Because there was only one road going this way through the desert, we were instantly spotted by the commandos. The side doors on either side of the van opened up and two of the commandos began shooting at us. 02 was driving evasively. He had to focus on that because our cab was not going to hold up against the heavy fire they were giving us. I was in the shotgun seat. Lucy was in the middle of Sunny and Zayne in the back seat. It was up to us sitting by the windows to shoot back. We did our best. I was able to get some hits on a commando, but his armor was too thick for it to do much to him. Zayne and Sunny were not much more accurate than I was. When the back of the van opened up, we were shocked to see one of them with a rocket launcher. We did not have any reaction time before it was fired at us. 02 swerved off the road to dodge it. It nearly got us all, and we hit a big cactus. That impact blew out the cab's engine. We were not going anywhere. The big van was driving off when the PEA unit jumped out of the van. She did a tuck and roll and ran to us. We all got out.
Giving her cover with suppressant fire was easy. They could not focus on her without leaving themselves open to attack. Once she got over to us the van cut it's losses and kept going. It was a pyrrhic victory. We were halfway through the dessert. Either way we wanted to go, we would have to brave the elements and encounters with the hostile creatures of the area. We decided to go back the way we came and go home to the clan building. Almost immediately, we were beset by huge, nasty mechanical creatures. We blasted them all as we walked down the road. Blasting and shooting caused quite a commotion. Since hardly anybody ever walked the roads, lots of the monsters had spawned in the area. Some of them were stronger than others. It was not until we got halfway home that we were attacked by a boss monster. I guess that this was one of the danger of the setting. It was an amalgamation of several large creatures fused together with cybernetics and wires. It was gross and it was aggro on us. It was immune to our bullets and even resistant to my magic. It was a hassle to fight it.
By the time it got down to critical, we had been at it for hours. Before we could kill it, a large blast of lightning shot out and attacked the thing. The boss fell over and then slunk back. A scripted event. I guess that a big boss like this was not just a 1 time thing for the Players. A red ATV with yellow lightning bolts came towards us. There was a large group of people approaching. As they got closer, we saw it was a team of 3 humans and an AEP unit. As a team, they got over to us and rushed out. "C'mon! Get over here! Come with us if you want to live!" the AEP unit said as he grabbed my hand very tightly. I decided to go with the flow and run with him. They got us on the ATV and drove. I wondered where we were going. Calling them out, 02 demanded to know where we were going. The AEP unit looked at us and said "You idiots are going to get yourself killed out there! Everyone here knows that you can't wander the desert alone like a dummy. We're going to where its safe: Relámpago." It was a compound where humans and PEP units lived. "Relámpago" was the Spanish word for lightning. Nice.
