[Novocrane]

Ork makes a rude noise as the horned bear flops onto the ground, looking to see just how messy the situation is. Debate over animal behaviours and territory came across as a waste of time in his books - they didn't need to craft a perfect story, just one that would slow things down. Haste and Speed, chummers.

"Sloppy works too," he adds, "But if we're not going to make it look like anything, take their stuff. No sense leaving them up here by the road, either way. Anyone have any explosives?"

Turning to the dwarf already getting in the Rover; "Can you torch them with the van, or otherwise make this hard on whoever finds them?"

[Ryo]

"But if we're not going to make it look like anything, take their stuff. No sense leaving them up here by the road, either way. Anyone have any explosives?"

There are explosives in the bag with Uncle Sam's gear.

Turning to the dwarf already getting in the Rover; "Can you torch them with the van, or otherwise make this hard on whoever finds them?"

The Dwarf remembers he knows the Fireball spell.

[Ren]

While the others argued about how best to handle things, Ace dragged Reggie to the railing so that he couldn't see the dead body of his buddy, and put the slap patch on. He drew his machine pistol and casually held it with his left hand. When the hunter came to and looked at him, he spoke to him in a voice at least as cold as the environment. "Morning, Reggie. We are going to talk, you and me. More precisely, i am going to ask questions and you are going to answer. If you don't cooperate, then i will use whatever means i have to in order to make you cooperate. If you want to spare yourself a lot of pain, answer me, and make those answers good."

[Poindexter]

"I have a name."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. What was it again? Something with an O, right?"

[Ryo]

While the others argued about how best to handle things, Ace dragged Reggie to the railing so that he couldn't see the dead body of his buddy, and put the slap patch on. He drew his machine pistol and casually held it with his left hand. When the hunter came to and looked at him, he spoke to him in a voice at least as cold as the environment. "Morning, Reggie. We are going to talk, you and me. More precisely, i am going to ask questions and you are going to answer. If you don't cooperate, then i will use whatever means i have to in order to make you cooperate. If you want to spare yourself a lot of pain, answer me, and make those answers good."

Ace's Intimidation: Charisma 4 + Intimidation 1 + Wielding Weapon 2 + outnumbered 2 + caused pain 2 + imposing 2: 13d6t5 7 5 Social Limit 5.

Reggie's resistance: Charisma 5 + Willpower 4: 9d6t5 3

Reggie whimpers like a scared little girl as you brandish your machine pistol.

"Y..yeah man, no problem! No problem at all. Whatever you want!" Reggie insists nervously. He doesn't seem entirely aware of what's going on or who you are, but seems perfectly willing to answer your questions.

[Tecumseh]

After scanning and patting down the third hunter, the Masked Woman stands and straightens herself. She glances over at Ace and his interrogation of Reggie and then at the levitating departure of the horned bear. She shudders in the wind and resolves to act fast. She is as eager to leave as the Elf is, although perhaps less vocal. She grabs the hunter by the collar and drags him a short distance away to not interfere with Ace's work.

Dropping him face down on the side of the road, she draws her claymore and traces a circle three meters wide in the snow around the him. Inside the circle she scratches four six-sided stars at the cardinal directions of the circle. Holding the claymore down over him, she speaks lowly and quickly, an accelerated version of the ritual. When she's done she uses the tip of the sword to perform a gentle coup de grâce to the medulla, then looks up self-consciously. Taking the claymore, she traces a "door" in the circle toward the descending hillside, then steps through it. She pulls the body through, traces the reverse design on the circle to "close" the door, then cleans and sheathes her claymore. The man is sent on his way down the hillside into the blackness of the storm.

She returns to the group, scrubbing the astral signatures of their casting on her way back. She hops into the back of the van, edging forward past the crate toward the front of the van where - with luck - the heaters will be on. She passes the hunters' commlinks to the Elf, hoping they might give her something to do other than swear over the open connection.

"Are these of any use, or did you brick them?" she asks. She is vaguely aware that a Fairlight Caliban is a high-end model - very high-end - but is certain that the Elf can squeeze more out of it than she ever could.

[martinchaen]

I look up from my private AR windows as the masked woman hands me the commlinks.

"Two of them should be damaged, but not beyond repair. Nothing that can't be fixed with the right tools and a little time, though. Err... I think. Let me take a look."

Minimizing the AR windows, I examine the links carefully, one by one.

[Tecumseh]

The Masked Woman pulls out the Beretta 201T that she took off the third hunter. She removes the clip and makes sure there isn't a round chambered, then sets the safety. She hopes she does it all correctly: between the amnesia and her general lack of familiarity with firearms, it's an open question. She places the pistol gently in a cupholder, then places the two clips of normal light pistol ammunition next to it. Reaching in to her other pocket, she pulls out the three clips of stick-n-shock rounds for a shotgun. She sets those down in another cup holder for anyone to take, a candy bowl for the modern shadowrunner.

Hunkering down against the back of the passenger seat, she takes one of her throwing knives out of her lined coat. She dabs it in the blood left by the horned bear, then begins to trace runes on it while murmuring lowly and turning it over in her hand. After five minutes, the preparation is complete and the lynchpin is locked. She passes it to The Crumpled Man, the final design consisting of an ankh, a crescent moon, a frog, and a pentacle. Once it is in his hand, she whispers "heronitas". The Heal spell discharges, doing absolutely nothing.

The Masked Woman takes the knife back and starts over, muttering something under her breath about cybernetics and working conditions.

[Novocrane]

In spite of his comment, Ork looks less than happy with their range of options as he slides into the driver's seat. Leaving the bodies to whomever is willing to deal with it, he checks out the AR parkour game he had apparently been playing recently, while familiarising himself with the expensive drek-stop vehicle they had found themselves with.
Who knows? Maybe this will jog my memory ... can't hurt to see where I've spent some free time, at least.
More serious efforts to pull his past back together could wait until later.

---

"Where we going, then?" he asks, checking the back of the Rover with a sidelong glance.

[martinchaen]

"Aspen..."

I shake my head slowly, not quite believing that he's missed two conversations and AR pop ups with fraggin maps.

[Novocrane]

We'll just figure that out in Aspen, eh? Bless you, keeb, Ork thought, turning a cheesy, tusky smile toward the elf.

"Track that. I just thought you might want to say again, before we leave all the friendly I assume was knocked out of you back there in the snow. While we're at it, call me Chino."

[Ren]

Ace asked Reggie the same questions he asked of the other person. It didn’t hurt to double-check, and the other guy couldn’t satisfy his need for intel completely. ”Where were you supposed to take that thing and to whom? Was there any schedule for when you should arrive? Do you have a hideout or a place where you store your hunting stuff nearby? Where is it? Give me the access codes.”
>>One more minute.<< he texted to the others.

[Ryo]

Ace asked Reggie the same questions he asked of the other person. It didn’t hurt to double-check, and the other guy couldn’t satisfy his need for intel completely. ”Where were you supposed to take that thing and to whom? Was there any schedule for when you should arrive?

"I know a guy in Aspen who's big in paracritter cage fighting. His names Vinny, but everyone calls him The Bear. He's been lookin' for a Horned Bear for months to train up as his new fighter. Me and my buddies were going hunting anyway, regulated, legal stuff, so I figured we could make a few extra nuyen on the side. We didn't mean no harm, we were using stun rounds, thing was fine. We didn't wanna hurt it. We were on our way to Aspen to deliver it when you guys jumped us. Were you following us or something? We didn't know that preserve was so well guarded." Reggie sings like a canary, apparently thinking you're some kind of animal lover who attacked them for breaking into the wildlife preserve.

"Do you have a hideout or a place where you store your hunting stuff nearby? Where is it? Give me the access codes.”

"Hideout? no, we're just a bunch of salarymen from Denver who like to hunt on the weekends. We were gonna get a hotel in Aspen for the night and head back in the morning." Reggie explained, looking confused when you ask about access codes.

"Look man, we're just ordinary guys, we didn't think there was any harm in capturing a bear. We got families waiting for us back home. My wife is gonna be worried sick if I don't call her tomorrow. I told her we'd be back first thing." He looks around for a moment, trying to see where his friends are.

"What'd you do with my friends? John's got a three-year-old daughter, you know. And Kenny's anniversary is next week. Just let us go, we won't tell anybody. Promise! We don't wanna go to jail over that bear, not worth calling the cops for, right? You can keep the rover. I'll tell my wife I wrecked it. Just let us go..."

[Ren]

Something moved in the depth of Ace’s soul. Was it pity? Was it just annoyance that he had to hear out some poor sob begging to spare his life? He didn’t know and he didn’t really want to. Chip truth was, the fourth guy had to go down as well but he didn’t need to know that yet. So he had to lie. Again? ”I don’t have a problem with you or your buddies. Just give me Vinny’s commcode and we’re out of here.”

[Ryo]

"Y..yeah, sure man. Of course." He almost chokes it out, suddenly feeling relieved and quickly telling you Vinny's commcode while getting back to his feet.