[Mean Streets, Cruel Towers]The Milk Run

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


Goddammit, thought Igo, near snarling beneath his mask as he watched Arc's berserk rampage, raising his pistol. I knew that goddamn rookie was going to be a pain in the ass!


Once again, the Cowards pistol goes off three times, each time aimed towards the knee of an enemy.

Spoiler

Taking three called shots, each time towards the knee of an active enemy, same rolls as before, using a 5, 5, 4 tempo.






[dice]242[/dice]


[dice]243[/dice]


[dice]244[/dice]


[dice]245[/dice]


[dice]246[/dice]

 

[Teh Frixz]

Ritz


This was it. The moment she'd been waiting for. Luckily she didn't start in on one of her episodes so the crosshair slowly drifted on down from the drivers head to the engine block.


The gun itself was designed at one point to be a tool to drive charges into mana infused rock. Far too many of the magic users utilized old world stone and the job of tearing down outdated structures was far too time consuming. Outside mages had to be called in, specials rituals conducted to disenchant the material. So regular humans designed a cheap alternative to speed the process up. Minimal moving parts and high pressure chambers vented through a specially designed barrel to deliver a slug loaded with disruptive tech to tear apart manastone without the need for a pattern user.


It was only a matter of time before the device was torn apart and re imagined as weapon to pierce shields of troublesome practitioners. Something when combined with specially designed rounds became a very dangerous weapon.


A weapon that could make mincemeat of a simple engine of a police cruiser.


Lining up the shot she fires.


((Any bonuses for waiting and prepping?))

 

[Teh Frixz]

Ritz


While the report echoes through the cement halls of the city, the muzzle flash is nil. The kick sends a delightful line of pain through her shoulder burns that keeps her on edge just in time to watch the results.


Tapping her ear she speaks to the group. "Cops coming, I'd start to hurry. They'll be more soon enough"

Spoiler

Alrighty, range pool of 7 plus 2 using all of them to blast out the squad car


[dice]276[/dice]


[dice]277[/dice]

 

[Cirno]

Hunkered next to Loki, Arte hears the guards shriek, feels the air crackle--and smells blood. Insides churning, he mashes a hand over his nose and mouth. Please tell me that guy's already dead.


Arte skids in through the bloody scene, one-handedly jamming his gun into the back of the remaining guard's knee.


[dice]291[/dice]

 

[Grey]

Ritz





Perfect shot into the Magilectric engine. Goes out with a crackle, and the emergency brakes grind the vehicle to a halt. Moments later the cops get out and start running, guns in hand, right for the building the team is in.


Inside





Kneecaps explode again, and two of the guards drops. One of 'em is keeping it together, trying to about face so he can shoot you from the floor. The third, well... Barely grazed, he's raising his weapon when Arte stuns him. It buys Arte a rifle butt to head, but also time for another shot.


Which is not taken, as an even more hulking Arc turns on him and rips his head off with a triumphant roar. What the fuck kind of Augs is he packing?

Spoiler

Arte suffers 1 point of Condition damage and your next roll is at -1 die.

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


Three shots ring out again, this time aiming for the downed yet still struggling guards elbows and remaining knee.


Igo's pistol raises swiftly, pointed directly at Arc's face.


"You will calm the fuck down, or I will put you the fuck down!" he snaps, the gun an unwavering exclamation point to his ultimatum.

Spoiler

The guy who's trying to turn around on the ground and shoot me? Yeah, I'm about to make his life that much more difficult.


Rolling the same as before (5, 5, 4) to target his knee and elbows.






[dice]293[/dice]


[dice]294[/dice]


[dice]295[/dice]


Well, shit.

 

[Grey]

The downed guard takes a bullet to the knee and gut, throwing his aim off - but two rounds hit Igo anyway. One is mercifully stopped by his bulletproof vest, but it still bowls him over in combination with the bullet in his thigh.


Arc roars like a thing possessed and raises his fists.

Spoiler

Igo takes 3 Crushing to the torso, and 4 Piercing to the leg.

 

[PixelWitch]

Shrei


For the first time a ripple of fear casts over her normally tranquil demeanor.


At the sight of Arc ripping the head clean off the poor guards shoulders, she nearly retches.


That was someone's son...


"Alright,"


She turns on heel to Arc, pivots and drives low, before aiming a strike to body blow him as hard as she can, pumping all the power she can into her kinetic gauntlets.


Hopefully this'll put him in clear view of the autoturret. Pretty sure those augs ain't bulletproof.

Spoiler

Ok, so full combat pool. If I can channel whatever extra is in my gauntlets, that'd be good too.


[dice]298[/dice]

 

[Cirno]

Vision returning, the first thing he sees a headless body and Arc going ballistic. Arte gets the hell out of the way. The fast movement and the blow to the head don't help with nausea though. He braces himself against the wall as he succumbs to dry heaves.


A distant part of his mind watches the Igo and Shrei take Arc down, eyes darting to where he dropped his HERF gun in the fray.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Ritz


In moments, Riley's own awe of the precision of her shot was wearing off and her crosshairs began to drift to the running officers. It would be so easy to shoot their skulls, round of super sonic metal cracking into the skull, but the bossman said no killing and no killing by her there would be. Following orders was professional and Ritz was nothing if not a professional.


Further downward past the knee goes her aim, right down to the toes. She shivers at the thought. Lots of long shots argued about the most disabiling place to put a round and the majority said the knee. A vital little bend of home and sinew that knocked people out of the game.


Ritz was a foot girl herself. While not as dramatic, a shot clean through the foot was crippling in another way. While they could keep running, they'd feel the pain with every step. They'd be forced to slow down and be mindful. They'd know that each step they took brought more and more pain and less of a chance to halt the damages being done. It gave false hope to continue on for some, Ritz taking pleasure at watching them ruin themselves and for others, they simply gave up.


A good foot shot reveals a lot about a person, time to see what the cops far below were like.


[dice]309[/dice]


[dice]310[/dice]

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


Fuck, fuck, fuck! This is because I missed the third shot, isn't it? Of course it is! I missed the third shot, I broke the Rule of Three and now-


A montage of unpleasant images flashed through Igo's mind, each of them ending the same way. Him, bled out on the floor, his face pale in death. A chill crept over his body as his flesh erupted into a cold sweat, even as he felt his guts pull and tighten to the point of nausea.


Oh god, oh god, oh god, I- No, no, no, calm down. Rule of Three, remember the Rule of Three, the Rule of Three. Three breaths. One, two, three, three breaths. Three breaths.


On the ground, shaking hands clamped around the bleeding hole in his leg, Igo started taking deep breaths, one, two, three, pause, one, two, three, pause. He carefully counted out to twenty seven, breathing on each count, the ugly tension is his stomach easing off as he did so, and his mind clearing as well.

 

[Grey]

Arc staggers in front of the auto turret, taking Shrei's punishing blow with abnormal ease.


He does not take the drum of lead Loki fires nearly so well. He's down.


Outside


With a weapon this powerful, they're stopped. Took one foot clean off and the other cop is desperately trying to haul the wounded into cover where they can apply a tourniquet.


That's surely backup called.

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


"Well, this is singularly un-fucking-pleasant," said Igo in calm and level tones, hobbling to his feet, still clutching his seeping thigh with one hand, his pistol clasped in the other.


Three shuffling hops, and three rounds flash soundlessly, aimed directly into the skull of their former compatriot.


"Just to make sure you stay in the dust, asshole," he muttered irritably, turning to the rest of the group.


"Loki, you crack open that vault, grab the objective. Arte, grab anything else in there that looks like it might be worth a few credits. Shrei, disarm the rest of those chucklefucks and stash the weapons, and pony up any keycards they have on 'em. I'm stay over here and concentrate on not bleeding out,"


"Ritz?" Igo continued, talking into his mike as pressed against his leg. "How's the party downstairs? You entertaining any guests?"

Spoiler

Rolling straight Dex to try and stop the bleeding.





[dice]311[/dice]

 

[PixelWitch]

Shrei


Though her frown isn't visible behind her visor, her shoulders notably slump.


I thought that would take him down... but... not out. Goddammit.


For a split second she looks like she's about to slap herself, or punch the wall or something for her lack of respect for human life. People are not throw away things you can ju-


More pressing things.


She calms. She also doesn't look when Igo puts three rounds through his skull. Chewing on her teeth.


She distracts herself by gathering each of the guns, stocking them in a pile. Then ruffling through pockets to get anything of worth. She doesn't dwell long on the ones Arc has seen to, laying the decapitated fellow down out and covering him with his jacket of respect and putting the others in the recovery position, for all the good it will do. Hopefully that have a good medic and mechanic.


Arc is the same. Even for what he did, a life was just taken. He is moved to the side, anything needed is pilfered, then he is covered too, till the time they see fit to move him. She offers a prayer to whatever unknown deity she figures will take them and rises sullenly.


"Right. That is taken care of," she turns to Igo, offering a should to help him move, "Need help?"

 

[Cirno]

Watching Igo steady himself after sustaining a real wound, Arte flushes in embarrassment. Damn. Man up already.


"Loki," he croaks out. "There an armory or guard room in the floor plan? May have supplies to treat injures there." Soon as Shrei covers up the most unfortunate downed guard, Arte crouches down to get his gun.

 

[Grey]

"Y-yeah," Loki manages to stammer, teeth chattering with the same cadence as the cooling barrels of the turret.


He points the way to a well-equipped guard room - weapon racks open, monitors all showing Loki's grinning face.


There's a medipack with a dose of biogel inside - enough to patch Igo up, though he still lost a lot of blood.

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


As quickly as possible, the medipack is ripped open and the biogel pressed into the seeping wound. The wetwork technician hisses through his teeth as the gel does its work, the sound emitting from his mask like low static.


"Shrei, strip the guard room sharpish. Take anything that looks like Arcanotech, leave anything mundie or bulky. Find a duffel bag, enough to fit the guards gear, and anything else we might bring along,"


"Loki, the vault! I want it open and I want it open five minutes ago! The fuzz are gonna be knocking down these doors pretty godsdamn quick, and I just wanna be a bad memory when they get here!"


"Arte, start checking for the fire escape. Either that, or learn how to jump out of a third story window without shattering your legs on impact, because that's the only other way to get out of here,"


Testing the leg gently, Igo stands carefully, changing the clip on his pistol, his eyes darting through the assembled weapons in the guard room, checking for anything in particular that looked valuable.

 

[Cirno]

Relief turns into confusion. How were fire escapes any different from the usual means down?


Another Mindweb query informs it also refers to an external means of egress from older buildings or those under a certain number of floors in various jurisdictions. There really are no words to describe this level of... engineering.


He stops handing gear over to Shrei and doubtfully edges over to the window.

 

[Grey]

Loki's eyelids flicker and he giggles to himself, followed by a shriek and a flash of light.


"Okay," he breathes, "those are impressive countermeasures."


Moments later the vault door cycles. There's a series of sealed safes in the rear wall and another terminal. Loki does his thing.


"Hm. Well, this won't work." He mutters, then jacks out, walks over the the first safe, lays his hand on it, and concentrates. There a spark, a crash, and an unusual smell - byproducts of an enchantment being nullified violently - and the safe opens. He repeats the process for them all.


Two are empty. One contains a little chip of ruby in a sealed box - a memory chip - and another has a small stash of precious stones. The central safe has what is quite plainly a neural spike, but one like you've never seen before.


Meanwhile, Arte has his first encounter with the rickety iron edifice of the fire escape. Should put you down in the next alley.

 

[PixelWitch]

Shrei


She scarpers around the guard room, skittishly batting in anything shiny that isn't nailed down. In go the guns as well, hefted over a shoulder.


Overhearing the conversation, she purrs, "Well if we need a quick exit, I always have these..,"


She wiggles the toes of her digigrade augs, the gears whirring softly inside, "These things can take a ten story fall if needed, so I guess if we have no other options and you guys feel like piggybacking~"


A quick glance to Loki, "Loki, if you would be the biggest sweetyface ever, maybe try and lock all the security doors downstairs on the lower levels? Means our meanieface party crashers will have a hard time getting up to us and give us more time to skedaddle,"

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


The mercenary paused at Shrei's suggestion, peering at her with those large, blank lenses, before turning to Loki.


"She's smart. Do that," reinforced Igo, popping open his suitcase. Gently, both the stash of gems and the memory chip both get placed inside, locked into place beside the large, disassembled bulk of the Null Sheen RT-20 8.6×70mm Scoped Anti-Personnel Rifle. After that, he gingerly took the neural spike and did the same, closing the suitcase, and ensuring that it was properly locked and sealed, the locking mechanism activated. He sighed a little sigh of relief, patting the exterior of the case three times before picking it up again.


His leg throbbed painfully, and though not as quite as bad as before the biogel, the ache was still as sharp and as clear as a knife in the thigh. There was hesitation in his trembling hand as he limped out of the vault, hovering over the pocket where he had stashed the painkillers.


No, not before the mission ends. Don't wanna get drowsy. Don't wanna get...


Again, that unhappy flash of images, reminding Igo of this own human frailty. He closed his eyes slowly, trying to ignore both the wound and the anxiety building in his gut. Three breaths, long and slow.


...no. Painkillers after, then a sawbones.


"Right folks, we got what we came for, time to blow this popsicle stand. Arte, you better have found a fire escape, or we're surfing down the side of the building on you,"


"Shrei, bring Arc's corpse, leave the duffel bag with Arc or Loki if you have to,"


"Ritz, how's the situation outside?"

 

[Teh Frixz]

The last shot echoes as her headset crackles.


"Cops on the ground, I'm keeping their heads down and the path to the van is really quite clear. Backup is probably on the way by now so I'd hurry up."

 

[Cirno]

Ugh, that sounded like a grisly form of parkour. Arte reaches for window latch. "Loki, any alarms wired to this?"

 

[Silvertongued]

Igo Tyrell


Igo snorted, a burst of static discharge emanating from his mask as he limped with briefcase in tow.


"We have the Califresco PD downstairs ramming themselves up our ass, and the local security corp upstairs coming down our godsdamn throats, and you're worried about a fire alarm?"

 

[Cirno]

"Kind of makes our exit obvious if the fire alarm goes," Even as he protests, he shoves the window frame open, hurriedly moving to help Shrei with the luggage.