For those who suffer, and those who cry this night...(Ysabel - Secret Santa)

"Fuuuuucck."

LT looked down at his GPR (ground penetrating radar) and felt the cold seep into his trousers. He was knee deep in what he hoped was rain water about fifty feet from the surface manholes in downtown Nachton. His GPR was acting up again.

"Hang on a second," a voice chirped in his ear. "Lemme flash it again..."


"That's not going to work."

LT listened to Lewis, their COM Piper, work to fix the equipment used to map the underground sewer tunnels below the city. "Well it's better than you banging it against the tunnel walls."

Which it was, in fact, what LT was doing. He undid the straps that secured the GPR to his left forearm and knocked the equipment against the tunnel wall.


"Will you stop doing that!"

The bright blue display panel flickered and then died, leaving LT in the darkness. Lewis continued complaining about the abuse the equipment took from the Pipers out in the field when Charlie, his Sergeant, came on the line.

"You're 5 by 5, LT. Thirty meters east and you'll find another exit. Marko and Domingo are closer to you. They'll scoop you up."


"Thanks, Charlie." LT grinned as he wrapped up the GPR and tucked it into the compression pack located inside his field suit. Splashing through the water, LT easily navigated in the darkness to the exit manhole and climbed the ladder up into the street. With a slight push, he moved the three hundred pound manhole cover and peered out.

He was at the northern part of town in the older section of the city, where downtown began filtering into historic buildings, just on the edge of the commercial district. The streets were lined with bare trees casting shadows onto the street as the sun made its way behind the buildings. Pulling himself out, he replaced the cover and moved silently into the shadows between two of the historic buildings and stripped his field suit off. Underneath he wore his black diamond weave Therian weave with his boots. He turned the field suit inside out and stepped back into it. He wasn't concerned with the grime, but he at least looked clean enough to be on the streets without looking like a homeless person and attracting attention of the 'blue' variety.

Talking in a normal voice, he relayed his position back to Lewis.


"Yikes, they're stuck in traffic, LT. It'll be a few."

"That's fine. I'll start walking toward them."

"Aye, LT," Lewis said, signing off.

With a look around him, he stepped back onto the sidewalk and filtered into the throngs of people that always seemed to be milling around Nachton, despite the time of night.

Lothias LT Jameson 13 years ago
LT sat in front passenger seat feeling better overall by the time they dropped Ysabel off at her place uptown. The police and government officials had descended on the blacked out areas by the time they made it out with absolutely no word on the light or helicopter/aircraft they all had not quite seen or heard. Lewis monitored the police bands from the Den and reported nothing out of the norm; a brownout after a power surge on the grid.

"So what happened to the boy, LT?" His uncle asked as they drove back to the Den.

LT shrugged and kept looking out the front windshield
. "His ride picked him up."

His uncle was quiet for a moment before replying. "Seems kind of irresponsible that his parents would let him loose on the city."

LT scratched at the silver burns on his chest that he prayed would clear up before Carol saw them. "Someone was irresponsible, yeah."

"And the young lady?"

"She was a vampire," LT said plainly. He had no plans on telling the other Pipers and he looked at his uncle, his eyes bright and clear. "I won't swear to that, though."

His uncle nodded, quiet in his thoughts for a few moments more before he sniffed loudly. "You stink."

"Yeah," LT said with a smile. "I know."



(OOC - Pipers, Ysabel, Brig, and LT out))

Merry Christmas y'all!