[Blazrath]

Jack would decline the prayer and a cigar, letting someone else have his.

rednblack: For the original route, I can go underground while heading there, its the leaving part I'd rather be top side, in more open areas where I can see the drek hit the fan. It would allow for aerial support if need be, I'm sure Chuck has enough explosives to make an impromptu landing pad if it comes and honestly going into dark places with many things skittering in the dark is not the way I would like to go out.

As for the mission objectives, if we are planning on trying to hit both at the same time, we may alert one position if things go badly with the other. Its not the most ideal and may be suicidal, but we may need to split up so that in case things go belly up we at least get the objectives complete. I'd suggest figuring out which ones would be best for stealth work and trying to keep quiet and which ones would be best to have around when things go loud. I know there are many flaws, but do we have a better idea?

[martinchaen]

Splitting the party in the CZ? Brave. Stupid, but brave :-)

[Blazrath]

Splitting the party in the CZ? Brave. Stupid, but brave :-)

Yes, yes it is. But trying to spy on a termite shaman after maybe having to do a hard extraction of our target and having them on edge seems like a worse idea.

Its either tempt fate that we can get the job done quietly on both fronts or try to get both done at the same time. As for the drone, I think as long as you have a commlink you can slave it to the system and have it do recon for you. All depends on whether we think this or not.

[Koshnek]

For the record, I don't have a mountain of ordnance :p. I have 5 kilos of various grades. Are we going through an underpass or into a tunnel? I thought we were talking about under an overpass. I'm (literally) guessing that I might have enough explosive to drop a pillar or two of an overpass and stop or slow down anything chasing us. I don't actually know without any extra input from someone who does know :p.

[martinchaen]

Blazrath
There's always an option

Just saying, splitting the party is a Bad Idea (TM). You have been warned.

Koshnek
You're certainly free to try, but your character would know that while 5kg of high-yield explosives is likely enough to take out a reinforced concrete support pillar, it likely won't drop an overpass that's been designed to last through storms and earthquakes. In your character's opinion, you'd probably have better luck setting up IEDs on or along the road with remote triggers.

I'll have more answers for everyone tomorrow morning. Feel free to RP into the Banshee (which is going to be loud, by the way; if you want it to avoid detection you're looking at extreme range for an assault cannon, or 1km of altitude (or more). At that distance it certainly won't be heard, but it won't be impossible to spot.

[Koshnek]

For the record, this is the loadout I'm planning to run. Being I have the gyro, Ill drop the shield. I don't think I can strap a shield to my back with a big ol cannon hangin there :p. I think the shotty is actually viable here. 32 shots with full auto or even suppressive fire as options. If distance becomes an issue, Chuck can cover 36 meters with a single run. I wasn't expecting to run into any heavily armored resistance, so I was going to leave the flechette loaded. If our BS friends aren't so friendly, I can swap drums. That's also why I wanted to bring the cannon. I have 15(30) shots if things get ugly or I need to make a long shot. Ill add a cannon clip to the loadout too.

Smash 'n Grab (Restricted is too much of a liability): Full Body Armor, Helmet, shield. Laser Pistol, Autoshotty flechette, +Cannon, discharge satchel, 1 drum APDS [1], Medkit satchel R3, 1 kilo R11 plastic/1 Kilo R19 plastic [1],"Claymore" (R25 explosive w/ motion sensor) [1] Cram/Kamikaze/Slap Patch/Trauma Patch [1]. Miniwelder [1], Demo toolkit [5]. Ex-Airtank R6 +AC clip

[Poindexter]

Weedy will be bringing the standard loadout. That means no cannon, no bow. Those stay on the bird. All the other regular gear is going with her though.
as for ammo, she'll load up 2 of her clips for the AK with explosive and the other 2 with APDS. She'll bring one extra full load of nades for the underbarrel launcher as well as 4 regular ole throwin nades. 8 extra shells for the remington as well. As for drugs, she'll bring 4 hits of jazz, 6 doses of zen, and 6 doses of longhaul. Lockpick set instead of the crowbar or chainsaw.

She'll be ready to go in half the time everyone else will.

Also, im against splitting the party more than a couple turns sprinting can't fix. That's why god gave us drones. Now that i think about it, do we even NEED to get meat eyes on the alleged mite shaman? I mean, a recording from a drone is gonna be just as good aint it? Especially a cloud of fly spies. The more i think about it, the more i think maybe we should just drop all but one or two of them off on our way to look for the doc. Let THEM do the work on the side job, eh?

[reyjinn]

Yeah, splitting up seems like a royally bad idea to me. If it weren't for the near certainty that the doctor would come into lethal danger in the meantime I'd say we should do the scouting first.

Gale ain't nearly as gear nuts as you gun folks, just got an all purpose load out that he rolls with.

SWAT Armor, SWAT Helmet, Raiden [APDS] (on a sling, 2 spare clips), Crusader [S'n'S] (right hip holster, 2 spare clips), Survival knife (strapped to backpack), Combat knife (left hip), Medkit R6 (backpack), 3x Trauma patches, 3x Stim patches R4, Avalon commlink (w/ subvocal), 50 drams reagents, F1 Power foci (not active), F5 Sustaining foci (not active).
Hmmm, think that's about it.

[martinchaen]

All right, first up is info on Termite spirits for Poindexter:
Termites, like ants and wasps, are hive insects; highly social, organized, and driven. A hive is formed by a single shaman, who summons individual insect spirits (workers, soldiers, scouts, nymphs, and caretakers) as preparation for summoning a Queen type spirit. The Queen is the focus of the hive-mind and the dominant influence that directs the hive in all actions.

Termites specifically have a rigid caste system where more mature (i.e. older) spirits have seniority, though all obey the queen as usual. Termite hives are usually build above ground, but abandoned buildings and isolated urban areas serve as typical hiding spots. Termites all have the Reinforcement power, and so their hives can be tough nuts to crack.

Koshnek
Chuck's contact Mr. Burns is only able to get a hold of more of the cheap (but real tobacco) cigars on short notice.

He's got some feelers out for the following, but so far the market is pretty tight:
Swag [7]
19d6t5: 3 [19d6t5=3, 6, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 1, 1, 4, 4, 6, 2, 5, 1, 3]

Unavailable: 24d6t5: 9 [24d6t5=5, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 4, 5, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 3, 1, 6]
Gurkha Widow Makers. Premium deluxe, but at a price tag of over 750¥ a piece these are pretty elusive; they are the best cigars money can buy, however.

Unavailable: 20d6t5: 4 [20d6t5=1, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 3, 5, 4, 2, 2, 1]
Cohiba Luxe; still pretty damned high quality, and still damned expensive at just around 450¥ per cigar.

Unavailable: 16d6t5: 6 [16d6t5=1, 3, 3, 5, 4, 5, 6, 1, 6, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 2, 1]
Zino Platinum Crown; a good, mid-range cigar that's fairly inexpensive at a little under 300¥ each

Available: 12d6t5: 1 [12d6t5=1, 1, 4, 2, 4, 2, 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 4]
Rocky Patel Catch-22: these things are decent, and that's about it. They're inexpensive at only 75¥ per stick, though.

If you feed him some cash you can get your hands on more exclusive stuff, however. Buying dice at 25% will get you an additional net hit using the buying hits rules. In other words, you can pay 100% more than asking price (i.e. double) and he'll be able to get the Cohiba Luxe ones, but at 900¥ a pop


Ravensoracle
Muse searching for maps of the area
Matrix Search: 10d6t5 4
Threshold 3 test using browse, search takes 15 minutes and will complete just before you go airborne. Muse manages to locate recent off-grid satellite images of the entire AO, with comments from various people attached. You all get a +1 bonus to all Navigation tests you'll need to make in the area, both on foot and while mounted.

Muse searching for info on Dr. Clay
Matrix Search: 10d6t5 4
Threshold 3 test using browse, search takes another 15 minutes and will complete while y'all are en route. Muse manages to locate various articles penned by the good doctor and her PHD thesis; perhaps surprisingly, she's a prominent magical researcher who seems to believe that the recently discovered Royal Jelly is the solution to the "insect problem" as she describes it. Based on the documents Muse finds, Nightingale manages to build a basic psych profile on her.

Dr Clay is likely an extremely driven woman in her late 30s, having lost both parents in the Cermak blast of '55. She seems to be borderline obsessed with finding a cure for what is somewhat commonly known as inhabitation; similar to possession, insect spirits need a physical vessel to exist on the Earth metaplane or they will suffer a gradual decline in essence until they simply slip back into their native planes. Unfortunately, inhabitation is widely regarded to be irreversible, but Dr. Clay still holds out hope the Royal Jelly is the solution as it is directly related to the spirits themselves. She arrived in Chicago 5 days ago, and has been working in the CZ for the last 3. The fact that she's survived in or near the Cermak zone for so long, even with the escort, means she's definitely got a will to live.

[rednblack]

Agreed on splitting the party.  There might be some situations in which we need Jack, Chuck, or Weedy across the street, on the roof, etc, but in general I don't think it's wise to put much distance between team members that close to Cermak. 

@Poindexter, getting drones on the recon is a good idea, but I doubt we'll be able to rely on them alone.  Otherwise, a rigger could do that job jacked-in directly from base.  Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky.  If we do need meat eyes, we need altitude and distance as much as possible.  Besides the awful effects of radiation, we also have to worry about somebody falling down a bug hole at ground level.  Also, I feel kinda bad about the "mistaken for a man" comment that August made.  My absolute favorite line from Aliens is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eycDq4NW88o but in general I don't like playing up gendered jokes.  Anyway, I wanted to let you know.

Augusts load-out: SWAT Armor, SWAT Helmet, Snake Mesh Socks (see above comment about bug holes.  I highly recommend them for 50¥), Combat Knife (boot), Survival Knife (backpack), Crusader (Concealed Quickdraw holster, 1 additional mag, APDS), Urban Combat (backpack, 2 additional mags, Stick-n-Shock), Ares Alpha (Sling, 5 additional mags, 4 APDS, 1 gel), Ares Alpha Grenade Launcher (loaded with High Ex., 3 Flash-bangs, 2 High Ex., 1 Thermal Smoke), Medkit (Backpack), Tranq patch X5 (backpack), Stimpatch X3 (front left pocket), Cram X3 (1 in pants pocket, 2 in backpack), Jazz (pants pocket), Longhaul X2 (backpack), Climbing gear (backpack), Gecko Tape Gloves, RFID tags X10 (backpack [for the record, these are not to confuse potential enemy deckers.  I want them for tagging our objectives]), Subvocal Mic, Electronic Paper (front right pocket), Sony Emperor (backpack), Microwire: 100m (backpack), Stealth Rope: 100m (backpack), Catalyst Stick (backpack), Rating 3 air tank (backpack)

Edit:

@All, so we don't kind of fly all over the place with the plan, I thought I'd put together a rough outline, with some of the options that have been presented.  This is by no means exhaustive, so let me know what I missed and let's discuss what our preferences are.

A: Landing:  DZ at Lake Meadows Park.  1. Banshee lands, humvee immediately exits, and takes a westerly course on 31st.  2. Banshee takes to air as soon as the humvee clears and stays out of sound range (sky should be dark, but are we likely to encounter nasties with vision that could still spot it?)

B: Route:
Option 1: Take advised course from HQ.  Go fast to maintain element of surprise and minimize chance of effective resistance or ambush being set.  Fly-Spies are sent to east bank of S. River for recon.  1-2 Fly-Spies stay close to team for when we hit 26th and State.
Option 2: Take Advised course from HQ.  Maintain low/moderate speed and have Fly-Spies scope area ahead for potential hazards.  1-2 Fly-Spies sent to east bank of  S. River for recon.
Option 3: Take route around Overpass and take high ground instead. Speed variable 
Flexibility: Depending on how long we are at 26th and State, we can recon immediate area N and W and establish route at that point. 

C: Pick Up
Option 1: Medevac Dr. Clay to Banshee as soon as she is in PC and circumstances allow.  I haven't heard anyone object to this, so I'm assuming this is the way to go. 
   2. BS mercs will follow Viper Team until extraction is complete.  I'm considering purchasing 4 Safe Target Systems that we can put on their weapons.  Time is an issue with this idea. 
   Concerns: If we haven't scoped Termite Shaman by this point, medevac drone could alert shaman to activity in area and allow her to go to ground
Option 2: Keep Dr. Clay in hand until entire team extracts.  BS mercs and Dr. Clay will follow Viper Team until recon mission is complete. 
   2. This option allows medevac drone to be filled with gear.
   Concerns: While medevac drone will not alert shaman to activity, the Dr. will potentially be at risk.  This is balanced by the fact that the good Dr. will not be unescorted or unaccompanied at any point in the mission.

D: Continued Recon
1. It has been strongly advised that we go on foot after 26th and State to maintain a low profile.
2. Humvee maintains safe distance so that we can retreat and have it advance should we need to bug out.
3. If drone recon does not yield sufficient results, Viper Team scopes suitable high ground to put eyes on S. river.  Maybe Blackshield mercs keep watch on ground floor?  Not loving this idea, but unsure what else to do with them.

E: Extraction
Option 1: Reunite with humvee, take recommended route back to Meadows Park, go have a cigar.
Option 2: Reunite with humvee, take secondary route to Meadows Park, go have a cigar.
Option 3: Reunite with humvee, take secondary route to Park No. 540 (or suitable alternative), go have a cigar.  This option will require intel from Wires.

[Poindexter]

@Poindexter, getting drones on the recon is a good idea, but I doubt we'll be able to rely on them alone.  Otherwise, a rigger could do that job jacked-in directly from base.  Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky.  If we do need meat eyes, we need altitude and distance as much as possible.  Besides the awful effects of radiation, we also have to worry about somebody falling down a bug hole at ground level.  Also, I feel kinda bad about the "mistaken for a man" comment that August made.  My absolute favorite line from Aliens is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eycDq4NW88o but in general I don't like playing up gendered jokes.  Anyway, I wanted to let you know.

based on what you said about the look in his eye when he said it, i assumed he was referencing the movie in character. Aliens seems like the kind of movie the whole crew would have watched at some point, y'know?

[martinchaen]

I hope no one else was offended by that line, rednblack, because I absolutely loved it. It's a classic line out of Aliens, and Poindexter did build his character on Vasquez, after all

I am going to have to question the use of a sling on both the Alpha and the Urban Combat, though; with a backpack, it's not going to be easy carrying both slung weapons. I'll require you to either ditch the backpack so you can have one weapon slung on your back and one in front, or stow one of the slung weapons in the pack.

Poindexter
Not sure where you're going with the message to your contacts; please elaborate if you expect some sort of feedback from my end.

[Poindexter]

Poindexter
Not sure where you're going with the message to your contacts; please elaborate if you expect some sort of feedback from my end.

Whenever she goes into the CZ, there's always the chance of making a few bucks on the side by scavenging. Also, it wouldnt be the first time someone she knew wanted additional intel she was able to gather on the side of a mission. She only ever takes these side jobs if they have ZERO effect on the actual mission though. Not willing to alter her course even half a degree, but IF that course should put her into contact with something someone needs, she'd feel silly not to grab it for them.

[rednblack]

I am going to have to question the use of a sling on both the Alpha and the Urban Combat, though; with a backpack, it's not going to be easy carrying both slung weapons. I'll require you to either ditch the backpack so you can have one weapon slung on your back and one in front, or stow one of the slung weapons in the pack.

SMG will go in backpack.  I'll edit my post to reflect that change.

[reyjinn]

What, half a million nuyen ain't enough for you?

Anyway, whoever she is, she's got pull from up top, and 450,000¥ means she gets pulled out

Misunderstanding from August? Number after taxes? 50k extra is for the termite scouting? August skimming off the top O_o?