The ride continues for several minutes. ALL ARE SUPPRISED WHEN THE RIDE ROUGHENS OUT AND IT IS NOTICED THAT ALL 3 TRAKS HAVE LEFT THE ROADWAY AND ARE HEADED ACROSS COUNTRY.

The traks travel using all possible cover, driving along gullies, through trees, staying below the tops of rises, following the terrain. This goes on for atleast 45 minutes. It is very dark. Evergleem is in new moon phase. All is eerily quiet.

Suddenly all hell erupts. explosions blast all around. Lasers, MG's and rockets fly all arround, but never seem to hit the traks. Then as suddenly all stops and the Halftracks slide sideways into a recess in the hill side. The Mechanons all leap over the sides of the traks. You notice that they had a small rocket assist to lift them over the armored sides of the traks, and land them gently.

The Mechanons all mlay down covering fire. A Stentorian metalic voice says, "Destination reached! All units attack!"

Bullets from Mg's arround the doors in front of you spang off of the sides. There is no fire to the right sides of the traks. The left sides are towards the doors. You can jump into the firefight, or leap off on the lee sides of the traks. The Mechanons are laying a withering barrage on the doors and surrounding area.

The lead 'Bot takes a direct hit from a heavy laser cannon and expoldes in a shower of gleaming parts, secondarily exploded ordinance from the 'Bot and flames!

Red and Lugnut leap out on the side toward the doors, firing wildly and screaming,

Let's GO!! GO!!! GO!!!!"
"

Obspie, you are in the condition I described, but do not hear anything yet.

@parriah
copy on the half-track driving position.

rico feels the familiar butterflies in his stomach as he always does everytime he flys into combat. as he became jaded in his short lived militia career he has managed to control this feeling, and has even managed to use it to his advantage, using the rush of adrenaline to heighten his senses & reflexes.

during the lull time in the half-track, he checks all his equipment by feel.

he tightens his helmet before closing his eyes readying himself mentally. "its been awhile since i've been in a ground fight but i'll be darned if im going to let that bother me now." he thoughts.

as soon as he hear the others leap out and charge the door he activates his albedo screen and is a split second behind the others. he yells to the warbots, "MECHANONS ADVANCE & PROVIDE COVER FIRE! WE'RE GOING TO SECURE THE DOORS!", he will then fall back behind the warbots and use them as cover as they advance towards the door, if he finds any targets of opportunity he will fire with his scoped blaster rifle (set at 5d10dmg).

M.D. follows behind Rico with his grenade launcher at the ready.

The Mechanon closest to M.D. Says, "Affirmative!" and rolls forward on its tanktread drives. @ others advance in formation on thier hoverfans. The last 2 nkeel. (They have anthropomorphic limbs) and begin firing a barrage at the mounts arround the door. Hiss'ron bellows a savage war cry and charges the doors. These are 3 meters tall and 10 meters wide. They are made of gleeming duraplast and plastel. Armored to the gills and are going to need to be blasted open. A shaped charge in the joint betwen the 2 halves should do it. The doors obviously slide back into the hillside rather than swing open. There are too many pop-up mounts all around to count, but nthere's plenty of in comming mail for any combat junky's taste.

Speaking of which, Fafhd is blasting away and singing at the tops of his lungs. He flings himself around in 25meeter leaps known to all who know anything about Huma.

Red is hunkered behind a large outcrop of rocks that seems to be disintegerating before a withering cross fire from a MG and off at a 45 dagree angle, a heavy laser cannon.

Lug nut screams, "Covering Fire for RED!! Somebody take out that L Turret!!"


Dosarmas check PM's

Obspie, One of your infrequent meals is delivered now.

OOC: Geez, Euryale's going to look like Kate Moss after a 2 week drug binge. Maybe I should take off another 10 kg from her starting weight...

@ Obspie: That is a good idea, but she should remember your sig line. and like Nitzche said, "Thast which does not destroy us makes us stronger!"

You go girl!!

Maybe 5 kilos tho. She's only been there a short while.

Check PM's

rico uses his chrnocom, "HALFTRACKS! SHIFT FIRE..TARGET L TURRET!....SOMEONE BLAST THAT DOOR ALREADY WE WON'T LAST LONG OUT HERE!" then he will use his scoped blaster rifle to send withering accurate laser fire towards the L turret.

Euryale, in her lightless cell, feels about the room for furniture, fixtures, bedding, ANYTHING that can be rigged as a club, shank, or short spear/javelin. If she finds any thin wooden posts, she attempts to break it sharply, then methodically sharpens the end on the hard floors or walls. If her captors are so foolish to leave fork or knife on her food trays, she will easily make shanks out of them, and/or attach them to the posts for a more effective spear/javelin. While she waits for what seems like forever, she unravels some of her raggedy brown jumpsuit's sleeve and leg cloth, rolling it into a thin, but strong/tensile rope to be used as a garrotte. With other made-rope and a torn-out patch of her jumpsuit, she fashions a sling (think David and Goliath), and she looks around for anything to be used as glandes ("bullets" for the sling), including chips off the wall or floor (if they are made of stone or concrete). Depending on the material of the food trays (preferably malleable metal), she attempts to create simple bracers (again using the made-rope to affix them to her forearms) If she hears ANY noise coming from the door, she hides behind it with garrotte at the ready. She considered attempting to set a trap for the being that was feeding her, but she decided, for now, against "biting the hand that fed her", however infrequent that feeding may be. If they keep her in here much longer, though, she might have to take that chance...

Although she is accustomed to operating in the dark, she really wants to start a short-lived fire to get a look around her cell, seeing if there are any other opportunities for escape. And she also wants to see what it is that's causing her to ITCH so much. Do they have scabies on Triad, too?!?, she laughs to herself. They must; humans are humans wherever you go... Same sins...same vices...same triumphs...same parasites!

She has a LOT of time to think. What the heck do the captors want with me? Why were they so persistent about my knowlege about the SDA? And who is this Zephyr guy they pestered me about? When I get out of here, I'm going to have to look this guy up: he's got to be well-connected if these jokers are abducting innocent beings for questioning about him. He might even have some work for me! I can always play the 'I-languished-in-prison-for-you' card to engender some sympathy.

OOC: Parriah, please tell me what, if anything, Euryale finds in her cell (and PLEASE tell me there's some sort of toilet! ) She's pretty good at survival techniques, and she could easily start a fire with just a smidgen of wood, for cinders, and a tangle of thread from her jumpsuit, for tinder. She's also pretty good at impromptu weapon creation, so even if she has only the "shirt on her back" she can still make a decent garrotte.

The cell is not completely dark. a small ammount of light filters through the slot they feed you through. The food comes in a bowl that is unbreakable dura-plasteel. There is a crude WC, but waterless. the surface is frictionless, or at least nearly so, and everything slides out of sight immeadiatly. The bedding is a plactis foam rubber that will not tear. there are 5 jagged chips of dura-crete(A plasticized ferrocrete) where the walls are crumbling slightly. E tries unsuccessfuly to pull off others, but all she does is bloody her hands. 1 STA dmg and -1 % on Dex checks untill healed.

The sling, missiles (5) and good and strong garrotte are hidden on your person. The bowl is recovered each time you are fed, but not yet this time. You are fed a thin gruel like pablum. sorta like Cream of Wheat, but coarser and much less tasty. Your body is not yet developing any diseases of deprivation like scurvy or berry-berry, so maybe this foul smeling stuff has most of what you need, just not enough to mantain peak phycical condition.

@ Scabbers: The Halftracks have no weapons of thier own, just the ones mounted so your party could man them. Shack and "Laser" Beth seem to still be in one of them, maybe if you could contact them?

<ooc>
copy on the half-tracks weapons. sorry about that. let me change my post then.
<ooc>
rico goes on his chronocom, "LASER! DOS! THIS IS RICO! WE NEED COVER FIRE! TARGET THE "L TURRET" WITH THE HALF-TRACK'S WEAPONS NOW!"

rico will then use his scoped blaster rifle to shoot at the "L turret".

You score several direct hits, but it seems both heavily shielded and armored. It seems something heavier than a hand weapon is needed.

The machanons mantain thier heavy fire and move about irratically to confuse the fire control on the heavy mounts firing at you. They seem to be the primary targets of the turrets fire. Rico thinks "Thank chaos that we have those 'bots here, we'd be vapor by now with out them. one of the Tanktread Mechs takes a glanging blow from an RPG. It is still moving and firing, but ever so slightly slower.

M.D. nods at Rico and goes to the door and attempts to do something with the door as Rico suggested.

scabbers wrote:

"HOT DANG! THIS IS SOME MESS! ALRIGHT MECHANON #1 SHIFT FIRE HIT THAT L-TURRET, POP SMOKE. MECHANON #2 (damaged track) MAINTAIN COVER FIRE, POP SMOKE TOO. WE MIGHT AS WELL ADD SOME MORE TO THIS CONFUSION." "rico to all units! someone needs to open that door most rickety quick!" "MD! can you do something to that door? try bypassing the lock with that doohickey you got there."

OK, what "something" does he do?

The doors are big enough to fly an assault Scoutg through and solid armor. Hiss'ron yells something, but in all the noise, you don't catch what it was.

Check the old posts for s full description.