Apr 11 05:59:19 107 PA - Delivering the body

From Chronicles

The current game time is: Tue Apr 11 05:59:19 107 PA

Kingsdale - Inside the Gates

Just inside the gates of Kingsdale, safer this side of the hundred foot tall City Gatehouse with its reinforced steel gates, the city opens up. To the east, the landing strip allows vehicles to be parked, and is the source of many of the technical support for the city, and the public stables allow horse lovers of most types to stable their creatures. The road is well maintained here, allowing the flow of traffic between the gates and the landing strip and the city. To the south, the city's plaza has many stalls, offering all manner of items to the locals.

Parked beside the gates a man emerges from his car in the early morning. He wears light studded armor of uncommon make. His vehicle not too common either. Looking to be some cross between a race car and a dune buggy. At his hip swings a very aggressive looking mace as he turns to lean against his vehicle and cross his arms in wait.

Just outside of the gate, Bailey waits. Dressed in her well used dead boy armour, she calms her horse and strokes its mane as it nervously bays and huffs at some of the passing traffic. "Come on, beautiful, it'll be fine," she says soothingly. "A week out in the country, no more jets to annoy you, just what you've always wanted," she says, moving back to slip her rifle into the saddle's holster over one of the warhorse's shoulders.

Weather at Tue Apr 11 06:22:30 107 PA (2.15C, 35.87F): It's cold. White, fluffy clouds seem to gang up into moody gray clouds. The wind is insufferably nippy and uncontrollable, persistent to no end. The last quarter moon hangs overhead.

Erica pulls up on her own hovercycle. She is dressed up in some plate armor and strapped to the back of her bike is a black bodybag. Her helmet is off and she looks slightly sad, but determined. Raising her hand in greeting to the others she gives them a quick nod. "Hello everyone."

Another hovercycle zips down, the helmeted figure wearing of all things coalition dogboy armor with all the spikes filed off and any identifying marks removed so it just looks like piece-meal plates. The bike is somewhat beat up, but it seems to be running fine and as he pulls it in to hover Ash takes off his helmet and rakes a hand through his hair, "Hey." He offers forth, "Bout ready to get this show on the road?"

Bailey rests her hands on the horn of her saddle after mounting for the wait. She looks up as a pair of hovercycles zoom in and swoop down and she smiles, seeing that she knows the two. "So much for a horse trip, hey?" she chuckles, leaning forward to give Beautiful a light pat. "Don't worry, beautiful. They don't know what they're missing."

Xander looks to Erica and gives a nod. "Good morning." He greets, turning his gaze to take in each of the others in turn. "Is this all of us? looks impressive for a delivery." He notes, stepping away from the car for a more sociable distance.

Erica nods her head as she gets off her cycle and unstraps the body bag from it. "Here let's but this in your buggy thing if that is ok Xander." She says as she lifts up the heavy bodybag. "We are just waiting on Vargus to open us up a rift to near Newtown. Also Auranna might make it depending on how things went with her attempts to track out in the wilderness."

Ash lifts his helmet and fastens it in place, hiding the fact that he's a d-bee completely, looking like any other old human with the faceplate down on the motorcycle helmet. "A Rift? We're not going to drive it?" He asks curiously. "You'd think the skulls would go check out a rift opening up nearby right fast to make sure it wasn't the war up north bleeding out down here..." He doesn't otherwise seem against the idea however.

Xander nods taking the bodybag with one hand back to his car. Thier it takes a moment for him to open the door, fold the seat forward and put the body on the back seat. Any retailer of this vehicle would claim it can hold 4 people and their gear. but retailers never do have a good sense of scale.

Bailey watches as Xander packs the cargo into his little automobile and she glances up to Ash, "I don't see how they'd be able to detect it," she says, "Psychic impressions get exponentially weaker the farther away one is from the source."

Erica nods her head briefly at Bailey. "We won't be rifting close it will still be a while to get there. Just a bit of a short cut take a few hours off of the journey." She says while walking back to her hovercycle as she waits for everyone to get ready. "Anyways Newtown isn't quite a CS fort yet."

Auranna comes from the city, pulling her hooded buckskin shirt on and stretching a little. She glances around a bit before heading towards Erica.

"Fair enough." Ash says to Bailey with a grin that can't be seen but touches his voice none-the-less. "Just, you know thinking. Hopefully there won't be a dog boy patrol or something. That'd be a mess but hey, it's all good." He nods over towards Erica, seemingly unconcerned with the body and how it's stowed beyond a brief glance at the guy toting the body and then looking over towards Auranna when she arrives. He looks over towards Erica, "I didn't even know they'd repaired it. New territory for me, thought it'd been flattened and stayed flattened."

"Dog boys would be getting off easy. Non eba armor and not the best in thinking. Skelebots the the Coalition staple we should be concerned with. Or both.." Xander notes as he turns back after closing up the car.

Bailey nods her head in agreement with Xander. She gives a brief glance to Auranna as she draws closer, remaining silent as she looks about for someone who'd look like they could open up a rift to cut their trip in half.

Erica smiles at Auranna as the other woman arrives and gives her a quick nod of her head. "Vargus should be along pretty soon." She says as she does a couple last minute checks on her weapons. She also makes sure her tools are well fastened to the rear of the bike.

"They can sense the rift, and they come with stalkers." Ash says then looks at Bailey, "No offense gorgeous, but I'd rather avoid your brethren working for the skulls." He then looks over towards Xander again, "And, they have radio's, which means they sense the Rift, then call it in. That's more what I'm worried about. Then we'd be in real trouble." He gestures towards Erica, "Hopefully the boss lady is right and they're not running active patrols though. Don't want my bike to get shot up after all." He pats the bike he sits comfortably on as it hovers in place low to the ground. "Still, if we're not rifting close to Newtown, really shouldn't be an issue, so nothing to worry about." He then pauses, "Oh hey Bailey? Got some information for you too about that thing you were interested in."

Auranna cocks her head to the side, "How fast are we going to be moving, do I need to ride on one of those things, or should I get my horse, or just run in cougar form?" she asks as she looks at Erica, relaxing a bit as she sees her.

Xander nods slightly to Erica, leaning against his car again as another joins the group. "Oh hello Auranna. So Erica is your owner then?" He asks casually, making small talk.

Bailey gives Ash a questioning look for a moment and shakes her head, deciding better of arguing and dispelling any myths one might have about her people. She remains saddled while the others get their things together and she glances over to Xander at his curious question, her head cocking to one side at the idea.

Erica raises an eyebrow at Xander's question and shakes her head slightly in an amused manner before turning to Auranna. "Get your horse dear you will have to ride for a little while. Running in your cougar form might get us a little too much attention."

Auranna blushes a bit at Xander's question and that might answer it in of itself. She nods to Erica and turns to head off to the stables to collect her horse and tack.

Ash settles in to wait while the others get ready, and wait for the mystical one to come so they can get on their way. He nods towards Bailey, "I'll tell you later, after we get back tonight. Or when we make camp if it takes a bit." He takes off his motorcycle helmet again though, since it's somewhat stuffy without moving then kills the engine on his hovercycle so it stops draining juice, setting it down in 'park' as it were.

Xander smirks at Auranna's plush, nodding slightly to acknowledge it before he looks to Erica. Well, are we to take the shifter's portal or not? Are we in any sort of a hurry?" He asks, eyeing the others, who seem a bit impatient.

"Nope not in any real hurry." Erica says as she leans idly against her hovercycle which is parked close to the other vehicles. "It is early enough anyhow." She mentions with a quick shrug of her shoulders. "Should be a relaxing trip hopefully."

Bailey watches as Auranna heads off to the stables. She leans forward and gives her warhorse a gentle scritch as she waits. Ash's comments make her draw a deep breath but she doesn't respond to them, merely spending the time grooming her horse.

Auranna comes back after a few minutes, it not taking her that long to get her horse together and then she rides back to meet the others again. She rests atop the horse, though she does push back the cougar skull hood.

Ash raises an eyebrow at Bailey then shrugs, "Or not." He says simply and looks away from the psi-stalker to look over towards Auranna when she comes back with her horse. He, like all the others, simply waits... but unlike the others waiting is hard for the quick-flex and he starts to tap out a beat one of the local bands at the Alibi was playing recently.

Vargus walks out of the plaza to the south, making his way by foot toward the main gates to the north. Bedecked in waxy armor and sporting a jetpack, with a heavy rifle slung over his back, it's pretty obvious he's figuring on getting into something or other. The large metalic eagle perched on his shoulder makes a strange grunting chirping sound, and Vargus looks in the direction of the small group. Eyebrows quirk up under his gooy armor, "...ohhh, good. They haven't left yet." and he quick-steps over to the gaggle, coming up next to Erica. "See you got your ride out of hock, eh?"

Xander eyes the creature that arrives late, the last in the group, a shifter. "We are taking 'that' into a town thats friendly with the Colaition?" He asks, looking less than impressed now. "Or is it going to wait at the rift?"

Bailey chuckles lightly at Xander's words and she shakes her head in amusement, giving Beautiful a reassuring pat on the shoulder to calm him as the insectoid draws near, though big and impressive, the warhorse is still nervous and skittish, prone to flight from anything strange it encounters.

Erica laughs softly and nods her head at Vargus. "Yep fairly recently. I needed it for this trip. Thanks for coming to help us out. Just a little closer should take quite a few hours off of the trip." She says while getting up and on her hovercycle to make ready to leave. "Alright lets start heading out if everyone is ready. No Xander just taking the rift closer to Newtown, then heading all the way back on our own. Just shaving a little time off of the trip."

Auranna moves and gets her horse ready to follow along with the others, not really sure where they are going.

Ash raises an eyebrow as he looks over at Vargus, "He's got a point boss." He says looking towards Erica, "If he goes near any coalition they're going to shoot first, and probably never ask questions." He shrugs a bit and then reaches to fire up his hovercycle again and it picks up a few feet off the ground. He puts his motorcycle helmet back on. "Guess he can hang back out of sight when we get near the city itself though." He doesn't otherwise seem stressed. "Ready when you are boss."

Vargus nods agreement with Erica. "Plan was to go along, and this is just armor..." he says to Xander, "..althouhg, you've got a good point. I should pick up something a little closer to standard if I need to go into unfriendly territory." he stretches his back a bit, and looks back to Erica. "Do you have a time-crunch? If you can give me about an hour, it'll make this first step a lot easier." Vargus looks around and smirks under his helmet. "..would be better to do this outside the city, though. Gate guards can be a little jumpy."

Xander nods slightly to Vargus's realization of his lack of dress code. "Well so long as you both know the risks shall we move on to where this portal will be made?" He asks, the 'armor' Vargus, apparently not doing well for his patients.

Bailey chuckles at Vargus' comments and leans forward to sooth her horse's nerves. "See? he isn't that mean," she says patting the horse's neck so that it will calm down. "He's just going to open an extradimensional portal to teleport us across the county. Shouldn't hurt a bit," she says to it, though the last part is said hesitantly as she's never been through one.

Erica nods her head to Vargus. "Not in any rush. If you could cut some miles off that will save us a bunch of time. Ok lets head out of the city so he can do his stuff. Just not too close to Newtown." She says as she starts up her hovercycle and starts slowly moving it out of town, while gesturing for Vargus to take the lead.

Auranna just watches and moves with the group when the move, she has used such things before, just not often.

Ash looks over at Bailey but is likely very glad his expression cannot be seen behind his helmet since it's the first time he'll have been through a rift as well. "Just so long as we don't end up on some strange world somewhere, it's all good." He says to himself with a chuckle as he glides slowly along at whatever pace on his bike.

Xander nods and slips into his car. A moment later it hums and peels a turn out of its park to pause behind the others. "We already are one a strange world somewhere..." He remarks on the radio.

Vargus nods to Erica and drops down to his knees. He pulls a rolled up kit from a pouch at his right hip and unfolds it in front of him. He lays out a sheet of reinforced cloth, upon which is worked a circle in what looks like silver thread. Around this circle, he begins to inscribe out symbols with a marker pen. Once, he brings his hand up to his mouth and the waxy armor rolls back so he can lick his thumb, which he then uses to rub out one of the symbols, and redraws it. When he is finished he looks up to Erica. "Fifty miles outside of Newtown, right? I'll shoot for the south-west side, just so it's less obvious where you might have come from." During the scribing, Vargus has been building his internal energy reserves from the proximity of the local ley line. He stands, a faint blue glow around him, and flares his hands in front of him, speaking one clipped word. A small blue point in front of him forms, then pulls away from itself and seems to invert to create a fuzzy blue-white circular aperture. He exhales slowly and smiles, then nods his head once to the eagle. "Okay, you're up... just check over the area and make sure we didn't drop down in a village or anything, then I'll open the door the rest of the way."

After a few minutes, the rift ripples and the bird wriggles its way back through, and flaps once to alight on Vargus' shoulder. He chitters a few times, and squaks once and Vargus nods. "Alright... looks clear. Everyone, stand back." He takes a few steps back and flings both arms behind him, concentrating again. After a few minutes, he then brings both in front of him with palms toward the small rift. A slight flare of energy, and the small aperture rips itself length-wise and opens to a seven foot teardrop shapped opening. "Energy energy into it for seven beings, that's the five of you and the two horses."

Bailey guides her horse along to follow with the others, the shoed hooves clicking and clacking upon the pavement in a particular pattern as she rides Beautiful down the roadway. "I suppose that's true," Bailey answers to Xander's comment. "Though we might wind up in some place with no magic but are faced with the horror of punching a clock nine to five on the fevered dream that we'll stand a chance of maintaining the same quality of life that our parents had before us." Her joking around ceases when Vargus drops to his knees to tear a hole in space and time right before her eyes. The psistalker leans back at the bright light, the sour stench of it fills her senses and she recoils a little bit, giving her horse the freedom to trot back several paces before she recovers control. "Well, there's something you don't see every day."

Erica watches the rift open up with eyes full of wonder. She waits patiently while Vargus' bird scouts out the area. Once the rift is fully open she restarts her hovercycle and heads through the rift. "Thank you again Vargus." She says while turning her head to look around the area. She picks up her rifle and stands guard so that the others can move into the area.

Auranna leads her horse to move through the rift once it is clear. She isn't bothered by magic or such, but then being now a supernatural creature. eh. She dips her head to Vargus and then to Erica as she passes through and moves off a bit to the side, waiting for the others and calming her horse again as well, though he is used to strange things.

With a frown, that is again hidden by the helmet, Ash watches the rift form and he looks over himself, making sure all his limbs and pieces are still attached without even heading through yet. He then moves to follow through the rift on his bike and pulls to the side after appearing on the other side so that he's not blocking anything. He shivers once he's through though, and checks himself again, intimately, to make sure he's all in one piece and he hasn't been scrambled somehow by the rift.

Vargus takes a step back and smiles to himself, nodding his head. "Nice... been a while since I had cause to do that." he leans down and collects his gear, and restows it in his pouch. "You've got a minute to get through there, and I can't open another one for that many people today.. pulled all I could from the lines this twelve-hour period." He checks a display on his wrist, then orients himself and triggers his jetpack, flying off to the northeast, away from the city.

Xander guides his car through the portal at a slow pace. Not knowing what the terrain is like on the other side its always best to be cautious. No to meantion giving those ahead off him time to get out of the way. "Ok, which way now?" He asks, looking out at the wooded surroundings.

Her horse reluctant, Bailey clucks her her tongue at the spirited beast as she tries to guide it towards the unnatural portal. "Come on, boy, come on," she encourages, always turning its head towards the surreal blue light and the landscape beyond it. "Come on, YAH!" she says as she spurs Beautiful's flanks, causing him to jump and and buck, towards the hole in space. Leaning back to give him a smack on the ass, she finally coaxes the horse through, and on the other side discovering that the beast's momentum is not soon to wane as it continues at a gallop, trying to get away from the rift as quickly as possible, Yeehaw!

Erica looks around for a while to get the general directions right. She looks at a few of the trees in this lightly wooded area and takes note of where the sun is standing. After a few moments she points off in a direction. "Ok that is north east Newtown should be in that area." She says as she starts heading in the direction she pointed. She sets an easy pace so that the horses can follow as she slings her rifle across her shoulders.

Ash checks their location via his gyro-compass and the change in polarity directions. Good things those. He picks up his speed again to follow along making his bike rise to clear low lying vegetation without going above the tree-line, "Assuming of course that we're where we want to be, and on the proper world." He says jokingly as they begin to head out, but otherwise he keeps an eye out, ramps up his amplified hearing, and otherwise tries to pay attention to these strange new surroundings. At least new to the city rat anyways. For the first time in forever practically, Ash doesn't seem all that talkative.

Auranna nods and moves to ride along with the others. She is rather quiet though watches her surroundings.

Xander starts in the direction Erica indicated, his rover humming efficiently as no forms of emmisions. "Well thats done. any bets on the big blue door being noticed?" He asks casually as he steers the rover carefully out of the woods.

For about the first quarter mile, Bailey's hanging on for dear life as her warhorse tears through the country trail, and it takes nearly another quarter to calm the beast enough to slow down and stop so it can realise that there's no danger about. "There there," she soothes. "That wasn't that bad, now was it?" she asks, brushing the chestnut horse's mane back. She casts a glance over her shoulder to spot the others, and she guides the skittish horse along towards them, meeting up on the trail after a brief intercept.

Erica keeps riding along in the lightly wooded forest her hovercycle making for a smooth ride. She suddenly calls out as she spots something up ahead and stops her cycle quickly. Reaching back she pulls out her rifle and brings it up to her shoulder. "Skelebots and dead boy up ahead." She says to the rest of the party.

Bringing his bike down low and behind a tree and cover Ash reaches to draw his pistol and thumbs the switch to flick it to double shot mode. "I see them." He answers back quietly as he prepares to kill the engine on his bike to leave it hopefully safely out of harms way, "500 feet ahead or so. We going to fight or talk boss?"

The tall deadboy in spiky armor notices that he has been spotted and raises his rifle up to his shoulder before calling out himself. "You there stop right now and stand down. Submit to a search for illegal magical items on my authority from the Coalition States." He yells out loud enough to be overheard even over the 500 foot distance. The skelebots raise their own rifles in response to an order from the stalker.

Auranna blinks and dismounts from here horse, "Stand." she murmers and commands the horse as she steps away from it, watching the armored one and skelebots in the distance. She looks at the others and watches for what they are going to do. For now she has merely dismounted, maybe looking like she is going to submit to the search.

Xander doesnt move anywhere, appearing to comply with the instructions. "I'm most effective within a hundred feet if we need to get rough. I do have such illegal items, so we wont be submitting to inspection. But let them in a bit for me if you will." He asks the others over the radio, considering his options.

"Salve, brother," Bailey greets the other psi-stalker. "You'll find no such filth within our ranks, we're just transporting a fallen comrade back home for burial. He died fighting the scum out east," she shakes her head in disgust and leans forward, patting her skittish horse. "How goes the war?" she asks, talking shop with the coalition soldier who hasn't yet fled his position.

The skelebots move in front of the Coalition stalker as they both start approaching the group at a brisk walk. "Well there is no war this far south whoever you are." He says cautiously as he walks. "I am afraid that I will have to do a search whatever you say. Stand down so that I may do my job, and if you do not hold any contraban then you can go on your way." He keeps his rifle raised but not actively aiming at anyone as he comes closer.

Ash remains where he is, but he does flick the kill switch on his hovercycle, which shouldn't be out of the ordinary if he were waiting to be searched. He stands away from the cycle to hopefully keep it out of the line of fire when this goes south as it is likely to do. Instead he waits for Erica to give the order on what to do. She is the boss after all but he does take a look around, paying attention to his surroundings to try and make sure they aren't being flanked or encircled.

Erica turns off her hovercycle and dismounts. She lowers her rifle slightly as she talks to the group over the radio built into her in a soft whisper. "Ok Xander you tell us when they are close enough. I'll rely on you." She takes a couple steps away from her own cycle as she waits for the skelebots and the stalker to get close enough.

Auranna follows the lead of the others for now, she moves a little closer, lifting her hands a bit. She has what would be called contraband, her fetish shirt and talisman are that, but she doesn't want to cause problems for the others if she starts fighting right off, so she waits.

Xander rolls down his window to stick his helmeted head out and glair impatiently at the patrol. Putting on the picture of an impatient person waiting in customs.

Bailey shakes her head at the other soldier's gruff manner and she continues to sit imperiously looking down at the approaching trio, her hands still cradling the riens as she waits for it all to start up, though she is relaxed, just keeping her horse calm as the pair of deadly robots move forward in their unnatural mechanical gait.

The group of two skelebots and Coalition psi-stalker move about another 55 feet or so closer so that he is about 110 feet away from the grouping of vehicles and horses. The stalker stops rather suddenly as he raises his rifle up and points it at Xander's vehicle. "You have a powerful psionic with you. I demand you lower your weapons immediatly and surrender or else you will be destroyed." The skelebots immediatly move to take aim one at Bailey and one at Auranna.

Welp, time to get flashy. Ash isn't about to let either of the two get shot and as such he pulls his pistol up from where he had it down by his side. Rather than shoot the skelebots, he instead takes quick aim at the psi-stalker that leads them. He doesn't just take aim though, rather it's a flash quick move that brings his laser pistol up and he snaps a double pulse burst right at the Psi-Stalkers head. "Finally." He says to nobody in particular, as if simply standing around was getting on his nerves and he's happy to be doing... something. If anyone could see past his tinted helmet visor they'd see a grin on the quick-flex's face that stretched nearly ear to ear.

Erica swears loudly as she raises her big rifle up and fires a shot at the skelebot on the right. "Fuck ok take them out fast and hard everyone." She says as she squeezes the trigger sending out a high pitched sound as the particle beam fires.

Auranna shakes her head and knows now that there is no choice. She focuses and summons the magic within her and changes. A giant cougar stands now where she did and she advances on the skelebot aiming at her, looking to narrow the distance.

There is a bright glowing and shimmer as her forms shifts and swells in size, shifting forms and leaving a massive giant Cougar in her place. "And just when did being more mentally evolved than you become a felony?" Xander calls back with tones of annoyance. of course his companions decision to get things started before they get closer complicate things slightly. His rover barrels at the other skelebot from its resting position, aiming to run it down.

Bailey sighs as the shots start flying. She shakes her head and spurs her beloved horse, not wanting her new friend to become fried grissle in the woods. Hoofing it, she tries to make herself a difficult target as she seeks cover to hide her horse behind and dismount.

One of the skelebots side steps the ramming rover before it can run the skelebot down. As the various guns start firing the skelebots respond with taking the shots they had aimed. Firing in turn at Bailey and the cougar that was once Auranna. The stalker swears loudly as he ducks to the side avoiding the shot that almost hit his head. He fires in turn at the vehicle that Xander is in.

With the psi-stalker getting squirrelly and managing to not take a laser burst in the faceplate Ash quickly adjusts to the situation, bolting towards all three of them at speed. Of course while moving it makes it hard to take aimed shots. Instead he fires off two quick pulses from the heavy laser pistol in his right hand, sending lances of searing light at towards the Skelebot that just shot at Bailey. "Oh come on... why not shoot the guy who shot first..." He mutters all the while.

Erica watches Ash take some shots at one of the skelebots and decides to occupy the one that shot at Auranna. She fires off two quick shots from the high pitched particle beam rifle after dropping down into a crouch.

Silver Cougar is moving and leaps at the skelebot that shot at her, slashing at it with her now large claws, intending on trying to take chunks out of it.

It was likely he'd have gotten at least one shot at him as they closed the range anyway. So if nothing else Xander decreased that by one. Of course now that he's well withing range he can act against the attackers. He yes the stalker through the window, focussing his thoughts for an instant to pull the pin away from one of his grenades. "Stalkers gonna go boom." He warns the others over the radio before focussing on the skelebot that dared scratch his paint. A force field of his will encloses it tightly. (tk forcefield 50 md)

It's a good thing that lasers carry no momentum, for Bailey's able to stay on her horse, leaving only a sizzling vapour of misted armour behind her as the skelebot etches a deep line in her backplate. She grabs her JA-11, and dismounts quickly, hooking Beautiful's reins to a tree branch before she circles away from her horse, looking for a good firing position that she can shoot without hitting an ally. Taking a knee, she lines up the robot that shot her with her laser rifle, her finger lightly tapping the trigger as it lights up and fires a beam towards the skeletal machine..

The skelebots continue there attacks. One firing at bailey returning the shot with a shot of it's own. The other skelebot lets go of it's rifle and draws out duel vibrosabers and attacks the giant fearsome cougar in front of it. The Coalition stalker curses as the grenade on his belt blows up and switches his rifle to pulse mode and fires of two quick pulses at Xander.

As he hears over the radio about the grenade Ash says simply, "Fuck." And then faster than he can even think he instinctively jumps back away from the psi-stalker as the blast goes off, landing outside of it due only to his natural reflexes. With the skelebot he was shooting at trapped in a force field of some sort as indicated by the laser spattering off it Ash brings his pistol around and fires off two quick double blasts at the psi-stalker at nearly point blank range. Four more lances of red laser fire burst out from the pistol in double tap fashion.

Erica tries to support Auranna as the skelebot and Auranna are in hand to hand combat. She squeezes off two quick shots from her crouched position as she frowns in concentration. "Get that stalker Auranna and I can take out the skelebot not in a forcefield." She calls out over the radio.

Given that he was already shooting at the psi-stalker, Ash doesn't even have to change targets. He seems vaguely annoyed by that second shot missing like that. "Do you know how much a recharge -costs-?" He asks the psi-stalker accusingly as he keeps the pistol aimed at the Psi-Stalker and fires off two more double blasts from the heavy laser pistol he carries. Apparently he's trusting to the others to take down the other skelebot, and the field to hold on the second one.

Silver Cougar is in melee with the skelebot and that is where her focus is at the moment, she blocked its blow with her paw and then slashes again, powerful swipes of her claws against its robotic body.

The others taking care of the stalker and other skelebot Xander steps from his rover to engage the one he trapped. He takes his time, charging his armor and drawing and charging his maces. They crackle with electricity.

The stalker starts to back away a couple steps as he turns his rifle to Ash and fires two pulse shots at the fast man in armor. His head darts around as he looks for a way to escape after firing his shots.

"Since when did these things pick up force fields?" Bailey asks, confounded by her poor aim as she adjusts her grip upon her rifle. She flips to the ion setting as she draws a bead upon the psi-stalker, sighting in through the scope of the rifle as she blasts away, snapping a quick shot off, "Let's hope they didn't call in air support," she grimaces at the thought.

Erica takes aim at the failing Skelebot and fires off a shot from the big weapon. She stands up after the shot to try to better assess the situation. "Doing great people we almost have em."

One of the skelebots falls from the final shot of that particle beam weapon. The other skelebot continues to fire in the direction of Bailey not relizing there is a forcefield between it and its target

Ash easily avoids the laser blasts coming at him with a twist to the side and a half lean back that is almost like out of a juicer movie. He doesn't seem overly worried about being shot at as he keeps his aim on the psi-stalker and fires off another double burst directly towards the soldiers chest. As soon as the laser blasts are zipping through the air he ejects the clip and pops a second one into place, "There's 2 grand." He says to himself more than anything else as the laser pistol charges back up quickly with the fresh e-clip in place.

Silver Cougar attacks again, not letting up on the skelebot, wanting to take it out so she can move onto one of the other targets and protect those she is with. She slashes once and then again.

Silver Cougar blinks a bit as the skelebot goes down but there is another target, and living one and she turns to pounce on the stalker and slash at it with her claws to rip open its armor.

The field comes down as the will sustaining it ends, immediately after two electricly charged maces swing down twice in a most menacing manner at the skelebot. Xander looks confident in his ability with the crackling weapons.

The Coalition stalker drops his rifle when he turns to look around. Grabbing his laser pistol from his holster he turns around and tries to make a run for it while firing over his shoulder to try to give him some cover.

Bailey watches as the giant couger leaps upon the poor psistalker and she turns her attention towards the skelebot now in hand to hand combat with Xander. Biding her time for an opening, she waits until the two circling combatants have space between them before she fires, blasting twice with her ion rifle.

Erica notices the stalker making a break for the cover of the forest and she turns to fire at him. She raises her rifle up to her shoulder before squeezing off another high pitched particle shot and then another one.

The last skelebot drops his rifle and draws out dual vibro sabers. It turns to face Xander and slashes at its attacker not knowing that its situation is dire.

With the Psi-stalker down and in pieces, or at least with a chunky salsa effect in what's left of the armor, or missing body parts, Ash bends down to pick up the dropped rifle. Once done he turns, lifts it to his shoulder and leaving it on the setting it was on before (the pulse burst) fires off a trio of laser blasts at the last remaining skelebot. "Think I like this gun." He says to himself as the lasers scorch silently through the air.

Silver Cougar turns to leap at the other skelebot before it hurts Xander, whether it can or not is not known to her but that is what she does. Her claws slash out, once and then again.

One blow returned parried without pause Xander rains four more back. Yes it may be a little one sided, but it is only a machine. An out numbered machine with Auranna assisting him as well.

Bailey watches as more allies close in upon the lone skelebot. Again, she waits for an opening before firing her shots, careful not to hit people she's riding with. PEW PEW

Erica shakes her head and grins as she watches the skelebot start to fall under the unrelenting onslaught of her campainions. She squeezes off two quick shots from her rifle hoping to take it down a little quicker.

The skelebot is barely standing as it tries to fight back. Its armor is quickly becoming depleted as it staps once at Xander and then once at Auranna. Trying to drive both of its melee opponents back from it.

With the skelebot surrounded by people, and since his last shot went wide it's clear that the skelebot is on it's last legs and is likely to go down soon. Rather than waste more precious ammo and with nothing else that can hurt it that doesn't use ammo Ash turns and heads over towards the downed psi-stalker and begins to quickly rifle through what's left, looking primarily for e-clips and the pistol if it survived being misted. Yep. Priorities of a city rat are clear in this situation.

The skelebot continues to keep attacking dispite its body being in obviously bad shape. It stabs at Xander with the vibro saber in its right hand trying to injure the man with the maces.

Bailey grins to herself as she watches her two bolts fly home, striking the skelebot dashing cascade of sparks and white hot metal from it's hide. She continues to sight down her scope, lining up another shot, just waiting for a moment when she won't have to shoot through a psionic or a werecouger.

Erica slings her rifle over her shoulder not wanting to completly drain her clip. She draws a vibro knife and moves closer to the skelebot ready to back up Xander and Auranna in melee.

Xander certainly has no conflict of interest between loot and opponents. Of course he has the habit of having people give him money all the time. But thats not for here. Four more blows from the crackoing maces rain down on the skelebot.

The skelebot finally succombs to the onslaught of the group and all the damage from thos maces causes it to deactivate and faul to the ground a heap of junk.

The last Skelebot falling under his maces Xander smirks before looking to Auranna. "You alright?" He asks the giant cougar. He eyes the bots as he waits for the reply, turning to consider the damage to his rover as well. "Anyone a competant armorer? Could do to give the rover a uick patch before we head into town I think."

As he rifles through the surviving equipment of the psi-stalker Ash notes, "We should move. He probably sensed the Rift and called it in. When he doesn't report they'll come looking for him." He gathers up what he's got and then tosses the rifle over to Bailey when she's clear of the brush, "Use this chica. It's better." He grins at her and meanders over towards his bike.

Silver Cougar cracks her neck a little and nods, "I am fine," she says, strange to have the giant cougar speaking in English. She nods and looks around at some of the others. "Everyone else ok?"

Erica nods her head to Xander as she walks over to her hovercycle and puts her rifle on the back of it. She opens up her tool box and takes some tools for repairing armor. "Well I can see what I can do. I can repair most armor. I don't think we are near enough for it to radio anyone. We are 40 miles out from Newtown and the radios these guys have don't have that kind of range."

Bailey catches the rifle that's tossed to her and she gives it an appreciative look over. She walks over to the psi stalker and kneels down. "Well, there's an easy way to find out," she says, pulling off her helmet, she sets in in the blood stained dirt next to the dead body and removes his helmet, pulling it on to give his headset radio a listen for a few moments to see if there's any voice on the other end asking for a response.

Erica has taken out some tools and is doing some checking on her weapons in the middle of the battlefield. Two skelebots lie on the ground deactivated from massive amounts of damage and about 30 feet away is the body of the stalker that tried to attack the group. The body is missing an arm. "Is everyone ok? Anyone need me to check on their weapons or armor for them?" Erica asks as she finishes checking out her own rifle.

Making sure he has his empty e-clip secured in an inside coat pocket Ash holsters his pistol and finds places for the three fully charged long e-clips he filched off the body of the psi-stalker. Heading over towards his bike Ash moves to sit astride it and wait for the time to leave. He rests his forearms on the small windshield and looks at the others, "Right as rain Boss." He draws with some amusement clear in his voice.

Bailey walks over to Erica as she gets out her tools. "I think I took a hit in the back, here, is there anything you can do for it?" she asks, turning about to show the damaged plating to the field mechanic.

"Fine, my buggy took a bit of scratching but nothing a quick patch wont see to for now." Xander notes as he slings his maces and retrieves an energy rifle from one of the skelebots. "This will do for compensation. We should each take what we want and get moving on to our destination."

Auranna stretches a little, "I am relatively fine." she says and pads over towards her horse, shifting back into human form as she does.

Erica takes a look at Bailey's armor and nods to herself. "Yes I can try to patch it up a little bit." She says as she takes out a few tools. "Would you grab me one of those rifles as well Xander? This work won't take but a moment." She goes to gather some plating and starts making some quick patches to Bailey's armor. Taing only a few minutes she makes some jury rigged fixes to Bailey's armor. "There you go. Lets go ahead and head out."

Ash looks over at Auranna, studying her through the tinted visor of his motorcycle helmet. Which hides the fact that her constant shifting is something of a curiosity. "Must be nice... to be able to shrug off that kind of damage without worrying about it... If I got hit that hard I'd be out twenty grand, if not dead..." He says conversationally to the native american woman.

Xander nods and grabs the rifle from the second skelebot and puts both in the front seat of his buggy. Walking around he checks the rover one more time before slipping into the drvier seat. "Well the family of the deceased should put up a warmer welcome at least." He notes as he starts the vehicle and brings it back around to point towards Newtown.

Bailey tries to hold still as Erica welds a piece of salvaged plating over the melted line in her armour. Once that's all done, she gives Erica a nod of appreciation, "Than-you," she says gratefully, before heading through some of the trees to gather up her horse, giving it a few calming pats. "It's okay, beautiful, that's all done with, now," she says before mounting up, steering her warhorse back to the group.

Auranna looks over at Ash, "You rely on technology, I rely on the power of the spirits. They harden my body." she shakes her head. She looks over at Erica, "Ready here." she says as she moves over to her horse and mounts up.

Erica gets back up on her hovercycle, and starts it back up. She starts traveling on at an easy pace so the horses can keep up. "Well that wasn't as bad as it seemed like it could be. Hopefully we won't face an more issues." She says with a smile as they travel. She looks around at the various trees while the miles pass by.

Bailey licks her lips contentedly after the quick meal that the psistalker made after his death. She rides along, pleased with the progress her horse is making as it gets used to having a rider, as well as being so close to the noise of mechanical vehicles for so long. He's still skitish, but the effect seems to have dulled quite a bit as the hours roll by.

Starting up his hovercycle Ash smiles, "The spirits don't listen to us poor d-bee's unfortunately." But he doesn't seem to mind to terribly much about that then shrugs as the woman goes to mount up on her horse, looking over to the others his hovercycle lifts up to clear the ground cover and he moves to bring it back in line with the others to continue the trip. "Going to be a bit of a trip to get back to Kingsdale." He says conversationally but otherwise, is still keeping a look out just in case.

"As I recall this place isnt much more than a days trip away from Kingsdale. Erica saved us a night in their sleezy motel at the cost of a little combat excercise. Fair trade I think, considering the gains." Xander opines as he drives the rover down the road towards New Town. Auranna nods and rides along with the others, watching the scenery going by and checking signs and landmarks as they go in case one has to make a run for it.

After a couple of hours the group arrives at the town of Newtown. The town is surrounded by a small wall that is maybe ten feet high. There are three entrances around the wall and the group arrives at the south west entrance. At the gates are a few militia members dressed in plastic man armor. Overseeing them is a Coalition grunt dressed in the old syle dead boy armor. All and all the members look bored as the idly wave people into the town.

Erica breathes out a sigh of relief as they reach Newtown. "Well we are here shouldn't be any more problems." She mentions as they pull up to the line of people waiting to get into Newtown. They quickly progress through the line as the militia seems to be waving just about everyone through without even a casual inspection.

Bailey rides along with her JA11 cradled in her arms in a casual manner as she enjoys the pleasant day's ride to Newton. As the town forms on the horizon, she asks, "So, do you want us to wait outside of town, then? I'm not sure if the family would want a crew of mercenaries showing up to their doorstep or anything."

Ash is himself pleased that there's no psi-stalkers or dog boys at the gate, he nods towards Bailey but then says, "Guess we're going in." He makes sure his visor is down to hide his lack of nose and long features before he follows into the town on his hovercycle and takes a look around, always aware of his surroundings it seems.

Xander says, "We go in. We made getting this loved one back to his family possible. We atleast deserve the acknowledgement of that from the family." Xander notes as his rover passes through the gates. "Besides, Mercenaries are less likely to get into trouble if kept on a short leash." He adds with a chuckle."

Auranna looks at each of them in turn as they have gotten that close. If anything she looks the least threatening, but then appearances can be deceiving. She nods a little, "Well up to you all." she says softly. "No lets all head in. It won't be a problem I'm sure. Franks family is used to mercs I'm sure." Erica mentions as they keep progressing through the line. "Why would I want you to wait outside?" She says with some confusion at Bailey's suggestion.

After passing into the town the group enters a place that is obviously rebuilding. New construction is all around them as the town struggles to rebuild from the destruction of the Juicer uprising a few years ago. The Coalition is obviously helping with much of the construction as the once quiet town is beginning to look more and more like a fort, but there are still mostly civilians trying to get by. The trip through the town is fairly quick as after about 15 minutes Erica leads the group to a small one story brick house with a pitched roof. The house is unpainted and a has a small vegtable garden in the front yard.

Erica shuts off her hovercycle in front of the house and dismounts. "Well this is the place I guess." She says as she looks at a piece of paper then up at the numbers on the house.

Bailey shrugs her shoulders, "It was just a thought," she says, embarassed as it seems she was the only one who thought it. She slips her rifle into the saddle's holster once they're in the town and she looks about at the industrious folk toiling away to rebuild their lives. When the group arrives at the house, she remains mounted as she looks over the small home.

Ash shuts his hovercycle off nearby enough to not be blocking the foot traffic and the like but he otherwise remains seated where he is, just keeping a sharp eye out. He comments, "So you don't know exactly who we are delivering this body too?" Light curiousity in his tone. "Kinda morbid." But otherwise seems unphased. He does however, seem to be a bit more relaxed now that they're out of the forest and back in something resembling civilization, even if it's mostly hostile territory for one such as he.

Xander parks the rover in the experienced maneuver to get it parrallel with the curbe before stepping out. Immediately he turnse to fold his seat forward and grant him access to the black bag lying in the back. "A hand please." He calls, not wanting the extrication of the corpse to become undully difficult.

Auranna gets off her horse and gives the command for it to stand and moves over to assist Xander. With her strength she can probably assist pretty well.

Erica looks at Ash for a moment before shaking her head. "Not like I have met the man's family. I'm just supposed to give it to his sister a woman named Mary." Erica says with a quick shrug of her shoulders as she approaches the house.

A woman in her mid forties walks out of the house after a few minutes. She is wearing an apron as if she was busy in the kitchen. "Hello? May I help you?" She asks as she tilts her head slightly while looking over the group. She glances quickly at the body bag and then back at Erica and the rest of the group.

Erica smiles softly at the woman. "Hello are you Mary?" She asks in a soft voice. The woman nods at the question and Erica walks closer. "Mary I have some bad news I'm afraid your brother Frank is dead."

Mary looks shocked for a moment then frowns with concern. "Oh my that is terrible, but he was always a little reckless. Please why don't you all come in. I will make you some tea." She says as she motions for everyone to join her as she walks back into the house.

Bailey winces at the blunt exchange of information, but breathes a sigh of relief at how Mary soldiers through it. At the invitation, the psistalker dismounts and guides her horse towards the porch to tie it up as the giant warhorse is fond of wandering about still. Removing her helmet, she slips the spikey top off and rests it on the saddle horn before brushing her hands off on her lap. "Hello," she says meekly, feeling akward about showing up to a stranger's house to deliver her dead brother.

Looking around Ash considers then offers, "I'll stand watch over the horses and vehicles." After all, it'd be dangerous if he went in there, took of his helmet, and then the coalition walked in because of all the vehicles outside. He otherwise settles in to relax and wait, pulling out a personal computer to start queuing up some music to listen to.

Xander eyes the apparent sister and her light reaction but chalks it up to them not being very close. Probably due to the mentioned recklessness. He considers what to do with the body for a moment as they are invited to tea but walks with it, waiting for instructions on its handling. Auranna continues to assist Xander. She glances over at the woman and then some of the others for a moment. She isn't sure about the situation herself, but she did come to help.

Erica walks into the house following Mary. "Frank was like a second father to me. I know how you must feel. He led a full life though always fighting for what he thought was right." She says in a soft voice as she walks into the living room of the house. The living room is a large room seemingly taking up a good portion of the house. There are a few pictures of landscapes hanging on the blue drywall. The living room has hardwood floors covered by a few throw rugs. It looks to be a cozy if slightly sparse house.

Mary nods her head as she listens to Erica. "Please make yourself at home while I make some tea. Um... I guess you can set that uh bag on the floor there. I'm not sure what to do with it. I guess I'll make a call in a moment." She says while gesturing to the couch that is along the wall. She walks through a swinging door into what must be the kitchen.

Erica stands there shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waits awkwardly. She waits to shut the door until everyone who wants to come into the house is inside.

Bailey walks into the house and looks about for a moment or two, admiring the art work as she lets Erica and Mary speak of the late Frank. She walks to the back window and looks out over the yard before finding a spot to stand. "You've got a nice place," she observers, glancing over to the swinging door as Mary disappears into the kitchen.

Ash waits, relaxing on his bike as he turns to sit comfortably on it like it were a lounging chair all it's own. He crosses his ankles up on the 'windshield' of the speedster hovercycle then laces his hands behind his head, plugging in his computer while he does so so that he can listen to the music he's programmed in. Otherwise, he simply waits.

Xander leads the way to deposit the body where instructed before Turning to Erica to wait with her for Mary's return. "I wonder what type of tea one serves to guests such as us. A marvel she is holding it together. Unless she holds little attachment with who is in the bag." Xander notes quietly as they wait.

After a couple of minutes the kitchen door swings open to reveal a hulking man in Coalition that is covered with spikes. The shape of the helmet reveals the wearer of the armor to be an officer in the Coalition. He radiates power and fear as he walks into the living room. A Coalition energy rifle is in his hands pointed at the people in the living room. A vibro sword is attached to his hip. "I am Lt. Randall and you are under arrest by the ISS. Drop your weapons and this will go much easier on you. I assure you." He says in a calm authoritive manner. After he is finished speaking noise comes from the dry wall on the north side of the living room and a large Hellion style skelebot rips through the drywall like paper. It's 4 arms carry vibro sabers and it's tail sways from side to side in a threatening manner.

The officer turns to look at Erica and shakes his head slightly. "You have been a bad girl Erica. You shouldn't have attacked that camp, and stolen that magical artifact."

The sudden revlation of a trap doesnt do much to faze Xander. Even the officer's imposing aura gets little more than a look of interest as a bubble of Xander's will encases the Skelebot. "You honestly think so? I think we got the wrong place Erica, lets move on." He voices, another bubble encasing the officer

The current game time is: Fri Apr 14 04:15:57 107 PA. The Coalition officer growls as the bubble encases him and he fires two quick pulses from his laser rifle at the bubble to destroy it. He calls out to the skelebot. "Destroy the forcefield and kill or capture everyone. Make sure that the woman in the crusader armor is captured alive." The Skelebot calls out. "Affirmative." As it swings it's vibro sabers at the forcefield.

Ash might be listening to music, in his head, but that doesn't mean he's not paying attention to the surroundings as well. Bionics are awesome like that. However it seems all for naught, since the building is sound proof or the like. Ash, does nothing, since he doesn't know anything is going on and nobody said anything over the radio yet.

Bailey's busy dwelling on how to make casual conversation with someone who seems to care very little about the death of her brother, when suddenly a towering Coalition officer kicks open the door and begins speaking. The skelebot ripping through the drywall catches the psitalker's attention as her jaw drops in horror, her blue eyes wide open as she backs against the wall, stumbling against a nearby reading lamp that goes crashing to the floor as Bailey's heavy boots crush the bulb as she looks in panic for the nearest exit.

Auranna had just helped set down the bag and was turning when everything happened. She looked like she might make a move on the officer, but then comes the robot. She stands stunned, shocked, a bit horrified at the moment, definitely wasn't expecting that.

Erica cringes and talks a couple steps back as the aura of the Coalition officer overcomes her. She cries out "Fuck loudly which goes out over both the radio and into the room. She fumbles trying to get her rifle from over her shoulder as she visibly shakes with fear. "I... I don't know what you are talking about." She calls out unconvincingly to the Coalition officer.

Xander eyes the office as he blasts his way out of the bubble, the skelbot not being nearly as effective. "You are several genrations of evolution from my level I'm sure you can feel as much." Xander berates the officer as he charges his armor before pushing into the enemies mind to fill it with despair. "Just give up."

The Coalition officer sneers and scoffs at Xander's attempt to cloud his mind with dispair. He fires again at the forcefield and then tries to shoot Xander with his laser rifle. "You will be tortured in ways you can't possibly imagine." He says to Xander as he fires his rifle. Meanwhile the skelebot works on destroying the forefield that is incasing it using his vibro sabers quickly and effectively against the field.

"Right now?" Ash asks over the radio in his usual glib fashion as he hops off the hovercycle and draws his pistol while he's on the move. After all, Erica never struck him as the type to offer such things in a strange house... or he isn't about to miss such a thing! He bolts to the door and tries to open but finds it locked, "Not good, somehow they locked the door." Then perhaps foolishly he goes to kick the door as hard as he can to try and kick it down. It looked like a shanty house to him after all...

Bailey shakes her head, overcoming being so rattled by the sudden appearance of the Man in what was supposed to be a quiet part of town. She quickly frisks herself, looking for a weapon, but finds only her maces and her pistol on her belt, her heavy stuff is still back out on Beautiful. Thinking quickly, the psi-stalker rushes the officer, shoulder down as she tries to tackle him to the ground so she can pin him and keep him from shooting the rest of the team.

Displaying how she didn't go far in high school wrestly, Bailey bull rushes right past the officer and crashes into the entertainment center, getting momentarily tangled in speaker wire and broken compact disk jewel cases..

Auranna gets herself under control finally and shakes her head a bit. She heard them talk about capturing Erica and that just pisses her off. She glows and shimmers as she summons her magic and changes into her giant cougar form and leaps to slash at the officer's armor. There is a bright glowing and shimmer as her forms shifts and swells in size, shifting forms and leaving a massive giant Cougar in her place.

Silver Cougar trips over her tail and rolls into a ball, slamming into one of the walls.

Erica finally manages to get her wits about her and grabs her rifle and fires at the Coalition officer while she backs up trying to get around the furniture and closer to the door. She calls out over the radio. "Lets get out of here before more Coalition show up. Fucking trap." She says it with obvious fear in her voice.

Xander growls as the others join in the fight instead of making good on a perfectly good moment to get out. "What are you people doing?! Once that bot gets out I dont have the energy to contain it again. I was buying time for you to get out of here." He notes as he pushes into the officers mind twice more, attempting to fill it with despair and then fear.

The Coaltion ISS officer shakes his head once and then twice. His body droops slightly as she lets out a long sigh. He takes a moment to look around but then fires a shot at the large Cougar that crashed nearby him. He doesn't seem to be thinking straight as his shots are just 2 single shots. The skelebot slashes out with his vibro saber and the forcefield goes down it closes with Erica and attacks with its saber.

Over the radio Ash says: "Door is locked, and not made of flimsy stuff. Trying to come in from above." Taking a couple steps back so he can get a running start, Ash picks up speed and then vaults high into the air and up towards the roof. As he comes down he fires off a quick double pulse from his pistol to hopefully put two volleyball sized holes in it so the slender alien can slip through and into the house to support the others already inside.

"Tabernac!" Bailey curses as she quickly pushes herself up from the mess of the entertainment center and rushes the officer once more while he's distracted. She doesn't try any elaborate tackle or anything, but is siezing the opportunity to struggle with him to relieve him of his rifle so they can get away without their horses getting shot out from beneath them.

Silver Cougar takes a moment and got shot but the officer is occupied at the moment. She turns and leaps at the freed Hellion and slashes at it with her claws, she doesn't expect to last too long but might buy time for the others.

Erica crys out as the skelebot hits her with the vibro saber. Obviously wanting to get out quickly she turns to fire at the door. She shoots it twice with her triple shot hoping to take it down quick so everyone can escape.

As he comes through the roof nearly right on top of Xander, Ash lands and takes a quick look around. He doesn't seem to be keen on trying to face such close quarter combat when he has no vibroswords to parry with or the other. Instead he fires off one quick double blast at the door to try and finish making the team an escape route.

Erica cries out in victory as she sees the door get blown open under the fire. She runs out the door and to her hovercycle. "Everyone outside now. Lets get the hell out of here." She screams out as she gets to the hovercycle and looks back to make sure she is being followed.

Xander nods and backs up towards the door right after Erica. Just before he turns to dart for the rover though he sends two strong mental pushes to knock the offcer down while they make their getaway.

The skelebot continues to fulfill its last orders and turns to attack Auranna to disable the giant Cougar attacking it. The Coalition Officer grunts as the waves of force wash over him. He manages to keep his footing as he fires draws his vibro sword and slashes at Bailey as the rifle swings from its shoulder strap.

Silver Cougar keeps attacking the Skelebot for the moment, "Get out." comes the human voice from the giant cougar as she slashes, biding some time hopefully for them.

Bailey cries out as the officer's weapon comes down, slashing across her body as she tries and fails to step in and block his swinging sword. As daylight streams into the living room, and the blood begins to stain the remains of the walls, the psistalker turns tail and runs, not wanting Auranna's sacrifice to be in vain. As she breaks over the smouldering threshold of the door, she quickly unties Beautiful from the post on the porch and hops up onto the saddle before kicking in her spurs to start down the street. She keeps the front lawns when she can, as her horse's shoes don't grip the pavement very well at all.

Landing apparently wasn't a good thing for Ash, the quick-flex taking a moment to regain his footing and get his full faculties under control. Seeing the giant cougar still brawling with the skelebot he notes: "Horses aren't outrunning a robot." And he brings his pistol up to support the cougar, firing off another double-blast out of the laser pistol hoping to help bring it down so they can feasibly make an escape with their transport options. It's a long way back to Kingsdale at full speed on a hovercycle with the coalition chasing you. Let alone on horseback.

Erica screams at Auranna as she gets on her hovercycle and starts it up. "What are you doing?! Get out of there you are going to get yourself killed." She turns the hovercycle to face the house and gets ready to flee once everyone is ready and on their vehicles or mounts.

Xander hops into the rover without delay though when he sees those following are two short in number her grumbles. "Do we wait Erica? Pretty sure Auranna can handle herself. Not so sure about the other guy though." He notes, remembering the shot that got absorbed by his armor's shielding.

The skelebot continues to attack the giant cougar in front of it. It slashes its blades trying to subdue the creature. The Coalition officer while still dispairing moves to slash his sword at Ash twice not thinking clear enough to move to block the exit or to order the skelebot to do anything different.

Silver Cougar growls, "Go." at Ash and then drawns in her magic and releases it surrounding the doorway with a sphere of fear and horror, in an attempt of keeping the officer from fleeing through it. She slashes at the skelebot even as she finishes.

Getting to the end of the block, Bailey reins in her horse and sees that the rest of the team is still dawdling in the front yard. She pulls on her helmet so she can get into radio contact with them and asks, "What're you all doing, stealing her veggies?! Let's move!" she calls out into the microphone as she draws her rifle out and scans the skyline to see if the officer's called in backup yet

Ash quickly tries to bat the vibrosword aside from the officer, but he horribly misjudges one and a deep furrow is dug through his armor from the first slash. "Your funeral." He says and then he's about to head out when the cougars magic figuratively slams into him and stuns him for a moment. Still, he's fast and then in a blink of an eye he is outside, running through the door and heading for his hovercycle to jump onto it and fire it up. Still shaken he mutters under his breath, "Fucking magic."

"Auranna You better get the hell out of there right now!" She screams out as she gains altitude with her hovercycle and starts heading to where Bailey is waiting. "Lets go now Xander. Get out of here." She shakes her head as she looks back at the house hoping to see her Auranna get smart and flee.

Xander nods, gunning the rovers accelerater to send him racing down the street. No aslowing down for checkpoints this time. Should any authorities get in his way the best quickly get out of it.

The skelebot keeps attacking the one person who hasn't fled yet. It keeps slashing away with it's vibro swords. Its tail lashes out as well stinging at the Cougar. The mixture of fear and dispair overwhelms the Coalition officer and he just weakly cringes as he tries to get up the motivation to care about the fleeing enemies.

Silver Cougar takes that opportunity as she sends a saber flying to leap back and out the doorway. Shimmering back to her human form even as she bounds down the stairs and leaps onto her horse to ride off as fast as possible. With a shimmer and glowing as she changes form, Auranna retakes her human form.

Seeing the others finally getting their wriggle on, Bailey slings her rifle over her shoulder and kicks it into high gear as well, racing Beautiful down the roadway, only giving a half effort to steer clear of people walking thier dogs or carrying groceries home from the supermarket.

Ash waits outside for a few, letting the horses take off before he kicks the hovercycle into gear and gets it more than a bit off the ground. One might wonder why of course. "Go go go. I'll try and distract it and lead it on a goose chase if it follows out. Horse's aren't outrunning that thing if it chases."

The skelebot moves to retrive its saber from where it fell. Turning back to the Coalition officer it awaits the command to give chase, but the Coalition officer seems lost in fear and dispair and shakes his head slowly. He orders the skelebot to defend him instead of giving chase.

The group heads and top speed for the nearest exit from the city. The northern exit. Most of the people on the street quickly get out of the way of the fleeing caravan. At the northern exit of the city some Coalition grunts are milling about obviously they are aware of some trouble within the city, but haven't organized themselves yet. With no officer to give them orders the gates are still wide open and the grunts are unsure what to do.

Erica isn't going at full speed as she doesn't want to leave the people on horseback behind but she is leading the way for now. She screams out to the Coalition grunts that are ahead of her as she keeps traveling. "Demons are loose in the city! It is tearing shit up. We have to get out of here!" She waves vaguely behind her as she is traveling high enough to go over the heads of the grunts.

Auranna rides after Erica. She peels off her hooded shirt to shove it into one of the saddle bags, She continues riding, just in her buckskin outfit for now.

With the skelebot not coming out Ash doesn't wait around forever, the officer isn't going to be incapacitated forever. He zooms off down the street, gaining enough altitude to fly over the heads of any civilians and foot traffic on the street until he catches up with the others moving at more sedate speeds (Those poor horses). He mutters something under his breath but doesn't say anything to the grunts or anyone else, instead acting just like a fleeing person on the run from demons or whatever sort of trouble is going on in the city.

Following Erica's lead as she rides her thundering warhorse, Bailey waves them to the side, "Big... Demons! There's fucking Deebee wizards reading books and summoning demons!!" she cries out, trying to bolster Erica's bluff as Beautiful continues to gallop at a full sprint down street, headed straight for the road block.

Xander chuckles at the antics but focuses on his driving to maneuver past traffic and panicked people and get through the gates.

The Coalition grunts take note of the screams and cries of Demons and turn to face the town. Many of them crouch and ready their guns to fire when the supposed demons show up. Many of the people milling about the gate to the city scream in turn at the cry for demons and turn to flee out of the city. Soon quite a few people are joining the group to get out before the demons attack.

Erica keeps screaming about demons and how horrible they were as she flies over the top of the city gate and heads out to the north. "Get out while you can!" She screams out as she gets past the gate.

Auranna keeps riding along. She seems not too bothered by wind or cold but isn't yelling anything out either. She just keeps riding, urging her horse to more speed to help get further away.

Once clear of the gates Ash turns north to follow Erica and move with the others away from the city. Hopefully there's enough confusion now that it'll be harder to track them. To help Ash drops the elevation of his bike to cruise low to the ground so that other frightened people are able to cover their escape. Once they're clear of the masses he seems to be muttering something about twelve grand down.

Bailey steers her way through the formation of coalition grunts, careful not to bowl the heavily armed soldiers over, but once she's on the other side of their line, she spurs her horse once again to leave a trail of dust as she veers off of the road proper to give Beautiful better traction as they bolt away from town. "Are they following us?" she asks into the radio as she spares a quick glance behind her. "I don't see any Sams bearing down.."

Xander barrels through the gates with no regard to any grunt that may foll heartedly stumble into his way. No intention of slowing until he is passed the border to Kingsdale.

The grunts open up to let people through as they brace themselves for a coming demon attack. The group quickly get clear of the city and reach the forest that surrounds it. Erica drops altitude to get under the trees as she breathes a sigh of relief. "I think whatever was going on with that officer he wasn't able to order pursuit fast enough. Lets keep under the trees and see if we can't get back to Kingsdale without any more problems. Damm I'm sorry about that ambush. I didn't know. They must have killed Frank to lure me there."

Auranna rides a bit closer, "I threw a fear spell, and it must have been a bit more effective against the guy than I thought." she says as she urges her mount along with the others.

Ash looks over at Erica, studying her a few moments before he shakes his head and cruises along on his bike, staying below the tree lines and to lower speeds to so that anyone searching the sky won't be able to pick the bike out hopefully. He is not in any specific rush to get anywhere it seems now that they appear to be in the clear.

Breathing heavily, Bailey forms up with the others, letting her horse slow down from the full out sprint to a decent quick pace now that they have the cover of trees. "He.. He didn't seem like a typical officer," She observes, glancing back again to make sure the coast is clear. "That was probably some sort of off the record thing he had going on if he didn't bring any backup." She pauses for a moment to catch her breath, "What was that camp he was talking about, Boss?"

"I think Erica should confer with her associates if the association is getting mentors killed to bring them into traps." Xander says with a strong tone a disapproval. "In her place I would have gladly redirected him to the proper party so he could collect what is his."

Erica nods her head slowly as she scowls under her helmet. "It was a job I did a while back." She mentions before turning to look back and Xander's buggy. "Well I will defintly be talking to my employer. She will be very interested about this." She lets out a soft sigh as the group starts on the long trip back to Kingsdale.

Auranna nods and keeps riding secure for the moment and keeping her eyes open.

Ash is quiet as well, not saying anything at all and just keeping aware as the group makes their way back to kingsdale. After all, it's not like the forests of the earth are really much safer in this day and age. "I'd say," Bailey says, shaking her head. "So much for a cake walk delivery," she chuckles, still riding the high from their exciting escape from the ambush. "Who was that joker, anyways?"

"Some special ops guy or maybe someone with ISS." Erica says with a sigh as she keeps leading the way back to Kingsdale.