Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Play-by-Post => Topic started by: Celtibero on <04-11-14/2125:26>
-
@bewilderbeast
Hey Johnny! That cheap ass thing you call a commlink is flashing again! Just brewed some fresh soykaf, want some?
You rub your eyes and look at the old digital timepiece on the wall, 09:12 AM, the dry mouth effect seems to be on, the Bliss effect long gone, at least it was a peaceful night, no Julissa harassing you in your dream, she had been a handful in life, after she´s gone… well… let´s just say Bliss has its uses.
You pick up the sensei commlink lying on top of your coat, Smits shinny trideo hurts your eyes as soon as you turn your head in its direction, thing is still going full tilt at 9AM, you shake your head and grumble at the commlink to open the new message that seems to be “disturbing” Adam Smit’s.
The video message screen pops up only to show some static in the form of snow. Good morning Mr. Ju-Ju, It seems your services are required again, a Mr. Johnson has asked for a meeting, the place and time are attached in a file along with this message, as far as I was able to check it is a milk run or very close, his credit is good and your cut should you choose to accept is marked at 7500 Nuyen, I am counting on your availability to perform the run, should you choose not to I expect a response by today before lunch time. Goes without saying that forwarding names, is a measure of trust on a given individual and an expectation of further business as opportunities arise. Good day to you Mr. Ju-Ju.
As soon as the message ends a file pops replacing the snow static on the commlink display.
//attached file #001 // sender: Mr. Snow
Name: Banshee Bar
District Location: Redmond Barrens
Apointment time: 2200
//open map display//
A map location with the icon for the meeting pops in a smaller window.
Hey! You want the bloody soykaf or not? You ear Adam yell in his gruff baritone voice
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@JackVII
You wake up startled by some loud shouting
YOU LOW-LIFE MISERABLE BASTARD! YOU WENT WITH THAT SKUNK! ILL RIP YOUR LUNGS OUT the coffin walls barely able to contain the noise that seems to be coming from a few meters away keep it low lady, there are people who work here trying to sleep a more distant voice echoes, maybe on the upper stack of the coffin motel. MIND YOUR OWN FRAGGIN BUSINESS YOU PIECE OF DREK! yells back the shrill female voice, you think you recognize it, it’s that old beetle addict that keeps yapping all the time that her husband is a low life who doesn’t earn enough for them to live in a proper place. You try to block it out, its difficult yes, sometimes you wonder what on earth you did to deserve this sort of drek, the flashing commlink does come to your help, as you shift your attention to the message flashing on it, yet another piece of drek, but hey, at least it’s a way to stay in touch, drek or no drek.
The screen comes to life as you play the message, the all too familiar face of “Hex" seemingly fumbling with her commlink.
Hoy there, its me Hex… right you already noticed that by the image… no matter… listen I was talking to Snow just now… you don’t know him, remember you talking to me about wanting to know the lay of the land? Ok, here is the thing, Snow… he's a well connect chummer, he was trying to talk me into something… not my piece of cake… so I just say him no… he starts calling favours and all that… well not my thing nowadays… so I think of you, you could use the contact and some easy work on the sprawl to know the local wildlife… right, so things is gonna happen down at the Banshee bar… silly name I know… at 2200 today… Mr. Johnson wants to discuss a gig… and hey… before you think I am all flowers and sunshine I already have my finder’s fee, you owe me one though
And as the dwarven female hangs off with a smile the sound of a gunshot sounds down in the allway, the sound too close to be considered reassuring in this part of town.
GOD DAMMIT WOMAN YOU ALMOST HIT ME ! a male voice shouts just after the tiny ring of a bullet ricocheting on metal YOU FRAGGER!! I WILL KILL YOU AND THAT SLUTTY SNOTTY BITCH!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@vandarl
It was a slow Morning that day, Sam had dropped by to check up on you and decided to grab some chow at Mogul´s, people came and went down the street, mostly middle class wageslaves, a few Pawns in blatantly marked vehicles also cruised up and down.
Anyways, those Pawn guys cruising still give me the chills, I'm cool, I'm cool, all wiz, so the new kid was loud-mouthing the new old lady that setup shop by the old mall, supposed to be some kind of flower shop Sam Saturn, old Chumm of yours, back when you ran with the Cutters in the day and that was not so long ago although after doing some hard time it looked as if had already been an eternity ago
so, the woman, ork, middle aged, hand that look like a slab of meat, big right tusk, comes around the counter, grabs the kid by the ear, slaps a couple hard slaps across his face and throws him out, we where parked outside, really we did not know if we should do something or just stand out there laughing it Sam keeps on yapping like he has a soykaf IV jacked up in his arm, he always did that with you, but you know he is usually more reserved when it comes with dealing with the guys in the cutters, respect is a nasty thing to loose, thus he gives it sparingly.
As you listen to Sam's story the Mogul owner, an elderly ork woman, some weight on her weary bones and she has the look of someone who has raised more than a few dozens of kids and grandsons, clearly she goblinized early, she gives you a tusky grin, a warm one for that matter, you kids enjoying the Seviyan upma? she asks both of you in an heavily accented English, All Wiz maam Sam flashes his perfect smile back at her while holding the fork up with some vermicelli erzats on it, He is about the same age as you are, early twenties, a few guys in the cutters used to call him "prettyboy" but none to his face, the last one who did that had a brand new teeth bill on his wallet.
Its not a full house but clearly the place has patrons, the deco is clearly Indian, with Gods everywhere, one stranger than the other, the tables and benches are wooden like, most likely made of some artificial polymer, as you are deep in your thoughts Sam frowns at you Bobby, I am sorry for that drek that happened, there was nothing we could do to get you out of the heat he sounds sincere, like he always did with you there is a new management down in the cutters, you know Waltz right? he asked me to say that he appreciates you keeping your silence, and that you are good to ride with us any time, your choice just then you notice why he's frowning, your right arm is protectively enveloping the plate of Seviyan Upma noodles, old habits die hard and down in the mainline joint it became an habit, for you and everyone to protect their food least somebody had any ideas. Just as you are about to answer a message flashes in front of your eyes, you mentally open it, the display superimposes the letters in the left upper side corner of your vision.
//sender: "Pops"// Time: 12:58
//text msg: Hey kiddo. i have some drek i want to talk with you, contact me over a secure line or drop by in a couple hours, all good, i have some work for you//
-
Somewhere, on a nearby island stood a figure, wearing a long coat fluttering in a local seabreeze. In his teeth was a smoldering cigar, wafting its smoke through the air. Captain John Cormac was this man, standing at six foot four inches, his braided dirty blond hair hung down around his neck, what was braided blew in the breeze.
He stood, one foot on the stone railing of his rather small house. It used to be rather luxurious, but after spending a fortune partying and buying all sorts of action figures, his house's grounds needed a lot of improving to be considered luxurious again. Hell, it was harder to pirate Triads with this slower grids he was forced to use. Tilting his head back, he chucked a mug of frothy stout, slamming it down on the milk crate table next to him.
"Hmm.. I think I need to go steal something. Maybe shoot someone."He rubbed his short pointed beard with a hand, "Just who would pay for that?" He wondered out loud to himself.
-
[ 0915 | Stoker's Coffin Motel | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Fraggin' mundies... Baron Mojo thought to himself as he heard the cacophony of sniveling voices surrounding him. Were his situation better, he would certainly have given them something to warrant the bitching and moaning. As it was, his situation was not, in fact, better. In fact it really couldn't get much worse. At least he was alive, which is more than the mage could say about the team he left behind in Bean Town. As, I always told them, only the strong survive. A pity, that...
Before cycling the coffin open, Baron Mojo laid in the relative silence and darkness of the enclosed space. While the trid projector was unsurprisingly broken, the small two-dimensional security screen glowed with a dull light, showing an image of the exterior of the coffin. Picking up his commlink, he replayed Hex's message again. Opening up the less-than-spectacular calendar application loaded on his commlink, Baron Mojo added the appointment with Mr. Johnson to his very unfortunately clear calendar. Well, at least this may promise some opportunity for work. This drek-hole certainly doesn't fit my station... he thought while composing a quick message to Hex.
<<@Hex [BaronMojo] Message received, Hex. Thank you for the referral. You know that I am still learning my way around here. Do you happen to have an address and any pertinent information regarding this Banshee Bar?>>
With the message sent, Baron Mojo checked the security screen and cycled the coffin open. With nothing more than the clothes on his back, his wardrobe options were decidedly limited. Gathering his few belongings, he walked to the shared, and fortunately unoccupied, restroom at the end of the hall. The overhead phosphorescent lighting flickered maddeningly, but Baron Mojo had grown accustomed to it over time. While the coffin hotel didn't maintain showers of any sort, the bathroom did feature a pair of sinks. Tapping in his access code, the mage turned on the water faucet. The ration of cold water was just enough for him to brush his teeth and wash his face. He had only managed a few showers since fleeing Boston; Baron Mojo hoped that the new job would promise many showers in his future.
The bathroom also provided the mage the privacy to perform another needed function. Even in his current situation, it was unseemly for him to go without a minion. Channeling the mana around him, Baron Mojo slipped his senses to the Astral and tore open the fabric of that plane, pulling forth a struggling spirit form. Given the summoning occurred in a bathroom, the spirit appeared as a strange amalgam of a sink for a head, a wall-mounted urinal for the body, and various pipes and nozzles forming its limb; all of it wrapped in toilet paper, giving the vague appearance of a mummy.
"Cease your struggles!" Baron Mojo thundered on the astral plane. "Your will is now suborned to mine, serve me well and you may go on your way at sunset. Serve me poorly..." The spirit complied silently, clearly less than pleased with its current circumstance. The mage took the time to wipe away the astral signature left behind on the plane by the summoning before slipping his senses back to the Material.
Finishing his morning preparations, Baron Mojo exited the bathroom and headed for the front of the building. The two idiots were still yelling at each other. With any luck, one or the other would be dead by the time he returned. Walking out the front door, the mage straightened his rumpled suit and looked around. If I were a reagent, where would I try to futility hide?
-
@Triskavanski
A ship horn blows in the distance, the wind blows in your face and hair, your braided hair floating in the soft breeze and the commlink chirping... Instead of fishing it out of your pocket you don your monocle, instantly you see the virtual parrot flapping his wings and moving its beak, You have a incoming call captain sounds the virtual bird in your ears, its now the time to fish the commlink out of you coat, as you do so and accept the incoming call you notice its not any of your acquaintances.
A small windows displaying only snow static appears on your field of view.
Good morning Captain, Ol’ One Eye took the liberty of providing me you contact, hope you don't mind. You can call me Mr. Snow, a Mr. Johnson is putting up a crew for a simple job, Ol’ One Eye assured me i could count on you, and i am always on the lookout for new talent, are you following me so far Captain?
As it seems your proverbial luck strikes again, just when you where wondering how to gain some loot there comes the opportunity you where desiring for.
-
"Ah Excellent. I've been expecting you Mr. John Snow." John says, moving back into his house going through his gear. His home was pretty much in shambles of what it used to be. No where near as bad if he could be considered 'middle classed', but it certainly wasn't as luxious as it should have been. Clearly the man needed to get some cash to fix that up eventually."When and where do I meet you? Or is this the meeting call? Where can I find my crew at the local tavern?"
He was already starting to pack his gear into a duffle bag, and hoist it over his shoulder. Except for his sword, which he slid into his scabbard, soon moving down to his island's docks, to a small rowboat, an antiquated little thing that could hardly be called a real boat, only good to get into the town.
-
@martinchaen
The low rumble of the Nigh Rod Special would be introduction enough had the MCT fly-spy not given you enough early warning that a group of 3 motorcycles where approaching and that they where parking just outside your workshop, doors closed and the street sporting the usual traffic, this was a place for those in the know and not for those looking for a random chop shop auto customizer.
it would be pretty hard to miss who the visitor was, as far as you knew only one person in Seattle, maybe two, drove this kind of Harley classic, and since you had been the one to customize it and bring certain specs up to modern standard that meant that Valkyrie was coming to pick up the Diabolus she had commissioned you with certain modifications. it stood ready, gleaming and shiny in the centre of the workshops, its bright Ferrari red sparking in the gloom of the shop.
Parking the bike, two non-descript rapiers parking just after her, Tora stepped from the bike, the small effort to hoist the leg above the seat spoke of her height, the tall (huge in fact) muscular body, the swift and sure movements, the customized helmet sporting a mountain range, yup, that was Tora "Valkyrie" no doubt about it. taking off the helmet and shuffling her long blond hair you ear the voice over the drone microphone you in there? turning to the three guys on the two rapiers she spoke softly, her voice somewhat at odds with her appearance, although the accent was definitely not English, you guys stay here, i have to talk with someone.
-
@Triskavanski
Just as you start gathering your duffel bag you ear a soft chuckle, the snow static still going, i believe you have me wrong Captain, you will not be meeting me, the meeting will be with Mr. Johnson directly, the marked place is the Banshee in the Barrens, the time 2200 hours, is that.. good for you Captain?.
-
The AR pop-up from the drone patrolling the perimeter of his shop alerted Moto to the approaching motorcycles before he heard the low rumble of the liquid-cooled, high-performance V-Twin engine of Valkyrie's Harley-Davidson. The dwarf got up from under the hood of the Thundercloud Morgan he'd been working on, the lengthened springs of the fully-independent off-road suspension setup necessitating the use of a rather tall step ladder in order for him to reach the injection system of the antiquated large-bore petrol engine. Wiping grime off his forehead with an equally grimy palm, Moto mentally toggled his AR feed, minimizing the work plans he'd been using to focus on the video feed from his drone and mute the latest indie Powernoize-band blasting from his stereo system.
He watched through the video feed as the large Nordic woman stood up and walked more than climbed off of the genuine leather saddle; that thing had cost a fortune, but she'd been willing to pay for it, along with a host of other performance and armor upgrades. This was one Night Rod that was truly special, though Moto could tell from the way it idled that the number 4 valve timing was a little off; he made a mental note to have Valkyrie bring the bike in for a tune-up, free of charge of course, at her earliest opportunity as the nitrous system she'd wanted installed needed regular maintenance.
Looking over at the hypercar parked in his garage with lust-filled eyes, he wondered what it would be like to drive the thing; no rigger adaption, no GridGuide, nearly no electronics what-so-ever apart from the engine management system, the switchable traction control, and the alarm. The sleek-looking vehicle reminded him of a stealth-fighter, and it had been so tailored for track usage that it didn't even have floor mats, an entertainment system, or air conditioning. Moto walked over to the sink and washed off as he heard Valkyrie's somewhat clipped English ask for him over the audio sensors, and he mentally unlocked the side door as grabbed the key fob and walked back to the Ferrari, sending the Nordic Giant woman a text on the way.
//Compose message to Valkyrie
//"Good to see you, Tora; the side door is open, please come in."
//Send message
While giving the car one final look-over, he spun up one of his roto-drones and launched it into the air, providing an extra bit of overwatch in case Valkyrie had brought trouble. He didn't recognize the two stock Rapiers or their riders, and he always said it was better to be safe than sorry.
-
Time: 12:58
Bobby was just about to answer Sam when the incoming message flashed on his image link. Motioning to Sam, he held up a finger. "One sec."
//text msg: Hey Pops. Give me a couple and I comm
Focusing back on Sam he smiled apologetically. "No worries Omae. Life is what it is, I got tagged hard and square, Cutters couldn't have done anything about it. so ain;'t no hard feelings. I just got to keep moving and shaking, you know? And it hasn't been to bad lately, and I got a great plate of Seviyan upma, so life is good, am I right? Moving his right arm back so it isn't as obvious that he is 'covering' his food, he flashes a grin. I need to relearn a few habits maybe, that is all.
Scoping up the last of his food and washing it down with his tea he makes ready to get up. :I need to scoot now. Biz cal, you know? Time and money wait for no man, and all that drek. I will give you a comm and we can get together, catch a few brews...in the mean time, lunch is on me. Couple days, OK?" Getting up Bobby settles up with the elderly ork, giving her a smile as well as a tip, and heads outside.
A quick walk back to his apartment and he settles into his comfy chair. Warming up his deck he sets his firewall to the max and loads his sneak and monitor programs and makes his call. //"Hola Pops, the line is clean. Whats shakin?"
-
@JackVII
As you reflect on where any reagents can hide themselves the commlink gives you the distinctive buzz in your coat pocket, the commotion in the motel now distant as you stroll down the street. picking the commlink and looking at the display a text message flashes open.
yes, sorry about that, here is the map and the directions.
As you read the message you find no attached map nor any kind of directions, some thirty seconds later a second message containing a few lines of text and a map display with a tag reaches your commlink. The streets are far from deserted, the low building, most of them derelict or in the process of becoming are not an inviting sight, trash litters the street and the occasional group of go ganger's move fast in your field f view, no one seems to bother you though, maybe you look just shabby enough not to be noticed around here, occasionally a couple of winos and vagabonds peddle you for either booze or some spare Nuyen, but thats the worst harassment that you are subject to.
-
@martinchaen
You watch through the AR display the scene outside, Valkyrie waits a couple seconds before moving towards the door, her movements economical enough, she steps towards the door, its small frame accented by her size, her head tilting sideways as she opens and gingerly steeps inside, after a couple of seconds she moves inside the workshop.
is my new baby ready? she smiles while asking it in her clipped heavily accented english, the smile does become her, one would not call her pretty but she is certainly not dog ugly, depends on the preferences you reckon. plans for tonight? she adds.
-
In heavily accented English, Moto manages to mutter a response in the general direction of the woman standing in his shop, towering a full time and a half his own height over him.
"Ah, ah, yes, Valkyrie-sama, work has been completed; as requested, performance upgrades have been installed, engine has been tuned, and is now ready for road test."
He casts his eyes to the floor, clearly uncomfortable in the presence of the gigantic troll.
"Just, umm, be careful, please; suspension meant for track, not Seattle roads, and power-to-weight ratio makes rear end highly unstable if too much torque is applied. Aaah, also need to talk about... ehem... Night Rod; valve 4 needs timing adjustment, running a little rich. You can leave bike here at your... how you say... convenience."
Shuffling his feet, Moto lookos back over at the off-road vehicle sitting on jacks before answering the next part of her question.
"And besides work, ah, no plans, as usual. Why, you have something interesting for me?"
The dwarf smiles awkwardly at the prospect of working with one of Valkyrie's crews again; the jobs are usually both terrifying and exiting at the same time, the people are wonderfully strange, and the experience and the paydata is usually worth it.
"This might turn out to be an exciting night after all," he thinks to himself, taking another look through the sensors of his Roto-Drone to check on the riders outside.
-
[ 1000 - 1300 | Bargain Basement Area | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Examining the map attached to the second message Hex had sent, Baron Mojo studied it carefully as he walked down the street. He really missed the glasses he had to leave behind in Boston. He found that trying to walk and read a map without an AR display was challenging and paused at the next street corner as he figured out his location in comparison to the Banshee. Looks like about three miles by foot, thanks for the small things... the mage thought to himself. Plenty of time to harvest reagents.
Taking a right at the intersection, Baron Mojo returned his commlink to his pocket and focused on the task at hand. Harvesting reagents was a mix of art and skill. For whatever reason, reagents typically appeared in areas largely abandoned or rarely visited by metahumanity. An area appropriate for the formation of reagents tended to feel lonely and maybe a little spooky to the non-Awakened: the area around a water tower, stretches of train tracks away from road intersections, and abandoned buildings were all good places to find reagents, at least for hermetic magicians such as himself. He imagined most shamanic magicians probably took camping trips to harvest reagents, he'd have to ask Hex more about that later.
Off to his right, Baron Mojo saw what appeared to be an abandoned apartment complex. Rust-stained metal, multiple-layers of peeling paint, and shattered windows indicated the place was unlikely to be regularly inhabited. That, of course, didn't mean that no one was living inside. Additionally, abandoned buildings tended not to meet many, if any, safety codes for construction. Because of the potential dangers, the mage knew that he needed to take precautions. Accessing his mental link with the spirit following him, he commanded, "Minion! You will protect me from the vagaries of fate with your power!" The spirit begrudgingly complied, appearing next to the mage with the sound of a toilet flushing. A faint glowing nimbus surrounded the two as the spirit drew on its power and protected them from accidents. The gambit was too fold, the spirit's protection would help prevent any accidents during his search and also forced the spirit to materialize, which should deter all but the most dedicated miscreants.
Entering the complex, Baron Mojo slipped his senses to the Astral and tapped into his understanding of alchemy to home in on any sources of reagents. Over the course of an hour, the mage moved from door to door, occasionally entering apartments when he felt like there was an indication of a source of power. He encountered the occasional squatter, but they seemed to want to have just as much to do with him as he did with them. On top of that, his minion's presence seemed to dissuade any desire for conversation, be it the begging kind of otherwise. At the completion of his search, Baron Mojo cursed. These fraggin' mundies must be polluting this area with their very presence, he thought to himself as he sneered at one of the nearby squatters. Realizing that further searches here were futile, the mage decided to head deeper into the less populated areas of the Bargain Basement.
After a half hour of searching, Baron Mojo came across an abandoned gift shop. The back door of the shop was rotted from the constant drip of water falling from a four story building next door. Had the building not been shattered during one of the many disasters to befall the area in the past, it would probably not be leaning in such a manner to cause the damage, but the mage knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth and forced the rotted door open. Entering the dark interior, Baron Mojo tapped into his Astral senses and searched for any concentrations of power in the room. He was surprised when two such concentrations lit up. Moving over to the cash register, he opened the drawer and discovered two old coins. If he were a more sentimental sort, the mage might have wondered what story there was to tell about the place, but he wasn't that sort. Grabbing the coins, he slipped his senses to the Material, pulled out hit flashlight, and examined the coins. Featuring a face on one side and a building on the other, they appeared to be currency of the former United States of America, worthless now to most people. Pocketing the coins, Baron Mojo exited the building and continued his search.
With the sun overhead, Baron Mojo began to feel the pangs of hunger stirring. Deciding to head toward more populated areas and a source of food, the mage decided to cut through an overgrown and abandoned playground. At night, it was likely a playground for chipheads and gangers. Right now, it was relatively unoccupied other than a form resting in the sand under the slide. Whether asleep or dead, Baron Mojo didn't particularly care, just as long as it didn't interfere with him. As he made his way through the playground, he was surprised when his Astral senses indicated that a small concentration of mana was near. Using those senses to guide him, the mage walked over to the plaground's Merry-Go-Round and reached into the sand below it, pulling forth two large marbles, both glowing in the Astral plane. Slipping them into his pocket, he headed for the park exit.
Smiling to himself, Baron Mojo thought, So far, so good. Perhaps the rest of the day will be as lucrative.
-
Johnny woke with a start and reached for his commlink, just in time to receive a live commcall from Mr. Snow. Flashing a grin, Johnny spoke into the receiver. "I'm your man, Mr. Snow. I'll be at the meet, you can count on it." He quickly saved the map file on his comm and rolled over on the futon.
"No soykaf yet, Smits. Gotta rest up. I apparently have a job tonight." Johnny then spent the next several hours dozing on the futon, doing his best to ignore the sound of explosions and gunfire coming from the trideo display set and the loud crunch of Smits chowing down on krill chips. It wasn't an ideal situation for rest, but well, it was Smit's house and he wasn't about to complain.
He woke up fully in the early afternoon and took a cold shower, not wanting to using up Adam Smits' hot water ration for the day. Afterward, he examined himself in the mirror; rail-thin even by elven standards, bordering on skeletal, the waifish bliss-chique look was carefully cultivated. Johnny Juju took a moment to admire his ink; the swirling floral patterns on his chest and back, the Atzlan symbols snaking their way up his arms. His favorite, however, were the swooping organic shapes on his neck, cheeks, and on the dome of his shaved head. Julissa had always loved his tats, helped design many of them in fact. He sighed.
Stepping out of the bathroom, he helped himself to a cupful of cold soykaf sludge. "My meeting's not until later tonight," he said before bracing himself for a sip. "and I'm hoping I can find another place to crash afterward. Is it alright if I hang out til then?"
Adam shrugged his massive shoulders. "Yeah, that's fine man. You just have to get out of here by the weekend, I got company coming. Wanna play?" He tossed Johnny a controller and they proceeded to waste a few hours with split screen mode.
After some time, Johnny peeked through the blinds. Sundown. Better get ready.
Rising from the couch and skirting around a pile of energy drink cans and empty bags of chips, Johnny moved to the kitchen where there was a bit more space to work. His perception flickered briefly into the darkened void of the Astral, and he sent a call out to the churning primal darkness from where his spirits came. Johnny was never quite sure why only the darkest, borderline twisted spirits responded to his summons. It was his blessing and his curse, but they always served him faithfully... provided he never showed them any weakness.
Moments after his calling, a cloud of billowing black smoke began to congeal on the Astral plane in Smits' apartment. The demon was little more than an amorphous black thunderhead, but it seemed to seethe with an ancient and primeval power. A trio of three orbs swirled in the center of its mass, three points of St. Elmo's Fire that seemed to denote the creature's face.
I have taken your tongue so you can no longer howl, nameless one. Serve me tonight and you may receive it back. It was important not to give the demon a name unless proper offerings had been made, for names held great power to Johnny's demons. By summoning it in this way, the demon was helpless and could do nothing to harm Johnny. Juju smiled once the spirit was fully under his control.
Sit silent in the darkness until I call you, Johnny commanded, his vision returning to the material sphere again as he headed over to the futon. He could still sense the strange, alien eyes of the spirit watching him from outside of reality, but he knew that the creature could do him no harm, and felt a little safer having an attack dog of that caliber on a leash.
"Fraggin' creeps me out when you do that drek," Smits grumbled, still hunched over his controller. Smits had seen Johnny work long enough to tell that his vacant stare meant he was summoning and bartering with demons, and the tell tale tingle of magic in his kitchen was obvious enough.
"Sorry, chummer," Johnny apologized without a hint of sincerity as he gathered up his coat and other belognings. He double-checked to make sure that his Ceska Scorpion, spare clips, and his "goodie bag" of bliss were all tucked away carefully in the interior pockets of his dull beige raincoat.
"Alright, I'm off," Johnny said as he made for the door. "Thanks for letting me crash here, Smits. Let me know if you ever need my services again, yeah?" Adam grunted non-commitally in response. Stepping into the hall, Johnny pulled up the file with the map to the Banshee, setting out a few ARO markers as he popped his imagelink-enabled contacts in.
"Aww, come on! Fraggin' lag! Fraggin' breeder-humpin' LAG!" Johnny chuckled at Adam's muffled rage as he exited the apartment and started making his way toward the meet.
-
"If they got stout, its a great place." John says, rather unpickily. Even if the place didn't have alcohol, he was about to make money and then he could buy more alcohol. While his obessession bordered on the edge of a heavy drinker, truth be told, John was increadibly picking with his alcohol. Occassionally he'd try a few others, but quickly decide that that alcohol wasn't for him.
Oddly enough, he was into a dark strong stout that most people drank after acquiring the taste of alcohol. For now, he loaded up in his row-boat, and began paddeling his way towards the city. Not.. well the most impressive of things, hardly could even be called a vehicle, the row boat was just something to get him into town.
-
@martinchaen
You spot nothing out of the ordinary about the riders. Valkyrie starts inspecting the Ferrari, her gloved hand gently caressing the body of the vehicle.
Yes i believe i have, an acquaintance asked me specifically for someone with your skills, so you should be looking at either surveillance or transportation with extraction. The Mr. Johnson will be in charge of the fees, and he wants to meet today, is that good? the valve you say? she days in a soft tone, oddly contrasting with her figure.
-
@vandarl
the familiar face of 'Pops' flashes live as the call is accepted, a middle aged ork, that would be considered ok for a human but given the short lifespan of a orc, one can say it is more than middle age. the familiar features look at you (or your persona icon for that matter), deep face lines under hazel eyes showing a veritable sagging, the unruly hair, bushy eyebrows and two prominent tusks, no one confuse him for anything less than an ork.
// Hey kidd, glad you called, these old bones are not what they used to be, listen, i have a proposition for you, before you say anything, i really need you on this one, the pay is good as far as i know, 7.5k and its supposed to be a milk run, you in? of course you are he fastalks even before you can say anything The banshee in the Barrens, 2200, to talk with the Johnson, you take care of ol'pops and ol'pops takes care of you, we good? his Irish accent so strong that one had to be deaf to doubt it.
-
With a short bow to Valkyrie, Moto elaborates.
"Yes, I could hear that valve number 4 was slightly out of sync, Valkyrie-sama; best to get it addressed as soon as possible. Transponder keys for the Ferrari are in the ignition, as requested; laser cut, with redundant failsafes installed. She won't be impossible to steal, but whomever tries are in for a surprise".
Chuckling to himself, the Dwarf considers the options.
Surveillance or transportation; that means the Roadmaster, and all of the drones. The Morgan can wait, this might be exciting...
With a curt smile for the giant woman, who looks very out of place next to the sleek speed deamon of a vehicle, he speaks.
"Will go to meet. Could use some fresh air. When and where?"
-
@martinchaen
opening the drivers door she flashes a sudden grin.
And it seems i may even fit in her not very evident tusks showing briefly i already love it, The Barrens, Touristville, twenty two hundred hours today, Mr. Johnson will get you more details not bothering to hide the chat with the people outside she speaks openly for you to ear no transportation for the Rod, Cameron just bring her inside. standard fee in your account in 5 and ill leave the Night Rod for you to take a look at that valve, can do? she speaks while half-turning back to you, the pleasure evident on her face.
-
[ 1300-2100 | Bargain Basement | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
With his stomach leading the way, Baron Mojo walked toward the more "civilized" part of the Bargain Basement as it drew closer to Touristville. Catching sight of a Multi-SoyTM vending machine, the mage walked over to the it and randomly selected one of the options. He had learned over the course of the few weeks he had been in Seattle that the flavors didn't really do much; the gray stuff that sloughed out of the spigot into the plastiboard cup was going to taste like drek regardless.
Grabbing a section of curb, Baron Mojo sat down and ate his meal for the day, his minion floating around him in the Astral. He had decided while harvesting reagents that he would try to arrive at the meet 30 minutes in advance and check the place out in the Astral before going in. He only knew Hex so well and worried that whoever he had slotted off in Boston might still want him dead. That schedule still gave him some time to supplement the reagents he had found so far. Leaving the empty container on the curb, the mage stood up and started his harvesting anew.
Sticking to alleyways and side streets, Baron Mojo took his time during the afternoon and early evening hours. He spent part of the time harvesting reagents and the other part getting a lay of the land. If this was going to be his new home, even temporary, he needed to spend some time understanding it. Picking through dumpsters and trash bins, the mage managed to gather several more reagents for his use.
As the sun set and night arrived, his minion vanished with the sound of a flushing toilet. With the light fading, the mage quickly made his way into the somewhat safer environs of Touristville. While it certainly wasn't safe by nearly anyone's standards, the criminal organizations that ran the place knew that violent crime had to be kept at something of a minimum if they were going to reliably attract the wageslave element to slum the area and, more importantly, spend their nuyen.
Baron Mojo's first objective was to actually find the Banshee Bar. Referencing the map Hex had given him, it took little time for the mage to find the bar. Still three hours from the meet, he was not ready to enter. Instead, the man walked by and dropped a geospatial ARO at the entrance to the club. Even without his missing AR glasses, he could reference his commlink to help him triangulate the location in the future if he needed.
With that objective complete, the mage took up a position near the building and observed the clientele and employees who entered and exited the location for about an hour. As early as it was, he wasn't expecting much at this point in time, but figured it wouldn't hurt. As an hour passed by, the foot and vehicle traffic started to pick up as Toursitville started to come alive. BTL pushers and prostitutes alike started to stake claims on street corners. Most of them gave Baron Mojo a wide berth, his shabby suit and sneer fairly indicative that no sales would be made with him.
As 2100 arrived, the mage knew it was time to start making his final preparations. Pushing off from the wall he had been leaning against for the past hour, the man started searching for an unoccupied alley. The search proved difficult now that the area was coming alive with the homeless, chipheads, and prostitutes having taken up residence, but Baron Mojo managed to locate one a a few blocks away after 30 minutes. Walking several meters into the alley, the mage located a spot that was shielded from view by an abandoned, burnt-out car and proceeded to summon a new minion for the evening.
Slipping his senses to the Astral, Baron Mojo once again tore the fabric of the mystical realm and snagged the wriggling form of a spirit from the ether. Given the summoning location, it wasn't at all surprising that the spirit appeared as a small dumpster, about waist high. Serve me, Minion!, the mage ordered the spirit telepathically. Like the last spirit, this one didn't seem inclined to speak with him. They fear me... good, Baron Mojo thought to himself. Now Minion, I require you to guard my body from all threats while I project into the Astral plane.
Knowing the spirit had no choice in the matter, Baron Mojo slid down one of the alley walls and quickly slipped the bonds of his physical shell, projecting into the Astral. The area in general was grey and lifeless as were most urban areas. The few splashes of color tended to come from the people living in the area. Zipping his form to the Banshee Bar, Baron Mojo slipped inside and assensed the employees of the bar and any patrons sitting by themselves away from the action. He did his best to avoid passing through the auras of any metahumans so as not to possibly alert them of his presence. He had toyed with the idea of attending the meeting as a manifested astral form, but worried that the Johnson might have an advance available for them and it may come on a credstick. The mage knew he needed the money. Once sufficiently informed, the man launched himself back to his body a few blocks away, jerking awake as if someone had doused him with freezing water.
Checking the chronometer on his commlink, Baron Mojo slid up the wall and announced, "Alright then, time for Mr. Johnson to make my acquaintance." Taking a few seconds to wipe the astral signature of his summoning away, he then headed for the Banshee.
-
Johnny rounded the last ARO marker on the way to the Banshee. This was his favorite time of night, just when everybody was hitting the street, looking for fun, music, drugs, sex, adventure. The whole world was alive and tingling with energy. Nights like this he and Julissa used to find a party, dance until their bodies were slick with sweat, then find some quiet place to shoot up and and bang until they were numb. She was gone, now, but a young night always reminded him of her in the best way possible.
As he neared the location for the meet, he spotted Old Leroy shaking his styrofoam cup on the corner. It was a silly old affection he picked up for the tourists, shaking a cupful of bottlecaps and pretending they were coins while his Meta Link auto-invite marks from everybody nearby so they could send him micro-transactions of nuyen. It was panhandling as street performance, and all the wageslaves that came slouching through Touristville ate it up. It always brought a grin to Johnny's face, too.
"How's it hangin', Leroy?"
The old ork glanced over at the whip-thin form of Johnny Juju and jumped. The fear on the old beggar's face stung Johnny. He must've heard the ugly rumors about what actually happened to Julissa, too. Over time, however, he got the old man to loosen up a bit. He pumped Old Leroy for any local rumors and the literal word on the street. It wasn't as easy as it was in the old days with pretty Julissa on his hip, but he still liked having a pointed ear to the ground in his community. As he made his way into the Banshee, he started missing her all the more.
As he approached the entrance to the establishment, he stepped back just in time to narrowly escape the shimmering film of airborne vomit that marked the drunk's exit trajectory. "Sorry, chummer," Johnny mumbled as he stepped over the unfortunate drunk's crumpled form. When confronted by the bouncer, Johnny sighed a bit and removed his Ceska from the interior pocket of his coat, making a show of unloading it and slipping the clip back into place. He handed it over to the ork. "You'll hang onto this for me, right? Not looking for trouble, just looking for a stiff drink, omae. But I need it for the walk home, yeah?"
While Johnny was a good shot with an automatic, he didn't much like using them. Mostly it would just be a pain to replace, as his credit with Erin was stretched pretty thin. He still had his pet demon waiting in the proverbial wings in case anything went down, but Johnny wasn't expecting trouble. In his (admittedly limited) experience running the shadows, Johnsons liked to screw you after the job was done, not before. And although it was clearly a rough crowd in this sort of drek hole, these were still Johnny's people.
Juju made his way over to the bar and ordered himself a synthbeer and began trying his hardest to chat up the other barflies.
-
An AR pop-up notified Moto that Valkyrie had deposited the funds for the job in his account. As she got into the Ferrari, Moto bowed deeply and spoke with respect heavy in his voice. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Valkyrie-sama. A pleasure doing business with you, as always."
Watching two of the other riders roll Valkyrie's gigantic Harley-Davidson into his shop, Moto shook his head as the troll completely ignored his warnings and peeled out of the garage, tires spinning up a cloud of smoke. He heard the vehicle screech to a halt just down the block before it came flying back at full throttle in reverse on the empty side street, engine revving several times after it had settled to a stop again. Being an import with the steering wheel on the right, he watched as Valkyrie pulled the mirrored driver-side window down and grinned at him like a kid in a candy shop.
"This thing is a beast, omae; you're the man! Guys, let's go already!"
She revved the engine a few more times to make a point, and Moto watched the trio mount up on their bikes again and then head out with Valkyrie in the lead, burning rubber as she went. "Well, she can afford it, I guess", he thought, making a mental note to place a few orders with the Renraku-owned tire company down the road.
He closed the garage doors and locked them with a thought, and checked the chronograph on his wrist, an antiquated mechanical time piece handed down to him by his father. "10 hours until the meet; I'll have plenty of time to tune the Harley-Davidson and finish up the engine mods on the Thundercloud, do some research on the place, and get the gear ready and be out of here by 2000 hours local. Good." He nodded to himself, and got to work.
The dwarf cleaned his hands once again while he placed an express order for a micro trid projector from the nearby Hardware Etc, with instructions to drop off the package by the rear entrance, then turned the music back on and recalled the Roto-Drone from the sky and had it land in the back of the Ares Roadmaster that was parked in the back of the shop. He then started the process of tuning the valve on Valkyrie's bike, and in just under an hour he had it purring like a kitten again, so he moved on to the ATV. As he jacked into the vehicle to run some diagnostics, he opened up his Browse program and set the filters to public and private information before keying in his search term; "Banshee bar, Redmond Barrens". While he worked on calibrating the engine, he kept an eye on the search program as it did it's thing, churning through millions upon millions of data files in order to eventually return some results.
After around 3 hours of work the powerplant on the ATV was done; the extra power output he'd squeezed from the electric motors on each wheel would help offset the weight of the armor that was going on next, and then he just had to finish installing the gyro-link for the top turret. He made a mental note to clear any of his usual fingerprints off of this thing, because if the owners got caught on the Tir or Salish border with this thing they would be looking at some serious jail time, not even taking into account what they'd be smuggling at the time. An AR window alerted him of the delivery van from Hardware Etc approaching, and Moto watched as the delivery man dropped off the package as instructed. Retrieving the contents of the parcel, he set to work on his non-operative Fly-Spy.
Carefully placing the insect-like drone on it's back, he powered it down and examined the delicate electronics. He fished out several tools from his hardware kit, and began isolating a power source for the trid projector. With steady hands and slow, relaxed breaths, he managed to install the device in just over half an hour. He powered the drone back on, had it run some diagnostics while he put his tools away, and then took it for a spin; flying it up to ceiling height, he turned on the projector as he programmed it to display his Matrix avatar. He watched with pride as a full trid replica of a large, bipedal drone appeared, looking like a combat version of the Renraku Manservant-3 carrying some sort of futuristic looking assault weapon; it wouldn't fool anyone given the blue nimbus of light that surrounded it, but it'd do for his purpose. He powered off the projector, knowing the tiny drone wouldn't be able to keep it sustained indefinitely.
Reviewing the results his Browse program had returned, Moto shook his head as he picked up a few pieces of gear not already loaded on the Roadmaster. "What kind of desperate Mr. Johnson sets a meet in the Barrens of all places. All right, so it's Touristville, but still..."
He made sure the Roto-Drones were locked and loaded, then recalled the Fly-Spy from the sky and double-checked that all four drones were secure in their charging stations in the back of the vehicle. The dwarf looked through the tool kits, the survival kit, and the med kit in the back of the large truck, and ensured that he had everything he needed in case of an emergency. He ran through the iconography of all of his wirelessly enabled equipment with his Wrapper program to make sure nothing looked out of place, before he put on his respirator, powered up the simrig and RCC, and then slipped into the rigger cocoon located underneath the driver seat, the comfort of cold-sim VR enveloping him before he jumped into the vehicle. As the familiar feeling of the car becoming an extension of himself washed over him, Moto grinned as he coughed and the engine roared to life. The doors closed as if he'd flexed his fingers, and he could feel the concrete under the wheels as if he was standing barefoot on the floor. Slaving his drones to the RCC, he then proceeded out into the crisp Seattle night.
With over two hours left before the meet Moto took his time on the journey from the relative comfort of the nice Tacoma area his shop was located in, stopping before he hit the Renton/Redmond border to scrub his vehicles Access ID and spoof his license plates. Up ahead loomed the urban wilderness that was the Barrens, and he sent a Fly-Spy up 200 meters up into the air to provide overwatch of his immediate surroundings before proceeding in. He made sure not to run over any vagrants and to avoid the worst of the filth, and parked the vehicle across the street from the Banshee, which had definitely seen better days. Overlaying the video from the Fly-Spy in the sky over the sensor input from his Roadmaster, he launched the Fly-Spy he'd worked on earlier, nicknamed Romeo-2, and jumped into it. Piloting the tiny drone always felt odd, the miniscule size making him feel cramped in is own skin, but the freedom of flight was also exhilarating.
Hovering the tiny insect-like drone at an altitude of 2 meters, Moto engaged the trid projector he'd installed and again watched with some measure of satisfaction when the Manservant-3 look-alike came to life before his very eyes (or sensors, as it were, seeing with the vehicle sensors as he did). He divided his attention between editing the trid projection and piloting his drone, and walked the illusionary bipedal drone to the corner of the street where he stopped and looked around.
He watched as denizens of the Barrens went about their business, seeing a street beggar with an ARO marker asking for donations while chatting with a reed-thin Elf. Keeping an eye on the street and his Fly-Spy, he began looking for signs of other runners and a potential Mr Johnson.
-
Listening to Pops sales pitch makes Bobby smile for a moment. You could forget there was a smart mind hiding behind that tusky grin and and a lot of street smarts to go with it, can't judge the chip by the case, that was for sure. //No worries Pops. We good. You always come through for me and I am going to make sure I got your rep covered, and you know it. Zero sweat. The Banshee at 2200, the Count will be there.
Disconnecting from the call, Bobby took a moment to scan the address for the Banshee and shook his head, Just once it would be nice to do a meet in the Needle like on the trid. Getting to work he does a quick search for current info on the club. Lets see....current owners, who runs the area around it, rumors...that should do for a start Entering the search parameters he sets it to running and starts making his preps for the evening.
A quick shower and a change to nondescript clothing, with his vest underneath and a loose jacket on top to help cover his remmington and he was on his way. Cruising down the road on his Mirage he could almost forget the last few years, almost remember the punk kid. Crossing the line fro Renton into the Barrons wasn't like going through a tollbot, it was both more gradual and more depressing. But the trash on the street adds up quick and and before you can say drek, you are up to your hoop in it. "Be it ever so humble, is still smells like trash." After a look around the block he pulled the Mirage into the parking lot making sure to put it view of the door and the two bouncers, tuskers the both of them, one with a squint and a look on his face like he has a toothache.
A quick check of he data search shows it is don, and a quick scan doesn't sound any alarms, reassured Bobby heads to the door. Slipping the bouncers 50 nuyen to make sure no 'accidents' happen to his bike. Make sure it stays there and in one piece,and you get the same when I leave. " Inside the dim light and music from the sound system wash over him as he makes his way to the bar. Sitting down he catches the bartenders attention, "Soycaff". Settling into his chair he does a quick matrix check to see if the bar has a host or if it is all just cobbled together. Chrono says I have about thirty minutes, might as well relax. Looking around the room he sipped his soycaff and waited.
http://orokos.com/roll/183499 Description Matrix search fir Banshee info
Results 11d6: 49 [11d6=3, 1, 3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 2, 5, 5] 7 successes computer + intuition Limit 5 on data processing
http://orokos.com/roll/183512 Matrix perception at Banshee
Results 11d6: 34 [11d6=6, 3, 4, 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 6] 3 successes computer + intuition Limit 5 on data processing
-
Even by your standards, The Banshee is not a nice place. If it was not evident enough from a the run-down façade of the building (consisting of crumbling twentieth-century wood and brick) and the blinking red neon sign slowly dying away to the last phosphor, the state of things would bee made clear by the who comes crashing out the batwing doors as you look into the entry. Not running, but thrown, he crashes to the ground and rolls. He´s a brown-haired anglo norm in a synthleather jacket, with snot and puke crusting his chin, whiskey staining his shirt collar, and a hell of a shiner.
And this time remember to stay out shouts the pissed-off ork bouncer dusting off his hands. just insidethe doors a peeling paper sign on the brick wall reads NO WEAPONS in jagged capitals. From inside you can ear the wailing of orxlpoitation-influenced nu-metal from a sound system that sounds suspiciously like a busted jukebox, rising above the tumult of clinking glasses, raucous conversation, and at least one bar fight about to break up.
As the first of you tries to to enter the Banshee, the pissed ork bouncer growls at you and points to the sign behind him with his thumb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@Vandarl
The place is mostly non-existing as far as matrix news and references go, a couple old news in KSAF hint at being a local hangout for the 162s, that and the regular list of troubles, costly bar brawls that quickly degenerate into block (and the occasional turf war) sized fights. the location itself is a jungle of ARO´s, cyber graffiti mostly, the usual jumble of commlinks, announcements, cars, bikes, switches, lights, control panels but nothing stands out particularly.
@JackVII
Walls are no spirit barriers, and this place is as mundane as they come, passing the brick walls, past the storage area and bar you look into inside the bar, a few patrons sitting in boots or tables, the rowdy crowd in the centre of the floor or slouching at the bar. your notice the heavy drinking, wanna be runners, posers, but most odd is the bunch of ghouls (you count 12 in total) some of them looking straight at you over the confusion of the bar, all of them with the subtle aura shine that marks them as being magically active. by the pool table, in one of the corners of the bar, a bunch of norms in syntheathers, line coats and sporting an assortment of warpaints, tribal tattoos, piercings, scarifications and all sort of accessories, mostly shooting pool or banging heads together, the contents of their glasses spilling copiously on the floor.
-
[ 2150 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Jesus Christmas, who the frag sets up a meet at a place like this? Baron Mojo thought to himself as he walked up to the entry to the Banshee. The ghouls had concerned him a bit. He knew they didn't have control over their situation, but neither did a rabid dog. Considering they were allowed in the establishment, he assumed they were one of the more civilized kinds that he had read about in his studies. That would certainly be an interesting experiment... he thought to himself.
As he approached the bouncers, he sent a mental command to his minion. "Wait above this building for my beckon!" Figuring the spirit might upset the dual-natured ghouls, Baron Mojo decided to play it better safe than sorry.
With hands visible, the mage said, "You can search me, but you won't find anything."
-
John, finally manages to get there after some time of rowing, walking and bus riding. It was hard being a pirate when you didn't have a vehicle of your own. Not since that poker game at least. Some daft baffoon tried to bluff with an ace of grenades, and accidentally pulled out the pin. No matter, John glaces at the bouncer and then to the sign and back to the guy, "Well then I suppose I should leave this pen with you sir." he remarks, pulling out a ball point pen and handing it to the bouncer. "After all, the pen is mightier than the sword. Oh speaking of which, do take care of it. Touch it the wrong way and it might explode." he says carefully removing his belt with the sword and pistol on it. "I have it rigged to explode if anyone but me grasps the handle. Its a secret defense.. Oh shit. I said that out loud didn't I? At least I didn't tell you about the flesh eating capsule in the pistol" then hoisting his dufflebag onto his shoulder, he begins waking in
-
With just a few minutes left before the meeting time, Moto watched through the Fly-Spy sensors as the bouncers took out the trash; in this part of town, the norm was lucky to be alive if rumours were any indication. He kept looking as a few unsavory types, including what looked like one of those pirates from the trids, walked up to the entrance, allowed themselves to be patted down or voluntarily checked their guns, and then headed inside; realizing that he didn't have a way of disposing of his avatar's illusionary rifle, Moto made a few quick adjustments to the iconography and the projected Manservant-3 changed into a replica of it's unarmed version.
Walking the drone up to the entrance, Moto paused in front of the bouncers and delivered an ARO message to them stating that the droid was here on business on behalf of it's master, and then proceeded inside. Hovering the drone up to ceiling level while maintaining the trideo, he made sure to avoid any potential obstacles and surveyed the scene. Looking around he saw the pirate, and the reed-thin Elf from earlier, but no obvious Mr. Johnson. Settling the drone and the trideo Manservant-3 along the wall, he waited around for some sign or another.
-
All of you inside the Bar notice the thin, somewhat greasy looking male Korean human, with a pencil-thin moustache and a comb over. He's wearing a lined coat in a dull crimson color over a black business-casual dress shirt and white tie and he's sporting a gleaming datajack on his temple, but no other obvious augmentations or weapons.
As he sits in one of the boots, facing the entrance with his back to the wall, he signals every one of you (except Moto, who in turn figures this is the Mr. Johnson maybe because he is the only person around signalling people towards him).
As everyone approaches he slightly nods towards the boot seats. Looking at the android, he frowns. and who the drek are you? he speaks in a thin voice.
-
Oh great.. the guy I'm getting a job from is one of those ninjas. Shifty little bastards. I think this one is one of those rotten cabbage eating ninjas too. Still all the same, a job is a job, and he moves up closer, pausing to glance at the andriod and the others with him
-
Moto chuckles mentally to himself at the comment directed to his trid projection, then takes a brief moment to survey the others.
"Hmm, a normie who's obviously a little addled, seeing as he's walking around dressed and armed like a pirate, an Elf and another norm who could be anything except obvious Street Sams, and... wait, that avatar looks familiar..."
Taking another split second, he private messages an acquaintance from one of the mechanic boards he frequents.
//Compose message to Count Zorro
//"Hey omae; you wouldn't happen to be attending a meeting at the Banshee in the Redmond Barrens by any chance? If you are sitting across from a pirate, wave hello to the android addressing your Mr. Johnson. *grins*"
//Send Message
A few more digital keystrokes, and the trid projection answers Mr. Johnsons question in a computerized voice barely audible over the din of the Banshee's other occupants.
"This unit is a representative of master Moto, rigger and surveillance expert. My master would like to inform you that he regrets being unable to attend this meeting in person; due to the chosen location, he is currently engaged in surveillance operations to ensure his property is safe for the forthcoming assignment. Shall we begin?"
-
Gulping down the last few dregs of his synthbeer, Juju leaned against the bar and scanned the crowd again. It was getting closer and closer for the time of the meet. Eventually, he noticed the Korean in the red coat waving him over with a couple of fingers. Flashing an amiable grin, Johnny straightened the lapel of his own lined coat and made his way over to the Johnson's table.
As the other runners gathered, Johnny gave the obvious trid projection a confused once-over as well. He chuckled at the rigger's explanation, shaking his head despite himself. Pretty clever, if a little bit paranoid.
Johnny took a seat opposite the Korean and steepled his fingers, a confident but attentive smile playing on his lips. "I'm ready whenever you are, Mr. Johnson."
-
Looking at the android the Mr. Johnson sniggers If i wanted a trideo conference i would have setup a commlink one.
I am... Mr. Johnson as you might have figured has he says his piece a strung-out ork barmaid, half comatose from the derms of bliss on her arms, comes over to the table Watcha havin hunys? she says in a slurred voice.
Nursing the seven-seven in front of him Mr. Johnson just replies i'm fine with a look of distaste on his face.
-
[ 2150 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
The ork bouncers frisked Baron Mojo half-heartedly. He found the mundie groping distasteful, but knew he had to put up with it if he was going to get in to find out about the job for which Hex had recommended him. At the completion of their fumbling, they allowed him to enter with a snort, apparently figuring someone who didn't bother coming to the bar armed was little to no threat.
Eyeing the pack of ghouls as he entered, the mage slipped over to the bar, finding a suitable spot to observe the crowd but being just far enough away from the bartender to avoid notice. While the ghouls were the most interesting thing in the Banshee, they may not have been the most dangerous. The group of likely gangers shooting pool and drinking their weight in liquor were the most potentially dangerous, simply due to their unpredictability. Fortunately, they also were tightly gathered. One ball of lightning in the middle of the pool table, that's all it would take...
As he scanned the crowd he caught sight of a semi-familiar face. Bad Johnny Juju, what's he doing here? He'd have to check in with him after his meeting was done. Interesting rumors surrounding that one. Continuing his scan of the crowd, he noticed an Asian man beckoning him. Figuring that was either Johnson or a highly misinformed chip dealer, Baron Mojo rose and walked over to the booth.
Grabbing one of the available seats, he checked out the rest of the men sitting around the table. Surprisingly, Bad Johnny Juju had joined him at the table. He hadn't done many runs with more than one Awakened member, but was pleased with the turn of events. He was accustomed to being surrounded by mundies. He turned his attention to the next attendee, a madman dressed like a pirate. Disregarding him as a personafix chiphead liability, he examined the next man. Generally average looking in all ways, the man could be anything. Assuming the team was complete, Baron Mojo nearly missed the new addition, a drone. What the frag is this? Listening to the drone's explanation, the mage shook his head in displeasure.
Having checked out the crew with his physical senses, he turned his senses to the Astral to see what there was to see about the people around him. Rolling his eyes, he reached out and waved his hand through the image of the drone, the absence of any aura or shadow giving the drone away as a trid projection immediately. Glancing around the table, he assensed each of the men.
"Hello, Mr. Johnson. Let's get down to biz." Baron Mojo didn't have time for pleasantries and turned down the waitress as well with a dismissive shake of his head.
-
After dealing with the bouncers and the bartender on his way into the Banshee, the image projected by the Johnson, bad come-over and all, was just what he expected. Making his way over to the table he took a seat, taking the opportunity to scan the bar crowd on the way. As the FlySpy arrives and the trid projector lights up it is all Bobby can do smother a laugh. Sending a quick reply to the message flashing for his attention he tosses a two finger salute to the FlySpy
//Text: TO: MOTO
SUBJECTt: Banshee
BODY: Well, looks like we are in this together. Good to 'see' you.
Looking over at the waitress he decides discretion is the better part of valor in a dive like this. "Thanks, just a warm up on the soycaff."
Returning his attention to the Johnson in all his 'Asian gangster' glory he gave a small nod at the projection and a wave of his hand that sweeps over the table to point at the image. "I have worked with Moto a few times before. He has to get to know you before he feels comfortable visiting in the meat. He is quite professional though. So, how can we be of assistance today?
-
Johnny Juju smiled politely at the drugged up waitress and lifted his synthbeer bottle, empty save for some foamy dregs at the bottom. "All set, thanks." He'd already had one, and it wouldn't do any good to get buzzed in front of the Johnson.
Using the ork barmaid's approach as a bit of a distraction, Johnny let his perception slip into the astral for a moment, giving himself a few crucial moments to study the Johnson's aura. He didn't get more than a brief glimpse, but there's no telling what sort of information can be useful in negotiations.
-
Moto carefully examined the Matrix for hidden icons in the immediate vicinity while Mr. Johnson introduced himself. Much to his surprise, he found that some members of his new team weren't even running silent; he noted down their commlink models and commcodes before looking at the hidden icons in more detail and making a note of the additional information he found.
Once the team members had finished their pleasantries, Moto took a harder look at the Matrix iconography to make sure he hadn't missed anything, before taking a closer look at Mr. Johnson, noting down what kind of gear he was using, which grid he was on, if he was running any enhanced security, and so on.
He then sent a reply to Count Zorro.
//Compose message to Count Zorro
//"FYI, have heavy firepower outside if needed; Banshee has rough reputation, am ready to provide extraction on moments notice, black Ares Roadmaster with red detailing parked across street."
//Send message
With that done, he prepared a message for the entire team and sent it off.
//Compose message to Count Zorro, Baron Mojo, Bad Johnny Juju, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"All, this is Moto; I'll be your eye in the sky and wheels on the ground. Heavy firepower available on request, transport and/or extraction via black Ares Roadmaster with red detailing parked across street. Also, advise all members to switch electronics to silent when in Barrens. Moto out."
//Send message, time delay 5 minutes
-
As the barmaid walks from and to the table with your drink, amazingly avoiding all the random traffic of the patrons mingling, cursing, shouting, heads bashing or just standing on the way, the silence at the tabble is at odds with the commotion in the Banshee.
Both Baron Mojo and Ju-ju, shifting their attention into the astral realm, the colours of the living persons flashing in front of their eyes, look intently towards Mr. Johnson, who is clearly mundane, his aura clearly indicating that his health is good and that he seems preoccupied with something. His cyberware is pretty limited to the obvious jack in his temple.
Sweeping his arm to check for the obvious hardware that might have been carried into the establishment, "Bobby" quickly notices that there is some weaponry "floating" around, at the table, as Mr. Johnson is obviously packing heat as well as in the vicinity of the table albeit mostly small arms.
As Moto scans the matrix in order to establish the proper addresses for the obvious 'links floating around, he does notice that the Jonhson icon shows your general run of the mill matrix icon for his link, obviously to Moto a high end Fairlight Caliban from the information displayed in his field of vision, the files inside it showing clearly no signs of having been tampered with databombs of any sort. The NeoNET grid sign fairly obvious on the 'link reading "NeoNet, we make the dots conNET" clearly advertising his global grid connection and the pun obviously tasteless.
Mr. Johnson slight shifts in his seat while the barmaid returns with the soykaf that she unceremoniously drops on the table before taking the return route among the chaos on the floor. Taking out a silver cigarette case and gently opening it to fish out a old fashioned cigar which he lights with a oldfashioned disposable lighter, Mr Johnson looks at the groups while inhaling briefly.
Now that we are done with the pleasantries and with the evaluating each other he says in a low voice, the smoke trickling from his nostrils this is a simple piece of work that i'm sure is well within your capabilities, your contacts assured me so. The only catch is that it has to be done in a very short timeframe. I need an item retrieved from a nearby business and brought back here. Security should be minimal, with no need for overt violence. although I'll be honest He smiles less than charmingly, his yellow stained fingers holding the cigar emphasising the remark I really don't care at all what you do to get it. The pay is 7,500 for each of you, if you wish to split it differently its your business, if any of you does not want to accept, the others are not getting the extra cut to split among them. If you agree, I'll tell you where you're going and what you're looking for.
-
[ 2205 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo contemplated Johnson's offer silently. Not liking the sound of this... he thought to himself. Sounds like how that last run started, but at least that one would have paid better. Too bad Slick Rick isn't here. Given the short time frame, the team wouldn't have the opportunity to do much legwork or secure gear that would make their jobs easier. That. at the very least, should raise the stakes. He looked around the table to see if someone else would open the negotiations. He had never been good with dealing with people, especially mundanes.
-
Pleased with the results of his efforts to get a baseline for the prospective team's Matrix capabilities and his survey of Mr. Johnson's gear, Moto directed his attention to the area surrounding the Banshee once more. He was concerned with the rough crowd inside the bar, so he jumped out of the Fly-Spy inside the premises and into the Roto-Drone in the back of his Roadmaster. After running a quick diagnostics on the mounted weapon and having toggled the wireless features of the weapon off, he made sure that no one was looking his way and then launched the drone out of the vehicle to an altitude of around 300 meters. He took a quick look around to make sure no one was approaching his vehicle, and that no one was engaging in any obvious conflict beyond what was normal for the Barrens.
If anything were to break out at the bar he'd be firing somewhat blind, but at least he could put a few high-caliber armor-piercing rounds from the silenced sniper rifle through the roof of the building at targets inside using his drone on the inside as a spotter. Not ideal, but it'd have to do; at least whoever was on the receiving end would never see or hear the rounds coming.
"I don't like the look of those ghouls; shifty drekkin' buggers, the lot of 'em" he thought to himself, the rotor blades of his drone whirring overhead felt like wind blowing through his hair. Adjusting the image feed from his Fly-Spy inside the bar over his VR enhanced senses, he began marking the relevant positions of the ghouls in his view. With each ghoul marked, he then began marking the more aggressive patrons, ending up with a baker's dozen potential targets.
Satisfied that he had prepared for the worst, he then replayed the last seconds of the Johnson's little speech. "Snatch-and-grab, huh? 7500 nuyen would cover rent for a month, so unless we're grabbing some corp exec's daughter out of an Arcology, it should be easy money....
While pondering what they might be asked to go after, he sent a quick message to the team:
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Moto is in, but advise negotiation for higher pay if we're going to have to have to accept job blind and with a short timetable. Target could be anything; Madam at bunraku parlor, corp exec's favourite pet, exotic animal at the Zoo. Oh, and watch out for other patrons; rough crowd. If anything happens, proceed with haste to exit and waiting Ares Roadmaster, and Moto will bring rain"
//Send message
Finishing off the message with an emoticon sculpted like a smiling Manservant-3, he sent it off.
-
"Well of course we agree!" Says the Pirate Captian heartily, probally jumping the gun. Not that what says has any real bearing on weather the others agree or not, but he's a rather jump the gun sort of guy after all. "After all, Work in any measure leads to treasure leads to pleasure, and I'm quite fond of pleasure." he leans back in his chair, looking to waitress. "I'll take a bottle of Black Stout" Then turning back to the Johnson, "So, what is it you want us to get?"
Meanwhile he continues to have his dufflebag sitting next to him, as he kicks up his feet onto the table.
-
Bad Johnny Juju shot the guy dressed like a pirate an acidic look that communicated the message "speak for yourself" more succinctly than a million slaps upside the head ever could. Trying to regain control of the negotiations, he addressed Mr. Johnson directly. "Pertinent question: how short a time frame are we talking here?"
Before really giving the Johnson time to fully answer, Johnny leaned back in his chair thoughtfully and continued. "And yeah, like you say, definitely doable considering the talent you have gathered at this table. Between myself and my acquaintance here," Johnny jerked a thumb at Baron Mojo, "you have enough Awakened talent at this table to level a city block. Not... not that we're gonna do that. But you know. You've also got some serious hardware and Matrix security," he continued, gesturing at Moto's trid projection, which flickered almost as if on cue. "And also..." Johnny coughed into a clenched fist before finishing. "Also a pirate."
"So yeah, we can do the job, Mr. Johnson." Johnny Juju tapped his index finger against the table to emphasize his point, careful to make sure his voice portrayed confidence instead of arrogance. "The question is will men of our considerable talents rent them out for 7,500 a pop? You get me?" The entire time, Johnny managed to keep an easy, amiable smile on his lips. He wasn't rude or abrasive; just pointed. His argument was simple; they had the skills to do the job, but 7,500 wasn't going to cover their "hourly rate."
-
"Ah, Captain." He says raising his pointer finger, completely ignoring the acidic look. "Captain Lucky Dog." He shrugs a little, nodding. It was true, 7500 was a bit cheap, though the Dog was going to take his fee out in additional ways. Considering the situation though, taking some time to negotiate wasn't too bad of an idea. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully at that idea. Of course, this wasn't going to stop the Dog from taking what he could as well. "As my estimated associate has pointed out, you've got all of us here. And I'm no pirate, but a Captain. So even if you are a ninja, you can no doubt understand the situation we have going on here? It would be a disgrace against my very code of honor to simply accept such a nominal price for a man of my talents, as no doubt the others would agree."
-
[ 2208 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo literally stared at Captain John. The man was clearly Awakened, but clearly mad. Could he be possessed? Nothing in his aura indicated anything of the sort, but... One way or the other, it was going to be interesting working with the loon. The mage's commlink dinged with a message, but he ignored it for now.
Shaking his head, Baron Mojo broke his silence. "I'm not fond of short-suspense jobs. I've seen them go south fast... not enough time to gather the necessary information that keeps your hoop out of a sling. Taking on a job like this for 7500, despite your assurances, isn't worth it. Even if I did get the chance to level a city block."
-
Looking composed the Johnson looks at every one of you intently while nodding at the obvious reservations about the idea of a short timeframe, at the word "ninja" he noticeably tenses a little, his eyes looking sideways at John Cormac, the composure is quickly regained while he ears the rest of your piece.
I understand your reservations He says mildly while tipping the ash onto the floor, the look of displeasure flashing briefly in face of the lack of an ashtray I am willing to raise the offer slightly to eight thousand per head, no more. the security is clearly lax and time is of the essence, thus such a big offer for so small effort.
Ju-Ju quickly grasps that Mr. Johnson believes what he is saying, there seems to be no hidden "devices" on this job from what he could harness of mr. Johnson intentions.
Taking another lungful of smoke and exhaling quietly the Johnson stares at John Cormac, the less than friendly smile showing himself for just a brief faction of a second. Ninjas come from Japan, babo. taking a small sip from his seven-seven he continues and when i mean shortly i mean tonight, do we have an agreement?
-
"Well, we're not in Japan." John reminds the Johnson. "In anycase, I think that settles everything. Am I right Crew? Oh right, introductions, they're fairly important for a crew being made, aren't they? I'll be your Captain for this cruise, so everything you need you refer to me. Or do your own thing. Works out in the past, I'm not one of those finicky captains, always sniffing up behind you. Never did like them. Captain Lucky Dog. Thats not my real name of course, A bit of discretion after all." The pirate taps his nose, glancing to the rest of the 'crew'. He honestly didn't expect any of them to follow him like he really was their leader, not yet at least. "Tonight though, I love tonight. Such a great night after all, cause its right now. So the only questions are were and what?"
-
[ 2210 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Tonight?!? That was even less time than Baron Mojo had anticipated. Weighing his need for the 8000 nuyen against the potential risks while ignoring the pirate's jabbering, the mage reluctantly came to a decision. Glancing across the table at Bad Johnny Juju and giving a nearly imperceptible nod, he looked at Johnson and said, "I accept."
Turning to the rest of the table, he said, "You may call me Baron Mojo, or simply Baron if that suits you better."
-
With a mental sigh, Moto observed the "pirate" as he spoke. "Such disrespect; these Westerners have no honor. And this "Pirate", or "Captain", or whatever this bakayarō thinks he is, he is clearly not accustomed to running the shadows if he won't even negotiate. Mental note; ask Valkyrie not to set up meets with rank amateurs from now on", he thought to himself.
He watched as the plainly dressed human successfully took control of the dialogue, shook his head as the "pirate" once again blundered on, then nodded his avatar's head in satisfaction as negotiations were finalized. Watching Mr. Johnson react to the pirate's slight condescension, Moto quickly edited the image of his drone in order to have it perform a waist-deep bow, then had it announce "Mr. Johnson-sama, this unit would like to inform you that Moto-san accepts your generous offer", before straightening back up.
As the human introduced himself to the team, Moto mentally made a note of his characteristics by creating a protected file on his RCC with a clear image of the so-called Baron's face and notes containing basic details about the man, intending to add additional notes later as more information became available. "At least this "Baron Mojo" knows what he's doing; curious alias, though, must be a magician, or at least a wanna-be; must investigate", he thought to himself. He then did the same for Count Zorro and linked the Count's matrix forum profile with the image of him. He chuckled at the number of apparent royalty currently at the table before repeating the process for the "Captain", and finally once more for the remaining plainly dressed Elf at the table, whose name he did not yet know.
Moto then collected all the information he had about Mr. Johnson and sent it to Count Zorro.
//Compose message to Count Zorro
//"Count Zorro, please find information on Mr. Johnson attached; would suggest doing more detail background information on our employer, just in case."
//Send message
Finally, he had his drone address the table in short, clipped tones. "As previously mentioned, this unit represents Master Moto, who is eager to begin tonight's work. Should you wish to travel together, or if you have not brought transportation of your own, Master Moto will be able to accommodate you. Details can be found on your respective commlinks." The trid projection flickered again as the drone made another deep bow, an early indication that the projection was starting to strain the capabilities of the tiny Fly-Spy's power supply.
-
Johnny smiled at the Johnson, relieved that the Baron and a few others seemed happier with the price. Johnny probably would've done the job for 7.5, but every little bit helped. "8K for a night's work sounds good, Mr. Johnson. I'm in." Turning his attention briefly to the Captain, the trid projection that represented the rigger Moto, and the man who had yet to introduce himself, Johnny touched a willowy finger to his chest. "The kids call me Bad Johnny Juju, by the way. You can call me Johnny or just Juju."
After waiting for the introductions to finish, Johnny turned his attention to the Johnson. "Alright, we're all ears Mr. Johnson. What are we retrieving, where is it, and what details can you give us?"
-
Watching the interactions between the various people at the table was creating a steadily increasing lump in Bobby's gut. He schooled his face and posture to hide his unease but what went through his head was something else entirely, Holy Drek! This has all the makings of a bad trid on late night. At least Captain Jac Swallows there can be counted on to be a decent diversion. If I didn't need the work and didn't owe Pops...
Nodding to the Johnson's words he spoke up. "Your offer seems fair for a nights work, assuming it is what you are describing. I accept. You gentlemen can call me Count Zorro. What are the details Mr. Johnson?"
Leaning back in his chair and sipping his soycaf, he scanned the message from Moto, but his attention remained fixed on the Johnson for the moment, not wanting to miss anything said.
-
Dumping the cigarrete uncerimoniously onto the floor and crushing its tip, Mr. Johnson leans just a bit on the table.
Now that it's settled...what I need is a commlink. It´s currently held by this guy named Oxycode, a real piece of drek-small time pimp, pusher, hustler. i don't give a rat's ass to what happens to him. He could win the lottery or get sold to parts to Tamanous for all I care. I just need his commlink. He's at room 312 at the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat. That means the commlink's there too. You have any questions? If not you should get going. I need a commlink tonight
-
[ 2212 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"I have a question..." Baron Mojo replied. "What aren't you telling us?" Looking around the table to take in the various people assembled there, he continued, "Five people for a simple smash-and-grab? There's got to be more here, either the target is dangerous or they're being protected by someone. With the limited time frame, we need to know whatever there is to know about our opposition."
-
Sometimes things are what they are, as far as is know there is no big security to speak of, I just need that commlink and no connection to my people. is it overkill? perhaps it is, but i absolutely want the job not to be bungled and i need it fast replied Mr. Johnson in a casual manner.
-
With a virtual shrug, Moto began a Matrix search for information on this Oxycode person, as well as the Novelty Hills place. Perhaps he could discover something about what made this item so important to the Johnson. He also queued up a search on the Johnson himself, maybe he could figure out who he was.
"In the shadows, more than anywhere, perhaps, knowledge is power", he thought to himself as he finished keying in the search parameters.
In his experience, nothing was ever simple; "Why would someone hire five people, amongst them a skilled getaway driver and surveillance expert, a decker, a... pirate... and two as-of-yet-unknown factors, to grab a simple commlink?"
He mentally flicked a virtual switch, and in an instant he was back in the comforting embrace of the Ares Roadmaster. With a mere thought the powerful engine came online, the energy flowing from the battery to the electromotors pulsing in wonderful resonance with his own heartbeat. While he pondered his own question he considered asking for more details about the job, but it seemed straight forward enough; he'd transport whomever wanted transport to the job site, send in a scout while keeping overwatch, and make sure the team got out intact if drek hit the fan.
Satisfied that he was ready to start, he asked for just one thing. "Mr. Johnson, Master Moto has one request before he's ready to begin; the commcode for the commlink in question." The trid projection was directed at the Korean suit, and Moto looked around the table through his Fly-Spy's sensors as he waited for Mr. Johnson to respond.
-
[ 2212 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo frowned deeply at the Johnson's response. It doesn't sound like the idiot mundie has any clue what's going on other than he needs the commlink tonight. Wonderful... Shrugging, he prepared to rise when the drone asked its question. Non-plussed, the mage waited for Johnson's response. Perhaps next time he would attend these meetings as an astral projection.
With time to spare, the mage pulled out his commlink and checked the message he had received. Baron Mojo was not necessarily surprised to see it was from one of the newly-formed crew.
-
Shrugging off what could pass as some kind of annoyance Mr. Johnson fishes yet another cigar, biding his time he lights and replies after expelling a lungful of smoke Perhaps my people and your people have not always looked eye to eye, but we certainly understand each other better than gaijin, as you would put it, understand us. But let just say i am a business man, someone who looks after the interests of his own people, and that piece of drek, Oxycode, has something that one who relies on me to provide... safety... desperately needs. of course any of you gentleman understand the need not to start any turf wars, Oxycode may be a low time pice of drek, but should some of his friends or neighbours link the operation to me... that would be unwanted attention, for such a small favour that my particular "friend" will owe me.
As for the commcode, i do not posses it, but you already know where it is located, so it should be no trouble to obtain the thing. Continued Mr. Johnson after taking a small sip from his seven-seven.
-
John stands up, pushing his chair back stretching. "Don't worry about drek. We'll get it." he remarks standing up and starting to walk towards the exit, to get his stuff back.
-
The job sounded simple enough, which was exactly what made it a bit spooky. "One last question," Johnny said as others started to stand. "What model is the commlink? And what's it look like? Or is any commlink this idiot has ever touched good enough? If this guy's a pusher, like you said, he might have a few burn-phones on him." Johnny starte to rise as he waited for a response, gathering his armored coat aroud his bone-thin frame.
-
Moto watched as the self-styled Captain stood up and headed towards the door, pleased that Johnny Juju had asked the follow-up question he had considered asking. He waited for a reply, and once Mr. Johnson had finished speaking he made the projection of the drone bow deeply, stating simply "Arigatou gozaimasu, Johnson-sama" before he disabled the trid projector on his Fly-Spy.
He then made sure that his offer of transportation had made it to everyone's commlink as he commanded the small drone to follow the last team member out of the Banshee. Watching the video feed from the drone as he jumped into the Roto-Drone hovering high above the building, Moto began preparing an exit strategy just in case, alternating between keeping tabs on the ghouls and trying to watch for trouble from anyone else in the bar.
-
What is this? Wyrm talk and i'm playing Dunkelzahn? no i don't know the model. His mood was not annoyed, more matter of factly asking, rethorical question maybe, as he said it the Johnson kept looking at the guy dresses as a pirate take his leave. If he has a ton of them just bring them on, i'll know what i am looking for as soon as i scan it he finished saying.
-
"All right then. One last question and I will be on my way with the others. Once we have what you want, where and how do we contact you to hand it off?"
While waiting for the answer to the 8000 new yen question, Count Zorro started to go to work. data searches on Oxycode and the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat being first on his list, once those were done...then he could worry about the Johnson and other issues. With a little luck that new Browse program would speed things up enough he could get it all done.
-
I´ll be in here, this one closes very late and i really want that 'link tonight, happy hunting The Johnson answers in a nonplussed manner, altough by the arching in eyebrows he is getting somwhat impatient by the questioning. If not ill message you where to find me, the tab is on me he adds finally.
The patrons seem not to pay you much attention and although the some of the Ghouls take a couple of hungry stares at you none makes a move... yet.
-
[ 2215 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
With all the questions seemingly answered (or not), Baron Mojo nodded to Bad Johnny Juju and jerked his head toward the door. Standing up from the table, he headed for the door without a glance back. Checking his commlink, he switched the settings to silent running and walked out the door. Exiting into the night air, the mage waited for the remainder of the team before starting to look for Moto's black Roadmaster.
Come along, minion!
-
With the Fly-Spy following the team out of the door and keeping an eye on the crowd inside the Banshee, Moto watched from high above as Baron Mojo exited first, the pirate, carrying a large duffle bag following close behind. As the others filed out he piloted his Fly-Spy over to his Roadmaster and engaged the trid projection long enough for the team to see it, then had it gesture in a "this way" motion in the direction of the team. Once he was sure they'd seen him, he turned the projection off and landed the Fly-Spy safely in it's charging cradle.
Moto watched as some of his team members for the night approached the vehicle, and began to plot the course for the Roto-Drone and Roadmaster both. "I'll let the sniper drone fly over there just ahead of us", he thought to himself as he jumped back into the Roadmaster. He then sent a quick message to his marksman drone;
//Issue command to Alpha-1
//"On my go signal head to [Novelty Hills Eat & Sleep, Redmond Barrens] and hover at 400m above the center of the building. Notify master on arrival"
Nodding to himself in the Matrix, he revved the engine of the large, armored transport vehicle, indicating his impatience to get on the road as he composed a message to the rest of the team;
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Recon drone sent ahead to scout out place, am reviewing intel on it, this Oxycode person, and currently running search on Mr. Johnson. Please embark and take your seats, remember to buckle up please, and we'll get this show on the road, null sheen. Anyone need to make a stop somewhere?"
//Send message
-
Johnny Juju lingered a bit at the table to hear the answer to Count Zorro's question. He naturally assumed they'd be meeting the Johnson back here, but it certainly didn't hurt to ask. While he listened, Johnny pulled out his battered commlink and checked his messages. Noticing he had a few new ones, he pulled up an AR window and read Moto's earlier messages to the team. Using his commlink's built-in keypad, he tapped out a quick response to Moto.
<<I tend to leave my 'link on in the Barrens. This my home turf, and it's sometimes good for people to find me for business-related reasons. But you're the tech guy for this run, near as I can tell, so I'll defer to your expertise, Moto. And I'll definitely take you up on the offer of transport, chummer. Heading out with the Count now.>> Johnny quietly flicked his 'link into silent mode before sending another text to Moto as an afterthought. <<That was a cute trick with the trid projector, by the way.>>
Once Count Zorro's question was answered, Johnny dipped his head to the Johnson. "We'll see you back here with the goods later, then," Johnny said with practiced confidence. With that, he followed Baron Mojo out of the bar.
Bad Johnny Juju pondered their situation as he made his way outside. It was good seeing Baron Mojo here; the guy was a bit of an ass but had enough mojo to render Johnny all but superfluous on a run like this, so the astral was covered. Moto proved himself clever but paranoid, which was a combination Johnny liked. Count Zoro was smart enough to keep his mouth shut during the negotations but still seemed to have a pretty good head on his shoulders. The "Captain" was obviously the wild card of the group, but he must have had some reason for being here.
Stepping outside and seeing the gesture from Moto's projection, Johnny made his way over to the armored truck. Catching Mojo's eye for a moment, Johnny flashed a grin. "Finally getting your feet wet in Seattle, chummer?" As he walked, commlink still in hand, Johnny sent a text over to Adam Smits. <<Hey man. What you know about an idiot pusher named Oxycode?>> The handle "Oxycode" seemed to be a play on oxycodone, an opiate from the pre-bliss days. Johnny had popped a few pills in the past when bliss ran thin on the streets; it was nothing compared to the opiate euphoria of a good hit of bliss, but still had that general warm, fuzzy-headed, pain-dulling sensation. If this guy was associating himself with old school drugs like that, then it was possible him and Smits ran in the same circles.
Resting a hand on the handle to Moto's ride, Johnny sent one more text to the team at large. <<Alright, tech guys. Is this line relatively secure? Time to talk plans so we get fraggin' paid.>>
-
John heads with the others after getting his sword and pistol back. "Well now.. thats a bit of a land boat isn't it?" he says once he sees the ares roadmaster, walking towards it with a typical pirate swagger. <<Plans? Ha, I never plan anything. After all you'll know the gods have a sense of humor when you tell them your plans. Besides, we don't know jack to drek. >>
-
[ 2215 | The Banshee Bar | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo nodded to Johnny, "Getting there. There certainly are some... fascinating people here." Switching the topic, he continued, "The job sounds pretty easy, but this crew seems a bit underrepresented in the meat shield department. You got any minions handy?"
-
Moto sighed to himself as he observed Baron Mojo, Johnny Juju, and Lucky Dog approach, watching and listening to the chatter between them as he read Johnny Juju's reply. "At least Mojo and Johnny listened to my advice," he thought to himself, "though time will tell where this Captain is concerned..."
He overheard the conversation between Johnny and Mojo through his vehicle sensors, as well as the pirate's derisive comment.
"Land boat! Natalie here has a military motor, run-flat tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks, will run good on any kind of gas or electricity, and my driving is rivaled only by the lightning bolts from the heavens. Drek this gajin, I'll show him exactly what kind of boat this is..."
Concentrating for a moment, he replied to Johnny's message to the entire team.
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Line only as secure as your commlinks. Suggest you allow Count Zorro or myself to protect your devices and ensure integrity of communications; job sounds simple enough, but one can never be too prepared. Hai."
//Send message
Hearing Baron Mojo comment to Johnny Juju about minions had Moto on the alert; perhaps it wasn't just coincidence that they both had chosen handles related to magic. Magic had always freaked him out just a little; people changing reality just with the power of their mind was such an alien concept, particularly to someone firmly grounded in the scientific truth of the world as Moto himself. None the less, there was no doubt that magic could be powerful, and they had no less than two magicians tonight. The lack of a brawler and/or dedicated gunman, the pirate none withstanding, was slightly concerning, however. "Guess my drones will do more than overwatch for once," he thought to himself as he checked the street around him and prepared his maneuver, just waiting for the team to settle in and (hopefully) strap on their seat belts....
-
Heading outside the club, Bobby spots the Roadmaster and heads toward it with the others.
All right gentlemen, I have a few searches going on the hotel and the slug we need to see. It will take a few minutes to get much in the way of results, but it may give us a few ideas on how to approach this. "
Once they were all together in the Roadmanster and settling in he started reviewing options for a few seconds and spoke back up.
"All right, between Moto and I we should be able to keep comms and tech based surveillance under control. I have our basic comm channel secured for now, and I second Moto's suggestion on running silent. If we knew each other better I would recommend slaving your gear to me, but you may mot feel comfortable with that. I don't blame you or take offence if you prefer to keep control. In a few minutes I should have some preliminary info on the target and will copy it to your commlinks.
Just an opinion here, but I agree with you Baron, we are a little light in the meat. I am willing to bet Moto has at least one combat worthy drone. If he has extras or needs to split his attention I can cover for him there. Not to jump in, but I can at least direct them. From the names and hints I am guessing Baron Mojo and Johnny Juju are our astral support? And what about the 'Captain' here, what are your specialties?"
-
John smirks a bit, pulling out the oldest rifle anyone has ever seen. An 1855 sprinfield musket, known to miss its targets even at close range. "I've got this beauty." Carefuly he goes over it, attaching the sling and bringing it over his shoulder. Then from his bag, he pulls out a skull shaped mask, slipping it over his face. "I'm also well versed in various forms of torture, punishment and most importantly drinking. In fact, I know a great bar around here we can go after."
-
[ 2218 | Moto's RoadMaster | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo frowned at Count Zorro's linking the terms 'support' and 'astral' together. As if the manipulation of mana can be relegated to a support role! The nerve... he thought to himself. Opening his mouth, the mage promptly shut it when the increasingly intriguing Captain John spoke up, lovingly caressing a weapon likely last used in the 19th Century, or at least appearing that way.
"What the dr..." Deciding it was better not to ask, Baron Mojo focused his attention on the decker. "It's good that you recognize some of the trust issues we might have. This commlink isn't much, but I'm not willing to slave it to someone else. With that said, is there anything I can do to allow you to keep watch on it? I know little about the shared delusion of the Matrix, my skills are in other areas."
Pausing briefly, Baron continues, "Speaking of which, your guess is correct, Count. I can provide astral supremacy, depending on the threats we end up facing. I also have a broad repertoire of spells to bring to the table. Johnny, you want to let them know what you can do?"
-
"I summon demons," Johnny said simply, pulling open the door to the Roadmaster and stepping inside. "Damn. Nice ride." Johnny glanced around for Moto, but either didn't notice the dwarf tucked away in the rigger cocoon or didn't say anything.
Switching back over to Matrix communications, Johnny utilized his sub-vocal mic to take advantage of his Sensei's talk-to-text feature. <<Alright, so, the Captain is muscle of a sort. That's good, but I'm hoping it won't be necessary. Part of me is tempted to just pick up a Meta-Link somewhere and call it a day...>> Johnny grinned mischeviously as he found a seat, clearing space by the door of the Roadmaster for others to climb in if they so chose. <<But let's give the Johnson the benefit of the doubt and pretend he's smarter than that. I have a friend who may have a pre-existing relationship with this Oxycode character. If they're business partners, that may give us an in. If they're rivals, we might get paid extra for roughing the guy up. I already sent him a message, but I think our best bet is to pretend we're buyers. Or... me. I should pretend I'm a buyer. Something I should be able to handle. Once we draw him out, we can coerce the commlink or commlinks off his person. Sound good?>>
Johnny glanced at the screen of his Renraku Sensei, hoping Smits would reply soon... if he wasn't still marathoning PvP matches on that stupid game system of his, which he likely was. While checking for new messages, he also sent a private text to Baron Mojo. <<I have a fairly powerful demon summoned, just in case. Here's hoping we won't need it, though.>>
-
[ 2218 | Moto's RoadMaster | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo's commlink buzzed two times in close succession. Checking his commlink, he read through both of Johnny's texts, one to the group at large and one to him personally. Nodding his head, he tapped a quick message back.
<<@JohnnyBeBad [BaronMojo] Did you notice that the Captain is Awakened? I've a minor minion under my command at the moment, depending on what we find at the meet, I may go bigger. Any concerns over this Moto guy? I don't like working with someone who I can't blast with a spell>>
With his message sent, the mage held up his commmlink and asked, "Now that we're in the vehicle, is there any reason to continue conversing over these devices?" Speaking to the air, he asked, "I assume your vehicle is secure, Moto?" Without waiting for an answer, Baron Mojo continued, "That plan could work, let's get in the area and look around first before we settle on anything."
-
Bobby nods in agreement, "Until we know a little more, that is probably as good a plan as we get. Hopefully the searches I have going will let us refine it a bit."
Settling into the seat to get a little more comfortable, Bobby sent a command to his deck to ping the commlinks of his companions.
"OK, I just sent you all a ping. If you would invite a connection, that will let me keep an eye on you while you are running silent. If anyone starts doing anything I should see it in time to stop it, or at least warn you in time to shut down."
While waiting for the others to send the invites from their gear, he also checked the status of his various searches to make sure all was well.
-
The unsavoury meeting dealt with and a mission to accomplish, that is the result of the night so far, but so far so good, none of the patrons bothered you too much, except for their existence of course.
As the Video feed from Alpha-1 came to Moto it was hard to tell that it had arrived at the destination, no more than a 40 minute drive from where The Banshee was, still inside the Barrens, if not for the sad neon sign and pushy AROs loudly proclaiming it the "novelty Hills Sleep And Eat", you'd think this structure was exactly what it used to be: a large warehouse. Down the street is a Stuffer Shack so encrusted in graffiti it's almost unrecognisable; every other building in the immediate neighbourhood is condemned, or ought to be.
A trio of beleaguered looking prostitutes- human, elf and swarf- in torn fishnet hose, synthleather jackets, and miniskirts loiters at one corner of the motel. A few other similarly destitute costumers come and go, renting and abandoning rooms, buying and selling drugs, or shuttling stuffers back and forth from the Shack. but the area is mostly deserted aside from the group of ganger's parked outside.
The Matrix searches turn close to nothing, Oxycode must be a real small time pusher, for there is nothing that lights any bulb in the system. The Johnson on the other hand matches the description of someone who might be tied to the Choson Seoulpa ring.
-
As he was waiting for Moto's "land boat" to pull away from the curb, Johnny had another thought. It was a long shot, but it was possible Claw had some information on Oxycode as well. He tapped out another message to his former comrade-in-arms. <<Claw: on a job right now, but wanted to check with you. You know a small-time pusher named Oxycode? What's your opinion on him? And, scale of 1-10, how upset would you be if he spontaneously stopped breathing?>> It never hurt to ask.
As soon as he finished sending the message, Johnny's commlink buzzed again. First with a mark request from Count Zorro. Johnny didn't know or trust the guy, but he was willing to bet he knew more about Matrix security than he ever would... reluctantly, Johnny granted him a mark on his Renraku Sensei. Juju then investigated the second buzz and read Baron Mojo's message.
He glanced at the Captain with renewed interest, letting his perception slip into the murky void of the astral so he could get a better look at the lunatic's aura. It would make a bit of sense... some people went a little loopy when they Awakened, after all, which would certainly explain a lot about the Captain. Johnny Juju also took a good long look at Count Zorro's aura while he was at it.
Fingers still flying on the miniature keypad of his 'link, Johnny pinged a response back to the Baron. <<It occurs to me that if this is a set-up, luring the entire team into the same vehicle is a good way to set a trap. If Moto's going to stab us in the back, he'll do it soon, so stay sharp.>> It was always tense working with new people, but in Johnny's experience, most people just wanted to get the job done and get paid. Hopefully Moto was the same way.
"I'm hitting up some people I know in the neighborhood," Johnny explained as he finished up his bout of rapid-fire texting. "Trying to dig up what I can on our lucky target. Hopefully between that and our tech guys' searches, we'll have enough info to convince this guy we're legitimate buyers."
-
Moto smiled when he heard Bad Johnny Juju's comment on his vehicle. "At least two people on the team appreciate the finer arts of vehicle maintenance. I'll show the Pirate exactly what this "boat" can do", he thought to himself.
He fired off a quick message to Johnny Juju and Count Zorro, but left the Baron and the Captain out; they'd learn soon enough that it could be useful to listen when the rigger whose vehicle you were currently in spoke up.
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Count Zorro
//"Strap in guys, this could get a little... bumpy"
//Send message
After waiting for a second to make sure that the street was clear of vehicles and pedestrians, Moto revved the engine of the large, armoured car, enjoying what felt like taking a deep breath as the forced air induction spun up to fully aspirate the multi-fuel powerplant. He then threw the transmission into reverse and floored the accelerator, whooping loudly over the comms as the rubber on all four tires spun on the worn road surface, screaming in protest as the massive torque of the powerplants forced the All-Wheel Drive system into action. For a brief moment it felt like the skin on his feet were on fire, and he reveled in the sensation as he prepared his next maneuver.
With a mental command, Moto took in the feeds from every sensor in the vehicle, feeling the electricity flowing to the individual electromotors powering each wheel pulsing vibrantly and the cylinder strokes of the gigantic multi-fuel engine beating away as if in tune with his very soul. He took in the almost euphoric sensations of launching the vehicle from a standstill, and a mere thought later he had flicked the steering controls sharply to the left, paused for a split second, then wrenched the controls back to a three-quarters right lock. The truck bounced slightly on the 40" run-flat tires grounding it as it came hurtling around to a full 180 degree turn, and with a practiced, fluid motion Moto aligned the controls straight ahead and put the pedal to the metal, the physical world echoing his virtual commands. Though the armored truck was a far cry from a race car, what looked deceptively like a lumbering behemoth moved surprisingly well for it's size thanks in no small part to Moto's hard work on it.
As the vehicle sped away from the Banshee, Moto checked the rear view camera to make sure his passengers were all right, and with a satisfied grin he mumbled something about insulting his vehicle over the comms, then remembered that one of the mages had asked about the security of his vehicle.
With a practiced tone, he explained over the interior comms. "The vehicle is resistant to most small arms fire, should be able to handle the occasional rocket or IED, and has several redundant systems to allow for extended operations despite suffering heavy damage." He chuckled to himself, enjoying his perceived moment in the spotlight before continuing. "In terms of electronics and magic, security is less stringent; as I am sure some of you are aware there are no wards on the vehicle itself so passengers are vulnerable to abilities of other magicians. In addition, unwanted Matrix surveillance is unlikely, but cannot be guaranteed against."
While he piloted the vehicle, he sent a MARK invitation for his RCC to Count Zorro and listed his current subscriptions, then patched the video feed from his drone to the commlink of every team member. He then sent a short message to everyone detailing the combat and utility capabilities of his drones, and informed the team that ETA was likely 35-40 minutes.
"Plan sounds good, Johnny Juju; only modification to plan Moto would suggest is sending in a Fly-Spy first to reconnoiter the area." He took a closer look at the scene provided by the camera feed on his Roto-Drone before continuing. "Will pull up in Stuffer Shack parking lot; suggest avoiding what looks like joytoys on corner; likely infected with spirits-knows-what in this neighbourhood. Moto will keep Alpha-1 in the sky just in case gangers decide to pick a fight; if they do, suggest team makes a tactical retreat to exit, at which point Moto will launch additional drone to provide covering fire and will use vehicle as mobile cover, allowing team to safely embark and depart."
-
[ 2220 | Moto's RoadMaster | Touristville | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo sighed to himself as he gripped the unsecured vehicle restraints tightly. It would be nice to work with professionals for once... he thought as their driver drew a startling amount of attention to the entire team by peeling out and executing a J-Turn for no apparent reason in his black armored truck with red accents.
As things settled down, the mage strapped himself into the seat. Examining his commlink, he noticed the invite request from Zorro and clicked the authorization icon on the touch screen. While he normally wouldn't be so free with allowing the MARKs, the commlink was basically a burner. Once he got paid for the run, he was going to replace it with something a bit more permanent. As he considered his future purchase, Moto's message came across his commlink, authorizing a MARK on the drone's video feed. Placing a MARK, the feed lit up on the tiny screen of his cheap commlink. Reaching into the interior pocket of his suit, Baron Mojo pulled out a 15cm x 15cm square of laminated blank paper and proceeded to unfold it into a laminated sheet 45cm on each side. Linking the paper to his commlink, the video display opened up and the mage re-sized it so that the feed took up most of the sheet.
After reviewing the footage for a few seconds before folding the laminated sheet back up, the mage replied, "Nice place. I agree, let's do some reconnaissance first. If Moto has the physical covered, I'll handle the astral once we get to the Stuffer Shack. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and check around us right now to make sure we haven't already picked up any astral tails."
With that said, Baron Mojo went limp in his restraints as he projected himself in astral space. Since he no longer was tethered to his material body, he was forced to keep pace with the vehicle. Given that his astral form could easily maintain a pace of roughly 6000 km/h, the task was relatively child's play. With the form of his astral minion floating silently nearby, Baron Mojo got to work. First things first... let's make sure everyone is here. The mage's form slipped across the barrier between the driver and passenger compartments and searched for Moto's aura. Once located, he assenssed the rigger's aura, wondering whether there was an obvious reason for his peculiar way of doing business. Is he diseased? Infected?
His curiosity satisfied, the mage slipped through the roof of the vehicle and looked around the immediate area, searching for any astral forms that may have been following them. After a thorough examination, Baron Mojo slipped back into the passenger compartment and returned to his body.
-
As the confirmations on the MARKs came in, Bobby added the devices to his check off list so that he could scan each for intrusion and not lose track. After a quick confirmation check as to their initial status, he looks over the video feed on the fly-spy.
"Hmmp, I have seen better looking places in the deep Barrens. This is a real winner." Making a quick start of things, he feeds a copy of the video feed into a temporary file for review.
"I am goint to take a quick peek at the neighborhood Matrix and see what is lurking."
With a quick check of his harness, Bobby fades into the VR feed from his deck and cuts himself off from the meat-world. The rush of the electronic world was overwhelming for a fraction of a second, and then it snapped into impossible clarity. The sharp lines and precision of it always took his breath away.
Looking around his position on the grid, he scanned the bargain basement hookers, not expecting anything other than what they are, but professionals didn't cut corners. A quick glance at the Stuffer Shack as well, and then he wrapped himself in a cloak and wide brimmed hat as black as the void with tiny amber and green symbols flowing over it and put on his mask. Running silent, he moved in towards the motel, looking for defenses and a way in.
<<Initial sweep in progress, report to follow.>>
-
John Cormac may have not been told, but the bastard was lucky. Seeing the others apply the restraints, he follows suit as well. Flopping around a bit, he coughs a bit, managing to hold in his cookies. "Well, its not a ship, but this speed boat is still a good ride." He boldly states. "We should be there any time now. I'll go in first.. Anyone have a smoke grenade?"
-
Moto had chosen a route to Novelty Hills that would take them to the Stuffer Shack down the street from the hotel. With an ETA of just a few minutes he issued a command to slide the roof hatch open, feeling the stale air filling the cabin as if he'd taken a good solid breath of it, and launched his Fly-Spy drones as quickly as possible so he could shut the hatch again. He ordered Romeo-2 to reconnoiter the hotel building and look for entrances, and issued a command for Romeo-1 to hold position 30m above the Roadmaster at all times. Pulling into the Stuffer Shack parking lot, he chose a spot with a clear line of sight of the Novelty Hills main entrance with his vehicle sensors, which by pure coincidence also shielded the right side of the vehicle from view of the Stuffer Shack. "Hopefully, that'll at least keep the Captain off of their security cams exiting my vehicle, the man isn't exactly subtle", he thought to himself.
Making sure that the rear doors were locked and that the manual overrides were inactive, he told the team to hold fast while Count Zorro scouted the Matrix, Baron Mojo took a look in the Astral, and he himself snooped around the physical world.
"Everyone please hang tight until the Baron has done his mojo part and Count Zorro has verified the Matrix security situation. In the mean time, my drones and I will perform some basic surveillance of the... establishment. Video feeds are being sent to your 'links; feel free to review the information available to you."
He noted that Alpha-1 had performed to expectation so far, maintaining an altitude of 300m and keeping a watchful eye for potential hostiles; he jumped into the Roto-Drone for a brief moment to take a closer look at what looked like street toughs from some local gang or another, as well at the people entering and leaving the building, looking for obvious and concealed weapons through the imaging scope of the Crockett EBR currently masked as a weather sensor. He marked all potential targets in AR and then jumped into Romeo-1, immediately noticing that Romeo-2 had misinterpreted his instructions and was apparently just hovering 300m away, unable to decide what to do next. Cursing the pilot program to all the Kami of his ancestors, he forcibly issued a new set of instructions to the infuriating drone, this time marking the target building with an ARO and telling it simply to make a patrol around the exterior and keep it's sensors on the building. "If you want something done right, you better do it yourself", he thought, noting that the old axiom rang true more often than he cared to dwell on.
Riding inside the tiny Fly-Spy always made him feel slightly claustrophobic; it was almost as if his skin was a little too tight, but the gut-wrenching feeling of unstable flight more than made up for it. The little drone was incredibly agile, and he could feel his desire to start doing rolls and loops escalate. With a mental effort he focused on the job at hand; "Get it together, Yoshiro, this isn't the fair, and you're not riding a rollercoaster. Stay frosty!" He piloted the drone at an altitude of approximately 20 meters towards the main entrance while he looked for a way in, and kept an eye on the feed from Romeo-2.
-
[ 2245 | Vicinity of the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"I'll be back," Baron Mojo said before collapsing like a rag-doll in his restraints. With his astral form un-tethered from his mortal shell, the mage stretched out his senses on the astral plane."MInion! Guard my mortal shell from harm while I am away. You will be released from your service when I return." The spirit, still in the shape of a small dumpster, disconsolately rolled back and forth on the astral plane.
With his physical defense covered, the mage slipped through the door of the RoadMaster. The astral plane in this part of Seattle could only be described as grimy. The general feelings of hopelessness and despair infused the fabric of the plane, subduing the vibrant colors of the auras around him and making the grays of the buildings even more gray. Just moving through the area made Baron Mojo feel like his astral form had a sheen of grease covering it. Not wanting to spend too much time in the area, he got down to work.
Addressing the immediate area, the mage moved around at street level, hoping to draw slightly less notice of himself and assenssed the auras of the people outside of Novelty Hills to make sure there were no surprises. When he spotted any Awakened auras, he took a second look to determine if their threat level. Once he concluded his search of the exterior of the building, he focused on the building itself.
Approaching the building, he floated up to the second floor and slipped into the area directly over the building's entrance. Moving a few meters forward, he stuck his head through the floor of the hallway until it phased through to the lobby area below. He had used the tactic before to good effect. Clearing the room of any astral surveillance, Baron Mojo slipped through the ceiling and examined the area, taking note of the number of people and giving their auras a close examination. Committing their positions to memory, he floated down the hallway toward the elevators.
-
Bad Johnny Juju twitched as the Captain "volunteered." "No, you are absolutely not going in first. These are my people, I can blend in much easier than any of you. Once we finish our recon, I'll get out by the Stuffer Shack and hoof it over to the whorehouse. Hopefully I can sniff out Oxycode and we can grab his 'link and get paid." Johnny paused thoughtfully for a moment. On second thought, people might just assume the Captain is a chiphead on a personafix. He might blend in better than I thought.
Johnny shook his head as if clearing a thought. "Captain, I need you to stay with the rest of the team. If things go sideways on me, you'll be the only person in the meat that can help pull me out. We got drones, Matrix security, and the Baron's got the astral covered, but I need you watching my literal flesh-and-bone back. Can I trust you on that?"
-
John grumps a little at that, "Fine then, since no one else here is man enough to be able to do it." he remarks sitting back in his chair and removing his face mask. Well, easiest bit of dosh I've made. Let the others do the work while I sit back in luxury protecting some dude who probably isn't going to get attack anyways. John, you're such a brilliant man. silently he nods, rubbing his chin. "You've got yourself a deal. Just don't let things go sideways, alright?"
-
The Stuffer Shack being nearly deserted makes for the perfect spot for parking, as Moto parks the Roadmaster (after a somewhat bumpy ride) every member in the party already has a mission to accomplish, time is of the essence and you are on your way to make it count.
Shortly before arriving Johnny receives a message //how you doing? Oxycode? you after that piece of trog trash? zero upset, low life scum, no dealings with him, ear his gone into hiding, someone after him.// the message from "Claw" being pretty succinct about his feeling on Oxycode.
As the drones fly by the Novelty Hills sleep the image becomes clearer, the gangers (unlike the hookers who seem to be just after any John they can find) seem to be on the lookout and alert as if waiting for something, none of them appear to be awaken from the Baron perspective.
The ork gangers are seemingly from the Crimson Crush for those in the knowing, at least 6 of them are in front of the building, 3 loitering the lobby near a glass cage that contains a nervous looking dwarf inside. A single elevator, where three more orks are leaning against the wall, (as well as several catwalks) provides one of the means to access the four stories inside the building, the last level clearly being a recent upgrade (if one could call it that) to the facilities. the yellow painted railing and bannisters peeling from lack of maintenance give credit to the building lack of charm.
As soon as the Baron enters the building, he sees that the more "luxurious" side of the motel has four floors of rooms in a U-shaped configuration: each floor has fifteen rooms against the west wall, five rooms against the south wall and another fifteen rooms against the west wall. A narrow metal catwalk with a weak-looking railing provides access to each of the rooms on each level. A stairwell in the north-east corner and a elevator on the south-west corner allow easy access between floors. there is single metal security door on the NW corner, 1st floor. The feed from the drones clearly showing a stair leading directly outside in the back of the building.
Curiously enough the name "sleep and Eat" actually makes sense, several vending machines are lined up on the north wall of the fist floor.
\\Alpha-1 Status report on surveillance
\\possible threat count: 6
\\weapons: heavy pistols
The search being carried through all means at your disposal, matrix, astral and physical leaves a pretty clear picture of the surroundings, the Stuffer Shack (and its sparse clientèle, a few hookers, a couple of pushers, one hobo and a nasty looking troll grabbing some late dinner) seems to pose no threat other than the occasional baby devil rat quickly sniffing around the trash bins located nearly in the back.
The matrix search on the Novelty is however more enlightening, it seems that defences is not something the owners invested on, nor as it appears on any safety equipment. beneath the bright jade green of the grid sky there are several icons worth checking, as Bobby rides the grid at the speed of thought he quickly notices a maglock on the glass cage on the left side of the lobby, its shiny icon a small beacon, there is also fair amount of commlinks, none of them running silent, one inside the glass cage and 6 others in front of the Novelty Eat and Sleep.
-
[ 2250 | Vicinity of the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Not noticing any Awakened threats at the moment, Baron Mojo decided to try to locate their target. One drawback of astral projection was the inability to read things in the physical world. At least I can still count... the mage thought to himself as he floated to the third floor. While he assumed the rooms were sequentially numbered, he didn't know from which side of the complex they started. Figuring that most things in the UCAS worked from left to right, he moved to the left catwalk, zipped to the 12th room, slipped through the door, and looked around.
-
Having quickly reviewed the sensor data from Alpha-1, Moto sent off a message to the team after he had made his way inside the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat "hotel".
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Several armed individuals near hotel; count 6 orks carrying heavy pistols outside main entrance, another 3 orks inside main lobby, also potentially armed. Additionally, lone dwarf inside glass cage in lobby; possible receptionist. Have spotted rear entrance on NW corner of first floor; potential entry point to bypass gangers out front. Making way to 312 now; internal staircase in NE corner, internal elevator in SW corner of building; additional 3 orks loitering near elevator. Several commlinks spotted, suggest Count Zorro breach one or more to investigate possible reason for heavy gang presence."
//Send message
With the message away, Moto focused on piloting the little Fly-Spy into the courtyard and straight up to the 3rd floor, bypassing both the elevator and the stairwell, and noting a few guests scattered around the place, none of whom seemed to warrant any concern except for a particularly gnarly looking large troll.
Upon reaching the 3rd floor, Moto began checking both the Matrix for signs of door number AROs, as well as physical door numbers, cross referencing the two to ensure that no one had messed around with either. "Can never be too careful," he thought as he matched the Matrix and physical world data, locating room 312 within seconds. While he made his way over to the door, he quickly reviewed the sensor data from the exterior drones and the Roadmaster before sending a progress report to the team.
//Compose message to Bad Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Room 312 located; preparing covert entry, stand by."
//Send message
With a quick look at the approximate location of the room in the Matrix, Moto made his way inside through a damaged air vent and surveyed the room.
-
Scanning the message traffic, Bobby prepared a reply:
//Message All: Hold actions. Confirming control of communications on site personnel.
With a quick flip of his mental wrist, teh Count pulled out a needle pointed stilletto. Stepping forward he used it to pry at the icon for the dwarf's commlink. With a bold slash he scratched a Z of moving characters into it's surface and opened, the icons of its files falling out in a cascade of markers for him to see. Once it was marked and set to his satisfaction he moved over to one of the orcs in the lobby and repeated the process. Scanning the files on both links to see if there was anything noteworthy he sent the confirming message to the group:
//Message All: Communications secured, Internal surveillance of area non-existent, Proceed with actions.
Returning to his examination of the commlinks he paused and set to work on the link of one of the 6 orcs outside the motel, working quickly to scratch his symbol on it's virtual souls, and gain control of the orc's device.
-
John in the meanwhile sat in the back of the van, were he was told to stay, kicking up his feet and drinking from an unlabled bottle, he pulled from his sack.
//Message Others: Right right, I'm all standing by and stuff.
With a yawn he stretches, letting the others do the work. The best of all, he played his cards right to be told not to do anything, so nothing could be said that he wasn't following orders from the others. Best job ever.
-
Johnny muttered a curse under his breath as he read the response from Claw. <<That's for the info, omae. When I'm done with this clown we'll need to catch up for a drink or something.>> Claw always came through for him, but this was bad news. Since most of his team had gone all rag-doll on him, Johnny switched back over to Matrix communications. <<Alright team, good news and bad news. Apparently our target has gone to ground. Those ork gangers? I think they're his protection. So we might have trouble getting access. The upside is he apparently has enemies, so the heavy-handed approach is looking more likely. Still, I want to see if I can flush him out by presenting a "business opportunity" or some drek like that. Let me know when you've finished with your recon, give me all the info you can, and then I'll start chatting up the local color and seeing if I can get myself access.>>
Johnny figured he'd start with the working girls; if Oxycode was a wannabe pimp, they might be his girls or at least know his face. After that, he'd talk to the protection about getting access. The tech guys were more professional than he was used to, and Moto hadn't stabbed them in back yet. So far, so good...
-
@Vandarl
As you set to the task of hacking the dwarfs commlink, your first attempt is frustrated by the devices firewall, its code either too though for your attempt or you where just plain unlucky, refocusing and giving it one more go you are finally able to get a mark on the device, the information flowing unabated, the thing is a cheap Meta Link and inside it contains what appears to be the codes for the cage lock.
@martinchaen
You swiftly enter the premises undetected, find the room 312 and spot a passable ventilation to the room, the shaft that leads to the room is blocked though, you are able to perceive the form of a ork lying down on the bed, gazing up, the room is quiet and apparently there are no devices running silent or otherwise in the unremarkable 2x3x4 cubicle.
@JackVII
As you float around the building heading to the 3rd floor, you notice several non awakened forms either lying in bed, making chores and otherwise unremarkable actions, the place is not full, the activity is what could be considered normal for such a place, the occasional guy or gal sleeping a night in here, the occasional John satisfying his needs, there is of course the occasional awakened character, but you figure they are unrelated to the quarry. there in the distance you spot what seems to be room 312, its not the easiest thing to spot certain worldly details while projecting, but experience does have its uses. taking a quick look you find no mystical barriers that might impede your progression, passing through the door into the room you find yourself inside a 2 by 3 by 4 cubicle, the remains of what appear to be take away meals seemingly discarded on the floor, a pile of clothes and a auraless body on the mattress staring into the ceiling.
-
[ 2250 | Room 312 | Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Well... that's probably not a good sign, the Baron thought as he looked over the apparently dead body. I wonder if someone got to Oxycode before us.
Not picking up on any astral signatures in the room, the mage floated through the door and shot out the front of the building, making a beeline for the Ares RoadMaster and his body. As he slipped back into his body, he sensed a faint wailing from his minion that faded away as he regained consciousness.
"Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Gasping at air as if he had just been resuscitated with a shot of adrenaline, Baron Mojo recovered quickly and said, "We may have a problem, I think Oxycode is dead."
-
"How is that a problem? We weren't here to get him. Just a commlink. And what do you mean you think?" John asks, staring at the mage as he takes a sip from his bottle.
-
[ 2252 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"My time is too valuable to explain how auras work. Needless to say, a body without an aura is a dead one." Baron Mojo replied. "Whoever the ork was in that room doesn't have an aura anymore. Whether that was Oxycode or not is yet to be determined. If it is, do you think there's much chance that his body hasn't already been stripped? The problem isn't that he's dead, it's that his drek may not be here anymore."
-
"So.. you didn't actually get a look at the body. Just a fancy vision thingy you magic types do. Possibly couldn't it have been a sex robot thing?" He turns to the front of the van. "Tech people have those things right?"
-
With an internal sigh at Cormacs impatience, Moto spoke up through the internal speakers in the back of the Roadmaster.
"Moto concurs with Baron Mojo's assessment. If Captain Cormac would direct his attention to video feed from Romeo-1 he would see for himself; room 312 shows signs of short-term isolationist behavior, cause unknown, and contains one body, metatype homo sapiens robustus, with no discernible vital signs."
Moto considered the facts for a brief moment before continuing. "Fact: Oxycode, relative unknown low-life drug dealer known to be in possession of a very specific commlink. Fact: Team hired by potential Choson Seoulpa affiliate to retrieve said commlink, fate of Oxycode inconsequential. Hypothesis: information on commlink valuable enough for other parties to be interested; someone might have gotten to Oxycode before us."
Confirming his Matrix findings once more to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he went on without pause.
"I show no signs of any active devices in the Matrix; perhaps Count Zorro will have better luck, or perhaps the device is not currently running and/or operational. Terms of contract has not changed, however; team will need to make entry to confirm identity of body and search for commlink or any trace of who might have taken it. Moto will continue to provide overwatch, and suggest entry is made via alternate entrance, bypassing miscreants and lobby staff entirely."
With his findings shared, and having done more talking than he was comfortable with, he retreated back to the safety of his Roadmaster, it's armor plating comfortably layering itself on top of his natural skin. After his brief respite, he jumped back into Alpha-1, the whirring rotor blades becoming an extension of his body as he returned his watchful eye to the denizens of the area.
-
Sliding back into the meat to communicate more easily, Bobby opens his eyes and looks around at the others. Resettling himself into his seat he speaks up.
"OK, we have gang boys in the front and in the lobby, possibly the cause of the body, possibly guarding the room we are interested in, or possibly just hanging out. There is a body in the room, but we still need to check and see if it has the commlink we need, so we still need access. I have the commlink for the guy in the security cage under control, so I should be able to get the door codes.
I say go in through the back door and head to the room and toss it."
-
"Well, at least two of you have the sense to go check the room before proclaiming the target dead." he remarks drinking from his bottle again. "I'll go in and check, and grab what I can." He remarks standing up. "Is that alright with you Master Baron?" he asks grinning a bit as he picks up his face mask.
-
[ 2255 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"Given that the target is a commlink, it was never alive... and I did mention that the findings were tentative. Maybe I should throw in a 'yar' or an "ahoy' next time so that you might comprehend better." Baron Mojo replied to the thoroughly annoying man. "Go in and grab what you can? What an excellent and well-thought out plan..."
Looking to the rest of the group, he asked, "So what IS our plan?"
-
"This drek can never be simple, can it?" Johnny sighed in exasperation as he typed out another message on his commlink to Claw. <<Hey, do you know who was after this guy?>> If Oxycode was dead, knowing which gang or syndicate was out for his blood might help recover the commlink later.
"Considering the dude was in hiding and now there's a dead body probably in his room, it's likely somebody got to him before we could. If we're lucky the commlink could still be on him, or if we're very, very lucky it could be some other random dead body... not impossible in a drek-hole like this, but I wouldn't put my credstick on that."
Johnny unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled his Ceska Black Scorpion out of the interior pocket of his cloak. He kept the stock folded but loaded a clip adroitly before slipping it back into the folds of his coat. "As far as I can tell, our plan hasn't changed. I go in, act like I got some business with Oxycode, try to get a face-to-face meet with the guy. Their response will at the very least give us a better idea of what's going on." Here's hoping their "response" is a bullet to my brain cage, Johnny added silently to himself. "If I fail to make any progress schmoozing my way in, then we take the back door. I have a pet demon that may be able to help with a more stealthy approach, so it shouldn't matter too much if I show my face first. Sound good?"
Johnny stood up from his seat in the Roadmaster but wasn't about to stick his head outside unless he had some measure of approval from the rest of the team. It was a shitty situation, but talking to the whores and gangers still struck him as the best way of getting an idea of what was going on.
-
"In the end, all the plans end with just going in and grabbing what we can. Do you know what the commlink we're looking for even looks like? If its not there, do you even know what we need to find where we need to go?" John sighs, sitting back down and pulling out another bottle from his bag. "Though, it looks like he's just going to go in the front door." the captain says waving a hand at Johnny. What foolish mages and tech guys. We're going to spend a while with their tentative findings, before we go do something that actually works. Such is life I guess. Ah happy raven, for what would make these fools know?
-
With an audible *click*, Moto unlocked the doors of the Roadmaster and announced his approval of Johnny Juju's plan.
"Moto will cover both entrance points. Alpha-1 is on exterior standby above lobby, suggest Captain Cormac also mobilize to alert level; launching Alpha-2 when clear to cover side entrance if needed. Count Zorro, can you provide entry point for Alpha-2 if breach-and-clear option becomes necessary?"
As an afterthought, he added a cheerful "Don't get shot, Johnny", and started his threat assessment of the low-lives outside the main entrance. Looking through the image magnification of the imaging scope on Alpha-1's large-bore rifle, he locked the drone's sensor onto the largest target amongst the gang members before jumping into Romeo-1 and piloting it back down to the inner courtyard and left it with a command to follow behind Johnny Juju when the metahuman entered, then settled in for the wait.
-
Bad Johnny Juju chuckled at Moto's comment as he swung the door to the Roadmaster open. Showtime, Johnny thought to himself as he jandered out into the Stuffer Shack parking lot, making his way over to Novelty Hills. Sucking in a breath full of the polluted Barrens air, Johnny put on his most polished, practiced ganger smirk as he sent a mental command to his demon, calling it up from whatever primeval corner of the metaplanes it slumbered in.
Voiceless demon, I have need of you. I command you to take flight over this intersection, and watch over my body and soul. Conceal yourself from others, and fly close enough to reach out and strike those who may do me harm. I forbid you to strike me or my allies, and you may only make your presence known in defense of me. Johnny knew from personal experience that you had to be specific with demons, and include clauses against them actively harming you... otherwise they would take advantage of your weakness. As he bartered with his demon in quasi-poetic terms, he continued making his way across the street, his boots crunching against the battered asphalt as he made directly for the trio of prostitutes.
Glancing upward furtively, Johnny saw his demon materialize in the atmosphere about Novelty Hills, its strange, amorphous thunderhead form seeming even more ominous outside of the astral. Using his comm's voice-to-text feature again, Johnny murmured a subvocal message to Moto but patched it through to the rest of the team, just to keep them informed. <<Not sure how sophisticated the sensors on your drones are, Moto, but you might notice a blip about 40 feet above the whorehouse. That's my demon, keeping watch over me. One more eye in the sky, right?>> Johnny was confident that a devil of that magnitude of power could keep himself concealed from mundane eyes, but he made sure to watch out for anybody reacting to the spirits presence as he continued to close the distance on the prostitutes.
When he came within ear shot of the girls, he threw his arms wide in a jocular greeting. "Ladies! Ladies! Mamacita! Gorgeous girls like you are a sight for sore eyes, let me tell you." Grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear, Johnny waited for the girls' inevitable "sales pitch" before feigning dissapointment. "Ah, I wish I could, beautiful, but I am sadly here on business. Which of you lovely ladies can tell me where I can find a cat named Oxycode?"
-
Keeping an eye on the street toughs from his vantage point high above the hotel, Moto glanced at the video feed from the Roadmaster's sensor package as Johnny Juju exited the the armored car, made his way across the street, and headed straight towards the hookers on the corner. With a thought he readied Alpha-2's launch rack, spun up it's rotor blades, and opened the Roadmaster's top hatch. As he jumped from one Roto-drone to the other in order to covertly pilot Alpha-2 into position, the message from Johnny formed in his mind almost like a thought of his own. The hot-sim VR protocols of his control rig immersed the dwarf so fully into the comforting embrace of the Matrix and the drone's armored shell and electronic guts that the dwarf felt completely at one with the machine, information and sensory data flowing into and through him at the speed of thought.
"A demon? I wonder if this boy knows just what kind of forces he's dealing with; the Kami are not to be disturbed unless one is ready to pay their price. They could be powerful allies indeed if they heed his wishes, though; perhaps he is more powerful than I first thought, looks can be deceiving after all."
With practiced ease he ran a quick sensor sweep of the area above the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat, and sure enough, a new entity now registered on his sensors. The cloud, though darker and at a much lower altitude than any other like it for miles, was hard to make out against the Seattle streets below, but Moto had made sure that the drone's sensor suite was sophisticated indeed.
He immediately sent a reply back to the mage's commlink, more as a matter of protocol than anything else, though the mage did deserve recognition for being cautious.
//Compose message to Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Copy that, Johnny, eyes on target; good work."
//Send message
With confirmation that the magician was as good as his word, and with both Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 in place, the latter now hovering several hundred meters above the secondary entrance, Moto allowed himself to relax just a hair. Between the Kami Johnny had summoned to his side, Moto's formidable firepower, Baron Mojo's... well, mojo, Count Zorro's Matrix expertise, and whatever the Captain could bring to the table, he felt confident that the team would be able to handle anything these gangers could throw at them. As he jumped back into Alpha-1, he left a command for Alpha-2 to keep it's assault rifle aimed on the secondary entrance, ready to suppress the area at the command phrase "Alpha-2, suppress Lima-1". Once he'd settled back into Alpha-1, he once more locked onto the biggest, meanest looking member of the armed gangers below.
-
@Bewilderbeast
watta good lookin boy wanting from Oxy? you come here and we go up have some good time huny Says the Ork hooker to Johnny as he approaches I take care of you real good huny she says while approaching, her large hips in the battered synthleather mini skirt and fishnets swishing in your direction. The gangers outside seemingly not in earshot range and not paying you much attention.
-
Bad Johnny Juju's pointed ears almost visibly perked up as the ork girl approached. She clearly knows Oxycode. Maybe one of his girls? Or just knows him by his drek reputation? It occured to Johnny that buying some "time" with this lady could be a good excuse to get into Novelty Hills... but then what? Ditch her and try to find Oxycode's room? She'd probably notice something like that. He'd have to work the business with Oxycode angle and hope she was amenable.
"Like I said, dear heart, I have no doubt you'd take very good care of me." The lust in Johnny's gaze was palpable as he let his eyes wander to her hips for just a moment too long. Bad Johnny Juju was never known for his impulse control, but he had a job to do. "But I'm afraid I have urgent business with Mr. Oxy. Time is at a premium with his current situation," Johnny explained, trying to keep things vague while he gauged the hooker's level of knowledge. "But I got a mutually beneficial proposal for the guy. It could be beneficial for you, too, dear heart, if you can get me face-to-face with the man." With this, Johnny reached into his coat and pulled out the certified credstick that held literally every nuyen he had in the world, watching the working girl eagerly for any sort of response.
-
@Bewilderbeast
Johnny's guts tell him that this middle aged ork hooker does in fact know Oxycode, most likely one of his girls in fact.
Well huny she says while she swishes her hips towards you If you wanna meet the man i could get paid for my time, standard fare is 150 NuYen, but since youre such a pretty face i'll lead you upstairs for just 100 she says while batting her fake eyelashes and flashing you a tusky grin
-
John continues to sit inside the van, drinking from his bottle, staring at the wall. Even if he didn't have to do anything, the wait was starting to get to him, and he began really needing to do something.
-
Johnny smiled at the hooker. "You got yourself a deal. Lead the way, miss, and I'll let you slot my stick." He just couldn't resist the pun, of course.
He added, subvocally to the rest of the team, <<Got an in.>>
-
Moto watched from his vantage point as Johnny schmoozed up the prostitute and made his way into the building; a fair entry point, he surmised, neatly bypassing the ork gangers he currently had his sights on. "Not having to kill a bunch of street scum should keep the cops away if nothing else. Speaking of killing...", he thought to himself as he ran through the possible scenarios in his mind.
//Compose message to Johnny Juju Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac,
//"Johnny, advise extreme caution if bringing prostitute to subject's room; based on available information I estimate a 97.62% probability that she will cause a disturbance if allowed to see the body of our as-of-yet unidentified ork. Suggest getting rid of her before entering room if possible; subdual preferable, but if lethal action is necessary recommend making it look like she died along with the corpse in the room.
//Send message
-
"Everything is still green. No out of place chatter on ganger comms, so far. "
Bobby continued his matrix overwatch, running a quick scan of the group's gear for marks. And then taking advantage of the time Johnny was spending with the hooker to work his magic on the dwarf's commlink. Easy does it, a few more marks and I should have full control. Best to keep the Divine off our backs...GOD is such a buzzkill.
Hacking away at the commlink with needle sharp dagger of his exploit program, and a few more glittering Z's were on the mark.
"No alarms, no change in comm chatter, no shift in positions of guards so far. Matrix secure."
-
John stands up the best he could in there. "Alright, he has his in, I'm going to head towards the back. One of you matrix watchers, I'll do a thing so you can watch my commlink. If I get too close to someone else, tell me." he says getting up to fidget with his commlink now.
-
[ 2300 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
[b}Baron Mojo[/b] remains silent. Closing his eyes, he reaches out to summon another minion, one more powerful than his previous attempts. Tearing open a rift in the astral, the mage reaches in when a thunderous voice booms out.
"YOU SHALL NOT HAVE ME, MORTAL!"
The astral rift seals itself as Baron Mojo is blasted back into his physical body. Wiping his now bloodshot eyes, the mage holds his head in his hands as he struggles to overcome the migraine that has taken up residency in his head.
"That didn't go well. Nevertheless, I'll join you at the rear of the building."
-
@Bewilderbeast
Pulling a small unit from inside her bra she points it in Johnny's direction here you go huny, insert it as much as you want... but is that all you want to insert? she gives you another tusky grin, her ample bosom bouncing from the movement. 100 NuYen poorer but with a way in Johnny moves after the hooker, the orks in front of the Sleep and Eat taking you for another costumer.
@Triskavanski
Your commlink ready and you move away from the van, moving in the direction that allows you access to the back of the building, you can see Johnny Juju up ahead being lead by the hand with a ork hooker, in front of the building complex remains the orks and the two remaining hookers, both of them looking jealously to the one that just left.
@Vandarl
Seemingly it was easier this time, the dwarf commlink fully hacked and almost at your beck and call, Bobby's mojo seems to have returned as you deftly add two more marks into the dwarf's 'link.
-
John blinks for a moment, addressing Baron Mojo. "Do me a favor if your coming, and don't do that again." placing his face mask back on he gets out of the van with a hop, stretching out for a moment, and with a sigh, begins walking towards the back, attempting a way up.
//Message, Moto, Vandarl - On the third floor correct? he sends out, looking to see if there is a good climbing path up that way.
-
With the drone's sensor array firmly locked onto his target, Moto continually cycled through his other available feeds, alternating between Alpha-2 hovering high above the secondary entrance, Romeo-1 waiting for Johnny inside the hotel, Romeo-2 patrolling the perimeter, and the Ares Roadmaster.
He doublechecked that Romeo-1 was able to follow commands better than it's counterpart, then jumped into the Ares Roadmaster when he noticed him leaning forward somewhat heavily to put his head in his hands. He replayed the video feed from the back of the Roadmaster and pondered what had happened to the good Baron . "Subconjunctival hemorrhage of the superficial blood vessels of both sclera; I didn't see or hear him sneeze, cough, or take a blow to the head. Hypothesis; subject is mildly allergic to as-of-yet unknown substance in Seattle air, or was affected by some form of strain. Mojo gone wrong? Illness? Hmm, must keep watch", he thought to himself as Lucky Dog Cormac stepped out of the Roadmaster wearing that ridiculous mask. "How much attention does the man want to draw to himself, I wonder. Hopefully Baron Mojo can keep an eye on him, assuming he's OK. I will watch the watcher." Nodding to himself in the Matrix translated to an unintended movement of the steering wheel. Slightly embarrassed at his loss of control, Moto jumped back into Alpha-1 and reconfirmed his target lock still held.
John's message came in loud and clear, just like the Captain in real life, and Moto shook his head once more. "I have a feeling I'll have to keep a close eye on this one..."
//Compose message to Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac, Johnny Juju
//"Correct, Cormac; we're looking for room 312, remember, which would logically be on the 3rd floor. If you had watched the feeds I've been providing you with, you would know not only the exact location of the room we're after, but the full exterior and interior layout of the building and the current presence of any street toughs on the outside. Please do remain calm; we do not need a shoot out with random gang members when all we're here for is a commlink."
//Send message
-
Johnny accepted the girl's commlink and slotted the credstick, transferring over 100 nuyen to her temporary storage. 100 nuyen was a lot of money for a guy like Bad Johnny Juju. This moron better not be dead... or he'd best have his commlink on his corpse if he is. Fraggin' need to get paid. Johnny nodded at the ork gangers guarding the entrance with an authentic, dopey, "I'm 'bout to get laid, chummer" grin as he entered Novelty Hills.
As he let the working girl lead him to where Oxycode supposedly was, he thumbed the scroll-wheel of his commlink to bring up an AR window and catch up on the team's chatter. The Count continued to be curt, but a consumate professional. Johnny couldn't help but blink in surprise when Moto casually suggested murdering the hooker. Alright, so it looks like Moto isn't going to betray us... but he appears to be a complete and utter sociopath. Noted.
As he continued to follow his guide into the depths of the seedy whorehouse's interior, Johnny spoke up. "By the way, sweetheart, what should I call you? My name's Bad Johnny Juju."
-
John sighs, shaking his head as he begins climbing the stairs nearby up to the first floor of the building, stealthily.
Sneakroll up the stairs (http://orokos.com/roll/190384): 8d6t5 2
Audio based detection takes a -4 to their test to hear me at least.
-
@Bewilderbeast
As the cheap ass thing she call a commlink returns to her bag, she hands you her hand, again flashing you a grin. You can call me whatever you like huny, but if you insist call me Dana, Dana the maiden and she releases a high pitched laugh. as you near the entrance the bystanding orks hardly look at you, at your jibe you ear the sound of a few grunts and grumbles.
The dwarf inside hardly skipping a beat as you pass the cage, seeing you with the girl he turns his attention to whatever he may be doing on the other side of the glass enclosure.
We taking the elevator huny, and this place a charming she says in a sarcastic tone while leading you through the buiilding to the elevator on the other end, as you approach the three orks look casually at both of you, the sound of the machines on the first floor dispensing whatever they call food in this city.
What you doing here chummer? the harsh basso of one of the orks, a fairly built sized one, scarred face, armor jacket by the looks of it and an expression of utter boredom.
@Triskavanski
The Captain stealthy moves to the other side of the building, a parking lot on the back with a few vehicles and a few bikes, ganger colours flying on them, as he looks at the surrounding there seems not to be a soul alive in this area, the place quieter than a church mouse.
Moving delicately up the iron (somewhat decrepit though) staircase is easy, its not much that long of a strech before he face to face with the door, a single battered maglock being the only visible way to open it.
-
John leaned in a bit to look at the maglock a bit closer.
//message - The door is locked by a pretty beat up lock. Do any of you have a method of opening it, or do I need to use my "keycard"
He quickly sends out a message, looking up the walls again. His rapier wouldn't be good at breaking the lock, but his ruger would be. Only problem is it would be loud. However, perhaps he could find a window to crash thorugh here soon.
-
Bad Johnny Juju glanced over at the loitering orks and broke an easy smile. "About to have myself a party, chummer. How're you fellas doin'?" Johnny pressed a button to summon the elevator and glanced over at miss Dana with feigned expectation and fondness.
-
@Bewilderbeast
At your jibe the trio grunts almost in unison, calling for the elevator you wait calmly, the hooker at your side fidgeting just a tiny bit, a couple of seconds later the elevator noisily grinds to an alt, stepping in and closing the ancient door, the thing must be a blast from the past, you just hope that becomes true due to its derelict condition.
Slowly calling the 3rd floor as destination Dana takes a quick glance at you we are not going to a party... you not be wanting to do anything bad to Oxy would you? she looks with intensity.
-
[ 2310 |3rd Floor Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Having followed the pirate to the rear of the building and up the stairs, Baron Mojo watched as the pirate inspected the maglock. As his commlink buzzed, he pulled it out and read the screen. Tapping Captain Cormack on the shoulder, the mage said, "If neither of the others have an idea, I may be able to use a spell to open it. If nothing else, it should be quieter than more physical methods."
-
//Compose message to Baron Mojo, Captain Cormac, Count Zorro, Johnny Juju
//"Moto can send one high caliber "universal access key" to lock from silenced assault rifle hovering in the sky above you. Let me know when ready. Or, Count Zorro could likely just open it for you. Your choice.
At the last second, Moto decided to add a friendly smiley face at the end of the message. It looked like his Renraku Manservant droid making an awkward attempt at a grin.
//Send message
-
Bad Johnny Juju canted his head to one side thoughtfully as he considered Dana's question. Well, it's pretty likely that Oxycode is a goner. If that's the case, I'll need Dana on my side so I can get information on his enemies and associates afterward. So I have to play this like I've got Oxy's best interests at heart. Johnny pursed his lips before he spoke, choosing his words carefully. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but Oxy's in a bit of trouble. My job is to find him, make sure he's still breathing, and offer him a mututally beneficial deal that will make sure he keeps breathing." "Give me your commlink and I won't have my demon tear you to bits" can be seen as mutually beneficial in a certain light, Johnny added silently to himself. He then turned to look Dana right in the eyes as the elevator climbed. "I can't guarantee he'll be happy to see me, but I can promise you I don't intend to do Oxy any harm." That part, at least, was true.
-
"if you can do it quitely, by all means go a head. I left my lockpicks in my other coat."
-
"Don't worry, I got the door key right here."
With a thought, Bobby sends a quick command via the dwarf's commlink, and with a small buzzing sound the maglock on the back door disengages.
"Door unlocked, no matrix chatter or indications anyone is noticing us so far. Quiet seems to be working for us for the moment. "
-
[ 2310 |3rd Floor Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo reached out to destroy the maglock when Count Zorro's message came through. Lowering his hand, he said, "Good, no need for theatrics. We are going to hold here unless Johnny calls for assistance, correct?"
-
"Heck no!" John says. "Might as well have stayed in the van if we're going to wait here. We've got three floors to cover, and unless you can make us fly, we'll have to walk." he turns down the now open door, moving in slowly, scanning for cameras.
Perception Check for cameras and crap (http://orokos.com/roll/191045): 7d6t5 1
-
Quickly scanning the door and the lit area of the catwalk in front of him the Captain spots a ancient camera model positioned on the ceiling, its optic directed to the door.
-
//Message - Count/Barron: Can you turn off the video feed back here? The camera is pointed at the door. I'm going in.
John wasn't stupid, despite what everyone else thinks of him. He was lucky, but he knew he couldn't rely on luck do everything for him. But fortune favors the bold, and so he slips in, attempting to appear as though he belong there, walking through the back door.
-
Bewilderbeast
The ork hooker looks at you with a certain degree of distrust, gently she move her hand away from her purse Ok mister, you treat Oxy good, ok? Just as she finishes her short sentence, the elevator still climbing oh so very slowly and squealing as it goes, a small message reaches your commling
>>incoming message: Claw
>>Hey, remember you asking about that piece of drek pusher... made some calls, seems the Choson and the Komun'Go rings have taken an interest in that prick, you watch you back.
Grinding to an alt the elevator stops on the third floor
-
Johnny bobbed his head at Dana. "I will," he said, already distracted by Claw's response. He punched out a quick text back. <<You've come through for me again, omae. Appreciate it.>> He also sent a quick subvocal-to-text message to the team. <<Tech guys: my boy says Oxycode is in trouble with the Choson and Komun'Go. Our Johnson was Choson? If he's...>> Johnny hesitated, glancing sidelong at Dana, wondering if she was picking up on the subvocal speech. Best not to risk it. <<... if he's "in significant distress," then it's most likely the Komun'Go, right? Anybody have info on them?>> Johnny added the euphamism-tastic quotations marks to his second subvocal message before sending it out, then tucked his commlink away as the elevator jerked to a halt.
"After you, Dana," Johnny said with a gesture toward the the squealing elevator door. "You can either just point me to Oxy's room or come with me while I speak to him, up to you. Either way I appreciate your help, dear heart."
-
Moto kept an eye on the feed from Romeo-2 as Lucky Dog Cormac and Baron Mojo entered the secondary entrance. "Count Zorro seems to know his stuff, at least. And the good captain might come in handy as a distraction at some point, he certainly stands out in a crowd".
Johnny's message appeared in his view, and Moto immediately queued up a couple of queries with his Browse program. As the elevator stopped at the third floor, Moto watch Johnny exit with the ork hooker through the feed from Romeo-1, and he sent off a reply with the speed of thought.
//Compose message to Cormac, Mojo, Johnny, Zorro
//"Search initiated, wait 1. Preliminary research indicates Johnson is affiliated with Choson Seoulpa. Advice not jumping to conclusions; gang land assassinations not uncommon as rivalry between dealers often escalate to violent confrontations. If subject in room is in fact Oxycode, estimate death could have been caused by 5 different factions, at the very least."
//Send message
With the message sent, the dwarf began reviewing the search results as they were brought up in his view in one after the other, and immediately set up more detailed parameters he knew would take more time. "Always best to be cautious", he thought to himself as his mind interfaced directly with the programs and machines at his disposal. Confirming that the ork outside the main entrance was still sensor locked, he double-checked the visual from Romeo-2 before resuming his surveillance of Johnny's approach to room 312.
-
Quickly opening the a search pop window on his field of view Moto searched the matrix for any publicly available information regarding Komun'Go as well as any connection between them and the Seoulpa ring.as the data came through there was not much to tell, apparently both groups illegal activities where not the same, The Seoulpa ring basing their activities primarily on the matrix and the Komun'Go allegedly having connections with organleggers operations, odd fact was that they seemed to be at peace with each other, where maybe this recent events words that they where cooperating with each other?
At about the same time the Captain own commlink sounded with Bobbys voice, its exasperated tone saying there where no cameras in that part of the building nor in any other part.
-
[ 2310 |3rd Floor Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"Are you fragging mentally damaged?" Baron Mojo asked Cormack. "That's a serious question. Johnny is inside, there's no reason for us to go in there now unless bad drek happens. Otherwise, we seriously increase the chance of fragging up Johnny's play."
As an aside, the mage said, "I can actually make us fly if you want, just say the word. I may also be able to hide us from that camera if necessary. Probably doesn't even work..."
-
Opening the decrepit thing Dana looks at Johnny, still dome doubts in her eyes, her tusked lip fluttering a bit I´ll go in with you, the room is 312. Pacing closely close to Johnny, they both quickly reach the door, the number, a bit rusty by the looks of it, reads 312. Knocking once and waiting for a response Dana starts fidgeting a bit, after a few brief seconds still no sound can be heard from inside the room. He is usually awake at this hour, maybe he stepped out.
-
From the relative safety of his Roto-Drone hovering high above the Seattle streets, Moto watched the video feed from Romeo-1 currently broadcasting from within Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat. Up here, far out of visual range of even most augmented metahumans and with his drone's armaments disguised as weather sensors, the only current and somewhat ironic threat seemed to be the damp breeze leaving an acidic film on his mechanical shell. The ork prostitute had led Johnny to the door of Room 312, and he'd seen the chatter about cameras downstairs. Suddenly, what the Captain was doing struck him like a lightning bolt out of clear sky, and he immediately broke comms to prevent the fool from rushing blindly into what he should have very well known was there.
//Voice transmission to Baron Mojo, Captain Cormac
//"Cormac, Mojo, hold up! Three ork gangers waiting near elevator in defensive posture, affecting bored demeanor, but armed and likely dangerous. Recommend hanging back until Johnny makes entry; watch your feeds, people, I am being paid to be your eyes and ears; suggest you use them."
//End transmission
With an audible click for added effect, Moto cut off the transmission just as the voice translator finished vocalizing his thoughts.
He enlarged the feed from Alpha-2, in position high above the secondary entrance in a similar pattern to Alpha-1, and reviewed the scene below him. The Baron, paused at the threshold of the door, looked like he was speaking to the Captain.
"Come on, you fool. Stand down! Should warn Johnny..."
//Voice transmission to Johnny Juju
//"Captain potentially about to make contact with rearguard gang members through secondary entrance; recommend assuming alert posture just in case. Perimiter remains under control."
//End transmission
Reviewing the search data he'd acquired while keeping one eye on events and a virtual finger on the virtual trigger for his sniper rifle, he then prepared a cursory text message to the team.
//Compose message to Baron Mojo, Captain Cormac, Count Zorro, Johnny Juju
//"Cursory research indicates no hostility between Komun'Go and Choson Seoulpa rings. Different areas of business with little to no overlap; may in fact be business partners. Discovered Choson Seoulpa has interest in Matrix crime; commlink likely contains incriminating information, evidenced by payment from Johnson for "simple" retrieval. Either way, believe it is unlikely that Komun'Go would take out Oxycode if Choson was interested in him."
//Send message
-
"Just to confirm, there are no cameras connected to the hotel node, there is no hotel node. The piece of drek crapsack is run off of the cashier's commlink. Any active cameras are NOT under his control. Initial scans show no active devices there except the door lock. The gangers still show no comm chatter.
Bobby was a little irritated they didn't take his word for it that there were no freeking cameras on the door, but he took a quick breath and counted to 10. His own mantra was 'better safe than sorry', he couldn't blame the others for asking. And he couldn't not check himself.
With a quick flick of a digital wrist his persona flipped out a spyglass of gleaming chrome and brass, peering through it he ran another set of search parameters looking for anything hidden, or anything at all where the captain said the camera was. If it was there, he would find it. Persona flaring bright and clear in the Digital Jungle, Count Zorro didn't care iff he was seen or not, as long as he knew for sure about that damn camera!
"Running additional scans, if that camera is live I will dig it out. If it is dead, I will confirm it."
-
[ 2310 |3rd Floor Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"Are you fragging mentally damaged?" Baron Mojo asked Cormack. "That's a serious question. Johnny is inside, there's no reason for us to go in there now unless bad drek happens. Otherwise, we seriously increase the chance of fragging up Johnny's play."
As an aside, the mage said, "I can actually make us fly if you want, just say the word. I may also be able to hide us from that camera if necessary. Probably doesn't even work..."
John glared at the man, letting the door shut quietly. "Damn it, quite you fool of a mage. The orks are right there. It not what was in my image link." He moves along, glancing around. "If that camera is active, then its blown. The more you act like you don't belong somewhere, the more suspicious you are."
//Message - The back door is a bust. My Img link is busted, showed me completely different feeds. Should be fixed now. I hate technology.
He sits, raising a hand to his head as he thinks. Playing though his mind what is about to happen.
Provided the egg heads are right, and the target is dead, The hooker will scream and there will be panic. The three at the elevator will take it up to the top, and unless we're quick, we won't be able to stop them. The only other way up the the stairs in the front, or his abiltiy to fly..
"Baron, go to the roof, extract Johnny from there. I'm going back to the I'll just... sit here."
-
As Dana led him over to Oxycode's room, his suspicions were confirmed. Looks like 312 was the idiot's room, and he was probably stinking up the place with his useless, commlink-free corpse. Johnny sniffed at the air outside the door, trying to see if he could detect the smell of biological rot... a surprisingly familiar smell in the Barrens.
Seeing the messages from Moto flashing across his image link, Johnny saw with no surprise whatsoever that the Captain was causing trouble. He sent a command to his demon, which was still waiting on the roof outside. Return to darkness and await my command. If things got hairy, he didn't want his only demon stuck outside. No, he needed him as close to his fragile flesh-and-mostly-bones as possible.
"Thanks Dana," Johnny said as he tested the door to 312 on the off-chance that it was unlocked. Then, subvocally to the team: <<Moto, Count Zorro. Access to Room 312?>>
-
Bobby smiles a smug little smile to himself, I was right. nothing there! I knew it. Once the scan completed he sent out a message to the others.
"Confirmed. There is no active device! The camera is a fake. I still have control of the maglock on the door if we need it, and the cashier and gangers show no activity. I think we are golden. ETA on room entry Johnny? Once that happens I will keep a firm watch on the dwarf in a box downstairs to see if a call to KE goes out."
-
//Compose message to Count Zorro, Johnny Juju
//"Count Zorro should have access to door lock. Moto still keeping watch; smile, you're on camera, Johnny!
//Send message
Appending another drone emoticon and the message was away. He then stopped and restarted the video transfer from Romeo-1 to Johnny Juju, the tiny Fly-Spy hovering behind the human and the ork in the center of the building, it's tiny camera focused on Johhny.
-
[ 2312 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"The person dressed like a pirate is trying to educate me on not looking suspicious? Seriously, slot off..." Baron Mojo silently fumed as the idiot next to him was fraying his nerves. "I'm also not going up on the roof. Simply put, I don't trust your judgement. For now, we hold until one of the others with a better view alerts us to trouble."
"Now, if and when we do go in, I can light these guys up with some lightning, should ruin their day..."
-
The door in front of Johnny popped slightly open, the dull thud of the maglock disengaging. Looking suspiciously at the door Dana mutters How did... Taking a careful step into the room Johnny ears Dana stifle a small cry, barely audible, in the back of the room, sprawled in his mattress lies an ork, his face livid and his eye open, the room is seemingly ransacked, leftovers from the Stuffer Shack on the floor, the ork's left hand almost touching the floor, right next to it 2 commlinks.
-
"Right right.. be my guest." he says, now horribly disinterested in the whole situation. He was the kind of person who got stuff done, not waited for things to happen, and was beginning to remember why he left the shadows a while back. These types of groups always got to him, the ones that automatically dismissed him, who spend hours and hours making a plan, only to have it fubar when they try to go with it.
"Maybe I should just go back home.." he mused to himself, after all, he was a pirate on the ground not at sea.
-
In answer to Dana's half-formed quesiton about how he opened the door, Bad Johnny Juju smirked at her and waggled his slender, willowy fingers. "They don't call me Bad Johnny Juju for nothin', dear heart."
As the door opened on the scene of Oxycode's demise, Johnny muttered a curse under his breath. His eyes widened at the sight of the commlinks, however. Bad luck for the late, great, two-nuyen pusher, but damn good luck for us. Brushing past Dana, Johnny Juju knelt down next to Oxycode, pretending to check his vitals. "I was afraid of this... Dana, I need you to stay calm. Take a deep breath. Be keep quiet. Whoever did this to Oxycode might still be around."
As he talked, Johnny positioned himself between Dana and the corpse, trying to block her line of sight a little. As he checked over the body, he quickly snatched up the spare commlinks, stuffing them into the folds of his lined coat as surreptitiously as he could. As he talked, he babbled a string of questions at Dana to try and keep her distracted. "Think, Dana. Did Oxycode have any enemies? Did you notice anything weird in the past few days? What's his relationship with the gangers outside? They were protecting him, right? More importantly, do you have any place to safe to go while I get all this sorted out?"
-
Her attention focused on the corpse in front of them Dana barely (if at all) noticed the quick pocketing of the commlinks, her mind racing, her expression hardening. A sharp glint of the eye and a resolute expression settling over her.
Ok... i don´t know what you want, just that you did not kill Oxy... ill be all right... i always do... but thanks for asking... no i dont know who was after him, the gang there and her thumb flicks in the door direction were here for him, that all i know she ends with a slight shrug.
Say... I am gonna scoot outta here... you're not gonna stop me are you? Dana eye Johnny suspiciously looking for some kind of reassurance.
-
Bad Johnny Juju turned around, the commlinks clacking faintly in his pockets, giving Dana an oddly wistful smile. She's a tough one. A Barrens girl through and through. "Nah, I'm not going to stop you, Dana. Take care of yourself... I know you will. And we didn't see each other, right?" Johnny gave her a wink and waited for her to leave before speaking subvocally to the team.
<<Got the goods. And according to the working girl, the gangers here were supposed to be Oxy's protection... seems they did a crackerjack job.>> Bad Johnny Juju stepped out of Room 312, leaving the door ajar behind him, but he didn't move further down the hallway. <<Moto, Count Zorro, I need you to make absolutely certain the comms aren't visible from the Matrix. Two of 'em. I'm worried about the guards noticing the devices are leaving the room, and mistaking me for the killer.>> As he waited for confirmation from tech support, Bad Johnny Juju took one last glance around Oxycode's room.
-
With a curt nod Dana starts retracing her steps towards the exit, her hands firmly grasping her handbag, the holed fishnets and synthleather mini skirt vanishing as she turns the corner heading for the elevator.
Baron Mojo and Captain, give me a perception test, earing plz
-
Bobby runs a scan on Johnny for anything new or in hidden mode.
"Nothing on the links, they look powered down from this side."
Flipping from one feed to another he also checks the status of the gangers and the dwarf, looking for movement or comm chatter of any kind.
"I am monitoring the brute squad out front, should know if they start anything. You way out should be clear but be careful. Suggest heading out by way of the Count and Company. Moto and I are on overwatch. We will cover you."
//MOTO: Keep your sensors hot. Extraction is go.
-
Hearing Perception (http://orokos.com/roll/193313): 7d6t5 2
John continues sitting out side,grumping at the teams methods of being "safe" and "secure" and what sort of rubbish. He wanted action, to do something besides sitting around drinking beers.
-
Satisfied with Count Zorro's explanation, Johnny started making his way toward Baron Mojo and the Captain. <<Alright, Captain and Mojo. Headed your way.>>
-
//compose message to Johnny Juju, Count Zorro, Captain Cormac, Baron Mono
//"Hard copy. Will roll up I'm alley behind secondary entrance. Overwatch is in place."
//Send message
-
While sitting down the Captain, with Baron Mojo by their side ear the faint click of the door, you see a shabby guy, long hair, dirty long coat, he takes a good look at both of them.
Oy Oy,youonthefancydress... Oxy'snewboyeh? licking his lips and looking at the stunned Captain, the lust plain on his face. Say... wannatalkbusinessdear... ill... treat... you... real... good... ifthepriceisok the man continued flashing his crooked teeth and the speed of his speech making evident he was high on something.
-
John turns to look at the man, a wicked idea developing as he answers the call of the Raven. "We both are actually. Though my price is steep, one of a kind after all. Twenty Thousand Nuyen is the starting price. However my friend over here is the cheap one, old fashioned and absolutely magical in bed, only a couple thousand nuyen for him all night long. Slightly outdated after all."
//message Moto, Bobby, Jonney - you might want to hold off on this entrance. High hobo here.
Con Roll (http://orokos.com/roll/193327): 10d6t5 2
-
With a mental command to keep the sensor lock on target, Moto jumped from Alpha-1 to Omega-1, the large Roadmaster parked outside the Stuffer Shack. The engine came alive as if the Dwarf had coughed loudly, and he began moving out of the parking lot, the overwatch from his drones providing him with an excellent layout of the nearby streets. He turned away from the main entrance, leaving the gangers in his rear view sensors, and circled around the block towards the alley leading to the rear entrance.
When he started backing into the alley, he saw the hobo step out from Novelty Hills rear entrance, and engage the Captain in conversation. They were too far out of range for his audio sensors to pick up anything that wad said, but the Captains message soon followed. Moto laughed to himself, and continued maneuvering the large vehicle towards their location.
//compose message to Johnny Juju, Count Zorro, Captain Cormac, Baron Mono
//"Cormac not a very good pirate if he can't even handle one toothless vagrant. Moto has drone above ready to take out "threat" if fearsome pirate gets scared. Johnny, proceed to secondary entrance as agreed; ETA of transport 6 seconds..."
//Send message
He then sent a mental command for Alpha-2 to lock onto the vagrant pestering Cormac and Mojo, before checking that Romeo-1 followed Johnny outside as instructed. He also sent a quick recall command to Romeo-2, watching with pleasant surprise when it actually managed to obey the command this time around.
-
[ 2314 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo frowned at both men, each apparently living in their own fantasy world. He mentally listed the spells available to him and decided on one that would allow him to control the thoughts of another person. Now he just needed to decide whether that person would be the hobo or the Captain.
-
"So you see that dark secluded alley over there, Why don't you pay my friend here so he could take you on a wonderful journey though magical love. Heck, we'll throw in a one time for you, just for being such a good customer. 500 nuyen for my friend. 10,000 for me." John points off a little into the distance towards an alley. "We've got a really nice set up over there after all. So choose one to pay, and come this was."
Second con roll to make going to that alley look like a good idea for the hobo.
Con Roll v2 - edge spent (http://orokos.com/roll/194419): 17d6h5 9
-
As the Roadmaster circles and drives to the back of the Sleep & Eat Moto notices from one of his feeds that one of the orks starts heading towards the back of the building.
Johnny smartly heads out of the room, the elevator however has been hijack by someone, Dana most likely, the noisy thing stops on the 1st floor. Clicking on the old fashioned button the noise starts coming once again in Johnny’s direction.
Meanwhile in the backdoor exit....
Licking his lips and eyeing the Captain hungrily the man pauses for a second, casting a glance in the Barons direction the man hesitates just a fraction of a second.
500yousaid? licking his lips again and putting his attention on Baron the man continues youbenotmytype... but for 500... deal! be making threemenhappytonight,me,you and Oxy the lust plain in the way the man now looked at the Baron.
-
Upon spotting the ork heading away from the front entrance, Moto quickly issued a command for the Roadmaster to continue backing up to a designated ARO marker near the rear entrance to the motel and halt, keeping the engine running.
He then jumped into Alpha-1, breaking the sensor lock of its current target, and locking on to the advancing ork. Once a solid lock was confirmed, he opened up a comms channel and notified the rest of the team of the situation.
//Compose message to Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Captain Cormac, Johnny Juju
//"Caution advised, one gang member advancing towards rear exit. Moto has target locked and is ready to deliver high velocity, large caliber, silenced rifle round on request. Eta on Roadmaster now 3 seconds; also locked on to vagrant and is ready to deliver silenced assault rifle fire on request. Standing by."
//Send message
-
"Excellent. You two do have fun over there." John says shooing the mage and the vagrant off to the alley. "And reamember, Oxy wants you to take the payment first before you rock his world there, Jason." he smiles to the Baron as he taps his own forehead.
Fool, take him away already and deal with him. John thought to himself Before that itchy drone guy starts shooting everything.
If, and when, Barron takes the vagrant away, John will pull out his rapier, so he'd be ready to fight anything coming through that door as needed. Moving to the side of the door the hinges were on, he presses his back up against the wall.
Stealth -Urban (http://orokos.com/roll/194543): 8d6t5 3
-
[ 2314 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo stands fast and glares at the idiot pirate. He had no interest in whatever stupid plan Cormack's feeble mind had produced. "Who the frag do you think you are? I'm not your errand boy. You think we need to be worried about this guy? Maybe you should have just stayed in the truck..."
-
The man looking dumfounded from side to side Oxyain'tgonnabehappy'bouthislads his eye staring into the Barons crotch and licking his lips wehaveadeal..Have we not?.
Suddenly a soft click from the maglock and the door opening, the silhouette of what could only be a ork figure cast into the dim light coming from the Sleep&Eat.
Oh Gods... all i needed now was you....The sarcasm evident in what appears to be a female deep basso voice oh crap! she added in a softer tone.
-
John slowly raised his hand to his face, sighing deeply. "Perhaps you should have stayed in the truck. Hell, as soon as you said you where coming with me I should have knowing you'd have your magic wand shoved so far up your postier that you couldn't even fathom just how much drek is within your brain case. I had made you an easy 500 Nuyen, all you had to do was take this guy, get paid and then do whatever you wanted to do before he did what he wanted to do. But could you handle one simple little task? No. Instead you stand here, suspicious as hell. YES I'm a bloody pirate. You don't see much of us on land. But you know what happens when you're slightly odd and you act like you belong somewhere. When you bend the rules of engagement around you, and properly respond to things? Nobody questions it. Period. But no, we don't have that. We have a mage who stands around outside a door doing absolutely nothing. Just stares at the door. We didn't need to worry about him, because we just about had it handled. We would have had the doorway cleared, Who the frag do I think I am? I'm whatever I need to be to get through the damned job. And for the moment, I was this Oxy fellows' rare 'boy'. Who the frag do you think you are you pompous arrogant wand up your dreker fool of a mage who can't even handle one tweeked out vargret to save us a world.. and the door clicks.. "Trouble.. Great. Are you happy now? Now we've got two people to deal with. And here comes the truck."
-
[ 2314 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"You're a complete, fragging idiot. You don't think being dressed up like a drek-stain pirate doesn't maybe make you stick out like a sore thumb? I guess the possibility of just ignoring someone and giving them the cold-shoulder never crossed your mind either. We are in the fragging Barrens after all. Newsflash... you have no role here that can't be better accomplished by someone less obvious."
Baron Mojo continued to seemingly ignore the probable sex-criminal and the new arrival. If anything, he figured he and Cormack's arguing would give them pause for a short while... hopefully long enough for Johnny to get to the door.
-
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The ork stood frozen, the door slightly ajar and the tenous light crashing down into the staircase.
Do we still have a deal? the man spoke out, as if his confidence had been drained out of him
A roadmaster comes cruising down the back of the building, inside, its occupants glare at the scene
Turning the corner a harsh voice shouts What the frag is going on here?? a staircase?!? the ork ganger looking in the direction of the trio and at the roadmaster arriving.
-
"News flash!" he says back, this time in an eerily too close to The Barron's voice "I'm a mage! Look at me in my mage clothings standing here using my wand to stroke my ego!" Changing back to his normal voice. "Thats what you sound like. You arrogant self-righteous dreck for brains mage unich! Since have no role here, YOU deal with them he says going back to the truck now to get inside before the rest of the orcs come out.
-
[ 2315 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
"Considering I'm not the one running around with ironic outdated accouterments, I think your criticism maybe projection. Anyways, try not to soak the inside of the truck with your salty tears." the Baron shot back. He figured the two witnesses must be wondering what the Hell is going on about now.
Turning to the sexual predator, he responded, "No deal with me, but I know that guy will tear off his flamboyant shirt for 50 nuyen if you pretend that he's a pirate." Looking at the ork woman, he finished, "Lady, there are some nights when being in the Barrens sucks. This is one of them... you might want to find somewhere else to be, really quickly."
Watching the gangers approach, Baron Mojo opened a line to Moto.
<<@Moto [BaronMojo] If you can get a bead on any of the hostiles, it would be helpful.>>
-
"Shows just how much a dirt monger like yourself knows about high fashion. Granted its been a while since I've purchased some new clothing from Vashon Island." John quips back.
-
the night freezes over, time stands still, the incoming ork left hand to his face, right hand to the jacket.
ANY OF YOU FRAGGIN PRICKS MOVE AND I AM GONNA EXECUTE EVERY MOTHERFRAGGIN LAST ONE OF YOU!
-
As Baron Mojo's message translated into thought, Moto watched the Ork ganger round the corner of the building through the scope of the Crockett EBR mounted on Alpha-1, it's high-end optics feeling like an extension of his own natural sight. Despite the distance, he could clearly see the street tough's lips move as he shouted something in the direction of the Captain and Baron Mojo, and when the gangers arm went towards his jacket Moto instantly hit the virtual trigger of his silenced, high-powered rifle.
From his vantage point high above the city streets and in large part due to the advanced stabilization features of his drone mounted weapon, the dwarf rigger watched as three large caliber armor piercing rounds as they struck home in the Orks head, penetrating through his thick skull as if it was nothing, and then carving their way straight through his body and into the concrete below. The shock wave alone likely pulverized his brain tissue, and the kinetic energy of the rounds themselves would probably have cracked apart his spine before the unfortunate soul even knew what hit him. It was a quick death, and hopefully completely painless, the way Moto preferred it when violence was called for.
With a short message to the team stating simply that the target had been neutralized and for everyone to embark ASAP, Moto proceeded to survey the scene calmly. Confident that the silencer on his weapon had muffled the shots sufficiently and despite knowing that the foes outside the main entrance were likely only armed with heavy pistols unable to threaten his inorganic shell, Moto took no chances as usual and relocated his drone to a position directly above the Ares Roadmaster, out of view from the orks up front but with a view of both the secondary entrance, the body of the ork ganger he'd just executed, and the alley the Roadmaster was currently occupying.
He then prepared to jump into Alpha-2 to provide covering fire for the retreating team members, trusting Baron Mojo and Captain Cormac to keep Johnny Juju safe while making their way to his vehicle.
-
With a slightly stifles groan, Bobby slides out of the virtual back into the slightly less bright world of the AR. Straightening back up in his seat he pops the quick release on his seat belt and gets ready to support and help anyone needing help back into the van.
"All right gents, less chatter, more moving the drek to the van. Work out you differences a little less publicly."
Making sure he can see the approach the others will have to make to the van, he starts scanning and pulling up a map of the surrounding area. Then he sets a scan for KE alerts on the off chance they have been made.
"Moto, I recommend following the same type of evasion route you used on the last job, though with fewer J turns and tire squeeling unless pursuit becomes obvious. As soon as these chumers are aboard get us moving."
Just once, I would like to work with professionals. Maybe that Buddhist guy was right and I was an ass in another life!
-
The ork was cut short on his little tirade, his feet plucked from off the ground and dust and ceramic particles flying from the front of his jacket. flying nealy one meter the ork stood on the ground twitching for a couple of nanoseconds.
Johnny inside the cringing elevator only ears what appears to be someone shouting something indistinctly followed by a loud shrill scream.
OH MY GOD! THE ONES THAT KILLED OXY shouted the ork female figure at the door, the shabby man on long coat just stood there, transfixed by the ork ganger flight.
-
Clearly Barron, you and the crazy trigger gappy lunitic areby far the masters of subilitiy John remarked, continuing to walj towards the van, to get inside.
-
[ 2315 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Ignoring the devastated body on the ground, Baron Mojo focused his gaze on the ork hooker and quickly cast a spell to control her thoughts. You want to shut up and take this nice gentlemen off to an alley for a good time... the mage thought, as his spell forced his thoughts into the prostitute's mind.
Turning to the shell-shocked deviant, he said, "Consider her an early birthday present, you can do what you want with her, she'll be happy to oblige. Just get out of here."
With that, the mage waited for Johnny to makes his exit. He wasn't going to leave the man behind. After all, he had their payday.
-
Slowly shutting her trap hole and looking at the sodomite the ork hooker takes a careful step forward, her hand outstretched towards the long haired sodomite So, are you coming with me for some fun or not huny? her voice just a little bit slurred in an almost unperceptible level.
The man shocked, his jaw slacked turns his eyes to the Baron and then to the hooker, his eyes looking around, a stunned look on his face I...I.. I DON´T WANNA DIE! curling into a fetal position the man starts shivering on the floor, his body control gone as a pool of urine starts forming on his feet.
As the noisy elevator apparatus stops and Johnny opens the door, quickly stepping up, a voice sounds from the other corner of the building on the ground floor, 2 orks notice Johnny exiting the elevator, too surprised to act they are only able to utter a few shouts of "Stop where you are" and "WHAT THE FRAGG IS GOING ON?" before Johnny steps out into the staircase, Passing a man curling on the top of the stairs and smelling of freshly "milked" urine, Dana and the Baron, Johnny mutters a simple "You moving?" before running down the steps towards the roadmaster.
On Moto displays, the video information regarding the other participants is pretty clear,, the orks in front of the building are alert, their ears set on the noises coming from the back, their demeanour suggesting they are waking up from a stupor , the orks near the cage inside the building where the ones shouting at Johnny's passage, the ones near the elevator on the ground floor looking dumbly up into the catwalk.
-
After scanning the sensor inputs from his drones, Moto's droid-like persona launched itself with a swan dive from the safety of Alpha-1's armored shell, now in position above the Ares Roadmaster, into the digital pathways pulsing brightly back and forth between his control rig and his vehicles. In an instant, he was transported into Alpha-2, still holding above the secondary entrance with sensors firmly locked onto the vagrant who was curled up and quivering on the ground.
The Orks up front were stirring, but according to the trid feed from Romeo-1 it seemed Johnny had managed to get himself out of the building and was hot on the heels of the Captain, which just left Baron Mojo.
Moto made a quick adjustment to Alpha-2's sensor lock, effectively breaking it to allow for other engagements in case the gangers decided to move towards the back. He then prepared several brief messages, his thoughts turning into voice and text as appropriate.
//Send voice message to Baron Mojo, Captain Cormac, Count Zorro, Johnny Juju
//"Incoming. Mount up, people, on the move in 3 seconds. Count Zorro; hard copy on last."
//Send command to Alpha-1
//"Maintain position and fire single rounds at any visibly armed target approaching Omega-1s position until further notice; target nearest vehicle has high priority."
-
John continues walking his way towards wagon, opening the door and pulling an empty brown bottle from his bag. Casually turning around to look towards the door, watching the rest of his crew leaving.
-
Johnny clutched his Ceska Black Scorpion close to his body as he charged toward Moto's Roadmaster. He could still feel his tethered demon waiting in depths of the Astral, too, ready to be summoned at a moment's notice. The elf couldn't help but grimace as he passed by the rather grisly corpse of the ork ganger Moto pre-emptively took out. Moto's a bit trigger happy. More professional than I'm used to dealing with, but trigger happy. I'll have to watch out for that. Johnny put his head down and continued running, trying not to think about the dead ork. Hopefully these other gangers will stay out of it and nobody else has to die today.
-
With everyone safe inside and out of harms way Moto quickly backed away from the inn, the tires screeching softly as Dana is released from the invisibles strands puppeteering her actions, the orks in the front of the building moving their way towards the back or waiting for the elevator.
Quickly driving between the alleys filled with garbage and other metahuman detritus, Moto finally reaches the main thoroughfare, checking the AR feeds there seems to be no incoming pursuit.
Johnny feels the two commlinks in his pocket, the valuable piece of merchandise supposedly in his possession.
-
Well, one bullet was the cost of this mission. Not bad, and seems my luck held together, as nothing went terribly wrong either. he says leaning back, drinking from anither brown glass bottle.
-
[ 2318 | Rear of Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
Baron Mojo snorted at Cormack's statement, but didn't really see the need to point out that the man had literally done nothing. He had to concede that the overall results were excellent. "Well, that seemed pretty easy. Where to now?"
Feeling that a nap might help his headache, but not entirely trusting the folks around him, Mojo slipped his senses into the Astral. Focusing himself, he a weak spirit of man whose sole purpose was to watch over him and wake him up if anything untoward happened. Given their surroundings, it wasn't entirely unusual that the spirit took the form of a miniature version of Moto's truck, albeit with a giant rack of KC flood lights along the grill and on top of the roof... all pointed in Cormack's direction at the moment. Summoning the little spirit winded the mage further, but he hoped to get some rest immediately.
-
John leans in, looking less than pleased at the moment. "It was too easy. Far too easy. No one even shot at us. And yet, the guy was dead. This smells terrible."
-
Moto halted the large Roadnaster before the alley exited out onto the main street for a brief moment, mentally opening the top hatch to allow Alpha-1 and -2 to land into their respective charging stations. He'd chosen to keep Romeo-1 in the air 100m above the vehicle after it had trailed Johnny out of Novelty Hills, and he'd been monitoring the video feed from his eye in the sky as they'd pulled away to make sure they weren't followed. He ran a quick set of diagnostics on the combat drones, verified that the wrapper program was still concealing the highly illegal modifications as simple weather sensor, and loaded three armor piercing rounds into Alpha-1's Crockett EBR before addressing the team directly.
"Easy or not, Johnny was able to get the paydata and we have no sign of pursuit at this moment. Mr. Oxycode could have gotten tangled up with enemies of the Seoulpa, he got have gotten whacked by rival street scum, or he could have perished for countless other reasons; in any case, there is no use speculating as we do not have enough data to compile even a tenuous hypothesis.
As for our destination, am taking alternate return route to Banshee, ETA approximately 56 minutes plus/minus 7 depending on traffic; should be smooth ride. Not to worry, will attempt to refrain from vehicular acrobatics this time.
Suggest Count Zorro investigate link ownership information while en route to destination; Moto will focus on driving and making sure we're not being followed.."
He tried to impart some humour into the line about acrobatics, realizing full well that his burnout at the Banshee had been unnecessary. "Natalie is no boat, though, and nobody insults my vehicles!" The dwarf harrumphed to himself at the thought.
He engaged the armored vehicles powerful engine and rolled slowly out of the alley, turning onto the route that would take them further east to avoid returning through the Bargain Basement neighborhood, choosing instead to cut through the outlying roads of the Plastic Jungle in the north of the Redmon Barrens before heading back south towards Touristville and their destination, deliberately muddying their trail in case anyone was following. Better to not take any chances just in case someone from the Seoulpa rings were watching.
"The Captain is certainly a... unique... individual," Moto thought to himself, "but he's got a point. Three rounds fired, no casualties or wounds among team members, no one caught on camera; good return on investment for team if job is as straightforward as it seems. Time will tell..."
As they hit the less civilized roads of the outer reaches of the Barrens, Moto settled in and enjoyed the ride, taking a few side roads and pausing under a bridge in the middle of nowhere to ensure no one was following them. He reveled in the feeling of tarmac passing underneath his wheels, and in the brisk Seattle air caressing his armored shell as they moved through the night.
-
After Moto reached a comfortable and relatively stable cruising speed, Bad Johnny Juju unbuckled his seat belt and stood up. Crouching low inside the moving vehicle, he crept a few steps forward to dump the commlinks recovered from Oxycode's corpse into the Count's lap. "Find out what you can from these if you want, but as far as I'm concerned the job is done."
Johnny strapped himself back into his seat and breathed a sigh of relief. "The Captain's not wrong. The fact that our target was already dead was definitely a bad sign. But I specifically asked about the make and model of the commlinks and our idiot Johnson said to just bring whatever commlinks he had on him. And that's exactly what we have here." Bad Johnny Juju collapsed the folding stock of his Ceska before slipping it into another fold of his lined coat. "If Mr. Johnson disagrees, he can hire us for another job. But I expect full payment for the delivery of those two comms."
-
"It might seem like it is done. But in my experience that is always when things go.. sideways." he remarks taking another swig from his bottle.
-
The blue haze and water steam from the sewer manifolds outside the armored vehicle hid mot of the detritus on the alley, the place nearly deserted at this hour. a couple vagrant and homeless prowled the main street and the occasional rumble of a Harley reverberated in the night.
So, mind if i inspect them? said Bobby to Johnny whle the Captain sipped from his bottle.
-
Moto interjected at the Count's question.
"Suggest proceeding carefully, Count Zorro; if the Seoulpa is willing to pay 40,000¥ for a single link, Kami knows what's on it. Might want to jam the airwaves just in case someone is tracking either of these devices; whoever killed Oxycode left them behind, but that doesn't mean we're in the clear."
While en route to the Banshee, Moto considered how long it had been since he'd changed the ID and plates on the Roadmaster. He hadn't really been able to afford the equipment to do so on the fly, but between Valkyrie's commission for the Ferrari job and the upcoming pay day, he could swing both the gear and rent for the next month. He decided to inquire about the availability of said items with Valkyrie.
//Send message to Valkyrie
//"Valkyrie, am looking for some equipment; how soon can you get me a high-end area jammer, a set of morphing license plates, and spoof chips for an Ares Roadmaster? Standard rates; no rush."
He then looked up some reference material on the vehicle modifications, feeling fairly confident that he knew how to install them. The jammer would have to go on the Roadmaster as well, just in case. He considered getting a mini-sized jammer for Romeo-1 too, but discarded the idea as it would be a little too cumbersome.
-
Bad Johnny Juju shrugged his slender shoulders, looking uneasy. "I'm sure the guy that hired us won't like it, but it could help to know what we're about to walk into. It's your call, Count."
-
It's your call guys, should we take a peak or just go for the pay day... ? Bobby looked intently into the commlinks, with them shutdown they where safe but not knowing what was inside, or even if it was what they where searching for, made it a big unknown.
-
Moto knew that disgression was the better part of valor. He knew that the team had been hired to retrieve the commlink, nothing more. But his curiosity got the better of him; what had made him a great researcher and engineer also made him somewhat of a liability in the shadows.
He couldn't help himself, pure and simple.
"Think we should take a look; if nothing else, we can confirm ownership information, perhaps figure out which link belongs to Oxycode, unless both are his. Suggest blasting some interference with your deck to block Matrix access in order to prevent tracking; not like anyone will care out here in the Barrens. Power each device on separately and take a careful look at each. Moto will assist."
The dwarf was eager with excitement, wondering what secrets the links could potentially hold.
-
[ 2325 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
The Baron snoozes as his spirit watches on intently, headlamp beams on high as it looks around the interior of the vehicle.
-
"Well, it might be a bomb." John replies shrugging. He looked around and towards the resting Barron, and finally sighed, taking a long swig of his drink before slipping his face mask back on. Something wasn't right. The job was too easy. Things didn't add up.
-
Ok then, lets get the show on the road.... Looking at both commljnks Bobby turn on each in turn, the Sony emperor and the Hermes Ikon. His body going limp the effects on the matrix evident as the airwaves become entangled with noise, opening his a few seconds later, the effect still ongoing, but duly compensated by Moto's ability to reduce the noise around him.
So, you see anything useful? Booby asked Moto.
It is evident, to Moto that both the commlinks have no databombs in them, both contain a list of contacts, 28 for the Sony and 18 for the Hermes. The contacts are however encrypted and their data is out of your reach or abilities, unless of course you wished to hack into the host of the anonymization app developer in order to try and sort out the relevant encryption key for these commlinks.
The Hermes last matrix action was 8h ago, a text message to the Sony commcode. the Sony commcode last action was a file transfer to another contact 9h ago. The latest file edits seem not to be relevant though, a music file deletion and a contact addition, for the Sony and Hermes respectively.
Looking carefully Moto notices that there is something odd with the Hermes, absorbed by the details he keeps digging, finally discovering that it has a hidden second device built into the it, its not milspec but it certainly is not your run of the mill hardware upgrade.
[ 0025 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]
-
With the RCC configured to use all available processing power for noise reduction, Moto cut through the static cloud emitted by Zorro's deck and saw that the two icons had powered up. As he kept driving towards Touristville, he proceeded to carefully inspect the two devices they had acquired. Finally, he opened a voice communications channel to his team.
"Links are not particularly well protected, though this is to be expected for someone like Oxycode. No databombs, no file protection, though data on both devices, contact lists of some sort, seem to be scrambled by an anonymizer protocol. Not impossible to crack, but unlikely to be achievable without hacking anonymizer host to obtain one-time pad used."
Moto inspected the security log of each device, noticing that the two had been in contact recently.
"A message was sent to the Sony Emperor from the Hermes Ikon earlier tonight. Speculation: unless Oxycode was a paranoid schizophrenic he'd be unlikely to send message to himself."
Out of the corner of his digital eye, he noticed what looked like another device within the Hermes iconography for a brief moment.
"Huh, curious. I wonder..." he muttered to himself, inspecting the Hermes ikon more closely. "Looks like there is a secondary device inside of Hermes Ikon; highly unusual, very unlike someone like Oxycode." He took a closer look at the marks on all three devices in an attempt to determine who they were registered to.
"Might be able to figure out who the devices belong to; Zorro, power off devices and drop jamming. About to enter Touristville," he told the others while he kept one eye on the road and one eye on the devices, then cross-referenced the commcodes and ownership marks on the Matrix.
The search finished just as he pulled up to the curb in an alley behind the Banshee, and Moto quickly reviewed the results before presenting his findings to the team.