IC- Signs of the Underground

[arcanus]

Ty looked at Mac through his brown, dirty dreadlocks.
"Well its about fucking time, do you know how tough its been dragging your sorry ass around, as for where I've been, trying to make some friends, yeah yeah I know there ain't no such thing in this place"

Hade's waited, a questioning look upon his face.
"Hoodlum Priests crew, look don't start U-, I mean fuck it, Mac!, their goblins like us, an they got people after them too, strength in numbers"
Almost without thinking both Hades and Ty turned and looked at the human members of their gang.

[Hades]

"Don't know about you, Ty, but if the priest won't take the roundears or our dandelion eater, then I say fuck him! All or nothing. I'm certainly not going to abandon them. What would Lyssa think?"

Lyssa is/was my human girlfriend outside the zone, mother to my child and vocalist in our band!!

[Hades]

The sun was disappearing down below the Chicago city skyline.
In the 1st Midwestern Bank, the Signs gang were battening down the hatches.
At night a differnet kind of bug came out but they were just as deadly to the living breathing members of the gang as their daytime cousins.

McLarren Hades walked in to the bank managers ample office to see Tyrone Beggs practicing his putting on the manager's indoor putting green.

"Busy?" the urban brawler asked.

Ty shrugged. "Thinking," he replied.

Hades eased himself into the manager's comfortable chair and gently placed his pump action on the Californian Redwood desk.

"So what's the deal with Hoodlum Priest? And if I think you are lying or holding anything back, it's wedgy time!!"

[arcanus]

"You were never better at Melvins than me" replied Ty absently.
"Hoodlums been approached by 'The Horde', but he dosen't want to get involved with King Vlad, deals with the devil an all that, so he's looking for allies an heard of us"
"Seems our rep is still pretty solid, so he wants to propose an alliance, strength in numbers all that shit"
"Arse" said Ty as he missed his put.

"He's also after going for something called the Eighth Regimental Armoury, some old weapons dump that was reactivated durin the Ghost Dance"

[Hades]

"I suppose the question is, do we trust him? Having said that, I'd rather hitch up with him than Vlad."

Hades laughed as Beggs' next shot missed the hole by almost the entire room.

"Got to admit though, I like the sound of an armoury! Could be a good place to hole up too."
"So what's the score if we do join them? Are we just making up the numbers for Priest's army or are we going in as equals? Reckon we'll have a riot from our guys if it's the former."

"So, when are we off?"

[arcanus]

For Fs sake, curses Ty as his ball goes wide, looking for any explanation other than inability he scans the floor. "Floor can't be level" this causes Hades to smirk
"Truth is Mac, we can't trust anyone in here, but I agree with you, its either some safety in numbers or we're screwed"
"Anyhow, its this armoury I'm most interested in!"

[Hades]

Night had fallen across the city of Chicago and as it had the sounds of gunfire, an almost constant background accompaniment to everyday life in the containment zone had died down. Now only the odd flurry of gunfire rose up as someone somewhere tried to fight off one of the night's many predators.

Chicago's warlords were well entrenched and daily battle for territory were the norm.
At night the city was still active. As well as the many warlords claiming ownership over their chunk of the sprawl there were smaller gangs, desperately trying to hold their own or merely make it through another day. Others still were trying their best to get a foothold on the Chicago property market, and were going to make life a misery for everyone they encountered in the process.
Then there was the general citizenry of the city. The everyday people who didn't manage to make it out in time before the wall went up. Many groups of these were huddled together, frightened and hungry, hoping that their numbers would be enough to keep the predators away or few enough to keep them unnoticed. A lot of these people had stopped going out during the day, when they ran the risk of getting ambushed by one gang or another who would steal what little they had or would try to press-gang them into their warlord's ranks.
So they went out at night, when the gangs, fearful of an ambush by a rival would retreat to their strongholds and batten down the hatches. At night they still had plenty to worry about, what with dysentery, typhoid, VITAS III, and any other potential plague like disease, the flotsam and jetsam of a partially destroyed city and all the hazards that went with such wreckage, and then, of course, there were the bugs. Although many of these things became dormant out of the daylight, there those insect spirits, emulating their earthly originals that came out in the dark hours.

McLarren Hades wondered how many of these people, if any at all, would make it out of the city alive. Some had, thanks to the signs gang, when the army had come to seize Echo Tower.
Observing what little he could from the relative safety of the bank's windows, the orkish urban brawler had noticed a definite increase in bug activity over the last few days.
From his position now, in the lobby of the building that had become a refuge for the surviving members of the signs gang, he peered out into the gloomy street. His eyes, naturally adjusted their output to low-light. The orks and trolls amongst the gang could function well enough in the dark, as could the sole elf, but the handful of humans suffered a greatly reduced vision at this time of the day and would need a guide.

No Entry was standing in front of the majority of the gang giving them one last briefing. "Alright, we hope to go quietly, but if the shit hits the fan you humans must remember to stick with your guides, guides keep an eye on them. You all know where we are going so if we do get split up, you know where to head for, and I hope you make it. We're alright for ammo at the moment, but try not to waste it. If we get into a fire fight, Yield has more ammo, and One Way has the MedKit."
Still feeling a little uneasy with the whole leadership thing he stepped down off the box, grabbed his SMG and moved to the front of the building.

Hades glanced back over his shoulder as his friend approached. "Very moving!" he quipped. "I'm inspired."
"Fuck off!" Beggs replied genially.
"What's the plan?" Winter asked. "Want me to go and flush anyone watching us out?"
"Sounds like a good idea," Beggs agreed.
"No, I'll go out first," Hades put in. "You're a better shot than me mate. Keep an eye out and if anyone has a pop at me, then you can take them down."
Winter nodded, unslinging his assault rifle and checking the ammo clip.

Hades ensured that the Roomsweeper was secure in it's leg holster and the Ares Predator was snug under his arm, then getting the shotgun into a comfortable position he crept forward to the obliterated main door.

Stepping out he crouched, half expecting a hail of gunfire but none came. Slowly cautiously he made his way down the street, his eyes searching for any signs of danger.

Perception + Intuition (11 dice): 9 8 5 5 3 3 2 2 2 (4 hits)

Infiltration (nee Stealth) + Agility (9 dice): 17 13 11 5 5 5 4 4 4 (10 hits - from 9 dice is that a CRIT?)

[arcanus]

Each of the groups fanned out moving to the shadows in an effort to keep out of the line of fire.
There was an eerie quiet to the streets, the mass of garbage that littered every block and street was disturbed by a faint breeze.

The 'Signs' were watchful of the skies, bug activity had been down of late, the predation of the weak left to more metahuman villains, however all of a sudden they had reappeared.
Rumour had it that a number had been asleep after the bomb, and that somebody had woken a load of them up.

Faced with the prospect of a long and dangerous night the guides rallied their wards and moved off, heading east.

[Hades]

Coming to the corner of a block, Hades stopped, nestling down behind the burnt out shell of a Mitsubishi Nightsky.

He signalled for the gang to halt, watching carefully for attackers and making sure that before he did anything else, his comrades had had time to find cover.

With another signal he beckoned Beggs forward.

His band-mate and old classmate scurried along the sidewalk, keeping tight in against the wall until he came up alongside him.

"Christ, Ty! You may have had the charisma to take over from Granite, but you didn't inherit his stealth, did you? I could have heard you coming from a block away!" the ork whispered in a sarcastic tone.

Tyronne gave his friend a withering look, knowing full well that he had been pretty quiet. "This is hardly the time or place for piss taking," he chastised.

Hades shrugged "There's always time, buddy. Now, you know the way."

Beggs pointed straight across and Hades made a check of the area, searching the miriad windows for signs of snipers and the doorways for signs of ambush. Then carefully, covered by Winter on the other side of the street, he made his way forward.

"With a bit of luck I'll lead them to the Priest without incident. Maybe then the guys will have a bit more confidence in me," McLarren Hades thought as he stepped over what looked like a charred cadavre.

[arcanus]

They'd done well, having got to Soldier Field without incident.
Then the shots came, fortunately the gunfire was poorly aimed and their ambushers blew the element of surprise.
Winter returned fire before everyone else, having not accompanied a specific group he acted as vanguard, however several lucky shots struck the human and he disappeared in amongst a pile of refuse.

Ty watched with a degree of pride, as the various Signs groups scattered taking cover, several figures were visbilble to their low-light sight.
'Stupid humans' thought Ty, 'when will they learn we can see much better in the dark', 'Schoolboy error' Ty chided himself as his opponent appeared above his vantage point.
Ty scrambled clumsily to avoid the shot, but as in all good tales it never came, his attacker a woman was launched sideways, as a stop-sign slice into her kneck and propelled her corpse safely away. For a moment Tyrone Beggs thought he were seeing a ghost, his vision mastered reality once more as he saw Soloman move off.

A chill passed over Beggs, something had changed, something wrong.
Slowly turning he saw his next opponent, this one was barely dressed, although he/she/it didn't seem to be particularly bothered by the cold.
Bald and emaciated, the humanoid creature, opened its mouth revealing a mouth full of fangs.
Its black eyes silently conveying only hunger.

"Shit, shit, shit" said Ty