IC 2076 Pt2
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IC 2076 Pt2
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Isaint could see the field lines of the MADAR system, but had already fired before he could react to them. A pity. The echo of the two security guards was intense and particularly nasty as they fired their Pain Inducers. Three things were in his favor:
1) Those things weren’t particularly accurate – not even with a smartgun system and special grips
2) There was a three second delay between hiting someone and them experiencing any effect.
3) Although the MADAR was great to deflect and absorb frontal attacks, it created a fatal weakness against attacks from aboveEven as the spent cartridges tumbled through the air, Isaint had thrown himself into a sideward dodge, forcing the armored men to clumsily turn as well – and coincidentally force away their attention from the door he had just stormed through. Dropping his weapon into its sling, his nimble fingers found and threw in one fluid motion a grenade in a high arc.
Instead of being deflected, the grenade accelerated along the outer field line and struck the crown of the guard in front.
Under normal circumstances, Isaint would not have dared use such a weapon in such close quarters. But Evo had been nice enough to create a device to contain the blast neatly to one target.
Instead of an explosion that at most would have dented the faceplate, the Dumdum grenade exploded into a silver rain of nanites.
The thing had cost him 400 Nuyen, but it seemed to have been worth it: Immediately the nanite pulse created direct connections and loaded all devices on the guards person with random junk, reducing it’s processors capacities to practically zero – all and everything within the MADAR system was affected: Cyberware, commlinks, weapons and most important the MADAR as well.
Isaint went immediately into another dive roll to avoid the man’s colleague from grilling him with the Pain Inducer while his comrade still wondered why all his hardware had begun to show little spinning circles.<<Get going, I’ll keep up the pressure.>>
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It wasn’t really in Al to let a teammate play decoy while he beat feet. But once again, it was that or leave the side of the poor little soul-raped girl in the Valkyrie, and that was even less who he was.
Even with Isaint unable to actively control the pod, its movement was virtually frictionless through the air, and he and Rick took turns bumping it in the direction they wanted with simple nudges of the hip or pushes of palm. They were making their way for a point Robyn had marked on a temporary wall a good eighty meters distant, and the intervening space was dotted with stacks of building materials and large pieces of machinery.
They started off at the best speed they could, Al firing at the men facing off against Isaint. He’d only gotten two shots off, though, when something moved in the corner of his eye and he barely managed to twist to avoid the full weight of an anthroform construction drone that leapt down at him from where he had been working on the wiring in the ceiling. `One ‘hand’ still struck Al’s shoulder, knocking him down. The thing landed with its limbs curled under it, like a spider, and then pounced. Al brought his rifle up and put an armor-piercing round through the bundle of sensors that passed for a face at point blank range, then deflected the sparking hull’s weight by catching it on an upraised boot and redirecting its flight. But then another one landed atop the Valkyrie module while a third replaced its friend in attacking Al….
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Robyn
Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle MetroplexRobyn would normally send some sort of pithy response back to Al, but he will have to settle for a smile from her avatar this time as she is busy avoiding her own problems. She is maneuvering to stay away from the Patrol IC that is trying hard to locate her. She is successful for a while before a Probe IC finally corners her and puts a MARK on her, which is quickly erased away. She is not so fortunate with the next one and her agent tells her that she is in danger of being hit by other, more offensive IC.
Robyn’s agent attempts to remove the MARK and she makes a choice to help her friends while there is still only one MARK on her. Part of her brain has been monitoring the ongoing fight in meatspace and notes the arrival of the drones. With the speed of thought, she sends a prayer that Al can handle the drone attacking him and sends a data spike at the brain housing of the one on top of the Valkyrie module. She is not successful in destroying it with her fist attempt, but damages it enough to cause it to fall off and crash to the ground. Her second spike finishes it off as it tries to stand, leaving the drone in mid motion before it keels over.
Her second attack is not without cost, however, as the Probe IC manages to score a second MARK on her. Even as her agent is trying to erase her clean, it warns her of the imminent arrival of Killer IC. Combat in the matrix can be as brutal and quick as in the meat world and this is no exception, despite the fact that her companions are blissfully unaware of the fight. Robyn is no beginner and she uses her arsenal of programs and attacks to nimbly dodge out of the way of the first assaults while her agent is removing MARKS. The first Killer IC is left a smoking matrix ruin, but the Host spider quickly sends another and then a Black IC to follow up. The spider’s advantage is that it can keep sending IC to attack her while she can take only so much damage.
Robyn gives a mental scream of anguish as the Killer IC gets a hit in, causing physical damage to her body in the vehicle and she realizes that she has to pull out of the Host. She calms herself down and sends a message to her team. >>Hey. It is time for me to leave. My deck is taking damage and I need to withdraw before it is destroyed. You guys are almost out and I will have the vehicle in place to pick you up.<<
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<<Acknowledged.>> is all that Isaint is able to utter while dodging the next attack. His opponent is damn fast and shoots as fast as his Microwave Pain Inducer allows. Indeed each shot – that would under normal circumstances be invisible – leaves a burning trail of dead nanites floating in the air where the MADAR shield has amassed them. So far there was only a grazing connection and Isaint was able to overcome the numbness with a prayer and his discipline. Since his weapons couldn’t penetrate the shield and the hardened armor, there was precisely one other option open to him beside trying his luck with another grenade: The cestus on his arm blazed to life and fiery crosses became visible across his fingers and knuckles.
Launching himself with all the power he could muster, Isaint charged the armored man. But instead of trying to punch through his armor, Isaint evaded another shot and instead grabbed the rifled with a twisting motion, ripping the expensive toy from the man’s armored fingers.
The man instinctively reacted by trying to ram his fist into Isaint’s helmet. With the speed of a rattlesnake on Kamikaze, Isaint intercepted the attack and turned the opening of his opponent into a devastating hammerblow to the man’s own, relatively weak helmet visor. Plastic melted and burned under the brutal blow of the weapon focus. And although the armor wasn’t breached, the guard now had trouble seeing anything through the visor.
As quickly as he had gone in, Isaint went out, feeling the burning pain of the last shot that the man had fired at him in his gut. The feeling got worse by the second, but Isaint didn’t need much more. The man inside the armor was now utterly reliant on the suit’s sensors. Which was where the next step in his plan came in: Isaint fumbled in his pack for another grenade. This one had a particularly funny shape and wasn’t hard to distinguish by touch.
It flew and exploded on impact. Black paint fountained out, and covered Isaint’s turned back just as much as the front of his enemies armor.
It wouldn’t be fun to clean that up again. HIs opponent slipped and fell to the ground, clearly disoriented, now that his telemetry had stopped working.Isaint ran back to his team, feeling the burning pain spread through his whole body. It took an enormous effort of will not to vomit into his closed helmet, but he managed to hold on.
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Al tried rolling away from his new assailant, but it was too fast. Which was saying something. It caught hold of his right wrist, pinning it, along with his rifle, to the floor. Fighting on instinct, Al kneed the anthroform in the groin, his effort rewarded by an agonizing pain in his patella and an even more excruciating sense of stupidity. The thing’s free hand was some sort of drill, and it whirred in a blur as it plunged toward Al’s nose. Al caught its wrist with his free hand, but it was so strong he could barely slow the power tool’s descent. Beyond it he could sense the other drone falling off the Valkyrie, head sparking wildly, and he was glad his last sight was of Alyce’s handiwork.
He turned his nose away from the thing, buying himself several millimeters of space, several milliseconds of respite. It turned out to be enough – just as the spinning bit touched his skin the whole drone was jerked skyward like a rag doll. It still had Al’s right wrist, the ring of steel formed by its fingers locked down hard and unyielding. But even as the thing flew upward, threatening to drag Al up to the ceiling with it, the little man yanked the hand downward. Instead of his wrist shattering, the piezoelectric smart materials in his hand went virtually liquid and his hand slid harmlessly through the small circle of iron. Flat on his back, Al chuckled around his cigarette as he watched Rick bounce the thing repeatedly and with a couple of tons of force against the ceiling. Accoustic tiles rained down and the thing nearly broke in half as Rick threw it one last time against a steel alloy H-beam.
Al had already been a bit woozy from the nanites sending him down the virtual rabbit hole, and now his cheek was bleeding from the shallow hole the drill had left. He gave his arm a shake and splayed his fingers out, sending the smart materials that had replaced his bones back to their default structure. Grabbed up his rifle and rolled over onto his elbows to cover Isaint, only to see the ork put down his last opponent in a spray of paint – another gimmick from the utility belt. Power to him.
The little man hopped up and checked Rick. The man was sweating profusely, but was otherwise fine, and the drone had apparently not been interested in damaging the medical pod. They hurried on to the exit spot, Isaint a bit unsteady on his feet, though trying to hide it. It allowed Al to run slightly ahead, and by the time the others arrived, he’d already sticky-tacked six meters of high-yield det cord to the wall in a two-meter-wide circle.
“Fire inna hole, amigos.”
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Robyn
Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle MetroplexRobyn managed to hold it together long enough to slip from VR to AR then completely out of the matrix. She barely had time to take a breath before she was rebooting her deck in an attempt to avoid convergence from a wrathful GOD. She flopped against the seat of the vehicle, gasping as she recovered her senses and waited for her damaged deck to boot up. Feeling something warm on her cheek, she put a hand up and drew it back with blood on her fingertips. Her muscles ached as if she had been in one of Al’s old-time wrestling matches and she quickly realized that any quick movement of her head brought excruciating pain. Damn, she hurt all over. Not even really sure who she was talking to since she was alone in the vehicle, Robyn let loose with some colorful curses in her native Russian as she rested.
The moments ticked by in slow motion before the deck told her that it was back up and running. She quickly set up a diagnostic examination of the deck as she considered her options. She could, of course, try to get back to the Host, but it stood to reason that the spider there would be waiting for her and fighting off the IC it had proved able to use would be a real problem with her condition and a damaged deck. Besides, she knew that her team had been close to the exfiltration point and would need to have her ready to go. Swiping again at the blood coming from her nose, Robyn gets the vehicle in motion, headed for the rendezvous point.
>>I was forced from the Host but will have the vehicle ready. I am capable of driving right now, but it might be better if someone else did that once you get to me as I seem to have a bit of bother in concentrating. Fragging IC. How close are you guys?<<
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The dust hadn’t settled from Al blowing a hole in the wall. He answered <<How close are we? How close’re you, toots? Cuz we’s exitin’ stage left as I speak.>>
With Isaint clearly not at a hundred percent, it was Al’s turn to play rear guard. He waved both of his companions through the hole and then guided the floating Valkyrie through, just like threading a giant needle.
Then he took a knee behind a stack of plas-bricks and decided not to move for at least ten seconds. Resting his rifle on the block of building materials, he scanned the dust clouds as they slowly cleared….
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Isaint noticed – despite the pain – that Al had not followed, so he let Rick move on and turned back: <<No time for last stands, Grenades will do just as well.>>
With that, Isaint emptied another three HE grenades into exit, activated their motion sensor and switched off their wireless signal.
<<Time to hurry away and not move the ‘nades>> -
<<Well hell, I warn’t gon’ touch ’em. Already lost one damned pair of eyes.>> Al quipped as he decamped from his position. In the seconds he’d been there, he hadn’t seen any obvious signs of pursuit, but he assumed the bad guys were up to something.
He ran and jumped, balling himself up to pass through the hole he’d made without touching the edge.
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Isaint now had to constantly call to his patron to keep the pain at bay, chanting his “Vade Retro” loud enought hat Al could hear it. Thank god, Rick was able to move the levitation a lot faster than himself, so they didn’t have to wait for it to catch up with them. The nanites across his armor were now steadily incinerated by quick flashes of electricity. Already the fence that marked the edge of extaterritoriality had come into view, but there were a lot of alarms blaring…
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Robyn
Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle MetroplexRobyn nods to herself and immediately wishes she had not as a sharp pain radiates through her head at the motion. “I am at the extraction point with the vehicle. What assistance do you need from me?”
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<<Keep the motor running the back doors open and put your hazmat gear on, lest we infect you. We are coming in hot in more than one meaning of the word.>>
Isaint sent, while forcing his muscles to behave – drecking his pants just wasn’t an option right now. -
Al was running behind Isaint. The ork was usually a faster runner, but at this point Al could easily overtake him. But he stayed just on his flank, ready to catch him if his strength gave out. Something had clearly hit him hard.
<<Sheee-it, bossman, yer like ta make a feller feel unwanted.>>
Al joked. But he was worried. The forced trip to the UV host had been one thing. But what if he had the other type of nanites in him as well? The kind that would make him a helpless passenger in his own body until a bunch of mini-robots subsumed his eternal soul….
He ran faster.
“Almost there, bossman. Pick up the pace. Ya wanna stop fer a damned picnic or somethin’?”
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Robyn
Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle MetroplexRobyn was already in her armor and she slips her helmet on and seals it up. After opening the rear doors of the vehicle, she slides back into the driver’s seat, reasoning that she can get them away and swap seats with Al later. She checks on the feeds from her spy drones to make sure that no one is sneaking up on her and waits.
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[Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle Metroplex]
As Isaint, Rick and Al made their way back out through the gardens and roof terraces of the complex they were painfully aware that the Valkyrie module was a very visible target…one that would be hard to mask given its technological nature. And then from behind them, boiling out of a massive central drone rack like Cylons from a base ship in those old Battlestar flatvids or Tie Fighters from the Death Star, came an angry swarm of rotadrones. Individually they wouldn’t be a significant threat but there were just so damn many of them…
#40
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Isaint panted a bit now that he had to keep up with Al: “Rick, I take over the VM. We need a physical barrier asap and fragging strong one to boot, so those little flying blenders smash before they can get on us.”
By now the pain was sending small flashes through his field of vision, but Isaint kept up the pace and focused on his magic to carry the VM. Immediately the tempo dropped as his own, less powerful magic took hold, yet freeing his friend to create an even stronger working. -
[Thursday November 5th, 2076; EVO Research Park, North of Downtown, Seattle Metroplex]
The depleted uranium penetrator round struck the floating Valkyrie module moments before the supersonic crack of the round was heard. Thankfully the module was heavily armoured and the occupant wasn’t cored like an apple but it did send warning lights racing across its interfaces as the life support system malfunctioned and the battery power died. Seen through the plexiglass faceplate the girl gasped as she woke from whatever induced slumber she was under and began to frantically claw at the surface above her…
#41
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With thirty seconds and a sodering iron, Al could have rerouted the power and kept things running at least until they were clear of the facility. But the bullets kicking up dust and debris all around them made it clear that he didn’t even have have ten. He pulled his tempered steel survival knife and pried open the latch on the module’s faceplate. He didn’t stop running, but said, “There’s some air, but stay inside – it’s armored.” And then, in a desperate stab at winning some quick trust, he added, “It’s Al Guthrie, esquire. We met a few minutes ago.”
The barrage of bullets stopped, reduced to a strange rumble as hundreds of rounds hit Rick’s barrier.
And Al wondered why he didn’t let the girl die. It would have been a mercy to both the teenaged host and the grieving, desperate, and soon-to-be-tragically-disappointed Silk. Why hadn’t he just let her suffocate, or get shot?
Work ethic, he supposed.
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“Ok, no more time to waste. Everyone on the VM. Rick, we need the Movement power boost now.”
Rick, who was more than busy replacing one shot through barrier after the other still managed to call upon one of his bound spirits. And suddenly the floating coffin moved no longer at a sluggish pace but instead zoomed away at breakneck speed, with the team clinging on for dear life. -
Al had been trotting right alongside the module, having just popped the panel to give the poor girl some air, but still he had underestimated how fast Rick could bring his demon online – Rick and Isaint were already on and the almost zipped away right out from under him. His hand reached out reflexively – fortunately a carrying handle provided a convenient grip – and the momentum of the thing literally pulled him off his feet. He was flying along, his arm about to come out of its socket and the toes of his boots only occasionally skidding on the ground. Finally, Rick had to make the module jink and adjust course to avoid an obstacle, and Al took advantage of the moment to get most of his small body onto the thing.
His resulting position found him face-to-face through the plexiglass plate with their prize. She looked like she’d been a nice girl in life. Now, here expression was hard to read, but it was certainly neither happy nor calm.
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