Clusterfrag

Tyros nods, <"I can fly up to the comm tower, but someone will have to tell me what to do when I get there. I think we should call in the evac now before heading the Deus so that its on the way if things go crazy.">

Max responds to the large troll,

"I think all we're really doing is calling for help, am I right? Perhaps activating some kind of beacon so that Lo's whirly-bird knows where to find us?"

Doc chimes in,

"We should also make sure to close off any outgoing connections. We don't want Deus escaping when he realizes just how fragged he is."

He sends the drone closer to the tower to take a look.

Max nods,

"Good call. You know, for a regular lead magnet you're pretty sharp!"

<"Makes sense. Will we need special technical expertise and tools to set off a beacon and then destroy the comm ability, or can a layman like me handle it?">

Max throws his thoughts on the situation into the ring,

"Tyros, why don't you just levitate all of us up there? It sounds like we're at an impasse until we get this over with anyway, so I don't think there's anything for us to do here."

Rawhide arches a brow at Max's suggestion. "Nobody tosses a dwarf!"

Max looks doubtfully at the dwarf and suggests,

"You can stay here and dig some holes or something, then. Shall we?"

Doc nods.

"Let's go."

Forgetting that no one can see, Tyros nods, and raising his arms (centering), lifts the party up out of one of the holes in the ceiling and flies towards the comm tower (levitate, f4).

Max raises both his right fist and his face skyward as they begin their ascent and roars,

"UP-AND-AT-THEM!"

The group soars through the frigid air and sets down nimbly on the top of the staircase.

A single utility door separates them from the interior of the comm tower.

After regaining his balance, Doc walks over and tries the door.

As Doc pushes the door open there's a subtle --click-- that doesn't seem related to the door.

Doc dives away from the door, ignoring his lingering injuries.

"DOWN!"

Doc drops, just as a shotgun blast thunders where his head had been a second prior.

As the smoke clears, it's evident that someone had rigged the door to a stationary shotgun wedged between two chairs, pointed towards the doorway.

A lone piece of stuffing from Max's coat floats through the air, detached at the point where the shotgun blast slightly grazed his arm.

Doc pushes himself off the ground, and dusts himself off.

"Well, I can confirm that the door is indeed booby-trapped. Glad we cleared that up."

Max pokes through the now-open doorway cautiously and begins to search the room for anything useful, intending to leave the more technical tasks to Doc.

The interior of the communications tower is covered in cobwebs and shrouded in near darkness.

A criss-cross mesh of tripwires litters the floor, terminating in a computer console that has some sort of canvas bag strapped to it.

Max points out the trip wires and the canvas bag and says,

"I'm guessing another shotgun or a bomb. Perhaps it'd be best if the less nimble among us stayed outside."

Doc stows his rifle on its sling over his shoulder, and takes his SMG out from under his coat.

Flicking the attached flashlight on, he sweeps the room.

"Max, can you make it to that bag and get an idea of what it is?"

Max looks dourly at Doc and says,

"Sure, just lemme take a little peek..."

The elf tiptoes over to where the computer terminal with the sack over it stands, making sure to stay out of what he imagines to be the line of fire of another shotgun boobytrap. Taking his knife from his pack with the utmost care, Max tries to cut a small hole in the bag that he'll be able to peer through.

Max steps on an unnoticed trip-wire and falls heavily to the floor. There's a series of snaps as the spring-loaded trip-wire begins to retract through a number of eye-holes located around the room.

Max scrambles and jumps out the door of the comm tower, grabbing Doc on his way out in something resembling a tackle.

Tyros and Rawhide wrap themselves around the corners as they see their team-mates dive out of the door, coming to the most logical conclusion: something is about to be set ablaze.

A moment later, a deafening explosion shakes the comm-tower. A cloud of smoke, glass and cinders bellows out of the open doorway.

Max looks incredulously at the smoldering remains of the devastated comm tower and says mostly to himself,

"You fucking kidding me... ?"

Dusting some of the shattered glass and assorted other bits of debris off himself, the elf gets on the horn,

<The comm tower is gone, Milly. At least Deus won't be able to connect out to the rest of the world.>

Max looks contemplatively at the plume of smoke rising from the destroyed comm tower and suggests,

<Can Lo's man in the sky zero in on us from the smoke this explosion just created? We can always make the fire bigger if need be... >

Doc dusts himself off for the second time.

"Jesus Frag, I sometimes forget how paranoid cults can be."

"Well, I suppose that accomplished one of our goals. Why is it that Mily can't triangulate our comm signals? Obviously some satellite it picking them up. And next time, someone should bring a damn GPS. I can try to astrally project and get a 60,000 foot view of where we are. The geography should give us a general location, and the evac chopper should be able to lock onto our comm frequency as it gets close."

Max thinks,

"I'm thinking Tyros should hang back. Since he can stay invis he'll be in no danger of being taken alone, and whatever we encounter killing Deus will likely require some firepower, so he's probably least likely to have a direct impact on whatever happens there. Feel like takin' a break, big guy?"

Rawhide looks over the edge of the comm tower.

"I'm not too keen on the ride back down. If Tyros doesn't want to stay, I can set up a defensive position to cover your retreat."

Max has a thought,

"Drek-- Tyros has to come with since he's our ride. Looks like you get to kick your feet up, Rawhide. Let's go, boys."

Rawhide pushes a couple thermal smoke grenades into Doc's hands.

"I'm no expert, but these might be useful against drones."