Serenity Valley, The Friars Club

[The Sherwood]

The shuttle flew up into a night sky that was almost as dark as the Black. Almost.

There was too much light from the towns nearby to suit any pilot worth their breath. A real pilot preferred the the true dark one could only find in the Black.

The Sherwood and the tent city that had been put up dwindled in size until it was but a speck on the horzion as the shuttle flew through the atmo to the landing zone.

The area was dark and wooded with a clearing just big enough for the shuttle. In the near distance, the shuttle's instruments detected the heat from an occupied cabin not more than a mile distant.

Between the cabin and the LZ was a rock formation called "Ship Rock" It looked like it had a Forecastle and Stern of a water-borne vessel. It even had a place that looked like a bridge.

Ship Rock was almost dead center between the two places. It gave a clear vantage of the surrounds to anyone capable enough to climb it.

Once the shuttle landed it was time for the Friars to play.

((OOC) An interesting point to make, There is such a place in Wisconsin, USA called Ship Rock that fits the above discription.)

[Nate Crawford]

Nate stood up as soon as the shuttle landed, pulled the knitted cap over his head and flashed a grin at the others, bright white in his painted face. “Right then, darlings, if you'll be so kind as to give me a few minutes head start, I'll be getting you some eyes in the sky before the action starts,” he said and opened the hatch, sending a wink back over his shoulder before he exited and jumped down to ground. He went as far as the edge of the clearing, slipping into the shadows of the trees, where he turned back to the shuttle for a moment as he pressed the induction mic to his throat, speaking without any sound coming to his lips. “This is The Queen, checking in. Still reading me, Merry Men?”

[Melody O'Ryan]

The night was chilly as Melody followed Nate outside the shuttle. She moved to one side as she stepped clear of the doorway. This did two things, it made way for the next person to pass through and it made it harder for anyone trying to track her to hit her, as she was in the dark.

The shuttle had no lights on as it landed and the group of Friars went about their mischief.

Nate's comm ahd sounded over the ear buds.

“This is The Queen, checking in. Still reading me, Merry Men?”

"Five by five, Queen. Merry Men standing by"

She had whispered it into the mic but knew it sounded as if she had been standing right beside each of her fellow Friars and whispered in their ears.

----------------------------------

A few miles away, Private James Winsloe Clarence sat in shack and waited for the Cowboys to show up. He had been put in charge of a small task force of three men to pass over a crate of food stuffs to his contacts.

Clarence was a good Alliance soldier and did as he was told.

'Ours is not to question why, but to do or die'

It had been drilled into him a long time ago and he still lived by it.

A long time ago being back in Boot Camp which was an embarrassing six short months ago.

[Hagar]

In the shuttle, Hagar waited.

Surveillance and stealth were not his strengths. That belonged to the other crew members. Patience wasn't really a strong point of his personality either, and he found his fingers working through a pair of colored scarves, engaged in the trick of invisibly interchanging them so that they appeared to change colors.

"Mel?" He finally let himself speak up after an entire wenty eight seconds. Not his record by a long shot, but still, not bad, "You want me to wait here? Or should I circle around so I can be at the pick up when you liberate the goods?"

He paused for a moment and then grinned, "Liberate. I've always loved that word!"

[Nate Crawford]

"Five by five, Queen. Merry Men standing by."

“Roger that, Merry Men. Queen out.” Nate clicked off the mic and gave a last look toward the shuttle, then slipped the night vision goggles from a pocket to fit them over his eyes as he turned to head into the forest to make his way to the rock up ahead. The place was a perfect sniper point. Almost too perfect, in fact and as he made his way silently through the brush, he reconsidered whether it was all that clever to use it after all. It was an exposed position, high up and next to no cover if someone decided to start shooting at him. Those were definitely cons. The pros were pretty much the same, but for different reasons. The fact that the rock protruded over the trees gave it the advantage of height. Treetops might get in the way, but Tina's IR scope would see right through the foliage, so that wasn't as big a problem as it might sound like. Then there was the exposed position. From the ground, he would be virtually invisible, but if they had airborne support, they would spot him in seconds just by overflying the rock.

And, of course, there was the obvious thing. It was a rock. A large rock. Which meant climbing. And he was quite sure that no one had been so thoughtful as to carve steps into the thing or rig any ropes or ladders to help a sniper to get to the top. But it was pointless to worry about the climb until getting to the rock. Moving through a dark forest with nothing but a pair of night vision goggles for aid was work enough to concentrate on and Nate moved slowly through the undergrowth, watching his step to avoid stepping on dried branches or worse; walking into tripwires or landmines. It was unlikely that the enemy would be so well prepared, after all they thought they were just here for a simple exchange of goods. But you could never be too careful and there was still a remote chance that they had been warned of the Friars and so Nate took the slow route, acting as if he really was walking through an active minefield.

[Melody O'Ryan]

"Mel? ... You want me to wait here? Or should I circle around so I can be at the pick up when you liberate the goods?"

He paused for a moment and then grinned, "Liberate. I've always loved that word!"

Mel thought for a short while.

"No Hagar, I'll need you with us. We strike quite a figure. Jaelle, I'll need yhou to get in the shadows, near the door, before we knock. Keep those knives ready, just in case."

“Roger that, Merry Men. Queen out.” came Nate's reply over the mic as he disappered from sight.

A mile away, Sergeant Cribbs waited for the "cowboys" to take the food cubes. He knew that it was just a name and didn't figure anyone would actually ride up on a horse. A mule, maybe. But not a horse.

[Gerald_Chisholm]

Gerald ran a double check on the monitors and settings for the shuttle before pulling his bag onto his lap. He pulled the assault rifle out and checked it for any problems. Slamming a full clip in, Gerald checked his grenades than zipped the bag up. Slinging it over his shoulder, he made his way to Melody.

"Liberate. I've always loved that word!"

"Yes! Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor," Gerald said standing next to Melody with his arms crossed.

"No Hagar, I'll need you with us. We strike quite a figure. Jaelle, I'll need yhou to get in the shadows, near the door, before we knock. Keep those knives ready, just in case."

He hated to hear those three words come out of her mouth. 'Just in case' is exactly why he had the twisting his feeling in his gut. The feeling it was a double cross, that the informants were spies, that all this was a trap. A mouse trap set up by a cat but these mice won't go down easily.

[Nate Crawford]

It had taken him a bit longer to get through the forest than he'd preferred, but that was the price of being overcautious. He stopped at the edge of the clearing, standing in the shadow of the trees and stared up at the monstrosity of stone, shaped like an Earth-That-Was pirate ship. He studied the cliff face through the nightvision goggles, trying to plot out a route before beginning the climb. It didn't look too difficult, but appearances were often wrong and while there seemed to be plenty of foot and hand holds, those same holds could prove to be his undoing. He slung Tina onto his back and tightened the strap, so the rifle wouldn't move too much and hinder his movements and then he activated the mic. “Merry Men, Queen here. Got a bit of a climb ahead. I'll get back to you when I have the high ground. Queen out,” he said, subvocalising the words, knowing that the throat mic would pick it up and still worried that there might be sentries about. Of course, if there were sentries about, he was about to present them with a very nice target...

[Melody O'Ryan]

“Merry Men, Queen here. Got a bit of a climb ahead. I'll get back to you when I have the high ground. Queen out,”

The call was heard through each ear bud as Nate began his climb.

"Rodger that" came the reply in Melody's voice.

Melody and company rode and walked the trail from the shuttle toward the cabin. They had their story straight and were ready for anything thing this group could throught at them. She hoped, at least.

As they came adjecent to the rock formation that Nate was to climb, she wondered how far up he was.

The small mule made its engine noise as they continued on their way. If anyone were in the area, they would know that company was coming.

************

In the cabin, with the food bricks, the private heard the approch of the mule's engine.

He looked up from his coffee as sweat dripped from his face. The night was cool, but fear made him sweat anyway. He knew that all he had to do was deliver the bricks and get paid. That was it. These were long time customers. That is what he had been told.

It would be a simple transfer.

There and back.

They were late though.

[Nate Crawford]

Nate stood at the foot of the rock, craning his neck back to look up at what looked like a sheer cliff face. They always looked like sheer cliff faces when you were at the bottom of them, but at least this one had plenty of hand- and footholds. He took a deep breath and checked once again that Tina was securely strapped to his back, then gave a curt nod to himself and stepped up to begin the climb.

The first few meters went without a hitch and he got into a nice rhythm, easily finding the hand- and footholds to get him up the rock. He kept three points on the holds at all times and chanted the mantra to himself, lips moving with no sound coming over them, although he'd kept the mic open so the chant was transmitted over the induction to the Merry Men. “Left hand, right foot. Left foot, right hand. Left hand, right foot. Left foot, right hand.”

He was halfway up the cliff in short order, going at a steady pace upward. He reached up with his right hand and lifted his left foot to new holds, grabbed a protrusion with his fingers and realised his mistake a second later. The rock came loose, fell and would have struck his head if he hadn't dodged sideways, hanging from the fingers of his left hand, while he scrambled to find new holds for his feet. “Ruttin' hell 'n hangbags,” he muttered in a strained voice as he searched for a new handhold for his right hand, preferable before the fingers of his left gave out. Searching across the pockmarked rock, his right hand finally caught hold of an indentation. After a test of its ability to hold, he shifted his weight and started searching for footholds, boots scraping over the surface on the rock until the toes found small holes to lodge in. With the danger past, he allowed himself to breathe and rested his forehead against the cool rock, waiting a few moment to stop his muscles from trembling before he continued the climb.

More careful now, it took a while longer to get to the top as he tested each hold before putting weight on it, but he made it there, slung a forearm over the edge to search for a hold, found it and dragged himself upward. The sight that met him through the green-tinted light of the nightvision goggles nearly had him drop back down. He was staring straight into the dark holes of a pair of missing eyes and an equally dark hole of a missing nose. “Hwoon dahn,” he whispered, swallowing a lump in his throat as he moved to the side to get himself up and over the edge without touching the skull. He scanned the top of the cliff, looking for anything living and finding just a family of small rodents of some kind, making a home of the ribcage of the skeleton.

A few scraps of uniform still clinging to the skeletal form identified it as an Alliance soldier and the rusted sniper rifle next to it, identified its former profession. Nate decided that neither the long-dead soldier, nor his useless rifle was any of his concern and moved himself into position at the other end of the rocky platform, slung Tina off his back and checked that she hadn't suffered any damage from his near fall. Satisfied that his own sniper rifle was in perfect condition still, he folded the bipod down and set up to get a clear line to the cabin a few hundred meters away. He switched the scope to infrared and moved the nightvision goggle up his forehead before inspecting the target. “Merry Men. Queen is in position. You have one – repeat one – of the sheriff's men at the cabin. Checking perimeter now.”

[Hagar]

So far all good! And Nate, far above, eye to scope, was covering them all, seeing it all; Their own guardian angel... No wings, though, or feathers. That was Randi's gig. The night air, the post-show high, and the adrenalin of the job sent Hagar's giddy mind off, spinning a new image. Nate The Sniper garbed in Randi Love's aqua colored gown, wearing a huge feathery headress and rainbow-tinted wings, aiming his rifle down the hill at the cabin, and the magician had to stifle the sudden giggle that almost burst from him.

“Merry Men. Queen is in position. You have one – repeat one – of the sheriff's men at the cabin. Checking perimeter now.”

"Only one!" Hagar murmured happily, his fingers twirling in the air as he followed the mule, "I'm liking those odds!"

One here right now, though, often led to one more over there, and another over here, and one down under the bed just waiting to blow the whole gig. Hagar felt the giddiness drift away a speck and his fingers stopped toying with the night breeze and came to rest on the butt of his pistol. Glancing around at the group, he knew- not just sensed in some vague instinct that comes in the night hours- but knew in his core that they were ready for anything.

He had to be ready, too.

[The Alliance]

Sergeant Cribbs walked around behind the shack and relieved himself. Who would have figured that he'd be here. He'd done everything he could to stay out of the war and now here he was; the last of the conscripts he'd fought in one minor action and the war ended. Now he just had to leg out the 'enlistment' terms. Funny how they still called it that, even though he'd been drafted.

He heard something, walked around to the front of the shack, which took all of twenty steps. Cribbs squinted then leaned in the busted door, "Sounds like they're coming."

The private jumped up and bumped the tiny table. The coffee container and his near empty cup clattered to the rotting wood floor. He looked over the three containers, almost like coffins he thought, and hurried out the door.

The private straightened the rifle strapped across his shoulder, Sergeant Cribbs shrugged and rolled his eyes. The kid private should be at a school dance the way Cribbs figured it. Instead he'd been picked up on some petty charge and offered to work out some time getting paid to replace the mustered out combat troops; or do a little hard labor.

Pitiful was how Cribbs figured it. He wondered how they'd actually won the war as the Merrymen approached. "Don't be nervous kid, ain't inspection, just help em load up them containers and we can go get a bottle before we gotta report back."

[Jaelle]

Jaelle had taken her sweet time getting into position. Despite the sad tale her brash manner had told, she was a woman of a meticulous persuasion. Each foot-fall met the grass without a thud, even in those worn leather-hide boots that looked like she'd skinned and tanned it herself three weeks prior. She was dressed lightly for the occasion, she'd be going in close as preferred. Only a deep green tank top, flexible cargo pants and a small sum of useful items that might be a danger to a small child if left unattended. She crept through the shadows with her eyes as slits, so as not to let the whites of her eyes give the gypsy visibility from the shadows. Jaelle's tattoos suited her environment like a human chameleon, this mission was decidedly her color.

"No Hagar, I'll need you with us. We strike quite a figure. Jaelle, I'll need yhou to get in the shadows, near the door, before we knock. Keep those knives ready, just in case."

Within her ear she could hear the others chatter back and forth, but didn't dare respond and make a noise as she closed in on her objective. The shack before her and the two heart beats that thundered in front of it were all she was concerned with for now. Stalking up behind the shack she sunk low into the grass, like a lioness preparing for the bloody rendering of the weakest gazelle grazing. There was no glint of metal in the dark, as she was careful to conceal them from the moonlight. Two blades gripped rigor mortis and Jaelle became still, awaiting further orders. If the moons were any indication, it was gonna be a bloody hunt tonight.

[Gerald_Chisholm]

Gerald slowed the mule to a stop at the edge of the clearing. He saw the Sergeant and private walk towards them, the private fumbling with his rifle. Setting his back next to his feet, Gerald unzipped and flipped the safety of his own rifle. He left it on the floorboard and hopped out of the mule. Turning around, he quickly check his pistols then made his way over to Melody.

Cribbs, he knew from past business deals but he didn't recognize the private. "So far so good, though i believe the new guy might wet himself," He whispered to Melody. Gerald looked around quickly, all quiet and hopefully it will stay that way. As far as they knew there was only Melody. Hagar, and himself. Jaelle was very well camouflaged and Nate was their sniping guardian angel. Get the goods and leave. Simple as that.

[Nate Crawford]

Nate watched from high above and far away as the Friars got into position, Jaelle's heat signature disappearing from his scope as she went behind the cabin. While the IR could see through walls, it couldn't see through several walls and when a figure emerged from the back of the cabin, he first thought it was Jaelle having gone for a scout around the hut. But the body type was wrong, and taller than the Gypsy and Nate cursed the limits of technology, or at least the bit of technology attached to his rifle. Too late to warn the Friars about the second unfriendly and he took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself.

A few moments later, his lips were moving as he started to sing along with the choir of crickets and critters, and though no sound escaped from his throat the Friars would be able to hear his singing through the induction mic.

“First I was afraid // I was petrified // Kept thinking I could never live // without you by my side // But then I spent so many nights // thinking how you did me wrong // I grew strong // I learned how to get along.”

He paused for a few heartbeats and scanned the area again, scanned the area and found no additional unfriendlies in the nearby area, but he made doubly sure of that judgement by lifting his head a little to slip the nightvision goggle on to get a broader view of the area. Seeing nothing but the small heat signatures of critters, he pushed the goggles back up on his forehead and returned to looking through the scope.

“And so you're back // from outer space // I just walked in to find you here // with that sad look upon your face // I should have changed that stupid lock // I should have made you leave your key // If I had known for just one second you'd be back to bother me.”

He couldn't help thinking of Murphy when that particular part of the song came around. It was like tempting fate, sometimes, singing this tune, but it had long since become a habit and habits were hard to break for a sniper. Already at sniper training, while the others had sung to the tune of 'This is my rifle, there are many like it...', Nate had been singing to the tune of Gloria. And still did.

“Go on now go walk out the door // just turn around now // 'cause you're not welcome anymore // weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye // you think I'd crumble // you think I'd lay down and die...”

He stopped there, pulled back the bolt of the rifle and loaded a bullet into the chamber and slowed his breathing, focusing on keeping the two Alliance people in his crosshairs, switching from one to the other every few seconds. The next move would be Melody's and all he could do up here was wait for the code word to take a shot.



<< Lyrics: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive >>