| From: | Freddy Frypp <JAMES-CUENO@*********.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Invasion Day Fireworks |
| Date: | Tue, 7 Feb 1995 16:38:20 CST |
Anyway, by now the newies have probably already got this out, but
here's a first eye view of what happened on the Butterfly
this morning. I had Majikthize along for eye-shots, so it'll get a
little confusing later on.
Take notes, there'll be a test on this later....
+++++ BEGIN TRID DOWNLOAD
The trid begins with a shot looking through the window of a security
vehicle. Freddy sits in the passenger seat smearing lime-green
sunscreen on his face, looking into the vanity mirror.
Freddy: "I hate this crap. Feels like avocado dip."
Off-camera, presumably Majikthize: "What's it taste like?"
Freddy flashed on unmistakable hand gesture to the camera. "Hey,
your head better not be turned on."
The view shakes back and forth, the action deliberately exaggerated
to come across in the trid. "No, boss. I'd never do something like
that."
"Yeah, well, quit looking at me like that. Yer weirdin' me out."
As Freddy climbs out of the passenger door, the view pans around the
small collection of vehicles. Several LandRovers bearing FryppSec
colors and two unmarked 'Rovers are pulled into the lower level of a
parking garage with several heavily armed orks, trolls and humans,
in FryppSec livery with a few others, wearing more casual outfits.
"Christ, people, let's look professional. You look like we just
knocked over some third-world hell hole."
One of the orks, a female in an exceptionally tight uniform turns to
Freddy, "This is Oakland, what's the difference?"
"Good point. Allright," Freddy digs out a huge cigar from an
interior pocket, "Anybody got a light for el Jeffe, then?"
A high-pitched, off-camera whine is suddenly cut short by a massive
explosion. As the ground shakes, the collection of people begin
running to the LandRovers and pile in.
"Hey, GoD, Griff, slip into the astral and take a look down the
street. Sounds like the Marines are getting pounded." Freddy jerks a
thumb towards the sound of the explosions. Two of the men dressed in
FryppSec livery nod and hop into one of the 'Rovers where both of
their bodies go limp as their eyes close.
"Jac, Kabuki, get the tanks ready for action. Red, where the hell
are you? Get your people ready for close combat, it's here."
The Rovers start turning over and two of them proceed to pop wicked
looking turrets out of their roofs.
Somebody comes over the radio channel, which is spliced into the
trid, "Boss, looks and sounds like heavy mortars. You want somebody
to hunt them down?"
Freddy reaches to activate his throat mike, "Yeah, yeah, Scip, they're
yours, knock 'em dead."
"On the waaaaay."
Freddy pulls open the rear hatch of one of the Rovers and pulls out
two shotguns and bandoliers of shells. "Here, 'Thize," the angle
giggles as a shotguns flies towards the camera.
"Hey, Boss!" An off-camera voice yells.
"What?! Use the op-channel dammit!" Freddy, and the camera, spins
to see who hollered.
The camera settles on a shimmering, just barely visible haze floating
in the garage. The haze starts to take vaguely human features.
"Oh, GoD, wondered what the hell was takin' you so damned long. Your
bodies over there, I hate talking to myself." Freddy waves towards an
open space near one of the walls without looking.
"Uh, yeah, that's the problem."
"Aw, Christ, Scipio took 'em with him. Frag-up number one. Anyway,
what's happening?"
"The Marines are gettin' their asses thrashed. Lot's of explosions
at the end of the bridge. Lots of casualties. Getting messy
and tough to work. Painful just to be around. Coupla spirits popped
up and are clearing traffic... mostly by dumping it in the bay.
Griffyn's doing what he can - somebody else's showed up. Dunno
who, but he's standin' there invisible, tossin' some killer crap. I
gotta get back."
A look of consternation crosses Freddy's face. "Yeah, allright,
thanks. Get outta here." The haze fades out.
"Fox 1, this Fox 10, we're in sight of the mortars. They're firing
from a roof. We're deploying two shy of a full load. I just found
out a couple are out to lunch."
"Right, drop the fraggers, '10. Report in, by the numbers, vehicle
crews, check your bone-sets." Each vehicle reports in that all
systems are up and everyone's bone induction receivers are up and
functioning.
Moments later the last of the mortar rounds drops into the Marine
positions. Several heavily laden vans tear past the parking garage
at top speed. The streets deserted soon after the first mortars fell.
"Mortars have ceased firing. We'll try to pick up the crews anyway."
"Negative! Let 'em go. Bring back GoD and Griffyn. They might need
their bodies." Freddy hops into his Rover and waves one arm out the
window in a cavalry charge.
The two 'Rovers with turrets lead the way out of the garage, scanning
the buildings on both sides of the street.
This far from the bridge, the streets are deserted, but several
blocks down, the streets are filled with rubble and burning cars.
Survivors of the barrage stagger around the wrecks. Judging by the
wreckage a lane through the wrecks looks to have been cleared by a
bulldozer.
A tongue of flame leaps from one of the building and a black streak
slams into the street near the lead 'Rover. The second sprays the
front of the building with its minigun.
"Kubuki Man! Talk to me! You whole still?"
Another voice gets on the radio circuit, "Uh, no. I mean yeah. We
must be, 'cause I don't plan on talkin' to you first off in the next
life."
"Good to hear, wiseass."
"Our ECM must've melted the trackerhead and it missed. Lots of blast
and shrapnel I imagine, gotta see if we can join up again. We're
pullin' off, I gotta see what the armor didn't soak up."
"Right. Make best time." The lead 'Rover pulls into an alley as the
rest of the convoy charged on, with no more incidents.
When the convoy reached the foot of the bridge, parts of Imperial
Marines, commuters and their vehicles lie scattered and burning. The
'Rovers advance onto the bridge, slowly.
As they edge into the flat, spaced down the whole length of the
bridge are the vans that passed by earlier. Crews are unloading
explosives from them and bringing the charges to others who begin
attaching them to vital parts of the bridge.
"Right folks, you know the routine. Every two hundred meters
somebody bails and starts clearing. Anybody who resists gets
dropped, anybody who wants to give up gets drugged and cuffed."
Somewhere up ahead a heavy machine gun opens up, tracer arcing wildly
towards the convoy. A fountain of water shoots from over the bridge
rail striking the gunner and pushing him over the other side.
The demo crews blow up one of their own vehicles to try to stall the
slowly advancing convoy. "Allright, everybody left disembark. We're
close to the middle, anything's gonna happen it'll happen here."
The three remaining LandRovers shut down. The camera angle pans to
the back to see the other Rovers parked alongside the demo vans.
Several isolated firefights are going on at once. Crews in FryppSec
uniforms swarm over the explosive charges to disarm them, tossing
some to the center of the bridge deck and some over the side,
seemingly indiscriminately.
The dozen or so fighters climb out of their vehicles and advance up
both sides of the bride deck.
As the camera rounds the last van, a long shot down the bridge zooms
onto a group advancing from the other side. Flashes of gunfire,
explosions and combat magic light up the deck. "Ha-ha! Check
it out! Those sorry sunzabitches are tangling with the spirits GoD
and Griff saw. They're toast! Majikthize, get a good, long shot of
'em. I gotta frame this and send it Whistlin' outta tune." The
angle draws back and behind the Whistler's Fuchi / I-Marine element,
burning vehicles litter the deck. They don't appear to be drugging
and cuffing those that don't resist.
Near the center of the bridge, a lone troll stands. Others run
around him, wiring detonators to explosives that look to be under
the bridge deck.
The troll swings a wicked looking machine gun towards the camera, one-
handedly even, with a long belt of ammunition slapping against his
legs. "Freddy, you over there, you fraggin' pansy-assed dandelion
eater?" the Troll asks.
Freddy flushes with anger. "Who you callin' 'pansy-assed'?"
"Yeah, I thought I recognized that fairy walk," the troll bellows.
Freddy takes a breath toyell something back, but he get's pulled down.
"Uh, Freddy, I wouldn't provoke him," whispers another voice.
You might recognize Jacamus. "If I hadta guess he's got a compromise
detonator set. Probably a dead man's in his free hand."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where the hell's my combat mages? Scip caught up
five minutes ago."
On cue, GoD pokes Freddy in the ribs. "Save some trog-butt for us?"
"'Bout fraggin' time. Wish Kor'd been able to catch up with us this
morning. Can't blame him for wanting to see the hounds yesterday.
Crap."
Kor drops his invisibility spell. "You're right, Frypp, security does
suck at the office. I thought you might need some help. Been
watchin' the kids, they handle themselves pretty well."
"How long you been waitin' 'round for me to ask that?"
"Long enough."
"What the hell's goin' on over there pointy-ear?!" Shigekazu
emphasizes the question with a long burst from the machine gun.
"Uh, nothin', Shigekazu. We're just tryin' to decide what to do about
you. We gotta little problem. We can't have you goin' off and
blowin' up bridges, it won't help. The fraggin' Japs'll just make
our lives worse for it. We gotta convince them to get lost, by
attacking them directly. This town's lost. Killing cits won't get
us anywhere." The firing dies down behind the troll. The
Fuchi / Imperial Marine task force approaches slowly from behind
Shigekazu.
"Freddy, you're too fraggin' weak. You've gotta hide behind your
queer uniforms and pretend to part of the resistance. I'm gonna
enjoy watchin' yo' ass die."
"Hey, what's so queer about these uniforms? One of my ex-'s designed
them. They give the illusion of cleavage!"
Freddy turns back to his people and crouches down. A couple of the
others drop down with him for a quick conference. "Ideas?"
"Fry the bastard," GoD offers. Heads nod in agreement.
Jacamus: "Snipe the bastard." Heads nod in agreement.
"Yeah, but what about the trigger. He drops it and whatever charge
is under the bridge goes off," Freddy counters.
Kor leans forward, "I'll get it."
"Sallright, grab it, then we snipe / fry him. I'd like to get the
wires cut first, just to be sure. Jac, can you get 'em?"
"Shi-i-i-t, boss, I can put a round through a fly at hundred meters
and you know it," Jacamus grins.
"Do it."
Kor's eyes close and he reaches out, then clenches a fist. Shigekazu's
head snaps down to look at his hand. He panicks, trying to get
control of his hand as Jac's first shot severs his wires. From
the Imperial Marines position a grenade gently arcs through the air,
to land at the troll's feet. The explosion tosses him gracefully into
the air, before throwing him over the rail into the bay.
Faces in the FryppSec line drop in confusion, before a rage builds.
Several start forward, weapons raised, with Freddy just behind. He
manages to tackle Jacamus. "Hey, look at 'em! We're lucky they
haven't lit us up yet. Don't get on them, too. Give me a sec.
Finda decent place to set up or better yet, bring up the tank and get
a bead on 'em."
Freddy advances towards the Fuchi and I-Marine troopers. One
comes out to meet him. "What in the hell you thinkin' Whistlin' out
your ass?! We agreed to clear the bridge, first!"
"They'd know something was up Freddy. You know we couldn't allow
that."
"Couldn't allow that! You let 'em slaughter innocents. There's a
coupla hundred cars at the bottom of the bay or smoking at the end of
the bridge because of you. Yer no better than the asshole Shigekazu!"
"Freddy, you don't understand. It was outta my control."
"Control my ass." Freddy turns his back on the Whistler. "Leave
the charges, collect the wounded, we're leaving. They can have their
damn bridge."
+++++ END TRID DOWNLOAD
Anyway, we managed to get off the bridge and back to Oakland. Well,
'cept for Kor. He wanted to stick around and try to clean up, maybe
help plug up the wounded. Can't blame him I guess. I'd probably do
the same thing with a new lease on life...
A few cuts and bruises, the odd flesh wound. Nothing really to worry
about. Traffic was a bitch on the Bay Bridge getting back to the
office, though. Suppose we'll have that for a while now.
Seems one of the I-Marine demo "experts" had a little boo-boo. Blew
himself and a few others into atoms. Coupla charges managed to go
off and chained some charges nobody had gotten to yet. Snapped a few
suspension cables, blew a hole in the deck and mighta warped the main
reinforcing elements of the bridge. Suckers.
Ah, well, we're still whole, mostly.]<<<<<
-- Freddy Frypp (14:39:12 / 02-07-56)
President
Frypp Security, Inc. (CFSM Uplink #5150)
