Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 26/39, Status = Fine

Rolls

Spoiler

Kali takes a much needed rest

Kali sniper rifle reload count: 1

Raith attempts to Sneak back into invisibility
--- Stealth vs Perception: 38 - 10 + 1 = 29 vs 39 = 19 + 20
------ Fail: Rider2 spots Raith

Raith sniper rifle reload count: 3

With the battle mostly done Kali was free to sit and relax as she saw fit, and this left Raith to tackle the issue of the lone survival however she wished. The man himself didn't seem to care at the moment. He was far too occupied with his dead comrade and simply jumped from his horse as it slowed during his final approach. When he finally arrived and saw just how gruesome his commander's death had been he collapsed in silence, his own rifle rifle nearly falling from his grip as his entire body nearly lost all control.

As oblivious as the man seemed Raith would find it quite easy to raise her rifle and center him in her sights. But Fate conspired against her. Just as she was leveling her rifle the man turned in disgust. His eyes fell straight to where she stood, and at that exact moment a gentle wind pushed its way through. In its wake a few grains of sand brushed by the sniper, and though most of them passed and fell away her outline could be seen. It must have since the sole survivor suddenly raised his own weapon, and in a flash Raith found herself standing across from a man who's emotions were running quite high. It left him twitching, but even then his aim held steady. "Just what the FUCK do you think you're doing?!"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Well. That made things complicated. Raith's ears flattened as the man spun toward her, and suddenly they were facing one another with guns pointed. The man looked fairly twitchy, and given his apparent distress it was entirely possible that he might just shoot her if she wasn't careful. The adrenaline high she'd been coming down from after the aliens had died came right back, and for a few seconds Raith kept her enchanted tattoos active while pointing her gun back at the man.

After a moment, however, the sniper would let out a tense sigh and release the minor energy holding her tattoos active, allowing the man to see her in all of her dusty, tan-skinned, barely clothed, heavily tattoo'd glory. "Keeping an eye on a threat," Raith said coldly, her finger still on the trigger and her rifle still pointed at the man's heart, "just because you fought the invaders does not mean you aren't dangerous yourself. I only intended to shoot should you force me to, I don't have the ammo to waste on that."

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Kali had been quietly watching over the scene from the shallow dune top, as the surviving man predictably enough staggers over to the one who had seemed to be his captain, or leader, boss, whatever. Was that Raith down there? Or was she the bit just to the left? No... that that was just a ripple of sand. She must have been roughly around...

Kali suddenly is back on alert, her heart and nerves not having even had the time to calm down yet, when the man starts shouting. He'd clearly seen Raith, and following his aim, Kali was fairly sure she could too now. She hadn't expected a standoff to kick off like this. She hadn't seen what started it. 'Shit... why...'

It was a sudden and uncomfortable situation. She'd hate for everything they just accomplished to end in tragedy or be in vain due to a twitchy soldier, or whoever this guy was.

Shouldering her rifle and training her scope on the mans face, she banked on the man having been far too occupied with his own issues to have been tracking her reloading in detail. A small bluff for safety, she reasoned. Yelling out over to the pair, doing her best to be heard whilst reminding the man of her presence.
"Woah stop! Stop! Save them for the greys damnit! You'd be dead by now if not for her. If we wanted to kill you we could have sat back and watched, ok? We're not the enemy. This rifle is for killing Grey Skins, not you. So please. Lower the gun?"

She was already instinctively gently squeezing the trigger of the empty rifle, hoping that the man still had at least some of his wits about him and that she wouldn't need to, because it wouldn't do a bit of good if so.

 

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 26/39, Status = Fine

Spoiler

Apologies for taking so long with this. Just been kinda tired, lately.

Party gains 6 Exp.

Kali sniper rifle reload count: 1
Raith sniper rifle reload count: 3

For quite some time the man just stood there, his anger visibly boiling just under the surface even as he was treated to a sight unlike any other once Raith chose to make her appearance. One of his eyebrows even rose a touch when he caught his first glimpse of the nearly nude sniper, but even that small distraction wasn't enough to get him to let go of whatever rage was burning through his system. It was only when Kali shouldered her weapon and spoke out that he finally took his eyes off of his target, and though it was only a fleeting glance there was no question he saw both weapons aimed directly at him.

At that point the three gunners were all left in a stand off. Raith could easily see the rider weighing his chances, one gunner in front of him ready to drill through his heart while another held a powerful looking rifle aimed at his back, and though he was obviously outmatched he seemed hesitant to lower his guard. In fact it looked like he wanted to blast the hell out of something that very moment, but even with his rage screaming to simply let the lead fly his sense of self-preservation was enough to stay his hand. He just didn't look ready to throw his life away, and after a few tense seconds his aim finally wavered. The barrel of his own rifle swayed to his right, and once it was no longer pointing at Raith the weapon suddenly grew heavier and dragged his entire arm down. Even then his emotions were still running high. The death grip on his gun ensured that it wouldn't leave him any time soon, but despite that the man had finally surrendered.

With the stand-off finally at an end everyone could hopefully start relaxing. It was up to the two snipers to decide how, but after a bit another problem would start to rear its head. With the battle ended and a relative peace spreading through the area one of the sisters decided to rise from her hiding spot and take a peak over the small dune that concealed them. She wouldn't have been any easy thing to notice, but Kali was in a perfect spot to catch the small motion. Raith was most likely still concerned with the survivor to turn her back to him, and the rider was stuck dealing with his own problems let alone the tattooed cat that threatened to kill him. Thankfully that head didn't rise any higher to draw attention to itself, but the fact that it stayed out almost felt like it was asking whether it was finally safe to come out or not.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Raith's gun would not waiver from the man's heart even as he slowly lowered his own, Kali's intervention having likely kept the standoff from ending in bloodshed. She didn't like to admit it, but she hadn't liked the odds of getting through that one unscathed, and was glad for Kali's move even though Raith knew that the other sniper couldn't have reloaded her heavy rifle when she'd been in the clutches of the slime. Still, she wasn't quite sure what to do then, and after a moment she too would lower her rifle. The sister poking her head up was behind her, out of her line of sight, leaving it more or less up to Kali to make the situation move forward.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Kali sighs with relief, again, and shortly lowers her gun in kind. She would say some simple thanks in confirmation, but she was rather shaken, and shouting down from the dune just felt strangely taxing at the moment. Instead she slowly gets up, still casting an eye to the pair near the fallen captain and juggernaut, and begins to plod her way down the dune towards them.

Spotting one of the sisters poking out to her side, she continues to shuffle forwards whilst pondering what to do. She didn't want the man to get edgy again, so it was probably best she call them out herself before the man spotted them too. She'd try to be casual about it. He was sure to be able to tell they weren't some kind of ambush party after a second of seeing them.

Looking to them she'd call out, "It's ok, you can come out now." and then raise her hand to beckon over, changing her course to head just a small ways to where they'd be coming. Likely meeting more or less just behind Raith.

She wanted to find out who the man and his ill fated party was. He'd presumably have a question or two of his own, once he'd got past the loss of his leader.

 

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 26/39, Status = Fine

That fact that Raith herself was relaxing helped ease the grip on the man's rifle, but he was quite obviously still on his guard. His eyes lingered on the catgirl before he shifted to get a better look at Kali, and as he did so the more human of the snipers made her call to the sisters. The rider immediately started tensing again when three bodies came into view, but thankfully he appeared to have enough sense to only raise his gun only a few inches. It had yet to point in anyone's general direction, and as he quickly realized that the three hooded figures were absolutely no threat he went back to resting.

Whatever little bit of drama that followed that small twitch from the survivor was let to conclude however it wished, and after a bit Kali and the other three women finally met behind Raith. The girls had arrived first since they didn't need to walk quite as far, and once they did they simply hovered behind the Su-Ku-Ta sniper while giving curious but still quite nervous glances toward the slightly unbalanced man. He himself looked a bit nervous, but even after a couple of failed attempts he found no way to get himself to relax. That seemed to frustrate him even more, and to work off some of that energy he simply turned back toward the grisly scene. That in turn set the sisters to whisper among themselves, and if Kali chose to join in their hushed conversation she would be welcomed with a question. "What happened?" Once the answer was given they all became much quieter, and they shared a rather sad and knowing look between them before Kalesi spoke up once more. "What should we do?"

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Kali joining the group again now, had a few thoughts swirling, although trying to recompose and recover her wits from the skirmish was muddling them a little. After that first shot she committed to, everything had seemed to go so fast, and dangerously wrong quite quickly. She was having trouble telling whether she made the right choices. Spare for some rattled nerves and perhaps a scuff or light bruise, she had came out unscathed though. Somehow. Just.

And then there was the single mystery rider they had managed to save, too. Arriving to hear the sister's question Kali took a second to figure out how to answer, but then pointed loosely toward the nearby juggernaut corpse and it's victim, as well as the trail of man and horse corpses behind it, and the other felled juggernauts. "That happened." She replied in a fairly unemotive tone, although it would still be plenty obvious to the sisters that she was far from unfazed by the incident. "They were chasing the riders and heading right for us. I..." She elaborates just a little, trailing off uncertainly and casting her gaze about. She leaves the sisters second question hanging for the moment. Coming to focus on the surviving rider she eventually takes a few short steps toward him.

Just as she was about to speak, she finally notices exactly how the final Juggernaut had actually died. She hadn't been certain who had made the final shot til just now. She was inclined to keep things to the point here and just tell the man their own intentions and go from there, but the surviving rider seemed pretty fixated on his fallen boss. Whilst for her it was a lucky and narrow victory, the man had just lost his entire party, after all. She guessed she'd open with something simple first, taking a short glance towards Raith, before turning back to the man.

"Who was he?"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Raith's gaze would never leave the man who'd survived, though she didn't raise her rifle again, not even when he gave a threatening twitch when the sisters rose up from their hiding place behind a dune and started heading toward them. She heard the whispered conversation taking place behind her but didn't bother to listen, carefully watching the only remaining threat as he restlessly returned to the side of his last fallen comrade. It was difficult for Raith to feel much sympathy for him, despite the situation. She still viewed him as a not insignificant threat, the fall of her people's civilization having made the folk left living in the Expanse even more dangerous if anything. Especially to women. Besides, she'd never had the opportunity to form the level of camaraderie that the last rider exhibited towards his fallen ally, apparently his boss judging by what he'd blurted out when he had seen the man fall.

As she observed, however, the wheels in the tattooed sniper were turning. A boss meant an organization, and an organization meant a purpose. Mercenaries? Maybe..... Soldiers more often went by ranks, even in companies for hire, however. Maybe amateur caravan guards chased away from that they were protecting by an attack? It was possible, given the overwhelming force that had been chasing, and she knew that a few groups still ran the trade routes going to Srikloeth-Tonn, the last city in the former empire that the aliens hadn't taken. There was another, far less savory option suggested by their armament, but Raith had no proof that this group had been slavers.... Yet. Still, her suspicions were decidedly raised, and even if he wasn't a slave hunter he was still not necessarily going to be anything other than a threat.

She was about to open her mouth and ask where he and his group had come from when Kali walked around her to approach the stranger, and Raith promptly snapped her mouth shut. Better to let her speak first, and when she did Raith decided that she probably wasn't any worse off. Ever a direct person, she'd probably have not gotten anything other than hostility with her prying.

After a few moments of watching, however, her restlessness overwhelmed her curiosity, and she figured that she had other options for finding clues about this group besides questioning the sole survivor. Turning to the sisters, she quietly said, "come on. We'd better check the bodies, they probably have water at least. I'll show you what to look for on the alien corpses too." And with that, Raith would go and start doing just that, starting with the fallen riders and then going to the juggernaut corpses, intent on taking anything of use. Kali could handle herself with the last man, and the naive and inexperienced sisters ought to learn to do this for themselves at some point.

 

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 39, Status = Fine

Spoiler

Sniper Rifle reload counts:
Raith: 3
Kali: 1 (Explosive)

"He was an ass..." That answer came after a bit of hesitation as the man measured the woman who spoke to him, but after a bit his attention returned to his fallen commander. "He yelled at us, beat us when he was mad, slapped us around if we did something stupid..." But as bad as it sounded he didn't look like he held an ounce of hate for the deceased. In fact he sounded somewhat emotional even if he was trying his damnedest to keep it hidden. "And he didn't deserve this..." She wouldn't be able to see the tears in his eyes, not with his back to them, but even as he started stepping even closer to that small scene of death it wouldn't be hard for anyone to tell they were ready to burst.

And so the man started moving to somehow dig his comrade out of the hulking mass that had killed him. It left Kali and Raith free to do as they pleased, and Raith chose to bring the sisters with her so she could investigate the other corpses. The trio didn't look all that eager to go digging around human bodies, but they obediently followed with only a passing glance to the silently mourning man. "Hey." And though she may have meant to be quiet the silence that surrounded them meant that even a few whispers could carry. "I don't care what you do to these things." A hand rose and slapped the behemoth he was preparing to manhandle himself. "But treat my men with some respect. Okay?" At this he did turn and reveal just how emotional he was at the moment. It was a rather sorry sight for everyone involved, but there was a certain coldness that lurked beneath it all. It only made the implicit threat that much more dangerous before he turned and started lifting the juggernauts mouth in an effort to free the bosses remains from its teeth.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Kali voices a quiet, "Hmm..." in simple acknowledgement of the mans words, unsure of what more to say for the current moment. Watching Raith head off to investigate the dead, Kali figured she could probably go to check on the remains of that dark coloured slime. See if it had any ambers similar to it's more primitive kin. Before she does though, she sees the mans intent to try and free his comrade from the juggernauts maw and hesitates for a beat.

Just from looking at it, Kali doubted the body was going to come free that easily. Seemed like it would sooner tear open or sheer in half than be readily pulled free. At least with only one pair of hands anyway. Stepping forward slowly she comes to stand beside the man and the beast he was attempting to wrestle, and stows her rifle back on it's sling. The rider was stronger than her, but if he was able to pry open the jaw, she would at least be able to help control the weight of the bosses body to prevent him hanging on those teeth and being shredded any further. It should be possible to get him out in one piece with a little cautious lifting work.

Provided the rider didn't shun her assistance away, she'd quietly help out whilst generally avoiding eye contact. Most men weren't partial to being seen crying, so she didn't intend to test this ones pride unnecessarily. Personally, she was idly curious as to whether the gun inside still worked, or had been damaged in it's last moments.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Raith would pause and look back over her shoulder at the man as he suddenly addressed her. The sniper's lip twitched at the corner at his command to treat his men with respect, about ready to remark that letting their supplies rot out on the dunes wasn't exactly respecting them in any capacity, but instead simply nodded before starting off. "That's why I don't generally like dealing with people," she would remark under her breath once they were well on their way to the first alien carcass, "when they aren't actively trying to kill you, they're getting in your way in less lethal but more annoying ways."

Arriving at the vaguely canine fallen titan, Raith would walk in a circle around it, examining it, and then descended upon a spot near its head. "For the grey monsters, you can find valuable objects hidden inside of them if you look. They're like small stones, and you can find them under the skin by looking for a lumpy patch. It can be harder to find when they're all mangled, but you just need to cut into their chest, that's where they usually are," she explained for the benefit of her comrades, letting them watch as closely as they liked while she cut out the stone from the juggernaut. She would let one of them do the next one, the man from before taking the third, and picking out the amber from the slime herself and showing it to the sisters. Once the aliens had been properly looted, however, she would look to the dead riders.

"Bodies like these can be a bit harder when you're new to it," she remarked once they were standing over one of the dead, "the idiot asked us to be respectful, but the dead don't care for their things regardless of what the old priests say, and water is too precious to waste out here." She would crouch down and fold the mangled man's hands over his chest, and then glance over at his mount. Despite her misgivings about leaving them, she would leave any ammunition or valuables on the bodies of the dead, but as she had said, water and food would be another matter, and the surviving rider hadn't said anything about looting their horses.

 

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 39, Status = Fine

Spoiler

Sniper Rifle reload counts:
Raith: 3
Kali: 1 (Explosive)

The rider didn't much react to Kali stepping forward, not while he was busy lifting the behemoth's maw, but as she started reaching in and eased the body from the creature's grasp he locked his body and held the juggernaut still. This allowed the sniper to free the dead from its prison, and though some bits of flesh were torn away the body was left mostly intact.

Once the two were clear that mouth was allowed to close with a snap, and the survivor gave it a rather contemptuous shove before he turned toward his commander's body. This also brought him face to face with Kali. He gave the woman a nod of thanks before leaning over his comrade, and after crossing his arms just as Raith had done to the first body she came across his hand rose over the body's face and started drawing a surprisingly complicated star. Considering where she had lived all her life Kali most likely wouldn't recognize the sign of the Star God, but if she did then she would most likely realize this man was giving his comrade his last rites. Or at least a simple version of them.

Once that little ritual was complete the man stiffened a bit before reaching over the body once more. The show of respect he showed earlier was done with, and now he started pulling items of value from his boss's pockets. A coin purse was the first to be retrieved, and a moment later he was handing Kali the man's gun. "Check this." Once she did she would find it serviceable, a few nicks and scratches along its surface but nothing that would cause it to misfire. During that time the rider would pull out a few more things, mostly the few ammo clips to be found and a small knife, but the few personal items that were found were simply left with the body. He obviously had no wish to take them, and once he was done he pulled himself up and started walking over to the body that Raith had inspected.

While all this had been going on the sisters had been treated to their guide butchering the carcass of the first juggernaut they had come across. They looked rather squeamish as she dug down into the thing's skull to find what she was looking for, but thankfully that body didn't bleed. Otherwise Raith would be dealing with some rather sickened women who looked rather happy to simply let the woman do her job.

But there was always one exception, and though that woman cringed along with the others Zuni seemed to be holding her stomach a little better. She even managed to step a little closer as she listened to the explanation, and when it came time to work on the second juggernaut she cautiously stepped forward and took the blade she would need. It took a while to get her to start carving into the thing's flesh, and once she did everyone could clearly hear her going "Ew ew ew!" under her breath, but that didn't stop her as she gingerly reached into that gigantic head and retrieved her trophy. "Uck, its still warm...!" But even if she was willing to get her hands dirty she was all too willing to hand the stone over to Raith before she started wiping her hands on the beast's body.

With that out of the way this brought them all to the first of the human bodies. The sisters seemed oddly quiet as Raith lectured them on practicality, but as she turned to look over the horse they lingered. "Shouldn't we at least take his gun?" It was a valid question, and it was surprisingly answered a few seconds later. "Go ahead." As if to prove that point the survivor walked over and actually handed the rifle over to Pushra, though she looked completely lost with what to do with it. Following that he went to his knees and started his ritual all over again with this body, and it left Raith free to rummage around the horse's corpse as much as she wished.

Unfortunately there wasn't much to find. A few clips of ammo were found, nothing that would prove any more useful than what she already had, and the few survival supplies had either been crushed or mauled in the juggernaut's attack. The canteen she found was leaking water steadily, though she could act quickly and salvage at least something before it ran dry, and the only food stuffs that were relatively intact were a few strips of jerky. Of course this said nothing of the horse, its meat would provide some useful nutrition, but it was her call whether she wanted to go that far or not.

Unless Raith or Kali decided to do something rather drastic everything would simply continue like this, the lone rider moving to each of his dead companions and doing his best to see them off before he retrieved whatever he saw as valuable and left everything else behind. It would take some time with all the bodies scattered as they were, but once he eventually finished he retrieved his horse. During all this Raith was free to inspect the men and their valuables at a distance, but nothing she saw helped to reveal just what these men had been before they were killed. The fact that they had so few supplies on them meant that they must have been part of some larger group or convoy, especially since they didn't seem to have anything to care for the horses, but there was nothing in sight to say where that convoy might be. They could always ask the survivor, but at that moment he seemed lost in his own little world as he turned back to glance over his team. By that point he looked completely drained, and the sisters turned toward their escorts with an almost pleading look on their face.

Spoiler

[ Loots ]

Sniper Team Neko
3x Grayheart
1x Slime Amber

Surviving Rider
5x Badarian Lever Action Rifle
32 Denarii
14 AP Rounds
6 Hollow Round
8 Masterwork Rounds
1 Explosive

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Raith was about to answer the question about the fallen man's gun, still holding her annoyance at the soldier's request, when he answered for her in a fairly surprising manner. Well, maybe he wasn't a complete idiot. Raith would watch him perform whatever rights he had on his commander on the next man for a few seconds before turning to finish collecting the rest of the weapons without further comment.

They didn't have much in the way of supplies that had survived the attacks of the juggernauts, unfortunately, but Raith did what she could. The water, leaking from shredded cantines, was always first, poured into her own which was half empty and then into her spare. She picked out what food could be saved, but the real prize were the dead horses. She wasn't much of a butcher, but she had some experience in cutting meat, and could cut out chunks of meet and dip them in preservative salts so that they would keep. She didn't have much of the preservatives on hand, but it would make for a couple of meals, especially including what she'd take for their meal that night which wouldn't need to be preserved.

It would be better than the alien meat, at the very least. Raith had tried it once, and had needed to eat it a few times since then, and hadn't liked it much any of those times. It was oily and foul tasting no matter how one tried to season it, and it rotted incredibly quickly. The hunters were a little better, but only a little, tending to have a musky taste that overpowered anything but pure salt, and cooking them tended to attract more of their kin.

Finished reminiscing on her culinary past, Raith would again instruct the sisters in butchering, making sure to carefully clean her knife before putting it back into its sheath. Eventually, she would have little to do but look to the man, who now looked drained and lost, and then to Kali. She wasn't sure what the other sniper would do, but after a moment Raith would glance towards the man, shrug, and bring out her long range rifle. The weapon was simpler than her repeater, but it also took longer to reload, and she was calm and casual about sliding another bullet into the chamber, but as she did so she walked towards the last rider and, unless Kali asked him first, casually asked, "where did your group hail from?"

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Acknowledging the small nod with a tiny nod of her own, Kali stands by and glances over to what Raith and the sisters were up to for a moment. Hearing the faint protests of, "ew ew ew!" just reaching her on the wind brought a small amused smirk to her lips. She tried to recall how she'd reacted herself when cutting one of the aliens up for the first time. Then dropping her smirk however when she remembered she'd actually just violently stabbed into the thing repeatedly in a small emotional fit of vengeance. She didn't even loot it at the time. Spent an hour trying to wash her hands with sand afterwards. Wasn't the best memory to revisit really.

Turning back to the rider, he was part way through performing his last rites ritual. She did in fact immediately recognise the symbol, if not the specific rites exactly, although it was obvious what he was doing. With one of her father's primary scholarly pursuits being astronomy, she'd spent many nights with him gazing up at the stars through a telescope, listening to stories about which ones variously corresponded to which gods, historic events, and schools of magic. How they could help guide you and be used to determine North. Her father hadn't worshipped The Star God, but he had seemed to spend a bit more time studying the deity than most of the others.

Receiving the gun that was passed to her, she was surprised to see it had came out more or less unscathed. It didn't appear to have been bent or dangerously stressed in any significant way. It certainly needed a good through cleaning now, but otherwise it seemed fit to continue service. "The rifle is still good. Seems solid as ever." she informs simply.

Watching Pushra being handed a gun made Kali bite her lip just ever so slightly, but she had in fact been pondering the idea in the back of her mind herself. As long as the sister had enough sense to keep her fingers away from the trigger before Kali or Raith got a moment to talk to them, she wouldn't act on it just for now.

With the man proceeding to quietly move between his fallen comrades, Kali strolls over towards Raith and the sisters again. Kali was considering the horse meat also, although they'd have to be careful cooking it. She was about to ask the same question, when Raith asked hers, and so she adds her bit on the end instead. "The Star God isn't so commonly worshipped in these lands, and you don't look like the soldiers of any Sultan. What are you out here for? We're working our way back to civilisation ourselves."

The general plan today had been to head for the nearest oasis or spot a caravan along the trade routes, whichever comes first. It was a shame that none of the other horse survived, although, coming to think of it, Kali noticed that none of the horses seemed to be carrying the typical long distance travelling supplies. Which made Raith's question feel even more relevant now.

 

[Termite]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Players

Spoiler

Raith - HP = 60, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine
Kali'Zhira - HP = 54, PP = 43, EP = 39, Status = Fine

Spoiler

Raith has reloaded.

Sniper Rifle reload counts:
Kali: 1 (Explosive)

Pushra and her sisters had spent their time following their guides by looking over the one rifle they'd been given. Pushra herself didn't seem all that willing to carry it, but she did and held it out for the others to inspect, their fingers running over different areas yet thankfully leaving a rather healthy space around the trigger. Kalesi even managed to disengage the clip, and once it was in her hands she extracted a bullet and studied it before she figured out how to get the damned thing back where it belonged.

But all that came to an end once Raith and Kali asked their questions. They tried to hide it, their eyes and heads never turned from the weapon Pushra carried, but the silence that followed showed their interest quite easily as the lone rider looked a little disgusted at the question. "Badaria." That much was obvious from his accent. "The country's practically crawling with those walking rape machines, and we didn't feel like sticking around with the demons and the fr-... other races that sprang up around Artmirst. We would have gone up to Crolia, but the Boss didn't really want to go messing with any of those orcs rampaging around up there, so we came West looking for whatever work there was. Ended up escorting a few caravans, but those bastards brought that to an end, didn't they?" A finger thrusts out toward one of the dead juggernauts, and as it does a lone vulture can be seen descending to look over the large mountain of flesh. It didn't do anything just yet, the people nearby were obviously making it nervous, but where one appeared more would quickly follow.

"Tch. Fucking buzzards..." At that the survivor grabbed his horse by the reins and started leading it away. "Guess we can't stay here for too long. We ran long and hard when we were attacked, and I doubt there's anything left, but we may find something if we check the wrecked caravan." The man started retracing the tracks laid out by his team's failed escape, and whether or not the women followed was completely up to them.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Kali-Zhira listens to the mans reply, grimacing slightly hearing how even Badaria was apparently still no better off. And if Crolia was being plagued by orcs, then was anyone anywhere actually putting up a genuine resistance? It was frustrating as ever to hear about, but not something she had the power to fix.

The mans implication that they were escorting a caravan would explain the lack of supplies in the saddle bags at least. Hearing that there was a wrecked caravan nearby was also news, even if they'd been hoping to find an intact one. Kali felt like she still had questions, but the heat and the recent commotion was making it a little difficult to think. Staying in the same place too long after combat was never part of a snipers plan, and checking out the remains of a caravan seemed sensible. She'd quickly make sure to grab the rest of the fallen riders supplies before they left, and fetching another pair of guns, checking they were safe and handing them to the other two sisters and quietly speaking to them quickly. "You'll get a lesson on these when we get a moment. Just carry them carefully til then please." Said with a mannerism that would somewhat acknowledge that she understood they weren't familiar with holding such things.

Kali would then look to Raith first, and probably proceed to follow the rider.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

Some part of Raith took vindictive pleasure in hearing that Badaria hadn't fared much better than Anudor against the invaders, but she opted to bury that part rather than let it cause her to say something that she might regret. "You should have gone North," the sniper remarked dryly, "at least the greenskins will only kill you or enslave you if you're unlucky enough to survive." Trading a look with Kali, Raith nodded and then started after the man as he led his horse back in the direction he and his fallen comrades had come from. It wasn't like they had any better options, and maybe they could pick the bones for some more supplies.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

"Hmphh. You'd think even if good for nothing else, these vile invaders might have inspired people to put aside their differences, at least for a moment. But no. Everybody seems far too busy preying on their weakened neighbours or fighting amongst their own kind to dare face the real threat." Kali mutters in response to Raith's mention of the Orcs, whilst they walk. "At least the grey skins seem to have a trace of unity." She adds, although suddenly looking somewhat revolted at herself or a little like she's about to retch at having just said that last line. "Kechh."

She also makes use of the time now to finally load a new round into her gun. Trying to keep the action as casual and unprovocative as possible, however much as loading a gun could be at least. Although she also chooses to load a standard round instead of the explosive one she had been intending to pull way back.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Guerilla Warfare (Tassadar and Unknown Squid) GMed by Termite

"People will be people," Raith mumbled back, holding her own heavy rifle at the ready. She didn't know with any certainty that they had eliminated all of the greys, and after walking a while she would say, "I'll be around," and then vanish as she enacted the natural camouflage enabled by her magical tattoos. She would keep pace with the rest of her group, only going a little ways ahead of Kali and the sisters while keeping near enough to the last remaining rider that she could turn with him if he changed direction, and keeping a lookout for further threats.