And so the team had one seriously wounded member, Pita Tochristor, who had been shot twice. He was being operated on by LexiB, their Proximatics Industrial Android. The others were deciding what to do next. They had ambushed the ambushers and came out on top. Two of the intruders were shot, and while there were bears and ravenous carrion eating black birds round about, they managed them without too much trouble. Their Armored Ground Vehicle was fully operational, and the machine gun had no problem reducing the enemies to bloody meat sacks. And so they decided to head back to Route 40 on the east side of town to see if they could catch any others attempting to make a getaway. No such luck. No one was seen out that way. Meanwhile Linda and Fred were operating the micro-drones looking for heat signatures in the fog. Linda found one. A man. At this point Fred and "Guns" both began to collapse into a deep sleep from the poison that Jenkins Mutmaw had given them. They slept like babies.
They raced back along the side road off of Route 40 and positioned their vehicle to the north of the man. This was very likely the same person whom Pita had spotted lurking in the trees prior to being shot by the two intruders. They decided it was probably someone who was unrelated to the attackers, and so when they saw the remaining bear approaching the person they used the drones to give him an audio warning about it. The figure dashed through the trees and wound up finding a hole to flee into. They sent a few of the micro-drones down to take a look and found he'd fled down a flight of stairs. They sent the drones in pursuit using infrared tracking. The person ran down a long corridor some 200 feet, and as he did the drones surveilled him carefully. Linda managed to cobble together a picture of him in infrared. There was something strange about his hands. They appeared to be three fingered talons.
The man emerged from the far end of the corridor. He attempted to dash through the trees to get away but the drones had no problem pursuing him. Eventually he gave up and came out from behind a tree with his hands up. They lead him back to the AGV on the east side of the treeline where it had been parked on a dry mud flat. He talked with Samwise, who came out in his heavy body suit to parley with the old timer. As it turns out he was a war vet who had created his own talon hands (they were of remarkable craftsmanship). He offered Samwise a swig of his moonshine, carefully laying the groundwork of trust by appearing untrusting. He explained that he was a Naturalist who believed in the Great Power of Nature. To show this power he raised his talon in the air and shot out an arc of lightning into the sky. It began to rain. The black birds gathered on the trees behind him. The bear approached from the woods. The old timer asked Samwise a lot of questions about the East coast civilization, and pretended to be interested in joining the Federation. He wanted above all to get inside the AGV.
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| Iron Talon Hermit |
Samwise, wisely, began to see that this fellow as not necessarily friendly. He pulled out his Lewiston Ray Pistol, but the Iron Taloned Hermit feigned surprise and shock at this betrayal of their friendship, and insinuated that the iron chain he had removed from his waist was to handle the approaching bear. This was a lie. But Samwise wasn't sure. He couldn't tell what the man was up to. And so he backed away and then turned to run.
The rain had gotten heavy, and the flat filled up with six inches of water, and the mud became a serious impediment. Snakes in swarms came up out of holes in the ground and writhed in the water. The black iron chain came whipping out from behind him and the iron ring just barely missed him on the right. Then again on the left. Before the worst could happen Samwise called on Linda to mount the machine gun turret and for Pita to make his way to the Plasma Cannon controls, but there was no time for any of that. He dove to the right and skidded on his back through the mud with his gun aimed at the old man - except at this point the bear barred his line of sight. He shot the bear and the scintillating blue beam went straight through its chest. With a moan it fell face first into the mud and stopped moving. And then with speed, and great luck, Samwise took a second shot. This time he hit the old man in the forehead. The beam burned a hole straight through, and caught his hair and beard on fire. The black iron chain fell from his taloned hands. He went down with a look of extreme disappointment on his face. The ravenous flock of black birds were already devouring the bear's carcass. Samwise shooed them away from the hermit so he could inspect the old man's body and equipment. He took the long iron linked chain. He took the flask of moonshine. He took the two iron talon hands, which he had to saw off the old man's dead arms. And then he returned to the AGV. Alive and well and grateful for good luck. It stopped raining.
He had LexiB analyze the moonshine in the gourde and it turned out to be highly medicinal. He gave some to Pita, Fred and Guns. This helped them revive and so they decided to continue their journey eastward towards Flagstaff. When they got to a flat scrub desert area called Parks about 15 miles east of Williams, they took the opportunity to rest. It was around 10:30pm. Linda sent out a mission update via Ultra Low Frequency transmission to Federation Command. And all was well. They rested and in the morning the air was crisp and clear. They were ready for the next leg of the journey.
