ShadowZero: Ch4: On The Wheel

[Wesforce]

BBC News – 17:00, Tuesday 12th of March 2069 – City of London, Central Britsprawl

With Chip Dobsky and Hælllen Bettina Jacoby

------> InfoMat: pollution count of seven, followed by 0.6 acid rain by seven this evening. Flood rise of two centimetres to follow<-----

‘Good afternoon. You’re watching the BBC. I’m Chip Dobsky,’

‘And I’m Hælllen Bettina Jacoby.’

‘Our top story:’

Cut to grim footage of the North Sea: A huge, coiled creature is dragging a small, sleek patrol vessel under the waves. A dozen sailors in orange life-bubbles are being winched out of the sea by a Royal Navy helicopter

‘The ongoing spat between the Dwarf Kingdom of Sigursson – former Republic of Iceland – and Tir Nan Og has claimed another vessel. HMS Phobos, a Lunar Class patrol vessel, was attacked and sunk by a seadrake as she attempted to put herself between Tir vessel LE Niamh and Sigursson flagship RSS guðmundur. The Tir ambassador has repeated his warning to the British government not to interfere in the conflict, which arose for unknown reasons during King Odinsson’s last visit to the Tir. Here in Britain, opinion remains sharply divided over the war, with leader of the Council of Druids Dr Robert Foster calling for a stand against “Elven Oppression”’.

Cut to Hælllen and a tangle of wrecked, burning vehicles on the M4 Motorway. An old, battered sign saying “Cornwall” has a bullethole through the “o”.

‘Another convoy has been ambushed, entering the Cornish Wild Zone, killing seven. Survivors tell of “feral youths” with automatic weapons, riding monocycles and off-road vehicles of ramshackle design. Chief Superintendant Fergal Cavan of the National British Police has called for the British Army to patrol the area, so the problem doesn’t escalate to the level of the former united states, which now has upwards of half a million people living as so-called “plains nomads”.’

Cut to Queen Antoinette, who doesn’t look like she’s aged a day in five years, and her consort, inspecting a line up of cybered men in striking paramilitary uniforms, standing beside one-man armed aerodynes.

‘The Royal Cyber Police, seen here last month at the formation of their new Aerial Urban Pursuit unit, is reported to be angered at the call. Senior Cybernetic Officer McAndrews said that the problem of nomads should fall into his jurisdiction, and asked for funding to develop a long-range air-patrol unit. The Ministry of Order has denied a rift between the NBP and the RCP.’

Cut back to Chip, and footage of simultaneous rocket launches from Ascension Island, Huntsville CAS, and Baikonur, Neo-Soviet Union.

‘A new survey today revealed that there has been a 300% increase in the number of people applying to space corporations for a place aboard orbital habitats or off-world colonies. There are now thought to be over half a million people living in orbit, one-hundred-thousand on the Moon, and two-thousand on Mars.’

Cut to line of people lining up outside an LG Systems office in North America

‘Well, why not? I’m not going to spend the rest of my life aboard this miserable, ball of Mud! There’s no pollution there, no *bleep* governments, and best of all – no *bleep* magic!’

General assent and nodding from the crowd.

***

Watching the 3DTV, the old man at the bar looked across at the barman; a teenaged Elf so bored he was on the verge of crying into the self-cleaning glasses.

‘Ehh, mark my words boy: There’s only one reason they’re throwing all that crap into space. Its war, boy… I can feel it coming. They’re preparing for a war.’

‘The war's over Gramps,’ the barman replies, thinking the deaf old bastard can’t hear him anyway, ‘The UCAS nuked the CAS. Grexxon stuffed Neuwerke. LG Systems stuffed Aztech Space. IWS and the Neo-SU had a draw,’ he sighed, ‘and all our fraggin’ prices went up.’

And we’ll do it all again, same time next corp-war, he thought, and looked back at the 3DTV.

***

‘And now entertainment News: In Los Angeles, CFS, Simsense Porn King Buck Handyman announced he’d be donating half the profits of his latest hit, “Fragging for Freedom!” to survivors of the Richmond blast. At a signing, he said ‘Yeah, the Richmond blast would have been much worse if the missile had detonated properly, but, y’know, its my hometown, an’ I jus’ wanna give them damnyankees a good f-’

Channel change. The head of the International Society of Magicians is giving a lecture.

‘Yes, technology has come a long, long way in these last few years: Nuclear space travel. Orbiting habitats. Self-sustaining arcologies, wireless matrix and whatnot… But it’s a foolish man who believes technology has taken precedence over magic. More and more young metahumans are feeling the call of their Spirit Guides, or, like me, to study the hermetic arts. No my friends, magic is rising too. Just last week, five more species of awakened plants or animals were discovered, the spirit and ghost populations rose 0.3%, and yet another African metahuman nation announced its independence. Strange and powerful forces are at work daily and-’

click

***

‘Eeeeh, bloody magic. It were all better y’know, before all this magic nonsense. Didn’t ‘ave none o’ them monsters, and yer didn’t have to worry about some gimp throwing a fireball up yer arse when ya crossed the road. We ‘ad the yoo-nited states back in dem days, not the bloody Balkans in North America like now. Mind you, we ‘ad Blair as well… ‘e was a right tosser. You young ‘uns, you don’t know ‘ow good you got it, now that we’ve got the Lord Protector an’ the Queen looking after us, while the bloody PM shines their shoes.’

‘Yeah yeah, whatever, old man, just get out of here will you?’ said the Elf, ushering the codger towards the door. Jovis, he stinks. Probably pissed himself…

The old man flashes around, and in an instant he has the young Elf by the neck, lifting him off his feet. The Elf’s arms and legs flail uselessly and he can’t get a grip, while the Old man pins him up against the wall.

‘Best thing about the old days,’ snarls the old man in a tremendously powerful, deep voice, with his eyes growing crimson, and canines lengthening, ‘None of you fragging elves!’

And the teeth closed in…

***

Snowflame parked her Arctic-Camo’d triumph and pulled up her goggles to take a look around.

From the car park, where a Kawasaki Spartan, A slate-grey Daisaka two-wheeler and a decorated Harley Davidson Beast reverse trike joined her own mono and a blank, aged van in conspicuousness, Snowflame walked along a connecting passage. This whole structure was domed off, and she could take off her rebreather to taste the refreshing, yet organic-smelling air. Animals, she realised.

“Queen Antoinette Royal Zoo”, read the gilded sign on the entrance arch. It reminded her chillingly of that sign that read “Arbeit Macht Frei” in one of those history trids, where the French were performing gengineering experiments on downed American airmen, or something.

“Meet by the Gibbons” the MatrixMail had said. Finding them had been easy; right after paying the sneering woman at the gate for entry (£200 – Jovis) her ears had been full of the wailing of the minature apes. So she walked, gazing about at the various animals; Two noble unicorns, preening eachother, an embracer, a metallic-sheened red awakened monkey that glared at her with malevolent eyes, and hoop snakes whirling around in their circular cage.

There was even an artic fox – surely one of the last of its kind. She sang to the small, furry animal’s aura before moving reluctantly on.

She found the gibbons, shrieking in fear at a large man in an overcoat who stared right back, his hair spontaneously changing colours as he did so. He appeared to be talking to himself.

Sitting on a bench was an Elven woman, calm and watchful, giving a sense of self-confidence that contrasted markedly with her clothes that had seen better days. Really, Snowflame thought, I’d have expected better of an Elven woman.

There was another human man, tattooed, with loose clothes and a sleeveless top – he was talking quietly with an Elven male. Both bore rigger jacks – as did a silver-eyed woman with clean features and terrible, wiry hair, watching them.

Snowflame started, as she sensed the presence of a man entering the enclosure behind. It was yet another elf – a man, dressed in a decent suit, and smart sunglasses.

‘My apologies, miss,’ he said, perfectly polite, cultured like any decent Elf.

‘That’s quite alright,’ she replied, and before she could continue the conversation any further, a rasping voice cut through the shrieks of the animals.

‘Step back, will you? You’re frightening the Gibbons!’

The tall, wide man with his eyepatch, huddled in his black overcoat, did so.

The speaker strode into the centre of the enclosure on stumpy legs. He wore a tailored Saville-row suit that contrasted with his big, bushy red beard, and was disarmingly candid.

‘AHEE HEE HAR! Bet yer never been in a meet in a place like this before have yer? Like it?’

‘Well we’re just waiting for one more, and then we can begin. You all know eachother?’

[AI]

"All I'm saying is, I never see you anymore. I mean, it's been weeks, maybe months..."

Welcome to the sound-track of her life. Here she was, bent over her worktable, spotlight shining down on one of the smallest, most delicate pieces of machinery she'd ever worked on - Steady hands working with minute tools that were only enlarged to a workable level by her own telescopic goggles, a true professional taking domestic issues in one ear and letting them drift freely out of the other. It was tiresome, it had been tiresome for nearly six months - Ever seen he got hooked up with those fragging tree-huggers, and that was before she'd began work on the prototype.

"Busy." She grunted, the single word was met by a familiar exhale from the other end of the vid-phone.

"Jovis, Rose" She ground her teeth at this. "Have you even stopped to fragging eat."

She had to ponder this for a moment or two: "Maybe."

She carefully closed the bellyplate of the microdrone, flipping it over so it could stand on it's own eight feet. The billion nuyen question was this: Would those feet finally fragging work?!

"Look, look - Tell you what, you and me - This weekend. A flick, a pizza slut, even a fragging walk - Anything! Together! How about it?"

"Hloran has put a Daisaka bomb disposal drone aside for me, wanna come check it out?"

He sighed, "Rose..."

"So much for anything..." She muttered, bringing the tiny drone to life. She'd programmed it's tiny brain to walk to the edge of the desk and stop short of the desk. An ambitious move, too ambitious it seemed. All the drones tiny, ball-jointed legs moved at once, took one small step for droid kind before over-balancing and rolling it's self over. "Drone still doesn't work."

"The spider? You still working on that?" She moved the vid phone to show him the prototype of what would one day be a full sized drone, legs waving frantically in the air at him. "Cute."

"At least I managed to get both sides working." She said, powering down the tiny drone and putting it aside for later work. "This weekend, pizza slut then drone - Deal?"

"Fine, fine, deal." He said, exasperated. "See you then, love you."

"Yeah." She replied, before clicking the phone off. Fragging hell, he had to go. She barely managed to pull off her goggles before the phone went again, this time a darker skinned elf greeted her.

"Jovis, I've been trying to reach you for hours!" The fixer exclaimed.

"Busy." She replied. "What is it?"

"Just had a job come in, got your name written all over it!" She tried to ignore the fact he always said that, regardless. "Interested?"

"I'll get my coat." She said, flicking off the spotlight.

"Good, I'll send you through the details - Ciao!"

Looks like she'd be cancelling her romantic weekend afterall.

* * *

Fast Eddie was, despite his name, notoriously slow when it came to just about any transaction. Unless you were there, pointing a gun to his face, of course. She considered having a shower, but the Dwarf from the room upstairs was the last one in and had been trimming his beard - So she passed and did what she said she was going too, grabbed her coat and watched some Trid before Eddie eventually got back to her.

"You have got to be kidding me..." She muttered. A fragging zoo. She hadn't been to a zoo since she was seven. They were a dying breed anyway, awakened animals were much more dangerous than any normal animal - Indeed, she'd had the misfortune of being there the day somebody went over into the Giant Spider pit and... Well, she didn't get a wink of sleep for weeks on end. Meet by the gibbons, said the mail. Great.

She locked her van up in the garage and hitched a robocab there, she could pick it up later and didn't like leaving it in unsercure carparks unless absolutely necessary. She much prefered robocabs to human driven ones, the fares were cheaper and at least you could turn their inane babble off. The Zoo however, was a much less comfortable experiance - First it was a blow to her credstick, even as she passed the nuyen over she couldn't help but weep for all the stuff she could've bought with that 200.

I better be getting a refund. She mused. In fact, she'd have to remember to bring that up with Johnson.

Second she loathed animals. They were noisy, and stank worse than most Trolls she'd met. The gibbons, when she arrived, were especially volitile and made her cringe, carefully placing herself on a bench as far away as possible from them, and the rest of what she assumed were her team. She did did a quick sweep of her fellow 'runners, quietly tsking the fragger who was cybered to the hilt (if he wants to play at being a robot, he should just become a rigger) before deciding there was nobody else of interest whatsoever. She retired into her own head, mulling over possibilities for her spider drone and doing a checklist of all the things that could be going wrong before...

"AHEE HAR HAR!!!!!!!!!"

Perfect... She sighed to herself. Just, fragging perfect...

[SW Freak]

"Fraggin' hate monkies anyway," muttered Jackson as he stepped back and turned to look at their host.

He looked the stocky dwarf up and down, or, rather, down and more down with a frown. A peep of thermal through his eye patch showed up nothing interesting, and that in itself was interesting. Very few people travelled through Britsprawl without a weapon. That meant he was one of three things; mad, covered by unseen guns held in unseen hands or a mage. Either way, his money was still good.

"Know each other?" Jackson repeated the question with a frown. "Oh, yeah, we're all real fraggin' close."

"Jackson," he then said suddenly, still looking at their host as their hair grew longer and changed colour. "Remember what we said about being nice."

"Up yours, Indie."

Are we going to regret this job, Jackson?

No. No more regrets. So stop worrying. We'll be done soon enough, and back to your pretty boy, like you promised.

"What's the job and the pay? And you best be covering the entrance fee, I've better things than pay 200 pounds to listen to some chimps scream."

[Wesforce]

'Gibbons,' Snowflame corrected. She looked at the animals and said, softly; 'You should cherish the moment and indulge in nature, for the Earth's bounties are not infinite.'

'Spoken like a true Dandelion Eater,' the Dwarf grinned, 'You've got shaman written all over you, gal.'

'I'll take that as a compliment.'

'But no, Mr Jackson, hold your horses. We're waiting for one other.'

[AI]

The night just seemed to get better and better - Domestics, entrace fee, bastich chuckling dwarf employers and now fragging enviromentalist munce on the team. She had enongh of that from her home life, without getting it on the 'run from fragging mojo-flingers.

"Fragging tree-huggers." She muttered under her breath. The enviroment had been fighting a losing battle for years, when were people going to get over it?

[Wesforce]

Snowflame smiled, and didn't pay much attention to the inflammatory remark, which doubtless hadn't really been intended for her ears anyway. She filed the information away though, and gave her compatriots a quick glance over with her astral perception; this Jackson was barely even human anymore with all the implants and replacements he'd had, criss-crossing his body like a latticework of dead tissue. She sensed sadness, and a resigned sense of duty in his aura. From the others she got curiosity and paranoia, but a general upbeat feeling, especially from the tattoed human rigger.

And the Dwarf... The Dwarf was definitely some kind of magic user. How powerful, she couldn't tell.

'Interesting team,' she said out loud.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny looked around at his companions. The only one he had met before was the Jackson Collective. Even though he was probably the only one in the group with some knowledge about how the Cyber Skitzo's mind worked, the whole thing belonged in an episode of his life he was frantically trying to forget.

"I don't mind the gibbons." he said, nodding in the direction of the animals. "At least everything's simple to them. Metahumans are pretty screwed up in comparison."

[SW Freak]

"Yeah," muttered Indigo by way of reply, looking around.

Thermal revealed plenty. The elf chick, the scruffy one, was most surprising though; she was packing and cybered up. She didn't look the kind. Mind you, more and more were taking up this lifem so it probably shouldn't have surprised her. There were no more surprises, really. Well, barring the one that had greeted them when they walked in the door.

Bunny.

It was the first time they'd seen him since the Charlie foxtrot that had been the platform. He hadn't changed a bit, by the looks of it. Indie found herself thinking that she was somehow responsible for his still being here.

That's not quite fair, Indigo. You know it was Jackson's tactics that are to be held responsible for Bunny's presence.

I know...Hey Jacksie, maybe you'll see that helping people can pay off this time 'round.

"Hey Bunny." Indigo walked over to the elf. "How've you been?"

"Indie..."

"Well, what else do you want to do, Jackson? We're just waiting, we may as well chat! Sorry, Bunny, were you saying something?"

[Nyerguds]

"Indigo, eh?" Bunny said. "Well, I just said that at least the gibbons still got the right to do monkey business."

"Well, I don't know." Indigo said. "I got the feeling we're doing monkey business here already."

"Heh. Point." Bunny said. "What's the job anyway? Feeding them?"

[SW Freak]

"Yeah, hopefully Mr. Charming in here," said Indie, smiling as she tapped her metallic temple, creating an odd clicking noise.

She looked around at the others almost furtivly before facing the elf again. Jovis, he really hadn't changed. Indigo would've expected him to ignore her, or tell her to frag off, or something. After all, it was kind of her fault that he had taken a tumble down a pit full of orichalcum.

"So...how've you been holding up? What brought you to Britsprawl? Heh, a smart guy like you, I thought you would've gotten out of all this."

[Wesforce]

*edited into oblivion thanks to some fraggers* :yuck:

[SW Freak]

"Yeah, and you'd still be whorin' yourself out for just a glimpse of it."

Jackson turned away from Bunny and took a few steps away. Then he titched and looked the other way, a deep frown twisting his face as his hair lengthened again. Throwing a glance over her shoulder at the two elves, Indigo smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, he's being difficult again. We're just going to have a little fraggin' chat."

Alright, what the fragging hell, Jackson? Indigo walked away from the group, towards the enclosure. The gibbons were quiet now, cowering slightly as they obeserved the Jackson collective.

Indeed, that was most rude!

Well, what? You're gonna get close to these lot too? Risks our lives again? For what? So that we can lose our freedom to some grud-forsaken corp? Oh, hey, too fraggin' late, Indie! I'm trying to keep us safe. I mean for us to live. We can't get close to people. We'll just end up hurt again.

Is that it? You're too afraid to get hurt?

No! I don't want to see you hurt.

Yeah, well, you had no problem this morning, Jackson...

***

Indigo blinked in the light as it flicked on suddenly. She gave a little groan as she stretched out, flexing claw and hand. Then the light was eclipsed as her young man kneeled on the bed beside her and leaned over. A smile came over her face, giving the same lobsided effect it always did as the plate that was her right cheek remained immobile. Brett smiled back, leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips.

"Mm, what was that for?"

"I'm just happy you're awake. I was half afraid you'd sleep a hundred years, babe!"

"Why? What time's it?" Indie half sat up and glanced blearily at the clock.

"Just gone two." Indie gave a groan and fell back. "You got in really late last night." Brett smilled again as Indigo chuckled and brushed his ponytail away from her face as it tickled her mouth. "I was kinda worried."

"You don't have to be, babe. You know that. We can take care of ourselves."

"I know." He kissed her again. "Hey...are your roomies awake yet?"

She sat up, pushing his hair over his shoulder and brushing her lips against his cheek. "Not yet..."

"Heh, glad to hear it." Brett kneeled back with a laugh. "Some of ye should be getting some sleep!"

"Come here, you!" Indigo laughed too and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him forward into a kiss. "You messer!"

Indie

Not now, Jackson. Go back to sleep.

Indigo

No.

Indie! Phone's ringing.

"Urgh, frag it..." The two sat up and Indigo scrabbled for the phone. She gave Brett another kiss as he got up and then Jackson came forward, tugging on a shirt as he picked up the call.

He was pulling on his pants as Brett walked back in, an electronic cigarette between his teeth, as usual. He smiled, a bit sad, as Jackson related the call over breakfast. Then he and Indigo exchanged sorry looks.

"Sorry, babe. I wanted to spend time with you. We just need the cash right now. I can cut down once you get a job. You have that interview today, right? We'll be fine soon. We'll just take this one to keep us going."

"Okay. Stay safe, babe."

"I will. I'll be back soon, promise."

They exchanged kisses and then Indigo checked the hold of her Stormbreaker's shoulder holster and was out the door and away. She had had to fight to keep the tears in until she was away; ever since he had woken up, Jackson had been whispering the futility of Indigo's love to her.

***

That was different...I... Jackson reached up to wipe a tear from Indigo's cheek.

Indigo turned her head away and angrily removed the drop herself. Stow it, Jackson. Just...leave it, okay. Now I'm going to talk to Bunny. Pay attention to something else if you need to, just don't bother me.

She took a few breathes to calm herself, telling herself that Jackson was wrong, that she could get close to people, they could be safe. To hell with him. She regarded the gibbons for a moment before giving a yell that set them scurrying away from the glass again. Satisfied, Indigo turned back to the others, calm again.

"Sorry about that. He won't bother us again." She looked at Bunny, almost daring him to comment on what had happened.

[AI]

Cyber crazy. It happens sometimes. It's fragging huge - You're not. Head down, don't comment.

Which was exactly what she'd thought would be a good idea when she arrived, but the filthy mammals were doing her head in - And that term was only partially applied to the gibbons. All this talk of a special mojo-enhancing rock and happy go lucky monkeys was grating - Especially coming from somebody with an obvious riggerjack. Still, it was to be expected - Any two-bit getaway driver or thrill-seeking chiphead could claim to be a rigger these days. It would almost be insulting, if she even acknowledged such fraggers.

She rose from her bench and wandered off - The meet hadn't started yet anyway, and at 200 quid a shot there was no way in fragging hell she was going very far anyway. Not that she was really interested in animals mind, they all smelt of their own drek and didn't fit into her world view. People often called a drones programing 'dog brains' - She frankly found this rather offensive. She'd had a dog when she was little, and all it did was piss all over the place and chew up her parents shoes. The latter was pretty much the only thing she'd ever trained it to do anyway. Still there were, she had to grudgingly admit, some fascinating things to be learned from nature and this is where she was headed now.

She leaned on the railings, glancing down into the shallow overcast Spider Pit. Most of them were in their caves by now, but she saw one, lazily (and rather irritably given the circumstances) wandering around the floor of the enclosure. Suddenly, a dozen childhood memories rushed to the front of her mind of a man being torn apart by those wicked pincers... She suddenly felt very faint, as if all the blood had rushed to her head and then drained right back down again. But it passed, and she forced herself to face the beast - If only to ask it a single question.

"How the fragging hell do you even work, grudd damnit?!"

[Wesforce]

Well it seems technology still has a few things to learn from nature, Snowflame observed. She sat cross-legged on one of the ornate Victorian cast-iron benches and closed her eyes. Within seconds she was on the astral plane, feeling the wash and flow of nature and all the trapped animals around her.

Arctic Fox was there, curled up next to her. She said 'Metahumans. They think they can conquer the world, when they can't even command their own minds.'

'You're telling me,' Snowflame replied, 'A Snow fox, talking to me like a metahuman.'

'And don't you forget it, elf... If you still want the power.'

From behind, came the chitterings of the spiders in their pit. They were using their power of hypnosis on the human rigger.

'Pay them no heed,' Arctic Fox warned. 'Hateful, alien creatures. I'd grab them all in my jaws and tear them apart!'

[Desolator12]

---===Earlier===---
'HE'S DONE IT AGAIN FOLKS! Death-defying jump after death-defying jump, and the Daer-Daemon just won't go back to the pits that spawned him!'

Rush was enjoying yet another jump over seven flaming hulks of metal while doing the can-can and sipping a soy-caf... ok, he wasn't doing the can-can, but he was about to fall asleep, and coulda probably used the soy-caf. The stuff he'd been doing as of late had been childs play: He coulda done it without the rigger jack, hell, without his bike! The corpys at GM though didn't want him to change it up just yet. 'Let everyone see before you go and do something different' which, when translated from corpy, meant 'Let's milk this for all it's worth before the Reaper finally gets ya'

'Thanks for coming to see the show, and have a safe trip home!' Rush swore he'd find that overly-perky voice and kill it one day... Working for a corporation was too much plastic smiles to deal with, and too many threats on your life as well. General rule of thumb: Corpys aren't welcome in the slums, and he was, by proxy, a corpy. He didn't want to leave his place though... it was nice, and accomidated his needs. He didn't need a 600ft tall self-likeness with an elevator and a minibar, he just needed a bed, a garage, and a few simple accomidations.

"Hey Daer-Daniel!" a slick-suited, white toothed man said behind him as he rode back into the tuning pit.

"What now Roy? I'm tired, my bike need some work, and I swear if I hear another happy voice, I'm strapping them to the bottom of my bike." Rush replied.

"Big jump eh? No wonder you're tired, all that concentration."

"No, I'm tired because every saturday I see the same fraggin' flaming truckbed, jump the same distance..."

"Yeah, well y'know what we've been telling you: Let's let everyone see this stunt, then we'll switch it up a bit."

"Yeah Yeah, I know."

"Listen, the boss has decided, out of the kindness of his heart, to let you take a breather... let the crowd kinda simmer a bit, y'know... build the anticipation for another-"

"If you say 'Death-Defying' in the next sentence, you're being strapped to the bike."

"Aww, I know you're just kidding!" Roy said, lightly punching Rush on the shoulders... really, he wasn't, but Roy didn't need to know that. "Anyway, you have next saturday off... so relax, go home, order whatever you want to eat... or whoever, if you catch my drift, y'know what I mean? Eh? EH?"

There had to be at least one guy higher up than Roy that would like to see Roy in a jump and not make it...

"See ya later, Daer-Danny!" Roy said, heading off to re-count the creds that came in for that stunt.

"Ugh..." replied Rush, changing out of the day-glo, red-flames jumpsuit he always wore, and donned his street clothes, some baggy black pants and a similarly-colored long jacket, which he kept loose, letting his white undershirt show. He got onto his bike and put on the sunglasses, letting the HUD run its diagnostics. If he was quick, he could get out before-

"Daer-Daemon!" Oh grud. He flored his bike before the HUD had even come up, getting as far away, and as quick away from 'Daer-Fan #1' Willard MacAusser before he changed his mind about who would become the undercarriage for his bike.

His glasses flashed on, showing his current speed, heading, and fuel consumption rate near the rims. On the right lens, an old-fashioned letter symbol appeared. He sent the neural command to open his mail.

“Queen Antoinette Royal Zoo. Meet by the Gibbons". The message read. The sender had been hidden, and to anyone else, such a message would most likely re-read as 'You're gonna die bitch!'. Rush just grinned.

"Time to enjoy my vacation."

He headed directly to the zoo, stopping at a local grab-n-go for a Soy-Caf, downing the rather nasty contents in short order. He hadn't been to the Zoo since his parents decided to treat him for his birthday one year and take him. Of course, he was 18 at the time and, generally at that age such a gift would be considered ill-chosen, but the meaning wasn't lost on him. He made his way into the Zoo, paying the rather steep, though not for his wallet, price. He looked around at all the animals and, with a quick glance at a 'You are here, you want to be there, if you're over here, you're drunk' sign, and made his way to the Gibbons...

--==Currently==--

Generally on runs, he never liked to mention who he really was. He was Rush, not the Daer-Daemon, not Little Danny Crux... Rush. To help him, he generally avoided conversation... the laughing man was no exception to this rule. He did, however, strike up a small conversation with another male rigger, talking mainly specs about their rides - kinda like a cross between a macho contest and 'whipping it out'... Apparently, though, there was one more still to arrive...

[Serenla]

I wonder who’s going to pay me back for the 200 creds I just blew… Shotgun thought idly as she sat on a bench watching her new partners. None of them seemed particularly likely candidates, except perhaps for the fancy fragger in suit and sunglasses. Nearby the gibbons hooted loudly. Normally, she might have been enticed to look around a bit, having never been to the zoo before and already regretting having scrounged up the creds to get in. She’d passed a couple interesting looking ‘exhibits’ on her way to the gibbons. But she didn’t want to miss anything important, and this meeting might actually start sometime soon. The gibbons hooted a bit more and jumped about in their confinement.

What sick fragger picked the zoo? And why the damned gibbons? I’d toss ‘em all for 2 creds. A pair of riggers stood talking to each other and she gritted her teeth in an effort to maintain a docile façade. Might toss ‘em all anyway. Who the hell hires this many wheel jockeys? Bunch of useless sods, the lot of them.

Already she was regretting answering the phone this morning. Grud knows she’d wanted to ignore Terry. He was an arrogant asshole and too cocky by half, but he had a habit of getting her jobs that paid. That in itself was an achievement in a neighbourhood where your boss would as soon plug you a few rounds as pay up. Her cyber doc had gotten her four of her last five jobs and seemed to think she owed him a favour. She’d disagreed with him as politely as was merited when the man you were talking to had a las-tool inside your arm but he didn’t appear very mollified. This warped gig was probably revenge for her refusal. Sometimes why she bothered dealing with him at all, but then Terry usually knew better than to sign her up for work with riggers, tree-huggers or corp execs. She was only hazarding a guess with that last stab, but who else would wear a fragging suit and shades to the zoo?

At least that cybered guy with the crazy hair looks like he might be good in a fight. She watched him casually as he talked to an older elf - a rigger by the looks of him. Damned good in a fight, her conscience forced her to admit. His apparent obsession with cyberware had gone a bit too far for her to find him attractive, but that certainly didn’t stop him from looking rough…some of the time anyway. Rachel was hardly the best judge of character, nor the most observant person, but that fragger looked almost like a woman half the time. ’Course there’s something to be said for that line of thinking too, she mused to herself with a smile.

Then the dwarf sauntered into their midst and Rachel couldn’t help but snicker when he spoke. It was the perfect follow-up to her day so far. Bad enough she had to work with riggers, too yellow even to fight, now she’d be teamed with a stumpy-legged psycho with the classic dwarf speech. She didn’t mind the dwarves much on a whole, most of ‘em were fine guys to go drinking with as far as men went and she’d actually had a bit of fun the few times a dwarf ran her up during her time at the Slut. But working with one? Working with one on a run? Terry had a lot to answer for this time. Next time he offered up something like this she’d tell him where to shove it, whether or not he had his hands buried in her arm.

Her hands found the grip of her Remington in its leg holster and she glanced around in contemplation. The zoo was a bit too crowded for violence but if she could catch one of the fraggers alone…well, she wouldn’t mourn one less rigger to work with.

[AI]

OOC: Hope you don't mind Serenla, but you did say you were going rigger hunting :p

One moment she'd been venting her frustration, perhaps a little too loudly, at the arachnoid creatures and then the next she found that she had lost all the ability to move. She was frozen to the spot, grasping onto the railings with seized muscles, staring down into the bit at the dozen of multi-lensed eyes looking back up at her.

And that's when she felt the gun in her ribs and the hand slip over her mouth.

"Should've stayed with the team..." Whispered a soft, female voice. Even behind the slight rasp, it was far too soft to be anything but an elf.

She could've just tasered the slitch, she knew this and in any other circumstance she'd have just done it and kicked her while she was down. But there were other forces at work here, one of the spiders looked up at her... Almost expectantly... As if it knew... And suddenly, she could move again.

She was throughly disgusted with her line of thinking, but all the same she flicked the tip off one of her fingers, pointed her tool laser into the pit and fired. The beam caught one of the spiders square in the eye. It drew it's self up onto it's hind quaters, and then launched it's self into the plexiglass canopy above, hitting it so hard it send tremors right through it. The others, agitated by their comrades sudden agression, followed suit and soon all the two of them could see was a sprawling mass of legs and eyes rebounding off the surface.

"Get the frag away from me or I'll put even more holes in the damned thing..."

It turns out that wouldn't be nesscary, as an onimous cracking sound came from within the pit. A single spider leg clawed it's way over the top, eight sets of eyes following soon after - Eyeing the two of them greedily.

The elf swore and fumbled for one of her bigger guns... She just started recording.

[Wesforce]

'Wot da bloody 'ell!'

Zoo warden Mick Wayward had been at his desk, whittling a three-pronged boomerang from teak with his foot-long Kukri blade, when a sudden beeping came from the alarm desk. He pulled on his khaki boots and ran over.

'Fraggin' Hypno-Spiders agin!'

He grabbed his safety goggles and a narcoject rifle and headed out the door.

***

Snowflame jerked around, alerted by the sudden bursts of anger and hostility.

The female rigger and female elven assassin were screwing around with the spiders, and in a moment they were going to escape. She had no choice but to act...

She rushed up behind them, and placed a hand on both their backs.

'By Winter's night and frozen hail, let sleep over these two prevail!'

Both 'runners suddenly felt very, very tired - Not quite asleep yet, but shotgun's fingers felt numb on the grip of her weapon, and Steelrose couldn't focus her camera...

'Crikey!' yelled an Ork male off to the left, clad in Khaki. He carried a humungous knife even for an Ork, wore a pair of goggles and a bush-hat, and was cradling a narcoject rifle, which he tossed aside.

Snowflame stepped back as the Zoo warden grabbed the spider that was making it's way out of the enclosure by its front legs. The spider stared at him with all eight of its spiralling eyes, but the warden's goggles protected him.

'Only one way ta deal with dese critters!'

He threw the spider on the ground and wrestled it into submission, as the Dwarf quietly pulled the 'runners away.

'Do you want a fraggin' job or not? Hee har hee.'

[Serenla]

Shotgun just grinned at him. "Might be I do, if this meeting ever gets under way." This might not be so bad after all; little guy had some guts after all and even the rigger didn't seem entirely useless. That trick with the spiders was well done. Jovis, when they all leapt at the plexiglass...her heart still pounded in her chest, only partially in fear. Fragging spiders might've given her a good tussle.

But then that damned shaman had butted in. Cowards, all of them. Rachel twitched her fingers involuntarily as the last of the drowsiness left her. What kind of weapon was sleep? Losing her grip on her weapons, was not something she was comfortable with; it was a personal attack. Maybe she'd made a mistake by going for the riggers first. Or maybe, she chided herself, you made a mistake by going for anyone at all. These people are going to be working with you.

She directed a wave at the rigger, and laughed, "Nice job with the finger. Can't say as I was expecting that. I'll be on the bench if you need me," she winked at the rigger and returned to her seat, caressing the grip of her Remington soothingly. The other woman looked vaguely disgusted with her, but Rachel's mind was moving on.

She studied the shaman intently. Yes...targetting the rigger had been a mistake.

[Desolator12]

Rush sighed, content on watching the group from the bench. He pulled out what looked like a small knife with 4 cut-out slots in it. He balanced it on his index finger.

"If we can avoid blowing up the zoo before we even get started, that'd be great in my opinion..." He mumbled, tossing the knife into the air and snatching the grip with his other hand.

This was all he needed: A rigger who started unneccessary situations, a gunner who looked like she'd kill any one of them without thought... the shaman though... she looked like she could handle delicate situations without causing unnecessary risk... He put the knife back into its sheath...

"Anyone know who we're waiting for anyway?"

[Wesforce]

'Stare all you like,' Snowflame told Shotgun coquettishly in her perfect eloquence. A hand swept down, indicating her form - pure white hair, lithe body, and slim but toned legs, 'you might see something you like. I don't normally swing that way myself, but hey.'

The Dwarf interrupted with a hee hee hur stifled cough, and replied 'Why yes, a "Mister Grin". Hopefully he won't keep us waiting, there's business to attend to.'

[AI]

She couldn't believe it. Somebody had tried to kill her! Corp! It had to be corp! Why else would she be singled out when there was nobody around? The realisation had jolted her from her forced drowziness, and she suddenly felt very vunrable, she needed her drones - Nobody'd frag about with her if she had those.

She eyed the woman carefully, and then forced herself to remain calm, to assess the situation. Maybe she wasn't corp at all - Afterall, the robot was a complete and utter nutjob - Maybe they were all off their fragging heads. No, it was too much of a coincidence... She couldn't believe it. Not yet. She'd just have to watch her carefully... Very carefully indeed.

She forced herself to smile and picked her way through the other runners, they were looking at her like she was a trouble maker - It wasn't her fragging fault that somebody had tried to fragging put a bullet in her gut. Still, she couldn't let them know that - That was her problem, and if it became a significant problem... Well, accidents happen on 'runs all the time, don't they?

She placed herself down next to the elf going through a mental checklist of how this conversation was going to go. Don't let her know your onto her, reveal nothing and try to get as much information as you can. It was a radical idea, talking to somebody - But she didn't have her spotter on her, so what else could she do?

"Hello..." She began, in low tones. "My name's Steel Rose... Why the fragging hell did you try to shoot me you psychotic slitch?!"

Damnit! She cursed, thinking maybe talking wasn't such a good idea after all.

[Desolator12]

"I hope he gets here before those two wind up killing eachother..." Rush replied. He knew that if the shaman and the gunner continued their current road of conversation, there'd be some blood on the ground, and now the other rigger, 'Steel Rose', was getting in on the 'fun'...

[VO]

Billiam liked the zoo.

When he was very small, and the horns on his head had just began to sprout - marking him out as a slightly more special kind of trogg than his playmates at the MiniMetahuman Daycare Centre, his mum had taken him to the zoo. It had been a bright, sunny day, and they had strolled between the enclosures, tapping on the windows of basilisk pens and watching the baby kraken in the aquarium. They had even seen a dinosaur - cloned and gifted to the zoo by a megacorporation, the Tyrannosaurs had been a star attraction, especially at feeding time. Billiam remembered watching that. It had been his favourite.

Now, of course, he was here on business. Billiam had grown up. He was dead 'ard now, much 'arder than when those other kids had made fun of him because of his horns. Billiam was built partly of metal - strong stuff, good for killin' and tough stuff, too. Those kids wouldn't have laughed if he'd stabbed them with his chaingun. Billiam was a runner.

Billiam was thinking how good it was to be a runner, as he rounded the hypno-spider house with his hands in his pockets and almost tripped over the zoo keeper wrestling a gigantic arachnid on the pathway.

[Wesforce]

Snowflame thought the newcomer was a Troll at first, just by the sheer size of him. But... The skin was a slightly different tone, the horns were too regular, and he had the great bovine snout of a minotaur.

He also looked - perplexingly - very very happy to be here.

The Dwarf looked up at Mr Grin. Up was the right word - the little stumper would have needed a crane to see eye-to-eye with the Minotaur.

'Alright, we're all here then. Ah hee har. Why don't we move to a... More private area?'

Snowflame wondered on that. If you wanted a private area, why come to a zoo?

But then again, she thought, there weren't many people here - not this time of year, or time of day, or this day of the week. And the zoo was possibly the last place you'd expect shady deals to go down.

Suitably out of earshot, the Dwarf addressed the group, two-thirds of whom were still staring at the new arrival.

'Alright,' he said in a low, Tynesprawl-accented voice, which was hard to hear for the gibbons screaming their heads off even more noisily than before, 'I've brought you all here because I need a few things done, and done properly. Let's just say the organisation I represent needs a bit of housecleaning, and the cleaners are on strike. Now I've been watching you all for a while, and from what I've seen you're far from fragging perfect.'

The group was taken aback by this, unsure where he was going.

'That's just what I fraggin' want. Like they say, Professionals are predictable - its the amateurs you can't trust. I'm gonna form you into a team. I'm gonna set you up as the hardest fraggin' arse-kickers this side of Tynesprawl. I'm gonna keep you on a retainer, and set you loose on various kinds of scum, and you're gonna do what I say. In return I can get you guns, gear, chips, wheels, cyber, you name it - providing you keep yer noses clean. HEE HEE.'

He took a breath before continuing.

'Now I've got £1,000 credsticks here wiv all yer names on. That's yer starter. All you've gotta do is do one little job for me. Tonight. To prove yourselves.'

'There it is folks. If you're with me, meet me round the back of the Bay of Bengal in Zone 7 in an hour and a half, and don't be seen. Come loaded for bear. Big fraggin' bears. On wheels. If not, frag off and keep yer mouths shut, or you might just wake up with a Chelsea smile where your balls used to be.'

And then, slightly red-faced, he headed for the exit.

[AI]

Well, frag standing around like an idiot then, she was out.

She hastily aborted any attempt at conversation with the female elf, of whom she still hadn't even caught the fragging name. But that was ok, if she got out fast - The fragette wasn't following her anywhere. And if she was corp, she'd be on the 'run later - And she'd have her drones. She'd get all her information sooner or later, and then she'd find out what this slitch is really all about.

She hastily exited the Zoo, back out onto the road and pulled down a robo-cab. She was remarkably good at it, being a regular customer and not liking to wait around anywhere longer than she had too. She told the robot to high tail it to her appartment, and to shake any mono-bikes on their tail. She wasn't sure if it even computed the last phrase, but she checked over her shoulder regularly just to be sure.

When she reached home, she decided she had time to do several things. The first of which was to fire off a matrix mail telling her fixer that she was going to fragging murder him. She considered firing off a second mail to Greenpeace, cancelling their weekend - But she wasn't sure what this 'run was all about yet, so she left it.

The third thing she did was pull herself the frag together. She'd unleashed fragging Giant Spiders onto the fraggers and almost blown her cover to some woman she didn't even trust. This wasn't good, and it would have to stop. With any luck, she'd spend the majority of the 'run plugged into her control deck and wouldn't have to worry interaction with anything but her drones.

She still had fifty minutes at this point. And the shower was still full of dwarf hair, so she cracked open a tin of spam (with extra gelatine for that authentic flavour!) and went down to her van. She pulled up Zone 7 on her sat-nav and had it process a course towards the Bay of Bengal.

And there you have it - The job of most vehicle riggers, done by a machine. She wondered how they could even live with themselves, being as obsolete as they were.

She spent the rest of her time tinkering with her drones, making sure they were fully operational - Armed, fueled and ready to go. It was such a menial task, she could really use a drone for that too...

A series of beeps from her dashboard informed her that it was time to leave. She finished up her spam and discarded the empty can into a bin she had fixed to the back door. She'd made a point of eating out of tins when she first ran from the corps, she wasn't quite so paranoid now - But old habits die hard.

She rigged into her van, and set off.

[Wesforce]

Snowflame was the next to go. She stepped over the Warden's discarded tranq rifle. She considered taking it, being a fan of non-lethal options - but she always had her sleep spells. The Warden seemed to be having a bit too much fun wrestling the spiders, so she left and spent a while looking around the zoo, especially the Arctic and Antarctic sections. There was a depressed-lookinhg polar bear, some penguins sitting down, not doing anything, and single flaccid seal.

So much for the most prestigious zoo in the country, she thought. But she couldn't really blame them, knowing that the corps had all the juiciest animals - especially paranormals - in their labs and/or pens.

'Animals should be free, anyway.' she said, and turned on her heel, walking past the still-sneering desk-clerk. She got on her monocycle and put a helmet on. She had all the stuff she needed for the 'run on her, or rather, in her.

Hearing the whine of the hydrogen-turbine engine, she roared off up the ramp and out onto the acid-scarred streets.

Britsprawl always fascinated her, a child from a well-off family. It should have horrified her, that creeping, crawling sprawl, like a cancer, eating up the countryside. But then, she thought, the city is a countryside all of its own. I walk down these streets. I see devil rats and urban foxes and spirits and ghosts, down damp alleys and crumbling victorian tunnels, and streets that snake like plant roots with no logical order. Even the humans here are feral. That, or kept like cattle...

She pulled into the wet brick alley behind the noisy Indian restaurant, and parked next to a huge mound of used plastic bottles of cooking oil. Rats the size of Cats scurried away from the light of her monocycle.

I think I'll be one of the feral ones.

[AI]

She arrived behind the resteraunt much earlier than she had expected. That was a change - An autonav route which actually had effective shortcuts. She parked as close to the alleyway as she possibly could, reversing in so that if it all malfunctioned and guns were drawn, she could at least throw open the back doors and the fraggers could say hello to Mr. Traxx.

With this in mind, she positioned him just in front of the doors and climbed back through the front to slip out. The shaman was already there, which surprised her - She didn't think mojo-slingers even carried extra equiptment, let alone had to go anywhere to collect it.

Probably stopped to hump all the fragging animals... She mused, before grudginly stepping closer.

[Serenla]

It was a bit of a surprise when the rigger woman actually seemed to take her up on her offer and came over to talk. Surprise didn't really cut it; shock might have been the better word. Rachel thought about what to say for a moment until the rigger took the choice from her.

"My name's Steel Rose... Why the fragging hell did you try to shoot me you psychotic slitch?!"

Well. How does one respond to that? You're off to a good start, her conscience added. Yeah. Silence probably is the best option here. It's probably not such a good idea to be giving information to the woman who has every reason in the world to want to kill you.

Then the dwarf spoke up and Shotgun thanked the gods silently. A timely intervention. Then she listened to what he had to say.

* * *

Rachel went back to sit on the bench for a few more minutes while the team started to file off through the exit, thinking to herself. That was it? A few vague promises? Granted, the thousand creds said a lot for his credibility...hell, she'd frag him on the spot if it'd get her a few more, but in her line of work, payment up front like that wasn't exactly common. Especially not after that snide 'far from perfect' remark. Nevermind the fact that she had acted like a total amateur out there anyway, but to be called out on it was downright embarrassing. And to be paid for it? Something wasn't right here.

Oh, she'd be there anyway. The prospect of more money always tended to have that effect on her. For a moment, she considered heading back to her apartment, but there wasn't really a point to leaving so soon. She'd only a couple of weapons to pick up and that wouldn't take any more than a minute or two. Plus her apartment was a small and depressing place, full of bad memories. A few minutes, in and out, to fetch her Mantora and Beretta and then...there'd never been opportunity for her to try herself against a bear, but her Mantora had taken down a lion-shaman once and she'd be fragged if lions weren't pretty damn big.

They're metaphorical bears, idiot, she mocked herself. Yeah, but why settle for a metaphor? She checked her watch. Still an hour and twenty five minutes to go. Plenty of time for her to enjoy to show here, then move on the Bay of Bengal. She'd taken a job or two in Zone 7 and knew where the place was. But first...

She stood up and looked around. First order of business was to find something a sight more interesting than these fragging gibbons. Maybe the unicorns, never seen one of them before.The gibbons hooted at her and she stalked off.

[Wesforce]

Roughly 100 other restaurants in the 'sprawl had the same name, but this one was a little more upmarket than most. It was packed full of customers and playing tinny Bhangra. The smell of hot food wafted out and made Snowflame's mouth water. She was an unabashed carnivore... And she wanted meat.

In the end she relented, entered the restaurant and splashed out on a small kebab from the takeaway desk - real meat, that she could only afford now thanks to the Dwarf's generous upfront fee. The asian ork behind the counter took the money, and another 50 quid so no-one would come snooping out back - he seemed to know what was going on tonight.

Back outside, she whiled away a few minutes by checking the messages left on her wristphone. The usual ads, and spam, and two messages from Konrad, asking what she was up to at the weekend. Damn it. Always pestering me... How do I tell him I was just fraggin' blind drunk? Still... Should keep him sweet. Just by being in IWS he's useful...

Just as she clicked the phone off, that same van from the zoo car park arrived, and the female rigger hopped out, looking pale and wide-eyed, as ever.

Doesn't she ever sleep? Snowflame thought.

The Rigger came closer, as if walking into a gale. That alone alarmed Snowflame.

'Hello...' she tried.

[AI]

"Hello..." She ventured in reply. But was at a complete loss after that...

She'd never really understood magic users, especially shamans. What on Earth did you talk to them about when you believed that all animals were an unorganised mess who were in desperate need of an upgrade and proper programing? At least with her boyfriends new enviromental turn all she had to do was nod and smile as he excitedly blurted out all his drek...

There was a pause, in which she pondered. She'd heard that once upon a time, people used to fill these kind of pauses with talk about the weather - To be honest, that'd be a bit of a joke these days. There was only so many times you could say 'utter bollocks' and you never did know if some peoples disfigurements were from acid rain, and who the frag would take offense.

In the end, she just buckled and blurted out the first nature related thing that came to mind.

"I don't suppose... You know anything about spiders?"

[Wesforce]

'Spiders?'

A shiver ran through Snowflame's aura, for no discernable reason she could tell. She wasn't afraid of them... Was she?

'I can't say I know much about them. Or any insects in general really. Not that spiders are insects. Spiders and insects hate eachother, or so I hear.'

Snowflame could sense another impending awkward silence. She had two options: The first of which was to get on the 'phone to her father or Konrad.

She chose the second, and held out a hand.

'Snowflame. A shaman, as I'm sure you realise.'

[AI]

She glanced down at the hand, and then decided what the frag. She could take the shaman if she tried anything funny. It was quite symbolic, really, her cold, metal hand clutched onto the softest, and most natural she'd ever seen. She wasn't sure what it was symbolic of - But was sure there was some small amount of irony to be found somewhere.

"Steel Rose..." She considered saying something like 'A world apart' or some equally poetic munce, but then just settled on. "... A rigger. Of drones."

[SW Freak]

'Don't be seen.' Yeah, we're good at that...

Indigo waved goodbye to Bunny with a smile, wondering if he would take the job, before walking out of the place. The minotaur got another glance before they left, though; Jackson was considered pretty tough in most circles, but next to that thing he felt tiny. No point in assuming it was stupid, either. Anything with that much cyber in it had to be at least smart enough to be good at its job. Shaking his head, the cyber skitzo moved on. The receptionist shyed away again, still shaken after having to talk to the, let's face it, monstrosity that was Jackson. Not that the body was bad, mind, it was just that Jackson had no personal skills at the moment. One of the riggers had already left, as well as the druid and the 'runner Jackson had come to think of as Heavy Weapons Elf.

Shrugging, he hopped onto the bike and drove off. First stop was their apartment. Smokes was out at the moment Indie was sad to see. At his job interview most likely. Still, if he landed that job at the mechanics then she wouldn't need to go on as many 'runs and they'd have more time together. They grabbed some real food and took a shower before Jackson hauled out the smg and shotgun. The P1000 was no problem; like the Stormbringer, it'd stay under their coat until needed, and Jackson himself was usually enough to discourage anyone from searching him. The SPAS, though, had to be disassembled and would ride the trip out in the compartment under the seat of Jackson's bike, along with the ammo and the tools to put it back together. It was quick enough to reassemble and he had been warned to come armed.

Jackson turned suddenly as he heard the door open, a knife practically materialising in his hand. Brett had closed the door with a sigh before he noticed them and smiled. Indigo smiled back, stowed the knife again and stood, the shotgun in its travelling bag over her shoulder.

"Hey babe. How'd the interview go?"

"Oh, alright...How was your meet? You took the job?"

"Yeah. The pay was good enough. Um..."

"You were just about to head out." Smokes wrapped his arm around her and rested his temple against hers.

"Yeah."

He kissed her with a wan smile. "That's alright. How long will you be, do you reckon?"

"I'm not sure, but this should be a one day thing. I don't think I'll be too long." She stopped to press her lips against his for a moment. "And, I know, be safe. I will. Promise."

"Okay. I'll see you, then." She didn't move for a moment, too busy holding him, before kissing him deeply once more and moving to leave. "Love you, babe."

She stopped at the door and looked back at him. "...Really?" she asked sofly.

"Really. Take a care."

She grinned hugley and nodded before departing.

Jackson, not a fragging word she warned him as she stowed the gun and hopped on the bike.

It was a short enough drive to the restaurant, where Jackson found the rigger and the druid. They were talking, so she contented herself to ordering a beer inside, paying the practically manditory bribe, of course, and sitting against her bike to drink it. She gave an involuntary shudder as the rigger brought up spiders. The damn things were creepy...

[Wesforce]

'Do you always drink before going to shoot people?' asked Snowflame in a lighthearted tone.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny walked out of the zoo, looking at his wristphone. 17:42. No use going home first; Edie would still be at work anyway.

Bunny and Edie didn't talk much about his work. She knew that he did some illegal stuff, but she didn't want to get involved with that. Bunny didn't mind... their life was quite well arranged.

He sent her a short message telling her he got a job and might be home late. He hoped it wouldn't be too late... some of these jobs had a tendency to get seriously out of hand.

He got in the van, and plotted a route straight to the meeting point.

In hindsight, he had really been quite lucky. No matter how much he hated even thinking back at the Devil's Hole fiasco, it got him back in Britsprawl in the end, where he'd met Edelweiss and even got in touch with his old folks again. He was loads less depressed than he had been in Geneva. Sure, Britsprawl was at least as polluted as Geneva, but this was familiar smog.


A bit later, the van stopped in an alley close to the meeting point.
Come loaded for bears? he thought, while grabbing his Browning Ultra Power gun. I'm a freaking driver! Let the big guys handle any bears.

...bears on wheels I might be able to handle though.

A few taps on his wristphone hid the license plate, locked the doors and activated his new Cattle Prod Defence system. The gobbos had actually been so kind as to matrix-mail him the plans of the old system they'd made, and Bunny had managed to get the parts to construct it.


"Do you always drink before going to shoot people?" he heard the voice of the Shaman woman.

He stepped out of the shadows, towards the two women.
"Seems to me like the only way to pull it off." he said, sounding rather depressed.

[Desolator12]

Rush stopped to peruse the Zoo a bit... he had time. He needed to head home and grab his machine-pistol, as well as the mounting for his bike incase he needed a bit of vehicular defense. The 1000 would be nice, but he wasn't doing the run for money: He never did. If he wanted money, he'd stick around GM more and probably get some whackjob of a doctor to install a Plastic Smile on him...

After a while, he headed back to his bike and hopped on. Contrary to most riggers, he usually drove without the use of a rigger jack. Just was a bit more of a thrill than 'becoming the bike' as some rather hippy riggers coined it...

He headed to his flat and picked up the supplies he needed, changing his answering machine's message to something that would repel any and all questions without giving them contact info. He then hopped on his bike and headed out so that he would arrive just a few minutes before the appointed time for meetup, stopping to grab some ammo for his pistol and stashing it in a shielded compartment of his bike.

[Serenla]

Shotgun got to the meeting place a few moments before it was scheduled to begin, feeling very relaxed. It had been a bit of hectic ride from the zoo back to her place and then to Zone 7 since she'd lingered too long looking at the red awakened monkey. Creepy looking bastard. Still, she managed to pick up her assault rifle, which was strapped to her right leg for easiest access. For the rest, her Daisaka always cooled her down when she felt tense. There was a feeling of invincibility that accompanied driving really fast that was at odds with the heightened risk. Watch it girl, you might turn rigger yourself one of these days.

She pulled the motorcycle to a stop in front of the Bay and set the security system. Nothing too fancy, just an explosive device ready to take out anyone who tampered with the bike, but it had still cost her nearly three weeks' worth of runs. People in these parts knew what a bomb looked like and that was good enough to keep all the but the cockiest riggers from trying. And one way or the other, she'd have to buy a new ride when they tried.

She didn't see any of the other 'runners when she entered the Bay, but that was to be expected. They were probably all lurking around out back like a bunch of fragging kids waiting for a handout. A man got up from the bar and Rachel slid into his place, signalling the bartender.

"Murder a dwarf for me pops," she said when the aged bartender shambled over. He nodded and his hand darted out considerably faster than his legs to make her credstick vanish. A moment later, a squat glass of blood-red liquid slid across the counter at her. She took a swig of it and grimaced momentarily. Nasty stuff, she only drank it before a run. Make sure she was still awake. The rest of the glass went down as quickly and she ordered another. Might be a bit of fun to go into this run with alcohol running through her system.

Her watch still read a few minutes to go, so she made no move to get up. Sooner I get there, the sooner the awkward tension begins. Actually, Rachel considered for a moment, there was something to be said for awkward tensions. Kept things interesting if nothing else. She gulped down a third Murdered Dwarf and stood up a bit too quickly. There was a flash when the world turned sideways then she was moving again. A pity she didn't have a few more minutes or she could get a good start of getting decently drunk. A real pity, but this would have to do.

She flung open the back door and stepped into the dull light of the back alley. She coughed as the effect of the alcohol hit the old wound in her throat, "Hullo boys and girls..."

[AI]

Steel Rose's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. It occoured to her that maybe she'd been wrong - Afterall, if she was one of them and out to get her... Having the stench of some foul concoction on your breath was hardly the way to go about it.

Or maybe she's trying to throw me off guard.

She checked her wristphone, still a few minutes before the 'run, maybe she could at least get a name out of the slitch to check up on later. She moved in that direction, hoping that she wouldn't be left having to frag up the conversation before it even started again.

[Serenla]

She caught the expression on the rigger's face and grinned. Now that looked like a prime source of tension.

She slid out of the door and walked over to the eerie woman. The buzz she'd felt upon standing up had mostly dissipated by now and if she stayed at the doorway, she'd probably end up going back in for more to drink. "Hello Ms Rose..."

"Steel Rose, actually."

"Yes. I don't think we've been properly introduced."

"I wonder why that is."

"Yes, I feel you should know, that it was nothing personal. Me trying to kill you. I just don't really like most of you. Riggers. Don't like riggers really. You seem pretty nice for one though." Hmmm. Maybe those drinks had hit her a bit harder than she'd intended.

"Well you know my name," Steel Rose pointed out, "Courtesy would say you return the favour..."

"Shotgun," said Rachel firmly. "They call me Shotgun. Because I carry one," she confided, patting the Remington where it sat in her holster.

[AI]

She really did have to marvel at the sheer originality of some 'runners. She was sure their imagination knew no bounds. But then, she couldn't roll her eyes too hard - At least she'd found some common ground.

"Between you and me..." She said, although nothing ever seemed to stay between two people no matter how low you whispered it. "... I think you have the right idea. A vast majority of riggers deserve to be shot."

[Serenla]

"That's my philosophy. Fragging kids leave home buy some souped-up Grexxon toad squisher and think that they're the next..." she waved her arm ineffectually and failed to come up with a name. "Well you know what I mean."

"Of course," lied Steel Rose, and her eyes over at the rest of the group.

Her metabolism had largely gotten the alcohol situation under control and now Shotgun was beginning to regret coming over here. The rigger - Steel Rose, she mentally corrected - wasn't as anxious as she had been earlier at the zoo but clearly there was no love lost between the two of them. Yeah, well, you really bollocksed that one up when you pulled the gun in a fragging zoo. Rachel cleared her throat, suddenly self-conscious of her faint rasping voice. It didn't really help for first impressions, and it definitely didn't help when she was already onto her second. "So. You know any of these other people? Any idea what this run's going to be?"

[SW Freak]

"Ah, cheer up, Bunny! Have a drink." Indigo passed the bottle over to him and looked over at Snowflame with a grin. "Yeah, I usually do. Heh, looks like I'm not the only one, either, judging by our elven friend over there. I'm not so bad as some though; you should have seen Thirsty drink."

"Thirsty?"

"Oh, he's...was one of us." She looked down at the ground for a moment. "A year on and I still have to remind myself sometimes."

"What happened?"

"That's just it, we don't know. He just faded away. Still! I'm actually in a good mood today, so nothing's gonna keep me down. My name's Indigo, by the way." Her features changed as sharply as her hair. "And they call me Ms. Holmes." Again, the change. "She's the brains of the outfit. Jackson and Jackal are in here with us, but the two arn't very talkative."

Jackal? Want to say hi? Silence. Okay, but I get the feeling she likes animals...

"So, what do they call you?"

[Wesforce]

'Snowflame,' she replied, and went quiet for a second, wondering if any of them had known the other Snowflame in the FEZ all those years back. She was starting to wonder about this group, and the sanity of the Dwarf that had put it together - it seemed to be full of burnouts and psychos, and she was the only magic user. It reminded her of the old saying, "Geek the mage first". Not that she was a mage of course.

'Well Miss Indigo-Holmes, you're probably the most cybered person I've ever met...'

[Desolator12]

Rush arrived a bit early at the Bay of Bengal. He decided to purchase another soy-caf, downing the drink in similar fashion. It wasn't that he didn't drink, he just never did it before a run. He ordered another and walked over to the rest of the group.

"So, should I assume that you're all not going to try to kill eachother again?"

[Wesforce]

'That depends if...' Snowflame's words died in her throat. The end of the alley, around the corner, was being filled with pulsing blue light.

All the 'runners froze, the conversation dying prematurely. There was a crackle of police radio from off by the road.

A male voice answered it.

'Roger, have arrived at Bay of Bengal. Roberts is checking over the bike. Proceeding with investigation.'

'Be on your guard, bloke at the restaurant says that slitch has a fragging assault rifle, over.'

(GM: What's everyone going to do? The alley is a dead end, with one other van besides Steel Rose's; a delivery van for the restaurant, two electricars, and two dumpsters full of rotting rancid food. There's a back door for the restaurant (locked with a maglock), and a small ladder to the roof)

[AI]

This was a longshot, but Steel Rose assumed this wasn't part of the run. She cast her eyes around, there were several escape options, but all of them involved leaving her van behind and dashing towards some unsercure location - You ran, frenzied into the back room there were a dozen people as witnesses to you looking like a criminal. Hid inside or behind one of the dumpsters and the police caught you - Criminal.

Instead, she opted for the senisble approach - Made a dash for her van and slipped into the drivers seat, locking the doors behind her. She climbed into the back and flicked on her monitor - Watching the action through the outside cameras and laying low until the head had died down.

[Desolator12]

Rush kept calm. Ok, he had two options: One, use his fame to his advantage, or two, make a run for it... he sighed, and hoped that his years working for a corporation have rubbed off on him diplomacy-wise... besides, the majority of his options would most likely get him shot at this point, what with. He decided to take off his shades and put on a plastic smile, heading up the alley. *Here goes nothing at all I hope* he thought...

*Also hope that Shotgun doesn't do anything stupid* He added to himself...

Player Note: Anyone who would have watched a stunt show that Rush was in would recognize him as the Daer-Daemon, Daniel Crux...

[Anonomuss]

Mort's apartment opened as he approached the steel door, releasing the pneumatic locks and letting him in, as the door recognised the electronic signals that his bionic eyes were transmitting. Once inside he took off his suit and donned his black combat suit. He took apart his rifle, cleaning the bits as he unassembled them and made sure it was all working, before storing the barrel in a light-weight case, and set it back down. He retrieved his belt and holster, containing his browning, knife and plenty of ammunition for both his guns. He stowed the cred-stick in one of the pouches. He slung his rifle along with it's component parts on his back and covered them with his cloak. As he made for the door he grabbed his climbing equiptment including his grappeling hook and rappel line. He left and the door slammed shut behind him.

As he left the building he screwed the rappel attachment to his browning, taking aim at the building across the street. He fired and ran at the wall, using his momentum and the tension on the rappel line to pull himself up onto the building. He retrieved the rappel dart and moved on, running to the edge of the building and jumping across the narroww side-street and onto the next building across. With his browing holstered again, he vaulted over low railings and walls. As he ran he pulled a set of keys from his pocket. At the next gap he leapt down into the street, grabbing a ledge on the opposite building, and pulled himself inside. It was a private car-park, holding the Substantial Fromage's cars. He opened his modified Arasaka-Mitsubishi UM-7076GT, and stowed his rifle and his barrel on the floor in the back of the car. He started the ignition and pulled out of the car-park and onto the street.

As he drove his car down the motorway to the bay of bengal in zone 7, he though about what the job might entail. He knew he could probably take on bears, but he'd need to be far enough away. But he still wondered what the hell they'd be doing that would require 3 riggers....

[Wesforce]

The Cleaner's trail of thought was cut off as he drove around a curve and picked up the blue strobes of police lights. He paused a second for a speeding GM Roadgrub to drive past, and drove up to the Bay of Bengal, doing an inconspicuous drive-past.

There was a Neuwerke Neunbrecher, a common type of police patrol car, and sure enough it was in the colours of the National British Police. It was parked two-wheels on the pavement in front of the busy Indian restaurant - one officer was cautiously examining a two-wheeled motorcycle - Grey, daisaka-made, and familiar-looking - parked next to the car, while another was heading, pistol and stun-baton drawn, into the alleyway behind the restaurant.

The alley he'd been told to meet in...

[SW Freak]

"Drekk! That short arse bastard must have ratted us out!" snarled Jackson.

He looked around frantically at the others; one of the riggers had legged it straight into her van while another was walking up the alley way to greet the renties, smiling brightly. Jackson shook his head and looked around. The rooftop could be a good escape, but it had taken him months to get his bike. Asides, if the cops were investigating, there'd probably be back up waiting if everything went to hell.

Sidling over to Snowflame, ignoring Jackson's advice to ditch 'em all, Indigo beckoned the others closer, including the elf chick, and said, "We need a strategy if we're not all going to get slagged. Do we want to fight or run? We can take them, but it'll be trouble."

[Desolator12]

Daniel turned around quickly. "Let me handle this." He said, turning back around and approaching the officer, no weapons bared and acting calm.

"Hello Officer, what seems to be the problem?"

[Wesforce]

(I take it he walked around the corner, so out of sight of the others)

The cop, grizzled, middle-aged, aimed his Browing Ultra Power at the rigger.

'Up against the fraggin' wall! NOW!'

Snowflame put her finger to her lips while looking at Jackson, and took a small fetish off her sash - A small lock of fur. Holding it high in her hands, she began whispering a chant. The others made out a few words... "Spirits of nature"...

[SW Freak]

Jackson nodded, but reached under his coat and pulled the Stormbringer out just in case. He heard shouting around the corner, but no gun fire. That was good, at least. He checked the revolver's drum quickly and then looked over his shoulder at Shotgun. He raised an enquiring eyebrow and nodded to her guns.

"Load up," he mouthed to her.

[Wesforce]

The alley was becoming animated... Literally. A small whirlwind of dust and rubbish and the discarded boxes was gathering into a small cyclone. Wind plastered everyone's hair to their faces for a few seconds...

And then everyone blinked. The mound of discarded rubbish, filth, cardboard and even a couple of squeaking rats had coalesced into the form of a humanoid, standing seven feet tall. Dark, featureless, with a terrified rat where it's mouth should be.

Bizarrely, the squeaking seemed semi-intelligible to their (meta)human ears.

'What... Do you... Want...'

'Conceal us.' wheezed a noticeably fragged Snowflame. She looked drawn, and tired already.

And then, the wall behind them opened up, and drew the 'runners into it.

***

The Police Constable shoved Daniel roughly against the wall and started patting him down - He found the large machine-pistol easily.

'You got a licence for this, punk?'

[Serenla]

(OOC: Sorry, kind of a lame post, but I hadn't seen Wes' post and had to rush this off)

"My pleasure," Shotgun grinned at Jackson , and unstrapped the Remington as silently as she could from its holster. Her left hand dropped to loosen the strap on her assault rifle. She didn't really have to expect to use it against renties, but she liked to keep her options open in case things went badly. No need to check her shotgun; she always loaded and prepped it up before a run.

"Ready when you are," she mouthed back to Jackson and then she felt the whirlwind gathering. A glance at the shaman showed the woman still chanting something quietly. Frag me.

Rachel was just starting to feel that the renties might be preferable to this psycho tree-hugger when the whirlwind gained its form and spoke. Then she knew she'd rather fight with the cops.

The barrel of her shotgun raised and she took a step forward. She heard the shaman say something in a low voice behind her, and suddenly something was pulling her backwards. Pulling her with incredible strength...

[AI]

Steel Rose gazed at the monitor open mouthed. She'd seen magic before, who hadn't? A few mana-bolts here and there, fireballs - Standard tricks that were a little bit nasty, but irked people more because they didn't understand.

That, on the other hand - Was something else. She finally understood why people were afraid of magic, as a chill ran down her spine.

Suddenly they were gone.

Frag, frag, frag! She thought, what was she going to do now?! They couldn't be far away... The other side of the wall maybe? Either way, she decided to lay low and look for them later. She wondered where the thrill seeking urchin had got too though, and flicked through the channels monitoring the back and side cams. Nothing. Must be out of range, or the peelers had dragged him away...

Good... She thought. But it doesn't really help me outta here...

[SW Freak]

Jackson stiffled a swear as he was sucked backwards. He hated the tug of magical travel, and he had only ever felt it once before, and that had been with those fragging mermaids. This one was worse though, for two reasons. First, he was travelling backwards. At least back at the rig he had been able to see where he was going even if he had no control over it. Second, and probably the creepiest, was that when he came to a halt he was inside the fragging wall. All he could see directly in front of him was the brickwork, claustraphobically close.

When he turned his head, he found it felt more like a tunnel. He could see the others to either side and hear the sounds of the restaurant floating in through the wall at his back. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Jackson peeled the patch off his cyber eye and placed it on his real one. Thermal vision revealed the alley as it had been, this time devoid of life except for the rigger in her van and painted all in shades of blue and orange.

Empty. How long do we have to wait?

Not too long, hopefully. I don't have eyes on the young pup, though, replied Indie. They'll check here once they're done with him. Suppose these are the bears Johnson was talking about?

[Desolator12]

"Yes I do officer." Daniel replied. "My wallet is in my left pants pocket. I keep that as well as my identification in there. There is also a small sheath on my waist that has a Knife Pistol, type 89 if I remember. The license is also in my wallet."

Things weren't going according to plan... he could try one other thing.

"I'm here on corporate business."

[Wesforce]

The peeler grunted and retrieved Daniel's wallet, and from that, his credstick, which he slotted into a small reader on his belt.

'So you have... oh... Oh sorry Mister Crux.' said the cop, suddenly releasing his suspect. Daniel turned around to face him.

'Well bugger me, it is you. Y'know, that riding suit adds 20 pounds on you. Here,' - he fished out his standard issue police note-comp. On it was scribbled in digital pen: 'Bunch of Orks under the '7 overpass. Score 'em for some Beetle, tuesday'. 'Can I have your autograph? For me boy, like.'

[Desolator12]

Daniel smiles and nodded. "Sure thing." He said. The cop handed him a pen and he signed it in his usual fashion... maybe things would turn out for the better.

"Anything else I can help you with Officer?"

[Wesforce]

'Nah mate, but you might wanna make yerself a bit scarce - There's some crazy Elf slitch around 'ere with an assault rifle. Ain't seen 'er 'ave ya?'

[Desolator12]

Daniel chuckled. "I knew someone would see her with that gun... she's crazy in the fact that she insists on showing the thing the entire time, but she's not about to go on some killing spree... at least not while she's on my payroll..."

Daniel started forming two ideas in his head that actually were one, but would split off at a later date. "My boss gave me a bit of leeway with a new upcoming stunt.... now, it's still in development, but I have a feeling that it'll get through and it'll be a real crowd-pleaser... basically, we get some orcs and give them some guns... with installed security measures to prevent aiming at the crowd. They spray bullets right in front of where I need to land: essentially a meat grinder. My job is to make sure those orcs go home with empty clips and no blood on the arena. Maybe I'll roll my bike to avoid the spray, maybe I'll ditch the bike midair and land with a screaching halt on my knees, who knows? Every night I'd throw something different at the audience... now, how does this relate to the elf chick? I heard from a friend of mine that she knew her weapons, and I needed some information from someone who wouldn't give me those boring specs like bullets per second or recoil percentiles... y'know, the techys. We set up a meeting here, she apparently got a bit to smug and wore her weapons like they were some sorta jewelry... Nobody was hurt, though I'm sure someone stained their drawers, and as long as she's being paid by me, well, the contract I have specifically states that she's to not to aim a weapon at anyone. I haven't finished talking with her, and I don't want to disappoint anyone, some man on the street, your son, or you, with a sub-par stunt."

[Wesforce]

'I see sir. Would you lead me to her, so we can, uh, speak to her in person?'

[Desolator12]

Daniel nods. "If I might make a request though, I'd rather like her unharmed and back in my posession after the talk... with her knowledge, she could become a valued asset to GM"

[Wesforce]

The cop rubbed his chin, visibly deciding whether following this lead up is worth butting heads with the fragging corps or not.

In the end, he relented.

'Well sir, I'm sure its no trouble. We'll leave 'er be this time, but ah, please keep all assault weapons concealed in future.'

He walked off to the front of the restaurant, Shotgun's 'cycle waited, locked in place with a system-disabler for being parked in an unauthorised zone and not having road tax.

'Good luck with your stunt!' the cop called back over his shoulder.

[Desolator12]

"Thank you officer." He responded, smiling inwardly. He turned around and headed back into the alley... nobody was there. He looked back to the enterance to the alley, and waited to make sure that the cop wasn't going to come back and ask him to sign something else. When that failed to happen, and he saw the police van and other vehicles leave, he said, in a low enough voice, "Alright, coast is clear guys..."

[Wesforce]

Snowflame let the spirit stop using its power of concealment, and all of them were once again in the alley.

She sagged to her knees in front of the astral life form, which squeaked once before collapsing into a pile of garbage and rats, which scampered for safety. The spirit would be with her until dawn, or until she left its domain - the domain of city.

A harsh, raping clap assailed her ears, and everyone turned to the restaurant door, which had just opened.

The Dwarf stepped out, wearing an immaculate black suit, defaced with a blob of vindaloo. He didn't seem to have noticed it, but then his suit was probably self-cleaning anyway.

'Wait, you were in there all along?' gasped Snowflame.

'Sure I fraggin' was. I called you here for a reason y'know, and not just because Mister Khan is friendly to my line of business if y'know what I mean. And bra-fragging-vo, you bunch of drekheads, you managed to make it to the meet without causing a street war. I'm proud of ya. Hm, looks like we're missing a couple. Well, I sensed Steel Rose and The Cleaner here a while ago.'

The Dwarf angled his head up, looking at the surrounding rooftops.

'You can come down now mate, its info-time. But before I go on...'

He walked up to Shotgun, smiled and gave her a solid punch in the gut which doubled the tall elf over.

'That's for interruptin' my dinner!'

(GM: Anon, I think we agreed that The Cleaner had gone up onto the roofs? If not, he sees the police drive off and leave the alley)

[Desolator12]

"Woulda been less of a hassle if someone didn't like wearing their weapons like fraggin' christmas tree ornaments on their body..." Rush said, replacing his shades. "Oh, and your bike's been locked up there gungirl... not taken, but locked down."

[Wesforce]

'Hmph,' grumbled the Dwarf, 'you might be needin' that. I know a man who can help. For a price! AHEHEHO HAR.

[AI]

Seeing, very clearly, on her monitor that the coast was indeed clear (the Johnson was out there, much to her surprise, the fragface could've stopped all this with just a snap of his fingers!) and that with the obvious corporate brunt of their employer out there, the police wouldn't be bothering them again, she flicked off the monitor and flicked on the lights. She then pulled a tarpin from over one of her drones, control deck in hand. She programed it to circle the area directly above the 'runner meet, before throwing open the back doors of her van and carefully placing it just outside.

It flew, although not conventionally. The take off was rather shaky, but once it got off the ground, it was away. As much as she'd like a jet drone, she had to admit there was a simple beauty to the rotor driven models...

"I'm here." She told the dwarf, closing her van up and locking it once more. She saw some of the others eyeing the drone as it went up, attention seemed to be divded between the keeled over elf (she was surprised the punch wasn't punctuated by audible, manic laughter) and her drone.

"Insurance." She explained. "I don't want any more unexpected guests turning up."

[Serenla]

"Yeah, we wouldn't you to have to run and hide again," Shotgun coughed. Fragging dwarf was stronger than he looked.

"Maybe she wouldn't have to if you kept a bit lower profile," quipped Rush.

"Such a pity not all of us have fanclubs to bail us out of trouble, pretty boy."

"Ah-hehe-har! You may not have noticed lass, but you're the one got us into bit of trouble."

"Next time I'll just hide the damn thing in my boots then, shall I? Frag you Johnson." She strapped her shotgun back into its holster, the threat being gone and stalked off into the alley. There wasn't actually anywhere to go; not if she wanted to stick with this job but she needed a bit of air from the rest of these fraggers.

A pity the troll wasn't here yet. They might not be the brightest of 'runners but at least trolls kept things simple and were pretty damn easy to work with. Knew how to do their job and knew how to fight and that's all she really asked for anymore. Grud, she could use a drink.

[Desolator12]

Rush shook his head... god, Shotgun was gonna be a handful...

"So, now that we've got that out of the way, and the majority of you all know who I am now, think we can get this meeting underway before my 'fan club' decides to hunt me down and screw this pooch of a run?"

[Wesforce]

'And don't call me Johnson, pet,' the Dwarf rasped at Shotgun's retreating back.

'Actually, I don't know who you are,' Snowflame corrected Rush.

'You,' the Dwarf singled out Snowflame, 'are you going to be any good after that?'

The shaman stood up and composed herself.

'I'm fine.'

'Good, because we'll need your fragging magic. Not that I really care for your breed's poncey nature-lovin' methods. Get your drek together. Keep that spirit handy though, it might come in useful. The rest of you had better start thinking and working like a team: I don't need to tell you that I won't cover for you if you get hauled in.'

[Nyerguds]

Bunny hadn't said much. He wasn't much good in dangerous situations, except if he was inside a vehicle. And he didn't like the way the dwarf was talking. Most Johnsons at least had the decency of being professional, and to actually let people call them 'Johnson'.

"Look," he said. "We can't work as a team if we don't have a drekking clue what we're teaming up for in the first place. There's not much teamwork involved in waiting for a contact to show up, especially in my case."

He walked to the front of the group, and looked at the Dwarf.

"I'm a rigger, ok? If I get hired, I wanna get hired as a rigger, not as a goon with a gun. I'm no good in the 'goon with a gun' department; telling me to come 'loaded for bears' means frag to me. So if you don't mind, I'd very much appreciate if it you'd tell us what the drek we're actually here for."

[VO]

Mr Grin slammed his fist into the horn and accidentally activated the stereo system. He swore, and yanked it out of it's socket, cutting the Tyme4Cryme track that had just started playing. The roads were packed tonight - full of rent-a-cops too - and a steady tailback had developed near the Bay of Bengal. He'd had enough. Billiam took the car down a side street, parked it outside a grimy-windowed hairdressers, and got out to walk. His shotgun was stashed under the main seat along with one of his axes. The other was just about concealable inside his jacket, if he kept it partly done up.

He jogged down the street; it wasn't far to the place, and he was late. There were police vehicles parked outside the restaurant - not a good sign, he thought, so he slowed down. As he approached the first of the cars began to draw away - typical - and the traffic started to clear up as people stopped slowing down to see what the cops were up to. Billiam swore again, and hurried to the rendezvous.

[Wesforce]

'Well mister fraggin' bigshot rigger Mayfare, if you're such a drek hot rigger, you might want to get some decent wheels. People might stop treating you like a fraggin' taxi if you have anything worth riding into a fight. As for what you're doing - you'll sit right fraggin' there and wait 'til you're told!'

And then the Minotaur entered the Alley. Huge, heavily-armed, grinning nicely. The Dwarf cheered up considerably at his presence.

'Mister Grin, good to see you.' said the Dwarf, 'Might have to ask you to smackpunch these fraggers into line in a minute. Especially these fraggin' Elves!'

He nodded at the Minotaur's gear.

'Hope you brought the big stuff.'

[Desolator12]

"S'why I said 'majority'... look, I already broke a few rules I made for myself." Rush said. "Just call me Rush."

"And I have to agree with the other rigger." Rush said. "We need to know what we're getting into so that we can figure out what each of us is gonna wind up doing. I'm a rigger myself, with a few shinee toys to help defend my own ass and possibly someone else's"

[AI]

She couldn't help but glare at the so-called 'rigger' in disbelief. It was true, most riggers weren't good in a straight up fight - She knew she wasn't, and she knew that she'd be looking after number one - And hiding again if need be. But she wouldn't say it to Johnson's face. Hell, to actually whine about it?! To a his face?! What the frag was he on?!

She had to smile at the Johnson's reply though, she liked him already.

"Give the man a fragging break, will you." She glared at the other rigger, as he jumped on the bandwagon. "Your impatience is frankly giving the decent rigger here a bad name."

She then turned to Johnson.

"If we can't call you Johnson... What are we supposed to call you?" She asked, as she didn't think Mr. Dwarf would cut it.

[VO]

Mr Grin looked down at the Johnson and then around at the rest of the group.

"I've got the big guns somewhere safe, but they're ready when we get down to business. Now which particular elf were you talking about?"

[Nyerguds]

Bunny didn't reply. He knew better than to piss off a potential employer. So, the dwarf wanted to be a drekhead... well fragging good for him. Whatever.

Grudd, this'd better be worth it... Bunny thought. I can't wait for the 'run to start, so we're rid of him for a while.

He calmed down a bit, and put on his poker face.

I sure hope he isn't coming along...

[Wesforce]

'Jovis fraggin' wept!' the Dwarf glared at Rush, 'I'm getting to it! Bear in mind I told you to come heavily armed, you little runt,' - Some of the 'runners had to stifle a giggle at that, coming from a Dwarf - 'And you jander along with that little ten-mil peashooter? Lucky for you I brought some proper guns!'

'And so did Mister Grin here. Good man. Er, Minotaur. Now, Shotgun over there thought it might be fun to carry an arsenal into the restaurant - drove the missus bleedin' spare it did - so watch her.'

'Now you, miss,' the red-faced halfer turned his boiled-egg-like eyes on Steel Rose, 'the name is simple. You call me Boss!.'

'Any other stoopid questions before we get started?'

[AI]

"Ready when you are..." She smiled, unable to stop herself. She realised he was as angry at her as everyone else, but it was so funny - Seeing the little stumper blowing his top and cutting down the big bad humes as he was. "... Boss."

[Desolator12]

"I could probably list a few, but frankly, I want to get this damned thing started." Rush said. It wasn't that he was impatient, he just had lost the buzz of handling the cops. He also wasn't that phased at being called little. Frankly, he didn't care. As long as he wasn't called 'Corp Scum' or something similar, he was fine.

[Wesforce]

'Alright then. YO HO HEE HAR.'

He dropped his voice - as if he hadn't just been blowing his top like a cartoon cowboy.

'There's a road-hauler coming in from the Northern Wild lands - some super-secret corp enclave up in what we used to call the Yorkshire moors. It hits the outskirts of Britsprawl from the M1 motorway in one hour and a half - that'll give you time to get yourselves in postion - because this truck never reaches where it's headed, got it?'

He handed out chips and hardcopies, showing a map of Northern Britsprawl and the southern edge of the wild lands, with the truck's route mapped. There were also pics of the truck, a squat, oliive drab thing with a slit for a windscreen and rigger mods.

'Its a General Metro-OSHKOSH 8-wheeler - same type the fraggin' CAS army uses for heavy transport, carrying a soft tanker body. Whats in the tanker I don't know - and don't care. Its not explosive, if that's what you're thinking, that much I do know - I just want it destroyed. The driver's a rigger - used to be a prime 'runner in his day. He might have his old 'runner mates along - so watch out. With me so far? Ah HEE HEE.'

[Nyerguds]

"I'm in." Bunny said. A road run... this was started to sound quite interesting after all.

[AI]

"Sounds easy enough." She shrugged. They always did, until you actually got down to fragging doing them. "I assume there's a full list of rigger mods, and the drivers history as a 'runner on the chips though? I don't like surprises."

[VO]

"Awesome," grinned Mr Grin. "Although we're going to need something pretty heavy to punch holes in one of those things."

[Wesforce]

'I'm willing to pay you all £8,000 on completion, maybe with a bit of a bonus if the bastard has friends, and more so if you can do it all away from public eyes. Try not to bag any Joe X Publics. Double for Cops - unless its them Cyber bastards, aye?'

'Aye, all on the chips Miss Rose. Mister Grin, I'm sure your hardware and The Cleaners should be enough to do 'em in. I can't authorise any anti-tank weapons if that's what you mean, but I do have a small quantity of C12 explosive if anyone knows how to use the stuff.'

[Desolator12]

"Sounds like it ought to be a cakewalk... less of one if he has his old runner friends." Rush said. "So we rip the vehicle and frag the driver and any accomplices?"

[AI]

"That's Steel Rose, Mr. Johnson." She testily corrected the dwarf.

[Wesforce]

'Aye,' said the Dwarf, nodding soberly.

Looks like I'm 'magic support' again, thought Snowflame, with a sigh.

'You'll be a fraggin' tinfoil rose if you don't keep yer trap shut!'

[VO]

"C12? Can't be that hard to use," said Mr Grin. Anything that went boom was good with him.

[SW Freak]

"I can handle the explosives," said Indigo with a smile, ignoring Jackson's annoyance at the fact that they'd be working as a team. "Provided I have some cover, I can get that thing blown wide open."

[Nyerguds]

"Just one question..." Bunny said. "You mentioned the importance of miss Snowflame's magical skills. Does that mean there's a big chance some of these 'runners we're up against are mages too?"

[AI]

She actually prefered Tinfoil Rose to just plain Rose, but she kept her mouth shut regardless. She had made her point, and hopefully the rest of the team got the message - Familiarity breeds trust, trust breeds complacency and complacency puts a fragging knife in your back when you least expected it.

[Wesforce]

'Aye son, count on it.' The Dwarf said to Bunny. 'Always count on it. And remember the number one golden rule.'

'Frag the mage first!'

'So, Mister Rush, I have a light machinegun with a vehicular mount that should fit onto that Beastie of yours. I'll lend it to you - but I want it back without a fraggin' scratch! Don't bolt it on until you're out of the public eye, or at least ready to run for it. Its in the van there' - he indicated the restaurant's delivery van, which he aimed a key-fob at. 'which is unlocked now. So then, I'll give you all my number, and frag off. Let me know when its done, and take some snaps. Be seeing you...'

And the Dwarf made to head back into the restaurant to finish his meal.

[SW Freak]

"I hear that..." muttered Jackson. "So, do you want the rigger as dead as the truck?"

[AI]

"How many times do you want it fragging repeated?" She sighed, getting fed up with her so called comrades inability to listen. "Once for every personality? We'll be here all fragging night!"

[Wesforce]

'Do what you like with the fragger. Let him go, kill him... I dunno, eat him. I know I'm hungry. Good night.'

Then the door closed.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny couldn't help but smile. Snowflame looked slightly irritated though.

"Hey, don't worry." Bunny said. "You're probably going to end up saving our collective arses in the Astral plane, so I'm sure gonna try to keep you alive."

In fact, Bunny suddenly wished they had more mages. He'd seen people convulsing and dying without any visible reason before, and he sure didn't want to end up like that.

[Desolator12]

"Ok, we're going to need someone to get up front quick and pump the cabin full of...well... whatever kinda ammo we're gonna be using... maybe two people, one to floor it and handle the road, the other to heft the gun. Someone will need to make sure that they don't have anything living that can shoot back, and we've got someone to frag anyone who decides to fire back with magic..."

[SW Freak]

"So...it'd probably be best if we travelled individually. A big group of weirdies like us would likely be noticed. We need to figure out a strategy too. We'll have to stop the truck so we can slag it. Once it's dead on the road, I can plant the C12; I presume our gravious employer left it in the van. Do you mind if I do the explodin', big guy?"

[AI]

"Don't you think it would be better to look at the route first?" She raised an eyebrow. "Or at least get somewhere warmer and more sercure than this damned back alley to plan things out properly."

[Wesforce]

'First of all we'll need to work out where we want to do this,' Snowflame put forth, 'While the truck's going through the wild lands, on the skyroad, or in the city, nearing its destination?'

(GM: I can't upload the map yet, but it shows a fairly straight line from the dying forest through on a skyroad, then into the tangled inner-city)

[SW Freak]

"Thank you, Ms. Obvious. Of course we need to meet up somewhere. Did you have someplace in mind? Your place, maybe?"

Indie looked at the map, frowning, and pointed, twisting her wrist so's the others could see the reader's screen.

"How about here? We get some cover from the trees, and we can drop a couple to use as roadblocks for the truck. That is, if they'll even stop the damn thing..."

[AI]

"Most certaintly not." She snapped back, she didn't want to have a trail or runners leading back to her. "As for where to do it - The more isolated the better. Subtly hasn't really proven to be this teams strong point so far, so there's no fragging way we're going to be able to do this on the sky roads."

[Nyerguds]

Bunny looked at the assorted group. "Uh, let's start with the beginning, shall we? What do we actually have in terms of armament and vehicles?"

[SW Freak]

"Jovus...you mean we agree on something, Rose? Yeah, like I said, that forest should do."

Looking at Bunny, Indie said "I've got my Stormbringer and a cybertronic SMG, and a shotgun I'll need to put together. Nothing big enough to bust that damn thing."

[AI]

"Steel Rose." She corrected, automatically. "As for equiptment, I don't have much of offensive use - My wheeler drone would be very lucky to even scruff the tyres of that beast, but I can keep an eye on it from the skies and I'm sure somebody else can think of a way of imobilising it that doesn't involve blowing it, and a sizable section of the road, into little pieces."

[SW Freak]

"It's wildland road! Who the frag's gonna care? Look, you know vehicles; d'you reckon we could stop it by dropping a couple of trees in front of it?"

[AI]

"Maybe..." She mused. She wasn't really all the knowledgeable on vehicles, but she didn't want to admit that. "I have an expert I can phone up and ask - But it's only a truck, right? A big fragging tree should be able to stop it I guess..."

On behalf of GM: Truck looks like this fragger 'ere!

[Wesforce]

'I have my barrier spells, yet... I don't think they alone could stop it, only slow it down. I could also freeze over the road and hope it crashes. Nevertheless, I agree we should stop it at the wildlands.' was Snowflame's contribution.

If I hadn't summoned a city spirit, I could have summoned a woodland spirit to help, she lamented.

[SW Freak]

"Should?" repeated Jackson. "Yeah, except this thing is army surplus transport, or something, right? That means it's tough. I've seen stuff similar to that truck that took a rocket and kept on rolling. I'm telling you, the C12's the only way. If one of us gets in close and plants it between the cab and the trailer, then you're guaranteed to at least frag the trailer and hopefully crack open the cabin. Mind you, if I'm going to be focusing on setting the primer, I can't be driving, and if he has back up I won't have time to stop...Hey, bike boy! You up for an explosive stunt?"

[VO]

"You think a tree is gonna stop that thing?" said Mr Grin. His eyes lit up. "'sides, the only roads that's gonna take things that big are gonna be full of civilian traffic. We got a flyin' thing - how 'bout dropping the skitzo here ontop from the air?"

[Desolator12]

Rush grinned. "I had something like that in mind..." he said in response to Jackson.

[AI]

"My drones wouldn't take the weight of an entire person!" She said aghast. "Unless somebody has a tilt-wing or an Aerodyne there's no chance!"

[Serenla]

Shotgun decided this might be a good time to rejoin the conversation, unless she wanted to be cheated out of her pay, and that was definitely not an option.

"If you can send up one of your drones while moving, would they be able to support a person's weight for a short time? If we could toss someone at the truck the might be able to slow it down or pull over."

She smiled sweetly at the other runners. "Of course someone would have to get me there since my ride is locked down."

[Wesforce]

'Hmm, good ideas, but I hope whoever's taking that C12 knows what to do with it,' Snowflame pointed out. She'd had experience how tricky explosives could be, and tended to avoid them. 'I'd still prefer to take it off the road first.'

She looked at the holopic of the rigger, driver. Hazard Stripe. He seemed to be some kind of military fetishist. She wondered if Konrad Thorskills might have him on the books...

[AI]

"No, no. It's far too delicate and unpredictable to take a persons weight for even a short amount of time. The only way you'd be going if you tried is straight down." She pondered her own options. Maybe her other flying drone would have the fire power to take out a wheel, maybe not. "Excuse me a moment."

She left the other 'runners to it, stepping away from them towards her van. She dialed a number into her wristphone and soon the face of her boyfriend appeared on the tiny screen.

"Listen, sweetie..." She said, cutting him off before he could call her 'Rose'. "I have a couple of files I'm going to send you, and I have two questions I need you to answer. One, what's the best way of stopping this fragging truck and two, do you know anything about the fragger driving it? I'm not very keen on having half our team getting themselves killed because it turned right around when it saw a fragging tree in the road..."

[Anonomuss]

Mort dropped down from the rooftop, not being noticed by anyone as they were briefed by Mr. Johnson. They began to talk about how best to crack open the truck. He thought about it quietly to himself, tring to think of some way to crack the truck, while doing enough to earn the pay offered.

He walked into the conversation, appearing beside Jackson, causing him to cry 'Jovis!' and reach for his pistol, before he saw who it was, muttered 'Where you been 'till now' and holstered it. 'I'm fairly certain i could take out it's wheels. Given enough time and ample line of sight.' Mort said, not bothering to reply to Jackson.

[Wesforce]

'Hmm. Hazard Stripe... Heard of him. He loves army trucks and gear and often does high-risk courier runs north and south. He's pretty fraggin' hot, mentalist on wheels yeah? Used to 'run with a wiz fraggin' team... Can't remember the name. I'll dig it up. Nice truck. Stopping it? I've no idea. Looks wiz though... Any idea where I can get one? Hope its Electric or Hydrogen-powered...' said the rigger on the other end of the wristphone, a confused, laconic tumble of words - like he was salivating, not thinking what he was saying.

'Diesel.' replied Steel Rose, brusquely.

'Oh, well frag it. Take out the wheels, or if its going fast, make it lose traction. Oil, Ice, caltrops, maybe even try Zapping the rigger with a vehicle tazer. I think I could knock one up... If you promised to take me out for dinner afterwards?'

He winked, but he looked more, pathetically, pleading.

[AI]

"Hm... I don't suppose you like Indian, do you?"

"Indian?" He said, baffled.

"Nevermind, if you can knock it up in an hour and it actually works, it's a date." She winked. "See you soon."

She hung up and returned to the others, conveying her freshly gathered intel to them as breifly as possible.

"What do you think? Worth a go?"

[SW Freak]

"Yeah, but time might be a problem...Hmm...Racer boy, if I primed the C12 for, say, thirty seconds, d'you think you could get it planted and get away? I figure it you can get it in the wheel hub it'd be enough to blast the tire. Once it's stopped we could move in and I can plant the rest of the C12 on the tanker itself. Just as a back up," she said to Steel Rose, sounding civil once more. Jackson and the rigger rubbed sparks off each other, but Indigo didn't mind her as much.

[Wesforce]

'No offence Jackson, but I don't think I'd trust you with that C12,' Snowflame said. As yet no-one had opened the van. Hesistating a moment, Snowflame did.

There were two IWS SA80A4 rifles and several clips of explosive ammunition - new updated guns, but very basic, being orignally designed almost 80 years ago. There were several clips of explosive ammunition for each. There was the machinegun adapted for vehicle mounting with 200 rounds of belted ammunition - all in pieces. It'd need a tech to assemble.

And there was the C12 - chalky white putty in a one kilo square block, with a timer and a radio detonator. It looked so innocuous...

[AI]

"Can we please... Stop with the C12 already. You're not going to be able to immobilise a speeding vehicle with explosives and expect to come out alive - He'll see you coming, he'll have cameras and sensors on every side of the vehicle and he will run you down before you even get close."

[SW Freak]

"Fraggin' fine," muttered Indigo, disapointed.

Just 'cause I have no prior experience, too, she thought, wandering over to the van.

She smiled as she saw the two rifles. She picked one up, examining it with the skill of an enthusiast. Half the clips went into her pocket and the gun itself was slung over her shoulder. She looked at the troll.

"The other's yours, if you want it. I should think you've got enough guns, missy," she continued flippantly, nodding to Shotgun. "Will we take this van with us or just clear it out? Huh?"

She slapped her pocket as her vidphone vibrated against her leg. She pulled it out and flicked it open, grimacing as she saw who the message was from.

"Drekking drekk!" she said as she read the short, sharp message.

The others stared as Indigo returned her phone to her pocket, spat into her empty beer bottle and gave the inside a wipe with a rag from her pocket, which she stuffed back into her pocket. She looked up, meeting their gaze, and shrugged.

"What? I...I collect them, okay."

"Beer bottles?"

"Yeah! You got something to say about it?" she asked, as she slipped the bottle into her pocket.

[Anonomuss]

Ignoring the cyber schitzos odd beer bottle collecting habit, The cleaner began to argue his point. 'If I hit the tyres clean the truck'll probably serve, and might turn over, and would shock those inside enough to keep them out of action until we get aboard.' he said. 'Also it sounds like the tazer is going to be unreliable if it's ready on time.' the red glowing of his bionic eyes behind his glasses gave him a menacing aura, a trick he had learned when negociating with Orks and Trolls. 'Also, if it backfires, who here wants to be there, waiting for it to pass by?'

[AI]

"I agree." She said. "But we should still mount the taser up on one of the vehicles anyway, just in case something goes wrong and we need to take it down quickly."

She shrugged.

"Never hurts to have a back up plan."

[SW Freak]

"Yeah, I learned that well enough. Okay, Cleaner, we'll set up a choke point, and you can get set up a bit further on, in case we frag up. Sound good?"

[Anonomuss]

'It suits me fine, you line it up, I'll take it out.' The cleaner said, and paused, 'If you fail, of course. I wouldn't want to take any of the glory. I just want to get payed.'

[Wesforce]

'What do you mean "set up a choke point"?'

[SW Freak]

"Someplace we can hit him with the tazer and ambush any back up he may have. I don't want to get in an out and out fire fight; if we can do this quick and clean, I'm all for it."

[Nyerguds]

"I don't know if this can be of any help..." Bunny said, "but I do have an aerodyne. It's an AV-6 'air APC', so it should be able to take a beating."

[SW Freak]

"What? You're joking, right? Fragging own! We could land someone on top and bust a way in. You! Mr. Grin! Reckon you could dent that thing if you managed to get on top?"

[VO]

Mr Grin grinned. "Sure I could... but there's three problems - can the elf keep the flyer in position so I can get off again, won't the driver see us coming, and how does this plan involve the C12?"

[SW Freak]

"First off, yes he can." Indie slapped a hand on Bunny's shoulder, causing the elf to wince. "I've seen this guy drive. He's good. He might, but he'll be too busy focusing on our distraction and, well, if you really need to, you could take along some; but these dour lot don't seem to approve of the stuff! Asides, uh, we should try and take this guy alive. Someone may pay good money for him."

[Wesforce]

'"This guy", according to Steel Rose's friend, is apparently rather good,' said Snowflame, who put a hand on Steel Rose's shoulder. 'Sorry love, I was eavesdropping. Fox habit.' To Jackson and the others, she continued 'I say we try and force the truck off the road first too - we mightn't hurt innocent people that way. No sense taking risks when you don't have to.'

Changing tack thoughtfully, she went on:

'Have any of you spent any time in the Wild lands?'

She looked at Mr Grin - naturally, because he was the biggest, most imposing member of the group, physically and spiritually. How could she help but love that giant grin? He also seemed to be pretty switched on...

[SW Freak]

"Yeah, we hunted some mad midgety bastard out that way a while ago. Wasn't so bad; greased the target easy enough and didn't see another living soul for miles. By the time we were getting out of there, though, there was a bigass dust cloud on the horizon. Either it was a storm or a fraggin' huge gang, and I know which to put my money on."

Indigo looked between the mage and the Minotaur, not sure if Snowflame was even listening to her. Sure, the big guy seemed a nice enough sort, not nearly so threatening as she had expected, but maybe there was some, heh, animal attraction there too.

Get it? Animal attraction? She's a shaman?

Yeah, we get it, Indie, thanks.

[Wesforce]

'Gangs are one thing. The wildlife is another...'

She looked at her wristphone. The time was getting on.

'We've got to make our minds up. Dwarf-boy didn't account for us having to traipse back through Britsprawl to pick things up, and traffic will be pretty mental about now, so time is of the essence. I would say take a vote, but Democracy disgusts me, so here's what I'm going to do: I'll wait for The Cleaner to take his shot, or for you to try this taser. If that fails, I'm going to set up a barrier for that truck to ram into. If it survives, then I'll try freezing the road in front of it. Past that, its up to you peeps...'

She took a breath. She hated having to talk so much.

[AI]

"Alright, I'm up for that. But times ticking on and I need to get this taser if we're going to use this thing. Here's my number..." She said, handing it to The Cleaner.

He seemed to have his head screwed on tightly, and she didn't trust the shaman enough to trade contact details. She seemed sensible enough, but that was the thing with mojo-slingers - Rational one minute, firing off mana-bolts up your arse because you're a blight to mother nature, or are standing between them and a powerful 'artifact' the next.

"... Call me when you've decided where we're going to meet up. And get yourself mobile, if the taser doesn't work out we'll need you to react fast. If anybody can find out what kind of chummers this Hazard Stripe runs with, it might be helpful as well."

It was her turn to take a breath - She hated talking as much as the Shaman, but at this rate they were going to end up lining the whole fragging road with C12, blowing it up and hoping for the best. All the while whilst the Cyberman leapt from a great height into the explosion. She couldn't really bring herself to loathe the minotaur though - His grin was just so infectious.

Maybe he should be leading the team... She mused. At least we'll all go down smiling...

[VO]

"Heh," said Mr Grin. "'always thought the best plans came together as you carry them out. How 'bout we get our stuff together, meet up again, and get to fraggin'?"

He gestured to everyone but himself, Bunny, and Jackson. "You guys worry about a distraction, while we get to the business of blowin' stuff up?" He slapped Jackson on the back. Jackson winced. "Alright?"

"Right den. Where are we meeting? I got a big gun to bring."

[Wesforce]

(GM: See Infodump thread for map)

'Circle marks the spot. Seems like a decent place; far enough from the city to minimise traffic, yet close enough to reach and give us a couple of minutes before that monster arrives.'

She hoped he wasn't offended by the word "monster"...

'Before we go, we'd better swap numbers,' said Snowflame, giving hers to anyone who'd take it - though she did hesitate before offering it to Shotgun.

After that, she got on her mono and plugged her credstick key into the slot...

[Anonomuss]

The Cleaner took, the contact details from Steel Rose, wondering momentarily why the rigger was giving it to him. He looked at the present company and realised why, some wern't that stable, plus, she might think he needed transport, as none of those present had een his car. He excused himself, leaving contact details with Steel Rose, Jackson and Snow-flame. With that he was away above the roof-tops heading to where he had hidden his car.

When he reached the car, he stopped and leaned against it. From one of the pouches on his belt, he took out a small container of pills. He took two, it wouldn't serve him well to go into this job at less than 100%. He stowed his rifle back in the passenger seat of the car, wanting to keep it near him in case anything came up. He sat in the drivers seat. Time for a visit to Substantial Fromage. The car sped away, blending into the night.

The dark streets parted before his car, flashing by like a blur. He found the Fromage where he wanted him, near his weapons sockpile. 'Hey Johnny' he said, stepping out of the car, 'how's business' They walked together into the stockpile, talking about his current business and what The Cleaner needed. He left shortly after, with two boxes; of special penetration, high accuracy rounds and high explosive rounds.

[AI]

She passed on her own details to the Shaman, and then to Mr. Grin - Mainly because they both seemed to know what was going on - And then got in her van. She settled into the drivers seat and rigged in.

Moments after taking off she accessed her in-van communication system, making two calls. The first was to her boyfriend, letting him know she was on the way. She didn't ask how the taser was going, or give him time to explain before she hung up, ready or not, here she came - Because she needed to borrow something else regardless.

The second was to Fast Eddie. He answered, rather groggily.

"Look, Steel, if it's about the job..."

"I'm past that." She informed him. "I need you to check up on two people - One's a priority, the other is urgent."

"How urgent we talkin' here...?"

"Right now urgent. The priority is an elf Street Sammie called Shotgun, I want her full employment history and any details on what kind of deals she's doing now, and who with. Soon."

"Right, right and the urgent?"

"Ex-Shadow Runner called Hazard Stripe. He was a rigger, was part of a wiz team - I want to know if any of his close buddies are alive, available and in a position to give him back up. Now."

She realised she'd told the others to check this out - But really, she had a feeling she'd have to be covering her own ass a lot this 'run. So she might as well start now.

[Wesforce]

After five minutes of driving around, Steel Rose got a return call from fast Eddie - just as she pulled into her boyfriend's garage.

'Alright, since I - mostly - trust you, I'll let you pay me for this later. And pay me you will! My house decker just lifted this file from IWS Scotsprawl's database of expendable assets. Black ice like a winter road. Seems they, Zeta-Impchem, Transys and Neuwerke all use him from time to time. Here -'

The file downloaded to Steel Rose's van's built-in telecom in less than half a second.

'Not quite sure who the Hampstead Hammers are - I think they're pretty new. Unknown skils. Well-rounded: A shaman, a decker, a rigger and, I drek you not, a dancer. As for Shotgun, no news on that front. She's covered her trail pretty well. All I know about her is I have a mate who swears he used to know a girl who looked like her at a Pizza Slut one time. Probably trying to yank my crank though.'

(GM: Hazard Stripe can now be seen in the character thread ;))

[AI]

"A dancer..." No accounting for taste, she supposed. "Just keep on Shotgun's tail and let me know anything else you find. I'll be on my Shadow line, matrix mail only."

"Gotcha. That be all?"

"For now. Cheers Eddie."

"Anytime! Ciao!" He exited, hanging up.

She cut her way through the oncoming traffic rather recklessly, or going by usual Britsprawl driving standards, normally before pulling up outside her boyfriends and rigging out. She switched wristphones and sent the information she'd gathered to The Cleaner, Snowflame and Mr. Grin. Maybe it would've been a good idea to take down more phone numbers after all.

She then did something that she should have done a long fragging time ago, and replaced the finger tip she'd 'mis-placed' at the zoo. She had a whole bag full of them, as she always seemed to lose them. She then got out and entered her boyfriend's garage.

"Greenpeace!" She called, poking her head through the door. "Taser ready yet?"

[Wesforce]

The boyfriend appeared looking tired and grimy, carrying a loose clump of pieces of metal and coils of wire that Steel Rose took a while to recognise as the vehicle taser.

'Not just yet,' he said, handing her two heavy batteries, 'It'll need to be fixed up and then bolted onto whatever unlucky vehicle takes it, which means-'

He climbed into the passenger seat of the van.

'That I'm coming with you.'

His drek-eating grin made Steel Rose want to be sick.

[AI]

Urgh! Men! She cursed. Then realised that this was a reaction drummed into her brain by decades of social conditioning and what she really meant was Urgh! Metahumans!

"Get the frag out of my van!" She snarled.

"No, I'm coming with you. You never take my anywhere, and you need me."

"Fine, sit there - Just don't mind me while I load that..." She wasn't really sure what she could call it. It was a ramshackle bodge job, if she was honest with herself. "... Thing into your truck."

"Wait... What?!"

"You know how I feel about my van, and you especially know how I feel about putting it in the line of fire - So I'm borrowing your truck. Now you can sit there like the smuggest dashboard oranment in the fragging universe or you can help me load my rotor drones and Traxx into the damn thing!"

"Alright, alright!"

She ran her fingers along the side of the truck, a dirty old GM Heavy Utility Motor and Pnuematic Pick-up Seven (or just HUMPP-7) with a recent Ethanol conversation and it's original colour long lost under the layers of muck and grime. It was a six wheeler (with the seventh wheel implied by the name being you if you believed it's marketing slogan) with an extended cab and a flatbed to store a decent amount of people and objects. It also had a winch which supposedly towed cars - But she'd never actually seen it do so.

He loaded the taser and Mr. Traxx into the back, pulling the canvas cover over the top of them. She had to stop him from loading the rotors, as she figured they were just safer flying behind. She retrived her control deck, and parked her van in his garage once the truck had rolled up. She locked it up safe and sound then slipped into the passenger seat.

She felt anything but happy about this current turn of events, but then what else could she do? She wasn't sure if the other riggers on the team had fitted a vehicle taser before, and she certaintly didn't want to get her own hands dirty.

"Ready?" She asked.

[VO]

Mr Grin went home.

He opened the door to his flat, and found a pizza from last night's Combat Biker! Cup on the couch. He absentmindedly ate a cold slice while he began to unlock the padlocks on the gunbox.

The gunbox was about five feet long. It slid underneath the couch when necessary, although last night it had been a footrest, so it was in the middle of the floor. Inside was his prize posession: The Chaingun.

When Mr Grin had been a kid, he'd heard the phrase Chaingun and imagined something quite unlike the gattling weaponry carried by most conventional users of the moniker. When, after a few lucrative runs, he'd had the kind of money to buy one for himself, he'd decided to make some modifications. Much like his car, he'd pimped it out.

The 'Chaingun' now was a fairly conventional - if highly illegal - gattling gun, as made on the IWS factory line. What made it different - and produced only with the aid of a couple of goblins that Mr Grin had fallen into the company of one run - was that it had a fragging great chainsaw, half tied and half welded, underneath it.

It made him smile every time he saw it. This was a real weapon.

[Nyerguds]

As Bunny walked back to his van, the wristphone beeped. He opened the text message that appeared on it.

"Gruddammit." he mumbled to himself. "Can't the fragging bastards leave me alone already?"

He sent a signal to his van to deactivate the cattleprod security, and got into the driver's seat.

He sighed, and plugged himself in. "Home it is then..."
Normally he'd be glad to have the chance to see Edelweiss again, but the message worried him. And he generally wanted to keep his attention to the job.

***

"Hey! Home already?" Edie shouted from the kitchen as the she heard the door shut.
"Not exactly." Bunny said. "I just came to pick up some stuff. Anything new?"
"There's some letters and a package. I think it's from those genevan gobbo's you talked about."
"Hm." Bunny looked at his mail. White plastic envelopes containing transparent letters. Bills, probably. He didn't bother looking at them. He just took the package and stuffed it in his pocket.

Edelweiss walked into the room with a freshly-microwaved meal.
"Hey, Dominic, you look terrible! If the job is that bad, just don't take it. You know I make enough money."

"Don't say that, Edie. I don't want to be a burden." Bunny replied. He knew exactly where this conversation was heading...
"Oh, you pay me back on a regular basis..." she grinned. "In fact, I believe I got some time right now."

Bunny smiled. Grudd, she could be such a flirt when they were alone. But he really didn't have any time right now.

"I'm sorry. I really can't wait. But I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"You'd better." she said, and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth.

Bunny had to admit he felt a little better now. He closed the door behind him.

As he walked towards his van he suddenly thought of something. He looked at his wristphone and browsed through the list of numbers they had exchanged.

"Steel Rose?" Bunny asked. "I thought you'd probably be the best person to ask about this... should I take my van or the aerodyne?"

[AI]

"Gruddamnit..." She muttered, as her phone vibrated on her wrist. "I told Eddie to fragging well 'trix mail me..."

The face she saw was just the gut-wrentchingly sour icing on the drek cake that had been building up for the past few minutes. In truth, she hated Greenpeace's truck - Suspension was an alien word to it, and the inside was just as bad as the out. Bio-degradable food cartons and fair-trade leaflets (otherwise known as the worlds shortest joke book) scattered all over the fragging place. It hadn't been cleaned since the first time she'd seen it, and he'd only cleaned it up then to impress her.

"How the frag did you get this number?!" She spat at the elvish rigger. Seems like she was surrounded by the pointy eared bastiches...

"I thought it'd be useful so I got it off Mr. Grin before..."

"Right, look - I don't really care. Just delete it when this run is over, ok?" She shook her head, you really couldn't trust anyone these days. She looked up from him and towards her rigged in boyfriend. "Hey, Greenpeace - Whaddya reckon? Van or aerodyne?"

"One of your guys has a fragging aerodyne?!" Even through the vans speaker system, she could feel the drool begining to well up. "Fraggin' A! What does it run on and how big are we looking at? Can I drive?! Aw man, I've always wanted an airvan..."

"Take the van." She said, curtly, before hanging up. She breifly considered screening the number, but supposed she'd lose 'teamwork' points if she did.

[Wesforce]

Steel Rose, Bunny, The Cleaner and Mr Grin had gone... That left Snowflame with Shotgun, Rush and Jackson. All the 'runners with cars and vans had gone, and Shotgun's transport was gone.

That meant she'd need a ride with someone else. Understandably, Snowflame zipped off, down and out of the alley before the psycho woman could make a play for her monocycle or even ask for a lift. She didn't feel like the idea of being forced to drive at the barrel of that assault rifle either.

She headed north, nosing out through the busy traffic and hit the skyroad for the quickest northbound journey she could get. The Dwarf had planned on them all driving to ambush directly from here, so there wasn't much time for messing around.

At last finding a relatively open road, Snowflame hit the accelerator, streaking off across the skyroad.

[SW Freak]

Indigo looked between the two remaining 'runners.

"Looks like you're minus a ride, Shotgun. Hey, what say you and the biker hop into the van? That way we can transport the extra guns and all more inconspicuously, and have them if we need them. Your bike should fit into the back, too, Rush. Dunno what we're to do about yours at the moment, though," she finished, nodding to the heavily armed elf. "Either way, I'm off. I'll see you two at the rendez-vous."

As an after thought, she returned her perloined assault rifle to the back of the van. Then, with a wave to the two others, hopped on her bike and drove off. She didn't have anything that needed collecting, so she made a beeline for the ambush point, needing time to get her SPAS all put together and everything ready.

[Wesforce]

Jackson's plan had left out a vital detail:

How could they drive the van without the credstick to start the ignition?

It was a simple, sleek Neuwerke NeuSchlepper Delivery van; all streamlined panels and dark glass, in the livery of the Bay of Bengal Indian restaurant. It even looked fairly new.

Besides that and the small employee cars, it was Shotgun, Rush, the Restaurant back door and the rats...

[Serenla]

"Well I don't know about you," she said to Rush, "but I'm heading inside to call a robocab.

She took a moment to adjust her assault rifle and shotgun before realizing that there really weren't many ways she could disguise them. With a sigh of disgust, she unravelled the cloth around her cyber arm and tied it around the Mantora. It wasn't a good job but hopefully it would keep the cops from making another surprise visit.

"I'd say you're welcome to come with me," she continued, "But you're not. I'll see you at the rendezvous."

Shotgun slipped inside the restaurant again and tried to ignore a few stares. Fraggers probably thought I'd be locked up by now. That raised a new issue. Maybe they even think I took out all the cops by myself, she thought wryly.

"Vidphone," she said simply to the bartender when she sat down at the bar, and slid him another credstick. Well, this wasn't going to be cheap...

[Wesforce]

The elderly Indian man, completely unfazed by the firepower on display, handed over the small unit - Just as Shotgun noticed that there was already a line of taxis waiting outside the busy restaurant, both human and robot-driven. She hopped out the door and took the first robocab in-line, as an Ork got up from his Black London-style electricab. And shouted, waving his massive fist:

'Hey yu! Yu get my cab hey!'

'Please enter destination,' spoke the robocab-computer in a soft, female synthesized voice.

[Serenla]

"The wildlands. Outskirts of the Dead Forest." She indicated a point on the cab's miniscreen. Someone should be able to see her from there when the rest of the team arrived. She hoped, anyway. They'd have to pass by that way on their way to the run. And before they arrived, it'd give her some time to scope out the land.

"I'd appreciate it if you could hurry," she added when one of the orc cab drivers began slobbering on the window next to her. Grud, these cabbies were pushy.

"Please deposit payment," the synth voice said calmly, as if there wasn't a horde of desperate drivers practically trying to kidnap her passenger.

Fragging hell. Rachel depoisted the requisite cost - an obscene amount of money even given the thousand creds the dwarf had already paid her.

"OK. Can we leave now?" This was getting a bit creepy. Second this run was over, she was unlocking her bike if it took a week's worth of runs and sexual favours to the renties.

"Thank you for choosing Econocab," the driver chimed and the cab started moving forward slowly. One of the other cabbies leapt back cursing and hopping on one foot and the others cleared away after realizing the cab didn't care if they were in the way.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny had heard the overenthousiastic synthesized voice in the background, and knew what it meant.
"Heh." he said as he switched off the wristphone. "Boytoy trouble, eh? Slitch."

Fragging lot of help that was. But then, Bunny remembered Snowflame's warning about the wildlife. Even though he didn't want some crazy fanboy rigger hanging around his airvan, he preferred having the ability to get the frag out of there to a place where any mutated and/or awakened beast (hopefully) couldn't reach him.

Airvan it is, then he thought, as he made his way to the landing path.

***

"Oh yeah... been way too long since I took this baby for a spin." Bunny said to himself, as he plugged himself into the rigger seat. Edie would probably say that'd make two of them.

Gah. Now he was thinking about her again. Focus, Dominic.

He put on the sound dampeners, checked the fuel supply, and lifted the vehicle off the landing path. Cities were hard to get though with all the air traffic over them. On the other hand, it was quite easy to blend in, even with an ex-military vehicle. And he stayed up-to-date with the police air patrol routes. He didn't want to have to duke it out with one of their heavy tiltwings. Unfortunately, "when pigs fly" has been reality for quite a while now.

Luckily, the AV-6 was pretty small for an aerodyne. He could fly it between the buildings without getting noticed by the flying pigs.

As he got closer to the dead forest, the place started looking more desolate, as if no one dared to live close to it. Bunny once again thought about what Snowflame had said, and shivered.

He watched the map view scroll by in a corner of his mind while his airvan got closer and closer to the green spot indicated on it. He checked the time. Good. He'd be there well before their target.

[Wesforce]

After a solid hour of riding, Snowflame reached the target area. The road hereabouts was a shoddily-maintained dual carriageway - two lanes heading one way, two the other, seperated by a rust-red crash barrier, with trees on both sides.

Trees, she thought. It occurred to her she hadn't seen any trees in ages. Not that she actually liked trees or anything of the snort. Being called a 'Tree Hugger' was in fact pretty wide off the mark for her: she liked cities, her totem liked frozen arctic plains. All they really had in common was the cold - and there was a stiff breeze here, blowing through the grey husks of the trees. Not quite alive, not quite dead. Undead possibly. The breeze brought with it the stench of corruption and rot, sickly sweet decay with a hint of chemical tang. It blew from the East - from the East Anglian stinkfens, huge marshes overflowing with toxic effluent, the run-off from which was killing this forest. Zeta-Impchem, the chemicals megacorp, had a lot to answer for.

Snowflame carried on looking through the trees, but in the pitch dark, she could hardly see. She shut the light of her bike off to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, but occasional passing cars destroyed that. She moved to turn the lights back on - and as she did so a Zaibatsu Oni whooshed past, light sweeping along the treeline. As it did so, Snowflame caught movement - some grey, scabby humanoid thing.

Instinctively she drew her Ultra-Power and drew her left hand back ready for a spell.

The laser dot played over the area where the creature had been, while in ragged, breathless moments, she reached for the switch on her bike, flicked it -

The small, furry humanoid covered its eyes and ran back into the Forest.

Snowflame let out a sigh. A Knocker, or Kobold - small, subterranean creatures believed to have some kind of faerie power. The hunter in her wanted to track it down and eat it, although there wasn't the time.

Instead Snowflame turned her monobike around at the side of the road, so the light was facing down the way. Hopefully this way her colleagues wouldn't overshoot the area.

Several minutes later, Jackson and The Cleaner's vehicles arrived, followed another ten minutes after by a huge snorting truck covered in layers of filth and grime. To Snowflame's surprise, Steel Rose got out - facing three guns as she did so.

Before anyone could talk, they were distracted by a sound from the distance - the rasping blast of jet engines; some kind of air vehicle, a way off yet.

As if stirred by this, from the depths of the woods, something rustled again, breaking twigs and long grass.

'Don't be alarmed,' Snowflame warned her colleauges, 'Its not...'

A huge deafening canine howl came from the woods right in front of them. And then another...

[AI]

She sat in the passenger seat of the truck, holding herself tightly as Greenpeace rigged out. She wasn't ashamed to admit that this was the very last place she wanted to be - The wilderness always wrong footed her, she was a city girl in mind, spirit and body.

"Whoa... Never seen so many trees." Her boyfriend said somberly. "I bet this place was beautiful once... It's a shame, don't ya think?"

"Cry them a fragging river..." She spat back, uneasily. "They look like they need the fragging drink."

He was about to go off on one in reply, how she didn't understand his new attitude and how if she'd only give nature a chance she might like it. Not only was he a fragging tree hugger, he was a fragging predictable one to boot. That was when the blood curdling howl penetrated the plexiglass of the windscreen.

"Jovis! What the frag?!" He spluttered, suddenly falling out of favour with his beloved nature when it had come to tear his guts out.

"Only one way to find out." She grasped her control deck, and rigged into the already airbourne Spotter to make sure the coast was clear.

[Wesforce]

Immediately, the view shifted to Thermographic, visible light showing nothing but the arcs of light from the vehicles' headlights.

An orange rectangle shot up across the black, cold road, leaving a little fast-dissipating trail of orange from it's tyres. There were several other vehicles, cooling down after the long drive, and severl metahumans.

Past them, across a distance of blue forest... six, seven large creatures, running on all-fours, at what looked to be flat-out...

There was also a fast-approaching jet aircraft, but that wasn't her main concern right now.

[AI]

She rigged out and looked sternly at Greenpeace, who raised his eyebrows inquisitively at her.

"Listen very carefully - Roll down the window, tell the others they have a good six or seven... Things. Big things, running flat out towards our position - And they don't look like they're coming out to play. Then roll up that window, keep the doors locked and your head down and don't move for frag. Even if they're getting ripped to shreds out there, got it?"

[Nyerguds]

Gruddammit, what the frag was that? Bunny thought, as his sound sensors picked up a howl rivalling the decibels of his jet engines. He switched to IR view and looked at the source of the disturbance.

"Ooh crap." he mumbled, and made the rigger system call Jackson.

"Jackson?" the synthesized voice came though. "Bunny here, in the airvan. I'm spotting some kind of mutant werewolf critters or something like that, and they seem to be coming straight at you. I don't have weapons on this thing, but I do have spotlights. Want me to shed some light on the case?"

[Wesforce]

(Nyer beat me to this - but then it doesn't really change much)

Behind them, the window of Steel Rose's truck wound down, and an unfamiliar voice started shouting something - something that was lost to the roar of jets, now almost directly overhead.

'What'd he say?' screamed Snowflame.

Jackson was about to reply when - What could only be described as darkness upon darkness leapt out of the woods at them. They were all looking directly at the woods, with the truck's powerful lights behind them, yet all they saw was shadow - shadow flowing in front of the trees, in several huge canine forms

Snowflame fell back, absolutely terrified, almost paralysed - and released the spell she'd been holding ready, at the same haphazardly time firing a shot in the air. The bullet smacked into a tree and exploded, shearing the thin, brittle trunk in half. She'd missed - the creature pouncing for her was dead on.

THUMP

The wolf of shadow hit an invisible wall in mid-air and spun away, keening. Snowflame's spell had been a mana-barrier, a single, faintly shimmering wall of magic energy that stopped all living things.

But there was a whole pack of the things in question.

[AI]

"HOLY DREK!" She swore, as as something leapt onto the bonnet of the truck. The damned thing was near invisible to her cyber eyes, the occasional flicker here and there, but it was mainly as if a big, invisible hunk of muscle had landed. "Wind that fragging window up for frags sake!"

She'd never seen his hands move so fast in all her life as she caught a flicker of the big, ugly bastiches luminous eyes peering inside at them. Something approaching a primal fear took her by the gut and twisted until she wanted to break down and cry. Greenpeace jabbered into her ear, and she realised he wanted her to do something.

She switched drones, bringing the second rotor drone, the shooter, in lower to the ground. She swung it so it was firing from behind the truck, least she missed and shattered the windscreen, and then lined up her shot.

With a single thought, the assault rifle attached to the drone fired.

[Wesforce]

Jackson heard a metallic thump behind him, and instinctly knew one of these shadow-shrouded wolves had landed on the bonnet of Steel Rose's army truck. As well as the all-encompassing thunder of the aerodyne, there was the soft whup-whup-whup of rotors, supplanted by the metallic ripping sound of a belt-fed rifle-calibre machinegun firing on full-automatic.

Steel Rose's aim wasn't perfect, but with the drone's thermographic vision, she was able to score four or five hits. The Shadowwolf was thumped off the bonnet of the truck, and Steel Rose quickly stopped firing because her bullets were tearing up the ground by Jackson's feet.

***

Rachel was just about falling into a soft, alcohol-induced sleep in the back of that robocab - The journey had been as long and boring as the night was stressful.

Her eyes snapped open with a start - lights at the side of the road. Flashes of gunfire - and hovering, above, two rotor drones silhouetted against an AV-6 aerodyne, blasting the road with its downblast.

This had to be the place.

[Nyerguds]

Dammit, he probably can't hear me over the noise Bunny thought. He realized it would've been better if he'd kept the aerodyne hovering over the forest.

Well, here's hoping this helps...

The next moment, the road was bathing in light.

[Serenla]

"You have arrived at your destination. Thank you for driving with Econocab," droned the robot voice.

You don't say...hope I'm not late. She stepped out of the car in time to see a dark silhouette crash through the windshield. "Frag!" she yelled, pulling her shotgun out.

Something was on the hood of the car, tearing at the driver ferociously. Grud, what was it? Admittedly, her cybereyes weren't the greatest, hell, she'd added them mostly for cosmetic effect, but even with their added benefits she could see a faint outline.

"An additional fee has been added due to...vehicular damage, to a total of..." The synth voice died as the thing mauled the driver in pieces.

"Frag!" yelled Rachel and pumped her shotgun, firing a round at the shadowy thing. It leapt off the hood of the car and vanished into the darkness. Shotgun glanced around cautiously, but she saw no sign of the thing. Had she even hit it?

The thing howled from the other side of the car and she backed away, trying to put some room between herself and the wrecked vehicle. The lights were still on in the vehicle's interior and cast a small circle of visibility around. Yellow eyes peered out of the gloom for a moment and she squeezed off another shot.

"This is not good..."

[SW Freak]

"Jovis!" yelled Jackson as his eyes were forced to quickly adjust to the light. "Shotgun! Get the frag over here! Regroup! Re-"

He was cut off as one of the things lept for him. His Stormbreaker boomed, Jackson pumping two bullets at the thing as quickly as possible. Then he darted aside as he crashed down beside him. Without checking to see if it was dead, he administered a steel-toecapped kick to where he thought the things head was and turned away. Two more shots hissed into the darkness, though Jackson couldn't be sure he had hit anything. Flicking the release with his thumb, he swung the barrel down with a wrist motion. The spent ammo flew out. Jackson jammed a speed loading cartridge into it and flicked it back up.

"Is it just me," he began, lacing off another shot as he pulled his coat open and drew his machine gun. "Or do these things hate the fraggin' light?" He rattled off a few shots with the SMG as another of the wolves approached. "We have to stay close, can't let the fraggers," Another Stormbreaker round hit something. "Get in amongst us. Back to back, circle up. Cover all sides." He spoke breathlessly, quickly, firing at the darkness.

[Serenla]

Rachel darted back towards the sound of Jackson's voice. More specifically, towards the sound of mass gunfire. She could hear the sounds of the things all around now in between the gunfire. It was a good thing the others had gotten here early too. If she'd had to fight all these things alone...

Yellow eyes flashed again briefly but she held her fire. At this rate, none of them would have any ammo left by the time the damn target got here. The next time she fired, she was going to make damn sure she hit something.

And then she was back in with the group. "Hi Jackson," she said as she backpedaled by him to take up a defensive position. "I almost thought you'd started without me."

[VO]

Mr Grin pulled up on the roadside verge. There was gunfire. There were chaotic flashing lights. A quick scan with his nightvision eyes picked up a couple of his teammates, and several more ravenous wolves. He smiled. They looked like good things to kill.

Mr Grin opened the door of his car. He took the gun off the back seat, slung it's strap over his shoulder. He pulled the ripcord.

Over the sound of gunfire, of yelping and howling, came the tone of a chainsaw whirring to life.

[Wesforce]

The Shadowwolf growled, bucking and snarling and trying to get at her, thwarted by the faintly shimmering barrier between them, white flecks of foam dripping from it's jaws. It smelt of death; carrion and rot, and seemed to shift from spot to spot instead of walking on it's paws.

But the manabarrier puzzled it. Snowflame knew that, as an awakened creature, the Shadowwolf was dual-natured - able to sense both the physical and astral plane simultaneously, so it would eventually work it's way around the barrier.

But a manabarrier had no effect on non-living, physical things, like bullets.

Snowflame brought up her Ultra-Power and depressed the trigger, three, four times. Each shot sent a tremelo of pain up her arm, grounding into her shoulder. She gritted her teeth with the pain, splashed with thick clotted blood as the 10mm rounds thudded into dark flesh, and exploded.

The creature dropped to the floor, as Snowflame rose to one knee, gunfire erupting all around her, the forest now filled with incandescent light.

There were only two of the Wolves left now, wounded ones at that. Two were definitely dead, and three were thrashing around on the ground, in abject pain.

They turned, keening, and limped back for the cover of the night.

[Serenla]

"Well that was a good bit of fun," mused Rachel as she slipped several new shells into her Remington. "We'd best hope that that this Stripe fellow wasn't in the area though or he'd have heard this noise a mile off. And speaking of the devil, shouldn't he be arriving soon?"

[Nyerguds]

"Jovis." Bunny said, as he set down the airvan at the side of the road. A few rotten trees standing in the way were blown away by the aerodyne's thrusters.

He unplugged, and stepped out of the airvan.

"Hey, guys. How long do we have before the target arrives?"

[Wesforce]

'Fifteen minutes,' said Snowflame, gathering her breath and dusting herself off. 'Fragging bastards.'

She shot the nearest wounded Shadowwolf by her feet, blasting its brains all over the dessicated grass and cracked mud.

'We'd better get over to the other side of the road and get in position.'

[Nyerguds]

"No problem." Bunny said. "Just tell me what to do."

[Wesforce]

Steel Rose's spotter drone beeped, and brought itself to her attention.

Theromographic scope had picked up a large vehicle, 6-wheeled, heading southbound at speed.

[AI]

"Hey!" Oh God. Her boyfriend practically leapt out the truck, marched over and took Bunny forcefully by the hand. "So this is the aerodyne, right? Man, she looks in pretty good condition..."

"We have the vehicle taser in the back." She leaned out the truck window and called across to them. "This is Greenpeace..."

"Um, Greenleaf actually..."

"... He's here to fit it to whatever vehicle we decide to bolt it onto. In the meantime, I'm going to keep an eye on the road and watch for the truck, in case it decides to take any unexpected detours."

Her head vanished back inside and and back to her control deck. She fed a picture of the truck and it's route into it, and commanded the Spotter to keep an eye out for it and let her know when it reached a certain point, or if it diverged off this route. As an after thought, she also told it to alert her to any vehicle within a set number of miles behind it, just to make sure it had no surprises following behind.

Beep

"Frag. That was quick."

[Serenla]

"Well good luck to you guys then," said Shotgun, "But I have to say: I'm sorta hoping you frag it up. I have an urge to kill something that wolves don't even begin to cover." She kicked one of the corpses at her feet.

"So I guess I'll ride with Steel Rose here, unless she has any objections..."

"I do."

"...in which case I'll ride with Mr Grin." She gave the troll a friendly pat on the shoulder. Jovis. She wasn't used to having to look up at people like this. "Maybe he can show me how to get myself a weapon like that chaingun." She gave the gun a loving look. Hell, she'd looked at guns like that when she was shopping around but most of them weighed near as much as she did. Still, to be able to carry that into a gunfight...she lost her train of thought for a moment.

"Unless of course, he has any objections too." If he did, Mr Grin didn't seem to be voicing them quite yet.

[Nyerguds]

"Frag! Greenpeace, get that tazer on here!" Bunny yelled.
He pointed at a round gap in the front of the airvan, with a small mechanical arm coming out. "This used to be a gun emplacement, so I got rigger control over anything you bolt onto it. If you got that tazer ready, we can install it on there in no time."

[Wesforce]

'Why does everyone call me that?' Greenleaf grumbled, slightly puzzled, clambering out with the loose collection of parts that formed the tazer He handed the heavy batteries to Bunny.

'Wire these in. Okay, this'll take me twenty minutes.'

In the background, the robotaxi slowly turned around, one of its three wheels flat, and started pulling off back down towards Britsprawl, trailing oil and battery fluid as it went.

[Serenla]

"Probably because of your company," Shotgun muttered in response to Greenleaf. "I can just imagine how your conversations go. And believe me, I wish I couldn't."

"Excuse me," she said when she got a couple of stares. "As long as we have time, I'm going to take five and see if I can finish off one of those wolves that got away. I'll be back in time."

The strap came off her Mantora and she raised it defensively, walking off the way the wolves had come from. "Oh baby, make love to me while I hide in my van. Oh yes," she mimicked in a high pitched voice.

[AI]

"We don't have time!" She informed both the elf, and Greenpeace curtly. She ignored the insult, she was far more worried about what her drone was throwing up on visual. "Twenty minutes? We'll be lucky if it's not on us in two."

[Wesforce]

'That's unkind,' grumbled Greenleaf, still struggling with the pieces of the Tazer.

Headlights appeared in the dark. The truck Steel Rose had detected.

'Drek!' Snowflame shouted, jumping on her Monocycle and thumbing the ignition, 'Is this the one?'

[AI]

The drone flicked to night vision, and sure enough - A large, six wheeler was belting down the road towards them.

"Frag!" She swore. "Ready or not, this is fragging it!"

[Nyerguds]

"Gruddammit man, just get on with it!" Bunny said, while connecting the gun emplacement's control wires to the tazer.

He knew it was probably not much use though. Then again, the tazer was their backup plan, so they'd better keep working on it. He was fairly cerain that together, they could finish it in less than ten minutes. He had quite some experience with electric weapons, after all.

"You guys just get the frag on with whatever you thought was the main plan!" Bunny yelled at the rest.

[Wesforce]

'Alright, here we go!'

Snowflame snapped her helmet on and roared off - She would've done a wheelie if she had more than one wheel. Bright light, white like day cast her shadow onto the road in front of her, and the truck honked its horn at the rider.

'Dont be so patient,' she smirked, readying the spell.

Seconds later, a dully-glowing magical barrier crossed the road - a physical barrier this time. Snowflame pulled off down the road, accelerating...

CRUNCH!

Metal splintered. Glass and steel exploded out from the 80mph crash like fragments of a hand grenade - a wheel flew off and bounded down the road, before flying off and taking down a tree. It was total destruction, better than Snowflame could ever have hoped for for one of her barrier spells. The vehicle, or what was left, tumbled off the road, burning...

Snowflame stopped and turned around, triumphantly.

Only then did she notice the truck was only a six-wheeler, not the 8-wheeler they were after - and was marked 'Scotsprawl Dairies'...

'Oh drek chummers...'

She rode back to tell the others, flagging down anyone who'd started to give chase.

I've just killed an innocent man..., she thought.

[VO]

"Drek..." said Mr Grin. As he looked at the wreckage. "Well, at least he's going to have to stop for that." He turned to the others. "What now? Let's not waste time cryin' over spilt milk, hur hur."

[Wesforce]

'Spilt milk...' Snowflame repeated.. 'Gruddamn it! None of you told me it was the wrong fragging truck!' The shaman shouted, ripping off her bike helmet and tossing it away in disgust. It landed by Shotgun who was about to vanish into the woods after the Shadowwolves.

'Wrong truck?' said Greenleaf, still trying to bolt his home-made tazer to the front of the awkwardly-landed Aerodyne, 'What does she mean wrong truck? What are we out here for anyway?'

The truck in question had come to rest blocking one and a half of the southbound lanes. the Barrier had collapsed at the shock of the impact.

There was fifteen minutes until the target vehicle was due to arrive. Everyone looked at eachother uncertainly, apart from Shotgun.

***

Shotgun stepped over a fallen tree, listening intently, the sounds of conversation fading behind her.

It was just her now. Her and her shotgun.

And her assault rifle, and her pistol, and anything else she may have been carrying that could be used in an offensive manner.

That, and the target.

She froze, picking up a heat signature.

A small, orange glow, maybe 80cm tall, moving for her...

[AI]

It was embarressing... But Steel Rose simply shrugged at the shamans alligations.

"It's better than a tree. I'll let you know if another one's coming, might be able to block off the road completely." She said, smoothly. In reality, she was pissed off. She'd cracked in the heat of the moment, and screwed it all up - They all knew that, but she'd be damned if she was going to show it.

"Has anyone checked the wreckage? The last thing we want is some half-dead fragger crawling out and warning the other truck off."

She scowled at her control deck and refined her command to look for eight wheeled trucks instead.

[Wesforce]

'Ah frag,' Snowflame said, remembering there might be a survivor. She spun the monocycle around and headed back down the road to where the road-straddling wreck was lying in a huge pool of off-white liquid that stank even worse than the dead woods. A door was hanging off its hinges - Snowflame kicked it aside, to reveal a form, illuminated by the headlight of her monocycle - An unconsious Ork, still connected by his rigger jacks.

She struggled to pull him out - he might have broken bones, but the vehicle had been fitted with a padded rigger crash-cage. Chances are he was physically fine, just KO'd from the... pain, of his vehicle. Fraggin' riggers thought Snowflame.

She dragged him out into the sour milk, but there was no way a slight Elf like her could manhandle him away.

'Someone give me a bloody hand!' she shouted to the others.

Off inthe distance, another set of headlights had appeared...

[SW Freak]

Jackson pulled up beside the wreckage, looking to drag the druid back to the ambush point.

"What the- Look, forget that thin streak of drekk, you fraggin' tree hugger! They're almost on top of us! We need to get into position!"

"Jackson!" gasped Ms. Holmes, shocked.

"Well what? You want to be fragging out here when the fraggin' fireworks start? Gruddamnit, you fragging wastes of space!"

The headlights were getting closer; before too long they'd be here, and if it was Hazard Stripe this time, they would be fragged if they didn't get in position.

"Argh! Bloody tree hugger!" he yelled in frustration as Indigo hopped off the bike. The two of them struggled for control of the body. Eventually Jackson flicked on his phone. "Cleaner! Tell everyone to get into position! Looks like the actual deal this time. Get yourself line of site, tell Bunny to get back into the air and make sure Grin has a position where he can use that boomstick of his. Now!"

Turning back to Snowflame, Jackson grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the recumbent Orc. He hauled the truck driver by the front of his shirt, grunting as he held the thing in place and drew back his cyberarm.

What are you doing? Indigo asked at the same time as Snow.

"No witness," Jackson muttered.

He lashed forward, claws angling straight for the Orc's exposed throat...

[Wesforce]

Snowflame winced and put her hand in front of her face as the claws ripped the Ork's throat out. The Metahuman's eyes opened - just once, wide and yellow and full of abject terror. He stared at Snowflame, pleadingly, then at Jackson. Whatever he was pleading for - compassion, mercy, justice? - he found none. He slumped, dead, blood mixing with milk on the ground, curdling.

'Sweet Spirit,' gasped Snowflame.

There was a muffled scream, Both turned to look - in the direction of the headlights. The car - whatever it was - had screeched to a halt. It paused, for a long second, then frantically started reversing back up the road, from tts position roughly ten metres from Steel Rose's truck.

'Enough of this drek!' Snowflame yelled, and held her arm out, straight at Jackson.

'Sleep!' she said, and unleashed the spell. Jackson's mind was immediately filled with the complete, all-empowering urge to...just get down on the floor here... and ... sleep.

Now what? she thought, this run is completely hosed...

She kicked in her accelerator, and floored it - heading South.

[AI]

"Into positions everyone!" Called the Cleaner.

What the frag?! She thought.

"But it's not here yet!" She told them, as they scrambled for their respective positions. Again.

"Is anybody going to tell me what's going on?!" Greenpeace cried.

"Look, will you all calm the frag down! I'll take a look." She rigged into her Spotter, and scanned the road with night visioned eyes.

[Wesforce]

Through the drone's nightvision scope, Steel Rose immediately recognised a '65 GM Roadgrub EX - the slightly enhanced version of the venerable electricar, in nice neutral silver-grey. As she watched, it frantically reversed back up the road and swung around in a kind of reverse handbrake turn, before travelling as fast as its redlining electric engine could take it, back whence it came.

But then- she noticed something heading south. Thermographic vision showed a Triumph Monocycle heading south - and two large men sprawled on the floor by the burning tanker...

[AI]

She couldn't really believe it. Jackson down, Snowflame fleeing with her tail between her legs, Shotgun had wandered off and as for the other rigger, he hadn't even bothered to turn up! And she thought she#d fragged up! She suddenly found herself very conflicted, the chances of them pulling this run off all depended on whether Hazard Stripe had brought his merry band of chummers along - The taser, The cleaner and Mr. Grin between them could take the rigger and his truck - But extra runners? They'd be screwed.

She wanted to bail. Maybe Snowflame had the right idea, maybe they should all just pack up and go - Their timeframe have become more limited than ever. But then there was her rep to consider, Johnson's didn't hire people who screwed up. Nor did they hire people who backed out. She was never going to get the big score if she cracked under pressure and left... There was still a chance, no matter how remote it was. And besides... She could always bail at the last minute.

Frag it. She decided.

"Look, here's the deal." She said, finally getting out of the truck and addressing the others. "Snowflame's bailed, Jackson is down and one of them have managed to kill somebody - With witnesses. Said witnesses are now hightailing it down the road, full speed in reverse. This place is isolated, so it's probably going to be awhile before they can bring the peelers down on us, but it means our timeframe is even more limited if we're gonna do this thing."

"On the upside we've got a ready made barricade, and the perfect ambush point - We have the cabability to take the truck and the rigger. On the downside, that might not be enough. This guy might have some friends along, and among those friends he has a mojo-slinger. We got a choice, we can do this, quick, clean, get out before the peelers stick their noses up our arses and hope to grud we don't have unexpected company, or we can abort the whole fragging mess and take a knock to our rep."

[VO]

"Goddamn and drek," said Mr Grin. "Fraggin' elves..." Bunny looked up. "'cept you. Lissen. It's not over yet - it's gonna be hard, but we can still do it. Forget da taser, someone wake up Jackson... an where the fraggin' hell is that bastard Rigger? Anyone got his number? We're gonna need that C12 more than ever now.... get the other trucks out onto the road, finish up the roadblock an' then we'll worry about what the frag we do with the truck as soon as it stops?"

[Desolator12]

((Player Note: I wish someone woulda taken over my character at least temporarilly when I missed, what? +50 posts?))

Earlier
Rush grabbed his bike and, since nobody had taken the high explosive, filled the compartments of his bike with the stuff. He didn't mind explosions, and hell, he could use the explosive power. After that, he re-sheathed everything, made sure it was tight, and rigged in. He chuckled, doing his usual thing: Overriding the safety limiters on the bike mainly. He went fast and when you need to go fast, you don't need safety procedures slowing you down...

He slammed into gear, and gon on his way... hitting traffic on the way up.

*Gruddamnit!* He thought. *Hope I'll get there in time...*

After a few minutes, he finally made his way onto the motorway...

[Wesforce]

(GM: Sorry Deso... We don't do Bunny-Hopping any more...)

Mind racing almost as fast as her monocycle, Snowflame ate up the miles back to Britsprawl. Fragging amateurs. I'll keep my head down. I'll fragging disappear, and make them sorry if they get after me. I'll spill to that Johnson if he says anything.

She throttled down when she knew she wasn't being chased, and kept to a sensible speed. It was nighttime after all, and she didn't have any night vision. Eerie calm crept into her after a while, her heart slowing to normal.

Then, coming the other way, she saw a single headlight - another biker.

But no, she realised - this wasn't a bike, it was a reverse-trike.

It was Rush, the other rigger.

***

Rush saw the white-haired, dark skinned woman zooming down the country road towards him, and in an instant, the two flashed past eachother. It was Snowflame, the mage... And she wasn't wearing a helmet.

[Desolator12]

Rush blinked, then did a quick 180. He floored it, then when he was alongside Snowflame, matched her speed.

"Hey, shouldn't you be headin' the other way?" He yelled over the engines and ambient noise.

[AI]

Steel Rose nodded, finally - Some leadership!

"Is the taser anywhere near finished?" She asked Greenpeace.

"Almost, but it's easier to take off than put..."

"Put it on anyway." She sighed. "Might as well throw everything we have at the fragger whilst he's slowed down.

She got in the truck and went to rig in, but then looked up at Mr. Grin.

"We have a body we need to dispose of, and somebody needs to get Jackson on his feet again - I need help."

[Wesforce]

Snowflame replied to Rush:

'I wouldn't if I were you! They've gone mad and started blowing up innocent vehicles!' Snowflame screamed, wind plastering her hair to her face. 'They said they were waiting for you to show up, and Jackson said he'd "rip off your fragging head and drek down your neck". The 'run's hosed! Get out while you can!'

[Desolator12]

"I never turn down a run for a threat... besides, I've got some stuff that'll make everyone all cheery again. If ya wanna come see the fireworks, turn around. Otherwise, I'll see ya in the funnies." He said, motoring past Snowflame and turning back around, heading out to the group...

He finally found the group, and the reason why the run looked 'hosed'. He motored himself onto the side, and got off.

"Special Delivery for some insane fraggers. Several orders of nice cakes of splody-death." He said, opening a compartment for the nearest runner to see.

"Also, looks like we're not getting the bonus."

[VO]

"I'll give him a wakeup call, Grin style!" said Mr Grin. Leaving Steel Rose to deal with the body, he lumbered over to the slumbering Jackson and bent down.

"Oy! Gerrup!" He backhanded Jackson across the face.

[AI]

Steel Rose positioned the truck so that it was blocking the other two lanes - Cutting off the road completely. Besides, it wasn't any real stretch of the imagination that Greenpeace's van was on the scene. It was a tow truck, and practically looked like a wreck it's self. She'd taken The Cleaner along for the ride, because... Well, he needed to fragging be here.

"Get out and find a fragging tree, fast." She told him, before getting out herself. She dragged the body out of sight, under the truck - As it was all she could do. And then undid the canvas covering the truck bed and retireved Mr. Traxx.

"We'll be in the forest, behind the barricade." She informed Grin. "I'll try to distract it with Traxx after The Cleaner does his thing."

[Wesforce]

Steel Rose's spotter drone beeped yet again - This time with the news that a large 8-wheeled truck was approaching from the North - fast. ETA: 60 seconds.

***

Having a brainwave, Snowflame stopped at a petrol station close to Britsprawl. There she could get a new helmet. Walking into the mini-shop, she eyed the public 'phones and had an idea...

***

Steel Rose had a message from an unknown source: It was short, to the point, and apocalyptic:

--->Do not trust Rush. Have learned he is working for *them*. He will try and plant explosives. KILL HIM. - Mr J<----

[AI]

Drek! She thought. It never rained but it poured. She fired off two quick Matrix mails, one was to Mr. Grin - Informing him that they had an incoming in sixty seconds and to get everyone into position as quickly as possible. The second was to Fast Eddie.... But stopped in the process...

He told us not to call him Johnson... She mused. Frag it, her paranoia kicked in - Something stinked about this. Somebody was trying to frag them over, and as soon as she found out who... She cancelled the one to Fast Eddie and then shot another one off to Grin. Best to cover her bases just in case.

---> Take C12 off Rush peacefully. Explain later. - SR <---

[Desolator12]

Rush opened up all the other compartments on his bike, exposing all the C12.

"Right, so how long til' the hit gets here?"

[VO]

Mr Grin turned away from Jackson, to Rush, who had just pulled up on his bike. The cyber skitzo was murmuring something unintelligible. Hopefully he/she/it would have the sense to get off the roadway.

"Good you could make it..." grinned Mr Grin - and scanned the Matrix Mail that had just arrived from Steel Rose with the implants on the back of his cybereyes.

He looked Rush up and down. He'd seen the guy on 3DTV, of course, didn't think too much of him as his shows were pretty much on the soft end of the hyperviolent entertainment industry. Rose's mail worried him - though Crux didn't really seem the kind of guy who'd be sabotaging a run like this.... he had too much to lose.

Still, better safe than sorry. He pointed the Chaingun at Rush.

"Bet you're glad I'm here with all the boom..." continued Rush, and found he was staring down the barrel of the largest gun he'd seen that hadn't been mounted on a Panzer "... what?"

"You wanna start gettin' those off your bike carefully." said Mr Grin. "An' toss that gun' o' yours over here. When you're done - which is gonna be in the next 15 seconds cos the fragging truck is on it's way - you're going to go lie face down on the grass ova there where everyone can keep an eye on you."

Gruddamn and Drek. He hoped Steel Rose wasn't trying to pull something on him here.

[Anonomuss]

The cleaner assembled his rifle, it's shining barrel slotting into place with a click that felt as reassuring as a metre thick wall of concrete. He heard the call the truck was on it's way but he blocked it out. He needed to concentrate. He scrambled up a tree at the side of the road, resting the barrel of the gun between a y-shaped joint in the branches. He slowed his breathing and allowed the smartlink to let him see through the eyes of his gun. It was shaking, the barrel wasn't sitting naturally between the branches. He took off his cloak and cushioned the barrel on it, giving it a level firing ground.

He began his honed ritual of sighting the target, or where the target will be. He aimed, tensed and blanked out his vision. When he put it back on his aim had wandered and he shifted his position. The next time he tried it, his sim hadn't wandered. He took a few seconds to calculate the rough area where the truck would be. Still trying to keep his breathing slow, he took a bullet out of his belt pouch, and inserted it into the firing chamber.

He was ready, he just hoped the rest were.

[Wesforce]

As if to answer, the huge bulk of a truck could be seen barreling southward, moonlight glinting from its paintwork. It was driving lights-off so as to better make use of its sensors. The 8-wheel Oshkosh HEMTT tanker was doing close to top speed, its massive wheels eating up the lumpy road like soy-pudding.

In his tank, Hazard Stripe saw the wreckage - and then the truck blocking the road. He recognised a roadblock immediately, though what all that white crap was doing all over the road he had no idea.

'Sweet Jovis mon, they onta me! But they not know the Fraggin' Hazard Stripe!' the rigger said, out loud. People talked about him, he knew. People said he lost his mind back with the Comet. He didn't think so. He always said back on that night, facing death so many times, he got switched on.

He flashed past a parked car and a couple of bikes. There were several blobby heat-signatures hanging around.

They were waiting for him!

'But you not gonna get me mon! That flimsy fraggin' truck, she going to be in bits!'

He urged his already-redlining enging to even further heights. No. He used his special fuel - Nitrous oxide surged through his veins! He'd break through this barricade or die trying!

The 'runners all stared as the truck showed no sign of slowing down. If anything, it sped up...

[Desolator12]

Rush blinked... then sighed. "What the frag is going on?" He said, pulling his gun out and tossing it over, making sure the safety was on beforehand.

"I was gonna do this anyway, ya don't need to point a freakin' cannon at me." He said, starting to unload the C12 onto the ground, and finishing that up in 12 seconds. He was careful, but fast.

He then got onto the ground. "Jeez, Snowflame told me you guys were insane, but I didn't expect ya to go all gun-ho on me."

[Anonomuss]

Resting the barrel on the branch, The cleaner tracked the speeding truck. He moved his aim compensating for the motion. He kept his breath even and the gun steady.

'Clean up in Aisle 7' he said, broadcasting over the comm, and fired the penetrating round.

[VO]

Headlights...

"Sweet Jovis," swore Mr Grin. He half-turned, and saw a truck the truck bearing down on them. Jackson was rubbing his head, Rush beginning to flatten himself against the verge.

And he was standing in the path of the truck, with Rush's bike and a substantial amount of C12 explosives at his feet. Everyone else was in the woods. Even with the wreckage of the tanker, and Steel Rose's van in the way, Mr Grin knew he needed to get off the road, and fast. Bad things were happening.

His Leg Jacks kicked in, and he jumped.l

[Wesforce]

The 12.7mm round streaked through the air, sabot-discarding as it went, leaving the depleted-uranium penetrating core, travelling at just over MACH 5. At such a speed, the friction was enough to make the super-dense dart into a gleaming blue fireball, that slammed through the air from The Cleaner's position, unerringly towards Hazard Stripe's truck's front wheels. The HEMTT was famed for its piower, reliability, and rugged off-road perfomance - It could keep going with half of its 8 wheels still functioning perfectly.

It wasn't prepared, however, for two of those wheels - front-wheels to be blown to pieces as a fireball penetrated right through, shearing both front axles in half.

'DREK!' screamed Hazard Stripe as the front of the truck dipped, digging into the tarmac, at over-top speed. The driver's cab crunched and deformed around its titanium frame as the back of the truck reared up, and over, until the whole tanker was flipping, rolling on the road, twisting, tumbling...

CRAAASH!

The HEMTT hit both the wrecked tanker and Greenleaf's truck, smashing them both out of the way and breaking almost in two along the tanker body, which ruptured explosively, spilling greenish fluid that washed over everyone near the road. Half a dozen large, long sacks dropped from the massive tanker's tank to tumble and rest on the road, and the HEMTT continued and came to a rest off to the left of the road, where flames merrily took hold almost immediately.

Greenleaf's truck came to a rest in the trees, on its side, the flatbed section totally mangled, the wheels suspended off the ground by dead trees.

Also wrecked were Jackson and Rush's cycles, crushed by the Dairy tanker when the HEMTT toss it aside.

But where was Jackson?

Hovering above the carnage, Bunny saw a tiny human-sized blob of heat tossed off the road. He zoomed in, switched to visible light and turned the spotlight on it...

He was sure a human's legs weren't meant to bend that way...

In his cab, Hazard Stripe had the mother of all dumpshocks. Like the Dairy rigger before him, he was comatose, streaming blood from his nose, ears, eyes...

And the flames were coming closer...

[Desolator12]

Rush turned around to look, then fell flat again as some shrapnel flew over his head.

"FRAG! My bike!"

[AI]

She stared, agape at his truck lodged between the trees. His tree. At first she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least it wasn't her van... But then she realised, she was going to have to pay for that. At least partially.

All of the sudden, with all the fire and bits of burning metal, human and assorted vehicle flying about, the woods didn't seem a safe place to be.

She could care less about the rigger inside the truck. He looked as good as dead, which meant he wasn't going to be firing at her - So good riddence. That suited her fine. Although she suddenly felt very drained, it'd been a long day and if anything followed that truck it was going to be even longer.

She went to find her boyfriend.

[Desolator12]

"Someone fragging tell me what the frag happened?!" Rush said. He wasn't whining, he was angry. He looked at Mr. Grin. "I coulda pulled my bike out of the way - do you have any idea how long that took to tune?! - But then you point a gun at me when I bring you the **** boss asked us to take with us! I just want to know why!"

[Wesforce]

Steel Rose's spotter drone, still diligently orbiting the area, beeped again.

Two more mid-sized cars - this time heading North. ETA: 3 minutes.

Rush's bike was certainly fragged - both front forks had been ripped off, there was shrapnel in the engine, and - worse - the paintwork was scuffed. The C12 had fallen out and been smeared along the road by the wrecked tanker - Testament to its stability that it hadn't gone off. The bike, however, might be repairable...

[Anonomuss]

The cleaner looked at the carnage on the road. The Cybernetic Schitzo was lying off the road. Tossed clear by the force of the collision, his legs bent at an unnatural angle. 'Jovus' he said He packed up his rifle and put back on his cloak. He dropped down from the tree and ran up towards the wreckage. He was near the crash site and went to see how he could help Jackson, seeing as he felt partially responsable. But he stopped, his attention drawn to the bags, thrown free by the crash. He went over to look at them. He opened one, and looked inside.

[Desolator12]

Rush grumbled, standing up and surveying the destruction, and grumbling... "...gonna be in the shop for weeks... *mumble*..."

"So is that it? Is the ****er dead?" Rush finally said...

[Wesforce]

It was a plastic bag, seemingly made of some kind of porous, but opaque bubble-wrap, six feet in length. Even before he opened it, The Cleaner had a sick kind of feeling he might know what it was.

He yanked down the zip, and gagged at the stench. More of the greenish fluid seeped out.

Inside was a meta-human figure. It took several seconds to realise that it was the body of en Elf, completely depilated, and somehow drained of all that race's grace and beauty to resemble little more than a naked husk. He was breathing faintly, though he obviously had several broken limbs, and cuts and bruises - blood mixed with the green fluid.

Connected to the body's datajack was a small, transparent case with something reddish-pink inside.

(GM:That's enough plot development for now :dead: Time for wait for the posters we left behind, pick up the pieces, and get outta here before any more witnesses arrive)

[Anonomuss]

The cleaner took a step back, looking at the disgusting site. he covered his note and mouth with his cloak and looked closer. He took a few small containers from his pouch. He collected some of the green liquid into one, and some of the blood mixed with the fluid. He went and tried to remove the transparant case conected into the metahuman's or what had once been a meta-humans datajack. It came free, and he popped it into another container.

[Serenla]

She'd known something was wrong when the sound of the first explosions reached her. Not that it wasn't spectacular or anything, but there simply wasn't any follow up gunfire to speak of. Something was wrong. She wouldn't have put it past one of her partners to accidentally destroy their own van.

Still, obviously she wasn't needed at present. She tracked something - presumably the wounded wolves this far and knew they were somewhere close by. Oddly, they'd stayed rather close to the fringes of the forest so she comforted herself with the knowledge that she could still back back to the run quickly enough if something more should develop. She might have to. The wolves certainly weren't developing.

Then she heard the second explosion, felt the second explosion. Something big had just gone up. Jovis. She'd better get back. She turned to run and heard the faint snarling somewhere in the underbrush behind her. Of course. They have to show up now. But there was no time anymore. She still couldn't heard much gunfire but it was possible it was just being drowned out. Rachel started jogging back towards the road and that's when she felt a searing rush of heat on her face.

"Frag me!" she yelled. Bright yellow-orange flames were licking the trees at the edge of the forest, effectively blocking her exit. Soon, they'd be doing a lot more than that. Another snarl behind her. Followed by anothr, somewhere off to the right. Then a howl further back. There were only two left... she thought fleetingly.

[Wesforce]

The Elf's eyes suddently shot open as soon as the plug was removed - a small plug with what, on closer inspection, turned out to resemble a minature brain inside. The eyes were bloodshot and filled with terror. He screamed, long and loud and hoarse, like a baby ripped from the womb. The arms and legs, broken as they were, thrashed about, grinding on their cracked bones. The Elf seemed to have no concept of pain.

Oddly, for some reason, The Cleaner noted the poor fragger had no belly-button.

***

Hazard Stripe stirred. It was getting pretty hot in his cab...

The flames.

THE FLAMES!

'OH MY GRUDD MON! SOMEBODY SAVE ME!'

***

Behind Rachel, the Knockers she'd been unwittingly stalking followed her as she ran back turned around and followed her. The small, impish creatures had trouble keeping up with her, but they were curious.

Behind them, wary of the little fairy-like creatures' powers, the Shadowwolves kept their distance and carried on licking their wounds.

Then they changed their minds.

There was another human on the edge of the forest. Well, part-human, part-metal... And wounded... Defenceless.

[AI]

"Drek..." Said Greenpeace, mournfully. She patted him on the shoulder gingerly.

"Is it still drivable?" She asked, hoping to grud she wouldn't have to shell out for a replacement. "Maybe we can get Vincent to keep an ear to the ground in case it's hauled in, or have him come and tow it away later..."

"It should be drivable... But we'll never get it out of the tr..." He looked around and found the other rigger he'd been working with, and wandered off. "Say, Bunny... That winch on your airvan..."

She remembered that she had bigger fish to fry. She stormed over to the bike rigger, who was sobbing over his over-expensive piece of scrap-metal (almost literally now) and grabbed him by the shoulder. She was nowhere near as imposing or strong as Mr. Grin, but with some effort she spun him around to face her.

"What the frag man?! Haven't you people done eno..."

"Quiet you little gobdrek!" She spat. Then showed him the Matrix Mail she'd recieved from Mr. J. "How the frag do you explain this?!"

[VO]

Mr Grin wiped the dirt off his rifle. There were small bits of burning stuff on him, but he brushed them off. There was debris all over the road, several of the bikes were totalled and one of the trucks used in the barricade lying on it's side on the edge of the road. His own car was undamaged further back up the verge. The cleaner had come down and was doing something to Jackson's body - hopefully not picking it for used cyberwear - and the rigger who had been driving the truck was screaming to high heaven. Rush was yelling at him too, although Mr Grin didn't pay too much attention. He looked up at the human

"You want me to explain nothing, or you want to help me get that fragger out of the cab so we can find out what's actually going on?"

[Anonomuss]

'Jovus!' The cleaner cried. 'Somebody help me over here' he tried to stop the elf from flailing but it's panicked thrashings gave it strenght. He pulled back and called again. It was crying like it was going to wake half of Northern Britsprawl. As an after thought, he opened his last container and stuck the transparant container back into the metahuman's datajack.

[Wesforce]

Almost immediately the Elf quietened down... But his arms and legs were twisted horrifically.

There were five more of these things (and possibly more still in the burning tanker wreck).

By now the two approaching cars were one minute and thirty seconds away. Steel Rose's Spotter drone identified the first as a plain-painted Zaibatsu Zeon, and the second as a similarly nondescript GM Roadgrub.

[Desolator12]

Rush looked at the matrix mail. "...You -DO- remember he hated the name 'Mr. J', RIGHT?!" Rush stated. In fact, their boss preferred 'Boss'

"Look, let's just take care of this... and yeah, I'll help ya out there..." Rush said. "No use crying over my bike when we could have the cops on our asses any minute now..."

[AI]

She smacked him across the side of the face with one of her cyber hands.

"Don't get fragging smart with me!" She screamed. "It's only because I know he hated the name Mr. J that you're still alive! Go, help - But I swear, if this is true - You better fragging run before the boss sees it!"

[Desolator12]

Rush grumbled. "Good thing that it's not true then. I brought you the C12 because you all didn't take even a pack of the stuff, not because I felt like roadside barbeque, which we have already." He said, making his way to help out Mr. Grin.

[Serenla]

Now do I go through the flames or through these little blighters? Rachel wondered. She had no idea what in Jovis' name they were, but they didn't looked very scary. Not even half her height. They were blocking her way though, and doing their best to look intimidating. She supposed she should count herself lucky. There'd been alot more to begin with, but for some reason most had disappeared. First, we try to go around, she thought and ducked to the right of one of the things.

If anything, it leaned out of her way and for a moment, she thought she was free. Then in front of her caught her a blow across the chest and she fell on her back. Something was buzzing inside her skull...she raised her human hand tentatively to her face and the fingers came away bloody. "What the hell is going on?"

Her cyberarm swivelled back and fired a few rounds at where the thing had been, but it was gone. Turning around, she found it standing in front of her again. Shotgun got clumsily to her feet and tried to shake the pain from her head. But if the little fragger hit me in the chest then why does my head hurt? She gave it another go, charging at the thing this time instead of around it.

The next round should have hit the damn mutant-thing but it stood unperturbed. She lunged for it and felt herself thrown again, this time landing awkwardly against some deadwood. Little guys were fragging tree-huggers or something. Just one card left I suppose...

She got to her feet quickly and sprayed a flurry of bullets across the forest. Several of the Knockers ducked out of the way, but she noted with satisfaction a small bloody smear where she might have caught one unprepared. No time to gloat though. Before they could work...whatever it was they did, Rachel holstered her assault rifle and ran for the road.

This is going to be painful, she thought, and dove into the flames.

[Wesforce]

And in a few short, sharp, smoke-filled seconds, she ended up back on the road - next to Mister Grin, who - beaming - was poised to rip the door off the cab of a ruined, burning 8-wheeled truck that was bent almost in half. She also noticed that, contrary to what she thought at first, the fire was pretty small really - localised. The trees were dead and dry but, for whatever reason, didn't burn that well.

Across a whole road full of carnage, she could see Rush and Steel Rose shouting at eachother, the airvan still hovering, 6 bodybags, one of which The Cleaner was inspeacting (cleaning?) and Jackson's inert, broken-legged form - being stalked by two injured Shadowwolves.

[Serenla]

"There you are," she muttered and Mr Grin looked at her quizzically. "Hold that thought big guy."

She started running towards Jackson's prone body, winced, and decided to simply walk quickly. There was still blood streaming down her face and her arms and legs burned from the smoke and fire. At least she was still alive, it could have been much worse.

"Hey Jackson, you still with us?" she asked and knelt beside him. The skitzo wasn't looking very good, but he was still alive at least. That had to count for something. "Come on fragger, you've got to stay alive. I actually liked you. You can't leave me alone with these damn wheel jockeys."

One of the wolves snapped it's teeth at her from the shadows. "Of course you have to show up now." With a grunt, she tried to pick up Jackson. Grud he was heavy. She'd drag him across the road, but he probably wouldn't thank her when his legs got even more fragged up.

"Now you guys just stay where you are," she said to the wolves through gritted teeth and began staggering back to the others. They didn't.

[Wesforce]

No, they stalked Shotgun and her target, waiting for an opening, a chance, to wear down and finish off their prey once-and-for-all.

They saw one. They took it.

And then, the headlights of an approaching car scared them away, running off into the woods to hunt the Knockers instead.

Everyone turned as a green Zaibatsu Zeon drove onto the scene and parked next to the wrecked Dairy tanker. A man got out, human, suited, with a smart haircut. He looked around him bewilderment.

'Oh my frag! What in Grudd's name has happened here!'

He looked down at the Dairy tanker driver's corpse.

'Is that guy dead? Does he need an ambulance? Oh Grudd I hope they come out here-'

He punched three numbers into his wristphone.

[Desolator12]

Rush his his face with his glasses, making sure that his face was as distorted as possible, to prevent anyone from noticing him. **I really hope someone else will tell this fragger to go away, or something similar...**

[AI]

She rushed over and grabbed the fraggers hand as he raised his phone, realising she'd have to explain herself soon enough. She really didn't want to have this guy lying in a pool of his own blood too. It was just another reason for the boss to be pissed off... Especially as he looked smart. Corp smart!

"There's one on the way!" She blurted out. "Wouldn't want to block up the emergancy lines!"

[Wesforce]

'What's happened here? Looks like the arena after Daniel Crux has been through it! And would you let go of my hand please? Your fingers are a bit sharp...'

[Desolator12]

Rush blinked, and then decided, rather hoped that the guy wouldn't recognize his face, as Mr. Grin pulled the door off the cab.

[AI]

"Nasty car accident... Some fragger going a little too fast and..." Y'know what, she thought, screw it. She released his hand and put the inbuilt taser to his neck, dropping him like a sack of drek. She then pryed his vidphone from his hand.

"Hello, Nine-Nine-Nine emergency services, is there anybody there...?"

"Sorry, false alarm." She hung up.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny set down the van, and jacked out. He wasn't about to let a fellow rigger burn alive just because he was part of their target. After all, the dwarf had specifically said he didn't have to die.

He frowned as he saw the bags lying on the street. "What the drek is that?"

He suddenly remembered the package in his pocket. It seemed half of the people were busy with the guy that turned up, and the other half was either missing, unconscious or looking at the green drek.

He opened the package. It contained a tightly rolled-up black jacket. It was slightly scorched, and covered in blood stains. There seemed to be something inside the pockets, but he didn't look at it. From the shape, he suspected it to be ID credsticks.

Typical. Probably to set someone up. Bunny thought, as he threw the jacket somewhere under the truck where no one would notice it.

It seemed no one had seen him. Good. The whole affair was fragged up enough as it was. He made his way to the truck cabin to get to the rigger.

[Wesforce]

Rush reached in and pulled out Hazard Stripe while Mister Grin held the door open. The Rigger was dazed and blackened - but alive. He didn't seem to know exactly where he was, and was being led away from his burning truck in a daze - when suddenly his head jerked up:

'OH MY GRUDD MON! What have you done? Get your damnfool Trogg hands off me!'

The rigger pushed away from Mister Grin and elbowed Rush in the guts. He frantically tried to work his Ultra-Power out of it's holster, or reach one of the frag grenades attached to his webbing...

[Desolator12]

Rush was on him first... having taken far worse than elbows to the gut in his profession. He unsheathed his knife and held it to Hazard Stripe's neck.

"Listen, ok? We just want to ask you a few questions is all..." He then looked up at Mr. Grin, who was looking at the knife. "What? You said specifically my gun"

Rush turned his attention to the other rigger. "What were you transporting?"

[AI]

"Hey, Bunny!" Smiled Greenleaf. "Tough ride, huh? Listen, I noticed you had that winch on your van and I was wondering..."

He motioned over to his own truck, lodged between the trees as it was.

"... She's a fixer upper, but if you could get her outta there I could straighten her out - Whaddya say? Please?"

[Serenla]

"Oy Bunny," Shotgun yelled as she fell to her knees. "Get over here and help me with Jackson. We need to get him in the airvan, he needs help."

She glanced around and took another good look at the situation. At the bodies and wreckage strewn across the road. "What the frag happened? Where's the tree-hugger? And what's the frag is going on with these bags?"

[Wesforce]

'Hey mon, no need fo' that, everything be cool!' Hazard Stripe said, sweat rolling down the shaved middle of his head. 'No idea what I was transporting - I don't ask no questions mon.'

[Nyerguds]

[edit]
OOC: GAH sorry, I can't follow this. My connection is slow as hell.
Deso, plz ignore what I posted here, it was supposed to come before you interfered.

"Just a sec, Green. Help me get Jackson in the aerodyne and we're talking."

[Desolator12]

"Ya probably should have... besides the green stuff you can see everywhere, there's crumpled, almost dead bodies in with that stuff... wouldn't look good if anyone found out." He said, moving his knife from the neck to behind his neck.

"Just for reference, this is a gun pistol... type 89 if you're wondering... now, you sure you knew nothing? What about where it was going...?" He said... he then noticed the hand near something on his chest. He inverted the knife and smacked him on the head with the bottom of the hilt, knocking him out..."

"Well... looks like we take him for a ride... anyone wanna grab this guy before he dies of blood loss? Frankly, I'd rather he died completely, but eh..."