Ghost Dragon says, "I won't need camo gear either. I can turn invisible. How much time do we have left to accomplish our task?"

"Thanks hun, see you in a bit."

Jesie hangs up the line and turns to Arden, "Zoe has some winter camo suits in stock right now, any chance I can get a ride from you to go pick them up?"

[ Arden ]

"Not a prob. Anybody need to get carted around?"

Sink replies "I could use a camo suit too, if they got one in my size. I could use a ride, my Americar's not really geared for this type of weather."

Warpath offers a ride to those who need it, though his driving in the snow is significantly worse than the rigger's.

Jessie hops out of the big truck and gives Arden a nod, "Thanks for the ride, I'll just be a sec."

She walks into the pizza place that Zoe had given the name of to meet at. Glancing around she spots Zoe sitting at one of the tables in the back and walks over to take a seat. The two smile at eachother like old friends and exchange greetings.

"Very thoughtful of you to keep the gear in stock with the snow and all. Thanks for hooking me up last minute like this." Jessie says.

Zoe swallows the pizza she'd been crewing on and replies, "Not a problem at all. How are things going?"

"Not bad, we had a few hang ups, but what run doesn't? Anyway, I gotta run, things are getting active. I'll catch you later hun."

Jessie reaches under the table and hands the credstick over to Zoe, then picks up the case and stands. Giving Zoe a final smile, she turns and walks out of the pizza place and back out to the Van. Climbing inside, the tosses the box in the back, "Alright, lets go."

Ghost Dragon waits in the van, silently meditating with his eyes closed the whole ride so that he can be focused for the operation on the complex.

Jessie turns to Arden, "You want me to get in touch with everyone so we can all meet back up and finalize the plan? Or do we still have a few more stops to make?"

The small convoy of two vehicles makes the rounds slowly. The big Bison plows through the snow easily cutting a path for the nimble Brumby. With weather and traffic it takes a few hours to get to everyones house. In the end, the sun is starting to set, the temperature is dropping even more. The bells at St. Jude on 5th avenue ring loudly six times.

With the rounds finished, Ghost Dragon sits in the back of Arden's Bison with a focused look on his face, ready for anything.

So cold.. I can endure it. I have been through much worse. How does cold compare?

He stares off into space, remembering his past. When the vehicle comes to a stop, Ghost Dragon snaps to alertness and immediately begins summoning a watcher while the others chatter.

Let's swing by my place so I can pick up my climbing gear Sink asks.

Danny surreptitiously stays aware of his surroundings, using Astral Perception to augment his natural senses. This job had boded badly right from the start, *even before...according to the cards*, and his paranoia level was running on overdrive as the clock ticked toward the proposed plan's implementation.

He silently watches as Ghost Dragon summons the small, sprite-like Spirit, a slight sneer momentarily and unconsciously clouding his features. His own Watchers flank the vehicles as they travel through the inclement weather towards their destination, their standing orders to report any sign of Astral activity should soon be causing them to check in with him in regards the newly-summoned being.

Mentally keying his datajack-linked comm unit, he contacts Jessie via the attached in-line transducer.

"There's a big ol' Watcher Spirit a-guardin' that there compound. Soon's we get there, I'll be settin' about gettin' rid of it. It's sorta a 'damned if we do 'n' damned if'n we don't' kinda situation, 'n' I figure it's better t'be safe th'n sorry 'n' not let the damned thing do any kinda reportin' in the first place, if'n y'all know what I mean."

Ghost Dragon whispers to his summoned watcher spirit and says, "I want you to follow me. If I or any who walk with me are attacked, I want you to tell me where the attacker is."

Ohanzee arrives at the meeting point a just out of sight of the complex only shortly before the others. He spends the short wait focusing his thoughts and getting mentaly ready for what lies ahead, pushing aside the thoughts that keep circling in his head, the joy of finaly having a chance to cure Lily and the fear of wasting the chance. The fear of not surviving the day and leaving Lily alone and helpless in this harsh world. Slowly unknotting his clenched insides he starts to relax as he focuses on the ancient methods and ways taught to him by his father and master.
Only as he sees the team arrive he will leave his car and face the harsh weather outside. The padded shoulders of the long and dark leather coat and his long black hair blowing in the storm-like wind make the brooding indian look like a mysterious wanderer out of another world.
Ohanzee walks to the trunk of his car to grab the large duffel bag containing his equipment and then heads for the van. He only gives a formal, short nod of greeting as he enters the vehicle to get the equipment from Jessie and go over some last details of the plan.
"Did you get what we need?"

Jessie nods and tosses a small box at Ohanzee.

"Alright people, you all know your roles, lets get ready for bussiness."

She then climbs back into the van and strips out of her clothing, down to her form fitting body suit. Reaching into her pack, she pulls out the hood that goes with it, then climbs into her new winter camo suit. She takes a while getting her pistol holsters positioned in the proper way for a quick draw. She grabs her electronics gear and starts to stash it within the camo suits multitude of pouches. Finally, gear checked and rechecked, she steps back outside and takes a look at everyone else to see how they are progressing.

As the spirit acknowledges him, Ghost Dragon nods and stands up to exit the vehicle. He casts an invisibility spell an disappears.

@ Arden,

it doesn't take long for you to lock onto the broadcast freq they were using before. The computer quickly cycles through the availible decryption and it isn't long before you are hearing the chatter of the guards on their radios. Apparently they have locked themselves in due to the storm. They have posted an advisory that all residence stay in there housing and not venture into the compound. This is reinforced by the fact that previously unseen steel shutters have slid closed at the two gates, effectively closing off the compound.

[ Arden ]

Flicking a mental switch to kick in the radio link to the other vehicle, Arden turns to the bunch huddled in the back of his van.

"Alrighty people. Turns out the sec boys have locked the place down due to weather. The gates suddenly actually have some serious looking steel blocking them... I'm working on how solid they are right now. I'm also looking at trying to pin down just where the guards physically are, because if they're indoors, they might cause a few problems for us."

"If anybody finds what looks like a plug into the internal systems while inside that place, keep it in mind. If you run into trouble, plug a radio into it and I can try and take control of whatever they have in place. It might be useful."

"We got any last minute details before we do this, or can I just say 'Let's hit it'?"

Ohanzee catches the box of bullets tossed to him by Jessie and proceeds filling them into two empty magazines for his savalettes. He then loads one cartridge into each of his savalette guardians and attaches the silencers. He then takes off his coat, folds it neatly and sets it on the floor. Underneath he is wearing casual looking but close-fitting clothing and a very artfull and somewhat massive looking leather vest. He ties his rather long hair into a tight knot so that it doesn't get into the way.
Ohanzee then proceeds to get into the camo suit provided by jessie and distributes several weapons all over his body. Two traditionaly decorated and embossed steel tomahawks get tucked into the belt of the camo jumpsuit, one long fighting knife gets strapped to his left upper arm and another one to his right thigh.
The two Savalette guardians go into their quickdraw holsters underneath his arms. Two additional magazines with standard ammo go into some pockets of the camo.
He then puts on his climbing harness, slings a rough 20 meters of rope over his shoulder and around his torso and straps his grappple gun tightly to his back. Four flash granades and four IR Smoke grenades get attached to the belt of the camo: flash to the left, smoke to the right.
A pair of climbing gloves is put into another pocket of the camo.
Finaly, with a mental command he disables his headphone.

Ohanzee goes through this routine seemingly emotionless but behind the facade he is unusually nervous. Something about this doesn't feel right... whatever, I'm probably just seing things.

He takes a deep breath and then sets frequency and encription of his radio gear to the teams communication. Trying it out: "Arden, do you read?"

Warpath scopes out the buildings near the facility, looking for his vantage point, while the team prepares. He waits patiently for the team to finish and moves toward one of the buildings from the far side, looking for a likely parking spot.

Ghost Dragon grabs his phone from his pocket. He has to remember by touch where it is because it is now invisible. He turns off the phone and then replaces it in his pocket.

Sink quickly changes into the camo gear, slipping it on over his armored vest. He shoves his pockets full of grenades and throwing knives, and clips his two Shortbarrel Shotguns onto his belt. His climbing gear, some Plasteel Restraints, and some wire cutters go into a small duffel that he tucks inside the camo suit.

"Ready ta go. Let's do it". He peers out of the Roadmaster's window and clips his Transceiver behind his left ear and runs a small wire to clip the microphone to his throat.

"Looks like we're gonna have ta scale that wall."

Jessie, Sink, Mirage, Ohanzee, and Ghost Dragon exit Arden's Roadmaster. The vehicle is parked across the street from the insertion point to the complex. The cold cut's like a knife, slicing to the bone. Danny quickly slides the big door shut after the group exits. from the other side of the Van Warpath steps out, shutting the door behind him. The big warrior takes a moment to scan the skyline, looking for a good spot to cover the teams exit. The building the Roadmaster is parked next to has a fire escape that leads to the roof...


Crossing the street the rest of the team finds temporary shelter in the shadow of the snow covered wall. No movement or sound can be heard. No cars are using the street. It looks like the city has surrendered the plow battle and isn't even trying anymore.

Jessie looks up at the big troll, "Sink, can you spot any of the trees over the wall? If you can manage, hit em up with this."

She hands him a grapple gun with a hundred meters of stealth line hooked up to it.

Ghost Dragon says, "Would you like for me to burst the pipe now or later? If I do it now, I would like to follow the elemental so that I do not lose control of it and allow it to return to its plane."

"Wait until we are over the wall, then do it. We'll go in while everyone is distracted."

Sink takes the gun, steadies it on top of the wall, aims at one of the trees and fires. He hands the gun back to Jessie.

Jessie takes the gun, uncoils some extra line and ties it off on a nearby street sign. She then uses the rope to give her some extra leverage to get over the wall. When she gets to the top, she stops to look around before sliding down to the other side.

Ghost Dragon waits for everyone to climb over, and then he gets on the line that is free as the last person begins climbing and starts climbing over himself. He drops his spell to make the job easier, as he is not especially skilled in climbing.

Before leaving the van Mirage changes the clip in her Manhunter for one containing non-lethal gamma-scopolamine capsule rounds, and replaces the white-phospherous rounds in her MGL-6 for a clip of concussion grenades. She fits both weapons back into their fast-draw holsters and steps out of the van, activating her coat's stealth camouflage and raising the hood.

When she has eventually got over the wall she crouches and draws her pistol, her enhanced senses and orientation system fill her image link display with data.

The team makes it over the wall. immediately Mirage and Ohanzee fall into combat stances brought on by years of bitter experience. The park is small and lightly wooded, and if the snow wasn't there, completely barren. Light pools around the path where the lamppost stand, every 10 meters or so. The wind is blowing in from the west, snow and ice particle pepper the area. From what anyone can see it is a barren wasteland.

Ghost Dragon says, "Ok. We're over. Time to burst that pipe. See you in a few moments."

Ghost Dragon sits down and leans against the wall he just climbed over. He leaps out of his body in spirit form and darts to the end of the complex, outside the wall, on the corner where the water main is near the rear entrance.

Ghost Dragon closes his astral eyes and sends a call to the water elemental he had summoned two days ago. He opens his eyes and sees the spirit before him. His watcher is visible nearby, following its orders. Ghost Dragon speaks to the elemental spirit, saying, "Now, it is time for you to begin your work. I want you to burst this water main. Arc the spray from the pipe so that it hits as close to the gate on the other side as possible; on the gate itself, if you can. I want the gate and the road around it to freeze. The cold should take care of that." Ghost Dragon grins menacingly as he watches the spirit go to work.

<deleted post>

The water elemental nods and goes to work. It increases the pressure from inside the pipe to dangerous levels. A slight rumbling begins to emanate from the street, building to a roar. Suddenly, a vast explosion of water erupts through the ground. The feed through the water main was running at 2,000 ppsi. The effect is like a cannon going off. The street is instantly flooded as a wave of water washes away the snow, burning through it like a laser.

@ the rest of the team.

The roar of the bursting pipe echoes in the wind. Though to distant to see, the effect is felt as a damp spray falls with the snow. Ghost Dragon returns with a smug, self satisfactory look on his face. As the mage is regaining his feet, Jessie and Mirage detect a faint noise emanating from the snow 20 meters in front of the group...

A black blur leaps through the air as if he where shot from a cannon. The flash of fangs and steel claws, along with the audible click as razors sliping into place, leaves no doubt as to what it could be. The dog has been set loose.

Ghost Dragon's smile disappears as his face goes expressionless. With practiced professionalism, he quickdraws his pistol while getting to his feet and fires two silenced shots at the dog.

"Crap, I hate ta fight dogs" Sink mutters to himself as soon as he detects the dog. He gets into a defensive positon, ready to strike it if it come for him.

Not wanting to kill the thing, just in case it has a biometer installed, Jessie raises her pistol with its fresh capsul (narcoject) rounds and pulls the trigger twice.

The sharp clack of the slides on Ghost dragons pistol echo in the cold air, the two rounds spray snow where they impact behind the large black dog.

The animal slides to a halt, shifting it's weight as it set's itself to launch. The beast is large and black, and appears to be a doberman of some kind. It's eyes glow with a fierce red color that lends a demonic look to the beast. After a beat the dog growls a menacing low rumble. Hidden claws and fangs slide forward with a sharp *click*, lending to the demonic look.

It vaults through the group, leaping six feet in the air, clear over Jessie and Mirage, to slam into Ghost Dragon, it's claws and fangs shredding and tearing at the cold killer.

Mirage tracks the dog as it passes over her head, she rolls and fires a single shot at the beast's exposed chest.

Mirage fires her modified Colt once, the bullet slams into the dog just as the dog slams into Ghost Dragon. It makes an odd noise, a mixture of a growl and a yelp at the same time as it is wounded by Mirage's expertly placed round. It's steel claws still find it's way into Ghost Dragons flesh, eliciting a sharp grunt of pain from the normally stoic assassin.

Sinik dives in with one large hand and slams it into the dog's body.

Sink's massive fist slams into the dogs spine with a audible thump. The dog yelps and falls to the ground, sinking a few inches into the snow. It try's to rise but lamely falls back down before passing out. An eery silence falls over the compound as the 4 legged killing machine pases out. Snow falls fiercely, pilling up on the rapidly cooling body.

"If that thing had a biometer in it, we just got made. Lets get a move on people!"

Jessie starts making her way towards the building, doing her best to remain hiden within the trees and snow. All her senseware is jacked to the max now, as each step she takes, she half expects something to jump out at her.

Ghost Dragon grasps his wound and growls, "The dogs have handlers. Two guards to a dog. They have to be nearby. The dogs are muzzled normally."

Sink follows Jessie, moving quickly but quietly as he searches for any signs of the dog's handlers.

Ghost Dragon doesn't follow right away, saying, "We should kill it."

Jessie glances back, "As fast as the body is cooling off, trust me, its dead. And as far as the handlers go, maybe they just left the dog out to watch everything while they holed up in their warm office."

She frowns, "That thing got you good, didn't it? You want me to bandage you up a bit before we go on or can you Heal?"

Over the comm

"Adren, is there anything going over their comms we should know about? We just delt with the guard dog and I'm not sure if they know about it or not."

Over the comm, "Hope you're right Jessie, I'm moving across the park to hunt for the handlers."

Mirage moves cautiously ahead of the group, her pistol gripped in both hands, making her way to the opposite edge of the park.

[ Arden ]

Through the commnet, Ardens voice cuts in. "Heads up people! They know we're here, and they're suiting up. Prep for incoming."

With Detection be dammed, he mentally flicks on every actvie sensor he has, pounding the compound with enough energy to make sure he knows where everything is.