Bot Smashers

[_________YumYum Crow]

The wind roared and whistled through the open bay doors of the Hopper, obliterating the stiffling heat of the night with rumble of engines and the hum of electricity. Quinn Honer leaned into the crevice he had perched himself in, watching the shadowed land of Galway Shire rush beneath his feet.

A burst of static; a co-pilot reporting over the comm. The whine as the Hopper dived low around the base of a rise as it made for the small vale beyond.

"Why did you drag me out here, Quinn?" The Omni military man growled as he grabbed for a new hand hold. "So far we have explored sixteen old bunkers and relay sites. There is nothing out here but dust, leets, and trees?"

Quinn did not move from his position. "According to my information, there are some fourty old bunker sites left unmanned in this area. I have information that states that a terrorist group is using some of them as an advanced base." He quicky grabbed his binoculars and scanned the area as the Hopper made its sweep.

"Can't it wait? I can get a whole batallion to go on excersises for you and check this place out. Why now?"

Finally, Quinn dropped his spy glasses and turned to face the officer. "Because we are running out of time, Jack. They have made their move already -you heard about the Trade and RAFTE incidents already. They used some bases in Galway to get close and under our noses. I can't allow that again!"

Quinn squirmed a little. "There is a new player in town, Jack. And all we have on them is a manifesto and a bunch of rogue 'bots. We've got to find them before they vanish, Jack. Corporate security is in danger and we need more info on their intentions!"

The officer, Jack, nodded and suddenly pointed. He exclaimed as he grabbed his own binoculars. "There!"

"I see it!" Yelled Quinn. "Lights on that old cave system. Douse the lights! I want a closer look!"

[Demenzia]

With a brief sneer, Jen looked once again at the small nano-library in its antistatic protection, her fingers deliberately avoiding to touch the damaged or fragile parts. Damn, the man hadn't lied when he had said having had to take this in the middle of a gunfight. Several burns could still be seen, and a first scan had already prooved her right in what she feared - part of the data was missing. ot enough, though, for preventing her to check them, quietly sitting at home, and see that the man had also spoken the truth.

Man, had it been a disgusting meeting. First this voice suddenly popping out in her helmet, carried by her comm, almost making her miss her target and end up pinned against the wall by a heavy maul. Had he pissed her off in that moment, really, and nothing can be more pissed of than a Fixer cut right in the middle of a blitz. When things had cooled down a little, and she had been able to lock herself in a small room, gaining enough time to Reckless out and go back to the blue safety of the Grid, she had finally agreed to his 'request'. A 'one-tim offer', as he had said. As usual, it did no harm to at least go check what kind of info he could sell her, and a few minutes of discussion had already bee enough for her to think of taking around his way of negociating.

Man, but he was really disgusting to look at - and with this way of his to gulp his food!... Before this, she would never had thought that a fat man could be so impressive to look at... and also, appear so terrifying at moments. She was still slightly angry, feeling sweaty and tired under her armor, not even having had the time to take a shower and change into clean clothes; but Jen was used to bargaining, and if she was at unease, she always took upon her not to show it. He wouldn't have the upper hand on her, not on this point anyways. His game was quickly becoming tiring, with this way he had of turning around what was the imortant part of the argain - and yet, she knew that this also was a necessity, even if sitting here, in the empty room of the club, with a member of these annoying and dangerous Nanomages pseudo 'Liberation Front'' wasn't really her cup of tea. For a second, she thought of the dear Ms Dragon again, and the way she had thrown herself on the bottom of the satellite dish - the martyrs' way, really! The thought helped her in feeling better.

At least 'Fatozzie' wasn't lying when he had said he had info on these crazy NLM - and he already knew too much about the Trade and RAFE incident to her liking. What he told her after was... annoying. Intriguing. Worrying. But his way of pointing at things could be right, also. He may be part of a twisted front himself, when he said he didn't want innocent people to be killed, Jen thought she could believe him - a little. He told her about the libraryhe had 'found' - 'stolen' would rather be a more appropriate word, anyways - and how it had been dangerous... certainly lethal for him if he hadn't be in a strong position at the mometn he happened. These NLM seemed to have odd and powerful enough friends, powerful enough to come up with dangerous ideas.

"Well... we are talking some unique nano's here... and some nasty variations of existing ones -poisons, know what I'm saying. Mass poisons. Someone has really gone to town on using the natural nano bots in the air as carriers to make these little babies work. I'd heard about some hush hush experimental stuff of this kind... and I admit I thought it was your boys who dreamed it up... but here it is... and its not from your labs I grant you..."

A threat? Probably. Likely. Jen wondered how much he would ask for the info, once they'd come at it, but the price was oddly honest. Actually, there had been moments she had had to offer much, much more credits for a simple informer to go spy into Tir or Athen for a few hours; of course, she never voiced the thought. Not good for business. It somewhat seemed... too low, and she felt like testing him a little. "Tell meh what would prevent meh, right now ... from simply grabbing this an' running away? Ya couldn't catch meh anyways."

If she still had been completely human, the poisoned needle would surely had done more harm to her, and his threats could have worked. He was damn quick, for such a fat man... quick, and dangerously hiding it, even if he then had to pay hime for the following minutes. But she wasn't. Her changed cells... the nanobots coursing through her blood... she was too used to this kind of negociations, after so many years. Now, at least, she knew she had to be careful of this man, not letting herself be abused by his seeming - and he knew what kind of bargains he could expect from her in the future, if there were to be some.

And now... now these data. Jen knew she had to give them to a scientist first, to be sure - sure of what excetly they implied, and of what could be done to counter it, if it was true. She did'nt want to mention it to anyone yet, and certainly not to Dab herself, but surely Mr Giscombe would like to hear about it.

She let out a sigh. The Engineer had called, yes, mentioning an old 'association' she had vaguely heard of. 'The Helpers'. Sort of classified info, also, but surely she could try a few things to dig more about it, and about an old in cidents involving bots, too.

"Pfff... Friggin' terrorists..."

[Lyricia]

Lyricia sighed heavily as she collapsed onto the chair in her apartment's study. It had been a long day for her and she dreaded the thought of having to sift through the day's message traffic. There were a dozen messages, mostly junk advertisements including one soliciting a subscription to the Rubi-Ka Enquirer. They had taken advantage of the fact that Clan citizens could not come to their Newland based offices in person. Now people couldn't talk to a live person to express their displeasure with the increased number of junk messages that had been sent out. It was yet another example of negative fallout from the new mercenary guards that wandered the streets of Newland City. Lyricia almost deleted the last message without thinking when she saw the sender's name, Dabblez.

Dabblez, was the Omni-Tek Engineer that Lyricia had met a few weeks ago in Last Ditch. She was investigating a vandalized robot that had been left out in a busy intersection. The robot had been left there as a message from some unknown extremist group. Dabblez had apparently discovered the the name of the extremist group as well as why and how they vandalized the robot. It was the Neo-Luddite Movement, a group of anti-technologists. They had in the past week vandalized a bathroom at the Tir School of Engineering and slipped their Manifesto under the door of every classroom. The incident had troubled a lot of the students and wasn't the sort of thing that would help attract more people to attend classes. Lyricia prepared a response to Dabblez.

"Dear Dabblez,
Thank you for the information about the culprits behind all the recent vandalisms. It appears to be a problem that we all(regardless of faction) need to help solve. If there is anything I can do to help please don't hesitate to ask.

In the meantime, if I come across any more vandalized robots in Clan territory, I will have it disposed of. Since we know who is behind it and how they took control of these robots, we really don't need to keep them for study so destroying them shouldn't be a concern. Besides, leaving it out in the open only helps the NLM spread their message.

In answer to your question about preventing this flaw from being exploited again, the solution is simple. Don't use OT Cybernetics' part. They know of this flaw and refuse to fix it because they have a monopoly on parts here on Rubi-Ka(or so they think). I recommend going with General Robotics' XXR model or SBC-R's MK-IV. I'm sure you can find someone that has a supply of 'imported' parts. If not come see me. I have a set of spares you can borrow to update your creation NF.
--Lyr"

OOC: For those interested in building robots according to FC's fiction read this item description. It explains how and why we use nanobots to build our robots.

[_________YumYum Crow]

It was a small house, cramped hard against Tir's retaining wall; small, stuffy, dark with a single shaft of light cutting through the gloom from a single window. Riyzzo hated it the moment she first entered the street -it was right at the end, shoved up against a corner. Inside was worse.

She wrinkled her nose at the stink of oil, notum paste and cast off clothes. The moment the door slammed shut, the stench became almost unbearable. Then the shapes moved to claim her.

"Good to see you" That was the thick voice of the Atrox, Bill. He loomed up like some ancient sphynx in a corner. "You took your time. I don't like that."

"What shall I do with her?" That was from the mercenary, Sgt. Laslo or something. The woman's form partially materialised in the gloom -or rather, the parts attatched to the rifle: a nasty, heavy, weapon.

"Nothing. Nothing..." Bill seemed to chuckle. "We have time for little Miss Riyzzo to be late because someone has made off with formulae... we need those formulae, you understand?" His hunk of a head seemed to swivel her way, then turned abruptly to Sgt. Laslo. "Why did you loose them to an overweight nanomage? I don't want to know. Get them back or get more!"

The mercenary hissed, stunned.

Bill turned back to Riyzzo. "And you will continue to send messages to our "friends". In return, we will overlook your crime against the worker..." He tossed her the package she craved. "And another thing -you will unlock some secrets for me..." Again, and with greater contempt, the precious stimm blister pack was hurled into her chest.

"I want you to get the plans for the University of Rome, and that Engineering School that operates out of this city. I think you should have sufficient time since our warrior is incapable of acting courier. Fail again, and I will have to send in our public servant. You understand, I don't want to do that..."

[_________YumYum Crow]

Night. The rain drummed on the windows incessantly. Quiet. The floor space seemed dead: Corrine had vanished into the Clans, the Boss and Raq had apparently vanished into the ether, on biz. He Jen was abroad, but his fellow fixer was not here. Sighing, Quinn slid behind a desk and began to type out his report.

It was a long thing, and technically difficult to his eyes, raised as he had been in the slums and not in a proper corporate education facility. He grunted sourly as he ordered a wide variety of coffee and a cheap Bronto Burger over the Comm.

Putting it all together was the difficult part -his search had gone over a wide portion of the planet -from Borealis and its smugglers, to some eco-activist comune deep within Varmint Woods (at least they had been more accomadating than most Clanners at his presence). Then there had been the "entertainment" in Galway -hunting old, run down bunkers and communication relays...

Yes -a lot of new faces had come through, illegally, lately. The comune was one such group. However, dispite his searching, he had found little to link the movement of people to this NLM. He was certain that the fat nanomage, Fat Ozzie was not showing all his cards (personally, Quinn would not put it past his old contact to have a hand in bringing them all to Rubika, and providing them with all their wants, for a price). Rumours from the smugglers hinted at something nasty going down, but they had all been tight lipped -why? Why? In frustration, he got up and jogged about the floor, smoking like a trooper.

[_________YumYum Crow]

Quinn threw himself back into his seat, downing about three polystyrine cups of coffee (tepid and tasting of plastic) in one hit. What now?

The Comune. Twenty tree huggers. No more and no less. Yes, they did have more to their number initially, but they went off to Athen, Tir and Bliss -suppliers and such. Traders to promote the groups naturally produced products -bah!

There was more stuff in the bunkers, though. Of the fifty or so old bunkers left in Galway, one was being used for advanced experimentation by Omni-Med (see enclosed information and contact details); two had been held by small Clan groups as advanced bases (see enclosed details from Omni-Armed Forces for the clean-ups); and two actually had something worth reporting...

One had been a base of sorts: no one there, but lots of material for small scale "terrorist" actions -nothing lethal, more like inconviniences and plans to strike at key infrastructure and 'Bot factories. The other had been a nice little fight -full of rampaging 'Bots trapped inside an old bunker that had obviously once been a vehicle storage point. Afterward, he had had much fun picking through the pieces -enough to confirm that this was a site where these NLM people had perfected their hacking technique. And enough to link the run-down 'Bots used in the process to Borealis junkyards.

"Ah, Ozzie, I got you now!" Quinn turned back to smoking and draining more cups of coffee.

Then he frowned again. Despite all he had gathered, there still was little to link all this to anything more shadowy than the phantom NLM.

[_________YumYum Crow]

The doors hissed shut behind him. The great, gothic buildings of Rome were lit up all about him. The air was cool, the rain dying to a light drizzle. His boots crunched on the tarmac and hardened surfaces of the city; the harsh lights fuzzy in the wet.

It was as he made his way to the exit for Rome Red that he remembered. He stopped and half turned to go back. Then he shrugged.

"Bugger it! I didn't get anything out of her anyway... well, I did..." he chuckled. "But not like that..."

He almost started off again before another thought struck him. "Money always ran through her fingers like sand... so why was her apartment so plush...?" He frowned, his face darkening suddenly. "She can't still be in the biz, can she? Damn!"

He started off at a jog, slowing only to patch into a terminal, and to send a message to Jen "Demenzia" Merkarian.

Once in Rome Red, he dived into the Grid and fled at the speed of thought, for Athen.

[Dabblez]

Lover's Leap, Galway Shire, a romantic spot just outside Rome for young lovers. In the back seat of a '46 Kodiak convertible Brad and Susie are in entwined in a passionate embrace.
"Brad, did you hear that?"
"Oh yes honey, it's the sound of our two hearts beating as one!"
"No seriously, I think there is someone outside there."
"It probably just a leet. Don't think about it, think about me! I need you bad, baby"

The kodiak rocks as the roof of the convertible is violently ripped off. Susie screams.
"It's a..robot!" she exclaims. "It's eyes are so... evil!".

[Dabblez]

"Shut up, boy!" shouts farmer Jed. The suns had set at least an hour ago and Jed was looking forward to a good night's sleep.

The mech-dog keeps furiously barking though. Slowly Jed gets up and in his nightshirt grabs a torch and his shotgun. "All right, all right! "This better be good, Rex." he mutters.

Jed makes his way down the stairs and to the door. Rex is just outside, still barking.

The farmer opens the door. "So, boy, what is it got ya all riled up, huh? Better not be just a blubag?"

Rex, the mech-dog, growls and with a leap tears out Jed's throat.

[______________Barlau]

So... let's see.... lounge chair positioned just so, to catch the bright afternoon rays of sunlight? check. Frosty frozen drink, with the little umbrella, just barely starting to melt, on the serving tray close by? check. Suncreen? check. Classical music ready to play softly in the background? check. Very promising historical fiction/war novel ready for reading? Check.

Dixie tossed her comm-link carelessly on the chair beside her, picked up her book, and settled down to what promised to be a thoroughly hedonistic afternoon of pina coladas and the ancient Roman Republic. It was one of those perfect days, where Rubi-Ka obligingly gives her inhabitants a preview of the glorious spring weather that is just around the corner. Dixie found her spot, and, accompanied by the soft sounds of Mendelssohn, was soon transported far back in time, a lump in her throat, as the assassins fell on Caesar, stabbing him again and again, abandoning him, bleeding and unconscious, but still alive, on the floor of the empty Senate building.

She was just reaching for her drink when her comm-link beeped loudly and furiously, startling her. She considered ignoring it, but noticed it was one of the secure channels. She quickly set down the book, picked up the comm, and pressed a button, holding it up to her ear. Immediately the line was filled with the sounds of heavy breathing. Great... . Just peachy. Someone else had tapped into a secure line, just to make an obscene call. She was about to cut it off, when a voice spoke up, wheezing...

"Hello there <wheezes>. You don't know me, but... I have some information you might like." She was a bit taken aback to hear chewing sounds, as if this unseen person were eating. He spoke again, sounding as if whatever he were eating, was still only half-chewed. "If you would like to meet, there is a party later at Reet's, and we can discuss this. It concerns a friend of yours, someone helping with the NLM case, mrmphhh, snrfff". She held the comm-link away from her ear a bit. "We-ell... " she thought for a moment. She knew about that party, had planned to go. So why not? At least it should be safe, lots of people around.

"Very well... I'll meet you there, say, around 8?"

More wheezing, and then "Yes, very good. I'll contact you when I know you're inside Reet's". She was about to say something, when the line went dead. She looked at her comm-link for a moment, and sighed. Then she stretched back out, picked up her book, and resumed reading.

[_________YumYum Crow]

With growing irritation, the woman who called herself Sgt. Laslo watched the unresponsive grid terminal. This was the forth attempt to contact the ditzy stimm addict , and the third attempt to reach her employer, the big atrox. No response from either. She grunted, slapped the terminal heavily and made her way back to her seat in the Cup.

Her contact was getting late. If he didn't show soon, she'd finish her cup of coffee -a variety suggested by the vacuous Coco- and leave. No need to expose herself just yet, even if this pathetic outfit she found herself allied to seemed hell bent on letting themselves get caught.

It was bad enough, she reckoned, trying to smuggle in such potentially destructive weaponry. Moreso when it was done twice (she didn't think the Atrox funds could last much longer) when the goods were stolen by other parties. It had been a pity she hadn't had her rifle at the time; maybe if she had the fat nanomage and his goons wouldn't have made off with the goods.

No. She drained her coffee to its dregs, and, grimacing, downed them too. Her contact wasn't showing. Maybe after the last fracass, they had all gone to ground. So where had her confederates disappeared to?

It was annoying. It was aggravating. One minute, she was part of a slowly moving machine with definate goals -a few problems to be sure, but it was working. Then, in the space of 24 hours, it had all unravelled. The Atrox and the opifex stimm addict had vanished with no means to reach them. And she was stuck in Athen waiting for a contact who never showed up -and who was packing some mighty interesting goods.

"I'll give it another day," she mused sourly. Then she set out, leaving a message for her contact to reschedule the meeting for a few days hence.

As she wandered into the night time streets of West Athen, she began to consider if she was really alone in all this? Was she was some fall guy as part of an even deeper plot. She ran a hand through her short cropped hair -her irritation evident now for those that knew the signs.

[Simplehead]

Ognom sat alone near the mongul meat grill oblivious to his surroundings. Just then he heard a thumping noise behind him and looked up in suprise as he saw a slayer droid charging at him full tilt. The droid lashed out at his face with it's claws, ognom jumped back barely avoiding the attack. The droid stopped for a moment looking confused and started walking into a stool near the vendor who screamed in terror. Lofting his blade Ognom made 2 quick slashes across the droids neck and punched it in the head. The droid shook for a moment and came at Ognom again. Ognom roared and made an awful face which scared the droid as it ran away and smashed into a nearby wall toppling over onto itself.

Ognom stumbled over to the fallen war machine, kneeling over and ripped it's head off throwing it into a backpack. He then took the droids claw which were embosed with a NLM marking and sheathed it on his hip.
He then thought to himself, "I better take this to RUR labs immediatley." Casting Rage he ran off at high speed toward a nearby building.

[Dabblez]

Dabz cowers at the sight of the speeding atrox coming towards her.

"Dabz, we need to talk."

"Hello Ognom. Sorry we haven't got back to you about the beer bot yet. We did put together a few possible designs , but I got to tell you, it's going to be exceedingly expensive and the quality of the beer is going to leave a lot to be desired. Have you consider-"

"It's not about the beer bot this time."

"No?"

Ognom dumps the slayerdriod head at Dabz's feet. Dabz kneels down and carefully examines it. "It looks like the head of a slayerdorid." she concludes.

"Yeah. It just attacked me while I was on my second lunch break."

Dabz looks at Ognom critically. "You seen to have come out of it okay."

Ognom shrugs. "Bah, it was just one. Point is, I saw the NLM marking's on it, so I figured you guys might want to examine it.".

"Luddites." Dabz remarks with distaste. "Thanks Ognom. We're getting more reports of bots going bezerk everyday now. We've got to find a way to stop the NLM before it's too late."

[Lyricia]

The hallway was empty and disturbingly silent. Lyricia Fuchs stood alone in the entranceway to the Happy Rebel nightclub in Tir. It was early afternoon and the club was almost devoid of people. Lyricia knew she was in the right place. She had triangulated the source of the eerie, pirate transmissions to the popular club after many frantic minutes running around Tir.

Only a few moments ago she had listened in as someone broadcasted anti-technology propaganda across her comm. The message was that of the Neo-Luddites. The announcements stopped once Lyricia found a way to respond. They obviously weren't expecting it. Shortly afterwards Lyricia heard sounds of a struggle over the pirate channel. The announcer had grown angry with someone in the background and attacked her. Someone was in trouble now and Lyricia had caused it by responding. She had to track down the source of the transmission and help out this unseen victim.

Lyricia entered the bathroom of the Happy Rebel with an energy pistol drawn and carefully made her way to the sound of a woman sobbing. This was the exact location her calculations had pointed to. She slowly opened the door to the only occupied stall and saw her guess was right. Inside was the obvious aftermath of a struggle. There was a container of stims scattered across the floor and the broken remnants of a comm unit too large and powerful to be implanted(as most comms are).

In the corner huddled against the wall was a dangerously thin young woman. Tears streamed down her battered face. Her left eye was swollen shut. Lyricia kneeled down next to her putting her pistol away.

"Quinn" She sobbed "Quiiiiiiinnnn"
"Its alright" Lyricia reassured her "I want to help you."
"It hurts to talk" The girl responded
"Just one moment" Lyricia said as she activated her Medical Kit "I can help with that"
Nanobot surged through the young woman as her bruises faded and abrasions sealed. She was still badly hurt.
"Thank you" The girl half-whispered "But it'll take more than that to heal Atrox punchs"
"Well, lets see about finding a better place for you to rest than the bathroom floor" Lyricia said as she offered her hand to the girl "I'm Lyricia"
"I'm Riyzzo" She replied as Lyricia helped her up.
Riyzzo almost collapsed as the two made their way to a couch in the club's lounge area. Lyricia purchased a bottle of water for Riyzzo and took a seat next to her on the couch. She listened intently to Riyzzo as she told her of the events of that afternoon.

[Lyricia]

"That's when Bill got upset" Riyzzo continued "He beat me up 'cause I wouldnt let him break my comm. But he broke it anyway. He blamed me when someone said something to him over the channel. Like its my fault someone figured it out"
"I heard the struggle" Lyricia replied. She had been piecing together Riyzzo's communication unit as she listened to the story "I only wish I got here more quickly."
"I wish he didn't break my comm" Riyzzo frowned
"This comm?" Lyricia smiled as she held up the newly repaired communicaton unit "Why it looks just fine to me"
Riyzzo eagerly accepted her communication unit from Lyricia
"Who was this 'Quinn' you mentioned earlier?" Lyricia inquired
"He's an i...mmmm.." Riyzzo looked cornered "...a ummm....friend. Bill took him"
"Let's find him. Where does Bill live?" Lyricia inquired
"He has a house here in Tir. But he won't be there." Riyzzo thought for a moment. Then she handed Lyricia a data module "Bill forgot to take this with him after he left. Maybe it will help. He said that it had blueprints for a place here in Tir and one in Rome"
"I'll take a look at it" Lyricia pocketed the data module "But before we go after Bill you need to rest. You can stay with me if you want"
Riyzzo considered the offer. Before she replied the door to the lounge slid open. A heavily armored Solitus man stepped into the room followed by two armored Atrox guards.
"Sentinels" Lyricia whispered to Riyzzo "Don't say a word to them about the fight. They're very brutal"
"Citizen!" The man was staring at Lyricia "Come here"
Lyricia stood and walked over to the Sentinel commander "Yes?"
"Did you witness the incident in the bathroom?"
"No" Lyricia replied. She knew that Riyzzo would be in trouble if she was brought into the investigation. The Sentinels are not kind with stim addicts or people that pirate comm channels "My friend and I have been here for a few minutes and we haven't heard a thing"
"Friend?" The Sentinel commander asked
Lyricia looked around the lounge. Riyzzo was gone.
"She was just here" Lyricia frowned "I'd better find her. She's not supposed to wander off by herself"
She squeezed past the guards and searched the neighborhood around the nightclub for Riyzzo but she was gone. Riyzzo's comm was offline also. There would be no way to find her.

That evening Lyricia examined the data module's contents. There were detailed structural plans of the University of Rome.
"If the Neo-Luddites have this it can only mean one thing" She thought to herself "They are planning to destroy the University"
She continued her search and found the second data file. A detailed view of a small group of buildings materialized on her computer screen. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized what they were. On her screen was the Tir School of Engineering.

[rheena]

Noholds carefully examines the Slayerdroid part that Ogmon brought into the lab. He notices the distinctive signature NLM on
the claw. ''Yet another robot from the Luddites,'' he saids. He looks across the room , ''More and more of the room is being filled
with these bots!".

He remembered hearing some Omni citizens talking about a shady looking character shouting about reforms or something in the various bars . ''Hmm must check that out.''

[SinisterCake]

‘About time’, thought Sightsee as he nodded to the others of the team that had arrived outside of the South Tir gates. One of the group had barely any clothes on, which wouldn’t have bothered him if were not for the fact that the Enforcer was wearing a white thong; ‘Atroxes should be banned from that sorta thing’.

The short Opifex lady seemed to find it a little too amusing, and her giggling was beginning to annoy him. All he wanted to do was to be with his ‘Babe’ Azshrial, slouched in front of a warm fire with nothing else on but a wolf skin throw. He missed her; been to busy doing odd jobs recently to spend time with his new Family.

The third member, a rather tall and gangly Solitus had with him a large trunk that he opened. There was a few activation beeps of a Slayer-droid, it slowly folded out and rose to an impressive 8ft. The Atrox was still dancing and pirouetting, increasing the now ‘seal’ like laugh of the tiny lady. The Engineer looked rather sheepishly at Sightsee; ‘is my expression of apprehension that readable?’ Sightsee wondered.

Sightsee had heard of the recent increases of the so-called NLM's activities, but it had never bothered him before as he never had teamed with an Engineer since the trouble began. Now here, was a very well build droid, which he hoped the Engineer would be able to control.
“Don’t worry yourself”, the Engineer beamed a smile to Sight, “It’s a brand new bot, customised it myself ya know.”
“Wot? Wot you talk about?” the Atrox stopped his dancing and asked, picking his busted up nose.
“Yea… hehehe, what’s up? Hehehehe” The Opifex seemed to laugh all the time, probably a stim junky. Sightsee’s HUD system lit up the time to indicate they should head out to the operations area; it would take to long to explain the situation. “Its nothing, we better get a move on, and lets try to stick together. Mission area is due West.” They all agreed to move out and off they ran to the area, (well except for the Atrox who skipped alongside them).

They were close to the ‘disused’ bunker, nothing much around them but Sightsee signalled to stop. He checked his binoculars, shook off the dust and peered near the mission area. His heart stopped, for there around the bunker were several droids of different configurations, zooming further in revealed they seemed to be rogue, but he wasn’t sure.
“Ok dudes, I’ll go and have a looksee up ahead, spotted some droids, probably abandoned-rogues.”
“OK, I’ll send Redemption-My Slayer to guard you.” The Engineer smiled at Sightsee, who merely looked at him then the Slayer apprehensively. The Opifex clapped her hands with glee “TeeHee” she squealed. Sightsee slowely turned his head to look at the strange lady, with an expression which said ‘why me?’ the Atrox winked and then batted his eyelids at Sightsee. Sight just sighed and shook his head at the mad group he seemed to be working with.
“Sure, be good to have it for back up. Wait here for my signal.” Sightsee ran off to get a closer look at the bots up ahead, he darted from rock to rock, realising only when he was close that the Slayer droid stood out like a sore thumb. Had the bots been aggressive, they would have speeded over to attack.

Sightsee turned to where the others were supposed to be, and used a laser flash device to signal them to come. He waited for a response, there was none? ‘Strange? Maybe the Atrox pounced the poor Engineer, and the lady got squashed in the process?’ the thought made him s****** to himself. The stoic Slayer droid, suddenly twitched as if in spasm, it made Sightsee jump, then it stood still once again. Sightsee got out his binoculars and scanned the area for the others of his team, no sign of them.
“What the Hell? God damn it, where’d they go?” He whispered as he scanned the whole horizon, when his view was where the rogue bots were, they were all lined up as if ready for battle. Still he could find no sign. ‘Duck!’ his mind told him, and immediately did it looking to the obvious assailant, a Claw barely missed his neck. He didn’t hesitate to run, the Slayer droid wasn’t following for some reason? Sight realised as he was running that he was getting close to the line of the rogue bots. The line of bots charged at Sightsee. He stopped quickly tripping over in the process, he got up and executed Wolf form, the nanobots sounding like they were screaming in his ears as he polymorphed.

The Slayerbot was approaching fast from the rear now, it was shouting out, “Death to infidels of technology! Beginning of the end by the righteous NLM!” over and over again. Sightsee ran as fast as he could from both the Slayer and the unit of rogue droids. He activated the autopilot of his Yalm, and estimated it would arrive a bit too late. Just then he remembered the extra customisations he had done a day ago, his ‘Baby’ had extra speed now. The enemies were closing in fast, just then when it looked like he was a ‘goner’, His Yalm came screaming down from the clouds, straight through the surprised bots that scattered and dived to the floor. The door opened and Sight leaped on top of the Yalm, (scratching his ‘Babies’ paint work).
The Slayer droid shouted, “Death to you! SMr. Boothby!”, and exploded in a ball of blue plasma which engulfed the droids and the Yalm.

[rheena]

Noholds was on his way to Reets Retreat but side tracked by a
loud mouth trader in Omni Trade. His only knowledge of this profession was very little. He knew that they use their skills to
take skills from another . However, he wanted to know more about them so he went to Trade. After existing the whompa , he
snuck around the corner of it and hid around by one of the statues in trade center. He overheard the following being shouted by the trader, ''Citizens of Rubika Beware! The time will come when your robots will disobey you and NLM will Rise!'

''NLM ! '' Noholds saids excitedly. ''Thats the evil org that has been making those robots go crazy!". He made sure he remembered the name of the trader. ''If i approach him and ask him some trader stuff maybe it would distract him, besides i see
no robots.''

He walks over to the man and saids ,''Excuse me , who are you?"

''My name is Trader1 , you can call me Trader1''
''Well trader ,how much does a rangle cost these days''
''You don;t have a gun ,why do you ask" and then was warped
away!

[Demenzia]

"Oh shi't!" exclaimed the Soldier when Jen exited the Grid in West Athen's. She actually didn't hear her words, isolated as she was in her Yalmaha's cockpit, but the words taking shape on her lips and the sudden, frightened expression on her face were telling enough.

For a split second, the puzzled Fixer stared at her, an old habit making her turn on her ID scanner to check on the woman, without even realizing it. Yet when the data popped on the holographic display, she knew what she had to do. There were no guards around, by chance, the Grid oddly not being one of their patrolling spots, and the young woman facing her knew this too, for she reached for her gun, firing a panicked shot. It was no match for the Yalm, they both were aware of this fact; it wouldn't even earn her enough time to enter The Cup, or find shelter in a building nearby. Coincidences were really an odd thing; she had Gridded into Athen in the hopes of finding more info about this girl Quinn had talked about... Riyzzo-something... and had found Isobel "Sgtlaslo" Saar instead. Well, the odds could be what they were, Jen wouldn't have worked for SPARTA if she hadn't known how to seize an opportunity when said opportunity was lying in front of her eyes.

Allowing herself a brief smile behind her visor, she deftly laid both hand on the controls panels, making the sleek aircraft easily dodeg the grenade thrown at her. Passers-by around didn't even really pay attention, and during the time of a quick blink, she felt a sort of pity for the running away Soldier. Poor girl, in a way - barely arrived onworld, given the data displayed by the ID scanner, and nobody even lifting a finger to help her escape 'an evil Omni agent'. The hell with them Clanners; in a swift buzzing of its Notum-powered twin engines, the aircraft slid above the flat roofs of West Athen, as Jen's eyes were carefully following Sgt. Laslo's lifesign quickly moving on the radar's screen. No escape, no escape - Heiji's brief, amused humming in her head, before he began to laugh, before she made the vehicle jump back into the street again, cutting the way to Laslo, forcing her to move back, then quickly maneuvering again to prevent her from seeking help in the south part of the town, where the Guards usually were. It really was no match, but Jen knew very well that if she reached the upper quarter, the streets would become too narow for her to follow Sgt. Laslo, and if taking the time to leave the vehicle, she could very well lose her. When the Clanner tried to turn north, she didn't think twice before slightly accelerating, the muffled sound indicating her that she had touched the woman - or maybe the latter had run back to her, actually... she couldn't have hit her that strong, could she?

"...Well damn", Jen frowned, sincerely surprised at the body flying to the nearby wall where it violently crashed. She quickly got rid of her flying glasses, throwing them near her seat before moving the plane to a dead angle formed by two high walls. Dangerous place to stay in, but as the radar didn't show any guards approaching, she took the risk of getting out. Laslo was already trying to get back on her feet, trying to reach for her pistol; her movements were enough for the trained Fixer to understand that she had an arm and probably several ribs broken, and wouldn't go far anyways.

"C'mon, stop running on me like this and things will get better fer ya", she snapped, raising an eyebrow, casually seizing Laslo's hand to remove it from the pistol. Roughly, yet careful enough not to hurt her more, she forced her to follow deeper into the street, where no one would see them, and a quick instruction given through her sub-vocal comm channel sent the plane in automatic drive, circling above the town, high enough not to be noticed. She needed discretion, not guards trained upon her presence.

"Why did ya run?"

"Been told to... avoid... you..." Laslo answered, spitting blood.

"Who told ya?"

"Bill said as much.... I... I think I need medical attnetion! Then you'll get what I suspect you need -ooof..." the woman went on, collapsing against the wall again. She knew that nothing more was to be done, that no guard was going to help her in time; with a shiver, and to Jen's own surprise, the Clanner reached for something in her pocket, two datadiscs carefully wrapped in a dark cloth, letting them fall into the Fixer's hands. It looked very much like the one Oswald had sold to her, a few days ago.

"That's what I was here for... it's what you've been hunting for, right?... Bill wanted another copy... I was the courier 'cause I lost the other samples to some nanomage with hired goons...." And it all seemed so very clear in that moment. Yes... they didn't know that the data weren't in Oswald's hands anymore; nobody had seen her talk to the fat Trader in Reets, and nobody had seen her get out, as she had directly metaphorized herself back into the Grid. So, this 'Bill' had simply... asked for a replacement? The Fixer looked at the bruised woman again, wondering why she was speaking so quickly. She had already seen people more bruised than that get out of their ordeal in good shape, but a quick glance also told her that Laslo was going to die from her wounds in a few minutes if nothing was don... surely the SOldier also knew that? Unless she hadn't insured yet since her arrival on Rubi-Ka... or was trying to gain some more time until guards arrived... or... No, what her and her 'friends' were up too wasn't anything legit, even for the Clans' administration, or so Jen thought - no, it was Heiji's thought, actually.

Anyways... questioning a corpse wouldn't bring her anything; still strongly maintaining the Sergent, she reached for the shigawire in her backpack, tying Laslo's wrists together, ignoring her whimper of pain, before taking one of her own nano-stims and roughly injecting it in her shoulder.

"Now, now, gal, stay with meh fer a few more minutes", Jen whispered on this cold, casual tone that was always putting people so much at unease; she wouldn't allow Laslo to lose consciousness, not when she suspected she still had much more to tell her.

"...Had some Atrox bully boys and ambushed the meet... I'm about the only professional among the bunch... I dun know how the nanomage learned of it.... he just turned up. I lost the goods, so I was sent to pick up another package..."

"And who brought dat to ya?" The wires were strongly maintaining her now; Jen let her hands go, reachign for the datadiscs this time, quickly checking them using her own lapterm. Yes... these were exactly the same.

"An opifex from Borealis. Small time hood, I'd guess -in some smuggler's pay. My comm lists some chief called Boulaki... He was the one who can get the gear... That's... all I know... on that point", Laslo went on, still coughing. "He was my source before as well... When I can find where Bill's gone...! They've all vanished recently... Riyzzo... minerbill... He has some other contacts, but all I know of them is I gave out small arms training... some time back. Didn't trust that girl... you can't buy loyalty with stimms..."

Jen considered the woman again. Too bad, indeed. She was a professional, as she claimed to be, it could be seen on her face, in her attitude, in her way of treating her weapons; too bad she was a Clanner, and too bad she had joined this... this bunch of thugs in their foolish project. They had paid her, of course - paid her well. But then, what Laslo told her became even more worrying. Something about this "Bill" having asked Riyzzo to bring him some plans. He hated technology, convinced that the use of robots had caused him to lose his job in the Mines, hating Engineers as well... thinking he could wipe up technology from Rubi-Ka's surface...

"I think he plans to knock out infrastructure on abig scale. Take out the knowledge base... or somthing... I *think* it was an intensive look into Rome, I think... maybe Tir or Athen... I know she had to dig through both sides databanks... something big... he said to all of us... take out the knowledge base - so they can make no more machines... then we take out the machines... Riyzzo would know for sure... for certain... she did the work..."

Jen was simply nodding to most of her sentences, directing ehr here and there with a question, looking at her wounds while pretending she didn't care. Another stim injection - there, that would maintain her conscious and minimize the blood's loss. Just enough for her to stay alive and be relieved a litle, but not enough to allow her to regain her strength and run away, although the shigawire would have deeply cut her wrists if she had even tried to break through. Laslo knew this, of course. She was trained; she knew what this kind of restraining would do to her.

Wiping the knowledge.... Rome... Tir? "Places of knowledge..." Heiji said/whispered/thought. "Most of the engineering departments are in '**** or HQ, but... there's the University there. The one where Cyrus studied..."

"Don't know what happened.... they kept in regular contact up to this week", the Soldier coughed. "His last message... watch out for... Div1... SPARTAn or something.... yesterday. But he didn't say from where he was.... I am just a courier... just a courier..." Her speech was beginning to slurr, her gaze dazed enough to make Jen understand that I spite of the stims, she wouldn't hold very long now. Jen frowned for herself again. Maybe if she brought her to Omni-Reform... but then, who would inform "Minerbill" that the data were in Sparta's hands now? Jen didn't know more than laslo where to find these two people, not for the moment at least, and maybe letting them come to her, in this specific case, would prove a faster way to...

Noise in the street, all of a sudden, boots running on the ground, male and female voices mixed, shots fired - at her!, Jen realized, her train of thoughts suddenly broken. So, someone had finally alerted the guards that they had seen an Omni agent in their town?

"Oh shi't..." This time, the Fixer's own words. She considered her situation - she wouldn't have time to put on her armor or even jump back into the Yalm, and she knew that she was no match against these trained guards. But she couldn't allow the data to be lost to their hands either, even if running away meant losing Laslo... and it didn't seem to her that the woman would still have something to tell, nor would be able to stay conscious any longer. And she had to warn Quinn, and ask a few questions to these Engineers too. In such circumstances...

She simply Gridded out.

[_________YumYum Crow]

Isobel Saar adjusted her jacket over her tender shoulder and deftly hefted her two small packs, which carried all her worldy possessions. Straightening slowly, she eyed passionlessly the two Clan militiamen who glared back with sullen looks.

"As I told your boss, you dont have anything to tempt me to stay" was all she said. The roll of thunder and the breath of hot air told her the smuggler's shuttle was about to land. The breath grew to a wind which whipped her close cropped hair.

"Traitor!" One of the militiamen muttered. The other affected a piteous look. Neither worked.

Saar smiled wryly. "Im a mercenary, not a freedom fighter. I have my pay. I've done my task -and before you say anything, my employers are fools and I don't want them blotching my record."

"Because of a run in with omni..." The piteous guard commented.

"I could be working for Omni tomorrow -so watch what you say. Private Gansy". Her tone was enough to silence him -he visibly gulped. Smiling inwardly, she realised this crazy planet where death wasn't an equaliser hadn't robbed her of everything. Dignity and professional pride, but not her ability.

The wind became a hurricane as the shuttle landed. Saar made for the entrence hatch almost as soon as the bulky vehicle touched down. Only those who knew her would have noticed her hesitation as the worker droids began unloading supplies around them.

"You sure you won't stay?" My, these militia were persistant! One actually had the affront to lay a hand on her healthy shoulder.

"No." She turned, glaring. "A sword of damocles hangs over your heads now -especially with what Omnitek has, if they actually think to look at it. I really don't want to be here..."

She slid out of his grasp and vanished inside the shuttle. The guard looked confused. Her turned to his partner. "Whats a sword of damocles?"