The Run Down Under/Gettin' Giggy with Shadowrun - Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Giggy and Michelle got onto the Pinto, and Nigel and Jack climbed into the van. They started south again with the van in the lead, and after an hour or so, made it back to the road. Giggy continued to drive along on the shoulder, following the van.

As the sun was setting, Rainbow heard an explosion off to the right. Jack could see something, but it was hard to make out against the echoes of the setting sun in the twilight.

They continued south, and as darkness was falling, they approached the city of Banswara. From a couple kilometers out, Rainbow spotted a gate house and a couple of military vehicles blocking the road.

Fortunately, they had not turned their lights on, so they had confidence they had not been seen. Under cover of darkness, they started slowly cross-country to bypass Banswara.

They approached the fence line several kilometers west of town and stopped. Nigel got out of the van and approached the fence, turning invisible as he did so. Jack got out and followed him.

Nigel grabbed a stick off the ground and threw it at the chain link fence. The fence clanged and rattled, and the four strands of razor wire along the top shook. The stick fell to the ground.

Jack looked at the stick on the ground and drew his axe. He cut a large arc in the fence, then completed both sides down to the ground, leaving a hole about wide enough to get the van through.

"Hey," Nigel said from somewhere beside him, "you want to get my bike off the roof and carry it through?"

Jack looked at the hole, then looked at the van. Realizing that the bike may scrape the razor wire, he shrugged and walked back to untie the bike.

Nigel stepped up to the hold in the fence and looked around astrally.

"What's that," Nigel said, pointing at the ground as Jack walked up behind him carrying the mud-filled Rapier.

"What's what?" Jack asked, not being able to see where the invisible mage was pointing.

"That marking under the fence?"

"It's only visible in astral," Jack replied.

"What does that mean?" Nigel asked.

"It doesn't exist in real space," Jack replied, and stepped across it with the bike.

Nothing changed, so Nigel followed. Out of the corner of his eye, Nigel saw something flash.

"Well, it did something," Nigel said. "You better get the van through. It doesn't seem to be dangerous."

Rainbow drove through and Giggy followed on the Pinto. Nigel saw it flash when both of them crossed as well. Giggy started down the road while Jack tied Nigel's bike back to the roof of the van. As he finished and approached the open door of the van, he was stopped by a jet of flame spraying out the door as Nigel unexpectedly burst into flames in the back seat.

Nigel dove out of the van in front of the troll and ripped off his burning clothing while rolling on the ground. Sonny and Rainbow were better able to douse themselves and then got the interior of the van put out with the fire extinguishers.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know. There was a mage coming, with a little imp, then I was on fire," Nigel replied.

"Mage's gone," Jack offered, "but we should be moving."

Nigel grabbed his clothes, which were now mud caked, burnt, and full of large holes, and climbed into the charred interior of the van behind Jack.

As he started driving down the road after Giggy and Michelle, Rainbow deployed his drone. As the drone launched, he caught the first glimpse of four or six vehicles coming down the road toward them at speed.

He sent the drone back and dropped a missile on the lead vehicle. It stopped, but the others just drove around. A second missile stopped a second armored truck, but the last two continued on.

Rainbow deployed the turret with the mini-gun. "Get the bike off the roof," he called to the back seat, realizing that he could not fire behind them with the bike tied up there.

"You'll have to stop so I can get out and untie it," Jack replied.

"You have an axe," Rainbow responded.

"Oh," Nigel whined, "you're kidding, right?!"

"That or we're hosed," Rainbow replied as Jack leaned out the door and cut the strap holding the bike in place.

Nigel stuck his head out the window as his rapier fell off the rear of the van and exploded.

"I didn't expect that," Jack said.

Nigel leaned a little further out the window to try to see the trucks chasing them as Rainbow fired the first burst back at them. Jack dropped his axe in the charred interior of the van and grabbed the SMG they had stolen from one of the jeeps earlier that afternoon. Just ahead of them on the back of the Pinto, Michelle had drawn her gun, though she didn't know how much good a heavy pistol would do against an armored vehicle.

A second burst from Rainbow's mini-gun stopped a third armored car, but the fourth fired on them. It hit the van, but did no more damage than giving Jack a couple more scratches. Another shot from the mini-gun, followed by a burst from Michelle's pistol didn't stop the last armored vehicle. It fired on them again, but stopped after it was hit by another burst from the mini-gun.

They drove off and didn't stop until they got to Udaipur. Rainbow stopped in an alley and swapped plates with a similar van. Then they found a hotel that was part of a UCAS chain and met Nigel's approval, and parked the van in the underground parking. Michelle and Giggy got rooms for the group.

Rainbow stayed in the van for several hours, repairing damaged wiring and inspecting seals and such damaged by the fireball. The rest went up to their rooms, got cleaned up, and got replacement clothing from the concierge.

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Now... on to next time...

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