Merc. Lt. Silvermasque
Photios
Lotus
Black Andy
Cannon Fodder
Na-Wa
Mephisto

Nilus
Jomo The Wild
Gregorious
Ikuk
Ludo
Payl
DeeVee

   Lotus listens to Cannon Fodder's illusion-pit-trap idea and then turns to Photios.  "Will your illusions be detected by their dog boys?"

OOC - Thought we should move the brainstorming into this thread so as not to hijack the main thread.

"Dog Boy's?"

CannonFodder appears to be unfamilar with them.

   Lotus looks at the Adarok, contemplating whether the behemoth is trying to make a joke.  After a few silent seconds pass she decides it was serious and tries to explain.  "Coalition Mutant Dogs.  Sense magic very well.  They look a lot like Karnon over there."  Lotus indicates the wolfen who is over gathering with his own platoon at the moment.

edit: html
This message was last edited by the player at 03:53, Thu 30 Aug 2007.

"Interesting, I thought the Coalition was vehamently opposed to non-humans?"

Na-Wa looks up at the big creature, he was confused why things were changed and he had the big white cat as a leader now.

"Skull faced soldiers have dog creatures to smell people like Na-Wa and others here."

   Lotus stares at the Adarok towering above her and wonders if it was playing with her.  It was so alien and so huge that she wondered if it really understood what was going on.  "You understand that we mortals are in a war right?  I mean, you comprehend that there are people dying out there, right?"

Nilus stands beside Silvermasque looking straight up at him. The goblin businessman taps the cyborg on the waist.

"Let me see that map... hmmmmmmmmm..."

Nilus points at certain places on the map and mutters to himself in his native language.

Ikuk kneels down on the ground behind Nilus, then drops to his knees to see the map over the goblins' shoulder. He studies the map along with Nilus.

"hypocricy then....not so uncommon"

"They hate non-humans, as in sentient lifeforms. The Dog boys are treated like domesticated animals. Just like a dog or a riding animal not as an intelligent creature and companion. They used to send them ahead to trigger traps and take the brunts of assaults quite often... they've cut back that practice with the advent of Skelebots and realizing the Dog Boys are one of their few ways to sniff out mages."

He returns his attention to Lotus and her question, "The illusions will not fool thermal sensors but it will act as a hologram for all other visual optics. That said, most terrain doesn't have heat signatures other then the wildlife, making the thermal sensors hard to rely upon. The Dog Boys are able to pinpoint sources of magic, but if an entire area is lightly seeped in it, I'm sure they'll know something is strange and wonder whats inside it. But as for piercing the illusion itself to detect any traps we may set within it, I highly doubt it. An easy way would be to cover the terrain with one matching the real landscape... minus of course any tiger pits, foxholes, and other fortifications we might hide among the battlefield. We can hide real boulders within the fake ones and anyone attempting to just drive through the illusion will have an unhappy surprise."

"Theres also the tactic of summoning storms, I can call down a good 4 inches of rain per hour for five hours with each casting which could turn the area around the city into a giant mud pit and slow vehicular travel to a halt leaving their power armor and robots to slosh their way over. Or in the alternative a windstorm with 70 to 90 mile per hour winds would severly reduce their airborne capabilities."

"I can make myself look like a large boulder..." CannonFodder Chimes in...

 I have to admit I was waiting to change threads until we'd moved away from the others. But no worries. ^_^

 ---

 "Is a little more complicated than just not liking non-humans... Skullheads start with desire to defend homeland from endless demon hordes, but got little confused along way. After a while they got so focussed on demons from Rifts and did not notice they were growing own demons... They are creati."

 He breaks off when he's tapped by Nilus, looks down and seems to remember what he's here for, nods and stoops, dropping to one knee and setting out the computer pad for the goblin and his team to examine. There's already the sketch-beginings of competent defences worked out on it, but only the beginings. "I am carrying ten pounds each of NG-2 and 4, as well as six pounds of NG-6 if it is being of use, and can be getting more from Tolkeen in few hours even without portal.

 He then nods up at Photios, "Da... good masrikova is as much about making things look like they are there as not there. I am thinking we can be taking post-holer and putting lot of new rabbit holes out in approaches to slow down charges, but good, thick mud will screw up lot of enemy armour. We can work out drainage and best placement of storm when we are digging in. First and foremost however, we are needing front-duty patrol to be making sure we are not jumped whilst we are digging. I know Lotus wants to join search for Jack, but if she is with us still, that's her duty. Na-wa, maybe Photios, maybe one or two of Firefly squad not immediately needed to dig if Nilus can spare them. Cannon, Black Andy, most of us will be digging and building, Mephisto I think has summoning and binding to be doing. We are being clear?"

   "Yeah.  I can take care of the patrol by myself if you need everyone  here.  I'll keep an open radio if you like."

 "You are one scary girl Lotus, but you are not that scary... I was thinking of three, four people tops. Na-wa is good to go because he is having sharp senses, maybe Nilus is having one or two soldiers he can send along as well. I know there is air cover from magic birds, but I feel better with eyes on ground, Khorosh?"

   "Silvermasque, has anybody ever called you a politician?"

"It is no problem at all to spare soldiers. If you let some of my squad focus on laying the explosives, I was thinking you and Black Andy could help. We have an advantage with Cannon Fodder on our team... we can dig the fastest fox holes... you may not need a whole team on digging. In either case, half my squad are soldiers. I can send Ludo and Jomo if you want just two."

 'Masque chuckles softly, shakign his head, "I guess I am just wanting to avoid example set by some other officers, da? - I am being put in charge of bunch of hardass mercenaries, and best way to get them to take orders is to gentle them into it... get them used to idea." the large 'borg replies to Lotus, "Oh, and be sure to come down good and hard if someone is taking piss." he adds thoughtfully, just in case anyone was making the mistake of thinking him a walkover.

 "Ludo and Jomo it is for patrol duty while we get started." he agrees, "Lotus in charge, take Na-wa and Nilus' men with you. Engage at own discretion if enemy encountered, but don't go more than four, five miles past perimeter." - there's another of those momentary pauses, followed by a grin, "Oh, and make you sure live long enough to scream if you're ambushed."

 "Is good point, but will not just be digging... we will need overheads for concealment and cover - I am thinking when we thin back treeline some, we shall be keeping logs, using for roofing. Maybe for reinforcement of connecting trenches and tunnels, depends on how much time we are having to dig - longer we have, more we get done. And speaking of which, is no time like present, you want to work from outside in or inside out?"

"For the mine fields I would very much prefer to work from the outside in... but we have to wait for the civilians to evacuate first. So lets build whatever else first, then work on the mines and explosives."

   Lotus looks up at the Orcish crazy and borg, and then over at poor Na-Wa.
   "I assume that since you're all just standin' there like retards that you are ready to go.  Get on your bikes and let's get this shit over with."

   The mystic knight marches over to her own hovercycle and speeds off at a moderate velocity.

   When the trio have caught up with her, she'll lead them to the area Silvermasque indicated and slow down to a stop at the top of a hill.  She surveys the terrain as far out as the horizon - the optics system in her helmet zooming in on some trees in the distance.  With the rumble of the hovercycles under them, she uses her radio to communicate with the Orcs and psi-stalker.
   "We'll conduct a circle of the area once.  Stay about a hundred feet apart.  If we get jumped I want one person on the radio calling for reinforcements before joining the battle.  The radio jockey will be you, Ludo.  If Ludo is incapable for whatever reason, then it will be me, then Jomo.  I don't want everyone screaming for help on the radio when it only takes one.  Jomo, you're on point, I'll take left flank, Na-Wa is on the right, and Ludo you take rear.
   Jomo, take us in an arc from here to about five miles out and then back again.  Stay in radio contact and don't do anything stupid."

OOC - In the map below, the red "X" indicates our current position and where we'll start the patrol from.  The blue line shows the planned route and direction.  I'm only concerned with the portion of Madtown's countryside that our platoon is working in front of.  Let the other platoons patrol their own regions.


edit: patrol formation, accidentally named Ludo twice instead of Jomo once.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Fri 31 Aug 2007.

"I can dig fairly well with my bare hands but if we could get a very large shovel it'll go a lot faster...."

Photios has to add another comment in hearing the talk of wood, "Since you are working with a Nation of Mages I'm going to take it upon myself to inform you of any magic that can be useful to your cause. In this case... if you need wood, simply with the power provided by the ley line, any mage with the knowledge can create 100 pounds of hard building wood every 30 seconds or so. Or twice that much for soft weak wood which is mostly for burning."

He seems as if he's going to stop, but then remembers something else, "As a side note, a spell called Ironwood can temper wood in order to withstand modern weapons, though it is far more costly in terms of energy expenditure. Something to keep in mind though for the construction of bunkers or perhaps even punji pits. Even better would be if we could take the vibro-knives from a full Dog Pack and tie them to stakes to line pits with."

 "For former magic, maybe we can use for reinforcement of tunnels." 'Masque states, nodding approvingly to Photios, "Will be useful, da - but is second one that will be most help. Will turn simple soft-cover firing positions into light bunkers. Spike pits may be happening later, but we start with places to fire from, then build escape and evasion routes, then emplace terrain obstacles and mines. Finding decent tools for larger members of team, particularly Cannon Fodder is also needing doing, but so far command is refusing to answer radio, so we will need to be working with what we are having."

"Finding a tool that large might be complicated... if we had some scrap metal and a forge, it would be possible to use a bit of magic to get usable metal and then we'd just need to forge it into a pick or shovel for Cannon's size. After that it would take a little bit of time but maybe we could enchant it? It works on standard weapons, the size might make it costly... but that would let it slice through the dirt, rock... and Coalition troopers."

Contrary to his appearance, Photios is indeed trained in the construction of fortifications, along with mechanical, electrical, and weapons engineering... High Magus aren't called the Master's of Creation Magic for no reason.

With a grin Mephisto joins in the conversation

"Well I am impressed Photios. I thought you were just another wizard who pretended to be bigger and badder than real life. But before we start talking about magic shovels, we should start talking about summoning creatures with earth elemental powers. Some gargoyles have these abilities as well as a few others... I will do some reading to make sure - then I will simply summon creatures to do our digging for us... without shovels..."

Na-Wa gets on his cybernetic horse and follows the Mean Skull Helmet woman (Lotus).

Once told to go in a particular direction Na-Wa pauses for a minute, deciding to mind talk to his talking sword Wohn-Ecke instead of asking the others for help.

>Wohn-Ecke which way is right? Na-Wa does not know and does not want to look dumb in front of other.<



Na-Wa upon hearing Wohn-Ecke mind speak back to him lifts one of his hands.

17:05, Today: Na - Wa rolled 1 using 1d2. 1=left hand, 2=right hand .
left hand is raised



Na-Wa does as told by Wohn-Ecke, and lowers one hand and raises the other.



>Who is Lotus? Na-Wa not good with names.<



>OH! OK, Na-Wa know her.<

Na-Wa then heads off to the right, and begins to move in the same direction as the others.

"I have some powers with Earth Spirits, nothing so useful as an Earth Elemental tho. What if I uproot a tree and sharpen it? I should be able to make human sized holes in the ground, that is a foxhole yes?"

Ludo grunts at Nilus, and jogs back to the truck, where his hovercycle is parked. He grabs a large rifle from the back of the truck, slings it over his shoulder and hops on his bike. He blasts off in Lotus' direction without waiting for Jomo.

Ludo The Strong moves to his designated position for patrol duty.

"In position."

Mephisto chuckles arrogantly, and looks up at Cannons' face. "Yes that would be an effective hole. You are on the right track. The creatures I summon will be able to dig just like you, unless I can find one suitable to dig like the old LT... Zephram. You wouldn't remember him he was killed a few days ago... but he could dig tunnels through the ground with magic. Very amazing stuff..."

"that would be quite useful considering."

Jomo tries to race Ludo to the bikes but The Cyborg was closer. Jomo pulls out a grenade and considers throwing it before thinking better of it and putting it away. "FUCK!" He yells out at nothing in particular and starts his bike. He has already blasted 20 feet before he fully mounts the bike.

The magnets in the back of his skull glisten in the setting sun light as he tries to catch up with the others and move into position.

Photios nearly slaps himself and then laughs, "I was so focused on my own spell repetoire I forgot a whole range of possibilities. I can summon lesser demons and beings as well for 5 days, I would be happy to assist in the work. Perhaps save effort by using a single larger Protection Circle and have everyone work in tandem. We should see about how many mages there are in the company, any who are less experienced could assist those of higher training by supplying energy drawn from the ley line. Oh... that reminds me, do we only have the anti-air juggernauts with us? Perhaps they can donate to an energy sphere for our constructions."

 There's a faint cybernetic chuckle at the antics of the two patrollers from Firefly, but no censure. They're doing the job, aren't they?

 "Alright." 'Masque agrees, perhaps a little disgruntled at the thought that the magic-boys are too good to be digging, but too good a soldier not to see that it's quite simply the best way. "We will be needing firing positions for several infantrymen, plus tunnels and trenches to retreat with - all of these are going to need to be reinforced. There is trick with low-power energy weapon to flash walls into something like glass, but would be best if we were having something more solid." - he taps the screen lightly, as Nilus works, "Nilus has good point, but let us start on middle line first, thinking about this it will mean more civilians are out of way when we start to dig in."

"Allright gentleman if someone could direct me to where they would like the foxholes, I'll get started"

CannonFodder uproots a well sized tree (lil bigger around then a human in body armor) then slashes the roots off so it comes to a point at the bottom. The perfect Foxholedigger

 The Big OOC Sum-up.

 Alright, here's where we accumulate all the various suggestions people have into one single post I keep editing - PM me with the OOC version of things your character contributes and I'll add 'em here so Moloch can keep easy track of 'em. ^_^


 Outer Defences.
 This looks to be about a kilometer of unspecified terrain based around three unmarked white boxes. We don't know what the slope or terrain is like OOCly, but ICly we'll probably need to defend it. I'm thinking four or five bunkers sized for three to five human(ish) fighters. Each bunker should have a simply log roof and a foot or so of dirt on top with firing slits on all sides. There should be two escape routes from each bunker, leading back to the next line of defence.

 In front of the bunkers we'll have tripholes (two to three foot cylindrical holes in the ground dug with a post-holer), some mines, cleared fields of fire and anything we can come up with that might plausably slow heavy armour. The biggest weakness of committing any sort of force to the forward defence is that if we don't throw everything out here it will get swarmed, but if it falls, getting back to the second line under SAMAS attack could be a stone-cold bitch.


 Town Outskirts.
 for the first time we have a clear idea of where we're digging in, and I think this is the 'main stand' line. We'll emplace four or five more bunkers here (they'll take next to no time to build with 'Fodder digging and the rest of us using vibro-blades and the like to reinforce them) with interlocking fields of fire - picking armour off the roof of 'em is a job for their neighbours. In front we put the lions share of our mines. We'll mark out where most of them are visibly because (i) we're right on top of a friendly town and (ii) the main job of a minefield isn't to kill people it's to make them bunch up pretty-like for your guns.
 If someone can think of a way to reliably command-detonate directional mines on a battlefield as torn up as this one's likely to be, we'll set up those too.

 Since the escape routes will be shorter here, we can probably dig trenches, flash-harden them and roof them over with logs and dirt to conceal maneuver from the skullheads. Again, this is only an option for the human-sized-ish fighters.


 The Park
 I see this as being our platoon command area - we'll set a few radio relays in the town hall, maybe a few thermal/signal decoys, then dig in elsewhere. Amongst other things it's gong to be where Cannon Fodder, Firefly's 'borg and I will be starting the battle. If I can persuade Black Andy to lend me his Grenade Launcher the two 'borgs will program a nice, tight grid network over the landscape. We'll send Photios back to Tolkeen via his portal with a roll of cash and bring in all the 'Frag grenades he can carry, and then the front line will be able to call down cyborg-accurate fire support with a 40' radius footprint more or less at will for as long as the ammo holds out.
 Firefly meanwhilst is our primary anti-air platform. The massive missile mount he can carry, plus any personal arms he might have will let him do pop-up attacks using the town for cover - if we can't knock it down with small arms, again we call in fire support from him.
 We'll also need to reinforce our left flank - block off streets, dig loopholes, emplace explosives. Fortunately inside the settlement it will be easier to conceal and prepare big-bada-booms that are likely to survive bombardment, and so we'll set Firefly to turning this stretch of town into a mini Stalingrad.

 Inside the town, fortification is a matter of lots of wood, stone, concrete and other SDC materials piled up with whatever we have that's MDC, on the basis that even a fragile defence is better than no defence at all.

 The Hotel Line
 Between the Hotel and the Boon mansion things are getting pretty desperate - when we fall back here we're going to be down maybe fifty percent if things have gone well, and we're going to have our backs to the river. To our front we have a good field of fire, but our left flank is going to be obscured by the rubble of the Boon mansion, so we'll likely need to dig in any 'borgs or major MD 'critters we have left there, who can toss the rubble aside to dig in - maybe using shaped-charge 'instant foxholes' prepared by Firefly. It'll be slightly forward of 5th Platoons assigned line, but I don't see a better way to command that flank without knife-fighting.
 We'll be dug in in and around the houses at the back of the park mostly, with absolutely no snipers in the clocktower, that's a mugs game. That does overlap 3rd Platoon's assigned positions, but by then I don't expect there to be many buildings standing.

 Renford Manor
 If we're dug in here, it's all over bar the shouting - escape and evasion is likely going to have to be underwater, so we'll want a stash of armour patches for anyone who's suffered an environmental breach in their EBA, rebreathers for those who don't use 'em and to make sure that anyone who isn't independantly mobile underwater is paired up with someone who is.



 Magical Augmentation.
 The above is mostly what 'Masque puts forwards as our baseline 'digging in'. So far we have the additions of:

 Photios has suggested Magical Illusions (great idea). We can still be seen through thermal optics, which means weapons fire (even railgun slugs leave friction-heat in the air), but normal EBA ought to be hard to spot if dug-in, and we can hide trip-pits, mines and all manner of things with this one.
 He's also put forwards the idea of MDC'ing our wooden supports - if we can find someone who can do this, grab him and put him to work. It *will* save lives.
 Then we have Mephisto summoning up whatever he can find - we may be able to use some of his critters as magic landmines, dug in here and there under the illusions in the second line (because in the first line, the Dog boys will spot 'em) and use them to cover our fighting retreat. But that depends on what he's calling up.
 Photios has also come through with a decent way to cover our retreat: Impenetrable Wall of Force scrolls will give us some protection from direct-fire weapons (though not the total defence he was hoping for, sadly the Skullheads are probably going to have missiles, SAM's and the like), as well as suggesting that we can hand out a few one-shot Annihilate scrolls, which have a fair chance of nobbling a single enemy armour unit inside 500', if we can hit it. Basically they're the magical version of LAW's and we're going to be glad to have them.
 He's added the note that it's not too hard to handle pulling in and out of some bunkers by Transport portal or teleport scroll - which means we can do some *really* nasty team-play tricks by bouncing in and out of 'overrun' bunkers if the enemy doesn't unmask them in the first rush, shooting them all up from behind for a round or so, then bouncing out.
 Armour Talismans would be nice, but we're probably not going to get the time to churn many out, and they'll go to unarmoured, then lightly armoured warriors first.
 He's suggested a spell for bringing down buildings - though I expect that the first fifty or sixty LRM's the Coalition fire will do that for us, and of course everyone's favourite 'Firequake' to break up infantry charges and the like. Another winner, if they give us a target.


 Fireteams

 We've got 14 effectives, 7 each in Firefly and 4th Platoon proper. I'd like to detach Firefly's borg for fire support, plus myself and 'Fodder. That leaves 11. I'm thinking three three-person teams plus a pair (probably the ones calling in fire support requests). Right now I have no especial preferences for who is working with whom, though this may change. The job of the fireteams is basically to stick together, retreat together, rescue the wounded and (as an afterthought it would be nice) shoot skullheads.

 The Opposition

 At an absolute minimum we can expect to be outnumbered two or three to one by soldiers who are, by this stage pretty experienced in the use of armour and weapons against magic. They'll use Skelebots, mercs and anything else they can find to draw out our 'big guns' for special attention and to surpress our fire.

 A combined arms attack by a force no larger than the one we destroyed protecting the convoy could put a terrifying amount of hurt onto us in the form of indirect -fire missile volleys, small infantry fireteams and a kilometer-wide skirmish line of railgun-armed skelebots, each of which takes a frightening amount of damage to put down when compared to a militiaman in Bushman armour.

 They have psychics and augmented men who can and probably will scout out our defences in the greatest detail possible, and many of their power-armour or robots are immune to direct magic unless their armour is breached (Annihilate good, Dominate not so good). They *will* have tactics do deal with most of our magic (though we are ridiculously high-powered for a Tolkeen line unit, fortunately. ^_^) because our side has used it over and again all the way to this point, so we need to spend as much time thinking about how they'll corncob us as we will them.

 Still, that said... I think we're going to put on one hell of a show. ^_^




 So... please, add what you can - we only get one shot to make this good guys.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:40, Mon 03 Sept 2007.

Photios goes over some time considerations with the group, "With the leyline's proximity, Annihilate, Impenetrable Wall of Force, and Teleport require about two hours per scroll to recover from. I would like to know how many mages we have available to draw power from the Ley Line for us, each would greatly increase the rate of creation. Talisman's will take perhaps an hour to construct from scratch, and can be imbued with any number of different spells, most likely defensive effects... but it could also be possible to create some with lasting combat abilities for militiamen, what equipment do they have?"

"The creatures our Shifters summon, as well as a spell I can perform which requires about two hours will call out demons, entities, or other creatures of that sort for about 5 days. After which we can send them off, or if we can convince them to stay keep them on as permanent conscripts. Something else we may look at is sending advance scouts to find any CS camps. If they stop for the night we can send in swarms of small animals to disrupt all the amenities they so love."


(Hey Moloch, how big is the Lake to the north? Large enough to have Sea-Monsters?)

"I'd dearly love something with an Armor of Ithan spell on it, I'm fairly solid but I'm such a big target....something for an emergency would be good, if you have the time"

"Ahh, a flash of insight. I can't believe I was overlooking Wards, I'm not talking about the highly specialized stuff that Sphinx was referring to. But wards can be placed as traps for any who touch them, simplest method for that would be to leave a few obvious handholds in some of the Tiger Pits we construct. When the CS soldiers fall in, they'll reach for the warded rock or root... and activate a sleep spell upon everyone in the pit."

"Another use might be setting out an item the Deadboys might find useful to snatch up before we do. Upon touching it, they'll be treated with a Agony spell... which if not resisted wracks the unlucky fool's entire body with pain, preventing them from doing anything but squirming in pain upon the ground. Or theres always the standard use as alarms, the beauty of wards being they last until triggered."

Meph looks to Silvermasque. "I am going to begin my work."

The shifter turns and makes his way towards the center of town.

"I am also going to request that we have all the Mages in town who are not on guard duty or working in the construction of magical defenses, submit their energy reserves to an Energy Sphere for the construction efforts. They can replenish themselves from the Ley Line as they help out in other areas, simply to draw on a larger pool that isn't being used. It only takes perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes for most to recover while at a Ley Line so it shouldn't be a deteriment for too long."

"Silvermasque...I have a thought. A simple fire is no threat to you or myself correct? I wonder if it would be possible for us to find a way to hide my 'heat signature' and disguise myself as a giant boulder. This would allow us to come up behind the Coalitions forward most advance..."

   After hearing Calliandra's message on the radio, Lotus suspects an imminent attack.  She signals her three companions with a hand gesture and points back at Madtown before heading back right away.  She will lead them back to Silvermasque's last known position.  It would not do well to be out this far when the shit hits the fan.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:53, Thu 06 Sept 2007.

Banshee lands her TW board next to Silvermasque and walks up to him.

"Silvermasque right? I have come for the female Mystic Knight. SHe has a meeting with the major."

 "Sounds like most of things are just magical versions of grenade with no pin left under discarded kit." remarks 'Masque, in a fashion that makes it plain that this isn't a dismissal, but rather a way to shoehorn the more than slightly magical ways of magic into his pretty well established tactical sense. "Will be good way to stretch out munitions."

 "Make sure to work somewhere safe, and will you be needing guard?" the 'Borg calls out to Mephisto (because as noted, he doesn't have to like it to support it), before a slightly less comprehending, but basically agreeable nod then follows the suggestion of creating some sort of 'group power bank' frm Photios, "I will put that to boss when handing in deployment plans and Lotus' request." he states, mentally adding it to a little checklist of 'things that need to be decided above my pay grade'.

 'Cannon gets a grin and another of those man-shattering high-thigh slaps from the good-natured 'Borg, "Is good thinking, only I am kind of concerned about Dog Boys sniffing us out if we get too clever - maybe these travel circles or just good, old-fashioned tunnels will do job. We don't want to be knife-fighting with skullheads until we've thinned them out a little though... They are having too many men for that."

 And then the compromised communication channel opens up, followed shortly thereafter by messages of alarm from one point or another in the settlement... And 'Masque goes over to strictly audio for the benefit of the group clustered around him... "We stop using radio for updates  except emergencies now, if you have to report trouble, do so on platoon channel, but authenticate transmission with code-word Swordfish. One transmission will invalidate Swordfish, then use Seperator and Peachtree. If we need more, I shall send runners."

 He swiftly indicates members of the platoons by hand, "Photios, go join Mephisto, make sure he does not end up throat-slit. Work on your projects with him. Nilus, I want two of your men to go with Black Andy to outside edge of Arena, set up watch position, one two more to go with Biltimore Hotel. You, Na-wa, the two with Lotus and I are heading for animal pens... Mission is to interdict hostile movement in and out of Madhaven until we receive further orders, keep groups in visual contact."

 The arrival of the Technowizard on her board brings a nod from the large 'cybernetic feline, one that's accompanied by a gesture skywards, "She is coming back in from patrol... Tell Major I am deploying Fourth Platoon and auxiliaries in three groups to edge of secondary perimeter on watch until we have verbal orders, if he is wishing to use radio, tell him to use private channel and to authenticate Farseer, Fossil, then Foreigner if we are having three whole emergencies that need putting out."

As Obidiah approaches his heavy footsteps cause vibrations in the ground around him. He waits until Silvermasque is finished speaking to Banshee. His telepathic voice is primarily directed at the cybernetic tiger though he errantly lets it broadcast out to anyone in a twenty foot radius or so. "Hello Silvermasque. I was just coming back around to lend some supernatural muscle to the earthwork projects you have going. I wanted to make sure the majority of connecting tunnels were big enough for me to plod around in. To that end I have some abilities I wanted to make you aware of and then see if you wanted to inlcude any of them in your overall strategy."

The big golem takes a moment to make sure the cyborg tiger was not too busy to listen to him before he continues.

"Firstly I intend to enlist the aid of ten fragmented essences of an air elemental commonly reffered to as Phantoms. They are hearty little fellows who are naturally invisible and can fly. Their orders will be to locate the dogboys and cast Clouds of Slumber and Miasma upon them and then Call Lightning upon those that remain standing until they run out of energy. Lastly they can engage with their supernatural strength. As for myself I can blanket the entire battlefield in fog and driving rain along with smaller areas of blizzard like snowstorm conditions or even a tornado if that can help. Also if there is an area you need protected from railgun fire I can create numerous, overlapping if necessary, 40ft diameter electromagnetic fields that will ensnare all iron and iron alloys in their radius of effect. I could also protect strategic locations from any missiles, bombs or similar conventional attacks within 120ft of myself as long as I have at least a second or so warning. Finally I should mention that while I find it very distasteful I could feasibly assassinate anyone from the attacking force with ease. Perhaps even a number of their leaders if they were meeting together and we somehow knew about it. Thats about it really. You might ask the sherriff if there are any Earth Warlocks left in town. If so then all of this digging might become a whole lot easier."

After he and Silvermasque have concluded their conversation Obidiah will go and put his supernatural strength and endurance to good use digging, hauling and otherwise doing the heavy lifting.

Cannon Fodder reaches his hand down and pats the Golem on his back

"You know we're in a battle just now right?"

"We do not have enough explosives to layer the whole town... we will need alot more for all of what you been suggesting. And DeeVee here isn't a borg for reference he is a drone. Artificial Intelligence."

Firefly Demolition Inventory:

60 Anti-vehicle mines
140 anti personnel mines
250 lbs of plastique
30 heavy fusion blocks
50 medium fusion blocks
25 light fusion blocks
300 grenades (125 frag, 50 heavy, 100 plasma, 25 tear gas).

A large Coalition Mark-V APC painted drab grey comes barreling out from Madtown plowing through a fence and thoroughly ruining a farmers corn crop as it rolls towards 4th platoons outer defenses. It grinds to a stop in a big cloud of dust. The side door open and a fidgety mutant rat hops out. He immediately affixes a set of fabricated steps that make it easier to walk down out of the large vehicle and then opens a side compartment that contains some lawn chairs and a table with one of those umbrellas in the middle for blocking the sun. A man wearing a grey Armani suit with a pink shirt and cornsilk blue necktie steps gingerly down the ladder to the dusty ground. He checks his Rolex out of habit and then runs his hand through long auburn hair which despite being greasy and unkempt still manages to look luxurious. He stares at everyone in turn tapping an index finger against his lower lip as he does. Spotting Silvermasque he stops tapping and points his finger at Cyborg.

"Considering you are the only "Big Fucking Tiger-Guy" present I assume that would make you Silvermasque. My brother and I are here to help you."

The rat stands up and snarls at Doc.

"And me too boss. Don't forget about me."

OOC, to Silvermasque: Na-Wa want's to know if the patrol he is on has been completed. The poor guy is dumber then a rock (well maybe a pebble), and he is quite confused.

 As 'Masque is speaking, he's reaching into the heavy and decidedly non-issue pack that he usually has around, and from which the computer and sundry other toys have been extracted, producing in the process a set of oversized MI-B2 cyborg infantry armour which he starts putting, cunningly concealed ports in his synthetic fur covering opening to lock onto the armour attachment points.

 "Would be good to be able to maneuver underground, out of sight from skullheads." he replies, when Obidiah opens his conversation, "But I am not sure what ground is like around here... to take our size and weight, tunnel would need to be in rock, but if we go too deep, others cannot move from bunker to bunker quickly enough. I guess this is where mages are coming in, da."

 Once the big Golem begins explaining what he can and cannot do however, things get a great deal more involving, and 'Masque leans back against a building whilst he puts on vambrances and gauntlets (themselves studded with closing firing ports for a fair selection of onboard heavy weapons) with low 'thunk' sounds of engaging clips... "You have been thinking about this, is good." he comments, turning the suggestions over in his mind "If you can be assured spirits will behave, they sound good. Rogue weather I think is best to treat like fire support, we can call down to disrupt enemy line of advance... I doubt spell will stop railgun slug dead, they move hellish fast, da, but will probably make *real* hard to hit anything beyond end of barrel, which is good. We will add your abilities to defence plan, but for now we are on lockdown - our communications have been compromised and we may have infiltrators in town. For meantime, until we are hearing from Major I want you to join Black Andy over by hotel on guard duty."

 "Real ticktock soldier, huh?" asks 'Masque of Nihlus as he finishes shrugging into and settling down the massive plates of layered alloy armour, "But I was referring to Ludo - still, if DeeVee is having same onboard computer targetting as I am and I hope Ludo is, he may just be added to fire support team, if we can be getting him grenade launcher." - he takes a quick glance at the inventory, then nods, "You are right, is not enough to dig in properly - so we will be needing to use cleverly. Work out best use of existing resources between outer and second defence line and we'll substitute big damn' soldiers and vibro-blades for any demolition work we need done in town."

 The arrival of the APC just as he's packing away his BDU's brings all four hands sliding up to a 'just in case' position at his sides, but it's fairly apparent early on that it's not looking for an out-and-out fight. Still, that said there are meant to be infiltrators in town, and so... "Is good, we are needing all the help we can be getting right now, I think. What is being your expertise and names?" ...is asked, as they remain under the attention of an impassive cybernetic visor system.


 ---

 OOCly Bruce, your idea is as good as mine. As I read it however, about fifteen to twenty minutes ago, Lotus, Na-Wa and two members of Firefly got sent out to make sure no-one snuck up on us. Seems as though they already have and so Lotus is bringing people back in.
 I think. ^_^

After the seemingly normal man steps off the APC a frustrated growl can be heard from inside the huge vehicle, then a few heavy thumps before a large animalistic man leaps out of the APC. Feral lands in a crouch, one hand on the ground the other holding a small black object. Feral moves up with his brother, sniffing the air, "Brother, big cat smells like car. Not really a cat I bet." Having said his piece Feral lifts the hand holding the black object up, "Hate this level, never gonna win." Feral almost rips his PSP in half but stops, remembering how hard it was to get it to work again, he simply turns it off and places it in his pocket.

Feral eyes the 'big cat' carefully, walking a circle around him, "Feral my name, don't know what expertise is." Feral will then wait for Doc to speak.

   The three hovercycles are heard first, and then shortly after the repeated thuds of Na-Wa's robot horse.  Lotus comes barreling towards her platoon's position at high speed, decelerating quickly at the last moment.  She steps off her hovercycle as the plume of dust from the bike's jets catches up with her and blows across the area.  She marches over to Silvermasque, glancing briefly at the several new faces standing around.
   "I cut our patrol short after all that garbage on the radio.  We were about half-way out when that Ike-guy broadcast.  I figured if they can hear and talk to us, then they can probably jam us any time they want, and an attack is probably imminent.  I didn't want to get caught out there with no coms.  We have a new channel yet?"

Mephisto does not wait for Photios but instead mutters the words to a spell and vanishes from sight.

"Ah, Ludo The Strong. Well he is still mostly orcish... just a half-borg. Not too much in tha way of onboard systems. But all three of the triplets are combat specialists, who sepcialize in weapons that explode - so they have grenades and rockets already Masque. Where sould we deploy the mines first exactly?

Corporal Dragon lands in the midst of 4th platoon interrupting the newcomers introductions. The gromek walks right up to Silvermasque and speaks.

"Message from the Major. He wants constant reports on platoon deployment and defensive measures. He also wants two people to be made ready for radar duty."

He then looks over to Banshee.

"You're still here?"

PM

 "Not a cat, nope..." agrees 'Masque amiably, as he settles his helmet in place, shaking his head once or twice to make sure the optic pickups are connecting properly, "Am cyborg Shocktrooper, though Lord Kolodenko would be pretty surprised if he could look under hood just now, God allow that he will have the chance. Time was I was looking like you." - he indicates 'Doc' with one silvery thumb, then chuckles, "Only more pretty."

 That would probably be something along the lines of his idea of a joke. He turns his hand over, from a thumb-gesture to a 'wait one moment' palm when Lotus comes barrelling in at speed and then turns to receive her report, nodding a moment later, "Is good, you are being asked for by Major - follow mage-girl, and please - be taking this along to him." - turning, 'Mask transfers a copy of what's been decided on so far for the defensive plan for Fourth Platoon's sector onto a dataslug and hands it over to Lotus.

 Nilus on the other hand is swung around on and studied for a moment, "I was telling you - between outer and secondary defense lines, to interdict movement and channel foes into firing arcs of bunkers, when they are dug. If you can be thinking of way of securing command-detonated mines against enemy intrusion or disabledment also, be emplacing them once we are free to dig in at leisure. You are professional, and I have heard good things of your team. If you are wanting me to rubber-stamp plan once it is drawn up, is okay, I will do - but I am not going to hold hand and wipe arse for you, da?"

 Being about to swing back to 'doc and co, the arrival of yet *another* command decision brings a slight sigh, but a heartfelt one - if nothing else, the ability to drip-feed stimulants into his own brain chemistry is going to be a major bonus for this particular officer-candidate. Looking over at the nondescript, but very definitely non-Coalition individual 'Masque nods, jerking his thumb at Lotus, "I am sending her with update, also Banshee is having authentication for three radio messages worth of real emergency if he is having to make transmission I can know is not bad people playing silly buggers. I don't know about two people for radar duty though - I can find bodies, but I am guessing he is wanting trained ones, and I do not have any information on platoon training history yet, but I will shake a couple free as soon as emergency is over.

 Rather more quietly however, and with the sort of voice control that takes an awfully well-programmed synthesiser, he does ask of the large D-Bee, "Oh, and would you be knowing anything about those three?", before tilting his head very slightly at the Human, Mutant human and possible Lone Star escapee off to one side... Just to be safe, you understand.

"hate to interrupt but if I am redaing this Radar correctly we have about 7.5 minutes before something BIG arrives in Madtown....I mean BIG."

Nilus' face changes to a scowl, "It's not my fault you can't speak english you big pussy. So you want me to lay mine fields before the bunkers are contructed? I have the remote detonation under control that's for sure."

"I think what he's after is two minefields one on either side of a 'safe zone' shaped like a big funnel, that way the enemy will either be in a killing field of your mines or a killing field of our guns"

   Lotus takes the computer pad from Masque and looks over at banshee, a sneer crosses her face from within the helmet.  "Go see the major?  What the fuck's he want with me?"  Lotus asks rhetorically.  Then she looks up at the world's largest radar operator as he mentions something big this way comes.
   "Ummm... do you mean big compared to you or big compared to me?"

"it's a blip it's hard to say, but if you fly out near it and back I can tell you how big your blip is compared to it's blip?"

Obidiah is physically incapable of shrugging. Instead he walks away silently.

Banshee just stares back at Lotus. Her lip quivers once, just slightly. Lotus knows her Knight status has already gained a victim of intimidation.

"Don't know. Just the messenger. Come with me Lotus right away please."

Banshee will lead the way on foot, intending on staying beside Lotus the entire time.

Dragon just glares at Cannon Fodder for a few seconds then over to Silvermasque for a few more before speaking over his radio.

"Major! we have incoming! Tall merc with a radar said we have 7 minutes before arrival!"

Dragon hops back on his TW hover board and takes off in HQ platoons' direction.

"did everyone understand that order or should I translate?"

   Lotus had been looking at Banshee, about to respond to her but is understandably distracted by the radio chatter - until Zor Karno started speaking in whatever language that was.  She didn't have time to cast the tongues spell before he was finished talking, but she finished it anyway.  "Yes, translate." is all Lotus says, ignoring Banshee for the moment.

"He's having the Second's flyers go out to meet the advance and get intell on it and wants all flyers in the air over thier respective areas, can't say I agree with that second part but he's in charge."

 'Masque swings around at the report of a radar image and stalks towards 'Fodder, plainly planning to improve upon the report he's already received from the tall creature, favouring Nyloque with a glance on the way, "Is simple enough concept sawn-off, but I think will have to wait until we are done." states 'Masque, before calling, "Do not forget authentication!" at Banshee as she leads Lotus off.

 The explosion of gibberish on the radio slows him for a second, but ultimately it can be ignored - the squad is already spread out to resist incoming fire as best they can... but even so... "Is there any way you can confirm order came from Zor and not from jokers who have access to our radios?" the big 'borg asks, which of course is why he sent the authentication instructions off with the techno-wizard.

Banshee waits for Lotus to follow, but stops when she stalls.

Banshee yells at Lotus

"Lotus! you are to follow me to the Major now! You do not get a choice in this matter mercenary."

   Lotus looks over at Banshee, assuming the girl had no idea why Karno wanted this meeting.  She really was just a messenger...
   "Girl, if you only knew what was really going on here."  Lotus turns to get on her hovercycle and follow Banshee.  She looks back over at Silvermasque before departing.  "Have fun with the bad guys, tiger.  I sure hope I don't miss the fight!"  The last bit was said with more than a little sarcasm.  Lotus gestures for Banshee to lead the way.  She will follow behind her.

Banshee does not take the lead. She will go beside Lotus the whole way.

"Follow along beside me."

Banshee obviously is not enjoying her time with the mystic knight.

PM
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:24, Mon 10 Sept 2007.

   "Fuck this shit" Lotus curses when she hears Oksana's radio broadcast.  "Hey, Banshee.  You tell the Major that I'll meet up with him after the missiles stop exploding.  I know what he wants and frankly, fighting the war outranks slapping me on the wrist for sucker-punching a priest.  So, you carry on.  I'll be with my platoon."

   With that, Lotus banks her hovercycle down a side street, knocking over a few garbage cans in the process.  She begins making her way back to Silvermasque in order to assist however she can.  She can't do shit about missiles, but the troops can't be too far behind.  Lotus knows she needs to stick with her platoon.

 There's a big, industrial-strength grumble going on at 'Masque's position, but h dutifully grabs the two of Nilus's men he's got on-hand and sends them running out to the other two watch teams with instructions to 'take cover and prepare for close air defence against incoming missiles, keep one person watching their backs!' and then hitail it back as he draws the others in around him with a gesture, "Anyone who is having ability to pick off fast-movers, now is being good time to skeet shoot - which is to say skeet into cover and shoot. Cannon Fodder, you are to be locking up biggest incoming birds and saturating them with mini-missile counterfire, but remember to save some for second wave."

 And with that, the oversized Russian produces a single 'low-powered' grenade from his belt, drives it three or four feet into the ground in one armoured fist, arms it with a "Fire in hole!" and steps well back for the muffled 'thump', impressive shower of dirt and instant foxhole... Looks like he's not too proud to take cover when it starts raining high explosives.

"It sounded like his voice but that's all I got for right now, aside from the fact that it probubly would ahve been in a lanuage we all understand if it was ment as the preluid to a trap, also thre are nearly 20 small blips coming, I think they are missiles. Requesting permission to attempt to shoot them down..understood."

CannonFodder looks about for the best form of cover something his size can find and waits for the missiles to get w/in range and will try to shoot them down.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:01, Mon 10 Sept 2007.

>Na-Wa go find a hole to hide in<

Na-Wa hears the Wohn-Ecke talking to him and begins to look for a hole to hide in....

The man looking quite out of place in his fancy suit was best considering how to answer the cyborg Lieutenants question of what he and his brother can do when all hell started breaking loose. Probably for the best really since the "Big-Cat" in charge does not seem to have time for a lengthy in depth discussion. When he hears about incoming missiles he speaks in a deep melodic voice that cuts through the cacaphony all around.

"Well sir that is my cue to retreat back into my humble abode. I am a cardio-thoracic surgeon not an ordnance sponge. I should inform you that all of this vehicles weapon systems are fully operational, including the missile launchers along the front there. Tolkeen was nice enough to load them up as it were and supply us with additional munitions. They even converted one of those cannons into a something they say can knock out electronics. Like a magical EMP I suppose but I digress. I mention this because neither my brother, myself or our mutant rat-servant have the foggiest notion of how to efficiently operate the said systems. The previous owners of the vehicle were far too deceased I am afraid to be able to share that valuable information with us. So you may send some trained profesionals in to utilize what they will if it would behoove you."

Doc wipes the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief embroidered with the initials A.S. then turns and limps back up into the Mark-V APC leaning heavily on his fashionable cane as he does so. Turning at the door he adresses the hunched over musclebound behemoth that is his brother using a tone that a loving parent would a child. "Come along Feral things are about to begin blowing up. We can watch it from inside. You can even shoot those big guns on top again if you like."

Black Andy moved to a defensive position as both his hands reached over his shoulder and pulled a long-arm from the magnetic holsters on his back. One was a CS  double-barreled missile launcher. The other looked like someone had fused a quartet of CTT-P40's together into one quad-barreled monstrosity of a rifle.

His cybereye whirred and clicked as he scanned the skies for missile fire, ready to snipe it out.

 ---

 OOC

 The post in question was:

 'He swiftly indicates members of the platoons by hand, "Photios, go join Mephisto, make sure he does not end up throat-slit. Work on your projects with him. Nilus, I want two of your men to go with Black Andy to outside edge of Arena, set up watch position, one two more to go with Biltimore Hotel. You, Na-wa, the two with Lotus and I are heading for animal pens... Mission is to interdict hostile movement in and out of Madhaven until we receive further orders, keep groups in visual contact."

 The arrival of the Technowizard on her board brings a nod from the large 'cybernetic feline, one that's accompanied by a gesture skywards, "She is coming back in from patrol... Tell Major I am deploying Fourth Platoon and auxiliaries in three groups to edge of secondary perimeter on watch until we have verbal orders, if he is wishing to use radio, tell him to use private channel and to authenticate Farseer, Fossil, then Foreigner if we are having three whole emergencies that need putting out."'


 Bah, what's the point of my giving orders if no-one ever reads my long, dull posts? Oh, and those posts also cover the movement of the main team to between the Veterinary Clinic and the Bawdy Saloon, since we never specified our location - puts us in visual range of both the other fireteams. ^_^

 ---
This message was last edited by the player at 10:30, Tue 11 Sept 2007.

It seems Photios will head out of town to the Leyline with Mephisto to begin work! Its not as if they won't be able to handle a handful of Missiles, and perhaps he can lend a hand from afar(and out of danger!) to the fun that is to come.

Unless of course, he gets called back to do something else!

OOC

Mephisto vanished from sight. He did not wait for Photios, and may not have left town.

Sorry masque' I didn't recall you sending Nilus out for watch duty. Consider him and his boys there.

 ---

 I didn't... what I actually did was break both Fourth and Firefly into three smaller groups made up of a couple of guys from each and stationed them in sight of one another along our assigned second perimiter, the idea being that if any smart-alec tried to get in or out of town through us we'd notice and do something about it.

 I left it up to Nilus which of his men went with which group, 'cause I don't know bupkuss about most of them until they post, since none of 'em have descriptions so's I can look 'em up in the cast list (and 'cause as their boss, he'd be expected to know who works best with who). ^_^

 So we ought to have three smaller fireteams of mixed PC's & NPC's spread out along our front. As for Photios, well, if he can't find Mephisto readily then he's welcome to walk back up, 'cause I can't blame him for my giving duff orders and besides, he's a grown-up, he doesn't need some wet-behind-the-ears officer telling him when to shake it. ^_^

 ---

   Lotus comes barreling back to her platoon on her hovercycle once more.  She slides it sideways to a stop right in front of Silvermasque.  "I decided to skip the Major's invitation until after the missiles kill us all.  Where do you want me?"  Lotus asks of her lieutenant from behind the demon-faced mask.

Nilus nods from the distance away he needs to stand not to hurt his neck when speaking with his new commander. He then looks out to his squad.

"DeeVee and Jomo are with me. Sorry Masque the robot stays with me. Payl and Gregorious you go with Cannon Fodder, Ikuk! pay attention! you and Ludo are with Black Andy"

Gregorious nods to his commander, Nilus before heading off to stand by Cannon Fodders' feet. He looks up at the Adarok waiting for him to make the first move to whatever cover they are to move to.

"Right away Nilus. Can we use Fodder as cover?" Payl tries to make a joke, but during this particular moment, and most for Payl, nobody laughs. He then moves over to stand with Gregorious and wait for Fodder to move to cover.

"Yes sir, point and I will shoot." DeeVee moves to stand with Nilus and Silvermasque as Lotus joins them as well.

Ikuk had been pulling missile launchers from teh back of the Firefly truck and handing them out to the squad when Nilus told him to pay attention. He looks over his shoulder to listen to Nilus' orders before finishing handing out the launchers and closing the doors to the truck.

The orc jogs over to meet Black Andy at the arena waiting for his lead.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:38, Wed 12 Sept 2007.

Ludo says nothing but moves to stand with Black Andy after receiving his launcher from Ikuk.

"Maybe we put holes in wall? Shoot from inside?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Wed 12 Sept 2007.

(I think CF already went to find cover, when do you want me to roll to attack the missles will you let me know when they get w/in range?)

Jomo is first in line to receive his launcher from Ikuk, he quickly jogs to Nilus, breathing heavily with excitement.

"Let's go boss... these missiles aren't gonna wait for us to get comfy!"

Andy looked at Ludo, "Sure, if theres no blowback on that thing. I don't fancy going deaf 'cause the backblast can't get out of an enclosed area. That thing eject the rockets before their own jets take over, or do they blast in the chamber?"

Andy was moving towards some cover... anything that would cover himself, Ikuk and Ludo all at the same time... as well as provide a escape route should their position come under fire.

 "Is your squad, what do I look like, your mother?" asks 'Masque rhetorically, but again in a tone more bantering than vicious as he drops into his improvised foxhole, a few short blasts of compressed air and a bit of bumping back and forth compacting the dirt nicely to let him duck below flush with the ground if he needs to... "Lotus, feel free to dig in here - we are undergoing missile bombardment and would be shame to lose you before major is having chance to have you peel two tonnes of potatoes..." he adds, again half-teasingly.

 Then it's up once more to drag his bag into the bottom of the hole and bring all four arms into locked alignment like some massive, mechanised anti-aircraft mount, little targetting reticules imposing themselves over his vision as laser and particle-beam weapon ports slide neatly back from the muzzles of built-in weapons.

Mephisto reappears suddenly precisely where he disappeared, and jogs over to Silvermasque.

"I heard trouble was coming... sorry I was late..."

http://img337.imageshack.us/im...town4thsectorvd5.jpg

A loose idea of where everybody is.

23. Farmers Market (see below)

24. Animal Market (still full of animals, cows, horses, chickens etc. the owners are still there hiding in their storm cellar.)

25. Smiling Owl Veterinary Clinic (small one-story)

32. Wise Owl (tavern/gentlemens' club three stories)
 - small building to north east is casino - all abandoned

33. The Techno-Cave (bar, dance hall, cyber clinic, virtual reality) - abandoned

35. The Dancing Skirt (saloon, two stories - abandoned)

36. The Bordello (three stories) - abandoned

39. The Lions' Den Arena (abandoned, owners in militia)

40. Lions' Den Saloon (abandoned, owners in militia)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:25, Wed 12 Sept 2007.

Behind 4th platoon is third platoon. Lieutenant Avery Drake inside his power armour can be seen finding cover along with the small tribe of 7 simvan riders. The three techno-wizards are in teh air circling above (Privates Bat, Specter, and Deacon).

A massive missile is headed directly for the area First Platoon is spread out in. It is only a matter of seconds. A second volley of medium missiles and a second long range missiles are on their way as well, with Calliandra and second platoons' Iron Juggernauts between the town and the missiles.

 "Fire when you are having target, priority is missiles to front, worry about flanks only if you are having copious free time... And welcome back Mephisto, please to be ducking!" states 'Masque as the invisible flicker of a high-powered laser rangefinder lashes out and paints up the wave-front of incoming destruction, counting down to two thousand feet and the optimum engagement range for his laser battery...

Several stray missiles from the first wave have lost their targets but may still hit somewhere in the town.

Cannon Fodder does some quick thinking, First Platoon will have to look out for themselves, his suply of missles is limited he watches the loose missiles and if any appare to be coming for him and his troups he will knock them out of the sky.

Seeing a vehicle much like the one the Skull faced soldiers had kept him in before being rescued by the Big fuckin’ Lizard thing Na-Wa runs over to it and tries to get inside before those who brought it lock it up.

>Yes, that looks like a good place to make sure your safe Na-Wa<

One missile lands in a building in first platoons sector, and the other lands in the river next to The Marina and Renford's Manor. Whatever building the first one hit can be heard collapsing in the distance after the sounds of the explosion fade out. Black smoke raises into the sky above the buiding.

Feral snarls as the strange pale man enters the APC at the last moment, "Who you?" he growls through clenched teeth, standing between Doc and the newcomer.

OOC I am sure it won't matter but Feral has an HF of 13...

   Lotus jumps back on her bike and gives the jets a jolt to propel her across the street to where she sees some measure of cover - next to the jail.  She's still in the open, but will stand next to the door in order to leap inside should a missile impact seem imminent.

   The mystic knight draws her bow, a high-tech compound bow with several modifications that give it the appearance of technowizardry.  Golden wires are coiled around some components and gemstones are embedded next to the hand grip.  Lotus draws a mundane-looking arrow and notches it before aiming up into the sky.  The mystically-enhanced ancient weapon is her best chance to shoot down a missile in what would be an almost ironic confrontation between the oldest and newest forms of the same technology.

Na-Waa looks at a mean looking creature...while it's appearance briefly startled Na-Wa, it didn't scare him entirely, he'd seen meaner creatures, like the mean bears, dogs and cats the Skull faced soldiers kept as pets.

"I Na-Wa of Doe of Shu Tribe."

"Who you?"

Feral sniffs the air deeply a few times, "Feral," he says jabbing a thumb into his chest, then indicating Doc and Snodgrass in turn, "Doc Ferals brother, Snodgrass drive us. You fight skull head?"

DeeVee keeps his glare fixed on the sky above, and speaks out load, presumably to Nilus.

"Sir, standing around waiting for missiles to land on us is unsettling."

 "Welcome to wonderful world of soldier... If you can not take joke, you should not have joined!" declares 'Masque from his foxhole at DeeVee's comment, as explosions and energy weapon fire lash the skies and spent railgun rounds slap into the land and water surrounding the town, without a single active missile or enemy airman closing to within half a mile or so of Fourth Platoon's position, and thus triggering any counterfire.

Having already been on a run towards the Ley Line, Photios does not stop to combat the missiles, nor is he aware of the events that have occured in the air. Not one to stop for a status update he conjures up an astral hole, jumping through the portal a few times to reach the influence of the Ley Line.

Recovering his strength he takes a seat and begins writing scrolls, starting out with a half dozen Teleportations before moving on to Annihilate. The question being how much time they still have left to prepare.

Snodgrass ducks his head to look out the front of the APC, and up at the sky.

"I think they're done... either everybody is dead or the enemy is gone."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:35, Sat 29 Sept 2007.

Mephisto speaks over the 4th-platoon radio channel while looking back towards one of the near by buildings.

"Hagriss, come out now. Walk slowly towards me and I will give you instructions on how you can help."

A massive winged demon, standing nearly 15 feet tall walks out of one of the buildings, dressed in animal hides, and armed with a wooden staff.

The gargoyle walks over with his head hung in shame. He once carried himelf a proud shaman among his people, but has now been reduced to following the orders of a twisted human mage.

He walks up to Mephisto and finally brings his eyes up to meet his... masters' eyes...

Mephisto looks up at the demon and grins.

"Hagriss? This is Silvermasque, he is in command of this group of warriors - I want you to follow his orders and help defend this town from a great battle that will begin very soon."

The shifter then turns to Silvermasque

"This gargoyle can dig like Lieutenant Zephram could. He can use magic to dig a trench around the whole town if you want him too. In the meantime however, I have work to do."

Before leaving, Mephisto speaks to Hagriss again, and then walks off a few feet and vanishes.

"Don't kill anybody unless they are trying to kill you or Silvermasque tells you to kill them."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:42, Sun 30 Sept 2007.

 'Masque pulls himself out of his foxhole (or, nomenclature aside, should that be tiger pit?) as Mephisto and a few others break cover cautiously, though he holds off on giving an 'all clear' before he's had time to see if he's shot at or bombarded by anything unpleasant.

 And speaking of which... It's not really necessary for him to turn to get a good look at the oncoming gargoyle magus, he having heard much of their kind from his Warlords stories of life in the NGR, he's no more about to give it his back than he was the other two assigned to him earlier.

 With one large hand and, if necessary a sharply audible whistle he signals the rest of his platoon (all of whom are in visual range, if they stuck to their planned deployment) to pay attention and, with a boosted (and audible) voice instructs them to, "Stay alert, watch for infiltrators until further orders." - so as to avoid the problem of compromised radio channels.

 And then it's back to the present, with a two or three foot height disadvantage against the Gargoyle mage he nonetheless sets straight about business, as professionally and dispassionately as he can manage. "Hagriss, da?" he asks once the tiny shifter seems set to move off, looking the alien figure over from top to toe and forming his opinions accordingly, "Welcome to Fourth Platoon. Is there anything you can be telling me about your magic before I am finding things for you to be doing?"

Hagriss stares into Silvermasques' eyes and responds

"No"

 Eye... or, more accurately visor - a single, wraparound Geordi-laforge-alike panel of impassive composite material that provides both protection for whatever potent cyberoptical systems are concealed within, and an incredible range of vision besides... It makes entering into a staredown with him a largely fruitless exercise.

 "With attitude like that, you have fine career in latrine-digging ahead of you I am thinking." 'Masque replies cheerfully, "We are having couple of other Gargoyles in team, maybe you you would be preferring to be working with them?" - being suddenly handed a civilian to cram into a team of at least mostly volunteers rather dictates being prepared to give a *little* leeway.

   From her position not too far away, Lotus watched as Mephisto handed over control of the gargoyle to Silvermasque and she remembered something she read once about such matters.  "Silvermasque, I know english ain't your first language, but you gotta watch your grammar with the sub-demons.  You asked it if there is anything you can tell me and that just leaves the window open for freewill.  Don't give these fuckin' creatures an inch.  You gotta tell it to do what you want.  Try saying list the spells you know.  Oh, and you should tell it to use english, or whatever language you can understand, or you'll be wasting half a day just getting anything out of it."  Lotus stows her compound bow as she walks over to Silvermasque and the gargoyle.  She is tall for a human, but looks like a child standing next to them.  "And do me a favour too, Silvermasque.  Tell this fuckin piece of shit that not only is it not allowed to kill anyone without your say-so, but it cannot knowingly allow any harm to come to any of us either - it has to assist.  Otherwise, it might just stand there laughing when the next wave comes in."  Lotus looks up at the creature and smiles.  She knows she probably just became its least favourite person, but at the same time there must be method to her madness.

Cannon Fodder looks around considering who could be the infiltrator, who wasn't around at certain times...but in the fog of war how can you keep track of such things?

The gargoyle mage stares down at Lotus and snarls. Lotus gets the distinct impression that if it weren't for the strong will of magic control, she would be attacked.

Hagriss clenches his fist tightly around his staff.

 The inhuman features of 'Masques cybernetic skull twist into an expression of distaste, as though to express that it's not bad enough that he has to work with planar trash from the Rifts, but he has to become a slavemaster as well into the bargain.

 "I am thinking then that you are knowing more of what is being best when handling such a being than I am, Lotus, da?" he inquires thoughtfully, putting the Gargoyle into the mental catagory of '?' in his little budding unit strength table, "So is probably being best if you are handling him."

 Turning then back to the oversized saurian, he sets his lower hands on his hips and folds the upper pair, meeting cruel eyes with an impassive plasteel gaze, "I am recalling Mephisto was telling you to obey me as him - now I am adding new name to list. This is Lotus, you are to be obeying whatever she is ordering you to do as though she were me, except when I am giving orders to contrary. You are to be obeying military law at all times, and if you are not knowing military law, you are to be telling me now. Please to be stating understanding and acceptance of orders."

Hagriss grins sadistically and steps towards Silvermasque aggressively. With one finger he pokes him in the chest, and with the other hand he slams his staff on the ground.

"Perhaps I should be tearing legs off and making you be sucking my dick pussy cat..."

He is clearly mocking the accent in which Silvermasque speaks.

Nilus' jaw drops after listening and watching the gargoyle go toe to toe with Silvermasque.

The Goblin stares up in amazement, and takes several steps back...

   Lotus pulls out her radio and clicks the switch to start transmitting.  "Hey Mephisto, this is Lotus, Hagriss requires some... clarification.  Please attend asap."  Lotus then puts the radio away and kicks hagriss in the shin.  "Don't touch my pussy!"

 'Masque on the other hand just grins right on back, his chest one of those largely immobile constructs of layered duralloy, battle steel and ever-more exotic ceramic compounds that could bounce a well-thrown tank (well, once anyway). A faint 'chunk' sound from around the region of his feet indicates him settling his weight forwards, as he bares what would be a friendly smile, did it not consist of a double-row of inch-long vibro-active silver fangs...

 "Am sorry to be dissapointing, but eyes are only resolving down to times twenty magnification, so I could not be finding your dick to suck." he states, still with that broad, cheerfully threatening smile, "Now I am not liking you and you are sure as hell not liking me, but you are stuck here and I am stuck with you. So why do we not both be making bes..."

 And that's when Lotus interjects her comment, and all bets are off, the protest striking the oversized 'borg as a punch to the gut would not, and causing him to choke back a startled laugh as he tries manfully to retain a straight face.

 So much for intimidation.

Feral, having just poked his head out the APC door begins laughing hysterically, "Brother, little lady kicked big monster..."

"How wonderfully brave of her." Doc says waving a dismissive hand from where he is sitting. He takes a swig of whiskey from the silver flask he is holding washing down a couple of white pills. Looking up at Feral he knows his brother is getting restless in the confines of the APC. "If you like you can go out and play. If the little lady is good looking and the monster decides to be mean to her then by all means rips its arms and legs off brother. It is always good to have good looking lady friends." Doc lays his head back to try and take a nap adjusting in the seat he winces in pain as he tried to get comfortable.

Feral smiles, and if you could see his face you would see him blushing a bit, "Feral go see lady. Lady strong, but monster big. Maybe Feral keep lady safe," he giggles like a child, "Brother ok?" he asks, knowing Doc will say yes, he turns to Snodgrass, "Snodgrass keep brother safe, Feral not want to pull Snodgrass head off." Snodgrass knows Feral wouldn't really hurt him, but there is the slightest hint of seriousness there. Feral happily exits the APC and walks over to Lotus, "Pretty lady kick big monster, make Feral laugh. Feral think big monster mad at lady. Feral keep eye on monster. Make sure lady safe." Feral seems very proud of himself, "Brother tell Feral to keep eye on pretty lady. Always good to have pretty lady friends brother says. Feral think brother like you."

"pussy? what are we talking about I am unfamialr with that vernacular terminoligy"

Cannon Fodder is looking down at the comparitivly tiny 'Lotus', waiting for a responce. He looks really confused.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:27, Sat 06 Oct 2007.

Hagriss' eyes move over to the side Lotus is standing on, as he follows with a swift back hand to her face. Hagriss remains facing Silvermasque, with no sign of Mephisto as of yet.

   Lotus tries to dodge the massive paw of the gargoyle, but she's not quite as fast as she normally is...

OOC - attempt to dodge backhand, and roll with impact if it connects
09:45, Today: Lotus rolled 15 using 1d20+13. roll.
09:44, Today: Lotus rolled 11 using 1d20+6. dodge.

Feral leaps into action seeing the demon attempt to strike the lady.

Feral attempts to grab the things arm and keep it from hitting Lotus if possible.


You rolled 21 using 1d20+10 ((11)).

 In the wake of the sudden change from faceoff to aggression, 'Masque's motion that follows the backhanded swing from the towering gargoyle has a certain brute simplicity to it, a subtle 'shink' sound from somewhere around his right foot accompanying a visible gas-plume as cybernetic jet systems accelerate it upwards, augmenting the thrust of an expertly-driven knee with the sort of force usually associated only with efforts to raise satellites into low orbit as it travels a short, brutal course aimed squarely between the legs of the not-*quite*-tall-enough Gargoyle.

 One way or another, there's going to be a very, very discomfiting impact in the next few seconds.

Lotus takes the backhand violently and it sends her in a spin, launching her off her feet and through the air, landing on her back 8 feet away. Her helmet was tossed in the hit and she lays on the ground stunned for a few moments.


Feral was just too far away to stop the hit, but arrives just after Silvermasque jumps up quickly and puts his knee into Hagriss' crotch at a speed only a cyborg could demonstrate. Hagriss is lifted a couple feet of the ground and let's out a painful grunt. He lands on his feet, but quickly collapses to his hands and knees in front of Silvermasque.

Lotus regains conscienceness just as Hagriss starts puking on the dirt at 'Masques' feet.

Feral growls, still crouched to strike, even more angry he wasn't quite fast enough to stop, he reaches out and kicks Hagriss in the ribs for good measure. Feral would likely ocntinue, but his brother told him to take care of the lady, moving to Lotus Feral helps her to her feet handing her the helmet she wore. "Pretty lady ok?"

 Jet-assisted groin kicking... It's the sort of thing they really don't warn you about when it comes time to scuffle with cyborgs... But the kind of force required to lift a multi-tonne gargoyle a few feet into the air doesn't even bear thinking about.

 With another soft 'shunk' of disengaging hydraulic locks, 'Masque steps in close as Hagriss topples, reaching up with the two hands on his left side to take a horn in each not-quite-impossibly strong hand and grind the temporarily incapacitated 'subdemon down into the dirt, obvious planning to rub his face in the very matter he's in the process of throwing up and to absolutely not let him up (or let him string together a spell not interrupted by more discomfort) until this has been resolved.

 "Perhaps I was not making self clear." the oversized 'mercenary states in that same almost conversational tone, his lower-left arm producing another of those fine, chunky cigars he's so fond of, which is then lit by a brief, low-powered test cycle from one of the lasers mounted in the arm above it, "We are having very few rules in fourth platoon, and you are just breaking three of them. Do not be striking own side, do not be pissing off sergeant, and do not ever take eye off asshole you are insulting. Are we being clear upon this?"

 As he speaks, his two right-side arms (having finished the little play with the cigar) are moving to attempt to put his victim into a good, solid, behind-the-back-and-being-twisted arm-lock, for the duration of th 'negotiations'.

"this is reminicent of Second Platoon...."

   Lotus staggers to her feet and over to her helmet.  She picks it up with a violent swing of her hand and places it back up on her head quickly.  Making her way back towards Silvermasque and the gargoyle she takes a stance with her hands on her hips, just out of reach of the monster's claws or wings.  "Nice one Silvermasque.  Did'n know you had it in ya.  Too bad the brodkil weren't here to see this one."

Hagriss grunts out of the side of his mouth "Let me up!". Silvermasque struggles to hold onto his arm...

Nilus has since closed his jaw and was rather disgusted at the demon asking to be let up... it wasn't the display he was hoping he was about to see...

"Well it looks like you have everything under control up here then. I am going to take DeeVee, Payl and Gregorious with me to set up the mine fields. The orcs can help you out with patrols or whatever you need boss."

Assuming Silvermasque says or does nothing to stop him, Nilus motions to the others to follow him as he hops in the drivers' seat of their truck. DeeVee gets in the back, while the other two mount their hovercycles and ride out to the edge of town.

The orc walks over to stand behind Lotus.

"Can I speak with you please Lotus. In private."

   Lotus turns and eyeballs the orc, her helmet concealing any expression on her face.  "What the hell for?  I don't fuck orcs, if thats what you had your pea brain set on..."

Feral, still with adrenaline raging through his veins steps beside Lotus, "Pretty lady talk, Feral watch, Ugly not hurt pretty lady. Ugly hurt pretty lady Feral kill." There is no nonsense in his tone, and little room for manuevering in his statement, apparently he takes his brothers wishes seriously.

Ikuk growls back at Lotus...

"Perhaps you do not understand the meaning of private..."

   Lotus turns to face Ikuk now, giving him her full attention.
   "Listen to me very carefully, Orc, I understand perfectly what you are askin' for.  First of all, I'm kinda in the middle of somethin' here.  This gargoyle piece of shit needs to be taught a lesson.  Secondly, I'm not your fuckin' friend, you don't just walk up to me and ask to go someplace a little more private.  Fuck that shit right there.  So if you've got somethin' important enough to interrupt me here, then at least give me a fuckin' clue what the fuck you're lookin' for.  Otherwise, go jerk yourself off."

Feral smiles, obviously not getting Lotus' meaning, and snarls at the Orc, "Feral jerk ugly man arms off. Watch blood fall." Feral stays somewhat crouched, waiting to strike should Lotus give the ok, or the orc try something aggressive.

Ikuk completely ignores Feral and shows no visible reaction to Lotus' tone of response.

"May I speak with you in private please? Are you worried I will kill you?"

Ludo looks to his brother with a raised eyebrow...

"What are you on about Ikuk? huh? What do you want with this human female?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:46, Wed 10 Oct 2007.

 Having achieved a grip like the one he's currently put the 'Goyle into, it's far from the easiest thing in the world to persuade a warrior like 'Masque to let go of it for anything less than a capitulation - he does allow himself to be distracted a tiny fraction - enough to approve Nilus' initiative with an "Is being good start." and a faint nod.

 Of course, the budding domestic building up nearby between the various nonhumans and Lotus is going to be hard to ignore for long, but right now the Sarge is busy... Specifically busy letting go of a single one of the warlock's horns and bringing a large, armoured hand to come around and rest just over one gleaming eye.
 There's the faint, almost subliminal thwumm of a vibro-claw begining to oscilate.

 "I believe I was asking question, da?" he inquires, in that same even tone.

Sure Doc was in a surly mood, when is he not, and sure his mind is clouded by Oxycontin and 12 year old Scotch. Well technically it is more like 312 year old scotch but I digress. The point is he comes to a realization about the exact words he used to speak to Feral before sending him out. He may be an asshole but he loves his brother so he hits the button and the smallest of the doors on the large APC opens with a hiss of hydraulics. Doc steps out hoping not to see any blood or detached limbs. He is relieved to see he is not too late. He recognizes Ferals posture and knows that it is only a matter of moments. Having been preparing for a mid-afternoon nap in between bomb raids Doc is wearing only a pair of black silk boxer shorts. Even though he holds his body with bad posture and like someone with serious lower back issues he still manages to look like the lovechild of a greek god and a Sports Illustrated swimsuit supermodel.

"Feral.... Feral! Do not kill that person and please leave the skull helmed woman alone I am sure she is more than capable of taking care of herself. Anyone with that kind of fashion sense would have to be tough."

Doc turns around and goes back inside looking for a fresh bottle to refill his flask with.

Feral snarls again at the orc, "Pretty lady shout, Feral rip ugly apart." Having said that he heads towards the APC and crouches outside the door while his brother sleeps.

The gargoyle grunts his response again, spraying snot and vomet out of his nostrels.

"Do you want me to say yes we are clear?"

   "Go fuck yourself Ikuk."  Lotus shouts at the orc, before turning to glare at Feral.  "Was that your idea of assistance?  Pretty lady this, Ugly man that... What's your problem? You a little slow?"

Ikuk shakes his head and staggers in his footing slightly, then walks off to join his brothers.

Feral shakes his head, "Feral fast, not slow. Feral not know pretty lady name, so Feral call pretty lady pretty." He states rather matter of factly, as if it should make perfect sense, "Feral nice to pretty lady, why you look so mean?"

 "I think that is being up to you comrade." replies the massive cyborg without allowing anything of excitement or irritation to enter his voice, as though he's trying to give the impression that this is a simple administrative matter, rather than the containment of a potentially lethal threat.

 "I am not liking you. I am not liking your kind - back home, I would have been fighting and killing things like you, if you were not fighting and killing things like me." he explains, holding that shimmering, energised claw mere inches from the gargoyles eye. "But we are being here now, and we are being in path of war. You are stuck with me, and I am stuck with you, and so we are having choice. We can be getting on and doing best to survive as unit, or we can be seeing who is killing whom - but since you will not be surviving long even if you win, I think maybe would be bad choice for you."

 Large, armoured shoulders shrug - without lessening in any degree the strength of the containing grip on arm and head that 'Masque is expertly maintaining, "Maybe you would be liking to comment, or should I just be going ahead and using you as object lesson?"

"Agreed then. Let me up, and we will work together..."

Hagriss eye is fixed, unmoving on Silvermasque's blade.

Black Andy changes position as he watches the scuffle as a spectator. He sighs as he gets bored.

   "Call me Lotus, ok?  Pretty Lady is liable to give some of these momma's boys ideas they shouldn't be thinkin'"  Lotus glances over at the gargoyle and borg.  "I certainly don't have to be psychic to know that the word of a sub-demon is worth about as much the shit I pick out from under my fingernails, but what the hell.  I'd love to see Silvermasque put it down again."

Feral nods, "Ok Lotus. Lotus need Feral, Lotus yell for Feral."

"You know Lotus, it is just possible that if someone wants to talk to you in private, when we have spies in our midst, the reason MAY BE that he has some information about who the spy is....but then yelling about sexual innuendos and insulting the intellect of people trying to help you does take precedence over rooting out spies I suppose"

CannonFodder is rubbing his forehead obviously he is not dealing with a lot of towering intellects....

   Lotus picks up on the giant rubbing his head.  "Are you fucking stupid? I just got fuckin' slugged by a gargoyle, no thanks to you fuckface, and now my fearless leader is tryin' to beat some sense into it.  You want me to go lookin' for spies, fine, get yourself a rank and then come give me an order.  I guess my pea-brain figured on stickin' around to help if I could.  You know, my little brain will probably forget all about the orc by the time this gargoyle gets up and the fuckin' spy will get away.  Why don't you get off that giant ass of yours and do somethin' useful.  Holy fuck.  Talk about insulting intellect, you make me feel stupid just talking to you."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:20, Fri 12 Oct 2007.

 There's a momentary, heartfelt sigh from the powerful cyborg as the bickering around him makes it difficult to concentrate upon disciplinary matters and he offers a seemingly apologetic, "Excuse me." to Hagriss before looking up, not bothering to mention to the pinned 'goyle that just because his visor and head are pointing somewhere else there's still a dozen widely-scattered sensor pickups across the whole of his armoured frame that are providing a perfectly good read on what the demon is up to.

 "Bickering gives me headache, da?" he states, looking from 'Fodder to Lotus to 'Nihlus's boys, "Please therefore to be resolving whatever it is you are wanting to talk about politely, so I am not having to notice." - he leaves unspoken what he'd have to do if there was any noticing going on. Never make threats when you don't want to have to keep them - it's the sign of a poor leader. Most halfway decent soldiers are pretty much self-policing, once they know where the boundaries are after all.

 And then it's back to Hagriss... 'Masque tilts his head down to stare at the mage once more, before nodding reasonably, "I am thinking that you are perhaps not totally sincere, but I am going to take risk. Please however be knowing this - if you are pat of unit, you are part of unit. You will receive full share of value of salvage, you will do full duty like others, and you will be protected, same as others. If you are deciding, anytime, that you are wanting to change this arrangement, perhaps by making a try on me, please be sure - very, very sure - that you are having what it takes before you strike. Because if you are not, you will not be receiving second chance, and you will be being very, very unhappy about turning down the first before you are being killed."

 Releasing first one hand, then the other 'Masque levers himself upright, then braces himself upon the earth to extend a hand downwards, bladed fingers unpowered as he offers the Gargoyle assistance. "Are we being good?"

"yes well I have that effect on some people, I believe it's my intelligence. if the orc would like to share his information with me I will be happy to listen."

   "I can't believe this... I believe its my intellect.  If you're so smart, then why don't you tell me why the orc would report a spy to me and not someone in command, huh?  If you're so fuckin' smart, then why don't you go fetch the fuckin' orc and find out what he was goin' to say.  Or are you havin' fun up there watchin' all us little ants run around in circles.  God, there are times when one has to wonder if the Coalition don't have the right idea."
   Lotus pulls out her radio and calls up the 'owner' of the gargoyle.
   "Hey Mephisto, its Lotus again, are you ignoring us now?  I'm still waiting for you... and Major Karno, looks like the missiles have stopped falling, you still need to see me?"
   Lotus looks thoroughly fed up with Cannon Fodder and she walks away from him to get on her hovercycle, expecting Karno to respond that she has to go.  If Cannon Fodder has more to say, she can't really avoid listening, but she can certainly look like she doesn't care.

Doc returns to the door of the APC now wearing a pair of sweat-pants, a t-shirt that says GAP across the front of it and of all things wooden clogs. He has his flask and is transferring darkish brown liquid into it from a clear non-descript bottle. With only a few "swigs" remaining in the bottle after filling his flask Doc downs all of the liquid in one large gulp. He thin sips more conservatively from the flask itself as he watches Lotus storm off. Her hovercycle kicks up a cloud of dust that billows out towards the parked Coalition APC. With a wave of his hand he sends a slightly more powerful gust of wind towards it and thus keeps the dirt from blowing on him."Feral I do believe that woman may be the kind of trouble we do not need." He says motioning to the retreating figure of Lotus. "You remember Gisella from Spain don't you? Sure she was fun but those hot-blooded women are far too unpredictable for my tastes. Oh and think fast!" Doc is not even finished saying the last part when he underhand heaves the empty bottle up into the air sending it relatively high up and arcing over towards Masque and the others. Before it begins his descent he hits it with a concentrated blast of air and sends it hurtling a couple of hundred feet up and outwards then it could have travelled under normal circumstances.

Doc doesn't wait to see if Feral makes a successful catch. Even though it is a feat a juicer with rocket-boots would likely fail he knows it is childs play for his brother. Which is precisely why he indulges Feral with such distractions. He certainly does not indulge anyone else. Unless you count himself of course, in which case you have found the person he indulges the most. He makes his way over towards Masque and even in his sweatpants and funny shoes he somehow makes the little stroll look like Fred Astaire gliding effortlessly across a dance floor. It is not as if he is just some pretty-boy. Sure he would be a prime candidate to model underwear on one of those giant billboards in Times Square, if Times Square still existed. His nigh flawless looks are almost extraneous in comparison to the supernatural air of elegance and the charasmatic allure that is exuded from his very being. His presence makes women, occasionally men, weak in the knees and if nothing else very aware of their own sexuality. When he speaks people listen whether they like it or not and the majority of the time they find themselves agreeable despite Docs generally piss-poor attitude and often times drunken state. Cyborgs Tigers however, well who knows?

Doc steps in front of Silvermasque and looks up into the borgs, well...eye. "You are like the twisted love child of Geordi Laforge, Sigfried and Roy and the Terminator. Not that any of that means a thing to you of course. Good show with the large beasty type. Any-who I will be heading over to the infirmary area to see what may be done if there are any injured. I am a surgeon afterall and it is getting dreadfully boring inside my casa on wheels. As I mentioned before the thing is loaded down with missiles and such but neither my brother or myself know how to operate any of the weapon systems. If you wanted to use it as a weapons platform of some sort, maybe dig a big hole and have it facing out or something all GI-Joe like then feel free. I am sure that you know best about those types of things. If any real fighting starts I will return. Oh and if my brother causes any trouble just threaten to call me on the radio and he will settle down. He is a big teddy-bear really. A teddy-bear that could rip all your fancy metal limbs off but a teddy-bear nonetheless."

Feral lands, some 800 ft away, holding the bottle like a baby. Feral begins the trip back to where his brother was standing, running inhumanly fast, with short leaps of 50 ft or so in between. The distance is closed in a few seconds, "Feral love catch. Catch Brothers bottle. Bottle no break, Brother said if bottle break." If Doc is there Feral will hand him the bottle, if he is gone already Feral will place it back on the APC. Feral will then approach Masque, "Brother say metal cat in charge. Metal cat tell Feral what need doing, Feral do."

"at a guess I'd say because the CO was busy....of course no matter how intelligent I am I can't know the thoughts of another based on that alone. However if you just went up and asked him...."

Na-Wa still inside the former APC belonging to the Skull soldiers (Doc and Feral APC) climbs up into the turret to see how it worked.....

He then calls down to the rat thing that remained in the vehicle. “Does Rat Thing know how guns work? Na-Wa think it might be neat to shoot at skull faced soldiers.”

Dyvalis approaches just as the small skirmish is finsihing. He slows his pace with an eyebrow raised, while he judges the first impression of how fourth platoon handles itself.

"Lieutenant Silvermasque? The Major would like you to know we will be engaging enemy forces in the Gun Nest to your rear.  You need to be ready should we need support, or should the men holding up inside flee this direction. Any questions?"

 "I am not sure Major is knowing how to answer Radio." 'Masque comments wryly as he's watching Hagriss, presumably in response to Lotus' request for information from the distant officer... But before he can say more, the Doc saunters over, wrapped in that undefinable air of his own distinct superiority over everything else that ever crawled out of the ocean and thought (in a small, fishy way) 'vertebrate, hell yeh'.

 Turning his head doesn't really do much more for 'Masque than make it seem as though his attention is being directed one way or another, but it's part and parcel of making others more at ease around his augmented form, so he does so to reply to the doctor, though without retracting his offer of aid to the fallen gargoyle. "You are being best judge of own skills, and having medical facilities on-hand will be good, da - I am thinking that once we are having covered passage secured between defensive lines we can be siting facility well back in defences - you will need to be coordinating with other platoons for this." - he does however frown very slightly down at the human-seeming man, making a 'tch' sound before explaining something else.

 "You are maybe being new to playing with others, so I should perhaps be warning you of nasty disease we are having here. Main symptoms are people being compelled to mouth off about how quickly their daddies could beat up other peoples daddies,  and having little tiny dicks." - to demonstrate this last point, one 'little' finger is extended in a 'teeny tiny' way (though frankly, any normal human that well endowed would be perfectly happy - it's all a question of scale). "I am thinking that the best way we can be dealing with this disease is if we all pretend that maybe we are all grown up, and not needing to go around making statements that might provoke the hard of thinking... What is being your medical opinion?"
 Ooooooh... it looks as though the Lieutenant has Opinions about the whole 'he could rip your arms off' thing - though less as a result of ego and more because in a force consisting almost entirely of demons, mercenaries and prima donnas, it just sounds like a good way to provoke a fistfight.

  He does however offer Feral a broad smile as the mutant bounds up alongside, offering him a lower-right hand to shake without any hint of ill-feeling, "Is being good to have you on-team Feral - are you having any especial talents we can be making use of?"

 Before the question can be answered however, the Elven officer comes up from behind and makes his inquiries, and a slightly apologetic 'Masque swings his attention around once more to this latest call upon his time (with no salute, since the other man is also a lieutenant, but with a polite nod, since the man is a HQ platoon regular), "Identity of threat might be useful - at first sign of communication breach I split platoon into three sections and covered perimeter with men in visual range, and right now I am having Firefly squad preparing to entrench - if you can be telling me what sort of support you are likely to be needing, I can probably detach some of my close-combat specialists to go play - I think they could be using the exercise, and they are not likely to be much use in opening phase of battle anyway."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:10, Sun 14 Oct 2007.

"It is Dekker from 5th platoon, and somebody else is with him... an unkown. I will inform Major Karno of your platoons' availability."

Dyvalis speaks rather emotionlessly in response to Silvermasque. But coming from an elven officer such as himself (and in the presence of certain individuals) his lack of feeling may come off as arrogant.

"Splendid." Doc replies regarding the possibitlity of coordinating with othre platoons to set up medical facilities. "How unfortunate for you having been placed in charge of such misanthropes. Personally I have found that the 'hard of thinking' will likely become offended regardless of what you do to placate them. Were it truly a medical problem I would recommend euthanasia. It is lucky for all I suppose that Feral nor myself have a father as it were considering we were created in a laboratory. None of those things are my concern really anyway. Good day sir." Doc leaves to go to the church trying to locate Sarah McKnight and the area that has been set up for triage.

Feral shakes the metal hand and smiles, then begins laughing when Doc speaks. "Feral like when brother use big words." Then Dyvalis shows up, listening to him speak Feral turns back to Masque, "Pointy ears talk funny. Feral good at fight, survive, strong, fast...Feral not big smart like brother. Feral help get Dekker. Dekker bad, Feral get Dekker. Metal Cat want Dekker dead?"

Dyvalis is quick to return to his platoon and turns to walk off towards the gun nest unless he is stopped for any reason.

"if we want someone dead I'm sure Masque will be very clear about that, right?"

Feral looks up at Cannon Fodder as his rumbling voice reaches Ferals keen ears, "Mountain thing talk!" he shouts hopping up and down, the hops covering 15 feet easily into the air,  pointing like a child in a toy store, sheer amazement on his face.

CannonFodder smiles rather broadly, his appearance hasn't made anyone happy in a long time apparently this pleases him.
"Nice to meet you."
His eyes following Feral up and down as he jumps.

Hagriss returns to his feet and brushes any dirt off of his robes, along with any remnants of vomit from his face.

He glares at Silvermasque and nods in repsonse to his question.

Feral still smiles, although less bouncing now, "Feral nice to meet you. Mountain thing big... Feral think mountain thing strong. Mountain thing strong?" he asks genuinely curious.

 'Masque shrugs amiably enough as the 'Doc replies, a low cybernetic chuckle issuing from his speech module as his delicately aimed chastisement flies (rather appropriately) some feet over the medical mans head, and then he turns to shake his head at Feral.

 "Name is Silvermasque, friends and comrades can call me 'Masque." he advises the smaller mutant, before giving the matter a moment of thought, "But I am thinking we would be better having Dekker alive to answer questions, if can be done without losing anyone - but you are only backing up guys trying to put him down. Take Na-wah, stripey-faced guy with sword and..." - a slow grin spreads over his razor-fanged features as he contemplates the pleasant relationship forming between man-mountain and mutant, "Cannon Fodder, you go too... I figure you can cover whole side of building by self if is needing to be done - and failing all else, do not be forgetting that best way to capture man in environment suit is to collapse whole building on head, then dig him out later." - that's added with something of a smile of course, and a thoughtful addition of "But save that for last resort.", since they are, after all meant to be securing this town, not leveling it.

 He then swings back on Hagriss, thoughtfully visoring (well, it's not like he can eye anyone) the tall subdemon before extending a hand, meaningfully. "If you are taking this, you are part of team - we bleed for you, you bleed for us, and if Mephisto acts like ass I will slap him down. Is best offer, I am thinking, that you are going to be getting anytime soon. But is up to you."

Feral nods, in simple understanding. Waiting til Masque is done Feral speaks somewhat meekly for one of his physical presence, "Feral have idea, Masque tell Feral good idea or bad idea," from his tone and posture one would get the feeling Feral hates feeling dumb and is afraid that is what is about to happen, "Man in building," he begins scratching out a rudimentary drawing of a building, "everyone go this way," he indicates ground forces surrounding the building, "Feral and stripey face go this way?" he then indicates that he and Na-Wa could enter from the top. "What masque think?"

"Yes I do possess great Strength, Physically and I like to think Mentally as well. Collapse the building only as a last resort, got it."

Cannon Fodder listens to Ferrals plan.

Hagriss extends his hand to meet Masque's and he returns a smile.

He shakes off his injured pride and stands tall.

 "Well Feral, you and others are only to be providing support. If you are wanting to clear plan for using, I am thinking would be good idea for you to find Lieutenant Dyvalis [That was his name, right?] and find out what is supposed to be happening." replies 'Masque politely enough, as he exchanges what would be a bone-crushing handshake with Hagriss were it not exchanged between two beings able to shrug off (for a given value of shrug) multiple missile hits.

 "Good!" he addresses directly to the Gargoyle once the exchange is concluded, glancing left and right as though to take in the surroundings, "I know that I am not knowing enough about magic to be making best use of your talents, but the better they are used, the more chance you have of surviving battle - along with rest of us. How much are you knowing about what is going on here, and around Tolkeen in general?"

OOC: Na-wa is still inside the APC.....

"I am guessing this place around us is Tolkeen? What world is this?"

 'Masque cheerfully enough accepts the question at face value, and as readily as he enforced discipline, also extends a small helping hand of knowledge to the newest recruit. "As far as I am knowing, this is place called Earth. Tolkeen is being city of magical creatures and mages and all sorts of other misfits that is having provoked big war with massive army of facist technological humans called Coalition. There are being plenty of assholes on both sides, but basic story boils down to the problem that soon - and we do not know how soon, very, very, very many soldiers, robots, tanks, powered armours and all sorts of other things, some with psychic powers, are going to fly over that horizon." - one hand goes up indicatively "With express purpose of using our nipples as target practise."

 Another hand, lower on the same side arcs out to describe the terrain before the settlement, "We are going to be digging in here, soon I am hoping, to throw them back. We are thinking trenches and tunnels, minefields, booby traps, and anything else that we can be thinking in order to buy ourselves time and percentages in the battle against one hell of a lot of black hats, da?"

"My master wanted me to dig... I am an expert of magicks controlling the ground we walk on, and I enjoy taking life, so when these Coalition arrive I shall look forward to killing many of them..."

Hagriss grins sadistically back at Silvermasque.

There is an explosion inside the town, where HQ platoon is taking care of Dekker... Smoke rises from the building...

The sun is setting, as the first day in Madtown finally draws to an end...

Snodgrass calls back to Na-Wa from the cockpit in response to his question.

"I know how to drive it... but not sure 'bout da guns."

Na-Wa scratches his head, and responds to the Rat Thing "OK, I ask other person." he then exits the APC looking for the Big White Metal Cat (Silvermasque) he would have a something for Na-Wa to so.

"maybe someone should check out the cause of that explostion...?"

It was hard not to hear the Big Mountain Thing talk, and Na-Wa too wondered what the big boom was about, and Na-Wa knew that big booms were ushally bad for someone.

Na-Wa then looks around as if he was talking to someone else for a bit. “Oh OK, I tell them.” Then he replies to the Big Mountain Thing’s question.

“Wohn-Ecke say that was just Brodkil that play with his pee-pee alot being blown up.”

"Was he supposed to be blowing up about this time?"
Cannon shrugs as if to ask if it's normal for Brodkil to explode like that at sunset...

   Still separated from her platoon as she made her way towards Major Karno, Lotus was already pissed off.  Being ignored by the Major on the radio didn't help calm her down any.  She thought about something else however and picked up her radio again.
   "Mephisto, this is Lotus.  I require your assistance in casting a protective spell I have only recently learned.  I recall you said you knew it as well.  Where can I meet you?"

   Then Lotus hears the explosion and she looks off in that direction.  Already on board her hovercycle, she presses the button on the handlebar to increase altitude so she can peek over the rooftops and get a look at what is going on.  She waits for the radio report of what is happening to be broadcast...

The night is quickly approaching, as the sun sets on Madtown. Silvermasque stands in front of Hagriss, surrounded by Black Andy, Ikuk, Jomo and Ludo. Doc is near-bye in his APC with Snodgrass.

Nilus is off by the farms setting the mine field along with Gregorious, Payl and DeeVee.

Feral, Na-Wa and Cannon Fodder are returning from the uneventful trip to the gun nest. The traitors were already subdued when they arrived. It appeared one of the brodkil was dead, and the other two were badly injured. One of the traitors lost his head in the fight, the other : Dekker was detained.

Mephisto is presumably at the Rift welcoming more creatures into the war effort... alongside Photios.

Lotus is away on route to the Major.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:49, Mon 22 Oct 2007.

 Winding down for the day is simple enough - calling back the partial patrols puts more or less everyone in front of the newly-minted officer (Save for those who have interviews and suchlike) for a partial debriefing based on the events of the day (which mostly boil down to 'we'll have new communications protocols in place shortly, keep your eyes out for suspicious behavior... well, more suspicious behavior than usual, and make sure your equipment and armour is where you can get into it at a moments notice if you're sleeping).

 That done, it's time to hand out a watch rota (which tends to try to pair up those with natural nightvision and augmented nightvision for the darker watches, relying on normal mortals for the dusk and dawn watches where it also ought to do less damage to their sleeping patterns).

 And with that thought... 'Masque raises his hand to contact the Major by radio (it's a habit more than a need), only to stop half-way there, remembering that the man doesn't answer as a rule, and works down his mental ToO trying to think of someone who might be helpful.

When Masque starts talking about watches Feral pipes up, "Masque. Feral sleep little. Some days Feral no sleep, Feral look, others sleep. Feral watch all time." He offers, hoping to help out in someway since there was nothing for him to kill at the moment.

The night patrol is made up of Jomo, Ludo, Ikuk and Feral.

Lotus, Mephisto, and Photios are still away. while the rest of the platoon rests for the night. Snodgrass struggles to stay awake monitoring the radar of the APC.

The night passes by without incident, and the surise comes quickly...

Fourth Platoon

Merc Lieutenant Silvermasque

Photios
Lotus
Mephisto
Cannon Fodder
Black Andy
Na-Wa
Doc
Feral
Snodgrass

Hagriss

Nilus
Gregorious
Payl
DeeVee
Ikuk
Ludo
Jomo

Dawn sees Andy already awake, his railgun partially disassembled and being tweaked and cleaned, already having performed maintenence on his other weapons. He does this all quickly and meticulously, with the sterilized precision of a surgeon at work.

That being done and his watch already over, he finally allows himself some time to inspect the APC that the brothers and rat came in. He was pretty sure he could figure out the whole thing given about maybe 20-30 minutes inside of it, and planned to ask the brothers to give him ingress to do such, as they already had already expressed the invitation to turn into into the weapons battery it could potentially be.

He tapped his cyber-eye as it fuzzed a bit. He then leaped on top of the APC and proceeded to inspect the external weapons. Chances were his footsteps might rouse the sleepers within, but it was time to get up anyway.

 With the rising of the sun, 'Masque is up and moving around, an old-fashioned square mess tin held in one upper hand whilst the other spoons a carefully-balanced nutritional gloop into his maw, yet a third hand working on one purely psychosomatic itch after another, as the fourth busies itself adjusting the fit of his heavy field armour... A quick check on the guards, then he's off to stand alongside the APC, offering Andy the polite nod of one professional to another as he considers the firepower of the armoured vehicle, compared to its vulnerability.

 "You are having experience with these tin cans?" he asks amiably, 'tinking the outer armoured hull with one toeclaw in a way that wouldn't raise so much as an echo within, what with the protective qualities of modern armoured composites, then leaning against its forward wheel (which actually does cause the whole machine to settle forwards on its suspension about a half-inch or so).

Feral bounds out of nowhere to stand by Masque and Andy, "Masque use big guns? Feral not use big guns. Can't. Masque can? Make big boom." Turning to Andy he adds, "Feral not know this one, what name?"

"Black Andy's my name, and gunfighting is my game." Andy said amiably to Feral before turning to Masque, "Yeah, I got some know-how for these things... and what I don't know I can figger out if given a bit of time. If its a weapon, car, bike, robot, power suit, or bomb I can take it apart, put it back together again, fix it, maintain it, and in certain cases make beneficial modifications."

He glanced at Masque and grinned, "People ain't always needing to be hiring a merc, ye know? Sometimes a mechanic is just that much more valuable to them."

Feral looks confused, "You Black Andy, Andy not Black... why called Black Andy?"

"Hah, ain't the first time I been asked that." Andy chuckled, "Some folk's thought I was a demon around some parts, you know how silly country folk can get. I got called any number of things while they was tryin tah run me outa town, you know, crap like 'Begone ye bastard devil of a witch' and 'Out ye black-hearted witch of a bastard devil. They weren't exactly whatcha call creative, but they had spite. Ain't none of them had nothin bigger than a regular old rifle though... so I weren't exactly budging. I needed supplies and work. 'Ventually they calmed down a bit when I weren't hurtin nobody, but they never trusted me. I stuck around for a while, got to liking a few of 'em, but turns out the others went out and put a bounty on my head, calling me a black demon, or just Black Andy, since this little girl insisted on callin me Andy."

"Had to put a few hotshot pistol-grippers in the ground before people got the clue that I wasn't in the mood to be messed with. Name stuck though..."

 As the smaller mutant does his appearing act, 'Masque nods in response ot the question, nodding his head over to the field-pack from which he drew his armour shortly before, and the pair of massive belt-fed Wellington arms GL-21's laying beside them, as well as the blunt, vent-pierced muzzle of the heavy NG-E12 plasma cannon wrapped in canvas alongside.

 "Like Andy here, I am having something of knack with big guns, da." he agrees, returning the Grackle Tooth's sidelong look with a grin, and then an approving buffet to the shoulder as the other mercenary explains his mechanical qualifications, "But though I am knowing how to drive tin cans like this, I am mostly lost when looking under hood, youbet. Maybe when we are having time, you can be showing me how American tricks with guns are working, then I can be proper cowboy, da?"

 As he's speaking, a heavy silver-metal case is being slipped out of a cybercompartment, and snapped open to reveal about a half-full line of 'Masque-scale hand-rolled cigars, which are offered impartially to the gunman and the mutant, "Here, put hairs on your chest like barbed-wire fence!" he explains, as he similarly produces some long-handled matches.

Andy's grin widened as he accepted one of the cigars, his own snapped in the strap on his hat. He scratched the match across the inside of his own wrist, lighting the cigar up and taking a deep puff.

"Nice." he said as he appreciated the stogey, and then gestured at 'Masques gun collection, "Not bad. I got one of them Wellington launchers as well," he thumbed at one of the rifle-stocks sticking out from his poncho, the rest of the weapon lumpily concealed over his wide back.

"Got myself a nifty railgun off of some native fellers in some mad-cap SAMAS knock-offs... I load it up with 'splosive rounds, and it can chew through one of them suits in maybe two-three volleys."

"Then I gots a missile rifle courtesy of skull-boys in black that we got these barricades up for."

Then he winked and pulled one of the barrels free to reveal a massive hybrid gun that was clearly recognizable as a set of CTT-P40's...

"This heres my baby though. I stripped down a quartet of them P40's them Terror Trooper boys carry, carefully welded together after lining 'em up all nice 'n proper. Wired all the triggering mechanisms together and mounted it on a new stock. Heats up like a bitch when angry, and most people here'd break their back tryin to pick 'er up... but she can blow clean through a deadboy in one shot. I once melted off the face of the skullhead standing behind the one I shot..."

 "I am being big fan of Northern Gun - is true, you can be taking dump down barrel, leave in stump for six months, tap out and will fire good as new." replies 'Masque as he himself selects and lights up a stogie, inhaling the smoke gratefully (with the inaudible whir of one or two gas filter systems being taken offline somewhere deep inside that cavernous chest), "But those Wellington launchers are being kick-ass, youbet. Is nice to have choice of indirect fire when there are so many men in skull hats trying to line up to use nipples for target practice, da?" - and then it's time to appreciate the other mercenaries baby, grinning in bright-and-silver fashion at the cobbled-together monstrosity as a deep chuckle rolls on up into the light, "Must eat through E-clips like son of bitch, but particle beam systems are definitely having punch..."

 Holding up one hand, there's a soft 'shunk-click' as a weapon port in his palm locks open, and he tilts it so that - without ever pointing it at the Grackle tooth, the D-Bee can see the line of focusing coils for a P-beam projector lining the weapon inside, all looking unusually heavy for a cyborg installation - more the sort of thing you'd expect to find on a small combat robot (which is only appropriate), "I had mounts fitted in Asia, longtime back - recently upgraded to local model with more punch, only bulkier... Targeting software is bitch though, having lot of glitches with simultaneous track and fire."

"Yeah, had to keep the e-ports separate, I didn't want to mess around with the energy feed. Everything else was relatively simple in principle, although avoiding thermal bleed-over between the barrels was a real bitch. She loads up 4 energy clips, one for each barrel... but the one good thing those skull-heads did was make this thing fairly energy efficient without losing the kick. Their 40 shots to the clip, so I can keep on blasting for a while before I need to reload the thing." Andy clearly enjoyed talking 'shop' and peered down the angle that 'Masque gave him on his arm-blasters.

"Yeah, looks like yer got some good backups there. Personally I don't mess around with that neural stuff, its a whole different science. Can't fix it since I wouldn't know what was hooking up or re-wiring. I ain't no cyber-doc." he grinned and tapped the one cybernetic eye he had, "I've gotten this thing looked at a few times, since it fuzzes up on me something fierce sometimes. They said it was the difference in my neural network or some crap, 'cause I was a 'D-B' or summin." he took another puff of the cigar, "Still, its better 'n having no eye at all."

"My goddamn brother shot the old one out. Was going to break his skull in, but I hear someone put him down 'fore I could get to him."

Neither the Grackletooth stomping around above or the Cybernetic Tiger knocking and and otherwise jostling the large APC causes Doc to rouse from his slumber. The man is definitely a sound sleeper. Of course Xanax, Soma, Zanaflex and Oxycontin washed down with corn whiskey tends to have that mind numbing, hypotensive, bradycardic, crank down everything but lower brain stem type of effect on a person.

Jomo stands next to  his brothers: Ludo and Ikuk. He looks Silvermasque in visor and tilts his head to one side.

"What are we to do Silvermasque? standing around all morning sipping our tea makes me want to crush heads with bare hands..."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:47, Tue 30 Oct 2007.

"I agree with the orc... give me something to do..."

Hagriss stands with his fists clenched tightly around his the top of his staff, he is growing impatient...

Ferals head tilts to the side as Black Andy speaks, "Black Andy D-B... What D-B?" The hairs on Ferals arm stand a bit as the gargoyle speaks, apparently Feral feels a bit of animosity towards the big ugly thing.

 "Hell with backup - is primary onboard weapons system. I was pulling out missile stowage to make room for auxiliary generators and cooling system just to be sure I could sustain fire." 'Masque replies amiably, before tapping his own visor, "Is definite advantage with this - is original hardware, superior Russian technology... but I am having terrible trouble with jet systems in cold weather and trying to get laser targeting to accept response from auxiliary optics is stone-cold bitch." - he shrugs contentedly enough, "But since alternative was not having arms and legs, I am being pretty happy with alternative - besides, like this I can tie knots in peoples gun barrels."

 That last is added in a cheerful light, and comes with a deep intake of smoke, which he then puffs out after a few minutes of savouring, only to grin at the steady discontent brewing in the ranks. Because it was discontent aimed at him - and that means that people are starting to believe in him as an officer.

 "I am glad that you were asking... First off we are needing breakfast and decent sleeping arrangements. I am guessing that firefly has worked together before, so I will be wanting to know from Nilhus who your best go-getter is, and we can set him on trail. Otherwise, as much as I might want to offer you fight, today we are mostly going to be digging - so tomorrow we don't have to do as much bleeding."

 He nods at the outbound slope from the town, indicating the various places that have been decided upon for strongpoints, foxholes and trenches, "We dig fast, dig deep - mages, especially you Hagriss, we will be needing your help - reinforce where they can, aid work how they can. Anyhow." - he straightens up, letting the APC spring back on its suspension (and completely failing to wake the happily sedated Doc), brushes himself off, "I am thinking that DeeVee can be making start on pegging out our map on ground whilst we are getting fed, then it's time to get working. Anyone have questions?"

Nilus nods along with Silvermasque with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed. Looking away only once to spit at Jomo who was laughing about something and making an annoying snorting sound while trying to hold it in.

Jomo is quiet instantly, and Nilus returns to his listening.

"Right sounds good if I don't say so myself. I have a question actually... well two I suppose. What... exactly is a go-getter? And I am not quite sure what you mean by pegging a map..."

Nilus grins as a natural reaction... if only not to appear confused by Silvermasque's quirky human slang...
This message was last edited by the player at 22:40, Fri 02 Nov 2007.

 Human slang, cyborg slang, Russian slang - is all made on MTV anyhow.

 "Go-getter is person who is knowing how to be getting things unit is needing without necessarily attracting notice of supply sergeants. I am still having no reply from Major, or anyone else I tried to raise, so I am guessing they will not be minding if we are managing own supply chain. Goes without saying, I am thinking, that we should be stopping short of outright theft." - with this explanation (if that's what you want to call it) offered, 'Masque then waves a hand out over the land in front of the town, "I am thinking DeeVee does not need to take time for breakfast, so he can be taking vibro-knife to a few saplings to make pegs, then laying them out where we have decided" - a silver-clawed thumb jerks at the portable computer yesterdays planning was completed on - "to build trenches, bunkers and suchlike - will hopefully mean less confusion when shovels start flying."

"Oooooohhh... well then I am the best go-getter, and the pegs will represent where the mines will be. Ok then. DeeVee does not need breakfast..."

He looks to his artificial intelligence friend from germany and says

"DeeVee use the map we made for the placements of the mine field. Peg out where the mines will be places, one peg for each mine we are setting up."

He looks back up to SilvermasqueWHat exactly are we needing to go-get? I was going to oversee the setting of the mines and setting up some other areas with plastique and the like... just let me know boss..."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:24, Sat 03 Nov 2007.

PM

During the night Doc thinks he may have heard something outside but it is really hard to say. In the midst of drug hazed night terrors he hears lots of things. Real or imagined he pretty much regards them all with the same manner of disdain. Morning finds him twisted up in a knot of sheets on his small bunk his body coated in a thin sheen of cold sweat. Somehow he makes the sad scene of a addict tossing and turning in bed look like something out of a Playgirl centerfold shoot.

PM

Andy glanced at Masque, "Hey, if'n ya got no problem with it, I can take Jomo and one of these others and check out those explosions by the Gun shop. If theres nothin, we'll be back real quick. If there is, then trenches drop a few notches in my priorities list. I'll keep in radio contact. Maybe it got something to do with them Brodkil bastards."

Nilus stops what he is doing to respond before Silvermasque to Black Andy's question. "No. You don't get to take my boys with you. Bring these other goons with you. Feral and Na-Wa look bored as demons in a beauty salan. Take them."

"Suit yerself," Andy shrugged, "'s no problem for me."

 "Not mines, trenches and bunkers - where we are to be digging." explains 'Masque patiently to the Goblin 'sapper', perhaps only a tad surprised that Firefly has limited experience in the gentle art of preparing not to be blown up (as opposed to the ungentle art of blowing things all to heck and back, which he suspects is their forte), "But I am thinking what we are needing to go-get is comfortable accomodation we can secure, rations - you are knowing drill, necessities furst, gucci kit is coming second."

 Andy gets a dour look for a moment - the notion of someone who wants to become scarce when digging rather than shooting is in the offing neither surprising nor particularly dismaying the cyborg mercenary for a moment, but apart from a faint glance at Nihlus (which eloquently conveys the message 'whoever I send with him goes with him, your boys or not, but as it happens I'm not going to grab a couple of them out of pique to 'prove' something because it would make me look like an ass' awfully well coming from someone who was an NCO yesterday and a private soldier a week or so before that) before nodding, "Seems like it would do no harm - if you are running into command staff while you are over there, would be good if you could find out what is wrong with communications. I have not been able to get answer on Radio for some time, but self-tests keep coming up green."

 He thinks for a moment, looking around the slope, and sighing heavily when he admits to himself that digging in is their A-1 prioty, no matter how much he wants to run off and do exciting things like pulling the legs off demons, so it's back around to Black Andy with a nod of approval, "And if you are seeing Lotus, don't let her get hurt, but try not to let her start any fights. Use head, not holsters. Da? - Now if you can scare up Na-Wa and Feral, and think you can keep them on good behaviour, off you go."

 And then? - then it's time to heft a shovel, a vibro-knife and a whooooole lot of string, to make a start on that pegging job with DeeVee whilst the others start waking up, getting equipment together, or chasing mysteries.

Black Andy, Feral and Na-Wa make their way to the gun nest, a few minutes too late it would seem. HQ platoons' Iron Juggernauts : Attila and Khan are standing out front of the half-demolished shop, just as Lotus comes jogging over from a near-by building.

Jelme and Tecumseh from 5th platoon arrive at approximately the same time. It would appear that whatever caused the explosion, it did not go unnoticed... the cause seems to have passed...

Lord Osema and his squad of demons is nowhere to be found.

Feral looks at the big hole in the building as if he is studying it, and he is in a fashion, "Feral think big boom made hole in building, Feral wonder...what make big boom?" He seems pleased with his deductive logic.

CannonFodder rubs his forhead
with all the explosions in town being the norm he isn't sure if this is odd or not but he can't help but wonder how many traitors there are in town.

Nilus looking back up at Silvermasque replies "Ok... you want me to find food and aplace to sleep...? and what is a gucci kit?

He raises a hand to speak again after Silvermasque tells him his boys could be selected for anything... but the goblin chooses to to press the matter at this moment. He instead proceeds to make sure all of his boys are awake and ready to work.

Within ten minutes, the entire FireFly team is ready.

 Actually, that particular message was conveyed entirely in a look - it was only conveyed in a look because mouthing off is a sign of insecurity, and insecurity in an officer is roughly equivalent to handing a competent NCO the keys to the stores and the safe and taking a long nap.

 But in essence everything seems well enough, despite the spattering of desperate and shocked communications on the radio that - on the whole - don't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense.
 Still, maybe Karno or one of his aides will figure out how to work a radio or send a runner in time to give some orders on the matter, stranger things have happened.

 "Gucci kit... is being better, faster, stronger, lighter than issue - or doing things we do not have issue kit for. When bayonet for stabbing is standard issue, Gucci bayonet is one that also opens bottles and cuts wire, or has survival kit in handle. You are seeing?"
 Of course, the term is one that would be instantly familiar to the soldiers in several European armed forces prior to the Rifts, having been spread far and wide by the British squaddie in his eternal quest for equipment that, not having been through MOD procurement, might actually work for one whole deployment without failing, falling apart, melting or catching fire. How precisely it ended up in the slang store of a large and well-travelled Russian cyborg a couple of centuries later would probably make a good book, if anyone was writing them.

Nilus ushers his boys off to do what it is Firefly Squad was hired for. Nilu snods to Silvermasque acknowledging he understands, but the newly appointed merc Lieutenant gets the distinct impression the goblin may not fully understand... perhaps it is a language barrier... or perhaps one of them is challenged in some way.

Black Andy, Feral and Na-Wa stand outside of the Gun Nest. The demons are gone, as are the members of HQ platoon. Lotus is nowhere in sight. But there is an obvious battle going on in the sky above the north quarter of town between an escaping hovercycle and three iron juggernauts.

OOC - The events of last night. If they effect anybody else... we will just pause the "next morning" progression of things temporarily. I assumed it would be over quickly and quietly... I was wrong. But I doubt the event will interrupt the remaining members of 4th platoon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:19, Tue 13 Nov 2007.

 [ No problem... I can only speak for myself of course, but if 'Masque has anything to say about it the next couple of days are going to be pretty dull out here on the Fourth Platoon stretch of the trenches. We'll be digging in as we talked over with trenches, tunnels and foxholes, emplacing mines and of course - every bit as important (if not more important) breaking down the two platoons into pairs and threes (different pairs and threes on different days) for basic exercises and training - so that everyone in the next few days has done some limited work with everyone else and knows roughly what they can do.

 I'll be keeping records of our progress, maintaining watch rotas, digging a hell of a lot and putting out fires as and when they erupt - oh, and waiting on someone, anyone from the chain of command to actually answer any of the messages I've sent out... It seems it's not just Zor who's too good to talk to his subordinates, the problem's endemic. ^_- ]

OOC - I believe the last person you contacted on the radio was Xion. Xion is one of the lieutenants on 1st platoon. He is third in command over there. Granted he should have responded... but the player probably missed the post. Fortunaely he has a character in this platoon as well, and can see this as a note to check the radio thread for a post from Masque'.

 [ Hmmm, well on the Radio we've the attempt to contact Xion (though since it was a barracks assignment request I imagine that could have been picked up from anyone on the HQ staff), way back before that I asked for inventory on equipment or resources to work with, and of course I never did get that reply from Karno on my request for a private interview. Then there's the courier I sent out with comm's protocols - with the exception of explosions and firefights in the rest of town, Third is operating in an almost total information blackout. ^_^ ]

[ heh... yeah... I'll try to fix that... also, Masque belongs to 4th platoon now, not third... full of NPCs now.]

 [ Heh, in a day or so if I don't hear anything better I'll probably go looking for someone, but what we laughingly call the chain of command seems to be too busy panicking and putting down riots at the moment for me to want to do much more IC than tidy up, get a lot of work down and embarass everyone with how good Fourth Platoon are. ^_^ ]

[don't worry about the comm protocol... it is far too much hassle to bother roleplaying what an established military would already have in use. I mentioned before somewhere to just assume everybody is using "proper" procedures.]

 With the sudden pickup in radio traffic, 'Masque perks up slightly from his mundane tasks and muses for a moment before performing a quick battlefield reassignment by the simple expedient of looking around and spotting Cannon Fodder.
 And again, as much as the big 'borg wants to be in on the action, there are more important things to be done - and it's sort of abusive to be pinching the exciting roles for himself whilst leaving his men to dig ditches.

 "Hey... be doing favour please - head on over to Gun Nest, where explosion took place. Tell Andy to take boys over to secret passage at church, look for Corporal Van, he is having some things for you to be doing maybe."

[ bah! this demon problem is taking over all the platoons. Sorry for the confusion again... but consider this thread back on the overnight shift. It is shortly after midnight when Silvermasque made his last post. Masque - were you asking Cannon Fodder to go find Black Andy? ]

 ---

 OOC.

 Gah.

 Alright. Overnight, the squad basically will have kicked in the door to a couple of abandoned (evacuated) houses if we could find any (or picked the lock) rather than sleep in the open or under canvas, since no other arrangements have been made. 'Masque will pin little 'requisition' notes 'redeemable from Tolkeen' to the wall. Good luck getting those honoured.

 There'll be the usual rotating watch through the night as you'd expect, and when all hell breaks loose with gunfire and explosions, the platoon will stand-to (resting, but in armour and with weapons). When orders fail to come through to do anything at all, one half will stand down (armour off, weapons to hand, sleeping), one half will remain 'ready' and on guard - by amazing convenience, those will just happen to be our otherwise bored PC's.

 That's why I sent off a giant walking boulder to tell the others what to do 'cause I want to throw as much RP players way as I can. So yes - most of the NPC's are asleep, a couple are on guard duty and five PC's are wandering over to meet with Van, as per orders. 'Masque is staying on-station because they only asked for five, and it's a bit pants of me to use my 'authority' (hah) to get RP and leave someone else to sit around with their thumb up their ass.

 Now let's get this over with. ^_^

 ---

"I will take care of things here Masque."

The goblin folds his arms across his chest and glares out over the remaining members of 4th platoon.

"The rest of you watch the lines."

Nilus looks up at Masque and grins sadistically.

 The oversized 'cyborg makes a fairly convincing yawn, servomotors humming softly as one by one he rotates each of his four massive arms, flexes joints that have been immobile in the evening chill for the past few hours... "Karno is wanting four men to do what Van is telling them." he replies to the far smaller Goblin, settling down alongside him and watching the distant treeline through one, then another frequency of light.

 "Black Andy, Na-wa and Feral are already poking around explosion, Fodder is making four - I would not want to be confusing poor major, you know officers are not being brightest people in whole world, da." he adds with a soft chuckle, before stretching over to snag his field pack and draw from it the massive hunk of ceramic and polymer that's his NG plasma cannon. A couple of moments entirely innapropriate adjusting of the cooling shroud later and he thumbs the self-test switch to bring the powerful energy cannon online, then violates a half-dozen safety regulations by putting a thin-walled metal canteen (top unscrewed) into the space between shroud and barrel, then wedging it against a wall as he reaches for a sachet of ration-pack coffee and some sweetner, "You are having mug?" he asks his NCO, as the soft sound of bubbling water adds itself to the muted thrumming of low-powered plasma cycles gradually bringing it up to boiling point.

"Aye, Sir."

after the simple reply, Cannon takes to the air and flys toward the direction of the previous explosion landing as gracefully as a Gargoyle the size of a small Mountain can he looks about for Black Andy or the others.

Na-Wa sees the Big Mountain Thing flying near them, N-Wa is somewhat perplexed how Big Mountain Thing arrived so quietly. Na-Wa knew he wasn’t smart, but he did know that big things were supposed to make a lot of noise when moving.

Of course, and as usually Won-Ecke is on hand to explain things to Na-Wa with his mind talk.



“Ok, Won-Ecke says we should go ride the Big Mountain Thing to get where we go next.”

Feral shrugs, "Big Mountain thing called Cannon Fodder, Feral think. Feral ride Cannon Fodder to next place if he faster. Feral fast though. Carry Na-wa if need to." Pausing and turning to Black Andy, "What Black Andy think best plan?"

"Sounds good with me, if Fodder here don't mind us hanging on to 'im like a bad case of fleas..."

"No I don't mind you all seem pretty nice, alright everybody get onboard and hang on ok?"

CannonFodder lets them all get on and makes sure no one is holding on too tightly to anything too sensitive then takes off to deliver his group to the destination.

"Find anything out so far?"

[ Cannon Fodder, Black Andy, Na-Wa and Feral all have access to the Graveyard teams' thread. ]

 [ It would also be nice if 'Masque had access to a reply from Nyloque during his lonely vigil. ^_- ]

Nilus is reminded of his brother Niloque and the times like these they spent together back in their homeworld. Too bad his brother was turned inside out when he arrived on "Earth".

The goblin pulls out a small skull with the holes plugged that he intends on using as a cup, and holds it out.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:26, Mon 26 Nov 2007.

 [ Nilus, Nyloque, it's been so long since I posted I forget readily. ^_- ]

 "Cute." 'Masque states as the skull is extended and he fishes the canteen out of the plasma cannon shroud, then clicks the self test 'off' before pouring out a measure of coffee into the skull and an old-fashioned issue cup from his pack, followed by steaming-hot water.

 A little foaming happens as various chemicals in the rat-pack coffee make sure the water is pure, sweet and caffeinated before more than a few seconds have passed, then 'Masque settles in against the wall, shielding the cup with two hands to keep it's thermal signature from being too obvious as he flicks idly from one vision mode to the next and monitors the nascent 'killing field' in front of the Fourth Platoon positions.

 "You fought in large-scale actions before?" he asks of his diminutive companion.

"Too many..." was all he responded with.

 Despite the unexpressive and somewhat monosyllabolic nature of his companion, 'Masque seems to take the answer in the spirit it's given - it's too early in the morning (or late in the night) for deep and painful conversation, particularly between two men (more or less) who were strangers this time yesterday.

 "Is hard, but good to know. I need to be counting on your team to have discipline, to back one another up, to know when to pull back and when to push forwards." he states, glancing sidelong at the small goblin, before lifting his mug and sipping from it almost daintily, refreshing the few remaining pounds of human flesh within his titanic frame, "I think you are knowing like I am what piss-poor bunch we are having otherwise."

Nilus drinks the coffee without the slightest attempt to cool it, and swigs it without difficulty. "I have fought in many, along with Payl and Gregorious. The orcs are children, amazed with your technology. DeeVee is a purchase I made from a Triax arms dealer in Kingsdale. My team is ready and able I assure you. It is Cannon Fodder and that vile Mystic Knight I am not sure about."

Nilus sits calmly staring out over the men of the platoon. Small drops of mucus drip from the end of his nose into his coffee. Nilus continues to drink in any event.

 "Fodder is big-ass target, to be sure. I am thinking to keep him in air defense role, back in settlement... If he is raising head, I am not thinking it will stay attached." 'Masque replies, hot coffee trickling back down a throat that leads to multiple filter systems before it ever touches a few sparse cells of surviving organic material, "Lotus is good fighter, but does not understand how to be soldier. I am going to have to have words with her."

 He shrugs again, those multiple shoulders rising and falling in an expressively helpless fashion, "I do not think that Na-wa will survive long in battle, and Feral is too impressed with own power to realise how fast he will go down if he is not careful... I thought maybe Andy would be good influence, perhaps NCO material until I saw weapon he wants to try to use in close urban fighting." - a soft, mournful sigh follows at the thought of anyone not the size of a Gargoyle trying to use a five-foot high, eight-foot long, four-foot wide combi-weapon in an urban firefight. "Photios seems to have head screwed on good and tight for mage though, and I am hoping Hagriss will settle in once he knows that we will back him up or put him down depending on his behaviour - you can't be weak with demons, but only fool treats comrades in battle like slaves."

Nilus smiles and nods along as he struggles to understand the Russian tweak to Silvermasque's english. It has taken the goblin a long time to finally master the english language from North America...

"I'm sure Lotus is a good fighter... most likely because she is a cut-throat murderer no better than the demons. Hagriss is never to be trusted. Not for a moment. Such beings are kept as slaves as victims to mind control becuase they serve no purpose in a world without chaos."

 Whereas 'Masque never seems to have bothered - he continues to think in his natural language and handles translation on an ad-hoc basis whenever trying to wrap his thoughts up in a thin English shell... But he seems to get his point across most of the time.

 "I have not heard much good of Mystic Knights, is true." he concedes, focussing his powerful cybernetic sensors on a random motion in the treeline for a few moments before returning to wide-band observation, "Hagriss though... I am not liking Gargoyles - have been fighting too many, too often, but I will give him fair shake of stick, then shut him down if he is misbehaving." - the large 'Borg makes a hands-open gesture of helplessness, "Is not enough time to be properly turning squad into proper team, so we shall be having to do what we can. Biggest thing I am worried about is losing communications during fight. I am thinking we are needing wire of some sort, maybe optical, to be keeping bunkers in touch."

"Demons are never to be trusted... ever... waiting for them to misbehave is how you get killed methinks."

Nilus raises his hairless brow as Silvermasque mentions the communications idea.

"I don't know anything about communication wires and optics. But we have been fighting with Tolkeen since near the beginning, and we are not dead yet. Haven't lost a single one."

 "Is maybe true, but I cannot be affording to lose another gun - even if is magic gun - at this stage. I have to hope one public beating is enough to keep him in line and sleep with one eye open, da?" - as he speaks, the large 'borg reaches up to tap one silver-clawed finger rather meaningfully on his single visible visorlike optic pickup.

 The statement that Firefly has yet to lose a man doesn't seem to cheer him noticably however - there's something quintessential about the Russian character that leads them to enjoy a good morose mood from time to time, and this seems to be one of those times, "Your men are knowing who is boss, and I think are working together well. I am only hoping we are having time to hammer similar degree of good sense into Fourth Platoon."

Nilus forces a cough and spits on the dirt at his feet. "Think what you will about demons... but I know better methinks..."

Nilus watches out over his men who are sleeping. Except for DeeVee and Ikuk. Ikuk, being a mega-juicer needs very little sleep, and DeeVee... well he is a robot.

Nilus glares at Ikuk as he stops assisting DeeVee to pick a large scab off his shoulder. Ikuk quickly rips it off and continues working with DeeVee.

 'Masque snorts wryly and knocks back another slug of coffee, swirling the cup for a moment to dissolve any remaining powder as he answers, "I am not having much experience with demons on own side, is true. Where I am coming from, am doing most discussion with them over gunsight." - were he not ninety percent and more metal, this is probably the point where he too would turn his head and spit expressively - "Is not something I am happy with, youbet."

 Looking for something to do whilst the team is working, 'Masque leans back and reaches out to his pack, from which he draws a mid-sized ammunition case and an empty Wellington Arms grenade drum, then sets himself to transferring rounds from case to clip for later expenditure, "If you are not minding my asking, how were you getting into mercenary work?"

The goblin ignores the question, and digs one of his boots into the dirt at his feet. It is clear that he is avoiding the question.

Na-Wa, Cannon Fodder, Black Andy and Feral all return several hours before sunrise.

Feral is barely concsious and is delivered to the APC to rest by McKnight and Ahnaka. He is covered in plasma burns, but his healing efect has already significantly repaired much of his lost flesh.

The others are back without a scratch except for Na-Wa who was shot once or twice in the back.

Lotus wanders back as well, without her sword, her bow or her helmet...
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Sat 15 Dec 2007.

Na-Wa feeling tired after being up most of the night goes and finds a place to go to sleep.

Once the sun has risen he goes to find someplace to fix the two big dents in his armor created from a pair of rail gun rounds that struck him the night before.

 'Masque gives his diminutive sidekick a wry lift of the entirely synthetic eyebrow that's mounted above his impassive visor, but doesn't pry - one of the first rules of successful mercenary work is to know when to let things drop, and when to dig deeper.

 Several hours pass however, and the fact that Feral is delivered in an extremely battered condition but essentially alive seems to cheer 'Masque somewhat, because he has some slight hope that it will represent an educational experience for the bestial mercenary, whilst Lotus' condition causes him to rise and move over to the group...

 "Firefly and others who held ground have watch, you folks grab what sleep you can." he advises most of them, before singling out the slender Mystic knight and catching her eye, before jerking a thumb off to one side of the main group, between the Biltimore Hotel and the Five Brothers restraunt, "I am thinking we could be having word." he states simply.

Feral remains silent, not even groaning, knowing his brother may be trying to sleep he does his best to stay quiet and rest.

Doc does wake up and he is pissed for a number of reasons the least of which is that he was woken up. He bites off a venomous comment comparing McKnight to a glorified EMT and instead simply says, "I will take it from here." delivered in such a way that it makes McKnight and Ahnaka flinch and back out of the APC. He considers chastising Feral as well but he can see the pain his brother is in. At this range he can actually feel it mingling in with the constant nagging pain he lives with daily. "Feral we are going to have to be very careful around here. Things are far more dangerous that they were at home. Lay your head down and rest brother I will take care of it."

Ferals pain disappears as simply as if a switch turned it off and then a calming warmth washes over him followed shortly by a deep and peaceful sleep. When he wakes later that day his body is as good as new. Not even an ache, stiffness or bruise to show that he was at ground zero for the detonation of three heavy fusion blocks. Doc lays in his bunk across the way a pair of sleeping blinders on and an empty bottle clutched to his chest. He looks pretty strung out, which is to say most women would say "ahh poor thing." before hopping into the sack with him.

Feral sits upright, faster than one who had been nearly killed a few hours before should be able to, and immediately see his brother and calms down. Feral is careful not to make any noise as he takes the empty bottle from his brother and places it on a counter, gently pulling some blankets over Doc, Feral exits the APC and begins helping out with whatever manual labor needs done.

Black Andy finds a place to lean his head back by the APC, so he does not forget to figure out the workings of it when he wakes up.

The Fire Fly Squad hold the lines, while Hagriss continues to work on trenches.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:54, Thu 20 Dec 2007.

Nilus nods to Silvermasque, in an attempt to show him he needs to speak with him when he is done. He then takes the Fire Fly truck out with DeeVee and begins laying the minefield where it was mapped out last night.

The mutant rat leaves the APC and stares at Black ANdy for a moment when he sees the creature sleeping by their APC.

Snodgrass stretches and cracks most of the bones in his body, then hunches over again and makes his way over to the members of Fire Fly Squad to help out with the days' work.

Mephisto and Photios return to the lines just after noon. Just in time to see the small army on its way from the south. At no more than 100 in total, half mounted cavalry the other half on foot.

Some of the soldiers are far too large to be humans, and are definitely not Coalition.

They will arrive in 2nd Platoons' area of defense, but they will soon be within weapons range of 4th platoon as well.

Photios returns, a small globe of glowing energy flickering behind him, the strangely dressed mage making his way back over to the bulk of the Platoon. Glancing about for their 'fearless leader' and not noticing the large cyborg anywhere he catches the attention of the nearest mercenary, a furred looking creature, "Where's Silvermasque, and whats the intel on that approaching force?"

 'Masque is currently standing just off to one side of the main group as they return to their positions. Unfortunately 'currently' is 'just after sunrise', a time that it's likely to remain for him until such time as Lotus responds in some way to the new-minted officer.

 After which, he has a brief meeting with Nyloque scheduled for just after dawn, and between nine and ten he's thinking of perhaps heading over to talk to Van. After which he'll be available in the 'currently' that the approaching force is occupying.

 Currently.

 Ahem.

The huge MountainGargoyle rubs his chin as he looks out at the approaching force.
"Interestig, and what has fate brought us this day good fortune, or bad?"

Feral looks at Photios like he just killed his favorite pet, "Masque busy. Masque work on officer things. Feral not know Intel... what intel is?"

Dimitri spots the quite conspicuous Borg who's been given the lead over the mercenaries and then nods to Feral, "Thank you for the help. Intel is just a fancy way of saying 'what do you know'."

He bows his head to the fellow and makes his way over to Silvermasque, slipping on his samurai helm though leaving off the stylized face mask. Catching the White Tiger's attention, "We got any intel on the approaching force, or should we be slowing them down?"

 Lotus is apparently far too tired to speak... or something... for several hours, and so 'Masque goes back to doing whatever it was he's been doing since all the gunfire and excitement started (or possibly getting some sleep), until morning rolls around and he can jog out to discover what Nilus is after.

 That probably won't take too long and by mid-day, most of Pluto company has been introduced to the joy and wonder of digging. Lots of digging - the more you dig, the less you bleed as the big 'Borg puts it. From emplying a post-holer to make tripholes in front of defensive positions to cutting and trimming the trees that will be used to 'reinforce' and roof firing positions, even the most supernaturally powerful characters are going to have been kept busy.

 No exceptions.

 This means you.

 Well, possibly except for Feral and Doc, who are still a bit of a mystery to 'Masque, having turned up the day before 'to help you' and never really explained why or how (though in their defence, there were missiles happening at the time).

 Come mid-day however the new-minted officer has spent a half-hour or so over at the workshop talking to the technowizard Van (during which time Nilus was in charge, God help you all) before heading back in good time for Photios to ask his question.

 "You are having as good an idea as I am having, but I am thinking we are tooling up, digging in and not being first ones to start trouble. Is always easier to start shooting than to stop, youbet." the big mercenary states thoughtfully, before turning to crank up his volume a notch and call out to the rest of Fourth Platoon. "Incoming forces from south, we are not knowing if friend or foe yet - please to be having weapons to hand and hole to dive into nearby. Do not be firing unless told to or fired upon, da?"

PM
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:38, Sun 23 Dec 2007.

Mephisto arrives alongside Photios with an identical sphere of energy. Along with a Deevil marching along behind him.

Some would recognize this beast as To'ra'On, the creature Mephisto summoned back in Izmit.

"I heard that little puke Osema got himself killed is this true?"

He meets teh gaze of Hagriss, and waves him over. The gargoyle and deevil are obviously staring each other down. Either of them looks as though they could pounce any second.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:03, Sun 23 Dec 2007.

 PM, from a few hours 'ago'

PM

 Another of them PM's - do notify us if anyone has Augmented Hearing and is maneuvering into a position to eavesdrop. I promise no ninjas. ^_^

PM

 PM

PM

 PM

PM

]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Thu 27 Dec 2007.

OOC Feral is around and has enhanced hearing, as per the super power. He is working with the others in the platoon though so he may be out of ear shot... up to you guys

 PM('s)

Mephisto calls over to Lotus as she walks away from Silvermasque.

"I see you made it out alive. But without your weapons and your big scary helmet... Forced to flee without them perhaps?"

The shifter grins watching Lotus' face... no longer hidden by the mask.

Hagriss watches Lotus to see how she reacts. He already didn't like the human bitch... but at least she had courage...

Unless the mystic knight does something violent he will return to digging trenches and tunnels across 4th platoons' field. Working with Nilus and his squad to compliment the explosives.

The deevil stands tall behind Mephisto glaring at Lotus. He has met her before, but has had no reason to kill her. Unless his master wishes it...

He salivates at the thought of human flesh...
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Fri 28 Dec 2007.

Lieutenant Portia Lynn, Lieutenant Drano Pierce and Sergeant Dresteran seem to teleport in front of the demon horde and approach their leaders to begin talking.

Only a few seconds have passed and nobody has been killed yet...

CannonFodder watches the demon army carefully, particularly the Bal-Rog.. looks almost like a relative...

After just a few seconds of talk, Portia, Drano and Dresteran turn and walk away - then disappear as suddenly as they had arrived.

The demon leaders then continue their advancement and move into the near-by farms and barnsteads. They start unpacking, and preparing food and drinking... most likely some sort of intoxicant.

No more than 5 minutes later, Major Karno, Lieutenant Dyvalis, Sergenat Razgriz and Sergeant Aristotle head out to the barns to meet the demons for themselves.

Their cheers and noise can be heard all the way in town.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:55, Mon 31 Dec 2007.

The meeting with the demons is over quickly and it is time for 4th platoon to return to work. Hagriss manipulates the earth and digs gargoyle-sized trenches facing outwards from the town with multiple firing positions and underground tunnels connecting the trenches and the bunnkers the gargoyle creates out of the earth itself. Mephisto's summoned gargoyle is proving to be most helpful.

Silvermasque leaves presumably to meet with Van from 1st platoon.


Mephisto discusses the plan Zephram used on the prisoner transports before he was killed. The quicksand used above caverns, that sink Coalition vehicles, then drop them into an unescapable cavern underground. And after dealing with Nilus they come up with the idea to place explosives under weakened areas of ground where the Coalition is expected to pass over, where pit traps for vehicles could be controlled by remote detonators.

Cannon Fodder uses a tree to dig dozens of foxholes scattered throughout 4th platoons position of defense.

Lotus, To'Ra'on, Snodgrass, Feral, Na-Wa, Photios, and Black Andy prepare trees and furniture into support structure for the tunnels and trenches.

Nilus and his squad prepare several minefields, and rig a few of the abandoned buildings and vehicles with explosives set to remote, along with the bunkers, and trenches for after they fall back. And the underground caverns by the end of the day. Their mines are spread thin, and all of their plastique is put to good use.

 'Masque of course went to see Van prior to the arrival of the demon host, but apart from that things spin outmore or less as expected.

 The gargoyle's work receives its fair share of Kudos, as does that of everyone else, with 'Masque putting his inhuman muscles to work entrenching, cutting turf (because a bunker covered in grass attracts less fire than a visible scar on the ground), preparing fuel and heaters (nothing like false thermal signatures to confuse enemy planning) and generally attending to the thousand and one details that need to be looked into if Fourth Platoon and its supporting forces are going to last six seconds in a firefight with the Coalition Army. He makes mistakes of course, and misses the odd detail - he's as new to the officer side of things as most of the squad are to full-on planned warfare, but he generally manages to make up for things as and when they become apparent.

 Any good idea is of course promptly snagged, expanded on and worked into the defences, whilst 'Masque's personal stash of explosives is eked out for two tasks - providing a big stash of short metal stakes containing 'instant foxholes' (a shaped charge you ram into the ground, detonate and then jump into the hole thus made) and giving the boys of Firefly some more bang for their buck.

 Tomorrow, it'll be time to work on the (mostly) human element of things.

Cannon Fodder busily creates foxholes for his smaller companions with his 'entrenching tool' (sharpened tree) and finds the time to make a bit of small talk with the Gargoyle, or at least to attempt it.

"So, are your talents with the Earth totally natural or did you have to work at them?"

When Hagriss takes a break from his concentration with digging magically, the large Adarok speaks to him. He looks up to Cannon Fodder and ponders his response.

"Do you legitimately care how I came across my abilities, or are you trying to be my friend? Or are you just so bored with preparing to die that you feel the need to speak pointlessy simply to break silence. I will state the obvious... I don't give a fuck about you or your friends. I would slit your throat in the night, if I had a blade big enough and was free of your accomplices control over my free will. Shut the fuck up and keep digging, and perhaps we will meet again in the underworld... should be plenty of time to converse when we are dead."

Hagriss snorts some fluid behind his beak and continues to control the Earth.

"OK, sorry to bother you."

Cannon Fodder goes back to stabbing foxholes into the ground

Mephisto makes another trip to teh ley line after dinner and returns a few hours later in the evening, before the platoon would have to bunk again inside the womans' club building with no male washrooms. (frequent trips across the street to "The Bunker".

When he does return he makes his way to Silvermasque to report... for the first time since the borg' took command...

"I have made 40 scrolls containing the spell "Invincible armour".  Each man can get 2, they last for 18 minutes each if the armour is not brought down before the duration. The armour will appear as a shimmering suit of ancient medieval armour. The armour is twice as good as standard body armour and is created on top of regular armour. It is fully environmental, and is highly resistant to energy attacks. It will also absorb extra damage after the armour fails. Even if the town is nuked - our platoon will be left standing."

The scrolls are divided up and each member of 4th platoon gets 2 scrolls, except Silvermasque and Nilus who get 4 each. Night comes and the watch team goes on duty, the other half of the platoon catches sleep.

Cannon Fodder spends the last chunk of the day with 1st platoon assisting them with more digging of foxholes until night fall.

In the morning the platoon gathers for a briefing before returning to work. Around mid-day another large group of people come into sight from the south. Most are civilians, but there are many warriors with them. At least 2500 in total.

They are met by Major Karno and brought into the city, past the demon horde which has spread out in groups of 4 to create a perimeter around the town. Several are using the outer trenches and foxholes made by 4th platoon. The Raksasha is positioned nearby.

The civilians are from the Town of Salvation to the south. They are too close to Madtown to ignore the invasion, so they have come to fight and die alongside Madtown. Approximately 180 militia are joining forces with Pluto Company, splitting into 2 groups of 25, and 5 groups of 26 and splitting up among the platoons.

4th platoon receives a group of 26 militia men, mostly human mages and riflemen, led by a Larmac named Kutula Conn.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:16, Sun 06 Jan 2008.

 Mephisto is greeted to a supportive and friendly buffet on the shoulder as the fragile-seeming pieces of paper are handed over, 'Masque examining his with a decidedly doubtful air, but having seen plenty enough of the sort of power that a mage can wield in the past week or two he's willing to give them a try, "Is exactly sort of thing we are needing. I know we are not always having seen eye-to-visor in past, but I am being glad to have on team, youbet!" he declares.

 And then it's suddenly dark and time to switch out watches for a morning that comes with the shocking speed of a night that follows a day of hard work and the very welcome arrival of Kutula Conn's militiamen, whom 'Masque moves out to brief cheerfully.

 "Is being good to see you - we are having plenty of space for you to dig in. Fortunately demonspawn are dug into outer trenches so we will be putting you in second line to thicken defensive fire." - as he speaks, he's looking over the equipment and armour of the men, here and there extending a hand to examine one rifle or another, paying particular attention to their care and upkeep, "You will be pleased to know we are also having retreat and support plans, as well as places to fall back on in case of serious trouble - If we do our job, shoot straight and stay smart, we have good chance of coming out of this with all precious parts still attached."

 Reassuring, what?

The larmac stands at attention in front of Silvermasque and listens to what he has to say.

"I am Kutula Conn... you are a Merc Sergeant? Just tell us where to shoot..."

The militia are dressed in plate armour, lots of bushman suits... very few helmets. They are armed with Northern Gun pistols and old Coalition Rifles. Each man has several grenades and other necessary gear. Also half of them are clearly mages.

Kutula makes a hand gesture while looking at one of his sergeants, and half of Salvations' men jog out to the trenches behind the Demon Horde.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Mon 07 Jan 2008.