[Qwikfix]

The frag

It was through the numerous cameras that she heard the blaring of the horn, pulling her back into reality as she pulled the seat up.  Hearing Nicolai bark orders in his broken English didn't help either as she grit her jaw, muttering something in Or'Zet that was best left untranslated.  Firing up the van, she was about to shift it into drive to move when she heard the door open and close.

Wha?  Glancing in a mirror, she spotted Blackbird approaching the van, staying her movement as she glanced back to Jed, exchanging a glance of uncertainty.

"B just left the vehicle, I ain't leaving him behind.  Stand by"

[ismilealot]

Nicolai is already moving as he barks out orders, but Yelena's answer shocks him into a momentary stillness. In an instant he recovers and turns to move again, only this time he's running in a different direction. In just a few moments he's once again in position to shoot the load driver and his arm goes up. The report of the silenced weapon is barely heard among the other noises of the morning. A small rose appears on the right cheek of the load driver and the driver screams, a high pitched howl that shatter the predawn darkness, in seconds the driver is helpless in a rictus of agony with the pain. Nicolai yells, "Беги сейчас!"

Nicolai yells, "Run NOW!"

I placed several negative modifiers and increased the number needed for success based on the teams actions in confusing the load driver.

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena mentally shrugs at what Nicolai has done, wondering if the man's penchant for causing pain and death has affected his mind.  She pushes any further thought along that line away as she swivels the gun back to the kill zone in preparation for Tsina to arrive on her train.

[Qwikfix]

Oh, FRAG

The barrier of not understanding what the drek this Nicolai was spouting off was not a factor, the urgency in his voice enough to communicate that they were in a bad spot.  Quickly firing up a quick ARO map, she shared with Jed as she tried to work on a spot to recover.  "J, ideas?"  Firing up the engine, the tusked mechanic tried not to rev too much as she peeked out the driver's window to see Blackbird. Thumping the door, she motioned him back in.  "Come on, time to move!"

[ismilealot]

Suddenly an explosion rips through the night and wooden shrapnel from the pallet it had been loaded on showers the car and Marco.

[gilga]

Marco looks around in confusion trying to understand what just happened.

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena is watching her kill zone when the explosion rocks the night.  She is a trained sniper, an assassin of significant skill, and she does not remove her eyes from the target zone.  She does however, take note of things happening via the feeds from the drones and camera bugs the team had earlier seeded the area with.  Something went wrong at the loader and she does not know the status of everyone or the even if the plan is still a go.  Trying to interfere with what her team is doing will only add to the confusion.  She waits to hear from Arc about what has happened and how everyone is doing.

[gilga]

Marco gets up from the floor and thinks "What a mess..." He sees the burning vehicle and is still confused on who blew it up and why, he runs to the van enters in the back and locks the door behind him. Marco then listen carefully to the explosion from the windshield and as examines the astral for possible wounded, he combs his hair and cleans his clothes.  "A car explosion is no excuse to appear dirty" he thinks with a silly smile. He has no idea what is happening but is uncertain if any of it is going to change. "If there are survivors I'll just have a spirit take them to the van, I am not going out there again until I relax a bit or I understand what is going on." He thinks.


Marco uses assensing that is especially sensitive to living critters to look at the burning car.
Scan vehicle for survivors: 8d6t5 4

[ismilealot]

Marco sees the area with eyes that change the world into shades of grey, only life and magic truly appear in the astral, and right now there is no sign of either in the mess that is the former pallet loader.

[SmilinIrish]

The moment Marco gets back into the van, Jed casts his astral awareness out searching for the projecting mage. 

The hits on the spell create the limit for the assenssing test.  Unfortunately the spell wasn't very successful.  Limit is 2 
smilinirish:16D6E5 → 5( (5, 4, 4, 1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 6→ 5 successes against 5) )

[Qwikfix]

It was just moments after she had closed up the window that Arc felt the concussive blast of the explosion rock the suspension of the van, followed by the pattering spray of shrapnel against the plating.  "Gah, what the?!"  She shouted out as she gripped the wheel, eyes wide as her adrenaline kicked in.  With a quick snap of the controls, she flung the side door open, thankful to see Blackbird pile in quickly.  Closing up, she popped the van into drive and started to move, her eyes scanning over every eye she had in the area.

"Y, thish ish A.  That van wash rigged, we've been had.  Moving from stop point, awaiting ordersh, but be ready to bail.  Thish looksh bad, Y"

General Perception to gain visuals on what may be opposition moving on us:

Perception: 7d6t5 3

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena's mind is factoring the situation even as she goes on the move, heading for her planned firing position near the two old drums.  The explosion had not been set off by Nicolai, which leaves Tsina.  The van would have been the buyer's back up and support and removing it would send a clear message that Tsina is in charge and don't anyone forget it.  Taking out the van would be calculated to remove support and cast doubt and perhaps even fear into the mind of the buyer.  In a similar vein, taking out the sniper would add insult to injury and Yelena does not want to wait on the roof to find out if that part of the building is also wired to explode or not.

Once in place, Yelena sends a response to Arc.  "Srui.  Is flex of muscle. Not end of deal.  Yelena think Tsina want show buyer she is in charge.  Show she smarter than buyer and know where he puts men.  Yelena think we should stay.  Saw Nicolai near loader when blew up.  He get away or is dead?"

[Qwikfix]

Arc read the message at the speed of thought as she repositioned the van, taking a glance through the cameras to the wreck of the former loader.  Scanning, she looked for the elf's Russian assassin friend, but finding nothing through the clearing smoke.  Gritting her teeth, the human took a deep breath to center herself, calming down.

"Y, statush of N unknown.  Holding for meet, will await inshtruction."  Her mind was a whirl, but settled on two logical conclusions about Nicolai....either he was faking it for Tsina, bought it, or maybe...no, that'd be too insane...

[ismilealot]

The bullets are flying even as Yelena is moving and she feels them thud into her. As Arc steps on the gas Nicolai hurtles into the van right after Blackbird landing on top of the elf with a solid thud. Blackbird notices that he doesn't weigh as much as he would have guessed. Arc sends the car hurtling along the lane in the loading zone and suddenly see's a black panel van pull out ahead of her it's side door opening up to reveal men wielding . . The frag! Rocket launchers!

Jed knows the mage is out there somewhere, but having his body hurtled and bounced isn't helping his concentration.

Arc hears Nicolai yell, "Убивайте их! Пожар!"





DV 11P, AP -2 for the shots.
Arc hears Nicolai yell, "Kill them! Fire!"

[Qwikfix]

While her physical body was relaxed, slumped down and strapped into the van as it was, Arc could feel her virtual eyes go wide, her ork persona adopting a defensive stance as the situation emerged.  She heard gunfire whizzing through Yelena's comm, gritting her teeth as she hoped the upgrades and her tenacity to survive prevailed.  Her inner view of the van confirmed Nicolai's presence and barking as she zoomed ahead, seeing the van.

"N is here, we got company.  B, J, N, take the cannons, watch the flanks"

With a mental flick, Arc activated the van's defenses, the side-mounted Krime Cannon handles popping in the back and extending outwards to the cannons themselves, whilst the HMG facing forward popped up.  Grabbing the virtual trigger and keeping half an eye on all her cameras, Arc could tell she had the quicker trigger, and as the panel opened, she only had to freak for a moment at the sight of launchers to go into defense mode.

"This momma ain't going down that easy!"

The gun sent out a vicious rapport of fire centered on one of the launchers, a hail of bullets peppering him and signaling that they, too, had teeth...

Full auto (10 round) burst on one of the launchers:

Gunnery (RPK, VR, hotsim, jumped in, full-full auto): 13d6t5 7

Defender gets -9 defense dice.  Damage is 12P + net hits, at an AP of -4.