"But when Johnny Come Latey Comes marching home
With a chest full of medals and G.I. Loan
They'll be waiting at the station down in San Antone
When Johnny comes marching home"
-Johnny Come Latey, Steve Earle
WASTELANDS
The group pushed its way through the last of the ferns that seemed to thrive at the edge of the Toxic Jungle and came out on an undulating desert whose only features were slight crests and a couple of far, massive humanoid skeletons. The first thing Nausicaa spotted was her new party's transports. Four gliders, a Pejite made FW-190, the same model her old friend Asbel had flown to shoot down the transport she had been held hostage onboard and finally a Gransport E-25 Hind Helicopter Drop/Gunship. The large chopper had two main rotors at 45-degree angles, their paths intersected but the blades never touched. The body consisted of a rectangular cabin, two bubble canopies and a long tail boom in which sat the tail rotor, set in the middle of three tails with two small tail wings. Mounted on the sides of the twin Ruhurh Mk. VII engines were long wings with missiles and rocket pods slung underneath. The nose also housed a pair of turret mounted LMGs (Light Machine Guns). Nausicaa walked to her own glider, landed in a small furrow in the sand not to far away. She looked over her shoulder and shouted "Follow me to my valley, I'll wait and orbit at low altitude."
"Right-o Chief!" Matton had been addressing her as 'Chief' since he found out that she was Chieftain of the Valley. He turned to his people, who were starting up the gliders, fighter and chopper. "Alright boys and girls we're moving out, get your gear on the Hind and follow my lead! Get moving!" the Bug Hunters hastened to comply, pulling the sliding doors on the Hind's flanks open and stowing their gear in the cargo compartment. Matton walked over to the third glider and started it up; he lifted the glider into the air and hit the afterburner to give it some more speed. With that he coasted for a thermal, found one and rode it high up in a graceful spiral. He drifted out level with Nausicaa "Where's this valley of yours" Matton shouted over the wind.
"Just to the North East, follow me and you'll be fine" Nausicaa shouted back.
On the ground the twin main rotors of the Hind began to twirl, complex gyroscopes ensuring that the blades would never meet, the tail rotor started up as the main rotors began disk shaped blurs and the Hind slowly rose from the ground. The pilot retracted her landing gear and turned her in midair, the agile Drop/Gunship (Common term for Helicopter Dropships that also function as Gunships, also called a DropGuns) responding on a dime. As the three remaining gliders and the FW-190 pulled into formation around it the mismatched squadron followed the two gliders upfront as the set off on a course leading them North East.
VALLEY OF THE WIND
The massive landing pad at the seaward end of the Valley was new, a massive gleaming steel platform with a long runway pointing out to sea, it stood out like a sore thumb amidst the gray stone that was used in almost every building in the Valley. It was a tall building in the form of a flattened stone cylinder; despite this shape it still towered over the rest of the valley, exceeded only in height by the two-towered castle itself. An old, hardened man stood in the control tower of the landing pad, looking out over the bronzed metal pad, crates and fuel tanks surrounding the four pads. Two Gransport E-15 Highlander Heavy Transport choppers were parked on Pad 1, nearest to the control tower. They had long pipes from the nearby fuel tanks pumping precious fuel into their own tanks. On the furthest pad, number 3 there was an old, battered Tolmekian Corvette, privately owned by a wealthy business man, who stood at the back of the plane buying and selling things of all shapes, sizes and descriptions. Despite its ugly appearance the landing pad had been a great boon for the Valley. Several small time trade lanes had been altered for pilots to take advantage of the pad, meaning that the Valley was now a certified trade post for refueling pilots. It was also doing a roaring trade in valuable fuel, bought from nearby towns and sold to pilots coming and going from places you've never heard of and will probably never hear of again. The old man looked into the sky and saw several glints, somehow he knew it was Nausicaa's glider, but what were the others?
As they came closer he took up a pair of binoculars and focused o the flight group: five gliders, one FW-190 and a Gransport E-25 Hind Drop/Gunship. He figured that Nausicaa had made some new friends, something she did with great ease. The man turned, walked to the far end of the control room and descended the stone staircase. Not the entire landing pad was made of steel, just the pad itself, the runway and the side of the tower that faced the pad. The rest was in actual fact made of stone, so it didn't stand out quite as much as some thought, Lord Yupa thought that its benefit to the Valley outweighed its ugliness. The old man hit a button and the steel door that granted access to the landing pad slid up into a recess in the wall. He walked out onto the pad, the ever-present wind from the sea blowing his cape back and tugging at his short hair and thick beard. Despite his graying hair and age he was a tough man with wiry muscles and a long sword always at his side and an Ohmu shell dagger hidden under his cloak. His name was Lord Yupa Miralda, often called the greatest swordsman in the land and those unfortunate enough to rouse his ire and live to tell the tale would testify to it, except that there were very few such people.
The small flight group drew closer, two gliders out in front and the chopper, thee other gliders and fighter following. The lead gliders landed nearby while the others circled until they got landing permission. As the two glider pilots walked towards Yupa the E-25 set down, followed by the other craft once its twin rotors had stopped spinning. The shorter one pulled off her cap and mask, proving it was Nausicaa, the wind blowing her short red-brown hair back. The taller one was a man withshorter brown hair that hung to about his eyes, strands of which were being tugged at by the wind; he also had a full goatee. While Nausicaa wore a simple tunic and trousers this stranger was dressed in a flak jacket, shirt, jeans and body webbing that held magazines, grenades, grenade launcher shells and a large .457 Magnum revolver. A Wexley G36 hung from his shoulder, the long barreled rifle looking like an extension of his arm, which was casually draped over the barrel. At his waist were two swords: a long katana and a shorter wakazashi, both made of what looked like Ohmu Shell. The pair reached Yupa, Nausicaa smiling, the stranger looking grim, as it seemed he always did, but then again these were grim times.
"Lord Yupa!" Nausicaa cried out as she recognized him, Yupa had I fact been away on one of his many expeditions, this latest one was why when Nausicaa pulled the old man into a hug that he hissed in pain. "Lord Yupa are you hurt?" Nausicaa's voice immediately held worry.
"I got attacked by a new form of Insect I have never seen before, deadly and vicious it was, I had not even provoked it." Yupa explained, normally Insects would attack unless provoked. This however had come straight at him. Yupa had only just drawn his Longrifle and killed it in time, and then he had made a hasty escape lest more appear.
"Blob like body, three mandibles eight limbs and eyes?" Matton asked.
"Yes that's the one, how did you know?" Lord Yupa asked, mystified as to how this redneck would know about Insects.
"That wasn't an Insect, that was a Bug and your lucky you survived being jumped by one. They're cunning vicious bastards" Matton informed him "I'm not explaining this several times over"
"Alright everyone, I said I would listen to what you have to say Matton and I will, we have a Council meeting hall in the castle, we will talk more there" Nausicaa broke up the fight she had sensed was ready to start between the two.
As the trio, accompanied by three of Matton's Marauders who he identified as a woman with a military haircut and a G36 called Valerie Santiago, an enormous black, sawn-off shotgun wielding man called Torch and a slight man with a scoped Longrifle they all called Stitcher.
Above on a high rooftop the masked man lay, a scoped Longrifle in his hands, he was staring intently down the scope. In his sights were five people, and right between the crosshairs was a young woman with rusty hair, a blue tunic and white trousers. Others surrounded her, but they were unimportant, it was the young girl called Nausicaa that the masked man knew must die.
She will have powers she knows not of
She will be born of a kind heart and spirit
She must die
If Those Who Live In Shadows are to truly achieve ascendancy
And those whop aid them will be richly rewarded.
That was why he would kill her, he would earn his salvation from this accursed rock with just a squeeze of the trigger. Slowly, ever so slowly so as not to jolt his aim, he flicked the safety off and curled his finger around the barrel. He began to squeeze the trigger…