two young girls, perhaps not older than twelve, lie huddled against the wall, clutching at themselves in pain. "هل أنت هنا لمساعدتنا ؟ هو زوجي على ما يرام؟" The woman grabs at her side in pain, before Gavril nods to her, answering her questions.
The two young girls look to have been horrifically burned by something, almost as if it had splashed on them somehow. Whatever injured the two of them, it was clearly quite horrific; the burns are quite severe, and extend beyond the skin down into exposed tendons and even bone. The two of them are wrapped in a blanket, and the mother seems to have been doing her best to care for them, but she obviously isn't any sort of medical professional. "يمكنك مساعدتها ؟ من فضلك، بناتي يموتون ، وهم بحاجة إلى مساعدة." Gavril does his best to calm the woman, asking her a question in Arabic. When she answers, he turns to the group.
"Her name is Amana, and her daughters' names are Farah and Nahla."
"Severe third degree burns... this looks more like acid or maybe a flamethrower than any common weapon. What the hell injured these kids? Gavril, make sure they know that I'm trying to help them." She drops down next to the children and opens her medical kit. "This is going to take some work and they'll be luck if it's not infected already." She can only do so much for severe burns without a clean room and a surgical suite, but she is at least able to clean the burns and bandage them properly. She also takes the time to dose both girls with some heavy duty painkillers to dull the agony. She then moves on to the mother and does much the same.
As she's finishing up with the bandages, she frowns. "Does anyone else hear that? It sounds like... gunfire!" She curses softly under her breath. "And it's close... When's the last time anyone heard from the lieutenant?"
Jackalyn hisses through her teeth as soon as she sees the devastation before her. Camp in the desert, scarred men laughing, smoking, pressing against her skin, screaming, laughing, burning, smoke. Bang. One more down. Bang. Two more down. Bang. Three more down. Bang. None left. "The bastards who did this are going to pay," Jackalyn growls.
Jackalyn is just about to voice her concerns as well when Rosa speaks, and her eyes widen. The young soldier rushes to the nearest vantage point and unholsters her Barret, using its scope to find where the gunfire is coming from.
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Jacob mans up and forces his stomach to remain calmed when he sees the burns and wounds "Good god... it looks like they bathed with a Molotov on 'Roids...".
The irishman stands watch as Doc Vasquez treats the civs, but when she stops and mentions the Lietuenant silence he goes white "F*~&! F@+&-F*@+-F@~&-F%$+! Everybody switch the radio to channel B, prepare the civs to move and get ready to rumble." yells Jacob as he focuses and hears the gunfire now alerted by Jackalyn "Gavril, tell them errythin gonna be alright or whatever crap you want, we should't bring them with us but we can't leave them here if there are hostiles. We'll scort them back to the rest and hold that ground."
Half way to the door he stops and says "And if anybody got problems with me shouting orders as if chain of command mattered a s$&& now, keep 'em for when I care or we are drunk at the base. What yer waitin' for? Move!"
Borax surveys the scene and then offers his assistance to Rosa and does as she instructs.
In a calm voice, Borax talks to the girls, "Do either of you speak English?"
Kris admires Jacob's quick thinking Ya. Let's go.
He heads downstairs and takes point, trying to get a good look at their egress and make sure its clear of hostiles.
As Borax kneels down in front of the girls, one of them nods slightly. "Not... a lot. They teach us in school." While there's only so much she can do, Rosa is fairly certain that she and Borax done everything possible for the two of them until they reach a surgical suite. As you all help them get on their feet and begin to move, Kristophe and Jacob head down the stairs, rifles up as they check the immediate area for hostiles; it looks to be clear. A few seconds later, you all hear, louder now, the distinct sound of gunfire from the direction you last saw the lieutenant, followed by what could only be the sound of a detonating grenade. As the two of them make it down the stairs, the man stands slowly, moving towards the stairs as his wife and daughters move down with the assistance of the rest of your team.
"I don't know if you're alive, but--" your radios echo, the voice of the lieutenant. "--but we have hostiles, last known position. Some kind of creatures, we can't--falling back to the base camp! Rendezvous there, keep your head low--everywhere." With that, the radio falls silent, but the sound of gunfire continues to echo through the broken streets of Basra. The man, mustering up his broken English, looks at you all as his family limps behind him.
"What is going on?"
"Okay," Rosa says, surprisingly calm. "We need to get out of here as fast as possible and get these people to the base camp before whatever is out there finds us too." She swings her first aid kit over her shoulder and out of her way and readies her SMG. "Gavril, tell them that we're going to get them somewhere safe before the things that hurt them come back and that they need to follow us closely and quietly. Let's move people."
Jacaklyn unholsters her Barret and turns to the rest of the group. "I'll cover you from the rooftops. My rifle is more effective at long range, and I should be able to get a better idea of how many feet of s~&! we're in from up there."
With that, Jackalyn clambers to the rooftop of the building, and begins moving like a shadow.
As the rest of you fan out, ready for a firefight, Gavril does his best to reassure the survivors. He instructs them, as he tells you a few moments later, to stick close and keep their heads down. "I'll stay near the back, with them. It will be easier, in case we need to communicate," the big man says, hefting his machine gun as he crouches low to the ground. He motions to the refugees as well, and they drop down, doing surprisingly well with Gavril's hushed instruction. Jackalyn, for her part, finds a route across several of the rooftops, allowing her to both secure a better vantage point and possess a more advantageous firing position.
Rosa moves quickly with the group, but he foot catches a piece of rubble and there's a loud clattering as the stones shift and she stumbles.
Kristophe doesn't do much well here.
As the group moves forward through Basra's streets, Jacob and Rosa both notice something... odd, moving a decent distance away from them. As you all get just a bit closer, the movement erupts from its hiding place. The disturbing beast now standing before you scuttles forward on insectoid legs, its mandibles dripping with blood and viscera; the ends of its legs are stained brown from the same, dried upon its carapace. Behind it, three more strange, grey creature crouch behind the collapsed buildings and other rubble, strange devices glowing green strapped to their wrists. As the insectoid beast rushes towards you, the man and his family scream in terror. "تلك هي المخلوقات التي قتل أخي، التي هاجمت عائلتي!" he huddles behind you all, tucked in an alleyway with his family, as you all prepare to face an utterly inhuman threat.
The insectoid beast is rapidly advancing towards you all, drawing within thirty feet of your position, but the strange grey creatures are farther back, huddled behind the rubble in an attempt to protect themselves from gunfire, perhaps forty-five feet away.
Initiative; Round 1