Farrel: Ladies' Day Out

[Jack Rothwell]

"Jade! hurry up!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" The blacksmith dunked a long, thin pair of tweezers into the exposed staff as the golem took another swipe at the women who were covering her 'operation'. She let out a yelp as some of the latent energy from the staff discharged itself up the metal and into her fingers. She kept her grip, however, and twisted the loose crystal back into it's rightful place with only a second of struggling. The grin resurfaced as the freshly repaired network illuminated her face.

"Done!" She yelled triumphantly, wheeling the weapon towards the golem bearing down on the women like doom on mechanical legs. She narrowed her eyes and prepared to pull the trigger...

It was Jasmine who cannoned into the red-haired merc and sent her crashing to the ground. The shot from her staff flying straight up into the sky. Jade opened her mouth to ask why Jaime's mother had knocked her off target when the answer presented itself a fraction of a second after. A bolt of lightning so thick a weightlifter would've struggled to wrap his arm around it flew through the area she'd been standing an instant before. Instead of turning Jade into a human barbarque it crashed into the visor of the tooled-up blue golem, which made an agonised noise and fell backwards, smoke erupting from the blackened mess which now passed for its face.

Jade looked over Jasmine's shoulder and saw another yukki staff weilding member of the tsuirakuan's security standing there with a look best described as 'mental facepalm'. Her mouth hung open, her arm was still outstretched as if prepared to continued the act of friendly fire she'd just commited.

"Thanks a million." The blacksmith said, and shot her.

[Sareth]

[OOC]To be honest, I'm not quite certain what to respond to here. I have several theories about the airship, but don't know which is true.[/OOC]

[Graybeard]

[OOC:

[OOC]To be honest, I'm not quite certain what to respond to here. I have several theories about the airship, but don't know which is true.[/OOC]

Well, just pick one and go with it. The insignia on the side were left undescribed for a reason! Just a little help on the way: /OOC]

Faye heard the airship's approach, too, despite the chaos. She risked a quick look upward.

"I know those markings..."

[Sareth]

Jamie grinned at Nera, bundled as she was. "Kiddo, we have so hit the jackpot." She patted one of the numerous items she was burdened by. "Check these out! Farrelite fire-arms enhanced with magi-tech reinforcement and sights, Tsuirakuan micro-machettes with magically sharpened blades, and these puppies!" She patted a bag that was clanking. "I don't know who these people are stockpiling this stuff, but they have got to have an amazing bankroll!"

Just then a small group of guards rolled out of an alley. They looked about wildly. "Hey! There he is!" one called.

"He?" Jamie looked cross and reached into the clanking bag. She pulled out a cylindrical object and drug a fuze across her thigh. "See? Self striking fuzes!" She hurled the sputtering device into the midst of the group.

"GRENADE!" The group scattered, though most were still too close when the device detonated, and those few who had escaped the immediate blast were still caught with shrapnel, going down clutching at wounds.

"I love this place!"

Just then she heard a droning sound behind her. She spun, looking up. "Oh... fuck. Are they STILL following me?" She flipped a bird at the Eisenfaust airship, and began making a beeline for the edge of camp... headed directly towards the watching trolls she hadn't yet caught a sight of.

****

"Well, that makes one of us!" Jasmine responded to Faye. "So... good guys or bad guys? And more importantly, where the hell is my daughter?" She snapped a shot off towards a head, missing but forcing the mercenary to duck back around the corner.

[Jack Rothwell]

"So... good guys or bad guys? And more importantly, where the hell is my daughter?"

Jade, now that the immediate threat of the blue golem was dealt with, had had her attention inexorably drawn to the airship circling overhead. She gulped and responded to Faye's question, mentally visualising a bombing run.

"Do we want to stay here and find out? Oh yeah, I think I saw Jaime go thataway." She said, pointed towards a likely looking building. "Just follow the explosions, right?"

They re-organised themselves, snapping off a few shots to keep the nearby dregs of security at bay. Jade took a moment to strap the freshly repaired yukki staff to her back and then jogged over to the smoking remains of the war machine. She drew her knife, dropped to the thing's side and began jiggling it under the clasps which held one of its industrial looking blades in place. A few moments later she'd freed the weapon from its owner and was beginning to feel like a squirrel hoarding nuts for the coming winter.

"Should've brought a backpack." She muttered. "Alright, let's go."


OOC My vote- bring the peoples together./OOC

[Graybeard]

"We've found them," the message crackled across Elke's crystal ball -- the regular Eisenfaust one, not the "special" one. "Now what?"

Elke permitted herself a large-economy-size sigh of relief. "Bring Jamie back to Rinkaiel, of course," she told the airship captain. "As for the others, whatever, but do NOT put yourselves, or Jamie, in jeopardy just for the sake of picking them up. Clear?"

"Roger, out," the captain acknowledged, and broke the connection.

[OOC: Possible changes coming here, derived from the recently-revealed fact that Farrel has a much longer track record of airship use than we'd been assuming. Hmmmm ... anyone for an airship battle some time soon? ]

[Jack Rothwell]

[OOC Don't really have much to do with Jade atm. An airship battle you say? Is there more than one floating around?. Btw, do we know where we're going with the story atm or are we still winging it?/OOC]

[Graybeard]

OOC:

[OOC Don't really have much to do with Jade atm. An airship battle you say? Is there more than one floating around?. Btw, do we know where we're going with the story atm or are we still winging it?/OOC]

There are two: the one that was hanging around at the beginning of this thread, which had been keeping an aerial eye on proceedings and which Grope believes responsible for the dead trolls, and the Eisenfaust one that just showed up. In fact, I'm not quite sure where the first one went; it's been curiously missing from the action for a while. So if you want an airship battle, make one. As for where we're going, as always, invent something ...

Faye is kinda stalled here until Jamie and Jasmine do something, and I'd rather not NPC the Eisenfaust airship until there's a response to the last conversational gambit, so I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop. So drop, already!

[Graybeard]

The airship wheeled with remarkable agility for a lighter-than-air craft, and turned onto a course to intercept Jamie. At the same time, an object began to lower on a tether from its underside ... an object redolent of magic.

-------------

"I'm starting to get nervous about this, my uncle," Scrobian ventured again, concern beginning to appear on his trollish face.

Grope rumbled another chuckle. "Not to worry. As long as that thing is focusing on them, and vice versa, none of them are focusing on us." He did, however, take the liberty of crouching behind a large rock as he watched what would happen next.

------------

Just what have we got into here? Faye wondered. She'd realized long ago that this wasn't just a matter of tracking down a renegade girl any more. Peter needs to hear about this site... but first we have to get out of it alive. On the other hand, the appearance of that airship suggested that somebody else was taking an interest in bagging Jamie too, and she knew who it was. An idea started to take shape ... If we let the Eisenfaust gather her up, then we can hit them, and we'll still have done what Peter wanted ... and scored one against those bastards in the process. (Her reasoning was slightly off, of course, but she had no way to know that.)

The pandemonium had died down enough for her shout to be heard. "Jade! Jasmine! See if you can set up covering fire to get Jamie to where that gasbag can come get her! And then, beat feet to where we came in, and let's get the hell out of here..."

[Sareth]

"Do what?" Jasmine responded. "You *want* that thing coming after my daughter?" She paused a second. "You know who it is, and trust them with her."

At Faye's nod, Jasmine smiled grimly. "Alright, I suppose given all that's going on I pretty much have to trust you." The woman ducked behind a corner and then began firing around it. "So, just say when, and we can get the hell out of here."

****

Jamie, meanwhile, was running for all she was worth to get away from the airship. Of course, being on foot, climbing a hill, carrying Nera, and being burdened by far more esoteric weapons than many mercenary companies, this was a race of the absurd. In less than a minute the airship was on her. The crazed assassin cursed as several sticky strands of something shot out, annealing to her in places that might have gotten people in trouble if she had been wearing even slightly less, and hauled her up into the belly of the beast. With that the airship turned and began heading back the way it came.

****

"And that's that!" Jasmine called. "Let's get out of here!" She whipped around to head back the direction they had come, only to curse. While covering Jamie's capture, the forces attempting to capture the three ladies had managed to get their collective shit together. A fairly substantial group had gotten around behind them and blocked the way.

"We're cut off!" She looked around, trying to find a new way out. The only one she could find was the very direction she'd just been keeping open for Jamie. "That way!" she called, darting towards the slope from which the trolls were watching the show.