Drones started to come to life around me. Not good. All alone on the first floor.
I hustled to the back, looking for another way out. There was an emergency door but it was welded shut. "This is not up to code!" I yelled in sarcastic frustration.
The other two came back down the stairs. Blitz was in a bit of haze, though I wasn't sure why. We headed for the tower, which was how to access the subterranean tunnel to the building we were seeking.
The tunnel's motion lights kicked on as we entered, showing a five-meter wide hallway that extended for a ways. There were all kinds of parts and equipment strewn all over, including hardware that included vehicle-grade weapons. We raced down the tunnel toward our destination. Halfway there the tunnel bent toward the other building. But just beyond the bend were targeting barriers. I strained to move them out of the way of my two companions with the intent of pushing them back into place to dissuade pursuit. Far ahead of us we saw two red lights come on and the sound of electronic pinging. Seemed like two entities. "You have anything for this?" I asked Blitz. He sneaked toward the lights, using some wrecked targets as cover, cutting the distance. We were about 35 meters from the red lights, whatever they were. Blitz moved up about half way; threw out a hand and the sound of metal smashing echoed from where the red lights sat. The other one whirred and moved to track Blitz. There was a muzzle flash and the sound of gunfire from the other threatening light source. Hard to tell but it seemed like a pair of sentry auto-guns. Blitz got hit but the plates in his armor seemed to absorb most of it, staggering him.
I ran up to Blitz and tried to shoot the red eye. I only winged it. I was close enough to see it at that point, a sort of tripod. It returned fire and a bullet ripped through my hip and some of the plates in my armor.
Spark stitched up the other gun emplacement and it went quiet. She came over to me while taking out a medkit. "It's not bad enough to waste time on that," I told her.
We went past more equipment and came to another set of double doors. Spark took over point since I was not in top form anymore, hobbled by the wound. The area was strewn with junk - shipping crates, boxes, parts - almost a small landfill. Up the stairs we went stealthily. Spark moved a crate but misjudged its weight and basically threw it out of the way with a crash. "Sorry," she whispered sheepishly. She moved up to the first floor door. She paused with the door open and leaned back to tell us someone was in the room. "That's you," I said to Blitz, waving him up. He went through the door tumbling as he went. All I could hear was gunfire but I couldn't see what was going on. In I rushed to see someone running up on Blitz, but the person's back was to me. He turned as I entered, then I hit him with the taser zap and it seemed to disorient him. Spark hit him with a Narcojet pistol shot and he went down in a heap.
While Spark broke out the medkit for Blitz I headed past them into the building to find Kurtis, our goal. I headed for a door leading to a service corridor, ignoring the mess hall. I passed a stairwell and the hall opened to a lobby, which seemed unkempt as evidenced by the cobwebs. The double doors are open at the front of the building and there were two men just inside. They were talking to each other so I used their distracted state to make my move across the large lobby. I got to another stairwell and headed up. This area - a barracks, by the look of it - looked more lived in. I heard far off movement and approached quietly. As I got to the door I saw an orderly with his back to me at the door. I pushed him into the room, closing the door as I followed him in, my gun out. "Follow my instructions and you live," I said deadpan.
"Whatever you want to do," he yammered. "What do you need?"
"Throw your common the ground and tell me where Kurtis is," I replied.
"Kurtis? Kurtis isn't here. They moved him. I don't know where they moved him. That's above my pay grade. Just leave me alone." I spied his tablet on the table. I grabbed it and his comm, then I tased him unconscious.
Leaving the room I could see my teammates below me in the stairwell. Blitz motioned me to a room where Spark and I can set up an ambush on a foe I don't see yet. Spark brought the comm they also stole. She began linking them by another secure channel.
The trap was sprung. One guy went into Blitz's room. Another straggler came in later, and Spark moved out to attack him with the Narcojet. The capsule hit him but a wave of energy rippled and the capsule seemed to fall away without effect. The man turned to Spark and make a finger gun, seeming to cast a spell. I leapt out, tasing him. He turned his attention to me, splitting his two fingers to send two tendrils of energy - one at each of us. At the last second, Spark threw out an arm and literally grabbed at the energy lancing toward me, snatching it and absorbing some of it instead of me taking the full power of the attack. She shot him again and this one hit him right in the chest. He jerked back violently, stumbled and fell. Spark ran up and checked him for weapons. She motioned me toward Blitz.
"You called?" I yelled to Blitz as I walked toward the guy holding him at gunpoint. The guy turned to face me and I fired the taser at him. Seeing he was surrounded he surrendered.
"Otto's stepping up their game and not just in scrap metal anymore, eh?" he said, pointing to my cap.
I handed the tablet to Spark. "Maybe this well help us find the asset."
Spark said it showed a transfer to a safe house....in Hamburg. The asset was awaiting the Russians, a team led by a Maxim Sidorov. Spark blanched at the name but said nothing.
We headed for the door, double time. I led our exit out to the wood line while successfully evading security.
Eventually, back in Hamburg, I contacted Mr. H to give him the update. He paid us 80% of the fee and said he expected us to complete the job.
"Unfortunate but out of your control," Mr. H said. "We're knee deep in this so complete the mission and contact me then."
Monday, June 22, 2020
Monday, June 8, 2020
Stealing the tech, part 1
A little down time after the Poland mission. I spent some time trying to establish a safe house. I needed to be able to put people up in Hamburg after they are extracted but don't have a final destination - yet. After three weeks I found a place and purchased some air mattresses and food, etc. It's a studio apartment in a big building in a not terrible neighborhood. It's not done, but it's livable.
Blitz told me he was trying to track down those who could teach him Ritual magic, which he wanted to use to find his missing mother. I know a little about the story; he lost track of her when he was at the military academy attached to her work in the Ukraine.
Spark was busy building a shop for her cybernetics - a lab in her crappy dwelling.
I got a call from Oskar. He had a job: infiltration, recovery of tech, extraction. In Germany, fairly close by.
Code in hand I was off to make contact. The guy wanted to meet at the Blonde Scorpion, a bar we've met contacts at before. He said he'd be in the reflective vest. "See you tonight." Once we were there, it was easy to find him at the end of the bar. Fashion is strange.
I made introductions and he found us a table, though it was in the middle of the room. I did not approve, but he was paying for the job. Luckily it was too loud for eavesdropping. "You can call me Mr. H. I'd like to know the others I'm working with."
The target would be Alder Tech, a German development company that is under Saeder-Krupp. The item we were stealing was a bit of rigger tech, a platform, a prototype that had just been completed. It integrates multiple items at once, and is funded by the Russians unbeknownst to the devs.
"We don't want this tech in the reckless hands of the Russians," Mr. H. said. He wanted us to snag it and bring it to a drop point.
In my amateur style I tried to suss out his loyalties but I'm bad at it and he's not dumb. He didn't give away anything.
The terms were arranged, including a bonus if we didn't harm any civilians or damage the facility. I tried to negotiate a little better payday and lo and behold I did squeeze better terms out of the client. He complimented our professionalism and agreed to up the price of the job.
We were given an address for the lab, which is off the beaten path in a decommissioned Army depot. We had three to four days before the Russians arrived to collect the prototype.
There is a highway nearby, with an exit 15 kilometers from the site. There's a truck stop, gas station, restaurant and motel.
Spark did some computer shenanigans and got us cover IDs for the small scrap company that goes to the lab site to get waste metal.
Blitz went to Otto's, the scrap yard, to get hats with their distinctive patches on them. I had to help buy a few of them. I was so charming! But we had to wait two days for an order to be put in so we were a little nervous that the timing would be too tight. It worked out.
After that I walked the route between the motel and the lab compound to see if there was a path we could take if we needed to hoof it in and out. There was, through the woods to the back of the facility via a northwest approach. There was a four-meter tall perimeter fence with vines growing on it, indicating that it was NOT electrified and that it was not maintained. There was gravel for about seven meters to the scrap pile, with a gate at the yard. There was also a building, two stories in concrete with a guard tower on top. Another building sat on the other side of the yard.
I scrambled to borrow a Tiffani Defiance Protector stun gun, so that I had a non-lethal option to get the bonus pay.
In the morning, I kitted up with pistol, taser, knives, climbing gear, wire cutters and medical kit. On the way to the site, I stopped about a kilometer out and stashed my crossbow in a tree in case I needed more bang on the way out.
We walked in via the route I scoped out previously. It was 5 a.m. We heard the echo of a car door closing from the front of the facility. Next came the sound of tires on gravel, which faded away. After that, it was all quiet.
I led the team quietly to the edge of the fence. We went in through a sliding gate and were into the scrap yard. We used the debris as cover to sneak to the rear of the single story building at the back of the site. There was a security camera affixed to a swivel but we ducked past it.
While I guarded our six Spark was looking for an external cyber-terminal to hack. What she found was an air conditioning unit with a camera honing in on her movements. She ducked it and stumbled onto the terminal, and got access.
There was power to both buildings, and they were connected via underground tunnel. There was also a single-wide trailer toward the front of the site. Blitz did his astral thing - the sight-beyond-sight move - to see if there were people in the buildings.
There was one person in the trailer-building. We considered sneaking over there intent on capturing the person inside and use the tech inside to find the prototype. WAIT, instead... why not walk right in as Otto's employees with a question for personnel? Maybe we can barge in and neutralize the person.
Spark entered, shoving a device in the man's face to get him to sign off on a work order. When he went to sign, I jabbed the taser in his ribs and shocked the drek out of him. He went down in a blubbering heap. Spark had already found a computer linked to the facility's network. The idiot at the desk was auto-logged on. Spark went to work cutting security then on to a complex layout.
We headed for what the computer calls The Garage, the two-story building with the tower on top. There was a big garage door on one side and a set of conventional double doors on the other. Taser in hand, I pushed open the double doors. There was an anteroom with more double doors beyond that. Through the glass it was dark though it was obvious there was a large area, perhaps the entire first floor.
Dimly glowing LEDs and my cyber eyes show it to be a room full of drones. Blitz's magical senses didn't detect any life inside. Spark and I started looking around while Blitz went to check out the tower upstairs.
"What does a rigger platform look like?!" I asked Spark as I rummaged through desks and drawers. She showed me the headware and associated tech from the data Mr. H. gave us. There was hardware and software. Our focus would be hardware, Spark noted. The hum of Blitz's open channel droned in my ear. There was a 3-D printer that tipped me off that I might be in the right place. Spark found a digital paper trail identifying Kurtis Blomkampf as the person the prototype is installed in, and that he was convalescing in the other building, the one we'd been hiding behind earlier.
Spark headed upstairs to get Blitz. I gripped the taser in my off hand and drew my Ares Predator, ready for whatever trouble was bound to come.
Blitz told me he was trying to track down those who could teach him Ritual magic, which he wanted to use to find his missing mother. I know a little about the story; he lost track of her when he was at the military academy attached to her work in the Ukraine.
Spark was busy building a shop for her cybernetics - a lab in her crappy dwelling.
I got a call from Oskar. He had a job: infiltration, recovery of tech, extraction. In Germany, fairly close by.
Code in hand I was off to make contact. The guy wanted to meet at the Blonde Scorpion, a bar we've met contacts at before. He said he'd be in the reflective vest. "See you tonight." Once we were there, it was easy to find him at the end of the bar. Fashion is strange.
I made introductions and he found us a table, though it was in the middle of the room. I did not approve, but he was paying for the job. Luckily it was too loud for eavesdropping. "You can call me Mr. H. I'd like to know the others I'm working with."
The target would be Alder Tech, a German development company that is under Saeder-Krupp. The item we were stealing was a bit of rigger tech, a platform, a prototype that had just been completed. It integrates multiple items at once, and is funded by the Russians unbeknownst to the devs.
"We don't want this tech in the reckless hands of the Russians," Mr. H. said. He wanted us to snag it and bring it to a drop point.
In my amateur style I tried to suss out his loyalties but I'm bad at it and he's not dumb. He didn't give away anything.
The terms were arranged, including a bonus if we didn't harm any civilians or damage the facility. I tried to negotiate a little better payday and lo and behold I did squeeze better terms out of the client. He complimented our professionalism and agreed to up the price of the job.
We were given an address for the lab, which is off the beaten path in a decommissioned Army depot. We had three to four days before the Russians arrived to collect the prototype.
There is a highway nearby, with an exit 15 kilometers from the site. There's a truck stop, gas station, restaurant and motel.
Spark did some computer shenanigans and got us cover IDs for the small scrap company that goes to the lab site to get waste metal.
Blitz went to Otto's, the scrap yard, to get hats with their distinctive patches on them. I had to help buy a few of them. I was so charming! But we had to wait two days for an order to be put in so we were a little nervous that the timing would be too tight. It worked out.
After that I walked the route between the motel and the lab compound to see if there was a path we could take if we needed to hoof it in and out. There was, through the woods to the back of the facility via a northwest approach. There was a four-meter tall perimeter fence with vines growing on it, indicating that it was NOT electrified and that it was not maintained. There was gravel for about seven meters to the scrap pile, with a gate at the yard. There was also a building, two stories in concrete with a guard tower on top. Another building sat on the other side of the yard.
I scrambled to borrow a Tiffani Defiance Protector stun gun, so that I had a non-lethal option to get the bonus pay.
In the morning, I kitted up with pistol, taser, knives, climbing gear, wire cutters and medical kit. On the way to the site, I stopped about a kilometer out and stashed my crossbow in a tree in case I needed more bang on the way out.
We walked in via the route I scoped out previously. It was 5 a.m. We heard the echo of a car door closing from the front of the facility. Next came the sound of tires on gravel, which faded away. After that, it was all quiet.
I led the team quietly to the edge of the fence. We went in through a sliding gate and were into the scrap yard. We used the debris as cover to sneak to the rear of the single story building at the back of the site. There was a security camera affixed to a swivel but we ducked past it.
While I guarded our six Spark was looking for an external cyber-terminal to hack. What she found was an air conditioning unit with a camera honing in on her movements. She ducked it and stumbled onto the terminal, and got access.
There was power to both buildings, and they were connected via underground tunnel. There was also a single-wide trailer toward the front of the site. Blitz did his astral thing - the sight-beyond-sight move - to see if there were people in the buildings.
There was one person in the trailer-building. We considered sneaking over there intent on capturing the person inside and use the tech inside to find the prototype. WAIT, instead... why not walk right in as Otto's employees with a question for personnel? Maybe we can barge in and neutralize the person.
Spark entered, shoving a device in the man's face to get him to sign off on a work order. When he went to sign, I jabbed the taser in his ribs and shocked the drek out of him. He went down in a blubbering heap. Spark had already found a computer linked to the facility's network. The idiot at the desk was auto-logged on. Spark went to work cutting security then on to a complex layout.
We headed for what the computer calls The Garage, the two-story building with the tower on top. There was a big garage door on one side and a set of conventional double doors on the other. Taser in hand, I pushed open the double doors. There was an anteroom with more double doors beyond that. Through the glass it was dark though it was obvious there was a large area, perhaps the entire first floor.
Dimly glowing LEDs and my cyber eyes show it to be a room full of drones. Blitz's magical senses didn't detect any life inside. Spark and I started looking around while Blitz went to check out the tower upstairs.
"What does a rigger platform look like?!" I asked Spark as I rummaged through desks and drawers. She showed me the headware and associated tech from the data Mr. H. gave us. There was hardware and software. Our focus would be hardware, Spark noted. The hum of Blitz's open channel droned in my ear. There was a 3-D printer that tipped me off that I might be in the right place. Spark found a digital paper trail identifying Kurtis Blomkampf as the person the prototype is installed in, and that he was convalescing in the other building, the one we'd been hiding behind earlier.
Spark headed upstairs to get Blitz. I gripped the taser in my off hand and drew my Ares Predator, ready for whatever trouble was bound to come.
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Back to Poland, part 2
Spark and I turned back to the camp, having chased off the Russians. Blitz had taken the other two Russians prisoner and dispatched the dog creature.
Now we turned our attention to the truck, to get it unstuck from where it had become essentially a potted plant. All the Poles would fit into it so we wanted to get it operational and then head off for our vehicle. Then would could GET OUT.
Blitz had restrained our captives, who were unconscious. The two dogs were dying in smoldering piles. The woods felt like they were closing in on us.
Blitz and Karl, the leader of the Polish refugees, got back to work on the truck. I grabbed a few Poles and headed out in front of the truck to clear a path. Spark started helping the sick and elderly into the back of the transport truck. We were struggling to move a log that had fallen into the path.
Some kind of small drone came flying out of the brush ahead of where Spark had gone out to have a look around. She took a shot at it and struck metal. It swerved off course and ducked into the canopy of trees, but it was still functional.
I could hear the mechanics when something snapped and broke on the truck though I could not tell what. What ever it was, I was sure it would cause complications later.
A few Poles arrived to report fires spreading in the underbrush, probably the after-effects of the paranormal dogs and what they were spewing.
Panic! I rushed to the back of the truck and pushed with a mighty Ork roar! It finally started to roll out. I ran up to the driver's side running board and Karl shoved over so I could jump behind the wheel. As I pulled away, out of the smoke, a few more people in Russian uniforms arrived on the scene. They fired off a few shots but missed the truck and passengers.
I could hear the team shooting and slinging spells at the pursuing soldiers.
A shot hit one of the rear tires. The handling became rough but I steered off the trail to get out of the shooters' scopes.
We got clear and used the GPS to find my buggy. I hopped out of the truck and Karl shoved back over to re-take the wheel. Blitz and Spark stayed in the back of the big truck. We were off to the rendezvous shelter via a local highway. It was an old airfield, with an ancient hangar and out buildings. It looked abandoned until a few people came out to receive us. Among the refugees, everyone was a little sick and groggy but unhurt.
I promised to help with any further expediting of the Poles to future homes.
"I heard you guys were good," the leader at the airfield said. "Looks like you are." He looked at the three of us. "Motley crew just like us!" We all offered to help with our connections in the future, such as the Polish Army.
Now we turned our attention to the truck, to get it unstuck from where it had become essentially a potted plant. All the Poles would fit into it so we wanted to get it operational and then head off for our vehicle. Then would could GET OUT.
Blitz had restrained our captives, who were unconscious. The two dogs were dying in smoldering piles. The woods felt like they were closing in on us.
Blitz and Karl, the leader of the Polish refugees, got back to work on the truck. I grabbed a few Poles and headed out in front of the truck to clear a path. Spark started helping the sick and elderly into the back of the transport truck. We were struggling to move a log that had fallen into the path.
Some kind of small drone came flying out of the brush ahead of where Spark had gone out to have a look around. She took a shot at it and struck metal. It swerved off course and ducked into the canopy of trees, but it was still functional.
I could hear the mechanics when something snapped and broke on the truck though I could not tell what. What ever it was, I was sure it would cause complications later.
A few Poles arrived to report fires spreading in the underbrush, probably the after-effects of the paranormal dogs and what they were spewing.
Panic! I rushed to the back of the truck and pushed with a mighty Ork roar! It finally started to roll out. I ran up to the driver's side running board and Karl shoved over so I could jump behind the wheel. As I pulled away, out of the smoke, a few more people in Russian uniforms arrived on the scene. They fired off a few shots but missed the truck and passengers.
I could hear the team shooting and slinging spells at the pursuing soldiers.
A shot hit one of the rear tires. The handling became rough but I steered off the trail to get out of the shooters' scopes.
We got clear and used the GPS to find my buggy. I hopped out of the truck and Karl shoved back over to re-take the wheel. Blitz and Spark stayed in the back of the big truck. We were off to the rendezvous shelter via a local highway. It was an old airfield, with an ancient hangar and out buildings. It looked abandoned until a few people came out to receive us. Among the refugees, everyone was a little sick and groggy but unhurt.
I promised to help with any further expediting of the Poles to future homes.
"I heard you guys were good," the leader at the airfield said. "Looks like you are." He looked at the three of us. "Motley crew just like us!" We all offered to help with our connections in the future, such as the Polish Army.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Back to Poland, part 1
Oscar, a mechanic I knew in Hamburg, called me about interest in a job - rescue/repair/extraction.
I got the other two on board and he sent me the information. A guy named Cordero wanted to meet at the Blonde Scorpion, a local bar that caters to ex-military/paramilitary down near the docks.
I hopped on the train to go meet my mates and the contact. It was evening. The place reminded me of the Outpost, the veterans social club we went to during the last mission into Poland. Cordero, a human, was in the bar in a corner booth. I grabbed drinks for all of us. Cordero was drinking a beer so I got a pitcher of the same stuff and three more glasses. He seemed wary, standing to shake our hands.
Straight to business. Said he'd heard of our successful jobs in extraction. He had a group out in the woods of Poland, in a makeshift refugee camp where they'd gone after escaping the Russian Army. They were camped around a power station nationalized by the Russians.
"We just got word that they might be in trouble," Cordero told us. The Red Army was out to find and crush them. Their transport was broken down and though they had mechanics they needed parts. Our job was to get them operational, protect them and get them out. "We're all allies against the invaders."
Cordero provided us with a GPS unit and coordinates to the power station. The terms were good and he covered the costs of any equipment we needed that was mission-specific. I made a note to get woodland camo and more rations.
We took the regular roads most of the way but then there was forest that even my buggy couldn't get through. We walked the rest of the way using the GPS, visually scanning the horizon for the tower. I was on point, Blitz carried the parts and Spark watched out six. The canopy of the primeval forest blotted out the sky. We could still hear drones in the air so we hugged the trees and kept the canopy between us and the mechanical spies.
Soon we spotted a land mine, which I stopped just short of. There were more traps as we got closer to the camp site. GPS got us to within sight of campfires, and there was a building too.
Spark took the lead and I moved to rear guard. She is better at talking to strangers, so we relied on her to keep us from getting shot right away. A big guy on guard chatted us up and said they were fleeing to Germany but the truck had broken down.
Blitz asked to see the truck as we exchanged concerns about the sound of dogs approaching, perhaps Russian patrols.
Spark and I started passing out the ration bars we brought. I passed out food to the children while Spark attended to the wounded. Blitz was working on the engine repairs. The truck was wedged in the mud here and had become overgrown, so getting it out was going to be more complex.
After that I talked to some of the Poles about exfiltration. Spark helped repair some of the small equipment in camp. But the dog sounds were getting close now.
I called Blitz up to help and we attempted to sneak closer to the noises. About 50 yards away in a gully there were two men in long coats and goggles leading a giant dog thing, probably paranormal based on its glowing red eyes. It was sniffing the air. The men had Russian military insignia on their clothing. There was another pair of men and a 'dog' further beyond them, farther from the camp.
Spark and I ran low through the woods to the enemies farther away. Blitz and the Pole who'd been on guard attacked the nearer team.
By the time we'd gotten into position Blitz had cast two spells to attack the dog, beast, thing. A pair of fists made of energy rushed out at it and knocked it over.
I shot at the other dog's handler while Spark fired on the dog. My Remington 950 cracked the air and the bullet ripped into the handler, hitting him in the flank and staggering him. Spark shot and killed the beast with a machine pistol. The animal began to smoke and spew. The other Russian shot back at my Elf friend with his assault rifle but missed.
I took another shot as I heard the other team of allies exchange fire behind us. But I had no clear line of sight and my shot went wide. Spark fired at the Russian who was unharmed, hit him and staggered him. The man took a knee and returned fire.
The dog handler took out a device and put it to his ear. Spark saw the movement and dashed toward him to knock the device away, which she did successfully. She then shot him in the side and close range. I tried to shoot the other Russian but he was withdrawing and I missed. He returned fire but missed me too. I fired again but the underbrush was causing havoc with my line of sight and my shot went astray - again.
The target of my attacks started to move deeper into the trees and I took what I figured was my last shot. I fired another round and missed again, and I saw him disappear into the undergrowth. I dropped the rifle into the low ready position and sagged in embarrassment. I could not have been less efficient, and it might cost people their lives, I thought in the moment. If the Russians come back soon we'd be in trouble.
I got the other two on board and he sent me the information. A guy named Cordero wanted to meet at the Blonde Scorpion, a local bar that caters to ex-military/paramilitary down near the docks.
I hopped on the train to go meet my mates and the contact. It was evening. The place reminded me of the Outpost, the veterans social club we went to during the last mission into Poland. Cordero, a human, was in the bar in a corner booth. I grabbed drinks for all of us. Cordero was drinking a beer so I got a pitcher of the same stuff and three more glasses. He seemed wary, standing to shake our hands.
Straight to business. Said he'd heard of our successful jobs in extraction. He had a group out in the woods of Poland, in a makeshift refugee camp where they'd gone after escaping the Russian Army. They were camped around a power station nationalized by the Russians.
"We just got word that they might be in trouble," Cordero told us. The Red Army was out to find and crush them. Their transport was broken down and though they had mechanics they needed parts. Our job was to get them operational, protect them and get them out. "We're all allies against the invaders."
Cordero provided us with a GPS unit and coordinates to the power station. The terms were good and he covered the costs of any equipment we needed that was mission-specific. I made a note to get woodland camo and more rations.
We took the regular roads most of the way but then there was forest that even my buggy couldn't get through. We walked the rest of the way using the GPS, visually scanning the horizon for the tower. I was on point, Blitz carried the parts and Spark watched out six. The canopy of the primeval forest blotted out the sky. We could still hear drones in the air so we hugged the trees and kept the canopy between us and the mechanical spies.
Soon we spotted a land mine, which I stopped just short of. There were more traps as we got closer to the camp site. GPS got us to within sight of campfires, and there was a building too.
Spark took the lead and I moved to rear guard. She is better at talking to strangers, so we relied on her to keep us from getting shot right away. A big guy on guard chatted us up and said they were fleeing to Germany but the truck had broken down.
Blitz asked to see the truck as we exchanged concerns about the sound of dogs approaching, perhaps Russian patrols.
Spark and I started passing out the ration bars we brought. I passed out food to the children while Spark attended to the wounded. Blitz was working on the engine repairs. The truck was wedged in the mud here and had become overgrown, so getting it out was going to be more complex.
After that I talked to some of the Poles about exfiltration. Spark helped repair some of the small equipment in camp. But the dog sounds were getting close now.
I called Blitz up to help and we attempted to sneak closer to the noises. About 50 yards away in a gully there were two men in long coats and goggles leading a giant dog thing, probably paranormal based on its glowing red eyes. It was sniffing the air. The men had Russian military insignia on their clothing. There was another pair of men and a 'dog' further beyond them, farther from the camp.
Spark and I ran low through the woods to the enemies farther away. Blitz and the Pole who'd been on guard attacked the nearer team.
By the time we'd gotten into position Blitz had cast two spells to attack the dog, beast, thing. A pair of fists made of energy rushed out at it and knocked it over.
I shot at the other dog's handler while Spark fired on the dog. My Remington 950 cracked the air and the bullet ripped into the handler, hitting him in the flank and staggering him. Spark shot and killed the beast with a machine pistol. The animal began to smoke and spew. The other Russian shot back at my Elf friend with his assault rifle but missed.
I took another shot as I heard the other team of allies exchange fire behind us. But I had no clear line of sight and my shot went wide. Spark fired at the Russian who was unharmed, hit him and staggered him. The man took a knee and returned fire.
The dog handler took out a device and put it to his ear. Spark saw the movement and dashed toward him to knock the device away, which she did successfully. She then shot him in the side and close range. I tried to shoot the other Russian but he was withdrawing and I missed. He returned fire but missed me too. I fired again but the underbrush was causing havoc with my line of sight and my shot went astray - again.
The target of my attacks started to move deeper into the trees and I took what I figured was my last shot. I fired another round and missed again, and I saw him disappear into the undergrowth. I dropped the rifle into the low ready position and sagged in embarrassment. I could not have been less efficient, and it might cost people their lives, I thought in the moment. If the Russians come back soon we'd be in trouble.
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Revenge at the gated compound
the stolen van
Oh, and she finally told us her name, which is Gray.
So, I asked over my shoulder to where she was sitting in the back while being healed up by Spark. "What went wrong?"
"You guys ever been double crossed by a Johnson?" she asked in response. She said she was aware we were pretty new to the Shadows, so she had to ask. Blitz was picking her brain. Her summation of the game: do a job, get double crossed, they kill you and they don't have to pay you for the work.
I pull the van into the neighborhood, and it's quiet and clean, a narrow stretch of streets with no vehicles parked on the street. The house was at the end of the block. It was wreathed in a high wall of shrubbery and a concrete wall with a driveway that disappeared into the compound.
I parked a few blocks away. We walked in and found a spot to climb the wall. Blitz went over first and saw two little dogs in the yard nearby. Gray went over with help then I hoisted Spark over and followed.
I opened a ration bar and we tied a bloody rag from Gray's wound to it, then Spark launched the nasty thing at the dogs to distract them. She threw it toward the front of the property as we sneaked to the rear of the house where the pool solarium was.
As we approached, motion sensors went off and the old man who owns the place froze where he was in the pool room, looking out at us in his swim trunks and robe, but with a rifle in hand.
Gray said she'd go settle the score. Blitz cast a spell and he became invisible to go along with her. I tossed Spark my silenced pistol and the two of us moved to flank Gray and Blitz. I got the rifle out and put on the supressor.
"Why don't you lower the weapon, Mac?" Gray called out though I couldn't hear the rest of the exchange. She nudged the door open with her foot and put something there to prop it open. Steam escaped the room from a hot tub.
Later Blitz told us Gray demanded her money or Mac would send the wrong message.
Spark sneaked off to deal with a threat, telling me there's another guard inside the pool house. I heard the muted pops of gunfire from where Spark had gone.
Blitz must have cast a spell because the thug in the pool room just goes flying through a copse of bamboo trees.
"Your goons are gone!" Gray yelled in a sing song voice to the boss man. He eased back into the building, withdrawing to the shadows. He asked to go to his pocket secretary and get money to pay Gray. The transaction is complete.
Spark came back as the guy went into his house, locking up. We retreated back to the front gate. Blitz tried to recruit Gray. Who knows where that will go?
We cruised off into the night, dropped Gray off and got a perfectly professional send off from her: "Don't call me. I'll call you." Later we all got 3,000 Nuyen each in bank transfers to complete Gray's payment to us.
Monday, January 27, 2020
A job back home in Hamburg
Spark's contact Ana got at her about an urgent job, a pickup, if the crew was ready and available ASAP. We'd have to go to the dock ward. Of course.
A woman answered the comm pickup at the dockside bar Wolf's Den. "I'm wounded and need discreet transportation to my safe house. Directions on pickup."
Linus, an Ork mechanic who runs a shop near my house, is not answering his comm so I couldn't get us a vehicle conducive for the job. (I only own a dune buggy and a heavy duty motorcycle.)
Great. Blitz went invisible and headed out of Spark's flat looking for a car to swipe. The two of them hacked a car. And it worked. Huh. Guess they're worth keeping around. I pushed Blitz into the back seat and grabbed the wheel.
It was a crowded night at the professional bar. The Human woman we needed to collect was in a back booth shielding an injury and nursing a drink. Her long ponytail spilled out from under her shooter's cap and she was in nondescript clothing. "What took so long?" she said in German. We handled the terms and the plan.
In her attempt to leave she doubled over and grabbed the table, her satchel swinging into view. We left, Spark leading her with me near our guest. I had Blitz hang back and cover our six. "The Johnson I just did a job for, his goon squad," she said when I asked her who I would be trying to avoid on the drive to her place. In the back seat on the way there, Blitz peeled off the woman's jacket, and there was a lot of blood. As we got closer to her place, she said: "Um, the neighborhood we are now is really 'haggard.'" She asked us inside to get paid. Yes, please.
The apartment building was a concrete pre-fab hell hole. Deep in the bowels of the building it seems to transform into a reasonable place to live. Once she got into her unit she sat down at a desk with a lamp on and her laptop open. "What's your fee?" she asked us. Spark said: "Four thousand for quick extraction. Four thousand for the patch up." "Done," she said, adding to Blitz, "Hey, big boy, can you get me a beer from the fridge and get one for yourself?" I sat on my haunches near the unit's front door. The room is stocked with boxes with the logos of high tech armament companies.
She wanted to go get the money for the job she had just done, to be able to pay us. Before we could leave, she shouted: "We've got company!" as she saw people moving in on the building from her laptop security camera feed. We all grabbed some payload, me getting a Remington bolt action rifle.
Two idiots came down the stairs toward us. "I want to get us out of here, through these fools, find that fucker and get our money," she said. "I appreciate the assistance you offer but you are our meal ticket so stay behind me," I said to her. We headed out of her unit into the hallway.
Blitz sent out a blast of stun energy that knocked the first two enemies onto their asses. We head for the vehicle, hugging the walls of the hallway. It was dark.
More foot falls were coming toward us. Spark snuck up to the corner and flipped a grenade (courtesy of our current employer) around the corner. Whoa. I hooked an arm around our employer and pressed her against the wall to protect her from any blast. She urged me up to the two stunned goons, then executed them. Whoa again.
The grenade rolled away from us, and the intended victims panicked and ran, well, right at us! BOOM! Dust, debris, smoke and trash all sandstorm'ed the hallway. Blitz threw a hand out at one bad guy, and flung him at the wall. I flipped my cyber-eyes over to thermographic mode, shot the lone remaining threat and rounded the corner. The hallway area ahead was clouded with debris. An engine (or more than one?) was revving outside and the sound of more footfalls could be heard. I peeked up the stairs to the surface and natural light was poking into the building. There's one bad guy crouched at the top of the stairwell.
My attempt to indicate to Blitz that there was one foe at the top of the stairs was lost in the fog of war. He advanced past me, unlimbering his borrowed shotgun and firing up the stairs. Spark followed, firing her pistol and killing the man at the top of the stairs. Return fire hits Spark from an unseen shooter. Blitz continued running crouched over up the stairs, slinging his weapon, swinging his head in pursuit of the threat to neutralize it. We strode up the stairs and saw that there was a guy in the driver's seat of an Escalade-looking truck in the alley. Another dude was between the truck and us. "Take them out!" I yelled to Blitz, pointing at the two targets. Our employer nudged me aside and gunned down a bad guy who was hiding up the fire escape. Nice.
Blitz blasted the foe standing outside the vehicle but he stayed up. Spark shot him and advanced on the truck. The vehicle lurched backward, trying to flee. "We need to take that truck!" I continued to yell. So Blitz strode up to the truck and sent a stunning concussion at the driver. It slammed him out cold, but the air back went off. Regardless, the four of us hopped in.
A woman answered the comm pickup at the dockside bar Wolf's Den. "I'm wounded and need discreet transportation to my safe house. Directions on pickup."
Linus, an Ork mechanic who runs a shop near my house, is not answering his comm so I couldn't get us a vehicle conducive for the job. (I only own a dune buggy and a heavy duty motorcycle.)
Great. Blitz went invisible and headed out of Spark's flat looking for a car to swipe. The two of them hacked a car. And it worked. Huh. Guess they're worth keeping around. I pushed Blitz into the back seat and grabbed the wheel.
It was a crowded night at the professional bar. The Human woman we needed to collect was in a back booth shielding an injury and nursing a drink. Her long ponytail spilled out from under her shooter's cap and she was in nondescript clothing. "What took so long?" she said in German. We handled the terms and the plan.
In her attempt to leave she doubled over and grabbed the table, her satchel swinging into view. We left, Spark leading her with me near our guest. I had Blitz hang back and cover our six. "The Johnson I just did a job for, his goon squad," she said when I asked her who I would be trying to avoid on the drive to her place. In the back seat on the way there, Blitz peeled off the woman's jacket, and there was a lot of blood. As we got closer to her place, she said: "Um, the neighborhood we are now is really 'haggard.'" She asked us inside to get paid. Yes, please.
The apartment building was a concrete pre-fab hell hole. Deep in the bowels of the building it seems to transform into a reasonable place to live. Once she got into her unit she sat down at a desk with a lamp on and her laptop open. "What's your fee?" she asked us. Spark said: "Four thousand for quick extraction. Four thousand for the patch up." "Done," she said, adding to Blitz, "Hey, big boy, can you get me a beer from the fridge and get one for yourself?" I sat on my haunches near the unit's front door. The room is stocked with boxes with the logos of high tech armament companies.
She wanted to go get the money for the job she had just done, to be able to pay us. Before we could leave, she shouted: "We've got company!" as she saw people moving in on the building from her laptop security camera feed. We all grabbed some payload, me getting a Remington bolt action rifle.
Two idiots came down the stairs toward us. "I want to get us out of here, through these fools, find that fucker and get our money," she said. "I appreciate the assistance you offer but you are our meal ticket so stay behind me," I said to her. We headed out of her unit into the hallway.
Blitz sent out a blast of stun energy that knocked the first two enemies onto their asses. We head for the vehicle, hugging the walls of the hallway. It was dark.
More foot falls were coming toward us. Spark snuck up to the corner and flipped a grenade (courtesy of our current employer) around the corner. Whoa. I hooked an arm around our employer and pressed her against the wall to protect her from any blast. She urged me up to the two stunned goons, then executed them. Whoa again.
The grenade rolled away from us, and the intended victims panicked and ran, well, right at us! BOOM! Dust, debris, smoke and trash all sandstorm'ed the hallway. Blitz threw a hand out at one bad guy, and flung him at the wall. I flipped my cyber-eyes over to thermographic mode, shot the lone remaining threat and rounded the corner. The hallway area ahead was clouded with debris. An engine (or more than one?) was revving outside and the sound of more footfalls could be heard. I peeked up the stairs to the surface and natural light was poking into the building. There's one bad guy crouched at the top of the stairwell.
My attempt to indicate to Blitz that there was one foe at the top of the stairs was lost in the fog of war. He advanced past me, unlimbering his borrowed shotgun and firing up the stairs. Spark followed, firing her pistol and killing the man at the top of the stairs. Return fire hits Spark from an unseen shooter. Blitz continued running crouched over up the stairs, slinging his weapon, swinging his head in pursuit of the threat to neutralize it. We strode up the stairs and saw that there was a guy in the driver's seat of an Escalade-looking truck in the alley. Another dude was between the truck and us. "Take them out!" I yelled to Blitz, pointing at the two targets. Our employer nudged me aside and gunned down a bad guy who was hiding up the fire escape. Nice.
Blitz blasted the foe standing outside the vehicle but he stayed up. Spark shot him and advanced on the truck. The vehicle lurched backward, trying to flee. "We need to take that truck!" I continued to yell. So Blitz strode up to the truck and sent a stunning concussion at the driver. It slammed him out cold, but the air back went off. Regardless, the four of us hopped in.
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.
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.
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