Flying Eagle is suspicious of the man...
Flying Eagle has no reason to doubt his story.
Not up to us Rufus waves his hand Up to the boss
He takes the time to slide a gun into his saddlebag.
"Yup, it's up to the boss to have you. Why don't camp with us tonight and then you can talk to the boss in daylight. No need to disturb his beauty sleep."
Rodan starts to talk to Thomas Booker to find out what outfits he worked for. What type of skills Thomas has, etc.
Winona brushes the brim of her hat in the fellow's direction and watches him a bit while she strips down her pistol to clean and oil it. Days of slogging through rivers and then over dry grassy fields has a way of fouling one's firearms, after all.
You walk the man back to the camp and He chats with Rodan and the man seems to know his way around cattle, you get the feeling he has worked a drive before. As you near the Camp you can see the line forming for Chow and you see Luke headed toward you.
Luke Walks up to the group, seeing the stranger he asks " Who is this?" as he looks to you. Booker seems to take this as his chance "Thomas Booker, just looking for work. You the trail boss?
Luke Nods and directs the man to the chow line, then he holds back a little and looks to you. " What is your read on the man?
"He seems to be honest, but maybe someone else can tell better than me if he's telling the truth..."
"He hasn't done anything to arouse suspicion, other than coincidentally showin' up while we've been dealing with other problems," says Winona.
"He seems to know what he's talking about with dealing with cattle."
Luke Nods I'll take him to the boss, we could use another hand as we are running short. We should keep an eye on him." He waves you over to the Chuck wagon. "Might as well grab some chow and find ya a spot for the night" with that he starts walking over to Bill and Abby and you can see him pointing to Thomas.
Around the camp you see the other hands moving off with plats and finding places to bed down. The heat has let off a bit and although its dry you are not struggling with lack of water at lest.
Rufus takes the time to cleam all his guns.
he then goes for a bite to eat.
Thomas Booker seems to be working out. He seems to work hard and knows the trade, maybe he is what he says he is, Five days after finding Booker, the herd arrives south of Roswell, New Mexico. Sutter has the crew lead the cattle into a shallow canon across the river and sets up camp at its edge. Once all the work is done and supper is had, Sutter speaks to the Crew.
"It's been a hard ride so far. Given the state of the herd, I am gonna ride to the Army base and try to sell our stock now. If that doesn't work, I'll take to Lone Star. Their main line runs though here, they might can handle this kind of capacity."
"I'm Taking Abby, Alfred, Andrew and Bart with me. Luke, you're in charge of the rest until we get back. Keep your head down and stay out of trouble."
An hour latter, Sutter, Abby and his mean ride out toward the fort.
__________________________________________________________________________
The rest of the evening passes peacefully and night falls. All in well, then a distant rumble from the west seems to foretell a thunderstorm. Some of the more experienced hands fetch canvases tarps from the chuck wagon, grumbling about the long wet night to come. Then the first flash of light, that appears to be lighting appears in the night sky, rumbling follows it. Then that flashing, flicking light becomes a steady glow and abruptly rises off the ground and toward the clouds in the west!
The longhorns start to stir and get worse as the strange object streaks though the sky like some rocket. It then turns toward the herd, it flies over you rising into the clouds. The rumble can be heard and the cows grow even more skittish. Suddenly there is a flash of light and the object, now clearly jetting flame and smoke, plummets from the clouds to the ground far below. You would guess it hit the ground now more than a few miles from camp.
Luke gets you hands moving tying to keep the cattle from stampeding. Once they are settled back down Luke Motions to your posse , calling you over to talk a little ways away from the other hands. "I need you to git out there and find out what is going on. I don't want these brutes spooked any more and sure as Hell don't want to be wrangling them in the damned dark!"
Lighting a lantern, Flying Eagle leads the way in the direction the light landed.
Rodan jumps up on his horse. he makes sure his rifle is in easy reach.
As they are riding along Rodan calls out to the others "Could it be Borak returning. I think that spooking cattle and being flashy was his style."
Dunno who that Borak person is but hes right we need to check that thing out
Rufus finishes saddling up devil eyes and then he checks all his guns, then mounts up to follow the lantern.
I aint liking the idea of this he comments as they ride off.
"Shootin' star, maybe?" says Winona as she blinks the sleep out of her eyes and fetches her guns. "C'mon. Let's go have a look-see."
You ride thought the dark, sparsely vegetated landscape. Lit by Flying Eagle lantern and what looks like small fires around the impact zone. The Object lays on flat ground near the river, small fires spread around the impact zone. As you near the Object you can see its a man in a blue uniform with some kind of contraption on his back. Or was a man, his landing left much to be desired and he lays twisted, broke, burnt and slightly on fire. The device on his back is in no better shape.
"Was this man...the object we saw fall out of the sky???"
"Probably some device from Smith & Robards."
Well it seems likely that things went bad for that fellow.
Rufus dismounts and makes his way to the guy on the ground.
Rufus Approaches the body, which seems to be that of a union solider and as you get closer you can see some holes in the device, you think are bullet holes. That likely is what lead to the crash and the twisted form before you.
Flying Eagle accompanies Rufus :
= 3
= 2
But all he sees is a mangled body and mangled metal.
looking at the contraption "That is why I ride a horse. Then fangled contraptions will just get ye killed."
= 5
= 4
"With them bullet hole in that thing. Who done the shooting?"
Rodan scratches his beard then climbs back on his horse and stands in the strips', looking around, peering into the darkness.
Rolling the guy onto his back Rufus comments
Well, this fellow has been shot. lots o times
He then looks around at the wreckage.
Winona moves a bit closer to the wreckage and says, "If he was flying while he was shot... shooter was probably using a rifle, hm? But I guess no telling how long he was flying through the air. Could be close by, could be miles away." She frowns. "But using a contraption like that, as a soldier, probably he was under orders to get somewhere fast. A courier, maybe? Carrying a message?"
Still looking around from horse back.
"If he was a carrying a message, where's the message? Maybe under him?"
Roden knows the contraption is a rocket pack, Sometimes the Army uses them. He also notices while the Jacket does have a single bullet hole in it, the man does not have one. All the shots seem to have hit the rocket. Any actual injury from the man seem to be from his fall, not any bullets.
Rufus does not see anything around the man, but once he searches the man he turns up a few things. The man has a holster but no sidearm, he may have lost it in his last ride. There is a roll of Deseret Bank notes, 250 dollars worth of bank notes. There is also a folded piece of paper with a drawing of a mechanical man upon it, along with what look to be chemical notes and engineering calculations.
"Huh. Since there's no way to know where he was going, there's no way to get this information into the right hands."
I think we need to get these papers to someone smarter than me.
Rufus pulls all the paper out including banknotes and shows them to everyone.
Also looks like he was paid well to deliver these papers so they are probably imoportant
He then puts the papers in his saddlebags and mounts up.
I think there will be people coming for him so lets go.
"Just remember pard, them papers are like hot coals. And there is someone out there willing to kill to make sure they are not delivered."
And Rodan gets ready to skin out.
Winona glances around the prairie and says, "We take those, someone is gonna come looking like Rodan said. They'll follow our tracks back to the herd and cause us grief."
She thinks for a second, then says, "I'm gonna ride in circles around the crash site a few times, then head off southwest for a few miles, double back and meet up with you. Should give at least a little pause to any pursuers."
"I will accompany you, hopefully 2 horses will make it look like everyone who came to the crash site left in the same direction."
I think we all should do that and take our time gettin to the herd.
He trails out after Wynona
You see nothing else of value and mount up ready to check the surrounding area, but you hear the faint sound of something, looking around you can see a few lights approaching and approaching fast. Someone is riding hell bent for leather and you can make out the thundering sounds of approaching hooves.
Rufus is more concerned about making tracks leading away from the herd.
Flying Eagle thinks that is at lest 8 horses, could be as many as 12 and they are moving fast.You have under a minute and you can see the lanterns getting closer. Rufus looks around, there is nothing but shrubs and maybe a few rocks for cover bit nothing that will hide a horse.
"Dang it, we got company. There is no place to run or hide. And I hope them cowpokes arn't this felleas friend and think we shot him down. But just incase, ye might want to stash them papers we found under yer saddle if they search us."
Rufus reaches down and unlimbers his Winchester.
I hope that they don't think we shot him down
Flying Eagle, put the light out, and all of us, get the hell out of dodge.
Rufus rides towards Wynona and waits for the others to make up their minds.
Come on girl, we may to have to run and run hard.
"Either we hope we can lose them in the dark, or we try to get lucky and find some tree cover to stand our ground," says WInona as she hauls herself back into the saddle. "C'mon!"
Flying Eagle joins the rest. "I think heading back to camp would be a bad idea, but running away from camp puts us farther away from help. How about turning, and galloping that way for a while?"
You take off, but the men are right behind you and someone is Shooting! You will have to decide where you are running in the dead of night and move and move fast because those mine are trying to run you down. It is hard to see them and hard for them to see you so maybe wont hit you.
Flying Eagle tries to Boost his Riding skill :
Winona decides that outrunning the enemies is probably the best course of action, and she spurs her horse for as much distance as she can get.
Rodan kicks and get the horse move at a high gallop.
Once Rodan realizes that he is out pacing his friends he pulls back on the reins to match the pace of the others.
Come on Devil, lets go.
Rufus leans over the saddle and urges her into a gallop.
= Success
= Success