With the fight with the Azlanti cadets turning into a real melee, Prosper focuses on providing distractions. She sends a flare arcing through the air and right past the head of the green cadet, momentarily blinding her with the bright light.
Pon sees an opportunity and rushes at Green with his hidden baton.
Rush in his rage misses the dodgy Azlanti cadet!
"Is this what the Azlanti are like Spec? They just try to kill everyone they meet for the first time?"
The middle-aged man stares again at Prosper. “If you’re not Azlanti, what the hell are you? And no, they don’t always kill you when they first meet you.” he spits on the ground. “Most of the time, they enslave you first!”
Spec fires at Green, and hits! Minos attempts a shot, but shooting from the water messes with his aim. Dalinar, wincing from the wound in his side, slashes furiously at green, and misses her by a hair.
Wint shoots at Yellow, and hits, but feels bad about it!
Prosper harries Green to aid Pon’s attack, but the spy trips and misses with his baton!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Green has three people in reach, but one of them is the terrifying death shrimp who injured her before.
Pink slashes at the death shrimp, then takes a guarded step away.
Yellow dashes around the trees, and then takes a pot shot at Minos.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 3 / 4
Active conditions: River is difficult terrain
Pon
Prosper
Rush (-8)
Dalinar (-8)
Minos (-7)
Wint
================================
Green Cadet (-8)
Pink Cadet
Yellow Cadet (-4)
================================
Spec
================================
Pon continues to take advantage of the fact that the Azlanti soldier's focus was not on him.
Wint is incensed at the fact that his good friend Minos has been hit.
"You. Will. Stop. Hitting. My. FRIEND. You BIG MEANIE!!"
Wint ducks out of the bush, ducking back into another which will hopefully confuse the yellow Azlant.
for
plus
"HA!! How do YOU like it?"
Prosper wades through the river to get to the stuck colonist and furrows her brow. "Enslave you? Why? You've got to explain what's going on here. Just, uh, give us a moment."
Punctuating her words, she fires another distracting shot through the air, but this time at the yellow cadet.
With the shot hitting his flank and with blood beginning to trickle the primal nature of nuar takes hold.
He moves quickly though the water lowers his head towards the yellow Azlanti
Pon and Spec work together to bring down Green! Wint strikes yellow for another two damage. Dalinar scores the first hit on Pink, slashing viciously down at the retreating Azlanti. Prosper harries Yellow, and then Minos follows up with an attack on Yellow which alas misses. Rush viciously slashes at Pink.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 4 / 5
Active conditions: River is difficult terrain
Pon
Prosper
Rush (-8)
Dalinar (-13)
Minos (-11)
Wint
================================
Green Cadet (UNCONSCIOUS)
Pink Cadet (-11)
Yellow Cadet (-6)
================================
Spec
================================
Pon rushes past the newly downed soldier, picks up a pebble, and tosses it into some brush on the other side of the last soldier. With them distracted, he comes in with a baton to the back of their head.
"Hah. We're winning!!!"
Wint ducks back into the brush and again shoots at yellow
for
plus
"A hit! A hit! A palable hit!"
Minos continues to slash and gore at the yellow Azlanti
Although noisy, not overly impressive.
Prosper aims her flare gun and sends a flare arcing right past the yellow cadet. She looks behind her at the colonist. "C'mon, get your leg free. We don't want to be here if more of them come!"
Pink goes down to Pon's attack! Yellow takes five damage from Wint!
The last remaining Aeon Guard is still up.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 4 / 5
Active conditions: River is difficult terrain
Pon
Prosper
Rush (-8)
Dalinar (-13)
Minos (-11)
Wint
================================
Green Cadet (UNCONSCIOUS)
Pink Cadet (UNCONSCIOUS)
Yellow Cadet (-10)
================================
Spec
================================
Yellow makes one last pathetic attempt at Rush! "तुम्हें पता है, मुझे हमेशा झींगा से नफरत है।"
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 5 / 6
Active conditions: River is difficult terrain
Pon
Prosper
Rush (-8)
Dalinar (-13)
Minos (-11)
Wint
================================
Green Cadet (UNCONSCIOUS)
Pink Cadet (UNCONSCIOUS)
Yellow Cadet (-10)
================================
Spec
================================
Pon rushes the soldier, picks up a pebble, and tosses it at the last soldier.
Yellow goes down and is dying!
What do you do?
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well, as long as the other two are unconscious, might as well make a matching set
Spec flaps over to the downed Yellow and perches on their chest before casting Stabilize on them.
"So, guys? What do we want to do with these... incredibly conditioned... younglings? They normally fight to the death right?"
This should be interesting. What kind of group dynamic morality shall emerge?
"Well done everybody!!!"
"I don't think we have any choice. We kill them. We can't take prisoners while we're scouting. And they tried to kill us. What else can we possibly do? I'll do it if you want, I'm not exactly squeamish"
|
Dalinar slouches after the last enemy goes down. He puts a hand over his largest wound but his first priority is the welfare of his companions.
"Are you going to be alright Rush? We should take a moment to rest, we can discuss what to do with the prisoners as we do. I have taken part in my fair share of executions should it come to that. We should at least see if they will tell us why they are here first."
Meanwhile, Prosper finally gets the prisoner's leg free. As the leg pulls free, it's clearly a bit raw and bloody, but the man stands and shakily limps over to you on his own power. He's a lanky human man in his forties with a wide, gap-toothed grin and short, dark hair just starting to turn gray. "I wouldn't advise keeping them. They're young and pretty, but they're fanatics. I think the empire surgically removes their moral code when they join the Aeon Guard." Then he offers his hand to shake. "I'm Jellik Fullson by the way. Thanks for coming when you did, or I would have gotten marched back to Madelon's Landing for an execution."
As you search the prisoners, you find three sets of troop ceremonial plate armor, three imperial pacification rifles -- fairly unimpressive longarms, equivalent to hunting rifles -- 27 ammo rounds and three survival knives. You also discover that one of the cadets had three Mk 1 healing serums, and another had a fairly interesting piece of Azlanti tech. It's some sort of badge.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Cold black blood trickles from Rush's wounds. He is clearly wounded. LINGSTON confirms this. "Status Report: Rush is nearing critical status. Without time to recover he won't be able to continue marching."
Rush goes into the water, reaching around. Eventually his bone blade stabs a fish and he begins to feast on it. Its clear he isn't interested,in the unconscious soldiers.
"Requisition: Please insert Healing Serum."
Pon walks over to the male soldier and begins looking him over. As he does this, his hair seems to change to black and his height appears to change to match as well. Pon then unceremoniously begins removing the body's armor and places it on himself.
During this whole process, he shouts over to the rest, "Jellik Fullson, how much can you tell us about the Azlanti presence here? If it is not much, Professor! I made sure to leave one alive for you. Can you get information out of it?"
After about ten minutes, Pon now looks very similar to the downed male Azlanti, even down to his purple eyes and widows peak. He picks up one of their rifles and sheaths a dagger.
Minos calms down a bit after the rush of battle. "That was...unfortunate. Never a big fan of conflict. I don't like to start them. But I will finish them."
He takes a look at their equipment
And consumes one of their mk1 serums while turning the rest over for about 10 minutes.
Prosper gives Jellik a shoulder to lean on and brings the old man over to the rest of the group. Mid-walk, her skin ripples and he regains his previous ruggedly handsome appearance. He looks over at Jellik and grins sheepishly. "Sorry for the spooking, and for confusing you. I kinda forget that not everyone is used to switching."
He listens in to the rest of the team begin to debate how to deal with the unconscious Azlanti cadets, but doesn't have anything to add. The thought of executing anyone seems crazy to him. But the rest of the group seem to be hardened fighters. So maybe they just know best.
Instead, he asks Jellik "What's the moral code thing you mentioned mean? Do their brains really get edited? And why? What are they even doing here on Nakondis?"
"Er... Should I assume that you guys don't know anything about what's been going on?" Jellik looks to your faces for confirmation, and then sighs. "Right. Okay, to the beginning then. By the way, it's unnerving as crap talking to you about this when you two look like -- er -- that." Jellik nods to Pon and Prosper, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
“I don't know how far back to start. Um. Maybe it's when we saw the meteor crash-land about 10 or 20 miles from here. A group of folks went to scout it out—Cedona, Quorsica, and others—and they came back with some strange news. First, they learned that the meteor was some kind of high-tech probe, but it had been destroyed in the crash. Interestingly, the probe landed near an old crashed starship we hadn't noticed before. Been there for ages, probably. Cedona went into the crashed ship and came out with a pack full of old tech she was very excited about. She talked to our leader, Madelon, and Aibretta—that's our best mechanic and my ex-wife— about what she'd found. Never saw her so animated."
Jellik starts to pace, puts his weight on his raw leg, then grimaces and just stands. “A few days later, a starship sailed in above the town commons, blasted our communications building to slag, and unloaded a bunch of soldiers. There wasn't a lot we could do. The soldiers rounded up everyone in town and their leader—a stern woman whose face I never saw—told us that our planet was now annexed as a part of the Azlanti Star Empire. I watched Aibretta start to open her mouth, but Cedona just clamped a hand over it, fast as anything." He looks at you, haunted. "I didn't know why Cedona did that until the shooting started. Anyone that protested was shot right there. Ruby, who made the best pies. Salchik, whose impersonations made everyone laugh. Garik the grouch, whose smartass complaints I never thought I'd miss until suddenly he was a raw and bleeding corpse at my feet." The man stares in horror at the ground for a moment, as if he can still see the corpses arrayed there. "The worst was the screaming of kids whose parents had been..."
Jellik breaks off, swallowing. "But Cedona played it cool. She's like the smartest person I know, and bold as a bantrid, but suddenly she acted like a placid android servant -- the kind you see in the old vids -- calming the little ones and acting like she was happy to have the Azlanti order us around. She gave us a sharp look, and we all pretended to fall into line too. I think she saved all of our lives by doing that. The soldiers made us bury the bodies, then forced us to unload some prefab building components, which they turned into a garrison in the center of town."
Meanwhile, Minos studies the emerald green hexagonal badge. He discovers that it is a Motion-Detection Badge.
MOTION-DETECTION BADGE LEVEL 3
HYBRID ITEM (WORN) PRICE 1,350 BULK L
This hexagon-shaped adornment can be activated or deactivated as a move action. A motion-detection badge has 4 charges, which refresh daily, and an hour of activation uses 1 charge. While active, as long as you haven't moved for at least 1 round, the badge emits a quick flash of red light whenever a Small or larger corporeal creature approaches within 60 feet, although creatures undetectable to normal vision (such as an invisible creature) don't trigger the flash. This flash is sufficient to alert you, but doesn't otherwise affect your vision or your actions. Reduce this distance by 20 feet for each interposing closed door or substantial barrier (such as a wall at least 1 inch thick).
You can attune the badge to a creature by touching it with the item, which takes a full action; you can attune the badge to up to 10 different creatures. When you are within 60 feet of one of these creatures, regardless of whether you have moved in the past round, the badge emits a yellow flash to let you know an ally is near. Attempting to attune an eleventh creature causes the badge to lose its attunement to the earliest attuned creature. Note that in certain environments, such as a crowded shopping center, the badge flashes so frequently as to be practically useless for detecting approaching threats.
Prosper gives Jellik a shoulder to lean on and brings the old man over to the rest of the group. Mid-walk, her skin ripples and he regains his previous ruggedly handsome appearance. He looks over at Jellik and grins sheepishly. "Sorry for the spooking, and for confusing you. I kinda forget that not everyone is used to switching."
"Yeah, that's better. How the hell do you do that so quickly? Are you a reptoid or something?" Jellik pokes Prosper's arm, curiously.
Instead, he asks Jellik "What's the moral code thing you mentioned mean? Do their brains really get edited? And why?"
Jellik frowns. "I don't know! But they don't act like the rest of us are people. We're property, and disposable property at that."
Pon stares at Jellik with a hardened expression. "Jellik, how many soldiers? Has only one ship come and dropped off troops? How big was the ship?"
"How big? Er... Pretty big. Have you seen some of the big ships in the Absalom Station Armada? It was big like them. Some kind of military transport?" He shrugs. "I think there's about thirty soldiers or so... It's hard to count them when they all wear the same helmets and stuff."
He frowns. “As for why they're here.... The woman in charge asked us about the crashed ship; turns out, it's old Azlanti technology. She was very interested in what Cedona found. They rounded up Madelon, Cedona, and a few others and jailed them in the garrison. The large ship went away, but all the soldiers stayed. They've instituted martial law in town; we're basically prisoners. We try to make do just as before, but anyone stepping out of line gets punished. Well, except for Quorsica... I mean she got punished, but not dead because they learned that she was part of the group to visit the crash site. She yelled and tried to jump the Azlanti, but they all took turns kicking in her ribs and breaking her limbs instead of shooting her in the head."
"Look, all I wanted to do here was farm. I'm good with plants and kind of lousy with everything else." He looks around at the lush greenery around him. "I am pretty good with knowing what wild plants are edible, so I thought I could make a go of it in woods. After all, that's where I stayed after Aibretta tossed me out when --" He breaks off. "Guess that doesn't matter. When I got the chance, I ran. I didn't know there were soldiers in the forest waiting to catch escapees. Four of them found me. I killed one with a lucky shot, but the other three chased me. And that brings me up to where I met you.”
Dalinar ties up the prisoner easily.
The prisoner groans and then blinks open her eyes. "एक उल्लू यहाँ क्या कर रहा है?" Then she looks at Spec with a bit of concern. "विद्रोही मैल और उस मौत चिंराट तुम, उल्लू दोस्त को मजबूर मत करो। जल्द ही हमारी जीत होगी और आप फिर से हमारे साम्राज्य में सुरक्षित रहेंगे।"
"Don't let the rebel scum and that death shrimp coerce you, owl friend. Soon we will have our victory and you will be safe in the protection of our Empire again."
wint watches with a combination of interest and boredom (as he hasn't a clue what is going on, but it looks entertaining :-))
Hearing the story from Jellik, Prosper's eyes turn wide as saucers. "We were just here to bring you guys some supplies- and apologize to Cedona of course. This is terrible! I don't know exactly what we can do, what with the jamming thing going on around the planet..."
"Well, if the Pact Worlds can't send help, we'll have to be the help you need! I don't quite know how though. Thirty soldiers is a lot, and I bet not all of them are cadets like these three are." This situation is clearly more than a little overwhelming to the trainee spy.
Though he's still full of questions for the fellow, the prisoner being roused to wakefulness has him shut his mouth. That's another one of the principles of engagement from the Skyfire Legion handbook: "Don't let intelligence leak into enemy hands"
"Prosper, disguise up," Pon says as he gestures at the other body. "Professor, can you ask them what the average rank of the soldiers here?"
"Supplies?" Jellik slumps, suddenly realizing that his dream of an elite squadron of special ops coming to rescue the colony is dissapearing by the minute.
In a funk, he sits down to listen to the interrogation.