The low gulley filled broken hills around the ruined cities are a hot, dry, dusty place nothing grows, noting moves, only windblown debris, shifting pils of gravel and sand, and the occasional ruined building dot the country side.

       As night falls the wind picks up blowing through the ruins creating a mournful wail that echoes for miles, bouncing of hills and rejoining o create a sound that would seem at home in the bowels of some medievil castle as the damned walk the halls seeking someone to avenge their deaths.

     Scout recon Team 395 had touched down on target and on schedule, the pilot announcing touch down a split second before a 30 Megawatt plasma lance burned her and most of the scoutships cockpit out o existence. Dozens of Q'sa grunts had swarmed the landing field overwhelming the colonial Marines as they tried to fall back to the scoutship. Sappers charged into their midst, suicidal and determined to take the ship with them the explosive laden Q'sa reduced the scout to a raging fireball killing anyone within a hundred meters of the scoutship.

    everyone died, standing their ground and making their Drill Instructors proud as they took a dozen Q'sa with them. everyone died except for one,the blast had sent her tumbling into the ruins, knocking her out and burying her under a pile of debris until sometime later she awoke sore, and alone, nothing else not even the Q'sa had survived the final stand Of the 359th

[Private to Elsbeth: This is your staring point, you know the main compound is a day or two away on foot, but you also know this is a combat zone... so what else is new :)]

Elsbeth awoke with a start.  After a few moments, the throbbing at her temples and the ringing in her ears were starting to shift into an uncomfortable pressure at the base of her skull and a dull, droning screech when she decided to open her eyes.

The HUD on her display visor flashed angrily various alarms and diagnostics and Elsbeth noted that the time was more than hour later than she last remembered.  She let out a slight sigh and began to mentally prioritize the alarms.  The routine was almost second nature.  Nothing was broken on her or her suit and there was no undue loss of power or integrity to the suit.  All of the attached weapons and equipment systems were nominal, their statuses either yellow or green on her layered displays.  Physically, everything seemed reasonably in order with herself.

It was then that she realized the screeching in her left ear was the dead commlink that should have been her lifeline to the rest of the team.  She pursed her lips and squelched the thought that she was alone for the moment.  But the raw pang in her gut told her the truth of the matter.  The wave of regret for the loss of the dead, for the people she had broken bread with and shared a drink with.  People that she had assaulted the eardrums of with her attempts at playing the basilet.  People she had hot dropped with, burned and killed with.  People that were alive only an hour ago, she noted mentally with a frown.

Elsbeth triggered her motion sensor and the HUD flashed alive with a new tactical display forming.  The surroundings were deathly still, at which point, Elsbeth decided that it was safe to move.  She tried moving her arms and legs slightly, gauging the shifting rubble and debris as she went.  As she stood, she noted where she was and saw the trajectory that her explosive mid-flight course correction had taken.  Elsbeth instinctively took a sharp intake of breath, not ten meters from where she had landed was the impaled and broken form of one of her teammates.  Damn, she thought, Ramirez.  She had liked his quick smile and his cavalier attitudes.  Something that Elsbeth had never been able to affect for herself; she had envied that in him.  "Via con Dios, my friend." she intoned quietly.

Elsbeth grimaced at the vagaries of Fate, as she cast her mind back to an hour ago.  She and Ramirez had been flagged for point - they were first out of the berth, even before touch down, when the Q'sa attack hit.  They bounded out trying to break past the enemy perimeter and were slated to wreak mobile havoc when the return call had sounded.  They moved with practiced coordination, they had done similar things at M'rshat's Atoll not two missions ago.  As they bounded back toward the ship, was when they were both caught in the deadly explosion.  The fact that they were in mid-flight probably are what saved her and killed him so gruesomely.  Elsbeth shook her head slowly as if that had the power to change reality.  Then when that did not work, she popped a section of Ramirez's hard suit casing and grabbed one of his sets of ident tags from his lifeless wrist.  She squirreled them away in her belt.

Elsbeth moved her way around the rocks and rubble to scanning for movement or life.  She kept the team line open, but did not speak.  A couple of minutes of observing and calculating left her moving into the open area under the moonlight, for a quick pass at the charred debris of the scout ship that had been her home most recently.  Elsbeth's jaw quivers as she surveys the dead under torchlight - sure, there is plenty of charred lizard meat, but the cost was high.  Perhaps too high.  She pulls individual ident tags where she can, but she knows that she doesn't have time to give the remains of the dead the respect they truly deserve.  And in most cases, there isn't anything left as far as she can tell - battlefield cremations.

Elsbeth stood at what were the rear bay doors for a pregnant moment.  The main blast radii had started there and the sand beneath the frozen, molten metal droplets was blasted a silky smooth, rippled glass.  Elsbeth stood on ground zero and looked at the reflection that her suits had cast.  Why am I all alone again? she wondered, it was the same when V'shak died as the moisture bubbled away from him in the cold depths of space - all of his vaunted intelligence did nothing for him in vacuum - with my left arm gone, I was bleeding out myself and all I could do for him was to hold his hand and watch him die.  And in the gallows at Kypros - how did I survive the games and escape, when no one else I knew did?  Or when I was with the CMC contingent at Piltdown Station on VXG-642 - I limped away from the meat-grinder, barely alive, but alive nonetheless.  My track record is ... troubling.  Survivor.  Jinx?  Elsbeth can't help, but curse the vagaries of her protector: Infi, Fate, Chance, Fortune - or the name that Elsbeth identifies with her the most, The Lady of Sorrows.

How is that I survive?  But everyone around me... she couldn't bring herself to complete the thought.  Elsbeth popped the visor open and her suit sensed the purposeful integrity breach and the air quality, and took the opportunity to open the recycling vents for the new air.  A single tear fell from Elsbeth's right eye - glinting in the moonlight before it splashed onto the cool glass.

And then the moment was gone.  And so were the tears and the regrets.  Elsbeth's lips were pressed into thin white lines.  The wind howled and the visor slammed shut - the armor was back on: closed off.

And so it goes, Elsbeth intoned mentally.  She pulled up her topological maps and overlaid them on the HUD to match her visuals.  The suit's integrated photon shield hummed to life and Elsbeth's form shimmered and flickered in the moonlight as she started picking her way through the debris and rubble with increasing speed.  She knew where her destination should be.  It shouldn't take me more than a day to get back to the main compound.  If I don't run into any untoward suitors. she thought quickly.  But deep down, she knew there was opposition between her and the main compound and suspected that part of her really wanted those unfortunate Q'sa in the way.

    As the first night of Elspeth’s walkabout fell, the sky above the desert was lit with a dancing fairy fire, pinks, reds, blues and oranges danced over the desert arcing and swirling from some point within the ruined cities. reports in the permission database indicated the aurora were common and had caused only minor communications interference in the past.  Over the com channels a soft, hissing whisper popped and crackled a constant half heard echoes of the mournful wind kicking up dust and spinning off dancing dust devils in the nighttime air. The song of electronic noise kicked up by the aurora merged into the eerie dead worlds near constant wailing to give the desert a surreal atmosphere and make every movement and shifting of shadows seem to be a ghost or damned soul lurking just out of sight.

Hours passed with only the deserts winds and the dancing fairy fires to keep Elspeth company, until out of the west a low throaty howl filled the air, streaking low over the desert two ships came, dangerous looking pseudo organic insect shaped fighters accompanied by a screech of overtaxed gravitics and the roar of plasma fuel turbines pushing the ominous craft well past the speed of sound adding the rumble and thunder of sonic booms to the night air.  Moments later the dull thud f detonations sounded from the direction of the scout, in the distance flashes of bomb detonations and the glow of secondary fires signaled the fighters had struck something, and inflicted heavy damage.

Elsbeth listened closely to the barely audible hum of the augmented pistons of her suit as she picked her way across the terrain.  She knew that with her armor's augmented exoskeleton, that she could move faster than an unaugmented sprinter for a significant period of time - moving at over 20 miles an hour, if needed.  And, of course, there were the jump jets, when subtlety was not required.  But this trek was about subtlety and even more about endurance; and Elsbeth had plenty of the latter.

Elsbeth also knew, that despite the fact that she had some protection from prying eyes in the visual part of the spectrum, at night that was less of a concern than her heat signature.  The desert wind helped to disperse some of that heat, but that was not necessarily a good thing - in some cases, it could leave a broader trail, but nothing could be done about it.  The suit's signature was as low as it could be without extensive modification.  And she prided herself on the quality of her equipment.  Tools alone may not get the job done, she thought quickly, but they definitely help.

She tried to keep a relatively low profile using the scrub cover as much as possible, but always staying at speed.  There were some stretches where cover was non-existent, but that had never stopped her before - and it didn't stop her now.  She moved with purpose and in the particularly exposed areas, she ran to minimize exposure - trusting the sand and wind to eventually cover her open tracks.

Elsbeth made good time - as beautiful as the sky and the dancing lights where, they were not her mission.  It is perhaps that single-mindedness that had served her so well in the past.  It was perhaps the key to her survival in the past, as well.  She knew that for all of her patronage to Lady Luck, Elsbeth also knew the old adage that 'Luck will often save a man, if his Courage holds.'  Whether consciously or subconsciously, Elsbeth had always intended to hold out until Ifni was given her due.

The presence of the Q'sa fighters only helped to highlight the stakes for Elsbeth.  She could do nothing to stop them from desecrating the dead - in fact, part of her worried that her presence alive is what prompted the reprisal.  But she could do nothing about that either.  As much as she might like to do something other than retreat and lick her wounds; as much as she wanted to draw their attention to her right now, that would only ensure that she join her comrades in the long sleep of Death.  Part of her wanted that; but deep down inside, Elsbeth wanted to ensure that she take more the enemy with her, as well.  To finish the job, to hold the line - that was what really mattered.  She took as much cover as the nearby scrub would afford - squatting down, remaining as still as possible, even though it likely did not matter.

The desert wind blew, and Elsbeth could almost hear her comrades voices on the wind.   The cross-chatter on the still open group comm line has picked.  The voices cried in pain and anguish, they cried for vengeance.  And when the sky lit up in the direction of her old ship, Elsbeth found herself rubbing Ramirez's ident tags between her fingers - as though they were a rosary and might placate the dead.  But, of course, it did not.  After the flash, as her eyes readjusted to the darkness through the filters of her visor, Elsbeth let out a sigh.  She did not even know that she was holding her breath.  She forced herself to exhale and then stood and continued on her way.  All the time the voices howled on the wind...

Elsbeth set off again.  Jogging across the waste into an unknown future.  The sands shifting both in front of her and under her feet.  The voices on the wind howling all around her, as well as in her head.

And then it came to her.  The voices were not those of the dead, but of the living.  With the Q'sa ramping up their attacks on this world; if they're being so bold ... other Colonial Authority troops needed to be warned. she thought, People would die needlessly, if I delay.  She had to make it back to the main compound - and she needed to make it back fast.  The presence of the fighters; so, blatant and arrogant in the sky and so near meant that they felt that they had air superiority.  That the Q'sa were without fear of retribution.  But the edges of Elsbeth's mouth curled upwards slightly, The Q'sa were not the only ones without fear. she thought eagerly.

Elsbeth glanced at the diagnostics on her display.  Power was nominal - more than enough to get her to her destination and still have plenty enough left to make a difference, if there was action on the other end.  Elsbeth start to run - at hustle pace, she knew that she should be able to make the main compound in significantly less than a day.  She started to make tracks, her path still followed the terrain as defined by least resistance, but bounding over objects as necessary shifted the definition of least resistance by an order of magnitude.  She pulled her customized laser carbine from the side harness and held it at the ready as the terrain flew by.  The familiar click of the safety being disengaged and the charging fields of energy in the solenoids wrapped around the beam collimator were a welcome pulse to Elsbeth.  The carbine's display came to life on her HUD.  Satisfied, Elsbeth moved with determined purpose, tearing across the desert sand, moving inexorably towards her destination ... all the while, hoping that she was not too late.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Wed 20 May 2009.

  "No advanced life," sargeant Maxus had informed the squad in the breifing." It's a grave world, nothing but ruins, dust, bones and ghosts."

          The breifing was mostly accurate. a few small lizards, a mouse with six limbs and faceted eyes, a single highflying burd, these were the only living things Elspeth spotted as she put miles under her boots. The world was a grave. everywhere she looksed she saw signs of the former glory of the world. ruined towers now only ragged stubs of steel and stone slowly being worn away by the wind. the ribs of an ancient shipwreck, a once powerful warship from it's lines and the thick plating covering its hull. emerged fromt eh sand and debris. The briefing had described the planet as barren lifeless and for all intents dead, only shadows and ghosts of the world spanning civilization left burined int he same dust as more recent dead.

       The day passed into night and the dancing aurora lit the planet wide toomb in an eerie glow that alloweed the determined Marine to make good time as she trudged relentlessly across the desert, only the occasional distant whine of a gravitic drive to warn of a drone or patrol scouring the desert for life.

If Elsbeth had a more aesthetic bent to her personality, the pinks and crimson palette panorama that unfolded with the setting sun would have given her more of a pause in her long trek.  The ruins of long abandoned buildings and the twisted hulking remains of ships once worthy of crossing the great expanses of the Deep Black silhouetted against the colorful horizon were an absolutely breathtaking picture.

But for Elsbeth, the filters on her visor kept the more intense visible and harmful electromagnetic frequencies at bay.  The splash of the digital range finders and topographical overlays and alarms kept her eyes and mind occupied.  The sensor feeds and the necessities of cover, shadow, and survival were her purview.  Her training as a bodyguard and soldier kicked in - watch the enemy; learn and exploit their weaknesses; kill, if possible.  The latter was not really an option given the overwhelming odds... yet.  She was relegated to gathering intel and making sure that she survived long enough to be debriefed.

Tech stuff and strategy were not her forte, but she dutifully tried to memorize all of the things that she could that she had observed the enemy doing: patterns, movement, timings.  The frequency of enemy patrols, their coverage and their manpower were foremost in her thoughts.  She timed her movements to try and compensate for the shortcomings of her enemies.  That the sun lay low on the horizon was not a photo opportunity, only a potential distraction for her or her enemies.  Don't let it be the former, she thought by rote, make it the latter.  Of course, that meant that she could not completely avoid the enemy either.  Duty required that she gather information - so, she watched and waited.  Lingering in some covered spots to watch the Q'sa patrols - to learn their ways.  Her teachers in the academy were adamant: 'To truly kill the enemy, you must know them - you must almost love them.  Almost.'  Elsbeth could respect the Q'sa and their fearless loyalty coupled with their brutal efficiency.  She was getting to the point where she thought that she could identify with them, love them ... almost.  Elsbeth was at home in that place, the place that allowed her the longing to watch them brutally and efficiently expire at the tip of her vibro-knife.

'No advanced life' Maxus' words echoed in Elsbeth's head as she watched yet another Q'sa patrol make their way on foot, not more than twenty metres from her covered position.  Once out of sight, she started to once again make her way across the broken and desolate terrain.  Elsbeth corrected herself, No indigenous advanced life.  The way was slow, even at hustle pace, broken up as it was.  The Q'sa patrols, airborne and on foot, were an ever present danger; Elsbeth spent half her time seeking cover and the other half bolting from it.  Elsbeth longed to make a stand, but her instincts told her that now was not the time.  Still, that didn't make it any easier to turn her back on the cries of her dead squadmates.  And so, Elsbeth trekked inexorably on towards the encampment - her temporary base camp, her temporary 'home'.

One could call Elsbeth's thoughts and actions professional or focussed or supremely loyal, but mostly they were the thoughts of the person that had been bred only knowing a singular role in life:  a cloistered, sheltered, myopic view of the world.  A room with no view, with no concept of the rooms beyond the one she was in.  They were the thoughts and actions of a child that had never known anything different.

Ultimately, Elsbeth had never really been alone in adolescence.  There was always her clutchmates and the near-prescient knowledge that comes from sharing the exact same genes and upbringing.  An upbringing of strict instructors and their rigid, structured, disciplined lessons.  Later, there was always her charge; the one individual she guarded with her life.  There was never to be a time when she would be alone.  At least, that was the theory.  The irony was not lost upon Elsbeth as she moved through the ruined terrain: Alone.  The physical only reflects the metaphysical, Elsbeth reflected darkly, a thought spawned with more than a tinge of remorse.  In the solitude, the Abyss always unfolded before her - the frightening, enveloping emptiness.  It had happened as she drifted dying in vacuum above Enchoa Rhi and again in the fevered haze on VXG-642.  The void of her Loneliness craved to be filled.  But when your life is programmed, what thoughts and memories do you really call your own?  What part of a frank's life can truly be called their own?

  Elspeth found her way to the edge of a long strech of boulders and scrub trees that stretched for miles. Along it's fringe he spoted patrols of Q'sa, he had reached their perimeter, their main defensive line. forwarfd or back She would have to move carefully and quickly moving n the flat would be suicide during the day. Too many eyes watched the flat, and too many gun sites were ready to send lethal fire onto anyone caught in the open during the day.

When Elsbeth came to the defense line, she slowed and took cover as she assessed the situation.  She watched the comings and goings of the patrols, trying to note their strengths, armaments and frequencies.  Unfortunately, her powered armor was not an intelligence or surveillance scouting model.  While, it had telemetry, biometric monitoring, and topographical data - it was not made for recording massive amounts of data.  Still, Elsbeth worked to overcome such minor issue.  She was not stupid, even if tactics and strategic intelligence were not her forte.

Elsbeth made note of the time remaining the night cycle and made the fateful decision to enter the field at night and to try and hunker down under cover during the day.  Bypassing the area was not an option - it was far to wide being specifically designed as a choke point.  And given the area and the firepower amassed on station, being out in the open during the day was obviously not an option.  Even the masking effect of her armor's photon shield was not going to be enough with all of those searching eyes.  But, Elsbeth figured that the added cloud of night should give her enough cover.

So, Elsbeth started to pick her way through the killing zone.  Her suit was not the stealthiest available, but her familiarity with it and its default construction were nothing to sneeze at either.  In the dark shroud of night, coupled with the wind and broken landscape - a single soldier alone might just make it.  At least that is what Elsbeth hoped.  She trusted in herself, her equipment, and in the Lady of Sorrows: Infi.  I've paid your dues, and all pay them again, M'lady, Elsbeth thought to herself, as she crept her way through the treacherous boulder laden field.

When the dawn threatened to make its appearance, Elsbeth found cover off of (but not too far off of) the seemingly beaten path of the foot patrols.  She hunkered down into a small copse of boulders and tree with her armored form wedged into what passed for a small, rocky alcove.  Then she initiated the low power mode, the one that left most passive sensors on, but slowed the air cycling and pushed the main power into standby.  She counted on not being discovered more than being able to act with absolute speed.  And she trusted that her equipment would warn her of anything amiss - to give her time to react.  She figured that she would get a chance to rest a bit and count patrols and do intelligence and recon gathering the rest of the time.  And with that plan in mind, though Elsbeth didn't eat anything, she allowed herself to doze...

   The day dawned cold and grey dust blowing on the breeze covered the terrain in an ashen film the raising wined began to pick up more dust turning the sky a dirty gay and brown. The air low to the ground was still hazy but visibility was still good.
       The hum of gravitics warned of an approaching craft, a sleek streamlined dark gray craft sweeping in low over the ground. A streamlined turret seeping the ground the craft was not Q;sa it was too elegant. The tinted view plates and custom hull was a high end civilian shuttle  more often seen at luxury starports than cruising a backwater planet infested with hostile forces,
A few seconds later a pair of Q’sa fighters cruised overhead pacing the shuttle five or six kilometers back to either side of the craft. Not a pursuit position but an arrangement of escort craft. Seconds later a heavy modular Hauler passed over head, it’s cargo racks empty only a few fuel pods lined up along its load bearing frame. The craft was a standard build freighter built by a dozen Terran manufacturers and used by the military to transport munitions and supplies to frontline units. The lack of insignia and registry numbers on it’s hull seemed out of place no ship could have docked at a commercial starport without them.

Elsbeth watched the convoy of ships go by from her makeshift hiding place.  She didn't like the implication of the mix of vehicle makes at all.  Q'sa don't fly other races ships.  Terran and Q'sa together, she thought, it can only mean one thing: collaborators.  Someone betraying their own kind and getting rich off of the deaths of their fellow Terrans.  Elsbeth didn't like it one bit.

Not that she could do much about it now.  But the information she was now gathering, seemed to imply that it was even more important to get back to the other Colonial forces and report to them.  It was incumbent upon her to make sure she had good accurate information.  With the lack of markings, identification of the ships would be difficult.  As it was meant to be, of course. she noted to herself.  But it did not make it impossible, so Elsbeth passed the time by trying to recall of the details that she could about the two terran ships.  With any luck and little bit of library time, Elsbeth would be able to positively identify the make and model of the Terran ships she saw.  And that might be enough - she hoped it would be.

Besides for the time being, Elsbeth had very little else to do.  She was trying to avoid detection by minimizing her presence; conserving energy, food and all the while trying to preserve her sanity.  She didn't much like being solo; it's not that she didn't have a purpose or could not do the job alone.  But the present circumstances could not be changed.  Alone still, with the whispering voices and the Emptiness.  It would be so easy to give in wouldn't it?  But no, something deep down inside of her refused to give up.  At her core, Elsbeth refused the Darkness and craved the Light.  She sought to give herself a Purpose and a Life.  And part of living is learning through patience and pain, she consoled herself with the thought, The longings must mean that I am still alive. ...  So, she continued to watch and to wait.

  As the sun rises to it's zenith the dust and ash in the sky ive way to a reddish ashen sky. Q'sa drones swam over he area probing hiding places and searching relentlessly to the south as Elspeth endures the heat of the day.

     Towards unset the heavy cargo ship returns this time it's cargo pods are loaded and the ship lumbers under a heavy weight. Across the rear of it’s hull registration numbers have been added and the ship Is painted with the colors and insignia of a commercial transport, belonging to a fleet maintenance contractor common to the area.

Elsbeth almost regrets venting the suit and leaving it in standby mode - especially in the heat of the midday sun - but, she doesn't really have a choice.  She knows that she needs to conserve power and so, by necessity the suit is down for as long she can manage it.  Well, that and an inactive suit is less likely to register on sensors.  Still, Elsbeth keeps a low profile, staying out of sight and moving as little as possible.  With the suit down, she really doesn't want to be caught - she might be able to handle a very small patrol on her own, but even that would a real challenge.

Elsbeth was preparing to leave again, getting ready to back into her armor, when engines of the heavy cargo hauler alerted her to its return.  Elsbeth watched with interest as the cargo hauler sans escort, but plus new markings made its way back onto the horizon.  She tried her best to memorize the new markings and the shipping company that it ostensibly belonged to, Just more pieces of the puzzle, she noted to herself as she lay in her hiding place - feeling the hairs on her arm stand up as the suspensor field from the ship blew by.  She held a hand up to protect her nose and mouth from the dust that was kicked up and glanced back into the spot to where her armor was housed.

For Elsbeth, it's time to get back on the road - once the sun sets.  Time, hopefully, to get back to warn the other Colonial Troops. she hopes.  She really hopes that all of this is not in vain.  But, Elsbeth knows that such thoughts are not useful right now.  So, she pushes them aside as she slips back into her metal second skin and starts up the powering sequence.  The gentle humm of the power plant and the familiar smell and sounds of the armor are comforting to her.  She lingers for a moment, just taking in its presence - then the visor slips into place and shuts tight as the rest of the seals reintegrate and she is ready to move.

  Moving cautiously through the boulder field Elspeth makes her way by feet and inches across the open ground, maneuvering undercover, freezing as a patrol drone nears. The Q’sa are numerous, viscous, and cunning but they lack the cohesion and training of a proper military unit
By midnight she is nearly across the field. The lights of a Q’sa patrol dancing among the boulders alerts her to their presence. Half a dozen grunts scanning about with flashlights doing more to reveal their position than to reveal their target. From her vantage point Elspeth can her the grunting clicking chattering voices of the Q’sa cursing and quarreling as they endure the cold dry night air of the desolate world. Their assault riles slung, their helmets sealed against the chill their sense are dulled and their ability to respond limited. Even in the middle of the boulder field it might be possible to quickly remove the patrol blocking Elspeth’s path.

Drill Instructor Barstans Vilyas had told the class on the first day, "The job of Recon is to go behind enemy lines, return and tell Command how many there are.  The job of Force Recon is to go behind enemy lines, return and tell Command how many there were."  After a few stifled chuckles from his audience, Vilyas brought down the pain.  "Look to your right and to your left, people.  If either of those greenies make through this class, then you are the washout.  Those are the facts."

Ironically, Elsbeth and the two people to the sides of her all made it into Force Recon.  Sadly, she noted as part of the reverse irony, both Ramirez and Boogstens were dead.  Ramirez made it all the way here - to this hellhole.  Boogie had bought it back on VXG-642. she reflected sadly.

With Sergeant Vilyas' words in mind, Elsbeth surveyed the situation.  Six on one should be nothing.  Elsbeth was confident that she had the training and the equipment to take this patrol.  The main question was would it be worth it?  She needed to make it quiet and quick, if she was to be about it.  Too much ruckus and aerial support would come, and that would not be acceptable.  So, Elsbeth wracked her brain as to the right way to do things.  With fifty metres between her and her quarry, she would have to cover that distance as fast as possible.  She was pretty sure she could do it in a matter of seconds - and Elsbeth was pretty sure that she had the drop on the patrol.  Their demeanor indicated that they were either, very good actors or completely unaware of her presence.  Good, she thought, the job of Recon is to go behind enemy lines...

Elsbeth made a snap decision, to move and move quickly.  Doing some collateral damage here would send a message to them and give her some piece of mind.  She resolved to use her training to the utmost and to honor the memory of her slain comrades.  She made a small prayer to Infi as she activated the barrier shield and photon shield generators on her armor.  She gauged the distances to the enemy, watching the light enhanced overlays of her HUD highlight the distances and velocities of the enemy.  Elsbeth counted out the moves - orchestrating the dance.  The reticules targeting the number in the patrol glowed angry yellow.  Elsbeth focussed her attention on the head of the patrol.  His information glowed red, with flick of the eyes and subvocalized command.  Tag, you're it...

Elsbeth held her carbine in her off hand, and pulled her collapsible concussion rod from her belt.  She extended it and felt its light spongy grip in her gauntleted right hand.  She exploded from her crouch using her armor's servos to drive forward towards the lead Q'sa, moving swiftly through the rough, rocky terrain.  While she knew that the photon shield would not give her optimal protection since she was actively attacking and not hiding, it still offered enough of a disconcerting effect, that in the dark she knew that it would help.  Like all my equipment, I trust it to do its job - all I need to do is my job.

Pound, pound, pound. 46 meters, then 43 metres.  Her piston enhanced boots drove onwards as the distance between herself and the patrol closed at a frightening pace.  Elsbeth drew inexorably closer to the lead Q'sa - the dancing flashlights blithely unaware of the oncoming train.    She bounded over a four metre boulder and then tumbled through a bit of (now) defunct scrub.  Her photometrically fuzzed form churned chunks of dust and dirt as she past.  Elsbeth knew that the patrol would likely have some time to potentially react to her presence, but she relied on the fact that they would not have much and that they couldn't accurately track, what they couldn't accurately see.  Let them try, just let them try...

Pound, pound, pound.  22 metres, 19 metres, The massive servos in her armor enhanced and refined her movements as she drove onwards.  She popped over and around boulders and as she accelerated, Elsbeth let the adrenaline surge come.  She had been trained to harness the energy and focus it into explosive power.  Her vision narrowed as her quarry neared, and she moved with grace and speed onwards across the small debris-filled, rocky field.  She planned to meet the lead Q'sa head on and push him back into as many of his comrades as possible.  With the six of them, it was essential to keep as many as possible occupied or down as quickly and as long as possible.  By coming into the middle of them, she would be opening herself up to multiple assailants, but should be able to minimize their effectiveness by engaging them fully - their guns would be useless once she was in the middle of them.  From what she had seen, the Q'sa never acted as a unit.  They may coordinate some actions, but they expected their base ferocity to overwhelm an enemy.  They expected fear to keep her in line.  They were wrong - fear never kept Elsbeth in line.  Fear only makes me focus; Fear only makes me mad.

Pound, pound, pound - 6 metres, 2 metres ... At the last possible moment, Elsbeth braced herself for impact, dipping her shoulder ever so slightly and activating her jumpjets to drive her form into the upcoming opponent.  Her 250 kilogram plus amalgam of woman and machine flew headlong into the upper chest plate of the unfortunate reptilian insectoid in front of the pack.  The job of Force Recon, is to tell them how many there were...
[Private to Prometheus: OOC:
Actions:
Surprise Action     :  Move Action - Full Move (50ft)
First Round Actions :  Free Action - Ability Surge (+8 Str, -2 Def, Duration: 3 rounds)
                       Free Action - Spend Action point to negate fatigue from Ability Surge (Does this only get expended when the surge ends?)
                       Full-Round action - Bull Rush lead Q'sa w/ Double move (100ft)
Rolls:
Know (tactics) Check:  09:54, Today: Elsbeth rolled 9 using 1d20+2. Knowledge (tactics)/Int Check.
Initiative          :  09:54, Today: Elsbeth rolled 10 using 1d20+2. Initiative.
Attack (Bull Rush)  :  09:58, Today: Elsbeth rolled 26 using 1d20+14. Atk (Bull Rush): +4 BAB, +8 Str, +2 Chrg.
Strength Check      :  09:58, Today: Elsbeth rolled 13 using 1d20+8. Strength Check.

Ugh, not what I had hoped for.  Not very, bad ass, eh?  That is my general luck with the RPoL dice roller though... *sigh*  Are there any other rolls that you need?  Feel free to roll for me, especially,  if it will save time and effort on your part.  You definitely cannot roll any worse than I have. :(

Questions/Notes:
1)  Can I expend an Action Point to enhance the Strength Check?  I'd really like that first meeting with the enemy to have some impact...;)
2)  Would the jumpjets aid any in the impact/strength check, potentially?  Should I make a skill check to use them?
3)  If the Bull Rush will not knock the opponent down (or into the others) i.e. that is not what a bull rush does, and I have misinterpreted the rules - your call, then Elsbeth would have opted to do a simple charge and I can roll damage for the concussion rod - instead.  Let me know.

Combat Stats:
VITALITY (max/curr) :  65/65 (105/105 w/barrier shield)
HP (max/curr)       :  29
INIT                :  +2
DEF (hardsuit)      :  +22 ACP: -3  DR: 4 (w/ barrier shield)
                       +18 (w/ current actions: -2 (charge), -2 (ability surge)
BAB (Melee/Range)   :  +6/+6 (+9 w/Laser Carbine)
SAVES (F/R/W)       :  +8/+6/+4
ACTION POINTS       :  9 (7? after actions)
BASE SPEED          :  50ft (30 (base) + 10 (armor) + 10 (class))
NOTES: Fearless, Uncanny Dodge I, Evasion, Energy Resis (sonic/conc): 4/-
       Photon Shield (50% concealment, DC 20 to spot while moving)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEAPON             DMG   Crit  Range  Weight  Size  Type     Notes
Concussion Rod     2d8     20    -     2lbs   med   Bludg    MW (+1 atk)
Laser Carbine**    3d8     20   90ft*  6lbs   lrg   Laser    Mag: Eclip 50
   * Rangefinder Scope Gadget       ** Accuracy: +3 (+2 (inherent) +1 (MW))]
This message was last edited by the player at 00:15, Tue 09 Mar 2010.

Elspeth hit with the force of a speeding car, the Q’sa was hurled backwards his armor protecting him from the shoulder check but doing little to protect his skull from the rock he struck as he fell. The ret of the squad turned in stunned disbelief the dark shape of an armored soldier in their midst sending two into flight. Two other went to the ground knocked off their feet by the charge.

“ Q’sa are vicious, mean, and hit you with numbers. They don’t scare easy and they don’t ever quit once they tart an assault. But they ain’t got he brains to scratch their ass without someone telling them how to.” Gunny had laughed.“ Hit ‘em hard, take down their commander, then get in with ‘em. Don’t let the little bastard catch their breath.

The one remaining Q’sa on his feet swung the butt of hi rifle hard enough to crush a man’s skull. Against the carbon fiber and born carbide of an armored suit he might a well be winging a feather duster. Hi blow landed square. But did little more than end a ripple of color through the adaptive camouflage one armor skin.

Elsbeth noted with certain and grim satisfaction that her armor integrity held and that the lone standing Q'sa and its weapon were ineffective against her.  Her HUD tracked the rest of the downed squad.  The lead Q'sa was down, his tracking reticule had gone a dull green, his threat level substantially lower than it was moments before.  The four other Q'sa down were not out; so, they blinked yellow.  The two that had only been knocked down were tinged yellow.  Time enough to deal with them, she thought, but first, the last man standing.

Elsbeth knew that she had to finish the job, it would not do to leave her presence reported by these troops.  She had to finish what she had started.  Elsbeth turned on her right heel and stepped up to engage her only standing opponent.  Her laser carbine moved to cover the two prone figures who had only been knocked down - Elsbeth trained it upon them, but held her fire; she concentrating her efforts on the standing Q'sa.  As she lunged, Elsbeth swung the concussion rod in her right hand.  It almost moved of its own volition, as her arm lashed around in a vicious roundhouse.  The end of rod blurring with terrible speed.  Elsbeth almost felt a twinge of regret for her enemy, almost ...
[Private to Prometheus: OOC:
Actions:
Free Action         :  Ability Surge (+8 Str, -2 Def, Duration: 3 rounds)
Standard Action     :  Attack Standing Q'sa

Rolls:
Attack (Conc. Rod)  :  18:00, Today: Elsbeth rolled 21 using 2d8+8. Damage: if necessary, +8 Str.
Damage (Conc. Rod)  :  17:59, Today: Elsbeth rolled 18 using 1d20+13. Atk (Conc. Rod): +4 BAB, +8 Str, +1 MW.

Combat Stats:
VITALITY (max/curr) :  65/65 (105/105 w/barrier shield)
HP (max/curr)       :  29
INIT                :  +2 (10, previously rolled)
DEF (hardsuit)      :  +22 ACP: -3  DR: 4 (w/ barrier shield)
                       +20 (w/ -2 (ability surge)
BAB (Melee/Range)   :  +6 (+7 w/Concussion Rod)/+6 (+9 w/Laser Carbine)
SAVES (F/R/W)       :  +8/+6/+4
ACTION POINTS       :  7
BASE SPEED          :  50ft (30 (base) + 10 (armor) + 10 (class))
NOTES: Fearless, Uncanny Dodge I, Evasion, Energy Resis (sonic/conc): 4/-
       Photon Shield (50% concealment, DC 20 to spot while moving)
       Ability Surge (+8 Str, -2 Def - Duration: two more rounds)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEAPON             DMG   Crit  Range  Weight  Size  Type     Notes
Concussion Rod     2d8     20    -     2lbs   med   Bludg    MW (+1 atk)
Laser Carbine**    3d8     20   90ft*  6lbs   lrg   Laser    Mag: Eclip 50
   * Rangefinder Scope Gadget       ** Accuracy: +3 (+2 (inherent) +1 (MW))]

The compression coil within the rod growled as it warmed a pinpoint of space into a knot. The distortion acted as a point of intense artificial gravity drawing the rods head toward it. Increasing it’s power and impact to many times that of an object of it’s mass and weight should have. The first blow lifted it off it’s feet and the backhanded swipe sent it backwards. The Q’sa tumbled backwards as if thrown by a giant. Slamming into a bolder and falling to his knees before folding to the ground unconscious. Few species could resist the trauma of such an impact even though he was relatively uninjured the Q’sa’s body simply shut down while it tried to recover from the blow.

OOC: target down, massive damage save failed. Unconscious.

Note By house rules if you have two weapons and can use them both in one hand…such as a carbine. You may utilize a two weapon attack, or if you have multiple attacks make a single attack with each hand. With relevant mods of course. even if they are a mix of ranged and melee weapons.

“I love a good beat down in the morning.”
Gunny Bryce. Third Expeditionary Regiment Colonial Marines.