Seeing Kate go all-in, Caduceus felt it was time for him to do the same. There was little his magic could do to directly assist, so he decided to call upon a friend who's magic hopefully could. Over their team's comms, he said, "Cashing in my chips for some spiritual assistance. Hopefully I can pay the toll..."

The shaman then closed his eyes and held his oxygen mask over his face with one hand while clutching his seat's armrest with the other. He reached out into the sky domain. The thin membrane at the edge of the world's manasphere. The spiritual energy was not thick up here, but it did exist. He hoped heartier spirits liked to drift these skies, because Caduceus was looking for some powerful assistance.

He reached out with his mind and tried to reel in a comet from where there appeared to be only empty sky. "Brothers and sisters of the outer realms, I request your presence. My situation appears dire. I need you to Confuse my enemies to help keep myself and my allies safe. Please."

---

Attempting to conjure a Force 6 Sky Spirit. I believe my conjuring and drain targets are both at +2 at the moment. (+1 for being high in the manasphere and +1 for light stun. I believe next round another +1 is added for low oxygen in the plane)

Conjure Force 6 Sky Spirit (TN 8)
21:17, Today: Caduceus rolled 1 success using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 8 with rolls of 4,1,5,(6+2)8,5,1.  Conjure Force 6 Sky Spirit.
1 Success! Using my one service to ask it to use Confusion on all of the spider critters at the earliest opportunity.

Drain test vs. moderate stun (TN 8)
21:18, Today: Caduceus rolled 1 success using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 8 with rolls of (6+5)11,5,5,(6+1)7,3,5.  Drain test.
Bummer. Moderate Drain. I am now just one box away from having serious stun.

Hairy got his first burst off before anyone else had a chance to move, disintegrating the head of one of the spider creatures and punching a hole into the bulkhead behind - and quite possibly into cargo and or plane fuselage beyond.  Hopefully not into anything too important...

White Duck was next.  He was getting low on oxygen and was tired of trying to hold the door closed, so he opted for a bit of kick-i-poo as a roundhouse between the head and thorax of the one pinned at the bottom of the door separated the two spider body-parts with a satisfying crunch.

Kate went next a roar of flame erupted from her fingers, hitting the spider trying to get through the top right corner of the door.  There was less of this one exposed, mainly just legs.  However those got nicely incinerated and whatever was attached to them dropped to the cargo area floor with a keening noise.  White Duck didn't look super impressed as he had to crouch to avoid the flames - and as the heat conducted its way through the metal towards his hands.  He tried to re-seal the door, but there were still spider body parts in the way preventing it from closing completely - and he could hear more of the critters scrambling around on the outside of it.

Kate, however slumped in her chair, blood dribbling out of her nose beneath the oxygen mask which she struggled to hold in place over her face.  It was evident she didn't have a lot more left in her.

There was a sudden inrush of air in response to Caduceus's call and the coldness of the low-pressure coalesced into a misty constrictor, winding through the air.  Its lidless eyes stared into the shaman's for a moment or two before it departed, seeping around the edges of the doorframe and out of sight.

Hairy looked for something else to shoot, now that the three in the doorframe had been turned to gore and charcoal.  One of the critters obliged by forcing a couple of legs through the bullet holes he'd just punched in the aluminum door-frame.  He fired a second burst, pulverizing spider limbs and - hopefully - whatever had been connected to them on the other side.

The plane yawed suddenly to the left.  "WATCH WHAT THE HECK YOU'RE SHOOTING AT!!  And if you so much as light another match back there, I'm shutting off the oxygen and heading up to twenty-thousand and freezing all your hoops.  I'm carrying almost a thousand pounds of kerosene in this puppy.  And guess what.  LIGHTING IT IS A BAD FRAGGIN' IDEA!"


Caduceus is at 5 stun, Kate is at 6.  Duck will be at 1 due to no oxygen at the start of next turn.

There are currently spider body parts preventing the door from closing and there are definitely still critters on the other side.  Hard to tell exactly how many.  Also, the plane seems to be unhappy.  Whether that's because of bullets, fire, spiders chewing on things they shouldn't, a pissed-off rigger, or some combination is also hard to tell.

What's everyone doing next?

Duck continues to hold the door, looking for something to block it off, trying to grasp for a nearby oxygen mask if it’s available to him without fragging everyone over. He continues to hold the door if that’s the case. “Anyone wanna add some muscle to this door? Feels like lots of em!”

Caduceus mentally cringed as it eventually dawned on him that he was the one who should go into the cargo area and open the back door. White Duck or Hairy might have been more physically capable, but they couldn't float, and they probably wouldn't trust that his spirit was doing what he had requested of it. He unbuckled his belt and said over the coms, "You won't need to hold the door. I'm going to fly for the lever. My spirit friend should be confusing them, but please try to cover me as I go in."

The shaman took one big breath from his oxygen mask, held his breath, then began floating up and over the seats toward the door White Duck was holding.

---

My intent is to fly through the center of the cargo hold without touching any walls/ floor/ceiling, etc. Caduceus is trusting that his spirit is confusing as many spiders as possible (probably only 6), and hoping White Duck and Hairy can protect him at range from any others that may jump his way. If Caduceus gets pulled out of the plane, at least he can levitate, unlike the others.

Hairy grumbles to himself, "why even buy a plane if it can't take a few bullets..."

He switches back to gel rounds. At this point, he'll back up Caduceus, trying hard not to hit the poor fellow in the back of the head, relying instead on single shots and bursts to pick off specific enemies and make a path for Caduceus once the door opens.

Even as White Duck spoke, the skittering noise on the other side of the door changed, as many (all?) of the creatures moved away in different directions.  The adepts vision was starting to grow fuzzy as he prepared to open the door, Hairy with his pistol trained on the entrance and Caduceus floating - ready to go through.  The adapt silently mouthed a countdown, then pulled the door open...

A spider-thing that had ben clinging to the back of the door and started to skitter across the floor before being dropped by a well-placed burst of gel rounds which were evidently still enough to crack its carapace.

The area beyond was mostly dark.  Apparently at least some of the wires the ravenous creatures had been biting through involved the lighting.  There was one florescent that struggled to illuminate flickering on and off intermittently, just enough to play havoc with Hairy's low-light vision.  There were also sparks from a few wires that were still shorting, and there was a faint hint of starlight coming through the few windows and the 3-inch crack of the partially open loading ramp.

The depressurization had wreaked havoc on the cargo.  Boxes were scattered every which-way, several items plastered against the partially open crack.  Duck and Hairy could both hear occasional skittering, but it was hard to localize exactly where it was coming from.

The dwarf moved to the doorway and, with his super-amped reflexes quickly scanned the area.  Spotting movement, he let another burst go that resulted in a shriek as whatever it was dropped behind a pallet.  He waived for Caduceus to make his way to the switch, while he stayed close to the door.

White Duck took advantage of the break to sprint for one of the oxygen masks, taking deep breaths and feeling the fuzziness start to fade from his brain.

I am a *bad* GM.  No excuse for taking this long to respond.  Sorry all.

Hairy will hustle to his big gun first. There's no way he hauled his baby all the way from Seattle without using it even once. She'd never forgive him that.

Once his gun is properly secured, he'll search for a portable oxygen tank.

Caduceus wasted no time floating forward. He needed to complete his task before his breath ran out. For that reason he tried not to talk now that he was away from his oxygen mask. Although he wanted to say about a hundred different things in case he didn't make it back.

As the shaman floated over the scattered debris, he focused on avoiding any spiders that might leap at him and moved as quickly as possible to the equipment he needed to use. The only thing he might make a super slight detour for would be the case containing his super rare feathers. If it was convenient, he would scoop it up in a free hand, but if not then the shaman would simply hope it was wedged somewhere safe.

If he made it across the cargo hold with his life intact, Caduceus would waste no time and open the rear hatch.

After catching his breath, Duck took a moment to assess the situation unfolding around him. “God damn, can’t anything go right for us?” He asked himself. He took in another deep breath.

“Just a few weeks ago and I was in a hermetic circle in the back of my comic shop with these people. Now we’re all about to die because…bugs?” A slow and quiet exhale, internalized thoughts only taking fragments of seconds to pass.

“No…. No, it’s this *fragging* company that hired us.” He glanced over his shoulder to the remaining personnel, pondered giving into that killing urge again, but shook his head. Furious and in need of something to kill, almost completely oblivious to the whole clear and present danger of fighting, he started picking up things to throw, moving in and actively seeking out the demonic bug spiders that ruined his day and spoiled his first cigarette in weeks.

Aided by his low-light vision, Hairy was able to find the crate in which his gun was packed.  It had fallen over and was under a couple of others, uncomfortable close to the loading ramp.  He focused on moving crates and getting his baby out.

Finding the feathers was a *lot* harder.  The package they were in was small, everything was pretty jumbled and the rare flickers of light were far from useful.  However, as Cadusius neared the back, he spotted the edge of a zip-lock type bag lodged under a crate - a crate that had probably stopped the bag from being blown out the thin crack.  Now, there was no guarantee the bag contained the feathers, but he couldn't remember having seen any other similar bags in the cargo area...

A he neared the button that would open the rest of the ramp, he saw a spider clambering along the wall and the shaman suddenly realized something.  The air pressure between inside and outside had equalized.  The only thing that would cause the spiders to fall out the back now was gravity - and then only if the rigger went into a climb.  A climb that would almost certainly dump most of their cargo too.  And even then, the fragging creatures could probably hold onto the walls.

Just as he was about to say something, a pair of the creatures, perhaps noticing the ruckus of the moving crates leapt out at Hairy.  Both of them seemed a bit sluggish and confused, but it still took some fancy maneuvering on Hairy's part to avoid their fangs.  The big gun wasn't out yet, so if he was going to take care of these, he'd have to use the smaller one.

White Duck emerged into the rear in time to hear at least a portion of Hairy's extensive and colorful vocabulary.  There were too many crates between himself and the dwarf to provide any immediate aid.  However, he did spot a spider just hanging on one of the walls.  With the flickering light, if the thing had been trying to defend itself or had any awareness, he'd probably have missed.  However, somehow it didn't notice him and his card embedded itself deeply in the thing's abdomen and it dropped from the wall.

Kate sat, breathed oxygen and satisfied herself by thinking dark thoughts, visualizing their Mr. Johnson screaming as she slowly immolated one body part at a time...

What's everyone doing now?

Kate realizes, through her haze, that she does actually carry a gun in her backpack.  She carefully weighs her options.  One she could get it out and have a rough chance of hitting something that's not a co-worker.  Two, she could sit here and let the people that use guns regularly shoot things.  Three, she could attempt get up and punch something.

She looks around at the group, realizes that option 2 is probably going to get the least number of people killed.

Just in case, she yells, "hey guys, do you want me to start shooting things?  I have a gun"

Hairy responds, maybe to Kate, maybe to the spiders, hard to be sure; FRAAAAAGGGGG!!! He drops the big gun again and backs away, firing off bursts at anything with more than two legs. He'll make his way potentially towards an oxygen tank, but definitely AWAY from creep-crawlies.

Holding combat pool towards dodging. Using gel rounds, so not afraid to use them liberally, even recognizing they're mostly going to just put dents in crates.

Caduceus began floating back toward the front of the plane to get to an oxygen mask, leaving the bag of (potentially) feathers behind. They were not worth his life by any means. At least his spirit friend seemed to be doing a decent job at confusing the spiders. He hoped the spirit's range was vast, but figured they should probably try not to fly too far just in case.

As he moved, Caduceus expended some of his precious oxygen to call out to their pilot. "Hey pilot! Can you get us lower? And stay in this aerial domain/vicinity? Need oxygen. Opening hatch won't help now." The mage did little else except head for the masks and watch out for bug attacks.

Hairy was a bit slower than usual - but that was still faster than any human had a right to be.  His first burst slammed into the first spider-critter and it collapsed to the deck unmoving.  The second sluggishly tried to attack, but the orc easily sidestepped.  His second burst broke off a couple of limbs, though didn't seem to completely put it out of the fight.

Hairy and White Duck were both starting to feel a bit light-headed as they felt the plane angle down sharply.  White Duck made for the safety of the doorway back to the front cabin.  Hairy remained, staring around, waiting for the next attack, hoping it would come before he passed out...

Okay, time to head to an O2 tank... Running or rolling, whatever gets me there fastest!

Caduceus continued floating toward the nearest source of oxygen, knowing there was little he could hope to accomplish in his current state. He drifted quickly yet carefully, watching out for any spiders he might need to dodge.

Feeling the Oxygen go down and realizing recovery isn't going to happen without it, Kate tries to wander directly to the tanks and hook herself up to it.  Finding the closest safe part of floor, she settles down for a bit of rest

I'm going to fast forward things a bit, as I think everyone's pretty tired of this particular run...

Caduceus and Hairy both went looking for oxygen.  The rigger was able to direct them to a single canister.  They took turns huffing at it, at least until the aircraft got to a low enough altitude that oxygen wasn't much of an issue any longer.  Between Caduceus's astral vision and Hairy's low light, the pair was able to spot the remaining spider-creatures.  Hairy happily fired gel rounds at each one until they were oozing green goo - including the two who were caught in the crack of the open cargo door.  All told, there were 10 carcasses.

A thorough search of the cargo area revealed nothing else living.  Unfortunately, almost all of the 'kiwis' appeared to be gone - eaten through by these creatures before they metamorphosed into something many times larger.  In the space of minutes.  Fraggin' 6th world awakened bulldrek...

The aircraft limped back to Seattle.  There was a 'minor' issue getting the landing gear to deploy, but with some jimmying, a final adrenaline burst, and a second approach the plane is back on the ground in the good old UCAS.  Cold, dreary acid rain and smog never smelled so good.

After taxiing to a private hanger, the runners had to manually trigger the cargo door.  However, that was now a much simpler exercise.  As it opened, the two wedged spider-beast carcasses fell out onto the tarmac.

Mr. Johnson stood, waiting impatiently by a vehicle about 20 yards away, flanked by a couple of goons.  Charlotte, the rigger, had kindly radioed ahead to let him know you were coming, but had saved the 'good news' for you to deliver in person.  "My gig was just providing the ride.  Up to you to explain the rest of this mess.  Fixing this wiring and the bullet holes are gonna eat half my take as it is..."

“You’re not the only one fragged on this op. Maybe buy a scanner next time though? Lots of problems could have been avoided there.” He grumbles at the rigger’s complaint. When his feet hit the tarmac, he puts a fresh smoke into his mouth and walks right up to the Johnson. He reaches into his pocket as if to grab a lighter, but pulls out a handful of still-gooey kiwi seeds he’d fetched from one back in the jungle. THEN he goes for a light.

“Your hired guide and multiple others went crazy, the fruit played host to awakened spider-things that are probably to blame, that plus your peoples’ penchant for ignoring any orders we gave them to keep themselves safe.” He takes another deep drag of his cigarette, looking over his shoulder to the others gathering outside the plane.

“I’ve half a mind to feed you your own dick right now, but I’m a fragging *professional*. What I will do is tell you to frag off, as I’m paying the team out of my own pocket, full bonuses and all, to lose my number, and to advise you and any of your people not to set foot on our turf. You have the delegation skills of an unflushed turd, and you should take a long hard look in the mirror before you go to bed every night and try to come to terms with the fact that you hired the wrong scientists, the wrong guide, the wrong security, and the wrong rigger for this job, all presumably for the same peanut-pay I’m sure you were set on quibbling over and chastising us about as soon as we stepped off the plane.” He pats the man on his shoulder in a friendly manner, sort of like a parent consoling a child after they just struck out in baseball, taking a drag from his smoke and exhaling a plume without taking his hand away.

“I would be very careful about what you say when it comes to what you say to everyone else, dig?” He glances over his shoulder, looking to his disembarking team. “Payday’s on me for this one folks! Come see me at the shop!”

Turning back to the Johnson and patting him gently once more on the shoulder with an unyielding firmness not so well hidden behind the gesture, he lets go, gives the man a polite smile, hoists his bag over his shoulder, and exits.

After it was clear there were no more threats to their life, Caduceus had spent most of the remainder of the flight catching his breath and trying to recover from his magical exertions. It wasn't until they were taxiing on the runway that he got up and started packing some things away again. He collected all of his gear that he could, of course. Especially the briefcase containing his expensive feathers. He hoped against hope that they were still in decent condition. But Caduceus also attempted to collect a few specimens of the spider creatures they had defeated. He figured their corpses might be worth something to the appropriate buyer. He packed the least-gooified specimens into his refrigerated smuggling crates, added some body parts to his formaldehyde jars, and stuck a few more into any other place he could that wouldn't ooze onto everything he owned.

When they were parked, Caduceus floated out of the plane with his gear, still not relishing the thought of using any more sore muscles than necessary at the moment. When White Duck began his tirade, the mage remained silent. After all, Duck was only saying what Caduceus was already thinking. The mission had been a complete disaster, despite everyone on their team making it back home alive.

The shaman floated behind White Duck in silence, only shaking his head disapprovingly at the Johnson as he passed.

---

I unmarked two boxes of stun. I have three remaining. Here are the containers Caduceus will use to scavenge as many spider-bits as possible (minus whatever was lost/destroyed during the last battle). He'll collect whatever he feels he can reasonably get away with taking:

2x2x2 foot smuggling crate with refrigerated compartment (2 days)
2x2x2 foot smuggling crate with refrigerated compartment (2 days)
smuggling suitcase
smuggling briefcase
smuggling backpack
tackle box
duct tape
2 1-litre used pickle-jars full of formaldehyde, 1kg each

The feathers I mentioned:

quote:

You have 6 feathers, worth about ¥6k each provided you find the right buyer and don't do anything to degrade their quality or aura during the remainder of the trip.

After landing, Hairy intends to go and deal with the fixer, all professional-like, see if they can get any more money out for uh... whatever. But taking the time to check over his guns first costs him the initiative. Fortunately, Duck seems happy to pay the whole fee. An unusual negotiating tactic, but a win is a win! So he'll hang back and look intimidating, rather than put his foot in his mouth with Duck, who is apparently his new Johnson here...

Kate can't quite believe what's going on but she's still not in good enough shape to get involved.  She'll look like she's on the edge of lighting up when in reality, she's on the edge of a long sleep.

Duck's diatribe momentarily stuns the Johnson, and Duck has gone a good 20 feet, before there's any sort of response.  "Wait!!"  He paused, waiting for the runner to pause an turn, but continued regardless.  "Did you get the samples?  The fruit?  Where are they?"

Apparently the fruit was more top-of-mind than the state of his employees.

Still floating after White Duck, Caduceus called over his shoulder, "What do you think those seeds will grow into? Daisies?" He was going to leave it at that, but then also decided to add, "If you sort through all the spider-goop inside the plane, you might find some more. No guarantees though. But you'll have to that search yourself." Caduceus grinned at the thought of the Johnson combing through all that goo in futility.

The Johnson seemed to consider whether to ask his goons to intervene, but watching Hairy toting his baby seemed to convince him that perhaps this wasn't a battle he wanted to pursue.  Caduceus glanced over and saw the rigger leaning against the front landing gear, looking as though she wished she had popcorn.

Instead the Johnson gestured for the two body guards to 'secure' the plane.  He tentatively started up the ramp, stepping over the carcass of one of the spider-creatures.  As the team left, they heard the rigger heading up the ramp.  "For the record, I'm still expecting to be paid.  Plus extra for cleaning my rig..."

The group grabbed a piece of tarp to cover the heavy weapon and made their way back to the orc underground for a *badly* needed shower and drink at a certain comic book store.  (Not necessarily in that order)


KARMA!!!
5 base karma for the mission (survived, kept one of the scientists alive, actually brought back fruit.
3 karma for the duration of the run
2 bonus karma for putting up with unreasonably long gaps in playing and still showing up