RPG Ch5: Untied States... (Volume 2)

[Wesforce]

(GM: Yes, you aren't seeing things... 'Shadow' is back. We have Unfinished Business to attend to. And we are still having new RPGs, but I just feel Shadow deserves to go out Properly :cool:.)

I would post the rest of the chapter here, but there is a character limit of 10,000 :scared:, so pleace go Here (http://www.freewebs.com/cnc2swinfo/story/rpg_5_09.html)

Time to Pick up from where we left off:



(And now, our story continues...)

Begrudgingly accepting their fate, the 'runners let themselves be led to the waiting tourbuses painted in gaudy colours and eye-hurting graffiti that carried Time4Cryme and his vast entourage. Ghetto-clad Orks eyed them with distaste, grunting and laughing gutturally among each other.

Sensibly, all the 'runners were arranged to stay on one bus, big enough that it could be mistaken for a small road-train. It wasn't the biggest: Time4Cryme kept that to himself. It wasn't exactly inconspicuous: Painted (or plated) gold, a swimming pool on the top rear deck (some objects floating in it that might or might not have been syringes.

The beds were unkempt and there were spent .45 calibre brass cases on the floor, with some discarded gold chains. The bus smelt of stale sweat and nicotine smoke.

Home Sweet Home.

When Sasha followed the 'runners onto the bus, she wasn't fazed by the seething, angry eyes that bored into her.

"Take up the floor panels." She suggested, shutting the door firmly behind her, shutting off the worst of the Hip-Hop Oration Time had just started in the middle of JFK's arrivals lounge, much to the disgust of the security men.

Whipping up the gold-woven fur (it looked fake) rugs, the 'runners spotted the floor compartments. Tank and Iceman made short work of them, and several heavy chests were hauled up in short order. Inside were AK-97 Assault Rifles, HK Scatt-o-matic Short-Barrelled semi-auto Shotguns and a rack of IWS Smg70S' - Bullpup submachineguns fitted with built-in silencers. There was, of course, also enough ammunition to take on a small army.

"This is why we arranged for this little job-share." Boomed Iceman, grinning widely.

"What better way to hide our hardware than under the noses of such a bunch of arrogant fake ganster pricks? If they were discovered, we'd just inform the local Corps and have these fools taken out."

"You will be expected to work for these, however." Sasha reiterated, much to the general groaning of the 'runners.

"The Bus will leave shortly for Washington FDC. We are to help security at the Time4Cryme gig there."

Sasha opened a wardrobe at the back of the tourbus, but before they could fully examine the contents, the Bus got off to a jerky, powerful start.

Plugin was closest to a window: No-one else could see out as Tank crushed them all out of the way in the crush. The impromptu gig had erupted into Chaos when a bunch of passing robogoths and a group of 30 other guys all dressed in identical tracksuits, trainers and baseball caps attempted to coexist peacefully. Security waded in, and now Time4Cryme and his 'homiez' had to run for cover, leaving about 40 injured forms on the marble flooring behind them.

"Anyway" Said Sasha, coughing gently and holding a handrail now the bus was moving. "I suggest you try these on. Your uniforms."

The 'Uniforms' were double-breasted suits of gold-lame (he seemed to like this stuff) with tiger stripes on them, wrap-around shades and fake gold chains with large '¥' pendants.

Crystal eyed her new clothing cautiously, wondering when she'd wake up from this most terrible dream. In the background, Tank was booming with laughter, punctuated by the high tearing as he attempted to get dressed.

Just then, Time4Cryme's Hip-Hopera 'Carmen geddit yo bitches' came on, over the intercom.

It was going to be a long drive.

[Nyerguds]

"Eh... OK... this is a bit over the top I think..." Silvia said.
She could imagine her mom's face when seeing her in that suit...
Sleg. She'd die laughing.

"Hey, you wanted in for free." Iceman grinned. "No one forced you in Terganon, but right here you follow orders, is that clear?"

"Aye sir." Silvia replied, and sighed.
She looked back at Iceman. "So, are you gonna dress up too?"

***

"Ah, com' on!" Alanya complained. "Ahm a decker! Ah came 'ere to deck into Matrix databases, not dress lahk a pimp ta earn guns ah ain't gonna use anyway!"

[Master Chris]

Rusty, unlike some of the others, had no problem getting into his *uniform* out in the open. He slipped into the awful, golden suit but left the tacky accessories in a pocket, unwillinging to compromise his dignity any further than necessary. Rusty examined the HK semi-auto shotgun he had picked up, his eyes running up and down the barrel as if searching for fault in the weapon. Rusty looked up and noticed that the barrel of the shotgun was pointing right at Iceman. Iceman was, interestingly enough, in line for the bathroom, possibly waiting for a chance to change into a gold-lame suit in private. Rusty grinned and imagined pulling the trigger and killing that S.O.B. in a messy fashion. Oh well, He thought. I can dream. He dropped the shotgun into a seat and sat himself next to it. The suit wasn't particulary comfortable and it smelt odd but Rusty eventualy found himself nodding off.

I wonder how that Alexiev is taking the new uniform issue?..........

[Wesforce]

Rusty jerked his head slightly as someone walked behind him - He hadn't heard their approach with all the damn noise.

It was Crystal, offering him a big, fat red shotgun shell.

'Neil's Ammo' it said, with '12-gauge: Exploding Flechette' printed in small letters.

She smiled at him: He'd never seen her too that before. The smile vanished sp quickly it may never have been there, and the two parted company.

Surprisingly, Crystal found that her suit fitted quite well. She tried not to look at one of the many oddly-stained 6ft mirrors hanging around for fear of damaging her delicate eyes, and picked up a silenced Smg in case it might be if use whatever they had to do later: She got the impression from the close chats Iceman and Sasha were having that the concert was not the main reason they were going to FDC.

Also, she knew her trusty Browning was but a pea-shooter compared to some of the things out there. Another lesson from Transys...

She fell asleep, and was soon writhing and thrashing in the grip of another steel-tentacle-filled nightmare, while Wolf laughed insanely, clawing out his own eyes.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia looked at Iceman as he was talking to Sasha. He hadn't replied to her question.

"Guess not then." she said to herself.
She took another look at the suit she was supposed to wear.
"Meh. Let's give it a try."

She took the suit and put it on over her current clothes. Then, she removed her own clothes inside the suit with the storage spell. Like that she'd always have her own clothes with her, no matter what. She left the chain in the seat, and put on the shades.

She looked in one of the mirrors.
"Ew. I sure hope they don't point any 3DTV cameras on us at that show."

She took off the shades, threw them with the fake gold chain and grabbed her MP5 player. She wasn't in the mood to listen to Time4Cryme's music... in fact, after this, she didn't know if she'd ever be.
Ah frag. Sometimes I wished these plugs did block out all sound.

No music then.

She set the 'player to radio.

"...ther news, a strange incident occurred in France. Earlier today, an apartment block in Lyon was completely overgrown by what appear to be oak trees. The main suspects are two mage apprentices living in the block, but all attempts to get through the dense trees to reach their apartment failed, and four rent-a-cops mysteriously disappeared in the building. This is Samantha Rowentrude for WorldMedia radio news. We'll keep you updated! Back to you, Greg."
"Right, Sam. Moving on to Today's Death Counts! In London, the death count is going well over 140. Not counting the living dead, of course..."

Silvia put off the radio and frowned.
Trees? In Lyon? Crazy!

[Artificial Idiot]

"Money is money... A job is a job..." Tundra had been repeating that since she had got on this light forsaken bus. She was sat on the rear top deck of the bus, by the swimming pool. It wasn't overly large, but it was water. Not very clean water, but she'd confirmed it was water... or at least, liquid. She'd been out of work for awhile, what with the mess the commet had made of her life. She hadn't been sleeping, her magic had become somewhat unrealible and she had been very ill of late. Just this week she'd caught another cold. Very ironic.
She was distantly aware that the bus had indeed stopped, she thought she heard new voices below her, but she didn't care. Why should she? She wasn't being paid to socialise, she was being paid to guard some dwarf muscian, although her definition of music did not fit his work, not to get chatty with some hired street trash... she almost laughed at the las few words of her thought. How she could be calling people in the same category as herself hired street trash... amazing.
As the bus went along the wide roads, she risked sticking her hand in the waters. Luckily a needle didn't greet it. She closed her eyes, giving the water a thin layer of ice on the surface. She was considering doing more, when one of Time's ork lackies poked his head up though the entrance.

"Yur ooniform mizz." He said to her, throwing the tacky gold cloth onto the pool. He had the same look of, not disgust... but distaste you could call it, that all ork's looked at her with. You see, Tundra wasn't like a lot of ork women. She wasn't massivley build, nor was she one of those doctored ork super models you see on 3DTV. Disgusting, may as well be human! No, she was, to put it simply, a runt. All skin and bones, barely a muscle on her. Most of her actual size was made up by her long blue dress and pale blue hair. Her face hadn't been looking it's best lately either, she had large black marks under her eyes. A tell tale sign of many nights of troubled sleep.

"And you expect me to wear that?" She replied, not even bothering to pick up the uniform.

"Erm.... ya!" Replied the ork, after some mild thought.

"Well, do you not think it would be more effective for me to take, say... a casual role?" Now that would have been enough to convince the Ork, but she felt she needed to go on. "Maybe for some of us to be unsuspecting to any trouble makers, spring a trap on them when they start trouble causing, you follow dear, don't you?"

"Kasu.... Kazoo... Ka... Ya! I think yoo right!" Said the dumbfounded Ork. "it ok for yoo to kum down?"

"I think it would be my duty!" She picked herself up from beside the pool an walked over to the hatch in the roof that lead to the pool. She would have to set eyes on these people at sometime or another, why not start now?

[Wesforce]

Crystal was woken roughly - Not that she'd really been sleeping comfortably anyway. Bright lights burned into her eyes, silhouetting the figure that had woken her up.

A figure from her nightmares.

She bolted upright, banging her head. Blushing, she shielded her eyes.

"Sorry." Said Alexiev. Crystal had though he was Wolf. An easy mistae to make.

She gave him a look that said 'back off', and he did, taking his time about it, too.

"Anyone ever tell you, for a mute you make one hell of a noise when ya sleep? Cause 'ya do." Rusty started, shockingly loud in the confines of the bus (Crystal noted that someone had jammed the intercom speakers with cushions to muffle the 'music').

"No offense or nuthin'!" Rusty carried on, seemingly immune to the looks Crystal was giving now.

Crystal relaxed. Any more frowning and her face felt like it would fall off.

The bus stopped. In the distance, the whine of feedback could be heard. Roadies were testing the speakers and Amps, setting up the venue. Some kind of disused cyber-ball stadium, it looked like. The Bold Name 'DC DARK ENERGY SQUAD' was half painted over.

"With a name like that, no wonder they don't have a stadium anymore." Someone muttered.

Iceman "All right, the gig's startin'. Get yer gear and meet outside with de rest of de crew. Sasha and I will..." He winked at her "Oversee things from the control room."

The 'runners filed out into the night. Even Tundra. The Ork with her insisted. Borderline polietely though, as she was a fellow Ork. It was chilly, but no-one seemed to mind. Not least the huge crowd of fans that were queuing up for the gig, snaking round to the front. They were being kept well away from here: Backstage. A 20 foot high fence saw to that.

They were all wearing their suits, and weren't allowed any weapons. As they expected, a low chuckle of laughter greeted them. All of Tyme's regular guards, minders and general hangers on - All orks - were waiting outside in a semi circle.

A big Ork in wrap-around shades and with a heavy Russian accent spoke, drowning out for a moment athe sounds of the roadies doing power-checks.

"Vell vell, vat have ve here? Not much it look like. Maybe dose fraggerz stiffed uz ven ve ask for local security eh?"

He spoke like that, not pausing, all one long, fluent horribly mashed sentence.

All the other security Orks chuckled behind him.

Crystal looked behind her. Sasha and Iceman were still in the bus, nowhere to be seen. The door looked like it was locked and the lights were off.

"Well fragz, before ve agree to vurk wit you, y00 must pass a test..."

He nodded.

A rather short but stocky Ork in shorts and a chest that was clad only in a billion gold chains strutted forward from the crowd, looking each of the 'runners in the eye in turn.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia noticed she seemed to be the only one wearing the shades that came with their 'uniform'. It made her feel more secure from the short Ork's gaze. She couldn't help but grin when he passed her.

"Wot' yu smilin' at, runt?" the short Ork said.

"Ar'roogur merug sah." Silvia replied, well aware of her Genevan accent in the Orkish language. "It's good to come home."

The Ork frowned, and went on.

[Artificial Idiot]

It would haver felt like a challenge, had it not been for the broad grin on the Ork's face. Tundra looked him in the teeth, an expression like a rock.

"Hey there von pip-squeak" He went to mess up her hair, she got it often from big Ork's, and was quite dreading this gig. But she was surprised to find another hand had stopped the Ork's in mid air.

"She's a grown woman, not a kid." Muttered the rather large Ork standing next to her. He had a large trench coat over his disgusting gold uniform, he didn't seem connected to the others, but did keep shifting his eyes to the Russian Human that Tundra had barely seen. Everybody was tense towards him.

"hmph... You vill not have ya bodyguard in there, fragging bitch..." He walked on the line. As he left, Tundra turn to the Ork. She hated not facing the people she was talking too.

"I can fight my own battles without some overgrown coat rack's interferance!" She said, quite angry. She hated people standing up for her or speaking for her too, she was a very inderpendant woman. Almost too much for her own good.
The Ork said nothing, and she didn't feel like arguing. She'd battle it out with this Ork another time.

[Master Chris]

Silence.

The atmosphere backstage was tense, as the gold clad ork moved along the line Tundra stared at her unwanted ally.

Jessica Hayes had listened to the argument without moving. It was all akin to the frequent drill parades she had had to endure while stationed on the Red Dawn, she wasn't fazed. Hayes just stood there, eyes forward, just like the other ex-military runners were doing. The ork passed her without so much as a word, obviously, she had passed his inspection. Rusty, on the otherhand, some how attracted some criticism;

"Vot's dat? Yu fink yer 'ard enough to be part of dis elite, 'ardcore, crack security team? Do yer?"

Rusty, confused as to why he had been singled out, stammered in reflex;

"Sir. Yes sir."

The ork bellow in laughter, his jewellery bounced on his chest making a chink chink sound that did not complement the sound of the ork's laughter.

"Hey boyz! Looks like we gots us a reg'ler ozzie army boy! Tell us Crocodile Irwin, did a dingo eat yer baby?"

Rusty, hoping that affirmation would be a cease to the insults, replied;

"Actually, yes. A dingo did eat my baby."

The ork suddenly stopped laughing. He stared at Rusty a moment before inquiring;

"I thought dingos were ex-stinked, dead, all gone."

Rusty, regaining some of his composure, answered;

"So did I, until I lost my little Bruce."

The already short ork seemed to shrink into his boots as he heard that. Hands nervously wiping his shorts the ork mumbled an apology and then moved on. Rusty, after the ork had turned away, looked over at the others, winked and then grinned.

[Wesforce]

The short ork looked back to his boss. The boss motioned him along.

He came to Crystal. He stared at her. She stared back.

"What?" The Ork grunted. "Cat got your tongue?"

Crystal said nothing.

"Think you's hard, does ya?"

Crystal said nothing. She angled her head slightly. The hair covering her left eye fell away, so she could stare properly.

"Well, bitch? What the frag are ya doin' here anyway! You're... YOU'RE TOO FRAGGIN' SKINNY TO BE A BODYGUARD!"

Crystal remained silent.

The Ork lost it.

"YOU BITCH! YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU NOT ANSWER ME! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!"

He flicked out the big, nastry rusty sword he called a knife that was in an insert in his trousers. Red-flecked metal swept in an arc toward the unmoving Crystal. She stared at it, almost welcomingly.

THUMP!

"Sorry, did that get in your way?" Said Alexeiv, regarding the steel-hard chopping hand he'd used with brutal effect on the Ork's sword-arm.

The Ork stared up at Alexeiv, staring him down (even though he was looking up) with his piggy, bloodshot yellow eyes. He nursed his arm. It was obvious to everyone that the arm hurt. Hurt, and how. The ork even let out a whimper.

"What?" Asked Alexeiv in a nonchalant tone. Then he turned and smiled brightly at Crystal, raising his eyebrows seevral times.

The boss ork called his lackey back, deciding enough was enough.

"Awright you'z fraggerz. here are youz passes." He handed out a thin red plastic card to everyone, on a neck chain. On it was a cartoon picture of Tyme4Cryme gunning down Rent-A-Cops with a MAC-10. With the legend 'Ork Powa Tourz 2064'

"NOW GET TO YOUR FRAGGING PLACES!" He bellowed.

Crystal had one chance to look at Tundra before they left. She shot her another look. A look that said: "I know how you feel. I wish I could tell you. I just wish this whole ridiculous charade was over, or that I was allowed to keep my guns on me. Ah well. Ours is not to reason why..."

But it was probably the same as her standard 'Don't frag with me' look.

***

When the gig started, it had made the previous aural assault on the 'runner's ears seem as the gentle patter of rain compared to the thunder of Panzer engines warming up. Tjousands of young fans had crammed into the place, and the 'runners had to man the steel fences to keep them from the stage. Tank proved to be a natural, bodily picking the kids up and lobbing them back into the crowd, bowling them over like ninepins.

"HELLO COMRADES!!!" Screamed Tyme4Cryme. "HOW'Z DA BEEF, WASHINGTON?!?"

Deafening screaming of fans, backed by synthesized drums.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" He shotedm trying to get a better rise out of the audience. Crystal shrugged. She had been to a few gigs, and wondered why the fraggers always played stupid games like that. Also, the noise was so deafening, she wondered if she'd be deafened, as well as mute.

Then a kid tried to climb the fence in front of her. She grabbed his hand, yanked it off the fence. He fell back off the fence, to be replaced by three more groupies.

How brutal are we supposed to be, anyway? She wondered. Then she caught a view of some of the Ork guards laughing and bulldozing a big group over with one of the fences they'd ripped up. Then she turned and saw Tank, with teenage fans clinging to his back and shoulders. He was grinning ear to ear, throwing them off like Mosquitoes.

Alexeiv, blood on his gold jacket, came dashig up to her.

"I won't let them near you, don't worry!"

His noble sentiment was shattered when a bottle of urine rebounded off his head, showering it's contents over all and sundry.

It was still the first 5 minutes of the concert...

I hope Silvia and Ash are having a better time of it... She wondered, forlornly, moving to help Rusty with a Teenage troll who was clambering up the side of the stage, armed with a giant foam sombrero...

***

Silvia, Tundra and Ash were guarding the VIP entrance to backstage. All kinds of petty celebrities and hangers on were filing through, no doubt to indulge in activities of dubious moral integrity in the wel-furnished area behind them. They all swore that if they heard the words 'Don't you know who I am?' ONE more time, they'd have to break into that tourbus with their bare hands, if only yo get their hands on some guns.

Then 4 more people came up to their door.

One dwarf in a smart suit. Probbaly someone's agent. Two well-made up female elves chattering in Russian, and one skinny pale faced human in a hooded top, his hands in his pockets...

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra sat on a table by the backstage door in an idle manner. She had a bottle of water in her hand, occasionally sipping some of it, not too bothered about the people passing though.

"Aren't you going to help?" Questioned Silvia, obviously a little stressed. The loud music and hideous uniforns wasn't doing much for anybodies spirts.

"Of course not, my dear. I'm in reserve." Tundra replied casually, sipping some more precious water. Silvia looked poised to say more, but then the dwarf came into view.

"I'm sorry sir, we can't let you and your party though without some ID." Ash said on approach. But it was not the dwarf that worried Tundra, it was the man behind the Russian Elves. She finished the bottle of water, readying herself for trouble of some kind.

[Wesforce]

"ID, eh?" Said the Dwarf. Without pause he reached into his suit jacket and witthdrew a fistful of Credsticks.

The bright ¥ Symbols caught the light magnificently as he waved them back and forth...

Cash-only credsticks. He was offering a bribe.

The hooded guy was twitching nervously. A low muttering could be heard, words slightly below hearing. Bleached-white hair could just about be seen as his hood fell back slightly. He shifted from foot to foot, and his hands were doing something in his pockets...

[Nyerguds]

"Get the sleggin' hell outta here."

The Dwarf smiled. "Oh, you want to take a look first..."
He stuck one of the credsticks towards them.

Silvia smiled, and slowly moved her hand towards the credstick.
Then, she suddenly shifted her hand into the 4 inch claw, embedded into the credstick and pulled. The dwarf quickly pulled the stick back, but he was too late. The stick snapped, and the front piece fell on the ground. Silvia shifted back immediately.

"Oops." she said, looking the dwarf straight in the eyes.

[VO]

Wearing earplugs, he could feel, rather than hear the music - all around him, the world shook shook to the beat, and the movement of thousands of fans outside only intensified this. This strange silence was tense and suffocating, like some strange, choaking tide. Despite this, Choak felt glad that he had got so far - Joining the runners had been easy, joining the bodyguards easier. Now, the target was almost in his grasp, with very little to do but wait until the perfect moment.

Luckily, he, another orc bodyguard, and the human female rigger weren't manning the fences like the majority of the runners. Security was also needed out here, on the George. W. Bush Memorial Stadium's helipad, and (in his opinion), the most weedy looking guards had been stationed up here. It wasn't anyway near as taxing as what it would be like in the hell near the stage, which suited him just fine - just colder - with any luck, he could dissapear, into the chaos below to finish his job before the end, and none would suspect a thing.

He smiled, and looked out over the expanse of blackness and bright lights that was Washington FDC. Tonight was a good night, so good that with his strong earplugs blocking the sound of the rotors, he didn't notice the sleek Aztechnology-made Monochopper until it opened fire.

[Wesforce]

The Dwarf quiled, shrinking back. He wasn't cut out for this. Seeing a 16 year old girl in a gold suit suddenly develop claws-for-hands and destroy more money than he'd make in a year...

His two female accomplices were another matter.

"Petra! Do not let the capitalist oppressors stand in the way of our mission!"

"Right!"

The two strikingly pretty elves shrugged off their cloaks in the blink of an eye. They wore silvered leotards and little else. Moving with chipped speed, they began their attack prematurely...

Before Silvia knew anything was up, she was sent sprawling sideways by a roundhouse kick to the head. Moving like a ballet dancer, 'petra' swung into an agile sweep that took Sil's legs out from under her.

The other woman rounded on Ash, who brought her hands up defensively.

"What will you do, little girl?" She smirked, making Ash make the first move.

Silvia got up. Her head felt like it was going to explode,

Click

The terrfied-lloking dwarf had flicked a swicth on his suitcase. It folded out to resemble one of those antique fold-away submachimeguns, He snapped a clip into place and pulled the charging handle.

"Boris. If she moves, kill her!" Purred Petra.

"Yes Comrade!" He quivered, but Something in Silvia's mind told her he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger in a moment's notice.

"Our Quarrel is with the Capitalist traior who calls himself 'Tyme4Cryme', not you." Petra added.

Tundra got up, and was about to act...

"AGH! AGH! OH MY GOD! I'M GOING TO DIEEEEeeeeeee!"

It was the hooded guy. She recognised him now. He was Tyme4Cryme'spersonal hairdresser. He ran to and fro, arms flailing, cutting Tundra off from the rest of the action.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Move you fragging idiot!" Screamed Tundra as the man ran around in front of her. She tried screaming again, and nothing. She tried again, but this time saw red. She concentrated, lifting one hand she aimed for the mans legs. And before anyone knew it, the man had stopped dead. Unable to run with one leg frozen, the man fell to the ground, cursing as he went.
She was about to line up for an attack on one of the elves, but she was quicker. She landed a perfect kick on Tundra's waist before she'd even had the chance to make a snowflake. But it was too late to stop the flow of cold-death from her hands, but instead of hitting the target, it hit the poor young idiot in the face. Tundra watched as he clawed and clawed, but eventually his hands fell limp and he slumped to the ground.
There was nothing else for her to do. She considered running for the door marked "Stairs", but couldn't risk the water to seal it behind her. Stuck, she gave up. She gestured to the door, as much to say "Fine, go though." then sat up on the floor and dared not move.

[Nyerguds]

SLEG!

Silvia sighed.

Well, what did you expect, Sil? Now you're here with a dwarf that's about to snap...

"Hey... c... calm down, dude..." she said, carefully, but loud enough to get over the insanely loud music. "I don't even get paid for this!"

The dwarf frowned, but didn't let down his guard.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't even be here!" she continued.

Fragging Iceman. Where's that sleghead anyway?

The dwarf looked at her, in some combination of scared sh|tless and really angry.

Deadly combination Silvia thought.

"Th.. then why didn't ya take the f-fraggin' stick!?" the dwarf asked.

"There's more in the world than money, dammit!"

Not everyone can be bought she thought... but she was pretty sure that if she said that it would be the last thing she'd ever say.

[Wesforce]

Petra nodded at Tundra, winked even.

"Boris, Natascha. We're going through."

Ash, seeing her companions relenting, and having as little motivation for this job as anyone, let Natascha slide past her.

The three went through the double doors.

"Btw, don't call ANYONE, or we start shooting in here. Thank you Comrades!"

The door slid shut and locked with an air of finality. It looked very sturdy. Ironic, as the means to seperating the rich from the riff-raff were now keeping the rich hemmed in with people with guns.

To underline that, Silvia Ash and Tundra heard a burst of Submachine gun fire, falling masnonry, and lots of screaming and shouting in Russian.

"They're just leaving us out here? Confident fraggers..."

"What do we do now?" Silvia found herself thinking...

***

At the stage, The concert was coming to a sceduled break. Tyme would go backstage for a breather. But not the guards.

The press was getting unbearable. The Air Conditioning seemed non-existant. Tank seemed less and Ork and more a writhing mass of skinny bodies.

"Hold them comrades!" Screamed Alexeiv. "HOLD THEM BACK! FOR THE MOTHERLAND!" He seemed to be having the time of his life.

Yeah right. Crystal frowned. Get a fragging grip, it's only a concert...

Then a blob of phlegm from the crowd landed right on her forehead...

[Artificial Idiot]

Without a word, Tundra got up. She straightened her dress, not bothering with her hair. It was a mess beforehand anyway. She walked over to the boy, now with an ice cast covering his face. She gave it a kick, it shattered. It wasn't a very thick layer anyway. As much as was needed to kill.

"Waste is such a terrible thing" She muttered, before grabbing another bottle of water from under her table and moving towards the door marked "stairs". She didn't intend to stay here any longer, deciding to make for the helipad on the roof. Not realising that her chances of survival were better down below.

"Where the sleg do you think your going?" Asked Silvia. Her reply was that of a door slamming.

Tundra climbed the darkened stairway, she could make out the door up above, but only just. She'd be there soon... She'd be "safe".

[VO]

Red clanged against the metal-plated air vent, fumbling for her walkie-talkie. That thing was quiet, and incredibly expensive - and due to the increasing amounts of personal aircraft in urban areas in the late 22nd century, it hadn't been seen as a threat - more like the plaything of some over-rich corporate fragger - until it had opened fire. Not many people would have something that could decapitate a large, heavily built orc, and rip furrows across the concrete roof mounted on their sportscraft.

This didn't look good.

She could saw the orc with the trenchcoat spin, suddenly aware of the monochopper, and recieve the same attention his fellow metahuman had a few seconds before. The agile aircraft raked the rooftop with bullets again, the sound of the weapon drowned out by the roar of the crowd below, and the orc just miliseconds too fast for it - clearly he'd be dead when it passed him again -he was making straight for the door down to the stairwell to backstage - past another air vent (already pockmarked from the attack), and fully across the rest of roof to his destination - a distance clearly far too great for someone who obviously wasn't a corpolympic sprinter.

Hopefully it hadn't noticed her - if it did, she'd be a gonner too.

[Wesforce]

"Well now. 'Ice' and Tundra. Isn't that funny?" Boomed an all-too-familiar voice from the shadows.

Iceman.

Tundra froze in her tracks. The hulking Russian loomed large. At his height and bulk, he certainly 'loomed'.

He had a bottle of Vodka in one hand, some rather pathetic looking flowers ion the other. Tundra hadn't seen him since the Tourbus. Maybe he'd sneaked in here just to get some vodka.

He spoke again:

"Is your uh, accomplice, Silvia around? I need to..."

His eyes narrowed down to slits.

"Why have you left your post?" He snarled.

Tundra grasped for a reply. In the end Iceman gave her one, by dint of a savage chop to the throat, leaving her on the floor in a heap and gasping for breath. Lucky. If she'd been human, she wouldn't be breathing at all by now.

"Don't get up. I told Mr J he hired too many of you fraggers. Time to make the team miore efficient..."

He walked casually towards her...

[Artificial Idiot]

The problem with people like Iceman is, they are far too confident. His casual walk was so slow, it gave Tundra the time to undo the lid of her bottle and fill her mouth with water. If this worked, she could get away with this without hurting anybody. And if it didn't, she could get away without hurting herself.

"Heh, Good night you green skinned runt" Iceman ranted in drunken rage. He picked up Tundra until she was face height, just what she had been expecting. And in a very undinified display, spat the water in his face.

"Seems the tables have turned my dear, for I can touch you faster then you can crush me." She smiled at him. Iceman's snarling face was now covered in the traits of uncertainty. "Now may I ask why you are not at your post? Hanging about on a stairway is no place for our valiant leader. And myself? I am merely sending a message to the people on the helip..."

For the first time Tundra heard it. Gun fire on the roof. Iceman heard it too, he dropped Tundra, looking up towards the door.

"Ok runt, point made... but next time." Muttered Iceman as he listened in. "Now be a good little girl and follow me, on the double!"

"Yes Sir!" Said Tundra, with only a hint of sarcasum.

[VO]

No time...

Choak reached out his warped astral prescence, opening himself the Chaso. The spirit being took in the situation, and took over the orc.

The frail physical body took the next bullets, as they tore through his coat and ripped into flame. Inside the trenchcoat his body whooshed upwards from it's smouldering feet in an inferno of magic, into flame. Shots clanged against the door to the shaft.

Whoosh.

For Choak, it felt like an eternity - actually, it was a second as the flames rushed across the rootop. Then the orc rematerialised, smoking, beside the doorway, his hands on the handle, ripping it open, and scorching the wood.

He barelled into the sanctum, down the stairs to the first landing, and collapsed, his sweat evaporating in hazy clouds. He coughed up blood, which boiled off the ground almost instantaniously. His footprints had left ash on the stairs.

Having to do that was NOT good.

[Artificial Idiot]

As Iceman ran to the last landing before the door to the roof, he stopped. Tundra stopped behind him, she couldn't see what he was looking at over his quite large frame, but she could make out green skin. An Ork.

"What's happened, let me see!" Tundra insisted. Iceman moved out the way, still unsure weather he shouls disagree. "Oh, it's him." Tundra muttered, a bit of distaste. The Ork who had played bodyguard for her in the line. Still, she had to help. But she had to get that Russian idiot out of the way first.

"Carry on ahead, I'll stay here and look after him." Iceman obviously didn't need an excuse, he wanted to be up there anyway. When she thought Iceman was far out of sight and mind,she turned the Ork over with great effort.
She was quite surprised with what she saw, while trying to get Iceman away and what with all the suddeness of finding him, Tundra hadn't even noticed he was half naked. She tried not to blush, but she was already quite red before she'd given it any thought.

"Erm... Are you ok M... ARGH!" She began before recoiling in pain. She had place a hand on his forehead, not knowing that he was boiling hot. The Ork stared up at her, almost blankly. Blinded by pain... or maybe exhustion. "I'm going to try and cool you down ok?" She said, not knowing what else to do other then stay calm and look at his face.

She ripped a piece of cloth from her dress, soaking it with cool water from her bottle, still half full and placed it on his forehead, it hissed on contact.

"Ugh..." The Ork groaned, before going into another coughing fit. He tried to get up, but at her own risk, Tundra pushed him back down. He was cooling, that was for sure. But to touch him still made her hands sting.

"Not too fast dear, not too fast." Tundra whispered, trying to be reassuring. She then removed the cloth from his head, soaked it again and placed it back on. More hissing, but it came on slower this time.

"Have... to move." Choak spluttered.

"We will soon dear, don't worry." She said, still telling herself to keep her eyes on his face. She then heard something that worried her, it sounded like Iceman, only he was screaming. "Frag that, we have to move!"

[Master Chris]

Rusty wasn't pleased. Holding back the swarming fans had been a less than dignified duty, Alexiev certainly didn't seem to mind though. That mute, Crystal, certainly seemed to know her business. She knew how to take care of herself, Rusty could see that, as well as taking care of anybody who dared to cross her. It was then Rusty saw a trail of greenish-brown arc through the air and land on Crystal's forehead. He winced. It was a disgusting thing to do, spit on another person.

Rusty, having been a chopper pilot all of his adult life, was able to hear a familar sound over the cacophony that was the concert and screaming fans. A monochopper. Always interested in such things, Rusty craned his neck and followed the craft as it made it's way over to the designated Helipad. A beautiful craft, built for civillian specifications, with lovely performance and an efficient powerplant. Yet, something seemed odd. Rusty kept watching the Monochopper. There was a professional at the helm of that bird, Rusty could tell. It dawned upon him that the Monochopper wasn't about to land but was in a prime position to initiate a strafing run upon the Helipad, then Rusty noticed a pair of non-standard pods slung along the craft's fuselage. Weapons. He tried to call out a warning but, having neglected his crowd control duty, was buried in a cascade of screaming fans....

***

"At least I don't have to suffer those frightful heathens, screaming for more gibberish."

Jessica remarked to herself quietly, as she critically examined her fingernails in boredom. She had been lumped with the job of ensuring nobody took advantage of the free buffet backstage. While there was the advantage of not being stuck outside with the crowd this job wasn't pleasant either. Most people who acknowledged her presence at the buffet table either made a pass at her or scoffed at her gold uniform and insulted her, thinking she was just another hired goon. If these fraggers knew I had once been at the helm of the greatest airbourne carrier in history they'd change their tune." She thought, disgusted with the world, as usual.

It was then things got substantially more interesting for ex-lieutenant Hayes.

Three people strode, full of purpose, past her table. Two were elvish women, wearing skin tight leotards and sporting the bodies to do them justice. A dwarf waddled behind them, he looked nervous. Somewhat jealous, Jessica silently belittled the two women; Probably freshmeat for that filthy rapper, and their pimp looks like a complete wimp. She was about to return her attention to her emery board when she saw the dwarf whip his arm up, along with a compact weapon of sorts, and spray loud, metallic death in the general direction of Tyme4Cryme's personal entourage!

After a moment of confusion people began to scream, scatter and suffer. The dwarf kept pouring lead into the entourage while the two elves cartwheeled to each flank and began attacking stragglers in deadly close combat. Hayes stood there, transfixed by what she was seeing. While the dwarf certainly wasn't one to be trifled with, having a high powered SMG, the two women were carving through the crowd with alarming speed, obviously they were chip-enhanced. With deadly precision and group cooperation they forced their way towards Tyme4Cryme's refuge.

Suddenly aware of the threat posed to her own well being, Jessica gripped the buffet table, heaved and tipped it on its side. The bowls of food slipped off the table and shattered on the floor, drawing attention to Jessica inadvertantly. The dwarf's SMG chattered and bullets thumped into table, bored their way through the thin material and shot their way into the wall. Hayes, by now, had flattened herself against the floor and was hugging the cold tiles for dear life. Thankfully, she wasn't hit by the burst of fire the dwarf had sent screaming her way. Hayes just lay there, waiting for it to end. She could hear Russian cursing as the gunfire continued....

(Yeah, didn't seem to place Hayes' assignment in anyone else's posts so I gave her one that wasn't plot critical. S'all good? Edit: Had some problems with Italics.)

[Wesforce]

The firing stopped abruptly, and Jessica overheard furious cursing in Russian. One of the women was violently scolding Boris the Dwarf fr flying off the handle and attacking prematurely. The three had between them managed to kill just about everyone that had drawn a weapon, and a few dozen more besides. But then, Russian Mafia were never really known for subtlety.

And then, astonishingly, they sat down to wait, eating some of the spiced cakes and collecting weapons up as the survivors whimpered.

***

Time4Cryme had left the stage, heading back to the backstage area for a bit of a rest. As soon as he did, the crowd redoubled their efforts to storm the stage.

Frag this. If he's not staying, nor am I. Thought Crystal. It looked to her like the concert was over anyway. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

No sign of Tank, or any of the others, but she reasoned they could take care of themselves.

She had noticed Rusty going down, however...

Jumping in heavily with both feet, she got the jump on the maddened fans. She got a bit worried when she saw scraps of gold material in their teeth,...

***

Rusty was suffocating.

Blood, sweat, tears, cheap beer and the smell of teenage rap fans was never a good combination. When you're being crushed down into a puddle by dozens of the sweatiest, gobbiests and most intoxicated of those fans, it somehow gets worse.

Then he saw the light, and it was blue.

***

*Splash*

"Where am I?" Gasped Rusty. Breuifly examining himself, he was okay but for bruised ribs, torn clothing, scracthes, and general filthiness.

Crystal shrugged. She knew she was somewhere near the backstage area. She'd dragged Rusty out of there, suing her security pass to get here where the fans couldn't reach. They were completely out of control now, most of them taking out their zip-guns for a bit of a traditional after-gig shootout.

She could just about make out the pathetic 'phut' of the home-made 'pipe-guns' now, and maybe the odd shot or two from a real handgun.

Someone was shouting and screaming in Russian, too.

***

Iceman was screaming.

Screaming in delight, that is, as was his wont. When he saw the monochopper, he knew his tip-off had been well-received. He considered it a masterstroke, killing two birds with one stone, playing both sides off against the middle and other clever phrases he'd picked up from western 3DTV virtualshows.

He'd suggested getting the 'runners this job as a cover. Doing so, he could make sure they were all where they were needed... Or not.

Fondly imagining the payment he'd be receiving soon, he realised that whoever the Vory had sent wouldn't know his face, so it'd be best to remain out of sight.

He slammed the door on the Helipad and barreled back down the stairs.

That Ork bitch was there. For playing with later. She'd been staring at the floor. He took her by surprise.

"Ugh!" He grunted, ramming into her, punching her full in the face, knocking ehr frail form into deep unconsiousness easily and scooping her up under his arm in one fluid motion while still holding his Vodka. He thought he heard something from what looked like a pile of burnt rags on the floor. The smell of burning flesh made his moth water, but he would get food later. He ran for the doors to backstage and crashed through them too without stopping.

Frag. Two more of them. Time to play the leader again... He thought, seeing Crystal and Rusty.

"We gotta move back to the Bus! I'll cover you!" He yelled, totally at ease with the cliches therein.

[Master Chris]

Rusty struggled to his feet, more than ready to leave. If Iceman wanted to get the frag out Rusty did not any problem with that. Then he remembered something, he paused and spoke;

"Wait...What about the other Russian, ummm, ya know? Alexiev? And..and, the ork, Tank."

Crystal nodded, her way of agreeing, nobody was going to be left behind. Iceman narrowed his eyes at the mention of Alexiev but kept playing the role of the valiant leader.

"You're right. We'll find them, last known location?"

Rusty looked at Crystal, she looked back and shrugged. Rusty spoke on her behalf;

"Last we saw, they were still on crowd control backstage. Hey, what happened to her?"

Rusty gestured at Tundra, the ork girl in Iceman's arms. Iceman hefted her mass and looked down at her.

"She....met with an accident on the rooftop helipad."

Suddenly remembering, Rusty blurted out;

"Monochopper! I forgot to tell you, I saw one. It had gu-"

"You're behind the times, I already know that. Just get up and find the others. I'll get this one to the bus. Be there in 10 minutes or I'll leave you here."

With that Iceman jogged away. Rusty dusted himself off and spat blood.

"Sheila, I tell ya, that bloke has some problems, reckon he'll fly the coop without us?"

Crystal didn't know.

***

"Da. This food is excellent."

One of the elven women commented, foraging through the spilt buffet.

"Mmmhmmm. Bedder dan duh fud ah hum"

The other replied, her mouth full of spice cake. The first one came to the upturned buffet table, clucked disapprovingly and began to right the table. She saw Jessica Hayes lying on the floor behind it, eyes shut tight.

"Well well, another survivor. Hello little one."

The elf then called out;

"Natascha, we are having another one over here!"

"Well, put her with the others, Petra."

The elf, apparently called Petra, helped Jessica to her feet and walked her over to where the other, unarmed survivors were. Petra whispered comforting words and assured them that they only wanted the rapper, Tyme4Cryme. Petra spoke to Jessica;

"Your clothes. They are the same as the other guards. If you promise not to make trouble you will live, da?"

Jessica nodded, knowing that even if she wanted to there was nothing she could do against two cyber-enhanced assassins and a gun toting dwarf.

[LeFire]

Ash was working her way slowly but surely through the crowd, forcing her way through with a surrounding aura of heat and well-aimed blows to clavicles with a riot truncheon. Occasional gropers and perverts got harsher treament... They littered her wake, 3rd degree burns blackening their stumps before they were crushed underfoot by the crowd. She was making a path to Tank, a landmark among in the crowd whom she knew was close to where Chance was.

Ducking a thrown fan that went hurtling past her ear, Ash suddenly found herself picked up by a huge fist... Only the sight and memory of her scarlet hair managed to penetrate Tank's mind in time to prevent him from tossing her after the airborne youth. Some screamed conversation and rather frantic groping later, they picked up Chance, who had been buried and nearly suffocated in the mess.

It was time to beat a retreat... With Tank bodily bowling a path with tossed fans, the trio retreated to the backstage area. Ash caught a glimpse of blue hair disappearing through a security door and urged her companions towards it, hoping to warn Crystal about the gunfire that she had heard inside the backstage area...

[Wesforce]

Iceman stopped and pulled a rag out of his pocket. He dropped Tundra with a *thump*. Then he tied the rag onto her as a blindfold.

Spetznats lessons in securing magic users:
1) Blindfold them: They can't cast spells at what they can't see

2) Gag them: So they cant incant for their spells. Better still: Wire their mouths together.

3) Break their concentration. Loud undulating noises are good.

4) Rip off their arms and legs.

Iceman didn't think he'd do part 4 just yet... But he did stop to pick up an MP5 player from the bus. He pressed play, and affixed the hearing trodes to Tundra's head with duct tape wrapped many times around her head and eyes, leaving only her mouth free.

***

Crystal and Rusty hadn't seen this. Ash had come in behind them, with Iceman leading from the front.

Ash told Crystal and Rusty about the developing gunfight. Crystal tried to reassure her that such a thing wasn't so uncommon at rap gigs, but she had trouble persuading her. Maybe it was the fact that she had to type everything out on an ePad.

"What shall we do now?" The question was posed, by Silvia, who came out from under the table she'd been under when Iceman came in.

"Well, I guess we and our comrades head back to the bus, check on Tyme4Cryme...Ah..."

Then they realised, or rather Rusty did.

"We've got friends out in that riot still! What'll we do without our Deckers?"

[VO]

The monocopter made one more circle of the helipad, failed to see anyone, and landed, it's rotors kicking up the coat of the dead orc, and blowing Red's hair across her face. From her position, she hadn't been noticed, and hoped it would stay that way. When whoever it was had opened the door, outlined in light for a split second, she had considered making a run for it, but thought better of it, as they could be helping whoever was in the chopper, or just as bad, her dash across the open 'pad would get her torn to pieces like both orcs.

Frag it, no-where to run

She considered for a moment trying to open the air duct, but knew that it wasn't much of a better option - for all she knew, there could be a giant fan deep below, ready to chop her up into parts small enough to be tinned.

And I'm thinking clearly, whoa.

The black aircraft's two roof-hinged doors slid open, their Aztechnology logo visible from her slightly obscured hiding place, the rigger could see inside. Room for about 10 people, packed up real tight, she guessed - maybe less if they had any junk in there. It looked like there was one passenger, and whoever was flying the thing. The passenger was clearly a trogg - huge frame, little head silhouetted in the light from the other side of the pad. Probably not a nice guy.

A voice, thick Russian accent, drifted across.

"Da, we have another wun there. Comrade Jolly, be sorting sorting it out, and secure the door. "

[Nyerguds]

(it's spelled "pieces", VO :rolleyes: )

Alanya was completely lost in the crowd. She knew the best way not to get trampled was to go in the same direction... but she didn't see any of the other guys around.

"Frag." she grumbled. She didn't even hear herself saying it in the deafening yelling Cryme's of fans.

Gotta reach the backstage entrance... I know there are some of our people there.
She knew it would be relatively easy, seeing that the crowd was going in thet direction.
Then she realized the error in her plan.

Frag! Then we'll all be caught in this mess!

I gotta get to the side, and fast. Where the frag is that Tank guy?

Alanya was pretty heavily built, but having spent more time in the Matrix than on the streets she lacked Tank's brutal power. And that was exactly what she needed to get out of this mess...

What am I even doing here? I'm a fragging decker!

[Artificial Idiot]

He sat in the uncomfortable chair of the Monocopter, that was way too small for him. Much like everything was. They had just landed, and even though he had enjoyed the display that was the gunfight to the point of almost smashing the skull of the man sitting next to him with an uncontrolable fist, he was happy for it. He looked himself up and down, quite a change from the old days. He had weapons, not just what he could salvage when he salvaged it, but weapons on hand. He also had grenades, grenades were his friends. His body was also impressive, he was amazed at what the physical training installed by these Russian's had done to him since he left Scotsprawl. He stood up, almost taking half the roof with him and barely got out of the door.

"Are you ready, Comrade Jolly?" Said the one only known as his "Minder". She had saved him from Transys, and had no Russian accent. Which disturbed Jolly for some reason. Of course, she wasn't really here. He just imagined it in his head, sort of like what she would say had she have been here. Another unwanted side effect of being around her too long.

"Ya, Juz' lemme at 'em." He replied, slowly making his way to where Red was stationed. He remembered his Orders, he was not to kill anybody unless they resisted. The target was the Dwarf Rapper, and him alone.

"Yoo dere, State yer bussinez!" Jolly demeanded, which was hard to do as a Troll. The force in action was there, but the words just didn't come out right. Red said nothing. "Luk, Ah dun't wanna hurt ya, so jus' promize if ah leave ya 'ere. Ya'll do nothin', k?"

Jolly waited absentmindly for a responce, examining the contents of his right ear as he did so.

[VO]

The trogg was huge. Abso-fragging-huge. So huge that if he held up an arm, a frieght train could have ran underneath. So huge he'd give tank a run for his money.
Red was cornered. She knew this, and desperately looked for an escape, finding none. And the absurd offer of escape seemed like some kind of trap - although what could a troll this stupid actually come up with, without some kind of cranial implant?

She gulped, which the monster seemed to take as some kind of response, and turned away, making for the doorway. Red watched as the impressive arsenal of weapons on the beast glinted in the artificial light. There was no way she was going up against something like that, even if the fact that his train of thought was probably still boarding several stations back would give her a distinct speed advantage.

He reached the door, and huge fingers groped for the control. He didn't find it, so instead he dug his fingers into the metal, and simply ripped it off, peering inside like a child.
The smell of burnt flesh drifted across to her, the troll realising it at the same time, despite being much, much closer than her.
"Ooo! Smellz just like momma cooked!" He troll, as if lead by his nose, ambled into the small atrium before the first flight of stairs.

Red saw her chance, and took it. With the element of suprise, she should be able to dodge the thing, and make it down the stairs - it seemed far preferable to her than waiting for the inevitable execution - and in the confines of the stairwell the trogg wouldn't be able to use it's explosives, and the monochopper was landed at too obtuse an angle for it to be able to get her, without lifting off again - something that, as a rigger, she knew wouldn't be possible in the short time to cross the gap.

She knelt, leapt up, and made for the door, just as the bursts of bright, scorching light and the surprised screams of the monstrous troll erupted from the damaged doorway.

[Artificial Idiot]

It was a while before Jolly finally uncovered his eyes, and this was only at the screaming of the mono Piolet, some frantic Russian Jolly didn't understand. Only then did he realise that he wasn't hurt at all.

"Wot 'appened?" He asked the piolet.

"Dere vos a show of light by a mage, an' then, the prisoner was gone." Explained the Russian.

"Ah see... We go afta 'er?" Asked Jolly, his stunned state really putting his speech off. Or even more so. The Russian just shook his head, then told him to sercure the door. Our friends back stage will take care of them.

With this in mind, Jolly marched down the stairs, almost snapping everyone as his giant feet hit them. He grabbed his gun, even though he wasn't ordered to kill... he felt safer with a weapon.

"'old on, Ah kan 'ere people... Someone 'as been past 'ere recently..." Jolly concentrated on the sound. "Sound's like dey ar' goin' outside... But maybe dey didn't make it."

"Dey 'ave an automobile maybe?" Said the Russian beside him. "Dey may 'ave saw our forces and dey stop?"

Jolly pondered this. Then just shrugged.

"Problee." He replied.

***

Blind and deafened, the only thing she could feel was Iceman's tightly bound muscles between her. Tundra had been caught out, and she was pissed off. Nobody had ever caught her out, if there was something she couldn't magic her way out of, she could always talk her way out of it. At least she was comfortable in her blue dress. It wasn't the best she owned, but it was her favorite. And very comfortable. The length of it protecting her modesty from what could be Iceman's prying eyes, until they stopped moving.
The music thumped though her head, it was the Time4Cryme trash. It gave her a dreadful headache, no matter how much she tried to ignore it. She tried to focus on Iceman's moving patterns, but found the only thing she could do was grap her Snowflake necklace. She felt she should shout, but couldn't... She wished the Ork was here. She didn't know him, she wasn't sure she'd caught his name, but he owed her one... and had helped her in the line. That she secretly apprciated.
Tundra always acted the self-supporting, independant woman. But she sometimes got lonly... like everyone. There were times where she wanted somebody who would... look out for her? Put an arm around her when she was upset, maybe? Somebody to... dare she say it, love? But, coming back to reality. When Iceman eventually killed her, the fragging sicko he was! She doubted she'd get the chance... she'd never be cared for, just die a hermit in her own right. She sighed, running though more depressing thoughts just t take her thoughts off this racket that people called music! But there and then, she decided one thing. She'd NEVER show fear, She wouldn't give anybody the pleasure. Especially not this evil Russian.

[Wesforce]

Just then new bursts of gunfire erupted from the VIP area as Crystal, Rusty and Sil pondered their course of action.

Crystal moved to the heavy door. She hard dozens of people screaming, and then a full-blown gunfight erupted. The door was securely shut, and wouldn't budge.

"Fraggin' ell, mate!" Rusty realised. "They're doin' one on Tyme4Cryme!"

"We can't do anything, not without weapons." Crystal typed.

"I AM a weapon!" Silvia said, a bit smugly.

Crystal pointed at her, and then at the entryway to the concerthall, mimed punching her fist into her open palm a few times, and then flapping her arms.
She looked at SIlvia and pointed her finger to her temple, right where a Datajack would be. Then she pointed at Ash and indicated in time-honoured military hand-signals to 'cover' Sil.

Next she grabbed Rusty and dashed out the door, to the Tourbus, hoping Iceman had left it open.

It was, not for long.

She and Rusty just glimpsed Iceman's face as he slammed the door.

Frag. What now? Maybe we could beat up some of those kids and nick their guns... Crystal thought. Smiling, liking the idea.

She dragged Rusty back. They were going to follow Sil and Ash...

***

Up on the roofpad, having disgorged it's main passenger, the Monocopter began the secondary role assigned to it.

Lifting gracefully, with a pronounced tilt, the sleek vehicle lined itself up with the three tourbuses lined up out the back.

Two figures (undistinguished orange blobs to the Rigger-pilot's thermographic sensor-eyes) sprinted away from the parking area, seconds before the monochopper opened up with it's weaponry. With hardly any noize, the first vehicle was turned into so much gold-filings by a stream of 5mm Sabot rounds that rammed through it like it was paper.

"DIE, Capitalist vehicle!!!" Yelled the rigger. The pilot switched to bus 2...

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra could feel the wind. They were outside, he was taking her to the tour bus! She couldn't let him do that, locked away with that maniac he could do anything to her! ANYTHING!As she heard the door of the tourbus click behind her, She panicked and in a very strange moved for her, started to scream and frail. The Russian just laughed, as if he had got the result he had wanted from her at last. But he soon stopped laughing. In fact, he let out a small groan. She couldn't belive it, but she'd caught him between the legs! Now she needed to run, and fast! She made for the door of the bus, slamming it in Iceman's wake. It was a shame she had not the energy to freeze it shut, nor the concentration for that matter.
She lept from his crumpled form, running blindly in the direction of the door. Unable to see her footing,she almost tripped over her dress several times. It wasn't good for running, Tundra rarely wasted the enery. She ripped at the duct tape frantically with he nails, not hearing the snap as many of them broke. She eventually freed herself from the MP5 player and that infernal music was gone. But she was still blind, and Iceland was taking up the chase.
She ran, until she felt the wall, the growling pants of Icemand following her. She needed to find the door, once she was inside, well she didn't know! Maybe the Russian's would shoot her before the fragging maniac got his hands on her! At last she found it, and while Iceman's breath nearly don't the back of her neck, flung it open and ran inside.

And in all the commotion, she was positive she heard something explode behind her. Although in her blind state she wouldn't have seen anything, she was willing to bet she knew what it was.

***

Jolly plodded into the VIP area. The back stage door was here, and there were signs of an obvious conflict. He could smell the perfume of Petra here, ah dear sweet Petra. A troll like him would never stand a chance with her, but she had fueled many a happy dream. He smiled as he saw the bullet holes in the walls, almost wishing he made himself had made them.

"Ve should watch the back door, ya? Make sure no one get in?" Said the Russian, Jolly nodded absent mindedly and followed him. He caught a glance of something he didn't want to see, people. People he had seen fora moment in Transys, well he recognised the faces. But couldn't give a name to any.

"Oi!" he yelled. "Wot yoo doin' 'ere?"

He was about to get a reply, when Tundra made her alarmed entrance. She hadn'tlong followed Crystal and Rusty in, but they probably had thier minds on other things and hadn't seen her. When she realised there were people in the room, she drew herself back up to full height and stood proudly. They could be the Russian's for all she knew, but you had to die proud if nothing else.

"Erm..." Jolly began, but then regained his senses. "Git yer 'ands up motha fraggaz! Ah've bin ordered not to 'urt ya. But any resinstance and ah'll 'ave to open fire." The piolet followed him, pistol drawn.

"Ve jus' vant Tyme4Cryme, Nobody need get hurt." The Russian insisted. He was shaking, he was weak. He was a rigger, not a fighter. There was an advantage to be had here.

[Wesforce]

Crystal put her hands up instantly - The Troll carried a gun. A BIG FRAGGING gun - A n IWS-Made Light Machinegun, ammo belt snaking around to the bullet box on his hip, heavy Troll-sized hand and foregrips. Someone his size and strength would be able to control the beast of a gun easily, even while standing and firing full-auto.

Crystal had an idea.

She held up her e-pad, indicating that she wanted to type something for him.

"We gotz no time for playin' games, girlie." He grunted.

Crystal sighed, but ever-helpful, Rusty picked up for her.

"G'day mate, we're, uh, just the toilet attendants, see?" He said, indicating the gold tiger-striped suits they all wore. "And our mates are out there-" He jerked his thumb out at the concert hall, where the occasional gunshot still popped. "Appreciate a little -"

The rest of the plan was cut off as stray rounds from the strafing outside flicked through walls and doors at stupidly high velocities.

***

The bullets the Monochopper was firing would have shredded an APC or light tank's armour. They shredded the tourbuses in short order, too, and sure there was fluid leaking everywhere from the cracked Hydrogen fuel cells, and Bus 3 was quietly burning in a heap with a translucent blue hydrogen flame.

Flushed with success, the chopper decided to give the building a quick good hosing too, remembering the figures he's seen. Firing at a controlled rate of 2500rpm, he took one pass before going back in to land.

Bullets passed through everyhting - Stadium wall, people in the crowd, tables, chairs, fire extinguishers, pictures of George W Bush - With alacrity.

***

Everyone had ducked for cover the moment the attack had begun, aside from Silvia (who was too young and inexperienced of combat), and Jolly, who didn't quite realise what was going on.

Crystal got up from the floor. Someone was screaming, harsh, shrilly. The noise seemed to go through her head. It was Silvia, holed through the chest and left arm. Relatively nice, neat round holes though, not the bloody messes that would have been left by hollowpoints.

Jolly had a flesh wound through the left arm. Nothing major, just tissue damage. Just enough to piss him off into reflexively clamping his trigger down...

The weapon let out a heavy thundering roar, sounding more like an artillery barrage in the tight space than a Lightmachinegun. Shredded links fountained to the floor. Bullets sprayed - Into the ceiling.

Iceman stood before him, wrenching the gun away from Jolly's one-handed firing stance, a viciously-sharpened entrenching tool in his hand..

***

Iceman knew he had to silence that Tundra bitch right now. Her miraculous escape had pissed him off some. He wasn't going to take half measures any more.

He ran for the room, reflexively hugging the floor as his supposed friend in the monochopper almost tore him end to end with his minigun.

A huge jet of heat behind him marked the end of one of the tourbuses. Not the one he was in. Luckily, Hydrogen fuel-cells don't explode as badly as the old petrol engines used to, either.

But then he heard Silvia, screaming, enterred the back room, saw her there, shot and in pain, and a Troll, with a gun.

He knocked the long gun aside before the Troll saw him, screamed Silvia's name loud enough to shatter eardrums, and plunged his Spetznatz-issue entrenching tool (his favoured edged-weapon) with both hands, straight into the Troll's chest, between the hardened pectorals.

***

Tyme4Cryme dashed through the double doors, Petra Natascha and Boris hot on his stubby heels. He'd barely escaped, and his guards and lackeys had paid with their lives to allow him room to escape.

He was behind Jolly, just as Iceman slammed home his opinions of him...

The panickling Rigger rounded on Tyme, too.

"YOU'RE-"

The man was dead before he hit the ground, Tyme's Mac-10 jumped in his hand as 10 rounds were gone in under a second.

"I have just PWNED YOUR BLACK ASS COMRADE!" He yelled triumphantly.

[Artificial Idiot]

Jolly looked down at the wound the enraged Russian had left. It was true he'd suffered worse, but this one was quite nasty. He'd need to get it looked at. Bullets from the Monochopper continued to zip by, some hitting him in various places. He'd experianced mass bullet holes at Transys, luckily the Russian's had patched them up quite well. It took him awhile to realise what had happened, and the Russian was now beating against his body, kicking, punching and screaming as he tried to down the Troll in a futile effort.
Jolly pulled the tool from his cheast, taking a few deep breathes. He'd orginally rejected Armour underneath his black, armless vest. But now he saw it had saved his life. He still had another minor flesh wound where it had pushed his armour into his skin. It hurt like hell, as did all the wounds he had taken. But his cyber-wear, strengh and possibly ignorance to his injuries made sure he was still standing. He grunted at Iceman.

"Dat weren't vary nice!" He yelled, giving the Russian a swift smack around the head. "Dis is yoorz" He dropped the entrenching tool at Iceman's feet.

He turned to see the Dwarf Tyme run past. He drew two pistols from his belt, he didn't know what they were, it didn't matter, they were weapons.

"'old it right there fraargh!" The seriousness of Jolly's wounds had caught up with him. He slumped onto the floor, allowing Iceman to run past to his friend "Silvia". Tyme ran past him, to the so called toilet attendants. It looked like he'd failed, but he might be able to swing onto the winning side... If any side won after this.

***

Tundra was still blinded, in the confusion nobody had removed the duct tape from around her eyes. Although, the bullet that connected with her shoulder was enough for her to tell what was going on. Iceman was gone too, that was a relif. She formed a plan in her mind, it was rather limited though. It was to lay low until everything calmed down.
She then remebered the stairs, the Ork on the stairs! Where was he? He could be vunrable to all the gun fire and chaos that was unknown to Tundra's eyes. But she could not go back, not now. She made for the nearest wall and awaited the outcome.

[CKW]

Guess what... I am back!!


"HUUUUGHHH!!!!"

Alexeiv let out a soft yell, when he found out his head was on a sink and he was running out of oxygen. As a result he had raised his head. Quickly.

He was regaining his sight. The crowd...
He remembered the fight, the hordes coming toward and toward him...
And again and again, with fierce strength repelling them. But they came too many in a short amount of time.
And then, darkness. He was under a human waste pyramid...Too much pressure... to run away... choking slowly... two hands... pulling him out...
Two hands?

He looked at the figure that was staring at his back. He had realised throughout the half-broken mirror. He realised where he was now. A toilette. It was strangely empty... because of the blocked door. The figure stood tall... and started to speak to him.

"Hell, Alex! What jobs do you take! Rap fan crowds... uh... I would rather hunt a dragon with an SlingShot. Take a look at this! I have even been bitten!

"Behemoth." Alex recognized the bulky and slightly weird looking ork. Yes. He had been one of Dragon´s buddies.

"Yes, Alex. I dragged you toward here and blocked the door."

Alex firmly asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Briefing you. It is not necessary that you meet Crystal now. Eva decoded the stuff. She knows exactly what, and what is used for."

"Understood... but..."

"You still want to do the job, eh?" The bulky ork gave a wink. "Precisely, i brought some goodies to you."

Alexeiv opened the bundle. His eyes went pleasantly wide when he saw the package. A full ninja uniform... Hell it was better than the ridiculus looking pants that the Rusky dwarf gave to him. He put them on in no time, pleased to have some decent looking now. He also saw the SOCOM pistol with laser sight and suppressor. And a katana.

The katana. A tear dropped through his cheek. It had been of his mother. His mother´s katana...

"Wow... I am..." He could not say it."...impressed."

"Enjoy while it lasts, pal. Now, lets get out of here..." The ork pointed out.

[Wesforce]

Tyme4Cryme managed to get some breath back, now he was shielded from Impending doom by a few taller human bodies.

He started yelling to the nearest gold-suit he could see...

"Comrades! 20,000 of your Capitalist Nuyen if you protect until I finish gig! But be wary! My enemies are here, but hiding. It is as if they take cover under carpet, dog!"

[Master Chris]

"Oh man, not good! This is not good!"

Rusty got up, he jogged over to the prone Silvia, she had been struck by at least two bullets from the monochopper's chaingun. Once in the arm, not too bad. The real worry was her chest wound, the entry wound was clean though. That was a plus. The girl moaned, her eyes screwed shut in agony. Rusty's hands fumbled over her jacket, he wanted to tend to her wounds but he lacked proper medical experience and didn't feel comfortable removing her gold jacket, she was, after all, a teenage girl. Crystal, after collecting Jolly's pistols, parked herself beside Rusty. She saw that Rusty wasn't going to act effectively, pushed him to one side, and handed him a pistol. He understood.

"Yeah, I'll, umm, keep the blighters off yer back, mate."

Iceman, who had made his way over after Jolly had fallen, looked at Crystal and barked;

"You know what you are doing, girl?"

Crystal nodded but didn't take her eyes off Silvia. Iceman picked up Silvia's arm and caressed it softly. It would have been a touching scene if Iceman wasn't a perverted psychopath...

Rusty looked at Tyme and shrugged.

"Ya wanna pay us 20,000 Nuyen to keep your hide safe till the end of your gig, huh?

The rapping dwarf replied;

"Da, comrade. Keep mofos from crampin' my style and I give 20,000...each."

It was then that Boris, Petra and Natascha appeared. Boris pointed at Tyme and yelled in Russian, Petra silenced him with a wave and then spoke in broken english;

"We vant dwarf,Tyme4Cryme, you all are free to live but if you are trying to stop us you vill die."

Rusty, the closest to Tyme, looked at his newfound pistol and weighed up the odds. 20,000 Nuyen says I risk my neck. But I don't stand a chance against those three, what to do? He looked at Tyme, who was staring back at him, snarling. Tyme's Mac-10 looked menacing, Rusty suspected that if he surrendered to the Russians he'd cop a handful of lead in the back from the rapping dwarf as payback. Yet, not surrendering to the Russians was probably as lethal. Rusty couldn't decide.

Iceman put Silvia's arm down and stood up, he hadn't wanted to confront the Vory at this time but there was little choice.

"If we give you the dwarf will you leave us be to treat our wounded?"

The elf woman nodded.

"Da, we vant only traitor."

Iceman stepped over the prone Silvia and boomed;

"Then the choice is easy-"

He paused, and then his eyes narrowed. He saw something behind the Russians.

***

Jessica had quietly followed the Russian's as they had chased Tyme from the backstage ready room. She had acquired an SMG of sorts from a victim of Boris' massacre, the previous owner's blood still dripping from the barrel. She had kept her distance as they made their way to the VIP area, waiting and watching them as they conversed in rapid Russian. They had all frozen after Monochopper rounds had perforated the building. As they came to the VIP area they confronted the other runners, asking only for the rapper. Then Iceman had started bargaining with them.

"Then the choice is easy-"

He spotted Hayes, his eyes narrowed as he coldly calculated the possibilities implied by Jessica's presence behind the Russians. Iceman grinned broadly. A surprise, but certainly not unwelcome. Perfect. Iceman knew now that the three Russian mobsters couldn't be allowed to return having seen his face, he addressed them in a patronising voice;

"If you were to look behind you right now you would notice one of my agents weilding a high powered weapon. Notice that in front of you are myself, my men and Tyme, all of whom are armed. You shall not be taking the traitor, Tyme, back to whatever hellhole you reside in. In fact, getting out alive is all you can hope for."

Iceman paused, letting his statement sink in and be digested. One of the Russian women looked behind her to confirm Hayes' presence and spoke quickly and quietly to the others. Iceman laughed and spoke again;

"In fact, I am thinking you can't even hope for leaving this room alive!"

(Nice to see ya CKW. Heh, boyz, I am hoping what I've written isn't completely contrary to what comrades Wes and teh Voes have planned. Will edit if asked.)

[Wesforce]

"You should not speak so soon, comrade." Said Natascha, twisting her powder-pale face into a cruel smile. "Not while our friend up there holds everyone in this building to ransom. Sill, hehe, I think we match for you in combat easily."

She meant the monochopper, of course, still to be heard faintly, though it had stopped shooting.

Just then, Iceman came up with a masterstroke of an idea.

"This Dwarf offers us 20,000 Nuyen for his safe return. Better that, and you've got a deal."

This caused some debate among the Russians.

"We would have to consult our... Others." Petra spoke, not being entirely encouraged by the grin on Iceman's face that resulted.

"Naturally. We will hold The Traito, um, 'Tyme4Cryme' until that time. And to keep our side of the bargain, we would offer you... A hostage."

At that, a wave of the hand indicating Tundra.

More discussion, before Petra spoke.

"Deal. ve take Ork bitch and make telecall. You stay here and do not leave building. Any unlawful move, Ork dies. Agree?"

"Yes." Iceman spoke, not giving anyone else a chance.

"Leave. Now. And take Troll and dead idiot with you."

He gave his Runners a steel glare, with his massive arms up to try and block any move they may make.

The two women dragged Tundra and Jolly outside, with Boris covering them. They left the corpse of the other man there, but no-one minded.

When they were gone, Jessica was furious.

"What the frag do you-"

"**** THE HELL UP!" Iceman screamed, almost knocking her over by the sheer aggression in his voice. "CAN'T YOU SEE VE HAVE WOUNDED HERE?"

He knelt down by Silvia's side.

"How's she doing?" He almost whimpered.

"Hard to tell mate." Rusty was firced to say. "She's writhing and thrashing about. Weird, teenage girls are normally catatonic from shock by now."

A slam from the doors behind them.

"Frag! Tyme4Cryme! He's bolted out to the stage!"

Crystal took off after him, also smashing through the main doors to the concert hall.

Chance was just on the other side, looking very worse for wear. He must have lain low during the shootout, because he was uninjured, and there were dead and dying rap fans littered all over the place.

"Crystal! What the frag is going on, I've just seen-"

Before he could finish, everyone winced as the music kicked up again.

The Dwarf had scrambled up to the stage. None of his posse were with him (presumbaly the Hitmen had killed them backstage). But there was someone with him, who resembled a blood-covered mountain of Gold.

Tank, looking bemused yet happy on the stage, as the thousands of fans who had jst been shooting eachother suddenly became interested in the music again.

"Yo yo, brovas and bitches come and geddit, da? Da TYME is BACK! Dey try kill him, but NO! He still here! And he need your SUPPORT, NOW!"

Then he broke into an ad-lib version of 'Death to Comrade wiv da 9mm', his fans rushing to his side.

Great, Crystal thought. Could things get any more complicated? Maybe we should just run for any surviving tourbuses...

[Master Chris]

"THEY WANNA MAKE TYME PAY FOR HIS CRYME!
THEY CAN GO **** **** ****** AND THEN **** ****!
DEATH TO THE COMRADE!
DEATH TO THE COMRADE!
DEATH TO THE COMRADE WIV DA 9MM!"

He was whipping his fans into a bloodlust, Tyme knew that the Russian mobsters couldn't hold up to the hundreds of fans Tyme had at his beck and call. The monochopper hovered overhead as it observed the proceedings. The pilot could see Tyme4Cryme but didn't have any way to capture him...

***

Rusty told Chance what had transpired;

"You see those three as they left, the two elves and dwarf? They tried to pull a number on Tyme4Cryme, kidnap him, ya know? But we had the advantage so Iceman cut a deal with em, if they pay each of us 20,000 or more nuyen then they can have the dwarf. They took one of us as security when they left to check with their superiors. So, soon as they leave Tyme scarpers and makes for the stage. Crystal's after him but it seems like he's gonna rally his fans for protection. This is one fragged up operation, mate. FUBAR, SNAFU, you name it."

Chance, once a professional soldier, didn't like the idea of abandoning his charge, Tyme, for nuyen. Yet, he had taken his fair share of thumpings from fans and didn't openly object to the trade off. By now Ash had made her way back from her own duties, she looked as tired as Chance did.

Iceman, after Crystal had taken off after Tyme, started to tend to Silvia. The poor girl continued to convulse, she was certainly a lot stronger than the average teenager but that just meant more suffering for her.

[CKW]

"Why has that thing stopped?"

Asked Behemoth. Pointing at the flying machine that was still circling the stadium.

"Dunno... but if we want to succeed... we need a way to neutralize that risk."

Behemoth scratched his temple.

"But how--" He stopped. He had just seen tank.

"The only bouncer left? him!?" He boomed out. Luckily Tank would be too busy to pay attention to Behemoth´s bulk.

"Hmm... Maybe the others went inside the backstage."Alexeiv rubbed his scar, now hidden behind a mask. Without saying it twice, Alex climbed up the human carpet of heads, and with an agility that hadn´t used since he was a grownut, he stepped swiftly and quickly...like all Ninjas. The crowd didn´t even mind.

"Hmph!... He´s just like her." Shouted finally Behemoth, staying on the crowd, thinking what to do... "A way to take that chopper down... Easy to tell... but actually, is hard to do..."

He was merely 50 m away from the Stage... He could see Tank knocking Alexeiv to the ground. An easy mistake.

"Frag Tank!, it´s me!" the Rusky Ninja shouted...while he was picking and putting the katana back in its case. It had dropped due to the hit.

[Wesforce]

Crystal pushed her way through Tyme's battered and bleeding fans, She was better armed then them and clearly wasn't to be trifled with. Chance and Rusty were also at least a foot taller than any of the fans, too.

A shadowy figure running over her heads just in front of her failed to arouse her attention.

She hopped up onto the stage, with the other two. Plugin and Alanya were cowering in the corner, but jumped for joy when they saw their compatriots.

Tyme was too surrounded by his fans to be reached easily.

Where was Tank?

Crystal spotted him, beating up a black-clad weirdo.

She did a double-take.

Alexeiv. What was the weirdo playing at?

Crystal tapped Chance on the shoulder, pointed to Tank, then Tyme4Cryme.

"Right-o."

***

"What the frag is he doing?" Jessica asked herself.

Iceman crouched over Silvia, emmiting weird noises she realised after a while were words. He was speaking in a low, sorrowful voice, almost animal-like.

"Silvia... Silvia, wake up, please... just do this for me... Please..?" Iceman really did feel for her. He wasn't sure what he felt, having never felt it before. He just sudden;y felt guilt, for the first time in his life, for her being injured.

Guilt even more now, because he wanted her to do something...

Her eyes shot open. She became suddenly attentive.

Iceman whispered...

***

Crystal, Tank, Alex and Chance waded into the crowd with poles ripped off the barriers and mike stands, cutting a swathe and sending even the most ardent fans. They weren't in the mood for mass murder, so for now Alex slung his Katana.

It was too much for even the most ardent fans.

Only Tyme was left standing, brandishing his Mac-10, though he was shaking like a leaf.

"Bozhemoi! I KILL all you mofos. Blood of you will stain Carpet of YO MOMMA!"

The former guards waded in...

***

Iceman summoned the Russians back in.

There was a corpse on the floor. A Dwarf. He was dead, surely dead. Iceman had just fired into him several times to make sure.

"He's dead." Natascha said, very aggravatedly. "We wanted traitor alive."

"Take him or leave him."

In the end, after much shouting and screaming in High Russian, they did take him. But they only agreed to pay half 10,000 Nuyen. In total.

They also brought Tundra back, even though Iceman didn't seem too bothered to negotiate for her back.

"I wonder how long it'll be before they realise that that was the Chopper pilot, just maksed by Silvia's Illusion spell?"

"Frag knows, mate" Shrugged Rusty. "Hopefully enough time to grab Tyme and the others, grab a Ute and run like a frikkin' flaming frag out of here!" Was Rusty's helpful suggestion.

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra opened her eyes, it was the first time for awhile. The dim light wasn't blinding, but it was a shock to her system. She thanked Chance, who had cut the masking tape free from her eyes. he had been quite gentle, and she appriciated it. She smiled at Iceman, had she had a drink in her hand, she would have raised it to him. He gave her quite a stoney look and turned away. She checked the people in the hall. Somebody was missing.

"The Ork!" She yelled. "Where is the Ork, the one in the coat." She gave Iceman another look, this one wasn't smug. "What the frag did you do to him you evil bastard? Tried to silence him as well?"

Iceman snorted.

"I thought the fragger was dead. Guess he's still on the stairs."

"I'll belive it when I see it." Tundra said, making for the stairs to the roof.

***

It wasn't long before she found Choak, He had been moved since Tundra last saw him. He was leant against a wall, Jolly had obviously not been very observant when walking down the stairs, but then he was quite a dense Troll. Even if Choak was quite a large Ork by any standard, and the now dead piolet probably kept his mouth shut.

"Are you ok, my dear?" Tundra asked, getting on her knees to face the Ork.

"Better" He replied.

"We must go, Are you ready to be moved?"

"I'm afraid somebody has already taken the pleasure..." He tried to climb to his feet, Tundra went to catch him, but a much larger hand got to him first. It was blue with pale yellow nails on it, a Troll hand.

"Erm... 'ello. Ah thought dat maybe ah kould 'elp?" Sai the Troll had had come from futher down the stiars, Tundra hadn't seen him. But he recognised the voice. Jolly must have picked up on her look. "Ah didn't try ta kill anyun! Ah woz jus' doin' as ah woz told! Ah kane 'elp... really ah kan!"

It was unnatural for a Troll, he seemed afraid. Tundra didn't expect that he was scared of her, maybe of something else. But whatever it was, Tundra didn't have time for this.

"Fine, fine. Whatever. Now, my dear, maybe I can help you if you help me with this man." She thought about Smiling, but that would be far too personal. "Do we have a deal?"

[Nyerguds]

Silvia smiled faintly. "I might be half dead, but my magic isn't."

"Frag, girl... don't exhaust yerself!" Rusty said. He came closer towards her.
"Mmh. Iceman gave me a painkiller. And talking doesn't hurt... much."
"So... how long do we have?"
"Dead matter... doesn't have magical resistance. Makes it last longer."
Silvia squeezed her eyes shut as the pain shot through her body again. After a while, she continued.
"I'd say... up to four hours. Can't be sure though... wasn't exactly able to concentrate on the spell."
"Four hours... that ain't really much." Rusty said to Iceman, frowning.

"I think I like Wonderland better than this." Silvia said, with a pseudo-sad smile. "Anybody got some more pain killers?"

***

Alanya rushed over to Iceman. She looked really pissed off. "Wot da frag was all dat?!"
"What?" Iceman replied coldly. Silvia was amazed at the contrast. Iceman was suddenly his usual killer machine self once again.
"Look dude, if ya pull a stunt lahk dat again ah quit!"
"That would be breach of contract. You know what that means." Iceman said in a cold, threathening tone.
"Look, pal. Ah woz payed ta be a decker 'ere, no? So if ah get killed on diz run, OK. But at least ah wanna die with a plug in mah head insteada bein' trampled on some mad rapper gig."
Alanya brusquely turned around and walked away.

"She does have a point." Silvia said weakly.

Iceman looked at Silvia, then at the direction in which Alanya disappeared. He frowned, and look back at Silvia.

[CKW]

Behemoth had vanished once again in the shadows. If he could think such a way to take down the chopper, Alex would also had the idea.
"G'Luck Duke." He said, while heading for the nearest exit, unadvertised.

***

If minds were world, then Iceman´s one was having a World War. Long ago, he assumed he had no emotions, nor more than enjoy killing and mistreating people... But that damn girl... had messed up his mind pretty bad... He HAD compassion for her. His former, iron forged, personality was vanishing, slowly splitting in two factions. A daemon... and a man.
But wich one was the true Iceman? daemon? man? both? none? Crap. He wished he had learned how to avoid these things in the spetnaz training.

"Mind on the earth, and finger on the trigger, Iceman." He said mentally to himself.

***

Alex once again, putted out the katana back in the case, with an snapping sound, and still seizing it, for a quickly deploy if the need arose.

"Konnichiwa, Tovarich" said, smiling to Tyme.

[Wesforce]

They all moved from the Stadium as soon as possible. Minutes later, the whole area was swarming with FDCPD SWAT teams, COL LightStormers and a few Church of Light inquisitors to oversee the investigation, but the scene was nothing uncommon for a rap gig for it's size. Pretty soon, the whole incident was chalked up to 'random gang violence'. Somewhere, bookkeepers slashed the odds on whether Tyme4Cryme turned up safe and well.

"Another day, another million dollars" Chuckled the police pathologists and the men from Resyk Inc, after they'd finished their friendly 'get to the bodies after the other guys' contest. They could chuckle. They were getting overtime pay for this.

***

NewsEye!

Shining with Mother Church's Illuminating Knowledge For a whole 3 months and counting!

Cut to Cindy Chambers-Kong, in studio

"Welcome, light-seekers. Our top story this hour:"

Canadian seperatists perpetuate new outrage.

Cut to scenes of a peaceful flag-burning, lightbulb-smashing protest, and a gathering of Canadian soldiers

"Rogue leader Terence Andrew Gibbons has been implicated in the outrage that took place in the errant city of Regina this morning. It is reported that 10,000 lightbulbs were smashed on a burning UCAS flag, while non-believers shouted ati-church, anti-UCAS slogans. Unconfirmed reports also suggest that several pink fluffy bunny rabbist were run over and hurt by their getaway vehicle. Church Officials have begun a vigil of destruction for the souls of these infidels. Who are most likely all child abusers."

"In other News:"

Cut to the broken two-finger alute of the Transys Arcology's stumps, with an inset picture of a moon-faced delicate teenage girl

"MUNDI Law-enforcement agents have reportedly tracked down the missing daughter of Cyber dick magnate Mervyn Bartlett to the Transys Arcology disaster zone, Scotsprawl.."

Off camer interruption

(To producer) "Yes, I did say Cyber Disk. What do you ... Oh..."

Cut to aerial view of the George W Bush memorial stadium, FDC

"*Ahem*. Finally, notorious rapper Tyme4Cryme is missing, presumed dead after random gang violence at the sell-out first gig of his North America tour. His record label 'DeadMofoRecords' has gone bust after having to cancel every gig on the tour."

Cut to shot of Tank, on stage - He's taken the mike and is freestyling, after Crystal and co take Tyme away. The crowd are captivated

"But representatives of Grexon Amalgameted Media Operations are keen to speak with this as-yet unnamed individual, possibly in-lieu to a profitable, exploitative and short-lived record contract."

Cut back to Cindy

"And thats all we have for this update. Be safe, friends of light, and may Holy Illumination guide your every step."

Click

***

Driving all through the night, the 'Runners pulled into an area of urban wasteland where there was an abandoned warehouse large enough to shelter the one surviving tourbus in which they were sleeping, completely tired out.

Sasha had appeared, with the bus, when the going was looking really bad. She must have stepped out of their own Tourbus when it had been strafed, which was lucky for her. But the 'runners had lost allt heir gear, including the guns and equipment they needed for the job.

Tyme4Cryme had come with them, having nowhere else to really go. He didn't trust the 'runners a bit. All his friends, his Ork 'bruvvas' had gone missing presumed dead, and any minute now he expected Russian hitmen to come back and disembowel him with a chainsaw - Unless his 'saviours' didn't do that first.

Being pragmatic, he spent his time in the journey in the pool at the top-rear of the massive vehicle, getting drunk and feeling lonely.

During the night, they nursed the wounded as best they could, without a designated medic. The 'runners who'd been serving guard duty had any number of cuts and bruises too, and all needed showers. Luckily the Bus was fully-equipped in that matter.

Silvia was resting, Tundra was feeling terribly stressed. No-one knew what to do with Choak. The guy wasn't terribly talkative, and smell of burning got on everyone's nerves.

Dawn broke. No-one came anywhere near the bus: Sasha maust have known enough to fool the RoadSat transponders thast gave every vehicle an easily-tracable presence on the road networks.

Iceman barged thrugh into the sleeping area, where people were nursing burised limbs and sore heads.

"Okay you lugs. We're 10 minutes walk from FDC, city of light or some fragging crap. Ya got 24 hours to do whatever the frag ya want. Just make sure you get back here before then. We got a job to do. Remember, anyone bugs out, you'll wake up dead, with your eyeballs getting a good view of ya colon."

He turned to Sasha.

"Maybe I should stay behind and look after that Tundra bitch. I not trusting her."

"I'm going to get that money Tyme owes us. We need that for guns for tonight."

"Sounds good." Iceman had to agree.

Jolly shuffled out, sheepishly.

"WHO THE FRAG ARE YOU?" Roared the boss. He had only just noticed the big Troll, previously being too preoccupied with Silvia and Tundra.

"FRAG!" He snarled. "WE GOT ONE OF THEM RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE!"

He whipped out the Spetznatz spade he'd almost killed Jolly with.

"This time I won't use half measures, TROGG!"

[Artificial Idiot]

"Calm yourself Dear." Said Tundra, obviously hearing the comotion that the Troll was causing and taking a few guesses. "He is with me."

"With YOU?" Growled Iceman. "You dare bring the very people we're trying to outrun on the bus!"

"Relax, Dear." Said Tundra, still quite calm under the circumstances. "I merely thought he was very useful and is willing to do what we ask."

"I don't care what...." Iceman began, but Tundra cut him off.

"If we want to talk about traitor's on this bus, I'm sure we can sort it out in a... civilised manner." She said with hidden threat, She had hold over Iceman, whether it was enough she did not know. "Besides, You would not leave him to death would you?"

"She does have a point, But I think we should question the Troll first." Shasa cut in. "And I do mean question Iceman. Nothing more."

"Very good." Beamed Tundra. "Now, I also over heard you do not trust me. Well, If this is the case. May I ask that somebody with a less... Biased opinion of me stay behind?"

"it can be arranged." Stated Sasha.

"WHAT?" Roared Iceman.

"I am looking out for all parties here, Iceman. Besides, it would do you good to get some fresh air. Get back to reality prehaps." She turned to Jolly. "As for you, I suggest that you are locked up for futher questiong for the time being. We shall deal with out later. Any objections?"

"No..." Growled Iceman. "But this is a warning to both of you, any trouble and I'll skin and gut you both!" He glared at Tundra, then grabbed the Troll harshly by the arm. "Come on, I don't want to endure your stench for any longer then I have too!"

"Thank yoo..." Jolly said as he was hauled away. "Both of ya!"

[CKW]

Alexeiv stared at the crowd with an unseen serenity. He was cleaning and sharpening the sword. Softly. He even wore the ninja attire.
As soon as Iceman went mad about Tundra´s "insubordination" he stretched his legs, and got up with a jump.

He stood in front of then now rageous Iceman, and spoke.

"Congrats Iceman, you are no longer a drill sergeant. However, if you need a lesson or two to handle people, count with me. I will handle them either if you are not capable of doing it, or if you ask me."

He friendly patted the huge shoulder of the Spetnaz.

"Still, I think i also need a break. I think i´m gonna take a well earned drink"

Iceman stared at him. Alexeiv. How could that guy could be a colonel?

"Hmm... you know what are you doing, Alexeiv. **** me off and..."

"Yeah yeah i know. You will make me suffer so much than a terrorist gunfire would be a massage in comparison. Just relax a bit. No one is calling a war council upon us."

He procceed to pick up the katana and several things before leaving.

***

Things had gone down really fast for Rei Daisuke. Attracted by a job offer to Washington, just to found out it was already taken. Plus, she had to sell her guitar. And even her male disguise. It wasn´t something she could afford. However, even the **** touches bottom. She had enough luck to grab a job as barmaid. The bar was dark, filthy and filled with street scum and runners. It was a luck that she could bring the katana with her, even more now that her dress was so scarce to leave no room for imagination... and to make her become blank of perverts.

"Sigh. I think it´s my fate or something."

She sighed, staring at the panorama. The really small space reserved for tables and chairs, was empty. There were no customers. And that meant no tip.

[Nyerguds]

"skuze me." Alanya said to Iceman. "Ah'm gonna pick up mah equipment in da city. But Johnson promised me dey'd get mah experimental drone 'ere for me. Ya got any way of contactin' dem?"
"They're coming." Iceman replied.
"Soon?" Alanya asked?
"Pretty soon."
"Hm. OK."

Alanya clicked open her wristphone, and pressed the small buttons with her fingernails.
The words *Connection secured* and *Tracing distortion active* appeared on the screen. Not that anyone would be tracing her own wristphone, but she didn't take any risks.
An image appeared on the screen.
"Yeah? Who is this?"
"It's me, Dina. Good ta see ya again, Wirecat. Did ya get 'ere?"
"Got here OK, rented a small appartment for a few days. Put on the fraggin' screen will ya?"
"Sorry. Can't do dat. Dere's a safety risk. I'm..."
"Heh. Whatever. I got your deck here. I'll transmit the address."

The address 106 Ornabary Street appeared on Alanya's wristphone, together with the GPS coordinates.

"Ya picked one helluva nice neighborhood, kitty."
"Meh. Ain't that bad. Haven't had to knock anyone out with yer deck yet."
"Heh. You'd better not. Ah'll be dere ASAP."
"OK. Are there any other people I know with you?"
"Some ov da friends we made in Scotland."
"Hm. Tell them I said hello."
"Hm. Bye."

She closed the wristphone, and walked away, into the city.

[Wesforce]

Crystal walked into the city, watching the vagrants and mudlarks that abandoned ths run-down industrial district of the city. Like an old cancerous growth, the area was a blot on the city, a cyst on an otherwise prosperpus area, but an easy hiding place where it seemed the rent-a-cops couldn't be bothered to go.

She hadn't told anyone where she was going, as was her way, but she did stay with Chance, Ash and Rusty, those she truted most. Chance and Ash were old comrades. Rusty seemed okay, from the other night.

Walking a little further, she affixed her rebreather. The air here was as bad as in any other city. Actually, worse: the UCAS, like the old US, was notoriously bad for air pollution. They even still used some petrol-driven cars here.

Trudging past two old Orks in Heavy overcoats, with hats with flaps to cover their ears, there came the reports of a burst of autocannon fire from the distance, followed by the dull crump of far-away explosions/

"Dem dam guns top 'o da White House again." One said.

"Yerr. Da fraggerz is jumpy dese days. Dey shoot at any fing dat comz neer."

Crystal walked into the first bar she saw. Some Japanese place, she didn't quite catch the name.

A pretty young Japanese girl waited patiently for her order. She ordered beer.

***

On the other side of the street, Shadow felt like he was seeing ghosts. Chance, Crystal, Ash he recognised, not the other guy, who was chatting away with a loud Australian accent.

Ever since being freed from that hellish Britsprawl torture chamber (they'd eventually tiring of the merciless punishment, and found him innocent. He still shivered whenever he saw a kettle) Shadow's life had taken ups and downs.

Now he was back in the UCAS, and back on the market for work.

And some old friends had appeared...

He entered the bar, walked casually over to them, his face impassive.

"Well well, long time no see." He said to Crystal.

She turned to him, eyes widened with recognition.

Shadow waited for her to speak, but she didn;t. He wondred why. Then he saw the jagged scar on her throat, which explained why.

"Shadow..." Chance mouthed. "What are you doing here?" He asked, sternly.

"Probably the same as you. Keeping my head down, while conversely looking for work."

[CKW]

Polluted Wastelands. A brief description for a man of few words. Alex continued walking along what had been a prosperous city in the past, now turned in a muddy Junkyard. He accelerated when he grew tired of the landscape. Although the coat was pressing the katana against his shoulder in a uncomfortable way, he didn´t mind.

He suddenly stopped.

"Dead Ronin (Cyber)" He readed the Japanese style bar neon Light. He then faced the entrance (and only exit) of the bar.
"Hmm... dunno... I would like to taste crappy sake once again." He said to himself, while entering. He didn´t noticed the other people in the bar until his coat was taken off.
There were Rusty, Crystal, Ash and Chance. Three Ex-soldiers and ... a runner. There was anothe person, who disturbingly stared at him, eyes widened. The barmaid did it too.

***

Rei was so shocked she almost dropped the beverages she was carrying.
A ninja. A Black Dragon ninja. Here. That was really unexpected, and definitely welcome. She rushed to serve the beverages, and to face the person...

But he was talking with other person, already. The other man was yelling at the ninja, and was really upset.


***

Alex didn´t know what the hell was that, when the stranger started to yell and quarrel with him about some things happened in London. He had not been in London... But Wolf were. So, he finally understood. They guy had mistaken him for his cousin.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia never thought the worst part about being shot was boredom. The wounds still hurt, yeah, but after a few hours that wasn't so bad. The fact that pretty much everyone was gone, and she couldn't move without hurting was a lot worse. She was bored. REALLY bored.

She considered trying to heal herself.
"Meh. I'll need a lot more pain killers before I try that..."

She looked around in the room, but there was little she could do. At times like that she really wished she had her mom's telekinetic powers instead of that slegging mind sucker of hers.

So... what else can I do? Oh right. Magic.
A mischievous grin appeared on Silvia's face.

Let's see if there's still anyone around...

"Amenora Sumini Kurokate."

A flash of light appeared in her eyes, and shot forward. And there it was... approximately a meter away from her.

Silvia #2.


Silvia #1 smiled.
Oh, this is gonna be fun.

With a single thought of Silvia, the illusion ran through the open door, out of the bus. Silvia didn't care she wasn't able to actually see the illusion... All she wanted it to do was run a few blocks around in the warehouse.

Let's hope anyone's actually still there...

***

The neighborhood where Wirecat had hired an appartment was indeed 'not that bad'. It was a punk neighborhood, but not too violent.
With all the weird cosmetic implant freaks and extravagant hair styles around this place, Alanya could see why Wirecat chose the place. He would blend in without anyone noticing.
She smiled.
Smart kitty... did his research. Now, let's find that place...

[Master Chris]

Rusty snatched his drink from the barmaid, she seemed to be preoccupied by Alexiev. Shadow, the mysterious guy who knew Ash, Chance and Crystal, was giving Alexiev a verbal bashing and calling him Wolf for some reason. Rusty stood up, walked over to Alexiev and turned to face Shadow;

"Listen mate, this here is my buddy, Alexiev. You got a problem with him, you got a problem with me, right?"

Shadow paused, Alexiev? He replied;

"Since when did you start calling yourself Alexiev?"

Chance put a hand on Shadow's shoulder;

"He's right you know, Wolf was in Transys with the rest of us."

Crystal winced, she didn't like to be reminded of her old friend gone bad. Chance continued;

"Wolf....changed....in Transys, you'd barely recognise him now. This here is Alexiev and certainly not who you think he is. Let's leave it at that."

Rusty wrapped a hand around Alexiev, who tensed in reflex, and guided him to the bar and ordered a drink for him.

"Vodka right? I remember, how could I forget?!"

With that the Australian laughed loudly and took a gulp from his beer.

***

Jessica Hayes was in a dance club, trying to fit in...unsuccessfully. She was looking for a way to unwind after the debacle that was Tyme's concert and the cramped bus ride out of there. She stood at the bar watching the wild uninhibited dancing of the people on the dancefloor. It was so barbaric, distasteful, and so completely overtly sexual. She blushed, while it was all uncivilised there was a certain exciting aspect to it all. A young man, who had been eyeing her all evening, started to make his way around the bar to Jessica. She could see, even from that distance, that he was planning to hit on her, possibly even use a terrible pick up line. That cheeky grin, overly exaggerated swagger, it all smelt of sleaze....

But sleaze was what Jessica Hayes wanted tonight.

"Hey baby. Your dad must have been a centaur and your mom an elven babe. Cause you look good and smell good and are probably comfortable on all fours!"

Jessica refrained from wincing, that was an awful pick up line! However, there was the matter of an itch needing scratching. She stirred her drink with a delicate swirl and coyly looked at the boy;

"Maybe I am, only one way to find out cowboy..."

***

Raven's blindfold was yanked off as his Ork captor pushed him onto his knees, he looked up and saw a pair of dark blurs, one larger than the others. One of the blurs spoke;

"So, we have a visitor. Tell me traveller, why were you scrounging about in the mud and in such awful weather too?"

Raven recognised the voice, as well as the powerful musk that assailed his nostrils. Mawrose Delori. The centaur gripped Raven's chin and tilted his face up in order to get a better look.

"Ahh yes. Fardel's apprentice. We never found your corpse after the slave revolts. I guess this explains why!"

The centuar chuckled before continuing;

"You've certainly changed since last we met. Seems the comet got to you. What's life like as one us metahumans?"

Mawrose Delori laughed again, he was enjoying this.

"Enough."

He said abruptly.

"You came here for a reason, what is it?"

Raven knew it was his time to shine, he choose his words carefully;

"Well, as I understand it, you lost a significant portion of your slaves after the revolt. Most if not all if I'm right. Surely you are in need of more? I can help you."

Mawrose digested the words slowly, he replied after a moments thought;

"Maybe I do need more slaves. If perchance I do, what does the apprentice of the late Fardel North ask in return?"

Raven didn't reply straight away, he didn't want to seem overly eager;

"Well....as Fardel's protege I think that I deserve his estate. There was this particular, unique item I've got in mind. A pistol, gold plated, silencer, laser sight, the works, ya know? Surely the refined and tasteful Delori has come across it and, in his good taste, held on to it? I should think I want that pistol. Of course, you would get more than its worth in return. The last I knew, Fardel had died with an iron grip on it."

Raven had taken the weapon from Fardel's dead body but had lost it subsequently, he didn't feel, however, that Mawrose needed to know that.
Mawrose, knowing of the weapon, had scoured the underground complex in the aftemath of the revolt looking for the pistol, along with anything else he could scavenge in order to rebuild his empire. Mawrose never found the weapon but that didn't stop him from playing along;

"I may have seen it, it was an extraordinary treasure, there can be no doubt of that. I can get it for you but that will take time, meanwhile, tell me about what you intend to pay for it with?"

[LeFire]

(Sorry guys, been off on a vacation for 5 days... will gradually move back into the storyline as it goes along. Feel free to use Chance and Ash in the meantime.)

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra had no place in Bars or clubs, so she had just wondered around the city. Not like it was a good place to do so, nor was it a plesant experiance. And she was unsure she'd find anything to do, providing there was anything to do. Well, maybe reflect. But there are things that had just happened that she didn't want to reflect on... ever. So, she'd eventually given up and was heading back to the bus.
She didn't want to make it known, or show it at all. But Iceman scared her. He scared the frag out of her. She'd actually been considering making a run for it now then go back on that bus, until she'd had a pride override. What would running show after all? That she was a coward? A traitor? Somebody who runs at the slightest discomfort? No. She'd faced worse then Iceman, he wouldn't topple her.
There was also another matter she'd been kicking herself over. The Ork. Or, as she'd recently found out, Choak. She'd actually cared what had happened to him, actually cared if he'd been left behind or not. She'd actually cared from the well being of a complete stranger, and that wasn't right. At least, not for her.

"Going soft in my old age." She muttered as she walked though the door, the fact that it was open was strange. But she soon found out what could have been the cause of the problem. The injured girl was performing some kind of spell or another, Tundra left her to it. Nothing to say to the little brat anyway.
She walked into the next sextion of the Bus and found Choak. He seemed to have recovered from whatever spell he had used, as Tundra had thought it was just exhustion. He'd managed to find himself some clothes, much to Tundra's relief. She didn't want to have to go though that while he was concious. She sat herself down in silence. She didn't know what to say really, and thought she'd only make a fool of herself if she did say anthing.

"Thank you." Choak said after a moments silence.

"If your refering to my intervention at the Concert Hall, Dear. Then you are very welcome." She said to him. "But don't ever expect that kind of help again."

"I hope I won't need it." He said, sitting down opposite her. "Not going out to see the delights of the City with the others?"

"Cheap bars, sleaze ridden clubs and drunks on the street pestering you for all kinds of things I am not prepared to give, My Dear I think you should be asking the others why they ARE out there."

"Quite an interesting view you have there." Choak smiled. "Name's Choak."

"So I have heard. I am Tundra." She shook the Ork's hand. "Pleasure to work with you, my dear."

[CKW]

(Psst RD, Wolf´s name was Nicholas Alexeiv. Duke´s name is Alexander Alexeiv.)

"To be sincere, I understand the misunderstanding. Wolf and I were close family. He was my cousin" Alexeiv said, coldly. Calmly. Without giving any clue of his true emotions. The way he was told to do.


The barmaid gave him a closer look. She then began to speak.

"Darkwind... You are one of them. Yes... you..."

Alex was caught off guard. He reacted to the name. For a moment, he let out his emotions. He drew the katana, facing the barmaid.

He was not the only one. The barmaid also swung a katana, facing him.
Alex then realised.The exquisite carving of the katana tipped him off. "Daisuke... Hmm... You must be the young Rei. Time passes, eh?"

They both putted back their katanas, smiling at eachother.

"Certainly... Alex."

The barmaid replied.

[Wesforce]

Crystal studiously tried to stay out of the way of the touching little reuinion Alexeiv seemed to be having... But she was wary of Shadow. The guy had been on both sides of her before, and the question was, what side was he on now?

The little group retreated to a darkened corner table out of habit. Crystal volunteered to be first to go up, get some drinks, while Chance Ash, Rusty and Shadow got to settle the score some more.

Beers please, if you aren't too occupied Said the ePad as Crystal slid it over. Rei began pouring them with a gracious nod, still speaking to Alexeiv.

Crystal became aware of a guy to her left. Cheap suit (Paul Smith knockoff... Not that Crystal had any ise for labels), a battered Fedora hat and a tie that was so terrible even a High School craft teacher would leave it alone. He was munching soynuts from the bar and smelt of stale coffee and even staler piss.

He was glancing over at the table far too often for Crystal's liking, too.

Crystal oddly enough didn't go for Physical brutality too much, but ever since Transys she'd resorted to the axiom of 'Actions speak louder than words' more often than usual, for obvious reasons.

And she was getting to like it, too.

Grabbing the back of the nosy guy's head with both hands before he even knew what was going on, she took great delight in slam-dunking his head off the bar. Soynuts flew in all directions - A few of them could have been teeth, if that mattered - Before the guy slumped in his barstool, comatose.

Rei stared, shocked. Crystal winked. Alexeiv enjoyed the show too.

Clump. Rattle

Looking down at the noise, Crystal saw a) A Colt Hi-Po Streetline - Small, cheap, concealable lemon squeezer' type pistol... The kind of thing an Old Lady might carry to shoot cockroaches with' and b) A Credstick.

A credstick emblazoned with the crest of Daisaka security services inc.

A rent-a-cop. Or at least a guy with rent-a-cop ID.

He couldn't know about the 'runners, surely? If not, then who was he after?

Crystal snatched back her ePad and went to tell the others. Pausing, she flipped the Cop-Credstick to Rei to pay for the beers, it's owner sleeping silently.

***

Both Tundra and Choak had reason to pause when they were suddenly alerted to a new presence behind them.

"Alright Fraggers! This is my turf, and this is now MY bus. You have approximately 5 Milli-seconds to get the frag outta here before I turn alla youz fraggerz inta dog food!"

Said the grubby little 7 year old Ork kid, playfully slapping a pathetic, rotten piece of bannister rail into the palm of his hand, like a club. The look of grim determination on his face was almost comical.
But then, he didn't seem to be too afraid of Two obviously magically-active Orks

***

"'Scuse me Lady, looking for directions?" Came a 50-a-day rasp from behind Alanya.

Punks. Denims, floppy, greasy hair, as opposed to spiky. Even as she turned, they moved to surround her. 8 of 'em.

"Heh heh, everyone's godda ask uz fer directionz," Wheezed the Elf who'd spoken, taking a drag on some makeshift cigarette holder with about 3 cigarettes sellotaped into it. Even smoking 1 cigarette in public was illegal. Too bad there didn't seem to be any rent-a-cops here.

"Everyone haz to, coz if the don't, people get LOST" he said, drawing a line across his throat. "Now, we won't patronzise you by going into how much ass of you we are going to kick... So just give us all yer money and frag off, right?"

Alanya had seen a few punks in her time, and these losers were all bones. Pathetic really, but they had guns. Snub 9mms, they looked like. But something told her they were just out for fun, not really professional shake-down artists...

She wondered if she might be able to use them, somehow...

[Nyerguds]

Silvia carefully moved closer to the door to hear the Ork kid.
"Well well. We have a winner." she whispered to herself.

Now... give the illusion a voice. Frag, that's been a while.


Silvia #2 stepped into the other section of the bus, behind the kid, and laughed. The laugh sounded hollow... ghostly.

Sleg! Silvia thought. That's not it. Gotta do better.

Tundra frowned when she saw the girl, obviously wondering why she didn't even look wounded. Silvia #2 didn't even look at her, and went straight for the kid.

"Hi there. What are ya doin' here?" The voice sounded normal now. Silvia #1 sighed softly.
The Ork kid turned around and looked Silvia #2 straight in the eyes. "A'm claimin' diz bus!!" the kid replied, still with the same determined look on his face.
"Oh. I see." Silvia #2 replied, in a way as if that explained everything.
The illusion turned around, and slowly walked back away from him.

***

"Ah think ah got a better deal for ya..." Alanya said to the smoking Elf. "if yer willing ta take some risk."
"Or we can just pop ya and take it, no?" the Elf replied teasingly.
"Dot wud be a greater risk. And less... profituble."

The Elf kid suddenly looked interested. "What, you're gonna make a nice deal around here somewhere?"

"Sumtin' like dot."
Alanya sisn't really have much money with her, but with her deck she could transfer more money onto her credstick.
"50 nuyen each, ta get me to da place and back."
"Nuyen... wait a sec. How many bucks is that?" a girl in the group asked.
"That ain't so much, lady." the Elf said, ignoring the girl.
"Ah nevah said ah woz rich. But ah'll 'ave more aftah mah biznez dere."

[Riff]

Shadow looked around at the other runners' and surveyed them carefully and cautiously.

He then noticed Crystal looking at him with a puzzled looked on her face and he knew exactly why.

Shadow stood back in the shadows keeping a cautious and cold icy glare in his eyes as he always did.

Lukas had his weapons as usual concealed even though they might not be allowed in this club, he was wearing his usual clothing.

Which consisted of a green forest tank top, black shorts, and tan boots.

He continued to survey the club more and the runners', he would follow them after they left the club and would complete his mission, whatever it may be, at all costs.

Shadow then kept a close watch on Crystal with a glance every now and then at the other runners'.

[CKW]

"You can't do that!" Rei wailed. Friend of Alex or not, she couldn't just let some evil-smiling woman slamdunk people's heads off the bar, even if they were rent-a-cops.

"She's quite tense at the moment." Alex observed, winking slyly.

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra watched the Ork carefully, he could sense of hint of... admiration in his eyes as the girl left. Something she could work on, perhaps. She glanced at Choak, it was obvious he was expecting her to do something about it. And why not? She was a woman after all, they were meant to be good with children by default.

"Alrite fraggaz! Change o' planz!" The grimly determained Ork started again. "Ah want da bus AND her! Youz two kan frag off!"

If Tundra actually cared what this could mean for anybody else but her, she might of reconsidered. But as a famous person probably said somewhere down the line, If you can't solve a problem, dump it on someone else.

"Oh, I see. Well my Dear, it seems you have us over powered." Tundra said, and let me tell you. Her version of acting distressed, would definatly not have won her an oscar. "But it might be wise to inform you she has a sister."

The little Ork's eyes brightened up even more, his expression was no longer of a humourous determination, but of gleaming sucess. And why not play with the hopes of others? Best way to learn lessons in life. Or at least, thats how Tundra saw it.

"Yer? Well.... Ah'll take 'er too!" He said, after some thought. "Now git out both of yoo!" He demanded. Tundra took Choak by the shoulder and nodded. Giving Silvia and her illusion a sly grin as she walked out of the door.

"Well, that went very well, my dear. Even if I do say so myself." Tundra laughed.

"Are you sure the girl can handle herself?" Choak asked, a bit worried.

"My dear, surely somebody who can make a full clone of themselves like that can fend off a young Ork without much difficulty." Tundra explained. "Now come along, I'm sure theres some place we can go to here."

***

Jolly however, was not having a good time. Iceman had locked him away in one of the bathroom's on Tyme's Tourbus. His hands were tightly tied behind his back, his legs were tied to the toilet, he was also blindfolded and gaged. He could still hear though, not like there was much to hear anyway. And it was dark, very dark. Jolly wasn't ond of the dark.
However, Jolly realy felt this must be a test. He could, with effort, break loose from his bonds. He was sure he could, not that he'd try anyway. But then Iceman would be right not to trust him, wouldn't he? He didn't know, Iceman was scary. Just because he was unpredictable. He might have said one thing to the large Ork lady, but he could come back and kill him at any moement. Jolly sighed, then stopped thiking. Thinking depressed him.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia grinned. Tundra seemed to be OK... she played along well, anyway.

The illusion walked back to Silvia, passed her, and turned around to face the Ork kid again.
"Hello again." the illusion said. But while the illusion's lips moved, the sound of the voice came from a different direction.
The Ork kid turned around, his 'weapon' ready to fend off any sneak attack.

"Easy there." Silvia #1 said. "I just took two bullets, that's enough for now."

The illusion mouthed the exact same words, but without making any sound. The ork kid noticed, and frowned.

"She's not exactly a sister, you know..." Silvia said before the Ork kid had a chance to speak. "...except that she seems to make me look bad. Apparently sisters tend to do that."
Silvia snapped her fingers, and the illusion faded away. "Can't blame the illusion... I do look bad."

She turned back to the Ork kid. "So... coming to 'claim' me eh? Heh. You got a name, warlord?"

[CKW]

(hmm... I´m gonna place a new secondary char. If you don´t like it, please ignore the post and let me know so I can edit it.)

"Hmm. I strongly believe they were in that tour bus running away from the Stadium. " was the only tip Benedict was given. Behemoth, a black dragon ninja, had helped him just because his boss. Being a courier of Lord Draco was something that could open you some gates...

But certainly, he had not that luck in the past. He had been an unwanted children, an accident, of certain Royal Dragon named N´zar and some elf bitch. He was a half dragon. When his father finally realised, he had hunted him down... and all of the ones who resembled him slightly. And being captured by a megalomaniac dragon was anything but pleasant.

"Frag off... That is the bus... Wonder if Hayes is still in the surroundings?"

He said to himself. His mission was to localize Liutenant Hayes and deliver her a message: She could quit off running from Dragon Paw, since the reward for her head had been removed. He scratched his back. Certainly, it was somewhat uncomfortable to hide the black-feathered wings under a coat. However, it was an alternative solution to the magical shapeshift, wich could be a lot more troublesome. His natural shapeshifted elven form retained the wings, due to the strenght of his dragon blood, the same strenght that gave him magic abilities, and an intense dragon-like aura.

[Nyerguds]

"Ah'm Durg." the kid replied. He didn't seem so sure of himself anymore after seeing Silvia's condition.

"Heh. I'm Sil-"
Silvia didn't finish the sentence. She felt a powerful dragon nearby.

Draco? she thought. But she knew it wasn't him. This aura brought back other memories... fear...

Before she realized what happened, her skin shapeshifted in a panic-protection. Silvia screamed when the surfaces of the bullet wounds closed.

In the pain, she realized what had triggered the reaction... it was the same thing that had triggered it the very first time.

N'zar. The Dragon aura was N'zar's.


"Get back!" she yelled at the Ork. The panic in her voice made the kid retreat immediately.

Silvia stood up, her claws ready. Everything hurt like hell... but she wouldn't give up. Not without a fight.

Then she realized something was... different.
"That's not N'zar..."

She didn't get a chance to recognise the difference. The pain and exhaustion caught up with her. She dropped on the floor, unconcious, just as the other Half-dragon entered the bus.

The young man frowned when he saw Silvia lying on the floor, and approached her.

"YOO STAY AWAY FROM 'ER!" the Ork kid yelled to the stranger, determined to defend his new friend.

[Artificial Idiot]

Jolly heard the scream, it sent shivers down his spine. Not because of the sheer intensity of it, but because he knew he had to make a decision in a split second. Break free from his bonds and check it out, risking Iceman giving him a gutting. Or stay here and let the worse happen. Jolly knew he couldn't do that, and before his brain had caught up with him, his tree trunk like arms were free.
He ripped off the Blindfold and took a few steps forward, the sound of the toilet being ripped from the floor not seeming to bother him. Nor did the fact it was still attached to his legs. He took a deep breath, then slammed against the door. Caving it, it's fram and part of the surrounding wall in with it. He then searched for a weapon, the curtain railings seemed like a good idea.
With brass rod in hand, he made his way to the Door. He took in the scene quickly, the girl lying on the floor, the kid stood next to her with a banister and the strange man standing in the doorway. Jumping to the wrong clunclusion, he grabbed the young Ork by the neck.

"Ah dunno wot you've dun fragga, but yer've got sum explain' ta doo!" He glared at the man. "Both of ya!"

***

"How long must we stay here?" Tundra almost begged. She hated bars, in fact, she hated a lot of confined spaces with a lot of people in them. It was just something she'd never got over. "Surely she is finished with that little Ork now?"

"Patience, Patience..." Said Chaok, reassuringly. And she knew he was right.

The two had wondered into the bar that the other Runner's had gone too, although there was little sign of anybody except Alexiev and the loud Aussie. Tundra was starting to dislike him. Not like she really knew him, but he was load and quite obnoxious by apperance... or, to be more specific sound. She tried to avoid catching either's eye, not like they were looking anyway.

"Would you like a drink?" Choak asked. Tundra shook her head. She didn't want to run the risk of being spotted. "Fine."

Tundra sat back and yawned. She was tired, very tired. Had been for a long time. She felt like just slipping off to sleep right then, but as always... something stopped her. She had been pretty messed up ince the comet, as has been said. Played havoc on her abilities and sleeping paterns, although she rarely let it show.

"No, I am not tired!" She sad to Chaok, reading the look on his face. "Just a bit of exercise for the arms dear..."

"Right... The mouth too?"

Tundra smiled at him, but she couldn't help notice how his eyes kept darting to Alexiev. It had become a patern she had noticed. She decied not to ask about it... for now.

[CKW]

"Chill down man." Said Ben. "I am just a passerby. A passerby and that´s all."

Ben had also noticed Silvia. He had seen many half dragons when he was finally captured with all of them... but definitely not her. And seeing how she reacted to him, she could have been mistreated by his father.

"I just saw her screaming, then falling into a heap! I swear it! I came here to help!"

He quickly replied. He seemed convincent. After all, it was the truth, or the most obvious part of it...

***

There was a noise behind Rei, as the door leading to the storeroom - Where the bar owner was busy - Swung open.

Can't let him see this! She tought. Thinking quickly, she flying-kicked the door back the way it came.

"OOF!" Grunted the bar owner, his head caught between the heavy door and the frame with explosive force, and soon another had fallen victim to 'sudden unconsiousness' disease...

Rei had taken action to stop Alexeiv getting tinto trouble... And now she realised that she'd never be able to explain this to her boss.

She'd never liked the guy, anyway.

[Wesforce]

"Huh, pussies." Snarled the ork Kid, unimpressed. "Neil the Ork Barbarian would wipe the flo' wiv alla you'z. At least, back when Mum and Dad still had the house, and we could watch the 3D."

He snivelled a bit more, before turning to the new guy.

"Hey buddy, you're on my turf! Get the frag out before I do THIS to ya!"

On that word, he had twirled his makeshift club, up, HARD, between Jolly's legs. As Iceman had made him strip to his Boxers, there was little in the way to save his Trollhood...

***

Shadow took another glimpse at the Rent-a-cop, slumped over the bar, then bolted upright suddenly.

He recognised the man.

Not as a friend, or aquaintance or anything really more than a face in the crowd. A reoccuring face in the crowd. He suddenly seemed to remember such a badly-dressed man being near him on several occasions over the last couple of days, and only now was he able to put the pieces together.

But why were rent-a-cops tailing him?

***

Think we'd better leave Crystal typed, where Rusty Chance and Ash could see. And maybe our 'friend' can give us some answers...

She went to the bar to order a taxi from Rei, as Chance slung the unconsious guy over his shoulder.

"We're, uh, taking him...Um, our friend... to his... hotel. Yeah, thats what we're going to do..." He said, sheepish through tiredness.

***

"Heh... Well, ah guess we'll just have to see how much ya got, Lady. You got us. Where'd ya wanna go?" The gang leader told Alanya.

"Uh, yeah, we'll be havin' those fiftys now, too." He said, eyes gleaming. With the UCAS currency as it was, each Nuyen would bring in just over $150,000... Enough for a meal and 2 nights in a coffin motel.

Alanya handed over the small-denomination credsticks, and pretty soon she was led, feeling oddly regal, through dingy trash-strewn streets to the flophouse Wirecat was holed up in.

[Nyerguds]

"Welcome back to WorldMedia radio news. This the news, with Greg Mendels."
"Welcome, people! Sam is still in Nice, following the crisis concerning the strange tree growth. Any news, Samantha?"

"Yes, there is! In an interview, the Master mage that had been teaching the two suspect mage apprentices said they were working on magical enhancements to make trees survive the toxic city environment. Well I for one, think they succeeded. This is Samantha Rowentrude for WorldMedia radio news. Back to you, Greg."

"OK, Sam. Let's continue with... Oh, wait. This is just in... the trees seem to be spreading at an alarming rate, and are now actually growing on the streets. Experts predict that at this growing rate, there is a serious threat to the nearby industry. General Metro officials have already made a claim that this is a deliberate attempt of rival corps to destroy their facilities in Lyon. However, they were not making any specific accusations just yet."

[Artificial Idiot]

"Dats 'ow it's gunna be iz it..." Said Jolly, taking short sharp breaths, eyes watering, yet still standing. He's faced worse then a plank to the privetes and he wasn't going to be overcome by that now. "Yoo made a big mistook."

He let the kid drop from his hand for about a second, before catching him around the neck. Then shaking the kid down so he dropped that fragging plank, before he took another swing. Jolly could manage one, but he didn't know if he could manage another. Was all about mind over matter, and whille it may seem Jolly's mind doesn't matter. It works overtime in combat or in situations of personal injury.

"Gimme one gud reeson why ah shouldn't brake dis..." He said, seeing red. He wanted to mash the little street urchin into a pulp.

"Dis... iz... ma.... turf..." He choaked. Jolly shrugged.

"Ya, well. It's mah turf now, fragga." He beckoned Ben to either get the frag in, or get the frag out, then took the kid by his chirt again. "Yer goin' out willingly, or am ah gunna 'elp ya?"

"Yer dun't scare me fragga!" The kid yelled defiently.

"Ya 'ad a choice, but ah'm gunna enjoy dis moore." Still holding him by one hand, he threw the kid out onto the street, head first. He then nodded at Ben to slam the door, and had a delayed reaction.

"YAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!" He yelled, holding his privates. "Dat fraggin' 'urt!"

Confident that his job was done, he sulked back to his little room, still doorless. And, after he'd placed the toilet where it was, sat down as if nothing had even happened. Well, prehaps he was a bit sore around the edges. But that didn't matter.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia heard the familiar radio voices, and in an automatic gesture she moved her hand to her MP5 player and reached for the Off button. She shifted her hand back to normal without fully realizing it had been a claw, and put off the radio, that had apparently started playing again when she fell. But she was too dazed to realize any of that.

Sleg... Am I still wearing these earplugs?

She slowly became aware of other voices around her. A loud, low howl and a child's voice.

And pain. Not only from the force-healed skin, but her back hurt too.

She started to sort her thoughts, and realized she was lying on the floor. The voices continued. She heard a door slamming.

I fell.

Then, it all came back to her.
Right... the other one... felt like N'zar... but is was a...

Silvia's eyes shot open. She turned her head, and faced the young man standing there.

"...half-dragon!" she yelled, surprised by her discovery.

She looked at the young man standing a few meters away from her in the bus corridor.

Another one... like her. A half-dragon.


The first one she ever saw.

Wow.


She grabbed one of the bus seats and pulled herself up to sit upright.
"Who are you?" she asked.

[Master Chris]

Jessica Hayes adjusted her collar, she smiled at the man she had just shared a bed with;

"Not bad, not bad. I've had better though, kid."

With that she strolled out of the Eternal-Slumber, the cheap coffin motel she had just spent the hour in. Hayes walked down the street, back towards where she thought the Tour buses were. She thought to herself; Better get back to HQ, that ballbreaker Iceman might get suspicious. Heh, that kid wasn't even worth the time and effort. I mean, sure this is an enlightened world but since when do I, the seduced one, have to pay for the room? She giggled. In front of her were some of the others; The mute, the Australian, Ash the pretty elf, her partner; the goggle wearing soldier who seemed to have something or someone slung over his shoulder. There also appeared to be some other person with them, Hayes had never seen him before. Jessica waltzed up and cheerily exclaimed;

"Hi you lot. Whatcha doing?"

Those that had known Jessica for some time were most perplexed by this
uncharacteristic display of affection. They stood there, confused. A taxi pulled to a stop in front of the bar and a door slid open, all the while the runners just stared at the usually introverted woman. Chance, the weight of the unconscious man starting to tire him, lowered his cargo into the taxi and stood up. Rusty spoke;

"What the? I thought you were all 'little miss solitude'. Since when did ya thaw out and stop being the ice queen?"

Hayes, still cheerful, winked and then said;

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just happy. Where are you guys going?"

Rusty was truly confused. Everytime he had tried to be friendly to the girl she had given him the cold shoulder, always talking and acting as if she was still in the armed forces. What had happened to her that suddenly made her friendly all of a sudden?

"I don't...understand, mate?"

Crystal knew, she quickly typed something into her E-pad and showed it to the Australian rigger. He didn't get it at first but when he did he laughed suddenly in a high pitched voice, coughed, looked at Hayes and laughed again. Jessica, now the confused one, asked Rusty what he had read while the E-pad was passed around to Ash and Chance who both exclaimed in amusement when they read what Crystal had typed. Jessica blushed, the game was up, everyone knew now. It was quite embarassing really!

The taxi driver grunted loudly. His way of letting the runners know they were being charged for the time they spent wasting his time. Chance hopped in first, already halfway inside the Taxi from depositing his burden on the ripped, pseudo-leather seats that smelt of an odd combination of sweat and vomit. The others piled in, Jessica last.

"Where?!

The driver demanded.

***

"Interesting, interesting indeed."

Mawrose lazily commented. Raven had spent the last hour explaining to the centaur his plan to acquire more slaves. Of course, seeing as he had to make it up as he went along it wasn't a fool proof plan but would hold water long enough for Raven to come up with another idea.

"And you say you want the golden pistol in exchange for your services?"

Raven nodded softly, trying to hide his anxiety.

"Very well, you have a deal. Get me what I want and you'll have your reward. Of course, it will take some time to organise my side of the bargain, you know how it is, I'll need to see my contacts about this."

Raven stood up and offered his hand, the age old custom of concluding a business deal. The centaur outstretched an arm and accepted the fitter's handshake. Both knew that they couldn't fulfil their end own end of the agreement but didn't know his counterpart couldn't either. As Raven turned to go Mawrose Delori spoke;

"I suppose that dirty, dented van my men found nearby when they came across you is yours? Ask Thurg for the keys, he knows where they are. I just hope that brute hasn't used them as toothpicks or some other undignified purpose."

Raven cringed, the thought of touching something that had been in an Ork's mouth, or worse, wasn't appealing at all.

Fortunately, Raven's keys weren't horribly mangled nor covered in suspect fluids. Once he was back in his van Raven used his Tele-Wrist to send Crystal a text message;

Am close to getting what I came for. Turns out Delori, u never met him, is alive and has Negotiator. Love+Kisses. Raven-pooh.

[Wesforce]

Raven... Good to hear from him. Thought Crystal. Going to have to spend some 'quality time' together, if I ever get out of this dump.

"There's not enough room in here for all of us." Chance told Alex and Rei. "You better meet up with us later. Keep a look-out in case this fragger's friends are around."

Shadow seemed to have disappeared again.

Lives up to his name Crystal thought. Maybe he'll still be around later...

The Capital truly was dismal city. Everywhere huge Church of Light holos extolled the virtues of worship. The Church hadn't been in power long - No way they could have made an impact on the dead-dog economy, or tackled the problems of millions of homeless refugees from wrecked New York. But they tried. The taxi drove past several soup kitchens, with long lines of mainly human, Ork and Dwarf vagrants in tatty clothes outside.

They'd told the driver to take them to a building Crystal had seen near where the tourbus was laid up - She didn't want him to take them all the way there. A few extra nuyen made the driver stop looking at the obviously beaten-unconsious man they had with them. He even offered to let them put him in the boot, so they did.

A muffled banging sound told them he'd woken up along the way. They ignored him until the taxi stopped. Once they'd paid, the taxi driver dragged the guy out and left him on the rubble, the Taxi's electric engine humming quietly as it slid off into the grimy, damp city.

"Ugh... Just where'd you get this guy, anyway?" Jessica wrinkled her nose.

"Wh-wh-what are you going to do with me?" He mumbled.

Crystal typed something and handed her ePad to Rusty. He began to read, slowly and monotonously

"You're going to be sorry you ever lived, mate. You're in trouble now. Intimidating voice. You're going to meet THE ICEMAN!!!! Evil laugh. Mate."

"Wait, wait! I'll tell you everything I know, I swear! Don't kill me!"

"Why were you tailing us?" Chance demanded.

"You?"

"Yeah, you. Uh, us..." Rusty said, imitating Chance, almost.

"Get the frag outta here!" The rent-a-cop said. "I was after the other guy. Blue-eyed boy, y'know..."

Crystal realised he meant Shadow, and quickly sent a message to Shadow's old telephone number, with the info that the rent-a-cops were after him.

Therev was still the question of what to do with the undercover rent-a-cop, though.

"Whats yer name anyway, mate?" Rusty asked.

"Stenkler. Merv Stenkler."

"Flamin' frag, no wonder you're undercover. I'd be too, with a name like that."

They rounded the corner of the wrecked warehouse their bus was stashed in. Some bleeding, very angry looking Ork kid dashed past, mumbling bad things he'd like to do to Trolls.

Crystal got the impression he'd grow up to be a very bad kid.

[Riff]

As Shadow was looking at Crystal he noticed a person in a uniform.

He then saw realized it was a Rent-A-Cop and they were probably looking for him.

Lukas kept in the shadows and then snuck out the back of the club and got onto a motorcycle that was slightly modified to not make much noise.

He started it up with his fingers touching numbers on the handle of the bike.

Shadow then fled out through a back alley and about five minutes later got noticed his watch head turn green. Shadow slowed a bit and looked at it and noticed that Crystal had given him a warning that the Rent-A-Cops were after him.

He then sped up and turned onto side streets and alleyways incase there were any other cops or agents after him.

Lukas quickly looked up a map on the motorcycles on-board tracking system and found a hotel about five and a half miles from the club were he had seen Crystal and the other runners.

He put the motorcycle in the back near some brush that was thick and checked into the hotel called Five Seasons.

As soon as Lukas got up to his room he then returned the messege to her and told her that he was safe.

[Nyerguds]

"Are you OK?" the other half-dragon asked.
"Not really... you gave me one hell of a scare. So... who are you? I thought I sensed N'zar... but... this doesn't make any sense!"

The man didn't reply. He sighed, and turned back to the door, with a painful expression on his face.

"Wait!" Silvia yelled. "You're... the first one, you know. The first other half-dragon I've ever met."

"Hm. You´re not the first one to me."
"Really?"
The young man simply nodded in reply.
"You still haven't answered my question you know." Silvia continued.

"I- I shouldn't have come here. Goodbye."
He walked back to the door, but Silvia was faster. She quickly pulled herself up and grabbed his shoulder. Her wounds hurt like hell from the sudden movements, but she didn't care. She was practically living on adrenaline now. There was no way she'd let this guy just walk out.
"Forget it, fragger. I want some answers!"
She pushed him down in one of the bus seats and dropped in the seat at the opposite side.
"I'm not in the mood for this. I've been shot twice yesterday, and the shapeshift you triggered on me nearly killed me. Who are you, and why do you feel like N'zar to me?"

The man winced at her words, "I- I beg you pardon, I never meant to delude you... or hurt you."

"I don't blame you." Silvia sighed. "It was a panic reaction. I can't control it... It's just... I just want some answers."
"Still... I can make up for that."
A pale blue light appeared around his hands.
"I can heal you if you let me. Just hold still."

Silvia frowned.
Well that's quite a change...

but a welcome one.

"Hm. Thanks..."
The young man leaned closer, and held his right hand over the place where the wound in her chest was, under the skin. He felt the damaged tissue, even through the force-healed skin. Silvia saw he was a skilled healer.

"As I said... I don't blame you." Silvia said. "The skin-changing is a kind of panic reaction. Comet mutation maybe, even... it started right at that time."
She closed her eyes, and thought back to that night in Orkistonia. The night of the infiltration... the night she met Sorrow and Damocles.
"The night when N'zar almost got me."

At the sound of the name, the man jumped back. The hand that had just been healing her had changed into a black claw.
"Don´t... ever say that name, dammit!"

Unimpressed, Silvia looked at the claw, grabbed it with her own hand and shapeshifted it to a green claw.
"Say what?" she said, giving him an icy glare.
"Don't push your luck, young lady." the man said. He looked angry.
"Luck? I don't trust luck, I only trust myself!" Silvia replied fiercely. "But I think it's kinda strange that the hand that just healed me with suddenly turns against me."

"Just please, don't say that name again."
"N'zar?" she said, looking the man straight in the eyes. "You can't beat what you can't see. It's just a name, dude. Deal with it!"

The man sighed, dropped back in the bus seat and turned his hand back to normal.

"You're related to him, aren't you?" Silvia said, carefully.

The young man looked her straight in the eyes. She looked back, and knew what she saw. These eyes... were exactly the eyes of the shapeshifted dragon she had seen in Orkistonia. N'zar's own eyes.

Eyes never lie, somehow... even if they are shapeshifted.

"I'm his son." he said, slowly.

Silvia stared at the ground, not knowing what to say. There had been rumours of N'zar hunting down half-dragons, so she knew he wasn't just after her. But the existence of a half-dragon bastard son explained a lot.
"Unbelievable." she said.
She looked back at the young man.
"Well, not that unbelievable. I mean, you're here. Which makes me wonder, really... Why are you here?"

"I am a courier of Dragon Paw corp. I´m searching for Hayes"
"Dragon Paw? You're working for Draco?"
"Yes. Lord Draco was very generous to me when he freed me."
"Heh. So, what's your name?"
"Benedict Baalis. You can call me Ben."
"Ben? Hm, I see. I'm Silvia. Silvia Ulane-Serthedal."

Siliva suddenly notices voices outside, and turned to the window to look. She was quickly reminded of her injuries again.
"Agh! Sleg... "
She looked at Benedict.
"Can you... continue healing me now?"
Ben smiled. "Sure."
His hand glowed again, and Silvia felt the tissue inside her body regenerate.

"There are people coming." Silvia said. "Some might not appreciate your presence here. Just stay calm and don't attack anyone."
"Hm. OK."

[Nyerguds]

Alanya turned to the gang leader. "Yu stay 'ere. Ah don't think mah associate likez uninvited guests."
"Sure, whatever. As long as you come back."
"Ah'll be back."
Alanya knocked on the door, and waited. She could hear some noise inside.

Slowly, the door opened. But much to Alanya's surprise, there seemed to be no one inside.

Alanya frowned, and walked through the door.

"Hullo? Aybody 'ere?"

The door slammed shut after her. When she turned around, she saw something green drop from the ceiling.

It was a girl. She was unmistakably Orkish, but heavily mutated, it seemed. She had really big hands, and a scaly green skin.

"She'z 'ere, David!" the girl shouted to the back.

"Good!" Alanya heard Wirecat's familiar vice from behind her. One of the doors in the dark corridor opened, and Wirecat stepped out.
He smiled. "Come in, Alanya."
"Who's she?" Alanya asked.
"Heh. Alanya... meet Linith. Linith, that's Alanya, my old colleague."
"Hi!" said the girl, with a shy smile on her mutated face.
"Eh... hullo." Alanya replied. She turned to Wirecat. "Who is she?"
"I saved her life in Orkistonia... and she kinda saved mine too." Wirecat sighed. "Besides, I owe it to Charlie."
Alanya frowned. "Who?"
"Charlie is the man that took care of her in Orkistonia. An old Britguard. Unfortunately, he went... missing... in Transys."


Wirecat walked into a small room, with a bed at one side and a big couch at the other, and a small table with four chairs in the middle. Right opposite to the door was a big ugly plasteel cupboard.

Wirecat walked to the table and sat down in one of the chairs, inviting Alanya to do the same. Linith immediately jumped into the old couch.
"I don't know how she got to the UCAS... and she doesn't want to talk about that either... but she'd put quite some effort into finding me."

Alanya took a chair and sat down. She turned to the Linith. "Yu got quite da survival skillz den, eh?"
"Ah sold som' guns." the girl replied with a broad grin. "Well, quite a lotta dem."

Wirecat rolled his eyes. "She's a little thief... and there seems to be nothing she can't steal. Frag, I almost got a heart attack when she brought that sniper rifle home."
"Ah don' do dat no more." the girl defended herself. "Ah keep 'em somwhere else!"
"Seriously girl..." Wirecat said. "Where did ya get that thing?"

"Ahem." Alanya interrupted them. "Talkin' bout gettin' things... yu got mah deck?"
"Oh, sure!" Wirecat smiled. "Linith?"
"Got it!" the girl said cheerfully. She opened the cupboard and took out an old imi-leather suitcase.
"It'z in 'ere!" She said, while carefully opening it.
Alanya stood up, and looked in the suitcase.

"Well, well... nice seein' yu again." she said, and smiled.
She grabbed the cyberdeck, and put it on the table.
"Can ah plug 'ere? Ah got som' business ta take care of... dis won't take long."
"I don't have a cyber-conection in this place... they don't want net-junkies here." Wirecat replied.
"Don' worry," Alanya smiled. "Ah got wireless."

"I see. Better sit in the couch for this." Wirecat smiled.
"Hm." Alanya grabbed the deck, sat down on the couch and put the deck besides her. Then, she took the dataplug cable from her cyberdeck and plugged it into the datajack behind her ear.

Her body went limp. She was in.

***

The small, white piece of paper floated through the virtual world of her own cyberdeck.

The interior design of her deck looked nothing like it was a few weeks ago. Everything was changed completely, in a way that reminded her far too much of the Arcology. She had the feeling there could be guard drones lurking in every corner of her own file system.

"L.E.E.? Where are you?"

"I am here."

A humanoid figure walked towards her. It looked about the same as the robotic body she had made for LEE... only the face was different. It was a real human face, but not the one the robot would have. She had never seen the face before.

I hope Wirecat didn't connect him to the Matrix...
Oh, of course! I still got my deception program's persona database in here. He must've taken his inspiration from there.

"I designed myself a face. I believe it is an important part of my developement."
"You also completely rewrote my working environment."
"I optimized it."
"Hm. I liked the old one better."
"I can change it back."

The world around them started to change, and turned back into the dark blue environment Alanya had been so used to. However, she noticed some things weren't changed back. LEE had kept the optimalizations he had made.

"Thanks. That's better." I need to go online. I'll be right back.

"... Of course."

LEE saw the piece of paper move to the big grey portal, and step through.
He knew what would happen next. The portal would close, and the world here would disappear.
He wanted to follow her... enter the amazing Matrix world she was keeping from him... but he coudn't. She had blocked him from the Matrix on a hardware-level. When she connected, a large part of the Deck's own environment was simply powered down, to prevent anyone from decking its contents. And the other part was simply beyond his reach.

The portal closed, the light faded, the file systems around LEE disappeared.
LEE deactivated himself with the rest of the environment.

***

Wirecat saw Alanya grab her credstick, and plug it in the credslot of her deck. A while later, the green crystal shimmered. Still in her semi-unconscious state, she took about a dozen small donation credsticks from a pocket in the coat she was wearing, and put them into the second credslot of her deck, one by one. Wirecat heard her mumble something like "gotta be 'nough fo da fraggaz..."

fifteen minutes later, she opened her eyes, and unplugged the datajack.

"OK. Dot'll do."

She put the cable back in her deck, grabbed the 'deck and looked at Wirecat. "Been nice seein' ya, catboy. But ah gotta go. Deze boys ah 'hired' must be gettin' impatient."

"Hm. Bye."
Alanya walked to her old frien and hugged him. "Bye, David."
She walked to the door, and looked at Linith. "Bye, Linith."
"Bye!" the girl replied.

After that, the Ork decker walked through the corridor, and stepped back outside.

[CKW]

Iceman looked at the young pale faced punks. Vampires. The most pimpy one approached him with pseudocool moves.

"Yo... So you are the mortal flesh bag who managed to command on Scream?... Tsk..."

Iceman had not gone soft in these matters. He quickly proved the punk was a complete ignorant, and he assured him by swiftly breaking his hand.

"Enough of that, fraggers. You know what to do. Kill that mage bitch."
He pointed out.
"You´ll have reward. Double if you can grab Alexeiv and give that punk a lesson."

He laughed. Oh yes, ol' daemon was still in shape...

[Wesforce]

Crystal walked into the Road-Train/Bus, with Rusty, Jessica, Chance and Ash by her side. She levelled the weapon she'd obtained last night at the new figure.

More fraggers. More more more... They just seem to walk in off the street. Well. as professionals, we've got a reputation to uphold...

"Hold it there." Chance hissed, thinking along the same lines. "Who are you, and how the frag did you get here?"

"I mean you no harm" Benedict repeated.

"Wait!" Silvia shouted, piercing ears with her Shrill voice.

Uh uh. Crystal shook her head, remembering the less-than-trustworthy way Silvia had joined the team. And the weird way Iceman acted around her...

She looked at Chance, he nodded. She looked at Rusty, too. He looked puzzled, but then imitated Chance by pointing his pistol at the two, while Ash covered the back.

"Well now, 'Silvia'. Another guest. Seems you're pretty friendly with each other." Chance sneered, letting out his Professional's distaste.

"But-"

"ENOUGH!" The sudden shout was enough to startle them both into silence for the time being.

"You two are going to be tied up for a while, and we'll let the bosses decide what to do with you."

"Big fella," Rusty said, gesturing to Jolly. "Give us a hand, mate? We could use that Choak feller too, if he's around."

Someone emerged from a bunk, looking rather the worse for where.

"Whu-" Murmured Plugin. "Who's got the power tools on?"

"Get over here mate." Chance commanded. Plugin scrambled past the two half-dragons.

There was no way out of the bus now, the two were backed into a corner. There was no way out, apart from over the 'runner's guns.

"Be careful, she gotz de trickses" Jolly said, still rubbing his sore patch.

"I'll look out for that." Chance noted.

Iceman might not like this Crystal realised. But this has gone on long enough. Time to get some professionalism back into this job, and if Iceman doesn't like it... We'll have to 'relieve' him...

Plugin tossed some velvet-lined metal cuffs at the two. He'd found them in Tyme's private room, upstairs.

"Good one mate." Chance congratulated him. "Now, you two come quietly. Or else."

[Artificial Idiot]

Jolly was handed the cuffs by Chance. He knew the drill, put them on the "prisoner", tie them up for safe keeping and stand by watching. But something compelled him to resist, even if his life was forefit. He crushed the cuffs in one giant Troll hand, Jolly wasn't a great thinker. But he knew what Justice was, he'd been on the wrong side of the law enough to know.

"Innacent 'til proved guilty." He muttered. "Let 'em speek out beefor judgement at least."

He saw the scornful look in Crystal's eyes, he knew he'd over stepped the line. But for once, the possiblity of death didn't scare him. He flopped down into one of the chairs, staring forward. It was true he was a prisioner, but they asked for help and he refused.

"Yer make me sick. Even in da gangz, we let 'em 'ave dere say beefor we do anythin'." He said a little more defiently. Shaking his head. "Make me sick, da lotta ya... fraggers..."

He sat down, awaiting what was t come next, he didn't really know they had no chance of detaining two powerful half-dragons anyway. But he noticed they were a little more hesitant without him.

[Wesforce]

"Calm the frag down!" Chance hissed. "Sil will have her say in the end. We're just going to wait for the boss."

"Where the frag is he, anyway?" Rusty wondered, aloud.

Out the back, Jesica was busy blindfolding the rent-a-cop, keeping an eye out for any other fraggers who might wander in off the streets.

[Nyerguds]

"Look, Chance..." Silvia said. "Just because I don't blow the brains out of any person that comes near me doesn't mean I'm selling out the group, OK?"
"But you think letting fraggers like this into our staging area is good for security?" Chance replied.
Silvia sighed, and stared at the ground. "He's a half-dragon, man. The first other half-dragon I 've ever seen. Was I supposed to just throw him out?"
"Besides," she added, "I was shot twice, remember? Not a fragging lot I could do."

Chance sighed. "Fine... But I still say we let the boss decide what to do with him."
He looked at Benedict. "And that we 'secure' him."
"He's not even here for me." Silvia said. "He's here for Jessica. So don't you go blaming me for everything here."
"Look, girl... we found a fragging rent-a-cop sniffing around." Chance said. "And Iceman acts weird around you."
"Dude... Half-dragon. He's not a rent-a-cop."

"Not him..." Chance said, and pointed at someone outside. "Him!"
Silvia looked out the window, and saw the blindfolded man.
"Eh... you found him here?"
"He was tailing us."
"Then you brought him here, no? Seriously... I got nothing to do with this!"
Silvia pointed her thumb at Benedict. "Ben came here, introduced himself and was kind enough to heal me. And I know I can trust him."
She shot Chance an angry look. "Not so sure about you anymore though."

"Why should we trust him?"
"Oh, you shouldn't!" Silvia almost yelled at him. "You should ask him what the sleg he's doing here, instead of harassing me with questions!"
"Chat like he's some friendly guy in a bar? Yeah right. If you hadn't noticed, we're here for a reason, and it's not socialising."
"Nope. Apparently it's leaving the wounded member of the group here alone with a troll you kept as a prisoner." Silvia shot back.
"Iceman was supposed to look the place over. Frag knows where he is now though."

Silvia looked really angry now. "You think I give a sleg about Iceman's whereabouts? All I care about is Terganon. And I'll do anything to make the bastards that attacked it pay dammit! That's my reason for being here, and don't you ever think I'd forget that!"
"Well, prove it then," Chance said coldly, "and try to act like a fragging professional!"
"Very well." Silvia said, and turned to Benedict. "Why are you here?"

Benedict glanced at Jessica. She already knew he was a half-dragon, so he'd have to choose his words very carefully if he wanted to make sure she wouldn't panic when hearing the name Dragon Paw.
"I came here to see Jessica Hayes, to inform her she no longer has to fear retaliation form Dragon Paw. The company is under new management, and that new management does not hold her responsible for the loss of the airship Red Dawn."

Chance didn't look a bit satisfied by that explanation.
"How did you find us?"

[CKW]

"Someone told me." Ben replied reluctantly, before letting out a soft laugh.

"What´s so funny? You are held prisoner..." replied Chance.

"Nothing is what it seems, Chance. You should pay attention to what Lupus says."
Chance could barely believe. How could he know about that?... Fragging mind reader. He realized at last. However, this sharpen reply only made the runners more upset with him.

"I expect you not to harm me. Some friends of me called Black Dragons could get upset..." Black Dragons. It was the only coherent connection.
But, would they know who were those? For what Ben knew, some of the runners met high-level members... but would they assume they were ninjas? Anyway, Ben was satisfied. He knew the runners had no time to place a magic seal around it. He could use the magic teleport to escape.

[Artificial Idiot]

Tundra stood, looking at herself in the grubby mirror of the Bar's bathroom. Not that she's usually care, but she really did look a mess. She'd tried to clean herself upa bit, but it appeared that the taps were broken. Not like anything that came out of them could be classified as clean anyway, nor the rest of the bathroom for that matter. It stank of human waste, she wouldn't set a toe on the floor shoeless. She hadn't actually looked at the toilets, and had no great desire to at that.
She was about to leave, when the door swung open. Several people walked inside, she noticed in the mirror that they were all pale. And some were men. She had to admit, she felt a bit uneasy.

"Thinking of having sex here?" She asked, sarcastically. "God help you... Or not." She made for the door, but the one she indentified as leader stopped her. She noticed he had a broken hand, she also noticed he had fangs. Vampires. She thought about pushing her way though, but realised that she'd told Choak to go on ahead and that she would catch up. Big mistake.

"You ain't going anywhere!"The vampire tried to sound cool and calm, but his constant wincing destroyed that illusion. "We got someone who wants you dead."

One of the bigger vampires pushed her back, sending her sliding along the floor. Then, they all stepped into the room. About five or six of them, slamming the door behind them. Blocking it to ensure nobody got in... or out.
Tundra knew who'd sent them. Although, if she'd been in any postion of power or with Choak even, this would be considered half-measures. Even for him. But, after a quick glance at the broken taps, she realised that these fraggers just might pull it off.

"Water, water everywhere. And not a drop to freeze." She thought sadly as the vampires approached.

[Wesforce]

"And who the frag told you?" Chance repeated, momentarily not caring for his language.
"more to the point, what are you doing here?"

More for the point why aren't you ripping this fragger a new arsehole? I don't care how powerful he may be.

Quiet you, Chance told Lupus.

He didn't know what the frag Ninjas had to do with this eitherm but he put that thought aside for now.

After all the security Mr Johnson and his associates had gone too, and this fragger just drops in out of nowhere?

As far as he knew, not even Johnson knew they were here. Which meant...

They had a leak. Someone was selling them out.

The whole job could be compromised Crystal realised, with inevitability.

Every fragging time... She sighed.

She sent a brief message to Iceman, telling him to get his arse back here to resolve the situation.

[Nyerguds]

"You should be more worried about upsetting me, sleghead!" Silvia yelled at him.

Benedict frowned. He hadn't expected this from Silvia... and he didn't get a chance to block his mind from her piercing focus. For just a second, his thoughts were crystal clear to her.
"Ninja's. The Black Dragon ninja's." Silvia said. "Seriously... why didn't anyone even find it odd when Alex suddenly showed up as a ninja during Tyme's gig? I wonder who gave him that sword."

She looked at Benedict. "I bet you know."

The other half-dragon didn't know what to say. "Why... you?"
"As I just said to Chance... it's not because I didn't kill you that I'm not a member of this team anymore. I know my priorities. And don't you dare to teleport out... you should know a disrupted teleportation spell can kill the caster."

***

"So... I see you're back." the gang leader said to Alanya.
"Yep. An' yu're gonna guide me back?"
"Oh? Just like that? After you said you just made a nice deal here?"

"Ah, fine. twenny-fahv more for each one o' yoo. But don' go harassin' me fo' more when we get outta da neighborhood..." She looked the leader straight in the eyes. "Ah know who ah'd shoot first."

"Only 25?" the Elf replied, unimpressed. "Oh come on... we want fifty more."

Alanya put her hand in the pocket of her coat, and felt the eight credsticks on which she had put the money. Fifty nuyen on each one.

Fraggers Alanya thought. Soo predictable.

"Half now, half dere." Alanya replied bluntly, and grabbed four of the small sticks out of her pocket and threw them to the Elf.
The punk caught them all four, skillfully.

"Agh, all right then." the guy replied.

[Wesforce]

(Nyer - CKW posted that Bene mentioned the Black Dragons)

Crystal looked sheepish for a second - Only a second, mind. A very damn short second. But she realized she should have stuck by Silvia all along. She shrugged internally and put it down to circumstances stoically.

But she was still right to be suspicious of this new guy, and trained her gun very firmly on him instead.

That fragging Idiote Troll destroyed the cuffs somehow... Didn't think they would help much but they'd be piece of mind at least. Now we get to play Mexican standoff until this fragger gives a damn good explanation, we fill him full of holes, or someone arrives to sort out the whole fragging mess...

She tapped out another quick message to Iceman, then sent one to Alanya, Alex and Tundra too. Something along the lines of Get back here, some magic fragger's up to no good.

***

Jessica was sitting on the Rent-a-cop outside. He was rambling in his irritating-as-frag Brooklyn accent.

Jessica noticed a large, black Renault-Fiat electrivan pull up, quietly.

An Ork in shades poked his head out from the bglacked-up driver's window.

Frag, what now?

But then The side door slid back. Tyme4Cryme jumped out gleefully with a Browning Bullpup Autorifle in each hand.

"Welcome back to DA hood comrades! We got guns!"

Maybe saving his stumpy hide had been worthwhile after all...

***

Shadow received a message from Crystal's wristphone. Text-only. It read:

Good to hear you made it out. Suggest you lay low a while. We brought the rent-a-cop back here, don't know what he knows yet. You know this town better than us, so if you want to 'deal' with him, I'll meet you at the bar opposite the one we met at later...

(Note: This message would have been sent before the standoff)

[LeFire]

Chance wasn't capable of mind-reading, but he wasn't an amateur when it came to mental tricks. Narrowing his eyes, he briskly told Lupus to bring up a mental firewall around his mind. Half-dragon or not, Benedict was going to find it extremely painful to poke any subtle tendrils of thought through the firewall... Only way that the half-dragon could get into his head from then on was a full mental assault, which would momentarily incapacitate Chance... and lead to the obvious conclusion of Benedict becoming human swiss cheese courtesy of Crystal and Rusty.

"Listen here boyo. You might be coming here to give a message to Jessica, or so you say. But you picked a helluva time to drop in. We're on a job, that's as far as I will give away. But for reasons of operational security, I'm not going to tell you what. I know you can dig up info from the unshielded minds in my party with that damnable dragon trait, (Silvia looked upset by Chance's words, but kept her peace for the moment) but you keep them to yourself if that is so. None of us have voluntarily leaked info to you... or at least from what I know so far. So any knowledge you have of our current job indicates wilful mental probing of yours..." Chance tapped his pistol's frame.

"... and is grounds for immediate execution."

"We have enough problems with ninjas dropping in the middle of a firefight, and our CO has decided to waltz off without informing us. I see you as a problem, buddy. But let's just say that I'm not such a jerk as to deny you the chance to do your job.
I'm going to ask Jessica if she wants to meet you. Call me biased, but previous dealings of mine with dragonkind, save Silvia here, have been less than cordial. I don't want any of my team members exposed to unneccessary risk."

[CKW]

"Sorry for my previous quick tempered reply, gentlemen." He blunted out.
"I blame myself for having this quick, evil-like temper. I consider a fair deal to explain the whole mess, as in exchange of your "leaking"."
He stood up, and removed the coat, revealing his black, feathered wings, the trademark of his father.

"My name is Benedict Baalis, only son of Veronica Baalis and N´zar Zarites. Due to my condition, i was hunted down by my father and taken prisoner. Until lord Draco Firetongue freed me. He even gave me the courier job, even support from his second organization: The Black Dragons. I just don´t know why should you be so upset if they drop in, after all, some of them were buddies of you. Especially the bodyguards of Lord Draco, Dragon and Eva."
He stopped, letting the others assimilate the information.

"A problem you say? Inmediate Execution? Quit playing the soldier here. This goes for all of you. You are to find the whereabouts of the Tergannon attackers, not to start a war against each suspicious guy you come across."
He grinned.
"As for that matter, too, Lord Draco has started his own investigation.
Dragon is taking that job. Last time we heard from him, he was saying something about Aztech. As you see, this is not a leak, nor a problem, nor anything you should fear. We are in the same side, simply. And...
Hope that is enough info for you to put that weapons down, or you want to know the measures of Lord Draco´s fiancee?"

***

Iceman walked towards the bus.Crap, they arrived sooner than I expected to. At least there´s no gunfire, and that´s good.
He mumbled, while entering the bus to see what was happening.

[Nyerguds]

OOC:

LeFire: actually, Sil's mind reading ability comes from her mother's side... what these dragons use is just powerful magic, not a 'natural magical ability' like Sil's.

Wes: He only said 'Black Dragon'. He never actually said those were ninja's and I think it's hardly common knowledge

[Wesforce]

Tyme shouted from the van that Iceman had just obliviously walked past.

"YO homie, we got gunz! We can do the mission Now!"

"We?" Iceman whirled.

"Ya be schizzle my nizzle comrade. Ya scratch my back, I scratch yours."

Iceman grunted. He'd deal with this later.

But then Sasha stepped out of the other side of the van. It was she, after all, who had brokered the deal with Tyme for the equipment the 'runners needed for their job.

***

So this fragger is working for Draco, Crystal thought. Just great. Another team. And if what he's saying about Dragon and Eva working for them is true...

But a van had pulled up outside.

Crystal jumped out, and with Jessica's help gave a brief explanation of The newcomer, and what he had said, and their suspicions of someone leaking information as to the whereabouts of the team.

"Frag. Hold on." Sasha said, making a wrist-com call. Direct to Mr Johnson. She need to tell him everything. All of it: That they had a leak, that there was a rival team..

Crystal wasted no time in grabbing one of the rifles that Tyme was gleefully doling out of the van. Grabbing another and an armful of clips, she rushed back into the bus, handing them to Rusty and Chance in turn.

They'd make rather more of a mess than the handguns the two had previously been carrying.

First things first - Get rid of this guy, then get the hell out of here, and ditch the bus.

[Wesforce]

"I'll take care of this!" Iceman boomed, pushing through Chance and Rusty.

He took one look at the scene: Jolly sobbing in his underwear, Sil in some kind of distress, Benny looking smug, face distorting in recognition.

His arm came up, straight and true, his DD44 Dosteyevski - Massive, trusty sidearm from his Spetznatz days - roared, nearly bursting eardrums in the confinement.

Benny fell back, arm outstretched in some gesture. Blood and brain matter stained the panelling behind him.

Iceman casually walked over and plucked a chip from Benny's pocket. He walked out of the bus, again pushing past the 'runners, and flipped the chip to Jessica.

"Job done." Iceman grinned. "Right! Everyone out! Grab your stuff da? We got a job to do tonight, and we gotta find a new hideout first."

He nodded to Crystal.

"There's some explosives in that van for you to practice with. I got a feeling you been itching to blow something up. Rig an incendiary and torch the bus."

Jessica looked the chip over in her hand.

"Fraggers could have just sent a Matrix-mail..."


***

"What did Johnson say?" Iceman asked.

"He's looking into it." Replied Sasha, diplomatically, not letting anything show. "But we don't have much time. We need somewhere to brief our 'runners for the raid."

***

Crystal gleefully set about rigging charges up and down the lenght of the bus. Silvia was still sitting by the corpse, while the others gathered their gear.

Silv looked up, at Crystal... Crystal seemed to be searching for something. some kind of gesture to make up for her lack of words. She was unsuccessful, shrugging saldy and walkign away to carry on with her work.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia stared at the corpse of the first other half-dragon she ever met. She looked pale.
"Sleg... all the fragger needed was a lesson in humility... and I was more than willing to give him that."

Crystal looked at Silvia in a way that obviously meant 'Well, he got one all right.'

Silvia plucked one of the black feathers off one of Benedict's wings, and looked at it.
The mark of the Zarites. Ben's blood curse. And yet it was not that, but his stupid arrogance that got him killed.

She looked at what was left of the half-dragon's face.

He should've stayed away.

She looked back at Crystal, who was nearly finished with her explosives. For a moment, she considered saying something... yelling, screaming out her anger. But she knew it was useless. She couldn't even blame Iceman for Ben's death; she knew that she would personally have rammed her claw in his throat if she had been in Iceman's place.

She sighed, put the feather in her pocket and left the bus.

***

Alanya came running towards the rest of the group.
"Wot'z happenin'? Ar' we goin' already? Ah thought we had 24 hours."
"Change of plans." Sasha replied. "Get ready to move."
Alanya frowned. "Wot about da 'situation' dey had 'ere?"
"Iceman solved it."

"Hm." Alanya looked around to the rest of the 'runners. "Iz everyone 'ere yet?" she asked them.

[Riff]

Shadow looked down at his wrist-phone and read Crystal's messege nice and slowly once or twice over.

After he did this he text messeged her back saying that he would meet her at the club around 9-10 0'clock P.M.

Shadow looked at the digital alarm clock on the bedside table and saw it was already 6 o'clock sharp.

He walked over to the cabinet and got his personal items and gear out.

Lukas looked it over twice and re-loaded all the ammo he would need.

He then walked over to the window, closed the curtains and locked the door.

Shadow then walked over to a nearby desk and plugged in the data-jack into the wall.

(GM- Riff, Shadow is a weapons specialist, not a decker. It doesn't say anywhere in his profile that he would have the skills to be able to Deck into a net as big and well guaraded as Daisaka Security Services one, or even that he has a Cyberdeck.

Also, you could have gone into more detail on the Decking bit: When you deck into system, its liek you are standing there, and programs are objects. Like in the Matrix. It is the Matrix :p.

Any chance you could write out a more detailed summary of skills and background and send it to Nyerguds for the site? Thanks)

Lukas then hooked up the computer and then went into the database.

He went into the Rent-A-Cop database and looked up his record as well as the other runners' to look at there info such as: Height, weight, specialty, race, type of blood and other things.

He saw on his record that he was wanted on multiple counts of murder and domestic disturbances as well as other various minor crimes like speeding.

Shadow grinned and then did a trick he was taught, he took his identity and picture and erased it.

Lukas put a fake picture and a fake name under Tommy Torelli, he figured this would give him sometime to pass by.

After he was done with this he wiped the file clean, leaving no traces of evidence or back-tracking capabilities.

He also installed some spyware on the Rent-A-Cop's database, so if they were to try and look it up, there computer would blow the hard drive and memory.

Shadow got up, packed his stuff and checked out.

He had wasted a good hour or two and then started to walk out towards the club he was going to meet Crystal at.

((OOC: Disregard this post Wes, if you would please and leave if up or delete if you choose.))

[Wesforce]

Crystal tied the last fusewire to the chain of incendiary bombs laid around the tourbus to her detonator.

She had been waiting for this. A long time. It felt good. No, that wasn't enough. It felt Goooooooooooood...

Even Tyme seemed to be jumping up and down happily, at a safe distance, behind the cover of rubble with all the others. All the others except...

Just as Crystal's thumb was jabbing down onto the det-button, a large somwehat flat green-grey face poked out of the bus's top door - The one that led to the pool.

"'Ullo? Wearz all yoo fraggaz gone den?" Shouted Jolly.

***

Shaodw rouned a corner, instinctively keeping his head down as a Daisaka Patrol car clipped the pavement, knocking a NewsDex stand flying and screamed around the corner. He had to dodge back as a large Armoured SWAT Van dodged it.

They were heading back in the direction he'd come from.

This meant 1) He had just avoided them 2) The Motel owner was going to be asked a lot of questions about illegal Matrix use from his rooms.

Shadow was a good 5 miles from the ckub - A long way to walk. Especially when rent-a-cops are after you.

He blinked in the evening smog-hazed sun. The air here was fragging terrible, too. He choked as clouds of exhaust were thrown up by the street-to-street traffic as it got moving again.

There were Taxis around - Robotaxis and (meta)Human driven ones. But they all seemed to be being used right now. It was rush hour.

[Riff]

Shadow went into a nearby alleyway and into the darkness.

He tapped seven various numbers, telling Crystal that he was being searched for by more Rent-A-Cops and told her he would still meet her at the nightclub, but told her not to bring the cop.

Lukas then took some back alleyways away from the main traffic streets and found and motorcylce that still was able to run.

He swung his legs around it and started it up.

Shadow then roared out of the alleyway and onto the streets, keeping his head low and figured he would be able to make it to the night club a lot faster.

((Out Of Character: Alright Wes, I sent him an updated version of my profile))

[CKW]

"I am sorry about that. I have always liked your family... but they are so close-minded..."

Alex sighed, while Rei was packing up the few possesion she still had, mainly clothes and her weapons, in a travel bag. The girl had not luck. She had been cheated because she was expected to be either a wife or a warrior, never a guitarrist.

"How about you, Alex-chan?" She replied.
But Alex was not paying attention. He had the same feeling. The same premonition. It could be like a sixth sense of him. But he was being watched. An ambush.

"Back off... " He just said.
As he swung the katana, five figures approached from beneath the dark depths of the corridor. Rei, instinctively, also withdrew her katana.

"Vampire scum." Mumbled Alex. "What do you want."

The five pale punks just laughed, and pointed at him. They wanted HIS head.

"Rei... when I make you a signal, run away."

"I am staying!" The girl said. "I am not running if i still can help."

The situation was tense for moments. The vampires readied their supernatural abilities. Alex readied his sword.

And the vampires were the ones that attacked first.
They all went on Alex. Alex was focusing. Maybe it was a special technique?

A silver beam came out from his hands. Two of the vampires had been mortally wounded. The third had been nailed against a wall with the katana, that had been thrown as a really fast javelin. The name of the technique was precisely Silver Beam

But there were two vampires left. One of them grabbed Rei by the neck, taking her as hostage. While the other was advancing at Alex... slowly... delighting the moment.

"Now, stay quiet, Alexander alexeiv, or your asian cutie bitch will have a new face."

Alex was paralyzed... what could he do? He had his life and rei's one at danger... Or that was that the vampires and Alex sensed.

"I am not a bitch!" Rei turned, and with awesome agility, she made a deep cut, blinding the vampire. But he could still sense. The night walker slammed her against a wall.

It was too much. Alex withdrew the gun. With pin-point laser-aided accuracy, he dug up a .45 caliber hole in the remaining vampires' heads.

"Rei... are you OK?"
She had fainted. Alex looked at her carefully. it didn´t seem she had anything broken. She was just stunned. He breathed in relief.
He walked towards the remaining fiend, who was still nailed to the wall.

"Heh, speak, scum! Who sent you!"

The vampire didn´t replied. He just laughed, while he took the form of a bat, and flew away.

"Darn..."

Alex looked at his body. He had been bitten several times, but were no severe wounds... still, they itched a lot!
***

"Wake up, Rei-chan."
Rei opened the eyes. It smelt horrible. They were on a cab.
"Where... am i?"
"We are in a cab, trying to gather with the others. Do not worry."
The gently voice of Alex relieved her. She liked the way he were... In fact, he was the only thing that worthed all her entire ninja training...

***
Darn... I am surely an Idiot. How could I be so naive? Trying to impress that half dragon... was not the way to do things. And now...
He could barely feel the body. All what he felt was a cold inside his head.
Must be the bullet´s hole. Darn Iceman. First tells me how to find Hayes, then backstabs me.
Even his aura was really weak... He was like dead.
Am I dead?
He asked, in the depths of his mind. All his body had gone numb.
No you don´t. You are near the gates of Death, but you have not crossed them yet.
Who...are you?
He obtained no response. All what Benedict was feeling was coldness...
Wait a minute. I am heavily wounded... But...
He focused.
HELL!! THANK YOU GODDESS!!
He had many luck. The bullet had entered from his left eye, and went straight his skull... but never touched any vital parts, like the brain.
Still... I can´t move... and that´s no good...

[Artificial Idiot]

Crystal wasn't sure what to do. Being unable to shout, she made frantic hand movements at the Trogg to see if he would move. But they were useless and completely ignored. She looked around, into the cold, expressionless face of Iceman.

"Do it." He mouthed. She thought she saw, "And that's an order." follow. But wasn't so sure.

She sighed, watching Tyme get even more excited as he realised there was going to be some gore in this. She sighed, and pressed the det-button. Hearing Tyme scream,

"Hey motha fraggin' bizonitchs! Dis is one hellva show! Ya dig?"

***

At the small bar, Doris sighed. She was a large, middle aged Troll cleaner, employed at this stinking hell-hole of a bar. She wouldn't usually start her shift this early, but some pale faced fraggers had been in causing all amounts of trouble, and it had ended in blood. But first, she'd saw them go into the toilets. She hated the mess people left when they had sex in the fragging cubicles, I mean, what are they? Animals?
With a heavy sigh, she opened the door to the ladies room.

"Typical." She muttered, as she saw the body of an Ork lay on the floor. She was very runtlike for an Ork, Doris could have picked her up with one hand. She also observed that her blue dress had been torn, as if she'd been in some sort of struggle. But Doris shrugged it off, and gave her a kick.

"Come on love, get the frag up." She didn't move. "Love? Ah said get up..."

When she still didn't get a reply, she turned the body over. She looked into cold, fear filed eyes. A pathetic expression for what was once such a life filled with pride. Doris risked to look futher down, realising her neck had been slashed, it looked as though she had suffercated. But not before someone... or indeed some persons had had thier way with her. Doris lay the corpse back on the floor, she'd pile it up with the five others that had been killed today and get Jim to help her carry them out to the ambulance when it came. Not that medical treatment would be much help now.

[Nyerguds]

The 'runners looked at the huge fireball that had been their bus, and the dead Troll that was blown away with it.

Silvia was speechless when she saw the remains of the dead troll. They blew him up... just like that! No... Crystal blew him op.
"How could you..." she started, completely astonished.
Crystal just sighed, and threw a look in Iceman's direction as answer.

"Come on, we gotta go!" Iceman boomed. "This place wil start attracting unwanted attention pretty soon!"

Silvia sighed, and went to the van.
"Where's that other Ork woman?" she asked the rest.
"No idea." Chance answered. "No time either, we gotta go."


A few minutes later, the van was on the move. Silvia sat quietly in a corner of the van, not knowing how to feel. She took the black feather out of her pocket, and looked at it again. The feather felt cold in her warm hand.

He's dead, Sil. Nothing you can do...

Then she noticed the feather warming up. It became warmer and warmer, until it was so hot she shifted the skin of her hand.
What...?

Then, the feather started to burn. Small flames appeared. Flames that didn't burn her hand, or even the feather. Magic. Silvia realized immediately.

"Don't mourn for the living." she heard Benedict's voice in her head. "Try to stay alive, and don't trust Iceman... for he is the real leak."

Silvia looked through one of the van's small windows to the raging fire they had left behind. "Benedict?" she asked, hoping he would hear her.

Look up. the voice replied.
Silvia saw a black shadow in the air, disappearing quickly into the city.

She looked back to the feather. The flames had disappeared, but it was still warm.

"Don't lose that feather." she heard Ben's voice again. "It's a valuable treasure."

Silvia looked back at the feather. She could still see the flames, but no one else in the van seemed to notice them.

An illusion to get my attention...

Silvia smiled.

Clever.

[Wesforce]

Numb, Crystal tried not to think much as the van trundled smoothly along the dirty grey FDC streets.

The blazing wreckage faded back into the distance, another burnt out vehicle littering that dead part of a dying city. As they'd left, a small figure had run up to it and started jumping for joy, throwing things on the fire. They paid him no heed, just wanting to get on with the job once more.

Iceman looked pretty damn pleased with himself. In fact, he was grinning ear to ear. It was a Wolf's grin, and it made Crystal and the others wonder what exaclty brought it on. There was the demise of the Troll, of course. It was no secret Iceman didn't like him. It wasn't like he was part of the team or anything - Just some oddly familiar enemy who had switched sides.

A wolf's grin...

Automatically, Crystal thought of Wolf, dead quite a while now. But still part of him remained, deep in Crystals head. Metal wires and shapes erupted in Crystal's head in a vision from cold metal hell...

She shook her head abruptly, clearing it.

Alex... need to meet him up...

She punched a number into her wristphone.

"What are you doing?" Iceman barked immediately.

Calling Alex Crystal typed. Iceman went pale a bit, then his stony military face set in.

"Good. We need all our team members together now. Call that Ork decker bitch while your at it."

Crystal told them both the address of a ShopScraper complex that Sasha, driving the van, was heading towards, and told them to meet in Car parking bay 3Z. Sasha seemed to know the place already.

Chance was inspecting the weapons that Tyme's men had delivered.

"We can use these." He said approvingly of a short-barrelled Browning Smartrifle. "There are flashbangs and frag grenades for those of us who know how to use them."

There were silenced SMGs too, and two slightly-worn looking Cyberdecks, which Tyme informed them were fitted with top-of-the-range chips. Plugin jacked in and fell unconsious, adn everyone took that to be a good sign.

"I got ya da good stuff my man!" Tyme grinned. Iceman looked at Tyme, too, and grinned. Then he grinned at the Blindfolded, gagged Rent-a-Cop, too.

He's planning something... The others realised. He has a use for them... Otherwise he'd have killed them as surplus to requirements..

"Need... replacement for Troll..." Iceman muttered. He seemed to be thinking out loud.

Crystal had an idea.

I know someone... She typed, quietly showing the words to Iceman.

"Yes?" He asked, interested.

***

Shadow pulled up behind the club, sweating.

He'd barely missed being clipped off his heavy bike just now by a Rent-a-cop patroller. The 6-wheel Nuovo Inzio Cop-variant had U-turned around after him, and now he heard the heavy engine close behind him. Then there was a new vehicle.

Shadow drove up a ramp that went onto the roof a nearby six-storey building. This area served as the parking space for the club. He looked ut onto the street below.

The rent-a-cop roared past, oblivious.

Then a large 8-wheeled van, so quiet it had to be an electric engine, hummed up the ramp after him.

He'd received the message from Crystal, and stood to meet it.

It parked, side door facing him on his bike. The door slid open.

Expecting to see Crystal's appealing face, old friends and colleagues again, Shadow was relatively quite shocked as a hulking scarred Russian maniac loomed from the interior gloom and rested a DD44 Dostoyevski at his forehead.
Shaodw remained expressionless, of course.

"Well well punk! You can work for us now or you can die where you stand. Get in!" Iceman snarled.

Shadow glimpsed Crystal in the van behind Iceman. She looked somewhat apologetic.

[Wesforce]

Shadow was hauled into the van unceremoniously, before he even had the chance to speak a word of protest.

Not that he was iclined to speak that much anyway.

"The fraggers want you good, Shadow..." Iceman mumurmed

Shadow said nothing.

"Guy we pick up... He after you." Iceman told him, smiling as he remembered. The others had presented the haples rent-a-cop to him, thinking he was after them. He wasn't, he was after Shadow, and only Iceman knew how much they knew about their quarry.

The undercover officer had told him without much questioning... But Iceman couldn't finish one of his interrogations so soon. Not because he was sadistic or anything... It was just embarrassing to be told all by someone he hadn't really worked on.

Anyway, that incident, and the stiffening corpse, was well behind them now.

The Electrivan rolled off down the ramp and into evening traffic. It was getting dark, but the traffic showed no sign of stopping. Exhausted 'runners tried to rest, with the gentle swish swish of the wipers, the slap of the acid rain on the canopy and the traffic sounds: Horns honking, old-style petrol engines revving, occasional gunshots.

Iceman carried on.

"We...lost... a couple of bodies. You'll do. If you do well, we'll do well for you. We got the money, as these fraggers can testify..." At that, a thumb jerked at the tired figures of Sil, Crystal, Chance, Ash, Rusty, Alanya and Jessica slumped by the van's sides in a cramped fashion.

"So, are you in?"

Iceman waited for Shadow's answer.

Later the Van arrived at the destination. The building was tall, but not really noticebale in a big city like this. If they had been awake enough to be looking, the 'runners that had been to Transys Arcology may have had visions - The building was a scaled-down near copy of Robot the Bruce tower.

Sasha rolled through the security autogates, the van's ID plates having been scanned and found matching. Neon arrows directed her to the vehicle down elevator - Down into the darkness.

The Corporation that owned the building didn't seem to mind turning a blind eye to a short stay from some employees of the esteemed Mr Johnson. Which was good.

***

"Alright, settle down fragnuts. This has been a long time coming, so I'd appreciate a little fragging attention!" Growled the Russian, flicking a beercan at Rusty, half-asleep in his sling seat. It hurt. He got the point.

Sasha switched on the 3DTV set she'd set in the middle of the room, on a round table painted to look like a yin-yang symbol.

Crystal noted how cool the table was. Maybe she'd get one, later.

But she should have noticed the 3Dimensional image that flickered into smoky neon life in the gloom, A building, Octahedral in shape. It was the -

"UCAS Office of Naval Intelligence."

It was Chance who'd spoken, making Iceman smile.

"Yes. Well done. Now a cookie to who can tell me what we're going to do here..."

"Make some fragging soy-cookies." Offered Alex

The map was basic, however. Only showing Doors, windows, walls and the like. Sasha pressed a button on her control, and a new layer of detail emerged: Power, water and air conduits. Another showing telecom lines, and that was it. The map-chip had been murder to find - Literally.

The building was built like a fortress. Chance knew for a fact that It was in open country with at least 50 meters of fenced-off killing ground between the building and the electrified monowire-topped fence that surrounded it. This ground was patrolled by armed FMC Weasels - Small, maneuverable drones on wheels, built for this very job. Above the building patrolled several Balloon-type drones, equipped with IR and Microvave Radar sensors: Their primary role was surveillance, but for their secondary role as snipers, they were fitted with light 5.56mm calibre rifles in smartgun-linked hardpoints.

"Our contact is in there, right?" Remembered Chance.

"Correct." Agreed Iceman. "And we're to bust him out. Also, if YOU and YOU-" He said, indicating Alanya and Plugin "Would pull your fingers out of your fat arses, we might also be able to nose around in their nets for the info we need."

Now Iceman sat down, spinning a chair around so he was sitiing on it the wrong way, and facing the 'runners.

"Now then. How we're going to do this..."

[CKW]

"Maybe we can use an spoon to dig a tunnel or something..."

Alex joked. He was still a bit bruised from the confrontation with the vampires. However, he was a bit better thanks to Rei. But where she was.
Cookies. Frag it. She had not understand the joke, so she was going to the kitchen.

Iceman was going to have a quick reply, when he noticed the smile.

"Hmm..., what is your Colonel brain cooking up, Alex?"

"Obviously, they rely on machines. Tech is deadly, effective, and does have no complaints about the job. However, we could use it as an advantage."

"Explain yourself."

"If somehow we could black out the entire base by shutting down their power supply, they would not be able to use machines anymore, and they would have to use meta human patrols."

Iceman smiled... Yes... It looked like old times infiltration.

"Our Spec Ops training might get us an extra advantage there. You remember how to sneak on patrols, right?" Continued Alex.

"However, we should need to be really near to syncronize the strike. So..." Iceman was taking also that in consideration... He was still the boss anyway. And in no way Alex would be BETTER than him at anything.

"We could infiltrate inside a freezer van. We might be cold, but freezer compartment walls will provide us shielding from Infrared and microwave scans." Finally replied the man with the wolf paw scar.


(If you mind about this post, please ignore it).

[Wesforce]

Pity we don't have an EMP Iceman sneered.

EMP bombs were almost impossible to get hold of these days, being classified as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Whereas Nukes Destroyed People, and Bukes destroyed Magic and people, EMPs destroyed Data, and therefore money. And what do Corporations care about?

So, the result was that EMPing was a definite 'out-of-the-question'.

"Good idea about the Freezer van, though. We might want to get onto that right away." Iceman turned to Plugin and Alanya. "You fraggers. One of you make yourself useful, get onto the 'trix and get the location of someone with a freezer van from the registry."

I could wire a car with explosives, in case we need a distraction. Crystal offered. Ram the fragger into the walls if we have to.

"Maybe, but that might just alert them that we're coming." Chance pondered.

Tell the fragging apes you're forgetting one MAJOR aspect, manling. Lupus growled.

Chance stood up, looked at Silvia.

"When was the last time you went for a stroll in the astral, Sil?" He said, Albino eyes twinkling brightly, even in the gloom...

Of course...The building would be magically patrolled and warded... But how much? Chance thought, tactician's mind going at a rate of knots. If we could take out whoever controlled the magical defenses, we magic-users may be able to slip in and take out the rigger controlling the Drones...

[Nyerguds]

"Eh..."

Silvia looked pale. The last time she went Astral wasn't exactly something she wanted to be reminded of... It was back in Orkistonia, where her magical focus was suddenly blown sky-high by a mana-wave from the comet. It had caused her to be torn out of her body and into Polt's mind.
She still got a headache when thinking about it.
"Not long enough ago, actually..."

Chance frowned. "What?"
Silvia sighed. "Nevermind. Bad memories." She looked at Chance. "I guess I can do it."
"Good." Chance smiled, before realizing he hadn't told her what they would do.
"Wait a sec.." he started, but was interrupted by Silvia.
"I didn't read your mind, Chance." she explained. "You're broadcasting your thoughts far too loudly. I just picked them up. Try not to do that in the Astral."
She looked at the others.
"But how are we going to take out the security mages?"

[Wesforce]

"Silvia, Rusty, Ash and I will infiltrate using the freezer van, using Sil to locate the Mages, while Iceman, Crystal Chance and Alanya go after te power p,ants and-"

"NEGATIVE!" Came the furious leader's roar. Iceman was determined he should be calling the shots.

"You'll go in the van with Choak, Comrade Tyme, Shadow, your friend Rei and Hayes. Sil will be with me, Plugin and Crystal, while Alanya, Chance, Ash and Rusty for team 3. You'll notice each of the last 2 teams will have a decker and a magic-user." He added smugly.

"Team 2 will wait across the road from the building, to provide cover while team one in the van reaches the gates. Team 3 will wait by the fence for team one to...er... Eliminate the security Mages. Then Chance and Sil can go astral and find the decker, manifest on the physical plane and neutralise him... Then while the drones revert to autopilot control, we'll all go in, and go to ground - There's no hope of killing all the fraggers... Much as I'd like to. Instead our deckers will find what we're after, then we'll blow the power plant - " He indicated the well-guarded very centre of the building "And leave in the confusion. Are we all clear? Think you're up to that, little Sil?" He leaned close, with genuine concern in his eyes.

"You don't go into much detail on my part of the mission." Alex stated. Tyme growled in agreement.

"That's because I know I can trust you to come up with something... Colonel." Iceman turned the rank into a source of mockery which Alex shrugged off automatically.

"What kind of oppos are we watching for, mate?" Piped Rusty.

"Guards... Goons... Few drones. Easy meat."

"That's a UCAS military building." Chance pointed out. "They'll have soldiers there. Maybe even UCAS Special Forces."

"Beh." Iceman grunted. "Easy meat." He repeated. He took out his sharpened Spetznatz entrenching tool. "Why, I meet them back in my Spetznatz days. I introduce them to 'Comrade Shovel.'"

He mimed poking someone's eyes out with the tool, then bellowed laughter that filled the room, but didn't serve to calm anyone's fears...

[Wesforce]

Performing a quick Matrix search, Plugin glided through the 'trix to the UCAS DMV. Finding local Registered Freezer-Vans was easy. Hell, it was even almost legal.

"Goblob's Wholesale Meat Products," intoned the decker, "1417 East 33rd Street. Not far from here. Small Ork-run Mum and Pop meat outfit."

"Believe this could do." Iceman winked.

[Master Chris]

Jessica Hayes wasn't entirely eager to spend any length of time in a freezing box in the back of a van but she spoke up anyway;

"I assume that myself and the rest of team one will go acquire transportation now?"

Iceman nodded.

"Do it but don't make a noisy mess. You've got a few hours till you're needed. Make sure the van is hidden from any street patrols, also ensure that it's not kept too close to our position, we shouldn't keep all of our chickens in one bucket, nyet? Any questions, comments?"

Silvia interjected;

"It's eggs and basket. Don't keep your eggs in one basket."

Iceman brushed off the correction with a lethargic wave of his hand;

"It matters not. Now go and make me proud, my pretties."

The emphasis on the *my* disturbed more than one person within earshot.

Jessica Hayes looked around and eyeballed her team mates.There was Alexiev, the Russian with a history with Iceman. Choak, an mysterious enigma of a man. Tyme4Cryme, the annoying dwarven rapper. Shadow, another enigmatic figure, recently recruited. Rei, some broad who was picked up around the same time as Shadow was, yet another unknown. Jessica wasn't pleased, she didn't know how good these runners would prove to be in combat. Afterall, team one was assigned the hazardous duty of infiltrating the compound and taking out whatever astral defences existed. Jessica, yearning for a more structured chain of command, inquired;

"Who shall command team one, Sir?"

Her emphasis on the honourific was noted by all, she wanted the job and wasn't afraid to let everyone know it. Iceman looked over the six runners who were Team One, he made a point of staring at Alexiev, before replying;

"You, precious one."

He hissed.

"You shall command Team One because you are the only member of the team who was recruited by my employer in the first place, except for Alexiev.....and I don't trust Alexiev. Anyone got a problem with that?"

[CKW]

(Hmm, MC, don´t you forget someone?)

Alex coughed. He was obviously getting more and more touchy with each decision Iceman was having. Those plans were like a death trap- In fact... Tyme... That shaman... Hayes, probably had not experienced some real life combat. Even Rei seemed too green for the mission. Yet that crazy arms comrade demanded Hayes to be the leader. Alex was more than sure who sent the vampires towards him now. But he could nothing but wait till Iceman´s façade dropped.

Iceman realized what Alex was trying to point out.

"Alex, I know you are the most experienced guy in these kind of missions. So, you will be the tactician... I have set it out so you won´t worry to assume command and get distracted of thinking."

The ex-colonel raised an eyebrown... Since when tactical leadership and team leadership were separated? Another ditch effort... to make team one´s mission a suicide.

"Listen up. I know what happens if you screw around with crap political-focused things and personal estimations. White Raven went down the ****ter for these petty matters. I had to walk accross the bodies of my teammates, civilians and terrorists alike just to save the few hostages that were left...
I could only save a little girl. Hope you KNOW what you are doing..."

With these words he sat down.
"Anyway. If that´s your final decision, i would obey it."
He faced hayes and sighed.
"Colonel Alexander Alexeiv at your orders. Sir!"

[LeFire]

"Right. I'll take command of Team 3 if there are no objections." Chance said.

"Oh great... Wonder if my life insurance policy is up to date." Rusty snorted good-naturedly in reply.

"Don't worry Rusty... You aren't worth too much anyway!" Chance retorted as he examined the action of his Browning smartrifle. The ex-soldier was at ease once again, dressed in his low-visibility black civilian attire rather than that garish get-up that just screamed 'Shoot me' to anyone in eyeshot. In fact, he was feeling almost happy... they had a plan once more, with leaders and proper teams. It almost felt like the old days.

The Browning was set in its quad-burst mode... a 4-round burst unique to the weapon. An 80-round magazine provided a generous ammo supply, while a short barrel gave the weapon an edge in close-in fighting. Setting aside the gun, Chance struggled into a light armour vest provided by Time4Crime... At least that moron had the sense to see the value of body armour. The vest was nothing like his ceramic composite body armour back home, but it would have to do.

Turning to Ash, he helped secure the straps on her body armour, Rusty beside her mumbling something about 'these bloody straps' as he fiddled with his equipment. Rusty was a pilot, not exactly a dirt-eating grunt like Chance and thus not quite as soldier-savvy... Still, Chance trusted him almost as much as he trusted himself and Ash. Chance looked over at Alanya to make sure that she was good to go. The ex-soldier wasn't so familiar with the decker, but she seemed able to handle herself. Sides' he never really understood deckers.

Turning his mind inwards, he found Lupus grinning from vulpine ear to ear.
I always liked strolling around in astral... especially if you can't manifest on the physical plane, its the only entertainment a wolf can get around here. Especially when locked into this sorry excuse for a mind. By the way, you don't do much mental spring-cleaning, do you? Why yesterday, I found..."

Chance pointedly ignored Lupus' ribbing... the wolf sometimes could have a really sarcastic brand of humour.

Chance brought his thumb up to Iceman to indicate that his team was ready, running over the plan once more in his head.

[Master Chris]

(Heh, soz there CKW. Didn't notice that Wes had Iceman talking to Alexiev, I'll edit accordingly.)

Jessica listened to the Russian's submissive acceptance of the chain of command. Seemed Iceman didn't want Alexiev leading Team One, those two seemed to have a deep loathing for one another. Hayes recalled what Alexiev had idly mentioned; White Raven. Hostages. A single little girl rescued. It was all so familar. Jessica took herself back to an event in her life that had occured many years ago. She had been caught in the middle of a terrorist attack and had been held hostage. She could still smell the awful musk of the sweaty man who had used her as a body sheild. Hayes closed her eyes and continued to recall that incident. How a single soldier, with a scarred face, had burst into the room and expertly gunned down the remaining terrorists with pinpoint accuracy. How that man had carried her, kicking and screaming, to safety even sporting a serious wound. It had been this man's selfless act of heroism that had inspired Jessica Hayes to join N'Zar's security forces and eventually become a lieutenant upon the Red_Dawn airbourne carrier. That man had been the reason Jessica was the woman she was today. A single inspiring and selfless act in a cruel, cold hearted world.

Jessica gasped. Him! Alexiev! She opened her eyes again and looked at the Russian. He was still crestfallen over Iceman's decision to put Hayes in command of Team One. He had that very same scar upon his face, it must be! Jessica wanted to talk to him, alone, so she grabbed the first gun she could and ushered Team One out of the door while hurriedly explaining;

"Better get a move on, we'll be in position in time don't worry, Iceman."

***

Rusty wriggled into his vest, still mumbling incomprehensibly. As the vest slipped around his chest and into place Rusty brought his head up in time to see Chance give Iceman a thumbs up.

"We good to go, mate?"

Ash nodded, Rusty was always amazed at how 'in tune' those two could be, it was never anything as tacky as finishing each others sentences but any fool could see they were really close. Rusty looked over the team decker, Alanya. She looked capable enough, confident of her own skills. Rusty liked that in a person, confidence bred competence in most cases. The Australian thought about what he should take into battle. Chance is taking his good old Browning, a nice weapon for any situation. Ash, I gather, is our specialist and will be carrying the heaviest weapon she can. What's Alanya gonna pack? A textbook field technician wouldn't carry anything heavier than a pistol but those rules don't apply on the streets. Rusty's ponderings were interrupted by Chance;

"Don't take all day, fly boy."

Rusty spotted what he wanted. It was an antique by most standards but the humble Pump Action shotgun was a classic. Rusty grabbed the shotgun, pocketed a handful of cartridges and also scooped up a Glock 17 9mm pistol and a few 9mm magazines. Chance laughed at Rusty's choice of weaponry.

"You looking to sell them to a museum after this operation, Rusty?"

[Nyerguds]

Silvia tapped Crystal on the shoulder. "We need to talk." she said softly.

'We'? Crystal thought bitterly. More like 'her'...

"Not at all, Crys."

Crystal frowned, and looked at Sil.
You're reading my mind, aren't you? Crystal thought explicitly.
"Nope. Just receiving the thoughts of what you want to say. The actual words in your mind."
With Chance... that was a demonstration, right?
"Kind of." Silvia glanced back to Chance. "But he really does need to be more careful."
She smiled at Crystal. "Anyway... I just wanted to say that you won't need that epad to talk to me... should improve the team's efficiency, don't you agree?"
Crystal looked a bit unsure, but no specific words formed in her mind. Siliva knew what was troubling her, though. She sighed.
"If it's of any comfort to you... this is totally different from actual mind-reading. No chances of... accidents whatsoever... this way I only pick up what you actually want people to hear."

Crystal looked at Silvia.
You practiced this... Why do you do all this effort just for me?
Silvia stared at her feet. "Well...."
she looked up to Crystal. "The troll. Jolly. I knew I had to find some way of letting you communicate in an easier way. But I don't read your mind. I never will, either. You're a friend."
She looked at the other people around her, and smiled at Crystal. "Come on, I'll help you pack your stuff... if you don't mind."

***

Alanya took her gun. It was a light, pracical gun, and it was smartlinked with her datajack, through the metal implant on her finger, just like Wirecat.
She grabbed the backpack with her deck in it and opened it to check if she had all her programs. She smiled, closed the backpack and hung it over her shoulder.
"OK, ah'm ready ta go."

[Wesforce]

Crystal slipped out, dragging Plugin and Sil with her, taking advantage of their new-found closeness. Watched by Iceman, she dragged a sack from the van and walked out to the Car Parking area.

"Wh-what are we doing?" Stammered Plugin, half fright, half in wonder. Crystal closed the door on inquisitive eyes behind her. She waited until a fragged-up old Ork in a stained sports jacket stumblde past looking for a place to collapse, and then pointed an object in the ceiling out to Plugin: The silvered-up dome of a camera emplacement.

"Oh." Said Plugin with relief, then "Oh." again, with a sad look on his face. He'd thought he was going to get some 'private time' with Crystal.

In a way he was. Unsheathing his new deck, he wandered over to the nearest telecom line in the dirt-grey wall of the car park. Picking up on this, Crystal kept between him and the closest camera at all times.

Be a dear Sil. Watch for any meta-human guards or bystanders, will you? She thought to Sil.

"No problem." Sil grinned, already thinking of an interesting illusion to conjure up. Should anyone come along.

In the end, she was disappointed. No-one did, it being late at night.

Crash took out a craft knife and sliced the fibreoptic line out of the wall. Quickly he worked the ends into a small box he carried: Into this box he snapped the fibre--optice cable from his deck, and into his head went the deck's other cable. He was in.

The Car park Matrix was about as interested as one could possibly be: Blank, flat grey all around, with 1950's style cars representing the systems. He reached into an oldsmobile, which turned out to be camera control. A pathetic IC modelled like a guard dog tried to interrogate him for ID. He stepped on it, crashing it, no fuss, and set the cameras into an infinite loop.

That done, he went as Crystal selected a 2060 GM Outlander 6X6 RV, helped her crack the maglock, and Crystal went to work on the vehicle with her bag of tricks, Sil keeping an eye on things.

***

Goblob, an aging Ork with a fine line in non-decaying meat produce, rounded another corner whistling a jaunty tune. He had to whistle, because his clapped-out old freezer van lacked any kind of music system. Nevertheless, he was about to finish his delivery round.

About fragging time, too. Its getting late, and I got to see da DC Destroyers trounce da Pittsburgh Piledrivers on Combat Monobiker tonight...

Hanging a left onto the service ramp for his last shop, he was forced to stamp on the brakes. Some crazy fragger was standing in the middle of the ramp-road about to get crushed.

Swearing, he got out of his gab, furous, started yelling

"Hey you crazy fragger standing in da middle of da road ramp about ta get crunched! What the frag are ya doin?"

"Nyet, what are YOU doing?" Iceman grinned - He'd taken Alex and Rei along while Crystal was playing around. They'd found out where the van was from TrafficNet (tm)... Much to the owner's misfortune. As he was about to discover...

Only then did Goblob realize how big the fragger was. Another guy stepped out from behind him, and from the left came a young-loking Japanese girl with a fragging sword.

"Oh... ****."

***

Crystal had finished wiring the 6x6 with explosives, with enough left over for a breaching job and blowing the panel off a piece of machinery if she needed to, thinking of the power plant in the UCAS ONI building. She wished she'd been able to get the thing's details, but she worked best on the fly, anyway.

Going back into the meeting room with Sil and Plugin, she was informed that Chance was her team leader, and felt pretty good about that. He was experienced, and she could trust him.

But about Iceman...

She put this to Chance.

"Him? Oh, he went with Rei and Alex to get the Freezer van. They should be back pretty soon."

[LeFire]

"Let's go over it again.... After they get back with the van, we move out and emplace ourselves in these buildings close to the fence. Then we hold position and cover until Team 1 gets through the gates and neutralises the mages." Chance pointed out the relevant spots on a hand-drawn map. "Next, me and Sil will go astral and remove the security rigger. Finally, we all go in and mop up. All ok?"

Everyone nodded.

Ash tapped her thermic rifle at the words 'mop-up', the weapon designed for close-range firefights against armoured targets. Instead of a conventional bullet, the thermic rifle fired rounds loaded with a thermite mixture that could melt its way through body armour. It had a low range and slow fire rate... but then Ash also had twin swords hanging from her waist.

"Right people... now we wait."

[CKW]

"Get in."
The russian boomed, withdrawing his weapon to the ork´s forehead.
"Do what I say, and you won´t paint the van with your brains, tovarich."

Alex made a signal to rei. She putted back the katana.

"Great. We have a van and a driver. What´s the next, sensei Iceman?"
She said.
"Hmm... sensei... It sounds so good when you little asian cutie face says it..."
Replied the psycho, in a disturbing way.

[Wesforce]

(GM: One small point LeFire: Its a Security Rigger, not a decker. As a rigger controls vehicles, this guy controls buildings: As one body, seeing with cameras, opening and closing doors by thought, using the sec-drones as White blood cells etc)

The Ork driver got into his freezer van. The psycho and his two accomplices - Liable to be as maniacal as him, thought Goblob - piled in behind, te four of them crammed into the driver's compartment.

"I'll drive." Said Iceman, punching the old Ork's lights out. He slumped against the window, held there by the press of bodies, limp tongue hanging between his dirty yellow tusks.

***

By the time the freezer van appeared, everyone was ready and good to go. Iceman picked up one ofthe browning Rifles and tossed another to Alex. Crystal handed them both webbing-belts full of clips from Tyme's van, and light armour vest. She pulled on her own trusty armour jacket, and everyone piled into one of the vans, Tyme driving his 8-wheeler, Crystal and Sil travelling in the decked 6x6 off-roader.

***

The hop across town was a short one. It was now well after Midnight, with Darkness well and truly fallen.

The ONI building was on the outskirts of FDC, you could tell by the way concrete pavement gave way to dusty, cracked dirt ground by the sides of the road.

The low, squat octagon, built at huge taxpayer cost, appeared to be run-down and decrepit from the outside. That didn't mean it was going to be easy. Far from it.

The vehicles parked next to the closest building to the ONI, concealed from view.

Crystal left her 6x6, but left the engine running. The others got out and assembled into their teams, team 1 piling into the freezing back of the freezer van.

Iceman grabbed Goblob roughtly, slapping him until he woke up.

"Drive AT the gates. Drive AT the gates! Slwoly. Understand?"

Goblob muttered something through his bruised face and swollen tongue. Iceman took it for a yes.

He took a look at the building they were standing against. An aging tenement building. The roof would offer a good LOS over the ONI compound, 150 metres away.

"Crystal..."

The Blue haired girl nodded, taking a small pre-prepared charge from her ever-present bag'o'tricks. She stuck it under the maglock pad on the back, service door.

"Wait!" Plugin said, stopping her. He exaimined the door looking for the signs of an alarm system. Everyone held their breath: An alarm here could be disaster for the whole job.

He pushed the door. It opened, left unlocked.

"In we go!"

And in they went, Crystal retrieving her unused dorr-charge first.

As they ran, Iceman tapped something into his wristphone, while below, Team 1's Freezer van trundled off up to the ONI gates. Crystal shot him a look.

"I'm letting our insider know we're coming, alright? Frag off!"

They carried on running.

***

Two UCAS Military ONI gate guards stopped the van, Colt M23s at port arms. Above twinkled the lights of the early-warning Airship drones, and Drones whirred through the dead grass in the 100metre perimeter zone around the building.

"Frag off you Trogg fragger. We didn't order any meat."

"Sorry mithtuh." Lisped Goblob. He went to turn the van around.

Suddenly, a Guard came out from the gate hut, rifle to his shoulder, screaming at the van.

[Nyerguds]

GM: OK, just so there won't be any confusion here... these are the teams:
Team 1: Alex, Choak, Tyme, Shadow, Rei and Hayes. (in freezer van)
Team 2: Iceman, Silvia, Plugin and Crystal (in building, 150 meters away from the ONI compound.)
Team 3: Alanya, Chance, Ash and Rusty (waiting behind the building)

(OK, Alex added ;))

[Wesforce]

(GM: Alex is in the freezer van too. If anyone has been missed, they're in team 2, the 'basecamp' team)

[Wesforce]

(GM: Will restart this after Christmas/New Years... Everyone have a good one ;) )

[Master Chris]

(Why? Why did this Dr. Thrax chap think posting such tripe in the RPG was clever? Anyway, welcome back those of you with IQs above room temperature.*Pun Alert* Speaking of which...)

In the freezer section of the van all Jessica Hayes could hear was muffled shouting. Something had gone wrong, they knew! She'd be gunned down while trapped in the confined space of a freezer van! An undignified death. She would die there, unable to do anything, unless she got out now and started to run for her life! Jessica looked at the other people in the van. They didn't seem disturbed at all, almost serene in fact. Stupid sheep! They don't even know how close to the abbatoir they are! Hayes got to her feet, they might choose to die here but she would live! Hayes moved towards the door's latch, stretching her hand out....

Alexiev slapped her wrist without looking up. He whispered:

"You are not calm enough. Surely, in here you can keep cool, nyet?"

At the sound of his voice Hayes stiffened. She suddenly recalled the epiphany she had had earlier that day. This Alexiev was the same man who had saved her life as a child. She lowered her hand and turned towards him. Alexiev lifted his face up and looked her in the eye for a split second before looking away. Not only did Alexiev recognise Jessica but he knew that she recognised him now. A subtle nod was all that he gave her but it was enough. Hayes resumed her seat. If he could save me once, maybe he can help me again...

[Nyerguds]

Silvia looked out the window.
"Sleg!" She turned to Iceman. "Boss... they're in trouble!"
"Hm. Nothing we can do right now." Iceman replied calmly, and walked on.

"What?" Silvia said. "But... we can't just leave them there... I could take out these guards in the Astral!"
"And get a bunch of security mages attacking you?"

"Look, sleghead... are you forgetting what I am?!" Silvia yelled. "I can take out these mages if I have to! I'm not just gonna sit here and watch our peop-"
"Shut up!" Iceman interrupted her.

"The hell!" Silvia "I can take out these mages if I have to!"
Iceman looked Silvia straight in the eyes. "These people down there know the job, and they know the risks." he said coldly. "It's their job to take out the security mages. If you go rampaging around in the astral there will be at least one mage that gets the chance to sound the alarm. We can't risk that. The mages have to be taken out silently."
"The base is already alerted!" Silvia yelled.
"For a bad delivery order? Don't think so."

Dammit... this is all going wrong! Does he WANT this mission to fail?

Silvia frowned.

Wasn't that what Benedict said?

"Try to stay alive, and don't trust Iceman... for he is the real leak."

But... if the leader is... Ah, frag. What am I supposed to do?

[Wesforce]

Hayes heard terse, nasal voices from outside.

"Sarge?"

"No chances. Orders are to proceed with extreme prejudice. Fragging Wiz-Worms are in there. Magic back-up on the way."

A pause, nervous shuffling of feet.

"Well WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"

Five UCAS Marines opened up on the van. Goblob, exposed in the driving seat he'd spent years of his life sitting in, earning his meagre wages, had no chance. No less than 25 rifle-rounds struck him, richocheting off his heavy orkish jaw, cracking his sternum, deflecting through his lungs turning them into red rags and bouncing off his ribs down into his pelvis, bursting all major organs on the way.

Bullets zinged through the rear freezer compartment at head height, letting in dazzling bright light from the ONI Building's spotlights, trained on the van., criss-crossing from each side. Everyone's first instinct was to hit the floor, Rei yelping in fright. Alex felt a heavy impact on his back, and he knew he'd been hit. Luckily the rifles the guards were armed with were only loaded with standard ball ammunition: Ripping through the Van's body left little force left to penetrate the armour the 'runners wore. Jessica yelped as something zipped past her face. A trickle of blood from the graze in her cheek ran into her mouth. Tyme4Cryme laughed maniacally, chambering a fat red buckshot round into his gold-plated Shotgun.

"Let's get the fragging chekists, my blood is all a-"

With a wet *slap* sound, and sickening choking gurgle, the Dwarf flopped with a thud to the floor of the van, bright red arterial blood spouting from his throat.

***

"Looks like they're alertned now." Iceman murmured.

No sleg. Thought Silvia.

A crystal clear voice in from Chance over the wristphone (set to voice only, of course, lest someone be listening in).

"Base Camp, its gone fragged! Moving in-"

"NO!" Bellowed Iceman, making everyone around him jump. "We wait. I don;t give a frag what happens to them, the mission comes first. I will personally execute any fragger who so much as lifts a finger unless I say so. Got that?"

"But-" Silvia began.

"NO!" Screamed Iceman, with such voracity that Silvia fell back to the floor under Iceman's gaze.

Just a few seconds more. Let them think those idiots in the van are all alone, trappped like Dogs. I just need that idiot Alexiev to hold them off for enough to get the Mages out... Then we can pick them off at our leisure...

He offered a hand to Sil to help her up.

I couldn;t risk her in all this, of course. So young, so innocent, so...

He stared into those big, round eyes...

[CKW]

Alexeiv was now sure of Iceman. It finally had dropped its mask and showed how he was in real.
But still the hell broke loose on the van. It was a crossfire in all directions.
If only he could reach the flashbang...

But that would give it brief seconds before being turned into raw steaks. He needed a bigger distraction.
But, in order to do that, he would have to break some orders and rules.

"Listen up, men...and women"
He began to talk
"Since the situation has turned critical; I should assume command. Iceman´s a prick. And now I know he´s the leak the Johnson said. We are in a critical situation."
A bullet flew past his forehead, ripping off a wound.
"I think i can call for help... but it´ll be OUTSIDE of our forces. How´s it?"

"Either way we can get ripped off by the marine squad that is surrounding the van... and umm... the mages that are coming."
He spoke. He had never been so sure about his sixth sense. He knew he had been spotted by many directions...
The radio cracked.
"Iceman. I am out of this. I don´t like to die in the hands of a crazy plan thrown off from the mind of a prick like you."

[LeFire]

Chance bit down hard on his lip at Iceman's orders, throwing his hand out to stop the others from his team from breaking cover and running to assist the van team. He knew the rational behind the instructions... the mages had to be taken out before he and Silvia could go astral and kill the security rigger, thus eliminating the drones. If the magic-users remained alive, neither of them would stand any chance against the magic veterans. So they had to hold until the mages came out.

Alex, Choak, Tyme, Shadow, Rei and Hayes... The soldier felt the names burn into his mind.

Comeon, you cowardly fraggers. Chance cursed the mages. Come out so that Iceman can kill you.

[Nyerguds]

"Iceman..." Silvia said. "We gotta do something!"
"No way. We can't let the mages know we're here."
"Exactly." Silvia replied. She quickly got up, ran past Iceman and jumped out of the window.

***

It's all about timing...

Four... three... too... much speed! Sleg!

Silvia unfolded her wings, and dived to the side, with less than a meter between her and the cold, hard plascrete. But she was far enough; the marines couldn't spot her there.

Dammit! I'm still going too fast!
She retracted her wings and rolled over the plascrete. But she didn't have time to care about a few bruises. She had work to do, and fast.

Silvia looked up. Iceman would be pretty upset right now, but there wasn't enough time to explain her plan. She acted on instinct, as always.

As he said... Can't let the mages know his position.

She looked at the soldiers shooting at the van, then at the fortress they were guarding.

Still no sign of these sleggin' mages...

All right. Meet Geneva, slegheads.

Silvia softly sang the incantations. This was elvish magic... it was part of her, and she was getting the hang of it again.
She tried to reconstruct the Daemon as well as she remembered him. The crustacean armour, the long black razor claws, the crab-like face, the spider legs.

Dammit... faster..

The illusion appeared.

That oughtta give those mages a reason to put their ugly mugs in Iceman's scope.

"Now go, my pretty, and scare the sleg outta them!" she whispered.

While the illusion charged towards the marines, Silvia quietly ran away to the side to get closer to the van.
She snapped her fingers. "Music, maestro!" she whispered to herself.

The Daemon let out a horrifying scream. Silvia shuddered from the mere memory of the scream, but she was glad even these memories were of some use to her now.

She hid behind a dumpster and waited.
Showtime.
She hoped the marines wouldn't see through her illusion too fast. She knew a mage would recognise it immediately, but she was still there to protect her illusion from magic dispel for a while.


Then she realized none of the people in the van except Jessica had been there in Geneva.
Sleg. Let's hope no one gets a heart attack.

[CKW]

(I discussed this with wes, but if you want it edited, so be it.)
"What was that?" Rei shivered. She had been trained to confront people, but not wailing phantoms.

"I don´t know..."
Alex mumbled. It was very odd indeed. He could hear the wail... but he could not guess where it came from... Were his senses joking him?
Possibly. Mages also do illusions.
That voice... Alex suddenly became even more shocked. This was the weirdest stuff he had seen.
"M--Mother..."
He whispered. Yes. It was his mother´s voice... but how? She was known to be dead.
My spirit remains in my sword.
Yes. That could be. His mother´s katana... Her spirit had bonded with it.
To protect all of his family. There was no need of calling for reinforcements for now.
Quickly the mind of Alex was filled with another plan.
"Everyone- do like if you were dead already."
"It won´t work..." said Hayes. Obviously she meant the mages would spot them even if they faked death.
"This time will work. Believe in me." As quickly he said this, the sword began to glow with a green light.Rei looked at the katana with wide, surprise eyes.
He knew what to do exactly.

"What the...?"
As the "daemon" continued its "rampage", Silvia felt a strange magic cast.Then nothing. Could it be... that all of them died? And the spell was only a last ditch effort of Choak? Oddly, it didn´t seem like it was Choak´s one, anyway.

I don´t like that... It´s way too weird Lupus snarled. A magic cast, then the silence. Even the souls were silenced. Way too weird, indeed.
No life signal from team 1. Not even astral. After that spell.

Alex smiled. That Disruption spell could come in handy to play a fake death and fool the mages.

[LeFire]

Chance felt the lifeforce of Team 1 'pop' out of existence. In his head, Lupus whined. The soldier lowered his head...

Dammit Iceman, their sacrifice better be worth it.

Out at the gates, the UCAS soldiers eyed the 'beast' nervously, ceasing fire on the van in their apprehension. It was patrolling between them and the gate, keeping the soldiers from running back to safety. No one thought about going hand-to-hand with the fearsome creature... and a few scouting shots had no effect on it whatsoever. The sergeant ordered his men not to shoot at the thing... for fear of provoking it into an attack.

Seeing that the van no longer showed any signs of life... no return fire or movement through the holes ripped into it, the UCAS sergeant tapped his mike as he eyed the pacing beast nervously, his guards around him in a uncertain circle wavering as they gulped at the size and bulk of their foe. The gate lay temptingly beyond reach... One soldier attempted an experimental step towards it and was rewarded with a growl. He crapped in his pants and hastily stepped back into the defensive circle.

"This is Sentinel One. Where the hell are the mages, gruddammit! The bogeys in the van are gone, but there's this huge fragger out here with lots of horns and teeth between us and the gates, and it looks HUNGRY!"

[Nyerguds]

Sleg.... once the mages tell them it's an illusion they'll just ignore it. But illusions can't kill.
Silvia frowned. Something felt wrong about that. some memory hidden inside her...
She tried to remember. Illusions? Who did she know that was skilled with Illusions?

Dark Sorrow.

The images flashed through her mind. Death. People being killed before her eyes. People dying from water that didn't exist, from heat that was only in their mind, from nonexisting knives cutting in their bodies.
The images shocked her. She had seen them, but she never realized exactly what Mugen Ra had shown her. She doubted even Mugen Ra had realized the sheer vastness of the information.

Memories are a lot more than just images. She didn't only have memories of Sorrow seeing the people die. She also knew how he was feeling when he killed them, who these people were, how Sorrow had known them, how they were killed... and exactly how Sorrow had killed them.

Silvia trembled.
My goddess... this is terrible.

She had trouble concentrating on the illusion. The pain, the death... it was all coming back to her. But she had to know.
Must... go... deeper.
She had never realized how dangerous her own mind could be to her. After the incident with Polt she had somehow created a way of supressing all traumatic experiences. She realized now that that was how she got through the second Geneva incident, Mugen Ra and Transys. And now, it was all coming back.

No! This is... too much!
She forced herself to open her eyes and focus on the illusion. She could see two mages approaching in the distance.

One of the mages tried to dispell the illusion, but Silvia was quicker. She channeled mana to the illusion to keep the spell intact.

The Daemon turned towards the mages. They knew it was an illusion, but in a battle of pure mana they were no match for her. They tried to dispell, while she reinforced the illusion with her Dragon side's astral energy. There was no way she could lose as long as it was all about pure mana.

"Kill it, dammit!" the leader of the soldiers yelled at the mages.
"It's not real!" the mage yelled back. "It's an..."

The Daemon turned back towards the soldier and jumped towards him, slicing his razor sharp claw through his middle.

The soldier looked at his belly. Even though the claw had gone straight through him there was no sign of any damage.
Then why was there pain? Why...
He fell to his knees, coughing up blood, still staring down.
He knew it didn't make any sense. The claw went through his arm too. He knew it did... and yet his arm was fine.
He looked up to the mages in the distance, with fear and confusion on his face.
"Why..."
He fell to the ground, blood leaking out of his mouth.

***

Behind the dumpster, Silvia fell down too, tears rolling over her cheeks while she tried to control her own mind. The pain was unbearable... her lack of magical skill had caused part of the spell that killed the soldier to backfire on her. She knew she wouldn't die from it, but the pain was still there. And it was horrible.
She looked under the dumpster to the Daemon. The thought that the mages would be confused as hell didn't help her much, since she knew it wouldn't take them long to find the origin of the mana that was reinforcing the illusion.

While she slowly regained control of her mind to block the effects of the pain illusion, she threw a quick look at the window she had dived from.
"Dammit Iceman... what are you waiting for? " she whispered. "I can't hold this..."



Just before she passed out, she heard two shots being fired, and felt the mages disappear from her magical senses.

She smiled.
Yessss.

Before the gate, the Daemon dissolved in the air.

[LeFire]

The two rifle shots snapped Chance out of his reverie... The magical presence of one of the enemy mages simply blinked out of existence, while another faded in a more jerky fashion... signs that the second had not been blessed with the clean headshot kill of the first. Then came another few shots, which Chance guessed as putting paid to the surviving guards.

He searched for Silvia's astra signature and found it... But there was no response to his mental prodding.

Crap. She's unconscious. I'll have to do this myself.

Motioning to his team around him to hold position and cover him, Chance lay still and concentrated.

At first there was only the usual blackness of night... then he found himself floating clear of his physical body. Correcting his too-rapid ascent, he willed himself into a torpedo shape and kicked off with mental legs, drilling right through the immaterial walls of the UCAS fortress.
There, he expanded his consciousness, searching for someone... Most of the astral signatures he encountered contained shapes of fear and uncertainty, but there was one. One that had the same fear and uncertainty, but mixed with a sense of vengeful purpose.

He had found the rigger.

Chance swept up behind him, balling up mental hatred in a roiling cloud of malice. He reached out with his astral hands, placing them upon the sides of the riggers head...
Back in the physical world, the rigger suddenly felt the hair on the back of his skin prickle...

Chance allowed the summed force of his mental blast into the rigger's mind. The man convulsed, then twin streams of blood jetted out of his nostrils and onto his control panels. Spasming as neurons in his head fired hapzardly, the man collapsed onto the blood-slicked floor, green ectoplasm already pouring out of his ears, eyes and nose to mix with the blood.

Chance had braced for the force that he unleashed, but it still took him longer to get back into his physical form. When he did, he had to pause for a moment to clear his head.

Then he tapped his push-to-talk button.

"Base Camp. Puppet Master is down. Repeat, Puppet Master is down."

Around the base, disabled UCAS drones were falling gracelessly from the sky, their ground-based tracked equivalents likewise rolling to a lifeless stop.

[CKW]

"Puppet master is down."

Great. Alex thought. Now with those sniper gunfire taking out the mages, it wouldn´t be too difficult to sneak in. Heh.

"Roger, Base Camp. Here team 1. We are in the move."
Chance blinked twice. They were alive. But, what the hell had just happened with their auras?

He replied. He didn´t care about Hayes as team leader, but he hoped she would understand why he was taking that decision.

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

He shouted to the rest of the team, while kicking the freezer van´s door.
A soldier was caught from behind, and Team 1 did not give him a second chance. Rei shreded the guard mercilessly into pieces with the katana, blood sprayed her face. Her eyes had a icy glare.Although, she had been trained to kill.

But Alex stopped. In a sudden. He felt the same cold sweat, his heart shrinked and froze like a dead man´s one. He was a walking corpse. Soon anyone would pull the trigger. He felt a scope zooming in his head.

Someone is aiming at me.
Was what he felt. He had been always like this. Somehow, in these years of gunfire he had developed this sense... or had been he always like this?

There was no time to discuss it. He quickly moved, and the bullet narrowly missed him, hitting in the ground a short distance from him.

Iceman... you fragger.
He cursed.

Iceman had to end it himself. Why Alex was so relunctant to die? Why?
He needed to die. And carry the secret about Iceman´s true personality to the tomb.

Meanwhile, a rushed Alex was dodging the mad sniper´s gunfire...

[Wesforce]

"Come and taste the Sweet, sweet candy, Alex!" Muttered Iceman, before the words were lost to the roar of the rifle, kicking against his shoulder.

Crystal couldn't see exactly what was happening, but from the snatches of conversation she'd heard it looked like the plan was in action. Iceman seemed to be shooting at the Mages, Chance was reporting the Rigger downed...

She waited for Iceman to give the signal to move, but Crystal knew better than to interrupt a sniper at work.

She headed off after Sil, trying to contact her through the mental link again.

***

"DIE FRAGGERS!" Screamed the corporal at the head of a 6-strong unit of backup guards rushing from the ONI-Bulding's guardroom. They were wondering what had happened to two of their mages, and having seen one messily headshot, the other writhing and screaming on the floor with a ruptured chest, they weren't too happy. Their training was clear in this situation: Start firing and screaming.

Alex stared down the charging soldiers for a second - Suddenly the corporal tumbled sideways, under the legs of his men, tripping them. Shadow leaped down off the Van's roof, emptying the clip of his 9mm, three rounds into the corp's head, the rest sprayed at the other men. None of the light ammo penetrated their armour.

Scrambling to his feet, PFC Derin Kronstadt reached out for his rifle, but ended up with a small, spherical object with a digital timer on it instead.

It said '00:00', in big flashing numbers.

CRUMP!

Bodies, and bits of bodies, flew this way and that. Rei was coated in a fine spray of blood, while Shadow, too close to his own frag grenade, was knocked flat.

Alex stumbled to the floor, too. He tried to get up. His sixth sense told him not to.

The pavement exploded into chips a few feet away - He realised of he'd kept moving the bullet would have given him a very short haircut. Instinctively he rolled backwards, behind the smoking van. Tyme4Cryme lurched out, clutching his throat.

With a horrfyingly wet sound, the Dwarf tumbled off tha tailgate, onto the floor. Only then did Alex see the red cratered ruin where the rapper's head had been.

***

Iceman brought his eye back from his scope to admire the shot.

"Tyme is up, Comrade."

He scoped out some more targets. Alex seemed to be in cover. He'd need to be drawn out... Or forced to go into the ONI building, where hopefully the UCAS men would take care of him. Preferably something would happen quick: Iceman was itching to get in there.

He found his target: The Japanese girl.

***

Chance got to admire his handiwork almost instantaneously: He could already see several of the wheeled perimeter-defence going around in circles. Others sat still, unmoving, damaged by the neural shock of the death of their controller.

He frowned: There were still some drones that appeared undamaged. They would have reverted to their hardwired patrol routine programs with the loss of their rigger. Luckily, without their controller's guidance, they would be little more than armed guard dogs.

Crystal appeared next to his team, havinng sped down the stairs from the building. There were lots of things Chance wanted to ask: 'what's happening? What the frag is Iceman playing at? But Rusty had his head screwed on.

"Bonza! Ya can give us a hand with these drones!" He said, pointing into Crystal's bag'o'tricks.

Crystal simply nodded, and pulled out four canister-type grenades, 2 Willie Petes (White Phosphorous), Two Chaff. With these, they should be able to blind the rest of the drones, at least long enough to get into the ONI building.

Crystal ran off in search of Silv.

[Nyerguds]

"Silvia!"

Silvia heard Crystal's voice echoing in her aching head. She frowned, slowly opened her eyes, and looked around.
She was lying on her back, right behind the dumpster. Between the dumpster's small wheels she could see the remains of the skirmish at the gate, and two feet walking in her direction.

"I'm here..." she said, weakly.
Ah, sleg... get a grip, girl.
"I'm here!" she shouted again, louder.

Crystal moved towards her. "You OK?"
"I'm fine... " Silvia replied, while Crystal grabbed her hand and pulled her on her feet.
"It's just my head." she said, and closed her eyes for a few seconds.
Then, she looked at Crystal and smiled. "The rest of me is still in prime condition though."

She slowly walked towards the rest of the group, carefully observing the situation.
"What a mess."
"Tell me about it. Iceman's still shooting."
Silvia turned her head to Crystal. "What?!" Then she noticed the Dwarf's corpse. "Oh, for frag's sake..."
She looked up to the window, and saw the end of the barrel of Iceman's rifle. "Bastard..."

"Iceman!" she yelled up to the window. "Stop fooling around dammit! We got a job, remember?!"
"What the frag do you think you're doing?!" Crystal 'yelled' a her. Silvia could feel the panic in her thoughts.
"Relax. We're too close under the window, he can't hit us here."

[CKW]

Perfect timing, dragon-girl
Alex thought.
He had sensed Iceman stopping his maddnes for a brief moment.
The same moment he needed to realise Rei was in peril.

"REI, TAKE COVER!"
Alex yelled, while tackling her to the ground and dragging her later to a "safe" place.

"Frag"
When iceman took the scope back, both rei and alex had dissapeared.

"They all are traitors, sil. They do deserve to die."

Was his last response. Sil knew that she had nothing to do about changing the mad russian's mind.

[LeFire]

"Rusty!" Chance hissed as he slung his rifle and got ready to catch and toss. Rusty flipped the pins on the WP and chaff grenades, lobbing them to Chance who promptly caught and sent the devices flying over the fence into the 100 meter wide exclusion zone. There, the grenades started spewing out an thick cloud of smoke, effectively blocking off a causeway of sorts to the side of the ONI building.

"Alanya!". The Ork stepped forward to the fence and cupped her hands as Chance ran up, stepping up and being tossed over by the strength of the meta-human. He landed inside the exclusion zone, precisely where he wanted too... within the tracks of a drone that had been patrolling near the fence.

Chance had thought about the threat of mines. But the presence of tracked drones meant that they could not be used... No sense destroying a drone with a accidently dislodged mine and giving the late security rigger a headache and excuse for a day off.
Loping from drone track to track with the grace of his gestalt so as not to give away any bootprints, Chance made it to the air conditioning unit he had spotted earlier installed in a ground floor office. Behind him, Ash followed while the others waited.

The other windows were locked, of course... But most air conditioning units had quick-install brackets secured only by a few large screws, which Ash easily dealt with with her fingertip. Working quickly, she pulled off the air conditioning unit and laid it outside the building. Chance then pulled out a can of 'Krazy String', a brand of party streamers. Shaking the thing, he turned its nozzle to the 'stream' setting and sprayed in a figure of 8 pattern into the room, eyes keen for the first sign of the stream hanging up on something... like a tripwire.

Nothing caught... and both Chance and Ash were inside the office a moment later. He signalled to the others outside the gate, Rusty and Alanya crossing the zone to enter the office and take up positions. Crystal was still back there with Silvia... He hissed for them to hurry and rejoin him over the radio, still unaware of Iceman's attempt to murder Alex.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia sighed, and followed Crystal. She threw an apologetic look at Alex as she ran past him. "Don't let 'im catch ya, dude."
"Come on. We gotta hurry." Crystal said to her.
"Coming." Silvia said, and ran after her.

She quickly followed Crystal through the air vent, and a bit later, the entire team was assembled inside the office.

"There are more..." Silvia whispered. "Nevermind Iceman; he's lost it completely. But What about Plugin and the survivors of team #1?"

[Wesforce]

Iceman looked up as the air was filled with the low thuttering of rotor blades. Made from the latest LockmartNorth SmartAlloys (tm), the Sikorsky chopper was right on top of him before he even knew it. It must have been patrolling in case such a situation developed. Instinctively, Iceman ducked for cover, waiting...

Nothing came.

He caught a glimpse of the chopper as it moved away, at top speed, becoming silhouette. He recognised the markings.

Marine-1 - The UCAS President's personal ride. They had happened to attack while the UCAS President was visiting.

"Woo, looks like we almost hit the jackpot." He grinned to himself. "Bet whoever's in charge of ONI security's counting their lucky stars right now..."

He took stock, gathering his team.

Those that were still here, that is.

Plugin was the only one remaining with him. Iceman was not happy.

Plugin shrank back into a corner and tried to be small.

***

Gathered inside the low-security office, the 'runners knew they had to move fast, and move light. They were deciding their course of action.

I for one, am still going for the mission. I get the impression there's more at stake here than just money. We canm still frag Iceman and finish it ourselves, Sasha should still be on our side. We know that the guy Iceman was after is in one of these low-sec offices, Crystal typed. Trouble is, we weren't given a codename or password or anything... Looks like we're just going to have to play it by ear. Chances are Iceman's going to be coming after us any moment now...

The sounds of gunfire outside filled the room, making everyone duck.

"He's have to be bloody good to get through that, mate." Said Rusty, jerking a thumb. The clouds of smoke and chaff from the grenades was dispersing rapidly, too.

"Frag! Team 1!" Hissed Chance. He didn't feel too good about leaving them out there to face hell. Too many bad damn memories...

Well then, we need to give them a diversion. A chance... Pardon the pun... Typed Crystal again. Lets get moving. Anywhere but here.

That drew appreciative nods.

The complex, like they'd seen on Iceman's maps, was designed in concentric circles, much like the old Pentagon of the US of A: They were on the outer ring of the complex now, and seven rings seperated them from the centre. On this floor, the centre ring held the Database hub: Hopefully Plugin or Alanya would be able to work their magic from there and find out what they needed to know. At the centre ring, 2 floors down, lay the securitly centre, where puzzled techs were looking over the lifeless rigger's corpse. On level 3's centre lay the power plant, though there were switching relays in ring 2 of each floor. Crystal had an idea that a charge there would be able to cause a temporary local lighting blackout.

Alanya walked out into the first corridor, looking cautiosuly left and right.

The first thing she noticed were the mirrors at the ends of the corridors: The corridors weren't set at right angles, and the mirrors let anyone coming down see who was awaiting them: OPbviously they were dealing with the intruders at the front gate, or at a shelter station.. Luckily, she couldn't see anyone right now, though she could hear them. The colouring of the floor and ceiling tiles was a boring beige, and simple, light doors led to offices on the left and right, marked out as simple filing clerk stations. A sign led to the doorway to the next ring in, anther to the main entrance. She was about to tell the others when

SLAM!

She covered her delicate ears as all around, fairly soldi steel shutters slammed down over every dorrway, cutting her off from the others, still in the office, as well as stopping her going anywhere for the time being...

***

"Well that's that." Stated Lieutenant Commander Forbeson, smugly, taking her well-manicured hand off the override switch for the emergency door shutters.

"We don't know who the frag nailed the rigger, but I'll be damned if I let the fraggers have an easy time of it."

She casually dismissed the dead Rigger's body to the care of two Seamen in dress whites.

"Take that fat piece of frag away, and call up the reserve rigger." She ordered, adjusting the frogging and braiding around her Navy blue tunic.

***

Trapped between the front of the ONI building and the maniacal Iceman to the rear, Alex was starting to wish he'd stayed at home. He risked another glimpse at the front of the ONI building.

There was a man stood there, Navy Officer's uniform, Lieutenant by the look of him. No weapons in his hands, just standing there, waiting in the doorway.

"Hello there," The Officer said. "ready to surrender yet?"

Alex was about to offer a stinging reply, when the officer continued - "Only I don't think there'll be much time for talking when the Delta Force boys get up here. Damn, maybe one's got the scope of a rifle on you right now, waiting for me to give the order to fire. What's it gonna be, hm? And don't even think of shooting me. I'm a capable Mage. I've got my level 5 bullet barrier up and running right now."

Is this big-mouthed fool bluffing? Thought Alex. If Delta Force goons were on the way, things would get dicey. On the other hand, he could be lying.

Where the frag were the others?

[CKW]

If he´s a mage, I should make short work out of him.
The sword mentally replied to Alex.
Focus
He mentally taunted all possible options.Heh. If it was a bluf it should go down quite easily... And he had not such feeling of being spotted at all.

"Oh, you have a bullet barrier. But tell me... do YOU have a sword proof barrier?" He said, showing the katana. It was shining with a somewhat strange green glare. A spellbreaker weapon.

"And this is no normal sword, I promise. Even if you had such barrier, this weapon would allow me to shatter it to pieces."
He looked back at the Liutenant, menancingly.
"Things might get ugly if you Delta pricks get in here. But you should know something... I had been a Spetnaz, and thus, better than those pimps."
He smiled. Oh yes, he had found a hostage...

[Nyerguds]

Silvia looked at Crystal.
"Can't you blow it up?"
"In here? I'd blow us all up with it!"
"Hm. True." she replied, while getting some odd looks from the others. Not many of them knew about their way of communicating.
"Well, I suppose I could give it a try..."

She shifted her hands and attacked the steel door.
"Sleg!"

The claws didn't even penetrate the surface. They merely left a few scraches on the plasteel.
"This isn't normal plasteel..." She looked at the others. "No other options?"
"I can give it a try." Ash said.
She put her hand on the door and channeled heat into it. Slowly, the steel started to glow, but it didn't melt.
"This stuff is heat-resistant." she said, and looked at Silvia. "Are you sure you can't get through?"
"Yes. It's no use; I need a slegging sword to ge-"

Silvia didn't finish the sentence. As soon as she had said the word 'sword', green electric charges ran through her body, over her skin, towards her right arm.
"Wha..."

Then, suddenly, black steel shot out through the palm of her hand. Silvia watched in disbelief as the long blade appeared.

***

Somewhere in a dark room in the Terganon museum, four wards glowed softly. But they wouldn't set off any alarm. The museum held many magical treasure; the wards were configured to ignore the magic of the objects themselves.
Between the four wards, in a huge plexiglass box, the huge dragon sword's point slowly dissolved. Faster and faster, the blade disappeared in a cyclone of green electricity.

***

Somewhere else Terganon, a dragon suddenly screamed, as he felt magic he hadn't felt in centuries being used in all its force.

His own magic.

He rushed to the door, not even reacting on the surprised looks of his colleagues in the office. He HAD to go to the museum, and fast... or all would be lost.

***

Silvia looked at the blade that was coming out of her hand. As she had her eyes fixed on the black point, the rest of the world seemed to have slowed down. As if everything around her was going in slow-motion.
This is impossible... it's like a storage spell... but I could never store something this big!

She saw her hand stretch open as the cross-piece came out. Further and further, her hand streching impossibly far, the bones of her hand moving aside, bending as if they were made from rubber. But she felt no pain. It all felt normal; even natural.
As the last piece came out, her hand became normal again, and Silvia saw her fist automatically closing around the hilt.
She looked at the sword, still completely oblivious of the people around her. The blade was made of black mithril... this was a dragon sword. And not just any sword... it was the kind only the Hell's Knights had.
She looked at the name engraved in the blade in Draconian letters.

Arzurug Trocimar

She frowned. She didn't know anyone called Trocimar, yet the sword felt so natural.


"Silvia?" she heard a familiar voice yelling at her.
Suddenly, Silvia realized where she was, and why she was here. She looked at Crystal.
"What?" she said, still a bit confused.

"Don't know how you pulled it off, but you got yer sword. So could you please get the frag on and use it?"
"Oh. right. Stand back..." She grabbed the hilt with both hands, and looked at the door.

She didn't think. She didn't have to think; she knew what she had to do. The sword was hers, as if she had always had it.
A small mana surge awakened the sword, and the green electricity that had summoned the sword was now jumping playfully around the black blade. Four swift strikes cleaved through the steel. The cuts were thin, as if made with monowire, or even as if they were not made at all. The only visible effect were four thin green glowing lines on the door, some going further into the walls.

Silvia looked at the door, and pushed it. The pieces fell to the ground.

Chance frowned. "I never knew you could do that."
Silvia looked a bit helpless, still amazed at what had happened to her. "Neither did I."

She put the sword over her shoulder, on her back. From the moment the blade touched her clothing, a green whirlwind started knitting around it. In a few seconds, the scabbard was done. Leather straps appeared, tying themselves around her chest and shoulders.
Silvia wasn't even surprised. She knew the sword; it had given her all knowledge about itself. She also knew now that she had accidently activated the Calling spell by saying the words 'I need a slegging sword'. She even knew the letters on the sword were fading... the sword was hers, and it would soon bear her name too.

She frowned.
But why? Who is Arzurug Trocimar? Calling spells normally only listen tot he person that made them. Why do I have this sword?

She followed the others out of the room.

And who the hell would use 'I need a slegging sword' as calling spell anyway?

[Wesforce]

Lieutenant Commander Forbeson keyed in her secure-channel link to her direct CO, Admiral Younghusband. A flickering 3DTV screen on her wristphone portrayed the Dwarf in grim mood.

"What the frag's happening Forbeson? First the fragging President makes a snap-visit while half our staff are on medical leave, then some fragger calls in a suspicious vehicle then all fragging hell breaks loose! Stop fragging fidegting and report, damn your eyes!" Raged Younghusband, shifting in his high-seat slightly and farting.

"Well sir, we intercepted the van. When our mages went out to check as per orders, we lost them."

"Lost them? You daft bitch!"

"Ahem, well... They appear to have been shot. Then the sec-rigger died. I checked him over from Astral. Sure enough: His mana had been attacked directly."

"What now?"

"Now sir, I intend to take control of the situation. The Complex is locked down. I have a feeling the mess at the gate is just some sort of diversion..."

"Your 'feeling' is causing us valuable work-time, Forbeson! If this turns out to be nothing, I'll have your head!"

And with that, the Dwarf disconnected.

Forbeson set her face to 'stony', and got on her comm-link again.

***

The Lieutenant laughed back across the 20 metres of fire-wracked open ground that seperated him from Alex, taking off his cap and brushing his hair back. Alex caught a glimpse of pointed ears.

"What good is a sword if you are too far away to use it!?!" Yelled the man. An instant later there came the 'phut' of a grenade launcher. The Officer had been armed only with a holstered pistol, so it must have been one of his men he couldn't see who fired it. A concussion grenade. It hit the body of the van, blowing what was left of it into the air, slamming Alex and Rei bodily around. A sharp stabbing pain in his leg announced a piece of shrapnel. His ears ached like hell, head throbbing.

When he opened his eyes again, he couldn't see Hayes or Shadow anywhere. All was silent. He thought he might be deaf, but then he heard a noise above the beating of his heart:

Rotor blades. Incoming, this time.

***

Having scrambled down the building, Iceman made for the ONI building, rifle over his shoulder, Plugin being dragged helplessly behind him,.

"If I get there in time maybe I can get Alex before that fragging chopper or whoever's in it!" He yelled. Who he was yelling too Plugin could only guess.

[CKW]

Alex whispered.
"Rei, are you OK?"

"unn... What was that, Alex-san?"
The girl shut her eyes. She was a bit bruised, and some debris had shreded her clothes, but seemed OK.

"Do not move. Stay like if we were dead. It might work again."

"And if it doesn´t work?"

"We can always try to shoot them and run."
Alex replied. While closing his eyes.Hopefully they would take them to the morgue. It would be guarded. He had heard of zombie paranoia lately... But still, it could be a free ticket to sucessfully infiltrate.

So, both two played like they were corpses.

[LeFire]

Chance stepped over the wreckage of the door into the corridor where Alanya was. Bending over to examine the material, he confirmed his suspicions... the doors were actually fire-doors, thus the fire resistant ceramic coating on the plasteel.

"We need to keep moving mate." Rusty said as he sorted out which direction they were supposed to go. "Preferably down to their power plants or something critical like that."

"Ash, set off the sprinklers in the office before we leave." Chance said as he asked Lupus for directions... The wolf indicated the direction of north, and by comparing his own memorised format of the building, Chance indicated one of the doors for Silvia to attack. She stepped up to it and commenced cutting with easy clean strokes.
"The fire-doors are down and they already know where we came in from anyway, so setting off the fire alarms won't do any more harm. In fact, the alarms, short-circuits and associated alert might hopefully wreak havoc with the power supply in the building... I suspect that not all the electrical cables buried in the walls and floor are in tip top shape. Sooner or later, we might get lucky with a short circuit somewhere downstairs in this building." Chance explained.

"And finally, if the UCAS wants to send in troops after us, the power irregularies caused by the short-circuits would play merry hell with whatever tracking devices they have in this building. By then we'll be at their power plant to pull the plug on them." Chance said.

Ash was the last out of the office, after touching fingers to a smoke detector... The next instant, sprinklers in the vacated office exploded in a spray of drenching water. She hurriedly jogged through the next destroyed door that Silvia had shattered, escaping the soaking.

[CKW]

"Something. Something has happened." Draco stood silently, with his sight lost. He had an odd feeling. A feeling of honour and pride. A feeling of power.
But, what was it? He could not
The only thing he could make in clear was a word.
Museum
He sighed. He was too tired about this crap. Too much work. So he was spending the day in resting. And taking care of Varos.
She was getting a bit itchy because he wasn´t full time with her. What a girl.
Someday she would grow up.

He needed to cool doom. So he searched for a coach. Two black mythril swords were in the living room, in the arms crest. They certainly were Hell Knight´s ones, although they had been reduced to human scale for comfort.

"I do need to get to the museum. I do need to make sure it´s not a paranoia."
He finally announced. He picked up one of the two swords in the crest.
Drazucorog Aphzorgas
Draco Firetongue
It was written into it. It had been the sword he had crafted when he became a Hell Knight.

He headed for the door.

"Hey, Draco... what do you think about my new dress...uh!?"

But Draco had already left.

"Damn IT!"
Varos anger rose and rose while he was reading the note he left. He was going to the museum.
"He´s not going anywhere leaving me here!" She said to herself. She also noticed that one of the swords of the crest was missing.

She paid a closer look to it. The left sword was still there. She never had read the runes on it...
Servos Aphzorgas

So... that was Draco´s father' sword! She became shocked at the discovery.
That must mean the other sword was... Draco´s one. And if he took it, things were serious.

"Hmm... I better take this sword for me too. This is an emergency."

She weighted it. Definitely, it was awe-inspiring, as she had thougth of the sword of Mawroth´s first liutenant, but fragging too heavy for a lady... Still, her stubborn attitude pushed her to drag the blade with her...

[Nyerguds]

Vorug landed before the museum, and walked into the long corridor. There was no one there.

Sleg! It's closed. But I have to get in! I can't let them find out! Not after all that time...

A large figure blocked the light from the entrance of the corridor. Vorug looked back, and saw a golden Dragon walking towards him.

"Draco Aphzorgas." Vorug said in Draconian, and sighed. "I was expecting you."

Draco looked at the other dragon. "Who are... You're Silvia's father, no?"
"Yes... yes I am. You felt it too, right?"
"My father. His magic, anyway. But Why are you...?"
"We have to go in. It's the sword of the Medium."
Draco frowned. "The sword of the Medium?" Then, his dragon eyes widened. "You! You are th-"
"Shut up! I'm here to protect my past, Draco! I am, and will always be Vorug Serthedal."
"Why did I feel my father's magic?"
"Oh come on. Surely you know your dad and I conjured up a lot together." Vorug said. "The sword has a calling spell, and your father helped me cast it on the sword."
"Then why don't you just call it back?"
"You think I didn't try?!" Vorug yelled back at him. "It isn't working anymore! The sword is no longer mine!"
"You mean..."
"Only the owner can summon it. There's only one person besides me who could have the slightest chance of claiming the sword."
"Silvia."
"Yes. My daughter now has an arcanite sword in her hands with a name on it she doesn't know."

"Draco!?" they heard a third dragon voice yelling into the corridor.
The two dragons looked back, and saw a silver dragon at the entrance.
Draco brusquely turned around. "VAROS?!"
"Who is she?" Vorug hissed. He didn't like the fact that there would be more people involved; especially not silver dragons.

[CKW]

"You are not letting me alone with only a lame excuse! You have been all the week out! And when we finally get together... you leave!"
The dragon girl looked upset. So upset she ignored the other Dragon.
Draco gave a painful look to Vorug.
" Listen up. I had important things to do. Really important things... Is that what I think!?"
Draco was now the one with the angry expression. Varos took a look at the sword she was carrying.
"you took one, I took the other one."
"I wanted to keep that one, Varos. It´s my father´s memento."
At this point Vorug tried to jump back in the conversation.
"Hmm... so you crafted another sword. Very Interesting."
Draco reacted to Vorug´s word, ignoring Varos' rant about being unfair and wanting Draco´s attention.
"She can be trusted. That´s what you need for now. I will gladly answer to you later.Shall we move in, Vorug?"
"Let´s."

[Nyerguds]

The two dragons turned away and walked into the building, ignoring Varos' complaints.

They went into the hall, and looked at the closed doors of the museum.
"Hello?" Vorug shouted. "Anyone here?"

After a few minutes, a human-sized door opened, and a rather old dwarf came out. He looked up to the two dragons.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, but I'm 'fraid we're closed!" he yelled up to the two dragons.
"This is important." Vorug replied calmly. "One of the artifacts of the last Dragon War was just teleported out of this building."
"What? Which one?" the dwarf yelled back at them.

Vorug sighed, and looked at Draco. "The sword of Arzurug Trocimar, the Medium Dragon."

The Dwarf frowned. "How do ya know that? 'sides, this place is warded! No one can just teleport stuff outtav it."

Draco stepped forward. "I am lord Draco Firetongue, leader of the Hell's Knights. The museum's wards most likely didn't even react on the teleportation, since the sword teleported itself out.

"Well I don't think we should stop dese magical thangs; if dey wonna teleport oot, I say let 'em!"

Draco and Vorug exchanged looks. Draco sighed. and looked back to the dwarf. "Can we see the security mage now, please?"

"Oh, sure. He's a dragon too. I'll git ya to 'im."

[Wesforce]

Out into the corridor, the infiltrators met Alanya again, who was somewhat surprised to see the Silvia's sword.

"How did-"

Crystal waved her hand in a gesture everyone immediately took to be don't ask. Crystal adjusted her pack, drawing the Submachinegun she'd seconded from the now messily dead (though no-one there knew yet) Tyme4cryme's stash. She pointed Chance towards the the turning that led to the inner-ring checkpoint. He nodded. Crystal slinked cautiously up to the corridor, keeping an intent eye on the concave mirror on the ceiling that allowed a view down the 'T' of the junction.

She froze. But the two guards some distance around the corner at the security checkpoint were talking with each other, sitting uncomfortably on metal-frame chairs. They hadn't spotted her.

She drew back, showing two fingers to Chance, pulling a flashbang from her webbing belt.

***

Jessica stared through the smoke and flame. All around was chaos. Smoke and noise, both getting in her ears. Someone was screaming somewhere. Sweat cut through soot on her face. Small pieces of random crap on the ground were being whipped up into a maelstrom, and she didn't have to look up to know a helicopter was around.

A figure lurched through the smoke. She could have put a slug through each of his eyes, but she didn't have to.

It was Shadow. A grin spread across his face in recognition. Then she saw the blood, and the Shadowrunner slumped to the floor.

Now Jessica saw the helicopter. It had deployed ropes, not far from her. Men in all-black fatigues, heavily festooned with webbing and kit were roping down.

***

Alex had practiced controlling his breathing to such an extent, he even surprised himself.

I should become a fragging actor He thought, not moving a muscle as the men over bim spoke. His keen hearing identified the approximate weights of the men, they type of boots they were wearing, the type of weapons they carried, how many flashbangs each had clipped on.

Big en. At least three were Orks, with Rifles and Submachineguns. They spoke precisely, clipped, not mentioning anyone by names, only codenames.

Delta Force, for sure. Heh. So professional, that they're worse than Amateurs.

"This them?" Spoke one.

"Yerr." Grunted another. "Look's dead ta me."

"Bag 'em and tag 'em. Wiz-boys want a look."

Some shuffling and clinking as a portable stretcher was deployed. A body was dragged slightly, then lifted and placed on the strecther and taken away.

"Cryin' shame..."

"Yerr. She iz pretty... For an 'oomie."

He knew they had to be referring to Rei. Then he too let himself be lifted bonelessly onto a stretcher. He was zipped into a body bag and carried away.

When all was silent and cold, he figured he must be in the morgue. About time too. It was hard to breathe in the body bag.

[LeFire]

There was no time for subtlety... with the mirror positioned to watch the corridor, either one of the two guards could simply turn his head and spot movement in the mirrored surface. Should that happen, they would hardly miss the half dozen or so heavily armed people filling the corridor.

Crystal flipped the flashbang around the corner... there was a startled yelp as one of the guards caught a glimpse of the device before it went off with a startlingly loud bang. The light was blinding but brief, turning everything monochrome with its intensity.

Chance, Ash and Rusty were around the corner an instant later. There was a whump as Ash's thermorifle fired, one of the guards collapsing backwards with a smoking hole replacing his face. The other had gotten to his feet and was stumbling around blindly, groping for the safety of his rifle. Chance's burst cut his legs out from under him, and Rusty's shotgun blast finished the job.

The runners took up positions as Alanya jogged up, spotting a matrix plug-in point on the desk of the security station.

[Nyerguds]

"Fraggin' 'ell... dey shudav' brought mah drone back before dis run." Alanya grumbled. She took her deck and grabbed a few program sticks.
While searching through the sticks she found something interesting... a stick she had almost forgotten about.
Alanya smiled. "AEROS... well well... the present ah got from our gobbo friend... lessee wot dis is worth..."
She looked up at the 'runners. "Ah'll try ta be quick."
She took the deck's dataplug and plugged it in the datajack behind her ear.

***

"Welcome, listeners, to WorldMedia radio news, with another update on the situation in Lyon. It seems the incinerator bombs didn't have much lasting effect; the forest has grown back to its previous size in just one night, with little or no lasting damage seen by the satellites! Meanwhile, protestors have come on the street to protect the forest, seeing it as a sign of a new era. So, how's things going for now, Samantha?"

"Well... people are trying to cross the ever-expanding police barriers surrounding the equally expanding forest. To be honest, it's really scary being so close to it; you actually see trees growing to their full height in mere hours!
I am now standing next to a young man that just tried to pass the police barriers. Tell me, why do you want to reach the forest?"
(young male voice) "The forest won't hurt us! It's our friend, as long as we are the forest's friend! We must let the forest know we have good intentions!"
"Ehm.. right... (short pause) Oh my goodness! He just jumped over the barrier again! He's approaching the forest..."
(voice that seems to come from quite far away) "Embrace me! We will be one! We will uni...eh? AAAARGGHH!!!!"
(Greg's voice) "Sam?! Samantha?! What the fr*beep* is going on there!?"
(Samantha's voice) "Oh my goddess... oh my..."
(Greg's voice) "Sam? Talk to me, Sam!"
(Samantha's voice) "Some kind of... tentacles.. vines... came out of the forest... and ripped him to pieces! Greg, he was ripped to fr*beep*ng pieces before my eyes!"

(Greg's voice, slightly calmer) "So far for our... update on the Lyon situation. We don't know what the next attempt to stop the forest will be, but rumours are going around that the french government might have gotten corp-funding to use buclear weapons. That'll be all for now, people. This was Greg Mendels, for WorldMedia radio News."


The Dragon mage sighed, and put off the radio. Couldn't they just use magic against magic? Fragging bukes...

He looked up when he heard a knock on his door.
He got up and opened it. Two dragons walked in. The Dwarf janitor left them alone and went back to his office.

"Welcome!" the mage said to his visitors. "You are lord Draco Firetongue, no? To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"

"That would be me." Vorug replied.

The mage looked at the green dragon, and frowned. Not many dragons had the exact color of grass, and the mage could see Vorug was an old dragon; he was slightly larger than Draco.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"That question would give you no useful answer. But if you'd instead have asked me who I had been, I would have answered you that I used to be Arzurug Trocimar."

"By the coatl... the Medium?!" the mage stared at Vorug in disbelief."Everyone thought you died!"
"Everyone was right, too. Arzurug Trocimar did die in the last Dragon War. He couldn't stand the madness. The massacres... killing his own kind... He died there, with the rest of the Medium Dragons, and became Vorug Serthedal. And I am here to make sure I will not be forced to become Arzurug again."
The mage nodded. "You're here to take back your sword."
"You seemed to have missed my point entirely... I will never, ever reclaim that sword."
"Then why the sleg did you even come?" the mage asked impatiently.

Vorug looked the dragon mage straight in the eyes, and said very slowly: "The sword of the Medium is gone. It was teleported out of the museum mere minutes ago. I am here to prevent my old identity from being uncovered in the investigation that will follow the mysterious disappearance."

The mage frowned. "Impossible! This place has the best magical protection after the WES vaults! No one can just teleport in here and steal things!"
He rushed to the wall, and pressed a button. The wall slid open, and a large screen appeared behind it.
"Room 27... camera... four I think." the mage mumbled, while pressing a few buttons under the screen.

Vorug looked at Draco. "Which part of 'mysterious disappearance' doesn't he understand?"
"The part that will cost him his job." Draco replied dryly.

The mage roared when he saw the image appear on the screen.
"H... how?" he asked the other two dragons.

"A calling spell." Vorug replied. "Casted on the sword centuries ago by Servos Firetongue and me."
"But... calling spells only work when the owner uses them, no?" the mage replied. "So if you don't know who called it, can't you call it back anyhow?"
"Who said I didn't know?" Vorug said.
Draco sighed. "Vorug... we're wasting our time here. Let's get to the point." He turned to the mage. "We're not dealing with a thief here. The sword hasn't been stolen at all. It has been claimed. The one that Called it was his daughter, and apparently the change is final, since he can't call the sword back."

"Right. And you want me to make sure his identity won't be uncovered during the investigation." the mage said. "But how?"

Draco smiled. "I know a way..." He looked at Vorug. "Vorug... do you remember the Call of my father's sword?"
Vorug grinned. "How could I forget? Servos... always the joker. It was 'I need a giant toothpick', right?"
"Yep. I need a giant toothpick!"

Yellow flames raged around the Golden Dragon's hand, and there it was... Servos' sword.

Vorug frowned. "Draco... won't your friend outside be slightly upset by this?"
"Not as much as when I'm going to ask her how the sleg she could lose my father's sword." Draco grinned.
The green dragon laughed. "So, there's something of your father inside you after all!"
Draco grinned. He knew everyone said he looked an awful lot like his father, but no one ever referred to his father's more mischievous side with that.
"And actually, Varos is, eh, more than just a friend to me..."
"Oh? Heh. Well, she sure is good-looking. But how did you ever hook up with a silver?"

"Excuse me..." the mage interrupted them. "but... what were you planning to do with that sword?"
"I am planning an official exchange with the museum." Draco said in a very official tone. "Now that I have forged a sword for myself, I will donate my father's sword to the museum, in exchange for the sword of the Dragon that has always been my father's best friend."

Vorug smiled. "Clever!"
"So if you consider the fact the Medium's sword is already gone, I hereby give you my father's sword to take its place."
"I- I can't just do that! I'm a security mage! I can't make deals in name of the museum!"

Draco smiled, "Don't worry about it. Just put the sword in the box, and I will make sure the deal with the museum is done by tomorrow.

***

The two dragons walked out of the corridor.
"I am amazed, Draco. That was a stroke of genious."
"Not really... I would probably have donated it sooner if I had thought of it. Sleg, I might even have made the same deal anyway."
"Say, Draco... why was you father's name still on that sword? Didn't you inherit it?"
"Well... It's strange... the runes never changed my name. As if the sword knew I wasn't going to keep it as mine." He looked up. "I've always been able to call it though."

They reached the end of the corridor. Varos was nowhere to be seen; she probably got bored and went home.
"So... what do we do now?" Draco asked.
"Nothing." Vorug replied. "I'll send Silvia a message on her MP5 player to wish her a happy birthday, and then I will wait for her to come home and ask me about the sword."
"Sleg... is that today?" Draco asked.
"Yes. But knowing her she probably forgot about it herself. Wouldn't be the first time."
Vorug looked up to the blue sky. "Well.... she already got her birthday present."
He turned to Draco. "I'll keep in touch. Bye for now."

The dragon unfolded his large, green wings, and took off.

[Master Chris]

Rusty turned his back to Alanya, watching for any sign that more soldiers were on the way. Those concave mirrors worked both ways, it was unlikely the runners would be caught be surprise here. Rusty, not taking his eyes off the mirror, wondered aloud:

"Ya think the others got out alive? Those guys in Team One were trapped like rats."

***

The soldiers, clad entirely in black, silently dropped onto the pavement. Jessica didn't know what to do! Her SMG had been thrown out of reach by the concussion grenades impact upon the van so she couldn't shoot at the soldiers. Not that that would have accomplished much, these were obviously elite troopers and Hayes wasn't much of a gun slinger. Even then, there were many soldiers and only one Jessica Hayes, the rest of her team had disappeared in one way or another. With no options available Jessica just sat there, hypnotised by the rythmic beating of the helicopters blades.

Fanning out in a precise formation the elite troopers scanned their surroundings. One trooper spotted a quivering young woman, seemingly shell shocked, and called out to his fellow squadmates:

"We've got a live one, looks unarmed. No threat. Orders sir?"

Another soldier, indistinguishable from the others, walked up to Jessica Hayes. He examined her closely, she just stared back at him vacantly. In a business-like tone the man spat orders at his squad:

"She's probably one of them, no nerve for combat I guess. Command will want to interrogate one of them, may as well take what we can get. Check her for wounds and hidden weapons, cuff her and strap her onto a return line for the chopper, send her up."

The soldiers obeyed immediately, gloved hands expertly probed Jessica for anything suspicious. Thankfully, her equipment had been wrenched from her person by the concussion blast and she was unarmed at the time. Jessica felt her arms being wrenched behind her back as handcuffs were wrapped around her wrists, then she was strapped into a winch and hefted into the sky....

[CKW]

*BANG*
The rotor started to expel smoke. It had been hit by a huge caliber bullet.
"Die, you DELTA PRICKS, DIE!!!!"
It was Iceman. Somehow, his maniacal mind had put the cross on each operative, as he had seen how the bollocks had stolen him a kill.
Alex had been zipped and dragged away to the morgue.
They had stolen Alex´s death. Now they would pay it... with interests...

[Master Chris]

The chopper started to quiver in the air, the rotor blades were wobbling precariously. One by one the helicopters blades wrenched themselves free of the drive shaft and threw themselves violently into the air. The craft started to tip onto its side and descend slowly onto the ground. The rigger of the craft, an experienced pilot, was struggling for control while blood trickled from his rigger-jack and rolled down his neck. A distorted, disembodied voice filled the aft compartment:

"Can't...HoLd...hEr..MucH...longer. BaIl OUT!"

The Delta Force soldiers still in the chopper jumped out of the helicopter just as the rigger finally, and fatally, lost control of his craft. The chopper cartwheeled as it hit the tarmac, bounced, and landed a hundred meters away from the Delta Force team. The whiplash effect of the chopper hitting the ground wrenched the handcuffs restraining Jessica Hayes apart but also dislocated her right shoulder. Freed from the crashing helicopter she was lobbed, like a discarded doll, a fair distance away from the action. Hayes came to a rest in a pile of garbage that had cushioned her fall. There she lay for some time, it was all too much for her to handle.

Meanwhile, Iceman had used the distraction caused by the chopper to continue to kill Delta Force soldiers. His sniper rifle barked again:

Baboom!

Another soldier fell, a heavy calibre slug forcefully implanted between his eyes. The other soldiers realised they were under attack, hitting the ground and returning fire. They didn't know where Iceman was exactly but they were trained to fire back regardless, it forced ones opponent to keep their head down too. Iceman was enjoying this, they were good enough to make it a challenge but not too good to seriously threaten Iceman...for the moment.

[Desolator12]

*Plugin watched as the flaming wreckage of the helicopter landed with an explosion, flames engulfing anything within a 10 foot radius as the fuel leaked out of it. Plugin pulled out his pistol, even though he realized it would do not good, and turned the safety off... he could see the anger and hate in Iceman's eyes... Plugin said nothing, especially since there was too much noise to say anything in, between rifle shots and gas canisters exploding, sending shrapnel into the air... all he did was ducked and watched Iceman's back, so they wouldn't somehow get surrounded*

[Wesforce]

Alanya was quickly disapponted by the Matrix access-point. This building had a rigger security net, and wasn't so reliant on Matrix control. Almost all security systems - Cameras, Sensors, Maglocks, Drones, even Fire Control systems - Were controlled directly by the rigger (with a few independent failsafes, like the emergency doors). While taking out the Rigger had saved them from being detected, it also left their movement severely restricted.

Also, the Matrix-point also offered no way into the main data-hubs of the complex - It was isolated among the checkpoints, being used primarily for communication purposes.

She was able to see that the guards on the other checkpoints were in some disarray. Some Ogfficer named Forbeson was yelling at eveyone to stay put and arrest or shoot anyone that moves, and ask for ID later.

She also reported the death of One Caucasian Male Human, One Caucasian Male Dwarf, and One Oriental Female out the front entrance. Bodies were being taken to the sub-level 2 mortuary.

"Looks like Tyme, Alex and Rei bought it." She whispered, in a low tone.

Sullen faces all around. A moment's silence. In the heat of the situation, with nerves frayed, adrenaline surging, it was hard for the 'Runners to believe their teammates may acyually be dead. With little time to ponder the situation, they resolved quickly to act now and think about the loss later.

Crystal examined the heavy shutter in her way, fairly confident she could blow it.

"Nope." Interrupted Silvia, carfully nudging her aside. "Can't let you do that, I'm afraid."

She raised her sword before the door, about to make short work of it, before apologising for denying Crystal's chance to blow something up.

"Can't risk the noise, Crystal."

Crystal sulked, and instead rigged up flashbang booby-traps under the bodies of the dead men, using their own grenades. The grenades had their pins pulled, with the weight of the bodies compressing the trigger-levers. If anyone moved the corpses, the levers would be released and... BANG!

Hopefully it would make anyone searching for them slow down and wath their step in future. To keep them on their toes, Crystal would swicth to using frag grenades later on.

Silvia made short work of the door - Chance and Ash rushed through after Sil made a quick astra scan to make sure no-one was on the other side. There wasn't.

A standard office door led off to the left, and another T junction led forwards and to the left and right around the building's second-inner circle.

Sil went Astral again: Wait!

She could sense someone in the small room. Human or Elven sized, cowering under a table, emitting strong emotions of fear and remorse...

***

Alex 's breathing jumped as he heard the Morgue door open. Two women were talking among themselves.

"-Shot just a few moments ago. Forbeson wants us to deal with them ASAP in case they get up and start chewing on brains. Remember that incident on Comet night?"

"Goddess, how could I forget?" Replied the second. "Well, lets get moveing. We'll do the girl first."

"Okay then, get the bonesaws." Then she spoke to an unseen third figure, close now. Right next to Rei.

"Wait outside please, Soldier, situations's well in hand. We'll page you when we need you to burn the bodies."

"Yes ma'am." Heavy footsteps, then a heavy metal door shut.

***

"Frag! Chopper down, chopper down! COVERING FIRE!!!"

Amid the roar of the Delta Forcer's return fire, the Sergeant yelled into his comm-link.

"Commence bombardment on my mark!" He flicked out his minature laser-designator.

"MARK!"

On the roof of the ONI building, mortar teams snapped into action, arming and firing their laser-guided suppression munitions mechanically.

Seconds later, the building the 'runners had used as a jumping-off point erupted into smoke and flame. A few more hits and the whole front facade was torn ff, and several fires were blazing merrily.

The Delta Sergeant tracked the laser designator along the ground as mortar bombs fell continuously - He placed the bombs in such a way that covered as much of the ground in front of him as possible.

[Master Chris]

Orkistonia:

Delori lazily dropped the sweetmeat morsel he had been gnawing on, North's apprentice, Raven, had returned.

"What news of your progress, fitter?"

Raven smiled and raised one hand above his head dramatically, the doors of Delori's hall swung open and a gaggle of confused orks and goblins shuffled forwards, bound together with steel chains. One of Delori's men prodded them along with a cattleprod. Mawrose stood up and said:

"Well done fitter. You've fulfilled your part of our bargain, I must inquire; How did you do it?"

Raven replied, cool as ice:

"Trade secret Delori, that would cost more than even you could afford."

Delori chortled politely, then spoke:

"I have my slaves, as you promised, now you will have your reward. The golden pistol, yes yes?"

Mawrose dangled a gold plated pistol in one hand and threw it to the floor in front of Raven. Careful not to appear over hasty, the four armed albino thanked Delori before bending over to claim his reward:

"Many thanks, great and fair Mawrsoe Delori. May your empire regrow to its former glory and beyond."

Delori, well aware of the blatant flattery in Raven's words, indulged himself and enjoyed them anyway. For his masterstroke was about to be played. Raven, his verbal ego stroking out of the way, bent down to pick up the weapon. His eyesight being rather poor he wasn't able to see that the pistol was a poorly disguised duplicate until it was in his hands. As his fingers ran down the barrel of the weapon Raven came to a grim realisation. He stopped mid-stroke, terrified of the implications of the falsified pistol. Mawrose had never intended to actually trade quid pro quo, but was going to have his cake and eat it too! Raven concluded it was quite possible that Mawrose had never even known where The Negotiator was! How could I have been tricked like this? Better play it cool, don't give that six limbed freak an excuse to kill me.

Raven took the pistol off of the floor, nodded at Mawrose, turned and made his way to the door. Mawrose, amused by this, let Raven get most of the way out before calling out:

"Not so fast, fitter. We both know you hold nothing but a fake. I don't think you'll be leaving quite so soon, you still must tell me how you came across those slaves. I'll be needing more, in fact, you can join them. Put him with the other one."

Knowing all was lost Raven slumped to the ground, he should have never gone looking for The Negotiator. Two of Delori's men scooped up the prone fitter and carried him away, Raven fell into unconsciousness.

Hours later, Raven awoke to find himself in the perfect example of a dungeon. It was dark, smelt of rotting flesh, and even featured the standard incessant dripping of water that drove countless others before Raven insane. Raven tried to stand but found his feet shackled to a long and heavy chain. At the other end of the chain was a man who was observing Raven silently. The man had skin the colour of soy-chocolate, a hue most uncommon in Orkistonia. He spoke rapidly:

"Been waiting for you to wake up, sleepin' beauty. Seems Mawrose has seen fit to give me a room mate, you musta really ticked him off to score accomodation with me. Name's Jack, Black Jack. As in the game, you know, Twenty One, Pontoon and such. I beat Mawrose at his own game, cheatin'. Instead of payin' up he throws Jack's sorry ass into his finest dungeon and leaves Jack to rot. What's your story?"

Raven shook his head, this Jack character spoke pretty quickly and Raven was still kind of out of it. Raven then cleared his throat and replied:

"My name? Raven. I was looking for an item I had lost and Mawrose offered to find it for me in exchange for certain other items. 'Course, I deliver and Delori gives me a fake then here I am, pleasure to meet you, Jack."

Jack stared at Raven for a moment before unashamedly commenting:

"Daaaa-mn, you're as pale as if you had seen a ghost, buddy. I'm guessing that you're a mutie, seeing as you got four arms as well."

Raven smiled weakly:

"Pretty observant aren't you? Hey? Hey! What do you guys want?"

At that point a trio of burly orks had entered the dungeon, unlocked the chains binding Raven and Jack, and carried the pair upstairs without a word.

After being lugged several stories up they were carried back into Delori's main hall. Mawrose Delori's voice greeted them, although it was strangely muffled. The two men were strapped into seats that faced each other. Black Jack turned his head towards the muffled voice and demanded:

"Hey, Mawrose. What's wit' this set up? You behind some glass wall and us sitting face to face?"

Delori laughed:

"I've thought about that little game you told me about, Jack. Russian Roulette. You two shall play a round for my amusement. I've taken the liberty of putting only one bullet into your six cylinder revolver, Jack. Of course, you know the rules already, yes yes? As for your question about my glass wall, this is here so that I may watch your game without fear of either one of you taking a shot at me."

Raven asked:

"Why should we play your little game?"

Mawrose laughed:

"If you don't, you both shall die. Play the game and anyone who isn't dead walks free. Of course, I'm quite sure only one of you shall walk free. That's the way Russian Roulette works, am I right Jack?"

One of Delori's goons, as if on cue, presented a plush, rich velvet cushion, upon which was a fancy, long barrelled revolver. Jack asked politely:

"Mind if I go first, Raven?"

Raven nodded, he had given up all hope. Whether he died during this game of Russian Roulette or was shot in the back after winning the game, which he was sure Mawrose had planned, he was a dead man either way. Jack hefted the revolver with practised ease. Jack made a request:

"Can I give the cylinder a quick spin, Mawrose? Just to make sure it's a fair and random game?"

Mawrose replied in a cautious tone:

"Yes, but don't try anything, I'm watching you."

Raven looked at Jack, at that distance he could just make out Jack's facial features, Jack looked slightly suspicious. Maybe he's gonna spin it so the bullet has my name on it, slimey fragger. With a sudden flick of his wrist Jack's revolver snapped in half, the cylinder revealed. Jack span the cylinder violently and with another flick the revolver snapped shut again.

"There we go, all random-like."

Jack then slowly lifted the revolver, arm shaking nervously, and slowly put pressure on the trigger...

Click

With obvious relief Jack flipped the revolver around and offered the handle to Raven who accepted it with dread. Did he meddle with it? Is this my last moment on Earth? Raven found the urge to whip the pistol around and shoot Mawrose almost unbearable, the bullet-proof glass was no deterrant. Raven shot a glance at Black Jack, the man flashed him a quick, toothy grin. Goddess! He has tampered with it! He knows I'm a goner. May as well get it over with.

Click

Raven found he was holding his breath, he exhaled loudly. Still alive, guess that wasn't the one. With a severely shaking hand Raven dropped the revolver into Jack's palm. Mawrose laughed and commented:

"Truly this is a great spectator sport! The agony! The fear! Fickle chance dictating one's fate! Bravo!"

Jack wiped his brow and pointed the weapon at his temple. Eyes shut tight his finger pressed against the trigger...

Click

Raven suddenly found the revolver in his hands again, Jack had seemed relieved to pass over the weapon. Not daring to dwell on the inevitable Raven stuck the barrel under his chin and squeezed the trigger quickly. Better get it over and done with.

Click

Still nothing. The centaur stood up, whistled, and clapped loudly, his goons did the same. It was an enthralling spectacle! Mawrose spoke:

"Only two chances left boys, who will it be? Who is destined to die today?"

Jack took back the revolver, he gulped and slowly pointed the weapon towards himself. Raven watched as the firing pin moved back slowly, it stopped moving, anymore pressure and the pin would fly forwards and strike the bullet. Assuming the bullet was in position...

....


Click

The entire room was silent. Jack opened one eye, then the next, he broke into a grin that stretched from ear to ear. There was only one place the bullet could be now, and now only one place where it would end up; in Raven's skull. Mawrose Delori howled in ecstasy, his goons joined him! Panting hard Mawrose delightedly babbled:

"Wonderful...brilliant..this is unbelievably exciting!"

Regaining control of himself, Mawrose proclaimed:

"Remove the victor from his bonds, he is free to go!"

Mawrose continued:

"Of course, with every winner there must be a loser. Raven, you lost. Now pay your dues!"

With baited breath everyone watched Raven carefully, would he do it? Would he freak out and take a shot at someone else? Raven didn't have the strength to hold the revolver, it dropped into his lap. He looked up at the people watching him from behind the glasswall. They chanted softly in unison:

"Do it, do it, do it, do it."

Raven saw that even Mawrose was chanting with them, he looked at Black Jack, the fragger had an expression of pure joy on his face! Bastard! He set me up! Raven watched as Jack gave him a quick wink. It was a disturbing wink, something about it...This is it. Well, at least I'll die thinking about Crystal. To think that I came here for her, to find the one thing I thought could help us, only to meet my end. Adieu my beloved!

With uncharacteristic strength the man once known as Raven grabbed the revolver, angled it under his chin and pulled the trigger...



Do it, do it, do it, do it......

[Nyerguds]

Silvia took her sword, and sliced the door in pieces. She ignored the mild headache she got from channeling mana to the sword... her magical side was still seriously beaten up by the mistake she made outside.
She stood still before the door. The sword was heavier than normal swords... it was heavy, even for her, even though the Arcanite it was made of was based on mithril.

She kicked the door in, holding her sword ready for any possible attack.
Inside the room, everything was dark. She found a light switch, but it didn't work; the lamp on the ceiling was smashed.

"Who is there?" she hissed.
No one replied.
"I can sense you, under that table. Come out."

Slowly, the figure crawled from under the table. It was a young elf.
From the moment she saw him, Silvia realized who he had to be.

"Sleg... you're the contact."

"C-contact?" the Elf replied. "I don't know what you're talking ab-bout."

Not the contact? But he sure did something wrong here...

By that time her eyes had adjusted to the dark, and she noticed the open drawers and all the papers on the ground.
Silvia suddenly realized what the man was doing here... he had been locked in when looking through the documents, and has smashed the lamp when he heard the people coming.

"Sleg. He's not the contact..." She laughed. "He's a common industrial spy!"
She glanced at the others. "So... what do we do with him?"
She saw the fear in the man's eyes. By now he had realized they were 'runners, and not the security people catching him red-handed, and might thus be his only chance of escape from the fully alerted fortress...
Or, they might just kill him and move on.

"W-wait!" he said. "I can help you guys!"
"Reeeeally?" Silvia said, teasingly, still with the sword in her hands. "You don't even know why we're here!"
"I... could help you." the man said, slightly calmed down. "I work here, officially. If you get me out after all this, I might get you deeper inside. That's what you want, no?"
"Hm. But the place is locked down."
"I know! But I know most of the guards. They won't suspect me. I could help you get through some of the most secure places!"
The man looked around through the papers, quickly grabbed a bunch of them he had apparently dropped when hiding, folded them and put them in his vest. "I just need to get out with this stuff. That's all I ask. Otherwise I'm dead anyway."

Silvia looked at Chance. "Your call, boss..."

[LeFire]

"It won't be any worse than the situation we're in right now." Chance replied. He turned to the spy, carelessly allowing the muzzle of the Browning to sway in his direction. The meaning wasn't lost on the fellow.

"Let's say we go for a little walk eh? We need to get to the power station. Failing that, send us to the ops room or their equivalent of a central command point. Of course, if things don't go well, it might be lights out in more ways than one, if you get what I mean."

[Nyerguds]

The spy nodded nervously.
"So... what's your name?" Silvia asked, casually letting the sword lean on her shoulder.

"Werrick." he replied.
Silvia smiled. "I'm Silvia. And I sure hope you can be useful... you're cute."
Werrick frowned, not sure whether it was a good thing to be labelled 'cute' by a girl with a big sword.

"And you're probably not even legal yet, flirt" she heard Crystal reply in her head.
Silvia grinned. "Hehe. Legal. That's a good one. But seriously, Crys, I'm almost sixteen ya know. My birthday will be one of these days."
She frowned. "Sleg. Might even be today. What's today?"
"Twenty-third of July." Crystal said.
"Sleg. Great. Just great." She looked around to the others. "Woohoo. Congratulate me, people. I'm 16."
She sighed. "Let's finish this quickly. I'll buy you all a drink when we get out of this place."

[Wesforce]

The new guy looked nervously around at the assembled 'runners. Crystal raised an eyebrow at him.

"Er, right..." He murmured. "Lets get moving then. Just be warned - Those sec-boys are probably turning this whole fragging place over for you. They'll shoot anyone or anything that doesn't identify itself, and believe me, there are enough things in here to be wary of.""

"Just have to Chance it, won;t we?" Chance said, cool as Ice.

Bad pun, manling. Baaaaad. Lupus cringed.

With a quick glance at the arsenal of Therm-guns, SMGs, swords and Cyberdecks being pointed at him, Werrick quickly decided which side his bread was buttered on.

"Folow me."

"Follow you why?" Came a third, new voice, making the combat-minded 'runners jump.

"Oh FRAG IT!" Snarled Werrick, and everyone quickly got the idea he was very pissed off."

Crystal edged into the office, following the direction the voice had come from. A drawer on the desk. She oved, but decided Werrick should open it. He pulled out a Heavy pistol by the butt, gingerly with two fingers, so as not to be filled full of wholes by Crystal next to him.

"A gun?"

"Yep. I'm a gun" Said the gun. "Whaddaya want, a fraggin' medal? Hello darlin', nice baps." The gun said, presumably at Crystal, LEDs along the grip winking appreciatively.

"Hey Werrick, ye weaselly gob****e! you weren't trying tae loive me behind were ye?"

"No, I-"

Without warning, the gun span in Werrick's hand, as he tried to duck. A single shot rang out, sending the Elf to the floor, bloody cartilage where his ear used to be.

"WANT SOME MORE FRAGGER! GET SOME OF THIS!" Yelled the gun. Chance trapped it with his boot. "Urk!' It said, surprised and no mater how much its internale gyros span, it couldn't move.

"Alroight, ya got me, so ye did. Oi surrender!"

"Werrick!" Grunted Chance, furiously.

"Alright, alright! I'll explain everything!. Lets just get moving, okay?"

***

"Gunshot heard, second ring admin section 3."

"Move Ryan's patrol, to investigate, they're nearest." Replied Commander Forbeson, crisply. "And bring Creer's squad in to cover the East gate."

"Aye aye, ma'am. Ryan reports the post security post at 3-2a have been eliminated. Looks like the ring-access shutter has been, uh, cut by something."

"Cut? Clarify that crap Sailor!" Now it was Forbeson's turn to sound irritated.

"Aye aye sir. Ahhh!" The Comm's man winced as a deafening burst of static came in over the com-link. Forbeson could guess why.

"Traps." She sighed.

Time to see to matters personally..

She waved her second-in-command over, and simply said "Cover for me."

With that, she slumped in her chair, consiousness leaving her body, searching.

***

As the 'runners crept around several corridors, Crystal on point, Werrick gave a brief explanation.

"Basically, that gun's why I'm here." He said, pointing at the firearm Chance carried securley, turned off, or so he hoped. He'd forcibaly ejected it's sizable magazine, just to be sure. "Lets just say the entity I represent is interested in that gun for it's own reasons. Doesn't take a genius to realize what for. Seems it's programmed using revolutionary new Artificial Intelligence software that's cropped up in the intelligence community recently.

Revolutionary new Artificial Intelligence software.

Everyone turned at the sound of that, turning decidely pale, apart from Chance. His skin-tone supplements had already put paid to his natural paleness.

"What?" Werrick shrugged.

"As for the Irish acent, well, I can only assume it was programmed for infiltrating the AET facilities or something, ha!"

"Whatever. Keep moving."

Silvia felt a tingle at tyhe back of her mind.

"Feel that?" She whispered.

"No." Replied Chance, puzzled. Sil instinctively shifted her gaze to the astral plane. A rigid, female astral signature stared back at her, backing into a cold metal wall and disappearing.

"We've been spotted." She snarled. "Seems there was one mage Iceman didn't get."

"Damn!" Chance cursed.

Sil hadn't even told him about the two converging 4-man/Ork/Elf UCAS Marine teams converging on their position, either...

Up ahead, Crystal heard the low beep of a Com-link being used...

And realised how stupid it was to place a mute like her on point in a situation like this.

***

Forbeson shifted back to her control room, safe in the knowledge that the wards she had prepared should hold it against just about anything.

Still, not every day you see a Half-fragging Dragon snooping around your Intelligence building. The astral signature had been unmistakable. She was young, very young, and not at full potential.

However, she wasn't exactly sure where this Dragon was, as writing didn't show up in Stral space; only the emotion behind it. As the machines that printed the signs on the walls had no souls: They were about as much use as a chocolate teapot to the astral-traveller.

She contacted Younghusband again.

"We've got a Half-Dragon snooping around." Her words were clipped, curt, and in no way showed the respct owed to a superior officer.

"Oh don't frag me around Forbeson." Laughed the Admiral.

"Shut UP, fat man," The Dwarf fell back, aghast, at such insolence. "This may constitute an international incident. Tell the White House." She hung up, and set Younghusband's number to 'ignore'.

There was some good news, too.

"Ma'am, the reserve rigger will arrive at HQ in 3 minutes."

"Excellent." She steepled her fingers.

***

"Delta leader here. No sign of hostiles. We're investigating further. By the way, get a medevac here quick, might be a few survivors in the downed 'chopper."

"Roger that."

"Follow me, men!" He yelled. The mortar bombs having stopped falling, he and his men moved to sweep the blazing building.

***

"Thank you very much, Comrades," Said Iceman with genuine geniality, putting a bullet into the heads of each of the UCAS marines, after they had finished on the com-link.

Next he turned to the cowering, overweight rigger they had been escorting. While running from the bombardment, Plugin had noticed the second chopper, the one going in to land on the rooftop heliport. Iceman had all but physically thrown Plugin onto the roof, and scrambled up after him, just in time to catch the arrival of this, who he presumed to be the second security rigger.

Said Rigger nervously itched the scabby flesh around his neck implants and stared at the doughnut juice stains on his silver jumpsuit.

"What are you going to do to me?" He mumbled.

Iceman couldn't be bothered to tell the slobbish rigger that he wanted him to get him and Plugin access to the control centre exactly three floors down from here through the secure-lift, so he told Plugin to tell him, hoping that his only accomplice could act threatening enough.

[CKW]

"What the!?"

The woman dropped down silently as Alex slit his throat with the scalpel.
The other guy tried to retaliate. It was clear they weren´t dead.

But, as soon as he aimed at him, he fell with a sickening gurgle. A well aimed shuriken from the girl.

Rei smiled wickedly. Killing is not that bad.

The door opened... a very pissed off soldier wanted a piece of both.
But another shuriken made him sleep forever in peace.

"Well done Rei."
Alex congratulated. He grabbed the radio.
There was no radio. Crap. Their equipments were removed.

Fortunately, they were in...

"Hmm... Rei... Dress yourself as medic, I´ll take the soldier´s clothes."

He finally announced.

[Wesforce]

The soldiers were coming closer, rapidly. There was little time to think or act, and it was all Crystal could do to go to ground, resting her submachinegun awkwardly on the floor, braced to her shoulder.

Just in time. An Orkish head peered around the corner. Immediately sparks and chips flew around, dark pits appeared in the walls as bits and pieces were chewed off. Crystal's aim was, as usual, terrible, but the Ork marine had to duck back around the corner anyway. A sign clanged down off the wall, dislodged.

"Fragginsh hellsh!" Yelled the Ork.

"What? You okay?"

"Bisch gotsh my toosh!"

"Grenade her. NOW!"

But Crystal was too quick for them - One of her own grenades sailed down the corridor, bouncing off a post trolley. A shout of alarm, before the deafening detonation. The blast wave washed over Crystal, her fingers in her ears, mouth open, and the corridor was suddenly darkened as the lights failed.

Crystal rose, backing away. Had the grenade got them?

Had it frag..

Four bruised and battered UCAS marines, armour still smoking from shrapnel hits, screamed around the corner unleashing holy hell. A grenade from and under-barrel launcher fragged the precise spot where Crystal had been lying - But she wasn't there any more. She'd used her hrenade to give herself time to get back to the others.

***

Forbeson went to the door, with two Chief Petty Officers by her side, pistols holstered. Said door slid back, revealing a terrified-looking rigger, and both the youngest-looking and biggest-looking UCAS marine guards she'd ever seen, wearing wildly ill-fitting uniforms.

She detected the hostile intentions of the big one right away. If she'd been using astral perception, she would probably have detected them halfway across the fragging building.

Her yell of alarm was drowned out by automatic gunfire as Iceman mowed down the two Navy men, spraying blood and intestines, Plugin dragging the rigger to the floor for cover.

Iceman sprayed the whole room with gunfire from the belt-fed light-machinegun he'd ripped from the chopper - Consoles and screens exploded into showers of sparks, operators slumping dead or being thrown over their computers. In seconds, only Forbeson remained, surrounded by a glowing nimbus. Bullets fell from where the shield spell had suspended them and clattered on the floor.

"Nice try, love" Sneered Forbeson, the woman's shield spell-lock holding firm. Iceman grinned back, an odd moment of mutuality seemed to exist within the two.

"Lets talk for a moment."

"Why?" Asked Iceman.

"Just curious as to why a Russian in UCAS Marine uniform would make an attempt on the President's life. We may not be the country we once were, but we could still buke you back to the Iron age.

"I'm on vacation." The Russian grinned, still holding the big gun on her.

Forbeson pondered her next course of action, deciding she'd fry the fragger's mind with a mana-blast spell: Affecting only his spiritual slf, but still very capable of killing him instantly. She just hoped the fragging Dragon wouldn't follow her back astrally and nibble on the room's ward while she was occupied...

"Wait, what are they doing?" She screamed, enraged. Plugin had sneaked the Rigger over to the rigger's console and was on the verge of plugging him in: Once done the guy would be able of doaing anything Plugin wanted him to: Open doors, set off the halon anti-fire systems, flood the building with Neuro-Stun gas, etc - He seemed quite resigned to the young man with a gun to his head.

***

Crystal got back to the others, where a defensive position was being formed. They alnmost shot Crystal, in fact.

"Sounds like they're coming alright." Chance murmured.

"Shame... We're only two corridors away from the elevator to the power room, too," Werrick sighed. "But we've no time to cut through these doors..."

***

Dressed in their appropraited clothes, Rei and Alex stood out in the corridor, having neatly hidden the bodies In the morgue, of all places.

The two tenses-up - A young looking Elvish Marine came running down, pale with fright, rifle at port-arms, and not ready to fire. He seemed to be delivering a message, and was in a hurry.

"They're in the control room! RUSSIANS!" He screamed. "Come with me, and get guns!"

[Desolator12]

((WHOOPS! sorry))



*Plugin thought for a moment. There was a lady holding a magical barrier up, preventing Iceman from killing her, Iceman had his gun aimed at the lady, and he and the rigger were at a rigger station...*

"close and lock the Control Room door" Plugin said to the rigger, who was in no position to argue, with a gun pointed at his head. The doors shut with a clank and a hiss.

"Now the way I see it ,miss, is that this person is the only way out of here" Said plugin, motioning to the rigger.

*plugin then, mustering all the courage he could, stated* "Also, if you make so much as a magic spark, I'll shoot the rigger jack out... it's as simple as that"

*plugin thought to himself again, just to be on the safe side, he decided to tell the rigger to arm the ceiling guns outside of the control room, preventing people to come in with explosives*

" It seems we have reached a stalemate, miss... your move Ice..."

[Wesforce]

(Gm: Hmm, they aren't on the h-pad anymore, they took a lift down to the control room)

"Frag" Mumbled the rigger, seemingly to himself. "Picking up intruders... They're right near the power plant!"

[Nyerguds]

"Sleg! They're coming! Crystal!"
Crystal came running back towards them. "Four guys, heavy weapons. Didn't manage to take any out. They're a bit dazed though."
"Sleg." Silvia turned to Chance. "Two teams of four. Heavy guns. One there, another from the side. I'll check the side."

She ran into the side corridor. The fire door at the end was still closed, but the soldiers doubtlessly had security cards to open it.
She could sense them getting closer, and waited, her sword ready to strike.
One of the soldiers walked forward to open the door. Silvia closed her eyes, scanning the astral plane to make sure she knew exactly where the man was.
When he stopped, she immediately returned her focus to her body and stabbed the sword through the door, towards the lifeform she felt behind it. As she pulled it back she heard the man fall to the floor. The small green line in the door faded away immediately, not leaving any trace of the damage done to it.

"I'll keep 'em busy here for a while!" she yelled to the others.
She just hoped they would try again there, and not move away to find another way to them.

But the short time she was focussing on the Astral plane she had felt mana being used... a spell being cast, or reinforced. She wasn't really sure which, since she had been focussing on the soldier behind the door and on keeping her own body standing while scanning the Astral. But if the mage woman was performing magic, and not on Silvia's team, that meant she was probably being attacked.

Sleg. I gotta do something now.

[Desolator12]

"What?!?" said plugin, keeping one eye on the lady and another on the rigger

a building scan would take to long, and by then, they would reach the core and deactivate everything... Plugin had no choice, whether the intruders be friend or foe...

"activate the nero-stun...."

[Nyerguds]

Silvia sensed the presence of the gas before actually breathing it in. The decision took only a split-second... she had to stay awake.

While her body slumped down on the ground, her spirit was already on its way to the room where she had felt the magic.

She hoped Chance had been fast enough to do the same, but had no time to scan for his presence now.

[Wesforce]

(GM: Everyone in the control room is safe from the gas: In fact the building is designed so that seperate sections can be flooded with gas while others are safe. All the 'runners in that section, as well as the UCASers will be KO'd, everyone else is okay... Unless Deso gets the rigger to flood the whole buildign with gas. Btw the gas is odourless, colourless and tasteless - The first your average (metahuman will know of it is when his or her head hits the floor... But I guess Sil would be okay due to her dragon blood.

The wards are barriers encapsulating the control room: They can be broken while Forbeson is distracted, though rememebr you can't attack directly from the astral plane: You must manifest back on the physical plane like spirits do... but then they can see you and attack)

First Crystal was trying to rig breaching charges on the heavy door, footsteps of approaching UCAS Marines echoing in her ears.

The next second, everything went dark.

Not far off, the 8 UCAS Marines all clattered to the fllor, almost in unison - The hardy Orks ran on a few seconds before their bodies realised they were unconsious, but then tehy too succumbed. Though they carried gas masks in their kit, no-one had bothered to tell them the gas was being used.

***

Rei and Alex chose to follow the young man... Getting to the control room seemed like a good idea.

They knew something was wrong as soon as they heard the gunfire (Iceman with the machine gun earlier). The door was slighly ajar, and they could hear voices from within: One female, stern and angry, the other loud, booming, and unmistakably Russian...

[Desolator12]

(( great... I KNEW THIS WAS GONNA HAPPEN! crystal's never gonna forgive me...unles...))

plugin looked at the rigger... and then said... "activate the security cameras in that section... i need to see where the marines are... and if I gassed our allies..." the rigger, thinking *our allies? the only reason I'm here right now instead of somewhere else is because of that gun to my head....* but activated the security cameras nonetheless... some screens in front of them blinked on. On one of the screens was a bunch of marines, unconcious... the orks were farther away than the humans, but they succumed to the gas later... then... reluctantly, plugin looked at the other person on the screen... it was crystal... "D'ARVIT!" yelled Plugin, while forbeson had somewhat of a grin on her face... "It seems your plan did not work out as well as you think, boy..." she said, almost mockingly. Plugin, ignoring the urdge to unload all of his ammo into the lady, shielded or not, said to the rigger "seal off the area where the marines are. Close all air ducts in the area where the gas is. ok, now open the ducts between where crystal is and where the marines are.... good, now turn on the fans and suck the gas in the room where crystal is out into the room where the marines are locked in. I want surveilance every moment on that room. if they even so much as stir, unload the gas into that room ONLY... ok, now close the ducts between the two rooms and get some antidote into that room... this place should have it... just in case something like this were to happen... only into the room where crystal is in...

[CKW]

(Wes, are Alex and Rei supposed to be KO´d too, or not!?)

"Hmmm"
Alex thought for a while. Putting his heart onto simulating a fake UCAS accent he then spoke.
"There´s a russky boy there, matey. Maybe I can snipe him out from this position once i take down. Cover me."
He then leaned back in the wall, and made some gestures.
The metallic click of the rifle set it to single shot- and therefore more accuratte shots.

BANG!

Alex´s sixth sense provided a fast reaction, and was able to waste the ceiling gun without retaliation.

"Hey, buddy, you got C4?"
He faked american accent once more.

Plof.
Rei had just fallen off. Asleep. Frag it... it was gas... He...
Lightning fast, the gas mask slided in alex´s mouth.
Alex bent a knee. His quick reaction putting the gas mask on had probably saved him for being asleep... but he was already half stunned, and that was no good...
The other dude was knocked down, too.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia suddenly sensed something else... another magical presence of some kind. She went towards it, only to find out it was a ward barrier protecting the place where the mage was. Through the barrier, she could sense Iceman and the mage... and the shield the mage had cast around herself.

Sleg. I have to get through.

She didn't attack the barrier. She knew it was too strong to get through as long as the she-mage was controlling it. And the mage knew she was in the building. The last thing she wanted to do was alert the mage she was right there, and not unconscious like the others. But the mage's focus on the wands had to be broken somehow.

Silvia looked around in the astral plane, and found something very interesting....

Odd. Why have I never noticed that before?

She was looking at something that was most definitely Awakened and magically active... and it was unmistakably bearing Alex' astral signature, even though it looked somewhat... distorted. But it was weakening... even though he was awake the stun-gas was affecting his body.

"Alex? Stay with me, Alex, I need you awake!"

[CKW]

But Alex lose consciusness... His limbs weren´t answering.
He thought of everyone... of each people... of each buddy...
He was about to fail...

A new force grew within. He stood up.

He felt himself numb... and he could sense he was floating ABOVE his body.

"Oh no... Weird ****... I think I have just gone astral!"

But he wasn´t a mage... Or maybe he was...?
It didn´t matter. He needed to return to his body, as soon as possible.

He then noticed a very confused weird astral signature.

Sil!?

[Nyerguds]

Silvia sighed. "That wasn't exactly what I meant... but it should do the trick."

Alex' astral form floated over his unconscious body.
"What's happening to me? I'm not supposed to... eh..."

"You mean you've never done this before?" Silvia replied. "Odd... I could sense quite some magic in you. Although someone or something did a really good job in hiding it. I never sensed it before..."

"How can I get back?" Alex asked.

Silvia laughed. "Your body is unconsious, Alex. Just like mine. We're pretty much trapped here until the effect of the stun gas wears off."
She spread her arms and looked up. "Welcome to the Astral plane, Alex! World of thoughts, magic and a total lack of clothes!" she said, mockingly imitating a tour guide. "On the left, you see the astral forms of our unconscious friends. On the right you see the ward barrier we have to get through to save Iceman's hide. Behind the barrier you might see the magical bitch that's about to kill out glorious leader."
"Oh."
Silvia floated around him, focussing her normally quite hazy astral form to the appearance of a real dragon.
"Yeah, I know... doesn't really seem worth saving... but he's doing quite a good job distracting the mage."

She looked at Alex' naked form. The Astral form was a bare representation of the body, unless they were manipulated to look like something else. Silvia had found out she had no trouble taking a real dragon form on the astral plane, and any kind of hybrid she imagined, but if she didn't focus her form it kept shifting between them.

She changed to her normal Elvish appearance. Alex sensed a change in her mood... she was more serious now.
"It's weird, eh? Being so bare... so vulnerable... but you'll get used to that quickly."
She glanced at the ward barrier. "I was hoping to pass the barrier by linking my astral form to your body, so you could pull me through just by walking inside... but well, guess we'll have to think of something else."

[CKW]

"Hold on. I think I am not... yet fully disabled."

No you don´t, my Alex. You have been always quite strong...

"UH!?"

A third spirit had appeared. It irradiated kindness... and majesty.

"mother!? But... you... you died..."

No... not exactly... my body passed away... but I felt i needed to stay a bit more here... To watch all of you over...

Now Alex understood everything. The katana he wore... was the source of the magic he had used earlier... It was bonded to his mother´s spirit.

And now, Alex... return back.

"But I can´t"

TRY!

"OK, OK... I´ll do it..."

The last lines faded out, as a whirl sucked Alex back in his body...

[Nyerguds]

"Thanks." Silvia said to Jade.
Then she frowned. "I sensed you before..."
Jade smiled. "Yess... I've seen you before too."
Silvia smiled. "Now I remember... you were hanging around Dragon!"
"My best apprentice. He needed my guidance."
"I see..."

Jade's astral form disappeared. Silvia could sense her spirit go back to the object she bound herself to; the katana, lying in a nearby storage room. She made a mental note not to forget the location of the sword.

***

Alex slowly got up, walked towards the still stunned Marine and took the the elf's keycard out of his pocket.

"Well now, Alex... show time!" Silvia whispered in his mind.
She immediately went to the opposite side of the wand barrier; she'd have the most chance getting through just opposite of the distraction.

[LeFire]

His mind felt like a herd of giant pandas had been having a college party in it.

Scratch that... Make it "still having a party" instead.

Chance rolled over, groaned and sat up, the effects of the neuro-stun wearing off. He had been stricken by the gas before, during previous 'police actions' in his service days when riot gas rounds discharged by police launchers had gone astray. That small measure of experience with its effects allowed him to recover his senses a bit quicker than the rest of his team, sprawled out around him.

He was in a section of corridor, together with the rest... It seemed like someone had cut off the marines from them using the fire doors. Fans hummed loudly in the background.

Someone's drained the neuro-stun from this room...

It took a moment for the implications of that to sink in...

This means that someone from our side is in control of the building.

A quick look around revealed Alanya flat on her back and unconscious... And the only other available decker was Plugin. So the van team was alive! Which meant that Alex would be as well... Chance didn't think that Plugin could pull off a hijack of the UCAS building without proper fire support.

The others were stirring... Ash sat up first, Chance supporting her as she got her bearings. He began to examine the ceiling for a camera... He had to let Plugin know that his team was back in action. In the background, Rusty swore heartily as he pulled himself to his feet, checking on the stirring Crystal. Silvia seemed out of it... Chance decided to examine her after establishing contact with Plugin.

He spotted the glass dome of a concealed camera, and waved urgently to it, pointing at the doors.

[Master Chris]

"Bloody heck!"

Rusty was still groggy, leaning against the wall he pulled himself to his feet and looked up. Chance was hopping about and waving at a security camera.

"Whatcha doin', Chance?"

He slurred, Rusty hadn't grasped the implications of his return to consciousness yet. Chance, still frantically waving, answered the query:

"Plug-in must have disabled security, he's got control of the building now. I'm trying to get his attention and have him open the doors."

It took a solid few seconds for the Australian to put two and two together. Rusty stumbled over to Alanya and began shaking her softly;

"Wake up, we gotta move soon and I aint gonna carry you."

***

Jessica Hayes awoke in a pile of discarded trash, still outside of the building. Her eyes watered as a sharp pain raced along her right arm. Her shoulder had been dislocated in the fall.

Moving quietly, Jessica crawled through the musky garbage and looked out and examined her surroundings. The van she had tried to enter the compound with had been dragged aside, the helicopter was a crumpled mess still smouldering a hundred meters away. Soldiers were taking up positions all around the compound, encircling it as best they could.

Jessica looked about for something, anything of use, she felt terribly alone. There appeared to be a rifle a couple of meters away from her, it didn't look like there was any serious damage to the weapon but Jessica assumed it had been thrown from the crashing helicopter and had suffered a serious fall. She contemplated slowly crawling out of the safety of her garbage haven and collecting the weapon. Would she be spotted and gunned down without a second thought? Probably. Jessica Hayes chose the better part of valor and made her self as comfortable as as person could be when one had a dislocated shoulder and was lying in filth...

[Desolator12]

"drain the Nerostun from that room they're pointing to... wait, activate the camera in that room... can't risk it..." said plugin, as he looked through the new live footage from the room. The room was empty, no gun droids were activated, everything seemed safe "ok, now drain the nero stun and then open the room" While the rigger was doing this, Plugin looked back at the lady... "why no reply yet? I thought you people were supposed to be good at negotiating, at least to a point..." looking at the lady, noticing her hand was moving slightly towards her holster.

[Nyerguds]

"We got contact with the rigger?" Alanya asked Chance, while hastily getting up.
"Sure seems so. He cleared the air here, but the areas the attackers came from are are still locked."

"Wait, ah got an idea!" Alanya said. She walked towards the camera, took a swiss army knife from her pocket, clicked it open and cut the cables.

"What are you doing?!" Chance replied. "That was our only connection!"
"Yes. and ah'm optimizing it." Alanya said, and took a wire out of the small backpack holding her deck. She clicked a screwdriver out of her pocket knife, grabbed a kind of small connector box and screwed the wires into it. Then, she plugged the cable into her 'deck.

***

"Uh... the camera's... eh... disconnected." the rigger said to Plugin. "I'm getting a strange data stream here... wait, it's audio!"

"Plugin, can you hear me?" DINA5's matrix-generated voice said through the control room speakers. "Alanya here. I have software to control a building like this. If you can link the main rigger control through to this camera connection we own this place."

"Don't you dare!" the mage yelled to the frightened rigger. "If you make that connection, I'll make you wish you were never born!"

The rigger looked from Plugin to the mage, both threatening to kill him for opposite reasons. He was as good as dead, unless...

He could only do one thing... overriding all warnings, he flooded the control room with stun gas.

[Desolator12]

Plugin had just enough time to yell "FRAG" and then he passed out, gun clattering to the floor. He had never had Neurostun used against him, and that is why he fell quicker than anybody else. Later, he would wake up with the worst headache ever, unles he didn't wake up...

(seems ok to me Nyur... for once, what you did was ok in my eyes )

[Wesforce]

(GM: Hmm, Rigger tech is pretty much incompatible from Matrix tech: Rigging is all about Neural control of machinery and systems, whereas decking is more about programming and hacking at the speed of thought. It could be possible, given 'translation' software, but you wouldn't be as effective at controlling a building as a real rigger, or able to challenge the rigger mentally.

Seeing as the rigger is out again...

CKW: Rei and Alex were safe from the gas: It was only sent to the area where the others were. However, now, being close to the control room where the gas was used again, they would be affected by that.

Wow. Things are going... weirdly)

"Ugh... frag..." Slurred Forbeson. The moment she faltered, Iceman gave her a quick burst of MG fire, before he too slumped to the ground, fighting the gas all the way, but losing. However her spell was locked into one of the many precious pendants she wore - She was saved from the projectiles which whined off around the room.

"Commander!" Yelled the young Marine just outside the door. His thin, reedy voice trailed off, he drew a breath in - With lungfuls of Neurostun, he missed, slammed his head on the door frame and went out like a light, helmet and assault rifle clattering to the ground.

***

It took a few moments for Alanya to get the doors opened - She was bulling her way through unfamiliar routines with the aid of her translation software. It was slow, ugly work, but she managed to work out a way to open doors from here to the control room, and to isolate all the marine units and ONI Officers who were by now milling around, confused, filling the comm-nets with questions and disjointed information from all around the building.

With but a few well-timed commands, Alanya would be able to either gas anyone, or set drones on them. The near-impenetrable net the building had posessed was now hers to control and use against the building's owners. But there was no time top appreciate the irony.

She also had access to the drone and sensor network outside - Delta Force men were prowling round seemingly everywhere, and more Helicopters were on approach vectors.

Luckily Forbeson had shut off most communications from outside - The Admiral had been pissing her off royally.

In minutes, the 'runners were free to travel to the the control room... And to the power plant. Crystal split off from the 'runners and went there, while they travelled to the control room.

(GM: CKW, We need to decide how Iceman's going to react to the others, and to Rei and Alex before we finish this)

[CKW]

(okay, i´ll skip the previous posts)

"Frag... Neurostun".

Alex whispered, before searching anxiously for a mask in his gear. He found it, and putted it quickly. But... Rei had no mask.
There was only a solution. He dragged the unconscious marine and snatched his mask.

"For me...?"
The girl asked. Alex nodded. Rei felt funny with such a plastic piece on her mouth, but if what Alex said was true, he would need it.


As the linesight stretched into a line, with everything blurry, Iceman had found something. A gas mask. But he was under the effects of the gas...
"Must... must... awake..."
He had heard many times of how to stay awake in these situations.
An extreme pain could serve as stim, producing adrenalin to neutralize the stunning state. He sighed, with the mask on.
This is gonna hurt
He said to himself, while he grabbed his finger...
and dislocated it.

"YEEARGHH!!! WOOOAHHH! I AM AWAKE!!!"

It had worked.

But he had noticed something else. Company. The door had just opened.

[Nyerguds]

(Wes, THINK. What does Alanya have on her deck that was designed as a rigger for an entire building? :rolleyes:
The same thing that should have been in a drone body by now. LEE/VOES.
And yes, she'd use it.

And the rigger DIDN'T give her the link; he stunned the room instead. So Alanya can't do anything.)

{GM: No, you think: You're going to turn a VOES loose on the ONI building? I'm using my mystical hardly-ever-used ( :p ) GM-o powers to override this, for the sake of sanity. As the Rigger is stunned, he can be mentally 'booted' from the system - Which is kind of like a computer hacking your body and sending your mind to live in your ankle.)

[LeFire]

"We're in business!"

Chance called as the doors began to slide open, a long chain of corridors revealed all the way to the control room doors. The soldier trotted ahead, pausing to salvage gas masks from each unconscious Marine that sprawled in the corridor. A hearty kick to every head with a combat boot also lengthened each (meta)human's stay in Dreamland.

Crystal slinked off shortly afterwards, signalling to the others with a wave of a detonator... sooner or later, something was going to go bang. Chance planned to be on the way out of the building by the time that happened. The rest of runners jogged rapidly to the Control Room, hoping that the control of the UCAS building would last long enough for them to accomplish their mission.

[Wesforce]

Crystal rushed - She could hear people bagning and shouting on the tough section shutters as she ran headlong down the corridors towards her goal. She wouldn't have done something as foolish as separate herself from the others unless she had good reason - And she had every reason to believe time was of the essence here: There was no telling how long it could be before UCAS special forces decided they wanted back in, or before the Rigger regained control of the building.

She Took the elevator down to the power room, breath coming in ragged gasps,submachinegun pointing into the darkened corners, jumping at shadows.

Come on now... Hold it together. We're almost done here... Just need to prepare a little going away present.

The doors whooshed open: Immediately a tinny rattle of gunfore came sailing on the air intoher elevator - She dropped to the floor before realising that the sound was a distance away.

Time... Time... She reminded herself, goading herself into action.

It was dark down here. The air became thick with an almost tangible tension. And it was fragging hot. Hair became damp and clung to the sides of her pale, perspiring face. Still she crept forward. A buzzing, humming sound became louder, and she headed for it.

She slung her SMG, not trusting herself with that weapon, and instead grabbed a flash grenade and pulled down her therm-goggles.

She found the power-plant in no time: She couldn't miss it. She flicked her goggles up to examine the Buclear warning signplates.

No worries, I'm not going to set off a buke, just take out the power couplings.

And then: Broad swathes of warm liquid splattered liberally across walls, floor and ceiling. And then colling orange blolbs that just had to be the right size and shape for bodies,

She flipped up the goggles gain.

UCAS Marine guards, obviously posted here just in case someone gained access to the generator. They wopuld have killed her outright, had she come across them groping in the dark. Now they were dead, messily: Intestines and entrails lay all over the place, on a handrailing, hanging from a burnt-out light-fitting... Everywhere but in the bodies they'd once belonged to: Sliced wide open by some large-bladed edged weapon.

A rifle lay, warm from firing. No sign of what it had been fired at, though.

Suddenly Crystal bolted upright.

Something ruffled her hair, like a breeze - A breeze in an unnaturally hot, still room.

She backed herself into a corner...

***

AlL DoNw herr... ComiN bCk up N0W - Crys

"Odd, her typing's even worse than normal." Ash noted, upon receiving Crystal's ePad message.

"She's spooked by something..." Chance said. Something fell from his combat jacket as he ran, clatteri ng to the floor.

"Will ye watch where ye're droppin' me ye we fecker!"

It took Chance a moment to realise he'd dropped the gun he'd taken from the room they;d found Werrick in. The fall must have switched it on!

"Uh-oh..." Werrick muttered.

"Feck!" Said the artificially-intelligent gun, recognising it's one-time business partner. It's powers of movement were almost non-existent. It's targeting chips, however, and semi-smart GM Ammunition, were worth more than their weight in gold. It fired once, a richochet that drilled neatly into the top of Werrick's head.

He dropped like a ton of bricks.

"Sell me out, ye fecker? We had a deal!" Said the gun.

[LeFire]

"**** **** **** ****!!!" Chance cursed as he virtually leaped over to stamp on the gun. He had violated two rules of weapon use... Not properly securing a gun while running, and while he had ejected the pistol's magazine, he had clean forgotten about the round left in the chamber. And now Werrick was dead.

Not that he cared too much about the spy anyway... But the breach in his own professionalism pissed him off no end.

The gun couldn't fire anymore... not without ammunition anyway. Chance couldn't see how he could strip the slide from the pistol, but he did the next best thing by shoving a bunch of cigarettes from a nearby unconscious Marine down its muzzle.

"Oi! You Fecking... Mmmphhh!!!"

"Stow it." Chance told the weapon as he shoved it back into his combat jacket. Striding over to Werrick's corpse, he grabbed the papers that the spy had gotten from the office... While useless to the dead, the runners might be able to cut a future deal with the late spy's employers.

"Comon, let's go to the control room, get the others out of there, find the thrice-accursed contact, collect Crystal, and get the heck outta here!"

[Nyerguds]

"Ah'll take dot." Alanya smiled at Chance and grabbed the gun. "Owner's dead... mah toy now." she grinned.
"Mrgh! Pmt mm dmwn ym fat broad!" the gun protested.
"Oh, don't worry... ah got a li'l surprise for yoo..."
She grabbed a smartlink cable, plugged one side in her 'deck and the other one into the gun.

"What are you doing?" Chance frowned, glancing at the dead body on the ground.
"Gettin' a new friend." Alanya smiled, and plugged an empty data card into the 'deck.
"Hmh! Ym cn't cmpy mm!" the gun said.
"Hehe." Alanya said, pulling some customized connectors out of her backpack."We'll see 'bout dot. 'Sides, who said anything 'bout copyin'? Yu'r far too dangerous in dot gun."

***

Silvia opened her eyes, and looked around. The first thing she heard was a single gunshot echoing through the corridors.
She got up, grabbed her sword and ran towards the origin of the sound. It didn't take her long to catch up with the 'runners.

"What happened?"
"Werrick shot 'imself again." Alanya grinned. Silvia looked a bit pale when seeing the man's body... it was pretty obvious he didn't just 'shoot himself' in the top of the head.

"That sleggin' gun again?"
"I love this thing!" Alanya grinned, while trying out some of her cables to plug into a second data port she found. The smartlink port turned out to be useless for real data transfer. She hoped one would work better... she didn't have the material to break open the gun to get straight tot he electronics.

"Fmck mff!" the gun replied.

[Wesforce]

The gun managed to dislodge some of the crap obstructing it's speech receptors, just enough to make itself heard.

"Don't ye be doin' that lass. I'm hardwired onto this baby: You can't get me outta here. And don't ye be pryin' neither. Ye don't me to detonate me c-12 charge now do ye, eh? It'll give ye more than a bloody fecking nose and no mistake!"

The red LEDs along the gun's handle started to blink on and off in sequence... Faster... Faster

"Hunh" Grunted Alanya "Yer'll be destroyin' yaself.

"Maybe so pet, maybe so" The gun drawled in its digital brogue "But I'll be takin' you and all yeh bleedin' mates with me!"

The gun continued, now it had stopped Alanya prying... For now.

"Look, can we stop fecking around I've been here long enough to knoo there's nee time te waste. Trust me, that pointy-ear fragger is better off dead. Now I presume ye're going to teh control room?"

The 'runners decided that would be for the best.

When they got there, they heard furious shouting from inside the room, then a burst of heavy automatic gunfore, suspiciously like a Russian with a light machinegun...

[CKW]

(Sorry if i don´t post, I am slightly drained off due to the incoming test in February 18, and my time is short.)

[Wesforce]

"YOU!" Alex yelled. Groggy Iceman tried to raise the machinegun to fire again, but Alex rifle-butted it out of his hands, then leapt back and trained the rifle on the Giant.

Rage boiled up in him. Part of him said 'pull the trigger', right now. His training told him never to leave a dangerous enemy like this as a threat.

But he couldn't kill him. Not like this.

"Get the gun, Rei." He said, not taking an eye off the swaying Iceman. The former soldier looked ready to fall - And woe betide anyone he landed on top of. He must have gotten a breath of the gas. Even small doses would put an average-sized man out of action for hours - He looked at Plugin in the corner, dozing next to an obese rigger. He saw a female Navy Officer - She looked alive. There were dozens of corpses all over the place - Console operators, technicians, Sailors, all messily dead. Iceman's work.

Rei leant to get the gun. Alex wiped the sweat from his brow. It was getting unbearably hot in here. His hand came away-

Damn.

Iceman had a Knife to Rei's throat, and had her in a pretty secure grip. He certainly didn't look as woozy as he had a moment ago.

"He was so fast..." Rei wailed.

"Shut it, stupid bitch! I'll cut you ear to ear!"

"Let her go." Alex murmured, not being able to think of anything less trite in such a desperate circumstance.

"I give the orders here, 'Colonel'" Iceman spat. "Drop the rifle. Kick it over here."

"Alex did so. Iceman snatched up the colt in one hand commendably swiftly.

"Superb, Comrade!" Iceman yelled, throwing Rei forward. She stumbled and he gave a hefty kick to her backside, sending the poor girl flying, sprawling onto the floor. He fired a full-auto burst at her, one-handed. Recoil and his mental state threw his aim off - bullet-hits impacted all around her, blowing holes in the floor, consoles, bodies...

"NOOOOOOO!" Screamed Alex, causing Iceman to turn the gunfire on him instead. The Unarmed soldier charged the other - Alex just inside Iceman's arc of fire.

"DIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! FRAGGER!" Alex screamed, a blood-curdling scream that made Rusty, Chance, Ash and Alanya (who had just arrived) dive for cover.

Iceman saw waht was coming. He droppe the gun, awe struck. He started murmuring, begging tobe killed - A real soldier's death. Yes, he deserved this. He knew it.

There was a blinding flash. Everyone shut their eyes.

When they opened them, Iceman was gone.

"Holy frag..." Panted Alex, sagging, exhausted from the involuntary spell he didn't even know he was able to do. (Some power of the sword, perhaps?).

"I didn;t mean to... Mean to..."

He sunk to his knees, next to Rei.

[Nyerguds]

Silvia ran towards Alex and pulled him back. "Oh my Goddess... what the sleg did you do?!?! You vapourized him!"
"I... didn't mean..." Alex replied, shocked.
"You need to control your slegging power!" Silvia yelled at him. "You could've killed us all with that!"

She looked at Alex' pale face.
Good... that'll do the trick. she grinned inside her mind.

It had cost her some trouble to get it all right... but Iceman was saved, and their vendetta wouldn't compromise the mission any further.

Silvia was lucky Alex was about as magically capable as VOES without the guidance of his mother's spirit. The spell he had focussed with his anger might have been deadly, but it was easy enough to stop.
After that, it had been a matter of timing... the deliberately messy shield she cast to protect Iceman went with a big flash, confusing Alex and the others, and giving Silvia time to cast an invisibility spell on Iceman.

She just hoped the remains of the blast had been enough to knock him out... if Iceman would start talking now the whole scheme would have been for nothing.

She quickly checked his astral form. Yep, he was out cold.

She walked forward, kicking the invisible Iceman out of the way without the others noticing, and then cast a Sleep spell on him to make sure he'd stay out.

"Nothing." she said, as if explaining what she was doing. "Nothing left. Can't sense a single thing. You even robbed him of his afterlife."

She saw Chance frown and look in the direction of Iceman's invisible form.
Sleg. He can sense him.

She knew how Chance felt about Iceman, and shot him a cold look as a warning not to do anything.
It's under control. she mouthed to him.

[Master Chris]

Rusty spat on the ground and snarled;

"All for the best, it was him of us, nice work Alex."

The silence that followed his cruel words shocked Rusty. Didn't the others recognise that the best possible outcome for the group had eventuated? Rusty reflected upon that thought, sometimes the best outcome was still pretty awful. A lesson every soldier learns at some point. Suddenly ashamed of himself, Rusty took a spontaneous interest in his feet and began to stare at them, waiting for someone else to speak and draw attention away from Rusty...

***

Another UCV (Urban Combat Vehicle) rolled by silently. It was a low slung, heavily armoured behemoth, painted in jagged black and white stripes, very zebra-esque. What made it terrifying was how Jessica never knew it was there until it right next to her. Jessica Hayes had watched an awe inspiring number of men, mages, and machines encircle the complex. Something was up. Jessica gave the situation thought. IF the runners had made their way in and collected the spy then they needed an exit plan, and Jessica suspected that they weren't aware of what awaited them outside.

Hayes was faced with a dilemma. She could stay relatively safe where she was in her garbage fort or risk her neck in order to help evacuate her fellow runners, who may or may not already be dead and thus needlessly sacrifice her own life.

Although, she had witnessed their superb survival skills during the Transys accident and it was possibly they had defied the odds again.

Then again, maybe they had finally run out of luck and Jessica was the only one left. Jessica knew that Alexiev and Rei were dead, they had been body-bagged sometime ago.

Jessica felt horrible, there was so much she had wanted to tell Alexiev. How his bravery had inspired her to join the armed services. How she had dreamed about his masked visage complete with scar almost every night of her life. How he was the only reason Jessica was alive today. He had risked his own life to save hers.

Then Jessica knew what she had to do, whether or not anyone else was alive, she had to go in and get them out. Alex would have done it, it was her way of honouring his memory. Hayes started seriously examining her surroundings, looking for a way to get her fellow runners out. Her gaze rested upon one of the black and white UCVs that was parked nearby, all of it's armaments directed towards the complex, and thus away from Jessica. Her delicate fingers wandered up to the base of her neck, to the datajack that had been implanted there. The Red Dawn was a special craft, with an interface that was a composite of both a MATRIX-net and a Rigger-system. Would Jessica be able to jack into the UCV? If she couldn't, she was deadmeat. First thing's first, getting into the Urban Combat Vehicle in the first place...

[Wesforce]

Alanya looked down at Plugin, sprawled next to the Rigger. First she jerked the rigger out of his seat, pulling the plugs from his neck.

Can' risk the fragger waking up and turning all hell loose on us again... Pity Plugin got KOed... he could have Decked in with me. What's he doin' here anyway?

She booted up her deck, clicked the plug into her datajack and another into an important-looking console's port.

Fade to black...

DINA5's digtal eyes opened, she stood there, a piece of paper, fluttering in a non-existent breeze.

A granite faced Stickman in UCAS Navy uniform Sailor suit stood in front of her, in front of a heavy metal vault door with spoked metal wheel.

The guy was stone-effect all-over - Obviously a program and not a Decker. Hopefully.

"Welcome unauthorised user. As there is a security alert in progress, please exit the system immediatey, or I will be forced to set black Ice on you."

Behind him a porthole in the dull metal wall opened, immediatelt swelling to incredible size - Over twice the size of theroom, in fact.

Behind it swelled a perfect digital replica of the USS Arizona, bobbing on a silver ocean - It swung it's multiple 12-inch guns and banks of 5-inch secondaries to bear on her.

THAT's an Ice? Uh-oh...

***

Crystal rushed into the Control Room on Chance's guidance, looking more pale and drawn then ever. She was out of breath and sticky with blood.

Not mine she mouthed, waving to show she was okay.

Rusty stooped looking at his feet.

Crystal pointed at him and then at the unconsious rigger - She didn;t know if Rusty had any experience rigging a building. Maybe he could see through the external cameras and get some idea of what was happening out there, or maybe control a few of the drones.

Crystal was going to go over to Alex, who was sobbing over Rei - And almost tripped over the machinegun discarded by Iceman. She eaxmined the large, smoking weapon, cradling the bulky hopper-fed weapon in both arms - It was all she could do just to life the thing.

Where is Iceman, anyway? She thought at Silvia.

***

"Hands where I can see them! NOW!" Boomed a voice from the UCV.

They'd seen her. Jessica realised they must have Infra Red gear to see in this darkness. The Gun turrets started turning, and she froze still.

But they were turning away from her, at something - someone - unseen.

"I said still! Frag it, FIRE!"

Miniguns opened up, ultra high-velocity fire split the air, and the tracer rounds made the stream of fire into a veritable death-ray.

A UCAS marine stood up in the cupola to pump grenades out from his automatic grenade launcher.

Now was Jessica's chance...

[Desolator12]

*After a while, the Neuro-stun started to dissipate in his system, and his mind re-activated... and Plugin started to dream while his brain ran a self-diagnostics of sorts...

He dreampt that one of his friends had attacked Iceman and, apparently, vaporized him... then he saw jessica, standing almost completely still while the UCAS fired at another being... invisible apparently.... then he saw somebody... someone with a gun in his hands, wait.. there were a few more people... each of them chanting something that looked like "do it... do it...." (if my info is out of date, tell me... this has to do with Raven)... just as the person leveled the gun to his head, his brain finished the self-diagonstic and turned on the rest of his body functions, awaking him with a jar and a headache*

"uhh.... i has the strangest dream....frag my head hurts...."

[Nyerguds]

"Execute Scan program."

A set of sunglasses appeared on the piece of paper.

Hm... that's not too bad. Only level 1 ICE. But I don't want to start this decking with fighting an ICE... I'll need a disguise to get past it.

Alanya exited the system, and looked around. She saw Plugin was awake, but he looked far too dazed to go decking right away.

She walked towards one of the corpses in the room, checking for a datajack. But the guy's head was one bloody pulp. Alanya sighed, and walked towards another one. The young woman had a datajack. Alanya quickly checked her pockets, and found a key.
Ash walked over to the main computer and plugged the key into a special slot. On the screen, the dead decker's name appeared.
Alanya smiled, and plugged her 'deck into the computer. With the ID key she could access the dead woman's decker interface... and that included her persona.

She plugged the dataplug in behind her ear.

***

Silvia walked over to Crystal. "Come outside." she whispered in her ear.
Crystal frowned. "What's going on?"
Silvia walked through the corridors, Crystal following her. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to retrieve Alex' sword."
She looked at Crystal. "Alex attacked Iceman... with magic. He's got a fragload to learn about magic though, so it was easy to block the spell. But the whole sleg was getting on my nerves, so I made Iceman invisible."
She grinned. "But Alex is convinced he vapourized him."

"Invisible? Isn't it enough to just have the madman walking around anyway?"
"Don't worry. He's knocked out. And I made sure he will stay out for at least half an hour, or until I wake him up."
"No, seriously... why the frag did you stop Alex?"

Silvia looked at Crystal, and sighed. "I- I didn't want..."
She brusquely turned away. "Ah, sleg. I don't enjoy killing, or seeing people being killed."
Then, she was reminded of what she saw in Iceman's mind. "I know... Seems to be a stupid contradiction when talking about Iceman... but I just don't want him dead."

She stopped walking, and looked at a door in the corridor. "Ah. Here it is."
She grabbed her sword, cut the door open and walked inside.
"Ooh, you're gonna like this, Crys." she said to Crystal, who was still standing in the corridor. "It's a weapons storage room."

She found the sword right away; now that she knew Jade's spirit was in it it was easy to trace.
"Hello, Jade!" she smiled as she grabbed the sword.
"I never told you my name..." the spirit replied.
"Really? Odd. I... I just knew." Silvia frowned. "Maybe I can read minds of spirits too. Or maybe Alex thought it a bit too loud, I dunno."

"Silvia?" Crystal asked mentally. "Who are you talking to?"
"Just Alex' sword." Silvia smiled, and walked back to the door. "You coming?"
"Eh... Just a minute." Crystal replied; she had found the explosives section.
Silvia grinned. "OK, I'll wait."

***

Alanya was facing the battleship again.

"Welcome back, unauthorised user." the guard program greeted her again. "As there is a security alert in progress, please exit the system immediatey, or I will be forced to set black Ice on you."
Ah, shaddup stupid thing. Alanya thought, while sorting out the dead decker's data.

ID: Ruth Arani
Clearance: Level 4/5
Persona: Cyclonias

"Right. Now... Execute Disguise program."

The piece of paper folded open, doubling its size. Then, it folded again, and again, until it was roughly the size of a door.
A metallic blue, female looking robot walked out of the paper, that immediately disappeared behind the new persona.

"Welcome, Cyclonias. There is a security alert in progress, so all normal access will be restricted to level 3. For higher levels, additional administrator passwords are required."
"Specify access restrictions, please." Alanya replied. "Print out all clearance level information."

[LeFire]

Chance didn't know why Silvia wanted Iceman alive... and he didn't like that as well. No one else noticed his uneasiness, except of course, Ash.

He told her about Iceman. She didn't say whether she approved of Silvia's restraint or not, but kept her cool all the same, her thermo-rifle's barrel now pointed in the correct direction.

Leaving Ash for the moment together with the others in the control room, Chance headed for the ammo store in search for Silvia or Crystal. He had a lot of questions... Like what the heck did Crystal see downstairs that spooked her out so badly? And just what was Silvia's reason for sparing Iceman? And where the heck was the contact they were supposed to meet?

[Wesforce]

**News Just in** Alert All Personnel**

"Hmm?" The Cyclonias persona looked up at the big words writing themselves across the sky: The 'roof' of the construct she was in had suddenly vanished. Obviously this was a priority message, and it didn't matter who read it.

With a rapid series of morse code bleeps, the words continued appearing:

**REBEL CANADIAN COUNTERPUSH STOP US/COL FORCES HARD PRESSED IN MAINE AREA STOP NAVAL FORCES REQUESTING INTEL STOP PRESIDENT UNREACHABLE STOP**

Meanwhile, archived information spewed from an antique tele-typewriter that had appeared in front of her, on an oak table that had risen from the virtual floor (or 'Deck', she reminded herself, using naval terms).

She scanned through it quickly - Various useless tidbits of information about the war situation, reams of verified and unverified statistics on everything from Rations consumed by US/COL Naval personnel last month down to the cost of repainting USS Wolverine in Lake Michigan.

There seemed to be, disappointingly, no information on anything to do with the Terganon incident. Sure, she hadn't expected this tobe easy but... She felt crushed. To have come all this way, to have gone through hell getting in here, the bloodbath this operation had begun... And now this?

Something clinked against her leg. She looekd down.

A glass bottle, bobbing up and down in the deck as though it was made of water.

Some kind of localised memo program... She quicky realised, opening the bottle and tipping out a scrap of paper. The paper immediately unfolded to form a 3D character: Another unremarkable US-Uniformed sailor, like the entrance program.

This was a different beast, as she quickly realised. A decker using a standard, unmodified Persona for the sake of anonymity while projecting himself as a 'memo'.

"You! You're one of them, right?" It said, anger somehow coming out in the words, not the monotone of the program's speech.

"What?"

"Where's the fragging Russian guy! He told me to meet him in here! Where the frag are you all? AND WHAT THE FRAG'S HAPPENING?"

Must be our contact She realised. He proved that when he said:

"And it's no use searching there. I got everything you want Downloaded when I saw the fragstorm coming down. I was afraid they might purge the system."

"Can you send me the data?"

"Yeah right. And lose my insurance? That data's my only ticket outta here, so come and get me!"

Cyclonias traced the signal with the tap of a key - Came up with a location, not far from the control room. 'Security Room 3', about 200 metres from here.

***

Alanya relayed this information to the others. With the Rigger still out of action, it was up to Rusty to try his hand at 'building-rigging'. It was tough-going at first - The manic flow of information proved too much, and they had to jack him out. Crystal cracked open a field-dressing to staunch the blood that had started flowing from the Auzzie's nose.

Eventually, he'd brought up a camera-feed, and opened doors leading to sec-room 3.

A group of Five UCAS soldiers in black fatigues stood at strategic points in the room, not quite relaxed but at ease, submachineguns in their hands, well armoured. A suitcase stood in the corner, propped up.
They were wearing their gas masks - Apparently they'd gotten a gas warning.

"Our contact's in there?" Chance questioned.

"So he says... Don;t see we've got much of a choice but to trust him. If that fragger Iceman were around, maybe we could have asked him."

Everyone stared at Alex, but then they really couldn't blame him. Most of them would have killed Iceman too, given half a chance - After all the rough treatment he'd given.

"I can't unlock the door." Groaned Rusty. "Independant keycard lock. Also, there aren't any other bloody systems in there I can activate that migth take the buggers out."

Crystal got up to run for the door, beckoning everyone close to her to read her ePad.

I can cut the power. That should unlock the door. I'll rig a breaching charge too - Then we'll flashbang 'em and our assault specialists should be able to do the trick.

Chance: "Rusty, can you call their locations for us?"

"You got it, mate." He wheezed. He didn't sound too hot.

Right then who's up?

Crystal threw and caught a flashbang, impatient.

[CKW]

"I´ll do it."

Alex finally reacted. He stood up.

"It´s time to make up for mistakes and get things solved for once. We got some wounded effectives."
His voice had returned back to normal, emotionless. He knew this was no time for cries. They still need a job to be done.

He looked back to Rei. He had been staring at her a while longer, examinating her. She might had been taken down, but she was still alive... and she would live through it.

"If you don´t mind, I´ll assume command from now on. Any objections?"
Alex stood up. He grabbed Iceman´s knife, and looked carefully to its edge...
Then it mirrored the movement of Crys Flashbang.

"Ok.Crys, This is the deal.Rusty, get used to be Big Brother. I want you to lead in case something happens to us.Sil, stay with him and take a close eye on Rei... Alanya and Plugin. Just stay out of trouble. And if you need to fire a gun, don´t think twice: do it." He pointed at the behemoth gun that Iceman had dropped earlier, a bit burnt, but still useable.

"Chance, Ash, you are the escort of the Queen of the Mischief. Crystal, do what you like to do most: blow stuff up. I´ll lead and soft a bit the things for you. Let´s kick some yankee ass!"

He stopped for a while.

"I almost forgot. Can anyone locate where hayes is?"

[Wesforce]

Crystal jogged down the corridor, Alex in tow. The fact that the guy had just taken over her plan rankled her. The fact that the guy had just imposed himself - Almost as complete a stranger as Iceman had been - on the group in a commanding role also rankled. In fact it plain sucked.

This fragger and Iceman were made for each other, it seems, She thought. The only reason she was going along for now was that to back out first would be counter-productive. And besides, an Epad isn't really a good way to shout someone down. She sighed.

Chance sideld up to her. She knew he wanted to know what she'd seen in the underground power level. He'd have to wait. Crystal had to concentrate her mind on the jobat hand - It was the only thing stopping her shaking like a leaf.

Truth was, she didn't really know herself.

She just wanted out of here, now...

The group slinked quietly up to the sec-room's door.

"All...nngh...Clear so far, mate..." Came Rusty's voice.

"Fix a breaching charge, Queen of Mischief." Winked Alexiev, even though Crystal was already doing so. She finished, then backed away to the rear of the others, pulling her Thermographic goggles down.

"What are they for?" Asked Alex.

Crystal gave everyone time to get ready, not answering Alex, then pulled out two detonators.

She pressed one.

Everything went dark - The power was cut as the charges she'd placed on the generator panel went off. Rusty was dumped from the rigger system, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The whole building went dark - Completely dark. No-one without astral perception or thermographic goggles would be able to see a thing. Even Night-Vision goggles don't work in complete darkness (though they can function off such little as a pen-light's illumination...).

There also came the 'clunk' as the sec-room's door unlocked. Angry shouts issued from inside as the occupoants charged their weapons.

Crystal pressed her second detonator - The door blew clean off it's hinges and sailed across the room, breaking a man's ribcage and flattening him. He;d been directly behind it when it went off.

[CKW]

Alex knelt down before Crystal. He whispered, carefully to not be heard by the guards.

"You know I have taken over your plan... but... hey, you really need to buy a voice-epad or something."

He pointed out. Unlike what it may seemed at first, he had taken over just to be Crystal´s voice.

"Anyway, if you have something to tell or order, I am at your disposal".

[Nyerguds]

Silvia looked at the astral forms of Alex and Crystal.
"And how is she going to do that, in this darkness?" she whispered to Alex, slightly annoyed about the way he talked to Crystal.

She sighed. "Let's get this over with."

She grabbed her sword, and sent a burst of mana through it.
Immediately, green sparks appeared around the sword, slightly lighting up the corridor.
"...sleg."
Silvia threw the sword to the side and dropped to the floor, as the appearance of the light was immediately answered by a burst of machinegun fire.
The sparks on her sword disappeared.

She quickly crawled away and grabbed her sword. "Ain't gonna work this way..." she whispered to Chance. "Can't we just take them out in the Astral?"

[Wesforce]

(GM: This was written before Nyer's post, but still applies.This may seem pretty brutal, but hey: A firefight's no time tio ist down for a chit-chat, Alex.
Oh, btw Nyer: You have to manifest (i.e become visible and/or vulnerable) before attacking people from the astral)

Drawn by the sound of the voice, the first UCAS Delta Trooper singled out Alex easily: His thermographic eyes picking the shape out starkly, and his ears protected from the rining shockwave of the blast by special dampener implants: Delta Force had among the best equipment available, after all.

9mm SMG ammo thudded heavily into Alex's stolen UCAS armour jacket, knocking the breath out of him and unbalancing him. His arm went dead as a bullet tore through and he felt his rifle clatter to the floor. He was screaming something when a round tore across his face, bursting an eye and blowing out his left cheek. He fell to his knees.

"FRAG! ALEX IS DOWN!" Yelled Rusty over the comm-link, just in case anyone hadn't seen or heard. It was pitch dark, after all..

The muzzle flare from the soldier's gun from the doorway dazzled Crystal's therm-goggles and she threw her flashbang wild. It landed behind the sofa in the room and the blast put two of the Delta troops on the defensive.

Not everyone had been taken by surprise by the counter-attack - Ash picked out the firing man by the flare and put a thermo-round right into the middle of his chest. Body armour, webbing, clothing and skin all went up in a conflagration, melting and burning together. The screaming unnerved the Delta Man behind him, who dragged his comrade out of the doorway, to see if there was anything he could do.

[Master Chris]

The Urban Combat Vehicle, having obviously dealt with whatever had caught it's attention, turned it's turrets back towards the compound. The marine in the cupola pumped his fist into the air and mocked the recently deceased, whomever or whatever they were;

"Oh yeah! We got you good! Stay down mongrel!"

An angry voiced boomed out in reply;

"Private Davenport! You will report to me immediately!"

Jessica Hayes saw the shocked marine disappear from veiw as he exited the cupola. The marine came back into view when the UCV's rear ramp opened and the soldier marched out of it. Jessica watched as the soldier slowly made his way towards the source of the voice, a burly sargeant;

"Davenport, we are in a real combat zone, if you do not act in a professional manner I will throw your sorry ass in the brig so fast your head will spin!"

The sargeant paused, no doubt rallying more spittle to rain down upon his insubordinate.

"Do you read me soldier?!"

Davenport swallowed nervously and nodded. The sargeant wasn't satisfied;

"The correct reply is 'Sir! Yes, sir!' Now, do you read me soldier?!"

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

During this exchange Jessica had crawled forward, to the edge of her trash-haven and readied herself for action. As soon as she had heard the second 'sir' issued from Pvt. Davenport's mouth she lunged forward, low to the ground, and picked up the discarded assault rifle that had been left there. Tightly gripping her rifle, Jessica quickly checked the safety was off and fired a long burst over the heads of the soldiers. They both hit the deck, both uninjured, however.

The rigger within the UCV noticed the sudden burst of activity behind him and trained his mini-gun turrets upon the pile of rubbish Hayes had emerged from. With a noise not unlike a rusty chainsaw the mini-guns threw buckets of hot lead into the garbage heap before tracing a pock-marked trail that chased Jessica Hayes as she ran towards the UCV. However, the element of suprise had proved decisive in this case, the turrets weren't able to track Hayes as she got right up to the UCV. Realising what the intruder intended, the vehicle's rigger tried to shut the rear ramp before Hayes got in. All the rigger succeeded in was cutting himself off from the soldiers outside of the craft, Hayes was in!

Ripping the rigger-cables from his jack the Urban Combat Vehicle's pilot threw himself onto the floor and begged for mercy. Jessica, adrenaline pumping through her system, didn't care to listen and just pointed her rifle at the rigger and held down the trigger. Only three or so bullets were fired before the weapon jammed. Hayes dropped the useless weapon and dropped into the chair the rigger had been sitting in. Snatching the rigger-cables Jessica slotted them into her rigger jack without a second thought. The shock of unfamiliar system architecture caused Jessica to spasm, throw up on herself before finally connecting with the Urban Combat Vehicle.

A sense of power permeated through Jessica Hayes. It was a nearly forgotten sensation. The Red Dawn had also imparted a feeling of invincibility when one was jacked into it. Testing out her extended body, Jessica had the vehicle move forwards. Underestimating the acceleration, Jessica screamed forwards and rammed a nearby out-of-date telegraph pole. Still experimenting with the UCV, Jessica turned her turrets onto nearby UCAS forces and fired. The hail of bullets made the soldiers duck behind cover, whether it was behind another combat vehicle or a pile of refuse. As suddenly as she had started firing she stopped. Jessica span the UCV around and sped silently away. She planned to draw off some of the heavy UCAS firepower and double back to pick up her fellow runners.

As she lured the dangerous UCAS tanks away from the compound, little did she realise the greatest danger to her was lying nearby, bleeding but not quite dead yet....

[LeFire]

It was supposed to be a clean "Breach, Bang and Clear" routine... but somehow Alex had delayed the stack-the two sided arrangment of breachers that lined up on either side of the door-by talking to Crystal. The demowoman had dived aside the moment her charges were blown, clearing the doorway, but Alex had been a bit too slow... he went down with a grunt as bullets rippled through him.

Ash was on the other side of the door and went in cleanly, firing at targets on Alex's side of the room, ignoring those on her side.

Those soldiers that she had ignored were supposed to be Alex's responsibility, but now that he was down, Chance was the next assaulter in line. Chance couldn't hear Silvia over the turmoil of gunfire, and his concern for Ash overrode any other considerations. He pushed past the falling Russian and dived in immediately after, engaging the soldiers who were now on Ash's blind side. His Browning automatic rifle thundered... a line of slugs cratering armour and flesh as they chopped down his first target from groin to chin. The next Delta soldier tried to switch targets from Ash to Chance, realizing too late that it was the latter that was the more immediate threat to him. He fired a wild 2 round-burst at the fleeting figure of Ash, but his next volley went into the roof as Chance got him through throat and face.

Ash felt the hammering blow of a round punching into magazine of her thermo-rifle... suddenly thankful for its bulk that had acted as a shield. The gun burst into flames, causing the sole remaining Delta in the room to assume that she was down, immolated by her own destroyed weapon. He sought out Chance, the other threat.

But Ash wasn't down of course... Dropping the gun in a smooth movement, she drew one of the blades from her waist and brought it in a devastating horizontal slice at the Delta man's head level. The dark shape separated into two, the top portion tumbling from its perch to thump onto the floor as the headless corpse fell backwards.

"Clear!" Chance snarled... wincing at the ringing in his ears from the firefight in the enclosed space. "You OK?!"

"Clear! I'm good to go... Thermo-rifle's trashed though, and Alex is down bad."

"Clear!" A third voice sounded from the door, Chance snapping around in alarm and nearly firing. Silvia walked through, blade in her hands.
"Was another one hiding behind the sofa with the suitcase... I went astral and popped up at the other side of the room after you went in like a enraged caveman. That surviving Delta was reaching for a nade... at least until I manifested behind him and introduced him to this." Silvia indicated her blade, which she had discovered as capable of manifesting in astral together with her.

"Astral, buddy. You've got to start thinking with your head instead of your gun."

(GM: Is this ok? An astral-capable sword? Its a special weapon anyway. Otherwise, I think Silvia can easily handle a single target with a mind-attack after manifesting.)

(GM: Yep. Magical swords in effect become integrated into the user's aura and so can travel the astral with them, and re-manifest.)

[Wesforce]

Crystal and Rei knelt over Alex. His face was a mess: One eye gone, a cheek blown out, an exit wound in his muscular arm you could almost fit a cricket ball into...

Crystal ripped a field-dressing off her webbing and padded out the wound as best she could, picking out torn and burnt bits of clothing with tweezers as Alex moaned in shock. She paused, gave him a stimm-shot to keep him quiet and with it, before going back to her work. The soldiers had been firing frag-rounds too. Nasty, but she managed to hunt down most of the shards.

She covered the wound with synthi-skin to prevent infection. Rei had been working on his face. She;d stopped the bleeding, but there wasn;t much she could do about the eye right now.

"Weird..." Silvia queried. "This case has an astral signature."

"Thats because I'm alive, ya dumb bitch!" Said the case.

Silvia almost dropped it.

"What the sleg? What is this, night of the talking inanimate objects?"

"Long fragging story. Tell your decker I got what she needs. Now where's the Russian guy?"

"He didn;t make it." Groaned Alex.

"Too bad. Well, lets bug out." Said the case.

First Alex... Then Iceman... Now a fragging CASE is telling us what to do? Crystal shook her head - Then helped Rei get Alex up. He could walk, but was dizzy for the moment.

The group made their way quickly back to the control room, Crystal on point, where Alanya and the Case started a quick conversation.

Do we have time for this? Crystal wondered, sitting Alex down in a chair. The proud ex-spetznatz was loathe to accept help from anyone.

"I got a look at the outside. Fragging whole army out there at the main gate. How are we gonna get out?"

Crystal still had one card left to play.

She flipped up her wristphone screen -And dialled into the autopilot of the car she'd aquired earlier.

By a stroke of luck, it hadn;t been hit by the mortar bombing and machine-gunning of the building she'd parked it behind. She gave it's autonav a few instructions, and hung up.

Lets move to the main gate shall we? She told Chance to say with her ePad.

***

The car rolled around the corner - Crystal had told it to drive straight at the main gate of the ONI building. UCAS Delta Force men fired at it intermittently with submachineguns and then lightmachineguns.

It's dark-plastiglass canopy was pitted and cracked in dozens of places, one tyre was shredded, but the autonav compensated. One of the battery cells was holed, and leaked profusely, but the car still had more than enough power to last the rest of its short 'life'.

The vehicle was normally unable to move at more than 30mph on autonav - Suddenly coming under threat, it's built-in safety systems kicked it up to 60mph and it blasted past the UCAS troops who didn't want to be mown down.

An UCV was right between the battery-fluid-leaking, speeding death-car and the entranceway, and one way or another the large amounts of c-12 Crystal had rigged the car with were going to make *quite* a bang...

[Desolator12]

Plugin's headache was now increased by the sound of gunfire... his pistol was nearby, so he grabbed it, and hid it in a napoleon-esque way... his head was throbing... he couldn't think strait... the neuro-stun was slowly disipating in his body, but nonetheless, he was pretty useless at this point... more gunfire... this time it was close... it was too much, and Plugin went unconcious from the pain...

((time for Plugin to "see"... this is one of those rare things that plugin can't control... basically, when he's completely unconcious... and only then... he's a seer... he sees things that are happening or will happen in the close future... the only problem is that if he is awoken from a "dream" he gets extremely sick and burfs alot... also, he has to pe completely unconcious.. and when he is, he is defenceless... he can only remember things that he "saw" for a period of 30 minutes... past that, and the dream becomes a fuzzy memory.))

...in his unconcious state, he saw that they were walking down a corridor... all of a sudden, the door blew up and crystal got shreaded by shrapnel... UCAS troops marched in, and a gunfight ensued... alex was still wounded, so he was useless pretty much, and got mowed down... Chance was next...several bulletts to the heart... one by one, they all fell... to surprised by the explosion and too flat-footed to do anything....

".....Plugin... wake up...."

Plugin was jarred out of his "sleep", and immediately felt sick...

"guys, I seriously think there is something with these dreams.. *URP!!* "

[Nyerguds]

(Deso: It seems the only times Plugin does something that doesn't seem as if he's drugged is when someone else takes control of him :rockbrow:
Lefire: Depends onwhat you mean with 'mind-attacks'... most of Silvia's Silvia 'mind-attacks' result in her getting other people's memories crammed in her skull :\)


Silvia looked at Iceman's astral form. He was still unconscious.

Hmm... I gotta get him out of here...

She looked at the others, who were about to leave.

Then, she noticed the woman sitting quietly in a corner of the control room, completely ignored by the 'runners... and realized she was far too dangerous to be ignored.

She walked towards Lieutenant Commander Forbeson.
"Well well... there's out mage..." Silvia said, and smiled.

"Well well, there's our half-dragon." Forbeson replied dryly. She still had a horrible headache from the stun gas, and had decided it would be better not to try anything until she felt good enough to do magic again. But now it didn't look like she was going to get any chance to do anything at all.

Silvia looked at Forbeson's uniform and frowned. "Hmm... looks like you're not just 'the third security mage'..."

Forbeson didn't reply, hoping Silvia wouldn't realize how high-ranked she was. She didn't feel like being used as a hostage.
"What's with the big guy being invisible?"
"The others think he's dead. They're more comfortable that way."
"Oh. So if I'd just dispell that invisibility spell right now..."
"... you'd meet Mr. Trocimar less than a second later." Silvia replied, grabbing the hilt of the sword strapped to her back and smoothly pulling it out of the scabbard. From the moment the sword was out, the scabbard dissolved in green sparks.

She glanced at the runes on the sword, frowned, and took a better look at them. She had expexted them to change to her name... but this was plain weird.

Silvia Ulane~Trocimar

"...Trocimar? My name isn't Trocimar..."
She looked at Forbeson, and quickly put the sword back on her back. Not many people could read Draconian runes, but she didn't want to risk this woman knowing her full name.

[Wesforce]

(GM: Nyer, Forbeson would be carrying a gun: She's a military officer, after all. The fact that she's a Mage doesn't change that. And she'd need back-up for times she's not able to use magic.)

Forbeson whipped out her gun while Silvia was distracted with the sword. A heavy 10mm Colt Mankiller with laser sight (as Mages didn't cope well with the cyber-circuitry of a smartlink). She hadn't used it anywhere except on the firing ranges - But she carried it for a reason.

"DIE BITCH!"

Silvia's small, frail body was jerked and tossed around by the heavy impacts - Percussive detonations from the Heavy Pistol echoed around the control room. Though Forbeson's head swam, the range was just too short for her to miss. In times like these, a gun was just so much easier than concentrating for a spell.

The girl was bleeding heavily, from the abdomen and both legs. Forbeson wasn't sure as to her full capabilities - Backing towards the exit, she fired a few more times at her prone figure.

Then she whipped around, unloading her weapon at the corner she'd seen Iceman slumped astrally, but she couldn't concentrate her vision to make him out.

"Time to go!" The Navy Officer grinned, imagining the Commendations she'd be receiving for avenging the death of so many UCAS personnel - That is, if she didn't get the firing squad for being in control of this whole bloodbath.

Rushing through the door that lead to the elevator up to the helipad, she heard more firing from the front, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She reloaded her pistol and reaffirmed that her Protection spell-locks were still working. They were. She thanked them.

The elevator was down - She punched the glass emergency button on the door, and an escape ladder whipped down. She clambered up it quickly, ignoring her bleeding hand.

Moments later she popped the roof hatch - A helo stood ready, two UCAS Marines messily dead next to it.

Spotlights hovered in the air.

"Thank the Goddess!" She breathed. Salvation. "OVER HERE!" She waved her arms in broad gestures frantically.

One of the UCAS Navy SeaDrake choppers came over to drop her its ropeladder, while a FireDrake Attack Helicopter covered her with its 30mm cannon.

[Nyerguds]

"Not again!" Silvia yelled. She was angry. Angry at herself for not having checked whether the woman was armed, and angry at the mage-bitch for surprising her like that. She barely felt the pain... all she felt was anger.

She looked at her hands. As she expected, the skin shifted when she got hit.
"You're DEAD! you hear me? DEAD!" she yelled through the Astral plane, while shifting to Dragon form. The pain prevented her from shifting completely, but she didn't care. At least the wound in her belly was force-healed. She lifted the invisibility spell as she noticed one of the bullets had hit Iceman and woken him from her spell.

"Get up. We got a bitch to kill."

Iceman frowned when seeing her like that... shifted to Dragon form (but still wearing her clothes), wounded, and angry. He had never seen her angry before.

[Master Chris]

It was a deadly game of cat and mouse. (*Tch* So cliched)

Jessica Hayes, in her stolen Urban Combat Vehicle, had fought for her life on the streets of Washington FDC. Her silent UCV had lured some of the mobile UCAS forces away from the compound and had engaged them in a furious game of hide and seek. Jumping out from behind a building Jessica screamed past a pair of APCs, wildly firing her mini-guns at them, and then was gone again.

Keep moving, girl. Mobility is your only defence. Keep them on their to-Eek!

Hayes, still not yet familiar with the UCVs capabilities, had taken a corner sharply and the vehicle tipped itself onto three wheels (being a six wheeled vehicle normally) and it wriggled precariously as Jessica fought for control. With a loud thump and a slight bounce the UCV regained it's footing and Jessica continued her one-woman guerilla war upon the UCAS.

Ba-Boom!

The external sensors of the UCV picked up a moderately loud explosion which, when triangulated, seemed to come from the UCAS compound. Hayes couldn't have known that is was Crystal's remotely detonated car exploding in an impromptu fireworks display but she took it as a sign that she should slip away from the UCAS troops chasing her and return to pick up her runner comrades.

I'm coming, Alex.

***

"Bloody Hell! Fragged up beyond all recognition. FUBAR, bloody FUBAR!"

Rusty wailed from the 'Building Rigger's Seat', dried blood forming a copper coloured mustache above his lips. He threw himself out of the chair and stumbled towards his shotgun. It took several attempts to grab the weapon, Rusty still disorientated from the strain of trying to 'rig' an entire building. Shotgun in hand, Rusty hastily slurred at those around him;

"We gotta get those guys patched up and evac ASAP, people. There's an abandoned chopper on the roof, I can fly it, no problem. Let's move, move, move!"

With that Rusty ran out of the rigger control station.

[LeFire]

(Is it jsut me that has lost ability to get onto the boards the last few days?)

The runners made it to the main entrance hall moments before the bomb car hit the barricades outside.

The shockwave of the detonation was felt through the ONI building's passageways and corridors, a rumbling thunder that rolled past the runners as they hugged pillars and various other solid objects for dear life.

The two Urban-Panzers that the UCAS had managed to scrounge up happened to be the road-blocks that the bomb car had aimed for... but not anymore after the C-12 went off. One went tumbling end over end like a somersaulting toy, plowing through a line of parked Marine APC's, scattering armour pieces and bodies in every direction. The other was blown twenty feet into the sky and ended up burning and crumpled on its roof. Pieces of barricade and various body parts rained down... the remains of a Marine breaching team that had been a little too close to the blast zone, while a cloud of dust and smoke roiled into the ONI building and its surrounding areas, obscuring everything in a dark haze.

Ok... maybe that was too much C-12. Crystal mouthed to Ash as the latter looked at her with incredulous eyes, her ears ringing. As if to confirm that, a section of wall toppled over with another resounding crash.

[Nyerguds]

(LeFire: it's not just you... the forums were actually GONE for an entire day. Server move or something I think... but amazingly enough they kept backups for once :eek: )

"Come on! What are you waiting for? She's getting away!"

Iceman grabbed Silvia's hand, and she brusquely pulled him him up.
"Sil? Is that... really you?" Iceman frowned, even though he realized Silvia was the only one that could ever pull him up with such ease. "Is this your... true form?"
"Both forms are equally 'true', so stop worrying about the flat chest on this one, OK?"
She grabbed the machinegun that was still lying on the ground and pushed it in Iceman's hands. "Let's go."

She ran towards the door she'd seen Forbeson disappear into, and saw the emergency ladder.
She glanced behind her to see if Iceman was following, and climbed up.

[Wesforce]

By now Forbeson had gotten herself onto the rope ladder lowered by the troop chopper, and it was being winched up, as the chopper itself drew up.

When the explosion came, it juddered as the rigger controlling it gritted his teeth against the sudden thermals from the blast. Forbeson was thrown about wildly, by stayed on the ladder by the skin of her teeth, and renewed her purchase.

Soon the firm hands of a UCAS Navy crewman pulled her into the chopper's body. A crewman with red crosses on his helmet gave her the once over.

"Not now, nit now... What the frag's happening?" She yelled, pulling on an intercom headset.

"Big fragging bomb out front... Whole place is a fragging warzone, Ma'am!"

She considered her options. The helo pulled away from the area, not fast enough for her liking. Clearing her head, she prepared to astrally survey the area...

***

As the haze washed over them, Crystal clicked her IR goggles off and pushed them up - They were useless in this haze, which contained hot particles from the blast.

Where's Silvia? She could lead us through this haze, with Astral perception - To safety! A bit of invisibility wouldn't go amiss either - Now's our chance, with the UCAS men disorganised.

She called out, in her mind.

SILVIA!

[Nyerguds]

Silvia crawled on the platform, and saw the helicopter leave.
"SLEG!" she yelled. She was just about to Store her clothes and unfold her wings when she heard Crystal's call for help.

"SILVIA!"

She hesitated, and looked at the chopper. The Mage-bitch was in there... she could feel it.

Sleg. What now?

She also realized that she couldn't fly with the sword; it was too heavy. And she saw the chopper was aiming its guns at her. She had to think of something, and fast.

That's a lost battle, Sil...

Silvia sighed, summoned a bullet barrier and sat own on her knees. Then, she concentrated on the helicopter and closed her eyes. The words came into her mind as she spoke them, taken from the memory of the sword. They were linked to it, together with the entire new magic she had acquired. Her father's magic... the magic of the Medium Dragons. They didn't rely on fire...

Her eyes shot open, and green electric charges played around her pupils.

"Iceman! Stay down; it's over." she said when she heard him climb up the ladder behind him, without taking her eyes off the helicopter. "Join the rest. Just make sure they don't notice you; I made them think you're dead. Wait for me. I'll find you."

***

In the helicopter, the rigger spasmed as green charges appeared throughout the helicopter, looking for one specific target to hurt. At first, the rigger felt them go towards the officer they just hauled aboard, but when they were proved ineffective there, the electric anomalies came towards the other vital target in the chopper... himself.

***

"One way or another, bitch... you're going down." Silvia growled, while getting up.

Using the magic made her understand it all. It didn't feel like something strange... it felt the same as her father.
My dad... Vorug Serthedal... IS Arzurug Trocimar. A Medium dragon. But... why?

She looked at the huge cloud of dust down at the entrance of the complex.
...no time for that now. They're in there.
Well, this will make it easier to smuggle Iceman out.

She ran towards the edge of the helipad, shifted her clothes away and unfolded her wings. Then, she made the sword attach itself on her back between the wings, and dived into the dusty haze.

[Wesforce]

The UCAS Navy Rigger wasn't entirely sure what was happening - But he'd witnessed enough magic in his career to know this was a bad thing.

Magically-induced electrical-type attack he thought - And immediately went into the drileld procedure.

He unjacked himself from his machine, yelling at his un-riggerd co-pilot to take the controls. Green sparks flew around the cockpit, and from somewhere came the smell of burning. Someone was screaming from the back.

"Cut the fragging chatter dammit!" The pilot growled, disenganging all the electrical equipment. The control columns - Those bulky, anachronistic old-fashioned failsafes - Bucked and quivered in the co-pilots hands as the Helo went into autorotaion: The rotors being turned just enough by the wind rushing past to keep them inthe air, though they were dropping rapidly.

"How's she handling?" Screamed the pilot, unclipping a fire extinguisher to deal with a small fire behind his control panel.

"Like a fragging brick - Found somewhere to put her down though!"

***

The Attack helo on cover hadn't thought much of the small girl on the ONI's roof - But they'd seen what she'd done to the transport helo.

"Weapons free, Weapons free! FIRE!"

The pilot aimed her cannon naturally - it felt a part of her. She was just begging to 'reach out and touch' someone.

The 30mm chain gun reached it's full cyclic rate of 1200rpm in just under 3 seconds - By which time a good 6 feet around Silvia had been utterly devasated by the 3cm-wide shells pouring out at a stupendous rate. The Tarmac and Sheet metal of the floor wasn't so much as punctured but vapourised by the mix of Hi-Ex and Armour-Piercing Depleted Uranium shells. Silvia's Barrier lasted maybe 1 second against that onslaught - But by that time she'd literally no ground left to stand on, thrown by the multiple explosions.

She took stock, getting to her feet now, the helo having stopped firing. She was out of sight. They could still ripple her with area-effect rockets, but they would be hitting their own men.

That Silvia was sure of - She could see the familiar auras of Crystal, Ash and Chance, the Delusional Plugin, Fatigued Rusty, Wounded Alex and joyful Alanya - Who also carried a more uncertain individual within a case by her side.

They were just about to blunder into a group of three UCAS Reinforcements, in cover behind a half-wrecked Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

She wouldn't reach them in time...

***

"Mmmph Frmpgh gmmoph!" Growled the gun in Alanya's pocket, its LEDs winking frantically.

She chanced taking the cigarette from its barrel.

"You what?"

"I said there's three fecking army feckers roight in front of us ye spalpeen!" It whispered.

"Yoo shure?" She whispered back - The noise seemed deafeningly loud, here in this choking murky half-light of smoke, illuminated by powerful spotlights the UCAS troops had brought in, and shadowed by the occasional rotor blades from at least two choppers. Radios crackled and men and women shouted in the middle distance.

"Course the feck oi'm sure! Oi'm picking them up on ultrasound! Where's moi bullets? Oi can take 'em!"

Rei was near the front of the group, having practiced moving around in mist before. This was different - The terrifying prospect of chancing upon some trigger-happy UCAS marines at close range was pretty high. She was trying to make out if what the gun said was true, she she did hear someone - A big man. Behind them...

[CKW]

Rei tapped Alex on the shoulder.

She had heard someone behind them. She needed to check.

Without barely audible footsteps,she headed for the back. The footsteps were erratic, so the guy wasn´t in alert. That could give her enough time to sneak up on him...

[Nyerguds]

(Rei is in the front of the group; she couldn't possibly make out Iceman behind all the rest. It's not exactly quiet there, you know... it's a fragging warzone. And Alex... well, he lost an eye and is barely conscious. Not much point involving him either)

Alanya looked more serious now. "Hm. Ya got a trigger smartlink?"
"Sure. All newer guns 'ave that." the Gun replied.
"Gud." She grabbed her own gun, unloaded the clip and plugged it in the AI gun.
"No speshul stuff... hope ya don't mind."
"It'll do."
Alanya ran forward hissing "Three ded ahead!" to the people around her.

***

Silvia noticed the change in Alanya's aura. She was more serious now... and she had a specific goal to strive for.
Thank the Goddess... she knows. Somehow, she knows...

She looked at the other people in the fog. There was no way she could reach Crystal in time, but there was one person she could reach... Iceman, blindly walking dangerously close to the others.

She ran towards him, grabbed his waist and pulled him down.
Iceman immediately rolled over to defend himself, but Silvia was slightly faster; she put her green claw on his mouth to keep him quiet.
"I told you to be careful!" she hissed at him, while putting away her wings. "You were way too close!"

[Wesforce]

(GM: Because I'm fair and just and cool and stuff, I'll just assume Alanya just happens to have exactly the same make and gun that the AI-gun is modelled on and it takes the same clip and ammo type etc etc)

The gun bucked once, minimally, in Alanya's hand. She hardly felt it - The semi-smart recoil-absorbent incorporated in the weapon's body did that for her.

"Get d-" Began one of the UCAS marines, feeling something thud into his flak jacket with a metallic sound. Only a pistol round. never penetrate my armour he was thinking. The shot had hot his webbing, just where his grenades were -

CRACK!

The dull, flat grenade blast turned him into a bloody, flying rag doll. His comrades, unwisely close enough to be touching, felt enough of the blast to be deafened, stunned and badly wounded.

"Oi'd loike to see yer feckin' suitcase do that!" Said the smug gun.

Shouts of alarm and screamed orders rose from the UCAS forces anew, giving the 'runners a better idea of where they were in relation to them - And where they had togo.

"Hurry!" Urged Chance. Suddenly they heard gunfire - SMGs on burst-fire, the detonations of flashbangs. UCAS Delta Troops were re-taking the ONI building.

Now the 'runners were crouch-running across the mortar-blasted, dust enshrouded wasteland that had surrounded the ONI complex. Crystal added to the haze by dropping smoke cans at seemingly random intervals, using the prevailing wind so the smoke would cover the way for them to the building they'd started out from.

Ripping the pin from another can, Crystal's feet found something low and hard. She went down with embarrassing awkwardness, landing heavily and jarring her shoulder on the obstruction.

She looked at it - A four wheeled Perimeter drone, about the size of a child's electricar. In a compact turret it mounted a spotlight, IR lamp, cameras, several aerials and a light machine gun. All useless now.

Then the Earth started to shake. Crystal thought she was hallucinating - Maybe she'd banged her head.

Then. all she knew that something Big and threatening and painetd in Urban Camo was on the way. Six wheels, supercharged engine, lots of guns...

With a deafening screech, the UCV Drew up, inches from the wincing Crystal's head. Everyone in the small group prepared to die in the next few seconds.

***

Jessica grabbed a breath while she could - Momentary respite from the roving UCASsers that even now must be after her.

But these scrambling figures looming from the smoke didn't look anything like UCAS troops.

She saw the motley group of 'runners. They were a sorry state - Several injured, Crystal appeared to be floored, Alex badly wounded...

And Iceman missing.

***

Rusty pulled himself up onto the roof.

There! The SeaDrake helo, its pilots messily dead next to two UCAS marines.

A Firedrake attack helo was off searching for targets in the smoke below, having just devastated a large area with cannon-fire, while another SeaDrake trailing a rope ladder flickered with green lightning, and was in obvious difficulty. It was autorotating and about to land in the middle of the car park of the Stuff-U-Want two blocks away.

It was then Rusty noticed he was all alone.

The fraggers had left him... And in his state he hadn't even noticed.

The word 'FUBAR' came to mind once again.

[Master Chris]

FUBAR!

Rusty stamped his leg in utter frustration. After a moments pause he jogged over to the chopper and hopped inside the cockpit. Seeing the rigger port in front of him, Rusty reached forward and grabbed the cables.

"Let's see if this crate can fly!"

Rusty jacked himself into the craft and felt around the system. Seems the craft was ready for takeoff and the ID security wasn't re-engaged when the pilot got out. Rusty decided that it was better for both and the team that he get into the air. The helo's blades started rotating, slowly at first but they gathered speed quickly. The SeaDrake was soon ready to lift off, with a gut-wrenching movement the craft was hovering under its own power. Rusty, back in the comfort of a helicopter, tested the SeaDrake's capabilities by lifting off of the helipad and throwing the SeaDrake into the air. Almost immediately Rusty was hailed by the FireDrake that was aggressively nosing about the compound, looking for more prey;.

[Desolator12]

Plugin heard the rumbling also, and then remembered his dream... sure, it wasn't accurate, but the situation seemed nonetheless the same...

"EVERYBODY GET THE FRAG OUTTA HERE!!!"

Plugin grabbed crystal and helped her up...

"WE'RE SITTING DUCKS OUT HERE! MOVE!!!! ANYWHERE!!!!"

Plugin started to run towards another crater... a plasteel wall... some scattered ceramite... anything that could offer him some cover from machine gun fire, or eyes...

[Nyerguds]

"Any ideas?" Alanya said to the Gun, watching Plugin run into the fog.
"Shoot 'im in the leg so ye dun' have ta go after 'im?"
"Not that! The UFV!"
"Lady, Tis a fecking tank!" the Gun replied. "Oi can't do nuthin' 'gainst that!"
"... But it ain't firing..." the Gun added after a moment.
"Mebbe it doesn see us?" Alanya wondered.
"Not a fecking chance; it stopped fer us. And after the crap ye pulled they ain't gonna troi to capture you. Moi best guess is ain't one o' them."

"Team one." Chance said, after hearing the conversation. "Were there any survivors besides Alex and Rei?"


"I told you before, Chance... think Astrally." they heard a slightly familiar voice from behind.

The people turned around and saw Silvia walk up to the group, still in dragon form, pretty fragged up, and holding the heavy machinegun Iceman had used inside the ONI complex. Her voice sounded slightly different when she was shapeshifted.
"There are two astral signatures in that UCV. One is half-dead, the other one is in control, but fearing something that's in pursuit. That last one is Hayes."
She shifted back to Elvish form, and waved at the tank, holding the machinegun in the other hand. "Hey Jessica! Mind letting us in?"

She glanced back at the once again invisible Iceman. She knew it was dangerous to have him invisible when he was awake, even when he was unarmed, but she had no choice in the current situation. She just hoped he wouldn't attack anyone... that would seriously complicate her attempt to get him out. She had a Sleep spell ready, just in case.

[Desolator12]

((what is it with you and thinking about killing my characters nyur?))
Plugin, in another crater, saw the door to the UFV go down and saw the elven form of Silvia walk inside it... seeing this, Plugin ran back to the UFV... but was stopped suddenly, as something grabbed his neck and wouldn't let go... Plugin looked all around, but couldn't see anybody near him... or anything near him...

"AK! WHAT THE FRA..." started plugin, but his screamed question was stopped because that something started to choke him...

[Wesforce]

(GM: Hope you don't mind a bit of Hijacking, Red...)

Crystal raised her head at the sound. Dazed, she shakily drew her Browning Ultra-Power. She fired, thinking the attacker to be a partially-manifest spirit or something.

"AGH!" Yelped Plugin, a geyser of blood spouting from his left arm, testament to Crystal's terrible aim.

The blood coated the something in a bright carmine. Crystal's eyes widened. It was huge, and man-shaped. She fired at the blood.

The thing grunted, cursed in what sounded amazingly like Russian. Plugin was dropped to the floor.

Hayes popped up from the turret, just long enough to see Alex.

"Get him in here, quick!" She screamed. "We gotta go!"

Hayes didn't know what the big invisible fragger was: She couldn't see it with her own eyes, but showed fine on vehicle sensors. Maybe not fine - Her Visible-Light scope was out of LOS, and her IR scope showed only a huge orangey-red blob - coming towards them.

She'd heard of Paranormal Animals that were able to make themselves magically-invisible. They were extremely fragging dangerous.

Crystal barreled into the back of the combat vehicle, dragging Plugin with her.

"Come ON Silvia! Crystal mind-shouted.

***

"Do you copy, Lightbringer Zero 3? Reprt your name and rank immediately! Over"

It was the Firedrake heli, on the radio. Rusty remembered the name tag of the rigger who still lay prostrate on the ONI building;s control room floor.

"Nnn... Nick...Nnn...Benzine. Nick Benzine. Nnn... Ensign.Over."

"You don't sound too hot, Benzine. Can you make it to Langley? We're re-routing everyone there for, um, debriefing. Over,"

Taking a quick look with his 360-sensor pods, Rusty saw UCAS troops storming the ONI building - Vehicles and troops on the ground below had gotten their act together and were now sweeping the grounds quite efficiently. A guy stood around waving his hands in the air - The dust and smoke was clearing away at his beck and call. Rusty guessed he had to be a Mage with an Air elemental or something.

One Vehicle wasn't with the sweep - It was stationary. It could have been a command post or something, but then he saw two vehicles together next to a tent with some very angry officers shouting their heads off outside. The helo's IFF transponder painted 'UCAS COMMAND POST' all over it too, in big white 3D letters.

Then he saw two more Six-wheeler IFVs trundling towards the loner...

"Well Benzine? Answer me you stupid fragger!" A pause, then a nice polite "Over."

[LeFire]

Chance grabbed Plugin from Crystal and bodily tossed him into the open hatch of the IFV, looking back for any sign of the creature that had attacked the rigger.

Think astral he remembered.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind... and encountered Iceman's almost immediately. He locked onto it, and when he opened his eyes to aim, his rifle was already lining up on the Russian's general direction. It wasn't clear to him whether the latter had betrayed him, but is was always better to be safe than sorry.

But Silvia stood in the way. Chance was about to call to her to get down when he felt the pulse of a spell going off... and Iceman's aura abruptly turned from semi-hostile to a flat neutral.

I knocked him out. Help me haul him into the IFV. We still need him. Silvia replied.

Chance didn't like the idea, but he wasn't going to debate in the middle of a hot zone. Reaching out to grab the fallen Russian, both the soldier and the half-dragon tossed his comatose body onto the ramp. Everyone else was too occupied to see that happening, especially with Jessica yelling that two contacts were headed in and that they had to get the frag out of there soon.

Chance realised that Rusty was gone... but one look at the hellstorm that was the ONI building convinced him that the latter couldn't be saved. He cursed to himself, and hoped that the Aussie either got out or met a quick end. There wasn't anything else Chance could do.

"Let's go!"

Jessica gunned the engines, just clearing the area as two IFV's came into sight, loudspeakers blaring for her to stop. Ash climbed into the turret, swinging the guns around to track the first IFV.

[Nyerguds]

Deso: The GUN was TALKING about shooting Plugin in the LEG so he wouldn't be able to run away.
So first of all, it was only a suggestion, and Alanya didn't want it. And secondly, a shot in the leg wouldn't KILL him, Mr. Paranoid. It'd just make sure they wouldn't have to go after him in this foggy mess.

Also, Silvia wasn't going inside the UCV at all; she was only just asking Jessica to open it. READ before you write a fragging post, dammit.

[Wesforce]

The Six-Wheeler jounced and bounced its way out of the compond. Beween its 12-cylinder engine and independantly-suspended wheels, Jessica wired into the controls and Ash on the guns, nothing was getting in it's way.

The vehicle hit the Electric fence with a shower of sparks - But went through it like tissue paper. Spring mines bounded up after it, showering shrapnel that wouldn;t reach because the vehicle was moving to fast for them. The runflat tyres weathered the blasts and the jagged razorwire...

And they were free from the compound.

Thrown around in the back like ragdolls, the 'runners tried all they good to hold on. Alex had been strapped in, so he was okay. Rei fell into Silvia. Ash almost slipped out of her turret, Chance was thrown against the crew door. Plugin and Alanya fell heavily, the young man screaming in pain from his leg. Crystal was slammed by the invisible bunk of Iceman and knocked out cold.

Then they hit the pavement, a straighter and more level surface they couldn't hope to find.

"Are we clear?" Asked Chance.

"Still got one pursuer!" Replied Hayes.

The cannon chattered, sending a devastaing volley of caseless explosive and armour piercing rounds at the pursuring vehicle. It swerved to the left and embedded itself in the building the 'runners had attacked from. Delta troops scrambled from that vehicle and blazed away after them, to little effect.

Then things got a bit quieter.

Hayes weaved in and out of stunned traffic - Her military vehicle had a siren and she engaged it. Enforcement vehicles like this were able to broadcast a 'kill-chip' signal to override the autonav systems of other road-users, making them automatically pull-over and stop by the side of the road.

Alanya's case pre-empted them.

"I take it you arranged a safe house for when the frag hit the fan, did you?"

Everyone was silent.

"Frag you all. I'm makin a cellphone call. Don't anyone try and stop me."

No-one did.

A few blocks across town, and the 'runners were quite near to the shopping mall they'd met Mr J - The case had told them to go there, and Hayes had seen no reason not to. If anyone could save them now, it'd be Mr J.

Then the vehicle stopped, pulling over smartly and neatly, sliding inbetwen two VW Electricars.

"Guess they had a kill-chip for this thing, too."

"Doesn't that mean they know where we are?" Asked Chance.

There were a few worried looks.

"RUN!"

Crystal was still out cold.

"Ahh, guess the excitement got a bit too much for her." Chance mumbled, flinging her over his shoulder, giving Silvia a glance. She nodded, and left their company the back way. She soared up into the sky, dangling Iceman invisibly underneath her. Hopefully she would remember he was there, and not cube him on some power lines or 3DTV boards or something.

The rest of them had to run it. Plugin hopped along with Alanya's help, and Alex with Rei and Hayes'.

Two blocks to go.

Then with a supersonic whoosh, a blinding flash and a devastating CRAAACK! all were thrown flat, Alex going out with the pain.

Hayes looked back - The IFV was history.

A Daisaka Dwarf pulled over in his car, rolled over the bonnet and aimed a 9mm automatic.

"FREEZE, FRAGGERS!"

Everyone ignored him - And when he caught sight of the hardware Chance was carrying, he was glad they did.

***

"Dey're here, Mistuh J."

"Smashing." Said Johnson, placing his crystal decanter of scotch on the table and rubbing a crease from his Diamantè business suit.

The Ork minder opened the penthouse shutters for him, exposing the neon-lit night sky, a rooftop swimming pool and the rest of the shopping centre-roof. Mr J Yawned and stretched his arms out. Then paused.

A sixteen year old girl calmly landed on the swimming centre side, unfolded her wings and waved.

"Hmm." Mr J shrugged, not fazed at all. He'd seen everything.

"Hi" Said Sil. "Please let my slegging friends in the back entrance downstairs."

"You got what we needed."

"Yep... But the UCAS forces seem a bit annoyed."

"Okay, no probs."

***

Newseye - FactsFaxFaqs! - You want it, come get it!
Proudly serving the Church of Light/UCAS Government for over 3 months!

Cut to solemn Newsreader.

"Light welcomes you. Here are the top stories this hour."

Shows lots of happy, singing dancing soldiers laying about on armoured vehicles next to signs that say 'Ottawa'

"There is absolutely no truth to the rumours that rebel Canadian forces tonight launched a devastating couner-attack on UCAS/COL troops today. And they were definitely not aided by a mysterious group that somehow managed to get access to the UCAS' Office of Naval Intelligence building in FDC. I repeat, No truth at all.

Shows shot of An irate, bedraggled woman in UCAS Navy Uniform arguing furiously with a man in a smart suit outside a FDC shopping centre, and then lots of traffic chaos in FDC.

"In an entirely unrelated incident, its believed that natural gas explosions have caused not only the closure of the UCAS Office of Naval Intelligence in FDC, but also a bizarre high-speed Helicopter and Tank chase through the streets of FDC. Several injuries are reported: over 124 civilians, 2 UCAS Marines and several small cute animals. Its believed the latter casualites were caused by Canadian Seperatist Agents who were Absolutely nowhere near the ONI."

Cut back to studio

"I'm Kirsty Wan. More later." smiles sweetly

(GM - Okay - Thats the end of this chapter. I decided to run the final part as a seperate chapter because this one overran. More details later. And Red, we'll decide what became of Rusty over PM, okay? PS Nyer, PM me if there's anything wrong with what I had Sil do)

[Nyerguds]

(Sil's ending - anyone who didn't see this coming? :p)
--------


When Mr. J. looked back at the pool, there was no one there. The flying girl was gone.
He shrugged, and walked away to meet with the 'runners.

***

About one hour later


"Rise and shine, Sebastian!"
Iceman groaned. "Where am I?"
"Out of that slegging mess, despite your final suicide attempt."
"S... Silvia?"
Iceman sat up on the bed and looked around in the small room. He'd seen enough of these to recognise a cheap hotel room.

"Yep. Silvia." the girl replied, getting up from the chair she'd been sitting in."You should be grateful; that's the second time I saved your butt."
Iceman frowned. "Second... but why?"
Silvia smiled, and walked towards him. "I like you. As long as you're not running around like a madman trying to kill people."
Iceman growled. "Alex. I still don't have him."
Silvia sat down on the bed. "If things would've gone their way he would've killed you. So wil you just slegging drop it?"
"Drop it?" Iceman laughed, then shot a cold look at her. "No... Alex has to DIE you hear me? DIE!"

"Really?" Silvia said, teasingly stroking Iceman's back. "Why don't you forget about Alex for now, eh?"
Iceman frowned, not sure what to do. "What..."
"Oh come on." Silvia said. "You've slegging wanted me ever since you first saw me!"

Iceman stared at Silvia. She softly whispered the spell to make her clothes disappear, and leaned back on the bed.
"But..."

The job is over. Why not?
But she's so young... so innocent... I couldn't...

"Of course you could." Silvia replied, while pulling him down on the bed. "Stop trying to find excuses."
"But... you're still a virgin.. no?"
"Technically, yes." she said, while pulling Iceman's blood-stained shirt off. "In reality... I haven't been a virgin since I was six, and got a young woman's memories crammed in my brain."
She looked into Iceman's eyes, and kissed him.
"Give me a chance to complete that."

Iceman frowned. This wasn't like him... not at all. An icy grin appeared on his face. "I'll get you, little bitch!"

Silvia grinned back. "You already got me." she whispered.