[Malevolence]

The sight of the helpless troll made Wolf's mouth water, and the thrill of the impending kill allowed him to forget the pain coursing through his "body" for just a moment, enough to sink his teeth into the neck of the troll's astral form, the warm life essence rushing over his lips. The shaman had promised him prey to feast on, and had not disappointed. The wounds he had suffered were merely signs that the battle had been worthy.


Reluctantly, he released the mage's neck, and the aura of the troll faded. He still lived, barely, but he was no longer able to see the astral realm, nor be affected by its denizens. Wolf was tempted to create a form in the physical realm in order to finish his feast, but his purpose here was not yet fulfilled. The troll would have to wait. Don't die yet, tasty morsel, I prefer my meals warm.


He had passed by another creature when approaching the mage, the smell of fear and weakness nearly tearing his attention from the mage, and that smell now drew him to the occupant of the metal transport he stood outside of. In the astral realm, the physical boundaries of the vehicle posed no barrier to Wolf, and he moved through them in a blink, positioning himself behind the wounded elf as best he could in the confined space of the cabin. The odd dark spaces in the elf's aura made this a less than ideal meal for the spirit, but it damped the elation Wolf felt at the prospect of another kill only slightly.


Your technology has failed you, elf. You run, not realizing that you are already dead.


Wolf lifted his lips in a snarl as he focused on quietly forming his body in the physical world.

[Tecumseh]

Ace gets a good look at the gunslinger just before he blasts a laser beam through the man's armor jacket, through his chest, popping the lung and then out the other side. The man is heavily tattooed, or maybe it's war paint. He looks like a local, with three feathers in his hair and streaks of red paint/ink down his nose and under his eyes. His eyes are dark and look like they've been rimmed with makeup. He coughs as his lung collapses and he roughly hits the floor. He raises his assault rifle - Ace recognizes it as a Yamaha Raiden, a significant Ares competitor - and hammers on the trigger. Ace ducks behind the Bulldog's rear door, hoping that it's not APDS ammo that might slice through and hit him. The mini-explosions and lack of penetration tell him that it's explosive ammo instead. Katsina, alert on the astral, sees the man drawing power into himself to make a better shot, but somehow it all goes horribly wrong. While he's walking his long burst from right to left, from Ace to Katsina, he catches himself in the leg with an explosive round. It erupts, severing an artery. He's dead before his finger loosens on the trigger. He slumps, the life pouring out of him onto the Bulldog's floor.

Katsina senses the danger has passed. She spins around the open door, using her augmented strength to whip a throwing knife into the back of the troll that Sam just shot. The knife narrowly misses a headrest, but manages to find the back of the troll's neck with a satisfying thunk. The troll reaches back to grab the knife, his fingers just grazing it before he loses consciousness and slumps forward. Ohanzee's grenade spills a misty smoke into the van. The driver gurgles blood with his hand over his neck to staunch the blood loss.

[Tecumseh]

Sam pushes his way into the Bulldog. He unbuckles the unresisting driver, opens the door, then shoves him out. The small troll tumbles into the road, his hand pinned to his neck in a desperate attempt to save his life.

Ace spins and races for the Tata. He leaps for the hood, only to have the Tata's wheels spin into reverse while he's in midair. He slams into the asphalt in front of the truck as it tries to make its escape. Ace looks up and sees Wolf materialize in the truck's cabin. Wolf grins ferally, then launches himself at the limp form of the elf. There's a splash of blood, then the Tata begins fishtailing wildly. Finding no traction on the icy road, its rear tires slip and point it toward the cliff. It blasts through the guard rail, catapulting over the side and down into the dark ravine below. There's a horrific crash, then silence.

People look up and exchange glances. There's no more gunshots, no more blood-curdling screams from Wolf's victims. Instead, there's carnage. There's the silence of victory, which Katinsa breaks by grabbing the gunslinger by his ankle and pulling him out onto the street. He hits the ground with a thud, his head rolling lifelessly to the side. She bends down to examine him and his tattoos.

<<@Team [Katsina] DocWagon Platinum band on the wrist. We're on the clock.>>

[rednblack]

Ace turns from the gunslinger's corpse, and pumps his jacks hard toward the Tata.  He can feel the ice cracking under his feet as runs, covering the distance between the two vehicles quickly, and as he nears, he sees the elf go limp in the driver's seat.  He pushes off the ground, planning to come down on the Tata's hood, where the elf will have no recourse against his cyber spur, but the driver hits reverse in time, and Ace lands on the pavement, feeling it crumble under his weight.  You're not getting away that easy.  He continues running, but then sees the spirit form of a wolf materialize next to the driver and cast  a territorial look at Ace before sinking his teeth into the driver's neck.  Ace can see wolf begin to shake his massive head before the blood obscures his vision, and the Tata weaves wildly before bursting through the guardrail and down into a gulch.

"Well, fuck me,"  Ace mutters.

<<@Team [Katsina] DocWagon Platinum band on the wrist. We're on the clock.>>

Ace wheels on his right foot, and begins to sprint to the RV, composing a text in reply.

<<@Team [Ace] I'll take care of the Natelys and grab what gear I can.>>

[Malevolence]

Ohanzee saw the others relax as the tense battle came to its end and relaxed a little himself. He dropped the illusion he was maintaining and the elf and the smoke vanished completely.


<<@Team [Katsina] DocWagon Platinum band on the wrist. We're on the clock.>>


Of course. Why would winning the fight cause our luck to change?


<<@Team [Ohanzee] Okay, let's try to be on the road in one minute. Put the Nately's commlinks in one of the bodies, clean up any forensic evidence that can be tied to us, and grab any supplies we need and pile into the Bulldog. We'll get patched up once we're moving. If it's not critical, don't waste time on it.>>


He turned back to the RV and used his magic to once again levitate the artifact that seemed to be causing them so much trouble. It took him a couple tries to get the spell to work properly, but finally the heavy metal piece was floating along through the air.


After Katsina's behavior in the preceding moments, he was having second thoughts about dismissing Sam's suggestions regarding the obelisk. Had she manipulated me, magically or otherwise? He wasn't in the proper state of mind to contemplate such things right now, but they would certainly need to be contemplated in the near future. He looked at Katsina as he hoisted the obelisk - no longer ensconced in its protective crate - into the Bulldog. He couldn't focus well enough to glean anything from her aura, and he turned his attention away before she could notice his interest. Getting into a discussion now would send Sam into a rage, and we don't have the luxury of time to deal with that. And he didn't relish the thought of being in the same van as a rampaging troll either, so the subject would have to be broached once they were off the road somewhere "safe".


He went back to the RV to take one last look around then returned to the Bulldog and maneuvered himself into a seat and shut the wireless off on all of his gear. With GOD coming to visit, it was probably best to just not be on the Matrix at all. "Going wireless off - I suggest we all do. Wrap up whatever your doing and get in the van. We're out of time."


Wolf appeared next to him in the Astral, floating weirdly half in and half out of the van, fresh blood covering his snout and paws. Thank you, brave Wolf. Your ferocity was pivotal in winning this battle. Allow me to tend to your wounds before you return to your home for a well deserved rest.


Wolf nodded his assent and Ohanzee focused his mind with a soft chant as he directed the healing magic into Wolf's body.


Your service was above and beyond that required by our agreement, and so I release you of your remaining obligations. Hunt well, fearsome Wolf.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc is still reeling from the dumpshock.  Still in a bit of a daze as the last of the gunfire dies down, he realizes that the confrontation is over.  Looking around he sees everyone reacting to the sitation while he's just standing around being rather useless.  Ace rushes in through the broken windshield and dashes past him in a blur, and quickly dispacthes the Natelys.  Arranging things in a fairly similar situation to the threats he'd made on the comm.  As he come back into the room and starts gather things, Doc helps out.  He realizes there's bagged plasma on the ground that came out of the cooler he thought just had food in it.  Quickly stashing that back into the cooler and getting the ice packs in there to keep it from spoiling, he wonders what it's doing here and makes a mental note to ask Ace and Katsina about it once he gets a chance.
With the medkit in hand and what provisions he was able to grab they head over to the Bulldog and finds a spot where he'll be able to start seeing to peoples injuries once they get on the road.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina leaves the gunslinger in the street, uncertain if any of his weapons would be of interest to those that know how to use them. She moves to grab the large troll bleeding copiously onto the passenger seat. Opening up the sliding door, she grabs the troll's coat to drag him out, hoping that gravity will do most of the work. Her gloved hands hit his jacket and she immediately jumps away with a yelp, shaking her hands out to clear the pain away.

<<@Team [Katsina] Don't touch the big one. He has shock frills on his coat. Feels like your bones getting turned to water.>>

On her second approach, she gingerly reaches for his ankle - exposed at the edge of his lined coat - and uses it as her grip. The sight of a medium-sided human female dragging a troll out of a Bulldog by his ankles might seem improbable, even comical, were it not for the fact that the troll is leaving behind a river of blood as a trail. Katsina dumps him in the road and hopes nobody steps on him on their way into the van.

While Ace is handling the Natelys and Ohanzee gets to work on the obelisk, Katsina turns her attention to the interior of the van. The ride is going to be uncomfortable enough without passenger-side windows to protect them from the cold. The interior of the van looks and smells rather too much like a slaughterhouse for most people's tastes. Between the gunslinger that shot himself in the artery, the two trolls that Sam plugged in the neck and the head, and the mage that Wolf tore into chunks of gore and offal, the van looks more like a slaughterhouse from The Jungle than a comfortable mode of transportation.

Undeterred, Katsina jumps in and undoes the seatbelt shackling the remains of the mage. There's not much of him left between his chin and his waist. She looks around for something to grab onto so that she can huck him outside. She tries the ankles, since it worked for the troll, but the top half separates from the bottom when she pulls, leaving her with a V of inverted legs. Sighing at the spirit's efficiently, she whips the legs outside with a plop before revisiting the torso. She awkwardly grabs the head and what she thinks is the spinal column before exiting the Bulldog to throw the remains over the cliff. When she gets back she realizes that she left the liver behind.

Back in she goes to resume her patrol on brain-and-skull detail. She scoops out the largest hunks of gunk with her gloves before slicing away the troll's shirt with her claymore and using the massive piece of fabric as a sponge to soak up the lakes of blood pooling on the downhill corners of the van. She finishes in time to see Ohanzee approaching with the obelisk. Ohanzee glances up to see the Masked Woman, dressed head-to-toe in black, covered in blood, with her fists on her hips. Ohanzee is immediately thankful that he's the only one who knows Levitate, which probably saved him from being on point for the cleaning brigade.

"I'd ask you to summon a water spirit to clean me off if I didn't think I'd freeze when the temperature drops. In the meantime, you have the seat of honor." She points to the bloody seat where the mage met his end recently. Wolf shivers with pride. Katsina grabs a few handfuls of snow and pushes them down her coat, trying to wipe off the blood somehow. She wonders if the RV has any moist towelettes.

"Maybe a spirit for Concealment next, neh?" Katsina suggests, jumping into rear seat on the driver's side, furthest from the windows and least bloody.

[rednblack]

Ace dashes through the broken windshield of the RV, slinging the laser rifle behind his back.  In the back room of the RV he finds the Natelys, their forms look smaller now, and the crash has mostly done them in already.  "Sorry, pal, but I made a promise to your son," Ace says, advancing with a bared cyber spur. 

#

After finishing with the Nately's, Ace is rummaging through the passenger-side wall, now floor, quickly scooping blood packs back into the cooler.  He sees a few of them have burst, and they don't have time to properly sanitize the scene.  Ace doesn't know whose blood is in those packs, but he's not happy about leaving the DNA behind, no matter whose it is.  Too bad it's drenched in here.  Our slash and burn policy has 'worked' so far.

Soon Doc is on the floor next to him, helping as he can, despite the dumpshock and the dazed look on his face.  I'll suit up with this one any time, Ace thinks as they get the last intact pack loaded in the cooler.  Ace hoists it up for Doc to carry and gives him a light pat on the back.  "Go, Go!" he says, and starts immediately to gather what arms and ammo he can to stuff in his dufflbag.  But time is running out too quickly, and Ace rushes to the Bulldog knowing he's left something useful behind.  In his rushing, he almost forgets to pawn off Nately's commlink, but he turns back to do so, leaving it in the bottom half of . . . someone's pocket.  To be honest, Ace lost track. 

Outside the Bulldog, picks through the belongings of the gunslinger, tossing magazines into the open door, and then he tops off his Lancer.  Not many rounds left, honestly.  He wishes he could grab that Raiden, even if it is an inferior product, but he's worried that if he does, he will certainly need it by leaving a glowing data trail right to wherever it is that they're going.  Instead, he sticks to the ammo, and then starts to change into his Survivalist gear. 

[Zweiblumen]

Doc takes the cooler from Ace and woobles as quickly as he can towards the GMC.  As he's crossing what has now become a battlefield he sees all the detritus strewn about.  A thought makes its way through the haze of his consiousness, "I wonder how many of these guys were doing the equivelent of combat recording."

Raising his voice over the wind and activity of the individuals trying to control this chaos he hoarsly shouts, "We'll probably want to trash as many of these commlinks as we can, in case they were recording this whole thing, won't we?  I only got two of them before I got bounced."

[8-bit]

After Doc takes the medkit from his hands, Chino quickly starts gathering up his few possessions. It isn't long before Ace comes in and hastily gathers up his stuff. He glances at Ace before saying, "I assume we're on the move again. There isn't time to get the trailer moved over, it'll probably take me 4 minutes, and that's when I'm in good shape." He pauses for a moment as he passes the RV's destroyed bathroom. Our ride is probably bloodsoaked. Hmm, maybe I can wipe some of it up so it isn't too obvious. He steps in and grabs some of the towels that are strewn across the floor. Holding up a bundle of mostly dry towels, he grunts, "I'll be getting our next ride set up, if you need me."

Chino walks out the sunroof of the crashed RV and sends a command through his trodes to turn his gear's wireless on. A flurry of Matrix chatter shows up, but Chino dismisses it and waves it away. He steps into the Bulldog. Sure, the seat's covered in blood, but considering what they had already gone through, this was nothing special. As the adrenaline starts to wear off, the bitter cold starts to hit Chino. Looking at the ignition, the keys are already in. Perfect. He turns the keys and the car rumbles as it starts up.

Without realizing it, Chino starts whistling to himself as he wipes his hands on a towel and then moves around, pulling all the dead bodies out onto the road. Some of them were pretty mangled and shredded. Chino just shrugged and continued with his work. It was kind of relaxing, you know? You just need to clean out your car every once in a while.

[Malevolence]

"We'll probably want to trash as many of these commlinks as we can, in case they were recording this whole thing, won't we?  I only got two of them before I got bounced."
Doc is near the Bulldog as he speaks, and Ohanzee hears him clearly. He replies "I'll take car of that, just get to the van.

As the team began settling in to place in the van, Ohanzee begins his focusing chant and summons another spirit, this one appearing as a young man in a flaming red jumpsuit and running shoes. The jumpsuit has a logo emblazoned on it of 5 interlocking circles, each of a different color. He is carrying an over-sized torch of some golden hued metal and lit with a large flame. Ohanzee is taken aback by the appearance of the spirit, having expected something more ... traditional. The spirit chuckles at Ohanzee's Astral expression and speaks. Hey, Omae, you wanted fast and fire. At least I still look Lakotian. The spirit did have Native American features, and even had some jewelry that looked traditional. It almost made up for the white eight pointed star in a field of red emblazoned on his shoulder indicating the Sioux Nation.


Ohanzee recovered from his shock and tasked the spirit. I need you to find and destroy the commlinks on each of the fallen that lay around us. Speed and stealth are a priority.


You got it, chummer. The spirit, running in place the whole time, focuses for a few seconds and the familiar sheen of a concealment spell covers the spirit's aura. It then moves outside the Bulldog and materializes near the closest body, focuses for another few seconds and the racing lines on the spirit's running shoes glow brightly. It then bends over and begins looking through the unfortunate metahuman's pockets, eventually finding the commlink, placing it unceremoniously on the ground and stomping it repeatedly until it is suitably pulverized before moving on to the next body. If Ohanzee didn't know better, he would assume that the spirit was enjoying itself. Perhaps he didn't know better, but it was not a topic he chose to dwell on.


The spirit was still zipping from body to body as the van drove away.

[Tecumseh]

Ace returns from the RV with an armload of towels and blankets. He drops them in the RV and then tosses some dental floss to Katsina. She grabs a towel and spends a moment soaking up the blood on her gloves, jumpsuit, and lined coat. When she's done she holds the towel out, contemplating it for a second. She seems inclined to toss it in the road, but who knows what a forensics team might make of that. Instead she passes it to Chino so that he can clean off the driver's seat.

Chino does a quick lap around the Bulldog. The right side is scratched extensively from the detonation of Sam's frag grenade, but most of the damage was either to the paint, the windows, and the tires. The two passenger-side tires have been punctured. The good news is that they are run-flat tires. Under normal circumstances, they could be expected to run for 100+ kilometers before finally giving out. The bad news is that given the extreme load of the Bulldog (six people, including one troll, and a very heavy obelisk), they might only make it half that distance. That will get the team to Basalt or Carbondale, but not any further. Although if Ohanzee kept the Levitate spell sustained and the obelisk suspended, Chino could probably squeeze out the last miles to Glenwood Springs...

Katsina scavenges a needle out of one of the medkits. She uses the dental floss supplied by Ace to begin sewing together one of the space blankets from a medkit with one of the blankets from the RV. That will hopefully give the space blanket some structure while also providing some wind resistance to their window covering. One of the better-stocked medkits even has a medical stapler which she thinks she can use to secure the blankets around the windows. The whole process will take a while but she's off to a good start.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc sees the remaining troll cowering and trying to hide.  He walks over to him and points his cyberarm shotgun at his face about to perforate it.
The troll looks up at him pleadingly, "No don't!  I'll talk!"

Taken aback by the response, Doc calls for reinforcements.  "HEY Ohanzee!  Katsina!  OVER HERE!  We've got a talker.... should we take him with us, or just kill him and move on."

[rednblack]

He replies "I'll take car of that, just get to the van.

Ace adds, "If you're thinking about fire, see if you can get the burst blood packs in the RV.  The water tank has emptied out."

Doc sees the remaining troll cowering and trying to hide.  He walks over to him and points his cyberarm shotgun at his face about to perforate it.
The troll looks up at him pleadingly, "No don't!  I'll talk!"

Taken aback by the response, Doc calls for reinforcements.  "HEY Ohanzee!  Katsina!  OVER HERE!  We've got a talker.... should we take him with us, or just kill him and move on."

Ace mentally pulls up his commlink as he slips a leg through his survivalist suit, and starts to text, [color=green<<]@Doc [Ace] No names, chummer!>>[/color] before realizing he has nothing to fear.  Sure, he knows he's not Ace, but as far as he's concerned, that is Ohanzee and Katsina over there.  He can't remember what else to call them.  He casts the message away, unsent, and fights the urge to call out to the rest of the team.  Better to let Ohanzee and Katsina field this one.  They know what their supplies look like better than he does, though this revelation tells Ace that this isn't a crew out for the Natelys.  Otherwise, why offer information?  It could be a desperate bid at survival, of course, but he doubts it.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina looks up from her work and sighs. In the shadowrunner playbook there's the "right" answer to this question, not to say that she likes it. Looking around, there's more than enough blood and death; she has little interest in adding to the toll. Even as it is, she can feel the psychic toll of the battle beginning to wear on her. There will likely be a background count here for a few days. She hopes that mage's demise doesn't cling to the Bulldog like a bloody syrup.

She looks to Ace, who is deferring to her.

<<@Team [Katinsa] He's buying time for DocWagon to arrive. We can take him with us, but even if we trim the bracelet DocWagon will know he's missing. I don't know what their standard procedure is in that situation. I also don't know what will happen if DocWagon gets here before SecForce.>>

She looks to Ohanzee. The dwarf can see it on the astral: Katsina is concerned. But is she reserved about executing a prisoner in cold blood or is she nervous about the time? She didn't show any reservations about dispatching the hunters last night, but a lot has changed since then. Maybe she's changed, or remembered more about who she is, or wants to be. Or maybe she's concerned about what the man might say.