"There's also Blackjack sitting on Matrix watch and making sure the camera's and other sensors don't see us 'til we're on the way out or physical guards stumble upon our location. However, the last time that she went in, their deckers found her almost as quick as the nice hit men got a hold of us."

"What do you think Blackjack? Think you can hold them off long enough for us to make a quick grab and run?"

"That leaves Tombstone, Eric, Evan, Lee, and I as the actual insertion team." Bloodmoon finishes, once again including Lee as part of the team.

"I'm ready for my part." Joli infuses as much confidence into her words as possible. Her face set is a grim determination.

"Alright," Lee says, "So when do we want to do this? I assume since it's nearly dawn, we'll want to sleep during the day and hit this place tonight? We've only got what, another day?"

"Exactly," says Tombstone. "We take the day to rest, recover, get our gear, and go over the plan again this evening before we hit the place. Since we are still the hunted as well as the hunters, I suggest sleeping in shifts and making our personal trips brief - and accompanied, at least most of the way, by someone else. I may be a bit too paranoid here, but I don't think we should all split up until after the job is done."

"Agreed." Joli seems relieved to have insurance in place. "I have everything I need with me. I just need someone to pick me up a few changes of clothes or come with to grab some."

Lee nods and yawns, "Gotcha." He glances around, and grabs a pillow off one of the beds and curls up in a corner. "Next watch," he says, and is promptly asleep.

Blackjack nods and says, "I'll do my best you guys!"

All - The day passes fairly uneventfully, with even the trip Jester and Joli take to collect the clothes she needs going smoothly.

It's ten p.m., and the team is suited up and ready to go. Jester is decked out in an obviously armored jumpsuit, complete with flap for his RC deck. Lee is dressed a little simpler, with a dark shirt and dark pants, but has spent the last hour or so in serious conversation with a small raccon that appeared in the room.

The hours spent in rest and preparation also allow Bloodmoon to contact Pipedream and get a hold of some gear that needs, including another set of protective gear - it woundn't do the team any good for her to be taken down oncea again.

As the hour approaches, Bloodmoon has spent her time in quiet meditation. She again sends Shen off to the manor to take a look around and see if there are any easily visible magical defenses on the grounds itself.

Eric gives over the loose comfortable clothing that has carried him through one of the rougher days he's faced and suits up in a tight form-fitting suit of body armor with RTL over it. He cycles through a few color selections and the suit settles into a deep charcoal grey with black and blue undertones.

The thief adjusts the strap from his side satchel to give a tighter embrace, pulling the sack up inline with his back. The strap forms a clean angle across his upper body arcing from shoulder to hip. With his trusty shotgun on the table beside him, he's ready to roll out when the time comes.

While he waits, Eric idly polishes the thin tools which he uses to override most modern elctronics.

With the group prepped, Jester piles the group into the van and heads back towards the Tacoma airport. He heads towards the opposite end from the hanger, out in what's obviously normally well trafficked space in the charter section. Not nearly as private as his personal hanger, but there's parking space. He tucks the van out of the way off to one side and climbs out of the van.

A few moments later a whisper in the night sky grows louder, but not much more then a car running at about mid-speed. The chopper settles down with mechanical grace, very little consideration given for the comfort of passengers, but the technical requirements of a satisfactory landing met.

Jester hustles up and inside, and starts running through a quick manual pre-flight, motioning the rest of the group into the bird.

As the team left the motel, Eric slid the shotgun into the side strap on his satchel. It wouldn't be comfortable for long. With the darkness and a good amount of distance the weapon wouldn't be immediately obvious for what it was, but he didn't have time for extra precautions right now.

At the airport, the englishman lingers in the van until the bird is on the ground with a side hatch open. He covers the distance between the vehicles with the speed of a man who knows the law could be seconds away.

"How long will it take to be airborne and at the site?"

As always, it was easily apparent that each member of the team dealt with the danger and anticipation of the upcoming raid in their own different ways. For herself, after the lenghts of time running through the various mental excercises, Bloodmoon is refreshed. Carefully donning the comfortable jumpsuit, she likewise fiddles with the controls inset on the wristband until the pattern of colors swimming over its surface settles into a dark blue and black scheme. Pulling over it the kevlar reinforced jacket, she makes a few adjustments to insure that the various straps and buckles interfered not with any of her stretches.

At the runway, she quickly climbs into the chopper and buckles herself in.

Tombstone ducks to enter the chopper, careful of the black duffel bag that he is carrying. His face is as near-expressionless as ever, but he seems less tense. It is partly getting a shower, some sleep, and a change of clothes. It is partly finally heading out to do the job, taking the initiative for once instead of constantly having to react to the enemy's attacks. And it is also having his full kit with him. He presents a monochrome appearance, wearing a black armored jacket over a matte black jumpsuit. He sits down on one of the seats, holding his duffel bag in his lap. Although the seating is cramped for him, a slight smile ghosts around his face.

Jester settles in to the cockpit, giving Eric a quick frown as he runs calculations in his head.

"Running for maximum stealth, I'd say about 45 minutes. I assume the kid's going to be hacking into the system and tweaking the sensors and camera's sometime around there?"

"That's the plan."

Eric turns away from the rigger to his fellow decker.

"Alright hon, time to turn that cellular link on so you can pacify a few systems. Don't hit the site until we are about three minutes out, that should give us enough time to evac if anything goes wrong in the digital realm. Take someone with you via hitcher jack so we can see how you're doing. By the time smoke starts coming out of the deck, it's generally too late."

The last part is said jokingly with a weak smile. He is trying to get back that humanity and relationship that they had shared before, but it was an uphill struggle with today's and yesterday's work.

Joli lugs a duffel bag into the van, wearing a sweatsuit and sneakers, she seems out of place as a runner going on a job. Sebastian pokes his head from under the seats in the back, a huge toothy grin pasted on his face. Joli shakes her head in resignation at his feral nature. Only you would smile at the prospect of getting shot at and killed, and then only because you might get to bite something. The dragonette grins even larger.

Standing still for a moment, she begins to weave the flows of mana around. First she begins a tight coccoon of magic around her body, layering the flows over and over again until a faint nimbus surrounds her. With a thought she ties it all into the necklace she wears. Then a another quick flow that envelopes her and Tombstone linking their auras together, tied off in one of the numerous earrings she wears. Last but not least, she infuses her body with a weave of mana and ties it off into another earring.

She takes a few breaths to steady herself from the strain of the work just done. After her thoughts clear and she feels the return of her focus, she reaches out across the planes to the spirits bound to her. She feels them struggle against the bonds laid upon them but they reluctantly submit to the magics entrapping them to her will. The astral space ripples around her as six powerful elementals gate through. Their forms seem larger and more primal than their more common brethren. She shudders as their voices mingle and whisper in her mind.

We have come.

She carefully looks over the stable she has. Every element but air is accounted for. Remain in the astral and inside the van. Turning away from the spirits she addresses the rest of the team. "I am mindlinked to Tombstone so relay any info through him for me, once I start he'll be the only way to communicate reliable with me. I think I'm ready."

Having buckled in and readied herself for the flight, Bloodmoon begins to call on the very spirits of the wind. Shen, she calls to the sleeping long, it is time to awake the ge's... I will need the big brothers help in the coming night.

Streching itself out of whatever corner of astral space that passes for home, Shenshakes off the sleep, eager to once again see his bigger cousins.

The Power of her voice gently arouses each of the spirits in turn as they respond to her petition for aid. Each of the serpentine "beasts" acknowledge her request for service as they fade back into the astral, waiting for her command.

Having prepared the final steps with a little sigh, Bloodmoon sits back into meditation, awaiting the imminent conflict.

Jester motions the respective teams to their vehicles, and his eyes glaze briefly as he passes instructions on to van. It leaves the airport first, being the slower of two vehicles.

He lifts the helicopter off an hour later, the throbbing vibration of the engine coming across louder then the actual whine. The craft tilts and darts off into dark space, staying very low as he the city, Mt. Rainer rising up on the right.

With all of her gear on her person and now seated in the chopper, Blackjack steals herself for the task of running the system once again. She nods at Eric.

"Jester, will you be alright if I try to access their network wirelessly? It won't make it harder for you to hide from their radar will it?"

Jester shakes his head.

"Not as far as I know. You should be plugging in on a completely different set of frequencies then the ones I use."

Eric doubles checks his seat restraint as he feels the helicopter lift off. The last day and a half of reconnaissance and torture...let's not think about that...would be for nothing if he fell out of the chopper to his death.

This is it...let's just hope she can get the defenses down in time.

Blackjack looks to Eric and says, "You know I don't run with a hitch, sweetie. I've got a transceiver with DNI and a microphone. I'll let you know if I get attacked. Stay in touch, guys!"

She activates her radio interface and begins her run on the system host.

Blackjack - The Snohomish LTG spreads out below you, dotted with the familiar UMI's that make up your world. Out here, the space is filled with small pockets of glittering activity, as opposed to the jam-packed clustering of nodes in the Seattle LTG.

Familiar with the route, you dive down towards one of them, finding yourself standing in front of that slightly run down house again, door shut and windows boarded up. You slip up and twist the knob adn the door creaks open, letting you into that slightly musty, cluttered space again. You move around piles of old programming and snippets of code, shaped like broken furniture and old toys.

Moving toward the security section of the system that she had located before, Blackjack scans for the security slave she had used the last time.

'I hope those two guys don't show up again,' she thinks to herself.

Blackjack - You pace down the corridor, easily locating the room marked SecCon again. You swing open the door and are confronted by the solid bank of monitors as tall as your icon, with dozens of monitors feeding a constant stream of information into the control system. It's a little overwhelming at first, but you start to make sense of the different threads quickly enough, matching the sections to the duplicate streams of data you have prepped.

Group - The wind whines over the steel skin of the helicopter as the insertion team lifts off and into the night. Jester, limp and apparently comatose in the pilot's seat, speaks over the internal speakers.

"ETA 5 minutes. Better strap up and get any last minute prep ready!"

Eric double checks his gear with a silent prayer that Blackjack would get this done. If not, this would become the shortest offensive on record.

Give her time, she'll take care of those sensors...

Airborne Group - A muffled thump rattles the frame of the big helicopter, and the noise from the engines and rotors abruptly drops significantly. Sounding no louder then a large fan, the helicopter glides over the expanse property and slows, pausing for a moment as Jester's voice rings over the comms.

"Alright boys and girls, this is your stop!"

The doors slide back, and you can see the roof of the building spreading out below you. Jester's placed you above the center wing, with a section to the left and right of your landing spot. The helicopter is hovering about 5 metres above the building, the quiet down wash of the blades blowing leaves and small sticks around the building.

Ground Team - The van veers off of the road, pulling into the woods just across the road from the mansion and manuvering until the gatehouse is just within sight through the underbrush. The van's weapons deploy with a solid thunk, and the doors slide open.

Blackjack's voice comes in over the radio via her transducer, "Defenses and cameras are down guys! I'll hold them for as long as I can without being discovered."

In a quick reply over the comm, Bloodmoon responds. "Roger, we're hitting now. Any way you can turn them for our purposes? An' watch your digital back hon!"

Joli release the beast within herself again. She feels her flesh ripple and distort, the pain is overshadowed by the ectasy of being freed from the smaller prison of her old self. The power and the confidence floods in and sings along her nerves. She takes a moment to clear the giddy feeling from her mind. Reaching out she brushes against Sebastian's mind.

Watch the astral for them and protect as best you can from any magic they may encounter. Be safe. Her only reply, the sharp focus of his mind when he hunts prey.

Just outside the van, getting ready to cause one hell of a distraction, Tombstone watches Joli's transformation with detached interest - he didn't get to see it as it was happening, before. Normally, it would freak him out a bit, but already, an emotional numbness has settled on him like a comforting blanket, as he prepares himself for the bloody confrontations ahead.

He hefts his heavy shotgun - hugging the shadows, he will pick off the guards as they try to open fire on the dragon, taking advantage of their distraction to prevent their dealing with the cause of that distraction.

Ground Team - The night is still for the moment, and you almost miss the black shape of the helicopters bulk dropping down almost silently from above to the roof of the mansion. Across the road, you can see the guard shack at the entrance gate to the complex, light seeping from around the edges of the door, although none at all leaks from the heavily tinted windows that make up the majority of the booth.

Air Team - The fall to the roof is quick and fairly quiet, the stealth lines you rappeled down doing a good job of muffling the fall. You're crouched on the roof, in about the center of the building. 20m or so of roof stretches off in all directions, and you can dimly see a skylight about 10m away from your current position, towards the back of the house.

All - The helicopter lifts away from the building, silent in it's departure as it was in it's arrival.

The scene is set.

Ruling out any signs of immediate danger, Bloodmoon quickly makes her way towards the skylight.

Shen, keep watching my back - let me know if anything alerts you in the Astral...

Keeping his head low, Eric moves quickly towards the skylight and checks for a locking mechanism or maintenance access for cleaning.

On comms, "Team check-in."

Joli opens her mind to the spirits with her. They struggle against her will but quickly find the bounds of ritual too strong and submit.

Your task is simple, attack all you see and hear except for these beings. She imprints them with an image of the team. Awakened creatures are attacked first then mundane. Spread out to cover as much of the area as you can. Use every power at your call to attack the defenders of this place.

They nod as one as the speak. As you wish.

Eric and Bloodmoon race quickly over the rooftop, Eric screeching to a halt several feet away from the skylight itself, holding up a hand to stop Bloodmoon.

On the ground, the forest and the side of Jester's van are lit up as towering figures appear at the behest of the dragon. Pillars of Earth, Fire, and Air, standing 3 to 4 meters tall, dominate the crowded space between the trees, and the dragon glances towards the gate and the house beyond with a calculating look in its eye.

Slipping small tools out from the harness on his sleeve, the thief kneels down with practiced grace.

I hope this works...

On da' roof - A minute later Eric rises, smiling slightly as he tucks the tools away and motions to Bloodmoon, lifting the edge of the skylight. Below is a large bathroom, with a tub directly below the skylight that measured probably almost 2 meters in diameter. Lush, by anyone's standards.

All - A moment later your attention is abruptly drawn towards the front gate as all hell breaks loose at the front gate. A massive pillar of Earth plods out of forest, the earth around him for almost twenty feet shaking like an earthquake with each step he takes.

A spray of water suddenly leaps into the air as sewer mains beneath the road rupture and pour their contents into the air, leaving hissing trails as the water strikes the massive Fire elementals gliding towards the mansion. They pass through the gate as if it didn't exist, leaving vaguely round holes melted in the steel. There's a shout from the guardhouse, and one guard comes out, spraying bullets wildly at the to elementals. The rattle of automatic gunfire is replaced by screams as the two figures silently turned and reached out for him, arms stretching and engulfing the relatively small figure in flames.

Tombstone replies to the check-in. "At the gate," he thinks into the transducer. "Joli is in dragon form, and the elementals have come into play. I'm entering behind them, looking to help mop up any security teams that show up. Remember, if you need to say anything to Joli, it has to go through the mindlink she has with me."

Matching deeds to words, he slips in behind the elementals, watching for any patrols or other defenses.

"Bloody hell."

Eric shivers at the destruction he ordered to be released on the manorhouse, he had never known just how powerful Joli was when she didn't hold back.

Keep your eye on the prize and your mind on the business at hand.

"Alright, Sebastian drop on down in there and check the hallway. Make sure nothing is lurking around to hear us coming."

Waiting a few seconds for the astral-formed dragon to float silently through the bathroom and into the hallway beyond, the thief turned strike team commander signals for the rest of the team to get ready. With Sebastian's all clear they would be dropping into the bathroom and working their way to the stairs.

Over comms,
"Understood Tombstone. Watch her back."

The small dragonette smiles and gives Eric's ear a playful nip before sliding to the astral. He hangs in the air looking back and forth, scanning for dangers and threats.

Blackjack sets the process to run itself and then hides in the corner of the security room to avoid detection, making sure that the process is doing its job by watching the video screens.

No one has detected me yet. How are things going out there, guys?

Inside Team - The dragon re-appears, curled around Eric's shoulder, and nods, indicating the all clear.

Blackjack - You huddle down in the corner. From out in the hall, you can hear the mechanical click of several feet tapping down the corridor. It sounds like the same three-legged eyeball you saw last time.

Ground Team - The spirits rampage, doing incalculable amounts of damage to the gate and the grounds around it, moving towards the manor house. In the distance you can hear the rattle of automatic fire, ricochets bouncing off the guardhouse and ground around the spirits, and off the spirits themselves, punctuated by the occasional bark.

Keeping to the shadows, but always ready to provide covering fire if Jolli's dragon form gets attacked, Tombstone can't keep a slight grin of bemusement off of his face.

"Do these people have no anti-magic defenses at all? I can't believe they're relying solely on conventional defenses. Maybe it's just late getting here because they're too surprised... if I see any counter-magic, I'll put a few slugs into some wage-mage brainpans." he thinks to himself.

Seeing Sebastian re-appear and give the all clear, Bloodmoon crouches and with only the slightly of sounds, drops into the room below.

Eric grips the edge of the skylight and drops down into the bathroom. Putting his ear to the door, he listens for sounds coming from the hallway.

Inside Team - Drifting back in from the hallway and materializing in the spacious bath chamber, Sebastian gives the thumbs up signal as Bloodmoon drops silently through the skylight.

The room is filled with the accutrements of the rich, large contured tables for massage, racks of oils, perfumes, and scented bath soaps adorn the walls.

The hallway outside sounds clear, although you can dimly make out the distant sound of running feet.

Opening the door quietly, Eric keeps the shotgun lowered as he peers out through the crack. Not seeing anyone immediately, he opens the door wider.

The thief steps furtively into the hallway, shotgun leveled and glances both ways trying to spot a stairwell or obvious method of dropping down to the second floor.