Tasha shakes her head. Too soon. She walks determinedly to the door, both weapons drawn, but doesn't enter yet. She comms Zee.

<< In position outside. Might try tossing a grenade in that weapon room of theirs. We gotta distract them, get Peyton out. Be nice to wipe them all out, but we don't have surprise on our side any more. Survive. Run if you have to. We live, we can try again. >>

Zee:

You dive out of the way and come up on a roll, taking aim one more time and pulling the trigger. The first ganger whimpers as he sucks up another heavy dose of electric goodness, twitches a few times, and stops moving. With two quick steps, you move up to your last remaining opponent and deliver a hammer fist to his temple, dropping him instantly.

The walls of the kitchen are riddled with smoking bullet holes, and the rest of the house has undoubtedly been alerted to your presence. If you have a plan, it's time to put it into action. Keeping a tight grip on your gun, you move towards the stairwell to descend to the second floor.

<<Consider it done. If the gunshots don't draw their attention upstairs, this will.>> Zee comms back, as she makes her way towards the weapon-cache en-route to the stairs. She had hoped not to have to destroy the weapons - but wasn't quick enough to take down the first group of 3 guys, and doubted she would deal with the other groups with the same success. She was lucky that she wasn't hit by any of the ganger's wild machine-gun fire, and probably only survived because she managed to take one of them down right away, and cripple the other before the fight even started.

Now, she expected that at least some of those people in position on the floors below were moving upwards to investigate teh gunshots, and arm themselves in the weapon-cache. Again, she wished she had access to her radar, but Tasha's green-light to destroy the weapons made it clear what she needed to do.

Zee:

As you move past the stairwell to head to the weapon storage room, you hear a voice barking out orders from downstairs.

"You three, that way. You, come with me. Bobby, pull your dick out of her, grab a gun, and follow us."

The room you're seeking is just down the hall. Pulling the pin off the grenade, you toss it in and quickly turn around to move out of there. There's no telling how devastating the ensuing explosion is going to be, and you want to put as much distance as you can between you and that room. You swing around back to the stairs, keeping one hand on your gun. As you begin to descend, three gangers round the stairwell. They stop and stare at you.

"Hey, what the hell?"

All three reach for their guns, but suddenly, the whole world thunders as the grenade you planted just seconds before explodes, triggering a massive chain reaction that shakes the very foundation of the house. The gangers stumble and stare at the ceiling as a very large crack begins to run through it.

"What the fuck was that?!"

Tasha:

You can feel the shockwave raising the hair on your skin as a massive explosion blows out half of the third floor wall. You dive out of the way just in time as an avalanche of brick and steel rains down on the spot where you were standing just a second ago. Everybody on the street seems to have stopped what they're doing, their attention completely fixated on the mutilated top floor of the gang house.

Tasha's heart threatens to leap out of her throat for a second - and she was expecting the blast. She imagines that for the people indoors, relaxed and unaware, the explosion is even more distracting. Which is what she needs. Quickly regaining her composure, her face set in grim lines of determination and both guns ready, she heads into the house and straight for the stairs to the basement. With any luck, Zee took care of the cuffs while she was down there - barring that, shooting them should do the trick. If only they made shock lock rounds for pistols - but explosive should still be plenty good for the job.

Tasha:

You head inside the house with all your senses on high alert, and Zee's digital map allows you to navigate the interior with ease. Moving past the outer rooms, you round the corner to see a large group of gangers pouring out of the den with guns in hand, heading straight towards the nearest stairwell. They're blocking your path towards the basement door, but they don't appear to notice you. You can take advantage of the element of surprise and engage them now or wait a few seconds for them to evacuate this floor.

Zee:

With a few well-aimed shots, you easily take down all three gangers in a matter of seconds. One of them managed to fire a wild burst that peppered your torso with lead before he went down, but your armor managed to absorb the brunt of the impact. Unfortunately, some of your non-critical systems were damaged, and sensor suite of your ruthenium armor has been partially destroyed. It's still offering you some camouflage, but you estimate that it has been reduced to half capacity.

You're about to descend down the stairs when a round of flechette flits out of nowhere to stitch a path up your right leg, bringing you to a knee.

"If you don't want to die, throw your gun down the stairs and stand down," comes a voice behind you.

Zee's vision flashes red as the bullets tear through her leg.

<<Buying time. Get Peyton to safety. Don't wait for me.>>

After the initial shock wore off, Zee complied - throwing her pistol down the stairs, onto one of the unconscious gangers, and slowly began to turn to face the man who got the drop on her.

Tasha waits, eyes narrowed, as the gangers stream upstairs. If they come back, while she's still bringing Peyton up, she'll be in a real bad situation, but no risk, no reward. After the last of them heads upstairs, she sprints for the basement door.

Zee:

You turn around to see a slender elf standing a few meters away from you, holding a sliver gun that's pointed square at your chest. His gaze moves down to your wounds, and you see surprise flicker in his eyes.

"You're a drone?"

You recognize his voice as the one who was issuing orders before. Your audio sensors pick up footsteps coming from downstairs, and from the sound of it, the rest of the gang is going to be here pretty soon.

Tasha:

You move up to the basement door, hearing a scurry of footsteps on the floor above you. The door is locked, since Zee had re-engaged the padlock when she left the basement.

Muttering curses, Tasha takes a bead on the lock, hoping that the gangers above are really distracted.

"Come on, Zee, use another grenade," she thinks to herself.

Zee's face scowls, beneath her hood. It wasn't the fact that he saw past her outer form - it was because the term 'drone' implied a mindless autonomy that Zee didn't really think applied to her, rather unique, situation. "Not exactly," she said, limping forwards slightly, so that she would not be immediately in the line of fire when the other gangers got to the staircase. Sparks shot from her leg, and it made a sick grinding noise while a small amount of artificial blood shot onto the wall in a surprisingly accurate mimicry of an arterial wound - not that it mattered, the damage was severe enough that the body's usual realism now just looked creepy. The elf raised his gaze back up to his gun and lifted it slightly in a gesture of warning, and she stopped her movement. "... please, don't kill me. I don't want to die." Her leg might be messed up, but her voice emulation software was still working, one-hundred-percent.

Zee was buying time - hoping the elf would stay curious about her long enough for his friends to arrive, which was probably his plan, too. When his back-up arrived, things were going to get violent, and she didn't stand much of a chance against everyone - so she strained her sensors to alert her when the gangers reached the stairs. She doubted she could move fast enough to throw the grenade before the elf got his shot off, but if she was quick enough to make him miss, she might buy Tasha and Peyton a chance to escape.

The elf raises an eyebrow. "Not exactly?"

He nods at the bullet wounds on your abdomen. "Don't bullshit me, woman. I can see you chopping off your leg and getting it replaced with a metal one, but no one can survive getting their entire torso extracted to that extent. So tell me, who the hell are you and why the hell are you here?"

Suddenly, another ganger rushes up from behind the elf. He sees you and quickly levels his assault rifle at you.

"Hey Loren, what's going on? Who's this broad?"

You hear movement at the bottom of the stairs. You turn your head halfway to look down, and you see two gangers poking their head around to spot you. Their path up the stairs is blocked by the unconscious bodies of the other three gangers you shot just seconds ago.

"Hey, everything okay up there?!" one of them shouts.

"Everything's fine," the elf calls out, his eyes never leaving yours. "The bitch who caused all the ruckus was a drone, which means the rigger has got to be nearby. Two of you, get your ass up here, and the rest of you, split up into groups of three and search the streets. Find the rigger and kill him."

You receive notification from your maintenance program that your radar sensors have just been brought back online.

When Zee's radar functions come back online, she becomes glad she spent the time preparing earlier, and is ready to activate them, immediately, and resume the radar-map feed being sent to Tasha[/s]'s contacts. As the map becomes much more well-defined, with little blips moving back towards her location, [b]Zee includes an urgent message that begins blinking and demanding attention in her peripheral vision.

<<A bunch of them heading outside. If you're inside, hide. If you're outside, try to find a chance to sneak in once they leave.>>

<<Four remaining with me. Wait for my signal to go for Peyton.>>

She wasn't sure if Tasha had even gotten inside, yet, but saw a figure near the basement door, in her newly activated sense. In any case, the warning was better than nothing. She returned her attention to the elf and the ganger beside him, scanning their bodies for other weapons and modifications - sizing them up for when the time came to fight her way out. She now had two guns trained on her, soon to be four, and her wounded leg was operating at less than 30%. She needed a distraction - and was fairly certain Tasha would end up providing one. Hopefully, not until after most of the gangers were outside.

"Let me get this straight," Zee began. "You spared me, and want me to talk - but you just gave the order for your friends to find me and kill me, outside?"
She smiled, although her features were still partially obscured by the still-changing coloration of her hood. "That isn't a lot of incentive for me to stick around here and chat."

"...assuming my 'rigger' is anywhere nearby."

She just needed to buy a little more time - to get half of the gangers out on the street, before trying anything crazy.

Tasha, with the feed of moving red dots to go by, has little problem darting through a doorway and putting a wall between her and the gangers, who seem to be heading straight out of the building. She isn't sure what Zee did to send them on, presumably, a wild goose chase, but she won't question their good fortune. After the last blip has headed out, she goes back to the basement door, waiting for the signal. She'll keep an eye on the vid feed, too. If Zee can't make good use of the distraction, she might need to help her partner. Two against four are much better odds than two against twenty.

Zee:

The elf shrugs. "Way I see it, it's a win-win situation for us. Either you stick around and we have an interesting chat before we find your body and put a bullet in your head, or you bail out of that robot of yours and we get a really valuable piece of equipment to sell."

Your sensors sweep over him and return a digital rendition of his body on an AR window. He appears to have undergone extensive augmentation, and his spine has almost been entirely replaced by metal and electrical wiring. You have a feeling that this one is going to be much tougher to take down than the others you've engaged. The ganger next to him has similar implants running up his spine, though to a much smaller extent. Neither of them appear to have any other weapons.

Footsteps behind you. Two of the gangers from downstairs had finally made their way up, falling into step on either side of you with rifles in hand.

"Strip it of its weapons," the elf says.

He looks at you. "So, I ask again. Why the hell did you blow the fuck out of our house? Did the Bloodhounds send you?"

Tasha:

Footsteps thunder down as the gangers return from the upper floors to pour out the front door en masse, shouting with glee at the prospect of violence. After a few moments, the front door slams shut as the last of the gangers leave the house, and you're alone once more on the first floor.

Seeing the last of the ganger's blips exit the building and seeing one blip duck to the side and return to the basement door, Zee also sees that her situation is getting a lot worse. If the gangers get the grenade from her - and her other weapons - she will stand pretty much no chance of taking them all out. With four guns trained on her, she doesn't see this ending well, in any case - but she has to act now if she is going to.

"One problem with your logic," Zee says, "If you're planning to get my equipment, either way, there is no incentive for me to play nice."

<<Now. Do it now.>>

The shot rings out downstairs, but could be heard clearly through the tension, and unlike the gangers, Zee was expecting it. The two flunkies at her flanks glance downwards - shock registering in their faces as they realize Zee must not have been alone - and she takes the momentary distraction to make her move. She leaps backwards, sailing away from her attackers as she tucks into a backflip, going over the edge of the staircase - as several weapons explode to life behind her.

Tasha immediately shoots the lock, then goes down the basement stairs, where she repeats the process with Peyton's cuffs.

"Can you move?" she asks him. Depending on the answer, she will either get out of the building with him, or run upstairs to help out Zee.

Tasha:

The ork stands up on shaky legs, slides the cuffs off his wrists, and nods at you. "Got another gun?"

Tasha nods, switching the clip on her Manhunter to regular rounds before handing it to Peyton.

"Here, let me change the clip out - don't think you want to use gel on these guys, and Shelly's cousin shouldn't be inside any more - and you can use the Manhunter. Our number one priority is getting my partner and getting out of here, first. We can always come back with reinforcements to finish off the rest."

Peyton grabs the gun, pulls back the slide to chamber the first round, and nods at you. "Well, then let's go. You don't know how long I've been itching for a chance to kill some of these punks."

"All right."

Tasha takes point heading up the stairs, then turns, gun ready, at the landing, where Zee should wind up, along with any pursuit.

Hydroulic fluid sprayed on the wall beside her as Zee lands on the second-floor landing, already pulling her grenade from her belt, leaving the pin behind. She spent just long enough to regret not being able to pick up her pistol, before tossing the grenade at the base of the steps, where her mapsoft calculated the effects of structural damage would be most devastating to both staircases. Her objective wasn't to time it to kill her pursuers - although it just might do that if they were careless. Her objective was to trap them upstairs. Her footsteps didn't miss a beat, taking her forward a few steps before she vaulted over the next edge, falling another few meters to the first floor - similarly unharmed - where she tucked and rolled out from beneath the staircase. She completed the roll getting back up to her feet, running down the hallway toward the basement where she saw Tasha emerging, limping noticeably.

<<Still a dozen gangers out front looking for us.>>

Zee had no idea how they were going to safely get Peyton to the alley across the street - but if her plan worked, they might have a couple more seconds to figure it out. She watched the movements of the men upstairs with her radar, hoping to get a good assessment of her plan's success.

"Son of a bitch, she has a grenade!"

You leap over the railing of the stairs to land on the first floor a second before the grenade explodes, reducing the stairwell to a storm of splinters. There is now a giant hole between the first and third floors, and the gangers look down on you with disbelief on their faces.

"Shit, come on, let's go!"

The faces disappear. You reach the first floor hallway at the same time Tasha emerges from the basement, with Peyton following close behind.

A feral grin flicks across Tasha's face as she hears the second explosion. If nothing else, they've really done a number on the place. She heaves an inward sigh of relief as she spots Zee. Everyone is accounted for, now.

"All right, good job, Zee. Now we just have to get to the bikes."

Zee grips the wall for a second as her sprint comes to a stop. Her cyberleg appears badly damaged, and Zee must be red-lining with the pain-simulators off, because her face isn't registering the damage. Her torso seems shot up as well, but she seems to be trying, intentionally, to keep those wounds obscured with her arms.

"Three more, incoming." Her voice falters, as a spark shoots from her leg, which has stopped pretending to bleed. "Then its clear, to the bikes."

She unslings her rifle, drawing it up and aiming it around the corner at the front door, taking a moment to load up her longarms programming.

<<I'll make a path. Move, on my signal.>>

Zee:

As the gangers from outside approach the house, you track their position with your radar and open fire with your sniper rifle, shooting through the door at them. One of your bullets catches the lead ganger in the shoulder, knocking him backwards. They immediately stop advancing and start moving backwards, slinging up their rifles and shuffling to take cover behind a car parked outside.

Tasha waits, poised, for Zee's signal, gun ready.

"How many out there? I have a trick or two that might get us by them..."

Zee glances back at Tasha, "Still three. Just winged one." She begins to take a few steps towards the door, when it is clear that the gangers aren't going to come in anymore.

<<Moving to the door for a better shot. The guys from upstairs will be here any second, we need to keep moving. Stick close.>>

As Zee opens the door partially and kneels to look through her scope, Tasha stays right behind her. Tasha remains standing, though, allowing her to take advantage of the same cover, while still being able to see out. Her gun is ready, although she might actually try something a bit different this time.

"Peyton, keep an eye out. We might have some of them coming up from behind us."

It's the chip-truth, although she partly says it to give the angry ork something to focus on, so his (understandable) urge for revenge doesn't make him do something reckless.

As you guys swing open the door, you see the gangers taking cover behind a GMC Bulldog van, whooping and howling with manic expressions on their faces. When they catch sight of you, they whip up their guns and open fire.

Tasha winces as she sees the already-wounded Zee take still more damage, then snarls a curse as she gets grazed by a bullet herself. The gangers may have been complacent and overconfident, but she can admit she was, too. These guys are way tougher than she thought they would be. But now it's her turn. Instead of firing her gun, her voice snaps out with supernatural power behind it:

"Throw. Away. Your. Weapons!"

Tasha:

For a second, your words don't seem to have any effect, but then three guns sail over the top of the van in unison, clattering onto the sidewalk in front of you. The gangers blink and look at each other with empty hands and confused expressions on their faces.

"Hey, what the fuck, man?"

"Holy shit, she must be a mage or something!"

"And that other chick is like an android!"

"Screw this, I'm getting the hell out of here!"

"Hey, wait for me!"

The gangers blow out of their cover simultaneously, running down the street and away from the house as fast as they can.

Zee pain sensors alert her again, as a series of bullets tear into her left arm, and one into the side of her face. Her vision was beginning to flicker in and out, but her audio sensors seemed to be working perfectly. She distinctly heard Tasha calling out for surrender, and began to ready to dive in front of the doorway to protect her when the next hail of bullets came.

Then, to her astonishment, she heard the clang of metal on pavement several times, and the sounds of the gangers making their retreat. Zee looked at Tasha in disbelief - with one eye twitching, and a metal plate clearly visible through a bullet hole in her face. She looked at though she was saying something, her mouth was moving, and lips forming syllables, but no words came.

Not wanting to waste another second, Zee decided it was time for them to move. She slung her rifle back over her shoulder, and stepped out through the doorway unsteadily, motion for Zee and Peyton to follow.

Zee:

"Incoming, behind us!"

You hear the sound of gunfire right behind you and turn to see Peyton blazing away, his gun pointed down the hallway. The three gangers from upstairs have finally managed to make it down, but they seem to be having second thoughts about advancing when, instead of finding the one enemy they had been expecting, there were now three. They're taking cover behind the walls and are firing wild, hapless shots in your direction. The elf you met upstairs doesn't seem to be amongst them.

"Let's go! Follow Zee!" Tasha follows Zee outside.

"Peyton, shut the door. They'll probably think twice about following us if they don't know whether we're waiting to ambush them or not. We gotta get to the bikes and peel out before they can mount up a pursuit. There'll be time to come back and kill the rest of them later."

Her heart is still pounding with adrenaline, but it looks like maybe, just maybe, they'll all make it out of here. If they can just make it across the alley, if more of them don't come down the street, if that missing elf doesn't show up, if the gangers inside think twice about following them... if, if, if. She winces at Zee's terrible wounds. Hopefully it is mostly damage to her 'ware - is she one of those brain-in-a-jar types she's heard rumors about? - but it's a miracle she's still walking.

Tasha:

The door slams shut behind you and the three of you begin to run towards the alleyway to hop on your bikes and blow out of this place. There doesn't seem to be any more gangers in sight, but you know that in the Barrens, danger lurks around every corner and you never let your guard down until you're out of the neighborhood and safe in your own bed. Suddenly, you hear the faint, but distinct sound of a magazine being loaded above you, and swivel around just in time to catch a flash of muzzle fire coming from the third floor landing with the blown out wall.

"Shit! Incoming fire! From the roof!"

Her warning, and her desperate tumble forward to avoid the rain of bullets, both come too late, as a spray of bullets hits her, and her body armor just isn't good enough to stop all of it. A jolt of pain courses through Tasha, and blackness flickers at the edge of her vision. Damn it, they were so close!

Zee:

You turn when you hear the sound of gunfire behind you and look up to recognize the gang leader who shot you before. Peyton growls when he sees Tasha get hit, whirls around into a shooting stance, and opens fire on the assailant with his Manhunter. The floor around the elf explodes into splinters and he stumbles back, but he quickly recovers to draw a bead on your group once more with his rifle.

Zee zigged and zagged across the front lawn, lumbering erratically as much because of her wounds as because of her desire to make herself harder to hit. When Tasha shouts a warning, Zee reacts immediately, leaping easily 2 or 3 meters into the air, sailing over the van as shots ring out. Mid-air, she twists around, so she can see what happened, and so that she can land on her feet.

She see's Tasha laying on the road, near some blood-splatter, then lands on the other side of the vehicle's hood - a little harder than she expected. Turning her stolen weapon, slightly, she verifies the weapon's mode, while Peyton distracts the elf with a few pistol shots. When he finishes, Zee responds by opening fire over the hood, spraying the opening in the third floor with bullets - hoping to take advantage of the elf's attention being on Peyton. If she couldn't manage to take the elf out, she could at least manage to make herself a bigger target than either Tasha or Peyton - giving them time to get away on their bike.

Zee text message flashed in Tasha's darkening eyes.

<<Keep moving.>>

Zee:

Your bullets pepper the elf across the body, knocking him to the ground. He rolls and comes up on a knee, his attention now turned to you. He swings his gun around and sprays a storm of bullets in your direction.

As bullets rip across the hood of the van, Zee's sensors scream at her to move. Her body responds more slowly than usual, but begins to pull back behind the cab. Her wounded leg buckles, unexpectedly, and she drops to one knee - slapping her good arm on the hood of the car to catch her fall. A single bullet grazed her suit - registering a tactile sensor hit, and a slight tear, but failing to even break skin.

Tasha feels a slight tremor run through her body, but ruthlessly suppresses it. She can fall apart later, when there's time. Right now, she has to act, has to survive! Crouched behind the van with the others, she sights upwards, steadying her aim with both hands as she shoots. Her deceptively compact gun roars as she sends two explosive rounds screaming towards the elf on the roof.

The first round hits the elf square in the chest, and he's already falling when the second round blows out his throat. He crumples to a lifeless heap on the third floor landing, his gun dropping down to clatter onto the sidewalk below.

No other enemies in sight, you guys make your way to the spot where you stashed your bikes, hop on, and rev them up to life. Peyton slips his pistol into his waistband and slides into the back of Tasha's Suzuki. The two of you kick your bikes out of the alley, swivel them street side, and put the pedal to the metal, blazing your way out of there, leaving behind two trails of scorched rubber and many, many more dead bodies.

Eventually, you can no longer see the wreck of a gang house behind you, and you'll be out of Redmond soon. You're bruised, bleeding, and hurting bad, but there's only one thing that matters: you're still alive. Dozens die in Seattle every day, but you won't be one of them. Not tonight, anyway.