Reginald looks at the sheriff and smiles his horrid smile, "Hold your tongue and mind your business civilian."

"technically it is his business, public property and all..."

Reginald doesn't turn immediately to face Cannon, simply aiming an arm in his direction and extending his middle finger. Then slowly he turns, "Look big guy, I am sure Tolkeen isn't paying you to hold the sheriffs hand, so guy find your Lt. and piss off, before something bad happens."

The entire company eventually makes their way to the area in front of the church. Major Karno and Captain Shira stand at the stairs looking down on everybody else. The lieutenants are in front of the masses, right at the bottom of the steps, as they know they cannot afford to miss anything being said.

The Major appears as though he is about to speak, but instead he hesitates and looks over his men again.

"Where is Sergeant Jack?"

After hearing no reply for a few seconds Zor repeats the question regarding Jack.

"Where is Sergeant Jack?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:59, Mon 24 Dec 2007.

"Probably at the local schoolhouse educating the kiddies on the finer points of cornholing."

Cannon Fodder shrugs
"Haven't seen him, Sir"

"Heh, heh... yeah... cornholing... heh heh..."

'Masque is standing off to one side during most of these proceedings, being rather more involved in the smaller briefing of third platoon with Xion and Drake than most, since the oversized cyborg actually has the training and experience to offer opinions and then, if given the nod, to turn some of them into reality.

 Since things are more than a little chaotic however, he's happy enough to turn to when the main event begins, sighing a heavy, electronic sigh at the antics of the demon force (and musing idly over how entertaining it would have been to run a few terawatts of electricity through the door at the most inconvenient possible time - which if it had been a Christian church he'd probably have done).

Portia arrives shortly after finishing her conversation with Dyvalis. With the exception of slightly flushed cheeks she looks much the same as she normally does. She moves over to where most of Secon Platoon seems to be gathered and waits to hear what is going on.

The massive thornhead demon looks to Portia as she arrives, and bows slightly.

"Welcome master... the major is about to begin..."

As more people file in, The sheriffs' militia is growing in size. They arrive in small groups, armed and seemingly ready for conflict. The militia has swelled to 50-60 mostly human, but many are greot, D'Norr, grackle teeth and other warrior type d-bees common to the area.

Several Noli Bushmen push their way through the crowd followed by a small army (approximately 40) of large d-bees and psi-stalkers. One of the Noli, an older one steps forward to speak.

"We are from Boone's farm. We aren't leaving without a fight... so we figure we may as well join the lot of you and do this thing right."

"Glad to have you aboard. There is no time left to wonder if they are coming... it is a countdown now..."

The mayor walks up the church steps to join Shira and Karno at the top. He nods to both of them, and says "I have something to say once you are finished Major."

"Let's get on with this meeting! They will invade before we are finished!"

Red Talon and Thresha laugh among themselves.

Oksana arrives alongside Calliandra, landing thirty or so feet away from anyone to avoid hitting innocent bystanders with her wings.  She steps out of the two-inch-deep foot prints she made in the asphalt and walks over to her SAMAS-pilotting friend.  Her intricate wings of metal once again retract themselves to a more manageable size on her back.  The silver-skinned mutant gasps with disgust at the actions of Osema and the other demons and she looks arounnd for any sign that someone is going to do something about it.  Seeing no one lifting a finger, she calms slightly, understanding that this is somehow tolerated behaviour.
   "Why oh why do they work with those monsters?!" Oksana whispers to Callie beside her.  "They're worse than the fucking skullheads..."
   Oksana doesn't take any action except to sneer in anger and disgust at the demons from a long distance across the gathering in front of the church.  "I've never tested my metal skin against demons before..."
   When it is mentioned that Jack is missing, Oksana looks all around the gathered troops as most everyone else would be doing as well.  She doesn't see him anywhere and Oksana starts to get a little anxious.  "What could have happened to him?" Oksana asks aloud.

Lotus was standing around casually at the gathering until Karno mentioned Jack was missing.  It was at this point that she too looked arounnd for him, but only briefly.  Of course she wouldn't see him if no one else could.  But she already had her suspicions.  She maneuvered herself to stand not so far away from Osema and his troupe of hellspawn and in a position to block at least one route of escape from the front of the church.  Lotus already has a hand resting on the hilt of the sword sheathed on her back and another hand on the handle of the techno-wizard flame thrower on her belt.  "If Jack is missing then these demons are the prime suspects.  I request that they be disarmed and taken into custody immediately!!"  Lotus screams loud enough for all to hear, but she holds back any attack, waiting for authorization from a superior.  She is not innsubordinate, although she can be provocative.

Xion watches cautiously as the events begin to unfold, he too has his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw demon blood if need be.

With slow deliberation the two-tonne mass of 'Masque moves out of his position flanking the crowd, rather pointedly not drawing oversized vibro-blades or grenade launchers as he goes, and without popping the weapon hatches that keep his particle beams or elctro-stun tentacles from being all clogged up with dirt when he dives for cover.

 Instead he simply nods to Xion as though for permission and advances on the demonic brood, pausing downwind of them a little to tilt his head and study each in turn, "Is being no cause to be getting excited." he declares, in tones deep and resonant enough to cut through shrieking and shouting, courtesy of one hell of a set of cybernetic speakers, "Let us be seeing if there is scent of blood before we are convening lynch mob, da?" he asks - plainly prepared to do the NCO thing of keeping trouble from exploding out of hand so that the officers don't have to get their hands all grubby, so long as he can do it without exceeding his authority.

 ---

 Well, I knew that molecular analyser would be useful for something. I'll fire it up to track for blood traces, starting with human (after all, I don't know Jack wasn't) and widening the search. I figure if they just brutalised someone and didn't bathe properly, I should be able to work it out from a couple of yards away.

Reggie shakes his head, "Always the fucking demons, blame the demons, the demons must've done it. Why do you humans always assume the worst. I think it far more likely that your precious Jack is off servicing some of the Coalitions new recruits... he was a bit of a dandy wasn't he?" Reginald smiles his awful smile at Lotus as he speaks.

"I often am considered to have done something that I had nothing to do with due to my appearance, still I think in this case it is based on BEHAVIOR and not asthetic reasons."

Reggie laughs at the mountainous creature, "Aesthetics? Are you saying I am visually unappealing you overgrown rock?"

"no comment"

"Actually you are looking like nine pounds of shit in six-pound bag, but this, I am thinking is not precisely being good evidence, otherwise half of platoon is guilty of something." remarks 'Masque with typically good cheer and a remarkable lack of heat, all things being considered.

 It's the sort of comment someone can choose to take badly of course, but that's entirely up to them... It's not meant badly, and that's the important thing... right?

"how would 9 pounds of fecal matter fit in a bag with a capacity of 6 pounds?"