"Yup! Leave the bodies for now. Back into the trees. If we can take out more of their forces, all the better!" Mal runs into the forest to the southwest and draws her pistol as she waits for the forces Sh-Ux warned them about.
JD will join the captain in the foliage and draw one of the liberated hunting rifles. He slinks a little farther into the trees and whispers to the Captain "maybe we shouldn't press our luck"
Verne makes his way through the trees to join his captain and the rest.
"Let's get a sense of their numbers. I agree with taking out as many of them as we can."
"I agree that caution is the better part of valor here, JD, but if we think there's any chance we can take anything more from the Azlanti, we take that chance!"
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The crew do their best to move the bodies, but with Mallura's direction, the remains of the cadets are abandoned and the team take to the trees southwest of the cemetery enclosure. A high-pitched whooshing noise comes from the dusky skies just as JD hears the repeated message from Sh-Ux.
Just as Verne and Jarix hurry to join the crew within the tree line, two small mechanicals appear low in the sky, fanned out on the flank and skimming just over the trees and the cemetery walls. Their central red-eyes flash blue as they motion-capture the positions of those within the trees.
Slide 13 (an individual attacker); Slide 14 (current map)
The small flying robot buzzes across the ground and propels a grenade just past Jarix's head. Where it lands, an explosion of green goo showers the area, threatening to entangle both Verne and Jarix!
The stickybomb sprays the area with the quickly-coalescing green sludge, but Verne steps behind a tree and Jarix high-steps out of the entangling goo.
He levels the newly acquired rifle at the closest drone and fires.
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JD's shot fires wide of the nearer drone. In response, that drone fires its own grenade just off of JD's left shoulder.
The second stickybomb grenade explodes, ensnaring both the mechanic and the mystic in green goo.
Jarix moves erratically to try find a hole in the drone's defenses. He fires at blue.
As Jarix's shot fires over him, Verne levels his gun at the drone hovering over the trees with a follow-up attack.
Mallura looks down at her comm unit just long enough to see the notification. As its message sinks in, a howl of pain and rage erupts from within her, and she charges across the open ground before diving into another patch of cover and firing up at the red drone.
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The operative's thunderstrike rifle scores a resounding hit on the drone to the right while the captain scorches the other drone with a fiery bolt. The mystic, struggling with the sticky green goo, fires their pulse pistol and misses.
The drone blasted by Jarix flies (ten feet above the ground) at the operative and shoots another grenade at the ground near him.
The grenade explodes with a gooey torrent all around the operative, but Jarix is too slippery to get ensnared.
JD fights against the goo to free himself.
He then levels the rifle at the same drone and wildly fires again.
The drone Shimoda-Uxbridge shimmers into focus with the red light of his laser pistol.
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JD thrashes to free himself from the green goo successfully. Sh-Ux appears at the corner of the cemetery gates and scores a glancing hit on the drone nearest the mechanic. In response, the other drone floats towards Sh-Ux and fires a stickbomb grenade in its direction!
The grenade splatters against the gates of the cemetery, shellacking Sh-Ux in a hardened green viscosity.
Seeing that Sh-Ux has arrived, only to get gooped, Mallura keeps her attention on the red drone and fires a pair of shots up at it.
Jarix again moves to cover and fires at blue.
Verne curses under his breath and struggles to remove himself from the goo.
Seeing Sh-Ux get slimed, JD wiggles the joystick on his custom rig to try attempt to free the drone.
After a few seconds, he traces the drone attacking Verne and raises the rifle to fire.
Sh-Ux flails his climbing claws to attempt to get free of the goo.
After flailing in vain, the drone sets his sights on the closets drone and fires in anger.
It's maniacal laughter echoes into the trees, then returns to an agitated whirring as it returns to fighting the goo.
Jarix uses the foliage to provide cover and fires at blue again.
The mystic continues to struggle against the goo.
With a short curse, he attempts to level a shot off at the drone.
Mallura is momentarily torn between aiding Verne or Sh-Ux, but she quickly works through the conflicting concerns as she realizes how much easier it would be for JD to put the drone back together than it would be for anyone to reassemble Verne. She turns her pistol on the blue drone as well and fires a shot.
1d20+3
1d4
JD moves forward out of the foliage to get a clear shot at the drone.
He targets the remaining drone.
"Why won't this thing just stop?"
Mallura rushes across the open path to stand nearer the heavily damaged Sh-Ux and hopefully draw away some of the enemy's fire. "That's enough out of you," she shouts as she raises her pistol and fires directly at the enemy drone's single eye.
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Jarix jukes the drone out of flow but cannot land the shot. The captain follows-up with laser-focused laser blast to the central portion of the drone's eye. The drone erupts in an impressive blast, shards of wreckage raining down around Sh-Ux in the fiery evening sky.
Both Sh-Ux and Verne remain stuck in miniature morasses of hardened green goo. With a bit of help from their comrades, the resin from the sticky-bomb becomes cracked and loosened enough for extraction. A faintly-repeating but discernible klaxon can be heard wafting through the air from the west. What sounds like a heavily-accented voice makes an announcement during the pauses in the alarm cycle.
As JD is freeing Sh-Ux, he scowls at the drone as delivers a barrage of chatter at the mechanic.
"Hey! I tried to draw it's attention, came rushing out into the clearing.", a pause for more foul chatter, then adding "Well, at least I hit it."
As the klaxon drifts in on the wind, he stops to listen.
"Mandatory curfew enforcement. Sounds like they're putting the place into lockdown. Think it's time to split."
”Agreed. We did some solid work here. Now let’s get back to Aibretta’s.”
Before retreating back to the garage, Mal picks over the drones, checking for any salvageable gear or parts on them.
"Alright. Looks like we did our jobs thoroughly at least. Let's make sure we get what we can from these cadets before we head back."
"Let's get moving before more of come to investigate."
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The crew of the Brilliance race into the deep foliage, aiming their exodus from the shootout scene in a north-north-westerly direction on a vector to return to the secret rear entrance to Aibretta's junk shop. Between the failing light and the shouts in Azlanti from the village, the guerrilla warriors feel confident that they've escaped without a tail.
Aibretta seems less than surprised to see the crew reappear at her shop. She glances towards the secret entrance from her seated position, ever-present cup of sreh paused halfway up to her mouth.
"It would seem that you've got someone's attention," she smirks.
Before going back to Aibretta's Jarix suggests to Mallura, "Maybe in a few hours we can go back to take care of that water creature. Keep the Azlanti jumping."
"We're back, with presents. JD says as he dumps the rifles and knives on a table. "Although I may keep one, you know, finders keepers"
He will unzip the coveralls over his armour and secret a knife away inside, and retain the Azlanti Rifle he used against the drones.
"If y'all don't mind, I'm going to take a few minutes to recover from our little assault on the cemetery. Try and patch up a few of these holes in Sh-Ux.
"I like the initiative, Jarix," Mal says with a smirk, "Though I wonder if things might be too hot right now for us to get in to the middle of the town and take another shot at the elemental." She shrugs, "Maybe we'll get Aibretta's thoughts on it."
After getting back to the shop, Mallura opens her arms out wide toward Aibretta. "Eh? How's that for getting starting some trouble for the Azlanti? Jarix here thinks we should get a little rest, then head straight into town to take back control of the moisture collector. What do you think? Think we might be able to get that done now?"
Jarix will also take a rest.
Maybe in a few hours we can go back to take care of that water creature. Keep the Azlanti jumping.
"We're going to need some more firepower to do that...or figure out how the Azlanti were able to pacify it."
Verne takes a seat in the junkyard. He takes his pistol out and begins to absentmindedly clean it.
"I can try and command it, but I can only manage for a short time..." the android thinks out loud. "On the other hand, the Azlanti forces' numbers are thinned. If we create a distraction at the moisture collector, while someone tries to retrieve the key to the hovertrikes..."
A thought occurs to him as he gazes into the chamber of his gun.
"Aibretta...would you happen to know a place in town I can pick up more ammunition? If not, I suppose I can pick up a new weapon the next time we take out more soldiers."
2 (aeon equivalent) hunting rifles, 12 long-arm rounds, 4 survival knives, and 2 incendiary II grenades.
"How about a place where we can recharge batteries or a machine shop to make more bullets?"
"How about anyone else in town that might be able to assist us, or have any other opportunities to cause the Azlanti some damage?"