Onna pushes aside the sorrow as she takes a protective stance near Father. She hesitates to move in deeper, all of this was man-made and insane.

"Do we know where to go next?" Her voice is hollow and faint.

"Father, you need to get access to there main frame, can you do it from inside now?"

Father looks around, "Yeah, if we find me an access point I'm good to go at this point. I'd like a quiet spot, too, if at all possible. Once I jack in, I'm not really going to know if you guys are breaking stuff, so if I'm out of the way, so much the better. And, is it just me or did the designers of this place watch a little too much b-rated flatvids?"

Shadow seems drawn to the biochamber and gives it a once over, he then points to a slot on the front panel, "This looks like a chip port here and I can see any external wires connecting it to anything, so I'm guessing we'll have to keep searching for something on the data network."

Grendel in the mean time, notices that the roaming guard is about to make his way north on the east side of the building, but the team is already inside, so they should be fine.

Shadow holsters his gun for a moment. He draws a small boxy looking device.

"This detects EM fields, I should be able to follow the wiring from the tank to a jack point, I hope."

He turns on the device with a beep, and holds it up to the wall.


"This way."

Shadow follows the north wall in a western direction, where the line continues in another direction, but he is unable to see from here.

"Bah," Shadow stuck his head around the corner looking for any guards. At the same time he motioned for Silk to come up.

"Silk, take Father and find a Jackpoint, there should be one right around this corner. Keep him safe, the rest of us are going to 'scout' around a little."

"One moment please." Onna kneels and places her hand on the ground and begins to softly chant. Yuki once again stands near her sister and aids her. She carefully picks the flows of mana from around her, pushing through the layers and pain and suffering that choke the room. With a surge a small buddha-like figure appears in the air before her in a lotus position.

You honor me. I apologize for calling you to this place but I have a great need. We have come to cleanse the evil that stains this land but I humbly ask for your aid. We face powerful oni and I must do all I can to ensure the safety of my companions. Will you aid us?

The figure stares long and deep into her eyes and gives one solemn nod.

Hide these two from the sight of our enemies and keep them from misfortune. Turn away any that would do they harm. Do this and I will do all I can to restore this place to its proper balance.

The spirit floats over to Father and Silk, wrapping its arms about them. Satisfied, Onna stands. With a glance, she looks to Yuki. The fox moves and takes a place next to Silk.

"I am ready, let us scout now."

Looking right and left nervously, Father nods and motions for Silk to take the lead.

"What's the situation? Am I still holding the exit point, or are we planning on going loud and extracting via Base?"

"Move in and come to our location. Base can assist in the extract if necessary."

Onna clears her throat again before speaking. "I think we should stop the people here. Let Father get the things he needs from the machines and then stop them from doing more evil to this place." Her tone is firm and filled with conviction.

What was the line?

Grendel filtered through his memory for the old flatvid of the classic sci-fi book.

Oh yes: Somehow, I told you so just doesn't cover it.

The right hand drone rack deployed itself on silent electric servos, restraint arms unlatching from the rotodrone. LEDs glowed to life on its control board, systems drawing power from the umbilicals hooked into the Bison's grid. The twin counterrotating blade discs remained idle, though, waiting.

The control interface shifted from its standby position above the primary surveillance display, a three dimensional flight path glowing to life in response to Grendel's instructions. The drone acknowledged receipt of its orders by highlighting its icon green. On the BattleTac display, the drone's intended path and initial firing position appears as a ghostly fifty percent mask. Its arc of fire appeared amber. Ejecting the interface cable from the command couch, Grendel rose and made his way to the ammunition locker at the rear of the Bison. The gossamer fiber optic link trailed behind him as he moved, a welcome constant tension at the back of his neck. Keying the access code, he unlocked the door and pulled out the rack of missile reloads. He could refill the rotary magazines in three seconds, which meant that after the initial eight round salvo the team would be without heavy fire support for six seconds. It was the best he could do under the circumstances, given that they were altering the plan mid-execution. Returning to the command couch, he didn't strap back in. When it came time, he'd have to move quickly.

Twisting out of his position in the mouth of the manhole, Ayuda stretched, grinning fiercely beneath the mask as he loped towards the team. Guard duty was no job for a hunter.

Al right here we go.

"Base, one. Go Loud."

Before the transmission ends, the network goes to war. ECM slams out across the compound as the Bison goes to full flux. Simultaneously, both the Condor and the Doberman go active on their sensors, amber target locks shifting to green on the BattleTac interface. Two Cavalier Firefly HEMs snarl from their launch racks, curving through eleven g turns before arrowing towards their targets. The rotary magazines spin to place the next set of Hellfire III AVMs into battery. The rotodrone's engines whine to life, the rotors cutting the air with a peevish, angry buzz. Grendel rolls off the command couch, heading for the open weapons locker and its exposed rack of missile reloads. The Bison elevates its turret and lofts an IPE offensive grenade into the compound, while the Doberman rolls forward from its hulldown position, snapping out two rounds from its sniper rifle at the guard on the roof.

Silk and Father exit the main room listening to the chatter over the comms. When Base is told to go loud, they give each a look and Silk grins in anticipation. "Shadow was following a data line going along the back of the building. I think we should check the northwest room for an access point? Any reason you can think of not to?" Father asks Silk in a whisper.

The ground rocks under building as an HE missle blasts the front door of the building wide open. The front gate is blown to bits, along with the guard shack and the guard inside.

The roaming guard takes the brunt of the grenade blast and is knocked back against the build, along with his hellhound. They are both still moving, but most of that involves writhing on the floor in pain.

The guard on the roof drops into a pile, his hellhound doesn't even flinch, it just turns and runs across the roof towards the stairwell.

The Bison shudders on its heavy duty shocks as the pair of Hellfire III AVMs blaze from their launch tubes, curving into their top attack profiles. A haze of exhaust gasses fills the cabin, momentarily overwhelming the ventilation system. Grendel slams a new Firefly HEM into the port side rotary launcher, yanking the arming lanyard free as the magazine spins to place the missile into battery. The starboard launcher gapes, visual and audio cues pinging through the network at its empty status. The Doberman's turret shifts slightly, the weapon cluster elevating with deadly precision. The drone fires twice, two more IPE offensive grenades aimed at the rooftop of the compound. The rotodrone lifts out of its cradle, dancing momentarily in ground effect before slicing away like a deadly dragonfly. The long barrel of its HMG questing ahead for targets. The starboard launcher swallows first one, then a second Firefly HEM. The weapon load icon in Grendel's vision shifts from green to amber, indicating fifty percent of HEMs expended.

As Silk and Father were walking up to the door that leads into the main lobby from the storage area, they can see that the lobby is now pretty thrashed, as the explosion removed the front door. The door is locked, with a card reader next to it.

Father turns to silk, "Can you get through that quiet like? My only option is this," he comments holding up his SuperMach. "Or we could look in that room for a different jack point." He comments pointing at the western door out of the lobby.

Ayo glances up, eyes tracking the thin contrails that are the only visible evidence of the missiles that are wracking the compound with explosions. Anxious to be in the fight, he finally joins Onna, Shadow, and Warpath, pistols flicking in the dancing firelight of the burning facility.

Onna turns to the group. "They need help with a door, some small machine stops them from opening it." With a silent thanks sent to her spirit sister for the needed information.

In the midst of everything, Grendel spots something strange. The fire hydrant that was near the guard shack seems to have popped one of the hose connections, revealing a HMG behind it.

The trailer and passenger cars go up in flames.

Those inside the building hear loud rumbles as grenades impact with the roof.

Missile in hand, Grendel reaches out through the network interface with high priority tasking. The rotordrone responds, altering its course to the east. The HMG opens fire as soon as the drone bears on target.

Onna cringes from the loud explosions and steadies herself. Muttering to herself. "That is loud."

The machine gun fire blasts into the hydrant casing, but when the smoke clears, the rounds appeared to have bounced off the hard armored casing.

The hydrant swivles and returns fire.

The rotodrone staggers beneath the ripping fire of the HMG, penetrators coring through the thin aluminum skin. Warning lights spangle the status board; TGT and engine oil temperature climbing, static filling the command and simsense network channels. The drone sideslips, seeking cover. Grendel reaches over and drops the Firefly into the missile magazine. The rotary launcher spins, placing the weapon in battery.

"Team, Base, air cover at thirty percent, recommend best speed to exfiltration."

The BattleTac interface highlights the fixed weapon emplacement, placing a flashing underscore beneath the icon to indicate it was a priority target and already assigned a fire mission. The Fireflies rip out of the missile tubes, one heading for the weapon emplacement, the second inbound to the compound.

The missle slams the hydrant and leaves wreckage behind.

The other one flys towards the building, on the western side away from the team. With a lucky shot, the missle does a b-line right through one of the windows and impacts inside the building, sending cubicles and computers flying.

Inside, the fire alarm goes off and water starts to poor down all over.

Father tears the lock appart in no time flat and gets the door opened while Grendel bombards the building. The door slides open to reveil a lobby clouded with dust. The front door is blown wide open. There is no fire here, as the explosive went off where there was nothing to burn. Accross the lobby is a door, but you can see that behind it there is a fire burning. To the north, behind the receptionists desk is another door, that is what would take you towards the line that Shadow followed.

As you glance north towards the door, it bursts open and three guards come running through it, eyes wide in terror.

"Run! Run! Get the frag outta here!" They scream at each other. They don't even really seem to take much notice of you, they seem rather focused and getting out of the building. In the room behind them you hear a heavy ammount of crashing, then a computer monitor comes flying out of the door behind them and strikes of the guards int he back of the head. His legs buckle and he crashes to the floor face first. The other guards don't even pause to look at him, they just continue towards the door.

"All numbers, five. We have a problem. The guards are exiting the building faster than rats on the Titanic. And something is throwing hardware at them from behind. I think we could have a few ... how shall we say ... enhaced escapees. We're probably going to need some firepower backup over here by the lobby."

With that, Father braces himself on one side of the doorway using the wall next to the door for cover and trains is SuperMach at the northern doorway out of which the guards ran. He takes a knee as Silk stands behind him, both watching the door and waiting for backup.

Onna moves forward through the now open door, weapons ready. Over the comms. "Let us clear the room first." She moves quickly to the door the guards just exited. She begins to softly chant to herself as she prepares for battle.

As Onna passes him, Father whispers to her in Japanese, "Take care, little sister.," as he rises to follow her. He takes up position at the doorway.

Onna

As you peer into the next room, you learn a new meaning of horror. You think whatever you see may have once been a silverback gorilla, but it isn't clear. Whatever the case, you can see from an astral glance at the monster that besides being infected, this test subject has been a victim of cybernetic experiments as well. You don't know what type, but you can see that it runs through the entire frame of the beast.

It turns its blood shot eyes towards you...

Ayo glides through the doorway, barely sparing notice for the guards fleeing the scene as he steps up behind Onna.

Father's eyes widen in alarm and he briefly considers following the guards out the front door. Clutching his deck closer to his chest he says over the comms, "All numbers, Five. We have company in the form of a large, bug-infested, cyber-enhanced silverback gorilla. Base, keep your eyes pealed for escaping bugs. If this one got out, others may have as well. We probably don't want to let them get out of the compound if we can avoid it."

:: Silk takes a step forward, flanking Ona opposite Ayo putting the three awakened runners in an arrow formation. ::

"Let's start with that spirit."

:: A faint glow in the shape of a feline curls around Silk's shoulders as she locks eyes with the silverbacked beast. With a though, she releases the armor spell she has been holding on Father, requiring all her attention on the power she is about to unlease. Focusing her energy towards the corrupted animal mana shoots out in an arc from the mage to her target. ::

Shadow dashes up beside Father, "sorry about the door, but I think our destination is that-a-way," the elf says, pointing his large pistol at the closed door opposite them. Grabbing the older man by the arm Shadow leads them both to the door.

Ayo takes two well aimed shots at the beast before him. The first catches it in the head and tears away a bit of flesh, revealing a portion of the cyberskull below. The second only seems to anger the animal even more.

Shadow kicks the office door even wider, using his free hand to shield his face from the flames. His sharp eyes scan the office looking for a dataline.

Onna moves in to strike, but her attack is blocked quickly by the large ape. It quickly counters her attack, moving in to bash her head, but this time Onna is ready for it... She quickly side steps the attack and lays a clean cut across its neck. Vile blood sprays the room as it spins and falls, pumping its life onto the floor.

"There," Shadow points to the corner. "Move, if we hurry we might get a conection before the line dies."

Father grabs his deck and makes a break for the jackpoint that Shadow points out. Pulling the datacable as he runs, he slides to a stop sits and moves to jack in. Turning to Shadow, "Pull the cord before I burn," he says with an grin and a wink. Inserting the cable into his datajack, his eyes widen for a moment and then he goes slack as the matrix opens before him. Shadow sees his chest rise and fall, almost like someone sighing, finally home after a long and stressful trip.

With the savage ape dying on the floor, the rest of the team now can take a look at the room. There are several computer units on the floor and a few cages. Everything has been smashed and the air smells of burnt computer components. At the far end of the room is a door with a stairwell sign on it, under the sign is another that reads 'AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY'.

"Team, one, I am in the burning room with Father, I got his six, so feel free to smash and grab."

Feeling the flow of the battle leave her, Onna speaks. "All numbers, there is a door. Are we going through it?" She sees her reflection distort in the blood pooling at her feet. Already the sickness moves through her. Violence stains the soul but she knows no other way to stop the monsters.

Father jacks in and instantly wishes he didn't. The system is full of static and feedback as all the nodes in the main cube farm are burnning and crashing. The system is on full alert.

SYSTEM SHUT DOWN IN 7...

Damn, Father thinks to himself. Setting his deck for masking mode, he wades into the static and hopes he doesn't get fried, literally and virtually.

Answering Onna's question with action, Ayo steps forward, glancing down at the door for a keypad or lock that might still be functional.