December 17, 108 PA - Leaving the Team to Rescue Slaves
From Chronicles
DAY ONE - December 17, 108 PA
SOMEWHERE IN THE WILDERNESS NORTH OF KINGSDALE
The wind and snow continues to blow, and now one adventurer has been left behind, stuck to the ground and facing two guards that he knows of. Those who had departed the city with him are now gone, covered by trees and weather. One guard has now vanished to the plain eye and apparently magical ones, as well. The other guard that has been seen before is stuck to the ground even worse than Jaxain, but at least behind the cover of a beautiful flowering dogwood denude of leaves for the season.
Jaxain already spent the last round aiming, and now can not only shoot, but can nearly fire again. He leans to the side, taking careful aim, and lets loose with his weapon. Jaxain takes careful aim, waits for it... waits for it... ok, now! .... and the shot makes a nice quiet hole in the ground, nowhere close to the tree. Well that was pointless... Stupid aiming.
The first, unseen guard has been waiting patiently for just what he needed to see - an energy burst to appear out of nowhere. That spot is used as a target location, and an invisible pulse of laser energy out of nowhere at that one position. It might not be a perfect target, but it's better than waiting for things to wear off.
Two more grenades are chucked from behind the tree. Unfortunately, this guard doesn't have the luxury of seeing any sort of target, and has only muscle memory to guide him. Two grenades go off - brilliantly. Blinding lasers lancing out for thirty feet in all directions. Harmlessly.
Jaxain is definitely starting to get freaked out. He casts a quick spell which renews his armor, then moves as much as he can away from his previous position so he can't be shot again
Whoever it is behind the trigger and wherever he is, he's a patient bastard. No target, no shot taken.
There's movement behind the tree that takes up some time, then only a single grenade comes flying out. It arcs through the canopy and everything. This grenade explodes violently, vaporizing two trees and making a large crater. Not just in the snow, but in the ground.
Jaxain thinks to himself, 'Well, enough of this.' and he aims at the tree. And misses. Three times. He stares, slack jawed, at the spotless tree.
Another target. Pretty bright, too. The unseen shooter fires again.
Lasers spatter over exactly where they were supposed to. The second trigger pull though, is a bad day for the shooter. Something happens, something bad. Something that causes the entire energy transfer mechanism to detonate. It gives away the position like an enormous, fiery flare.
Either the man is out of grenades, or he's given up. The nose of an energy rifle, obviously slung low, snakes around the tree and fires two pulses wildly.
Jaxain pauses for a moment as a rifle snakes around the tree and dings his armor, and, surprised, he mutters a few magic words before calling out. "Hey, cut it out and I let you live. Toss your weapon if you choose life, asshole." Then he aims and shoots at the fireball, hoping to get rid of the non-captive audience.
The guard behind the tree continues to fight off the invader as best he can. Suicidal or dedicated to his job, it doesn't matter. Just keeps fighting. Some of his shots skitter over an unseen assailant.
Jaxain grunts and shrugs, unloading his weapon at the tree. His clip is running dry, but with any luck the other slavers will have charged ammo he can take.
The tree is obliterated, revealing a man in what is now scorched Crusader armor. But still fighting. Now that cover isn't even there, the rifle is properly raised to his shoulder and he blindly fires off shots to the area where his dead comrade had been shooting.
Jaxain returns fire, having had just about enough of this. He just turned down over 200,000 credits to help a bunch of slaves... but there is little else he could do. They need saving. And somebody has to do it. "See ya." he says, unloading at the man from point blank.
The second guard - apparently the last one - goes down with a hole in his armor where his chest would be. Oddly, because of how his feet are stuck to the ground, he ends up in a very strange death pose. Eventually, both the carpet of adhesion holding Jaxain to the ground and the man's own invisibility wear off. All that is left, at least for the moment, is terrible weather, abandonment, and a train full of people in need of help.
Jaxain goes around gathering all the weapons he can before his invisibility ends, because it will last a good minute or two after he escapes the carpet, and heads towards the train. Still invisible, just in case, to scout it out. Jaxain grabbed E-Clips, grenades and the like as well. He'll have to outfit the slaves for the drive back.
In the train, the people are freezing cold, having almost nothing to keep them warm. Some are completely nude. They look as if they've been without food or water for a while, and sanitation is nonexistent. Even simply having to stand wears on their muscular-skeletal structure.
Jaxain removes his helmet, his invisible armor still intact, and casts a spell on himself to make himself more charismatic. Then he steps out and speaks to the slaves, "I just killed all the fuckers who captured you, and I'm gonna take you to Kingsdale to be free. Who among you is capable of driving this vehicle, or wielding a rifle to help defend us on the journey to safety?"
Most of the captives look blankly at Jaxain. Rather hopeless, tired and beaten down. One man, an older man raises his hand and says weakly, "I can try to drive it." The rest of the slaves continue to look out through the locked bars. A few men and women make weak noises about using weapons.
Jaxain nods to those who offered to help, and frees those who seem to want to be freed. Or at least he opens the cages. Then he chooses a few trustworthy looking souls, gives them a piercing gaze, and tells them to share out the slavers' food between them all, and water as well. That done, he goes and collects the bodies of the slavers, throwing them on the truck. "Alright, we ready to go?" He asks the older man, hoping he isn't totally full of crap. Maybe the heated cab and the food and water will raise his spirits.
The old man nods, sliding behind the seat of the slave train. Wondering where to go.
Jaxain isn't real sure.... so he just points the way he things they came from. "That way." He says. That done, he goes back and strips the armor and bloody clothing from the dead slavers, offering it to those who look trustworthy to be given rifles.
With Jaxain having just come up from Kingsdale, there are a few directions to go on. Landmarks and so on. Still, no one on the trip is an expert, and it takes two full days just to hit what turns out to be the Laramy-Whykin trail. After some discussion with passing merchants, the route back to Kingsdale is found. Sadly, due to exposure, thirst, starvation and other factors nearly a third of the captives don't make it to the trail.
Jaxain did what he could to scout ahead and hunt, bringing back food and fresh beasts to eat, but there is no way to counter the cold for this many people... But he does what he can, as they make their way to Kingsdale at the best pace they can manage.
Just outside of Kingsdale, a passing Mountaineer screeches to a halt and turns to follow the train. It pulls up next to the tractor part of the train and offers to take everyone inside the city. Apparently they're some kind of charity organization.
Jaxain is more than glad that help arrived, and is overjoyed when relief arrives in the form of the Mountaineer. He offers to sell them the train for a very good price, after all he doesn't want to come away with nothing for all his troubles. He is selfish, even for all his good deeds. They can flip it for a profit, and he asks them to use that profit to help the lives of the slaves and let them reclaim some form of humanity.
The charity people are more than happy to "accept" the hover train - as a "gift," and doing good deeds. All of the equipment left behind by the slavers themselves is split between the charity and Jaxain, though they let him keep the weapons and other things that adventurers usually want. Then, when it seems as if good will go unrewarded, it turns out that one of the slaves is a girl named Stefanie. A four-armed, blue-skinned D-Bee girl who is Tiffany the barista's sister. There had been a good reward out for her safe retrieval, and Jaxain is now given this twenty-thousand credit reward. After that, the slaves are taken to be cleaned, housed and fed. For one who set out for northern Missouri, the journey is complete.
