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

[JxJxA]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 22:52:00 The Drunken Drone]

Demon arcs an eyebrow at Dealer and nods back politely. He is about to take another bite of his omelette---which is American and bourgeois and oh so delicious right now---when Pixel wisecracks him. He stops mid-bite and smirks at what has to be a first for him---getting rejected by a toy. He shrugs it off, eats the omelette, and chews his food before replying.

"Mon ami, the very last thing I would desire is to offend you. Worry not, I shall not look at you that way any longer." Especially since I am a bit afraid of the level of depravity a mind must reach to masquerade in such a form...for all I know, you could be a very ugly, very obese, and very unattractive---ugh---man hiding behind that dinosaur... He leaves that last bit unsaid for two reasons. First, there is no need to perpetuate the stereotype of "the rude Frenchman"---that is Ember's chosen role more often than not. Second, "Barney" came bearing gifts, and let it never be said that Demon is ungrateful.

He slips the new commlink over his ear and is delighted to see his PAN snap back into existence with all the various little messages---all in French---that he had painstakingly coaxed out of it as a novice programmer.

<<Greetings! It has been 50 minutes since you last logged in!>>

<<The Savalette Guardian currently has 12 of 15 bullets in the clip. If you have a chance, please exchange it with a full clip!>>

<<It has been 2 days, 14 hours, 37 minutes and 43 seconds since you last cleaned your Ares Alpha. Don't you think you had better clean it?>>

Hearing the sound of the crowd, he looks back to admire the stripper's "performance" when he hears Pixel speak French.

"Oui, un bon conseil pour toutes les choses---good advice for all things. I am impressed, mon dinosaure belle, but I must humbly ask that we speak the language of this land. There is a lady present who does not speak my motherland's tongue. As I am terrible at remembering to speak English, perhaps you can help remind me?" he replies, indicating Copperhead. Gifts AND French? I am beginning to like this Pixel person, whoever he or she may be...

[Xarin]

@Ember, Copperhead, Seth, Dealer & Demon
[April 15th 2072; 22:53:00 The Drunken Drone]

"Oui, un bon conseil pour toutes les choses---good advice for all things. I am impressed, mon dinosaure belle, but I must humbly ask that we speak the language of this land. There is a lady present who does not speak my motherland's tongue. As I am terrible at remembering to speak English, perhaps you can help remind me?"

The dino's arms flop up and a little out in what you think is supposed to be a shrug (it's not exactly an agile toy). "Aye, I'll try to keep that in mind."

<<@Demon: I'm half surprised that PAN of yours isn't full of sultry female persona-softs on all your gear. Or did I read you wrong on that, mmMM? Anyway, it's secured, but don't forget those sensory feeds for me, S'il vous plaît. I think you'll enjoy the TacNet, Mr. Suspected-Killer-For-Hire. And I'd rather you be on your toes after that little trist on the trid this evening.>>

[Notsoevildm]

@Ember, Pixel, Seth, Dealer & Demon
[April 15th 2072; 22:52:00 The Drunken Drone]

The little purple toy pipes up again, "Might I suggest you boyos make sure you have the last components on your end to facilitate the TacNet? You'll need 4 sensory feeds at a minimum to get the most from it. Trodes and a sim module will suffice for 3. Add some low-light or thermographic from your own eyes or some specs and you're all set. I bet Molly has whatever you need on that end. Soyez toujours prêt, oui?"

Frag, now the decker was speaking French too.

Copperhead frowns, tucking into her food with a vengeance. After she goblinized, it had taken her more than a year just to be able to speak English again without slurring her words or drooling. And then to survive in the Barrens she had let her grammar and pronunciation slide, letting most people think she was just another dumb trog. She was going to have to step up her game to keep up with these people. And to do that she was going to need some better gear. A slow smile spreads across her face as she listens to the plans being drawn up.

Time for some retail therapy!

"I'm gonna see what da lady has in my size. Pixel, can you keep a channel open on my comm so I can listen in on da plan?"

She follows the stout little woman 'out the back' and her eyes go wide at the range of gear stored there. Her every question is answered with a pointed finger or an 'over there' and soon she has stacked up quite a pile of gear. She is checking out a Franchi SPAS combat shotgun when something catches her eye. She picks up the big Enfield shotgun with it's drum magazine and raises an eyebrow towards Molly.

"Enfield AS-7, 24 round drum, burst fire capable. Laser sight's been replaced with a half decent Chinese smartlink system and the added foregrip helps with the recoil, which is a bitch. It's already troll modded, so looks like it was made for you."

When she returns to the cafe, she has changed from ganger/runner wannabe to army pinup. The heavy camo suit conceals her scaled arms and torso. It is set to urban/night pattern and a variety of grenades are clipped to its webbing. Milspec tac-goggles are pushed up on her head and a heavy black respirator hangs loose on its straps. She holds up the big shotgun in one hand, posing for a moment in the doorway, then stuffs it into a troll-sized holdall along with her other gear before joining the others back at the table.

[Xarin]

@Ember, Copperhead, Seth, Dealer & Demon
[April 15th 2072; 22:53:00 The Drunken Drone]

'Barney' pips up again, "We seem to have an admirer. Check your AR. I think you'll want to see this too, Molly, Hansai." Across the new commlinks comes a vid-clip and photo capture of the figure sprawled across the top of the trucks, and a tacnet marker showing the figure's approximate location.

[Hey Marvin, give me another flyby on these coordinates, and this time keep some altitude ya goober. 500m or better] Pixel forwards the girl's estimated loation. [And while you're at it, see if you can scan down a hidden node around there.]

[AppliedCheese]

@ Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 22:5?(IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif) ? The Drunken Drone]

Dealer is interestedly opening the schematics flashing across his AR, and transposing coordinates with some old GoogleFoxWorld maps when a sparkling wand appears with a bright warning red on it. Pixel may have some, uh, unique, schemes for a hacker, but they always eem to be an eccentric lot. The little cartoon nuclear explosions shooting out the tip of the wand probably mean this is important...

<<Warning, Drone (roll back enabled) MARVIN has had an unplanned communication loss. All systems were functioning as of last report. Re-establish signals have failed. Would you like to know more? >>

No. I think I know enough...in a sort of you knew a run with two mages and a burning hotel was going to go like this sort of know-enough way...

Dealer stops talking for a moment, and his gifted commlink drops off the net with a final transmission:

<<@ GRP Suicide-Kings I'm on vocal RF only. SC PT 33.350. Pixel, tell me when my link is safe again?>>

He turns away from the veritable corncucopia of goodies, grabbing his duffel on the way. His head turns to talk to Molly "Say Molly, I have a question..."

As he begins to speak he notices the big fraggin mage, Copperhead right, is pulling out a shot gun.

So much for the subtle approach. A fragging big ass mage with a fragging big ass shotgun...maybe we can pretend its for the stripper?...righht...mages....

[Notsoevildm]

@ Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 22:53:10 The Drunken Drone]

Copperhead notices the new guy, Dealer, glancing her way as she pulls out the big gun. She grins at him and shrugs, "It's been one of those nights."

[JxJxA]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 22:53:10 The Drunken Drone]

<<@Pixel: Mon ami, you wound me. I am nothing if not a consummate professional, and such persona wares would be too much of a distraction---assuming I even knew how to program them. Besides, if I find myself longing for the company of a woman, I find one who sees that she desires me as well. However, welcome to my PAN. My eyes and ears are at your disposal, mon personnage mysterieux d'ordinateur. I hope you will find their enhancements useful.>>

He finishes his meal and then carefully prepares his plate for one of the lingerie-wearing waitresses. He graciously hands her his cleaned plate---along with a tip of 50 nuyen. Having a whore for a mother, he remembers his roots and recognizes the likelihood that the waitress worked for the odd tip or two. Perhaps it might even pave the way for something more between the two of them. Nuyen lasts but a moment, a potential night of passion lasts...well...a night time, but the memory of that night lasts forever.

Done with his meal, he moves on over to Molly.

"My dear hostess, a thousand thanks for the meal and hospitality! I admit, I began to fear that the only thing that society wished to spare me were bullets from a smoking gun. If I may impose yet again, I would be grateful to peruse your more martial matter.

He looks through the different lists of ammunition and accessories, but when his eyes manage to find the price he balks a bit at the notion of paying that much for it.

"Ma belle hotesse, your prices are surely fair, but is there not a thing you can do to lower them just this once? After all, we are on a mission to avenge your dead friend..." He hesitates to finish speaking until he sees her reaction. When he sees her relent a bit in the asking price, he begins to smile gratefully.

"A thousand thanks, mademoiselle. What is that? You would like me to perform for your establishment one day? Why, I would be delighted!"

With everyone arming up, he ditches the long trench coat he was wearing to cover his own chameleon suit. He pops one of his newly purchased clips with APDS ammo into one of his hold out pistols of choice---"Surprise." When he sees Copperhead heft up the shotgun, he shoots her an approving grin.

"My lady, what a perfect choice of evening attire for our midnight soiree. It even compliments your eyes."

[Notsoevildm]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 22:53:10 The Drunken Drone]

Copperhead returns Demon's grin with a saucy wink and her best cover girl pose.

"Why thank you Demon. When a girl makes an effort to pick da right outfit and accessories ta go wid it, it's nice ta be appreciated. Just not sure if I'll actually be able to hit anything with dis big ass gun, though."

She then snaps the goggles into place and adopts a more businesslike stance, the shotgun held barrel down in both hands. She briefly assenses the area to see if they are still inside the buildings wards, pondering her next move. Then she focuses her attention on the data overlays Pixel's tacnet is sending to her AR feed.

<<@Pixel: Okay lady, I gotta lotta stuff going on in my AR. Care ta explain what da frag it all means?>>

[AppliedCheese]

@ Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 22:5X:XX The Drunken Drone]


Dealer watches as his tacnet feeds and updates cascade away, quietly mourning the loss. Since it seems like tonight is going to do its best to kill him, there's no reason to blare his presence to an apparently compromised net. A brief tingling sensation on his arms, the well-beyond-5-o'clock-shadow stands on end for a moment, and skinlink is completely active. Back to the digital stone ages...maybe this is how the gunmen felt back when there were decks and wires.

If Pixel is as drek hot as they say, the tour of pre-matrix history will be short.


Hopefully. Then again, we lost that drone no warninf

As Demon flirts with the ludicrous image of a massive, be-shotgunned troll-mage, who happens to be holding a playboy playboy pose, it looks like the skinny mage is doing something that makes his nose bleed.

4 minutes into the meet, an amorous shooter, TWO freakin mages, and everyone about to go buck wild in a bar...I should have invested in some extra nano-tats. Maybe if I make sure the repsirator and goggles are on, and then make sure Molly conveniently corrupts whatever feed the KE get when this is all over....maybe..just maybe...I can end this night without a million nuyen bounty.

He glances over to Copperhead slapping her goggles into place, Ember doing...mage stuff...with the air...thats causing him to wince...and Molly heading over to talk about how to best shoot a sniper from inside a crowded bar.

The again. Maybe not.

A final faint- and quickly dying-moment to hope that they aren't on a drone feed right now, and he waits for Molly to speak...

[Seth]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:00 The Drunken Drone]

As Molly heard the news, her face became red with anger. "Active defence plan alpha" she said to the thin air. "Pixel dear: Move now. That could be a sniper aiming on you. ".

As she said the word "alpha" there were four explosions, and four pillars of fire reaching 100s of metres into the air from the scrapyard. As she finished the words "...aiming on you" a massive electro magnetic web slammed into everyone's commlinks, and all matrix operations ceased. The lights illuminating the car pack switched off.

In the back yard, two turrets popped out of the ground. Each of the turrets had twin heavy machine guns and a mortar. The mortar began to fire "phut phut phut".

From the top of the pillars of fire came an intense flashing light brighter than the sun, making it impossible to see what was there.

"Follow me" Molly said, and walked to the hole that had appeared in the courtyard floor, complete with fireman's pole. Grabbing the pole she descended three stories into the antechamber of a control room.

The control room had huge old fashioned displays everywhere. "Don't trust this modern ARO stuff in time of trouble" Molly muttered. "This is our auxillary control room". Wireless communications were working down here, but provided very little capability other than duplicating the displays.

One of the screens was a millimetre radar sweep of the junkyard. Three humanoid figures had been spotted and were being highlighted. Most of the parked lorries were susceptible to the radar, but seven of them were highlighted as risks, as they could not be pentrated. The body count inside each lorry was displayed as a number, along with a weapons count.

Another display showed the deployment pattern of the microdrones being launched by 6 mortars scattered around the junk yard. The drones showed a heat map of threat. The three humanoid figures were shown, as were the remains of 2 microdrones and 2 hover drones designated wasp 1, wasp 2, bandit 1 and bandit 2.

A group of four screens showed a birds eye view of the junkyard from the four weapons platforms that had been rocket launched and were now descending on parachute. The weapons platforms were currently illuminating the humanoid figures with multiple laser targetters.

Images of the party which was just approaching its climatic finalle, were superimposed over the guests. Each of the guests had a little ARO tag showing weapons, ammunition count, threat rating and trust rating. The commedian was taking charge of the guests giving an obviously prepared and very funny speech for their benefit. A handful of the guests were ignoring the comedian and running towards their vehicles, an expert system was detailing recommendations for each.

A cluster of screens showed the images from crawler bots that had been hidden in the junk, several of them moving toward's the figures.

"I don't know who they are" Molly said. "No corporate marking. Their equipment is expensive. I cannot afford a war with an unknown corporation, so with plan alpha I will try and take them alive, but while I can destroy equipment, I am not going to shoot them unless they shoot at me first"

As Molly was describing the rules of engagement, two of the figures slowly dropped their weapons, and put their hands in the air, but the third (the one that Pixel had spotted) was suddenly surrounded by a haze of thermal smoke. The millimetre radar tracking blured a little, but it could see the figure moving at superhuman speeds towards the lorry park.

Three of the lorries that were immune to radar popped turrets, which began to fire at the parachuting weapon platforms, and began to disgorge armed people and flaming elementals. The weapons platforms in response dropped canisters. "FAB and HE" Molly winced. And many of the figures including the elementals dropped, but the ones nearest the running guests were not being targeted, and already two of the platforms were reporting critical damage.

"Drek, they are serious about this" Molly said grimly. "This is a full corporate assault. You need to get out of here. " As she spoke a trap door opened. "This is a disused service tunnel. It takes you to the storm drain system. Take this <ARO Link to a map soft>. The tunnel is trapped but the map soft includes a how-to to avoid dying. Use it!"

Turning her back Molly began to orchestrate the defense of her cafe.

[Seth]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:00 The Drunken Drone]

Pixel's commlink shouted alarms. <<Unregistered program identified.>> squawked the alarm programs.

A vague image of a an old fashioned ram chip appeared.

A voice spoke. "Pixel. Long way to run. You cannot keep running." the insectoid chip arched its back, and claws dripping vitriolic poison appeared on the ends of the legs. "My employer wants you dead, so lets do this" .

As it spoke, the chip broke into three sections, and each moved separately to engage

[Notsoevildm]

@ Seth, Ember, Demon, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:00 The Drunken Drone]

Frag me, it's like World War III out there. thinks Copperhead as she tries to make sense of the chaos on the screens of Molly's secret bunker. At least I'm dressed for it.

She glances down the tunnel then takes a moment to upload the mapsoft, her brow furrowing in concentration as she struggles to manipulate the data with her mind. Once her new commlink seems to have stabilized, she turns to Molly.

"Sorry for bringing dis down on yer head. Dese fraggers is really out fer our blood."

She takes a tentative step toward the escape route then glances back to the others with a tusky grin, aimed mainly at Demon.

"Any of you fraggers even think of saying 'Ladies first' and I kick your hoop inta da first trap we run inta."

[AppliedCheese]

@ GRP Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:00 The Drunken Drone]

"Well. Drek."

As the display of violence, technology, magic and what Dealer figures is a decade of the Drunken Drone's legal earnings light up the night, he rapidly strips off his Actioneer Business clothes as everyone watches the screens. Well, hopefully everyone is watching the screens. A social butterfly he is not, but there's probably something that says you shouldn't flounce around in nothing but boxers while sitting in the alternate command nodes of impregnable-fortress-bars while a massive attack is underway. Then again, there's probably nothing in an etiquette book that says you can't so maybe its open for new precedent?

In a surprisingly short amount of time, he is stepping into his much beloved chameleon suit. The colors mold around him to match the surroundings, and shrugs irritatedly as he adjusts to the feel of the new interior protective adjustments. His heat signature rapidly fades from sight at cutting edge thermal dampening comes into play. He frowns for a moment at an unfamiliar feel:

Forgot to spray the insides with RF inhibitor before the run. Dammit. As if this run isn't trying to kill me already without being sloppy.

Respirator on, goggles down. Functions check on ultrasound. All commlinks blacked out except for the Avalon in skinlink mode. Not ideal, but when the enemy just trumped your hacker unannounced, having a matrix signature is not a good thing.

And then the bag opens. Out comes the silenced Ares Alpha, and in goes a magazine full of APDS. Smoke, Flash, and Frag grenades, along with extra ammo all get tucked into cargo pouches. Smartgun data silently hums across his skin, and then across his goggles.

For the first time tonight, he smiles.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dealer is back in business.

[Xarin]

@Ember, Copperhead, Seth, Dealer & Demon
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:00 The Drunken Drone]

Pixel's icon sighs in exasperation. "Aww emm, you remember me. Ready for round 2 are we? How tedious." With the Alert on, her commlink was already working to sever her opponent's connection, so Pixel decided to make it's job a bit easier.

With the enemy icon nicely highlighted, she comes in at it with a wave of her magic Exploit wand.

[AppliedCheese]

@ GRP Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:XX The Drunken Drone, moments after the trapdoor opens]

<<Aces and Eights Net, Dealer Internal - Burst functionality enabled, ARO received (rollback enabled), returning to skinlink only.>>

Dealer mentally nods, and then glances at Copperhead and Demon and considers the implications of "In tha hoop". After a brief mental battle, he decides not to antagonize the mage in the light of the upcoming situation. He does however, begin to speak:

"Molly, Copperhead, we have a slight problem with the escape through the drains plan. You see, Molly said the sniper was aiming at Pixel. And that sniper was supposedly covering the front of the bar. Which means our hacker is up there, in the middle of that. Presumably in the lot, or they would be joining us in person right now," he points at the ongoing battle playing out on screen, "and we can't exactly get the paydata without our hacker. Because frankly, I'm no good at that sort of thing, Demon doesn't seem the type, and I'm not betting that our more magically inclined bounties in the group are anywhere beyond Excellerator 2072 spreadsheets. Which means we need to retrieve Pixel alive, and without more bullet holes than we can patch with a medi-kit. So, Molly, two questions: which one of those figures is Pixel, and how do we get back up? Actually, make that three questions - can you drop a few more loads of FAB out there? I may be working with mages tonight, but at least I can watch some spirits die."


"Czzktt - Pixel, I'm coming up assist in extraction. Molly is marking your position. Don't get shot - Hansai would have to hire a Yak or something if you get wasted."

And you don't want your Yak friends in on this one for some reason, do you Mr. J?

[Notsoevildm]

@Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone, moments after the trapdoor opens]

Copperhead glances back to the chaos on the monitors and sighs at the carnage. Frag, how could anyone survive through all that?

She turns to Dealer, "Are you fragging crazy? We needs her alive yeah, but if we go out there now we is all likely to get killed."

Seeing that he is serious, she shakes her head. Then she draws herself up to her full two meters, a mad grin all tusks and teeth spreading across her face.

"Frag it! Okay, if we do dis den gimme a sec to see if I can rustle up some help from Snake."

She closes her eyes and begins to sway to an unheard beat.

Mama snake, I need your help. Please send me one of your servants to help me get our decker to safety. She is the key to unlock the dwarf Allenby's secrets.

She smiles as she feels the familiar presence of a winged snake close by in the astral. Then still swaying and mumbling under her breath, she rubs one of the earrings in her left ear and draws on Snake's senses to warn her of danger.

Just as suddenly as she started, she stops swaying. A translucent forked tongue tastes the air as she hisses, Okay, I gotss uss ssome help. Can maybe keep a couple of uss hidden if dey sstay closess to me. Maybe meanss dat no magess, sspirits or riggers sspots us. Coz den we iss fragged."

[AppliedCheese]

@Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone,a few more moments after the trapdoor opens]

"Out there? Oh no. We're not going out there," Dealer points to the parking lot, which by now resembles a cross between mac-truck demolition derby and a Karl Kombatmage special effects director audition,"contrary to what it may seem like since I did, in fact, accept the job, I don't want to die tonight. We are however, going up into the bar. Once those platforms drop, nothing is going to stop the ground forces from locking this place down." He points to the figures currently pinned down, and those moving forward. "Once that happens, Pixel's fragged and you all die three days later trying to hire a new hacker as your fixer walks away with a clean million. We just need to hold the path open for Pixel"

And I end up with no work, no nuyen, and probably no kneecaps.

Dealer glances around, and tucks himself in next to Copperhead. his distinct scowl at using a spirit is lost behind the respirator.
He see's Demon hefting a ridiculously illegal sniper rifle, though he seems to be patting his pockets for something.

Well, that's comforting. He looks like he knows how to use that thing, and worst case scenario, at least they'll shoot at him first. Well, after the mages. I bet Copperhead can take a few rounds too. We might actually live through this. Well, probably not Ember...but four outta five ain't bad.

"We just need to keep them outside the bar long enough for our hacker to make it back in. Pixel gets killed outside, we cut our losses and bail. Either way, step two is run like hell back here. Molly, we absolutely need every spirit and every drone up there fraggin dead," he pauses for a moment and adds "and actually, who here is running ultrasound or wideband? Or is getting direct feed from the radar still? A nice coating of thermo smoke might be a good trick."

All said, it's probably not the most inspiring speech. Or the best delivered. And the boom mike on the respirator probably isn't helping out the elocution any. but no one ever said Dealer was all that good at speaking. Come to think of it, in all the commotion, its hard to tell if anyone is listening all that hard to begin with. And the plan is kind of...hasty...

If they ever make this into a movie, I'll be royally pissed if they don't make that sound better.

[JxJxA]

@ Seth, Ember, Copperhead, Pixel & Dealer
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone,a few more moments after the trapdoor opens]

Listening to Dealer go off yet again, Demon rolls his eyes as he has finally had enough.

"Shut up! Mon Dieu, do you ever stop whining? You Americans with your tendencies to fret about the future are enough to make my ass twitch. For the moment, we are alive. Three days from now is an eternity away. Live in the now, not in your make-believe future. Cesser d'être un tel pleurnicheur putain, ugh."

"Ma belle hotesse," he says to Molly as he pops in an APDS clip into the Walther MA-2100---his Arc d'Morte---and fastens a silencer onto the muzzle, "I hope your friends have sent the right man. I consider myself an understanding person, but I am also a big believer in first impressions. While the mysterious Pixel has demonstrated an uncanny way with the digital arts, mon frere here has shown nothing more than ability to chronically whine."

He switches his commlink to skinlink mode, and smiles when he sees all of his various smartlinked guns come back on line as well as a long list of potential insults based on his last few words---Whine-ona Ryder, Oprah Whinefry and---his personal favorite because the others seemed somewhat archaic---Ghostwhiner.

"Now, my lovely Molly, if you could point me towards a good spot to sit and deal death from afar, I shall do everything in my power to help rescue Pixel unharmed." He shoulders the smartpack filled with ammunition, grenades, toxins and other "goodies" and awaits a direction.

[Seth]

@SuicideKings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:03 Inside Pixel's commlink

Pixel's wand appeared to have the desired effect, and one of EMM386's legs shattered. The decker's mock face (the writing on the chip) distorted with rage. <<That will do you no good>> he snarled. <<Taste my venom>>

With that the three parts of the centipede attacked as one. The part with the face attacking bit hard and fast, although the venom on the claws representing hideous psychotropic death seemed to have no effect on Pixel's icon. The two other fragments seemed less effective but still snapped unpleasantly at the outnumbered Pixel.

Chortling at his inevitable victory, foam spraying from the maddened decker's fake mouth, Emm386 pounded even harder at Pixel's icon.

[Seth]

@SuicideKings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:15 The Drunken Drone]

Molly waved her hands at the barrage of questions. "Whoa guys and gals hold your horses".

"Here is Pixel" an ARO appears around one of the lights. "Don't be surprised if she's a little small and hard to see. FAB is being deployed as fast as I can. " she shudders "I'm set up to deal with Gangers and Mobs, not corporate assault squads, and I'm hindered by those idiots" she gestures at the handful of guests that are not staying indoors, "as I can't drop the more interesting stuff near them".

"You get up that way" Molly points back to the fireman's pole, there where rungs set in the side of the access tube leading to the surface. "I'll cover you as best I can."

Standing to her full four foot height, she kissed Demon on the cheek. "Don't get yourself killed, you hear?" then booted the group out of her command center.

[Seth]

@SuicideKings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone]

The group of runners swarm up the ladder out of the command center and race into the cafe. As they enter they note the large steel door that slammed shut between the bar and the cafe. The walls of the cafe were broken and shattered, only held together by the Kevlar wallpaper. However the inside of the cafe was eerily untouched. The remains of the parties' supper was still on the tables. The jamming did not appear to be affecting the inside of the cafe.

Hansai Jones, unsheathed Katana in hand was standing in the center of the room, with a massive blue flashing ARO "Knight Errant Officer under unlawful attack, backup on way" bleeping from it.

This scene did not last long, as the door exploded open, and figures appeared through the smoke. A grenade was fired into the room from its launcher. Swifter than the eye could see, Hansai Jones' katana sliced it, deflecting it back to the doorway. With the grenade came a fusliade of bullets, and while his body moved with incredible beauty and speed, his left arm exploded with blood and gore as multiple assault rifle bullets smashed into it. The grenade then exploded, and Hansai dragged himself to the side as his auto-injector began to apply medical pharmaceuticals.

[Seth]

April 15th, 2072 10:51am; Dearborn; Downtown Seattle
[Pan=Hidden. Id = <Information not available>]

Noting Doza enthusiasm for getting out of here , Jotamon snapped out of his trance, and checked his expert systems that had been keeping track of the physical world. There was a copter coming, and that would be bad.

"OK Doza, I'm with you." Wincing a little from the pain of the assault rifle wound, Jotamon still moves somewhat gracefully, and follows Doza away from the scene of devastation. "You take Jamie, I'll carry the kid", and wincing a little more, Jotamon takes the child from Doza.

The two of them head into one of the industrial buildings, and out the back keeping an eye out for the copter heading for the vehicle that Doza's Mr J had proffered. "So this is your run Doza: ignoring important questions like 'how come you are alive', and 'where were you at your funeral...which was very touching...I cried', 'who is the kid' the urgent but less important questions are 'who wants him dead' and 'who is your Mr Johnson'?"

[AppliedCheese]

@Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone]

Hunkering behind the pizza selection of the self service cafe, Dealer watches the events unfold through a world of mottled grey brushstrokes. Ultrasound takes a little getting used to, but for times like these, its well worth the investment. As he watches the door blow open, he smiles grimly beneath the respirator.

Mistake. Obvious point of entry. The one place in the room where you can't even try to get out of the line of fire and the one place everyone wants to naturally look at anyhow. Easy meat.

His Ares is already laid on by the time the first figure comes through the fatal funnel. The smartgun system places a single Spade across the suggested point of aim. An even pull of the trigger.....

clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack

A counterpoint to the volume of gunfire elsewhere, the silenced rifle produces only the sound of its bolt hammering back. A quick adjustment and Dealer sends another long burst down range...

[Xarin]

@Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone]

Pixel's hands flew over the virtual controls and the screens in her AR datasphere rotated in a dizzying swirl as infromation flooded around the digital combat. A fluctuation in the inbound datastream display correlated the display of the ram-chip icon as it lost a leg. Her first strike had been successful in knocking one of his programs offline, but her commlink was struggling to close off the access port the enemy hacker was using to invade her system with little success.

One hand spun the glowing mouse-ball, trying to nail down emm386's icon with a magnifying glass, but it kept slipping away from her Analyze program. Then the three-segmented ram chip lunged forward at her icon. Pixel's other hand moved up to bring the firewall's shielding into the attack path of the main chip and nearly knocked it aside, but the fangs latched on and the corrosive goo started eroding through into her icon's arm. A spike in the simfeed channels confirmed her suspicions that it had a psychotropic component.

Whew. Glad I'm keeping this fight in AR on my end. Just wish I had time to get that Nuke program cleaned up before this little encount-EEP! Her train of thought is interrupted as the other two icons swing in to attack from the sides. One runs afoul of the large translucent plate she slides inbetween them. The second goes for her head, but she ducks her icon down and slips beneath and behind into a bull-fighter stance. "Olay, ya twerp!"

emm386's fangs are practically frothing now as the little ram chip chortles madly to itself. hooooboy. This one's a looney. Her own icon was showing signs of degredation with her left arm missing several polygonal blocks. The commlink wasn't feeling so good either. Some sections of the datasphere were fritzing to static intermittently as her system tried to work around the damaged code blocks.

Pixel's face screwes up and her tongue lickes up on her lip as she tries to carefully aim another bolt from her wand. It fires off a coruscating flash at emm386's chip, but the chip shifts into smoke and writhes away from the blast. All three segments of the chip surround the little fairy and lunge in together. At the last instant the little fairy twists into a spiraling rainbow and teleports away, leaving her three opponents tumbling past each other through empty space.

Suddenly Pixel's ECCM software flashes a red warning and kicks into overdrive, and the trio of ram chip segments freeze for a split second then de-rez into nothingness. The entire exchange is over in a mere 2 seconds.

Her comm pipes in a voice message from Molly:

"Active defence plan alpha. Pixel dear: Move now. That could be a sniper aiming on you. ".

Ahh, Molly. Well that works. Pixel takes to the air, heading away from the ensuing chaos to start circling around towards her van, Beanie, as quick as her little wings can carry her. Then she flips the Encryption's rotation ahead a few notches, updating her network's protocols to slow down emm386 a bit if he gets back online in short order.

As she flies, Pixel twitches a hand through her drone feeds to find Marvin currently descending. [Hey, Marvin, get your rear in gear! Get some altitude to around 1/2 km and keep an eye on the yard with those lovely sensors of yours]. The drone sluggishly responds [Oh, of course. I've got nothing better to do. I never have anything better to do.]

Pixel fires off a message to her teammates over the comms, it bears a slight metallic echo and some background static, but it's still coming through pretty clear.
<<@Team, Hansai, Molly: Just had a visit from our friendly neighborhood hacker with a message of love (death) from Teague. Nice timing on the ECM Molly, you nailed him. Which means he's probably close by. And no worries, I'm leaving the engagement area already. If you can do me a favor and make sure Alpha and Eddie are on that ECM's safe list, I'll be happy to lend you some support.>>

[Notsoevildm]

@Suicide Kings
[April 15th 2072; 23:00:30 The Drunken Drone]

Copperhead feels like she is moving in slow motion as the door explodes and chaos erupts. Lead flies around her as she dives into cover near Hansai, squeezing off a wide burst from the big gun towards the figures coming through the door.

Frag me, Molly was right. This thing kicks like a mule.

She mentally commands the gun to single shot, while pulling one of the flashbang's from her webbing. She passes it off to the air spirit floating near her with a hissed command.

"Drop thiss quick by the goonss at the door, then engage them as you dessire. Focuss on any who iss magically active. My thankss for your sservicess."