Delivery!

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Everybody on Serenity who volunteered
Content: The crew goes to deliver some spare parts to a few Grinders! Nothing can possibly go wrong.
Where: An old warehouse in Abantiare
Time: Sometime in the afternoon
Warnings: Unwanted shenanigans.

Comments

[in_the_latin]

Well, everyone seemed chipper, didn't they? Mal sighed, and opened up one of the crates.

"See this here?" He gestured towards the parts, and said, "This is some quality merchandise we're offering here. Take a look and see."

Gearhead nodded and sent his people to investigate the rest while he evaluated the original. Mal could wait until the appraisal was done; so long as he didn't try to haggle them down further, everything would be fine. In fact, Gearhead had begun to count out the money, and looked like he was ready to hand some of it over.

"We have a problem," came a gruff Grinder, whose lower jaw had been replaced with metal. He looked away from the men and women in the room, and towards the right side of the room.

Mal stifled a groan, and said, "Whaddya mean, there's a problem? If it's about the sprockets, I told you, we only had-"

His protest was interrupted by a loud bang, and in an instant the doors east burst open, followed by a swarm of about a dozen men in uniform.

"Abantiare Police force, everybody freeze!"

"Cheeze it, the fuzz!" came one squeaky voiced rusted young cyborg, right before he pocketed a few sparkplugs and ran towards an exit. Most of them followed suit, and there was a near stampede to the other doors. A few of them, however, stood their ground, and pulled out makeshift weapons - a blowtorch in the case of the would be automail technician, and a ludicrously giant wrench in the case of one of the workers.

Mal, for the record, thought the first group had the right idea.

"Everybody book it!" he shouted, while the authorities began to pull out their weapons. There was no reason to stay behind to fight their fight-

Except for the payment. Part of it was left behind when Gearhead made a run for it, other parts of it lay scattered across the floor, while he assumed the rest of it stuck with the man himself. Mal swore and grabbed a handful of cash before he pulled out his pistol - he didn't want to get in a fight today, but the cops might have a different opinion.

[OOC: Aaaaand action! There's a lot of chaos going on - panicked grinders, grinders attacking, and cops shooting at anybody who looks like they're going to make a fuss. NPCs will be left mostly to the players, within reason, and people can keep the action to any threads they all ready started. If characters want to move around to help out others, just make an OOC note and add a link between the threads. Also, feel free to use the OOC post for plot coordination and discussion.

There's two other things of note: 1) The cops and the grinders aren't exactly pushovers.

2) Some of those weapons seem awfully new and shiny for normal police officers... ]

[takemesir]

Zoe poked her head - and her gun - around the corner, trying to spy the Captain. She found him quickly enough, his coat was fairly distinctive. She also spotted someone aiming at the back of his head, and dropped him with a shot from the Mule's Leg.

She ducked low, moving through cover to get to Mal. "You sure do know how to pick them, sir," she said as she worked her carbine's lever-action.

[in_the_latin]

"It's a talent," he said, while he ducked behind a crate and cocked his pistol. "Is the ship ready?"

[takemesir]

"If it isn't by the time we get back, I'm gonna have some strong words with the crew," Zoe said. "Are we paid?"

[in_the_latin]

"Abantiare's finest burst in before we could take care of that," he said, just as one of the cops aimed his gun at them. Mal took a shot, and continued, "I grabbed as much cash as I could, but as you can see, we got more troublin' concerns."

[takemesir]

"Perfect," Zoë groused. She'd seen the ship's finances. They really did need to get paid for this job.

"Do we have a plan B, sir?" she asked, as she scanned the warehouse for sign of Motorgut.

[in_the_latin]

"Plan B's a work in progress," he admitted. "Unless you think we can dodge bullets and track down our client's worthless hide at the same time."

He had half a mind to do it, too. Motorgut brought them in without telling them the whole story, and ...well, Mal didn't like it when people were less than honest with him. Especially when it resulted in bullets in his direction.

As for Motorgut, he was well on his way ...to the back of the warehouse? Strange, wasn't everybody else running away?

[takemesir]

Zoe had spotted him, too. "Sir, is that him?" she asked, pointing her rifle in his direction. "I can drop him for you."

[in_the_latin]

"That's our man," he said. "Just make sure he's still twitchin' when I get to him."

[takemesir]

"Can do, sir."

Zoe sighted carefully, taking aim, and then fired. The slug tore through his leg, dropping him to the ground.

"Let's go get our payment," she said as she worked the lever action yet again.

[in_the_latin]

"Sounds like a plan."

Now, getting to him, getting to him might be tricky. He rose up and fired shots at the nearby cops, not to injure them so much as distract them, and ran like hell. They took cover and, by the time they reloaded, he was out of their sight and right next to Motorgut.

"Hey there! Now, you and me, we have a problem here."

[tidesnpc]

Motorgut was lying on the floor, clutching his wounded leg and whimpering softly. Blood was leaking out of him, as well as a trickle of what looked like motor oil; Zoë's shot must have severed some kind of machine line as well.

"Look, mate," he said, holding up one hand in a protestation of innocence, "it's NOR my fault. I couldn' ta known the bloody static would show!"

[in_the_latin]

"Well, you were up to somethi-"

Mal stopped, and blinked.

"...whaddya mean, the static?"

[tidesnpc]

"The signal hum! The interference! The Leaks!"

After registering Mal's totally blank reactions to all of those terms, Motorgut sighed in disgust and clarified: "The police, sparkbrain."

[in_the_latin]

Mal glared at him, and said, "You're not in a position to be slinging insults, Mister...Motor...for a gut."

Ignoring the failed insult, he continued, "I don't care what you call them, the cops are here for a reason! And since we're tangled up in your mess, I think you owe us an explanation."

[tidesnpc]

"I've referred ya, I've no idea what they're doing here!" Motorgut insisted. "Our deal is on th'level, I swear!

He seemed to be sweating an awful lot for someone who was operating on the level. Of course, the bullet in his leg might account for that.