NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Only for those who signed up previously... and note that we'll be going into Egypt - if there's someone located there in this RP, let me know - first at about 2,000 BC. We'll be about 100 miles south of the Sea and 100 miles west of the Nile. If no one in this RP is located there, then we wont worry about that. Next stop will be in one of our countries.
IC:
Finally, Robert Johnson has become a Marine! To celebrate, his family - including his mother Jamie Johnson, father Pat Johnson, and his 13 year old brother Kyle Johnson - was off to the capital of Alfegos.

They had quite the booked trip, with two days of nothing planned, while the other seven days were going throughout the capital and country of Alfegos. First things first: Check out the government sector of the capital.

Fourteen year old Marcus Gaines walked the streets of the city of Alfegos in a chipper mood. Originally a citizen of the Commonwealth, Marcus's family had moved for business, and this would be his home for the next few months. He had already learned his way through the streets, and walked with his eyes glued to a gadget he was inventing. It was something he himself couldn't explain, but Marcus knew it would come in handy.

"...if you even think about joining our 'peers' in Alfegos, we here at Cogent Laboratories will not be pleased and will be forced to undertake punitive action against you. I think we both know what that means, am I correct?"

"O-of course, Director Melink."

"Good...as I recall, Dr. Brilev, your plane is leaving tomorrow, so you'd best be going. I expect your preliminary report at 8:00 Vetalian time on Friday. That gives you a few days to work, so there should be no delays. We're counting on you, Brilev...this project is nearing completion, and we need to ensure our trial goes successfully or else we stand to lose billions to our 'peers' in Alfegos."

"Yes, Director." Brilev said nothing more, quietly excusing himself and leaving the director's office. He returned to his own office, an elegantly modern affair done primarily in the glass and concrete of the Cogent Laboratories Assisted Jaunt Center. Pausing to check his computer for important messages, he gathered together the forms, documents, and, most importantly, his laptop computer, which would be needed for the trip. Sealing them all in one of Cogent's security cases (a rather useful device that netted the company a billion a year in revenue from various contractors), he closed and locked the door to his office and gave directions to his secretary.

Walking down the almost artistically clinical hall to the elevator, he briefly noted the scenes around him. A glass-walled meeting room filled with, judging from their business suits, a group of the company's financial and investment staff. The PowerPoint presentation playing was entitled Dollars and Sense: Competing with Alfegos for VSA/VARPA Funding. He spent a brief moment watching, his face colored with a mild bemusement at seeing his life's work summed up in a series of bar graphs. At least they were colorful, though; those Alfegan financial statements were always printed in the same monotone black-and-white that managed to make them simultaneously easier to read as well as all the more dull, especially for a man who literally received a special dispensation from the dean of his university to get out of taking mandatory business courses. However, colors and bemusement could only hold his interest for so long and he was soon moving along to the elevator.

A brief ride in the elevator (as always, watching interestedly as the Cogent Laboratories logo in the elevator changed color with each security level) and he was at the lobby level. He greeted a few colleagues, chatted amiably, and left through the front door. The security guards at the company's main gate waved him through without even a glance (he failed to notice that he had been granted Level 5 clearance for the duration of his trip), and he sped away, the Cogent Laboratories Assisted Jaunt Center soon replaced by the Cogent Laboratories Central Research Park, and lastly the Cogent Laboratories Administrative center. 20,300 employees and $116 billion in revenue passed in a few moments' driving, and he was soon on the open highway heading north to Kalograd.

Fifteen minutes and twenty miles later, he was at his house in Kalograd, and thirteen hours, fifty-six minutes and nine seconds later the Aeroflot plane was pulling to a stop at the terminal in the Alfegan capital. He disembarked the plane, gathered his baggage, and was soon en route to his hotel, where he would enjoy some much deserved R&R for the rest of the day.

The entire city of New Zevkhay, the capital of Alfegos, was riddled with security camera netwroks, both 2D and 3D. At the police central headquarters, all the feeds from thee cmeras could be watched. However, there was another watcher, deep below.

It was called the Ministry of Secrets, and was the most mysterious place in Alfegos. Projects there had given Alfegos an upper hand in many situations. But they had required volunteers.

______________________________________


"We take them in now?"
"Yes."
"What of the potential backlash? All the targets are foreigners."
"Does it really matter? We have operatives out on the streets already. I did not let the Die VIIs out, but I ordered the human staff out. We should have them here soon."

______________________________________

The first three targets had been located. Near to, 4 agents closed in on each, and escorted them to black cars. These drove away into cocnealed exits, which let to the ministry loading bay. Each agent was trained to be impervious to all comments, and would not listen to them even as they were escorted into holding cells on the top floor. They would wait till all subjects had been aquired, before the test would begin.

Dr. Brilev put up little fight against his assailants, simply complying with their requests and saying nothing. As a precaution, he had activated the panic button on his briefcase, effectively destroying any sensitive data inside and relaying it to Cogent's Adminstrative Center. It wouldn't help him at all, but at least his assailants (who he knew were MoS types through intuition and years of careful intelligence gathering by Cogent) would not be able to get anything out of him.

Other than his prominent Cogent Laboratories badge attached to the chest pocket of his suit coat, which he kept on as a sign of defiance to his captors as a way of letting them know just with whom they were dealing, he had nothing of interest or value on his person. Cogent was good at keeping private information private. However, he was still nervous and justifiably so; the MoS obviously had something planned for him and it was apt to be related to his work.

"We have a subject from Cogent laboratories?"
"Subject 2. He has, regretfully, destroyed the information he was carrying."
"That is not of too much concern. They could not begin to realise how much the ministry know."
"That is true."
"When the other subjects have been collected, we shall begin the experiment. You have the network mapped?"
"Correct. We have an idea of where they will be going. To try and persuade them which route to take, we will lock the other doors on Level 2, and lower the power intensity to the entanglement containment frames except on the target portal. We do not wish for them to take a portal into extra-universal locations, only into the time stream of this universe."
"The maps are safe?"
"They are. We have the network mapped fully between 24 000 BC and 2007 AD. Outside of that, we only have a limited map of 6 extra universes, of which 4 are currently closed due to exile programmes."
"Good. We shall see if they behave as the simulation suggests. If not, and they return to this time period, then we will have proven the model wrong."

Marcus blinked, where am I, he thought. The last thing he could remember, he was walking down a side alley, cutting through to an electronics store he frequented. Then a group of men had grabbed him and taken him there. In the excitement...he must have fainted. Great, Marcus thought, something major happens and I pass out like a swooning schoolgirl. There was something clumped on the floor, and Marcus picked it up, realizing it was his 'gadget.' At least this is safe, he said to himself. Now...how do I get out of here?

OOC: I planned on making the 'gadget' a running theme that will play a key role...if that's all right, of course.

(OOC: 'tis OK)

"The subject from the Free United States is curious."
"What is the specimen that he keeps alongside him?"
"We did not see it to be relevant: it only appears to be some form of novelty thing. It may be interesting to watch."
"Have the other subjects been found yet?"
"Not in the present, no."

Marcus wondered where he was, and that's when it hit him. He dug into his backpack, revealing a GPS device he had made. It used a pirated signal, but should work. His shoulders slumped as the screen returned, "Unable to establish signal." But that was a clue too. It meant that wherever he was, it was shielded from satellite and possibly radio signals. That meant a government or big corporation...and that meant secrets and black ops. Cool...

The two agents sat in the office for Project 2, watching and interpreting the map before them, that dealt in four dimensions, both of space and time. A number of points were scattered across the entire map of the world, with a list to the side of those not listed: extrauniversal locations. The small computer running the simulation had a small glass rod inserted in the side, the top of which was glowing green. All the points were numbered.

"We can see from the past observations that they enter via this portal into Egypt here." The computer simulation filtered out the tens of thousands of points on the screen, until 6 remained.

"They appear to cluster, attracted into specific time periods. This time period they exit at is during the height of the Egyptian empire. As you can see, there are 5 points in egypt at this time, except for the one there that as you can see is far out in Iceland. From there, we can project the routes easily. Now, if we flick to the projection."

The screen now only showed 690 red dots, each with a date attached to the side and a number.

"These are the only artificial portals here. We know that Cogent have tried to create similar portals to us, but so far we have only detected 6 short-lived ones, not as permanent as ours. We calcuate they will have to travel between at least 12 time periods before coming to another artificial portal."

"Take a vacation they said. See another country they said. This place sucks ass." The twenty year old carpenter walked down the main drag of New Zevkhay. He spotted a shop that might have held his interest, and stepped inside. Two minutes later, he's outside again. Not what he was looking for. He continues walking, and finally discovers something interesting. Alfegos Knife and Tool. Perfect. The selection is better than back home, but the prices are higher. No Kershaw is worth 300 bucks, and he leaves, disgusted. He continues to walk down the street, just idly watching the goings on around him.

"Subject 4 located. Grab him."

Three agents were directed to the man via the camera network, and exited the car. They dragged the man into the back of the black car, and locked him in the blackened interior.

They then took him back to the Ministry of Secrets, where he was thrown into a cell.

The cells were designed to be inescapable: each cell consisted of a cubic room, with padded walls. The ceiling held a single fluoresent light tube, underneath 50mm bullet-proof glass. The ceiling and walls were all 500mm thick, with a layer of electrified steel halfway through. The only door was 500mm thick, and electrified. A tiny black dot was the fibre-optic camera that led from outside to a view of the inside.

The man was thrown inside and left. Until the test was ready.

Eduardo de la Cruz had just 'graduated' from high school and was celebrating by taking a trip to Alfegos. He had had a wild night before today, and the rest of his friends were still sleeping off their euphoric bliss. However, never being one to stay with the group, de la Cruz took off for a mid-morning run around the city. He had never been this far from home before and figured a little sightseeing couldn't do any harm.

Danny stepped out of the bar. Raindrops were dancing all around him. Dancing around more enthusiatically than usual.

"I've got to cut down on drinking, man. What was the girl's name again?"

He decided that he quite liked Alfegos girls, but it would be wise to find his hotel before he gets all soaked up. The street was crowded and people going by were giving him suspicious looks. He was used to that and gave them no attention.
He searched his pockets for a map. It was hard to find the location on it, but he made it eventually, put the map back into the pocket and went down street.

"The fifth and sixth subjects have arrived."

"Capture them in the same way as before."

(OOC:Sorry, but I really need to get some sleep now. See you in 9 hours time)

Taylor Kent's red and yellow Amazonia State University Spartans shirt was turning violent shades from the light drizzle coming down from the grey skies of Alfegos, but the 19-year old college sophmore didn't mind. She still looked a lot like a high school student, but Taylor's success in college so far had prompted her to take off her fall break to go overseas and experience other cultures. She'd visited other nations before, certainly, but it was still always an exciting prospect. Alfegos wasn't the best nor the worst of those places she'd visited (Tarsonis had sounded so nice at the time...) but it was a nice enough visiting locale.

The weather wasn't contributing, but the scenery was still nice. It was mid-morning, and Taylor's day was just starting as she'd left the twenty-story hotel where she had booked a five-day stay. She was going for breakfast now, plenty of time left in the morning to do things before the afternoon came around. Hopefully the weather would calm down by then...

Kazu was strolling through the streets of New Zevkhay without a care in the world. He had arrived here for in order to gain a greater cultural understanding of the world. So far, everything had been delightful and there had been no trouble. It might have been due to the geniune kindness of the people of Alfegos, or it might have been because of the rather dangerous katana strapped to Kazu's back. Either way, it didn't matter. He turned the corner and continued down an rather poorly lit alley.

Robert and his family walked along the busy streets of Alfegos' capital. "Look!" said his younger brother, Kyle. He pointed to the tall buildings around them, "I want to design those some day..."

Robert rolled his eyes a little and walked on. "You should join the Marines, like me." he said.

Joshua was walking on the sidewalk feeling miserable to think he had let a single bullet to the leg hurt him this bad. He was in New Zevkhay because there was some kind of specialist here for his leg. Wincing at one of the steps he sat down on the side of the street to apply the ointment that was supposed to relieve pain. Once done he was getting up when people grabbed him and began trying to drag him into an ally. He struggled to break loose from them only managing to land one punch in one of the men’s jaw. This however caused him to lurch forward and by reflex he tried to stop his fall with his injured leg. As his foot touched the ground he felt pain shoot up his leg and blood began to flow through the bandage. “I told him this ointment wouldn’t work” he said quietly collapsing from the pain and slowly passing out.

The agents came down on the subjects like a dark flock. The Isthamian was easy: he was just carried away. Tearing the amazonian away from his family, as well as the citizen of imported_ViZion

To pass the time, Brilev thought. Not idly, but with a purpose; he reviewed the history of his employer to see if there were any clues about his present situation above and beyond their obvious interest in advanced time-travel technology.

Hmm...Cogent Laboratories was founded in 1956 as a maker of military electronics, one of many in the postwar era. It cornered the early market in transistor-based devices and soon became one of the largest suppliers for Vetalian military, with billions in no-bid contracts. It didn't rest on its laurels, however, but instead piled funds in to various high-risk, strategically sensitive projects. Many were conventional, mostly advanced security devices, robotic minesweepers, mimetics, and all that, but some of them...weren't.

The Cogent Laboratories Assisted Jaunt Center, originally named the Advanced Projects Center prior to the APC's relocation in 1994, was built to test the most esoteric of those projects. It worked on a wide variety of projects, many attempting things once reserved for magic. Levitation, invisibility, teleportation, even physical shielding have been studied by Cogent over the years, and will continue to be as long as the company continues to perform so well. Billions more in no-bid contracts, free from Accountability Act requirements, all of it backed by a government willing to pay anything for top-line technology...Cogent has done well.

That's not to say everything goes smoothly. Incidents have happened in the past...most of them quickly, neatly, and most importantly quietly suppressed. Take the Petrovsk incident, for example. An entire Cogent Laboratories docking bay, along with its crews and cargo ships disappeared without a trace in January of 1999...sixty-five people, sixty million dollars worth of facilities and a prototype teleportation device simply vanished in to thin air....

Brilev stopped thinking upon hearing the unmistakable sounds of new arrivals to what could only be an oubliette deep below an Alfegan government institution. For now, it would be best if he kept quiet...he knew what Cogent was working on, and if the Alfegans were anywhere near at the same level, which he knew they were, they would be working on it too. Thoughts themselves might not be safe in a place like this.

The two agents in charge of the project were now observing a bank of monitors, linked to the cell. They studied it with cold, robotic efficiency: they had had most of their emotions and a large amount of their humanity removed in the mind modification they had had to endure in entering the ministry. They had no past, only the ministry. They had no future: only to work for the ministry. It was these sorts of people who could look at an experiment and test it without ethical or moral thoughts.

OOC: Alfegos, fyi on that last one...Taylor's a she (and by herself).

IC:

Taylor woke groggily, a swath of white encompassing the view to her slow-opening eyes. A massive pain throbbed at the back of her brown-haired head as she tried to sit up. It was a bad attempt - Taylor's joints felt like they were stuck in neutral and complained loudly at the jolt she gave them. The girl fell back to the floor of the room, groaning in the pain. Her soft hair drifted over the padded white floor of the small room. Taylor's eyes cracked open a tad as she struggled into a kneeling position, her head down as she pushed up on her arms for support.

The memory flashed back against the staunch white floor padding. She had been on the streets, the thick raindrops falling around her. The scene had been somewhat surreal for the girl from tropical Amazonia, a nation without the moderate temperatures of Alfegos and usually stuck in thick, torrential rain when it wasn't 110 degrees and sunny. She had been marveling at the cityscape of Alfegos when a black car had pulled up roughly ten meters away. Taylor wasn't concerned - cars were everyday occurrences. What had gone different, though, was that a man had walked from the car towards her - hand on some sort of thing in his coat pocket. She had tossed her hair behind her, turning to walk the other direction - running right into a second man, nearly identical. He had shoved her into a nearby ally - apparently, with no Alfegan on the street bothering to assist her - and thrown her to the ground. Taylor had the physical prowess to get up quickly and start running the opposite direction, but the black clad man was faster. It ended there...

She got to her feet in the small room, wincing off the pain shooting through her head and legs. An angry, long, red wound, no longer bleeding, slashed right up her left shoulder blade and neck, ending at about the lower jaw, though she could only feel the throbbing wound - no mirror or reflection gave Taylor her own visage. Dirt and blood spattered her ASU shirt, her athletic shorts torn up the midsection. That was revealing...Taylor, for her current position, was in such a state of shock that she was reduced to thinking about her image before no one else.

She looked around the room, her sapphire eyes glancing around the cell frantically. The room had a single door, surrounded entirely else by white padding to a low cieling, maybe 7' (she guessed). It was claustrophobic, to say the least. The door was there, perhaps, just to try. Taylor went over to go see if the door was a test of sorts...perhaps it was a key.

If it was a key, it was to not try the door. As Taylor went to see if there was any way to open it, the door's surface spat out a massive electric shock to her hand, throwing the girl back onto the floor. Taylor let out a bit of a whimper as she started to form a realization about the sitiuation - kidnapping. In a foreign country. The Alfegan police weren't spectacular, and a foreignor was likely of even less concern. Overall, Taylor's chances were pretty grim.

Eduardo saw the men in black coming toward him and his first instict was to run, which he did immediately. He ran toward his hotel at full speed and seemed to lose the men when he came to an alley with a brick wall. Using his momentum, he took two steps up the wall and cleared it.
"HA! I knew that parkour training would come to good use!"
However, much to his dismay, there was a black SUV waiting for him on the other side.

"You're coming with us," said the man who knocked him to the ground.

Joshua woke up as the alarm on his watch went off. “I don’t think I’ll be making it to my appointment with the doctor” he said turning off the alarm. He sat up looking down at his leg seeing the dried blood on it he groaned and reached into the small back he had withdrawing another bandage. Laboriously he reached pulled his leg to his chest and began to put on the bandage. “What have I got myself into” he said looking around the dark empty room “One door that’s it I can’t work with that”. He slowly stood leaning against the wall wincing at the pain in his leg. Slowly he made his way over to the door and began pounding on it. “Let me out off here!” he screamed “If I get out I’m going to kill every single one of you!” he continued his angry ranting not really expecting any reply.

Taylor was getting a little frantic at this point. She was from an upper-class family at a traditionally upper-class university. She had lived a life mostly of privilege and of little real consequence. Now she was in far over her head, kidnapped in a foreign country. As a college sophmore, she was probaly destined to be raped, tortured, and killed, just as the news always showed. It always seemed to end that way for people in her condition. Taylor never really understand those plights, always putting more blame on the people who had let themselves be kidnapped and their lack of intelligence. However, now she was in such a situation, and it was frightening, to say the least.

Taylor pounded on the padded wall in frustration, feeling the solid surface of the wall behind the padded insulation.

"Please! Anybody, please help me!" she cried out, her voice trembling yet still clear and loud. The padding seemed to absorb a good bit of it, though she pounded again on the wall, angry at herself and fatalistic at the prospects that awaited. Such potential in her life, and now she likely would never even see her twentieth birthday.

There was another possibility that scared Taylor perhaps even more. She knew very little of Alfegos and its culture - the nation had been recommended as a hot country by one of her professors for a visit. It could have a hostile stance towards outsiders, for all Taylor knew, and have some sort of nasty genetic testing going on. For all she knew, she was destined to be next in line to be sold to the Kraven Corporation's birthing chambers that were rumored around the Amazonian Dominion. One never knew, and given the intricacy of the prison she was in, that was probaly a more likely scenario. Average kidnappers didn't have the funding to get such a room as the one she was in now - likely, she would be first tested on, subjected to innumerable pains and struggles and tests before her own execution by the members of this xenophobic state.

Taylor's mind was grasping rapidly for answers now as tears flooded her eyes and flowed down her cheeks, the girl reduced to little more than crying for the shell of life she had lived so far.

It was always unusual to find a Dyellian outside of Dyelli Beybi. They tended to be a rather reclusive, arrogant race of people as a whole, although paradoxically were usually quite pleasant individually.

Caitlin Davies was an exception to the rule it seemed. It was not an especially cold evening when she stepped outside of her newly rented appartment for a smoke, but nevertheless she was wearing numerous layers of clothing, including a thick coat which seemed more appropriate for polar exploration. It was a sure sign she was 'fresh off the boat', unused to a non-tropical climate.

"Fuck this cold," David Skell swore as he drew another puff from his cigarette as we walked down a dark alley,taking a shortcut to his hotel. The Glock weighed heavily in his sock. He had procured a special permit to bring the gun into Alfegos, and had no intention of using it.

(OOC: I am not sure, but is this enough for us to start proper? I will hazard that it is, and RP any subsequent subjects being inserted into the experiment. Sorry I haven't RP'd excellently.)

IC:

"We have enough subjects for the experiment to begin?"
"The temporal projections show that there are more."
"The temporal projections only have a 76% reliability."
"That is correct from existing observations."
"Then begin. Collect the subjects from the cells. We have two or three new subjects arrived in the nation, who need to be collected for the experiment. Send three agents on each as before, and send a Die VII drone to collect them."

______________________________


A Die VII has quite an ironic name - a corruption of the fegosian word for "soldier", it was designed as an artificial replacement for soldiers. However, due to its cost and the occasional "accident" with previous models, the Die VII is restricted to the ministry as its security staff.

Each one is an exoskeletal biped, armoured with kevlar fabric all around. Its two arms are designed for its purpose: both end in 4 fingers that can pick up a person without damage or crush their skull. Each hand has a central socket for attaching the two submachineguns hidden amongst the metal.
The most intimidating thing about the drone, apart from its height of 7ft, is its head: a large plastic/metal construction, with 4 red-tinted eyes.

They moved from their standby positions inside the ministry and by any electrical socket towards the cell block. They were impervious to the electical current in the doors, so were easily able to open them. From then on, they had the option of taking them away quietly or taking them kicking and screaming to the elevator.

OOC: I'd say start within the next day... and then we'll figure out what to do w/ the stranglers... it may be interesting if they randomly "appear"... lol That or start a second group and they could go to another time, and eventually - maybe - meet up. :p

Drones...interesting. Again, it goes to show the difference between us. Cogent uses little physical security anymore, preferring to hand it over to our own security 'staff', the rather ingenious AI we developed as part of the Vetalian government's ongoing cybersecurity project. These days, she's (yes, a she...self identified as such, as a matter of fact. A little embarassing when the voice modulators were set to male in initial testing) pretty much responsible for keeping the facility secure. One of these days, she needs to choose a better name than DZ9105...but I digress.

I've had some interesting conversations with her over the past few months, and believe me it's filled me in on a lot of stuff that Cogent didn't want me to know. Take the Petrovsk incident, for example; we were all told it was due to improper storage of flammable gas, which was a plausible explanation for the loud noise heard by many bystanders, but in retrospect I've realized it was simply due to air filling a space that had literally been vacated instantly. To think all I had to do was get her a better internet connection...certainly far easier than what I'd expected, although I was somewhat surprised that she was amenable to such simple bribery. Not even I'd barter away company secrets for a free 100 gigabit pipe...

"Actually, I would..." he muttered, and then chuckled quietly. Brilev, shocked that he had spoke aloud, quickly silenced himself and hoped his escorts would take no notice. He pretended to straighten his tie and badge, and continued forward silently. As far as that went, he'd probably been a model prisoner, neither resisting nor fighting the rather eerie looking drones that had come to pick him up. I'm thinking that my captors are wondering about what I'm thinking...best stop doing so for a while, at least until this part's out of the way.

For the rest of the "trip" to the elevator, Brilev thought about nothing more abstract than whether or not his drone captors could play a nice game of chess. Far better than the wargames they were programmed to run, at the very least.

The morning was long gone when Danny left the hotel. The rain has stopped but
the air was still thick with its scent. He decided to go for a walk round the city. He was well on his way and deep in thoughts when a man in black suit stopped his daydreaming.

"Sir.."
"Mind your own busin.."

The conversation came to an abrupt end when something hit Danny in the back of the head. He slowly collapsed and the world went blank.

"Fuck this cold," David Skell swore as he drew another puff from his cigarette as we walked down a dark alley,taking a shortcut to his hotel. The Glock weighed heavily in his sock. He had procured a special permit to bring the gun into Alfegos, and had no intention of using it.

It was perhaps by chance that he passed by a slight, dark haired woman flicking with growing irritation at a lighter which stubbornly refused to do anything more than create a brief bright spark in the darkness.

She looked up as Skell passed, noting the lit cigarette, "Excuse me." the voice held the trace of an accent that could easily be mistaken for Irish, "You don't happen to have a lighter do you?"

de la Cruz figured that he was dreaming when he woke up in the arms of a droid (after all, that night before was WILD) but quickly realized that he was not when he tried to release himself from the firm grasp of his captor.
"What the hell is this place?," he said to no one in particular, "and why am I headed toward this elevator? And who designed this droid? And I wonder if it can talk. And..."
The droid, obviously sick of the boy's rambling, administered a light sleeping agent to the teen which put him back into his calm rest.

Unlike Brilev, Taylor was anything but a model prisoner. She was still in a depressed state when the drone came and accessed the door console, opening the metal gate from the white-padded room, its imposing body standing between Taylor and potential escape. The girl quickly tried to figure out the situation as the droid lowered and entered, its fingered arm attachments clicking menacingly. She moved around the room, away from the drone that continued taking a direct-line path towards the Amazonian.

As the drone moved closer, Taylor put her athletic ability to use. The drone reached forward with one of its arms to grab her just as she began her move. Grabbing onto the droid's side, she vaulted off the drone and against the padded wall, landing on the drone's opposite side. She wasn't anticipated for the drone's quickness, however: the opposite arm quickly snagged around, grabbing her knees and tripping her up.

Taylor struggled to free herself from the drone's grasp, but by then the security unit was already on her. The thing moved around as she writhed in its grip, laying its other hand on her midsection and closing to an exceptionally firm grip. The Amazonian girl gasped for a breath in the tight grip, trying to push off with her left hand from the droid's arm. That proved to be a bad idea - the drone's fast reflexes caught her arm with her torso, trapping the arm in the mess of robotics and manufactured sinew. Taylor gasped in sudden pain as her left hand was crushed to the point of drawing blood from one of the fingers that ended up puncturing her skin. The drone, now fairly oblivious to her struggles and attempts to escape, simply walked out of the cell and towards the elevator. Taylor's case was hopeless.

"You don't happen to have a lighter do you?"

Skell looked up. From hearing the Irish accent, he was half-expecting to see a red haired beauty, but instead, a slight, but strong-looking woman was staring at him intently, cigarette in her mouth, still ulit. He grasped into his coat pocket, grabbing his matchbox. Skell had never been comfortable with having liquid propane in your pocket, and preferred to use the older, albeit safer tochnology of matches. He lit one and the woman bent down slightly. The cigarette caught, and Skell extinguished the match.

Joshua was sitting against the back wall when the drone opened the door. Surprised he stood up wincing at the pain that shot through his leg when he moved. As the drone began to walk towards him he muttered to himself “I’m not going out without a fight”. He lunged at the droid with as much speed as his leg would allow him throwing a punch the drone didn’t seem to notice. Joshua however noticed reeling back from the pain he had caused his own fist. “Well so much for that” he said to himself as the drone grabbed him by the arm and led him out of the room. “Hey where in the world are we going?” he asked the drone but the drone didn’t even acknowledge that he had spoken. “I hate Sarfons if it weren’t for them I would have never been shot and I wouldn’t be in this crazy mess" Joshua said bitterly. Joshua sighed as they approached an elevator “I hope this is entertaining that cell was boring as nothing else.” He said to the drone.

Skell looked up. From hearing the Irish accent, he was half-expecting to see a red haired beauty, but instead, a slight, but strong-looking woman was staring at him intently, cigarette in her mouth, still ulit. He grasped into his coat pocket, grabbing his matchbox. Skell had never been comfortable with having liquid propane in your pocket, and preferred to use the older, albeit safer tochnology of matches. He lit one and the woman bent down slightly. The cigarette caught, and Skell extinguished the match.

The Dyellian smiled her thanks. She was attractive in a delicate sort of way, "Thanks stranger."

She held the cigarette at arms length for a moment studying Skell, then took a deep drag. She exhaled slowly, watching the stranger in a totally unconcerned manner, which was unusual for a young woman in a poorly lit alley.

Skell felt a bit uncomfortable. Alone, in a dark alley, with an attractive woman was not always a recipie for good health. He asked. " You don't look Alfegan. Are you an immigrant?" He noticed a shadow moving ever so slightly, and felt the weight of his Glock, hidden deep inside this boots.

"No I'm not. From Dyelli Beybi, Quisa to be precise." she paused, waiting to see if the stranger was familiar with the city. Most people from outside Klatch wouldn't be; Quisa was the centre of the Dyellian oil industry, a dusty town seated on what had once been an oasis in the middle of the desert.

"Moved out here about three weeks ago now, figured I might try to get some overseas experience before I settle down in a real job." she was probably in her early twenties, a young graduate it would seem.

Deftly she passed the cigarette into her left hand, extending her right, "Sorry, where are my manners? Caitlin Davies."

"You're not from around her either I take it?" she asked.

Normally one would assume a girl striking up a conversation with a complete stranger in a dark alley was probably more than a little naive. Something about Caitlin though implied she was rather supremely confident in her ability to get out of any bad situation.

Inside the elevator, the drones that had collected the prisoners stood motionless by the sides, ready to catch anything that attempted to escape. Once all the subjects had been taken into its harsh white interior, it would descend. For now, they had to collect all the subjects from the cells.

________________________


A black-suited agent stood at the end of the alley. He could hear at the end two voices. The two subjects. Another two agents stood either side behind them were a squad of police officers. The officers were nervous. They knew that those who spoke out against the agents disappeared suddenly in the night. The agent nodded, and the squad of policemen flowed into the alleyway. "Freeze! Hands above your heads!"

David took the the Dyellian's hand and shook it. "David Skell. Oily Prata. I'm here on Busines-"

"Freeze! Hands above your heads!" Yelled a member of the Alfegan Police as a group of them rushed down to where they were standing, Brandishing automatic weapons. Skell backed away slightly, assesing the situation. The Glock was no good, too many people. His only choice was to surrender.

OOC: I plan on taking the Glock back in time, as the prisoners main mean of self-defence.

(OOC: Alright, but be careful about its usage. You only have the magazine its loaded with, I am right.)

The police escorted the two people into the back of a black car, before dispersing. They disappeared quickly when agents were involved. The car drove back to the ministry, where two Die VII drones were waiting to escort them to the elevator. As the two people were unloaded, an agent turned to Pratan.
"A word of advice: the only way you can take down a drone is with a heavy AT launcher or bigger. The gun you have in your boot is only a 9mm."

They were then escorted away.

Davies like Skell didn't panic when surrounded, dropping the cigarette and grinding in into the pavement with her heel as she placed her hands behind her head, "Typical, only just started." she grumbled to Skell before they were escorted away.

In the journey by car she acted bored, glancing around and humming tunelessly in a manner which was probably intended to irritate her captors as much as possible.

Upon getting out of the car and seeing the drone, the veneer of calm shattered for the first time, "Oh no no no..."

She wheeled with suprising speed, looking like she was about to attack the nearest agent, then abruptly seemed to realise the odds and stopped. She folded her arms, waiting for whatever happened next as Skell was escorted away.

OOC: I imagine there's a reason you said only he was escorted away.

Skell stared atone of the the hulking monstrosities carrying him down the hall towards a large white door.
"Hell."
Years of Special Ops training came to him like a flood. Tactics, Survival skills, everything. But he could see that what the strange man had told him was right. There was no way to take out the Drones. He just had to wait and see.

(OOC :Sorry, me bad. I should've said "them")

The young Dyellian shied away from the drone, and hand to be physically grabbed by it and carried down the hall. She stopped struggling at that point. Mutely going along with whatever was in store for her.

(OOC: Newcomers from now on are forming a second party to explore)

A message came through the earpiece of an agent in the elevator. He wlaked over to a control pad set in the wall, and pressed for level 2. There was a hum as the electromagnets in the lift shaft warmed up, before the lift was carried down rapidly by gravity, slowed by the magnetic fields it passed through. The drones stood normally, unaffected by the magnetic field since they had no magnetic materials in their construction.
The lift stopped, and the drones forced the people out. The lfit then disappeared, without anything said by the agent.

The people were left in a corridor. It was white all around, except for the grey-black doors.

Danny woke up in a dark room. It didn't look familiar so he guessed that he wasn't in his hotel room. It looked more like a cell, the walls were empty and there was a grey door facing him. He walked to it carefully. He sensed something about the door and he was right, as always. As he touched the knob, electric shock threw him someway away of the door and his head started trobbing even stronger than before. He went to sit in the corner and he thought about the situation for some time. He realized that he won't get out of here on his own.

"Ever seen the movie sphere?" Caitlin asked the others in the coridoor at random.

She shrugged, placing her hands on her hips and turning on the spot, looking at the cieling for any sign of watching cameras. Whatever the outcome she shrugged again then stepped up to the door nearest to her. She stood to the right of it, in case opening or attempting to open it caused an unpleasant reaction from what was on the other side, then cautiously tried the handle.

"Get the hell offa me bitch! When I get free from this shit I am gonna beat you so bad with a god damn hammer! Mother Fuck-!" The carpenters stream of threats and obscenities abruptly cut off as he was drug bodily(no mean feat, he weighed some 220 pounds, most of it muscle) into the elevator. "How y'all doing? Names Bergstresser, call me Berg. What're y'all in for?" He addressed the other occupants like there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about a man with at least three VISIBLE knives strapped to his body being drug into an elevator full of strange people by what was apparently some kind of robot, for no apparent reason.

"What the HELL are we suppose to do now?" asked Robert to everyone as they were left in a white corridor with all the grey doors. "There's gotta be thousands in here..."

"What the HELL are we suppose to do now?" asked Robert to everyone as they were left in a white corridor with all the grey doors. "There's gotta be thousands in here..."

"My money says open one, pendeja. Then, they'll probably have us go through it, and shut the door behind us. Brilliant, da?"

de la Cruz shook off his second round of light sleep and exited the elevator after the others. Who WERE all of these people, and WHERE were they... there seemed to be a great amount of doors and talk of the like in the corridor but nobody seemed to know what was going on.
"Seeing as this hallway is full of doors, I'd suspect that we're supposed to use one as well. Anyone have any preferences? How many of us ARE there in here...?"

(OOC: No seriously, how many people are in the corridor at this point?)

de la Cruz shook off his second round of light sleep and exited the elevator after the others. Who WERE all of these people, and WHERE were they... there seemed to be a great amount of doors and talk of the like in the corridor but nobody seemed to know what was going on.
"Seeing as this hallway is full of doors, I'd suspect that we're supposed to use one as well. Anyone have any preferences? How many of us ARE there in here...?"

(OOC: No seriously, how many people are in the corridor at this point?)

"Your fingers broken kid? There's six. Not that hard. Now, since the nice lady has opened a door for us, I say we pick that one. See you on the other side gentlemen, lady." He reaches inside his leather jacket, and draws out a rather large knife, heavy and thick bladed, it's more of a chopping knife than a fighting knife, but it'll do the job, and he had a few more where it came from anyway. He stepped through the door confidently, and immediately stepped to the left, waiting for the rest to follow.

OOC: For those of you keeping track, that's 4 knives everyone knows he's carrying.

de la Cruz, with a bit of spite, said "Nah, my fingers aren't broken, just testing the pool for intelligence." and shot Berg a dirty look.

Though he didn't entirely trust this new aquaintance, he saw that the man was COVERED in large knives and decided to follow him through the door. At least he would look especially docile next to this man, and maybe the droids would kill the other guy first.

"Well, who's up for a little adventure?"

Brilev spoke suddenly. "I think know what's behind those doors. I can't tell from their external appearance, but if this place is what I suspect it to be, these doors hide a very powerful technology, one that I've had a role in developing..."

Quickly, he added.

"...no, I have nothing to do with our captors. I have a good idea of what they want from me, and likely the rest of you, but no more than that. I am, or was, a project director at Cogent Laboratories, a research firm based in Vetalia. I doubt most of you have heard of them, but if any of you own a computer or cell phone, it's likely to have Cogent parts inside. Same with your guns, or your knives; we make a lot of proprietary materials, and chances are the patents have been licensed to various producers."

Taylor seemed young amidst the others of the group, seeing as they were mostly adults besides her. The others seemed a bit more adventurous than she was - Taylor was just trying to figure out how to get out. The smart man who had just spoken up seemed to be understanding things, however, while the man with the knives seemed to be stirring up things. The last thing she needed was a bunch of violent people to figure out what they were doing.

"My name's Taylor," the college sophmore said, figuring introductions - despite her rather bloodied appearance compared to the rest - were as good as any. "I think we should try to figure out what whoever these people who kidnapped us want with us before we stumble blindly into their game."

She indicated Brilev, who had just talked about potentially knowing what was up, "You said you had an idea what the doors were about. What's your idea, seeing as I have no idea what's going on?"

"Pleasure to meet you, Taylor. I am Dr. Sergei Brilev." He paused briefly, looking around furtively, before continuing. "This might seem a little...ridiculous...and if my superiors knew I was saying this, I'd be more than fired, but I have reason to believe these doors hold stable temporal portals linking the present with various others specified at activation. It's time travel, the stuff of science fiction, but instead of a machine it uses a stable gateway to each different period. We've only been able to get a few stable portals open, along with a dozen or so unstable ones, which means..."

"...the Alfegans are way ahead of us. It looks like they've been working on it pretty fanatically, if the rather primitive drones that escorted us here are any indication."

"Before we go any farther, I may want to disclose Cogent and the Alfegan government have been competing for years in various fields. They're our biggest rival, and each institute has an edge in various fields, making our rivalry a literal cold war between two roughly equal powers. This is the first time I know it's degenerated to kidnapping, though...this means they're pretty close to getting the system ready for general use, and to say I am concerned about what they are planning is a massive understatement."

"One thing's for sure: we're going to be lab rats."

Taylor couldn't exactly speak for a minute as Brilev spoke up about what was in store. Time travel was something her professor in freshman chemistry had clearly explained to one fantasizing student was clearly impossible. The Amazonian Dominion was a technologically advanced state - far more so than many others - but this was pure imagination...beyond imagination. Time travel...it was not something, admittedly, that Taylor gave thought.

"Time travel." It was more of a statement, a bewildered one, rather than a question. "I didn't think that was possible."

Taylor said it more out of her adrenaline finally washing off, and the impact of Brilev's explanation.

"So you're saying...these kidnappers have set up some sort of time traveling thing and are going to send us somewhere?" The girl was on the verge of tears. The entire situation was getting out of hand; she was just here touring, after all. "Do you know anything else about it, or..."

Eduardo overheard the conversation (rather easily since it was public) and popped his head back through the door he had just entered with Berg.

"Dude, did you just say TIME TRAVEL?... wicked..."

The 19 year old then went on.

"My name is Eduardo de la Cruz, and I'm from Gernish. Just finished high school (yes, I GRADUATED) and was coming as a tourist just to hang out and relax. Then came the kidnapping, the TIME TRAVEL?

"Now, I'm no expert, but I'd say that we're going to be playing their 'little game' whether or not we want to, so we should at least try to formulate a plan for... our journey. Such as, Berg looks freaking ripped so he fights people for us, Dr. Serg (can I call you that, Doc?) is obviously the most knowledgeable about the situation, Taylor seems like a rather levelheaded leader, and I'm a pretty decent diplomat. I say we form an alliance now, otherwise we're going to end up split up in Ancient Egypt or something... and I'm allergic to cats."

"Doctor Brilev, you do know that time travel is a theory at best, and extremely impractical in practice. I beleive you know the paradox theory, that any change in the past will have disasterous results in the future. I'm sorry. My name's David Skell." He shook the doctor's hand. "A cold war, huh? But why are we chosen to be lab rats, instead of regular Alfegans?"

Taylor couldn't exactly speak for a minute as Brilev spoke up about what was in store. Time travel was something her professor in freshman chemistry had clearly explained to one fantasizing student was clearly impossible. The Amazonian Dominion was a technologically advanced state - far more so than many others - but this was pure imagination...beyond imagination. Time travel...it was not something, admittedly, that Taylor gave thought.

"Time travel." It was more of a statement, a bewildered one, rather than a question. "I didn't think that was possible."

Taylor said it more out of her adrenaline finally washing off, and the impact of Brilev's explanation.

"So you're saying...these kidnappers have set up some sort of time traveling thing and are going to send us somewhere?" The girl was on the verge of tears. The entire situation was getting out of hand; she was just here touring, after all. "Do you know anything else about it, or..."

As the only other female in the room (and one who was scarcely older than Taylor at that),Caitlin seemed to instantly decide they needed to stick together. She sidled over to her, leaving the door she had opened sitting open, "Taylor right? Caitlin Davies, we're sticking together." she was a hard person to argue with when her mind was made up.

"Eduardo, you're in charge. I hate being in charge.... by the way nobody properly searched me when they brought me in. Funny that." she turned around, hitching her skirt up on one side, producing a pistol which she'd apparently had strapped to the inside of her thigh.

It was a short stumpy one that probably wouldn't be recognisable to anyone who wasn't both familiar with guns and Dyellian ones at that. If anyone did they would realise that a) it was a Murcielago, unusual in that it was totally silent and b) that almost certainly meant she was a State sponsored assassin. She dumped it into her pocket instead, "I believe you Doctor." she didn't sound even remotely incredulous about time travel.

"I reckon we should all hold hands when we step through in case we get separated; I have no idea how this stuff works." a pause, then a nod to Skell, "I believe that if we are going back in time, we won't actually be able to change anything beyond what we already have changed, because we have been there already. In effect, any alteration to the course of history we might make has already caught up with us now... although I think it would also be a good idea if we're very careful."

“Well this should be fun” Josh said bitterly. Reaching into the back of the bandage on his leg he pulled out a standard combat knife putting it covered by it sheath into his pocket for easier access. “So who’s going first” He said adjusting the bandage.

"Damn it..." Robert muttered to himself. "What the hell is this... time Kidnapping us? And what this 'time travel' these guys are talking about..." he said quietly.

"I gotta agree with Eduardo..." he said aloud. "Let's figure out what to do... obviously... we're going through that door..." he said, pointing to the one a couple people already went through, "But what next? We also need to work together on this... I'm a ViZionarian Marine, and I can say that in uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and potentially hostile positions, teamwork - actually, pretty much being family - is what is required to make it through... all of us making it through."

"Well put... umm sorry I think I missed your name." Caitlin looked blankly at Robert for a moment, "Back each other up. Yeah... although solo is usually more my style, I'm sure I'll adapt."

She looked at each person in turn as if trying to figure out from their expressions if any were unlikely to tow the line, "I'll go first... someone grab my hand."

She extended her right hand, waited for someone to grab hold then stepped through.

"I suppose that's why I'm a PA and not a scientist in some lab."
Skell then unzipped his jacket, before secretly pulling out his gun, a Glock 19, with a seperate 15-round magazine taped to the grip, and stuffed it into his waistband, hiding it with his jacket. He didn't want anyone to know about the gun, at least not yet. He then grabbed the door frame and pushed himself through...

OOC: I will presume that my character was moved out of the cell while he was unconscious. I wasn't at home much these days and I'm different timezone, so it was a little difficult to keep up. Sorry for that. I could be in the second group of adventurers but considering that it's not overly populated I'll try to stick with this one. If someone has so say anything against that, please do so.

ICC: Danny woke up in the room full of people. They were arguing loudly about something that involved time travel. "I guess I am losing my mind" he said quietly to himself. He tried standing up and he made it, albeit slowly. He approached the man whom others referred as doctor Brilev. He tapped his shoulder lightly...

Taylor was beginning to get under control of her situation, though Caitlin seemed to be under control. She usually was a pretty clear and cool thinker, but the situation had caught her completely off guard. The Eduardo guy seemed to have a pretty clear plan, though where had everyone else gotten all the weapons from? Taylor was completely unarmed besides her head and her smarts - fairly lethal weapons - and besides that carried nothing but the clothes on her back. But hey, why not make the use of a situation when you could? The Amazonian girl was no master of fighting and warfare, but she was a good negotiator - not anything formal, of course - fluent in several languages, and could solve virtually any social or situational problem given time. It wasn't as if she couldn't use physical force if she had to - being a collegiate athlete in a nation obsessed about physicality and sports had its advantages - it was just that Taylor would rather avoid it if possible.

The two doctors seemed to be some of the most important people on the trip - assuming they didn't run into too much trouble, which would be Taylor's point to not get them in. They understood the process they were a part of considerably more than did anyone else, some of whom seemed like reckless go-getters. The Amazonian girl was an agreeable person, and generally could make friends easily - just she had never been in such a situation before, forced to using guile to simply survive.

"Alright, let's go," Taylor said suddenly, as the others seemed to be rallying to move out. Caitlin seemed like a person she could get around with, so the girl grabbed her hand as they moved through the door to the other side. Whatever waited ahead could come - at this point, Taylor had virtually nothing to lose. Survival instinct began to take over from cautiousness that usually was pervasive in her mind.

Who WERE these people and how did de la Cruz end up in a group of a marine, an assassin, two doctors, and a carpenter with a bad temper and lots of weapons. What did HE have to offer this 'experiment'.

"If it's any consolation, they didn't search me either. However, I don't have a weapon on me... just a lighter, my wallet, set of hotel keys, I mean maybe I can wrap the keys in some money from my wallet and light it on fire to stab people with, but I don't think that's going to be all that useful.

"And how about the assassin, the Marine and the angry carpenter go through the door first, that way if anything tries to attack us coming out of this ... portal... they can take care of it before it gets to the rest of us. No harm guys, but there's no way I can physically match up to you all.

"Alright people, let's move through the door. Dr. Serg, is there any way to tell what time we'll be visiting before we step through the door is it completely random?"

"Their behaviour so far has been typical of the human species studied."
"I noted that."
"One of them believes are portals are a random link."
"No: they stay at fixed temporal co-ordinates once they have been established."
"Prepare to cut the connection once they've stepped through. Then we access portal 12F."

Danny went to the man who was urging the group to move forward. The man was examining the weapons others were taking out of their pockets.

"Sir, would you mind telling me what is going on around here?"

"How much do you know? Apparently we're lab rats for some type of time travel experiment set up by our lovely host Alfegos. We're about to step through this portal and visits... who knows when.

"Before we get going, though, are there any weapons YOU would like to disclose?", de la Cruz said with a snicker.

Who WERE these people and how did de la Cruz end up in a group of a marine, an assassin, two doctors, and a carpenter with a bad temper and lots of weapons. What did HE have to offer this 'experiment'.

"If it's any consolation, they didn't search me either. However, I don't have a weapon on me... just a lighter, my wallet, set of hotel keys, I mean maybe I can wrap the keys in some money from my wallet and light it on fire to stab people with, but I don't think that's going to be all that useful.

"And how about the assassin, the Marine and the angry carpenter go through the door first, that way if anything tries to attack us coming out of this ... portal... they can take care of it before it gets to the rest of us. No harm guys, but there's no way I can physically match up to you all.

"Alright people, let's move through the door. Dr. Serg, is there any way to tell what time we'll be visiting before we step through the door is it completely random?"

"Boy." Bergstresser reaches underneath his coat, and reveals yet another knife. It's just a clip knife, but it's sharp, and does a fair job on drywall. "Take it, don't lose it, and for the love of God don't cut yourself with it, it really is sharp." He tosses it towards de la Cruz. "Anyone else not have anything point, sharp, and or pistolly on them?"

OOC - A map for you for reference: you come out in the portal by Giza. After that, you can go to Alexandria to find it, or in the desert near Qena in the meander.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/856/portalmap1aq8.th.png (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=portalmap1aq8.png)

Danny opened one of the flasks he was keeping in his pockets and took a sip. "As good as always" he muttered to himself and put the bottle carefully back into the pocket.

"I know we are going somewhere or better, somewhen and that's pretty much it.
I'm not even sure how I came to be here. As far as weapons are concerned, I have few flasks of finest brandy and I won't be hitting people with these, you can count on that. At least as long as they're full."

Irenicuz;13316427']Danny opened one of the flasks he was keeping in his pockets and took a sip. "As good as always" he muttered to himself and put the bottle carefully back into the pocket.

"I know we are going somewhere or better, somewhen and that's pretty much it.
I'm not even sure how I came to be here. As far as weapons are concerned, I have few flasks of finest brandy and I won't be hitting people with these, you can count on that. At least as long as they're full."

"Does no one ever prepare for going to a strange country anymore? Here boy."

He pulls out his second clip knife, and hands it to the apparent drunk in their midst. It's longer than the first, but he doesn't like it as much, due to its semi-serrated blade. He also doesn't approve of alcohol as anything other than a firestarter, but it wasn't his place to judge.

Danny took the knife with just a hint of hesitation. He thouroughly exemined the blade in his hand.

"Thanks man. I'm not sure I'd want to use it though. It'll make a nice bottle opener I suppose. And don't call me boy."

So everyone was armed. And he didn't know where he was and what was he doing here. In the middle of armed strangers. He didn't like weapons but a knife could come in handy in situation like this. He took another sip from the flask and let others to decide what to do. He would happily follow them wherever they wanted to go. It seemed the only way.

Robert stood there. There were multiple conversations, and no organization as of yet. Uggg... he thought. This is great... just wonderful... He stood there, watching everyone.

"Yes, it does sound strange, and for all intents and purposes was impossible, at least until research on teleportation helped produce viable models for time travel around 20 years ago. That in itself is a major discovery, but this facility is far more stunning than anything else I've seen in my entire professional life...time travel has been little more than a philosophical quandary for most of human history, but now it appears the Alfegans have not only resolved the quandary but they've also replicated it!"

"Now, if they are as far along as they appear to be, these portals will not be random. Random portals were a proof-of-concept even at Cogent, and we had only achieved limited success compared to what this facility has accomplished. If we go through, we will end up where they want us to be. My guess is that they chose each of us simply because we fit the model they wish to test; of course, for some of us, I imagine it had ulterior motives, but by and large it appears to be simply quality sampling."

"That being said, be careful. Although we are hardly innocent, the Alfegans are far more dangerous...their decision to use kidnapping is highly concerning to me and to anyone else familiar with acceptable standards of risk and scientific ethics. I believe our best plan is, of course, to stick together. I, along with the other doctor, will attempt to discover as much as we can about the portal system so that we can have some idea of where we'll end up. I will defer to anyone interested in taking a leadership role, as I am hardly prepared or equipped to do so myself."

"My only hope is that this place doesn't end up like our drydocks in Petrovsk...active portals can lead to a wide variety of problems, from the classical grandfather paradox to the aforementioned drydocks, which vanished without a trace five years ago during the transport of an experimental portal system. It's somewhere between the 12th and 23rd centuries, that's for sure."

Caitlin stepped through the portal, tripped and landed on her face, with one hand holding onto Taylors, she didn't stand a chance of bracing herself. She sat up, spitting out sand and dust, "Hey, we're home!" there were pyramids... but after a moment she began to realise they were subtly different in construct, and looked to have been built a lot more recently.

There was sand. Dyelli Beybi had sand. There was a camel. Dyelli Beybi had a lot of those. But something wasn't quite right. The sand was more golden, not as red as the sand at home. It was somewhere else.

"Hey." she yelled through the space she'd come through, "It's perfectly livable here, we aren't exploding in the lack of gravity or suffering a dive bombing or anything like that... in fact the weather is quite nice."

"Don't know if they heard me." she confessed to Taylor, "I'd say we could have ended up somewhere a lot worse.

She stepped away from the portal, sure someone else would tumble out at any moment, then stripped off her coat and jumper and sat down in the sand. While there were no males about she stuffed the pistol back up her skirt, twisting the strap around so the gun was on the outside, presumably making it more comfortable to walk with.

When she thought Taylor wasn't looking she then checked the rest of her peti arsenal. Knife in the back of one boot. Other boot's spring loaded blade still worked. Cigarettes went into the breast pocket of the white blouse she had had on underneath. Lighter was still not working and ended up hurled into the distance, "Good time as any to give up I suppose." she grumbled.

"Got a pocket Taylor?" she asked, "I think I'm probably going to ditch my jacket here which means I'm hoping someone can look after my wallet.... and this."

'This' looked like a small geiger counter. Caitlin switched it on for a few moments, it seemed to be going crazy.

David Skell emerged from the portal, only to trip on a boulder and fall face first into the sand, swallowing a mouthful of sand. He got up, then gagged, very much in view of the dyellian and her newfound companion.
Wiping his face with the back of his hand, he opened his eyes, and say a towering pyramidical structure fill his field of view.
"Shit! I'm in Egypt!"
As what happened sit into him, he realised he was buriing up inside his jacket. He emptied its pockets. An iPod, mobile phone, wallet containing Alfegan money and a small flask of coffee. He fastened his jacket around his waist, stuffed his items into his jeans and made his way towards the two women.

Joshua watched as the two women went through the portal. “Hey if you haven’t noticed they went through we should follow them.” He said. Curious he walked to the door and went through next thing he knew he had a mouthful of sand. He sat up spiting sand out before turning to the two “Where in the world are we?” he said in an odd voice because there was still sand in his mouth.

de la Cruz, now armed with a drywalling tool, though he wasn't ENTIRELY sure how to use the blade, stepped through the portal with the others.

The first thing he saw was sand. The second thing he saw was sand. This continued through the 234,234 thing that he saw, which was miraculously, sand.

"So I guess this is Egypt, what the hell do we do now? I'm all for finding some nice Egyptians and seeing if they have noticed anything strange around their village. I suppose that portals would look strange.

"Actually, I have no idea what a return portal would look like, anyone know how we're supposed to return to the time corridor, or another time for that matter?"

"Hey guys!" Caitlin waved enthusiastically from where she was sitting, "So here we are aye. I've been thinking... and I think this is Egypt, not Dyelli Beybi, although there are certain similarities."

"God knows when." she shrugged as if that fact didn't matter too much, "Anyway, I figure we need to set up a base camp somewhere and look at getting some food or else we're all going to starve within the week. We seem to be well set for weapons, but somewhat lacking on the food and drink front."

"We're going to need canteens or something like that or we'll all pass out and die. Then we'll need head gear to keep the sand out of your mouth and nose. Then food... also we'll need local clothes or we'll stick out like a sore thumb."

She gave a wide smile, "So, anyone here ever shoplifted?"

Robert watched as person after person walked into the light through the door. No sound... nothing he could see... Hmmm... he thought. Well... I could stand around here and be alone once everyone else leaves... or I could follow them... to God knows what... death? Some other time?

He decided to wait a little longer before walking, as there were still people that hadn't gone through it yet.

(ooc: FYI, a portal that you can walk through basically looks just like a door, but with light shining out around the edges. It is obvious when you open it...)

"So I guess this is Egypt, what the hell do we do now? I'm all for finding some nice Egyptians and seeing if they have noticed anything strange around their village. I suppose that portals would look strange.


Caitlin gave de a Cruz a blank look, "Speak Egyptian? You're dressed kinda weird by their standards. Backwards villagers will probably string you up or whatever the Egyptian equivalent is. Crucifixion? Thrown to the crocodiles? They might enslave you as a barbarian and sell you to some rich noble. Who knows? I don't really want to find out."

"We need to find some local clothes." she stated, "Then we can walk around happily, but try not to open our mouths."

Danny followed others through the portal. He ended up in the middle of a desert.
The pyramids in the distance reminded him of Egypt.
They looked better than on photos has seen. Seems like time travel is for real.
The women were seemingly taking the lead, speaking of getting food and seting up a camp. He remebered that he haven't eaten for at least a day and got hungry immediately. He didn't have anything to eat so he took a sip of brandy and walked to the two women.

"Sorry don't think I remember your name." Caitlin squinted at Danny for a moment, "Caitlin Davies." she stood up, extending a hand.

"Anyway... I think we should wait till dark then look for a village with some clothes to pinch. Anyone who could pass as an egyptian should come with me... by the way my new friend." this was Danny, "I'm going to need one of your socks, if you could pack it tight as you can with sand and knot the end that would be great."

Caitlin could probably pass as Egyptian at a pinch. She was short (5'3" to be precise), with dark hair, dark eyes and something of a tan.

"Ok, we're fairly certain this is Egypt. We now know where we are. Would anyone be so kind as to take a stab at WHEN we are?" He looks around for a moment, but he can't really tell anything, it's just sand and Pyramids as far as he knows. "Lady here is right, we need to set up a camp. I can sling up a fairly basic hut in a pretty short time if I have materials and tools, but I ain't got any tools, so might be we should add that to the list of things we need. I can scrounge materials, but I can't do a damn thing without tools and fasteners. So, clothes and equipment is my list o shit. Anybody got anything else to add?"

"Nice to meet you woman, but why would you want to fill my socks with sand?"

Danny lay down into sand. He was tired and hungry. He felt more miserable than ever. Just go with the flow and see what happens.

"The woman is right. Let's wait 'till dusk. By the way, does anyone have food to spare?"

Irenicuz;13317892']"Nice to meet you woman, but why would you want to fill my socks with sand?"

Danny lay down into sand. He was tired and hungry. He felt more miserable than ever. Just go with the flow and see what happens.

"The woman is right. Let's wait 'till dusk. By the way, does anyone have food to spare?"

"She's making a kosh. Most people use change. Never seen Death Wish?"

To the casual observer, the two men sitting atop camels in the distance could be mistaken as merchants. But they did not come from 1456 BC, during the reign of the Pharaoh Thutmose III. Concealed inside the bags of the camels though amongst their tradables were toys of the gods who had ordered them about their business: 2 pairs of cylindrical objects that made them see far into the distance; flameless lights that projected the illumination of 80 candles; a small book of red-headed twigs that provided them with instant flame.

They had been asked to follow the group from afar, and if they had problems to help them and direct them to where he had first found the gods in the desert. They were to write down as they had been taught their observations: another gift from these gods, in the form of literacy.

Currently, they were idly led the chain of 12 camels across the sand, with 4 bedraggled slaves keeping a watch for bandits and keeping the camels in check. They had seen the odd people appear in the distance through the far-seeing glass cylinders, and were now out of sight behind a dune. They had trading to do in Giza, before they left to go back to their desert village for the annual festival, where they had met those two man-like gods who had stepped out of a bright white doorway in a building. They had not followed, for they would have gone to the underworld. They prefered much more for now the promise of peace after death if they followed what the gods said.

Taylor surveyed the surroundings as she began feeling around for the atmosphere. The pyramids in the distance had a limestone sheath around them - clearly, this was ancient times. It was starting to decay, but only so slightly. The presence of the pyramids, arranged in a group of three and the most dominant forms of the landscape, suggested to the girl that they were likely in one of the major ancient cities of the land - Giza, the burial ground for three of the Old Kingdom's pharoahs, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. The limestone covering had long worn off in the modern world, and its sight meant that they were some time before Christ.

She decided to convey her speculations to the rest of the group - as more of an academic than the rest besides the scientists, Taylor had a pretty good grasp on world history.

"I think we're near Giza," she said, pointing towards the thre pyramids, "sometime in the Egyptian New Kingdom, between 2000 and 1300 B.C. And given the time, I think it's best that we stay clear from any major population sites, as I don't think too many of us know all of the local customs."

Taylor did, in fact, know a good deal about ancient Egyptian routines - world history courses in both college and regular schooling detailed it quite a bit as a major early stepping stone in human progression. She knew what she was talking about, for the most part. On that regard, Taylor figured she'd have to be the diplomat and speaker here for the most part, lest some of the more brash people end up getting them killed by the locals for not duly respecting Osiris, the god of the afterlife...

"We're near the Nile River and near where present-day Cairo is," Taylor continued, laying out the local area, "so if we can avoid going into the city, we can probaly get to fresh water and local food if we need to without being seen by too many people."

“I sure feel useful right now.” Josh said jokingly. “I have blue eyes and light skin so I cant pass off as Egyptian, my leg is hurt so I can’t fight, and I’m a soldier so I know nothing about Egypt He said standing up. “Come to think of it the only thing I can do right now is hunt people in Ithsam know a lot about tracking and were in a desert area I’m used to tracking in woods and plains.”

Danny sat down again, ignoring his "companions" talking. He knew where they were and he didn't care much about that. He felt something strange. That happened to him sometimes, sensing something, a danger perhaps. He trained this form of "sight" so he could now understand its source to a certain degree. It was like they're being watched. He could see himself and the group from another being's eyes for a split-second. Probably some desert animal looking for a meal. Not getting anything today I suppose. No point telling others about that. We have enough things to care about right now.

"You ain't getting my socks, woman, no matter what they say. If we find ourselves in Arctic for some reason, I'd bloody need them. I'd prefer not to have them full of sand."

“I sure feel useful right now.” Josh said jokingly. “I have blue eyes and light skin so I cant pass off as Egyptian, my leg is hurt so I can’t fight, and I’m a soldier so I know nothing about Egypt He said standing up. “Come to think of it the only thing I can do right now is hunt people in Ithsam know a lot about tracking and were in a desert area I’m used to tracking in woods and plains.”

"We'll get you a bow and a forked stick then. Must admit I've never seen a man hunt on crutches before though. Might be quite a sight. I assume you can hunt with a bow, or is that going to fall to me too?"

"Just talk to the knife master. He is pulling knives out of his ass for all I know" Danny told the one with a bandage over his leg.
"And then stop whining and let the wise decide where to go. The lady knows
something about Egypt. Shall we walk left or right?" he turned to Taylor smiling coldly.

"We're not in the arctic yet." Caitlin replied giving Danny a thoughful look, "Sand is good. It's heavy but soft. The name is Caitlin by the way."

"I will need someone to lend me a sock or something like that, just in case I need to stop someone making noise." she looked between the members of the group looking for a volunteer, "Whoever gives up their sock, I'll steal a pair of sandals for which is much better for this weather."

"We should find somewhere shady and wait up till nightfall. Then I'm going to go into a settlement and steal some local gear, some food and canteens... or waterskins or whatever they're using." as she spoke she was scanning around for plam trees... or figs if they were lucky. Anything that offered some degree of shade.

Spotting a patch she raised her eyebrows to Taylor then Bergstresser, nodding in the direction she intended to go. Since nobody had volunteered to hold her stuff she pushed it back into the pockets of her jacket which she tied around her neck like a cape. Last of all she picked up her jumper, shaking it to get rid of loose sand, "Anyone coming?"

Whether or not anyone else followed, Caitlin set off towards where she had seen trees.

The guy refusing to the socks request didn't seem like much of a team player to Taylor. He made an obnoxious comment, smiling with dirty teeth and an ugly face towards her direction. Taylor was generally a calm girl, but when offended to such a level by such a slob, who, in a situation like this, didn't want to put in his own effort, she became rather offensive.

"Look," she said, her sapphire eyes flashing as her temper completely left. "I understand we're all in a bad position right now. If you don't want to help out with the rest of the group, however, that's your choice. We can just leave you here to solve things by yourself as you rest your ugly self on the ground. We can let you get killed by whatever Egyptian soldiers want to come and kill you, that's your choice. But if you want to get out of here alive, you had better start lifting your own weight, because right now you're only a hinderance on the rest of us."

He didn't seem much like a survivor, at all. He wasn't a team player, he couldn't handle groups, he was downright obnoxious (which certainly wouldn't help out here)...all in all, it would likely be better if they just drowned him now in the Nile or let the Egyptians take him away for a slave.

"Furthermore," Taylor continued her rant towards Danny, "you keep up that attitude towards the rest of us and you'll certainly end up dead or enslaved, I don't care what you do. Start acting like a team player are get the hell out and die in the sands."

"We're not in the arctic yet." Caitlin replied giving Danny a thoughful look, "Sand is good. It's heavy but soft. The name is Caitlin by the way."

"I will need someone to lend me a sock or something like that, just in case I need to stop someone making noise." she looked between the members of the group looking for a volunteer, "Whoever gives up their sock, I'll steal a pair of sandals for which is much better for this weather."

"We should find somewhere shady and wait up till nightfall. Then I'm going to go into a settlement and steal some local gear, some food and canteens... or waterskins or whatever they're using." as she spoke she was scanning around for plam trees... or figs if they were lucky. Anything that offered some degree of shade.

Spotting a patch she raised her eyebrows to Taylor then Bergstresser, nodding in the direction she intended to go. Since nobody had volunteered to hold her stuff she pushed it back into the pockets of her jacket which she tied around her neck like a cape. Last of all she picked up her jumper, shaking it to get rid of loose sand, "Anyone coming?"

Whether or not anyone else followed, Caitlin set off towards where she had seen trees.

After finishing with the uncooperative Danny, Taylor got a hold of her emotions. Caitlin was considerably more level-headed than the stupid fool who thought he knew everything about what to do in a situation like this - he wouldn't last one minute alone.

"Here," Taylor pulled of her tennis shoes, taking out both socks, and bundling them up. "I'm used to not wearing socks at college anyway."

She tossed both the socks like a free throw at Caitlin, slipping both shoes back on. Socks would be of little use in such a situation and probaly would only make moisture loss worse with excess heat. As Caitlin moved off, Taylor quickly followed behind her, hoping they weren't going to be alone on this.

Night was fast approaching as the merchants set up camp for the night. A slave was sent to message the officials that he was trading there: he had been warned once by the city officials for not paying taxes on his goods, and had been publically whipped. No thankyou, not again. He'd have to hide the gifts from the gods of course, but for now was OK.

He quickly erected a small shelter with the rocks and canvas carried on the back of a camel, and kindled a fire beside it with the god's fire. He'd have to be careful using them, unless the gods rewarded him with more. His brother came up to him. They spoke in guttural Berber, wondering what would happen to the strange people: the gods had described them as lost spirits from the underworld who needed to get back. They were worried for their safety, with the bandits that roamed the desert edges at night.

A slave was ordered away by them. They only had three sentries now, but that would be enough. The gods had promised to protect them.
______________________________

The slave scuttled across the dunes, and in the dimming light saw the group in the distance, still there. He lay flat, his eyes looking just above the crest of a dune. He was invisible here, yet could see all around. He had a small dagger in his belt if he did encounter bandits.

"Thank you." Caitlin nodded her appreciation of the socks as she snatched them out of the air, "We always seem to be leading the committee around you and I."

She rolled her eyes towards the rest of the group, "Taylor is it? I'm sorry I'm terrible with names. The builder guy seems alright actually, handy to have around I'd suspect. So what can you tell me about Ancient Egypt? I was never exactly a top student at School... and never went on to University or College if you prefer. Reckon we can pass you off as one of the locals?"

She studied Taylor carefully, the other woman had blue eyes, that might look a little exotic, but she didn't really know, otherwise she could probably pass if they could get her the right clothes.

When they reached the shade she sat down with a sigh, leaning up against the bark of the trunk and closing her eyes for a moment or two, "Probably good to sleep now." she suggested, "We should take turns keeping watch. If you want a nap I still need to make this kosh. Then I should sleep so I'm not too tired come night fall. How good are you at linguistics by the way? If we grab a local do you reckon you can help us put the language together. Then we can start exploring. I'll need one of the men to act like a local as well." she added, "Women, I believe, and you might be able to correct me on this, were traditionally viewed as property in this period. He can fake being my husband."

Skell sidled up to the rock that had so unceremoniously tripped him. It was sandstone. "Perfect," Skell smiled. Using his hotel key, he chipped off a small quantity of stone, and crushed it into a semi-powder. He then storde over to the guy called Danny by the others.
"Give me your Brandy."
"What? No way! It's my brandy!"
Skell said noting, but snatched the flask from Danny's hand, before pouring the sandstone powder into the brandy and shaking it. He then poured out a thick brown paste. Using the back of his iPod as a mirror, he applied the smooth paste over his face, dying his fair skin a deep brown. It was almost flawless, matching his brown hair and eyes. He looked up.
"I can speak Arabic to some degree, and read and write. Anyone who wants to go brown, be my guest."

Robert decided to finally go through this door... this glowing door. Everyone else had. He could pick another door, but God knows what was behind them. At least he would be with everyone else - he hoped.

He stuck his arm through it. He felt nothing. He could not feel anything. What the hell? This is... weird. he thought, taking a deep breath and walking through it.

Thump. What the...? he thought as he lifted himself off the ground. Hot... sand? He looked around, seeing the group. It was getting dark already. And there were pyrimids. "Egypt?" he muttered.

He jump up and began to make his way to the group.

Eduardo had been watching the group during this point, trying for the life of him to try and figure out the group dynamics. It seemed that a small contingency was going to go to the nearby village to steal some supplies and clothing and he was totally in on that.

"Yeah, I'll go brown. I've always wanted to try my hand at this kind of covert mission stuff but my dad wouldn't sign my enlistment papers and I haven't had time to check it out since high shool. I'm not the strongest, I'm sure, but I'm pretty agile and happy to help.

"Let's rob us some Ancient Egyptians..."

OOC: Oh my God, Jolt is a retard. Nice post...whoop! Delete.

IC:

"Ancient Egypt..." Taylor began. She wouldn't give the full history, just a bit of brief on where she figured they were now. "I'm going to guess we're in the New Kingdom, and if so, we're probaly in pretty tumultous times, unless this is the reign of the pharoah Thutmose III. He was a bit of a conqueror, and didn't like women too much...his regent was his mom, Hatshepsut. As for the time, the people are starting to get more international influences from the Hittites, Phoenicians, Cretians, and other influences - though, we're probaly better off avoiding conflict."

"The people of the time can understand other people, to varying degrees - their main written language, Heiratics, is a combination of Heiroglyphics and symbolic writing. The spoken is kinda wierd...it's unique. Women right now are better off than Assyrian or Babylonian women, yeah, but the Greeks had it much better. Still, it wouldn't be wierd to see us simply going around by ourselves. If we're stealing stuff, though, I guess it'd be better if I go around talking and you do the stealing...I think that works better for us."

Taylor could probaly have stolen, but that would certainly be something new to her life, and she'd probaly screw it up somehow. Besides her rich blue eyes, her hair was...fairly brown, and her skin tanned to a golden brown from enough hours in the Amazonian capital's beaches under the hot sun of the tropical country.

"I'll be able to fit in. My eye color is a little off, but I can say I'm part Hittite or Phoenician - both had some blue-eyed people from the European mainland cultures at the time, though both cultures were from Turkey and Lebanon. I'll be ok. As for talking...I think I'll be able to put it together, though it'd be better if this were China or France or something. It's all about patterns, really."

Taylor wasn't a nerd at age 19, by any stretch of the imagination - she was a three-way athlete, and much rather preferred going out with friends to studying, any day. However, when she got to something she was good at - such as history, or international policy (her major), she could talk for virtually forever. If they needed to steal something, and she was supposed to be the distractor, she could at least keep someone occupied - that wasn't particularly hard. She just didn't want to end up kidnapped in not just a different country, but one in a different time. Good luck getting home from there.

Overall, the girl elected to sleep. Teenagers needed rest, and Taylor was no exception to that rule - the adrenaline rush of the day was downshifting, and now exhaustion began taking over. As Caitlin began working on the kosh, Taylor scrounged up a discarded fig leaf near their location, using it as an impromptu blanket. The sand wasn't a worry - she wasn't a girl concerned with dirt, and besides that, it was still warm from the afternoon sun. In less than two minutes, she was already sound asleep.

Irenicuz;13318648']"Just talk to the knife master. He is pulling knives out of his ass for all I know" Danny told the one with a bandage over his leg.
"And then stop whining and let the wise decide where to go. The lady knows
something about Egypt. Shall we walk left or right?" he turned to Taylor smiling coldly.

"Not yet, but we can play a fun game of hide Jim if you wanna keep up with the snide remarks boy. Then I'll be pullin knives outta SOMEBODIES ass. Copy? The lady knows what she's talking about, I'm following her lead, and as far as I'm concerned you're expendable. You haven't demonstrated any useful skills yet. Know anything that might change my estimation, or will we just have to get you a red burkah and a phaser?" Bergstresser could tolerate many things, but arrogance was not one of them, especially from those that showed the least reason for it. He turned to Taylor and Caitlin, not even bothering to wait for the man's reply. "Ladies, you seem to be the most level headed around here. Any thoughts on after we have clothes and supplies?"

"We'll get you a bow and a forked stick then. Must admit I've never seen a man hunt on crutches before though. Might be quite a sight. I assume you can hunt with a bow, or is that going to fall to me too?"

“Yes I can use a bow and as for the crutch I’ll be able to shoot I just won’t be able to chase if I miss” Josh said glad he could help.

Caitlin smiled at Bergstresser she seemed to like him, "Now I definitely don't know your name, sorry, I know you appear to be some kind of builder unless I'm much mistaken?"

"What I'm guessing." she spokeas she packed sand into Taylor's sock, "Is someone is watching us, somehow. Stupid kind of experiment if you can't monitor the subjects. I would assume we will be moved on, given an exit door, once they've observed what they want to see of us. I think once we're in a position to survive we should speak to the Doctor, see what he thinks these people intend, what they want to observe. Once we understand their motives, it will be easier to probe for weaknesses in the prison, then we can escape. I would assume there is no intention of releasing us, oh the stories we could tell... would cause major international outrage. No. We're going to die in here eventually if we don't escape first."

She looked thoughful for a moment, "They'd probably do it by simply cutting us off one day and leaving us stranded somewhere we'd never get back from.... so we need to work out how we're being watched, then we can work out how not to be watched for a few minutes, how to strike back."

Caitlin didn't seem as frightened by this prospect as she ought to. She looked like a woman with an exit strategy. If she had this though she was keeping very closed lipped about it.

"You are one hot-headed bunch of people. I'll try to behave myself from now on if that's the problem, but man, what have you done to my brandy!? I have only few flasks left. I think the best way to get supplies would be selling some of our stuff. Like your ipod. Just make sure you are far enough when batteries run empty. I was thinking about risking one of my bottles, but I've lost one already. We'll look like Egyptians in few days in that sun anyway."

The slave watched these outsiders in astonishment, still wondering what they were. Spirits, he had been told. Strange spirits though, from another time and place. He spied to the edge of them a flash of light. There were about 4 armed bandits watching them as well as he. Would he warn them? They were unarmed, it appeared.

"Yeah, that is assuming that we can find someone to take it from us without branding us as a heretic and get us killed. Liquor is a good commodity in the early ages, and if we can find a few people so that we can 'liberate' their possesions and supplies. Speaking of that, I don't have a weapon."
Skell turned to the man who was pulling knives out of thin air. "Got one to spare?"

Caitlin finished the kosh, whirling it around her head experimentally. Sand rained down around her as she did, but none from the inside of the home made weapon, which was good.

Taylor was still sleeping, and she wasn't going to wake her just yet. So she leaned back against the tree, dusting her blouse and skirt down. The voices of the others drifted across to her. Someone was suggesting selling an ipod, which was going to create a stir if that went ahead. Exactly what they didn't need. She couldn't be bothered getting involved though.

She stared across the sand, it would be so easy to fall asleep in this weather, which would also be a mistake. They had no idea what dangers lurked in the desert, perhaps there were lions here in the period, there were probably people who would kill, rob or enslave them. So while the others argued she kept watch.

The four bandits signalled to each other. They were wearing head scarves that completely masked their faces, and were wearing thick clothing for the cold. Each was holding a hooked knife with smaller daggers concealed around them. These foreigners looked like they had money: those clothes would sell for some money as would their trinkets.

The man at the end signalled, and they lept up from the dunes around them. The head man yelled in harsh egyptian.

"Give us all your possessions, and you won't be harmed."
He looked at the two women.
"Much."

"Look, our clothes have arrived. These sand filled socks won't do any good. Let's use the guns shall we?" Yelled Danny, while slowly moving away from the bandits.

He would have no chance against one of these bandits and there were four of them. Let the fighters fight and thinkers think. I am here if they need me. They certainly will one day, no matter what they think.

Taylor opened one eye as a harsh noise nearby disrupted her sleep. She looked around sleepily, glancing and recognizing four men...who she didn't recognize. That popped her awake - especially as one was pointing right at her. She had no weapon; and while maybe an unarmed fight could slipher way with some luck, each seemed to be holding a weapon that looked the precursor to a scimitar. Not exactly the best means to go about - Taylor wanted to get home alive, not in several cut-up mangled pieces. She tied her hair behind her to get it out of the way of falling sand, looking about the group hastiy. Where was the guy with the guns?

"Look," she said hastily, getting up with both hands in sight to the bandits. They seemed fairly interested in her anyway. "We're just on our way to Thebes. We don't have anything good you'll need. Ok?"

They wouldn't understand what she was saying, though Thebes was currently the capital of the regime if this was indeed the mid 1000s B.C. - and they'd understand her pronounciation of the capital. If anything, she'd at least try to buy some time for whoever was armed...even if it meant going a little overboard from modern customs, if she had to.

de la Cruz was just hanging out chuckling quietly at the chaos seeming to erupt around him when the bandits jumped over the cliff. He quickly decided that his drywall tool would be utterly useless in this situation and so left it in his pocket. Maybe he could impress them with the lighter, though. He was no expert on ancient peoples but knew that fire was also a big deal with them. Logically, he COULD try and confuse them with his psychology, the others were good at that but he knew how to mess with their minds.

"I need an Egyptian interpreter... I think I may be able to talk our way out of this situation. Unless somebody trigger happy would rather shoot these bastards. But really, unless somebody has a silent gun (assassin girl?) the gunshots are going to really make a rutcus in the area. What SHALL we do?"

Joshua turned around as someone spoke in a tongue he didn’t understand. Oh god no he thought as he saw four men holding weapons. His had went to his pocket where his knife was. This knife won’t do me much good who was it that had a gun. He had a feeling if they attacked he would be the first target he was incapable of running in fact the only way he could dodge at all was to duck and that would only work if their attack was high enough.

Skell squinted as he tried to spot where the call to surrender was coming from. Just a hundred metres away were four bandits, wearing headscarves and Berber clothing. They were wielding what looked like a cross between a sickle and a sword. Their tongue was not arabic, he could not communicate.
It seemed like their only choice was to surrender...or fight. He yelled "I need a weapon!"

"Maybe we shouldn't kill them. I mean, MAYBE these people can lead us to the next portal, maybe they could be friendly. Face it, we're stuck in the middle of Egypt with no allies except ourselves. We need something that speaks in every language. If we get into a fight with these guys SOMEBODY is bound to get hurt and that's not going to make this whole time travel thing fun. Perhaps the point of the experiment is to test us in cases like this and I think that our captors want us to fight."

The first thing MArcus Gaines had realized was that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. Nor was it Oz, but a dusty sand bowl that looked a lot like ancient Egypt-somewhere during the 18th or 19th Dynasties if he remembered correctly. He snuck around as carefully as possible, trying to make sure his tracks were covered. It was particularly easy in the sand, but Marcus had to be careful. Taking out the 'device,' he used its 20x scope to peer over the next dune. He could read the inscriptions on a nearby pillar clearly, detailing a moment in the life of Ramses II. So, Marcus thought, it's at least the late 19th Dynasty...Now, what to do with the information he had gathered.

OOC: i know i was late coming back in, but i hope there's no objection to my late arrival. i got busy w/ work and stuff...

"No guns." Caitlin yelled to the others, waving them down, "Except if they have a silencer. I don't want attention drawn to us. I'll try to keep one alive, but no offence, I know what that look I'm getting means."

She ducked to a submissive crouch, "Rhubarb, rhubard rhubarb, bet you don't understand a word you big smelly oaf." she sounded for all the world like she was pleading for her life, "Rhubarb, rhubarb."

She shuffled slowly towards who she assumed was the leader emmiting a stream of false pleading, "Your mother is a camel and your father is a goat. May you wander the desert lost for eternity and be spat upon by lepers."

She was close to him now. To anyone watching closely, her hand had slid down the back of her left boot. She straightened up in a startling burst of speed, only she had produced a dagger; a stiletto to be precise. If the bandit was not at least as quick as the Dyellian, he would find it punching through his neck.

Robert had not yet reached the group when the unexpected arrival of four men came up, startling everyone in camp. As he watched this, he kept very low to the group, moving slowly around to get behind them. He waited for a perfect time to act. While he did not have any actual weapons on him, he did take his belt off and tightened the ends around both hands so that be could choke one from behind if required to subdue them.

Suddently, he noticed Caitlin moving slowly towards them, saying something, though he wasn't close enough to hear what was being said. He, too, began to creap up slowly, remaining flat on the sand. Luckily he had worn a khaki colored shirt and tan colored shorts. Before he went any closer, he took off his shoes and socks to help blend in better as well as to make let noise when moving towards them, covering them slightly to camouflage them. Then he began making his way closer yet.

When he noticed her leap up with something in hand, he, too jumped up and began sprinting towards the men from behind without making any noise. And luckily, the slight noise made by his movement was not as loud as the people walking up there.

He closed in faster and faster, then leaping forward, reaching out with his arms to wrap the belt around one of the men's neck, preparing to pull the man back. He hoped the others would spring to action quickly.

The 4 bandits stood, not understanding the foreigners. A girl had crawled up to one of them. The leader grabbed her by her neck and lifted her up, before moving to throw her at another two to tie her up.

Suddenly they heard a drawn out scream as the slave ran charging into the men. He was hit hard in the chest and knocked off his feet by one of the bandits, but after first leaving the dagger stuck in the bandit's heart.

Skell stared ino wonder as Caitlin stabbed the largest of the bandits with a thin knife through the heart. The Slaver gurgled and fell face first into the sand. The Vizonian had also flung himself bodily into another bandit. Skell kicked off his boots and Sprinted towards the dead Bandit, scoobing up the sickle and charging towards the third attacker. He crouched into a low fighting stance, keeping the unfamiliar weapon close to his body. He was more used to combat knives, buy he had a general idea of hoe to use arab weapons. He shouted a challenge in arabic.
"Give me your best, Worm!"
The bandit was obviously aggravated by the strange brown man speaking an unintelligble tongue, and swung wildly. the strike went high and the bandit was still recovering. Skell saw his chance and moved closer and hacked at the man.

Caitlin had ended the struggle flat on her back, she rolled, deftly bouncing back to her feet, clicking the catch on her right boot as she did, which in turn slid a 6 inch blade from beneath her heel.

She paused, while she was armed, a spike on the end of your foot wasn't the most effective weapon available when other people could see it. So she stopped, letting the men deal with the rest of the bandits. Hopefully none would turn on her...

"Try not to kill him." she yelled to Skell, in Arabic. It seemed she spoke that too.

"Whoa, man..." was all Danny could say. He felt more cowardly than ever, running away like that when others so bravely confronted the bandits. He went closer to the group just as Skell slashed one of the bandits across the face with some exotic weapon. The bandit fell. To his left, the Vizionian was trying to suffocate tha last bandit with his belt. Danny leapt towards him and smashed the bandit with an empty brandy bottle. The bandit stopped struggling immediately.
"Is he dead?"

The slave lay behind the group with a deep gouge across his front. Doubtlessly he would get infected and die. As long as his master was pleased.

He painfully brushed the sand out of the bloody gash on his chest, so deep that he could see a broken rib at the bottom of it, rapidly clotting blood around. He then crawled over the sand, on his 1km trip back to his master to inform him of what happened, leaving a trail of sticky blood behind him in the sand.

______________________________


The four bandits were all lying in various states of unconciousness and near death. One lay concussed, unable to move after blow to the side of his head. Two others lay dead, one with a knife sticking from his chest and the other strangled. The fourth was lying on the ground after another had pounced on him, and was faking unconciousness with a heavy wound on his midriff caused by the Pratan.

________________________________

The two men were asleep in their tents, the fire still roaring, blissfully unaware of the fight that had taken place.

OOC: Alfegos, I think you missed mine

Edited

As things seemed to have subsided, Caitlin dropped down to the sand, fiddling with the mechanism in her boot to slide the blade back in again. Things had turned into utter chaos in a matter of moments. She wandered over to the body of the man she'd stabbed, yanking her blade free and cleaning it on his clothing. The killing seemed to have had no effect on her whatsoever, a slightly worrying fact.

"This site has been compromised." she remarked dourly, walking between the bandits, prodding them with the toe of her boot, "We'll have to move... someone get that one that's crawling away, we don't want witnesses."

Finally she reached the one who was faking unconsciousness, and bent double to check his pulse, pressing the stiletto to his neck for security as she did, "Hello, what do we have here."

She rolled him over, straddling him with her knees on either side of his chest, the dagger still pressed to his throat, "I wonder if King Tut is awake." she mused, "Perhaps we can get some language lessons... Taylor! You'd probably be better at this than me."

Careful not to remove the dagger from his neck, she picked the bandits hand up, pressing it her chest, "Caitlin." she introduced herself, then moved it to his chest, vaguely hoping he'd make an introduction, although secretly thinking that if he was conscious she would be more likely to draw a stream of Egyptian invective.

(Sorry if I didn't get everything, but that was realistically confusing... still, not complaining if it acheived a good effect)

The bandit, named Khamudi, felt the balde against his neck and decided to give it up. He was probably dead, so he faked waking up. He groggily opened his eyes, and looked at the women on his chest. Sad this was not different circumstances...

He saw her talking, but in a strange almost neutral language. He then saw her point at her chest and say "Caitlin". So that was what she was called. Very strange name. He swore under his breath, then slowly turned his head, trying not to inflict pain on his throat.
"I am Khamudi, underworld spirits."

"The one that's crawling away was fighting on our side for some reason. We should talk to him if any" Danny told Caitlin. "I'll get him back here." He felt useful once in while. He run towards the badly hurt Egyptian.

"Hey you, wait!" The man paid him no attention, so Danny grabbed him by the shoulder. He tried to escape, but Danny pressed him to the ground, careful not to hurt him too much, as his prisoner was in bad enough condition already.

"I got him, come here" he shouted towards the group. "He is badly wounded, and I've got no clue how to save him!"

The slave could not speak, his chest hurting so bad. He gasped and pointed in the direction of where he had been sent from, before he rolled over and collapsed, each breath a gasp through his broken ribcage and deep wound that had cut through a few intercostals.

de la Cruz, feeling very useless (after all, he had advocated a peaceful end to this situation... apparently the others didn't agree) ran over with Danny to the injured man who had so valiently fought for their side.

"He's definintely dead, but he seemed to point in THAT direction," he spoke pointing his arm in the same direction that the slave had.
"If this means that we've got some friends out here in this desert then I suggest that we follow the hand. After all, this location IS pretty well compromised. Let's take their weapons and gear and get a move on."

"Maybe he was warning us not go there. But I guess you're right, he was trying to get there when he was still alive. I thought we could get some information from him."

Why would anyone want to help us against these bandits? He was alone and poorly equipped. There's more to this. We just have to find out.

"Oh..." that was all Taylor really had to say to the bloody scene now around the party. Like de la Cruz, she was all for getting away with no one hurt if possible...but apparently that wasn't possible. The girl had an appreciation for life - no matter who's life - but when her own survival came into effect, she generally spurned trying to save those who would harm her. Therefore, the current situation was a little messy, but nothing overwhelming.

She walked over to where the least-wounded Egyptian lay, seemingly trying to look unconscious - a feature ground into the brain of every animal, whether human or dog. The man said something as Caitlin laid a blade to his throat and stated her own name. Tayor didn't know what it was, but Khamud and Ahmad were names that were still in use across Arabia, and the man had said "Khamudi" at one point. She guessed that was his name. Besides that, he had spewed off a bunch of jibberish that she was drawing blanks on, though the first little bit, by inflections of his voice, sounded like an introductin.

"Khamudi?" Taylor said, pointing at him. She tried to look a little more compassionate than Caitlin, who was staring daggers down at the Egyptian. "Taylor," she said, pointing at herself.

She got a little stuck on how to proceed, but figured rudimentary sign language could do the trick.

"Where are you from?" she asked slowly, pronouncing out each word and signing with her hands as if to produce a location, than pointing to him. She toned her voice so a question was obvious.

Marcus had continued his search, wondering just how he had been sent through time. Had they used some type of wormhole technology? What about Einstein's Relativity? As he continued, he noticed the scuffle between a group of bandits and what appeared to be modern people. Thisi s making even less sense, Marcus told himself. He watched and waited, wondering if anyone could be trusted. He stifled a guffaw at the "Me Jane-you Tarzan" routine going on and decided to help. After all, he did know Egyptian.

OOC: my sis knows how to both read, write and speak egyptian since middle school, so i'm putting it as a capability my bookwormish char. has.

The other women had come up to him. She had called herself Taylor, like the other women who had called herself Caitlin. Strange names, for strange outsiders, spirits of the underworld by their pallid flesh.

"I am from Memphis, the seat of the pharoah. Please forgive me demons! I have to rob to feed myself. I have nothing after the pharoah took my land!"

He looked at them to try and persuade them he was not a threat.

Deciding it was now or never, Marcus revealed himself, translating the poor man's words as he approached the group of fellow travelers, his hands up in a sign of neutrality. The only thing he had omitted was the 'demons' reference. He didn't think the others would take kindly to it.

"Hello," Marcus said, pronunciating the Egyptian slowly. "We're not demons. You'll be safe."

Silently, he hoped he'd said the words correctly.

The man who spoke to him had a strange accent: a Greek trader, perhaps, lost in the underworld? However, he appeared to be trying to tell him that they weren't demons. They weren't, where they? But then, a demon would try and trick him, wouldn't they?

"As long as you don't do anything I don't understand, I believe you. What are you then, if you aren't demons?"

Marcus paused at that and wondered, what were they...? The two women didn't seem to gie him any clue, so he continued.

"We're travelers from distant lands," he said. There, that wasn't a complete lie...

Danny went back to the group who were appearently interrogating the captive.

"Got anything useful from that guy? The one I followed is dead. He was pointing in the direction he was going and talking something. Nonsense, at least to me. I think we should go there."

Apparently from his words, the man Khamudi didn't seem likely to attack again, so she withdrew the blade, tossing it towards Taylor. She staying perched over him though, just in case he tried something funny, her knees digging into the sand on either side of him

"Tell him..." a look of anguish crossed her face, as for perhaps the first time she actually had to consider what she'd done, "Tell him that I'm sorry for his friends. I had to protect myself from being... assaulted." she finished rather lamely, figuring Marcus could probably translate the real word.

"Sorry Mister." this was addressed at Marcus, "You seem to speak English. You been thrown through a time warp as well?"

"Oh, hi," Marcus said to the man who had just approached them. He then continued to explain what he had learned from the man. "I don't think he'll hurt us," MArcus concluded.

"Travellers? Then how have you been travelling? There isn't a camel or horse in sight. I would reccomend that you move out soon, travellers. The Memphis guard patrol right out ot the edge of the city, all the way into the desert and right up onto the gizaa plateau. I would find some other "travellers" or merchants to stay with for the night, so you don't rouse the suspiscion of the officials. I doubt you would be able to sweet talk the pharoah."

"Ask him." Caitlin added suddenly, "If I can take his head gear off."

There was a murmer of translation, followed by a loud exclamation from Khamudi. He looked at the knife suddenly, then nodded his head slowly.

"We need to take him with us." Robert said, then looking at Marcus to translate, "But we also need to find out what that man was pointing to before dying. And can we really TRUST this guy? He and his... 'pals'... they did try to attack us." Robert said, flashing a glare as the man, still holding tight the ends of the belt.

"Look," Taylor said, trying to get an objective position on the situation at hand. More than just try to avoid being killed by the pharoah, they had survival worries as well. The desert would get awfully cold as the night wore on, and food and water weren't in high supply anywhere but in population areas and the River itself.

"We need to find food and water somehow, unless we all want to be running dehydrated and hungry. Also...unless we want to sit out here in the heat of the day and cold of the night, shelter's also paramount, all the time while trying to get away from the capital, where the pharoah's presence will be the highest. I think our best option is to get on the move quickly. We've got probaly at least six hours until sunrise no matter the time of the year we're in, so that's six hours without the Saharan sun beating down. If we're going to do something, let's do it and get moving fast. I think this guy'll help us out, even though he already attacked us. I don't think he's a bad guy, just looking to help him and his family."

Taylor could sympathize with the sort of people - Amazonia itself had enough poor who needed welfare from a government that didn't want to shell it out. Even though the man had shown indications of hostility earlier, he now seemed like a man driven by need rather than greed. Perhaps she was too quick to forgive, but this seemed like a situation where it could help.

Skell came over and knelt next to the injured ex-bandit. Pointing to himself, he said "Skell". he moved slightly closer. "I caused that. Do not worry. The cut is not deep, just painful. If we get to a town we will be able to fix it up."
He turned to the new arrival, waiting expectantly for him to translate

"Taylor has it right." Caitlin added to the mix, "Although I'd argue that some of us go and try to get some clothes that aren't horribly stained. These people seem to favour white."

With a suprising degree of care she unwrapped the facial covering over the Egyptian. She studied his face for a moment, then, without any explanation kissed him on the forhead then stood up, dusting herself off, "Dave, can you take a look at him, bandage him up or something. I think I can probably evade the guards so I'm going to head towards town and pick up some supplies."

"Mr. Egypt." this was apparently her name for Marcus, "ask him to point in the direction of the nearest village. Anyone comming with me? Someone else can go in the direction the other fellow pointed, although you know it's equally likely he was pointing in a 'don't go over there' sort of way."

"I'll go," Taylor said, though she could probaly patch up the man. He wouldn't know what she was doing, likely, which could get worrisome. "We'll probaly run into something..."

She put on her cardinal and gold ASU sweatshirt that had, until this point, been wrapped around the girl's waist. If anything, the sweatshirt had a good deal of color that the Egyptians would at least appreciate (and the fact that the uncoming night was going to drop the desert air by at least thirty degrees). In any fashion, investigating the local countryside and urban areas would be more exciting than waiting in the desert for someone to creep up again. Taylor was used to the city - ASU was located deep in the heart of a metropolis twenty million strong, and while Memphis and Thebes were nothing close to modern thoroughfares, she had enough knack to find places to avoid and places to head to in case trouble started.

"Ok guys, whatever everyone does, can we please meet back here at 3 in the morning? Maybe some of you scout for somewhere to set up camp, some go down where that guy pointed and of course Taylor and I are going to town. That way none of us get lost."

As she was speaking she wandered back to where she'd been sitting before, retrieving her jumper and jacket. She pulled the jumper, navy blue, over her head, then tied the jacket around her waist for later.

She waited for the injured man to point out where to go, then set off with Taylor. "I hate giving instructions to people." she confided as they left earshot of the rest of the group, "It doesn't feel right... by the way Taylor, how old are you?"

Watching the women leave, de la Cruz now felt that he had some responsibility to try and get the remaining travelers ready for the night. He had spent enough nights out in the cold when his parents wouldn't let him inside to know how uncomfortable it was when one was unprepared.

"Alright, right now it's just after sundown, and they said that we'd meet back here at 3 AM, that gives us just a few hours to do multiple things.
1) A group will go over the crest of that dune right over there," he said pointing in a direction parallel to the town, "and set up a camp, using extra clothing or anything like that to build shelter for when the sun comes back up. Get your bearings right so that you can use the edge of the dune as shade during the sunrise and midday.
2) A group will take all available supplies and clothing from our dead attackers, bury these men as well as possible, and then meet group 1 at the campsite and help to make the site ready for the daytime. Group two will come back to this location at 2:45 in order to meet the two girls from town and escort them and their supplies to the campsite.
3) Two of us should follow the direction of our dead friend's last arm wave and see what's going on over there. Just observe, if those guys turn out to be unfriendly as well we don't need to lose anyone in the middle of the night. This pair will meet back at this location at 2:45 as well to be escorted by group 2 to the campsite.

Everyone set? Alright, I'll go with gruop 3, I need one other person with me, the rest of you split into two groups and let's get cracking. Every minute we waste is another toward attack or burning in the sun. Good luck and godspeed to all."

OOC: um, if i'm not around, just assume i translated...

IC:

"Well, my device has a 20x zoom lens," Marcus explained. "I guess I should go and scout around with you," the teen said timidly.

OOC: um, if i'm not around, just assume i translated...

IC:

"Well, my device has a 20x zoom lens," Marcus explained. "I guess I should go and scout around with you," the teen said timidly.
"I'll come with you. We need to scout out the area. I'll also do a little searching around to make sure there's no one else looking to attack us while we begin setting up camp. By the way, I'm Robert - what's your name?" he asked.

OOC: oh, heya IV

IC:

"I'm Marcus, Marcus Gaines," he introduced himself, extending his hand.

OOC: holy crap I don’t log on one night and I get way behind

“I’ll help set up camp” Josh said

"I'll bury the dead. I've done this before. Just don't ask about it" said Danny. "Anyone going with me?"

Skell pulled out his newfound sword from the sand, hefting it and swinging it experimentally. "I'll go with you, de la Cruz. We can find out what's at where our late guide pointed at."

Whether or not Caitlin was given competent directions her path took the pair of them towards the large walled town of Memphis, although presumably there would be farms and the like on the outskirts that would be better pickings...

OOC: oh, heya IV

IC:

"I'm Marcus, Marcus Gaines," he introduced himself, extending his hand.
"Nice to meet ya. Where'd you learn to translate like that?" Robert asked, shaking Marcus' hand.

One of the merchants stirred restlessly in his sleep. He felt death on the air, and in his dreams saw the slave he had sent hacked into by a bandit, while the group fought back. He woke up, and decided that it was worth seeing what had hapened, with a dream like that. He picked up a thick tunic and draped it over the cloth he was wearing beneath, and put on a pair of leather sandels, before setting out over the dunes with binoculars around his neck and a concealed pair of knives under his tunic.

After a few minutes of walking, taking skillful paths around the hills of sand, he finally found a viewing point. He looked through his binoculars and saw the spirits: one group were burying the bodies of bandits and of his slave. He had been right. Another group were, setting up camp in the shade of a massive dune. Not very sensible since the guard patrol would likely as not find it. A third were walking in the direction of his camp, on the outskirts of Memphis and El-Giza. They obviously had been sent by the slave to talk to him. He was, after all, entrustd with their protection, so would have to explain to one of those who understood his language what he had to do. At least he had been given a set of phrases written in a berban-esque language to talk to them, and try to explain what he was here for.

OOC: According to my records, there are ten of us time travelers, that's what I counted looking back over the thread. Can anyone back that number up for me?

IC:
After people chose their respective jobs for the night, Eduardo spoke again.
"Alright, so I'll take it that everyone knows their duties? Skell, Robert and Marcus will come with me to try and find other friendlies out in the desert. Caitlin and Taylor are going in to town and then will be back here to meet us at 2:45. Josh will set up the campsite with the help of anyone else who isn't busy and Danny will be in charge of burying the dead (nah, I won't ask). Remember, 2:45 back here. Any problems, make noise in groupings of three to signal your distress and the others will come to help you."

"Skell, Robert, Marcus, let's go find our friends.," he spoke confidently as the four men took to the desert in hopes of finding somebody. Anybody that could help them.

"Ok guys, whatever everyone does, can we please meet back here at 3 in the morning? Maybe some of you scout for somewhere to set up camp, some go down where that guy pointed and of course Taylor and I are going to town. That way none of us get lost."

As she was speaking she wandered back to where she'd been sitting before, retrieving her jumper and jacket. She pulled the jumper, navy blue, over her head, then tied the jacket around her waist for later.

She waited for the injured man to point out where to go, then set off with Taylor. "I hate giving instructions to people." she confided as they left earshot of the rest of the group, "It doesn't feel right... by the way Taylor, how old are you?"

"You're doing a good job," Taylor said reassuringly, "given the situation we're all in. I think each one of us provides something, even Danny when he's cranky. We're not on a tropical beach or snowy paradise here...this is real stuff."

"I'm 19 by the way...a sophmore at Amazonia State. I guess I've been places before...but this is my first trip in time," she said, trying to make light talk.

"What's your background?"

Danny left the group to return to the bodies of the slain bandits. Flies have already begun to gather and were buzzing around annoyingly.

So I'll be spending the night alone, the dead to keep me company. At least they should be quiet.

It would be a waste of time and energy to move the bodies so he started digging on the spot. He was poorly eqipped for the task, but sand made it easy. He just made some shallow holes and moved the bodies in then put sand on the top. He took their clothes. They were bloody and torn, but could be used to make a tent or something. I'll carry it to Josh when I'm done here. They have already taken their flasks of water and weapons, but he found some money in the pockets along with some dried meat one had successfully hidden from others. He ate it hungrily, taking in sips of brandy between the bits.

Finishing early he went to the "campsite" where Josh was working.

"Nice to meet ya. Where'd you learn to translate like that?" Robert asked, shaking Marcus' hand.

"Heh," Marcus said as he scratched his head, "I guess I was kinda a nerd in middle school."

"You're doing a good job," Taylor said reassuringly, "given the situation we're all in. I think each one of us provides something, even Danny when he's cranky. We're not on a tropical beach or snowy paradise here...this is real stuff."

"I'm 19 by the way...a sophmore at Amazonia State. I guess I've been places before...but this is my first trip in time," she said, trying to make light talk.

"What's your background?"

Caitlin laughed quietly, "I'm only 4 years older than you you know, that's nothing, I'm sure half the guys are twice my age... thanks though."

As they closed in on the river they were begining to cross fields of wheat. It looked to be nearly harvest time with the grain growing to waist height, "I'm guessing I'll need to look out for irrigation cannals?" Caitlin asked, drawing on some half memory of a class she hadn't really paid attention in.

"I was never a very hard worker at School." she confessed, "And I ran off with a biker half way through upper six."

She cringed at the memory, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, I came round to my senses, but I hadn't sat any final exams, so that meant I'd need work experience to get into a University."

There was a pause, while she obviously considered whether or not to tell the final bit, "I'm kind of a Police Officer now." she finished, although there was obviously something more to it, "Police Sergeant Caitlin Davies."

"Say this up ahead." she had spotted a cluster of buildings which were quite possibly a farmstead, "That looks like a farm to me."

She dropped down on her haunches, letting the wheat just about obscure her from view, "So, what do you know about this kind of place? What can we expect on the inside? Anything you know about building layout?"

Josh walked over to the spot that had been deemed the campsite and began looking around for something to use. Spotting a patch of trees he walked over and grabbed the lowest branch he could find and pulled himself up. He then began removing all the thinner branches he could find with his knife. Great I’ve got a structure but what can I make a roof out of he thought dropping down and taking the branches to the site looking around again for something to cover the structure with.

Danny approached Josh who was making some progress. He was up a tree and removing branches.

"Man, I got clothes from the dead, we could use them for wind protection or something, you should know what to do, being a ranger and all. And I got some coins, sadly the girls left some time ago."

de la Cruz led the other three men in the direction that the slave had pointed before he died, thanking him with a quiet prayer for his soul as he passed. It did not take them long to spot the campsite that the man had obviously refered at a long distance. They were shocked at what they saw through their binoclears. It was a man on the other side, looking right back at them.

"What do you think, guys? I mean, I think he knows we're here and doesn't seem to be plotting our deaths in any way, I think we should go talk to the man. After all, he looks somewhat old and if it's MANDATORY, we could kill him like we have killed the others. Thoughts?"

Taylor listened to Caitlin's story, staying quiet through her reflections. It was kind of interesting, actually, though Caitlin didn't seem like a police officer, at all, unless she was talking about some sort of special ops like the Amazonian Sentinels. She seemed more like a member of a Delta-Force like organization, or some team player of the movies of international revolutions and subsequent struggles of small-ops groups of commandos that had swarmed over Amazonian movie theaters as of late. No police officer did that - they were more likely to try and convince a drunk

"I think that might be a merchant's hut," Taylor replied as Caitlin got back to the task at hand, "since we're relatively close to the Nile now."

She stuck her hands in her sweatshirt pockets as she looked over the small thatch and mortar hut. Several smaller buildings were assorted around it.

"One of those is probaly a farmer's house, one for a merchant who keeps up with the crops, and maybe a slave quarters too," she said, scanning over the plain. "If we need to set them on fire that should be pretty easy."

In reality, she didn't want to exactly mess with anybody...or even meet anybody if that was possible. The capital would likely be swarming with men from the pharoah if they got too far in.

"The insides should be pretty spartan," she said, going on a little bit, "I bet these people are probaly pretty poor. The wheat here seems a little dry, maybe this is the dry season. Either way, as just poor farmers and merchants I doubt they have much more than a few slaves and a basic family."

Irenicuz;13324649']Danny approached Josh who was making some progress. He was up a tree and removing branches.

"Man, I got clothes from the dead, we could use them for wind protection or something, you should know what to do, being a ranger and all. And I got some coins, sadly the girls left some time ago."

“The clothes should work perfectly as a roof” Joshua said starting to dig small holes to put the branches in. “It won’t be very tall but this should be able to protect us and give us shade.” He said using his knife to cut notches in the top to put branches across the sides of the top.

OOC: Christmas has kept me busy, I'm gonna assume that Berg has stuck with the guys, and I'm gonna post as such

IC:

"I'm bigger than he is. If he does anything stupid I'll hit him." The last real trick Bergstresser has up his sleeve, he reaches into his jeans pocket, and removes a battered pair of leather gloves. They've seen hard work over the years, but the metal strips he sewed onto the back, originally to protect himself from errant tools(mostly his cousin with a sawzall), would do fairly well for a quieter, slightly less lethal weapon. "That said, let's go." He pulls the gloves on, and waits to see what the consensus is.

OOC: Sorry Alfegos if I've taken this too far forward for your liking. I've left a good opening for you to complicate matters.

"I don't like stealing." Caitlin grumbled, despite the fact it had been her idea to start with, "I wish I had something to give in return... they can have my jumper. I won't freeze off just a jacket."

She paused, then crouched low, sidled up to the side of the building, edging her way silently to peer cautiously around the corner. When she was sure nobody was watching she signalled for Taylor, "Ok." she whispered, "I'm going to try the door, if I cause alarm, leg it. Then you look for food and waterskins while I check for clothes."

It was located up a short ramp to keep the dust out, not that Caitlin knew the reason for that. It was also most likely the owners would sleep on the roof, a fact she was equally unaware of, her knowledge of ancient Egypt being mostly confined to 'they built pyramids right?'. She cautiously tested the door, which opened without too much protest, apparently it was unlocked. Inside was quite apparently not an area to find clothing, she waved Taylor in.

This was the riskiest part, although Caitlin moved with a silent purpose suggesting she had done this before. She left Taylor to her task, proceeding with her own goal. Dresses, of about her size were there, Taylor was taller, hopefully the Egyptians didn't find ankles too offensive... A kilt for whichever male looked most Egyptian, probably the funny Professor type, and sandles for everyone. The homeowner would not be happy...

In return Caitlin left her jumper. It seemed very poor compensation, "Oh hell." she muttered to herself, quickly unbuttoning her blouse and leaving that too. She put on her coat then, last thing she really wanted to do was wander into a camp of men in her underwear... or half dressed at any rate.

Finally she grabbed her stash and moved to find Taylor, all up it had taken Caitlin less than 5 minutes to get back. Time was crucial, if they took too long they would be discovered, and discovery would almost certainly prove fatal.

(OOC: It's OK. The farmer is not related to the two merchants in any way, but I can't help but throw a spanner in the works.)

The farmer and his large family slept wearily on the roof of the main building, with animal hides over them to keep the desert night chill away. He did not notice the people below ramsacking the storeroom a merchant was using for his haul of clothing from one of the cloth mills further south.
Not even the merchant sleeping on the roof of the stable in which his camels slept noticed the theives, but four people did.

The city guards had noticed them. While most of them were confined to wall patrol during the nightly curfew, there were patrols sent out into the desrt on the roads to intercept the bandits that posed such a threat to trade, and to drag them back to the city for public execution if they were lucky. To them, these people leaving the house were bandits.

The head of the guards bellowed in egyptian to the two figures he could see in one of the fields.
"Stop theives and show yourselves! We may be merciful!"
He advanced forwards with the other guards, his bronze and wood shield hanging to his back while he held a long bronze sword in his right hand.

__________________________________


The merchant in the desert saw that the party coming towards him had noticed him. He stood up and waved to the people, before walking back to his camp. He arrived and woke up the other man.

"Quick Thumo!"
"What is it Imtef?"
"The spirits are coming!"
"What, now?"
"Yes, a group of them have come here."
"So we will have to lead them to the underworld?"
"We will."
"So we came up here with our goods for nothing?"
"No. We can trade tomorrow and in the evening we can set back for the portal."
"Good plan. I hope you can persuade them to help us sell off this stuff. I want to have a decent haul of food and clothes to take back to the village."

Imtef pulled out a waterskin from one of the camel bags and rank greedily, before sealing it and placing it back in the bag.

"Did that dude just WAVE at us? Alright he certainly know we're here and doesn't seem vicious, let's just go. Who's with me?"

de la Cruz stood up and walked toward the dune that their apparent friend had just occupied. He knew that perhaps it was not the wisest decision that he had ever made, but he had a tendency to be headstrong when tackling new adventures and potentially hazardous situations, so this was really no different for him. He walked up to the dune, and seeing nobody there, spotted the tent where the men must be staying. Not knowing that much about Egyptian culture, he assumed that these men must be of some means because they had a tent and not just camels to cuddle with for warmth.

"God I hope these people can help. Maybe they can even speak some Latin, I know a couple of Latin phrases...

"Greetings, Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Salve, Hallo, Ciao... damn this is obviously not working," he muttered to himself as the men stared at him with a confused and pained expression.

Maybe I should let them make the first move, he thought, and stopped saying hello in any language that he could think of and just took a knee in the sand and lowered his head, aware that this sign of respect would probably be understood even here. He waited.

Taylor moved quietly, trodding on the balls of her feet to reduce noise. Her running shoes already wouldn't give off much sound, but she was staying cautious, nonetheless. The storehouse which Caitlin had flagged her into was loaded with foodstuffs and the like - clearly this man had something to do with providing for the city. She took a little bit of time looking at some of the glyphs on a tablet - though the girl was drawing blanks. It seemed like Egyptian shorthand of sorts, nothing clear like the university always showed to history classes.

Eschewing her curiosity, Taylor got to work on the task at hand. A lot of the room was dedicated to wheat - the versatile staple crop seemed to be omnipresent. Taylor grabbed a skin bag hanging on the wall - hoping a quick exit wouldn't be needed, as the thing would probaly get heavy - and got to work. She stuffed several things of wheat into the bag before digging around for other foods. A few melons in the corner of the storehouse followed up the wheat, accompanied by several leeks, cabbages, heads of lettuce, cucumbers, and a swath of beans. Clearly, it was some time after the harvest season - when, after the wheat harvest, the Egyptian farmers got to work utilizing the soil for vegetables, groups of fruits, and other like items. It was an ingenous system of crop rotation, really, done far before the Romans ever tried a similar system. That meant it was likely early to late June, as the harvesting of grain ended about May.

Taylor shoved ten waterskins in the bag - she hadn't counted exactly how many were in the party, but she guessed that would do. A couple onios and pomegrantes followed up, before she finished off with a group of figs. All together, she'd filled up two bags of food - hopefully they really would not need a quick escape. She knotted up the tops of the bags quickly to avoid spilling stuff all over the desert before noticing something else out of the corner of her eye. Apparently the man here was a hunter of sorts, too - in the corner of the storeroom lay a primitive-looking composite bow of sorts, along with about a dozen and a half flint-tipped arrows in a skin quiver of sorts. Taylor was no weapons expert - she grabbed both, however, slinging the bow across her neck like a sash and tucking the quiver under her right arm, while moving both food bags to her left arm. Time to go.

Taylor scampered out of the house, looking around for where Caitlin was. Not seeing her right off the bat, her attention was rather grabbed by something else -shouts from farther off, towards the city.

"Oh...shit," said Taylor, letting her usually calm tongue slip into general cursing. Not a good thing to be caught by the pharoah's guards.

She lay down her two bags of food momentarily, removing the bow and slinging the quiver across her neck and back. Either way, she wanted to get out of there. The arrows each had slight notches in the back, enough for her to get a grip into the drawstring on each bow. She wouldn't shoot unless absolutely neccessary, but she kept the weapon armed before picking up both bags of food in one hand and slipping back behind the cover of the building.

"Search the area!"

The head of the group stood looking around the field while the men spread out. They must be hiding in the field. He looked and saw a snippet of movement behind a storehouse further away. He began to walk over, his sword raised. While he had an urge to kill on the spot, he knew that the pharoah did not take kindly to food theives, and would be rewarded with an excellent display if he captured the theives,

"Show yourselves, cowards!"

_____________________________________________


The two men in the tent looked at the foreigner, confused. One of them took out a papyrus scroll from a bag, and began to recite what was to him absolute gibberish, though what one of the group would recognise as middle-late english. The world's first phrase book.

"Hello. I am called Imtef. I was sent here by friends to help you get home. You must trust me. Though I know little of these things, there are people who know a great deal."

He rummaged through his bag, and pulled out the binoculars.

"These are proof of my allegiance to you as a friend."

"Hel

Taylor was breathing hard as the sentry walked around, but he sounded alone - or if he wasn't, the others were being stealthier than she could imagine. She set down both the food bags quietly, picking the bow up and checking the notched arrow. The arrow sat still in the drawstring - time was up. The shadow of a man, illuminated by the bright moonlight from a 3/4 moon in the sky, slowly came closer. Taylor had never killed anyone, and didn't want to now...but she was faced with little choice. Surrender to the man likely meant getting killed after getting raped by the pharoah's whole court.

Taking a deep breath, Taylor pulled the drawstring back as far as her arm would bring it. She steadied her shaking arm, but her heart was pounding far more than even her most intense basketball game. Taking the moment, she spun around the corner of the building - a mere six feet from the man, who was remarkably tall for an Egyptian - far taller than Taylor. He was carrying a curved bronze sword, but had no armor except for a few leather straps carrying a round item behind his back. The sword wasn't particularly long, it wasn't within his reach yet - and even if Taylor somehow missed this shot, she'd have enough reaction time to avoid a potential attack by the man.

Exhaling her pent-up breath, Taylor didn't stop to talk or blink. She aimed the arrow's head directly at the man's bare stomach, right between both lines of ab muscles. Before he had a time to move, Taylor released the drawstring, the arrow flashing off the string, the potential energy of the weapon quickly converting to kinetic energy as the arrow sliced forward through the air at the man's stomach. At the same time, Taylor - slightly shocked by the whiff of the arrow and its force - took a step back, her heart racing.

The guard yelled out as he collapsed, his sword falling from his hands and frothy red blood bursting out from the deep arrow wound: she had had a lucky shot and punctured the aorta. He would be dead within seconds.

However, his yell and subsequent string of swearing had attracted the attention of the other three guards in the field, who came running, frantically pulling their shields off of their backs as they came running.
The yell also woke the farmer and his family on the roof of the storehouse. It isn't the best way to wake up, looking down and seeing a dead body. He swore and bellowed at the top of his voice:

"Guards! There's a thief in my house! Hurry up!"

He pulled a knife from under a bag and clumsily attempted to climb down the ladder to the side of the storehouse. He swore again, having had quite too much mead to drink the night before, before falling off the ladder and knocking himself out on the ground.

In the distance, the city gates opened as 16 guards ran out, clanking rhythmically as 12 heavily armed swordsmen and 4 bowmen ran out to get these thieves. They enjoyed a public executions and torturings, as did all the other residents of the city.

Taylor snatched up the man's sword without thinking, grabbing the weapon and her bow and dashing the other direction. Where was Caitlin? She was definately sure she wasn't leaving without her - despite being...whatever profession she was, there were hordes of armed men coming down from the city now. Taylor hadn't expected the man to yell so loud...and though she had enough prowess to escape off into the wheat fields that moment and probaly get away, she wasn't leaving behind the other member of the party.

She spotted a diversion which could potentially save them some time - a horse and a donkey standing near the shed. Of course - the farmer would need beasts of burden for transportation and for work in the fields. One or the other would likely help out...or both. Taylor hated cruelty to animals, but when it was her life or a donkey's, she had her priorities straight. She dumped one bag of food on the sleeping horse's back, holding the animal still, while attaching the other to the donkey's back. Watching the men come in from the fields, she aimed the donkey laterally away from both the fields and the city walls, adjusting the sack somewhat to resemble more like a hunched rider. The donkey looked somewhat displeased, but Taylor realized she had little choice but ingenuity at this point. Hopefully Caitlin was still doing alright.

Taylor kicked the donkey right in the rear hard, spurring the animal to start galloping along out of the group of huts - a fairly akward position for a donkey. The sack of food upon its back, knotted so the food didn't fall out and spill, swayed akwardly but looked like an inexperienced rider with a few provisions. It would draw off attention hopefully for enough time for Caitlin to return. In the meantime, Taylor hurried mounting the horse, tying the food bag to its back. She'd never ridden a horse before, so the experience seemed a little bit off - but she'd manage. Somehow. It was the fastest way off, and Caitlin could use the bow and arrow to serve as Taylor's impromptu gunner...or something like that.

The guards were fooled in the low light, and began to chase after the donkey. They were joined by the 16 men running at full pelt after the donkey, until one of the archers decided it would be best to end the peculiar chase. He shot the donkey with an arrow, which landed on its rump. The donkey fell over in pain, and the men raced up to find a bag of food on its back, and not a rider.

With screams of rage, the men ran back to the farm. This chase had taken 10 precious minutes, and they knew deep down that the theives had probably escaped. Two dragged away the body of the dead guard, while the others went back to the city. Tomorrow, the hunt for the thieves would begin. With one of theirs lost, the thieves would definately be tortured, and death would likely be slow and painful. What a spectacle to watch.

Caitlin had wasted precious time inside, while Taylor had apparently solved the problem of the guards. She had been prepared to fight them (and probably die in the process), but they'd run off in the other direction, so there was no need to fight. Instead she ran back the way they had come, clutching her precious cargo of clothing.

When they stopped for a breather she spoke her mind to Taylor, "Personally I wouldn't have killed the guard, I'd have lured him inside then hit him over the back of the head, but it all worked out I suppose."

She was breathing heavily, she was a fast runner but seemed to lack stamina, "Taylor, try not to kill people, it's not good for you, you don't want to become attuned to it. You lose a little bit of what makes you human."

You don't want to become like me she added silently to herself.

Back in the middle of sand dunes, Josh and Danny were building a shelter. It looks like shit. But at least it should give basic protection for the travellers.
Danny's eyes were closing. He was very tired. I've had enough for today. I need a rest.
"Josh, continue without me. I'll take a nap. If something important happens, wake me, otherwise leave me alone. And good luck about the shelter."

OOC: Really a joy to read some action from experienced RPers. I'm miles away with my poor english.

Taylor set the food bag down as they stopped momentarily out in the desert, the lights of Memphis now just lighting up the sky off in the distance. She was used to playing the court for 40 minutes and was also a track hurdler - the run wasn't anything new or special. Caitlin seemed to be a bit more tired out, and began talking strategy for taking out the guard. Taylor was only half-listening - even though Caitlin talked about not losing yourself to killing people, Taylor was even more shocked at her own actions. She was a person who spoke against the openly aggressive actions of the Amazonian government (safe in the political immunity of a college campus), but what she had just done labeled her a complete hypocrite. There were always more ways than the obvious to solve a problem, but Taylor had simply let her emotions control her. Those emotions and the adrenaline were now washing out of her system, leaving her mind a somewhat empty shell.

"I..." Taylor said, trying to justify her action as Caitlin finished speaking. A few tears came to her blue eyes, the girl unable to bring about the right words. The overwhelming experience of nearly being killed, and than killing herself, was taking over.

"I dunnow...I guess...I dunno he was there all the sudden and I just grabbed stuff and did it," Taylor blurted out, folding her legs up on the ground. "I thiought he was gonna kill me or something...I dunno."

All the sudden, Taylor's stoicism and determination she had shown throughout the ordeal was wearing off with a true test of ability and decision-making. Though she had apparently picked right then - she was still alive and safe for the moment - her realization of what she'd done, and just gotten past, was taking its toll on her mind. She wiped off splotches of blood from where the man's life had spewed out onto her sweatshirt - speckling the gold-emblazoned ASU with patches of dark scarlet that nearly matched the cardinal clothing entirely. Blood, that was also new...someone else's blood, someone whose blood had been spilled out because of her actions alone.

"Wow, these are nice," spoke de la Cruz picking up the binoclears from the table and examining them with feigned interest.
"Thank you." he said with another bow.

He then turned away from the merchant to his compatriots on the journey.
"Ok Marcus, I need you to translate a little for me."
(OOC: You said assume this, so I'm assuming that you translate this stuff to the merchant for me. Tell me if that's a problem.)

"Come with us back to our campsite. We will show you to the others and you can help up. They are 'borrowing' supplies and building shelter. Thank you for your help, friend."

He then lifted his hand to shake the hand of the merchant.
Do people even shake hands in Ancient Egypt? Who knows, if he doesn't shake it I will just explain it's a foreign custom.

OOC: Sorry, these few days have been insanely busy, and it'll be a few more days before I'll be able to actively RP again.

The merchant listened to the translation and shook his head.

"No. You stay with me. We have many good tents, and you will look less conspicuous. If you are found by the guards out there, you won't really be able to explain anything.
Stay with me as my guests. Tomorrow, I must go to the market to sell my produce and get some things of value for my family, but after that I have been told to take you out of this place, to antoher world."

Irenicuz;13327283']Back in the middle of sand dunes, Josh and Danny were building a shelter. It looks like shit. But at least it should give basic protection for the travellers.
Danny's eyes were closing. He was very tired. I've had enough for today. I need a rest.
"Josh, continue without me. I'll take a nap. If something important happens, wake me, otherwise leave me alone. And good luck about the shelter."

OOC: Really a joy to read some action from experienced RPers. I'm miles away with my poor english.

“A nap were not done yet but if you want to be that lazy then fine.” Josh said continuing with his work he had put up 4 makeshift huts but they would need at least 5 maybe 6 and that was putting two people under each one.

Taylor set the food bag down as they stopped momentarily out in the desert, the lights of Memphis now just lighting up the sky off in the distance. She was used to playing the court for 40 minutes and was also a track hurdler - the run wasn't anything new or special. Caitlin seemed to be a bit more tired out, and began talking strategy for taking out the guard. Taylor was only half-listening - even though Caitlin talked about not losing yourself to killing people, Taylor was even more shocked at her own actions. She was a person who spoke against the openly aggressive actions of the Amazonian government (safe in the political immunity of a college campus), but what she had just done labeled her a complete hypocrite. There were always more ways than the obvious to solve a problem, but Taylor had simply let her emotions control her. Those emotions and the adrenaline were now washing out of her system, leaving her mind a somewhat empty shell.

"I..." Taylor said, trying to justify her action as Caitlin finished speaking. A few tears came to her blue eyes, the girl unable to bring about the right words. The overwhelming experience of nearly being killed, and than killing herself, was taking over.

"I dunnow...I guess...I dunno he was there all the sudden and I just grabbed stuff and did it," Taylor blurted out, folding her legs up on the ground. "I thiought he was gonna kill me or something...I dunno."

All the sudden, Taylor's stoicism and determination she had shown throughout the ordeal was wearing off with a true test of ability and decision-making. Though she had apparently picked right then - she was still alive and safe for the moment - her realization of what she'd done, and just gotten past, was taking its toll on her mind. She wiped off splotches of blood from where the man's life had spewed out onto her sweatshirt - speckling the gold-emblazoned ASU with patches of dark scarlet that nearly matched the cardinal clothing entirely. Blood, that was also new...someone else's blood, someone whose blood had been spilled out because of her actions alone.

Caitlin moved to sit next to Taylor, she was still breathing a little faster than normal, cnot having quite recovered from the run yet, "You don't need to justify. I won't judge you, that would make me worse than a hypocrite."

She wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them to her body, "I'm the kind of police officer who makes inconvenient people disappear... I would have said bad until today. Under the old regime there were many of us, but we have been downsized to just a handful, the truly remorseless ones." she said after a while, not looking at Taylor, "What you are feeling right now is what makes you admirable... and so much greater than me. On top of that we're both alive thanks to your quick thinking under pressure."

The geiger counter thing was out of her pocket, she turned it over idly in her hand, "I wonder if whoever took us here will let us go at the end, or if we'll escape? I don't know if I should leave, but I'll definitely do my best to get the rest of you out. People should never be taken away from their family's the you and the others were."

She had spoken dreamily as if half in another world, but now the more familiar self assured Caitlin seemed to be returning, "We should set off. I will make sure we don't lose anyone. Perhaps that way I can achieve some measure of atonement. By the way, I won't mention what happened here. If anything bad comes of it I'll confess to having killed the guard. You will get out of this Taylor, and in a few years time this will be nothing but a bad dream."

She stood, offering her hand to the younger woman, the geiger counter thing had disappeared into a pocket again, "Come on, lets go."

The two agents were coming to the field for observation. They were also here to remove an anomaly. They had detected irregular portal usage through the Terran Temporal Network, much higher than they had expected. The source was obvious: they had a team of rougue time travellers in the network, who so far had evaded capture across the entire time stream. It was suspected that they were based in a paralell universe, and had been taken into this by an unstable portal. Whatever they were, they posed a threat to the historical integrity. Innocents would have to die.

In Alexandria, most were asleep and did not notice the two suited figures walk out of a storehouse door. The light faded to showing just around the cracks in the door as it was closed, and the two agents cracked their fingers.

"Will a drone aircraft be sufficient for the removal of the two anomolous figures?"
"It shall. As you know, we cannot let this irregular party change history. If we don't remove those two, they could cause irrepairable damage to history."
"We will let the two merchants lead the party to the portal. That is when we strike. As for now, we will take a boat to the location. We can apprehend the merchants there. We do not want to risk the temporal inaccuracy of exiting and entering the portal."

The two men left, and walked down to the river. They took a boat from the riverbank and began to paddle, the strong wind from the sea aiding them down the river. It would take days to reach the location of portal BN2100-1800, the same time it would take those travelling by camel downstream.

The men changed clothes after 3 hours as people began to wake, the only identifying feature of them being agents the colour scheme of their clothes: smart black and white. One of them had hidden in the bottom of the boat two steel chests, which now had their folded suits in as well as survival rations for 1 month, a temporal distress transmitter, a dismantled UAV and a decent-sized armoury borrowed from the year 2140. The boat passed down the river, the river users blissfully unaware of the peril that the men could spell for them.

"Thank you, sir. We were making our own shelters but your tents are clearly superior to our clothing and branch huts. I will take these binoclears and run back to the meeting site in order to bring the rest of the group to this location, for they are out in the desert as of now."

de la Cruz bowed again, knowing that perhaps it was a bit of overkill, but this man could take them to 'another world', which obviously meant a portal, so he was not going to take any risks in possibly offending the man in any way.

He turned away from the merchant and spoke to his group.

"Alright guys, you stay here and make yourselves comfortable (help set up some tents, find out what else the man knows) and I'll go meet the rest of the group. We should be back here no later than 3:20 or so, good luck in your endeavours until then."

He took off running into the desert night, relying on instinct to lead him back to the spot they had chosen as the rendezvous spot. Luckily, what he lacked in physical prowess he made up for with good instincts and he found the spot without any trouble. There were a couple small mounds of sand that had not been there before which he realized were the dead and buried bodies of their attackers from earlier that night.

The group from the campsite and the group from the city would be joining him there soon, and after scanning the horizon toward the town with his binoclears and seeing nothing, he laid on his back to admire the stars.

Taylor took Caitlin's hand, pulling herself up and slinging the food bag back over her shoulder. She'd put the incident behind her, eventually, but she didn't want to make the practice something she was forced to rely upon. Grudgingly, she carried the bow and remaining arrows with her. Someone else could use them; she was done trying to fight people with force. Better fight them with words and strength of will rather than simply provoke even more people dying. After all, the man who she had killed had relations, maybe a family - what would they think, after he was killed by a forced time traveler from a high-tech society in the 21st century?

She stayed fairly quiet, mulling over such thoughts to herself with downcast eyes, wiping away a few tears that littered her eyes. The desert sands blew with each passing gusts of wind as thicker clouds were forming above - it had just been free and clear a mere fifteen minutes ago - was that all it had been? - when she'd had too attack the Egyptian. Now, it seemed, a thunderstorm to mirror the one in her heart was forming above them. Rain was holding off momentarily, but the moon was already stuck behind an amalgamation of cloud cover. It was the right time of the season - as it seemed to be either June or sometime in the summer, the Nile's rainy season would be just getting started, to continue into the fall before the planting season would begin again. Hopefully the others would get the shelter up in time.

"I think it's gonna rain," Taylor perked up, breaking a bit of the akward silence that had gone on since they had gotten up from their chat. "Clouds are getting big."

"Lets hope the camp makers have prepared for that." Caitlin glanced skywards, "Oh bugger."

She started to move faster now, almost at a jog as she raced to return to the meeting place before the rain set in. By the time they arrived she was sounding a little out of breath again, "Hi there." she greeted de la Cruz, "Damn I need a smoke... don't suppose you have a lighter"

She patted the top pocket of her blouse... only she had left that in the merchants hut because she didn't want to be a thief. She laughed then, a sudden laugh, a release of all the night's tension, "I suppose I should take this as an opportunity to quit... I'm going to change, or half change at any rate behind one of those dunes over there."

She dumped her pile of pillaged gear, grabbing a dress and waist belt, before vanishing behind one of the dunes. A few minutes later she reemerged, "How do I look? Egyptian... bar the boots?"

The dress was a typical white egyptian piece with two shoulder straps and belted at the waist. It fit bar being perhaps a little tight across the bodice. She probably would have passed for Egyptian if she didn't have a pistol stuffed into the belt, and if she wasn't wearing black boots. She waited for a reaction before donning her coat again, "Let's hope the others get here soon."

"Which party were you with?" she asked de la Cruz, "Any success?"

"Go on." Imtef said. "We wait for you here."

The man snapped out a few commands, and the slaves sititng on watch pegged up two extra tents and spread on the sand a layer of furs, with more on top for them to sleep under. They then threw more fuel on the fire: a palm tree from a farmer's land had suddenly disappeared, courstesy of his slaves. The fuel would last them for months. Better than camel droppings.

"Success, let me tell you about success," de la Cruz retorted, finally feeling that he had accomplished something for the good of the group.
"We found the camp that the slave had mentioned... well pointed at if not mentioned. There were two merchants there, one of them named 'Imtef' or something like that. He gave me these sweet binoclears that I spotted you with, though the clothes were decieving, you really look Egyptian.
"Anyway, I'm digressing, I tend to ramble when I get excited about something. Imtef told us NOT to use our own campsite because he has extra tents for us and they're apparently nicer, though the group making our own campsite hasn't returned as of yet. Ooh yes I know what you're thinking, he KNEW WE WERE COMING. Apparently somebody told us we were spirits who needed helping getting to another world. Clearly a portal. Anyway, the rest of the group that went with me stayed behind with the merchants in order to help set up camp and get to know our new friend. Once the group from the campsite returns we'll have to tell them that all their work was wasted and we're getting a prefabricated tent. I feel bad for them."

"Any troubles with getting the goods from the village?"

"A little." Caitlin affirmed evasively, "But we have food, water and clothes to make three Egyptians."

"The general assumption we are working under is that this is some kind of experiment?" it was her assumption at least, and she wanted to clear with Taylor and de la Cruz that they had come to the same, "What purpose do you feel these merchants serve, what do you think they tell us of the people running the experiment? My initial thoughts were they were seeing how we would cope in an alien land and culture, but then they send people to watch over us?"

"Perhaps this is some kind of training ground, perhaps the aims of the experiment are not what we imagined, or perhaps the merchants aren't all they seem." she shrugged, letting it be known she had no idea which if any were correct.

"I think they still want to just test out their portals and stuff," Taylor interjected into the conversation, "I don't think they care about us much. Maybe try and get us out alive if they can but not spend too much time on it. The people are probaly there just so we don't screw up history and end up making it so dinosaurs rule the world."

She hoped de la Cruz, inquiring about troubles in the attempt to liberate food and clothes, wouldn't notice the blood stain on her sweatshirt. Probaly a good time to change before too many questions got asked...at least Caitlin was diverting attention from the subject.

"Either way," she said, taking both that and a lightning crash a good deal away, "I think we should get back to wherever camp is so we don't get stuck out here in a storm. We're kinda standing targets out here..."

Something didn't exactly sound right about merchants wanting to help them out. Maybe the kidnappers would want to steer them via personnel dressed and acting as locals, but she figured something else. Wouldn't people trying out expiramental equipment want to minimize interaction? If they wanted to direct the group place to place, they could manipulate the environment - send a stampede, create a fire, seed clouds to create a flood...something that would maintain the placebo effect amongst the tested group. The interaction with locals who were waiting for them seemed psychologically inaccurate from an expiramenter's point of view.

The boat continued to glide along the river. Clouds were forming above them, and darkening.

"Remind me of our experimental aims."
"To test the entanglement portals, both natural and artificial, and in popular time periods for temporal tourism."
"And?"
"To observe how a group is affected in a survival circumstance in a place where they can't be rescued. What would happen if a member of the ministry or a group from the ministry became stranded in time due to portal closure."
"And?"
"To use them as bait to lure out the rogue time travellers that pose a threat to ministry operations, to the course of history and to the prospect of temporal tourism."
"And?"
"To possibly map areas of the global network that remain undiscovered. Remind me of the equipment being used for the last aim?"
"The gadget one of the group member has. That is an entanglement stability reader. It tells the user the time window that the portal offers if they pass through, as well as naming any named portals and giving a rating of the possibility of portal collapse. Does the course they are most likely to take remove them from this planet?"
"Luckily not, though in 60-80AD, there is a portal in Pompeii that leads to a former testing ground. It is not used since radiological and biological contamination reached insane levels. We should hope theat they don't pass through there."
"Thing is, how do you know where a portal will take you?"
"If it is a trip in time , then it is pure white light. A trip in location, and the colour of the light is sea blue. If you are travelling outside this universe, it is red. It is almost as if they were warning us..."

The talk stopped on that note: the agents never discussed things that required imagination, since their allocation in the ministry had brought on a supression of the imagination and a direct relink to the pain centres of the brain.

One of the agents delved into the weapons chest, and pulled out a strange looking device. It was a long, thin cuboid, with bulges along its length and multiple long strips attached to the underside. It had the normal handles you would expect on a rifle, and even a trigger. The sights were telescopic, even though all you could see of them were two thin plastic sheets. He flicked a switch, and the weapon hummed into life, the sights lighting up and then darkening as they flickered into night mode. A small red dot appeared on the water where he was pointing the weapon. He pulled the trigger, and there was a roar and a deafening thunderclap as the electrolaser fired into the water, a charge of 100 kW entering the river and killing the fish nearby.

"The weapon works. Will it be necessary?"
"They are more acceptable in this time period than a pistol: yes we have two conventional pistols in addition to these electrolasers and the XAT-03, but don't you inspire more fear with a lightning bolt?"
"Indeed."

de la Cruz responded again, defending the merchants that he had met.
"I mean, I'm as cautious as the next person, but these merchants certainly SEEM real enough. They were certainly Egyptians but spoke in a form of broken ENGLISH. Yes, English. I don't know why they want to help us, but they're probably in it for money of some type. Maybe our host is supplying them with futureistic merchandise to sell, though that seems highly wrong ethically, if they help us? I don't know, but at least their tents are nice."

The rain was now coming down harder, drenching the poor souls standing without shelter. de la Cruz hoped that the group from the campsite would rendezvous with them soon so that they could get back to the relative warmth and very relative safety that the merchants offered.

Remembering Caitlin's plea from earlier, Eduardo pulled out the lighter from his pants pocket and tossed it to her.

"You know, just in case."

Caitlin grabbed the lighter out of the air, pocketing it in her jacket, "Thanks, although I don't know what kind of a chance of using this I'll have since I seem to have accidentally left my only packet as a gift for the locals. They'll probably think it's incense."

She stamped her feet, the rain was soaking through her jacket and dress, chilling her skin. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, "I'll say." she grumbled, "I was hoping we'd be somewhere dry by the time this came bucketing down."

Taylor tossed her sweatshirt at Caitlin - her undershirt, an athletic UnderArmour ASU Field Hockey shirt, was designed to wick away rain and sweat as it was, besides keeping in the heat.

"Here," she said, knowing as well that the Egyptian cotton was not likely to keep out the cold, "I don't need it very much."

The rain came down in sheets, weighing Taylor's hair down behind her into a sopping ponytail behind her head. She wasn't really cold - the rain was chilling, but it hadn't dragged the warmth out of the air yet. That would come after the storm...making whenever it ended likely a fairly miserable damp day. Another lightning bolt crashed down a little farther off, illuminating the desert and a grove of fig trees.

"Maybe the merchants are real, but to know English...they would have to have gotten abducted or taught for quite some time or something. No one else this time speaks English...and I don't know if a merchant would want to spend a lot of time learning English for some wierd guys offering future merchandise. I dunno."

"Thank you." Caitlin didn't say no; She had lived for years in subtropical Cyro and was completely unused to cold weather, on top of which she was the smallest member of the party, she lost heat quickly.

She tugged off the now soaking wet jacket, pulling the sweat shirt over the linen dress she had picked, which was also completely sodden, then the jackt back on over the top. It's short stay on the ground picked up a thin layer of sand over the parts in contact. She scarcely seemed to notice. She was tired and wet and wanted to lie down somewhere warm, on top of which she was sure 3am was near, if not already passed.

Danny woke up in a hut. A storm was raging outside and the clothes that made the roof of the shelter were soaked. The water was dripping through. That was pretty unexpected. It rains here every few years and we come here and voila, a storm. He got up slowly.

"Josh, are we supposed to meet somewhere?" shouted Danny to no particular direction, hoping Josh was still somewhere nearby.

Irenicuz;13333301']Danny woke up in a hut. A storm was raging outside and the clothes that made the roof of the shelter were soaked. The water was dripping through. That was pretty unexpected. It rains here every few years and we come here and voila, a storm. He got up slowly.

"Josh, are we supposed to meet somewhere?" shouted Danny to no particular direction, hoping Josh was still somewhere nearby.

“Yeah we were supposed to meet up here.” said Josh lying on the wet sand a few yards away from the tent Danny was in. “I wonder if they will show up soon I have no idea what time it is I left my watch in my hotel room.” He said.

Back at the point where they had originally come from Caitlin was bearing up. It was so cold... the wind seemed to scythe through all three layers of clothing, slicing through her skin. She wasn't about to let the others know how cold she was feeling, it wasn't cold, but the water and the wind... They would view it as weakness if she spoke up, and she couldn't afford to be seen as the weakest link.

So she suffered in silence for what seemed an eternity, until she could no longer bear it, "Eduardo?" her teeth chattered slightly as she called his name, "Do you know where the people building shelters went? Because I can't see them."

Eduardo scanned the horizon with his newly acquired binoclears, but saw nothing but the faint outline of a city wall in one direction and sand in all the others.

"Well my original plan would have been to follow the footprints because the merchant group left the campsite group just after you left, and to our own stupidity we did not tell which direction we would be going. I suggested they head parallel to us in the opposite direction, but who knows if there was good shelter in that direction or not."

He paused for a moment to think. Great. These two go and 'borrow' food, clothing, and supplies and I lost half the group... good leadership skills. After regaining his composure, he took an educated guess based off the direction that he had originally suggested. Like anyone ever listens to me anyway...

"I think that they may have headed off in that direction," he said pointing parallel to the village but away from the safety of the merchant camp.
"And my watch tells me that it's 2:49, I guess that's Alfegos time? We never set them for Egypt but that shouldn't matter so much. Seeing as it's raining and cold and windy (who would have seen this coming in the desert...) I think we should go find them and go to the merchants. Even if it is 'dangerous', there's only two merchants and they have fire and presumably waterproof tents I think it's worth it. What weapons do you guys have on you, just in case we run into some trouble? I lose track after that little scuffle with the bandits."

He pulled out the drywall tool that Berg had tossed to him earlier and surveyed it's strange design. What a pathetic weapon, it's not even that good for DRYWALLING let alone for violence...

Taylor realized the bronze scimitar that she had frantically grabbed from the dying Egyptian was still lying in her bag, the hilt somewhat sticking out. She had left the bow and quiver across her neck, too caught up in the adrenaline rush earlier to even remember the weapons.

"I have a few things..." Taylor said, trying to not bring up just where she got them from. She tossed the sword on the ground and unhinged the bow from around her neck. "I guess they can work for us."

"It's the start of the rainy season I think, so I don't know how many bandits will want to be out in this weather. They may try to come out once it lets up, maybe in the morning or something."

Taylor didn't bring it up, though she clearly knew the soldiers would be more than slightly pissed about her killing one of their brethren.

The rain began to fall on the river in giant globules as the boat came down slowly. The agents both moved under a small hide tent they had erected, and sat as the wind and their rowing pushed them upstream against the small current. The electrolaser lay on one of the agents laps, while he shook the battery. A small LCD scale on the side showed the power percentage inside the battery as the kinetic energy of his motion charged the unit. It was an early model, and only had enough power for 4 lethal shots. After 10 seconds, he put the battery back into its slot on the underside of the weapon. He then opened the weapons chest, lifted up the weaponry and ammunition and took out the parts to the UAV. Better get it assembled while they had a chance.

The UAV was a short-range thing, and was rather small. Yet it could hold two rather lethal missiles, as well as a camera for watching everyone. And the engine on it was silent. Excellent for night operations, but its white paint made it too visible during the day that was now dawning. It fitted easily into the bottom of the boat, underneath more furs and some wooden sheets they had piled up over it, and hid well alongside the two metal chests of weapons,food and survival rations.

"Luckily, after experimentation, it does seem that paradoxes don't exist very easily. A very useful thing, to be sure. It has seemed that time travel is safer than we first thought, once it was discovered that killing someone back in time does not affect us too badly: we would not notice a difference, since it would have always happened. The grandfather paradox is also a good one: we sent an agent to do just that, and you know what? The grandfather was mortally wounded by a shot to the head, yet he survived and did not recall it afterwards. The other thing we have noticed is that time is very much like a river: it will always try to take the same route, even if things happen. Kill King Lio IV, for example, and nothing much actually changes."
"Then why kill these anomalies? They pose no threat to history."
"They do: there is so much that history can take before it changes: keep on killing people and eventually you will change it. That is what we do not want: if the anomalies commit genocide like they have threatened us with, our entire nation would be destroyed."
"They must be destroyed then."
"Good. We reach agreement."

The boat continued to move on.

"That bow isn't going to work very well" Caitlin pointed out, sounding cold and miserable, "The string is wet, I have a knife and a pistol."

She hadn't moved from when movement was first suggested, in fact she had sat down, hugging her knees tightly against herself, "I'll stay here, just in case your guess is wrong and they show up here later and find nobody."

"You can have my weapons if you like." she offered, "I should be ok here for a bit."

"Maybe it'll be useful later," Taylor mused, looping the bow back over her shoulder and behind her drooping ponytail. The cold wasn't horrible - she guessed it was probaly about sixty - and though the rain wasn't warm by any stretch and drawing the heat from the air, it wasn't bad. Amazonia was a hot country, for sure, but rain came virtually every day to the tropical nation. She had learned to live through the daily afternoon showers and weekly thunderstorms. This was nothing really new...though she preferred the indoors anyway.

"C'mon, let's keep going," Taylor urged to Caitlin, who now seemed to be settling into the same sort of depression Taylor had had just an hour ago after she'd killed the Egyptian. "We gotta see what we can do before the sun comes back up."

Already the dark was starting to peel off...obviously mid-summer. The sky was still as gray as the darkest days in Amazonia, but lacking the inky darkness that the outskirts this far out had just a few hours ago. The rain continued to come down heavily, however...it didn't seem to be giving up anytime soon.

"Take this," Taylor motioned, scooting the sword towards Eduardo with her foot, "I don't want some sword and you seem better at it than I am."

From the tear-stuffed squeak it had been an hour before, Taylor's voice once again was starting to harden as Caitlin began suffering from the depressing effects of the rain.

“Where in the world are they.” Josh muttered growing more and unhappy with the situation. The rain was keeping his semi long hair in his eyes so he couldn’t see anything not like he would have been able to anyway in this weather. Suddenly he thought he heard some talking in the distance but dismissed it thinking it was just noise from the rain.

"One of us should stay here." Caitlin insisted, still sounding cold and unhappy, but managing to work a degree of certainty into her voice again, "Just in case the others decide to show up here, I'd rather this didn't turn into one of those silly situations where you keep missing each other. You guys go, I'll wait and make sure they don't show up. After all, you are mostly guessing where to go to find them."

"Seriously go." she added with a reassuring smile, "I'll hold the fort. Now... do you want my weapons? Try not to use the pistol, it only has seven shots and none of us know how long we'll be stuck out here."

"Nah, I won't need the pistol, I never have been much of a shot with guns, but thanks for the sword. THIS I could get used to," he added swinging the sword deftly over his head. That was the training that he had taken as a younger teenager in self-defense kicking in, though he had never used a real sword in a situation like this, of course.

"Alright, if you stay here we'll go find the others. If ANYTHING goes wrong, make loud noises in groups of three, that can be the sign to meet up. I know making loud noises may not be the wisest thing in the world, but if it's serious trouble making a little extra noise won't really matter."

With that he nodded at Caitlin and then shot her a reassuring glance.

"Alright, Taylor, let's go find those guys who either don't have watches or just can't follow simple directions."

"Keep the gun," Taylor said, "I can't use that."

In reality, Taylor wasn't in the mood to get herself even close to a weapon. The bow was wet and Caitlin had said that was bad, so that would be ok...but truly, the last time she had held a weapon, she had spattered blood all over herself from the other guy's chest cavity. Either she was very lucky or the conscience Gods were destined to prey on her mind forever.

"Alright, let's go," Taylor said, affirming de la Cruz's statement. Caitlin didn't look too good, sticking behind to sit around in the wet sand. Sure, they were in the middle of the desert and it was pouring rain. But still, shit happened.

"Alright then." Caitlin waved, "Good luck my friends."

She watched as the pair departed, hugging her legs to her chest, "Bloody typical." she grumbled.

It was pouring with rain and the others hadn't shown up. Where on earth were they? Either something bad had happened... or they had decided on their own later that they had a better plan. Probably the latter she decided. She was wet, it was windy, all she needed now was for the temperature to drop and her day would be complete.

“Yeah we were supposed to meet up here.” said Josh lying on the wet sand a few yards away from the tent Danny was in. “I wonder if they will show up soon I have no idea what time it is I left my watch in my hotel room.” He said.


"At least some of us got it wrong, 'cause I don't see anyone else there. They could be dead. Or maybe we're supposed to meet somewhere else. I admit I wasn't really listening then."

Danny didn't like it at all. But he felt it was okay so he didn't bother.

Irenicuz;13337706']"At least some of us got it wrong, 'cause I don't see anyone else there. They could be dead. Or maybe we're supposed to meet somewhere else. I admit I wasn't really listening then."

Danny didn't like it at all. But he felt it was okay so he didn't bother.

“They probably got caught in the storm.” Josh said. “I wish we could get their attention in some way.”

One of the agents was busy looking for food in the survival chest. He looked inside, and pulled out a breakfast packet, as well as the TPS unit. The temporal positioning device gave four co-ordinates: three of space and one of time. It was an esential piece of kit, especially since it was so accurate, able to pinpoint your location down to the nearest millitmetre and millisecond. Right now, it was about 2:00AM GMT, which was 4:00AM Eygptian time. And the sun should rise at about 6:30AM. In 2 1/2 hours time.

"Sleep will not be necessary."
"It will. The drugs will only give us 48 hours effective time. We need 8 days worth. I will sleep and you will stay on watch for 5 hours. Then we will swap. I will wake if we encounter anything curious."
"Alright. Try not to create any anachronisms."

OOC: Now that the Holiday season is over, can anyone give me (and anyone else who hasn't been able to keep up last few days) an update on everything that's gone on in here?

(The quick summary: guys land in desert, eygpt, 1920 BC ish. It gets dark. Get attacked by bandits. Slave comes form nowhere, gets killed, points towards merchant camp. Guys split up: 2 go and steal stuff from farmhouse, and get found by the city guard. One of the guard gets killed, the two people escape. One person buries bodies, a couple build shelters. Other go to merchant camp, and find they have some modern stuff and can lead them to a portal in the desert. It rains. Guys decide to go to merchant camp, yet get split up. Dunno where everyone is.

Meanwhile, the agents are coming downstream to kill the merchants (see their conversations for many bits of backstory, a description of portals and time, a bit of info on the ministry of secrets and a portent of what is going to happen...)

The pair of them (de la Cruz and Taylor) were just out of sight of Caitlin now and were careful to make constant note of which direction they were going in case they could not find the campsite and had to return. de la Cruz did not want another situation where he was responsible for breaking up the group into even smaller pieces. The rain kept teasing the pair, letting up just enough to be noticable but then coming again with even more fury. Drenched to the bone and not seeing their friends' campsite, de la Cruz searched for a few answers.

"Now I may be a bit front in saying this, but I've noticed that neither you nor Caitlin has really been yourself since you came back from the village. If it's not too terrible to repeat, what exactly HAPPENED back at that farmhouse?"

There has to be something I can dothought Josh looking around him. He noticed the pile of smaller branches he had removed from the limbs he used to make the shelters with. Getting up he walked over and picked up two branches. Then he started to smack the branches together and yell as loud as he could. I hope they can hear thishe thought

Taylor sighed somewhat, kneeling to the wet sand of the ground. The rain was drenching her tight shirt, the white synthetic polyester now seeming more a transluscent white. It was somewhat revealing, but she barely cared about looks right now. The sand was still warm from the earlier hot sun of the day, but slowly starting to cool from the torrential downpour continuing to drain from the heavens above. The water Gods, clearly, were displeased with either Egypt or a certain band of time travellers.

"Look," said Taylor, her eyes downcast. She fingered her shirt for a minute, the synethetic reds and yellows patterned on the white background still staying true despite the rain. "When we were at the farm thing..."

She trailed off a minute, eyes averting from de la Cruz's look.

"When we were at the farm thing, I went into a...a kinda house. There was a buncha food and stuff in it, and I took that and put it into the bag that I left with Caitlin. I was leaving, and this Egyptian guy saw me. I dunnow what he was trying todo but I grabbed this bow and arrows thing in the house. He had like a sword and I guess I just I just reacted...I...I shot him."

Taylor had tears in her eyes once more, talking fast and uncontrollably.

Caitlin was not the kind of person who tended to get upset about someone who would probably have killed her meeting with an untimely demise, it was the wind and rain that was getting to her. She felt cold and unhappy and generally loath to participate in anything that might cause her to move.

Instead she sat stoically, staring into the rain, hoping that de la Cruz would find the others soon so she could head to a (hopefully) waterproof tent and try to dry her clothes.

de la Cruz stared helplessly at Taylor as she told her tale of terror and murder at the farm.
"I... umm... I'm sorry. I know that must be a huge psychological bout to fight constantly, taking the life of another. But I mean if it helps I'm always here to talk to and at least YOU'RE still alive. I mean it sounds like it was him or you and your instincts won out in that struggle. I.... well..."

He was still searching for the words to speak to mollify her fears but he had never dealt with anything like this before. One of his friends had commited suicide back in Gernish during his junior year of high school, but that was different. The person who took the life wasn't standing in front of him then. He had never been that great at dealing with death since then but figured that if he was going to survive this trip he would have to learn how to deal with death better. At least Taylor was still alive, seeing somebody innocent die on this trip would be the end of him emotionally. It was bad enough that these strangers had been thrown together for some cruel experiment, but to let them be killed just seemed useless and immoral. He took peace in the fact that the subjects dying would prove a hassle for the Alfegos research team, but that was the only security he felt standing out in the desert rain.

It was then that he heard a loud thumping noise and what sounded to be a human voice from over the next dune.
PLEASE let that be our campsite...

"Taylor, do you hear that? That sounds like our guys. Let's find them and get to our offered shelter. Everything seems worse in the rain."

Danny was opened another flask of brandy. he took a sip and looked towards Josh.

"Just stop making noise! There are not around, don't you see?! At least let me think!"

He positioned himself comfortably. Rain was easing off, but he decided to stay in the tent for a while. It was leaking, but it wasn't as bad as outside.

Looks bad, so what. I got my drink and plenty of time. When the things get dry again we can make a fire with something.

"Heh," Marcus said as he scratched his head, "I guess I was kinda a nerd in middle school."
"Haha, clearly that's not a bad thing now, is it? Gotta say, thanks for being able to know this stuff. Now, where shall we begin?" Robert asked.

OOC:I'm gonna be getting ready for semester exams so I'm not gonna be very active for a week or two

Ooc: Bump

(OOC: I really am saddened at the death of what could have been a rather epic thread...)

OOC: Always an opportunity to spur things once more...

IC:

Frustrated by the rain but inspired by de la Cruz apparently hearing noises that sounded more...human, Taylor paused momentarily to consider possibilities. They'd already been screwed with humans once before with the Egyptian guards. It was very possible that there were others out...but why would they be out in the rain? Egyptians weren't the kind of people who consistently subjugated themselves to nature's punishments to seek their goals - they were the Ancients more accustomed to luxuries and riches. They wouldn't be out...

Or so Taylor hoped.

Grabbing one of her arrows despite it being soaked from the rain, Taylor forgot any ideas of trying to shoot the thing. With the rising sun not anywhere close to the horizon (as if it'd be visable anyway) yet perking up the black clouds slightly, Taylor lofted the arrow into the air in an arc towards where de la Cruz had seemed to have heard sounds from. It should have been at least slightly visable in a sky without light pollution, or if not, than it could at least hit somebody on the way down...

"Hey!" shouted Taylor, practically on the verge of screaming for someone to hear her. "Hello?"

The end of rain was visibly approaching when Danny decided to leave the tent. Josh was still abusing the branches. Nothing's changed he thought. As he walked towards him, he heard a loud swoosh and an arrow hit the ground where he stood mere seconds ago.

The arrow was still vibrating, but it's position revealed the direction of the archer. Danny opened the last bottle of his fine brandy. All good things come to an end. Hope that goes the same for bad things. He called to Josh to follow him and continued on his way towards the archer.

His vision was slightly blurred by the brandy but he was able to recognise a silhuette of a woman. She seemed somewhat familiar, but he wasn't sure from that distance. He approached her.

de la Cruz was a little surprised with her methodology, but could not agree more with her desire to make contact with whoever or whatever it was seemingly calling their names through the desert.

After the arrow was fired there was a short pause before they saw anybody. Then two male figures emerged from a crude structure and began to walk toward them.

"Danny!? Josh!?," he called, secretly praying all the while that it was them and that back at the site Caitlin was still alive and waiting for them to get to safety.

He muttered under his breath, "If only this night will pass everything will be better. We'll get to the next jump point, we'll get home, we'll be safe, and oh yeah, we'll be warm and dry. That's always an added bonus."

de la Cruz was a little surprised with her methodology, but could not agree more with her desire to make contact with whoever or whatever it was seemingly calling their names through the desert.

After the arrow was fired there was a short pause before they saw anybody. Then two male figures emerged from a crude structure and began to walk toward them.

"Danny!? Josh!?," he called, secretly praying all the while that it was them and that back at the site Caitlin was still alive and waiting for them to get to safety.

He muttered under his breath, "If only this night will pass everything will be better. We'll get to the next jump point, we'll get home, we'll be safe, and oh yeah, we'll be warm and dry. That's always an added bonus."

“Who’s there” Josh called back after hearing their names called. If they know us by name its got to be someone we can trust he thought making out two figures in the distance.

"Hey, it's Taylor," the Amazonian girl cried out over the sheets of rain dampening the scene, despite the uplifting of her heart. "From the 21st Century."

Rather than simply sitting around, she turned to de la Cruz: "I'm gonna go get Caitlin if these are them," she said, "I dunnow if anyone's still out looking or anything, but we gotta stay together in this bad weather. I can find my way back."

Caitlin's choice to stay back alone was indeed her choice, but if it had been Taylor's say, she wouldn't have approved it. Caitlin seemed low in spirits as the rain had torn away any happiness, leaving her from a leader to a rather depressed soul. It hurt Taylor to see the one person she was starting to see as possibly a friend start to crumble in the elements and the situation - though Taylor herself had already been hit with that earlier. Now, her own element was starting to take over once more, a form of assertiveness directing her actions and streaming her blood and adrenaline once more.

Danny waved towards Taylor.

"It's me, Danny. Been awhile. What has happened meanwhile?"

He saw another man standing beside her and recognized him as de la Cruz. He went forward to meet them, seeing that Josh has already caught up with him.

Caitlin on the other hand was wet and very unhappy. Idly she picked up a stone, skipping it at one of the burrial mounds. The others were taking ages. She wondered if it would be safe to sleep, probably not, but she doubted anyone would cut her neck in her sleep, she was too young and pretty... then they'd get an unpleasant suprise when she woke up... and she was so tired.

She curled up on the wet ground, hugging her knees to her chest, eventually drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

The two agents of the Ministry of Secrets,those men who had sent the people out into the past for their experiment, contineud to sail up the river as the rain slowly ceased. From behind a thick cloud, a patch of purple-orange sky could be seen. Dawn was approaching in the land of the sun.

"A lotta shit happened," Taylor said, lapsing into cursing for the first time in the trip, "But we left Caitlin behind, she was sticking around. Stay with de la Cruz and get to the campsite, I'm gonna go back and get her. I can find my way back."

The only reason she could do that was because the faint - though noticeable - lighting of the clouds, still dark and intimidating. A tiny shine and brightening of color was beginning to show - the arrival of Amen-Ra...the sun. Despite the showers still coming from the heavens, things started to look slightly up from what had been a gloomy and at times terrifying evening. Breaking from the group, Taylor began jogging back towards where she thought they had left Caitlin. Hopefully she was going the right way...

OOC: Sorry I haven't posted lately... new job.

Ooc: Bump

ooc:Final kick, before I leave this to die

OOC: It's been a while... should we see if we can fire this one up again? Still has a ton of potential...

OOC: No? No continue?