Death Valley: A Shadowrun RP (Game Thread)

[3quency]

The explosion does not help with Jade's hangover. She stumbles back and is instantly showered in rubble. There's a dull ringing in her ears and she feels a little blood trickling down.
She runs back the way she came and runs into Blue, looking up and out. And then Jade hears the rotors.

It's got to be a UAV. Difference between one and a T-Bird's subtle but you work with them long enough you get to spotting it.
And let's face it, what are the odds of it being friendly?

"I think we should start running back. Like now." Blue says.

Jade glowers at him.

"Gee, ya think?" and she's sprinting away from the bastard thing.
As she's running she can see some of the rest of them team up ahead of them. The Kristoff guy's yelling: "HEY...IF ANY LOCAL LAWMEN ASK YOU GUYS ARE ALL PART OF LONESTAR SWAT TASK FORCE 0041...CODE NAME "Ranger Squad" GOT THAT!!!...WERE GONNA GET OUT HERE ALIVE... VICIOUSLY AND BRUTALLY MAIMED PROBABLY...BUT ALIVE"

Yeah, 'cause Jade looks like a fucking SWAT. What the hell's she supposed to do?
Ziggy makes some smart-arse comment but Jade's way too wired to care. The adrenalin's woken her right the fuck up and she's raring to go. Maybe she should try and get to Lillian?

Whatever, they can work it out once the whole group's back in contact.
She opens up a team-wide comm-chat.

"How's the saying go? Never, ever, cut a deal with a Dragon? The fuck didn' we listen???"

 

[FalloutJack]

Why thank you, old episodes of Mythbusters, for showing us as kids how structures may contain or shape an explosion dependent on the situation. You have just saved some goddamn lives with that one. Now that Matsy was on his feet and in better shape, Jonesy gave the dog a rough pat...as he and the other hounds heard a distinct sound...which was of some kind of air vehicle. However, both his and their instincts said 'wrong craft' and knew that this wasn't their ride. It was a drone! A big one. They use those in the military, an unmanned death machine meant to pacify large areas at no risk to even a pilot. It was possible that this was a black market baddie, but Jonesy had to wonder with those buses and SUVs coming in. What the hell did their boy know that was so-

"Hey! He's on the game floor!"

Jonesy had noticed this even as Blue was stating they should get the hell out of here. Okay, fair enough. Truth is, nobody was going to attack a Shaman-run casino with the Yakuza present and a bunch of runners in operation without having a time of it themselves. Truth is, Jonesy was even about to cast a whole damn storm on the drone when he noticed that someone from their team was using some heavy duty equipment on it. If that's the case, then she can have the first crack at it! If anything goes wrong, he could always storm it or any other opposition later. Calling his hounds to him, Jonesy prepared to leave when...

"HEY...IF ANY LOCAL LAWMEN ASK YOU GUYS ARE ALL PART OF LONESTAR SWAT TASK FORCE 0041...CODE NAME "Ranger Squad" GOT THAT!!!...WERE GONNA GET OUT HERE ALIVE...VICOUSLY AND BRUTALLY MAIMED PROBALY...BUT ALIVE"

"I'm not getting mangled without a fight, but I take your meaning. Now, let's get that bastard back!"

He was on the move with the Bogies now. They being faster than him, the hounds actually secured the directions to go and scouted around corners and everything for him. He therefore would always have extra warning along his path as he made it to the game floor. No Shaman or even member of his team would take shots at them, as they knew him and his dogs well enough. He stopped only at a Shaman of the Casino who had a reasonable aura to talk with him.

"Listen, I don't know who these people are, but they're threatening all you have and my own mission. If anyone here has a few spirits handy for that drone and those intruders, I'd do that. They need a proper 'Holy Shit' to make 'em back off and think twice."

With that, he moved double-time to catch up with his dogs, which he had waiting at the entrance to the gaming hall. That was when comms cut in and Jade spoke out.

"How's the saying go? Never, ever, cut a deal with a Dragon? The fuck didn' we listen???"


This annoyed him. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out his gun and answered her.

"Because you never, ever, refuse the goddamn Yakuza unless you're so hot-shit that nobody would lay a finger on you. We're not, so DEAL WITH IT."

Getting his dogs to spread out and be some extra eye to find their man, Jonesy took this opportunity to do something...probably stupid...but he had to risk it. This whole business told him that they were sitting on a way bigger powder keg than they thought, so it was time to get some Stockholm Syndrome going on. He needed the cooperation of their abductee. Jonesy shouted...

"Tobias! I know you're in here! They're coming to burn you, Tobias! We were sent to take you alive, but these people are out to kill, no question! You wanna live to see tomorrow? Work with us here! Survival is paramount over all things, and we can't do that while you go and walk into some fucking bullets! You won't get a better offer, here or anywhere else!"

Jonesy waited...for anything. A response, a shot, the motherfucking drone to come crashing down - anything. He was poised to run for cover, either way. Someone had to do this, so at least he was fit enough and crazy enough. The only downside was that if Tobias reacted badly and attacked him, he couldn't guarantee their mark surviving the next ten minutes, between his dogs, his fellow runners, unforeseen circumstances, and every shaman aware of what he was doing just now. Well, let's just see what happens, hmm?

 

[Asclepion]

[hr]

Mayan Casino - Lower Roof​

Tobias ran like a man possessed. He ran from the voice in his head.

Tobias had woken up in a room surrounded by Native Americans. He didn't know where he was, but the very fact he was breathing was like a miracle. Emotions rushed into him- sadness, anger, and determination.

But then the voice. It was always there, but returned to strength.

The voice was closing in. He yelled at his captors to flee, to evacuate the building. They were calling their own leaders, going up the chain when they attacked. While the Shamans fought, he kicked down the door, tearing at his cuffs as he ran, locking himself in a room and then throwing himself out the window on a table to which he had attached a kinetic dampener.

"Tobias! I know you're in here! They're coming to burn you, Tobias! We were sent to take you alive, but these people are out to kill, no question! You wanna live to see tomorrow? Work with us here! Survival is paramount over all things, and we can't do that while you go and walk into some fucking bullets! You won't get a better offer, here or anywhere else!"

The second half of the message was drowned by the noise of turbines. He dodged the floodlights of yet another horror unleashed on him, and rolled into the skylight, falling into the gaming floor in a shower of glass.

The drone gunship's turbine exploded, causing it to roll on it's axis. It stabilized just in time for a second shot to go blasting through half of it's front fuselage. The drone went careening sideways, but as it did, the response was an immediate barrage of fire, ripping the walls and ceiling apart. Sonya was hit by an avalanche of debris, falling through the floor and rolling out as a heap of matter fell around her.

Hotel security- or people dressed as them- ran everywhere. The hallways flooded with gamblers and tourists rushing in mad panic. The Yakuza commlink was incoherent voices and screaming.

[hr]

Mayan Casino- Executive Offices​

The second General was flashed with data on the damage to the plane. Here, just as the Corral, the attacking force was coordinated.

A woman, or a machine. Some combination of both. An Asian female; dark hair, a ripped body mostly covered by black skintight material, and fierce red eyes. She wore a head attachment with two wing-like protrusions, and from these projected transparent HUD lenses that could be lowered over the eyes, or kept up out of the way.

One hand was wrapped around a black, straight-edge blade a meter and a half long. The other hand held another, shorter blade of the same technology. Yet another was at her side.

She came down the stairs into the decorative executive offices, flanked by more soldiers in hotel uniforms. Her eyes narrowed, and through the lens she saw movement on the other side of the wall, directly around the corner. Her blade few out, penetrating the wall and was rewarded with a loud scream. The man- a hotel security guard- appeared from the hallway. He made a grab for his own entrails and managed to catch them before he died.

The other hotel security agents were caught wide-eyed in shock. One was going for his gun, already in motion when the blurring sword struck him in the right shoulder, amputating a limb before the blade suddenly changed direction and went slicing through his neck as easily as through the air.

She left the dead there on the ground, seeking the targets, passing with merciless indifference once more.

 

[Asclepion]

"Listen, I don't know who these people are, but they're threatening all you have and my own mission. If anyone here has a few spirits handy for that drone and those intruders, I'd do that. They need a proper 'Holy Shit' to make 'em back off and think twice."
-

[hr]

Mayan Casino - Gaming Floor​

Homeless flooded the casino. The air was filled with bullets and magic. Something else was moving. Something big. The ground was rumbling.

All around the assailants, Shaman, and trapped visitors was a shattering noise. Then another. Another. It was like some giant was stomping around. The giant steps stopped. Tobias was leaping across the floor, away from the surging hordes. All around them pillars of rock, each as big around as a tree trunk, ripped into the air.
Grrrunch!
The ground was lifted off. And standing over the assailants, with the shattered floor in its mighty hand, was a beast that seemed to be made of living rock.

The Earth Spirit was twenty feet tall. As tall as a telephone pole. It stood on three massive legs, each as big around as a redwood tree. It had a tiny head, not much bigger than a human head. It would have looked funny, except that there was nothing funny about what it was doing.

With two long, mighty arms it was casually tearing up concrete. It glared down at the army before it with tiny bright eyes in that weirdly small head. The Earth Spirit slammed his fingers into the mass of assailants and floor and tables. It ripped them up in slabs and tossed them over it's shoulder. One of the slabs hit an Ork in a tuxedo and crushed him. The Earth Spirit didn't notice or care. As it did, more spirits were being summoned in a thunder of energy.

 

[Birdfalcon]

Kris found himself up to his neck in homeless as the buklets flew he picked his targets and was running low on ammo, pulling a flashbang from his belt he primed the pin and threw it into a swarm of homeless stunning them and getting among them killing a few with martial arts strikes to soft targets he picked up thier dropped ammo and an M4 quickly slinging it over his back he muttered and saw the massive earth spirt kick up the floor as shamans chanted he exhaled and muttered moving through the controlled chaos with his new toy shot at random homeless and kept alert ewatching his sides and rear as the battle raged around him.


Looking for te others he fought as hard as he could and got behind cover pulling out his smartphone he looked at the map of the casino that nascha had finally sent him it was time to find the others. Find tier target and get the hell out ideally before the cops showed up and he would have to put his alibi to the test.

 

[Terratina.]

One flashbang later and Ziggy was gone. Best to play catch-up with the target. Hell, it was just like American football, tackle a few mooks, grab the ball and rush to the end zone. But Tobias was a slippery fish indeed, but that was part of the fun. Ziggy became a blurred streak as he sped towards the casino. Madness surrounded him, but he was quick to zig-zag the army, throwing yet more flashbangs to vanish in order to escape the growing mob of raggedy chromes. Whatever Tobias had got involved in, it was big. These people were very, very tenacious, they wanted Tobias badly.

Too bad, Ziggy wanted him as well. He wondered whether their new friends would hunt down the Yakuza once they gave them Tobias. And with that, Ziggy scoffed, what did it matter? Enough people were being dragged into this mess. Hotel staff and tourist were screaming like their precious little world might explode as they were streaming out of the hotel grounds; this would be a mess. Wait, this was a mess.

The next thing that happened was a moment of beauty. Ziggy arrived at the casino floor. An almost angelic vision of Tobias crashed through the skylight. In the middle of complete utter panic, the world seemed to move into slow-motion as the blonde hunk fell. Glass shards and light formed a halo around him. However, this was an angel without wings, and Tobias was at the end of his little flight. Ziggy, ignoring the shards of glass headed his way, dived to catch or tackle Tobias, depending on whether Ziggy had mis-timed it or not. Time to get this finished, before the last of the cavalry arrived.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"Hey! He's on the game floor!"

Blue doubled timed it to the Game floor of the casino as everything went to hell relatively quickly. The drone was shot multiple times with some explosive rounds before it began to crash and even then it let off some of its weaponry as it did so sending glass everywhere. Blue thought that was it but when he arrived at the Game floor, the same homeless from the hotel began to flood the Game floor with the patrons being stuck in the middle. Security was having a firefight with the homeless before-

Grrrruunch

Slabs of concrete were thrown as if they were toys by a massive Earth spirit that towered over everybody else. The thing was as mean as an insect spirit by the way it was swinging its arms. Blue ducked beneath a dice table as a concrete slab nearly decapitated him. He spun around to fire at it until one of the Homeless grabbed him from behind.

"Get off of me!" Blue yelled as he wrestled himself loose from the man's grasp. Blue turned and showed the man what a cybernetic punch felt against a cybernetic face. The punch absolutely flattened the man's face and sent him flying towards the wall. Blue turned back towards the fight, desperately looking for Tobias.

 

[Birdfalcon]

"Civvies are caught in the crossfire...sillago fetch" Kris didn't have top be told twice as he made his way towards the casino floor as the gun battle between hiomless and a secuirty team was evdident caught in the middle was a young family and thier children who looked like they were on thier way to the pool when all hell broke loose. "Cover your eyes and ears!" shouted Kris as he threw out a flashbang adn the family immedtly reacted as soon as the bang went off and in a span of about 20 seconds or so the hoeless were dead or dying and the security team wasre flat on their backs with bumps and bruises but still awake. Kris turned to the secuirty squad leader and mumbled "YOu should be more careful..and where is the target" just as the guard was about to speak the radio went off and kris turned hearing "Suspect on the gaming floor any avilbe units respond...subject is with an elf male" "thats gotta be that Ziggy fellow" thought Kris as he made his way out twoards thegaming floor keeping an eye out for civilans to save along the way.

 

[Asclepion]

Tobias Dawson went charging out the door, into the night air. Blue and Ziggy were close behind, dodging the chaos of metahumans and spirits. The Earth Spirit ran rampant through the floor, sending slabs spinning through the air. A giant bat- one of the Shaman's totems, was coming into being, as was a dancing nymph of thunder. The screaming and roar of gunfire was deafening.

Tobias ran for his life. Unfortunately, that had the effect of dragging the battle outside. Homeless were closing in, darting in and out of traffic. The general appeared in the gaming floor, cutting through all in her way.

The runners tackled him into the side of the limousine. He fought, but Blue was stronger. He wrenched the door open, and they had just barely gotten inside when the limo took off. Sonya was nearly run over, gripping the hood of the car as it spend into her.

There was a noise of impact on the room, and a shattering sound. The Yaks and Runners in the car glimpsed a grenade, which detonated in a gust. The limousine filled with gas. Everyone blacked out.

[hr]

Virtual Reality - Islands​

When they came to, the limo was nowhere to be found. There was no casino or hotel. No desert or city. No VTOL. No ducks and soldiers. And the target was nowhere to be found.

A cool breeze awoke them. Ocean waves broke against the shore. The beach led into a tropical jungle, thick with foliage. But out from the beach was a beautiful shallow reef, light blue water flowing between a chain of islands.

 

[3quency]

Jade coughs and looks around. She kicks at the sand, watching as the clumps go flying into the air. She can feel the goddamn breeze, and that don't feel right at all.
She glances at the other 'runners, and out at the sun.

Her frown deepens.

"What." she says, all elements of hang-over scoured from her voice "The. Fuck?"

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

Blue blinked. Around him there wasn't any gunfire, blood, screaming, debris, or explosions but just the warm tropical breeze, the gentle sound of waves riding onto the sands, and the taste of salt. Blue was scared out of his mind.

"Holy shit..." Blue whispered out. He turned his head to see others realizing their new environment and reacting the way he did. The first thing he thought of was a dream so he punched himself with his human arm but that only resulted in pain.

"Ow... Alright it isn't a dream. Where the hell are we?"

 

[Birdfalcon]

Kris blinked and looked about his vision coming to he was on a tropical island with the sun beating down on his Preist outfit and the back of his neck after getting tenderily up to his feet two words that pretty much summed up the whole exprince were uttred from his lips

"Holy Shit"