Izurich
AHeartlessNobody
Zoie Hart
Deadlyrose9641
Blade17
Tlstiffl
Tim the Yeti
Rockette
Stern AlgorithmGerard Biserus
"It wasn't me this time." Galahad insisted as Morden hopped out of the back of the truck, Val not far behind him. The truck itself lifted considerably, now that Morden's weight was no longer dragging it down to earth. The two took stock of the current situation, finding it better to hurl comments from a slight distance away rather than be right up next to Justice as she handed the old Marshall her papers. "I don't think they like us much." Gerard commented idly, leaning towards the larger man with a faux conspiratorial glance. "And here I thought people had respect for the military."
Gerard watched with an amused glance as Val more or less returned to the proverbial scene of the crime, apparently unaware of what had just happened. Not that any of them made any moves to explain that to her- At least for Gerard's part, he was rather curious if things would spiral even more out of control. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately depending on the person, no more shenanigans were to happen, at least for the moment. The cashier, already sheet white and didn't offer much in the terms of words "F-four Gil."
"Tourism... Uh huh..." the old timer grunted as he flipped through the folder of papers Justice provided to him. He didn't necessarily seem convinced, but at the very least, his hand left its proximity to his pistol when his eyes confirmed that he had not just run up on a squad of AWOL WARDENs. He glanced up briefly when Kalina cut in with a bit of a snort. "Oh they've certainly been through- up and passed on by without much a care. Don't think Rupert and his fellas were too keen on chasing after them. 'Sides, any more people leave, and we won't be much of a town anymore."
"Well, looks like everything checks out. Sorry for the hold up, not a lot of us 'round these parts, so we gotta be bit cautious when folk start throwing magic around." the old marshall finally concluded after a few minutes of pouring over documents, handing them back to Justice as he waved off the backup on the water tower. "Safe to assume ya'll be passing us by come the morn? Careful on your way up north, bullet sharks been tearin' up the ground by the 'forest."
Initial troubles aside, eventually the WARDENs were left to their own business, now free of encroaching Marshalls.
The Cloudgazer, witnessing its first bit of business in weeks- if not months probably, opened up most of the floor for them- a quartet of two bed flats, all next door to each other, though the Barghest squad had set up most of their kit in the empty parking lot, with a small portable etherium-powered fire pit, a gas grill and a collection of collapsible stools, beer cases of varying fullness, and procured cushions for seating areas. The truck sat nearby, corralling the flickering light, doors open and engine idling as music spilled out of the radio inside and over their makeshift camp. The faint smell of charcoal and lighter fluid mixed with the savory smells of meat as food roasted on the grill, and the golden afternoon sun had given way to the blue and purple of the evening sky and a cool, early autumn breeze that wasn't quite biting but just enough to warrant a jacket or sweater.
"I'm telling you- they were so fucking mad!" Gerard laughed, firelight reflecting off his glasses as he sat around the pit, in the midst of retelling a story from one of their training days. He took another swig of his beer before continuing. "Not because Morden busted through the bunker wall, but because he busted through the walls of both the team locker rooms and the instructor's observation post on his way there. Shoulda seen the look on their faces- Its miracle we weren't disqualified."
Pushing himself up to his feet, Gerard crunched the can in his hands and launched the resulting disk across the parking lot, the bit of tin clattering against the side of a trash bin, along with another some half-dozen crushed cans from earlier that night. He blinked in surprise for a moment- not entirely sure why as he felt something akin to a chill run over him. A split second later the truck and etherium fire pit shut off before flickering back to life a moment later. Lights in the motel and around in the town flickered off and on again in a strange wave before stabilizing.
Gerard was about to make a snarky remark about how broken down the town was before he saw it- before they all saw it. Nearly impossible for anyone to miss, as out of a thick layer of cloud above them fell a massive fireball. The members of Barghast squad could clearly see that it was not a magical fireball or meteor, but rather an airship falling out of the sky. The airship was huge- bigger than any Rassvet warship. The colors of the ship were hard to make out- its flag scorched and unrecognizable as everything around it was painted orange and grey by trailing fire and smoke, but it certainly seemed like a civilian liner rather than a warship, if its smooth shapes and angles, and large, probably formerly white balloon was any indication. That being said, it was rather hard to see the entire silhouette of the ship, its back half was all but missing and its sides appeared to have been peppered with holes- likely of the cannon variety- and its belly belched fire and smoke.
Passing overhead, Gerard craned his neck as he watched the massive airship continue its fiery arc across the sky, pieces of wreckage, debris, and even a few parachutes and what appeared to be escape pods broke away from it. In the relative silence of the still night, even from a far distance they could hear the echoing screams of people as they burned alive or fell off the ship- or both. The airship was rapidly losing altitude and continued to shed large chunks of itself before it smashed into the petrified badlands some dozen miles from them.
They could still see the glow of the fire and smoke from behind the craggy rocks and stone features- which glowed brighter for a moment before the ground rumbled and a explosion erupted from the location of the wreckage, the ground beneath Sapple Springs rumbling as the ship’s Mist Reactor went critical and failed.
“That didn't look like one of ours.” Gerard murmured as he pulled out his phone, his brow furrowing as he noticed that there was no signal- not even emergency lines. The radiating mist from the explosion was probably fucking with their signal- that, or something particularly sinister was afoot. "Think I saw a pod or two deploy parachutes before they got too low."