03:23:16 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Bubba unleashed another hail of APDS rounds down 47th Street where they landed on target, cutting through the rusted remains of a car and into the blinded gunman.

03:23:18 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

The familiar hollow thump of an under-barrel grenade launcher firing could be heard over the rattle of Bubba's gun. From the far end of the street panicked curses could be heard, but were silenced by the explosion of the abandoned car Wasteland had been using for cover. The frame, or the main portion of the car did not move while everything above the floor board exploded into a cloud of fiery shrapnel from Kliko's mini-grenade.

Felix felt a surge of power flow through him, as his spell was no longer resisted.

The echos of gunfire and explosives hid the electronic whirr of a small drone, which had been hovering nearby, as it flew off, away from the battle.

03:23:28 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

The team scanned the war zone as the flames die down on the wreckage at the south end of 47th Street. Duster saw no more dots on the Battle-Tac system he had taken from the sniper.

"The Battle-Tac looks clear," Duster updated the team.

03:23:28 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

With a sigh, Ludmila heaved the heavy rifle and left her perch. Through the grey green nightvision hue of her eyes, she could already see a plume of smoke reaching upwards. Something was burning. It made her want to light up a smoke.

So far, things had gone from fragged to completely fragged up. They had come in 7 and were now down to 5. Sure, two less head to pay for meant more shares for the team, but also meant less live bodies to attract bullets. Odds were, if they got shot at again, someone “important” might actually get hurt.

Walking back to the stairwell, Ludmila realized how tired she felt. Her muscles were aching under the weight of the rifle, which in and of itself was a pretty decent find. But she felt spent. She felt cranky and bruised.

“He awake?” she said to Duster as she came up one floor to where he was waiting.

The man shrugged. She put the rifle down and crouched in front of their captive. Reaching over, she slapped him a few times across the face.

“Wake up.”

03:23:38 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Abandoned building on Daneshkadeh - Tehran

The sniper's eyes flutter open underneath Ludi's rejuvenation technique, but his eyes still rolled back in his head. His only other response is to drool a little more.

03:23:42 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran


Ending his focus on the spell, Felix glanced down at the bodies in the street below. Won't be able to get anything out of these two, but that sniper's mind should be mostly intact. Triggering his radio, Felix replied "Lima, I'm enroute to empty the snipers brain of what he knows... It'll be easier for me as I can pull his memories and thoughts directly"

Felix looked around the street before floating quickly across to the building where the sniper had been perched, landing on the roof and entering the stairwell to find Lima crouched in front of the bound sniper. "Let's see what his subconscious has to say..."

03:23:42 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Somewhere, grafted inside the inner portion of her hearing canal, a small piece of cybernetics began to vibrate subtly. Ludmila heard Felix's voice over the radio link. She gritted her teeth. Fortunately enough for her, her transducer's filter had been set at a pretty high tripping point, which meant she could curse inwardly without fear of the thought filtering out into actual words.

Seeing the man react briefly to her treatment, she began digging around one of the pockets of her cargo pants.

“Don't bother yourself.” she said in her disembodied transduced voice.

As far as she was concerned, Felix had done more than his share of damage already. Hell, his job was to protect them for paranormal threats... and so far, he hadn't done a splendid job. She was damned if she was going to trust an interrogation to his mumbo jumbo stuff.

“I've done this a hundred times.”

Which was probably an understatement.

Out from one of her pockets, she took out a stim patch, just as Felix was starting down the stairs. From her position, crouched in front of the man, she peered up at him. When she spoke, this time, it was aloud.

“I fragging told you I got this! Go back to flying around well out of harms way while we grunts do the actual work, da?”

03:24:29 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Felix ignored Ludi's insults and reached into the mind of the sniper who was slipping in and out of consciousness.

What were you hired to do? ~ Thoughts and memories came into Felix's mind like they were his own. His mission seemed very similar to theirs: Locate and recover the Shroud of Shadows, which looked to be the same as thing that Felix's team was looking for in the Veil, and like them, the sniper knew nothing about the artifact.

Who hired you? ~ Images of a rough looking character came to his mind and at once he knew this was the sniper's fixer, Guy. The relationship was professional, and not much other than a few business meetings surfaced as memories. What Felix was able to figure out, was that the team had been working almost exclusively for Guy for almost a year.

03:24:35 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

The spirit of the Jaguar kept Felix's mind centered and focused. He continued to frisk the snipers yielding mind, as Ludi's insults were swept away in the wind.

Who is your team comprised of? Name/What they do? ~ The information came as if Felix was looking at online profiles, each team member with information as the sniper knew it. Felix dug through, finding the pertinent information.

Dragon Slayer - Face/Leader
An experienced runner, with a shady past, even for a shadowrunner. A jack of all trades, only he excels at most.

Wasteland - Heavy Weapons
Intelligent, especially for an orc, but almost impossible to work with. Specializes in explosives.

Copperhead - Rigger
Loner who prefers to spend more time with his drones than people, even his team. Specializes in surveillance.

Invisible Jazmyne - Shaman
A cat shaman who specializes in illusions and combat. She also is very capable with a firearm.

Mikey - Street Sam
A bit crazy and unpredictable, but sometimes that is what is needed. Has a pension for torture, and is probably some sort of serial killer.

03:24:51 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Without interruption, Felix's mind probe continued.

Bank account access/Safe deposit boxes/Other valuables? ~ Unable to see the exact bank account number, he was able to get the bank information and location of what the sniper considered valuable, and that was at his apartment in Seattle.

03:24:52 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

The first body Bubba reached had been blown to pieces and burnt to a crisp, taking his gear with him. The second body was burnt and torn apart, but not nearly to the extent of the first. His SMG was damaged to the point that it was useless, along with most of his other gear. Bubba tossed the SMG to the ground in disgust. His emotions turned when he spotted a side armed holstered on his leg, which appeared to be intact. Fumbling with the straps, he was able to free a battle worn pistol. While old, it looked pretty well kept, custom grip and etched in the side of the slide, "DRAGON SLAYER." Bubba held the Ruger Thunderbolt up and said, "This is bad ass."

03:24:52 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

For a moment that wasn't anything but short, Ludmila wondered who's side Duster might take if she decided to just shoot Felix. They'd known each other longer, and even if it was slim, in the shadows, it counted for “something”. Plus, beside Bubba, Duster was probably the other member of the team who she had been nicest to.

Well.... not that Ludi really did “nice” anyways...

Standing in the stairwell, her knuckles got white under her gloves. As far as she was concerned, the was no way in hell that info was going to be truly reliable. Hell, magic wasn't reliable, at least, not like a pair of bolt cutters to a knuckle. She had done 4 months of intensive interrogation training with the GRU over 10 years ago: it had been... satisfying.

She spat on the floor and motion to Duster to follow her.

“Come on. He is his problem now.” she told him as she began going down the stairs.

She keyed her radio.

“Kilo, Lima. We are now upgraded to long range 50 cal. Duster and will be street level in a few minutes.”

She walked down a few more stairs, the frustration of the night so bottled up inside she had to release it somehow. Her shoulder was sore as hell. The fact her arm was still attached to her body felt almost surprising. She keyed her radio again.

“You plan on leaving V for the fragging rats as well?”

For some twisted reason, venting out on Kliko made her shoulder feel better.

03:25:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Kliko watched the scene unfold in front of him as Bubba stood there in the middle of the street, waving some sort of object above his head in excitement.

"Bravo, get of the fraggin street!"

Meantime Ludi was bitching about V across the comms. Leaving V behind as rat fodder was exactly what he was planning to do and there was nothing in the world Ludi or anyone else could do about it. They were running out of time and yet had to make their pickup. The Battletac^tm and Felix' comm-chatter indicated they were facing some serious competition and the run could swing either way.

"Copy that Lima. Finish the sniper and move on. We got to go people, we rally at Lima Foxtrot and move out through 38 street"

'We're on the clock'

03:25:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran

Crouched in the shadows of the doorway, the sniper rifle slung across her back, Ludi couldn't help herself but grin. She quickly scanned the street and keyed her radio.

“We're already street level. Foxtrot, you dispose of him.”

It was clear, even through the transducer link, that Ludi was taking a certain kind of pleasure in having Felix dirty his hands a bit.

"Everything looks clear around here. You want to form up like before or do we just hustle it?"

03:25:21 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th Street - Tehran


'What dos you cares?' "Just getting what's mine boss"

Bubba pocketed the custom pistol and tactically moved to the rendezvous point. Bubba's thoughts of concern for Starling and now V had left him. He was sorry their dead bodies were left behind, but hell, this was a war zone now and another team got the jump on them. It was likely they hadn't seen the end of the battles. Bubba had to be his best and when it comes to war, death is eminent. He wished he had been more alert earlier before V took that bullet, he wondered if he was partly to blame or if it was coming anyway. Maybe his stop saved the team from a worse ambush, he wouldn't know. For the time being he had to be his best, focus, and do his job; their numbers were shrinking and Bubba realized he wasn't invincible after that bullet nearly took his arm off.

He stretched his bicep muscle; it still hurt. In addition to the physical pain he couldn't help but feel some resentment towards Kliko for his brutal honesty. Bubba decided he would deal with that later. At this moment Bubba was ready, his self loathing was over, and he was committed to not letting his guard down again.

03:25:25 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Daneshkadeh Street - Tehran

No one answered Ludi's question directly, but they all knew the answer in their hearts. Vrixa's remains were to be left for the rats, just as Starling's were. However, in this case, the team was actively leaving the body behind, where in Starling's case, there was nothing they could do, the rodents had already done their damage and were still in a frenzy.


03:25:30 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Abandoned building on Daneshkadeh Street - Tehran

Felix seemed to be handling it the best, his heart hardened by the lone hunter, the Jaguar Totem. Whether he was losing his humanity or simply compartmentalizing his emotions due to stress was yet to be determined.

He breathed in the cold night air, still deciding what to do with the sniper. He would rather leave the executions to the muscle, or preferring to just leave the man unconscious. Wasn't he just doing a job, just like Felix and his companions were? Yes, they knew the risks, but it was part of the business. Killing an unconscious man seemed darker and ... more personal.

He looked inward, asking Jaguara for help. Would killing a defenseless soldier throw Felix's humanity into the void? He feared becoming as cold as Ludi, but his totem was that of a powerful predator. Would it guide him now in mercy, vengeance or perhaps something even darker? The Jaguar always guided the shaman through the chaos, but now it seemed there was still confusion and the whispers from his spiritual guide were vague whispers at best.


03:25:45 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 46th Street - Tehran

Kliko was already moving down 46th Street toward 38th, where they would make their final approach. The muzzle of his rifle quickly darted from window to window to rooftop to doorway. Felix had relayed the intel that there were possibly as many as three other operatives in the area. The shaman and rigger would probably remain hidden, but if there was a sammy out there, Kliko was ready to give him a taste of lead.

He hustled up the road at a brisk pace, ready to dart for cover, return fire or otherwise leap into action. There was no time for sorrow and regret for the teammates he had lost. They were in the business of war. Maybe the others didn't realize what a mercenary operation was. This had already proven to not be a simple shadowrun steal. This was a full fledged military covert op, and while you prefer to leave no man behind, sometimes the fact that war is hell rings true.


03:25:45 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Daneshkadeh Street and 46th - Tehran

Ludi and Duster were following Kliko by 30 meters and losing ground, both moving more cautiously. Ludi figured Kliko could run ahead and draw fire, while she lined up a kill shot with the .50 cal sniper rifle. That would be a lot easier if she weren't out of breath. If Kliko ended up in a cross fire, maybe he would learn the art of patience that he so eloquently outlines in his big strategic plans, yet consistently fails to follow in the field.

Duster on the other hand was just not confident darting through the concrete valleys. He preferred close quarters where he could use his physical strength, martial arts and adept powers to neutralize enemies with lightning speed and deadly precision. Out in the open, the firearms he possessed did nothing to make the ranged urban combat equal in his favor, as both the Taser and shotgun would be of little use. He, like the orc ahead of them, was actively scanning the streets for potential danger, and for the closest cover should, or rather when, he need it.


03:25:45 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 47th and Daneshkadeh - Tehran

Bubba was finally rounding the corner on 47th onto Daneshkadeh. He kept his eyes averted from the blood spatter across the rusted out car on the corner, and the blood trail leading to the building across the street where rats were surely feasting on V's corpse. He shuttered with the thought and again tried to flush those feelings down. Reaching into his cargo pocket he pulled a handful of Donettes and shoved them in his mouth. Donuts are a proven problem solver, or at least they have always helped to bury them.

03:31:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street - Tehran

Kliko was moving quickly. He reached the corner of 82nd and Heydarkhani, the target only 150 meters up the road. He took post against the corner building looking north up the street at the IUST Mosque. He took a quick look behind him and the streets were empty. Oh drek!? Where the frag is my team?


03:31:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street - Tehran

Ludi and Duster were no longer trying to keep up with Kliko, falling well over 150 meters behind, almost out of sight. Ludi worried that Kliko was going to run them straight into another battle, and another team member was going to be left in the Tehran sprawl. While this increased her paycheck, she didn't feel good about leaving another teammate behind, and she didn't see anyone else as expendable, not even that bloody mojo slinger. I wonder what he did with the sniper...


03:31:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street - Tehran

Felix was following Ludi and Duster by 20 meters, invisible and levitating, scanning for paranormal threats. At the far end of the road, he watched as the point man took cover against a building, but Felix didn't spot any threats. What the frag is he doing now, and why are these two moving so slow?


03:31:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 41st Street and 82nd Street - Tehran

Bubba rounded the corner, scanned the street for threats, then for his teammates. He was relieved when he spotted Duster again, about 100 meters ahead. Everyone moved out while he was collecting loot, and they didn't even look back. He tried to keep an eye on the rear, but they just kept moving. He hadn't seen anyone from the team since the last firefight concluded except Duster. He assumed Felix was floating around invisible somewhere, and Ludi was in her invisible suit, but he was starting to have doubt. Where is everybodies!? Why's dey ditchin' me?

03:31:10 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Ludi watched as Kliko looked back for his team, then back at the road ahead. He had been moving dangerously fast, now coming to a sudden halt.

"Why are you stopping now, Kilo? You got eyes on something, or have you decided against going alone?"

03:31:40 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran


The feelings of abandonment began to sway on Bubba to the extent that he was no longer moving tactically nor providing rear security. He shuddered at the thoughts of both V and Starling being left alone and devoured by rats. No way in hell did he want that end. Motivated by their aweful demise and his feelings of aloness he went into a full sprint to catch up to his teamates.

Upon hearing the clatter of fast paced running and heavy panting Duster turned around to see a disgruntled Bubba rapidly closing on him in a full sprint.

"What the hell are you running from?"

"DONT LEAVES ME!!!!!!!," the giant shouted in desperation. "I donts want to bes rat foods."

03:31:22 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran

"Negative Lima, all clear here..."

Kliko contemplated their options. He had eyes on the target, but their current location was just way to exposed to stage an assault. Hunkering down behind the cover of the corner building of 82nd and Heydarkhan road Kliko reviewed the Tehran mapsoft on his imagelink and radiod in. He always found a silent reassurance of team spirit as his teammies moved about the Battletac cyberlink interface map like little avatars in a semi-3d tactical environment.

"Kilo Bravo, there's an alley way running north some 50 mtrs back from my position. Check it out with Delta and see if we can get a little closer to stage our final approach..."

03:31:40 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Ludmila heard Bubba well before she saw him. Only a few meters ahead of Duster, she cringed under her ruthenium suit as she hugged what must have been a car, many many years ago. The fact they were only down by two runners was almost starting to blossom into a fragging miracle.

As she peered over the shoulder, looking at the world through a grey and green filter of her augmented vision, Ludmila found she couldn't actually feel any anger towards Bubba. It wasn't really his fault... he simply didn't know any better. The others did, or should have... but Bubba. She couldn't blame. About a year ago, she would've, but now? She cracked a smile to herself. Boy was she starting to go soft.

Her suit flickered briefly as she disengaged the scanners. She waved to Bubba, doing her best to get his attention, before bringing one finger to her lips, hoping he'd understand the international “will you quiet the fuck down” signal.

03:32:05 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Bubba was relieved when he saw Ludi materialize in front of him. He whispered back to her

"Oks, just dont leaves me. Everyting seems wrong. I'll go back to mad sneakies just dont leaves me." Bubba felt a little better as Ludi nodded. He felt it was some kind of assurance to his abandonment concern.

Bubba keyed his mic, "Oks Kilos, wes moving out, mad sneaky style!" Bubba motioned to Duster to follow as Bubba proceeded north up the alley Ace Ventura style.

03:32:015 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Duster shook his head, and followed Bubba. "Yeah, send the guy without the shotgun out on the recon mission," he mumbled under his breath. He could swear Kliko was marching him toward the reaper.


The two headed down the dark alley, which looked like it lead to a dead end.

03:33:45 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street Alley - Tehran

Bubba and Duster moved slowly down the pitch black alleyway. The surrounding buildings appeared to be the remains of a residential area: duplexes and apartments. The alley ended with a brick wall directly ahead, a parking lot to the west, and in the northeast corner were the remains of a wooden fence spanning the two feet between the two buildings.

Peering over the dilapidated fence easily, Bubba could see a small dirt yard leading to another cul-de-sac running east-west.

03:33:50 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street Alley - Tehran


"Kilos wes can hop a broken fence and keep movins North East through da neighborhoods or swing backs? I tinks wes can get to da main roads and provides overwatches whiles da rest of da teams comes from da Souths."


"Roger Bravo, move to overwatch and key us in when you are in position."

Duster ran towards the fence and summersaulted over the fence. He smiled at Bubba as he landed on the other side. Bubba looked at Duster, thought about doing the same, and then just pushed the fence down. Duster took a step back as the fence crashed down in front of him. Bubba smirked and strutted proudly passed Duster.

"Way to go with the mad sneakies" Duster said sarcasticly. Bubba just ignored him and pressed on to the overwatch point.

03:40:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street Alley - Tehran

By the time Ludi had made it to the 5th floor of the corner building, and set up at the north west corner with the sniper rifle, Bubba and Duster had set up at the end of the alley. There Duster hid behind the giant who had set up his machine gun covering the mosque only a half a block away from their position.

"Good to go," Ludi notified the team, as she peered through the scope, scanning for threats.

At that, Kliko left cover, and alone he crossed the street to make use of the treeline.

Felix used the cover of invisibility and matched Kliko's movements across the street, as he hovered several feet off the ground.

03:40:30 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 82nd Street Alley - Tehran

Keeping in the treeline, Kliko made it to the ruins of some sort of faculty building. Checking his BattleTac, it looked like he was far ahead of his team, save Felix, who had some sort of invisibility spell that kept him covered. However, the orc scout was somewhat comforted by the long range cover of Ludi behind a sniper rifle, Bubba behind the gun, and Duster behind... well he was also there.

03:40:36 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

Crawling inch-by-inch, foot-by-foot, yard-by-yard Kliko made his way to the abandoned building backside in front of him. He knew he was ahead of the team and the time had come to wait for the distant green diamonds indicating Bubba and Duster to moving down the distant alleyway. 'Please, let them check their BattleTac receivers for my position!' "Kilo, Bravo I'm on your 12 o'clock, do you copy, over."

The abondoned building seemed like a decent enough position to recon the mosque premises before making their final approach. Kliko just hoped the mosque was long abandoned and perhaps this could turn out to be a milk run after all.

03:41:55 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

Bubba gently flicked Kliko's dot on the Battletac and shook his head in amusement.

"Haha, where does you learn to tells time... yous on my two oclocks maybe threes."

03:42:01 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

The DNI controlled "Snake-eyes" endoscope slithered across Kliko's forearm as he prepared to scout out the abandoned building ahead of him. The Sony "Snake-eyes" made for a wonderfull infiltration kit, being a high-tech replacement of the old-fashioned mirror on stick. Besides that it also allowed for easy peaking underneath doors and through drill holes.

"... Haha, where does you learn to tells time... yous on my 2 oclocks maybe 3s...."

Double checking his cyberlink tactical overview screen, either something was very wrong with their GPS bearings or Bubba was acting like a fragface.

"Ehhh, negative Bravo, confirm your position over"

03:42:19 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran


"... I told yous, yous on my two oclocks maybe threes. Dos you want me to turns so you be on my twelves? Then I wonts bes looking at the targets. Yous ready for Foo Foo Boy to moves north to da next buildings or you stills checkin da times?"

Bubba took Ludi's queue and was dealing with the team losses by being antagonistic to the team leader.

03:42:25 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

Ludi watched the team through the telescopic lens as they moved on the target. A sudden chill ran up her spine followed by a wave of hate washing over her. She pulled away from the scope to scan the room. The dark, desolated room. Nothing was there. Was it? She looked back out the window toward the target, this time without the enhancement of a 10x scope. Darkness. That is when she realized how alone she was. Her team had moved several blocks ahead, and she sat alone. On the fifth floor of an abandoned building in an abandoned sprawl, save the spirits and rats, panic started to set in on the cool ex-operative.

03:42:32 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

Using his snake scope Kliko scanned the interior of the abandoned building. The only thing moving inside were insects and small rats. He was half expecting to find another group of shadowrunners or devil rats waiting to ambush them.


03:43:41 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Heydarkhani road - Tehran

While Kliko had peeked inside the campus building, Bubba and Duster double-timed it to the next major intersection. Bubba crashed to the ground in what he calls a combat-slide, coming up in a prone firing position behind the gun, directly across from the mosque. Duster was a bit more graceful in taking cover, sliding behind the giant's large frame.

Felix continued his invisible glide up Heydarkhani, where his teammates just passed below him.

03:44:00 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Ludi kept tried to keep her focus on the target, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her again. She flicked her cigarette to the floor and pulled another one from her soft pack. Lighting it, then taking a long hard drag, and the feeling did not leave. She looked around the desolate room, but saw nothing. Her emotions were tumbling around, her heart was pounding and it was all she could hear in her ears. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. She turned back toward the window, her hand gripped tightly around the grip, and she began to crave a target to shoot.


03:44:10 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

With the rest of the team pulling guard, Kliko moved around the abandoned building, and quickly moved to the south east wall of the mosque. Finally, he thought, this long night is finally going to end. He did a quick gear check readying himself for the final battle. Looking over his shoulder, he realized that the building position left him out of sight from his team. However, he could climb the platform here and be back in Bubba's vision, and use the building's front wall as cover leading to the open entrance.

03:44:20 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

Kliko climbed the entry platform and flattened out against the front wall, returning to ready stance. Bubba kept his gun trained on the open entrance, Duster ducked behind him. Felix continued hovering above them. Ludi kept her sights from range on the front of the mosque.

03:44:30 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

Kliko took a knee just outside the entrance. He looked down at his BattleTach and realized Ludi was still in her sniper's nest.

"Lima, are you okay."

There is static over the coms for long few seconds.

"Check."

"Move forward. We will move in when you are here. Foxtrot, I need you to do your mojo and run an astral scan."

03:44:33 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

"The outside looks clear on the astral, 90 seconds and I'll get back to you after a sweep through the inside. Bravp, I'll stash my body at your location while I sweep through."

Felix floats over to where Bubba and Duster are pulling overwatch before dropping to the ground and becoming visible. "Keep an eye on my body for the next minute or two, and no playing with the sharpie's!" Felix tells the two, trying to force a laugh.

Dropping into a lotus position, Felix takes a deep breath and separates himself from his physical body to visit the objective from the Astral.

03:44:43 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

Within seconds the spirit of Felix is inside the Mosque. The interior has been destroyed by more than time. Looters have completely destroyed what was probably a beautiful building of worship once. Large stone walls and statues have been toppled and obliterated.

He scanned the main room for any threats. In the far corner he spotted a dark aura of man, hunched over like an animal. Then he realized he was hunched over a dead body.

03:45:03 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – The Mosque - Tehran

With his team in position all that remained to be done was get in, find the package, make the grab and get the frag out of dodge.

"... Copy that Foxtrot..."

"... Bravo, Foxtrot, Lima, you have area security ... Delta, move towards my position, I'll find us a nice entry point ... let us know when this man is on the move"

Kliko started stalking the central building wall looking for a good place to enter the building.

03:45:03 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Ludi took a long pull from the cigarette. Burning acrid smoke rolled down her throat and filled her lungs. The ritualistic movements that came with smoking, as well as the nicotine hit, were usually well enough to keep her temper down. It calmed her down. Usually. But tonight, Ludmila could have gone through the entire pack, and then eaten it, and still... she would have felt on edge. Her feelings were running wild and pulling her body along with it. Her mouth felt dry. Her stomach was in a knot. She wanted to throw up and cry and scream all at once. She threw the half smoked cigarette to the floor and cursed under her breath.

It was only when she was about to bring the scope back to her eye that she realized the entire rifle was shaking. Her hands were shaking. Her whole body was trembling. Everything was wrong tonight. It made her angry at herself; angry at the world.

Up there, perched alone in the dark, away from everyone and everything, she didn’t feel in control. Her life didn’t feel like it was her own anymore. The urges she felt she could keep in check were bubbling up to the surface, clawing at her skin and tearing at her soul. She wanted to destroy something. She wanted to take all the pain she felt and inflict it on someone else.

And there was that voice in her brain... That leathery reptile voice that told her she was fragged; that animal instinct that kept tugging at her that everything was off.
Refocusing on the scope, she realized the crosshair was fixed on Kliko. Without really paying any attention to what her body had been doing, she had lined up a rather clean on shot on the ork. She watched him. She watched the dark and barely visible silhouette creep towards the target. Her finger tightened around the match grade trigger. He was right there. She could just reach out, with a few pounds of pressure, and release everything she felt. It was so easy. So very easy.

“Bang.” she whispered to herself “you’re dead.”

When she realized she was smiling and feeling excited, she pushed the rifle away from her and threw up. High protein bars and bile splashed on the floor. She stood there, crouched in the dark, heaving as quietly as she possibly could until everything stopped coming out.
Kliko’s voice brought her back to reality in a cold snap.

"... Bravo, Foxtrot, Lima, you have area security ... Delta, move towards my position, I'll find us a nice entry point ... let us know when this man is on the move"

“Copy...” she replied through her transducer link. At least, this way, the rest of the team couldn’t tell her throat was on fire.

She wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeves and got back to the rifle. Usually, Ludi knew she would've bitched about not being on the entry team. After all, CQB was her specialty and she worked best up close and personal. But now wasn't the best of time to parade around her well known attitude. That and if she wasn't on the entry team, she had better odds of not getting killed like Kliko was apparently trying to do.

“Looks clear from here.”

03:45:14 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

From her nest, Ludi had a clear view of the entry team: Kliko and Duster. The position of the mosque gave her a view through the open entrance, and the north side of the interior.

"Ludi..." she heard her name whispered on the wind, this time less reptilian, and more raspy.

03:45:21 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Letting go of the rifle, Ludmila rolled to the side and onto her back. Before she even knew what she was doing, he sidearm was pressed into her palm. It felt heavier than usual, and not as reassuring as it should have. The barrel was aimed at the nearest doorway... the nearest completely empty doorway. Under the hood of her ruthenium suit, she felt beads of sweat roll into her eyes. It stung. All she could hear was the pounding of her hearth inside her head.

Propelled by direct neural interface reflexes her body had learned a long time ago, something coursed down the hair thin datajack cable behind her right ear. It ran along the line and disappeared under the flap of one of the pockets on her vest. Her customized and cannibalized military grade scanner went large across all radio and microwave bands, looking for signals. Someone knew they were here. They didn’t just know they were here; they knew who they were.

She left the rifle on its bipod, on the edge of the five story precipice. Ludmila got up slowly and quietly, her left hand shakily leaving the grip of the pistol to turn on her white noise generator.

As the initial shock of the situation subsided, the gears began to turn in Ludi’s head. No one had sneaked up on her; she could see that now. If it had been the case, either she’d be dead or injured, or she’d have shot someone. It wasn’t the case. That could only mean one thing, whatever she had heard had come over the radiolink. They were compromised

Moving swiftly, she holstered her sidearm, swung the large rifle across her shoulder and unfolded the stock of her compact carbine. Barrel up, she pied the entry through which she had come in.

“Kilo Lima. Comm compromised. Moving. Blanket coming up.”

As the message went out, Ludmila’s jammer started sending out massive amount of static over every possible band. She smirked at herself, thinking whomever was after them was going to have quite the headache if his volume was turned up.

03:45:26 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Ludi dashed through the door, where she was slowed, as if running through a ton of cob webs. She tried to brush it away, but soon realized there was nothing there. Looking back toward the room, she saw something even more terrifying than spiders and spider webs.

On the other side of the doorway, back inside the room Ludi had just left, a figure in black robes stood... hovered. The robes faded into black smoke just below its waist, and at the edges of the figure. The figure's face was not visible below it's hood, but its raspy voice was clear.

"Beware Ludi... They will kill you... Kill them all..."

03:45:26 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

The carbine snapped up, but somehow, her finger wouldn't press the trigger. It simply trembled, unable to put on the required pounds of pressure to fill the room with bullets. Ludi's hearth was beating so hard, she barely heard anything else.

She felt her entire face tightened. He jaw started to hurt as her teeth began to grind against each other.
For a while, the words simply didn't come.

Slowly, the barrel of the carbine started to lower itself, slightly.

“Who are you...” she began, her voice sounding strangely small to her ears.

The carbine was now pointing at the floor.

“and just... just why should I believe you.”

03:45:24 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Outside IUST Mosque - Tehran

'Drek' It hit the fan fast and hard. Kliko found himself alone and exposed. Out in the open, 200 meters away from the rest of his team. Frag, it could just have well been 2 kilometres away for all he cared right now. His comms were about to crash down any moment now.

"... all comms, switch to encryption sequence pattern #2...

- Foxtrot, cover astral
- Delta cover Foxtrot
- Bravo rescue Lima"

Somewhere in the depths of Kliko's brains neurons formed into cohesive thoughts ... 'no time' ... and found themselves translated in a final short burst of electrons hurled into the ether through Kliko's datajack piped comms unit.... if only his crew would think of checking their BattleTac comm text feeds...

03:45:30 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

“Who are you... and just... just why should I believe you," Ludi asked, her voice a little shaky, but she hoped the dark figure didn't notice.

"A friend," it answered, and though she could not see the figure's face, she sensed it smile with its reply.

Before she could fire off another question, it quickly whipped its arm up in front of its face and become a dark cloud of black smoke that quickly dissipated into nothingness.

"Beware of those who pretend to be your friends..." she heard the voice as it trailed off into the darkness.

03:45:30 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – 5th floor of abandoned building on 82nd and Heydarkhan - Tehran

Dumbfounded, Ludmila simply watch the “thing” vanished. Silhouetted by the doorway, she stood in the darkness of Teheran’s night for a moment. The carbine held loose at her side, she simply watch the empty room. She should have been scared, or at the very least spooked. But the only feeling she could really summon was hesitant.

They had already lost two team members in just an hour. Two people had died out of what she could only describe as carelessness... and not entirely on their part. The fact they weren’t all ghoul food by now was nothing short of a miracle. A lot of money was involved in this job, and with each corpse everyone’s share went up. Who was to say that someone on the team didn’t want just a slightly larger cut? She was going to have to watch her back. As far as she was concerned, the only one she could really trust was Bubba. The troll wasn’t really in it for the money, and quite frankly, she didn’t think he had the cognitive capacity for betrayal.

Bubba. Bubba would get her trust.

If it came to that, the others would get bullets.

03:45:31 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Outside IUST Mosque - Tehran

The only response Kliko receives is static. He doesn't know if his communication went through.

03:45:41 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Outside IUST Mosque - Tehran

After hearing Ludi's message through the comm Bubba looked at the battletac screen and saw Kliko's scrolling text. 'I hates dese little screens'. Bubba did his best to type, but his fat fingers seemed to win out.

"Rofer, sqitchin g to squende @. NeeD biffer ke ys f0e 4at fing3rs. gOin g 2 gey LiMa"

After struggling to hit the right keys on the battletec Bubba turned to Duster, "Watch Felix, mes got to gets Ludis, sounds like she be in troubles ...our comms are jammsed."

Bubba folded the bipod on the HMG and then slung the HMG strap over his shoulder. He then sprinted full bore towards Ludis blinking dot on the battletac. 'Mes coming hang in theres'

03:45:37 Thursday, 12 October 2062 – Outside IUST Mosque - Tehran

At the IUST mosques front entrance Kliko was gathering his wits. 'Ludmilla is down, no contact with the rest of the team, one hostile dark aura'd man somewhere inside...'

'... likely number five on the other team... the psychopath street sam... objective inside'

Gathering his thoughts the psychopath killer became like an obsession in the back of his mind. '...He has to go... gather the veil and haul ass.'

Clinching his Ares Alpha combat gun, the bull-pup rifle would finally came to good use in the Mosque's close quarters. Kliko's electronic sensor suite energized as it scanned the wavebandths for the psychopaths signature inside. Sneaking towards the mosque's entrance, the 'Snakeyes' cyberscope slithered across his forearm peaking around corners visually scanning the ante chamber ahead.