Not too tall, a lean man watches the men carefully, listening with his arms crossed. His dark black hair is not cleanly laid out, and his
rough shaven face is clearly noticeable. His crystal blue eyes move from person to person, watching each in turn with his cool gaze.
Rubbing his chin as the mission is handed out, Katz scratches the side of his face. He opens the envelopes in turn, passing them on
afterward, reading the information carefully.
"He's a damn ghost for all we know." He glances at the other two with him. "I guess I got no choice in this, huh? Bloody cripes. Goin'
off to some strange island to hunt down a bloody assassin. Well, if I ain't got no choice then I want to get the hell out of here and get it
over with. Lead on, let's get goin'."
A taller man stands beside him, anxiously awaiting his task. He figits noticably, as if he can't wait to get this underway. His dark brown eye,half hidden beneath his untrimmed bangs and shadowed over by his cyberoptic implant, scans over everyone. As the papers our passed to him, he drops them onto the floor, then jumps backwards, and hides in the far corner of the office.
"Do you realise what that is!?!?!? It's paper!!!! Quick, burn it!" And before anyone can stop him, he lights it with his pocket lighter. As it burns away, he starts to calm down.
"I can't wait to get going,"he energeticly voices, putting on a front of enthusiasm to hide his nevousness. "Who knows what we'll learn on this mission.I've always wanted to know more about psionicists."He turns towards the CEO;"By the way, how long will it take to get to Venua Levu? And how long from there to this island?"
Mustafa stares at Bill Prince. He shakes his head but says nothing.
"Normally we would not be sending people without psionic talent, and the inexperience of your party poses a problem, but you are our only agents available."
"If you get back, a large sum will be placed in your bank accounts - we can discuss payment if you succeed. In addition, we will also be able to discuss future employment with PsiEnterprises."
"If you have no more questions, you can board the flight for Vanua Levu. Actually, you'll go by way of Samoa, since the French island doesn't have much in the way of an airstrip. Once you get to Vanua Levu, you will take a chopper to the unnamed island Jarrad is hiding on."
"Once again, good luck."
Katz watches Bill, astonished. "Why the hell did you do that you fruitcake? It's just a friggin' piece of paper, what do ya think? It's going to grow and bite yer ass? Jeeze." Will guffaws and then turns to Mustafa, listening.
Katz nods slightly at Mustafa, then scratches the back of his head as he grins.
"Money? Now we're talkin'. Let's get outta here."
Dyson sat in his chair, boots on the nice wooden table. He was visibly upset and in his opinion and listened to enough shit from the CEO for today. "Yeah, make sure you tell the boys upstairs that I really appreciate them fucking over my professional life now that my personal life is already shit. I don't like firefights, and I hate it when we go after psi-killers. Geez, I joined this outfit so I wouldn't have to worry about that crap."
Mustafa chuckles to himself at Dyson's outburst. "Mr. Dyson, we're well aware of your past employment. If this was strictly a military operation, we wouldn't be sending you. But we need someone to investigate the island and Jarrad's operations - we're almost certain he isn't working alone. If you really need help, you can call in the airstrike, but again, that is a last resort."
He glances at Will Katz. "Ah yes, Mr. Katz. I understand that you have some piloting experience, and that a chopper was loaned to you by the Search and Rescue team. If you like, we can have it shipped down to Vanua Levu."
"If Katz is taking in a chopper, mind if I outfit it with a decent forensics lab instead of the 5 kg field kit?"
"If you want the psi-shit analyzed correctly I'm going to need some of your gadgets."
Katz nods at Mustafa. "Sure, send the chopper down. We'll fly in with style, the silent style type." Katz grins, then glances over at Dyson. "We might need that damn five kilo field kit, so don't go throwin' it away." Katz shakes his head slightly. "You want to bring some stuff, carry it."
The party boards the plane and heads off to Vanua Levu
Bill Prince doesn't even wait for the plane to land before plugging into his Gridcaster. He mumbles something about searching for any presence Jarrad might have in the Grid, then sort of tunes out.
Dyson makes it clear he is in no hurry to go running off after Jarrad. So he begins combing the Vanua Levu area for crews by himself. He is content to let the rest of the party wonder off the find Jarrad, since he wouldn't be much used to them anyway.
Katz smirks, watching Dyson walk off. He turns, carrying his equipment to the helicopter."
I don't know about that Dyson, but I want ta get this bloody mission accomplished and get back home. I'll leave with out him, but I
don't know how the hell he's plannin' on getting over there - not like we need him. This helicopter ain't given to me permanently, if
you catch my drift. Prince, go and grab Dyson and let's get out of here. I need to prepare the copter, but it shouldn't take more than
20 minutes or so. Put whatever junk you're taking with you on, but I might throw some of the shit off, if it's too heavy."Katz grins at
Prince, then turns and begins placing his equipment into the helicopter.
"Blast!"
Prince curses as he unplugs himself from his GridCaster. "I can't find any trace of this Jarred guy anywhere!" He packs up his
equiptment and takes it out to the helecopter. "Mabye we'll have better luck on the island", he mumbles to Katz as he carefully stows
his equiptment in the 'copter. "Let's find Dyson and get this operation rolling", he calls out over his shoulder as he sets out to find the
bastard.
As Dyson begins his search of the island, Prince and Katz load up the copter. There isn't a whole lot of point in sitting around here -
Vanua Levu is close to Jarrad's Island, but not that close. The helicopter is ready for liftoff, and Hunter seems rather annoyed that you are not getting on with the mission. "Our job is not to
interact with natives. We must -" He is interrupted by the sound of motorboats behind him, about 100 meters, in the opposite direction
of the building.
Dyson ignores the whizzing sound of motorboats piercing the moist ocean air and walks into the building.
Prince runs after Dyson into the building, yelling after him: "Come on Dyson! The helicopters ready! Let's get this operation over with." He jogs to catch up, then waits for Dyson's reply.
The building is badly out of use. At one point it may have served as a refueling station of some kind for incoming French aircraft, but
now it's a rundown building. A few old magazines and peeling paint is all you find.
Katz grumbles, hopping into the pilot seat of the 'copter. Just great! "What the hell does Dyson think he's doing...I'm goin' ta take off
without the bastard if he doesn't get here before they do." Katz watches the motorboats. He quickly starts up the copter, holding it ready
for quick take-off. Then, quickly, he takes out his 9mm and loads it.
Hearing the roar of the 'copter engine just outside the building, Prince stops in his tracks. "Dyson! Come on. We may need you and
it sounds like Katz is getting fed up." Then, without waiting for a reply, he jogs up to the copter and climbs inside.
Dyson stumbles out of the building, leaving the door ajar. He runs towards the helicopter covering his head with a newspaper to act as feeble resistance to the wind generated by the choppers blades. Dyson approaches the side of the chopper and he climbs on.
Katz peers over the edge of the cliff. Three powerboats have pulled up to a beach, and two dozen armed soldiers are spilling out of them. It appears that they are armed with what looks like assault rifles. They move along both sides of the beach and into the little stretch of jungle, but they can't see you and the chopper from your position.
Hunter sits on the floor of the inside of the copter, legs crossed and eyes closed. "I think... perhaps... we should leave. Right now."
Katz quickly holsters his 9mm, places his head-gear on, and takes off, heading out for the island. Motioning for the others to put the head-gear on as well, he continues flying.
"We should probably land in the cover of the mountains, to try and be as discrete as possible, but I've got a feeling that the bastard already knows we're here, if those guys back there saw us take off."
"The specified drop-off point was the northwest tip of the island... but there is no reason we cannot alter our destination." Hunter says. "However, we are approaching from the north, so if we are to land at the island, we must pass around it... there are a number of reasons why we should not fly over it."
Behind you, bright flashes of light - gunfire, you recognize - erupts on the island, but the sound is drowned out by the copter and the distance.
Katz shakes his head slightly. "Let's head for the north-west corner then, I ain't gonna change the plans now. Let's stick with it, and get this done before they get back onto the island."
As the heros approach the northwest corner of Jarrad's Island, two rockets speed out from the jungle and rapidly approach the helicopter.
As the rockets streak towards the helicopter, Bill Prince grabs his breifcase and opens the door slightly, ready to fling himself out of the 'copter at the last minute should the rockets come within 5 meters of the 'copter.
Katz skillfully manages to dodge one of the missiles, but the other strikes the copter just above the fuel tanks. Prince leaps out of the open door and falls the 20 meters to the water.
Katz has a difficult time keeping the copter steady; it begins to wobble and descend. Very quickly.
Dyson is pissed at the shitty state of affairs, he gets up, pushing his left hand into the roof to balance himself, he scans for an inflatable raft and prepares to jump.
The helicopter is heading downwards, and it looks like it will crash into the beach. The water doesn't look too calm, and Prince appears to be having difficulty.
Hunter jumps from the 'copter.
At this point the GM scrapped this campaign in favor of a PL 4 Indiana Jones-inspired treasure-hunting campaign. Visit it's website here
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