"Thanks," Liam replied, turning his attention towards the inbound convoy next. "We've got an gunship inbound," he said, though the roar of the chopper blades could presumably be heard by everyone now. "I'm going to see if I can pile up this convoy on Tilton," he said, chambering a heavy round and taking aim at the lead vehicle's engine block.

"Gary, keep an eye on those windows. If anyone looks itchy, give them a reason to think twice about opening fire."

Esme's rapport sounded like an artillery shell in Liam's ear. In truth they weren't ultimately that different. Unfortunately he misjudged the range and the asphalt exploded ahead of the lead vehicle sending a rain of shrapnel into the air that clattered harmlessly across the vehicle's armored chasis.

These are tricky shots! Missed. Not a botch.

11:11, Today: Liam O'Farrell failed (2 failures) using 12d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed, Specialised system with a target of 9, rerolling 10s.  Dex + Firearms.

"Shit!" came a voice on the scanner. The troop truck leading the convoy swerved to avoid the pothole in the road. The APC behind it narrowly missed collision, and fired a hasty retort from its cannon up at the clocktower.

Robyn and Gary dove to the ground as the shell exploded on the side of the brick tower. The structure was fairly modern, and thus not particularly resilient. There was now a large window in the northeast corner.

Unable to safely disembark in the administrative parking lot, the convoy split up. The troop transports circled around the north side of the clinic to unload to the east - well out of sight of the clock tower. The ATV meanwhile parked near the west side of the building. The troops inside shot at the clock tower through the vehicle's gunports, their explosive payload further destroying Liam's cover, and ensuring that it would be next to impossible to steady an accurate shot in that direction. The troops garrisoned in the Teasdale building soon followed suit.

Gary sprang to his feet, returning fire at the medical arts building. "We better think about bugging ou-" his words were cut off along with the upper half of his body as a streak of white hot depleted uranium tore through the side of the clock tower like tissue paper. What little structural integrity remained had been wiped out by the helicopter's heavy vulcan, and the whole structure began to groan.

Robyn crawled quickly to the ladder, already making her way down. The chopper was close enough to spot now, even against the black sky. It reared back suddenly, stopping its approach. It hovered, making itself as still as possible while it locked on a missile. Liam wouldn't get another shot like this.

Jacob leapt from the clinic roof, and charged towards the APC. He stumbled as several explosive shots pounded against his armor. The Gangrel waiting in the bushes charged after him, coming up on his rear. The Redwatch on the vehicle's turret attempted to fire, but fell limp in a cloud of red mist as a bullet struck him from the south.

"Northwest corner is too hot," Pockets said. "I'm arming the last bomb, and I'm gonna throw it. Liam, get ready with the detonator."

"I need two more minutes, Pockets," Hasan said. Liam could see him emerging from the building, carrying a limp naked form under each arm and a third across his shoulders.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Fri 03 July 2020.

"Fucking hell," Liam spat as Gary was literally torn apart beside him along with the roof of the clocktower. Falling prone amidst the wreckage he chambered a second HE round and took aim at the cockpit. "Hold still one more second you miserable bastard," he muttered.

12:20, Today: Liam O'Farrell rolled 2 successes using 12d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed, Specialised system with a target of 9, rerolling 10s with rolls of 9,9,8,2,1,4,4,1,9,8,9,7.  Dex + Firearms + WP.

The explosive round tore into the vehicle's tail. The chopper spun around, tracing circles of smoke and flame in the night sky. It careened into the side of the high-rise building. Its explosive payload caught in the impact, a second explosion rocked the earth, and sent a hail of shrapnel through the streets.

Jacob, meanwhile, had slammed into the second ATV, knocking it over on to its side. He leapt up, and brought his full weight down upon it, smashing the vehicle like a tin can, along with its occupants. He didn't have time to turn before seven Gangrel fell upon him, tearing at his armor with their claws. Mik fired two shots, and suddenly there were five.

"Need to change position," Mik said. "Hold on, Jacob."

"Bomb is hot," Pockets said. "Liam, get ready."

"Hasan?" Liam called into the radio. Two minutes was a long time. Liam knelt and stuffed his shirt into his ammo bag along with Wilkin's armband. His shoes were... well, they were nowhere to be found. As an after thought he clipped the scanner to his belt. "I'm arming the detonator and dropping down. Call it out when you're clear, Pockets."

With Esme slung across his shoulder he bolted for the gaping hole in the side of the clocktower and dropped down, crashing to the ground with only the slightest wince.

-2 BP for legs. Liam takes 1 bashing damage. I'll heal that immediately.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Fri 03 July 2020.

Hasan didn't respond, as he was currently behind the wheel of the troop truck and attempting to hotwire it.

Jacob was valiantly fighting the pack of Gangrel. He grabbed one by the throat, and slammed him into the ground, shattering the asphalt beneath him along with many of the Gangrel's bones. He kicked another in the chest, which sent the vampire flying into the side of the clinic. The poor fledgling was impaled on a twisted piece of girder. The remaining three Gangrel had managed to tear the back plate of Jacob's armor off, and they threw it to the ground.

The ruined clock tower was casting a shadow in the moonlight. As Liam landed, the shadow shifted position and grew significantly darker, until the approach from the fire door to the police cruiser was completely ensconced in darkness. "No witnesses," Robyn said over the radio. "Or our disguise is burned."

The twenty-strong contingent of reinforcements had assembled and loaded up. They were moving around the side of the clinic, advancing on Jacob's position. The Gangrel were effectively in their way, and they held their fire as they closed.

Liam could see Pockets run down the northern hallway through the glass. She charged into the Tremere's garrison. There was a flash of bright blue light, followed by a hail of gunfire. She tossed the bomb into the corner, and dove through a window in the northeast corner, landing in a heap quite near the troop truck.

"Oh god, it hurts," Pockets wheezed. "S-something's wrong."

The troop truck had a clear escape to the south. However, Hasan wasn't about to leave Pockets to die. He sped towards her, leaning out to scoop her into the cab as he drove northward. "Blow it!" he shouted over the radio.

"It's a bomb!" Gruber said over the radio. "Everyone, get out!" One of the vampires leapt from the north-side window. More were following.

"They aren't going to be watching me," Liam assured. He thumbed the detonator and the world turned upside down.

Under the cover of the chaos that followed, Liam disappeared from view.

Figure this is the appropriate moment for the description of the explosion but Liam will toss Esme into the back of the cruiser and grab one of Robyn's neato sidearms if available.

The first blast sent fuel through the building's ventilation system, which ignited mere seconds later in a massive concussion that shattered the windows of any adjacent buildings that had somehow miraculously survived the night. Everyone in the vicinity was thrown to their feet, Liam included. The blast cracked the entire structure open, and the shaped charges at the corner then sent a wave of burning napalm through the building's broken interior. The charge on the northeast corner, which Pockets had only had time to toss, also sent a generous portion of napalm our into the streets. There were no screams. There was only rubble, and a fire that burned higher than the apartments.

The explosion had given Hasan the distraction he needed to speed away. There were only a few pot-shots taken at the vehicle before his powers returned and he disappeared the truck from view. From what Liam saw, none of them had managed to land.

"They're escaping in one of our deuces," came a voice on the scanner.

"Find it. Track it. Do not let them escape," came a reply.

"Pockets?" Hasan said over Liam's earpiece. "Hey girl, wake up. Jesus, those are just plain ol' bullets. Quit screwing around. I need your help."

Pockets did not reply.

It was difficult to see inside the shadows, even with his night vision activated. It took him longer than expected to place the rifle in the trunk, and take one of Robyn's shotguns with him. He was just barely able to make out Robyn in the darkness. She had raised her Tommy gun and had fired a volley into the Gangrel piling on Jacob.

It sounded more like the buzzing of an angry bee than the Chicago Typewriter Liam was intimately acquainted with. In fact, the gun itself was making no sound at all save for the whizzing of the bullets, which were bathed in a sparkly green muzzle flare.

Her grouping was fairly impressive for an automatic weapon. She zeroed in on one of the Gangrel, who broke off from Jacob and charged towards his unseen assailant in the shadows. A couple bullets didn't seem to slow him down, but a couple dozen was enough to bring his short unlife to a messy end. Robyn didn't let up on the trigger, and merely swept the muzzle like a fire hose towards the two remaining targets.

The troops, meanwhile, had given up trying to save their Gangrel comrades. They opened fire on Jacob, though they mostly connected with their teammates. The assault from two fronts was enough for Jacob to break free, smash the two remaining Gangrel's heads together, and dive behind the flattened APC.

Mik charged from the far side of the stadium, flanking the southern detachment of troops. His six claws tore through five of them like a scythe through wheat.

The hair on Liam's neck stood up, and he turned to spy the Tremere who had escaped the building moments before the blast. He was preparing some sort of spell, and was training it squarely at Jacob.

"Oh no you don't..." Liam growled. Pivoting on his hind foot he launched himself out of the shadows and landed on the Tremere blood mage with the full fury of his claws.

-1 WP
Using last Luck Point
7 Aggro
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Fri 03 July 2020.

Liam's claws split the Tremere in two down the middle. There was only a moment for him to register surprise on his face before he crumbled into dust. The swirling magical energy building around him dissipated into a fizzle.

The southern line of troops was broken and routed. Mik carved down three more, and the surviving two opened fire on him. Jacob and Robyn, meanwhile, were laying down fire on the northern front. Seven opposing troops remained.

"What the fuck is happening over there?" said a voice on the scanner.

"Teasdale is gone," came a voice on the scanner. "They blew it up."

"My God," the first voice said. There was a pause. "Anyone left, hold them there. Don't let any more of them leave, no matter the cost. Payback's coming."

Liam heard the engines of a third convoy coming south on Tilton road. However, this convoy stopped well outside the action. They merely waited.

The troops to the north broke cover and charged. They were sitting ducks out in the open.

Liam took in the scene at a glance. Mik was moments away from moping up the dregs of the southern flank, which was a small mercy seeing as moments was likely all they had left.

"They're being ordered to pin us down at all costs," he barked into his ear piece. "We've got to get the fuck out of here. Jacob, throw me your backplate. I'll draw their fire. Do not fucking miss."

Jacob nodded, kicking the backplate towards Liam. Robyn fired one last volley, and ran toward the car. Jacob rested the barrel of the m60 on the side of his barricade, and shot until the gun ran dry. Three remained.

The shadows around Robyn's car darted suddenly, forming a dark wall to the north. Hidden from the convoy, she swung around, screeching to a halt by Liam. "Get in."

Meanwhile, Mik had slain the last of the southern contingent, and was training two of their own guns on the remaining Redwatch. He was in rough shape. There was a massive hole in the side of his abdomen, and one of his arms had been blown completely off.

"Jacob!" Liam lobbed the arcane shotgun over the roof of the car towards the one time prince as he piled inside. "Make it count!"

"Go, go, go!" he said to Robyn. The two of them had done all they could. Now he had to keep his promise to Jack.

"Uh uh, fuck that," Robyn said. She turned hard into the parking lot.

Jacob fired the shotgun, which blew a huge gout of flame towards the remaining Redwatch. It hit one square in the chest. The vampire screamed for an instant before he was reduced to ash. The other two didn't survive the volley of explosive ammo.

Robyn squealed to a stop by Jacob. "Get in the back, asshole. You too, creepy."

Jacob staggered into the back, and Mik crammed in beside him. Robyn didn't wait for the door to be closed before she gunned the engine, streaking away to the east. Another gesture, and the windows went black as shadows wrapped around the cruiser.

She didn't drive far, but judging from her steering she had no trouble seeing through her own spell. The roaring of the engine was drowned out by the shrieking of jet engines and the heavy drumming of cluster bombs going off entirely to close for comfort. The car lurched forward, and the tires squealed. Robyn cried out, righted the car, and made a quick turn.

She slowed to a stop, turned off the engine, and the shadows melted away. She was silent; her face blank and her eyes wide.

They were parked in an alleyway between the university gym and the pool. In the distance they could see the wreckage of their battleground. The administrative building and clinic were completely gone.

"Find them," the voice on the scanner said. "Wake everyone. And get that fire put out. Maybe there are survivors."

Jacob groaned, and righted himself in the backseat. Mik slipped out of the car. He threw the rifles to the ground. There was a moment of silence.

Jacob was the first to speak. "We did it."

Liam was rigid in his seat. He was still holding tight to Jacob's back plate in one hand, all but forgotten in his grasp. The Redwatch radio barked in his other. He turned to look at Robyn.

"Holy hell, you can drive," he said at last. "Are you okay?"

"Gimme a minute," Robyn said tersely. Her entire body was clenched.

Jacob looked at the shotgun still clenched in his hand. It was smouldering, and several holes had been eaten through the barrel. "I don't think this is any good anymore," he said, and threw it out the window.

"Anything that's theirs, we should leave," Mik suggested.

Jacob pulled a handful of armbands from his belt. Trophies. One by one, he pried tiny chips from underneath the rank patch with his fang. He spat them into the alley.

Liam nodded. In the end he'd taken only the scanner and the armband, and Robyn had taken the blue one off of Gary. He removed the battery from the former and then crushed the device in his grasp, sprinkling the fragments across the alley from the open window of the car. Seeing what Jacob had done with the armbands he'd taken, Liam did the same and stuffed the cloth into his bag. As he parted the flap he realised he'd pocketed something else. Handing the battered eversteel plate to Jacob he reached down and pulled up the bottle of Jack's famous bourbon.

"It'd be a shame to leave this," Liam said quietly. He pulled out the stopper and took a generous slug before offering the bottle backwards. "Drink?"

"Yes please," Jacob said, and took an eager swig from the bottle. He passed it through the open door to Mik.

"I think I got the lojack off," Hasan said. "That, or this thing isn't gonna start back up. The whole town is going apeshit, though. We'd better meet somewhere outside the city."

The town was indeed waking up. People were beginning to mill out of buildings, on the prowl for anything out of the ordinary.

"The pitstop on the logging road leading up to the bunker," Jacob replied. "Let's meet there."

"I want to feel the wind on my face again," Mik said. He tried his best to navigate the bottle without lips. He only spilled a little. "Plus, I can hide better out here than in your backseat." He passed the bottle to Liam.

"It'll be easier if I just keep my head down," Jacob said. "If they see me, they'll recognize me. They've all memorized my face."

Robyn said nothing. She merely put the car into drive, and started to move. Mik's door closed itself.

"Well, see you there, then," Mik said with a shrug.

Liam waved at Mik through the window and watched until he disappeared. "Robyn?" he said softly. "I need Gary's band. If there's a chip in it, it needs to come out."

Robyn said nothing for a moment. "Right cargo pocket," she managed after a moment. Liam wasn't sure if she could let go of the steering wheel. After a few moments, she added. "Um, what bunker?"

"Forgive me, of course," Jacob said. "I'll direct you down what should be the quietest route."

Quietest did not mean quiet. The streets were now full of mooks brandishing flashlights, and armed with cheap revolvers, camping knives and all manner of threatening lawn implements. They were staying well apart, but each one was engaged in a frantic search. They even shone their lights into the police car. As soon as they saw Liam's armband, however, their eyes glided right off.

Meanwhile, the streets were full of Redwatch in police cars, all of them moving slowly and searching. Fire trucks and reinforcements soed towards the college grounds. Another attack helicopter, the police choppers, and even the local traffic copter had all joined in the search.

Jacob chuckled. "Oh, they are *furious*."

"I'm... Gonna be a while," Hasan said. "Driving a completely invisible two-and-a-half tonner through slow moving traffic is exactly as fun as it sounds."

Tears streamed down Robyn's face as she witnessed her friends and neighbours shamble mindlessly in search of her blood. It was a tense and quiet drive to the rendezvous, although the mood eased somewhat as the crowds thinned out.

They were well out of the city proper, at a small paved shoulder off the side of the logging road. A lone streetlamp stood, and Mik had already snuffed out its light.

As they exited the car, Robyn lingered. "I'm gonna sit here for a bit," she said. "Maybe have a couple panic attacks. You go wait for Pockets."

Liam nodded. He stepped out of the car and rummaged in the trunk for his belongings. He felt just about as raw as Robyn looked and he was thankful to find his pack of cigarettes without too much hunting about. Everything went into two neat piles - one belonging to him, and the other to Hasan. Esme had come out of the night unscratched, which was more than could be said of Liam. Or Jacob. Or Mik. He looked up at the other two once he'd repacked and stowed his kit. Liam was wearing his old shoes again and a grubby t-shirt. They suited him much better than the fancy number he'd ruined in the clocktower.

"If we're going to be a bit, do either of you feel like helping me do some digging? I left something by the entrance to the bunker. Someone."

"Might need a hand carrying him out if I can't rouse him."

"If you're going all that way, it'd be me," Mik said. "No offense, Jacob, but I can move faster than you."

"It's fine," Jacob said. "Ms. Rowe and I need to have our talk, anyway."

The bunker had been filled in and buried. Very little remained to stir up bad memories. Or good ones, for that matter. Now where had he left him?

[Roll per+survival, DC 9]

Taking an auto on this one if allowed, die pool of 9

Liam glanced about beneath the shadows of the trees, the moonlight filtering in softly. "This way he said," finding his bearings after a moment.

There was little to suggest that anything might have been buried where he'd left Tyr. A decade of wind, rainfall and plant growth had turned the raw earth into just another patch of the quilt work of the forest floor. But Liam remembered.

Using his claws like spades he set to work excavating the stone goliath trapped in slumber below.

Tyr was exactly as Liam had left him, minus the severe wounds the Tremere had inflicted. He was stiff and motionless in the ground, but fortunately for Liam, Mik was an accomplished burrower. They had completely uncovered him in a matter of minutes.

"I... don't think we should wake him," Mik said after a moment. "I don't know about you, but I don't have enough blood on hand to sate this big guy's feeding frenzy. We can carry him back with us tonight if you like. We might be a little late for the rendezvous, though. Or we can cover him back up and come back here another night."

Liam shook his head. "He'd drain me dry on a good night," he replied. "The only people I trust to wake him are Hasan and Jacob. Lets carry him back. Hasan will still be a while."

It helped that with all the blood surging through his muscles Liam could actually get a pretty good hold on Tyr this evening, and with Mik to help him he had no concerns. If anyone could portage a ton of living granite out of the forest in double time, it was the two of them.

Liam's strength is 11 at the moment. He can lift 2000 lbs.