OOC - Am I still in this? I've had some work that needed doing which is why I haven't done anything further with my character. Let me know if I'm in/out.

Corporal Henry Jones

Henry's unit was trailing a group of travelers who was looking for a GECK. The Enclave was very interested in finding one, so once their informant at Moriarty's bar told them that they were headed for Florida the Enclave had sent the Hazardous environment recon unit
to track down and retrieve the GECK. The plan was to wait until the group had gotten it, then they would swoop in and take the GECK though persuasion or violence. Persuasion was the best choice, reward from the enclave in the form of amnesty and a chance to join the Enclave and a ride home via Vertibird. However if they proved uncooperative then it would take violence. Henry set out from HQ and listened to the briefing. The group was around 10 people give or take a few, they were heavily armed and not much else was known. The plan was to set up near Andale, once there the team would assure that they would ensure the safety of the mercenary band. They needed them alive to find the GECK. The team boarded the Transport, the team consisted of Henry, the rifleman and tech specialist, 3 other commandos, a medic and the heavy weapons specialist. Henry didn't bother knowing the team, they probably wouldn't survive. They arrived at Andale and set up hidden sniper position around the town. Henry got the orders to open fire and clear the entire place. They managed to drop one of the citizens and the rest cowered inside. The group arrived the next morning and the town was probably selling pretty bad from the decomposing corpse of the downed citizens. So far so good...

((You're Kaiser, everyone wanted to move along.))

Once moving through the town Demetri held his hand up, "Okay we can set up camp here," Demetri said, "I'll try and get a fire going, smoke 'em if you got 'em."

Demetri grabbed some wood which he snapped off a collasped building, placeing them in a pile with a ring of stone around it, he tore up the letter he had recieved for this mission and used it to help get the wood alight, the wasteland may be warm during the day, but freezing cold at night. Just as he was about to light the fire a women turned up, around about thirty if Demetri hazarded a guess, she was also with a child...

The women just stood on the edge, "Carry on south, my employeer has a suprise for you," the women said, she left as quickly as she came. Looking to the others which slight puzzlement on his face, "what was that about?"

"Our job," said Starr, sarcasm showing in her voice again. Today had been quite a nuisance for Starr, she didn't like sitting around waiting for everyone else, how vaque the employer was, or that fact they had to wander around the wasteland at night now. At least they would be getting farther from Andale's stench.

I'm getting some answers from our employers as soon as we meet them.

Starr stood up and unslung her M4, "I'll take point again."

Nathan grinned and considered the group feeling a small bit better about their awareness as a general feeling of uneasiness swept the group. Nathan had been to Andale recently looking to update his map and had barely escaped the attention of a slaver party about ten strong. Those houses were death traps, he had seen the entire party killed when a complex trap had triggered slamming shut the doors and watching as the multiple window panes exhaled a blast of dust and black smoke following a rumble of dull thumps indicating grenade explosions. Shadowed figures moved in the background and Nathan for one knew that was a place he did not want to find himself in that place unaware.

breaking out of his memories Nathan heard the tail end of a conversation "-all them zombies, you probably wont wake up tomorrow if yo-" Nathans respect for the man rose but he was unfortunately in the path of a desert wind and was hit in the face by a squall of sand breaking his concentration on the conversation as he walked trying to get sand off of his clothing as another small wave of sand came blowing in and he gave it up.

Nathan slowed a half step and found after a few minutes that he was approaching the man that had attempted to speak to him earlier but had wandered off before Nathan could continue at the saloon.
he couldn't really do anything to correct this though as the group was advised to break up and prepare for the night.
Watching, Nathan saw as the woman whom had earlier called him something that had caused Mr. Rip-Arms-Out-Of-Sockets to respond in his defense aim to continue moving out of town. R.A.O.O.S. had already been in the process of starting a fire so it was doubtful that the group would be continuing in the dwindling daylight even if it was in the shadow of Andale.
Spying the man he had intended to speak with earlier Nathan walked over tipping his head a bit in recognition and greeted the man " I think that the conversation we had earlier was a bit short" he paused and caught his breath as the decaying nature of his lungs made breathing difficult before continuing " My Name is Nathan Faust, I am a cartographer and general service mercenary" He coughed "and you would be?"

Tom sat off to the side with his stuff, silently watching the buildings in the town. He had followed the group to Andale, and now he was simply waiting for something to happen. When the woman and the child appeared, his hand went to the chinese assualt rifle on his back, but once they dissapeared, he eased back into his window shopping, using his periphery to gaze at the draqes being pulled back and revealing hungry faces. The smell of cooked flesh rose in annoyance to Tom before he took the small mask around his neck and placed it around his mouth and nose. It blocked out the smell well enough. The dull thud of grenades going off and the figures running through the background caused Tom to take out his chinese assualt rifle and lay it across his lap, appearing to inspect it carefully, which he was doing to an extent, but his concentration never left the windows.

Mark said to Nathan, " I'm Mark Brown, biologist and part-time mercenary. So what made you decide to go on this expediton?"

Demetri grunted as he stood up, saluaging some of the paper he had torn up, he may need it later as kinderling. "Okay then, if you want to be on point be my guest," Demetri said to the female merc, "lets go, if it gets too dark we are stopping again, I don't want to end up somewhere else..."

Demetri stood up, having a quick look around to make sure nothing had fallen from him, last thing he wanted to do was find a certian important item was missing. Demetri felt the wind picking up, quite strong, bringing his goggles down from his helmet and places them around his head to protect his eyes, he could see two people talking, "Talk whilst on the move, we got some ground to make up it seems."

Starr headed off southward. She started scanning the empty wasteland. In the distance she could see the shapes of a few people.

She pointed out the figures to the group, "That must be them," she said.

Stepping by her side, the light was dim and made it difficult to see easily, "Looks to be it," Demetri agreed, he could see a tunnel and quite a bit of debris, "Well lets head down and see whats what."

Leading the group down Demetri made his way to the camp perimeter and was met by a very young lady, beautiful as well Demetri thought. The lady smiled, "You must be the employees my employeer spoke about your coming," she said, "You are maybe wondering what his surprise is, come follow me." Demetri almost hesitated, "Another messenger, why does he hide is apperance still?" Demetri thought, motioning the group to follow they came to the mouth of the tunnel, it was well lighted as well. "This is your surprise, we just recently discovered this tunnel, we were not sure if you were going to come so we didn't tell you about it," the young women said, "It will take you straight to florida, it wa used before the war for tourist and within it's depths we found a old locomotive, took us about a month to repair." Demetri just looked at the transport, never seen one which actually worked, ofcourse he had run into many during his trips around the wasteland, but this was working, actually working.

Mark looked at the locomotive and said, "Wow, this will definitely shorten our traveling time, by my estimate it would take at least 1- 3 weeks to make it down to Florida on foot."

Noticing the movement, Tom stood, flicking the safety of the chinese rifle and headed over to where Starr stood. He silently crouched down behind her, a bit to the left. Dust flew up in his face, and he shut his eyes against it. He shivered in the twilight, the abrupt change in temperature from the sun setting shocking his body. Tom silently waited for what would happen next. He was curious, but he wasn't going to ask anything of anyone in the party. He was in this to get to Florida, not to make friends. Instead, he kept his eyes focused, slowly scanning the dark waiting for movement. The shadow of someone sliding around in the dark caught his eye, and he lifted his rifle to his eye, taking aim. He glanced over at Demetri for an open fire signal. Tom didn't like waiting for someone else to make a move on him. He liked to strike first, probably because he also liked staying alive. The tunnel was at his back, and he would be the last one through, covering the parties rear. It worked for Tom, as it also helped him to avoid conversation as well as be usefull.

It was time to get some answers.

Starr stepped forward and looked at the lady. The lady was almost a head taller than Starr, but she looked weaker. "How does your employer know there is GECK and a vault in Florida? The old woman said they had located a vault, but then said the vaults location is lost. Start giving us some answers," Starr came off a little harsher than she wanted, but it must have given her words more effect on the lady.

"Why?" the lady asked, "Well we need to make certian, we don't want people rushing off with my employeer's things do we?" The young lady was sort of smiling to herself, "The vault has been located in Florida, and we just don't where abouts, but we do know a way for you to find it, head to the old city of Orlando." The lady grabbed something out of pocket, "Take this also," giving it to Demetri, "It was from a time before we used electronics to find out where to go, it's called a compass, the needle always points north, and use this old map, won't help you will the roads or such, but use it to pin point yourself in the right direction." The lady walked off, looked to be ordering some "workers?"

Demetri just stood there awhile examing the compass, "Lets just board," Demetri said, "the quicker we get this done, the quicker we are paid."

Starr was exasperated, the lady wasn't any help either. most of the group had already boarded the train, Starr quickly followed finding a seat near Demetri.

Starr slumped a little in the seat and rested her head against the window.

"When ever have we got a straight answer out of any of messangers." Demetri said as more of a statement rather then a question, "You can't expect them to." Demetri had put his minigun on the luggage rack above himself. Taking his helmet and goggles off he placed them on his lap and looked at the window, "No smoking allowed on this train then," he said, smiling.

Demetri sighed slightly, may as well make conversation, "You know, I've been keeping my eye on you for some time, yet I haven't found out, whats your name?" he asked the women next to him.

Starr laughed a little. "I see my..." Starr looked at her armor, "Well, never mind. My name's Starr, what's your name?"

Starr slid her M4 and small pack under the seat.

"Demetri Green," Demetri said, "So why you here? A blacktalon merc don't usually work with others."

Mark said, "Alright, let's go then." He then boarded the locomotive and sat down.

"I don't work for them anymore, it's... Complicated," Starr said with some bitterness in her voice.

"What about you Demetri? What's your story? You look like you've been in the merc business for a while."

Demetri didn't press on the subject, he could tell she wasn't to happy with them "Been for about two three years now," Demetri said, "No family, really, nothing to hang around for really, so I struck out and started to do what I did best." Demetri had sort of only told part of the truth, Demetri jerked as the locootive moved, he looked to the front and saw one of the workers at the control panels, "Ye be leaving now, please show your passes to the ticket man and keep all hands and feet in the ride at all time ye hear?" he let out a laugh and pushed a few more controls on the panel.

"I don't have much love for blacktalons, they stick their nose in my jobs quite often, even had to defend against them once," Demetri thought for a second, "it wasn't them who got him, I had been comissioned to defend him whilst he did research on deathclass, poor bloke lost his leg, about here." demetri showed her on his own leg about half way up the thigh, "Had to carry him all the way back to megaton, wonder what happened to him?"

Starr knew all too well that Talon Company wasn't known for being nice, or merciful for that matter, but it was something she had to do to survive. The wasteland was harsh that way. She just nodded at Demetri. Not knowing what else to say she ended the conversation with a "Goodnight," and she rested her head against the window again and fell asleep to the roar of the train moving across the old tracks.

Demetri just gave a simple nod, Getting up he made his way to the front of the train and looked out the window, it was dark, "Wonder how they got this working?" Demetri asked himself, it couldn't of been easy to get old tech working, specially with what limited resources there is.

Henry was trailing the group through a harsh sandstorm, it didn't bother him, that's what they were trained for. When Henry saw them enter a tunnel he and his team sprinted to catch up. If they lost them there, it would be impossible to catch them. They slowly followed the sound and using a laser mic picked up bits of the conversation. employers... train... orlando. This was good intel. Henry followed them to the train and boarded it and hid in the cargo section. He checked his rifle and thought, This mission just got alot harder. Who was this mysterious employer? How would they remain undetected?How in the world did the employer get all these resources? This motivated Henry to delay the train just a bit longer. He snuck over to the rails and planted some c4 charges and at the right moment detonated them. This brought everyone out to the front and it would take some time to fix it. Then his team made their way to the messenger and restrained her. After a lot of interrogation it seemed like this woman knew nothing more than what she already revealed. The train was activated from a remote location. All this secrecy, so when it was about time and the sabotage was fixed he ran back into the train and hid.

(OOC: ON, I don't think you can mess with the plot progression like that)

Tom bent low as he disarmed the C4 the man had set on the rails. He was covering the rear when he noticed the man slip in. Tom had merely slid into the shadows and watched the man set up the explosive on the rail. Tom didn't know if the man had backup, so he didn't pop him. Tom also neglected to notice the man slip onto the train. He grunted as he stood, wiping his hands together, picking up his rifle, and climbing the stairs into the train. He threw his bag into the window seat and sat in the aisle seat. Tom anolyzed the train, looking for exits in case something happened. He noticed Starr and Demetri talking, but turned his gaze on the other members of the party. Tom didn't trust any one of them, but they were his companions for this trip, so he had nothing to complain about. He leaned back and appeared to close his eyes, but left them a sliver open in case someone approached him.