In the Hills
February 19, 2000
IC
 
    "A guy just can't get comfortable around here," Telgar muses, "Well, at least these things don't seem to harmful." Telgar decides to make a couple checks of the camp perimeter until the 'chutes' decide to leave his post and float away.
     Brenon will assign Kah'liss to 4th watch(the last watch).  Brenon will
also make himself a little spot atop his explorer. He'll sleep there. Moving
supplies around and making a comfortable pillow out of several water
pouches.
     "We'll camp here tonight. Then cross the river at 0800 hours. So make
yourselves comfortable but not too comfortable. Experience has shown us time
an time again to expect the unexpected in this wretched place....."
    Zhirrzh sits quietly atop Explorer 2, his legs crossed as he gazes
     out over the river toward the far bank. Even with the brief excitement
     of the floating jellyfish, the evening maintained a peaceful
     stillness. With the light breeze blowing over the river, carrying the
     cool scent of fresh water toward the Yazirian, he found his eyes
     closing in silent meditation.
        As hungry as Zhirrzh was to get to Slave City One, he found the
     moment of peace to be like a long lost friend. Zhirrzh drifted lazily
     in his thoughts as the night wore on.
        Brenon will assign Kah'liss to 4th watch(the last watch).  Brenon
     will also make himself a little spot atop his explorer. He'll sleep
     there. Moving supplies around and making a comfortable pillow out of
     several water pouches.
        "We'll camp here tonight. Then cross the river at 0800 hours. So
     make yourselves comfortable but not too comfortable. Experience has
     shown us time an time again to expect the unexpected in this wretched
     place....."
        When morning comes, Brenon will instruct Raliegh to give the
     explorers one additional check before we begin our trek across the
     river.
        0800 arrives non too early. The nearby creeks and small pools of
     stagnant water spawned a decent army of blood-sucking insects. It
     seems mosquitos are an indigenous species on every planet in the
     Frontier, and exists to be the thorn in adventures sides. Zhirrzh was
     up a tad earlier, and actually caught a few fish from the nearby lake.
     After Bud scans it to confirm its edibility, you enjoy your first fish
     on Volturnus.
 
        "Rudders check, Hydrogears working fine, we should sail right over
     that river," Raleigh announces as the Explorers stand in line at the
     river bank.
        "Okay, let's go. Everyone, hands inside the boat," Brenon says. The
     Explorer drives into the water and Raleigh engages the rudder system.
     Bobbing up and down, it steers nicely and within a minutes time, both
     vehicles are safely across the river. Time to move on.
 
        40 kilometers and an hour later, the Explorers emerge from the
     forest back into the Rocky Barrens. The travel here is much easier and
     good time is made for the next 50 kilometers. You finally reach
     another great expanse of the shard plains. Taking a short break,
     Brenon asks Raleigh if the Explorers can plow through the sharp grass.
        The techex nods assuringly - There should be no problem handling
     the glass-like shards. Mounting back up, The Explorers enter the
     plains and forge their own trail. Knowing a herd of Rollers could be
     nearby, Zhirrzh and Payne take position on the top of Explorers,
     magnigoggles in hand. A few kilometers in, Zhirrzh points out a Roller
     path. Hoping this will save time, the vehicles steer into the clearing
     and begin following it north west at good cruising speed.
        Ten kilometers later, Zhirrzh gives the signal to halt. A herd of
     Rollers had been spotted about 400 meters away. Not wanting to alert
     the creatures or cause a stampede against the explorers, the team
     heads back into the thick grass, moving around the herd and dropping
     back into the path half a clik later. While on this path, you
     encounter a small herd of creatures - anteater-like quadripeds who's
     only concern is eating the crushed shard grass left by the rollers.
     Pressing the team to stop and document this species, BudReep records
     these creatures as well.
 
     CREATURE REPORT COMING SOON
 
     Finally, after avoiding 3 additional Roller herd, both Explorers
     emerge from the shard plain. This was an immense area; you travelled
     some 90 kilometers in nothing but shard grass. Finally you emerge just
     after noon into a vast land of gently rolling hills.
        "Ahh, now THIS I can get used to," Payne states, climbing off the
     top of the Explorer and picking some of the sharp grass from him. The
     skeinsuit he and Zhirrzh wore definately guarded against most of the
     scrapes and cuts of the shard grass, but they each came down with
     several paper-cut scratches.
        Referring to the pirate map, you know the base is only 40
     kilometers away, so it was important to keep a tight lookout for the
     enemy. You proceed slowly, eventually parking and hiding the vehicles
     to move closer on foot for recon. At 2000 meters, the recon team
     settles in with magnigoggles and takes a look.
 
        There are two main areas before you. The Pirate Base is much bigger
     than the Outpost, spanning about 80 meters long and 60 yards wide. You
     count 10 seperate buildings, and a guard tower at each corner. The
     compound is surrounded by a similar gate, probably electified. Several
     large concrete squares signify a landing pads, all currently empty.
     You can make out a few personell moving about the grounds. A cargo
     truck comes up from the souteast, and you can follow the trail into
     the hills east of the base. The mining operation is probably here.
 
        The second area is about 600 meters north west of the base. This is
     a primitive village, with a 3 sided pyramid about 10 meters tall at
     its center. The homes appear to be stone huts built inside the base of
     the hills. While only a few feet high, it is obvious they burrow
     underground, otherwise their inhabitants would be extremely cramped.
     This is an agricultural village, as you see several of the natives in
     nearby fields, cultivating and farming a wheat-like crop. These can be
     no other than the peanut-shaped Edestekai. The village is quite large;
     you estimate close to a thousand inhabitants.
 
 
     OOC
 
     Well, here we are...
 
     You are 2000 meters away, the Explorers hidden another few hundred
     meters behind. You cannot tell how many people are at the base, but it
     is pretty busy. All of the towers are manned. There is probably
     activity going on at the mines, too, but from your view you cannot see
     the mines themselves. There are Edestekai within the base itself. Some
     are led by pirates, while others walk in groups unguarded.
 
     At the Edestekai village, you see no signs of pirates. It appears the
     Pirates moved in next door as the rowdy neighbors, next to the village
     which has been there quite a while.
 
     It is noon.

IC

Brenon lowers the magnigoggles and immediately beckons Zhirrzh and Raliegh to his side....
    Raleigh slides as quietly as he can across the hillside, doing his best to stay covert.
    "Zhirrzh...wearing your suit I want you to go into that Edestekai village and wear the polyvox. Gather as much language as you can. Scout out the village but always keep your distance. Keep strict radio silence unless you're in need of assistance." Brenon nods to Zhirrzh - they had to go back to the Explorers to retrieve the Poly-Vox..
    "Raliegh, which of the explorers is in the worst shape....? I've got some ideas about making the explorer a nasty trojan horse bomb thingie.....we'll work out the details in a bit, but I've got a good sum of TD-19 just beggin to be used...." For the first time in days a twisted little grin forms upon Brenon's face.
    "Well," Raleigh mutters as he strokes his chin in thought, "I figure the pirate explorer is probably beat up more than our and that probably works to our advantage. If they see their own Explorer rolling up, they may think the communication breakdown was a permanent one and not suspect an attack."
     Brenon continues, "I think we may need to get the Edestekai on our sides.....their numbers are much more than I anticipated, and if the records prove true from the outpost, they might just try to protect their 'God' friends if we move to assault. We'll have to show them that the pirates are exploiting them, and the only way to do that is to understand them and their language......." Both Raleigh and Brenon look up at the same time to see Zhirrzh 100 meters off and then suddenly shimmer into a nothingness as he turns his suit on.....
    Brenon tried to keep up with Zhirrzh via goggles but the task was too difficult. Instead he turns his attention to the compound, mapping it in his mind.
    A few moments later he invites Payne to join him in 'interrogating' the prisoner they'd toted along for this journey.
    Brenon will question the pirate about the compound. Looking for any information about defenses, etc....
    For this part, Raleigh will inspect the pirate explorer and see if he can rig a remote guidance device of some sort.
    Upon hearing the invitation to join Brennon in the interrogation,
Payne cracks his knuckles as a sadistic grin comes to his face.  Payne
turns to Brennon and says " This is going to be fun. I am sure our frien
can provide us wit all the intel we will need for this operation, if not
I will be more than happy to get to want to tell us."  Payne is all too
eager to play bad cop to Brennon's good cop.
    Brenon has an after thought and decides to ammend Zhirrzh's orders,
"Ammend Orders. Zulu, This is Bravo, plant the package, making sure package
is silent. Then proceed to scout surrounding area...."
Zhirrzh Translates To:
"Zhirrzh, change in orders. This is Brenon, plant the polyvox in the village
and make sure the volume is either turned low or off, they proceed to scout
the area."

    Brenon's orders to the rest of the crew: "Ok people. We may hide out here a couple of days. Depends on what
we can gather from the PolyVox. Zhirrzh is going to plant the polyvox in the Edestekai Village and scout out the area. In the mean time we need to secure our position by camoflage.... I have some ideas about fortifying one of the
explorers for an assault, but would like your ideas in reguards to it....."
    Raleigh listened to Brennon's orders, smiling as he could almost picture what Brennon had in mind. When it was time for feedback, he chimed in.
    "I like what youre thinking here buddy, we deck out the explorer and roll that bad boy through the front gate. Maybe put a half dead pirate at the helm? Anyway, while the explorer causes all the comotion, Zhirzzh and Telgar and maybe one more go in the back door and hit em in the rear. They turn to fight that threat and the rest of us roll up in the other explorer and get em in a cross fire. Am I close here?"
    Payne turns to Brennon and speaks. "Since we will be here for a few
days, maybe we should run some regular patrols around the area, just to
see what else we can find, and also to keep ourselves aware of any
pirate movement, especially any movement that would bring them right
into our camp."
    "I like that idea Payne," Raleigh replies, "That way we can get multiple views of the compound." Maybe you can take Bud with you, do a trek around the facility with a holocam and take photos while Bud takes more readings. What do you say Brennon?"
    Zhirrzh grabs the spare polyvox from the Explorer, giving it a once over to verify it was in working order. Satisfied, Zhirrzh makes his way toward the Edestekai village. Reaching a safe distance from the edge of the village, he lays low, concealing himself in the nearby landscape.
    Replacing his sungoggles with a pair of magnigoggles, Zhirrzh watches the village, looking for areas where many Edestekai gather to talk. Slowly, he moves around the edge of the village, occasionally stopping and looking for a likely place. Zhirrzh sighs, as his job is made all the harder in that he not only has to find a well used area, but the area must also offer a way of concealing the polyvox.
    As the day wears on, Zhirrzh continues his search, gathering other interesting information and reporting back to the team at regular intervals.
     If others ask what we're doing with the prisoner we're going to try to extract information from him. Brenon will instruct the others at the camp to help in camoflauging our position and to be alert for any pirate activity. Payne and Brenon will request privacy in dealing with the prisoner and ask that no interruptions other than to inform us of danger. Brenon will ask Raliegh to keep the others in order while he an Payne 'talk' to the prisoner ;-)
     "Raliegh, you mind watching over the others while Payne and I try to extract some information from the prisoner? See to it they keep their eyes open for possible signs of trouble. Also, if you would......<whispering tones> keep Bud away from the explorer we're in with the prisoner. Looks like he has a squimish stomach and there won't be pretty noises coming from it...."
 
 
 

Brenon pulls Payne aside and discusses the tactics they'll use in questioning the prisoner....
    "Basically, you'll play the role of the one just itching to cut the bastard's fingers off. I'll play the cool
    collective, 'Im really on your side' guy..... Just remember, don't hesitate to lop off one of his digits if he
    isn't quick with his answers or doesn't comply or if I give you the "look",
    but you gotta be quick about it.Don't show any sign of hesitation..... And it usually takes a finger or two
    to set in with these guys so....."
 
    Brenon and Payne pull the prisoner into the 'acquired' explorer and clear some room. Brenon asks the
    prisoner, "Are you right or left handed? I'd answer truthfully if I were in your shoes because right now
    it's in your best interest."
 
    Brenon will wait a few seconds for the prisoner's answer. (I'm imagining this interview will go in similar style to that of The             Matrix)
 
    Results:
    If no answer is given Brenon will pick leave it to Payne's descretion to figure out which hand is his main hand.
    <INSERT Payne's Actions Here>
 
    If the prisoner complies and provides an answer, Brenon will pick the opposite hand the prisoner spoke of... i.e. if the prisoner         picked left, Brenon pick the right hand.
    "Well, good, we want to leave you the use of your left hand in case you need it in the future. So we'll start on your right hand."
    <INSERT Payne's Actions Here>
 
    IC:
    After Payne did <X>, Brenon will explain the rules of the game to the prisoner.
    "Well,here's your deal. If you comply, if you answer my question swiftfully and truthfullly. You'll get out unmarred. My friend         here, Payne; a name that suitably fits his profession i might add. Well, basically Payne is going to lop off a finger each time         you don't  play by the rules. Now, we're gonna start with your <X> hand because you told us that the other hand is your main         hand. I'm going to give you the opportunity now to change your choice just in case there was a....'misunderstanding'.....
 
    IC:
    The Questions:
    (if anyone has any questions for the prisoner, please route them to the listbot too, we'll just assume you asked me to ask it         before hand. that is if that's ok with Jeff.)
 
    "What is your name?"
    "Mr. <NAME>, do you want to live?"
    "Mr. <NAME>,How many pirates occupy Slave City?"
    "How many would you say are security personnel?"
    "Do you have any kids?"
    "Mr. <NAME>,Are you aware of any bots on patrol there, or serve any other function"
    "Do you have a wife?"
    "Mr. <NAME>,Where is the power room located?" Brenon will hold up the "Where-the-hell-is-the-MAP" for the prisoner.
    "Mr. <NAME>,Are the towers that surround the complex always occupied?"
    "What's your favorite drink?"
    "Tell us where all the entrances are to the compound" Brenon will hold up the "Where-the-hell-is-the-MAP" for the prisoner.
    "Mr. <NAME>,What can you tell us about the Edestekai?"
    "Are they helping the pirates?"
    "How old are you?"
    "Does SlaveCity have a jetcopter?"
    "Mr. <NAME>,What is the relationship of the pirates to the Edestekai?"
    "How many pirates occupy Slave City?"
    "Where are the living quarters located?" Brenon will hold up the "Where-the-hell-is-the-MAP" for the prisoner.
    "Mr. <NAME>,Do you have any family here?"
    "How long have you been on Volturnus?"
 
OOC:
    Scenes deleted from "The Volturnus Connection"
 
The Interrogation -
 
Pirate: "I know my stinkin rights you bastards!! You can't scare me with this Gestapo crap!!! I want my phone call!"
Brenon "Tell me, Mr. <NAME>, what good is a phone call if you can't...speak" <smug little grin>
Payne approaches prisoner with tongs and knife in hand.....

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