DocWagon Seattle First Response (Auburn)

[dauphinous]

It’s your first day on the job. You had to show up early for an orientation, where an excessively cheerful elvish woman in a navy business suit (Tessie) went over the highlights of your welcome packet. She walked you all downstairs to the garage, where a gleaming white Ares Citymaster emblazoned with the DocWagon logo sits on rails that suspend it several feet off the floor. A troll in a dingy, grease-stained, white mechanic’s jumpsuit with the DocWagon logo on the back can be seen underneath it, using a tool of some sort on the vehicle.

There are bays for three other vehicles, though none of them are currently in use. Tessie leads you very quickly through the garage, over to a square area fenced off by chain link walls. There is a door in one part, and on the other side of the wall, a dwarf and human are visible. The majority of the space inside the chain link cage is taken up with shelving units and gun racks. There are rows of guns and hanging suits (white with the DocWagon logo), and boxes marked "EXPLOSIVE", and similar sorts of items. The dwarf, who is about average looking for his metatype with brown hair and beard, is currently sitting at a table, disassembling an Ares Predator IV on it. The human is running a hand very slowly and carefully over one of the white suits where it is hanging.

Tessie stops outside the cage and gestures to the two men. "This is Karl and Bernie. They are in charge of all the equipment you will use. Whatever you want off the list of available gear, you ask them for it. We don’t do this by commlink for security reasons. You have to actually tell them what you want."

Both men look up. Bernie stops what he is doing and looks expectantly at you all. Karl, the dwarf, snorts, but he gets up and opens the door. He gives Tessie a half-assed salute while he looks you three over.

"So, who’s first and what'll it be, kiddies?"

[Leshan]

Frank

"I think someone's been taking a few pills on the side," Frank thought to himself about the overly cheerful elf. But other then being a bit to cheerful for his tastes, Frank took everything else in stride. As they walked downstairs to the garage, Frank got a few stares. Being 6'2'', bald, and with more metal in your head then the average computer tended to do that. His military fatigues also stood out from the more casual clothing anyone not wearing a DocWagon uniform wore.

As they came to the weapons lock up, he nodded appreciatively. "Nice little armory they have here." Frank's face twitched into a frown for a moment when the dwarf gave the half hearted salute. Taking a step forward he said, "Frank Pullman. And I'll have an Ares Predator IV, with gel rounds if you have them. An Ares Alpha with normal rounds. Three extra clips for each. A camouflage suit. And two each of flash-bangs, flash-paks, CS-gas, smoke, and thermal smoke."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

The Japanese elf sits silently through the orientation, listening carefully to everything said. Her hair color shifts every time she moves her head, although she pays little heed to it while the new hires are taken on the tour. Despite looking more like she belongs in a gang with the kanji tattoos around one eye and the battered midnight blue duster, she holds herself professionally, not like some random punk off the street.

As her turn comes up to get gear she replies in a soft, lilting voice with a trace of an accent, "I would prefer to use my own weapons but ammunition for Ares Predators would be welcome. Equal numbers of gel and normal rounds, please. As many as I'm allowed. And a uniform, please. (OOC: Camo suit.) Size five." She's apparently quite slim under the shapeless duster, despite her six feet of height.

[Lycar]

Gregory Kurtz

Gregory Kurtz is an ork. That means he's just shy of 2 meters tall, with a frame broader then even a stroided-up human could ever hope for and .. tusks. They aren't overly pronounced but they are there. Brown eyes and dark brownish hair complete his facial features.

He arrived for orientation just a minute before time, wearing army fatigues.

While he doesn not seem to be sporting any obvious cyberware, some of you could get a glimpse at a subdermal skinlink in his palm when he raised his hand to ask a question.

He didn't ask much though. Coming to think of it, he didn't say much at all, seeming content to listen to the introduction. Although he did seem to be scratching his right temple a few times.

When they were greeted with the sloppy salute from the dwarf, Gregory just responded with a nod and a grunt.

As he happened to end up right behind Frank, he went to request equipment next.

"One armoured jumpsuit, one Ares Alpha, 3 clips of gel, 2 clips of FMJ ammo, a clip of tear gas 'nades for the launcher. Two smokes and two IR-smokes."

After receiving his gear, Gregory proceeded to do a quick field-strip of his assigned rifle, checking the action and the barrel for any sing of obstruction or dirt. Finding none, he reassembled it with a satified grunt.

Then he just shoulderd his gear, waiting for the others to receive theirs so they could go the lockers to slip into their uniforms and get started.

Lycar

Edit: Damn, i shouldn't take so long for typing... when i started i WAS no.2 to post....

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

((It's OK, Lycar. Ritsuko can go last. I did say 'as her turn comes up'.))

[dauphinous]

Bernie grabs each item as it is requested and hands it to Karl, who scans each one with his hand before giving it over. He only gives Ritsuko an uplifted eyebrow at her request to use her own weapons, then a nod and a "suit yerself, girlie."

Once everyone's requests are filled, he nods once. "When you get back, you come right here and turn all this stuff back in. Anything you don’t bring back, you gotta sit down in one of those chairs, right there," he points to a row of five metal chairs with oddly angled backs that all look extremely uncomfortable, "and file a report about it. I do mean 'anything'."

After you all get your gear together and uniforms on, Tessie makes a shooing motion towards one of the people-sized doors in the wall. Through that door is the tarmac. Maybe 100 feet away, there is a gleaming white helicopter with the DocWagon logo on the side and tail sitting in a large white painted circle. You can see the number '3' is painted inside the circle, big enough to be seen from a good distance up.

The front of the helicopter is all one big window, through which you can see the pilot's seat. It has a single top rotor, currently sitting perfectly aligned with the body of the copter. The tail rotor is embedded in the tail of it. The whole vehicle is about 14 meters long and 4 meters tall. The body of it is about 4 meters wide. The tail is about 6 meters long. At the moment, the side door towards you is open, and two figures can be seen just inside it.

There is a second, identical helicopter sitting in a second circle not far away, painted with the number '4', that is just taking off. It lifts a meter or so off the ground very slowly, then shoots upwards at full speed, showing off just how fast these whirlybirds can go (about 15 meters per second, or 278km per hour). There are 12 more circles, each painted with the rest of the numbers from 1-14, and each empty.

As soon as that helicopter's noise fades away, Tessie starts talking again. "You've been assigned to Auburn. It's mostly manufacturing out there, but some of the corps who run those plants shell out for some of their employees, and you never know when a client will just end up there for some reason. The place is covered in dozens of little extraterritorial zones. Thanks to some high level negotiations, we have unrestricted access to most of the airspace in Auburn. That's 'most', not 'all'. And that does not include landing rights. If you have to land in a corp zone, you have to get clearance first. That's the pilot's job.

"Remember: get there, pick up the client, get out. We have a guaranteed response time of 10 minutes. If the client isn’t in the EMT's care," she gestures generally towards the helicopter, possibly indicating one of the two figures inside it, "within 10 minutes, they get everything free, and that makes a lot of people very unhappy. So stay near the middle of your zone whenever you can. If you need to stop to use the bathroom, or grab some coffee, or whatever, call it in. That way we can give someone else the call if they're nearby.

"Okay," she points to the helicopter, "get moving. You have 15 minutes to get to your zone before we mark you as on call. You are on call until 3am, at which point you come straight back here. You have any questions, ask Dispatch or your other teammates." With that, Tessie folds her arms and looks quite impatient for you to all be gone, even going so far as to begin tapping her foot after roughly half a second.

[Leshan]

Frank

Frank immediately heads for the chopper after Tessie is done briefing them. He climbs in the front door, nodding in greeting to the two already inside as he slides into the pilot seat. Finding the datacable he plugs it into his datajack. Suddenly several displays begin hovering in the air. He begins the start up sequence as he takes it in. He makes some modifications, changing the layout that's being displayed to him. As he does this using his datajack, he uses his hands to secure the Ares Alpha underneath his seat and the Predator in a holster on his armor.

"Please give me the proper permissions to access your commlinks even in hidden mode then switch to it," Frank says over his shoulder after everyone has entered the helicopter. "Please send me a message once you've done so. If you have a problem with this let me know."

((Edit: Changed this up a bit. Felt it was a little presumptous and moving to fast.))

[McSherrie]

"Look, I appreciate that we have to share this whirly bird with the day guys, but is it too much to ask that they leave my seat without grease stains?!?"

The voice coming out of the helicoptor sounds breathy and almost panicked. As the new crew comes closer, they can see that it comes from a young woman. She is dressed in an orange jumpsuit that matches perfectly her orange, spiky hair. The pupils in her green eyes begin to look slitted and whiskers make a ghost appearance and she murmers under her breath.

"Much better,", Gatto says, surveying the newly cleaned seat. She pulls out what appears to be a small spray bottle and squirts the seat. "Mine."

Shooting a look out the door at the other three, "Looks like the new kids are here, Brachial. Time to play." She grins at them and sits in what she obviously considers to be her seat. "I'm Gatto. Magical support. Welcome to our bird."

[Leshan]

Frank

Somewhere in between his preparations Frank says, "Just be careful where you throw your magic around. I don't need any electrical blasts shorting out systems." And almost as an after thought he adds, "And I'm your pilot, Frank."

[dauphinous]

As soon as he logs in, Frank gets a friendly, cheerful message:

[Hello. I am an Ares Dragon, customized especially for DocWagon use. Here are some facts you should know about me:

I can lift off with a maximum of 2100kg of cargo, including all my passengers.
I can ascend at a rate of 15 meters per second.
My top speed is 278 kilometers per hour. Please don't try to push me past that, as I am not capable of going any faster.
My rotor diameter is 11.5 meters, and I am 14 meters long. Remember to give me enough clearance when you land.
I need to be refueled after 8 continuous hours of flight.

I am now adjusting to your physical specifications, Frank Pullman. If you wish to change any aspects of your profile, you can do so at any time by accessing the 'Profile' menu. Welcome to the DocWagon team.]

The indicated menu, tucked away in the lower right hand corner of Frank's field of vision flashes twice. At the same time, the seat seems to mold to his body and adjust slightly so he has the best possible access to the flight controls.

[Leshan]

Frank

Snorting, Frank took in the speech from what he assumed to be the piloting program.

[Well, you're the first thing I've flown that's told me how to handle it. Sound a little like my wife.]

Mentally opening the indicated menu, Frank took in the various options.

[You have something I can refer to you as other then pilot? Or do you prefer that?]

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

The japanese woman bows politely to the two in the chopper. "Ritsuko Saitoh," she says by way of introduction. "You can call me Mig, if you'd prefer. I'm the-- ah-- tactical support, was the term." She quirks a half-grin. "I'm a better shot than you might think." She slips into the copter, and slots clips into a pair of Predators holstered in the small of her back. <Japanese>"Gel on the right," she mutters to herself as she reholsters the pistols. "Where should I sit?" she asks of the two old-timers.

[McSherrie]

Choosing to ignore Frank's comment about hurting the helicoptor, Gatto looks at Mig. "You can sit anywhere except this seat. Make yourself comfortable. Nice hair." She straps herself into the clean seat, closes her eyes briefly, then looks around at everyone again. Anyone paying close attention sees that her pupils are slitted again.

((I'm looking at everyone astrally, just to see what I can see.))

[dauphinous]

There are four seats with harnesses available. The wall of the copter opposite the door is taken up with unmarked drawers and a long, flat, blank panel with a handle. You have about 1.75 meters of vertical space to stand up in.

There is a half meter step from the landing rails on the bottom of the copter into the body of it, and about 2 meters of clearance under the tail. The pilot's seat does have a separate door, and there is no actual access between the cockpit to the body of the copter, though the divider between the two is clear plastic, and easily seen through.

It might also be noticed that there is a square sort of hook thing on the outside of the copter, right next to the opening for the door. It would probably be a good handle if one wanted to ride the landing rail for some reason, or maybe a good place to attach a rope or harness of some kind.

Frank

[Employee Maverick refers to me as 'Kitty'.]

The indicated menu has the following options:
Current Pilot Designation: Frank Pullman
Current Pilot Actual Name: Frank Pullman
Unofficial Helicopter Designation: Kitty
Official Helicopter Designation: DocWagon Seattle First ResponseTM helicopter #3
Seat Conform: A37DX4Q91
Divider Color: Transparent
Assigned Zone: Unknown
Map Display: Overlay
Map Setting: no Zoom
Heavy Map Icons: DW, Call
Light Map Icons: AT, LS
Map Zone Display: Yes
Crew Listing: On
Dispatch Link: Auto

The 'Unknown' entry is currently flashing.

Along the bottom of his vision (not a part of the menu), Frank can see a listing:
Brachial | Louise DiMaio | Frank Pullman | Ritsuko Saitoh | Gregory Kurtz

Gatto

Spoiler

Show

Brachial looks like he always does. The ork and the human have dead spots in various parts of their bodies, but nothing strange. The ork is a little more dead than the pilot, and the shadowed spots look like he must have wired reflexes. The elf is bright and vibrant, with no dead spots at all. In fact, she's Awakened - an adept.

The usual spirits are pacing around the compound, and it looks like Nina, one of the morning shift mages, is doing something magical on the roof of the building again.

[Santanya]

Brachial

A man looking to be in his mid twenties slams an overhead compartment, grumbling slightly. "Why do they always stuff everything where it would be hard to get to?" he asks the air as he turns around. His arm is full of assorted slap patches and what looks like a roll of rubberized splint material. He glances out the door of the chopper as everyone walks up to it. "No flamer, Gatto," he says, chuckling softly, "I'm sure they're clean." He smiles towards the woman as he steps across and opens another cupboard at waist level and stacks the patches inside.

He has to stoop just slightly to move about the interior of the helecoptor, but seems to know his way about it, or at least know where he wants things. He has a DocWagon jumpsuit on, with a pair of pistols set low on his hip, one Predator and one Super Squirt. He slams the cupboard closed again and steps back, running a hand through his black hair as he looks over the new comers. "Hey there, all of you," he says, smiling as Gatto goes through her procedure to clean the seat. "Sit anywhere, but leave her seat to her, its better for everyone that way," he says, grinning towards Gatto. "I don't want to have to patch up any third degree burns."

He glances up towards the pilot. "Kitty should have the comm codes for everyone, unless they've been keeping them secret." He nods once and smiles. "I'm EMT Joseph Cannid. You can call me Brachial."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

Looking confused, Ritsuko says, "Why would I sit in her seat when it is clearly occupied? I've no intention of sitting on her lap." She picks a seat closest to where the door opens, and straps in, and checks in on her commlink, [Are you getting this, Frank?]

[Lycar]

Gregory donned his uniform and stowed his stores in the various pockets the suit offered. When climbing aboard he went for the seat closest to the exit and, after sitting down, gave a curt introduction.

"Gregory Kurtz, tactical."

Then he just went on to strap himself in and make sure his equipment was tightly secured. He didn't load his rifle at this point.

When Frank asked the team to open the comm channels on their commlinks, Gregory did so, sending a short message to all PDAs.

[Test, test, do you copy ?]

After a bit, Gregory started to look over his fellow crewmembers. It was hard to tell if it was out of boredom or professional interest. But then he turned his attention to Mig.

"Got any experience ?" he asked, suddenly.

Lycar

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

"With DocWagon? No. First day." She gives the other gunner a half-grin. "With a firearm, yes."

[Santanya]

Brachial

Brachial looks through the drawers, sliding two open and nodding, seeming satisfied at last. "I mean for now and later," he replies, smiling to the elf as he slides them closed. "Someone remind me to ask Slap Patch how she finds anything, will ya?" he adds as he drops into a seat. He shakes his head once as he stretches out. "So, we ready to get this whirley bird in the air?"

[Leshan]

Frank

[Okay... Kitty. Interesting designation.]

Activating the assigned zone option he mentally fills it in.

[Auburn. And Kitty, I get that the heavy icon DW is Doc Wagon and the light icon LS is Lone Star. Give me the info on Call and AT. And since we'll be going into Auburn mark the areas that are corp controlled but where we have flying privileges blue; and areas we don't have permission to fly red. And calculate the center point of Auburn and mark it on my map, that's where we'll be most of the time unless a client needs us.]

He then accesses the info on each of his squad mates and adds their PAN's contact info to his commlink.

"[I can read you Ritsuko and Gregory. Brachial, Gatto; can you hear me? And yes, we're ready to go.]" With that he gently lifts up from the landing pad and immediately heads for wherever Kitty has designated as the center of Auburn; keeping the speed at 150 kph.

[Santanya]

Brachial

Brachial nods slightly. [I hear ya.] he says a second later. He smiles as the engines come to life and rotors start moving. "Today is going to be fun day I think," he says buckling his harness.

[McSherrie]

[I hear you. Tell Kitty I said hi. She's a good old cat-bird.]

Gatto, being content with what she sees, shifts back to "normal" vision. "I think they'll do, Brachial. Although this one glows an awful lot." She indicates Mig and gets a slightly predatory grin on her face.

[Oh yeah, pilot boy Frank, might want to stay close to the roof on this take-off. Get a feeling for Kitty and all that. Just a thought.]

[Lycar]

Ritsuko

"With DocWagon? No. First day." She gives the other gunner a half-grin. "With a firearm, yes."

Gregory regards Mig for a few more seconds, then asks "Any experience with being shot at ?"

Lycar

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

"Plenty, yes." She eyes the other tactical support member. "Why? Do you not trust in my ability to do the work I was hired to do?"

[Leshan]

Great, that's all I need; a backseat driver, Frank thinks to himself as they pull away from the DocWagon building. But she is right about one thing; he needs to get a feel for how Kitty handels.

[First: Gatto says hi. Second: Let's put you through your paces.]

With that Frank begins a few gentle banks, ascending, and descending. After a bit he takes a moment to look back at everyone and he says, "Let's see what she really has in her. Everyone ready for an interesting ride to Auburn?"

He then returns his gaze forward and prepares himself.

[You ready for some fun Kitty?]

[Santanya]

Brachial

[Whatever you say hotshot, so long as you remember this is a cargo helecoptor stocked and equipped for rescue, not some attack chopper.] He shakes his head and tightens his harness. Rookies always have to prove themselves. He grips the straps of his seat's harness and closes his eyes.

[dauphinous]

['Call' is the notation for an assigned client. 'AT' is the notation for all other air traffic. 'Heavy' indicates that you receive information about each contact of that type. 'Light' means it is displayed as just a blip. Lone Star vehicles are marked with black. DocWagon vehicles are marked with white. Map preferences updated. 'Gatto' is not a recognized name indicator.]

The two-pane map display Frank gets shows the current location in one pane, and a map of Auburn in the other. The center of Auburn is marked with a glowing green dot. There are several hundred blips on that map, maybe one-quarter of them black, and the rest yellow. Auburn is littered with little islands of red, but most of it is blue with uncolored lines between them that are probably roads. Lake Tapps is a completely blank area.

The divider behind Frank's back begins to show a 3-D image of a stereotypical blonde Swedish flight attendant, who produces a plastic cup from nowhere and pours a brown liquid into itfrom a coffeepot. She offers the cup to Frank, who cannot see her, because she is behind his back.

The copter door slides shut and it lifts off slowly.

[Whenever Maverick indicates he intends to have 'fun', I usually end up requiring repairs.]

As the copter passes the roof of the building that houses the garage, Frank can see a woman sitting on the roof with her hands in the air. She doesn’t look like she’s paying attention to the copter, but she flips the bird to the whirlybird and grins. At that moment, the copter begins to wobble a little bit and shoots sideways about 15 meters, away from the building.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Ritsuko

As the copter takes a sudden shift to the side, Ritsuko lets out a stream of curses in Japanese. [What in the name of all my Ancestors was that for?] she calls into the commlink.

[McSherrie]

"Everyone wave at Nina. She must be in a good mood tonight. The helicoptor is still right side up." Gatto leads the waves, even though she is no where near the window on that side of the 'coptor.

[Leshan]

"What the smeg was that?!" Frank exclaims as the helicopter is shoved to the side. He fails to notice the 3-D image behind him as he makes sure the chopper is fine.

[Kitty, any damage I should be aware of?]

"[Gatto, you seem to know what's going on. Who's Nina and why did she just try and crash us?]"

While he's waiting for a response he decides it's time to get out of dodge and make for Auburn. He sets a course straight from Doc Wagon to the center of Auburn that Kitty has marked for him.

OOC: Edited. I'd go back and edit previous posts with the new information (to me at least, maybe I'm just dense ) that we're still basically on the landing pad; but I think it'd make to much work for everyone else and will leave them as they are.