thebastion | Day 163, Closed

Who: Colin Starfury, everyone who responded to his rallying cry
What: Hunting a Gasfella for a fallen friend
When: Day 163, "Oh God" Early
Where: The Skyway
Format: Whatever the heck you want, we're all big kids here
Open: Closed to those who responded.
Warnings: Violence, oh boy is there gonna be violence. Also, this thing has killed one person already, so there's that.

He'd gathered his crew. He'd interviewed Rin. He'd examined Night's body, the wounds she'd suffered. He had all the evidence he'd be able to get here, and now it was time to head out. He'd grabbed his pistols and an ammo belt, wearing both openly. Also, he'd fashioned a bandolier some time ago to carry grenades, and today was the first time he was going to wear it out.

He wasted no time in getting everyone who said they wanted to come. He was mindful of the residents who didn't want anything to do with it, those who needed only to sleep and mourn. But for those who were going to hunt this thing down, Colin was there, waking them from their rest and rousing them to meet at the Skyway entrance.

There, he set out what was coming in what he hoped was easily understandable terms.

"Okay everyone," he announces. "Our first stop is where this all went down. We need to find more information so we can track down the creature. Rin tells me it was a BIG Gasfella, different coloration than the ones we normally see out there. She'd tried to talk to it, and it attacked them mercilessly. It didn't want them there."

His eyes narrowing, he continues. "So we're going there, we're going to find what it was guarding, and then we're going to find it. We are going to give it one chance to surrender, and if it does anything other than lay down its weapon and put its hands in the air, we are going to kill it so certainly that it will have to crawl into its afterlife."

He looks at Nanaki briefly, then he looks at Paarthurnax and Alucard. "Again I'm going to say... No eating this thing. It tore apart two full-power demons, I don't want anyone getting close enough for a hug, because that will open you up to all kinds of hurt," he explains. "We can inflict plenty of harm WITHOUT opening ourselves up to close range attacks."

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Ryu isn't much use as a detective, that much is true. But when a fight starts, they can be certain he'll be able to end it. The entire time they've been searching, he keeps his right hand on the grip of his sword. At a moment's notice the blade can be drawn and put to good use. So far, however, everything seems to be quiet.

So far.

"Got a plan, Colin?" He asks in a slightly hushed tone on the chance the Gasfella is nearby.

"Once we find it, I'm sending Paar on high so he can cut off the escape route," Colin explains. "I'm marching forward to address it, and all of you are fanning out so you can take it in a crossfire. Once the initial salvo is launched, I want melee fighters to close in while our ranged attackers hang back and hit with suppressing fire. If it survives the initial assault, our ranged sorts likely aren't going to be dishing out enough harm to bring it down, so we'll have to get messy."

He pauses.

"And wary of the dragon. Paar is on another level far above all of us," he adds. "If Paar needs us out of the way, we get out of the way, period. Fortunately, Paar is more overwatch than artillery in this engagement. I don't want any surprises, and he'll be able to keep the entire field in sight the whole time."

He nods, noting where exactly Paar's presence will be. Though it does leave him with a lingering question. "When you say we'll have to get messy, what do you mean?"

He has at least half an idea as to what Colin means. The Gasfella goes down. The only question is how much overkill Colin wants brought to the table.

"I really hope it just surrenders."

"I mean that I'll be wanting out melee attackers in there hampering it and hitting it where it hurts. I want it disarmed, dismantled, and destroyed. Not necessarily in that order."

He glances at Ryu, and he nods. "Surrender would be preferable, but I predict less than an eight percent chance of that actually happening," he adds. "Unless it's sorely wounded. But we don't know the full extent of its injuries yet. Or even if it's still injured. OR if it found friends."

That worried him pretty significantly. "I've had experience hunting a wounded creature before. If you thought it was dangerous when it fought Rin and Night, it'll be even worse now." He mentions, memories drifting back to the Nue that Bunyan had the boys hunt years ago. He also remembers the conclusion, and Rin's description of the Gasfella.

"Do you think it has cubs of its own?" If the Gasfella attacked them for entering a particular bit of territory, that made about as much sense to him as the possibility of someone or something else controlling it.

"You're not the only one," Colin said. "We had a..."

He pauses, and glances at Ryu. "We had a space eel nest in one of our mining claims almost a century ago. Finding it was easy, but once it was wounded, it took down two ships before we finally cleared it out. Wounded creatures are always dangerous."

He marches in silence for a moment, considering his answer to the second question. "I've considered the possibility," Colin says. "It's a non-zero chance that I'm sorely hoping isn't the case."

"Do you have a plan for that as well?" He asks, for Ryu it wasn't a question that needed answering. The Nue cubs were already dead when he found them. However, the sight of the dead cubs didn't do all that much to assuage his guilty conscience.

"Three," Colin confirmed. "None of which will satisfy everyone, and one of which I'm fairly certain will turn everyone else against me. Needless to say, that's my last ditch scenario. If the scenario manifests, I'll share the plans, but I'd rather not put that thought in everyone else's head just yet."

He has plans upon plans, but very seldom is he willing to share the more extreme ones.

"I hope you won't need to tell us any of them." He responds with a grim tone. "If things go that bad, it's difficult to say what will happen. You know these people better than I do. If it comes to that, then the best I can promise you is I'll try to keep anyone from hurting each other, but I suspect they'll be more likely to obey Paarthunax."

Really, there are so many ways this can go wrong, and it's easy enough to see Ryu is uneasy and on guard.

Day 163, Closed | WE HUNT!

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