[Necrogigas]

O'Connor took the seat Snow offered him, "I'm firepower for the team, same goes for Clem, though she's the one calling the shots during fights. Torley's our talker, and Sammy rounds things out with her mojo." He waved his hand dismissively at her worries over Red, "I wouldn't worry too much about it. We're new as a team, so it ain't like you're breaking up the band or anything." After receiving Snow's message, O'Connor allowed her access to his commlink without stopping their conversation, "As for this mission, its been a completely straight forward guard job just like we were told. The team we had to fight off at The Needle liked to get cute with their tactics, but no surprises otherwise. On one hand, this job's exactly what it suppose to be, but on the other, I'm still kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop." He looked towards the bar Snow indicated for a moment before standing. He looked back down at her with a grin and offered her a hand up, "A drink would be great."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will smile and accept the proffered hand and allow O'Connor to escort her to the cozy airport bar.  She is already plying her deft touch to his commlink, running through is standard settings.  As with Clem's 'link, she examines it without violating any of his private information.  She sends him a private message, "Thank you Patrick.  May I call you Patrick or would you prefer something else?  My name is Snow."  As they take a seat at a booth, she will be looking her companion over, thinking, "Not too shabby, girl.  Could do worse.  And this one seems to be very polite."Snow will eye the waitress as well, appreciating her looks and then ask her if she has any special, below the bar vodka.  She will motion to O'Connor as she pulls out a cred stick, "And please get my friend whatever he is having." She will turn to him and say, "My treat this time."


Speaking  Thought  Matrix

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor thought it odd that Snow texted him when he was sitting right next to her, but responded in kind, <[Recipient: Snow | Text]: I'm not a fan of Patrick, and I fraggin' hate Pat and Patty. Rick never caught on, so I wouldn't respond to it automatically. I just go by O'Connor, or Con, if you're short on time. I run as Bullet Storm, but that's a bit awkward to use in casual conversation.> He nodded his acceptance of her offer, "Thanks, I'll get you on the flip side." He ordered a random, and cheap, domestic beer. He took a stout swig before picking the conversation back up, "Johnson didn't give you trouble about joining up part way through, did he?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will smile as she sips the vodka.  "OK.  This drink is good, which is pleasantly surprising.  She will look at O'Connor as he talks then responds, "Well, to be honest, I was under the impression that Fionn left him high and dry, which is bad for someone in our business.  I owed Fionn a large favor and this is me repaying the debt.  Johnson thinks you may need skills like mine and was willing to toss me into the action already in progress." Snow will shrug. "For my purposes, my honor is clear and the money is not bad, either."  She will give the man next to her an appraising look over the rim of her glass.  "Fionn told me that you guys were responsible for what happened at the Space Needle yesterday.  Do you think that any trouble we get in LA will be from the same guys?  If so, can you tell me anything about them that might make my job easier?  Did they jam signals?  Were they coordinated, as if on a TacNet?  And were they using wireless equipment and weapons?" She will pause. "Look, I know that Fionn may have been your friend, but I need to be blunt.  He has most of his time and energy invested in locating his sister and that made him weak as a support member for your team.  He and I are not the same person.  I will do my very best to keep all of you safe and wired in." Snow is already opening windows on her 'link to see what sort of footage and comments are available on the incident.  She is looking for any sign of what anyone was using, checking out both sides to see if she can spot anything useful that she can work with.


Speaking  Thought  Matrix

[Necrogigas]

Unfortunately for O'Connor he was in the process of taking a sip when Snow assumed that Red and he were friends. Luckily, his sputtering only caused a bit of his drink spill down his chin. He wiped it away with his sleeve. He may have been trying to put his best foot forward, but his cruder habits were so ingrained, he'd never think to correct them. He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, but Red and I are not friends. I threatened to kill him at least three times in two days." He realized what he said after he said it, *Drek.* He cleared his throat to cover the awkward moment and sped right along into the detail of the day before, "I really doubt that it will be the same team. We captured two and handed 'em over to KE. On top of that, one of the escapees' has bullet fragments where his kneecap should be. Sammy also got a pic of the mage, she's passing it around to her people. I don't think they had a TacNet. All those people they were using as cover would've probably limited it's usefulness anyhow. You'd have to ask Red for the specifics, but if there was anything special going on, he didn't share. All I know is that the comms went down and then there were dozens of lunatic fans everywhere. All of the runners were armed with stun batons as primary, with back up sidearms." He returned her appraising look to judge the sincerity of the last bit of her words. He nodded, accepting her declaration, "As long as you keep the enemy out of our systems, I'll keep mowin' 'em down." He raised his glass in cheers.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will consider her words before replying. Fionn really did not do these people justice.  A good hacker should be well received by his or her team.  She had got the vibe from others as well that Fionn had let them down in the security department and then he just ran off on them in the middle of a contract.  Not good, Fionn, not good at all.  "Thank you for your honesty.  Of course, there is no guarantee that someone cannot bring more matrix power than I can handle, but it would need to be a lot and I will take every precaution I can think of to not let that happen.  I am surprised that Fionn allowed your comms to go down.  I wonder what sort of jammer they were using?"  She will use a corner of her mind to send a text message to one of her Vory contacts.  <Message : Text:  Boris.  The team I am working with was part of what went down at the Space Needle yesterday.  Do we have anything on either group involved?  Apparently two of the attackers were captured and turned over to the KE.  Don't we have someone inside on the payroll there that could give us a hint as to their motive and who hired them? End:  >Snow will smile at O'Connor and say, "Well then.  Perhaps they were hired by someone we can learn about.  And it sounds like you were able to defeat these guys even with comms down.  That says a lot about your effectiveness as a team.  I am glad to be aboard and hope that I do not disappoint." She will take another sip and think to herself,   OK.  So two in the net.  I wonder if the others are having reservations about me.  And drek to Slade.  I would rather be dressed in clothes similar to what the others are wearing.  I would be more comfortable and would have fit in better.  As it is, O'Connor is coming across as natural and I feel like a monkey.  I wonder what they are thinking about me.  Probably something impolite. She will return to the conversation.  "So I have you and Clem in my net already and just waiting on the others.  Are your companions reticent about me, or did Fionn not use a slave net to protect you?"  


Speech  Thought  Matrix

[Thvor]

Sam swore softly as his 'link once again refused to do what he told it to do. Giving up, he walked into the bar he'd seen O'Connor and the new girl--what had she called herself that evening? Snow? Yeah, that was it--heading for. Sitting down next to her, Sam placed his 'link on the bar between them, where it could have been either of theirs. "Damn thing's misbehaving again. You can do whatever you want with it, if you can get it to work." When the bartender came over, he asked for a scotch on the rocks.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will willingly slide closer to O'Connor to make room in the booth for Sam.  She will offer her cred stick to the waitress as she says, "New girl is getting the first round."  She will turn her attention to the commlink on the table and take it into her hands.  She will take control of the device and slave it to her net and check out its security settings before handing it back.  "Here you go, Sam.  It should be working better now.  I have added you to my net and we will try to keep everything running smoothly."  She will pause, "And look, I am sorry if I came on too strong earlier.  I hope I did not embarrass you or let any cats out of the bag."  Snow's light Russian accent is definitely coming through.  "So what am I to call you?  Sam, Torley, or something else?  We did not really get to names when we last met."

"Speaking"  *Thoughts*  <Matrix>

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will remain focused on the men in the booth, but will spare time to send a note to Sammy and Clem.  <Open message : Text:  Hey, why don't the two of you join us in the bar?  There is room in the booth and it would give me a chance to get to know each of you a bit better.  First round is on me and I can make sure that Sammy is in the net.  End Message:>

<Matrix>

[farothel]

"What do you think, a little drink with the whole team before we leave to the glitz and glammer of Hollywood," Sammy said to Clem, before heading towards the bar.  She took a beer, as she knew they didn't have the cocktails she preferred.
"I still have to give you access to the comm," she said to Snow, "I had to dig up my other commlink for that, as that's the one I use during runs.  But just a question, why do you need admin access?  Isn't it possible without?  First rule in the trid is to never give that kind of access, because before you know it all your private pictures are all over the matrix."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will welcome the others to the booth and offer her credstick to the waitress as she takes the new orders.  She will nod at Sammy's question. "There are indeed more than one level of access I can have, but slaving your 'links to mine requires admin access.  You could get away with a more normal subscription to my 'link, but that is riskier and for what I have in mind it would take more from you." She will look around at the others before continuing, "I would like to talk to you about running a TacNet program for us.  Please forgive me if I am saying what you already know.  This type of link has several advantages, mostly in combat situations.  It keeps us linked together and able to use all of the input from our 'links can be used to assist us.  For example, it gives all of us who are in the link an advantage in armed as well as unarmed combat.  I am embarrassed to say that the best I can afford now will only be rating II, but I hope to be able to go to III soon.  To be in the net we need to stay connected.  A slave link does not require any additional input from you,, but a lesser link would require that those in the net subordinate some of their personal sensory data to the link."Snow will shrug.  "It really comes down to ease of use and trust.  You are correct that you will be opening yourself to my touch.  I will tell you that I will not violate your trust, but in the end it is up to you to believe me or not."  Snow will look at the group again before adding, "I have looked at some of the public footage of what happened yesterday.  While there is a lot left out, I can assume from what was said and not said that your team might not have been set up in a TacNet or that the net was dropped.  Am I correct?"

"Speaking"    *Thought*  <Matrix>

[farothel]

"We didn't have one," Sammy said, "I guess none of us thought about it.  But such a net requires a constant connection, does it not?  So we need to stay in signal range, right?  If we slave our links you yours, does that mean that it will keep us linked during jamming, or is the strenght of the slave link also important?  If it is, it won't help us much as during the jamming in the Needle, the connection was cut between most of us, so they can do it again."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will nod and reply, "Very good.  You are right about signal connection.  However, if we are linked, the signal strength is based on my 'link so the enemy would need to jam me and I should have the strongest signal in the team for that reason..  But you are also right about needing to be close.  Getting separated by some walls or other shielding can temporarily break the link."  The slave link gives me the best chance to stay connected by using all of my 'link's abilities rather than the individual 'links.  There are lots of possibilities, but the best chance we have is to stay linked together.  It will help us survive."She will shake her head slightly and frown, thinking, *Oh, Fionn.  What did you do to your team?*Out loud, she will say, I am surprised that Fionn did not bring this up.  Perhaps he was concerned that his commlink was not strong enough."

"Speaking"  *Thought*  <Matrix>

[farothel]

Clearly she didn't knew that Fionn was a technomancer, so Sammy wasn't going to bring it up.
"Given the fact that we first met being tied together naked on some mountainside, I assume it slipped his mind," Sammy said, "especially since we didn't even have commlinks at that moment.  Just a second."
She started up her runner 'link and gave the access.
"That should do it," she said.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow will blush.  "How awkward for me.  I did not know.  That must have been horrible.  That shows even more that you are a good team."She will access the proffered commlink.  Sammy will see the deft touch of the hacker.  As with the others, she will not even delve into sensitive personal information.  When she is finished, Snow will look up at Sammy."Thank you very much.  Now we are all slaved in.  I hope that this will help us when the drek goes wild."She will look around at the others.  "So, we still have a few minutes.  Does anyone want to tell me the story of your first encounter and how you ended up on a mountain tied together?"


"Speaking"  *Thought*  <Matrix>