"These hostages are best off staying here or going up to the roof," Burn says. "They should be fine as long as they remain behind us. Once we clear this tower, they should be able to land choppers on the roof. But we need t get moving now." Burn calls up a few of his spirits, reactivates his sustaning focus, and prepares to move out.

Roland nods at the others reply.

"Alright since Theodor has unlocked the door, let's proceed. Reaper, get ready your astral thing. Hopefully, they haven't moved around much, respond with deadly force if they even seem like they're gonna attack us. We can patch them up later if worse comes to worse but it seems like they'll be on edge. We'll make apologies later if it's a screw up. Everyone ready?"

Roland moves to the door and braces himself to open it and springing to the side, he acts according to the plan.

"1" Roland grasps the door and turns the handle.

"2" Roland throws the door open and springing to the side to allow the others through.

With that, the count of three is unheard as Roland waits for the others to act before moving back into position with his rifle.

Terry curses in his native tongue, spewing a blue streak of expletives. "A nuke? That's bad! That's "nobody gets out alive" bad. Well, I been preety much left alone in the room a came in through, so we could just leave 'em there. As for what I do, I'm a councillor who helps those leaving the Sioux military adjust to civilian life." Maintaning his astral perception, Terry gives the team an assensing. "Well, since I'm in it now, I'm assuming nnone's got a problem with me keepin' my gun? Since I don't really wanna die and I don't care for the idea of all these innocent folk, UCASers or not, gettin' a thermonuclear tan, I might as well apply my skills to the cause. I did my tour in the Sioux military and know which way t' point a gun. I can sneak and fight and use military assault rifles as well as hunting rifles." He leaves out the fact that a sniper rifle is basically a more powerful sport rifle. "As you can see, I'm also good at keeping hostages and stuff from geeting so panicked that they become a threat." He calmly picks up his gun then goes and grabs the ork girl's radio. "The terrorist frequency is XXXXX. They might have more, but I ain't a comm officer. I'll keep this so's we all can stay in contact. What's yer frequency?"

As soon as Roland's voice trails off on "two," Kadel sends the door flying open with a push and sidesteps to the left. In less than a fraction of a second, his mind takes in and registers the scene frozen in time before him...the dwarves, the girl, and the footprints of blood leading into the next lift.

Alright guys. Time to tango.

"Got it," is the reply from Reaper's comm. Gently setting his body down once again, he projects his Astral self to rest next to the wall - readying to continue through and deal with any Astral threats -and spells, should they appear.

At the count, the troll moves through the wall, halbred in hand, ready for the spirits if they shall come.

OOC: All Sorcery and Spell pool dice in Spell Defense - extending to cover the team.

"Okay, here are our frequencies. This one is used only by teams alpha and beta, the hired guns under my command. This one is used by all teams, and mission control and air support. If you just wait up here, they should be able to land on the roof and rescue hostages in a half hour or so. We have to move."

Slash pockets the radio the orc had been reaching for, brings his pistols to the ready, walks down to the next doorway leading downstairs, shoves it open, and runs in.

Drek, why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, the nuyen.... and because we're the good guys. Gotta stop that nuke.

Roland sighs, takes a deep breath and glances at Sundancer to see if she's alright, he nods to her. Roland turns back towards to the entryway and yells out, with as much authority he can muster from his years on the force, to his team as they run through the door, also loud enough so that the dwarves can also hear this.

"Team, hold your fire unless they make hostile motions! ATTENTION ROOM, Identify Yourselves! DO NOT MAKE ANY HOSTILE MOVEMENT! We are here to free this building from the terrorists!"

The younger dwarf's hands immediately shoots skyward in surrender, and sweat trails down a now nervous face. 'Pa' dwarf, however, spins around from the prisoner he's beating up and grips his AK97 tightly. The rifle is aimed downwards in a somewhat non-threatening position, but is resting on his hip and his trigger finger is visibly twitching. A slight snarl escapes pa's lips.

Keeping his gun trained on the dwarf called "Pa," Kadel says softly, "Drop that rifle now."

'Pa' doesn't look like he's going to, until his son gives him a swift kick in the head from the crate he's sitting on, his hands still steadily high up in the air.

"C'mon pa, they mean business!" The mage whispers nervously.
"Grumble grumble...runners again...grumble...now we're all dead again...grumble." He mutters as he reluctantly drops the rifle and puts his hands in the air.

Kadel shifts his gaze momentarily from the dwarf to the bound elven woman on the ground, then to the pornographic magazine, and then finally back to the dwarf.

"You realize that this situation doesn't reflect too well on yourself."

Unfortunately for you, that's one hell of an understatement. You're not the only one with an itchy finger, omae.

"I bet after having me, Pa ain't sticking hi-"
"Shut up, lad!" 'Pa' shoots a glare at his son, then fixes his gaze back at the group who's rushed into the room. "Now, I assume yer not gonna shoot me dead right off the bat here...so who are you and what do you want?"

"Not right off the bat, no," Kadel says with a grim smile on his face.

"For all intent and purposes, we're a counterterrorist team, and we were sent here to defuse this situation before it blows up in everyone's faces."

Not that it hasn't already, but there's no point in dwelling on that.

"That's all you need to know about us. I'm the type of guy who's much better at listening than talking anyway. So enlighten me on who you are, and what you're doing here. Oh yeah, and don't forget to explain why that girl is on the floor like that, or my trigger finger might twitch by accident."

"I'm Jacob and thas' my son Ron over there. We're mercenaries and techs hired to guard the Ritz an' we were down here when the fighting above started this morning. And that bitch down there tried to geek me, she did, pointy-eared scum, until my son 'bolted the daylights out her."

"She isn't a terrorist though."

"Pah, I still aren't trusting your magicks. She held a gun to my head and is wearing terrorist garb, therefore she's one of them!"

To this, the other dwarf rolls his eyes and shrugs.

Kadel looks at the unconscious girl sprawled on the floor, and nods at Roland. Turning to the younger dwarf, he asks, "You said she wasn't a terrorist. Why?"

"Well, we questioned her, and I have this spell with me called 'Analyze Truth'. I'm a mage, you see. Anyway, she said she wasn't a terrorist, and it checked through."

"But I don't believe the boy myself. He blew up mom, rest her soul, when he said he was going to heal her flu."

Again the mage rolls his eyes and sighs.

What the hell?

"You...blew up your grandmother?" he asks in disbelief.

Roland moves through the doorway and moves to the right away from door way. That was the most dangerous spot in room entry, the fatal funnel as most operators in his field calls it. His gun still held up to his face, Roland keeps overwatch for the entire room while Kadel deals with the dwarves.

Roland listens to the dwarves' replies to Kadel's questioning. He nods to Kadel in response. I think I'll let Kadel handle this part, that one dwarf is still combative maybe Kadel can intimidate him.

Roland speaks into his subvocal mic over the team frequency, "Kadel, keep interrogating them and back them up so I have some space to examine the elf. Downtown, ya wanna check out the elevator? Theodor, you doing okay? We'll probably need your help in sorting this room. Roland out."

"Well, I was only just learning the ropes back then, you know? I did the wrong spell, I dunno how I did it, but ... well, yeah."

Kadel mutters something to himself about the state of metahumanity, and shakes his head.

"Okay, forget about that. You said that you've been here since morning...did you see who was responsible for that?" he asks, gesturing to the trail of blood streaked across the floor.

"Nope. This place was supposed to be a janitorial closet space for brooms and drek, not these AK and rockets. We ducked into this place when the bullets went flying.."

"And after pointy ears there held a gun to my head!"

"... and didn't dare go back up or further down. The blood was here when we came in."

Kadel nods, and glances at the cargo lift. "Did you come down with that?"

As the most dangerous part of the enter was over, and no combat ensued, Reaper mentally reachout out to his actively sustained spells and weapon foci and dispersed them back to the Astral. Likewise, stopping his Astral perception so that he fully returns to the mundane world, the troll walks through the warded door - no sense in giving away their position to whatever mage conjured it up.

Quickly stepping through, he reactivates his standard spells and foci as Kadel carries on the interrogation.

Axe looks around. "Let's find a quiet spot for a minute. I'm going to scout on the astral and see if I can find anything interesting before I hit more wards."

Theodor responds to Roland's communications.

"Ok. Am needink to retriewe buggink gear."

You here shuffling back in the direction of the door as Theodor works the shotgun mike out of the keyhole. He then waltzes into the room, stuffing the ultrasonic detector/emitter back underneath his lab coat.

"...Gut. Ve haff ze elewator right.." He walks purposefully towards a pile of crates, stacked up against the other end of the room across the door. "...hmm. Am thinkink ve need to effect ze entrance. Ozzervise...ve haff to use ze air shafts..."

Theodor proceeds to point out the ventilation shafts that lead into the room.

Asking for (and assumingly getting) the ork's radio, Terry picks up the assault rifle. It was weilded by a troll, so it probably would not fit his grip too well, but hey, if he ran out of pistol ammo it was better than nothing. HE checks to make sure it's operable, then slings it over his shoulder.

Kyle keys the command frequency to all fireteams, "All Teams. Alpha 4. Be advised, we have secured one of the opposition's radios. Relying frequencies." He repeats the 5 freqs to the fireteams. As an afterthought, he looks over to Terry. "Also be advised that Alpha Team has acquired a new member." He smiles. "He's a regular Good Samaritan."

"Guess you've been deputized." Kyle shrugs, "Hope you brought some luck, omae, we'll need it. You can call me Kyle." He doesn't offer to shake hands.

Kyle turns to the hostages. "Okay folks, show's over. We're gonna need you to move to that room over there," He points in the direction Terry came from with his AR, "in an orderly manner and stay there until this blows over."

The huddled group stares at him. Some quiver and gasp when motions with his weapon.

Riiiight...

Kyle turns back to the new comer, "Maybe you should try...counselor."

Axe drops down behind some of the boxes. "Be right back," he says as he lifts free from his body and does a quick scan of the floor and checks on the way up and down.

The backstage area you're is devoid of life, save for your team and the hostages. The only two ways out are the doors from the two side rooms (A side room is like the one Terry began the last fight in) and their two ventilation shafts. The vents aren't warded but it seems the two side room doors have some sort of ward. The ward sparks purple energy and doesn't let you see through it.

Axe heads down the ventilation shafts for a quick inspection and then returns to his body. "More wards," he mutters. "Both the doors out are warded."

Terry gives the hostages a thorough once-over, making sure none of them are going to be a problem, with his astral and empathic sense. If any were awakened, that would be good to know too.

None of them are awakened, and most of them are calming down visibly. What sounds like an explosion from a few floors below shakes the floor considerably, and bits of debris fall down from overhead. A ceiling-mounted spotlight loosens and crashes behind the team, not injuring anybody but causing quite a bit of ruckus. As predicted, the hostages start to cower in fear again. The lady wage slave Terry talked to earlier is trying her best to comfort her friends.

Kadel looks at the girl, opens his mouth to say something, then decides against it.

Roland would probably do a better job with this one than I can. He can question her.

He turns back to the dwarves, and replies, "Why did you block off the elevator with that makeshift fortification, then? Surely you don't think a few boxes and barrels will keep you safe from the terrorists."

"We weren't trying to block it."

"Yeh, when we came down here we were staring at this whole drekload of frickin' bang here."

"I couldn't bring myself to move at first. Wondering if something was up."

"The boy and I regained our senses, and we decided to pile through the stuff. So we accidentally blocked the lift, big hoohaa, I can move them back out if you want to go through."

"Thanks, but we can move it ourselves. Where does the lift lead to?"

"First floor, back of the shopping complex. Don't know how it's fared since we came down hours ago. Occasionally there are gunshots and explosions, but, eh, even if we're sitting in a crate of ammunition I'd say this location's pretty secure."

Kadel nods. "I see. Do you have any idea why you two were hired to defend the Ritz? Legitimate civilian businesses usually don't use mercenaries to guard their assets."

Roland moves over and looks over the elven girl. The worst of her injuries are bruising at the hands of the dwarves but nothing serious. So, right now its questionable if she's a terrorist.... Well, I'd rather she not be at the hands of these yokels....

Roland undoes the bindings on the captive and moves to a more comfortable place away from the dwarves.

Roland speaks into his comm gear, 'Ok Team, any further thoughts about our situation?', then he switches over to contact Alpha Team. "Team Alpha, this is B-5, how's your situation? We have found several people and lots of weapons but no terrorists yet, we will proceed further into the tower soon. B-5, over."

"Of course!" Pa dwarf leans on a nearby crate of RPGs. "When a building's under construction like this, and especially a high-rise, rediculously heavy investment like this one, nobody in their right mind would risk themselves open to any sort of hit!"

"It's not that far out." The other dwarf chimes in. "Stupid, fat rich people take luxuries with whatever they do, security not an exception. 'Sides, we work cheap."

In the meanwhile, Sundancer has crept over silently to the injured girl and takes a good long look at her face. She lets out a small gasp; she definately recognizes her.

"Swiss...Swiss, what have they done to you?" She mutters quietly to the elf.

And at that moment, a transmission from Delta's channels hit the frequencies of both Team A and B.

"Taking...quite a bit of *szt* fire here. Would appreciate if you boys hurrie *shzzt* up. Rigg *bzzt* down, pinned down about two floors below *bzzt* rooftop. Experiencing comms malfunction."

Which is immediately followed by a transmission from BlackSpec.

"Alpha, Bravo, Delta, tower sweeped, warhead not found, presumed moved to another tower. Holler if you see anything."

Kadel shakes his head. "You misunderstood. What I meant to ask was why would the owner of this building hire wildcards instead of drafting from a reliable security firm? Seems to be counterproductive if what they want is to keep the place safe. No offense."

Besides, you don't really need a mercenary's broad spectrum of skills and abilities just to guard a building. Either they're not mercs in the traditional sense of the word, or something is not right.

His eyes show a hint of worry as he listens to BS4's radio message, but he doesn't say anything. If the warhead really was in another tower, then there's nothing he and the team can do about it at the moment.

"Now, now - just because we're mercenaries doesn't mean we can't behave like gentlemen." The mage's voice practically drips with sarcasm. "And besides, I did say we work cheap. Beyond that, who knows? Perhaps our employer was expecting hell to happen in the first place. We're part of a unit anyway, and our leader got shot to oblivion up deck."

"Probably the rest of the unit too. Huh, never liked them. No loss."

See, if they hired real security guards instead of you two buffoons, they'll have people fighting upstairs or trying to contact the outside world instead of hiding down here flipping through smut magazines and stroking assault rifles. Makes you really wonder if the supposed victims of this attack are as innocent as it first seemed.

Kadel almost said this out loud, but wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. No use in throwing another jab at the dwarves. He considered what else they would know that might be of use. They would probably know the layout of the building, but Theodor already has the maps. He mentally shrugged to himself and gave them a cool nod.

"Okay. Anything else you want us to know? Anything that would help us would probably help you, since we're both stuck on the same ship and all that."

After entering DT nodded and walked slowly to the elevator. He took as good a look as he could before turning back to the team.

"Looks clear."

He kept his G36 pointed at the floor, but in the general direction of the dwarves as he made his way back to the hostage.

Sitting his rifle down, he drew his survival knife out of the sheaf in his boot and cut the bonds holding the poor girl prisoner. He then rolled her over and found something to put under her head.

"Hey," he said quietly. "Everything going to be ok."

DT looked up, "can someone heal this girl, these wounds look pretty bad."

Sundancer helps Downtown lay the girl in a comfortable position. Sundancer has an almost strange look on her face, as if staring into space for a long while. Eventually she turns and thanks you sincerly for help, then turns around and faces the dwarves.

"Well, not really, no. Good luck up there, heh." Pa grins.

Everyone magically active senses something strange going on in the room and everyone turns to look, but it's too late. Pa's eyes suddenly glaze over, and his body burns and fizzles with raw magical energy. He keels over and slumps onto the floor a charred crisp. The mage emits a low whistle.

The intense, bright sunlight of Sundancer's shamanic mask fades from the room, and the bright orange, red and yellow dress and jewellry on her shamanic mask form fade back to her street clothes and bloodied bandages. The ambient mana levitating her body releases her, and she collapses to her knees, though it doesn't take long for her to struggle up to her feet.

She stumbles a few steps forward and glares at the mage with bloodshot eyes and clenched teeth. The mage in turn holds up both his hands and sweats again. "Hey! Hey! Look, I didn't do it! Not me! He was my pa, I couldn't stop him...But then I never liked him anyway. No loss."

Oh Drek Oh Drek, this is really getting crazy!

Roland looks at the charred remains of the 'Pa' dwarf. An emotionally unstable magic user does not make good company. Roland tries to head off any further problems. Roland moves up next to Sundancer and tries to calm her down.

"Sundancer, come on and let's see to your friend, Swiss. I think she needs to see a familiar face and help her from her nightmares. The one who was beating her is dead, from what we've overheard before, this dwarf didn't want your friend hurt. But he also couldn't fight against his 'pa'. So let's go to your friend and see how she's doing because we're gonna try and get you out of here as soon as we can."

Roland tries to his best to divert Sundancer's attention away from the younger dwarf.

Sundancer looks horrified at what she's done. It takes her a few seconds to snap out of it, then she apologizes profusely at the Team. She walks over and gives her friend Swiss a good look.

Axe mutters to himself. "Looks like we might be in the wrong tower. Or are we?" He looks toward the team leader for guidance. "Up down or something else?"

Kadel gives the remaining dwarf a quizzical look. "You guys aren't really into the whole "one for all, all for one" thing, are you?"

He turns to the rest of the team. "So, what now? Seems like the only thing we can do is to take that lift up to the ground floor and find some way to get these three out of the building."

"Standard operating procedure would be to leave them here until this whole thing blows over, but considering the circumstances..." He shoots a glance at the charred corpse of 'Pa' sprawled across the floor, "...I think it might be better to take them with us."

"Ah drek," Slash yells as he feels the explosion. [B]That was probably the delta guys. We need to move. Kyle, follow me through the door. Axe, Burn, crawl through that vent to circumvent the ward. We need to get going NOW. Terry, listen to the enemy radio traffic for us will ya?" Slash draws his swords and heads for the next door.