Play date: August 9, 2014
Game date: November 13, EY218
Location: Bashois, Nodapar system
Previous events: Find out more about Choi, Volkova gets to do some arena fighting
After the fight, Ester, Jillian, and Volkova head back to Purnima's bar and inn and go to bed, Volkova holding her Shitty winnings close to her as she falls asleep, a smile on her face.
November 14, EY218
No one has a hangover the next morning, or at least not after Malcolm makes some of his special tea to take the edge off of his minor headache. All in all he gets off easy.
If Choi is hiding in the delta to the north it would be ideal to get a vehicle to get there instead of walking almost 300 kilometres to get there. The rowboat from Minty Alley is a possibility but not nearly as appealing as something motorized. Malcolm remember seeing a building that looks like a garage and some tire tracks in Carerra. If the vehicles here are anything like the generator was, maybe Volkova can repair them and in return the "Gandhis" can borrow one? Bishop's the obvious choice to ask for this given his immense personal charm. Maybe he can also get some food for the trip -- no one's too eager to dip into the edible lichen bag unless they absolutely have to.
Bishop and Volkova go to see Carerra's boss while the others stay at Purnima's. They quickly get an audience with Schmitz and Bishop does manage to get her on side with their proposal. They can talk to Shiv, the mechanic in the garage, and work on the vehicles there. As for food, they're have to scavenge on the way. The landscape's not so barren that they'll starve and Bishop's good at surviving in the wilderness.
The garage holds two motorcycles, two jeeps, and two ten-metre boats, all at most mediocre in their state of repair. Disturbingly, one each of the jeeps and boats has an empty pintle mount. There's also someone in a chair with his feet up on a cluttered desk, reading a girly magazine. This is indeed Shiv, and he takes an instant liking to Bishop and Volkova when they show up. Unlike Volkova he's a fairly greaseless mechanic, and when she examines the various craft it's obvious that he's clean because he doesn't do much work: none of the vehicles is in terrible shape and shouldn't take too long to fix. One of each of the vehicles needs work to get up and running. Volkova decides to begin with the motorcycle and get some quick results.
While Volkova is working on the motorbike Malcolm wanders over, bored and wanting to do something. Jillian stays in and sketches horribly. With Bishop and Malcolm helping her Volkova gets the bike functional in a few hours. Based on Shiv's comments as he observes them he's actually a reasonably skilled mechanic, just one who doesn't actually want to do any work.
Motorbike done, the trio start in on the jeep. Again, it's just a few hours until it's done, but by this point it's mid-afternoon and everyone's hungry. There's a mess hall but Shiv suggests that as Gandhis they eat at Purnima's, where the food is better. Purnima's not happy to see them -- she never seems to be happy to see them -- but the food is quite good and Ester and Jillian join them for the late lunch. Volkova continues her obsession with fresh vegetables. They discuss the situation and decide to take a boat when they go if they're going to be heading up a delta. A jeep will probably get bogged down at some point.
When Bishop, Malcolm, and Volkova get back to the garage Malcolm notices that based on the layout of the garage there's usually another jeep here. He casually asks Shiv about it and finds out that some of the guys here took it to Fangtooth last night. Uh oh. Everyone got the feeling that Schmitz thought there was something fishy about them but if she's sent people to Fangtooth it's likely that some real Gandhis are on their way back and the crew had better be gone by the time the goons get back. Pressing Shiv on the matter, it's obvious that the jeep might return to Fangtooth at any time.
Suddenly extremely pressed for time, Volkova refuses help in repairing the boat -- anyone else will just get in the way -- and throws herself into it the way that only she can. Shiv's impressed and not a little frightened by her Khnuta-led flailing and Bishop takes the time to explain her method and make friends with the prison mechanic.
Volkova's basically done when her frantic smashing causes the boat to slip off of its trestle and fall onto her! She's pinned to the ground, instantly rendered unconscious, and only Bishop's quick action and deft use of slugs keeps her from dying. Shiv and Malcolm use a winch to pull the boat off of her and drag her to relative safety. Things go from bad to worse when they hear a horn outside. Malcolm rushes to a small window in the garage's door and sees a jeep and truck -- no doubt loaded with heavily-armed Gandhis -- coming in the gate! While Bishop and Shiv get the boat onto a trailer and hitch it to the jeep Malcolm sprints to Purnima's and gets Ester and Jillian. By the time he gets back they've got the boat set up and are ready to go. For some reason Bishop's also managed to convince Shiv to come with them and see the world.
Malcolm takes the wheel of the jeep with Shiv and Bishop in the passenger seats while the rest of them hide in the boat. Carerra's built right on the coast and has a ramp into the water. Malcolm drives the boat there but there's no way to do it in a sneaky way and lots of people see them. Thankfully, the real Gandhis are nowhere to be seen; hopefully they're in a long meeting with Schmitz. At the gate to the ocean Shiv convinces the guards to open the doors and they're soon in the water, speeding off, Malcolm glad that he took the time on iLanga to learn some boating!
It's not long before they see the other boat in the water coming after them. It's got five or so people in it and has a machine gun mounted on the pintle mounting! The pursuing pilot is more skilled than Malcolm and doesn't mind bouncing her boat while Malcolm's reluctant to do so with a grievously injured Volkova on board, and so the distance between the two boats closes rapidly.
Ester takes Irina from Volkova and prepares to use her while Bishop takes the "tree" from Volkova and uses what he remembers from Dreaming with Volkova to manage to control a three-metre long lamprey-like creature that happens to be near them in the water. Not entirely sure how he's doing it he makes it swim towards the other boat, planning on getting it to hang onto the rudder and prevent further pursuit.
To also help their odds Bishop takes a chance and with a combination of most of what's left in his first aid kit patches up Volkova to the point where she'll be very temporarily able to act, though he makes sure that she's immobilized below her sternum to keep her from injuring herself worse. Ester props Volkova up, facing towards the back, and hands over Irina, taking her assault rifle in hand. When the range between the two boats has closed enough to allow fire Bishop uses some aromatic crapbark to wake her up in a most unpleasant way.
The combat is largely a matter of who decides to open fire first, and that's Ester firing from a fair distance and putting trust in her skill and rate of fire. She lets loose with a long, chattering burst from her assault rifle and from the red splashes in the enemy boat manages to land several hits. The boat slows drastically, the pilot having taken a bullet, and and Volkova fires a grenade at it out of willpower more than aim. She's lucky and lands a direct hit! Then she passes out again before she can tell what the result is. The pursuing boat comes to a lurching stop, probably with a hole in the hull, and several of the people in it are slumped over motionless, including the machine gunner. As Malcolm takes them away from the terrible scene they can see the lamprey-like creature slithering into the swamped boat as it settles into the water.
As it's only a few kilometres to Minty Alley they get there quickly. It's an unfortunately obvious place to go if anyone else wants to follow them but Bishop knows that it has a good medical setup that Volkova could benefit from. While Bishop and Ester carry Volkova in on a makeshift stretcher Malcolm hides the boat as best he can with Jillian and Shiv's help and they enter the settlement as well. Everyone's weapons are taken away from them but this isn't really the time to argue and the Minty Alleyans seem like decent people.
One of the odd things about uBuntan medicine is that its principles are different enough from typical medicine that people can benefit from both in an almost independent fashion. Bishop and Minty Alley's Nurse Jackson work on Volkova at the same time, making faces at the tools of the others' trade, but after an hour or so it's obvious that Volkova isn't in any danger of dying. She'll likely be bedridden for at least a week.
Jillian and Malcolm talk about what to do next. Samiksha will be flying the Hummingbird to Carerra on the 22nd if not told otherwise, so it will be a good idea for the two of them to tell her not to do so. While they're en route Bishop, Ester, and Shiv will stay in Minty Alley and take care of Volkova.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 19)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 7)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)