IC: The Sun Never Sets, IC thread for The Sun Never Sets Options

[pbangarth]

The magician rolls on the ground in pain, yet his roll is towards some logs that will hide him from sight. Stogie levels the red dot on what he can see of the man, and squeezes off two shots.

One is all I need, Bessie. All Stogie's shotguns are called Bessie. A man on a farm, alone with nothing but the dogs and sheep... cut him some slack.

[Tecumseh]

Bessie keeps her end of the bargain. Stogie fires again at the downed man, striking him in the neck. If it's not a fatal blow it soon will be. To remove all doubt, Stogie fires a third time. A third hit and this time there can be no doubt that this man is dead dead dead. His blood mingles with the dirt of the forest floor while his eyes stare lifelessly into the moss and ferns. Somewhere, his summoned spirit breaks free and returns home to its metaplane.

[pbangarth]

Stogie lowers the shotgun and takes a deep breath. Memories flood his mind: burning barns, slaughtered sheep. How many thugs like this will it take? he asks himself. When will it be enough to make up for farm and livestock, and Molly and Mungo, Heidie and Jimbo?

The answer that lurks at the back of his mind frightens him.

He walks on stiff legs to the dead man and opens his mind to the astral... to be sure of the death, and to see what auras might still be there. The sound of gunfire back at the water drifts in his consciousness. I've taken out at least two. But I should get back....

[Tecumseh]

The world gets chaotic in front of Ellesar. The man he shot rolls around in agony. Suddenly, a spirit materializes in front of him. Ellesar watches with feelings of dread mixing with professional interest. Is this the Ork Sister's spirit, come to tear the man apart? So much for Ellesar's attempt to disable the man. But, no, that's not what is happening. If anything, this spirit looks concerned about the man. It shields him with its body, blocking any easy shots from Ellesar's angle. The man Ellesar shot seems comforted by the spirit's presence; he gets a grip on himself. He glances down at his leg with clenched teeth to assess the damage and then... POOF! Disappears! Ellesar can still see the spirit but not the man. Is this the spirit's doing or did the man do it to himself? Before Ellesar can dwell on matters for too long, another spirit appears! This time it's a cackling little imp of a fire spirit. Ellesar recognizes this one as clearly the Sisters' work. Such a spirit appeared one night to help cook dinner. This time it has a mind to cook something else. It gabbles at the spirit protecting the downed man, which growls in return.

Another spirit lurches to life out of the waters of the river. It has a squat, dull look that's also reminiscent of a spirit observed at the Sisters' camp. It sweeps toward Gunny and the two other men in the middle of the river. To Ellesar's left, he hears a large figure bashing through the forest in his general direction. Without closer observation it's uncertain whether the figure is closing in on Ellesar's position or on the man that Ellesar shot. Similar, Stogie detects movement to his right. The man who was watching the perimeter seems to be headed toward the sound of the shotgun blasts. Whether this is brave or stupid will only be apparent in hindsight. That said, it's clear that these are no two-bit hoodlums; these are men who rush toward the sound of danger.

[Tecumseh]

The fire spirit steps forward and unleashes a hose of flames with devilish glee. The other spirit - a beast spirit in the form of a wolf - tries to evade but it gets caught by the blast. Or was the beast spirit intentionally trying to position itself in front of the flames to protect its master? The wolf yelps as the flames roast it fiercely. The fire spirit advances, its energy aura radiating heat in a fiery halo around it. The forest - dry from the Indian summer, the forest floor covered in loose needles and dry tinder from the wind storm - starts to burn around it...

[pbangarth]

Stogie snaps out of his haze and starts at the sound of someone coming through the bush.

Jake, Stay down.

Stogie backs away from the dead magician, perpendicularly to the approach vector of the unknown person. Some bushes still with leaves, a tree fallen partway over to rest his firearm, and a clear line of sight to the fallen man ... the ambush is set.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar starts briefly from the eruption of the forest ahead of him before regaining his composure. He considers the unknown target approaching from his flank and decides to adjust his position around the tree. He steps around it to the right, exposing himself to a greater degree from the front but allowing potentially life saving cover to his left.

Reloading, he takes his time to remain as hidden as possible. The next shot could wait if it meant staying unseen.

[Tecumseh]

In front of Ellesar, a battle rages between the Sister's fire spirit and the other man's beast spirit. They snap back and forth at each other, the fire spirit getting the better of the exchanges. The beast spirit strikes back but the nimble fire spirit slips it easily. The flames along the dry forest floor begin to spread as the two spirits slide back and forth, jockeying for position. Smoke begins to rise, the wind from the valley taking it uphill toward Ellesar. It's light smoke for now but may obscure his vision if the fire spreads.

The man approaching from Ellesar's left (whom he is now facing, in cover) is no lightweight. His heavy footsteps and his bashing through the bushes suggest that he is very large, either a sizable ork or even a troll. His approaching steps suggest that he is ignoring the battle between the spirits for now. He seems to be headed straight for Ellesar's position. Between the smoke and the heavy cover from the trees and branches, plus whatever camouflage the man is wearing, Ellesar can just barely make out the man's outline maybe 50 meters away.

In the river, the water spirit splashes down into the water before swirling around Gunny's lieutenant and then engulfing him! The man struggles, splashing as the spirit tries to drag him into the water and press the air out of him. Gunny stomps over to his lieutenant's position, irritated by the whole proceeding, and promptly throws his fist in the spirit's face a few times. Doesn't Gunny know that mundanes can't hurt spirits? The spirit, unable to dodge properly due to the engulfing in progress, tries to soak the blow and promptly finds its face smashed in. It's the most successful assault against a body of water since Xerxes flogged the Hellespont during his invasion of Greece in 480 B.C. Gunny's lieutenant breaks the surface of the water with a violent gasp as he pants for gulps of the mountain air.

At Stogie's position, an ambush is being set. Stogie looks around quickly and finds an excellent vantage point. There is a beautiful Western hemlock growing out of coarse woody debris from a nurse log. The trunk splits about 1.5 meters off the ground, dividing neatly into a Y before the two trunks continue in their separate directions. Stogie has a magnificent position behind the trunk with a firing lane through the nook of the Y. It should provide protection for his chest and lower body and unobstructed sight lines ahead of him. He then does much the same as Ellesar, watching and waiting for his target to present a clear shot.

Until this point, Jake has been keeping his head down in cover as he has been instructed to do all these years. He knows what Stogie is planning, and knows the value of secrecy in an ambush, but breaks the silence with barking! Loud barking! Stogie, danger! Stogie!! Jake smells something that should be there and all of a sudden Stogie's magnificent vantage point is starting to feel very exposed from the rear. The hair on Stogie's neck begins to rise...

[pbangarth]

Shit!

Stogie curses his stupidity. He lifts the shotgun barrel and rolls around the tree, ending up facing the other direction, hoping he interpreted Jake's warning correctly.

A memory of that time the cougar almost got him flits through his mind. One of these times I'm gonna pay dearly.

[Tecumseh]

Stogie whips around, bringing his concentration to bear on the forest behind him. The first glance shows nothing amiss. Things are moving, sure, but that's natural in a forest where the winds blow up and down the river valley. Branches sway and bushes bounce up and down all the time.

But Jake's barking is specific, and the overwhelming sense of danger encourages Stogie to concentrate hard for just one extra second. Then he sees it: the forest is coming alive and moving toward him. His heart lurches as his brain immediately presents multiple possibilities, the way brains do in emergency situations. It could be:

- a nature spirit summoned by Gunny's men come to ambush him from behind;
- Toothy under some sort of concealment; or,
- or a man in a chameleon suit stalking up on him with a giant gun.

Stogie's instincts - and the laws of probability - tell him the third option is the most likely. He can make out the outline of a form but it's still difficult to discern the overall size or shape. He has a direction to fire at least, but picking out the center of mass will largely come down to luck. Switching to astral vision might present the target more clearly, but it always takes an extra second to switch and process what you're seeing, plus shooting while astrally perceiving is like operating your body via remote control. Your head is still connected to your body but your mind is elsewhere. It's disorienting enough for Stogie; how bad must it be for a projecting magician like Smohalla? Stogie hopes Smohalla is alright, but the next three seconds will go a long way to determining how alright Stogie is himself or whether he'll be joining Smohalla on that astral plane in the sky.

[Tecumseh]

Stogie's powers of perception are beyond those of mortal man. Time slows down for his eyes and ears, giving him time to take in everything about the scene. The ripples of the disturbed air created by the man's suit, the glint of a camouflaged spur extending out of his arm, the vague outline of an SMG in his hand.

The man is sneaky, you have to give him credit. Stogie is one of the most perceptive men alive but this guy still managed to get a drop on him. Still, no matter how quiet or invisible you are, suppressing your scent isn't necessary for most covert ops. Thank God for Jake, right?

The only catch is that Stogie's muscles aren't as fast as his senses. He swings his shotgun around but not before he's met with the chick-chick-chick of suppressed burst fire spitting in his direction. The fire is wild and swings in a wide arc. By all indications the man was intending to use his spur after sneaking in close enough to do some throat-slashing. Having a target spin to face him is not what he expected, and he responds with unfocused, untargeted bursts.

Still, the distance is too close to easily miss, even if the gun is waving around in a figure eight. Stogie feels two of the rounds slam into the armored plates covering his ribs and chest. Stogie's hyper-alert perception parses the sensation before his body even has time to register the pain, or assess any damage. The first shot feels like a bowling ball dropped from a height of three meters; the second shot feels like being on the wrong side of a sledgehammer. The armor stops the rounds, spreading their kinetic energy over a larger area, but this is still going to hurt like the dickens in the morning, should Stogie survive that long.

[pbangarth]

Years of 14 hour days hustling bales of hay and a thousand other jobs around a farm hardened Stogie to pain and fatigue. The shots hurt like hell, but he stands his ground. Payback is due. He aims the Enfield and lets go two shots, a touch shakier than normal, but at this range he would have to be epileptic not to have a decent shot.

Jake! Away from me, boy! Down low. Keep the dog that just saved his life moving under cover through the bush, and maybe get some small distraction into the assailant's mind. Jake circles right, moving in a crouch rather than up at his full height. It's not like he's running through the bush, it's like he's flowing through it.

[Tecumseh]

Jake pushes through the low-lying ferns and brambles, hugging the ground as he scoots along the perimeter.

Stogie winces as the low-caliber SMG rounds flatten themselves against his armor. He brings his Enfield around and fires two slugs at the source of the SMG fire.

Maybe it's the chameleon suit making it hard to find the center of the target but Stogie sees his two rounds cut through the branches and foliage directly across from him with no indication that they hit anything of substance. His eyes spin wildly as he tries to reacquire his target, who is almost certainly doing the same to him.

[pbangarth]

Jake waited for further instructions from Stogie as he circled the Other. "Away from me" means come around behind and drive the sheep to Stogie, but this is no sheep.

The Kill Sticks solve the dilemma for Jake. No time for circling and driving. The Other is not to be herded. It is a danger to the flock. It must be killed. Jake builds his body the way Stogie taught him. He gathers his legs beneath him for a strike.

He calls back to Stogie, Kill Stick high. Jake low.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar eyes the target as it moves ever closer. He had hoped that the trees would remain their safe haven, but the feeling of a trap had always been there. Gunny was rash and headstrong but he had plenty of resources and a plan; a dangerous combination in even the most untrained hands. With most of his body still protected by the tree Ellesar felt safe, but that would make shooting much more difficult.

He reaches up and flips his goggles into infrared, hoping for an easier shot on this hidden menace. Pulling the gun up to his face he slowly moves further into view of his target, using the tree as a shield for the left half of his body. He aims low in order to avoid any fatal wounds and pulls the trigger.

[Tecumseh]

Ellesar has a tricky shot on his hands. The subject is large, certainly, but is climbing uphill with long strides. Aiming for the leg or knee - much smaller than the torso, certainly - is made that much harder by the downward angle of the hillside slope.

Ellesar flips over to thermographic vision, hoping the body heat of the subject will stand out against the cool forest. While targeting he notices some heavy flaps covering the target's knees intermittently as he walks. Nuts, it looks like he's wearing a lined coat. While not as armored as an armor jacket or a camouflage suit, its protection does extend the length of the legs, although the leading leg does emerge from it's protection on each uphill step... Still, this just got harder.

The red dot sight gives Ellesar an edge. He hovers it over the leg, leads the target just a little bit, then squeezes the trigger. It's a hit! A large burst appears on the lined coat just where Ellesar hoped to strike. But the target doesn't even break stride... in fact, he changes directions accordingly and now appears to be running directly at Ellesar's position!

The man bursts through the trees and the branches and Ellesar can now clearly see that he has shot a troll, to little effect other than to anger it. The troll is maybe 50 meters away but his long legs are now running. The uphill will slow him down somewhat but he looks very athletic. Ellesar only has five or six seconds before Bozo here is on top of him, or decides to introduce him (up close and personal) to the Mossberg AM CMDT that he's carrying.

[Tecumseh]

The troll charges up the hill at Ellesar, firing as he advances. It's suppressive fire: a blast from his shotgun on wide spread that's intended more as a friendly "Oh hello! I see you there, friend! Perhaps you should duck!" than a killing blow. No doubt the troll is hoping that Ellesar will retreat behind the tree and wet himself while the troll closes the distance.

The shot is excellent, and at this distance the buckshot spreads out into a nasty cloud that's hard to avoid. Ellesar has the tree to protect him plus some top-of-the-line armor, but he'd still prefer to avoid taking a stray pellet in the eyeball or somewhere tender. Even a minor cut could put blood in his eyes, which would not improve the survivability of the situation.

The troll lopes forward with a primal yell, largely lost among the surrounding gunshots and fighting.

[pbangarth]

Stogie's mind calls back to Jake's. No kill. Take arm with kill stick. Like we train.

A rush of images fill Stogie's mind. Dogs of all kinds practicing taking the weapon arm of an assailant.

[pbangarth]

Jake bunches his hind legs under him. He leaps from the bushes, springing his body: coil, release, coil, release. Like a missile he rushes the camouflaged man. With the last release he launches himself toward the arm with the kill stick.

The man sees him at the last moment, but barely begins to dodge as 50 pounds of snarling fury hit his arm, sharp teeth locking into the meager armour the man wears. Jakes weight pulls the arm off target of Stogie and the momentum pulls the man over, dropping him to the ground.

Jake hangs on, tugging, twisting and snarling, his teeth digging tightly into the arm.

A flush of emotion floods Stogie. Atta boy, Jake.

Stogie adjusts his shotgun to aim at the downed man.

[Tecumseh]

The shimmering image of the man looks like a human outline of crystal clear water. As Stogie watches it looks for all the world like Jake just tackles the forest itself and drags it to the ground. Jake grabs the man's right arm and yanks back and forth viciously, pulling the SMG completely off target.

Jake has the gun arm so luckily he's safe from being shot. However he is vulnerable to whatever the man has in his other hand, which happens to be a shock glove. Stogie can't get a good bead on the man due to Jake being in the way. He's forced to watch as the left hand comes up and slaps Jake in the ribs. Jake lets out an involuntary yelp as his muscles convulse, ironically locking him onto the man's arm even harder. Stogie's mind burns with a hot sensation that feels like Jake's bones are melting and vibrating violently. The man himself gasps as the electrical current completes its circuit and travels back into his own body. His back arches as the shock rips through him before grounding into the forest turf. Jake collapses to the side, twitching, leaving the man open for Stogie's furious retaliation.

[pbangarth]

Stogie's mind clouds with memories of other dogs, other gunners. He advances slowly on the prone man, levels his shotgun and let's off two quick shots at the man who hurt Jake. His state of mind sends the first shot wild, but the second is right on the money, punching a hole into the man's shoulder through the armour.

The kick of the gun clears Stogie's mind a little. Enough to allow the man he once was to speak. "Give up or die."

[Tecumseh]

Give the man credit: he's a professional, with a professional's desire to go home at the end of the day. His surrender is largely a formality. Jake's muscles are locked up which means that this guy's forearm is still in the vice-grip of Jake's jaws. There's no way he's going to be able to swing his SMG into line with a border collie hanging off his arm, and it's likely that even flinching in that direction is going to earn him another open wound like the one that Stogie just ripped out of his left shoulder. He's put in his time today so he calls it quits. He right hand relaxes, sending the SMG to the ground. His left hand is tucked against his left shoulder, trying to apply pressure to the bleeding. The blood seeps between his fingers and starts to color in his transparent outline.

[pbangarth]

Stogie keeps his gun aimed at the prone man. "Once my dog stops twitching and let's go of your arm, I'd appreciate it if you could shift over away from your weapon... And my dog. The rest of my team is a damn sight worse than me, so I'm happy just dealing with you for now.

"That wound looks nasty. If I could trust you to not try anything more with me today, I could patch that up enough for you to be alright till you get proper attention. While I'm doing that, I'd like to ask you a few questions. We work things out in a satisfactory fashion, and I'll vouch for you once my buddies finish up by the river.

"Can I count on you not trying anything more?"

[Tecumseh]

The man nods furiously a few times. He breathes heavily, sucking in the cold November air as he continues to bleed.

Jake's jaw finally comes unclamped. The man pushes his SMG away and brings his right hand up. He indicates a bulging pouch on his thigh. "May I?" he croaks. He either doesn't remember that his chameleon suit is active or he's being coy. He seems to think of this after a moment. "... it's a medkit," he rasps.

Stogie's vision is good but it's not good enough to say whether the bulge - which is very vague due to the chameleon suit - really is a medkit or another weapon. Stogie can hear the man's heart racing - or is that his own heart? - but perhaps that's natural, given the adrenaline that a body releases when it suffers significant damage.

[AtroposReborn]

The buckshot tears into the nearby trees with a deafening sound. Ellesar's catlike reflexes allow him to dodge this volley with ease, but he can't allow the troll to continue. His heart thuds in his chest as the familiar feeling of fight or flight attempts to take over. He grips his rifle lightly and prepares for a risky move.