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Shooting Stars [IC]
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Rebbeca says “Let’s get out of here. Preston, can you get us a car quickly?” She looked around for a possible vehicle that they can quickly hack.
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Al’s instincts proved right: He spotted two armed rotor drones hovering high above while the enforcers closed in.
The next vehicles were about 50 m away along the parking spaces of the marina. Unfortunately, this way would bring them pretty quickly into contact with the possible opposition.Alexander immediately became alert as the rest of the team looked on:
“Would it be any help for you if I turned you all invisible?” -
Thorn meanwhile had also joined the team at the railing: “Shit. Those are Gabani soliders. Local drug cartel. Seems like the Wayfarers have pretty deep pockets if they can pay those guys on short notice.”
The rented Hotspur was almost a 100m away, making a confrontation with those goons almost a certainty.
Worse, Panama being in its heart still a banana republic never had had a particularly well regarded police force. In a situation like this, they would only show up afterwards to round up some innocent bystanders. -
[Saturday September 10, 2078; Quayside, Panama City]
Lily’s training took over and she readied both pistols before heading to the gunwale
“Wouldn’t hurt” Lily shot back over her shoulder at Alex “But this quay is too open, we need to engage them from some reasonable cover”
And without waiting for a response from the others her hydraulic jacks propelled her in to the air and down on to the quay and then she was haring towards the oncoming mobsters like a greyhound on Jazz…
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#54
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* Gamma: this is similar to protecting the target in a more hostile bounty-retrieval situation. I should have been more prepared.
* Coleman: I’m slipping, but at least I know tactics to help.Preston responded to Alex “Yes, but even better if you could make one of them shoot another, or even discharge their gun or freak out. That sort of chaos may give us more of an opening. Let me know if you are doing something like that, I’ll pop up an appropriate ARO to support the confusion.”
<<Dropping to hot sim for a moment to try and deal with the drones. Al, let me know if it is time to move, or what Alex is doing.>>
Spoiler:Preston makes sure his gear is in hand as he collapses to the deck and dives into hot sim. It is a matter of of seconds to slap up an ARO in front of the thugs, then he goes looking for the drones in the matrix.
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Rebbeca says, “Alex, piggyback on me and let me take you out of here. I am as fast as a car, and you are not dressed for combat.” If Alex agrees she lowers her back to help him hop along, otherwise she’ll ready her bow.
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Alex nodded: “Normally, I’d turn those guys into pieces of charcoal, but there are too many bystanders here for a shootout. Take me away from here.”
And without hessitation, the lanky elf hopped onto Becky’s back.Meanwhile, Lily had crossed more than half the distance towards the first three enforcers.
They noticed her of course and had their hands already under their coats, pulling out submachine guns – Infgram Smartguns X.Preston found that a bunch of smartgun icons had popped up within 100m of him, indicating that those goons where indeed ready for a gun fight.
Helpfully, he was able to designate all enemies on the matrix with E1 to 7 for the enforcers and D1 and 2 for the drones.Spoiler: -
Rebbeca says “Invisibility would be great now.” and then spends a brief moment to asses the surroundings and selects a good direction to run then Rebbeca starts running, and the restless traveler accelerates her to carry Alex to safety.
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With just a touch, both Becky and Veljanov vanished from sight.
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[Saturday September 10, 2078; Quayside, Panama City]
Lily had a bad feeling about this…although her metal frame was highly resistant to damage she was reluctant to pit herself directly against this many opponents but her pistols demanded a much closer confrontation than the sub machine guns of the enemy. Hopefully that invisibility spell would be here soon…although ruefully she noted to herself that the grey mana technology in her suit would be as much a hinderance to that spell as to more hostile magics…
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#55
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Al answered Preston, then spoke to Lily, as he set up behind a stack of crates lashed to the boat deck.
<<Not ta worry, Presto baby, Precious is doin’ all the movin’. We’s the stay an’ fight team, buy her some time. Drones is your’n. Shout if ya need help, but I’d rather not drop ’em onto the crowd. Them ARO’s is neato, by the way, I’d use ’em to coordinate with Lily, but even ol’ Al can’t puke an’ shoot straight at the same time….Hang in there Lily, ya ain’t alone out there. Ol’ Al gon’ be droppin’ one o’ them hombres per second startin’….right….now….>>
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Spoiler:
While Becky evacuated Alex, Lily ran head first into the three enforcers closest to her. Two managed to fire a spray of bullets at her before Al’s rifle took down the third one who was just about to fire on her as well.
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[Saturday September 10, 2078; Quayside, Panama City]
As the snub nosed machine guns spat at Lily she vaulted in to the air and landed briefly on one hand before springing forwards again in to a twisting dive. The shooters were good, and somehow at least one of them was able to track her rapid movements and she felt the bullets slam in to her side. Her armour suit yielded to the armour piercing rounds and she felt them score across her ribs but there they were stopped cold by the advanced poly alloys of her armoured chasis…
Without bothering to aim she let her smartlink do the grunt work of calculating vectors, allowing for her gyrations and the speed of her run. The silenced pistol bucked and she absorbed the recoil by bracing her myomer muscle bundles at precisely the right moment to counter the muzzle rise… or fall as she was in mid cartwheel…
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Spoiler:#56
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Spoiler:
While Lily still got ready to shoot, the remaining goons started to run directly towards their position – and even though her bullet hit, it slowed the leading attacker down only a little.
Preston was well aware that there were two drones hovering above, likely lining up shots on the team…
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Al chuckled as his first target’s head exploded into a red mist. As expected, that sent people scurrying, offering him sightlines to belt buckles. He zeroed in on the attackers to Lily’s flanks, figuring she’d handle the ones in front of her.
And he resisted the urge to look up at the drones – if Preston needed his help, he’d let him know.
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Preston was sure he didn’t want to be shot by those drones, and they didn’t appear to be carrying riggers, so he went to work on hacking.
Marking one of the drones was quick and easy.
* Monkey: Damn I’m good!But when he went to change it’s targeting information to make it go after the other drone, he found that the information was a massive rat’s nest of files and information that made figuring out what to needed to be changed quite challenging.
* Oleg: that is what I get for bragging, especially before the job is done.
* Gamma: I did effectively jinx myselfFeeling like there could be a cross-hairs on his inert body, he was tried to push through to make the required change, but it was taking an eternity, or at least entire seconds which was about the same thing in this situation.
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Both drones had taken Lily as the main threat – and although they managed to tag her in the matrix, both their shots were easily evaded by the highly mobile cyborg.
The unwounded enforcer kept tracking Lily and fired at her
Spoiler:Al’s rifle barked again and took out another of the criminals, but couldn’t do anything about the remaining enforcers dropping into firing stances and starting to shoot at the tagged Lily with controlled three round bursts.
One of the drones also fired at her – the other was taken from the sky by a lightning bolt coming seemingly from thin air. -
“Nice work Alex!” Rebbeca says as she sprints away from danger. She is not in a position to fire her bow, but in a few seconds, she might be if they still need her.
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[Saturday September 10, 2078; Quayside, Panama City]
It was like advancing in to a whirling storm and as more and more of the mobsters turned to target Lily she felt the first telling blows strike home, driving the wind from her lungs and making her head ring as rounds spanged off her helmet. Steeling herself she continued to push forwards until she was brought to a stumbling halt as the drone lit her up from above.
Gasping at the crushing pain she nevertheless brought her pistol up and sent an electrical round skyward, vaguely hoping the drone would drop on to one of her assailants and lesson the raging lead scoring her chassis… with another burst of energy she continued forward, still weaving erratically and only a fraction less coordinated, if she could close enough they would have to watch their fire or end up shooting each other…
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Spoiler:#57
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Spoiler:
Only three seconds had passed so far, but already over half the attackers were down – as well as both drones.
Al’s third shot took out another enforcer and Alex also used the superior range of his magic to send a lightning bolt unerringly towards yet another one, turning him instantly into a fine whisp of ash.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen before another three salvos had been fired at Lily.
The armor piercing bullets were like deadly hail as they partially deflected from her armor, but some bullets found their way still…But whatever else these guys were, they weren’t completely suicidal – as they registered what happened to their comrade in arms, they immediately turned tail and ran to get away from the withering answer fire of the team.
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