Lack of Authority

"And we have our third group of bandits who have overrun a local mine, are we sure there is a local authority in the area?" Xanthiana had been doing the scouting job on foot and had spent the majority of the day walking between bandit camps which seemed to make up the majority of the paradise mining community.

"According to my records law enforcement in the area is understaffed."

"You don't say I can't imagine how that is considering how many bandits are in the area. I would figure they could wake up everyday shoot bandits from dawn till dusk and not actually make a dent in the population."

"I believe that is probably Sergeant Cobb's plan Xan." Cobb hadn't really told Xan his plan at all. It was just go scout the camps and don't come back till you've done the job.

"Won't that upset the authority in the area? I mean in theory there is law right?" Xanthiana realized of course that "law" in the new world pretty much amounted to shooting people before they shot you, but she wanted to believe that it didn't have to be that way everywhere. Bullets coming at her from the bandit camp explained to her not everyone felt the same way about rule of law.

"We have multiple bandits incoming."

"Gee I couldn't figure that out." Xanthiana was crouched up by a rock, she thought she had snuck up on the camp decently especially in the low light of the evening, she had apparently been very wrong.

"MOVE!" The voice of Elly was practically screaming at her, Xanthiana obeyed and the rocket that exploded the boulder she had been hiding behind showered her with debris. Xanthiana slid down the hill she had climbed up to spy on the bandits and turned around to wait for the rocket launcher bandit and his friends.

"I hadn't noticed the artillery, we'll have to talk with the local authority about some gun control amongst the general population." She didn't see the bandit with the rocket launcher, but several other bandits emerged from the smoke and she opened up on them. She got three before they realized the rocket had not killed her. The other bandits disappeared back down the hill they had come from. Xanthiana breathed a sigh of relif until a massive Sensoth in what appeared to be welded on armor emerged, carrying some kind of makeshift rocket launcher with him.

"I do believe that armor will not be penetrated by our rifle Xan."

"You're a wealth of information Elly."

"Tactical retreat?"

"Is that anything like running the hell away because that was my plan."