The Harbormasters WifeTable of Contents
The MeetJohan called the three women together, specifically. Join him for beers at his place on the patio, for discussions as relates to the job at hand. The only one here who doesn't know that Johnny is old Sammy boy is the young Ms. DeWinter, even if it's an open secret. Johan's standing on the deck, looking between stands of bamboo to the city beyond, a Miller Light in one hand and a cigar in the other. "Ladies. Get a brew, get a seat, and then get ready for deployment." Lilith smiles gracefully at the man. Perhaps too gracefully. "Oh, I'm overdressed then." Kassandra finds a seat, foregoing the beer. She keeps her coat on, crossing her legs and folding her hands, placing them on her knee. She looks expectantly at Johan, tho faint lines of nervousness can be seen by those who know her, around the eyes and the mouth. Breeze walks out onto the patio and then heads over to where the others are gathering. She takes a moment to look out over the city, apparently appreciating the view and accompanying cold weather, before taking a seat and waiting to hear the operational details. Johan turns back to the others. "I'm Johan Wulfson, called Johnny on the Streets. SOme of you know me, everyone but Ms. DeWinter has worked with me. If you have an issue with me giving orders and putting my boot in your ass, now's the time to speak up, otherwise, I'm going to assume we're all professionals here and get to the point." He cracks open his beer, leaning on the railing. In the distance, down town's skyline is silhouetted in the failing light. The outdoor party heaters are working overtime to keep the cold at bay. Lilith idly taps her cane, shrugging those perfectly pale shoulders. "I've had worse done to me, but please, do go on." Breeze remains where she is, her silence and apparent choice to remain indicative of her lack of protest to the situation. Kassandra' glances to the other two women, her silence seeming to indicate that she doesn't have any problem with Johnny. The corners of her mouth pulls up at Lilith's comment, however. Johan nods as he reaches in to the cooler. He pulls out three hand held electronic readers. He offers them to each of the women. "Vancouver, Salish-Shide Council. They've been an economic powerhouse, but recently they've had some problems with the Tsimshan Nation. Whats that got to do with the issue at hand? Not a god damn thing, but it does mean the area is paranoid. So here's whats the skip. This is a continuation in to the Investigation of No More Tears LLC, the charitable foundation with a vehicle linked to a location of interest." A pause. "Kass, Lil, I'll let you brief breeze fully on your travel to Vanc." He sips the beer as he settles back. The chip outlines that Laura ThreeWinds, a standard anglo-with-a-drop Injun of the Salish tribe, is the head of N-M-Tears, and lives in Vancouver. Apparently she's gone to ground and been missing from daily life for a while. Johan has tracked her to her home on Bowen Island, just off shore from Vancouver. The job is to find her, take her down, then beat the everloving hell out of her to get more information.
Lilith remains standing, dress shifting in the breeze as she peers at the information. "Fair enough…what exactly is going on with this woman, aside from the obvious grab and go?" "She's connected to *that* house, Lilith." Kassandra's voice is quiet, no trace of her earlier silliness. She looks over the data, scrolling through what there is. "How long is a while?" Lilith face cools. "Ah." Wheels are turning. Breeze accepts her own data reader and scrolls rapidly through the information while the conversation continues. "Ah yes. I remember.", she mutters quietly so as not to interrupt the continuing briefing. Johan gestures to the readers. "You'll note that she cleaned out a substantial amount of cash from her accounts and she sold, recently, her home in Denver. I expect, and given that I expect the worst, that she's preparing to go under ground or on the run. I don't care about her, in frankness." He leans forward, putting his elbows on the bar to look over it to them. "I don't care if you break her, bend her, bleed her or rend her. She is immaterial beyond the information in her brain. We need to know if she's a solitary working on her own, or if there's a larger organization or movement. Am I very clear?" Lilith smiles pleasantly. "Crystal." Kassandra nods, once, eyes drifting back to the data. "Absolutely. I assume we go now?" Breeze nods, "Easily done and no problems that I can foresee. Any information on possible security assets she may have in tow?" JOhan taps a key on his own data pad, brining a picture up on yours…
"This man is Mikal Andropov. Desert Wars veteran, formerly of the Soviets, then did some time in the Sandbox, a short turn in New York City, before decamping to Seattle Shadows. How he hooked up with her I'm not sure, but it looks like he came to her." Kassandra interjects, "Callsign?" Lilith nods, once again looking to the screen. "Call Sign is Whiteout. I don't have a wealth of information on him as he only came up on radar a few hours ago. I'm good, but I'm not the old man and even he'd be taxed to pull this shit out of his ass." Says Johan.
Lilith snorts. "That's why he always carries lube." She mutters under her breath, browsing the datapad. Kassandra looks closely at the picture Johan brings up, drumming her nails on her knee. "Whiteout. I think I ran across this guy, albeit years ago, back in .. well, back then. He's magical, I know that much. They said he could see spirits, used him to disarm magical traps and the like. Ran afoul of a non-magical trap and got a new arm and eye for his trouble. They said he was up and killing people two days later, so I'd wager he is a fast healer." Breeze looks at the pictures as they continue to flicker past, "I've heard of him, but not much beyond that. Solid professional rep. The MET wanted to sign him, but if I recall correctly he refused the offer." Johan nods to the others. "It should go without saying, this man does not strike me as executive protection for a piddly NPO." Lilith closes her eyes, tilting her head. "I don't recall the name, or the face. But then again, that's hardly a surprise." She says dryly. Johan nods to Lilith. "You're hear to learn, Slither. I won't say you stand equal to the others in experience, but this is how you get it." Johan nods to Breeze, a finger going up to Kass to let her know she's not ignored, but he's answering questions in reverse order. "Insertion is simple enough, I'll be flying you to Vancouver myself and remaining in the area as support if -required-. I am also evaluating your individual performance, so I don't want to get involved. I cannot conceive of a situation short of a shielded bunker that the three of you cannot figure out a way in to." He looks to Kassandra then… "Don't nuke the place. Again; This is a hostile situation. This is a threat situation. I do -not know- what you will find in her home. It may be as mundane as she liked to picknick on the lawn, but it may be as sinister as funding a full blown horror-cult. Either way, innocent or not, she dies. Are we clear?" "No nukes, no widespread destruction. Anything else at the house, including the suspect, are fair game. Get the info, eliminate the threat, leave no traces." Kassandra nods, "Got it." Breeze nods to Johan. "Fair 'nuff." Johan glances at his watch. "Alexander will be joining you, for a field operation… But he should be here by now. Probably got his zipper caught on the baby he carries between his legs." A pause. "Zippers going to lose." Lilith nods as well. "Aye, sir." Johan glances at his watch. "Alexander will be joining you, for a field operation… But he should be here by now. Probably got his zipper caught on the baby he carries between his legs." A pause. "Zippers going to lose." Lilith nods, but is casually buffing her nails on her dress. This seems less ladylike and more weapons check. "Mmm, that's nice." Both eyebrows go up at the mention of Minos. That definately catches her attention. Kass glances to Lilith, then Breeze, looking speculative. "When do we leave?" Minos walks into the room, with a bag of stuff. He says, "So we need to grab someone. And take out her muscle. And sweat her once we grab her, or are you sweating her, Johan?" Minos says "H'okay." Lilith waves as the bull enters. "Good evening, Mr.Michaels. Come along for the ride?" Johan glances over to Minos. "Field Ops is sweating her, then ghosting her." He answers without a trace of hesitation or remorse. Breeze offers a nod of greeting to Minos as the minotaur joins them. Johan tosses Minos a MountainDragon Pale Ale, from a bucket of iced bottles. "Heads up." Kassandra looks up from her datapad, nodding to Minos. Kassandra is quiet, simply looking over the information and listening at the moment. Lilith closes her eyes, taking it in and running notes through her head. Minos grabs the beer and opens it, taking a drink. "You have any maps of the place we're hitting?" Johan shakes his head. "Field Ops is operating on domestic talent on this one. Normally I don't like moving this quickly, but you noted the financial transactions. Window is closing, and once its closed I don't think we'll be able to follow." "Alright. I'll need maybe twenty minutes to get a kit together, but then I am ready to roll." Kassandra glances to the others, nodding to Johan. Lilith nods as well. "I'm good with that as well. I need to change appropriately, grab the guns, etc." Breeze says "Where are we departing from? I can just meet you there." Johan nods to the others. "Then I'll see you at McCarron field in the UCAS in an hour. We lift off in…. 5400.00 Seconds." He sets his watch, a beep coming from it as he looks back to the group. "Call me if you're delayed." Breeze synchronizes her own chronometer and then stands, "Very well, see you all there.", she then turns and heads on out. Minos says "I brought my stuff when I got your call; I'll ride out with you, Johnny." Kassandra doesn't even bother with goodbyes, moving from a seated position to standing to heading out the door in a series of neat, quick movements. Her phone is in her hand, her words following behind her as she makes her way out, "Baby? It's me, Johnny has me heading out. Can you get my kit ready?" Johan nods as he swigs back the last of his beer, then tosses it, overhand, like a basketball, in to a wastebasket near the door. "Right then. We'll take the Bell over to the airport." He gestures up to the helipad on the top of the hotel, where his smaller helicopter is now parked. Lilith drifts out after Kassandra, humming quietly as she taps her cane along. ENGAGE TRAVEL DOT!McCaron Field, UCAS. Formerly a small Airforce Reserve field, it was transferred to civilian jurisdiction after the Treaty of Denver forced the Airforce out. The field maintains a military feel to it, with buildings so angular and monolithic they almost qualify as 'art-deco', but not quite. The bell commuter helicopter sits next to the larger W2 Hughs Stallion, currently carrying drop pods for fuel, to make the 1000 mile flight to Seattle, then refuel before heading to Vancouver, without issue. Johan is standing next to the big NO SMOKING sign… smoking. Lilith wanders up, well dressed and well covered for a night out. "G'evening, sir." She rolls up her balaclave into a toque, and nods to him. Kassandra shows up in a boring outfit, designed more for comfort in traveling than trying to be pretty: jeans, t-shirt, jacket, ballcap backwards. She has already gotten rid of any jewelry or makeup, her only exception a length of red ribbon wrapped tightly around her left wrist. She is dragging an oversized military duffle with her, a backpack over the other shoulder. Lilith just has a canvas roll up bag tossed over her shoulder and a long winter coat on, hands in her pockets while she waits for the other and leans up against the chopper. Johan's gear is presumably on the chopper already as he drops the cigarette, crushing it out with a final exhalation of whitish blue tendrils of smoke. "GET TO DA CHOPPAH!" He calls out, his voice mimicking Arnold Armsman, the current Karl Kombatmage actor. He moves over to the pilots seat and starts the preflight check, settling the helmet over his features. "McCarron tower, this is See-Eff-One-Oh-Three, preparing to initiate rotor start. Confirm my window, over." "CF103, this is McCarron Tower. You are green for Corridor 9. Do not stray, Buckly's sending a flight through tonight and airspace is restricted, over." "Copy that, Tower. CF103 powering up." Lilith jumps in and buckles down for flight Kassandra tosses in her gear, climbing into the vehicle. She straps in, looking off into the distance. Her lips move quickly, fingers rubbing at the length of ribbon before calling out, "Ready to Roll!" in her best Marine Corps voice. Minos grins like a schoolboy as he looks out the window. "Man, I love riding in helicopters. Hey, Johan, can we fly over the manure pile?"
The two massive jet turbine engines power up and the doors slide closed, which helps reduce the whine a lot. Without any fanfair, commentary or announcements, the chopper lifts off, the only light being a small red bulb near the back of the cabin and the green displays refracting from the cockpit. The Chopper tilts to the right and forward to start a banking roll. "Only if you get that fucktard back on board so we can throw him out again!" Breeze watches the terrain pass below with casual interest, then finally leans back into her seat and lets herself doze off for the flight. Kassandra starts digging in her backpack as Johan hopefully doesn't kill them with his flying. Johnny is lovely, but he flies for shit. The elf pulls a piece of artificial skin aside, thumbing skillsofts into place. She takes a breath, looking unhappy as she starts the boot-up cycle, checking each before moving on to the next. "We have a plan, guys?" Johan flips on the auto pilot, the drone coming on line. "MUSTANG ALPHA ON LINE AND READY SIR!" comes the marine corps voice of the chopper's AI brain from the forward compartment. "Maintain course and heading, Marine!" "SIR, MAINTAINING COURSE AND HEADING, SIR!" With that, Johan comes from the front of the chopper. Minos says "So are we rappelling down from the chopper? I like rappelling." Lilith yawns a bit and looks up from the book she's gotten out. "That'd be fun, never done it meself." Johan quirks an eyebrow. "I'm balls up as a combat pilot. I've not been certified for combat piloting in…" A pause. "Well, I'm not certified." Breeze opens an eye from where she was catching a few moments of zzz's to survey the team. "I'll probably just jump again. At least then I know I am going to be falling rather than the near certainty of it if I attempt to rappel." Her software check done, Kassandra glances to the others, "We need recon before just slamming into these guys, unless you plan to overwealm them with firepower and hope for the best." Silk shakes her head, motioning in a quick outline of the island with her hand. "House here. We get dropped off here. Minos and Slither move from one side, Breeze from the tangent. I'll set up a nest here. Move in. Breeze and I will play cover, take out any force we can. You two find the woman and get her out. Nothing else matters." Lilith nods gratefully to Silk. "Marvelous manouvering, madam. I bow to your expertise."
It's a good plan. Too good. Those basic angles will likely be covered and watched by any decent team; and Whiteout is, by all accounts, one of the best. The plan can work, but it will require perfect stealth to walk in to a trap and not set it off. A faint laugh rings from Kassandra, "No, just very basic strike tactics. Whiteout was pretty good years ago, so he'd expect that." She frowns, tapping her fingers on her leg, "What we need os something that no one would expect … Johnny, you figure we could buzz the place and drop Minos off?" Kassandra adds, "We could just shove him out and let him crash through the ceiling. *I* wouldn't expect SuperMoo to crash in." Lilith chuckles sheepishly in return, then bites back a louder laugh. "Oh, wouldn't that be *fun*." Johan glances to the Bull. "We have.. a MoooAB." Johan is making a play on MOAB, the Mother of All Bombs, or Massive Ordinance Air-Burst.. the largest conventional bomb in history. Breeze nods as she observes the map. "If I could get into a good elevated overview location, I could likely keep a sizeable force pinned down for some time." Kassandra nods to Breeze, "I was thinking that. I have my rifle, your magic. They will have a real hard time operating without dying." Lilith listens and watches the experts. Her work will probably up close, personal, and after the big guys do their thing. Lilith speaks quietly. "And I? What do you all recommend, although I suspect I will be used primarily once the mark is acquired." Kassandra flashes a grin at Minos, "Sorry, just was thinking, "What would Phoenix suggest."" Kass is careful not to say the other woman's name, adding, "Well, if we are letting Minos play distraction, we can have you and Breeze go in to get the lady? Everyone on earth will run to see what happened, which should disrupt security nicely." Kassandra says "Alternately, you and I can go and Breeze can play highguard?"" Johan exhales… "Yeah, I can take any small arms they throw my way. I don't expect any anti-air defenses… It's just outside the realm of conventional thought on the matter." Breeze leans back again. "Any of those plans sound reasonable to me.", she shrugs, "Once we get the target, I can pretty much mindrape her." Lilith sighs a bit. The chopper lurches downward, falling at a rapid pace. Johan is not caught off guard, one hand reaching out to get the strap as the chopper slides in to the snake river Canyon. "Something Wrong, Ms. DeWinter?" Asks Johan, fishing a cigarette out of his pocket with the other hand. Kassandra considers, nodding to both Jo and Breeze, "I'll go in with Slither then. You have a wider assortment of fun you can bring to bear on the situation and cover us." She glances to Lilith, adding, "Don't worry! She might be immune to magic and you can tear out her fingernails. Plus, I need you to cover my back." She gives the other woman a warm smile, adding, "Your job is to watch my back and make sure it doesn't sprout knives." Lilith looks over at Johan and shrugs with a rueful look. "Just pondering my usefullness on this mission…ah, thank you Silk." She speaks dryly. "It is a training exercise for me, as was mentioned before. There's little else I can help you with." Kassandra pffts at Lilith, looking directly at her. "Get that mindset out of your head right now. You were at the House. You held up fine. You are competent, capable, and you will kill anyone who gets near me, and I you. Got me?" Silk's voice is a whip, a call to duty, the words an echo of anything a fellow soldier would say to another. She claps the woman on the shoulder, looking around. "Are we ready?" Johan puffs his cigar to life… "Yeah, sucks to be a grunt, DeWinter, but you follow, you learn, you get your feet wet… and you start learning how to apply what you DO have in ways to compliment what they have. Even if I could do this mission role entirely on my own… there's only one of me." Minos says "Thank God for that." Lilith rolls her eyes. "I'm not wilting here, you know. I was thinking practically…I understand what I must do, what I have, and…" her words are cut off with a choked, partial laugh when Minos speaks. Johan eyes Minos with a glare, which barely conceals amusement. Breeze leaves the pep talk to the cheerleader social types, she's just not that good at it. Kassandra smirks at Minos, telling Lilith without looking at her, "I know you do, Lilth. Maybe I am talking to bolster my own confidence?" She smiles faintly at the other, eyes downcast. Lilith snorts. "Hardly, madam. Confidence can sometimes be acquired without a grand speech, so let's just buckle down, prepare, and think of England." She doesn't smile, quite, but her eyes are. Johan glances around. "We done playing grabass and lickslit now?" He puffs the cigar again… "SO heres what we do know, on the Drop-Zone. Two story house, on a hillside, near the water with a private boat dock, small helipad. We're too big for it. Probably about 6 bedrooms, its a former retreat for some executive in Los Angles in the 30s. It went fallow in the 40s, and the title was recently transferred to Laura Threewinds, back in 55. Estate is about 2 acres large. Road service connects it ot the main ferry point on the other side of the island. Local security is Georgia Straights Security, a maritime security company, so cops will arrive via helo and boat, if they come." Lilith murmurs quietly. "Anyway to jam radio signals or other communications to the mainland?" Johan glances to Minos. Minos says "Yes. But it'll jam our commo as well." Lilith nods. "Pity." Minos glances at Annie and says, "Speaking of which, I want you to come up with a magical alternative to radio communications if you can, for the future." Breeze nods to Minos, "I have one, I just haven't had the chance to learn it yet." Johan raises an eyebrow. "I don't want anyone in my head. I'd get slapped FAR more often." Lilith looks back at him. Gives Johan a critical look. Shrugs. "But where, one may wonder." Kassandra starts pulling on combat armour as the others talk, her expression grim. She didn't respond to Lilith's comment, her mind obviously elsewhere. The armour is of the corporate variety, hard plates attached to kevlar mesh. Minos withdraws from his go-bag a dikoted pole axe. He places bandoliers around his body, containing grenades of various types. "Distracting enough?" Lilith leans back and eyes Minos. "Mmm hmm. Deliciously so." Johan returns to the cockpit… "Landing in 20 minutes!" Because, well, you will be landing and its time to move to the next phase. Breeze watches the other as they get ready and chuckles, "I like it when people wear bandoliers of grenades. It's so easy to use to telekinesis to pull pins on visible grenades." Minos says "Landing? I thought I was getting airdropped." He looks at Breeze and says, "That's why all of these are smoke grenades, lass. The ones that go boom I keep in my pockets." Kassandra seats the helmet over her head, intoning, "And people say we are syrupy. Ug." She casts a look at Breeze, making a mental note of that trick, sealing the helmet into place. "We need to get into place before you do, Minos. Harder to do that when you are in the middle of a war." "You are, but I still need to land at the airport, refuel, change the transponders and let you fuckers do some ground recon. We're not just gonna go fucking balls out…" Says Johan Minos's bandoliers also happen to keep some rubber tomahawks and normal tomahawks on them. He looks at Silk and says, "Aye, I see you…sorry, mind was wandering." Vancouver…A few minutes later, as promised, the chopper slides in to place over its berth in Vancouver. It's a small airstrip outside of town where Johan knows some people who know some people work… The refueling truck comes around presently as Johan himself climbs up on the chopper to investigate a birdstrike that happened while in the canyon. Breeze remains firmly strapped into her seat while the chopper is refueled. Her eyes close and her body relaxes as the animating force heads off toward the targets compound. Kassandra stays in the chopper, reviewing the information they have on the mission. She stays strapped in, her armoured form still. Lilith simply checks her guns, her razors briefly, making sure everything is ready and in place. Kassandra says alound, "All right. Assuming there isn't a problem with security, we'll be able to move pretty freely once Minos lands and starts laying waste. If we are jamming, we wont have radios so we need a plan, a timetable, something to get from point A to point B." Minos says "I wasn't planning on jamming. Frankly, I don't believe the people in this house will want to call the cops given the op intel on them." Lilith nods. "It was just an idea." Kassandra nods to Minos, "Indeed. They seem like the sort of people that want to keep things to themselves. Plus, if they are connected to our mystery house, well. They won't have the sort of friends that answer the sort of phone we can jam." Lilith just listens. Astral Recon
ON THE ASTRAL: Annie skirts the building and its grounds, staying to areas of trees and other biomass, trying to stay hidden. She is there for about 90 seconds before the astral form of a mage blows past, doing what appears to be a routine patrol of the grounds. The mage does not stop. Does not slow down, does not seem to give any indication that it saw Annie. After a moment, the astral form disappears in to the house, its sweep complete. You paged Annie with 'The house is warded, lightly, but its possible the exterior wards are occluding interior wards. There is spiritual activity, but mostly defensive. Watchers mostly, though there are likely elemental on call. No spells currently active on the grounds that you can tell.'…
You paged Annie with 'Okay. ON closer inspection, the house is infact, dual warded. Theres a helaciously powerful ward (maybe a force 10, possibly higher) inside the Force 4 exterior ward. You spot two awakened paracritters that patrol (Dual natured, I need to look up what the fucking animal is..) and probably 2 different spell signatures in the area. On top of the building, for a moment, you see an aura of an awakened individual, heavily cybered. He's only up for a moment, then gone around.'. Annie pages: Any ground patrols or are the paracritters it? You paged Annie with 'Dunno. Wanna hang out longer than 3 minutes? :)'. Annie pages: Okay, then I will move off, away and up from the island. Gonna surveil it from a distance for about 25-30 minutes. Make like I am a geomantic mage tracking potential ley convergences or something like that. While I am at it, actually check those things to see if the island is at the center or near the center of a power line convergence Long distance to Annie: Johan nods. Make me an appropriate test. I'm nearly astral/high magic blind, so I'm learning as I go. Be gentle, it's my first time ;) Annie pages: Basically it's just an assensing test. Power lines are pretty visible if you look for them. Long distance to Annie: Johan nods. Cool. Make it.
You paged Annie with 'From the air, the place looks like any other well-to-do home on the island. Unremarkable from high altitude, save one thing. The island itself is does have a convergence of local leys that tangle under the house… On the scale of things, this is not a very powerful sight, but its still 10 times more powerful than the next door neighbors.'. Annie pages: Okay, I return to my body at that point. Back to the meat worldAnnie awakens abruptly and takes a look around the chopper to get her bearings done. "These people do have their shit together", she begins after the others notice she is awake again, "The house is very well warded. Dual warded in fact, which is one of my tricks. A powerful ward within the confines of a smaller ward. I detected at least two different spell signatures which could be worrisome, at least a half dozen bullyboys, a couple of patrolling hellhounds, and an awakened cyberboy who I assume to be Whiteout.", she pauses a moment and adds, "And finally, the entire house squats on a decently powerful convergence of ley points. So whoever lives there is going to have a nice battery of power to draw from." Lilith flinches. "Lovely." Kassandra sighs in the confines of her helmet. She considers, asking, "The target?" Annie shakes her head, "I didn't see her, or if I did I did not recognize her." "So. Powerful magical wards, and being tricky at that. Paracritters. Cyborg adepts. Leylines. Yeah, I'd say she is hiding something." Kassandra leans back in her seat, closing her eyes and concentrating. "No way to cut off the power from the lines, I assume?" Minos says "Hm. Hard target." Minos remains silent otherwise, after that one comment, rustling through his gear to decide what he is going to bring. Johan leans on the door of the aircraft. "Were you spotted?" He asks as a matter of course as he looks down at his pocket secretary, typing out a few commands. Kassandra continues, not really expecting an answer that will be helpful, adding, "And multiple mages as well. Lovely." She glances towards Breeze at Johan's question, picking up the secretary to consider the data again. Lilith looks amongst the assembled. Eris. What's she doing here? No outward sign, just listening, watching, and idly cleaning her gun a couple times over. Annie shakes her head, "No, it's not like cutting a power cord." Annie adds, "Oh, one small chopper on the property also." Johan glances to Annie now. "Breeze. -Were you detected-?" He asks again… Minos adjusts his bandoliers. "Here's my loadout; criticism desired. Riot shield. Dikoted, twin-bladed combat axe. Six throwing Cougar Long Blades and six throwing Cougar Short Blades. Three hardened plastic tomahawks. Five each of grenades: Smoke, IR Smoke, IPE Concussion, Ink/Splash Neurostun X. Electronics kit. Jammer, fluxx 10. 4 pool balls. Savior medkit. Combat drugs, which I don't intend to take. Ultrasound emitter/detector and gas spectrometer." He pauses and says, "I don't see the point in a ruthenium suit; and I'm going in with my internal air tank on, but I'm wondering if a chemsuit would be in order. I could just willy-nilly toss CS and NSX and Hyper around like it was going out of style." Johan gestures to Kassandra, a 'come hither look' and a crooked finger. Annie shrugs, "Not that I know of. I observed an astral patrolling mage on the site, but he did not pay any attention to me or even appear that he noticed me. I am sure that if he spotted me I would have at least seen a slight widening of his eyes. But I did not detect any of that." Kassandra starts forward, falls back, undoes the straps and comes hither. She unseals the helmet, tossing it to her seat. She looks at Minos critically and says, "Christ, Alex." She shakes her head, "Couldn't fit anything else in?" The elf glances to Johan, "Yes?" Johan murmurs quietly to Kassandra for a moment as he puts something in her hand. You whisper "This is an armor focus. If you come under fire, twist it to the right. it will activate and provide you armor." (It is, infact, a simple gold band, a mans Wedding Ring.) "It will provide you considerable extra protection."" to Kassandra. Kassandra looks down at the object, listening to Johan. She murmurs, "This is so sudden .." Her attempt at a joke probably falls rather flat, "Thank you." The words are simple, the feeling sincere. You paged Kassandra with 'OOC: R4 armor anchoring focus.'. Lilith closes her eyes, crosses her legs, and adopts a simple meditative pose. Breathe. In and out. Slowly. Think, plan. Johan shrugs. "well, ya know, I'm just that kind of guy.." he says, moving back to the cockpit. "SIR! MUSTANG ALPHA IS READY FOR TAKE OFF SIR! HOOOOAH!" "I need to tone you down some, Marine…" Minos says "I think it's time we got down to the nitty-gritty. Everybody out. Go recon the place physically, I'll stay on the copter with Johan, and he'll drop me in when you give the goahead." Kassandra moves back to her seat, settling back and strapping in. She peels off a glove on her right hand, fiddling with the object Johan handed her. She says quietly, "So. We have some rather potent foes ahead. Any new thoughts on approaches for this?" Kassandra nods to Minos, "Probably for the best." She tests the ring on each finger, settling on her thumb. She critically looks at the large ring and then her fingers, pulling her glove back on. "Right then. Land, review, react." When she activates the focus, a shimmering barrier will form to her body, an aura of golden glow. When she deactivates it, it leaves. Lilith rotates her neck, then winces. "Oh, dammit. Did I mention I can probably fly?" Lilith pulls out the golden necklace. Kassandra glances to Lilith, "*Probably*?" Kassandra laughs quietly, for some reason finding that amusing, "That is a useful power to have." Lilith shrugs, laughing in return. "You could say that. I should've mentioned it earlier…foolish of me." Kassandra shakes her head, "Not at all, it isn't something that usually comes up." Lilith nods, and gets ready to hop out. "Well, we'll see if it comes in handy." Annies Rambo Montage (Redacted)
"Alright. Johnny, set us down somewhere and we'll look around and let you know when to drop a cow on the place." Kassandra winks at Minos to take the sting out, replacing her helmet on her head. Johan nods to the others as the helo takes off. "We're gonna set down about a mile away. I'll brush the tree line and you guys make a combat exit.. I can't stick around long without alerting the locals though. This thing ain't built for stealth. She's a bit like minos's momma. Good in a pinch, but fat around the middle." Lilith rolls down her balaclava most of the way and grins. Yay, andrenalin. Kassandra seals the helmet, a quick pat of her hands checking the four pistols holstered on her body. She checks the duffle, frowning into its depths before shaking her head. Lift Off, Exit Annie, Enter Ally
At the last moment before take off, Annie is called away by Johny. He puts the ship back down, letting Annie out of the chopper. he has a very rapid conversation with her, pointing to the north west. About that time, another chopper with Ally lands nearby, ferrying Ally from the local airport, where a charter jet just landed with her. Johny explains that while nothing has fundamentally changed at the action-site, there is a development up river that Annie will be handling to keep it from flowing down river, at the action-site. Minos grunts his understanding. Raising the visor on her helmet, Kass's heart starts to race as she spots the mage. Securing the weapons she will sit patiently in the vehicle, waiting for Aladriel to join up with them. Lilith flexes her hands, making sure the gloves are secure, the leather creaking ever so softly over flesh. She raises her hands and carefully lets a set of gleaming razors emerge…checks them over, smiles to herself under her mask. Weaving the blades delicately through the air, she can almost swear she sees a faint glimmer of blue along one edge, air molecules rapidly meeting their death as the dikoted edges slice through. Could just be wishful thinking, though. Lilith waves at Ally, face all covered up with black, claws dancing in the cold air. Checking the feed from the BattleTac system, Silk closes her eyes for a second, letting the data wash over her, the HUD displaying each team member and their relative location to her, each winking with a dot in a specific colour: blue for Silk, green for Slither, red for Phoenix, steel grey for Sam, black for Minos, and white for Breeze. Facemask open, Silk greets Phoenix with a look of relief and worry, "Ok, I'll brief you on the way." Jesus christ, its like a helicopter full of storm troopers. Sam in his light sec (But heavily modified) stealth suit, the other ladies in their heavier armors, Minos looking like a damn tank with horns on his head. The chopper lifts off, and Sam calls back through the comms… "Silk, brief Phoenix. I'm setting a course for the north side of the island. You will have 15 minutes to get in place while I circle north to come back around from the south, a heavy, hot and hard insertion of the MOAB!" Minos mutters something under his breath about Sam's mother. Lilith refrains from comment. Not gonna make a remark about tossing her ex out of a helicopter through a roof into a house full of fucks who wanna kill him. Silk nods with a jerk of her head, speaking quickly and quietly with Phoenix about what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what to expect when they get there. There isn't any gladhanding and playing kissyface. This is showtime, and both women know how to do the job properly. Plus, the excitement from a good run is *incredible* foreplay. Lilith simply rests her arms on her knees, leaning forward a bit, ready and oddly enough, relaxed. She's looking forward to this, as much as her nerves are running on high speed. Softly humming an old British army tune under her breath. Ally keeps her words short and quick, asking a good question here and here of Silk as she is filled in. From the tone expertly filtered through her helmet, it would certainly seem that she's not fully pleased with some of the things that she's hearing. The chopper comes in at a reasonable altitude, flying slow and in the clear, blasting a transponder frequency that shows it as a helitaxi and delivery service. It's more common than one might think in the Puget Sound area. Lots of islands. Lots of water. Boats are slow. Sam's face, his visor up, can be seen looking back at the group occasionally. Settling on Lilith, Ally and Silk in various measures, then nodding to Minos. Marcus is in the co-pilots seat, occasionally remarking about pressure gauges or this or that. Silk fills in the mage quickly, relaying the recon data from Breeze. She doesn't look happy either, but does her best to relay confidence in Phoenix's abilities. A glance to Lilith, a quick smile, then her eyes travel to Sam and Marcus and finally the giant that is Minos. "We are gonna do this, folks, and then we are gonna go home. No one is going to get hurt, and we are going to succeed." "So," Ally says with a little bit of laughter once she hears everything there is to hear. "I'm guessing we've kinda ruled out sneaking in, what with the hell hounds and all." She hmms a bit. It's strange hearing the signature voice and yet not seeing the face that holds the laughter, mischief, and everything else that is Ally. Lilith nods casually, folding her hands behind her head and kicking her feet up on the seat opposite her. "Aye. Gonna get them lads to go bugger this for a game of soldiers." She grins back at her friends. "You'll do grand, Phoenix." The chopper starts to lose altitude; but don't worry, its planned that way. "Dropzone alpha! Slither, Phoenix, Beta, Silk! Disembark!" Calls out Sam, his voice falling in to the patter of a Marine Corps Drill Sargent. The landing zone is a bit of beach and surf about a mile up from the target house. "You shield, bab .. Phoenix, and Malus and I will clear the road. Once we are clear you can spot the magical talent and we'll make them go to sleep." Silk keeps it short as well, sealing her faceplate and preparing for the mission. BattleTac data continues to stream across the Heads Up, every radio and relaying useful data. She rises when Sam gives the call, mentioning to the other two, "Form on me." Lilith nods briskly, slamming her own faceplate down and moving swiftly after Phoenix. "Aye aye, ma'am."
Landing Zone AlphaAlly nods once to show that she's got it. And then it's time to disembark. With a little wave to Sam, Ally heads off of the chopper after Kassandra and immediately she's down to business. Shielding up. Put her elementals on standby. She reaches to her right hip. From the wrist area of her armor she extracts a small wire that she attaches to the pistol there. When she pulls her hand away, the wire nimbly stretches without the slightest effort. Then she assenses, checking the immediate landing zone for astral observation. The landing zone is pretty clear of astral stuff. A long string of lightly glowing auras along the tideline, plankton and simple plant life as it lies slowly dying. The biomass of the tree line a bit up… a few small animals (Someones dog, a few rats). But nothing major. Nothing of any interest. Silk hits the landing zone with only a faint crouch, eyes scanning the area. She relays through the comms, "Find cover. Pair off, Silk and Phoenix, Slither and Apollo. Shields on pairs." She rises from her knee, drawing one of the many pistols on her body and waiting for Phoenix's assessment before they move out. Lilith nods, pinging back. "As you will." She gives Marcus a look, then back to the horizon, crouching to the ground and scanning her surrondings while she waits. The downdraft of the helicopter is -POWERFUL-. The Military formation of 7 blades and the turbine engines creates a force that pushes down like a hand on your head. The Helo's engines scream as Sam and Minos peel off to the north, moving for the long, loping course back to the south, keeping low and under the radar. Sam will be skimming the waves, getting the gear wet and the choppers balls slapping the water. Marcus nods, extending his shielding ability over Lilith, a lattice of mana she can't feel forming around the woman. Marcus: SHIELDING 2 on Lilith and Marcus. +2 dice for spell defense, +2 TN on all spells cast against them. Ally: SHIELDING 6 (Spell Pool) on Kassandra, 5 on Ally (Spell Pool). +6/+5 dice, +6/+5 to spell TNs Lilith voice murmurs softly over the comm. "Thank you, Apollo. Luck to you, Silk and Phoenix." Once she gets the sitrep from Phoenix, Silk is moving for the treeline. She keeps her movements slow enough to stay with the mage, the heads up display swinging to give her an overlay of where they are moving and where the house is. She stays quiet, her firearm pressed against her thigh as she moves to cover, keeping an eye and ear out for trouble, for traps, for things out of the ordinary. Lilith begins to move then, sliding off and keeping Marcus in sight and close, hand unholstering her gun and keeping it at the ready. She also lets her eyes slide over the ground, the sky, wherever is needed, running silent. This far out from the house (You're about a mile out still, up the waterline from the home in question), theres no sign of traps or security. There's a dog up the hill that starts barking, but thats probably the chopper. A few homes have lights that come on, but by the time they are out of bed, the Chopper is moving off over the water. Ally's mind wanders as she travels with Kassandra, thinking enviously as to how easily and gracefully the elf moves up the beach. Ally's eyes are always moving, searching this way and that for any foes, magical or otherwise, her right hand close to her right hip so she can grab up her silenced pistol the moment she may need it. Silk uses the trees, the brush, whatever is handy to break up her silhouette. She pauses often, checking her surroundings, her comrades, taking the time to listen and look before moving forward. These aren't scrubs they are facing, and she treats them accordingly. Lilith stops as the dog barks, watching the lights flicker on. She waits and watches for a moment, then carefully moves on, skimming low over the ground. Lilith continues to march steadily, scanning, moving, scanning, moving, in a slow side to side movement over ground. Does she see or sense anything? Once they have cover, Silk will move the troops out, taking care to look for deadfalls, claymores, all the usual tricks. She'll use this as a training exercise as well, showing *why* she is doing things, and what she is looking for. She won't waste a lot of time with it, but makes sure to do the training. It could be important later. You're still a mile out from the house; you see and sense a whole lot of shit, but none of it pertinent to the situation at hand. Lilith is obviously watching and listening to Silk as well. Learning good. It takes a little while to cover the ground. When they are further out Ally just stays with Kass, keeping low, moving as nimbly as possible, taking frequent checks in the astral. Her helmet gives her a lot of information when she wants it to, but mostly she keeps her vision clear so that she can cast those spells. As they get closer, Ally's pistol clears the holster and she takes it with a two-handed grip, to proceed that way for the rest of the journey. She moves differently with the gun out, covering distance and then stopping to listen, look, sweeping areas of likely attack. If any of the three with her have been on the receiving end of a Lone Star sweep or even just watched them, they'd notice that Ally's pretty much following the Star book. At the House.The house. It seems so casual. A nice executives home, 3 stories, built in to the side of the hill. Surrounding it is a 8 foot stone wall topped with black iron spikes, very nice and decorative, and yet, deadly. Given the high security rating of the island (Kiss your deckers, people, Katral and Hitomi are keeping people off your ass), they are mostly for show. The house is lit, showing people inside are active even as the windows are reflective, not allowing LOS in to the house. The top of the house has a roof top patio, that occasionally a man will come out and walk along it, looking out over the property. AS before, there is a boat at the dock and a small helicopter to the side, on the back lawn. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Can we do anything about those vehicles so they don't run away?" Holding up a fist, Kass will sink down and look over the house, the walls, the occasional wandering security. She hides the little smile of pride at Aladriel's movements, her training coming to bear. Focusing, the elven girl looks for weaknesses both obvious and subtle, keeping still for the moment. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "We still got Blue and her buddy on the line?" Commlink-«Silk» When we strike we can have one of Apollo's friends blow the chopper. That'll add another level of distraction. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Or that" Lilith stops and watches Kassandra for a moment, then turns her eyes to the house. Patiently scanning over it's interior, fantasizing briefly about what a good few sappers could do.
THe security systems of the house are average; it's not a fortress despite being well laid out. A lot of passive systems seem to be in place, the sort of land scaping and building practices that are sort of standard. Hedges, open spaces, a decent fence. Marcus and Ally will notice that there seem to be ultrasonic systems as you get closer to the house and a laser-tripwire along the top of the fence. Some cameras are present, on teh driveway, on the doc, on the helicopter and major entrances and exits. Astrally speaking, the house is lightly warded on the outside, but looking through that, one gets hints of an interior ward, significantly stronger. Kassandra will notice the presence of a pair of hellhounds as they laze about the property, usually with a handler who walks them on patrol once ever half hour. A force 5 fire elemental patrols counterpoint, moving once every 5 minutes around the circumference of the property. It's search range seems fairly narrow however. The house is built partially in to the side of a hill, it's very possible to get position on the house, to observe the house as a whole.
Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Man on roof. Professional, clipped movement pattern" Silk will pull everyone back to the rise, taking care to hide them as well as she can with foliage, trees, anything to break up auras (Anti-Magic Tactics). The woman breaks out her rifle, setting up a nest as she relays orders to everyone, setting up the plan. She mentions over the comm after checking through her scope: «Silk»: "That is our secondary adversary. He is a problem and a good seer. Everyone stay down and keep your magic shielded till the last second.» Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Aye aye" Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "90 seconds to operation Dumbo Drop. Eyes sharp." Commlink-«Silk» "Aim for the guy on the roof," comes the transduced reply. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "What fun" Lilith crouches down into a runner's pose, waiting and at the ready. She keeps her eyes turned skyward… The order is given. Silk clears her mind, the rifle zeroed and ready. She watches the compound, ready to enact what she hopes is a master plan, or at least things that no sane person would consider prudent. She glances to Phoenix a moment, sending a quick private commed message. Commlink-«Silk» <PRIVATE CHANNEL: Phoenix> "Be careful, love." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "I will." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "60 seconds." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "In nomine patrie,et fili et spiritu sancti…" Ally's keeping down and out of the way, her senses awakened to the astral. She's going to be doing a preemptive strike, so she's readying herself for that, drawing back a little of the shielding from herself to free herself to do a knockout strike on the elemental when it next circles by. She wants it down in one. «Plot» Aladriel temporarily drops SHIELDING for Kass and her to +5 and +4, down from +6/+5 Lilith murmurs softly to herself, in Latin again… "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell: lead all souls to Heaven especially those who are most in need of your mercy…" Another cross, then the Hail Mary, then a third sign of the cross, and she's ready. The Assault
Low and slow may be the way to do it, but fast and hard is the way Minos likes it. With speakers blaring Concrete Dream's cover of 'Thunderstruck', loud enough to be heard OVER the rotors of the military chopper, Mustang Alpha glides over the tree tops. Mustang Beta flanks it, a micro aerial assault of epic proportions. The chaingun on the chin of Mustang Beta rolls over, powering up and seeming to target Whiteout. Whiteout turns, his guns coming up and at the ready, about to shoot. But the door to Mustang Alpha rolls open, and out comes Minos. Clad in his black riot armor, his shield held close to his body, Minos steps out of the helicopter almost daintily. The massive Mustang Alpha visibly raises up as suddenly there's more lift to weight in the ratio. Focused on the chaingun, Whiteout looks up just in time to see two steel-shod boots dropping on him like a ton of… bricks. "GOT MILK, MOTHERFUCKER?" are the last words Whiteout will ever remember hearing, as those boots slam in to him at nearly 120 miles an hour, pulverizing his spine and crushing his body. Down to the ground he goes, born down by 2000 pounds (It keeps growing every time) of Minotaur. Only he doesn't stop with just crushing the Adept. No, he crushes through the roof like a small aircraft, punching deep in to the house. Lights go out, windows blow outward as air pressure suddenly and drastically changes. There comes the sound of three distinct smashes, windows on the top then bottom level blowing out. Something is shouted inside the house, Minos's voice, in the gutteral, forceful tones of Ancient Orkish. For the moment…. silence reigns. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "…." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "A toast to suit the jam?" Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Because I doubt there's much left of the bugger." Commlink-«Silk» GO! Lilith bolts on command, her runner's stance giving her a little extra boost and lift. Aladriel is deprived of the full view of the stuff of legend, Minos being dropped from a helicopter, crushing a man and basically partially imploding a house. Her full attention is on the astral, waiting for the guardian fire elemental to return on its circuit right on time. And through the astral plane, there it comes, the brightly glowing, flaming magma-man standing out like a sore thumb on the astral. Like a blast furnace, Marcus' fire elemental manifests next to the enemy chopper. Flames lick from its form as it appears, setting the ground beneath it ablaze and melting ferroconcrete. It stares at the contraption of mankind, another blasphemy on this Earth. The creature reaches form with one appendage, the core of its being heating past blue, past white-hot. It lets loose what to it is merely a gentle breeze from its home plane. To the helicopter, it is not unlike being dipped in the sun, in lava. The creature flashes out of existance, zipping back to Marcus as its task is complete. The flames roll over the chopper as plexiglass and plastic polymers melt, metal singes, and gasoline .. ignites. A plume of fire reaches into the night's sky as the helicopter leaves this world in a blaze of glorious fire. The wind picks up, perhaps from the passing choppers or the explosions from the house. A fragment of that wind begins to swirl around one of the hellhounds, the air changing into some sort of tepid green colour, the colour of chlorine gas, of sick, of nightmares. The oxygen is rapidly depleted from around the creature, leaving nothing but noxious fumes behind. It's job done, the elemental returns to its summoner, its task discharged. The runes on Marcus pistol glow as he waves his off hand, drawing down power from the ambiant mana around them. He focuses on the dog his elemental didn't injure and hurls the force towards it, driving a wedge of pure energy into the dual natured creature's form. He maintains the force just long enough, shorting out the very essence that drives the fiery creature, dropping it without any perceivable cause. Like dominos, things fall into place one by one. Kass clears her mind and looks through the scope, letting the crosshairs fall on the handler. She doesn't get tricky and try for a headshot or some other gimmick. Instead, she does what she was taught and aims for the T. The first shot is in the air, a silenced puff from the rifle as she lets her gaze fall on the sicked dog. Any other time she might hesitate, might falter on having to kill an innocent animal. However, she cannot chance the Awakened animal getting ahold of her mate. The first round catches the handler just to the left of the breastbone, sending chunks of armor and rib into his lung and heart. He drops with hardly a cough, spun around by the force of the round. The second catches the hellhound just behind the shoulder and removing enough of the animal to make any sort of life questionable. Aladriel gets clever and inventive with her Earth elemental. Urging it to appear forth, she has the rocky creature lean against the wall and basically sort of shape it's body into a ramp/bridge that the women can use to take three easy steps and hop right over the wall to the other side. Elemental, presumably previously called forth, does exactly as asked, making a rampart breach for the woman, his body as the ramp itself. The drop on the other side is negligible for those who are ready.
Silk breaks down her rifle with practiced ease, remarking quietly to the three others nearby. "Slither, you have point, Apollo support. Phoenix and I will have your six and be six seconds behind you. Move." Lilith nods, doesn't speak, and *moves* as ordered. She slides quickly and smoothly over the ground, up the Elemental…and pauses for a moment, eyeing the top of the wall. Are things safe on the other side? Lilith thinks the ground looks as safe as anything she's ever stood on. Marcus/Apollo is hot on Lilith's rear (not something you usually hear about the man), his pistol at ready. He looks cool and calm, collected even as he moves to support, his magical defenses around both of them. From the house, there comes a bellow, then the sound of automatic gunfire. It continues for several seconds, then there is a thunderous smash and it stops. Her gun stowed, Kass is up and moving alongside Aladriel, a pistol returning to her hands. She seats the connection to her armour, feeding the input into the smart system there. She gives the first team plenty of room, the barrel of her own weapon pointed down at the moment, eyes peeled for any sign of further aggression. She sends a mental command to tug Rocky into being, speaking quickly, "I need a defensive wall created on the other side of that manmade wall there." Lilith scans for a moment, ignores the noise inside for now, and while it is occurring, slips quietly over the wall. Rocky, for his part, will lumber off to do his adopted mistress's bidding. The ground begins to push into a mound a bit away from the wall, dug up from the earth and creating a little zone of safety from the ugly people in the house who might want to do them harm. Ally lets Kass go up and over her elemental first before she heads right up and over the wall after Kassie. She easily vaults off of the top of the elemental, over the wall, and lands on bent knees, rolling to offset the impact. She comes up with gun raised, sweeping, ready for what may be next. Lilith is on her feet and crouched low, waiting for them when they arrive.
The gunfire in the house resumes as the players take the stage inside the wall, behind the small earthwork the elemental creates in short order. The five man security detail is inside the house, handling the massive troll that's currently chewing his way through them. Outside, the exterior security force starts its way out of the house. A rotodrone rises up out of the other side of the house, while two more spirits, this time, spirits of man. The two spirits look like statues, carved by some kind of ancient tribal people, rough features and bad detail work. Kassandra and Marcus will notice, on the ground floor, away from where Minos dropped, a person peering out the window for a moment, before ducking away.
The drone achieves cruising altitude, moving around the house now to the area where all the damage and bangbadaboom happened. It doesn't yet take aggressive action; it knows there's danger about but it has no targets yet. Wait. Wait. Over there. Heat signatures. Four humanoids. It starts over that direction. Both spirits move out, heading twords the area where the players are currently located. Only Ally, if she's perceiving, can see the spirits however, as they thunder across the astral landscape. Commlink-«Silk» "BlueFairy, I have active drones out here. I need the rigger to lose power." Kass keeps an eye on the drone, sending the mental command through the armour to switch the firearm in her hand from SAFE. She frowns, having to do the math herself, to actually have to deal with the mechanics of shooting. Frowning, Marcus stays low and watches the drone quietly panning and looking for them. He doesn't miss the brief motion at the window. Keeping his eye there, he sends a mental command to the Air Elemental he has in tow, sending it off to deal with the drone. Ally groans at hearing the sound of a thing taking off. She doesn't work well with gizmos! So she's going to let someone else take care of that. As she does a quick sweep first visually and then with perception, she acks as she sees two spirits coming inbound. Crap! No time to give a warning, she just makes with the spell thing. The first spirit that looks towards them gets targeted. Lilith gaze darts, up, then over, noting the drone. In a smooth, practiced motion she raises her personalized gun with both hands, and cooly fires off one shot, then another, watching with detached interest…there's a flash from her gun, and the sound of a solid *ting* from the drone, nice little chunks of metal falling to the ground as the bullets thunk into the body of the craft. She nods her head, keeps her gun in hand and ready…then blinks. Damn. That 'ware really does work. Watching the house, Kass is suddenly taken aback as time and space split open, a statue of some sort suddenly appearing and swiping at her. She blinks wide behind her helmet, a sudden intake of breath. This isn't one of their spirits, this is something else, someone else's magic. Kass is both frightened and angry; after the encounter with the Faceless One (among others) she has this *thing* about spirits. She remembers the only thing that has helped her in the past with such magic: love. Framing her thoughts, the girl brings a vision of Aladriel to mind and swings her hand at the statue, forcing outwards as hard as she can, just like when she used the flute back in Chicago. The statue shudders for a moment and then begins to disintegrate, shuddering with each step towards her. The arm falls off the creature/spirit, then the legs, each broken piece turning to mist in the darkness. Kass sinks back, still shaken by what just happened. Spirits just aren't supposted to appear and try to hit you like that, it's unfriendly and unnatural. She sends orders through the comm, basically just reaffirming what she has already sent out, asking for updates from Minos and Sam. She unconsciously takes a step closer to Aladriel. Aladriel destroys one spirit, but then she's witness to a horrible moment. The Spirit of Man moving unbelievably fast towards Kassandra. Ally's barely able to follow the movement. One huge advantage the spirits get when they remain on the astral plane, that fleetness of movement. One moment the spirit is by the house, the next moment it's atop Kassandra. And just like that, the Spirit is destroyed, banished away by Kassandra's force of will and character. It takes Ally a few moments to process everything that just happened. She switches to a private comm channel very quickly to murmur a few words to the elf before she forces herself to focus back on what just happened. Lilith does catch a glimpse, out of the corner of her eye, of BIG UGLY suddenly appearing atop Kass. It startles her, for a brief moment, and then just annoys her. She doesn't like being annoyed. And the ex is having all the fun inside, and this fucking drone kicked shit all up over them…once again her eyes narrow, and just as quickly the shots ring out. Ignore the spirit. Drone. Sharp retorts, one, two, the wing wobbles, sending the device skidding in the air, tilting and exposing the underbelly…two, the bullet spits toward the target, hits the power core and then the drone just stops. Shudders in the air and dies a satisfyingly metallic death. Lil watches it go down. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Lovely." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "I really do hate this magical nonsense. No offense, Phoenix dear." Lilith rotates her neck, not relaxing but slowly, slowly lowering her gun as things, for the moment, appear clear. She gives Marcus a quick look to make sure he's okay, also to the other women. Marcus starts to send his elemental after the drone and then Lilith blows it out of the air. The man hms, shaking his head and nodding towards the house, "Sounds like Minos is having all the fun, shall we proceed?" Lilith tilts her head, listening again. "Oh, I can't stay mad at him. He's having such *fun* in there, it's really quite endearing." Kass doesn't stray from where she moved next to Aladriel. She brightens at the private words sent to her, letting out a quick shuddering breath and looking around carefully. She looks to Phoenix and then then others, nodding to Marcus words. She doesn't move out quite yet, eyes going back to the window where she saw movement. Aladriel doesn't say any further words to Kassandra, just relieved that the woman is fine. She listens, then, and notices that she no longer hears the rotodrone and upon reflection, she heard gunshots. A towards Lilith, and the woman's fine job done. "Great job, Slither," she comms to her, letting out a portion of a breath she'd mentally been holding. The DistractionFrom inside the house, there comes more hue and cry, a bit more gunfire as the house lights.. just go out on Hitomi's command. No power to the house whatsoever. Windows are lit now by refracted muzzle glare and flash lights as they pass by windows. There comes a moment in the melee, amid splintering wood and shattering glass, where there is the smell of ozone in the air and then a WHUMPH, a snapping, cracking sound that is followed by a meaty THWAK. The side wall on the far side of the house erupts outward, and the form of Minos can be seen hurled out of the house, and several hundred feet through the air. From the hole, rises the glowing(astrally speaking, and physically speaking, as Armor is apparent) form of a magi. But not quite… human. No. Your eyes deceive you, for in place of her mouth, Laura Three-Winds has tentacles, in place of hands, hooked claws. In place of hair, snapping, hissing snakes. "FOOLS! COME TO YOUR DEATH, COME TO THE MAW OF KUR'THA'DESH, COLLECTOR OF JOYS!"
Lilith blinks. Her mouth tightens in a fine, thin line as tension runs a razor's edge through her body. "Alex." She murmurs. "Oh dear." She eyes the creature. Terror has a play in here as well, oh yes, sheer bloody cold terror, but it sharpens her focus, tightened down into a hard little knot inside of her. She smiles. "Oh deary, deary me." Silk considers the creature/woman before them, measuring how she rises from the house, the glow of armour around her. Minos is a non-factor in the equation; hard math dictates that she ignore him: either he is alive or he is dead; regardless, he will be out of the main fight for the moment. She draws a breath, sending commands through the system, "Take down her spells and engage." Aladriel's eyes go wide at hearing a sound from the house a moment before the wall caves in and there's a form hurtling through the air. It takes Aladriel a few seconds to realize that it was Minos that went flying through the air. Holy….crap. She shoots her eyes back towards the hole that Minos' went flying out of and there's Laura Three-Winds. Looking like the stuff of nightmares. Shit. She talks rapidly in the comm.
The form in the air turns, rotating, searching, its baleful eyes peering over the landscape. Kur'tha'desh, Collector of joys does not seem to directly home in on the group, but she moves through the air, gliding on currents, her snake-hair writhing and her tentacle mount waving in agitation. Below her, a barrier comes in to reality, invisible to mundane eyes, but real enough for all good purpose. Marcus blinks behind expensive shades as Mr. Michaels goes flying and some sort of demonic being rises out of the building. Shit, Silk wasn't lying about what the Watchers really do. At Phoenix's orders the mage raises his hands, making a sort of gesture and building the wall with his hands and mind, forming magic into a brick-hard wall behind the creature, sealing it off. Lilith flexes her hands as she watches the creature approach, still smiling, but her tail snaps back and forth in the air behind her, her fangs emerge, and she crouches, waiting. She notes the creature's actions with interest. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "It doesn't seem to see us quite yet." Aladriel watches Marcus's physical barrier fill the air and just like that part one is complete. Part two: Go. She slips her senses into the astral as her body tenses to do something. Then she stops, going very still. Her head tilts to the side. Then she talks really fast into the comm again. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "I don't know if its real. Marcus, assense it. Silk, electronic vision scan. Ultrasound if you have it. Lil…stand ready to shoot it." Commlink-«Silk» "Misdirection. Keep eyes peeled."
Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Aye" Marcus stares into the astral plane on command, frowning quietly, his weapon at ready. The spell doesn't need his attention anymore now that it is sustained. Marcus narrows his eyes, peering over the shades as he lowers them with his non-gunned hand. "Illusion. The bitch isn't real." Lilith draws out her gun in one smooth motion, holds it in both hands. Takes a slow, deep breath. Commlink-«Silk» "Need line of sight for that sort of thing. Need to move in, then, someone is playing us. Trying to escape." Now that its said to be an illusion, the sort of thing that isn't real, its easy to see through it. The illusion becomes exactly that, an illusion and not reality. Almost comical, in its way. Ally damns a little bit and she grits her teeth. That isn't a good thing. She looks about for a moment and then hunkers down to consider, murmuring into her comm again. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "*Something* threw Minos out of that house. And I'm kinda feeling like we're going to have to go inside to find it." Lilith growls low under her breath. "Well now." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Won't that be fun. I'm starting to feel mildly annoyed." Frowning behind her helmet, Silk motions with the pistol towards the building. "Slither, point. Kill anything that isnt the target. Apollo, you are with her. Shields. Phoenix and I will be several meters behind you. Cover all points. Move." She waits for the others, glancing to Ally. Lilith brightens considerably at that. "Aye aye!" She keeps the pistol up and begins to move, eyes flicking rapidly back and forth, up, down, searching for an enemy, a trap, an ambush. Marcus nods his understanding, moving to step in behind Lilith when she moves. Mana begins to wall itself around Lilith and him as they move out, weapons ready, the mana crisply defending both from harm. Ally doesn't look very pleased. Of course it doesn't show, with her features completely hidden by her facemask. And then her features go a bit thoughtful as she ponders the situation they find themselves in. With an inward sigh she brings her pistol up into a full on combat stance and waits for the lead two to move, before they start to advance. At least they can move quickly, with a portion of the house covered by a glowing magical barrier that will slow bullets at any rate. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Who's for burning the house to the ground and seeing who comes out?" Commlink-«Silk» "That plan has merit." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Oooh, that does sound like fun. As much as I'd truly, truly love to mow down the mooks, I do so love my own whole, unwounded ass as well." Lilith moves lightly, quick but not fast, taking time to scan her surrondings as her gun moves side to side, tracking for a target. Stepping decisively in front of Aladriel, Silk moves quietly, giving Marcus and Lilith four to five meters. She frowns and switches weapons again, shaking her armoured head. She spends a moment to turn the ring that Sam gave her, an immediate glow surrounding her. It is a bit late in the game for stealth, and protection wins out. Marcus keeps on Lilith's butt, flipping back and forth between astral sight and normal, looking for spooky shit. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Anyone see anything I can't?" Moving a moment after Kassandra with her pistol held firmly in a two handed grip, Ally keeps her senses in the astral looking for any movement. After a step she increases her shielding around Kassandra and herself to its fullest. Commlink-Apollo> Your ass.
The house is quiet now, aside from the occasional groan from inside where someone was beaten-down by Minos… the smell of smoke starts to fill the air, as someone else previously took the idea of burning the house down and ran with it. Keeping her gun in an easy two-handed grip, Kass waits for Marcus and Lil to clear the way before following. She stays in front of Ally, giving the woman what protection she can with her armoured and Armor-spelled form. She spares a second to send out a comm message. Commlink-«Silk» "Entering the house, Nacht. Minos is about three hundred yards widdershins from my position, given the arc he was flying." As Ally starts to move a bit further, something catches her eye. She changes her posture slightly but doesn't move, yet. And she murmurs into the comm very quickly. Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "Is he mobile?" Commlink-«Silk» "No idea, he was struck hard and moving at a very rapid pace through the air." Commlink-Minos> Biomonitor report: Stable. Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "I show his signs as stable, so focus on the mission." Lilith breathes a quick sigh of relief, but no more as she hears the comm. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Halt. Apollo, drop the barrier in front of the dock, do a dome over the boat NOW. Silk set up on the boat. Slither rush the boat."
Lilith doesn't respond to the comm but *bolts* for the boat, moving fast and accelerating as much as her mere human body can. Marcus stops and steps back, looking to the docks and doing his gestures towards the docks, forming the wall and dome in his mind and releasing the spell matrix. As soon as Ally sees the barrier sets up on the dock, Ally pivots swiftly and starts after Lilith towards the dock. She angles a bit wider, not taking the full direct path that Lilith just took, in order to get a different angle and leave a line of fire towards the dock. Her pace is quick, but not a full out run. Kass doesn't question her mate, she simply moves. The pistol is dropped into its holster and she snags the flat box off her back, opening it and starting to assemble the rifle with quick, practiced motions, her eyes moving to magnify on the boat by verbal command into the helment.
Lilith runs low and fast, quick on her feet but it'll still take her a while to get to the boat. Kass's hands move with precision, locking the barrel into place, then the stock, the scope coming on last. She brings the weapon up, requiring just under six seconds to complete the task, a credit to the Master Sergeant who made her practice that routine over and over again. She scans for a target, asking something over the comm. Commlink-«Silk» "Where, Phoenix?" Aladriel is a little bit torn as she moves towards the dock, getting hesitant now. She flat out stops, then, looking back towards Silk and then back towards the boat. She answers in the comm. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Thought I saw something in the boat. Not sure. We're getting spread out and I don't like it. I feel like…maybe….crap. Maybe just blow the boat."
The security man does what he's told; Stop the intruders, give the woman time to escape. The tailed one, she's moving to intercept while the other ones are setting up a firing position. Jesus Christ, there's a lot of them. This isn't what he signed on for man… Anyway. He brings his blade around, hoping to simply slit the womans throat as she moves by, stepping in to her. Lilith snarls low and feral as the she sees the blade, just in time, sees it coming for her throat…time seems to slow down for the space of a heart beat. Remember the training. Move. Block. She twists her body in mid run, arching her neck back, swings an arm out towards him. But the blade keeps moving, as she tries to slide down and beyond it, cutting through the armor and leaving a trailing mark down from ear to shoulder. Time speeds up again, she doesn't blink at the sudden stinging pain. Keep moving. Lilith moves, slides….and snarls again. She brings her hand back around, dikoted blades sliding like cold death out of her hands. They seem to glow purple blue for the faintest of seconds as air molecules die horrible deaths, and arch towards the man's face, tearing across and ripping both organic and inorganic material like paper. Lil smiles sweetly at her victim, still growling, still cutting at him. The man falls back, his helmet knocked open and scoured by the blades, the cut across his forehead bleeding down in to his face. "Ahhh!" He calls out, stumbling back and away from the woman for the moment.
The GetawayThere, there we go. Almost perfectly timed to when the man attacks Lilith, a form that tries so hard to stick to the shadows, tries so hard to blend in and dash for the docks, goes racing down the path for the dock. It's impossible to tell who it is, or why… but they are running. Hard. At the same time, the boats engine fires up. Kass hms as Lilith gets into a catfight with some sort of person in the distance, her growling and slashing evident over the comm if not carrying this far. The sound of the boat motor catches her attention, the rifle panning that direction as she starts to track toward the sound. She stops, frowning as she catches sight of something that isn't a deer moving. She lets out a breath and follows the shadowy form. She squeezes the trigger, the rifle spitting a silenced round into the night, the muzzle-flash suppressed by the custom-designed barrel modification. Kass grunts a little at the kick from the gun, her armour's plates and padding preventing the usual bruise that she gets. She speaks a sharp word into the comm as brass flicks into the catcher, «Runner!» Not so much a runner anymore as the lower portion of her leg is sheared off below the knee by the massive 50 caliber round. She goes tumbling, a scream tearing out of her lips before its cut short by the ground filling her face. A spotlight on the boat flicks on, illuminating the woman where she fell. The engine revs then, furrows of water being thrown up as the engines grab water. Well good god, Aladriel's about to be late to the party. Kassandra's shot has already dropped the fleeing target so she's going to need to get there in a hurry. With the Earth Elemental already on call, Aladriel calls forth one of its unique powers. Movement. Already running, all of a sudden the ground seems to ripple and come alive beneath Aladriel's feet and just like that she's moving *really* fast, the ground seeming to 'wave' behind her and propel her forward at a pretty amazing speed. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Silk advance when able" Marcus, trotting towards where Lilith is having a little spat with a guy with a knife, hms as the boat starts up. Silk seems to be shooting someone that isn't the boat, and Phoenix is .. well, surfing. The bodyguard/assistant shakes his head, muttering, "I have to do everything myself." He negligently waves a hand, removing the barrier between himself and the boat, mentioning to his fire elemental, "Be a dear and burn that boat to the waterline, please?" The spell drops, and the boat, its engines already at full power, roars forward, leaving the dock, and the woman, behind. The fire elemental rushes forth, but stops at the water line. Water. Fire. They don't mix.
Lilith focuses now as the fight gets more serious. She ignores the rifle shot, ignores Ally, ignores the screams. No growling, just a flash of fang as the razors flash forward again, tearing for the man's arm. Disable, prevent the dominant hand from working. HE's inspired. Or terrified. Sometimes they are hard to tell the difference. The woman in the armor is scary. Her hands are knifes and her armor is almost impervious to his attacks. He spins away from her attack, blocking her forearm, locking it in a quick hold, then lashing out with the blade, skittering across Lilith's chest, finding a small chink and slicing in. Not deep. Not hard. But enough to sting. Ally is moving towards the downed target and so Kass shifts her aim past the silly fire elemental standing on the dock smoking. She carefully zeroes in at the various targets on the boat. Aha, there's the driver. Kass takes an extra second to make sure she can follow the fast moving craft and fires off another expensive round, the brass falling into the catcher mounted on the rifle. She watches and holds for another shot. The round slams in to the upper spine of the boat driver, sending the driver keeling over the controls. One hand jams the throttle forward, the engines roaring to flank speed. The creature on the prow seems to raise his hands, and the boat all but lifts out of the water, moving to skim across the wave tops.
She's armored pretty good, but you can see she's bleeding out rapidly. It appears to be Laura Three Winds. She raises one hand to the boat, trailing the strings of her leg behind her. Aladriel's rapid-quick-quick movement comes to an end quickly as she arrives near the target that Kassandra shot down. A glance towards the boat, first, and some fasttalk into the open comm. Then to the form at her feet that she carefully approaches from behind, pistol trained on her. The gun doesn't bark, but the powerful spell does. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Someone STOP that boat!" Marcus rolls his eyes at the fire elemental, "Ok, you get in there and stop the boat, then." He mentally sends the Air Elemental off on its journey, reminding it that there is no scary water on the astral plane. He snaps a shot off at the man Lilith is screwing around with, "Damnit!" Marcus has been training on the range with Sam. In fact, and don't tell Sam this, but Marcus is *Bad Ass* with a pistol. The shot catches the man just below the right eye and tears a jagged hole into his head before the microcharge goes off, his head vanishing in a puff of blood and gore. Lilith is probably soaked in it, along with parts of helmet and a nose. … and a mime. Mimes. Evil. Proof of the coming of the horrors. Lilith is rather grateful for her helmet, even though the rest of her gets covered in a dripping layer of red. She flip open the helmet and grins like the devil's own whore from her mask of blood in Marcus' direction Not that he can see it. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Thank you, Marcus. Anyone need a hand now?" The elemental, air this time, is off like a puff of smoke as the house itself catches fire now. It's structure is catching, flames visible in the windows. The Fire Elemental seems to 'Oh yeah' and it slides in to the astral plane. A moment later, the boat rather explodes about a tenth or so of a mile out in the bay. Just -FOOM-.
Lilith looks over the area, idly flicking nose off her face plate with the tip of her razor'd finger as she moves towards Aladriel. She picks up to a quick run and arrives, still blood drenched, roughly in time with Kass. Kassandra gracefully steps off the floating platform of earth and rock, sending mental thanks to the elemental even though he never answers. She glances to the armoured form of her love and then down at the woman on the ground. Marcus wanders this direction, watching the burning house, boat, and then lights a cigarette. Ally offers a very grim look down at the figure, very well aware that the spell she just threw at the woman who may or may not be her target just bounced off. Not good at all. Moving closer to her, Ally NONE too gently goes to kick the woman onto her stomach, face down. Not a moment later Ally kneels down hard on the woman's back, pinning her carefully and puts the muzzle of her pistol to the back of the woman's neck. The woman on the ground grunts, rolled on to her back. She reaches one hand to her leg. "My leg! Oh spirits, my leg! It's gone! Oh godohgodohgod…" Lilith ambles over, watching Ally work with an expression of detached amusement. She walks around Three Winds, continuing to flick bits of gore off herself. "Huh…oh, what did the book say…right. That's an artery." She then squats near the injured woman, tilting her head to peer at her and giving her the same, soft smile from before. Pale face staring out from a black helmet drenched in blood. "Well, yes, that's what happens. Answer the question. She's the nice one. I'm annoyed." Silk steps down on the woman's hand as it moves to her leg. She doesn't speak, but will instead retrieve a medical patch from a pouch on her belt, holding it carefully. She speaks over the comms, «Apollo. Full shields on us. If she casts a spell, I want it to feedback down her throat.» Aladriel waits patiently until her teammates have arrived. While she does so, her eyes raise up to Lilith and she comms to her, going subvocal rather than let the captive hear her voice again. At least for the moment. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Slither, get outta her line of sight, please. And take over here. Need to fix her leg a bit." Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "My bad. Done" The woman grimaces, eyeing the astral for a moment, her eyes visibly glazing as she perceives. A lot of magic around her. She thumps back on the ground, head looking to the sky. "I'm saying nothing." Lilith shifts away from the woman, then moves to take Ally's place. She yawns, still thrumming with adrenalin and tension all the same, and presses the fine line of her razor near the woman's throat. She rolls her eyes. "Oh, don't be *boring*." Silk keeps the hand pinned, remarking over her comm, «Nacht, we have a female prisoner. Getting ID now. Evac.» She waits, watching Aladriel work with a speculative eye behind her helmet. Marcus stays out of the woman's line of sight, keeping astral shields up. Aladriel switches places with Lilith and considers what she wants to do. Ah. There she goes. Idea in place. "Silk…stop the bleeding on her leg," she comms. "Apollo, tandem dispelling to take down her armor. Want that down before I dose her." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "I copy that. Picking up Minos right now." Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Might want to skim back across the water, see if there are any survivors on the boat." The elf doesn't answer in words. Instead, Silk sinks down, placing the rifle on the other side of her and snaps out the medical kit, moving to staunch the bleeding and otherwise save the leg as much as possible. Commlink-«Silk» "Be careful, there was something that didn't give off heat on that boat." The smaller helicopter comes sliding across the water, scanning the waves where the boats burning remains are located… About 1000 feet to the west, the sound of Mustang Alpha can be heard as it hovers low to the ground. Lilith gently holds her razor's to the woman's throat as her friends and teammates work. Almost tenderly, even, holding those dikoted edges *just* right. "Oh, I do hope nothing happens to that helicopter." Marcus steps behind the downed woman, his eyes on the spell matrix making up her armour spell. He raises a hand, then the other, a stream of smoke rising from the cigarette in his mouth as he focuses, making a cutting motion with his right hand, his left hand gathering 'threads' of the spell and moving them over to cut again. He keeps his work in time with Aladriel's, working in tandem with her to remove the intricate warding on the woman. It's not flashy on the physical plane. On the astral plane, however, it is an amazingly intricate dance. In tandem Marcus and Aladriel go to town dispelling the woman's armor spell. Spells are complex matrices that use the ambient mana in the world to create amazing effects. It's like a swirling vortex and spider-web put together. And what the two mages do now is unwind that web, slow down the vortex, picking at the strands that make a spell work…until the spell collapses on itself and disappears. It takes a minute or two before Ally steps back, looking satisfied. Working quietly, Kass cleans the wound and then treats the leg, stopping the bleeding and applying quick sealing compounds and coagulants, faux skin covering the worst areas in an attempt to keep infection out. She works with care, eyes narrowed as she tries not to mess up. Feeling her protections stripped away, the woman doesn't struggle. Much. Feeling the blades at her neck, she doesn't struggle at all. She is silent, watching lilith with hateful eyes. You know. Until she passes out. Lilith just smiles back at her. The hate washes over her like a wave, and then she looks over to Ally and Kass, arching a brow. "Release?" Ally pushes her vision into the astral to verify that she's put the woman down into unconsciousness. Once done, she nods to Lilith. "We'll mage-mask her," she almost shudders, "before we get her on the copter. We'll interrogate once she wakes up. The chemical will give us an hour where she's likely to be the most talkative she's going to be. When Silk is done lets flip her over and get this armor off of her and make sure she's not got something nasty on her." Everything she knows she learned from Aladriel. Kass checks her work carefully, shaking her head. Messier than she would like, but as good as she can do given the conditions. She looks to Ally as if asking her to check and see if she did it right, closing down her Savior Medical kit and returning it to her belt. That done, she'll move to help flip her over. Marcus's spirits report back. The fire elemental reports it was unable to destroy the boat. The confuses Marcus, who relays this odd report to Kassandra. Commlink-«Silk» "Nacht! Pull *away* from the water. We've been played. We need to evac, there are hostiles out here still." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "There's no threat here. Just a burned out boat, three bodies." Lilith nods briskly and steps away. She wipes her blades cleanly off on the grass before sliding them away, then lights her own cigarette. Sod her singing coach. She then curses softly at the news. Commlink-«Silk» "Then you are missing one." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "Only got three. Possible it went down with the boat." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "Making a second pass with Beta." The smaller chopper does infact, come back for a second sensor pass. Commlink-«Silk» "Hostile was thermo-invisible, be advised." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "Noted. Evac in 45 seconds." Ally comes around to see the work that Silk has done and she nods approvingly. "Nice," she says audibly, keeping the comm channel clear. And that one word. She sounds really upset. Probably to do with the boat. "Roll her over and strip her," she tells Lilith. Then she mms and thinks better of it. "We'll do it together. *Carefully*. Silk keeps an eye on the area as Ally and Lilith strip the woman. Her rifle stowed, the elf pulls a pistol, the matte black Savalette resting on her knee as she keeps guard, keeps watch, warmed from the one word of approval from the mage. She smiles a little, despite the situation, but her eyes never stop moving. In short order, Mustang Alpha will slide in low and slow, the side door open, Johny hopping down out of the chopper with a shotgun at the ready… "Move move move! Come on! GET TO THE CHOPPA!" Lilith nods, letting her cig dangle from one corner of her mouth. She neatly, and very very carefully, begins to work the woman over. This at least is a place where she is expert. Her fingers run lightly over an area before she begins to remove the clothing. Marcus stubs out his cigarette and drops it into a fireproof pouch, heading to the chopper. He keeps an eye on the ladies, however, his shielding still wrapping around them all. Ally's very concerned with the armor that the woman's wearing. Feeling at parts. Prodding with others. Anything that seems even a little suspect is left behind and discarded. Anything that could be a tracer or such: left. Anything she doesn't know what it is: left. And then when she's satisfied, Ally nods. "Okay, lets get her inside and masked." Unless your going to strip her down right now, (And you really don't have the time for that) you probably need to take her as-is and strip her down on the chopper. Lilith nods in return, and grabs the arms to haul the woman to the chopper to toss her in. Silk stays quiet, letting Ally run this part of the op. She moves to help, using her free hand to support weight as she drags the woman along with Ally and Lilith, her other hand still holding a pistol. Okay, rush rush! Ally gets the big things off first. The helmet. The like. She even sticks her gloved, armored finger into the woman's mouth to feel around for any suicide pills. (Hey, she saw it in a movie). Then she'll help lift her up and get the woman onto the chopper to complete the rest of the work. The chopper lifts off, sliding out over the water, then gaining altitude rapidly. MArcus moves forward, to take the co-pilots seat. Minos is seated in a jump seat, buckled in. Awake, he's groggy, but alive and unharmed in any great extent. The cabin of the chopper is lit with red light, to keep night-vision intact. Commlink-«Phoenix»> Aladriel says, "Nacht you may wanna help us look her over to make sure there's nothing nasty in her armor." Commlink-«<Nacht»> Johny says, "Do I look that desperate?" Lilith takes a moment to give Minos a look, a sympathetic and relieved sigh, then turns to the task at hand. Commlink-Malus> Lilith says, "Oh, very funny." Holstering her weapon, Kass moves to help Ally strip armoured pieces from the captured woman, casually tossing things out of the door. Boot. Other boot. Lilith looks up at the others. "Does she need to be entirely clothed, or are we leaving her garments intact?" Ally stays on comms just so she doesn't have to shout, as she answers Lilith. "Ask Nacht. He knows more about this then me. Going to find the mage mask," she mentions as she starts looking around for it. Knows she left it somewhere. THe womans clothing is easy enough to get off. Underneath the armored jacket, theres a set of hastily thrown on form-fitting full suit, and nothing else. The boots were loosely tied. You caught them entirely off guard, with no time to prepare. Lilith shrugs and helps strip her down. Jacket? Out the door. Form fitting pants? You guessed it! Kass works around the wounded leg, cutting off what she needs to with a wickedly curved dikoted knife. Lilith grins at Kass, waggles a thumb at her, and proceeds to help slice stuff as needed with razor sharp finger tips. Oops, left a scratch or two. The woman shaves. A bit. See, there's a tattoo on her pubis, of a stick-figure man with a lawn mower, and then a small patch of shaven hair behind him, like he is mowing her thatch |
The Harbormasters Wife
page revision: 63, last edited: 06 Jul 2009 09:12