Clusterfrag

Doc tightens his grip on the rifle, and presses it into his shoulder.

"Do like he says, Roman. Now, I seem to recall that the whole affair didn't end up too well for EITHER brother in that story. What are you getting out of this?"

"The universe has it's own rules of justice. Entropy and brutality will always win, in the end."

Roman produces an Ares Predator.

No time to think it through.

Doc squeezes the trigger.

Roman stiffens as Doc fires a single round into his chest. The individual droplets of blood glitter in the fire light like diamonds as they spread from the exit wound. His grimace of pain turns into a faint smile as he drops the Ares Predator. Arms spread wide, he falls backwards over the railing.

Despite everything about the situation, Max takes a step back. Something isn't right about this.

"That wasn't right. Something's wrong here. No way was it that easy."

Max's gaze darts suspiciously about the scene as he looks for the catch.

Roman lands on the factory floor, a mere meter from Sinjin's position in the shadows. The man is dead.

Doc lowers the rifle, and exchanges a glance with Max.

"After all that, he just let us kill him? Man, we really walked into a bag of crazy on this one."

Max looks around with some confusion and says,

"I'd be lying if I said I knew what the frag to do now. Let's check the body, I guess."

"It also looks like we are going to have a hard time getting paid. We may have to motivate Heckerman to do some creative financing in order to fund our payment. Shall we go back and discuss it with him?"

In the few moments of silence following Romans deadfall from the catwalk above, Sinjin replays the scene in his mind, unable to make sense of the gangers actions and subsequent death. Nothing about this day was making sense. Why would Roman just hand himself over like that?

He's not your typical sprawl ganger, elf. Don't underestimate him... Gringo's final words of warning play back in his mind. Well, allowing us to catch him and ending this with a death that borders on suicide is certainly not typical.....unless....

Hairs raising on his fuzzy neck, Sinjin takes a quick step forward to examine the still body of Roman. Just to make sure he's as dead as he looks.

Sinjin bends over the body and examines it closely. Hairline sub-dermal scarring on the underside of the jaw line and around the ears... slight bulge in the throat suggests a cybernetic voice modulator... and the eyes...

The ork reaches over and picks at the lenses. One of them comes off in his fingertips, revealing a decidedly non-augmented eye underneath.

"Maybe we should take the body back to Heckerman to confirm the job is done. And for burial."

<Uh, Doc? You might want to have a look at this...>

Max-- who had already been on the way down to check the body-- double-times it.

Doc moves down the stairs, and approaches the body.

"The frag?" He mumbles, kneeling down.

"Voice modulator, fake cybereyes... Who the hell did we just kill?"

He starts poking and prodding around the corpse, to get a better idea of what kind of augmentations are in the body.

Max stands on alert should the real Roman to show himself.

Doc finds the tell-tale signs of a sim-rig implantation as he examines the base of the cranium.

Doc looks up at the rest of the team with an unsettled expression,

"Drek, I think this guy was quite literally a puppet. Kind of a technological version of what you do, Tyros. We need to find Roman... The real Roman."

He thinks for a bit,

"The simrig in this guy may have also been recording. Val, do you think you can crack open this guy's PAN, and grab any recording from his 'ware?"

"Way ahead of you."
Stat1c5hade inspects the plethora of wireless connections in the area. One in particular seems conspicuous, and he examines the encapsulated data.

Val's eyes snap open.

"Out front. About 50 meters."

Doc is up and running by the time Val finishes speaking. He fires up the feed from the Fly-Spy in an AR window, and instructs it to pan around in the direction that Val indicated.

He stops by the front entrance, back to the wall, waiting to see what the little drone shows him.

Max keeps in lockstep with Doc as the team makes it's way out to Roman's position. The elf runs with his gun up and his senses at their sharpest.

20 meters from the front entrance, a GMC Bulldog rumbles to life. The van's tires squeal as it lurches forward off of the curb.

Seeing the vehicle roaring to life, Max fires a pair of armor piercing rounds at its gastank.

Doc swings out from behind the doorway and drops to a knee.

"Oh no, you don't," he says as he fires a burst of AV ammunition into the vehicle's engine block.

In the flurry of gunfire, Max shouts,

"Val! Shut that fraggin' thing down!"

The van rocks to one side as Doc's burst slams into the front fender. It sputters and dies in the middle of the road. The man at the wheel dives out of the driver's side door and takes cover on the opposing side of the vehicle.

Doc aims his rifle at the spot that the man bailed out of the vehicle, and fires another burst of AV ammo though the car.

(( 8P DAMAGE! ))

Doc's burst is dead-on, shredding the gang leader's ankles. He crumples to the pavement with a strangled cry.

Max runs out from behind the doorjamb to a vantage from which can catch a glimpse of Roman's downed form and fires a volley of armor piercing slugs.

(( 9P DAMAGE! ))

Max's shotgun blast empties Roman's stomach on to the tarmac. The gang leader claws the air and hacks blood before going limp.

Max strolls cautiously over to Roman's body, not wanting to take the other ganger's warning about him for granted. Reaching the corpse, Max hives it a few taps with his foot before stooping to inspect and search it.

Doc moves to the van, and checks the windows one-by-one.

Peering in the van's windows, Doc can make out several black vinyl bags in the trunk.

Doc cautiously opens the rear door, and sweeps the interior with his rifle. Satisfied for the moment, he slowly opens one of the bags.