Nikaigan: Run n' Gun Jungle

[Kazama]

P R O L O G U E : BALD TRUCKER BLUES

Jermaine Wilson yawned for the hundredth time tonight and took his eyes off the road for a moment in order to rub his tired sockets. The neon lights and animate advertising of the city reflected against the windshield as he drove. He fought back sleep with another sip from an aluminum can of Daikai Coffee. It was very bitter. The radio wiled away some old country love song. Man, this coffee's bitter...

Keichi Ita sat in the passenger seat with his cap low over his eyes. In his hands was a cup of ramen noodles, which he raised to his mouth every now and then with a pair of chopsticks. His eyes were on a datapad set up on the dashboard, casting a blue glow into the truck's interior. Onscreen, two robots punched and pushed each other in an attempt to subdue or push the other out of the large, circular ring. A bulky robot with a luchador theme grappled a robot whose decoration was reminiscent of a medieval dragon.

"You hear about the new trucks the company might be getting? I hope we get one. Tired of this old thing.", Jermaine said, lifting his cap to scratch his bald head. He'd been trying to make conversation here and there to keep himself awake, but Ita wasn't a big talker. Didn't stop Jermaine from trying though. However, Keichi just grunted something in response, his mind engrossed in the mechanical fight.

After a long silence, Jermaine asked, "Which one are you rooting for?"
"Fafnir. The one of the left."
Jermaine glanced at the screen. Fafnir was getting thrown around by the luchador robot. Robot wrestling wasn't really his thing. Maybe he was just too much of an old school kind of guy.
"My son's into that." he said, "I could never get into it. I've always been a baseball guy. You into baseball?"
"Not really." Ita wasn't a man of many words.

On the screen, the Fafnir swung its blades around, to no avail. With one last heave, the luchador found an opening and tackled Fafnir, knocking it out of the ring. Ita sighed.

They pulled into their destination. A small loading dock for the food company they were delivering for. There was no one there.

"Where are they?" Jermaine said with a sigh, "Gotta be kidding me..."
He opened the truck's door and jumped out. Ita took his datapad and left his instant ramen on the dashboard to stretch his legs. He pulled his company jacket around himself a little more, bracing against the chilly night air. The glowing advertisements above through a rainbow of colors into the backstreet.

Jermaine knocked on the garage door. As he waited, he looked over to the big restaurant across from the loading docks in the alley. The lights were still on in there. The double doors that led inside the restaurant were ajar. There was some kind of banging coming from inside. Somebody was working late.

"Come on, I don't have all night." he grumbled, giving the door another knock. Ita was standing around, looking at the restaurant.
Jermaine took his cap off to scratch his head again, "Where the hell did they..."
"Shut up."
"...Excuse me?"
"Quiet. You hear that?"
"Is that music? It's probably just the restaurant having a party or..." No, there was something else. At first he thought it was the percussion of the song, but there was too much... It was that banging from before... "Are those gunshots?"

He was about to say they should call the police when a van sped into the alleyway.
Yakuza gunmen poured out of the van and ran into the building. When they kicked the doors open, the sound of music and gunfire filled the alley.

They weren't getting paid enough for this. They turned tail and ran.

 

[Kazama]

C H A P T E R 1 : BIG RUNNER BOOGIE

"Yakuza fighting Runners, Runners fighting Yakuza, what has the world come to? Can't we all just get along?" Love Machine's voice reverberated through the restaurant's speaker system.

Bullets had been flying over the team's heads for a little while now. It was supposed to be an easy job. The 77 Lotuses Yakuza was moving some hot data inside a laptop computer and it was making a stop at one of their money laundering sites, a fancy Japanese style restaurant. A no-copy bundle of data that could get into a big bank's security system. The guards should've been lax, it wasn't going to be here for long. No more than five guys.

The team just hadn't anticipated that it would be Owara-san's birthday. The lieutenant liked this restaurant and a lot of his men were throwing him a surprise party. What better way to brighten up boring old guard duty than by inviting all your thugs for a party? The team walked in just as the cake was being cut.

Now they were taking cover from around twelve gunmen. Submachine guns, assault rifles, and two dudes with shotguns.

The team had only managed to make it as far as the kitchen. Hot lead pinged holes through hanging pans and turned the fish in the freezer behind them into chunks of cold flesh. In front of them, the shooters were set up around the restaurant, taking cover behind tables, a sushi conveyor, and on the balcony. The restaurant was two stories tall, with the kitchen on the first floor alongside a big open dining area. The kitchen had no wall between it and the dining area so you could see the chefs making your food. There was a VIP area on the second floor that looked down at the first with a few rooms for waiters to move through and an elevator for food carts.

Fox ducked down as a barrage of gunfire tore the vegetables on the counter above him to shreds, "Hey remember, when Sovereign told us the job would be easy and then it was? Yeah, me fucking neither!" he shouted his complaint over the gunfire.

Sovereign's software hidden voice crackled in their earpieces, "There's lots of yakuza comm chatter around you. I'm seeing reinforcements coming in, and they're close. They'll be on you in forty seconds." Sovereign always had an eye in the sky somehow, but the best they could do is provide a bit of intel from where they were.

Love Machine's voice came through the speakers again, "Now, lemme take a wild guess as to what ya'll are doing here. Hmmmm, is it... the sushi? Nah, nah, you guys seem more like street ramen types. Oh I know, it's the drinks ain't it? I hear this place makes a mean mimosa. Or is this neat little pack'a data I'm lookin' at. Sorry kids, but this here's mine."

Love Machine had run into the team once before, but not in person. He wasn't a friend, that's for sure.

He'd locked the kitchen door behind them, leaving them trapped. The only way to move forward was right into gunfire. There were two doors that led out of the kitchen, but they both led into the dining area. The restaurant's ventilation system ran through the kitchen, but the nearest vent was on a wall. There was very little cover near it and the grate was still in place, but it was big enough for a small or lightly armored person to move through it. A small terminal meant for checking orders was in the kitchen, but it was linked to the restaurant's network. Someone could look through cameras and cycle locks on doors with a hack, but Love Machine was currently in control of the network. Speaking of Love Machine...

"Aw man, and right on Owara's birthday too. But hey, what better way to party than with friends... and a little music. This tune's been brought to you by your friendly neighborhood yakuza; and boys and girls, this might just be the perfect song... for this big Runner boogie."

There was a buzz, then a click.
And then there was deafening music.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Fox shouted over the music and gunfire. Yakuza burst through one of the doors that led into the alley and filled the dining area, kicking over tables and firing at the kitchen. Kitchenware exploded and tore itself to shreds as six new combatants joined the fray. Everyone had to shout in order to be heard, gunfire beat with the music, and somewhere in the city Love Machine danced in front of his terminal, lip singing with a broken computer part as a faux microphone. Chaos, didn't even begin to describe the scene.

Sovereign said something into their earpieces but it was hard to make out with the noise.
"...ing... ay out... ETA... minutes... be... ful."
Fox leaned his back into the counter and held up a shard of reflective glass. He used it to peek over the edge until a round shattered it in his hand.
"Gah, fuck!" he shouted, holding his wrist. He picked his PDW up and returned fire, but could only blind fire. He scooted along the counter, moving closer to Uplink as his old spot was focused on. The terminal was so close by, but it was sandwiched between two refrigerators facing the gunfire with no cover.
At the moment, the screen displayed command prompts since the network had been restarted after Love Machine had taken over.

Sovereign's voice crackled again, "..tempting... mote... ck..."
The terminal screen flickered. It seemed Sovereign was trying to get in remotely. After a moment, the screen filled with text.

NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART
NO CAN DO SWEETHEART

It didn't work. Love Machine was dug in too deep, it would need to be a local hack. Sovereign's voice came back, "...asn't able t... nna hav... our own, Uplin..."

Love Machine just kept the boogie going.

Hush, hush...
I thought I heard her callin' my name now!
Hush, hush...
She broke my heart but I love her just the same now!
Hush, hush...
Thought I heard her callin' my name now!
Hush, hush...
I need her lovin' and I'm not to blame now!

 

[Psyker Landshark]

"Fuck Love Machine!" Boyar roared as a bullet whizzed past the counter he was taking cover behind. "We find him, I sodomize him with shovel!" He snarled, leaning out slightly to try to get a bead on one of the gunmen, but quickly retreated behind cover with a hiss as bullets flew over his head. "And then I feed him live to starving dogs!"

As the doors burst in to let more Yakuza inside, Boyar noticed the brief, almost miniscule lull in the action and took the opportunity to lean back out once more, lining a shot up with his VSS, setting his sights on one Yakuza running in, and plugging him with a bullet to the head, splitting his skull wide open. The yakuza's response was to intensify fire on his position, causing Boyar to hunker back down, cursing sulfurously in Russian under his breath.

"One down, but I pinned down!" Boyar yelled out to the rest of the crew, drawing his revolver and blind firing over cover. "Diva, you bring grenade launcher? I not close enough to throw frag!"

With the revolver's cylinder emptied, Boyar fished into his vest's pouch and pulled a speedloader out, quickly reloading the revolver with more .357 rounds.

"I know you hear us, Love Machine! Go fuck yourself! Boyar visit your whore mother later, she show Boyar good time! She show entire neighborhood good time!"

 

[Sludgemouth]

Magos sat crouched behind a food prep table, listening to rounds whiz just overhead. The whole team was pinned, unless could get to a terminal, locked in too. "This sucks..." he thought aloud.

He poked his armored head out into the sight of the enemy, trying to get a good look at the kitchen. He quickly pulled his head back behind cover, narrowly avoiding a fresh hail of gunfire as he did. There had to be a way to even things out a little. There were options but they involved no small amount of danger, or property damage. There were a few fire extinguishers along the walls that could provide concealment long enough for Magos to lay down suppressing fire. There was also the deep fat fryer on the far wall. A few well placed shots and the thing would probably catch, and produce a lot of smoke. Granted that would also mean that there would be a grease fire to contend with as well as gangsters, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Hey team, so I might have us a way to get the upper hand here. There's some fire extinguishers on the walls. That can get us some concealment long enough to get to better position, even if it's only for a few seconds at a time. Alternatively there's the fryer, start a grease fire and we'll have all the smoke we'd need. Not to mention that it's behind the bad guys will have to deal with their joint being on fire. The problem with that is that means there'd be a grease fire, which might actually be worse than the Yakuza."

 

[Zombehs]

Ducking even lower, Uplink somehow managed to curl herself into a smaller target as bullets flew overhead and shattered the ground just a meter or so in front of her. Bemoaning her decision to join the team instead of hanging back as usual, she glanced at Fox and motioned for him to bugger off elsewhere rather than drawing more fire towards her position. Wincing as she felt something hit the back of her helmet, she was thankful it muffled the blaring music and nonstop gunfire to more manageable levels.

Alright, enough was enough. Glancing at Fox, Uplink wondered why it couldn't have been someone more usable next to her. "Receivers on!" She yelled to be heard over the racket, and hoping some of the Runners had actually put the small headpieces on. Keeping an eye on her deck, she was fairly confident in her ability to fight Love Machine off if they tried to mess with the hardware. At worst, there'd be a small sting when they fried themselves in the case of an intrusion. Taking a small drone from a pocket, she set it on the ground before opening a program on her deck and watching it take off.

She sent it zipping out of the counter past Fox, and quickly spun it around as it shot up towards the ceiling. The camera wasn't great, but it was enough to spot most of the Yakuza's positions through it on her deck and she quickly began to mark them out with a few finger taps. "Transmitting!" She yelled again as she glanced to see if anyone was receiving the target data she just started to broadcast. "Also, no! No grease fire! No grease fire!" Repeating herself to make sure she was clear, the last thing they needed was fire and smoke making it impossible to search the building once they dealt with the Yakuza.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

It was always the easy jobs that went tits-up with a sudden complication. Always. Diva swore under her breath, safely behind cover for the moment as chaos continued around her. A fucking birthday party and then this fresh asshole shows up. Just their day hat they had some hot-shot code-monkey running security. Or playing DJ, she wasn't sure.

"Of course I've got the launcher," she shouted back to Boyar, glancing his way in time for a fresh volley of shots to knock a shower of fragmented plaster out of the wall she was using for cover. She didn't like the idea of just blowing the place up further. If their intel was accurate, there wouldn't be much property damage tonight. But, as it was, a few grenades wouldn't make it any worse.

"If we need some smoke for cover, I've got a grenade or two," she added to the arguments agaisnt a grease fire or blasting the extinguishers. "We could also just blow the back door and bug out if we need to!" Shame she couldn't get more than the garbled support from Sovereign, but the crew could handle things well enough on their own.

"Already on," was the reply Uplink got. A few moments later and the drone's camera feed was filling part of her field of vision. She directed her attention toward it, bringing it front and center. Not something she could really use to aim, but it could be useful. She blinked the display out of her vision and leaned out enough to get her rifle around the corner. She hated aiming through the smartlink camera, but it was worth keeping the majority of her body behind cover as she snapped off a few busts at some of the offending Yakuza groups.

She pulled back before the return fire. "Where do you want that grenade?"

 

[RaineSensei]

Irina had remained quiet as the exchange went on between her teammates, listening as they yelled at each other. She was quite calm despite the heavy fire they were under as the Yakuza shot at them endlessly, but her feet seemed to tap impatiently. It took all of her self control to stay behind the counter and not jump in like she would have normally done. The only thing that deterred her from doing so was the fact that she was unaware of the whereabouts of the enemies, especially the ones with shotguns. One close up with one would surely take off her arm. She didn't want to simply jump in and be bombarded with a barrage of bullets. After all, she couldn't deflect them all.

When prompted to put on her receiver, she happily obliged, hoping that Uplink would send information on their positions, and she did just that. A live feed popped up in front of her, showing her where the enemies were. With that, it became harder to control her excitement. Her foot tapping became faster and her left hand moved to her right arm as if preparing to kill.

It soon got to the point where she couldn't contain her excitement anymore as she shouted to Diva, "Right in the middle." She figured the smoke grenade would clear faster with the doors busted open, so it wouldn't be a problem later when all the Yakuza were taken care of. When the grenade was thrown, either by Diva or herself, she took the brief moment of confusion to jump over the counter and attack the first Yakuza she came face to face with. In one swift movement, she swung her leg low to knock him to the ground before shooting him between the eyes.

The two Yakuza standing nearby the man she had just killed caught sight of her and immediately turned to fire at her. She was quick to draw her knife in her left hand as she lunged at them, their bullets either passing her or deflecting off her armored body. With a smile, she stabbed the knife into the mans heart, killing him instantly and splattering blood on her face, while her gun shot at the other mans stomach. He opened his mouth to scream but was soon filled with a metal shaft. Irina took a moment to look at his face full of terror before firing a single shot. The smoke was quicker to disappear than she had first thought, signaling for her to retreat back behind the counter. Once behind the safety of the counter, she took a moment to put her knife away and wipe the saliva from the tip of her gun, the smile fading from her face as soon as she wasn't fighting.

 

[Kazama]

"Hey, hey, hey no peeping! This is a family restaurant!"

Uplink's deck began to notify her about a security breach in the drone's software. Her opponent had remotely connected to it. Now Love Machine was fighting Uplink for control of the drone, trying to worm his way inside. Some subsystems shut off, others began to kick her out, and the drone veered off course as two signals gave conflicting orders. The camera went askew; instead of showing a clear image of the restaurant, it now only showed the balcony level as it flew against one of the walls and angled the camera, hiding the main dining area on the ground floor from view. At the moment there were four gangsters on the second level, visible through the camera. They were taking cover against the solid railing. Uplink could probably take the drone back, but it would require some attention.

Devil's engagement and the smoke grenade pushed the Yakuza away from the center of the dining area. For a moment, most of the gunfire stopped. The terminal was open now, concealed by the smoke and out of the line of fire... for now. It would definitely be possible to hook up the deck to it. Though, Uplink might be good, but there's only one of her; the drone would have to be given up to Love Machine for a chance at the terminal.

So far, Boyar had taken out one and Devil had taken out three (rather violently). That left fourteen. Unless of course, more showed up... and they were making quite a racket.

Not to mention the music was still going.

"Hey, you know..." Fox started, "Assuming this goes south... or even further south, this wouldn't be such a bad song to die to." He shifted around behind cover so he was facing Boyar, "So, Boyar, got plans for Russian heaven? Think they'll have dive bars up there? Think there might be room for me? I'm pretty behind on my faith, I might have to piggyback on someone else's."

He was about to add to that when he stopped, "Wait, I've got an idea!" he pointed at the corner of the kitchen, "Someone give me a boost, I can get into the vents and move around behind them!"

Like the terminal, the dispersion of the gang members had left the ventilation shaft open. Its grate didn't look too hard to pull from the wall.

The dining area now had a clear spot in the center. It would possible for the team to push in and establish a foothold in the dining area, but they'd be surrounded on two sides, and taking fire from above. Of course, it would buy the terminal and ventilation shafts more time.

Somewhere, Love Machine hummed along to the song. He took his headset off and placed it down near a terminal with live camera footage of the restaurant. On another screen, his hacking attempts were making progress against Uplink's drone.
He spun in his swivel chair and kicked over to a separate terminal. He punched in a few commands and raised a different microphone to his mouth. There was a faint ringing from his earpiece before a click. Then a woman's voice. He answered her,

"Yeah, I'd like to report a uh... gang incident. Yes ma'am. In progress. I don't know, but there's lots of them. I think they might have hostages, and I hear lots of gunfire..."

 

[R-9 Pilot]

"Instead of the afterlife, let's try worrying about an exit strategy. This gets much worse, we'll want to focus on leaving." Diva remained focused on practical matters. Things went much further south, and the job was a wash at best. So, better to start planning how to get out in one piece. Locks fortunately didn't mean much to high explosives, if it really came to it.

"Devil, we've got automatics. Get read to lay down some suppression fire on my mark, so the rest of the crew can move. Fox, if you really want that vent, it'll be your chance. Magos, I'd suggest taking point with that armor, but it's between you and Boyar for who helps Fox with the vents. Link, try to get to that console and do something about the building's security." It wasn't great, but it was something. She didn't leave much room for argument, but she wasn't the sort to force everyone to go along with her, either. Not that the situation left much time for objections or discussion.

 

[Psyker Landshark]

"Receiver always on!" Boyar yelled back at Uplink as targeting data filled his AR display. He grinned beneath his gas mask as his cybereyes filtered the data into a useful readout for him, showing the exact positions of each gunman as well as syncing the targeting info to his rifle's smartlink.

When Diva popped a smoke grenade and Devil made her attack, Boyar followed up on the assault in sync, popping back out from behind cover and raising his rifle. His cybereyes switched to IR vision, letting him see through the smoke. The world around him almost seemed to slow down as he concentrated, both his marksmanship experience and his reflex enhancer augs working to enhance his focus.

Three gunmen dead at Devil's hands. Devil making for cover as the smoke began to fade. Yaks beginning to pop their heads above cover. One Yak with a shotgun taking aim at Devil. He'd go first.

Boyar lined the man's head up in his scope. Target sighted. Breathe. Pull the trigger.

The bullet ripped into the yakuza's head, splattering blood and brain matter onto the fancy Japanese decorations behind him.

One down. Boyar's reflex enhancers let the sniper react faster than the now-scrambling yakuza, and he shifted his aim to the rifleman turning to get a bead on him. The man was sloppy in his haste, rising above cover and leaving himself exposed. Best to play it safe and aim for center mass.

Target sighted. Breathe. Pull the trigger.

Two down.

As Devil made it back to the relative safety of the counter, Boyar ducked back down behind cover, calling out to Fox in response to his quip.

"I not best person to ask! Skipped church many times as boy! If God love mankind, he not make mutant bear!"

Diva's plan had Boyar nodding in approval. "I help Fox with vent, already close enough to him! Get up in front, Magos! I bring grenade, we can blow back doors if bug out!"

"Diva, Devil, suppressing fire on mark! Fox, we move for vent then!" He shifted from a huddle to a crouch, getting ready to move quickly. "On your mark, Diva!" Boyar screamed, preparing to move towards the vent and give Fox the boost he needed to reach it.

 

[Zombehs]

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Uplink struggled against Love Machine's hacking for a moment before giving up and just locking down and shutting off the drone. She'd have to remember to go retrieve it when they were done here, but there was more important things to do for now. Using the lull in gunfire to dart out of her cover, she kept low and slid back into cover within the kitchen and closer to the terminal. Yelping in surprise as gunfire shattered the wall overhead, she dropped to the floor and eyed her target with some apprehension.

No longer on the front lines though, Uplink blindly fired a few bursts back into the dining room in retaliation. "Ready!" She called out to the others before taking a look around the kitchen, and popping a few shots off at any cameras she noticed in the area. Last thing they needed was Love Machine giving his Yakuza buddies a live rundown of what they were doing. Fiddling with her deck for a bit to bring up all her programs at the ready, her tail swished expectantly behind her as it uncoiled from around her waist and slipped out beneath her coat.

 

[Sludgemouth]

"Magos, moving to secure. Keep my flanks covered." Magos replied to Diva and Boyar, before whipping around the table he was crouched behind. He fired up his targeting module and drew his massive revolver, as a series of orange flags and brackets marked last known enemy positions within the kitchen. As soon as he was fully exposed from his cover the gunfire picked up. Magos fired back, he was rather calm, despite being shot at and attempting to advance on enemy positions. As he pushed into the far side of the kitchen, Magos had managed to take down a few gangsters and place himself in direct line to the locked down exit. The path to the door was alas blocked by a pair of well dug in Yakuza. Magos dived for cover as a hail of bullets pelted his former location.

He would need to break cover and charge their position to get to the door in a timely manner. His body armor is capable of absorbing some small arms fire, but Magos wasn't confident in its ability to hold up under direct automatic weapons fire. Magos briefly entertained his indecision, and then radioed back to the team. "Magos, advancing in the exit. Go ahead and break out some first aid."

With that, he broke cover, entering a full sprint towards the gangsters. Magos became inundated in small arms fire, he tried his best to return fire while sprinting. His attempts weren't for naught since he'd managed to push the gangsters all the way behind cover, forcing them to fire blind in Magos' direction. His armor seemed to hold up well, and forcing his opposition to not have line of sight anymore helped. Just as he was beginning to think that charging the enemy might not have been the worst idea of the night, Magos felt a sudden and intense pain in the front of his thigh, his armor had finally failed. He immediately dropped to the ground, his momentum causing him to slide feet first towards the enemy. This ended up being fortunate as it cause the armored man to come crashing into small barricade the enemy had set up, destroying it and exposing two of the men with sub-machineguns. From his back Magos dispatched the two and rolled behind a nearby table, and examined his leg. The the armor still kept it's grip on the offending round, but the impact had caused it to splinter into his leg. "Hey team, it's Magos. I'm next to one of the locked doors. I could reasonably use Castigator to smash the thing off of it's hinges, but It'll take a few swings. Also the way to this door is clear, and I've got pieces of my body armor stuck in my leg now, but I should be okay. Magos out."

Magos propped himself onto the table, and switched from his revolver to his PDR. He made sure to put the rest of the team on his left so that he engage the enemy with out creating a crossfire situation.

 

[RaineSensei]

Irina had been taking a moment to relax while cleaning her gun when Diva began talking about a plan. Though she usually disliked following plans, she let out a sigh and decided to obey for the sake of the team. On cue, she pressed a small switch on the side of her right arm, changing the mode of the gun from semi-automatic to automatic. Her metallic left hand tapped against of the metal cylinder of her arm, waiting for Diva's cue.

When given the signal, Devil moved to rest her right arm against the counter, the barrel facing the opposing Yakuza's. Her left hand rested on her right shoulder to provide some support as bullets began firing endlessly through her arm. Irina disliked using this mode, mostly because the recoil often caused her to have sore shoulders the next day. She let out a soft sigh and aimed her fire at the group of Yakuza turning to shoot at the other Runners. Since most Yakuza were hiding behind tables for cover, she shot at whatever body part she could see or the tables themselves as a way to get them to stop firing briefly.

The top of her head had been poking out from the counter as a bullet went flying past her head, scratching her before landing in the wall behind her. It angered her, of course, but she did her best to remain calm. Instead, she continued to lay down heavy fire, waiting for the moment when she could go out there again.

 

[Kazama]

"Yeah, I guess now that I think of it, you don't really seem like the church-going type," Fox remarked as he raised his weapon above cover just enough to spit a few bursts into the dining area. It suppressed their opponents, but that was about it.

Uplink's decision to check for cameras was a good one. There were two in the kitchen alone, and after a pair of well placed shots, they burst into little showers of plastic and wiring. A second after that, she'd get a little reaffirmation.

"Hey, I was watchin' that!" Love Machine liked to make his presence known, his subtly southern accent vibrating from the speaker system again, "Why is it always my favorite shows that canceled?"

He continued, "In case you forgot, amigos, your boss was paying you to kill those guys. Come on, it ain't that hard. They're only shooting at you! Better hurry, tick tock, I'd bet good money that crafty Diva's whippin' up something nasty for you all."

"Whose side is he on?" said Fox as he slapped a new magazine into his weapon.

Magos' attack on the doors solved maybe a third of their problem. They were no longer trapped in the kitchen. One of the two doors to the dining area was busted open, at the expense of Magos getting a little banged up. The shooting and the fact that they didn't know where their objective was other than it wasn't in the kitchen still plagued them, of course.
That was around the same time Boyar hit 'mark' on his countdown.

The rush for the vent was easier than it could have been due to Magos taking most of the flak.
Fox hopped up on Boyar's boost and dug his fingers into the slots of the vent grate. With a hard pull, the grate was wrenched free, clattering against the kitchen floor with a dry, metallic rattle.

With a "Huuup!" he pulled himself into the vent and crawled deeper inside. His legs and feet were the last signs of him before he was completely engulfed by the vent. His voice crackled into their earpieces, "Okay... I'm inside. It's uh, kinda tight."

Only being able to move forwards or backwards wasn't fun. And the sound of gunfire made the crawl even less fun. Frankly, it was the opposite of fun.
"I'm not claustrophobic, but this might just get me to change my mind... Okay... you can do this..." he said, mostly to himself as he moved deeper into the dark ventilation system. Every so often there was another grate underneath him that provided light and let him look down into whatever room was underneath him. He kept crawling and eventually he could see the bright red tiles of the dining area through another slitted grate.

"Guys," he said, his voice slightly echoing, "Two shotgunners by the door Magos opened. Right side. They're waiting to jump you. I'm moving deeper inside."

He kept crawling, inching his way further into the restaurant.

 

[Psyker Landshark]

"Roger that," Boyar replied over comms to Fox as he dashed back into cover and reached into a pocket in his vest, pulling a frag grenade out. "Magos, hunker down, I pop frag." He said as he took advantage of Diva and Devil's suppressing fire, moving forward and taking cover next to the entrance leading into the dining room.

"Frag out!" He yelled as he pulled the pin off the grenade and tossed it into the doorway that Fox had reported. Two panicked screams rang out from it before an explosion silenced them.

With a satisfied nod, Boyar stayed behind cover while pointing his rifle out, peering around the corner with his smartcam. The yakuza remaining in the dining room were still hunkered down, trying to wait out the barrage of suppressing fire. Nothing exposed for him to shoot. Boyar kept the smartcam trained on the dining room, waiting for the suppressing fire to end and the Yakuza to pop their heads out again. Still, this was getting them nowhere. The longer they took here, the less chance they had of finding that damn data.

"Fox," Boyar queued his comms. "Get up stairs, find laptop. We handle cannon fodder down here."

 

[R-9 Pilot]

Diva finished her current round of suppression fire, and ducked back behind cover as her rifle's magazine ran empty. "How many are left," she asked as she reloaded, checking that she was using SnS ammo and pocketed the empty magazine. She got a pretty good count as she'd kept that suppression going, but now, they'd have to eat some return fire. Which, sure enough, started almost immediately. "Taking the door out wouldn't be a bad idea, Magos."

Taking out the rest of the first floor would give them some breathing room. Get under the balcony and anyone up there would have to come down to met the runner team. It certainly beat taking so much fire. A few hits of taser-style rounds would put someone down pretty fast, so she decided to take a chance. Setting her rifle's fire selector to three-round burst, she popped back up out of cover.

Two quick bursts at the nearest yakuza left the man sprawled on his back and twitching. One down. She swiveled, switching her aim to the next guy over. One more squeeze of the trigger and...she was sure she clipped him, but he didn't go down. Still, probably enough to make him really regret being there. Getting a little too greedy with the offense meant she was a little late getting back under cover. The shot knocked her backwards and sent the mask flying off her face. "Fuck!" The immediate swearing suggested she wasn't too much the worse for wear. "That was close." Running on too much adrenaline to really worry about checking for real damage, the fallen idol rolled to one side further toward Devil to reposition and got her feet back under her into a crouching position.

"Should've just brought a damn gas grenade. But no, those are valuable, gotta save them for when you really need them... fucking idiot." She berated herself, quietly.

 

[Zombehs]

Clicking her tongue in annoyance at the man's voice, Uplink waited for a few moments before she peeked around her cover as more gunfire flew overhead. Darting over to the counter on her left so she wasn't directly behind Diva and Devil, she fiddled with her deck again, making sure all the programs were booted up and ready to run. Wincing as the building shook from Boyar's frag, it seemed that her presence had largely been forgotten by the Yakuza as they turned their attention to the more obvious targets. Taking the opportunity, she scooted forward and her tail finally darted out towards the terminal and quickly found a port to connect through.

Keeping her head low as she started to try and deal with Love Machine's hold on the building's systems, she grumbled in annoyance as she tried to figure out what to focus her attention on. There was no way her dataslate could possibly try to match the workstation her opponent was probably sitting comfortably at, and trying to would get her nowhere. As she tried to establish a foothold in the system, something caught Uplink's attention and she focused on tapping into the outgoing call on the network.

"Gah!" Jerking her head sharply as the unfiltered sound of gunfire filled her helmet, Uplink quickly dialed down the volume as her ears rang for a bit. The call… was mostly bad news and she clicked her tongue in annoyance as she looked for a way to hijack or gain access to the call. While she did that, she opened comms to the others again. "Police are east of us. Two SWAT vans, four cruisers. Drones are scouting right now, but we won't have time to search around once things go quiet. No more Yaks coming though."

"Diva, I've got a line to what seems like a superior for these guys. Want a word with them?"

 

[R-9 Pilot]

"Sure, why not?" It wasn't likely to help them any, but that wouldn't mean it wasn't worth a shot while they had it. Diva began to edge back toward Magos and Boyar's position. "Magos ,Boyar, I'm not sure how smart it is of me to offer to take a call and support you, but if you want someone to have your back on making a break for it, count me. I'm getting sick of this kitchen, too."

"Uplink, patch me in."

 

[Sludgemouth]

Magos poked his head out of cover once he heard he dull thud of what he assumed was the last gangster in the kitchen. Hey keyed into the communications channel as Uplink made report.

"So what you're saying is, we need to either move fast or cut our losses, right?" Magos said as he stood up in front of the door, giving a cursory scan before lowering his weapon. He keyed into the channel again.

"For my next trick, I will be getting the nearly bullet proof door open. Meantime I'm gonna need anyone willing and available to stack up on me when I get this thing open. I got a plan to get us across the dining room to the base of the stairs but i'm gonna need help with it."

With that Magos unmounted Castigator from his back. He took a step back, sighted in, and took a hefty swing. The sword began to crackle, and arc as the kinetic amps spooled up. Magos struck true, and the flat of the blade hammered centerline on the door with force comparable to another one of Boyar's frags. Alas the way wasn't open, the door was severely warped and the hinges were discolored from the sudden shock, yet Magos seemed satisfied. He turned and walked several steps back putting as much distance between him and the door as possible, then lowered himself to one knee.

"Now or never, guys."

 

[RaineSensei]

Devil continued to fire at the Yakuza, her arm constantly moving back and forth from the recoil while her free hand steadied it. She gave an occasional glance to Diva, who was also providing cover fire. During one of her brief glances, she saw Diva take a shot to the face, her mask flying off in the process. Irina let out a few more rounds to cover as Diva recovered and soon became busy with helping Uplink.

While she continued the occasional shots at the enemy, she walked along the counter to move closer to Magos as he had now swung at the door. She planned on following him out into the dining area just so she could actually get in on the action. Devil flicked the switch on her arm again, changing it to single shot mode in preparation.