Cities of the Future

[Captain Andy]

Travis tried to keep his head on track, ignoring the previous conversation.

 

"What do you have in mind as a distraction? You don't seem to like the idea of fighting these guys... just say it if you think we should circle around."

[Evilsincarnation]

Arodom looked at Travis sternly, and then turned away and started to think of something to distract the men.

 

"Look, when they get here the first thing they are going to do is look in the vehicle to see if we are all dead in it. What we should do is try to find a way to rig up some sort of an explosiont hat goes off when we trigger it. We could go hide over a dune and watch as the men approach. I'm sure theres something flamable in that buggy. If we had to we could shoot the gas tank from a distance to start an explosion."

[PurpleXVI]

While the others were talking, One had gotten out a pair of binoculars, "I think I can see something heading our way, looks like a hover APC, it'll probably be here in half an hour or less, think fast, guys. Oh, and the buggy doesn't have a gas tank, it's not some ancient relic, it runs on energy cells. I also thought we'd agreed to avoid as many deaths as possible? I'm going to fire back if I'm fired upon, but I'm not going to just pop out of the sand and start firing, or blow up a bunch of soldiers unprovoked. I doubt that any of their soldiers are going out with carryable comms systems that can reach back to the base, so any stranded out here are in for a long walk back without any way to warn the base....." He thought for a few moments, "I can't think of any way, but I think that if we can lure most of them out of the APC and then steal it, that'd be a workable idea."

[Stampede]

"How many do you think they would send? Why don't I play the decoy? Let me play dead by whats left of our buggy, they investigate and you guys get the drop on them when you think the time is right. Not much of a plan, but I'm not much of a planner."

[Evilsincarnation]

'Works for me."

[PurpleXVI]

"That gives me an idea!" Exclaimed Candiru One, "Arodom, you're pretty good at sneaking, as am I, so I have an idea. We hide while Travis and Knocko imitate corpses, or at least badly wounded people, then wait till they load those two aboard and start getting ready to go home, we somehow tag along on the APC, if we can't, we'll just have to walk, and at least Knocko and Travis will be in the base. How does that idea sound?"

[Evilsincarnation]

"Sounds good. So, we probably need to make them look reasonably injured?"

 

Arodom glanced at the two.

[Captain Andy]

Travis shrugged and nodded his head.

 

"Yeah, I guess that'd work. I have no objections to it, but... I can't act worth poo, and I can't say I'm too good at making myself look banged up either. Unless someone can tell me what to do or help me look a little injured without actually beating me up, I'd be real thankful."

[Stampede]

"Don't worry, I won't be winning any awards for acting anytime soon. I think we should just lay ourselves face down in the dunes...but what about our weapons?"

[PurpleXVI]

Candiru One slid quietly down the dune he was lying near the top of till he was with the others, then got to his feet.

 

"Give your guns to me, I'll get them back to you when we're in the base. Either way, hurry up. We don't want to get caught standing around chatting when they get here."

 

(OOC: I asked for permission before making these assumptions.)

 

He took Knocko and Travis' guns and then gave Arodom some pointers on how to hide while clinging to the approaching APC. After the disarmed two were laid out on the sand in a suitably injured-looking way, the others then hid and waited.

 

They didn't have to wait long.

 

Ten minutes later their ride arrived. The hover APC was an ugly, angular vehicle about the same size as it's wheeled and tracked ancestors. It glid over the dunes while making a soft humming sound and eventually parked itself next to the wreck, a hatch in the back opened and three soldiers in haz suits emerged, rifles at the ready, and surveyed the scene.

 

"Looks like we've got a couple of injured," commented one of them, "Should we take them back to base?"

 

"Yeah, I think the captain would like that," replied a second and knelt down besides Travis to poke him with the muzzle of his rifle, "Come to that, I'd like to know what they were doing out here, that buggy looks like a civilian vehicle. Their GPS unit must've been knocked out, somehow."

 

One of the soldiers effortlessly slung Travis over his shoulder and deposited him in the back of the APC like a sack of potatoes, bruising his left arm. The other two had to work together and, with a lot of cursing, plus a quick break about half-way, managed to carry Knocko the ten yards to the APC. Despite it being relatively roomy, the large tech being inside made it cramped.

 

Candiru One managed to get on top of the APC just before it started heading back and flattened himself against the roof just behind the turret, banking on it not getting turned during the trip. Arodom stood on the back bumper and dug his fingers into any small crevices he could find, most of the trip was, for him, spent doing his best not to fall off.

 

Inside the vehicle, Travis and Knocko were relieved of their suits as the soldiers checked them for any wounds requiring immediate attention. Finding none, they concluded that the two had to be suffering from either internal injuries, bad concussions or both. One of the three soldiers turned out to be a medic and brought out the tools of his profession. A few seconds and a lot of injections later, both of the two actors were full of enough medical drugs to cure them of everything from scurvy to AIDS.

 

Once the spiders had gone away it really wasn't all that bad of a trip, and it was free, too.

 

Soon the walls of the crater loomed large ahead of them. Above it's rim they could see the tips of some of the antennae and other things which were part of the scanning array, keeping a silent watch on the vast depths of space. A faint wind was stirring, possibly the beginning stages of the storm they had ordered.

 

The APC reached a metal gate which allowed entry into the side of the crater. It was much taller than the vehicle, but only barely wide enough for it to get in. As it automatically slid open, Arodom and One hopped off, then ran for cover.

 

Beyond the gate was a small, rectangular hangar where the APC had probably started out. The only exit besides the gate to the outside was a single door. Once the hangar was pressurized, techs entered to look over the APC while the soldiers carried Travis and Knocko away to the medical center. The remainder of the team stealthily followed.

 

The base turned out to mostly be a claustrophobic tangle of corridors which it only seemed possible to navigate if you had a map or a photographic memory. Even the soldiers who lived there made a couple of false turns on the way to the medical bay. It wasn't particularly aesthetically pleasing, either, being almost entirely in shades of polished metal. Where the cleaning crew had been lax, dust-dulled metal added a pleasant break in the monotonous colouring.

 

Eventually, though, the trip ended at the base's small medical bay where an old doctor dismissed the soldiers, then prodded and poked at Knocko and Travis while One and Arodom looked on from the shadows. Finding nothing broken, he threw them into a scanning machine to discern whether they had any internal injuries. Finding none, he put them on cots and went over to the surgical theatre at the other end of the room, selected a particularly nasty-looking instrument with lots of spikes and prongs, and advanced on Knocko with a suspicious look on his face.

 

(OOC: The medical bay is, again, a rectangular room. One end has cots for recovering patients and ones who only need medicine and watching. The other end is the surgical theatre. Due to a lack of space, almost every inch of the walls are covered in shelves containing medicines and pills, or cupboards containing medical tools.

 

Like the rest of the base it looks bleak and metallic.

 

Candiru One and Arodom slipped in along with the soldiers and managed to hide. Arodom behind a CAT scan machine and One under a bed.

 

Knocko and Travis have gotten over the drugs they were given on the APC. Mostly, they're both still feeling a bit light-headed and Travis is feeling exceptionally hungry.)