Nov 24 19:21:01 107 PA - Janosik and Santoko

From Chronicles

Nov 24 19:21:01 107 PA.

Day 1

LANDING STRIP

Vixen is sitting on the hood of a good sized, six wheeled truck, given a dark, almost black purple coloring with a lighter trim. The woman herself has added a black combat armor to her outfit, her coat over it. And her pack in the extended cab. She's got a handheld in hand, linked to a portable communicator, the bound devices linked behind her right ear by another cord. She's quietly listening as she waits, one leg up, the two items balanced on the other between her hands.

Tuetz Eulam and Wandern Vietz, the two men from the distant village of Santocko are shying away from the city-folk, basically hiding in the shadows of a battered hovertruck that was apparently their ride.

Valeriya returns to the gates and then the landing strip, although looking a bit lost. Spotting the large truck and the girl sitting on its hood she strides to interact. "Hey there, you local? You know anything about where this add for hired help in Santocko leads to?" She asks calmly, handing over the posting.

Vixen looks up from her distraction when Valeriya approaches and addresses her. Her brows lift slightly, considering the woman, then a casual grin settles in and she says. "Local. And if you're looking to get in on that, you're lucky." She tilts her head towards the boys and their truck. "They're the client. I'm transport and a decent enough gun. At least, so much as I'm likely to provide for this sort of operation."

The two men from Santocko seem to notice the two women, as both of them are very, very strange, at least compared to the backwater life that they're used to. The younger man seems to want to approach them, but the older man pulls him back, whispering something in his ear.

Valeriya breathes a sigh of relief and the lizard on her shoulder is a step ahead of her as it hisses at those Vixen pointed to. "Well that’s good news, didn’t expect to find work so quick after getting here, but I wont complain." She replies before turning to consider the two men. "Anything else I should know about the arrangement?" She asks.

"The deal is simple. Kill the guys causing them problems. One might be magical or have mind powers, don't really know. Once the job is done, we get paid. They may have their own little hideout. We'll have to do some recon when we get there." Though after saying so she glances towards the two guys, to make sure they don't have any other details they want to offer up on the basics.

The two men seem to bicker some more, but the younger one manages to pull away, still being swatted by the somewhat older man. He shuffles toward the large wheeled truck. "Um, excuse.. excuse me.." he says. "I'm Wandern. You don't have to kill all of them, if you, ah, don't need to. Capture is okay, too. But, um... you know better than we do." His eyes are then averted.

"Well I'm sure they'll be perfectly agreeable to being captured instead of killed." Valeriya agrees with a slight hint of sarcasm as she turns to look over the timid fellow. "How many of them are there?" she asks calmly, reaching back to adjust her scimitar slightly. "How good are they?"

Delayed by an errand, Sage comes along a little later than the first two women with a backpack in tow. She looks around for the men that she talked to within the Nightingale. The tall woman seems to draw her attention to a particular spot and sure enough that's where the men turn out to be. She begins to head in that directly. She glances around to see who else might be assembling before returning her gaze to the tall woman as she approaches. Her gaze seeming to consider the lizard.

"Could be ten," Vixen says. "How good. Who can say? At the least, they beat off some other bandits that were there. So they're not completely incompetent. Beyond that.." She shrugs. "Ambush will likely be the key." She casually lifts a hand towards Sage as she approaches and grins. "If anyone might convince them to give it up, might be this one."

Wandern manages to speak again, though still not looking at the women, which has now become a trio. "Janosik, well, he's our guy. Biggest man I've ever seen. Nobody's ever beaten him. At anything. I wouldn't want to fight him. He has another guy, Neu, he's really good. And the spacey woman. The rest, um they're just kind of normal, I guess. Ah, let's see... " he holds up seven fingers. "That many of them. Sorry, I don't really count. No need to." That being said, the young man fades into such a deep shyness that he nearly disappears.

"Spacey woman?" Valeriya asks before turning a Vixen's gesture and her lizards hiss to take in Sage. "Hello there." She greets with a nod to the woman who looks to have the sway of the others. "So you're in charge of the run?" She asks calmly.

"A woman that has an odd manner to her from what I understand." Sage comments as she manages to overhear this question before looking to Valeriya now that she can see the woman's face. She nods faintly in return, "Hey..." She replies before looking towards the lizard, "Never seen a lizard like that one before." She comments before looking over to Vixen to offer a faint smile. "Hey... I don't suppose you could give me a ride?" She asks simply.

Vixen grins as Valeriya's last question to Sage. "At this point? I don't think anyone per se is 'in charge'. As long as people are flexible, we shouldn't need one." She nods to Sage then when it comes to a ride. "Plenty of room for both of you in the cab. No need to sit out in the back. Once we get there, we can scope out the situation and decide on our options. Just waiting a bit to see who else might turn up."

Wandern and his older friend shuffle around some more, and the younger man manages to say, "Um, we have a truck, too, if you need a ride. It's kind of old, but it works. But we need to get going, because the caravan should be leaving soon, and the gang usually comes in after they take off." Apparently too shy to even attempt much more conversation, Wandern does.. wander.. back to his truck. If anyone is in charge, it's up for grabs as far as the town of Santocko is concerned.

"Much like myself, Spitz is not from around here." Valeriya replies to Sage before nodding to Vixen at the offer ride. Spitz hisses defiantly, looking to be glad of the distinction. "I think I'll take the new truck that stays on the ground over the older model that flies this time." She intones, moving to unsling her sword and hop in to Vixen's truck.

Glances back to the tall woman at the question, Sage smiles faintly once more. "Well, like Vixen said, we might not have a true leader... but I suppose I hold a little sway." She comments before offering a faint shrug and getting ready to head off to the rest. She nods faintly to the woman at the reaction about the lizard. "I wouldn't mind finding out more about your little friend at some point... if its okay with you." She moves to Vixen's truck as well.

Vixen seems amused as the lizard is named, a faint smirk lingering. She starts to put her things away and soon has the small items slid back into her coat. Though that is slid off when she gets in. The armor enough discomfort for the drive. Though she will enjoy driving and she settles in to get the rugged truck ready to move.

The two men lead the tiny band of potential saviors on a long, 250-mile journey to the north-northwest, culminating at the arrival of the two trucks just as the sun's base is touching the horizon as the day begins to turn to darkness. Thankfully, the ride itself is entirely uneventful. The beasts must be inside today.

TOWN OF SANTOCKO

The small town of Santocko could have been ripped right out of 12th century Troyes, France, but with a couple of high-tech items laying around here and there. The population of around two-hundred and fifty is spread out over an area somewhat smaller than two square miles. Houses, barns, sheds and animal pens are clustered around the center, which itself is surrounded by plowed fields and pastures. As promised, it appears that the homes are packed with family, a generational home of an eight- or ten-person average. The structures are built of simple materials, the people living in the distant past with wood- and coal-burning stoves and a common well and set of latrines. The entirety of the town is clustered between an area of steep ravines to the west, which bend just enough to cover more interesting topography, save for a few mountain peaks in that direction. On the three other sides, the landscape is agricultural and livestock pens, falling away at a semi-shallow angle.

The precise center of the little town revolves around a trifecta of points-of-interest: a large and attractive open area, and a rather grand church for a town this size, with an attached building that must serve as a town hall and indoor community center. There are no real roads save for what might be a north-to-south caravan track and a somewhat large passage that leads west before simply fading out of existence. The church is clearly a focal point of life. It has been built in a rather chunky manner as one might expect of such an isolated town, an odd combination of simple wood construction alongside brick-and-mortar, but it seems as if every person residing must have put on some piece of their own detail at one time or another. Everything from carved statues, from small and crude children's attempts, to full-sized and quite magnificent carvings to hundreds of flowers and garland wreaths hung around its doors and windows. In a town of single-story and the occasional two-story home and building, the bell-tower reaches to a fourth-floor elevation. While cramped with bells, the view from within the upper-tower is probably quite lovely.

The town proper is clear of most natural brush and vegetation, save for the areas around the church and open area. Outside, the areas that aren't agricultural do remain thickly grown, but with pleasantly broad-leafed plants, not the evilly foreshadowing brambles and thorn bushes that people may have come to expect. While there are occasional piles of cut lumber, hay and so forth laying around, the repressed people of Santocko do seem to take pride in their town

A small band of men and women are on hand to greet the travelers. The crowd rapidly grows with the arrival of a new vehicle. As poor and battered as the town may be, at least the young children seem to be happy, playing various games with flowers, rocks, and sticks. An elder couple, man and woman who seem to be very vanilla human approach Tuertz and Wandern as they get out of their vehicle. On the wind is carried the word, "Three?"

"If it's okay with him." Valeriya corrects Sage and Spitz hisses triumphantly. As they arrive in the village she looks over the surroundings appraisingly, particularly the church. Though her switch to breathing through her mouth one they entered town may have been noticeable.

Sage nods faintly to Valeriya, "Of course, I would not wish to bother Spitz." She comments, as she turns her attention to the town. Should the smell of it become undesirable enough, she may slip her helmet on to let her suit filter the air. When she gets out of the vehicle, she gives a customary stretch before she moves towards the gathering to size up the people and how they appear.

Vixen comes out with her coat in hand, then slung on casually once he feet hit the floor. She takes the time to fish out her pack, slinging it on before she locks up the truck and glances around slowly. When the couple come and question them, Vixen tilts her head slightly. "We're here to check out the situation. If we need more, we'll go back and get more." Said simply as she too gets her helmet on, rather than at her hip.

The elder man, accompanied by an elder woman, turns away from the two men recently returned from the city, and approach the wheeled truck. "Sorry," he offers in a raspy baritone that you might expect from someone his age, "We just, well.. I mean no offense. My name is Aaron." He waves his hand to the plump woman next to him, saying, "This is Bethany. We're the Elders." That apparently is a title in this little place. "Do you want us to show you Santocko, or leave you alone?" Bethany chimes in with an odd lilt. "We really don't know how these things are done, I'm afraid."

"I think we got the gist of it on the way in. Unless there is something particular we need to see. Town's great magical treasure or such. Otherwise I think just telling us where to go from here to see what you've got would suffice." Valeriya lightly suggests before gesturing to silent Spitz as he hisses rudely at Bethany.

"And, it might be good to know if you do anything in particular when these people show up... like where people hide... whether you ring the church bell as a warning... that sort of thing." Sage adds in, before briefly glancing to the lizard as she tries to sense a little about its empathic impressions. "We need to know where your bad boys hang out," Vixen replies. "So we can go take a look and see what's what. If we have to go for more, better we get it done before they notice we're here and can get ready." She nods towards the other two as well with their own queries.

Bethany starts at the lizard's hissing, but quickly calms by the man's side. "Ah, well, okay," stutters the elderly Aaron. "Um, this here is the church. We keep it up real nice. Not much else really. We're mostly farmers. Church is beautiful, though. 'specially if you get up in the tower there. See most of the town from there." Obviously there are other buildings, but they go unmentioned for the time. In response to the other queries, "It's kind of sad, I guess. Nobody bothers to hide anymore. Sometimes we don't even ring the bell. We can't stop them, y'know. It's easier to just give them what they want." He adds a kind of obvious, "That's why we hired you." Bethany points a pudgy finger to the west. "There. Some mountains and ravines and such. They live somewhere in there. But no one's ever been able to follow them back."

"West it is." Valeriya agrees looking back to Vixen and Sage. "Either of you trackers? More of a sneaker myself. And do we want to wait for the cover of darkness?" She asks calmly before considering the church once more. "Any pattern to their raids? Like they always come after the caravan that fellow mentioned. How do they know when it comes and goes?"

There is a moment of amusement for Sage when she gets a sense of the lizard's temperament. Her attention doesn't linger as she looks back to the Elders. She nods faintly as she listens, briefly glancing towards the church as if it would answer what's so important about it. At Valeriya's question, she glances over to her. "I am better at tracking animals... but with a little patience I may be able to track them." She comments, "I might be able to sense if we're close as well." Before she purses her lips at the new questions for the Elders and turns her attention once more. "And do they approach from the same direction each time?"

Vixen nods casually to what is said by the older woman. That seems to be enough for her as she looks towards the two women that came with her. "I don't do tracking, unfortunately. I can work on their communications a bit. Brought some gear in the truck. Dunno how long that might take, though. But if I can find their frequency and get in, we can listen."

At that, a younger woman from the gathered crowd steps forward, completely unannounced. No introductions are made, just, "They do, they do always come in after a caravan. But there's nothing special about it. Caravans come through every fortnight." Yes, she used the word 'fortnight.' "Everyone around here," she waves a hand to possibly indicate other local towns, "it's the same." Aaron shushes the younger woman away when he answers Sage's question. "No, no. Janosik is a smart boy. Misguided, but very smart. Maybe he's worried that we'd well..." he blushes a bit and finishes with, "maybe he figured that one day we'd hire some people."

"So we could go out and find them or wait for them to come to us. I kinda like the latter, much easier to prepare for." Valeriya opines before turning to nod to Vixen. "I can help, not bad with a radio myself."

"Well, if they're playing it like they are expecting trouble one of these times... might as well have someone in the tower to try to spot them before they come in." Sage comments, "I could probably rig up some smoke grenades or something on a trip wire too." She pauses before pursing her lips, "I do have one explosive grenade... maybe I should get some others at some point." She adds with a shrug before pausing to consider things once more.

"As long as we pick the battleground and we can choose to start things up or bug out," Vixen notes to Valeriya. "Three to one odds aren't all that good unless we can even the field. I'm not looking to die today. Creds don't do no good if you can't spend 'em." She then nods to Sage. "Blinders. If you can set those up, we could get a big advantage out of the gate."

"Janosik knows the area like the back of his hand," offers Aaron. "The boy grew up here. I don't know if anything could get by him." Whatever that was in response to, if anything, it's put out there. Wandern once again very helpfully offers, "I wouldn't want to fight him." That said, Tuetz, the other man who'd gone to Kingsdale to recruit, swats his head and drags him into town. Bethany states very properly, but again with her strange lilt, "The others aren't from here, the two main people, but they've been here a long time. The seven other guys, though -" apparently she does know her math "- they come and go when they get rich enough to leave, so they don't know us the same. They have a lot of technology, too." She looks shyly away. "I don't know if that helps or not."

Valeriya nods to Vixen, looking to be fond of her own skin as well. "Blinders would be great, we hit em and walk in to take em down no problem. Can't see a fault to the plan. Where would I fit in? Not a great spotter for the tower, but I can hide well enough for the ambush."

Sage hms softly as she considers the different comments, as her gaze drifts between the assembled people. "If they're expecting trouble one of these times, they won't come in all together..." She comments, "We might be able to use that to our advantage... but we'd need to be mobile." She considers as she looks towards Valeriya. "I'm not sure what you're capable of... but, we would need someone in place to take advantage of a trap if it worked." She comments, before glancing towards Vixen. "Exactly how many blinders do we have combined?"

Vixen considers Valeriya and wonders, "What can you do?" She shakes her head. "Never seen you before, so hard to find a place for you." She then nods to Sage. "We need to disable them once they're blind. Easier to tangle them up than to kill them. More to salvage if we do that too." She then considers and says, "I have six of mine. Left two at home. What about the two I gave you? Bring them?"

There seems to be a brief rustling back in the crowd amongst the young adults, but it's Bethany who speaks again. "We might be the victims here, and we might not be strong, but we're not cowards, and we're not stupid. Is there anything that we can do to help?" Aaron nods in agreement, and there's a general rumbling mumble of further agreement from others gathered nearby.

Valeriya shrugs guessing her appearance didn't accurately portray her. "I'm skilled with using this sword and going unseen. That's about it. Spitz can spit acid at them, but its more useful on locks than armor." She surmises with a slight blush. "Can probably add to their disarray after the blinders, but only marginally."

Sage's gaze is drawn to Valeriya as there seems to be a guilty admission of sorts going on. "I see." She comments before looking over to Bethany. "We need someone to be in the tower to keep a look out. Ring a bell, toss one of my smoke grenades... don't stick around if there's any chance of being shot at." She comments, before pausing as if considering whether there's anything else that wouldn't be potentially too dangerous. "Might be a good idea to get most people under cover... but, if you have a place where you typically keep the stuff they want, that would be good to know too." She comments before looking to Vixen with a faint nod. "Alright, 8... had a feeling I'd be throwing stuff around this time." She comments before shrugging, then looks back to Valeriya. "And, perhaps we could have you hiding to come out and try to disarm any blinded people... if the weapons are loose, I might be able to pick them up en masse." She considers, "And, we might need Vixen to keep us updated about their communications as things go..."

Vixen considers Valeriya and says, "Disarray, huh?" She considers the woman's state and says, "Magic? No specialty tricks? I suppose you seem the type.. sort of. If you've got something useful, details would help." She then considers the people casually, their offer given due consideration. Sage seems to have fine enough ideas on that and she nods to the idea of disarming. "Getting their weapons in our hands is a key thing. Getting helmets off, anything that puts them at a distinct disadvantage and makes it easier to get them to give it up. Or go down easier if they won't give it up, rather than having to chew through their armor."

Aaron and Bethany pull back a little at the mention of an acid-spitting lizard, no matter what it may be good for, or not good for. The crowd falls quiet. However, from somewhere in the back, a young voice seemingly belonging to a male shouts out, "They've never tried to hurt us before!" but adding a belated, "but I guess we've never really fought back before, either. I could try to watch for stuff." The town matriarch, who may or may not have a bit of strategic instinct with her bones asks, "How are only three of you going to ambush ten people in an area as large as this?" Her hands then roll the sky as her waist swivels. The "urban" part of town does, after all, spill over the size of a regulation American football field of ancient times gone past. The more thinly clustered metropolitan area expands further beyond that, though with the current layout, the church and its outbuildings are the major central players.

"Protection, concealment, and distraction. That's the magic I have." Valeriya nods to Vixen at the astute logic. "It'll be enough to keep them off guard while I relieve them of their weapons. But nothing special beyond that I'm afraid. Only a minor practitioner."

Sage takes a moment to consider the terrain carefully, before taking a breath and letting it out. "Well, if the plan is to wait for them to come to us... I guess we're going to need a little help since it's just the three of us." She concedes, "We should be able to see them coming, at least." She comments before pursing her lips. "Perhaps we can rig the grenades to triggered by a string of some sort... hit one group with blinders, get their weapons... use blinders and smoke grenades to confuse the others... perhaps if most people can be in a basement or something, we can keep the potential for injury down."

"If you want to meet them here, could do that." Vixen looks around. "Set up a bit into the street. Could have a pair of someones toss them out windows. The blinders. But we'd want them where we want them, so I could be 'bait' to get them set up in a good place. Park my truck out in the open and stand with it. They'll come to check me out. Give a signal and I'll dive under, cover my eyes. Toss the blinders, they go off. You two come out on either side of the street and start working them over. Weapons can go in the back of my truck.. not as easy to get them there as laying out in the street. Or toss them on the other side of the truck, which ever works." She glances around and says "You guys got tarps? Or heavy blankets.. something that someone can get wrapped up in if you toss it over them? Put some of those folded in the back of the truck and I can start tossing them at people. Try and get them even more distracted and stumbling." She glances towards her two compatriots.

After a significant amount of rustling, which leads to banging, a young man, no more than sixteen at best, squirts out of the crowd. He jumps over next to Bethany's side and does his best job at a salute, which looks a tad strange as he does it with his left hand. Odd, considering that just about every military in history has used a right hand. Oh well. The important part is that he's carrying a battered L-20 pulse rifle, and wearing a single piece of breastplate armor, with an oversized helmet practically falling off of his head. "I can fight. This was my grandpa's stuff. The rifle doesn't work too well, but I can shoot it." It may work. However, the hole nearly worn in the e-clip receiver may not. The two Elders acknowledge that yes, they would all hide if that's what would be best, but they're willing to help in other ways, if just given specifics. Bethany is quick to pipe up with, "Oh, we all -" 'we' possibly indicating all of the women "- quilt and sew. There are plenty of blankets. Of course, we usually sell them." Another man in the crowd points out that yes indeed, a heavily agricultural town such as this has plenty in the way of rope, tarps, lumber, hay, and various other things that people might trip over. Aaron does feel the need to add once again though: "Janosik grew up here. He knows our town."

"The blankets are a great idea." Valeriya agrees with a small growl from Spitz. Then the kid speaks up and she turns to regard him with curiosity. "And so have you. You'd probably be the best one to watch from the bell tower, use the rifle to take out who you can." Valeriya suggests for a way for the young man to help without putting him on the front line.

"I didn't want to speak for your truck." Sage comments with a light tone, "But, that could be one way to force a group of them to clump up... unless they feel like shooting first and asking questions later." She comments, "The blanket idea seems good to me too." She adds before she purses her lips.

Vixen nods to Sage, then looks around. "Alright.. get me about six to eight heavy somethings. Blanket, tarp.. whatever won't rip as easy. Vibro-knives will cut through, but they'll be delayed doing that. Just don't want them to be able to tear 'em up by hand." She turns towards Sage and notes, "If all goes well, they won't be getting off much in the way of shots. So the truck should be fine. The take would cover buffing out some shots if they all have tech." She grins and considers the kid, but doesn't seem at all troubled with the suggestion for him. "I'll get my truck moved.. we need a place where you two can hide out and be ready to get at them the moment the flashes go off. You guys can be the ones to toss too. Doorways, the edge of buildings. I'll set myself so they're looking at me and not either of you." She reaches down to open up one of the plump pouches on her belt, snagging one of the round, pitted laser grenades to toss it to Val in an easy underhand. "You want two, just in case you need to toss a second? These are heavy duty, don't come out until they go or you'll be no use to us until they wear off."

"Cant hurt to have two on hand." Valeriya agrees as she deftly catches the first grenade. The considering where to hide she looks for a shadowy enclosure that would offer cover from the flash. A dark shed or such. The winter clouds favoring this much over summer sun.

There's a murmur of approval from the gathered crowd, which consists mainly of middle-aged adults and a scattering of the other sides of the spectrum of young and old. Two people, elderly people, a man and a plump woman are standing in front, quite obviously come kind of Town Elder situation. The sun has, at this point, just barely gone down, but at least the weather's nice. The older woman, the matriarch, a woman named Bethany, nods vehemently at Vixen's statements. "Oh yes, our blankets are the best you'll find between here and Kingsdale! Why, if we traded with the Coalition, we could probably be rich. The finest blankets you'll ever see, is basically the point. You know what? We'll give each of you a blanket!" She seems excited, as if that would be a magnificent form of payment. Aaron, the patriarch, adds, "Where do you want us to put them?" Another man, probably early twenties or so, materializes near the elders. "I own some sheep, and I'm pretty good at penning them and herding them. Would that help?"

"Cant hurt to have two on hand." Valeriya agrees as she deftly catches the first grenade. The considering where to hide she looks for a shadowy enclosure that would offer cover from the flash. A dark shed or such. The winter evening favoring this much over summer sun.

Sage considers the plan coming together. "Not sure about the sheep... could be useful to clutter up a street... if they aren't killed in the process." She comments before offering a shrug, "And, I wonder if we should weigh down the blankets somehow..." She adds before she begins to look for a place where she could throw from.

You paged Vixen with 'There's soft chatter going on among who are obviously the gang, though only three of them are identified by name, Janosik, Neu, and Landsberg. An extra truck is somehow known to have arrived at the town, but that's all.'

Vixen nods and turns to return to her truck, though as she does so she pulls out a second grenade and tosses it towards Val. "I will want them back, they charge up good as new," she notes. Asked after the blankets, she notes, "When I pull the truck over, fold them into the back neat. So I can snag and toss them quickly. Aid if you want to mess with 'em Sage, go ahead." And she will hop into her truck and pull it further into the town. With Val picking a spot, she gauges the right positioning and will turn the new, but dusty Diplodocus up to a spot that's about ten feet back from the direction they'll likely come. So that they'll have their side to where the woman is, when facing Vixen. She gets out then and shoves her pack back into the cab, while getting two more grenades from under the seat to replace those she passed out. Then she starts setting up her radio gear in the back seat of the extended cab. While everyone else is preparing, she'll make an effort to find local radio transmissions and see if she can't eavesdrop.

Erica flies in at an impressive speed. She slows down as she approaches the village and takes a moment to circle around the place before she lands. Her cyclopian helmet looks this way and that before she reaches up and takes off her helmet. Her long hair is done up into a tight bun as she blinks a couple of times at the light. She raises up an armored hand to wave at the crowd and at the familiar Vixen and

The crowd is... surprised... by the appearance of a woman dropping out of the sky, only to land in front of them and wave. You may say that they're speechless. Yes, in fact, they are speechless. So surprised that for the moment anyway, they are just too dumbfounded to offer any assistance on the current battle plan and how they may or may not be able to help. Aaron manages to wave back. They'll probably be talkative again in a minute.

Catching the second grenade Valeriya finds herself most comfortable in one of the barns among some bails of hay. Plenty shadowy and some bails to throw for distraction. She returns to the truck a moment later to ensure everything else is ready.

The arrival of Erica draws Sage's attention briefly to offer a wave before she looks back to the people in charge of getting the blankets. "If we can secure stones to each corner... no bigger than your fist, it should hopefully help with throwing it... and getting the ends to spread out. And, keep the blanket down once its settled."

'..yeah, someone is out there..' comes from Vixen's radio then, the sea of static fading for a moment before she slips past the frequency that it was on. "Shit.. come back.." Vixen is distracted a moment as Erica arrives, but quickly returns to tweaking the signal lightly 'til it comes back in. '..never seen it before. Just one, so it ain't a caravan.' comes from the radio. "Got you, fuckers," she murmurs, keeping her end silent. "They know we're here," she adds, voice lifted. "So we'd best get this set up quick." She looks to Erica again and grins. "Glad you can make it, c'mere and I'll get you up to speed."

Erica giggles to herself at the lack of a real greeting. As Vixen waves her over she shrugs her shoulders and puts her helmet back on, quickly sealing it. She walks over to where Vixen is and nods her cyclopean helmet. "Want me as air support or ground?" She asks over the speaker as she comes over to where Vixen is.

Well, the good people of Santocko are getting into the spirit of things, the excitement of Erica's flamboyant arrival having passed. Small children are dashing around pointing out good places to play hide-and-go-seek, a boy has probably made it to the bell tower at this point clad in a single breastplate, helmet, and battered rifle. The young women are breaking out blankets - they are indeed beautiful blankets - and the young men are collecting rocks as quickly as the suggestions and changes come out of the mouths of their rescuers. The Elders, Aaron and Bethany, continue to await further instruction, offering what they probably hope are helpful tips about how the various pieces of urban debris might be used like herding sheep. They do not have a great grasp of strategy, but their hearts are in the right places. And they are receptive.

Valeriya makes herself at home in the hay loft grenades and sword at the ready. Spitz remains on her shoulder, hissing at the flies that buzz around the dirty village. "I'll need to get myself some local gear after this buddy. Feel nearly naked like this. She comments aloud to herself as she waits for further signs of the conflict to begin. Once the signs come she seems to dissolve into the shadows before uttering a strange phrase in a dark tongue.

Sage nods to herself as she sees things progressing and glances over towards Vixen at the announcement. "Alright, I don't suppose we have any wagons or other things to clutter up some of the streets... and if you want to risk the sheep, maybe use them to block up the the side streets or some place they aren't likely to get into danger." She comments, "Nothing fancy... can be obvious... maybe have someone toss these smoke grenades when they start moving the debris..." She offers the smoke grenades she has with her. "Otherwise, I guess I should go find my spot."

"We've got up to ten guys coming," she notes. "Armed and armored. I'm going to be decoy. If all goes well they'll come right up to here, where I have the truck parked and confront me." She motions to either side of the street. Sage and tall dark are going to be waiting with some blinders and toss 'em at the hostiles. That should disable most if not all of them. Cause they'll be blind. After that, they're going to disarm as many as they can and I'm gong to start tossing blankets at them. To trip them up and keep them struggling while they get disarmed." She considers Erica. "The plan is to get them all unarmed so they can surrender. And we profit big time. You.. I think you would make a good wild-card. Get up on a roof and hide, if you can. Or conceal yourself where you can see what's going on. You can shoot or if you think you can, try and dive down and tackle down someone that's not giving up easy enough. Your call. Best to best, we don't have to chew through the armor of a load of hostiles and no one gets shot up. If not.. well, people get hurt. So pick out a spot and watch for a good opening." With that said, she'll close up the truck, setting the radio to silent broadcast, while she hooks a personal communicator into her headjack. A discreet way to monitor their frequency, the communications being pipped right into her ultra ear. That done, she'll get out a blinder and fold it into the crook of her arm as she leans against the truck with her arms crossed. Waiting for the last bits to be done and for the bad guys to come.

Erica nods her helmet at the plan, and she backs up to look over the roofs. "Alright I can do that." She gnaws on her lower lip for a moment before she uses the jetpack to hop up onto one of the roofs. She looks around and then gets to work camouflaging herself and hiding so she can jump into the ambush where needed.

The night waxes on, with the Moon waxing itself. Even when it's only three people, it takes a good amount of time to set up an ambush for an entire town. Even when the entire town pitches in. Particularly when the entire town pitches in and they have their hearts in the right places, but other than that, they're really more of a hindrance. However, on toward midnight - and still no contact with anyone - the western entrance is thoroughly ready for an ambush. With the exception of the over-eager youth in the bell tower and the two town Elders, the rest of Santocko's population has hidden itself away, as per instructions. Aaron and Bethany are ready to make their own getaway, but they do ask a final, "Is there anything else that we can do?" Bethany suggests bringing a meal out to each adventurer.

A midnight snack? Certainly unexpected Valeriya eyes it with much caution. She takes a chunk of meat she judges to be safe enough, letting Spitz try his meddle on what else is served. "Thanks." She says politely regardless of how good or bad it turns out to be. She does not however let it distract her from watching for the inevitable trouble.

Instead of finding her hiding spot, Sage ends up spending a bit of time directing the haphazard blockades in the town in hopes that it'll slow any flanking attacks from the opposition. When she finally settles for her spot, she takes the meal with a grateful 'thank you' before pausing at the question. "At this point, I think I'd like you just to figure out what you'll do once the trouble starts... and try to stay out of sight. If you're hiding in a building... maybe have marbles or something to spill in case they get by us... and stay safe."

Vixen will keep a listen on the radio traffic, keeping an ear out for the obvious note of approach and will give warning when they are noted to have headed out. Time enough to finish up and have people get scarce before anything goes down. She turns down the meal, having already fished out one of the meal bars she keeps with her, casually gnawing on it instead. She'll stick by the truck and will be ready when the first sign of them comes.

Erica waves off the meal with a smile as she eats an MRE instead. She always needs a steady stomach for combat. She stays high up in the tower using her multi-optics system to scan around the night, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Bethany is absolutely "tickled pink" that Valeriya and Sage take some of the offered food. However, at Aaron's pushing, the two of them back up toward the church. In fact, they take refuge within the church, as have many others. The other homes continue to have small fires burning on their stoves, lighting them from the inside, though the people themselves are well hidden, at least from the Mark 1 Human Eyeball. To all accounts, it would certainly appear as if at this point, it is simply a waiting game.

Day 2

Vixen's truck is blocking the road coming in from the west. She is covered behind it. Valeriya and Sage are on opposite sides of the same street, some distance back from the truck, further into town. Erica is positioned atop the church's bell tower, where an eager kid with battered armor and a more-battered L-20 is standing guard. Blankets are positioned above the ambush zone. The other primary roads, which lead in and out from north, east, and south, are unoccupied. The citizens seem to be hunkered down, though every house glows with the light of a burning stove. It's a new moon, skies are clear, there is a moderate breeze from the northwest.

It's now about a quarter-to-two in the morning. For late November, it's shockingly pleasant. The townspeople are doing a good job at being quiet, though some of the livestock and chickens continue to make farm noises. There are also some dogs around who seem to be rather interest in what's going on. Up in the bell tower, little Yoshi is nodding off, with the rifle laying against the interior wall. pub off

Valeriya lies in wait in a hay loft. Intending to slip into shadows and armor at the first sign of trouble. The two blinder grenades at hand, Spitz sleeping off the village meal..

Having found a shack across the way from where Valeriya has set up, Sage has her rifle placed nearby for easy grabbing. For now she keeps the blinder grenades within her grasp for when it is time. She keeps her profile low. The meal only a memory at this point.

Vixen has broken open another meal bar and lingers out on the street, leaned back against her truck. She doesn't look towards where the others are hidden and as she gnaws, keeps a Blinder in her other hand, tucked under the cross of her arms. Casual and focused as she listens to the radio chatter through her headjack linked communicator. She has her shades on now. The discreet passive nightsight they offer letting her see clearly down the street, despite the darkness. It looks odd though, shades at night.

Erica is up on top of the church. She is camouflaged to look like just another piece of the church. She stays almost motionless except for the occasional movement of her head so she can use her advanced optics to scan the perimeter of the town. Her energy rifle is cradled against her shoulder as she uses her built in radio to also scan radio chatter.

Leonard is not present in person at the moment, but he could be considered to be so in spirit. Or by proxy, care of the otherwise unassuming raven perched on the bust of of Pallas above Santocko's gate. Black eyes watch the unfolding events and wait, as does Leonard. He is prepared to arrive, but it seems best to await a time when it wouldn't ruin whatever ruse they're working on.

The town of Santocko remains quiet, beyond the occasionally "moo" and "cluck." Some of the dogs are beginning to sniff around closer to the adventurers on the ground because, well... dogs are interested in people. It's quite boring, really otherwise. At least until the basic radio band of anyone capable of listing into said basic radio band would hear, "Fairy tale. Bring the box, go pearl." Then the transmission immediately delves into static.

Valeriya sits in the hayloft, no radio on hand, feeling the boredom. Absently she looks up into the sky. "Hmm, those stars are shining oddly." She says openly for anyone who cares to hear.

Beyond knowing that the opposition seems to be heading towards them, Sage remains tensely alert. She isn't quite sure where to look and could miss things others more experienced would pick up on in this sort of situation. As a result, she simply waits, trying to conserve her energy. "How so?" She asks, leery of looking up due to what her deceased partner could do.

"Something's happening," Vixen notes, keeping her voice just loud enough for the nearby to hear. "Bring the box.." Musing that as she glances around the street slowly. Considering if anything looks out of the ordinary there or beyond, towards the mountains where the baddies should be coming from. Erica continues to stay in one place scanning the surrounding area. The brief radio traffic keeps her alert and looking around up high where she is.

Why is it that someone always knocks on the door at the most inconvenient moments? In the shower, on the phone, or clairvoyantly monitoring your friends through bonds with possessed creatures... it never fails. Admittedly, Leonard /did/ order the pizza, and answers the door to receive and pay for it. He had no idea how long the wait would be, and he was hungry.

Other than the continuous snuffling of nearby dogs, the situation remains basically as it is. The radios are still static, though there may be a signal embedded. It's rather difficult to tell, really. The hellfire raining from the sky is absent. Just another sleepy night in a sleepy town. But with a giant roadblock.

Valeriya remains attentive at Vixen's caution, her other hand caressing her sword hilt fondly. Spitz awakens for his short nap to return to her shoulder.

Despite her efforts not to look, Sage's attention gets drawn to something out in her peripheral vision. "I think I see what you mean by the stars..." Sage comments absently, "Can't really see much up there otherwise, myself." She offers, giving a faint shrug.

"Saw something.." Vixen says lowly. "Get ready." She doesn't move and for now she continues to act as if she's seen nothing at all, resuming her slow gnaw on the food bar. Just waiting quietly, a bit impatiently.

Erica is already as ready as she can be. Her head slowly moves back and forth as she waits patiently. The night vision colors everything into shades of green as she waits.

Leonard returns his focus to the events in Santocko in time to catch Vixen's warning, but he doesn't notice anything else. He could complain that the timing is twice-damned, but the food getting cold isn't a priority any longer. Vixen and company are much more important.

Hours pass. It's damn near three-thirty in the morning before anything actually happens other than the noises of livestock, poultry, and the occasional cry of a babe from one of the town's small homes. However, at three-thirty in the morning, a very interesting thing happens. One of those snuffling dogs approaches from the east, having come from somewhere within or out of the city is impossible to know. The important part is that it has a piece of paper in its mouth, rolled around a stick. After looking between the people on the ground, it chooses to drop it at Sage's feet, then sits, tail wagging happily at having apparently done its duty.

Valeriya grumbles as her spells faded before the time of their need came to pass. Oh well better safe than sorry. Still she seems much more reluctant to expend further resources before the time is definitely at hand.

While she may not have expected the dog, Sage isn't entirely surprised by the approach of the animal having sensed a something along the lines of determined duty. She reaches out to scratch it behind the ear with one hand and take up the note with the other. "Good boy." She murmurs, before she turns her attention to the note. "Looks like we have a note." She comments, before moving away from the window to give her a chance to hide the light from her flashlight when she goes to read it.

Vixen is getting a bit testy as there is a continued delay. "I think they're fucking with us.." Then she sees the dog and frowns darkly. "Now I know they're fucking with us. What's it say?" She turns her head, scanning the area as she waits for Sage to note what's going on. A tension.. she's ready to move at a moments notice.

Erica looks over towards the bell tower as she waits to hear over the radio what the message was. Her rifle is set against her shoulder as she keeps her spot. "I hope it doesn't come down to who can wait the longest."

Leonard gets to eat, after all, but he does try to remain alert. Edgar leaves his perch to fly nearer to Sage, also, for some possible reading over her shoulder and a better ear for any conversation after.

The boy in the tower beneath Erica is beginning to talk rather loudly in his sleep. As for the other dogs, well, most of them are finally laying down for the night - with a significant number of them deciding that Sage's location is a good spot. Otherwise, the town remains quiet. Perhaps people are fucking with other people. The letter itself reads: "I am not a man of violence, and there's no need for blood to be shed. Lay down your arms and leave town. We will not stop you or hinder you in any way. I own the battlefield, so you would be wise to leave. By reading this, you have demonstrated that you do not know us. This dog could have been carrying a live grenade. Janosick of Santocko" The handwriting is rather amateurish, but the spelling and grammar seem to be close enough.

Valeriya eyes the dog and the delivered letter momentarily. Not liking the wait at all. "There is no real life stalemate. Wait them out as long as it takes." She suggests to the others from her perch in the loft. Frowning faintly as she gets to reading the part about the dog, Sage reaches out to touch the dog once more. She tries to convey her wish for it to stay with her through her empathic bond with it. Then she'll close her eyes and see if she can focus on sending out an invitation for any others to join her as well. She isn't sure if it'll work, but animals due to be interested in her.

Vixen shakes her head slightly at the message in the note. "Motherfuckers.. Well, we don't have the element of surprise now. That changes things up now. I'm not much interested in waiting around here any longer. Options?" She keeps her voice moderate and still doesn't look towards the others.

Erica frowns inside her helmet as she hears what the note has to say. "We can feign surrender, can go on the offensive, or we can continue to wait." She says as she continues to use her high position to scan the area.

Edgar glides further to land on Vixen's truck near her and offers one other option in his warbling voice. "Hunt them or provoke them to attack. There are still some things they know nothing about." It could be a reference to himself, or the one who is monitoring on the other end.

The dragging silence is finally broken by something actually happening. This time, it's not the dogs. It's actually something coming from the west. A very loud something, but a very sudden something. The thick, tall crop of corn is torn apart, no more than perhaps 150 feet from the truck is ripped apart by a screaming set of armor charging at the rather obvious ambush point carrying, among other things, a large rifle. However, it seems more intent on closing the distance than actually firing. This figure is also on the tall side, perhaps six-and-a-half feet, give or take. Oftentimes, a being in a suit of armor like this is androgynous. Penis, vagina, both, something different entirely, who knows? In this case, though, the gender seems fairly obvious, unless someone's just screwing around. The reason for the apparent ease of identification is that the breastplate has a chest. Not like your standard pseudo-pectoral muscles carved out of heavy MDC plastics. No, no. This is reaching back a few centuries and grabbing the pointy-coned boobs of an ancient and very, very bad "artist" who had the unmitigated gall to call herself Madonna. Almost looks like you could cut a piece of tank armor with the tips of those things. She (presumably a "she") moves oddly. Absently, like there's more around to be seen that cannot be seen, as if the plasma rifle at the ready and the heavy pistol at her side don't really matter. Whatever the case may be, the armor a dull color that allows it to blend into the background. Incidentally, everyone using a radio to communicate will hear two distinct clicks, and then a lot of loud static. Communication is down for some reason. The figure continues to charge the truck.

Valeriya doesn't notice anything aside from the woman charging the truck from the west. Which is fine by her as it will take the woman past her to do so. The blinder goes out and a phrase in a dark tongue is said.

Sage purses her lips as the action seems to be on the verge of beginning, as she looks to the blinder grenade in her hand. She tries to gauge the willingness of the dog to carry it back towards its master. Somehow she doubts the flamboyant one is the owner. If the dog seems agreeable, she'll prime the grenade and try to make sure it'll only go off when the dog drops it.

Vixen notices the charging someone, she turns towards it.. her and takes a step back. "Hold on now," she calls out, her empty hand lifting, the other slipping the blinder behind her thigh. Though when she sees Val's blinder go out, she swears softly and drops, sliding under the truck, head turned away as she scoots towards the other side of it quick like.

Erica turns her head to watch the flanks as the person in armor charges into the town so amazingly quickly. She turns her helmet back and forth to watch the other entrances into the village while she remains hidden for now.

That... is a cause for concern, tankbusting bust or not. Edgar has every reason to take flight and not be part of the second charge and does so. In one corner of the central area of town, a blue-white ball coalesces. The coruscating energy grows to a vertical tear in the fabric of existence, then widens to allow Leonard to step through. Afterward, the minor rift snaps closed, so he doesn't need to worry about pointy powered armor in his parlor.

As Valeriya's grenade is thrown, it's almost as if the person on the boobed suit knew that it was coming. It turns the rifle around, grabs it by the muzzle, and swat at it like a baseball, or perhaps like a game of cricket, if you live in a country with no real sports. However, not only does the being miss by a wild margin, but also completely loses footing and falls to the ground. Which makes it even easier for the blinder to work when it goes off. Still, while eyes and sensors must be blinded, the being doesn't seem horribly terrified. Not great, of course, but not terrified. Meanwhile, a tearing bolt of red energy rips through the sky and strikes the bell tower near Erica's position. A miss, intentional? Who knows. At any rate, it would seem to indicate that someone probably is aware of the woman's position. The rest of the town, as far as anyone can tell, remains calm.

Another dark phrase and Valeriya disappears from view, despite leaving to loft as her footprints would tell the very observant. Casually she walks up to the blinded woman swinging her sword to knock her weapon away.

With the request likely being too complex to convey through empathic impressions, Sage soon passes on the idea. No big loss. Fortunately the time spent doing that allows her to avoid the blinder. The developing situation does draw her attention, though, as she turns her attention back to the task at hand. When the weapon departs the woman's hand, she reaches out with her mind to snatch it with her mind and bring it back towards Vixen's truck.

Vixen pauses as, after the flash she sees the woman fall and the weapon she has go flying. "One down," Vixen murmurs, slipping her pistol out as she remains hidden under the truck. She checks both sides, getting the gun into position to shoot out either way from under the truck. If she sees boots that aren't friendly boots, that is.

Erica curses that all of the preparation seems useless now. She disregards her position as she activates her jetpack and uses the pack to position herself about 1300 feet above the village. She starts scanning the area she thinks the red blast came from as she positions her rifle up to her shoulder, ready to fire if she can spot a target.

Leonard's initial concern is the charging one, but the blinding flashes and lack of weapon make her not as much of a threat. He hopes. He knows there are others not terribly far away and tends to defense for an instant, care of a gesture and invocation. From the shadows at his feet, slithering, mucous-laden tendrils emerge to cover his armor in a protective mass.

The screaming, running, charging person is temporarily on the ground, with the heavy C-27 having been scooted over toward Sage's position. It should be noted that the being is not completely unarmed, however. The most dangerous remaining weapon being a heavy pistol, and some assorted common items like a vibro-knife. It is at this point that exciting things start to happen as others emerge from darkness and crops, having rather successfully caught the ambush in its own counter-ambush. A very large suit of armor, like a linebacker, accompanied by two suits of patchwork armor just barely makes it out of the crops, the same direction as the screaming creature. From the church-end are three other patchwork suits - possibly the "grunts" of the outfit - closing in, weapons ready, clearly about to fire, the time of peaceful exit apparently having been expended. In the distance, near the church, actually rather close to Leonard, is a very, very large person in a suit of Crusader armor. Whatever it is, it's loaded down for heavy combat is if taking on the Coalition single-handed. Particular of note is a highly modified rifle. A single other grunt suit has the northern passage blocked. Presumably somewhere in the sky is also an angry person with a rifle. Santocko is not such a great place to be right now, particularly in the west.

Apparently the giant of a man near the church - bastard must be seven feet tall and three-hundred pounds - did not take kindly to the blinding of the odd, screaming figure. Still, Leonard's sudden and dramatic appearance in what is essentially the town square is not overlooked, and perhaps even more importantly, decided upon as a very necessary first target. A very odd set of green and blue mixed colors rips toward the man.

Vixen hears the people coming from the east.. sees them. "Shit.. motherfuckers," she growls before she snags the dropped Blinder and hucks it out towards them. "Eat this, chumps!" She can't see far enough to the church and for now doesn't note Leo's presence, or clearly see the big man. But she can handle the other three coming at them. She can give that grenade a good roll out to meet the approaching hostiles with a nice, sight stealing flash. She fishes for another afterward, her head turning both ways to keep tabs on the fight, the spot she's at good enough cover for now.

Erica quickly aims at the large suit of armor close by Leonard. She fires off two quick pulse shots using her Wilks rifle. She swears to herself inside her armor as she whats looks like a very dangerous fight ahead of her. "Bloody hell." She hovers at her selected altitude as she quickly tries to gather info about the attackers.

One of the suits coming from down the church side tries to dive aside as the blinding grenade heads in its direction. His arms are raising in an attempt to block out the blinding flash. The man seems to be successful, diving behind a bale of hay only a moment before the grenade is about to flash.

Another one of the western-moving grunts attempts to avoid the grenade blast by covering his eyes with his arm, but it doesn't come up quickly enough, and he falls to his kneed, grasping at his masked eyes.

One of the beings coming from the west, however, is not amused, and certainly did take notice of Sage hucking a grenade at his comrades., even though it was actually a different woman involved. Its eyes are leveled at the woman, and a large Coalition-issue rifle pulse is fired.

There is another bolt from the blue, so to speak, that comes out of a still unknown location, ripping toward Erica. Apparently someone is quite aware of the benefits of close air support. The bolt misses wildly and leaves a smoking crater in the church grounds.

The other grunt coming out of the crops is not as stupid as his comrade, leveling a C-12 at the woman under the truck. Of course, it's somewhat of a difficult shot.

The giant of a man tries to dodge the bolts fired from Erica's weapon up high in the air, and just manages to scoot aside, so close that he could probably feel the heat even inside of his armor.

Unseen Valeriya looks to have her choice of opponents as she says another dark phrase. Deciding size matters she turns on the big one on her side. Bring her sword down to cleave his weapon arm.

The linebacker, who is so close now that you can see a name, "Neu" on his breastplate, attempts to avoid the blade, and does, but only barely. In fact, there's probably a scar across his arm where the sword came down. He'd come late to the battle, and as such, not blinded as his apparently female and charging companion. But at least he's alive.

It isn't until her gaze shifts that she notices the man that's taken aim at her, Sage sends out a ripple of distress to see if it would get the dog to leave the area. She's a bit too slow to get move away from firing line before the man can pull the trigger to hit her. Making a frustrated noise that she's been caught unprepared, she reaches out with her mind to assail the man's mind with Fear as she tries to get herself organized once more while hoping to get the opponents in disarray.

The man who had fired at Sage turns, dumps his C-12 on the ground, and flees back toward the lair to the west. He takes the rest of his equipment with him, but he's gone.

Not surprisingly, "Neu" is pissed. His large pulse rifle is lowered at the somewhat blurry image on his internal IR screen, and the weapon bucks in a large burst of charged ions. A buck of charged ions which, much like his compatriots, continue to just blow holes in the sides of innocent homes.

The grunt covering the northern street simply stays put, apparently some kind of blockade.

Leonard has now been shot at, and isn't thrilled, nor is the writhing mass of his additional 'armor.' The large firer becomes a priority and he responds by calling down an airstrike of sorts. A bolt of lightning splits the sky to strike the man. Twice. The old adage is proven untrue.

Either brave or stupid, the large man just stands there and is struck by lightning from the sky. His armor clearly takes a major hit, but he stays upright.

At this point, the town is in more disarray. The man in the east is smoking. Vixen remains under a truck, with Erica still in the sky. Two of the men approaching from the east are down, blinded, and one of the men from the west has taken off. Two men in the west remain, including the linebacker fellow. The crazy woman (possibly) is on the ground, her rifle gone. There is apparently another gang member somewhere, but as yet undiscovered.

The large man is very less than amused at Leonard's attack. The heavily modified rifle is dropped to the ground, and two swords are taken off of his back, then swing at the man's shoulders. Maybe arms to throw to the dogs tonight?

Vixen slips her handgun around and fires off a snap shot at the one that remains untouched by her blinder. Though as she does so, she notices the lighting flashes. No one should be over there.. Her eyes flick towards the silhouettes and then back, her brow knitting.

The person in the armor apparently doesn't see the shot coming, and just takes it right in the chest, knocking him back slightly with the unusual momentum of modern energy weaponry.

Erica spots someone who is also wearing a jetpack that previously was overlooked. She raises her rifle to the person that is jetting around. She fires off two quick pulses from her Wilk's rifle trying to take down the other person in the air.

Much like the man on the ground, the person in the jetpack was not expecting to be suddenly noticed. Taking the blasts across the chests like a zipper, the flying person falls a few hundred feet before regaining footing in the sky.

The armor that Vixen just shot it is not amused. Not even a little. Which is probably why the action of the C-14 in his hands chunks out a grenade in the woman's direction. The grenade goes off, concussing the general area, but somehow managing to miss the woman. Neat trick considering that it's an area weapon. But there it is, all the same.

A bolt comes out of the sky from the other jetpack-riding fellow (or woman). Another red crackling beam rips its way toward Erica, up in the sky.

Unfortunately, the bolt goes wildly wild, there is a terrible, horrible hissing noise audible even with the armor of those below, and the entire power supply hooked up to the weapon detonates, spraying bits and pieces of a former pilot all across the town.

Back in the west, the grunt accompanying the linebacker must not have the same optics, because he just fires a random burst in the direction of his presumed-superior's attacker. But the man isn't making friends. His six shots plug basketball-sized holes in the nearby homes, at varying elevations as he waved the weapon around trying to hit something.

Finally, the grunt in the north starts running to the aid of his comrades. A quick shot is snapped off at Erica, who is pretty much the only person who he actually has a clear shot at in the first place. He, like his comrades, should not have had so much mead prior to this confrontation, and the shot goes flying off into the night.

Valeriya frowns as the large man she's attacking can apparently see her. His compatriot's random fire in her previous location confirms its an isolated thing but she utters another dark phrase none the less and disappears from thermal view before bringing her sword down on his weapon arm again. Spitz for added defiance spits a wad of acid at the poor fellows face.

For whatever reason, the linebacker decides to parry the sword with his own forearm. Sure, it looked cool, but it certainly didn't help as the blade scraped across his armor. Lizard spit is odd, but unimpressive. However, it does take its small toll.

With the fighting starting to get close quarters, Sage doesn't seem to get a chance to use her blinder grenades for the time being. Instead, she takes up her rifle as it seems to be a slugging match. She considers the east, but turns her attention to the west. As it seems they've withstood the initial attack, she focuses on the guy with the bad shot. This time, she tries to send feelings of despair to see if she can wreak more havoc on their discipline.

The man's head seems to quirk a little, like something was tickling his brain, but he quickly returns to the task at hand.

Meanwhile, back near Valeriya's position, something like a scene out of a science-fiction film happens, as Neu's arm very slowly falls off just below the elbow. His free hand comes up to grip the Luke Skywalker-like stump, with his forearm falling to the ground, taking the trigger assembly of the ion rifle with it. Poor Neu. He curls up in a ball. One might imagine what is going on inside his helmet.

The person who had been coming down from the north pauses, perhaps unaware of what's going on in the west. A rifle is raised, and another shot is taken at the jetpacked woman in the sky.

Leonard manages to duck under one swing of the large man's swords, but the other hacks into his slimy, moving protection. Toe to toe with a sword-swinging brute is not his idea of fun, and the best defense is to not be present. With a motion of hand and vocalization, he simply seems to vanish. For approximately seven seconds, he does, until time catches up to him and he reappears. When that happens, he has moved towards the brute's original position, and is holding a rifle possibly familiar to his adversary.

Another flurry of combat booms its way through sleepy Santocko. Hard to believe that all of this is happening in a matter of seconds, really. Things are definitely evening up. To the east, the giant and Leonard are getting into it, and in the north, that single soldier keeps popping off very poor shots at the sky. The situation in the west is very interesting. Toward the crops, there is essentially one fully armed and aware man in the west over a very cut-up man, and a blinded woman. On the other end of the street, two blinded suits of armor continue to grasp at their optics as if to make it better, while a sole man with some damaged armor stands fast, holding ground and pumping out a grenade. Erica remains as close air support, with Valeriya, Sage, and Vixen near the truck. Given the distances involved with modern weapons, the western street is more-or-less a free for all, where any attack is probably close enough to have a good chance of hitting.

The giant roars. So loud that you actually *can* hear it outside of the tank-like armor. Obviously pissed that the man disappears before his eyes - and with his weapon, no less - he scans the area with his eyes. Sure, he's still loaded down with weapons, but as his swords are on hand, the seem to be his favorite toy at the moment. However, Leonard has reappeared far enough away that it's going to take him a short while to cover the distance, even at his very good running pace.

Vixen wriggles forward and out from under the truck when the grenade gets lobbed at her, the explosion marking the side of the truck, but she gets it between her and the blast just in time. "Fucker, I just bought this truck!" Her shout followed by a quick snap shot at the guy, pausing just long enough for a decent sight before she fires.

Erica no being the only one air borne relaxes a bit after dodging a shot it her with much grace. Calmly she returns fire.

Either not expecting it, or too surprised, the man down near his blinded comrades is plugged in the chest again. His armor is beginning to smoke, but dammit, he's still up.

Down in the street, as he'd done little to nothing earlier when the battle started, the suit does take this rather ample opportunity to roll to the side, out of the way of the shot from the sky. It burns a hole in the ground next to him, but that's all.

In the west, or the east of the west, the man who has just been shot only ducks down, apparently no longer having the momentary energy to return fire or do anything else useful for himself or his comrades.

However, over near the crops, there is some interest. The man may be a poor shot when firing wildly, and he may not know exactly what it is that cut off his superior's (presumably) arm, but he knows that the woman who has collected herself slightly further down the street seems like an easy target. He looses two bursts toward Sage's position.

Valeriya grins with satisfaction as the brute clutches his stub turning to the other fellow firing on her side she swing for the weapon arm twice more as it seems much easier than trying to knock a weapon from one's grip...

The man is too surprised to do anything but wince and duck. No, it's not a dodge, just a wince. But it's a really, really big wince when the blades slice through his arm. This is probably why the gang normally fought ranged battles.

With her attention towards the man with the bad shot, Sage notices the weapon being directed at her. She lets her body drop and have the shots go over where she was if the man can't adjust in time - as turns out to be the case. When she glances in that direction, it seems the enemies are down and she scrambles to her feet and begin to run towards where Leonard is fighting. Trying to close into range for her shorter ranged mental abilities.

The armor in the north apparently decides that its the optics that are the problem. But with incredible speed and dexterity, the helmet pops off, and while it's still in the air, the woman's weapon is raised - yes, it's a woman with a long sluice of blonde hair. Kind of have to wonder where all that hair had been packed. At any rate, this time it's the rifle's own optics that are sighted up toward Erica. The rifle fires a pulse.

Now that he's being charged, shooting the giant of a man with his own "borrowed" rifle seems a wonderful idea to Leonard. Click. Pause. Click. Click. Pause. Click-click-click-click-click. "Well, shit." He thought it was a great idea, but the weapon didn't seem to agree.

To anyone able to observe, the woman in the north grabs her helmet, slings her rifle, turns... and books north heading out of town. Apparently she somehow knows what's going on, and has decided against being one of three people up against what has to be at least two dozen. The person remaining by the blinded comrades remains in a fighting stance, seeming to catch his second wind. The giant? Well, one can probably imagine the broad grin beneath his closed helmet. The remainder of the gang is incapacitated, one way or another, and don't look like they'll be coming out of it in the next few seconds.

The west side now peaceful like Valeriya moves to see how the others are fair. Vaulting over the truck with a thud as the only evidence of her presence she looks to the east scene.

Leonard can't fire the rifle, but that doesn't mean it's completely useless. He certainly does not want the giant to get it back, either. With a simple gesture and word, the weapon lifts to hover at his side, ready for alternate use. Speaking of the brute with the swords, Leonard invokes another large differential in electrical potential between target and sky.

The enormous man is temporarily stunned for some reason, and does nothing to get out of the way. Just kind of stands there while a Force of Nature strikes his body. To his credit - he continues to stand, and continues to charge Leonard. But his armor isn't looking so great.

As Sage begins to pound her way towards the other side, she notices one that she's over looked. "Heel!" She commands before assaulting the man's mind twice to wreak the most despair on him.

The man drops his rifle, sheds the rest of his weapons, and falls to his knees. His helmet is wrenched off very dramatically - oh, look at that, it is a "he" - he extends his arms wide to the sides, bends back so that his face is toward the sky, and screams, "Adrian! I could've been a contender!! Adriaaaaaannnn!!" He just keeps doing that, somehow managing to take bits and pieces of quotes from random movies that haven't aired since a whole world away.

Erica's evasions from the last attack at her left her feeling a little bit disoriented. She's still recovering to take in the developing scene.

When the man she was shooting at starts stripping down, Vixen pauses and frowns at him. Then she looks over at Sage who has moved a bit closer and shouted at him. "Don't you ever do that to me," she tells sage, waggling a finger at her. Half serious. Though after that she starts to trek towards the last signs of trouble, moving to get a look at who is over there and doing what.

The giant guy continues to wobble toward Leonard, but that's about it. His armor continues to look very bad. Still, his arms are moving strangely, like he's just barely on the edge of doing something that action movie fans would find cool.

Valeriya continues her approach, marking the remaining giant as the only hostile left. Invisibly she sweeps her sword across his back once before stopping for a more accurate second swing.

Valeriya's swords cut clean through the back of the giant's torso, biting deeply and severing the spine in two places. That might have been survivable, but the gushing blood from the masses of cut veins and arteries is not. The giant manages to turn around to look for its assailant. Damn thing nearly collapses like a robot, power supplies and circuits going off-line as it slowly collapses to the ground. "Pak rozy," are the being's final words on this Earth, blasted out through its external speakers. It would appear that the battle is over, though one may note that all radio communications remain completely blown.

"Whatever advantage you thought you had has now died or fled with your compatriots." Leonard could potentially electrocute the large man another time or two, but doesn't. The hovering rifle rises upwards and levels to point at him even if it cannot fire. "Don't you think you should-" His attempted monologue is cut short by the man falling to pieces and the rifle detonating, which makes him flinch.

The strange behaviour of the man when she inflicts despair upon it draws a pause from Sage before she glances to Vixen. Her expression lost behind the face mask. She offers a faint shrug before looking further along to see if the fighting continues. She reacts a little to the explosion, before she recovers soon enough. Then, once she's recovered, she turns her attention to collecting the weapons. As they still have alive opponents, she'll collect the further away ones with her telekinesis while the other ones closer, she'll just pick up with her hand. In all, she can have six of them hovering through the air towards the truck.

Vixen comes running up just shy of the explosion. Though he may be armor covered, Vixen recognizes the man. And that damn spell. "Leo! What are you doing here? And eww.. get rid of that gross spell." She makes a face, though the helmet covers it up well enough for now. She glances back and says, "I think we're almost done here. At least, when it comes to shooting down fools."

Valeriya is partially visible due to the shower of blood that the last attack sprayed on her. With a sigh she lets the concealing spells dissipate as she looks over the seen. "That wasn’t so bad." She offers positively and Spitz hisses with triumph. "Too bad so many fled. Will we be hunting them down?"

It isn't until the moans of the injured that Sage recalls there are injured left behind. The weapons end up in a pile rather than worrying about finely placing them. She goes to grab her kit and makes her way towards where the suffering men lay. "Someone help me with the wounded over here..." She requests as she heads over to consider the best course of action.

Only a very short time elapses before a few things start to happen. First off comes a cry to the bell tower, in Yoshi's voice calling over the town, "The did it, they did it! They caught Janosik!" The bells are rung a number of times - presumably by the eager youngster. People slowly begin poking their heads out of their homes, some of them being so brave as to venture out onto the streets. Then an even more exciting thing happens. Young Yoshi up in the tower begins to fire off that battered L-20 that his grandfather had left him (at least how the story goes). The blasts are shiny and bright red, but something about the sound just isn't right.

Leonard's faceplate is just visible amongst all the squirmy things when it turns to Vixen. "I thought I'd drop in, in case you missed me." He's probably grinning under all that, which turns into a lot less when a casual gesture dismisses the magical, icky parts.

Vixen glances back towards Sage as the woman shouts, then back to Val again. "We can. Don't figure they'll be much trouble now. Might as well check out their base and see what they have there. Though first we need to police the area and make sure the ones still kicking won't be doing any shooting." She eyes the kid with the old rifle and shouts at him, "Quit wasting your ammo.. that thing sounds like its going to overload or something!" She then considers Leo. "Bet you have that bird watching." She shakes her head, though she doesn't sound that upset. "Now that you're here, go help Sage or something." She then looks to Val. "How about we start getting some of this hardware into the back of the truck. We can decide what to do with it after."

Valeriya nods to Vixen. "Sure thing." She states simply, averting her turn to had to help Sage with the mess she made. Throwing her sword back on her shoulder she starts with the messy giant's gear.

One thing that Sage had never developed so far is the ability to ease away pain. It is, perhaps, an oversight in her development as she comes upon the scene. Fortunately, there are some drugs in the kit to help deaden the pain. She murmurs soft words to the injured, coaxing them into actions she wishes of them. If they're obedient, she'll take the time to focus her healing energies to close the wounds. If not, she might have to do it the old-fashiond way. In any case, she'll try to halt the bleeding first.

Erica descends to help, handcuffing those who have surrendered uninjured.

Vixen turns and starts to snag gear. Especially from anyone still moving. The ones that were just blinded. "Get some rope and get them out of that armor," she says to some of the townspeople around. "Before they can see again. Wont' take more than a minute or two so quick." She'll work at getting the armor bits and guns into the back of her truck for now. A single place to compile everything. She'll also snag the blinders that got tossed so she can have them recharged later.

At this time, as things seem to come to a close, a couple of interesting things fill in the gap of potential boredom. First off, and most spectacular, the bell tower explodes in a blazing glory of light, and pieces of bell and stone. Apparently all of those really bad noises coming from Yoshi's rifle really were bad noises. Not surprising, as when he showed the weapon to everyone, there was a hole nearly ground to the power supply. Second, a young woman, late teens or early twenties, comes streaking out of the slowly gathering crowd, attempting to collapse on the dead giant. "Sasha! Sasha! You killed him!" the woman waves her finger at that adventurers. "We were going to go to Lazlo, live there, raise children!" She's very angry, even as older women of the town try to quiet her.

Valeriya tries not to let the ongoing commotion distract her from the task of collecting the loot. A task she seems particularly versed at as she goes about it with methodical efficiency. But the estranged wife of 'Sasha' does draw a glance, she still wears his blood after all. "He didn’t give us much choice, and given his part in the group I seriously doubt he had any such intentions." She intones coldly to the raving woman and continues with the foraging.

Vixen pauses as she's tossing some things into the back of the truck and glances towards the west. "I hear something.. like, a lot of something coming." She starts moving towards the front of her truck. "What is there weren't just ten of 'em? Maybe we should get moving now." The explosion at the church tower draws her attention, then the yelling woman. She frowns, but doesn't seem too moved by her upset. Jungle rules. Kill or be killed, after all.

Erica stands guard, things exploding and all someone should keep an eye.

The exploding bell tower of what is obviously the town's most important edifice doesn't go unnoticed. It's pretty much a toss-up as to who stays with "Sasha" and the as-yet unnamed woman, and who goes charging for the church itself. The two heavily wounded men that Sage had been attending to seem to stabilize, rapid though it seems. It's possible that they have one of those nano-med-systems assisting. They're still in pain, that much is obvious, but they'll live. Just need some kind of replacement appendage. There are a couple of low chuckles going on amongst the prisoners. It may seem incongruous, but they are. At Vixen's comment, one of them - the one that actually took a number of hits before yelling for Adrian, suggests kind of absently, "Um.. yeah, yeah. Thim probably went back to get the gang." There's a subtle murmur of agreement, though honestly, none of them seem entirely, fully believing the idea.

The explosion from the tower draws a moment of sadness from Sage before she lets out a sigh and cuffing a chuckling prisoner upside the head. "A kid dying is no laughing matter." She comments flatly, before she nods simply to the fact that they seem to be healing some on their own. "These two can be tied up now." She comments, "And, it might just be the caravan."

"Oh really? Sounds great." Valeriya chirps as she collects the rest of the gear. "Saves us the trouble of going out to hunt them down. Maybe they'll actually prove to be a challenge and won't surrender their arms so easily as your friends over there." She mocks before dismissing the cruelty to consider Vixen. "You okay girl? We've won, relax."

"I heard something," Vixen tells Val, glancing towards Sage after with a frown. "It's not caravan, it's like an army." She snatches into her coat to pull out her FLIR binoculars, stepping to the side to lift them and peer towards the west. Though when she does, a few moments after her expression screws up in confusion.

Erica moves to bind the prisoners Sage treated with a silent nod.

The church is bring stormed by hopeful townspeople, though there's probably not much to hope for. As per an oncoming army, no one else, save for the captives, hears anything at all. In fact, it seems extraordinarily peaceful. Except for the girl, who is now huddling over the body, just sobbing and sobbing, occasionally interjecting something along the lines of, "Why? Why did you kill Sasha?" The prisoners are managing to chuckle slowly, as if they know something that no one else does. Bravado? Perhaps. Stupid? Perhaps. Annoying? Probably. After the clear night, it's still far from sunrise, but clouds are beginning to roll it, with a chance of rain. The weapons have all been neatly collected, and it is a pretty grand prize. One old man dotters near Sage's general area and opines, "Wonder what's back up there, dotcha?" A bony finger indicates west, toward the lair.

Leonard was directed by the boss to help Sage, and that's what he's done. It's a less than delightful task that most involved moving blood-slicked injured or blinded people for her convenience and likely out of their armor. He's tipped off to movement of the one that was only blinded and dazed by the wobble of one pointed section of armor, and immediately shifts his focus to that one. "No need to get up. We'll tend to you in a moment." To help with that message, he conjures a cozy dome over and around her. For her own protection, of course.

"It does make me wonder, yes..." Sage comments as she notices the prisoners continuing to chuckle about something. It surely isn't going to be death of the child. She decides to take a moment to dip into the surface thoughts of those around her that seem to be in the know or bluffing. "I don't suppose you have any answers?" She asks simply.

Valeriya eyes the field Leonard puts up over the pointy bosomed lady. "Whats the deal? She was up to something." She inquires to the other mage, sounding irritated. Spitz mimes her with a hiss at the fellow. "How do we figure out what when she's in there?"

Vixen shakes her head and lowers her binoculars. "Nothing there, but.." She shakes her head again, as if to clear it. "Could have swore I heard something coming." She continues to frown towards and eye the west as she stuffs her binoculars into her coat.

Erica continues to stand guard.

It's amazing how quickly things are happening. It's almost as if there's no delay between action and inaction. A great cheer goes up from the church, and a large man with arms that probably indicate he's the town's blacksmith comes running out, with Yoshi cradled in his arms. The boy is limp, but somehow miraculously intact. A woman's voice calls out of the crowd, "Please help!" On the other end of the town, the gang members continue to chuckle and shift, with the odd looking woman looking as if she's about to do something odd. The townsfolk, however, are somewhat oblivious to the military part of life. This is safely assumed because Aaron and Bethany, the Elders from yesterday come dottering out. Bethany asks someone to assist Yoshi, and Aaron is more down to business. "We still have the reward, if you seek it." His eyes bounce off of the weapons and prisoners. "You can take all of their belongings. Anything you want. But we can keep the captives. Now that we have them, we can hold them. But... you need to do something about their psychic. She's very dangerous. Please take her away from here."

"Would you rather we learned that she was preparing to detonate an explosive or escape by it occurring?" Leonard asks the large woman with a brief glance. "I'd rather not." He then moves to approach the metallic buxom woman to attempt to see what oddity she is attempting, and possibly halt it. "Whatever you're attempting, don't."

Sage nods faintly to herself as she comes upon a conclusion, "Nothing there, Vixen." She comments, "Just a little mind trick." She turns to face the odd-looking woman in the energy field. "I wonder..." She comments, before trying to delve into the woman's mind.

"Unless she's suicidal I find that unlikely. But whatever makes you feel safer." Valeriya comments back at Leo before looking to the villagers request. "Which one is the psychic?" She asks calmly as her guard goes back up.

Vixen glances around, then frowns at the apparent source of the tricks. "Let's just shoot her and lets get decided on the stuff and get moving. Last thing I need is some freaky chick in my head now." She moves away, hoping to get out of range of the mind tricks. "We can leave these people some of the guns and armor.. maybe they can take care of their own with it." She shrugs, looking into the back and considering the current take.

The townspeople have at this point, some minutes later, gathered near the center of town, somewhere near the intersection of the streets and the church's entrance. Sage has attended to young Yoshi, whose grandfather must have been watching over him, because the single breastplate and over-sized helmet took most of the blast. Apparently he was blown free and into a bush that broke his fall. He'll have a story to tell, and his ears will ring forever, but otherwise he'll grow happy and healthy. It has come to light that "Sasha" is actually Janosik, the ringleader (for anyone who'd yet to figure that out), and that this woman, Sarah, had been involved with him without the town's knowledge. Point is, he's dead. As the townsfolk and adventurers threaten the gang with subtle harm, the peons rapidly give up the identity of the psychic, who not surprisingly is the woman from the strange armor. All that remains is to decide what to do with the captive men, the psychic, and how to divvy up the offered reward and/or run off with the salvage as well. There's a lot of salvage.

Valeriya agrees with Vixen. "Nothing they had looked particularly special to me. Though if a set of armor will fit me.." She pauses looking to consider that "Otherwise let the town keep it and we'll take the credits." She suggests before looking to the truck to consider the armor.

Leonard is content with the outcome, and the reward seems considerable. He doesn't have the greatest eye for tech, but the pile in the truck seems large enough for him. As for the psychic, he's sure someone can come up with a feasible solution. If not... "We can manage away, I think. Antarctica? Australia? There's a lovely version of this world that is infested with undead she might find comfortable." Either way, Leonard is confident.

When it becomes time to consider the pile of equipment, Sage doesn't seem to be too interested in most of the equipment. If she had found some of it before she'd purchased her own, she might have considered them a windfall. The Ion Pulse rifle draws a little interest as it seems to be a bit different than she's seen before. She fiddles with the setting to see how the numbers change. The small number that shows up with the pulse mode makes her set it back down. She briefly considers the fragmentation grenades before leaving them too.

"Just deal with the chick," Vixen notes before she resumes sorting through the gear. She might pick out an item or two for personal use, after she's had some time to consider them. And leave some for the people here. And credits.. those are good too. A bit to fix up the new dent in her precious truck. And once the selecting is done, the return begins.

The men and women of the gang are dragged away by the angry townspeople. It's definite that they will be receiving their due justice, now that they have been robbed of everything that made them strong, including numbers. The church will need repair, but will no doubt quickly receive it. The weapon pile remains mostly in the hands of the folk of Santocko, and the due monetary rewards were distributed. It is with great happiness that Aaron and Bethany invite the adventurers back to Santocko in planting season and for Christmas festivities. All who have helped will have their names written in the town's eternal history.