[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

The first coherent person Al found turned out, in fact, to be an athletic-looking woman with a scrubbed face, pulled-back hair, and a fluorescent orange onesie. She was cowering with at least a dozen other circus folk behind various crates and bales in the train’s storage car, the first behind the cab.

“Listen, hon, ya know where a feller could git his fortune told?”

But all she did was stare at him.

The others in the car likewise tensed.

Glancing to his left, Al saw himself in a mirror. It was full-length, one of those crazy house jobs that made you look tall and skinny in places, short and fat in others. And in this case, bloody all over. The little man sighed - once again he found himself covered literally head to toe in gore. The ash clinging to the human ooze did nothing to soften his appearance, nor did the rifle he held in one hand.

And just when he realized what all these scared folks were seeing, he heard a familiar Cockney voice ring out from nowhere in particular: “Is ‘im, the Ripper his own self, fresh from a’butcherin’ the wee Crawford bairns!”

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

As events unfolded, Alicia found herself with more and more to think about.

The small girl appeared to be considering her reply when Alicia sensed the approach of new players, and was simultaneously informed by Zaniayh that the hostage-taking clowns had been killed, a report confirmed by her spell.

Sending Zaniayh to investigate the approaching life forms, a message came over the communications web. She didn't recognize the call sign, but apparently some other members of the circus had entered the disabled Bison after the security team had killed the clowns. It was confirmed that the parents were both dead, and that the children were now being cared for.

When the train slammed to a halt, Alicia was nearly thrown off her feet. But she could perceive, as her spirit did, that there were seven individuals approaching the train through the trees, spread out in a rough line. One was clearly a mage. The attack that stopped the train, however, did not appear to have come from any of the seven people, so the spirit was taking no action as yet. And so far, the trees appeared to have screened its presence from the other mage.

Considering her next command, the little girl finally took the opportunity to speak. "Thank you for helping the children. I appreciate what you are doing, and so would be happy to tell you a tale if you wish. But is now the time? You seem to have a lot going on."

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

Clowns rapidly dispatched, Ghost watched as Cutter wasted no time in disappearing back into the dust swirls in the direction of the train.

Shortly thereafter, another RV showed up and one of the circus families Ghost recognized from earlier in the day rushed into the vehicle, a middle-aged woman shouting to him, "We'll see to the kids!"

And then, as he turned his attention to the train, now a few hundred meters uprange, he heard a muffled blast and saw the whole thing grind to a halt as the cab the annoying little hick Al had been driving tipped over onto its side, and an LAV hovered above the train like a giant insect, spitting fire down onto someone running along the roof.

Al's voice was on the commlink bossing everyone around again, telling them to converge on the seer.

So many fun things happening, and so few bullets….

[Csjarrat]

Morgan took stock of the situation. It was bad...
Shit... He here to just wreck stuff or was he in here for a reason? we're gonna need that link to the zep back up. You heard anything from them? they still flyin?

[saithor]

"Agreed. We need to get to a safer place."
Alicia began to move towards the train engine. There should be a member of the security team piloting it, she thought as she motioned for the Free spirit to follow her with one hand, pulling out her Ares with the other.

>>To:All
>> I have the seer and am making my way to the cab. I'd really appreciate it if someone could come over and give me a hand. We have seven approaching from the east through the trees, one of them is a mage.

[8-bit]

Damn it; Oblique really fucked up. This is starting to seem like Bogotá all over again.

Ghost glances forwards out of habit. Readout shows 13 bullets. He feels the familiar weight of his spare clips in his pocket. More than enough.

<<@Team [Ghost] Kids are good; on my way to the back of the cab. I assume you all can handle the LAV?>>

Ghost takes a moment to reorient himself and sets off in a sprint towards the trains. When this is over, I'm going to do something safer. Like assassinating politicians.

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

The other decker's persona was pretty high rez - high enough that Morgan could see how stressed the guy was. But he was keeping his shit together.

"She's still airborne, and we're still connected to the pilot's commlink, but the bastard took out Itch so fast, he found the zep's icons and bricked half its systems before they could pull the plug. They're spotting for us as best they can, but visibility down there is crap."

He was splitting his attention between Morgan and the castle gate - the one entrance he'd left to the host.

"That was righteous what you did to the T-bird - you didn't see me but I was right behind you - maybe should've been back here with my wingman, though…bastard scrambled his brain good. Their decker was hot on your heels, though, and when you rebooted he came for us here. But then, he just faded. No idea where went. I'm pretty sure his meat is in the T-bird, though. Least that's what it looked like.

"Anyway, I've got this place locked down, and all the train's critical devices are safe in here on our WAN. None of your people, though…"

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

Al was deciding between hunting down the annoying fat lady or placating the natives, when he heard Ms. Reeves' message. He started to vocalize - text option on - <<Negatory negatory, cab's a wreck, hon.>> As usual, he had a lot more to say, but was interrupted by a shrill "HUUUUUUMAN CANNONBAAAAAAL" coming from a diminutive projectile covered in a fire engine-red leather jumpsuit and star-spangled half-helmet. It shot down the length of the car and slammed into his chest, tossing him flat onto his back and knocking every ounce of wind from his lungs.

With some effort he slowly raised his head from the deck, only to see the individual that had presumably projected the miniature human projectile - a great burly hulk of a hairy man who had apparently been showering when the attack struck, as he was clad only in a - no, wait - to Al's terror the towel fell from the hirsute fellow's loins as he ran full-tilt toward the bewhiskered dockworker. "But I'm on yer side…" he protested feebly as the huge wet naked man leapt into the air and belly-flopped down upon him.

And somewhere in the distance, the cloying Cockney voice kept egging them on.

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

@Alicia
Al's message jived with the train having stopped so suddenly, which was not a good thing as Alicia's spell now reminded her that the seven newcomers were now within spitting distance. Glancing out a window confirmed what her mystical senses told her, as she saw furtive movement just at the treeline, not five meters from where the train was halted.

If ahead to the engine was no good…she glanced out the window back toward the rear, just in time to see two armed figures in dark armored jackets break cover and make for either end of the train car she was in.

And the little girl, calm as a summer morning, said, "Thank you for saving the children, but there are many more poor souls on this train who are about to suffer." She shrugged. "There's really no possible harm in giving them what they want."

Alicia had seen a hell of a lot of spirits dematerialize, and she could see that was what this one was about to do.

And then the ceiling erupted in thunder.

@Luz
Suddenly, the T-bird thirty meters above her, renewed its steady barrage of suppressive fire on her position, and at that moment did she hear a muffled whump? and then a huge fiery blast on the roof of the car. Even shielded by the bundles of tent tarp, the blast jarred her teeth painfully and sent warnings through her diagnostics.

Whatever had taken out the tire was trying to zero in on her, and it wouldn't take it long.

@Ghost and Cutter
Sprinting back toward the train, the two sammies first saw the lead cab do a roll and the following cars stack up behind it like a Slinky coming to a halt.

The second train veered to the left, coming to a stop with about half its length off the road to the west fo the main train.

All around the train, despite the pounding rain, there were great swirls of dust as the braking land trains and the downdraft of the T-bird's thrusters kicked up a special kind of ash hell.

The T-bird was engaging someone on the roof, and as the two men arrived on the west side of the train - fully aware of the approaching threats from the east - they could hear a cacophony of screams, moans of pain, and cries of panic from the crashed train's occupants.

And then a high-explosive blast went off on top of the third car.

[8-bit]

Shit, shit, shit!

Ghost kept moving forward, mentally sending out.

<<@Team [Ghost] What the hell is going on over there? Give me a sitrep, anything will help.>>

Knowing that there is one person who was definitely available, he sent out a private message.

<<@Cutter [Ghost] I know we don't know each other that well, but we have to trust each other. How do you want to handle this? We're spread too thin as it is, but I don't see a choice. You want to handle the train or the hostiles coming in from the east?>>

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

Knowing she had seconds or less before the next grenade found her position, Luz was calculating the least exposed way off the roof. But as the steady stream of machine gun fire tore at the area damaged by the first grenade, the answer opened up before her - literally.

Well, the little man had said to converge on the seer, and as far as Luz could recall, this was the car the little fortuneteller was in.

Risking being riddled by bullets, she launched herself across the exposed few meters to the new hole in the roof and dove. At the last moment, however, a couple of rounds hit her left cyberleg, throwing her off balance enough that instead of landing in the car in a practiced roll, she struck the floor head first.

And everything went to black.

[gilga]

Dogmeat noticed the massive firefight in the horizon, he took position on a nearby hill, left VR and activated the drones. The familiar humming sound of the rotors filled the air. With some dramatic gestures he channeled mana out of his body, and made his top drone invisible. It was painful, he felt the mana burns his body as it came out.  He looked at them with concern... observing them for a short while.
Bad dog, can you please hide us with your powers, stealth seems to be good for us.
it is not perfect I but it may give my old dogs some edge rushing into combat.  I hope you are safe my dogs of war he said to himself.

Come here Bad Dog, you are coming with them, he said to the air where he thought the spirit was located, Bad dog gracefully materialized in a slightly different location… oh you are there I am so sorry I never learned how to look into your world Bad Dog.  He then said out loud even tough it was not necessary as he was mentally linked to the spirit:  "Go with the drones, attack anyone that is hostile to the crazy dogs. You are smart enough, you'll figure it out"

He sent the three rotor drones into the combat along with bad dog. He hoped bad dog will behave himself that spirit very well... he had no more services anyhow.


He then pulled out his horizon flying eye, and whispered softly as if it was listening:  Little dog, you watch my ass while I do my work,  patrol around the car and let me know if anything approaches us.

He activated the RCC, and issued the matching orders: Then he said, lets augment the dogs as they go: he picked the targeting program, that one will be useful, the maneuvering one as well, and well let’s give them some stealth as wellwill mesh well with the invisibility spell, and clear sight for the little one.
With some AR gestures the RCC begun broadcasting the software to the drones.

He then picked his cyber deck and set behind the car: it will provide some nice cover should anyone come charging. What do we do now he said to himself:
Let’s see if the other runners are still alive – this time I will tell them that I am one person. Other people do not treat drones and Spirits like human beings.

 @Team(Dogmeat) – HI all reinforcement is here! The mad dogs are here we are 4 drones, 1 spirits and me.  I am not disclosing my location as I am not sure who is listening but I am nearby. I have sent 3 rotor drones and a spirit that looks like a naked indian your way please do not shot at them these things are expensive.  If you are still alive please let me know where they are needed, and what guys are the bad guys.
He drunk some water. VR makes me so thirsty he said to himself. We must stay in the meat world so the dogs stay invisible he reminded himself. Lets see if there is anything worth hacking, he pulled out his cyberdeck and performed a matrix search, he watched as icons started to pop out his visuals.

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

Cutter was just opening his mouth in reply to Ghost when a seven-foot being appeared out of nowhere directly in front of him. It was a naked woman, skinless too, all perfectly defined muscles done in red, like an anatomy book illustration - only the ones in the medical texts didn't have flames running randomly across their surfaces.

A fire spirit, and a big one.

You asked for a lift?

[adamu]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

One ear was against the deck and the other had a fat roll of wet armpit flab in it, but Al still heard the blast on the roof of the next car. He needed to move, but that would be no easy proposition. The Blob here was just protecting his own, and Al respected that no end. He didn’t want to hurt him, but if he didn’t find some wriggle room soon, he’d asphyxiate right here on the spot.

Keeping a grip on his rifle with his right hand, he pressed his left against the man’s ribcage - it sank deep into loose flesh before it found bone - and pushed, twisting his body. He wasn’t so much trying to move the huge man, which would have been futile, as much as trying to push his own weight free from under the immovable object. It wouldn’t have been possible had the man not been soaking wet from his shower (Al fervently hoped that all this damp wasn’t pre-shower), but as it happened things were plenty slippery enough that he managed some headway.

He’d just gotten the upper half of himself free, and could breathe a bit better, when the Cockney voice called out, “Gettin’ ‘way, ‘ee is. Have at ‘im.” Near the ceiling directly above him, Meg’s face faintly materialized just long enough to give him a smirk and a wink.

Which was enough that he never saw the cast-iron frying pan coming.

Ouch!

[All4BigGuns]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Ruins of Graham, Puyallup, Seattle]

Cutter was just opening his mouth in reply to Ghost when a seven-foot being appeared out of nowhere directly in front of him. It was a naked woman, skinless too, all perfectly defined muscles done in red, like an anatomy book illustration - only the ones in the medical texts didn't have flames running randomly across their surfaces.

A fire spirit, and a big one.

You asked for a lift?

Taking a step back at the sudden appearance of the skinless...creature, Cutter gives a  tentative nod and says, "If you can get me up into that vehicle laying full-auto fire, I should be able to take out the pilot."