Impact Ares: Winds of Pandora

[TamerBill]

There is a pause for several seconds as the man on the other end considered what Sasha had said.

"Okay, fine. Tell you companions that you're working for the Blood Pact now; we'll send someone over for you. Over."

[Twilight]

Elation and fear mingle in Sasha's breast as she realizes what she just managed to do. She tries to keep her voice neutral.

"Good. Thank you commander."

She steps away from the communicator and looks at the others she keeps her voice low but the flood of emotions threatens to burst through her vocal chords. She takes a few calming breaths and only speaks then. "Ok...Um...The Blood Pact is coming back to get us. We work for them now. Hopefully this works out for us." She looks apologetically at Lorren --who is clearly ex-DR and also the likeliest to be angry at this turn of events-- "Anything but here, right?"

[TheGreatJabu]

Darren Sirion

Darren was amused but dismayed by the fact that while others ran to cover from the grenade, he pretty much had no choice but to BE "cover." However, Wonder-Woman managed to kick the grenade away before Darren had the chance to soil himself.

After the splint was in place, wasn't really interested in testing it out by moving around. However, the dire need to GET AWAY was a bit more important than his interests. As he was beginning to try and lift himself off of the ground, he heard Sasha yelling the news.

"Blood Pact? Ugh...they sound right friendly. Still...gotta imagine they're a step up for us, aye?"

[TamerBill]

After a few minutes (during which the reinforcements never arrived, much to the frustration of the lone officer) a rumbling can be heard as a white jet appears in the distance, speeding towards the group's position.

[Twilight]

Sasha nods nervously. And helps Darren up if that's the direction in which he wishes to go.

"Um...so...I hope that they get here soon because the DR have less ground to cover before they get to us and haul our sorry bottoms back into custody." She pauses. "Sorry...I tend to chatter when I get nervous. Just tell me to be quiet if I get on your nerves. You certainly don't need more stress after that fall you took. I mean...I should have thought that I might be able to help but you just dropped down before I had a chance...and then he " she nods her head towards Adam "dropped down too...although luckily he didn't break anything...err..." she pauses for breath "I'm babbling aren't I? I'll stop now."

She goes quiet as her cheeks flush an embarassed shade of pink.

She looks up at the sky. "Oh! I think they're here already..."

[TamerBill]

The plane slows down as it approaches the base, drifting lower and lower until it barely makes it over the top the fence surrounding the compund. As the jet comes in to land it tilts upright, as limbs unfold themselves and a head raises itself from the centre of the machine. By the time it hits the ground the plane is gone, replaced by the Personal Trooper Raubvogel.

[TheGreatJabu]

Darren Sirion

Starting to have trouble hearing Sasha over the sound of the approaching plane, Darren continues to try his best to hear anyways. His reply begins as speaking and ends in yelling just to be heard over the roar of engines.

"Yeah...Uh, don't worry about it, Sash. If you want a motor-mouth, watch me play poker some day. The talkin' distracts people from bein' able to focus; either on their cards for me - or on their broken legs for you." He tries to give her a pleasant smile, but the sudden slowing of the jet catches his attention. How much help is a damned VTOL gonna be to get us-

His thought is interrupted by the jet's sudden transformation into a mecha.

Oh.

[Twilight]

Sasha blushes more deeply at Darren's response.

She leans in a way that will relieve as much weight from his legs as possible; she isn't very strong but her balance is good, she uses that fact to her advantage. Say something intelligent Sasha...

"You play cards? ... " Her voice is drowned out by the loud engine that has just landed next to them. She clamps her jaw shut as the plane turns into a sleek looking PT. Wha...It's like a hawk.

[LazyJoe]

Unfortunately for Adam, something seemed to have clicked out of place when he took a dive behind the rubble, and was now in more pain than ever, only just managing to hobble towards the shapeshifting Raubvogel. In normal circumstances he would have helped Sasha support Darren, but these were far from normal circumstances and contented himself with trying to keep up. Adam wasn't too keen about being picked up by the Gangers that had minutes eariler completely abandoned them, but as Sasha said, anything but here.

[TamerBill]

As the group hobbles towards the machine trouble arrives on the scene in the form of the long-awaited reinforcements called over by Lorren's erstwhile nemesis. Before they can get close, however, the Raubvogel pulls a rifle down from its back and with a single shot of purple energy reduces the enroaching jeeps to slag metal. The cockpit open up and a rough-looking youth throws down the stirrup.

"Alright you mooks, get yourself in here quick. You're not worth spending that much ammo on, so hurry up before they send more goons."

[LazyJoe]

Aside from admiring the youth's etiquette and politeness, Adam gratefully grabbed hold of the stirrup as something to hold on to and waited to be pulled up with the others.

[Twilight]

Sasha helps Darren to get in with a nod and then climbs into the machine without further ado.

[Yuki Akuma]

Lorren looks back at the former jeeps for a moment, then shrugs and grabs the stirrup. Does she look conflicted...? No. No at all.

[TamerBill]

The Raubvogel has an unusual cockpit; behind the pilot's seat there are six others for passengers, which the pilot roughly introduces you to. When everyone is seated he takes to the controls again, and the robot begins its run-up to the fence. When it seems like the only option would be to plough straight through, the PT boosts into the air on its thrusters and, after a brief moment of disorientation for the passengers, transforms. The Personal Trooper slash plane flies over the wasteland at speeds no walking machine could ever match, heading after its team-mates.

[TheGreatJabu]

Darren Sirion

Once Darren is securely strapped into his seat (and his adrenaline has ran out), he sees his golden opportunity to fall unconscious from the bloodloss and pain. He does so immediately.

[Twilight]

"Oh no! Should we be keeping him awake or something? I don't want him to go into shock..."

Sasha holds onto Darren's hand and looks a bit worried.

[LazyJoe]

'I think he just needs to rest. Besides, there's not much more we can do for him at the moment.'

After a moment, Adam addressed Sasha again.

'Er, thanks for taking the initiative back there. To be honest, I didn't think it'd work.'

[TamerBill]

The unmatched speed of the Raubvogel's jet mode means that it's not long before the three other PTs come into view ahead of them. The pilot opens a communications channel to them as he passes overhead.

"I've got the strays, Dirk. One's injured, so I'm gonna go ahead to base and sort him out."

"Roger. Set them up with some accommodation and brief them on the situation, we'll meet you down there."

"Roger, over and out."

[LazyJoe]

Now that the dust had settled and everyone could get a clearer view of everyone else, the others saw Adam for what he really was, or at least what he looked like. Although mostly covered from head to toe in brown, grey and green desert wrappings, Adam nontheless appeard small and frail. There were deep shadows around his eyes even extending down towards his grey-black beard and sallow cheeks. Tufts of messy black hair fell over the brown bandana he wore, tufts that would otherwise obscure his vision and make his job a lot more aggravating. He hunched over as he sat, as you would expect someone to after they had spent a lifetime sitting down.

Adam thought for a second about sitting back and staying quiet, but his curiosity got the better of him. He spoke a little louder (as much as he could without hurting his back again, the movement was so painful) and addressed the pilot.

'I hate to intrude upon your concentration, but what exactly is the Blood Pact and what do you want with us?'

[TamerBill]

"It's a gang, obviously. We're still pretty small at the moment, but the addition of these four prototypes is the first step to putting us on the map. Oh, and the four slaves of course. That's a nice little bonus too."

[LazyJoe]

Adam was about to ask who the four slaves were, but stopped himself.

'Oh.'

Undoubtedly the others would have something to say about it.

[Yuki Akuma]

Lorren tenses slightly at the offhand way in which their 'rescuer' refers to them as slaves, but stays silent. She knows full well that they're currently at his mercy.

[TamerBill]

The journey across the desert is tense, with little in the way of conversation. After about an hour of flying the gang's destination comes into view; a large grey building in the middle of untamed wasteland, probably an abandoned factory. The Raubvogel drops down low to the ground and transforms, coming at the base at a run.

[Twilight]

Sasha is glad that the pilot does not have eyes in the back of his head because when he refers to the four of them as slaves her eyes go wide with fear and her lip trembles, if only for a moment. This quickly passes and is replaced by a more neutral yet resolved stare.

If it gets too bad maybe we'll be able to escape...if they're small then their facilities will be also. She dares to hope despite her fear that her actions have landed them in deeper waters.

"Let's just hope that this isn't a case of out of the pan and into the fire." Is the only thing that she whispers under her breath perhaps to Adam, or more likely just to herself.

[TheGreatJabu]

Darren Sirion

Darren currently finds himself in a tiny-sized village so colorful that it looked like a painter's easel had eaten crayons and vomited on the place. The area is full of horrible little people. He feels terribly itchy, and realizes that there's straw coming out of his shirt and pants. He looks around to see that the other prisoners are in similar predicaments - Sasha is wearing a goofy dress and carrying a basket with a small dog inside, the Amazon-woman is made of solid metal, and the scrawny man has a massive, fluffy beard.

There's something about a tornado, monkeys, and a valuable lesson, but Darren's feverish subconscious skips through those parts. The sound of the tornado doesn't seem to go away, though. The roaring just keeps getting louder and louder...

The mecha's landing outside the Rebel base brings Darren back into the waking world. The world where his leg is still broken. His neck aches from the poor angle it was at when he passed out, and he begins to rub as it looks around at the others.

"...I think I liked the itching better than the pain...

[LazyJoe]

Noticing Darren waking up and talking again, Adam looked inside the medikit again and found some painkillers.

'These should help,' he said, handing them over, 'you'll have to dry swallow them.'

Instead of offering more words of comfort, the engineer went back to looking at the grey building and admiring the Raubvogel's impressive transforming technique.

[Twilight]

Sasha give Darren a small smile when he awakens.

"I think it may be time for you to move soon...Do you think you'll be up for it?"

She seems concerned but also distracted by the sight of what lies beyond the Raubvogel's windows.

[TamerBill]

The Raubvogel comes to a halt in a large grey hangar, and the cockpit opens up with a hiss. The pilot gestures for everyone to get out and wait for him on the hangar floor.

The Raubvogel clearly stands out as special in the hangar; aside from it there are only a handful of Tempelritters and a couple of basic customised models. You understand what the pilot meant about these machines putting them on the map.

[TheGreatJabu]

Darren Sirion

Between Sasha's kindness (and the scrawny man's medication), Darren begins to feel a little better.

"Oh, I'd bet I can limp a few more meters, yet. Gotta try, anyway - if we're property now, I'd like to keep from bein' given the same treatment as an injured racehorse, aye?"

Whenever the cockpit opens up, Darren will put his good leg into the hoist stirrup and wrap the cable around one of his arms a few times before lowering himself down.

[Twilight]

Sasha climbs down as well. She has mixed feelings about this and her poker face is definetly not up to par. Nevertheless she does her best to remain calm and collected in the face of impending slavery...she wonders briefly if perhaps prison would have been preferable but dismisses the thought as entirely too pessimistic.