[Ryo]

It would be pitch black outside were it not for the headlights of the rover, and with the snow starting to fall more heavily, visibility is becoming increasingly poor. On top of that, the road often twists and turns at sharp angles around the side of the mountain, requiring Chino to keep a fairly slow pace. 50 years ago, this highway would have been closed this time of year due to the heavy snow blocking the road, but corporate interests in keeping a route to Aspen open year round resulted in a rebuilt highway to make it harder for snow to pile on top of it, and regular plowing. Even so, you see some encroachment of snow into the road, and Chino has to occasionally slow even further to drive around it.

It's 1:45 AM when APB finishes fixing up the comms and starts cracking the personal info of the four men you murdered tonight. You're about  8 kilometers out from Aspen, and nearing the Difficult Campground, which would suit your needs of being totally abandoned this time of year if you decide to stop.

The Crumpled Man's deck flashes, briefly lighting the interior of the rover with the blue glow of the crystal screen.

>> SONY CIY-720
>>> Attack 4 Sleaze 5 Data Processing 6 Firewall 7(8)
>>>Active Programs: Encryption,  Armor, Biofeedback Filter, Agent

>>Agent Message: New Device Detected!
>> Device ID: UNKNOWN
>> Location: Within 100 meters
>> This Device is Running Silent


Looks like your Agent has noticed a new device in the Running Silent list, one that isn't among the devices in the rover and in the possession of your new companions. It has not yet spotted it, but only being able to tell you that it's within 100 meters.

[Ravensoracle]

Before the crumpled man can even begin the search, his agent alerts him to the new device.

"Got a device running silent that just showed up within 100 meters of us. Going to check it out."

Before he even gets a response he drops back into where he was seated, apparently unconscious.


>>>Text: Team Channel
"Searching for unknown device."

[Tecumseh]

The Masked Woman mentally gathers in the mana around her as she begins to focus on a spell. There's a dip in the light around her, followed by a glow like the light of a campfire that surrounds her like a halo. She whispers "melegar versakhansa" and the glow passes. She stares off into the distance, concentrating on a new sense.

She shudders a bit, as if taken with a sudden chill, and then her attention returns to the van.

"We have hostiles. Metahuman. I don't know how many. Behind us, and above. I don't know if they're on the cliffs or airborne."

She glances at those toward the back of the van, wondering if the passengers there can see out the rear window. Then she looks around for a seatbelt. Finding none, she grips her claymore tighter lest it become a sharp pointy object flying around an enclosed space.

[Poindexter]

"Got a device running silent that just showed up within 100 meters of us. Going to check it out."


>>>Text: Team Channel
"Searching for unknown device."

Uncle Sam immediately snaps into action. Holding his rifle at the ready, he stands and puts his back to the window before pulling the curtain about an inch to the side with the rifle barrel and peeking outside, into the snowy blackness.

"Look alive, people! We have visitors!"

[Tecumseh]

The Masked Woman positions herself to astrally project.

"Be right back. Going to take a peek."

She pauses before she goes, adding, "Ohanzee, be a dear and conjure us some backup, please."

Then she slips away from her physical form. She looks at the projection of her weapon focus that has followed her to the astral plane, then gives in a quick flip with her wrist. Rising out of the van slowly, she keeps on the lookout for magical threats before examining the pursuing helicopter and its inhabitants.

[Poindexter]

"Behind us! Airborn! Ninety meters up, forty out!"

[Ravensoracle]

>>>Nissan Hound Incoming, Creating ARO to tag the copter.

[Ryo]

The Masked Woman leaves her physical body and ascends on the astral towards the shape of the helicopter above you, her astral senses keen and not seeing any immediate threats outside the vehicle. As she passes through its hull into the passenger cabin, she finds a room filled with heavily armed metahumans, mostly humans and orks, all sitting around with a sense of tension in them, as well as a distinct kind of boredom and disappointment. They are looking for something, waiting for something to happen, and growing increasingly dubious that it actually will. At least two of them are playing cards.

She counts 6 men sitting in the back, near the rear hatch of the helicopter. Turning around, she sees two more men, one seemingly wired into the vehicle with a thick visor over his eyes, laying motionless, with an aura that suggests his mind is extremely active. The other is Dual Natured and actively astrally perceiving, staring right at her. His magic is weaker than hers, but the shock of being spotted dulls her reactions as he stands from his seat and shouts something into the body of the craft. The emotional content is of alarm and anger, and instantly everyone else in the helicopter begins to stir, their emotions becoming focused and the tension rising as they find their waiting at an end.

Combat Turn 1:

Decker Lieutenant: 30
Enemies: 26
Crumpled: 22
Agent: 20
APB: 20
Sam: 18
Chino: Initiative 9 + 2d6: 2d6+9 17
Ace: Initiative 7 +2d6: 2d6+7 16
Magician Lieutenant: 15
Ohanzee: Initiative 7 +1d6: 1d6+7 10
Mask: 9

Decker Lieutenant & Enemies:



It is Crumpled's Turn.

[Ravensoracle]

The Crumpled Man slips into the sweet embrace of VR. He could tell from the senses he felt that this was more home fro him than the flesh. He takes a moment to admire his icon. It looked like anyother nondescript generic icon of a man in a business suit until you looked closer to read the code that made up the pin stripes. Damn some of that is some vulgar drek. I was really screwed up before wasn't I He thinks to himself.

 He slowly rises away from the icons of the van and it's inhabitants, focusing his mind toward the task of identifying the device that had approached running silent. He finds it at the same time his agent does. The agent taking the form of a small stone gargoyle. The agent manages a better look at it and whispers in Crumpled's ear.

"No wonder they are so hard to spot. That's not a bad Firewall and it's slaved." He looks at his gargoyle companion. "Guard the Deck!" He commands before resuming his attention on his newly discovered prey.

His icon gains a fluidity and almost slithers around the icon of the Hound. He carresses the icon letting just a hint of smoke slip into the device.

"Tell me who is your Master."

[Ryo]

"Tell me who is your Master."

The icon of the Nissan Hound has a mark slowly burned into it, and you can see a line of data traveling from it to an icon nearby that was formerly hidden to you. The persona looks like a man in some kind of heavily mechanized suit in jet black with red lights on his visor and gear. Your mark forms on him as well, and you've found the enemy decker.

You recognize several parts of the equipment he carries are representations of the programs he has running, but you can't tell what programs they are without making a Matrix Perception. The most noticeable one is the massive cannon mounted on his left shoulder.

It is now Uncle Sam's turn.

[Poindexter]

It is simply not possible that that chopper is NOT looking for us, and once they scan us, they'll get the first shot off. Fuck that.

"FIRING!" The bulky russian shouts though the rover a moment before throwing open the window and hanging his rifle out the window. Seeing the vague shape of the helicopter through the snow and darkness in an ARO brought up by his goggles, he gets his shot just right before giving the mental order to FIRE the underbarrel grenade launcher. Despite the range, the bumpy ride, the poor visibility, and the overall tricky-ness of the shot, he feels calm, almost bored as he relies nearly all on muscle memory to put the 'nade right on it's mark.

After firing, he pulls back inside the vehicle all the way, counting in his head for a moment before 2..3..4...Detonate He can hear and almost feel the explosion high in the air behind him and he allows himself a small peak out the window again to assess the damage, if any.

[Ryo]

Uncle Sam takes a shot out the rear window of the rover, gracefully arcing a fragmentation grenade into the air toward where he believes the helicopter to be. It explodes in a brief flash of energy, and the sound of the boom rumbles through the air and rattles the windows in the rover. The Hound swerves a little, then a blinding spotlight turns on, completely illuminating the rover in a circle of light. They definitely know you're there, now.

The flare compensation in your goggles kicks in, completely removing the glare as an issue. Honestly, you can see the helicopter better now. They just did you a favor.

It is now Chino's turn.

[Novocrane]

Chino jolts out of a complacency brought on by a mix of fatigue, drowsily warm AC, and slow driving as the shouting starts. Passing through surprise, anger, and excitement in one muttered vowel movement, he reflexively eases a foot down on the gas. All thought of their greater situation recedes into the background as they pick up speed.

"You will know us by our trail, eh?" he growls, attention split between the winding road and sparse AR feeds.

[martinchaen]

As soon as I hear the warning about an icon running silent, I drop into VR and look around. How the hell did I miss this!? Now that I know to look for it, it stands out worse than a sore thumb, ugly motherfragger that it is with it's high-end firewall. This could get interesting...

My black-clad icon discards the katana in favour of simple set of gloves, and I immediately get to work. I rip snippets of code out of the Matrix and cobble them together into what looks something like Crumple's Agent program, and with a mental command sick it on the newly discovered icon like an attack dog off its leash. The thing snarls furiously and heads straight for its target, and I follow after it while preparing a few utils of my own to try and guide the attacks of my new creation.

[Ryo]

Chino uses his considerable skill at driving that he just now remembers he has to push the rover forward, hugging the curves of the mountain as efficiently as he can in an attempt to break away from the helicopter. He starts gaining some distance, trying to break away entirely, but the pilot in the chopper pulls away from the mountains, keeping the spotlight aimed at the rover while flying out over the trees on the hill.

You count as being at Extreme range. there is a 90 meter distance between the Rover and the helicopter.

At the same time, APB's matrix creation sinks its digital teeth into the icon of the Nissan Hound, initially looking like it was about to be repelled before an extra push from APB broke through the Device's defense. flashing red alarm warnings visibly appear before the decker's persona, and he immediately spots APB and her hound. (APB now has 0 edge left.)

Back in the meat, a bit of smoke seems to be rising out of the Nissan Hound, almost lost in the darkness of the night, but it flies steadily on.

It is now Ace's turn.