OiM - How it All Began

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry, using his TK skills to hopefully boost his accuracy, stepped forward and swung the halberd he had seized at the charging Nutcracker.  

[NativeForeigner]

Henry managed to swing his damaged halberd towards the nutcracker in what seemed an angle that the nutcracker couldn't deflect.

The swing didn't quite make it, however. The nutcracker knocked the strike away with a twist of it's wrist and simultaneously spun and brought the halberd above it's head in order to bring it down at an angle towards Henry's tailbone.

***

The rest of the convoy was only about a minute or two behind, the Marksmen unit would have to get to work quickly.

The four got out of the jeep and headed towards a nearby cliff.

Mark and Cindy went prone several feet before the edge and inched forward.

Mark motioned for Tannor and Gwen to do the same.

They did so.

Below the short, rocky cliff was a small factory, roughly an acre in size and two stories tall.

Several dark green tents were set up across the surrounding area. A makeshift shelter rested in the center of a circle of eight tents.

A series of fences made from scrap metals surrounded the factory and winded around the tents.

No vehicles were evident.

A unit of six soldiers were patrolling the area. They were all wearing dark green, fitted trench coats with large, yellow buttons, large black boots, thick rubber gloves, and gas masks of brown leather that seemed to be fashioned after the German WWII gas masks.

Cindy made a few hand motions to Mark. He nodded.
She looked over to Gwen and Tannor.

"You two need to keep us informed of their positions while we shoot, understand? Get your binoculars ready. You see someone go down, immediately look for another target." she whispered gently.

Cindy and Mark took aim. They both waited patiently and Gwen and Tannor got set up.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry found himself in a position where he was able to quickly spin and block with his own halberd, making it so that Andreas should now be behind the Nutcracker.  

[Elesariin]

Gwen nodded silently and got her binoculars up. To her surprise, she suddenly wasn't frightened anymore; apparently, the almost unnatural calm that often kicked in during stressful situations had finally shown itself. She was going to do this to the best of her ability, and no one could really expect more from her, could they? No. So that was that.  

[SirBayer]

((How long 'til Smith gets down there?))  

[NativeForeigner]

THEY KILLED THE NUTCRACKER AFTER DISCOVERING THAT IT SEEMED TO HAVE GROWN STRONGER AND MORE LIFE-LIKE AFTER IT'S COMRADES HAD DIED.
THEY FIGURED THEY SHOULD TEND TO THEIR WOUNDS BEFORE THE GM FAST-FORWARDS THEM TO TEH FUTUREZ (AKA THEIR DESTINATION).

***

Smith's team would arrive in a little more than thirty seconds.

Mark sighted his target. He waited for Cindy to do the same.

Cindy signaled Mark with a slight motion with her thumb. He signaled back.

Within an instant of each other, they fired. Two soldier's fell, one with the right lens of his mask missing and the other with a hole suddenly in his forehead.

The remaining four soldiers suddenly became alert and made a dash for cover.

Two took cover behind the wall of the factory, one ducked behind a crate, and the final soldier ran for a tall pole with large, copper speakers protruding from the top and a box of gears and levers near the bottom of the pole.

It was probably some sort of alarm.

"Keep an eye out! Let us know if one makes a run for it." Cindy reminded the two.

"And let us know when and where you see any pop up!" Mark piped in, "And watch our backs, too!"

The two settled their aim once more.

Smith's team was just rolling in from the opposite side of the factory.  

[Venom3001]

((Uh.))  

[NativeForeigner]

Andreas was already fine and went ahead to assist the others.  

[SirBayer]

Arthur called to Andreas. "I'm gonna need a hand, I got cut pretty bad here and I don't want to be putting much weight on it just in case. It would be nice if we could make a splint."

---

Smith let the truck begin slowing down. "This is our exit, boys and girls!" he cried, drawing his revolved from where it had sat.

It was a really big revolver.

Juliet drew her Five-seveN, and looked about as everyone else proceeded to do the same with whatever weapon they were equipped with. For a fighting force, their weaponry was pretty sad, and Juliet wondered why that was. Oh well. Too late to think about it too much now.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Tourniquet his whiny a**," Henry called. He wanted to appear fine; didn't want any of them to be tending to his a** cut.
He limped off to handle it alone.  

[NativeForeigner]

Arthur suddenly remembered that he had some sort of healing touch. It might be easier for him, if not faster, to just go ahead and use that.
"I could use some help here" Ro reminded Arthur.

Henry's TK quickly reminded him that what he was doing wasn't a good idea.

***

There were two soldiers occupying two scrap metal guard towers near the entrance to the factory and along the road that the convoy arrived on.
They hadn't quite noticed Smith and the others yet, but they would soon enough.

Alastair took his .357 SIG out of it's holster and readied it in his hands. He didn't feel like he was equipped to take on actual soldiers, but it was too late to go back now.  

[SirBayer]

Arthur nodded. "One second," he told Ro. He wasn't sure if he could use it on himself... no reason not to try, though, and he tapped his own leg.

---

Smith grinned as he threw the truck door open and popped it into park. "Let's go!" he proclaimed, leaping out from the truck and producing the M82 he had held earlier. He scoped in on the further of the two soldiers and fired the .50 caliber round through the man's chest. The loud crack of the sniper rifle gave away their position, but at this point Smith didn't care too much - they were attacking, and they wanted to misguide their opponents anyway, so they'd reposition before the next attack.  

[Elesariin]

Gwen nodded and motioned for the new guy to keep an eye out behind them; they'd be less likely to miss something if they each kept their focus on one side. Her eyes flicked between the areas where the enemy soldiers were hiding, watching out for any signs of movement.  

[Venom3001]

Andreas waited and watched.  

[NativeForeigner]

Arthur witnessed his wound stitching itself back together slowly. He could heal himself, albeit at a slower rate. When he was finished, he discovered that it also seemed to take slightly less energy to heal himself.

With that, he went about to healing every one else. He found that more extensive wounds could not be healed completely, but could be brought to a point that was close enough to not be too much of a problem.

He was quite exhausted afterward.

Ro and Andreas helped him as they made their way along a wide path they conveniently discovered.

They arrived at the ice castle in about ten minutes. The castle was rather tall, standing at about ten or eleven stories tall and looked more like a mountain of ice with windows, doorways, and walls carved into the facade.

There was a wide chasm separating the group from the castle entrance. There was a narrow pathway, about three feet across, of ice leading to the castle's massive entrance, a door about twenty feet high, fifteen wide, and made from cold, blackened steel.

The bottom of the chasm could not be seen save for the deadly points of a few icy stalagmites.

A stone wall surrounded most of the chasm and lined the path the group was on. The walls along the path were about seven feet in height whereas the walls along the chasm were only about three feet high.

A large manger with walls of stone with a straw roof came up on their left. There was a single window in the wall closest to the group and a large opening towards the path, this opening, about five feet on either side of the manger, and the end of the path are the only breaks in the wall along the path. The floor of the manger was padded with straw and the light of a fire could be seen dancing within.

There were three shadows coming from within the manger and the sound of fighting.

As the group got closer, there was a sudden jolt that made everyone stumble. An instant later, Carpenter came flying out of the manger and crashed into the stone wall, causing part of it to crumble. Almost instantly after Carpenter, Shepard flew out of the manger in much the same manner.

As Carpenter motioned to leave the wall, Shepard slammed into Carpenter, almost causing the wall to collapse in a cloud of dust and pushing Carpenter even deeper into the stone.

He groaned and got back to his feet and rushed back in the manger.

Carpenter was almost completely within the wall from the impacts. He sighed and pulled himself out of the the Carpenter-shaped crater he left behind. He shook his head and cracked his neck before dashing back inside.

He gave the group a brief wave as he passed. Not so much a greeting as saying they should move on.

"Nothing to see here, just move along, kids." he said just as he vanished into the manger.

***

Nothing approached from behind as of yet.

Mark downed the soldier going for the alarm three feet away from the alarm.

The remaining soldier quickly took cover at the sound of Smith's gun.

An alarm rang out all around the factory. Probably Smith's fault.
He reappeared shortly hefting a thin, simple-looking bolt-action rifle with an obscenely large scope.

He scanned the area, quickly finding the convoy. He managed to squeeze of a shot. It landed in the chest of a soldier to the right of Smith.

Smith's Men: 17

The soldier reloaded his rifle for another shot.

A unit of six soldiers rushed out of the factory's gates and across a make-shift bridge. Two took cover behind a block of scrap metals, another behind a large rock, and the final three within the small trench that the bridge went across.

Behind the factory, one of the three soldiers popped up from cover to take a shot at the Marksmen.
Gwen saw the soldiers and alerted Mark and Cindy.

Cindy quickly downed the man a split second after adjusting her aim. Another Soldier blind-fired over his cover with an automatic weapon, causing the four to briefly recede as bullets struck the earth below them.

"Look for something explosive down there." Cindy suggested. She figured that if Smith continued to make noise, an explosion could go relatively unnoticed, though other methods were currently more preferable.