Refugee

Lateness of hour keeps the jungle almost pitch black, the lights of the stars above glinting through the dense forest roof on occasion, but not really helping much past illuminating how dark it is down below. Dement is making an attempt to sleep without actually sleeping, the uproar of night time noises keeping him unfortunately alert. He's managed to fix his hammock across two tree branches, about 7 meters from the ground, cocooning his body with a silvery mosquito net. What light breaks through the leaves above merely manages a ghostly form in the trees, it would be pretty impossible to spot him without night eyes. To spot his equipment, however, you'd merely have to trip over a bulge in the ground. A quick, but not particularly impressive attempt to bury his backpack has been made, making it appear as if a giant mole was nearby. Care has been taken to cover his bag totally, but not the fold up spade that lies next to the mound. Hmm. Curious.

Hondon walks carefully through the forest, taking care not to trip on any tree roots. Not that he could see the tree roots, the ground, or even his own hand in this infernal darkness. Tightening his grip on his stun gun, he continues forward. The thought to wait until morning before heading back to the camp had occurred to him, but then the thought of being alone in the dark convinced him he'd rather take his chances. Continuing to inch forward, he fervently hoped he was heading towards the camp and not away from it.

Dement mutters something to himself, staring up at the twinkling stars. "You could be the only one and you'll never know." the words bounce around the surrounding jungle, "I hope they stick to air patrols."

Hondon rolls his Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Fair (0).

Hondon pauses, staring off in the darkness. He heard something. He is sure of it. He just can't see worth a damn. Taking another step forward, his foot unerringly lands on a nice dry branch on the jungle floor. The snap is like the report of Heidi's sniper rifle. He freezes, listening, his heart trying to burst out of his chest.

Dement rolls his Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Good (1).

Dement immediately stops talking, turning awkwardly in his hammock to look down at the jungle floor below. One hand reaches down to the holster on his belt and pops it open. He withdraws his gun slowly and as silent as he can make it. "Moo?" he calls out, sounding slightly like a strangled cow.

Hondon rolls his Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Fair (0).

Hondon makes out some movement ahead of him. Strangely, it seems to be above the jungle floor. He tries to recall all the flying fauna native to this area of New Luna. Nothing as big as what he just saw comes to mind. He jumps at the strange sound that comes from ahead of him, and points his stun gun wildly in that direction. "Whose there?!?" he whispers. "I'm warning you, I am an expert with this here pulse pistol!" he bluffs, his voice noticeably shaken. An ominous laughing calls out across the depths... Wait... Perhaps that's an ominous titter. "Phyrrians don't feel fear. Or remorse. Or mercy. They have no souls in their fabricated hearts. Hasten your discovery, for all I care, but boasts like that are pointless. Who are you?"

Hondon face turns somewhat red, not that you could see it in the dark. Now that he thought about it, trying to intimidate a machine did seem kind of pointless. Looking in the direction of the voice, he figured he would be dead by now if it had been a Phyrrian. Now, what was another person doing out here in the jungle, all by their lonesome? They were alone, weren't they? "Just a survivor. Are you alone? No friends of yours sneaking about in the woods, are there?" he calls, looking about. Damn this infernal darkness, he thought.

"Maybe." Dement pauses, narrowing his eyes to try and see the figure, "Maybe I'm a Phyrrian spy. Sent in here to flush out any survivors. Where are your friends?"

Hondon frowns. "Friends? Who says I have any friends?" He moves to the side, and leans out from behind a tree, his mind processing the information. "And I don't think your a Phyrrian spy. The Phyrrians want to kill all sentient biological organisms. I seriously doubt they would use one as a spy."

"You have friends." Dement muses at a guess, "Because I didn't hear you coming, which means you're not carrying anything bulky. You've probably got a camp somewhere."

Hondon thinks to himself, 'hmmm. This guy is a little crafty.' He grins. Time for some fun, at last. "You have a point there. However, I could also just be ill prepared, or couldn't grab anything when the Phyrrians attacked." Lets see what he says to that, Hondon thinks to himself.

"What, so you were so ill prepared you decided to grab a gun you couldn't use?" Dement mutters, a slightly indignant tone to his voice.

Hondon frowns at the darkness. "Who says I can't use this gun? I'll admit, I was exaggerating when I said I was an expert in its use, but I can still shoot you with it. I'll have you know that I was trained by the Militia in its use." Hondon harrumphs. thinking for a bit, he sighs. "You know, this isn't getting us anywhere. How about we both come out so we can get a good look at each other? I'll lower my weapon, if it will make you feel safe." Hondon lowers his weapon to his side. Not that the stranger could see him do it anyway.

"Not really." Dement says, his tone alighting somewhat, "I don't think I'll ever feel safe again." he struggles in his hammock for a moment before swinging lose out of it's shape and falling his way to the ground. There's an awkward thump. "Oww." comes a groan from the darkness.

Hondon moves out from behind the tree. "You all right? sounds like you had a nasty fall. What were you doing up there, anyway?" He moves forward a little bit, trying to get a good look at the newcomer.

"Trying to get some sleep, what the hell else would I be doing at this time?" Dement mutters, pulling himself up. He's alright, he landed in the nice soft cold mud. He stands and looks around, staring at the vague shape talking to him.

Hondon can just make out a figure standing before him. It would seem that he needed more vitamin A in his diet. "Sleep? out here? by yourself?" He shakes his head. "Huh. The only way I could sleep out here is if I passed out from exhaustion. Which I have done." Looking about, he says, "Well, I guess you are alone, or I think I would be surrounded about now." He grins at the shrouded figure. "Anyway. The name is Hondon."

"Dement." replies Dement, looking up, "I've got a high hide. As long as I make sure my pack is buried, no animals bother me... I just hope it works on Phyrrians too, eh?"

Hondon raises an invisible eyebrow. "High hide? I'm not sure what that means, but whatever. Anyway, nice to meet you, Dement." He awkwardly offers his hand to the figure, wondering if he will notice his gesture.

Dement doesn't, actually, continuing his gaze up at his bed, "It's a hammock I can tie to branches and stuff. I got it from a place." if it were lighter, his guilty expression would show up plain as day.

Hondon awkwardly lowers his hand, silently hoping that Dement didn't notice. He tries to follow Dement's gave up to the hammock, but he can't make it out against the jungle canopy. "That is a nice piece of equipment. I've been sleeping on the ground, pretty much." A thought occurs to him. "Oy, do you have a compass on you? I'm not sure, but I think I've been heading north." 'I better have been', Hondon thinks. 'If not, I've been moving away from camp this whole time...'

"Yeah I do." Dement nods, "Was it you that got bombed, or was that random? I found the crater yesterday morning, but I didn't think it'd be a good idea to hang about it." the engineer pats himself down, "I don't suppose you have a light, if you dare it?"

Hondon frowns, shaking his head at no one in particular. "Can't say that I do." He remembers the loud noise he heard earlier. He had feared that it was a bomb. Hoping no one died, he said, "They didn't drop it on me. And I doubt it was random. Maybe they saw some people walking through the jungle besides us."

"I dunno about that..." Dement thinks for a minute before cursing softly, "We're in trouble. They must have sent out patrols."

Hondon closes his eyes, groaning softly. "Patrols? I saw some of those bastards when they attacked Greenville. I really don't want to meet them out here..." He looks around him, wondering what they should do. "ok... calm down, and think," he mutters. His mind races for a bit. "Well, we can't really do anything in the dark, so I guess I'm not moving anywhere until it gets lighter." He peers at his new buddy. "You don't mind if I hang around here with you, do you?"

"I guess not." Dement sounds a little unsure, "So you -do- have a camp? Were there other people there?"

Hondon sighs, shaking his head some more. "I said I was alone, you know." He pauses and thinks for a bit. "Well, you are probably going to find out at some point, so I might as well tell you now. Yes, I do have a camp, and there were people there. If that explosion came from the camp though, I couldn't say if any of them survived. I just happened to be out on watch when it happened, and then I tried making my way back there in the dark. As you can see, I didn't quite get there." He pauses, another thought. "I'm not going to say how many there were, though. You can find out when we get there." Hondon figures that he isn't betraying his friends if he doesn't say how many there were.

"Ah, you believe me that I'm a Phyrrian spy, then?" Dement chuckles; his voice doesn't seem so distorted up close, "Well... Hopefully they haven't got themselves blown up." he sounds grim again. "I figure we've got a couple of hours before sunlight gets strong enough to see much at all, we can wait it out down here."

Hondon nods in the darkness. Moving next to a tree, he lowers himself slowly to the ground. All that tension and anxiety seems to have worn out his body. Staring up at the canopy, he sits in silence. It doesn't last long. "So. Dement. You got a profession or something?" Hondon inquires, curious.

"Self employed captain." Dement says, leaning onto his own tree, close enough to keep conversation at just above a whisper. "I run a company which owns a couple of ships. Well, if they're still working. Nothing electrical seems to be. Before that I was an engineer on one of the ships."

Hondon eyes light up when Dement mentions the engineering. He so wanted to be a ship engineer. "An engineer? On a ship?" he says, barely keeping the excitement out of his voice. "Sounds like fun. I am actually something of an engineer myself. Though, I haven't been practicing it much." he says, remembering when Dayton had him fix a fishtank filter for his lobsters.

"Not really as fun as learning." Dement sighs, "Being an Engineer on a ship is about routine maintenance above all. It's designing ships I always hoped to get into..." he pauses for thought, "It was difficult, because I came directly out of Waldheim and the only reason I managed a job was because of my language degree on top of the engineering and electronics, we'd been cut off from the galaxy for so long."

"You are from Waldheim? One of the people in my camp is from Waldheim. She has a pretty heavy accent." Hondon frowns, remembering Heidi's heavy accent. He really hoped she was still alive. He thought about all the learning he did back in Uni. "Eh. I find that I enjoy doing stuff with my hands. I didn't get to do a lot of hands on stuff when I was learning to be an engineer."

There is a heavy sigh and some cursing in German followed by thunk off in the distance.

"Yeah." Dement nods, though he doesn't seem to be listening. He's glazed over, for all you could see he's just sagging somewhat. The sun seems to have risen now, and he's looking up at the dark blue sky, "Sometimes I wish Waldheim had never been found. The Sivadian's wouldn't have attacked... Our government wouldn't have corrupted and we wouldn't have lost all those students during the Thole crisis." Dement shudders, he seems to be losing his nerve, "And we might not even be worried now. When the Phyrrians are threatening everyone else, we'd be safe behind our rocks. I was just finding a place in the galaxy and... and now I'm out in the New Lu..." Dement turns his head, his gun in his hand once again, "Did you hear that?" he whispers.

Hondon freezes, listening. He doesn't hear anything, but he raises his gun anyway, flicking off the safety. Looking at Dement, he rises slowly, his ears straining for any kind of sound.

"Fucking kill for zigaretten right now.... Ja kill...." A woman's voice murmurs off to the left of the two. The voice is hoarse and tired sounding.

Dement listens with a frown, holding his gun in a ready pose, "Sind sie ein Tiger?" he shouts, so the voice can hear.

"Nien.... Fraulein." The voice calls back.

Dement considers this for a moment before, a little more tenatively, "Und... Sie sind nicht ein roboter?" he looks across to Hondon with a questioning gaze.

Hondon puts a bewildered face on, and shrugs again. "What are they saying?" he asks Dement.

There is a long pause before the voice calls back. "Ja, big evil german speaking robot." Is finally called back

"I think we're going to be ok." Dement mutters, sinking back into his tree with a somewhat relieved sigh.

Hondon grins. "Oh, I didn't really doubt that we would." He looks over in the direction of the unknown voice. "Oy, Ms. Wulfe, is that you out there?" he calls, lowering his gun and flicking the safety back on.

"Ja... Hondon?" The voice comes back. "Can't go over there... you'd have to come to me."

"You could have said something." Dement mutters, looking up at the light now pouring through the canopy, "I guess this is about as light as it's going to get. I'll just... take down my stuff."

There is only silence from the direction of where the voice was orginally coming from.

Hondon grins some more. "I could have, I suppose, but I wanted to see what you would do. What did you ask her, anyway? If she was a german speaking toaster or something?" He moves a little towards Heidi's voice, then stops, looking back at Dement. "Need any help with your stuff?"

Dement shakes his head, "Nope." he stands up and walks to one of the two trees his hammock is attached to, he begins climbing it gingerly but almost immediatley slides down after putting a foot in a bad foothold. He grunts, a little annoyed but no worse for wear. Again he begins to climb, making his way up without further incident.

Hondon nods, turning back towards Heidi. He makes his way over to where he last heard his voice, keeping an eye out for snags and such on the jungle floor.

Once in view the woman can be seen with her back proped up against a tree. Her uniform looks burned and her left side is covered in bandages.

Dement unties his hammock and bug net, pulling it loose and returning to solid ground. He quickly rolls it up and sticks it in a plastic bag attached to his tiny spade. The engineer then proceeds to uncover his bag, shaking the loose dirt off it and wiping down his bottle of water before sticking his hammock inside and folding up his spade and putting it into a pocket on the front. In practiced speed, he's ready to set off again, hoisting up his backpack onto his back and following after Hondon.

Hondon pauses when he sees Heidi's condition, his breath stopping in a quiet gasp. Moving near her, he kneels and looks at her bandages. "Oy. Did the bomb do this to you?" he asks her.

"Nein, got shot." Heidi replies with a shake of her head.

Dement is still a way off, humming as he works.

Hondon mutters to himself. "Aw, damn... this doesn't look good." He looks up at Heidi's face. "What about the others? did they survive?" he asks.

"Ja... hurts like hell." Heidi replies and glances down at her side. "Hope it doesn't get infected.... we have a camp not to far off. I just came to use the little fraulein's room."

Dement stumbles upon the other two, now, breaking a branch behind him as he turns. His backpack snags it and drags it along until the engineer stops where it drops to the floor rather mutely. "Oh." Dement says, going somewhat red.

A snap of twigs may be heard far off somewhere.

Hondon looks back at Dement. "Oh, shush. You have a first aid kit on you or something?" He looks back at Heidi. "Camp's near here, you say? Think you can get their if we help you?"

Hondon rolls his Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Mediocre (-1). Heidi rolls her Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Mediocre (-1). Dement rolls his Perception with a 0 modifier. Use a feat (+help feats) to try to overcome the impossible. The result of the roll is Good (1).

Heidi nods her head and points towards the left. "Over there." The woman is way to out of it to notice the sounds.

Dement cocks his head somewhat, looking between the others and slowly reaching down to his side, "Yeah. I have my first aid kit." he feigns turning around and slipping his backpack off and across his side, so that he can pull his Stun Gun from it's holster without anyone without a good view being able to see. Up close, you might notice he's tensed up again.

More movement can be heard, the snaps of the fallen branches getting louder, as he nears, Kolek becomes plainly visible to those who would look, but he seems to be crouching, glancing up every so often.

Hondon nods, standing a little to get out of Dement's way when he produces his first aid kit. He looks off in the direction Heidi indicated, and sees something out of the corner of his eye. Looking quickly, and raising his stun gun, he spots Kolek moving towards them through the Foliage. "Oy, thief! is that you?"

Heidi struggles a little with her rifle at Hondon's shout. The woman after a moment shakes her head and lowers it once again.

"Hold on there." Dement grunts through his teeth, standing up with his Stun Gun aimed squarely at the unknown figure. "I don't care for sneaking wraiths... Why don't you all explain why I shouldn't put him out for few hours. He'll just wake up with a massive headache and an unfortunate lack of bowel control..." Dement looks somewhat annoyed.

Kolek clenches his teeth, as he hurriedly and quickly sets a finger to his lips, and then cutting his hand across his neck in a 'cut it out' motion.

Another sound can be heard, the all too familar drone of a flying Phyrrian scout.

Hondon freezes for a second at the sound of the scout, before moving closer to the trunk of the tree and crouching low. He waves at Dement, whispering fervently. "Yo! get down! I hear one of those Phyrrian bastards coming!"

Heidi looks up at the scout and pales slightly. The woman winces a little but starts to pull her legs up to her chest.

Dement looks up into the sky for a second before looking back down at Heidi. Quickly, he reaches into his backpack and pulls it into a knoll in a nearby tree. He pulls his hand out, and with it comes a brown cotton sheif of material, presumably a blanket or a cloak. He throws it over Heidi quickly before moving into the knoll his backpack is in, hidden in shadow.

Kolek remains low, staying admidst trees and bushes as the Phyrrian scout zooms over head, past them, and continues onward. Kolek lets out a sigh after a few moments.

Hondon sighs, his body slumping against the tree. He carefully pulls the blanket off of Heidi's head, saying, "what the hell did you all do to piss of the Phyrrians?"

"Killed six of them." Heidi replies once the blanket is off her head.

Dement remains in his knoll, staring up at the brightening sky. Shadows cast across his face on exacerbate his expression of grimness.

Kolek slowly stands up, eyeing the sky a moment before glancing at the others.

Heidi pulls the blanket up a little more. "I didn't want to... Norton ordered me to open fire." She murmurs lowly with a shake of her head.

"No." Dement says, pushing himself forward but not wiping that shellshocked expression from his face, "I need to get her settled so she doesn't need to move too much, so we should go back to wherever you've set up for the moment. Here." he unzips a pocket on his belt and pulls out a small plastic bottle. He flips out two pills, "Take these now."

Looking around for Kolek, Hondon shrugs and nods to Dement. "Ok, lets move her. Before that bugger comes back." Hondon moves to one side of Heidi, looking for a good way of lifting her.

"Ok. Get the blanket under her, we can use it as a stretcher." Dement suggests, kneeling down at her legs and slipping the brown material around so Heidi can rest on it. He lifts, and the blanket should take her weight.

Kolek soon hops in and aids the two, helping them move Heidi.

Heidi just lets herself get moved around. She isn't really capable of doing much else. "The camp is a few hundered yards that way." She points to the left.