Image is full size | The fairy cocks her head back and forth, trying to take things in, then says, "I don't sense any evil in the village. Are you sure they're evil? Humans always make that such a gray thing. What about that machine in the tower? I can't really do much with machines, they're not part of my world. Do you want me to make people dance if they try to attack other people? I like doing that. It's a lot of fun." |
 | The door opens, and a man in full combat dress enters the house. He addresses Gabriela and Matías and says, [Language unknown: "Entwa onilpe wise we seurfi pa Ouch-ritr."] Then he looks at the others in the house, and frowns. "Who the hell are you? There aren't supposed to be any journalists involved here." |
| Colonel Flagg shakes his head. "I don't know who they are, but neither of those two look like Chimp Man Z, and that one doesn't look like Bellissima. If you're Chimp Man Z, tell me two things. One, how did you pass out the food on the way back from San Sebastian? And, what happened to your fur? Or, if you want to give me irrefutable proof let me put the silencer on my sidearm and bounce a slug off your ear." The colonel looks back and forth between the Anjana and Chimp Man Z, clearly puzzled. |
| Colonel Flagg nods. "Considering the context, that makes sense." Addressing Matías and Gabriela, the colonel says, ""My men and I have come south, from Costa Rica. By my reckoning the border is about twenty klicks north, the coast is about fifty klicks east. Our intent is to liberate this village, and any others we come across on our way to a place called Delmarion Cove." "We have intel suggesting transmissions similar to those from San Sebastian island have originated in the cove. In addition, if our little insurrection garners enough focus from the Chinilayan military, Panamanian forces will be attempting to retake this area." |
| Colonel Flagg shakes his head, "We're not here to fight a revolution. I've got a crew of hand picked soldiers, the best I could find. We believe the insurgents, remember we're actually in Panama, have only been successful because someone is using advanced robotics to assist them. Our job is to find and eliminate the robots. Panama has an effective military, and they can deal with the rest of the issue." Waving his hand dismissively, he continues, "except for the electromagnetic pulse wave disruptor. It's designed to shut down electronics because the robot leaders believe only another group of robots could stop them. Well, the reason behind it is my speculation, the only intel we have is that it's the reason we haven't been able to get anything other than satellite photos of this place." "If we had some way of contacting your reinforcements, we could warn them about the disruptor. I'm planning to meet up with Smohk to the north of where we believe its area of effect ends." |
| Colonel Flagg smiles at Drifter and says, "I'm already taking all the risks I can afford, friend. Vegas isn't my thing." |
| Colonel Flagg smiles at Drifter and says, "Oh, I don't need to see him. We're maintaining radio silence and could coordinate better if I could talk to him. Where are you lot headed?" |
| Colonel Flagg's eyes widen, and he says, "SMOHK! Is that you? Shit. I didn't think you were serious." "Starfish buns should only be used for shrimp." |
| Colonel Flagg's jumps in, saying, "Never mind all that! Smohk, you said you would have intel we needed. There's way too much going on here for us to ignore it." |
| Colonel Flagg's jumps in, saying, "We haven't seen any radio towers. There's watchtowers all over the place, just like national forests back home, but no radio towers." "We're with some of the resistance, here. They're organized, but not militant. We've been promised essentials waiting for us, no transport is available. It'll take us a day or two to get to the rendezvous, longer if we're to find and knock down these invisible antennae." |
| Colonel Flagg speaks, "I've got a map, of sorts. It was all Smohk could get before I left." He shows a copy of the map as seen in the game's Group 0 map. |
| image is full size | The fairy turns to Drifter, and says, "How many of the people here are machines? There's one in the tower and now two more are joining him." |
| Colonel Flagg speaks, "Huh. We'll sort that out, then." He pulls out a cheap cell phone, NOT a smart phone, and manipulates its tiny keyboard for a few moments. "You might want to keep your monkeys away from the tower, Zee," he says. |
| Colonel Flagg laughs, "I've got a squad of mercs, two of 'em were marine snipers. I tasked them with hitting the robot villagers. I've got a few others with heavy weapons. I had one of 'em hit the guy in the tower with an are pee gee." "My guys are going to form a perimeter, but stay out of sight. If they send anyone to investigate, you can tell them truthfully you had nothing to do with it. Tomorrow morning we'll move on, I'm planning to make Delmarion Cove in a couple days." he says. |
| image is full size | The fairy turns to Drifter, and says, "Do you mean the ones on the other end of this hole in the world? Sure." "I could pop through and talk to them, or go see those duck walkers for you. Why are they walking ducks, can't the ducks walk by themselves?" |
| image is full size | Still watching Drifter, somewhat impatiently, Jane says, "They do sound interesting, I'll just pop through and give them a look, ok?" Before Drifter can respond, Jane flits up to the rift Drifter created and grabs the edges thereof. Pulling her wings in tight, she wiggles through the hole. |
| Colonel Flagg speaks, "I've got a squad of mercs, as soon as we coordinate with Smohk, we were planning to take out that weird-looking antenna array to disable their communications. But that needs to change." "Watching the soldiers around the thing has me convinced they're not comms specialists. They act like artillery crew. I was hoping Lt. Smohk could give us some insight." he says. |
| Colonel Flagg speaks, "If we engage the squad around the cannon before the comms are down, we'll have more company than we can handle. With the help of Zee, Paragon, and Drifter we might be able to bring down the cannon before they're reinforced, but that wouldn't stop them rebuilding it in short order." "It seems to me that cannon is the center of gravity, once it's eliminated Lt. Smohk could bring that boat in. Once that's done, either the submarine or the communications system would become the center of gravity. Both of these would have to be controlled from some sort of larger installation. I'm not sure who, but someone would need to get into that base and disable their comms so we wouldn't get overrun." "Once the electro-static cannon and communications are down, Panamanian forces are poised to launch an offensive with the help of partisans so Chinilaya can rejoin Panama thus strengthening our ally." The colonel pauses, dramatically, then says, "those are the orders I was given, and how I'll proceed." |