IC: Post or Die, Lifelines, and deadlines Options

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:11 PM, Redmond

His mental relaying of messages to his watchers done for the moment, Jovan's astral form Spoke again to his windy companion. Yes, let's return to that business. I believe the tower is next on our scouting agenda. Two of my team members wish for an acceleration in travel time, though, so let us travel slowly while they make up their minds. While we 'walk,' why don't you tell me what your take is on all these events? The two set off again at a leisurely pace.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Somewhat closer to the Tower in Redmond

Ferret still felt a bit freaked out by the floating eye. Sure he had seen weirder things in the trix, but not in the real.

"Well if it gets us there quicker, I don't mind Zo carrying me. Frag, it won't be the first time I've been carried by an ork. Admittedly the last time, I was getting carried out of trouble with a couple of bullet holes in me after a deal went bad, rather than rushing into it."

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:11 PM, Somewhat closer to the Tower in Redmond

The watcher-eye had nodded to the ganger's request politely, and after a moment or two Jovan's voice again. "Yes, I can provide assistance in that regard. It is only possible to do so to one of you, however, not both. You will need to carry Ferret yourself. Is this acceptable?"

"Sure I can carry him. I can propbably toss him too if needed." Zo smiles at Ferret.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Somewhat closer to the Tower in Redmond

"Sure I can carry him. I can probably toss him too if needed." Zo smiles at Ferret.

Ferret indignantly draws himself up to his full four feet.

"Hey, no tossing the dwarf. And anyway, you're not my type." he retorts with an ambiguous wink.

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Tower in Redmond

Jade Tiger walks over towards the woman on the floor. <<Team: are any of you any good at first aid, there is a fairly sick person here?>> Kicking the weapon away from the woman she bends down to examine the prone form.

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Tower in Redmond

<<Professor to Jade: Oswald is our resident medic. He's about to do his medical thing with the woman.>> "Here, Oswald, let me help."

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Cross-Town Mall

"No, I'm just wearing this spiffy white coat because it blends in with all the snow. You have got to be shitting me Tiger. I just offered my services as a medical doctor. I could rattle off my list of degrees and certifications, but the woman would probably die before I finish. Professor, hand me that med kit and be careful. This might be Kriegers eating a woman's brain. Brand new hungry ghoul on the premises, understood."

Oz made sure to scan the woman for threats before he approached any further.

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, ??Mall in the?? Tower in Redmond

Professor hands a medkit to Oswald and kneels to help. "Don't mind the old coot, Jade. This is him being nice to you."

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Somewhat closer to the Tower in Redmond

"Ferret, I already had my quota of dwarf ass today---an her ass was my type. I'll introduce her to ya later after the run, she'll treat ya real nice if ya ask politely." Zo laughs "We should get moving, Jovan's spirit should be comming in shortly"


<@Team>What the frag, are we some horizon charity group or somethin? Take her comm an access it. It probably has more reliable info than she does. Put her out of her misery and save the meds for later when we might need it. She might be another member of Viper-12 here to kill us.

Zo begins to move off, leaving the panting dwarf behind. HE stops and says"Ya want me to carry you righ now?"

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, ??Mall in the?? Tower in Redmond

<<@team: Not a charity, but not wetworkers either. This one is out of it and paying forward is good policy in the long run. As for the Vipers, we have not seen them acting individually, only in teams, so unless we see more here, that is unlikely. Besides, I think we can still pull the Vipers over to a more cooperative stance, in the right circumstances. Viper or not, this one is out of combat readiness for quite a while.

Nevertheless, caution is always a good idea. Thanks for keeping us aware of both sides of the coin.>>

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:13 PM, Mall (Not in Tower) Redmond

The woman wasn't talking. Her breathing was shallow. Her lips were chapped with dehydration. She had shed the armored jacket with Ares transport labeled all over it. As Oswald rolled her over, the black uniform shirt fell open to reveal form fit body armor. Her hair was light brown and tangled, cut off at the shoulder and plastered to her face. Oswald noticed a plastic pitcher with murky water and a bunch of wrappers from protein bars. This woman got desperate enough to scoop up some of this sprinkler water and lord knows what kind of chemicals with it. As the medkit started to analyze the situation, the old man already knew she needed water, STAT.

Even at a slow pace, Jovan and his elemental reached Zo and Ferret in no time, the spirit was still talking,"The German man doesn't really fit. He isn't a ghoul, and he doesn't seem like a military type. It's obvious someone is dead, and it's someone your employer was very keen on killing. Does she normally work alone? I saw no escort, or body guard. This also seems strange. I doubt a hired killer is someone she chats with in her spare time."

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Tower in Redmond

"OK I will carry the woman out of here. I have found in the past that rescuing people can be very financially lucrative, and having someone in Ares owing me a favor is a very attractive though. I'll leave her in the truck outside so that we can pick her up afterwards."

Scooping up the woman into a fireman's lift position, Jade Tiger heads outside covers her with some of the boxes, and heads to rejoin the others.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Somewhat closer to the Tower in Redmond

Zo begins to move off, leaving the panting dwarf behind. He stops and says"Ya want me to carry you right now?"

Ferret hustles to catch up with Zo. "Just needed a minute to catch my breath. I think it's best if you carry me on your back. Means your hands are still free if we get jumped by ghouls or vipers."

And means they have to go through you to get to me, he thinks to himself.

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Cross-Town Mall

"I'm coming with. Someone help me pop the hood on this van. I gotta get to the water in the radiator. Tastes like tinfoil, but it'll keep her alive. Tablespoon of salt will help her body soak it up faster. Dehydration is a shit way to die. Well, dehydration and trusting Ares are shit ways to die, and it looks like she's caught a fatal case of both."

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:12 PM, Cross-Town Mall

Professor, shorter than most and quite agile at the moment, crawls into the cab of the vehicle and pops the engine hood. While in there, he looks for anything useful.

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall

Trying to stabilize the woman was challenging. She took all the saline drip the medkit could offer, then it was up to Oswald and Professor to force the water from the radiator down her throat. The woman was weak and incoherent. She passed back out for a few minutes and her breathing evened out a bit. The Professor didn't find much in the cab of the truck, but he did find two Ares ID badges, neither of them matching the woman in the mall.
Ferret and Zo had finally caught up with the others and Jovan took off with his spirit to the tower to continue scouting.

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:13 PM, Soon to be much closer to the Tower in Redmond

Jovan's ethereal eyeball-messenger silently faded from view, and an unusually strong wind blew in without warning, seemingly from nowhere. The gust of wind surrounded the pair, swirling around them like a birthing mini-tornado. The change came suddenly. One moment, the two felt like rocks standing against a storm; the next, it was as if they were made of the very air currently swirling around them. It was a kind of lightness, a kind of bounce in their step, that could only be acheived by unearthly means. With every step, it was as if the very air itself compressed itself in front of Zo, and the air behind him expanded outward. The ork's newfound speed was more than a little exhilerating. The tornado-like wind did not fade until the pair and their astral followers had reached Pheonix Mall in Cross-Town.

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall

Professor steps out of the cab with the two ID badges. "Looks like there were at least two other Ares personnel along with this woman. Their ID badges are here. Wonder where they are."

"Oh, look. The others are arriving. Pretty quickly, too. Seems as if they have some help as well. Must be Jovan's work."

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Tower in Redmond

jade Tiger bows to the incoming group members. "I greet you. I am known as Jade Tiger, and am pleased to be working with you.

Is there any information that would be important to discuss before we enter the building, or shall we enter now?"

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Tower in Redmond

"Wheeeee!" cries Ferret as the speeded up pair zoom through the broken up streets. "This is almost like being in the matrix. Just a bit more grimy!"

Arriving at the van, Ferret clambers down from Zo's back and gives a wave to Jade Tiger "Hi, I'm Ferret. Finder of digitial secrets. Er, I mean team decker."

He points a thumb at the van. "Found anything interesting?"

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall

Oz held the tube filtering water to the inside of the woman's cheek with one gloved hand. He kept pinching and releasing it so that the water glubbed out slowly.
Oh god, she's introducing herself again to people she just met 4 minutes ago. If this is the best that humanity has to offer on this job, I think I'm embarrassed to not be some kinda troll creature right now.

"..Yeah. We found a makeshift jammer, a couple of blood trails that we never finished following, and a lady who was dying of thirst behind a nice ass gun encampment. Apparently there was also a spirit or something, but it's gone now. Gun encampment's still there if you wanna call dibbs on it, Greenbean. I recon it's worth a look. It's one of those old bullpup rifles like from James Bond. The AUG or something. Looked pretty fancy."

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall

"Bond, was that one of Clines old action trids?"

Zo, upon seeing the Styr AUG checks out the weapon Oz mentions, examining it for identifying markings and its condition.

"I'd take the weapon, Thogg might like the present, but if dis is a Corp op gone bad I'm thinking that the gun could be trapped and liable to explode. Yeah, don't think I'm paranoid--I've seen it happen--. Not good when your buddy's hand explodes after looting a dead corp sec grunt. The bigger question is why dey not come back for her?"

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall in Astral Space

"Why have the other Ares personnel not come back for her, you mean? That is quite easy to answer. They have not come back for her because they are currently being carried around Cross-Town in pieces. If you're so worried about the gun being booby-trapped, why don't you look it over and search for traps on it? You claimed yourself that you're highly perceptive."

Jovan and the elemental moved quickly now toward the sickly-looking Tower. Since it seems that this person was killed fairly recently, and given my employer's keenness on killing the person, it is likely that he or she had something to do with the previous team's disappearance. As for the cybereyed woman... I do not know. It's possible that she is a significant force to be reckoned with in her own right. Did you notice anything that might connect the German man to the ghoul we're searching for?

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Cross-Town Mall

At Jovan's response, Zo growls "Cause I aint got x-ray vision ya slot. Dey could hid it in da stock or other internal portion of the gun. I figure when she comes to I'll ask her. An you if so fraggin bright, why can't ya figure dat who ever in charge an sent this team just lost about half a million in gear an personnel. I was wonderin why they would not have sent in the B-Team to reinforce or at least recover Team-A. Oz, how long do ya think she's been out here?"

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:40 PM, Tower in Redmond

Jade Tiger says ""I'll check the gun" Taking the gun she moves away from the others into the cab. She shakes it around a bit, puts the gun against the seat where the noise will be muffled and pulls the trigger gently to see what happens. "Seems OK who wants it?"