06-11-05 1

Characters involved: Earblade & Zoe_Lang.

Salamandastron: Leaders' Lounge

Earblade sits in his usual high-backed dark leather chair, reading over several pages of parchment, each covered with notes in a spidery hand. He pauses occasionally, tracking back to other parts of the document and frowning, scratching his chin thoughtfully as he mulls over the connotations of what has been reported. One paw reaches out for a stoppered decanter on a small table to one side of the chair, it hovers above the stopper for a moment, before returning to rest on the arm of the chair, "Nope, can't get distracted ol' chap, keep focussed" he mutters under his breath. He places the report of the happenings in Halyard down on his lap and leans back, rubbing his eyes and forehead while he ponders on the predicament.

Look! It's crickity old Zoe, crickitying her way into the leader's lounge. She, too, has several pages of parchment which she reads over, her reading spectacles perched upon the tip of her snout. Every now and again she mutters darkly to herself, obviously none too pleased with the situation. Eventually, she bumps her way over to where Ear is, and without looking up, goes to sit in the same chair that he's in. Blinkity. As soon as leg touches leg, she jumps forward as if goosed and glances over her shoulder. Seeing that it's Ear - that is, once she lifts the spectacles from her snout - surprise turns to 'eh', and she glances around 'til an unoccupied armchair is found, and into it she drops. She clears her throat, and peers across at the other colonel. Fingers clasp together in her lap. "So what're you thinking?"

Earblade opens one eye and raises an eyebrow as he is nudged by the crickety colonel. As he was spending his time half hoping for someone else to pass the burden on to, his mouth widens to a familiar grin. He lifts his paw from his head and sits up fully as she takes a seat. "Well well, was hoping someone would actually want to talk this thing through, rather than charge headstrong into a trap an all that lark" he sighs, his grin fading as they delve straight into the serious issues of the day. "Well the reports we have are obviously vague, coming only from that one young runner chap, but we know the facts. Halyard was ambushed and presumably taken, considering they had only their guard and a ceremonial patrol of green recruits and past-it veterans. We don't know if anyone's left alive, we don't know what provoked it, what their plans are... basically we don't know anything else." admits the old Colonel with a discouraged sigh. "We need to make some decisions Zoe m'dear"

Zoe_Lang sighs long and deeply, and kneads thoughtfully at her temples for a moment. "We c'n likly assume they've killed off any resistance... We c'n also likely assume they've tak'n captives - slaves - at least o' the young'uns 'n' the women." She grimaces. "Have we sent any scouts t' monitor the comings 'n' goings?"

Earblade frowns deeply once more, the wrinkles across his features showing more prominently than usual, the fur around his snout thoroughly whitened with age. He nods in agreement to Zoe's assumptions, "But we can't rely on them being predictable, else we might've known about this and been able to stop it from" the Colonel bites off the end of that sentence, "No, its done. No scouts as of yet, the priority is keeping it low key for the moment, we can't have the mountain in an uproar over this, any lone vigilanties running over there waving swords would only ruin what hope we have for survivors. We'll brief a small squad of our more discrete scouts, but we've got to start making preparations in case we need go full scale on this. If they fortify and settle down, then we'll have a siege on our hands, if they move on and roam somewhere else... well the hostages won't be safe. So we need to come up with a plan rather quickly"

Zoe_Lang nods and returns her spectacles to her snout. As she scans the parchments, every now and then shuffling to another one, she thinks about it, and in the best way she knows how - out loud. "Scouts. Send them out individually, so they can't give the location o' the othahs should they be caught. We need them t' watch fer weaknesses... Mayhaps a nigh' rescue would be possible. The less risk t' the captives the bettah... Assumin' there are any captives left t' rescue." At that, she tosses the parchments away, and they float to the floor around her chair. "We don't launch an attack 'til any captives are safely away. Mayhaps - if we had t' - we could even bargain fer their lives... Howevah much I hate the thought." And her thinking turns inward, so that she is silent, at least for the moment.

Earblade shakes his head once again to clear out the cobwebs, he sighs long and deeply, "Thought I'd retired from all this worrying seasons ago. Seems like you don't quite leave the officership behind that easily eh?" he says, mostly to himself, "I reckon the best plan would be to make a couple of short term actions, like getting those scouts off on their way, then spending a good deal of time bouncing a few thoughts of each other. Always best to get a different perspective when trying to think around these things. You know me, rather set in my ways, always looking from the same angle an wotnot... From what was reported, the little of it there was, they don't seem the type that will reason with us, unless they get something out of it. So I reckon some kind of distraction and rescue would be the best plan. We've got the advantage there, we know Halyard far better than they do"

Zoe_Lang nods in periodic agreement to those things that Earblade says. "Yer righ'... Okay. We should think about those things we want the scouts t' be watchful of. Any weaknesses, o'course. We c'n get majah Rahier t' draw up a schematic o' the village. We'll want the scouts t' note where they've got guards, how many, 'n' what weaponry they've got... And, o'course, most importantly where the hostages 're bein' kept. Any supply areas..." More thoughtful silence, and to Ear she looks for his input.

Ear scratches his chin thoughtfully some more, a habit he hasn't been able to shake over the years. He nods in agreement, "The majors are yet to be fully briefed, it needs to be broken in the right way, but yes, Rahier can help us with the layout. We might want to send the scouts in groups of two, it means they can defend 'emselves a bit better if caught, but one can be a runner so we can get the report back to the mountain as soon as possible. More change of the intelligence reaching us that way." The colonel sighs and writes that note down on a piece of blank parchment, ready to hand it over as a provisioning order should Zoe agree so that the scouts can be readied as soon as possible. He glances over at the untouched bottle still on the table, "Care for a drink while we think this over? I'd say we're going to be at it for a while"

Zoe_Lang glances at the bottle, and gives a small nod. "A drink... would be good. And - yes. Two scouts togethah, one fightah and one runnah." She glances down at the strewn parchments, and then holds out her paw in Earblade's direction, in preparation for her drink. "Do ya know? My Keita's in Halyard. I wondah how she's fairin'." Because, of course, she's alive. Yes. She grins, just a bit. "If we could get ahold o' her, she'd tell us exactly everythin' we needed t' know about Halyard t' launch an attack." She then hms, thoughtfully. "Make a note - aftah this is all ovah, t' take a detailed schematic o' Halyard. Fer future events."

Earblade pulls out the stopped from the decanter and pours two modest measures into the glasses in the accompanying holder. He passes one over to Zoe, a small grin, "My personal reserve port that is, finest in the mountain, best Nev could get" explains Ear has he swirls the deep crimson liquid, taking a small sip and sighing contentedly. He stays silent on the Keita issue, unwilling to voice the doubts he has about taking it for granted anyone's left alive in the village. "Well its agreed theres nothing more we can do in the short term, I've got the details for the scout's equipment to be readied and I'll ask the majors to ferret out their best for the mission. Now for the long term plans..." he says, trailing off and allowing for Zoe to voice any ideas on the topic.

Zoe_Lang takes a modest sip of the drink whilst staring straight ahead, lost in thought. It takes her a moment to come out of her reverie, and when she does, she's smiling, just enough to know it's there. "Long term...? We crush 'em. Once the captives are safe - well, we do what we've always done, eh old friend? Blood 'n' vinegar," she concludes, with a small toasting gesture of her glass towards the other officer.