From: strake@coos.dartmouth.edu (strake)
Subject: the junkyard
Date: 31 Dec 92 16:17:11 GMT

hi again, everyone. happy holidays. My shadowrun group recently finished a run,
and since my character played a pretty big part in it. I decided to experiment
some more with what it might be like to be a rigger.

So here it is. criticisms always welcomed. This style of writing is quite a
bit different from what I normally use so coments on that are certainly
welcome.

The Junkyard.

        We had just pulled to a stop in one corner of the junkyard when men
started jumping out from behind the piles of scrap metal. Straight ahead,
about 30 feet up and 100 feet away was a guy with a sniper rifle, and another
up around 4 oclock. I had the first locked into my sights as I popped the
doors of the car open for Shinobi and Grey Ghost. I wasn't sure what was
going on yet. I'm still pretty new to this street business. But if anyone
made any hostile moves, I wasn't about to second guess what those meant.
        I felt Nobi's armor hit the ground next to the car as he avoided a
couple of shots from the guy on my right. That I think can definately be
interpreted as a hostile move. A grin opened up on my face and my back
relaxed down into the padding in my protective bucket seat. This I  could
understand. This was survival.
<Shinobi took a hit. The one in front is mine.> As Grey Ghost's voice enters
my head through the car's radio I set the car in motion. Just a moments
assertion and the engine responds to my thoughts, forward and back to put the
car's body between Shinobi and the sniper who'd already hit him once.
        Nobi seemed to be happy with the new cover, popping to a knee and
sighting his gun over the trunk of the limo. A short burst and the first one
fell clutching at a new wound in his stomach. GG did a nearly identical move
on the one directly in front. two down. I'm sure there's plenty more coming,
though. Running a final systems check, i see another guy pop up with a big
gun. He instantly fires and I feel the force of the shot in my back tires.
The system check shows a minor bug in my sensors. I assert a few thought
patterns and reroute the wiring. There we go. Wow, lots of red dots... good.
        "Hehe, looks like we've got a bit of company, folks" I say to the two
people in the back. Sezal and Valkyrie. One the shamanic brother of Grey
Ghost, and the other a long-haired sorceress with a great pair of legs. I pop
the circle of enclosing red dots that my sensors were giving me up on the
back seat monitor so that they could see what was coming in. When I don't get
a response I take a glance through the camera within that same monitor and
see Valkyrie eyes closed in concentration with little beads of sweat starting
to form on her pretty face and Seesall waving his hands and mumbling to
himself.
<GG, looks like some magic difficulties as well. These two are mumbling like
crazy>
<OK, thanks > *BadaBam* <Open the door for Shinobi, He's hit pretty hard>
<Sure thing,> I say as the door pops open. <He'd better move fast tho cuz I'm
taking the guy who nailed him now.>
        Shinobi's head clears the door and i start the tires spinning. He
hits the seat with a slight groan and the door slams shut the tires catch and
I slide around the corner for a much clearer shot of the guy standing atop
the hulking skeleton of an old semi. I breath in and my left hand stretches
open as my sights lock in. Then with a jab, one rocket flies out and nails
the place he was standing. Making a wonderful explosion as the old semi
becomes even less than a skeleton. But his blip is still moving behind the
explosion.
        "shit, humans can't move that fast. That was a perfect shot, there's
no way he shoulda walked from that."
<Kidd, stop for a second I'm coming back in the car.> Grey Ghost dodges a few
shots and dives into the open door.
"Am I right in thinking they've decided not to pay for the merchandise?" I
ask amicably.
"Yeah, I would suggest we make our way from this place" is GG's wonderful
advice.
"well that's fine by me, which do you think will be easier to blow a hole in,
the concrete wall, or the thick iron gate they just closed." My guess is the
wall, but I'm always open to suggestions.
"How about you do something about those motorcycles, Kidd" Shinobi, said with
a grin, probably thinking I hadn't seen them yet. Nothing approaches this
vehicle without my knowing it. I decide to hit them. and accelerate quickly
towards the two armored bikes.
I hear Sezal speak some definative term and watch the bikes start to fall
apart. One driver tries to roll out, but the crash throws him hard against an
ancient engine block. His lifesigns drop drastically. The other manages to
stabilize the bike just in time to get a closeup view of my bumper. The
already damaged bike crumples before the limo's armor and the body flies over
the top of the car. I'd guess he's done for this fight too
        Squeezing the car past the rubble of the now destroyed cab of the
semi, I take a tight turn at the fastest speed I dare. Nearly putting the car
on two wheels. Nearly. I don't make mistakes in the driving of a vehicle.
Thats what they pay me for. As the back wheels regain their traction I see
the man who escaped my first blast. He is, happily for me, but a mere few
split seconds away. I don't slow down. He flies quite theatrically into the
concrete wall I need to destroy to get out of here. The car feels very
satisfied to have so nicely convinced the man not to try and hurt its
passengers.
        My head suddenly burns in a blazing white pain. It is so strong It
takes a great effort and a precious heartbeat to regain my mind's control of
the car. I realize my head probably hurts so much because the car is
currently falling groundward after being thrown from the force of a heavy
mine explosion. I kick the right side shocks downward to try to land the
thing evenly and manage to keep all six tires intact for a few more moments.
The left rear tires are not in good shape, however, I should be able to drive
out of here. Assuming no one takes any shots at those two tires.
        "Sorry about that folks, just a little land mine" I glance at my
passengers through the monitors. GG and Shinobi both have guns aimed out the
window and are casually taking out anything that shows its face. Sezal and
Valk are both sitting very still in fierce concentration. Both are starting
to look a little drained. I certainly hope they pull through. Meanwhile I've
put a good size hole in the wall ahead with one of the rockets, and started
the limo forward again. One more hit just to the left of the whole and I'll
have no problem fitting the car through. Assuming I don't blow a tire on some
of that rubble.
        "Shit" I think it was Sezal, but I'm not really sure. I'm about to
ask what it is when the car stops. Now that is not supposed to happen. I'm
rigged to this car. I tell it what to do. When I say stop it stops, and when
I say go it goes. Now I had just told it to go and then it stopped. Something
just hit the fan and I had a hunch that I was not going to be happy about it.
        "We've been grabbed by and elemental" A what? " Give us a second and
we should be able to get it to let go. " Great so what am I supposed to do in
the meantime, just sit here and let them take pot shots at a still target. I
start rocking the car. Full acceleration front then back. Set off the
electric charged security system. Hell I even redirect all the exhaust
straight down towards where I figured the whatever it was had a face. The
limo dances around a lot, but lets face it issn't going anywhere.
        Meanwhile lots of guys with guns take this moment to try a little
target practice. < I'll hit any man on my side of the car > That was GG. I'm
starting to find his internal radio very convenient. At the very least it
keeps us from shooting the same targets, and it's a lot faster to think to
each other than speak. I take him at his word and fire at a pair of men
taking aim from a rooftop behind me. One well-aimed rocket knocks them both
from the roof and probably unconscious which lets me concentrate my attention
on a couple of dots coming around on my rear. They're moving too fast to be
men. I figure them to be a pair of bikes and run a quick calculation hedged
by a lot of instinct and fire at the spot I hope they'll be as they come
around the corner. My aim 's good but my guess is bad. I hadn't expected them
to be such well-armored bikes either. One was well inside the blast radius
and it is still moving under its driver's control as it drives out of the
flame. The other skidded wide to the outside and is barely even singed.
        Right about now, I start to get a really bad feeling. The kind of
feeling you get when your parents leave your older brother in charge and that
morning you had thrown his comic chips down the recycler. Well, I may be
conceited and all, but I am one of the best, and when I get one of these
feelings you know we're going to be lucky to be alive.  Before I can fire
another rocket at the bikes, they nearly make a new hole into the trunk. In
addition the car's side armor is being slowly weakened by a continuous
machine gun fire from the guys that Shinobi and GG haven't dropped yet.
Finally, the rear left passenger door goes flying through the air. From what?
I have no idea. All I know is that it's torn from the car and flies some
thirty feet away. (Later I find out another of those elemental things had
torn it off.) That's when I notice the guy hiding off to the side down the
road with a serious rocket launcher on his gyromount. The real problem is
that he's just fired.  Running a quick scan on the armor I realize the only
chance we have is to be real lucky - and - take the hit on the roof.
Concentrating hard I strain the front and right tires while breaking the rear
left, and then reverse 'em and pound my will down on the shocks bouncing the
car onto the rear left tires, pulling away from the earth elemental's grip
just long enough to be slammed back onto the ground by the force of the
rocket tearing a new whole in the roof. It's just enough, though. No one in
the car is physically hurt from the rocket. There, I did my job, now it's
time for me to bail.
        Leaping from the car I roll behind a huge mound of old appliances. I
need a way out of here. Shinobi is running for the hole in the wall and it
looks like he's going to make it. But hell, he's a lot faster than I am. I
can't see Valkyrie anymore, I can only assume she's cast some spell to get
herself out. GG and Sezal are still doing something with the merchandise we
had brought.
        I head down behind this heap of junk in the direction of the bike
engines. I hear an engine race and shift gears. Working on the hunch that it
was coming after me I hunker down next to the road behind some ancient
stoves. Sure enough it comes around the corner and turns right to me. Jumping
out and grabbing him as he drives by I yank him to the ground and manage to
keep the bike upright long enough for me to get on. (I patted myself on the
back for opting for the muscle augmentation that allowed me to make such a
manuever).  It takes but a second to orient myself to the controls. Driving
back to the wrecked limo Grey Ghost grabs hold of Sezal and climbs on the
back. Hoping they were holding on tight, I ramp off the hood of a car and
leap over the rubble and through the hole in the wall and into the safety of
the city.

------
all copyrights assumed       Sean Jameson         December 1992

--
strake@dartmouth.edu
'Sex is the game, but the fans are often more of a threat than the other teams.'