Lauren applies the brake, takes a moment to figure out how to put the JLTV in to park. It would be fair to say that she's finding mastering the skill of driving big armored vehicle to be hard going, as evidenced by the way that she'd jolted everyone about in their seats before they'd even cleared Pendleton's village limits, forcing her to raise a hand in apology to the others at the time. She certainly doesn't relish the possibility of trying to drive over the fallen tree that's blocking their path and potentially damaging their most valuable asset. That would not look good.

She could tell Anderson to chew it up with the Ma Deuce but she doesn't know how effective that's going to be, and besides, fifty cal ammo is too precious to waste just to save them from some manual exertion under the hot Sun. Ditto a forty mike mike HE. "Looks like we're going to have to haul that thing out of the way." The Captain says to the others in the vehicle. They've got a cable onboard that should be able to handle the job. "Unless anyone has any other ideas?" She turns in her seat, looks around at the other faces in the JLTV. "I'm open to suggestions."

Having done as much as he can for now – he’ll need to revisit Mr Morley before they go, otherwise Nurse / Mayor Thomas will need to take care of it if they don’t stick around long enough – Carswell walks back to Ace Hardware. Maggie stays with him. Maybe it’s the fact that something a little different is going on to break up her usual routine.

The conversation with Mrs Kowalska has cast the matter of the missing items in a slightly different light. The medic has to admit, the lady had a point. You’d have to be pretty crazy to come across the river in a boat in the middle of the weather that they’ve just had.  Maybe some folks prefer to blame the guys across the river rather than think that one of their own might be stealing from them. Maybe Rios and Guillory can sort it all out when they get back. If the thief is a local then maybe they’ll be able to recover the gear. Maybe.

Arriving back at the truck in time to see Saul observing something on the bridge, Mike turns to Maggie. ”You best wait here for now, Maggie."

The young woman shakes her head. ”Uh uh, I want to see what’s going on.” Her face looks set. Carswell decides there’s no point in getting in to an argument over it, especially as he’ll likely lose, walks over to Saul, Maggie in tow. ”The Mississippi boys finally decided to send someone to help now that there’s no work to be done?” he asks the former Marine / cop ironically. "Oh, and this is Maggie."

Maggie smiles at Saul. "Hi."

In reply to Good Ol' Rae (msg # 43):

Tori looked around the shop and at the wrecker.  Her keen eye, honed by two years in highway patrol, took in every possible infraction and citable offence.  She scanned the inspection sticker date, the licence plate renewal tag, checked every headlight, tail light, and blinker with a quick glance to make sure they were all sans damage... a tall bar given the whole "Apocalypse" that was going on.

She'd hate to have to impound this vehicle; but she would. First however, she'd let Scott play the good cop.  And if that didn't work....
This message was last edited by the player at 12:35, Mon 29 Oct 2018.

It's a good old Deep South Scorcher out here in the sun, Saul thinks to himself from the side of Ace Hardware.  "Probably hot on those Mississippi boys, too," he says to no one at all while lowering the binoculars from his eyes.  Maybe talking to himself more is a sign of impending old-age.  Not that he would have called fifty plus old in the days prior to the war.  Hell, he was just hitting his stride.  Sure.

It's not exactly a critical puzzle to figure out what the folks on the bridge are looking at.  Probably trying to figure out most of what the Arkansas team had already discovered.  Or at least trying to look like they could figure it out.

"Well hello, Miss Maggie," Saul says to the newly minted Carswell tag-a-long with a wide grin and a bucket of charm. "Saul Noble, nice to meet you."  Weathered fingers tilt the brim of the baseball cap he's wearing.  His brain has been slow roasted in enough theaters that the former Marine figure he's earned the right to doff the Kevlar bowl in more secure areas.  Mike gets a more subdued nod of the head and an offer of the binos.

"Looks like they're trying to figure out what we're up to," Saul says about the Ole'Miss brigade.  "Course, it didn't look like they had a brain like our Xandra on that side of the river to cook up a solution to this bridge mess."

Saul takes in Maggie out of the corner of his eye, making sure not to stare.  Mohawk or not, Saul knows better than to pay too much attention.  Gauging maybe.  It's not hard for him to picture Carissa in this girl's shoes not that many years ago.  "Miss Maggie, perhaps you could help an old man out.  Those boys over there seemed to think that they had some issues with the people of Pendleton.  Any reason why that might be?"

Scott grins.  "Well, initially, I was gonna ask what your usual rates are, but you're right - this is a little bigger than righting a rolled semi.  More of a maritime salvage operation, really, which is what my engineer used to do.  So I asked her what her heavy equipment engineers used to charge when she subcontracted out."  It's only a slight exaggeration of Xandra's prewar status.  Scott checks his notes and names a sum as an opening salvo.  "It's a state job, so we'll indemnify you for any damage or losses out of Guard assets.  If you get down there and it turns out to not be something we can do safely, we'll still cover your time and expenses."

He shrugs and thinks back to the mail censorship and the town's general wariness.  "And if there's other support you or your neighbors need, maybe we can throw you something there as well."

"Remember that sniper in Saving Private Ryan?  The one who kissed his crucifix, quoted some biblical passage, then killed Nazis with his bolt action rifle?  You know, back when killin' Nazis was what Americans did.  Anyway, that dude plowed through Krauts until a tank showed up.  That tank ruined his whole day.  Wonder what he'd have given for a big enough tree to throw down in front of any approaching armor," Anderson speculated out loud.  It was a very roundabout way of saying, fuck getting out of the vehicle right now.

Cole started to traverse the turret, looking for likely hide sites for any marksman.  Maybe they didn't have enough ammo to waste on a tree, but he wasn't above some recon by fifty-cal fire.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:02, Tue 30 Oct 2018.

Lauren’s never actually seen Saving Private Ryan, although she has – vaguely – heard of it. The reference, though, is lost on her. The fact that their path is being blocked by a tree that may have been put there intentionally is not. Realistically though it’s unlikely that they’re going to catch the sniper without getting out of the JLTV. That’s presuming there is a sniper. Not that there’s any reason for the Mississippi personnel to lie about having coming under fire. But what his – or her – motives were is, at the moment, a mystery.

”We can back up, come back with the chainsaw.” The Air Force Captain muses. She’s thinking aloud rather than outlining a specific plan of action. Inputs are not only welcome, they’re encouraged. ”Or we can try the path further south.” As yet she didn’t know whether that path was wide enough to take the JLTV. ”Either way, we’re still going to have to get rid of this thing eventually. Which is going to involve getting out.” It could just be a roadblock, with no one watching it, rather than a potential ambush site. Lauren looks out of the armored glass. They have no way of knowing right now.

She turns her head back towards those inside the vehicle. ”If it is an ambush site then we have an advantage of sorts. Rather than having to track the sniper through God knows how many miles of forest we have a rough idea of where to look for him. We can head back to Pendleton for now, put the drone up, and see if we get anything with the IR and thermal sweeps, concentrating in this area.” Provided the trees didn’t get in the way too much. ”Then we can come back in, either mounted or on foot. Or both.”

”Thanks man.” Carswell takes the offered binos, raises them up so that he can observe the men on the bridge, realizing as he does so that he’s looking at the two Mississippi State Guardsmen as though they are some sort of enemy soldiers, encroaching on his territory, not two Americans who just so happen to be from the neighboring State. How the fuck did we get to this place? The medic thinks to himself. It’s rhetorical of course, he knows the answer, knows that it all started long before the War. Knows who was responsible. But still...this is fucked up.

After watching them for a moment longer the medic lowers the binos, looks over at Maggie. He still has to bring Saul up to speed on what Mrs Kowalska told him about the thief maybe being from this side of the river, but he’ll wait until the teenager has answered Saul before saying anything.

"Damn good idea Captain.  Better safe than sorry," Cole said, still scanning the area.  "There are no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidences.", Anderson said, quoting one of his favorite movies.  The one he watched the day after Donald Trump was elected as part of a double feature.  The second movie had been "The Manchurian Candidate", with Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber.

Bourbon Street

Alonzo ponders Guillory's offer. "I'll take a look. If I think Serena can handle it, then you got yourself a deal. If I ain't possible, we're free to go, right?"

Guillory's nod is subtle, arguably non-committal, but the wrecker operator interprets it as assent.

"I've got some things I've got to take care 'round here before I can leave. You're welcome to wait for me here, or I can meet you in Pendleton in an hour or so."

With Zo's assurance that he'll be following along shortly, Bourbon Street rolls east out of town. Just past the outskirts, flashing blue and red lights appear in Rios' rearview mirror. Gould's police SUV is behind, closing. Apparently, its driver wants the former Arkansas State Police SUV to stop.

Razorback

The forest road is narrow, hemmed in by trees on either side. Cao has to back and fill a couple of times before the L-LTV is turned around. During that time, Razorback is vulnerable, unable to quickly maneuver out of danger. Up in the gun turret, Anderson does his best to cover all the angles, but it's a Sisyphean task. Fortunately, for everyone on board, no ambush materializes. Either there is no sniper lying in wait here, or he/she didn't have the nerve to attack the armored beast. Cao drives back to Pendleton, then proceeds through the tiny town to a cutting that the locals had told her about- an alternate route to the dam. The lead doesn't quite pan out. The cutting is a crude, unpacked dirt track, still sodden from the heavy rains. Even a relatively inexperienced off-roader like Cao can adjudge the risk of getting bogged down on the muddy path as fairly high.

Ace Hardware



The teenager opens her mouth to reply, hesitates. "I don't know." she finally answers, her cheeks, still retaining some of the soft contours of stubborn baby fat, flushing. It's clear that she's holding something back. Carswell and Noble prod, gently, the medic projecting a cool older guy vibe, Saul a fatherly forbearance. The teenager's resolve finally cracks. "Someone may have shot at 'em," she admits. "I don't know who, though," she adds, almost too quickly.

The two Mississippi State Guardsmen, mill around a bit on the bridge. They look down at Pendleton, see Saul and Mike glassing them. One of the men waves, then both start heading back the way they came.


Your Turn.

-
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:34, Thu 01 Nov 2018.

”This might be an option if we can borrow some ATV’s” Lauren muses as she looks at the southern track. Having established for future reference that doesn’t appear to be suitable for the JLTV, Lauren then steers the armored vehicle back towards the car park.

”OK, let’s dismount.” She announces when they have rolled to a halt on the asphalt. ”Sergeant Anderson, can you take care of getting the drone up? I'll go check back in with Mr Noble then come back over and we can review the feed. We’ll brief in -” she looks at her watch ”- thirty minutes. We should have the drone’s take by then. Kabua, Ms Noble, you can stand down until then.” She tries to keep the frustration out of her voice at being effectively back where they started without having made any progress as she gives the order for everyone to get out of the vehicle. Impatience is a trait that’s cost her dearly before, most noticeably at Carthage. Only there it had been called recklessness. Amongst other things.

But that doesn’t stop her lingering a moment in Razorback after the others have dismounted to gather her thoughts. When she does step down from the air conditioned coolness and back into the heat,  she walks over to where Mr Noble and Carswell are standing watching the other side of the bridge, accompanied by on of the locals, nods to the three of them. ”The road’s blocked.” She offers by way of explanation for their early return. ”And there may or may not be hostiles in the woods so we’re going to put the drone up before we go back in.”

The Air Force Captain turns her attention to the other side of the bridge. ”Anything happening over there?”
This message was last edited by the player at 12:00, Thu 01 Nov 2018.

"That's too bad," Saul says shaking his head at Maggie's words.  He gives the militiamen on the bridge a friendly return wave.  "This world is hard enough without people taking pot-shots at each other.  Leaves me a little worried, though.  My daughter, Carissa, has been looking for the source of the gunshots." Saul motions to the folks dismounting from Razorback. "You remind me of her quite a bit.  Wanting to carve out your own path.  That's her, in the black ball cap, you should chat with her if you get the chance.  You'd probably get a kick out of her."

Saul stretches a bit, holds a finger up to the approaching Captain Cao in a subtle signal to hold back a second.  "Don't tell her, but I hate seeing her out here, sticking her neck out. I don't want her, or anyone else to get hurt.  'Course she's worried about me being out here, sticking my neck out.  So I guess we're even, right?  And then we both pretend not to worry about each other."  The former cop and father of three daughters shakes his head and laughs. "Listen to me rambling.  I'm sorry.  If you find out anything about who might have taken the shots, do me a favor and let me know, okay?"

A nod tells Cao she's clear to approach, but he doesn't quite dismiss Maggie.  He turns his body just enough to include her in the conversation as an equal and like the grown up she's been forced to become.  "Makes sense, ma'am.  No need for reckless behavior."  He wants Maggie to see his acknowledgement of Cao's command. "As for the maybe friendly neighbors, looks like they wanted to see what we saw.  They gave us a wave, so that's probably a start.  If we can settle this problem with them taking fire, I'll hobble on over and try to patch things up."

"Huh."  Scott looks over at Rios.  "Am I the only one getting a bad feeling about this?"  He checks his holster and is suddenly glad he hasn't taken his plate carrier off yet.  "May as well just stop.  Not like there's enough traffic to need a place to pull over."

As the lieutenant brings the Suburban to a halt, Scott swings his door open and steps to the rear of the vehicle.  He pastes a noncommittal smile on his face and raises his left hand in a casual wave - one cop acknowledging another, not a suspect being contacted in a traffic stop.  His right thumb is hooked over his plate carrier's magazine pouch, putting his hand in each reach of his holster or the array of grenade loops over his side plate.  If anything comes out of that SUV that isn't the known local authorities with a sudden case of helpfulness, he's ready to fling himself behind the Suburban's right rear quarter panel for cover.

"Off we go, into the wild blue yonder," Cole muttered with feigned enthusiasm as he hand-launched the Raven DDL.  Sadly, the small drone comprised a much larger percentage of the active U.S. Air Force now than it did when it was manufactured.

"Alright, setting waypoints and bringing the sensors online," he said as he switched to the control console to guide the craft.

"We're low vis, so they may not know we are Police," Tori remarked.  She was about to fix that.  She flipped on the strobes and lights, activating Bourbon Street's visual system.  The siren stayed off for now, as Tori's eyes moved between the rear view and side mirrors to monitor the response.  She slowly started to ease off the gas, eventually stopping, assuming there was no change in behavior.

"Fuckin' cops," Duane remarks, a wink in his tone. He removes his hi-cap .45 from it's holster, flicks the safety off. "Just in case," he explains, trying reassure his teammates that he's not about to do anything stupid.

-

Chevelle looks sidelong at Skillins, not quite convinced by his assurances. "Stay cool, Skillins," she urges, trying to sound calm. At the same time, she works the safety on her 12-gauge Remy. If things go sideways, she won't be caught out.

-

Bourbon Street

The front doors of the Gould PD SUV swing open. Officer Wilkins emerges from the driver-side, Chief Wayne from the passenger's. Both mean are wearing black or dark blue plate carriers emblazoned in yellow with POLICE, AR-15-style carbines in hand, held at the low ready. Wilkins hangs back as Chief Wayne walks towards Bourbon Street.

"Heard you made a business arrangement with Zo Morris- something about a river barge. That so?" the chief asks as he approaches. Wilkins has taken a few steps to his left, clearing a direct line to the pulled-over Suburban.

The back doors of the Gould PD SUV open. Two more men step out, both in plain clothes, both wearing aviator shades, both armed. One wears a bulletproof vest (not a plate carrier), holds a tactical shotgun. The other is armed with a sub-gun, an MP5 it looks like. They stick close to the flanks of the Ford.


Ace Hardware & Razorback

The drone rises into the sky, low-vis gray against an expansive backdrop of Robin's egg blue. The feed from its imagers is coming in five-by-five. Anderson and Cao watch as the drone retraces the J-LTV's tracks. The curious ravens alight from the first silo, falling into formation behind the curious creature.

The cameras don't pick up anything of note. It's on to the next loading station, for more of the same, and then to the road cutting across the peninsula to the bridge. Anderson zooms in on the area around the fallen tree. Nothing. He switches on the thermal. Nada. He orbits the area, moving further from the treefall with every circuit. There! A heat signature, hot white against the relatively dark, ambient cool of the shady wood. It's about 50m east of the obstruction, 50m south of the roadway. It's shapeless, a blob. Whatever it is, it isn't moving. Anderson zooms in. Not much better. He cuts the thermal and the heat source disappears beneath the dark green canopy.

Map updated.


Your Turn.

-
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:11, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

There's an old cop saying... you might outrun my car, but you can't outrun the radio...

Seeing that the trailing vehicle didn't get spooked, Tori brought the FAV SUV to a stop using the breaks.  Instinctively, she reached for the rover.

"Ace Hardware, this is Bourbon Street.  Be advised we are being pulled over by the Gould PD, As Rios recognized the Chief and his minon emerge, she added that.  "Looks like Chief Wayne and Officer Wilkins, plus two pax.  We'll check-in in five mikes, over," Tori said.  She left unsaid that if they didn't check in five mikes or longer, who might be the prime suspect in their disappearance.  Victoria kept the handset in her lap, her armored vehicle door closed, and the engine running and transmission in drive.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:23, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

Lauren leans back in her seat in the JLTV, looks at the screen that just shows trees again now that the thermal view has been switched off. "Well, someone's out there." She remarks to Cole, fingers rubbing her neck as she speaks. Her first thought that springs to mind is that it might be one of the Varner escapees that are still at large, although it seems improbable that one of them would loiter in the woods. Still, it can't be ruled out.

"Could be someone that just wants to stay off the grid." She's thinking aloud, throwing options out there, seeing what might stick. "A prepper maybe, that wants to be left alone." She takes a sip of water. It's cool, refreshing. The air con in the JLTV is a justifiable luxury given that it helps keep the vehicle's various electronics cooled. "Or it could be a lookout for a larger group." Some sort of militia group maybe, decked out in multi cam and red hats.

Cao turns in her seat to face Anderson. "I think we need to go back in on foot, try and catch this person -" her finger doesn't quite touch the screen as she points towards where the blob had been "- so we can question them, find out who they are, if they're alone."

The Air Force Captain is about to tell Anderson to extend the orbit of the drone further east, towards the dam, to see if they can detect any other heat signatures when she hears Rios' voice over the radio. Hold that thought. If their people are in trouble that takes priority.

"Can you revector the drone towards Gould, try and get eyes on Guillory and Rios?" She asks Anderson before scrambling forward, bumping against the Sergeant as she wriggles into the front seat and reaches for the radio mic. "Loba, Falcon, we're redirecting the drone to your location." To be sure, there's risk involved. If things go south the drone might be shot down. But they have three more, so it's replaceable. And the Gould PD people can't know that the drone is unarmed. "Do you want us to roll Razorback to you? Over." If the local PD are playing games Lauren is going to be seriously pissed off. They have other things they could be doing right now instead of getting into it with a podunk local cop. Like finding out who's in that forest.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:19, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

"Yep, I'm on it," Cole said as he started to mark up a new set of way points.  He'd just started on the second one when Cao bumped against him and reached for the mic.  "Easy there Captain," was all he got out before realizing she was already talking on the radio.  He'd been about to add some qip about not needing a SHARP accusation in his file, but it was both OBE and something he now thought better of, especially considering what it implied about that brief physical contact with his CO.

Scott keeps one ear tuned to the preparations occurring inside the Suburban.  The better part of his mind is assessing the amazingly shitty odds.  It occurs to him that although Cao is probably right about helmets in unpacified areas, this was supposed to be at least a nominally friendly area.

"That's so," Scott confirms with a nod.  "Barge is hung up on the 165 bridge in Pendleton.  We're going to shift it loose before it does any more damage to critical infrastructure."

He flicks his eyes toward the two men remaining at the Ford, gauging angles and ranges and whether the majority of their focus is on him or on Wayne and Wilkins.  His tone lowers, just enough that he won't be audible back at the other vehicle, and cools about twenty degrees.  "I don't believe I've met your associates before, Chief, and you're loaded a bit heavy for a casual chat.  Is there something Captain Cao and I need to be aware of?"

Chief Wayne smiles without warmth. "Only that I make it my business to know what goes on in my town. As for the boys," he hooks a thumb over his shoulder, "I ain't be tryin' to roll up all hard on ya- it's just, these days, it's better to be safe than sorry, that's all. I'm sure you understand."

Wayne gives his men a curt wave. They climb back into their SUV. "Zo will be along shortly. One of my men will accompany him- security. Please undertand, Mr. Guillory, it ain't that I don't trust you- it's just that I don't trust nobody." Behind mirrored shades, Wayne's eye fix on Guillory's for a few beats. His lips smile again. "Sorry for the inconvenience, here. Y'all have a nice day. And good luck with the barge."


-
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:29, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

Carissa ambles over to her father and the small group he seems to be holding court over after settling her heavier gear and getting a refill of her water bottles.  The humid heat wears hard and fast and leaving the AC confines of the JLTV isn't exactly a refreshing change.  Not that she'll show any discomfort.

"Old man," Carissa nods to her dad with a smile.

"Daughter," he returns.  You good?

"We didn't see much out there.  I guess we'll see what the drone finds.  Miss anything fun here?" Sure.

"Nah.  The boys across the bridge got curious.  Mike brought Maggie here over to say 'hi.'  She's the local you."  Saul gestures to the girl with the punk hair cut that has been hovering at the edge of the conversation.  She's got that fighter look about her.

Carissa raises her sunglasses and peers at the teenager with her naked eyes.  Maggie doesn't really flinch, even if she doesn't really know what to do.  Carissa isn't that much older, but she is a lot bigger. "I assume you mean that in a good way," Carissa drawls out slowly.

"I absolutely do."

"Rodeo?"

"Medic and resident tough chick."

At that Carissa smiles. "Nice," she says and offers Maggie a set of knuckles to bump.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:05, Mon 05 Nov 2018.

"'In God we trust; all others, show me your hands?'" Scott quotes rhetorically.  He flashes Wayne an equally cold smile.  "Trust is the basis for the civilization we're trying to preserve, Chief.  I hate to think of an Arkansas where trust breaks down so far that coercion is the only mechanism of governance.  Saw enough of that in New Orleans."

He pauses for emphasis.  "But I'll admit the roads probably aren't as secure as we'd like.  So, yeah, sending one of your men along to ride shotgun for Zo sounds like a good idea.  Might be even better if we waited around to give him an escort."