Fool's Redoubt, 57th of spring, early morning

Fool's Redoubt.

An odd place off in the ass-end of nowhere with an odd name. It is so named for its construction, over a massive sinkhole that had swallowed up half the fortress before falling into a hole god knows how deep. Apparently the Fort was for an ancient Terran king who had decided to 'move' to a different capital instead of following tradition and keeping the palace in GAIA, and it is seen as punishment for his hubris when the fort collapsed. Oddly enough, rich mineral wealth was found beneath the fort in later years, and a mining town has sprung up near the abandoned fort, affectionately referred to as 'fort dumbass' by the locals.

Today, a man (Dwarf) by the name of Gor Kazach and his pseudo-lieutenant a man (Siren) named Aur Iliax await for various employees that should be arriving any time now. The Dwarf runs a trade caravan you see, and he needs bodyguards and those with technical or magical know-how to help him on the long trek to Rosa. Aur's experience with Tech was mostly limited to ground vehicles and guns, so it'd be nice to have someone who could help with the various artifacts and machines they dealt in. Especially problematic is most of the Mercenaries he hired had died on the way here to an unfortunate rockslide, and Aur was not exactly a one-Siren army.

So, Gor had sent out messages over the past week to various taverns in the area (the sort of guys who went to taverns to look for work were the sort of men he was looking for), in the hopes that maybe some Mercs or adventurers were wandering the area. Only time would tell if he was right...

Tavel loved taverns. Not in the way his mom did, though. She had (maybe still did, Tavel was bad at visiting) seen them as the shrines of inebriation that many dwarves rever them as, places to imbibe until one's face was numb enough to initiate a brawl. No, Tavel loved them because they were a fantastic place to sell the stupidest crap this side of stupid-ville and have no more enemies walking out then he did walking in. As it turned out a man in the throes of drink was especially susceptible to a good sales pitch, and one listened to the 6'5 man long enough they would almost unconsciously start reaching for their wallets (Tavel liked to refer to them as "on-tapped markets"). Thank the gods (whichever, Tavel wasn't too picky) too, since it was harder to turn a profit in Gaia than he had anticipated. He had thought that the cosmopolitan nature of Terra would have opened a wide array of potential customer demographics, but that had not really been the case. All of his usual tactics were eventually thwarted by some passer-by, whether it be a foreign visitor debunking his exotic goods routine or an actual expert showing Tavel's technobabble to in fact be mostly bunk. So was his day until Tavel ventured into this tavern (The Grounded Sparrow, if he recalled from the sign outside the door) and unloaded some far out-dated engine parts to a few unlucky S.O.B.s complaining of vehicle troubles and a couple of blue-tinted rocks that, after only five minutes and a feigned accent, he successfully convinced a man were in fact pieces of crystallized water from the exotic locale of Aqua that had been subjected to a sufficient amount of pressure. As he watched the inebriate stagger off to show off his newfound treasures, Tavel found himself yearning for some better goods.

Having successfully extricated some of the more regrettable wares from his inventory, Tavel began walking towards the bar to end his hard day with some ale. It was, however, not to be; he was not halfway to his destination before overhearing the conversation of a neighboring table. Its occupants were strange, but only in that they were the most perfectly generic group of adventurer's that Tavel had ever seen: first you had your armor-clad knight, proudly displaying his newly-acquired chunks of crystallized water to his comrades. Next there was a magic-user, clearly differentiated by the large tome by his side. A gunslinger completed the party, looking for all the world like someone whose whole identity is based off of the fact that she used guns. In any event, it was less the absolutely generic nature of the inhabitants that led Tavel to eavesdrop than it was the nature of their conversation. They seemed to be in deep discussions about a rumor of work protecting a trade caravan. Now that sounded promising. From what he could hear, the work paid relatively well and would involve a fair bit of travel. These were both very positive points for Tavel, who suffered currently from the duel needs of wanting to get away from Gaia (maybe even Terra) and needing a bit of extra cash to upgrade the quality of his wares. It didn't take long for the merchant to make up his mind, and he soon found himself gathering as many details about the work as possible.

---

2 weeks later:

Walking towards the Terran landmark of Fool's Redoubt, Tavel fidgeted with the enchanted hammer he kept on his back as he tried to make himself look as intimidating as possible. When it came down to it Tavel wasn't really that adept of a fighter, so he'd be relying on his skills as a salesman to secure an in with this caravan job. After all, who was he but another ware to polish up and convince someone to buy? He was big, he was strong, there really wasn't any reason not hire him. Before long Tavel had spotted a dwarf and a siren not too far from him, and Tavel knew he had found his employers / customers. Striding up confidently, the man wiggled his mustache,put his closed fists against the sides of his hips, and exclaimed "Hello, are you the ones who posted the caravan job?" As he spoke, Tavel looked around to see what sort of people his potential "coworkers" were.

High above the Emerald Plains, an odd blue colored aircraft putted through the air. The pilot, a teenage girl with sandy blond hair, sighed with boredom as she flew steadily above the seemingly featureless landscape. Though she hoped that that would all change in the coming hour as she approached her destination. A few weeks before, she had landed at a town to resupply on food. As she had been doing during her first year of traveling, she always went into to the local tavern. It was a social place, but more importantly, a source of information. It didn't take long for her to be sitting at a table of three large armor clad men laughing like she was one of them. One would be surprised how friendly a group of strangers become when you buy them a round of ale and tell them your tale. They were a group of mercenaries that were like her in many ways. Traveling from town to town, picking up temporary jobs whenever the could, ect. Only difference that they did, in fact, have an end game. They were actually heading up north to meet up with some family and help protect their original hometown, as security had become an issue. They told the young pilot that they had heard that a caravan at Fort Dumbass heading east were in need of both protection and specialists.

Intrigued by both the job opportunity and the interesting name of the place, she decided to head out towards to this place with an interesting idea in mind.. Couple weeks later, she was now approaching her destination. Looking down from the air, she circled the place for a second, enjoying her special view of the sinkhole. The old fortress half sunken into a seemingly endless abyss, a small town not to far with mining rigs covering the edges of the hole. It was all an amazing sight to see to say the least. The girl spotted a couple tents and three figures standing around. She came in a bit lower and spotted the eccentrically dressed dwarf she had been told about. Grinning she came back around, now flying in very low. She buzzed towards them, rolling upside down and flying only feet above their heads. As the cockpit past by the three, she gave a quick wave before pulling back, rolling again into a loop, pulled straight up again, stall, fall in a seemingly disastrous death spiral, before leveling out and landing in a field right next to the caravan.

The young female pilot emerged from her aircraft after turning it off and walked on over to the three men. She nodded to the dwarf gave him a big friendly grin. "Hello there! Pardon me for my interruption there, just thought I would have a bit of fun flying in after a long, boring flight. I'm Trudy Barkstone sir, and I'm here to offer my many services as a pilot to your caravan! I can scout ahead in the air, run messages, transport someone if need be, or when things get tough, that baby has twin machine guns on it for any support you may need!" Trudy spoke with an honest confidence rather than like she was pitching a sale or something. It was obvious to anyone from her recent display and her current stance that she was here for an adventure if anything.

"Excitement abounds
I almost can't wait
Relax, I don't want your baby
I already ate
Though I do tend to generally kill
Kill things that don't fight back"

Karnage was singing a song (Decently) he heard from one of the worlds before this one. He had been on the move for about three days strait now; from the Collapse, through Mount Olympus, and through the Dwarven highlands. Than circling through the Emerald Plains to reach "Fort Dumbass", as he was told. Rumors that he and the asura picked up said there was some sort of job there, looking for anyone willing to work on it. Karnage certainly hoped so; he tried to sell himself off as a mercenary, but for some reason no one took him seriously. It annoyed him; why wouldn't they want someone like him? He could tear down ramparts and stone walls with just one arm, he was practically a walking siege weapon! But usually they required more... Subtle personal. Their loss.

"I see this village
What does it hold?
What shall I butcher them with
Fire or cold?
Running from me sure you'd think
'He's a pathological bloodthirsty homicidal maniac!'"

The asura was sitting quietly on her perch next to Karnage's head. The smooth groove where she sat foretold of the history she had with the tree. She didn't seem to be interested in his song, only keeping a watch for all things. Her sharp eyes narrowed into every shadow, every corner, ready for the tall-tell and non-existent hints of ambush. But what unsettled her more was the peaceful walk they had; not since they had left Mount Olympus had either her or Karnage had to deal with highwaymen. And "deal" was hardly the right word. She managed to shoot maybe one or two of the gang before they fled. She had hoped they would have stayed to fight instead of running, it wasn't as though they didn't have the advantage of numbers. She tried to talk Karnage into chasing down the bandits to make sure they didn't prey on others, but he chose not to. He didn't care for bandits, only that they needed to head to Garzun. It haunted her to this day, wondering what had become of the brigands and how many people suffered because she allowed herself to follow Karnage.

"I'd kill kittens and puppies and bunnies
I'd maim toddlers and teens and then more
You see a wife? I see a widow
But what then?
Can't you see?
I'd kill four!"

Karnage and the asura was heading towards Garzun for a job that the asura had heard of. Something about defending a caravan heading towards Fool's Redoubt. Finally, a chance for the asura to put her skills back to use. But for Karnage he just wanted to go to the city to access their library. He wanted to know more about what he was, hearing that the holy symbols on him were seen in dwarven lands. Granted, the source of that information came from a couple of drunks who stumbled near by him, but it was the only source of information that Karnage found reliably. And getting the asura something to do but pester him about up holding justice or saving the weak would be a nice change of pace. Once they arrived there however, Karnage was disappointed. The lead went cold once again, as the holy symbols were no where to be found. At least the dwarves didn't seem too astonished by his appearance, though the presence of golems might have merely made them think that he was one as well, made of wood. this made Karnage wonder if he had, in fact, become a golem instead of a tree. He did research on golems and how they were crafted in this world as the asura got herself the job. Or rather, where she needed to go for it; it turned out that she didn't need to go to Garzun first and than to Fool's Redoubt, just to the Fool's Redoubt. This made her feel the fool as she had Karnage drop his research in order to take her to the Emerald Plains. He loathed to have to do so, but in exchange the asura promised to help him find a place where he could study the world and it's magic. Seeing that she was a native here and should know it more than he did, Karnage accepted.

I want to incinerate and decapitate
I want to melt
Want to melt some faces
Watching the peasants... What do they call it?
Ahh... Grieve!

That was about a week ago. A week ago they left Garzun, and now they were deep into the Emerald Plains. They had pasted Ro'que and had heard rumors of strange activities between there and the Fool's Redoubt. No surprise, seeing that it's the whole reason why the asura and Karnage was needed to protect this caravan. "Maybe we can make the trip easier by taking out whatever threats we come across. That way they can't be a bother later!" The asura chimed. Karnage thought this was an okay idea, though he didn't say if he was going to go out of his way to hunt down these threats. He just kept singing.

"I suppose that being a tree there's not much to life
A soul is needed for loving... Feeling...
How does this all not make me... What's that word again?
Heave!"

Suddenly Karnage began to pick up speed. Which wasn't really that fast, but the asura knew what was going to happen. She saw a couple of large boulders ahead and hanged on tight.

"You've nowhere to hide
Nowhere to run
Your village will burn like the heart of the sun!
With infinite glee
It's going to be me
That slaughters the world!"

Punctuating during each stanza, Karnage tore through the rocks. He jumped on them, crushing them under his weight. He smashed them aside, if not shattering them, than launching them high into the sky. He even picked up one rock the size of the asura and chucked it as hard as he could towards the sun, all without missing a beat or lyric. "Karnage stop that! We're almost at the Fool's redoubt." Sure enough the two could see the dilapidated fortress in the distance. Though calling ti a fortress was a bit of a stretch; sure there was walls and towers, but time has not treated the place kindly. "So we are. Let us hurry than."

The two quickly made it over to the Fool's Fortress and the asura was able to pick out the people they needed to see. She was a bit nervous having to go talk to them, but Karnage didn't care nor worry about making proper introductions so long as they know he's coming along. He was the first to introduce himself before the asura was. "You four there. Is this were we come to for the job? What was it again, Seraph?" The Asura on Karnage's shoulder looked down and spoke quietly. "Protecting the caravan..." Karnage nodded his leafy head. "What she said."

Typically, she hated and avoided taverns. Loud, sometimes really filthy, and generally the crowds were either surly and trying to drink their sorrows away or they were loud and very, very drunk. Neither were good for her and her rather…distinctive appearance. But the owner had been paying her by the hour to fix their piping system (a simple fix, but she was in a Dark mood that day and was extending it unnecessarily), so she was in the tavern, trying to keep out of the way of the loud drunk crowd while she worked (or looked like she was working). By pure chance, she managed to catch one of the not-so-drunk-but-well-on-his-way customers announcing to anyone who listened that he was going to take the caravan job at Fort Dumbass from the short and shiny little dwarf, and he was going to protect it so well that even the Gods would fear to challenge it. He was even going to keep everything in such top condition that they would fly across the route and reach their destination in record time. He also made a number of other boasts that increased in extravagance as he consumed more alcohol. Indeed, listening to him, one might have thought he was all of the Gods combined and could conquer the world in hours.

Regardless, she pretended to make a final adjustment to the pipes (her own work having been done roughly seven hours ago) and went to the owner to collect her payment and ask where the location of ‘Fort Dumbass’ was. Grateful for her assistance (and just a tad suspicious of the time it took), he gave her excellent directions. She left within the hour, traveling as quickly as she could through Terra. This was a job worth taking. This was better than doing the occasional odd job to repair technology that was often in the hands of people who absolutely didn’t really need it or know how to use it. And besides, it certainly promised adventure. That was how she ended up at Fool’s Redoubt. She would have approached immediately and introduced herself (Certainly, the dwarf dressed extravagantly had to be the one she was looking for!), but stopped in midstride.

The male Siren was what dumbstruck her. Growing up in UMBRA, she had never seen one. Not even in all of her minor travels across the world. She knew they existed. Sort of. Her mother had mentioned them in passing once. If you could call using them as an insult that was ambiguous and could have easily been interpreted as male Sirens don’t exist a passing mention. So while she was standing there, stunned, a large man with a large hammer passed her and got to them first. Rather than insert herself into the conversation, she chose to stop a couple of feet away and watch quietly as her possible companions arrived. If one was to glance over at her, they’d have noticed her hands were in motion, creating something from bits of sticks and wires and leather.

The first was the large man with a large hammer. The typical brute, she assumed. Good at acting tough and threatening those who were weaker than him, but there was a likely chance he couldn’t even lift the hammer over his head, much less use it in a fight. Admittedly, she had no room to talk as the best she could do was aim straight with the revolver, but at least she was honest about it. She even looked the part, with her small frame. The next was the daredevil pilot. As she landed, Dirae watched with concern. It was one of her Light days, so she had concern for the unknown pilot, but she also had concern for the plane. Machines that were meant to be loved and cared for shouldn’t be risked unnecessarily. Once she got close enough, she saw at a glance that it was a custom made. She should know, she had made hundreds of custom made things to sell or help someone else out. She was even able to recognize the engine, from the small stint of aerial repair she had done a few months back. All in all, she couldn’t really help herself.

She let go of the hand-spun flying device that vaguely resembled a plane, ignoring where it flew (which was right at the male Siren’s head, coincidentally), and headed straight for the pilot. She was almost skipping, but she managed to maintain enough dignity to walk. Her metal dragon, irritated at the sudden upheaval of its sleeping place (Dirae’s lap), made a buzzing sound of indignation and flew towards the group as well. Though, it didn’t deign to land back on Dirae’s shoulder. Rather, it chose to fly around in lazy circles of the group, occasionally doing a small circle around one of the group member’s heads. Briefly though, she was distracted by the singing tree, missing the person sitting in it. After the shock of seeing a male Siren, however, she was beyond being struck dumb. She kept walking towards the pilot.

When she was within earshot she immediately began talking, a crinkle around her eyes indicating she was smiling. “Custom made with a Terran engine, am I right? She flies beautifully. You, if you made her, should be proud. She-“ Dirae stopped. She at least had the grace to look abashed and color slightly at how she had barged into the conversation. “I’m sorry. My name is Dirae. I’m here for the caravan job, and to make sure that the caravan’s tech and the tech of those who get hired stays in top condition.” She gave a shrug. “I’m something of a general purpose mechanical genius. But what Siren isn’t?” Her mechanical dragon gave another buzz, this one closer to a buzzsaw whine. She shot it an irritated glance, but didn’t comment. Let it laugh at her. She had made it, she could unmake it. Not that she would. The thing had been around too long for her to imagine life without it.

Gor & Aur

Gor smiled once he caught sight of a man heading towards them. Looked nice and tough, seemed friendly, and was well-versed in moustache etiquette. Aur, however, was much more discerning, though when he was about to speak Gor silenced him. "Yes we are, we're in need of Mercs, techies, wizards, appraisers and what-ha-" Before the dwarf could finish his sentence a plane went screaming overhead, sending Aur into a quasi-panic. He quickly ducked behind the crate he was sitting on and produced a rectangular object from said crate. It quickly unfolded itself into a rifle, which he kept trained on the plane.

However, it soon became clear that the pilot wasn't a threat, just dumb. with a sigh he stowed the rifle on his belt, though he didn't drop his guard. Aur was even less confident of this new arrival than the last one. A teenage girl (he assumed)? She listed off ways she could be useful, but he still wasn't impressed. "So you're saying your vehicles valuable but you are- Hey!" As Aur spoke, Gor slapped him in the back of the head. "Don't mind my associate, he's a bit slow to trust. I'm Gor, and you've come to the right place." The Dwarf said, offering a handshake. "Aur, you go deal with the other arrivals, alright?" He said to the Siren, who still seemed upset at getting smacked.

Wordlessly, he went back to the bald man. "Right, so you're looking for work here? Alright you best start with what you have to off..." Aur trailed off at the sight of the giant singing tree man with a six armed girl on his shoulder. Now, he was weird enough, but this was starting to resemble a group of circus performers more than a group of mercenaries. "Y-yeah. Go see the uh, dwarf over there..." he said, his stuttering more out of confusion than fear. Not long after, he felt, something smack into his head. He reached for his gun, but it became quickly apparent that this... toy airplane was not going to take his life. He looked around for who could have thrown such a thing when... Oh no.

There was a Siren here. Really? Why?! It's like it was impossible to escape! at the very least, she certainly didn't look like someone tasked with retrieving him. Though from that mask she was probably from Samsara as well, most Sirens from there had degenerated immune systems from the Sterile environment. Luckily, his family moved several generations ago, so he didn't have to wear the mask outside the city. But if she was from Samsara... he certainly hoped she wouldn't recognize him. then she might tell someone where he was, or maybe his mother had put out a bounty for him... in any event, the best plan was to avoid her for now.

"A-anyway, you and... tree, can go load boxes into that truck there..." He said as he pointed out a truck that had yet to be loaded up.

"Oi! The name is Karnage Urabrask Vorinclex. This tree is just my current body right now." Karnage helped the asura off his shoulder and onto the ground where she began to walk towards the others. Karnage went to load some of the boxes into the trucks. Though he only had one good hand, the boxes weren't an issue for him. He had to be more careful to not crush them. Meanwhile the asura was looking to introduce herself to who she figured would be her future coworkers. The asura approached two girls, one who, if she heard correctly, was a Siren. She knew very little about them and figured that it would be a good subject to talk about one day. "Hiya. I guess that we'll be working together for the new few days, huh?" The asura bowed her head as she spoke to the two strangers. She tossed her cloak towards her back to reveal her arms, and her weapons. "I am an Asura. I'm also a marksman, though I'll admit I'm not good for much else. I'm hoping that I'll prove reliable to you all anyways. To whom do I owe the pleasure of working with?"

It really was an odd group forming now to be part of the caravan. From talking trees to six armed freaks it was quite the sight to see. And Trudy loved it. She nodded to the dwarf, glad to be hired and made her way back over to her plane to get ready. As she inspected the aircraft, a female Siren approached her.

When she was within earshot she immediately began talking, a crinkle around her eyes indicating she was smiling. “Custom made with a Terran engine, am I right? She flies beautifully. You, if you made her, should be proud. She-“ Dirae stopped. She at least had the grace to look abashed and color slightly at how she had barged into the conversation. “I’m sorry. My name is Dirae. I’m here for the caravan job, and to make sure that the caravan’s tech and the tech of those who get hired stays in top condition.” She gave a shrug. “I’m something of a general purpose mechanical genius. But what Siren isn't?” Her mechanical dragon gave another buzz, this one closer to a buzzsaw whine. She shot it an irritated glance, but didn't comment. Let it laugh at her. She had made it, she could unmake it. Not that she would. The thing had been around too long for her to imagine life without it.

"Neat pet." Trudy replied giving a big smile and grabbing the Siren's hand. "Trudy Barkstone, nice to meet ya!" she said giving Dirae a big handshake. "You got a good eye. This here is "The Traveler", built the plane myself in fact. Funny you should recognize the engine. It looks like a kit set from the outside, cause it was, but take a look at this." She walked around to the rear of the plane and motioned Dirae to come over. She opened a panel on the engine and pointed to a green glowing tube in front. Noticing the Siren's surprised, Trudy nodded. "That's right, a Corpus Rune Propulsor, that little piece of hardware was a reward I got for running some mail for the military. The little beauty turned this mule of a plane into a stallion! Now she can climb as fast as a interceptor without choking the life out the engine. Its how I did that little trick coming in here." Trudy said, obviously proud of her work, yet more happy that someone could appreciate it. She closed the panel and stood up. "I can show the rest of the plane if you want."

---

A single dustcloud rose in the distance. One would think the cloud would be generated by some sort of vehicle, and you would only be half wrong. Emerging from the cloud, giving a bit of a cough was a young blond girl, wearing a flack vest of sorts and strange metal leggings. Her face and head wear covered by a helmet, goggles, and a scarf over her mouth. She was covered in dust and only made a small effort to knock the dust off her torso. She took off her goggles, letting them stay on her head. They left a clear outline of where they had been, making her icy blue eyes stand out even more. On her back was a large weapon of sorts, seemingly very out of proportioned with the relatively small framed girl. More odd was the pair of bobcat ears and a tail that seem to idly move on their own. She gave another cough and pulled down her scarf with a sigh.

"Uuugghh.... I hate the dry season...Then again, mud is even worst... fuck it, dust still sucks!" She grumbled to herself brushing away some of the dust on her. She now casually strode up to the well dressed dwarf and nodded to him. "Uhh.. hello. I'm Alice Bradly, I'm here for the caravan job? I can keep up with the caravan easily and I got this to protect us if we come under attack." she said as she pulled the cannon of her back and held it like a rifle. Now that she was here, it was a definitely a strange group. A couple of sirens, a six armed lady, big dude with the hammer, and a..... a tree? "A tree?" She thought to herself. "Can't wait to see what that guy's story is...."

Well at least no one seemed irritated or angry at her lapse in manners. That was good. What was even better was the fact that pilot,Trudy, seemed to welcome someone who actually could appreciate the work gone into the plane. Or, ‘The Traveler’ as she called it. “Oh, him?” Dirae glared at the dragon flying around. “It’s hard to tell if she’s a parasite or a pet at times. Never even got around to naming him.” As she walked over to the engine(missing Aur’s reaction to her presence), she explained her ability to recognize the engine. “I’ve heard that sound so many times in a month that I wouldn’t mistake it for anything else in the world, even if it looked like a rock in the engi-“ She stopped in midsentence yet again, this time out of surprise rather than embarrassment. “Is that a…” Trudy quickly confirmed her unspoken question, and Dirae very nearly squealed. She had never seen one before, much less worked on a plane with one. But, she maintained her dignity. “Oh, without a doubt. I’m willing to bet you could do far more than that one little trick.“ She was about to take the girl up on her offer when the Asura arrived. Dirae couldn’t help herself. Her attention was distracted, and it allowed the Light essence inside of her to burst forth. She was lucky to regain control when she did.

Thoughts of Demon filth! Kill it! Kill it! pounded in her skull. Her golden pupils flared more brightly, seeming to spread tendrils out into her black Sclera and grow larger. Her hand shot down to grab and begin pulling out her pistol when she finally regained control. No! I am not going to shoot this woman, no matter how much you hate her! She mentally snarled, beating back the Light essence into its cage. She would not start off her job by trying to shoot one of her allies. Immediately her body language changed back from threatening to relaxed. Her eyes returned to their normal color. All in all, she went from threatening to innocent startlingly fast. “Sorry about that.” She muttered. “You surprised me.” Or at least, the demon surprised her Light essence. Her Light essence was a racist bitch anyways. Regardless, she smiled at the Asura. “I’m Dirae. Don’t worry about being good at anything else than a marksman. I’m just lucky to shoot straight myself. If you ever need something modified or repaired, come to me. It’s all Sirens are good for after all. Or all I’m good for at least.”

She gestured towards the pilot after Trudy had introduced herself. “She was going to show me the rest of her plane, if you’d be interested?” Whether or not the Asura agreed, the showing took only a short time, during which Dirae decided she would never let this plane fall out of disrepair while her limbs still had life left in them. Her mechanical dragon decided to settle down on the Asura’s shoulder. Whether she wanted his presence there or not.

Aur Iliax

Well, it looked like the guy and... tree... were doing a good job of loading the truck. It's a good thing they were just boxed ingots of various metals, so there wasn't any risk in damaging anything. and then... someone ran up. Well, it was at this point he gave up hope on anyone relatively normal show up. Not that he was all that common himself... whatever, there wasn't much he could do. Quite a lot of women though...

Gor seemed to be handling the newest one, so Aur would set about having the plane loaded up. it was a good thing that they had an empty truck available, otherwise they wouldn't have the resources to fuel it. He stepped up to the pilot, doing his best to not make eye-contact with the other siren. "First thing's first, we gotta take the wings of that thing so it will fit on that truck over there." He said as he pointed out the empty truck. "If we leave the wings on it'll throw the truck off balance and it might tilt if we turn too fast... you can remove the wings, right?" Aur asked. He certainly hadn't seen a plane like that before, so it was likely custom or somesuch.

Gor

It would have been impossible for Gor to fail to notice the girl approaching, what with the noise and the cloud. She introduced herself, and the dwarf smiled. "No need ta worry about keepin' up, these trucks ain't so speedy. Anyways, welcome aboard! You can go talk to your co-workers, but the siren over there," The dwarf pointed out Aur. "can be a little tough to get along with, so I wouldn't bother him too much. I don't suppose you have any questions?"

It didn't take long for Karnage to finish loading in all the boxes. He was practically handling rocks with how much they weighed. From the sound they made when he rattled them, they were filled with ingots and other raw materials. Construction materials, he guessed. Makes sense for why someone would want to go for them; these were practically the building blocks of any fortress worth it's salt. Bandits would steal something like these in a heart beat if it means making a stronger base of operations. If they knew what to do with it anyways, otherwise they just had a lot of heavy bits of metal and such. After Karnage single-handily put the cargo away he went over to the male Siren, who seemed to be the head operator in this mission. He was at an airplane which Karnage thought he has seen before. "A Waliuneculian Fighter?" Karnage dismissed this thought however. If his times jumping dimensions taught him anything, is that a lot of ideas get recycled eventually. Like coffee. But it was something he could talk to the pilot about later. He caught the tail end of what the male Siren asked her though, about taking off the wings. Karnage scoffed at this idea. "What do you think that is, some sort of wagon to be dismantled and put together at your leisure? Unless the girl posses the strength of giants, she'd need heavy machinery to even move those wings if she chose to remove them. Perhaps they're collapsible, able to take on a more compact form or some such. Failing that, she should simply take her plane into the skies and provide cover for us. Unless we face dragons, I doubt your common bandit can do much against a strafing run." Karnage looked closely at the plane, The Traveler it was called, and pondered if it could even had wheels.

In the mean time, the asura felt a bit unease from the Dirae. Something about the way she looked at the asura made her feel like she needed t draw her guns. Luckily nothing came from it and she let out a breath of relief when it seemed that Dirae was an amicable sort. When offered the opportunity to look around Trudy's ship, the asura nodded in agreement. "I would be interested, thank you. And I'll take you up on that offer with the modifications. I know some things about my weapons I'd like to upgrade, but I lack... Experience to work on them." Suddenly a metal dragon landed on the asura's shoulder, throwing her off balance for a moment. the asura wanted to shoo it off at first, but she knew that the creature belonged to one of her allies. Best not t make too much of a bad impression by harming someone's pet. But if the dragon tried to peck her eye out, she was going to feed him a .454. Many of them. As they looked around the airplane, what caught the asura's eye was the 7.62mm belt fed machine guns. She nearly salivated looking at it. "Oh my... If I had one of those..." The asura began to fantasize what she'd do if she could do if she had an LMG similar to what was on The Traveler. Maybe with Dirae, it wouldn't just be a fantasy.

Trudy was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of attention her plane was starting to get. "Gosh, I guess people around these parts never get to see them so upclose.... Awesome!" She thought as she excitedly showed the Asura and Dirae around the plane. She took a silent note that there was obivously some sort of bad blood between the too, but just couldn't really figure out why. Brushing it off, she noticed the Asura staring almost gleefully at the machine guns on the side of the aircraft. Trudy hopped up onto the wing and crouched next to it. "Heh, I see ya noticed the firepower of the plane? It ain't much compared to the typical heavy fighters the nations around here fly, but a machine gun is still a machine gun. Interesting point, these were actually water cooled originally. I had to do a little tinkering to make them air cooled as to save weight flying."

Just then, the male Siren approached the plane. He stepped up to Trudy, doing his best to not make eye-contact with the other siren. "First thing's first, we gotta take the wings of that thing so it will fit on that truck over there." He said as he pointed out the empty truck. "If we leave the wings on it'll throw the truck off balance and it might tilt if we turn too fast... you can remove the wings, right?" Aur asked. He certainly hadn't seen a plane like that before, so it was likely custom or somesuch.

"Okay.... I was joking before, but I think at least this guy has never seen a plane before...." Trudy silently thought. Though before she could answer, the walking tree came over, seemingly equally taken back by the male siren's statement.

"What do you think that is, some sort of wagon to be dismantled and put together at your leisure? Unless the girl posses the strength of giants, she'd need heavy machinery to even move those wings if she chose to remove them. Perhaps they're collapsible, able to take on a more compact form or some such. Failing that, she should simply take her plane into the skies and provide cover for us. Unless we face dragons, I doubt your common bandit can do much against a strafing run." the talking tree scoffed. Trudy smiled and nodded to the tree and turned to the male siren.

"Mr. Nature here is right, My baby here can't be dismantled in a few minutes and stuffed into one of your trucks. Don't worry about it. You won't have to hull it around at all! I'll just be flying right above you, making sure any sneaking threat thinks twice before attacking this convoy. And when pull over to set up camp, I'll just land right long side of you. This plane is designed for long range traveling, as it can land on both water and ground. It also has a short take off and landing, so I won't need a big field every time I need to land." she said, giving him a thumbs up. Her optimism was undoubtedly high as well as her trust in both her own skills as a pilot, and the capabilities of the aircraft.

---

"Nope, glad I can be a of some service to ya." Alice simply said to the dwarf. She walked over to the trucks and sat down for a quick rest, watching the group now forming around the plane that had come in earlier. It was an interesting batch to say the least. From Sirens to planes to talking trees they seem to have it all. "And now with my mutant self on this trip we're a complete one stop circus!"

---

Dirae gave an irritated glance at her dragon. A glance he pointedly ignored. “If you don’t want him there, shoo him off.” She told the Asura. “If he gets stubborn and keeps coming, back, shoot him. Try not to do it more than twice though.” The Siren grinned. “I’m not sure I can rebuild him from more than two bullet wounds.” The dragon gave another buzz. “Oh, yes I would. She has every right to shoot you if you get too annoying. The only reason I haven’t shot you yet is because I couldn’t aim at something as small and as fast as you to save my life.” Dirae retorted. The dragon buzzed again, this time more high pitched. “You don’t even know what that word means! You heard it from a drunk mercenary complaining about his wife who had left him for another man!” This could have easily gone on for several minutes, if the male Siren hadn’t arrived. He actively tried to avoid eye-contact with Dirae. That, naturally, made her actively try to catch his eye. She was curious. Was there anything, aside from the obvious, that was different between the two of them?

When the question of the plane wings came up Dirae ignored the conversation, and looked at the wings, head tilted to the side slightly. She could do it, if she had the right tools. Taking the wings off without unnecessarily damaging the plane would be fairly simple. Something she could have done in her sleep. The problem came with putting them back on so that they still worked as they had before. That would have required more time. Time that they probably wouldn’t have if they were suddenly attacked by bandits. All in all, she agreed with the rest. Trudy should fly, if only to rain bullets down upon anyone who attacked them.

“Well, if the question of ‘what should we do with the plane’ is settled, and everything else is packed, should we be going?”

Erik picked up his pace, cursing to himself as he did so. He had slept in, and on the day he was supposed to be somewhere, too. He had his guitar case and survival gab slung over his shoulder while he carried his unstrung bow in his left hand. When he saw the gathering group, he gave a sigh of relief. It would have been horrible for him to have made the journey to Fool's Redoubt and missed the job because he slept in. He saw that everything thing was packed up and started jogging over towards the dwarf, almost tripping when he saw that giant moving tree and the six armed girl. This was definitely going to be an interesting job.

He gave the dwarf an embarrassed smile when he arrived. "Glad to see that I'm not too late. I'm Erik, the amazing musician." He chuckled. "Not really, but I try."

Aur Iliax

Aur pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Evidently, no, they couldn't dismantle the damn thing. But what got to him was they never questioned why the plane needed to go on a truck.

They were headed to Rosa, through the Gaian mountains and a fair mount of forests. The problem was the route through the mountains was directly through narrow slot canyons and jagged peaks, not to mention all the other sharp rock related geographical features. Aur wasn't sure this girl would even be able to find a place to land, and the trip through there took at least a week or two, nobody could just stay in the air. A smaller, dumber part of him also quietly thought an attack plane wouldn't exactly be sporting in the event of a bandit attack.

The female piped up, and Aur couldn't help but snap at her. "No, the issue is not settled! Do you even know the route? we're passing through the Gaian mountains and we can't just make you a godsdamn runway whenever we make camp! and I highly doubt that plane has the fuel to stay up in the air for two weeks, and I'm also sure you can't fly a plane for two weeks without food or sleep! so, either you load that plane up, or we're leaving it he- Oof!" As Aur more or less threw a tantrum at the pilot, the dwarf had returned and smacked him in the back of the head again. "Yes Aur, but are we at the mountains now? She can fly until we get there." Gor calmly stated as he left. Aur rubbed the back of his head and mumbled something under his breath as he regained his composure. With a sigh, he continued. "Alright, you heard him. Trudy flies until we hit the mountains. Everyone else, find a truck. And you," Aur said, turning to the tree man. "There's probably room for you in the back of that truck over there, not much is loaded on it. Just be sure not to damage the little box, alright?" Aur pointed out a truck and as he had said, it was only half loaded. On said truck there was also a small box (comparatively) two feet tall and 2.5 feet wide, composed of what appeared to be heavy reinforced steel.

With that out of the way, Aur headed off to one of the trucks and leapt into the driver's seat. He checked the various dials and instruments, before resting his forehead against the wheel. He could just sense doom on the horizon...

Gor

"Well, I'd certainly hope you heard my associate. Time to go! And you're awfully lucky sir, you nearly missed us!" The dwarf said to the young man, apparently introducing himself as a musician. Well, as long as he wasn't terrible a little music on this journey would be appreciated. "Welcome aboard you two, find a truck, get on it, and let's get out of this dump..." Gor said, turning to enter one of said trucks.

"Tch, for as long as I've lived, I've seen more impossible things done. You just got to be willing to make this stuff work." Karnage quiped as the male siren and the dwarf left to get prepare the trucks. He looked over at the one that had space for him, half wondering how he would manage to keep up if he couldn't ride on one of the trucks. While this new tree body gave him tireless energy, movement speed wasn't the biggest strength of this body. Karnage looked for the asura and saw her making friends with the other girls. "Good for her!" He said to no one in particular. He walked towards the truck he was suppose to ride in, just narrowly missed by a large falling boulder, the same one that he threw into the air in the first post.

Asura just smiled politely as Dirae told her she was allowed to shoo or even shoot the dragon if it was too much trouble. "Oh no, it's no trouble at all. I think he's pretty cool, you know? Mechanical dragon and all." It still made the asura uneasy, but she was certain that after they become better friends, they'll get more comfortable with each others presence. Though the asura made no promises of not shooting the dragon more than twice if he does something to really piss the asura off. And like Dirae, the asura did not involve herself with the arguments with what to do with the plane. The asura personally wanted to see it in action, so she didn't want it dismantled. Though she did understand Aur's insistence on it since they would be going through the mountains. Trudy may say that her plane isn't built for speed, but it'll still move faster than the trucks. She'd have to circle around them the entire time, eating up fuel just to wait on the caravan below. The asura wondered if Trudy would like some company and if he aircraft could hold more than two people. The asura really did want to see those machine guns in action, but her skills won't be any use with the caravan if she's sitting in a cockpit. So the asura walked up to Trudy with a question. "Hey Trudy, do you have any way to communicate with us on the ground while you're flying? A radio or something?" This way not only would Trudy be able to be able to rely information from above, but than if the Asura could get her hands on it she could have conversations with Trudy while they're traveling. Just something to do when they aren't camped or fighting.

Dirae’s eyes narrowed as Aur exploded. Both of her essences rankled at being talked to in that tone, and for once she agreed with them. She liked Trudy, and maybe it was her Light essence getting its way, but she disliked him talking to the pilot that way as well. Before she could respond, and likely make things worse, the dwarf intervened and the Siren Male stalked off. For a few moments, Dirae seethed, then settled for simply muttering under her breath, “Jackass.” Carefully, she waited until she was sure both her Dark and Light essences were unable to suddenly and abruptly take control of her body, before responding to the Asura. “As you wish, just letting you know that you can get rid of him any time you want. I thought he was cool at first too, then I realized that the magic had given him a personality, and that personality was, hmmm, sassy in the extreme.” The dragon stuck its metal tongue out at her, giving a buzzsaw raspberry in response. Dirae rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, go back to the old ‘hah, I can do something you can’t easily do’ insult. Just so you know, it’ll only take me three seconds with a mini screwdriver to rip that tongue out of your head, so enjoy your power while it lasts.”

The dragon gave another buzz. A remarkable amount of insolence could be put into that sound. “You don’t think I could? Come over here, and let us find out!” The dragon buzzed again, and if anything gripped the Asura’s shoulder tighter. “Fine. Stay there. Coward.” Dirae accused. Then she realized that she was the only one who could understand what he was saying. Dirae looked at the asura. “You see what I have to deal with? Insolence, only insolence to his creator!” Then she blinked. “Oh. That was probably a onesided conversation to you, wasn’t it? I may have to fix that, soon. Me being the only one who understands him when he speaks is a problem.” She paused. “Then again, perhaps I’ve had him as my only companion for too long. Maybe he doesn’t have a language only I understand. We’ve known each other for so long that we can easily understand each other and casually abuse each other.” Dirae chuckled. “Or maybe I’m insane and I just don’t know it yet.” With that, she walked away and headed towards a truck as far away from Aur as the job would allow.

As she was leaving, she failed to notice the rapidly growing bigger shadow on the ground next to her. She paused as she heard a sound, however, tilting her head and looking around. Dirae promptly jumped about a foot in the air as a boulder that could have crushed her flat came soaring from the sky and slammed to the ground. After glancing wildly around and seeing that they weren’t in fact, under attack, she mustered what little dignity she had left, and got into the truck.

Her pet dragon smugly nestled into his perch on the Asura’s shoulder, and even nuzzled her cheek gratefully. He, at least, had no problems whatsoever with the current arrangements and didn’t appear to be moving anytime soon.

Emerald Plains, 58th of spring, just past midnight.

Aur Iliax

And so, the group set out on their journey. As the trucks thundered out of the ruined fortress, everything truly began.

For the most part, the trip was uneventful. Aur driving the first truck and the other's following behind him, but that was to be expected. The plains were not known to be particularly dangerous. The behemoths that ambled around could get nasty at times, but unless provoked somehow they were peaceful creatures. Aur himself had been in a foul mood, he wasn't fond of losing and he took the sound Trudy's plane made as it flew as a constant taunt.

However it soon came time to make camp and so they did. Aur avoided well, everyone as he set about performing maintenance on the trucks. It was now quite late at night, the other drivers at least having turned in for the night. The tree-man didn't seem to actually need sleep, and had volunteered too take watch. In any event, he quietly went about inspecting the suspension on the last truck, scowling a bit. Evidently the tree-man was too heavy for it, and if Aur didn't perform constant maintenance on it the damn wheels would fall off. Not impossible, just a pain in the ass. He reached around on the ground beside him, before sighing. "Where the hell is my multi-tool?..."

"Is this it?"

Standing behind Aur was Azelea. A last minute entry to this gang of misfits, she was employed to provide entertainment on the road as well as her skills as a mage. She was dressed modestly right now, wearing a light blue short-sleeve tunic with a brown vest adorned various pockets and pouches on it, and a matching set of trousers. curiously she was barefoot, though the straps on her feet implied that she was wearing some sort of stocking underneath. She hasn't really introduced herself to the group and only Gor Kazach the dwarf knew her name. She figured that as the rest were setting up camp however she could make her proper introduction.

"Don't you need more light if you plan on working so late?"