[Lumen]

"Bangers and a cuppa sounds brill love.  I'm good with anything really, long as it's quick.  How long will it take to get on site?" 

[Csjarrat]

The Darlington Arms opposite the station served over lunch, but the wait for a table was running to 20 minutes, more time than you wanted to waste given you wouldn't be served quickly either.
Instead, you popped over the road to Greggs bakery and got a round of cornish pasties and ham and salad sarnies with a few takeout cups of soytea and soycaf to swill it down with. A few choccy buns slipped in to the order as well for later.
Redline fired up the engine and eased the van out of the parking spot, nearly dinging a mini-car's wingmirror in the awkwardly designed space, clearly never meant for large vans.
She pulled out slowly into the lunchtime traffic of the city centre and jostled with autobusses and taxis for position whilst heading for the ring road, heading west towards the distant hills.
As you strapped in to the fold down seats that lined the rear cab area, you were amazed at the air clarity this far north. You'd never be able to see this far in the 'Smoke, you'd almost forgotten that a world of normality existed outside of it.
The small talk eased as your minds clicked into work mode and soon Redline was piloting you out off the main drag and uphill onto the old pennine pass.
Beautiful rolling hillsides swished past the windows, acres upon endless acres of space reclaimed by nature and all manner of livestock roamed free in the fields that remained in use. As the elevation increased, the farmland gave way to a rusty moorland, bracken spotted with snow provided a gorgeous backdrop, eventually yielding to a solid blanket of white.
The road got a bit hairy as the new road gave way to the old and the surface under the snow cracked and groaned under the onslaught of ice, compact snow and several tons of metal and methuman passengers on top of it.
Redline jumped in, her body ragdolling in the seat as she became the Van, and her efforts notably smoothened out the ride.
Your commlinks pinged with Redline's message:
Check point ahead, not manned at the moment. Be ready.
Easing the throttle back, she approached gently as you all unclipped your belts and peered over the driver's seat to get a better look.

An old rusting lorry had been placed across the road at an awkward angle near an equally awkward old horse box, just wide enough that you could slowly drive a van through it, but not at speed without causing a serious accident. an old Portaloo had been stripped out and fitted with a seat for a guard to sit at.


@Profgast, you came through this on the descent but it was abandoned that early in the morning on a weekend. Sensors are picking up some recent signs of activity, footprints in the snow etc.
the others can't really see that well out of the cab so you'd need to let them know IC.
Matrix: a low rating motion sensor is buried into the roadside running hidden. Noise modifiers are at -2 at present, plus any mods for public grid if appropriate
Astral: there's nothing immediately obvious, but a nearly decayed astral signature marks out a bit of a patrol route. Low intensity, a watcher or very low force spirit probably. assensing test for more info

[Lumen]

As they approach the checkpoint Knives muscles his way to the front to have a look.  After a quick scan he switches his perception to the astral to look out for any suspicious mojo.


Perception 6 + Intuition 4 + Audio Enhancements 3 (Wireless Bonus) = 13d6 [Mental 5+3 = 8].  Perception: 13d6t5 5
Assensing 3 + Intuition 4 = 7d6 [5].  Astral Perception: 7d6t5 1

[Zweiblumen]

As they approach the check point Mams drops into VR to better provide Matrix overwatch.
Mams does a once over on the motion sensor.  Thankful for his resonant adaptation of the Signal Scrub program, he has that running.


Does Mams detect the sensor before we are in range of it?  If so he's going to ask Redline to slowdown a bit so he can make sure it doesn't alert to their presence.

Matrix Perception on the Motion Sensor (Int 5 + Comp 6 + Spec 2 + TM 2  + VR 2 + SS 2 - Noise 2 - PG 2 = 15): 15d6t5 3
Wow, that's a horrible roll, but all I really need.  I want to know what it's FW rating is, and what device rating it is

[ProfGast]

Redline "blinked" once as she saw the incoming lorries and slowed before speaking.

"We have some signs of people everybody, keep yourselves sharp.  Let me know if you spot something first."

Jumped in as she was the quietly spoken line played across the internal sound system.  She hadn't really thought about doing so, and indeed if asked if she could reproduce the effect while just controlling through AR, she probably wouldn't have known how to set it up.  But here, jumped in, with her flesh and blood being the chrome and oils of the GMC, it was simple as, well, speaking.

[saithor]

Gunther grunted and looked outside, trying to spot any signs of an ambush coming in from the outside. The last thing they needed was a fight before they even got to where they needed to go.

Rolling Perception, 4 hits Link: http://orokos.com/roll/369067

[Csjarrat]

@Lumen____________
You see that there are lines in the snow, depressions that overlap and that have been partially filled with fresh snowfall. Most likely bike tracks, given that the tracks overlap and skid as a bike would on a slippery surface like this.
The Astral is gorgeous here, vibrant, bouyant and full of life. None of the negative, ground down emotion that plagued the smoke's tarnished astral field was here, just pure, abundant life.
The fading trail of a watcher spirit's signature was present, but hadn't been here strongly in around an hour and it wasn't a strong signature to begin with.

@Zweiblumen__________
The motion detector had clearly been repurposed from some other junk, probably a parking sensor off that old lorry and hooked up to some low-end broadcast kit.
Given the lack of a mesh network and the static zone you were in because of the lack of ambient power, it must have been synced up to something within 500m or so with greater guts than it had.
FW1/DR1
An off the shelf motion detector has a range of 25m, unless redline or anyone has a laser range finder on their gear or sensor suites, its impossible to tell your exact distance from it.
But this is cobbled together junk, so probably isn't as long ranged as a factory spec version.

@Saithor_____________
Wrong character mate, we're using Silas here
The outside world looked calm, old half-buried tire tracks the only real indication that someone had been here reasonably recently

[Lumen]

"Don't see nothin but bike tracks and about an hour old trail of a watcher.  Best we keep rolling fore it gets back."  Knives gazes out into the countryside fascinated at the beauty of the Astral.  He still had not witnessed it many times and certainly never like this.

[Zweiblumen]

<<<@Team [Mams] There's a motion sensor up ahead.  Gimme two shakes to have it not happen to notice us.>>>

die rolls once I'm back to my computer. But going to get a few marks on it and then have it not report any signals for 2 minutes.
HotF motion sensor (Log 6 + Hack 6 + VR 2 + SS 2 - Noise 2 - PG 2 = 12): 2#12d6t5 6 2
Limit 6
That second roll was embarrassing.  It's *possible* for the thing to defend that if unlikely.  Here's hoping.

@CS I basically just want to turn off the alarm function of the sensor for a few minutes.  I don't know what "Matrix Action" you want me to use for that.  Command Device?  And would that be free, simple or complex action?  Lemme know and I'll get the rest of the rolls up for you.

[ProfGast]

<<@Mams [Redline] Copy that, will continue when you give me the go-ahead.>>

Redline eases to a stop before the lorries and wait for Mams to give an "all clear"

[Csjarrat]

@ALL______________
Sorry for the late update guys. malware alerts been popping up whenever i've tried logging on here the past few days due to trojan attacks.
Looks like that's been resolved now so normal service returns!

@Zwei___________
The piece of junk rolls over and accepts the marks, its broadcasting kit at least several years behind current firewall standards.
Once you were in, it was trivial to switch the sensor's alarm function off temporarily.
It became apparent that the device was slaved to a sat-link, somewhere over the ridge to your right. The crappy signal and rough terrain made it difficult to know exactly were it was, but it must have been drawing power from something, so that meant civilisation of some description

 

[Zweiblumen]

<<@Team [Mams]  Okay, sensor is quiet.  It's getting its signal/power from over the ridge on the right.  Must be some kind of encampment or something over there.>>

[ProfGast]

"Last time I passed through a checkpoint like this, they had a small camp just past the lorries.   I'm not exactly in a quiet vehicle right now so let's hope that sensor is the only thing paying attention."

Redline waited for an extra moment before easing into the acceleration and starting back down the road.

[Csjarrat]

The wheels slipped and struggled for traction in the snow, causing the engine to flare and rev as its power fluctuated between traction and wheelspin.
The big van eventually got underway, weaving through the small gap inbetween the old horsebox and the lorry.
It became clear pretty soon that a sizeable number of people had been here not too long ago; footsteps littered the snow along with more bike tracks.
Whether it was a local patrol or something more sinister, you'd no idea as yet.
A couple of miles up the road and you'd climbed even higher up to the top of the moorland. A white oasis lay off to your left and a steep and ragged crag rose to your right.
a straggly looking bunch of goats grazed at the few tall grasses still poking up out of the snowline and scarpered at the alien noise of engines, bouncing off the rocks half-submerged in the white blanket.
Something about the natural world being so untouched up here struck you.
It was just like the trids, only more real. The folk up here making a life for themselves off-grid must have been hardy bastards. It was tough enough with the conveniences of the city, let alone all the way out here.
Satnav pinged your first waypoint, the 7.5 mile marker announcing your imminent arrival into the region of interest, still a way up the road.

Perception test please! {sensors and astral are fine too}

[Zweiblumen]

Mams is in VR, but I'll give you both in case someone rouses him to look around in the physical also.
Matrix Perception (Int 5 + Comp 6 + VR 2 + TM 2 = 15): 15d6t5 2 (wow, rolling like crap)
opps, forgot two for his specialization MP spec (2): 2d6t5 0 no help
Perception Check Visual (Int 5 + Perception 4 + Visual Spec 2 + Contacts 2 = 13): 13d6t5 5