Dramatis Personae
Runners
Lodestone aka Kealt Sanja
Thankyou
Rooster
UltraBoy!
Tobias Cheney
The team sucessfully links up with TY, who passes off the latest Knight Errant shipment to Ivan’s assembled gangers: a crate of assault rifles for each ganger car. There are 13 cars in the convoy, disguised as a funeral procession. UB! has packed a coffin with explosives in the hearse. Two other cars are empty, rigged by Ivan to detonate mines and crash through the fences. The other ten carry the team and gangers, and will carry prisoners out again.
They head out towards the spaceport, diverting off the highway at the last minute and heading across the desert towards the prison complex. Tobias hacks into the system again, gains admin access, and inserts his edited targeting program with no problems. The convoy hits the fences, and the hearse and dummy cars set off a large series of explosions from the electrified fence and minefield. The rest of the cars start piling through the hole, but get backed up in a huge dustcloud. The first car gets pretty fried going through the remains of the 2nd fence. Tobias opens all complex doors and shuts down the cameras.
The cars pour in, and spread out. The team car heads for the buildings that Marlowe and his crew are supposed to be in. Tobias announces over the comm system that the facility is being liberated, and that there are guns waiting for the prisoners in cars outside their buildings. KS and UB! take out some guards, as well as the security mage, who does some serious damage before dying, including defeating KS’s spirit friend Baelor in astral combat.
Meanwhile, inside, Rooster has just convinced one of the guards to hand over his keys when the guard is decapitated by a burst of autofire from the turret over the door. Rooster gets other prisoners organized to start unlocking themselves, and finds a mage, who he frees, figuring he’ll do some damage once he’s out of his magecollar.
KS and UB! find Marlowe and Astrid in the first building they search, free & arm them, and leave the keys with the other prisoners to free themselves. They start destroying turrets as they go, after noticing them power down again. TY decapitates both gaurd towers with RPG rounds once the turrets drop. Meanwhile, Tobias has been discovered in the matrix, takes some damage from IC, gets his connection jammed open, and has to hotdump, leaving him dazed and shaky, as well as severly injured. He sits in the car for quite a while, trying to remember how to assemble his shotgun.
KS and UB! continue to the next building, find Berokh, and once again leave the keys for the remaining prisoners. TY, Tobias, and the gangers/armed prisoners exchange fire with the remaining LS officers in the processing building (seemingly the facilities redoubt in case of assault), and manage to do some damage. The remaining turrets finish rebooting and start firing on the assaulting parties and armed prisoners.
TY links up with Rooster, and finds that he has already loosed Scratch, the mage. Rooster and Scratch load up and head out in a ganger car with other prisoners. KS, UB, and the rest of Marlowe’s team do the same. The rest of the gangers follow suit, as sirens are becoming audible in the distance. Those that don’t fit in cars begin fleeing en masse on foot. They also notice news choppers monitoring events: apparently Elton Massey alerted them as Tobias suggested.
TY and the rest manage to come up with a number of different routes back into the undercity, as well as some hideouts in the wastelands, so the surviving cars all split up and head in different directions. As the flee towards the city, the sound of distant gunfire continues and they notice an ominous explosion from the direction that one of the wasteland cars headed. The team hopes for the best….
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Jack and the Gaol (con’t.)
Jack was whistling a jaunty tune when they threw him into the gaol. There were lots of prisoners here, and they were all good men who had done no wrong, but they were imprisoned by the Evil Guards anyway.
The sorcerer walked up to Jack and asked “Why are you so happy? We have all been thrown into this gaol, and we will all surely die. They have even taken my magic away.”
“Do not worry!” said Jack, as he clapped the sorcerer on the shoulder. “For I will restore your magic, and then I will free us from this gaol!”
The sorcerer was too sad, though, and he did not believe Jack.
On the first morning, when everyone else was having gruel, the Evil Guards came in with a large bowl of porridge with raisins and dates and nuts and the first golden apple, all sliced up. Jack thanked them, and heartily ate the porridge, except for the golden apple, which he gave to the sorcerer.
“I do not know how you got this, Jack, but I thank you, and I feel my magic returning. With the first of my spells, I will grant you a boon. You will have the power to change your voice however you like, and sound like anyone you want.” the sorcerer said. Then he cast a spell on Jack.
Jack’s voice was able to change to however he wanted. He made it high like a bird, and he made it low like an ogre. The men in the gaol all began to smile, and this delighted Jack. But they were still sad, because all they had to sleep on was straw, and they were surely going to die.
Jack went to the door of the gaol, and espied a dozing guard, and using the voice of the commander of the Evil Guards, he said “These prisoners are all good men, and so we must give them better beds. They will die soon anyway, so it will not matter.”
Later that day, some of the Evil Guards came in and removed all the itchy straw pallets, and replaced them all with fine feather beds. The prisoners were happy, but not as happy as they could be.
The next morning, after all the prisoners had slept soundly on their comfortable new beds, the guards brought in gruel for all the prisoners except for Jack. They brought him a large pie made with pork and carrots and potatoes and peas, and on top of it was sliced the second golden apple. Jack ate up the pie until he could not eat another bite, but he left the apple, which he gave to the sorcerer.
“Thank you, Jack,” said the sorcerer. “I feel my magic returning even more. I will grant you another boon. I will cast a spell on you that will allow you to look like whomever you please, from the smallest dwarf to the largest giant, from a pauper to a prince, you may change your appearance freely.” And he cast the spell, and Jack suddenly felt like he could look like whomever he pleased.
He pretended he was the King, and then he pretended he was the Bishop, and then he pretended he was a mighty troll, and then he pretended he was a sly dwarf, and he told stories and looked like the parts as he spoke the lines, and the prisoners were all very glad, but they were also still sad because they had nothing to eat but gruel, and they were all surely going to die.
Since Jack was as kind as he was clever, he made himself look like the commander of the Evil Guards, and he used the man’s voice, and he said to a guard, “These are good men, and they need better food. Let us give them a very special feast tomorrow, for they will surely soon die.”
On the morning of the third day, the Evil Guards did not bring in gruel, but instead they brought in a giant feast with cakes and ale and hot bread and puddings and a giant roasted boar with the third golden apple in its mouth. Jack plucked the golden apple away before any of the other men could get it, and he gave it to the sorcerer, and they all ate like kings.
The sorcerer ate the third golden apple, and he was very pleased indeed. He said to Jack “I feel that all of my magic has returned. I will grant you a third boon now, and that is a spell that will allow you to command people to do whatever you want. I would tell you to use it wisely, but I know that you will.”
The prisoners were all happy with their fine beds and their lavish meal, but they were still sad because they were dressed in tatters, and they were also surely going to die the next day. Jack did not like to see their sadness, and so he walked up to the bars and used his commanding voice and he told the guards to bring the finest silk and satin clothes for the prisoners. Sure enough, the Evil Guards brought in chests of very fine clothes made of samite and cloth-of-gold, and silk, and satin, and finely-tooled leathers, and the prisoners were very happy to put on these fine clothes, finer than any that they had ever worn before.
After the sun went down, he told the prisoners that they were all going to be freed that night, and that they would need to help fight against the Evil Guards.
“But they have swords and shields and armor, and we have nothing but these fine clothes!” the men wailed.
“Fear not,” said Jack, “for the sorcerer’s magic has been returned because I was clever and I fed him three golden apples. He will aid us in our escape!”
Then, at the stroke of midnight, a hue and cry went up outside of the gaol. Jack’s friends were beginning their assault on the gaol, and all the guardsmen rushed to the gates to help defend it. The sorcerer began to cast spells, and he turned the bars of the gaol cell into fine golden swords and shields and spears. The men grabbed the weapons, and walked out into the gaolyard.
The guards were all trying to repel an attack from the front, and then saw the prisoners all rush out, all well-fed, well-clothed, and well-armed. They turned to unleash a rain of arrows upon them, but the sorcerer waved his hand, and all of the arrows turned into flower petals that slowly drifted down to the earth. He waved his hand again, and all the swords and spears that the guards held turned into roasted turkey legs and loaves of bread, and their shields turned into toadstools.
Then the good men who had been locked away in the gaol, as well as Jack and his friends and the sorcerer, slew all the Evil Guards and they all escaped into the night.