Shadowrun: The Wages of Sin

[Comrade Tortoise]

Shit, his spell wa shredded. Polynome braced for the possible pain, but it didnt come

"Well, my spell got shredded...Not good"

[Josh]

He plugged the vehicle jack back and kicked the SUV back into gear, door slamming closed as he spun the vehicle in a circle and started them out.

"Clear the area," he broadcast to Chase. "Wiz-worm's spell just got fragged by something out there."

[Comrade Tortoise]

Polynome Opened the door, lept from the vehicle and shut the door in what seemed like one swift movement, and headed for the chopper at a pace which was, for him, fairly swift. Ready to make with the magic should the need arise during the brief transit. He got in the chopper and strapped in across from whisp.

[Josh]

"What the frag?" he thought as Poly bailed out, puzzled by the action.

No point worrying about it. He did the mental equivalent of floorboarding it as he jammed the SUV out of the area.

[B4UTRUST]

Chase watched without exrpression as Poly transfered himself from the SUV to the helo. He turned and walked to where his other drone had fallen. It was off his list so he had no way of knowing what state it was in. He'd take it with him and see if he could repair it later. The Strato-nine drone detached from its patrol and manuvered close to Chase as guard.

He drug the fallen drone back to the helo and with an effort aided by detached will he managed to get it back into the launch bay. It would have to wait till later for a full diagnostic. The rotors began to speed up above him as he climbed back into the helo, fully ready to get the hell out of here.

He braced himself as he turned and looked out the side of the helo as it began to rise, at the ruined airport and the dead bodies before pulling the door closed and securing it. He moved into the cockpit and strapped himself in before sliding the data cord into the jack. With a rush of transition he was inside the helo again, part of it, one with it. He ordered the drones back into the bay and to shut down.

With sensors at full and guns at the ready he turned and followed Gil away from the airport at full speed.

[Cynical Cat]

The Shadowrunners managed to exit the area without encountering any more difficulties.

[Cynical Cat]

"This is him. He's the big wheel behind the project. And he's scarier than Atilla the Hun, if the company rumour mill is right."

"Where is he?" Mace asked.

"Chicago. He came in to town to supervise. Personally."

"That makes it easy."

"Maybe, maybe not. He's taken over a series of offices, but I don't know where he's living."

Mace picked up the picture. "Places like this usually have facilities to take care of the big cheese if they want to stay on site."

"The old plans had them, but there were extensive rennovations. Anything more you need?"

"I'll let you know."

[Josh]

"Talk to me," he radioed Chase. "Everyone okay up there?"

[B4UTRUST]

"As far as I know. Poly didn't seem to hurt and Whisp is still just sittin there so unless he's died from a heart attack and is still breathin we're good. I lost one drone during the fight but it might be repairable, I retrieved the body before liftoff.

'At this point I think the best place, personally, is going to be south west from here. Totally leave Chicago and its suburbs for the moment, we don't have the personel to do bugs. I say we head south towards Belleville. Scott AFB is right there, and UCAS might have it up and running again. If nothing else we can see about picking up some extra hardware and who knows we can always ask them if they wanna go on a bug hunt.

"I'm updating your map now."

Chase broke off communications and updated the system as he said before flying off. He was still contemplating returning to the air port just to drop some Outlaws on the damned place, destroying it, razing it to the ground and salting the damned earth. They had hurt his helo and one of his drones. He was less then thrilled. But he remained on course south, resisting the urge to drop large amounts of ordinance on chicago.

[Josh]

He keyed in the nav sequence. It was going to be a couple of hours of driving.

With a corpse in the back seat.

The day had started out so well, frag it all.

[B4UTRUST]

They were heading towards UCAS military airsprace and they wouldn't take kindly to armed aircraft in the vacinity, not civilians anyway and especially not 'runners. He did a quick browse through his transponder library and came up with the solution.

"We've got a small issue. We're flying towards the town of Belleville. They've got a small regional commuter airport but they're also right next to Scott AFB. With UCAS's military up and running I don't want to go in naked. I'm switching my system over to a AA mask. I'm using the Pendemia set.

"It's a small up and coming AA corp dealing with theoretical magics combined with machines. There's a confrence in St. Louis nearby on magic. We're using that as a cover. We're escorting Poly to it. You'll be our local ride and security and I'm covering as pilot and escort. Whisp and Poly are our passengers for this confrence.

"So load the Pendemia set into the liscense and color schemes and be prepared. I'll talk with the others before we set down. That is, unless you've got a better idea."

Chase opened up the intercom and laid out the plan to Poly and Whisp, then activated the transponder and modified their paint scheme to match the corporate colors. A few minutes later they were on approach along Runway 38.

"Belleville Tower, this is Pendemia 2-7 on approach along runway 38. Request landing clearance and a maintenance bay. Over."
"Pendemia 2-7, hold for verifaction of codes. Pendemia 2-7 you are cleared for approach and landing on 38. Your taxi line will be Charlie and you'll be using hanger 3. Over."
"Roger that Tower, Pendemia 2-7 out."

Chase prayed that their luck held out long enough to set down for repairs and get back on target. He throttled back as he moved across the runway, lowering the landing gear and setting down. He started taxing towards the hanger.

[Josh]

"Confirmed and agreed," he said, switching over to check the settings, get the transponder code set, and review the onboard library of information on Pendemia.

"Eta is two hours," he broadcast. "See you soon."

[Cynical Cat]

The runners trip was mercifully univentful.

[Cynical Cat]

Mace walked around the city core. There. Damn. That was a tough nut to crack. But he would find a way.

[B4UTRUST]

As the helo crawled to a halt inside the hanger Chase killed the engine, letting the blades spin to a stop.

He put the helo into a diagnostics mode and let it begin its scans. He then jacked out and tugged the cable free from his jack, letting it dangle from the dash. Unbelting himself he stood and moved into the cargo area, stretching.
"Well we're here. Just remember the cover and we'll be fine. I'm going to see how much damage the bug did to my babies."

Chase popped the door open and stepped out and then crawled under the helo, looking for damage. And he found it. Deep claw marks gouged the formerly smooth and photovoltaic skin on of the underbelly around the landing gear. He grimaced. It would take him weeks to repair and would probably require a completely new skinplate. Which also meant it needed to be coated in the RAM and the photovoltiac paint. The nuyen signs were getting bigger in his mind. He gingerly slid his finger long the torn metal and winced again. It wasn't pretty at all.

Sliding out from under the helo he moved around to the back and popped open the hatch for the launch bay and pulled himself in. He found the damaged roto-drone laying about where he had left it. Flipping on the maintance light he began to study the drone. Dents covered its casing, concave and ugly to look at. He was not pleased, not pleased at all.

He accessed his drone subscriber list and selected the drone, sending the startup sequence to it. It began to power up then froze, sending back error codes from its POST. He analyzed the codes in his mind, calling up manuals and diagrams from his encephilon. According to the codes, along with the abuse its case had suffered, several cards had been knocked loose and others were possibly broken. The gyro capture loop CCA was apparently completely shot and shorted out. The A-focal drive motor was stuck and the video aux card was either loose or completely caput because it wasn't registering anything. He shut down the drone and threw up his hands in frustration. Great. Perfect. Just fraggin perfect. Where in the hell was he suppose to come up with the the nuyen for this? And to hammer out the dents along would take a week, much less trying to rebuild the internals. Maybe some of it could be salvaged though.

He opened up a metal cabinet set into the skin of the bay and pulled out a few tools and began to open up the panels on the drone.

[Josh]

He was on the outskirts of St. Lou when he remembered something rather vital.

Hauling a corpse into the area wasn't exactly the best way to maintain cover.

"Will be delayed a brief while, have to take care of something," he sent to the chopper, before heading off the interstate and down the back roads.

Shit for a proper burial, but it had to be taken care of.

[Cynical Cat]

Kreuger walked to the doors to the office and knocked. He hadn't gotten a new secretary since he sent the last one out of here on a gurney. "Enter," came the voice. Kreuger stepped in.

"We know who is behind it," Kreuger said. "Celestial Dynamics. Double A megacorps, largest shareholder is Ares Macrotechnology."

"Ares is behind it?"

"No, at least I don't think so. But they are their white knight in corp battles. They sponsored the info run, as far as we can tell, and the burn job. Two different teams. The first one dropped off the face of the Earth. We can't find them. Dynamics probably cut the link themselves once they had some idea of what they stumbled on. They used additional cut outs with the second team."

"They have no idea of what they stumbled into. The discovery was bad enough but the loss of all that work is intolerable. Do we know who would have ordered it?"

"Yes," said Kreuger. "Probably the local VP. We're gathering info on him."

"Good." A man walked out of the shadows. Kreuger's heart almost stopped. "He'll be working with you. Keep him in the loop."

"Y-yes sir."

[Josh]

He put the shovel aside, wiping his brow. It was quick and dirty, not even six feet, but what was left of Wraith was now commended to the Earth. He stared at the dirt mound for a long moment, feeling the ridiculous urge to say... something.

But fuck, nobody else was around, and Wraith couldn't hear him anyway.

Finally, he snapped off an approximation of a military salute.

"Sorry chummer. That's the biz."

He collected the shovel, then turned to walk back to the SUV. Chase was gonna shit a brick over the damage to the leather interior, but those were the breaks.

[B4UTRUST]

Chase took the last panel off the drone and started peering into the internals. He pulled a couple cards out, one completely cracked and broken, the others showing minor damage that might be repairable. As he moved and shifted the drone he heard a few small objects moving around inside of it. Screws, washers, nuts, bits of cracked and broken circuit cards, he couldn't tell yet. It would take awhile to go through it all. In the mean time the drone was a paperweight. Livid was an understatement. He just silently hoped that the MPUV faired better...

[Cynical Cat]

Chase was relieved to find that the internal damage was minor. Two dislodged circuit boards, one broken. A wire knocked loose. Easy to repair and not too expensive.

[Josh]

Gil arrived a short while later, having done what he could to clean up the interior. It was going to need more work, but at least it didn't reek of recent corpse any longer.

He passed the checkpoint at the entrance and drove to the hanger, unjacking and climbing out.

[Cynical Cat]

Gil arrived to find Chase finishing up with the repairs to his drone.

[B4UTRUST]

Chase closed up the panels on the drone and put his tools away before getting out of the bay.

He heard the MPUV pull up and Gil get out. He closed the door and walked around towards the front, wiping his hands clean on his pants.
"Hey chummer, glad to see you made it. How's the rig holding up?"

He gazed towards the scratches on the vehicle from the offroading and winced slightly.
"Please tell me, they're just superficial..."

He glanced over as another vehicle pulled up hauling a fuel bowser. Chase walked over to it and disconnected the bowser from the truck which pulled off.
"Here, help me pull this over and get it connected."

[Josh]

Gil grabbed the bowser without hesitation, helping to lug it over. He wasn't particularly inclined to apologize about the damage from the hasty-offroading, that was done in the line of duty. "How're Poly and Whisp?" he asked, an inquiry more about their mental state than physical. He was starting to get the feeilng this run was on the verge of total FUBAR himself.

[B4UTRUST]

"Fine as far as I can tell. Poly might be a little shook up but no worse for wear. And Whisp...well if you can get anything out of that guy you're better then me. So, we're down one gun. Any thoughts on how to replace him and with who?"

Chase began to hook up the fuel pumps to the helo and refueling.