About 21:00, hunting lodge, up-state NMK, Friday the 12th of March, 2055.

The guy that I shot in both legs is still alive, and trying to drag himself towards the nearest limo, so Yuki asks Shen to go and fetch him, so she can see if there's anything she can do for him. Shen, like an obedient guard dog, obeys. Crash, meanwhile, has climbed into the pilot's seat and is examining the controls. That's probably the most disturbing thing that's yet happened these last three days. I exit the back of the AV-4, on the pretence of having a look at the lodge.

Looking into the glass frontage of the place, I can't see anybody, but there is a light on towards the back of the building, around the bar area, if I remember the layout correctly. Behind me in the AV- 4 I can hear Yuki telling the others to stay out from under her feet while she tries to check on her patients. The whine of servos draws my attention to the AV-4's minigun, which is traversing its mount. Someone's having a play with the controls. My bet is that it's Roland. He was eyeing it lustfully after Yuki shot the front off the limo to scare off the suits. Now she's busy with her patients, I'll bet he's leapt into the co-pilot's seat in her place.

Sticking my head back inside the AV-4, I tell the others I'm off to have a look round the back of the lodge, where the light is coming from. This sparks some discussion about whether we should just head off or not. I think we need to find out who the other limo passengers were, so I tell them I'm stopping for a look around and I start to make my way, at a crouching run, across the gravelled area towards the corner of the lodge. Sykes follows me, somewhat less stealthily and I'm also surprised to see that Roland has abandoned the minigun and is following a short way behind us.

Finding a place where I can look in through the windows without being observed, I can see three people sitting down, with four others, who are obviously black suited bodyguards. Peering intently, I can recognise the three who are seated. I was right! Sat in the bar area are our duly elected Prime Minister, Paul Magnum, his wife Diana and his father-in-law Leon Kronsky. These are the people we need to talk to.

Leaving Roland where he is, so he can tell us what's going on, me and Sykes make our way back to the front of the lodge. My intention is to try and avoid any further killing, and just talk to them to try and get this mess resolved to everyone's satisfaction. We get to the front door, which is unlocked and 'Meerkat' lives up to his name. He pushes the door slightly open and pokes his head round.

Predictably, there's the sound of gunfire and breaking glass. Don't ask me how they missed him, but Sykes pulls his head back out of the doorway and scampers back a few steps. I shout out to Paul, Diana and Leon, that we would prefer it if we could just talk about our problem, without having to resort to any more shooting. Silence.

Roland tells us over the radio that three of the suits are making their way up the corridor in our direction. There's the now familiar sound of gunfire and breaking glass from the back of the lodge. Then more gunfire from the back of the lodge, but no sounds of breaking glass. I guess that any windows that were in the way are already broken.

There's a shout from inside the front doors, telling us to put our guns down. Hoping for a more peaceful conclusion, I comply with the request. Again there's the sound of shots being exchanged at the back of the lodge, but this time I see the corridor lit by muzzle flashes. I hope Roland knows how to duck and roll, as I bet that was aimed at him. Instead of dropping his gun, Sykes decides to take a shot. He looses a 3-round burst, and manages to hit the guy in the torso with all three bullets. However, the guy's armour manages to stop them. I think I'd better pick my gun up again.

Roland radios that Leon is being pushed towards the kitchen by one of the suits, so he's going to go in through the garage and try to intercept them. I instinctively duck as a burst of fire from the AV- 4's minigun rips into the wall of the lodge. It rakes along the wall without actually penetrating. I glance over my shoulder to see who's firing the gun so ineffectively. It's Crash.

I pick up my gun as I stand back up again, and fire 3 rounds at the first guy the sight crosses. All three bullets hit him, forming a nice triangle, but he doesn't notice because the first hit him in the face. The other two hits, one in each arm, don't matter as he's already falling. Sykes takes another shot, but shoots well wide.

More gunfire from the back of the lodge. It sounds a bit echoey, so I guess Roland's made his way inside from the garage. Sykes fires again, but only one of his rounds finds the target. The misses don't matter though, as the guy is now missing part of the back of his skull.

There's still more gunfire near the bar area, but all resistance has been quashed at the front. Me and Sykes run into the lodge and down the corridor. Rounding the corner into the bar area, I see Paul and Diana crouched behind the bar. Then there's a flash and a sharp pain in the outside of my right calf. At the same time, I feel the concussive impact of another round just below the knee and a third just above my left knee.

I'm a bit shaken, but otherwise okay. I see Roland through the round port-hole type windows in the doors at the end of the room. He's still firing, but he's grinning, so he's either doing all right or has gone insane. It's difficult to tell with these Solo types.

'THWACK'! My ears ring as a shot strikes the side of my helmet. Boy am I glad some clever person invented kevlar all those years ago. My hearing'll take a few moments to recover, but another than that I seem fine. As my eyes re-focus, I see Roland take some hits. His head jerks to the side and he staggers back a few steps, taking him out of my restricted line of sight. Doesn't look good, but at least he didn't just fall where he stood.

Feeling rather annoyed that I've been shot, I return fire, hitting the guy in both legs and the torso. His body armour appears to have stopped the torso hit, but he's not going to by walking anywhere unaided for a while and besides, it looks like he's passed out anyway.

The remaining black-suited guy in this area of the lodge, still won't give up and shoots Sykes. Sykes takes the hit in his right leg. I can see it's hurt him, but not bad. At least he hasn't uttered a shrill squeak and fallen over dead, like a skinny prairie dog might. He returns fire catching the guy in the arm, but it has no visible effect.

I spot Roland through the door again. He's not grinning any more, he just looks determined. I can make out the flash as he fires his gun. Now he's grinning. I snap off a shot at the one guy I can still see, but my ears are still ringing and I shoot well wide of the mark.

The guy takes another shot at Sykes, hitting his right leg again. That one stung and now Meerkat's well upset. He fires back, scoring three hits from head to toe. Of course, the guy doesn't know anything about the second two.

An eerie quiet descends now the shooting's stopped. For a moment all I can hear is my own breathing, and the beating of my adrenaline infused heart. Checking my rifle I see I've got less than half a clip left. I hope there aren't any more armed surprises waiting for us. I've left my spare ammo on the AV-4, and I don't fancy having to use the handgun I'm carrying against people packing the sort of firepower these suits have been.

The quiet is broken by the whine of the AV-4s engine as it builds power. Then from the front of the lodge there's the sound of gravel striking the windows. For some reason the AV-4 must have taken off.

The doors leading towards the kitchen swing open as Roland enters pushing Leon in his wheelchair. Shouldering the assault rifle, I go over to where the PM and his wife are still sheltering behind the bar. I tell them it's okay, we just want to talk and resolve this situation to our mutual satisfaction.

They stand up slowly. Diana takes a couple of glasses from behind the bar and puts a shot in each of them. She drinks one straight away and refills it. Deciding that this part of the lodge, with all the bodies lying around, probably isn't the best place to sit and talk, I suggest we go up to the lounge area at the front.

As we get to the lounge, we can see 'our' AV-4 landing. As its engines return to idle though, the sound of another AV-4 can be heard. Fearing that it could be black-suited reinforcements, I ask Paul if he knows who is aboard, or if they called for assistance once the shooting started. He says he doesn't know anything about it and as far as he knows, they didn't call for back-up.

Trying not to look like the cold-blooded terrorists, as we've been portrayed in some media reports lately, I ask Yuki if she'd come into the lodge and take a look at the suits that have been shot, as I'm sure some of them are still alive.

As she comes in, Shen informs us over the radio that the AV-4 that's now hovering out front looks like it's from the Daily Tabloid, which probably means it's got Damian Day aboard. Sykes scampers over to TV and starts flicking through the channels, looking for any sign of live footage being broadcast from the AV-4. Fortunately he can't find any.

We start talking to Paul, about how this situation can be resolved. You can tell he's a politician and loves talking. He starts saying things like how he's been acting in the best interests of the NMK, etc. Diana doesn't do any talking, as she's still knocking back drinks to calm her nerves. Leon, meanwhile, is looking far worse than he did this morning, and is practically unable to talk. I don't know why his condition has worsened so much but, Yuki quietly suggests that perhaps they had him on stimulants this morning, and now he's paying the price.

Yuki asks why we should believe anything he's telling us, as surely it's in his best interests if we were to all quietly disappear and this whole situation quickly resolved itself. He says that yes, that would be very convenient, but that's not how he likes to do things. He insists that some of the things that have happened have been entirely due to Biotechnica. So how do we know Biotechnica won't just take us out? He says that he can exert some influence over Biotechnica, as can Leon, to ensure that we don't come to any harm over this matter.

We spend some time trying to sort out facts and a solution. Paul insists that the accident at the lab below us, was an accident. He says he doesn't know how it came to be that the package that started this whole thing off, outside the Axe of God, came to be given to us. And yes, Biotechnica, once the infection had been spread, were conducting an illegal test of what was supposed to be an anti-ageing serum, as they had previously been refused a licence to begin human testing.

As to the solution, we will be given the 300,000eb we were promised for getting the infected police officers out of the Harbour Police HQ. He will work with us and Biotechnica to ensure that our names are cleared, including any necessary releases to the media, in a manner that is satisfactory to all.

Yuki gets assurances that the infected police will receive treatment. That treatment will actually be given in the lab here at the lodge, which has been thoroughly cleaned and fully re-equipped. She makes that a priority and Paul, using the control room on this level, calls down to the lab and gets some of the technicians to come up and help transfer the police from the AV-4. I can't help noticing that the control room has also been cleaned to remove the blood stain where Shen shot the guy in the head.

Once the police are transferred to the lab, we all board the AV-4 for the trip back to Biotechnica, where we'll finalise the arrangements. I'm a bit uneasy about us all going back there, but I'm sure that should anything happen, Damian Day has got enough interesting footage from the lodge. Should he combine that with what he already knows, or has guessed (or made up) he could probably make things a little uncomfortable for Biotechnica and the Government, should we suddenly disappear. I'm sure Paul is well enough aware of that. I just hope Biotechnica are too.

I find myself wondering on the way there, whether, given the backing (and protection) of the PM, we could use the lodge as a base for a while. Why you ask?

Well, firstly, it's got a lab and medical equipment that can be used to heal, and study, the infected group members. We've got a person who displays immunity to the plague so he's got to be worth studying. Not forgetting of course, that some of us were injured in the fighting too.

Secondly, we mustn't forget that Jake and a couple of his 'friends' are also infected. Sykes could get them out of the docks and to the lab, where they can be provided with treatment. And while they're there Sykes can try to 'rebuild bridges' while they're healing. Jake's a useful contact. It'd be a shame to lose him because he's turned into blue goo.

Thirdly, I know Yuki is concerned about the infected people receiving correct treatment and not just being treated as lab rats. Were we at the lodge, she could 'supervise' the treatment of the cops and Jake's crowd, to make sure that she's happy with what is being done to treat them. Also she's seemed to be of the impression that she's 'lost' all the work she did towards finding a cure, as Biotechnica took it off her. I think she'd be happier to have it back, at least partly, under her control and maybe supervision. She'd probably be happy to continue the research and we can't forget that she achieved in a few days something that took Biotechnica months.

Fourthly, I've heard some of the others saying that they're thinking about getting some new cyberware. If they actually do want any then there's the medical facility, where it could be fitted. I know Yuki has some knowledge of cybertech, but if she was involved in the operations, I'm sure she could maybe advance her knowledge somewhat, which I get the impression she wouldn't mind doing.

And finally, where better than an out-of-town hunting lodge to work on any shooting and combat skills anyone needs to practice? And I think the last few days have certainly shown that we do need the practice. Besides, it's just a nice place to hang out if we're gonna be having some 'down time'. And I know Shen would appreciate having a room with a TV. He's not been the same since missing his daily dose of Cheerleaders in Space.

I guess we'll just have to see how the bargaining goes and whether any of the others think it might be a good idea...

This page © Greg Aldridge, 29 April 2004