Opposing Team Hideout: Turn 1: Pass 1

Running along side the team in the virtual world, the sensor inputs from the tacnet give him a far crisper feel for the terrain, location and surrounding of the soon to be combat scene than ever before. As the lightning bolt crosses the distance between Father and its target, the hacker jumps forward and arcs like a neon pulse to the compromised node. Reaching it, he slides through the layers of flaws and into the virtual landscape of the node...

Papa

Jumping into the node, you are inundated with digital noise. Like the other nodes for this team, this one appears to be encrypted.

In the astral, the other two giants charge forward at the spectral horse. Tendrils of icy vapors wrap around its head. They drive into the spirit's mind befuddling it. Beside the frost giant, the other horned and scarred giant slams a club down, aiming for the horse's back.

The spirit twists and bobs confusedly. With a wicked smile, the club-swinging giant connects solidly with the winged-horse's back.

In the clearing, Brock suddenly becomes visible. Siren feels an arctic wind and a cold malice tear apart the threads of mana for the spell.

Outside the House
Olethros takes a deep and steadying breath before launching himself into motion. With a clear understanding of where the wires are he jumps and weaves his way around them - hoping he leaves enough room to prevent the explosives from going off. His vision narrows down to his destination - the spot at the house he had to reach to minimize his time in the open. He sees the cloaking magic ripped away from Brock and winces. The troll was going to shot if anyone from the house was aware of them - there was too much distance to cover in too little time to avoid it. The question now was how wounded he would be when Dalma placed him on the far side of the booby traps. Seeing the spirits engage - he keeps his focus on the house.

<<@Team [Ollie]: Let me know if you can't hold the spirits at bay. Does anyone know what the small explosion was in the house? Any idea if that smoke is just that? >>

Ollie sprints across the field, rolling under the damaged garage door. He rises to his feet and sprints up the stairs. A solid metal door is locked, separating the stairwell from the living area in the house. He hears a surge of motion from below.

A crazed and wild looking man, comes tearing out of the garage. One arm has an IV and medical tubing hanging loosely from it. His features are sunken and pale. Winokur continues running toward the team and the driveway.

"Help me, they're trying to kill me! Help!"

As the man screams his plea, a muffled crack is heard from the house. Brock is hit square in the center mass, a marksman quality shot rocking the massive troll.

Blood blossoms from the troll's chest where the bullet struck Brock. The body armor and his unnatural fortitude spare him from what was obviously a deadly shot. For a dreadful beat, breaths are held waiting for a second shot, but none come.

Siren takes a moment to get a better idea what's going on. The three spirits attacking Dalma's are fairly obvious, but someone must have done the counterspelling on her invisibility spell, and surely there is more to be seen, than what is immediately obvious. While she does so, she takes a few steps to move behind a nearby tree, to be shielded from view from the direction of the house.

She also commands the spirit at her side to help them in this confrontation, informing it that spellcasting would be less useful with the strong spell defense being in place, apparantly, so it should best rely on its other powers.

Siren

There are no visible astral forms near the house, but as you focus on more mundane objects, you are able to make out a small, wiry tube crawling between cracks in the boards. It appears to be a black fiber-optic cable. Mage-sight goggles may be allowing an enemy caster to stay out of sight and cast, but shouldn't be able to carry astral perception to target or protect astral forms.

With the command the spirit beside you nods.

Brock

From your vantage point, there were no flashes from the house. Oddly, the flash seemed to have come from well above the house in the darkened sky.

In the Astral

Waves of fear and panic wash out from the spirit next to Siren. They wash briefly over the team, sending a shiver down your spines, before crashing into the initial giant leading the charge. The giant's eyes go wide.

<< [Siren] There's a mage inside the house watching the surroundings with mage-sight goggles. Look out for a small fiber-optic cable coming out of the wall. >>

Whirling and sighting down the barrel of the rifle, the lanky cowgirl hummed a few bars in a low tone as she steadied virtual crosshairs over the rough outline of the flying tin can above the house.

...and keep you Brave and Strong, that you may grow in Power and Wealth, thr'out the ages long...

CRACK!

Team

The sound of metal tearing against metal is heard in the air above the house and clearing. Twisted chunks of a drone come tumbling out of the sky. They slam into the ground noisily. The ultrasound feed from Jenni shows the balloon section of the blimp whirring around uncontrollably toward the treeline as it deflates.

Along the treeline, charges detonate. Fire blossoms through the area, casting odd shadows. The explosion slams heavily into Brock's back and momentarily blinds the team until flare compensation kicks in. Shrapnel flies around the area slamming into the house and trees. Stray pieces hit members of the team, but without any substantial force.

Brock sees the twisting metal drone and feels the heat of sharp shrapnel that bounces against his frame. Looking to where the others are he takes aim for last spot he knew the ores to be and aims for sweetest looking spot to begin his explosive dissection of this house and fires off the first of if planned many grenades.

*WOOMP*

The grenade arcs through the air, bouncing of the house and jumping back towards Brock. It comes to a rest about a third of the way through the clearing. Still near enough the house to do some damage, but not the targeted blast that was hoped for.

Brock feels the heat from the first he round, squinting throu the warm in e night air it's welcome but dangerous at the same Time. He releases another round aiming for a cracked window on the first floor while continuing to close the distance on the house.

With another WOOMPF, the grenade launcher fires. The small cylinder scrapes against the boards but makes its way in to the first floor window. Brock's long legs, aided by the will of Dalma's spirit, tear across the distance. The troll quickly gets up near the house. The opening under the broken garage door isn't wide enough for him to easily fit through.

Ollie

In the stairwell, you hear a scraping sound. The TACNET feeds show the trajectory arc from Brock's shot. A mini grenade bounces around on the stairs, coming a few steps up until you could almost reach it, and then bounding back down. It comes to rest against the wall at the bottom of the stairwell. The shrapnel will likely funnel straight up towards you.

Dalma takes a moment to close her eyes as she seems to concentrate, taking a wider stance she bends her knees slightly moves her arms out in front of her then back towards her as is she is pulling something in, her gaze now focused on one of the spirits

"Back to the astral, go now my miss guided friend, back!"

In The House
He looks at the small explosive bracing himself for the explosion then when it doesn't immediately happen realizes he has a little time before things get more complicated.

<<@Team [Ollie] That window leads into my location FYI. How bad is this egg at the bottom of the stairs I am looking at? >>

<@team[brock]"frag">

In the astral

The spiritual horse rises up clumsily, striking out at the giants around it. A spiked club deflects the hooves casually and the giant prepares another crushing blow.

Dalma's will drives out, controlled and precise, severing the tendrils that bind the frost giant to this world. It's form fluctuates briefly into an amorphous blob of water. The vapors of mist which choked the spectral horse's senses fade away.

Father seems to ponder for a bit as he saw his spell be resisted easily, obviously the spirits are being helped by another, perhaps another tactic

He gets into a closed stance, his head swaying from side to side as if unsure of himself then he raises his head slowly gazing at the spirit who is about to attack Dalma's horse friend

"Clouded your mind becomes..."

His words barely audible.

The giant spirit begins swaying side to side. It fights to clear its mind of the snake-charm. Beside it, the lead spirit flees at the speed of thought. Waves of terror wash off the creature.

In the node, but unable to affect the node due to heavy encryption, Papa turns his attention to the incoming traffic, grabs the stream and begin to work on it instead.

In the Matrix

Papa reaches out an isolates one of the streams of data flowing through the area. It pulses back and forth as if alive.

In the Astral

The Frost Giant loses the last bit of cohesion and melts away into mist, dissolving back into the depths of the manasphere. The giant beside it roars as it remains alone from the three that began the foray. Watching it, the spirit grows thicker and more substantial.

In the Woods

A three meter tall giant with gangly arms and a spiked club materializes in front of Dalma and Father. Lightning crackles from the giant's left hand and the vicious club looks like it could easily crush limbs.

From within the house, a shout in a rough Nordic tongue bellows out. The air around the house pulls inward with a cold rush and exhales out.

In the House
Taking a deep breath and a small step back, Olethros braces his body on either side of the stairwell landing with his arms while drawing his right knee up into his chest before lashing out forward driving it into the security door. He draws deeply of himself and sends his purpose out through the kick - seeking to unmake the door and clear his way into the house.

Olethros

The metal of the door folds in on itself with a shriek. Hinges tear from the frame as the flies inward several steps. The air around you pulses with mana. The glow of magic surrounds a broad platform with three men on it. All three of their auras have dark red slashes throughout them.

TacNet
Visual feeds from Ollie show guns and explosives laid all around the room. Several charges are placed on the walls. A large computer system leans against a couch.

A tall, Norse human has a clockwork dragon wrapped sinuously around his shoulders. It flicks and twists in the air. The Aztlaner, Keiri, has several knives in hand. A heavily muscled Ork turns with a large rifle on a sling. All three of them are wearing heavy armor that shows signs of use.

In the House
Taking only a moment Olethros springs forward - throwing himself at the ground and into a somersault before getting to this feet again and running for nearest point of cover - attempting to avoid moving in a straight line. With a thought he pulls up the team message thread. He quickly tries to mark items he sees in the tacnet for the rest of the team.

<@Team[Ollie]: In the house and clear of the grenade - the walls in here have charges on them and they are sitting in some sort of mana structure - probably a spell of some sort. There is something going on with their essence - it is riddled with something - no time to look yet >

In the House

Diving and weaving through the space, Ollie lands with cat-like grace behind the sofa. Small weapons clatter to the floor as the MMA fighter jostles the furniture.

The sound of automatic fire tears through the house. Bullets whiz through the air as the ork sprays across the couch and entryway. The suppressive fire lays down a pattern of violence and potential death for anyone approaching.

In the woods
The spirit beside Siren focuses on the club-wielding giant. Waves of terror slam into the giant but the creature grinds his feet into the ground and roars with obstinate fury.

The man keeps running to the group, screaming at the top of his lungs for help. He sprints forward, stumbling for a second and finding his feet. An IV line hangs loose from his elbow and his wrists are rubbed raw from some kind of restraint. The man smells of sweat and blood as he stops near Siren, panting for breath.

Siren is holding her hands up, trying to calm the man down with her gesture.

"I know this might sound a little cliché, but things will be fine. Just... wait over there for now, and keep your head down. We will get you somewhere safe, once we are done here."

She points to a group of trees maybe ten meters away.

In the Woods

Swiveling, Jennie keeps the rifle at her shoulder. Her finger hovers over the trigger. The former ranch-hand hums to herself quietly. Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev’ry test, O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest. She let's out the last whispers of breath and gently places her finger on the trigger.

*CRACK*

A single shot echoes through the woods.

TacNet Feed

The visual from Ollie is obscured by the couch. Bullets go up, tearing through the ceiling in more automatic fire. Coltrane falls backwards out of the video feed, blood blossoming from just left of center in his chest.

An explosion booms across the TacNet, echoing with the actual soundwave as the charges on the wall detonate. A wide swath of wall falls away and crashes to the ground below. The platform rockets out of the house.

The Aztlaner turns as the platform clears the edge of the room and gently tosses a grenade inside. It rolls and rights itself a few meters from the door. A synthesized voice comes from the grenade.

"Hello, I am a proximity mine. I will detonate if approached in the next ten seconds. Nine."

Brock heard two separate explosion,one more potent then the other and decides its time to get this fight. Seeing jn the tacnet the wall falling out of place there was the hole he was looking for. Letting the grenade launcher fall and hang by its sling around his back he pulls the hammer and sprints to the back side of the house ready to pounce on any target that gets in his way

Outside

Brock reaches the back of the house and can see the heat of bodies in the sky above him as the platform carrying the three men soars away over the tree tops. A shattered wall lays on the ground in front of him, partially landing on a small excavator. There is a muffled explosion from the house as shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade tears through drywall and plywood.

Dalma reaches out with a smooth flowing gesture, driving her hand forward as she whispers "Be gone." The spirit shudders in pain and begins to lose cohesion. The thin woman collapses to one knee as exhaustion begins to overtake her.

Timing being everything, the troll grumbles to himself for not doing more preemptively. As he begins to run the algorithms to break the signal encryption, he transmits a phrase to the waiting rotodrones:

<<@Drones [Papa] Launch and defend.>>

Outside

The rotodrones lift up into the air, sensors actively scanning for threats to targets identified as friendly. The last threads of cohesion break from the club-wielding giant and it discorporates. Echoes of the spirit's blood scream are all that remain.

On the platform, Bjorne kneels down to make a smaller target of himself. He keeps a watchful eye in the direction of the house and the team. A blue glow wraps itself around his body and the heavy body armor he's wearing.

In the House
Crouched behind the couch and hearing the talking device, his face darkens at their easy escape from the house and scowls at the idea of the mine destroying the gear here making it possibly a complete loss for their efforts.

<<@Team[Ollie]: Someone take out that platform they are riding on and get them ground bound or we have to start this all over again. DO NOT APPROACH MY LOCATION. >>

Steadying his breathing and tempering the rush of adrenaline from being shot at and hearing the rain of gunfire continue. Drawing a single steady breath in then he makes his move from the cover of the furniture to make his way to the mine all the while speaking Naacal.

Ollie

You fight against the magic that is trying to move you faster, as you approach the mine slowly. Gingerly tossing it out the large hole it continues to count down.

"Seven..."

Brock

Above you, movement catches your eye. A grenade comes falling out of the house, rolling on the broken wall and righting itself a few meters from your position.

"Six..."

Siren sends her spirit after the platform with the other runners on it, in order to stop it, maybe cause an accident.

Other than that, she will continue to calm down the victim that came running from the house.

In the Woods

The spirit beside Siren nods and surges forward. It melts away into the astral, vanishing from physical sight within two steps. On the astral, the spirit's form courses ahead at the speed of thought. It vanishes into the treeline across the clearing.

As the echoes of explosions and gunfire fades away, it begins to grow eerily quiet. There are none of the normal city sounds. No cars and traffic, distant sirens. The hum of the engines from the rotodrones scarcely makes up for the constant cacophony which is absent.

With a very unlady like curse, Jenni swings the rifle down from her shoulder, turning back to the group after ascertaining through the TacNet that Ollie was going to be fine. A quick shake of her head, glancing around to make sure there weren't any nasty surprises the group had left behind, and she trots back to meet up with Siren and Dalma.

"Whelp, don't know that that went exactly as planned. Ya'll reckon we even scared 'em enough to keep 'em off our tails for a bit?"

Jennie

Looking around the woods, nothing jumps out at you as details you overlooked before. The escaped prisoner from the house is moving over to a tree out of the way. It looks like the spot Siren pointed to. He is haggard looking with his hair shorn close to his head and obvious signs of starvation and experimentation.

Behind the house

"Five."

The grenade erupts in a blaze of burning metal and light. Apparently it lied about its timer. Fire washes over Brock and threatens to set the house ablaze.

Elsewhere

A spirit materializes, hovering in the space above the trees. It focuses on the platform with the three men rapidly trying to escape his mistress. Chance and probability warp around them. The platform catches a tree branch at the slightest angle and bounces like a stone thrown across a still pond. Three bounces across the tops of the trees before it hurtles downward into a clearing for a hunting lodge.

The dark skinned man throws himself for the careening platform and lands with a thick crunch. The blonde only has time to curse before he and his companion crash into a fuel container for the lodge's generator. The explosion consumes the lodge and all three men.

Team

A second after the grenade detonates, you hear a crash in the distance. There is a rumbling explosion as a gas tank ignites and blows up. The spirit returns to Siren's side an instant later, it's task complete.

Olethros stands and lets the backwash of the explosion wash over him - feeling a rush of familiarity and kinship with the act of detonation. The small debris bounces off his skin and the heat blooms across his face.

<<@Team[Ollie]: Anyone have a way to put out that fire before we watch our paycheck go up in smoke? And what the hell was the crash following this party favor going off? >>

Brock feels the blast knock him back and the fire race against his fire resistant armor, although it helped standing so close to the blast surprised him as he finishes putting out the flames on his body he realizes the house is in danger of being put a blaze. Brock climbs up the open side of the house looking for anything like a water hose or rack to put out the existing flames climbing towards the house looking at Ollie. " I don't know but if this house goes up so does anything that can lead us to what were looking for and this Lockett chick." brock can feel the burnt flash in his armore being agitated by his movement

<@team[brock]"we need to put these flames out fast that team is long gone if not dead, least we can do is salvage what in here for anything useful before the fire teams get here, also anyone have mojo to fix burns"

Jenni whirls at the two booms, not having tracked the motion on the TacNet of Ollie's toss, and definitely recognizing the other explosion wasn't close.

<<@Team[Jenni]: Ah ain't gotta clue. Anyone got eyes on the second one out in the woods? And the fire is white...that's not normal. 'Zit somethin' chemical or something?>>

<<@Team [Papa] I wouldn't write them off until we're counting corpses.>>

Papa orders the roto-drones into a pursuit mode, maintaining altitude, but tracking the opposing team as they bug out into the woods. He then takes a moment to look at the white fire while the roto-drones close in.

Olethros watches the team text scroll past his eyes and a an idea strikes him. He quickly sends off a message to the team while running towards the yard outside the house.

<<@Team[Ollie]: I just got an idea how to deal with the fire - let's use the little excavator in the back. We could use it to bury the fire or at least push it away from the house. Anyone know how to drive it? >>

Hearing the explosion and seeing the fire, Siren's eyes widen in shock as the spirit informs her that the task is complete.

She quickly utters her thanks and dismisses the spirit, also dropping the spell that still obfuscates Ollie, and begins to summon another spirit.

This time, a Spirit of Water appears to serve her, while she seems a little exhausted from working the magic.

Siren gives the spirit the task to help quench the fire to the best of its ability.

Papa

The drone soars over to the fire. Hovering in the space above, it is clear the fire has engulfed the entire house. If you were in the city, it likely would have destroyed several homes. The cryptanalysis subroutine pops up saying that it has lost the signal. Both Keiri's commlink and the other node have terminated connections to your commlink. The error code shows a lost signal.

Team

With the joint efforts of the excavator and the spirit, the fire slowly goes out. In the furrows left by digging up fresh earth to drop on the fire, Jenni and Brock can see several limbs jutting out from the mound. The large mound behind the house appears to be a mass grave.

In the house, Ollie notices that one of the bedroom doors is still closed. The large computer which was next to the couch fell in the scuffle. It's now leaning precariously against an assault rifle and a storage box.

Once everything is done, Siren turns her attention back to the man who had fled from the house, further calming him down and making sure he is alright.

After all is said and done brock re covers the limbs from the mass grave<@team[brock]these were some sick bastards, there is a massive grave back here with several bodies. Also Papa there is a fairly large computer unit in here you might be interested in.">. Brock also makes his way into the house and the locked door ringing his hammer to bear, he motions for Ollie to kick it in getting ready to tackle the next obstacle.

Jenni eyes Brock's stance with one brow cocked with a bit of skepticism, but she stands well clear of both LOS of the door and the room the troll would need to bring the hammer to bear.

<<@Team[Jennie]: Anyone got a clue about why they'd be burin' all those bodies? They were a' 'running team, right? Random murder don' make much sense, and they seem waaay too careful to bring a bunch of evidence out from different crimes to put all in one spot.>>