5-12-12
Rush has asked me to travel to South Figaro and meet up with other Returners. I am supposed to go to the Underking's Alehouse and meet a Returner named Raric. He has a mission for us that is important. Before I left Rush gave me a beautiful longbow. It has some etchings in it and not only looks beautiful, but is very well made. It has a very heavy draw, but will give me more range and power than a normal bow. He encouraged me to be careful and "fight from afar". I think he is afraid of me being over exuberant and charging right in. I didn't want to say anything to him, but I already did that once and learned my lesson. Oh how I learned my lesson...
I have arrived at South Figaro. The meeting is supposed to be tomorrow afternoon so I am taking this moment to explore the town. I have heard stories about South Figaro. Some of them are true, some don;t seem to be. Back when I was in Vactor it was referred to as a small town near the water. I expected to see small cottages and a single Inn. But the city is much larger than that. It doesn't quite rival Vector, but it is cleaner and friendlier. I have a few gils leftover after paying for my transport so decide to get an ale and stew at the Underking's Alehouse. Food is decent. Ale is better. After a few mugs I head up to my room and try to get some sleep.
In the morning I have a bit of a headache. I try to get some extra sleep, but keep hearing a baby crying down the hallway. I eventually wake up and decide to head to the meeting a little early. Shane arrived shortly after me. He is an older gentleman who appears to have been thru alot. He doesn't have much in the way of weapons other than a well-maintained pistol. I ask him about it and he shows it to me, but doesn't say a whole lot. Just from the look of him he must have many stories to tell. I wonder if I will get to hear any of them.
The Prof. and Annika arrive together. Annika strides in the bar as if she owns it. She has alot of confidence. Her amazon build, bright red hair, shining armor and huge glaive garner instant attention. All the eyes in the place immediately turn towards her and you almost miss the professor. Though once you see him you wonder how you ever could've. The professor seems sweet at first. Reminds me of the teachers back at the school. He is apparently a chemist as his outfit is bristling with vials, potions, pouches and a variety of alchemical items. He also has a faint smell of sulfur. but he has a glint behind his eyes (goggles) that tells you he isn't as helpless (or sane) as you first think. They both sit down and Annika immediately orders an ale. The barmaid is probably the only person on the block who didn't hear her, though.
Ignacio shows up last. He came in so quietly and non-chalantly that it seemed like he came out of thin air right before us. He popped onto his stool with a quick look around and a tiny little smirk. I think I may have been the only one who caught it. Annika is about the age of my older cousin, Velisa. The Prof and Shane are both my parents age. But Ignacio is my age, probably slightly older. About the age Jaso was when we first met...
Raric shows up and gives us a short and to the point update about what is happening. The Empire has landed troops, including mecks, on the other side of the penisula and are on their way to occupy South Figaro. The Returners don't want this to happen. We are asked to take out the Mecks so the army can deal with just the troops. Sounds like an impossible task. I am looking forward to the challenge.
The group decides on an approach thru the forest in order to try to conceal our presence. Rarik arranges for transportation and a guide. When we get the Chocobos we meet our final group member. Another Red Mage named Serenity. I try to be friendly, but she practically ignores me and rebuffs my friendly questions.
The trip is relatively quiet. We are all a bit on edge with the impossible task set for us. We are also keeping an eye out for any trouble. The scout knows his stuff, but is obviously not a warrior type. He will probably not be much help in any fights.
The scout suddenly stops and motions to us. We see a large beast in a clearing up ahead. We all quietly dismount. The Prof. is knowledgable of these beasts and informs us in his own special way that it is likely to be hungry and aggressive. We spread out and prepare to attack while the Prof continues his lecture. Heeding Rush's advice I draw my bow and nock an arrow. Annika storms up the path towards teh clearing and immediately draws the beasts attention. Ignacio and Shane dive quietly into the underbrush. The Prof, continuing his lecture about the alchemical properties of the beasts claws and teeth, follows along.
I see the beast getting ready to charge so loose an arrow towards it. The shot is widely off. The heavy pull on this bow is going to take some time to get used to. Annika follows up with a leaping charge and seriously sounds the beast. The beast is enraged and attacks her instead of running away. The Prof lets fly a vial of some smoking mixture that explodes into a fireball once it hits the beast! The beast is singed as the Prof goes on about the uses of firestone. I am not sure if he thinks he is in a lecture hall or fighting a beast. Somehow I almost think both. Shane draws his pistol and lines up a shot. The loud burst startles the birds in the trees. The birds are quite large and begin to fly around and attack those on the ground, including the beast. I take aim, but miss terribly as I am still trying to get used to the bow. I wish I had taken time to take a few shots at the range before leaving.
We eventually defeat the beast and kill off or drive off the birds. I pick up the 4 large birds thinking they would be good for dinner. I have no idea how to cook them, but I am sure someone does. We continue to the edge of the forest and see the army in the distance. Shane goes to scout while the rest of us set up camp. Apprently noone knows how to cook. Sometimes I regret all the study and schooling I have had and missed out on some of the simpler things in life. So I started a cook fire and put the birds on sticks. Unfortunately the sticks caught on fire and the birds fell into the cook fire. Now I remember that cooking is boring and that is why I avoid it. The prof took two of the birds to cook. I go over to him to see if he is having better luck. Apparently he thought he was in Biology because he appears to have dissected them and is currently lecturing about the potential alchemical properties of their brains. While interesting, it is not filling my stomach. I pull out some of my rations and munch some jerky while I listen. Serenity suddenly start talking about having a fire and setting one up. We quickly calm her down telling her the birds are not edible and the fire will give away our position. She quiets down and goes over by the Chocobos.
Shane returns with his scouting report. The army has quite a few trucks and mechs. They are setting up camp about 4 miles away. We are going to need to get closer if we want to be able to watch them closer and react to any openings. We move out leaving the guide with the Chocobos. We tell him if we do not return my dawn to head back to South Figaro. Once we are out in the grasslands we find a small knoll to observe the camp from. Ignacio goes and scouts. He is able to get all the way to the wall around the camp and discovers that the Mecks are all up at the north end of the camp. He also informs us that the generators are all on trucks. We figure if the Mecks have no generators they will be useless. Almost as good as destroying them. And since the generators are on trucks we can, hopefully, just sneak in and drive the trucks away. The plan is to drive them to the forest where we will smash the generators and then return to South Figaro by Chocobo.
The plan actually goes mostly smoothly. Even Annika is quieter than the noise of the generators. I am sure she is still talking about how great she is, but at least I can't hear her. Serenity also seems to have come to life and is asking alot of questions about the Mecks. She is obviously plotting something, but doesn't let the rest of us in on it. I hope it doesn't compromise our mission. We all get into the camp. Shane and I team up to take one truck. The Prof and Serenity team up for another. The final truck will be driven my Ignacio and Annika. This is where the first trouble occurs. There is a Meckanic working on the mecks near their truck. Ignacio sneaks in, but Annika isn't so stealthy. The Meckanic goes to check out the noise he heard. While he does Ignacio springs upon him from behind but his dagger is no match for the armor worn by the meckanic. The meckanic spins on him and slices him badly across the belly. How Ignacio was even still standing I have no idea. Annika say the attack and sprung over the wall to help. Together they were able to take the meckanic out.
While disconnecting the generators from the Mecks they are nearly discovered by two more gaurds. Another scuffle ensues and these two are quickly dispatched. Then comes the fireworks. Serenity had gotteninto one of the suits and figured out how to power it up and fire the rockets. She let loose a whole volley on the tent she determined had the general and officers. The tent went up in a ball of fire and smoke awaking most of the camp. On that highlight we all jumped in the trucks and drove off. The Imperials gave chase, but we split up and were able to loose them. Shane and I headed to the Rondezvous. We waited and the others did not show up. Figuring their trucks were damaged or they had to use an alternate plan we destroyed the generators we captured and waited till morning. At dawn we returned to South Figaro.
At South Figaro we found our allies. They had met up north and decided to bring the generators to the city instead of destroy them. It was a good idea. Now the Imperials would have to get more generators brought in which would probably take a few days. In the meantime the local army could attack them and capture the Mecks. With the captured generators as well, the mecks could be repurposed to fight for the Returners.