Contract #5: Marcus Bell: Enemy of the State!

[Elliott]

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good and Tyros has no doubt the timing of Six's automatic shutdown which saved the team's lives was a grand stroke of luck which none of their skill could otherwise have achieved. Tyros casts an invisible frown at the blocked passage.

"If we can find a way outside, I can fly us up to the gunship and we can board it pirate-like. Otherwise the roof is a good bet. Val, do you have any schematics of the building that can get us there?"

[Drew Buddy]

Adams stoops low over the desiccated cyberzombie. Actuators in on the back of its hand still twitch, retracting and extending its claws. He snaps a few low-res photos with his commlink's video chat camera.

Distractedly, he calls out to Pandora, "You mentioned the comm tower. Where would we go to get up there?"

[GM Nick]

Pandora indicates another maintenance duct with a beleaguered gesture.

"The comm tower protrudes far enough from the canyon that we should be able to climb out. I assume you brought wheels?"

[John]

Max frowns grimly, and says,

"We hijacked the truck we drove up in and sent it out after we were done with it. We'll have to walk to get back to our rover."

[Drew Buddy]

"Not necessarily," Doc responds, activating his satellite link, and attempting to establish a connection with the rover.

[GM Nick]

The subterranean, umbilical structure of the tunnels make getting a clear satellite signal impossible.

[John]

As Doc deduces the viability of beckoning the rover remotely, Max inspects the maintenance duct. Removing the grating, the elf pokes his head in behind the barrel of the Ares shotgun, covering both direction in the duct before stepping.

[Drew Buddy]

Adams shakes his head,

"We need to get outside either way."

[GM Nick]

Pandora grasps a rung of the ladder weakly, some of her complexion having returned.

"That gunship will be impenetrable while airborne and we'll be sitting ducks on top of the canyon. Our only hope is to take it down."

[John]

Max smiles without looking at Pandora as he continues up the shaft, and says,

"Now you're talkin' my language."

[Drew Buddy]

Doc mounts the ladder, and starts climbing up.

"Well, this should be different." He says, suddenly noticing how small his rifle feels.

[Stephen]

Val runs a shaky hand through his cold, sweat-soaked hair.

"Well, if I can get a clear signal I might be able to crack the gunship's control node and create a backdoor."

Val finally shifts his gaze away from Six and toward Doc.

"Think you're a good enough pilot to crash a gunship, 'mano?" Val asks Doc with a wan chuckle.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc looks down at the decker from the ladder,

"Yeah, I've just gotta point it at the ground, right?"

[John]

Max begins to chuckle in malevolent mirth, and says,

"Sometimes I love you guys."

[Elliott]

"I don't see why we don't hijack the gunship. It is faster evac and we can perhaps fly it over the border since Legion apparently has a deal with the authorities."

[John]

Max plays devil's advocate, and says,

"Well, if nothing else, it's going to be a frag of a lot easier to do what they're suggesting than to try to hijack the thing. We have no idea how many hostiles are onboard the ship."

[Elliott]

Tyros chuckles, "since when has any of that ever stopped us before? Big risk, big reward. I vote for taking the gunship."

[Drew Buddy]

Adams calls down from further up the ladder,

"I vote for tying to see if we can nab this damn thing before deciding what we'll do with the prize. You coming?"

[GM Nick]

Pandora pushes open a hatch with a grunt, revealing a shaft of daylight and a flurry of flakes. The exhausted adept pulls herself up and crouches in the ankle-deep snowdrift that has accumulated on the roof. She sidles up to an external heating unit and cranes her neck towards the communications tower, which is little more than an obelisk silhouette through the haze.

[Elliott]

Tyros clambers up after her, taking a deep breath in of the crisp air and scanning the sky for the gunship.

[John]

Max stands and surveys the scene as he reloads the weapon that he's surprised to suddenly find himself almost mistaking for Marlowe. The elf casts an inspecting glance down at its form in his hands, snow flurries melting as they land on its still warm barrel. The elf nods as if in approval of the weapon, not realizing that his appreciation of the new tool is manifesting itself physically.

After the slaughterhouse of the corridors and rooms of the Legion facility-- with all of the sickly, sweet smells that rise from dismembered corpses and coil through the cracks in one's cool until those cracks inevitably open to become fissures-- the fresh, cold air is extremely refreshing. Overstreet closes his eyes for a brief moment and lets the air fill his sinuses, washing out the reek of freshly dead flesh and final evacuations, and for a moment he could be miles away. The whole day fades into the background and for a brief reprieve he forgets where he is.

[GM Nick]

The hulking outline of the heavy gunship careens around one side of the facility roof, passing behind the comm-tower. The glow of the vector engines are just visible through the blizzard.

[Drew Buddy]

Adams hunkers down behind a heat exhaust to hide himself both visually and thermally.

"Okay, Val, you're up."

[John]

Max's meditation is broken and he looks up at the gunship. Without breaking his stare, he says to his comrades,

"Alright. Now what?"

[Elliott]

"Maybe I should take us up there? Perhaps it's simpler for Val to just open a door on the gunship, if one isn't open already, so that we can board her."

[Drew Buddy]

Adams draws his finger across his throat in a jerking motion.

"Bad idea. We are tiny and fleshy. That thing is big, metal, and covered in guns. You can try to take it on if you want; maybe challenge it to a sword fight. Me? I'm staying hidden until Val works his magic."

[John]

Max nods, the voiceless affirmation all the agreement he feels the need to express.

[GM Nick]

The gunship looms ever closer, thundering thrust boosters sending up bus-sized flurries of snow. One side of the aircraft is exposed now, revealing a multi-layer olive drab armored hull and a pair of auto-cannons. A gunner's window lays betwixt the two, its perimeter crowded by tiny birds-feet of frost.

[John]

Max ducks behind the comm tower, envying Tyros's invisibility and Sinjin's apparent ability to remain perfectly invisible in plain sight.

[GM Nick]

Doc receives a ping from his comm-link and the Rover's internal systems manifest as an AR window in the periphery of his vision.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc checks the area surrounding the rover in the AR window before commanding it to start making its way back to the compound.

[Elliott]

((Aren't we hours from Calgary where the Rover is parked? And I thought there were checkpoints and the like in between. This was why I was concerned when we let the transport go.))

[GM Nick]

(( 30 kilometers out from Calgary, so only like 15 minutes by vehicle. ))

[Drew Buddy]

(( Also, we're much closer to the ambush site where we left the rover and sent the delivery truck. Both are stashed just off the road a little way back, right? ))

[Stephen]

Val hunkers down with his back to a utility box adjacent the comm tower. He closes his eyes, centering himself, and expels his breath in a misty puff of vapor, an ethereal manifestation of his anxiety.

"Doc, I'll comm you with the details as soon as I have that backdoor open. Until then, cover me."

A familiar but brief wave of vertigo washes over Val as he leaves his corporeal body behind and drops into the vastness of VR space. He sets to work acquiring the node of the lurking gunship.