Chapter 17 — The surprises.

At some point during the night Sandra lowered her head and laid it on Nibs' chest and they both fell into a restful sleep.
She was the first to wake and looked at her PDU and saw it was only 07.30BN, both her and Sandra must have got only a few hours sleep but it felt like a full nights worth. The sun was streaming through the window, she looked down and saw her partners head resting on her breasts, and just lying there with her life partner she realised she had found who she was at last. She lifted Sandra's head off her chest and moved a pillow so it was under her head and lowered it back and slowly slid out of the bed and quietly walked across the wooden floor. She picked up a dressing gown from the back of one of the two chairs, exited the bedroom and walked through the corridor to the living room. When she walked into the in the living room she saw both Tina and Abs lying arm in arm on the cushions. She crossed the living room to the kitchen and made herself a cup of chai and walked back across the living room towards the veranda. As she crossed back towards the veranda she spotted her tin and patar laying in the same place as she had left it the previous night. She slid the door back and walked into the fresh clean air. She then walked to sit on one of the garden chairs and placed her cup of chai on the table and just looked out across the tree tops. It was a beautiful sight, Darla's family had found a most beautiful place to build there retreat. The sun was warm and pleasant and she was at peace with herself whilst she sat there absorbing the sun's rays.
After a while, which she didn't care how long it was, the door to the house slid silently open and Sandra quietly walked out and kissed her on the cheek. She moved her head and kissed Sandra back.
"Thought you were out here. I distinctly remembering going to sleep on your breasts last night and then waking to find a pillow under my head." she shook her head at her all the time smiling.
"The sun woke me hun and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up and just sat here and relaxed."
"Where's your tin?" Sandra asked as she walked around the table and placed her cute bum in one of the other chairs.
"In the living room where I left it last night."
"Oh good as long as it not lost."
The next thing the two knew was Darla coming out blearyed eyed carrying Nibs’ tin. "Who's tin?"
"Mine Darla. I knew where it was and that it was not going to be nicked."
"True, but never let it out of your sight."
"Ok. Mistress," she responded with a hint of mirth in her voice.
"Watch it you. Just cause Angel and Damieel are my slaves don't mean I can't have another one in my stable," responded Darla to the comment. "Anyway, what’s the time?" asked Darla.
"Don't know, don't care," responded Sandra.
"When everyone is awake and up, I'll show all of you the reason why I asked you here. It’s in the basement."
"Oh sounds interesting," she responded.
"Oh I think you all will find it good and interesting."
Soon after Darla had walked out Damieel walked out carrying a tray with 3 steaming cups of coffee, a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar, "Breakfast is on its way mistress."
"Thank you Damieel," replied Darla.
Damieel placed the tray on table and placed a cup in front of each of the three seated at the table and then placed the milk and sugar in the middle and then she returned to the house.
After about 10 minutes both Angel and Damieel appeared in the door way leading from the veranda both carrying trays with steaming plates piled high with a cooked breakfast. They placed the plates in front of the each person seated. Then Angel asked Darla, "May we join you mistress?"
"Of course you may girls, grab a seat and enjoy yourselves. You both know you ain't cooking tonight, don't you?"
"No we didn't mistress. Do you not like our cooking?" Angel said with a sad face appearing on both of the girls.
"No. Don't you two fret. I'm cooking tonight and just for once no help in the kitchen other than maybe a bit of washing up after dinner. I am intending to do most of the prep washing up before we eat, to give you both you, Angel," Darla said looking at Angel. "And you Damieel." Darla turn her gaze to Damieel. "A break. I am not the only one on holiday here, you two are as well."
"Thank you mistress," both Angel and Damieel said simultaneously.
"And another thing, drop the mistress, yes you two may have once been my slaves, but now I think you two are more than that to me and if I’m not mistaken to everyone else as well," she said whilst smiling at both Sandra and Nibs.
"I think so," she responded.
"And so do I," responded Sandra and Paul as he walked out of the house carrying a glass of orange juice.
"May I assist you in preparing dinner this evening Darla?" she asked
"Thank you Nibs. It would be a pleasure to have you assist me."
About twenty minutes later both Tina and Abs stuck there heads out of the house and looked as if they where still half asleep. "We are planning on going for a walk before breakfast. Any of you want to join us."
"I'll join you," replied Sandra, "I need a walk to settle the large breakfast I've just finished."
Both Angel and Damieel went to stand, but before they could Darla said, "No you two stay put. You don't mind preparing breakfast when you get back do you Tina, Abs."
"No, it’s no problem." they both replied.
Abs, Tina and Sandra disappeared leaving Nibs, Darla, Paul who moved from standing just behind his sister to the chair she had vacated, Angel and Damieel sitting in the warn morning sun.
A short time later Gary appeared and joined the group on the veranda. “Where are the girls? No offence Nibs,” asked Gary.
“Out having a walk around the local area,” replied Darla.
“Arh, ok,” said Gary.
“Has anyone thought about adding another new member to the Vixens?” asked Paul.
“No,” replied Darla.
“Who did you have in mind Paul?” asked Gary.
“Amy, from over the road to Homebase,” responded Paul.
After a few minutes of thought, Nibs said, “I’ve chatted to her, on a one to one a couple of days ago, I think she’s sound, but remember Paul, she’s not from the world of gangs, gang violence, guns, and such?”
“I know, but we had similar apprehensions when Sandra brought up asking you to join us,” Paul said, “to which Gary, if I remember right, came up with similar arguments against asking you.”
“I did, and I am very happy that I was wrong,” said Gary
She took a sip from her cup of coffee, which was getting a bit cold, so she got up and ask, “Anyone for more coffee?”
“Yeah me,” said Gary.
“And me,” said Paul after looking in his cup.
She disappeared and after pouring out the last of the coffee from the percolator and refilling it, she returned to the group.
“I think it would be a good idea,” said Darla. “I will probably not be around in a couple of years, and all of you lot are 17, 18 year olds, even Angel and Damieel are only 20.”
“Now that’s true Darla, and it will be a sad day when you retire from active combat,” said Paul. “You have been an excellent guide on the way the Vixens have grown.”
“And soon it will be time for the students to become the teachers,” responded Darla, “and I think the best teacher is sat at this table right now.” Darla was looking at her which she picked up on.
‘What does she know,’ she thought. ‘Does she know things I don’t about me.’

*****

The three girls went out and turned towards the mountains and walked through the forest on a path. The forest surrounding the path was not as thick as the main forest and let quite a lot of light through the tree canopy. This did mean that the ground was littered with brambles, ferns, and other forest ground plants, Sandra who was leading the girls, stopped after a while and pointed ahead at the path, on it was a couple of small rabbits which had stopped and were looking around then suddenly they disappeared into the undergrowth. All three of the girls smiled and continued walking along the path, which continued up a slight incline, until the path exited the forest into an open area on the edge of the cliff as it turned from going North East to going in a more northerly direction.
The three of them just stopped, stood and looked out from the viewpoint. The viewpoint over looked the Low Back Mountains which where covered for about half their height in forest, and the tops of some of the higher mountains where snow capped.
"You know something. This is a beautiful place Darla has here," said Tina as the girls stood and looked out over the view point.
Set back a little way was a trunk of a tree lying on the ground facing the viewpoint just in front was an area that was blackened and the area had some stones surrounding it, indicating that the area was used as a fire pit.
"I must bring Nibs here before we go, she is going to love it," Sandra said as her face was one of great happiness.
Abs and Tina walked up to the log and sat down, Abs continued the thought that was going through all the girls’ minds, "I wish Darla had told us about it sooner. As I think it would have become our retreat from the hectic life we all lead in the city."
"Yeah I know it would have been nice to know, but we know now and that’s what is important," continued Tina.
"Very true it is," finished Abs.
After sitting at the view point for the time it took to smoke a pipe. The girls continued their walk and returned after 30 minutes to the house. When the girls returned to the house they found the rest of the guys where up and both Nibs and Darla where in the kitchen cooking a good hearty breakfast for the guys.

*****

As Abs and Tina walked up the steps to the kitchen, they both asked, “Is there anything we can do?”
The kitchen was modern with an old world appearance using natural wood for the tops and all the doors to the cupboards done in a similar way as was the rest of the house a dark varnished pine on all four sides where long working surfaces with the stairs up located in the south east corner near the main front door. The cupboards where located both under and over the working tops and where filled with general supplies and food. Along the north west wall was an open fire place where a small fire was burning under a large blackened pot and inside it was water which was steaming. Next to the fire was a six ring hob, and under the hob was a full oven. The only major piece of kitchen equipment missing was a microwave. Under the main window was a double sink and extending from both sides where draining surfaces. To the right of the sinks where a couple of open front cupboards with plates and cups stacked neatly. Above the plate cupboard was a rack that contained knives, forks, spoons and other kitchen equipment utensils.
“Not at the moment,” said Darla who was standing over the cooker.
Nibs turned and lent over the bench and said to Sandra, “Did you enjoy your walk hun?”
Abs and Tina both turned and followed Sandra who had replied to her question by saying, “Yes I did,” and she was wearing the smile she loved. Sandra walked out to the veranda where everyone looked happy and most were sitting eating breakfast or drinking.
Very soon afterwards both Darla and her walked out onto the veranda carrying another cup of coffee. Darla was carrying a tray with two plates, piled high with a cooked breakfast of a couple of sausages, egg, a couple of rashers of bacon, beans, and fried tomatoes. Darla put the two plates in front on Tina and Abs.
When breakfast was finished, it was around 11ish, both Tina and Abs volunteered to do the washing up and cleared away all the plates and cups. A short while later whilst the Tina and Abs were completing the washing up the rest of the guys wandered in from the veranda and sat in the living room still chatting about gangs, world and general stuff. When Tina and Abs had joined them in the living room.
Darla stood up, and said, "Now is the time for you all to see the reason why I invited you here this weekend," she paused and then continued, "Would you all please follow me."
She lead them to the door to the basement, she inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The lock unlocked with a clunk and she pulled the door open and like they did on the first time Darla had seen the passageway the lights that ran down the ceiling switched themselves on and illumined the down slope passageway. The passageway was fifteen foot across and about fifty foot long and as everyone in hushed silence followed Darla down the passage way she walked in to a room which lighted in a similar way as the passage was a large room about 180 to 190 feet long by about 150 feet on the north south axis, the south wall had eight high windows that let in a good amount of light.
The sight everyone saw was an armoury full of weapons, technology, equipment, armour, and other things Street Ghosts wanted to keep them alive. Almost everyone headed off for the weapons aisles, but Nibs headed for the equipment shelves. As she walked the length of the shelves, she looked and saw equipment she could only dream of. She remembered hearing rumours of Academy Tech being state of the art equipment in all areas of Street Ghost work. She looked on in wonderment as she passed a Beta grade Level 3 targeting and information rig.
Darla walked over to her and said, “You’re in heaven I can see.”
This comment from someone brought her out of the trance, “Was. I was in heaven. Now I am back in reality. Now I want to know what the armour at the back of the room is.” She headed off in the direction of the armour. Darla was as intrigued as it looked like street armour most of the cops wore when in tactical alerts.
When she arrived at where the armour was stored, like everything else it was labelled ‘Black Light Street Assault Armour’, “Fuck me, black light!”
“What is black light?” asked Darla.
“The rumours on BlackNet concerning what Black Light is, is it’s a coating that allows the wearer to literatly disappear from all artificial methods of viewing, including thermoptic.,” she replied.
“Fuck me. Where’s the letter I got when I was told about my inheritance,” said Darla, and she started to check her pockets. “I remember where it is now,” and she disappeared up the corridor leading to the living room.
Sandra wandered over carrying what looked like an MA240. “What’s that hun, an MA240?” she asked.
“No, MA260 Pulse rifle with under slung 30mm grenade launcher. Pump Action with 4 grenades.”
“Giv’me,” she said.
“Yeah no problem, there’s another 5 on the assault weapon racks. What’s the armour?” asked Sandra.
“It says black light, but I always thought black light was still in the very early R&D stages,” she responded.
Darla returned carrying the letter. “Hi Sandra,” said Darla. “Do you want me to read it, it’s in my dad’s handwriting?”
“Please,” she responded.
Darla started to read the letter, only when she came to the section on Academy Battle store, did she stop her, “Academy Battle Store?”
“Yeah, that’s what it says here,” responded Darla.
“Then that would explain a lot of the Academy technology on the shelves and would probably mean we have 25 what look like complete suits of Black Light armour.”
“What the hell is black light armour?” asked Sandra getting slightly annoyed.
“From the rumours on the Black Net Tech Forums, you literaty disappear under artifical vision means including both thermo, only the naked eye could spot you in black light. As it is a full suit of armour camouflage rules do apply.”
Sandra smiled at this. “Oh yes, the guys where heading up to the veranda, for a firing line, do you wish to join us,”
“Hell yeah,” both Darla and she said.
“I have one question, what is a pulse rifle?” asked Sandra.
“A pulse rifle it’s another sort of assault rifle except it works with electrical current rather than a firing pin. When you depress the trigger it causes an electrical signal to come into contact with the binary ammo the 260 normally uses, but like the 240 it’s a multi-weapon, it has the adaptation to take, normal rounds, and also has barrels and block assemblages for ISW, Sniper, Assault rifle and carbine variants.”
“Bloody hell, so how does it work?”
“The way you pull the trigger, the speed, hardness determine how many bullets fire, the selector on the side, has three settings, off, pulse, and full auto modes.
Sandra led them to the weapon shelves, Nibs picked up an Echo MA260 and two magazines. Darla grabbed The Academy ISW and a box of ammo for it, and followed Sandra up the corridor and out towards the veranda.
Stood on the Veranda was the rest of the guys including, Angel and Damieel.
Gary said, “Would the mistress of the house mind being firing line officer?”
As Darla took up her position the rest of the guys fell into the line. Each member carrying a different weapon, Abs was carrying an Echo 27 .55Cal Assault Sniper Rifle, Tina was carrying a modified Coltanar 85 Squad Assault Weapon, Gary was holding a Zonal Firearms DX-2 Assault shotgun, Paul was readying an BT Military Weapons and ammo M40 pulse rifle, Damieel was carrying an HK23 Assault Carbine and Angel was using a Echo Assault Weapons Close assault shotgun.
“Certainly. Why thank you Gary,” Darla responded, and then shouted, "Team, Weapons ready." She then paused slightly as everyone ready the weapons, "At the open sky in front take aim," another pause. The last command she issued was, "Firing line, ROCK AND ROOOOLLLLL." On this command the entire line just pulled the triggers and the combined sound was deafening but the smiles said it all. After a few seconds of firing the line stopped and everyone just laughed out loud.
As everyone quietened down after laughing, Nibs lifted the 260 to her hips, her thumb selected the full auto-mode, she then pulled the trigger plate and a few seconds later the 260 magazine was empty. Sandra who was stood next to Nibs, lifted her 260 and pulsed fired until the 100 rounds the 260 carried for each barrel was empty.
Angel was looking out into the area of space her shotgun was firing into, Nibs looked at her and Angel looked like a devil. Angel was muttering something under her breath, she caught a bit of it, “So Chit-tar negotiate with the worst evil,” then the laughter of Gary as he emptied his shotgun.
Tina down the end of the line hadn’t released the trigger on her Coltanar since the order to open fire was given. The end of the barrel was glowing a dull orange as the two hundred round box magazine was exhausted and it stopped firing. Tina shouted at the top of her lungs, “MY FRIENDS WE ARE GODS IN THE WORLD OF GANGS.
“LET ALL WHO FACE US FACE US FEAR US,” shouted Abs as she fired the last round in her twenty round magazine.
“LET THE CORPORATE WORLD FEAR US,” Nibs said.
“AS WE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,” said Darla to finish.
When everyone had calmed down after the high, she said with an evil glint in her eyes and a devil’s smile on her lips, “With this tech I say let’s put it to use. What type of workshop is it in the garage, Darla?” she asked
“I think it’s a general, but it has all the necessary gear for a basic electronics and micro electronics lab I think.”
The guys then walked in to the main house and sat on the seating.
“At last someone with a microelectronics lab,” she said when everyone had sat down.
“Why hun?” asked Sandra.
“I’ve been wanting to modify the communication system, to use all the channels, rather than just one.”
“You talking about the radios?” asked Tina.
“Yeah, I’m talking about improving them,” she responded.
“How?” asked Tina.
“The garage has an electronic and Darla thinks a micro electronics workshop.”
“Hell yeah,” said Tina said and moved closer to her to discuss the options for modifying the Communication System.
“If it is a micro electronics then I can add chips to the circuit board to allow voice activation and control,” she said.
“How, you need to be able to write ROM chips for that,” said Tina.
“I know you do, my tablet has a program that from what I can see does exactly that, and included was the software for exactly what we need a complete voice control system for communicator, down to person to person scrambled voice and data.”
“Oh, nice. Yeah exactly what we need, I also saw micro cameras that transmit live images back to a central control centre and at least four stationary communication systems, with secure scrambled digital and I think one had laser comm. options as well,” said Tina who smiled.
She noticed that she had a glazed expression about her eyes.
Angel and Damieel stood up and asked everyone, “Drinks?”
Most of the group nodded, ‘yes’ answers.
“I would love to know where Darla and her family got this stuff from,” said Tina.
“It’s an Academy battle store,” she responded.
“You say that like I should know what it means, remember you’ve been ghosting for a lot longer than I have.”
“True, ok. The talk on the forum boards is that the Academy is a training, research and design centre for the Street Ghost world, it trains elite ghosts. It also researches technology for the Street Ghost world to use to stay alive and to complete their missions. Some reports say that Echo Technologies set the academy over 60 years ago to counter the growing threat of Sec Com. a similar style of place but it trains people to work in the field of corporate security and similar. Sec Com relay on state of the art cybernetics and brainwashing, Academy people rely on technology and the intuitiveness of the humans.
“Have you looked in the equipment shelves, a lot of it is Academy technology. Most of the weapons look Echo Tech or Sister Company related.”

*****

In other conversations. Sandra said to Paul, “All this technology and no way of getting it back to the city or Homebase?”
“Yes they is,” said Darla, “I’ll get my family’s lawyer to purchase a couple of vans and we then go and pick them up from the city, and gather up the stuff we need from the city and bring it here and build our selves some combat vans,”
“Yeah, we could, but it would mean a lot of hard work for us, especially me as I am the only person here who can weld,” said Abs.
“Yeah true, but I wasn’t thinking of keeping it to ourselves, Misty and her crew should be allowed to use the gear as well, they are as much a part of this raid on Narizzan as we are,” said Darla, “and I know Misty can weld, and I think probably one more person could do it as well.”
Angel and Damieel stood and asked, “Drinks?”
Most of the group sat with them nodded their heads. Paul said, “Yeah thanks.”
“Ok, and did I hear you right you have a complete workshop and garage here as well,” said Abs.
“Yeah, it’s a good ten foot clearance and there is a large canopy box under the kitchen windows that extends out in front of the doors.”
“And the angle and extend of the eves help a lot in keeping the rain off workers. Side walls?”
“Don’t know,” responded Darla.
Nibs and Tina both got up and said to Darla, “Is the garage open?”
“I think so. I’ve not checked it,”
“Thanks,” they both said and disappeared towards the front door.
Abs moved to follow the two saying as she went, “I think I’ll join you two, hang on.”

Nibs, Abs and Tina headed out of the front door and tried the Garage doors, which opened, revealing a large expanse of work space the layout followed the rough layout of the kitchen and living room, with the area under the living room down a few steps as the floor was a good four feet lower than outside ground surface. Abs looked in and saw a mechanics heaven, all the tools she would need to customize bikes and other vehicles to specific specifications.
She saw that and what was beyond, down eight steps was the rest of the workshop, top end computers across the board, two digital projectors one facing the east and the other facing the north wall, around the edges and beneath the window, that almost ran the length of the south wall, was high tech analytical and scientific equipment, microchip creation equipment, peel and reseal equipment for making and modifying printed circuit boards, an Scanning Electron Microscope and numerous other pieces of scientific equipment. The three long science room style desks in the middle sat on glass screened cupboards containing beakers, flasks, and other equipment and supplies for chemistry and related physical sciences.
“I’m in heaven,” said Tina, “I never thought I would be able to have access to this type of scientific equipment.”
“What?” she said.
“During my years at school north of the river, I found that I really excelled at chemistry, and biology. I had the distinction of being the youngest pupil to have complete 100% access to the science labs, after school, by year 8. Give me a chemical formula and I’ll be able to work out how to make it safely,” said Tina in reply.
On the east wall at the corner nearest the windows was a door, she opened it and wandered up the passageway as it went up, it levelled out at about where she thought the living room floor was. She operated the door handle and the door opened inwards and was located next to the door leading to the basement.
“What the hell, where did you come from hun,” Sandra said when she had walked through a door that hadn’t been there 10 seconds before.
“The garage and workshops, we have a complete science, electronics, microelectronics and a complete mechanic’s workshops, and all the technology is top of the range stuff if not some experimental as well.”
“Hell, oh man. We where just talking about how can this equipment be used to help us in our ghost and gang operations,” said Gary.
“I would say we need some specialist large van sized transport or transports, the gear and supplies to modify said vehicles, and the man power to actually complete the work,” she said.
The twins walked back from the kitchen carrying a couple of trays on which was cups containing each member favourite drinks.
“Right I think Nibs has just answered the question,” responded Gary.
“What types of van you thinking about Nibs?” asked Darla.
“Three maybe four non descript long wheel base high topped transit style vans really, nothing that fancy,” Nibs said.
“Ok assuming we can get them how do we get them here and remember I’ve got the first playoff game on the Savraday and we did say we would help at that festival from the Moroth,”
“The vans won’t be to hard to get as I saw a second hand car place in town selling what we wanted or we can buy then in the city for cheaper but then getting them here is hard,” said Paul.
“No it ain’t I’m about to ring Misty and her group and invite them here, I think we should start to work out the raid proper and not just sit around chatting about it,” said Darla.
She picked up her cup and took a mouthful of the Spiced Chai Latte and smiled at the Twins who just smile back happy as every it seemed.
“And I’ve got to go back anyway, I need my tablet, it’s got a program I need here to upgrade our communication system,” she said, “So get the vans I’ll head back to the city tomorrow morning with a list of things we need to get, and meet Misty and her group and then convoy back with the vans.”
Both Abs and Tina appeared in from the concealed door, and came over and sat down and started to design the combat vans with everyone else.
By the end of the evening three vans had been designed and a list of the things had been gotten ready. Gary had left for the practice at about 4ish and would drive one of the vans back tomorrow. Darla had rung her lawyer who had gone out that afternoon and purchased three vans. He then had them all moved by the dealers to a specific car park to await collection in the morning. He also ordered the rest of the materials that would be used to construct the vans. It was all due to be collected from the various fabricators.
Nibs said her good nights at about 11ish as she was feeling tired and would be doing a lot of driving the next day.

*****

Chapter 18 — The Vans and Tech.

The next morning at about 7ish, Nibs’ PDU alarm went off, which woke her. She lent over and took the blunt she made the previous night, which was laying in the ashtray on the bed side table and lit it. She took a couple of takes from it, then got up and headed to the bathroom to wash, shave and do a basic makeup job, as she really don’t need much on. As for most of the day she was going to be either driving from metal fabricator to metal fabricator, or electronics shop to electronics shop.
About 07.30ish she walked back to her bedroom and put on her leather trousers and a t-shirt style top. She then headed for the basement where she went straight to were the black light armour was and took one of the cases, she opened it and checked the contents, which included one outer garment and all 93 ceramic plates. She then headed for the kitchen where she grabbed some bread and put it into the toaster and whilst it toasted she was waiting for the kettle to boil so she could get an instant coffee rather than messing around with the peculator. ‘Sandra must have had a good night as I didn’t hear her come to bed after I went to sleep,’ she thought.
She typed a quick text message, giving her ETAs at places, to Misty and sent it. About five minutes later a reply was received from Misty, saying she had received it and would meet Nibs at her second stop which was where the vans were parked.
Nibs left the house at about 7.45BN and headed for Forest Scope to refuel before heading towards Suraban.

*****

By about 09.15BN she had arrived at Homebase. She walked up the steps of the house and opened the front door, she saw a couple of items on the floor, one was the electric bill, which Nibs put on the side for dealing with when they got back. The other letter had a handwritten envelope and was addressed to the Bitch Vixens, Gangrel unit, and then the address of Homebase. She slipped it into the pocket on the side of the Rucksack she grabbed from her room she then switched off the laptop and tablet. When they had finished switching them selves off she slid them into their protective bags and then into the rucksack, she also grabbed a couple of the DD disks to back some things up to. She also dug out of her other rucksack her Digital Memory Player, where she kept 120hours of her favorite music tracks and 40hours of her favorite music videos. When she had gathered all the things she needed she unclipped the box from the passenger’s seat and took it inside the house. She removed her clothes and wiggled into the black light outer garment and then by a process of elimination, and the fact the plates just didn’t slide into any other slot. She inserted the correct ceramic plate into each pocket. Each time she closed the top of the pocket it seamed to melt into the armour material itself. When she had finished the time was 09.40BN she had to leave then or else she may miss the guy with the keys. When she got up and put her trousers, top and jacket back on it felt as it she wasn’t wearing an under layer.
Her next stop was the car-park near Misty’s where the lawyer said he would meet her. He was going to be there at 10ish. It was almost 09.40BN which gave her about 20 minutes to get there. She thought CW9, then off at junction 15, it was an easier route, bar any police holdups, otherwise it was off at 17.
As she was driving herself to the car park she realized what she had been feeling the plates must be nano technology bloody advanced nano technology. Nibs knew, ‘Nano technology is still in its infantice. It meant that all the rumour she had heard about the academy being 25 to 30years more advanced than the rest of the planet, was probably true.’

*****

When she arrived at the car park it was 09.58BN she saw Misty and the girls waiting a little distance away from where the three vans were parked. When she arrived she saw the lawyer standing beside the blue transit and slowly drove towards him. As she approached, the gent stood up and walked towards her. She stopped and climbed off, undoing her jacket so he could see her pistol and then made sure her hands where obvious to him.
When the gent was close enough he asked, “Nibola Calton?”
“Yes that’s me,” she responded.
“Can you tell me were Ms Darla Graham is please?” he asked
“She is currently staying at her late family’s forest retreat in the Low Back Foothills,” she replied.
“Thank you, and may I say you know the Street Ghost world I respect your actions this day, here are the keys for the three vans, I shall leave you to them and hope that my company is able to conduct business for you at some time in the future.” He said and handed over three sets of keys and a business card, which read, Grayson Lawyers Ltd.
He then just walked off in the direction of a car which was stood beside the exit, she then took out her PDU and rang Misty on it, saying when it connected, “Hi, its Nibs, I have the keys.” She then disconnected the phone and waited for the group to arrive.
A couple of minutes later three bikes were heard approaching from the other end of the car-park. When the bikes had arrived all five girls got off and wandered towards her.
Grezt asked her, “Where’s Gary?”
“Don’t know this is the only timed appointment we have today.”
After about fifteen minutes Gary turned up. When he had climbed off he said, “Hi, sorry for being late the traffic over the West Docks Arch Bridge was at a stand still.”
“Ok let’s get moving then, I’ve got everything we need from home base in the rucksack and case.” Nibs handed out the three sets of keys to Gary, Bee and Rachel, everyone helped load Gary’s bike into the back of the blue van. When it was in and secured. Misty, Grezt, Angelique and her led the three vans down the 6 floors to the ground floor. The first stop for the group was one of the two steel fabricators.

*****

The pickup from both the steel fabricators went like clockwork. Each one had all the things that had been asked for, the steel plates, round bar, the square bar, and the materials and supplies for the Oxy torch and welder ready to be loaded into the back of the vans. The electronics shops were also very helpful, both of them had prepared the orders before they had even turned up and the one of the shop staff even helped Gary and Nibs load the purchases into the van.
The next stop was to drop off Gary’s bike at home as later on in the week getting the vans back from Darla’s would be a problem if Gary had his bike up there as well. Nibs had already agreed to lend Gary her bike for the match on Savraday.

*****

Gary and her met up with the rest of the group at the truck stop where everyone filled their fuel tanks, and headed off in the direction of the Low Back mountains.
Gary said over the communication system, “If you girls want to get on and speed up, I don’t think Grezt or Bee really mind, do you?”
“No,” both of them replied.
“Ok,” thanks Gary, and four bikes accelerated away from the vans, Gary continued when the bikes had gone, “It will take a couple of hours at this speed, but who cares.” He lent over and dug his Digital Storage pen out and plugged it into the radio and switched it on. When the music started the journey didn’t bother him.

*****

When the vans arrived at the house, Abs, Tina and she were all waiting for the three vans to arrive so they could unload the electronics and supplies straight into the workshops. Misty and the rest of the girls were in the living room chatting and planning the raid and finialising the plans for the vans.
When Grezt had parked up and climbed out she headed into the house to say hi to everyone, also to get a drink. Bee went straight into the workshops and started to help unload the supplies. She also made sure everything was tidy and had a home found. They also started to make an inventory of all the items in the garage and the stuff they had brought. Sandra and Tina had moved some of the more useful tools from the armoury into the labs for easy access, and also testing the systems.
About 6ish, that evening, everything was away and everyone gathered on the Veranda where Misty and Darla cooked an excellent barbeque.

*****

On Torbar Nibs woke up early and decided to take a walk along the cliff edge.
She walked near the cliff edge until the forest thinned and opened into the small clearing which looked out over the tops of the trees in the valley that stretched from inside the mountains to as far as the eye could see. She looked around and saw the fire pit and log and walked to the log to sit down and look out over the scene. She looked out south, her eyes scanned the many mountains that where visible, most had a covering of forest until at least half way up their sides, some had the last vestiges of snow from last winter’s big freeze, this area had. Very soon she heard a twig crack and then the rustle of leaves and the word, “Damn.”
“Is that you hun?” she called out.
“It is babe,” came reply closely followed by Sandra. “I was trying to sneak up on you and surprise you.”
She just smiled and when Sandra was beside her, cuddled her. She whispered in her ear, “I will always find you Sandra, if you disappeared or where kidnapped, I would move heaven and hell to find you and rescue you. You know that don’t you.”
“Yes I do and I would do the same for you if the tables where turned.”
They both smiled and when their mouths met, she stroked her tongue along the lips of Sandra who’s mouth opened and their tongues played hide and sneak between each other’s mouths. When they broke they both just sat and looked out of the clearing.
“What are your plans for the day babe?” asked Sandra.
“The next few days working on the comm. system, assuming I have everything I need, it should take me about an hour to write 6 chips, and then another hour to fix and coat them.”
“I know Abs is going to need a lot of help today, with the modifications for the vans. Do you know what she is planning?”
“Yeah I do. You were there too?
“I know,” replied Sandra, “but things like what’s needed and the planning went well over my head.”
“Ok. Here’s the basic plan for the vehicles, the blue van is going to be where we keep a lot of the fire power and the mobile command base which is going to live at home base. The white one is going to be an equipment and ammunition store, and live with Misty and her group. The red one is a second command vehicle and general office. Both the command vehicles are going to have at least two stations in the back and one in the front, with the front having as much access as can be provided by the limited space. I think Abs is planning on getting as much done before the weekend and then finishing the work either during or after the festival has finished.”
“Ok, let’s go then,” said Sandra as she stood up and turned and offered Nibs, her hand to help her up.
“Thank you darling,” Nibs said with a hint of a mockery of an upper class voice.
“Har har,” said Sandra, and the two of them walked back hand in hand, when they got to the house they found Tina already up and just walking down the front steps. On the way back Nibs had picked up a nice branch which she would use to make a door stop for the workshop door.
“Hi you two,” said Tina as she passed them.
“Hi Tina,” she said and started up the steps towards the house. When they got inside they both turned and headed for the kitchen to either get or to make a coffee. “It looks like Tina got here first,” she said when she saw the peculator was about two thirds full.
“So I guess your heading to the workshop now?” asked Sandra.
“No, I’m on holiday, and I intend to enjoy it as well as working, plus the work I’m doing ain’t that hard and I have the program and coding for the chip already written.”
After collecting their coffees, they headed for the veranda, where Bee and Angelique where sitting.
After stepping from the house, Bee turned around and said, “Hi you two.”
“Hi Bee, Angelique,” said Sandra.
Bee had an MA260 propped up against her chair and Angelique had an HK29 Assault rifle hung from the back of her chair. Angelique turned and asked, “Where’s your weapons?”
“Right here,” she said pointing to Bee and hers. “Think about it do we need to carry anything more than a pistol when some of the people here are carrying assault weapons. Should anything start we will have enough time to get to the basement and get ours, and surprise the arse holes when they get double the level of firepower suddenly.”
“True,” said Bee.
“I guess your heading into lab today then Nibs?” said Angelique.
“Yeah, in a bit, I will be heading that way,” she replied, and unsheathed her knife and started to whittle down the branch she had found.
“What’s that for?” asked Bee.
“A door stop for the door to the labs,” she replied.
“Good idea, it needs it,” said Angelique.
Bee got up and picked up her MA260 and said to the three, “I’m heading for the workshop to start on the cupboards for the C and C vehicle. I hope Abs is up soon as I need to know the specifications for the boxes.” Bee then disappeared into the main house.
The three of them just sat on the veranda for a while soaking in the sun. When she had finished the door stop she got up and said, “Chat to you two later.”
When she was inside she headed to the left hand side and starting beside the armoury door she tapped the entire wall so she could locate the door. She then found the concealed handle that opened it, and opened the door, she then stuck the door stop in place to hold the door open. She then walked down into the lab and workshop and found that two of the base-station units had been set up on the side ready to test the communication system. Tina was sat at the computer calibrating the Digital signal so the teams Communication system could pick up the base-station signals.
“Arh, Nibs, can you help here, I’m trying to calibrate the base station to our communication system. The communication control boxes won’t accept the digital signal.”
“Right, ever thought it may be the communication control boxes that aren’t calibrated correctly to the base station,” she responded.
“No I hadn’t thought of that.” Tina then pushed herself along to where the test communication system was set up and inserted a small screwdriver, she took from her pouch, into the calibration hole. She turned it a quarter turn and heard the test signal from the base unit. “Got the test signal now.”
“Right, time for the real test,” she said, and placed the microphone system in place and said, “Hi Tina.”
“Heard that Nibs,” responded Tina when she heard Nibs’ voice over the ear piece she was wearing. “Good, Now I know it’s the communication control boxes.”
She laughed and walked over to her rucksack and took out the Tablet computer and base station, placed it on the central bench nearest the PCB circuit writer and plugged in the power. She then booted it up and ran her copy of High TuCoder. She then loaded the Chip writer program and then spent the next couple of hours checking the code and the data files, after reading through the code she was happy with it and hit the run key. The High TuCoder compiler ran, compiled the program which then ran and compiled the data files. It asked to have the cable that would connect the chip writer to the computer inserted, which she did and wrote one chip using her voice pattern files from one of the dictation programs she used.
When the code had been written Nibs unplugged the chip writer and took the chip to one of the spare communication systems and opened it. Inside she saw that when Tina had designed the system. She had thought about upgrades and had installed a blank chip holder on to the circuit board. She inserted the chip and switched it on. As a part of the test code on the chip it had been programmed to respond to the primary voice by saying hi. Nibs spoke into the microphone and listened to the response over the speaker she had plugged in, she heard the word hi emitted from the speaker, and when she heard that she smiled as phase one had worked, now to sort out the command codes. She booted up the nearest computer hoping there would be an inventory of the supplies in the lab.
Abs walked through and headed for the workshop.
“Morning Abs,” she said as she passed.
“Oh, morning Nibs, sorry, miles away,” responded Abs with a start.
“Yeah I guessed.”
The computers had not only an inventory but also had some advanced programs and projects stored on them. The archive that caught her eye was called CommandProcessorCoding. ExecuatableDataFile, she doubled clicked the file which brought up a list of the other files stored in the archive. She then hit the extraction button and extracted the archive to the computer. When it was finished she took a look at the data file coding and realised that the files had the ability to learn what each command meant and what it should do. Nibs thought, ‘Putting this coding on to the ROM chips to activate the system and the coding onto the Processor it should mean that we have total control of the system. The question isn’t whether or not it works, it’s whether or not the programs are compatible with our system.’
Nibs spent the next three hours going through the coding and the comments.
By the end of the three hours Nibs thought, ‘Who ever wrote this knew what they were doing, and they’ve also followed the best practice in the commenting of the program.’

*****

As Abs walked into the workshop, she saw Bee had cut three of the sheets of 5mm steel into lengths indicated by Abs on the rough plans they had made the previous day. Outside under the awing was the Blue van. Inside was Grezt, who was removing the wooden paneling inside the Blue Van so they could insulate and armour it from small arms at least. She picked up a tool belt and checked the power charge of the cordless items, they were all pretty much had a full charge. She then walked out to the blue transit and looked inside and saw Grezt just getting the last piece of paneling off its support brackets. She looked around the inside and saw that Grezt had also removed the brackets by using an angle grinder. The area around each was smooth as she had smoothed the surface. She took the panel out when Grezt had passed it to her. As she moved away Grezt turned and picked up the angle grinder and pulled the trigger. She then went to place it against the first of the eight brackets. She carried it and laid it up against the side of the house, where the rest of the panels were. When the last of the brackets had been removed Grezt exited the van and said, “Hi Abs how’s you this morning?”
“Not to bad thanks. How’s you?” she asked.
“Not to bad thanks.”
Both of them walked to where the 8mm armoured steel was stacked. Grezt asked, “How are we going to armour the van?”
“That I’m still working out, I thought that we could heat the sheet with the oxy torch and then mould the sheet to the van’s walls.”
“We could, but I was thinking cutting the sheets to fit the areas and the weld it to the van walls and to the next piece in the chain,” Grezt suggested.
“Now that is a good idea, as it will allow the injection of the insulation to be done and allow it to dry and solidify completely,” Abs responded, “and as it solidifies it will expand to fill the gaps and expand through any gaps we miss when welding the plates in place.”

“True,” Grezt responded and grabbed the first sheet of armoured Steel and carried it to the work bench and using g-clamps made sure it was fixed down. Grezt when went to the van and measured the panels inside and wrote the dimensions down. When she had all the dimensions she grabbed her cordless angle grinder and walked over to the work bench. She then drew the shapes of the panels on to the sheet and used the grinder to cut a basic oblong shape and took it and fitted it up to the inside, she then drew the shape of the corners on to the panel so it would sit flush with the structured framework.

“What about the actual frame work?” asked Bee.
“We’ll have to cut into the frame work and weld it back when the armoured steel has been welded into place.” Abs replied.
The pair then turned and walked back into the workshop where they started to work on the metal cupboards for the weapons. She cut the 5mm sheet into the necessary shapes and then she dragged the second welder over and spot welded each of the pieces together, when she was finished she and Bee carried it to the van and slotted it in so it was located over the rear wheel arch. Bee then bent over the top and marked the actual metal with the shape of the wheel arch. They then carried it back out and cut the hole for the wheel arch out. Abs then cut some new pieces of metal so to fill in the hole and sealing the box.

Around mid-afternoon, the rest of the guys wandered in and asked if there was anything they could do to help, Abs had a load of jobs ready of them to do. Sandra walked into the tech lab rather than the workshop and asked Nibs the same question.
”Of course they is, can you go to the armoury and collect all the technology that you think would be useful to us when on operation,” she said.
“Anything specific?”
“No, just use your common sense,” she responded.
Over the next few days everyone was involved in modifying the vehicles and technology.

*****
On Frodar evening during the wind down. Gary got up and said, “Right guys I’m going to say bye and see you lot on Moroth at the festival.”
“Oh right you heading back now then,” said Misty.
“Yeah, I have a playoff game I’m playing in tomorrow evening,” said Gary.
“Bye then, see you on Moroth then,” everyone said.

*****

About 10ish in the evening Sandra, Nibs, Paul, Abs and Tina wandered out onto the veranda and sat under the stars looking up and out into the universe above. Sandra said, quite out of the blue, “I wonder what it is like out there, in the universe I mean?”
“A very philosophical question for you hun, that,” responded Nibs.
“I know, sometimes I do think about things that interest me, I would love to know what KRX is mining on the second moon, and what Echo Tech Inc is doing on the three orbital platforms they have in operation orbiting the planet,” Sandra said.
“Those things aren’t easy to find out,” said Tina.
As the conversation was happening she continued to look up at the stars wondering what was out there, beyond the second moon and the close orbit. She had heard some people say that the galaxy was over 4.5 million light years across, but others had said that the galaxy was only the system Darra Von was in.
“Yeah, well, who cares, as I have all my closest friends along away from everyone else, I was thinking who’s up for a little hunting trip?” Sandra asked.
“Yeah,” said Abs, “Me. I need a break, 95% of the work is done just the little things like putting the panels back and such, and the vans are pretty much finished.”
“I have definitely finished the work on the communication system and it works like a dream,” said Nibs who grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
She looked at her and saw her looking out over the forest and mountains, smiling. Her entire face was one of pure happiness.
“Oh yeah, what you done to the system?” asked Abs.
“The system had four channels I’ve taken the three spare ones and made one a private channel or a general announcement channel, the other two either transmit a data stream from any technology we carry or they can be extra communication channels. I’ve also added a complete voice activation and control system to it along with a carrier signal transmission, that allows the others to know who’s on and receiving.”
“Voice activation?” asked Abs sounding surprised.
Tina replied, “The system requires that everyone has their own communication. box as it requires a known voice to control it, but lets say you, Abs, wanted to chat to me on a private matter, you would say communicate Tina end, and the communication control box would open a private channel between you and me.”
“Arh, I get you now, so if I want to chat to say Nibs, Sandra and you, I would say Communicate Nibs end,” responded Abs.
She looked over to where Paul was sitting and saw he was happy, very happy.

“No,” Nibs said, “I’ll brief everyone on Moroth at the festival but the end command finished the command, using your example you would say communicate Nibs, Tina, Sandra end and that would open the channel to the three of us and also open the return channel, the carrier signal carries a lot of information in it.”
“What about the data channels though?” Abs asked, “Sorry for all these questions.”
She looked at her other two friends and saw the same happiness as she did in her love Sandra.
“Don’t be, it lets me and Tina know what the group will want to hear when we are giving the briefing. The data channels, one is dedicated to live video feed, all the black light armours have fittings for a small high definition camera. Each suit has two cases one is the armour and the other is the technology options available, which include an external Smart scope HUU, Thermo and UV image intensifiers, targeting scope, full band radio communication package.”
“Why ain’t we using those instead of ours,” asked Abs looking very surprised.
“Position Locators, all of them have a position locator inbuilt and until I know for sure who’s receiving the data I’m not willing to use them, it compromises our independence to have someone outside the group knowing where we are.”
“Put it that way, I do agree with you.”
“Everything else is hard wired into the suit via the head block, the helmet has all these functions as well, but I know for a fact I hate wearing a helmet, I do cause I have to. Over the last couple of days I’ve become accustomed to hearing the world and nature, rather than the city, and wearing a helmet puts a physical barrier between me and the world,” Nibs said.
“The hunting trip tomorrow what shall we do, use the bikes or go on foot?” asked Sandra.
“I say lets go exploring, there’s hundreds of footpaths some signposted some not, out there, lets go exploring, my PDU has a Position Lock system in built and it records each lock automatically.”
“There you go the perfect guide. What’s the resoltition Nibs?”
“A couple of meters I think, it isn’t much more, I spent a lot on the PDU and made sure its had all the upgrades and I keep the software updated automatically. A new update comes online, I get it.”
“I’ve done some exploring over the last couple of days; the hut just up the way has ten mountain bikes in, unused,” said Sandra, “And I’m betting you won’t be able to buy these for love nor money.”
“Yeah, somewhat,” she said sounding interested in the fact.
“And we all wear full Black Light, as I think we’d better get used to it, as I think we will be wearing it a lot over the next few weeks.”
“Yeah more than likely,” said Tina, “Well if we are going bike-hunting then I think we all should get some sleep.”
“I agree Tina,” said Abs and got up with Tina.
“We’ll come in a bit,” Nibs said.
“Ok, not too long though,” said Tina.
“Ok,” Nibs said and along with Sandra went back to looking out into the night’s sky. She wondered, ‘what was out there, no one could tell anyone what lay beyond our own control, but it’s the pull of the unknown that makes it more exciting and special if you find something amazing.’ About ten minutes later both Sandra and Nibs got up and went inside.

Chapter 19 — The Hunting trip

07:00BN Savraday
Nibs and Sandra woke as Nibs’ PDU played ‘Lost Death Mark’ by The Fallen Raven. She lifted herself to her elbows and kissed her partner, Sandra, on the forehead saying, “I love you hun.”
“The feeling is returned,” replied Sandra and swung her legs out of the bed. She then reached for her Cambar cigarette and lit it.
She then joined Sandra in taking her Cambar cigarette and lighting it as well. She then swung her legs out and after taking a draw on it, she grabbed her bath robe and put it on. After this was on she picked up her boots and PDU, which went into her Gangrel pouch. She carried that and waited for Sandra to join her.
Sandra quickly joined her as they headed for the armoury. As she passed the door for Abs and Tina she knocked on it and opened the door. She saw Tina’s head lift and smile. She did the same for Paul’s room. The pair continued for the Armoury and first headed for the kitchen and switching the coffee perculator on.
When that was on they headed for the armoury and when they had arrived she took four sets of two cases out and passed each one to Sandra. Who put then in piles of two. When three sets were out she grabbed the last two and made sure they had her name on them. Sandra looked at her strangley when she did.
“I wore this when I went to get the vans and I think it’s better that we each have out own separate suite rather than changing suits,” Nibs said as Tina, Abs and Paul appeared. “Good a quick briefing on what I’ve found out from wearing a suit earlier this week. The wet-suit garment has 93 pockets in and will only accept the correct piece, no other piece will slot into that pocket. Also label your cases, I’m not sure but I don’t think my suit is the same size as it was when I took it out the first time. Also you can’t wear anything that impedes body heat, hence me not wearing my forms.”
The three girls, and Paul along with Nibs all opened their cases after writing their names with a permant marker. From inside the case they all took the outer garment and untied their dressing gowns and slipped their legs into the trouser section of the suit.

Abs was the first to have pulled the top over her head and tucked in the overlap. She picked up one of the larger plates and tried it in the right breast pocket it and when it didn’t slide in she turned and looked at Nibs.
Nibs looked back at her and said, “Remember what I said about pieces only going into specific pockets, it’s a process of elimination more than anything.”
She nodded as she remembered what Nibs had said earlier and then tried it in the other pocket and found it slid in straight away with no resistance. She then sealed the top and found that the area where the plate had been suddenly became a very vicious mix of garment and something else. “What they hell!” she exclaimed and was joined by Sandra, Tina and Paul.

“From what I was able to find out from the computers in the lab are that the plates are made from nanytes, a good forty plus years beyond anything we have now. They had an inbuilt sensor that detects fast moving incoming objects and they then lock together and form a stiff area around the site. Except this area also has a bit of give in it. The one suit on display when Darla showed us the armoury didn’t have the nanytes power source which is body heat. I’m not sure what weapon they can defend against, but I bet it’s going to be most of today’s street fire arms. I think a lot of the one’s here are advanced enough to be a threat to the wearer,” Nibs said as she slotted the last piece and picked up one of the pieces for Sandra’s back and started to help her get sorted.
When everyone was sorted she opened the tech box and was followed by everyone else, she looked at Sandra who had a little smile on her face as if she was hiding something. “What you hiding hun?” she asked.
“Oh nothing except now I become the expert. When you and the others were busy and you didn’t need me I came down here and learnt about the tech on the armour worked,” replied Sandra as she bent down and retrieved the forest pattern camouflage outer. She put it on and then wrapped her utility belt armour her waist. On to this she picked up and clipped a small box with a power charger hole and two small pipes sticking out. Into these she plugged two tubes that looked like they were sewn into the camouflage layer when she switched it on a small display appeared and the over suit shrunk to fit her body. “A primitive environmental system, which should keep you hot or cool.”
“That I’m not so sure on hun. On Moroth when I was moving the stuff around I never once felt hot, I think the nanytes deal a lot with our body overheating.”
“That’s damn useful,” said Abs as she also switched the environ box on.
She soon joined the other four, she then took down a complete light weight webbing set and opened the main rucksack and dropped a sleeping bag in and to the bottom she fixed a bed roll. Into the main section she opened and packed properly three 24hr one day food packs. The nibbles and other easy to eat items she made sure was in the outer pockets, in the main section she placed the rest of the food items, the next item was a complete survival pack. She also picked up a small first aid kit and saw Sandra had slotted the complete first aid pack in to her rucksack.
“I thought it better if one of us carries a complete first aid kit and as you just slotted the complete survival kit home and Paul, Abs and Tina are selecting equipment. I thought I would carry that.”
“Ok,” she replied and she then picked her last item a small clip which she fitted to the top of her webbing back, this she knew would carry the weapon she was going to take. The next two items from the tech case were the head rig for the HUU she knew she would take in a minute and the second small box, except this one had a coupe of data plugs as well as the recharge port. Upon close inspection she saw that it fitted nicely together with the environ box and looked as it more could be added. She then plugged in the twin cables that ran from the head rig. The last item out was the small box of tricks that slotted onto the head left hand side of the rig. She lowered the actual eye piece so it was covering her eye and it was as if she was using her two eyes to see, not just the eye uncovered. ‘I’m impressed this tech is going to make as lethal on the battle field.’ She lifted the eye piece and saw Samdra was also fitting the head rig.
After Sandra had fitted it, and the checked it worked, she moved to help her with fitting the webbing. She lifted the webbing rig so Nibs could clipped in the front fixings. Sandra then clipped the two at the back. Nibs then lifted Sandra’s and allowed her to do the same. By the time the pair had finished clipping the other pouches to their utility belts Tina and Abs had both just left heading for the aisles where the sniper rifles where kept.
When the pair were ready they headed for the aisles they wanted and walked together until the aisle with the MA260s on where Sandra turned down, except she kept going. The weapon she wanted was a combat compound bow, which if the stats of the computer were right would mean the arrows would be fired with forces close to 800lbs which with the arrows she had seen beside it, were vicious looking. She picked up the bow and checked the balance and found it needed some stabilizing, and she picked up a single short rod and fitted the to the front. The next item was a small digital scope which she fitted to the off side and made sure the connection between it and the bow was good. When that was set she picked up a quiver of arrows and she strapped that to the right hand side of her pack. She dropped the eye piece into place and saw a targeting reticle in addition to the rest of the items in her vision. The one item she collected from the end of the aisle was a two foot long machete which she slid along with it’s scabbard down the left side of her backpack.
The last job to do was to fill the water bottles. She joined Paul, Abs, Tina and Sandra, all of them looked like they were ready. Abs looked a little annoyed with something.

Abs, Tina and Paul stood and when Nibs had passed them the webbing and packs. Abs like Nibs had picked up a couple of 24hour ration packs and emptied the contents onto the floor and slotted the snacks into the right side pocket and the rest of the food items went into the main pocket. She had already placed a sleeping bag into the very bottom and roll matt to the underside. The next items both she and Tina selected were a few of the survival items that were located on the back wall.
When the three back-packs were packed Tina lifted her webbing set and she set and positioned it for comfort, she did the same for Tina and Paul. All three headed for where the sniper rifles were stored. She had an idea of she and Tina wanted. Abs went to her new rifle the Echo 27 sniper rifle. When she was in front of it she picked it up and took from the cupboard beneath the sling and attached it to the rifle. She slung it and then collected six magazines of 30 rounds and slotted them all into the front pouches. She picked up a seventh and slotted that home into the weapon replacing the one she had emptied on Sumdar on the firing line.
She looked at Tina who was holding a Z2 and smiling. Paul was carrying a Coltanar TD-7, one of the more nasty weapons Coltanar constructed. It was only 10mm but the standard rounds were fin stabilized darts.
“Tech time I think,” she said and turned heading for the shelves holding the various items of weapon technology.
Tina and Paul quickly caught her up and Tina smiled at her. They entered the aisle where Tina selected a UV x200 scope. She stopped in front of a full smart scope modification for the Echo Series of weapons. She picked one up and slotted the unit to the right hand said. She then made sure the unit was locked into place as on the side of the rifle was a small data port which married up to the data port on the smart scope. When it was locked home she dropped the HUU over her right eye and on the display was of the room. When she saw the image she thought, ‘Something is wrong?” She grabbed the handle nothing was displayed on the screen. “What the hell is wrong?” she said.
“What’s up hun?” asked Tina
“The smart scope I’ve added isn’t working.”
“Try plugging it in,” replied Tina as she pulled the short cable at her left hand side. “The armour has a wire built into each arm than runs from the contact pads in the palms to the computer. And also plug in the data cable from the HUU.”
“Good point,” she replied and took the two cables and plugged them both in. This time when she grabbed the handle on the Echo 27, on the display appeared a target ring and all the rest of the information coming from the smart scope. “This screen is a mess.” The screen in front of her right eye changed slightly when she released the pistol grip. She walked towards the exit and waited for the rest of the girls to arrive ready.

“What’s up Abs?” Nibs asked when they had gathered at the entrance way.
“The HUU screen is a mess,” replied Abs.
“There’s a switch on the side of the HUU, it controls the eye scanner. I think one blink selects double activates it,” replied Sandra.
After a few seconds Abs and the rest of the girls found the switch and shifted the various screens around.
After the group was set they all walked up the passageway where Nibs asked Sandra, “Could you fill my two water bottles whilst I collect the communication systems.”
“Ok hun,” responded Sandra and took the two water bottles.
She headed down the ramp into the lab and took four blank units and her own one. She returned to the kitchen and walked to where the water bottles were located. She gave each of the group a communications unit and then picked up her two water bottles and slid each one home into their carriers on her utility belt.
After each of the group had picked up a communication system and fitted the microphone and ear piece in place they walked towards the front door.
When everyone was out side everyone checked the range to one of the trees with the range finder built-in to the HUU and then checked the range from the smart scope.
When all of the girls were ready they walked up the ramp and filled their water bottles. When they had departed the house Nibs asked, “Shall we take the pushbikes?”
“No,” replied Tina. “Abs persuaded me that it would be more fun to foot-hunt than bike-hunt.”
“Shall we go then?” asked Abs.
“Let’s,” said Tina and Paul.
The group walked the short distance towards the forest.
“Communication-check, everyone,” she said. “One, two, three.” When everyone had confirmed they had heard her she asked, “Shall I take point?”
“Yeah no problem,” said Abs. “I don’t care who leads. I would trust all of you with my life and I think everyone else would agree.” The group nodded its approval to what Abs had said and she continued, “All I am going to say is that I like last position in a line.”
“Why did you ask, hun?” Sandra asked her.
“Just wondered if anyone wanted to go first.”
“If you want to, then lead.” She gave a little pout to her.
She smiled and turned to the rest of the group who were following. “Ten meters or visible distance, whichever is shorter? Agreed?”
“Agreed. That’s a good operational distance,” said Tina.

Nibs turned and started onto the track through the edge of the forest. The track took them on a North-Easterly route away from the house. As soon as she had entered the forest, she took out her PDU and took a position lock and saved the coordinates. Nibs could see ahead that the forest was getting darker and more dense. Light still got to the ground but it was considerably less than at the edge.
“You know guys, this technology is going to make us one of the most deadly units the Gangrels have on the rosters,” said Sandra.
She then moved out slowly, looking around. After travelling ten metres, Sandra followed looking around for animals.

After a couple of hours of following dead tracks. Sandra saw an Elk and dropped to the kneeling position and brought the rifle to her shoulder and prepared to fire.
“Ulit, 400, 10 o’clock.” Sandra spoke over the communication system so she wouldn’t scare any other animals in the area.
“Your spot, your kill, Sandra,” said Abs.
Sandra knew that the other two thought the same.

Nibs readied her bow as Sandra had said ‘Elk 400’ so that it aimed left so that should the shot not be fatal, the elk was likely to move to the left and get nailed by an arrow. She doubted the arrow was really necessary, but the chance was there that Sandra missed or the animal moved suddenly it would be dead.

“Ok,” Sandra responded as she breathed slowly and in a controlled fashion. She squeezed the slack out of the trigger. Sandra paused to ready her breathing, released the safety catch and started to squeeze the trigger. The chemicals in the binary round exploded the bullet down the barrel, then there was a muffled crack as the bullet accelerated passed the speed of sound. Just ahead of the bullet was a cloud of chemical smoke. The next sound was the quiet twang of bowstring as Nibs loosed her arrow. There was a thud as the bullet struck the skull of the ulit and the ulit dropped down dead. The arrow flew down the left side and then thudded into a tree.
“Why the arrow shot? My spot, my kill?” she asked.
“Let’s say it was insurance. It’s better to kill the animal outright than to have it die in pain because of an injury that we caused. And, if you noticed, my shot was down the left-hand side, same height. The biggest difference is my arrows expand when they hit something, making a nasty mess of the area they hit.” Nibs then grabbed one from her quiver and operated the spring action on the expanders.
“Anyway, let’s go and get your catch and package it for the trip back,” said Tina.
“Yeah let’s,” she responded and she started to walk to where the kill had dropped closely followed by Nibs and Abs.
When they arrived at the kill site, they saw the mess that Sandra’s bullet had left.
“APEX round hun.”
“Oh, nasty,” responded Abs as she looked at the mess.
They spent ten minutes gutting and preparing the animal for transport. It was hung from a lowish branch and position locked so the group could pick it up when they returned to the house.

The next few hours were uneventful. Then they approached a clearing and saw two deer grazing. Before anyone could say anything, Nibs drew an arrow and Abs dropped to a kneeling position and had readied her rifle. Nibs drew the bow string back and aimed at the closest one to the edge of the clearing. A fraction of a second later, she had released the bow string and sent the arrow on its way. Abs pulled the trigger and there was a muffled crack. The two deer slumped down dead.
“Looks like we have dinner and a campsite to boot,” said Paul.
“Yeah it looks that way,” she said.
As the group approached the clearing they could see that it had been used as camp site, a darkened area in the middle indicated were a fire had been lit there. Surrounding the area were a few logs and stones.
“I’ll get on with butchering one of the kills,” said Abs.
“Sandra, Tina, Paul and me will gather fire wood and nuts and also try to find some water,” she said.
“Water? I don’t hear any,” said Sandra.
“Just because you can’t hear it, doesn’t mean it ain’t in the area. Very few people build a fire pit without a water source nearby.”
“That’s true,” responded Abs.
Paul had already dropped his pack off and stood ready to go with her. “Tina, Sandra. You two coming to help me gather firewood and vegetables for dinner?”
“Yeah,” said Sandra, releasing the pack and jumping up. Tina did the same.
She clipped her bow to the webbing as this morning she had installed a small clip that came with the bow. It allowed for easy transport, keeping both the hands free.
“Right here begins your first lesson in survival 101,” said Nibs. “The first lesson is easy; try not to get lost and not to run out of food. It’s one of the reasons I packed three days’-worth of rations this morning. But if you do get lost then the area you are in will more than likely be able to provide enough sustenance for people to survive. Come on, what did the hunter-gathers of twenty thousand years ago live on?”
“Nuts, fruits and things,” answered Abs.
“You done this before Abs?” she asked.
“I know basic survival, my dad is a hunter and goes to the North wasteland forest to hunt from mid to late fall every year,” replied Abs.
“Ah, Ok,” she said.
“That’s one of the reasons I said I would butcher the kill for dinner.”
She smiled and walked off into the forest. “First job is to find a water source as it will provide us with water and there should be edible plants nearby. Pick anything, but eat nothing, unless Abs or I have cleared it as edible. Ok you two?”
“Yes,” said all three and followed Nibs out of the campsite and down the hill.
After walking about ten metres, she stopped and signalled for silence. After listening she continued walking and said, “Water is this way I think.” Having travelled nearly a hundred metres, the group came upon a small gully in which ran a stream. Most of the forest had patches of ground plants, but sixty to seventy metres downhill from the stream was a great mass of ground plants. She stepped over the gully and stooped and grabbed a handful of red berries from a bush and ate one. She then passed some to Tina, Sandra and Paul saying, “Jattar berries, quite juicy and sweet actually for this time of year.” The three each took one and popped it into their mouths. They smiled at the juicy and sweet taste.
“Just wander and pick what you think will be edible. You’re not going to learn if you don’t try.”
“Ok,” they both said and started to hunt around the area.
“Don’t forget the firewood.”
“Ok hun,” said Sandra said. Tina just nodded as she was engrossed in picking all the berries.
“Don’t take too many Tina. The local animals eat it as well. Here’s your second lesson; learn to live in harmony with the environment. Don’t take too much or you may cause problems to the local animal life.”

“Ok,” Tina said and stopped. She looked around and spotted a tall bush, with things hanging from the branches. “Is this edible Nibs?”

“Chuck me one,” Nibs replied when she saw what Tina was looking at. Tina picked one and threw it to Nibs who, after opening the outer case, nodded to Tina.
After thirty minutes of gathering wood, Paul, Sandra and her had armfuls. Tina had already gone back, dragging a couple of large logs to keep the fire going overnight. The three wandered back to see Tina, under Abs’ instruction, clearing the fire pit out and putting most of the burnt wood in a pile close to the pit. She bent down, took her knife and scraped one of the logs Tina had brought back. When she had a small pile of strips, she put them in the middle of the darkened area. She then took out her flint and steel from her pack and scraped a few slivers of the large block off. Using the striker strip and knife, she caused sparks to jump and these caught the silver strips and that caught the made the pile of wood strips smoulder. She took some of the small twigs she had brought back and created a pyramid around the embers. She bent close and lightly blew onto the kindling. The embers started to glow red and then small flames leapt and began to lick around the top of the pyramid. After a couple of seconds, the twigs started to smoke and then burn. She put some more slightly larger twigs around the base of the fire, then sat back and waited for the fire to catch properly.
“Where did you learn how to do that?” asked Sandra as she sat back.
“In Spinnaya and Rudeash, I know five more methods of fire lighting. I didn’t do much when I was in Suraban, but I think that was down to my depression and also the bullying.”
“Anyway, you are now teaching some willing pupils the skills you know,” said Sandra.
“And also learning new ones as well, I hope,” said Abs.
“Oh yeah I am,” she responded. The pyramid collapsed a little so she put the twigs from the base into the flames. These quickly caught and started to burn vigorously. “Well we are going to need a lot more wood, people.”
Abs said, “The meat is butchered and hung. Come on Sandra, Tina. Let’s go get the wood. Remember we will need a lot as the fire needs to be burning all night.”
“Ok,” said both the girls. Paul, Sandra and Tina followed Abs as she walked out of the camp site.
“Abs, Sandra,” she called. “Go and fill the empty water bottles.”
“Good point,” said Abs.
She walked to where the packs where and grabbed the four empty bottles. There was a thud and a rustle as a water bottle landed near her. Abs looked at it, then at her, who was smiling, “Fill mine please, I’m putting the tea on.”
“What we got tea-wise?” Abs asked
“Nature’s own Jattar Berry tea,” she replied.
“Nice. Not had that before.”
“Nice change from the normal stuff,” she responded and stirred the mixture as the fire heated it. “Can you look for some wood for a spit and stands?”
“Yeah no problem,” responded Abs and left the campsite heading for the water. The others were already hunting for good sized logs and more berries, nuts and root vegetables. Abs called to the two of them, “Come here you two, I want to show you something.”
The two of them came over and looked at what Abs was looking at. Tina asked, “What is it?”
“A natural herb garden. You’ll find garlen under that plant, brissam stems, gristh leaves there, and sarg leaves there,” Abs replied, “I think Nibs is good at making sure people are safe. I’m more of a plant finder.”
When the group walked back to the campsite they saw that she had a cup and from the cup came steam.
“Have a drink and a break for a bit, then start dinner, which is roast deer and a vegetable stew I think.”
All of the workers went and grabbed their cups from beside the fire.
“Mm, very nice.” After letting the taste settle, she continued, “just the right sweetness and tang.”
“I have to admit that too, it is a good tea,” said Paul.
“Thanks guys, I’m just happy everyone liked it.”
“We need loads more wood, you can never not have enough wood for an open fire. Whatever we don’t use will get chucked in the morning before we leave,” said Abs.
“Ok,” said Tina, Paul and Sandra. The three stood up after finishing their teas and disappeared in the search for wood.
Abs dragged a large stone out and tipped a small amount of water over the top to wash it. She then got out the herbs and then passed one piece of branch to Nibs who looked at it and nodded her approval.
Nibs got up and collected the machete from the side of her pack. She swung the machete and cut the branch where required to make the spit. She then selected two sturdy branches from the wood pile and sharpened them. She then stuck the stands into the earth, turning towards the meat she walked over to where it was hung , and selected a good size piece. She pushed the spit through it and brought it back to the fire. She laid the spit on the stands and sat back down.
Abs had put some more of the smaller branches and logs onto the fire. The flames after they caught did just touch the meat in places but they died down after a while.
She took the herbs Abs had prepared and dropped them into a mess tin with a bit of water in and started to heat the mixture whilst the two of them started to prepare the vegetables and other items for the stew.
“Nibs,” said Abs out of the blue.
“Yeah,” she responded.
“If we hadn’t asked you to join the Vixens, what would you have done?”
“Don’t know, more than likely gone to college and then more than likely gone to work for one of the corporations I suppose.”
“Not work in the freelance industry?”
“It would have depended on the offers when I was near leaving college, I know Damien would have offered me a good package for me to work for him, but as I said I don’t know, way too many variables to even start working it out.”
Nibs dropped the first batch of vegetables into the mess tin. “Catch the fat dripping. We can use it tomorrow for breakfast.”
“True,” responded Abs as she grabbed a mess tin and caught the fat as it dripped off the meat.
“Waste not,” Nibs said.
“Want not,” responded Abs with a smile, “I see we got taught by similar teachers Nibs. My father and?”
“Nimbo, from Rujuniva he was living in Spinnaya, a beautiful country of forests lakes and mountains, and a lot of ice and cold.”
“Oh, I bet.”
“But a perfect place to learn survival techniques from.”
“Very true,” said Abs.
The pair saw Tina and Paul, both were looking concerned, walking back to the campsite carrying quite a few branches. “Where’s Sandra?” asked Abs.
“We found something and Sandra is trying to locate is mother,” said Paul.
“What did she find?” Nibs asked.
“That it’s we aren’t sure, it’s small, furry and has bright blazing red eyes,” said Tina as she dropped the logs in the pile. Paul joined Tina in dropping the wood he had onto the pile, he then sat near the fire and took a mouthful of water from his bottle.
After about fifteen minutes Sandra wandered back into the campsite, a bit despondent. “I wasn’t able to find its mother, but I’ve left it near the stream.”
“Oh, what the small ball of fur,” said Paul.
“Yes.” Then the five of them heard a whine coming from down the slope. “Hell, I can’t let it die out there, it isn’t right,” exclaimed Sandra, as she got up.
Nibs very quickly followed her out of the campsite and down the slope. Laying on the ground near the stream was this grey ball of fur. She walked up and down the stream looking for a dead animal, she turned around and returned to Sandra saying, “I can see anything. Ok, take it back to camp this evening we’ll do a search for its mother tomorrow.”
Sandra said, “Ok,” in response and bent down and picked it up and carried it back to the camp. “I don’t think we will find his mother, I think she may have fallen off a cliff or been killed someplace and the young one has wandered here on its own.”
“More than likely, but you never know.”
“Well anyway whilst he’s with us, I’m going to call him Daraus,” said Sandra as they walked back in to the campsite carrying the small ball of fur. She put Daraus down and it crawled a short distance awayjust lay there absorbing the heat generated by the fire. After a while he sat up and looked at each one individually and then went to each and gave them all a sloppy wet kiss with his tongue.
Everyone coughed, spat and wiped away the saliva. “Ok, I think you may be right Sandra,” Nibs said.

*****

A while later when the stew and the deer meat was cooked, Nibs took her machete and carved off a chunk. She gave it to Daraus to eat, who tucked into it ravenously. She just smiled and carved off a few smaller chunks, placing a piece in each of the mess tins. She then poured some of the stew into each of the mess tins and refilled each person’s cup with red berry tea. When she was finished, she called, “Dinner everyone.”
Sandra and Abs wandered back into the campsite from the direction of the stream, both Paul and Tina walked over from sitting on the ground looking up at the tree canopy.
When everyone had started eating, Paul asked, “How would you react to me asking Amy to join the Vixens?”
“I would have no problem with it if everyone else is ok with it,” said Sandra. “What about you hun?” she asked Nibs who was sat beside her eating.
“Paul already knows my answer. Gary, Darla, The Twins and I had a chat about it when you three went exploring.”
“Ok,” responded Sandra.
“Me too as long as no one has major reservations,” said Tina.
“Same here,” said Abs after swallowing a mouthful of food, “Excellent food Nibs, you have excelled yourself again.”
After the meal was finished, Tina commented, “That was the first meal I’ve had that’s been cooked over an open fire.”
“How come you are so knowledgeable about so many things Nibs?” Paul asked.
“Its things I’ve picked up on my travels. When my family moved to a new city I made friends with the locals rather than my own people. I think I could operate, culturally that is, in at least 60 countries and I know how to blend in and not stand out like a tourist. I also know eight languages fluently, one language semi-fluently.”
“Feck, you’re kidding Nibs!” exclaimed Abs. “I have problems with Portguule, that’s incredible.”
“How many countries can you operate in totally?” asked Tina as she put her cup down empty.
“23 without major problems, 37 if I’m very lucky. It takes me about three months to pick up and understand a language to be fluent. I’ll tell you a story about one school I attended. The teacher that took us for the native language classes was an arrogant bitch, she thought herself so much better than the rest of the class. I broke into her house and took some pictures; I was planning on humiliating her on my last day. Oh I did use my skills for things like that,” she was nodding her head in answer to an unspoken question, “but she deserved it. On my last day in school, I was moving the next day, I had her last and I sat where I normally sat at the back of the class. About five minutes from the end of class I stood and commanded her to shut the feck up, in the native tongue, and to translate what I said accurately. I pealed off a long line of swear terms that only a person fluent could real off and at speed as well, she stood there shocked. Give her due she did translate some of the stuff. As that was my last class of the day when the bell rang I disappeared with the class throng as they left the class and was gone. I do wish I could see some of my friends from those countries.”
“What you thinking about hun?” asked Sandra as she placed her arm around her waist.
“Oh nothing. Just reminiscing about times spent, friends made and lost.” She sighed and continued, “When I get back to the home base I must try and find them again and at least email them if nothing else.”
“When Sandra suggested asking you to join us, I have to admit,” said Abs, “I did almost laugh, but I remembered what Sandra had been like when you first joined the school.” Abs paused for a moment to collect her thoughts and continued, “But now I see that asking you to join us was one a great idea. I think I can speak for at least everyone here, we had been looking to break into the professional world of Ghosts and Elite special forces types of Mercenary work. We had a basic idea that you needed to be a full Street Ghost and we knew we could get sponsored by Darla or any of the staff at command. That was about the sum total of our ghost environment knowledge, we knew about the net sites and other stuff, but we had no idea how to even start to organise a job from the start to the end.”
“Yeah we had planned combat operations from the Tactical level. We never really thought about how much work goes into a operation from the strategic level, we never needed to. I think over the last couple of weeks I know I’ve learnt a lot especially all the other things you must consider when planning an operation from the Stragetic level. I think we all realised after that Ulleam that we seriously lacked in the research skills and knowing where to look and where to put Net questions,” Tina continued. “And to be honest, I personally think you make a great looking female ghost, if I hadn’t been dating Abs I would defiantly go for you, Nibs.”
“Thanks Tina. Where’s Daraus?” she asked.
After a quick look around with their heads and eyes Sandra spotted Daraus just behind her legs, “Behind your legs hun,” she said.
“Oh, there you are. Come here,” she said in a comforting tone. Daraus padded and jumped over her legs and curled up in front of Nibs’ stomach.
“I think you have made a new friend Nibs,” said Sandra.
After the commotion of trying to find Daraus Tina continued, “And then to find that you not only understood the world of the ghost but also respected it enough to actually understand that to survive in it you must be skilled in many of the areas we already understood. Was too good to be true.”
“I agree with Tina hun,” said Sandra as Abs moved one of the logs and placed a second on it so the embers would heat and dry it, “you are one good looking girl with the skills and attitude to boot.
“From the first day I saw you in school, I fell in love with you Nibs, but as I said not with the male version of you, but from your stories, you had a great life and lots of fun at times, but the female side of you. I didn’t realise at the time that your family were travelling contractors for Ebbsu. That I only found out later. Both Tina and Abs will tell you, they had to sometimes almost physically hold me back because I wanted to go and protect you from the bullying. But due to the rules gangs have to abide by when attending the school, meant I wasn’t able to.”
“As I said a last week hun, what you did was all you could do,” she replied, “I think it’s a stupid rule.”
“Is it, but central says it saves the schools from being raised to the ground by the different gangs protecting non-gang members just ‘cause they like them or attacking other gangs, ‘cause they are protecting someone the first gang hates.”
“Yeah ok,” she said as she filled her mess tin and dropped in some leaves she had collected earlier. She then placed it between a couple of small rocks and dragged some of the embers so they were under the mess tin heating it.
“On a couple of occasions I had to stop myself from lumping a few of the bullies for the shit they put you through. I had been able to lump Gary a few times, but as members of the Gangrels and also the Bitch Vixens we needed to keep a low profile, as we specifically ain’t exactly liked by The Aces. Do you know something, next Gangrel gathering I do think someone should bring up the issue of The Aces and what the fuck are we going to do about them?” said Abs.
“I think Gary is already to leave them after the final match,” said Tina as she took out a bag of massaimmer smiling.
“Does anyone know how he intends to leave the Aces?” asked Paul. He saw the bag and also smiled.
“No I don’t think he’s made any plans yet. I think he wants to get through the play-off games and actually get to the final first,” replied Tina as she opened it and took the spit and stuck a few on it and held it over the heat and small flames that was licking around the propped log.
“That will be interesting, we are planning on supporting the team if they do get to the final as I know the match will be played at The Suraban Dome?” Nibs asked.
“Oh definitely,” said Abs, Tina and Sandra.
“Does anyone know when the next Gangrel gathering will be?” asked Tina, “it’s been a while since the entire gang meet up.”
“I think Sarah’s organising a gathering mid-Auar I think on 19th or 20th Auar,” replied Sandra.
“I hope so because it would be a good time for the problems some of the North Stevran units have been having with the local gang population, wasn’t aired and chatted about at the last council meeting. Which come to think about it was over six months ago.”
“What we didn’t get told about the last council meeting?” asked Tina.
“What last meeting, the last one we got told about was six months ago,” said Sandra, “cause you know if I know of a council meeting I always try and go.”
“You remember when we got your bike Nibs,” said Tina as she took the spit off the fire and took a bite from the end massaimmer. She then offered the spit to Abs who took the next one and took the spit and offered Paul the last one. He took it and then held it so Tina could put three more on. He then held it over the fire.
“Yeah, Sarah was at the club Tybias took us to, she had just been in a meeting with a local gang boss, about the Gangrels supporting his gang in its problems with the other local gangs.”
“Yeah, She had the council’s approval to open the armoury to the gang and to subsidise the four units the gang had employed in support,” said Tina.
“That weren’t on the agenda of the last meeting I went to or knew about,” said Sandra.
“That’s not like Sarah to not email A-rated unit commanders about council meetings,” said Abs when she had emptied her mouth. “Thank you hun, that has nicely capped the day.”
“Yes it has and very true, this does need to be brought up very soon,” Sandra said.
“What’s this about units from the north of the Stevran having problems?” Nibs asked.
“Yeah, you should know this as it could mean a few Gangrel led war zones. Some of the gangs from the North Side have been putting the beats on some of the Gangrel units that operate in the area. Most have with drawn south of the river. A few roads away is another Gangrel unit, the Matterhorns, a close assault team,” continued Abs.
After a few more hours of chatting about gangs, issues some gangs have with others, and the Gangrels and how they fit in to the Suraban gang scene. The group then bedded down into their sleeping bags and chatted whilst watching the fire as it slowly burnt through the wood.
As everyone was slowly drifting off to sleep Nibs suggested, “If you wake check the fire, give it a stir and it feed more wood.”
“Ok,” came everyone’s reply.

*****

Chapter 20 — Last Day at the Retreat

In the morning, Abs was the first to wake and she stirred the fire to life again. She then stuck some water on for a hot drink. She wandered over to the two hung kills she could see the one she had butchered was smoke/air drying nicely and the other had finished dripping blood from the drip. She then headed to the spring to fill the water bottles. Daraus, who looked like he hadn’t moved the entire night, stretched and looked over at her. He got to his four legs and followed her down to the stream sticking his nose into the water. He lapped up a good drink of the fresh cold water. She filled the water bottles and then the pair walked back to the campsite. Nibs and Sandra where both stirring and when she had walked into the campsite Nibs stretched and yawned herself awake.
“Looks like we have all made a friend,” said Nibs looking at her and Daraus.
“So what’s the plan then for the day?” asked Paul as he opened his eyes.
“Not got one other than we had better get back as tomorrow is the start of the festival setup I would like to get to that is nothing else after a good nights sleep in a proper bed,” said Sandra.
Tina then opened her eyes and said, “What is the time?”
“About 06:00 I think,” Abs replied. She turned and picked up one of the mess tins so she could pour a bit of the collected fat into it. She then placed the mess tin in the same location as Nibs had used the previous evening to heat up the last tea. Using the hunting knife they all had taken as a part of the basic survival equipment she cut eight strips of meat from the butchered carcass and started to fry them. As the mess tin would only allow her to fry two pieces at a time Paul and Tina got the first two pieces, after they were thoroughly cooked. Nibs went about boiling up some Yalliammium tea from the few patches of Yalliammium she had found near the stream. Around 08:00BN the group broke camp by covering the fire pit and also moving the logs and placing them in the undergrowth. As the group left Nibs position locked the site so if they wanted to they could return to it easily. As they headed back towards the house they sometimes hunted, sometimes not. The route Nibs led then on made sure they picked up Sandra’s kill and then headed back for the house.
At about 03:00AN they arrived back at the house and all five had a kill to their name. Daraus loved the return, bounding around, helping in the hunting when he was able to.

“First job when we get back is to somehow preserve the meat,” Sandra said as the group neared the house.
“Yeah that’s true,” responded Nibs. “We had better butcher the meat before we leave and pry we can find a freezer big enough to take all the meat. I think the butchering should be done out front of the house. It will save on the mess.”
“Agreed, I’ll give you some help with it,” said Tina, and was followed by both Sandra and Abs agreeing to help, as it would get it done quicker. Some of the work could be left for tomorrow.
As they approached the front of the house, the front door opened and Bee came running out of it and was closely followed by Angelique.
“What the hell is going on?” Sandra said to Nibs.
“Yeah what?” responded Nibs and Paul
“Hello guys,” Bee said as she ran past the group.
“Good hunt I seeeeee…,” Angelique said as she started to run after regaining her foot fall balance after tripping off the last step and almost landing on all fours.

The group dropped the four kills and the rest of the butchered meat at the foot of the stairs up to the front door. As they started up the steps Angel and Damieel came out of the door and the leapt over the railings evil glints and smiles playing in their faces. The started after Bee and Angelique
As all five walked in to the main house they saw Darla and Misty where sat legs intertwined and hand in hand. Grezt and Rachel where out on the veranda.
“Very strange,” Nibs quietly said to no one.
Daraus bounded over to where Misty and Darla were sitting.
Misty lifted her head and stared at Daraus as he bounded over to give then both a sloppy kisss. She said after spluttering and wiping her mouth., “Hi hunters. You’ve returned without any kills and this is new?” questionably looking at them.
“No five kills, we left them outside to save contamination of the house. Yeah meet Daraus we found in the forest close to where we camped last night.”
“Any idea what sort of cub? And it’s not a good idea to take wild animals from the natural environment.” Misty asked as she got up off Darla, who also got up and walked over to Sandra.
“Let’s just say it adopted us,” she replied and then said after giving him a tap on the nose with her first finger. “Have him for a while whilst I and the rest of us go and get cleaned and butcher the kills.”
“Right, thanks Sandra, I’ll try and find what sort of cub it is. I would say it’s some form of wolf cub, but we have three different wolves in the mountains and forests,” said Darla as she walked towards the book shelves.
“If anyone wants to feed him they can, it does have some teeth so we’ve been feeding him very finely cutup raw meat from the kills.”
“Where are you going to butcher them?” asked Misty.
“Outside I think would be better,” Nibs replied.
“Excellent, you want any help?” asked Misty.
“Yeah, more hands the better as we are planning on helping to setup a festival from tomorrow. Oh yes, you guys are invited to join us if you wish,” said Tina, “It’s the festival my mum and dad helped at so I’m going to help and maybe catch up with friends and things.” She followed Nibs and Sandra down the ramp to the Armoury.

*****

After about twenty minutes all five hunters appeared from the armoury in the bath robes they had worn yesterday morning. They all disappeared up to the bedrooms to put some more appropriate clothes on, they then all came and sat down for a smoke and a bit of relaxing before they started butchering and skinning the kills. After Sandra had finished the Cambar cigarette she had rolled she headed for the kitchen and checked the coffee machine was on. “Coffee guys?” Sandra asked.
“Chai please, thanks hun,” answered Nibs.
“Yeah thanks Sandra,” both Abs and Tina replied.
“You didn’t have a choice babe, that’s what I am doing; if you want something else you do it.!!” Sandra spiritedly said with a smile on her face.
Nibs got up and headed for the kitchen and smiled as she passed Sandra. She placed her hand on her buttocks and gave them a squeeze at the same time.
“Oh, mm,” she responded and turned to see Nibs wink at her.
“I’ll think about it hun.”

Nibs looked playfully down, as she knew Sandra was playing, but Nibs wanted to get the yes out of her.
“It ain’t going to work hun,” said Sandra with a smile.
“Ok then,” she responded, and continued to prepare a cup of Chai for herself.
“You two are two real lovers ain’t you,” said Darla when Nibs and Sandra returned carrying the coffee’s. Darla sat back down still holding Daraus and carrying a book.
“Daraus come here,” she said. Daraus jumped down from Darla’s lap and took two bounding jumps and landed in her arms.
“Right, what I can tell you it has an Albino wolf’s eyes and the Timber wolf’s cub fur. That’s about as far as I can tell you.”
“Mm, interesting,” Nibs said. “Well anyway, when I’ve finished this I’m going to get the butchering and cleaning process started.”
“Yeah true, especially with the festival setup starting tomorrow,” said Darla. “One bonus the vans are ready to go, they all now have camping gear and general outdoor supplies loaded, all that’s got to go on is our specialist gear, armour and weapons.”
“That’s an easy job for tomorrow morning,” said Abs.

Upon finishing her chai, she got up and disappeared in to the Armoury. She headed for a small section near the farthest corner, she had seen what looked like some general survival equipment and included was a butchering and skinning kit. She grabbed a complete kit and also a couple of sharp knives. She then went to where she had put her kit and took her machete and started back up the ramp. When she walked out she smiled at everyone and turned towards the front door. She walked up the stair and through it. When she had reached the ground she headed for the garage and found one of the largest tarps, she laid it on the ground in front of the house. She took Sandra’s kill laid it on the trap. she swung the machete and removed the head, this was quickly followed by her removing the hoofs of the Ulit. She placed the machete on the ground and took the larger of the two knives dragging it down the centre of the chest and stomach wall. The blade easily sliced through the skin and muscle. Very quickly she had a cut running from the base of the neck to the animals penis.
She looked up and saw Sandra had appeared on the veranda and was stood watching her work. She then stopped and walked into the garage and took a large bucket and a pair of gloves. She walked back and slip her hand in and pulled the guts, lungs and heart out and dropped them in to the bucket. She reached in for a second time and pulled the blood vessels from the neck and limb muscles. The last yank pulled the colon and the bladder tube away.
She then looked up and saw Abs and Darla were stood waiting for the carcus so they could start skinning it.

*****

Abs and Darla walked out and headed down the stairs, whilst Darla waited for Nibs to finish processing the first animal Abs walked into the garage and collected a second and third tarp and laid one of them on the ground for Darla and a second for a third set of people to work on.
After laying out the third tarp she went back to help Darla and as Nibs passed the now gutted animal to them she remembered, ‘The hide from yesterdays dinner.’ She headed back into the house and down to the Armoury, where they had put their stuff. She took out the skin she had skinned from yesterdays dinner and headed back to the front of the house with it.
She walked past Darla and Misty as they removed the skin from the second animal. She walked into the garage and took five pegs and a length of cord. She came out and she forced the five pegs in and attached the skin to four of the pegs by its four limbs and to the fifth by its neck. She then walked back into the garage and collected a set of over trousers and slipped them over her trousers. As she was about to walk out she saw Tina and Sandra standing outside waiting for her.
“You two here to help or watch?” she asked as she walked out of the garage.
“Help if you can use us,” replied Sandra.
“Yeah I can, follow me and,” she looked at the pair and continued, “you may want to put on some over trousers, because scrapping the fat from the inside of the skin is not pleasant and is rather smelly.”
“Ok,” said the pair and they heading into the garage.
Abs walked to where the bag was and took out two fat scrapers out, she ran her thumb across the edge and felt what she wanted to feel, a very sharp blade. She looked down the edge and saw that it was incredibly fine, and the edge on both sides was polished. She turned and saw both the girls standing waiting each wearing a pair of over trousers. She walked towards them and said, “What we are going to do is scrape the last of the muscles and fat from the inside of the skin.”
She knelt down and placed the scraper at a very shallow angle and took a film of muscle and fat from the skin. “This will take a while as no fat or muscle can remain as it will start to decompose and will stink to high heaven.”
As the three walked towards where Abs had pegged out the first skin Sandra asked, “What are the uses for the skins?”
“Uses are many,” replied Nibs as she walked over after finishing the gutting process on all four carcases. “Skins on some drums are made from animal skins. Some cultures use skins for clothing, ceremonial situations. The uses a skin can be put too are numerous.”
Abs looked at where Nibs had been working and saw Paul was in the process of gutting the last animal.
“I came over to suggest that we,” Nibs indicated the pair of them, “We should look at butchering the carcausses.”
“That would be a good idea. How about a large fire to celebrate a very successful week I think,” she said as she walked with Nibs to the last tarp.
Bee, Rachel, Angelique, Angel and Damieel returned after they had finished what ever had been happening. Abs stopped and turned to the five and said, “We are going to light a fire and therefore we need wood lots of it.”
“Ok,” replied Bee and Angelique and they both now had smiles on their faces. The five just disappeared into the forest surrounding the house.
After the five had gone Abs turned and drew her hunting knife. She picked up one of the animals and ringed the hind quarters with the tip. She then placed the hand carrying the knife against the side and with the left hand she gripped the leg near the hip area. She then pulled the leg away from the body. She then finished the cut and then using a considerably more pressure she sliced through the muscle and tendons she quickly reached the joint and here she pulled it away.
“Shall I,” said Paul from above her.
She looked up and saw Paul stood there carrying the machete. “Yeah thanks,” she said and removed her hand.
Paul bent down and after placing the edge of the blade where he wanted the cut to go. He swung up and brought the blade down hard against the joint, which came apart fully when Paul turned the blade so widening the gap. “I think Nibs prefers her method, but the machete works at going through joints so well why not use it.”
“For this work, Paul the smaller boning knife is a butcher’s preferred weapon, with a razor sharp knife I can strip the meat away and then keep the joint intact rather than possibly shattered. The very action of a swing bring inheritant possible errors in. Paul didn’t you notice I switched blades when I came to actually opening the guts up.”

Paul walked over to where Nibs was butchering a carcaus. Nibs had moved from the hind quarters to the fore leg area, where she made an initial deep cut and drew it around the top of the shoulder and back to the opposite side. She then pulled the limb away and finished the cut. She then stroked the blade through a second time and was at the joint and a quick work of the blade around the joint it came away.
“You use the heavy blades when you want ribs or that style of meat made up.”
“Oh,” he replied as he realized that the variety of knives an old fashioned butcher had had was for different jobs in the preparation of meat.
After a short while of watching Nibs and Abs butcher the animals, he saw the five girls collecting wood had gathered quite a pile and he walked to where it was and gathered up an arm full of twigs and small branches. He made a pile and using his boot knife he made short cuts that caused a small bit of the branch to roll away, a short while later he had five and using his lighter he lit them. He used the smallest twigs to make sure the kindling stayed lit and when these were burning well he used the slightly bigger twigs and progressively larger branches until the fire was well lit and was hot enough to dry out some of the other logs.

While the fire was getting started Abs was watching Paul with Nibs. She said, “I never realized how good it feels to actually be teaching the skills my dad taught me to other people, especially those willing and wanting to learn.”
Gretz walked towards the pair asking when she was close enough, you planning on continuing the scrapping at the festival?”
“Yeah, we’ll have to due to the possibility of decomposition and the smell attracting scavengers and carrion eaters.”
“You thought about how you are going to go about it?”
“No, other than use the same system of laying it out and scrapping it that way,” she replied after spending a couple of seconds thinking about it.
“Why not use the side of the vans. All you are going to need is a sturdy frame and you can tie the skin to it and scrap that way.”
“That is a good idea Gretz,” she replied as Nibs walked to where Sandra had stood up.

Nibs turned around and saw Abs and Gretz both heading for the garage to build the rig they would need when at the fair. She moved behind her and grabbed her around the waist and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Sandra turned and kissed her back. She then pulled away and headed into the house with Tina to get cleaned up.
She followed her so she could start the dinner.

*****

Around 07:00AN most of the friends were outside, only Nibs and Sandra were inside but the windows of the kitchen area were open and the limited music selection from her Digital Player could be heard playing from the windows.
Then they heard the sound an approaching motorbike, she wondered, ‘who could that be?’
Her question was soon answered when Gary appeared around the last bend and slowed. He parked up with the other bikes and the three vans, saying. “Sorry guys for not telling you I was coming back this evening, the coach has dropped me from the team for the next game only, he wants me back for the final, especially after last nights performance, 13 of our 25 points from my ball handling skills.”
“Sweet, Gary,” she called from the kitchen, “I’ll be out in a minute.” A short time later Sandra and her appeared from the front door carrying a large roasting tray with a good sized portion of meat on, she took it to the fire then covered it with a large metal lid. She placed it on the hot embers at the side of the fire and using a stick she scrapped some of the embers so they were surrounding the tray. Sandra appeared carrying a spade which she took and picked up more and dropped them onto the top of the roasting tray and lid. She used the spade and pushed it closer to the centre of the fire so it would stay hot and continue to cook the joint.
Darla disappeared into the house and quickly returned with a traditional coffee making jug which she placed at the edge of the fire on one of the hot stones.
“Tell us the low down about that’s happening at school?” asked Tina.
“Ok, I will, give me a chance to chill that’s a hard ride.”
“Ok,” responded Tina.

After Gary had had a drink and a smoke he continued, “Yeah, The Aces want pay-back big time, rumours have it that Zoe and Amy are planning something for both you and Abs, Sandra. And Simoine wants his shades back, Nibs.”
“He can have them if he can take them from me,” responded Nibs.
“I thought that would be your answer to that.”
All of the Vixens laughed at the comment. Misty then said, “When you guys go head to head, invite us as this bunch sound like the need a good street kicking.”
“They do
“Yeah, bring it on Aces, We’ve kicked them a few times in a war zones, lets do it close and personal,” said Darla smiling from what he could see.
“From what I’ve heard, Simon is laughing at the complaints, saying they brought the pain on themselves for being bullies, and that people who bully sometimes get their comeuppance. But he will make sure any thing the Aces plan is as above board as he can make sure it is.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Abs.
“You know we are all planning on coming to the big game itself,” said Paul.
“No, I was hopping you would do that,” he replied smiling at the fact that when the last game was over he could tell Detrict what he thought of him, which was pleasant. He smiled as he thought of what he knew Detrict would want to do to him and if it came down to a fight that the twat wouldn’t stand a chance against him. ‘You’ve never met Gangrel Street up close and personal before have you Detrict, oh this is going to be so much fun.’
“Let Simon know that if the Aces want to come get a piece of us then all they have to do is ask formally and nicely,” said Sandra.
“Yeah and we will be happy to accommodate them,” both Paul and Nibs said.
The rest of the evening was spent sitting around the fire enjoying each other’s company.