The river breaks up the jungle and allows sunlight to hit parts of the forest floor it wouldn't otherwise reach, springing up all manner of thick leafy fronds and short stubby plants. Angel's gone from sight after all of ten feet, and after 20 or so there's no trace at all. Hugh signals the team to move on, and the ATV's rumble is swallowed by the undergrowth quicker than Angel expects.
The river is a green-brown stripe meandering through the jungle, rippling occasionally with aquatic life. Angel remembers the six-legged marmalope creature that almost killed poor Kitty Cavanaugh the first time they were off-world, and keeps well back from the muddy, root-tangled edge. Even from his concealed vantage point Angel can make out tracks, however. He doesn't see any human tracks, but he definitely makes out Wherren footprints as well as all manner of small animal tracks. Judging from the variety in age and clarity, this part of the riverbank might be a good fishing spot. Angel permits himself a mocking grin as he realizes there are no ACTUAL fish in the river. He doesn't see or hear any Wherren currently, however. He sits and waits for a few minutes - one of the "toucan summer of sams" that infest the jungle swoops down to snap up a multi-flippered snake-thing in its saw-toothed beak. With the Wild Planet display over, Angel disappears back into the jungle, tracking the team's path. Cowboy's doing a good job considering the size of the team; it would be possible for an experienced tracker to follow them but from what he's seen of the Turai, they would have to be Khiraba to handle the job. Either them, or someone like Ngawai, a hired survivalist type or bounty hunter.
If the tracks are any indication, it's almost guaranteed that the team will encounter Wherren before they reach the target village. For the moment, however, the team moves on, following the river.
Sunset is quickly approaching on your second Whiirr day when the rumble of distant thunder prompts Zaef to climb another tree. Sure enough, the sky's darkening with bloated thunderheads. Lightning flickers far in the distance, but more heartening than that is the tiny trail of distant smoke from the village. Zaef guesses they'd arrive in the dead of a miserable stormy night should they press on, but there might be enough time now to get to shelter nearby. Those who were on the first away team remember looking for spots to evade the Turai, and vague memories of caves prompt Luis to pull out maps from the original expedition. He and Davis line up their maps and determine there should be some caves not too far from the team's current position.
Davis waves Hugh over. "I've got an idea, Captain Verrill."
"Let's hear it, then," Hugh says.
"Luis pointed out that there's a series of caves nearby that you guys found the first time you were here, right?" Davis asks. "Well, if we head for them, we can stash the ATV and especially the gatekeg and lozenge there, set them up to build the gate when we're ready. The storm should wash away the ATV's tracks as well as our footprints, so if any of our friends from the crash or elsewhere are following us, it'll blow their trail clean out. Plus, it's a really easy position to defend and should give us some shelter from the storm if we stay out of the low areas of the caves."
"Sounds good to me," Hugh says. "We're not reaching the village before the storm rolls in, anyway. I'd like to leave a little surprise in case anyone's following us, though."
"Leave Angel and Semo behind? Angel spots them, Semo brings the thunder if Angel's first shot doesn't take them out?"
"I'd rather have the Sarge with us," Hugh says. "How about Zaef? He seems to deal with the jungle shit just fine. We'll need Cowboy with the main troop to find a path and conceal our moves, but I think we can spare Angel and Zaef."
"Sounds good to me. I'll upload the map and coordinates to Angel's vox, and then we'll get rolling."
"Good. Let's run it."
Hugh nods to Davis and walks over to where the rest of the troop is taking a short break.
"Listen up, everyone. We've got a storm rolling in and the village is beyond sundown, all around shitty conditions to press forward. Instead, we're gonna divert to the local caves over this way and camp out there. Shelter, defensible, and as far as we know the Imperials don't know about those. We can stash the heavy gear there and get moving tomorrow with a lighter load and less noise. Angel, Zaef, I need you to stay behind here for another hour or so. Make yourselves comfortable in the bushes and see if we've got a tail. You spot anyone, you take them down if you have the chance. If it's too many, don't risk it. If nobody shows, join up with us. Davis will mark the location on your vox, Angel. The rest of you, we gotta hustle, but I think we can make it before it's lights out. Questions?"
"We can't really afford prisoners at this stage," Hugh says. "And we could definitely do with less people after us. But let's be clear, you need to clean up a mess, not make a new one, got that?"
Angel rejoins the main body of the expedition and nods when, just a little while later, they've got orders to troop off again for the coming rainstorm. He doesn't think they have a tail - if they do, its a specialist, but he can't fault the boss for being careful.
He listens to the orders and nods. "Ditching a tail, yes. Starting a running gun battle with a regiment of the Imperium's finest, no. Got it."
He heads off a bit, looking for a decent place to set an ambush and stay in line of sight with an equally concealed Zaef.
The Whiirr night comes all too quickly and brings a wall of rain that cascades in ever-changing rivulets through the ferns and teal palms above you. The ATV struggles through the soft ground and spatters everyone with mud. Cowboy's glad to have the temperature drop, and redoubles his efforts to find this cave Luis and Davis say is close. It can't be close enough for Arketta, who starts swearing now with every sluck and gloop her boots make.
---
Angel and Zaef have become well-acquainted with being soaking wet in the meantime. Angel's taken cover behind a fallen tree and on the edge of a slight ditch or gouge in the ground. Zaef, in comparison, has actually climbed up a tree and is perched in the V of two thick branches. The first ten minutes or so are nice; no more marching, the rain coming down and cooling you off, the constant ATV's chatter finally gone, but as the height of the storm washes over Angel and Zaef a nice dry cave is starting to sound pretty nice. Massive thunderclaps roll over you, and it's impossible to discern anything by sound. It's just rain, rain, and more rain. The lightning messes with your eyes, the rain itself is a constantly shifting background clutter, and the jungle itself breathes and sways with the storm.
---
Lightning flashes, illuminating a dark cave mouth just ahead of the main group. It's more of a jagged slash in the rock, but as Cowboy approaches carefully he sees that it's deep enough to shelter the team and their equipment. Semo happily rumbles up in the ATV and that's when the team hears the growl.
Lightning flashes again and there's the telltale wink of nocturnal eyes peering out of the cave. A second growl follows the thunderclap from above, and it is clear that this cave is occupied by a very angry... something.
The chemlight glints off the wet rock and slick mud at the cave entrance and shows a dark-skinned quadrapedal snarling beast recoiling from the light. Luis knows that generally, the feline form is considered to be a very efficient predator type, and this alien creature bears it out. a thick-skinned near-carapace armors its shoulders and skull, reminiscent of a rhino's skin, but the muscular limbs and fangs are those of a great cat. Two yellow eyes shut closed in reflex and the beastie circles back into the cave. Clearly, the cavern is only so big, because it hasn't escaped the light or the intruders.
It lets out a dragon's hiss and shifts its coloration to bright red stripes overlaid on a poison-frog's green, and when this display doesn't do anything but raise eyebrows the creature pauses just for a moment, like it's deciding whether to fight or flee.
"Okay, so, definitely not Wherren," Davis says. "Everyone, slowly move towards the edges of the cave, make a hole for this thing. Swims-the-Black, what the fuck is that thing?"
"A grahwl," Swims says softly, backing up and readying his XM-10. "Kill it now or get out of the way..."
As punctuation, the grahwl snarls again and swats the chemlight. It skitters to the mouth of the cave. The animal edges forward and roars in time with the thunder.
"A grahwl," Swims says softly, backing up and readying his XM-10. "Kill it now or get out of the way..."
As punctuation, the grahwl snarls again and swats the chemlight. It skitters to the mouth of the cave. The animal edges forward and roars in time with the thunder.
Luis edges carefully sideways, trying to clear out a path away from the cave for the creature. "Semo! Challenge it back! Gun the engine!"
"But get ready to move in case it decides to come after the ATV, or do...other things to it," Davis adds. "If it charges the ATV, cut the fucker down before it gets a chance to break the damn thing. Maybe make ourselves look really big and scary, and shout at the damn thing."
Semo doesn't have to be told twice. His XM-25's slung and even he doesn't like his chances going hand-to-hand with whatever this thing is. He revs the ATV's engine. The grahwl goes from "scared but defending territory" to "spooked to hell" instantly. It jumps back from the ATV noise and leaps - not at Semo or any of the team, but right between Swims and Cowboy. It hits the ground, slides a second, and takes off into the jungle.
The cave is yours. It'll be a tight fit with the equipment, ATV, and trailer, but it'll shelter you for the night.
---
Angel thinks he hears a sound like someone's joyriding the ATV for a second, but it's soon gone. He checks his watch. It's only been 30 minutes. The rest of 'em are probably drawing cave paintings and roasting marshmallows by now.
Zaef has picked a perch that keeps him surprisingly well hidden, although he realizes a little too late that in turn he can't really see much. It's 50 minutes into their watch now and at this point the rearguard has become an ever-slowing countdown until they can hump back to the cave.
It's approaching the hour mark and maybe it's that Angel's finally gotten used to the view, maybe it's the rain pattering off a silhouette that wasn't there before, maybe it's the underbrush moving against the wind, but he spots someone not 40 feet away. The figure has definitely spotted Angel too, and said figure is not Wherren. Wherren don't carry beam rifles.
Zaef remains oblivious to the intruder, and vice versa.
Not terribly inclined to give their apparent tail the benefit of getting the drop on him, Angel drops to one side and fires a burst at the figure. Zaef should get the message quick enough.
Angel curses the Imperium's damned superior optics as the Turai's rifle snaps fire at him. Angel's hit center mass, a burning painful strike but one that's stopped by the strike plate in his vest carrier. The particle beam's left a faint retinal afterimage and a smoky trail of steam back to the firer; Angel lets loose with a short burst and is rewarded with a nigh-invisible man grasping at an arterial spray and falling over into the undergrowth.
Zaef snaps to attention when he hears the whip of beam fire followed a split-second later by the triple-thunder of Angel's SCAR. NOW he spots the red splash of color against the teal and green jungle and sees the cloaksuited Turai scramble back towards cover.
---
The cave's dry enough; you've all made the best of the cramped quarters when there's the crackle of gunfire in the distance.
---
The motion in the brush is a sure sign the hostile isn't dead. The Imperial half-falls, half-drags himself behind a tree before Angel fully recovers from the hit he took.
Zaef snaps out of his boredom and grimaces as Angel gets lit up by beamer fire. One enemy with a stealth suit, probably a scout, managed to avoid his notice. The Narsai manages to tag the sneaky bastard, though; Zaef follows the bleeding to the Turai's current position. Deciding to take a risk since there only appears to be one scout(and Angel would probably appreciate not being shot at in the meantime), Zaef draws his blades, runs across the branch, and leaps at his prey...
The scout is quicker than Zaef would have expected from a guy with a chest wound. He scrambles back, narrowly avoiding one downward slash and parrying the second with his rifle. Zaef's knife scores a deep cut into the accelerator shroud. Enough mud, blood, and water's spraying about that it's fairly easy to see the scout at the moment. He's in Turai armor, wearing a half-cape or cloak made of the same adaptive material that nearly all Imperial soldiers use. His sudden spryness is evident now; his left hand holds a frisbee healing device.
The Turai aims a sloppy kick at Zaef, who easily backs up a step and spins round with another slash. the Imperial half-slips and half-dodges, taking a cut across his arm. He jukes left and runs right, trying to disengage from Zaef's twirling knives.
POP POP POP
"Fuck!" The scout tumbles forward but catches himself; he's bleeding again, this time from a ragged hole punched through his lower back armor. He's out of Angel's line of sight in the next heartbeat, and the trees take the rest of the burst.
Zaef is fast, and he's fought in enough Arena deathtraps that running pell-mell through a jungle is hardly an obstacle. His instinct is to give chase - the question is should he?
Admiral Duck Sauce
