Next Steps (Private)

[Dale Hunt]

Having left the dog park, Dale lead the other wolves to a motel nearby. He paid for a room in cash just for the night, so they could use the place to organize themselves and talk about their strategy going forward. Once they had all gathered in the room, the Rahu looked over at the other wolves who had chosen to join him. "So, it suffices to say that things in Sacramento are real fucked up," he said to the others, stating the obvious. "And for one reason or another, folks are not communicating properly about what the hell is going on." He paused for a moment, looking at the others as he considered a few things in silence. "I just got back into town, and it sounds like most of you are new to the area as well. That complicates things, but I think the first thing we need to do is talk about what we know," he said to them, searching his jacket's pocket for his pack of smokes.

"I know most of us would rather act now instead of talking, but we need to figure out what our strategy is going to be," he added as he found the pack, pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a zippo. "So far we know that this Grandfather guy is the main target, and likely the leader of the local Pure. We know that some of the others are gonna be using a phone to track him down. We also know that there's some rescue mission that another pack is going to be handling." Dale paused as he took a drag from his cig, savoring the moment for a few seconds before letting out a cloud of smoke above his head. "We know the Pure have a superior force, so a head on assault on them would be suicide," he said after the pause, looking around at the other wolves.

"So where does that leave us? What options do we have?" He asked the question, wondering what the others had to say. The Rahu had some ideas of his own, but he wanted to hear from those he'd be leading. After all, a good Alpha knew when to listen to his pack, and this was as good a time as any. Besides, this would also tell him a bit about the other wolves that were with him.

[Swami M]

Now that he's back in human form and can form the right words, Hari is overflowing with questions...

"I've been in town less than a day, so there's a lot I don't know. But it worries me just how little anybody seems to know about the opposition. There's this Grandfather guy and... Do we have any idea at all of their numbers? How many packs there are and what tribes they're from? But one thing everyone agrees upon is that they outnumber us. So how do we overcome that? Do we have some brilliant tactician and military leader that I haven't met yet? Or even a lot of people with military and law enforcement experience? Access to advanced weapons? Government connections? Unless the bad guys are a bunch of bumbling Stormtroopers... which I highly doubt... numbers are going to win out without some kind of equalizer. And from what I saw in the park, the good guys are pretty divided..."

He pauses and thinks for a moment.

"But the other side might be divided too. Fanatics are always fighting over trivial points of doctrine and stabbing each other in the back over who's more ideologically pure... So how would we exploit those kind of problems? That's not something I'm so sure about..."

He's starting to babble a bit now. He forces his mouth shut. Who does he think he is? Napoleon? What the hell is he doing here, exactly, getting ready to go to war with and against a bunch of alpha badasses armed with not much more than a couple of years of karate lessons and an extensive reading of military history. And the runty little wolf inside him, for whatever that's worth... This feels like a really bad night at the casino, in way over his head and getting deeper, but he can't stop drawing cards...

[Dale Hunt]

Dale listened to what the other wolves had to say, nodding to each in turn. At the very least, they seemed to have a good head on their shoulders, so that was a plus. "You are correct Brett, in that we need resources if we even want to stand a chance," he said to the Bone Shadow. "I'm not Ritemaster though, so unless any of you know how to perform the Rite, a spirit hunt may be out of the question." He paused after saying those words, wondering if any of them actually knew the rite. It is at times like these that I wish Skaald were still by my side, he thought to himself, a bittersweet memory of his fallen comrade. "We will need to find Loci in remote locations, far from Pure territory. It will also do us some good to seek out a spirit that will agree to be our Totem," said the Rahu after his moment of silence, looking at each of them in turn.

Turning to Scott, Dale addressed the Meninna's questions. "I cannot tell you for sure who Grandfather is, but from the context of the conversations at the dog park, I would assume that he is the leader of the Anshega," he said to the other Rahu. After all, there had been talk about using a phone to track him, so it was unlikely that Grandfather was a spirit of any sort. "As far as the rescue mission goes, it sounded like it was the family of a local wolf." Another pack had volunteered for that task, so he had not bothered with focusing much of his attention on that.

Finally, Dale turned to Hari, who was obviously very worried about the whole thing. Just showed up? Man, that's gotta be rough, he thought to himself, knowing that the Ithaeur was likely thinking to himself, this is not what I signed up for. "I've been away for over a year, but even back then, the Pure always outnumbered us. It seems that shit has gotten worse since I left, and most of the local packs are gone or have lost their turf to those bastards. You bring up a lot of good questions Hari, and I'm not sure I can answer all of them. That said, we can't just give up before things get started," he said to the kid, hoping that he would stick around even if the current circumstances were real shitty. "Our best bet will be to engage in guerrilla warfare. As Brett mentioned, we will have to coordinate with the other packs, even if some are reluctant to do so. We have to, there's no other choice. Sooner or later they will realize that as well."

Dale paused for a moment, taking a long drag from his cig as he considered a few things. "The Pure have a larger force, and it is likely that they are better organized than we are at this point. That said, everyone has a weakness that can be exploited; theirs may be overconfidence," he said, letting out another cloud of smoke as he spoke. "Think back to Vietnam. The US had a superior military force, but the Vietcong used guerrilla tactics to defeat them time and time again. We will need to employ similar tactics, drawing the enemy out slowly and lure them into an ambush. This is not a war that can be won in a single battle, so we definitely need to be thinking long term here." The Rahu paused, taking another drag as he looked around at them. "I used to have some cred with the lowlifes in Sacramento, so that may come in handy. At the very least, I can use those connections to get us some weapons if needed. But first, we need to find some Loci that we can use. We cannot just stick to one, since we want to be mobile in order to succeed. Also, we need to seek out a Totem as I said before," he said to the trio, exhaling more smoke as he awaited for another barrage of questions or suggestions.

[Dale Hunt]

Dale nodded in agreement to Brett's words. "Yeah, that's likely our best bet at this point," he said in regards to finding any Loci. He was definitely not an expert on the subject, and without an Irraka to give them a hand, the pack would have to resort to any means they had to find the resources they needed.

He turned his attention to Scott as he spoke up, listening closely to what the Meninna had to say. So I've got at least two military boys with me, he thought to himself, pleased by the fact. "We will definitely need to find a way of contacting the other pacts and exchanging messages with them. Things were a bit chaotic when we were all at the park, but my hope is that the Alphas will be wise enough to understand that we all need to work together in order to reclaim Sacramento," he said, agreeing with what Scott had said. The Rahu took another drag from his cigarette, exhaling slowly as he considered the rescue mission. "It is possible that they will need some help, considering that their pack is not large enough to break up into smaller teams," he said, recalling only about two wolves joining Alison.

"Got anything to add?" he asked, looking over at Hari Kumar , who had remained silent after having voiced many concerns earlier in the evening.

[Swami M]

"That all sounds reasonable. Although since we're new in town we may also have other problems to deal with... like being able to eat regularly and sleep indoors. I'm supposed to start a new job in a week. I still have to find a place to live... It doesn't look like any of us are independently wealthy, so we won't have the resources to be full time guerrillas or secret agents or whatever it is we're doing. So we'll need to work, raise money and deal with all sorts of mundane stuff. But speaking of new in town... does anyone have connections in another city? People who might be devoted enough to the cause to come here and help? If we're really outnumbered that badly, we're going to need all the help we can get."

Hari is not encouraged by the Vietcong reference. He's not eager to emulate a group that was at the wrong end of kill ratios of 10-1 or more, who only accomplished anything because of the direct assistance of North Vietnam and the indirect assistance of the Soviet Union and China. As a general rule, guerrillas did not succeed without the help of a powerful third party. So who is going to play the Russians here? Maybe one of these guys can call in a bunch of out of town muscle from LA or Chicago or wherever, but he's not betting on it...