Up from the Bottom, Wipe Those Tears and Pass the Ammo Options

[DireRadiant]

Truck Stop
Wednesday 8/20/70 17:19:40
Sledge - Closer
PAN - Hidden

"His eyeball. Ask him.", Sledge flicked her chin at Fortunato.

[pragma]

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:19:50
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive
Astrally Inactive

"I'll be running astral overwatch and I'll have a watcher waiting next to you. The little guy will be in charge of echoing everything that you say out loud to me."

"You should probably also message the team with make and model of the car. I'll do the best astral tracking I can, but that doesn't always translate so well into physical."

"I don't know what computer black magic is necessary. I trust you'll figure it out."

[Abbandon]

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:20:02
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus knelt down next to the other bag and unzipped it enough to see inside. He was a little puzzed but he could tell that what he was looking at was an ingram white knight light mahcine gun broken down into its individual parts along with some masks and shotguns. Zipping the bag back up he easily lifted the leather bag and began carrying it back to the van. <<@johnson:: Is this MY IWK? How in the hell did you find it? Did you swing by my apartment? Did you find any more of my things? How did you know where i Lived? Anyways thanx but my current situation dictates that I take the money so I will be able to get a palce after this is over. If you hold onto it though I will definately try to buy it back from you. >>

<<@team:: This bag looks like it has a light machine gun in pieces. Im going to go try and assemble it ASAP.>> Cerberus reached the van and nodded to Rocky and then climbed in the back and started laying out the parts to the IWK. It had been awhile since his days back at DocWagon where they taught him how to do this stuff. They had guys on staff who specifically took care of this stuff for you but they always drilled the basics into new recruits gunners. He just hoped he could remember what he had been taught.

[JDragon]

Truck Stop
Wednesday 8/20/70 17:20:09
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

As Cerberus worked with his gun, Rocky composed a message to Johnson on his comm. <<@Johnson:: I'll take payment on completion of the job, but if for some reason I don't make it through it in one piece I need you do something for me. Minus a delivery fee get it and what happened to me to Skinny with the following instructions. "This goes with the rest, Thanks. Rocky" He'll know what it means." Rocky added Skinny's comm number from memory and attached it to the message and set it out.

Once he was done with that he took another long look around, really wishing they could get on the road again. "We ready for the road yet." he called out to who ever was listening.

[pragma]

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:20:30
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive
Astrally Inactive

"Yeah, we ought to move."

Fortunato stepped into shotgun and waited for Angel to join he and the trolls in the van.

"Hey Rock, Cerb, why don't one of you drive for the time being. I'm going to be on astral. Spirit will keep us concealed, just stay away from traffic and keep an eye on my shoes."

The van and the pair of motorcycles caravanned out of the parking lot and started to head towards Fishbreath's stronghold.

Seconds of concentration netted Fortunato a few watchers and, before he started to tail the group astrally he messaged the group.

<<@Team: I'll follow Johnson to the site on astral. You guys should probably keep your distance and circle around or something. I'll let you sort out the precise details.>>

[Abbandon]

On the way to Rudolpho's
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:57:34
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus inspected each piece of the gun and slid everything back together locking each piece into place carefully. The bag was clean so he didnt have to worry about dirt and dust. <<@team: I dont know how but Johnson got my ingram white knight light mahcine gun back and I have reassembled it. I've got one clip and we have got some serious firepower now.>>

Cerberus slipped on the gyroharness that was also in the bag and tried to mount the gun. Everything worked like a charm and the skinlinks on the gun started sending him all the routine information. It felt great to have the gun back. He loved how it just seemed that the gun and himself seemed to merge and become one, he could literally fire the gun just by thinking about it and he could see what it saw.

Looking into the front of the cab after Fortunato suggested Rocky or himself drive the van he quickly saw the flaw in that plan. No eight foot tall eight hundred pound troll was going to get wedged into that human size space. "I think you better let Angel keep driving, unless you know some kind of shrinking spell.....in which case Rocky volunteers." hehehe

The disguise masks johnson had gave them came next. Kyle had taught Cerberus the basics of disguise and he had seen enough movies to understand it a little better but he still wasnt able to do to good of a job. Even with Fortunato's help his mask just turned into a simple face distortion job. He might as well have put some pantyhose over his head or wore a ski mask. Atleast his horns were shaved down already to help and his bald head meant he would have no problem changing his hair with wigs.

After that they were all rolling out of the parking lot and heading for Loui's turf. Loui didnt really show any respect or love towards Cerberus but he never talked down to him either. He had been a good boss for the short time he had worked with him. Beating people up and taking payments was just how things were done in his world and Cerberus didnt have any qalms about beating up low lifes. But there had been times when Loui could have helped out innocent people like that little girl from the barbershop. The story Angel had told about her experience with Loui was alot more monstrous than anything he had seen with Loui.

Now that he saw Loui for what he really was Cerberus was looking forward to getting his revenge. Some people deserve to be killed. As the caravan neared Rudolpho's Angel pulled off to the side of the road and parked the van behind Sledge as Johnson went on. Johnson's involvement in all this was a bit confusing. Kyle didnt say anything about Johnson's being this involved in runs. But whatever. Cerberus was well aware of the reasons nobody else could attempt to visually spot Loui. <<@Team: Do we have some kind of password or something if you get spotted Johnson and need us to come in hot??>>

[adamu]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Tuesday 8/20/70 18:07:00

Once the team had pulled over, Smith had cruised his bike - now considerably easier to handle without the bags of gear - on to the address Angel had given him for Rudolpho's.

He cruised past the front as casually as possible, looking for a suitably inconspicous place to hide in plain sight as he surveilled the place. In actuality, he could barely even see the restaurant - the front was almost totally obscured by three huge black SUVs parked out front.

Almost directly across the street was a Seattle's Best - naturally with several inside tables facing directly out the window so that people could convince themselves that passers-by noticed and cared what books they were reading or what they were broadcasting on their PANs. Of course, one had to be incredibly lucky to actually get one of those seats, but of course the moment Smith had his coffee in his hand, a corper who was trying very hard not to look like a corper (but still to look like he had money) vacated the seat with the best view of the restaurant.

Settling in, Smith saw a huge human in an Actioneer suit eating a huge plate of pasta. He was standing, elbows on the hood of the lead SUV. The plate was in front of him on the hood, and a huge combat shotgun was also lying casually beside his napkin, spoon, and knife. A glass of red wine completed the set-up. The man stuffed his face with gusto, and after a few moments a second man, also huge and in an Actioneer, sauntered out of an alley, zipping up his fly. Picking up his own automatic shotgun from where he'd left it lying on the sidewalk, he leaned against the rear SUV and lit a cigarette.

Watching for a few minutes, Smith easily noticed that while the street was fairly busy with evening pedestrian traffic patronizing a number of upscale eateries and shops, no one went into Rudolpho's. In fact, most crossed the street to avoid it, although those that did not were not molested. Vehicle traffic was very light.

Smith gave a small start when he heard a voice in his ear - Both guards are cybered big time. I'm not going to risk blowing the whole op by peeking inside. Everything I see will be relayed to my watcher at the van, but anything technical, including street locations, you'll have to pass on. Need anything, just speak - I'll hear.

After that, the college Johnson settled in to his coffee - and a couple of cloying questions - with three hours of daylight left, did he hope Louie left while it was still light out, so this whole thing could be over sooner, or after dark, so their ambush could work better?

And more important - once he'd led the team to wherever Louie went, and they made their move, did he sit on the sidelines while they entered a deadly combat, or did he risk his own life and help out?

[DireRadiant]

Cruising to Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 18:07:00
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

All she carried was the shotgun and some shells, loaded it out, and kept it wrapped under her saddle and tank, Sledge knew of a few chopper accessories where you could actually get a saddle holster fitted, and it certainly could be useful. There wasn't time to do any of that right now. She let the teams chatter over the channel run, it was always good to have people thinking about what they might do, but there wasn't going to be much choice or time for overplanning. There was work to do, and they were simply going to get it done. The disguise kits weren't going to let them walk in and do the job, but all she wanted from them was enough freedom to move without being immediately spotted by people who were specifically looking for her. The tape holding down her breasts was beginning to chafe, and the pile of inflated rubber around her waist was making her feel off balance, but being a big fat male tusker on a bike should hopefully get her through the next few hours.

Sledge reviewed the various options, and kept updating the list of data by each one. Sometime they were going to hit the point where they were going to have to commit.

She knew at some point she was going to make the call, and someone was going to die.

[BlackHat]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:07:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Smith continued to sit, sip his coffee, watch Rudolpho's while trying not to appear to be doing so, and to think. The metal bars of his hidden arm-slide holsters pressed against his arms when he set his drink down, reminding him that he's probably better armed than most of the team, right now. When it came time for guns to be used, if he had the opportunity, he'd thought he would do what he could to help. He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that he would be getting in the way. As bad-assed as he looked in the mirror producing two gleaming metal guns from nowhere, it didn't mean he could use them... or that he was particularly interested in seeing what flechette rounds would do to a fat man's face.

As the next few hours passed, Smith tried to make his continued presence in that seat look less suspicious. He glanced occationally back at the door as if waiting for someone, glanced up and down the street outside, as if expecting to see them coming up, but mostly kept himself busy with what those around him must have assumed was mindless AR channel-surfing. When he moved his fingers across the table's surface, it was, in reality, to type out a message to the team informing them of what he was seeing, or, more often, that the situation hadn't changed.

A waitress checked up on him a few times, obviously expecting him to buy something if he was going to continue to use up one of the prized seats. For the most part, he was able to disarm her with his charm, but did give in and purchase something to eat and, later, another drink. He was careful not to actually drink much of this one, though. It wouldn't do to have to go to the bathroom, and risk missing Louie's exit.

[Abbandon]

A few blocks away from Seattle's Best Coffee
Tuesday 8/20/70 20:07:00
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus sat in the back watching out the front window for a few minutes when they had irst pulled up but that quickly turned to boredom and then he thought about what he was here to do and how he wasnt that prepared. He was now thinking tactically about the situation. Setting the IWK on the floor of the van he took his armored jacket off and slipped on the gyroharness that helped support the weight of the gun so he could keep the shots nice and steady and on target. Next he dug around in the seat bench of the van and pulled the bandolier of grenades out and put those over one shoulder and across his chest. He had to use the last notch on the belt.

Slipping back on his armored jacket he was good to go. A one man army. Whatever he didnt mow down he could bow up, whatever didnt blow up he could pound into goop with his fists and martial arts.

"Angel, Rocky do either of you need a pistol?? I have been carrying these guns around since the clinic. We also have that assault rifle. You dont want to go into a situation unarmed." Angel and Rocky didnt look like Angel and Rocky anymore though. Everybody had helped each other out with their masks and he couldnt recognize them anymore. He took the predator out anyways. If neither of them wanted it he might as well carry it, in case he had to ditch the IWK. With only one clip the chances of that seemed high.

Cerberus sat there in the back of the van suited up for war and ran through his favorite fights and the workouts he used to get the body he had. Some people hated working out but it was true what they said, you become addicted to it. It release chemicals into your body that just make you feel good and as you start to look buff that just feeds the desire to do it more. He could tell all the bed rest and downtime had weakened him a little but hopefully after all of this was over he could bounce back and maybe even continue to improve. Afterall in this line of work he was going to have to be in extremely good shape. Maybe add in a little extra cardio..

Thats the only thing Cerberus hated about the current situation, so much damn time to think about crap. All he wanted to do was listen to some music and veg out on a couch or something. Shadowrunning wasnt easy. Looking out the front window again he was amazed at how quickly it had gotten dark out, his low light vision kicked in making things a little lighter and easier to see. Cyber eyes were so cool.

[BlackHat]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:45:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Almost another hour went by with very little of note coming from the street-front of Rudolpho's. Smith began to worry that Louie would be likely to use some rear-exit when leaving to do 'buisness', but he assumed the trolls would have mentioned something like that. As the minutes ticked by, he became less and less confident in that assumption.

Still, it wasn't quite dark yet, and everyone knows the boogy-men don't come out until dark. As the sun began to set, Smith reconsidered his vantage point. Compared to the rest of the street, he would be literally framed in light, and might stand out quite a bit more than he did during the daylight.

Although he had kept his eye on other spots that might open up offering better concealment, he eventually decided not trying to hide himself might look less conspicuous than if he tried. Louie's men must be used to people sitting in front of the windows of this cafe. They key, he thought to himself, was not to seem concearned about the people outside seeing him - and to maintain subtlety when observing them.

[Konsaki]

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:52:44
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Hidden

The past few hours for the young elven woman had been mainly filled with introverted thinking accompanied with the sounds of matrix cast music stations. The beats and tones sung by the latest boy bands, girly groups and techno trance tracks served as a white noise to the deafening silence that was only interspersed with activity around her. It also performed the much need effect of keeping her nerves under control, something she had lost many times this day.
It was really weird for her, really, to realize just how easy it was to command the drone to open fire on the mob controlled SUV. Her mind making a nanosecond decision in the dizzying speed of the moment, one that changed her life, though she was still feeling the ramifications of it. All the mixing, conflicting and agreeing emotions, all correct while wrong at the same time, falling into place by the force of the unrestrained push of time and events that Caittie had no choice but to flow along with.
The red haired girl had finally relinquished any thought that there was any reason to let Louie live longer than this night, but that in itself was also troubling her psyche. Cerberus, Rocky, Fortunato and Sledge: they all supported her in one fashion or another, through words or just being there, strong in composure and sure hearted in the moment of deciding that the act of killing off Louie was far from wrong, but held everything right about it. The elf knew the look of apprehension on their face, it was clear as the night closing in around them, but she guessed it was more of the difficulty of the task instead of the morality of it.

Another thing that added some relief to her nerves was the fact that she looked different at the moment. The mask Johnson had provided, along with Sledge’s help with cosmetic changes and the styling of her red and pink hair, gave her the thoughts of some thing security. With her ears covered with the braids and loose hair, she could easily pass for human unless someone seriously examined her. Caittie had also thrown the large jacket on again, the weight weighing her down a little, but the solidness of it added to the disguise and gave her a feeling of being protected. Looking at herself in the mirror, she looked like any random girl or young woman you might pass on the street, if it wasn’t for the jacket and accompanying troupe sitting beside and behind her.
Looking at them one by one, she would think they were completely different people than the ones that started this crazy ploy to help her out. Fortunato, the elder elf mage, was just lying back in the reclined passenger seat. He looked like he was either asleep or in virtual reality to any normal person, but Caittie and the others knew he was doing god knows what in the astral.
Cerberus was in the back messing around with that blasted machinegun. The very same one he had shot at her this very morning, though this time the situation was sort of reversed. Instead of him shooting at her for Louie, the hornless troll was shooting at Louie for her and his own sakes.

It was at that moment, he looked up from his machinery of death to look at Rocky and Caittie. He pulled a pistol from under his jacket and offered it out to them, if anyone wanted it. Hearing and seeing this, she shied away a bit while shaking her head. Even though she had justified Louie’s death along with the carnage during the escape from the shadow clinic, she couldn’t justify shooting someone with her own hands…
She didn’t even see Rocky’s response as she turned back around. The muscled ex-boxer turned shadowrunner looked just as different as the rest of the people in the van, though his horns still were the same. Out of the pair of trolls, she probably liked Cerberus less, which left Rocky in the lead, but still, they both had a stain on their reputations with her caused by the situation in Carl’s Coffins. Something like that was going to be hard to shake off, but in her mind, they were working it off slowly.

Considering that though, her mind wandered to her attitude earlier with this group and the stain on her reputation with them all. Letting out a sigh, she could only ponder what she could have done differently, about everything she could have done differently from the start; but like her father said, she couldn’t change the past, only learn from it. Considering the offer of money if they survived this, a great amount that could sustain her for a couple of months at least, Caittie figured she should ‘play it cool’ for the time being.
‘Who knows what might come in the future and it’s best not to burn your bridges before you even see them…’, the technomancer thought to herself with another sigh.

Then she had an epiphany that almost made her want to smack her forehead in frustration. She had spent all this time thinking about everything but what actually mattered at hand. She needed to do something to raise the chance they would know when Louie actually left the damn pasta restaurant. Taking a deep breath, she looked inside her commlink that once belonged to some guy named ‘Burnhouses’ or something.
Twisting the fabric of the matrix, she could feel the familiar entity known as Shadow appear in her head. With just a few seconds, she had the sprite assisting the team by looking out for any signals from Rudolpho’s. As they started appearing in her listing, she pulled it up and tried placing the points on a map for tracking. From what she saw, she guessed that there were around ten or more people in the building, but at the distance she was at, there could be more that she just couldn’t pick up. Still, it was better than nothing and she figured she might as well inform the team.

<<�Hmm… from what I can see. I think there’s ten or more people in Rudolpho’s. There might be more than that, but I can’t see their commlink signals. This is the best I can do without hacking in directly, and I don’t want what happened with those FBI guys. That would really suck…�>>, Angel sent out over the team’s commlink network. Her voice was apologetic but factual at the same time.

[adamu]

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:53:14


Her butt perched sideways on the seat of her hog and her shoulders resting against the plastiboard wall of the Fast Fuel © shack, Sledge munched something only an ork could love purchased from the junk food selection inside.

It was almost dark - the street lines had just come on - and still no movement from the restaurant. But she doubted those three big black SUVs Sugar Lips had described would be parked and guarded outside if The Man wasn't inside.

Right then, she sensed an alert that one of her Matrix drop-boxes had received a message. It was a box that she'd only ever told one other person about...

[DireRadiant]

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:54:33
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

In the cooling evening air the deep fried squid chips wrapper fluttered randomly as it floated down to join the other discarded detritus on the Seattle streets. The chips didn't have the same aerodynamics and reached the cracked asphalt first.

It took an age after her mental commands to retrieve the files, then a moment looking at the blank carrier message before she got to the message itself.

H -
You are completely compromised. The Feds are the worst. Absolutely stay away from them. Do not try to communicate with me. You have to get out of the Plex until we can figure out what to do. There is a little-used border-crossing just north of where the Green River flows from Salish into Auburn. You've got two hours to get there. Attached is a passport and SIN that will get you out past the Metroplex Guards on this side. The NAN guards on the other side have been paid off, but they and the deal go off shift at 23:00. The guards will get you to someone who will get you into the Cascade Ork lands, and someone will contact you there, saying they have a message for you from "your father."
Good luck, cerri.
- M

Unseen by her ork eyes, adapted ages past for these dimly lit conditions, the Americruiser Sedan that just filled up pulled away from the fuel station, the bright red flash of the brake lights brought her back.

Sledge shook her head as she looked down at the discarded chips on the ground, then flipped through her sets of plans and made some adjustments and calculations based on her maps. It didn't take long to figure out the implications.

<<@team:: <<01:34:14||02:05:27>>>> The countdown ARO she slipped into the team net without an active alert.

A gun loving murderous psychotic troll, a pair of magical trog fists attached to a saddened soul, a hardened pro, a castaway little girl and a eloquently verbose young suit weren't anything she cared about. And they were nothing, absolutely nothing compared with her littermate.

The decision was easy for Sledge.

time to go to work

The consequences would be hard, but there was no other way she was going to live... or die.

[adamu]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:10

Time had dragged slowly for Smith and Fortunato as they maintained their vigil outside the restaurant they were told was their target's headquarters. For a long time, the only activity had been a burly man with a face like mashed potatoes wearing a white, red-stained apron coming out and collecting the dinnerware of the two outside guards.

The two fledgling shadowrunners each tried to remain inconspicous, one behind a cup of coffee, the other amid the leaves of a spruce that adorned the upscale sidewalk.

And then finally, well after dark, movement. About a dozen men filed out of the restaurant. Smith had a fairly poor view, as much of the activity was screened behind the huge SUVs. He saw no one he recognized or thought might be someone they were shooting for. He did see one of the guards open up the rear hatch of the last SUV in line and start handing out shotguns, big mean techy-looking shotguns. Counting the two guards themselves, he counted eight burly men with the weapons. They were the kind of burly that said they were either bodybuilders or were packing a lot of brute-force cyber, or both. Once they were done handing and tossing the weapons to each other - obviously without a care in the world who saw them, they piled into the vehicles - one into the driver's seat of each SUV, and one into the passenger seat of the first SUV. The others all got in on the other side, if they got in at all.

Fortunato could see more, but in the astral he couldn't pick out much individual detail. At a cursory glance, almost everyone appeared cybered. There were four men that stood out for not being nearly as large as the others - only one had someone else open the door for him, a bald guy with an air of self-importance. An small astral lizard sat on his shoulder, long neck straining as it peered about in all directions. The four not-thugs split themselves between the second and third SUVs, which promptly caravaned into the night, leaving a send-off party of various spaghetti-heads behind them on the sidewalk. Once the vehicles were out of sight, the home-front mafiosos went back inside.

[BlackHat]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:20
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Smith remained relativly casual as he watched the mobsters make their move. He took in what details he had the opportunity to see, and let them pull away in their SUVs before sending the message to the team. He didn't want to make any sudden movements in case one of the drivers was watching him. When they had left, he pushed a button, nonchalantly, in AR, and put one hand over his mouth as if stiffling a yawn.

<<@Team:: "Three black SUVs on the move, heading west. I counted 8 armed guards, and saw a drone hovering over them. No eyes on the VIPs. Not sure if this is the one we were waiting for, but whatever it is up to - its big. You shouldn't have any trouble spotting them.">>

He glanced around the cafe and smiled at a good looking woman who seemed to be looking at him, which caused her to blush and look away. Normally, this would have interested him, but at the moment, he was just glad she wasn't watching him anymore.

He stood up, whispering to no one in particular. <<@Team:: "You guys want me in pursuit, or maintaining my post?">> While he waited for a reply, he made his way towards the doorway, incidentally in the direction of the woman. Smith did not want to loose a lot of time, if he was going to catch them, but if the team wanted him to stick around and make sure no one else left, he was ready to take a seat at the woman's table, and talk to her while watching Rudolpho's over he shoulder.

[DireRadiant]

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:20
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

***HONK***

Ignoring the annoyed horn of the Nissan Tempura sedan she'd just cutoff, Sledge goosed the engine and slid over to the outside lane, setting off some anti collision alarms in the grid guide systems. Seconds later she opened some lead space and the rash of angry ARO pings subsided out her grid guide view.

<<@team Sugar Lips, continue till you have a confirmed sighting. Someone might need to check the restaurant. I -think- if one of you in the Love Machine speaks aloud Fortunato will hear. Let him know we do not have a positive confirmation on the target.

We have -one- shot at this. We stack everything in our favor. Nailing a couple car loads of enforcers is no good, that'll make it almost impossible to get at him if he holes up afterwards.

For now we track the SUVs, I'm ahead, the Love Machine trails, we can bracket at distance and get an idea where's he's headed.

Angel, we need to look for equalizers. Look for heavy vehicles en route and think about how we can use one. If it comes down to it, I can hijack one and if you can supress the alarms for a few minutes that'll be enough. Run a search for street or building contruction sites anywhere on his possible routes. If we find one close enough we can use the heavy equipment there to help us out.

Cerberus, Rocky anything on this route reminder of a place you visited, speak up and we can check them out as a place to do this. We can get a jump if we can set up ahead of time. How long does he stay in one place? Get the data into our planning ARO. Angel can help.

Priorities are positive confirmation, then finding or setting a locale to go into action, and in the meantime look for any ways to give us an edge.

Right now I say we follow till he gets to his first stop, confirm, then we go ahead depending on what we've come up with for our edge in the meantime.

Floors open for suggestions on how to separate Louie from his protection, or reduce their effectiveness when we tangle with them.>>

[JDragon]

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:35
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky had been in another place for the last few hours as the group had sat waiting for some word on Louie leaving the restaurant. At first he had surfed using his comm, but soon that was not keeping him entertained, so he figured he should do something useful with time.

He stretched out what little he could in the back of the van with out intruding on Cerberus's space and worked on his meditations, preparing him self for the coming events much as he had when getting ready for a fight. Going over attacks, defenses and such he might need during the night. Of coarse this evenings events were not going to be a normal fight, it was a fight to the death, the team's or Louie's team.

The hours passed and Rocky slowly relaxed more and more as his meditations centered him and brought him more in touch with the power he had inside himself. He hadn't even noticed when the pulled away from their parking spot, it was Sledge saying his name over the comm that brought him back to the real world. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes and then leaned forward to see where the van was going.

<<@Team :: "Nothing yet, but I'll keep and eye out and let you know. Most nights I tried to catch a little extra sleep while we were on the raod if I could. As for the meetings, it just depended on the mood Louie was in and how long before he would have us start pounding people. I would guess most stops will be ten to fifteen minutes per stop."

[pragma]

I-405 Southbound Astral, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:58
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato's astral form cursed silently as the caravan left Rudolpo's. He hadn't heard confirmation from anyone or been told who was worth assensing. At least spirit backup was light; staying out of a watchers LOS usually wasn't too tough.

He settled into a pursuit pattern close to the ground. Most of his spirit was dragging through the pavement as he flew behind the rumbling, foggy, grey squares. One of his watchers started to relay a conversation and he realized that he'd forgotten to update his team.

His aura flickered with a gray-green exasperation as he thought to Love Machine's watcher, I saw a bald guy who looked like the head honcho go into the center SUV. Someone opened a door for him and he had the only magical security. Someone tell Johnson and let him know that now's not the time for picking up ladies.

Pausing a moment, he added, Everyone's cybered, by the way. So keep your heads screwed on.

He doubted it would be a long night, just a harrowing one. For the first time since he started the op he remembered that he had kids who needed him to come back alive. It sent a blue-black shiver through his aura which persisted even after he spent a moment refocusing himself. If everything went according to plan then he'd be fine...

[Abbandon]

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:44:34
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

<<@team, Sledge, Johnson...Fortunato's spirit just asked us to inform you that he thinks Loui got into the middle SUV. He said it was a bald guy and Loui is bald so...and he also had a watcher spirit with him and the other guys opened the door for him. He also said that most of the body gaurd is cybered up. We definately need to find some way to nuetralize some of those gaurds before we attack. Johnson should definately pull up his roots and go mobile.>>

Holy shit...two maybe three against eight cybered bodygaurds? The watcher spirit proves he has some mojo on his side to but that should be countered by Fort.. this situation sounds like a CF waiting to go off..a light machine gun, some grenades, a pistol and some martial arts combat..I hope its enough

[Konsaki]

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:44:42
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Hidden

Listening to the chatter that was going on over the team's commnet, Caittie watched the darkening skies and moving traffic going down the road. Thinking about the plan Sledge came up with, she had problems with the idea of hijacking a random vehicle and causing an accident, mainly on the fact that it would get more random people hurt or killed.
Quickly thinking around it, Angel sent back over the net, <<@Team :: I'll keep an eye out for big trucks, but I'd rather only use that as a last resort. They have a drone, from what Johnson said. Want me to try and hijack that instead to... do what I did last time?">> The last bit was mixed with a little apprehension, her not really used to saying anything like that and trying to get the point across still.

[BlackHat]

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:46:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Adam had just sat down and begun to introduce himself when the AR-window popped into view, explaining that the team believed Louie was, in fact, in one of the SUVs. That was good news, but it left Adam in a particularly awkward position as far as this conversation's future. Closing the AR window with a wave of his hand, he looked disappointed and apologized to the woman, who was in the middle of introducing herself.

"I'm sorry, Devon. I've just been informed that the meeting I was waiting here for has been rescheduled at the last minute. I'm going to have to run to make it on time, but I hope to see you here again soon - and we can introduce ourselves properly." Even his disarming smile left her visiably confused, and - given how shy she seemed earlier - probably feeling a little self-conscious.

That was the least of Smith's concearns, at the moment. He needed to get to his bike, and catch up to the team, and see this mission through. Being distracted with thoughts of an awkward introduction to some woman he had just met, and would probably never see again, wouldn't help him do his job.

[adamu]

Eastbound on I-90, just east of Tradition Lake
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:05:00

Staying a few hundred meters ahead of the trio of black SUVs, Sledge had roared down 405 for a good ten minutes, watching her countdown clock tick down and wishing the deadman would get where he was going soon enough that she wouldn't have to make any more tough choices tonight. She'd kept going south when the Mafiosos had turned east on I-90, and she had navigated the cloverleaf in record time and without attracting an Lone Star attention (that she knew of). After that she'd spurred her hog forward and moved ahead of them again, screened by an 18-wheeler as it, too, sped past the caravan - those drivers and their deadlines killed people!

They'd skirted the upscale Issaquah neighborhood, and as more minutes ticked by the swanky corp villas had given way to decidedly middle-class homes, and then to apartment blocks. But that time the road had become a demarcator between the bedroom community of Renton and the forsaken squalor of Redmond - a memory too fresh in her mind. On the left of the highway was a high fence topped with concertina wire, but there were either large holes or obvious patch-jobs every hundred meters or so. The farther they drove, the more the nearby presence of the Barrens had obviously driven down property values on the Renton side. Soon, the right side of the road was all factories and warehouses, or empty fields covered in charred debris - razed earth was Lone Star's answer to the desperate camps of squatters that had thought crossing the freeway would be a step towards a better life.

The other thing about this stretch of highway was that, unlike Bellevue and Issaquah, the offramps were few and far between, and there was little surface street infrastructure between them. Sledge was just starting to be concerned abou this, wondering if she should tighten her lead, when the team net informed her their targets had gotten off the freeway heading south.

[DireRadiant]

Eastbound on I-90, just east of Tradition Lake
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:05:20
Sledge - Scofflaw
PAN - Hidden

She'd done it before, on a dare by Andy one summer weekend, what now seemed ages past, but only a couple of months ago. The points deduction on her license was enough to make her seriously worry about her heavy equipment operators certification for the next couple of years.

That didn't matter anymore.

Sledge slid to a stop on a shoulder, and without a pause to readjust did a skid turn and started heading back down the shoulder opposite the traffic. Ignoring the honking, she made sure to shut off the blare of grid guide AROs screaming at her to keep down the distraction as she headed back towards her target.

[adamu]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:10:24

Angel relished the moonlit wind caressing, tanatalizing, cooling every centimeter of her, finding its way into her intakes, a slight updraft easing her load.

She'd done a brilliant job of programming the Love Machine - the cutting-edge pilot was amazingly pliable to her will, and now, with the help of Fort's otherworldly friend, it followed the Mafia caravan completely unnoticed - leaving her free to immerse herself in the enemy drone's hot-sim telemetry.

Since she wasn't interacting with it directly, only sapping free-floating data out of the air, she knew there was no way the drone's master could detect her, and the machine's sensors - her senses - provided the best possible vantage point on their target, which she'd downgraded to an AR-compatible feed and was relaing to the team.

Watching events unfold, Cerberus was a little frustrated by his inability to control the angle of the view, but at least he could zoom in on parts of the image provided, and toggle between light-magnification and thermographic imaging. Anyway, whatever its limitations, he knew the pirated feed was a total godsend.

A few minutes after leaving the freeway, the drone abruptly shifted its attention from an outward-focused search for tails to an inward-looking surveillance of the caravan's arrival. Cerberus saw the three SUVs pull up on a fenced compound. The place was big - about three klicks on a side - he guessed by playing back a few of the wide-angle glimpses he got as the drone shifted focus. The fence was cyclone, but with plastic slats woven throughout to obscure vision. And they probably made climbing harder, as would the razor wire strung across the top. Bright neon signs posted at intervals warned "Danger: High Voltage". The audio picked up another warning from the place - the barking of dogs, lots of dogs.

He could see them running all around in there - little heat blips - and they were converging on the gate.

The place was arranged in gigantic rows of scrap - huge hedges of cars and appliances piled five meters high, separated by wide "aisles". Scattered here and there throughout were bulldozers. Near the gates were some corrugated aluminum structures, one with a satellite dish. In the open space around the shacks were a handful of pick-up trucks and small forklifts. About a hundred meters into the yard from the buildings, down the widest, central aisle, was a huge crane on tracks, with a flying saucer-looking metal disk attached to the end of its boom line.

After the SUVs honked a few times the gates slid open of their own accord and the vehicles entered, fanning out slightly so that the two on the ends faced the buildings, while the middle one, staying in the center, faced broadside so that the driver's side was away from the shacks.

The black Mafia-mobiles were immediately surrounded by a dozen growling dogs - big, mean, heavy breeds. A shaft of light spilled from a second-floor door on the largest structure, and several individuals came out and started down an external stairway. Zooming in on them, Cerberus could see a balding man with a huge beer-gut spilling naked out from a too-small white tank-top. He carried an old Remington pump-action loosely in one hand, and probably hadn't shaved in a week.

He was followed by a shuffling staggering creature with dead eyes and leprous-looking hands. It was too warm to be dead, but too cool to be alive. Cerberus had seen ghouls on the trid and in public health announcements. Two more men followed these two. A middle-aged man with a heavy moustache and an air of authority with an automatic strapped to his hip over jeans and a polo shirt, with a ballistic vest over the top. And a younger human, maybe twenty years old - no, not a human, an ork - but with a little work could pass. He wore a CrimeTime concert T-shirt and carried an old-model Armalite.

The men took their time, finally reaching the ground and sauntering in a line toward the semi-circle of canine besieged vans, from which no one had yet emerged.