05:07:20 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - 134 S Wabash Ave, On the street in Mike's jeep

Locke turns to Nine.

"It has food, cameras, firearms, electronics, and ammunition. These are vital to the fortification of the bar. The two of us ought to be able to rig up some smart sentry guns from these materials."

Heading out, the jeep arrives at the Galyans within 10 minutes, although the roads are clear of people, the streets themselves have been heavily littered, and more than 1 burned wreckage of a once-car lays smoldering in the middle of the road, turned over by the mobs for no discernable reason other than a 'good time'. Pulling into the Galyans, you see that someone's beat you there, the windows are gone, shattered over the entirety of the parking lot, although the thick ruts of the LandRover's tires are enough to prevent harm to the tires from the shards of glass. Fortunately, the place isn't on fire, though you imagine people who have ransacked the place have taken most of the 'good stuff'. Entering the place you are shocked by the carnage, looks like a warzone, everything is wrecked and there are quite a few corpses around, quite a few with arrows sticking out of them. Looks like a gang war erupted inside the Galyans, though everything is quiet now.

God I fraggin hate you I wont even baptise my children you suck! Nick quickly takes a position at the front of the party, which was his battle position in the FRT team. "Well Mike ...um sweep the area before we try to scavange?" It has the ring of a question but the force of an order and with out waiting for much answer Nick will attempt to sweep counterclockwise from the entrance, his visor closes and the hiss of his respirator barely audable. He moves quickly never stoping in once place for long, circling an object if he wants to take more time to look at it. Switching from ultrasound, to thermo, to low light and back again every few seconds.
At each body he circles twice shotgun pointed at its head. "This ones dead no thermals." He continues walking his route..."This ones cold too......."

"Bloody hell." Say Mike as he looks over the carange, "Fraggin' animals in this town."

After a moment of silence, "Alright. Let's do this quick people. Follow behind Nick. Let him check each area before we get to it. Just to make sure. Grab what you think is necessary and bring it up here to the front. We can go over it as a group when we loaded it up. Think generators, water filters, any and all first aid supplies, construction supplies, ammo, if there's any left... Anything. Just be quick about it. Ana, you mind standing guard? Keep an eye on the wheels and our backs." He looks around at the carange, "Just incase whoever did this desides to come back..."

Mike then heads further into the building, keeping an eye out for gear, but mainly checking for any survivors amongst the bodies. Anyone who might need help.

Looking around at the carnage, he swears. "Frag. I guess I shouldn't be surpised, though, after last night."

When Mike states what to look for, Locke will add, "Don't forget the electronics, either."

He will then follow the others into the store, his senses alert for danger.

Joe enters the building and starts looking for useful stuff. Ammo would be a priority, he thinks, since what good does it do to get killed even on a full stomach and with electric lights up. He's also looking for tools of all kinds because they will come in handy for sure and they're not heavy nor do they take much space on the way back.

05:17:25 Tuesday 08 June 2064

Eric looked around at the disaster area. Insanity. That's what this is. Everyone started getting out of the Rover and Eric sat for a moment, stunned. This is real. I mean, this is really happening. He climbed, numbly, out of the vehicle. "Ah, Mike... I, ah, have someone load up the gear in hundred kilo pallets. I can, ah, ah," he looked around at the destruction shaking his head. "I can carry three, maybe four at a time." He stops, looks down at his hands. He stops, trots back to the Rover and retireves his shotgun. "I'm, ah gonna take a peek around the astral." His demeanor changes to one of resolve. As though having something to do seems to calm him. "I can cover more territory than Nick that way. I can also pick up someone hiding, or maybe invisibile. I'm certain I am not the only Mage to be caught up in this. I'll sit over there by the wall." He points to the wall just to the right of the shattered glass doors. "Ana, would you keep an eye on me. Just in case things get hairy?" He walks over to the wall and sits down. He closes his eyes and seems to fall asleep...

05:17:45 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Galyan's Sporting Goods

The car ride over is a heated discussion of what to salvage from Galyan's. Ammo, security electronics, generators, water purifiers, flashlights and food that keeps well are all on the high priority list. Armor and other weapons are right behind.

Ana's eyes widen as the Rover's pulls to a stop near the store, tires gritting on shattered CMU. The grim scene makes Ana's eyes widen. Widen and just as quickly go flat like only synthetic eyes can. She nods at Mike's request for recon and sketches a salute before turning to get the lay of the land. She brings up the Pullman chip and is syncing her location with the digital images on the chip, cyrillic text flying, when Eric suggests he take a spin around first. She doesn't pause a beat, "Sure thing. I'll keep an eye on you. You'll be able to see more, faster."

She looks to Mike, raising her eyebrows in a form of request, but already starting to secure the area around Eric as he settles himself and goes limp. << Make sure you guys pick up some walkie-talkies in there. And if we're planning on playing 'hotel' some sleeping bags or inflatable beds would be nice. >> She scans around, making short loops, long cape sweeping from her shoulders, << Oh, and if we have room, a bunch of those yoga ball things. I had an idea. >>

When Eric returns from his Astral jaunt Ana will make a spin of her own, checking out anything that Eric might have found worth reporting.

Scouting around this massive warehouse of goods, Eric notices a bizarre oddity behind the building. It appears that some Changelings, for lack of a better description, are assaulting a magically active human who is barely holding his own. There are 8 of them, and the comet seems to have given all 8 roach-like adjustments, from a chitinous shell to antanea and jagged legs. However, despite that, they still look more orc than bug.

Nick, Mike, John and Joe head into the building itself, stepping over the carnage that surrounds them. A look at the bodies suggest this may not have been gang related. Not only are the wounds unusual, but everyone seems to have been fleeing. Ragged rips through the flesh suggest that a large creature may have had its way here, and it does appear, much to the dismay of your suddenly less-than-hearty stomachs, that some of the flesh has been eaten off the cadavers.

The store itself ranks of filth and decay. Like it served as a refuge for refuse for days instead of hours. Yet sitting in the middle of the store is the only untouched item within. It's the latest 2065 Hummer SUV, capable of seating 6 humans, and with a tail like a pickup truck. The mother of all SUVs.

05:19:30 Tuesday 08 June 2064- Galyan's Sporting Goods

"It seems clear im getting nothing in the building still," Nick seems to relax a bit and picks up some solar generators and starts putting them in the pickup back of the hummer. "And look a Hummer damn we got lucky good call coming here Mike." God your not so bad you sure frizzaged these poor bastards but your ok in my book. I didn't mean it god, I'll baptise the lil'uns. Snapping back to the moment Nick looks for other entrances and exits to the building in case they get ambushed leaving. "It Clear out there NINE?"

Locke grabs a shopping trolley and begins loading it with electronics. Motors, cameras, lowlight scopes, paintball guns for future modification, ammo, palm computers, flash cards... the essentials for building a smart sentry gun. And he'll get enough parts to build enough guns to have two guns covering any possible avenue of approach to the bar. He then grins and grabs some wire. It might come in handy to electrify the fence. He also grabs a few sets of security cameras, maglocks, keypads, and other security items, as well as several nifty Palm Secretary/GPS combos, then returns to the SUV and begins unloading it all. He will then go and grab a tarp from the camping section. He doesn't want their ill-gotten goods falling off the back of the truck...

05:05:25 Tuesday 08 June 2064
Able makes his way to a small empty apartment on the 3rd floor, making a noticable effort to avoid most of the people in the bar room. He leaves the suitcase and pack before returning and joining the people departing with out saying so much as a word.
If someone had told me two days ago that I would be assisting in an effort to loot corperate properity because the army had walled my city in, I would have wondered what the hell there where chipping. But here I am.
05:19:30 Tuesday 08 June 2064
My dear god... look at them...they never had a chance.
Able steps over the shattered glass and ravaged bodies before the stench of death regesters though his resperator. While the rest are getting the high tech survivle gear, Able creeps to gather addational extras. A pair of deluxe gun cleaning kits, 'Camelback' water system, and a big marine VHF radio. On his way back to the truck parked outside he notices a half a million CP spot light. He loads the 3 remaining undamaged ones along with the rest of the borrowed equipment into the back of the Rover.
Able takes a patrol post in the open street on the far side of the truck, scanning for any other signs of life.

05:18:46 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Inside Galyan's Sporting Goods

Wow, a single day without facilitation and humanity does this to itself. Jesus.

Gnat tears his eyes away from the mutilated corpses strewn across the floor of the sporting goods store and grabs a lone shopping cart discarded near the front entrance. Wheeling it down the aisles, he starts browsing the shelves for any equipment that might come in handy in the uncertain future. After making a circuit around the ground floor, he returns to the jeep loaded with a medkit, a few survival knives and multi-tools, several handheld transceivers, a gun maintenance kit, a bunch of nanny cameras disguised as stuffed animals of various types, a portable MAD stick, a pair of lowlight binoculars, a few armored vests, five boxes of ammunition, and a large assortment of batteries to keep everything running. To top it all off, he had tossed in a Robosapien™ remote control robot just for shits and giggles. Gnat dumps everything into the rover and hops aboard the hood to await the return of the others.

Not finding any survivors Mike begins gathering up a few items. MedKits are the big thing he's looking for, as good and as many as possible. After that he hits the home improvement section. Hammers, axes, nails, screws, rope, chain, whatever he can get.

On his way back up to the front he grabs a bunch of walki-talkies and chargers. He also looks for blank optichips, entertainment chips (to keep the kids busy), and other "distraction/entertainment" games, devices, and toys. That should help break the monotiny of waiting around for the families at the pub.

He takes his stuff to the front of the store and with the help of Gnat loads in into the Land Rover, and while waiting for the others to finish up he lights up a smoke and takes up a guard position near the vehicle.

05:18:22 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Behind Galyan's Sporting Goods

Eric sat down next to the wounded building. He crinkled his nose as a rather unpleasant odor blew past his nose. This isn’t going to be fun He calmed himself and concentrated on a tree across the street. Its boughs, struck by the morning light, seemed to shine with an inner light. The wind wound its way through the maze of leaves and branches, carrying to Eric a new smell, a living smell. His senses grew more acute. He could near the sands shifting beneath his hand as he tried for a more comfortable position. The grating between his jacket and the block wall sent a shiver up Eric‘s spine. He smelled and tasted death in the air, a stale, bitter thing that made him think of his family. Take care of them until I get back, Ed. I will be back soon.[I] A bitter pang of regret washed over Eric and, for a moment, he nearly lost his concentration. [I]You have a job to do. Just do it. Heh, maybe I can find a pair of Nike 2064s for Alexander.

Finally, his vision exploded in a kaleidoscope of color. Eric reeled under the oppressive pall of emotion and death that hung about the place. He fought against his instincts to retreat to the other world, the one that didn’t have such a good memory. He staggered to his feet, fighting through the wave nausea, and turned to look at his meat body. His own body looked muted, unlike those he had assensed. Don’t worry old friend, I won’t be long. Eric surveyed the area and found the only person he could see was Nine. Her aura blazed with worry and frustration. Deep purples and blues swirled around her in a torrent. Hold on Nine.

As quick as thought, Eric moving around the building, looking for any sign that they weren’t alone here. obviously we weren’t the only ones with this idea. But what’s with the pall of death hanging on everything? He moved past the loading dock, searching event the dumpsters for signs of life. The large overhead doors were still closed which gave Eric reason to think maybe the larger items the team would be looking for might still be inside. Something, not quite a sound, more like a feeling caught Eric‘s attention. Something was happening behind the building. Senses taught, straining to catch some clue as to what was going on Eric moved to the corner and peered around. The sight both shocked and intrigued him. He watched as eight… orcs, for lack of a better description, took turns attacking a young(?) man. They seemed to have undergone SURGE. Eric seemed to recall the random nature of the phenomenon and wondered how eight, similar mutations occurred so uniformly. The man was awakened, though without a better look Eric couldn’t tell what tradition. He watched as the man fended off one attack only to be caught by another. It wouldn’t be long before he tired and made a fatal mistake. Eric took a moment to look closely at the attackers, information was vital, and the team need all it could get.

Having gathered what he needed Eric quickly moved into the building to find Nick and the others. The wave of death, muted by the thick concrete block wall slammed into Eric, nearly causing him to faint. He struggled through the waves, shimmering like heat off an asphalt parking lot on a hot day, of emotion in his search for Nick. When he came upon Nick, he was standing over the mutilated corpse of a human male. The body had been… eaten, gnawed upon as an animal would. The aura radiating from the masticated body was unlike any Eric had ever seen. What in the nine hells is going on here? Eric concentrated and manifested in front of Nick. Careful not to startle him, Eric manifested slowly. When he was able he said “Nick! It’s me Eric. Look there’s a guy behind the building being attacked by eight very strange looking orcs. He’s holding his own but it won’t last. Get the others and meet me there. I am going to try and throw them into confusion until you can there. Straight back that way,” Eric points toward a corner of the building “is a door on the east(?) side. Take a left and they’re around the corner. Hurry!” Eric disappears and races back to assist the beleaguered man.

05:18:47 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Behind Galyan's Sporting Goods

Mishka was tired! He'd been running most of the night, that is, when he wasn't hiding in some dark corner to avoid the attention of either his pursuers, or that of the various roving groups that had become more frequent as daybreak grew closer.

Most of that time he had been carrying Tash, although she had done more than her share, and had kept up well enough for a child her age. She was spent though, and he knew that they had to find shelter soon.

But the pair's luck had finally run out behind the big building.

Now Mishka is standing with his back to the wall facing eight of the strangest orcs he has ever seen in his life. These creatures has a different 'glow' to them than any he'd ever encountered. He wasn't even sure if they really were orcs at all. To his left is an overturned trash can, under which his little sister hides, clinging to a small canvas rucksack, and biting on the strap like Mishka told her to help keep herself quiet.

Fighting is the one thing the young man knows well, and he quickly braces himself for the coming battle as he assesses his opponents with a trained eye. He'd never backed away from a challenge so far, especially in The Pit, and now that a confrontation was inevitable, he wasn't about to shy away. Feinting an attack to his right, he immediately switches to a full out assault against the opponent to his left. Raising his right arm to ward off the expected blow from that direction, Mishka drives his gloved left fist straight towards the orc-bug's deformed face.

05:18:47 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - In Front of Galyan's Sporting Goods

Meanwhile...

Ana swallows nervously and paces back and forth, switching her vision mods periodically and glancing over at Eric's slumped form. Man, that's just creepy. Her long tail twitches as she makes a rare misstep. Pot calling kettle, come in kettle...

She makes her sweeps, checking the street, the skies the grates where rainwater disappears under the streets. A few adjustments to the Pullman overlay and she's looking at just where those waste water grates go and where the power on Galyan's is supposed to be and much, much more. She turns sharply on her heel and makes another pass.

<< Don't you boys forget my yoga balls. >>

The four men move towards the center of the massive store, it's a wreck. Finding anything in here will require more than taking a shopping cart to aisle 9, it will take climbing over, through and around the aisles and digging to find what you're looking for. You barely begin moving over the piles when Eric appears in front of Nick, Nick! It’s me Eric. Look there’s a guy behind the building being attacked by eight very strange looking orcs. He’s holding his own but it won’t last. Get the others and meet me there. I am going to try and throw them into confusion until you can there. Straight back that way,” Eric points toward a corner of the building “is a door on the east(?) side. Take a left and they’re around the corner. Hurry!” Eric disappears and races back to assist the beleaguered man.

Ana meanwhile begins combing the area, looking at the grates which have all been removed. There's a water line big enough to walk through going straight under the building. If this were a run, that pipe would have made an great back-door into the underground warehouse housed beneath the building.

As Eric leaves the building, the more perceptive of the group believe they can hear the skittering of something further in the building. Barely perceptable, and inaudible without hearing enhancements. The stench definitely strengthens deeper into the building, and the darkness within looms dangerously.

Mishka holds the 8 bug-men at bay. Performing feints that would kill other men effortlessly, these bulky bugmen are just too fast. They avoid with amazing ease the feeble feints and thrusts of Mishka's fists. Mishka is not only outnumbered, and only his martial prowess gives him any advantage over the lengthier reach of his opponents. To make matters worse, they seem to be trying to draw Mishka away from Tash, offering attacks of oppurtunity that would draw Mishka a few steps away from the easier prey.

When Locke sees the ghostly image of Eric, and hears about the ongoing fight, Locke's boosted reflexes and synaptic accelerators comes into play, the andrenaline pumping through his enhanced system bringing everything to a crawl as he sprints to the doorway and stands next to it, gun held at the ready, waiting for the others to arrive.

As fast as he can, Joe runs towards the door, pulling down his helmet and readying his rifle. Whenever he will be within sight of the bugs, he'll slow down as to make minimal noise, he'll try to find cover and maybe concealment, and then start shooting at them with his Remington.

As usual, before his first shot, he'll instinctively scan the area to plan an escape in case they come running at him.

Mike will also head out back, he is readying his rifle, but he will not be so quick at shooting unarmed Orc's (he's no racist). A few warning shots and a yell to "get out of here or the next one's in your head" will be the first thing. Hopefully seeing the 4 fully armed and armored men will drive them off.

If not, well...

05:18:56 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Outside Galyan's Sporting Goods

Gnat's eyes sparkle with an inquisitive interest as he jumps off the hood of the rover, draws his gun and shadows Mike as the dwarf begins to make his way to the back of the building.

"I got your back, pops," he says in a voice so soft that it threatened to be swept away by the smallest gust of wind.

05:19:04 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Outside Galyan's Sporting Goods

Without going out of sight of Eric, Ana backs against a wall, hand flat and peers down the dim tunnel. << Guys, I found an entrance of some sort. Looks like a loading dock or something. May be good stuff dow -- Guys? >>

She hears a burst of static chatter and catches a glimpse of Mike and Gnat as they dash around the corner. Bah! What's that. She jiggles her ear bud. Damn thing.

<< What was that Nick? I didn't get that. Repeat. I didn't get the last message. >>

She trots over to Eric, hand resting lighting on the gun at her waist. Ana stoops, cloak flaring around her and Eric protectively. Hoping that it is entirely uneccessary, Ana feels Eric's throat - checking for a pulse. She begins to work out how she might move him if it comes to that. She spots a discarded palette by the loading bay. That'll do. Hope you don't mind splinters.

With Gnat and Mike taking the rear, the 5 team mates begin a dash through the darkness and debris towards the door to the east. Almost ignoring the scurrying sounds which increase, as the 5 make their mad dash, until out of the corner of everyone's eyes movement in the shadows makes it all to obvious they have some malign company within the store. Jumping from obstacle to obstacle, John is the first to the door, and slams into it shoulder first, causing a burst of light to fill this part of the store. Of course, the noise of 3 Heavy Security Armoured men running at top speed through an obstacle course unstable merchandise was enough noise to give anyone warning that they were coming, and as the door burst open, you see that you are completely surrounded by strange bug-like creatures who have chased you at a speed greater than your own through the store. Gnat and Mike appear to be their primary target currently, and have no chance of making it to the door in time. A young woman is crouched at the door on the ground, a man defending her valiantly from even more of the strange creatures.

Ana hears nothing over the comm, and doubts that anyone heard her. The water drainage pipes seem relatively quiet, and Eric seems to be breathing normally. However a clutter of noise is suddenly heard in the distance. Could be across the street, maybe up the street, or maybe even on the other side of the building, hard to tell with the echoes and no direct LOS to the sound.

Mishaka hears a large ruckus behind him, "Get away from the door", he yells to Tash, though she appears to ignore him in her state of shock. There's no way to move her and hold the 8 'things' at bay at the same time. It's with no small amount of relief to see Power Armoured Men come 'falling' through the door, but the relief is short-lived as behind the man, and his comrades, the stench and shadows of more 'things' is noticed. Still, the ruckus was not only enough to halt the 8 current attackers for a moment, but introduced more friendlies to the fight, perhaps now the out-numbering will be more bearable.

As soon as Locke sees the beings, he will dispassionately open up with his HVAR at the closest, as he perceives the smartlink reticle glowing in the center of its chest. If it doesn't go down, he will fire another burst into its chest, and if it does, he'll shoot at the next closest.

“Nick! It’s me Eric. Look there’s a guy behind the building being attacked by eight very strange looking orcs. He’s holding his own but it won’t last. Get the others and meet me there. I am going to try and throw them into confusion until you can there. Straight back that way,” Eric points toward a corner of the building “is a door on the east(?) side. Take a left and they’re around the corner. Hurry!” Eric disappears and races back to assist the beleaguered man.

Eric travels up through the roof, thankful that the wall mutes the “stench” within the building. Moving to a point on the roof putting him over the combat. He watches the fluid grace of the young man as he struggles to keep the orcs at bay. Eric waits for an opportunity, a moment when the largest number of them are separate from the young man. Maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll get them all. Eric gathers the mystic energies around him. Like a whirl pool in a lake, ethreal energies poured through Eric’s hands. The chaotic eddies dancing around his fingers, washing them in multi-hued light, coalesced into a pattern. Eric exulted in the surge of power flowing through his hands. Eric mumbled the words of power, barely a whisper, and the pattern of protection shot out, arcing down to form a dome over the SURGED orcs. The astral barrier flickered once and with an audible THRUMM, solidified over the orcs. That should hold them Eric thought.



It was then that Nick and the rest of the group burst through the door, followed by more of the creatures. Eric sighed, It’s never as simple as that, I should have known. Eric would muse later on the fact that each of these “orcs” had similar mutations. For the moment he dropped through the ceiling and went looking for the last guy in line. He stopped in his tracks at the sight inside the building. Ten or more of the creatures were crowding to get out the door. Eric quickly created an astral barrier between them and the door.



Eric floated near the ceiling, waiting to see what unfolded next.

Gnat spins around as soon as he hears the metallic footsteps behind him, bringing his pistol up in one smooth motion. His eyes widen in surprise when he finds himself staring at a pack of the ugliest faces he had ever seen in his life. Instinctively sensing their deadly intent, his wrist snaps back as he pulls the trigger on his gun, firing a burst at the nearest mutant. He pivots around and continues running to the door without even bothering to ascertain that his shot had dropped the strange creature.

"Guys, we've got company behind us!"

At Gnat's warning, Joe turns around to see the wierd looking creatures coming their way.

Without hesitation Joe levels his rifle toward one of the things on which he has a good line of sight, takes aim straight at its eye, and shoots with intention of killing. Right after, he tries to shoot at the next one coming.

Dammit. Where is that coming from? And where did Mike and that other guy... Gnat... run off to. Ana growls under her breath. She scents the air, hoping to get a whiff of where the guys might have run off to and immediately wishes she hadn't, remembering the corpses she'd glimpsed inside Galyans. There it is again! She pauses for a split second as the scuffling reaches her ears. She squints cocking her head trying to get a fix on the sound.

Eric is too big for her to carry and too vulnerable to leave. She drags him to the palette and using that as a ramshackle travois, begins to, as gracefully as she might (READ: Not at all) drag Eric toward where she thinks the sound is coming from. The sounds seemed to be coming from here...

<< Ana here. I can't get through the comms. Repeat. Ana here. I can't get through the comms. What is the situation? Come back. >>

If Locke hears Ana's transmission (OOC: I'm a little confused as to how these things work), he will reply with the following:

<<Locke here. We appear to have encountered some hostiles. Keep the mage safe.>>

She should be able to easily hear the sounds of his burst fire, regardless.

Eric summons forth the power of the Astral, and begins weaving a barrier around the 8 strange buglike menaces combating the new stranger. Although impossible to capture all of them within the barrier, the barrier does encase 6 of the strange creatures who immediately look at it and prepare to attack the weak barrier.


Gnat is the first to notice the bugs that have encircled the team and reacts with a quick burst fire from his Ruger Thunderbolt BurstFire Pistol, but faster than imagineable, the creature moves to the side, causing the 3-fire burst to slide right past him without hitting. Shocked, the huge Orc opts for the bettor part of valor, and heads for the door, dodging what attacks he can on the way.

John Locke, reacting more to the sudden burstfire than to the warning itself spins around, gun in hand and delivers a powerful shot at the closes of the creatures, the precision is perfect, despite the speed that the creature moves at, the shot slams powerfully into the shoulder of it. Another perfectly fired burst, and the oozing creature falls to the floor, a clittering of teeth marking its passing.

Joe reacts just seconds after John, and spins around with his sporting rifle, firing a shot centermass of the bug coming for him. It's not even a sporting chance, the creature has a hole the size of a Troll's head, center mass, amd goes down for the count.

2 Bugs down, their turn to attack. With skillful precision which indicates great intelligence, they seperate Mike and Gnat from the rest, Gnat almost falling into the arms of one as he tries to dive for the door. 6 of the 12 within the store seem held back by some force, but are scraping at the air in a quick attempt to remove the barrier. The remaining 6 are now surrounding the 2 victims, though Gnat seems to be holding his own fairly well, dodging and avoiding too much contact. Mike seems frozen, perhaps in fear, though, and falls to his knees.

Meanwhile outside Mishka continues his mostly defensive stance, not realizing that the numbers have dropped from 8 to 2, and thus losing his wonderful oppurtunity for attack.

Anna looks at the pallet, a discarded piece of trash, and then at the truck Eric is laying in. They keys are still in the ignition, and it seems like a pity to waste such great tires in order to pull someone on a pallet.

Locke continues shooting autofire bursts at the bugs closest to him, the roar of the firing almost deafening as the explosive ammo blasts the flesh it hits to bits.

Eric felt the barrier outside fall. Damn He raised a second barrier in a dome over the bugs struggleing to beat down the wall he placed between them and his team. When did we become a "team?" Gripping the strands, Eric slipped outside where the eight creatures had been whittled down by two.



Eric, satisfied that the creatures would be a moment, drifted therough the wall ot see how his "Team" was doing. He say six of the eight things either dead or expiring messily. Focusing his will, Eric manifested his astral form on the material plane. "DON'T WORRY, GUYS!" He yelled over the gun fire. He pointed in the direction of the door. Where the orcs were pounding on the barrier. "I just saved a bunch of money on my health insurance by switching to the astral!"

The sound of gunshots, muffled through the plasti-cmu walls reach Ana's augmented ears and are shunted by sophisticated biometrics and electronics into a range that leaves her heart pounding, but at least not her ears ringing.

She glances up, throat tightening and sees the door of Mike's truck standing open chiming its distate at Mike's sudden flight. The keys! They're there. She imagines herself folding her long frame into the dwarf modded 'Rover and sighs. Eric, pal... she grabs the slumped mage under his armpits -- Boy... you sure don't look this heavy -- and drags him bodily to the 'Rover, his boots hopping over bits of trash and gravel. She wrestles open the rear driver's side door and pulls Eric up into the back seat -- No yoga balls... An I talking to myself? -- and backs her way out of the opposite side as she makes sure all his limbs are in. She slips into the passenger side, pulling her cloak in so it doesn't slam in the door. She palms the 'red' lock-em-up button and the doors shut. The chiming stops. Oh, thank heaven. She turns sideways, angling her long legs from the passenger seat to work the pedals and grabs the steering wheel with one hand, giving the key a twist with the other. She dials the rearview mirror to suit her and catches a glimpse of Eric. Shaking her head turns her eyes to the direction the gunfire seemed to come from.

Here we go... She presses the accelerator.

Joe keeps shooting at the bugs, choosing the ones closest to either Mike or Gnat so that others might be scared to get closer. He's quite calm and focused, work as usual.

Taken totally off guard by the quick reactions of his opponents, Mishka quickly back-peddled into a more defensive stance. He was well aware that it was only a matter of time before he missed a block.

Almost surprised once again, he just managed a warning shout before the door burst open and spilled a group of people from the big building, in flight from another similar group of orc-bugs. The ensuing eruption of gunfire almost overwhemed Mishka, confusing him, and in a way terrifying him even more than he was already.

His main concern was Tash, and as he warded off another series of blows, Mishka worked his way back towards a protective stance over his little sister. He was only vaguely aware of the fact that he was aided greatly by the appearance of strange weakly glowing walls that seemed to momentarily hinder the creatures.



As Mishka took up his guard position, a slowly growing awareness of the changing situation worked to quell his fear, leaving only his concern for Tash to contain his long-brewing anger and, although he would never admit it, battlelust.

Inspired by the proof of his opponents' mortality, the big blond focuses his attention on the next attack, determined to take the fight to these hideous thing while he had the chance.

"Fagging hell!" Mike yells as he keeps backing up to the door, spraying surpressing fire at the... whatever the hell they were that was coming towards the group. This wasn't good

His instincts, honed on battlefields across the globe, take over. He begins yelling commands to the rest of the team as they try and reach the backdoor, and hopefully better cover.

Editing in process

Gnat ducks agilely as one of the creatures takes a swing at him and sweeps his leg around in an arc, knocking his foe to the ground. He dives to the left, rolls, and comes up on one knee. His gun arm snaps up and his pistol roars as he opens fire on the freakish orc.

"Suck on that, Marvin!"

Finally crowded together in the frame of a door, the gunfire seems sporadic and almost pointless, however with the guidance of Mike, and his carefully laid supressive fire, the 10 things in the store are held at bay, though not injured. Suddenly, in a burst of movement that rival'd even the bugs, Gnat performs a quick kick-n-fire that takes SERIOUS-ly takes out another one of the bugs, however they are unable to press their attack, and seem to be waiting for some sort of opening now that their own mortality has been made apparent by the 2 already dead and the 1 heavily wounded.

Meanwhile Mishka attacks the 2 unhindered bugs, finding it much easier now that he has backup to watchi his back, and although he doesn't gain an advantage from their support, the opponents lose theirs completely. With a few lucky punches, one of the things finds itself SERIOUS-ly crippled, its arms hanging useless at its side as it tries to bite in return. The other one attacks in full, injuring Mishka LIGHT-ly as it finds a spot on his shoulder to rip the flesh from.

On the Astral, the barriers were all defeated, and as the 6 bugs prepared to attack en-masse on the vulnerable Mishka, Eric quickly throws another barrier up, again blocking their actions.

Able continues his race around the side of the building, as he comes around the first corner, the sound of the Land Rover's engines starting up catches his ears.

Joe meant to shoot at them carefully, but it seemed that the bugs were approaching their victims a bit too fast so he had to shoot quickly every time they were getting too close and might have had a chance to seriously hurt Gnat or Mike.

Since the bugs seem more scared now, Joe decides to actually shoot at the bugs with the purpose of killing them.

Gouts of automatic gunfire echo off the concrete buildings, turning the already hellish sound into a catastrophic symphony of destruction. All set against the eerily silent city. Other then the supersonic reports of weapon fire, all that Able could hear was his feet slapping on the pavement. He neared the corner of the building where the combat was taking place in time to hear the Land Rover shifting into second gear as Ana rounded the corner gaining quite fast.
Able takes a partial step, leaving him with some cover as he assessed the situation.

Un-known defendant, 8+ possible assailants, 6 appear to be barriered. Friendlys backing out door spraying into structure, presumably engaging additional hostiles. I’m so boned...

Able drops to a knee, takes a precise bead on the monstrosity beginning re-engagement with the John Doe, and leads 6 rounds into it.

As the chaotic battle rages on around him, Gnat dodges and weaves, taking whatever shots he can at the twisted orks who seem to be driven by bloodlust alone. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices that one of the vile creatures engaging the mysterious large man that they had come to rescue had drawn blood in his opponent. Taking careful aim so as not to injure the stranger, the young man raises his pistol. Before he can fire, his quarry is blown back as a barrage of lead from somewhere outside brutally rips through its body.

Who the hell is that out there?

Gnat barely has time to complete his thought before another bugman launches itself at him. Sidestepping to avoid its attack, his gun simultaneously flies up and opens fire directly into the monster's face.

Locke continues the rain of bullets from his HVAR, trying to blow the bugs to bits. As he fires he watches the bullets in the clip dwindle to zero, and sends the command to eject the magazine as soon as the first click is heard.

Mike keeps laying down the surpressive fire and yelling commands, trying to get the team outside, where they have a better chance at picking off the enemy one at a time, as they come out the door after them.

Mishka recoils in pain as the strange creature's teeth close over his shoulder, and he flails around wildly to dislodge his attacker. His jaw clenches as the young man visibly steels himself against the pain of the injury. The confusion of the battle recedes as the big blond feels himself getting caught up in the familiar thrill of battlelust. All but ignoring the surrounding chaos, Mishka proceeds to press his attack against the nearest orc-bug.

05:21:16 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - Outside Galyan's Sporting Goods

Ethereal energies poured through Eric's hands. Struggling to keep barriers up between the orc-bugs and the group he pushed harder and harder. Just a little more... Fire exploded in Eric's left hand as the magical energies scoured a hole through his hand. "Ahhhhrg," his voice echoed and reverberated in the space around him, adding his pain to a place already flooded with way too much emotion. Stupid! What good are you going to be to the group if you fry yourself, huh? Eric steeled himself and focused past the pain to the problem at hand. He began trowing up barriers between the orc-bugs and his group. They needed time to rally and Eric had to give it to them...



Eric stood under the onslaught of astral energy pouring through his body, threatenin to scour him from existence and scatter his essence across the enitre plane. Keeping a firm hold on his spells [b]Eric[/] waited for the orc-bugs to tear them down.

With Mike keeping them at bay, the rest of the team begins finding it a bit easier to pick them off one by one. The remaining 10 in the store continue to try pressing their attack, but Joe quickly takes out 2 in quick succession, with Gnat taking out one with 3 carefully laid shots from his smallarm. Abel and John receive quite a shock though, their bursts seem to have a much reduced effect than expected. Despite John actually emptying an entire clip into one of the bugs, it isn't until the clip is nearly empty that the creature finally falls. The creature Abel shot at seems to hardle notice the shot, although it does seem to have had a MODERATE effect on his attack.

Mishka finds the battle much easier suddenly, and presses the attack, causing the previously injured thing to fall, it's eyes now lifeless, before the other non-barrier'd bug can attack, Mishka drops him as well with precision strikes to the throat, abdomen, and kidney areas.

Ana notices Eric suddenly bleeding profusely from nose and mouth. Whatever's going on with him, it's not good, he looks SERIOUSly wounded, as if someone just took a blender to his insides. However, the barrier around the outside bugs does seem to be holding.

If one could sweat in astral space, Eric would be covered in it. The strain of erecting barriers was taking its toll. Already, he bore burns on both hands, a long dark streak up his right arm and his left eye ached something fierce. They hadn't been able to batter all of his barriers down, though it seemed only a matter of time. Accept your victories as they come he thought.

Mike's Rover skiddea round the corner of the building and Eric sensed that his body was near. Thanks for not leaving "me" behind, Ana. He drifted over to the vehicle and maintained watch over his barriers. As the barrier was breached, Eric tried to put another in its place.



With the last barrier's collapse, Eric crawled back into his body. The raw aches in astral space became dull, thobbing ones in his meat body. The back of his hands were blistered and he could feel blood oozing under his shirt sleeve. He sat up in the Rover, wincing at the pain in his back, and saw the orc-bugs renewing their attack. Once again he summoned his will and reached out for one of the attackers pressing the young man. With a flicking motion, Eric tried to throw one of them high into the air...

Seeing the ineffectiveness of his HVAR bursts, he jettisons the gyroharness, and extends a pair of long, sharp blades from each forearm. He then proceeds to charge the bugs, his spurs slicing in a dance of death.