<div class="floatleft">(https://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/1/6/7/116752_artist.jpg?3743)</div><strong>Who</strong>: Leng<br/><strong>Where</strong>: Flueka / City , not far from the bus lines<br/><strong>Why</strong>: Jack, Open<br/><strong>What</strong>: Getting out of the city<br/><strong>Warnings</strong>: Everyone carries their weight<br/><br/>--<br/><br/>Today was resupply day.  Her three calves were still at home, cheerfully stuffing their heads into rapidly shrinking bales of grass.  They were growing nicely, but the oldest of the three was still about a year away from puberty.  Not the kind of starting-over she'd expected to do at this point in her life, but it was something to hold onto.  Something to nurture, to ground herself with.  And something to protect, she thought, as she started stowing laser rifles in her armored vehicle.  It was just habit, at this point.<br/><br/>The old bird she drove was a combination off-road wheel / hover model, with a two seater cab bolstered with riveted steel plates, and a flat-bed topped with welded metal pipes turned into an armored cage.  The extra weight put a bit of strain on the hover engine, but thanks to a little bit of creative component placement, it was still a reliable piece of work.  She ran her hands over the numerous dents and chips in the metal, wistful.  This vehicle had seen a lot of rough housing.  Bullet holes, laser burns, scrapes from angry bulls, and smashed bits of hull from all sorts of other things.  Each wound with a history.  She shook her head, half smiling as she loaded the last of what she intended to barter for trade.  Giving Wynette's head a parting scruff, she moved out to her vehicle, turned her security on, jammed the foot pedal and brought the old bird to life.  She felt it rattling just a little as it pulled off the ground, and was grateful when it lifted without incident.<br/><br/>Even terrain wasn't a problem for the machine, thankfully.  The odd slope or dune was also something she could handle without having to put the wheels to the ground.  Leng made good time, moving across the plains and leaving a soft trail of dust forming just behind her.  There was a mental list of things she needed.  Hay, of course.  Those calves would eat their own weight at least a dozen more times before they were worth any money to her.  Her own needs, sadly, would follow after that.  Then was the fuel situation to consider.  Honestly, the way the old bird was rattling on start-up meant she needed to put a new alternator on order, which was always a fun expense.  A few other odds and ends, at least in the shopping portion.<br/><br/>Then there was the fun part.  She liked this town, truly.  The whole place was like a nest of two-bit villains at market.  Lawless scalliwags, swapping scrap, booze, and war stories.  Just the sort of off the reservation hub she enjoyed.  With her primary business recovering, she needed to poke in on a few contacts and get some income going.  It would be more profitable, really, to just live in the city.  Also more fun, she thought, as she went over the kinds of trouble she could get into for a laugh this afternoon.  But then again, her old ways died hard.  She wasn't the kind of person to shit where she ate, and living among a bunch of dirty smugglers and thieves was a damn sight different than visiting.<br/><br/>She was about two hours into her errands, by this point.  Her caged-in flat bed was loaded with hay and metal parts, while the back of the cab had some fuel, food and fresh water.  She had just eaten a savory roast with gravy and potatoes.  And she was now gabbing with Dex, one of the shady types who knew the kind of work she liked doing and always had plenty of it.  She didn't trust him farther than she could throw him, but considering he was a wirey sort with a peach-fuzz hair style and a nose ring, he would throw pretty far.  They were just pouring over a map and hashing out defenses when it happened.<br/><br/>Almost all at once, the city was in a panic.  Automated turrets were rising, firing, and failing.  Drones and weapons were dropping to the surface, and the whole town was erupting into screams.  Leng let loose a curse that even made Dex give her a second glance, before she grabbed the map and snarled at him.  "Get your shit, and follow me out." she hissed.  Dex wasn't exactly the helpless type.  Which was honestly part of the reason she needed him.<br/><br/>While he ducked into his shop and grabbed whatever he needed, Leng stormed into the street, she looked around for the other half of her team.  She found them almost instantly.  A father in panic, and his family behind him.  Stepping faster, she grabbed the man and pinned him to a wall.  There wasn't time to do this any nicer.  The fact that he was immediately willing to fight her only made her more sure.  "Can you shoot?" she barked.  The man nodded, pushing her hands away and forming a protest.  Instead of listening, she took charge, pointing to her vehicle.  "You're riding shotgun.  Mom, you're in the back.  Pass out guns to anyone that can use one.  Push out the bales as they start burning."<br/><br/>"Why the hell should we.." started the father.  Leng shot him down with a look.  A nasty glare for him as she walked, but then a quick glance towards his children.  One being an infant.  She turned kept walking.  He didn't need more than that.  Her foot was already on the pedal and revving the old bird to life before mom had put the kids in the back.  Through the window of the cab, Leng passed back a pair of laser rifles.<br/><br/>"T-they can't shoot these!" the mother shrieked.  "My d-daughter's only six!"<br/><br/>"You wanna live, right?" Leng shouted over the rattle of the vehicle.  "Everyone carries their weight, then.  And so do you."  It wasn't an ideal team, but a furious father riding shot gun and two eyes in the back?  It was a better chance to save to a family than grabbing some docile group.  Dex's car came up behind them, and they were off.<br/><br/>Dex shouted ahead, righting pointing out that the panic was going to make traffic into a nightmare.  Never mind that the attackers had probably bottle-necked the primary roads out of the city.  "That's why we're going off road!" she shouted back, smacking the man in the cab with her and pointing to a drone.  He fired and brought it down, giving her the angriest look she'd seen from anyone in a few years as he reloaded.  She sneered, counting herself lucky.  Nothing was worse than a liar claiming to be a good shot.<br/><br/>She heard a squeal behind her as the six year-old girl took a wild shot at one of the passing drones, and cursed.  "You really never taught her to shoot?"  she growled at the father.  He shouted back that she was only six, and Leng began arguing with him about the proper age to teach a child about firearms.  She never mentioned the whole 'we might not get out of this,' though.  She was keeping him mad, occasionally pointing out the window and letting him sink another target.  Better angry than afraid.  "Tell your daughter to choke up on the barrel and not waste ammo!" Leng shouted, as she whirled past a crowd of people running from some drones.<br/><br/>She took a moment to let the vehicle float, letting the father and the daughter open fire on the drones.  Dex got in on it, too, although he was more interested in saving himself than in letting a crowd of innocents get away scott free.  Leng reached behind her and grabbed her own rifle, despairing a little.  She had brought four guns, three of which were in use.  But she hadn't brought nearly enough ammo to fire them all like this.  And while that brat back there was actually hitting one or two of the drones, she was wasting more ammunition than they could afford.  Thinking quickly, she saw a mountain range not far away.<br/><br/>...how the hell did..?<br/><br/>Whatever, she must have missed it.  ..maybe?  She didn't have time to worry about it now.  Shouting back to Dex, she pointed towards the range.  "There.  We'll take the tracks to the edge of town, and off road the rest of the way."  She gave a glace to the running families, feeling some old wounds burning in her chest.  They'd taken time they didn't have, shot ammo they desperately needed, and taken a risk they definitely didn't need to take.  All to give a mob of panicked strangers just a few more minutes to flee.  It would have to do.  With a rev of the engine, the vehicle was back in motion and hauling ass.<br/><br/>"Tell your daughter to save her shots," Leng said.  She didn't get a chance to elaborate, as sparks few from the side of the cab right next to her window.  She veered a little, picking up her own gun and firing as she drove.  She let out that curse again, and the father blinked at her before shouting back to conserve ammo.  Leng was getting pissed.  Daddy was a good shot, but he was just one gun.  Dex was good cover, but he was watching his own ass.  And the three in the back were almost useless.  She needed more.<br/><br/>Moving quickly along the tracks, she spotted some wreckage ahead.  She was forced to veer back onto the main roads for a moment.  Smelling smoke, she looked back into the flat-bed, she saw that some of the bales were already starting to burn.  The mother was a shrinking violet, too cowardly to even kick the hay off the back of the truck.  Leng would have loved to stop, go back there, and shake her.  Or at least to yell back that the woman should do what she was freaking told before she burned alive.  But she didn't have time.  Swinging open the door, of her cart, she fired twice at the ground ahead of her.  There were screams from the crowd, but they moved.  At least a little.  The whole.. being on fire thing also helped.<br/><br/>She looked around her, ignoring protests from pretty much everyone involved.  She needed an asshole.  Someone cut from her cloth, who could cover this getaway from the back.  Suppressing her own desire to panic, she looked around and saw what she was looking for.  A man in full sprint, wearing a duster-coat and hungrily eyeing a group of chained up bicycles ahead of him.  She heard a curse from Dex in the car behind her, and saw the father riding shotgun climbing half onto the roof to shoot back at some encroaching drones.<br/><br/>Riding up along-side of the man, she must have been a sight.  A battered, armored half-hover craft.  A panicking six-year old clutching a gun in the back.  A mother, watching hay slowly catch fire all around her from a caged-in flat-bed.  A civilian hanging out of the passenger door, firing behind him.  A skeevy looking man in a dune-buggy, flinging curses and laser bolts.  And a sharp featured, angry woman in piece-mail armor, gritting her teeth in the driver's seat.<br/><br/>"Can you shoot?" she barked.