The Trail

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens, as it often does, on a patch of scrub desert under a cloud-studded sky. Peering eastward, you can make out the shape of a shattered, once-elevated highway in the light of the just-risen sun, and perhaps the jagged edges of the tallest parts of the Megaton city walls. The air is a little cooler than it's been on past visits, and here and there the brown and yellow scrub that characterizes Wasteland vegetation seems to be sharing space with hazes of green.

There's also kind of an overwhelming stink of cow, because Ellen left Megaton astride Shiphrah and Puah and the Brahmin is busily chewing its cud with one head nearby. Ellen pats the other head briefly with one stealth-suited hand as she says, "We're not far from the caravan route where the raiders ambushed our water men. This is the nearest door I could find."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thanks." Ellen gratefully accepts the canteen, handing it back again a moment later once she's had her drink. "Ugh. They've been feeding it... I'm sorry, I owe you an explanation, don't I? About the-" She gestures back the way she'd come. "I didn't get to brief you properly..."

[masterofgunfu]

Andrea stows the canteen but shakes her head. "Later. Let's get to a more secure location first. Unless it's something we need to take out now?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen shakes her head rapidly. "No. Nononono. They're too tough. The first one I saw, they were using mini-nukes against. People use artillery on these things..."

She thinks for a minute, then says, "I don't know if anywhere around here is all that safe. Not if these people have Disintegrators. We should- we should probably go back to the Bar."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo nods. "Sooner the better. These guys might send out another ambush patrol soon. We run into these guys on their home turf and we're in trouble."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We'll try a door on the next building up the hill, then?" Ellen suggests. "So they won't see me when I have to come back to the Wasteland next time?"

[masterofgunfu]

Andrea nods as she likes the plan, still, mission accomplished? Best to ask.

"I assuem you got all the intel you need?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"As much as I'm going to get," says Ellen. "Those buildings I mentioned- they were much too small for their doors, or for this many train cars. I'd be willing to bet that they've got interior doors leading into underground storage areas we weren't able to spot. We'd better assume there's a lot more to this place and these people's numbers than we were able to see today."

"But I'm not going to be able to get into there myself any time soon without being noticed, so..."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo nods. "We'll make it work. Best course of action right now is to head to Bar, get some reinforcements, and burn this place to the goddamn ground."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I can tell Paladin Tristan about it later," Ellen agrees. "Let's see about that door."

[OOC: I'll set Ellen up with an EP that links to this OOM.]