...segue into story mode..."Courage is resistance to fear,
mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
- Mark Twain
Muse - MadnessAs the red samurai sprays lead into the ladies' room where Scarlet was making her hiding place, Galbraith raises the rifle to his shoulder and fires off two quick rounds- what's known as a controlled pair; the both hit the red-armored figure in the back, near the spine. Either would be enough to kill the Renraku hitman, but two just to be sure. The form crumples without even looking around.
There's a spray of gunfire, and one of the red samurai pauses to remove the fearsome facemask of their stylized helmets, shouting in Japanese
"祖先は、アーチャーあなたをいまいましい！あなたのお尻を下車し、フェイルセーフをトリガしない場合は、博文と清隆は爆発している！"It's not immediately clear who he's talking to, but he sounds
pissed.
Within the slowly roiling smoke cloud, a female voice sounds, raspy through the smoke. She shouts
"祖先は、アーチャーあなたをいまいましい！あなたのお尻を下車し、フェイルセーフをトリガしない場合は、博文と清隆は爆発している！" with a note of triumph in her voice, and they slowly begin to withdraw- it feels like the retreat takes an eternity.
Half of the people in the restaurant are dead, almost everyone wearing injuries sustained in the last thirty seconds. Not exactly how you would have hoped that things would go at this point.
* * * * *
Sly hits the ladder at a run, thankful for his helmet protecting his precious brain as he came through the low room decorated with pipes and ducting. The rungs aren't meant to be climbed with condiments decorating your gloves, but a height advantage is worth a little precarious climbing. Taking the rungs at a run, pushing off and grabbing the one in front of you while momentum is on your side- well, it isn't the safest way to ascend, but it is quick. You're two steps closer to the edge of the roof before you even feel out of breath, and sliding the tactical laser off of its ring, you grind the butt of the stock against your shoulder, knowing that there's no kick for this weapon, but you don't want to waste battery life with a miss.
* * * * *
Eric slices through the code of the node (amusing himself by rhyming words), dispatching the baby swarm and firing black hammer at the enemy hacker. The stylized obsidian hammer (standard icons are so bourgeois) flies through the air, smacking the hacker between the eyes and causing him to log off. There's something- strangely empty about the victory. I mean, you won, but where's the sense of pride, accomplishment, or bragging rights?
Eric begins hacking the node, tearing out chunks of code and replacing them with haiku-style snippets written on the fly. There is some satisfaction in this; before too long, Eric has superuser access, and directs the turret to disarm and shut off- ending one threat. Dubois also cuts the subscription to the secondary drone- the one watching for anyone trying to run out of the front door in a panic; that would have racked up quite a few cleanup kills in a few moments when the panicked crowd from inside made a break for '
safety.' The drone just sitting there will be hacked by some rigger who needs a new pet- or, since Eric is thinking about it, he sends the drone off to get scrubbed by a dwarf in the area who de-bugs acquisitions and re-purposes them for a little extra cred. Always good to make sure your friends were happy, better to keep them paid.
* * * * *
Sly hits the edge of the roof, watching the red samurai drag a bloody mess into their APC. One of the red samurai is rolling around on the ground, holding his face and screaming, where some poor bastard cut through his armor like soy-cheese with a laser; could have been anyone. The two red samurai exiting look pissed, and both have their face-plates removed. A very pissed-looking Japanese human walks over to the downed red samurai, putting two in the chest; and then spits on the corpse. Apparently they were not good friends. The man continues watching the squirming thrashes growing slower, and the Japanese human woman dragging a bloody
sack of something into the APC says something to the man, but it's lost in the wind on top of the roof.
Carefully picking an opportunity target isn't difficult. The woman is carrying something of value, and... then Sly realizes that not only has the man seen him, but that the man is grabbing for the sling that holds his assault rifle- one of those nice ones with the vehicle-piercing ammunition. Sly suddenly feels very naked in just his armored jumper, and changes targets, cutting down the threat and letting the woman go.
The woman is shouting something inside the APC. The doors stutter closed, and the vehicle begins to evacuate, leaving the fallen teammates behind. Sly takes cover behind the buttress at the edge of the building, meant to keep prying eyes from looking at the HVAC unit, the matrix broadcast antenna, or anything else important up here... like fifty rat traps containing dead rats. He's expecting that big turret to swivel, aim at him, and make him a smear in the next world, but the turret is strangely silent, even pointing toward the ground and bouncing with the terrain. It's a little unsettling, but you don't look a gift horse like that in the mouth, so Sly holds his fire as the Renraku goons retreat.
* * * * *
Kinsey stands up, blood leaking from his eyes and ears.
"Holy drek, omae," Roger says in a voice of awe,
"I thought you were totally dead."Kinsey laughs, a hollow sound.
"Do you know what a shedim is?"* * * * *
Inside the burger joint, the chaos of war has turned into the pandemonium and chaos of surviving such an incident. Roger and the other security guards try and keep calm, but they're a twig trying to hold back an avalanche; the slutty girl is already hooking up with the 20-something elf that
'totally saved her life,' according to the Pito update she just posted. Most everyone else is dragging themselves toward the door, if not running. Security is trying to keep people calm, but there's not really a way to do that other than to shut everyone in, and with the power generator out, there's no way to even do that.
Thirty seconds after the Red Samurai pull out, Roger and the others are kicking the corpses of the attackers, trying to figure out what to do with them. Galbraith makes his way to the ladies room to check on Scarlet, confirming what he already knew- the hot elf chick had gotten ventilated. Dubois slips out the crater at the back, having a new drone meet him at the car. He forwards his contact info to all the runners- they proved competent, and he'll need help in the future if he's going to build a shadow reputation.
They're both out of range of the explosion as the red samurai armor detonates- splattering the security guards and manager standing over them, and destroying any cyber, armor, or weapons they were carrying. There are three craters inside, one outside, and a suspicious trail of blood moving toward a sewer grate... but that's a problem for another time. Right now there's the matter of a bunch of red samurai attacking a place where you were meeting with a potential employer, them all getting ganked, and leaving you holding the bag.
You exit, stage left, cleaning up your mess on your way out.
"Tonight, the reports are flooding in of a terrorist attack in Edgewater, where local residents are describing chaos at a local eatery. Due to our stations' corporate afiliation, we cannot reveal the location, but we'll be bringing you eyewitness reports at the top of every hour;"
"Oh my gawdess, and then this hot elf totally throws himself in between me and the terrorists, saving my life! So of course I gave it up for him, like immediately, and I have to say, I've found something better than breakup sex!"
"We ask that any individuals with information about the following persons please report to the free help line; (303) 534-6567-4259; rewards are available for every tip, extra money for tips leading to the apprehension of these dangerous persons."
"Renraku has stepped in and donated millions to rebuilding this area, upgrading security coverage like cameras and drone patrols, new sewer works, and an additional stipend to the Zone Defense force to establish a communication array that will help them deal with crises like this in the future."
"The prototype test at Renraku was pushed back by a further two months, in sensitivity to the terrorist incident in Edgewater. Reports that the prototype information had been stolen have proved to be the basest lies, spread by competitors to weaked Renraku's strong market position."
"And then, like this guy with a laser gun was shooting at the car, all 'fwoosh fwoosh!' It was pretty frakking awesome."
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Topic: Scenario 2 - Foxtrot - Romeo - Alpha - Golf (Read 30297 times)