RolePlay onLine RPoL Logo

, welcome to Alea Iacta Est

10:29, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

IC - Chapter 2.

Posted by TecGMFor group 0
Swoopy
player, 13 posts
Sun 1 Oct 2017
at 15:43
  • msg #44

IC - Chapter 2

Not going to be a fight then. Swoopy resolved to stay behind Dan-Dan for the rest of the mission. And never to let him be the only man on watch. Maybe it was just the Mojo of this place.

Maybe Dan-Dan was secretly just a unstable problem waiting for the team and the Mojo had just helped to highlight it. No way to know for sure.

Which was a problem, the regular NAN military had plenty of fail safes, systems, standards, procedures. That wall of bureaucracy that everyone hated. But it served it's purpose. Dan-dan would be happily on his way to a trial or psychotherapy, possibly both. Another medic would slide into his place and the unit would keep on rolling on.

The wildcats, apparently, liked to live on the idea they didn't need that extensive bureaucracy because they were the true warriors, capable of selecting their own, the elite. They didn't need the bell curve flattening discipline because they  were internally disciplined.

Dan-Dan was a living example of what happens when that philosophy fails. What was a potential national level crisis was now resting on the shoulders of an unstable prick. If word of this got out, the Sioux Wildcats were going to find that all of a sudden they had little funding, no political support, and a ton more oversight. Policy makers would rapidly point out that whatever strategic gains one might get from a pinprick commando raid, they could easily be overturned by a rogue agent - and that really, wasn't military force mostly for posturing and negotiations these days anyhow? No one wanted a real, live, war because some shithead who couldn't be counted on not to try to scalp his own team decided to do his own thing.

The regular forces would happily take another swing their perennial efforts to re-subsume their renegade brethren, happy to cut down the over-funded prima donna's who had too many bad trid deals and got all the glory while someone else did the muddy, boring, slog work that made up 99% of the NAN's actual military security.

All because of Dan Dan.

Well, Swoopy thought, good thing Chante gets to head up this de-brief.
TecGM
GM, 60 posts
Tue 3 Oct 2017
at 05:35
  • msg #45

IC - Chapter 2

<<01:50 Sunday, January 31st, 2075 - Massacre Canyon, Nebraska, UCAS>>

There's an uneasy calm, if you want to call gas-engine ATVs plowing through the snow "calm". Nobody is shooting at you, and that's nice, but there's still a notable ache of menace in the air, like a bloody lip flavoring your mouth. Maybe the violence of your mission is clinging to you like guts on a blade. Maybe the canyon is seeping into your skin.

The visions don't recede. You have control over your faculties - you think - but there are still images of horror surrounding you. Of course, they're not there when you turn to look directly, but in your peripheral vision there is violence. Dan-Dan sees a Pawnee man struck down with a war club. Shiriki sees a Pawnee woman impaled with arrows. Chante sees a Sioux warrior felled by a hatchet, then chopped up mercilessly in retaliation. Swoopy sees cavalry men opening fire indiscriminately, letting God sort them out, should God want any of the heathens.

Riders on horseback ride alongside you. They lurch into your path and take swings at your faces. You duck, only to look and see nothing there. It's a waking nightmare.

Perhaps Dan-Dan was right. Perhaps the spirits aren't satisfied with Shiriki's haircut. They are clearly agitated by your presence. The air here feels fragile, like there is the thinnest crystalline veil separating you from the astral realms. The two worlds seem to bleed back and forth into each other.





There's an audible CRACK that pierces your hearing, even above the ATVs. It's not gunfire, nor a lightning strike. No, the astral veil is shattering directly in front of you. Cracks spider out of thin air, sprinting from snowflake to snowflake, splitting the sky. All at once the astral window explodes, lashing you with shards of ice as four spirits rush forth on horseback to meet you in battle.
Swoopy
player, 15 posts
Sun 8 Oct 2017
at 10:17
  • msg #46

IC - Chapter 2

Swoopy watched as the cluster of spirits charged forth, shattering their way through whatever veil there was here. The largest and most fearsome seemed to go directly for the finger-wagglers, while what was "merely" the living manifestation of a long dead native - don't tell the others, jokes aside, Swoopy really can't tell them apart when portrayed in spectral translucence - charged at him, hatchet in hand.

Good U.S. Steel there, helping the redskins finish each....no, that's not right...

Swoopy very quickly realized the assault rifle by his side was likely to be useless against this thing. Also that spraying automatic fire around indiscriminately as the spirits got into close quarters was likely to end badly for the cats. Fortunately there was someone quite capable, apparently of killing the hell out of a spectral Indian.

He gunned the ATV engine, pulling the charging spirit off to the right...

...just as on the far side of the veil a section of cavalrymen fired another ragged volley. Half in this world and half in it's own, the lesser spirit reacted much as he probably did in life, which is to say he staggered back with a hole in him pulsing...blood? The metaphysical manifestation of pain as blood? Not that it particularly mattered.

So. That worked. Swoopy immediately began scanning his periphery for the largest, most violent group of cavalry he could find. If he could tell the native tribes apart, that would probably work too...maybe Shiriki would have better luck with that.
Chante
player, 29 posts
Tue 10 Oct 2017
at 20:18
  • msg #47

IC - Chapter 2

Chante squeezes her eyes shut, shakes her head and reopens them.  The spirits are still there, charging.  She sways unsteadily to the left, then catches herself before rolling off the moving ATV.

Spirits! she thinks to herself.  Now is NOT the time to fall apart.

She readies her Tomahawks and and steels herself, answering the charge with her own.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Tue 10 Oct 2017.
Shiriki
player, 42 posts
Sun 15 Oct 2017
at 14:46
  • msg #48

IC - Chapter 2

As the spirits gallop toward the group, riding their spectral horses at an unnatural speed -- the speed of the dead -- Shiriki continues to gun his ATV. He's not sure what that haze was, or what that crash was that followed it as the haze crackled and splintered, and Ghost, he didn't even know what else. The Pawnee takes a brief moment to command his drones to fire, and then on a brief straightway, Shiriki opens up the throttle even more.

He's well outside the safety parameters of their purloined vehicles at this point, but he's making good time. He keeps his turns in small, planned-out adjustments, skidding from the frozen river's surface and into the relatively much more traction-friendly snow here and there as he makes his way east. Behind him, both drones focus fire, trying to take out the horse beneath its rider, but neither connect. There's an exchange of blows as the spirits and the rest of the wildcats pass one another in mounted combat, and then the spirits have turned and advance on them, Shiriki holding a nearly seventy meter lead by this point.

He runs through his options mentally, dodging a twist in the river by taking a felled log as a ramp. His body hugs the profile of the vehicle, as Shiriki sails in a brief arc before coming down hard on the shore, and skidding back onto the ice covered Republican. Another turn up ahead, and another felled log, only this time, Shiriki sees his error while he's airborne. The twist in the river guarded a little eddy of a pool, and Shiriki prays that the ice will be thick enough.

It isn't. while the front wheels of the ATV hold fast on the ice and spin looking for purchase, the back wheels crash through and into the river. For a moment it looks like he's going to be thrown off the back, and the ATV is nearly vertical. He slips in the river down to his waist before the tires find something to grab onto and pull Shiriki out, the engine sputters once before the exhaust port is cleared and it roars back to life in full force. It's only for a moment, but Shiriki feels the air pulled out of his lungs. It takes him nearly a full second before he can draw a full breath as he roars down the riverbed. As his faculties return, they return in pieces, and Shiriki notes how clinical his mind is working.

He's in shock. Certainly.

The cold's not that bad. Not on its own. His adrenaline is already kicking in, and while he'll lose some fine motor skills in the short term, his heart'll be pumping like mad, and that'll keep him upright.

His insulation's good, but traveling across open terrain in an ATV is going to more than counteract it. His increased speeds will accelerate the evaporation process, and that will decrease the temperature of the water clinging to his lower half. He figures in the next few minutes hypothermia is forgone conclusion.
Swoopy
player, 17 posts
Sun 15 Oct 2017
at 20:29
  • msg #49

IC - Chapter 2

Swoopy concentrates hard, trying to find more of the spectral cavalry to solve his redskin problem for him. A thought process which, particularly, might bear some re-examination when there's not a spirit horde trying to kill the shit out of him. Conscious thought would never abandon his comrades-in-arms. Sub-consciously though...well...Anglo spirit's on this mission have been happily responsive to him, the native spirits have tried to tomahawk him on sight, and as soon as Dan Dan was allowed his true nature, he tried to scalp Shiriki. Fucking savages...

...is the last thought to go through Swoopy's mind with the other side of the veil visible. Then something lashes back. Maybe the land doesn't want him here, especially not when his thoughts coruscate it's original owners. Maybe mundane mortals were never meant to see the astral this closely. Maybe being a walking composition of biotech and 'ware is allowing the fruits of human rationality to beat down what can't be, what isn't, what is utter paradox to millennia of human thought.

They all disappear from Swoopy's vision. Everything. The spirits on the far side. The spirits on this side. Chante and Dan look like hollow men, barely connected wireframes that just shouldn't be here. Only Shiriki and the snow are brilliantly crisp, more real than they were a moment ago.

Swoopy has no clue what just happened, and reacts on instinct. Time to punch out whatever-the-hell-is-going on. He slams the throttle on his ATV and it seems like engineering just responds better. It leaps forward - rocks, snow burrows, crevices that would have unseated him a moment before just seem to roll into the wheel and it's glorious civilizing influence. Swoopy's caught up to Shiriki by the time he plunges through the ice...and can only hope that he isn't about to be blindsided by a spirit.
Dan-Dan
player, 42 posts
Sun 29 Oct 2017
at 08:32
  • msg #50

IC - Chapter 2

The veil tore.

Streams of aether seemed to howl a gale as the whipped out of the invisible tear. The veil may have been unseen ,it's effects weren't.

A host of spirits poured through the orifice. Twenty, thirty? It was hard to say. Most weren't interested in the mortals, no matter how hostile.

Most was not all. Four spirits coalesced on the material plain. Native of aspect.

One was a great beast, a veritable king. Mustang. Not a mustang. Mustang.

Steam poured Off its heaving flanks and breath snorted from flaring nostrils. It saw Dan-Dan tossed it's mane and charged!

Quick as lightning, thunder drummed as it's hooves beat out a staccato rythem.

Dan-Dan danced, flicking his knife and dodged.

Crimson splashed as the horse wheeled round, saddle and girth dropping away. If anything this made the spirit angrier as Danyrs laughed...
Chante
player, 34 posts
Sun 5 Nov 2017
at 20:39
  • msg #51

IC - Chapter 2

The astral maelstrom whipped at Chante, a cyclonic fury of rage and violence.  The spirit of beast was infused with the stuff, gleaming red eyes piercing into her.  She swung out with her tomahawk, one hand gripping the handlebar of her ATV, willing it to continue driving past.

Angry sparks scattered from the contact between tomahawk and spirit.  It reared up and struck out, the hoof catching her shoulder.  She grunted, the impact was jarring and she nearly lost hold of her weapon.  Through force of will, she maintained her hold and rotated her arm back, swatting the spirit and scoring a deep line along it's haunches.

Then, she was past.  She leaned in and pushed the ATV, looking back to maintain her visual if the creature decided to turn and charge after her still.
Shiriki
player, 46 posts
Fri 10 Nov 2017
at 20:12
  • msg #52

IC - Chapter 2

Having put a couple hundred meters between the fray and himself, Shiriki plots in a rudimentary course for the ATV to follow, reduces his grip on the throttle from "death" to "knuckle-cracking," and slips his consciousness into the waiting doberman drone. The first thing to strike him is how much easier it is to navigate than the ATV. He can run circles around the other ATVs, though likely not the opposing spirits, with much greater ease relying on the individually articulated legs. He careens past Swoopy, avoiding Dan-Dan, and levels the integrated Alpha at the smaller and wounded spirit of man.

The assault rifle roars to life, sending two long bursts at the initial target, and then a single shorter burst at the larger of the two horse spirits. The Sioux warrior reels from bullets, even though the majority of them simply pass through his ethereal form, but to Shiriki's dismay, he holds firm.

The last burst misses, not that Shiriki notices. Somewhere, somehow he feels an upending of himself, a brief lurch in his stomach as his equilibrium falters. He spins the primary sensor of the doberman east in time to see his ATV going end-over-end in one direction as his meat sack is tossed loose and falls unceremoniously in some shrub brush in another.
Dan-Dan
player, 48 posts
Mon 13 Nov 2017
at 11:37
  • msg #53

IC - Chapter 2

Dan laughed. It was an eerie screeling thing, that raised hackles. It seemed to fit the aetheric atmosphere.

The ATV bucked on a loose bit of scree, so Dan rode it away from the naked horse beast towards its wounded companion. He practical kiss as it tossed it's mane angrily, he's return for it in a bit, lightly slapping it's rump as he passed.

Dan then charged the wounded beast, with a come hither motion. Angrily, it went for him. Simple, brutal, direct. Dan stabbed it in the eye, head blood containing over him as it died in agony, or was banished. An interesting point.

Covered in blood, none of it his, Dan-Dan glanced around and saw a cavalry officer, some Yankee dandy and blew him a kiss as he made him the same come hither motion, grinning. The screeling laugh continued to sound from his lips.

Behind him, the first beast, Mustang kicked his ATV hard...
TecGM
GM, 80 posts
Thu 16 Nov 2017
at 07:07
  • msg #54

IC - Chapter 2

Swoopy isn't one of the finger-wingling wizzer types, but it's couldn't be more clear to him that Something Isn't Right about this place. He guns his ATV, trusting in the good engineers of GMC or Yamaha or wherever that their ATV will get his hoop out of there, or at least far enough ahead that Whatever Isn't Right eats Dan-Dan instead. He races away, but doing so creates a weird dissonance between his brain and his head. His mind feels pulled back, as if it were tethered behind him. Swoopy could swear that his brain is squishing into the back of his skull, as if the Canyon won't let him go, or at least not without feeling like he pushed his brain through a sieve.

Shiriki is similarly fighting with these damn Anglo ATVs. If this were the NAN then he'd have a proper Thundercloud product to work with. A Mustang or a Morgan would be wiz to work with right now; hell, Shiriki would settle for a Thundcloud Pinto off a used car lot somewhere. Instead, this unruly ATV insists on breaking through the ice, and then once it lurches free it manages to buck him off as certainly as a eight seconds on a bucking Brahma bull. It's a strange sensation, watching himself remotely as his body cartwheels through the air ignominiously. The equilibrium in Shiriki's inner ear tells him that Something Isn't Right, but there's no physical sensation of tumbling or crashing other than the sinking sensation of his pride going before the fall.

Chante and Dan-Dan are still in the thick of things. A red-eyed paint Appaloosa charges at Chante, rearing up and striking her with the intent to knock her off the ATV. Her armor absorbs the shock of the block - to the detriment of her armor - but her hands, icy from the cold, retain their deathgrip on the ATV and her tomahawk, respectively. In retaliation, she drags her tomahawk along the Appaloosa's spotted haunches, creating a shower of magical sparks and astral screams. She guns her ATV, seeking to regroup with Swoopy and Dan-Dan.

Dan-Dan, infused with the murderous spirit of Massacre Canyon, races in to finish the job that Chante started. With a laugh as cold as the wind, Dan-Dan sinks his Cougar Fineblade into the Appaloosa's eye. It screeches horribly as its essence shatters in the snow. Dan-Dan cackles, triumphantly slapping the hind of the Mustang as he passes. It lashes out with a kick that connects with Dan-Dan's back, knocking the wind out of him as he folds forward over his handlebars. The Warrior spirit races to the Mustang, mounting it and spurring it on as it pursues Dan-Dan down the riverbed.
Swoopy
player, 19 posts
Thu 23 Nov 2017
at 18:44
  • msg #55

IC - Chapter 2

Somewhere in Swoopy's head there is the dissonance that since there were spirits and Chantes and Dan-Dan's entirely physically present just moments before, they must still be there, and that clearly what he is experiencing isn't "real". Unfortunately that small part is losing heavily to a combination of primal instinct in trusting what you see and the fact that magic is busily tearing rationality to mush. One constant stands out though: Shiriki and his Drones stand out stark as neon, clearer than UltraHD, which passes the human eye in resolution decades ago (that said, every year citizens in developed countries line up to buy even higher resolution ways to watch Utban Brawl, and swear they can tell what a difference it makes). That last Shiriki shaped touch point goes cartwheeling through the air and there's really only one action Swoopy can take. It has to be saved. It's the last thing that maes sense.

Swoopy guns his ATV that direction. It won't go into the annals of great driving, but it doesn't have to. He yanks a prostrate Shiriki onto the ATV.

"I can't see the others! What the fuck is going on?!"
Chante
player, 36 posts
Thu 30 Nov 2017
at 21:32
  • msg #56

IC - Chapter 2

The problem with sticking around, Chante realized, was that they'd eventually be overrun by a nevernending spout of whatever the astral storm threw at them.  It was best to retreat, in this case.

She hoped the others had the same idea.  Soldiers weren't bred for brains, but Wildcats were supposed to be smarter than the average groundpounder.

She twisted her wrist back and gunned the engine, accelerating with the intent of just getting free.  She hoped the others were wise enough to have the same idea.
Shiriki
player, 49 posts
Wed 13 Dec 2017
at 18:12
  • msg #57

IC - Chapter 2

"I can't see the others! What the fuck is going on?!"

Shiriki hears Swoopy as if he's right to next to him, which he is physically, but the sound comes piped in tinny and heavy with wind static through his jumped in senses.

He hopes nothing's broken.

Not wanting to distract Swoopy with his irregular cargo, Shiriki dictates an audio text, the voice sounding similar to his own, but delivered in an emotionless deadpan inside the rookie's helmet. "One horse and rider on our six, pursuing Dan-Dan. Chante's still up."

Before he can address the charging Mustang, Shiriki directs a long burst of fire from the doberman's assault rifle at the Sioux warrior blocking his path. One or two of the bullets would flatten harmlessly against the spirit's defenses, but the whole lot burrows its way through and the warrior pitches backwards, gone from this plane before he strikes the ground. As the doberman, Shiriki wheels forward across the riverbed, and directs a third burst of fire against the Mustang's haunches. He hits and draws a thin trickle of blood.

Above, the roto-drone descends from its bird's eye view and fires a barrage of stick-n-shock, but the Mustang leaps up almost to meet it, and the rounds go wide.
TecGM
GM, 87 posts
Sun 17 Dec 2017
at 23:24
  • msg #58

IC - Chapter 2

Swoopy makes his way over to Shiriki's fallen form, which is draped ignominiously over a stiff scrub brush. Swoopy takes a moment to make sure that the plant itself isn't a spirit, or paraflora, or otherwise malevolent. He wouldn't put it past Massacre Canyon to produce man-eating bushes, not that there aren't plenty of those at home. (There's a bar near base where the officers have been warned about the local "wildlife" - mostly succubi patrolling for child support - but Swoopy digresses.)

The ice is slick - more slippery than normal ice? - but Swoopy's footing holds as he clumsily gropes Shiriki's inert body. He almost fumbles the elf, not that dropping someone in full body armor would hurt them in the least. It would be embarrassing for them both, so Swoopy is pleased that he doesn't add to Shiriki's miseries.

Chante guns her ATV. Let no one accuse her of leading from the rear; she will be at the front of the charge. The charge might be a retreat and her men might be fighting a rearguard action behind her, but Chante will always be in the lead.

Behind, Dan-Dan is dueling with a mustang and a man that seem hellbent on tag-teaming him. His armor is a bit worse for wear but so far he is holding his own. The mustang rears up to trample him and Dan-Dan calmly takes the opportunity to relieve the spirit of its family jewels. The mustang screams and tries to smash Dan-Dan into the ground with its front hooves, but fails to do so.

Shiriki decides to put the beast out of its misery. Jumped-in, he sends a wide arc of automatic rifle fire at the spirits. The spirit stoically and suspiciously watching the proceedings from a distance is cut down. He sinks to his knees, grasping his belly, then slumps forward into the snow. He's gone before his face can complete the snow angel. The mustang catches hot rounds in the hindquarters, pushing it past its breaking point. Its rear legs cave as it goes to the ground, similarly dissipating into the snow being kicked up by Dan-Dan's ATV.

The man on the mustang's back lands on his feet. He looks up, sees that he's outnumbered, then charges at Dan-Dan with a smile on his spectral face.
Dan-Dan
player, 50 posts
Mon 18 Dec 2017
at 08:38
  • msg #59

IC - Chapter 2

Steam rises off the body of the mustang, its hot breath in the chill air. Rearing, it screams as it lashes with it's hooves at Dan-Dans head. The officer, spirit of Yankee mounted on it's back whips out his sabre for the return.

Dan-Dan sings...


"Two little boys, had two little toys. Each had a wooden, horse!"


... before lunging in with his sacred knife and castrating the beast, lopping off its testes.

Blood spurts out, spraying all over Dan and his ATV as the horse really screams, its hooves crashing into the frozen ground as Dan dances out of the way. The horse crashes to its fore knees.

Rounds rip out of the air from over Dans shoulder, kicking up snow and sending the apparition back to its plane of existence.

The Yankee picks himself out of the snow, glances round, then grins and charges at Dan-Dan.


"GAILY THEY PLAYED EACH SUMMER'S DAY, WARRIOR'S BOTH OF COURSE!"
It wasn't very good singing, but Dan's eyes almost seemed to shine...
TecGM
GM, 92 posts
Tue 9 Jan 2018
at 07:25
  • msg #60

IC - Chapter 2

The spirit sees something in Dan-Dan's eyes, or aura. In the end, the spirit decides that it is more fun to massacre than it is to be massacred. It retreats into the astral rather than finding itself on the wrong end of Dan-Dan's Cougar Fineblade.

A hush falls. Looks are exchanged. The storm has died, as has the wind. It's a clear, cold night; what you wouldn't give for some cloud cover!

Dan-Dan checks on Ité.

This is so fragging bad, Chante thinks to herself before deciding she needs confirmation. "Is it bad?" she asks.

"As opposed to good?" Dan-Dan shoots back.

Shiriki comes out of VR in time to hear Chante say "mount up". He gets back on his ATV and prepares to set off.

<<03:00 Sunday, January 31st, 2075 - McCook, Nebraska, UCAS>>

The team cautiously exits Massacre Canyon, stopping their ATVs just beyond the curtain of mana static. The Awakened visibly relax; Dan-Dan doesn't feel bloodthirsty for the first time in an hour. Chante spends a moment on the astral, looking for their pursuit. She finds none.

"No spirits, no watchers," she says with a bit of a slur. It's still unnervingly quiet.

Shiriki has been scanning the airwaves, looking for hidden signals. "Skies are clear."

"Seems suspicious," Swoopy says. "Not a single Dalmatian looking for us?"

There's no explanation, but rather than dwell on the group moves on. Chante's armor is pretty ragged and the effects of hypothermia are starting to set in. Dan-Dan is cold too, with the damage to his suit doing just enough to make him uncomfortable.

You reach the edge of McCook, population 8,000. It's 3am on Saturday night / Sunday morning so the only people out are the cowboys who are drinking.

"We have half an hour before we meet my contact," Chante tells the team. "He'll help get Ité underground.

"Metaphorically,"
she clarifies, after thinking about it for a second. "Shiriki, how do we make contact with your egghead?"

"My contact says he works the night shift at the hospital. I don't have a commcode."

"Then we'll have to do it in person."
She looks around the group. "Swoopy, you look the most like a local so you'll have to initiate contact." (Swoopy might be offended, but she's right.) "We need to go native. Dan-Dan, Shiriki, go steal us some clothes. Something warm, and hurry." She shivers violently.
Dan-Dan
player, 53 posts
Thu 11 Jan 2018
at 18:03
  • msg #61

IC - Chapter 2

Dan gives thanks to the spirits for those he'd slaughtered. Their gift was appreciated.

Later, listening to Chante on the outskirts of McCook, Danyes shivers slightly as he looks around the town. With Mogwe with him, he propels off, unseen, in his element.

Quietly he looks around suburbia. There are plenty of washing lines around, but it's far too cold at this time of year for the lower middle classes to be hanging out the laundry. The thrift shops are a better bet. Going through half a dozen charity outlets Dan quietly breaks in gathering a rather random assortment of bric-a-brack. Some of the combinations look off and it's post luck on the sizes, but they should suffice.

Slipping his tools away discreetly he heads back, before coming across the mother load and finding a recycling centre. Quickly, he breaks into the clothes bins, pulling out sacks of used clothes. There's even some surgical scrubs (from who knew where). It was far tougher tgan the charity shops. As he climbs out, exhausted, he spots the clothes around the back of the dumpster, before mskimg off with them too.

It takes several trips, but the cat dumps his haul a short distance from the rendezvous where Chante has taken shelter. Searching through, he smiles before taking some selections to the team. They can go through the rest of the haul themselves to find something a bit appropriate.

......


Captain, I've got everybody some swell duds... the medic smiles, passing around his collection. They can search for themselves later if they choose of course.

He passes out a crimson feather boa, leather skirt and fishnets to the captain together with a long fur coat. It's surprisingly warm and looks like something a hooker would wear. It's not a perfect fit, but tgat doesn't really matter.

He also passes out a stylised Amerindian outfit, complete with plastic bow and arrow that looks to have come from a fancy dress shop (it did). It is tacky in the extreme.

There's also a police officers outfit, with sergeant stripes from the same source.

With a stretcher for Ite (who gains a 1930s gangster suit with purple fedora hat), he looks like a comic book pimp. Unfortunately, there truly was little available in his size unless Shiriki found something.

He himself has a fairly complete set of medical scrubs. They're a good fit too. For warmth there is a long overcoat, such as you could find anywhere.
Shiriki
player, 51 posts
Tue 16 Jan 2018
at 17:51
  • msg #62

IC - Chapter 2

"We need to go native. Dan-Dan, Shiriki, go steal us some clothes. Something warm, and hurry." She shivers violently.

Seriously?! Shiriki can't help but shoot Chante a look that screams out with how nuts he considers her request. He'd have better luck by himself than with some psycho gymnast coiffeur. Lost to her shivers, Shiriki shakes out his wet pant leg -- he's not in particularly great shape himself -- and lets out a sigh.

Might as well get on with it.

The streets are mostly deserted in McCook, which works to their advantage . . . somewhat. Under normal circumstances, the traffic cams here are probably watched more by paranoid parents with a cheap starter deck than law enforcement, and McCook isn't exactly the kind of place where a lone ATV or two will be unusual on the road, even at this time of night, but the early morning following a UCAS military facility being compromised and firebombed isn't exactly "normal circumstances."

Shiriki holes himself up in a blind spot, and sets up a fly spy to keep an eye on Dan-Dan's six. Aided by cat, the adept makes his way through a thrift store, and then another in short order. More like rat, the little sneak. Looks like he can get in anywhere. All he's missing is a bald, scabby little tail hanging out of his hoop. Shiriki finds himself actively fantasizing about shooting Dan-Dan with his suppressed Alpha as the man exits another thrift store, holding what looks like stripper wear and an even more offensive racist costume, when he finally has to catch himself and face up to their situation.

Dan-Dan didn't leave us out here on our hoop with no friends. Neither did he open the rift in Massacre Canyon. Neither did he choose Massacre Canyon as their escape route to begin with. And if they are going to make it out of this, it's going to be because Shiriki and Dan-Dan do it together.

But he can't be trusted, Shiriki counters to himself, as Dan-Dan slips past another maglock, this one to a recycling centre. There's no helping that, though. Besides, maybe Shiriki is being to hard on the adept. There was some strong mojo going around there, awakening all those old tribal animosities, the same ones that had probably kept Shiriki out of the Wildcats for so long.

Doubtful, the elf reasons, touching the bald spot on his crown. Dan-Dan gives the sign that they should head back, and Shiriki continues to pilot the flying eye behind them, in case any tails should develop. When they get to the rendezvous point, Shiriki sets eyes on the haul for the first time. It's not exactly what he had in mind, but most will be workable. Chante looks disgusted, but the warmth of the coat is enough alone to make the trip worthwhile. And then Shiriki sees that there's nothing in Dan-Dan's bag for him, as if fitting an elf with ancient cyberware is really all that difficult.

"Ahh, frag this," Shiriki says, before taking a closer look at Dan-Dan's scrubs.

"Hey, that might work," he muses. "Let's get to the hospital, Dan-Dan. You head in first, and see about lifting another pair of those scrubs. When it's safe to follow, we'll see about our doc on the night shift."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 18:05, Tue 16 Jan 2018.
TecGM
GM, 97 posts
Tue 16 Jan 2018
at 22:46
  • msg #63

IC - Chapter 2

Chante snatches the clothes angrily. "A skirt?" she hisses at Dan-Dan, debating whether this is worthy of a field demontion. "A skirt?"

She considers her full body armor. She can't stand the thought of taking it off so she pulls the skirt on over the top, then does the same with the halter top. She pulls off her helmet and angrily wraps herself in the hooker coat and crimson feather boa. It might just work if non one sees under her coat.

"It's a conservative town," Swoopy says. "They'd never ask a woman of... certain repute to open her coat."

Despite the extra layers, Chante shivers violently. She turns to Ité. Undressing him would likely be impossible so she adopts the same approach of pulling on the purple people-eater suit over Ité's armor. It's ridiculous, but also incredibly difficult given that you're losing sensation in your extremities.

"A police officer's uniform?" Swoopy asks Dan-Dan incredulously. "It's not Halloween and this isn't a costume party. Don't you know that it's a crime in the UCAS to impersonate a police officer? No, of course you didn't. Well in a town this size, everyone is going to know the entire police force by name; no sense in trying to impersonate one."

"Agreed," Chante nods. "Swoopy looks like a local, knows a lot about medicine, and is the best talker among us." She's being modest. Chante is the best talker, but she's also dressed like a strumpet. She's right about Swoopy being a gifted medic too. He's not as good as Dan-Dan, but's he's an accomplished combat medic.

"Dan-Dan, lose the scrubs and give them to Swoopy," the Captain orders. "He'll make contact for us."

Dan-Dan hesitates.

"NOW!" Chante responds sharply, the cold clearly wearing on her nerves. "That's an order!"

Swoopy swaps his armor and helmet for the scrubs and the long overcoat. He loses his Browning Hi-Power, Colt M23, and Ite's grenades, but manages to slip his knife into the coat.

"I'm going in," he says. "Shiriki, loop the cameras for me, would ya, and maybe pop the side door." With that, he stomps off through the snow to the emergency exit of McCook Hospital.
Shiriki
player, 53 posts
Thu 18 Jan 2018
at 17:34
  • msg #64

IC - Chapter 2

<<03:14 Sunday, January 31st, 2075 - McCook, Nebraska, UCAS>>

Still nearly four hours to sunrise, which should be plenty of time for unloading Ité, negotiating payment, and ghosting before they have to worry about more than thermal scanners in the surrounding valleys. As Swoopy makes his way toward a small emergency exit at the east entrance of McCook hospital, Shiriki goes full VR, and leaves his meat sack -- and thankfully the sensation of a frozen solid pant leg -- behind and approaches the hospital's host. He's able to sleaze some credentials easily enough, enters, looks around, and hastily constructs a persona to match the 1950s decor. Not wanting to be bothered with signing patient paperwork, or anything else that might get him noticed, he chooses a candy striper outfit, complete with hat, which must be used for orderlies and the like.

The host is nearly barren, owing to the town's population and the time of day. He would expect to see a representative from Knight's Errant, or the UCAS military, considering their raid, but he sees neither. Curiouser and curiouser, he muses to himself, parroting some long-lost children's story his mom used to read to him.

Dealing with the door doesn't pose a problem, even if the code is a little rusty, but Shiriki has issues with the cameras. For a moment, Shiriki wonders if the latter is being monitored by a spider running silent, which would most likely mean a pawn or Joe on the premises -- electronically anyway.

Before giving it another go, Shiriki sends a text Swoopy's way.

<<@Swoopy [Shiriki] I don't have the cameras yet, so act accordingly.>>

He keys into Swoopy's mic, and tries again to gain access to the camera feeds. This time, instead of trying to spoof a keycard code to the camera "room" of the Host, he tries an old trick from his Tir days. Giving a quick look left and right to make sure that a patrol IC or Spider isn't spying him, he pulls a large black cartoon hole out of his pocket and slaps it on the wall, then attempts to walk through.

He slips into the camera room easily, and finds Swoopy with a quick reference check.

<<@Swoopy [Shiriki] You've got cameras at 6 and 8. Head down for a few more ticks, and I'll get you looped.>>

Before he can do so, Shiriki notices a security guard heading toward Swoopy's position, and fires off another text to alert him. Holding off momentarily on looping the footage -- should the sec guard go to review it during his walk, Shiriki starts digging through patient records in case he needs to form a diversion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:13, Thu 01 Mar 2018.
TecGM
GM, 100 posts
Fri 19 Jan 2018
at 21:23
  • msg #65

IC - Chapter 2

Shiriki sends the footage of the guard to Swoopy, who sizes up the situation and decides to confront it head-on. He strides confidently out of the stairwell.

"Uh, excuse me..." the guard asks timidly.

Swoopy sees that his initial impression was accurate. The guard is a portly human male, probably early 60s. The night shift certainly isn't where you find the ambitious up-and-comers, so this guy is just marking time until retirement.

"Yes, what is it?" Swoopy asks impatiently.

"It's just, I don't recognize you," the guard whimpers.

"And I do not recognize you, but you don't see me interrupting your work, do you?" Swoopy shoots back.

"N-no," the guard admits.

"Now look, Ned," Swoopy says, flicking the man's nametag dismissively. "If I don't work, people die. And every minute I spend talking to you is a minute I'm not working, understand?"

"Y-yes,"
Ned agrees. He steps back, head bowed.

"Very well. Continue about your business."

Swoopy strides off confidently, pleased with himself. Shiriki almost hates to break his mood.

<<@Swoopy [Shiriki] Bad news, a nurse overheard you. Ork, African. Doesn't look like she'll be so easily cowed. She's watching you go, looks like she's doing something on her commlink.>>

<<@Shiriki [Swoopy] Ah, drek. Better move fast.>>

<<@Swoopy [Shiriki] Contact is in the last room on the right. Dr. Balter.>>


Swoopy hastens his pace. He turns into the room at the end of the hall. "Dr. Balter, I'm -"

"I know who you are."
The man stands and smiles. He's a human, maybe in his 50s, and has a kindly look to him. "Or I can deduce. I don't recognize you and your scrubs are ill-fitting. And, by the quickness of your step I can conclude that you have been detected, likely the vigilant Nurse Hanna. You no doubt are accompanied by friends."

He glances at the nearest camera and smiles in a friendly fashion.

"I would encourage them to credential you as quickly as possible. Come, bring the patient to the back loaded bay where deliveries are made. It will be deserted at this hour. Describe his condition as we walk."

Swoopy also glances at the camera. <<@Shiriki [Swoopy] I guess that settles that. The good doctor is 'on' tonight.>>

The two stride out into the hallway and try to avoid eye contact with Nurse Hanna as Swoopy does his best to parrot what Dan-Dan told him.

"The patient has an intracerebral haemorrhage, which an auto doc incorrectly diagnosed and treated with clopidogrel by default. An emergency trepanning -"

"Dr. Baltar," Nursa Hanna says firmly.

"Not now, Nurse Hanna," he says, attempting to wave her off.

She squares up directly in front of him, using her considerable mass to block the hallway.

"DR. BALTAR," she repeats with an authoritative tone most commonly used for uncooperative patients. "I must insist."
Dan-Dan
player, 55 posts
Sat 20 Jan 2018
at 15:49
  • msg #66

IC - Chapter 2

In reply to TecGM (msg # 65):

Dan-Dan taps in on Swoopys microbead. A senior nurse is an issue that needs careful handling:

Hey Swoops, you need to interrupt that nurse and tell her exactly what I tell you. I'll walk you through it. Tell her: you've got a Never Event. A SHO gave a medication error through autodoc. If she asks which SHO (she's likely to), give her a look. There's no way you'd tell her that. Then tell her, you need her to liaise with any relatives or press, if they turn up. Tell her the patient is a stroke, as an aside add he's a troll.
Turn her from an opponent to an ally. It should work, I'll explain as I can. The doctor next to you should play along.


That should put the wind up her a bit. A small community hospital like this should have half a dozen never events a year (Not that it should have any of course), an event that should never occur. They wrecked careers and killed people of course. Hopefully that nurse should now he on damage limitation.

Saying it was an autodoc and an SHO, played nicely to her prejudices (as a nurse). The Senior House Officer responsible was a junior doctor. The other doctors would always cover for them and there was no way they'd tell the nurse who it was. She'd be able to find out easily later and probably had an idea already based on who she didn't respect.

Finally, adding it was a troll should tug at her heart strings. The doctors might not care and be indifferent but she was a nurse. She'd care, and fight for her patient. That she was another trogg helped too.

Dan-Dan then contacted Shiriki.

Did you catch all that Shiriki? Regardless, I need you to alter some hospital records quick. They'll need to stand some scrutiny.

Make Swoopy a locum Registrar hired on call for the weekend by the medical staffing office at short notice. Make him hired from a non standard contractor and pay him an obscene amount of money. The standard checks won't be in pace so the paperwork won't need to as right. Just make sure there's a valid medical number attached to the file and that it has been checked by the hospital. It explains why nobody knows him and why he's dealing with the incident. He was on call. Naturally he got a consultant as soon as what happened came to light. They're always short staffed, especially on a weekend at little places like this, so it all hangs together. For his medical specialty give him general medicine.

For the respinsible SHO to pin this on, you're looking for one with a smooth record, nothing untoward showing. There won't be many, it won't look quite right. Don't worry, whoever you pin it on will have their record hacked to smooth things over again. There's bound to be some. It's how the system works. They'll have good test scores and be known to be arrogant or overconfident. They'll make a good senior doctor no doubt, but as a junior they're lethal. All this hacking should cover your traces a bit more too.


This was the crisis management side of Dan-Dan. When it hit the fan, he stepped up.

Now, if it all hung together....
This message was last edited by the player at 16:07, Sat 20 Jan 2018.
Swoopy
player, 21 posts
Sat 27 Jan 2018
at 03:16
  • msg #67

IC - Chapter 2

Swoopy looked at the nurse, listening to Dan-Dan's advice. He had no idea what, exactly, he was telling the nurse organizationally, but then when you really thought about it, prior to the cats he'd told plenty of people higher and lower things that were hopefully confidence inspiring if not actually fully understood by him. Officers needed to hear mil-speak to feel like they were in charge. The boys needed to hear mil-speak to feel like the people in charge of them actually knew more, and really should be listened to when you said if they just went over that hill everything would be fine. It didn't actually matter if you were hazy on the mil-speak yourself...

"Look, we've got a Never Event here. SHO pumped the wrong meds into this guy...Autodoc, course." Swoopy puts the sort of resigned look on his face usually reserved for telling new officers about new privates, and telling old soldiers about new officers. One that says: the people below us are immature, and the people above us are equally immature, but for some reason we're paid to listen to them - really, it's people like us that make the organization run. "Anyhow, I need you to liase on this. The SHO in question is filing...paperwork".
TecGM
GM, 106 posts
Thu 1 Mar 2018
at 07:11
  • msg #68

IC - Chapter 2

Dan-Dan's story works beautifully. Swoopy repeats it faithfully and watches Nurse Hanna melt notch by notch until she's a puddle of butter. Shiriki jumps into action, finding and forging the suggested files per Dan-Dan's instructions. The hospital's host rolls over and exposes its soft belly to Shiriki, as its tail wags happily. The plan is coming together.

Swoopy brings Dr. Baltar to Ité, and the good doctor goes to work. Things are touch-and-go for a while but the doctor's Cereprax seems to be winning out over Ité's intracerebral haemorrhage.

<<@Team [Chante] 03:30, ride is almost here.>>

Paytah 'Peter' Venom-Spitter, the Tiošpaye Smuggler, is a good rigger and a good rigger is never late. He touches down on a golf course just outside of town. Shiriki boosts an ambulance, the team piles in, then drives out to meet Peter.

Peter doesn't even bother to say hello. "Do you have any idea what's out there looking for you?" he asks with a wild look in his eyes, pointing to the west.

"Yes," Chante says. She stuffs the five American Gold Eagles in his hand before he can object, or refuse.

"You're coming with me," Peter says, jabbing his forefinger into Chante's chest. It's unusual to see the Captain being spoken to this way.

"What?" Chante asks. "We have our orders. We just need you to take him off our hands." She juts her chin at Ité.

"There's a drekstorm you wouldn't believe back there," Peter says. "I need a caster or I won't make it fifty klicks."

"I can't leave my squad," Chante protests.

"Hop in!" Peter gestures grandiosely at his Ares Venture.

Shiriki and Dan-Dan exchange a look. Shiriki knows that the passenger capacity is six, but the truth is that Ité probably counts as four by himself, and Shiriki's drones just weigh things down further. But it doesn't make any sense to split up the squad either. Plus, Dan-Dan can still see the symptoms of early-onset hypothermia in the Captain. Getting her inside something, anything, would be better than continuing to freeze her hoop off in the snow.

The team piles in. Chante, her strength draining, summons a spirit of air to keep watch over the LAV. It lifts off.

Trouble finds you almost immediately.

"We're lit!" Peter shouts as klaxon blare. "Evasive maneuvers!"

"Shirki, go VR and see what you can do!" Chante commands. Shiriki complies, slipping out of his body - and the massive G forces of the LAV in a huge banking turn - to find two GMC Banshees closing quickly. Swoopy and Dan-Dan can do little more than hold on for dear life. Mogwai cowers next to Dan-Dan.

"We'll never outrun them!" Peter bellows.

"The spirit!" Chante shouts back, concentrating on mental commands to the spirit to help the LAV eek out every knot of airspeed that it can manage.

"We'll run to CAS!" Peter says, either optimistically or unrealistically or both. It's 300 klicks to the border, which means that you have to dodge two Banshees for half an hour. Oh, and the fact that they're probably calling in spirit support of their own probably won't help matters either.

<<@Shiriki [Chante] We need jamming, stat!>>

Shiriki hacks as fast as he can. He slips into the first Banshee just in time to disable its targeting protocol. The heavy machine gun fire sprays wide.

"No missiles, at least," Swoopy notes to nobody in particular. "If they can't have us alive, they at least want our corpses whole to show to the world."

Shiriki can only hack one Banshee at a time. The second gets a bead on the Venture.

"We're locked!" Peter exclaims moments before a burst of AV rounds from the non-hacked Banshee rips into the Venture and cuts him in half.

The Venture goes into a steep dive. <<@Shiriki [Chante] Take the controls NOW!>>

Shiriki manages to jump into the Venture and pull it out of its dive in the nick of time. The G forces are tremendous and the hull is under duress. More rounds rain down into the Venture, slicing it through.

<<@Team [Shiriki] We're losing integrity fast>> Shiriki explains in that strangely dispassionate voice of people in VR. <<The spirit is pushing the bird beyond her limits. She's flying apart.>>

<<@Shiriki [Chante] Put us down now then!>>

Before Shiriki can comply, AV rounds rip through the Venture's engine, which explodes. A huge gash erupts in the hull and the cabin is instantly depressurized. Dan-Dan and Swoopy hang on for dear life as loose gear and drones are ripped out of the breach.

The Venture disintegrates. Pieces fly off in every direction. The seats detach from the floor and are sucked out into the night.
Sign In