Xenogears IC

[Jensik]

Hender

Hender jumps into his gear, shuts the cockpit and instantly switches on the climate control.

I don't know what's the bigger threat; the Kislev or the desert.

The large white Gear, Chatanth, slowly and carefully maneuvers out of it's place in the hanger and stands behind the other five.

"Alright, let's get this over with while we're still young."

[Gnarnia]

Emerson Wainright

Sitting in the dark cockpit of Weiß Ritter, Emerson's eyes opened at the sounds of the other gears switching on. It was the nature of man to ascribe personalities to objects which had none, and so it was that Emerson often sought solace in the cockpit of his gear.

Weiß Ritter, the white knight. As much as the name suggested protecting others, the eleven foot gear was a bit of a walking security blanket for the Etone.

"Time to for some action, eh old friend?" the Etone said, as if the gear were capable of answering him back. Flipping switches, the cockpit was bathed in the soft glow of monitors. Status readouts blinked to life... all systems operational.

Using a touch-sensitive screen, Emerson dragged-and-dropped the call signs of his fellow Misfits into a grouping for the comm system. As his gear powered up, he flipped open the communication channel.

"It's about time you slowpokes got here. We ready to move out?"

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

A tad surprised at the chaplin's presence, Nik recovered well, and quickly opened a comms chanel.

So that's where you got to, friend. I was starting to worry you were so absorbed in the pursuit of higher things, you forgot where the hanger was.

Nik laughs, but there is no malice in it.

[Gig_Complex]

Gills

Running the startup diagnostic program Gills turns on the comm system to respond,

Its looking like a nice day to go for a stroll through the desert don't cha think? Just go easy on these bloody machines, I don't quite look forward to fixing these hunks of scrap metal without a bay to do so.

[Lochar]

Nov. 1, 1300 hours

You all leave the hanger, and within twenty minutes are outside the city and headed towards Dazil. Hender's Gear actually has to move a little slower to let the rest of you keep up, as his Gear has a longer stride that the rest of yours.

You all move at a forced march pace until nightfall, in six hours putting quite a bit of distance between yourselves and Beldavik. As none of you are tired, since your Gears are the ones walking and not yourselves, you can continue to go for several more hours or stop and make camp.

The night sky is filled with stars, and the desert around you is quiet with no life larger than cactus and lizards.

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

Nik opens up comms with the others

You guys want to stop now? We could probably keep going a little more, but time means that I could get to work on encoding our comms systems beyond Aveh standard. If we might end up ruining near Kislev forces, that might worth it; them listening in on us may not be a good idea.

[Jensik]

Hender

Hender didn't mind slowing his pace to match the others'. He was used to it from guarding supply trucks and caravans. When Nik chimes in to break the silence, he shakes his head.

They don't give up, do they?

"I'm fine, and you aren't touching my comms. If there comes a time where eavesdropping is a problem, I have my methods of getting messages through. Which reminds me, Luitenant... I'll need to speak to you about that privately."

After a short pause he groans, "I honestly can't see how your kingdom survives out here in this forsaken desert."

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

Nik sighs, before reopening the contact

Heh. Tell me, how do we know when eavesdropping becomes a problem, before it is a problem? People aren't going to broadcast "We're now intercepting your comms?" They'll just wait for us, then start shooting. Now, personally I don't like that, and would rather stay out of the line of fire, until we can fire back. Better to have comms encrypted, and keep as safe as we can, rather than giving Kislev a free pass into our comms surely. Any half decent codebreaker can crack Aveh standard.

It's you're choice though LT. What'll we do?

[Jensik]

Hender

Hender laughs, "Alright, let me rephrase that. You can't touch my comms. My entire system is written in another language that I don't care to take the time try to teach you or anyone else for that matter. Besides, I'm pretty sure I've already got a solid encryption."

Or at least I better, for the amount I paid that bastard.

[WrathOfLife]

Jake leedium

Hate. Gears.

Rubbing out a muscle cramp in his leg, Jake shakes his head sadly. 5 or 6 days of more travel time to a friendly city and they think we'll be ambushed already.... useless. Saying nothing over the comm's Jake tries to relax into the steady motion of the gear. Happy to either keep going or get out, he keeps out of the conversation.

[Zinaida]

Bethela Abishai Fatima

"Nik is right. We'll make modifications after we break for camp in seven hours." Bethela's response is monotonous and distant. "We can't spare any time wasted and if Kislev does get a fix on us we might as well go home to our court marshal."

[Gig_Complex]

Gills

Sighing, Gills scratches his head at the rest of them,

Already arguing and we haven't even been a squad for a full day.

Hender you're going to need a bit more friendly, way I see it the higher-ups stuck you with us and you're here to stay. No reason to put cracks in a foundation that hasn't even been set yet.

[Jensik]

Hender

Hender laughs again, "Oh, but haven't you heard? Mercs aren't part of the foundation. We're the slab you lay atop the foundation because we're less costly to replace."

Chatanth drops to one knee and lays the back end of the rifle on the ground and holds the other end in front of the cockpit to form a make-shift ramp. The chassis doesn't open just yet, as the pilot is not fond of the idea of voluntarily going out onto the sand.

[Gig_Complex]

Gills

Letting out a laugh while getting his Gear into a kneeling position for easy exit, he adjusts his radio before exiting,

Doubtful, you probably cost the higher-ups a pretty penny and they wouldn't waste that money or allow a unique Gear to go down the drain on a suicide mission, but what do I know? After all I'm just a tech that has talent enough for three of those Ethos bastards.

[WrathOfLife]

Jake Leedium

Why are they stopping... Jake has his gear keep moving, if it leaves him to a place at point, all the better. Moving to get in a more comfortable position he readies himself for another 7 hours moving forward in his gear, even if it means leaving some of the members behind. There useless to me anyway. Suddenly feeling that leg cramp again, Jake starts rubbing his leg, muttering about how much harder it would be to crack there comm system's if they just shutup.

Hate. Gears.

[Gnarnia]

Emerson Wainright

*crackle*

"Gills and Hender, I think the Lieutenant meant we'd be stopping seven hours from now. If you just need a minute to stretch though, let us know." Emerson says over the comm while keeping pace behind Jake.

[Gig_Complex]

Gills

Swatting himself upside his head Gills replies,

Ah sorry, she said she agreed with Nik so I assumed we were stopping for the moment, my mistake.

After which he settles himself back in the Gear before getting it back up on its feet.

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

Sorry. My fault

After a short pause

And Hender... I'm sorry, but unless we're all working on one code, then we can't communicate with each other... Tell you what; it'll take me quite some time to come up with the code; that'll probably take one camping session, and more time to enter it into each gear. Why don't I save yours for last, and you can talk me through the interface? It'll be irritating, and probably take some time, but it's not imposable.

[Jensik]

Hender

This guy just won't drop it! Am I going to have to shoot him to get through his thick skull? Damn that prime directive, it would be so much easier if I could just kill him.

In a single fluid motion, the Gears engine hums back to life and quickly rejoins the group.

"If you must then we shall compromise. You write the code, I'll input it into the system. Shouldn't be too hard."

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

What is up with this guy? What the hell is making him so adverse to me encrypting his system?

Do you know how to imput such a program? It takes at least passable computer skills. You know enough? If so, I'll let you try it. But if you can't get it working before we reach our destination, you let me work on it, and talk me through the language. Deal?

[Lochar]

((Go ahead and keeping argueing about things if you wish, I'm moving you all a bit forward))

Nov. 2, 0200 hours

You all stop after another seven hours of walking through the desert in your Gears, the moon high over head in a cloudless night. The night air is quite chilled, the result of there being no moisture in the air to maintain a stable temperature. All around you is bare land, the few sand dunes in the area only rising at most five or so feet into the air. Plant life consists mainly of cactus.

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The current hunk of desert you are all in.


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X = You are here, roughly.

░ is sand
▒ is sand dunes or cactus, both would give partial cover from the direction you are hiding behind against medium sized creatures.

[WrathOfLife]

Jake Leedium

Kicking open the cockpit door Jake dicides its time to be social again. "I'll go secure the perimeter, switching to radio" His voice sounds like a rock is trying to talk, but before giving any more details he hops down, he works his legs and then all but disappears from sight.

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Am awear of everything inside 60 feet.

Moving NE, loading in a clip of standard rounds into Hand-of-God, then two rounds of Double moving NE, arching around to secure a 100 feet around the group.

[Lochar]

Jake moves around, darting from dune to dune, keeping an eye over everything as his gun moves, tracking things. You can feel and see the sands moving slightly, disturbed by your passing, north of the group there is a small monitor lizard, but that is the limit of living creatures in the area that you can sense or see.

[Zinaida]

Bethela Abishai Fatima

"Hender, go scout out the perimeter opposite of Leedium. Emerson, Gills, you two make camp while Nik gives your Gears the once-over. I want rotating shifts by 0300." Bethela trundles up onto the edge of a dune and plays with her sensors while silently humming to herself. Whatever is out there ...

[Lochar]

Bethela's Gear flattens the sand dune slightly from the weight, but she doesn't notice as she activates her sensors and hits the local area with it, but doesn't come up with anything of note.

[Jensik]

Hender

Hender is seconds away from screaming into his comm unit, until he realizes who was ordering him around. With a quiet cough and polite affirmation, he takes his gear to the south to survey the area.

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[Lochar]

The south area comes back just as dry and empty as the area you stopped in. Nothing to see for miles around but the rest of the squad.

[Gig_Complex]

Gills

Stopping his Gear and getting it into the dismount position, Gills radios over to the others before exiting,

Roger that

After exiting Gills pulls out the necessities before starting to make camp.

[Moral Wiz]

Nakiti Frinz

Nik drops out of his gear, but doesn't turn it off yet, He stands next to it, as he starts muttering, and making use of his glasses.

Gills, mind double checking my work once you're done? We need this ready quick, otherwise it's going to waste too much time.

[WrathOfLife]

Jake leedium

Having completed his duties Jake jumps on the radio again. "I've got first shift." There going to think I'm a real chatter box after all this. I'm no better than Intel. Moving back out to the open, Jake begins a large slow circuit around the camp at 100 feet. Moving slow, and keeping low, Jake, armed with his rifle, is the splitting image of a hunter at work.

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hide - (1d20+17)[19]
MS - (1d20+12)[25]
spot - (1d20+8)[18]