The Run Down Under/Gettin' Giggy with Shadowrun - Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Rainbow was heading back the direction he came from, and the drone was coming toward them at top speed. He conference called everyone.

"There's 17 military trucks between you and I on the north edge of the loop," he said. "You guys get together and head east to the road. I'll drive around the other way and meet you."

Rainbow drove back past where he joined the road. He and Sonny came across an abandoned town.

"This is pretty creepy," Sonny said.

"Yeah," Rainbow replied, pulling into a narrow alley. "Get out of the van and take off the license plates. Here's a screw driver."

Rainbow got out and walked out of the alley. A short distance down the street he found an abandoned car and he removed its plates.

---

Nigel was walking north, toward Giggy, when he heard a motor off to his right. he quickly turned himself invisible and started heading back south toward the ravine.

---

Michelle and Jack were heading south, toward Giggy, when they heard an approaching vehicle from their left. Jack was riding the Pinto and Michelle was on the Rapier. Jack opened the throttle on the Pinto and dove off to the right. Michelle just dropped the rapier and began crawling back north through the scrub.

---

Once the jeep stopped near where Nigel had turned around, he cut back across it's path through its dust cloud to start heading north, toward Giggy again.

A man with an assault rifle got out of the jeep and started looking around on the ground.

Nigel stopped and watched for a moment from behind the jeep. There were three men. The one on the ground with the assault rifle, one standing in the back of the jeep manning a heavy gun on a ring turret on the cross bar of the roll cage, and the driver.

Nigel reached out magically and wrested control of the gunner. He wrenched the gun down as far as he could, then began firing into the hood of the jeep. The man on the ground turned and shouted as steam started pouring from some of the holes in the hood. Then Nigel turned his puppet on the man on the ground, just as the man on the ground started firing back on the gunner.

Bursts of blood cam from both men's chests simultaneously, and they both dropped.

Nigel watched for a moment to confirm that neither man was moving. He then turned his attention to the driver. he was just sitting there, facing forward, not moving. Nigel took a deep breath and snuck over to the body in front of the Jeep with the assault rifle. he looked at the driver again. The driver was still just sitting there, facing forward. Nigel pulled the assault rifle from the corpse and looked at it in disgust. he pointed it toward the jeep and fired. He missed, but the driver just remained there, staring forward.

Panic rising, Nigel snuck over to the right side of the Jeep. He pulled his needlegun out of his pocket and put it against the driver's temple. The driver continued to face froward. Nigel pulled the trigger, and was splattered with blood as the flechette shredded part of the man's skull. He slumped forward in the seat.

Confident that all three men were dead, Nigel started heading north again, remaining invisible but carrying the assault rifle.

---

Jack snuck up on the jeep from his hiding place in the bushes. Michelle watched him closely. Similar to Nigel's situation, a man with an assault rifle had gotten out of the Jeep when it stopped next to Nigel's Rapier. He looked around the bike briefly, then started toward the Pinto a few meters off. The gunner in the Jeep tracked his man on the ground to provide cover if necessary as he approached the trike.

Just as Jack got up to the rear bumper of the Jeep, the driver started shouting and began to turn around. Jack leapt up and swung his axe, embedding it deep in the gunner's back. Michelle, remaining prone shot the gunner in the back of the head, then shot the driver twice. Both dropped.

Jack hesitated a moment to make sure there were no more bullets coming from behind him.

The man on the ground turned around, no longer interested in the Pinto, and saw Jack standing in the back of the Jeep where the gunner was supposed to be. Noting he was seen, Jack dropped behind the Jeep again.

Michelle could hear the third man, but could not see him because the Jeep was in the way. It was obvious he was talking to someone. That meant a phone or radio, since there was no one else here.

Michelle and Jack heard the sound of a burst from the third man's assault rifle. Michelle was crawling up to the Jeep from behind for better cover, and possibly a place from which she could shoot the last guy. Jack was crawling around the front of the Jeep so he could see.

After a few minutes of silence, Michelle got up to the Jeep. She peered around the corner, but couldn't see anything, so she ducked back.

Michelle carefully peered around the corner of the Jeep again and looked. She could see the third guy making his way toward the Jeep through the brush. She carefully took aim and then fired another burst. He dropped.

Michelle and Jack made their way toward him and confirmed he was dead. Then Michelle went out to get the Pinto, while Jack threw the Rapier into the back of the Jeep, on top of the gunner's body. He shoved the driver out of the way, and got in and started south. Michelle got onto the pinto and followed him slowly.

A few minutes later, Jack and Michelle met up with Giggy in the stand of trees where he had landed. They were still arguing over the Jeep, and whether to take it or not when Nigel suddenly appeared next to Giggy. Giggy instinctively punched Nigel, knocking him over before realizing who it was.

Giggy pulled the earpiece radio off the gunner, while Jack dumped the two bodies. As they were getting ready to go, the radio buzzed. Giggy flipped it on, and could hear a great deal of chatter. He switched it back off.

"Well, they're definitely on about something, and will probably start looking when their men don't report back in," he said.

They headed south, Jack driving the Jeep, after Nigel refused to sit on the bloody seat, with Nigel riding shotgun. Giggy was standing in the gunner's position in the back of the Jeep, partially straddling the Rapier. Michelle was following behind on the Pinto.

After a few kilometers at a crawl, the Jeep suddenly lurched left and then rocked back sharply to the right. Nigel hit his seat belt, but was almost pushed out by Jack grabbing for something to balance himself. The Rapier was dumped, and barely missed taking Giggy with it. Giggy ended up partially hanging from the gun, when the jeep stopped rocking.

"What the..." Giggy shouted.

Jack got out and looked at the front of the Jeep. "It's broken," he reported.

Giggy called Rainbow, "We've slowed down again, looks like our commandeered Jeep bit it."

"Well," Rainbow replied, "when I get to the River, I'll cut across and start heading north to meet you."

Giggy got on the Pinto, with Michelle behind him, giving her the gun off the Jeep to take with them. Nigel got on his Rapier, grumbling about the several dents and scratches it had acquired.

Giggy went slow so that Jack could keep up on foot, which was just as well, since the Rapier really didn't handle at all well on non-paved surfaces.

About an hour later, Nigel looked back and saw a pair of vehicles coming up behind them. This time, much faster than they were traveling.

"Oh, Drek," Nigel said, and the others turned to look at what he was seeing.

"Should we just wait for them here?" Jack asked.

"We should probably find someplace to hide," Giggy replied. "I can smell a river up ahead, and there's also this drop off to our left that may provide better cover."

"How long before you think they're in range of this?" Michelle asked, holding up the gun from the Jeep.

As they watched, the one Jeep swerved into the other, and both stopped. "Does anyone have a tissue?" Nigel asked, a drip of blood at the tip of his nose, as the dust cloud behind them settled.

"Let's get going again and see if we can at lest get to the River," Giggy suggested.

"Just a minute," Nigel replied, getting off his bike and sitting on the ground. A moment later, he stood up again, looking at his clothing in disgust. "They'll be stopped for a while, it seems." He got back on his bike and they started south again.

A short distance later, they saw Rainbow's drone come into view just north of them. They were quickly joined by Rainbow's van from the south. Jack and Michelle got into the van and they quickly started south again, Giggy on the Pinto and Nigel still on the Rapier.

Rainbow veered quickly to the left, followed by Giggy when the ground erupted in front of them. Nigel was not so agile.

Rainbow popped the turret on the roof of the van and deployed his minigun. Jack slid the rear door open and leapt out. Michelle braced herself against the door frame to steady her aim, and Giggy pulled out his shotgun as the humanoid-shaped mud-man stepped toward Nigel. Rainbow fired, strafing across the body, but it seemed not to have any effect. Seeing this, Giggy dropped his gun and lunged for the thing. It stepped forward and Nigel and his Rapier were engulfed in the lower half of its leg. Michelle fired and hit the thing, but it seemed to have no effect. Rainbow fired again, still with little effect. The bullets seemed to just be absorbed. Giggy swung his fist into the thing and connected. It seemed to turn toward Giggy. Jack swung his axe into the leg that was not holding Nigel, and Michelle fired again. The thing collapsed, dropping soggy, loamy mud all over Giggy and Jack, who were more or less under the thing.

Giggy and Jack quickly set to digging Nigel out. He and his bike were completely covered in mud, and Nigel was soaked through. He coughed and sputtered a bit, then threw up between Jack's feet.

"This is totally fragged, man," Nigel said, looking at his mud covered suit.

Giggy and Rainbow both took a look at the bike. "It's fixable," Giggy concluded, "but it will take several hours to clean all the gunk out of the injectors."

"Jack," Rainbow asked, "Can you load this up onto the cargo rack on top of the van? Just make sure the turrets can both still open."

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Now we'll have to see what happens next time...

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