[farothel]

With the ork's attention temporarily elsewhere, Miko seized the opportunity and moved towards some cover.  She was still visible, but if the fecal matter would hit the oscilating unit, she could just hit the floor and in a reasonably safe position to start hitting back.  One of the things she had learned at her current, or maybe former, employer was from a retired secret service agent: always keep moving, because a moving target is harder to hit.  But if you can't find cover and wait it out.

[MaxKojote]

Joel began nervously moving towards the left corner of the intersection. He could see that despite the Orc's uncertainty they were drugged up and dangerous.  He knew he wasn't quick enough to easily avoid bullets, so it would be safer to be protected by cover.  Then hopefully he'd just need to incapacitate the leader.

"Nah, I don't need illusions, I'm a summoner! It's not like I'd ever need to induce confusion or fear in a target!" I'm such a bloody moron. His mental chastisement from earlier continued. When all this is over there are going to be  some changes to be made...

[Ren]

The human with the gun pointing in your direction tried to follow both Miko and Joel as they started to move slowly towards cover. You saw the indecision in his eyes, as he tried to focus on both of you.

Everything hung in the balance for a moment.
[spoiler=ganger’s Composure]WIL(2) + CHA(2) (4d6.hits(5)=1)[/spoiler]

And the moment passed. The ganger decided that the troll with the enormous handgun posed a bigger threat, so he kept the barrel in her direction. "Oy, where you think you goin'?" he asked.
"Yo shut it too, Crunchie." The ork's head whipped back towards you. He now focused on Matt, who could almost hear the gears of his brain straining to work faster. "Y'know, gringo, he's right. Movin' at gunpoint isn't bright, gets yo killed more'n not. But today, catch is good, so i'm in good mood. An' yo walkin' ain't mean yo walkin' for much longer an' i don' want yo anywhere near me." He lowered his gun somewhat, now it only pointed at your feet. The human, disbelief showing on his face, followed suit. "So why don' yo make us into yo an' me again?" He jerked his head right, into the direction you were heading to before you met.

[Csjarrat]

Matt didn't have to be told twice, the feeling of relief massive as his heart beat so hard he thought they could hear it in puyallup.
Matt briefly makes eye contact with the others, giving them a flash of raised eyebrows as an "i'm sorry" as he turns and heads back along the original path, relaxing his arms and the taser down slowly so as to not ruin the ork's generosity.
He makes sure to check the drone's trid feed in his helmet's Image link, checking its current position against the floor plan and observing its motion sensor as it advances.

[Gustovness]

What the hell just happened?

Leroy didn't know whether to run, hide, duck for cover, or throw something at the gangers.

No, seriously, what the hell did that idiot just say?

He tried reading everyone's body language and got the faint idea that the tension in the room was receding.  Nonetheless, Leroy remained hyper vigilant.



Due to Leroy's refusal to let his guard down, he gets +2 IP if someone provokes a fight now.


jk

[farothel]

'Never argue with gangers if they let you pass,' Miko thought as she followed Matt.  She did take some video and still pictures of them with her cybereyes though.
"If they managed to get in, there also has to be a way out," she said when they were out of hearing range of the looters, "somehow I don't think they were inside when this happened and they didn't seem smart enough to come up with this scheme in the first place.  But we can use it to our advantage.  I've recorded them while looting, so we can try to shift the blame on them.  A lame plan, I know, but as a last desperate act instead of going to jail ourselves, it can always be worth trying."

[MaxKojote]

"Agreed." Joel muttered fervently as he quickly moved after Miko, glancing back occasionally at the gangers. He didn't entirely trust them to not shoot him from behind. "Could they themselves have come through the entrance we're heading towards? Speaking of that, how far are we, Matt?"

[Ren]

It wasn't that far, where your route left the public areas. Conveniently, you found the door to the maintenance stairwell open. It was also obviously forced, broken plastic and parts of the locking mechanism lay scattered on the ground. Inside, the air was a few degrees warmer, and instead of the ads, you heard distant voices of heavy machinery, both from above and below.
The lighting here proved trickier than outside. The stairwell was sparsely lit, with a single lamp on each level, and it probably got less power as it only shed minimal light. Pools of darkness welled in the corners, besieging patches of partial light.

According to the rout, you had to go down.

[Gustovness]

Leroy caught up to Matt, who was leading the way with whatever mapping program he had running in his helmet.  He placed his hand on Matt's forearm.  He rubbed his eyes and began to focus his thermographic vision in the dark environment.  It wasn't low light vision, but it was definitely in a spectrum that would give him an edge over his rigger guide.

"Watch yo step down here, chummer."


Just a kind reminder to the GM, Leroy does have the civil engineering skill which he uses professionally to navigate through disaster areas.  The picture you're painting is one of continued destruction with possible rescue crews working overhead.  I'd hate for something to collapse on us or for a hazard that Leroy should have noticed under normal circumstances in this situation to go by unnoticed!

[Csjarrat]

Not far now Joel we've got to start heading downwards now, thankfully our new best mates left the door open for us, which was nice. Speaking of which, did any of you guys get a fucking word of what that guy said?!
Matt turns on his flashlight, still on its retaining clip on his jacket. It wasn't perfect but at least he wasnt going to trip over his own feet in the inky darkness.
Cheers Leroy, You go on ahead then mate, I'll follow you.
Matt's AR feed cast an eerie glow over the walls and his body, turning to green as Matt minimised the map readout in favour of the Drone's trid feed.
//<<Drone command v1.03>>: Descend staircase, scan for contacts. Report contacts to me.//

Drone perception:
Visual:pilot 3, clearsight 3, vision enhance 3, active 3 (has lowlight sensor) (12d6.hits(5)=4)
Audio:pilot 3, clearsight 3, audio enhance 3, active 3 (has lowlight sensor) (12d6.hits(5)=5)
+ motion sensor (no rules for testing)

[farothel]

"I'll cover the rear," Jade said, "I have thermo and low light vision and I can see over all of you."
She kept her cyber on for now, just to be able to react on anything.

[MaxKojote]

Joel nodded. "Guess I'm third then. My glasses will also allow me to see in low light." He listened carefully, nervously, for sounds of metahumans other than the small group of four. Or perhaps something else. More than anything he wanted to get out of this area and call up a spirit to feel comforted that he wouldn't be entirely helpless.

Perception (4) + Intuition (5) + Perceptive (1) + Hearing Spec (2) + Audio Enhancement (3) - Wounds (1) (14d6.hits(5)=5) Note Spatial Recogniser

[Ren]

Heading down into the bowels of the building, you could feel the difference. As you descended the stairs, the smell of people and fear and death was slowly changing into the smell of steel and electricity and machine oil. The pressure on you seemed to ease on you, until you reached the bottom of the stairs, where reality struck again. There lay another body, in the uniform jumpsuit of building maintenance, a female ork, and though you were pretty sure that the cause of death must have been a broken neck, nothing indicated why she would fall down the last flight of stairs.

There were two doors at the bottom, one led to storage, the other to waterworks, through which you could reach your destination.

[Csjarrat]

Matt's flashlight illuminated the grizled death pose of the female ork, her neck bent into an unnatural resting position. The ork looked like she'd had a nasty fall, or maybe a nasty push? Matt averted his gaze, he'd seen so much death today that he didn't want to add yet another face to see in his nightmares.
The sight of the waterworks entrance gave Matt a feeling of relief, the sense of immediate freedom gave him a huge boost.
Aha, waterworks, this is the one. Nearly home guys!

[farothel]

"Well, what are you waiting for, boy," Jade said, "Open it."