[Kontact]

"As you like, Jack.  The vice president had a taste for cigars."

"Digger, the secondary nesting event is what happened 26 days after the primary nesting event.  The primary nesting event ended when the building was set aflame with magics.  You have seen the result of the both events plainly.  As to knowing what you are saying, I have been monitoring your wireless traffic.  I can not send wireless signals on the proper frequency without the use of a commlink, but I can hear them plainly.  Finally, per your request to shut off the external defenses, I can cut power to the main portion of the building, which would accomplish that.  If your purpose is toward using the descenders, ejecting the counter-weighted pane will automatically shut off the defenses.  It would not be much of a safety feature if it killed anyone who used it."

[Junkrig]

"Thanks, Hector. We'll get this place cleaned out for you." Jack tips his hat to the turret and, out of habit more than anything, checks and readies his battle rifle before proceeding upward, en route to rendezvous with the rest of the team.

[Xzylvador]

With the wines packed away safely and little else to do while waiting for Jack, Devoted fiddled with his commlink to watch the footage the computer was talking about and to see if there was anything else interesting on the recordings.

[Junkrig]

Ascending the stairway to the upper floor, Jack paused to take in the view of the orange dotted landscape below from all of the burning fires. It was getting too dark now for him to make out many details, but somehow the desolate grandness of the city below instilled in him a sort of momentary satori. A split second later the nicotine hits his lungs again and he was up the stairs, whistling as he took in the dead chief-executive-asshole's former lair. "I gotta get me a pad like this," he thinks to himself, while simultaneously glancing around the room and scanning his orientation system's feed to find the quickest route to the team. He walks over to the nearest ashtray and stubs out his cigarette, admiring the tray's mother-of-pearl inlay. He then heads down the stairs to the wine cellar. "Hi fellas. Sorry I couldn't lend a hand packin' up - kind of got hung up back there. Nice haul." He glances at each of the runners and then around the room. "Say - anybody seen a humidor up here?"

[Kontact]

The footage was very dense.  There were no less than 7 trid cameras and four sim feeds.  Not one for VR, Devoted started with a trid scene.  Kind of strange for a simsense company to be making a trid, but it seemed to be a reality sim piggy-backed onto a trid production.  Perhaps it was meant to appeal to people who wanted an authentic glimpse into what it was like to be a trid star.  Absolutely nothing new these days, but it's possible that the involvement of sophisticated magic would be the draw.  Each of the four principal actors seemed to be awakened and there must have been others on the sidelines providing the illusory landscape which made up the set.  While Devoted was pondering what kind of individual would waste their gift on such trivialities, the scene on the trid went haywire.  Every third person managed to pin someone down as wasp spirits appeared in the air and made straight for the cast.  In his peripheral vision, Devoted could see some of the trid feeds die at this moment, but the one he was on continued with only a little shaking.

Clearly though, he watched as the mages from the cast and crew tried to fight back.  It wasn't even close to enough to beat back the surprise assault.  They went down, one right after another, to exhaustion or were wrapped up by bugs or their fleshform counterparts.  At the end there was only a 20-something Sioux girl and Holland.  The elf stood implacable within a strong barrier and was rippling the air with powerful magics whose effects seemed to happen mostly off screen.  The Sioux girl was visibly exhausted and overwhelmed by everything going on as she crouched near his feet.  In a moment of madness or confusion she started climbing up Holland's coat and scratching at his eyes as she screeched.  Holland's barrier came down and a number of wasps closed in and impaled him with their stingers.  The screeching and flailing woman was carried off along with the rest of the crew, and the cameras continued on for a while before the file ended.  The sim feeds cut right after, once they exceeded the distance of the old short-range wireless transmitters.  Even Holland's body was dragged off, looking not unlike Ruckus did hours earlier.

[Xzylvador]

"Odin, that's horrible... Mister A.I., do you know where they took those bodies? Is there any footage?"

[Crossbow]

"Okay folks, let's get this stuff moving." Once the little group of survivors gathers Digger lays out his plan, with one odd addition.

Holding up a quickly scrawled note reading (JACK r the decenders networked?) He also clearly indicates he wants a silent thumbs up or down answer. 

"Kid, if you got the juice and want to try I am thinking you should float the cargo down, if you aren't a hunnert percent sure we will fast rope them though. Regardless we need to secure enough decenders to get everyone and our cargo down."

I am gonna have to climb down and get the big guy, and sling him to a few different floors, but the main issue is we gotta secure the ground.  That is on you Tex Mex, you get down there, hook up with Tony and get ready recieve the cargo and keep the unwashed at bay."

The rest of you follow down after with the wine either slung or floating and I will come down after I get Gardner hooked up."

Digger looks around.

"We got a plan?"

[inca1980]

Machete looks out the big glass window once on to the dark landscape before them.  He checks his shotgun and holsters it on his back, slaps his gecko grip hands together a few times to make sure the adhesive charges were flowing right and then looks at Digger. 
"Alright pinche italiano, looks like we got a plan.  As soon as the external security is disabled i'll start climbing down the side of the building and make sure the ground is cleared before we lower the stuff."

[Junkrig]

Jack pops a betel as he gathers around with the others near Digger. He grimmaces when Digger produces his scrawl. Jack assumes that since the vocal portion of their tacnet is compromised, the visual portion must be as well, and despite the poor handwriting, if Jack can read it, he assumes Hector can as well. Jack guesses Digger is paranoid about the AI screwing with the descenders mid-descent, but it's a sentiment he just doesn't share. He tries to play it cool since there's nothing per se that could be interpreted by the AI as threatening within the question - merely in how Jack responds. (And regardless, Jack's not jacked into the wired network). So he shrugs, "Dunno, let's ask. Hey Hector, we're about to exit through the windows, down the side of the building. Could you verify the external defenses are shut off once we eject the glass?"

While speaking aloud he begins pulling up a connection with the blimp outside. To team: <<Who picked up the monkey's commlink?>>

[Xzylvador]

"With the power the gods have granted me and the assistance I've already bargained for with one of their messengers, Tyr willing, I could bring us all down safely. I can even call in the aid of a second winged messenger which controls the air and wind.", Devoted answered. "And here's Codes commlink, I kept it to keep Ruckus II following us."

[Kontact]

"Which bodies are you inquiring about, Devoted?  Do you mean the ones captured by the insects?  They were gathered in masse while the hive was constructed.  I could never see into the hive due to the effluent material covering all the sensors.  I do know however that after the fire began below, a large number of cocoons, for lack of a better term, were carried up to the higher floors.  As to the descenders, they are fail-safe."

[Junkrig]

Jack takes the commlink from Devoted's hands and mumbles a quiet "thank you" as he flips out the datajack connection near his helmet and jacks into Code's commlink, giving himself access to control the drones via his own commlink. Satisfied, he logs out, reconnects his helmet to his temple datajack and shoves the extra commlink into his front right pouch. Jack redirects the blimp to the same side of the building they are currently on and Jack begins scanning it's sensors and surveying the exterior of the building near them.

[Crossbow]

"'Cording to Hector, the sparks outside drop when the decenders get used, so you can go whenever you're ready."  Digger says as he pulls off and stows his boots once again then gets a personal rig ready for his, much shorter, decent.

"So which floor did you leave the not-so-jolly-at-the-moment green giant on Jack?"

[Junkrig]

Satisfied with beginning exterior surveillance for the descent, Jack positions himself close to Digger and the descenders the dwarf has readied.  "Gard's down on 104. Hey Gard - how you hanging in there?" Jack eyes the cable descent system, then looks around for their metal canine. "Let's send the dog down first."

[Crossbow]

"The decenders are designed for people.  It is gonna be tough enough to get Gardner down, if the kid wants the dog, the kid can get a ghostie to carry the dog, but the paycargo goes first."