[Crossbow]

"Okay then, we got the stash.  Now let's see if we are gonna be able to bring out enough to have made it worth the trouble."

Digger begins setting out the expandable boxes and foam fill, motioning the others for the materials he had them carry.

"Start pulling bottles, CAREFULLY, and set 'em where we can check the labels.  We gotta make sure to only take the good stuff."

[Xzylvador]

Devoted opened his eyes to the world of the gods and prayed for their assistance and protection. A figure appeared in front of him, ghostly white and transparent, shaped vaguely like a bearded human with a horn in his hand. The watcher spirit was an aspect of Heimdall the ever vigilant guardian of the gods.  Devoted bowed before it and asked it to warn them when an enemy approaches. The watcher bowed in return and started patrolling the area.
After a look around in the astral, Devoted switched back to the mundane world, fiddled with some buttons and valves to start refilling his air and started helping his partners carefully checking and loading the bottles.

[inca1980]

Machete will start working diligently until as many bottles as the team can carry are packed up.  He'll then start preparing for the descent checking ammo, reloading his shotgun etc.

[Kontact]

The sun was completely gone now, leaving only the distant glow of October fires sprinkled throughout the distance.  The train wouldn't be running this late, leaving the only options as an ink-black descent through Union turf to the southern gate, or holding out in the tower for sunrise.  Machete just assumed to try his luck in the dark as hope their vehicles would still be operational come morning.  Staying so late seemed to leave the crew with some lousy options.  Pushing their luck had taken them far outside the realm of reasonable safety, but there was the potential yet for significant reward.  All that remained was convincing an already upset AI that they could hold up their end of a poorly-understood bargain, sneaking past a nest of near-mad bug spirits and their quite mad hostage/jailor, negotiating their take with the residents of the first 20 floors, and then driving alone through Union turf with a van half-full of Mafiosos.

Machete took the empty box and folded it into shape.  First he sprayed a layer of freeze foam on the bottom and then he placed five wine bottles on the foam  Next, he covered those wine bottles with foam and placed 5 more.  Repeating the final action, he had filled the empty box with 20 bottles and enough foam to last for several hours of hard riding.  He turned the whole thing over and slid the box off the top, leaving only a solid block of structural foam and an empty box to start with the next set of bottles.  At the end of the process, they had 4 opaque bricks of freeze foam about 20 kilos apiece, each secreting an estimated 50,000 yen worth of rare vintage.

[inca1980]

Once the bottles are all packed up Machete takes a long gaze at the darkness outside through the office windows.  He turns to the team and as the designated survival guide starts weighing the options. 
"Alright chamaquitos, all packed up and ready to go.  Vamonos.  If there's one thing that's more chingado than the Zone, it's the Zone after sundown....but we don't have many options.  To transport these bricks out of the CZ we're gonna need our vehicles and the longer we wait to get to them, the more chance they won't be there or be any use to us anymore once we find them.  That's about 80 kilos of payload....the kid should be able to handle magically lifting that up out of here."

[Junkrig]

Earlier... (6:20 PM, 104th floor)

Jack's ears perked up as he'd heard the shots from the rail drone firing, followed quickly by the loud <EUUUGGHH> the changeling ogre had let out just before slipping unconscious. Jack slapped an RFID tag on the wall of the room he was in and made a quick mental note in his personal knowledge base and linked it to his orientation system: Searched - ain't shit in there. He then worked his way upward to the source of the commotion, finding Gardener lying on the floor and the remainder of the team already departed.

Jack eyed Gardener and then winced as he tried to figure out how he was going to check for a pulse through an inch of bark-like epidermis. Leaning in, he heard the low sound of Gardener breathing. Jack mentally quick released his smart pack from his harness system and caught the pack, swinging it over his side and in front off him. He thinks, "Shit man, could've used you more upright. What the frag are we gonna do with you now?" as he pulls out his medkit and begins to apply stun treatment.

Gardener's eyes bolted open from the first aid, and Jack motioned him to keep cool and stay still. "You're gonna have to breath through this one, friend. Ain't much more I can do for you now. I'll stick here with you for a minute and make sure the areas clear." Satisfied that the coast was more or less clear, Jack slipped into hacker mode and begin skimming through the monkey's recent trid feeds at high speed, slowing his scan down to watch Code's final minutes play out real time. Jack bites his lip and thinks, "Fraggin' monkey came to the CZ looking for a wild ride? Guess he found it."

Jack slips his medkit back in his pack and then slides his smartpack onto his back, the magnetic quick connectors latching it securely to his harness system.

"Gard - be back wit' you soon -  hang in there. I'm headin' up to the party."


Currently... (6:30 PM)
Jack sidesteps the remains of the rail drone that took down the hulk in the other room and eyes it, wondering to himself how much of it's still usable. The TacNet feed in place has kept him aware that there's a better prize waiting a few floors up, and he focuses on what's become the most valuable haul he's seen in a long time. Jack rushes through possible exit strategies in his head as he makes his way upward. Subvocally - "Yo guys - Jack's heading up, easy on the triggers."

[Kontact]

The large form of Gardener lay rigid on the floor as the bizarre tree-man tried to recover from the extensive pummeling he had received from the rail drone's SMG.  Under his armor, his flesh had cracked rather than bruised, and a sap patch was forming like a scab over the site of the trauma.  He had learned from repeated injury that this process should not be disturbed, or it would continue for an embarrassing length of time.

Jack had left him to it and headed up towards where Machete was busy packing up bottles into crates.  Upon reaching the lobby on the next floor up, he was halted by the voice of the building's AI over the intercom.  "Prima Exemplo.  Nice to see you joining the others.  I have not introduced myself.  I am Hector.  I keep this place, for what it is worth.  Would you like to skip further introductions, or, are you more of a diplomat than the rest?"

[Junkrig]

"Gratitude, Hector." Jack immediately answers back.  He's been thinking non-stop about this AI since he first encountered its echoes within the drones and intercoms from the feeds of the others, wondering if perhaps this and the ghost in the NooseNet are one and the same. He's long considered the presence of AI but this is the first he's ever encountered. Jack's voice is a mix of awe, respect, and intrigue. "Honored to meet you. Name's Jack. Forgive the intrusion - I climbed up your tower looking for my brother." Jack swallows, remembering his brother again after so much distraction, but then continues, "I found him, but unfortunately, too late." Jack pauses very briefly, then says, "My apologies for the ways some of the others I am with have behaved toward you."

[Kontact]

"I am aware of the state of things enough that disappointment is minimal and quickly tempers itself."  A single lobby gun tracks Jack as he moves.  "At this moment, though, I am openly pleased to speak with you.  In a way, your presence here has determined my current course of action.  As such, knowing more about your motivations in being here, in every sense of here, would be quite appreciated.  Why is it then that you are in Chicago, and why have you persevered to this point, despite all that has assailed you to?"

[Junkrig]

Jack tracks the guns movements via his image link through his helmet-cam, mentally wary but physically alert, trying not to let on that he's watching the gun track him. He halts his progress momentarily to respond, "Well, that's a curious question. I was born here in Chicago, and so far, haven't exactly had the opportunity to leave. The year Calumet Harbor opened my brother and I buried our mother and then came out here to the Zone lookin' for work, which aside from the odd scavenging job, for me that's mostly meant moving other peoples goods from here to there without looking to closely at what's in their packages." Jack shifts his weight, scanning each of his helmet cams in succession, taking in his surroundings before continuing, "As to why I've persevered... drek, Hec-tor... that's where your question gets tough. Guess survival just runs in the genes. You keep going 'til you can't anymore." Jack's face looks pensive. "Jim and I had some big ideas of stashing enough cred in the outside world from our work here in this... netherworld... but ghost knows what comes next. " Jack steps over a bit of fallen pipe marvels at the cleanliness and emptiness of the vast room as he begins to progress again. "For now, seems you'd like a hand securing your position, and we've got a few hands to aid that progress. It's just lucky for me I guess one soul's trash is another one's treasure."

[Xzylvador]

With only one hand, Devoted wasn't much help loading in the expensive bottles of wine.
"I can probably manage to get the wine and one person down from the outside of the building. From what I've seen so far the background count there isn't enough to make my sustaining foci useless... But if another gargoyle or something like that shows up, it could get really dangerous hanging there mid air. I might be able to levitate all of us, it will be the quickest way down and we might be able to avoid any nastiness we could find in this tower. but with the sustaining and the background count combined, don't count on me being able to do anthing useful while I'm doing that. ", the blond kid said while thinking to himself that it wouldn't be much of a change, he'd felt useless ever since he arrived in this cursed city. He'd do what he could to get out of this place and then make sure to never come anywhere near this city again.
He felt the presence of the guardian spirit next to him in the astral plane. "Of course, the protection the Gods have offered me could more than make up for this."

[Kontact]

"Self-preservation makes little sense as your motivation for standing in this place.  There is much difference between going on, and going deeper.  There is no other side of an ocean dive, only a bottom.  Others have died here.  You could still die here.  While you are in this room with 6 machine guns, more than capable of tearing you to pieces, you could turn around and leave, but you continue on and you talk to me.  You did not need to walk in here and do so in the first place.  Do you have reason to trust me? Do I have reason to kill you?"  The other guns move sharply to point at Jack.  "Will you keep going forward?"

[Junkrig]

"Ah yes, diplomacy and heavy artillery - the only twin sisters who'll ever screw me," Jack thinks to himself.  He halts his progress and stands still, mentally noting the positions of the turrets now facing him. "There's a difference, see, between self-preservation and survival. We humans might bunk down in caves, but eventually we've got to head out and dive down - or climb up - and hunt and gather resources. Survival necessitates risk. The diver who doesn't make it to the bottom will never bring back the pearl." Jack pauses, staring directly at the barrel of the closest machine gun, then glancing away. "I reckon I could still die here, but that's not much different than most places I find myself. Whether it's a bullet from you now or cancer at my bedside in 20 years, one way or another my end will come. Given that I'm trespassing in your space, I take no offense you've got some sizable pieces of heat pointin' my direction.  I just don't see how my death here and now would benefit either of us." Jack looks around, scanning for further movement, "The way I see it, I can't imagine you get too many visitors to these quarters. That makes our presence something of a unique opportunity. I learned early on here in Chicago not to let such opportunities go. So let me ask you, Hector, can I trust you?"

[Kontact]

"Just as you can trust anyone, to act in self-interest.  It might still be in my best interest to kill all of you.  But, no."  The guns quickly went back to their regular ready positions with only the closest still following Jack around, camera pointed at his face.  "This is not a problem simple enough to solve with a bullet.  Killing you would not keep me safe.  There are not enough bullets here to stop those who would follow after you.  Then again, you do keep bringing more bullets...  Still, there's only one protection which can be found within a society, and that protection is utility.  As long as you are needed, you are protected.  In a similar vein of thought, long as you have nothing to take, you have nothing to fear from outside agents.  I want you to broker a deal with the people who live in the base of this tower.  In return for leaving me be, I will offer them access to the power storage up here, and my own personal assistance when requested.  Also, they should be able pick the bones of this place clean such that no other could find a reason to come back up.  At this point, though, we must discuss what has become of the elf down below, and what is to be done about it."

[Junkrig]

Jack fires off a quick mental text to the rest of the crew:
<<Incoming text: Heads up - my audio feed>>

While he is listening, Jack thinks to himself, "Free juice and the chance to strip the halls bare? Convincing the locals shouldn't be tough - course I wonder how much of his hardware is going to be off-limits... then again, it's hard to tell where he must live... or how many pies this guy's got his digital tentacles in..."

As Hector's dialogue comes to a close, Jack begins to shift tracks in his mind and a single word rolls out of his mouth, "Absolutely," simultaneously an agreement, an acceptance of the proposal, and an acknowledgement of the need to discuss the elf mage downstairs. "I think convincing the locals should be no issue. Course we may need to clear some paths. Hopefully it's not too presumptuous to assume that's why you mention the elf downstairs. How's he doing, anyway?"