Porter looks to see what the other sentries are doing.

With the Sentry able to move that quickly, Bartja realizes that there's no escape now.  He must hit and kill this thing if they're to survive this.

The other sentries are walking steadily but slowly in your direction.

"Looks like they only hurry when hurt.  We need to use a retreating attack, move back, attack only one and deal with it before attacking another."

Orvo says, "Why don't we take down the pyramid first? Aim at the top and see what happens." He moves over to see if he can administer aid to S'krllk.

S'Krllk whips off his gear, including his bodycomp though the latter might have been safe, and returns to the tripod. He aims it, again, at the top of the pyramid. "I'm going back to shooting the building. I don't need any more of those guards touching me."
Then he unleashes at the top of the pyramid, as fast as the tripod gun can manage.

Desiraye makes herself mobile as she continues to fire on the injured one.

In reply to Bartja Nemuco (msg # 118):

"It's as if they have trouble seeing us in our dimensions.  I think you've got a point Porter.  If we don't get their attention by attacking, they should be easy to evade."  This said, Bartja finishes aiming carefully and attacking the injured sentry.

S'krllk begins taking off anything that might be in contact with the sentry's touch. (It takes him one complete round to get off the items and he takes only 3 STA damage.)

Orvo is there to give a hypo spray if S'krllk needs it.

Desi and Bartja hit the injured sentry, and it dissolve down into a pile of black goo. It is a pure black not reflecting any light, just like the Blackness you encountered before.

Beyond the trees, you see the two other sentries walking toward you at about the pace of 5 meters per second.

They are currently about 60 meters away and will reach you in 12 seconds (two combat rounds).

S'krllk aims at the top of the pyramid 120 meters away. It is a long shot. He takes careful aim, takes a deep breath...and fires. His shot is true, and the spinning red thing at its top begins to warble and dissolve. The entire 20 meter tall pyramid shudders for a moment.

Your electronic devices start to turn on. The EMP pulse has been stopped, though the pyramid and at least two sentries still stand. Make that three. There had been a sentry on the far side of the pyramid who is also now rounding the corner and coming your way, though he is farther behind than the other two.

"Let's concentrate fire on the one on the right.  We need to do it in one shot."

Bartja nods in agreement and takes careful and considered aim at the sentry coming from their right.  Once settled and targeted, he carefully fires the XT-41 at the creature of Blackness.

"Nice job on that pyramid S'Krllk.  Now my implants should start working as designed!"

Porter throws a grenade on the right side of the one on the right, trying to avoid hitting the other one.

Desiraye switches her fire to the right, carefully taking an aimed shot, if she can.

Orvo heals S'krllk after stating, "Nice shot, especially for an engineer!"

Everyone fires at the Qantariate Sentry on the right. Everyone except S'krllk hits, including the grenade. (44 total Blackness damage. 6 remaining.)

The Sentry, once hit, immediately turns quick again, as if the Blackness damage feeds it speed while also harming it. Even as you prepare your next attacks, it is upon you, bearing its fists down upon...Desi. Desi turns to avoid the blow, luckily only takes 4 points of damage as the blow lands on her back, but the Blackness goo is eating through her backpack quickly, and she will need to remove it or suffer continuing damage as well as ruination of her items.

The Sentry next turns its attention to...Porter.

Orvo is attending to S'krllk but needs to wait until S'krllk is not firing before giving him the shot.

Porter, having no short range weapon against this menace, will work to evade its grasp.

Orvo sees the danger and also has no offensive weapon. "Maybe we just kill off the fast one and run from the slow one. If it can't catch up, we can outrun it, especially now that we've taken down the EMP pulse."

S'Krllk doesn't say anything, instead turning his weapon back on the pyramid to see if he can do more damage.

Relieved that the Sentry hasn't noticed him yet, Bartja takes careful aim at the extra-dimensional construct.

"Not a bad idea Orvo.  We can always come back and finish the other Sentries later... like shortly after we give that shadow the slip but before they can repair their pyramid."

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 131):
Knowing that she doesn't have a lot of time, Desi shrugs off her backpack to the ground.  'All that stuff can be replaced,' she thinks to herself as she looks to get a shot on the one that is threatening Porter.

The thing is moving very fast now...but somehow Porter manages to evade its grasp.

Desi is peeling off her backpack...

Bartja makes an incredible shot, missing Porter, and hitting the sentry in the head. It collapses over in the dirt and dissolves into a pool of the Blackness goo that does not reflect light or cast a shadow.

S'krllk fires at the pyramid. He hits the body of the pyramid, and though it seems to swirl and absorb the shot, you are not sure if it did any actual damage.

You follow Orvo's advice to start retreating. You see that the other two sentries (because another has appeared from the far side of the pyramid) stop following you after you retreat about 100 meters.

Once it is clear the Sentries have lost their scent, Bartja drops his medkit on the ground and opens it to begin helping Orvo treat wounds.  He keeps the XT-41 close by in case the black-sentries decide to move out of their protective sphere of influence.

"It seems clear that they may have a harder time observing us in our dimensions than we have of observing them.  Do we want to disable the remaining two sentries and see what we can learn of the Pyramid while we're here?"

"Once we get ready we get range on the nearest sentry so that we can get in a couple attacks before it can close the distance and we take them out one at a time."

Desiraye nods, "Agreed Sarge.

Everyone else agree or are there any other thoughts?  We know we can hurt them and they die.  I just don't want to lose any more of my gear.  We're not exactly in a spot where we can run to the store and buy what we need.

If we're good then, make sure we're still locked and loaded."

Orvo and Bartja set to helping with the wounds. Desi recovers 3 STA and S'krllk recovers 7.

As you watch, the other two sentries walk up to the point where the last of the sentries was "killed" ("dissolved?"), stop for a moment, and then slowly begin returning to the pyramid.

OOC: Not sure if you want to still attack them. They seem to have lost interest in you, and you have depleting ammo. Not to metagame, but you fulfilled the purpose here (to destroy the EMP emission), and taking down the sentries is not necessary. You may return here later after obtaining further information and supplies for as yet undisclosed purpose. If you kill the sentries now, that will be two less in the future, but either way is fine.