Truck Stop
Wednesday 8/20/70 17:19:40
Sledge - Closer
PAN - Hidden

"His eyeball. Ask him.", Sledge flicked her chin at Fortunato.

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:19:50
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive
Astrally Inactive

"I'll be running astral overwatch and I'll have a watcher waiting next to you. The little guy will be in charge of echoing everything that you say out loud to me."

"You should probably also message the team with make and model of the car. I'll do the best astral tracking I can, but that doesn't always translate so well into physical."

"I don't know what computer black magic is necessary. I trust you'll figure it out."

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:20:02
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus knelt down next to the other bag and unzipped it enough to see inside. He was a little puzzed but he could tell that what he was looking at was an ingram white knight light mahcine gun broken down into its individual parts along with some masks and shotguns. Zipping the bag back up he easily lifted the leather bag and began carrying it back to the van. <<@johnson:: Is this MY IWK? How in the hell did you find it? Did you swing by my apartment? Did you find any more of my things? How did you know where i Lived? Anyways thanx but my current situation dictates that I take the money so I will be able to get a palce after this is over. If you hold onto it though I will definately try to buy it back from you. >>

<<@team:: This bag looks like it has a light machine gun in pieces. Im going to go try and assemble it ASAP.>> Cerberus reached the van and nodded to Rocky and then climbed in the back and started laying out the parts to the IWK. It had been awhile since his days back at DocWagon where they taught him how to do this stuff. They had guys on staff who specifically took care of this stuff for you but they always drilled the basics into new recruits gunners. He just hoped he could remember what he had been taught.

Truck Stop
Wednesday 8/20/70 17:20:09
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

As Cerberus worked with his gun, Rocky composed a message to Johnson on his comm. <<@Johnson:: I'll take payment on completion of the job, but if for some reason I don't make it through it in one piece I need you do something for me. Minus a delivery fee get it and what happened to me to Skinny with the following instructions. "This goes with the rest, Thanks. Rocky" He'll know what it means." Rocky added Skinny's comm number from memory and attached it to the message and set it out.

Once he was done with that he took another long look around, really wishing they could get on the road again. "We ready for the road yet." he called out to who ever was listening.

Truck Stop
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:20:30
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive
Astrally Inactive

"Yeah, we ought to move."

Fortunato stepped into shotgun and waited for Angel to join he and the trolls in the van.

"Hey Rock, Cerb, why don't one of you drive for the time being. I'm going to be on astral. Spirit will keep us concealed, just stay away from traffic and keep an eye on my shoes."

The van and the pair of motorcycles caravanned out of the parking lot and started to head towards Fishbreath's stronghold.

Seconds of concentration netted Fortunato a few watchers and, before he started to tail the group astrally he messaged the group.

<<@Team: I'll follow Johnson to the site on astral. You guys should probably keep your distance and circle around or something. I'll let you sort out the precise details.>>

On the way to Rudolpho's
Tuesday 8/20/70 17:57:34
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus inspected each piece of the gun and slid everything back together locking each piece into place carefully. The bag was clean so he didnt have to worry about dirt and dust. <<@team: I dont know how but Johnson got my ingram white knight light mahcine gun back and I have reassembled it. I've got one clip and we have got some serious firepower now.>>

Cerberus slipped on the gyroharness that was also in the bag and tried to mount the gun. Everything worked like a charm and the skinlinks on the gun started sending him all the routine information. It felt great to have the gun back. He loved how it just seemed that the gun and himself seemed to merge and become one, he could literally fire the gun just by thinking about it and he could see what it saw.

Looking into the front of the cab after Fortunato suggested Rocky or himself drive the van he quickly saw the flaw in that plan. No eight foot tall eight hundred pound troll was going to get wedged into that human size space. "I think you better let Angel keep driving, unless you know some kind of shrinking spell.....in which case Rocky volunteers." hehehe

The disguise masks johnson had gave them came next. Kyle had taught Cerberus the basics of disguise and he had seen enough movies to understand it a little better but he still wasnt able to do to good of a job. Even with Fortunato's help his mask just turned into a simple face distortion job. He might as well have put some pantyhose over his head or wore a ski mask. Atleast his horns were shaved down already to help and his bald head meant he would have no problem changing his hair with wigs.

After that they were all rolling out of the parking lot and heading for Loui's turf. Loui didnt really show any respect or love towards Cerberus but he never talked down to him either. He had been a good boss for the short time he had worked with him. Beating people up and taking payments was just how things were done in his world and Cerberus didnt have any qalms about beating up low lifes. But there had been times when Loui could have helped out innocent people like that little girl from the barbershop. The story Angel had told about her experience with Loui was alot more monstrous than anything he had seen with Loui.

Now that he saw Loui for what he really was Cerberus was looking forward to getting his revenge. Some people deserve to be killed. As the caravan neared Rudolpho's Angel pulled off to the side of the road and parked the van behind Sledge as Johnson went on. Johnson's involvement in all this was a bit confusing. Kyle didnt say anything about Johnson's being this involved in runs. But whatever. Cerberus was well aware of the reasons nobody else could attempt to visually spot Loui. <<@Team: Do we have some kind of password or something if you get spotted Johnson and need us to come in hot??>>

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Tuesday 8/20/70 18:07:00

Once the team had pulled over, Smith had cruised his bike - now considerably easier to handle without the bags of gear - on to the address Angel had given him for Rudolpho's.

He cruised past the front as casually as possible, looking for a suitably inconspicous place to hide in plain sight as he surveilled the place. In actuality, he could barely even see the restaurant - the front was almost totally obscured by three huge black SUVs parked out front.

Almost directly across the street was a Seattle's Best - naturally with several inside tables facing directly out the window so that people could convince themselves that passers-by noticed and cared what books they were reading or what they were broadcasting on their PANs. Of course, one had to be incredibly lucky to actually get one of those seats, but of course the moment Smith had his coffee in his hand, a corper who was trying very hard not to look like a corper (but still to look like he had money) vacated the seat with the best view of the restaurant.

Settling in, Smith saw a huge human in an Actioneer suit eating a huge plate of pasta. He was standing, elbows on the hood of the lead SUV. The plate was in front of him on the hood, and a huge combat shotgun was also lying casually beside his napkin, spoon, and knife. A glass of red wine completed the set-up. The man stuffed his face with gusto, and after a few moments a second man, also huge and in an Actioneer, sauntered out of an alley, zipping up his fly. Picking up his own automatic shotgun from where he'd left it lying on the sidewalk, he leaned against the rear SUV and lit a cigarette.

Watching for a few minutes, Smith easily noticed that while the street was fairly busy with evening pedestrian traffic patronizing a number of upscale eateries and shops, no one went into Rudolpho's. In fact, most crossed the street to avoid it, although those that did not were not molested. Vehicle traffic was very light.

Smith gave a small start when he heard a voice in his ear - Both guards are cybered big time. I'm not going to risk blowing the whole op by peeking inside. Everything I see will be relayed to my watcher at the van, but anything technical, including street locations, you'll have to pass on. Need anything, just speak - I'll hear.

After that, the college Johnson settled in to his coffee - and a couple of cloying questions - with three hours of daylight left, did he hope Louie left while it was still light out, so this whole thing could be over sooner, or after dark, so their ambush could work better?

And more important - once he'd led the team to wherever Louie went, and they made their move, did he sit on the sidelines while they entered a deadly combat, or did he risk his own life and help out?

Cruising to Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 18:07:00
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

All she carried was the shotgun and some shells, loaded it out, and kept it wrapped under her saddle and tank, Sledge knew of a few chopper accessories where you could actually get a saddle holster fitted, and it certainly could be useful. There wasn't time to do any of that right now. She let the teams chatter over the channel run, it was always good to have people thinking about what they might do, but there wasn't going to be much choice or time for overplanning. There was work to do, and they were simply going to get it done. The disguise kits weren't going to let them walk in and do the job, but all she wanted from them was enough freedom to move without being immediately spotted by people who were specifically looking for her. The tape holding down her breasts was beginning to chafe, and the pile of inflated rubber around her waist was making her feel off balance, but being a big fat male tusker on a bike should hopefully get her through the next few hours.

Sledge reviewed the various options, and kept updating the list of data by each one. Sometime they were going to hit the point where they were going to have to commit.

She knew at some point she was going to make the call, and someone was going to die.

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:07:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Smith continued to sit, sip his coffee, watch Rudolpho's while trying not to appear to be doing so, and to think. The metal bars of his hidden arm-slide holsters pressed against his arms when he set his drink down, reminding him that he's probably better armed than most of the team, right now. When it came time for guns to be used, if he had the opportunity, he'd thought he would do what he could to help. He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that he would be getting in the way. As bad-assed as he looked in the mirror producing two gleaming metal guns from nowhere, it didn't mean he could use them... or that he was particularly interested in seeing what flechette rounds would do to a fat man's face.

As the next few hours passed, Smith tried to make his continued presence in that seat look less suspicious. He glanced occationally back at the door as if waiting for someone, glanced up and down the street outside, as if expecting to see them coming up, but mostly kept himself busy with what those around him must have assumed was mindless AR channel-surfing. When he moved his fingers across the table's surface, it was, in reality, to type out a message to the team informing them of what he was seeing, or, more often, that the situation hadn't changed.

A waitress checked up on him a few times, obviously expecting him to buy something if he was going to continue to use up one of the prized seats. For the most part, he was able to disarm her with his charm, but did give in and purchase something to eat and, later, another drink. He was careful not to actually drink much of this one, though. It wouldn't do to have to go to the bathroom, and risk missing Louie's exit.

A few blocks away from Seattle's Best Coffee
Tuesday 8/20/70 20:07:00
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus sat in the back watching out the front window for a few minutes when they had irst pulled up but that quickly turned to boredom and then he thought about what he was here to do and how he wasnt that prepared. He was now thinking tactically about the situation. Setting the IWK on the floor of the van he took his armored jacket off and slipped on the gyroharness that helped support the weight of the gun so he could keep the shots nice and steady and on target. Next he dug around in the seat bench of the van and pulled the bandolier of grenades out and put those over one shoulder and across his chest. He had to use the last notch on the belt.

Slipping back on his armored jacket he was good to go. A one man army. Whatever he didnt mow down he could bow up, whatever didnt blow up he could pound into goop with his fists and martial arts.

"Angel, Rocky do either of you need a pistol?? I have been carrying these guns around since the clinic. We also have that assault rifle. You dont want to go into a situation unarmed." Angel and Rocky didnt look like Angel and Rocky anymore though. Everybody had helped each other out with their masks and he couldnt recognize them anymore. He took the predator out anyways. If neither of them wanted it he might as well carry it, in case he had to ditch the IWK. With only one clip the chances of that seemed high.

Cerberus sat there in the back of the van suited up for war and ran through his favorite fights and the workouts he used to get the body he had. Some people hated working out but it was true what they said, you become addicted to it. It release chemicals into your body that just make you feel good and as you start to look buff that just feeds the desire to do it more. He could tell all the bed rest and downtime had weakened him a little but hopefully after all of this was over he could bounce back and maybe even continue to improve. Afterall in this line of work he was going to have to be in extremely good shape. Maybe add in a little extra cardio..

Thats the only thing Cerberus hated about the current situation, so much damn time to think about crap. All he wanted to do was listen to some music and veg out on a couch or something. Shadowrunning wasnt easy. Looking out the front window again he was amazed at how quickly it had gotten dark out, his low light vision kicked in making things a little lighter and easier to see. Cyber eyes were so cool.

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:45:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Almost another hour went by with very little of note coming from the street-front of Rudolpho's. Smith began to worry that Louie would be likely to use some rear-exit when leaving to do 'buisness', but he assumed the trolls would have mentioned something like that. As the minutes ticked by, he became less and less confident in that assumption.

Still, it wasn't quite dark yet, and everyone knows the boogy-men don't come out until dark. As the sun began to set, Smith reconsidered his vantage point. Compared to the rest of the street, he would be literally framed in light, and might stand out quite a bit more than he did during the daylight.

Although he had kept his eye on other spots that might open up offering better concealment, he eventually decided not trying to hide himself might look less conspicuous than if he tried. Louie's men must be used to people sitting in front of the windows of this cafe. They key, he thought to himself, was not to seem concearned about the people outside seeing him - and to maintain subtlety when observing them.

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:52:44
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Hidden

The past few hours for the young elven woman had been mainly filled with introverted thinking accompanied with the sounds of matrix cast music stations. The beats and tones sung by the latest boy bands, girly groups and techno trance tracks served as a white noise to the deafening silence that was only interspersed with activity around her. It also performed the much need effect of keeping her nerves under control, something she had lost many times this day.
It was really weird for her, really, to realize just how easy it was to command the drone to open fire on the mob controlled SUV. Her mind making a nanosecond decision in the dizzying speed of the moment, one that changed her life, though she was still feeling the ramifications of it. All the mixing, conflicting and agreeing emotions, all correct while wrong at the same time, falling into place by the force of the unrestrained push of time and events that Caittie had no choice but to flow along with.
The red haired girl had finally relinquished any thought that there was any reason to let Louie live longer than this night, but that in itself was also troubling her psyche. Cerberus, Rocky, Fortunato and Sledge: they all supported her in one fashion or another, through words or just being there, strong in composure and sure hearted in the moment of deciding that the act of killing off Louie was far from wrong, but held everything right about it. The elf knew the look of apprehension on their face, it was clear as the night closing in around them, but she guessed it was more of the difficulty of the task instead of the morality of it.

Another thing that added some relief to her nerves was the fact that she looked different at the moment. The mask Johnson had provided, along with Sledge’s help with cosmetic changes and the styling of her red and pink hair, gave her the thoughts of some thing security. With her ears covered with the braids and loose hair, she could easily pass for human unless someone seriously examined her. Caittie had also thrown the large jacket on again, the weight weighing her down a little, but the solidness of it added to the disguise and gave her a feeling of being protected. Looking at herself in the mirror, she looked like any random girl or young woman you might pass on the street, if it wasn’t for the jacket and accompanying troupe sitting beside and behind her.
Looking at them one by one, she would think they were completely different people than the ones that started this crazy ploy to help her out. Fortunato, the elder elf mage, was just lying back in the reclined passenger seat. He looked like he was either asleep or in virtual reality to any normal person, but Caittie and the others knew he was doing god knows what in the astral.
Cerberus was in the back messing around with that blasted machinegun. The very same one he had shot at her this very morning, though this time the situation was sort of reversed. Instead of him shooting at her for Louie, the hornless troll was shooting at Louie for her and his own sakes.

It was at that moment, he looked up from his machinery of death to look at Rocky and Caittie. He pulled a pistol from under his jacket and offered it out to them, if anyone wanted it. Hearing and seeing this, she shied away a bit while shaking her head. Even though she had justified Louie’s death along with the carnage during the escape from the shadow clinic, she couldn’t justify shooting someone with her own hands…
She didn’t even see Rocky’s response as she turned back around. The muscled ex-boxer turned shadowrunner looked just as different as the rest of the people in the van, though his horns still were the same. Out of the pair of trolls, she probably liked Cerberus less, which left Rocky in the lead, but still, they both had a stain on their reputations with her caused by the situation in Carl’s Coffins. Something like that was going to be hard to shake off, but in her mind, they were working it off slowly.

Considering that though, her mind wandered to her attitude earlier with this group and the stain on her reputation with them all. Letting out a sigh, she could only ponder what she could have done differently, about everything she could have done differently from the start; but like her father said, she couldn’t change the past, only learn from it. Considering the offer of money if they survived this, a great amount that could sustain her for a couple of months at least, Caittie figured she should ‘play it cool’ for the time being.
‘Who knows what might come in the future and it’s best not to burn your bridges before you even see them…’, the technomancer thought to herself with another sigh.

Then she had an epiphany that almost made her want to smack her forehead in frustration. She had spent all this time thinking about everything but what actually mattered at hand. She needed to do something to raise the chance they would know when Louie actually left the damn pasta restaurant. Taking a deep breath, she looked inside her commlink that once belonged to some guy named ‘Burnhouses’ or something.
Twisting the fabric of the matrix, she could feel the familiar entity known as Shadow appear in her head. With just a few seconds, she had the sprite assisting the team by looking out for any signals from Rudolpho’s. As they started appearing in her listing, she pulled it up and tried placing the points on a map for tracking. From what she saw, she guessed that there were around ten or more people in the building, but at the distance she was at, there could be more that she just couldn’t pick up. Still, it was better than nothing and she figured she might as well inform the team.

<<�Hmm… from what I can see. I think there’s ten or more people in Rudolpho’s. There might be more than that, but I can’t see their commlink signals. This is the best I can do without hacking in directly, and I don’t want what happened with those FBI guys. That would really suck…�>>, Angel sent out over the team’s commlink network. Her voice was apologetic but factual at the same time.

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:53:14


Her butt perched sideways on the seat of her hog and her shoulders resting against the plastiboard wall of the Fast Fuel © shack, Sledge munched something only an ork could love purchased from the junk food selection inside.

It was almost dark - the street lines had just come on - and still no movement from the restaurant. But she doubted those three big black SUVs Sugar Lips had described would be parked and guarded outside if The Man wasn't inside.

Right then, she sensed an alert that one of her Matrix drop-boxes had received a message. It was a box that she'd only ever told one other person about...

'Fast Fuel' fuel station, a few blocks from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 20:54:33
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

In the cooling evening air the deep fried squid chips wrapper fluttered randomly as it floated down to join the other discarded detritus on the Seattle streets. The chips didn't have the same aerodynamics and reached the cracked asphalt first.

It took an age after her mental commands to retrieve the files, then a moment looking at the blank carrier message before she got to the message itself.

H -
You are completely compromised. The Feds are the worst. Absolutely stay away from them. Do not try to communicate with me. You have to get out of the Plex until we can figure out what to do. There is a little-used border-crossing just north of where the Green River flows from Salish into Auburn. You've got two hours to get there. Attached is a passport and SIN that will get you out past the Metroplex Guards on this side. The NAN guards on the other side have been paid off, but they and the deal go off shift at 23:00. The guards will get you to someone who will get you into the Cascade Ork lands, and someone will contact you there, saying they have a message for you from "your father."
Good luck, cerri.
- M

Unseen by her ork eyes, adapted ages past for these dimly lit conditions, the Americruiser Sedan that just filled up pulled away from the fuel station, the bright red flash of the brake lights brought her back.

Sledge shook her head as she looked down at the discarded chips on the ground, then flipped through her sets of plans and made some adjustments and calculations based on her maps. It didn't take long to figure out the implications.

<<@team:: <<01:34:14||02:05:27>>>> The countdown ARO she slipped into the team net without an active alert.

A gun loving murderous psychotic troll, a pair of magical trog fists attached to a saddened soul, a hardened pro, a castaway little girl and a eloquently verbose young suit weren't anything she cared about. And they were nothing, absolutely nothing compared with her littermate.

The decision was easy for Sledge.

time to go to work

The consequences would be hard, but there was no other way she was going to live... or die.

Seattle's Best Coffee, across from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:10

Time had dragged slowly for Smith and Fortunato as they maintained their vigil outside the restaurant they were told was their target's headquarters. For a long time, the only activity had been a burly man with a face like mashed potatoes wearing a white, red-stained apron coming out and collecting the dinnerware of the two outside guards.

The two fledgling shadowrunners each tried to remain inconspicous, one behind a cup of coffee, the other amid the leaves of a spruce that adorned the upscale sidewalk.

And then finally, well after dark, movement. About a dozen men filed out of the restaurant. Smith had a fairly poor view, as much of the activity was screened behind the huge SUVs. He saw no one he recognized or thought might be someone they were shooting for. He did see one of the guards open up the rear hatch of the last SUV in line and start handing out shotguns, big mean techy-looking shotguns. Counting the two guards themselves, he counted eight burly men with the weapons. They were the kind of burly that said they were either bodybuilders or were packing a lot of brute-force cyber, or both. Once they were done handing and tossing the weapons to each other - obviously without a care in the world who saw them, they piled into the vehicles - one into the driver's seat of each SUV, and one into the passenger seat of the first SUV. The others all got in on the other side, if they got in at all.

Fortunato could see more, but in the astral he couldn't pick out much individual detail. At a cursory glance, almost everyone appeared cybered. There were four men that stood out for not being nearly as large as the others - only one had someone else open the door for him, a bald guy with an air of self-importance. An small astral lizard sat on his shoulder, long neck straining as it peered about in all directions. The four not-thugs split themselves between the second and third SUVs, which promptly caravaned into the night, leaving a send-off party of various spaghetti-heads behind them on the sidewalk. Once the vehicles were out of sight, the home-front mafiosos went back inside.

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:20
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Smith remained relativly casual as he watched the mobsters make their move. He took in what details he had the opportunity to see, and let them pull away in their SUVs before sending the message to the team. He didn't want to make any sudden movements in case one of the drivers was watching him. When they had left, he pushed a button, nonchalantly, in AR, and put one hand over his mouth as if stiffling a yawn.

<<@Team:: "Three black SUVs on the move, heading west. I counted 8 armed guards, and saw a drone hovering over them. No eyes on the VIPs. Not sure if this is the one we were waiting for, but whatever it is up to - its big. You shouldn't have any trouble spotting them.">>

He glanced around the cafe and smiled at a good looking woman who seemed to be looking at him, which caused her to blush and look away. Normally, this would have interested him, but at the moment, he was just glad she wasn't watching him anymore.

He stood up, whispering to no one in particular. <<@Team:: "You guys want me in pursuit, or maintaining my post?">> While he waited for a reply, he made his way towards the doorway, incidentally in the direction of the woman. Smith did not want to loose a lot of time, if he was going to catch them, but if the team wanted him to stick around and make sure no one else left, he was ready to take a seat at the woman's table, and talk to her while watching Rudolpho's over he shoulder.

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:20
Sledge - Outrider
PAN - Hidden

***HONK***

Ignoring the annoyed horn of the Nissan Tempura sedan she'd just cutoff, Sledge goosed the engine and slid over to the outside lane, setting off some anti collision alarms in the grid guide systems. Seconds later she opened some lead space and the rash of angry ARO pings subsided out her grid guide view.

<<@team Sugar Lips, continue till you have a confirmed sighting. Someone might need to check the restaurant. I -think- if one of you in the Love Machine speaks aloud Fortunato will hear. Let him know we do not have a positive confirmation on the target.

We have -one- shot at this. We stack everything in our favor. Nailing a couple car loads of enforcers is no good, that'll make it almost impossible to get at him if he holes up afterwards.

For now we track the SUVs, I'm ahead, the Love Machine trails, we can bracket at distance and get an idea where's he's headed.

Angel, we need to look for equalizers. Look for heavy vehicles en route and think about how we can use one. If it comes down to it, I can hijack one and if you can supress the alarms for a few minutes that'll be enough. Run a search for street or building contruction sites anywhere on his possible routes. If we find one close enough we can use the heavy equipment there to help us out.

Cerberus, Rocky anything on this route reminder of a place you visited, speak up and we can check them out as a place to do this. We can get a jump if we can set up ahead of time. How long does he stay in one place? Get the data into our planning ARO. Angel can help.

Priorities are positive confirmation, then finding or setting a locale to go into action, and in the meantime look for any ways to give us an edge.

Right now I say we follow till he gets to his first stop, confirm, then we go ahead depending on what we've come up with for our edge in the meantime.

Floors open for suggestions on how to separate Louie from his protection, or reduce their effectiveness when we tangle with them.>>

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:35
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky had been in another place for the last few hours as the group had sat waiting for some word on Louie leaving the restaurant. At first he had surfed using his comm, but soon that was not keeping him entertained, so he figured he should do something useful with time.

He stretched out what little he could in the back of the van with out intruding on Cerberus's space and worked on his meditations, preparing him self for the coming events much as he had when getting ready for a fight. Going over attacks, defenses and such he might need during the night. Of coarse this evenings events were not going to be a normal fight, it was a fight to the death, the team's or Louie's team.

The hours passed and Rocky slowly relaxed more and more as his meditations centered him and brought him more in touch with the power he had inside himself. He hadn't even noticed when the pulled away from their parking spot, it was Sledge saying his name over the comm that brought him back to the real world. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes and then leaned forward to see where the van was going.

<<@Team :: "Nothing yet, but I'll keep and eye out and let you know. Most nights I tried to catch a little extra sleep while we were on the raod if I could. As for the meetings, it just depended on the mood Louie was in and how long before he would have us start pounding people. I would guess most stops will be ten to fifteen minutes per stop."

I-405 Southbound Astral, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:43:58
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato's astral form cursed silently as the caravan left Rudolpo's. He hadn't heard confirmation from anyone or been told who was worth assensing. At least spirit backup was light; staying out of a watchers LOS usually wasn't too tough.

He settled into a pursuit pattern close to the ground. Most of his spirit was dragging through the pavement as he flew behind the rumbling, foggy, grey squares. One of his watchers started to relay a conversation and he realized that he'd forgotten to update his team.

His aura flickered with a gray-green exasperation as he thought to Love Machine's watcher, I saw a bald guy who looked like the head honcho go into the center SUV. Someone opened a door for him and he had the only magical security. Someone tell Johnson and let him know that now's not the time for picking up ladies.

Pausing a moment, he added, Everyone's cybered, by the way. So keep your heads screwed on.

He doubted it would be a long night, just a harrowing one. For the first time since he started the op he remembered that he had kids who needed him to come back alive. It sent a blue-black shiver through his aura which persisted even after he spent a moment refocusing himself. If everything went according to plan then he'd be fine...

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:44:34
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

<<@team, Sledge, Johnson...Fortunato's spirit just asked us to inform you that he thinks Loui got into the middle SUV. He said it was a bald guy and Loui is bald so...and he also had a watcher spirit with him and the other guys opened the door for him. He also said that most of the body gaurd is cybered up. We definately need to find some way to nuetralize some of those gaurds before we attack. Johnson should definately pull up his roots and go mobile.>>

Holy shit...two maybe three against eight cybered bodygaurds? The watcher spirit proves he has some mojo on his side to but that should be countered by Fort.. this situation sounds like a CF waiting to go off..a light machine gun, some grenades, a pistol and some martial arts combat..I hope its enough

I-405 Southbound Lanes, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:44:42
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Hidden

Listening to the chatter that was going on over the team's commnet, Caittie watched the darkening skies and moving traffic going down the road. Thinking about the plan Sledge came up with, she had problems with the idea of hijacking a random vehicle and causing an accident, mainly on the fact that it would get more random people hurt or killed.
Quickly thinking around it, Angel sent back over the net, <<@Team :: I'll keep an eye out for big trucks, but I'd rather only use that as a last resort. They have a drone, from what Johnson said. Want me to try and hijack that instead to... do what I did last time?">> The last bit was mixed with a little apprehension, her not really used to saying anything like that and trying to get the point across still.

Seattle's Best Coffee, across street from Rudolpho's, Juanita, Bellevue
Wednesday 8/20/70 21:46:00
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

Adam had just sat down and begun to introduce himself when the AR-window popped into view, explaining that the team believed Louie was, in fact, in one of the SUVs. That was good news, but it left Adam in a particularly awkward position as far as this conversation's future. Closing the AR window with a wave of his hand, he looked disappointed and apologized to the woman, who was in the middle of introducing herself.

"I'm sorry, Devon. I've just been informed that the meeting I was waiting here for has been rescheduled at the last minute. I'm going to have to run to make it on time, but I hope to see you here again soon - and we can introduce ourselves properly." Even his disarming smile left her visiably confused, and - given how shy she seemed earlier - probably feeling a little self-conscious.

That was the least of Smith's concearns, at the moment. He needed to get to his bike, and catch up to the team, and see this mission through. Being distracted with thoughts of an awkward introduction to some woman he had just met, and would probably never see again, wouldn't help him do his job.

Eastbound on I-90, just east of Tradition Lake
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:05:00

Staying a few hundred meters ahead of the trio of black SUVs, Sledge had roared down 405 for a good ten minutes, watching her countdown clock tick down and wishing the deadman would get where he was going soon enough that she wouldn't have to make any more tough choices tonight. She'd kept going south when the Mafiosos had turned east on I-90, and she had navigated the cloverleaf in record time and without attracting an Lone Star attention (that she knew of). After that she'd spurred her hog forward and moved ahead of them again, screened by an 18-wheeler as it, too, sped past the caravan - those drivers and their deadlines killed people!

They'd skirted the upscale Issaquah neighborhood, and as more minutes ticked by the swanky corp villas had given way to decidedly middle-class homes, and then to apartment blocks. But that time the road had become a demarcator between the bedroom community of Renton and the forsaken squalor of Redmond - a memory too fresh in her mind. On the left of the highway was a high fence topped with concertina wire, but there were either large holes or obvious patch-jobs every hundred meters or so. The farther they drove, the more the nearby presence of the Barrens had obviously driven down property values on the Renton side. Soon, the right side of the road was all factories and warehouses, or empty fields covered in charred debris - razed earth was Lone Star's answer to the desperate camps of squatters that had thought crossing the freeway would be a step towards a better life.

The other thing about this stretch of highway was that, unlike Bellevue and Issaquah, the offramps were few and far between, and there was little surface street infrastructure between them. Sledge was just starting to be concerned abou this, wondering if she should tighten her lead, when the team net informed her their targets had gotten off the freeway heading south.

Eastbound on I-90, just east of Tradition Lake
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:05:20
Sledge - Scofflaw
PAN - Hidden

She'd done it before, on a dare by Andy one summer weekend, what now seemed ages past, but only a couple of months ago. The points deduction on her license was enough to make her seriously worry about her heavy equipment operators certification for the next couple of years.

That didn't matter anymore.

Sledge slid to a stop on a shoulder, and without a pause to readjust did a skid turn and started heading back down the shoulder opposite the traffic. Ignoring the honking, she made sure to shut off the blare of grid guide AROs screaming at her to keep down the distraction as she headed back towards her target.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:10:24

Angel relished the moonlit wind caressing, tanatalizing, cooling every centimeter of her, finding its way into her intakes, a slight updraft easing her load.

She'd done a brilliant job of programming the Love Machine - the cutting-edge pilot was amazingly pliable to her will, and now, with the help of Fort's otherworldly friend, it followed the Mafia caravan completely unnoticed - leaving her free to immerse herself in the enemy drone's hot-sim telemetry.

Since she wasn't interacting with it directly, only sapping free-floating data out of the air, she knew there was no way the drone's master could detect her, and the machine's sensors - her senses - provided the best possible vantage point on their target, which she'd downgraded to an AR-compatible feed and was relaing to the team.

Watching events unfold, Cerberus was a little frustrated by his inability to control the angle of the view, but at least he could zoom in on parts of the image provided, and toggle between light-magnification and thermographic imaging. Anyway, whatever its limitations, he knew the pirated feed was a total godsend.

A few minutes after leaving the freeway, the drone abruptly shifted its attention from an outward-focused search for tails to an inward-looking surveillance of the caravan's arrival. Cerberus saw the three SUVs pull up on a fenced compound. The place was big - about three klicks on a side - he guessed by playing back a few of the wide-angle glimpses he got as the drone shifted focus. The fence was cyclone, but with plastic slats woven throughout to obscure vision. And they probably made climbing harder, as would the razor wire strung across the top. Bright neon signs posted at intervals warned "Danger: High Voltage". The audio picked up another warning from the place - the barking of dogs, lots of dogs.

He could see them running all around in there - little heat blips - and they were converging on the gate.

The place was arranged in gigantic rows of scrap - huge hedges of cars and appliances piled five meters high, separated by wide "aisles". Scattered here and there throughout were bulldozers. Near the gates were some corrugated aluminum structures, one with a satellite dish. In the open space around the shacks were a handful of pick-up trucks and small forklifts. About a hundred meters into the yard from the buildings, down the widest, central aisle, was a huge crane on tracks, with a flying saucer-looking metal disk attached to the end of its boom line.

After the SUVs honked a few times the gates slid open of their own accord and the vehicles entered, fanning out slightly so that the two on the ends faced the buildings, while the middle one, staying in the center, faced broadside so that the driver's side was away from the shacks.

The black Mafia-mobiles were immediately surrounded by a dozen growling dogs - big, mean, heavy breeds. A shaft of light spilled from a second-floor door on the largest structure, and several individuals came out and started down an external stairway. Zooming in on them, Cerberus could see a balding man with a huge beer-gut spilling naked out from a too-small white tank-top. He carried an old Remington pump-action loosely in one hand, and probably hadn't shaved in a week.

He was followed by a shuffling staggering creature with dead eyes and leprous-looking hands. It was too warm to be dead, but too cool to be alive. Cerberus had seen ghouls on the trid and in public health announcements. Two more men followed these two. A middle-aged man with a heavy moustache and an air of authority with an automatic strapped to his hip over jeans and a polo shirt, with a ballistic vest over the top. And a younger human, maybe twenty years old - no, not a human, an ork - but with a little work could pass. He wore a CrimeTime concert T-shirt and carried an old-model Armalite.

The men took their time, finally reaching the ground and sauntering in a line toward the semi-circle of canine besieged vans, from which no one had yet emerged.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:04


As the green-tinged troll gunner watched the scene unfold, he felt the van glide to a seamless stop in an empty warehouse parking lot across the road from the place. And then, in addition to the sounds of dogs snarling and engines idling, a second audio track was laid onto the feed - apparently Angel was staying busy. There were several annoyed voices chiming into the conversation:

<<Wouldja lookit these fuckin' mutts? I hate comin' here.>>

<<Do not get your panties into a proverbial bunch, Vito. The animals are not hurting us.>>

<<No, you cunt, I am talkin' about some fuckin' respect from these sons of bitches.>>

<<That is it, Vito, that is the thing. Every time we come here we fucking call ahead and tell these cheeky bastards to be waiting for us, and every time we get this fucking dog...dog...circus or something. It's not good for my ulcer.>>

<<Aww - fuhgeddaboutit youse guys - you know the boss - he'll git fed up soon enough, and then its doggy burgers till fuckin' Christmas.>>

As the mobsters complained about the dogs, the four people from the building were approaching the vehicles. They stopped about ten paces from the middle SUV, and then the fat one yelled "Shut up! Heel! Heel, or I will kick your fucking asses!" And he did kick one viciously for good measure. The dogs stopped their growling and lowered their hackles slightly, and the man with the moustache called out - "It's safe. You can come out."

Cerberus noticed that the gate had never closed behind the SUVs. But none of the dogs ran out.

Doors started opening and big guys in expensive-looking armored suits - the same sort he and Rocky had worn not so long ago - started getting out. They were all packing Mossberg AM-CMDTs, which they never had had when he was in the crew. He recognized a few of the guys - all were assholes who'd treated the troll muscle about the way the fat dude had treated his dogs. He counted eight of the big guys, noticing that all the drivers had gotten out. They formed a circle around the caravan - watching the dogs more then the people they were ostensibly meeting.

A couple of them went to the driver's side rear door of the middle SUV. They opened it up and by the way they acted, Cerberus knew who was going to get out - and then there he was in all his bald and pinstriped glory - Louie "Fishbreath" Finnegan.

He was joined by Angelo from the tail SUV. Then, flanked by four of the bodyguards, the two made men approached their hosts, while the other four guards took up positions at the four corners of their line of cars.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:38
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky watched the SUV's and guys from the junk yard on his comm from the feed that was being sent to the team. He wasn't sure how the idea that had just poped in to his head would go over, but figured he should mention it just in case.

<<@Team :: "Well this doesn't look like the best place to try and take our shot. Unless we want to see if Angel can get the job done with the drone now that Louie is out in the open? He's really the only one that matters."

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:11:55
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

<<@Team:: "Agreed. If at all possible, I would like to minimize collateral casualties. Also, if we act now, the chaos will slow down any attempt to pursue us.">>

<<@Team:: "First of all, is the drone armed and capable of taking the shot, Angel?">>

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:12:08
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden

Minimal collateral damage?? What the fuck is wrong with these people. If we dont make SURE we kill his ass by doing whatever it takes I'm gonna die. That bastard can send wave after wave of guys after me. Better to drop a nuke on him and worry about the consequences later than pussy foot around and botch the job. Idiots.

<<team:: "You know Loui is usually hitting these guys up for money under the guise of protection and a million other scams. If we wait for a few of these things to go down his gaurds will get lax as things become routine and we will also get a nice big fat bonus at the end....I'm ready to kill Loui and everyone who gets in my way whenever you want though. " >>

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:12:42
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

Events on the digital realm had annoyed the young technomancer just minutes before, with one of her sprites refusing not only to compile when willed to do so but to also be unwilling to perform the requested task, not once but twice. It had taken a second attempt at compiling to finally get the results she desired. It was well worth the effort.
Through the information Angel was gathering, she calculated and set up a quick map to determine the estimated locations and count of people out there. The numbers were encouraging to her situation, but it lead her further down a path she never knew she would have to take in life, one of a killer. The cyber-angel from which she got her ‘nickname’ let out a sigh on the digital realm at the thought and resignation that the only way to keep them from killing her was to do it herself.
The noise from the hot feed off the drone was distracting to her concentration, along with the traffic from the mob’s network. ‘They sure talk a lot… Course I guess I should be thankful.’, she mused to herself before dismissing the sprite and falling out of the virtual world to the dark van of the real one.

Rubbing her face with a hand to try and relieve some tension, Caittie could only listen to the traffic on her own team’s comm-net. From what the female elf heard, she knew Johnson was interested in her hijacking the drone to take out the target. She was just about to reply just over the comm-net, but remembered that Fortunato couldn’t hear that and figured it would do good to let him know what’s up by speaking out loud. ‘He said something about being able to hear our voices through something he left behind, right?’, she asked herself but shrugged since she couldn’t do anything about it if he didn’t.

Speaking out into the air and team network at the same time, she tried to relay as much information as she could without clogging it, “From what I can tell, I think the drone is armed, but it’s also being rigged right now. That’s going to be the hard part out of it all… If I’m caught hacking in, it could blow this chance.�
The red haired girl took a breath to think for a second before continuing, “From what I can see, and I’ve made a makeshift map, there are still two people we don’t see out there, the hacker in the middle SUV and someone in the back one. The hacker alone helps me out, cause I can knock him out without alerting someone else, but that other person is the unknown variable.�

Taking another breather to ponder an idea that came to her head, she looked over to the unconscious mage beside her and spoke aloud for a third time, “Fortunato, I don’t know what you’re up to, but can you think up a diversion or just do whatever you can when shit starts happening?�
“I don’t know who’s call it is, but do you want me to go through with this?�, she asked to either Johnson or Sledge, cause honestly, the girl didn’t know who was really in charge right now, but at least she knew she wasn’t.
As she finished, she put her elbow on the armrest of the driver’s seat and rested her head in the palm of her hand. “Hell, can you even hear me, old man?�, she muttered out, just loud enough for the trolls in the back to barely understand it.

Vicinity of Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:04
Sledge - Lead
PAN - Hidden

... time to make the call...

The ork woman in her uncomfortable padding has been sitting staring at the rig running lights, enough lights to make it clear as day to her eyes, and absorbing the information from the chatter and feeds Angel was pumping through to the team.

Sledge grabbed the shotgun, keeping it wrapped as she put her hand on the grips and slotted her finger into the trigger. Light polymer heat retaining weave wasn't going to make a damned bit of difference to the kinetic vector of the hot metal that would fly out of the barrel when she pulled the trigger. In her other hand she hung her toolkit.

She stepped off the bike and started walking to the lights.

<<@team:: As good as it gets. He's just as likely to go to some kind of crowded place next. Gates are open, dogs make it messy, tricky getting out of here, one road, other parties don't like dealing with him. Don't mean they like us either. Anyone know a way to spook the dogs?

We start like this. I get this rig, spook the dogs, probably can get that far without revealing ourselves, then we take the drone, geek the mage, then take care of Louie, then run. Decision points. If we can take the drone without alerting them, then we hit Louie first, then run, I can use the rig to block. If we alert them, then I go in and ram, rest of you follow up, and then it gets messy.

Anyone got a better plan or a major objection, speak now.

Angel, in?
Rocky?
Cerberus, I already know.>>

<<@Angel:: Anything you can do to help with jacking the rig here?>>

"Magic man got a way of spooking dogs?"

Sledge didn't really care if anyone thought she was wierd talking to herself out here in the middle of nowhere. There was work to do, and it was going to get done.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:30
Mr. Smith - Spotter
PAN - Hidden

In response to both Angel's original request and Sledge's take-charge plan, Smith added a quick, <<@Team:: "No argument here.">>

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:38
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

At first Rocky didn't think this would be the best time and place to take their shot, but Sledge had some good points and it appeared she was used to running some kind of operation. Rocky was pretty sure it wasn't hits on mob people but it was something.

@Team: << I'm in, lets get this done.>> Rocky spoke aloud so that Fort would hear him as well.

He then went to double check his gear, making sure for the tenth time since they had gotten in the van that his gun was loaded and secured in it's holster. He then stretched a little and waited for when it would be time for him to charge in to the fray, not really having the option of staying at range like Cerberus did.

Zed's Salvage, Astral Plane
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:28
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

From his hiding place in the road way he saw the SUV's pull into the salvage yard and the ghoul come out after them and cursed silently. The amount of astral presence there was far too high for his comfort. Not that he couldn't deal with the ghoul, assuming it wasn't awakened (he made a mental note to check that assumption, but he was concerned about the increased risk of detection.

As he squatted in his astral hiding place for what felt like an eternity, Fort became increasingly uneasy about what exactly was going on with his team. Last time he'd been performing astral surveillance they'd rammed a car while he wasn't looking. As he was preparing to yell at them for not giving him an update, Angel's voice streamed through the watcher followed by Sledge. He grinned.

Thinking at Sledge he thought: I can do you one better, give me a second. Moments later he had skimmed low across the barren landscape while the watcher and the ghoul looked away. His body breathed fitfully and coughed then Fortunato was fully awake and wiping gunk from his contact encrusted eyes.

He typed uncoordinatedly as he readjusted to physical:

<<@Team: Hey guys if you give me a minute I can conjure up a spirit which will be able to make the dogs attack Louie. The bad news is that the ghoul out there has the potential of spotting me or the van.

Also, once we summon the spirit for the dogs we're officially exposing the van to the public, could be trouble; we'll need to act fast.>>

After scanning through his back logs Fortunato responded to Sledge saying, <<@Sledge: Yeah, I'm in. This is the best shot we can hope for I think.>>

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:13:45
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden

<<team:: "Well so much for letting him collect a few payments. Yeah sure I'm ready to plow headlong into 8 cybered guys with shotguns. I mean its not like there are hundreds of different ways of taking one of those SUV's out while they are in route to the next place, you know cutting our opposition in half and stuff.">>

Cerberus starts looking for a place to set up to give him a decent killzone.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:05

As the team hastily put together a brutal plan of attack, the scene in the junkyard continued to play out on their screens and AR feeds.

A cooling summer evening breeze sent scraps of newsfax tumbling across the space that separated the denizens of Zed's Salvage from the knot of mafiosos. The main group of Italians was totally surrounded by vicious, mangy beasts that appeared ready to pounce at the slightest word from their master. Meaty fingers pressed against shotgun triggers, mere milligrams shy of the pressure needed to drop hammers.

The bald man in the middle was the only person in sight that didn't look nervous, however much the other tried to hide it. "Does one of you twats want to tell me what the fuck is this? You say you got a proposition - and I fucking know you ain't stupid enough to try and renegotiate our contract - so I think you've spent enough time out here is this dump, you actually had a thought or two run through one of your inbred heads, and I'm gonna come out here and you'll have something to show me. Well I get here and its fucking canines-on-parade and the only thing different from usual is you got this fucking cannibal with you. So you can imagine the veritable leaps and bounds by which my curiousity grows."

Vicinity of Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:23
Sledge - Inbound
PAN - Hidden

<<@team:: Inbound. ETA 22:15:03

Another prominent countdown ARO appears set to 40 seconds, accompanied with a minimap view with a huge superimposed animated arrow rolling through the gate of the yard.>>

Getting to the truck had been easy enough, the mirrors only covered certain angles, and while the sensor grid didn't have visual blind spots, it certainly wasn't designed to alert the driver to an ork sized person approaching at walking speed while the rig was parked. In reverse mode the truck would have squawked loudly. The squawking hadn't happened till she'd smashed the passenger side window and as stepped up onto the running board. A couple high voltage darts later the squawking stopped.

She checked again that the remington has the safety on before using it to smash open the control box. It wouldn't be good for a round to go off while she used the weapon as a club, odds were the round would likely head in her direction. There was a moment or two of worry as the control resisted her efforts to circumvent the lockouts. She'd have to take time later to figure out why the random jumper connection she'd made enabled the vehicle.

Giant engine started, she dragged the slob out of the truck and placed him comfortably out of the way to the side of the road. Might as well make the poor working slob comfortable, even if she had inconvenienced him. Hopping back up in it only a second to get it rolling, and she went through the standard orientation check out of habit before shutting out the pilot software and disabling the safety overrides.

What Sledge was about to do certainly wasn't safe.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:45
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

The monkey tailed rouge couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he picked and prodded at the giant locked door of the generic looking warehouse. Shaking his head, he examined the high tech security pad that locked the door of the unassuming building. Normally, this would all be enough to have him chuckling to himself, but he was more thinking about the situation that got him here in the first place.
The technomancer who had compiled his form this time was known to him through past events. This time, though, the pinkish angel looked tired, annoyed and anxious instead of the just nervous looking she was last time. She didn’t even have to ‘say’ what was going on, Zidane could just read it off the top of the mindlink they both shared.
Something very important to her had the girl on edge and her current state of emotions had something to do with a certain yelling he had heard nearby on the resonance realm where crack sprites like him went about their own business. He could still hear the ‘voice’ of Shadow yelling out her frustrations just moments before he himself felt the calling, “Leave me alone! I’m busy right now, Girl!�

Working away at the lock, he grinned as he finally heard the tell-tale sounds of the latches releasing on the virtual door. ‘Another job well done.’, the sandy haired rogue though to himself as he reached forward and placed his hands on the handle of the large sliding door. ‘Challenging, but easy enough to get through… Makes for an enjoyable experience really’, he contemplated to himself as he started sliding the door to the side, finally gaining a view of the insides of the building.
Then, in a split nano-second, he flung the door across it’s rollers, wide open, and shot both arms forward, hands making arcane looking gestures. He stood that way for a moment, nothing moving in the dusty air, until Zidane let out a slight sigh of relief. “Just in time…�, he muttered to himself as he wiped some beads of sweat from his brow.

Taking a few steps inside the crate filled warehouse, he edged around the floating metal monstrosity that had just been pointing its huge guns at him moments before. “Just hang there quiet like that for a little longer, big fella.�, he told the security agent. Making his way to a clipboard hanging nearby, he sighed and shook his head yet again. ‘Always with the encryption... It’s more annoying than anything.’ Wiping his hands on his pants, he slowly made his way with breaking through it.
It took time, a lot of time to the sprites’ mind, but he finally made his way through the encryption that had denied him his mission. Done with that, he moved through all the boxes, noticing that while the agent wasn’t focusing on him, it had started making its rounds through the warehouse yet again. Shrugging, the sprite continued with what he had set out to do in the first place, finding a specific box and rearranging it’s contents to suit the angel who had compiled his form.
It took only a little bit of looking through the warehouse’s logbook to find the crate he needed. Setting down the clipboard, Zidane pried open the container to reveal his prize. Digging his hands deep into the mixed jumbled heap of data within, he picked and plucked the strands of code he needed, while pulling more of the same out of his own pockets to add into the mix.

It wasn’t long before he was finally finished with the creation of his technomancer’s account which she wished for him to make. As he stood back to look at his work, like any craftsman would, the world around him broke into chaos. Red lights flashed and spun where there weren’t any moments before and klaxons blaring their warnings of intrusion. The most disturbing sound was that of the twin heavy gattling cylinders spinning up behind him, but he could only grin to himself.
“Sorry, bud. I’m already done. Better luck next time.�, the monkey-like rogue sarcastically said to the automated defense agent as he turned slightly, grinning widely and brazenly shoving a finger up into the air.
The agent’s response of spewing virtual led at the invading sprite should have surely wiped the grin off his face, throwing one of the most grizzly looks of pain and anguish that only having your very being torn apart forcefully can emit, but it wasn’t so. The bullets flew through the Zidane’s form as if he was only a wisp of vapor, a figment of the agent’s imagination, to bury themselves into the wood and cement beyond, flicking up debris that flew around the area. The barely visible sprite only laughed as he finally faded into nothing.

It wasn’t moments afterwards, the reactions to Angel’s sprite had more wide flung effects. First and foremost, she knew she had access to the system that directly linked to the drone her team needed for the operation to be successful. That filled her with a shred of hope, just to have it torn to shreds in front of her as she saw and felt the connection go dead.
The entire team saw the following aftereffect, with different responses to such. The feed their hidden technomancer was feeding to them; the visual and audio that showed their targets and their encounter with some random people who seemed almost as seedy as the made men themselves, up and went to dead silence and dark blackness. This silence was quickly interrupted by the quickly spat curse the angelic avatar girl over the team’s commnet as she scrambled to secure her own mind against a counter hacking attempt, not sure exactly what would happen if it came to that, “Shit!�

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:45
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

"shit."

What the hell does that mean? Cerberus looked at Rocky, "Lets move dude, pop the doors." <<@team:: "This is Cerberus, I am moving into position. As soon as Sledge rolls by I will start lighting up targets.">> With the back doors to the van now open Cerberus takes a few steps bent over, so as not to hit his head on the roof of the van, and he is out and taking up a position by the side of the van so that he can see the gate of the junkyard and the approach of the big rig Sledge had captured. No longer needing a feed to the drone he quickly turned the wifi on his eyeballs off to prevent some hacker from screwing with him.

Thankfully Loui and the guy from the junkyard were having to talk loudly to each other because of the distance between them and to be heard over the other sounds of the night. Cerberus enhanced hearing easily picked up on the converstion and what it was about. "Loui and the guys from the junkyard are talking about organ legging or something, it doesnt sound like they know about us yet." As Cerberus looked around the junkyard for any targets he saw the dron hovering overhead. "Looks like the drone is still in play".

The adrenaline was flowin and Cerberus heartbeat had accelerated. A few more seconds and he was going to have his revenge on the guy who had turned his life upside down yet again and he HATED when people did that. Maybe I'm not as mean and cruel as I should be to get people's respect quickly but they are sure as hell going to learn not to mess with me and stop messing up my life!

Zed's Salvage
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:47
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Shit!

It was all the cue Fortunato needed. The op was blown (that seemed to happen to this team awfully frequently), it was time to move.

He mentally kicked himself as he hauled his burnt and broken arm into a usable position. They'd had eyes on the target and an undetected cruise missle streaking toward their target. What the fuck had they been thinking with the hacking attempt; he didn't know. He needed to know something about computers fast.

As the thoughts raced through his head he absentmindedly wove a delicate spell construct. Feeling the mana between his fingers, he cursed and crushed it; it was useless, he needed to focus. Precious seconds were ticking by. A viper curled up in the passengers foot well laughed at him, each chuckle ending with a drawn out hisss...

Fort's eyes became slits as he glanced through his hands at the growling mutt on the other side of the fence. He breathed gently and let a fiber of mana pass from one finger to another, soon the image of the dog was tangled in a web of magical strings. Fortunato will his construct to wrap around the beast and grab deep, unguarded parts of its brain. He'd whipped the monster into a frenzy in no time.

Then the shit really hit the fan.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:50
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

As Cerberus stood there by the corner of the van straining to look around the edge and trying to hear the conversation something changed. The dogs that had been surrounding Loui, Angelo and 4 of his new bodygaurds, atleast the last time he had seen them, were for the most part totally silent. Now he could hear one of them begin to growl like somebody was trying to take its food or something.

Then the growling stopped and then there was a shotgun blast. After that it turned into utter chaos. More shotguns blasts followed suit which caused yelps of pain from the dogs. Cerberus could also hear somebody screaming "Ahhh its got me!! Get it off! Shoot it!!". Automatic gunfire quickly followed. Now Cerberus could hear the screams of people getting shot and dogs going berserk. Maybe they wouldnt even have to touch Loui, he thought.

Then Cerberus's enhanced ears picked up the sounds of an 18 wheeler picking up speed and shifting gears. He could all but see the clean bio-deasel pour from its exaust pipes in his imagination as heat waves.

<<@team:: "Hey whatever Angel did the situation at the meet just turned into one big huge cluster fuck for Loui, step on it Sledge or we may be late to this party!! I can hear shotguns and automatic gunfire">>

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:57
Sledge - Barreling along
PAN - Hidden

The past few days the pressure had built up and now she was traveling on the path as inevitable as a bullet travel down the barrel of a gun.

20 metric tonnes of high tech composite steel ceramic and plastic hurtled along at 60 kilometers an hour, or 1200000000 joules, the amount of energy of a small explosion, many magnitudes of energy more then a speeding ovoid of lead. She'd done the calculations off handedly in the half minute or so just past.

No more time to think. Not about Morris. Not about Andy Not about Monica, not Cody, nor Big Jimmy, not about her old crews, not about Javier, not about the BBs, not about Cal, not about Deerwalker, not about some dumb sec guard, not about wild animals, not about her new crew, not about the blood and flesh and tears and smoke and broken bones.

No time to think anymore.

As the barrel of the overhead drone machine gun swung towards her, her vision focused so tightly on it filling her vision entirely, the black hole starting as a tiny dot and her focus shifting to make the entire thing fill her vision like she was about to enter a dark tunnel.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

<<@team from Sledge:: "Kill the drone!">>

<<@team from Angel:: "Im still working it..">>

From Cerberus's vantage point he saw Sledge easily now and as his attention was drawn back to the drone hovering above the meet between Loui and "Zed" he saw the thing begining to rotate 180 degrees to bring it LMG to bear against the semi.

Not knowing how long Angel would need to get control of the drone he decided to act. The semi was the most critical part of this attack right now. Stepping out away from the van he cleared his Ingram White Knight and quickly brought it to bare on the drone. The smartlink conveying approximately where his shots would go by traveling through his hands and up his arms to the datajack on the back of his head into his brain and finally onto his artificial eyeballs.

With his gun being skinned or set up to relay information and commands through touch he didnt have to worry about holding the gun by the handle and playing with the trigger that his fingers couldnt fit into anyways, so he was able to more easily manipulate the gun. All he had to do was command the gun to shoot as if it were a part of him. Like moving an arm or finger. Almost the perfect fusion between man and machine.

Even with all that tech his first two volleys missed. The first burst one was off but it let him correct his aim that he was sure his second burst would score but the drone evaded. Who knew where those bullets would land some 350+ meters away. He anticipated the drones movements and lead the target this time clipping it with his first burst and then blowing it to hell with the second longer burst creating a small shower of metal that rained down now harmlessly to the ground.

<<@team:: "Drone Nuetralized. We are now officially in the party.">>

The text "32/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision. He hope this didnt take long his mask was starting to itch especially when he had to talk.

Zed's Salvage, Astral Plane
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

After summoning a spirit Fortunato was sneaking towards the rioutous astral shadows of the physical firefight. He froze creeping past an SUV.

Something was wrong, there was too much heat coming from the car. It didn't happen that way on astral unless ...

Before he finished the thought a fiery fist connected with his midsection hurling him upward. The elemental surged after him sending a second jet of flame streaking past Fortunato's hastily and shoddily assembled defenses to send him reeling. Burns blossomed on his physical form as he tried to squeeze a thought to his spirit in sideways. He braced himself for the continuing assault as he tried to regain control of his wheeling astral form.

When suddenly the elemental was hurled sideways as Fortunato's snake slammed into it. Two quick bites and the flames had been scattered. Fortunato got his bearings and cursed his unpreparedness. He should have known better than to expect the space to be free of opposition.

There was another fire spirit guarding the center of the fray. There was no mistaking the aura it covered. Fortunato stared it down. It probably wasn't ordered to attack him. Still, energy built in the palm of his hand, no sense being unarmed.

He thought to his watcher, I have eyes on. Astral not clear, Fire spirit by Louie. Things were running smoothly, he could barely discern the truck as a shadow against other shadows. It was going to crash before this comes to blows. The old spy began to relax until a paralyzing panic rattled his ribcage.

theifre'sgoingtoburnthetruckwe'lldieintheexplosionI'mgoingtobekileldbytheelementalIcan'tdiewhatthehellamIthinkingthismakesnosensegotterunrightnowtogetawaycan'tbreeathtoomuchsmoke

He fired of the spell he'd stored as he fled the scene cursing himself. He knew the elemental could induce fear, he knew he shouldn't be feeling this. But none of that stopped him from streaking involuntarily skyward.

Zed's Salvage - since 2032, Northeast Renton, 5.1 km south of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:14:59
Sledge - Breaker braker
PAN - Hidden

Impact resistant ballistic glass exploded in a shower of crystallized tears. Sledge blinked in response. The after image of the smoking tumbling bullet riddled drone spinning out contrasted with the darkness on the inside of her eyelids.

A wink of red light, then something slammed into her chest, punching her ork body backwards and up out of her seat. Not far. Her hands gripped the wheel, bracing her against sudden shifts as she was near the end of her maneuver.

Her eyes snapped open, gathering in the image of the man in classic stance, laser guiding light steady, the barrel of his gun a pinprick of darkness against his pale outline. His finger moved.

The whole image moved, the whole world tilting as the truck smashed through whatever was in the way. Triggered pre planned responses kept her sliding over in a sideways crouch despite the blazing shock of pain in her ribs. Her vision reduced to the discarded nuke it burrito wrappers on the floor as she fired off the twin stabs of commands. One to her foot jammed on the brakes, the other to the vehicles limited pilot brain to unleash it's braking modules controls, already screaming alerts she was ignoring. Just like she was ignoring the blazingly cold numbness in her side.

She hadn't even heard any of the shots.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:02
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

Cerberus took a few deep breaths and began running the smartlink crosshairs over various locations by manipulating the direction the IWK strapped to the gyro at his waist was pointing as he listened to the hiss of hydraulics releasing into the air as the semi shifted gears and of the squelling tires that the ten ton semi made its turn aiming into the junkyard

Cerberus's eyes picked up on the laser that popped up and stabbed into the cab of the semi as it approached and the shattering of glass that followed shortly after followed by a second shot before the semi slammed into the tail end suv with a horrendous sound of metal crushing metal sending the rear suv tumbling into a small shack building furthr back in the junkard.

The semi followed the tumbling suv skidding and finally coming to rest pinning it up against the small building. The trailer unfortunately slid almost into the same position the suv had taken up continueing to block Cerberus's line of sight. However a target of opportunity presented itself when Loui's right hand man Angelo leaped away from the rear suv. Cerberus made sure he had the shot and then commanded his gun to fire. Not wanting to take chances he swept the gun to spread the shots . It paid off and Angelo went down but before he coud follow that burst with another more deadly volley Cerberus caught Rocky moving up out of the corner of his eye. His path was going to cross right of front of him so he held up and as Rocky crossed over to take up position near the center suv he saw a goon grab Angelo by the collar and drag him behnd the center suv.

As two bodygaurds dropped their shotguns and pulled out pistols they moved into position at the rear of the middle suv and behind the end of the trailer but Cerberus is watching Rocky who is trying to look over the suv and his heart goes up into his throat as a guy on the other side pops up and blasts Rocky at almost point blank. Even with his wired reflexes it seemed to happen in slow motion and as he sees the muzzle flash from the gun he thinks there is no hope for Rocky but he drops back down and doesnt even act phased.

Then the two guys he had noticed moving a second before open up on him at his position at the front of the love van. Cerberus holds the IWK upright and begins to spin back behind the van for cover but as he spins shots slam into him. One to the back almost knocking him to the ground and another to the arm. The shot to his back didnt even hurt but the one to his arm felt like somebody had smashed a bat into it but when he ran his hand over the location there was no blood.

Not wanting to let the enemy overrun his position especially not with Angel and Fortunato basically defenseless he moved back to the edge of the van and rolled out just enough to clear his gun and see his targets with his own eyes not being able to manipulate his IWK well enough to use the camera built into the smartgun since it was attached to the gyro harness. He was met with more gun fire and more shots but they were mostly glancing hits. Seeing more of the guy behind the semi trailer he sent a long burst in that direction but the guy had already begun moving away and Cerberus wasnt sure if he had landed or not.

Now all Cerberus saw were arms hanging around the sides tires and bumpers shooting in his general direction. As he moved back into cover himself he could hear the sound of shots slamming into the side of the van and see them chewing up the concrete in front of the van. Hopefully none of them punched through the thick hide of the van Looking down at the bandolier of cylindrical grenades that were hanging down his chest he wished Rocky had hung back so he could just start lobbing them over there and kill everything.

<<@team: "Angelo down, status unknown, center SUV..">>
The text "20/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Smith - Witness
PAN - Hidden

Things had be relatively calm in Smith's mind as he watched the Semi coming down the road, while everyone else seemed busy getting into position or preparing. Then, in an instant, the chaos, that he should have been expecting, unexpectedly arrived. Cerberus's gunfire took out the drone right around the time that Sledge's semi blasted its way through the gate and into the gunfight. Smith wasn't sure which had happened before the other, but one thing was sure - they had spectacularly announced their interest in the outcome of that battle.

That was when the bullets started striking a little closer to home. The first few dinged off of the love machine, or stuck into nearby buildings, and they seemed mostly focused on the gigantic metallic machine-gun wielding troll. Cerberus's imposing appearance more than made up for Smith's mearly-human reaction time and reflexes.

He had just taken cover behind the van - and saw that Cerberus had somewhat done the same - when he heard the team talking over the network about driving. He glanced at Cerberus, hoping to read his intention on his face, but saw that the troll was turned the other way, assessing the situation and looking for an opportunity to return fire.

Feeling somewhat ineffectual, the college-kid slid one of his pistols back into its arm-slide, and hustled after the van when it started to pull away. Behind him, Cerberus had very little trouble keeping pace while also coverign their rear - but Smith knew he wasn't going to be able to keep up with the van for long. Besides, if he was going to see that the job was done, he was going to have to find a way to get a lot closer without getting shot. Besides, if he spent the whole fight hiding between Cerberus and the Love Machine, he would never hear the end of it.

They had cleared the entrance, so if he was going to move, now was the time. As he van continued to gain speed, Smith prepared himself to step aside and let it (and maybe Cerberus) pass by - giving him a clear shot to the fence.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

Thinking he might be able to see more from the rear of the van Cerberus crouched and moved swiftly to the rear giving a nod to Johnson but no joy. All he could see was the two remaining suv's and the fence so he waited and kept watch of Rocky who was in a very dangerous situation. Either that guy is crazy or he has balls made of platinum.

He sees Rocky pull a pistol and open the side door of the suv and look inside and then a muzzle flash lights up the windows of the suv and Rocky moving but then Cerberus sees a guy climb onto the hood of the suv. Cerberus aims as best he can and fires a burst at the guy on the hood. The guy drops to the hood on his stomach and scoots backward as bullets rip through the air, one of them shattering the glass out of the driver side's door. He couldnt tell if he had hit the guy or not but atleast that was one less thing Rcoky had to worry about.

The next thing Cerberus knows the middle suv tires start kicking up dirt and rocks and it jump back a meter. Rocky hops along with it still hanging out of the side rear door. Now Cerberus can see more of the chaos beyond the SUV's though. His eyes go wide as he sees their target Loui "Fishbreathe" Finnegan climbing into the passenger side door of the lead SUV. There is a fire spirit standing between in the way though and he is unable to get a shot off.

<<@team: "Loui in lead SUV, he has a fire spirit">>

Before he can think of what to do next Sledge's voice is coming over the network telling Angel to move? What the fuck is she thinking. What can shotguns and pistols do to a heavily armored van? And more importantly what about me and johnson's cover?? Instead of telling Angel not to do it which might cause problems he just accepted it and got ready to run with the van. Maybe Sledge saw a threat he couldnt. She better have.

Angel replied "Im on it.."

Cerberus turns to face the same direction the van will be moving and see's Johnson holstering one of his two pistols. Had he even fired a shot yet? Cerberus pointed in the direction he thought the van would be going to let Johnson know which direction he would be going.

Tires squeel as the van accelerates out of the parking lot and down the road. Angel, "Im going here, can you make it?" Cerberus takes off running and fires off another volley at the guy at the tail end of the semi-trailer. Hitting him again and sending him to the ground. The other guys pops up and fires off two shots at Cerberus but he sprints and reaches the safety of the van. As Cerberus continues to follow the van he can hear gunshots erupting from both sides of the center SUV but doesnt have time to worry about it. Sledge had so tactifully and skillfully put the center of this battle between her and the van and most of their group by now. He had not seen her since she crashed into the party but her brilliant commands let him know she was still alive.

Angel, "Damn, this sucks". What was she complaining about. She was in a tank compared to most of the rest of the team.
The text "7/50 rounds" scrolled along the bottom of Cerberus's vision.

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:05
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

The void of space was an odd unexpected node topography, at least that’s what Caittie thought to herself as she worked on decrypting the desolate system. She was used to more… interesting node code, but had she not been pressured by the chaos outside in the real world, the pink haired angel would have taken the time to really recognize the beauty of the celestial bodies around her.
The situation quickly progressed from bad to even worse, with the technomancer immediately recognizing another account logging into the drone node. The thing that sent her mind running was the fact that it seemed that the pilot avatar also noticed her too. The look of the man was nothing but hostile as the pilot quickly threw his hand down to a holster strapped to his hip, intent on pulling the pistol resting there out for combat.
The past fraction of a minute had been one of the scarier ones for the team’s hidden technomancer, but given the situation at hand, Angel could barely get her avatar to gulp in a virtual breath of air. She had hacked into plenty of nodes and devices before, when she knew it was just her and the device; hell, she even had to take care of the rigger back at the black clinic. This though, this was the first time she had ever been resisted and attacked like this on a hack.

The angelic girl had lost all concentration on the outside world, instead choosing to focus in on the slightly rifled bore of the pistol held by an unknown attacker as he pulled it out and up towards her. Had she bothered to look into his eyes, Angel could have seen the reflection of her glowing pink wings in the mirror aviator glasses the flight suited pilot wore over the sneer on his face. She was there for only a few nanoseconds, but just a nano later, she was zipping around in the void, intent on avoiding any ‘bullets’ sent her way.
All thoughts of decrypting the node’s encryption flew away as she concentrated on calling forth a sprite to defend her from the hostile pilot. The being that came for out of the warp that connected the standard matrix realm to the Resonance was a familiar blond haired man with giant sword in hand. “Help me!�, she yelled at him in panic as the pilot pulled the pistol to bare and pulled the trigger.

A projectile whizzed just wide of the banking and veering pink streak in the dark void. Its own slight contrail parted the celestial dust in a nearby nebula even as Cloud tightened his grip on the sword he carried and zoomed toward the pilot as if he had jumped off some upside-down floor.
It seemed like an intense game of chicken was unfolding in front of Angel, both men staring each other down until just before it became too late to act. In a moment of sheer impossible acrobatics, the un-named pilot dove to the side from his rigid stance an instant before a glowing sword would have sliced into him. Cloud flew for a little longer past the pilot before stopping himself on another invisible platform, looking up at the man just before the hostile avatar fired off a second shot.

For some reason, Angel felt a wave of fear wash over her as she raised her arms to cover her face and let out a shriek of quick panic. From Cloud and the pilot’s view, they could see something, a glowing force flash into existence at the point of impact a foot or so away from the avatar. It quickly rounded and faded into a see-through blue lens that looked to surround the girl had it all been visible. In a nanosecond it faded back into nothingness, the angel beyond it lowering her arms unharmed.
So awed by the unharmed girl, the pilot failed to notice the sprite barreling up his back; a mistake of dire consequences for him. The blade of Cloud’s weapon bit deep, the yell of pain from the pilot audible to the flying girl. A moment later, the void around the pilot seemed to warp and arc, like an electrical storm. His body jerked and spasmed in odd ways just after, still though, he aimed again at Angel, his shot going wild though.

This complicated dance the three shared continued for agonizing seconds before the hostile pilot finally succumbed to the damage Cloud was inflicting. Thankful that this fight was over, Caittie still knew that precious time had been lost. Even with the work Cid was doing on the node encryption during the fight was wiped null and void with the next three words she heard from the team’s network.
<<�Kill the drone!�>>, the gruff but demanding woman’s voice commanded. Sledge was telling someone to destroy all the work Angel had just performed. The fight she just survived would have been for nothing. In desperation she called back, <<�I’m still working it…�>>

The next moment, Caittie found herself logged into the van’s node instead of the drone’s. Confused and irritated, she reviewed the van’s video logs as she heard Cerberus’ voice notifying the team of the drone’s destruction. ‘Damn, damn, damnit!’, she screamed in her head in frustration. ‘All that work down the drain…’
Then it hit her, her role in the attack was thankfully over. She could now help the team complete the task without actually dirtying her hands. Her first task, commanded by Sledge, the ever active commander, was to move the van to a safer position. It didn’t take Caittie much work to start commanding the van where to go and notify the team of such.
Now there was only the problem of the growing matrix presence the situation was causing…

Zed’s Salvage – ‘Since 2032’, Northeast Renton, 5.1km S of I-90
Wednesday 8/20/70 22:15:08
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden

As Cerberus kept pace with the van Johnson let up and let him and the van go by. Cerberus thought he was nuts because Johnson didnt seem to have any special abilities like cyber or magic to keep him safe. He either had a crapload of faith in the team he had put together or he had alot of balls. Maybe to much. Cerberus reached the spot he thought was directly across from the lead suv and stopped also letting the van continue down the road and come to a stop where the junkyard ended and another industrial lot started.

Cerberus let go of his IWk letting it hang from the gyro and pulled a cylindrical frag grenade from the bandolier hanging over one of his shoulder and across his bare chest. He yanked the pin and with a hookshot tossed it over the fence and hopefully onto the far side of the suv. Hopefully it would either disable the lead suv so Loui could not escape or it would blow him up along with some gaurds. He just hoped Rocky wouldnt be anywhere near the blast. <<@team: Grenade, lead vehichle!!>>. That should give them enough of a heads up.

Cerberus didnt stick around for the show though and began running to where the van had stopped, the southern property line of the junkyard. Before he gets there though there he can hear the engine of the lead suv start up though. Damn I was to late. Immedeately after he has the thought though there was a big explosion with the sound of shredding metal, his grenade. He was hoping to create another point of entry and get the drop on some guys by going to the corner of the junkyard. First thing was first though he had to see if the fence was electrified like all the signs said. Looking around he finds a rusty pipe and picks it up and tosses it at the fence. Sparks fly and the pipe drops to the ground. Crap. Then a second explosion goes off this one near the entrance gate of the junkyard. Unprepared Cerberus's ears muffle the sudden sounds but what the hell. Someone else was tossing around grenades or his grenade caused one of the suv to explode? He had to hurry up and get into position.

Before Cerberus could do anything else, Sledge was giving another command, "Angel, block". Was Loui escaping, had his grenade failed? If so what the hell was that second explosion. Thier van went back up the street in reverse and came to a stop in front of the gate. Meters from where she had been before Sledge had told her to move in the first place..

Pulling the predator from the back of his pants he aims at the base of the pole holding up the very end of the fence and fires. The fence sags inward and comes down on a wall of scrap metal creating a shitload of sparks and then falling silent. Looking beyond the fence now for the first time though the wall of debris looks impossable to scale without using his hands to which isnt really an option. 800+ pounds on shifting metal was not safe. It did look like he could trample over the fence and go between the wall and the still upright sections of fence.

With all the gunfire coming from inside the junkyard Rocky was either down and needed help or he was outnumbered and needed help. Just hang in there bro, I will be there in a nano.