The sun beat down on Dask and his crew as they weaved their way through the dense forests of the slopes of Nephilim Mountains. The ETU job hadn’t been exaggerating when they described the nature of the terrain. It was dense with centuries old forests with an almost tropical climate. The forest floor was choked with highly invasive species of vines and ferns. These plants had been introduced after the last Converter invasion to help cleanse the radiation poisoned atmosphere. The plants were tolerant of radiation and toxins, and were capable of absorbing and neutralising those contaminants. These plants had been extremely successful at their task and now dominated their niche in the current ecosystem. Every now and then, Dask stumbled as he found himself tripping on a loose pile of collapsed building material, now mostly covered by a layer of soil and forest litter. Every now and then they passed some still standing walls; tombstones for the massive sprawls that had once dominated the slopes of the Nephilim Mountains.
The ambush from Dask’s brother had given him and his crew a moment to breathe. They’d taken a couple of days to allow Shoutheri time to fully recover before they committed to their next action, especially since ETU had given them a broad timeline to complete their objective.
Midori and Dask had taken some time to browse the markets of Calhoun City. Dask had managed to offload some old salvage while Midori was offered some old tech which may have been either valuable or worthless, an offer which she declined.
Actions - Midori / Dask - Trading
Whillem and Estra had managed to finally fix the blaster pistol that they had been working on. Whillem now had it strapped to his hip, however he had kept the automatic rifle that he had used during the last encounter. Whilem led their column with his automatic rifle held at the low ready, while Estra brought up the rear with her shotgun.
Actions - Whillem / Estra - Repair
Shoutheri, rather than using the couple of days to recover, instead went off to explore Calhoun City as he usually does. He had made some contacts with a local arms dealer, but given how many spares they had in the shipboard armoury he had decided not to purchase anything.
Action - Shoutheri - Explore / Arms Dealer
They had flown the Hand of Fortune from Calhoun City and set down at a small frontier settlement that was loosely under control of the Harlen’s World planetary government. From the settlement, they had hired a ground car and drove up a narrow gravel track until the track disappeared, and Dask and his crew were faced with vegetation too tightly packed for the car to proceed. From that point they dismounted and proceeded on foot further up the mountain, and and towards the site where ETU had dropped their automated eco-monitoring stations. At this point they had left civilization behind, this land was controlled by outlaws and survivalists. The towns at the foot of the mountains regular faced raids from holdfasts up the mountain; either bandits with outstanding warrants, or survivalists that had fled to the mountains generations ago during the Converter invasion. Both parties had a deep seated hatred for Unity, and were more than willing to rob settlements and kill settlers either for material gain, to extort tribute, or out of simple spite.
“Dask!” Whillem hissed as he dropped to one knee and crouched down behind a fallen log.
The entire column mirrored Whillem’s actions as they lowered themselves to the ground as deep as they could go. Dask crouched down beside Whillem and looked at the Feral.
“Noises up ahead, I think we’ve got trouble.” Whillem murmured.
“Okay, got it,” Dask replied as he keyed his comm to the rest of the team.
“Okay people, possible trouble up ahead. Fan out and keep your heads on a swivel.” Dask said.
New Minis
Before I begin, I have finished up a batch of minis and I’ve got a couple of new ones to replace the current ones I’m using for the following characters.
Dask
Estra
Action
“Move, move, move!” Dask hissed as he gestured his group forward.
Dask could hear the voices now, somewhere up ahead the low murmur of conversation drifted down the valley.
“Sensors were tripped in this sector, could be Unity, guns up.” a distant voiced called out.
“Come on, over here! Get down!” Dask hissed as he gestured towards a low rise in between his party and the loose skirmish line of outlaws that came down the valley with their guns held at the low ready.
Dask keyed the team comm again.
“Okay, stay down and wait for them to get right on top of us. We’ll get the drop on them,” he whispered.
Everyone crouched low and held their weapons ready to go as the crunch of boots on forest floor came closer and closer.
“Movement pings, just over the rise, guns up and flush them out, go!” One of the outlaws called out.
“We’ve been made, go loud!” Dask yelled just as a volley of gunfire slashed overhead, narrowly avoiding Dask’s team.
Dask looked up just in time to see an outlaw sweep forward, a very old rifle held at the low ready. The outlaw and Dask locked eyes and began to trade shots.
On the left flank, Whillem and Estra sprang into action. Estra ran hard for the cover of a nearby tree while two of the surprised outlaws tried to draw a bead. Estra traded shots with her shotgun, but didn’t hit her target. The two outlaws didn’t see Whilem follow Estra into view and draw down on them with his auto rifle. The weapon bucked in his paws and his volley brought down the lead outlaw.
Dask and Shoutheri clambered up onto the rise, their weapons spitting fire at the outlaws. Dask’s hand cannon found its mark and brought down his shooter, while Shouteri’s laser scored a hit on another outlaw.
On the right flank Midori and P’Hol advanced on another pair of outlaws that were trying to get a flank. Midori climbed up onto the rise and took down the lead outlaw with a ruby red beam of laser fire, while P’Hol dashed out and sprayed the second outlaw with her subgun. The outlaw was a heavy set feral with a military style rifle, and shrugged off the shots without only a few growls of pain.
The Outlaws collapsed on the left flank, Estra swept forward and took down another one with a shotgun blast while Shoutheri and Whillem advanced on the remaining outlaw, a man with a marksman’s rifle and shot him down.
The feral in front of P’Hol swung his rifle around and fired a short burst at P’Hol, who took the volley in the upper chest, she staggered backward and collapsed with the force of the blow.
“P’Hol!” Midori yelled as she came forward and fired her laser, scoring another hit, but the Feral remained standing. Dask followed up and aimed on the move and fired. His shot landed home, and the Feral at last fell.
“Clear!” Shouteri called from his end of the line.
Midori ran forward and crouched beside P’Hol and began checking her vitals. Dask holstered his weapons and strode forward and looked down at P’Hol. Midori rolled P’Hol onto her back and used a knife to cut away the composites of her armour vest. The volley had blown right through, smashed into her ribcage and exited through her spine. There was so much blood, pale blue in colour. Dask felt his stomach churn as his gaze drifted up to P’Hol’s face. Dask knelt down beside her and cradled her head in his hands. Her eyes looked up at the sky and saw nothing, there was a look of surprise on her unmoving face.
“She’s dead,” Dask whispered.
Midori threw away a mass of bandages that she had tried to use to staunch the bleeding in the chest cavity but finally gave up when she realised that P’Hol’s heart had been utterly destroyed.
“Yeah, she’s dead,” Midori whispered.
No comments:
Post a Comment