[K5pbem] Need help finishing this...

[Michael Surbrook]

I had an idea that Shion is going to start thinking about the ideas  
we touched on last game, where she starts thinking about getting the  
epsers to work together, to make them a force to be reckoned with, so  
they aren't playthings of the corps. I had another idea for the song  
"Veteran of the Psychic Wars" where Shion, Alan, and Ayumi (and  
others?) meet in Ayumi's temple in Tokyo to talk (argue, actually)  
over the future of espers.

Anyway, any opinions on this?

DAY IN THE LIFE XI
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

DANCIN' IN THE RUINS

	From a thousand feet in the air, the Zone looked much like it always  
had. A broad expanse of abandoned and ruined buildings stretching for  
miles. Scattered through the gray was thick masses of green, the sign  
of former parkland and open space. Bright spots marked solar panels,  
while plumes of smoke indicated cooking and heating fires. The wind  
caught most of the sound and all of the smell, giving the Zone an  
almost peaceful quality.

	At five hundred feet buildings became more distinct and streets more  
obvious. Various Zone vehicles, as jury-rigged and haphazard as ever,  
navigated the crumbling roads, delivering people and goods from place  
to place. Flags (mostly openmouthed carp banners) snapped in the  
breeze while windmills whirred and pumped.

	At two hundred feet one started to pass the tops of the tallest  
buildings, mostly office towers and scattered apartment high-rises.  
Many had a shattered, cratered look to them as of someone had tapped  
them repeatedly with a large hammer. Almost none of the buildings  
retained the glass in their windows, even as high up as here, mute  
evidence of Jinsei strafing runs.

	At fifty feet one was now in the thick of the Zone, surrounded by  
tenements, offices, and apartments on all sides. Virtually all the  
upper stories beyond the third were empty, given over to rats, bats,  
birds, and anyone willing and/or desperate to live there. Lines of  
laundry were strung from wall to wall, windows were boarded over more  
often than not, and plastic sheeting seemed to take the place of many  
walls.

	At ground level the effect of Jinsei’s aborted invasion became much  
more obvious. Shell holes, bullet scars, and the rusted wrecks of  
former security vehicles. The fighting had been especially thick in  
and around Bartertown and nearby Zone City. Even worse off was  
Darkside, which had been nearly flattened by the concentrated  
firepower of just one Jinsei Nightsky Dragon.

	Speaking of which...

	Shion adjusted her cloak and glanced about her as she stood in the  
middle of the street. Deserted. Excellent. Turning with a swirl of  
cloth and hair, she made her way north, looking neither left nor  
right, eating up the ground with a purposeful stride.

	Five years ago almost to the day, Jinsei had launched an invasion of  
the Neo York Zero Zone, apparently as part of a deal with the city  
and state of New York to pacify and then rebuild the lawless stretch  
of city. It had started well enough, with Jinsei’s security forces  
making great gains, both in territory and casualties in inflicted.  
But Jinsei, with an arrogance typical of such a huge company, had  
overstepped themselves. First they made the mistake of holding  
prisoner anyone they found with a SIN card, meaning anyone who  
happened to live in Neo York and was in the Zone on either business  
or pleasure. Then came the rounding up of children with esper  
potential, followed by an escalation of military forces --  
specifically the monstrous airships known as Nightsky Dragons.

	As United North America looked on in growing horror, what was  
supposed to be simple “plice action” turned into full-scale war.  
other companies, more than happy to see Jinsei taken down a notch of  
two, begain to smuggle in supplies to the resistance. They also sent  
in covert operatives, using the Zone as a testing ground for men and  
machines designed to bleed Jinsei dry.

	And bleed Jinsei did. Although they had plenty of firepower, they  
had too few men, and not even the legions of cyberdoids could make up  
for a foe that knew the lay of the land inside and out and was an  
expert of setting ambushes and traps.

	Stopping at the outskirts of a large high-rise housing development,  
Shion took a moment to study the cluster of towers. It was here that  
Jinsei’s back was broken. Here where she, along with several other  
espers of similar ability, struck a blow Jinsei was unable to answer.

	Somone, perhaps several someones, it didn’t matter who, had come up  
with a daring plan. Hire the world’s most powerful epser operatives  
to take a Nightsky Dragon down. And consideirng the amount of money  
being offered, Shion had been only to glad to accept.

	She had armed and armored herself well that night, in full defensive  
harness, carrying a rapid-fire autocannon. Even so, the mission had  
nearly ended before it had started, as the Dragon had detected them  
sooner then expected, opening fire with laser and ion cannon,  
catching Oniko by suprise and blasting her out of the air. She and  
Alan had responded with their own assualt, rocking the Dragon and  
giving Raven a chance to get in close. But even the three of them  
couldn’t quite destroy such an immsense vehicle as fast as they’d  
have liked. They battered its six hundred foot length, peeling open  
its armored hide to tear at the tender innards, where the airships  
defensive systems couldn’t reach. Finally, its back broken, the  
Dragon fell to to Earth in a mass of smoke and flame, revealing a red- 
cloaked figure floating in the air with them.

	Only a fool would have denied feeling a rush of fear at the sight,  
but Ran simply hung there, arms open and nodded to them all. “Now  
there will be peace,” he said, apparently in one of his sane moments,  
before vanishing in a rush of air. Shion, no fool herself, followed  
suit, as did the others.

	The loss of the Dragon had done it. Jinsei started to tear at  
itself, as different divisions began to fight among themselves,  
assigning blame for the mess. The bloodletting was brief, but brutal.  
The security and combat forces were called back, ostensibly to  
protect Jinsei assets, but everyone knew better -- Jinsei had lost. A  
number of executives were offered early retirement, some asked to  
step down, others had the decision made for them, several Jinsei  
facilities suffered “industrial sabotage,” and the board of directors  
shuffled seats around.

	As for the Zone, there was a short-lived rush of aid, as various  
other corporations moved in, offering help and aid -- usually in  
exchange for captured and recovered Jinsei gear. The Zone residents  
themselves did their best to rebuild and go on with their lives, with  
at least one notable difference -- the gangs were less territorial  
then before, and more willing to work together. The Entertainment  
District had even reopened, although 93 Underground was no more. A  
shame really, Shion had liked the Underground. Now people flocked to  
The Living End or the appropriately named Armageddon Clock.

	Having made her way amid the tall apartment blocks, Shion stood  
silent, staring at the immense wreckage of a stripped and gutted  
Nightsky Dragon. Even after four years of salvage hunters, large  
portions of it were still intact, the armored hide resisting rain and  
hammer equally.

(I was thinking there was going to be a lot of skeletons inside the  
Dragon -- maybe even a room with esper kids in it -- something not  
know until much later... Thoughts?)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Surbrook
susano at guisarme . net http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/index.html

"Then Kerin tried new targets for his praying. He addressed himself  
to Susanoo, that emperor of darkness who was used to beget children  
by chewing up a sword and spitting out the pieces"

"The Silver Stallion" by Branch Cabell