[Ryo]

Having equipped himself, and now protected from the environment extremes, the Human took a final look around in the van, trying to ascertain if something he saw still belonged to him. He grebbed whatever he had a clear memory of owning, then got out in the snow. >>I'll provide backup to the Masked Woman beside the road. We shouldn't split up too much, i think. Call if you need me down here.<< Without further ado, he tried to follow the Masked Woman, matching her speed. Once up at the road, he looked for a suitable place to hide and initiate an ambush from.

All of your gear was in the bag or on your person, so now that you have it, you head out into the snow. You find yourself easily able to keep pace with the Masked Woman. In fact, you have to slow down a bit. [You have Agility 6(9)]

It's pitch black, and the only sources of light are the magnesium torch the Elf is using at the bottom of the hill, and the heat your Thermographic vision can see coming off the Masked Woman, though her insulated clothes keep that fairly dim. You decide to duck down behind the snowdrift to use as an ambush position, just as a new source of illumination appears in the distance: Headlights, winding around the mountain road.

Agility 5(9) + Sneaking 3: 12d6t5 5

You find you're quite adept at stealth, almost reflexively pressing down low and close to the snow drift, using the coloration of your clothes to blend in.

You have the Stealth skill group at 3.

[Ryo]

First things first, the Crumpled Man loads the clip into cyber arm. Once that was done he felt a little more comfortable around everyone else waving guns. If he had one implanted it was obvious he knew how to use it to some decent degree. Why else would he have it installed. The deck and the gear intrigued him but it would have to wait. He grabbed the medkit and slung it over a shoulder then proceeded to chuck the two remaining duffel bags out of the backdoor of the van.

I'll get this stuff out. and get out of the way. Anyone needing medical attention needs to follow me to shelter. I'll let those stronger than I am to grab the crate.

He then pulls out the flashlight, steps out and begins to survey the surroundings outside the van. He sends a mental command to the cyberdeck to bring up the last hour of messages and any footage his eyes may have recorded over the last day. He sets aside to review once he has finished dealing with the injured. If No one speaks up about needing help he starts rummaging through the duffels for his gear.

You send a mental command to the cyberdeck to bring up your message history, but get no results. Confused by this, you start sending more commands, trying to get to the bottom of this real quick. You find that the cyberdeck was recently formatted, and had a complete software overhaul. It also looks like the Owner was recently changed. Checking the earliest timestamps of the first boot, you see that you apparently only acquired this cyberdeck 6 hours ago.

Upon unzipping the duffel bag in front of you, you think you find an explanation for this. You see the shattered and destroyed remains of an implantable cyberdeck; looks like a Renraku Tsurugi with several bullet holes in it. You aren't sure if any data can be salvaged off it.

Checking your cybereyes, they don't look like they use internal memory. Recordings are made to an external device. You imagine that's the deck. You find one video on the deck from 5 hours ago, and set it aside to play it later.

You also find two tool kits. (Cybertechnology Kit and a Hardware Kit)

The other duffel appears to have a bunch of gun parts, explosives, and tools for working on both. (HK XM30 spare parts, Demolitions Kit, Armorer Kit, various explosives.)

[martinchaen]

The Elf ventures out into the snow, the boots of her coldsuit sinking into the drift past her ankle as she strikes a Magnesium Torch she found in the duffel bag. Now having illumination, she looks out into the darkness for a warm place to situate herself, and trudges through the snow towards the nearby tree line. She puts her back against the trunk of the tree in the opposite direction the wind is blowing, and uses the Survival Kit in her duffel to try and make herself a warm place to huddle.

Using the thermal blanket in the kit to shield herself, she manages to get pretty cozy before dropping into VR. Her icon is surrounded by static, the inherent noise from being so far from anywhere worth being drowning out much of the matrix topography. She reaches out and finds the grid she has access to and connects to it, replacing the virtual world with a blank black sky filled with icons meant to approximate stars, while the ground beneath her feet rises and falls, like she were a giant standing among the Colorado mountains. The elf spots her target, the small car icon of the Rover 2072, and manifests her matrix protocols to crack into its system.

She reaches out and sends streams of data into the icon, discreetly placing a mark on it and granting her basic access. But she's unsatisfied with that and digs deeper, placing a second mark, then a third. In the process she looks for protected files and data bombs, but finds neither.

I'm still acting mostly on instinct, partly because I barely even know what the hell I'm capable of, but mostly because I desperately don't want to die out here. This vehicle could be my salvation so I intend to stop it no matter what, without showing anyone even a hint of my fraggin' legs, thank you very much!

My MARKs are equally as surprising as my Persona; who the frag picks cherry blossoms for their symbols!? The drek kind of a girly girl am I? OK, I have to admit that the level of detail in each tiny little petal is impeccable. Either I spent an inordinate amount of time on this, or I'm rich. Somehow I'm guessing I'm not rich...

With full access to the vehicle's subsystems, I decide it's time to inform the others of my plan. "All right folks; showt... Sorry... Listen up, red team!" I grin to myself at the sound of my own synthesized voice barking out the words in imitation of the jumpy rifleman. "Happy now, Mr. Troll?" I chuckle softly before continuing. "Anyway, here's how this is going to work. I'm going to stop the approaching car right up that hill. When I have it at a complete stop, I'm going to turn on all the interior lights and open the doors; all the rest of you need to do is take out anyone who might be inside. Fish in a frakkin' barrel, wiz? Good. Wait for my count, chummers, and stay frosty. Heh... Get it?"

With the channel open I begin prepping for my attack by plugging a virtual headset into the car node; if anyone tries to communicate with this thing, I want to know. I then draw what I can only think of as a claymore mine out from the darkness surrounding me and attach it to the vehicle's remote control protocols. That's right, suckers; you try to override me I'm going to blast you... uuh... into space? All right, so maybe I need to work on my metaphors. The listener and surprise is in place, that'll do for now; all that's left is to wait.


The vehicle is fast approaching the location on the downloaded map I chose, and I begin springing my trap. "On my three-count, everyone...."

>> Issue Command
>> Pilot: Stop vehicle at this location.

As the vehicle begins to slow, a painfully dull generic icon appears and issues a counter-command. Before it can reach the pilot program, however, I slash through the data burst with a few expertly timed swings of a katana that has mysteriously appeared in my hand.

With no time to waste I launch into space, flying headfirst towards the featureless man wearing a boring suit that sent the command. I don't think he's spotted me yet, and with a deft hand I slap a few cherry blossoms onto his face as I fly past him, right where his eyes should be. I have enough time to admire my handiwork as I effortlessly cut apart another burst of data from him. I feel confident that this guy is still trying to wrestle back control of his vehicle and has no idea what's about to hit him, so I go back to put a nose on him only to recoil in shocked silence when he backhands me right across the face instead. The impression of his palm has left a rather ironic MARK on my face, and I feel it glow red as the force of it sends me flying away from him. In the grim darkness of this deserted little corner of the Matrix I realize I may very well have over-estimated myself.

All right, big guy, you want to play rough? The blade in my left hand morphs into a launcher, and I smile as I squeeze the trigger. The pixelized missile lights up the world around me as it speeds towards my target, and with increasingly angry beeps tries to lock onto the suit until it's got a solid tone. In a brilliant explosion of data I see the icon flicker and then disappear. I just can't help myself and yell into the void. "HAH! SUCK! IT! LOSER!"

I watch from my vantage point as the vehicle pulls to a halt, and begin the count. "3. 2."

>> Issue Command
>> Pilot: Power off engine. Set Interior lights to 100% for 1 second, then dim to 50%. Finally, open all exterior doors and lock in position.

I finish up the count as the Pilot begins executing it's new orders. "1. Go." Bringing up the vehicle sensors, I run a quick inventory of visual feeds and bring them up in my view.

[Ryo]

>> Issue Command
>> Pilot: Power off engine. Set Interior lights to 100% for 1 second, then dim to 50%. Finally, open all exterior doors and lock in position.

I finish up the count as the Pilot begins executing it's new orders. "1. Go." Bringing up the vehicle sensors, I run a quick inventory of visual feeds and bring them up in my view.

As the Masked Woman and The Human watch, the car pulls up near their position and comes to a sudden stop, headlights pointed directly at them. The Masked Woman decides ahead of time that taking cover for this ambush would also be a good idea.

Agility 6 + Sneaking 3: 9d6t5 6 (hit physical limit of 6)

She becomes like a ghost, hiding in the snow. The Elf doesn't see the Human or The Masked Woman on the sensors, and flips channels to internal cameras, seeing four men trying to take cover in the back of the van. Three of them have shotguns pointed towards the doors, while the fourth is loading his hunting rifle. They suddenly freak out as the lights come on and all the doors open. She also sees there's some kind of large animal prone on the floor of the van, restrained in some kind of net.

Initiative Rolls:

The Elf (VR): Matrix Initiative 10 +4d6: 10+4d6 24
Masked Woman: Initiative 9 + 2d6: 2d6+9 20
The Human: Initiative 7 +2d6: 2d6+7 17
The Crumpled Man (AR): Initiative 7 +1d6: 1d6+7 13
Men: 7

The rest of you are at least 150 meters away, and so would take a good 10 Combat Turns to get involved. I imagine this will be concluded before then.

The Masked Woman has Reaction 3. The Human has Reaction 3(4). The Masked Woman and The Human win Attribute Bingo.
The Masked Woman has Stealth Group at 3.

[Poindexter]

The troll remains crouched inside the van staring at the giant heavy crate and trying to figure out how to reach it without going over with it. Finally, he has an idea. He shouts out into the snowy darkness outside, "Someone throw me a rope! HURRY!"

[martinchaen]

As soon as I see the men inside the vehicle through the sensors I notify my partners. Once again I don't feel agitated or on edge; maybe that's because I'm well out of danger.

>> Send Message, All
>> Heads up; four men with shotguns, one caged beast.

Cursing to myself for not checking the interior first, I begin looking for any electronics I must have missed; weapons, visual sensors, flashlights and similar utility items. A thought strikes me. Grenades...

[Tecumseh]

The Masked Woman makes it up the hill much faster than she expected. Maybe she really does live in Aspen, if this SIN is to be believed. The elevation doesn't seem to be having any negative effects. Maybe she's used to it.

She takes a cue from the Human, throwing herself in the snow and blanketing herself with her black lined coat. She's practically invisible in the inky darkness. She glances over at the Human, wondering what weapon he'll choose. She can't see what he's packing due to his concealed holsters. Maybe something non-lethal, she thinks to herself. I don't want to ride in a blood-soaked Rover.

The update on the Rover's passengers catches her by surprise. So much for the theory that it would just be Daddy Warbucks on his way to Aspen for a ski weekend. The Rover itself surprises her again. She was expecting something else. There's no way she's going to be able to run up the hood of this rig to rain down pain via the sunroof.

The Rover comes to a stop and she finds herself staring into headlights. Thermographically, the men are hard to distinguish from the Rover. Astrally, the windshield is blocking her view. The Claymore is impractical in an enclosed space so it looks like it's going to be throwing knives unless she can come up with a money stunball from the dark recesses of her memory.

<<Kill the headlights!>> she mentally comms via her trodes, getting into a crouch to spring forward, wondering if it would have been too much to ask to have the van come to a stop slightly past them so that she could have an open shot on the hatch door in the back.

[Novocrane]

"Someone throw me a rope! HURRY!"

Ork chuckles at the comment; a subdued baritone that might come across as a growl if he weren't so clearly amused.

"You know who always has some rope? Alpha frakkin Chino in the Instant Death trids ... always has rope; always finds a use for it. This ain't ina movie, neh? I'll open the crate, and you keep the van steady."

Next time this happens, the Rover is going to have a rear tow cable, I swear.

[cue rope]

[Ravensoracle]

"Hey, Alpha frakkin' Chino. Here's your frakkin' rope. I gotta a fight to join.

The Crumpled Man is obviously not happy about missing out on the action up the mountain. He grabs the rope out of the duffel and tosses it toward the Troll. He then decides the Orc and Troll can handle the drek in the van and it's time to join the fight.

[Poindexter]

Holding one end of the rope, Uncle Sam tosses the other end over the crate to the ork up front. "Tie this on, chummer! Quick! Once it's good, start pushing and I'll start pulling!

[Novocrane]

"Hey, Alpha frakkin' Chino. Here's your frakkin' rope. I gotta a fight to join.

Fragging ... not that any of you breeders were going to help here.

"Tie this on, chummer! Quick! Once it's good, start pushing and I'll start pulling!

One hand up to his head as though trying to recall something, Chino looks deadpan at Sam for a moment.

"Did you say that last night, too? Lets get this sorted ..."

Without any particular concept of knot tying planned, he ties it 'round in what feels like the most efficient method possible, before testing the rope & preparing for the worst.

[Poindexter]

One hand up to his head as though trying to recall something, Chino looks deadpan at Sam for a moment.

"Did you say that last night, too? Lets get this sorted ..."

For the first time since he woke up swinging upside down in a van full of criminals, the troll who may or may not be named Frank allows himself a smile. He takes a tiny pause before the real work begins and responds to the ork up front with, "To your mother."

Then, it's on to the good old muscle power. Say what you want for magic and technology, but there's always going to be some things a giant musclebound chunk of meat and bone can do that nothing else can. As he and the funny ork throw everything they've got into the crate, he manages to grunt out, "If she starts falling, just hold on to her and I'll pull you both up."

It was then that he felt something tugging at the back of his mind. RED TEAM! Grunting into his subvocal mic, he asks, "Status, red team."

[Ren]

Frag it, I’m on the bad side of the hole in the railing. If I move now, they will surely see me. The Masked Woman already told the Elf to kill the lights, so the Human just waited for that to happen, or for someone to exit the van, poised to move at the same instant.

[Ryo]

Silence reigns for a few seconds as the men in the van point their guns and wait. One of the four gets brave, peeking his head out the sliding door to try and see their unknown attacker.

[Intuition 3 + Perception 4 + Specifically looking 3: 10d6t5 3

He sees neither of The Human nor the Masked Woman hiding nearby, his eyes instead focused down hill on the glowing orb of light from the magnesium torch the Elf had lit that was still burning. He raises his hunting rifle to his eye, pointed down hill.

Your Delayed Actions are free to trigger.

[Ren]

Not today, chummer, the Human thought as the man's head appeared, seemingly oblivious of him. With a swift move, he took his taser from the ankle holster, aimed for the head, then pulled the trigger once. For a fraction of a second, a thought shot through his head. Would this be as easy with the other hand?