Departures Awakening in Cairo after a long night of drinking, the group met for coffee and pastries at an outdoor cafe and were surprised to hear that V3ct0r had gotten cold feet and had decided to head back to the Sprawl. Lily had decided, perhaps rightly so, that traveling abroad with strangers and mercenaries with the prospect of going into a quarantined zone thousands of miles away from home that was guarded by automated death machines was probably not the best thing for her to do during midterms. After messaging Naama about the sudden turn around, Lily's half up front payment of ten thousand credits were immediately rescinded. Using what credits were already available to her from previous runs, she purchased a ticket for a commercial one-way flight back to the Sprawl. On the flight, she reflected on what had happened the previous night. She particularly recalled what Catelyn had said about her when she first met her at the Sand Pit. "Please tell me you didn't go ahead and have another kid, Jake," she said dryly. When Killeroo explained that Lily was a runner, like they were, Catelyn nearly balked at the idea of bringing her along for such a dangerous mission as the one they were going to be heading into. "She's too young to be a runner. Especially on a job like this." Lily remembered how she reacted to that. "I've been through plenty already with these guys and I haven't been shot yet," she spat back. Catelyn laughed at her and rolled her hard eyes. "You do this as long as Jake and I have? You're gonna get shot, kid. Trust m--" She didn't remember what she said next. Only what she did. Lily remembered standing up, reaching across the table and slapping Catelyn across her face. This just before she stormed out of the bar. Lily never got to hear what they said after she left. MC noticed two men Lily had shoved her way past had begun to follower back outside and began to follow them, in turn. "She's just a kid. You're just going to get her killed out there," Catelyn warned Roo. "So were we when we started," Killeroo reminded her. "That was different and you know it. We had no choice but to fight that war." There was resurgence of an edge in her voice when she recalled the old bad days. "Look, she's a pro. Okay? She can handle herself. Sure, she's emotional. So were you at her age." Catelyn smiled and held her hands up. "OK Jake. You vouch for her? Fine, she's on the team. My bad." Lily's encephalon implant churned through the image and the sound of MC snapping one of the mercenary's necks in the dark alleyway outside the Sand Pit. In seconds, the recent memory was an old wound healed by time. She burrowed through her backpack and hit play on her Suiko-Suite headset as the aircraft lifted off of the tarmac. Khalil After breakfast at the cafe, the rest of the group continued to the underground tunnel station at the heart of the city's metroplex. Killeroo was reminded how it feels to be an outcast in society when station security insisted he ride in car apart from everyone else. Catelyn surprised the hybrid by walking into his substandard car and taking a seat next to her ex-husband. The two old lovers smiled at one another knowingly as the doors closed. With the transfers, frequent stops along the line and the connection to Gaza at Port Said, the ride itself lasted almost twelve hours in total. Gaza was just what everyone imagined; the biggest outdoor slum this side of the middle-east. Leaving the underground station and emerging into the night air, the team found that though cars traveled the roads at night, taxis were nowhere to be found in the immediate port side area. Traveling on foot towards where they were expecting to meet their appointed contact, they made it to a small hangar a few minutes outside of the city that had seen better days. Noticing that there was little to no security at this location, given its remoteness to the city, the team split up and began to take a closer look. Catelyn took point on the highest ground nearby and scoped out the premises, reporting that she saw a fenced-in area behind the hangar with dozens of different vehicles. Killeroo snuck to an exterior wall and waited. MC went into full camouflage and entered through the wide open hangar doorway. Immediately, MC saw that the interior of the building seemed to be caught in mid-construction or re-construction. The cyborg silently moved his way past plastic covered walls and equipment. Entering into a small room, illuminated only by the glow of a terminal, MC took a ready position as auditory sensors picked up someone moving into the vicinity. Just an old man. MC watched as the man settled into a chair in front of the terminal and continued his work. Taking a closer look, MC saw that the old man kept a small pistol tucked away in the small of his back. Using a throat microphone to communicate silently with the rest of the team, MC reported the situation. "Must be our contact," remarked Catelyn. As the short lived tension died down, the group slowly trickled into the building. Seeing a large kangaroo hybrid standing at the doorway to the hangar saying "hello", the old man regarded Roo with curiosity. "Oh, are you...? Yes, you must be with them, aren't you?" The man nearly jumped as his pistol unexpectedly slid from behind his back and floated in the air seconds before a figure clad in black chrome materialized before his addled eyes. "It's ok," Killeroo assured their contact. "MC's with us." Breathing a sigh of relief, the old man went on to introduce himself as Khalil. He then alluded to the team being with "the other guy" that Naama had sent. Puzzled, they asked who Khalil was referring to. That's when old Palestinian man called in a runner simply called "Edgar". Moments later, a man wearing a light exo-frame and an extremely customized high tech helmet and face mask stepped into the room. MC noticed that the technology, though old, was modified and coupled with pieces made by Shidao Corporation. The group introduced one another to this newcomer and spoke at some length about their skill sets and the mission at hand. Realizing that neither MC or Edgar had much to say, Khalil proposed that the group take some time to rest before coming together to put together a plan for their run. The old man showed everyone to sparse rooms constructed completely in concrete. MC and Edgar seemed to size one another up silently before making their way into their own separate quarters. Catelyn and Killeroo shared a room together for the evening for the first time in almost a decade. The next morning, the team met with Khalil in a small kitchen where the old man made tea, coffee and offered them pastries for breakfast. While everyone sat around and talked at length, the old man reminded them that the remainder of their things were waiting for them out back in a metallic green container. Killeroo opened the container and found his EMP grenades that he had requested from Naama back in the Sprawl were there, along with Lil' Betty. Seeing that neither MC or Edgar were partaking in what he was offering them, he suggested the group follow him into the main room where he can go over Naama's intel with them. Drawing up holographic displays of the neighborhood Max Hersch lived in before the chemical attack, Khalil donned wired gloves that allowed him to zoom directly into the exact location of his old residence. "This is where you may find answers to Naama's questions about Ada Adler." After going over the dangers of the chemicals that lingered still in the port of Jaffa, he recommended that the team wear some bio-hazard suits he kept in the back near the quarantine room and the medical supplies. "If you are exposed, you are to extract yourself immediately. If this is done swiftly enough, there is a good chance that placing you in the quarantined room may help your chances of surviving." Next the Palestinian technologist drew up blueprints of the automated mechs that Babylon had placed to patrol the border around Port Jaffa and other locations around Israel. He pointed out that because the mechs were closed systems, they did not receive or broadcast out information making it impossible for a netrunner or even a drone operator could hack into their systems. "These things are not just anti-personnel, they're anti-tank as well. Conventional arms will do next to nothing to them. So unless you came appropriately armed, I recommend you avoid them as much as possible." Edgar suggested that he might be able to compromise the mech's automated programming and re-code it provided the team managed to "bag" one and bring it someplace where he could tinker with it safely. Killeroo watched satellite recorded footage of the mech unit's movements along the border and theorized that he might be able to get the group past their sensors without them realizing it. Lastly, Khalil touched on the rumors of "ghouls" skittering about at night and in dark places. Though it was never confirmed by the IDF, the military did admit that several of their border guards had disappeared without a trace while on duty at the border of Jaffa. Mainly, however, they attributed it to the soldiers having gone AWOL. No one, of course, believed this. Khalil posited different rumored theories that suggested some people who were caught in the chemical attack on Jaffa were transformed into mutants, for lack of a better term. Outside of that, no one had ever captured sight of one of these seemingly mindless cannibals and the government of Israel never confirmed their existence. Edgar plugged a wire into the holo console and began downloading all of the specs Naama had provided on the mechs and the surrounding geographical area. Dead Cities Once everyone seemed ready for departure, Khalil had the team pile into a small van while he drove an old white Volvo to the first checkpoint out of Gaza. Following behind his vehicle, the team watched as the old man handed the guards there a small box. This somehow allowed swift entry for both vehicles into Israel. After over an hour of traveling from Ashkelon to Ashdod and, finally, to Tel Aviv, the group followed Khalil's Volvo to a series of barricades miles from the port of Jaffa's entry from the rest of Tel Aviv. He wished them luck on their run and reminded them about what to do should they become contaminated. With this, the team began to make their way through the barricades and into Jaffa. In the distance, they were able to scope out a patrol of three of Babylon's automated mechs. Killeroo suggested going through the sewers would be easier than risk getting detected by these walking death machines. The rest of the team agreed and made their way into the dark sewer system beneath Tel Aviv after locating a manhole cover near the concrete barricades. As they moved towards the old abandoned port city, Edgar used his high tech helmet to emit a pulse wave that captured their surroundings and recreated it in stunning detail. Effectively freeze framing every part of the tunnel system within 20 yards, the runner caught sight of a corpse not too far away--facing down and not moving. Edgar dispatched a small camera scout drone to get a closer look while maintaining a good distance away. Using the drone's eyes, Edgar used the pulse again to add to his holo map of the sewer line. Now there were multiple corpses lining the tunnel. Killeroo ears perked up the moment the hybrid began hearing sounds of movement coming from beyond their position. MC confirmed this through the cyborg's own auditory and movement sensors. Before Edgar could recall his drone, the third pulse wave revealed a swarm of corpses were heading their way. The ghouls, it turned out, were very real and the team had just made their way into their home.