The team does the leg work // Then the job

Spark ducked into the alley I was in, drew her Ares Viper and pulled the trigger. A flechette round exploded from the barrel, back out into the street. It didn't miss but it was hard to tell how much damage the victim took.
Blitz yelled: "What's going on out there?!" His magical energy continued to crackle. I spun around and shoved my gun barrel into the skulker's back to make sure he didn't go anywhere. I couldn't see Braun from where I was.
Out in the mouth of the alley the garbage of the street stirred as an elemental manifested. The Elf shot at it. (I wasn't even sure if it would work.) But the flechettes seemed not to harm it.
I screwed the silencer on the gun and did little more than execute the skulker. "GO!" I shouted at Blitz so he could deal with the elemental. And, oh, did he ever.
An arch of electricity ripped down from above, struck the elemental and seemed to affect it. The elemental came at us, a swirling mist of barely tangible mater. My vision went hazy and I felt my breath stolen away. Black spots grew in my sight line, compounding the slight sense of nausea I felt from killing.

The Elemental that attacked us

I fled back to the main street, looking for the mage but instead I saw an armored patrol van of the Army. So I stepped back into the alley and yelled at the crew to flee down the way to the other end, to get away from the elemental and the patrol van.

Blitz cast another spell at the elemental, shattering it, then backed down the alley away from me. I hugged the wall and raced to catch up with the team, past the elemental clinging to existence.

I led the team stealthily toward the objective. I say 'stealthily' because that was my intention. But...

Well, it went fine but it took sooooo long and was quite stressful. We ducked under an obstacle and got back out onto the thoroughfare.

The Outpost loomed in front of us; I expected Braun to clue us in but he was in a shell shocked haze, like was just idling along next to us.

The Outpost

The battle scarred neighborhood showed all the signs of combat. In a reasonably unaffected area, a sign blinks: The Outpost and Open below that. Upon entry the silence was deafening. A number of older male veterans of combat sat around while a bartender cleaned glasses. Spooky quiet. I scanned for Powzu as the Elf led the way to the bar. Braun stayed outside, with a comm channel open.

The other two retired to a booth while I approached a lone dwarf at the bar. "We are on a bit of a look around and I hope someone might be able to help," I said, then motioned to the bartender to get us a round. A surprisingly dance-able tune came on the digital jukebox, courtesy of Spark. I slid 100 Nuyen to the Dwarf under a napkin.

Once I got a chance to talk to the others Blitz told us there were several enemies here, including one in a side room near the bar. I blustered into that room, and deflected an attempt at my legs by someone there. I shoved my gun into their chest: "We talk or you die," I said. But it's Powzu. He told us he didn't have the materiel but knew it was still in the place Braun thought it was. We went back into the bar and Powzu went out to talk to Braun, and the rest of us went back to the booth.

A drink to calm the nerves

I toasted to the Dwarf's good favor, for in Poland it is known that Dwarves are lucky in finding things.

Braun headed home to the hostel and Powzu came back into The Outpost misty-eyed. He bought a round for us. He confirmed that the cache was weapons, electronics and high tech stuff, including a laser gun!

The Russians still didn't know but they're basically on top of it, he told us. It's in the floor boards of a room in a functioning hotel that sees a lot of Russian guests staying there. I asked for his blessing to go get the cache. He nodded, and told us that it's on the third floor of a four-story building. He gave us a secured comm. He also said he knew about the mage that summoned the elemental as the only threat they hadn't been able to neutralize. "He's on over watch most of the time," he told us.

We took a different route back to the hostel, gave Braun the update and got some shut eye.

The next day we cased the hotel. Spark went through Powzu to rent a panel van for several days. I drove it around the area with Blitz in the back doing astral things. I saw a lot of security cameras. Blitz and Spark went inside the hotel, the Ork invisible and the Elf as a Russian tourist type. I found a spot to park the van within sight. On stake out in the van I saw no cops or security. The people who stay in the hotel seem of various blue collar professions, mostly of ill repute. A few delivery vehicles come and go during the day, using the loading dock out back.

After all the legwork we made a plan. Spark will go in the door of the hotel room in which the cache is secreted within the floor. I will go up on the roof and repel down to the room's window by rope. Blitz will go invisible again and be at Spark's side, ready to sneak in when he can. The Elf will talk her way in under the cover story of being a hotel manager looking into reports of leaky pipes. Blitz will get the window open for me so I can get the cache out through the window later.

During the infiltration we all get into the room without a hassle. A husband, wife and their boy and girl are staying in the room. We tried to talk them into cooperating, noting that we were there for gear and NOT to harm them. Spark hustled them into the bathroom and I ripped up the carpet to get to the gear. Once I got the cache open there's a laser weapon and a six-pack of beer. I cracked a can and poured some out for the members of the Polish Army who'd been lost in all this, especially the members of the Black Star.

I secured the weapon and some of its accessories then repelled down to the street. I got to the van while the other two fled the scene. The mage finally makes their presence known when my mates appeared outside the hotel and were waiting for me to pick them up. We made a fighting retreat with Spark firing a round at the mage.

We contacted Powzu, dropped off his comm and the 'five-pack.' He sent us on to meet Braun at the alternate rendezvous after he'd left the hostel.

Braun took the laser and gear, and told us to split up and go back to the helicopter, the crew together and him with the weapon. He met us at the helo and we extracted back to Hamburg in a strictly uneventful exfil.