The meet location is at Crusher 495. Some of you have probably been there a time or two. The info given to you is to meet up with an elf hacker that goes by the name Sigil. He'll be wearing the all white clothing, sitting at a smokey corner of the bar. When you all arrive, introduce yourselves, and for a few, grumble about your 'J' being a fraggin keebler, he informs you more on the details.
         "All right, here is the low-down. I don't have much to pay at the moment: 2k per, but if I can grab some paydata off the site we're going to be heading to, I'll -more- than gladly put most of that income in your hands." He looks to everyone before continuing. "We're heading down to Texas, either by plane -which is quicker- or by vehicle, I'll let you decide. The target location is a particular family care clinic, the target one Doctor Ikao." He leans back in his chair, allowing everyone to respond to the fact that they'll be traveling.
         "Ya coverin' the travel arrangements?" Shard asks, and he doesn't even grumble about the J being a Keeb, it's business time after all. "An' if we fly how we 'sposed ta get our guns down there. That's a long way ta go wit' a lot o' smugglin' hassle fer 2K Mr. J." He otherwise just sits, watching the elf in white as he waits, "Is this a wetwork situation?"
         "If needed, it may turn into a wetwork situation. However, right now we need the good Doctor alive for questioning. He's been linked to people who do very bad things," Sigil exagerates the whole sentence as if it were almost comical, "And I need to find out from him exactly what." He purses his lips. "I've got a bulldog we can ride down in, that way we'll at least have a garaunteed way of getting back. Of course that will extend the mission by at least a week. Thankfully, we're not exactly on a time crunch."
          Adelaide's tucked in a corner of the booth, her hands curled about a mug of kaf, so dark and viscous it may as well be oil and, oh, that's coffee. Real coffee, albeit coffee brewed to the point one could walk a mouse across it. Quiet, she's agreed already, the payment secondary to her, but she does glance towards Sigil, cant her head. "This is a private flight?" she asks, her voice clear, her accent Irish, perhaps. "Is this man to return
with us?"
          Violet leans against the wall near the elf in white, her eyes taking in everything around her while she listens to the job. However she seems slightly bored, nothing to do yet. Her head leans back against the wall, then rolls a bit to glance at Shard before hearing Adelaide. Her
head rolls back towards Sigil now, curious for his answer perhaps.
         "I have no idea, Adelaide. Expect something similar to what we ran in to last time. A few guards, matrix security, probably magical protection..." Sigil looks around. "Even though this is 'just a clinic' I am going into this expecting the worst." He thins his lips and momentarily gets distracted. "And of course, we're looking to find a uh... A technomancer who is being held captive. I'm not positive this technomancer is at the Texas location, but our good doctor should know where this particularly interesting character might be."
         "Alright. I'm in." Shard says simply, "We take the long way. Need my hardware if there is ample onsite security." He must think the opportunity to network and get to see how the 'competition' goes about their business is worthwhile... or he REALLY needs the money.

          Adelaide lifts her mug and sips from it, then nods, lets a breath out. "By road, then." She quirks a corner of her mouth up. "I do not need much space, I have what I will
take, I am ready to go."
         "All right, since we'll be traveling by road, note that we'll be going through Salish-Shidhe, the PCC - Pueblo Corporate Council, and on into the CAS. Assuming the worst, we'll probably get searched. If you guys have some ideas, like having me hack into the info nodes as we come up, stating that we have precious cargo or some bulldrek, I'd love to hear it."
          Adelaide narrows her eyes. "When we are done with this man, will we kill him or take him with us? If he is to be this cargo, then that may fare us well. If he is not--" She sets her mug down. "All of these may be what we use, magic and trickery, it is a long road and the more we are hidden on it, the better."
         "You don't have an insertion idea ready?" Shard asks with a narrowing of his eyes, absently flicking his left tusk with the tip of his tongue. "Spend some time, hack some clearance access points at the gates we'll be going through. Special operatives on classified missions for each government we're going into. Get some big cryo-biowaste cases, set up as legal transfer from point A to B. Drop us off, let us run the border a few miles down, wait for us to catch up. Personally, I have licenses I can use, parahunting trip but it won't cover everyone."
         "Sorry, this is on the fly. I was hoping that the hired runners would have a plan. Anyhow, that is exactly what I was mentioning, hacking into the sectors and spoofing us some reason to be passing through. The clarification is perfect." Sigil look to the rest. "If there is nothing else to be discussed, we can get this show on the road. I'll give a few hours in case anyone needs to grab gear and whatnot."
         The black skinned ork smirks, "Alright Mr. J. Next time you want the 'hired help' to start throwing nuyen into transportation, make sure the paycheck covers the transportation and smuggling fee's or else already have something in place for use." He seems vaguely amused.
          Violet smirks at what Shard says but she just listens, "Hmmm.. sounds about right.", she says simply.
          Adelaide's eyes brighten, she nods. "I agree," she says. "It is a bold idea." She shivers, draws her shoulders up a little, sips from her mug. Then, at a thought, smiles.
"Unless we steal an aero," she suggests, though even as she does she doesn't look serious.
         Sigil narrows his eyes at Shard as if confused. "I never said anything about you paying for transportation. Just offering up the fact that I'd gladly entertain ideas on how to ge---" He waves a hand as if dismissing everything he just said. "Forget it, I wasn't being clear. My appologies." He motions toward the door. "If we don't need any other preplanning, lets get this trip over with."
          Jane comes to the meeting a bit late, having been contacted via Shard and having to work something out at work. She gathers her things before heading over. For the last little bit of the meet, she's been here listening, and smiling some, her eyes looking about the group. She quirks a brow, "If you can make a small blip in their security, sayin' somethin' like a special request from the local government, we can fake it. Anythin' really, just to make our vehicle not be searched. Problem with planes, they are tracked. Even if we got one, everyone would know something landed, where it took off from, etc."
         Sigil says, “Consider it done - hacking the special request, and what our ork friend mentioned." He looks between the dryad and the ork. "We'll be going by road. Anyone have anything else that want to add before we leave the Crusher?"
         "Yeah." Shard says, "Arrange a safe house in Texas we can take the target to to get the information unless you plan on carting him all the way back to Seattle. If the end goal is this technomancer, then we might not want to go to far as we might be moving away from the location and it may well be time sensitive."
          Adelaide squints a little, finishes her coffee. She's ready to go.
         "Yeah." Shard says, "Arrange a safe house in Texas we can take the target to to get the information unless you plan on carting him all the way back to Seattle. If the end goal is this technomancer, then we might not want to go to far as we might be moving away from the location and it may well be time sensitive."
         Sigil nods to Shard, to everyone else as well. "All right. Texas sized safehouse, some passes through the various locations, and a straight through ride to Texas. Lets see if we can get passed this part.... Anyone else have anything else to add before we leave? Secure your gear, we'll leave in 4 hours.... Unless you guys want to go now... Then lets roll."
          Jane mentions to Sigil, "I'm ready. I don't think anyone should need four hours." She looks around, raising a brow, hoping that no one calls her on that. "Meet back here, as soon as your all ready, I guess." Looking to Shard she smiles, "So, work, huh? Good to be back, really. Had to work something out with Paul though, told him my aunt was in town and I had to watch her brat kids." Folding her arms she smiles, leaning back and waiting for other folks to get back.
          Violet doesn't take long, hell it really wasn't more than 30 minutes or so but she's back and looking at the others curiously.
         "I'm ready." Shard says as he gives himself a mental check for pistols and additional ammo clips, "Just gotta grab my saddle bags off my bike and take it to a safe place." He looks over towards Jane and shrugs, "Pittance, I'm just hoping there's an angle to make this worthwhile when we're there. Not gonna bother shootin' unless I have to. Fraggin' ammo costs more'n 2 grand." He then stretches his head from side to side then arranges to
meet with everyone to be off.
          The border guards at the edges of the Salish-Shidhe Council and the Pueblo Corporate Council don't challenge a vanload of their own Amerind people very much, especially since their passes check out in the matrix. The CAS guards are a bit more suspicious... but once Jane asks about the scores from the recent Urban Brawl game, they loosen up a bit. Welcome to the Confederate American States.
         Sigil mostly keeps to himself unless questioned by the runners. He occasionally goes into the matrix when the connection is good. Other times he might start getting edgy, particularly so when wireless connection to the world gets bad.
          The trip is pretty easy going for Jane. At first she responds to it like any teen about ready to set out on a road trip. She talks and talk and talks, about the Barrens, about her own likes and dislikes of food/music/colors, and even pesters others whom she feels out who might respond and who will be bothered. When at the check points, however, she's pretty serious, mostly, smiling and leaning out the window a little, talking to the guards and smiling a lot, until finally past her duties, right back to chatting it up.
         Sigil eventually pipes in, just outside of the city actually. "All right, here is the location to the safehouse," he passes the info along to commlinks. "It's nothing fancy, but who would want fancy and the potential to get spotted for it, right?"
          Adelaide is quiet as well for much of the trip, amiable but often tucked in a corner of the van, now and then typing on a virtual keyboard, or something like one. Quiet-- well, okay, Jane catches her attention and she does spend a fair amount of time talking about, well, whatever. Her English is a bit peculiar, but, well, only time can help that. During the day she sticks to the van, bundled up, sleeps, at night she's up and about, for
the most part. Seems nocturnal, she does.
          The safe house is essentially a student apartment. It's actually in a somewhat nicer section since it's somewhat close to the school, but there sure isn't much to do there aside from study. Looks like the university is serious about their academics.
         Violet watches the others, one might call her a watcher. Or perhaps it's just that she has no clue what to say to people. Her eyes stray to Shard, cocking her head to the side
as if curious what he's doing but then her eyes keep drifting to Adel as well.
         Shard sleeps. He sleeps a lot it seems out of sheer boredom since apparently looking out the windows does nothing for the ork. When they finally get towards where they're going though he starts to stretch out and gets a lot more alert. "Let me out a block down from the clinic, want to walk around the joint and see what we've got to other sides, find exit routes, and see what sort of security I can see. Need to stretch my legs anyways."
         Shard sleeps. He sleeps a lot it seems out of sheer boredom since apparently looking out the windows does nothing for the ork. When they finally get towards where they're going though he starts to stretch out and gets a lot more alert. "Let me out a block down from the clinic, want to walk around the joint and see what we've got to other sides, find exit routes, and see what sort of security I can see. Need to stretch my legs anyways."(re)
         Jane looks over at Shard and then back to the others, "I'll go with him. Get a good survey of the grounds." And then she eyes around, "Unless for some reason we need my talents otherwise?" And she eyes out the windows, having slept only when necessary during the trip. "Though I should probably leave my shotgun in the car." A soft chuckle comes from her, and she again eyes Shard, "Need company? Could keep you outta trouble if someone stops you."
          The security seems relatively good in this area. Most of the economy of the town revolves around the university so they aren't skimping on safety around it. Plenty of cameras that you can see, and Lone Star drones are frequently visible patrolling in regular routes overhead. To one side of the center is a burrito shop, and to the other side is a bar. Apparently the bar does a good business being right across from the school.
          "I'm fine by that. I'll stick near the vehicle. I'll bring the vehicle to where ever you need me to pick you up." This is directed to Shard and Jane.
          You paged Shard with 'You'll notice mag locks on the front door to the clinic as well as physical old-style key locks. The building is two stories. These buildings are in the commercial district but may have apartments on the second floor rather than offices since they're across from the school.'.
         "Sure chica." Shard says to Jane as he goes about closing up his coat so it hides his guns from view completely. "Mr. J. See if you can't get hold of the floor plan to the building. Would be good to know where likely places are to search for the target." Looking out the window he notes the security and then hmmms, "That's gonna be not good. Soon as stuff goes down, those drones are gonna investigate unless we drop 'em or hack 'em. I'm guessin... 2 minute response time or so." He clucks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, contemplating wether or not to get out just yet. "Lets see if we can't get a floorplan before we get out and get pinged by those drones. Don't feel like burning a 4000 nuyen SIN for a two thousand nuyen job."
          Adelaide glances at Jane and Shard. Her own pistol, a Fichetti 600 with the distinctive, long grip is for the most part, decorative. She has it tucked in her satchel in the back of the van, and with her jacket open, her shemagh loose about her neck, she -- could pass for a college student, fair enough. She's young, barely twenty to look at her, but for now she stays with the others at the van. Perhaps the thought of SINs has crossed her mind as well.
          You paged Sigil with 'In the matrix, the shifting sphere icon of the courier sprite darts one way, then another, then back again. It seems like it's having trouble making up its mind which way to go.'.
          Jane offers to Shard, "I can get out and go lookin' either way." She mentions and smiles lightly, "Or, I can do up your face real fast here in the car." Pulling out some nano paste gel, and eyeing Shard, "Could make your face look like that Dutiful Punk's face, all sorts... not you." But she waits too, for Sigil, kicking it in her seat for a while longer.
          Sigil doesn't take long in finding a floor plan for the clinic. <<The floorplan is a bit old, but this is as good a one I could find.>> That's a comment sent via commlink message service.
          The floorplan of the building shows it to be a simple division in a larger block of shops and such. The bottom floor is mostly empty according to the plan (with space for temporary walls to be arranged however the building's renter prefers). There is an elevator near the back to the second floor, which has permanent walls and is divided into small rooms for either offices or student living space.
          Surveying the information on his glasses, not allowing his eyes to be touched by his commlink Shard hmms, "Alright Mr. J. You discovered the target was here. Do you have any information as to where he might be in this location?" Seems he loses most of the sprawl accent when on the job.
          There is no basement to the building on the plan. Also there is a secondary exit in the rear as required by fire laws. The elevator is near to the back door. There is apparently no access to the shop spaces on either side directly (no doors in the walls).
         "Our doctor friend? I'm thinking he's on that main floor." He's skimming the matrix without the use of glasses, himself. "Since there is no newer floor plan that could lead me to believe otherwise." Sigil frowns at that comment. "That looks like it is the actual clinic location at least."
         Sigil quickly adds. "I'd hazard a guess at it being at the back of the building."
          Jane eyes the information, "We could go in through the rear door, and then figure out what's inside. I can't get the door open, but with the help of our J prolly get in that way." She grins a little before wiggling her fingers, "In and out... Hopefully."
          You paged Sigil with 'The flow of the data traffic seems to be travelling around that building, not through it. Looks like those pesky wireless inhibiting walls again.. but that's hardly a surprise, given the confidential nature of the medical activity that goes on in there.'.
         "Sorry, no dice on hacking into the clinic actual. They've got some sort of matrix inhibiting drek going on. Same thing I ran in to last time I went on this little chase." Sigil shakes his head. "I'm so terribly useful tonight, I know."
          Andromeda says, "The security on the back door is lighter. Both doors have maglocks and physical key locks. There are windows in the front and rear on the second floor as well. No guess how secured they are, though."
          You paged Adelaide with 'The ward here is small and wimpy, mostly designed to keep out apprentice mages (students). You feel pretty certain you could bypass it should you need to. It only covers a single room inside the building.'.
         "I lack actual hardware tools at the moment, but I can crack open a maglock and get into the system that way." Sigil looks a little on edge. "I really find it creepy that this place is cut off from the matrix, especially if there are student renters at this location."
          Adelaide, tucked in the back of the van, draws her legs up and wraps her arms around them, sets her chin on her knees. Behind her de la Rentas, her eyes close. << There is a ward here, one room inside the building, it is very weak, I could pass through it in the astral. One spirit, a watcher, patrol. >>
          Violet watches what's going on briefly while keeping an eye on their surroundings.
         When Adelaide gives the go ahead to approach the door with the camera's all illusioned out of being an issue, Shard makes his way towards the back door all stealthy like and watches as Sigil works with the maglock. He pulls out an autopicker and quickly works the door with a faint click click of the door being unlocked. Shard pockets the autopicker and just waits on the maglock.
         Sigil quickly gets to work at cracking open the maglock. After that, he removes his commlink and links it to the actual system. A very stupid look washes over his face for about five seconds before he's back to real life. He's currently staring at the maglock pretty hard.
          The maglock emits a soft beep. The LED turns green...
          Adelaide focuses on her spell, her hands tucked into her pockets, her chin turned down. She hasn't been shivering as much, it's warmer than Seattle, but she tucks her chin into her shemagh as well, her eyes open, wide, painting a picture for the camera, the back of the building, the sidewalk, nothing odd. Her mouth is set in an even line.
         "Ding, fries are done," Sigil says with a whisper. Somewhere in the resonance, he thanks a sprite who promptly disapears.
          Jane is currently all magnetically sealed up, her mask is over her face along with her goggles. Even her shotgun is mostly invisible, however, as she waits idly by next to the others and waits for the door to be unlocked and opened. Eyeing the others she offers through her commlink, << Who first? >>
         When the doors finally unlocked completely Shard looks over towards Adelaide, "Well, now we hope the watcher spirit isn't watching us." He subvocals over their (hopefully) encrypted link before he moves to open the door and head in first without any hesitation at all as he looks around and moves to the side, hopefully so everyone can get in off the street asap.
          Jane heads in after Shard, keeping her monowhip in her hand for now while her shotgun stays behind her. She attempts to not get in anyone's way as it is likely hard to see her what with the suit doing it's job. Jane is looking around for any sort of trapping mechanisms or the like, and hoping that others will enter as well.
          Despite the fading light outside the interior of the building is lit. Soft florescent lighting shines down from the ceiling. The door was at the end of a hallway. Ahead, two doors lead to the left and two to the right, with another at the opposite end. There are no signs of guards or other occupants.
          Violet doesn't waste a beat as she follows Shard into the building, cocking her head to the side to listen for anyone else approaching while she readies herself for combat.
         As soon as Sigil moves in (behind Jane) he's attempting to access any sort of inside matrix system. He briefly looks over to a courier sprite in his bio node, apparently to see if there is any odd indication to it.
          The two doors to the left are marked '1' and '2', while the nearest door to the right has a sign with a square with people in it. The far door to the right is unmarked, as is the door at the end of the hall.
          You paged Sigil with 'You get through the wireless-inhibiting walls, and sure enough, there is a node.'.
          Adelaide's going to keep the phantasm up, if possible, ask Anuurn, a Force 5 beast spirit to keep an eye on the watcher, report if it gets close. Anuurn has Concealment for his special. Looks like a big, shadowy lion with about as many eyes as a spider, and seven horns."
         Once everyone is inside Shard subvocals, "Alright, grab the system, and check for living bodies in the astral please." He still hasn't drawn any weapons though he does flicker through his vision mods, seeing if the walls are thin enough to give him heat signatures of bodies on the other sides of the walls or if anyone has passed through here recently leaving foot prints on the floor in heat.
          Adelaide cants her head, curious, listening as she follows the others inside, her mind set on her spell, but listening nonetheless. << The watcher can pass through the ward, it has been through it and through the clinic. Anuurn is watching for it. >> She scrunches her nose. << I can look in the astral, but it will not be easy to hold the illusion I have made. >>
          Jane looks over to Adelaide, though her head is just the background of the wall and her commlink breeches to Adelaide, << Wait to do searching until we have the system. Then we can control the cameras, lights, everything. And you can relax your magic then. >> Looking over to Shard, then she steps forward just a little.
          Adelaide nods, once.
         <<I'm in,>> Sigil says after a few seconds. <<Checking sec files and starting disable and search processes.>>
          You paged Sigil with 'There are few cameras inside the building. One shows the door you just came in through. One shows the front office near the front door, and one shows the front desk where currently sits a bored security guard, an assault rifle next to him.'.
          Adelaide narrows her eyes. << Find also what the watcher does. My phantasm will
ward us from the eyes of the living and machines, but auras are another matter. >>
         <<Three Cameras, one watching the back door, one at the front door, and one showing the front desk with a guard. Looks like an assault rifle is with him. Nothing into the other rooms.>>
         << Where is the room that is warded? >> Shard asks Adelaide then continues, << Any other on site security or just the one guard? >> He looks over towards Violet, << Watch them. Make sure no guard comes up on us from behind. Non-lethal, don't need any bio-alerts triggering any doc wagon or anything. >> Then looks over towards Jane and nods as he flexes his hand and moves towards the door at the end of the hall, presumably thinking that'll be the easiest way to get towards the guard to subdue him just in case so they don't have anyone coming up behind them. He waits for confirmation about the guard being the only one though before he opens it or anything else.
         After a few seconds, Sigil replies. <<That's all the guards I see currently. Only door access I've got is front, back, and elevator. Other cameras are active but transmitting black. Attempting to see if cameras have night vision.>>
          Eyeing over in the direction of Shard, Jane sends over the commlink, << You planning on taking the guard then? >> And she has with her a shotgun and a whip, a very loud or deadly combination. A small shrug of invisible shoulders is returned, << We need to find the target, take them, and go. Hopefully without disturbing anything else. >>
         <<I am.>> Shard answers, << It's only a matter of time before something gets triggered. Wether it's that watcher spirit, or something with the ward. I'd prefer not to have someone with an assault rifle catching us on the way out. >> The ork shrugs towards them all. << Up to you guys. Want to risk the gauntlet on the way back out? >>
          Adelaide squints, points towards the ward. << The ward is that way. >>
          Violet looks from one person to the other while she grabs her weapons a bit tighter still.
          Jane stands perfectly still, waiting on the 'support' people to do sa they will. When Shard asks his question she comments, << If someone goes to check up on our friendly security guard, and he doesn't respond, that's greater trouble than one guy with a rifle. >>
         Shard shrugs, <<Fine.>> He says simply but it's clear he'd rather not leave an armed threat behind them as he returns towards the others, << Which way to the elevator, lets go get our money. I also kinda wanna check out what's warded. Got to be something worth warding in there which we can sell.>>
         The floor plan to the building is updated. Sigil himself highlights a specific spot in one of the labs. <<Empty, don't have a camera in this room.>> It appears as though it could be a closet or freezer or something. The elevator is also highlighted. It also shows a pair of examining rooms to the team's left, then the front office area beyond the door at the end of the hall containing an office room, bathroom, and the reception area.
          Adelaide cants her head again, her attention focused on something out of view, her eyes wide, odd, but at least mostly obscured behind her de la Rentas. << I will let my phantasm go. Anuurn will conceal us, from mundane and astral sight, but only five of us. One must choose. >> She glances at Jane, sets her lips in an even line, then closes her eyes, shrugs the illusion away as her gaze turns to the astral realm.
          Jane is still invisible despite the magic being gone, she stays close to the wall and attempts to remain hidden. Eyeing over at the elevator she says, << Perhaps the first order
of business then, go down? >>
         << Looks like up is the only option. >> Shard says and then moves to pick up Sigil if he's still all zonked out of it so as to carry him along with in case nobody else has grabbed him.
          Adelaide holds a hand out, slim, a dark leather glove. << The watcher has been close to the ward, it does not stray far from it. I do not think it is guarding more than that. >> Perhaps-- perhaps she means for someone to catch it, with her eyes closed and her
attention on the astral realm, she's probably going to bump into something, otherwise.
         Sigil is very much alive and well. His movements, if any, are laborous and slow, but he is still capable of functioning in the real world. Luckily, the ork decided not to let the elf move like a turtle and picked him up instead. <<We'll come back to the ward shortly,
searching upstairs.>>
          You paged Shard with 'The elevator seems largely disused. There is a little bit of dust.'.
          Jane doesn't take the hand, she's running solo right now, back tracking along the wall a little and then tiptoeing across the hallway to the elevator. She saddles up against the wall next to the elevator, controlling even her breathing as she flattens her thin form against the wall. The cameras in her suit pull information from nearby and keep her as pretty good mimickry with the wall. << Up it is. >>
         << This thing isn't used often... there's lots of dust about here... >> Shard notes over the coms as he looks at the environs.
          Adelaide opens her eyes, takes a breath and tucks her hands in her pockets, follows
the others down the hallway.
          Violet moves over to the elevator and makes the decision for the group, pushing the button and waiting.
         <<Then go into the warded room. If the elevator isn't used, then most likely it isn't used.>> That's Sigil.
          The elevator shudders once. The doors slowly, slowly, close. A rough grinding sound rumbles beneath as the elevator gradually rises up to the second floor. It does seem like it hasn't been used for a while.. but apparently is still in repair.
          On the second floor the elevator doors open to... nothing. An empty hallway stretches before you. A door on each side of the hallway stands open to reveal empty rooms beyond.
          Jane presses the button to go back down the elevator. << Must be where the kids fuck. >> And she lets the grinding begin again.
          Violet looks around carefully, eyes always alert and wondering if the guard heard the old elevator.
         Trying to figure out how everything got turned around Shard is vaguely annoyed at this point, << Alright, we're going to have to go through the ward it looks like. So we're going to have to deal with a response once the watcher spirit notifies of it. So we'll have to move quick once we do. Mr. J, find anything resembling paydata yet?>> He moves to lead the way towards where Adelaide pointed to before.
         <<Luckily, the loud and creepy elevator shaft didn't alert the guard. I can't tell if he's sleeping or if he's just playing with some AR game.>> That's Sigil, monitoring the matrix.
          Adelaide scrunches her nose at the elevator. << It is a simple ward and we are concealed from the watcher-->> She glances towards Jane. << Except for Jane. >> Once the elevator has stopped, she closes her eyes, looks into the astral to see if any of the
building's auras have moved.
          Jane looks around and gathers information from the others before leading the pack who is going beyond the ward. She's got her nifty stealth suit unlike anyone else here. Slowly she progresses keeping on the commlinks to make sure and see what's going to happen as she heads toward the ward looking for any obstacles/traps/etc.
          Violet doesn't have a special suit, sticking out like a sore thumb if it wasn't for the
consealment. Either way however, she follows after Shard carefully.
          Jane sneaks ahead of the rest of the group, presuming in her stealth le resistance. And she keeps her eyes out for others as well as any potentiall foot falls or, you know, grenades laying around with their pins out.
          Beyond the door, the lab is mostly dark, illuminated by lights from computers and equipment. No activity beyond flashing lights and occasional beeping.
          Adelaide draws her shoulders up a little, shivers. It's-- it's not cold, not really, certainly warmer than Seattle, certainly warm enough inside but she shivers anyhow, scrunches her nose. She glances at the others, towards an empty space where, perhaps, a spirit is lurking, then takes a breath. << Jane and Shard will have to go on their own, >> she says. << But I can aid the rest of us to pass through the ward. >> And with that she
steps forward to follow Jane inside.
         Stepping through the ward, Shard doesn't even notice it. He flips through vision to turn on his low light system and low light so he can see as clear as day. He looks at all the computers and whatnot, flipping to thermal to look for heat signatures as well occasionally. << See some computers... other equipment... no sign of anything special. Johnson might need to get in here to access this stuff to find what we're looking for. >>
          Jane starts immediately looking for signs of life. She eyes around the room some and slowly moves in to get a better look at locations where someone might be hiding. << We need an astral scan too, find someone or perhaps some secret walls or the like. >> Looking for passages herself as well.
          Adelaide nods, closes her eyes. << I will look. >> And, thus, she does.
          Violet looks around herself, purple eyes taking in everything around her even for the most mundane of things.
          Adelaide glances about, though her eyes are closed, tilts her head. << There is no aura but the guard here, our target -- We may find something here, but I think we will have to look another place for him, or come here in the day. >> She frowns a little at that.
          Jane looks over to a wall that has another door. A small door of some sort, she starts walking her way in that direction, << J, this door got anything we need to know about on it? >> She is squinting toward a wall, and looking back at the rest of the group. Keeping up her sneaky tactics she heads in that direction.
         <<Can't see inside that door. No indication of what it is on the floor plan either. Guess we can peek inside.>> Sigil, despite looking like nothing more than a zombie, apparently gets a concerned look on his face.
         Shard looks around, << This is all sorts of messed up. Nothing is like it's supposed to be. There is no target here. There is no apparent paydata. There is a warded area, what appears to be a freezer door, and no target.>> He looks over towards Jane and then turns to look at the door, << Johnson, get your ass in here and check the computer systems for the information we need. >> He goes to see if it's locked, or how it opens, or if it can just be swung open.
          Adelaide takes a few steps towards the door, stops. << There are no auras there
that I can see, but -->> She draws her shoulders up, steps out of the door's line of sight.
          Violet doesn't like the feel of this really. She eyes the door and Jane before shaking her head. << Don't know if that is wise..>>
         <<Roger that chief,>> Sigil briefly steps out of VR, still keeping an eye through AR on the security network. Physically he steps into the room and begins looking around for anything that might be useful that a hacker could, well, hack.
          Jane stays where she is, looking around at the others, and then waits for the hacker to do his thing. She offers, << If we can find out about this door first, it'd be nice. Any security or the like. >> And she eyes the door some more, << If it is even on the trix here.
>>
         <<Sorry, guess I wasn't clear. There is -no- information about that door. Security, floor plan, nor any sort of danger sense.>> Sigil continues to look around the room for something useful to hack.
          Behind the door is... another door. The space behind it is perhaps two meters square, with a rather heavily reinforced door with a maglock on it. Unlike the others, this one is definitely out of place in a lab like this. But the maglock panel is there for the picking. There are no cameras in the small room.
          << Lock. >> Is all Jane says after reaching out and opening the door. She moves into the small space slowly, looking around some more and checking everything out before pointing right at the maglock. Funny that though, she's this ephemeral creature, barely visible and pointing at the maglock.
         Shard grunts and then looks towards Adelaide, << Go through, see if anything's living on the other side?>>
         <<Hold up. I've got a new node with that door open.>> That's Sigil who is now sitting in a chair he found staring dumbly straight through the door.
          <<Drone.>>
          Adelaide arches a brow.
         <<Doberman drone. LMG.>>
         Sigil still sits in the chair, his face still looking dumb. <<Kill the drone... Destory it.>> A momentary break up of communication from the elf. <<Going to be busy not dying in the matrix for a few.>>
          << A doberman drone with an LMG? >> And then Jane looks over at Shard, before looking to the door again which still has a lock on it. << Two problems, lock, and a military grade drone might be worth a ton of cred. >>
         As all of this goes down Shard says, << Just open the door already. Leave the drone to me if it's being this nasty. >> He pulls out a pistol, one of his warhawks and checks to make sure it's the one loaded with stick n shock. He snaps the cylinder back into place after spinning it. He tilts his head from side to side, as he looks at the door. << We can't kill the drone till you... >> He then looks at Jane and Violet, "Fuck it, one of you shock-lock the door please."
          Adelaide glances at Jane, Shard, then steps out of the door's view. She glances towards Sigil. << I have to move your chair, >> she says. She leans into the chair, rolls it
and him away from the door as well.
          Violet nods to Shard, loads her shotgun with a click and aims. Without hesitation she pulls the trigger blasting the door to smitherines. She side steps out of the Orc's way and gets ready for the attack.
          The lock breaks. The door swings open into a dark hallway. Low light vision shows a long and featureless hall. Might have once been an access tunnel of some kind that has been cleaned up. Some ways down in plain view is a doberman drone, its LMG trained on the door you just broke. It is not, however, shooting."
         As soon as the lock is shattered by Violet's shotgun blast Shard is moving down the hall. He absently pulls out his other warhawk just in case there is other threats but for the moment, it's the stick n shock he keeps mostly at the ready. Switching to low light and his eye light system he see's through the darkness towards the end of the hall and spots the drone but he doesn't slow down, instead simply closing on the drone and waiting for it to either power up so he knows it's online before he tries to shoot it, or he can get to the drone to take the LMG off it's mount.
          Jane stays still a moment as the door swings open, she's got her eyes trained down the hallway waiting. Her eyes squint and she's eyeing the doberman before looking at the door to see if there's any sort of oddness there. As soon as Shard starts moving, she moves in after him, keeping herself along the wall and attempting to be as small as possible incase that LMG does start she's got room to maneuver. Her shotgun is now out, but it is chameleoned as well, making it quite invisible as well.
          Violet is like a shadow following Shard and moving with him slowly but steadily, shotguns in her hands as well. Her steps sure-footed and quiet as her eyes never leave the drone ahead as well, at least at first. Then her eyes roam the hallway for any other types of traps that she might be able to see.
          Adelaide glances down the hall at the drone, arches a brow. << It may not see us, yet, >> she says, quiet, even over the comm. << But ware it. >> She leans down to look at Sigil, rests a hand on one of the elf's shoulders, then closes her eyes. With the door open, perhaps she can catch a glimpse with astral sight of what's beyond it, down the hall.
          Drek goes down in the matrix. Sigil had just jacked into the drone with admin access. A wraithlike form dressed in white, holding a skull stands as Sigil's persona. The skull has thick cabeling running out where the neck would be if it were still attached to a living form. The form's free hand outstretches and a satsified look appears upon his face. Another form, a huge bulbous form with mechanical arms and feet appears. Just as soon as the new form appears, an otherwise stealthed form attacks the bulbous form. It's a silvered skinned humanoid. It quickly dismantles the bulbous form and, for a moment there, stands triumphant.
         Sigil notices the attack and anger fills his living persona. The white wraith-like form turns dark red, like coagulating blood. The skull suddenly has a blackish aur, its eyes gowing a sickening yellow color. With a sudden rush, Sigil thrusts his form forward and through the silver form, quickly de-rezing the persona. Immediately afterward, blackness ensues as the connection to the node is severed.
          As the gun starts to spin up and go active Shard fires off a single shot at the drone, the loud bang of the super warhawk cannot even be muffled. A single round of stick n shock slams into the side of the drone's armor and discharges it's electrical payload into the robot. << Move get going I'm taking this gun off so the drone is no threat on the way back out. >> When he reaches the drone he pulls out some tools and starts to work on the drones weapon mount to disable the ammo feed so it can't shoot, which will be good enough for now. << I'll catch up right behind you >>
          Adelaide draws her shoulders up a little, squints at the bang of the round down the hall, then looks at Sigil. It's-- it's hard to see her eyes through the de la Rentas, but her voice is quiet, concerned. "You are well?" She looks at his eyes, maybe-- maybe to see if the pupils aren't right, or something.
          Violet doesn't take long to react, rather she's already to the drone and passing by. She looks at Shard briefly before heading past. <<Just don't get your black ass killed..>> she says in passing before glancing back at the group wondering if they're following.
         Sigil's meat body spits up a little bit of blood and he goes into a wracking cough for a few seconds. He's visibily trying to stiffle it. "Yeah," he says a little disjointedly. His eyes aren't capable of focusing on anything very well. "Looks like the drone crashed."
          << He won't die. >> Jane comments to Violet, before looking back at Shard with a squint, << I'm jealous. >> And then she starts heading past the drone, towards whatever stairs keep them going. << We are on a limited time alottment now. Don't know who or what knows what we've done. >> Her legs might only be as long as Violet's, maybe even shorter but Jane's able to out pace Violet quickly.
          << It did, >> Adelaide says. She nudges Sigil. << Up, up, we are to go through the hall now, and I am sure there is more to trouble us there. I can heal you, if you wish. >>
She is, at any rate, making her way to the hall.
          The stairs at the end of the hall go up less than the previous stairs went down. As Shard works on the drone, those in front discover another door ahead. This one has another maglock similar to the previous one. The panel is readily accessible with proper tools.
          Adelaide glances down the hall, back towards Shard, then finds a spot along a wall to crouch down, closes her eyes. << I will watch the astral, for now. >> She opens her astral eyes, glances about, looks towards the bright spot where the guard was, then out at the shadow beyond the clinic.
          << What sort of lock control do we have any more? >> Questions Jane, looking over at Violet and keeping her shotgun ready with exploding rounds for right now. She eyes the door and then waits for answers.
         <<Need me to come along, or shall I just monitor the security system from here?>> Sigil, obviously not tactical. <<I still have admin access on the front and back door.>>
          Violet looks from Jane to the door and points her shotgun at the lock. <<Bye bye.. baby.>> She nearly purrs with intense pleasure at blowing things to hell.
          Jane keeps her shotgun pointed in the direction of the door, once it's blasted she's sweeping in with her stealth suit on, looking for targets that might be a threat to them.
         <<Whoa. Lots of nodes in this new room. I think we've found what I'm looking for.>> Sigil wipes a bit of blood from his mouth just before mentally crossing back over. There is a courier sprite next to him in the matrix now. 'Look for your creator, please.' With that, he himself begins scanning the various nodes in the room.
          Behind the door is near chaos. It is another laboratory, though this one looks more like an hospital's intensive care unit. Lined up in a row, each surrounded by IVs and other machinery, are Evo Orderly drones each holding a metahuman. Most are small but a couple are adult size. Most of the activity surrounds the bed on the far end as a doctor and several nurses bark terminology at each other. Apparently some kind of emergency is happening with that patient. Spinning around to face the broken door are an ork and a human, both obviously armored, and holding assault rifles.
          You paged Sigil with 'The glowing sphere zooms off trailing a comet-tail of sparkles behind it. It seems to know *precisely* where it is going.'.
          Jane offers << Good news, I hope. Issues here. >> And Jane cuts off to cause problems.
          You paged Sigil with 'In the matrix, the sprite zips off. you follow it. There are something like 20 nodes in this room... bionodes, drones, commlinks, and a nexus. It's rather confusing. But at least the bio-nodes are easy to pick out.'.
          The door flings open from the shock lock rounds blasting it open. Two guys in heavy armor, and both with Assault Rifles... Jane doesn't slow down at all she just gets faster, blurring herself in motion. A burst explodes from the technological mask she has up, and then another one, straight into the enemy ork's chest hurting him quite a bit but not dropping him at all.
         Hearing gunfire and explosions, presumably done with the drone removing it's ammo belt Shard turns and starts up the stairs at full tilt << Grab some cover, I'm coming up. >> He says through his subvocal mic. Unfortunately a body can only move so fast, only able to cover a touch over 8 meters at the moment. He keeps both pistols at the ready trying to bolt up the stairs and get into the fight.
          Violet isn't insane, rather she'd like to live too and leaps back down the stairs to avoid being shot.
          You paged Sigil with 'Shortly after the sprite disappears, it returns, trailing after another icon you recognize. <YOUMADEITIKNEWYOUWOULDCOMEHURRAY>>'.
          As everything falls apart, blood and burned flesh, bullets rattling and the din and pressure of grenades bursting, Adelaide opens her eyes, wide. < Anuurn, > she says. < We need your claws and your teeth. Please, kill these guards. >
         Matrixally, Sigil looks relieved. <<One of those patients on the table is our target rescue.>> Sigil says. In the matrix he nods. "I told you my friends and I would come back for you. Your captors have lots of bad people working against my friends"
          You paged Sigil with 'His icon is swirling around yours. Other icons are coming in after him.. a burrowing creature, a pair of hands, a tied gunny sack. Behind the group another icon comes up, which looks like a sort of whirlpool. All the icons scan as technomancer nodes. Other smaller icons appear as well.. little critters, bugs, a ring, a rock, a sort of river thing. Those all scan as sprites of various types, all of them connected to the bio-nodes.'.
          The doctor, seeing the commotion, turns and sees what's going on. His eyes widen and his face goes white. Immediately he starts screaming in an Asian language and the legs of the beds all straighten up and begin trundling in a slow and orderly fashion to
the door, dragging all the rest of the patients' machines with them. The nurses scurry about the bed where they were already gathered.. they seem elbow-deep in defib paddles and IVs and blood from that patient on the end (a small one).
          The spirit bursts at once from the hall, a lion, a monstrous thing drawn from shadow, a dozen pale eyes, a crown of crooked horns, claws flared out. It leaps upon a guard, the human man, turns its head down and bites, swift and hard. << Not again-- the door! >> Adelaide shouts over the comm. At once furious, her face drawn in sharp lines, spots of color on her cheeks.
          Violet rushes the steps once more when she feels steady enough, shooting at the human as he tries to escape.
         Running up the stairs was apparently a -bad- idea as Shard takes first a grenade to the face, and then a burst of assault rifle bullets to the stomach. He covered up in time for the grenade though, so makes it through that with only a few scratches but the assault rifle draws blood and then some. With a grunt the ork half-doubles over from the impacts as slugs tear through his armor and into his flesh. The ork straightens up and looks at the human who shot him and grins tuskily with just a hint of reddish pink on his tusks from blood that leaks from the corner of his mouth as he watches the man go down in a spray of blood and gore. He rolls his head from side to side and then brings up his warhawks and fires the right pistol twice as he starts running forwards again so that the enemy ork doesn't have cover in between them. After all, need to get some salvage out of this fiasco to make up for taking a few bullets. Stick n Shock goes booming through the air with two shots at the surviving guard, the revolver firing quicker than it rightly should thanks to modifications to the black skinned tuskers guns. He then brings his pistols up and aims at the doctor, "Stop or you die fragger." He growls out.

          The doctor pays Shard little mind. He's busy trying to save whichever patient he was working on before. He's not trying to escape at all. In fact, the only attempted escape is by the various medical drones carrying patients (or bodies..).
          Sigil pages: <<My friends are here to take you away from this horrible place. Can you control your own Evo Orderlies?>>
          You paged Sigil with 'The messages are all jumbled as they're mostly talking at once. <<Our what? Who is that? Hurray! He has friends? He looks scary. Are we his friends? I'm scared.>>'.
         <<Targets found, six biometric contacts. Give me a moment and I'll zero in on the priority. Secondary is the doctor, if he's still alive.>> Sigil is apparently still in VR. In the matrix, if anyone can see him, he's talking to several icons. His free hand goes up in a calming gesture. 'Listen, you are all likely linked to something. Can you see those nodes over there?' He points to them. "We need access to them, but we won't do that if you are all unsure of your capabilities.'
         << Jane is dying. Doctor is working on someone else who's dying. Get your ass up here and heal her. >> Shard says after he finishes off the ork, leaving it twitching on the ground with stick n shock coursing through it. "Frag it." The doctor isn't going anywhere, and thus Shard moves to pull his medkit out and pop it open as he starts going about trying to save Jane's life. Or at least stabilize her so that Sigil can get up here and do some real work, or someone can cast a spell, or both.
          You paged Sigil with 'The icons jumble around you. The frog is mostly all over you. The other critter is staying near him. The hands stay close, and the gunny sack hops around nervously. The whirlpool hovers quietly close.'.
          Sigil pages: <<Okay, I need to help one of my friends who is dying. Can any of you watch for any other connections? Tell me if someone other than me logs on. I'll be -right back.>>
          The doctor does indeed seem to be going nowhere. The nurses hover around the bed he is bent over. The other medical drones, metahuman forms on each, waddle toward the door near the doctor (on the opposite side of the room from the team).
          You paged Sigil with 'The icons jabber. <<Connections? Don't leave us! What's dying? Aren't we your friends? Log on?>>'.
          Sigil pages: <<I'll still be connected, but my focus will be on saving one of my
other friends, so my responses to you all will be slow.>>
          Violet limps her sexy ass up the stairs again and into the room. Red stains her clothing but she assesses the room first to make sure there are no hostiles, leveling her gun towards the people surrounding the table to make sure they don't get any ideas while Shard works on Jane.
         Sigil stands up and shakes away the slight disorientation. He looks from one part of the hallway to the other, obviously momentarily confused until he realizes where all the excitement cam from. He quickly begins making his way to Jane. <<On my way.>> In the matrix, his icon turns 2D.
          You paged Sigil with 'In the matrix the icons swarm after yours. Now other icons appear near them: the shimmering sphere you're used to, a rock, a little river, more critters, a bug, and a ring. They all scan as sprites of various types.'.
          Adelaide, her mouth set in a fierce line, glances at the bleak, crowned lion savaging the guard, whispers something to him. At once, the spirit leaps towards the door,
stands before it. It-- he's, he's as broad as the doorway is, shows teeth when he snarls.
          You paged Shard with 'A sound you've trained yourself to hear reaches your ears: a grenade launcher, followed by the telltale clinking on the far side of the room.'.
         Sigil reaches Shard and Jane soon enough, passing both Violet and Adelaide on the way. "All ... wow, nice carnage." He looks around to everyone present while bringing out his own medkit. "Okay, give me some breathing room." He opens up his medkit, the autodoc readily available to assist his every need.
          You paged Adelaide with 'You hear a clinking sound from nearby, as though something moving at a relatively high speed hit the floor.'.
          Adelaide cants her head, quick, at once still as a snake. << I hear something,
moving quick, metal on the floor. >>
         "Hello intrepid adventurer, what seems to be the problem?" Sigil waves away the autodoc's initial comments and has it begin scanning Jane while Sigil himself also does the same. He quickly begins pulling items that are both suggested by the autodoc and others that Sigil thinks about on the fly. His hands are shaking when he's not touching Jane. When he does go to stop bleeding, apply bandages, and filter minor stims through her body, he's as fluid as any of the real professionals in this room. "That's all I can do for her, hopefully our spell caster has a healing spell." At that he begins to actually look around the room physically.
         Even as Adelaide is talking about something metal on the ground Shard is moving away from Jane, "Grenade!" He shouts, not in english, but Japanese. Grabbing the still twitching ork's body he spins and throws his whole body into it, picking up the unconscious tusker and throwing it bodily at the Doctor and the nurses, to maybe get them to move away from the body and the grenade, or if he's REAL lucky, he'll hit the doctor and provide a blast cover of heavily armored tusker.
          Violet looks to Adelaide, "Shit.. seriously? Where is it coming from?", she asks trying to keep an eye out without getting in the way or being surprised for that matter. She hisses and whirls so her back is towards the area, trying to keep the others from getting injured worse.
          The ork, heavy as he is, still gets a bit of air when thrown by Shard's powerful arms. He crashes into the back of the doctor and pushes him out of the way while continuing flight into the side of the Orderly holding the patient who is currently being worked on. The drone tips, dropping the patient on the ground between the drone and the wall, nurses scattering, as the doctor (who had jerked his head up a moment ago at Shard's yell) is knocked prone on top of his patient, with his legs in the air. It would almost be comic if not for the explosion. The grenade blast sends nurses, drones, and patients flying. Several of the Orderly drones are blown over.
          The screams of the nurses and crashing of the metal reverberate through the room. The patients, all of them being comatose or asleep or drugged, make no sound at all.
          You paged Sigil with 'In the matrix, several of the icons abruptly vanish. Gone. With all the icons in here, it will take a second to even figure out which ones they were. You may also notice that there were originally six icons online. There are seven Orderly drones in the room.'.
         Still bleeding from his own wounds, though that mostly soaks into his clothes and the like Shard grunts as the grenade goes off, and then more importantly he looks for the thing that shot the grenade, namely the person who would be holding a grenade launcher and the like. Since he left his warhawks over by Jane he pulls out his thunderbolts from behind his back. He must be real pissed off to be pulling out those chromed and customed babies.
         Sigil just curls over on top of Jane. He pathetically thin body hardly covering his patient, but he attempts to protect her anyway. He shakes off the concussion of the grenade and starts looking around. 'Everyone safe?' Sigil says to the icons in the matrix while at the same time saying the same to his physical friends.
          You paged Sigil with 'Icons are all over the place. You spot the gunny sack. It's not looking very animated. Neither is the whirlpool, but it's there.'.
          Aside from the nurses (one of whom isn't even moving, one shakily standing, and the other screaming on the ground), there doesn't seem to be a lot of movement in the room. The orkish projectile is also laying unmoving on the ground near where the doctor was. The doctor, it seems, is bleeding from both his legs, but is struggling and screaming in Japanese.
          You paged Sigil with 'The mole icon is there as well.. it seems to be running around, frantically, sniffing here and there in a panic. <<FROG!!!>> It keeps screaming over and over. The frog icon seems to not be visible.'.
          The lion has, almost an afterthought, set its flank against the door, bashed it closed, in time to look back, almost puzzled, eyes blinking according to different sets of rules. It looks down at the ork as he falls before him, almost an offering, cants his head as with a muffled WHUMP the grenade explodes. If the spirit had fur, real fur, perhaps it would
flutter.
          <<Primary target down. It's one of the bodies on the tipped over orderly drones. Checking security node for any alerts.>> Sigil looks around physically before taking a quick breath. <<Someone shut the doc up, I'll be there to patch up his leg injuries in a moment.>> He sounds calm but his face shows that he's probably about to throw up. 'He's okay, he's knocked unconscious. I'll try and wake him. Everyone... TRY to wake up. TRY.'
          You paged Sigil with 'Two of the icons seem stable. The mole is desperately running around. <<FROG?! FROG!!>>'.
          Three of the drones (the ones who were farthest away) are still walking shakily toward the door the spirit is guarding.
          No sirens are going off, but emergency lights have illuminated the two exits to the room. It's safe to figure something somewhere has noticed the explosions.
         <<Get off your fraggin' asses and find out if our primary target is a dead vegetable, or just an unconscious one.>> Sigil gets up and rushes over toward the doctor. <<It's time we left.>>
          You paged Sigil with 'The gunny sack and the whirlpool join the search for the other icons. They don't seem to be so successful. <<Where did they go? Are they all right? Did something happen? What's wrong?>>'.
          Jane starts to move, her eyes opening up and she's blinking her eyes a lot. She checks her limbs, all there, checks her eyeballs, all there. "Fuck me, who brings grenades to a small room party." And easing herself up onto her feet, she flips her hood back over and then immediately disappears again, hunting for her shotgun and then she moves away from the last place a grenade went off. Her body tired, she leans against the wall breathing heavily, for now just content to stay out of sight.
         << One of your buddies used the wireless on one of the Ares Alpha's to pop off that grenade. One of these downed guys isn't friendly. It'd help if we knew what the fuck the primary target LOOKED LIKE yah fraggin dandelion eaten' keeb. You tell me how to identify one faceless mook in a bunch of faceless mooks Fragger. >> Shard announces over the commlinks and then holsters his pistols behind his back, and goes to pick up his warhawks and his medkit, ignoring his own wounds as he looks to Jane, "Welcome back chica." He says gruffly, reloading his warhawk with 3 rounds of stick n shock and -keeping- the spent cases thank you very much.
         <<Look at the bodies lying on the fraggin' orderlies that got damaged. Give me a fraggin' tally of the dead ones and the alive ones. It's easy.>> Sigil opens his medkit once more and ass soon as the system starts talking he yells. "SHUT UP!" Either to the screaming doctor or to the medkit is anyone's guess. He quickly begins assessing the situation. In the matrix, he clips off a quick. 'We're looking physically.'
          Adelaide moves into the room finally, a glance towards the shadow-lion, her pistol out. She knows enough about using one to, at least, hold it properly, but her will is more the dangerous thing. She narrows her eyes, then closes them at Shard's comment, opens her eyes to astral sight.
          Adelaide frowns. << Three dead here. >> She points to the tables with the dead. << Three alive, in the drones, two human, one troll. >> She points to the drones. << One of them would call the grenade? >>
          The doctor is yelling (in Japanese, for those who speak it) "Help him! Let me up!!" and gesturing, probably at the patient beneath him.
          Violet looks around still bleeding but she's aimed towards the drones with what everyone is saying, never at ease but she doesn't shoot till she knows which one.. or if she should destroy them yet.
         Shard grunts, << The doctor is trying to get up to save the patient in that tipped over cart Johnson, might be the primary, might wanna let him. >> He goes and kicks both assault files so if they fire anymore they're going to fire down the stairs before he heads over to help get the cart up and the like that the doctor is so worried about.
         "Fraggin' sit still, doc. You and my friends are going for a walk." <<Target is dead, try and get the other three out of here.>> 'Bad news, our friends are dead.' That was blunt. No time to be nice to the living vegetables talking to him in the matrix. He says all of this while fishing out a tourniquet to stop the bleeding on the doc. "Okay, tell me who the frak our patient is. Is he a spider for this facility?"
          Jane asks over the comm, << Do we have a name? >> And she pushes off the wall, rubbing her head and starting to head in the direction of the nurses and the doctor ready to get some information.
          The doctor manages (by pulling himself up with Shard's jacket) to get standing again. He immediately goes to the medical tools mounted on the Orderly as soon as Shard gets it up again. At this point, he's slapping patches on him to prevent immediate death. Definitely emergency procedures. The patient in question is... strange. Very small, but shriveled and elderly. By the fervor of the doctor he evidently still has a chance of survival.
          Adelaide looks at the operating table, the wounded man on it. << He's alive. >>
         <<I know. It's the fraggin' spider.>> Sigil looks closely at the physical form being operated on. <<The primary target was one of the deceased. We can walk that orderly out of here with the doc operating on him.>> Sigil turns his whitened face at the dead technomancers in the room and grabs at his stomach. He's clearly suffering from emotional trauma at this point. "If the doctor doesn't come willingly, knock him unconscious and we'll just have to add 1 more to our death toll."
          << You know this how? >> Jane asks of Sigil as she looks around the people present, walking to the doctor she opens her mouth, "Tell me ~Who is the spider?~" Her words take on a reverberating quality, coming out a bit strange as she stares at the doctor.
The three operating drones stop their trundling and stand still near the door.
          Adelaide glances at Sigil, her shoulders drop, she bites her lower lip. She looks
at the drones carrying two young humans, a troll. << Do we take them? >>
         "No." Shard says simply. "If the primary is dead, then I'm done. Job's over. Failure." He moves to gather up his medkit and hook it behind him on the belt strap. Hurt or not he doesn't show it to terribly much and instead he moves to walk towards the door that the spirit is guarding. Instead he slaps a stimpatch on his neck and as the pain killers kick in he doesn't seem to notice his gunshot wounds, at all. Looking towards Adelaide, "We can't take three frikken evo orderlies with us. No way in hell they'd keep up. Alarms been triggered. It's time to go. Now. This op is a Charlie Foxtrot." With that he moves towards the stairs, ejecting the clips on the assault rifles before he continues on his way out.
          You paged Sigil with 'The mole icon starts getting fuzzy. You recognize it as what happens when someone in VR activates a Graceful Disconnect from the matrix.'.
          From afar, Sigil tells the others that are connected to try and do the same.
          << Anyway to pick up one of these fuckers, and sell 'em for parts? >> Jane kicks the armored human who was someone that took aim at her and bombed them all. << Anyone we can't sell for parts, seems useless to me at this point. >> And Jane loads in a fresh clip on her shotgun, putting the non-full one in her shotgun before moving back toward the door.
          One of the humans on the drones starts to stir. It's the boy, probably in his early teens. He isn't moving *much*, but he is moving.
         Sigil begins moving his hands physically, as if he's accessing the matrix through AR. He's working smoothly, not frantically. "Fine, lets pull out," he says physically. "Not like we can milk the doc for information about this facility and get some info we can sell to willing factions interested in this place." He shakes his head at this whole situation and begins to move away from Dr. I and the dying shriveled up patient. Sigil fails to notice the boy for the moment.
          You paged Sigil with 'In the matrix, the mole icon is gone. The gunny sack starts to fade as well.'.
          Sigil pages: Good, Good! I tell them. I'll urge the final icon to do the same.
          You paged Sigil with 'The last one shows no sign of fading. Well, it does, actually... but in a different way. A Stealth complex form activates and the icon disappears.'.
         << You want to take him, you carry him. I'm going to go deal with the fraggin' cops that are on their way while you muscle him out the door. >> Shard says over the commlinks, going to pull out his warhawks as he walks again. << Grab all of the little fraggers if you want. Whatever the frag you want to do, Mr. Johnson, Do it fraggin' fast because either the star, or KE, or whatever local security in addition to corporate security, is on it's fraggin' way. Violet, help him get the doctor and anyone else who is alive. Knock their sorry asses out if they won't come quietly.>>
          Adelaide looks at the door the lion is guarding, at Sigil. << If it is like the last, that way should be faster out, >> she says. Her accent, even over the comm has grown thicker, it's in moments like these where her awkward grasp of English shows the most. She glances at the boy, then, blinks, looks quick from him to Sigil again. << You said for them to wake up? This one is waking up. >>
          On another one of the medical drones, the troll girl starts to stir as well. She wakes up a bit faster than the boy and actually manages to raise her head.
         <<Roger that boss. Forgot that I'm not the one paying you guys. I'll be sure to remember that every time I think about whether or not you're working form me.>> Sigil says over the commlink. He starts shouting physically. "Get up, get out! The bad guys are coming. Follow us."
          Jane turns and heads out, << I'll scout out ahead of everyone, see if I can't see what's going on before we run into it. Just do whatever needs to get done. >> And Jane heads out of the door, her suit on, and she's fast in movement, faster than Shard or anyone else here probably with her unnatural movement rate.
          Violet nods to Shard but she doesn't holster her gun, rather she moves towards the drones carefully. <<What's the matter doc? What if they can't walk? Which one..? How many?>>
          The two that have started to stir try to get up and both manage to fall off their drones to the floor and get no further. The doctor ignores Violet for the moment, but seems to have stablized his patient for the immediate instant. He steps back and looks at his assistants, who have mostly fallen, and his other charges, who are mostly downed or are struggling. Then there are the runners with the guns...
         Sigil points to the doctor then to the two awake people. "If you speak english, get these two out of here, for their safety." He then turns to leave, following out the door Shard had retreated out of.
          The doctor looks at Sigil, and around at the room, and does his best to not cry. It is clear that this incursion marks the end of something very dear to him. "...I am sorry.. we..
needed.. them.."
         Sigil looks back just as he walks out the door. "Make up for it by helping bring them out of this place." He looks outside then back in. "We'll talk about the who's and what's about all this later."
         << Jane, make sure the path is clear. Mist anyone who gets in our way. >> Shard says over the coms as he gets a readout on who's doing what and who's carrying who. When he notices the doctor is being left Shard turns and heads back towards the operating room, past Violet who carries the troll girl and the human teen since they likely can't walk on their own, and Adelaide who levitates the unconscious one. Pointing his warhawk at the doctor when he gets in the room of death he gestures with the pistol in a come on motion, saying in Japanese, 'Come Doctor. Your presence is required. If your presence cannot be assured then your life is forfeit.' << Everyone follow Jane out. Quick quick. Get to the vehicle via the already discussed plan. >>
          The doctor bends his head forward, his eyes shut, for a moment. He then turns to look at the shriveled child on the table. "...I cannot let him die.. please.. I cannot leave him, do you understand?"
          Adelaide draws close to one of the drones, the young person on it, takes a breath and tilts her head. The girl curls up, like she was cradled in a vast, invisible hand, floats along after her, as she turns. She settles a hand down to rub the back of the lion's head. "We can go now," she says to it, to him. "Thank you for watching the door." The lion stands, yawns, follows her as well.
          Jane heads out the front of the pack, but will be following the previously laid out program. And she eyes the doberman as it spins it's worthless LMG. << Doberman is active again. Lab is unprotected. >> And she will be looking around for any new issues in the lab and such. I.E. Looking around for people hidden/traps setup.
         When the doctor won't move, Shard simply twitches his hand to the side and fires off a single round at the body on the table, another snap twitch and Shard's pointing the gun at the doctor, 'Now come doctor.' He states in Japanese, ready to pull the trigger a second time if the Doctor does -anything- but start to come along.
         Sigil's already outside, past the doberman even. <<Want me to hack the doberman, sell it for some paydata?>> He continues moving, ignoring it to the best of his ability. He apparently doesn't notice Shard's shot going off, or at least assumes the ork did whatever he needed to do to get the job done.
          At the sound of the gun the doctor makes a sound between a cry and a gasp and spins toward the table. He bends over the body to treat it without regard to anything that the runner might do to him.. if this child dies, his life is over anyway. "No!! We need.. we need them.. we can't do it without them..." His hands already reach for the medical tools.
          << Seems clear up to the fork in the road. Security guard unperturbed. Free roam, going to check on the back door. >> And Jane will head toward the back door to see what/if anything she can find out before opening the door. << If you can guarentee no gps on the drone, I can fence it later. >>
         <<No RFID wiper, frag it. We'll just leave it. Lets get out of here while our luck still holds.>> Sigil pauses at this point, looking to see if the ork and likely the doctor are coming.
         "Charlie Foxtrot." Shard says allowed and then he snaps off two more shots, one at the doctor, and one to finish the still somewhat alive armored ork on the ground. The nurses, unfortunately, if any are still alive get bullets too since he is rather well, memorable in a good many ways. Only when that's all done does Shard say over the com << I have one, but we have space issues as it is. Leave it. >> And with -that- nasty business done, Shard -is- booking it out the way they came in, at speed.
         When Sigil see's Shard and watches Shard pass without any extra cargo, the elf follows suit. No words are said. Apparently Sigil is either satisfied with what ever happened, or simply doesn't want to piss off the ork any more at this point.
          Jane heads to the door and opens it, at the back. She is going to head in the direction of the van to make sure everything is still clear and that no other security is instigated. << All clear out the back door, heading to the van. See what I see. Hope you all are coming along soon. >>
          The shot to the body splatters blood on the wall behind it. The one to the doctor splatters blood, skull, face and circuitry. He crumples immediately. Nothing else moves when Shard is done.
          Adelaide doesn't look behind her as the shots ring out, her attention on her spell, the way ahead. At her side, the crowned lion blinks a few eyes, glances up at her, sidelong. He whispers something, Sperethiel, his voice a low and even rumble. She nods, whispers back, her voice clear and even. Some peculiar dialect of the tongue, quick and colloquial. The spirit parts his maw, teeth as pale as his eyes, closes it. It may have been a smile.
         Sigil continues along and is eventually outside with the others. He momentarily looks distracted and then comes back to reality. "Van is started, lets get out of here."
          Violet is following Jane as fast as she can, she may still be bleeding but nothing is stopping her. She heads down the stairs through the hallway and towards the back door without missing a beat.
          The two children flail around a little trying to wake up. The boy falls back asleep, shifting somewhat while sleeping, but the troll (being made of sturdier stuff) manages to speak. Sort of. Her voice is gravelly and seems to be causing her pain. "Where am... I..?"
         "You're with friends." Sigil tilts his head to the side as if studying the troll. "I'm the white robed persona who holds the skull." He looks around a moment then says, "And who would you be?"
          Her face is a blank. "Ss... I'm Sss.. ckkk." She holds her head in her hands and looks around the room. When she sees the other two she seems to regain her faculties a little bit. "They... who?"
          Jane is pacing at the safehouse while the others are talking, "Do we have the tags erased?" She then mentions, "Take them, stick them in the van, and we should get going. Talk and drive, talk and drive." Eyeing the others, and then over to Shard, "We should get going. Where are we bringing them?" This to Sigil.
          In the matrix, the icon of the gunny sack appears slowly. As soon as it does, the whirlpool fades in next to it. The two spin around each other for a moment.
          "We'll start by taking them to Seattle," Sigil says as he ushers the troll to stand while doing so himself. "With them being Techomancers, we'll see about finding a safe haven for them. I've got a few contacts that will take them in." Back to the troll, "These are people that helped me rescue you. You wouldn't be here without them."
         Once back at the safe house Shard see's to getting cleaned up, and quickly once everyone is patched up and bandaged up as best as able. "She's right, we need to go. Now. Before one of these kids tries to connect to the wireless and go back to what it's usually used to." He then looks towards Jane and nods, gathering up his things. He glances at Sigil briefly, considering something for a moment but then he moves towards the door and windows to check and see if there is any security forces closing in on them that he can see.
         Violet walks around the safe house, her eyes going to the talking troll girl. Her lips tense again, her eyes then going to Shard, moving over to him. She murmurs something to him before pacing away, eyes always moving with a rather caged animal feel to it.
          At the safehouse Adelaide sets to the work of healing, the leonine spirit shadowing her, at her side. Quiet, quick to set her hands to whatever work is needed. For now, mostly, healing. For some mages, the expression of this art is warm, comforting, a glow. For Adelaide, the wounds simply knit themselves, as if time had been reversed about them, the wound unmade. She pinches the bridge of her nose when that is done, it has taken something from her, there's a sharpness to her face, faint shadows beneath her eyes. She's ready to leave when the group is, her hands tucked in her pockets, her eyes closed. Alert, watching the astral shadow.
          The troll smiles delightedly in the direction of the human girl. "Wiss!" <<Come in!>> The words flow out of the gunny sack to hover in front of the whirlpool. <<We got moved.>>
         "Lets go," Sigil says, as if his words would be the deciding factor in everything. He motions for the troll girl to stand one more time. "Someone mind carrying the sleeping one?" Isn't there a third person they rescued? Sigil is out of it at this point. "I'll start working on hacking paydata out of this. I think I can patch up enough information from video feeds and other details to get at least some sort of paydata from conspiracy heorists, I think." In the matrix, a question mark appears above Sigil's head. <<We need to stay offline while we can, to try and keep ourselves from being traced by the people that did horrible things to you.>>
          The troll manages to... well, not to walk.. not even to toddle. She can crawl though! That's a start. Not surprising given how long she's been laying on the drone. The icon of the whirlpool disappears in the matrix, once again as the Stealth is activated.
          Adelaide looks from the troll to the third child. "She is afraid," she says, of the sleeping one. "But she must wake, it will be better for her and us if she is." She blinks at the troll and lets a breath out. "Let us go." She gathers the sleeping child up, glances from
her to Sigil.
          Gradually, after a few hours, the boy starts to stir. He is unable to speak clearly, but he can cry... and he does. Until he falls asleep exhausted.
         All the way back to Seattle, Shard is so glad he can filter out the sound of children crying... though mentally he might be about in the same condition of wanting to go home by this point, and back to his dead end job as a bouncer.
          Throughout the trip, the boy wakes up and cries softly and falls back asleep. His icon, the mole, is usually busy sniffing around or laying mostly inert. His words (in the matrix and out) are rather jumbled, but two of them keep coming up: 'frog' and 'brother'.
          The troll girl seems to be recovering quicker than the others. Eventually she is able to speak, a little at first, but more and more as time goes on. She gives her name as 'Sack' and seems rather full of questions about where she is and what has happened to her and where her family is.
          The third survivor is a human with tangled red hair. Her body remains inert but in the matrix she seems talkative. Her name is 'Wisk' and she doesn't ask about her family or anything, but is intently interested in everything else except waking up. But she also asks constant questions about what is happening. This lasts until she starts feeling faint... her icon starts getting fuzzy after the first day or so. It takes a long and confusing conversation with Sigil to convince her to wake up. She doesn't seem to understand at first why she's not feeling well or what importance waking up serves. Eventually she does and is able to be fed but she's pretty weak.
         In his commlink, Sigil talks to anyone still active on theirs. <<I think our troll is our primary target.>> When he mentions this is when the troll sleeps. When she's awake, he's communicating with her, trying to figure out, and is likely attempting to soothe the mole when available in the matrix.
          Once on the road, Adelaide finds a place near the children, curls up there, her legs drawn up, her arms looped about them. Tired. At some point she squints, then takes her contacts out, hazel eyes turn vivid gray. She draws a hand through her short hair, looks to the young humans, and once they've begun to recover, to wake, relaxes a little, leans back
against the side of the van and lets a breath out.
          By the time you all make it back to Seattle the kids are doing better. Wisk and Sack are eating a lot, and Mole still cries some but he's trying not to. He isn't talking much.
          For the following days, Jane will simply be cleaning up her wounds and making sure she isn't dying anymore. She isn't as talkative as she was on the way over, but she eyes the kids, making sure none of her things go disappearing.
         Sigil continues working with the kids until they reach Seattle. As soon as the Seattle LTG is reachable by Sigil's wireless abilities, he's contacting people. People that are out there looking to help other virtuakenetics. At least temporarily.
         Shard does not interract with the children at all. His commlink is shut clean off, all his skinlinked equipment is shut off, no wireless, no skinlink. Not a single wireless or skinlink signal active on the ork as he eyes the three children technomancers. After all for all he knows one of them is the one who lobbed the grenade and he doesn't need one touching a gun and shooting people with it. He's quiet though, doesn't really talk. He heals amazingly quick, damned dirty tough ork that he is. Even though there wasn't a whole lot of real damage to heal after the medkit got through with him. This time, he doesn't sleep much though, unless all the kids are asleep, just to make sure one of them doesn't go for a weapon.
          The children certainly behave themselves on the way back. They ask questions of anyone who will answer them. Even Mole starts to talk, but little of what he has to say is very meaningful. He's in pretty solid shock. All three of them leave those (like Shard) who don't want to interact alone. Mostly, they talk to Sigil in the matrix but aren't shy if someone else will talk to them. All three spend a lot of time motionless in VR or sleeping.
         And Sigil does just that. Either because he's a hacker and craves the matrix attention, or because he is a technomancer as well and... well, craves the attention of people that are like him.
          Not long after the group is on the road, Adelaide glances at Sigil, cants her head. Then nods, relief dips her shoulders, draws the tension from her body. Anuurn, the shadow lion stays with her until dawn, the first night, vanishes not long before she curls up and sleeps, nothing showing under heavy blankets. The nearest she comes to letting the sun even touch her is one quiet moment, during the last day on the road to Seattle, when a hand flops out from under the pile of blankets, crosses a sunbeam and is drawn back with a muffled gasp, a hiss, a sliver of her wrist between jacket and glove red where the sun touched it. Her own PAN remains on, there's a chibi kitsune there dressed like Bela Lugosi's Dracula to keep curious icons out. For all of that she's talkative when she's awake, curious about the children, all of them.
          Mole is generally taciturn. If he talks too much the subject of his brother dying comes back and he starts crying again so he doesn't talk a lot. Wisk doesn't make a lot of sense.. some of her questions are things like how long you've been 'playing', and why you chose your avatar. Sack babbles about *everything*. She asks about everything that goes by in the windows, who you are, what happened, etc etc.
          Adelaide is, well, herself, calm and quiet and a little odd, perhaps, but interested in the children and, to look at her at least, young herself, in her late teens or thereabouts. It's easy enough to think her a little younger or a little older than twenty, given her size and voice and so on. Her eyes, not so young, but she explains that the avatar, the silver woman in a bustled dress was a gift from a friend, the little chibi kitsune a gift from another, if asked. Circumspect about how long she's been playing, a while. Her name's Adelaide, her friend, the dark lion is Anuurn, he is a spirit and yes it's normal for them to arrive and leave the way they do, the nations we're crossing are the Pueblo Corporate
Council, Salish-Sidhe and-- well! As long as they're interested in talking, she does as well.
          After arriving back in Seattle, Sigil puts the word out. Geraldine at the Crusher 495 takes an immediate interest in Sack when you all get back to Seattle. Within a couple of weeks she's found a lead on the girl's family, and safe passage out of town. No such luck for the other two, however… it appears they’ll be staying in Seattle for the time being. Wisk has more recovering to do, and Mole, it seems, knows a bit more about Neo-Syn than the doctors thought he did…