RP: The Wayward Distant Memories (Ep. 2.0)

Analiese held onto the only handle in the back of the truck as it bounced along. She opted to ride, since she had no idea how to use the weapons that were on board. She would have preferred to be back on the ship, repairing the engine, but Tanja said she was needed out here. Being in the back, she was unaware of where they were going, but did stand when the truck stopped and looked around. Her eyes widened some, for she had never seen the like before. What kind of creatures are these? She thought to herself.

Ana got down from the truck bed and put her hands in her pockets, nervously thumbing the wire in one of them as she took in the area. The mask helped her to breathe, but it didn't help keep her calm.

(( OOC; Gomenesai! College + life = suck ))

Quinn had also opted to ride in the back of the truck with Ana. He kept a firm grip on the side of the truck so he wasn't bounced around too badly. When they finally stopped and got off he slid off just after Ana and pulled one of his knives from her. "Here" He murmured very quietly into her ear. "Stick em with the pointy end." He advised, pulling his big Hero Handgun from his coat and making sure the magazine was sitting firmly in it. He was no crack shot, but if the wolf things got within thirty feet he could at least do some damage.

Ana took the knife and studied it for a moment, being sure to hold it with the flat of the blade resting on her forearm and the sharp side pointing away from her. She nodded to Quinn and then looked to Tanja, waiting to see what would happen next.

Nan climbed up onto the truck to get a better look at the surrounding area. He reached to his belt and tossed up a camera drone to get some recon on the area and numbers on the creatures.

He flipped open his PHC on his wrist and using his connection to the Anbruch, started searching for any information that could be related to these types of animals.

"I'll have aerial pics and info in a few moments Cap. I just hope this atmo doesn't interfere with my connection to Anbruch."

Reed had opted to walk ahead of the truck. He was in a rather bad mood. It was bad enough that he had been forced to stay in his quarters with a terrible stomach ache, but then Hugar had to go and crash the ship! Now he was on foot, in full body armor, climbing over rough terrain ahead of the truck. He was a pilot, not a marine. He kept these thoughts to himself as he kept walking.

He paused as the beasts came into view. They looked rather dangerous though Reed took confort with the familiar weight of his pistol and vial in either hand. He clicked through the settings absentmindedly as Tanja spoke. First the nanites morphed into a sword, then shield, whip, shovel and back to sword.

Hugar followed suit and stayed near Tanya the entire time. He watched everyone quietly, studying each one as they reacted, Reed was being a pretty grumpy bunny, while Nan was eager to prove his worth, Quinn was showing Ana how to protect herself, and Hugar himself was just sitting nearby the captain, making sure that everything stayed hunky dory as it has been thus far. He looked at Tanja when she spoke about the squatters and nodded his head and took a breath. "Roger that, Tanja."

Jungle of Zath-Nianach

Of the creatures outside, there was a fourth that was behind the building and not visible to the team, however with the camera drone deployed Nan managed to spot the creature. Unfortunately there was no way of getting an exact number on those inside form a birds eye view, only three were visible from a time, even from above. As if to just make things worse the Anbruch's database had no information on these creatures, after all they were on an unexplored planet with no records.

With the truck stopped at distance Tanja spoke up once more to everyone. "We've got a few options here, depends on how confident you all are. We can have our combatants sneak up and take out the ones outside quietly with knives, then we get loud and draw the ones inside out. There's also getting loud from the start, and taking out the outside ones really quick, but we wont have time to prep for the ones inside before they come for anyone making noise. And then there's luring them to the truck and just doing a shooting gallery as they approach."

Ana chewed on her lip as she studied the ones she could see, not quite sure what to make of them. "Do we have to kill them? I mean...surely they've heard us coming by now. And so far they haven't attacked. Perhaps we could try to get to know them and find out how they got here and..." She trailed off, looking at the others as she realized she had spoken up and sounded very much naive. She was still not too sure what to do with the knife she was given, other than to ensure that she didn't harm herself with it.

"N-Never mind...it was...stupid of me..." Ana lowered her head and took a small breath, waiting for directions. She didn't know for certain that all they would encounter here would be hostile. Perhaps some could be reasoned with? Maybe?

"Hey sister, why don't you come up here and I will patch my drone visual feed into your communicator. That way you can keep an aerial view of our progress and let us know of things that we might not be able to see. It's real easy to do and is vital to keep us safe in the field," Nan said to Analiese as he patted beside him on top of the truck.

He stood, repositioned his pistol on his belt and stooped down to give her a hand up if she chose.

Reed cast a thoughtful glance toward Ana. "While I have never met any, I have heard rumors about wolflike-quadrupedal sentients.” He continued to think about her suggestion for a bit and shrugged, “Then again if we do end up trying to introduce ourselves to a group of hungry unfriendly wolf-things, we would lose the element of surprise.”

Reed turned back toward Tanja. “I suggest that we lure them to the truck. We can use the surveillance drones to watch our surroundings so we don’t get flanked. If they are unfriendly, we can pick em off as they approach."

Quinn considered the whole thing for a long minute. "I'm a better shot at short range." He added. "So I'll agree with Reed on this one. Draw em close, if they're not friendly at least they'll be close enough for me to hit." He glanced towards the back of the truck and mentally berated himself for not bringing the rifle he'd "won" before they'd come to the planet. Probably would have been useful about now even if he wasn't at all accurate with it.

Hugar nodded in tandem with what Quinn and Reed say. "I agree with them, while I'd prefer to sneak around...however, that doesn't seem to be an option against wolf like creatures." He took a moment to check over his weapons to ensure that he is correctly locked and loaded, before getting out of the truck and waiting for orders.

"You have no need to worry." Rulloo spoke up soon after Analiese and the other's questions "There are no reportsss of sssentient life living on this planet. They were wiped out."

"That makes things a bit easier I suppose" Tanja spoke as she lifted her large rifle up taking aim. "So you want to draw them closer? This should do then, if they come our way they're probably aggressive, if they run then they likely aren't." At that she softly squeezed the trigger on the rifle, causing a loud retort as three bullets flew, striking into one of the ruined structure's walls.

The crack of the bullets alerted the strange wolf like creatures, causing them to look over in a moment of confusion. However they did not stay that way for long and soon were rushing over fang's bared. The first wave was coming rather quickly, three heading straight for the group while others started ot make their way into the trees to conceal themselves. These creatures were experienced hunters and it looked like they were trying to test the waters.

Ana lowered her head, feeling even worse than before for speaking up. She jumped a little at the sound of the shot and then froze for a moment as the wolves came. Some of them anyway. Her hand tightened some around the handle of the knife she held, but her base fears kicked in. She went, not up into the truck with Nan, but under it in a hard dive. She needed the feeling of all that metal around her to protect her...even though she was pretty sure the others would be able to take care of the creatures.

Reed shrugged at Rulloo’s comment and nodded in response to Tanja’s plan. It seemed like a reasonable course of action compared to simply walking out and yelling 'I’m friendly!'

He clipped the Vial back onto his double looped belt but kept it easily accessible. With the entire crew shooting, it seemed unlikely that the wolf-things would get within melee distance though it never hurt to be prepared.

He casually flicked open his magazine pouch and took careful aim before firing two shots at the lead wolf. He could see Ana dive under the truck out of the corner of his eye but ignored the action as he shifted his aim to fire two shots at the second wolf.

Nan watched Analiese go under the truck with a curious eye. "Where is she going? Those things could easily get to her under there," Nan thought to himself. While this was Nan's first instance of impending violence, his unlimited enthusiasm saved him from freezing up.

Keeping one camera drone above them for any further incoming, Nan spoke to the crew, "We have three critters moving right for us and several spreading out to possibly try and surround us. I will drop a suicide drone behind to cover our direct flank."

Nan shuffled in his backpack, produced a Blister suicide drone and gave it orders to stand by at their rear. At any sign of movement towards their vehicle it should intercept and detonate.

As an afterthought Nan drew his pistol and laid it on the truck roof beside him. His hands going back to his holographic computer console to continue recieving data from his Camera and Suicide drones.

Hugar heard the shot from the rifle and raised his own rifle up ready and kneeled to keep his own gun steady and aimed. He kept his ears and eyes alert and immediately began firing at the left most wolf, aiming to kill rather than injure, however his cat like ears listen closely for the movements of the wolves that went to hide so that none would sneak up on him.

Quinn was almost tempted to go hide under the vehicle with Ana until the fighting was over. As it stood the wolves on the ground were being taken care of by Reed and Hugar and the ones in the trees were too far for him to get anywhere near a decent shot at. He thought for a moment and then it hit him. The ones in the trees! He set about attempting to locate the ones who had escaped into the trees and were now seemingly invisible. His eyes gave him a pretty good zoom, and he flipped through a few different color spectrums* as well to see if he could spot something that didn't belong and point it out to the others.

(U.V. , Night Vision, etc.)

The beast rush forward towards the group into the on coming bullets. Reed and Hugar connect with their targets simultaneously, both staggering notably at the impact, however only the one that was hit by the heavier caliber rifle doesn't get up. A second wave of shots consisting of Reed, Tanja and Embel came as the remaining creatures made a break for the trees, uncertain of what was going on. However the rain of bullets was enough to take one more of the creatures down, with the last one managing to slip into the forest with injuries

"Damn they're smart." Tanja clicked her tongue and looked around , keeping her rifle up. "They learn pretty fast, so make your shots count. Aim for the head or the ribs."

Nan's droids caught several of the creatures moving about around them, there were seven in all and they had backed off more after the first one was killed,keeping a distance between seven and twelve meters. They did not know what had happened but they had not lost their aggression while taking on this confusion. It was fairly easy to spot the injure one since it had just entered the forest, they were on the passenger side, the group's right, along with 2 other creatures. The driver side, the group's left, had 3 more of the creatures along with one that was notably larger, he looked similar to the other with only minor changes to his grown of fur, perhaps he was the alpha.

The beast were patient, they had the cover of the trees and shrubs to keep them safe, so they waited, eyes on their new but strange prey.

Reed cursed softly as he realized that his gun appeared to lack the punch to put the wolves down. He made a mental note to use his next paycheck to buy a bigger gun, perhaps an anti-tank gun.

Reed's introspection was interrupted by the sound of explosions. Nan's drones were hard at work. A quick glance at his live feed from his communicator told him that there was only 5 wolves left.

"Nice work Nan!" Reed called out as he resumed watching the trees to the left searching for a clear shot. This time, he would wait for the wolves to get closer before shooting again.