In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 83):

As the helicopter was over the lakeshore, they turned out over the lake, disappearing into the inky blackness. The scene of the battle became a reddish glow on the underside of the ever-present cloud layer.

Lorain looked shocked and withdrawn, as indeed did they all. In less than 24 hours she lost her expedition and some of her people, found her father, then captured by mercenaries and shot up by government forces. A lot to process!

"Well, where do we go from here? Not back to the camp. We can try for the river we came up and the native village we stayed in, but that's probably where the police came from. Back along the shore? Further along? Across the lake?"

Ken frowned as he considered their options.  "Let's head across the lake and let things settle down for a while."

"Right..." said Linus, and turned the GEV in that direction, heading out across the lake and away from the ruckus behind.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 86):

The GEV arced out over the lake, running south into the blackness. The closest part of the far shore was across a 20km reach, a distance they could cross in 10 minutes at 60 km/h.

Rain fell and the windshield wipers thumped back and forth. In a few minutes, Linus noticed the engines were heating up a little, but nothing serious. Hopefully.

As the sped along, Ken kept a watch out into the rain and darkness.

Linus slows down a little, watching the temperature gauge.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 89):

"Tomorrow we can go back and take a look for supplies.  We're not going to get very far without our kit, as those big-ass lizards proved."

"I don't know what you guys were carrying, but my bag would allow us to rough-it better than without it."

He pauses again.
"Besides, my tea's back there."

In reply to Thomas Walker (msg # 90):

Lorain looked worried, "maybe we can use some supplies, but this vehicle has a good amount of onboard survival gear, including guns and food. We could always use more, of course.

"Do you think the army and police are going to go away? They aren't just arresting Messandi's men, they're taking over the site to loot it themselves."

Her father added, "speaking of Messandi, he's supposed to be coming, soon. He travels by ship, so he won't know his base is gone until he lands. And they don't land the supply ships at the camp, for security reasons. The landing zone is elsewhere."

Meanwhile, they were coming up on the far shore, they could either go left or right. Linus noted the engine temperature was still rising.

"Left or right, folks?" asked Linus. "And I'd like to pause soon and check the engine, it's running hotter than I would like."

In reply to GM (msg # 91):

"We have survival kit on board?"

Walker looks for the survival gear, to see what is on board this hovercraft.

In reply to Thomas Walker (msg # 94):

"Let's see, this is one of the passenger hovercraft we bought for our expedition. Each had a dozen kits, if I recall. At least, I paid for them. I even checked before we left Val Preszar. There are floor storage compartments for survival gear and a weapons locker by the engine compartment."

In the floor storage compartments the craft had 9x TL7 commercial jungle survival kits remaining, complete and still in their packaging. The markings were in Anglic and the kits appeared to be manufactured on Mirayn.

Each had a rucksack packed with a filter canteen with water purification/salt tablets, tightly-rolled insect netting, nylon hammock, rain poncho, utility knife and machete in self-sharpening sheaths, 3 days rations (9x 400 calorie food bars, expired), magnetic compass (useless on Mirayn), flashlight (batteries dead but rechargeable), fishing lines/signal mirror/sewing kit/para-cord/solar blanket/1st Aid kit, waterproof matches and fire starter tablets.

Additional equipment included a hand-cranked battery charger and water purifier.

Looking at the rations and dead batteries, Jothan slumped back into self-loathing. "Expired. Hope they're safe to eat. I say, these swine really took me for a fool, and I let them."

The weapons locker held 3x semi-auto 18mm (12 ga.) shotguns, 2x 6mm carbines, 1x 7mm rifle, 1x 7mm auto-rifle and 6x 9mm (.38 cal.) revolvers. For ammunition were 79 shotgun shells, 13x 20-shot 6mm mags, 14x 20-shot 7mm mags and 100 9mm revolver rounds. All the longarms had slings and ammo bandoliers (with shotgun shell loops, 6x 6mm pouches or 4x 7mm pouches, depending on the weapon)  but the pistols lacked holsters or speed-loaders.

Ken took in the conversation.  "You're probably right, the government is just going to squat on that camp and loot what they can.  I'm all for getting off this mud ball myself.  If we knew where Kalamanu's landing site was we could ambush him and take his ship.  That would be a slick way to manage things."  He shrugged.  "I'm not sure where to even start looking though.  I say we head north along the path of the stone road and see if we can find anything else that might be worthy of salvage to pay for  a set of tickets off planet."

"OK, right it is," said Linus turning the GEV.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 97):

They continued running into the darkness.

As the headland grew as a large green blob in the navigational radar's scope, Linus pulled on the control yoke and the GEV curved to the right. The land showed up off their left beam. They continued that way for about an hour, but the engine temperature continued to rise.

Ken watched the temperature gauge with concern.  "Can you get us to the high ground on that island that shows up ahead of us Linus?  We can shut her down and see if we can fix whatever is wrong."

"OK, Ken... it's bothering me, too."

Linus headed for the island.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 100):

They began to head straight towards the island. The over-heated liquid-fuelled engine didn't seem to like this, and began to cough and sputter, losing power rapidly.

Ken looks around.  "Does anyone have any skill with engines like this?  Linus, throttle her back so we don't get stranded out in the middle of the lake."  He looks about.  "Is there any weight we can throw overboard to help out?"

Linus throttles back immediately.

"I'm not blessed with mechanical ability..." he muttered, nursing the engines along, trying to reach the island before they gave up the ghost entirely.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 103):

Neva shook her head.  "Not me.  I can't even drive things very well.  If I didn't walk I took public transportation."

Ken shakes his head as well.  "I just blow things up..."

"Carry on carefully then Linus."

"All right..." said Linus, sounding a bit worried. He aimed for the island, looking for a likely place to run the GEV ashore.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 106):

They were still a good 35km away when it became clear they weren't going to make the island. Fortunately, they were only about 2-3km from the southern lakeshore.

Ken sighed.  "These engines just won't make it.  Just bring us to the nearest shore Linus.  We don't want to get stuck out in the lake."