Davis hustles back inside and grabs a pair of night vision goggles and binoculars from the gear. He hits the in-ship vox by the cargo door. "Swims-the-Black, I need you outside, we might have company." Once he gets back outside, he starts scanning the sky for whatever looks made of metal and is flying.
Angel grunts in pain as Max sees to his wounds. "Just as well, Frisbees give me an uncomfortableness."
"Dead or not, they weren't sorry. Best we've come across...no offense Arketta. Decent fieldcraft in addition to those fucking suits of theirs, and with the munitions they're carrying, they'd stand a fair chance of dismantling an infantry squad before they knew what hit 'um."
He shifts uncomfortably.
"So...we've got a captive, three corpses, a small arsenal, two useful suits and a serious need for a clear LZ and an extraction to... wherever the hell the rest are off at. Ideas?"
"Until we get back in contact with our people, we need to assume that there is no chance of rescue. We need to think survival. Take everything we can carry, leave the rest."
(takes Arketta and Angel aside)
"He's (pointing at the Nebbish) a liability. We need to quickly interrogate him for everything he knows about us then get rid of him. As much as I don't want more bloodshed, I'll personally put a whap gun to his head and finish it. He'll only slow us down and I'd hate for him to come back later down the road and muck our plans just because we didn't have the nerve to finish him off the first time. Do either of you have a problem with that, because this really isn't a topic of debate and we need to get going. It's only a matter of time before those dead hunters have to check in."
The small balding man hasn't said hardly a word the entire time. First he was knocked out, then he was scared shitless, then he was exhausted by the constant movement.
"My name's Dunamis Kon. I don't know what you want to know but I'll tell you whatever I can. You just... you never asked me anything. If there's a way this ends without me dead in a ditch I'm all for it."
---
Swims' story is interrupted by Davis' message. He waves Luis with him and rushes outside to see Davis with NVG and binoculars, scanning the precious little night sky he can see from the canyon floor.
He spots a dark manta shape moving quickly. Its speed appears to be steady, maybe a few hundred miles an hour. It is following the general path of the canyon but from a few thousand feet or so.
The last time Luis saw a manta-ship it killed nearly every living thing on the first three levels of Mesas Negras. It carried what he now knows to be a full Quad of Turai plus support personnel and drones. It's armed with the aforementioned sunballs, beam turrets, and some sort of accelerator cannon.
"We must hope it does not spot us, that our work in camouflaging the ship is good enough to fool them," Swims-the-Black weighs in.
"My name's Dunamis Kon. I don't know what you want to know but I'll tell you whatever I can. You just... you never asked me anything. If there's a way this ends without me dead in a ditch I'm all for it."
"Well hello there, Dunamis Kon. You seemed to have a vested interest in our apprehension. Please, do us a favor and tell us everything you know about us and why you want to turn us in to the authorities. Start from the beginning, if you don't mind. We'll all ears."
"That's all I can offer right now," Swims tells Davis. "The hull should protect us from the sunballs if they do spot us."
A flurry of rapid orders and the Morningstar goes grave-silent. The manta's engines are clearly the only out-of-place sound now. The craft skims overhead. Davis sees Aq whispering soft prayers to Narsai.
The overhang and jury-rigged camo netting do their jobs. The manta-ship continues north along the canyon.
---
"A lot of luck, then," Bello replies, somewhat critical of the so-called plan. "They've never been on Aikoro before, yes? They'd have no knowledge of our tunnels or caches. Perhaps the best way would be to find the Imperial forces searching for them?"
---
Dunamis seems glad to talk. "Real simple. Me and my Apprehender team - three men and a Whiirr - were on Aikoro. Just finished a rundown. I'm friends with some of the port troops, and they clue me in on local bounties before the word goes public access. You guys show up and I'm sure you're aware by now, but the Imperium is offering a hell of a lot for you people. My guys at the port can't do anything, scans say you're already captured. Me and my team figure that's nothing we can't change, what with having some real black-edge type stealth gear. I was already in Gran's Hope. My team confirmed you were heading there, and the two shooters you killed arrived in time for you... Kilgore, right? Well, you split off from the group and I figured it'd be an easy scoop. We scanned you for weapons and it turned up zilch. Didn't figure on you having some variant on our whisperguns. Everything after that I think you know better than I do."
"That's certainly part of it," Semo replies in confirmation. "And terrain is terrain. Our troops are trained to make use of terrain in certain ways. Since we know what those are, we have some idea where to look."
Davis breathes a sigh of relief. "Well, that's one disaster averted. Still, we should probably stay dark until the rest of them come back, and set up a watch rotation. We'll get whoever's on watch set up with night vision and binoculars, I'll show you how to use them. Ahaz, Tais, you're up first watch, Aq and I will work on finishing off the camo."
Dunamis seems glad to talk. "Real simple. Me and my Apprehender team - three men and a Whiirr - were on Aikoro. Just finished a rundown. I'm friends with some of the port troops, and they clue me in on local bounties before the word goes public access. You guys show up and I'm sure you're aware by now, but the Imperium is offering a hell of a lot for you people. My guys at the port can't do anything, scans say you're already captured. Me and my team figure that's nothing we can't change, what with having some real black-edge type stealth gear. I was already in Gran's Hope. My team confirmed you were heading there, and the two shooters you killed arrived in time for you... Kilgore, right? Well, you split off from the group and I figured it'd be an easy scoop. We scanned you for weapons and it turned up zilch. Didn't figure on you having some variant on our whisperguns. Everything after that I think you know better than I do."
Max raises his Stinger to the Dunamis' head.
"So, you at least have some concept about the value of life. What's yours worth? It better involve getting me and my friends off this planet."
As the gravsled soars, Hugh is busy tapping out a morse-coded message on the radio. Short bursts, moving quickly - should be hard to track. And even if they listed in, nothing but crackling.
USE INFR LIGHT
He repeats the message a few times, then sits back and grabs a pair of NVGs from the equipment satchel and puts them on, watching the environment for signals.
With Bello laying out his knowledge of Imperial search parties, Semo zigzags his flight pattern across the hilltops. The rockier terrain would hide tracks better than the forest. They have to hope that Angel, Max, and Arketta weren't simply killed or captured off the bat.
Hugh sends his morse code message, each transmission followed by a course change from Semo.
---
Dunamis looks at Kilgore's stinger. "I can get you off. I can even get you off-planet." He smiles weakly in the face of danger. "I need a vox, and I need to know where we are. Then I can get the rest of my team to pick us up."
Your radios click suddenly, a repeated pattern that you figure out is Morse code for "USE INFR LIGHT". Someone with a radio is on your freqs, can transmit Morse code in English, and is within 100 miles or so.
---
Ahaz nods and gets his sister. Aq and Davis grab some more cargo webs and continue the menial work of trying to cover the bits of freighter that still poke out of the overhang.
EDIT: clarified the morse code bit and how it's unlikely it is an enemy.
Somewhat later, after showing Ahaz and Tais how to use the night vision goggles and leaving them to keep an eye out for more ships, Davis is working on the camo. He climbs up a ladder and tosses Aq more netting. "So, Aq, what do you want out of us in all of this? Everyone seems to think that we're supposed to do something, surely you've got an opinion."
Dunamis looks at Kilgore's stinger. "I can get you off. I can even get you off-planet." He smiles weakly in the face of danger. "I need a vox, and I need to know where we are. Then I can get the rest of my team to pick us up."
Your radios click suddenly, a repeated pattern that you figure out is Morse code for "USE INFR LIGHT". Someone with a radio is on your freqs, can transmit Morse code in English, and is within 100 miles or so.
"Yeah, you're really dumber than you look. We didn't hike out to the middle of nowhere just for you to use a vox and call in every hunter within the sector on our position."
*radio click*
Max recognizes the pattern, eyebrows perking up at the prospect of not having to find his own way off the planet.
"Hold that thought. Your usefulness may have just ended." adds the Action Scientist, feigning a pistol-whip to the side of the Nebbish' head.
Breaking out his maglite and putting the IR filter on it, he hands it over to Angel.
"Climb one those trees and tap out S.O.S. three times, sweeping it as you do. I believe our guys our trying to spot us."
"Not necessarily," Davis says as he climbs off the ladder and grabs some more netting. "It's just that there seems to be a lot of expectations about what our arrival out here means and what we're supposed to be doing now that we're here, and I'd like to get a better picture of what people are expecting of us, so we can figure out what we're going to say when people ask us what we're here to do."
"Ah, so you can lie depending on who's asking." Ahaz surmises. "So, what are you here to do?"
---
Arketta keeps Dunamis prone as she makes the Khirabas' gear ready to move. The only things left are the armored suits, which would require a quick clothing change from Max and Angel. Hard plating doesn't store well; fatigues may be bulky and heavy with sweat but they at least roll up and go in a ruck.
Angel and Max continue their signaling, hoping their team spots them before the IR flashlight beam stabbing through the night sky attracts the Imperium's attention.
"Oh, no no no," Davis says. "I may lie about a lot of things, but this mission is too important to lie about what we're doing here. All that's going to lead to is trouble down the road. We're here to save Narsai from the Imperium, and since they're looking more and more dangerous as we go along, take the Imperium down a few notches or take them down entirely if we have to. We didn't come here looking to lead a revolution, but we will if we have to."
punkey
Dieter
Admiral Duck Sauce
fanchergw
Gatac