IC: Post or Die, Lifelines, and deadlines Options

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:43 PM, Tower in Redmond

"Sure. No Problem. I should say though that I am not the least perceptive person in the world. And yes I want to live forever" Jade Tiger follows behind Zo.

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Mall in Redmond

Oswald digs up an old directory that shows a service hall leading to some loading bays. It should have two bays for tractor trailers. It's a pretty short walk to the doors, between a kids clothing store and a sporting goods shop. Zo checks them, and they swing open, unlocked. It's a long, dark, narrow hall, with multiple doors to either side. Not the most defensible path, but no sign of anything so far.

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Tower in Redmond


Jade Tiger follows just behind Zo, sniffing, peering and searching the astral as she goes.

<<This might be a good place to come back to with a lorry. I have contacts who can shift this stuff, and for a nights work we should be able to shift a fair packet>>

[Warlordtheft]

Zo scans the hallway slowly with his AK raised, using the ulrasound sight in addition to his normal senses. He flips through the thermal and lowlight as well. Not noticing any trip wires, monowire or other traps Zo moves slowly down the hall.

<@team>Hallway clear, cover the doors--I'd hate ta hav any suprize visitors.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall, Redmond

Trailing behind Zo and Jade, Ferrer switches his attention to the doors on the left. Unlike the ork and the tiger, he only has his natural dwarven vision to help him. While he had no qualms about getting the commlink and other cyber installed in his head, he had been strangely squeamish about replacing his meat eyes with cyber ones.

<<I guess the stuff in here might not be coated with toxic dust. If we find the trucks, we could load some extra stuff into them while we're here.>>

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Phoenix Mall, Redmond

The searching is getting tedious on all fronts. The hallway seems to have been undisturbed in years. Jades senses are assaulted by strong chemical odors and mildew. Parts of the left wall are busted through by structural debris. A door lays across the hall and the store it used to belong to is filled with rubble. A slight breeze filters through the concrete from the outside. At the end of the hall is a set of double doors with an old sign reading "loading zone beware of heavy machinery". The door frame is bent and the doors are warped and stuck together. Jade's spirit returns to report,"I see no trace of that signature in the mall, only at the truck and in the street out front"
In the tower, Jovan and the spirit slid from room to room finding little more than shadows. Jovan found his way to the basement where they found astral traces of the battle that Ferret had discovered, but nothing new was really learned from being there. of course, there was a large shadowy bay door leading further underground.

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Tower in Redmond

"Well I magically searched for corpses and magical signatures similar to that in the truck. I could find no sign of the astral signature, and found no significant corpses."

"I think it's still worth finding out what happened here"

Jade summons another thought form.

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Mall in Redmond

In the rush of info coming in, Professor had forgotten the isolation of Jovan. He moves to catch the astral ear of Jovan's spirit-voice.

Hey, Jovan. You might want to take note that there has been some kind of ghoul conflict down here. It may be worth checking out, seeing as you seem to know about some of their workings in this area.

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

"In the tower? Interesting. I have not seen such a thing quite yet, but I will be reaching the bottom levels within a minute or two. I will look into it once I find it. It is peculiar, though... there's nothing here. Nothing. This is the site of the chemical disaster itself, yet we have not met so much as a single Toxic spirit so far. The entire tower is so... empty."

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

"Interesting point, Jovan."

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

Zo moves towards the end of the hall. Once he reaches it he examines the area. "Prof-dis area looks like it might collapse, Is it going ta in the next five minutes if I open da door? Also could one of ya pop in ta the astral an check to see if dere is another ambush watin for us?"

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

"The building looks OK to me. I won't be able to check astrally on the other side of the wall till I can go there."

[Sephiroth]

Friday Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Cross-Town Tower (unlike everyone else), Redmond

Well, Jovan thought to himself as the two perused the astral scene in the basement, Professor's timing was rather fortuitous, I must admit. Doesn't look like the correct amount of emotional trace for a full-scale metahuman battle, though... which means that the ghouls must have been fighting automated defenses, because automated systems give off no emotional traces. And the ghouls likely moved through that door, irrelevant of whether it was by way of entrance or exit.

Very well, elemental. This bay door is awfully inviting, and may hold the information we are seeking from this building - which obviously means it must be some sort of trap. Therefore, I would like you to be several hundred meters in front of me while we explore this route. This is firstly because I want anyone who assenses me to do so on my terms, not theirs, and secondly because in the event of some sort of trap being sprung in the passageway, you can travel back here through the metaplanes; I cannot. Is this acceptable, spirit?

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

<<@team: You folks find anything yet? This girl is passsed the hell out. Must have been awake for days.>>

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Tower in Redmond

<<Nothing so far. It looks empty. I didn't tell you before but my magical search for bodies and wierd chaotic astral auras turned up nothing. I smell no spoor of ghouls at the moment. I suggest we look for a little while longer then head out.

If this is a bust, do we know where else to go to to look for this box?>>

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:53 PM, Tower in Redmond

"I see no flaws in that logic, but going under ground will be quite confining, even in the Astral world" The spirit drifts ahead through the shadowy door with Jovan behind. The tunnel is about five meters square, and descends about 200 meters before it tees to the right and left. The towers seem to be connected by underground tunnels, and possibly other buildings too. The glow of the earth dimly shines through thick steel and concrete. The emotional traces in the tower have dwindled, and the traces of blood have lost their light. The spirit looks in both directions and then to Jovan,"It's hard to say, but I think the ghouls went to the left. I'm also starting to see the attraction for them to live here, what with there penchant for sewer dwelling "

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:49 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond
Zo shoots Prof a sardonic grin. "Slotting good news for once eh Prof? Don't wanna sqiushed trog... or bleeder. Didn't want squished keebler either, but too late for dat though."

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

Professor shakes his head at Zo's humour. When in Rome... "Yeah, we came up a little short on that."

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Tower in Redmond

Jade Tiger kicks open the door to the next area, then moves sidesways to avoid any incoming hassle.

"I so love room clearing. Stress, Tension and no real idea whats on the other side of the door." she mutters to herself.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Phoenix Mall, Redmond

The searching is getting tedious on all fronts...

It's been whole seconds since anything happened and Ferret is getting bored. This is as bad as Dungeon Crawl 12, just potentially more deadly.

He pulls up an AR window and sets his Browse program to let him know if it detects any active or passive nodes, figuring that anything with wireless is not part of the original infrastruture. A second window displays his music playlists and chooses his 'Creepy' list, then thinks better of it and selects the 'Action' one instead.

While he misses having access to the matrix, it does al least mean there are no distracting whispers or strange crystal structures floating at the edges of his vision.

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:52 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

Zo reacts to Jades impulsiveness by moving quickly to the wall closest to the door. Zo sticks his rifle in the door way, using his rifle's sight and scans around the corner expecting trouble.

Looking at Jade,"Little warnin next time! Don't know about ya, but I'd sooner not take a full bust o gun fire ta my face."

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:53 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

The door scraped open with a loud and echoing whine. Zo scoped out the area ahead. The outer wall was half crumbled. a large desk was standing on end next to a forklift crushed flat by a block of concrete. The ind slipped through pushing dust and small bugs. What was left of the dock was about ten meters of open space and one bay door for a tailer to back up to. The bay door was open and there was no truck to be found.
As the team made their way into the space to figure out their next move. The sound of a truck sprang up in the distance. It was hard to say who noticed first. Probably the blimp's radar. But it wasn't being stealthy. Across the mall parking lot a large bus could be seen driving a street back, behind a row of small buildings.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:53 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

The rumbling of the bus draws Ferret back to reality.

"What the frag! We got incoming. Oz, you got a lock on that from the blimp?" exclaims the shocked dwarf.

"I just hope to hell that isn't a bus fulla' ghouls!"

Minimizing AR windows to reduce distractions, he brings up his machine pistol in a two-handed grip. As he does so, he mentally flicks off the safety and sets it to burst fire mode.

[Warlordtheft]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:53 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond
Zo looks at ferret. "Oz, any corp markings on that bus.....could you zoom in on it? Also, is da lady carry'n a bio monitor that may be signalling to Ares or who ever? Just a paranoid thought of mine...."

[Seth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 11:53 PM, Phoenix Mall in Redmond

Jade Tiger nods to Zo. "Fair point. Sorry", while moving to take cover from any incoming fire from either snipers or the bus.

Using her magically and technologically enhanced senses she sweeps the area looking for incoming astral or physical forms.