Union of Independent Worlds Faction RP thread

[Cannonshop]

Ezra got it. This was a challenge. And despite his yearn for some adventure, this would certainly ... be deadly.

"Miranda, tell me, how long will it take for you to track this beast down, and his Pack? Now I am visibly the .. most experienced here and my Clan's Totem is a Pack Hunter too. Not as cumbersome and slow as these hogs, but smaller and much quicker. And I would never advise to go hunting after them on foot. Or even on some bio-ride. If we can separate him from his Pack, then you might get a chance, but before that.." He shook his head, grimly.

"I admire your spirit and just to see how you go forth with this would be thrilling, but I have a schedule to meet. You have 48 hours to track the Pack down, either my Warriors start shooting and leave this Jefe for us, or you are alone again. I might be able to squeeze some more hours in, perhaps even a day or 2 if I got a shuttle, but I will have to meet the JumpShip. The Clan tolerates no extras. What say you?"

"I might add that my Warriors will bring some Laser Rifles, and perhaps a Mauser IIC, which would be enough to kill most of those beasts." He breathed out. "They might be needed elsewhere, though, that is up to Captain Laura."

This little woman really was either mad, desperate or of Warrior Material. He liked her.

"This tea is tasty.", he added dryly.

"Got a map, Laura?" Miranda asked, "I know where to look, and when."

"We wait for the rest of the Star Captain's men." Laura said decisively, adding, "Spears?" with a snort.

"You haven't seen them." Miranda said, "I think El Jefe's older than the plague."

"Undoubtedly." Laura said, "Takes a long time for a piggy to pack on as much mass as you're saying he's got...but what makes you think guns won't be enough?"

"Because he's got arrows, old scars, and I thought I saw a hunting knife in his hide when he was ramming the tree to try and shake me out." Miranda told them, "The fucking thing is a Beast of Legend..and like I said, he took a twelve milimeter nitro express at fifty meters twice, and didn't even care.  Uncle Jose used that rifle on Kyoto Armor Bears and El Jefe shrugged the shots off like they were bee-stings...come on, Star Captain, you take a look at what I have, then we go find El Jefe and we kill him."

"WE WAIT until the rest of the hunt-team is here." Laura asserted again, "Miranda, unless the damn piggies are moving out faster than a King Karnov can fly..."

Miranda nodded, "fine.  I can still show your guest where we will be hunting him, Yes?"

"You know where he is?" Laura asked.

"I've been tracking him for a week." Miranda said, "I know where he's likely to be tonight-or at least, where his pack will be."

"Where?"  Laura asked.

"Stokeley's Grocery-and-gas on 15th street in Gordon.  They roost in the grounds of the old junior-high." Miranda said, "They'll go for Stokeley's because I left some canned soup on the floor this morning-they'll smell it and come poking in the aisles."

"How are you going to separate him?" Laura asked, "Hypothetically."

"Well...by smelling like a challenger to his dominance." Miranda said, "I killed a two-year-old male this morning while I was out, took his scent glands and I've got a grunt-call.  Honestly if you had not shown up, I would have gone anyway, extra hands can help with the rest of the free-range pork."

[Marlin]

"As long as my Warriors cover our backs, I think we can do this. If a second hog will show up, while we are on foot, then we will be in serious trouble. And I will take a Laser Rifle with me, perhaps it can do some damage." He thought shortly: "The Warriors shall go to the 15th street and wait for them, if you agree, if one hog survives, it will likely be their chief. Then we get to work. I think I have some time for this today.", he smirked. "Show me your weapons."

[Cannonshop]

She led him to the barn, and there they were.  

The head was a full meter long, steel, worked steel...more than three weeks' worth of work, certainly.  These were clearly hand-worked with an obsessive's attention to detail, made for a task, and actually made rather well-the steel was not brittle, nor soft-it was tempered just right for the job.

"The attack, it was not random." she told him, "it was off my schedule, but I think El Jefe figured out I was tracking his pack."

They were clearly "Boar Spears" in the classical sense of the term-weapons that are really only good for a single job-killing a wild animal at very close (danger close) ranges and holding that animal back from the user.

[Marlin]

He eyed over them. This was tremendous work and they looked like they were made for this. Which they were of course. Shortly he wondered if the Bear Warriors took those to hunt for their totem.

With some caution he took one. If the handle was attached on it, there would be serious momentum given to this spear.

He laid it back down, looking at her: "Did you make these?", he asked, glancing at her inquiringly. "It is missing a stamp."

However, he could not deny that he was thrilled to hunt with her. Althoug part in the back of his brain screamed helplessly that he was too old and soon to dead to return to his Clan. And ranted on over the implications of this fact. He had to ignore this. Here was a worthy opponent and a woman worth of a reliable partner for this task. She had guts, that was undoubtable.

[Cannonshop]

He eyed over them. This was tremendous work and they looked like they were made for this. Which they were of course. Shortly he wondered if the Bear Warriors took those to hunt for their totem.

With some caution he took one. If the handle was attached on it, there would be serious momentum given to this spear.

He laid it back down, looking at her: "Did you make these?", he asked, glancing at her inquiringly. "It is missing a stamp."

However, he could not deny that he was thrilled to hunt with her. Althoug part in the back of his brain screamed helplessly that he was too old and soon to dead to return to his Clan. And ranted on over the implications of this fact. He had to ignore this. Here was a worthy opponent and a woman worth of a reliable partner for this task. She had guts, that was undoubtable.

"My Father made them-as art." she said, "I had to walk up to the old hacienda site, they were in the outbuilding where he kept artwork when a customer could not, or would not, pay.  After the rifle failed, I went looking for alternatives, and found these."

she hefted the spear, showing him the pointed butt-cap, "They are meant to be set against a charge, this end into the ground with the blade held level." 

She passed him something else-this was more modern, and certainly more familiar: an advanced-ceramic machete of the sort used across human space.  The ceramite blade in this case had maker's marks from Camillus Cutlery on Terra.  "He also kept some antiquities." she said, "The handle has been replaced, but the blade, so they say, will never wear out. That blade dates back to the Star League Defense Force's 121st Airborne infantry regiment.  we will need to clear some brush along the way, and we may need to add wounds to the beast to bring it down."

[Marlin]

'Beautiful.' He took this ancient piece. It was beautiful. And so old. He could understand the Scorpion's a bit better now.

"A very good piece. The Blade, however, will wear out at one point of heavy use, but it will take very long. You will take it. I am not that sure that we can wound our prey with this, as when he is that close, we are in trouble." Reluctantly he gave it back to her, still eying it with a bit of envy. 121st Airborne..

"You will use it. You know the way and I have my vibroblade." He patted his thigh where it was fastened.

One last glance over the weapons they would use and he turned to go to the house again. "Now, tell me something more about that 'el Djeffe'. You make it sound like it is a rabid Ghost Bear with Heavy Armor. How fast is he?"

His Warriors should be there in an hour. At least he hoped.

[Cannonshop]

'Beautiful.' He took this ancient piece. It was beautiful. And so old. He could understand the Scorpion's a bit better now.

"A very good piece. The Blade, however, will wear out at one point of heavy use, but it will take very long. You will take it. I am not that sure that we can wound our prey with this, as when he is that close, we are in trouble." Reluctantly he gave it back to her, still eying it with a bit of envy. 121st Airborne..

"You will use it. You know the way and I have my vibroblade." He patted his thigh where it was fastened.

One last glance over the weapons they would use and he turned to go to the house again. "Now, tell me something more about that 'el Djeffe'. You make it sound like it is a rabid Ghost Bear with Heavy Armor. How fast is he?"

His Warriors should be there in an hour. At least he hoped.

She nodded, "He's fast, not like a normal hog, he's got longer legs, it's like some rogue scientist tried to re-create Dinohyus Daeodon and turned it loose in the forest here."  She was more...rational in the barn, with the weapons, than she'd seemed inside the house.   "He chased down my horse, like I told you-and she was running for her life.  Figure normal mammal densities he stands about two meters at the shoulder, and maybe three meters not including the cute little curly tail, and the tusks are about..." She held her hands apart about a third of a meter, "This long, in a mouth that could bite a man in half lengthwise."

[Cannonshop]

The pair walked back to the house.  "So...Clan Ice Hellion?  I have heard of them." Miranda said, "I heard your people got the Ilkhan's spot."

Her comment revealed something-she'd been out of contact long enough to be unaware of events going back more than a year.

"How is that working out? Got to Terra yet?"

[Marlin]

"Clan Ice Hellion, yes. IlKhan Sellen Cage, may Kerensky bless her eternally, died on board of our Flagship over Sudeten, fighting many Warships. She will always be remembered as our best Khan and ilKhan of all the Clans." He suddenly felt tired. Sellen had been the light of the Clan. He even had seen her personally back in the day..
But soon hate filled his mind again.

"Those sullying Terra have paid a price for this, but it is far from over." He clenched his fists. "With the Lyrans breaking apart, perhaps we can pave our way faster to liberate Terra at last." Now he was in fighting mood.

"Let us finish your menace here. I want to kill today."

[Cannonshop]

King Karnov Transport J-310, 5 min. from LZ "Miranda"...

"...Fast rope down, the Clearing is too small for a landing with this beast."  The loadmaster said.  Some of the 'guests' looked ill, but the ones from the Clan unit didn't look worried in the slightest.

"Fast rope? I don't know how to do that!" one of the Probies, a 'beater' (meaning brush-beater or 'bait man') named Orenthal complained.

"Cheer up, Probie, it's like bungee-jumping."  one of the regular-service troops overseeing the local team told him, "You'll be rigged, just follow instructions."

"BUNGEE JUMPING?!" the Probie's eyes went wide, giving everyone in the rear of the cargo bay something to chuckle about.

A former Mob enforcer doing hard time from Anembo named Konacevic leaned forward, "You freeze, bait-man, an' we have to carry you, in little bags." he said, "You don' listen to the Jumpmaster, an' we carry you in a buncha little bags, you do the thing and treat it like juuuust a thing, you be okay, I take care of you good, get you a trip to Dolly's girls an' some good booze, okay?"  he said in a thick Croat accent.

[Cannonshop]

There were few injuries, and nothing major enough to matter, but the team was assembled on the ground at last.

Miranda laid out a map on the ground-it was a survey plot, with hand-made markings.

"Sherriff, you take the first team one kilometer west, spread out fifteen meters distance except in heavy brush-go ahead and tighten your formations, El Jefe's pack may try to separate what they percieve to be the weak from the rest of the team.  Star Captain, your men should deploy north-to-south anchoring on the Sherriff's people, maintain a slight backsweep in their line of march to avoid accidents."

"Where will we be?" Ezra asked.

"WE will be at the corner between the two teams-the formation should move northeast right into Gordon itself, clearing the brush at the soccer field." she said, "We are not going to spook El Jefe, I think-he will charge the point he believes to be the weakest zone-try to take out what he thinks is the dominant pair.  It is how he has dealt with rivals in the past."

One of the convict-hunters raised his hand, "Ma'am, what if we get this sucker first?" he asked

Miranda looked at him, and laughed a soft, musical laugh.  "You do NOT need to worry about that, you will have enough with his pack-remember to fire at the nearest ones only-if you become target-fixated, their friends will tear you to pieces before you realize they have charged you."

"pardon, ma'am, that ain't how Hogs react..." one of the volunteers said.

"It is not how ordinary hogs react-these are not ordinary hogs." Miranda said, "you will see... he will send the weakest adults first, to wear us down.  I saw this pack take out a biker gang last April-these use tactics."

[Marlin]

When the Warriors looked at Ezra, he just nodded. "Do as she said. Kill those damn beasts. And try to survive." One handed Ezra a Laser-Rifle. He took it with some relief. If the bad guy did not want to play with them, he would try to take him down at range. But anyway, there would be death pigs.

When the groups would be ready to march off, Ezra went to his second-in-Command, Charlotte, and said: you take care of your flank, if they do not go there, reinforce wherever necessary." She just nodded, her white ponytail flying. Her age did not show much except on her hair. If Ezra died, she would be the one who brought home the ships.

He looked to Miranda now: "Let us go and get our weapons. This little piggy is dead meat soon." he looked grimly.

[Cannonshop]

ONce into the jungle, Miranda had to stop often to allow the others to catch up.

away from the clearing, she could feel the ripples in the air-tiny fluctuations of temperature and breeze-it would rain soon.

"the rain will mask the approach." she commented to Ezra, "monsoon season, they won't be able to see or hear us until we're close-this is good, carefully-that's stranglevine over there, you get caught in that and it will take too long to get you out."

She hardly used the Machete-over a year living in the bush she'd gotten used to moving like a part of it...

[Cannonshop]

Miranda moves through the rainforest like it's part of her.  From an outsider's perspective, it'd be like she kind of melts through it silently while most of the teams are hacking and crashing like six-foot bumblebees.

The rain will mask their approach some, though-and kick up a misty, disorienting environment, like a fog.

at the edge of the overgrown soccer field, the hogs will attack, it's hard to see what's happening only a few meters away in the weather, and sound is muted.

El Jefe appears, announced with a rumble and the squealing of hogs, ratcheting sibilant hiss of lasers, and the thundercracks of rifles.

They will feel him coming before they see him, looming out of the mist and the underbrush like a mountain of thunders and madness and rage, Ezra can see glitters of metal things on his thick, coarse-furred hide-the flights of arrows, a knife, some other impossible in the moment to recognize weapon whose user would never need it again, and red eyes, hateful little orbs set back on a long nose with angling, ferocious tusks.

It is a Boar drawn from the ranks of hell itself, unnaturally huge, with a glittering intelligent malice in its eyes and stinking breath chuffing from its snout like steam..

Miranda sets her spear as the boar charges with a hooting roar and a squeal that digs into a man's nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard, like scraping steel in a collision.

El Jefe is huge, like some elemental of pigs, like a demigod of hogs, a monster un-naturally sized and un-naturally fierce..

Miranda set her spear, and El Jefe came, like a freight-train, and the point on the base dug into the ground a moment, then the shaft flexed as the spearhead dug in...slightly off centre.

The boar roared, and with a mighty swipe of his tusks, she was hurled into the jungle, her spear broken-like her body.

and now Ezra faced the monster alone.

Her blood dripped from its maw, tusks were red...

[Marlin]

Ezra has a hard time following the rather small woman, but she moves with precision. It is her realm. Rain. Seems she is comforted by it. So Ezra will take this as a good sign. There she rests, the team seems to be in place.

Until the inevitable attack, there is radio silence. Ezra takes up station left of his companion. The rifle hangs down from a branch to his left, ready to be fired in case a hog breaks through. And if it is the big one, to anger it, he supposes.

There, he hears rifles crack, even stakkato of one of the Auto-rifles and Laser blasts. The hogs squeal. Several distand 'thuds' mark their falls, but still the underbrush cracks relentlessly, marking their attack.

Charlotte makes some hasty reports, indicating her flank is fine and they hold. If she holds and the other flank too, that means..

They come for the both here.

There! Is this the Jefe? No, a rather big swine, though, overlooked by his Warriors? He grabs the Rifle and shoots at it. Repeatedly. It is nearly through, but finally a Pulse-Blast from his left lets it collapse just meters from him. He hears muffled calls, and more screams.

Miranda? Just as he turns, he sees Miranda setting up her spear, she looks so strong, yet so small. But still it seems she is made for this day. He has no time to appreciate what he sees as just half a second later a black monster breaks through into his view and just runs over her!

She flies away, her spear is broken and the big one escaping? Hastily, he grabs his rifle, sending some shots into his flank. This makes Jefe think again, it seems. He turns in a loop and he is fast. It seems Miranda did not hurt him too much..

Spear, set up. His adrenaline is more than he had had in years. And perhaps it is his last day. Make it count! He holds the spear with his right and draws his Vibroblade, the Pig comes blowing air and groundshaking. Is that blood from his snout..?

(by CS)
Fetid, stinking breath the beast lets loose a sound that reaches into the deepest instincts-things long forgotten by man, from the days when humanity were little more than frightened monkeys with rudimentary intelligence, shivering in darkness and hunted by The Beast.

The ground thunders under its hooves, and he could see the tusks-long, dagger-like, curved, and red with blood, the beast's eyes filled with hate, and rage, and....pain?  he could see-her spear-the shaft was broken, but the head lodged deep in its body, causing a slight limp.

The misty rain gives it a surreal quality, like something from a dream-or vision, or nightmare...
(/CS)


Then the impact:

Ezra felt something in his right arm snap under the pressure, but the spear held straight. For others, the sound of ripping flesh and hide would be sickening, Ezra just watched with interest. The split seconds the boar ran itself onto the spear were stretching to an eternity. Now the Monster was close enough to get his tusk, red on its own, to the Vibroblade, which hummed, glowing red and tore through the hard and sharp tooth into the mouths side. The beast did not stop, Ezra did not let loose until the last possible moment, when he tried to jump to the right.

And all went dark.

Charlotte had overlooked from her small tree that the pigs were killed methodically by her Warriors, adding some pulses to a particular resiliant one, felling one going straight to the anchor, when she saw the monster. It crashed through the center and then... came back?

Hastily she ran there, seeing Ezra alone against the beast. He held fast, the Hog running into his spear, perhaps less fast than before, but there could be no way out for him. In the final moment he threw himself to the side as the beast collapsed nearly over him, while tearing it open with his Vibroblade. The screams of the monster would haunt her for weeks to come as it thrashed on the ground.

Ezra seemed k.o. but slowly stood up again, his right arm in an unnatural angle, the left still clutching the Blade. He moved to the still writhing beast like an executioner and tore into its right ear to finish it. The screams of the monster increased, nothing else was there anymore. She held her ears to escape this torment.

After many long seconds, there was silence.

She stood back up from her knees, seeing Ezra, triumphant over this giant hog. There he stood.

And broke to his knees, throwing up, his left arm covered in blood to the elbow.

Her comm crackled: "Charlotte, 2 smaller hogs escaped to where they came. The rest...are dead."

She was with Ezra now, helping him up. The proximity to this dead beast was terrifying.
What did he want? He looked at her with bloodshot eyes and mumbled: "Help Miranda."
She nodded and got her a team to search.