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

[adamu]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:04


As the green-tinged troll gunner watched the scene unfold, he felt the van glide to a seamless stop in an empty warehouse parking lot across the road from the place. And then, in addition to the sounds of dogs snarling and engines idling, a second audio track was laid onto the feed - apparently Angel was staying busy. There were several annoyed voices chiming into the conversation:

<<Wouldja lookit these fuckin' mutts? I hate comin' here.>>

<<Do not get your panties into a proverbial bunch, Vito. The animals are not hurting us.>>

<<No, you cunt, I am talkin' about some fuckin' respect from these sons of bitches.>>

<<That is it, Vito, that is the thing. Every time we come here we fucking call ahead and tell these cheeky bastards to be waiting for us, and every time we get this fucking dog...dog...circus or something. It's not good for my ulcer.>>

<<Aww - fuhgeddaboutit youse guys - you know the boss - he'll git fed up soon enough, and then its doggy burgers till fuckin' Christmas.>>

As the mobsters complained about the dogs, the four people from the building were approaching the vehicles. They stopped about ten paces from the middle SUV, and then the fat one yelled "Shut up! Heel! Heel, or I will kick your fucking asses!" And he did kick one viciously for good measure. The dogs stopped their growling and lowered their hackles slightly, and the man with the moustache called out - "It's safe. You can come out."

Cerberus noticed that the gate had never closed behind the SUVs. But none of the dogs ran out.

Doors started opening and big guys in expensive-looking armored suits - the same sort he and Rocky had worn not so long ago - started getting out. They were all packing Mossberg AM-CMDTs, which they never had had when he was in the crew. He recognized a few of the guys - all were assholes who'd treated the troll muscle about the way the fat dude had treated his dogs. He counted eight of the big guys, noticing that all the drivers had gotten out. They formed a circle around the caravan - watching the dogs more then the people they were ostensibly meeting.

A couple of them went to the driver's side rear door of the middle SUV. They opened it up and by the way they acted, Cerberus knew who was going to get out - and then there he was in all his bald and pinstriped glory - Louie "Fishbreath" Finnegan.

He was joined by Angelo from the tail SUV. Then, flanked by four of the bodyguards, the two made men approached their hosts, while the other four guards took up positions at the four corners of their line of cars.

[JDragon]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:38
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky watched the SUV's and guys from the junk yard on his comm from the feed that was being sent to the team. He wasn't sure how the idea that had just poped in to his head would go over, but figured he should mention it just in case.

<<@Team :: "Well this doesn't look like the best place to try and take our shot. Unless we want to see if Angel can get the job done with the drone now that Louie is out in the open? He's really the only one that matters."

[BlackHat]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:55
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

<<@Team:: "Agreed. If at all possible, I would like to minimize collateral casualties. Also, if we act now, the chaos will slow down any attempt to pursue us.">>

<<@Team:: "First of all, is the drone armed and capable of taking the shot, Angel?">>

[Abbandon]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:12:08
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden

Minimal collateral damage?? What the fuck is wrong with these people. If we dont make SURE we kill his ass by doing whatever it takes I'm gonna die. That bastard can send wave after wave of guys after me. Better to drop a nuke on him and worry about the consequences later than pussy foot around and botch the job. Idiots.

<<team:: "You know Loui is usually hitting these guys up for money under the guise of protection and a million other scams. If we wait for a few of these things to go down his gaurds will get lax as things become routine and we will also get a nice big fat bonus at the end....I'm ready to kill Loui and everyone who gets in my way whenever you want though. " >>

[Konsaki]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:12:42
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

Events on the digital realm had annoyed the young technomancer just minutes before, with one of her sprites refusing not only to compile when willed to do so but to also be unwilling to perform the requested task, not once but twice. It had taken a second attempt at compiling to finally get the results she desired. It was well worth the effort.
Through the information Angel was gathering, she calculated and set up a quick map to determine the estimated locations and count of people out there. The numbers were encouraging to her situation, but it lead her further down a path she never knew she would have to take in life, one of a killer. The cyber-angel from which she got her ‘nickname’ let out a sigh on the digital realm at the thought and resignation that the only way to keep them from killing her was to do it herself.
The noise from the hot feed off the drone was distracting to her concentration, along with the traffic from the mob’s network. ‘They sure talk a lot… Course I guess I should be thankful.’, she mused to herself before dismissing the sprite and falling out of the virtual world to the dark van of the real one.

Rubbing her face with a hand to try and relieve some tension, Caittie could only listen to the traffic on her own team’s comm-net. From what the female elf heard, she knew Johnson was interested in her hijacking the drone to take out the target. She was just about to reply just over the comm-net, but remembered that Fortunato couldn’t hear that and figured it would do good to let him know what’s up by speaking out loud. ‘He said something about being able to hear our voices through something he left behind, right?’, she asked herself but shrugged since she couldn’t do anything about it if he didn’t.

Speaking out into the air and team network at the same time, she tried to relay as much information as she could without clogging it, “From what I can tell, I think the drone is armed, but it’s also being rigged right now. That’s going to be the hard part out of it all… If I’m caught hacking in, it could blow this chance.�
The red haired girl took a breath to think for a second before continuing, “From what I can see, and I’ve made a makeshift map, there are still two people we don’t see out there, the hacker in the middle SUV and someone in the back one. The hacker alone helps me out, cause I can knock him out without alerting someone else, but that other person is the unknown variable.�

Taking another breather to ponder an idea that came to her head, she looked over to the unconscious mage beside her and spoke aloud for a third time, “Fortunato, I don’t know what you’re up to, but can you think up a diversion or just do whatever you can when shit starts happening?�
“I don’t know who’s call it is, but do you want me to go through with this?�, she asked to either Johnson or Sledge, cause honestly, the girl didn’t know who was really in charge right now, but at least she knew she wasn’t.
As she finished, she put her elbow on the armrest of the driver’s seat and rested her head in the palm of her hand. “Hell, can you even hear me, old man?�, she muttered out, just loud enough for the trolls in the back to barely understand it.

[DireRadiant]

Vicinity of Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:04
Sledge - Lead
PAN - Hidden

... time to make the call...

The ork woman in her uncomfortable padding has been sitting staring at the rig running lights, enough lights to make it clear as day to her eyes, and absorbing the information from the chatter and feeds Angel was pumping through to the team.

Sledge grabbed the shotgun, keeping it wrapped as she put her hand on the grips and slotted her finger into the trigger. Light polymer heat retaining weave wasn't going to make a damned bit of difference to the kinetic vector of the hot metal that would fly out of the barrel when she pulled the trigger. In her other hand she hung her toolkit.

She stepped off the bike and started walking to the lights.

<<@team:: As good as it gets. He's just as likely to go to some kind of crowded place next. Gates are open, dogs make it messy, tricky getting out of here, one road, other parties don't like dealing with him. Don't mean they like us either. Anyone know a way to spook the dogs?

We start like this. I get this rig, spook the dogs, probably can get that far without revealing ourselves, then we take the drone, geek the mage, then take care of Louie, then run. Decision points. If we can take the drone without alerting them, then we hit Louie first, then run, I can use the rig to block. If we alert them, then I go in and ram, rest of you follow up, and then it gets messy.

Anyone got a better plan or a major objection, speak now.

Angel, in?
Rocky?
Cerberus, I already know.>>

<<@Angel:: Anything you can do to help with jacking the rig here?>>

"Magic man got a way of spooking dogs?"

Sledge didn't really care if anyone thought she was wierd talking to herself out here in the middle of nowhere. There was work to do, and it was going to get done.

[BlackHat]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:30
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

In response to both Angel's original request and Sledge's take-charge plan, Smith added a quick, <<@Team:: "No argument here.">>

[JDragon]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:38
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

At first Rocky didn't think this would be the best time and place to take their shot, but Sledge had some good points and it appeared she was used to running some kind of operation. Rocky was pretty sure it wasn't hits on mob people but it was something.

@Team: << I'm in, lets get this done.>> Rocky spoke aloud so that Fort would hear him as well.

He then went to double check his gear, making sure for the tenth time since they had gotten in the van that his gun was loaded and secured in it's holster. He then stretched a little and waited for when it would be time for him to charge in to the fray, not really having the option of staying at range like Cerberus did.

[pragma]

Zed's Salvage, Astral Plane
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:28
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

From his hiding place in the road way he saw the SUV's pull into the salvage yard and the ghoul come out after them and cursed silently. The amount of astral presence there was far too high for his comfort. Not that he couldn't deal with the ghoul, assuming it wasn't awakened (he made a mental note to check that assumption, but he was concerned about the increased risk of detection.

As he squatted in his astral hiding place for what felt like an eternity, Fort became increasingly uneasy about what exactly was going on with his team. Last time he'd been performing astral surveillance they'd rammed a car while he wasn't looking. As he was preparing to yell at them for not giving him an update, Angel's voice streamed through the watcher followed by Sledge. He grinned.

Thinking at Sledge he thought: I can do you one better, give me a second. Moments later he had skimmed low across the barren landscape while the watcher and the ghoul looked away. His body breathed fitfully and coughed then Fortunato was fully awake and wiping gunk from his contact encrusted eyes.

He typed uncoordinatedly as he readjusted to physical:

<<@Team: Hey guys if you give me a minute I can conjure up a spirit which will be able to make the dogs attack Louie. The bad news is that the ghoul out there has the potential of spotting me or the van.

Also, once we summon the spirit for the dogs we're officially exposing the van to the public, could be trouble; we'll need to act fast.>>

After scanning through his back logs Fortunato responded to Sledge saying, <<@Sledge: Yeah, I'm in. This is the best shot we can hope for I think.>>

[Abbandon]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:45
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden

<<team:: "Well so much for letting him collect a few payments. Yeah sure I'm ready to plow headlong into 8 cybered guys with shotguns. I mean its not like there are hundreds of different ways of taking one of those SUV's out while they are in route to the next place, you know cutting our opposition in half and stuff.">>

Cerberus starts looking for a place to set up to give him a decent killzone.

[adamu]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:05

As the team hastily put together a brutal plan of attack, the scene in the junkyard continued to play out on their screens and AR feeds.

A cooling summer evening breeze sent scraps of newsfax tumbling across the space that separated the denizens of Zed's Salvage from the knot of mafiosos. The main group of Italians was totally surrounded by vicious, mangy beasts that appeared ready to pounce at the slightest word from their master. Meaty fingers pressed against shotgun triggers, mere milligrams shy of the pressure needed to drop hammers.

The bald man in the middle was the only person in sight that didn't look nervous, however much the other tried to hide it. "Does one of you twats want to tell me what the fuck is this? You say you got a proposition - and I fucking know you ain't stupid enough to try and renegotiate our contract - so I think you've spent enough time out here is this dump, you actually had a thought or two run through one of your inbred heads, and I'm gonna come out here and you'll have something to show me. Well I get here and its fucking canines-on-parade and the only thing different from usual is you got this fucking cannibal with you. So you can imagine the veritable leaps and bounds by which my curiousity grows."

[DireRadiant]

Vicinity of Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:23
Sledge - Inbound
PAN - Hidden

<<@team:: Inbound. ETA 22:15:03

Another prominent countdown ARO appears set to 40 seconds, accompanied with a minimap view with a huge superimposed animated arrow rolling through the gate of the yard.>>

Getting to the truck had been easy enough, the mirrors only covered certain angles, and while the sensor grid didn't have visual blind spots, it certainly wasn't designed to alert the driver to an ork sized person approaching at walking speed while the rig was parked. In reverse mode the truck would have squawked loudly. The squawking hadn't happened till she'd smashed the passenger side window and as stepped up onto the running board. A couple high voltage darts later the squawking stopped.

She checked again that the remington has the safety on before using it to smash open the control box. It wouldn't be good for a round to go off while she used the weapon as a club, odds were the round would likely head in her direction. There was a moment or two of worry as the control resisted her efforts to circumvent the lockouts. She'd have to take time later to figure out why the random jumper connection she'd made enabled the vehicle.

Giant engine started, she dragged the slob out of the truck and placed him comfortably out of the way to the side of the road. Might as well make the poor working slob comfortable, even if she had inconvenienced him. Hopping back up in it only a second to get it rolling, and she went through the standard orientation check out of habit before shutting out the pilot software and disabling the safety overrides.

What Sledge was about to do certainly wasn't safe.

[Konsaki]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:45
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

The monkey tailed rouge couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he picked and prodded at the giant locked door of the generic looking warehouse. Shaking his head, he examined the high tech security pad that locked the door of the unassuming building. Normally, this would all be enough to have him chuckling to himself, but he was more thinking about the situation that got him here in the first place.
The technomancer who had compiled his form this time was known to him through past events. This time, though, the pinkish angel looked tired, annoyed and anxious instead of the just nervous looking she was last time. She didn’t even have to ‘say’ what was going on, Zidane could just read it off the top of the mindlink they both shared.
Something very important to her had the girl on edge and her current state of emotions had something to do with a certain yelling he had heard nearby on the resonance realm where crack sprites like him went about their own business. He could still hear the ‘voice’ of Shadow yelling out her frustrations just moments before he himself felt the calling, “Leave me alone! I’m busy right now, Girl!�

Working away at the lock, he grinned as he finally heard the tell-tale sounds of the latches releasing on the virtual door. ‘Another job well done.’, the sandy haired rogue though to himself as he reached forward and placed his hands on the handle of the large sliding door. ‘Challenging, but easy enough to get through… Makes for an enjoyable experience really’, he contemplated to himself as he started sliding the door to the side, finally gaining a view of the insides of the building.
Then, in a split nano-second, he flung the door across it’s rollers, wide open, and shot both arms forward, hands making arcane looking gestures. He stood that way for a moment, nothing moving in the dusty air, until Zidane let out a slight sigh of relief. “Just in time…�, he muttered to himself as he wiped some beads of sweat from his brow.

Taking a few steps inside the crate filled warehouse, he edged around the floating metal monstrosity that had just been pointing its huge guns at him moments before. “Just hang there quiet like that for a little longer, big fella.�, he told the security agent. Making his way to a clipboard hanging nearby, he sighed and shook his head yet again. ‘Always with the encryption... It’s more annoying than anything.’ Wiping his hands on his pants, he slowly made his way with breaking through it.
It took time, a lot of time to the sprites’ mind, but he finally made his way through the encryption that had denied him his mission. Done with that, he moved through all the boxes, noticing that while the agent wasn’t focusing on him, it had started making its rounds through the warehouse yet again. Shrugging, the sprite continued with what he had set out to do in the first place, finding a specific box and rearranging it’s contents to suit the angel who had compiled his form.
It took only a little bit of looking through the warehouse’s logbook to find the crate he needed. Setting down the clipboard, Zidane pried open the container to reveal his prize. Digging his hands deep into the mixed jumbled heap of data within, he picked and plucked the strands of code he needed, while pulling more of the same out of his own pockets to add into the mix.

It wasn’t long before he was finally finished with the creation of his technomancer’s account which she wished for him to make. As he stood back to look at his work, like any craftsman would, the world around him broke into chaos. Red lights flashed and spun where there weren’t any moments before and klaxons blaring their warnings of intrusion. The most disturbing sound was that of the twin heavy gattling cylinders spinning up behind him, but he could only grin to himself.
“Sorry, bud. I’m already done. Better luck next time.�, the monkey-like rogue sarcastically said to the automated defense agent as he turned slightly, grinning widely and brazenly shoving a finger up into the air.
The agent’s response of spewing virtual led at the invading sprite should have surely wiped the grin off his face, throwing one of the most grizzly looks of pain and anguish that only having your very being torn apart forcefully can emit, but it wasn’t so. The bullets flew through the Zidane’s form as if he was only a wisp of vapor, a figment of the agent’s imagination, to bury themselves into the wood and cement beyond, flicking up debris that flew around the area. The barely visible sprite only laughed as he finally faded into nothing.

It wasn’t moments afterwards, the reactions to Angel’s sprite had more wide flung effects. First and foremost, she knew she had access to the system that directly linked to the drone her team needed for the operation to be successful. That filled her with a shred of hope, just to have it torn to shreds in front of her as she saw and felt the connection go dead.
The entire team saw the following aftereffect, with different responses to such. The feed their hidden technomancer was feeding to them; the visual and audio that showed their targets and their encounter with some random people who seemed almost as seedy as the made men themselves, up and went to dead silence and dark blackness. This silence was quickly interrupted by the quickly spat curse the angelic avatar girl over the team’s commnet as she scrambled to secure her own mind against a counter hacking attempt, not sure exactly what would happen if it came to that, “Shit!�

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:45
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

"shit."

What the hell does that mean? Cerberus looked at Rocky, "Lets move dude, pop the doors." <<@team:: "This is Cerberus, I am moving into position. As soon as Sledge rolls by I will start lighting up targets.">> With the back doors to the van now open Cerberus takes a few steps bent over, so as not to hit his head on the roof of the van, and he is out and taking up a position by the side of the van so that he can see the gate of the junkyard and the approach of the big rig Sledge had captured. No longer needing a feed to the drone he quickly turned the wifi on his eyeballs off to prevent some hacker from screwing with him.

Thankfully Loui and the guy from the junkyard were having to talk loudly to each other because of the distance between them and to be heard over the other sounds of the night. Cerberus enhanced hearing easily picked up on the converstion and what it was about. "Loui and the guys from the junkyard are talking about organ legging or something, it doesnt sound like they know about us yet." As Cerberus looked around the junkyard for any targets he saw the dron hovering overhead. "Looks like the drone is still in play".

The adrenaline was flowin and Cerberus heartbeat had accelerated. A few more seconds and he was going to have his revenge on the guy who had turned his life upside down yet again and he HATED when people did that. Maybe I'm not as mean and cruel as I should be to get people's respect quickly but they are sure as hell going to learn not to mess with me and stop messing up my life!

[pragma]

Zed's Salvage
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:47
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Shit!

It was all the cue Fortunato needed. The op was blown (that seemed to happen to this team awfully frequently), it was time to move.

He mentally kicked himself as he hauled his burnt and broken arm into a usable position. They'd had eyes on the target and an undetected cruise missle streaking toward their target. What the fuck had they been thinking with the hacking attempt; he didn't know. He needed to know something about computers fast.

As the thoughts raced through his head he absentmindedly wove a delicate spell construct. Feeling the mana between his fingers, he cursed and crushed it; it was useless, he needed to focus. Precious seconds were ticking by. A viper curled up in the passengers foot well laughed at him, each chuckle ending with a drawn out hisss...

Fort's eyes became slits as he glanced through his hands at the growling mutt on the other side of the fence. He breathed gently and let a fiber of mana pass from one finger to another, soon the image of the dog was tangled in a web of magical strings. Fortunato will his construct to wrap around the beast and grab deep, unguarded parts of its brain. He'd whipped the monster into a frenzy in no time.

Then the shit really hit the fan.

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:50
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

As Cerberus stood there by the corner of the van straining to look around the edge and trying to hear the conversation something changed. The dogs that had been surrounding Loui, Angelo and 4 of his new bodygaurds, atleast the last time he had seen them, were for the most part totally silent. Now he could hear one of them begin to growl like somebody was trying to take its food or something.

Then the growling stopped and then there was a shotgun blast. After that it turned into utter chaos. More shotguns blasts followed suit which caused yelps of pain from the dogs. Cerberus could also hear somebody screaming "Ahhh its got me!! Get it off! Shoot it!!". Automatic gunfire quickly followed. Now Cerberus could hear the screams of people getting shot and dogs going berserk. Maybe they wouldnt even have to touch Loui, he thought.

Then Cerberus's enhanced ears picked up the sounds of an 18 wheeler picking up speed and shifting gears. He could all but see the clean bio-deasel pour from its exaust pipes in his imagination as heat waves.

<<@team:: "Hey whatever Angel did the situation at the meet just turned into one big huge cluster fuck for Loui, step on it Sledge or we may be late to this party!! I can hear shotguns and automatic gunfire">>

[DireRadiant]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:57
Sledge - Barreling along
PAN - Hidden

The past few days the pressure had built up and now she was traveling on the path as inevitable as a bullet travel down the barrel of a gun.

20 metric tonnes of high tech composite steel ceramic and plastic hurtled along at 60 kilometers an hour, or 1200000000 joules, the amount of energy of a small explosion, many magnitudes of energy more then a speeding ovoid of lead. She'd done the calculations off handedly in the half minute or so just past.

No more time to think. Not about Morris. Not about Andy Not about Monica, not Cody, nor Big Jimmy, not about her old crews, not about Javier, not about the BBs, not about Cal, not about Deerwalker, not about some dumb sec guard, not about wild animals, not about her new crew, not about the blood and flesh and tears and smoke and broken bones.

No time to think anymore.

As the barrel of the overhead drone machine gun swung towards her, her vision focused so tightly on it filling her vision entirely, the black hole starting as a tiny dot and her focus shifting to make the entire thing fill her vision like she was about to enter a dark tunnel.

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

<<@team from Sledge:: "Kill the drone!">>

<<@team from Angel:: "Im still working it..">>

From Cerberus's vantage point he saw Sledge easily now and as his attention was drawn back to the drone hovering above the meet between Loui and "Zed" he saw the thing begining to rotate 180 degrees to bring it LMG to bear against the semi.

Not knowing how long Angel would need to get control of the drone he decided to act. The semi was the most critical part of this attack right now. Stepping out away from the van he cleared his Ingram White Knight and quickly brought it to bare on the drone. The smartlink conveying approximately where his shots would go by traveling through his hands and up his arms to the datajack on the back of his head into his brain and finally onto his artificial eyeballs.

With his gun being skinned or set up to relay information and commands through touch he didnt have to worry about holding the gun by the handle and playing with the trigger that his fingers couldnt fit into anyways, so he was able to more easily manipulate the gun. All he had to do was command the gun to shoot as if it were a part of him. Like moving an arm or finger. Almost the perfect fusion between man and machine.

Even with all that tech his first two volleys missed. The first burst one was off but it let him correct his aim that he was sure his second burst would score but the drone evaded. Who knew where those bullets would land some 350+ meters away. He anticipated the drones movements and lead the target this time clipping it with his first burst and then blowing it to hell with the second longer burst creating a small shower of metal that rained down now harmlessly to the ground.

<<@team:: "Drone Nuetralized. We are now officially in the party.">>

The text "32/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision. He hope this didnt take long his mask was starting to itch especially when he had to talk.

[pragma]

Zed's Salvage, Astral Plane
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

After summoning a spirit Fortunato was sneaking towards the rioutous astral shadows of the physical firefight. He froze creeping past an SUV.

Something was wrong, there was too much heat coming from the car. It didn't happen that way on astral unless ...

Before he finished the thought a fiery fist connected with his midsection hurling him upward. The elemental surged after him sending a second jet of flame streaking past Fortunato's hastily and shoddily assembled defenses to send him reeling. Burns blossomed on his physical form as he tried to squeeze a thought to his spirit in sideways. He braced himself for the continuing assault as he tried to regain control of his wheeling astral form.

When suddenly the elemental was hurled sideways as Fortunato's snake slammed into it. Two quick bites and the flames had been scattered. Fortunato got his bearings and cursed his unpreparedness. He should have known better than to expect the space to be free of opposition.

There was another fire spirit guarding the center of the fray. There was no mistaking the aura it covered. Fortunato stared it down. It probably wasn't ordered to attack him. Still, energy built in the palm of his hand, no sense being unarmed.

He thought to his watcher, I have eyes on. Astral not clear, Fire spirit by Louie. Things were running smoothly, he could barely discern the truck as a shadow against other shadows. It was going to crash before this comes to blows. The old spy began to relax until a paralyzing panic rattled his ribcage.

theifre'sgoingtoburnthetruckwe'lldieintheexplosionI'mgoingtobekileldbytheelementalIcan'tdiewhatthehellamIthinkingthismakesnosensegotterunrightnowtogetawaycan'tbreeathtoomuchsmoke

He fired of the spell he'd stored as he fled the scene cursing himself. He knew the elemental could induce fear, he knew he shouldn't be feeling this. But none of that stopped him from streaking involuntarily skyward.

[DireRadiant]

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Sledge - Breaker braker
PAN - Hidden

Impact resistant ballistic glass exploded in a shower of crystallized tears. Sledge blinked in response. The after image of the smoking tumbling bullet riddled drone spinning out contrasted with the darkness on the inside of her eyelids.

A wink of red light, then something slammed into her chest, punching her ork body backwards and up out of her seat. Not far. Her hands gripped the wheel, bracing her against sudden shifts as she was near the end of her maneuver.

Her eyes snapped open, gathering in the image of the man in classic stance, laser guiding light steady, the barrel of his gun a pinprick of darkness against his pale outline. His finger moved.

The whole image moved, the whole world tilting as the truck smashed through whatever was in the way. Triggered pre planned responses kept her sliding over in a sideways crouch despite the blazing shock of pain in her ribs. Her vision reduced to the discarded nuke it burrito wrappers on the floor as she fired off the twin stabs of commands. One to her foot jammed on the brakes, the other to the vehicles limited pilot brain to unleash it's braking modules controls, already screaming alerts she was ignoring. Just like she was ignoring the blazingly cold numbness in her side.

She hadn't even heard any of the shots.

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:02
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

Cerberus took a few deep breaths and began running the smartlink crosshairs over various locations by manipulating the direction the IWK strapped to the gyro at his waist was pointing as he listened to the hiss of hydraulics releasing into the air as the semi shifted gears and of the squelling tires that the ten ton semi made its turn aiming into the junkyard

Cerberus's eyes picked up on the laser that popped up and stabbed into the cab of the semi as it approached and the shattering of glass that followed shortly after followed by a second shot before the semi slammed into the tail end suv with a horrendous sound of metal crushing metal sending the rear suv tumbling into a small shack building furthr back in the junkard.

The semi followed the tumbling suv skidding and finally coming to rest pinning it up against the small building. The trailer unfortunately slid almost into the same position the suv had taken up continueing to block Cerberus's line of sight. However a target of opportunity presented itself when Loui's right hand man Angelo leaped away from the rear suv. Cerberus made sure he had the shot and then commanded his gun to fire. Not wanting to take chances he swept the gun to spread the shots . It paid off and Angelo went down but before he coud follow that burst with another more deadly volley Cerberus caught Rocky moving up out of the corner of his eye. His path was going to cross right of front of him so he held up and as Rocky crossed over to take up position near the center suv he saw a goon grab Angelo by the collar and drag him behnd the center suv.

As two bodygaurds dropped their shotguns and pulled out pistols they moved into position at the rear of the middle suv and behind the end of the trailer but Cerberus is watching Rocky who is trying to look over the suv and his heart goes up into his throat as a guy on the other side pops up and blasts Rocky at almost point blank. Even with his wired reflexes it seemed to happen in slow motion and as he sees the muzzle flash from the gun he thinks there is no hope for Rocky but he drops back down and doesnt even act phased.

Then the two guys he had noticed moving a second before open up on him at his position at the front of the love van. Cerberus holds the IWK upright and begins to spin back behind the van for cover but as he spins shots slam into him. One to the back almost knocking him to the ground and another to the arm. The shot to his back didnt even hurt but the one to his arm felt like somebody had smashed a bat into it but when he ran his hand over the location there was no blood.

Not wanting to let the enemy overrun his position especially not with Angel and Fortunato basically defenseless he moved back to the edge of the van and rolled out just enough to clear his gun and see his targets with his own eyes not being able to manipulate his IWK well enough to use the camera built into the smartgun since it was attached to the gyro harness. He was met with more gun fire and more shots but they were mostly glancing hits. Seeing more of the guy behind the semi trailer he sent a long burst in that direction but the guy had already begun moving away and Cerberus wasnt sure if he had landed or not.

Now all Cerberus saw were arms hanging around the sides tires and bumpers shooting in his general direction. As he moved back into cover himself he could hear the sound of shots slamming into the side of the van and see them chewing up the concrete in front of the van. Hopefully none of them punched through the thick hide of the van Looking down at the bandolier of cylindrical grenades that were hanging down his chest he wished Rocky had hung back so he could just start lobbing them over there and kill everything.

<<@team: "Angelo down, status unknown, center SUV..">>
The text "20/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision.

[BlackHat]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Smith - Witness
PAN - Hidden

Things had be relatively calm in Smith's mind as he watched the Semi coming down the road, while everyone else seemed busy getting into position or preparing. Then, in an instant, the chaos, that he should have been expecting, unexpectedly arrived. Cerberus's gunfire took out the drone right around the time that Sledge's semi blasted its way through the gate and into the gunfight. Smith wasn't sure which had happened before the other, but one thing was sure - they had spectacularly announced their interest in the outcome of that battle.

That was when the bullets started striking a little closer to home. The first few dinged off of the love machine, or stuck into nearby buildings, and they seemed mostly focused on the gigantic metallic machine-gun wielding troll. Cerberus's imposing appearance more than made up for Smith's mearly-human reaction time and reflexes.

He had just taken cover behind the van - and saw that Cerberus had somewhat done the same - when he heard the team talking over the network about driving. He glanced at Cerberus, hoping to read his intention on his face, but saw that the troll was turned the other way, assessing the situation and looking for an opportunity to return fire.

Feeling somewhat ineffectual, the college-kid slid one of his pistols back into its arm-slide, and hustled after the van when it started to pull away. Behind him, Cerberus had very little trouble keeping pace while also coverign their rear - but Smith knew he wasn't going to be able to keep up with the van for long. Besides, if he was going to see that the job was done, he was going to have to find a way to get a lot closer without getting shot. Besides, if he spent the whole fight hiding between Cerberus and the Love Machine, he would never hear the end of it.

They had cleared the entrance, so if he was going to move, now was the time. As he van continued to gain speed, Smith prepared himself to step aside and let it (and maybe Cerberus) pass by - giving him a clear shot to the fence.

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

Thinking he might be able to see more from the rear of the van Cerberus crouched and moved swiftly to the rear giving a nod to Johnson but no joy. All he could see was the two remaining suv's and the fence so he waited and kept watch of Rocky who was in a very dangerous situation. Either that guy is crazy or he has balls made of platinum.

He sees Rocky pull a pistol and open the side door of the suv and look inside and then a muzzle flash lights up the windows of the suv and Rocky moving but then Cerberus sees a guy climb onto the hood of the suv. Cerberus aims as best he can and fires a burst at the guy on the hood. The guy drops to the hood on his stomach and scoots backward as bullets rip through the air, one of them shattering the glass out of the driver side's door. He couldnt tell if he had hit the guy or not but atleast that was one less thing Rcoky had to worry about.

The next thing Cerberus knows the middle suv tires start kicking up dirt and rocks and it jump back a meter. Rocky hops along with it still hanging out of the side rear door. Now Cerberus can see more of the chaos beyond the SUV's though. His eyes go wide as he sees their target Loui "Fishbreathe" Finnegan climbing into the passenger side door of the lead SUV. There is a fire spirit standing between in the way though and he is unable to get a shot off.

<<@team: "Loui in lead SUV, he has a fire spirit">>

Before he can think of what to do next Sledge's voice is coming over the network telling Angel to move? What the fuck is she thinking. What can shotguns and pistols do to a heavily armored van? And more importantly what about me and johnson's cover?? Instead of telling Angel not to do it which might cause problems he just accepted it and got ready to run with the van. Maybe Sledge saw a threat he couldnt. She better have.

Angel replied "Im on it.."

Cerberus turns to face the same direction the van will be moving and see's Johnson holstering one of his two pistols. Had he even fired a shot yet? Cerberus pointed in the direction he thought the van would be going to let Johnson know which direction he would be going.

Tires squeel as the van accelerates out of the parking lot and down the road. Angel, "Im going here, can you make it?" Cerberus takes off running and fires off another volley at the guy at the tail end of the semi-trailer. Hitting him again and sending him to the ground. The other guys pops up and fires off two shots at Cerberus but he sprints and reaches the safety of the van. As Cerberus continues to follow the van he can hear gunshots erupting from both sides of the center SUV but doesnt have time to worry about it. Sledge had so tactifully and skillfully put the center of this battle between her and the van and most of their group by now. He had not seen her since she crashed into the party but her brilliant commands let him know she was still alive.

Angel, "Damn, this sucks". What was she complaining about. She was in a tank compared to most of the rest of the team.
The text "7/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision.

[Konsaki]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

The void of space was an odd unexpected node topography, at least that’s what Caittie thought to herself as she worked on decrypting the desolate system. She was used to more… interesting node code, but had she not been pressured by the chaos outside in the real world, the pink haired angel would have taken the time to really recognize the beauty of the celestial bodies around her.
The situation quickly progressed from bad to even worse, with the technomancer immediately recognizing another account logging into the drone node. The thing that sent her mind running was the fact that it seemed that the pilot avatar also noticed her too. The look of the man was nothing but hostile as the pilot quickly threw his hand down to a holster strapped to his hip, intent on pulling the pistol resting there out for combat.
The past fraction of a minute had been one of the scarier ones for the team’s hidden technomancer, but given the situation at hand, Angel could barely get her avatar to gulp in a virtual breath of air. She had hacked into plenty of nodes and devices before, when she knew it was just her and the device; hell, she even had to take care of the rigger back at the black clinic. This though, this was the first time she had ever been resisted and attacked like this on a hack.

The angelic girl had lost all concentration on the outside world, instead choosing to focus in on the slightly rifled bore of the pistol held by an unknown attacker as he pulled it out and up towards her. Had she bothered to look into his eyes, Angel could have seen the reflection of her glowing pink wings in the mirror aviator glasses the flight suited pilot wore over the sneer on his face. She was there for only a few nanoseconds, but just a nano later, she was zipping around in the void, intent on avoiding any ‘bullets’ sent her way.
All thoughts of decrypting the node’s encryption flew away as she concentrated on calling forth a sprite to defend her from the hostile pilot. The being that came for out of the warp that connected the standard matrix realm to the Resonance was a familiar blond haired man with giant sword in hand. “Help me!�, she yelled at him in panic as the pilot pulled the pistol to bare and pulled the trigger.

A projectile whizzed just wide of the banking and veering pink streak in the dark void. Its own slight contrail parted the celestial dust in a nearby nebula even as Cloud tightened his grip on the sword he carried and zoomed toward the pilot as if he had jumped off some upside-down floor.
It seemed like an intense game of chicken was unfolding in front of Angel, both men staring each other down until just before it became too late to act. In a moment of sheer impossible acrobatics, the un-named pilot dove to the side from his rigid stance an instant before a glowing sword would have sliced into him. Cloud flew for a little longer past the pilot before stopping himself on another invisible platform, looking up at the man just before the hostile avatar fired off a second shot.

For some reason, Angel felt a wave of fear wash over her as she raised her arms to cover her face and let out a shriek of quick panic. From Cloud and the pilot’s view, they could see something, a glowing force flash into existence at the point of impact a foot or so away from the avatar. It quickly rounded and faded into a see-through blue lens that looked to surround the girl had it all been visible. In a nanosecond it faded back into nothingness, the angel beyond it lowering her arms unharmed.
So awed by the unharmed girl, the pilot failed to notice the sprite barreling up his back; a mistake of dire consequences for him. The blade of Cloud’s weapon bit deep, the yell of pain from the pilot audible to the flying girl. A moment later, the void around the pilot seemed to warp and arc, like an electrical storm. His body jerked and spasmed in odd ways just after, still though, he aimed again at Angel, his shot going wild though.

This complicated dance the three shared continued for agonizing seconds before the hostile pilot finally succumbed to the damage Cloud was inflicting. Thankful that this fight was over, Caittie still knew that precious time had been lost. Even with the work Cid was doing on the node encryption during the fight was wiped null and void with the next three words she heard from the team’s network.
<<�Kill the drone!�>>, the gruff but demanding woman’s voice commanded. Sledge was telling someone to destroy all the work Angel had just performed. The fight she just survived would have been for nothing. In desperation she called back, <<�I’m still working it…�>>

The next moment, Caittie found herself logged into the van’s node instead of the drone’s. Confused and irritated, she reviewed the van’s video logs as she heard Cerberus’ voice notifying the team of the drone’s destruction. ‘Damn, damn, damnit!’, she screamed in her head in frustration. ‘All that work down the drain…’
Then it hit her, her role in the attack was thankfully over. She could now help the team complete the task without actually dirtying her hands. Her first task, commanded by Sledge, the ever active commander, was to move the van to a safer position. It didn’t take Caittie much work to start commanding the van where to go and notify the team of such.
Now there was only the problem of the growing matrix presence the situation was causing…

[Abbandon]

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:08
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

As Cerberus kept pace with the van Johnson let up and let him and the van go by. Cerberus thought he was nuts because Johnson didnt seem to have any special abilities like cyber or magic to keep him safe. He either had a crapload of faith in the team he had put together or he had alot of balls. Maybe to much. Cerberus reached the spot he thought was directly across from the lead suv and stopped also letting the van continue down the road and come to a stop where the junkyard ended and another industrial lot started.

Cerberus let go of his IWk letting it hang from the gyro and pulled a cylindrical frag grenade from the bandolier hanging over one of his shoulder and across his bare chest. He yanked the pin and with a hookshot tossed it over the fence and hopefully onto the far side of the suv. Hopefully it would either disable the lead suv so Loui could not escape or it would blow him up along with some gaurds. He just hoped Rocky wouldnt be anywhere near the blast. <<@team: Grenade, lead vehichle!!>>. That should give them enough of a heads up.

Cerberus didnt stick around for the show though and began running to where the van had stopped, the southern property line of the junkyard. Before he gets there though there he can hear the engine of the lead suv start up though. Damn I was to late. Immedeately after he has the thought though there was a big explosion with the sound of shredding metal, his grenade. He was hoping to create another point of entry and get the drop on some guys by going to the corner of the junkyard. First thing was first though he had to see if the fence was electrified like all the signs said. Looking around he finds a rusty pipe and picks it up and tosses it at the fence. Sparks fly and the pipe drops to the ground. Crap. Then a second explosion goes off this one near the entrance gate of the junkyard. Unprepared Cerberus's ears muffle the sudden sounds but what the hell. Someone else was tossing around grenades or his grenade caused one of the suv to explode? He had to hurry up and get into position.

Before Cerberus could do anything else, Sledge was giving another command, "Angel, block". Was Loui escaping, had his grenade failed? If so what the hell was that second explosion. Thier van went back up the street in reverse and came to a stop in front of the gate. Meters from where she had been before Sledge had told her to move in the first place..

Pulling the predator from the back of his pants he aims at the base of the pole holding up the very end of the fence and fires. The fence sags inward and comes down on a wall of scrap metal creating a shitload of sparks and then falling silent. Looking beyond the fence now for the first time though the wall of debris looks impossable to scale without using his hands to which isnt really an option. 800+ pounds on shifting metal was not safe. It did look like he could trample over the fence and go between the wall and the still upright sections of fence.

With all the gunfire coming from inside the junkyard Rocky was either down and needed help or he was outnumbered and needed help. Just hang in there bro, I will be there in a nano.