Ernest (Liz Blessing) shows up bearing a copy of Cannibal: The Musical and exploits it to delay all gaming-type activity until almost 15:00. Unbeknownst to Ernest, Chris (Caleb Kagan) rises at the dawn and performs an augury upon the entrails of a young black goat. He sees the future and arranges to be MIA until long after lunch, showing up just in time for the game to actually start. Tim (GE Smith) shows up for lunch, but then swiftly departs, pausing only to block Chris' car in. Chuck confesses that none of the other characters have developed any strange superpowers in the time that Ernest has been absent. Paul (Bob the Saurk) perks up from laughing at the editorials in The Economist long enough to point out that he has gone all the way in becoming personally lethal in melee combat. His character, too. Billy (Mister Yong) follows up by pointing out not only that nobody wants to be close in to Bob now, but that nobody really seriously wanted to be close to him before anyway. Bruce (Goat Gulgusskun) just sits back and satisfies himself by literarily skewering everyone else in his summary, blissfully unaware of the plans they have laid against him.
Liz Blessing drives up to the Ferguson Family's North Firebase to link up with the other characters. Everyone else is tremendously impressed that she manages to make the trip in the group's SUV without breaking an axle or stripping the transmission. Caleb Kagan resolves to immediately write a letter to the vehicle manufacturer congratulating them on their incredibly durable suspension design.
The characters retire to the firebase's so-called "conference room" to debate the possible fate of the missing Representative Joshua Cabal. Nobody has seen any evidence that the demlux are trying to use kidnapping and ransom as a political or fundraising tool. In fact, Caleb Kagan points out that nothing he has seen has led him to be impressed with the quality of the demlux resistance organization. Everyone agrees that it is pretty unlikely that the locals kidnapped Representative Cabal, though they might have killed (and possibly eaten) him.
Liz Blessing suggests that Cabal might have arranged for his own disappearance, out of fear of the ICPA hard-line faction on Alpha Centauri. She suggests that he was struck with the thought, "Gee whiz, I bet the ICPA is going to do me the next time I come out of hyperjump..." and then decided to hide out in the unspoiled tribal splendor of rural Sternvaal.
The third possibility is that Cabal should have been taking more efforts to protect himself from the ICPA hardliners, and that they really did grab him. The obvious candidates for the hit squad would be the ICPA Marshals, except for the fact that there is apparently exactly one Marshal stationed upon Sternvaal.
The fourth possibility is that the Anzani might have grabbed Representative Cabal directly. Everyone agrees that this seems pretty unlikely, mostly because the Anzani are unlikely to see the Representative as an actual threat.
Liz flavors the discussion by reporting that she saw an unmarked transport ship land at the spaceport. A dozen guys in black fatigues with no unit insignia disembarked from it. She lost track of them after that, and doesn't know where they headed, what they were up to, or whom they might have been working for. She thought this was just a little bit odd, and felt it was worth informing the other characters.
Bob the Saurk drops out of the discussion early to spends some time working to fortify the firebase against the next demlux raid. He is short of raw materials, so he makes defensive walls out of demlux bodies. He assures the others that the building needs to be repaired after having undergone massive fusillades of demlux firepower. Goat Gulgusskun points out that the demlux really didn't have massive firepower, and that really all that happened to the building was that a bunch of half-centimeter holes got shot in it. He offers, "I got some spackle..."
The characters decide that the best plan is to head out to the kidnap site and gather evidence. Caleb Kagan suggests, "And on the way, let's shoot another cow so we can have some more barbecue. And let's see if we can make it look like the demlux did it." Colonel Striker indicates that from what he knows, the site is four or five hours' drive away on a straight-line path. But he suggests that the characters should take a brief detour to a nearby demlux tenant-farmer village. He claims that the characters will be able to hire a guide there, and that having a local who knows his way around will be tremendously helpful. Some of the characters, prominently those who have made a career out of being aggressively clueless, do not see the value in his suggestion but in the end calmer minds prevail.
It develops that none of the characters has slept recently, particularly including Liz, who drove through the night to reach the firebase using a combination of amphetamines and night-vision gear. In spite of this, the group opts for a rapid departure. Caleb comments, "There are five of us, so most of us can sleep as one of us drives." Goat offers, "And I have stimulants, too!" Caleb rolls his eyes and responds, "I'm so glad you're just referring to drugs."
Liz Blessing is already full of drugs, so she gets the first driving shift. Caleb reflects that she has already been awake for over thirty hours and volunteers to navigate. Liz Blessing starts out the trip by setting a Tactical Scanner on the dashboard in the hopes that it might provide some advance warning of the next group of fifty demlux interested in ambushing passing vehicles. She explains to the others, "It's just something I keep in my purse." Caleb Kagan is incredulous, "That's your purse? It looks more like a military duffel bag. By the way, why do you have flexcuffs and NVG's in your purse?" Liz smiles sweetly and responds, "Oh, no reason..."
Bob the Saurk doesn't get a lick of sleep all through the hour-long drive to the village. He's too busy gripping the rails, ready to leap clear when Liz finally crashes the truck.
The characters pull into the village of Prosperity Station late at night. The place looks like a strange miscegenation of a farming village, a slum and a company town. Caleb reminds the others, "Don't kill anybody. Everyone knows that villagers aren't worth experience points, and they aren't worth any money either unless they have gold fillings."
Liz parks the truck next to the local feed store. Caleb informs Liz that he's going to sleep and that she's got first watch. He pulls off his boots and socks, sticks his feet out the window and goes to sleep. Before he passes out, he mentions, "Oh, Bob! Did I mention that I saw some huge rats gnawing on the armored vehicles back at the Colonel's firebase? Looked like they were making really good progress against the armor plating. No telling what they could do against a ship." His comments pretty much guarantee that Bob the Saurk spends all night awake, sharpening his vibro-ninja sword. Mister Yong spends as much of the night as he can awake. He explains that he is curious to see how someone sharpens a vibro-ninja sword.
The local demlux start to wake well before the first glimmers of dawn creep up over the horizon. Bob frantically looks down at his watch and notices that it is 04:30. Goat groggily shakes himself awake and asks the others, "So, where do you suppose the union hiring hall is around here?" Caleb falls over laughing, but refuses to explain why to Goat. Bob notices that the majority of the demlux appear to be getting ready to travel off to jobs on the ranch.
Liz walks over to a group of four demlux males readying hover bikes. She executes a spicy sashay and asks, "Do any of you savvy English?" The demlux glance at each other and grunt at each other in a native dialect. Caleb watches this process and mocks Liz (in falsetto), "Any of you boys savvy English? I used to do character voices for Walt Disney, but now I'm just a psycho killer with brain chemical imbalance problems." Mister Yong takes umbrage, pointing out that he is the group member with the biggest brain chemical problems and that he has great ambitions of becoming a psycho killer. In the background, Bob the Saurk redoubles his sharpening efforts.
A young demlux walks right past Liz and tells Caleb, "Hey lady! I be your guide! I speak the English real good!" Caleb sinks down into the SUV in red-faced humiliation as Liz takes over. The youngster explains in very broken English that his name is Jo-Jo and that he knows the whole area. He must work because he has to support his mother and his sister after his father died in a tragic farm implement accident. The characters notice that he is also prone to outbursts of, "No VC! I no VC!", but they don't understand why.
Liz estimates that a fair price for his services is Cr 5 per day, so she gives him Cr 100. Caleb groans, "That kid is going to get eaten alive when he gets back to town. Maybe Liz will show him how to hide his money where a strip-search won't find it... Ohhh... I better stop watching the History Channel before bedtime."
Bob the Saurk sags down in the back of the SUV and moans, "She always leads us in to ambushes. This isn't going to end well. I bet we've just hired the worst guide in town. I bet he isn't even a real demlux."
Liz trills over to the other characters, "I'll be back in a minute, boys. You guard the SUV." Caleb agrees, "Okay," then bellows out to the other characters, "Alright, maggots! I need a fifty-meter kill zone!" Liz accompanies Jo-Jo to a nearby hovel where he picks up his gear, which includes an alarmingly large pair of desert goggles.
Liz tells the guide, "We want to go to the place where the huu-mans disappeared." Jo-Jo immediately knows which huu-mans she is referring to, volunteering, "Oh, the funny one with all the nice trucks! He gave us nice chocolates!" He explains that he was born in the village and doesn't know much about the savage demlux who live in the bush, except that they're cannibals who eat their own young. He tells Bob, "You're funny and smelly!" Caleb cautions the young guide, "You give him a chance, and he'll teach you something about cannibalism."
Jo-Jo assures the characters that it will take about two days to drive to the site where Representative Cabal was kidnapped.
The characters make it back onto the road well before breakfast. An hour or so into the journey Bob the Saurk sees the glint of light off optics in the distance. He yells, "Ambush!" And then Mister Yong gets shot and passes out. Jo-Jo screams and ducks. Bob the Saurk pulls out his tremendous pistol, takes indifferent aim, and observes that the gun has jammed. Liz slams on the brakes and drives around towards a rather paltry rock outcrop, hoping against hope that it might provide some cover against the sniper. Caleb does his best to ignore the visceral sounds from the back seat as he rather desperately tries to spot the snipers.
Liz yells out, "Hey Caleb, someone just shot at you!" Caleb yells back, "Holy crack-smoking whores! Did I need to dodge?" Liz reassures him, "No, they missed." Caleb pulls on his stormtrooper helmet and finally manages to spot a target. He manages to spot one of them about 250 meters ahead just about as Goat Gulgusskun gets his scalpel out and starts working on Mister Yong. He finds Liz's occasional screams of, "Charlie in the woods! Charlie in the woods!" to be just a little distracting.
Caleb and Liz exit the truck and move forwards on the outcropping hoping to find a good shooting (and spotting) platform. Caleb spots a demlux with a scoped sniper rifle. Liz asks, "Will my spotting help Caleb?" She is told, "Only if he misses." Bob notes that Caleb is carrying a massive 15mm sniper rifle, something so big you could almost take out light armored vehicles with. Caleb snarks, "Yeah, but I'd have to hit something first." Caleb is amazed that his first shot actually hit the demlux, who hadn't seen him at all. Caleb takes the demlux out.
Meanwhile, back in the truck Goat Gulgusskun finally finishes patching Mister Yong up. Instants after he finishes sewing Mister Yong up, he brandishes his freaky psychic healing powers. Mister Yong rather groggily reflects that he will never get used to the sensation of having critical injuries just... vanish.
Liz sees a quadrupedal creature feeding on the body of the demlux Caleb shot. She reports this to Caleb, who asks her if she'd like to take a turn with the sniper rifle. She accepts the rifle and starts aiming. She takes the creature out in a shot. Caleb offers, "There's something about shooting unaware things at a large distance and hitting. It's so satisfying. And it really cuts down the length of fights when they don't know you're coming."
Mister Yong finally sits up and looks around the back seat of the truck. He exclaims, "Dudes! Did all this blood really come out of me? I think I need a wet-nap." Caleb walks back to the truck and tells him, "You're going to need a new shirt there, Yong."
The characters drive out to investigate the sniper's body, and the creature that Liz shot. They determine that both the demlux and the creature are very dead. The creature looks like a predator and masses about 300 kg. Jo-Jo says it's an old male lanther. Goat skins and cleans the creature, very carefully staying away from the musk glands. He saves the teeth and claws for later use as necklaces, then sets to converting the meat into steaks for lunch. Jo-Jo is horrified. He explains that nobody actually eats lanthers, though sometimes rich corporate guys hunt them for sport and have the carcasses stuffed. Goat points out that in this case, it would be hard to do good taxidermy on this specimen: hunters normally use smaller-caliber weapons than 15mm. Caleb suggests stuffing the creature anyway, and then persuading Bob the Saurk to put a toaster in its head and a beer tap in its ass. He enthuses, "It could be our new centerpiece!" Nobody else likes this idea.
Caleb goes off to take a nap in the shade until Goat finishes disassembling the lanther carcass. Bob the Saurk practices his swordsmanship by hacking flies in half in the air.
The characters resume driving across the featureless savannah. They drive all day, and then eat lanther steak at night. It tastes like unseasoned beef jerky. Liz grouses, "Goat, you bastard." Bob and Goat seem to be the only members of the group who are happy with the way the meal came out. Bob mentions, "Funny thing is, I haven't slept in over twenty-six hours. You know the mind gets more focused when you don't sleep. You can sense exactly what everyone is thinking." The characters force Bob to go to sleep. His snores sound like the howls of a drowning rottweiler. The other characters organize watches to last through the night. The characters on watch all wear helmets with NVG's. They all look like Power Rangers.
On the second watch, Mister Yong and Caleb notice a second lanther. They note that it is stalking the characters' vehicle. Mister Yong guesses that it is interested in the carcass. He picks the creature up and puts it far away. The other characters are wakened by the sounds of a terrified lanther howling as Mister Yong walks it out into the darkness. He drops it 900 meters out. And then it comes back. Mister Yong tells Caleb, "That's your cue." Caleb aims and shoots. The lanther dies.
At this point Jo-Jo comments, "Oh! They do this sort of thing all the time! They're territorial, and they love the smell!" Caleb snarls, "You know, we really appreciate the way you tell these things after the fact." Goat asks, "If these things are drawn to engines like moths to blowtorches, how is it that there are any of them left?" Caleb corrects Goat, "He means the meat, not the engine. Idiot."
The next day is completely uneventful. Towards the end, Jo-Jo points out a large outcropping he describes as "Hairless Monkey Stone." It is the place where humans and demlux originally met, though there isn't anything resembling a plaque or a monument. The characters conclude that this would be a sightseeing destination if there were a local tourist trade. There are a couple of luxury SUV's parked near the base of the outcrop. Liz inspects the vehicles with her binoculars. Both of them look heavily damaged by gunfire and explosives.
The characters drive in to take a closer look at the vehicles. Caleb looks at the vehicles while everyone else establishes a perimeter. Caleb is only able to tell that the vehicles are vehicles. Liz suspects that Caleb's drinking might be having an impact upon his investigative skills. Bob the Saurk picks up the slack. He is able to find places where about eight bodies fell and is able to estimate that there were twelve people in the Representative's party. Local animals seem to have done their best to carry off the remains. He concludes from the placement of the bullet holes in the vehicles that the shooters up on Hairless Monkey Stone.
Liz and Bob the Saurk hike up Hairless Monkey Stone to look for any signs the attackers might have left behind. Liz is able to find some spots of blood, suggesting that some of the snipers may have been wounded. She finds a magazine for a cheap hunting rifle. She brings a bloodstained rock back down to Goat Gulgusskun, who tastes the blood and concludes that it isn't human. Bob the Saurk watches this procedure and comments, "You're twisted, man..."
With Jo-Jo's help, characters follow a trail towards the nearest "bad demlux" camp. After a half-day, the trail goes into jungle. Goat comments, "Jungle? Seriously, jungle? Where the hell did a jungle come from on this miserable rock?" Mister Yong replies, "Actually, I thought most of this planet was covered in jungle." Bob the Saurk is just overjoyed at the idea of slogging through jungle mud, just like he did when he was a kid.
The characters make some efforts to hide their truck at the edge of the jungle, then forge on ahead. Goat promptly steps on a punji stake. Fortunately, the sole of his armored boot protects him from harm. Jo-Jo tells the others, "You better walk where I walk." Most of the characters get into line behind Jo-Jo, though Bob and Mister Yong remain out on the flanks and can't benefit from this wisdom.
The characters make camp when night falls. The evening is hardly uneventful: someone starts shooting at the characters. The characters direct some poorly aimed gunfire back towards the muzzle flashes. Bob the Saurk sneaks out into the darkness and hacks completely through something made of meat and metal. Liz yells out, "Was it a demlux?" Bob responds, "Gee, I hope so!" Liz spots another one and nails it. Then the silence is broken only by the sounds of Bob lurking around searching for additional foes to slay.
Eventually Bob gives up and drags the wounded demlux back into the camp for interrogation. Goat heals the creature up. The demlux was armed with a cheap hunting rifle and had several tabs of the drug Catseye in his pouch. Goat confirms that the demlux is under the effects of Catseye, and that this lets him see in the dark.
The interrogation is handled with Caleb asking the questions and Jo-Jo translating.
Obviously, the interrogation goes poorly. The prisoner doesn't seem scared of the characters, explaining that their bullets bounced off him: he isn't even hurt. Things go better when Liz admits that she has "just one tab" of Ecstasy in her purse. She gives it to Goat to administer to the prisoner. Caleb comments, "Don't give me that 'just one dose' part! I just took eight out of your purse." With the prisoner thoroughly doped up, the interrogation resumes.
The characters sleep the night, then trank up the prisoner and leave him tied to a tree. Jo-Jo protests, "Fleshworms get him!" None of the characters seem at all surprised by this possibility.
Early in the next day of travel, a spike-studded log trap splashes Liz. She is flung off the trail and into a tree trunk, but escapes with nothing more than a light wound. Goat deals with it. Everyone is very impressed with the quality of Liz' body armor. The characters are otherwise unmolested until they reach the river.
The river is about 200 meters wide. Jo-Jo says that swimming is a bad idea: there are fleshworms in the shallow water. The characters bypass the problem by having Mister Yong use his freaky psychic powers to telekinetically lift everyone over the river. Jo-Jo gets dropped in the water halfway across, then rescued. He turns out to be really scrawny under his fur.
Each character gains three experience points and one Genre Point for not shooting Jo-Jo yet. Next session promises all manner of juicy demlux violence.