Charlies Journal - Long Range recon: Days 7 & 8

Day 7

The Goat made better time on the return trip, helped that we knew where we was goin'.  Panky really pushed things along, 'cause she wanted to get home and report everything as soon as possible.

We passed some people on the road, they was on foot.  They just stared at us as we went by, we stared back at them.  Well, I smiled at them, but that didn't matter none.


We got nearly back to the river on the first day, before stopping for the evening.  Was able to catch a little of a charge before sun went down.  Ate some bad food, stared at the stars.  Couldn't sleep much.  I kept thinking about that blockhouse.  Who were they?  What was life like where they come from?  Just couldn't stop wonderin'.


Day 8

We charged up a little bit more in the morning, then got on our way.  Panky pushed us along, retracing our path to make the best speed.  It wasn't long before we started to see plants and stuff as we approached that stream again.

A view of the river valley

The stream came up quickly, we entered the valley just a little north of where we had passed through before.  Almost as soon as we could see the stream, we started taking fire.

The scene from the turret of the Goat

Panky shouted out, "GREENIES", over the comm.  Scared me and didn't know what she was talking about.  I don't think she ever saw one before; I know I hadn't.  Didn't think they were real.  Weird thing was, they barely showed up in the viewer against the background.

A birds-eye view of the  situation, the Goat is entering from the left.

Greenies approach from the goat's right front.

As soon as rounds started to bounce off the armor, Panky ordered Sam to try to go south around them, I slewed the turret to the right and engaged, while Panky checked out where we was headed.  I dropped two of them, and hit another, but it still kept coming despite  having a big freakin' hole in the middle of its chest.

Panky saw this and kinda started to freak, yelled at me to hit them better, whatever that meant.  Kill them, I guess.  As Sam went south, more greenies came into view, some of them were little; weird lookin' things.  We started taking a ton of hits, but no damage; I fired more bursts, killing one, wounding a couple that kept on attacking.

The Goat as it starts to turn south.

As we headed south, Panky took over and aimed at this big giant greenie in a giant armored suit, carrying a huge gun and a big claw.  It must have already fired at us, cause its gun showed up hot in the viewer, and was smokin'.  About this time, we took a hit to the solar array, I fired at the "biggie", but killed another greenie that ran in front of it.  Wounded another too.  The Biggie fire at us, but musta missed, cause I didn't hear nothin' hit us.  Panky was tellin' me to hit the dang thing, but she didn't say "dang".

In the bushes, the big armored greenie, referred to as "Biggie".

Sam turned west now toward the stream, I hit the biggie with at least two rounds, it smoked a little, but kept coming, missing us again, as my hits jerked the thing as it fired.  Up 'till now, I always felt safe in the Goat, but after that thing shrugged off our autocannon, I kinda started to get a little concerned.

Biggie and the Goat exchange shots.

The Goat trails smoke as it crosses the stream.

I fired at Biggie again, but missed as Sam bounded us into the stream.  Biggie fired again, and the Goat lurched a little.  There was this weird sound from down front by Sam, and she said that a wheel got effed up.  I fired at almost the same time, hit the Biggie, and it fell to the ground, and started to crawl towards us.

Biggie and the Goat both trail smoke from their hits.

As we raced away from the stream, I continued to fire at the greenies, hitting at least five of them, though only one of 'em fell dead.  I cannot believe how tough those things were.  They just didn't die.  Not like people anyway.  As we headed away, we took a bunch more hits, a couple doing some damage.  Somehow, our batteries took a hit, which is a problem, but we made it out of there trailing a little smoke.

Biggie knocked down, the wounded Goat flees the battlefield.

We limped away, found a secluded spot in the rocks, and Panky and Sam got out and checked out the damage to the Goat, while I kept watch.  Turns out we lost the motor on the right front wheel, lost about a quarter of our recharge ability from the panel getting hit, and lost about half the battery.  Gonna be a much slower ride home from here on out.

Oh yeah, and the weird sound from up front, that was a round from the biggie's gun coming through the armor of Sam's compartment, and wounding her leg.  She didn't even say anything, even after she got out and we saw her bloody pant leg.  Said, "Just a scratch", wanted to get right to work on the Goat.  Panky put ten stitches in the scratch to seal it up.

We spent the rest of the day repairing and recharging.  I was hyped up for awhile, then all of a sudden, was more tired than I ever been.  It was tough staying awake during my watch.  Never been like that before.