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[Zone]

Unlike PBP this is an anything goes story forum - no dice rolling, no target numbers, just straight fiction.  The only rule is you can kill anyone or anything EXCEPT another poster's character.  Of course a good run means never having to draw down  

If some one throws a plot curveball that interferes with your plan - so be it.  That's the nature of the run and you have to deal with it.  Just try to maintain a logical progression and don't depart too far from the story line as laid down by the posters ahead of you as far as physical environment etc.

Have fun.

[Zone]

They all knew each other vaguely.  Well enough to know that the shadows weren't strangers to any of them.  What this odd bunch was doing together in Weezer's 'office' in the back room of Galudet Billiards was another matter.  

The fixer had something for them, that much was clear. What is was, however, he had not yet made clear.  Maybe they were still waiting for somebody to show....

[kv]

Waiting made Earl Jr uncomfortable. He's wasn't a talked like the face of the group he was working with- he was what you might call a heavy lifter.

He was somewhere between street thug and street samurai. Not noble enough to be good, not brutal enough to be the worst.

Still, the waiting was always the worst part. When it came to a fight, he was comfortable, and others took thier cues from him... but this part always made him uncomfortable. Something about trying to sit still and not draw attention to himself and saying as little as possible always reminded him of Grandma's house.

He shifted, wondering what was taking so long, but still afraid to say anything. Adjusting the pistol on his hip, he wished for the fifteenth time that he had his assault rifle with him, its smartlink warmed and welcoming.

He also twisted his arm, the wrist still sore from the new spurs he had gotten installed after the last run. It didn't hurt as much as the dermal sheathing had, but this was one more weapon he could use. Not a lot got through his metal hide these days.

Restless, he tried not to shift, looking around at the other players in the group.

[Ruski]

Pony-Express got his nick-name with his cowboy hat and spurs. for a smuggler; he was over-rated. You only have to take down a border-patroll T-Bird on the 6 o'clock news once for that to happen. he had been laying low and scraping by from the windfall his last run provided... but keeping a VTOL running was expencive buisness; even if you didn't have jobs that got you shot up every time you went out. he idly adjusted the torque settings on his left hand. the partial cyberlimb came courtisy of a SAM that took out his vehicle before last; a sweet little hovercraft. He hoped that this run would provide the pay he needed to keep his current boat afloat... if he didn't get work soon; he was going to have to scrap it and go steal something easyer to keep up.

Taking a long drag on his cancer-stick he leans back in his chair and blows smoke up into the air, watching it slowly move with the stagnent air currents in the small room.

[Zone]

Weezer finally let loose a garlic scented sigh and and turned to face his assembled team.

"This is a little job.  No corps no big guns.  A nice quiet in and out is what were looking for." He eyed them each significantly. "You all know what happens if you make a big noise, right?  I never heard of you and I'll never hire any survivors again."

"Don't threaten us Weezer.  There are fixers by the score in this town," smiled Calliope mirthlessly.  She ran one hand through brislingly short tiger stirped hair. "And what the hell is 'gen' you limey bastard?"

"Info," said Weezer icily.  Fairfield academy is supposed to be a high end paramilitaristic private school.  It will be closed over the holiday and you will infiltate and return with a physical breakdown and any data on what they are actually doing there and find out if there is anything under the surface."

"Why?"

"Because I have a client who will pay you each 1000 up front an the same again upon completion."

Calliope shook her head, "No I mean why is there any suspicion all isn't its hunky dory self there?"

"The client represents the guardian of a former student."

There was silence as each team member processed the information.

[Ruski]

Pony-Express takes the oppertunity to speak up from the sudden silence gripping the room.

"2K. not bad for a milk run. how detailed does he want it? ultrasonic maping? Hardware like that costs more than 2K, and while getting some nice hardware for a run isn't beyond me, Ultrasonic hardware won't keep my tanks filled with go-juce."

Weezer pauses at this. it was very calculated. Haggling always was an intracal part of any shadow-op, some would estamate even possibly the most important part.
1 second.
2 seconds.
on the pre-determined 3rd second Wezer began to speak again.
"Scanning can be anything you've got. I've got an auto-map computer that'll take any input, from your range finder smart link to cyber eye, and even ultra-sonic; that said, if you come back with something drawn on a restraunt napkin, i'll be very dissapointed."
the tone in his voice left no doubt in anyone's mind that dissapointment was more than a bad thing.

Pony-Express again was the first to speak up, if not the first to think the next thoughts.
"Have you noticed gas prices lately? now, 2K isn't bad, but for an out of the way gig; you haven't left much room for traveling expences. flight plans were expencive, and Last I checked, FarField Acadamy was in the bible-belt, whereas we are in seattle. That is... unless you wanted us to get there by flying coach on an SB?"

his inside knoledge of Farfield aparently raised a couple of eyebrows from his compatriots. most everyone in the room was eyeing him skepticly, wondering if he was the plant to double cross them... Weezer did have a bit of a reputation...

"What? They have a good football team."

[Zone]

Weezer looked as if someone had hooked into his liver with a rusty baling hook.  "The client has provided transport."

Calliope grinned.  That he was reluctant to reveal meant that he had hoped to keep.  "Gonna cash in our tickets were ya?" She chortled and adjusted the holster tie down on her thigh.  Whe was liscensed tocarry, but not concealed, so half the time she played Dodge City.  110 pound females often read as target to too many idiots. 110 pound females packins .50 AE Desert Eagles not so much.

"Its not tickets, smart ass."  He hesitated and peered at them. "I hope someone can drive a standard...its a van."

"We're driving?"

"Its only about 15 hours," defended Weez.

"If you do the limits."

"If you get picked up on traffic, your run is terminated," said Weez.  "So who's in?"

He looked from Pony to Earl to Calliope expectantly.


Calliope's toy.

[Ruski]

Pony Express leans forward with his hands on the table at the menton of a van.

"A van? A VAN?? like the slow kind that uses four wheels and an electric motor? so, we are going to drive for fifteen hours, through three countries, with a van, full of miscreants and illegal gear: and included in or holiday vacation spots will be; 'NAN', with chokepoints and astral mojo every hundred miles, and into the UCAS, with the tightest border security on the planet, while packing enough gear for an entire team to pull a run, all of which is illegal in diffrent ways in each of the diffrent countries we are going through. not to menton that probibly not everyone here is on the best of terms with our border buddies... thoes of us without a SIN would have trouble sneaking into one of thoes countrys, let alone driving a VAN through bouth of them!"

Pony paused to draw a breath after that long winded rant. Weezer again used his pre-determined pause before responding, but he was cut-off by round two of the rantage spilling from Pony Express.

"Now, if transportation is 'provided' are identities provided as well? or are we left to our own devices to produce a 'SIN' that can hold up to border security scrutiny? what sort of gear can we bring with us? it's hard to explain why we'd need to drive acrost the DESERT with enough guns and gear to overthrow a small goverment. "

Weezer smiled at this. his nicotene stained teeth were rather rat-like in an ominious 'devil rat that just decided to eat you' sort of way.

"Student Visas', and sins for everyone. you are going back to school. and unlike the school you all ditched growing up, this one will not require you to be packing hardware. "

 Weezer's cracking voice brought a stupified sort of silence to the croud.

"There is a shadowbox, measuring 4' by 2', by 6" that you can store whatever gear you feel you should need; for the run. use the space wisely, and try to stay away from overly metalic weapons, and explosives, as it's not proof aghinst MAD detection, or chem-sniffers; if you pick up some unwanted attention; it's not going to hold up very well. this is a requirement of the run. our 'sponcer' dosn't want you accidentily drawing attention to yourselves on the way over, or once you are there. this is to be 'quiet', or not at all."

Pony Express looked thoughtfull for a moment. "Okay. I'm in. But I'm going to need another 2K. we are going to burn through 1k just putting gas and stuffers into us on this road trip. 2K total isn't enough. 4K each should cover it."

"I can get you an extra 500 on compleation."

"1500 extra, all up front."

"750 over, half now, half upon compleation."

"1750 now, 1250 on compleation. and I'm not interested if you keep low-balling me."

"Fine. but you have to shave and cut your hair. this is a nice school I have Ident chips for, and you need to fit the profile."

"I can do that, but you gotta pay for the haircut; and I get to choose the stylist."

"Okay, but I'm not paying more than 50Y for a haircut."

"Done. Let me see the ID's."

[kv]

Earl Jr slowly tried to keep up with the conversation, it seemed to be whizzing by him as the cowboy and the boss argued about prices. Earl Jr wasn't really sure what was going on... he glanced at Calliope, asking for any sort of clue.

He adjusted in his seat, trying not to make any noise.
After a moment, he leaned over to Caliope and tried to whisper "What are we doing?"
I say Tried because an explosion had deafened him months ago, and he hadn't had money to pay for new inner ears yet.

Caliope shooshed Earl Jr, who patiently returned to staring at the ceiling, noticing that the paint was peeling on the rain-damager tiles.

Once the Boss had argued out the price with the cowboy, the cowboy took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. Caliope laughed as she looked at the card, and she handed another one to Earl Jr.

"Women's studies? Isn't that like training for femenists and lesbians?"

Earl Jr squinted at his card. Athletics program. Maybe he should tell the boss that he already had a degree in sports medicine... sometimes the boss wanted to know stuff like that.

He turned to tell the boss, but the cowboy and Caliope pulled him out of the room, and they went to 'get ready.' The cowboy got his long ponytail cut, Caliope bought some new clothes, and Ear Jr got his letterman jacket out of the closet.

Both Caliope and the cowboy seemed stunned when he came out wearing it, but it suited him. It even had his triathalon letter, right beneath soccer, jai alai, football, swimming, and track.

He took off the graduation tassel, not noticing the cowboy and Caliope's jaws drop.
Maybe he should have mentioned that.

[Ruski]

"I still don't see how I am going to be able to pull off buisness economics... "

Pony Express sighed. after a shave and a NERPS haircut he looked like he was 20 again. He had spent a lot of time in highschool trying to get over his 'billy the kid' look that had followed him into his first year as a smuggler... oh well. couldn't be helped now.

he waited untill Weezer left before opening up the 'how to' conversation for the group.

"Alrightie folks, aparently i'm C. Kent, mild mannered Economics major. I can get some road maps from a dust bunny who makes that run to UCAS ocasionally with 'pressure sensative' gear that can't make it into the orbital. we'll skip the rougher shortcuts on her route for the way in, but it'll be good to know them for the way out. Also, I can probibly fit some more gear into the van if we need the space. I got a whelding torch and some know-how that'll let me stick a few extra do-dads into our bag of tricks. Also, I can probibly forge some maintance documents for us to get us into the site... you can decide if we are septic repair, AC/Heating, or Pest controll. I have a range finder in this arm here that I can link with the map-box we got...  Other than another buddy of mine that'll look over our fixer-provided gear for bugs and kink-bombs, any ideas for pre-run prep? what should we take gear wise? I got a Mag-Kit that should handle any locks at the school, and a small hold-out that's mostly composite materials that I'd like to put in to the box... any other suggestions?"

[kv]

*looking over the passport, he reads the name aloud with some trouble*

"J Oppen... Oppenheim... Oppenher... Oppenheimer."

Caliope read the name on the card, but kept it to herself, and Earl Jr. loaded himself into the van with some of the equipment C Kent had brought with them. Popping open a bag of Soy-Os, Earl Jr. settled in for a road trip.

[Ruski]

Pony Express sighed, and not for the first time on this road trip.

He wasn't excatly sure what was to be gained by making such a long overland route, but he was sure that he was sick of driving after about 6 hours. several of that spent in traffic. another two waiting through various NAN checkpoints. at least the ID's had thus-far held up; with as cheap as this run was going to be, he wouldn't be suprised if they didn't hold up any better than the ID he had drawn for himself on the back of a restraunt napkin way back in 6th grade. The radio was pumping out a rythmic tune that was not quite migraine inspiring, but only not quite. aparently with only AM raido to entertain them, the selection was slim driving through the NAN wastelands...

when you stare at a road long enough you start to let your mind wander. and if you have any sort of imagination at all, you won't be suprised to see all sorts of interesting things out in front of you. however, when they are still there after blinking several times, you'd better react quickly.

SCREEEAAAAACCCCHHHHH!!!
the van locked up all it's tires (no ABS) and slid for several yards before coming to a skewed stop. his fellow runners were thrown from their various states of sleeping to the floor or dashboard as momentum pulled them forward and inertia dragged on their seats.

there was much swearing from all parties as the runners crowded up into the front to see what the frag was going on.

Pony Express simply pointed forward... to the space where the road was suppose to be. the place currently occupied by a crater so wide, that from their current possisition, you couldn't see a way arround it, and you could barely see the other side.

[kv]

Earl Jr lumbered out of the car, shaking his jacket to dislodge the Soy-Os that had rained on him as the car slid to a halt. Pushing the door all the way open to its' locking point with his foot, he moved outside, taking half a second to stretch his legs.

Pony started muttering curses, and Caliope stared in blank disbelief.

Earl Jr. turned to Pony Express, and asked "Where are we? This is a large-scale missile strike- not something you see... well, anywhere."

Walking to the edge of the crater, Earl Jr kicked a few rocks in, trying to think of what in the NAN would have warranted such a missile strike. An old USA military base? A runner hideout?

Pony Express stared at the map, trying to figure out the new route to where they were headed. Caliope stared at the hole, chewing her lip.

When she spoke, her whisper was almost left on the wind. "There used to be a truck stop and a smuggler's bar here... but who would want that gone this bad?"

[Ruski]

Walking to the edge of the crater Pony Express looked down into decline.

"There's a couple of cars down there... but not too many. I'm guessing this happened more than three days, but less than a week ago. "

Picking up a peace of cardboard and a stick Pony pulls out a marker and begins to write on it, and then walk back a ways down the road.

"No reason this should be a suprise for everyone. I'll go back a ways and post this while we try to figure if we want to off-road arround this thing, or backtrack to another road."

[Zone]

Calliope sat down on the edge of a crater and pulled a flask out of her pocket.  She saluted the tumbled junk at the bottom and took a drink then tucked the chrome bottle away again.  

"This, me boyos, is a tangent.  An unrelated weirdness that we really don't have the time to get caught up in."

"A little cold," muttered Earl.

"But emminently practical."  She got to her feet and eyeballed the terrain to either side of the hole.

"If we're real careful like, do you suppose we can coax that beast into doing just a little off roading?"