742/BtC: Payback Time

BtC: Payback Time
Date of Scene:	04 October 2014
Location:	Strait of the Americas
Synopsis:	Miss Clokwerk, Black Arachnia and Ferham crash the Blindside group's party and get a little payback. Bigby Wolf joins the fun.
Cast of Characters:	304, 516, 539, 585

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Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
It seems the Blindside group rather likes their big, overdone warehouses. As that's exactly where they've hid out after the news that their old place was raided. It didn't take long; Clokwerk called in some pretty big favors to get the info, and spent many a sleepless night putting the pieces together. Now even deeper in debt to the Confederacy and other shadey persons alike, she hardly cares.

Currently jacked into her Humvee, she seems to speak through the audio systems of the car rather than her throat. Her drones..heavy duty assault varients this time...rattle in the back.

"Right! They're scared, and probably know we're going to kick their hoops in at some point. So we hit 'em hard, fast, and without mercy! My big drone back there can blow out the front door. The vehicle's guns scythes down whatever outside dreks they've got. And then we storm on in? Sounds like a plan, chums?" Laughs the woman as she pulls up just outside of the compound. A simple chainlink fence, and lots of concrete with a nondescript loading dock. One way in, and you'd see a ton of them riding down this two-way road. The number on a small sign says '305'. Not even a corporate logo on it.

A pair of robotic dog-drones wander outside, while a single troll in non-descript 'warehouse worker' clothing sits outside smoking. Should anyone use night vision goggles? That's /definitely/ a large piece hidden beneath the jacket.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     As big a debt Clokwerk might be in, Ferham wasn't going to pass up the chance to get back at this crime group. She had to do it, she /needed/ to do it, for as much herself as for anyone else that had suffered due to them. Fer was keeping contact with Clokwerk as she flew in along with her, not exactly keeping pace with her humvee, but also flying low and fast enough to try and get under radar. As the shadowrun elf's vehicle barreled toward the chain link fence, Ferham pointed her arms toward it, trying to direct a blast of cold at it strong enough to make the metal brittle, so it would be fragile enough to just smash or shoot through if her partner needed to.

     Of course, since Ferham wasn't being very subtle, this would likely get the attention of the perimter defenses, such as the robodogs.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Blindside group? Raids? Payback? None of this means anything to the nondescript (for this area anyway) tough looking fellow who happens to be walking down the sidewalk with a cigarette in mouth and hands thrust into the pockets of his battered trenchcoat, when a Humvee rumbles past and pulls up at a warehouse just a couple blocks ahead.

"Huh," he grunts softly to himself. That thing sounded like it was riding low. Something heavy rattling in the back, if his ears don't deceive him. And is that a... troll sitting outside that building? Not that Bigby hasn't seen trolls before. By the dozens. But seeing one in this context is a little weird. And -- there's a flying elf shooting some kind of freeze magic at the fence. Okay yeah, whatever's about to happen, he decides to hang around and see it.

Tossing the cigarette down he snuffs it out with a quick twist beneath his shoe and crosses the street to find a better vantage point. The shadows of that alley across the street look promising.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Sounds very much like a plan, and the sort of plan I can readily get behind at that," Black Arachnia comments. She's perched on the humvee's roof, hunkered down enough that she shouldn't be particularly fire-drawing - and besides, by the time the gang notices the humvee, they should have bigger problems to worry about.

Pay no attention to the man-sized (and then a bit) spider who looks half metallic, half cybernetic, and all trouble. She's just here to play tourist. Really.
(And if you believe that, there's a space bridge she's looking to sell with a terrific view of Iacon's waterfront district.)

"So who gets to play in their computers, Clokwerk?" she inquires of the Confederate hacker; sure, they're normally on opposite sides, but given what Arachnia found while she was tracking down Ferham, she's not inclined to be particularly merciful if these guys had a hand in it.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
"You handle their defenses, 'Widow. Standard stuff probably; first sign of trouble, Knight Errant comes running. Make sure those alarms don't tip off the authorities. Then? Blow out whatever drek the decker's got defending the place. I'll take out the drones, you get the locks open."

It hadly matters that Ferham's being less than stealthy. The cold blast causes the gate to freeze, and the humvee shatters it. One of the pieces smacks into the Troll even as the twin gattling guns open up. He's cut in half by it, though even then he staggers a bit. Tough, Trolls. One down.

Then, Clokwerk sets the guns to quite literally making a doorway out of the entrance large enough for even B.A. to get through.

Then, she jacks out, and starts hacking.

"Careful. Probably more Grey ICE." She warns to her fellow computer expert.

One of the robo-guard-dogs suddenly falters, and falls down. The other? Starts chasing its tail while barking out a christmas tune.

Should Arachnia start looking? The matrix defenses are tight; two grey ICE guarding the controls for the turrets inside of the warehouse, and two more guarding what might be a central repository for the team's data. Their icons are shaped like blind samurai warriors. The turrets already start to go online, and several flying, uzi-equipped drones start to putter out of the hole in the loading bay doors. There's shouting from within, though none of the Blindside group sees fit to peek their heads out after their troll friend's death.

Bigby has a nice alleyway with a latter leading up to an adjacent building if he wants to get a better vantage point! Though it looks like one of the uzi-toting drones is spreadin out to search for potential other threats. In his direction!

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
The civilian matrix alarms, unlike Blindside's work, is far less well guarded. Only some white ICE, and a single, likely half-asleep tech monitor things.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Now Ferham wasn't exactly as superpowered as even some metahumans were, sure she had that nifty cryogenics system built into her body, but it was perhaps not as intimidating as some of the A-list sorts of mutants out there. That ray of ice she lays down would likely leave the front of their perimeter defense brittle enough to just shatter, while she sends a few globs of super-freezing ice directly at a few of the robo-dogs stationed outside. Her whip out in her secondary arm, she does catch sight of the Black Widow bot lady helping Miss Clokwerk, and also the wolf that seemed to be casually walking down the road along with them. Someone just rolled up to take pictures or were they about to help?

     Either way, Fer would be grateful for either. "Just let me know if you guys need anymore help while you're busy on their security," Ferham radio'd to BA and Clokwerk, swooping down now so she could perhaps avoid getting shot and to see about breaching the compound itself.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby does, indeed, glance at the ladder with a thought for taking in the sights from the rooftop. In fact he's looking upward when he hears the sudden distinctive /splut/ of Troll being cut in half by the flying shards of frozen gate. "Jesus," he mutters as he looks back on the sudden battle in surprise. Poor Troll.

His eyes narrow as he ponders whether he ought to step in to help someone here. Which side though? They're probably all assholes.

The patrolling robot thing headed his way with a gangland gun, however, is of more immediate concern. Rather than climb to high ground and make himself a target for the flying drone, he steps warily behind a dumpster and hunkers down slightly, trying to melt back into the shadows. This isn't his fight or even his world; best to just observe for now, take in all of the craziness. Of course if that thing were to have fancy robot eyes that could pick him out in the dark, and tried to take a shot at him anyway, then no one back home could fault him for /self defense/...

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Well, that at least looks a little bit more hospitable than the 'black' ICE Black Arachnia ran into on previous forays into this part of the Multiverse. She's still not taking it lightly - a rock can be just as deadly as a nanotechnology filament-blade, and what this world's computers may lack in sophistication compared to Cybertronian technology, they make up for by having crafty programmers with a penchant for thinking outside the box ... sometimes literally outside of it.

But she DOES have some experience hacking this world's technology, and Arachnia brings that to bear to the best of her (considerable) ability. Under the circumstances, she actually stealths up - literally disappearing from the humvee's roof - and tries to ambush a drone, deactivating it and swiftly taking it apart to find its wireless interface and any related memory chips ... best way to get in is through an existing 'door,' right?

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk finally barrels out of the humvee as the guns run dry, quite the cover laid for those wishing to advance! Using the heavily armored door as cover, she works on some of the drones. The ICE protecting many are treated to the digital equivalent of a carpet bombing in typical style, and many fry, or just fall to the ground.

"Heeey Ferry! Why not treat 'em to some death from above? Bet they'll never expect that!" Suggests the elven woman over the radio.

Ferham's ice blast, too, causes those robodrones to shatter like so much glass. There's even a flying drone chipped!

Arachnia's stealth works like a charm, and the drone she leaps upon hs its innards ripped out. She now has access to the entirety of its workings! Clokwerk is causing their numbers to dwindle quickly as it stands, but a pair of human-sized figures appear at the makeshift door. They start to shoot at Clokwerk and even Ferham as she flies along! Clokwerk is forced to do a jig, ducking back into the car to finish her work. If Arachnia wishes, she might be able to help finish just about all the similar drones in the area.

Such as the one that makes a cute little turn, floats down, and uses its fancy robo-eyes to fix on Bigby. Then, it opens up mercilessly on the hiding man. Bullets soon plink off dumpster, and perhaps into poor Bigsby!

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Well, if the drones have a remotely-activated killswitch function that Black Arachnia can identify from her cursory inspection of the first one's innards ... sure, why not? It'll be a good test of her access to the network based on the captured hardware.

If her access is REALLY good, step 2 will be to turn any surviving turrets to blow each other away.

If her stolen network access isn't up to that, though, she'll settle for trying to confuse the drones into a complete standstill ... maybe borrowing inspiration from Clokwerk's dodging and making the drones 'dance' helplessly in place.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Well, she hadn't been /trying/ to cause the robodogs to be frozen enough to simply SHATTER like that, she could be seen hovering in mid-air above the battleground briefly making a face like 'oops' before she dived towards the ground. Once on the ground however, she finally got that line about death from above from Clokwerk. Oh sure, NOW she tells me, she must be thinking. Either way, she seems to think this still might be a valid strategy and gets an idea from the rigger elf.

     Holding both her arms and directing her cryogenic's system, she begins to focus a large BLAST of concentrated ice above the complex itself, trying to bring a huge shard of ice down into the building itself to try and crush in the ceilings. Hope none of them happen to be under it when it falls!

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
"Fuck," is Bigby's annoyed reaction as he ducks further behind his metal garbage shield. Annoyed, but not /terribly/ alarmed: he's been shot at plenty of times before and he's still alive and kicking. But hey, there are some silver linings here. First: now that he's being /shot at/ he can work off some aggression without guilt. And thusly, maybe ally himself with the people from the Humvee. If they turn out to be assholes later he can deal with that as it comes up.

Secondly, in floating down to get a good shot at him, the drone put itself within striking distance. Not for your /average/ unarmed onlooker, maybe, but Bigby has never considered himself average.

Gripping the edge of the dumpster, the man uses it as leverage to pull himself up swiftly as he vaults up to balance precariously for a moment on the metallic rim of the trash container; and then he LEAPS upward, arms outstretched, letting out a ferocious, barbaric shout as he flings himself in a flying tackle at the drone! A spray of uzi bullets catches along his side, tearing through his shirt and shredding his well-worn trenchcoat as it flaps out behind him, but though splotches of red through the fabric show he was hit it doesn't seem to concern him just at this moment.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
These drones, it seems, aren't exactly expensive. Perhaps the group blew all their cash on the matrix defenses? Between Clokwerk and Arachnia, the flying drones are quite toast. They all fall from the sky like so much dead weight.

There's one exception though. Seems the one firing at Bigby is just out of range of it all! The flying tackle proves remarkably effective; it's programming certainly not accounting for such actions! The drone and tacklee end up on the ground, the drone's gun falling loose from its holding.

It has about one clip's worth of ammo left in it.

The turrets, and their associated ICE prove slightly more difficult. Though Arachnia manages to destroy the protection, it seems the drones themselves have several internal safeguards. They don't fire, but do simply deactivate, no longer a threat. Sinals throughout the network show that someone is working on restoring them.

And then Ferham decides to cave the entire roof in. The falling wave of ice shatters the far-too-flimsy rooftop. Cheap warehouse this one! Screams of pain and explosions occur from within as well as much of the signals of the matrix security falling offline as their servers are obliterated.

When the smoke clears? There's only a corner of the entire facility left. A single corner of the facility is left standing. A single elven woman walks out, her hands up! She trembles violently.

"NO MORE! C'MON CHUMS, I SURRENDER!" She cries out.

BLAM! Clokwerk's pistol puts a hole in her knee, and she crumples to the ground sobbing.

"Yeah, yeah, save it! Somebody got some rope?"

Several blocks away, at the sound of the massive explosion and crash, sirens can be heard. Luckily, thanks to Arachnia knocking out the earlier alarms, it only sounds like /one/ helicopter might be heading their way.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Why would I bother packing rope?" Black Arachnia asks dryly, skittering over to the surrendering elven woman ...

And starting to wrap a nice snug little cocoon of Energon-webbing for her. Should help to staunch the bleeding from the hole in the woman's knee, too, for good measure. (Why yes, this is kind of like the stuff Clokwerk got 'bandaged' with that one time too ...)

She's also trying to pick through what's left of the facility's wireless network, but she can't do much if the actual hardware got smashed with the roof caving in.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby pushes himself up from his hands and knees in the middle of the drone wreckage, sneering in disgust at the thing. Or maybe just at how easy it was to dismantle. He flings a piece of its exo-structure aside, and spies the loose gun on the ground. He stoops to pick it up, examining the weapon distastefully, and then methodically dumps the remaining ammo out into the dumpster, and gives the gun itself a good hard slam against the wall of the adjacent building to knock it well enough out of alignment as to be unfireable. Dropping the now-trash on the ground, he steps through the remains of the drone itself, broken bits crunching beneath his feet, and calmly crosses the street.

He comes up beside the Humvee just as the elf lady takes a slug to the knee. "Well that seemed excessive," he comments dryly, as he dips a hand into his coat pocket to withdraw the pack of cigarettes and shake a fresh one out.

No, 'who the hell are you people?' or 'what's going on?' Nah, he figures he'll get all the information he desires just by showing up and acting kind of dickish.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     After leaving those Dog-sicles, Ferham had been focusing the entire power of her ice-based weapon system on forming a huge avalance style stalactite of ice in the air over the compound, finally letting it fall after a huge influx of cold and h20, leaving the femmebot looking drained for the moment, having to stumble back even. She shields her eyes as Bigby's bullets shudder through several of the dog drones, the sound likely is quite deafening.

     While the wolf was riddlign dog-drones with bullets, the roof of the compound seems to have collapsed. Maybe the femmebot thought the ceiling was reinforced concrete, as it would appear she has done a bit more damage than she thought she would.

     "Whoops... did I do that?" she pointed at it, looking a tad sheepish.

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
"She deserved it chummer! Spare one?" Comes Clokwerk as Arachnia gets things (quite literally) tied up. The elf that's not being currently bound sticks her tongue out at the robo-spider.

The only matrix left is the public grid. The setup the Blindside group had is likely now nothing but rubble.

Clokwerk grins. "Oh, uh, did I forget to tell ya? Concrete here's some drek chinese stuff. Small corp, not Ares." She's laughing, apparently finding Ferham's success horrifically funny.

"Hey, uh, let's pack this up chums before we're gunning it out with Knight Errant!" Clokwerk stares at her cyberdeck as the local matrix lights up with Knight Errant traffic.

A glance to Bigs. "Want a ride? They'll not be up for asking questions after this."

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Sounds like a plan to me," Black Arachnia comments as she finishes wrapping up the elven gangmember. "We taking her or leaving her?"

She doesn't bother commenting (in any form) on the collapsed ceiling. It's done, it can't be undone, and the gang's going to have a hard time putting itself back together after this. We just don't get any clues to chase back up whatever hierarchy was involved, as far as the Maximal can tell.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby regards Clokwerk with a faintly disapproving look, eyes sweeping over the dyed hair and data jacks. Crazy stuff, man. Then he shrugs, and shakes out another cig, holding out the pack for her to slip it out. Warning, it's a shitty brand. He'll offer her a light, too, once he has his own cancer stick lit.

"Sure," he agrees to the offer of a ride. Why not? It'll be faster than walking, and he doesn't particularly care where he ends up just now. "You, uh, mind if I ask what this was all about?" he makes a vague gesture with his cig that encompasses 'all of this,' from the web-bound prisoner to the destroyed warehouse. And he tilts his head slightly in the direction of the sirens. "I'm guessing this was off the books."

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
"Take her! Only info we got now! Load 'er up. Oh, uh, and how about teaching me some of those 'techniques' of yours some time?" Griiiin! CLokwerk gives Arachnia a far-too-cheeky look.

Taking the cig, she pulls out a lighter, and lights up. Blowing smoke, she nods.

"Sorry, chum, I might kiss and tell but I don't assault warehouses and blab. You look smart though. Who drives a humvee in and blows up a place for kicks, right?" Pause.

"...Okay, there was that one time, but I was drunk! I mean more drunk than I am right now."

Those sirens are getting real close.

"RIGHT! Haul your little toy into the back, my spiderbot friend, and we're all off!"

Then, she's hopping into the driver's seat, already wiring herself back in. One can see police lights off in the distance.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"She's a prisoner, not a toy," Black Arachnia responds dryly as she drags the gang-elf over to the humvee and climbs in as invited.

She'd answer Bigby, but Clokwerk doesn't seem to think it's worth telling him. Clokwerk's inquiry is similarly not answered - they may have a common interest in the area, but Black Arachnia's still with the Union and Miss Clokwerk is still with the Confederacy. That makes an excellent reason not to help make her an even better hacker. For now, the Maximal contents herself with seeing how badly she can scare the gang-elf without actually (1) inflicting any new injuries or (2) saying anything along the way. Just a giant robotic/cybernetic spider with a generous supply of luminous green eyes and big sharp mandibles ...

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Taking a prisoner? Well, as long as you promise we won't be jacking any cyberware into her head to extract info," Ferham fled back to where BA and Clokwerk were stationed, apparently having missed the fact it was not Bigby that shot up the dogs, though she wouldn't have minded exactly, in her current predicament. "What about the wolf man? Hey, you coming?" she waved for Bigby, course, it was probably getting crowded on the humvee...

     Fer spread her wings and flew back over to where the wolf was standing, if she could find him in the confusion, jerking her thumb backwards as if to say they were getting out of there. "You coming? give me your hand," she would outstretch hers, as if offering him a ride.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Smirking, Bigby slides himself into a passenger seat. He casts a glance in the rear-view at the distant blue-and-reds, and unconcernedly flicks ash out the open window. "Hey, none of my business," he states casually... and then looks down at the net-very-neat row of bulletholes the drone ripped through the left side of his shirt and coat with that uzi. Though the fabric is stained red, he doesn't appear to be bleeding any longer; must have just grazed him.

"Or at least it wasn't, until you got me shot. C'mon, that's gotta be worth something." He offers a wheedling little smile, which looks more creepy than friendly on his unshaven face, but at least he's trying. "The name's Wolf, by the way."

Miss Clokwerk (539) has posed:
Clokwerk pouts just a little as she gets ignored by the large spideress.

"Awww, c'mon, it'll be fun! What's a little exchange between honor-debt buddies, huh?" smirk!

To Ferham, Clokwerk shakes her head as she pops in a wire into her datajack.

"Nah, trust me, I'm no cyberdoc and even /I've/ got limits. Would be pretty deserving of the little drekhead though. Don't tempt me."

Shrug. "Ahh, fine. Juuust a little bit of street revenge. That's all. Trust me. They're the bigger drekheads here."

Then, Clokwerk will peel off once everyone's loaded up. One particularly agressive Knight Errant car gets close to catching them up...until the humvee drops a spike strip. Pop! Bye bye K.E. It'll be a clean getaway, and though the back's now a bit cramped? Plenty of time for chatter.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Ah, gang wars. Not, thankfully, something Bigby has had to deal with much as sheriff of his little community, but one of those things he's tried to keep an eye on as the city around them has grown more and more dangerous. The man takes another drag on his cigarette; twists a look around the interior of the vehicle to get a good look at his new associates. Elves aren't too far outside his usual scope, but damn, that bionic spider lady is something. "So," he continues conversationally as he exhales twin streams of smoke from his nostrils, "I only... unified a few days ago. That's the word, right?" He's been checking out the media and listening to the talk of the various places he's explored since then, and he's pretty sure that's the term for a multiverse newbie. "Are all the worlds as fucked up as this one or is this just my lucky day?"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Flying back from the battlefield, Ferham settled herself likely on the roof of the thing near Black Arachnia, if that's where she was riding. "Essentially, they're all like that, but this is also your lucky day, since you're riding with an all female party here," Ferham would communicate to those inside the humvee via her radio. Indeed, if not for Bigby coming along for the ride, it more or less would be an all girl crew. Call it dubious luck, perhaps.

     "So, Black Arachnia, correct? Thanks..." came Ferham's honest gratitude toward the transformer.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"You're welcome, Ferham," the Maximal answers - just as honest and serious about it, too. "We've got a shared interest here, and a particularly strong one at that."

After all, what would have stopped the guys who captured Ferham from going after Black Arachnia instead if they'd known to look for her? She may be good, but the Maximal spider isn't THAT good in a fight - particularly if the odds were against her from the start, as they were in Ferham's case.

Bigby Wolf (585) has posed:
Bigby smirks. "All female party," he repeats in soft amusement as he taps the cigarette against the window frame again. "Yeah, that could be great, except I'm not sure any of us are the same species. What is it, brings such an eclectic group of gals together anyway?"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Getting some payback on some friends of ours," Ferham winked to Black Arachnia, likely perched up there with her, before swiveling her wings back so they'd get less wind resistance. She was essentially along for the ride atop the humvee, after all. It was bound to be a wild night, truth be told.