| From: | uplink 2099 <uplink@****.UNOMAHA.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The last run |
| Date: | Wed, 5 May 1993 19:00:06 CDT |
thanks to it, Scrape and Scythe are dead. ]<<<<<
-- Neil <16:57:23/05-05-54>
>>>>>[ What do you mean? Please elaborate, we like soap opera.
]<<<<<
-- Catch-22 (The Most Powerful Mage In The World) <16:59:21/05-05-54>
>>>>>[ I'll get this one for the detail-impaired. ]<<<<<
-- Swipe <No time/no date>
>FILE INCLUDE: TRANSCRIPT 020554/1121
We'd just recieved orders from a Mr. Johnson to meet us at
Run-run's to discuss business. It seemed that an old enemy of a certain
corporation was holed up in extraterritorial waters and they wanted a
deniable team to go in and do some damage to Mr. X. The amount of money,
half in advance, was enough to make us think twice about turning this sucker
down, especially after our last run against Ares.
Paradise, the team's fixer, gave us as much info as he could, and
to him, it seemed clean. In and out, plenty of whiz-bang and flash, and
no more Mr. X to plague the corp. It wasn't keeping to the shadows, but
with Neil and Scythe along, it'd sure be a short fight.
We shuttled out to their location in an unmarked speedboat, under
the cover of night. Neil said something about going fishing, and Zee told
Neil to shut up. Neil picked up Zee and dunked him into the waters headfirst;
when he pulled him out, it was obvious our rigger wasn't too happy. What
we didn't know is that he'd lost his link to the drones he was having follow
us but didn't consider it a big problem as of yet.
Reaching the target, we found it was a big oil rig left over from
last century. Neil and Scythe started up the ladders, while Zee fiddled with
his control deck. I offered to help him, but he shrugged me off, saying I
didn't understand about drones.
Well, we all got onto the rig with no breach of security. Scrape
used his particular talents and moved off into the darkness, while
Neil unpacked his weapons; Vindicator with dlx gyros and apds ammo so
conveniently provided by Mr. Johnson. Scythe had his weapons, but was taking
his time in making sure the grenade launcher was set. Finally, they
aanounced they were ready.
Scrape still hadn't come back yet. Damn, at times like this I
really wish we had astral reconnaisance; as it was, we didn't even have a
mage with us. Not like it really mattered.
We set off into the darkness, keeping hidden until we could find
Scrape. Neil said something about not wanting to catch him in the crossfire;
damned considerate of Neil. 'Course, we've been on his case a lot about that.
Zee was trailing behind, still fiddling with his control deck. I decided
to keep him company; I guess that's what saved us.
Well, a quick room-to-room showed that the place was deserted
belowdecks, but we hadn't checked above yet. Still no sign of Scrape, and I
was getting worried. My twin brother may have been a loner, but he'd have
checked back by now. Zee and I hung back, Zee was finally realizing that
the dunking he'd received by Neil had damaged his internal radio, and
he wasn't getting any response from the drones. So I decided to patch into
the control deck, using my deck as an interface.
We stayed in one room while the rest of them went on ahead. At this
point, I'll let Neil tell you what happened.
/Neil:
We shoulda stayed put, is all I can say. Scrape never came back and
me and Scythe were getting ancy about it. We shoulda run into something
by now, yet the whole place was deserted.
Ormon, our backup, thought he heard something upstairs, so we
headed upstairs to figure it out. We emerged in the center of the rig's deck,
and Scythe was the first to notice that all the oil drillin' stuff was gone.
Then they hit us with the lights.
Curse me, Ormon was the only one with flare comp, but even he couldn't
see what was goin' on. All we could see was a man's outline in the glare.
Then I recognized his voice: Talbot, the head corp we shoulda geeked from Ares!
The whole thing was a set-up to make sure we didn't talk about what we saw
at Ares. Talbot spoke:
"Our congratulations, alley-rats, for managing to escape us once. It
won't happen again. Our pets found your friend running around downstairs,
and we invited him to join us. He didn't take the invitation well, I'm
afraid." Here, I saw something big tossed towards us, landing at my feet.
It was Scrape's body, minus the head. It looked like it had been chewed
off by teeth harder than steel. I retched onto the corpse. Scythe was
only starting to get his bearing, but uttered a simple, "Oh, shit."
I knew what was coming for us. In our earlier run against Ares,
we'd run across these wierd kind of insect fleshforms, bigger than any
flesh form had a right to be, and with nasty abilities too. Teeth harder
than steel, with an extra set of telescoping jaws. No eyes, but big,
huge head. Zee once said he saw something similar on an old flat he'd
seen back in college.
Talbot continued. "Knowing how familiar you are with the Xenomorphs,
I took the liberty of inviting them to this little party of ours. Ever
since you killed their friend, their queen's been most anxious to pay
you back for that little disservice." I saw the shadows shifting against
the bright lights. I knew what they were. We were about to die.
"Now, my friends, it is time to bid you adieu, I have to make sure
we get back that money we loaned you to make this run." If there's anything
I hate, it's a welcher. I turned to the sound of his voice, and his
feet, black-patent on metal grate, and swung the Vindicator around. Half
blind, I shouted, "Here's something to remember us by, mate!" And cut loose
with the minigun.
/Swipe:
Once we heard the report of the minigun, we knew that the party had
started. We held back, knowing that we'd just get in the way, but somehow
I knew that Scrape, mama's other little Kyvek boy, wouldn't be coming home
for Thanksgiving dinner this year, or any other.
In fact, when I saw the Xenos charge up those stairs, I knew I
wouldn't be going home for Christmas again, either.
But thankfully, they were ignoring us. Either they knew we were
trapped, and could get us later at their leisure, or they didn't know
we were there. Considering we were both in deep trance, trying to fix
Zee's two drones, it may have been the latter.
Then I noticed that the drones weren't answering my radio
signals, either.
/Neil:
I kept firing and firing and there were more and more of them.
I noticed that the apds wasn't doing squat to them so I asked Ormon for
the belt of explosive out of my pack, where he could reach. He grabbed it,
but a xeno took the opportunity to skrag Ormon, and the impact managed to
knock me off my feet.
You ever try regaining your feet while dodging teeth and claws?
You ever do this in a full gyro-mount and vindicator rig, knowing that
if you ruin the gun, it could mean your death? It ain't easy, lobber.
I was finding new gods to pray to when I finally got to my feet. 20 yards
from Ormon and the explosive rounds.
Scythe was the next to fall, eaten away by the acid blood of these
things. It left only me upstairs, in an ever shrinking circle of xenos.
It looked like the time had come for me to punch out.
/Swipe:
I knew they were jamming us, but from where? Jacking out, I took
a quick peek out the corridor and found it to be clear. I sneaked around and
took a side passage, where I found, of all things, Talbot's bullet-riddled
body at the bottom of a stair. I could recognize the apds rounds that Neil
had been loaded with. His death did not move me at all so I searched him
for keys. At that time, I noticed a swelling in his abdomen area, and
he suddenly burst open, and a three-foot long lizard thing jumped out of
him, all pink and bloody. It saw me, how I have no idea.
I jumped aside as it leapt, its teeth gnashing, outstretched for
my throat. I pulled out my Roomsweeper and fired, but the thing didn't
feel it. It decided to aim at my groin, and I backed away, only to
stumble and fall over Talbot's corpse. The thing was on me in an instant, and
only by placing the Roomsweeper between me and it did I manage to keep it from
chewing my face.
But the little lizard was ferocious, and this close, I could smell
its hot breath on me. I pushed and pushed, but realized that it was too
strong; it would win through sheer tenacity. I knew it was hungry, it must
feed! or die in the attempt. I felt its claws finally ripping my armor J
off of me, and the next rake would take my intestines...
... When Zee managed to put an explosive bullet through its little
head, knocking it off of me.
I got up cautiously, checking for abrasions. I looked at Zee; he
had a pair of keys in one hand, obviously from Talbot. "You could have
killed me!" I exclaimed.
"You complaining?" he drawled.
/Neil:
The circle of Xenos was getting smaller and smaller; rather to say,
they were getting more numerous while my chances of escape dwindled down to
zero. The apds I had did some damage to them but not as much as the explosive
rounds would. There was only one chance left, and I took it.
They'd managed to clear the oil drilling pipe away from the main deck,
but they'd left the derrick and cable there. I jumped for it, using all my
strength to ignore the gyro-mount. If I lost the gun now, there was no
escape. But the harness was becoming a bigger and bigger burden. As I climbed
up the cable, I saw the xenos starting up after me, and worse, climbing the
crane arm to meet me at the top. But I noticed something the rest of the
Xenos didn't: Zee and Swipe were edging into the main control building,
behind the Xenos.
Whatever they were up to, I hoped they'd do it quickly. The xenos on
the main deck were having problems crawling up the thin cable, but those on
the derrick would reach the top soon.
/Swipe:
After we'd gotten into the tower, we crept up a flight of stairs and
found the control suite to the place, guarded by two corp types who looked
bored with the whole situation. I snuck behind one and pointed my Room-
sweeper into hi shead, while Zee covered the other. "Don't move, Chummer,"
I said in my most menacing voice. The corper got scared, and said, "It's
all Talbot's fault, please don't kill me." The sounds from across the room
told me that Zee had managed to make a similar impression. I growled,
"Where's the jamming controls?" The corper waved his hands incoherently and
stammered, "They're not here. Talbot made sure we couldn't warn you off."
That was Talbot for you; bright but paranoid. If we couldn't turn
off the jamming then we were all hosed. Then I had an idea.
Zee was closer to the window; I had him yell at Neil. It told the
xenos where we were but with any luck that wouldn't be a factor soon. Then
Zee made sure his drones were ready.
/Neil:
When Zee first yelled to me I thought, "What does he want with an
antenna?" Then I heard him the second time. The control and radio
antennas were on the top of the control tower; I could barely see them in
the night sky. I pulled out Scythe's grenade launcher, and pulled the trigger.
At that time I was praying to the Force, anyway.
Only a Jedi could have made the shot, yet make it I did. The explosion
ripped apart the communications suite on top and illuminated the rest of us
nicely. They were at the top of the derrick and I knew that thye'd start
cutting the rope soon. That's when I heard them.
Two drones, helis by their look, came whizzing across the deck,
letting loose with twin machine-gun fire and rockets, blasting into the xenos
on deck, who milled about in confusion. Even those who had climbed to the top
of the derrick seemed to be confused about something. Whatever it was, they
weren't paying attention to me, so I quickly slid down the metal cable and
reached the remains of Ormon, the explosive belt still gripped in his hands.
I grabbed it, and quckly switched belts. I was right --- the explosive
bullets ripped right through them, leaving a clear path to the edge of the
oil rig. No duumy I, I charged the railing, shedding the harness as I did
so. I blasted a few others out of my way and jumped down, into the waters
of the ocean more than 200' below me.
/Swipe:
After Zee got the drones working, we started in on the Xenos. Zee led
the way down the stairs while I kept the two sararimen in line. Neither
were armed, so I didn't have too bad a problem with them. Which was good;
my clothes were in tatters and my armor J was a thing of the past.
We crept back down under deck, but the xenos seemed to have their hands
full with Neil and the minigun. On the bottom level, we faintly heard Neil's
"GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and then a splash. We knew the xenos were after us.
But it wasn't until we got to the ladder that we finally saw one.
Zee went down first, and then the two corps, while I kept lookout.
As the woman corper went down, I felt hot breath on the back of my neck, and
the hissing of a xeno. I turned to see the ugliest, nasties xeno I've ever
seen, and it seemed to smile at me. At that time, I could do nothing but
soil my underwear. It looked behind it, and it seemed satisfied that it
had this kill all to itself.
I was gibbering on the edge of insanity. I pulled the Roomsweeper
up and pulled the trigger, but round after round did nothing but scratch
the thing's chitin. It seemed to smile, and then I heard a peculiar sound,
sort of a rasp and a barking choke. It was laughing at me.
So amused in its absolute power over me, it felt it had the time
to play with me. First it picked me up and slammed me into the bulkhead.
Then it batted me aside; I went sprawling. I knew my arm was broken.
It lumbered after me, and picked me up with one hand. I looked at it,
it at me. Then something strange happened.
It seemed as if the world -shifted-, and I was looking through
a kaleidoscopic image of the world. The xeno had a sickly gray cast to
it, with some ugly reds and yellows superimposed. I'd heard Scrape
talk about the auras of things; was I seeing its Aura? I wasn't
a mage! I'd decided to become a decker back in college, while Scrape
developed his physical adept powers on the track-n-field team. But I
was looking at this thing in this sort of pinkish light, and I knew it
had to be destroyed.
The pain in my arm seemed to subside, and I found myself
concentrating on the thing's aura. My mind seemed to race back to when
I was dating this really hot mage; she had this killer hellblast spell
which I got to asking her about once. She tried to explain it to me
but I couldn't understand her at the time. Now, with perfect clarity,
I could recall her words perfectly. It wasn't a sort of conscious
thought; I just put my will behind it, and suddenly, the creature I'd been
looking at so strangely ... wasn't there.
My vision had returned to normal, and the pain in my arm was even
greater than before. I limped over to the manhole, pausing to look
at the smoking ruin that had been my nemesis. I was sure that my brother's
spirit was with me; otherwise, I'd be dead right now. I heard explosions;
the whole place seemed to be falling apart as the ground lurched under me
and I fell
/Zee:
I'd just managed to load the two corps into the boat when Neil came
swimming up to us. Grinning, he was still holding his prized vindicator
above water. I didn't give him any flack about it, seeing what we'd just
gone through, I knew the vindicator would come in handy in shaking off any
pursuit. I guess Talbot was going to use the boat to go back to the
mainland, that's why it was still here.
Switching over to Drone Alpha, I saw that the Xenos were milling about
confused, so I let them have some rockets to chew on. Now, drones was never
my best things to use but rockets are so easy to aim it's pitiful. On the
field of my perception, Neil was yelling something about Swipe, but that
couldn't be helped. I saw quite a few xenos leap into the salt water only
to start dying; we'd seen before that salt water was one of the few things
that could affect them. So I switched to Drone Beta and gave them the last
of Beta's ripples. The deck was awash in fire now, and it'd be a short time
before things went all to hell.
Then the world exploded.
I had just switched to Drone Alpha and that was the only thing that
kept me alive. The entire deck seemed to lift as a majorly huge fireblast
came from belowdecks. I checked the deck; the fire was close to the
fuel tanks but there wasn't anything belowdecks to cause that big an
explosion! Neil was yelling something so I told Alpha to follow us. Beta'd
been destroyed in the blast.
I switched back to the boat in time to see Swipe's
limp form fall out of the manhole, bounce twice off the ladder,
and hurtle towards the boat! Only by some miracle did Neil manage to
catch Swipe, and Neil put Swipe's battered form down gently, amazed, as
I was, to see that he was still breathing.
"Zee," Neil started, "get to work on him." Neil took the
controls
and started us towards home. Pursuit was minimal, handled easily by Alpha,
and we limped back to Seattle.
>END FILE INCLUDE
>>>>>[ As you can tell, chummers, I'm fine, but I still grieve over my
brother's loss, and Scythe was a damn fine Ronin. It'll be many moons
before I'm up and about; I hadda really argue with the docs to make sure
they didn't amputate my arm. Spirit & CRUSH: Sorry I couldn't make it to
the wedding, my congratulations, I'll send Neil over instead.]<<<<<
-- Swipe <what now?>
