[Zweiblumen]

<<<@Ohanzee [Doc] Thanks omae, I've got a shitty bedside manner.  Just ask the Nately's!  I'll tell him they are going to Aspen Valley and to bugger off >>>

<<<@Nately Jr. [Natley Sr.] I'm taking your mother to Aspen Valley Hospital as it wouldn't do to have a bunch of yahoos stomp their muddy boots all over our cabin.  You can meet up with us there if you would like, but I assure you she is quite fine.>>>

Just as he's finishing this message Doc's BabyMonitor starts blinking blood red and warning him that GOD is about to come down on his ass.  Jacking out, he orders the deck to reboot imediately.  Sitting back against the plush leather seat in the RV, he muses to himself that that's the closest he can remember to getting busted, even if it's less than 48 hours worth of memories.  He notes it down as a new first, just like the rest of them.

'Alright chummers, looks like that bit is done, we should have at least a little bit of time to sneak outta here before they start looking for the RV or the Natelys....I hope."

[Poindexter]

It hadn't taken more than a few minutes to disarm the traps Sam had laid the night before and using up the last few drops from the gascan had proved to be more than enough to get a tiny little fire going near the back of the laundry room. It would be 5-10 minutes before it grew big enough to reach the lint trap on the dryer, but once it did, it was going to spread fast, hopefully through the A/C ducts in the house. Sam crossed his fingers about that last bit. Luck has not been on my side thus far. Perhaps she will change her tune today. After setting the fuse alight, he messages the rest of the team quickly while working his way through the house to the front to wait for the rest of the team to finish grabbing the RV across the street.

<<@Team [Sam] Fire has been started. We've got five, maybe ten minutes at most before it gets out of control.>>

------------------------

Once the RV pulls up outside, Sam waits until Ohanzee's Illusion spell kicks in before stepping inside it and vanishing into the image of the dwarf and his heavy luggage until they reach the RV. Sam tosses his bag full of gun parts and explosives in first, then hops in himself and helps the dwarf position the crate inside before he lets the levitation spell drop. Once Ohanzee is seated and strapped in, Sam can tell from his posture that he's about to project. He sits down cross legged on the floor of the RV next to the rickety crate with his rifle in his lap.

"I'll watch you while you're gone." he says matter of factly while waiting for the rest of the crew to assemble and their flight to... somewhere can begin.

[8-bit]

Chino takes one last look at the snowmobile. He sighs. Would have been nice to take that, or at least turn it into a bomb. Good thing there is another one. He heads towards the couple's house after Ohanzee and Ace give the all clear. Inside their garage is a trailer. Perfect. He quickly attaches the trailer to the RV, pushing on it to make sure it's securely fastened. He unchains the nearby snowmobile and ATV, and slowly drives them into the trailer. Dragging the chains with him, he secures the two vehicles in the trailer. He dusts off his hands and smiles in satisfaction. He gives Ace a thumbs up, and the RV starts moving towards the house.

A minute later, he moves towards the newly parked RV and starts loading all their gear into it. He notices that the old couple are tied up and unconscious. Focusing on the tattoo on his forehead, the Astral world sparks to life. He looks at the old couple for a few seconds before turning back to mundane sight. He carefully puts the gear out of range of the couple.

He sits himself in the driver's seat and takes a few moments to familiarize himself with the controls. All right, I can drive this.

He turns in his seat and looks at his companions, "All right, I'm set up here. Everyone ready?" He waits for a confirmation before adding, "Let's roll then. We got a specific destination we're headed for?"

[Malevolence]

"I've been considering that." comes Ohanzee's voice from the back of the RV.  It doesn't carry well, so he switches to comms.


>> @Team [Ohanzee] I think that Denver makes the ideal choice for a destination - we have contacts and resources there and the multiple sovereignties give us options, and increase the bureaucratic hurdles for our adversaries to properly engage significant resources. How we get there, however, provides a dilemma.

>>  Going north takes us through Carbondale, which may be where their search is concentrated if my earlier ruse was successful. When they discover we were in Aspen, all of the folks in Carbondale might head there - passing right by us on the road. Katsina had brought up the observation that going south leaves us few turnouts, etc and therefore makes it easy to set up checkpoints that we couldn't avoid, and I concur. Staying in Aspen risks being found as they perform a search starting from the Moran house, since one of the best protections from a spirit's ability to search is distance.

>> Considering all that, I think north through Carbondale might prove the best option, with a boon-docking stop off before we get there. This gives them enough chance to divert many of the resources from Carbondale once they find our old hideout in Aspen, gives us enough distance to ensure the Search power fails, and prevents us from running into the troop movement on the road from Carbondale to Aspen. We have options to avoid roadblocks/checkpoints as there are more turn out options, and we should be able to skirt Carbondale - or at least stick to the outskirts as we pass through - once we get there.

>> Thoughts?

[Tecumseh]

<<<@Nately Jr. [Natley Sr.] You can meet up with us there if you would like, but I assure you she is quite fine.>>>[/color]

<<@Nately II [Nately III] Meet up with you there? You know quite well that I am halfway across the globe! Who is this! What have you done to them! Unhand them you blackguards!>>


Katsina crouches guardedly next to the obelisk. The RV is big enough for her to have her claymore out, so she has it unsheathed.

"Whoever is looking for us knows what we are in Aspen. They'll be watching the road in and out of town. We can't go south - that's a choke point, and there are no turn offs for hours. We have to go north, toward Carbondale. If we turn down Cemetary Lane - ominous, I know - it will lead to a parallel road that leads out of town. The bad news is that it passes right by a choke point leading out of town. I think we need to expect contact."

The claymore spins in her hands to emphasize the point. She sends an ARO to the team with her suggested route out of town.

"This thing probably drives like a beached whale, and I'm sure the trailer isn't helping any, nor the 400 kilos of obelisk and 900 kilos of metahumans. I doubt evasion will be an option, and our firing lanes are garbage since there are no windows facing the rear. If we get pinged I think we're going to have to lure them out of town, outside of SecForce's attention span, and then settle the matter."

[Zweiblumen]

Doc looks at the message from the younger Nately and curses loudly and turns off the comm.
<<<@Team [Doc] Welp the kid knows they've been kidnapped.  So, that'll add to the fun.  Anyone have any skills with modifying a license plate?  I think I might be able to change ownership of RV so that we have registration worked out, but tags are going to be another probelm.
<Atachment: Nately_message.txt>
>>>

"No rest for the wicked, literally in this case." He thinks to himself.
"I don't think we'll have time to switch ownership before contact with some OppForce happens, so I'm going to hold off on that particular task until we are someplace off the road for a few hours... like 8 of them"
With that he loads the extra magazine into his elbow for his shotgun and reboots his 'deck again, just to be safe.  Doesn't need GOD stepping in the middle of this whole thing ruining his day.

[Malevolence]

>> @Team [Ohanzee] "Halfway across the globe"? What a poor excuse for an exec. It's a four hour trip, tops - and probably more like two, for someone with the resources he'd likely have access to. If he was truly concerned, he'd make the trip. Either he's looking for an excuse not to act, or he's actually hoping his parents are kidnapped so he can spend money on the situation instead of actually be bothered to do something. Since he hasn't just dropped it after seeing through the ruse, I'd suspect the latter. Might be some easy money if we send a ransom, but we'd still have to be cautious about traceability. And with our attention split across so many slotting problems, it might not be worth the risk. But, if we do go that route, the Nately's are obviously familiar with any umber of crime families, based on the young Edward's conversation with mommy, and likely have dealing with them. Could be an angle to throw suspicion off for the kidnapping.

>> As for luring them out of town, I'd hate to send a flare up on our location like that, but if there's no way to avoid a confrontation, it makes the best sense to try to keep SecForce out of it as much as possible - at the best, they'll come down on both sides equally, in the worst case, they'll side with our pursuers. There's not much chance we'll get their support in the conflict considering our hands are far from clean and our gear alone probably violates a couple dozen laws. So, I concur - avoid the authorities at all costs. Especially since, if I have misjudged the younger Nately, our ride has probably already been reported as stolen.

>> Which actually provides an interesting option - send a ransom demand with the requirement that if he wishes to see his parents again, he keep the authorities out of it. That will at the very least buy us time.

[rednblack]

Ace gets a brief flash of memory: a soft target, one of his own, was taken, and of the shadowrunners responsible.  The razor girl was the first to fall.  A hotshot spider fragged her eyes, and comm, and before she could react, Ace was on top her, crushing her windpipe in his hand before placing his Ares Lancer against her temple and pulling the trigger once.  Inside, the mage was the first to go, two shots center mass, and Ace and his backup were across the room pinning down the decker and face before they had a chance to stand.  Those two were dragged out, and it was the last Ace saw of them.  Poor bastards. 

<<@Team [Ace] Right idea, but I think the tactic needs refining.  I doubt the usefulness of a ransom.  We don't have a safehouse, and there's already a team on our tail.  Best case scenario is Nately Enteprises sends along a team to track us, even if they intend to pay, and I have my doubts about that.  We need to keep little Nately from comming corp HQ, or anyone for that matter.  I say we tell him that if we wanted daddy and mommy dearest dead they'd be dead already.  I'd tell him this has nothing to do with the corp, but if we get an inkling that he's contacted them, that we'll take his parents apart piece-by-piece.  I'd say that we need his dad for something, and when it's done, we'll leave him where he has a more than reasonable chance to survive this, and I'd do all that right now before he gets too many ideas.  It may be best to do this live, if Doc can obscure our faces and voices.  Ohanzee, if you want to good-cop bad-cop this, I'll be happy to help.>>

Ace extends the cyber spurs from his left arm and retracts them, working his hand into a fist.

[Zweiblumen]

<<<@Team [Doc] I can play cinematographer for you guys.  Blurring faces isn't hard especially if you don't move around all that much.  We can sit them up in the bedroom showing their condtion.  Can even do some first aid on the Mrs. if we want to keep her healthier, you did a doosey on her Ace   I agree on the sooner than later on this.  Nice thing about the RV is we can do this on the move.  Chino can get us on the road while we vid-chat with Junior.>>>

[Poindexter]

Sam doesn't like any of this, but he sees that Ohanzee is playing as best he can with the hand he's been dealt, so he stays quiet and listens to the comm chatter. When the subject of the ransom video comes up, he breaks his digital silence.

<<@Team [Sam] Keep me out of the frame please.>>

Sitting on the floor next to the crate, he takes stock of his ammo, what limited amount there is anyway; The hunting rifle and deer ammo he picked up. If we run into some unarmored foes, this should do fine. Or at least make me look intimidating once I run out of assault rifle ammo. Sixteen mini-grenades, one full clip of APDS, and another missing 6 rounds are all he's got for the XM30. Only now does that fact start to bother him.

When he'd originally woken up in a bullet riddled van hanging off the side of a cliff and had six rounds missing from the clip in his weapon, he's assumed they were in a firefight when the crash occurred. Matter of fact, it had BEEN those six missing rounds that had given him that impression in the first place. He could think of no other reason why he'd have anything other than a full clip at the time. Even without any memories of who he was or what sort of man he used to be, he feels in his BONES that he was the sort of man who'd reload a partially emptied weapon after a firefight.

But the evidence seemed to point strongly to the fact that they were NOT in fact in a firefight when the crash happened. So, why didn't I reload the gun? WAS there a firefight going on after all? Maybe inside the van? He glances around the RV, looking at each team member briefly before settling his eyes back on the rifle. He stares at the little ARO reading 24/30 above the stock and thinks long and hard. I wonder if the smartlink keeps records of when the weapon has been fired? He types an order into his comm, hoping for the best.

<<Display most recent 48 hours firing record for XM30.>>

[Malevolence]

>> @Team [Ohanzee] I'm in.


Ohanzee moves to the sleeping form of Mrs. Nately and kneels down, stabilizing himself against the motion of the rolling house. After carefully maneuvering the virtual Natelys away from the windows, he releases the spell generating the illusory Natelys and they vanish. He begins chanting, the act focusing his mind as it begins to channel magic. He touches Mrs. Nately's forehead as the spell forms. Instantly, healing mana flows through her body, healing the physical trauma sustained from Ace's taser. After about ten seconds of concentration, Mrs. Nately's has returned to near perfect health, though still unconscious from the stun. Then he stands up and begins working with Ace to set the stage for their "conversation" with the younger Nately.

[rednblack]

A thought briefly flits its way across Ace's mind.  What if Doc decides not to doctor the comm call?  That's the last thing I need.  He doesn't see a lot of options, though, and waits for the call to be connected.  When Nately junior's face comes live, Ace begins speaking.

"We would have rather kept you out of this.  I'm sure your father feels the same way.  But here's the deal, Junior.  We need your father, and your mother, and it's for something that only they can provide.  If we wanted them dead, they would already be dead."  Ace flexes the cyber spurs from his hand, and retracts them in one fluid motion.  "If you go to the authorities, I will personally take them apart piece-by-piece, and I'm going to start with your mother, so Mr. Edward J. Nately II can watch his beloved become less and less of herself as I work.  If you contact Nately Enterprises, or any other corporate entity, I will do the same.  If you contact your brothers. . .well, I think you know where I'm going now, don't you?"

Ace nods his head to Ohanzee.  "This one insists that you will be reasonable, that there is no need for bloodshed here.  So far, my compatriots have agreed with him.  But I gotta tell you, I've been itching, and while they've held me at bay so far, I can be very persuasive if given the chance."

Ace motions for Doc to pan the camera to show Mr. and Mrs. Nately.  "As you can see, they are quite alive, and given some time, they will be back to skiing and enjoying all that the PCC has to offer.  Speaking of which, I know your father is quite fond of the slopes.  Now, do I need to take off his big toe for you to know that I'm serious?  I've been told that losing that particular digit is just hell on your balance.  They'd have to take his whole foot to bring him back to working order."  Ace extends his cyber spur once more, and carefully cuts the leather of Mr. Nately's shoe, splitting it from the top to toe.  Then he cuts away Mr. Nately's sock.  "What do you think, Junior?  Can you keep your trap shut, or do I need to go to work?"

[Tecumseh]

Sam examines the output of his query to his smartlink. It does not track second-by-second or minute-by-minute firing patterns, but it does record hourly patterns for the sake monitoring wear and tear on the gun's internal parts. It records the configuration of the XM30 at the time, but not the type of ammunition fired.

<<HK XM30 Modular Weapon System>>

<<Firing records for January 30, 2075>>
<<no rounds fired>>

<<Firing records for January 31, 2075>>
<<5PM: HK XM30 Carbine: 6 rounds fired, 2 underbarrel grenades fired>>
<<8PM: HK XM30 Carbine: 24 rounds fired, 10 underbarrel grenades fired>>
<<8PM (cont): HK XM30 LMG: 200 rounds fired>>
<<9PM: HK XM30 Assault Rifle: 36 rounds fired, 1 underbarrel grenade fired>>

<<Firing records for February 1, 2075>>
<<12AM: HK XM30 Assault Rifle: 1 underbarrel grenade fired>>

It looks like there were two separate periods of firing activity: the first was relatively sedate but the second was very intense. Perhaps he was allowed to be more selective with his shooting to begin, but then circumstances changed. He recalls the security footage that showed him firing on full auto while exiting the facility with Blue Team and the crate.

Sam mentally notes that firing was complete before he wrote to the Johnson at 10pm. Still, based on the firing records he's guessing he was pretty pissed when he wrote to that fragger.


<<@Nately II [Nately III] Oh you hard hearts, you cruel men, you worse than senseless things! You will perform no such travesty! You will unhand them at once! I have already contacted the proper authorities; I did so immediately. You shall pay for your nefarious deeds, villain.>>

On cue, Doc's agent detects an icon running silently within 100 meters.

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

[8-bit]

As soon as Chino heard the woman's strangely phrased outburst, or at least what sounded like an outburst, maybe it was Martian; he shifted into drive. I knew we should have just gotten rid of the fragging oldies before anything could be alerted.

<<@Team [Chino] We're outta here. I'm taking the route Katsina laid out, we'll figure it out from there. It might get bumpy, I'm going to try and coax some extra speed out of this behemoth.>>

Not waiting for a reply, he stepped his foot down to the pedal and silently prayed to as many religious names as he could remember that they would get out quickly enough.

[rednblack]

<<@Nately II [Nately III] Oh you hard hearts, you cruel men, you worse than senseless things! You will perform no such travesty! You will unhand them at once! I have already contacted the proper authorities; I did so immediately. You shall pay for your nefarious deeds, villain.>>

A genuine look of disappointment crosses Ace's face, and he lets out a determined and resigned sigh.  "Alright, kid, have it your way.  I'd be checking your mail, chummer,"  He signals for the video to be cut, and he faces Mrs. Nately.