[JackVII]

[14SEP2075 1011 | Cirque de l'Ombre Caravan| Puyallup]

In the matrix, Harrier checked his internal chronograph. It's been 10 ticks since I asked about the zeppelin's sensors and still no response? Those blokes must be fragging off up there... Annoyed and wanting to "stretch his legs," the dwarf started spinning the Wasp's rotors. In short order, the little helicopter was hovering over the land train, plumes off ash blasting away from the rotorwash, causing a small brownout (or grayout as the case may be) in the area below. Gaining altitude to not unduly trouble the groundpounders, Harrier ran a quick  kilometer perimeter patrol, before settling in to hover near the zeppelin. Training his sensors on the bridge of the airship, he sent another message.

>>L'Ombre Zep, this is Harrier. About those sensors? 

[Aria]

[Saturday September 14th, 2075; Moving out of Tarislar, Puyallup, Seattle]

@Bittorrent & Flicker:

"Hello Madam, they call me Bittorrent and my associate here goes by Flicker.  Oblique said that we should come speak with you."

The vast lady reclining on a mound of cushions before you giggles, a mellow but oddly childlike sound, and extends her pudgy hand to grasp yours.  Her skin is warm and silken and strangely compelling.  She is swathed in a dark grey silk bedecked with stars in silver thread that through some digital trickery seem to evolve and burst like the universe in fast forward

“'ello gorgeous” and her prodigious bulk wobbles again as she laughs “Come into me little 'ouse and we cin see why Oblique sent you to ‘ole Meg” the Cockney accent sounds strange issuing from this bizarre form but is somehow comforting in its warmth "always nice to git guests 'ere, let's see what we can see..."

"Meg! Stop that, stop teasing our guests..."The newcomer is a little girl, anywhere between eight and ten, dressed in a simple off white dress with bare feet, her smile is serene as she turns to you both "I am sorry about Meg, Oblique sent you to me?  You want to know what I've seen..." it is a statement rather than a question

"'caws they want to know what you seen deerie, they all want that, 'till they hear it, 'en dey ain't so keen" and with a quiet cackle the fat lady simple vanishes

"I am sorry, she likes to tease, there's no harm in her.  Please come in...you want to know about today..."

@Morgan:

As the journey fully gets underway the mountainside begins to be populated by a ream of personae as the performers and other members of the troupe log on.  A brief check on the logs shows you that most are using the host as a doorway to the matrix at large, venturing to the citadel above and launching themselves into the ether via the satellite uplinks maintained on the zep hovering above your meat somewhere...

@Ghost / Luz / Al / Cutter:

Each in your own way you settle in to observe, ignoring the ash as a minor irritation.  The wind is picking up but Al is secure on the running boards in the lead cab whilst Luz is near the head of the second train amongst the tarp covered canvases that presumably house the tents for the performances.

Although the wind makes it difficult to discern an exact direction you all pick up on the full throated roar of the heavy hogs in the distance...

@Leaflock:

"You are handling our metaphysical security ya?  Oblique asked me to talk to you and offer assistance...I am William Zeiss..."

"I am indeed, Leaf is the name Mr Zeiss, or should I say Herr Zeiss?

If you can offer some insights into this strange little troupe that you have that would be extremely helpful. As you may be aware, we've been asked to tag along on your journey at the last minute and many of us have not yet been fully briefed on what we might be needed for. I myself, am here strictly to provide medical assistance should it be required."

"Do not come to me for briefing, I am not going to waste my time trying to describe this rabble!  It is as you see, chaos walking, dancing, strutting, whatever.  There is beauty in it, in the chaos, but it is not something for forming into words, ya?  That chaos fuels the universe, so perhaps this is a little microcosm, ya?  A reflection on the world we live in?  But if you are merely here to heal I suppose that my brother and I will need to handle things as usual, it is typical of Oblique, he wilfully ignores our needs..."

@Harrier:

<<@Morgan/BT [Harrier] Checking with the zeppelin to see if they have a sensor feed to add to our net. I'll let you know.>>

>>@L'Ombre Zep: this is Harrier. About those sensors? 

But it is your own thermal sensors on drone one, out near the head of the convoy, that detect the riders inbound.  Heavy bikes, Yamaha Akiras, a couple of Harley Scorpions, ten in total riding down the 161 towards you.  Although natural visibility is now crap if they have any kind of thermal then they cannot fail to have spotted the heat signatures approaching them...

>>@Harrier: Zep here, I'm meshing you in now, nothing in the skies apart from your own birds, but you'll have seen the fraggers on the road ahead...

[JackVII]

[14SEP2075 1012 | Cirque de l'Ombre Caravan| Puyallup]

>>Roger that, L'Ombre Zep, Thanks for the eyes, chappers. Looks like I need to earn my pay. Harrier, Out.

Harrier immediately sent a message to the team.

<<@Team [Harrier] Alright blokes, time to look alive. 10 contacts inbound from the North, the ash is interfering with my distance calculations... but they're close. Looks like a go-gang. Heavy bikes, no sign of weapons yet. I'm in the air, rearranging the drones to cover our flanks and rear in case of an ambush.>>

The rigger sent a mental command to his five Eye Spys, rearranging their positions so that two were located on the mid-flank of each land train and one was covering the rear. As fragile and expensive as they were, the dwarf didn't see any reason to risk them in a fight. With a separate mental command, he ordered the Roto-Drones to start spooling up their rotors.

[8-bit]

As Ghost wandered the trains, he noticed the piercing gazes of the performers. His augmented hearing easily picked up the whispers. He pauses a second to listen.

"The guy is walking around with a shotgun in his hands, who does he think he is?"
"He doesn't even look alive; it's like he's just a machine."
"Shh, I think he hears us. I don't want to have to talk to him if I don't have to."

Ghost ignores their comments and keeps moving.

Harrier immediately sent a message to the team.

<<@Team [Harrier] Alright blokes, time to look alive. 10 contacts inbound from the North, the ash is interfering with my distance calculations... but they're close. Looks like a go-gang. Heavy bikes, no sign of weapons yet. I'm in the air, rearranging the drones to cover our flanks and rear in case of an ambush.>>

About damn time something happened. I don't know how much longer I could have kept listening to these ignorant performers.

Recipients: Team
Sender: Ghost

Understood. On my way.

As Ghost moves his way North, he spots the hostiles that Harrier mentioned. As he cycles through his vision options he thinks, Let's see what's going on here.

[Csjarrat]

//Got it, paint em up in ARO for the others if you've got the time. I'll see if I can freag with their shit a bit//
Morgan flicks the host into "alert" mode and instructs it to launch 3 IC to secure the I/O ports before loading up his attack suite....
Game on.

Reconfigure deck for attack:
Attack 7 / Firewall 6/ DP 5 / sleaze 4
Programs:
-Hammer (+2DV)
-Decryption (+1Attack rating)
-Fork (attack multiple with single action)
-Virtual Machine:
   -Signal scrub (-2 noise)
   -Armour (+2 resist)

Matrix perception to find biker's icons:
computer 5, log 6, hot sim 2 (13d6.hits(5)=3)

Initiative test for combat order:
data processing 5, int 4, + 4d6 (4d6=12) = ini 21

Complex action:
Data spike, forked on two nearest motorbike icons:
log 6, cybercombat 6, hot sim 2 (14d6.hits(5)=6)
DV10 + net hits

[adamu]

Hearing Harrier's message, Al tapped on the window, showed ten fingers, then indicated eyes forward. Frank nodded, game face on.

Next the little man used the exterior ladder and ascended to the roof of the cab, unlimbered his Remington and assumed a prone firing position facing the threat. Go-gangers. He swapped armor-piercing rounds into his magazine.

He double-clicked the send button on his comm to acknowledge Ghost's message - let the head honcho do all the talking. Al was happy to provide back up in case things went south. Then his 'link translated the hacker's text to voice in his earbud and he reckoned the chances of things getting interesting had just doubled.

[Zweiblumen]

BT grins down at the small figure before him.  Just as he's readjusting his concepts of the sitation he recieves the message from Harrier. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to excuse myself while we deal with some portion of what you've seen.  I'm sure this will only take a few moments.  Do you mind if make myself comfortable for a moment?"
With that, he helps himself to a seat, and drops into VR.
As he moves his conciousness into the Matrix his body relaxes and his mind stretches finally free of the meat.  Ironically, his icon match his physical form almost precisely, the only difference being he moves barefoot through the matrix.
Bittorrent begins to weave strands of the Resonance together, stiching bits of code together into an amalgamation of concepts wrapped together forming a robot like entity.  He welcomes it to the Matrix and asks it to cause mischief amongst the motorcycles approaching the train.

[Lusis]

Luz dons her ballistic mask; a custom work in in a Venetian style, ordained with sensors and lenses in a manner to give it a somewhat arachnid look. She also activates her Ruthenium Polymer coating on her armor as she pulls over her ballistic hood and throat protection.

Crouching low, she readies the assault rifle and sends out a message to the team: >>Get ready! We are only going to be polite once.<<

Luz activates the vision enhancements in her cybereyes as well as the sensors in her mask. She then boosts the volume on her voice modulator to the maximum of 100 decibels, yelling a message to the oncoming formation when they get within earshot, "Turn away now or be fired upon!"

She takes aim at the lead biker.

[8-bit]

//Got it, paint em up in ARO for the others if you've got the time. I'll see if I can freag with their shit a bit//

Damn. Hopefully he doesn't brick any of their stuff before we determine if their hostile.

Ghost brings up the new message in commlink.

Crouching low, she readies the assault rifle and sends out a message to the team: >>Get ready! We are only going to be polite once.<<

He barely has a chance to read it before he hears.

Luz activates the vision enhancements in her cybereyes as well as the sensors in her mask. She then boosts the volume on her voice modulator to the maximum of 100 decibels, yelling a message to the oncoming formation when they get within earshot, "Turn away now or be fired upon!"

She takes aim at the lead biker.

So much for being fucking camoflauged and not draw attention to ourselves. I have to admit, I do like her idea of diplomacy ...

Sighing, Ghost activates the Ruthenium Polymer Coating on his armor and fades from view as the sensors acclimate to his surroundings. He pulls out his sniper rifle and aims down the barrel.

[JackVII]

[14SEP2075 1015 | Cirque de l'Ombre Caravan| Puyallup]

With the messages from his teammates coming in response to his report, Harrier took the opportunity to steady the Wasp and position himself in front of the zeppelin, aware that the lighter-than-air vehicle would probably be less capable of defending itself.

Reading Morgan's message, the dwarf thought, Bloody Hell! Maybe we could have found out what these blokes wanted first? Mentally shrugging, Harrier glanced to make sure that the Valiant was on-line.

[All4BigGuns]

As he rode beside the caravan train, Cutter begins thinking to himself how light the activity in the area has been so far--especially for Puyallup. On catching the throaty growl of bikes in the distance, however, he puts on the gas, trying to control the bike with one hand as he pulls his Colt Government, and heads in that direction, trying to get a better view of what's up ahead.

[8-bit]

Ghost takes a few seconds to look over the bikers, and then sets his sights on what looks like their leader.

He messages to the team.

Recipients: Team
Sender: Ghost
I've got them in my sights; waiting for confirmation on the kill.

[Lusis]

Luz takes a moment before the bikers respond and uses her implanted commlink to compose a text to Oblique and Torrent; as well as cc'ing the team:

>> Company is incoming, are you expecting anyone? If not, take cover. <<

[All4BigGuns]

On receiving the message from Ghost, Cutter says into his subvocal microphone, transmitting to the rest of the security team, "I'm en route to intercept."

[adamu]

Al spoke into his commlink, which was still on voice-to-text: <<Or…we could ask questions first an' shoot later. Ten lousy bikes ain't much threat, but piss off the Ancients fer hosin' down a buncha their compadres jist headed south ta Tarislar fer a keeb jamboree, then we got ourselves somethin' ta worry 'bout. But don't mind ol' Al. Reckon I'll shoot who I'm told.>>