Walker moves as soon as the bullet leaves the gun. He pulls something out from under his armor, points it at Babe and crushes it.

Babe is visibly hit hard when he's going over the counter, but it isn't visible by what.

If Babe drops, Walker asks if anyone else wants to try something stupid.

As Babe leaps over the bar and a shot rings out you see Walkers hand move in a blur, before Babe can even get into cover he suddenly goes limp, as though his bones just turned to jello. As Walker turns back to the crowd he shouts "Next one of you assholes to try something gets SHOT! Face down on the ground! NOW!"

Fortunatly it looks like people are taking his advice. The rest of the crowd is quickly subdued and SWAT comes in to help get everyone cuffed and into the bus.

Walker watches the SWAT cuff the patrons and when they are done, thanks the loa and dismisses him. When he sees Casey being pushed towards the bus, he pushes him aside saying "You again? Didn't get enough the first time or something?" loudly enough for the bloodswords to hear and shoves him to the citymaster.

When he's coming back, he notices Bang's wound and asks if he needs healing.

Casey visibly cringes, the 'man' trying to cower in fear, despite all the physical restraints placed on 'him'.

<<Not quite what I had in mind, Walker - after all, I told the guy it was the Star that had me - part of the campaign, and all. But, a little late now. Ah, well, I'll roll with it, as with everything.>>

Once 'shoved' into the Citymaster, and fully out of view of the other suspects, Casey's face reverts to something much more familiar, as she begins to remove some of the binders and padding.

She pops the chip out of her standard issue PAL, a bemused look on her face.

<<Interesting note, team - this BTL is more advanced than it might seem - the emotions are set higher than usual on this rather 'tame' chip. I think the indicates why the Bloodswords haven't been absorbed by any other groups - they've got an above par supplier who keeps them going. I'd be suprised if they really aren't a front for another group.

<<So who wants to question these chipheads about what they witnessed on the day of the murder?>>

I Am the Law
Episode 3, Damn traffic!

Monday April 16, 2070. 23:15 hrs. En route to KE headquarters
It takes about 15 minutes for everyone to get processed and secured into the bus. A few uniforms show up to secure the scene and the rest of you pile into the citymaster to escort the bus back to Knight Errant headquarters. The club rats and other fixtures of the downtown nightlife are beginning to emerge into the rain. The convoy’s progress is slow as the citymaster takes point with SWAT bringing up the rear pushing their way through the crowded streets. Haeffner is forced to periodically flash the lights and siren just to make progress. After about 30 minutes of crawling through traffic with the odd overly enthusiastic drunk throwing a rock, or bottle at the vehicles you come to a complete halt. A long line of hopeful patrons stretch out across the street from ICIS Seattle’s hottest new night club.

@HaeffnerAs you flash the lights again to try and clear a path an audible alarm suddenly sounds as the Citymasters sensors pick up multiple heat sources incoming. There are two missiles bearing down on the convoy from somwhere above.

Tolstov shouts Activating ECM! Shit! We don’t have a chance! SWERVE! Get us out of here!

@Haeffner

Bang grunts as the bullet impacts between two of the plates in his armour. As Babe drops to the ground the troll smiles. He spends five minutes in the Grindhouse helping SWAT load the gangers into the MDV. When he spots Babe he slaps the now confined gang banger. As the Ork's eyes flutter open he remarks "We gotcha now, don't we?" On his way out, Bang rocks the MDV a bit and kicks the tires just to let the Bloodswords know he hasn't forgot about them. As he approaches the APC he looks for all the world like an upset child. He climbs into Charley team's Citymaster and begins removing his armor, he remarks at Walker "I couda taken dat guy wid da gun" When Walker points out his injury he looks over at the now bloody shoulder. "I got's an owie, hun, how'dat happen?" When Walker asks if he needs healing, the troll's face shifts in fear, "You ain't gunna use a needle, is yah Walker man?" The big troll closes his eyes, waiting for an imagined needle.

Raleigh : You slam the Citymaster into reverse and hammer your foot onto the accelerator. It’s a textbook evasion maneuver. Unfortunately the driver of the prisoner bus hasn’t read the same textbook and he accelerates forward slamming the grill of the bus into the rear of the citymaster. Everyone is thrown around like rag dolls by the force of the collision. Before the APC even has a chance to slow to a stop however the missile hits. Raleigh’s evasive maneuver prevented the missile from hitting the crew compartment but the explosion still tears through the length of the cab as the roar of compressed air and screams of tortured metal fill the air. Your own screams may have joined them but they were drowned out by the cacophony.

Haeffner broadcasts over all channels <<BRACE FOR-->> Impact alarms shrill inside the Citymaster followed by the discordant addition of collision warnings. Metal squeals as the Citymaster piles into the detention truck. The heat in almost unthinkable... the breath sucked out of her lungs. The light is so bright and the sound of the missle's explosion so loud her dampers and flare compensators completely shut off for a matter of seconds in full-override.

When sight and sound return she runs diagnostics, checking her own and her teammate's vitals. As those are coming up she kicks the door open. In a yammering maddened part of her brain pain, great pain, and the smell of burnt hair and smoke and flesh register.

<<Charlie team, Haeffner reporting. Status? Repeat, status?>>

Casey's voice comes over the comms, her breathing in the background heavy and strained.

<<Casey here - good to hear your voice, Raleigh. Looks like Bang took a hit, but he'll be okay, I think. Can't see Walker from here. My body's gone into shock at this point, so I'm pretty sure I've broken a rib or three. Not sure I want to move yet, but we need to see how the transport bus is doing, and to find the shooter. Can you get a drone on that?

<<Walker, report. You alive out there, omae?>>

<<Copy that, Casey. Drones away. >>

Haeffner's drones streak away in the direction the missle came from, she feeds images of the key frames of the incoming missle's trajectory to her commlink's Analyze program and routes that info to the drones.

Heat, sound, pain. Wat happn, live, die?

Bang sits up slowly. The troll's massive chest is filled with pain, his breath coming in short gasps. A sound like a comm chirping in his ears, his vision clouded with blood.

"Casey! Ellie! Walker man! Raley! Where you?!" His voice is ragged with pain and stress. His left arm is a lance of pain. Smoke fills the Citymaster crew compartment. He slams a fist into the rear door uselessly. He scans the compartment carefully noting the semiconsious form of Walker he grabs the human by the armour and slowly makes his way to the front door. The troll drags the mage clear of the Citymaster. He spots Raliegh on the street and uncerimoniously hands her the limp mage. She grabs the man under his arms and shouts at Bang. The troll shakes his head in confusion Stop comm ringing ugh He shouts at her "Can't hear you" He turns slowly and goes into the Citymaster again. This time he emerges bearing Hartford. Once more he hands the Ork woman her teammate.

"Gotta find Casey!" he shouts. He enters the inferno once more, "Casey! Casey!" shouts the troll between gasping breaths. Finally he finds a limp human form lying under a collapsed weapon and armour mount. Not Casey, doesn't look like, but only one left He grabs the rack and slowly moves it with his one good hand. He scoops the unformed human up and presses hir close to his chest. Bang stumbles out of the Citymaster, spots a wall and slides the human down against it. The troll sits heavily beside the adept and drapes his useless left arm around hir. He pulls his Pred from his holster and points it in the general direction of the MDV's rear door. Coughing deeply he shouts at Haeffner once more "Get bad box, white coat hurty men, wat'ever I got's big owies, Casey too. Calling Boss Man for helps" The troll thumbs his comm <Offic'r down send helps>

He shakily points his pred at the MDV All die, if Casey die. I die too.

When getting Casey to the citymaster: <<Ah crap, sorry Casey.>> Cross: Paying attention again aren't we? Do you actually listen to your teammates at all? It's a wonder you don't get more people killed like that time with the boats..

When Bang asks about the needle, Walker takes off his helmet and gloves, takes a first aid kit and treats the wound using the biggest needle he can find, waving it around a bit to make sure Bang gets a good look. Smiling inwardly at the troll's expression. He uses a small spell to close the treated wound and slumps into a seat. After a couple of moments of sitting, he thanks the loa of the service, dismisses it and shuts down his focus.

<<Don't really know about the interrogation we are allowed to use Casey - I can scare them if you want, but otherwise it's your show.>>

When Walker hears the alarms, he jumps into astral and seeing the missile, orders Sharp to look for the shooters and starts to do the same when the missile hits and he doubles over in pain. Not good.. Not good at all.. After a minute or so of stabilising, he notices Sharp next to him looking worried and says "I'm okay, but we gotta stop them from finishing the job. GO!" grinding his teeth at the pain and waving his hand at the rooftop the missile seemed to originate from.

@ Haeffner: As you fumble with your restraint straps and pull yourself from the wreck of the Citymaster you glance over at the passenger seat and see Tolstov, his face covered in smears of blood doing the same. As he glances over at you he mutters a quick “You ok? I’m radioing for backup.� Assuming you nod you see him stumble out of the passenger door and drop out of sight. You try and bring your drones online but are confronted by numerous red Critical Damage warnings. Only a single aerial spybot is operational, along with your Steel Lynx armed with an LMG. You quickly send the spybot off, your Lynx is trapped inside the rear of the crew compartment however, the lift that would normally lower it out the back door is jammed. As you stumble out of the Citymaster you see the SWAT team has already deployed and is moving towards you covering the roof of the building the missiles came from with their weapons.

@ Bang: Within a second of requesting aid you hear the calm voice of the dispatcher over the comm. <<Rodger that Charley, help is on the way, hang in there.>> As you pull your teammates from the wreck it seems that Casey and Walker are OK, a little banged up perhaps but nothing life threatening, Owl eyes on the other hand is in pretty rough shape, she’s unconscious her face is white as a sheet and, her breath is coming in shallow gasps. Oddly enough she has no apparent physical injuries other than a small cut above her right eye.

@ Walker: Sharp reaches the roof before Haeffner’s drone and sees a pair of medium sized ground based drones sitting on the edge of the roof. It’s tough to make them out from astral space but by their size it would be impossible for them to mount a BB gun in addition to the launchers, nevermind extra ammunition. Other than that the roof is clear. Unless there is a second group of ambushers somewhere else you’re likely in the clear.

@ Haeffner: A few seconds later your drone makes it up to the rooftop. A pair of Steel Lynx drones are visible. Suddenly the drones vision erupts into a fireball as both drones explode. From the ground you can see the explosion blossoming over the edge of the rooftop and the crowd begins screaming again. Several of the SWAT officers squeeze off a few rounds at the rooftop further adding to the chaos. The spybot is still functional and as the smoke clears you see that a fairly large hole has been blown in the roof. There is no sign of the drones.

@ Everyone: Tinman’s face suddenly appears in your ARO’s. << We’re en-route, ETA five minutes. What’s your status Charley? Are we coming in hot? We’ve got EMT on our heels, who’s down?>>

Bang sits by the wall and asseses his and his teams injuries. He thumbs his link <<Hoi, Tin. *COUGH* Hard to breed, Casey look okay, Raley look okay, Walker man look okay *COUGH* Ellie not okay, not wake up. She be okay Tin? *COUGH* Not see Tolstov. Come soon, chest hurt *COUGH*>> He resumes pointing his Pred at the MDV.

<<Casey here, Tinman.>>

Her voice remains strained, and her teammates see a bit of the strain in her face amongst the bleeding. While still looking female, her appearance doesn't match any of the identities the team has previously seen her in. Were it not for all the injuries, there would be an opportunity to take a better look.

<<Here's an addendum to Bang's report. Walker and Haefner have done recon, and report no new threats, repeat, no new threats. I do not anticipate you'll be hot on the way in. Only Owl Eyes is down, but I'll be fragged if I ain't close m'self. I can feel nerves and autonomic functions trying to shut down on me. Walker's rough but mobile. Haefner and Bang are injured, but appear to be managing.

<<Request armed and drone escort for medical evacs of team and any other survivors.>>

Her voice, though strained, calls out to Bang.

"Hoi, Bang! Can you grab me numbers on the surviving prisoners? We need to tell HQ how many bodybags to bring."

On the Charley channel, she adds.

<<I'm in too rough a shape to do decent damage control with this crowd. Suggestions for placating them, or keeping the trids the frak off our backs? I'm struggling for a cover story that won't put us on the wrong sides of the public.>>

Haeffner reports on the team PAN, <There were two drones on the rooftop where the missles came from. The explosion you just saw was them detonating. //trid attached//> She curses. <I don't know how we're gonna track these guys. Tov, you got any bright ideas?>

She looks at the smoldering wreck. <Hang in there, Casey. We've got you and Ell on telemetry. Keep talking to us. I'm gonna call in my eye-in-the-sky and refit her for broadcast suppression if the media won't agree to cooperate.>

"Walker, let's you and me and your pal secure a perimeter while Bang checks on the MDV."

She shrugs off the SWAT medico and wipes her face on her sleeve, advancing grimly toward the building where the explosions happened, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone looking dodgy.

The troll sitting against the wall rises slowly, the pain in his chest now a dull throb. *Groan* "Kay, on it, dey not get 'way, stay safe Casey." Bang walks slowly over to the rear of the MDV, his Pred in a classic gang banger grip. He checks the prisoners over with a bloody glare. Who'z da wize guy wat made a call? he wonders. He starts counting prisoners trying to seperate the living and the dead. <Guyz, iz ma head workin, could one of deez drek headz made a call for da boom? *COUGH*> he sends to the team.

Casey appears to be the first to reply to Bang, and the wheezing is still present, though it appears to be under better control.

<<It's good thinking, Bang, but I was pretty sure Tolstov had their equipment, and had any comms work suppressed or overloaded. Standard procedure to keep the perps from talking to friends, you know?

<<Besides, this kind of ordinance is a little beyond what the Bloodswords typically have access to, so I'm not sure it's one of their jobs.>>

She pauses a few moments before adding,

<<These wounds are a little worse than I thought, folks. Walker seems to be nonresponsive, and I'm thinking about going that way myself. Is the area clear? For certain?>>

Shaping up to be a shit day.

Haeffner nips the incipient self-pitying thought in the bud. She walks forward toward the building and stops when it appears Walker hasn't responded to her request to team up. She lets the re-commanded drone sweep ahead looking for media drones and reporters, her own eyes on sharp lookout for suspicious looking characters.

@Bang you slowly stagger down the street absently wiping blood from your face as it trickled into your eye. You begin counting the prisoners taking your time and hoping that most of the twins that you see are actually one person. You count 15 suspects, that accounts for everyone. Unfortunately it looks like 5 or 6 are another 6 look like they’ll be joining them if they don’t get medical aid real quick. One of the corpses looks like Babe, a piece of the bus’s structure has impaled him through the chest. The bartender is also in pretty bad shape, his left arm has been torn off at the elbow and he’s passed out from shock or blood loss. It looks like one of the Bloodswords is relatively unharmed. He’s got a broken arm but other than that he looks ok.

As Bang survey’s the damage to the bus the rest of you hear the distinctive thrumming of a prop plane coming in. After a few seconds the distinctive shape of a MR 55 begins angling it’s way down between the canyons of skyscrapers. It ends up hovering 20 feet off the ground and you see the fully armoured shapes of Alpha Squad rappelling down. They quickly secure the scene while a number of Knight Errant EMT’s who came along for the ride begin tending to the wounded. Within a few more minutes the ground based emergency vehicles begin to arrive.

Everyone is quickly rushed into ambulances and before you know it you’re in one of Knight Errants small employee hospitals. Owl Eyes is quickly rushed into surgery but the rest of you have a rather interesting experience while waiting for treatment in a common ward room. The nurse gave you each a fairly hefty dose of morphine but left the Trid in the room turned onto an Ares owned network news channel… Now you know what it feels like to be breaking news. Someone sent in an eyecam video of the attack itself and you watch as the missile impacts the citymaster again and again in slow motion while a talking head laments the inability of Lone Star to protect the city from major “terrorist attacks� targeting other legitimate security companies working in Seattle. It looks like the PR department is in damage control mode already. While watching the Trid you hear Tolstov say from another bed. “What a fucking mess… My first field assignment and I fucked us… I should have caught the signals… noticed something…� he trails off muttering to himself about wireless zones and signal spikes that he should have picked up on. Time starts to blur as the drugs kick in and before you know it you’re being wheeled into surgery.

You all come too in a common recovery room. The clock on the wall says it’s the next morning. At around 10 AM Captain Holstine walks into the room flanked by Tinman and Elfin-Face. His face looks grim as he turns off the Trid and looks at each of your faces in turn. Elfin-Face locks the door and places his back to it while Tinman pulls the blinds shut and places a small white noise generator on the table in front of Holstine

“First of all I’d like to tell you, Elanor is alive. She’s in a chemically induced coma right now. She suffered major brain trauma and we need to get a specialist neurosurgeon in who deals with awakened patients… Now that you know that it’s time to deal with the situation you ended up involved in. You have no idea how much I’d like to be able to ream you guys out, tear you a new one, scream till I’m blue in the face...� He pauses and takes a deep breath.

“Unfortunately I can’t do that. If it was your fault… if you’d screwed up, you’d be out of Firewatch then that would be it. The fact that there is nothing you could have done speaks volumes of the professionalism and danger of our suspect. If the surviving Bloodswords are telling us the truth, and we think they are, then it looks like our professor may have somehow crossed paths with one of the… more dangerous individuals wanted by Interpol, other special forces units from a multitude of different traditions with far more experience than yourselves have come up against him, and the fact that all of you survived speaks volumes. This case has just been moved to Orange priority, your comlinks will be updated with the appropriate security clearance as soon as you return to active duty� He places a briefcase on a small table and removes four old fashioned brown paper envelopes from it.

“This is the Dossier we have received from Interpol on our subject, along with information our own specialists have compiled on him. It’s a thick read so I’ll give you the short version now and let you read it in more depth as you recover. You have 5 days before returning to active duty so try and make use of them.�

“Our suspects name is Lt. Colonel Hanz Lichenson. His most common alias is Reich. I’m not surprised if you havn’t heard of him before, he’s about as black as they come but Interpol and a number of other agencies including our own have been keeping a real close eye on him. You remember the EMP detonation at LAX back in 63 that caused their communications to fail and six fully loaded sub orbital flights to crash into the tarmac? Well, he’s the primary suspect. Not only that but it’s suspected he had, or has very close ties to Winternight, and I doubt anyone will forget what they did. I’ll let you read the dossier yourselves though, I need to get back and dance for the cameras.�

Bang shifts in his bed impaitently his face a mix of fear and poor humor. Hope Ellie be okay. Cmon Boss Man let us outta here. Don wanna be here, don wanna be here......
He grabs the envelope and allows the captain to finish. Before Holstine leaves the troll salutes as best he is able while half-seated. He waves at Tin-man and Elfin-Face as they leave the room.

After being released from the company hospital. Bang heads straight for the cafeteria. He grabs five four galleon tubs of any ice cream they have. He waves one handed at anyone he sees on his way back to his room. It is clear that he plans on an all night ice cream binge.

Tuesday April 17th 2070, 0750hrs Bang's Room
Terror, sharp pointy needles, fear, pain, fear, white coated fear, huge masked fear ..... alone, so alone Mama where Mama? Not leave me Mama. Love you Mama.

Bang wakes covered in sweat and smelling of fear. He rubs his craggy face. What dat? Not have dream? like dat for long time. Why now? Hopital maybe?

"Mornin' Bob, sleep good?" he rubs the ferret's back and the animal greets him with a happy chitter. The troll sets about his morning routine. The strange dream and yesterdays events running through his mind. On his way out he grabs his personal link and turns it on. A small blue icon resembling a chibified dragon appears in the small LCD screen. <Hoiya boss. How's things?> asks the link speaker. "Hoi Tiny can ya talk ta ma work link and find all da big woids? Ya know what ta do wit dem right? <Sure boss gimme a few willya? "Kay" the troll reponds and pocket his link as he heads into the gym. Noticing that no one is in the room, he happily walks over and sets the radio to a channel he found a few years ago. The gym fills with a pounding bass that can only be described as Troll Gansta Rap. Bang smiles cheeefully. And begins working the heavy bag to make sure his left arm has been properly.

Raleigh shifts in her bed, burns and bruises letting their displeasure at her movement be known. She can't bring herself to look the captain in the eye, or her teammates. Ellie... The effects of the drugs and the sharded remnants of adrenaline ebbing from her blood make her hands shaky, uncoordinated. She plucks at the sheets that cover her to the waist.

She takes receipt of the dossier on Reich without comment. After the chief leaves she studies the file, not wasting any time with self-indulgent thoughts, like wishing the chief had chewed them out so she could feel a little closure, or tearing herself apart with second-guesses at how she could have done better. The post-mortem would come, and probably the shrinks too, but for now she needed some distance from the prior day's holocaust.

And... she didn't want to waste a single moment not getting up to speed on the primary suspect for both the murder and the attack. Who ever had perpetrated these crimes, Reich or otherwise, was going to pay.

As you read the file you find it full of legalese, and most of it seems to be conjecture and rumor. However a few very alarming facts quickly come to the surface. Reich was born as Hanz Lichenson, in 2026 in Dresden and had been a Sader Krupp citizen for his entire life. He joined their defense force and eventually became an early test subject for their Hellion project. The Hellions were first generation Cyberzombies created by SK designed exclusively as black ops military units and Reich was trained extensively both in cyber warfare, and in conventional and unconventional ground combat. He was the only survivor when his unit was dropped into Atzlan to sabotage a nuclear power plant during a brief undeclared corp war between SK and Aztechnology in 2057. He survived by first stealing a set of skillsofts used for training pilots then hijacking an Aztlan National Guard air superiority fighter and making his escape in the confusion caused by the explosion at the power plant.

In October of 2063 Reich officially terminated his employment with SK. In a plan no doubt months in the making he infiltrated a matrix node used by a SK accounting division. Though the node was physically separate from the rest of the matrix Reich managed to use an early wireless connection to drain almost a quarter billion ¥ from SK accounts. After this he vanished, seemingly into thin air. Forensic analysis of his cyber traffic suggested that he had been in contact with a strange and little known religious sect knows as Winternight.

In 2066 a major SK military facility was hit, explosives and small arms were taken. Several of the attackers were wounded during the raid and forensic analysis tied some of the evidence to a runner known as Reich, who also matched Hanz Lichenson. Video evidence suggested that Reich had been maintaining and updating his cyberware, keeping it as cutting edge as the day it was installed.

In 2068 an EMP bomb was detonated in LAX airport. This was also tied to Reich and it is now suspected that this was a sort of dry run for what would become the second crash.

Since the crash Reich has disappeared, until last night it was believed that he had been killed during the course of Winternights last stand. Unfortunately he seems to have resurfaced.