Retaliation

<snip>
Reloading, Jay spun around and faced Jaxx, and he stunned Jade. “We gotta get everyone, and get outta here…”
He yelled “Come on let’s move…”
</snip>
“What about the other guests?” Jade demanded, having to raise her voice to be heard above a man’s screams in another part of the coaching inn “We can’t just abandon them!”
“Bollocks” Jay hissed in frustration “You’re right! Okay, room by room - We evacuate as we go!” he paused to point at Alex and Jamie who had just arrived “Guys – Take the doors down this corridor and get all the guests out of here; we’ll take the other rooms on the top floor, across the landing”
He paused to glance around
“Where’s Cass?” he snapped, his expression darkening
“She went off about fifteen minutes ago, to scout that farmhouse we escaped from last night” Jade replied “I don’t think she was expecting anything like this to happen – She said that the hosts never attack during daylight!”
“Fucks sake!” Jay spat, the expletive making Jade wrinkle her nose in distaste “She could be in real trouble. I'm going out to find her - Do we know what this farm's called?”
“Carters... It was Carters Farm, I think”
“Good enough” Jay turned and began hurrying away down the corridor, his pistol drawn and at the ready "Make sure you get everyone out of here!" he yelled back over his shoulder
“I’ll come with you” Katrina called after him
“No way” Jay stopped and turned to face her with a shake of his head “I’ll travel faster alone, and besides: You’re needed here Kitty - You've more experience than anyone else, so make sure they stay safe!”
The discussion settled as far as he was concerned, Jay was out through the doorway at the end of the corridor, and away down the narrow stairs without another word

Outside:
<snip>
There was a shriek from the building and Plisken searched the windows for a target. Katrina was fending off a maid with her bare hands but a tall barman was creeping up behind her. Even in Plisken’s hangover he still managed to score a hit, sending skull and glass fragments down the corridor. Katrina struck the butt of her pistol over the maid’s head and turned to her rescuer. She gave a smile and a nod to Plisken. Plisken returned the gesture with a tip of an imaginary hat. The old man in a woman's body dashed over to the front door to help his friends.
</snip>
Rounding the corner past the old outhouses on his way to the main entrance, Plisken nearly collided with Cassandra who wordlessly swept past him wearing an expression like thunder; the old man only belatedly realising that the cream coloured, short sleeved dress the woman was wearing, was splattered with blood, and that she was armed with two heavy pistols, one in each hand
Screams emanated from within the building as they approached the front door, which Cass didn’t even bother trying, and instead booted open; the nanosuit assisted kick splintering the heavy lock from the doors timbers before she marched into the inns gloomy interior, guns at the ready
Inside, in the main bar area, were five of the infected, three holding a screaming man and a woman pinned to the ground, while a further two leaned over them with hideously distended jaws
Following in Cassandra's wake, Plisken had only just fanned out into position behind her, and was raising his rifle to take aim at one of the hosts when Cass opened fire with both her pistols
Jay burst into the room from behind another door, guns at the ready, in the seconds it took for the hosts to die; the bodies of the two Cass didn’t execute with head shots, immediately beginning to twitch and spasm as the mind spiders in their skulls tore themselves from the dying nervous systems, with the intention of finding fresh prey
Another couple of shots finished these off and Cass quickly turned to Plisken
“Check the man and the woman” she told him in a low voice “If either have lacerations around the mouth, kill them”
“Cass!” Jay called, the relief evident in his voice as he dashed across the room towards her "Are you okay?"
For a single heart stopping moment, Cass thought he was going to sweep her into his arms, and her breath hitched in her throat as he neared, her eyes widening with a confusing welter of emotions; all of which proved unnecessarily pointless as he pulled up short, his brown eyes searching hers in concern
“Are you okay?” he repeated
Flustered, she glanced away to fumble one of the pistols back into its housing on her gun belt and, momentarily forgetting she still had short hair, scooped an imagined stray lock back behind an ear
“I’m peachy” she murmured shakily, her eyes meeting his for an instant before darting away again "Nice to know you care"
“That blood’s not yours, is it?” Jay nodded down at her dress, choosing not to rise to that comment
“No” Cass sighed and shook her head, self-consciously smoothing her free hand down her dress “I was set upon by another three hosts; had to leave their bodies in a ditch not far down the road from here. This is all going to shit”
“That was great shooting...”
“Fire!” Artie’s yell drifted down from upstairs “Fire! Everyone out of the windows! There’s a fire!”
Jay glanced up towards the ceiling, a smile playing across his lips
“Good man” he grinned as he turned his attention back to Cass “So what's been happening? – We didn’t get chance to catch up last night”
“Those two are okay!” Plisken announced as he approached, jerking a thumb back at the sobbing woman being comforted by the man behind him
“Get them out of here” Cass and Jay both said in unison, making Plisken smirk at the two of them and wordlessly turn to encourage the couple out of the building
“We don’t have much time” Cass frowned, glancing back to Jay “There's a fair on today and a big party planned for the evening; I think the hosts are massing here with the intention of impregnating as many people as possible, so they can spread the infection even further and faster
“Today’s probably our best chance to identify where they came from and why” she continued “If we’re lucky we can perhaps use the opportunity eradicate them in this area”
“Yeah, agreed” Jay nodded and folded his arms as he turned from her to eye the corpses while the rest of the Dwarfers hurried down the stairs and into the room “We don't have long before what's gone on here is common knowledge” he grumbled “We need to clear out of here, and fast!”
“The constabulary will probably be here in around ten minutes” Cass said, addressing the rest of the crew “I’m one of the gentry around here, so I’ll deal with them” she sighed, running a hand back through her short hair and letting it fall to her side “In the meantime, it’s what...? Nearing seven?”
“The fair on the outskirts of the village will be opening in about an hour” she continued “There’ll probably be a good few thousand people, from far and wide, in attendance today; all prime candidates for infection”
“That’s right” Jay agreed “We need to find out where these things have come from and what it is we can do to shut them down”
“From what I’ve seen” Cass explained “The hosts seem to act with a unified purpose, which only goes to strengthen the case for some sort of psychic ability or other; so I’m guessing there must be a way of directing these spiders
“A central consciousness would be too vulnerable and easy to take out, so we’re probably looking for a network of command and control nodes of some sort”
“Yeah, I’d agree with that” Jay nodded “I’ve seen similar attacks with different species before now; by the sound of it the spiders aren’t big enough to be sentient, so there has be something else – We need to find out what it is and where it is; and once we sort that out, we all can go home”
Cass shot him something of a nervous sideways glance before she continued
“From the briefing I was given before we came here” she said “There was the impression that this might in some way be connected with what’s going on in France at the moment; insomuch as if the revolution there spread across the rest of Europe, it might be the precursor to an alien invasion, and an attempt at eradicating our species”
“Oh, for smeg’s sake” Alex sighed “No pressure then, eh?”
“Pah! There’s nothing to worry about dear boy” Artemis waved a dismissive hand at him “We’re all still alive here - Therefore: The attempt fails. We’ll be fine!”
“Well, isn't that just the spirit?” Kat grated, pushing herself up and away from the table she was sat on, and onto her feet “Let’s get out of here, start our search and leave Cass to deal with the police”
“Yeah, I’m... I’m sorry to involve you all in this” Cass announced as the crew made their preparations to leave “But I don’t have a time drive and for better or worse, you’re the only people I trust”
“Huh” Jamie muttered to himself "Two apologies in one lifetime; wonders will never cease..."

<tag>
There’s a fair in town, and a party planned for the evening, which the hosts are planning on hijacking to spread the infection
What sort of mechanism is used to direct the infected?
What do the command nodes look like and where are they?
What are their defences?
How do we find them all and stop them?

Over to you guys
</tag>