[SunCMars]

That night they made for the tall canyon wall. It was at least 200 meters high at this point.

They quickly reached it an hour, just after dark.

Climbing the wall looked impossible, and it was to normal men.

Zetes was chosen to take up the ropes and pound in the iron pins.
The Greek could fly (if need be) and had no fear of heights.

The strongest men went up next. They would then pull their brothers up, one by one.

 

[SunCMars]

The rope got very frayed at the end. One of the fat Argonauts nearly did it in.
Uh, did he make it become unraveled. Nope, didn't.

On the way up he looked nervously unraveled, though.

They would need to replenish their rope reserve.

I hope they have an Ace in town.

Ulysses was very organized, he added the rope to the list. Food and water was on the list.

No women were on the list, nope, no tails, wrong adventure Tale.

 

[SunCMars]

They needed to find cover and shelter, as the dawn rains were coming.
So were an unknown variety of eyes, likely come looking.

 

[SunCMars]

They found an old barn structure that had to be abandoned, but passed it up.
Too many tracks, to it and from it, were visible.

They went deep into a forest. They came upon a brick structure that had a half a roof. They went into that.
Much of it was still kept dry, from the looks of things.

There were no visible clues to anyone having visiting upon this place in quite a while.

The pilots had given Ulysses some instruments that would indicate if it had some sort of electronic surveillance system in place. None was noted.

The house set on top of a small hill.
The ground up top had rolling hills, with no tall mountains seen anywhere.

Off fifty meters to the left of the structure, and through a narrow break in the trees, vehicle traffic could be seen, many miles away.

 

[SunCMars]

They set up camp and would do no cooking until after dark. The smoke from cooking would be a give away.

Two scouts went out that night to recon the area. They would go all the way into the capital city, if possible.

 

[SunCMars]

The two Argonauts that went off to recon the area and the Capital City were Periclymenus, (mentioned before as a shape shifter) and Philoctetes.
Philoctetes was an expert archer that could make himself invisible for hours at a time.

The two of them could move around the city by bringing the least notice to themselves.

 

[SunCMars]

It was not long that the two of them noticed that three men and a large number of women could be seen outside some building.
The women were in chains and most were half naked.

One woman was tied to a metal pole in the parking lot in front of what looked like a makeshift jail.

Getting closer, the three men were in uniform, likely military or police.

The bigger of the three was molesting and beating the tied up woman. He had his hands in places that no man should force.

The two Argonauts became enraged.

Philo pulled the bow off his back and removed three arrows as he crept nearer.
The uniformed men had odd weapons strapped to their waist.

The plan was for Philo to kill two of the men as quickly as possible, then disappear. Peri would rush in from behind and take out the last one with his sword.

Philo took all his clothes off and slowly crept forward. You could see his bow and a handful of arrows move closer but nothing else. Philo looked at each man's eyes, making sure none of them spotted him (his bow and arrows).

He came at them at an angle, just outside their field of vision. He flanked them.

When he got within 15 meters, he nocked his first arrow and laid it against his bow.

Taking aim, he fired!
He quickly nocked another arrow and fired!
The arrows pierced their hearts.

Both quickly died.

Periclymenus ran up from the rear and hacked the last soldier to death.

Philoctetes ran back and put on his clothes and reappeared.
He walked back down to where the women were held.

They were terrified and crying.

And why would they not be. Two highly muscled men in strange clothes just killed three soldiers.
The two men looked liked savages.

 

[SunCMars]

And to this modern race of humanoids, the Argonauts were savages.

What a foolish thought.

Judging from the actions of these Capital City soldiers, they also were savages in modern uniforms.

 

[SunCMars]

Peri went over to the large dead man that was tormenting the young female.

Peri walked over the the large man that laid on his back with an arrow stuck in his chest.

He then pulled out his knife and cut off his ear.

The women were horrified to see this.

He then went behind the military transport vehicle and secretly ate the ear.

After about five minutes he took on the man's image. He forced it into remission.

Looking in the vehicle he had no idea how to operate it.

After eating of the man's essence he could now speak to the women in their native tongue.

"We are not going to harm any of you. After asking a few questions, we will let you go.

A few questions led to dozens of them. A wealth of knowledge was obtained.

The woman that was tied to the post in the parking lot was named, Mabel.

She kept expressing her gratitude and she asked many questions herself as to who these two warrior were.

Of course, those questions were not answered. Peri told her that they would tell the women who they were later, not now.

 

[SunCMars]

The main body of the Argonauts waited until their scouts returned.

Most sat inside the brick building, cooking on the fire.

Ulysses and another warrior sat outside, keeping watch, just sitting on some tree stumps and passing the time.

Suddenly, The Gray Wolf bolted out of the building and took off running.

Ulysses picked up his arms, and he and Echion took off after him.

Wouldn't you know it, a pack of huge, lion sized Jackals were stalking the Argonauts.
They were chubby, obviously well fed.

From the looks of them, they were not wild animals but guard beasts. Some of them had on leather collars, that itself was a dead, uh, alive give-away.

The Grey Wolf was a large one, and he weighed at least 150 lbs. or 11 stones.

The Jackals were twice his size and weight.

Gray Wolf snarled and growled, his back hairs standing on end, his sharp teeth very visible and menacing.

The Jackals starting laughing in that sickening tone we remember here, back on Earth.

They taunted him, prancing forward and backwards. One laid on the ground, flipped on his back and started to teasingly whimper.
The others in the pack laughed even louder.

All this was meant to belittle the smaller animal.

This was a big mistake!

In a flash, less than a flash the Gray Wolf burst forward, and pounced on the Jackal on the ground tearing out his throat.

Two other Jackals immediately ran forward and faced The Gray Wolf. They cackled, just not as loud.

They both came at the Wolf from different angles. One bit his hind leg, the other went for his throat.

The Gray Wolf whipped around and got the Jackal at his leg between him and the other advancing Jackal.

He bit into the first Jackal, snapping his neck and tossing him like a rag doll. He then sprinted toward the other Jackal and dispatched him in seconds.

The other 6 Jackals ran away, as if the Devil were chasing them.

He was.

The Gray Devil ran after them, catching one more and tearing him to shreds.

Ulysses and Echion looked on with awe, and a new respect for their silent four-legged companion.

 

[SunCMars]

The Argonauts fled their abandoned block building and headed to the West.
Facing the Capital City, they went left.

Ulysses knew that any resultant (Jackal based) search party would expect them to move forward, towards the city and not vary by much.

Using his binoculars given to him by the 6d pilots, he determined a safer route. A route that included the least populace.

He left the wolf behind to guide the two returning recon Argonauts onto the main body's, onward path.

 

[SunCMars]

It is always a bad idea to use the roads when moving in on an enemy.

There could be lookout points, scout parties, and cameras placed along the road.

They hiked off the road, at least four hundred meters.
They then moved parallel to the roads as they moved towards Capital City.

 

[SunCMars]

It wasn't long before the Capital City forces noted that 3 of their Jackals did not return. About half of the Jackals had cameras inside their collars.

It seems that of the three jackals with collars (and to find out, cameras), only one made it back to headquarters.

Looking at the footage was not very informative. The memory had not been reset in quite a spell. The only incident noteworthy was one of some sort of fight between the jackals and some other animals. The planet had on it some bear like creatures and if the Jackals went up against one of those they would surely lose some of their members. But, not three. Unless the Jackals did not properly fight back and only made defensive moves.

That likely was the answer with the evidence at hand. A search party would go out tomorrow and bring back the three dead Jackals, and the other two video cameras.

 

[SunCMars]

Communications have gone dark on this Tale.

When they return, you will be the first to be apprised.

Thanks!