A Crash of Thunder (Dust to Dust / Rimor)

[______________Syntax]

A crash of thunder fills the area.

"Damnit. That was a little too close." she murmured

Linaza's HUD flickered a moment and returned to normal following the nearby lightning strike. Ducking behind a dune, she disengages the cloaking field and checks the cyborg she has in tow. She quickly but carefully looks over her anthropomorphic package and seeing nothing amiss, engages the cloaking field once more.

She tops the rise of the dune and peers through the duststorm at a lone figure, trudging determinedly through the Wastes. The small, distant, nearly obscured figure seems to be heading unerringly southward toward the steppes. Linaza checks her systems and her package and glides down the dune face in an attempt to keep a visual of her target before she loses sight in the desert maelstrom.

Another crash of thunder just a couple of meters away.

"This better be worth it!" she grumbles as she quickly makes another systems check to make sure nothing was disrupted.

A few hours later the steppes of the Wastes are fading distantly behind the tall trees in the Shire. Linaza moves like a panther around the huge trunks and light underbrush. Her lethal companion shadowing her silently, mechanically. She catches sight of her quarry as a single shot rings out just ahead.

Linaza quickly freezes position. The cyborg stops close at her heel. For a long moment she watches as her target pokes something in the underbrush with his boot, then dismissively continues along his path southeast. Linza lets out a slow breath and resumes tracking her mark. A few moments later she comes up the spot where he'd stopped. A rollerrat lies in the underbrush with a finger sized hole between it's eyes. She grins at the private irony and regains a visual of her target as she moves on.

"Hell, he's going into town." Linaza thinks irritably to herself.
"Well, if it has to happen here. It happens here. Just like the others."

She watches carefully as he moves deliberately up the narrow street and turns toward The Cup. She stops abruptly as he's met by a large, muscular woman missing her right eye. The two exchange what seems to be a passing formality and the woman then passes him a small backpack. He smiles and nods a farewell then moves eastward along the street.

Linaza waits for the larger woman to enter The Cup before she slides down the street after her target. He seems to be digging around in his newly acquired parcel and is still comepletly oblivious to the doom that has slowly been stalking him for the past few hours. He pulls something from the bag and unwraps a foil covering, depositing it in a nearby trash receptacle. A few moments later, Linaza sees the candy bar wrapper laying on top of the other refuse.

Smiling wryly "So, he's got a bit of a sweet tooth eh? This is so absurd! I was told specifically to consider my target a Red level threat. All he is is some hack fixer with goofy hair who's got a craving for candy!"

She sighs with aggrivation and collects her thoughts. Re-focusing on the mission. She inhales sharply as she sees her target quickly wink out of space.

"Blast! He used the grid!"

It's just near the Borealis grid port that she spots him. The little blue triangle she's looking for. Anxiously, she hopes that she and her "package" haven't been spotted while digitized in the grid system. She watches him exit and waits a few moments before following. Making sure the cloaking device will be up and active upon her exit.

Sliding stealthily away from the crowd unseen, she moves along the wall with the cyborg only a meter behind. Spotting the bright green spiked hair of her target, she smiles venomously. He heads out of the gate and northward along the water's edge. She tails him for nearly a quarter hour before he stops again.

Linaza stops just outside of the chainlink fence of the mining camp. She watches her quarry pull another candy bar from his pack and toss the foil onto a nearby scrap heap. Then, moving carefully, deliberately; he begins to circle the area just inside the camp. Moving in slow careful circles, he peers intently at the ground. Searching.

Slowly she circles around him into the camp; her package quietly following. Pulling an ID chip from her belt, she feels around for the receptacle located on the cyborg's spinal relay. Finding the spot, she inserts the chip and uploads the ID information to the 'borg-bomb's targeting systems. Checking her HUD, she verifies the proper ID chain.

Name: Jake Russi / Juri
Profession: Fixer
Alignment: Clan
Height....

The rest of the data matches up and the target aquisition sequence is complete.

"Well, Mister Russi," Linaza thinks coldly to herself, "it's time for you to pay your price"

He's crouched now, closely examining a small patch of ground. His weapon lies near him, discarded in his search. His pack lies discarded as well, nearby the scrapheap a few dozen meters away. He stands slowly and executes a medical program within his NCU array and pokes a toe at a small bit of metal at his feet.

"Seems fitting that he die here like his friends" she thinks satisfactorily.

She disengages the cloak and levels her weapon at the back of his frame. The twenty meters between them is enough for her to confirm the kill. Opening a comm channel, she whispers her operational status to a set opf distant and unseen ears. Linaza smiles quietly behind the visor of her Dust Brigade helmet and says clearly,

"...Ashes to Ashes, Mister Russi..."

A quick signal sets the cyborg-bomb unit in motion and it covers the ground between her and her target quickly. Juri however has not turned to face the borg, but is still staring at the ground, executing another nano-formula. The borg unit reaches it's target and a blinding flash erupts.

A crash of thunder fills the mining camp

Linaza waits a second for her HUD to return normal optics following the blast reaction. The concussion still ringing in her ears and chest. She approaches the detonation point and studies the blast area intently. Bits of the borg-bomb lie about in quickly disappating fragments. There is however, no human corpse.

Cursing silently, she whispers into her comm that she will have to attempt to track the target again. Ominous silence meets her report on the strike. She bends down and retrieves Juri's discarded weapon. Somewhat scorched by the explosion, the Mausser Chemical Streamer still seems to be in working order and she slings it over her shoulder with a frown.

"At least you won't be armed when I come find you!" she mutters visciously.

Looking about, she spends a few moments making sure the last remants of the cyborg have been cleaned away by the auto-purge nanobots. Then she spies the discarded pack of sweets that Juri was toting along with him.

"Candy is hard enough to come by in the cities, let alone out at the bunker. I think I'll curry a few favors with this." she smiles to herself as she picks up the backpack.

It's weight seems oddly heavy and Linaza slings her weapon over her free shoulder as she opens the draw cords on the pack. On top she finds a half dozen unopened chocolate bars, but as she moves them aside her face contorts in terror. A small blinking readout counts down deadly seconds.

Quickly she recovers from her suprise and drops the pack, but as she turns to dash toward the mine entrance for cover, nano-bots swarm her muscles and ligaments. A split second of queasiness then complete paralysis grips her, freezes her before she's taken a single step. Her HUD blinks an alarm that her counter measures systems have malfunctioned and her muscle grafts have all been paralysed by an external nano-bot invasion.

Unable to move her head, Juri slides into her view from her right. Looking exhausted but certainly not dead, he smiles coldly and peers at her for a long moment from behind his mirrored shades. the panic grips her with icy fingers and she trys desperately to scream, to move, to do anything.

"You don't mind if I give you a message to deliver to your mistress do you?" he asks in a stony voice and a wry grin.
"No... i thought you might not be interested. But, please tell her when, or rather if you see her again..."

Juri smiles slowly, the words lingering in the air. He walks confidently toward the mining camp exit and calls over his shoulder,

".... Dust to Dust..."

A crash of thunder fills the mining camp.

[coldwarkid]

OOC: That's some first post, Syntax...

/me whistles in admiration

Cheers,

~R~