Re: Kicking the Hornets Nest

[Aella]

Aella shrugged then tightened her scarf.

"Feliks seems to be trying... what with the hospital and all"

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten snorted.

"One griffon pissing in the wind?" he said. "I don't give it six months."

[Aella]

Aella looked over at Sten again as she walked.

"How... how do you think things will end?"

She swore as she stepped in a pile of something nasty left in the middle of the street.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten nodded at her claw, and the pile it sat in.

"That's as eloquent as anything," he said, smiling ruefully. "No, best thing to do is get out while you still can. I was angling for an escape, before your captain came down on me. Now I'm back in the jug again, it seems."

[Aella]

Aella shook some of the filth from her talon then dragged it through the snow to get rid of the rest. She sighed and kept walking.

"maybe its not as hopeless as you think"

[Sten Softclaw]

"Keep telling yourself that," said Sten. "But if you ever want to head for the hills..."

He cast a quick eye around as he remembered what he was doing there. It was all quiet in the street, empty except for one pony hurrying on his way.

(My computer is in Colchester, a hundred miles away. Cannot get to Skype, and certainly cannot play ES. Break news to Zwei gently)

[Kroll]

Kroll sighed as he scanned the streets from the observation post. Not much activity had been going on in the streets of the Eastern Residential District...well, nothing illegal, anyway. He took a took out a pack of licorice from his vest and put a stick of the candy into his beak, letting the end hang out like a cigarette. Leaning on the mounted binoculars, the captain started to think about the tercel he conscripted into this little mission of his. He'd never seen a griffon be absent for more than a week without coming back in a box, and yet Sten seemed to be completely fine after a thirty day long absence. What could he have been up to for so long a time? Even more puzzling was why he bothered to reappear at headquarters after being AWOL for so long. It was a concerning matter, if not at the very least confusing, but it would have to be something that would have to be dealt with later.

Finishing the licorice stick, Kroll peered back into the mounted binoculars, adjusting the lenses slightly. He paused as he noticed what appeared to be a small box on the sidewalk across the street near a lamp post. The captain began to adjust the lenses to get a closer look at the box when a pegasus and a unicorn walked past each other, blocking his view. After they had passed by each other, the pegasus rounded the corner of the street and disappeared, while the unicorn made his way into the bakery across the street. The box was nowhere to be seen. Kroll paused to write down this occurrence in the observation log before resuming watch, wondering if Aella or Sten had seen anything during their patrol.

[Aella]

Aella raised an eyebrow at Sten.

"Is that an offer?"

[Sten Softclaw]

"Would you hold it against me if it was?" said Sten, not looking around to her.

He nodded down an alley.

"C'mon, the big man said fifteen minute patrol," he went on. "Let's find something to tell him."

[Aella]

Aella nodded, trotting after Sten through the slush.

[Sten Softclaw]

The alley cut through into the next street. Sten leaned his head around the corner then quickly ducked back. He waved desperately to Aella to stop here and stay quiet.

Tramping down the street were maybe half a dozen ponies in a vague clump. They were hauling sacks down the street, all labelled "flour" and "sugar" or some such thing, and all were heading towards the street the cap was on.

"What the devil do you make of that?" he said, nodding to the procession.

[Aella]

Aella peeked around the corner and frowned.

"That seems an awful lot of baking ingredients for such a poor area... unless ponies eat far, far more than I have been told"

[Sten Softclaw]

"You're telling me," said Sten, frowning. "I don't think there's a that much sugar in any single place in this town."

He breathed out through the sides of his beak irritably. The buggers were sticking to their cover story at least, but what warranted this? What kind of gear could they be moving?

[Aella]

Aella looked to Sten.

"Should we go closer, or report back? There might be some "sugar" spilled on the ground that we can collect if we wait a bit"

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten shrugged, grimacing.

"I don't know. Cap'll probably see 'em when they round the corner," he said. "I'd hang around, but you're the camel on this one."

[Aella]

Aella moved back around the corner and scrunched up her face as she thought.

"camel?"

[Sten Softclaw]

"Turn of phrase," said Sten, quickly and not a little irritably, as the sacks were dragged inexorably away. "Means you're in charge."

[Aella]

Aella looked shocked.

"You mean, technically... you are under the command of a slave?"

She scratched her head.

"I do not think there is even a word for that"

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten shrugged. "I'm only bowing to your superior experience. Isn't that a reasonable thing to do? You're the one who does this for a job."

He paused. "Well, did."

[Aella]

Aella leaned back against the wall, shivering slightly from the cold.

"Fighting in the ring never involved standing wrist deep in snow for hours" she grumbled

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten snorted. "Well, if that's the criteria..."

He sighed and nodded off down the alley. "Cap'll want a word with us when he spots them."

[Aella]

Aella nodded, peeking around the corner again at the ponies. They were nearly finished, moving with nervous haste.

"Its probably a bit silly to try and catch one right now... I can see that going wrong very fast" she thought aloud

[Sten Softclaw]

"'Xactly," said Sten, nodding. "'Course, they're going to be inside in a mo', then they'll be our problem again."

He ground his beak irritably. What the hell were they to do?

[Aella]

Aella waited for the ponies to move off before motioning for Sten to follow her. She walked nonchalantly towards the unladen cart, humming a tune.

[Kroll]

Kroll swiveled the mounted binoculars towards the mounted binoculars towards the group of ponies as they came into view, furrowing his brow at the things that the sacks they carried with them. He started to take notes down in the observation log, wondering to himself if Aella and Sten had seen them during their ground patrol. He sighed as he watched them continue on their pilgrimmage, hoping that the others found something helpful during their shift.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten hung his head low and followed Aella to the cart and did his best not to look at the ponies down the street. The devils must be feeling brave if they were going to move that much gear in broad daylight, even if it was just sugar. They must have some ace up their sleeve.

[Aella]

Aella tried to look inconspicuous as she walked up to the cart. She looked down on the ground for spilled "sugar". Spotting some white powder upon the ground, she dropped her scarf upon it and scooped it up. Hopefully it wasnt snow.

[Sten Softclaw]

Out of a sense of dutiful curiosity, Sten licked a claw and gave the powder a tasted. He then had the interesting job of trying to hack and die quietly which, to his credit, he more or less managed.

"Chalk and sawdust," he said, hunkering closer to the cart to stay out of sight. "The buggers are in the bread business by the taste of things."

[Aella]

Aella looked over at Sten, then frowned.

"Hopefully it wasnt just awful tasting poison or something"

She peeked around the side of the cart, then hurried back where they came from, motioning for Sten to follow. Reaching the safety of the alley, she spread her wings and flew at rooftop level back towards the observation nest.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten followed suit, a little more ungainly and with a little more breathless flapping.

"It's near as makes no difference," he said to her, trying to stay below the level of the buildings for cover. "It's filler for white flour."

[Aella]

Aella touched down a street away from the observation post and waited for Sten before moving inside. She mindfully dodged the traps and trotted upstairs, shaking herself to get rid of lingering drops of water.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten came in after Aella, careful to put his claws where she put hers, and came into the room just behind her. Cap was still glued to his scopes, but it was safe to assume he'd heard them come in.

"They're moving stuff down the street, sir," said Sten, just as he saw through the hole in the wall, exactly that. Huh, well, they'd made remarkably good time at least.

[Kroll]

Kroll nodded as he turned to face the two griffons. "Yeah, I saw...how close were you able to get? They didn't see you, right?"

[Aella]

Aella held out the scarf filled with the white powder.

'I don't think they spotted us sir, and I grabbed some of the spilled "Flour" as we went by'

[Kroll]

Kroll took the scarf from Aella, nodding in appreciation as he examined its contents, rubbing some of it between his talons to get a feel for the texture. He furrowed his brow. "What...what is this, exactly? It feels sort of like..."

[Sten Softclaw]

"Chalk, sir," Sten butted in, "for padding out flour and making it look whiter. You could charge a bomb for a white loaf at a time like this."

At least, it tasted like chalk to him. Maybe it was some vile drug they'd cut with chalk so much it was unrecognisable, or maybe they were just illicitly making chalk crayons for some reason or another.

[Aella]

Aella frowned as she thought.

"Bulking out baked goods... that doesnt seem profitable enough to allow the ponies to hire that many staff... right?" she said unsurely

[Kroll]

Kroll shook his head. "No...it doesn't." he said as he turned to look out the hole in the wall, staring at the bakery across the way. "I'm curious what the interior is like...maybe it'll give us an idea as to what's going on in there if one of us goes inside. Since you two already went out for patrol, I don't want to risk anyone in there recognizing you. That being said, I'll go. I need you two on overwatch, though." he turned back to Aella and Sten, looking between the two. Sound like a plan?"

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten nodded, glancing for confirmation from Aella. Made sense. He went out to scout the building and they got to stay inside out of the wind.

[Kroll]

Kroll patted around on his his armored vest as if looking for something before pulling a dark colored coat and putting it on over his armor in attempt to hide it, shifting his scarf around and ruffling his crest a little to make him look more like a civilian than a guard. "Alright," he said with a sigh, looking at the two. "I'm going to head on out now. You guys can decide amongst yourselves who gets to do what when I'm away, alright? I'm sure it'll go without too much of a problem." he say with a thin smile as he stepped over the traps in the doorway, heading for the bakery across the street.

[Aella]

Aella moved over to the observation point, sitting down behind the telescope and peering down the eyepiece. She panned it over the street before sitting back and blowing into her fists in an effort to warm them up.

[Kroll]

Kroll went over his approach in his head as he entered the bakery, hoping his "civilian" attire would be enough to prevent any suspicions from being made by the owners of the store. There was a surprisingly decent line in the store already, so Kroll took the time to just look around the storefront to see what was what.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten hunkered down at the back of the observation room, hunching up in the corner. Yes, ostensibly two sets of eyes were better than one, but this set was cold. He huddled his quilted vest around him, for all the good it did.

[Aella]

"Why did my owner have to live somewhere so damned cold?" Aella grumbled, fluffing up her feathers in an attempt to stay warm

[Kroll]

Kroll looked around the bakery as the line continued to move forward. For the most part, it looked like any other bakery that would still be running after an invasion and military occupation. Assorted baked goods lined a display shelf with cracked or missing glass panels, and a menu board with prices that rode one hell of a financial rollercoaster throughout the recent years. As the captain neared the counter, he looked around for something he could order to avert any suspicions the other patrons or store's owners may have had about his presence.

[Sten Softclaw]

"'Cause he's a vindictive bastard," said Sten from his corner, but his heart wasn't really in it. "What's he up to down there?"

[Aella]

Aella shrugged.

"I cant hear any screaming yet, so he is probably sneaking about"

[Kroll]

Before long, Kroll was at the front of the line in the bakery, and before the stallion behind the counter could ask what he wanted to order, the captain pointed a stiff talon at a small group of somewhat-fresh cinnamon rolls that sat on the display shelf. "Those," he said as if the spiraled pastry had hypnotized him. "I need those."

Moments later, Kroll walked out of the bakery with a paper bag, stopping on the sidewalk to reach inside and pull one of the cinnamon rolls out, managing to fit the entire thing in his beak before crossing the street, heading back towards the building the observation post was set up in.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten sidled out behind Aella to have a look over her shoulder.

"Buying lunch," he said, idly. "Here's hoping there's enough for everyone..."

[Aella]

Aella shook her head ans sniggered at her handlers bizarre and hopefully delicious take on recon. She moved over to her discarded pile of armour and began putting it on again. She had the feeling that she would need it soon.

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