GM: Sorina
Players: Haley, Holtzclaw, Dumah, Slinger
Synopsis: High sea adventure on a curise ship under attack.
Date: March 8, 2070
Word is set out to the professionals in the area. There was a job that needed to be done quickly, and it was dangerous. Though it was paying very well. The meeting is set up at a nice restaurant, in a nice part of the UCAS. Its just a few minutes before noon, and everyone was given Sorina's name so they could ask for her when they came in.
Dressing in her best outfit, Haley places her machine pistol in her bulky purse along with her helmet. She makes sure there is no rattle before she heads into the UCAS sector. She looks over the restaurant and she smiles to herself stepping inside. Her clothes are made by Zoe, and she's got her makeup looking just right. Stepping up to the man at the door she says, "Oi'm heah for Sorinah, can ya point me in the right direction hon?"
A name, or at least an alias. Slinger has worked with this person before. So this time, strangely enough, he actually comes without a disguise. The elf adopts his usual appearance for meetings — slightly older and scruffier; still an elf, but with a punkish appearance like a ganger trying to actually dress up a little. And hopefully, his rep is sufficient that people don't invite him to the kind of jobs that aren't… suited to him.
The elf slips in, with his armor spell active, physical mask to conceal the fact that he's armed. He sends a smile to Sorina. "Hopefully this ain't the same J as last time. Fragger kinda stiffed us after the work got done. Somethin' about it bein' too easy?" he remarks.
Going downtown, Adam shows up in a physical mask. Today he is a caucasian with a angular features and short, silver-blue hair. The name is familiar— a bit— but the history he has on it doesn't scream cartwheels. Nonetheless, the man shows up, asks for Sorina, and is directed to where he is to be directed to in order to hear out the request.
Escapade checks the compression bandage on her knee - it's healing up, gradually. She checks with Dumah on the new protocols - the Russian has a look on a drive past, but it seems ordinary enough. Even so, he waits a block or two away, while Escapade arrives separately.
Walking into the resteraunt cautiously, she looks about the place breifly before wrinkling her nose, walking over towards Sorina and nodding politely. "Afternoon. Nice to see you again." She nods to the rest of the runners gathered there as well.
Everyone is lead over towards Sorina's table, where she is of course sitting. Dressed in her normally outfit. She smiles as she slides her glasses off and puts them into her pocket. The table is far enough from others to give them some privacy. "Hello."
Psuedo-Suit Adamomask finds himself a chair and sits down stiffly. "Hello," he greets back— placing one hand on the table and the other on his lap.
Slinger glances to the woman with the bandage, eyeing it thoughtfully. "Anybody taken care of that for you, yet?" the elf asks, casually. In this guise, he emphasizes his street accent, from his time in the Warrens as a youth. He was sheltered, but still managed to pick up some of the accent.
Taking a seat at the table with Sorina, Haley smiles brightly and she says, "Hoi," getting comfortable. She drums her fingers on the table and looks around for the sign of a white noise generator. Until she's confirmed its presence this is just a social visit.
Escapade looks at Slinger, seeming wary for a moment, but then lowers her guard slightly, relaxing. "It needs surgery," she says. "It's scheduled - three weeks from now. You know doctors." She gingerly takes a seat.
Sorina sits back and looks over the group, "Alright, I will make this quick, since this job is a bit of a rush deal." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a datachip and slides it across the table. "It will be a pickup mission. Two people, a mother and a daughter."
"Good," Slinger says. "That guy's rep is gonna take a helluva hit. You don't take whack somebody's agent and still do biz." He leans back in his seat as Sorina begins. His attention is on her. "This a rescue or forced extraction?" I.e. kidnapping; Slinger isn't saying that word, instead using a euphemism.
Unless we all play hungry hungry hippos with the ODC, Adam takes the chip and scans it into his pocsoc— then hands it over to the person next to him so they can read it.
Escapade nods slightly. Slinger steals her first question, so she waits for her turn before checking the data on the chip for operational details. She'll get to specifics in a moment.
Slinger actually passes on the chip. Waiting to decide if he will take the job before he gets any confidential details. Simple professionalism, in his view. He was invited to the meeting, and if he turns down the work he won't know anything compromising.
Taking the poc-sec out of her pocket, Haley smooths down her skirt and slots the chip into it to read the details. She bobs her head side to side as she reads over things. She's in her own mental soundtrack as she remains quiet over the subject of what is being proposed.
The chip has the details of both targets as well as a picture. A young woman looking to be in her mid twenties, with long blond hair and blue eyes, and a little girl looking very similiar at about 8-10 years old. It also has a picture of a truely massive luxury cruise ship, and its location approximately 50 miles off the coast of califorina. "It is a rescue. There has been some terrorists warnings against the Lovely Sapphire, a curise ship. They have really good security so they are not really to concerned about it. However this is causing a man to get very nervous and he wants his wife and child off the ship as soon as possible. Though its not due to stop at land for another two weeks."
On a similar point to Slinger's, Adam asks, "Do they know they are going to be extracted?"
Slinger considers all the implications of that. "So right now, it's not a hot zone. We're simply to extract those two. What if it turns hot?" Slinger asks. "Do we stop the terrorist incident in progress? Or are we being instructed /not/ to do that? And is there any indication that these two would be specific targets of the terrorists, or is this just random carnage?"
Escapade looks over the data. "We're going to need transport. Is that already arranged as part of the fee, or are we fronting that?" She pauses, then adds, "What exactly are we looking at for funds?"
Listening to the subject of transport, Haley asks, "Will we be allowed on the ship or do we have to avoid looking like terrorists while trying to fight terrorists while trying to rescue a lady and her little girl?"
Sorina looks over to adam and nods her head, "Yes they are aware of it. Though I am not sure how happy they are about leaving, it is a very nice ship and perhaps he really is just being paranoid." She looks to slinger, "Right now it was just a warning, who knows if they will or not, or what scale it may be. It is unlikely the two would be direct targets however. If you happen to run into them, its entirely up to you. The job just pays for getting them out however." She looks around, "The job is paying 400,000 =Y=, split between you four. I can provide you transport to the californa free state, but from there you are on your own." She looks to haley, "Chances are you will not be allowed on."
Escapade inclines her head thoughtfully. Respectable for a dangerous assignment. She mentally notes to let Dumah know to pack counter-terrorism gear. Either this guy is panicking or the threat is quite real. She frowns slightly, though, at the last bit of information. "So the targets are willing - but the cruise ship company isn't?" she says, a trace of disbelief in her voice at the rank corporate gall that implies.
Slinger evaluates the situation. With that kind of pay involved, somebody thinks this is going to turn ugly. Very ugly. This is not a simple, ma'am, would you come with me, please. No, this is serious business. The elf lights a cigarette and takes a strong inhale of it. "Transport to Calfree, got it. Any particular location? Where is the cruise ship, where's the nearest land to it… and do we know what terrorists have made threats?" He reaches for his datachip, in case it answers those questions. Apparently, he's taking the job.
Adam waits for the questions to simmer a moment before asking more. Nothing like gang banging for information. "A good point. If a well paying passanger wants to leave— through normal channels, is there a good reason why they cant? Rich people have VTOL pilots." He shakes his head and motions, "And assuming there is a valid reason, is there intel on the ship layout and the security contract on it?"
Touching her cheeks Haley says, "Oy, Oi'm gonna need to get a mask or somethin', if its this serious Oi don't wanna keep my face in the news." She gives a sigh and she says, "Oi suppose Oi'll buy onea those polly mask things. Anyone know how to do disguises that could help me with it?"
Sorina looks over towards escapade and nods her head slightly, "Passengers suddenly fleeing the ship while its out at sea, at the smallest warning would cause trouble for them. Its full of rich people, and they simply dont want to cause any kind of panic, even a small one would be bad for business." She looks to slinger and nods, "The location and route the ship is taking is on the chip."
"Depending how much mojo-protection the boat has, I can get us from somewhere to the boat — assuming the boat is somewhere near something else I can stand on. But we've got to know where it's gonna be," Slinger explains. "We may need to rent or steal a boat of our own, get in the vicinity, and then I can get us in from there.
Escapade shakes her head slightly in disbelief, but takes out a cellphone, hitting a couple buttons to databurst the details to Dumah. A few moments later, she nods. "Ok, Dumah's in. Time to dust-off, rendezvous location?"
"The passage to Freecal. Is it discreet? Can we take equipment?" the elf wants to know.
Sorina looks over to Adam, "They have their own private full time security force on board. It really is a big ship, so be prepared." She looks to the elf, "Its discreet enough. Your equipment should be fine."
Slinger glances at those assembled. "Could use a rigger," he admits. "But driving a boat can't be that hard. Especially if you aren't doing anything fancy." The elf grins. "After all, there's nothing to run into, really." Famous last words. The elf draws on his cigarette, thinking. "We get there, snag a boat… legally or not." He's thinking of the best approach. "We get aboard, do our best to blend in… and figure out, first, if there's an imminent terrorist threat. If there is, then we deal with it, or decide we can't. If we can't deal with it, or don't find one, then we locate the two. See if we can convince them to depart with us. Third, we get them out. Nice and quiet, no panic required.
Sorina takes her glasses out of her pocket and slides them back on. She slowly begins to stand up. "This job needs to be done as soon as possible. If you are taking my ride, he will pick you up outside here at midnight. You should arrive near the coast some time early morning. Take a day or so to prepare and do whatever you need, but don't take any longer than that."
Rubbing her fingers down her cheeks to touch the edges of her lips Haley says, "Oi'll be nice an' quiet, no problem. Howeva if the terrorists attack an' they mess with me things might start gettin' a little chaotic. Oi don't take well to people tryin' ta kill me. Oi'll do my best to keep them in good huma though if they do."
Escapade listens carefully, then nods. "He'll be here," she says, and then gives everyone a polite nod. "Do be careful." With a slight smile, she stands up, heading on out of the resteraunt.
Slinger turns his attention to Escapade. "Ask Dumah what equipment he thinks we'll need. And whether we should acquire it here, or in FreeCal. I'm thinking at least one person with SCUBA gear would be advisable." He asks this on her way out, as well.
"So, to recap— each of us get 100k to go to a ship with an unidentified terrorist threat that is 'rumor based' with no intel on them, quickly, in order to extract two people," Adam says as he taps the table, "I see."
Slinger nods. "Put another way, the one hiring us has some intel he's not sharing. That's the part that bothers me," the elf admits. "He wouldn't be spending this kind of cred on a rumor or a hunch. He wouldn't be offering this kind of coin and bringing in heavy hitters; he'd spend less cred, bring in lightweights, maybe even find some way to do this through channels."
"He wants deniability."
"Thanks," Adam says sarcastically as Slinger starts to explain. He pushes out from the table and nods. He has all he needs.
Pulling out her poc-sec, Haley studs the cable into her datajack. She looks a little distant as she carries over a conversation via the interface. Her fingers tap on the table, index and middle as the conversation goes on. Eventually she nods her head and she pulls the cable from her skull with a smile. She looks over the others and she says, "Well Oi'm ready when you gois are."
Adam keeps digging around, because really, he just doesn't believe the story. Though as much as he checks out, he finds the wife and child are related to the man, and he seems legit. Eventually he digs around enough and finds some references to a terrorist group claiming that they were going to blow up ports in the california free state, and because of that all ships passing the area has been warned. There isn't much information on the group or the threat though there was a failed attack last month on a port that may be related. Dumah digs around, and he finds places a boat store near where you are heading that sells boats and scuba equipment, as well as a helicopter company in the near by area. Looking it up on the matrix, it seems the sea is clear in the area with no reports of any strange magical beasts roaming around. He finds a long list of the some 7000 passengers on the ship, though the security details are little more vague.
Keeping herself busy before a job, Haley packs a few sets of clothes picking out her most discreet forms of armor. That'd be her Zoe outfit, she wraps everything in vacuum seal plastic to make sure if she DOES have to go into the water she'll have her clothes dry when she gets out. As an after thought she adds a hair dryer and a towel to the vacuum stay fresh package. The more she works on packing the more she feels she needs. Isn't that always the way? She vacuum seals her pistol and six clips of ammunition. She nods in approval and gets on the phone with Teeg for a last minute spark of inspiration.
Adam goes around town, looking to dig up even more information. He just doesn't want to let it rest and he trusts no one. He digs around a bit more, but he doesn't find to much information. Though he is able to pick up on the feeling that a few other people are a bit nervous as well. They don't really know what is going to happen, but he gets the impression something big may happen in californa in the next few days.
Adam, who is not being spoofed this time, explains to the team that he does not feel the risk is worth the reward and politely declines after legwork. Understanding that they still may need someone for this, he makes a few calls on thier behalf to look for a rigger that would be better suited to help make the mission a success— as Slinger is a very competent mage and Adam would work in auxillery— making someone who can insert and extract better for a high stakes mission's success.
Arriving at the rally point, Haley checks over her small carry bag. She checks to make sure that all the sealed plastic packages are neatly arranged and in fact sealed. She looks around at the people gathered and gives a bright smile at each
of them.
Dumah grumbles a bit, but isn't too concerned - as long as they can find some rigger in the next few hours, should still be doable. It would be more of a concern mid-run, but things aren't really hopping yet.
A small truck comes to pick the group up. Its a bit of a cramped space, and it drives all night long. There are a lot of bumps and its not very comfortable, but eventually you pass into the Califorina Free state, some eight hours after you left, making it early morning when you arrive.
Much like a cat, Haley can sleep anywhere, propped up against the side of the truck she rests with her eyes closed. Might be hints of military training in her past, sleep when you can. As the truck bumps and rumbles she doesn't wake up zonked out. Only when her internal clock alarm goes off does she awaken a few hours before dawn. She gives a wide grin and asks, "Are we there yet," which is not placed so well as they soon arrive.
Slinger drawls out to Haley, "Not yet, little smurfs." He grins at her impishly and then checks on his packs of cigarettes. He's packed extra, but this has been a looong trip, and he's been catching up on news on his pocket secretary.
Dumah has spent the trip reading up on the mission breifing, looking over information as his Decker trikles through, and searching the Matrix for more information about their targets and the current weather conditions.
Haley wakes up as the truck is still driving. The driver looks back for a moment, "Almost we are in the country, but the drop off points is still a ways ahead." It will be another twenty minutes or so until they get to the area closer to the coast where they are dropped off. It seems the weather is beautiful out today, save for the smog over the city.
"Oh sure hon," says Haley, her accent sharp her voice a bit high pitched. Its like she has her own internal coffee supply. She goes from sleeping to perky in 0.003 seconds. She peers around the back of the truck and arranges her hair to make sure it is perfect, checking herself in a small compact she withdraws from her purse.
Slinger pokes Dumah repeatedly until the Russian finally rouses from his nap. "Mmmbrgh?" he wonders, and then looks out across the city. "Mmm. Just like home, da?" He stretches lazily, then checks over the latest from his fixer and contacts.
Slinger just smirks at Dumah. "I thought you lived in the arctic tundra of Siberia, not smog-filled basins. It'll be nice to have a change form ice and snow for a while, at least." He sits back and then muses, "Wish we could spend some time on the ship… too bad there's terrorists lurking around."
"Oh bad news for them it they are," says Haley. She laughs a rapid fire ha ha ha sound as she says, "Oi'll keep my head down an' see how many I can take out before they notice Oi'm the one killin' 'em. It'll be like one of those flatscreen vids Oi useda watch when Oi was growin' up."
Some short time later the truck pulls to a stop. The driver gets out and goes around the back to open the door for you, "Alright, you are on your own from here." It doesn't take long for any ordered gear to arrive, and for everything else to be gathered up. Then you are left in the empty parking lot of an old cafe near the beach.
"There is, of course, the remote possibility that we'll be able to accomplish this without any trouble," Slinger notes to Haley. "I'd rather prefer it if we managed to get in, get them, and get out without anyone shooting at us at all." He adds with a grin, "If there's any gods listening to miracles, anyway."
Dumah snorts at that. Somehow, the Russian doesn't seem to find that possibility terribly likely. He's packed a duffle with a few extra surprises, just in case.
Collecting her packages Haley steps into the cafe and heads to the ladies room. She locks the door behind her and she looks in the mirror. She looks at the mask and pauses. She closes it back into its package and makes it ready for the trip by wrapping it into a garbage bag. That too goes into her overnight bag to make sure she is ready to use it as soon as she gets on the ship. She unlocks the restroom and heads back out to meet her team. She says, "Sorry, hadda powdah my nose."
Great, they can get a helicopter, they've got a pilot - but they need a SIN. Slinger agonizes over the decision for a few minutes, but then brightens. "Hmm… this might actually throw them off the trail. Sure! Let's use Gregory Smith's ID for this rental. Have them sniff around CalFree for me for the next few weeks." He runs his SIN through their checker - it's rock solid. "Let's see, 500 an hour, 10k for security deposit… do you think they offer flight insurance?" He grins at the other two.
The joke makes Haley laugh, her machine gun ha ha ha filling the air. She taps her nose and she says, "Oi hope so, Oi don' want them to give us a chump choppa an' have us crash ya know?"
A young woman smiles as she checks the sin, it takes a few minutes but it comes out clear. He slides a contract over the counter for him to sign, just normal paperwork and stuff. A little more detailed since it is a helicopter after all. "Yes we do." There is a spot to fill out if you want insurance, though it doesn't cover anything done if it is used for illegal activities.
Slinger fills out the deposit, enters in the SIN information. After a few moments reflection, he goes for the insurance as well. He then looks across the counter at the woman with a flirtatous smile. "Do you have it in ticket red?" he wonders.
Slinging her bulky purse over her shoulder, Haley starts to wander around the rental area. Her eyes trace over the various holograms that show the various machines that are offered to rent. A smile shows on her lips as she waves her hand through one of them looking at the light play across her skin.
The woman smiles as she nods her head, "Yes we do." She reaches under the desk and gives him keycard, with the number of the helicopter on it, and where it is out in their lot, as well a kay to start it.
Its a small but nicely presented rental office. There are a few nice couches around the main lobby and a desk, where a young woman works. Behind the building is a small airfield where they have four helicopters for rent at any given time.
Holtzclaw came through the doors to the rental office waving over to the group. He missed a chance to be formally introduced, but he walked over "Sorry I'm late." he says with a russian accent. Joining up with the group he'd speak a bit quieter "I'm supposed to be going with you and I was told to meet here."
Waving cheerfully to Holtz, Haley says, "Hiya, how are ya doin'?" Her distinctive Brooklyn accent showing in her words. She slides her purse up on her shoulder and she climbs up into the chopper. She folds her hands on her lap after buckling her safty harness.
Dumah glances over at Holtzclaw and raises an eyebrow. "Hey! Glad you could make it," he says in Russian. "Did you have much trouble finding us?"
Slinger rubs lightly at his arm where the tattoo ink is still fresh. It still stings a bit. And itches. The elf lights a cigarette and leans back against the wall, giving a casual grin ot the other elf. Casually, he scans Holtzclaw's aura, curiously, just to see who he's dealing with.
Holtzclaw shakes his head and replied to Haley "I could be doing better, but it's been a good day and all." He turns to Dumah and replies in Russian "Oh you know Russian? And no I got here didn't I." Glancing over to Slinger he'd pull up a clove cigarette placing it in his lips "Got a light?"
Slinger chuckles. "You should smoke somethin' real," he teases. But just that, casual teasing. He flicks his glow-lighter and then extends his hand, holding it out to light the other elf's tobacco-and-clove mixture. "Not sure I've met you before. How'd you end up with us? I was… well, dealin' with somethin'."
Patting the space beside her Haley says, "Well climb in an' get comfortable. We're gonna' go check out the sights." She looks around the chopper and takes sight of the various safety devices, it never hurts to know where such things are.
Slinger climbs aboard the chopper after Haley. "How long a trip we got?" the elf wonders next, as he quickly belts himself in. "You might let me out before you get to the ship, let me sneak in on my own. Assuming there's no magical security. And we should go in ahead and scope it out, astrally," he adds.
Dumah hops in, making sure the cargo's all secure, then settles back for the ride. He's brought along his bag of … gear… just in case. And he's got the Zodiac stowed for quick-release and quick-inflate, so if worst comes to worse and they have to bail from the chopper in a hurry, they've got options. With some forethought, he ties his bag of gear to the Zodiac for now. If they need it, they'll need it then.
CeeCue shows up and introduces herself before she hops into the helicopter. She is the rigger dumah knows. She does a few quick checks before starting up the engine. "Everyone ready to go?" She doesn't ask any questions on what the people plan on doing or the gear they brought.
Slinger smiles. "So… let's go over the plan again. I'm a little unclear on the whole situation with the fruit delivery. How are we going to go from 'fruit delivery' to 'anti-terrorism' and 'extraction'? I'm a little unclear on the career change." He considers, flipping open his pocket secretary, to try to get his bearings on where the ship might be — to try to project to it.
The end of the cig cracked and fizzled some as the cherry came to glow. He took it from his lips and shrugged "I don't know I was told to meet you guys here." He hops up into the chopper settling himself down and looking around for things that might be able to help save his life, if needed. He glances over the others to piece together a bit more about what they are to be doing.
Leaning in to speak confidentially to Slinger, despite the fact her voice carries, Haley says, "Oi'm a little confused about it myself, but Oi figuah we'll be dropped off near the ship then putter over in a boat while the choppa distracts security."
Dumah replies to Slinger, "The fruit will get us on board. Some of this stuff will spoil very quickly!" He glances up at CeeCue. "By the way, they probably don't know we're on the way, so once you have contact with the cruise ship, radio them and let them know you need landing clearance, da? If they argue, talk about fruit and shipment, and go on about special orders. If you need me to hop on and talk to them, let me know." Then he looks back to Slinger. "Once we're on the ship, short hop-skip-jump to find people we need to extract and get out with them, da?"
The two smokers probably end up in back. Slinger reviews it, then says to CeeCue, "Let me know when you'll be on a nice straight-line path. I kinda need to project, and it's nice to be able to find my body again!" He relaxes a little at the announcement from Holtzclaw.
"I'm just thinking," Slinger says to Dumah, "that they might well keep an eye on you, and if any of us turn up missing, they'll get suspicious. But we'll work that out. I won't be goin' in with you — will detach ahead of time.
The helicopter slowly raises and before turning towards the ocean. CeeCue looks back and nods, "Sure thing." It takes off for the long ride out. Its a fair distance out to the ship about 50 miles or so. Not a huge distance for the helicopter but it will take a bit. "Once we get out to sea, we should be able to see the ship from a good distance away."
Now a bit more certian on what was going on from listening, Holtzclaw looked to the others "Where are these people we are supposed to be exacuating located at?" He closes his eyes during the take-off a bit jumpy on that ordeal, opening them again to see the ocean.
Dumah pulls a windbreaker out of his pack with 'SECURITY' in big yellow letters on the back. He brings Holtz up to speed what with the mission breifing and the information they have so far about where people are, gleaned from his decker's information earlier. Radio frequencies, comm channels, phone numbers, and the like are likewise exchanged.
Once out over the water she flies low to the ground, just a habbit from being a smuggler. Its a clear and sunny day, and once you get out of the city smog you can see for miles in any direction, the sun reflecting lightly off the blue water. Further out away from the land the water looks less polluted, almost clean. Slowly you watch the land behind you grows smaller. Eventually it will disappear from view, but you still have a while before that happens.
Before Slinger bails out Haley asks, "Can ya make me invisible or somethin'?" She pulls out her mask and starts putting it on. The material adhears to her skin as she begins to arrange it to conceal her real face. The synthetic skin matches her own but it reshapes her nose, cheeks and chins. She pulls on a pair of stylish sunglasses and she gvies a grin, "Then Oi can start sneakin' around right off."
Dumah glances around amusedly. "You know," he comments, "SOMEone has to unload our cargo. I suppose we can say we're expecting porters - will slow down things, give you guys more time."
ooc oh before I forget. how many dice do you get for perception checks, and what vision and hearing mods do you have holtzclaw?
Soon you are surrounded by blue ocean, on all sides of you. One would have no idea where they are at the moment, if it wasn't for all the wonderful positioning equipment aboard. Its a peaceful ride, save for the rotor spining above your heads. Out in the distance you spot some dark clouds.
Holding her hand up to her chest, Haley says teasingly, "Do ya think they'll believe Oi'm a porta?" She smiles and says, "Oi'm just a slip of a goil." She laughs cheerfully and she says, "Oi'll carry stuff if ya need, but Oi'm not all that good at sneaking away once Oi've been seen, Oi draw attention sometimes."
Holtzclaw nodded in understanding and hears Haley mention sneaking. "I can dress myself up to be pretty convincing if need be." His hands raise up for him to take a draw off of his cig.
The dark clouds seem to hang in your path, its hard to judge distance out over the ocean but they are far out on the horzon. Perhaps 20 miles away even, likely nothing to worry about.
Once he gets the signal from CeeCue that we are going to be flying straight for a while, Slinger takes a breath, activates Filtering, then detaches from his body — and rockets out toward the expected position of the ship. He moves impossibly fast in astral territory, coming in low and hard, not far from the water, and doing his best to cloak his approach among the waves before he reaches the ship. That done, he starts looking for astral security.
Dumah eyes the clouds suspiciously! Then he pokes CeeCue, talking over the chopper's intercom system to him. "You got those clouds on radar?" Then he looks over at Slinger. "Go check out on astral, da?"
"Oh hon, would ya," asks Haley helplessly. She leans forward and she says, "Oi don' know much about this kinda thing. Oi figured it might be best if people didn' see my face, but if Oi walked around in a ski mask they might start to wondah."
Before he reaches them, though, Slinger stops to look carefully at the dark clouds. And assense them.
Glacing ahead, Haley says, "Oh hey, look at all that smoke." She doesn't seem concerned about it. She smiles and says, "Anyone bring some marshmallows, going to be a big one."
Dumah frowns more. Then looks over at Haley. "/Smoke/?" he says. "If that is smoke, and not rain… then we have bigger problems." He pokes CeeCue again to see what the Rigger has on sensors regarding the smoke - if it's just rain, or if it's got hot thermal signatures.
Holtzclaw adjustes the polymask to change her appearance some, and looks out to the clouds "Damn… Did they get the ship before us?" He looks between the others, hoping to hell that it was just rain on their parade.
Allowing Holtz to mold her new features Haley says, "Yeah? Smoke." She shrugs her shoulders and she says, "The ship is on fire Oi guess." She looks at Holtz and says, "Careful with the nose hon." She smiles a little saying, "Just makes our job a lot more easy. We don't hafta sneak around.
You paged Slinger with 'As you zoom towards it, things become more and more clear, and it looks horrible. You are only half way to the ship and the background level has risen to two and there is a pitch black cloud over the massive ship. The entire ship looks as if its turning black and is decaying in the astral.'.
«Plot-Page» (To: Sorina) Slinger says, "Slinger swoops closer, trying to get some information of what we're getting ourselves into. Is it on fire? Or is this something else, something even darker and stranger?"
You paged Slinger with 'As you move closer, you get only a few miles from the ship and the background rating raises to 3, and you can sense the fear and horror surrounding the ship as life is snuffed out. The aft of the ship looks as if its on fire, and there are large blast marks on the side of the ship.'.
«Plot-Page» (To: Sorina) Slinger says, "All right. Slinger hates to do this. But here's how it'll have to go down. Slinger sends his two water elementals in with orders to put out the fire and rescue any people they possibly can."
As you continue your approch, the ship slowly makes it way over the horizon and into view. It is still a long ways away, but the massive ship, nearly 600 meters in length is easy to spot over the water. The thick plumes of smoke are clearly coming from the Lovely Sapphire.
Opening up her purse, Haley asks, "Are we still goin' in by watah?" She starts pulling out her Zoe armor. She climbs into the cargo section of the chopper and closes the door to change into her clothes. She calls back through, "Oi rather just have us hit the deck."
You paged Slinger with 'As you look around you spot a second ship, a small armored ship.'.
As soon as Dumah has confirmation that it's smoke, he's shaking his head, pulling out a sniper rifle - a SNIPER RIFLE - out of his bag o' kit. "Yo, CeeQue, how are we on fuel? Can you idle around for an hour or do we need to park your ass?" While he's talking, he's doing a function check on the rifle - optics, chamber, slide and load, then swaps out the clip for his heavy-duties. "If we need to park, somebody's guarding the damn chopper."
«Plot-Page» (To: Sorina) Slinger says, "Slinger is approaching — and if not intercepted, he heads into the ship, passing right through the walls of it — if he's able to. There might be a ward, of course — and if so, the elf is going to do his best to slip through it."
The woman looks at her display, "An hour is pushing it. We probably wont get back if I idle here that long."
You paged Slinger with 'You make it inside, and you find a man. You notice him clearly since he is wearing an necklace around his neck which glows with magical energy. An active foci by the looks of it.'.
Holtzclaw looks out and runs his hands through his hair "Well, I guess this means a change in plans" he stares at the smoke, and quickly finishes his coffee. He watches Duma grab a sniper and he flicks both of his wrists revealing two pistols, One ceramic and hand painted with purple roses.
Dumah lets out a vague little sigh, then pokes Slinger. Nope, he's still out. "Right! Give us one circle around the thing, clockwise, a klick out - I don't want any surprises! If we're good, then land on the aft deck." He glances over the rest and asks, half-jokingly, "Anybody here know how to repair a cruise ship, maybe we should just steal it." In the meantime he flicks on the ruthinuim on his 'windbreaker', vanishing from sight before he opens the side door, using his mag vision to scan the surroundings and observe the ship as they circle around it, his opticam recording everything for later checks if needed.
And at that, Slinger rockets back to his body. He wakes up, and immediately starts reaching for his milspec armor. "The boat's already been hit. Looks like missiles from a smaller boat about ten meters away from it. About ninety degrees left of the way we're coming in. I sent in a couple of water elementals to try to help put out the fire, save some people, but it got hit /hard/. The enemy boat has one guy, with a spell-shield necklace on him. My guess is the rest of the bad guys are on the ship, doing whatever they do. Probably grabbing hostages. This is going to suck."
Once she's changed, Haley steps out of the cargo hold. She's just another corporate wage slave given her clothes. She has pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She keeps the flap of her purse open so that she can easily reach her machine pistol if needed. She climbs back into her seat and locks down the crash harness because that seems to be the sensible thing to do when landing into a literally hot landing zone.
The helicopter quickly continues its apporch. The thick black smoke just bellows from the aft side of the ship, several smaller fires look as if they have been put out already, though its hard to tell if they went out from the fire system of the boat or from slingers elementals. Its just to far away still. You continue to get closer however, and finally the smoke in the aft sections seem to slow down and no fires can be spotted from your point of view. Large blast marks cover the starboard side of the ship.
Holtzclaw laughs some, "Pistols yes, Cruise ship.. well we'll see what I can do." He snaps his view back to Slinger and then to the boat "so we just stepped into a hellhole didn't we." He scans over the boat looking for a place to use as their advantage to board, or any signs of danger to them now.
ooc it will be 4 when you get to the ship
You continue your approch and now you are getting closer you can spot the damage. A large hole in the starboard side is takening on water, and causing the ship to list slowly starboard. The aft of the ship is in ruined and despite the fires being put out a thick smoke hangs over the area. Chunks of the ship is missing and debris floats in the water.
Dumah thumps on the panel to get CQ's attention. "Aft structure looks bad, circle around at 500 meters, pick a safe spot." He himself gets a good braced position for aiming. He's got at least one person to shoot as they circle around the thing.
Relaxed and calm Haley sits in her harness making sure her nails are filed perfectly. She looks towards the ship and she says, "Oi might try to get onna them to take me hostage so if they get away from the ship one of us will be with them." She looks at her nails and blows on the tips saying, "Then when they're feelin' safe and comfortable Oi'll start strangling them with their intestines."
As you circle the ship you notice all the life rafts in the water, half sunk or worse. The few people who made it to them are dead. The deck is covered with the dead, bodies thrown about all over. The helicopter circles around for a spot to land before finally landing on the deck next to a large pool, which is filled with bodies. There are large groves and gouges from high caliber rounds dented into the walls of the ship, and some of the people look as if they were blown in half. It truely looks like a rescue mission now.
As you land the pilot shuts off the engine, though she isn't getting out. She wasn't paid for that. The area is quiet, deadly quiet around the helicopter. There are passengers all over but they are dead. Looking around there seems to be no signs of life. The small boat isn't to difficult to spot once you get to the edge of the ship, though it looks to be a fair distance from the location you landed at.
Slinger waits until the ship is firmly in sight coming up below, the launches himself clear, using the door most opposite from the targt boat. One below the chopper, he heads in toward the deck, skimming over it. Pissed elf!
Climbing out of the chopper, Haley keeps her head low and she moves out of the range of the blades. She holds her purse up to her chest, her eyes wide and fearful. She's already in the role of the helpless passenger. She tracks her eyes around the deck looking for a door that will lead her below decks. Her ears are alert for the sound of gunfire.
Dumah looks around at the group and then huffs a breath. "Right," he says, and looks over at Holtzclaw and Haley. "You two. Stay together, stay on comm. Go find our people. When in doubt, shoot first, Slinger can patch people up later. I'll be here guarding our ride out." He tosses CQ a pistol, in case she didn't bring one of her own, then hops out of the chopper, looking for a good position to have overwatch on the chopper.
Slinger speeds along the deck towards the boat. His quick speed moves him very quickly and thus he ends up being the first one to run into any signs of life. He spots two woman on the deck, each one carrying an uzi. They turn and aim their guns at him.
The two woman quickly aim their uzi's towards slinger and open fire, spraying bullets like crazy at him as he flies by. Each one taking two short bursts at him.
Once she's oriented Haley heads in the direction of the target's cabins. She holds her purse clutched to her chest, she says, "Hurry hon, we got to hide," loudly so that Holtz can hear her. She pulls open the door and goes below decks moving at a quick speed making sure though to pace herself to so that Holtz can keep up with her.
Holtzclaw Removed the Remington from the dufflebag and strapped it onto his back. Leaving the bag behind he follows Haley, he kept his pistols out and his rifle ready to the side. He'd scan around looking for any sign of hostility as they worked their way around to find a door below deck.
The two girls fire wildly into the air, bullets spraying here and there. They do not seem to care who they hit, they just want to shoot stuff! One bullet actually makes it way over to slinger but bounces off.
It's a lucky shot, actually — and one that actually makes the bullets hit Slinger's armor, thudding into it harmlessly, the shock distributed over him without a lot of force making it through. People shooting at him, though. Slinger gets the two of them in his sights, then lobs off a spell, sending it down toward them. Testing the situation.
Slinger sends the spell downward from above — and is only somewhat surprised when it has no effect whatsoever. It would figure that they have somebody shielding them. The elf's eyes narrow as he lifts his gun, starting to slowly circle around the two — and track them if they run.
The seem unphased by the magic attack. They must think they have the upperhand now because they continue to fire rounds into the air, trying to nail slinger good.
Looking over Holtzclaw, Haley says, "Alright, plan B." She digs around in her purse and she pulls out her machine pistol. Ripping open the seal on the plastic she flicks the selector up to full auto. She unfolds the stock and slings the sling over her shoulder. She head through the hallway, keeping her eyes alert. Under her breath the elf girl humming a cheerful tune as she walks through the halls.
Slinger has had quite enough of this. The elf takes aim at the woman, then fires a single round carefully into her chest. The APDS does its work, passing through the armor and hardly even losing velocity on the way, and Slinger moves his pistol's aim to the other woman.
The woman cries out as the bullet shoots through her chest, and it becomes apparent her clothing isn't even armored. She drops over backwards and land with a thud.
Dumah checks down the length of the ship with his vision magnification to see if can sight in on the gunshots. If not, then he checks with his scope, thinking perhaps he'll be able to see them through an electronically filtered view.
Until this moment, Slinger has been reacting. The two women frankly took him by surprise, shooting at him before he had a chance to do much of anything. But this… makes him hesitate. They aren't shooting as well as trained people, and the woman wasn't even wearing armor. The elf takes just a moment to assense the other one, checking her aura.
When slinger peaks into the astral and tries to read her aura he may be a bit surprised to find out, the woman he was fighting isn't a woman at all. She has no aura, and she isn't alive. Apparently she is a drone. After the two failed shots, she turns and begins to run away.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "What the frag?"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "What?"
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Problem hon?"
Commlink-Holtzclaw> Holtzclaw says, "What?"
As haley and holtzclaw head into the ship, they find many hallways. Every once in a while they will come across a dead body, some times a lot of dead bodies. Some times they need to stop and turn around, and go back a different direction do to damage to the ship. Its slow progess but they do not spot any enemies as of it.
Dumah can't see slinger, and can't see the woman who ran away. Though for a brief moment he saw flashes of light from gun fire, though it looks like they heading towards the center of the ship and his line of sight is blocked.
The bodies laying on the floor do not phase Haley. She stops on occasion and kneels down putting them in poses. A lover's embrace, a callous slap, running on their side. Then naturally there has to be three see no evil trio. She says thoughtfully, "Good so far, Oi don' see any of the people we're lookin' for."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "No eyes on targets.. maintaining position."
Dumah resumes his scans of the area, watching closely for anything that could threaten him, the chopper, or his pilot.
Holtzclaw follows Haley through the boat keeping an eye out for the place they were looking for. He tries to stay off the bodies as they move through the halls. "What a mess, seems like someone is interested in this fruit." He jokes nervously.
Slinger fires another round from his gun at the drone. But now he has a moving target. Makes it a little harder. The elf moves slowly closer, lining up his next shot…
A rapid fire ha ha ha erupts from Haley and she slaps Holtz on the back in a friendly manner. She wipes a tear from her eye as she says, "Oh that's a good one." She laughs a little more softly as she says, "Oi think it's more like people were dieing ta take a vacation."
As haley is playing around with the dead body, she stops at one that seems to draw her attention. As she begins to move the body to put it in some pose or other she freezes in her spot as she realizes there is a mine laying under it. She nearly blew herself and half the hallway up
"Oh now Oi don' like these people," says Haley as she leaves the body where it lays. She shakes her head and she says over the comm, "Mines unda the bodies boys. They're makin' things bad for rescue people. Oi'm gonna have to take the eyes out of these fellas."
Holtzclaw shrugs "Or just dying." He puts away the cybergun but leaves the Gambler out. Seeing as how a mine was under a body, he paed even more attention to staying away from the bodies. "Where the hell is this cabin?"
Slinger takes another shot, ending the drone with a hint of disgust. Then, he turns his attention toward that smaller boat. How far is he from it?
ooc 130 meters or so.
As Holtzclaw and Haley continue to take twists and turns through the hallways. They come to a set of staircases that go up and down. It seems the room is still a couple of levels down and further down the hallway.
Slinger continues heading toward that ship — while he calls back his two Earth Elementals from the astral.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Anthro drones. Dressed as tourists. Shot at me. Dealt with."
Commlink-Holtzclaw> Holtzclaw says, "What androids now? Well that's just great as if drones weren't bad enough."
Looking over Holtz, Haley says, "Well you wanna head down an' Oi'll follow afta you?" She hears the comm message and she says, "Well that changes everything." She sighs softly and she says over the comm, "Can ya go out ta their little dingy an' zap the rigga?"
Holtzclaw steps down some and sighs "So we waitin on the Rigger do go down?" He looks up to Haley "Or we going down and hoping to hell there aren't any more of them?"
Shrugging a little Haley says, "Well we got a job to do, and I'll be honest dear, Oi shouldn't be on point." As to the robots she says, "Oi can take them down too, just got to cut them harder, that's all."
As the two head down some stairs they spot two woman, down a couple of flights below them. Each group have cover from each other, and its hard to make out details. Though its not hard to make out the uzi one of them raises up in their direct.
Once the elementals arrive, Slinger gives them their orders. Go into that small boat and stun but do not kill the one inside, the one wearing the focus-necklace. Try not to destroy the necklace.
Holtzclaw takes aim at the woman with the gambler and squeezes off two shots from the gambler.
Holtzclaw gasps as he saw the uzi being pointed up through the stairwell. He'd fire shots from the gambler down to her dodging out of the way to allow haley her shot.
Moving up behind Holtz, using him for cover Haley lifts her machine pistol. She yells, "MOMMY'S HOME," as some sort of battle cry. The full auto was already pre-selected. Its time to rock and roll. The gun rumbles in her hand but it stays rock steady as it makes a brrrubt sound, six rounds fly down the hallway and stitch the gynoid from crotch to forehead. Sparks begin to fly from its ruined torso as Haley begins to laugh with an increasingly violent edge.
The girl with the uzi takes serval shots, and a few sparks flies from her chest, yes another drone. Though that means she isn't human and has no fear, she opens fire back at them, two burst fires on holtzclaw.
The drone looks like she is falling apart but spraying bullets is easy. Bullets fly up the stairway, most of the bullets going wide, but one hits holtzclaw, even if its a minor wound.
The other girl lifts up a different looking gun, it looks more like a high powered squirt gun, but this gun isn't shooting water. She sprays a stream of acid at haley.
She sprays acid up the stairs, letting it splash and hit the walls. There is a sizzling sound as the paint begins to peel off and the carpet melts.
Her laugh is starting to match her machine pistol as it spits out flying lead in a stream of death. Haley rocks back a little as she laughs and the bullets stitch the ceiling missing her target.
Holtzclaw doesn't bother reloading and just lets his wrist fall, retracting the gambler back. He switches to the remington not thinking about it as he fires the Remington down the shaft and hitting the acid drone, watching it fall.
ooc I will let holtzclaw go hide with the gear, if no one else minds.
The machine pistol is starting to smoke, the full auto continues to rumble from the gun as Haley starts to regain control over herself. She lowers the barrel but she misses the gynoid drone once again she howls, "Bitch, hold still," reverting to oldstyle profanity.
The woman stands unphased as bullets flies around her, she pulls the trigger back and fires another round of burst fire at holtzclaw.
Holtzclaw jumps to get out of the way of the shots coming towards him, seeing them spark against the ships interior.
Now in full control of her gun, Haley traces the machine pistol across the drone's throat and the head bounces down the hall. She lifts her pistol and blows on the barrel as she says, "All in the wrist hon." She points to the acid pistol saying, "Dibs," gleefully.
Dumah has been waiting with no action in sight, until now. He barely spots it but he does. There seem to be someone looking out the window, from a room about 15 meters up and 10 meters across from him. At least he thinks its someone, all he can make out is the heat pattern on his thermo.
Holtzclaw smiles "Nice shot." He heads down with her and grabs the others weapon "I could probaly use this for parts"
Dumah remains in his hidden perch, concealed by the ruthinium and his own wiles. He continues to watch the deck for signs of movement, hostility, and any threat to him or the chopper.
Slinger commanded his elementals, sending them speeding off to that exterior boat, while Slinger himself is not far behind, moving as fast as his magic will carry him toward that secondary, smaller boat that, he suspects, houses a rigger.
Dumah sights in on that sillhouette in the window, clicking his comm for a moment. ~I got movement here, two decks up. Anybody at a window?~
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Negative."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "We just blew up two robot women down heah. Oi got an acid gun. Ahaha. That is all!"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Chances our targets are invis?"
The small armored boat comes into view as slinger finally reaches it. It is just sitting there, not far from the ship. There is no one on it, meaning his must be inside the cabin, which stands behind a decent sized metal door.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Unlikely. I'd still see 'em on astral."
Once the elementals arrive, Slinger gives them their orders. Go into that small boat and stun but do not kill the one inside, the one wearing the focus-necklace. Try not to destroy the necklace.
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "CQ, do you have my target on sensors?"
Dumah sees it as he is practically looking right at the person, as whoever it is fires a round. There is a flash of light, and a bang which he also pin points to that location. Then the windshield of the helicopter shatters and a bullet lodges itself in the chair next to the pilots head.
Dumah replies instantly with shots of his own.
Slinger crouches down, pulls out his Electronics toolkit — and the elf starts to work on the poor, defenseless lock, working to remove the outer casing from it. He wants /in/.
As the invisble shooter goes down from two shots, slinger opens the door to find the rigger on the ground inside the boat. He really wasn't much of a fight, and fighting two elementals was a bit much. Especially since he didn't expect them to appear inside his boat.
Slinger swiftly moves into the boat, gun drawn. He swaps over to regular ammo — APDS is expensive! — and crouches down next to the human. He'll take that necklace, thanks! And then he surveys the equipment in the room, carefully and curiously. What the frag is in here?
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Guy in the boat is down."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Under fire… hostile down. CQ, grab some better cover. May be secondary targets. Changing position."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Still searching the ship for our people. No idea why its taking so long to get to their cabin."
The rigger seems to have enough gear to run a lot of drones, then again maybe it really isn't that much gear since some of them are capable of following normal direction more or less. There seems to be room for storing a lot of equipment though none of its inside the boat at the moment.
Checking over the acid squirting pistol, Haley smiles and puts a fresh clip into her machine pistol. She checks over the drone to see if there are any extra clips for the acid gun. If so, those are collected and she continues down the hall. She keeps her eyes out for traps as well as for anyone packing a weapon aimed at her.
This makes a lot of sense. Huh. Cool. Slinger glances toward the door and casts a quick spell to send the door swinging closed again. And then he commands his elementals to guard the entrance. Anybody other than (these people) who comes in, without one of those people with them, attack them. That done, Slinger fishes out his induction datajack adapter… and plugs right into the port the decker was using. *Click*
As haley walks down the hallway she notices a nearly invisble line of monowire, set at about neck height across the hallway. It looks very sharp, luckly she saw it in time or that might of hurt.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Jacking into the rigger's network. Gimme a sec."
Fsit, the acid gun takes care of the monowire, Haley sighs and she says, "Oi'm really gonna hafta do some corrective surgery today." She keeps the acid pistol in front of her face and she moves at a slower pace, if the gun is cut in half she'll know to stop.
There is a loud thunk from outside of the door of the ship.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Got somebody trying to get in."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "I'm in the small boat."
That is interesting you get a view of drones all around the ship, about 16 in total. One is really interesting. One with its legs snapped off and laying outside the door of the boat. Another is looking directly at a large troll. You get a front row view at it then goes sailing through the air and lands with a thud outside the door. He has a huge grin on his face as you watch him aim his heavy machine gun at the drones.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "There's a troll somewhere with a heavy machine gun!"
The signal gets cut off from the two drones laying on the deck of the small boat, just as they get hit by a spray of bullets. Because just then they explode. The entire ship vibrates and shakes, and the walls get dented in on every side. The door nearly gets blown off its hinges but remains there for a brief second. Before the door just falls off with a slight thud. A few leaks spring within the boat, though it might be repairable, maybe.
The explosion was definitely jarring, and the elf barely has time to send a 'stand down' message to all the drones in the network, before he reaches up to pull the cord out of the drone. There's going to be a troll coming in in just a moment, and Slinger already has his gun out and ready. And his spells…
He glances at the door, preparing to head out through it…
In that case, Slinger gives a quick command to his elementals, swaps the clip in his gun to APDS once again. Then, he gathers his wits about him, and rockets out of the door at full speed…
When slinger rushes through he gets a better look at the troll. This guy is huge. Likely one of the biggest trolls he has ever seen. He is packing a huge heavy machine gun, which is attached to a metal arm contected the harness. He is fully decked out in heavy combat armor and looks ready for some fighting.
Still walking down the hall, time seems to stand still for Haley. She watches the doors as she passes by counting them. She notes the potted plant and keeps walking, she passes six more doors and a potted plant. She turns and looks over her shoulder just to make sure it's not the same potted plant she had already passed. Feeling fairly sure that she is in fact moving down the hallway she marks the door with an acid stream X. She nods to herself and turns in the direction she was heading before keeping the pistol up to help her be more aware of any monowire that might be strung there.
At last Haley arrives at the door of the people they're supposed to find. She looks it over and makes note of the number. She looks around the hallway for a moment before she takes the door knob and pulls the door open using it for cover in case there's any kind of nasty surprise inside. She calls in, "Hello, we're heah to get you outta this place," hoping there's an answer other than weapon fire.
As there's no explosions, or people shooting at her Haley pulls her compact from her purse. She opens it up and uses the mirror to peek around the corner. You can never be too sure. She shakes her head, finding the cabin to be empty. She says, "Oy, it figuahs." She checks her comm by tapping the mic and giving everyone a soft thumpthumpthump in their ears before she speaks.
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Oi'm at their cabin, but there's nobody heah. Oi'm gonna go inside an' see if I can find a hairbrush or somethin' so we can track them with magic."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah grumbles, "That'll take hours… IF still alive."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Sorry hon, best Oi can do from down heah. Its a big ship, Oi'm sure there somewhere, we didn' see them in the pool. No bodies of them in the hall, Oi'd have noticed."
The massive burst of metal that the troll sends toward the area of sky that Slinger occupies is impressive. Frightening. And his sheer luck in targetting makes it almost appear that he can see the elf, or at least guess his position accurately. On the other hand… with that kind of gun, close counts.
Slinger is only barely able to dive out of the way, ducking clear of the massive explosion of ammunition from the weapon.
On the other hand, just about everybody probably could have heard /that/ thing going off!
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Hey, you need some supporting fire?"
Nothing for it but to send out another spell toward the troll!
This time, it takes the last of Slinger's magical energy for this instant. He sends it out toward the troll with a powerful motion — and the troll teeters, falling back onto the deck with a massive thud. And before anything else, Slinger is on him, to grab for that necklace. Too bad the things don't likely stack!
The troll is wearing a lot of armor, and a harness, and clothing, and his large gun is still gripped in his hand even as he lays there. Though slinger reaches over to grab the nacklace but it seems to catch on something.
Slinger checks what it's catching on, taking advantage of his augmented strength and agility from the channelled spirit to move the troll's body without too much difficulty.
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah is meanwhile still waiting on his end. "Slinger, come back?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Troll is down. Grabbing his stuff. He was tough."
This troll was hardcore, which is made apparent by his booby trapped magical necklace that has grenades attached to it. The first tug already pulled the pins out of the grenades, though the levers seem to be stuck on this clothing, which is keeping it from going off. Lucky Slinger stopped when he did. Because if he pulls any further they are likely to go off.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "We're pretty sure this troll shot some people, right?"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Maybe he knows something. Or the rigger. Are either of them still alive? Can you question them?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Rigger's alive."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Snoozing. Can't question yet."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Necklace is booby trapped. Tossing it…"
The necklace goes flying through the air, then the wind catches it and starts to bring it back towards the boat, though not really very far. It drops down and explodes with a bang just above the water.
Good. That done, Slinger slaps a tranq patch on the troll, just to make sure he's nice and out, then uses a spell to move him into the cabin with the rigger. He checks both of them for booby traps, then jacks back in to the network long enough to check sensors on the drones — and to order to boat to back slowly away from the other ship.
By the time slinger gets back to the boat, the ground is covered in about half a foot of water. Not quiet serious at this moment, but the boat may just be sinking.
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "We could damn well stim 'em. I got one up here, but he'll need healing before hand. Want me to secure him?"
Speaking of sinking, the large ship seems to be slanting slightly as well. Nothing overly serious either, a ship this size could take days to sink. However anyone running up an down the deck would eventually notice the slight incline.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Bring him over. I'll heal one, put you in charge of these guys, and then head back onto the ship to clean house. You can handle this boat."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Let's bring them both back to the chopper. Then we can keep eyes on them in one place, da?"
Dumah comments to CQ on the radio, ~Keep your damn head down and out of sight. And if somebody shows up without comming in… you know what to do.~ Only then does he actually takes one final look around his area before moving cautiously, from cover to cover, up to his former target's location.
There are drones all over the place, standing around and not doing much of anything. There doesn't appear to be anyone alive that you can see from the drones point of view. They looks like they are in some kind of pattern, though slinger can't really place what it is.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Yeah, but the gear's over here."
Dumah will have to head inside and find some stairs to get up to where his target was. When he eventually makes it to the stairs where he notices sunlight reflecting off a small wire that he clearly sees. When he moves just an inch however the wire disappears, though now he knows its there. Connected to it, just below the steps is a grenade.
Dumah eyes the wire. Eyes the grenade. ~It seems our little saboteur is fond of grenades,~ he says on the comm. ~There's a boobytrap here. Are they setting them up all over the ship?~ He minds his step, and back out. ~I'm taking position on the roof. Should have good line of sight over the entire deck from up there. Including chopper.~
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Why don't we just take the troll and the rigger and call it a day? I imagine bounty for piracy is pretty good these days. And if not, well, I know a guy."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Fair enough. Trying to figure out the pattern here…"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "There's some pattern here. People might be belowdecks… lemme do another astral sweep through the ship…"
Slinger puts the rigger and troll together — then levitates the pair of them together, transporting them to the location of the chopper…
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Get back here first. And bring the troll."
He is just so close, its just at the edge of his mind. Then he mentions belowdeck and it comes to him. The drones are positioned in such a way as to herd people towards the center of the boat, and then down to the lower deck, so that it would be harder to escape.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "The people are going to be down on the lower deck… toward the center of the boat. Where it'd be harder to escape!"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says cynically, "Rigged with explosives."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "We need to figure out how to rescue all of them, not just our targets. Has anybody put out a distress call?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Prolly, yeah…"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "CQ, you heard anything on the radio?"
She shakes her head as she looks around, and speaks over the comm. "No, I havn't heard anything at all. Though the ship is pretty damaged, that might be why."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Might radio a distress call. Get rescue boats moving this way. I don't wanna see anybody die from this more than already have."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "How're they gonna tell us from the terrorists?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Simple. We won't be here when they arrive."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "That gives us an hour. Less if Coast Guard is around."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Do we need an hour?"
Once that's done, Slinger hands them over to Dumah. "I'm going out of my body to do recon. You deal with the prisoners. Stimpatch 'em. And do whatever the frag you want. These people killed a whole bunch of innocents. Anything you do to them… is too good."
Dumah ties the hell out of these guys with plaststeel zip-ties. Especially the troll. ~I'll keep that in mind,~ he says with a slight grin to Slinger.
While speeding through the ship, slinger finds more death, and destruction. In fact, some of the below deck areas are the worst damaged from the explosions. Luckly he doesn't have to navigate through or be as careful while he heads through the ship.
Eventually he does fly by a few people who are lost and wandering through the hallways. They seem lost and confused, and only trying to get away from the violence further up.
Monsters. That's what's going through Slinger's mind as he surveys the destruction. Slinger is imagining all sorts of potential horrible fates for them. But the worst? Getting captured by the authorities. That has to be high on their list. To be paraded around as common criminals, forced to divulge secrets of their organization. Right now, Slinger rather likes the idea of the media circus that might follow from /that/.
He continues looking, finding a few people, making note of them — and continues his search, trying to find the majority of the people…
He searches but there doesn't seem to be any large groups. Sure there are a few groups, some maybe reaching a dozen or so but that is it. However he can not cover the entire ship alone and no matter how fast he goes, it is just to big of a ship, and there are to many hallways and to many rooms to check them all by himself.
There is talk on the comm about some troll with a machine gun, there is also some talk of a person sneaking around who tried to take out the helicopter pilot. Though it seems like the situation is over for the moment, and both were taken out. They also believed they have taken out the rigger controlling the drones.
You both arrived together at the room that you have from the passenger list. The room seems undamaged from the explosions, though there doesn't appear to be any one inside.
Holtzclaw looked over to Haley "Well that's just great, you think whoever is running the attack has them?" he checks his guns reloading them as they seem to be in a safe spot for the moment while awaiting her thoughts on the situation.
"Oi'll be honest hon," says Haley as she looks for trip wire and monowire, "Oi really don't know. Oi figuah they'll show up eventually. We didn't see them above deck, and we didn't see 'em onna way." She shrugs helplessly and says, "This'll take a long time to search this boat. Oi figuah we'll find somethin' that the big boys can do ta track 'em magically."
Holtzclaw nods it was a pretty large boat. He looks around "Well they aren't down here so let's start tearing this ship apart and look for clues" He sighs, just one thing after the other.
The room looks lived in, though it probably isn't much of a surprise as the ship has been out to sea for a while now. There are suitcases in the corner but most of the stuff is unpacked, and any of the mundane items a mother and her daughter would have are easy enough to find.
Feeling fairly safe, Haley heads into the cabin she says, "Clues are kinda subjective hon. Its a psychological thing. You attach significance ta an item that may or may not have somethin' ta do with an event." Picking up hairbrushes and toothbrushes, Haley carefully packs them away in plastic and puts them in her purse. She says, "Oi wish Oi had my dwogs already, this would be so much bettah."
There doesn't seem to be much in the room, except clothing and the like. Its possible they may not have even been in the room when the attack happened, though if they were they left without grabbing anything.
Holtzclaw nods and looks to Hailey with a sigh "Well I'd keep an eye out you don't know if anything in the suitcase is trapped or not." He looks to the door "I don't know if anything is really that useful here, so want to check places on our way back above deck?"
"Well if Oi were tryin' ta hide from somebody onna ship the place Oi'd go would be the engine room. You'd think with all the noise an' heat down there they'd have a good place to hide," suggests Haley, "Howevah that will make it hardah for us ta find 'em too."
Holtzclaw does however notice that the ship is starting to tilt ever so slightly. Nothing to serious at the moment, and a ship this size could day hours or even days to sink. Though there is definitely slight incline, and haley notices it as well.
Holtzclaw noticing his sense of gravity was different now, he shifted his weight "Well I don't think we have enough time to search the whole ship, besides they could still have someone moving them as we speak. The engine room seems like a good place to start so maybe we should get on it.
Giving Holtsclaw a small curtsy, Haley says, "Aftah you hon," and she gets the acid pistol ready. She keeps her machine pistol on its sling, ready to be used after the acid runs out of juice.
Holtzclaw goes out of the room keeping careful not to step on any bodies that may be there after learning what was under one. He'd start down the hall heading towards where the engine room would be.
There are some more chatter on the comm. Slinger is in the small boat the rigger was controlling the drones from. He notices a pattern but it takes him a few minutes until he realizes what it means
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "The people are going to be down on the lower deck… toward the center of the boat. Where it'd be harder to escape!"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "We need to figure out how to rescue all of them, not just our targets. Has anybody put out a distress call?"
The pilot checks her radio but there is no distress call, perhaps because the ship is damaged? Slinger decides to head back to the helicopter with the troll and rigger who are still alive but knocked out, and says he will try to scout ahead in astral.
Haley and holtzclaw are in the targets room, but it seems as if no one was there, though the room is lived in, there isn't any sign they were in the room when the attack occured, meaning they could be almost any where. Slinger and dumah and regrouped at the helicopter, with a rigger and troll they have knocked out, when slinger has just slipped into the astral to scout.
Slinger shoots back to his body. « Got a few people scattered around. Only like twenty, maybe thirty survivors so far. So far, I'm not seeing any signs of any baddies with them, but I'm sure there are more than just these and the drones. » The elf swiftly gives approximate locations, then heads back into the astral realm — and shoots back toward the nearest of the groups, carefully assensing them in more detail.
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Probably boobytraped."
As slinger is speeding through the walls and making notes of where everyone is, he comes across a large man. He is different from the rest of the people he sees in astral because he is clearly visable, he is soaked in blood, with red burning eyes. His head isn't attached to his neck, but held in his hands. He turns to face slinger as he growls with hunger. Just then a man with a large hole in his chest steps through the wall, a seemingly unlimited amount of blood seems to squirt from his chest.
Slinger takes in the sight of these… spirits? Ghosts? Whatever they are, they are trapped souls at best. "Begone. I am not the one who did this to you!"
The spirits do not seem happy, and if they were created from the recent events it would be no surprise. They do not know who slinger is, but he is the only person here in the astral with them so they turn their attention to him. They both let out a horrifying cry.
Wandering through the ship, Haley follows the last sitrep, people are gathering in the middle of the ship. She follows Holtzclaw as he leads the way towards the center of the ship. She keeps the acid pistol ready to use, her machine pistol resting on its strap as backup.
The headless one grabs his head by the hair and starts to swing it around before trying to use it as a hammer to slam it down onto slingers head. The other one runs up to slinger and tries to punch him.
Slinger launches himself at the first creature, the headless one, when he senses it attempting to radiate fear to frighten him off. That won't do at all. The elf's blow is a mighty one — but somehow, despite the haze in which he is having to operate, the other creatures do not seem affected by it. Worse, they seem to have some kind of armor against his attacks. No, this will not do at all! The elf's blow still manages to do a little damage to the creature, but not sufficient to accomplish anything.
The guy with a missing head, really doesn't put up much of a fight, maybe because he has no head. Though the other one seems to get the drop on slinger and slams his fist into him, a blow that would seriously hurt a lesser man.
Slinger ducks and waves around the swinging head, darting backward to avoid it. No, this is not a good situation. If he and the spirits were on equal, level ground, that would be one thing, but clearly, they have the advantage here. The elf darts away, down along the corridor, to buy himself some distance between himself and the spirits.
Even so, the punch landed home. Were it not for his bioware keepin his physical body stable, linked as it is to his astral form, he would be in serious trouble.
Once he has a bit of distance, Slinger conjures a Watcher spirit.
The spirits do not follow right away, especially after seeing how fast slinger is. Instead they head the other direction, disappearing between some wall, or sinking through the floor. There is a lot of places to hide, and with all the chaos from so many deaths, and the destruction caused to the ship, it only makes it worse.
Yeah. Slinger needs some reinforcements, apparently. The elf carefully begins to work. He takes his time conjuring spirits…
There is suddenly a loud explosion some where deep in the ship, then another and another. The entire ship rocks by a series of no less than ten explosions. The entire ship rocks, before lurching forward. The slight incline is a much more noticable 10 degree angel. The suddenly jolt sends haley crashing into the wall, and Slingers body rolls over and he slides a meter across the deck before coming to a stop.
Slinger watches the things disappear, then exhales slowly. He turns to the two new Watcher spirits. "Stay with me," he instructs them. "Attack anything I attack, attack anything that attacks me." He waits for their acknowledgements before he heads in search of survivors. And if he encounters those spirits again, there will be trouble.
Slinger gets back to his body, and starts conjuring. « Couple of obnoxious spirit-things down there. I'm gonna snag me some Watcher spirits and go back in. » The elf mutters under his breath, and begins to conjure. « Oh, and who the frag moved my fraggin' body? »
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "We've got explosions all over the ship. Do you really think anyone will survive all this?"
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Oi'm startin' ta doubt it. This boat have life rafts on it?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "We have to try. Somebody might wanna check on Life Rafts, but I saw some destroyed ones out in the water. That isn't good."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Oi'll go look."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Oi got the toothbrushes and hairbrushes from the targets, might help us find 'em fast."
There is a slight groaning sound as loose objects roll down the deck of the ship, and through the hallways inside. There is a couple loud explosions inside as the booby traps are accidently set off from the tilting of the ship, and loose debris slam into them.
After a bit of time, and a lot of effort, Slinger manages to get a total of seven Watcher spirits clustered around him. He begins giving orders. To three of them, he tells them, "Stay near me. You may go a little ways away, but stay close. Attack anything that attacks me. Attack anything that I attack." The elf then looks at the others, dividing them into two groups of two. "Move through the ship. Assense any non-dual-natured beings and find out what and who they are. Report back to me. Stay together."
Slinger lifts upward, from the deck, as his spell keeps him clear of the shifting deck.
As slinger goes searching again, things are starting to look more grim especially on the lower levels where there is now flooding, and some of the floors have caved in. Though there are still a few people alive. Most are trying to get back up to the deck, feeling its better to risk the terrorists than to drown, though some are trapped where they are.
Slinger materializes behind the group of people… well, his ghostly astral form. "Heya! Not a ghost. With a group here to help. The deck is clear of terrorists. Head up that way, calm, and be careful of any booby traps!" Materialized, the elf can also get a look at the people, maybe see if any of them match the description.
Some of the people let out a cry when they see the ghost and the fact the ghost is saying he isn't a ghost doesn't help. Luckly, there is a guy with some sense in the group and he tries to calm people down before nodding his head, "Okay lets go…" None of them appear to be the target.
"Have you seen any other survivors?" Slinger calls after them. "If you see anybody else, tell them the same."
Slinger waits for an answer, then returns to the astral — and heads to the next group. Watching out for those nasty spirit-thingies. And waiting, perhaps, to hear back any reports from his other searching Watchers.
The man shakes his head, "No I havn't seen any." The watchers find a couple of people.
Slinger does the same trick, checking them out, then sending them up to the surface. This is at least a decent strategy. At least, he's trying to help. But it's still excruciatingly slow. The elf slips back to his body. « Got a few more people coming up from below. A few survivors. How many can we carry on the chopper? »
Suddenly the pilot comes over to come, "I have a lot of movement on my sensors…" Though it is only a moment before dumah spots them as well. Two woman appear in windows near where the assassin was before, each carrying an Uzi. At the same time two come around the deck from port side, one with an uzi and one with a squirtgun looking weapon. As well as two on the starboard side, one unarmed and one with another squirtgun weapon. Two more come up from below deck, both unarmed.
Some where over a loud speaker a voice comes across. "Release the prisoners and we will let you leave here alive."
Slinger floats upward — and his attention moves back toward that second ship, just a quick glance. But then, he shifts his vision into the astral, confidently, trusting in his Watcher spirits to defend him from any magical threats. The elf stares down at the deck, glancing at each of the groups — just to see if they have an aura.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "
"They're all drones. All eight of them."
The drones continue to move in closer as they ready their weapons, the voice coming over once again. "This is your last chance, release them and you can leave freely, unharmed."
There are eight drones moving in on slingers and Dumah's position near the helicopter. Slinger is floating up in the area above the deck, to make himself an easy target while dumah is trying to be a little more stealthy about it. Haley is exploring further into the ship. A voice comes over the speaker to repeats its last command. "This is your last chance, release them and you can leave freely, unharmed."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Okay, so where do you guys want me to start walking towards?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Got a situation up here. Hang on."
Commlink-Cookie> Haley says, "Okay."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "If I speak, I give away position. Slinger, you tell them who we want?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Um. This isn't a negotiation."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "… you sure about that?"
Having been relayed the direction of a group coming to the top of the ship, Haley makes her way in that direction. She keeps the acid pistol only long enough to make it to the group, then she tosses it aside. She works her way into the herd and she follows them up. If nothing else when the explosions go off or the monowire takes a head she'll have a fleshy buffer or advance warning.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Yup. These people need to die."
The drones continue to move forward, before they break into a full out run towards the helicopter, with no reply they can only assume that the group is going to go down fighting. Mean while haley eventually finds some living people who make their way up the stairs from below deck.
Dumah shrugs vaguely, sighting in on the drones running away from his position, and starts having himself some target practice with the sniper rifle.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Pilot, send out distress call for the boat?"
Listening to the people babble about their worries and questions grates on Haley's nerves. She keeps with them just a face in the crowd, her machine pistol hidden in her purse. She keeps her expression matching those, an expert at keeping her feelings hidden behind a mask. She adds to their babble, "Oh I hope there's not sharks in the water. All the blood, oh goodness anyone know anything about sharks?" She tugs her lips down in a grimace trying to keep from laughing as people start talking about sharks.
Slinger picks the wrong one to shoot out, and the bullets pass through the fake fleshy skin of the drone only to bounce off the hard metal shell just below the surface.
Slinger should have slotted something heavier, but the earlier drones were, well, less well armored. The elf curses. « Armored, » he says over his comm.
As the people walk through the hall, Haley says, "Careful of the bodies, they've planted grenades under some." She does actually try to help out the group. Picking up a broom that's laying on the floor she snaps it and tosses it to someone in the front and she says, "Use half at chest level, use half at ankle level. Monowire strings." She bobs her head to her own music sound track as she follows the herd along.
Haley luckly remebers where a few of the traps are on the way back, so she can point them out if she wants. Though the people look very worried and half panicked. They would burst down the hall right now, but the idea of traps scares them so they hide behind her.
Luck, luck, people might call it luck. Haley calls it clean living and a little bioware assistance. She moves down the hall, pointing the dangers out to the gaggle. She says, "So lets see. Anyone heard the one about Engllishman, the Scotsman and the Russian lost in the desert?"
Dumah takes one more good look at the effect Slinger's ammuntion has and cusses mentally. Change of strategy. He reaches up and thumbs a control, cranking the knob of his jammer to nine. Then he takes a potshot at one of the drones.
*Twack* Haley hits the bar with one of the sticks she's holding. She uses the second to push it open and she says to the group, "Alright, stay right heah. Oi'll knock on that door five times, then two times if things are clear. If youse guys heah me scream, then you'll know it's not clear." With that she slips through the door and draws her machine pistol.
Dumah finds one of the weaker ones, the type slinger had fought early. The bullet passes straight through it and hits a crital system, sending sparks out and causing the drone to fall over and slam into the deck of the ship.
The helicopters engine suddenly start up, as the roters begin to spin. The pilot isn't about to get herself killed if the drones reach her, so she is preparing for the worse. The rest of the drones continue their approch and go into an all out sprint towards the helicopter. They seem to be closing quickly, some of them reach slingers location but them seem to be running past him.
Haley would notice her comm suddenly died on her.
Slinger lets out a curse, switches out his clip for one of AV ammo, moving as swiftly as he can.
Dumah takes another quick shot from his concealed position with his silenced sniper rifle, sighting in on a second drone.
There is a lound TINK as the bullet slams into the drone then bounces off. Sounds like that will leave a dent, and it sure cut a hole in the fake skin but other than that, the drone doesn't slow down.
The continue their mad dash towards the helicopter, some of them falling a little behind, some pulling up ahead. They seem to be ignoring the two for the moment and moving straight towards their goal. The pilot looks worried and the helicopter begins to lift off of the deck.
Every meter the chopper gains makes Slinger feel a little better. That chopper is our ticket out of here. Slinger isn't sure how many people he'd be able to levitate against this kind of background count, honestly, and maintain it for what length of time. The elf chooses his target, hesitates just a heartbeat, then sends out two shots from his pistol — one at each of the two most heavily armored of the drones, and has the satisfaction of watching them fall.
The two unarmed drones, are not actually unarmed. They are both carrying active bombs inside of them. As the bullets fly down and strike the two drones they fall forward only to explode in a huge explosion that rips a huge chunk out of the deck of the ship.
As the two drones explode, Slinger resists the urge to duck as the shrapnel and explosive power bounces right off of his hardened armor. The elf growls and takes aim, looking for any more of those. Hopefully, they did some damage to the other drones as well.
A bunch of the drones are caught up in the explode and are blown apart, heads and limbs fly across the deck as sparks fly off of them. Parts of the deck catch fire.
Well, that was an adventure. No sooner are the drones dispatched than Slinger is flying back toward that smaller boat, with a rather firm expression on his face. First, to figure out what happened to his elementals, and second, to figure out whether that is the source of the things being controlled. If he has to put a bullet into that RCD, he will.
Dumah fires, taking off another's head. And then, just to be precise, he aims carefully, and takes out the other one's chest. ~There, oh, blast.~ He glances around to make sure there's no more drone targets around - THEN he turns off the jammer. ~There, should be at least one salvagable.~
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "CQ - Stay up for 5. Making sure LZ is clear."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Heading to the other boat, checking on things."
The helicopter continues up to move clear of the ship and any other problems. "We may have a problem here…I might not be able to safely land again…" Body parts of the drones start to slide down the deck of the ship as it continues its slow tilt forward. Its more noticable by the second, and it clearly isn't the level ground a helicopter needs to land.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "My Watchers should still be searching."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Got a ladder?"
Slinger slips inside the sinking boat, glancing around carefully — both physically and in the astral. Are his elementals still there? If so, the elf carefully approaches that deck-port once again, preparing to plug in and check the status of the network.
The elementals are still standing guard, though when slinger plugs into the network, it appears nothing is connected to it any more. Though there is a fair chance they have all beeen destroyed.
The comm line opens up for everyone to hear, "That was some nice flying. If you ditch the losers and drop the two people you have, back off in town and set them free, there is 50k in it for you. You really don't want to be here any way do you? Its far to dangerous…"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Scramble frequencies. Go to backup frequency and key."
~Da, see what you mean.~ Dumah glances around the place. And then comms. He lets out a grumbly sigh, switching to the new frequency. ~Hey, CQ, you come back and pick our ass up. Let's get the hell out of this place and strip those assholes for parts. Worth plenty more than 50k.~
Nonetheless, Slinger — before he switches — points out, "Anybody who'd do /this/" — referring to the ship — "isn't anybody who can be trusted. They'll kill you and save fifty large."
Slinger isn't ready to give up on survivors, yet. The elf grimaces, waiting to hear back from his Watchers — then prepares to project once again. One final check to see if anybody actually is gonna make it.
There are still a few people stuck far below the ship, some will likely never make it in time, some are trapped and can't seem to find their way out. A few more eventually come out of the ship with haley, a few others find their way out of their own. A couple accidently set off booby traps only to die as they reach the deck.
Any who are lost, Slinger will materialize and try his best to get them out — and look at them, to see if they might be the target people — the mother and daughter. Otherwise? Most likely, they are trapped below. Slinger makes sure everyone has switched to the backup comm. « CeeCue, how many can you carry? » the elf asks.
Dumah eyes the people coming up on deck, then eyes Slinger. Then eyes the people. ~Do we make them draw straws?~ he wonders with an amused tone. ~Well, hey, we /do/ have the boat… we can escort them for a bit.~
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Boat is sinking. I'll stay behind and fly myself back. And I can bring the troll. Probably one or two other people as well."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "No, no, the Zodiac we brought."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Oh. Yeah. I'll escort the Zodiac as well. And levitate the troll. That'll save a lot of weight."
Slinger continues to search, looking for the places where people could have congretated, along with the help of his Watcher spirits — taking a final few moments to do that. That done, the elf manifests in front of those who seem to be able to move, and quickly gives them directions to the fastest way out.
Once he does that, he returns to his body to check in, and then heads toward belowdecks in his meat body, moving fast, avoiding any booby traps that he sees, and heads toward those whom he can help — who are still alive, but potentially trapped — and trapped in a way that he can free them. He's not all that strong, but he does have spells that can potentially move heavy things…
Dumah gets Haley and Holtz to hop on the chopper with some of the people while he stows his rifles, leaving his gear bag with them on the chopper as he takes the Zodiac and inflates the sucker. Then he shepards people onto the thing. ~Slinger? Running out of time here. CQ has limited fuel, you know.~ Looks like he'll be piloting the boat while the rest of people take the chopper. And Slinger will be doing the floaty thing.
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "CeeCue — did you call in a distress signal yet?"
She shakes her head, "I tried to earlier but the radios went out. I will try again."
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Do it. We'll be long gone before the authorities show."
Once the situation is in hand, Slinger dives into the ship, going through the nearest path to the largest group of trapped people that he has found, to ensure they make it out.
Slinger misses it as he rushes down below deck, he runs straight into a monowire line. It snags and digs into his arm, before there is a click and to his right, a hidden mine goes off next to him.
Well, that slowed Slinger down a bit. The elf stops and catches his breath, before proceeding deeper into the ship. But if there are a lot of these booby traps, then he'll have to turn back…
As he gets further into the ship he can hear all sort of strange sounds and the ship groaning, as if the ship was falling apart from the inside. Then suddenly everything seems to spin around to the side as there is a horrible crash, the walls and floor shake and rattle, as you find the ship now laying on its side.
Yeah, that's not a good sign. Slinger braces himself against something, working to keep his balance. It's disorienting in here. A check of his chrono… he still has a little more time. But not much more. A little further — and then he will turn back.
Water begins to flood the floor, or is it the wall? At the moment its just a quarter of a foot deep. Though it is slowly raising. Further into the ship you hear people crying out. Their voices echoing through the ship.
Slinger winces. He probably cannot help them all. But he has to try. Setting his jaw, the elf heads toward the voices, making sure his internal air supply is at full charge — and heads deeper into the ship.
As he continues forward he comes across a scene of five people. They are gathered at a deep ledge, what used to be a hallway, is now a bottomless pit filled with rushing water. Two men stand back, as two more men and a woman hang half way over the edge as if trying to grab something. "Hang on!"
Slinger cancels his silence spell. "Hang on!" the elf calls, as he moves in closer. "Don't move!" He continues moving, quickly but cautiously, watching out very carefully for another of those damned booby traps.
When he gets closer he spots a young girl hanging onto a broken pipe, as water pours over her. She looks as if she is close to slipping and she cant quiet reach for the adults who are trying to grab her arm.
Slinger's movement is not limited to the usual two dimensions. The elf slides downward into the maelstrom, using all the power of his spell, arms outstretched as the invisible mage cancels his invisibility spell — if people can see him, they can potentially follow him out of the place. Reaching out, his armored hands grab the young girl to rescue her from the precipice, carrying her up toward the others. "The way out is this way," Slinger calls, gesturing to the people. "Be careful!"
The girl nearly slips before you grab her. She clings to you tightly as she sobs and weeps heavily. Once she is back onto semi safe land she runs over to the woman and hugs her tightly. One of the man looks around, "There is no way out, we are all going to die!"
"This way!" Slinger says again. The woman and her daughter get a glance from Slinger — but right now, it doesn't matter if she is the target or not. The elf checks for anyone injured. "There's a path to the surface. There's air. I'll do everything I can to get you out safely, but you have to stay calm!" The armored figure gestures again in the direction the group should take, staying close to the woman and her daughter, ready to help if he can.
They turn and continue down that path you show them, as the water begins to get deeper, soon reaching waist deep. One of the men picks up the girl and tries to help her. Though the path you came dowd in now a dead end. The ship now laying on the side, changes the landscape, and loose debris and flood water blocks off old paths.
That's a problem. Slinger tries to visualize the layout of the ship from what he remembers, to find the best way out of here. He still has Watcher spirits. "Find me the best route out of the ship," the elf commands several of them. To another pair, he tells them, "See how far that blockage is!" He is trying to think quickly, while he works to calm the people.
They split up and looks for ways out. There seems to be several. There is a way to swim out, if one was a strong swimming and could hold their breath long enough. There is also a a detour around this path if you could climb up a straight drop off. The stuff blocking your path could be moved, though it would take moving about a thousand pounds and could possibly cause damage to the area around it.
Moving a thousand pounds? Slinger can do that. That will be the first approach he takes. The elf concentrates on the blockage, then invokes a spell designed to move heavy loads…
Concentrating, the elf works on the obstruction, sending out his magical energies toward them — and works to push the obstruction out of the way — perhaps, he hopes, letting the water drain away into other parts of the ship — and letting some air in, maybe enough for the people behind him to follow…
Luck doesn't seem to be on his side however. As the obstruction is cleared away it gives them a path out, however the water doesn't drain out, it drains in. The people let out a scream as they reach on to hold onto stuff as water washes over them, nearly forcing them back down the way they just came, but some how they hold on until the current settles, but the water is now chest high.
Slinger moves to grab the girl. "I'll carry her," he says firmly, using one arm to support the child. "C'mon. Quickly. There isn't much time!" He encourages people forward out of the dying ship. He will not be able to save others, but this group, with luck, he can escort to the surface.
They continue forward, and you see two people float by, unmoving. The girl clings to you tightly as everyone tries to wade or swim through the water that keeps getting higher. Soon its about a foot from the ceiling which makes things far more difficult. Though eventually you find the place you came in at, though its now underwater.
Slinger reaches the place he came in, which is underwater — perhaps with some light streaming in. "All right. You'll need to swim down, then back up. Head up toward the surface. Get as much oxygen as you can, breath fast, then dive down and then back up. I'll help anybody who needs help. We can do this!" the elf says, his voice firm, powerful. "Hold your breath, and don't stop until you hit the surface!"
They nod their head as they all take a deep breath and dive under the water. They start to swim the best they can into the next area. However the water suddenly turns red, and you notice a man with his leg caught into some monowire.
Slinger starts sending people out, keeping the mother and daughter with him. They are the two that seem the most vulnerable to him — and while he doesn't know if they are the ones we are here to rescue — it's hard to see down here — they are the last vestige of anyone he's been able to find.
Once about half the people have gone through, Slinger will go through, holding the mother's hand, and with the daughter cradled against his armor. "Take deep breaths," he tells her. "Then hold your breath. One, two, THREE…" And then he dives, himself, using the force and speed of his spell to move them to safety.
And while underwater, the elf looks for any who have gotten disoriented, stuck, or otherwise are having trouble…
Like that guy. Frag! Slinger winces at the sight of it. "Hold still!" the elf manages to say, taking advantage of the air inside his armor to be able to speak. Then, he moves forward, using his free hand to work to untangle the monowire from the man. Even using his toolkit to assist, even if he'll have to buy a new one if this one doesn't dry out…
The wire is sharp, but luckly his gloves protect his fingers and he finally gets the man free. It looks really bad, but one with some experience would know the cut isn't life threatening. Just ahead the group finally come up out of the water, to find themself outside the ship.
Once all the people have been escorted out, Slinger slips over to the man. "Hold still," he says again, and concentrates, sending his energies out to into the man's body. "The Coast Guard has already been called, and they're on their way. He helps the others get into position near where the other survivors are, clinging to the rafts, floating on them, and finally takes a good look at the woman and child…
As slinger is looking over the mother and daugther, he hears something below him. With all the noise and choas its probably pure luck that he glances down and notices a man just below him. The water seems to part and form a bouble around a small rocket that flies up towards him.
Slinger throws himself to the side just in time to let the rocket fly up into the air, breaking the surface of the water and, hopefully, exploding safely away from the innocents. The elf glares down into the water at the one who fired the missile at him. That's not a drone. He grits his teeth… and sends a spell down toward this new target…
Slinger releases the girl into her mother's arms, then floats away from the others, staring down at the target, watching carefully. And as soon as he feels his magical energies refresh, Slinger sends out another bolt of energy, just to make sure…
Slinger uses Levitate to bring the guy back to the surface, so that he doesn't drown, and then moves him toward Dumah's boat. The woman and daughter, Slinger keeps with him, while the others can attach to a demolished liferaft. Perhaps there is a way to lash them to the Zodiac and pull them to safety — or perhaps they can wait until the Coast Guard arrives.
Either way, the elf starts to make preparations to leave, still watchful, still wary… but exhausted.
The coast guard eventually comes, and fish the survives out of the water, besides the people slinger pulled out two people got lucky and escaped on their own. Which brought the total people who survived the ship, up to 17. Slinger stayed with the people at the ship, and made sure they all got picked up safely. While the helicopter returned to land and dropped the people off there.
Holtzclaw and Haley had just reached the deck area, where the helicopter was. They were able to find ten people who were still alive, six men, two woman, and a boy and girl. The deck is on fire and has another large hole in it from an explosion, the helicopter is safe however, hovering 40 meters above the ship. However as the ship continues to tilt things begin to roll down the deck, and there is no longer a flat surface for the chopper to land on. Slinger says he will do another quick search of the ship, this time going in person but he wants the others to try and save everyone else.
"Oi need people that do not have a weak stomach. If you cry, if you vomit, or if you say 'this is disgusting,' you're not the people to help me," says Haley. She points to a spot next to her and she says, "Come over heah an' we'll get ta work savin' everyone here. Oi don't know if it'll work, but its the best idea Oi have to work with."
Holtzclaw waits to hear Haley out on this one seeing as he left his ropes at home. He refrains on looking up to the chopper as he would probably get a bit dizzy and lose his balance.
They look pretty nervous and not sure they really like where she is going, but eventually two of the guys step forward, and look over to hely, "What do we have to do?"
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "….. you know we have a boat."
Dumah, meanwhile, is dealing with getting the Zodiac into the water and inflated and set up for accepting people. He's leaving his bag o' gear in the Chopper for now, it's got lots more load than his little inflatable thing does.
Holtzclaw helped to load people up into the ZoDIac, and took his place up in the chopper while keeping an eye out for Slinger.
The people try to squeeze onto the little boat. They all want off as soon as possible. The helicopter slowly lowers back down, so that people can try to get onto it, though it still can't find any place to land.
About the time person #5 is trying to get onto the boat, Dumah looks over at the rest. "OK! This boat here? Holds /six/. I know how it runs, so I am number six. Rest of you will have to take the chopper." He does wait for that last person to get on… and then starts the engine, taking the boat out from the craft some fifty meters to discourage anyone else from hopping in.
Holtzclaw looked to Haley and the driver, "Do you think you can get close enough for them to grab me?" He thought in a last moment effort to attempt saving the last few people.
The pilot uses the winch, to try to help people up to the chopper but its slow work. There is a loud groaning sound from deep inside the ship as it begins to tilt starboard. Then suddenly the entire ship begins to roll over. The helicopter suddenly jerks upward and away, trying to avoid accidently getting nailed as one side of the ship raises high into the air as the other drops. Holtzclaw manages to grab onto something, and holds on to stay with the helicopter. As the small boat zooms away however, it is just to slow. As the ship slams into the ground a huge wave comes zooming up behind them before flipping over the zodiac and causing everyone to go flying into the water. The large curise ship is now laying on its side.
The pilot uses the winch, to try to help people up to the chopper but its slow work. There is a loud groaning sound from deep inside the ship as it begins to tilt starboard. Then suddenly the entire ship begins to roll over. The helicopter suddenly jerks upward and away, trying to avoid accidently getting nailed as one side of the ship raises high into the air as the other drops. Holtzclaw manages to grab onto something, and holds on to stay with the helicopter. As the small boat zooms away however, it is just to slow. As the ship slams into the ground a huge wave comes zooming up behind them before washing over the small boat. The boat is pulled under water for a brief moment before poping back out from under the wave, everyone soaked but otherwise unharmed.
Dumah spits salt water off the side of the boat, muttering Russian curses. He gets a bit farther out from the ship, watching closely for any other surprises, then shakes his head, looking to the rest. "Well?" he says. "Get bailing. We're not leaving until helicopter and mage cover our backside, no? Shouldn't be more than couple minutes." And true to that, he cuts the engine and starts bailing out water - all he's got is his hands, but it's a start.
The other people in the little boat help bail out the water, though it doesn't look to bad, even if they are all now soaking wet. The ship looks in bad shape as water pour through the doors and windows that are not laying on the bottom of the ship due to it falling over.
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Yo, Slinger! You still alive?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Yeah, so far, so good. Booby trap went off. That almost coulda hurt."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Ah…. you know boat tipped over?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Really? I hadn't noticed that suddenly the wall is now the floor, and there's all this water. Thanks for the *grunt* frag… information."
Commlink-Dumah> Dumah says, "Well… you planning on following it to bottom or should we wait for you?"
Commlink-Slinger> Slinger says, "Hang on. Got people. Frag…"
Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main… some time later, Dumah pulls the boat within sight of the harbor. This probably takes a while. He checks the radio for any instructions from, oh, harbor control or something. Wouldn't do to get run over by an oil tanker while trying to park.
It takes a few hours to get back to the coast, but eventually dumah gets there, with the five other people has was able to fit aboard. He gets clearance to stop at the harbor though the moment he stops the others paln to get off and go straight to report what happened on the boat to the police.
Slinger waited behind, with the remaining survivors, keeping the woman and the child safe, especially, until they are able to return to hands of the authorities. Once he has done that, the elf nods once and returns back with the boat, knowing Dumah has the prisoners safely under control. Invisible elf, floating elf, making all due haste back toward the harbor.
Dumah meets up with the rest at the chopper, checking to make sure their prisoners are good and unconscious, still. Then he looks over at Slinger. "So… what you want to do with these guys?"
Once we arrive, Slinger glares at the chopper. He personally uses his Levitate spells to get the prisoners out of the chopper. Quietly, Slinger says, "I dunno. Don't let CeeCue near them. I don't like the way they were trying to bribe her. And I dunno — this seems like a big job for three people. I bet they had support. At least a mage — we know somebody had to enchant these things, though the mage wasn't on site. And probably more than just these three."
He hesitates, torn for a moment. "Personally, I'd love the authorities to find out who the frag hired them. But they deserve to fragging /die/ for what they did. What if they escape?"
Both the troll and the rigger are out, and when slinger arrives he is carrying with him a guy with cybergills and cyberfins. Obviously some kind of underwater specialist.
Slinger has them all tranqed right now. He glances to Dumah. "I'd be all for interrogating them. Painfully," he adds, with a dark note in his voice. "They killed eight thousand innocent people." The elf has had time to brood on the way back. All that death, all that destruction. /Angry/ elf.
Slinger is also carefully watching his surroundings for any threats, magical or mundane. Edgy elf, too.
"Me," Dumah says, "I don't much care for causing pain randomly." He pulls out a knife, testing the edge. "And we'd have to find a private place, hassle, bother. What do they know that we want to?"
The passengers from the helicopter all left as well, likely to report to the police what had happened. Word must get around quickly, and with such high profile targets the police are quicker than normal to respond. In the distance there is siren.
In the end the they head off and leave the shadowrunners behind for the police to catch. Which gives them enough time to disappear back into the shadows and make it out of Califorina.
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