2072: Game World, IC thread for 2072: Recruitment always open! Options

[Grimm]

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

She bit back a yelp of pain as the sniper’s round impacted the back of her shoulder, causing her to stumble forward across the street. Silk kept her wits about her and disappeared around the corner of the building and into the shadows as the cloak came to life. The warmth of her blood spread down her back as she felt the bullet wound leaking. Luckily, it did not appear as though the CorpSec goons had any interest in tailing her. The one that was holding her at gunpoint simply coughed and hacked as he walked back over to where the other guards stood vigil over the troll.

[Aria]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Silk moved gingerly to avoid doing any more damage to her shoulder…she guessed that the bullet was still lodged in there somewhere judging from the screaming pain. She clenched her teeth and tried to push the burning agony aside for a moment. Anger and adrenalin coursed through her and she was not looking forward to the crash when it drained away. For now it was time to see if she could do some damage to these fraggers who had put such a serious dent in her plans. Leaning against a grimy wall a short distance from the conflict she fought off another wave of dizziness and called in to the ether…

<<Aria, the bastards shot me… we need to teach these corp goons some professionalism and about not involving bystanders… could you forge an ‘officer down’ message in KE’s systems? That should set the hornets nest buzzing! I’d normally prefer to do something myself but I’m bleeding all over the pavement at the moment and it would be embarrassing to pass out at their feet!>>

Next she sent a message out to He-Who-Sees-Within. Although they’d only met a couple of days ago she felt that there was a measure of trust there already and his obvious interest and the fact that they were supposed to be meeting up for dinner later gave her some confidence in contacting him in her current condition.

<<Hi, it’s me… I’m sorry to have to drag you in to this but I’ve just been caught in some crossfire and I’m in no condition to go much further. I’m hoping you can help me out otherwise I really won’t be making dinner this evening! I’ll send you my current location…please…sorry, could you bring a medkit? I really hope you can come…>>

Finally she allowed herself to slip down to the ground, not even noticing the rancid smells wafting out of the storm drain next to her. Trying to keep her shoulder still she reached behind her with her good hand and pulled one of her spider drones out and sent it back to watch the fireworks…at least she would have some warning if one of the goons came to finish off what they had started…and if she was really lucky she would see them getting shot to shit by Knight Errant SWAT teams…

This post has been edited by Aria: Nov 17 2010, 01:13 PM

[Grimm]

The Doctor
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
The Astral provided quick access for The Doctor to slip around for some limited recon work. He knew that whoever was in the apartment was outgunned, but could not be sure of the desperation they might have to win. Determining this fact would certainly help dictate their next course of action.

Slipping into the apartment was no great challenge. What he found there was not as he expected. In the far corner of the apartment were a trio of life forces huddled together on the ground. Two that were tall and one that was small. Roaming through the apartment were another trio of life forces for a total of six. One was a bit squat, the other two taller. The squat one and one of the taller ones appeared to be focused more on the door while the third roamed around the other rooms in the apartment.

Dahlia
A shrill, high-pitched shriek from Dahlia’s left threw her concentration off. Instinctively, she stepped away from the door and pointed her weapon down the hall to cover any additional threats. Instead, she was met with Asim standing in the hall. The boy clutched the gas mask in his hands tightly and his eyes were wide with fear. They shifted back and forth briefly from her to what remained of the CorpSec guard, as he though he could not look away from the carnage.

Copperhead
[January 6th, 2072; Dr. Ted‘s Black Clinic, Redmond]
The pair of trogs celebrated their good fortune and turn of events with an evening of heavy drinking and the kind of celebratory sex that made your left side numb the next morning. Cutter seemed to clearly still be out of it the next morning, but ended up crashing out and sleeping the morning away.

A quick call to Lenny resulted in a quick reply. <<Let me see what I got available. I’ll call you back in a bit.>>

With Lenny doing his research and Cutter unconscious for at least a couple more hours, she decided to make the trek to Dr. Ted’s clinic. Nurse let her into the clinic where she found Dr. Ted attempting to perform a bullet extraction without anesthesia on a an elf tagged up with go-ganger ink. The elf made all manners of noises as he writhed against the bonds that held him fast to the surgery table.

“Well don’t get shot up if you don’t like being in horrific pain,” Dr. Ted said to the patient as he, Nurse, and Copperhead finished him up. He handed the rabbit off to Copperhead who took off towards the back, as giddy as a schoolgirl troll could be at the idea of unlocking the secrets behind the rabbit’s magic.

She freed herself from her meat body and drifted around the aura of the rabbit until she began to interpret patterns in it. Probing it with her mind with the information she had already gathered finally unlocked what drove the magic behind the rabbit.

The little girl’s voice filled her mind again, “Bunny will make you feel better.” Except now the phrase was followed by a very wide-ranging sound of thank you’s. The tapestry of the astral came together to portray a short movie of a young girl in a hospital, wandering around to different beds in what looked to be a recovery ward. She wore a miniaturized nurse’s uniform and moved to assist the different resident. She sat down on the edge of the bed of a heavily bandaged troll and sat the rabbit on his stomach.

“Bunny always makes me feel better when I’m not well. He’ll help you too.” The child patted his hand and smiled warmly at him. With that, the scene faded.

The next was not so heart-warming. The roar of a motorcycle tumbled into her consciousness followed by the sound of many gunshots. For a brief moment she could feel fear wash over her, then adrenaline. The scene coalesced before her and gave her a far too clear picture of a human go-ganger running the child over on his motorcycle. At the moment of contact, it felt as though someone had ripped a portion of her soul out. A much younger Dr. Ted ran in from the side and curled up around the girl as she bled, far too injured to attempt to save. As her father wept, the last words she spoke were, “Bunny will make you feel better.”, as she handed over the rabbit.

A torrent of rage and misery washed over Copperhead from the Astral from the rabbit. She caught bits and flashes of Dr. Ted’s downward spiral after his daughter’s death. He did everything he could to drown it out in synthahol and the painkillers he had access to in his clinic. Every time he looked down at a wounded go-ganger on the table, it all came back.

Copperhead opened her eyes. Suddenly a lot of things made sense. Dr. Ted hadn’t even asked Cutter for payment when they brought him in. But the go-ganger that was on the table beforehand was unceremoniously given over to the Maid. Thinking back on it, she had thought it was taking him a very long time to take the bullets out of that elf without anesthesia. Much longer than it took for Cutter.

She looked down at the rabbit who stared back at her with glassy eyes. The feeling of sadness it imparted on her would likely hang with her for a little while.

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Outside of the Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

The pain racking her body was at least keeping her conscious as she felt the blood seeping out of the wound. It only took a few seconds for Aria’s reply to come back to her, <<Done, stay out of the way. KE likely will not use much restraint.>>

A quick message to He-Who-Sees-Within returned a quick response as well. <<I can be there in a couple minutes, hold on! Send me your coordinates!>>

A satisfied smirk started to creep across Silk’s features as she heard the roar of engines closing in from the distance. A bit of puzzlement crossed her mind. It sounded like they were land-based, not the standard fare that KE would use for an extraction of their wounded in this shit-hole. She turned the spider-drone and caught a glimpse of an ocean of headlights coming down the street with the unmistakable roar of motorcycle engines. The troll go-ganger the other guards had stopped must have called for some back up of his own. Though KE’s forces were not yet there to shoot the shit out of them; the troll go-gang the Spikes did not make their remaining existences very comfortable. Two were summarily beaten beyond recognition, the third chained to the back of one of the bikes and dragged off through Redmond.

Only two sniper rounds were fired off from two different locations before the Spikes returned fire with a salvo of small arms, machineguns, and an RPG. It was then that Silk had a realization. When Knight Errant arrived, things were going to get very interesting indeed.

[Suicidal Street ...]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Fuck, thought Seti. Fucking fucking fucking fucker fucking fucker. With Asim screaming his lungs out in the hallway, it would only be moments before Dahlia...What? Releases a plague? Inject us all with toxins? Nerve Gas? Fucking fucking fucker fucking.

Seti jumped up, ran to Asim, and scooped him up in his off-arm, keeping the Predator--and more importantly, the trigger--away from the boy.
"C'mon, buddy, you do not want to be here right now." Seti carried the boy into the bathroom, and kicked aside the shower curtain, uncerimoniously dumping the boy into the bathtub.

"Asim, you've got to listen to me. Your sister and I need you to stay right here. Somebody is shooting at the apartment across the hall, and we don't want you catching any stray bullets, okay?" Seti heard a noise, and whipped his gun around...no, it was just that stupid emotitoy Asim won at the arcade today. It was just following its new owner around. Seti turned back to Asim.

"Okay, I'm going to put this mask back on you, okay? The attackers might use tear gas, and if they do, you don't want any of that stuff getting in your lungs; it hurts like a waterboarding." Seti tightened the straps on the mask. "Okay, I'm gonna put your little buster here in the tub with you. The tub will stop any bullets that come in, so just Stay. Here. Okay?" Once Asim began nodding, Seti rushed back out of the room to survey the damage.

[AStarshipforAnts]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Dahlia felt like her stomach had just dropped out and her mouth went completely dry at the sight of her younger brother standing in the hall. Of all the times not to listen to your elder sister. It just had to be during a firefight and who knows what else was happening out there.

The rest of the world faded away. A dozen snippets of possible accidents and tragedies flashed in Dahlia’s mind’s eye like sparks from stray bullets. If the last of Dahlia’s flesh and blood, her last tether, was caught by a ricochet or some careless fucker’s hand then Dahlia would have nothing left. Nothing left save the viruses in her laboratory and the poisons in her knives.

Asim needed to be safe. He needed to be somewhere else, somewhere out of the line of fire. In the moments that Dahlia froze in horror, Seti already crossed the room and bodily picked up Asim before heading into another room in the apartment. Dahlia’s mouth was too dry for her to swallow, never mind shout out so much as a thank you.

With Asim out of harm’s way, Dahlia’s train of thought veered. Never mind her annoyance over the fact that her deposit was as gone as the men laying under her bookshelf. Whoever was out there had scared—terrified—Asim. Might have even hurt Asim if things had gone even slightly different. As the thoughts ran through Dahlia’s head, she didn’t shake, didn’t cry. But, anyone in the room would notice a distinct tightening of the woman’s jaw and a manic gleam in her eye as she turned back to the door and once again readied her pistol.

Someone was going to down more Narcoject than it would take to fell a whale. And only because Dahlia didn’t have worse on hand.

[TheDoctor]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Damn...hostage situation. Definitely a child being protected by the parents. Corpsec was probably called in because the apartment is held by a wage-slave of some sort. In a disembodied sort of way though, The Doctor was furious that a child and his parents were in danger. What could he do now? He could call one of his elementals...and geek the fraggers who were holding this family hostage. How would they react? No...better move was to get out...get to the others and warn CorpSec about the three and the wanderer.

The Doctor immediately thought of his meat bod and focused on returning to it. He would go back to the astal though and see if they couldn't coordinate a save with Corpsec.

Upon return to his earthly flesh, the Doctor cried out, "They've got hostages. Parents and a child. Three hostiles total. Two at the door; one wandering. I'm going back and see if I can get more intel. Tell the corp guys out there if you can."

[ooc: assuming that to get back to astral I have to wait till the next round]

[Notsoevildm]

[January 6th, 2072; Dr. Ted's Black Clinic, Redmond]
She looked down at the rabbit who stared back at her with glassy eyes. The feeling of sadness it imparted on her would likely hang with her for a little while.

Copperhead wipes tears from her eyes. She hugs the rabbit tight to her chest, then carefully rises and goes to find Dr. Ted.

Gulping back the lump in her throat, she hands the rabbit back to him. "It was your daughter's wasn't it. I saw...felt what happened to her. I'm sorry about what happened to her, but I wanted you to know dat dere is still like a little part of her soul in da rabbit. She is still wit you, helping da people who come here, making dem feel better."

She gives him a gentle hug. "Thank you for letting me find out what it is. I hope I can still come by and help you out, if dat's okay wit you?"

She leaves him staring at the rabbit, heading quickly out into the evening.

She swings by Lenny's lodge. She asks him what he knows about souls inhabiting spirits and puts up with his lecture on souls and ghosts. He always has secrets to tell. She picks up a formula for a stunbolt spell and some spirit binding materials. They also talk for a while about different foci and he tells her he'll keep an eye out for anything on the market.

For the next few days, while she studies the spell under Snake's nagging guidance, Cutter and Slater do some legwork. Cutter scouts out the MCT garage on foot, while Slater checks it out in the matrix. Cutter also picks up some non-lethal gear for the run including a pair of troll sized stun gloves some gel rounds for Copperhead's beaten up old shotgun. He even gets a buddy of his to outfit it with an ancient UCAS army external smartlink module and a new shock pad on the stock.

In the evenings, the make plans over synthahol and instasoy meals. Coperhead asks Slater if he can maybe fool the MCT system into letting her and Cutter in as cleaners or a maintenance crew. While he's working on that, and between sessions studying the spell formula, she also takes a swing past the garage in the astral.

Her days studying the rabbit seem to have sharpened her awareness of the spirit world. Everything seems somehow sharper and brighter, even the pain and misery of this part of town. She flies across the barrens at the speed of thought then drops down low as she approaches the garage. She floats cautiously around the garage, keeping at a careful distance and tries to spot any spirits or elements on guard duty.

[Aria]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Fighting off the creeping cold, Silk waited for He-Who-Sees, splitting her concentration between the AR drone feed, a local news channel and her immediate surroundings. All hell was breaking loose with the rampant trogs, bludgeoned corp sec and the imminent arrival of Knight Errant. She vainly hoped that the carefully hoarded stash of gear in the Spirit would survive another encounter...she certainly wasn't going back for it herself at the moment. She considered just walking away, her mother had taught her to drop objects that posed a risk as there was always an opportunity to get more, but then she'd been a prime runner with ready capital and a massive web of contacts. She missed Balefire and its ready camaradarie, it would be good to be working in a team again...

[Grimm]

Dahlia, Seti, The Doctor
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
The Doctor stopped and barked out the intelligence after returning from his quick jaunt from the Astral. He slipped back into the Astral and prepared himself to assist the CorpSec team in saving the parents and child.

The first figure that Dahlia caught sight of as she steeled her will to the firefight as a dwarf in a three-quarter length trench coat. He appeared to be edging towards the door of apartment opposite of hers. Tentatively, he peeked partially around the corner to try and look down the hall.

The child just sat in abject horror and likely shock as Seti explained to him what he needed to do. Before he stepped out of the room he turned back to reassure him again but noticed the child had not hunkered down. Moving back over, he nudged Asim down to lay in the tub where he would be better protected from all by the highest caliber and armor piercing rounds.

Copperhead
[January 6th, 2072; Dr. Ted‘s Black Clinic, Redmond]

Dr. Ted stood silently as Copperhead spoke to him. He shook his head slightly, “Can’t believe you could tell that from that rabbit. NURSE! Anesthesia, please.”

Nurse walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of synthesized whiskey. She walked over to him with a grim expression and handed it to him. With the rabbit in one hand and the bottle in the other, he looked back towards his office. “Nurse, I’m going to medicate. If anyone comes in and they’re dying, tell them to either sit on the Maid’s trapdoor or go to a different clinic. I’m closed.”

She offered a sympathetic pat on his shoulder as he walked away. A moment later the door swung shut and latched into place. Nurse laid a hand on Copperhead’s arm. “He’ll be alright. He’ll drink for a couple days then be back to his old self. He didn’t threaten to give you to the Maid so I think he likes you!” She smiles brightly at the shaman.

*

Her trip to Lenny’s was similarly enlightening as her time with the rabbit. She learned from his ramblings that changes on the Astral could be created by overwhelming emotion on the physical world. Sites of great tragedies, horror, love, fear, or any number of things can create a lasting impact. It seemed likely to him that the rabbit was ingrained with some of the girl’s love as she used to help her father tend to sickly patients. Her last selfless act combined with the grief of her father left a lasting imprint on the rabbit that gave it limited magical ability. After a few hours of his rambling, the Rat-Shaman produced the items she had come for and sent her on her way with a promise to keep an eye out for foci.

*

The astral recon work at the MCT garage did not appear to reap any major revelations of information. The only out of the ordinary feature about the garage was it did feature various wards to prevent astral intruders. Her ability to penetrate the building in the astral would be a lot more difficult than she had anticipated.

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Outside of the Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Silk was unsure how much time had passed but she began to feel the effects of the blood loss. Her own attempts to staunch the blood flow were difficult as the location of the bullet prevented her from reaching it easily with her other arm. She did retain enough of her consciousness to notice the VTOL’s swooping in from different areas. Knight Errant SWAT teams began to pour from the crafts into the adjoining streets. Strangely, this was met by cheering from the Spikes go-gangers.

It took all of five seconds for Knight Errant boots to touch pavement before the place erupted into a firestorm of bullets, grenades, teargas, and flash grenades. The SWAT teams always came prepared, but they were not expecting the armor-piercing rounds the Spikes made use of to tear into their crafts and through their ballistic armor. Silk did her best to stay small and assuming in a niche in the alley, trying to avoid scrutiny and any stray bullets as she waited for He-Who-Sees-Within.

[AStarshipforAnts]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

After waiting for a few moments for the ideal time, Dahlia took aim at the dwarf and fired her dart pistol. It certainly wouldn’t kill him if it hit, unless he was unlucky enough to be allergic to Narcoject. If the dart didn’t hit, hopefully Seti would be back in time to give the woman some back up.

[Aria]

[January 5th, 2072; Outside of the Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Oh crap! The initial feelings of intense anger were being washed away by the pain in Silk's shoulder and the realisation that she had probably stirred things up a little more than she had intended. Mother had always taught her to think about the consequences of an action before taking it, although not so hard it prevented you from acting, and part of her regretted not taking a moment more to assess the situation. Still, they had attacked her...!

She turned as He-Who-Sees materialised out of the fog behind her...

"Thank the gods you came...I'm a mess!"

[Notsoevildm]

Copperhead
[January 6th, 2072; Redmond]
The astral recon work at the MCT garage did not appear to reap any major revelations of information. The only out of the ordinary feature about the garage was it did feature various wards to prevent astral intruders. Her ability to penetrate the building in the astral would be a lot more difficult than she had anticipated.

Copperhead returns to her body cursing at her lack of success. Snake is fortunately silent, hopefully off sulking at the lack of information she was able to find. She returns to her study of the spell formula. She can almost feel the first glimmers of understanding slipping through the folds of her consciousness. Maybe that is why Snake is going easy on her.

By the time Cutter gets home that evening, she has mastered the spell. She gives the big ork a hug and hands him a beer.

"Well I hope you and Slater had better luck than me. They got some wards up in the astral and I couldn't get past them. If Slater can't find a way for us to sneak in, we're gonna have ta fight our way in and out. And I don't really fancy dat."

[Grimm]

Dahlia, Seti, The Doctor
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
“Ow! What the.. Fuck..” The dwarf looked across the hall at Dahlia. She smiled as the dwarf’s legs weakened and he began to slump to the floor. A flurry of activity in the apartment and the pounding of booted feet in the hallway yanked her attention in different directions. She looked into the far apartment to notice an elf looking around the corner from deeper inside of the apartment.

“Shit! He’s down!” The elf called out. It looked as though he held a SMG in one hand and that the CorpSec teams were regrouping for round two.

Copperhead
[January 6th, 2072; Dr. Ted‘s Black Clinic, Redmond]
Cutter returned her hug and accepted the beer before moving back into the apartment. “Well babe, it doesn’t appear that there is too much off with the place. Slater said he was able to penetrate their systems through a wireless connection. I’m sure there is probably closed networks in the facility but they do not seem too intent on protecting the place in general. We should be able to sneak in, sneak out; and Slater can doctor the surveillance for us.”

The ork drained half the can and let out a loud belch. “Reminds me, we should get some good beer one of these days.”

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Outside of the Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
While the riot was of intense interest to most onlookers, Silk found herself hoping to be gone as soon as possible. It did not take very long for He-Who-Sees-Within to locate her with her directions. The battle between Knight Errant and the Spikes raged hard just a few feet from them as he helped her to her feet.

“You certainly look like you’ve been through the wringer. We better get you taken care of.”

He helped her to the end of the alley where a beat up car sat. After helping her into the back, he lurched the wheel and sped off into the night.

“You still conscious?” He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

[Suicidal Street ...]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

Seti "sliced the pie" as he exited the bathroom, making sure he knew everything within sight. Dahlia was pointing her little poison gun out the door; across the hall, a dwarf was collapsed on the floor, and an elf was starring into the apartment. The Doctor was still sitting on the floor. He needs to come out of that trance, Seti thought. We need fireballs more than we need recon right now.

"Shit! He's down!"

The elf was holding a compact SMG. "Mine now, corpsucker." He leveled the front sights of the Predator at the elf's forearm, slowly pushed his breath out, and squeeezed.

[AStarshipforAnts]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

A distracted, but peaceful smile came across Dahlia’s lips as she watched the Dwarf crumple to the floor into a chemically induced unconsciousness. But, there were more of them to take care of. If Dahlia got her way, she’d be able to question one of them personally after the firefight was over.

Thinking about the contents of her freshly filled medkit and chemical laboratory, the woman moved her gaze to the elf peeking out from the corner within the far apartment. She took quick aim with the dart pistol, hearing the click of a new dart settling into place—ready for firing. The smartgun icons on her goggles lined up--clear against the AR overlay of apartment numbers in the hallway, and the woman fired once.

Not bothering to see whether or not the missile hit its mark, Dahlia ducked back into the concealment and cover of her own apartment. Also hopefully out of the line of fire. She probably couldn’t out-gun the elf, and he did have an SMG. And that's what Seti was there for.

[Aria]

[January 5th, 2072; Driving away from the confrontation, Renton]

Silk stirred herself back to vague consciousness, wincing as she moved against a lumpy bit in the threadbare seat

“Yes, still here…look, I may be crazy but a kind of reverse self preservation is telling me to go back and find out what the hell was going on. I’m not going to get too close to KE and those trogs but I need to know why those corp goons attacked me, even if it was just wrong place and time. It’s what you don’t know in the shadows that will kill you! …No, please don’t object…” she interrupted him…

“I need to do this. I’ll send my drones in to the building that was being targeted, I shouldn’t be in any more danger than I am now…but if you could patch me up enough to stop me leaking all over the place and give me something for the pain I’d be eternally grateful! This is just all too close to some bad stuff from my past and I need to resolve it for my own peace of mind…”

[Notsoevildm]

[January 6th, 2072; Dr. Ted‘s Black Clinic, Redmond]
Cutter returned her hug and accepted the beer before moving back into the apartment. “Well babe, it doesn’t appear that there is too much off with the place. Slater said he was able to penetrate their systems through a wireless connection. I’m sure there is probably closed networks in the facility but they do not seem too intent on protecting the place in general. We should be able to sneak in, sneak out; and Slater can doctor the surveillance for us.”

The ork drained half the can and let out a loud belch. “Reminds me, we should get some good beer one of these days.”

Copperhead gives Cutter a big smile. "Darling, if we pull dis off we can afford real beer! Hell, we can probably even afford to move out of dis shithole of a squat. See if you can pick up some heavy duty cutters tomorrow and we go in through da fence and hope dat Slater is as good as he claims to be. I'll see if I can get us some magical support."

After a few beers and some loud sex, they collapse into sleep. The next morning Copperhead is up early. She shakes Cutter awake and sends him out shopping. Then she has a wash and warms some soykaf for breakfast. Once she feels fully awake, she takes out the summoning materials she bought from Lenny. She moves around the squat in a slow sinuous dance, adjusting the seemingly random items that make up her lodge until she feels the presence of snake. She settles herself cross-legged in the middle of the room and slowly swaying side-to-side, mumbles and hums a song of power.

[Grimm]

Dahlia, Seti, The Doctor
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
The dual shots at the elf from Dahlia and Seti both managed to find their mark. The dart impacting him did not seem to have the same effect that it did on the dwarf. His eyes looked heavy and they barely registered pain as Seti’s bullet tore into his gun hand. The SMG he was toting dropped to the floor and he let out a murmured gurgle as he slumped to the ground.

Screaming and crying could be heard from inside the far apartment, likely from the family that cowered in the corner. From the opposite corner the elf was standing by, the barrel of a shotgun inched around the corner and let loose a slug towards Dahlia’s apartment. It sailed past Seti’s head and thumped into the concrete. There appeared to be another humanoid behind the shotgun, either troll or orc. It was impossible to tell from the angle he was standing at.

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Driving away from the confrontation, Renton]
He-Who-Sees-Within just blinked and studied Silk intently for a minute. “Well, I guess we can go back if you really want to do recon. I’d like to not get embroiled in the riot that is going on out front. I don’t know how much blood you’ve lost either, but you are definitely losing a lot of color. I can probably stop the bleeding but I can’t take the bullet out with this meager kit.”

He turned the car around and headed back towards where he had parked originally. Rummaging through the medkit beside him, he handed her back a needle with a liquid painkiller and a small packet of pills. “Don’t take them all at once. It’ll kill you.”

The car slid up into the spot it had vacated just a few minutes before. The sounds of screams, gunfire, and various other howls echoed through the alleyways as the riot appeared to have grown out from the courtyard in front of the apartment building.

Copperhead
[January 6th, 2072; Cutter and Copperhead‘s Squat, Redmond]
Cutter smiled and nodded at her. “I’m pretty sure we already have a pair of bolt-cutters in the stash. Sort of one of those tools you don’t want to really be without, ya know."

[January 7th, 2072; Cutter and Copperhead’s Squat, Redmond]
The morning saw the ork and troll wake to what should be a rather fruitful day. Cutter’s mentality had gone straight to work mode for the day. He spent his time checking and rechecking his gear, ammunition, whether his clips were loaded, and if his weapons were in prime condition. His buzz of activity did not distract Copperhead as she called out for assistance from Snake and his minions for the coming job.

Once they had settled in, they simply had to wait for some time to pass as they finished their final preparations.

Scar
[January 6th, 2072; Outside of the Summeroaks Apartments; Renton]
“Well, I didn’t plan on these fucks showing up but hey, what can you do?” Scar turned to another troll next to him and half-shrugged.

“SPIKES MOUNT UP AND ROLL!”

The cry of their chapter president echoed through the gunfire, alerting them all to the change in circumstances. Knight Errant was still going strong as was the Spikes, but if they were weakened too much they would be easy pickings for any rivals that tried to make a move. Knight Errant had finally figured out that there was no officer down, other than the ones that were down now. And were themselves organizing to fall back and regroup.

Scar picked his way through the mess of bodies and injured, picked up one of the wounded Spikes and put him on the back of his bike. He approached one of the CorpSec guards that was wounded and still conscious. The troll slipped the wrench from his belt and pounded him in the face a few times to help him into unconsciousness.

“Time to take a ride my man,” the troll said as he walked back to his bike, dragging the guard with him. A tow chain from a saddlebag was lashed around the guard’s ankles and fixed to the frame of the bike. The Harley Scorpion roared to life and Scar took off, leaving bits and pieces of the CorpSec guard on the streets of Renton as he headed back to Redmond.

[AStarshipforAnts]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

The single slug buried itself into the drywall of Dahlia’s living room with a solid crack—powerful enough to shake any picture frames hanging on the wall, if there had been any there in the first place. Since the walls were completely bare of physical or AR decoration, the only extraneous show that came from the round came in the form of a few flakes and chunks of drywall falling to the floor. Dahlia’s gaze zipped from the bullet buried in her wall to Seti, and then back out the apartment door to the barrel of the shotgun across the hall.

Even in the middle of the firefight, the rumbling of many booted feet didn’t escape Dahlia’s notice. One part of the woman’s mind noted that the CorpSec goons might have to be taken care of as well. A handful of grenades would be optimal right now, she noted. But, the Corp teams would have to wait. Dahlia took a few moments to line up the sights in her goggles and assure a better shot before squeezing the trigger on her dart gun once more.

[Aria]

[January 5th, 2072; Driving away from the confrontation, Renton]

"You're right of course...I don't really want to go back there, it sounds like a small war going on!"

Silk pulled out her spider drones from their carrying pouch and removed the fibre optic spool from the back of each...

"I'll set these off on a search pattern of the building that the corpers were targetting and then come back and pick them up in a couple of days and analyse whatever they've picked up...it'll either tell me something useful or it won't...I might be able to get Aria to tweak their search parameters if I give her access to their frequencies..."

She looked back to He-Who-Sees,

"Now please take me away on your white charger and dig this lump of lead out of me...I'm beginning to feel decidely woozy from those shots..."

[Notsoevildm]

Copperhead
[January 7th, 2072; Cutter and Copperhead's Squat, Redmond]
The morning saw the ork and troll wake to what should be a rather fruitful day. Cutter's mentality had gone straight to work mode for the day. He spent his time checking and rechecking his gear, ammunition, whether his clips were loaded, and if his weapons were in prime condition. His buzz of activity did not distract Copperhead as she called out for assistance from Snake and his minions for the coming job.

Once they had settled in, they simply had to wait for some time to pass as they finished their final preparations.

As she tied off the binding on the spirit, a wide grin split her full lips. I fraggin' did it. I bound a spirit.

She didn't much care that she had only managed to finagle a single service out of the air spirit and that it was currently brooding like a rain cloud just above her head. She had done it. She could even feel a faint sense of approval from the hard to please serpent mentor. She had learned a new secret today.

She checked out her gear but Cutter had already cleaned and loaded her shotgun. Her 'new' shades flickered for a second as they interfaced with the gun's smartlink telling her the gun's safety was on and that it was loaded with five gel rounds.

She swayed for a moment, practising the forms of the new spell which she suspected they would need later. Then with a big grin, she gave Cutter a brief, passionate embrace and they headed out of the squat.

<<@Slater: You ready to roll knife-ears? This time your covering my ass. Just don't get distracted by it.>>

[Grimm]

Dahlia, Seti, The Doctor
[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]
The dart sung through the air and struck the knuckles of whomever was holding the shotgun though it remained in place. Almost a second later, CorpSec guards flanked the door again. One yelled out in Japanese and tossed a flash grenade into the room. After it erupted, the team swarmed in trampling over the unconscious dwarf and moving towards whoever had the shotgun leveled at them. Her drug appeared to kick in as they rounded the corner as no sounds of gunfire erupted to greet them.

More of the CorpSec guards filtered into the apartment from the hallway locking it down. A half-helmeted head came through the ruins of Dahlia’s door and inspected the bodies of the two that had been taken out by the blast. He barked something in Japanese and opened the remains of the door.

“Please excuse. We get our men and leave,” his English was halting, but good enough to understand. A flurry of activity from the other apartment saw the CorpSec team escorting the civilians and dragging the unconscious team out.

Silk
[January 5th, 2072; Some Clinic on the Edge of Renton]
He-Who-Sees-Within chuckled quietly to himself and wheeled the vehicle away hard. He drove quickly, but not recklessly as they crossed Renton. It took about ten minutes of bleeding and painkillers for them to reach what sort of passed for a medical clinic. With some effort, the two of them got her from the car and into the clinic. It was a fairly nice place when one considered that it was not corp-funded.

Two nurses quickly helped her to an operating table where an emergency doctor extracted the wad of metal that had been lodged in her body. The anesthetic was not incredibly good, but when coupled with what she already took she was floating in and out of delightful consciousness.

That is where she would lay for the rest of the night. The next morning found her groggy, laying half-clothed in a hospital bed with He-Who-Sees-Within passed out in a nearby chair.


Copperhead
[January 7th, 2072; Cutter and Copperhead’s Squat, Redmond]

Copperhead was quite pleased with herself with her accomplishment. She even felt a warm rush of approval from the Snake spirit that guided her. The bond with the spirit was fairly weak and she knew it was tenuous, but still; success is success. A quick gear check and a grope of Cutter saw the pair head out of their squat and out to do the job they were commissioned to perform.

<<@Slater: You ready to roll knife-ears? This time your covering my ass. Just don't get distracted by it.>>

<<@Copperhead: Yes yes, just what I want. A scaley-assed troll. Probably be the same as fucking a cheese-grater.>>

<<@Copperhead, Slater: How do you know what fucking a cheese-grater is like Slater?>>

<<@Copperhead, Cutter: Ghost damn it, you know what I meant.>>

<<@Copperhead, Slater: Oh no please, fill us in.>>

Cutter turned to Copperhead and snickered as Cutter’s last reply returned only silence on the air. The pair grabbed the truck that Cutter was borrowing and drove down near the garage. He pulled it over and parked a few blocks away.

“Really shouldn’t be hard to get into. We can cut through the fence and go through the side door provided dipshit cuts the fence’s power so we don’t get fried.”

[Aria]

[January 6th, 2072; Some Clinic on the Edge of Renton]

Well that was fun… Silk mused to herself, still feeling a little spacey, although lucid now at least.

“Will I live?” she half joked “my shoulder still feels like I’ve been hit by a troll! …and I hope it wasn’t you that removed my armour, we don’t know each other that well yet…” she smiled to take any sting out of her words. “Thank you for the rescue though!”

[Suicidal Street ...]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

"Hold on, now," Seti interrupted the CorpSec guards. "You can't just start a war in a civilian apartment building and walk away like nothing happened! Who's going to be making repairs, here?" He gestured at the damaged doorway, and the bullet-ridden walls. "Doors aren't cheap, you know! I hope you're prepared to heavily reimburse us for the trouble you've caused!"

In the pauses between breaths, he quickly tapped out a message on his commlink's AR keyboard. <<Fighting appears over. Every1 check in.>> Sending it to all the meeting's participants, he refocused his attention on the CorpSec guard. "What the hell could these guys," gesturing across the hall, "have even done to justify this level of force, anyway?"

[AStarshipforAnts]

[January 5th, 2072; Summeroaks Apartments, Renton]

As the CorpSec team entered Dahlia’s apartment and removed the remains of their men, the woman’s dart pistol fell to the ground. The burned corpses, the neighbors across the hall, and the unconscious people being dragged out of that apartment were all just as forgotten as the pistol. Dahlia moved at a pace that placed her in the living room one second, and in the bathroom within the span of a few heartbeats. Her shoes clacked over the linoleum flooring in a hurried series in staccato. As the woman bent over the tub holding her brother, her voice was obviously tinted with worry and anxiety.

"Asim? Little brother?" She almost pleaded, reaching for the boy’s wrist to take vital signs.