Shadowrun: The Wages of Sin

[Josh]

"Keep me informed," he said. He was still a couple of hours out, which the rigger would know quite well.

He cranked the music back up, shifting his meatbody slightly in the seat and sighing contentedly.

[Cynical Cat]

"Hey Mace."

The street samurai looked out the noodleshop window as he twirled the noodles with his free hand. A lot of pedestrians and some teen gangers. Nothing special. "Here," he answered.

"I've got what you're looking for. It's a fragging mess chummer. I'm not sure who hit you."

"There security communications?"

"Oh, they did it all right, but no one's listed as authorizing it beyond their security vice pres. And the way they burned resources to get stuff done, he did it on some higher up's call. No record of which."

"Damn. Only a few people will have that much juice. Get me there names."

"Alright."

[Cynical Cat]

The Windy City was superficially unchanged, except for the wall and watch towers surrounding it. Those were mostly unmanned now, slowly decaying. The city was battered and scarred by the plague of insect spirits that had ravaged the city and the heavy firepower that had finally scurged their nests. It was still a functional transportation hub, albeit on a reduced scale. Corporations and people were trickling back to a city which had a police department and an army presence, but which really depended on Knight Errant to keep things running. Still, there were a lot of damaged and abandoned buildings, although a few were being repaired and renovated.

And no one really believed all the bugs were gone.

[Josh]

He surveyed the city through the external video feeds, giving a mental whistle.

Better Chicago than Seattle, he thought with brutal pragmatism. Go Ares.

[B4UTRUST]

As the helo approached the hanger and no signs of trouble had shown themselves Chase eased up further on the throttle, bringing it back to taxi speeds, letting the rotors die down. He hit the brakes and parked it in front of the hanger and jacked out of the helo.

"We'll we're down boys and girls. I'm going to go see if I can get the hanger doors open and see what we're working with. You all stay here."

Chase opened the door on the side of the helo and carefully got out and ran to the cover of the hanger. Once there he found the access door. The lock had been busted, as had most of the door it looked like. He drew out his gun and disengaging the safety with a mental command through his smartgun link. A target recticle appeared superimposed over his vision. He crouched down and grabbed the handle, jerking it outwards. He did a quick glance in then sighed in relief. He stood and ducked his way inside. A beam had fallen and hit the door, busting it open.

He whistled as he surveyed the hanger. The back half was totaled, the roof had collapsed inwards, making a nice pile of rubble. He looked around and found off to the side the main power breaker. He walked over to it and turned it on, hoping.

Sadly, it was not to be though. The power came on for a second, flooding the hanger with halogen light. Then the light flickered, faded and died, not to come on again. It appeared that in the collapse several key power cables had been severed. It would take a mammoth effort to get power back to operational in here. Which meant he couldn't use the gear motors to open the hanger doors. But the plus side was there looked like there would be enough room for him to pull the helo inside and close the doors again if he did some careful manuvering and made sure the rubble wasn't going to shift or the rest of the roof come down.

Sighing with the knowledge that this was going to be a pain in his hoop he walked to the split in the hanger doors and found the break mechanisms and disengaged them. Leaning against one side and pushing backwards he slowly managed to get the door rolling on its track. He switched to pushing against the thick padded section that seperated the two doors and pushed, squating down and pushing back with his legs. He stood up before the door hit the end of the track. The stoppers caused the door to roll backwards about a foot and then stop. He followed suit with the other side until both doors were all the way open.

Glancing around again Chase walked back to the helo and climbed back in.
"Well here's the update. The hanger is empty, more or less. The helo will fit in there if I'm careful not to hit the rubble at the back. No power and I'm guessing the other utilities will be cut as well. No signs of anyone out here but us at the moment. But that doesn't mean that there's not someone here, or that there's a bug nest they missed. I'm going to put us into the hanger and then find a fuel truck. If either of you are good at wiring you might want to see if you can restore power enough to get the doors shut again. Unless you guys wanna push them shut that is, those things are fraggin heavy."

Chase slid back into the pilot's seat, manually pushing the throttle forward to taxi speeds and releasing the brakes. The helo moved slowly forward towards the hanger. As they were getting ready to enter it he swung the tail around and caddy-corned the helo into the hanger, leaving it with its nose facing out. He engaged the brakes again and started killing power to the engines, APUs and lights. He left the battery on and keyed up the radio and put it through to the SUV.
"Hey chummer, we're at Midway. We're parked on the far side of the field in a hanger. You should be able to pin point us with the autonav. It looks clean so far but I'm not totally trusting it. I'm going to find us some fuel and get us ready. You can get here by the taxiways and runways but it'll be faster if you off road it. I've got the others working on trying to restore power to this place. See you in a bit."

[Josh]

"Have Wraith snoop around and make sure there's no signs of habitation anywhere," he sent back. "Sounds like the sort of place smugglers might like to squat. I'll be there in..." there was a microsecond pause. "Forty minutes, give or take depending on the suitability of the route in."

[B4UTRUST]

"I'll see if he'll do it. And yeah you're right. We'll keep an eye open. Most of the roads looked good from what I saw but there's a lot I couldn't and didn't see so who knows. Out."

Chase switched off the radio and went back into the cargo area again.
"Hey Wraith, the man wants you to snoop around and see if you can find any signs of habitation anywhere. I'm gonna go get started on getting this baby refueled."

Chase dropped out of the helo once more and exited the hanger, heading towards the fuel bowser he saw earlier. When he got to it he checked the gauge. It was still half full which was good. He found the brakes and started pushing it towards the hanger. Once there he began to hook it up to the fuel tanks before turning it on. He went inside the helo to watch the fuel gauges and stared at them as they crept slowly upwards.

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith nodded and slid a magizine into his Colt M22A4 and hopped out of the helo. He walked slowly around the chopper and walked towards the back of the darkened hangar. While he walked, he flicked on the IR laser aim device on his rifle and activated his internal night vision, allowing him to see the beam. So far, so quiet, but this place had plenty of good hiding spots for someone to play hide and shoot-you-in-the-ass.

[Cynical Cat]

Wraith slipped carefully from hanger to hanger. No sign of smuggler activity or much animal life. Too little sign of the later. He wished he had better weapons than a laser sighted Colt. It was a capable gun, but not one that he had spent a long time with or that was smart linked. He would make do.

Something ahead. Near the side door of the nearest hanger. Quiet. Almost cat quiet. The scrape of something hard on concrete, just inside.

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith let the Colt lay at his side while he drew his pistol from its holster and made sure a round was chambered. Wraith was silenty cursing the fact that he hadnt had a chance to get his rifle set just the way he liked it. He reshouldered his rifle and crept towards the door. He reached the door and moved up against the wall next to it. The door was open a few inches and Wraith pulled out a small little mirror that he always had on him. He always had a few items on him. A mirror for signalling or looking around corners, a knife, and a gun. He used the mirror and tried to use it to see through the opening.

[Cynical Cat]

The mirror was knocked out of his hand and the door smashed open. The creature was fast, although not as fast as wraith. It was humanoid, with a shiny black carapace, compound eyes, claws, and clicking mandibles that oozed a yellowish slime. It hesitated and then lunged forward. Wraith could here the sound of others behind it.

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith spun, facing the wall and kicked hard against the wall, propelling him backwards. He raised his rifle and fired into the creature. FUCK! Why is it always me that has to find these things? As he finished emptying his clip into the creature, he sprang up and took off running back to the chopper. He reloaded his weapon while running and heard creatures following him.

[Cynical Cat]

The first one fell, riddled with bullets. Five more sprinted out of the building, trying to run down Wraith.

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith kept running. He rounded a corner, into another hangar. He spun around and fired into the shapes of the creatures, hoping to kill some. Again his clip emptied and he ran again, reloading as he went. He had two hangars to go before he reached the chopper. Hopefully Chase had heard the gunfire and knew something was up.

[B4UTRUST]

Chase's ears perked up. Gunfire. Lots of gunfire. Wraith. This, he decided in that instant, was a bad thing. He flipped switches and started the engines.

As quick as he could he ran out of the helo and disconnected the fuel cart as he heard another series of gunfire. Frag! How did he know this drek was gonna happen.
"Poly, help Wraith and hold them for two minutes till I can get this off the ground for support!"

Chase dropped the hose and hit the emergancy off button on the cart and jumped back into the helo and manuvered his way into the cockpit, jacking himself in as soon as he was seated. After the instant shift from body to machine he throttled up, feeling the helo rise up off the ground.
'Helo's height is about 29ft, hanger height is approximatly 50ft. Rotor span 72ft, hanger width about 140ft. Good to go.'

The wheels left the ground and the helo dipped its nose slightly and exited the hanger already airborn. Not a manuver he'd care to do all the time or even that often because there wasn't a lot of room for error. As soon as the helo was clear it rose up to gain altitute. He spun it around trying to find Wraith. He brought the weapons online and flashed a quick message to Gil.
"We're under attack, helo is airborn, wraith and poly on the ground."

He brought the rest of the sensors online and started searching, trying to find targets.

[Josh]

He had been traversing the overland route with some care. As soon as word came in from Chase, he mentally slammed it into higher gear.

"Enroute, fifteen minutes... will shave off as much as I can."

As the SUV slammed over a rise and down into a pasture, he shook his head. So much for the paint job. Now it was all about arriving in time. He pushed it harder, reviewing the weapons systems once more and then beginning initiation to prime the vehicle for combat.

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith kept running. He had just finished firing his last clip at the little bastards. He tossed the rifle and kept running, not yet reaching for his pistol. He saw Poly up ahead. Wraith yelled out to him.

"GET BACK ON THE CHOPPER AND GO!"

[Cynical Cat]

As a half dozen wounded ant spirits chased Wraith, an armoured nightmare of claws and chitin appeared in the cockpit behind Chase.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Polynome gotboth messages and summoning his reserves of inner strength, traced several figures in the air before him describing the vector and the amount if energy it would take to combust the air. And it was done. he conjured a wall of flame between them, and whatever it was that Wraith was running from, trying to trap them in the area they already were in, or force them to turn back and find another route. it was draining, but it was the only thing he could think of at the time.

He remained facing the as of yet invisible menace, and moved back toward the helo, ready to unleash magical energy as necessary.

[Cynical Cat]

The bugs materialized on the other side of the fire wall that had cost Polynome a considerable amount of energy to conjure and charged towards both him and Wraith.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Polynome knew he could kill them.. ust not when they were that close..

he turned and bolted,

[Agent Fisher]

Wraith had never slowed down, he kept running. He romoved his pistol and fired behind him, trying to hit the creatures. MOTHER FUCKER, OH MOTHER FUCKER! Wraith again yelled at Poly. "GET YOUR ASS MOVING YOU STUPID MAGE! RUN, FUCKING RUN!"

[Cynical Cat]

The four insect spirits closed on Polynome as Wraith opened the distance between him and the pursuers. The ant spirit in Chase's cockpit lunged forward, jaws dripping venom.

[B4UTRUST]

The insect materialized behind Chase which caused sensors to fluctuate wildly. Something that well armored and big weighed a lot, spirit or not.

Chase felt his body get heavier and it took him a second to realize what it was. He 'switched' his attention to his internal sensors and would have gulped had he currently been in a meat body. The something that had materialized like a lead ball in his 'stomach' was approximately right behind him. He had the distinct impression that he was not going to like this thing being right behind him.

He turned his 'attention' back to the controls and preformed something that he reminded him vaugely of that stupid marble in a box game he had as a kid. Tilt it back, throw it to the side, slam it forward and to the side again to get it over the hole. He hated that game...

He brought the nose up hard, pulling it almost straight vertical before throwing it to the left, putting it nearly over on its side before throwing it forward again almost completely on its nose and tilting it over again.

He had a thought as he did this though, was Whisp strapped in still?

[Cynical Cat]

The insect spirit's claws tore the inside of the helo as Chase bounced it back, to the side, and out the open door. Which left Chase merely to deal with the problems of having done such a series of maneuvers quite close to the ground.