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[X] "I still don't think we can take them. We can escape through the roof hatch. That way they'd be forced to come through it at us."

"Do you mind if I coordinate this?" you ask Delona. "I think I've got the ware in my head for it."

Delona gives you a rueful smile. "Go ahead. I was a vanguard, not a coordinator."

"Okay." You look up at the hatch. "Here's how we do this. Can you seal the doors and vents in here?"

"Yeah." Delona says.

You fish around beside the reactor and pull up several cans of discarded looking paint. "Toss these into the vents and then seal them up. It'll restrict the amount of drones. Then leave the drone hive in here behind the reactor and deploy everything into this room. Aletta, do you know how to run a hive?"

"Yes."

"Alright, we need to delay their screen as much as possible. If they realise we're up top they'll try to flank low. Once we're on the roof Anna, Marisa, Delona, set your carbines to intercept and cover the hatch out. I'm going to cover the flank and behind and make sure nothing sneaks up on it. Aletta, run the hive until they destroy it and keep your head down. Reizay, can you keep our scan up?"

"Yeah."

"What about the spin shield? If it cracks the whole loft space will be ruined." asks Anna.

"Set your grenades to frag. We're just trying to keep them back until my friend gets here. Any questions?"

"No, we're good. Let's go." Delona climbs up to the roof hatch, peeks, then hauls herself up onto the roof. "There's another drone watching out here but it doesn't look like what the Firewatch team is using. Maybe militia?"

"I can't detect any connection to the Firewatch team, but they could be relaying," reports Reizay.

"Will the militia be mad at you if you shoot it down?" You ask Delona as you pull yourself up through the hatch.

"Nah. If they wanted to not get shot at they should have identified themselves." Delona looks upwards and then her catapult discharges. There's a distant high altitude explosion. "Let's get into position."

You move down the roof with the others and find places on the slope. Up close, the dome is not perfectly smooth. There's cooling fins, NBC sealable vent covers and even some hatches that Delona makes sure will stay closed. You find yourself a good spot behind one of the covers and aim downward towards the lower airlock on this side. That seems the most likely egress point. Even a shearing charge would have difficulty blowing a hole right through the thickness of the dome rather than the relatively thin airlocks. You check the minimap; everyone is in place, marked ready and with their auras in combat mode. You were half afraid Reizay or one of the others might forget that. <<Free fire on anything that comes out of the hatch.>>

There's a few moments pause. A slight wind has picked up, you feel it in your hair..

<<Drones in the room below,>> reports Aletta <<I'm counterattacking.>>

A column of green fire lances up through the hatch, made lambent rather than blinding by your eyes' flash protection. Metal and carbon become briefly molten and collapse inwards. There's a pause for a moment then the crab deploys a cooling aerosol grenade and extends its sensor turret through the ruined hatch. It has countermeasures up, but the heat is so fierce it burns through clearly on thermal.

The crab begins to fire grenades and streams of beehive rounds from three carbines reach to intercept. The sky is full of airbursts as rounds pluck the incoming grenades. Defence aura intercept lasers reach out as well, filling the air with explosions and the roof with bouncing fragments. Several still get through, but the trajectory, almost vertical, is bad. The grenades are coming in almost entirely ballistic, easy to intercept while your knowledge of the crab's exact position lets your catapult projectiles hug the roof line. The crab rears out a moment later, exposing more of itself from the hatch to try to get a more direct angle. The grenades themselves are almost invisible blurs of countermeasures, visible only by the bright blue flames of their afterburners as it tries to overwhelm the defence with sheer firepower.

This isn't your concern. The airlock you were watching explodes out. You switch targets and fire a pattern of grenades, two explosive and one anti-countermeasure glitter, and are rewarded by the sight of the Kusanagi appearing for a moment before her concealment systems compensate.

<<They're out below!>> As you try to track the Kusanagi's location the octopus sculpt clambers out after her. You're at a definite firepower disadvantage on this front now. <<Bound left! Aletta, Reizay! You first!>>

There's a dot in the sky, over the forest, out in the direction of the city.

Aletta and Reizay run down and to the left, using the slope of the dome to stay in cover from the crab even as they get out of line from the two emerging fighters below. Both enemies spit out a wave of grenades and you switch your catapult from attack to intercept mode.

You're at the limit of your defence here. You can fall back around the roof but this is just delaying the inevitable.

And then a shuttle slams into the crab drone.

It hits almost at maximum speed. The crab sees it coming and switches fire, sweeping up its energy cannon and coring the incoming craft through the middle. It saves the crab's life but isn't enough to stop the cloud of debris, fire and bits of engine obscuring the hatch, knocking out the machine's targetting.

The sky is full of falling Luyu. A half-dozen of her, each surrounded by an aerodynamic forcefield dart. The octopus sculpt and the Kusanagi drop back into the airlock immediately as catapults and other weapons zero in on the doorway. There's a ferocious burst of jamming that turns the area around the airlock into an impressionistic nightmare for an instant as the short life jammer bombards everything from radar to the naked eye with desperately contradictory impressions. Then the explosion destroys it.

<<Everyone fall back to the ground!>> Luyu has given you a moment and you don't want to be stuck up here while she uses it. Each of her bodies is wearing an old style hexagon-armoured suit and combat mask, and she's better cover than anything you can find up here.

The five of you slide and slalom down the side of the dome, hitting the purple grass below at a run. You put your head down and sprint to the positions where some of Luyu is landing. She deploys entrenching charges, blowing up quick diviots of earth which she drags you behind.

"Hi," says Luyu as you're pulled into cover. "Get what you came for?"

"Yeah. Then Reizay's friends wanted to abduct her, and then these guys turned up."

"Mirareki didn't have a good interview." Luyu says. "A couple of me got her and Atet out while I was flying over. They're on their way here. Hopefully they don't get into a scrape, believe it or not I'm not great at multitasking." She gives a distracted blink under the helmet, and sighs. "She wants to talk to them."

"Well I don't mind her doing so."

"Do you know who these guys out in the woods are?"

"No."

"Mysterious!" Luyu aims her plasma gun over the edge of the fighting position and fires a burst at the door.

The comm opens. It's Mirareki, using visual. She looks a little haggard. <<I would suggest you all stand down. You don't have the numbers to overcome us now, and if we continue fighting it'll just attract further attention. You've already drawn a third party here.>>

<<You're infected, Mirareki,>> says the hacker with the pet brain, joining the circle playing out in everyone's AR. <<There was an update about it from the main server. A threat bulletin.>>

<<I'm not infected. Stella is possessed but there's no sign it's invasive. It's been catatonic ever since this unknown alien attacked it. That alien itself, the Quiet and whatever conspiracy set all this up are the threat. Not what's in Stella's head.>>

The battlefield falls momentarily silent. <<You're still claiming Central is wrong?>>

<<I don't know what's wrong with Central, but you tested me and you didn't find an infection. Don't you even trust your own data?>>

You glance back at the woods. Luyu left a drone up at high altitude and its feed shows intermittent signatures of a group withdrawing through the woods. You need to decide what to do.

<<I don't think we can get a good angle on them.>> Luyu says. <<It'll be pretty hard to get them out of that structure even with the firepower I've got with me.>> She grins. <<They're pretty good.>>

[ ] Wait in place and let Mirareki try to negotiate.
[ ] Use this chance to withdraw into the woods yourself, being careful of the team there.
[ ] Use this chance to move into the woods with some of Luyu and try to get a look at the third party group.
[ ] Take control of negotiations yourself and offer to undergo Firewatch medical analysis to prove to firewatch you're not a threat [Warning: delays revival of Alex]

[X] Use this chance to move into the woods with some of Luyu and try to get a look at the third party group.

"Hey." You say to Luyu, speaking to the one beside you. "You and me, how about we go take a look at those guys in the woods?"

"Okay, though the signature reduction on this hex suit isn't the greatest. Then again you're wearing your civies."

"You know I actually haven't checked what native signature reduction I've got." You open your body's deep menus. It can be useful to have some level of signature reduction in the skin, simply because wearing full masks all the time is a pain, but it's usually secondary to whatever combat layer you're wearing. Still, needs must, and you have the option. You ditch your poncho and switch it on.

"We need to get a fabricator that can make signature reduction clothing that doesn't look like a tactical suit," you say.

"I think you should be okay to keep the two piece."

"Yeah." You give signature reduction full control over the two piece's colour changing system and set your defensive aura to cover the rest. "Okay, let's go."

Reizay feathers the jammers as you move out with two of Luyu. You crawl and dash to the tree line and duck through an animal trail, with the Luyu's spread either side of you behind a thin and silent drone screen.

You never got a chance to look at the forest up close before. There's a surprising amount of underbrush given the low light. Large, leafy bushes with thick masses of pods or tubers under them. White flowers glimmering in the half light, incredibly contrasting amid the dark purple leaves. You pick your way forward through the plants, careful not to step on anything, adopting that slightly ridiculous looking crabwise dance that is best to avoid cracking a stick or stepping on things that go squelch. You and Luyu advance in a series of bounds, half moving and half set and covering. You let Luyu direct the movement and take control of the drone screen. Eyes be they biological or mechanical fully open for enemy screen or traps or ambushes.

The enemy signatures are vague blobs. Reizay has them approximately localised from signals intelligence, but nothing more. They're moving around on the flank, maybe trying to disengage, or maybe trying for a better angle for an ambush with enfilading fire.

<<I wonder how these jokers were able to follow the Firewatchers.>> Luyu muses over the link. <<That team isn't bad. I can't imagine they'd have just led them in.>>

<<They're not the most unobtrusive group though.>>

<<You'd be surprised. They're all like that. I guarded a science project Firewatch took exception to once. They're all freaks and you'd think it'd be obvious, but then they somehow got the drop on us. Fun gig.>>

Ahead, a large tree has fallen, opening up an area of canopy. The trees rustle above and beams of bright sunlight ripple through the leaves. Luyu pauses suddenly, dead still, and you do the same. You almost feel bad for the other woman. She just got unlucky. The sunlight shifted on her and her signature reduction took a tiny moment to compensate. It's good gear, but she trusted it too much.

Luyu marks her on the shared map, and now you have one clue to their formation you soon spot another, making soft disturbances on the grass as she moves up the slope. They've seen that the wind is up and want to displace.

<<Reizay, We've got at least two enemies right here, can you do anything with their comms?>>

<<Yes but could you not be so obvious with your link? Use one of your bodies as a relay next time!>>

You're almost sure the directional comms, relayed through the drones, won't be picked up, but a moment later you hear pet brain girl yell at Mirareki. <<What are your people doing in the woods? Are you trying to run?>>

<<We're trying to find out who the group you lead here are.>> Luyu shoots back at her.

<<We didn't lead them in. They're not with us at all…>>

<<So why are they here, Cina?>> Mirareki asks. <<Just happened to have a militia training exercise?>>

<<I can crack their comms.>> Reizay says. <<I think.>>

<<I have an acausal rig, I'll do it.>> Cina says.

<<I don't need your help.>>

<<Oh, so you've got all the hardware you need out there in that hole?>>

<<If you want to do the grunt work, be my guest.>> The two start yelling over each other before switching onto a private side channel, and you go back to watching the woods, keeping the drone screen in tight to avoid detection. You're picking up some signal back scatter off their comms, though it's pretty tight. You get the sense that the other info-warrior isn't quite used to working with them. You keep getting back scatter because she's not quite anticipating their movements.

The increasing amount of it you're getting suggests that they're manoeuvring more than they have been.

Reizay comes back on. <<We're only getting snippets but Brain Freak,>> the admission comes from her like a pulled tooth, <<says they're speaking Lemnosi battle language.>>

<<A Lemnos vanguard unit?>> Delona sounds like someone just confirmed some old fantasy of hers.

<<I think it'd be more likely they're exiles.>> The Kusanagi says. <<Some kind of black ops unit for someone in the committees maybe.>>

<<This stinks.>> The Octopus said that, on open comms no less.

Luyu looks at you. <<Do you want to try to snatch these two?>>

[ ] No, it's too dangerous. Pull back to the others.
[ ] Make a snatch on the two you have localised before you lose them.
[ ] Don't make a snatch but maintain contact with them and see if you can figure out what they're doing.
[ ] Pause here and minimise your signature, try not to give away your position.
[ ] Assume that the increase in enemy comm manoeuvre means they've spotted you and manoeuvre to counter ambush them.