"Cant I just shoot the guard at long range with a gel round?! if he's been knocked out then hes not going to be looking around too much!" Bluebird says with a wicked smile

"Fair, but what if he doesn't go down on the first shot? I'm not taking your marksmanship to court, but if he's not unconscious from the first shot he can call backup, and our surprise advantage has evaporated."

"Thats easy...dont use a gel round then!" Bluebird's smile is that of somebody who has killed before, and has no problem with doing it again!

"OK, this is the way I see it. Taking all your gripes and aspirations into consideration. One, Ace stays with the Roadmaster for our getaway and to keep eye while we're inside. I agree, that's his best position for the Team.
Two. Bluebird wants to pop a Guard from a distance. I agree she should pop the Guard, but why not do it `in his face'. Walk up to him and knock him out. Job done problem solved.
All of that works only if Codec can't locate an air vent we can access so none of us need to go climbing or swinging like a fish on a line. Personally, I don't much fancy clambering down a cliff face. Far too exposed for my liking, even at night. If there is a vent, we can use that for getting in as well as out, bearing in mind that Codec will have rigged the cameras on a loop.
As to busting out of there at speed, that works well as a back-up plan, 'specially if we've got our Ganger excuse - maybe scrawl "Fall of Angels woz 'ere" on the back wall or something. So just in case, seein as Seeoh's not so sure she can come through hot wiring a car, I'll take the colleen out on the street and see if she can boost an old clunker. Ace and Bluebird can check on the night Security routine and locate a good `overwatch' spot for the run. Meanwhile, Codec jumps back in the Matrix and tries to find any means of entrance which isn't obvious, like the aforementioned air vent."

A thought suddenly occurs to the Ork. "While you're in there Codec, how about accessing the security cameras as they are at the moment. Take a gander at what they're looking at and download their view of the building. That way we'll know ahead of time just where all the doors are, not to mention the ambush sites and boltholes."

Quite proud of his summation, Flip looked at the Runners and waited for the insults.

"Accessing their cameras now? I can try but remember, they're under watch through a security company. I'd imagine they'd have some pretty decent IC throughout their system. I don't want to trip it off and have them go on high alert before we try anything."

"If you don't want to do it, that's fine." Flip spoke. "But if you did go in, the system would be reset by the time we do the run, no? And you'd have a chance to check out their system before hand - maybe set yourself up a back door straight into their camera bit for next time?"

"The system may reset automatically, but the human component, the people actually working there, they'll still be on edge. How man shadow ops begin with a look around the place via its cameras?"

Feeling a bit flustered, Codec sits up straight "It's not like I can't do it. I...I am just saying that when we go do the run, they might have alittle more security ready..." Codec feels kinda surprised at his semi-outburst towards the group

Ace nodded. "That's pretty much what I meant. I'm sure you could hack their cameras or whatever, I don't know much about how this works, but if they do notice you, the compound will be on edge."

Inwardly Ace frowned. Why's this kid so hard on himself? I don't think it's a ploy to make me underestimate him, he genuinely seems to lack any confidence. Then again, I don't feel too stong when my heart isn't beating fuel and my skin isn't metal, so maybe it's sort of the same...

Bluebird looks around as everyone pauses to eat and drink a bit more... "so we just need to find out if there are any tunnels near the site and if so how to access them. after that it shouldnt take too long to draw up a plan from what we know and go running!!"

Codec goes over and gets his deck and brings up the blueprint that he retireved from the archive. He turns the deck around to show everyone on his screen, "Here is what I have of the upper level, anything underground was...unavailable"

Codec's revelation didn't advance the plan much, in fact if anything it crippled it somewhat. But that wasn't his fault. It was time to put at least an element of `Plan A' into action.
As Codec and the others relaxed, girding loins, or whatever it is Runners do when a Run's about to start, Flip and Seeoh ventured outside. The time of day leant it's self to such a sortie, dusk was about an hour away and the locals, such as they were, had no time to worry about an Ork and his petite side-kick. They were far more interested in getting behind locked, barred and bolted doors, away from the denizens of the night who would sell anyone's soul for the price of a fix.

Two streets away, the pair found what they were looking for, a 2017 Chevvy, it's bonnet still warm and no one about. Where the driver was didn't concern Flip too much, they'd probably gone to ground and didn't have the intelligence to put their vehicle under cover before they hid behind locked doors. A quick insertion of his long bladed penknife into the barrel lock on the drivers door, followed by a hefty thump on the hilt and a quick twist, meant the lock did the only thing it could do, and popped open.

"There we are Seeoh. That trick wont work with a maglock so you'll have to be prepared. Lets see what you can do to get this thing started."

The Irishwoman slid down into the footwell of the driver's bucket seat, head under the steering column, fishing for wires.

{{Time to break out the dice Boss , methinks?}}

After gettting the bottom of the steering colum off, Seeoh spends a few minutes fiddling around under there...and eventually you hear the old chevy cough, splutter and eventually rumble into life...

The aged Chevvy, bent, battered and covered in a cross between rust and off red Hammerite paint almost purred in the hands of the Ork. There was some logic - honest. After all, you don't go boosting wheels and not make use of them - do you? Least, that was the excuse Flip gave Seeoh and who was she to argue, she'd just got the thing going. But the joyride couldn't last long, night was drawing in and the run was about to start.

Parking the Chevvy a block away, the two young runners made their way back to the flop. That residual of lessons learnt at her father's knee made Seeoh search her pockets for a stub of a pencil to scrawl a note on the back of a torn poster blowing along the street. "Needed a ride. Wheels due west. 1 block. Thanks." And slipped it under the front door of the brownstone where they'd found the car. Hopefully the owner would find it before someone else did and realised there was a free car just down the road, lock smashed and wires ready to be twitched.

"You some damn fool or sommat girl. Leavin tracks ain't cool and'll like as not get us killed." Flip heaved open the outer door of the flop and ushered the girl inside.

"How'd you feel if'n you came out in the mornin to go to work and your wheels weren't there?" Seeoh dived in and went ahead down the stairs. "Sides, how's the prol gointa know who left the note? I sure as hell ain't gonna tell 'im!"

And that was the end of it. Flip knew from past experience that he'd lose any argument with the Irishwoman, so there was absolutely no point in pressing the matter. Besides, she was probably right and he was worrying needlessly.

The noise of their argumentative arrival had roused the others, and so a little consternation ensued with an assorted array of weapons in evidence as Flip and Seeoh made their entrance.

"'SOK Folks. Only us!" Flip raised both of his meaty paws into plain view to emphasise his words, noting, thankfully, that Bluebird relaxed ever so slightly. In view of what she'd said earlier Flip reckoned the woman was on a knife edge and would pop him as soon as look at him, even if they were in this together. "We should get started and go with plan A. Unless you've found an alternative entrance Codec?"

Putting the datajack to his temple.... Codec feels his body go numb and in the blink of an eye he is there, flying through the realm that is cyberspace. He stops to think for a milisecound, he has already tried the city records department for any possible blueprints... so who else might know whats under that bulding? Running up a list of possible suspects he starts with the obvious, hit the company itself, so in the blink of an eye he has found the virtual building he needs and is sleazing his way in. Its been along time since he has had a real run to test him, and he finally feels that this is going to be one for the record books... he can feel each and every nerve in his brain firing, his hairs stood on end and his deck working at 110%!!

After having sleazed his way into the RTG in question he starts looking through the vitrual corridors that seemingly go on forever, keeping his cloaking program runing he eventually finds the mini site that he wants. it deals with the RTG's physical locations, main servers and Platinum contract sites. knowing that Mr Kiteo needed files that belonged to Lonestar... he figured that they wouldnt have anything less then Platinum levels of security. So trying to break the door code for the platinum area he tries, and tries again... but he figures that he may need a less subtle approach, so his little Arnie looking icon opens a bag, and takes out a large, cartoon style hammer..... and with an almighty smash he smashes the code and the virtual door right open!! Smiling to himself he knows that in the real world he may only be a mere mortal...but here in the matrix, he IS king! Browsing through the information on display he already knows that he wouldnt be able to access a platinum level installation from here, but he will be able to find out about the premesis. So pulling up the records for the RTG building in question he finds that a deal has been struck between the RTG company and Taxotere mining.

In the deal it says that the RTG company lease the building for the next ten years with optional additions for following years, but Taxotere still own anything below ground and have access rights to any sub levels of the old quarry. Knowing that he was pushing his luck now in regards to ice... Codec pulls all the files he can onto his deck for reading later, and leaves the area as invisible as a ghosts shadow!




Later... after having got away from the site, he opens the files and runs his standard decription programs. It turns out that the quarry could run as far as five miles in each direction! but as far as access points are concerned, there are no referenaces to any... as that is out of the RTG's area of concern. But to codecs logic, if the tunnels go that far...there has to be a nearby sewer or drain.

With the new data supplied by Codec it takes time for the group to make sense of it all. Finally Flip makes the obvious comment.

"So, seems like instead of making like a mountain goat we're due to become sewer rats. Like Codec's files say, there's gotta be some kinda access underground, even if it's only an air vent or an emergency exit."

Seeoh, still pawing through the info, looked up. "Flip, what was that big flat pad we sat on up on the 'scarpe? Just before we started taking pictures."

"How the hell should I know. Just some rusting steel plate I guess. You know how it is around old quarries, tons of discarded machinery that no one wants."

"I don't think so. OK, yeah it was rusty but it wasn't a piece of machinery. More like a dust cover or somthin."

"A cap for an air vent maybe?" Flip pondered the facts, trying to visualise what he and Seeoh had been sitting on. "It's certainly worth checking. But we might need some tools. Portable jack hammer perhaps?"

"And wake all the neighbours? No, subtle is the thing my Orkish friend. Just a set of ring spanners, some WD40 and a couple of heavy duty screwdrivers."

"And a hammer." Flip added. "When in doubt, give it a clout!"

An hour later saw the final details sorted and the five wedged into Ace's van, heading for the old quarry. The bulk of the climbing ropes made comfortable seating at least and the crew busied themselves blackening their faces and slipping on dark canvas gloves. The rope would be difficult enough to hold at the best of times, but a drizzle had started and that would undoubtedly add to the problem of absailing down a hundred feet or more of air ventilation shaft or rock wall in what had now been designated Plan B.

"You gonna be Jake with this Codec? I'll go down ahead of you if you like. That way you'll have sommat soft to land on if you drop off." Flip tried to calm the Decker's obvious nerves.

Seeoh laughed, "Only if he falls on your head. Yer stomach's too knotted with muscle to give anyone a soft landin."

It didn't do much to lighten the general mood, and certainly didn't seem to do anything for Codec. "Ignore the witch, my friend. Just concentrate on the job you've got to do once we're inside." Flip clapped the man on a shoulder, remembering to keep his muscles in check as he did so. "There's one saving grace. If we do go in via an air vent there's probably gonna be a maintenance ladder so you wont have to climb down solo. Anyway, you can always tie yourself to me for safety if you want."

The twenty minute ride ended in silence as Ace pulled up on the escarpment high above the target and far enough away as not to be observed from the Facility.

The four made their way to the plate in the ground. It was rectangular, around three metres by two with big wing nuts at the corners and two more on the long edges.

Quietly the Team checked the plate over, trying to determine just how difficult it would be to get the damned thing out of the way, and just what lay underneath.

"Eagle to Sparrow... testing, confirm with reply. Eagle out." Ace was sorry they hadn't had a chance to test the trancievers before hand. He hoped they could stay in contact. Without camera eyes to aid him, he felt blind, but he used all the van's mirrors to their full advantage, trying to see if anything sleazy would go down. No, trying to make sure he caught it when it came. It always did. He couldn't see much of the facility, which meant any potential watchers probably couldn't see him, but if anything big went down he hoped he'd see it.

Standing around the large metal plate... the team get to work getting the bolts out so they can find out if there is anything of interest. Bluebird gets down on her stomach and crawls to the edge of the quarry...looking down using the just the sight from her rifle she scans the area, zooming in on the guard house she sees that hes doing nothing of interest inside...and at this time of night would probably fall asleep at his post before too long. The security on this place was gonna be easy!!

Snapping the head off one of the bolts Flip curses under his breath...but gets some more oil and sprays it on the next bolt before trying to undo it a little bit more slowly this time!

Minutes pass and eventually three of the bolts are off...and one snapped. so taking the far end of the sheet of metal...he lifts it up, snapping the bolt out of its mounting and freeing the metal! moving it to one side the group look down and see that it appears to be a pit about 20 feet deep.

Putting her sniper scope back into the rifle case she leaves it in the van and walks over...."doesnt look like we're going down the cliff then!" she says with a cheery smile

Codec, clinging to his sack containing his deck, doesn't particularily like the idea of climbing and lets out a small sigh to himself as he watches Flip remove the metal plate. Okay gotta shape up, get in the frame of mind here, soon you may be battling some nasty IC.... Somehow the thought of that is more appealing than dropping 20ft down into and old mine pit

Flip, irritated at his own strength and the snapped bolt, glares into the gloom of the pit. "There's access steps over on the right hand side. They look kinda rusty so watch where you tread. In fact, I'll go first. If they take my weight they should take all of yours as well. But to be on the safe side, wait till I'm on terra firma before the next one starts down"

With that the Ork wormed over to his right and slipped his legs over the side, searching for the first rung. It seemed to give slightly as he put his weight onto it but it held, shards of rust pattering down into the depths. There were eighteen rungs to the bottom, each one slightly more than a foot from it's neighbour. And each one was treacherous. Finally, though, Flip stood on the compacted shale at the bottom of the shaft and swept his immediate area with a pencil beam, enough to illuminate the entire space to his natural low-light vision. Activating his throat mike he called up. "All clear so far. Come on down."

In quick succession, first Codec, then Seeoh followed the Ork leaving Bluebird as the last to watch their backs. Soon, she too had joined the Team on the floor of the tunnel.

"The rungs are on the face furthest away from the target so we should head thisaway I think." The tunnel ended here at the vent anyway and there was only the uninviting maw of the aforementioned tunnel beckoning them forward. But what the hey, Flip was getting a liking for being theatrical and stating the obvious.

The trouble with removing big, heavy steel plates from air vents is that you never put them back. Seeoh, rarely this paranoid, .swore she could hear something coming down after them and flashed her torch upward. Nothing. No one to trouble them. It was time to run.

In open file, Flip and Seeoh in the lead, then Codec with Bluebird as `tail end Charley', ever sweeping her rifle behind her, they travelled down the tunnel.

The tunnel went slightly down, dank and forbidding; at one point the surface formed into a set of five hewn steps, dropping the party by at least another eight feet or so. After several, cautious minutes, Flip became aware of a blue glow ahead of him and held his hand up to halt the trio behind.

"There's light up ahead. Looks like someone paid the electricity bill at least. Wait one." He sidled forward until he could get a sneak view around a bend in the tunnel. Retracing his steps he told the other three, "It's a cavern, of sorts. Bits of machinery and a few tools stacked against the wall. No one about though."

"Does it look like they've been used?" Seeoh asked. "I mean recently."

"Can't tell. They looked clean, not too rusty. Still, no point staying here." He led the way round the bend.

Having left the rifle in the van, Bluebird pulls out a couple of matching heavy pistols for protection...

Flip carefully makes his way out of the tunnel and the loose surface beneath him stirs under his heavy weight as he makes his way into the light... making his way over to the vehicles he realises that he cant feel the engines for heat as they all appear to be battery powered!

Looking toward the end of this cavern area he sees some large vehicle size metal doors and can hear a rumbling noise from the other side....typically, thats where they need to be heading to get to the building!

Codec, remaining in the middle of the group, follows along. He looks around at the dark tunnels and can't help but shudder. This is so.....YUCK! he thinks to himself. He continues along, reassuring himself that within about an hour, they'll be on their separate ways home, hopefully.

The four advanced into the cavern, weapons ready. Although stealth was the order of the day it paid to be prepared. With due caution they looked around the area. Machinery, as Flip had spotted with his quick glance, didn't look quite so rusty, nor did the neat rows of drill bits and three jackhammers on a bench. The parked up donkey sleds for hauling ore, all four of them, looked almost new, leastwise barely used, and they were parked near huge double doors through which they could easily be driven.

"There's work going on behind this door." Flip observed. "I thought this place had closed down though."

Seeoh stepped across to the doors and listened. "Seems not. They, whoever they are, are drilling for something that's for sure."

Flip bit at a knuckle, pondering. "If my sense of direction's anything to go by, that.." He said, pointing at the doors. "..is the way we have to go."

"If there are workmen on the other side they're gonna find it mighty peculiar when we make a grand entrance. 'Course, we could just go in guns blazing and mow them down, but it'll blow any chance we have of doing the hit quietly." Seeoh looked innocently at the Ork.

Flip glared at her. He knew she knew how much he hated unnecessary killing, not to mention the old `when in doubt shoot it out' policy of some of the runners he knew. Then he realised she was giving him one of her mischievous grins. "All right, Miss Smarty-pants. What's on your mind?"

"Come here a minute." Seeoh headed over to a line of lockers behind the bench with the tools on. Pulling several open she found, as she had expected, dungarees and hard hats, goggles and rebreather masks. "No good mining operation skimps on the safety of it's workers. There's enough clobber here for all of us."

Flip grabbed a hard hat and tried to fit it on his large cranium. "Um, wasn't made to fit Orks."

Seeoh grabbed the hat and fixed the adjustable strap at the back of the hat and plonked it back on Flip's head, where it no longer sat like a pimple on a buttock but fitted snugly down to his ears. "Men!"

"Women!" Flip grinned at the slip of a girl. "So, what do we do now?" Flip reached into the locker and began sorting clothes till he found the largest pair of dungarees he could find and began hauling them on.

"We simply…." Seeoh handed more of the safety gear to Codec and Bluebird. "…walk through the doors, masks and goggle on, jackhammers in hand and join the workers like we belonged."

The plan, made on the spur of the moment, was simple and direct. Like all such plans, Flip thought, when they are made out of immediate necessity, it may even work.

Moments later, the Team advised Ace, somewhere high above, that they were going in, sparing him the details other than to say they were about to walk through a bunch of `unfriendlies' and to be ready for a quick getaway.

Then Flip opened the door.

Amazed and frightened that they were just going to pose as workers, Codec put on the gear. It seemed a little big on the little guy. He looks around, finding it hard to see with the goggles and a big hat, but manages to follow the others. Here we go...

The large rolling doors make their way up with some creeks and groans, annocing your arrival to anybody present....

As the group look around they see the beginings of a tidy operation going on here... an old 4x4, a couple of vans and some mining eqipment. Of the ten people you can see in front of you most seem to be getting on with whatever they are doing, weather it be heading off down the tunnels in their pick ups or loading eqipment into the backs...

Somebody who looks to be of importance (probably the chief foreman) comes over and shouts above the noise... "Im glad you guys finally got here! I asked for help days ago, we are running behind schedule still and need you to blast one of the tunnels shut... the goverment has really been riding my ass over this damn hole in the ground! we cleared all the evidence out days ago, just go in...and blow it so we can all forget this happened and go home!"

Codec, Seeoh and Bluebird all notice that at the far end of this underground warehouse is the way through to the underground parking area. Several things give it away (other then having a good sence of direction!) its guarded unlike the first door and is in much better (and stronger) condition.

"Which one?" Flip shouted through his rebreather as loudly as he could as he gestured at the three tunnels farthest from the way the Team actually wanted to go. "Charges? There weren't none in there." Flip thumbed over his shoulder at the roller door.

The Foreman pointed at the tunnel to the right of the roller door through which they had just come. Most of what he said was lost in a rumble of activity behind him, but Flip caught "…boxes inside…" and assumed the guy meant they should blow `that' one and the charges were there waiting. The Orc motioned to the other three, pointing toward the tunnel, and headed toward it.

Seeoh sidled up quickly. "What are we doing for the love of Mike?"

"We have to blow up that tunnel. Simple." Flip walked into the tunnel entrance. It was well lit, the chain of power cables and lighting strips hadn't been removed as yet, for it was now obvious that whatever enterprise was going on down here, it was being folded up. Still, probably whoever was running the show didn't believe in salvaging every last scrap of material before hand. The Team followed the Ork into the tunnel a further twenty metres until the sounds from the cavern became dulled by distance. He turned and explained.
"Seems like we've been taken for a demolition squad of some sort. Leastwise, that foreman type just told me to blow this tunnel up. So, unless we wanna get busted, that's exactly what we should do."

Seeoh looked at the tunnel walls, stepping a few paces further along and peering ahead. "Can't see anything up here. Just ..tunnel and three crates of what looks like demo charges and a case of detonators. Why would they want it blown?"

"How the hell should I know. Lets just blow it and find an excuse to get on with the run." Flip lifted a crate. "Seeoh, Bluebird, bring the other two. Codec, fetch the detonators." Without waiting for a response, he headed up the tunnel.

Seeoh, picking up another crate, caught up with the Ork. "Ain't you curious though. Why would they be coverin their tracks like this? And would our Johnson pay to know what's going on down here?"

Flip looked at the girl. "So what are you suggesting? We shouldn't blow the tunnel?"

"Not at all. But we could just make a lot of noise and bring a bit of rubble down with a shaped charge, enough to make it look like the tunnel's sealed. When we've done here and got back, we can sell the intell for more nuyen. As well as the route in, seein as we've found it."

The Ork placed his crate down and ripped off the cover. "And if the intell's no use? We've done a poor job of blowing the tunnel for no good reason."

"What are you on you dumb Ork. Us being here in the first place is a mistake they've made. Blowing up the tunnel isn't really our job ya'know!" Setting her crate down by the first and taking off the cover.

"I… Uh, yeah. You're right." Flip slid one of the gel packs from the box and wedged it into a crack in the tunnel wall. "So, just a small rock fall and….."

"And we're nowhere to be seen because we'll be gone in the other direction." Seeoh waited for Codec to put down his case and lifted a detonator cap from it. "Is there a remote in there?" She looked into the case as she handed the detonator to the Ork.

The remote, small and with a simple 5 digit button system, had been packed in the side of the case along with two nicads in a plastic bag. Wouldn't do to have the batteries included inside the remote, she thought. "What's the code on the detonator Flip?"

"1424" Flip pushed the cap well into the gel pack. "That should be enough to bring down this section without touching the roof too much. We'd better get back."

Seeoh lifted another pack and detonator from their respective cases. "4242. I'll set this one up in case we need a diversion. The way out for us is heavily guarded."

"What do you intend to do with that?" Flip gestured t the gel pack in the Irish woman's hand.

"Blow some shit up." She grinned broadly. "Probably the other tunnel mouth where the work gang's gone. Close enough to the guards to concuss them and we're through."

Back at the tunnel mouth Flip waved to get the attention of the Foreman and gave him a `thumbs up' and waved for him to get the rest of his people away. The Team watched as the last of the work gang left the cavern down the farther tunnel.

"3 - 2 - 1 -Fire in the hole!" Flip pressed the tiny red button on the remote. `1424' went up with a dull `cruuump' and dust and some debris spewed from the tunnel mouth. Almost before the sound dissipated the second charge left Seeoh's hand to land between the work gang's exit tunnel and the guarded route to the underground car park. Flip watched as the gel pack arced over, keying in `4242' just as it hit the floor.

Feeling that they had shaped the explosives sufficently Flip and Seeoh walk with the rest of the team out into the main tunnel....keying in the number, the explosion booms as it blows rocks and dust everwhere, the tunnel around the explosion sealing up, as there is no wall left to support the roof.

Seeing the foreman and his men dive for cover Seeoh throws her chunk of explosive... but it falls short and just blows a crator in the floor showering these strangers in dirt and rubble, a couple of the men seem to be dazed but on the whole they just seem REALLY fragged off!!

Seeing that the forman and two security guards are still alive (and very much kicking!) Bluebird draws her twin Guardians and fires off several rounds at the security guards,the gell rounds thud into the first guard as he falls unconcious to the floor... but the secound pistol misses the target as he jumps to the floor, drawing a preditor!

Walking out of the tunnel with the rest of the group, Flip presses the button and a loyud boom rumbles throuout. Codec, though expecting it, still ducks down and clings to his bag with his deck in it. He no sooner looks up to see Bluebird firing off her guns
HOLY FRAGGIN' DREK!!!!!!!!!! is all he manages to think as he quickly looks around to see if there is anyplace to run and hide

Ace is jolted from his vigil by a rumbling in the ground and the static hiss of too-loud noise from the tranciver. "Eagle to Sparrow, come in, what just happened?"

Seeoh:
Cursing her miss hit with the charge as shots started to whip toward the armed Guard, Seeoh saw the Foreman heading for a large red button on the wall; probably an alarm system or something. She cast `Invisibility' on herself and ran right, away from the immediate fire fight. Plunging her right hand into her pocket and inserting her fingers into the brass knuckle duster inside, she stopped just short of the Foreman as he reached for the button. A smooth swing of her tightly balled fist headed for the large Foreman's right temple with all the strength she could muster.

Flip:
Heard the plaintiff cry from their `Ace in the hole' and tried to respond. "Sorry Big Bird, we're in the middle of a drek storm A-T-M." So saying he drew his Browning and took a quick shot at the still standing Guard, running for cover behind a four wheeler.

Feeling the thump of hitting the foreman, the force of the impact feels like it goes right through her body... and with that the Foreman just collapses on the floor, just feet away from the button!

Taking careful aim, and wishing he had more training with these things, Flip applies pressure to the trigger and fires a round into the guards center mass... hitting him in the side, Flip sees him clutch himself with the pain. Hearing more loud shots, Flip looks toward Bluebird, as she raises both guns and fires several rounds into the guard....putting him out for the count.

Codec, ducking behind everyone in this firefight, spots some crates in the corner and decides to make a run for it to hide.

"Jaysus! I must remember to always keep me wrist straight like me dadda taught me." Seeoh looks down at the sleeping Foreman. From experience she knows he'll likely be bye-byes for at least an hour, but to be sure she checks his pulse. Fast but even. He'll be OK.

Maintaining the spell is a bit of a drain for Seeoh, but dispelling it and re-casting will take more energy still and she may still need it. The girl makes her way over to Flip, just stepping out from the four wheeler to look at his, and Bluebird's handywork.

"Nice shooting, for an Ork. How about the other one?"

Flip, glancing over his shoulder at the speaker does a double take. "Whereinhell are you?"

"Right here, by your side as ever me dear." Flip feels a slight brushing of his cheek from a cheeky pair of Irish lips. "Be right back. I'm gonna check the other guard."

"What about the Foreman? D'you deal OK?" Flip stepped back from the vehicle and looked toward the other tunnel down which the crew had gone.

"He's out of it too. But he'll have a mighty big headache when he wakes up." Seeoh bent to inspect the prostrate Guard who'd fallen when her lobbed charge went off. His left leg, bent at a grotesque angle, meant he wouldn't do much running after villains for a while, but at least he was breathing and not in too much pain, being unconscious and all. "This ones out of it. Broken leg."

Flip nodded at the direction of Seeoh's voice. "Better get on then, before that crew start wondering where their boss is, or the guards fail to report in or sommat." Flip headed past the holy Guard, noting the crest on his lapel badge didn't tally with the logo on the gear the Team had lifted from the store. Two Companies in cahoots?

Beyond the body, the tunnel which lead down to where they need to go, seems clear. "Seeoh. How long's that spell gonna last?"

"Till I stop it, or run out of juice. Why?" The girl made her way back to the Ork, seeing Codec scrambling out from some boxes and heading in the same direction and Bluebird checking her guns.

"Why not check the road ahead while it lasts. There might be cameras we don't know about. We'll take the time to truss up these folk good an' proper."

Seeoh headed down the tunnel.

Bluebird... clearly VERY angry says through her teeth "Look you dumb fraggers...dont go playing with explosives if you dont know what your doing! I can handle getting shot and killed, but not blown up by incompetant team members who dont know what they are doing! next time let me deal with it!!" and with that she takes the chance to take a couple of rounds out of her spare clip and put them into the clips in the guns.

Kneeling down she starts frisking the guards for anything useful... like ID cards and that sort of thing. You never know how much these things can be worth on the black market.

After the excitement died down, Codec came out from his little hiding spot That wasn't sooo bad I guess...

Like the other tunnels, the one which led in the right direction was well lit. Seeoh made her way cautiously, even though she was secure in the knowledge that she couldn't be seen in the visible spectrum, there was always infrared to worry about. Although that degree of sophistication probably wasn't warranted down here where work was still going on. But you can never be too careful.

There was no sign of any cameras in the short tunnel till she got to the far end. The door, large and sturdy, had a simple handle and Seeoh depressed it, pulling the door easily toward her by about a foot, a gap large enough for her to squeeze through without the opening being spotted too readily.

The corridor, running left and right and also well lit, travelled for about 20 yards on her left and much further to her right. Cool night air told her that, probably, the underground car park would be left, covered by a sweeping camera high up on the right of the opening. Quite where the right hand corridor went she had to find out.

Easing herself through the gap and closing the door quietly behind her, the Irishwoman headed right, hugging the wall. 50 yards brought her to a stairwell, having passed three doors and what must be a commercial lift. Certainly it wasn't just for people, much too large and with big up and over gates. It was time to get back and tell the rest of the Team.

Retracing her steps a sudden whirring showed up what Seeoh hadn't seen as she'd walked along the corridor. Two more CCTV cameras, traversing the width of the corridor, tracking each other. The girl carried on down the corridor, listening intently and counting seconds. As she got back to the tunnel entrance she heard the whirring again. 90 seconds, or there about. She must tell the others.

Problem! The door had an automatic lock and a swipe panel. Damnation! She hadn't spotted that when she had slipped through. Now all she could do was wait until the others came out, or she had to dispell her invisibility. Either way, she was stuck in no man's land all alone.

Unwilling to wait out in the open, Seeoh headed for the car park, looking for a place to hide when her spell went off, which would be soon.

After searching the forman and the sec guards Bluebird comes up with a couple of ID cards from Taxotere mining, the Ares Preditor that the guard had and some sweets.... Handing the sweets around to the others as a peace offering after getting so angry she gives the gun to the Orc and heads off down the tunnel following where Seeoh would have went.....

Moving the van down the street so that it was positoned where he could see the building and surrounding area... Ace hears the all too familier thudding of rotor blades as a Lone Star chopper circles overhead.

Pondering to himself he questions weather they are just protecting their servers inside the building or investigating the dull boom from the explosion a few minutes ago.

As soon as the chopper has left the vicinity a Conestoga trailblazer pulls out of the compound and after going through security heads off down the road in the opposite direction that the chopper went... As it passes the van Ace can see that this vehicle has been made as non-descript as possible, plain white tailier with a white cab... but looking closer he realises that the trailer might be armored...

"Eagle to Sparrow... um, shit is indeed going down, ladies and gentlemen. LS chopper overhead, some tractor-trailer truck just left the compound, looks like it was intentionally designed to be forgettable, and it may be armored. I'm more worried about the chopper though." He tells them where the van is so they can find him quick, it looks like it'll have to be a quick getaway.

Explosives... why did there have to be explosives...

Flip took the gun from bluebird, tucking it inside his overalls. More importantly, he took the sweet, which he popped in his mouth. As he was chewing, however, he heard Ace's warning and quickly swallowed before replying, "So long as they're heading away from the compound, I don't really mind. Keep your eyes peeled in case they come back, Eagle."

Flip looked around. "Seeoh?" There was no reply. "Seonid, are you back yet?" Still there was no reply. He turned to Codec and Bluebird. She must have gotten into some sort of trouble - she should be back by now. Let's check it out..."

And so the three of them moved to the door, ever so gently pushing it open just a crack...

Taking one of the treats, Codec puts it in his pocket, saving it for later. He follows Flip towards the door and holds his breath as he pushes it open.

Opening the door just a couple of centimeters Flip can see a camera covering the door...Telling the others what he can see Bluebird looks blank, "so...any ideas anyone?!"

"I'm sure that if we bust it, it'll trip the security. I dount that I can jack in down in this cave either..."

The car park was reasonably well lit from sodium spots set high up on the wall. Regularly spaced stanchions, supporting the building above, gave Seeoh plenty of cover between which to run. Needing to stay within line of sight of the door to the tunnel complex made her choice of final cover easy. A step van, parked directly below the camera she had spotted at the end of the corridor seemed sensible. It was only sweeping the access to the corridor and didn't depress low enough to gander at the van. Clambering beneath the vehicle, she tried to raise Flip, keeping her voice as near to a whisper as she could.

"Flip, this is Seeoh. I've locked myself out and I don't have a key to get back in." Static splashed into the Irish girls ears. "I'm not getting you, so just in case. The tunnel ends at a door, which is why I'm locked out. It needs a swipe card. Comes out into a corridor. Right goes to a stairwell but there are two spycams guarding the corridor. They sweep every 90 seconds. Left is the underground car park we need. I'm hiding under a van. You'll see it if you come through, it's right underneath a sweeper camera looking out into the car park and guarding the entrance to the corridor." Hope he heard that.

Now all she could do was wait.

As the Ork pushed the door slightly ajar static blasted in his ear-piece. The garbled voice of the Sorceress hissed into his ear. Flip turned up the gain, trying to unscramble words from white noise and listened intently to what she was saying. He turned to the other Team members, right behind him, increasing the gain on the transmit side of his transceiver so that, hopefully, Seeoh would get the same plan.

"There's two cameras right of here covering this door, but Seeoh says we've got a 90 second window. We use that window to sprint left for 20 yards to Seeoh's location where there's only a single camera with a limited field of view. Once we're there, we've got all the time in the world for Codec to splice into their system using that camera's hard wiring. It'll also give us the chance to scout the car park's viability as an exit."

Through the lessened static came Seeoh's voice. "Don't you mean `escape route'?"

Flip grunted at the interruption. "No, I mean `exit' - We're that good!" I hope!! Gotta be optimistic or Codec might take a powder. "Just give us the word when those cameras cross…" He looked at the other two "Unless either of you has a better idea?"

"Unless either of you has a better idea?"

Codec shook his head no. He just tried to mentally prepare himself to run like hell when they need to. The sooner I jack in, do my part and get out, the better he thought

From her vantage point under the step van, Seeoh can see both ways - into the underground car park and back down the long, well lit corridor to the flight of steps at it's far end, some 70yards away. Her green eyes have always been good, apart from always smiling like an Irish colleen's should, and she can make out the silvered shells of the two surveillance cameras covering the stairs.

Through the static, Flip's voice and his plan are fairly clear, so long as the three of them can run fast enough. But then, for an odd trivial piece of information, the time for the 100 metres is a tad over 9 seconds. Running 20 yards shouldn't take more than a few seconds, even for Codec weighed down by his deck. At least that's what Seeoh hopes.

Listening for the whirr of the cameras to stop as they complete their traverse to their crossover position at the mid-point of the stairs, it's time to signal the others to make their run in the five seconds it will take for the cameras to start moving again.

"Out and cross the corridor. Keep close to the wall and head round the back of the van when you get to it. I don't think the other cameras can `see' up this far, but it's best to be safe."

As soon as the signal is given, the trio run from behind the door into the carpark... keeping low so as to avoid the camera in the carpark. As they get to the van that Seeoh is apparently hidden near, Bluebird risks a quick glance over her shoulder to see where the camera is.... "I think we made it" she pants breathlessly. Making a mental note to get a hood, age old but still does the same trick!

Seeoh counted seconds, watching the door fling wide and her three compatriots come toward her at a dead run. Crossing the wide corridor and sticking to the far wall, the trio made it to the van as, with a clang, the door to the tunnel complex slammed shut.

"Get to the blind side." Seeoh said over the transceiver, knowing whispered instructions without it would be lost in the semi-panic of trying to get to the van without being spotted. Bluebird risks a quick glance over her shoulder to see where the camera is.... "I think we made it" she pants breathlessly. Making a mental note to get a hood, age old but still does the same trick!

Stage one of the plan had gone smoothly, the Team, reunited, used the step van for cover, pressing themselves into the walls as though cold concrete could envelop them and hide them from harm.

"Codec, now you earn your keep. That's our way out…" Flip nodded toward the underground car park, "But that's the way we have to go." He pointed along the corridor toward the stairs at the far end. "See if you can hard wire into that camera and change the viewpoint of the ones covering the stairs."

"There's 3 doors and a commercial sized lift along there Flip." Seeoh leant her head close to the Ork. "They're all on this side of the corridor but I didn't have time to check any of them, so I don't know where they lead."

Flip looked at the girl. "What the hell are we paying you for? You could have at least tried the doors." Anger tingeing his statement.

Seeoh, shocked at the venom in her friend's voice, was about to make excuses…"And set off god knows what alarms?" …when she realised Flip was worried as much as the rest of them. Plan A had already gone a bit pear shaped when their back entrance through the vent had led them into the middle of a fire fight. Now, without proper intell, they were making up the shredded tail of said Plan as they went. Improvisation's all well and good, but you can't keep doing it. Something's bound to go screwy. It all depended on Codec getting into the surveillance camera system and killing the feed to the ones covering the stairs.

Flip, looking at the decker with hope, mused. "'Course, if you don't manage it I suppose we could try for a seventy yard dash in 5 seconds."

Seeoh looked at the step van and had a brainstorm. "This van could do it."

The Ork looked at Sorceress. "Hot wire it? Why not. If we time it right we could get to the stairs in 5 seconds, but what then?"

"We drive close to the wall, starting the run just as the cameras start to traverse back. The way they're placed, neither of them will pick us up. They're set too high up and they're on a fixed arc. By the time they swing to where we've been we'll be under their line of sight, and we just drive straight up the stairs underneath them."

"It's an alternative, I suppose. But not one I'd choose. How 'bout it, Codec? Pleeese tell me you can do it."

Feeling immense pressure Codec thought quickly about what he could and could not do. "Uh...well...you see...it...um... I don't think I could really mess with the hardware. I need to jack in and then software is no problem..." Codec looks towards the ground, feeling that he just let down the whole team.