Faction BREAKING NEWS: Groundquakes on Etti IV [Code Zero]

[Das]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hit and Run" by LOLO)

//: Tags:

[CZ] Jrurki Liz | Kivah ​

[CSA] Castor Crane​

[Nearby] Suerse Leli | Tizdalle Jyll ​

//: District VII, ETTI IV

Das could feel Suerse Leli sizing her up with her eyes. She didn't like it, knowing already from experience that the Etti was writing her off by her looks. Too bad anyone who could attest to her skill with a blaster was back on Denon or six feet under.

"Hiding from the trauma teams," Das said honestly. She risked a step closer, eyes flicking from the Etti to the timid doc and back again. "Staying safe from groundquakes. Looting." Das' lips quirked up in the corner as she saw the damage done to the woman's arm. Tizdalle Jyll was right, that wound needed proper medical care. The sooner, the better. "How can I help?" Das knew it would seem insane to lend a hand after shooting at them, but she wasn't half bad with a medkit. If nothing else, she knew what the tools were called and could pass them to the doc.

"I'm really sorry about this," she offered once she knew the excitement of their standoff was over. "We saw a T-team roll in right on top of us and came down as fast as we could. I thought maybe you guys were part of another squad heading us off."

 

[Kivah]

Search And Destroy
Gear: Z-14 x2, Udyr Biosuit
Tags: Das I Jrurki Liz I Suerse Leli I Tizdalle Jyll

The second girl came out and Kivah practically rolled her eyes in exasperation. These were the two that had tried to ambush them? This one was timid and unsure of herself, looking to be on the verge of crying. At least the first had some moxie or durasteel in her spine. Her gaze shifted between them as this Tiz seemed to dote over her friend with even Das was moving in out of concern. Frankly Kivah wasn't that bothered by hurting someone that had shot at her, misunderstanding or no. But they seemed to have chilled since realizing the Cathar and her friend weren't corpos, the purple one even looked a little contrite. She shook her head and retracted the biosuit's helmet, letting her hair out. "Couple tourists and you thought you'd go looking for treasures under the mall?" She asked. It didn't seem like these two really knew what they were doing, maybe she could forgive them. "No armor and one gun between the two of you?"

She shook her head again and headed over to one of the shop maps glowing with a soft inner light that dotted the concourse. "Keep an eye on them Dee, I'm going to do some quick shopping for our new friends." She found the store she'd been hoping to on the map and jogged down the mall in a silent gait that soon had her swallowed by the shadows.

Mercenary Arms was a short distance away from the annex by the food court they'd found themselves in, isolated from the more urbane shops for the polite corpo. This was located for the socialite looking for a bit of discrete security or the body guard of the same. The security grate was closed but her blaster made quick work of the lock and Kivah pulled the metal shutter open before slipping inside. Disappointingly all the blasters were displays. Customers could by and then receive their purchase later, so she wouldn't be picking up any of the alluring weapons lining the perspex displays. But they weren't what she was here for. Along one wall was an array of field jackets in a variety of sizes and styles. She grabbed a few of the armored jackets that looked like they'd fit the others, choosing solid colors that wouldn't stand out in the urban crowds of Etti IV and erring on the size of being a tad large on the basis of it'd be more comfortable and easier to hid stuff under rather than guessing for a perfect fit. Kivah was turning to go when something else caught her eye. Now Das would like that, and so would she come to think of it. New loot tied up in a spare jacket for herself, Kivah started to head back to the others.

 

[Tizdalle Jyll]

Location: District VII, Etti IV
Wearing: Black tank and pants
Tags: Das | Kivah | Suerse Leli

The dark-haired girl seemed cautious. She admitted that they were down here pretty much for the same reason that we were. Well that Suerse was. I was just here out of wanton curiosity. I know what they say about the cat, and it looks like they might not be too far off. But at this point there was no way that I would be able to turn back and be any safer. The other one. The one that shot Suerse, admonished our approach. It was hard to argue with it now. But I really didn’t think that if I had a gun things would have turned out any better. Armor wasn’t any more my style than firearms though. If I’m going to fit in on Etti IV it might be that I need to change things up.

After telling us what we’d done wrong, she disappeared to “shop”. I was quite alright with that. Now I could turn my attention to Suerse’s injury. I gave a concerned hiss as I moved in closer. ”Well luckily blasters seem to do most of the job in cauterizing. The bleeding’s already starting to stop. I should probably do a more thorough job with the laser cauterizer. If you really feel confident you can use the hypospray to numb as much as possible while I get that cauterizer ready.” I said to the black-haired girl after she offered to help.

”I mean technically we shot first right?” I stated in way of accepting her apology. ”We were both doing the same thing. I’m not the one with the hole in my shoulder, but I don’t think there are any hard feelings now that we’ve hashed things out.” I’m a bit naïve to how these things worked, so I was hoping Suerse wasn’t going to snatch her blaster and start firing on them as soon as I was done patching her up.

”I’m Tizdalle by the way. She’s Suerse.” I started prepping the cauterizer and then moved back to get to work on Suerse. The hypospray was pretty self-explanatory so I assumed the girl had figured it out and the wound was ready for me to work on it. Once I was sure that wound was disinfected and cauterized completely I started to stitch it up. ”What happens when your friend gets back? Back to looting or have we had enough of an adventure for this night?”

 

[Das]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hit and Run" by LOLO)

//: Tags:

[CZ] Jrurki Liz | Kivah ​

[CSA] Castor Crane​

[Nearby] Suerse Leli | Tizdalle Jyll ​

//: District VII, ETTI IV

"I'm Das," the teen said. There was relief in her voice. In the Corporate Sector, names didn't mean a whole hell of a lot, but among shadowrunners and the anti-Corpos? A name was a promise. "My friend is Kivah, and that's Jrurki," Das added, pointing to the timid blonde cyborg idling in the distance. She wondered if it was the Trauma Team of the stress of shooting it out with Tizdalle Jyll and Suerse Leli that had caused her to go dark. Whichever it was, Das would make sure her roomie made it back topside and home after this was done.

She took the hypospray from Tiz and carefully numbed the Ettian's blaster wound. "Really, really sorry about that," Das said to Suerse after applying the topical anesthetic. She stepped back, leaving the doc to her work and looking to the walkway behind them. K-1 was so eerie when it was empty. The dim emergency lighting didn't help much either. Her shoulders dropped with relief when Kivah came into view from the darkness. "Missed ya, pal. Find anything good?" Das asked, walking over to meet the Cathar. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the pair behind them. "Tizdalle and Suerse," Das informed. "They're here for the same reasons we are. I think they check out. Not super great in a fight," she said with a playful grimace, "but the more of us against them, the better."

 

[Kivah]

Search And Destroy
Gear: Z-14 x2, Udyr Biosuit
Tags: Das I Jrurki Liz I Suerse Leli I Tizdalle Jyll

"Hey," Kivah gave the two tourists a nod and turned to Das to murmur back, "Good skill sets to have around though," and dropped one of the jackets over Das' head before rejoining the others to check on the progress of Suerse's arm. "Not bad, but I've brought you two something for next time you get shot. Also, hold these." She turned back to Das and passed her the boxed arm comps. "One of those is mine." Two more of the light jackets were tossed to the new women. "Not the most stylish but you won't stand out, and more importantly those'll stand up to blaster fire." The final one was tied around her waist as Kivah was already wearing a studded leather jacket over her biosuit and she wasn't going to wear two at once.

Sharing names probably wasn't the brightest thing considering where they were and how they'd met looting a mall, but Kivah figured these two likely weren't going to get them in trouble. Not today anyway. Bringing it up would also be awkward after she’d shot one of them. Which she wasn't going to apologize for. Best to just move on she figured.

"Best you three grab whatever you came here for. As neat as the mall is closed, it's only a matter of time before someone patrols through it or comes looking for damage." The fur on her tail was starting to tingle like it wanted to raise up, which meant it was time to think about leaving. "Come on pateesa, I'll help you carry the bags." She said to Das to urge her friend onwards.

 

[Tizdalle Jyll]

Location: District VII, Etti IV
Wearing: Black tank and pants
Tags: Das | Kivah | Suerse Leli

I smiled and nodded at Das’ introduction and gave a nod to the silent third member of their party, Jrurki Liz ”Good to meet you. Wish we woulda led with words instead of blaster bolts,” I gave Suerse a look of guilt, hoping she wouldn’t think I blamed her for the situation. If I had a blaster and the confidence to use it I probably would have fired on anyone who came upon us and asked questions later. Now that I knew Das, Jrurki and Kivah weren’t a trauma team it was quite easy to think things would have gone better if we acted differently.

If this group had turned out to be a trauma team though. We would have been put in irons and taken to jail for trespassing. Or worse. I finished up the stitching in silence until Das apologized for the wound. I didn’t want to talk for Suerse, but somehow I managed to anyway. ”Most people fire back when they get shot at. Making a more accurate shot isn’t really something to be sorry about.” again I blushed and gave Suerse a guilty look.

The big one called Kivah returned from I presumed looting and Das passed along our names. When Das stated that we weren’t super great in a fight I couldn’t help a giggle. ”Not super great? That’s an understatement when it comes to me…” I looked at Suerse’s shoulder however and gave a proud smile. ”Seems like being able to patch someone up has value in a fight though…even I’m useless til something goes wrong.”

Kivah tossed a very unfashionable jacket at me. I held it out and gave it a good look. I trusted Kivah’s eye did not gravitate towards fashion, and guessed as ugly as the thing was it would do something to keep me safe. It fit easily over my current outfit, well it honestly fit easily over any outfit that I would wear. I wasn’t big on bulking clothing. Even when I was working in the workshop. ”I’m just along for…well I guess it’s become a bit of an adventure. I’ll keep my eyes out for something that I might find use for, but I’m just following you guys out at this point and hoping no one else gets blasted.”

 

[Das]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hit and Run" by LOLO)

//: Tags:

[CZ] Jrurki Liz | Kivah ​

[CSA] Castor Crane​

[Nearby] Suerse Leli | Tizdalle Jyll ​

//: District VII, ETTI IV

"Don't sell yourself short, Doc," Das said with a smile. "There's plenty of use for someone like you on Etti, if you know where to look." She could tell that Kivah had reservations about getting too familiar with strangers, but Das had a point. Code Zero's "hiring process" was quite literally a word-of-mouth system. A shadowrunner takes notice, gives you a small job to test you out, and then you get in or get ghosted. Tizdalle Jyll was someone she thought Reggie would find valuable to the cause, and that was all Das needed to start feeling her out.

The teen slipped into her new jacket, impressed with the durability. She'd find a way to glam it up later with some patches and pins, but it would more than do for now. The comlinks were what really got her attention. "Oh, nice! Good find, Kiv!" She slid one into her bag for safekeeping and popped the other out of its packaging. It slid comfortable over the jacket sleeve, and after a few testing-taps on its interface, the comlink glowed dimly.

"Thanks! Y'know, I bet Rue could upload some maps of the city onto this thing. Be nice to know where-"

- boom -​

... the low, muffled rumble of an explosion halted Das' thoughts. She looked to Kivah and Tiz with wide eyes. "Sounded like a breach charge..."

Das slid her arms through both loops of her bag and fastened it tight. She kept her comlink arm free, using the screen as a light source while wielding her blaster in the other hand.

"Could be Corpos," she explained grimly. Kivah had her own means of engaging them, but Suerse Leli would struggle with her blaster arm injured. Das took the Etti's gun and handed it to Tiz. "Just point and squeeze the trigger," she said with a reassuring smile. She looked to Kivah and nodded. "Let's go."

 

[Kivah]

Search And Destroy
Gear: Z-14 x2, Udyr Biosuit
Tags: Das I Jrurki Liz I Suerse Leli I Tizdalle Jyll

Well maybe this scrounger could turn out to be something after all, she sure seemed to have the right attitude about things to get along with. And her mainline liked the jacket, even if the new girl was making faces. Right as she was giving Das a grin of gratitude at the recognition, the low wump of the breaching charge shattered the quiet that had descended upon the group. The sound sent Kivah's blasters back into her hands as she whipped them out again. One pointed towards the strangers before Kivah realized they hadn't done anything and were just as startled as she was before joining its sister in covering the direction of the distant explosion.

The Udyr roiled around her before solidifying into sleek plates and short spikes to mirror her defensiveness and feeling of being vulnerable. "Dank Farrik." She quietly swore. "Time to go." She said to the others in a quiet voice that hopefully wouldn't carry. "Get moving, behind me. Try to get into the service corridors." Kivah walked backwards as she followed the others, trusting to Das to lead them back out of here after getting them in and hoping to whatever spirits Cathar were supposed to believe in that whoever had blown their way into the mall didn't have aural sensors, or life sensors, or that they were off for the explosion and because a megacity was teaming with life.

 

[Tizdalle Jyll]

Location: District VII, Etti IV
Wearing: Black tank and pants + jacket
Tags: Das | Kivah | Suerse Leli

Das tried to bolster my confidence, but honestly this sort of thing would take some getting used to. I was slowly finding a bit of business on Etti, so there was obviously some bit of truth in what she was saying. I had been doing my best to keep from being noticed by the Corpos. I just am not the corporate type. ”More things in life than business. Hoping to find some friends too around here. Sparkle says that I need to get a life. Not sure if this counts, but I’m meeting new people so it’s a start right?” “Hoping” might have been an oversell. A life was something I was looking into more because of Sparkle’s incessant nagging than because of my own desires. But these seemed like good people that I could get along with.

When it looked like we were ready to move on, that's when things got bad again. When the explosion sounded I shivered and fought hard against my instinct to drop to my knees and cover my head. Even though it was obviously a ways off, my inexperience and desire not to be caught in a collapsing building make my eyes shift to Das pleading for someone to take charge and get us out to safety. The suggestion that it was Corpo forces getting into the building to do some sort of sweep or other clearing action seemed logical. And I didn’t want to be here when the Corpos came along. So it seemed it was time to go.

I handled the blaster as if it were poison at first, but the reassuring smile of Das made me a little more confident and I held it as properly as I knew how. The second of these strangers to trust me with a blaster. I thought it was a bit foolish as I’d never fired one before. But they all seemed to think “point and pull the trigger” was all the training necessary. Either that or they were desperate for another gun in the fight and it was obvious Suerse wasn’t going to be able to be effective. ”I’ll do my best.”

The girl that gave the jacket didn’t seem too happy about my assessing it. I guess I should have just been grateful instead of judging it based on looks. Looks weren’t going to help me get out of here. At least that seemed to be the most logical conclusion. If the jacket could keep me safe from attack it was worth what it lacked in flair for sure. I guessed that Das had some experience with a blaster, so I decided to pull Suerse and follow directly behind Kivah. ”Thanks for the jacket,” I whispered as I looked at the blaster hoping I wouldn’t do anything stupid like shoot one of my new…friends.

 

[Das]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hit and Run" by LOLO)

//: Tags:

[CZ] Jrurki Liz | Kivah ​

[CSA] Castor Crane​

[Nearby] Suerse Leli | Tizdalle Jyll ​

//: District VII, ETTI IV

With Kivah watching their six and Das in the front, the group moved at a steady pace through the empty corridors. Her grip on the Night Sniper was white-knuckled and her heart was slamming against her ribs as she stepped lightly toward the service tunnel. Another distant blast made her skip a step and stumble to a pause as she tried to ascertain what direction it came from. It sounded further away, but from a totally different section of K-1 than the first explosion. "Chit," Das muttered.

"This isn't a routine sweep. They know we're here." How was her question, but they didn't have time to ponder. They had to go.

"C'mon, this way!" Das hissed. They weren't far from the access shaft now, but the soft echo of voices ahead brought Das to a halt. Silently, she motioned for the rest of the group to hold still and stay quiet. Das could only hear every other word, but it was clear that their exit strategy was fethed; the Corpos were guarding the stairwell.

Das figured that she and Kivah could outgun whoever stood between them and the door, but there was no way to tell how many were topside above their heads. Besides, if the other teams heard the shots and came running to investigate, they'd need a dozen clones of Tizdalle Jyll to patch them up. Das scanned the junction, trying to spot another way out. There was a darker corridor that seemed to end in darkness, which would make great cover assuming it hadn't collapsed from the aftershocks. Das nodded toward the pitch.

"That way?" she suggested, eyeing the girls.

 

[Kivah]

Search And Destroy
Gear: Z-14 x2, Udyr Biosuit
Tags: Das I Jrurki Liz I Suerse Leli I Tizdalle Jyll

Teeth gritted, as she followed, sensitive ears twitching around at every new sound. If this was their mall, why did they need to blast to get in? Were they security or with a syndicate? Either way, she wasn't going to stick around to find out. Getting out of here without being busted would be enough of a win for her. Das could buy them drinks to make up for this mess of a job. Them? Not just her? Fine, she could buy for the rooks too if she felt like it.

"Yeah," she told the human, Tizdalle, when she thanked her for the jacket. "Armor saves lives, wear it." She continued a little tersely considering their situation and the need to keep quiet.

When Das found the tunnel, Kivah leaned into it, sniffing the air. "Smells different, closed off. Could be a different section of the under city." She looked back towards the darkened mall, now echoing with quiet boot steps. "In we go, can at least wait out the sweeps if it's closed off." Not waiting for a consensus, she slipped through the junction and the little gap Das had found. Once through there was debris half-collapsing the hall, but Kivah was able to shimmy over, and then under the tight spaces, so she figured the humans and Suerse could too even without the ability to shift a semi-floating bone structure. She was a big girl after all and they looked like skinny little things.

Once through, she let her eyes readjust to the gloom. Sparse light trickled down, mostly from what she guessed were long shafts where old extraction fans long since rotted away or been stolen for scrap. Satisfied they weren't about to be jumped by rakghouls or a crazy homeless man with a bottle shiv, Kivah turned to help the others through.

 

[Tizdalle Jyll]

Location: District VII, Etti IV
Wearing: Black tank and pants + jacket
Tags: Das | Kivah | Suerse Leli

I thought things were going to be ok. Seemed like we had an escape plan. Or at least my new associates…hopefully friends seemed like they had a good idea at a way out. There was a second level of comfort when Kivah explained the jacket, that was so not my color, was armored. That was a relief. Then Das spit out a curse and I felt a tingle travel up and down my spine and I swear by the Force (which I don’t put much faith in, but it’s the expression right?) that my finger almost pressed the trigger of the blaster without any idea of what I would be shooting at. Thankfully impulse was overwritten by my conscious thought quickly enough to avoid disaster. But I couldn’t help but think how foolish they had been to trust me with any sort of weapon.

”Th-they’re t-tracking us now?” I stuttered nervously. As I obediently followed behind Das, my eyes continue to lower to the gun in my hand. The vague sounds of communication from others in the vicinity echoed in my ears, but I was far too frightened to make any sense out of it. My only hope was that Das, Kivah, and Suerse would lead us out of here quickly and quietly enough that there would be no confrontation.

”Are…Are you sure there isn’t a better use for this?” I absently asked about the weapon to anyone who might have been paying attention to my soft timid words. I was hopeful that the others knew what they were doing so I didn’t notice that there seemed to be a moment’s hesitation in Das in front of me. Then Das questioned if they should head off into a dark tunnel that seemed to only get darker. I was getting more and more scared by the moment. Not sure that the tunnel was a good idea. But all I could manage was to nod, shake my head and shrug in quick succession.

Kivah’s response to the question was quite interesting. She sniffed the air. I imagined that her nose would pick up things that I could only hope to with expansive cybernetic implants. But if she gleaned anything from the sniff the better it was for us. When she suggested the tunnel was closed off however…I have to admit there was a moment of panic in me. With confidence Kivah then stated that we were going into the tunnel, and the logic seemed sound when she added it could serve as a hideout in the worst case scenario. I was fairly sure there were others worse than that. But for now I would pretend that laying on the ground of a dark dirty tunnel in the fetal position was the worst that could happen. Kivah took the lead now. With a shrug it was off into the tunnel. Crawling through debris was a pain in the backside, but at my size it wasn’t too big a deal…except I was going to need a very long soak in a bath after this. I guessed we were somewhat safe when Kivah turned her attention to help us through. ”Ok. So now what? Is there a way out? Or we just make the best of a little shelter for a while?”

 

[Das]

(Post Soundtrack: "Hit and Run" by LOLO)

//: Tags:

[CZ] Jrurki Liz | Kivah ​

[CSA] Castor Crane​

[Nearby] Suerse Leli | Tizdalle Jyll ​

//: District VII, ETTI IV

Das led the way, hoping that her time beneath Denon’s surface would come in handy here on Etti. She knew that corporate worlds like this -where they built just as far down as they did up- tended to have expansive tunnels and forgotten places. She lit her torch and shined it ahead, casting strange shadows against the rubble. Her boost crunched against the cracked duracrete as she walked and gnarled rebar grazed the sleeves of her jacket, making her even more grateful that Kivah looted one for her.

“It smells… old,” Das said, scrunching her nose. She clearly didn’t have the same sense of smell as her feline friend but even her human nose was sensitive to the earthy scent of an undisturbed environment. As soon as she realized it, she reached into her bag for her rebreather. There was no telling what kind of toxins were in the air further down.

If the others needed one, Das had enough to share. Once the device was strapped over her nose and mouth, she took in a deep breath and enjoyed the filtered oxygen.

“It just keeps going,” Das said to the girls behind her. “They’ll never find us this far in, but I kinda want to see just how far it goes.” She flashes Kivah a mischievous smile, then winked at Tizdalle Jyll in hopes of easing her nerves. “Don’t worry, Doc, we’re in this together now. Kiv and I will keep the Corpos and rakghouls away.” Das was teasing, but she meant it; despite the brief exchange of blaster fire, she wanted to make sure everyone got out of here safely.

The teal-haired teen moved at a comfortable pace, sidestepping the occasional slab of fallen duracrete and marveling at how well the corridor held up without total collapse. She began to notice strangely familiar graffiti that reminded her of the Amavikkan back on Denon, but she decided to keep her conjecture to herself for now. Eventually, the group came upon a pair of heavy, rusty durasteel doors. There were no windows to tell them what was on the other side, but the lack of light shining below or between them made it clear they were only going further underground from here.

Das stepped over and tried the handle, which was unlocked but seemingly rusted shut. “C’mon, gimme a hand,” she said. With help, the brown veneer chipped and flaked until it finally gave way. Das stumbled through under the pressure of her body weight, but she was too stunned by what they walked into to curse at the doors; a wide, winding metro tunnel that stretch in both directions into pitch blackness.

“No - fething - way.” She turned to Kivah and Tiz with a huge grin.

“It’s just like the Tombs on Denon,” Das marveled. Massive, forgotten stretches of underground tunnels and stations left behind to decay beneath the surface. “We can’t go back now. We should see what else is down here, see where it leads. I’ve got my tracker,” she said, tapping at a cybernetic piece on her temple. “We’ll come back here if it dead ends. You guys in?”

Her eyes glittered in the dimness. She was eager to see what was ahead, and she was going to carry on with or without them.