| From: | "Brian E. Angliss" <ANGLISS@******.BITNET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The run(Internal Camera Log) |
| Date: | Sat, 24 Sep 1994 19:16:39 -0400 |
log
of the group's success. Oh, by the way, T.C. and everyone who got taken and
hurt last night, the runners I was running Matrix support for are Kor, Irish,
Jasmine, Facesmasher, Kineida, and, as you well know, Foxey Roxey. Consider
this information a gift.
+++++Initiate Deck download, Camera sequence 4+++++
A brief instant of static, and you suddenly find yourself facing a centaur
with a bow aimed at you. Huh? That makes no sense, until you see the area
around you light up with a soft light and the menacing centaur releases the
tension on his bowstring and replaces the arrow in the quiver. Weird. Must be
a reality filter or something, as you are near a rather sickening looking....
and smelling river...of....blood. Ewwwwwwww....the smell and sight of people
standing, sitting, and submerged in a boiling river of blood is making you
want to toss your cookies. What kind of sick mind would generate a reality
filter like this?
Through the eyes of the decker whose sensory log you are enjoying, you see
yourself cross a slight ford where the blood is only a few inches deep and
easily crossed. Once on the other side, you take your high black boot and
wait for it to be wiped off by the tongue of one of the unlucky slags in the
river itself. This boy is a real sicko, whoever he is.
You proceed to the next area, presumably changing nodes in the process, and
you are now in a wood. All around you are leafless trees and shrubs with
nothing but thorns. You see several areas that look like they are paths
through the forest, but you are attacked by an ugly, half woman half crow
being weilding a short sword and screaming. You rip a very large limb off a
nearby tree and catch the harpy unaware and surprised and sending it crashing
into a nearby bush. You see a rather nice and beautiful sword being pulled
and driven into the breast of the harpy, after which the harpy melts away into
the ground around the bush. Behind you hear a moan issuing from the trunk
where the decker ripped the limb from. "Why do you tear me thus? I have done
nothing to wrong you!" "Quiet, Macross, lest I tear more limbs from you and
increase your voice and your divine torment."
You take one of the paths, somehow choosing one over the other, and you
find yourself in another grove where each twisted tree and ripping bush has
flowers of somekind. Upon closer inspection, you see that each flower has
a small screen, very out of place in this realm of the torment of the soul.
Slave nodes, branching out from a central SPU, no doubt. And they are most
likely security cameras. Before you know it, you are looking at several at
once, some showing the insides of a block shaped concrete building, some
the external views, including an elm grove, an adjacent garage, and a swimming
pool.
"Irish, I am in position. The security system has been fed a loop that will
provide you with 10 minutes of uninterupted access. I am deactivating the
pool partition...now."
One of the cameras shows a VERY thick glass pane rising up into the wall of
the building, clearing the way for several forms that have just appeared out
by the river. You suspect magical illusion or invisibility.
"Excellent, Mark. Are all the residents out of the building?"
"Negative. T.C. is out of camera range, possibly in the lodge. Sabre and
Styx are out following the ganger distraction of Kineida's. What is the
Astral status?"
"Kor appeared not too long ago to tell us that there are watchers about, but
that they have not been watching this area. He also said he'd take care of
them when they came over this way. We're moving in now."
You see the 5 figures move from the river in towards the house, all the while
taking up covering positions. After about 20 seconds, they are all in the
house, on the first floor, just inside by the pool.
"Close it."
"Closing." and on a camera, the glass pane closes the partition again, making
only a little more noise to start with than was made on the way up.
"Entering living room."
"Cameras off line, no change in status"
The five figures, easily recognized now as a very big troll, armed for bear
but currently using an Ares Squirt, a red-haired dwarf that apparently is the
leader for the group, and three elves-one very tall woman with flame red hair
that you recognize as Foxey Roxey, a slightly shorter male wearing more-or-
less inconspicuous clothing, but with the manner of a go-ganger about him, and
another elf that the cameras seem to not want to focus on, almost as if he
was slightly off in another plane. That must be MaxiMillion, Roxey's ex-ally
and now Free Spirit. The 5 move carefully into the next room and over toward
the stairs, being very careful not to move or touch anything. Roxey, pointing
upward, says "Third floor. Second is living areas, third is corporate zone
and where the program should be."
Two at a time, with Roxey in the middle, alone, the five move up the stairs,
watching above and behind with a paranoic look that speaks of the survival
traits that every decent runner must know. At the top of the first landing,
something even less easy to focus on appears, floating before Irish.
"I just dispatched a Watcher. Another nearly made it to the lodge before I
caught it. We may have been discovered. Move it."
"Affirmative. Just tell Max next time. That way you don't have to
appear, and he'll relay the message."
"Right."
The 5, in the same arrangement, move more quickly up the stairs, passing from
camera to camera. But on another totally unrelated one, you see that a car
is returning to the garage.
"Frag. Irish, the owners just returned. Pick it up."
"Right. Move it."
The five reach the third floor quickly and run into a maglocked door. Roxey
pulls out a maglock passkey and runs it through, opening the door. Taking up
coverage positions, they move through into the hallway. Each side is lined
with doors, and the five start opening them. Another camera, down on the
first floor, shows an elven woman exiting the elm grove and walking toward
the door, and greeting the other two women. One seems very down, and the
other rather wary, as if she suspects something. This one's eyes roll back
in her head for an instant, and you hear "no Watchers." The other two
suddenly get serious, and the first woman mentions "They had hours left yet..."
"Problem, Irish. Tell Kor that they know the Watchers are gone. And that they
are coming in the front way."
"Roger. Rox, tell Max, will you?"
"Already done...and Kor knows too. He'll watch out for them."
"Found it. Target found, Irish."
"Ok, Face. Kineida, give him the chip. Rox, cover us."
The three women are now prowling around the first floor, with one heading
down the stairs into the basement, where the cameras show a rather well
equiped firing range. One of the others, Styx, if memory serves, is nearing
the pool when she stops suddenly, looking at the pool. Leaves. "Frag! It's
been opened!"
"Irish, they know. Move now."
"Give us 1 minute to complete download."
"No can do. My control is limited, and I have zero control over the emergency
call button to TYR security....which just got pushed. Projected ETA: 4
minutes."
"Got it."
Time passes as you watch the women gather and pull weapons. Styx pulls a
pistol, but the woman who went into the basement returns with an SMG. The
shaman from the building concentrates for an istant, and then she suddenly
begins to thrash about as if fighting off something. "Frag! Astral overwatch"
Almost as fast as she starts, the shaman stops, gasping, and looking to be
rather injured, or at least very shaken. "Upstairs. TYR. Go...." and she
falls over as her legs give out. She's still conscious, however. The other
two head up the stairs, giving each other cover as they do so. It looks like
they have spent time in the shadows as well.
"Got it. Download complete. Lets rock and roll."
"Right. Roof hatch, distraction 1."
With that, Roxey looks at Max, and Max disappears. Off in the distance, you
suddenly hear an explosion. The camera in the garage records the sudden
spontaneous ignition of two bikes and several cans of explosive chemicals as
a slightly fuzzy image of a superimposed elf and pheonix appears in the middle
of the garage. Another camera shows both women continuing upwards while a
third shows the shaman climbing to her feet and heads out toward the garage.
"Two still coming up, at 3rd landing...."
"We're out on the roof. There's nothing up here!"
"Relax, I got it." What Kineida and Facesmasher have you don't know, as the
are out of camera range, but you hear through their commlinks the prep of
several rapelling rigs and the descent into camera sight again of three people
with the fourth floating down on magic. Inside, you see Styx and the other
woman heading up out onto the roof as well, reaching the edge, taking aim,
and then stopping. Well, there's no noise at least, until they get back
inside and race down the stairs, one of then screaming "Roxey! WHY?!"
"Let's move, route 2." and the four head off in the direction of the elms and
what the cameras show off on the edge of the property a stolen van, sitting
there. Another camera shows the shaman staggering out into the grove only to
literally stumble upon the runners. "Stop!"
"Move away, T.C. I don't want to hurt you...."
"Roxey, why?" T.C. asks while she begins to raise a spell or a spirit.
"Don't do it, T.C.... Please......"
"I have to...." And T.C. stops, raises a hand, and throws a very powerful
spell at the four, but it never reaches them. Kor, in Astral space, must have
dispelled it or destroyed it somehow.
"Frag you, T.C. He has my daughter....he'll kill her if I don't do this.....
I'm sorry......." and Roxey casts a spell, issuing with it a scream that would
curdle the blood of a demon, and around her a wall of fire and energy rises
up, generating a flash and a concussion blast that literally picks T.C. up off
her feet and throws her clear out of the grove, only to land at the feet of
Styx and the other woman who are rushing in to help her. The magical fire
dies down, only to be replaced by a real one, and through the fire you see
four figures racing through burning trees and across open ground, leaping into
the van, and disappearing while Styx and the other woman render first aid and
healing magic to their friend and companion.
A final camera shot shows TYR Security units arriving on scene and quickly
extinquishing the flames that still were powerful enough to damage the
lodge.
"Mark, we're clear. Get clear yourself."
"I'm way ahead of you, Irish. Ms V says to report to her your success ASAP."
"Confirmed, Mark. Pleasure working with you."
"And with you. Jacking out"
And the picture fades back away from the 'up close and personal' look with
various cameras to a full matrix picture of the deadly woods and a sense of
mirth. "Stupid, Roxey. She dies now, all because of you. I might have
killed your lovely daughter before, but now I must...."
+++++End Deck log download+++++
Your daughter will die shortly, Roxey. So young.....]<<<<<
-- Dante(Abandon:All:Hope/Ye-Who-Enter-Here)
