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Post by raven on Aug 31, 2007 14:51:45 GMT -5
(((So sorry that I've been MIA for long periods of time.... luckily I've got a three day weekend coming up so I'll be online all day. I'll be back at around 4pm Pacific, since I have to make a long trek back to my house )))
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Post by ebonyviper on Aug 31, 2007 15:25:16 GMT -5
"Well, it wouldn't do us any harm if we go look," said Ricardo, "Who knows. Maybe we might find something interesting."
With that, the Stealth headed forward into the tunnel, his headlights piercing the darkness.
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Post by Evangeline on Aug 31, 2007 18:11:42 GMT -5
<<< Back! Thanks for your patience! May be a little slow today and tomorrow on account of various stuff. >>>
Kathleen noticed Delfina's eyes going over her wounds. "I've lived through worse."
Strip listened, along with Ebony, as Lightning finally let what was eating him off his hood. "That is pretty unusual for Doc. I could go in with you next time you talk to him, if you'd rather." He took a quick look at Ebony to see what she might have to say.
Irene and Julian made it back across and sought out the zone where the remnants of the NORAD staff and Peterson AFB personnel were now holed up, along with Sarge. It occurred to them that they could at least see how many reserves the attackers had, and get them from behind. It would then be possible to get them in a pincer movement, as the boogies hadn't anticipated a still-functional attack aircraft being anywhere. Irene licked her chops as her systems located several small groups of attacker vehicles, all cobbled together from whatever the brigands could snap up, and conveniently bunched together along a ravine - the fools! So many targets to choose from. Where to begin?
Doc began. "I grew up in Ornament Valley, not exactly in Radiator Springs itself, but close to it. I was a wild little bugger, the teachers at school would sigh with relief every afternoon when I went home..."
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Post by elizar on Aug 31, 2007 18:16:58 GMT -5
Daniel saw Irene's facial expression. It was perhaps much easier for humans to read of machine expressions than the other way.
"Take out any car that they frequently go to. That is most likely to have their ammo reserves." Daniel said, remember what his CO hammered in him during training.
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Post by ebonyviper on Aug 31, 2007 18:41:22 GMT -5
"I can believe that," said Delfina, sitting Indian style on the rock, "but doesn't it hurt sometimes? Being shot? Like it did me?"
~~~~~
"Thanks," Lightning said to Strip, "I appreciate that."
"Maybe you need to see it from Doc's point of view," said Ebony, "and try to figure out what his thoughts are concerning all of this, but still get both sides of the story."
"Oh?" the racer asked the Viper, "How do you know?"
"Well... I used to have this huge mistrust in those who used magic because of an incident that happened to me years ago and which I don't wish to go into," explained Ebony, "but then Phoenix let me go for a day as a mage and I learned that not all of them are as bad as I thought. So maybe the issues you're having with Doc aren't as bad as you think."
Lightning looked down, feeling a bit ashamed at the incident that had happened before he left the mountain. "I could try to talk to Doc..."
"It wouldn't hurt," nodded Ebony.
~~~~~
Ricardo led Phoenix, who carried the twins, down the newly-discovered corridor that neither knew where it would take them.
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Post by Evangeline on Aug 31, 2007 19:00:18 GMT -5
"Got that." Irene answered over the radio. Most of the vehicles that the enemy forces had appropriated were pickup trucks and SUV's with a sprinkling of lightly armored vehicles. It was almost laughable under normal circumstances, but they had obviously been hoping to overwhelm the position with numbers. Sarge was filling her in on what movements they were planning so they wouldn't risk taking each other out in a "friendly fire" situation. With the non-combatants out of the way, they were free to engage the invaders in a knife-to-the-hilt battle. A mix of USAF airmen, MP's and soldiers split up into three groups under the general's orders and prepared a flanking action directed at the enemy convoy. The best defense was a full-throated offense.
"We'll be right with you, so you're not gonna deal with this alone," Strip reassured the younger stocker. "Sometimes people go through some strange times and do surprising or even worrisome things, especially if you can't understand why, and, well... you still love them, they're family to you, and you deal with it and at some point, things become clearer and make more sense. My family's been through things like that too, on both sides. Like Ebony says, you have to wait for the other side of the story to come out."
"They didn't go very deep." Kathleen shrugged. "Our kind are built like flying tanks. They sting like big bug bites for a while, then the bullets work their way out and it heals over." She lowered a wing to show Delfina a scar that ran along three-quarters of its length and up past her wing root onto her body. "Now THAT one almost got me. MiG-17 did that, over Korea. Got him worse."
While Ricardo and Phoenix were out with the twins, Darcy was looking after the goats and ornamental fowl and learning as much about them as possible - reading every book she could get, learning from the livestock hands and the vet and closely observing the animals themselves, especially Sweetie and her kids. She read up on their care, feeding and health, asked a lot of questions and watched everything the caretakers did. She was bound and determined to become an expert on small livestock!
Ondine, in the meantime, continued to look into the whereabouts of Darcy's actual family. She was chasing down those leads from east Canada, and was emailing geneological societies and making phone calls.
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Post by elizar on Aug 31, 2007 19:13:43 GMT -5
What I would not give to be a flyboy right now. Daniel thought to himself as moving with this 'war buddy', who had been in one tour in Iraq where Daniel had never experienced real battle until a month ago. He glanced up at Irene, envious of her freedom.
Aron came up to Kathleen and Delfina. "I can take it out of you if it doesn't hurt." He said, fishing up small tongs from his backpack.
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Post by ebonyviper on Aug 31, 2007 19:27:18 GMT -5
"Ouch," Delfina grimaced upon seeing the scar on Kathleen's wing, "That still looks like it could hurt, nevermind what happened to that MiG."
Her hands were, somehow, tingling, but she didn't yet understand why. There was so much she didn't know about her own powers.
~~~~~
Lightning smiled a little bit, "Yeah, it feels as if Doc has been doing some pretty strange things lately and I don't understand it."
"Maybe with time," said Ebony, "You'll understand and make light of the situation."
~~~~~
Jade had decided to follow Ricardo and Phoenix on their exploring trip, wondering why the two cars were heading off into the caves with the twins.
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Post by Evangeline on Aug 31, 2007 19:53:36 GMT -5
Kathleen was just about to answer Aron when she noticed something else going on with Delfina and cocked her head. "Something else?"
"It must seem kinda confusing right now, but I don't think even Doc could really tell what was happening." Strip stretched out on the grass. "Chrysler, I never thought I'd miss something as simple as grass until I was in a place where it wouldn't be growing anytime soon."
Dawn and Misty saw Jade heading off somewhere and decided to follow along...
Seeing that Daniel and Irene seemed to be communicating well, the officers let him deal with her. Sarge had gone off to the rear of the enemy with a number of enlisted personnel, hoping to cut them off there. Julian had a ringside seat to the destruction of several large vehicles at various places in the enemy convoy, effectively immobilizing it. Irene had scented combustibles and accelerants from the direction of a stolen U-Haul truck and that one seemed to be attracting a knot of bandits right now. There it is... all in one convenient place. "Daniel, I think we found their ammo. I'm going for it."
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Post by ebonyviper on Aug 31, 2007 19:59:14 GMT -5
"My hands are tingling," Delfina said, looking at her hands, "and I don't know if it has to do with what's been happening to me lately or what."
~~~~~
"The humans are going to miss their world the most, you know," said Ebony, "now they have to make do and live in ours."
~~~~~
Jade followed the two cars, stopped to listen to them talk in the crystal chamber for a bit, and then continued following them down a passageway that nobody hasn't even seen before. What was down there, she didn't know, but she wanted to find out as well.
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Post by elizar on Aug 31, 2007 20:02:39 GMT -5
"Everyone, fall back. Our bird in the sky is going to rain brimstone on the parade." Daniel said through the secure channel. So far they knew that the bandits had not penetrated it. Blowing up ammo reserves and fuel always left a large explosion which was not pleasant to be in the middle of. "Wind is blowing north-north-west." Daniel said, recieving confirmations from others. "You are good to go Irene." He looked up.
Aron looked at Delfina. "It can be the lack of adrenaline now." But he was unsure of his own words, since he had very little understanding of magic.
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Post by Evangeline on Aug 31, 2007 20:25:48 GMT -5
Kathleen sniffed at Delfina's hands. "Don't think it's that..." Her eyes widened a little as she got a little spark from them.
"Honestly, that was hell. Hell to look at, hell to breathe, hell to go through." Strip sighed heavily. "But I don't regret doing it." He looked back at the camp, where the military wives and children were already making the best of things around a makeshift firepit. Some of the little ones were already jumping and skipping around like foals at their mothers' feet.
Irene came in out of the west, letting loose one of the missiles she'd retained. She hadn't been able to carry so many with the pods, which had forced her to economize her expenditures, but it had been enough. It hit the box of the U-Haul van, and blew it wide open. Its cargo ignited in a fatal bloom of red, orange and smoke.
One was enough. She'd already taken out the men with the rocket launchers, and from here on in, it would be up-close and personal between the ground-pounders and the remaining attackers.
Julian glanced back towards a vehicle close to the end of the convoy, a battered RV. "Wonder what's in there?"
"Didn't smell anything explosive." Irene answered. "But I think there may be people inside, from the smells. Women."
"Is there any point you could let me off?" Julian asked.
"On top of the rise. You'll have to slide down from there." Irene dipped towards the top of the hill on one side. Julian opened the pod and leaped from an eight-foot drop, bending his knees and rolling to absorb the impact of landing. He slid down the loose scree and ash of the hillside, on the more covered side of the RV, glanced inside... then suppressed an impulse to wretch.
"Looks like Julian found something in the convoy... or someone." Irene reported back to the men on the ground. "Old RV, red stripes, towards the back."
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Post by elizar on Aug 31, 2007 20:30:55 GMT -5
"On the way." Daniel said. He had three others with them and few others were providing them cover fire as there were still some standing.
"What do you got?" Daniel said when in shouting distance.
"Magical static electricity?" Aron asked curiously.
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Post by ebonyviper on Aug 31, 2007 20:33:09 GMT -5
Delfina blinked when she saw Kathleen's reaction. "What? What is it?"
~~~~~
"I can say that what I saw on the vids doesn't compare what I've seen with my own two eyes," said Ebony. She shuddered, "It's the worst way to die. I'm amazed that some of these humans were able to think ahead and survive such a catastrophe."
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Post by raven on Aug 31, 2007 20:36:41 GMT -5
Raine couldn't help but smile as she listened to Doc with full attention. "I'm sure you had fun torturing your teachers..."
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