| From: | ANGLISS BRIAN EDWARD <angliss@****.colorado.edu> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | More of the camera logs |
| Date: | Sun, 22 Oct 1995 17:08:31 -0600 (MDT) |
computer system again, and even with some professional help, we are
having trouble repairing all the damage done. It will take several weeks
before Haven is back to some semblance of normal.
But here we go again. Enjoy.
+++++ Include Lone Star Surveillance logs +++++
After an instant of static, the logs pick up not too far after you left
them, with movement all around, mostly in the shadows, but moving
inexorably closer to Haven all the time. From the number of people
moving, you estimate the VR to be in excess of 30. Considering the
number of people that Moonwalker and others had identified, this is much
larger than you expected. Perhaps 15 or 20, but 30? Either whoever is
running the VR brought in more of their chummers, or they've been
recruiting. From this position, you cannot tell what kind of weapons or
armor they are wearing, but the drone is slowly moving closer toward
Haven and you expect this to change shortly. You are also noticing a few
vehicles moving forward as well, but not many.
The movement stops almost as quickly as it started, and then you see
nearly simultaneous flashes, followed about 2 seconds later by bright
flashes at the front door, the roof, and the north side of Haven. You
recognize the obvious signature of mini-grenades. These appear to be
offensive frag grenades. More flashes follow, but these are from a very
different source. Something is making the scene darken noticably,
obscuring the already cloudy sky with its dark presence. Then comes the
lightning. You have no audio feed through this drone, but from the
damage on the ground, you can imagine the sounds of thunder as
deafening. The shadows advance, even into the realm of the greater storm
spirit, and some of them begin to take damage and fall. But three
figures only advance so far and then stop. For brief instants thier
hands glow with an otherworldly light as lances peirce the spirits cloudy
manifestation. It appears injured, if indeed a spirit can be such.
And then something else appears. A humanoid figure just pops into
existance, wearing a suit, tie, and mirrorshades. All the lightning
coming his way he neatly sidesteps as he non-chalantly removes his
glasses. There is enough light now that you see the glasses disappear,
and the camera suddenly changes angle again, to another drone coming in
from the west, and in it you can see the man's eyes.... They are empty
of all but reflections of the storm. Then he begins to change shape,
growing larger and more sinister. A spirit, perhaps greater itself, or
maybe something more. He blinks out of existance again, followed almost
instantly by the storm spirit. Without the storm around, the VR get
bolder and press their assult.
The camera changes angle again and you see another, new shape. A car.
The editor of this log has even called up an identifying program, and the
caption reads "1952 Hudson". There is, to the best of your knowledge,
only one in Seattle, and it is owned by Dr. Alexander Jackson. It is
barreling in, and from out of it's bodywork spout some rather unpleasant
looking weaponry, including two miniguns. You are momentarily blinded by
the flashes as the weapons begin chewing up the VR in front of the
vehicle, and then it comes screeching to a halt before the front door,
effectively blocking the way inside.
But something is wrong. Off to the south side of the building, even as
you see a tall human male, a red-headed female elf, and a medium sized
human female pour out of the protected side of the Hudson, a small
figure, with thumb stuck in mouth and stuffed animal in hand, wanders
forward as if in a daze. The camera changes angle to another drone
again, and from behind you begin see the same suited figure appear at the
corner, looking a bit disheveled but very much alive, motioning to the
little girl, as if beconing her forward. And she responds, walking
through what is now becoming a battlezone with bullets flying past her.
One of the VR, carrying what appears to be an assult rifle, spots her and
spins to take a bead on her. The female elf, spins too slowly to stop
what is about to occur, but screams anyway as the VR trooper fires a
single burst at the girl. The girl, somehow breaking free of the spell
the spirit was maintaining on her, sees the ganger aiming and
instinctively covers her face. Somehow the bullets do not reach her.
And in that instant she takes on another countenance alltogheter, this
one a little less human and with, perhaps, a few more than the normal two
eyes. Her arms and fingers seem to shimmer with magic, and the physical
barrier that she cast to save herself has an unusal manifestation, much
as lines radiating from a center point to enclose her in a spiral net.
Less than a second later, she passes out from the drain and falls
forward. In the same instant, a form manifests and catches her somehow,
a tall elven male. As he scoops her up in his protective arms, the elven
woman has directed something and the ganger who shot at the girl and he
has been engulfed by a fire elemental of emmense power. The temperature
of this elemental is enough that the asphalt appears to be bubbling, and
naturally the ganger's ammo is cooking off, and his clothing burning.
Again, three bolts of magical energy strike this elemental, but this time
they are enough to destroy it. What it leaves behind, however, is
charred bone and melted plastic.
The camera shifts again, but to the sight of the panzers. They are
slowing and settling down upon the road nearby, and they begin to
discharge figures dressed in what looks to be milspec armor, and carrying
weapons from assult rifles to a few heavy weapons. The full gamut, it
appears, along with a magician. They apparently have heard the gunfire
and begin to advance cautiously, but nevertheless rapidly, with the
panzers ahead as targets and scouts. Within about 10 seconds they begin
to encounter resistance.
Another view, and you see the gangers are nearly upon Haven. The ones
with vehicles are stopped and letting off the passengers, who then fan
out in an only remotely organized fashion. Most of them are carrying
pistols, with only two or three SMGs among the 60 or gangers. These
children will be no match for the rifles and grenades of the VR.
And yet another switch and we return to the battlescene around Haven
itself. The human male, with spurs out and a heavy pistol in hand, has
started picking off VR as he spots them, until something catches his
eye. The camera angle, however, does not let you get a shot of what it
is he sees. But you do see the human woman, with her mirrorshades
missing and her matte black cybereyes reflecting nothing of the chaos
around her, crouch behind the Hudson and make some motion with her
hands. With a sudden, jarring change, the view changes to the other
local drone which shows a VR ganger clutch his chest and fall over
suddenly. The VR mages appear to know that these individuals are
responsible for most of thier problems, and they begin to cast spells at
them. With another shift, you see the tall elf with the girl open the
side door and enter, immediately disappearing inside.
You can only imagine what the spirit battle in astral space is like,
considering the number of spirits that Valentine and his instructors kept
around Haven to maintain order and safety for the children. And if the
VR had only half the number, the battle could still be going strong. But
here, on this plane, it is already going strong. This drone appears to
be circling around to the north side and the entranceway there where some
of the VR are stationed. One of them pulls a grenade and throws it
inside one of the windows, and they begin to batter at the door. Then,
out of nowhere almost, a figure enshrouded in a full robe, cloak, gloves,
all colored a medium grey, appears and rushes the three VR. Only one of
them appears to be fast enough and gets a burst off that flys just barely
ahead of the figure before it crashes into the three. As you watch, one
of them decides he wants to learn how to fly and lands with a broken arm
and neck. Another just collapses, his skull caved in from the top. And
the third, reacting just in time, avoids a blow that would have broken
several ribs at best and collapsed a lung at worst, only to run into a
foot that appears and strikes him in the throat, crushing his larynx. He
looks around, and then enters the building through the broken window.
The view changes again, and you see from the other drone that the gangers
have encountered the VR and are fighting. But you also see a single man,
carrying what has the classical profile of a sniper rifle, wearing urban
camoflage. You figure that a Lone Star rigger must now be controling the
drone directly now, as it begins to move a little faster and perform
actions that it's onboard autopilot would be tasked to perform. But you
do see the camera zoom in on this man, and then the shot pauses as it
pans over his shoulder. What you see is unmistakably the shoulder flash of
an Aztechnology Leopard Guard. And he is the only individual among the
VR who is moving as if he knows EXACTLY what is going on. One by one his
weapon fires, and from what you can tell, every shot takes down a ganger,
one bullet at a time.
With another switch, you realize that now all four of the drones are
controlled by riggers. This one, over by the panzers, has approached
close enough to finally catch flashes of some kind of insignia on the
panzers and armor: a silver dragon holding an atom in one claw and an
optical cable in the other. They appear to be having minimal difficulty
with the VR near them, but they are nevertheless advancing cautiously.
At this rate, they will be at Haven in about a minute.
The third drone has joined up with the first two and you finally have a
view of what it was that the human man was, and still is, looking at.
Off across the street, in a shadowed corner, stands something tall, but
with no recognizable features besides its dark and tattered robe and a
gradually growing violet light from within the hood. You see the man
shout something, and the human woman turns, spots it, blanches, and
appears to cast something at it. All of a sudden the shadow it stands
within grow even deeper, almost as if they have just decided to suck up
the light rather than just be a lack of it. Strips of what appears to be
animate darkness rip and tear at the figure for an instant, and then fade
away. Left is the figure, showing now signs that it was even remotely
affected by the spell. It raises its two hands, gestures, and all around
the battle seems to take on another, even more frenzied level. And it's
purple eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter.
You see something that surprises you, though. The man crouches down and
then leaps over woman elf and lands square on the human woman, almost as
if he was an animal. The woman, stunned and surprised, cannot move as
the man bears...fangs? and lunges at her throat. The elf, however,
spins and casts a spell that strikes the man full in the back. He
spasms, and then falls off, lying motionless on the ground.
With another shift in drone, you see two figures, one male and one
female, hurrying up to the south entrance, after apparently fighting
thier way through the VR. They stop, and then both rise into the air and
enter through an open, second story window. They immediately take up
positions on that side of Haven and fire out into the VR gangers,
catching them in a crossfire with the other gangers. Some of the
gangers, the ones in vehicles, have even used thier lances and driven
through the VR. But the VRs grenades have destroyed more than a few
bikes, and broken bodies lie around. The gangers are losing. Losing
bravely, but nevertheless losing. The VR, however, are now at about a
half of thier original number.
Suddenly, in the logs, appears an editor comment:
2 RPVs, fully armed, launched from Downtown. SWAT dispatched. FRT
units dispatched. ETA: 8-10 minutes SWAT, 4 minutes RPV, 3 minutes
FRT-LAV, 5 minutes remaning FRT.
The drone watching the corp units has now rejoined the other three, and
it appears that the corp troops are just shy of breaking through to the
front and north side of Haven. They have taken a few minor casualties,
but they appear to be moving as a military unit should. And they are,
afterall, military. The VR are only gangers with a decent leader, if
indeed that is what the Leopard Guard is. He continues to fire round by
round, causing death and destruction each time. The gangers, their moral
failing, have begun to retreat. But the VR are not pursueing. Instead,
they are turning thier attention back to Haven. One of the drones,
though, has noticed that the west side of Haven, where the loading docks
and such are, remains totally unguarded. And two of the VR are
disappearing into Haven itself.
Out in the front, the man appears to still be alive, as he is breathing,
but the other two are faring better still. They both look to be
teetering on the edge of exhaustion. The elf, after having the figure
off in the shadows pointed out, closes her eyes and concentrates. But no
effect is forthcoming. Nothing happens. Now, if only you knew for sure
what it was that she tried. Immediately following that, she ducks to the
ground to escape a burst of fire. The human woman, however, notices the
Guard coming around into range, and dives to the side. But not fast
enough as she takes a round in the leg. About the same time, though, the
first troop bursts onto the scene and, knowingly, blasts away at him with
a stitch of autofire, catching him across his chest. He falls back,
mortally wounded, but still somehow manages to get off a burst from his
sniper rifle that catches the soldier in the head and chest. The rounds
must have been powerful, because the soldier flys backward a few steps
and then collapses.
The troops begin to fan out and mop up the remaining VR, a job that they
take a few wounds in the process of. The man that the elf blasted
appears to be waking up, and the figure in the shadows has disappeared.
One of the drones shows a countdown clock, and it is now at 1:21. The
man, somehow still active, picks up the woman he attacked and looks at
her leg, then ties a tourniquet around the wound and helps he into the
car. The elven woman starts heading toward Haven when the elven man
again appears and stops her. She trys to shov her way past the spirit,
but then the human man comes up behind her and grabs her. They have a
sudden confrontation that lasts maybe 10 seconds, and then they both run
to the Hudson again, which disapears off east into deep Redmond.
40 seconds later, a panzer drops out of the sky and disgorges some 12
figures, wearing heavy armor, carrying heavy weapons, and wearing the
Lone Star insignia upon thier helmets. The begin moving in from the
west. You cannot hear anything, but you feel that they are probably
warning the troops to stay where they are and be prepared to be
arrested. The troops, however, hunker down and prepare for more
unpleasantness. None is immediately forthcoming, even after the Wandjina
RPVs and remaining LSS forces arive.
Then static, and nothing
+++++ End Surveillance Log+++++
That's what happened. What happened after Alex, er, AJ, Roxey, and Diana
left the scene was this. Lone Star took extreme exception to Ryaka
Science and Technology using thier military assets in thier jurisdiction
for any reason whatsoever. Ryaka withdrew, and Lone Star cleaned up.
LSS has apparently decided to pursue the matter with the Seattle court as
to damages from Ryaka's operations in Redmond.
And there were two VR gangers who did get inside. Righteous, Dana, and
Hermit ran afoul of them, but didn't get them. They then ran afoul of
Bruce, who knocked one out but got cut himself in the process. Righteous
came up and almost shot the last one, but the kids behind made it too
dangerous. He was knocked out by a quick sleep spell.
They have both been turned over to Lone Star. Oh, the Leopard Guard
wasn't dead when Ryaka troops found him. He apparently had a cyanide
capsule in his teeth, and killed the first troop who got too close. Then
he triggered a cranial bomb that was powerful enough to crater the road
and severly wound three troops in the blast area.
What is this world coming to when things like this happen?]<<<<<
-- Mozart <17:06:13/10-22-56>
