Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:40; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"What are they packing?"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Black Fist looks at the driver, "You misunderstand my meaning. Watcher spirits. Apparitions of the ethereal doing their masters bidding. There is a mage somewhere."

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

The news that astral support was watching everything didn't surprise Carter, now was the time to deal with it before more assets could be brought to bear.

"Black, kick the dog and follow it home. We need the mage dealt with."

"Jake, can you find somewhere about two blocks from the site to drop us off? Rex and Spence can go in on foot. Then drop me and the rotodrone another block or so north of them. Those two will come in at six o'clock, I'll come at four and you will be ready around ten. Thoughts?"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Black Fist looks back at Carter, "You want I should kick him as you all are penetrating the perimeter or now?"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Kick him now. Find his master and tie him up. Last thing we need is for the mage to ruin our surprise."

Carter looks at the map that Jake spread across the network. He marks out points on 136th for Rex, 140th for himself, and South Fork for Jake.

"Do you think that will work out, Jake?"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"As long as we get rid of those pesky mages...However, what really worries me is the bridge. It is perfect spot for aerial ambush..."

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Are you picking up anything on your sensors? Let's presume that it will either be an attack chopper or drone along the same size guidelines as your rotodrone. Jets are outside of our ability to counteract, the chopper will want to be able to unload soldiers and strafe lines. We're in indian country, so let's walk softly."

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:41; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Give me a minute to see what I can do and then I'll unload you at your points."

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:42; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

As Jake and Carter determine strategies for the meat and the matrix, Black Fist heads out into the astral.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:42; Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Rex is not very concerned with strategy right now, although he listens carefully for details that will affect him. Ready to jump into action at any time.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:43; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Sitting in the van off the the side of the deserted road, Jake begins scanning for wireless signals while Grayson, Carter and Rex await something.... anything....

Black Fist sits up. "I spooked him off and the area is deserted."

Pulling forward the van forward, Jake continues to scan for wireless contacts while Black Fist heads back to the astral to provide over watch.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:46; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Arriving north of the bridge, Black Fist again checks in reporting that the bridge area is also clear. The trio in the van continue to wait, everything looking clear.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:50; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Spencer checks in that that are headed south. They have seen nothing and no one and will be at the pick up site (where the van is) in six minutes.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:54; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Jake continual sensor scans bear fruit as he picks up a number of signals now in sensor range (4km).

Black Fist's body then convulses and he sits up spitting blood across the van, impacting on the front windshield. "Incoming!".

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:54; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"What is it?"

Carter says the words before consciously knowing that he asked them. Programming that runs deeper than fight and flight instinct takes over. His employers had done the job well, already his mind was cutting out connections to memories which would be problematic to the job. The weapons had been checked earlier, now Threat Assessment and Response was all that mattered.

Is She here?

That thought wasn't supposed to be there, but She had broken the programming once and now asserted herself in everything from TAR to OE.

"Rex watch the back door. Eyes up and call your incoming. Jake, give me feed access."

With a thought, a small window forms at 30% opacity waiting for sensor feed. Coordinating his actions with others and keeping lines of fire clear took more effort. Extraneous connections and AR windows were shutdown.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:54; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Jake opens the Team channel and shares his finds with the rest of them. He uploads the map and puts a mark on his van so that the others know exactly where he is at all times.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:54; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Roger that. Rex makes sure his rifle is ready and set to burst fire while he takes a peak at the map and overlays it with his vision. He then opens the door (or squeeze himself out the window if that can be done by a troll) for a moment, to take a quick peak around (and above!) them, and paying special attention to "the back door" area, as instructed. Rex is used to rely on his excellent eyesight and hearing capabilities to try to be one step ahead of the opposition in these kinds of situations.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

As the quartet in Jake's van take up positions, video feed from the fly-spy west-south-west picks up movement headed due east towards the pickup site. While darkness is definitely a factor, luckily for the team the waning moon is putting out enough light for the fly-spy to provide some visual tracking, despite its lack of visual-sensor upgrades. The team is able to make out what appears to be a troll and two humans moving down the edge of the road. All are carrying assault rifles of some sort.

A moment later, Black Fist convulses and his unconscious for spits a glob of blood that splatters on the inside of the windshield, luckily it misses Jake. To the south, some distance out an aircraft's red marker light blinks twice. Look's like the t-bird will be touching down in 2-3 minutes. Spencer and Yavanna are about 1 minute out. Looks like the party is coming together.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

All right, I'm ready for some action. Rex grins as he straps on a gyro-stabilization unit for his trusty AK-97 Carbine. I just hope there won't be too much mojo involved. Oh and we'd have a good edge here if we can use the cover of this van to fire at them while they are in the open. Is there a good position for the van so that they're open but we're difficult to target? he asks Jake. And we need to be careful with the range, they've got big guns and my ideal range would be anything closer than 150m.

Rex takes out a medkit. Let's see if we can do something for our magical man here before it's too late.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Jake decides that it is time to deploy his full force. He lets the doggies out on autonomous functioning, marking incoming soldiers as threath and force to be fired upon on sight. Then he will send roto-drone to assault any incoming enemy aircraft, targeting critical systems.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Grayson begins to tend to the mage, "He doesn't look very good."

Meanwhile, Jake's pair of dobermans deploy to positions north and south of the van facing west. The roto-drone rack extends and prepares the roto-drone for launch.

The trio have stopped just under 150m short of Pioneer Way on S Fork Rd E. They appear to be taking positions of cover.

Then, the firewall on Jake's com begins to wail as his com is under attack from a hacker.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Carter, intrusion!!!"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Rex break from the feed. We're doing it the old fashioned way. Jake we need the drones, swing a hammer or however you do it, but keep the drones."

Carter disables the signal input from Jake and turns to look at Grayson. His old friend has blood on his hands from trying to save their wayward mage.

"Spence, it's time for us to meet a plane and earn that hazard pay. Rex, we may need some cover fire."

Pistol in hand, the former agent jumps down from the van and sprints for the nearest piece of hard cover.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Time to roll!

At Grayson's command, Rex jumps out of the car and into action. The large troll looks for the best place to take cover (or at least partial cover) and still be in range to provide cover fire as instructed, either behind the vehicle or behind some debris or vegetation closer to the enemies. With his gyro-stabilisation unit, he'll easily manage to shoot automatic fire accurately.

I hope the drones can't be hacked, sure wouldn't wanna fight those nasty buggers on top of those guys..

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"AW, hell, I'm dirty already!"
Jake will try to keep the hacker at bay while drones provide firepower. If he sees that he is failing he will send the drones in the shutdown. Better not to have them then to loose them to the enemy. Should this occur he will try to clear the way for Spencer and Yavanna using his van.

Group: Cracking (Log) RANK 2 3 in group, Cybercombat, Electronic Warfare, Hacking

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:55:45:09; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

The next number of seconds unfold like an action trid. Grayson is tended to the wounded mage and sees his open eyes as Jake and Carter beginning yelling about the situation. Unknown to the rest of the team, the ork mouths, "I got the hacker" and is gone again before Grayson can argue. Not that he would.

Grayson had been in dire straights with Carter before. He'd seen team mates come and seen them go. The van rocks a little as the troll bails and makes for the nearby drainage ditch. Then Carter's voice is directed at Grayson. He looks at his friend making eye contact for a moment before Carter is also headed for a spot in the drainage ditch.

Looking to the mage one last time, Grayson sighs a sigh of resignation. Everything was going wrong. The mission was going in the toilet. He could tell Jake was loosing the battle for the drones. Soon the dobermans and roto-drone would be mowing down the team. Karma's a bitch tonight. Grayson climbed out and ran around the van, seconds behind Carter.

Rex had taken up a position in the ditch facing to the west. Unlike Carter he had maintained team net, perhaps if for no other reason to know when they flipped their friend/foe settings. He watched as the trio headed towards the team split up, two veering south, the troll veering north. The fly-spy stuck on the two, meaning the troll was now running free.

Jake sat in the van nearly powerless as the hacker assaulted his com. Jake wasn't prepared for this, his money had been going into drones and protecting them. This direct assault on his com was a weak spot in his defenses. Suddenly the hacker got through, his icon that of Thor, god of thunder. He laughed as Jake prepared to jack out, accept the dumpshock and deal with the consequences.

Then karma collected her toll. Carter turned to see Grayson stumble in mid-stride. His knees went weak and his face contorted in disbelief. The facade of Spencer melted from his face and he mouthed "Good-bye" to his friend in the low moonlight. As he fell, he turned and Carter saw the source of his fate. The left side of his head was gone. He'd seen it before, even done it a few times himself. Sniper.

Rex did not see Grayson fall, he did see the spark of light west-north-west. Muzzle-flash. Then, one of Jake's fly-spy's targeted the source of the light. Only the gun was visible under a blanket of cammo netting, its shooter obviously concealed in a chameleon suit. They'd been set up. GPS ARO's marked the shooter nearly a kilometer away, too far for anything they carried.

Jake knew nothing of the death outside the van. What he saw was karma turning in their favor; Or at least playing tit-for-tat. The icon of Thor arched his back and screamed, before melting from Jake's com. All Jake knew for sure was: He had me. He had it all.

Looking back, he saw he was alone in the van, except for Black Fist. Who immediately arched his back as his face blistered and slumped down, unmoving in the back seat. The smell of his relaxing bowls told Jake the ork just expired. There. In his van.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:09; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

His comms back, Jake tries ro assess where the hostiles are and to wheel the van in best position to provide cover for his teammates to provide them cover, especially from the out of the range sniper. Dobbermans on autocontrols should attack the moment first hostile is in sight. For a moment he considers to use flies as nuisance for the enemy but quickly decides against it. He will watch the video feed for the arms they are packing.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:18; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

When the fly-spy's feed comes in targeting the sniper, the doberman on the north side of the van zooms off into the darkness towards him. The sniper mean while has taken off at a breakneck pace away from the team. Carter moves southward towards and into the clump of trees.

Rex holds his position hunkered down in the ditch and the doberman on the south side takes a defensive posture. He also knows that somewhere in the middle between the sniper and the humans there is a troll without a fly-spy trailing him.

Jake notes (via another of Jake's fly-spy drones) the two humans sneaking around the south moving to flank the team. He also sees that Carter has dropped out of Team Net. His roto-drone is now deployed and airborne, awaiting commands.

Off in the distance, through the silence, the team hears the movement of a car coming slowly south.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:21; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Rex lays waiting in the drainage ditch looking out into the darkness. He takes note of the doberman drone on the far side of Jake's van taking off at full speed to the west. The fly-spy to the south also is tracking two humans who will be in weapon's range very soon... though Rex cannot see them, he has a ARO marker tracking them.

Carter has made it into the tree line heading south. He does not yet see any targets.

Jake's roto-drone is not airborne and awaiting commands. The southern doberman has turned its sights to the south and two incoming humans. The northern doberman is in hot-pursuit of the fleeing sniper. One fly-spy is following the sniper while another is on the two humans providing tracking via ARO's and GPS positioning.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:21; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Jake will position drone so it can provide supressing fire but also to act as guardian for Spencer and Yavanna when they arrive.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:30; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Seconds tick by as the humans continue to close from the south and Spencer's car closes from the south. All the while, the T-Bird is now less than two minutes from touching down. The humans approaching from the south spread out a bit and move forward using move-and-cover tactics. They settling into a position just under 150m from the van, taking their aim while lying prone. They appear not to have seen Carter taking cover in the tree line and ~75m from their position.

The roto-drone has reached the car. Yavanna is driving it slowly southward and it is now within 250m of the van.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:33; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

After a few seconds of lying prone, the pair of humans open up towards Rex' position, apparently unaware of Carter waiting to ambush from a much closer position.

@Rex

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:33; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

As Rex comes under fire, he ducks for cover. He easily avoids the ranged fire.

Carter meanwhile uses the trees, landscape and the cover of darkness to gain distance towards the sparkles of muzzle flash that clearly mark the position of Rex' attackers.
Jake's doberman takes its first action to establish a target lock on the two humans.


Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:34; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District
The doberman then opens fire on the prone attackers.


Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:35; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District
And it continues its fire...


Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:36; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:36; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Seconds more pass. Carter closes to within twenty-five meters, moving fast and light on his feet. The cover fire from the drone, keeping the assault team occupied for the moment allowing him to close. Keeping wide, he is able to keep out of their direct line of sight and avoid becoming a friendly-fire casualty.

Keeping his head down, Rex scans all over for the troll. Rex knew he was out there, but where. Then it hits him.... actually, Jake hits him. Jake's van screeches into reverse as the rigger moves backward to close in on Spencer & Yavana's vehicle and provide them additional cover reaching the inbound t-bird.
Finally the drone scores a hit. One straight on hit causing a spray of blood. Realizing that his position is sudden as the next target, the second bad guy rolls into the ditch, clear of the doberman's fire.

Jake notices the video feed of the second doberman as it is closing in on the sniper. A few more seconds and it will be initiating combat. The sniper is oblivious, running away from the team.

The impact of the van smacking the troll sneaking around behind him tells Jake one thing: Gonna need some body work.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:36; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Carter knew that the closer he approached, the more likely it was that he would attract notice. From a kneeling position, he quietly drew the heavy pistol from under his coat. The range wasn't optimal but he didn't have many other choices. Taking a deep breath in, he holds it while aiming at the closer gunmen's center mass.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:39; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

The troll goes flying as the van sudden lurches into him. Half stunned, he attempts to shake the cobwebs from his head and the stars from his vision as the van slams into him again, sending him flying once more. Rex lies in the ditch, amazed at the sight unfolding before him and in AR.

In AR, the second doberman's video camera displays the sniper, now aware that he is instead the prey, rather than the hunter, as its assault rifle unloads a pair of short burst sending him reeling. He attempts to dodge and weave as the doberman begins a relentless assault. Seconds later the gun silences as the sniper ceases to move.

The first doberman stands vigilant, unable to lock onto the remaining human, hiding in the ditch. Carter however, is able to get a bead on the human. The ditch provides plenty of cover however and will increase the difficulty of the shot.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:42; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Patience and perseverance has paid off for Carter. He is just under 25m from the last human target, squatting and taking careful aim where he saw the human roll into the ditch. Now the human has rolled over, is throwing a grenade and has put himself into Carter's cross hairs.

For Jake, the troll, now limping, is not down and out, nor even in Jake's path anymore. He has however, moved into the LOS for Rex and is readying his weapon the engage the drone, who also is currently attempting to target the human down range.

The second drone has stopped and is evaluating the target quality of the fallen sniper.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:42; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

No time like today...

With the Vory thug's chest in his cross-hairs, Carter pulls the trigger. After the shot is fired, he releases the breath that he had been holding. If he was lucky, the thug would be too distracted by the machine gun to recognize where the shot had come from. Though Carter hadn't been that lucky in years...

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 03:56:43; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Carter's shot takes the thug by surprise during his attempt to throw the grenade. The drone, still monitoring the situation unleashes another barrage of death. A second later, smoke begins billing up several meters in front of the thug (as opposed to near the van) where the smoke grenade fell way short. The thug sinks back down into the ditch, obviously hit, probably dead.

Rex's assault rifle coughs out a barrage of rounds towards the troll. He dives to the side, but not nearly quickly enough to clear the lead that then impacts his jacket, his form-fit, his natural dermal protection and eventually the soft flesh underneath. Combined with the previous impact from the van, he stays down.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:00; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

The scene tentatively clear, Spencer and Yavanna exit the car running low towards the van. Spencer confirms a clear LZ for the T-Bird pilot who brings the craft in with a monstrous roar. The craft hangs for all of a minute as Yavanna loads up and then lifts off, streaking low towards the south.

Spencer thanks the team, "I'll transfer the yen as soon as I'm out of this dead zone. and with that he returns to his car and heads towards safer areas of the Puyallups.

Jake's drones return to the van and load back up. His fly-spy on the perimeter registers lights from the east (Hell's Kitchen) signaling to the team that one of the gangs have taken note of the either the gunfire, the t-bird or both.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:00; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

"Load up people else we'll have local gangs to deal with! And that is more mess on my van!"
Jake waits to see who will embark on the vehicle and then will get the hell out of firezone.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:00; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Rex squishes himself into the van. "Yeah let's get the heck out of here."

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

In very short order the team is fully loaded and moving off to the west towards safer areas of the Puyallups. Of course, pause has to be given to the obviously oxymoron of the last statement, but they move away from the immediate threat, anyway.

There is one last consideration: The body of their mage, quite expired.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Just outside Hell's Kitchens, Puyallup District

Jake is concentraded on driving and getting the team to relative safety. Once they are good distance away cogs inside his brain start clicking together again. They were so close to getting wiped out. And half of the team is dead. There is a dead mage in his van. Dead. Rotting. Germs are already eating the tissue. Gnawing on rotting flesh...

In his van.

Jake hits the breaks.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he screams like a little girl.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Puyallup District

Rex was exasperated. Team members were lost, things didn't go the way they should have been. And he was stuck in a car too small for him.. again.

And now our rigger is freaking the hell out.. again. "What the hell is wrong with you? Keep driving! Keep driving!"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Puyallup District

"The dead! The rotten! Get it out! Get it out!"

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Puyallup District

Thirty seconds into the return trip, the van slides sideways to a stop. As Jake begins to react to his realization about the van's contents, Carter realizes they are maybe a klick from the landing sight. Rex is, of course, sitting next to the corpse.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Puyallup District

Are you kidding me? Rex decides to try bluffing the crazy driver.

What? No one's dead, that's non-sense. The troll pretends to check the vital signs of the remains of the mage. The mage stopped breathing earlier but right now he's OK again, even though probably not for long. So you better drive us out of here or we'll all be deposits for the body bank. We might even have a chance to save him too, so GO!!!

The last GO was an attempt at intimidation, although who could tell what that fool would do next.

Sunday March 2nd, 2070; 04:03:30; Puyallup District

"Alive?"
Jake looks at the body in disbelief and then steps on the gas...