Sand stretched out for miles in every direction. The landscape was dotted with the occasional tree or cactus and a few birds circled over head. In the distance was a small town, the destination of the Lucky Bastards.

The Lucky Bastard himself, Kaz, stood at the top of a sand dune, observing the town through a set of binoculars. He adjusted his hat and pulled up his bandana to cover his face and continued down the hill with the rest of his crew behind him.

"Kaz, what'd you see? They still down there?" A red-haired girl piped up from behind him. Kaz turned back to Spades and the rest if the group and gave them a worried look, but quickly replaced it with a broad smile.

"I think this'll be a bit tougher than the usual fare, but what's a job without challenge, right? I might even get the chance to take this baby off!" Kaz said, holding up his bracer. He reached behind his back to get his shotgun from its sheathe and checked that is was loaded before slinging it back behind him. Today's job was just clearing a town that'd been taken over by a group of bandits. The villagers were driven away, so they had no need to worry about hostages or anything.

Spades nodded slowly and checked her own rifle. Hopefully they'd be able to resolve this diplomatically, but she doubted it. Kaz was very much a shoot first ask questions later type of guy. What she was really worried about though was him taking that bracer of his off. The last thing she needed was somebody shooting themselves or worse. She may have a bit of medical know-how, but she definitely wasn't a doctor.

"So, how are y'all holding up?" Kaz asked. Their destination was still quite a ways away, so they could fill up the time with some small talk.

"Itchin' to fight" Sam said aloud. He was near the back of the group, but his height made him able to look over just about everyone, not that he wants to look down on his companions. "So what gang is holed up there?" He asked to Kaz and Spades while loading his revolver, he also had his Father's weapons dangling off his backback. He looked foward to clearing out some more bandits but what he really wanted is to use his fists again, whether it was a brawl or a fight using his Eviscerators.

"Does it matter the name of the band really? They will likely be dead in less than two hours, Sam."

Rodolfo was at the rear, and while the question was issued to Kaz, the wait was so tense that he jumped with the impertinent interruption because of the growing nervousness, sign of his eagerness for the upcoming fight.

"However, what I would like to know is how are we going to do this, since charging head on will only give them the chance to hide behind cover, and I hate when we have to get them out of cover."

He then turned to talk to spades, who was directly in front of him
"By the way, miss Dealer, did I tell you that today the sun rays reflecting in your scarlet hair gives you a most enticing and attractive look?"

"If we let them get cover it could be a problem." voiced Lucas from his spot on the far left end of the group. "However, I could try to pick off a few from here. Unless anyone has some objection." His hand was already moving towards the pieces he would need, to change his gun for this range.

Lucas turned directing his attention to the town in front of them. His eyes locking on to the people wandering about in the open. With his eyes still fixed on the potential targets he stated, "I should at leat be able to get 1 or 2 before anyone notices, probably more."

Their leader was worried, and managed to let that slip through. Not the greatest trait for the head of their little band, reflected Bryan. Oh well, he'd either learn or he wouldn't, and the wastes had a tendency to chew up, digest and shit out those who didn't pay attention to its lessons. At the very least, he'd promised himself to do his best not to let the man get himself killed. Too emotional for his own good, the kind of man Bryan was more than happy to ditch, but he was trying his hand at new outlooks.

He spoke up when the question was put to the group.
"I say that we don't move until we know exactly how many of them there are. The more information we have on them, the better and quite frankly I'd rather not start attacking the place and find out there are actually twenty more than we thought there were."

He stepped forward up onto the sand dune, knelt down and cleared his throat before continuing.
"They're bandits, so they won't be too hard to tell apart; no uniforms or the like, so counting them should be easy, gods willing. Now, way I see it, we've got a few options open to us once we're ready. One: we try and pick them off one by one from afar, as has been suggested, hopefully letting the deaths of the men outside lure those inside into our sights - probably have to work in teams for that, one sniper and one spotter and guard - or two, we attack at night, identify any sentries and eliminate them and kill any sleepers. First plan relies on them not being disciplined and stupid, not unexpected from bandits, but if not then we set ourselves a trap. Night attack might be too chance heavy if we don't get all the sentries, or kill the sleepers silently enough, or if some bastard gets up for a midnight snack whilst we butcher his mates.I can think of a third option, but I think the townsfolk want a town to come back to, and I'm not fond of wasting lamp oil, stuff's expensive."

He turned and looked at the group.
"Any thoughts?"

Abraham stood on the dune, gnarled hands wrapped around his walking stick. Below him the bandits meandered around, with no clear intent. The old man listened to the others as they spoke, the leader of their merry band of badasses seemed almost eager for the fight. A trait that Abraham found entertaining. The idea of the LuckyBastard removing his bracer made the old man's grip tighten on his cane. The last time the fool had taken off his little toy, Abraham had fallen from his hiding place and down a flight of stairs. Something the old man was not keen on repeating.

When Bryan began speaking Abraham considered tuning him out. Sure the man's ideas were good, sometime infallible even. Yet, there was just something about him that made Abraham's spine tingle. Maybe it was the hint of arrogance in the man's attitude that the old man May or may not be imagining. Whatever it was, Abraham wasn't going to let that get in the way of getting the job done. Though he refrained from any comments himself, the old man did give an almost imperceptible nod to their leader's question letting the crazy bastard know he had heard.

Walking near the back of the group, slightly ahead of Sam, Vel played with one of his knives in his right hand nonchalantly as he listened to everybody throw their ideas around. Catching his knife he slid it into his belt as he turned around and made eye contact stretching his arms over his head and yawning he finally decided to say something, "Rondo's right for a change Sam," Vel half teased, a smile dancing across his face, "their name means nothing. But Bryan had a pretty decent idea, we should count 'em up before engaging. It'd give us a better idea of how much care we should take." Finishing his statement he spun on his heels and began walking facing forward again and with the same movement began flipping his knife again.

Vel's knife flipping was a nervous habit that he had developed in order to keep himself from doing the more rash things that his mind suggested, right now as the group walked towards the village and the bandits his mind was telling him that the Bastards were putting much too much debate into this. That it was a simple matter of walking up to the bandits guarding the edge of town, sticking a gun in their mouths and pulling the trigger. The rest would come running, right into their own deaths. At least that's what Vel's mind was telling him, his better judgment was telling him that if he tried that he'd be dead in a matter of minutes and that if on the off chance he succeeded Kaz would be rather cross with him.

"I guess so" Sam replied. "However the scouting before striking idea seems like a good idea. Any takers?" He asked openly. Sam went to check his gear while walking with the group. Gun loaded? Check. Eviscerators ready for standby? Check. Knuckles cracked? Now checked. Sam was ready to clear the bandits. The rest was right, no matter their names, they'll be goners. "How far now Kaz?" He yelled to the front of the group, with the man and red-headed women.

Near the rear of the group, two Rhysians sat listening to the group. One was a large man who was listening with ernest. The other was a smaller woman with a strong look of distaste piercing her brow. Finally, the woman, Lara, spoke.

"There's more here to do than just taking out as many as we can. There's plenty of us to spare for coming at the enemy from both sides. Otherwise, we could be walking straight in to a row of bullets."

To herself, she had thoughts that were a little less dignified. I could have sworn these idiots knew what they were doing when we first joined! I guess there's a reason this is called Lucky Bastards.

Victor said nothing. All he cared about was when the mission would actually start. A plan would be nice too. It would be suicide to head straight in to town without an idea of what they were doing. Lara didn't have to sound so demanding, though. She sounded as if she thought that everyone else here was an idiot. Then again, that's probably exactly what she was thinking. He sighed. Why can't things be simple, just once?