"If it comes to that I can throw a glamour on you. Is that look what I think it is?"

Alastor raises the vizor on his helmet and nods to Shiver. "SURGE. It's great in a fight, but not when trying to stay anonymous. I'll be back to normal soon." As he speaks, his irises start to change back from a burning crimson fire to an icy pool of blue, apart for a ring of crimson around the outer edge. His gaze snaps back to being focused on his surroundings, and he carries on.

"Well, at least you aren't blue."

Shiver grabs a periscope from his backpack, and begins a cautious scan of the area round the edge of the entrance.

"Whatever summoned that thing may be along with mates shortly, I vote we get going again sooner rather than later."

"Yeah."

"I agree. Some minor astral whisps should give us some warning about more like that as well." Eury focuses on nothing again for a few seconds. {You two, patrol around me at a range of 5 metres, if you see any spirits heading in, shout me and engage them. Stay at opposite sides of me.} "We now have some alarms for astral intruders." He then shakes his head and brings his focus back to the physical plane.

Reggie looks at Alastor. "There could be internal injuries, you ok to ride?" the elf's voice rises slightly in pitch, taking on a more feminine tone, still unsure whether to stow the Medkit away or not.

Shiver states the obvious danger to staying in the tunnel and Reg nods. With a motion of the hand, Reg's bike comes to life and pulls up alongside. Stowing the Medkit in the seat compartment, Reg gives one more concerned look to Alastor to make sure he can still ride. If he seems ok the Medkit is stored away and Reg mounts the bike. Holding a hand out to Sander to reliquish the Ruger lent to him, the elf waits for the weapon and for him to climb on, ready to gun the bike into gear.

Slightly stepping out of the shadows, Sander gave a quick look around as Reggie was hunched over Alastor.

"The chummer's fine. Let's just get back on the move."

Putting the safety on the Ruger, Sander flipped it over by the trigger guard, handing it handle first to Reggie.

"Thanks."

He hopped back on the bike.

Unless she can see anything out of the ordinary in front of the exit, Felice will head back and mount her bike once more, waiting for Shiver to move on.

With the spirit fight finished, Felice checks out the surrounding area, there seems to be nothing else the only noise is from birds in the trees nearby and the distant sound from the roads round the park.

Reggie watches Alastor carefully, he doesn't appear to be compensating for any injuries, infact apart from the odd shift in appearence he seems in fine form.

<I'm fine guys, really. It was all magically based, the pain.> He collects his bike from whether he parked it, and gets on, making room for Eury again. <Right, what route are we going to take now for getting into UCAS?> He looks round at the others.

Shiver hops onto the back of Felice's bike, removing his binocu goggles to a strap round his neck. "I feel that this ride may be a small amount more comfortable, let me just arrange matters"

Shiver mutters to himself. His hands twitch with partially completed gestures.

Spirit service one.

"Please guard myself, Alastor, Felice, Reggie and, Sander from mundane and magical drek ups."

(sorry Eury, 5 people only)

Spirit service two.

"keep an eye on astral space and notify me if you see any spirits or other astral forms apart from those summoned by myself or Eury there following or otherwise taking an interest in us"

<Let's go.>

<Should we close the gate after us, Reg?>

Eury climbs back onto the bike. <If that is it then I'd be happy. Odd that they'd send just a spirit.>

Alastor checks his watch to see how much time they've got left. <Guys, we should probably try and get a move on. We haven't got very long, and we need to decide where to head- NOW!>

Reggie tucks the gun in the leather jacket's inside pocket and nods to Felice.
<"Yeah, we'll close and lock the gate as it should be. Besides, if anyone's following behind, it'll slow them down.">

Reg pulls through the opening, once everyone clears the gait. Reg closes it, secures it, leans over and quickly scrambles the lock.

"Ok, Lets roll."

Alastor waits for Reggie to lock the gate and move to the front before getting the bike rolling. <Right, Reggie, y'know any more tunnels like that one? Or are we going to have to come up with a different method of getting into UCAS?>

Reggie smiles before slipping on a helmet again.
"Yeah, got the perfect route, common underground link for the crew." Reving up the engine, Reggie pulls up front of the group.
<"Follow me, there's a carpark I know that has a nice little underground route we can go through. Pretty well travelled, should know the code still to get in. We'll be in and out of sewer tunnels and expansion works, hope you brought a breather or have a good constitution, cause some of them don't smell like roses if you catch my drift. There's even a nice off-shoot drinking hole if you don't mind the music much. Might introduce you guys to a friend or two once the job's over if you're up for it.">

Reg quickly scans the park before kicking the bike in gear. Checking the status on the called drone... still a good 20 mins out, but should be sooner on the intercept they're heading along. Don't know why I ever let Jack talk me into picking up that stormcloud, it's so fraggin slow!

Time:- 2124
Location:- CAS sector Denver.

Your three bikes bump uncomfortably beneath you as you drive out of the woodland and across the park. You hit the road and join the gentle stream of nighttime traffic. While there is little difference between the buildings of the two sectors, the people hear make it a different place to the Pueblo, most of the faces you can see are white for start and the clothing is more uniform, fitting the current styles of a small range of social memes rather than spinning personal ideas off modern clothes and tribal dress. As you near your destination you pass through a redlight district, the girls distract themselves from their desperation by checking the clear sky for a sign of rain. A quarter of an hour ride across sector, with no sign of tails brings you to a run down multi-storey parking lot.

Reggie

Felice prepares her biker scarf to put over her face, in order to keep the offending stenches away, once they get underground.

Ophis:

Alastor follows suit, keeping a look out for anything suspicious. When at the carpark, he doesn't do anything extra to prepare for going underground, as he already has his helmet on.

Shiver pulls on his respirator, then his low light optical binoculars, wiring them to his simrig for mental control. Checking his medkit and periscope are close to hand, and his flask pack is strapped on he indicates his preparedness with a nod.

Time:- 2144
Location:- CAS sector

The carpark seems quiet, not much call for parking this late then. There is no one else around other than you. It's probably time to get moving.

21:44:00, June 1st, 2070
Havana Parkade, CAS Sector
Reggie

Reggie smiles and looks up. A small dark gray blimp like object descends to about head level. "Good you're finally here." The elf speaks to the drone as one would a person.
<"Now we have a scout">

Reggie spends a moment scanning the area before entering the parkade building. At this hour there is no attendant on duty and the stormcloud reports that there are no security drones on site. Rolling down to the bottom corner of the lot, Reggie pulls up to a chain link fence. "There's the door..."

The fence has seen better days and looks well used, with a few tugs Reggie manages to noisily drag the fence open. What, at first, appeared to be nothing more than a maintenance cubby, shows to be a tunnel, large enough for most wheeled vehicles.
Scooting Sander off the bike for a moment, Reg pulls a breather out of the bikes trunk and puts it on. Should be interesting trying to hear them talk with these on... Reg chuckles pensively.

The drone moves into the opening, a status of the drone's sensors feeding through the elf's field of vision. Reggie mounts the bike and waits for Sander to climb on back before following it. <"Follow the floater.">

Felice drives her bike into the tunnel, shortly after Reggie and Sander have entered.

Felice is quickly followed by Alastor on his bike, with Eury sitting behind him.

Dark, dank and stinking tunnels... again...

Mounting the bike again, Sander cursed silently for himself. The dry cleaner would never be able to get the stench out of his suit. And the pay for this meager run would barely pay for a new one. The only thing that made Sander happy was the fact that he was the one in control of the package. If the drek ever hit the fan, he could always split with it, disappear in the shadows.

The tunnels are pitch black without the light of your headlights, for the most part they seem wider and more open than the previous tunnels. Rather than making them feel safer, it just raises thoughts that tings may be moving alongside you in the darkness, though no ones thermographic shows anything up. The initial small of sewers soon fades as you hit areas never completely opened to the flow of waste, plus being under the border No-mans land helps, no men, no toilets. The roar of the engine is as last time the only real noise. Then it all changes, as you approach a sharp turn you hear the raucous sound of Country Music, some light hearted trash by some old fashioned goodtime girl about working from nine to five, chance would be a fine thing less chance of sewer work. As you round the corner you hear rumble of indistinct speech and laughter underneath the music. You also see a doorway from which streams bright artificial light, this must be the Five by Five. A small number of bikes are parked up outside. You keep on going past, maybe later it would be a good time to visit it and have a drink but at the mo you have biz and a time limit.

You ride past and away from the Five by Five, the music changes, an old man and a piano sing "I hurt my self today, to see if I still hurt..." Then you lose the words as the distance become too great. The journey resumes it's dark and silent style and it doesn't seem to be about to end soon...

Reggie

Reggie scans the collection of bikes in front of the pub, seeing if there are any that are familiar. After the run, might be worth coming back and catching up with a few buddies if they're in town. The Five by Five barely ever closes, always open into the early morning. The running joke is that the place is hoppin from 5pm to 5am - hence the name. Of course those that make that joke never learned the flying term...

Focussing on the route ahead once past the chokepoint and into the last leg, Reg focuses on the drone's recon.
<"Heads up, drone reports people up ahead, 50m around the next bend. Looks like a clean-up crew or tiff 'tween squatters. Our route takes us by them, keeping to the far side of the tunnel, we should be able to go around the group, but keep your guard non-the-less.">

Using one hand Reg opens the leather jacket, making it easier to pull out the Ruger if necessary. Dropping back in file, Reg lets one of the other bikes ride forward as point, keeping to the middle. That way there is one mage fore and aft of them as a warning buffer. Reg has the drone lead away from the tussle and hover there, monitoring the gang's motions from a distance, best not to appear as a threat. Using what limmited Sensor suite the drone came with, Reg wants to see what kind of reaction the on-comming bikes will have on this altercation. I really need to mount a new sensor pod on that thing

<Wonderful scenery down here. And friendly locals too? Wonderful news.> Eury focuses, feeling out towards his spirits, making sure they are all still there. At least these aren't good clothes, and the money will easily pay for expenses. Let us just hope that these squatters will see sense and leave us alone.

Being the next in line, Felice pulls ahead and drives a little slower; if something happens, she would rather be able to stop the bike fast.

As soon as the mentioned group comes in sight, she begins to watch them, zooming in to catch any detail one might otherwise miss.

The distance between you and the squatters closes rapidly, they've certainly heard you coming. A couple of them glance round to look at you and on a grunted signal thay shift into a position to block you, their previous victims staying huddled where they are.

Shiver


As your headlights illuminate them you can clearly make out six off them, plus the two teenage squatters huddled in the corner. Each one standing before you wears dark ragged clothing and has pallid off grey skin, there eyes appear mikly and their hands look like claws. Ghouls!

Alastor brings his bike to a stop and dismounts, readying himself to do battle. Looks like I have no choice but for this, he thinks to himself, and pulls out both of his preds. He allows himself to trigger, his extending claws curling around his grip on his preds. A deep growl emanates from the back of his throat, animalistic, as he positions himself ready to fire.

<Ghouls, if we are lucky, we may be able to convince them we are not an easy meal BEFORE things kick off.>

<If they have any sentience left that is.> Alastor adds to Shiver's comment.

<I'm going full astral so I don't have to worry about AoEing you.>
Shiver dismounts, and leans against a wall.

Reggie curses at the dreaded luck of coming across the foul beasts down here. The clean-up crew is getting sloppy letting these things down here. Note to self: mount a new sensor pod and an SMG on the Stormcloud

As Sander pulls the gun from Reggie's open leather coat the elf changes the bike's approach to favour his gun hand. The bike doesn't stop, instead Reg will swing the bike away from the ghouls when they reach 5 meters distance and then come around for a second run, doing best to avoid Alastor's weapons fire and to offer Sander the best firing angle possible.

Once Felice had started opening fire, Alastor quickly follows suit and fires at two ghouls, different to the one that Felice had shot at. He starts by firing two shots from each pred at each ghoul, to see how it affects them, to see whether he needed to specifically aim for the head or the heart with these guys.

Oh great. Just what we need down here, ghouls. {Creature, engage the ghouls freely.} {You two, harrass the ghouls, distract any attacking those two humans.} <That's some spirit backup done>

There is a squeal of breaks as Alastor and Felice stop there bikes and almost in tandem dismount and head towards the ghouls. Felice is first on the draw, whipping a Manhunter from it's holster. She pauses for a fraction of a second. BANG! the shot echoes in the tunnel and a ghoul loses an ear, a second shot to the body fells the creature. The echo of Felice's shot is drowned by four more blasts, these coming from Alastor's paired Predators. There is no precision to his aiming, body shots backed up by explosive ammo. Two more ghouls stumble backwards and drop for the count. With a roar Reggie brings a bike in to the fray, executing a quick turn as the remaining ghouls start to charge Felice and Alastor. CRACK! At the apex of the turn Sander whips a pistol from Reggie's Jacket and big ass Ruger. He fires calmly, completely unperturbed by the movement of the bike, it's like he's shotting ducks at the fair. The lead ghoul stops in its tracks, then collapses comically as a Stick and Shock round is place neatly between its eyes. It starts to pick itself up looking for an escape route.

On the astral spirits respond to the calls of their masters and surge forward ready to make the ghouls fight this skirmish on two fronts.

As the ghoul went down with a seizure Sander propped his feet on the side of the bike, behind Reggie's, to push himself slightly up. His left hand firmly grasping the elf's shoulder, he flipped the revolver 360 in his hand, cocking back the hammer in the motion. His target had been hit dead center... Had the gun packed actual bullets, the thing's head would have exploded like a ripe melon.

"Load your guns with real fragging bullets next time. Keep steady." he yelled over the roar of the bike and the gunshots, with a midly exasperated tone.

Turning his waist to the side, Sander fully extended his right arm in his back, practically shooting over his own shoulder. A second passed as the smartlink and his steady hand guided the shot home.

"Drop dead."

He fired.

As Sander props himself up for a second shot, Reggie concentrates on keeping the bike as steady as possible. Bringing the bike around in a long arc so as not to jar Sander's balance.

"It's not my job to kill people, bring your own damn gun next time!"
Reg targets the bike into another attack run. Maybe the ghouls that are left will think twice before continuing their futile attempt to block the road - though surely the others will want to eleminate them rather than just drive on through.

Shiver appears next to his meat, Shadows flow around his body in place of clothing, and into and out of his mouth and nose as he does what passes for breathing on the astral plane. Where the shadows touch his skin the walls behind him can be seen.

"Deary me" enters your mind, without the courtesy of stopping by your ears on the way "Arguing about guns won't get the job done, but I imagine that this will."

Shiver makes a casual gesture towards the least injured ghoul. Shadows whip from his hands and coil around its head, Shiver makes a fist, and they vanish.

Eury scans the ghouls for one that is still uninjured. Breath, focus, PUSH He sends a command rolling out {Go home, buy a puppy, care for it. Don't come back here.}

The charging ghouls scream defiance. It's a little like the charge of the light brigade. Felice takes a couple of hopping steps back, neatly placing shots head and chest on the ghoul aiming for her. Alastor stands his ground and places to shots into his target removing a fair chunk of it's right hand cortex.

As the ghouls go down with Sander props his feet on the side of the bike, behind Reggie's, to push himself slightly up. His left hand firmly grasping the elf's shoulder, he flips the revolver 360 in his hand, cocking back the hammer in the motion. His target had been hit dead center... Had the gun packed actual bullets, the thing's head would have exploded like a ripe melon.

"Load your guns with real fragging bullets next time. Keep steady." he yells over the roar of the bike and the gunshots, with a mildly exasperated tone.

Turning his waist to the side, Sander fully extends his right arm in his back, practically shooting over his own shoulder. A second passed as the smartlink and his steady hand guided the shot home.

"Drop dead."

He fires.

Unless someone takes the time to check the ghoul Sander shot, it's hard to say if it's dead.

The two mage and their spirits will pull back the power they were committing, it looks like the fight is over.

Alastor flips his vizor up, his crimson eyes ablaze. "Now that was a fun warm up boys and girls! Nice shot, man," he comments to Sander. Now that the ghouls have bitten the bullets, shall we move?" He grins, and starts heading back to his bike, his predators returned to their holsters.

“Yes, let's hit it, before someone comes looking for the noise.”

Felice waits a moment, then holsters her pistol and heads back to her bike. When Shiver's limp form begins to move once more, she hops onto the bike to move on.

Reg watches as the last of the ghouls gets taken down. Gently pulling the bike around to rejoin the group, Reg wait's till Sander sits back down on the seat before pulling the bike up to a stop alongside the group.
Working through some secure channels, Reg leaves a post in the Five by Five message board that there are ghoul bodies to be disposed of in the Eastern tunnels, stating the coordinates, and that two humanoids may require medical assistance.

"Come on, lets get a move on, I've paged a clean-up crew to deal with this mess." Reg says, a strong tone of distaste of the foul ghouls is noticeable in the elf's voice. "We got a job to do, no time to deal with trivial things." nodding over to the survivors huddled against the far wall. "Don't mind the squatters, the crew will take care of 'em."

Reg waits for everyone to mount their bikes, resumes the middle rank once they get moving again, and sends the drone off to scout ahead of the bikes.

Getting back into a somewhat comfortable position, Sander lifted the back of Reggie's jacket, squeezing the Ruger in the elf's belt.

Over his shoulder, the man gave what looked like a tired and exasperated look at Alastor.

"Chummer, there isn't such a thing as a nice shot. It was a good shot."

He hunched a little forward, getting his mouth a few inches behind Reg's ear.

"Thanks for the piece."

"Whatever." Alastor shrugs, and flips his vizor back down. He looks at Eury to see if he's ready, and gets back onto the bike.