Our previous research shows the facility is on a little bay. "Across the lake" to the facility is about 400 feet. There is a mini-mall and apartments across the way.
We call up Takata, Bert's fixer who arranged this run. She hooks us up with one night in a guest room in an apartment building across the bay. It's 650¥ for the night. We'll be fine as long as we don't take weapons through the hallway.
Jane will wait in the park on the edge of the lake. She'll summon a spirit and wait. Jane will use binoculars to watch the run and cast spells as necessary. Bianca will wait in a tree in the park with her rifle. I'll wait near the apartment with my grenade launcher. Just in case we'll pile up furniture in front of the door.
Bert and Derek will head in pretending to be a maintenance crew. We'll use the decker Slammo for help. He'll arrange ID and he'll provide a confirmation phone call. It will run 1,500¥ for the package.
Bert and Derek will meet the target, stuff him into their cart, then wheel out. If something goes wrong the remote team will attack at a distance to provide cover.
As we're finalizing the plans at a local bar we overhear a news feed. Across the world there have been more people being hit with some sort of VTAS-like disease. People are forced into contortions and become discolored. There are no deaths yet. There are about five thousand victims.
There is also a blurb about Halley's Comet coming into view on Saturday morning. There are comet viewing parties across the world. Some cities are turning off street lights for a short time that night to increase visibility. Seattle is not one of the cities.
Finally, last night in Mecca the religious leader who united the Arabian peninsula was gunned down by unknown assailents. The attackers were killed on the scene.
We head to the apartment. Jane and Bianca scout out spots to wait and attack from. I put furniture in front of the door. Bert's van is painted with The Pump Company logo.
Jane sits on the shore and summons a water spirit. Bianca climbs into a tree with her rifle and attempts to disappear.
At 4:30pm Bert and Derek head in. Their gear is hidden among repair kit and their cart. They tell the receptionist that they're there to repair the pump. The receptionist calls someone up. A bit later a security guard arrives. He tag says his name is Nigel. The guard leads them back to a small room. Guards poke through their gear. One examines their IDs and makes a call. Everything seems to check out, they are allowed back. A guard follows them. The guard waits at the entrance to the building.
Bert and Derek arrive at the room. There is a man waiting there. He matches the description of the target. The man looks tired and worried. He's doing something on a computer. "Keep looking busy; we'll be with you in a moment." Derek unloads the cart while Bert reassembles his gun.
They put Charles in the cart, handing him the pistol.
As they head into the building Charles coughs. Bert starts coughing to try and cover. A moment later Charles starts screaming. The guard looks suspicious. Derek mutters something comforting, steps toward him, and attempts to grab him with a stun glove. The guard stops him and smacks Derek a bit.
Bert runs for the door. The guard goes for his radio, Derek smacks him. The shock from the glove shakes the guard.
Alarms sound. Crud.
I start aiming out of the apartment at one of the pumping stations. Bianca starts firing on security cameras.
Jane is heading toward the facility astrally. From the lake-side there is a sudden bulge; something inside the ward around the fish is trying to escape. She sends the spirit in to distract the guards.
Inside three men in security armor burst out of a side room. They run past the team and outside. One yells, "Get the frag out of here now!"
Derek zaps the guard again, he collapses. We see the three thugs in armor head out onto the dock.
Jane sees the bulge grow, she heads back to her body.
I continue to aim. Bert says things are getting complicated, but they are safe. We see the grating on the nearest edge of the dock start bending. Two of the new guards head to pumping stations. The other pulls out an assault rifle with underbarrel grenade launcher. He fires grenades into the water. The grating continues to rend, it's about to break.
Bert heads out. Bert has to stop briefly when Charles thrashes particularlly violently. They get to the van and put the cart in.
Meanwhile the guard continues to fire into the water. We have no idea what the other guards are doing in their respective pumping stations. Suddently the far wall explodes, both astrally and physically. A giant tentacle, perhaps a hundred feet long, flails out, grabs the guard, and drags him underwater.
The remote team briskly heads to the apartment's parking lot.
Bert and Derek head off at a reasonable speed. The cart continues twitching, he occasionally vomits. Bert warns us that he'll be little late, we're to meet him at the corporatet hostel.
The remote team drives around for a while looking for tails both astral and mundane. Failing to find one we'll head out for food near the hostel.
En route over the radio we hear a news flash: a multi-tentacled creature has burst out of the lake. It is heading down the street towards an ocean. Security forces, primarily Lone Star are firing on it. The attempt to stop it doesn't appear to be working.
While driving Charles became silent. Bert and Derek arrive at a random abandoned warehouse. Several squatters run. Looking in the cart the man appears to be unconcious. He has an unhealthy cast and is covered in vomit. Charles' face is turning frog-green. Spines are bursting out of his hair, webbing is browing between the spines and his fingers. There are pucker marks on the side of his neck. Derek things that Charles looks reasonably healthy, considering. There is a film over his eyes.
We're still driving around. Out of the sky drops three mantis-like things. They have four foot wing spans. Instead of straight fails they have scorpian stingers. They six scorpian-like legs. One lands onto our car, another lands on a streetlight, another lands in the middle of the street. Cars start swerving around the thing. I pull out weapons. Jane starts summoning a spirit. A pickup driver doesn't see the thing and crushes it. The two creatures see the crushed on, they screach and fly away. How odd.
Bert gets in touch and briefly mentions that things going wrong. I suggest that he get in touch with Miss T.. He calls and is confusing. Derek grabs the radio, "he is manifesting unusual fish-like characteristics." Takada sends the group to some medical facilities. It's Saint Luke's in the southern downtown. Bert lets us know.
The arrive at St Lukes and wheel the dolley in. The receptionist asks what they are delivering, Bert explains that they called ahead with information. She understands and fetches orderlies. The orderlies take the cart away. Bert fills in forms and they head off. They head off.
Bert lets Takada know what happened. He gave one of her numbers as the contact info. Jane flits over to the hospital to confirm that there are no astral tails on them. We eat seperately.
We meet back at the Extended Stay Seattle around 9:00pm. Bert says that Takada suggested that Charles hired us.
The news reports that the tentacle thing made it to the ocean and disappeared. There are other weird news stories. There were multiple sightings of the strange mantis things in Seattle, they're being called mantiscorps. Across the globe is strange news. In Heartford, Connecticut something in sewer broke into city hall and ate the files. In Vladivostok, Russia a small corporate zoo was evacuated when a hippo began breathing fire. In southern Georgia, CAS, in a small town off 450 people, Sherpton, everyone disappeared. Meals were partially eaten. Every house was abandoned. It was discovered around noon when some out of visitors arrived. In FedDub Dunkelzahn's "Rift" has been slowly growing larger for some time. The rift looks like a shapeless glowing area and apparently bridges the astral and physical worlds. There is a constant crowd around it. One of the celebratons got out of hand and turned into a small riot. In he midst of the riot the rift visibly rippled and a group of manifested spirits exitted. They raced away at high speed, too fast to see any details. The army plans on moving the barricades fifty meters further away. There is other strange news around the world.
Jane checks magical news. She knows that things have been getting "weirder" for several years.
Takada calls. "Chaz" will be okay, but he is still "fishy." The employers were pleased and paid a bonus. We get 9,000¥.
While we're eating lunch Jane suddenly gets a terrible headache. She astrally hears a distance scream. She slumps over. Bianca feels a "pop" at the back of her head. Across the restaurant a waiter drops his tray and trips. An old woman gives a shocked yelp. The moment passes.
Heading back, checking the news, this happened across the world. Some people who didn't know that they were magically active felt it, reports suggest that most of these people are magically active, just aware of it.
Bert picks up the pay from Takada's agent that evening.
1 karma: completed run
1 karma: not ditching the target
1 karma: survival