IC - Bug City Blues

[arcanus]

'PRIORITY ALPHA-BRAVO 4' "Relief Watch Commander to Comms"
Bleary eyed, Captain Ken Rosho of UCAS Military Intel Operations rolled off his bunk, smoothing his crumpled uniform and headed through the door.

There had been four incidents alone tonight, so much so that the on-shift Watch Commander must be once again tied up.

Arriving in the Comms Bunker, situated in no-mans land 3 blocks out from the West wall, Rosho saw the sun break over the ruined buildings of the CZ.

Earlier that night some form of powerful fire spirit had rocketed into the CZs astral space, the guard spirits had stood by and let it.

"Sit-rep" yawned Rosho
"Internal bogey, lifting from the South Downtown Core" replied the Comms.
"Where" replied the captain
"Shit" replied the Comms "Its vanished"
"Full scan, whatever it is find it"

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It was good to be in the cockpit again, he'd always really been a ground pounder but helicopters were something else.
The polymorphic cloak slid over the attack copter 'When the Dragon builds something he does it well' he thought, but then he'd always had an affinity for the germanic drake.

Hovering out of the garage, and into a clear space the now extended rotor blades kicked up 18 months of garbage.

Reminded him of the 'Euro Wars'
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"Sir, Avian is confirming that 'Mercy One' is inbound.
"Cancel it" ordered Rosho
A moments pause as Comms sped through the matrix
"AF says the flight plan is locked and that this isn't priority one"
"Something is threatening their airspace and it isn't priority one" replied Rosho.

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The wing of a dozen transports appeared as neat blips on the trid relayed radar.
Swinging the copter up, he gained altitude and hovered until the cargo planes appeared in a wave fanning out over the CZ.

As they droned over head spewing the relief packages from their holds, he hair-pinned the 'Drake' through the umbrella of drones, aligning himself with the wing he then followed them unseen out and over the CZ wall.

'Don't know what all the fuss was about' he thought, turning the Drake west.

[arcanus]

"Why, Klauss, why?" asked No-Entry with no small degree of exasperation.
The ork leader of the Signs Gang looked enquiringly at the rotund german dwarf buried in a heap of cheap electrical parts and three off the shelf decks all wired together.

"You had the chance to get out, all you had to do is go with the others"
"I did not trust the american military"
"Jees" rasped No-Entry who was lost for words "So you jury-rigged the mechanoid".
"Ya and loaded Hal into its central core, much improved"

No-Entry turned and looked at the 7 foot tall mechanoid and was inclined to agree.

[Curren]

He literally skidded to a halt inside one of the warehouses five hundred metres away from the jetties and threw himself into a corner where some supply crates had been left on pallets. This warehouse seemed to have escaped the worst of the fire and still had a roof.

Sucking in the tepid air with deep breaths he forced himself to calm down, the pistol was shaking in his hands and he realised that he couldn't let his own morbid imagination destroy him. There were plenty of nasty things out there which could do that without him being sucked into the equation.

After a few minutes, he felt stable enough to check his surroundings.

Search the supply crates with a 5.5.4.4.2

[arcanus]

he couldn't let his own morbid imagination destroy him. Search the supply crates with a 5.5.4.4.2

Perhaps morbid imagination is sometthing of an early warning system, wrenching the lids off the crates Curren takes his fill of dried rations, vitamins and some boosters.
A tremor in the force draws his attention to otherworldly affairs, quickly peeking into the Etheric. Curren see's two large 9 foot long wasps hovering in a search pattern above the warehouse complex.

[arcanus]

Major General Carl Henderson looked back over the sepia prints showning his families military history back to The Battle of Shiloh in 1862.

Turning he looked at his stateroom, Captain Denan of the UCAS Thaumatic Corps sat opposite his guests, Clive Pabar and Amy Eckharte.
"So Mr Pabar, we've allowed your little extraction, your turn to deliver the goods"

"General, I'm well aware that you allow corporate extractions routinely from the Zone, as long as its the right corporation"
"The point being that the Atlantean Foundation wasn't the right corporation" Henderson stared the suit down, until his point was well made.

It was Amy Eckharte who replied, a striking woman of obvious celtic heritage, thick curled red hair and green eyes.
"The Invae have been gathering their strength, since the bomb, it is time for them to swarm" replied the woman
"Swarm, what exactly does that mean?" interjected Denan

"Exactly as it sounds captain, they will burst from their hives and harvest as many hosts as they can find, even now their fleshforms are spreading through the sewers"

"And how exactly do you know all this Miss Eckharte" asked Henderson
"Because Spider told me general" replied the shaman.

[Curren]

'Bugger' Otto mouths silently. Looking around for a place to hide he acts quickly and steps into one of the supply crates and reaches over the side to get the lid on.

Darkness envelops him as the lid slides into place.

'I think this is a good time to pray as any mate' he thinks to as he makes himself as small and quiet as possible.

Stealth of 5,5,4,4,2

[arcanus]

Stealth of 5,5,4,4,2

Moving into the shadows, Curren tries to regain control of his breathing.
Silence descends as he searches for the distinctive drone of the wasps wings.
The wrench of metal sounds like the end of the world, the True Forms tear into the warehouse, their multi-faceted eyes searching for their prey.

[Curren]

'Sit tight, sit tight.' Curren urges himself, almost trying to will them away. He can almost picture them tearing the container to shreds and then tearing him to pieces.

He gets to memory his Physical Double image spell and also sends a subtle pulse to his elemental. If the worse comes to the worst they'll be ready.

'Sit tight....Sit tight......'

Willpower of 9,6,4,3,3.

[arcanus]

Eerily one of the wasps glides into the vacant space of the warehouse.
It spins looking for the source of spirit magic as a gelatinous form slithers along the floor.

Then it turns and looks toward the hiding place of Malthalamas Curren.

[Curren]

'Fuck, that bloomin spirit' he thinks. He instructs the spirit to drop into the flooring, come to the crate and to quickly engulf him and drop back into the earth.

He prepares to cast Physical Double image on another crate, to give the spirits a decoy.

Charisma 7,3,3,

Sorcery 11, 5,4,3