|
Garthik’s commlink chimes, shortly before the gruff voice of Ribas Salek can be heard: “Commando team, report current status.” It’s been days since anyone heard from Salek – no one’s heard a word from him since his capture and subsequent escape from the Zarists.
“Status green,” Garthik says into his commlink after looking at it in confusion for a few moments, “Require confirmation code, Burrow Mother, word is you’ve been having some difficulty lately.” He glances about at the team, making a mute gesture across his throat.
“The code is ‘Opodi’s Hot Box,’” the insurgency commander replies over the commlink. “Don’t have long. Just checking in to report that I’m okay and wanted to make sure the camp had safely relocated. I’ve been trying to track down the traitor, Ortik. I think he’s at a supply depot in Ope’mot.”
Haffa, who stands near with the rest of the group, chewing on a large peice of cooked meat, listens quietly. Though he does give Garthik a dirty look when makes the gesture. Granted, he knows that it’s not meant for him specific, but it makes him unconciously itch at the mass of scarwork on his throat regardless. “Trruust.” is the one word scratchy, gutteral, and hardly understandable word that comes out of his mouth.
Esmer listens quietly from her perch on Garthik’s shoulder. The static blip of the commlink as he responds causes her large ears to twitch and swivel outward. She leans forward, head tilted to study the Llivori’s expression, but remains otherwise silent.
“If he’s found the Opodian loving fuzzball who brought the scaleheads down on us, let’s go find him and blow him to bits!” Mert says, bouncing lightly on his legs. “A supply depot would put some kinks in their plans!”
“We got word from Cliffwalker that everybody still alive got out ok. Most of those Confederate yellow-bellies took a vacation but he and a few others stayed on.” He glares at Mert, rolling his eyes angrily.
Chezat is vaguely paying attention, more drawn up in his datapad, surely doing some combat relevent calculations. Or perhaps playing solitaire.
Zu is nearby as the plan is discussed and is paying a decent amount of attention. For now, however, he does nothing but listen and await orders.
“Transmitting the coordinates of the camp,” Ribas replies, moments before a signal beeps on Garthik’s PDA. “It’s not heavily defended, just twenty Nall and a few pudgy Opodian overseers. The Gankri is doing quartermaster work for them, no surprise. Should find him in the warehouse, if he doesn’t escape.” A pause, then, “I really don’t want him to escape. But it’s mostly important to blow that depot. The more of those we wreck, the better our chances of stretching their supplies to the breaking point. Can’t keep their blocks in place if they can’t feed the troops.”
Haffa takes another hearty bite of what he’s eating, the larger-than-sual Llivori having little to say at the moment. A glare goes to Garthik with his one good eye, the scarred one shaking his head. “Fooolesh.” he grunts out between chews. Hard to say what that means toward.
When she’s sure the comm is going to remain silent, Esmer stretches out a wing and pokes Garthik in the side of his face like an annoying leathery gnat. “Are we gonna go, then, boss? We gonna go hit the supply depot? And by ‘we’ I mostly mean you, boss.”
“Come on! Come on come on come on come on..” Mert starts to repeat ad infinitum, bouncing more and more vigorously on his feet as attacking the base is discussed.
Garthik mutes his commlink and turns towards Haffa. “Don’t like it?” he growls, “Go hang out with those Aukami-sucking Opodians. Now shut up. You too…” He adds that last part to Mert and gently swats Esmer on the back of the head before keying his commlink again. “We will have a look,” he says, “With all due respect, sir, you understand that I can’t take any information from you at face value.”
“Absolutely understood,” Ribas replies. “Salek out.” The line goes silent as the rebel commander breaks off before anyone can establish a trace.
Chezat perks at the chime of coordinates. “I can’t believe I shared my grilled cheese sandwich with that guy,” he grumbles, presumably referring to Ortik. When Garthik delivers the swatting, he shuffles a safe distance away.
Haffa all but -snarls- at Garthik, his voice so shredded by Nall claws it sounds like something else. And while he really can’t say what he wants to as it’s simply too hard to say more than a few words, he just narrows his eyes. “One leeesss.” Again, trying decipher meaing from his gutteral sounds is difficult to decipher.
Esmer squeaks, and the sound is followed by the snap of wings as she steadies herself. She reaches up to rub the back of her head, grumbling beneath her breath about unwashed Llivori stink, but otherwise refrains from sticking herself right into Garthik’s line of sight. Instead, she wraps her wings in tight and hunkers down. She offers Haffa very blank expression before shaking her head slightly.
“We are going to take a look,” Garthik tells the others, “Esmer, you’re my eyes and ears, but be careful. Don’t want you running into a crossfire again.” He gestures off in the general direction of the depot and begins marching off that way.
Mert is still bouncing vigorously, but he quiets down dome now that he hears they’re going to go blow stuff up. “Oh boy.. oh boy!”
Zu flies off to follow staying about beside Mert as they go along and keeps an ear out for anything that might be waiting for them along the way. Other than the flapping of his wings he is rather silent right now.
Soon enough, the squad arrives on the outskirts of Ope’mot to find a fenced supply depot at the jungle’s edge, not far from the city harbor. The intel from Ribas appears incorrect, though, but only a little: The camp has 15 Nall currently visible at various posts, about three Opodians, and two previously unmentioned Tupai air scouts circling above. Oh, and the Gankri known as Ortik? He’s sitting on the stoop of the camp warehouse, slurping a green beverage and chatting it up with one of his Opodian cohorts.
“Alright boss,” Esmer murmurs before launching herself into the air. She circles once over the group before riding a draft some yards ahead. Just before the jungle’s edge, she drops down into the treeline and perches on a branch. Her large ears swivel back and forth while listening intently and echolocating for scouts. “Two wings in the air, boss,” she whispers into her commlink.
Chezat follows after the squad on foot, a frown stretching over his maw when Esmer mentions the airborn scouts. “Welp, how stealthy do we want to be about this, boss…”
Garthik brings his sniper rifle off his shoulder and takes out a silencer and begins to screw it onto the end of the barrel. “See if you can use a ping to draw them somewhere I can bring them down, will you?” he asks the Tupai above him. “Anyone else with a long-range rifle get ready to try to take them out,” he says, settling down to the prone position.
“Very,” Garthik adds to Chezat.
Mert finds a large boulder to stand behind and perches his rifle on it for better accuracy, waiting for the enemy to line up in his sights.
Haffa, being not of a long range shooter, pulls out his battered and beaten dual pistols from their holsters. There’s not a lot he can do right now. Even his bandolier of grenades are not within throwing range, and his backpack of explosives? Forget about it. The demoman isn’t getting any work done until they can close in.
Zu does as he’s told and sends a ping to the Tupai to draw them towards the group and grabs a pulse pistol just in case they decide to come for him in particular.
Chezat isn’t quite a sniper as well, and decides to fly up to perch on a branch near Esmer, just in case she may need assista- welp, looks like Zu’s got that covered.
Garthik settles in, taking aim at the Tupai along the sights of his rifle. He breathes in, out, in, out, in … then he holds the breath for a moment before letting it out slowly, preparing to fire.
Esmer studies the situation for a moment after Garthik’s order is delivered. She readies herself with wings spread to swoop into a dive and send a out high-frequency chirp as bait, but pauses as she hears a fellow Tupai take the dive instead. Teetering on her branch, she remains silent and attentive, ears swiveling.
Pinged, the pair of Tupai in the sky above the supply depot exchange curious looks and then wing in the direction of the source. One Nall on a low guard tower looks up as he notes the redirected air scouts. He swivels his snout to gaze toward the area where the insurgents are lurking, but he doesn’t appear to see them yet.
Mert continues to wait for a good target as the trap is set for the two Tupai scouts, his eye looking down the sights of his rifle.
Like everyone else, Haffa waits. Suppose could always shoot at the pair of Tupai, but those might still be out of his range still.
Zu attempts to disappear from sight by heading up into the branches with the other Tupai and aiming the pistol at the pair as they fly. They don’t seem to be quite in range yet so he waits.
“Esmer, Chezat, Zu,” Garthik says in a measured voice, “Move to a position 90 degrees around the depot and approach from there. They will know we’re coming from here. Haffa, get us through the fence. Mert, get ready to take out the other Tupai if I can’t get it before it spots us.” He looks through his scope, lines up on the rear Tupai and squeezes the trigger.
Esmer’s head bobs once as the command comes over the comm, and she rustles her wing at Chezat before turning on the branch. “This way,” she mutters quietly before dropping down with her wings spread and drifting along just inside the treeline while attempting to circle the camp on the left. She utilizes her sonar freely to avoid branches and vines, while also limiting the amount of flapping in order to reduce the noise of her flight.
Chezat sighs as Zu, whom he considers some foolish rookie, climbs the branches. Garthik’s orders snap him to attention, and he lifts his heavy wings to take to the air after Esmer. He’s not quite as swift, and certainly not as quiet with the slow beating of his wings, only sparingly pinging obstructions.
The first Tupai doesn’t even have a chance to blurt out “Tell my wife I love her” before Garthik’s well-aimed shot strikes him in the chest and sends him into a plunging death spiral that ends with a leafy thud in the jungle. The second Tupai watches the descent with growing fury, swinging its attention around to try to find the source of the shot while activating his commlink to broadcast to the Nall below.
Mert draws a bead on the Tupai, finger resting on his trigger, waiting patiently to blast the winged menace when ordered.
Behind the rock as he is, Haffa takes this opportunity to make for the fenceline at the jungle’s edge. Still listening to the others, there will come a point where it won’t matter how loud they are, and it would be a lot simpler to simply blow a hole open in the fence line. Thus allowing fast access. Or the quieter way would simply using brut Llivori strength to tear it open. He sees the Tupai drop, not much time now. So it hasn’t gone to total pot yet. Flex his claws, he starts to rip a hole big enough in the fence for rest of land-borne to fit through.
Zu has his pistol put away and is following the other two almost straight away. Notably this Tupai is being far more quiet about his flight than Chezat. He is still rather silent however. Maybe it’s just to add to the stealth.
The sniper Llivori quickly shifts his aim, and doesn’t take as much time to settle in as he takes his shot. “Move,” he says simply, rising to head for the opening in the fence.
Unnoticed, Esmer drifts through the trees until she reaches a point on the eastern side of the depot. With a quiet chirp to her companions, she drops down onto a branch and pauses, leaning forward and using echolocation to discern the setup of the encampment from this angle. “We’re on the east side of the depot, boss,” she whispers into her comm. “What now?”
Chezat scrapes a few branches with his wingtips, jarring some leaves loose. He doesn’t expect Esmer to stop so short, and nearly stumbles into her when he tries to land. “This stealth crap just ain’t my gig,” he growls, dropping to dangle upside down and focus on his PDA.
The second scout Tupai is preparing to dive in raw fury at Garthik when the Llivori swings the rifle his way and picks him off just like his partner. Before he can cry “I was two days from retirement,” he’s dropping like a rock and skidding to a lifeless stop in the grass next to Garthik. Meanwhile, on that low tower in the camp, the Nall on duty catches sight of Chezat. He plucks a commlink from a box affixed to the tower rail and prepares to speak into it.
Mert sees the Tower Guard about to activate his commlink, and he draws a bead on him, squeezing the trigger to send a pulse blast right at the Nall’s head… preferably between his eyes.
Zu apparently continues to think they aren’t noticed and merely awaits his orders. To Chezat he comments in a voice so quiet that it would take Tupai hearing just to pick it up “I noticed.”
Garthik swings his rifle towards the Nall, his scope full of the clawed hand grasping for the commlink as he squeezes off a shot. “Chezat,” he says into his commlink, “I don’t want any maydays coming out of that camp. Get on it. Esmer, Zu, I want you to to begin strafing the camp, but don’t get too. I don’t want you getting hit by them or the … explosions. Look out for Orthik. Mert … Grenade Launcher. Aim for the supply warehouses.”
Esmer wiggles her booty a bit, using a wing to buffett Zu out of the way as she sidles along the branch. Garthik’s order buzzes over the comm, and she glances over to Zu to be sure her fellow Tupai is armed and ready. “Stay here,” she orders the other two before turning to check for a lower branch that might bring her closer to the encampment. In another breath, she dives and swoops, swinging to the right and dropping deftly onto another perch. She pulls her pistol free from its holster along her back, adjusts her sweater, and and then raises her weapon to take aim. “Be steady, Zu. In a few minutes, I’ll tell you where to move. Don’t stay at that one perch.”
“Right-o,” Chezat almost whispers, already tapping away at his PDA. He remains hanging from the branch as the other two fly off, and attempts to log into the depot’s network, hoping to disable any an all signals coming in and out with his own little jamming program.
The first shot fired by Mert misses the Nall in the watchtower – but only by a little, searing the flesh of his ridged brow as he’s turning to look at Zu and pull out the commlink. Infuriated, he clicks open the comm channel, prepared to shout a warning when Garthik blasts him in the head. Without so much as a moment to lament how he was a short-timer due to ship back to Nalhom on the next transport, he topples off the tower. Of course, the missed shot, the tumbling corpse of one dead Nall, and the computer security system wailing its alarm about an intrusion alert gets the depot hopping. And speaking of hopping – Ortik looks absolutely panicked as he lopes toward the closest gap in the fence to flee into the jungle. The other fourteen Nall are spilling out of the front gate in an effort to swarm the rebels. The Opodians go inside the depot warehouse and lock the door.
Mert sets his pulse rifle aside on the top of the boulder and brings the grenade launcher off his back, flipping up the sight and drawing a bead to put one right into the bulk of the Nalls that are swarming out. “DIE!!!!” he yells as he squeezes the trigger.
Zu sees Ortik attempting to flee and drops to a lower branch attempting to be reasonably quiet while doing so. The bat pulls the pistol out and takes aim at the base of the spine.
The sniper turns towards the Nall that are rushing out towards the entrance to the camp, waiting until the Nall start emerging from the smoke to take a shot with his rifle at the the first one that resolves into something clearly visible.
Esmer aims for any Nall in her vicinity and shoots.
Chezat grips his PDA with both of his thumbs and proceeds to smack his face with it, over and over. “FUCK! Bahhh… Sorry boss, I dunno’ how these dumbass Opodians learned to to program so well. Hrnnn, I’ma’ keep tryin’ to hack in and take out their communications.” Here goes a second attempt!
Mert’s explosive attack kills roughly half of the Nall attack swarm in a single blast. Bits of pebbled flesh, claw, and fangs are scattered about as flame and smoke roil near the front of the depot. One of the Nall scampering out of the maelstrom is bringing up his plasma rifle to shoot at Mert when he takes a hit to the gut from Garthik’s rifle. He doesn’t even have time to pull out some tender-hearted missive to give to a buddy to deliver to his family back home. Esmer takes a shot at the next scaleback charging from the smoke, but he stops, drops, and rolls before turning to shoot in her direction.
Chezat, meanwhile, manages to shut down the wailing alarm as he hacks into the depot computer system and blocks all comm traffic.
Oh, and Ortik? Zu’s shot paralyzes him and he goes down in a miserable heap near the jungle fence.
Mert takes a plasma blast that burns away his armor, wincing before another one burns away his fur and sends him backwards, smoke rising from the wound. Struggling, he pulls the launcher into place, loading it with an incendiary grenade. “Not… not done yet… lizard.. face!” he says as he shakily pulls the trigger to send the projectile towards the remaining Nall.
Zu makes a mental note of where Ortik lies either dead or disabled and turns his attention to the Nall leftovers. The bat raises his pistol once again to try and get a clear shot through all the smoke when he lines up with survivor 4 he fires at the head. Garthik watches the Nall burst into flames and takes aim at one of the ones that charges forward regardless, squeezing the trigger. “Esmer,” he calls into the comm, “Come back up here and pick up a grenade!”
A grenade? Startled out of her focus, Esmer immediately holsters her gun and launches herself off of the branch. She rises above the treeline, flying swiftly now that she no longer has to rely upon stealth. She drops down to the jungle’s edge by Garthik and lands upon a grenade while gazing up at the Llivori dubiously. “Where do I drop it, boss?”
Chezat NERDRAAAAGES. And succeeds. “Hell yeah!” He shouts triumphantly into the commlink, still dangling from the branch just outside of the fiery slaughter. “Communications are down, boss. Uhh, are you guys still alive…?”
Well, it’s apparently close to closing time for this particular supply depot. The comm signals are jammed. Another grenade blast from Mert took out half the remaining survivors, and then Zu and Garthik efficiently took out two of those survivors. Now, there’s only the one Nall left, scorched and smoke-choked and bloodthirsty. He recognizes the long odds, but seems to decide to go out screaming and leaping. He targets Garthik for the vengeance of the Goddess, claws flashing toward the Llivori’s throat.
Mert figures he can’t quite help Garthik without hitting him as well, so instead, he adjusts the launcher to aim towards the warehouse, looking for a window. “Die… Opodian.. scum…” he says as he lobs one over the fence…
The Llivori rises to meet the Nall with a snarl, bringing up his rifle to try to deflect the Nall claws, but they rake through his armor. He hisses angrily then swings the butt of his rifle at the Nall’s face. “Outverser filth,” he yells out.
Zu is about to shoot the last Nall when Garthik finishes him off. So instead the bat flies down to meet the commander of the group and informs him “I shot Ortik. He’s either dead or dying. Got him in the spine I think. Want me to go finish him or do we want him alive?”
Esmer’s clawed toes grip the grenade, and with a huff of air she launches herself back into the sky, wings fluttering furiously to bring her aloft. She drifts on a breeze and banks to the left, placing herself somewhere near the center of the depot. With her foot clutching the pin, she releases the grenade to let it drop upon the depot from on high. In the meantime, she swings about and begins to climb again, attempting to escape the blast radius.
The Llivori rises to meet the Nall with a snarl, bringing up his rifle to try to deflect the Nall claws, but they rake through his armor. He hisses angrily then swings the butt of his rifle at the Nall’s face. “Outverser filth,” he yells out.
Zu is about to shoot the last Nall when Garthik finishes him off. So instead the bat flies down to meet the commander of the group and informs him “I shot Ortik. He’s either dead or dying. Got him in the spine I think. Want me to go finish him or do we want him alive?”
“Hey uh, boss, ya’ll don’t need anything else, eh?” Chezat asks through his commlink, having gone back to playing the Hiverspace version of Angry Birds. Garthik roars his fury and the Tupai struggles to cover his ears in time. “G’damn ya’ have some lungs!”
The last Nall goes down in a face-shattered heap, raising a taloned hand for just a moment, as if to give a last-gasp location to a secret buried treasure. But no. Then his forked tongue dangles from his lifeless snout, and that’s it for him. Ortik, meanwhile, is alive but comatose and paralyzed. He’s not liable to wake up anytime soon. In fact, he’s sleeping right on through the thorough obliteration of the depot warehouse as it gets hammered by grenades fired by Mert and dropped in an air attack by Esmer.
Mert watches as the warehouse goes up… and with a satisfied grin… he slumps to the ground as he passes out.
“Well, first, go back and make sure he is still there,” Garthik snarls at Zu, wiping blood off of the butt of his rifle as he watches Esmer winging her way towards the warehouse, “Get ‘em, Esmer!” He nods in satisfaction as the building goes up in flames. He moves to Mert and sighs, taking him up over his shoulder and grabbing weapon straps before walking into the jungle. “Well done, team,” he sends over the comms, “Let’s collect Orthik and get out of here before the Zarists come out here to check on things.”
Zu nods to Garthik and goes to gather the not-quite-dead Orthik and holsters his pistol while he’s at it. To Garthik he notes “I don’t think he’ll be in any state to talk any time soon. That said I’m no doctor.” He’ll ask for some help if the body seems to be a bit too heavy for him.