[Jack_Spade]

"You'll receive the exact coordinates, once you have agreed to take this mission.

Regarding the security in base I can give you floor plans. Since this is a secure facility, there aren't many internal obstacles. Doors can be locked and opened via authorized command. But S-K and Ares learned from the DEUS fiasco, therefore all doors are equipped with mechanical override locks, that can be used to open and close doors even if there is no power or enemy hacking action. This includes the airlocks, which can only be triggered from within or through a master key. The base has five above ground levels and one secured in bedrock. All in all the base is about 60m under the surface.

Corridors have emergency bulkheads in regular intervals. Every door closes watertight and is equipped to handle the ambient water pressure. Every room contains emergency oxygen torches.

The station has a self contained matrix environment. There is no direct data connection between the facility and the rest of the Matrix. Contact to the mainland is handled through a tightly controlled, air gapped work station.

There will be a few drones on each level. Primarily, they are there for maintenance and integrity checks, but many are equipped with tazers. At least that's the latest development that I am aware of.

There is a small contingent of support personal, like cleaners, a cook and technicians, six at max. At all times there is a twelve person security detail inside the base, operating from level 4. Two of those will be spiders, monitoring irregularly the station matrix. They all usually wear a standard security overall - similar to the popular urban explorer suits, but have access to full riot gear and armored diving suits. High penetration weapons are obviously not in use. Expect instead gel, tazer and flechette as well as nightsticks.

There are between 20 and 30 researchers there plus the chief of operations and another top level manager from 20kMUS. Those two are the only ones authorized to send transmissions to the mainland.

There is a small cargo hangar, where mini-subs can surface and receive a small measure of repairs. That's where your pods will arrive. Normal passenger transport is handled via a docking station on the main floor.

You'll receive a floor plan as soon as you have inspected the pods and agreed to the mission."

He nodded to Krestov and with a slight smile he turned to bnc:

"You'll have about a week to prepare, but two days is the maximum, I can remove the pods from inventory at a time and move them off location.

The "freezing procedure" is quite fast - it only takes about five minutes. The waking up takes normally about a quarter of an hour. It can be sped up considerably to under one minute through the use of a specific drug, but this has side effects you'll probably want to avoid - mainly nausea and mild auditory hallucinations.

You will be stored within my private equipment locker. Please limit equipment you can't wear to a trunk with the dimensions of 1,5x 1x 0,75 m³. Anything larger will probably be inspected."

He paused for a moment and spoke the next words with exaggerated precision:
"This mission will have only the tiniest of error margins. You will operate in a high pressure environment with a high helium content and no nitrogen. Everything takes a very long time to dry and nothing ever stays warm. Wireless devices will work, but I advice you to use a wrapper program beforehand to camouflage them as sensor tags. When I activate you, there will be a threat to my well being. I want you to come to me and extract me - either to a mini-submarine or one of the other ways out of the facility, I'll have arranged. I do not want you to kill any of the staff inside the facility. I'd also prefer you'd limit yourself to nonlethal weaponry, but I understand that you'll want weapons of last resort.

Here is the address of a small warehouse on the docks and the access codes. You'll find your advance there together with a standard under water transport box for your personal equipment. In six days I'll send the equipment there through the water access. You'll have 44 hours to inspect it all and tell me your final decision. If you agree, I expect you to enter the pods. I'll collect you. If nothing happens, you'll exit there again two months later and 50.000 Nuyen richer. In that case we won't meet again personally, at least not while I work for 20kMUS."

He leaned back in his seat. "Anything else, you'd like to know?"
 

[Volker]

bnc listens carefully and stores all the auditory information on her deck. After he finishes his explanations, she launches a series of questions:

"So, if I understood you correctly, we can bring small objects into the tanks. Like, say, guns, commlinks." drugs

"I think you didn't respond to my question as to where exactly the pods will be placed. Will we be inside the base the whole time? Will we float somewhere in the sea? If one, where in the base will we be? If two, can they move? That is, can I move them?

"Did I take you correctly that it will be possible that I reprogram the pods in a way that they will revive me every couple of days, in case of unhealthy signals from our health monitors or any other preprogrammed condition?

"Will you be the one who decides whether we will do the nice or the nasty wakey-wakey?

"As soon as you waked us up, can we assume that there is an emergency in which we will have to force our way
through whereever we go or might it prove useful to bring inconspicuous clothing with us?

"How are we going to find you? I assume you will not keep this 'link.

"When you provide the floor plans, please be a buddy and include the exact location of the air gapped work station.

"Are there enemies inside the facility we should be aware of?

"I would also ask you to provide me with a summary of how the pods work before I examine them. Basic understanding of the procedure and the drugs in use will make it a lot easier to check out the programming. Thank you."

She smiles genuinely. As she said before, she liked the man.

[Sabato Kuroi]

Torrent leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Gonna need an updated file of all the people present at the facility, sent directly to our location in the event of our awakening.Before you object :  yes, I know that obtaining such a file  may prove to be difficult.Trust me when I say that details such as these decide wether you make it out alive or not. "

[Jack_Spade]

Schmitt nodded: "I'll see what I can do about those files. Most of them I can get only once I'm there myself."

To bnc he said:
"Yes, within the described limits. Since we are partly a weapons laboratory, I have the clearance to bring such things with me.

The pods will be stored on Level 1, not far from the hangar. You'll indeed be within the base. That's the main reason this means of transport is necessary. The pods do have there own propulsion system and a highly developed autopilot. You can direct it, but for direct control, you'd need a control interface implanted. But the transport itself will be managed with a submarine transporter with you and the pods inside a container, together with a lot of other stuff from my workplace.

You can certainly program when, how and why you wake up. If you only want to go to VR directly, you won't even need to undergo the full "defrosting".

Yes, once I wake you, I'll update you depending on the situation. Depending on the situation, I might choose to rise you quickly, but I'll take the slow way if at all possible. If I am not able to give you any instructions beyond a distress call, your mission will be to find and rescue me. I'd prefer as little bloodshed as possible - that's bad for my and your reputation.

I'll provide you with standard uniforms of our support staff, but don't expect them to be fooled close up: The facility is rather small and as far as I know, they don't have a troll on the payroll - except maybe with the security crew.

I can tell you precisely where this work station is: Level 5 in the executive office, just above the security station. The facilities mainframe is located in the sub level together with all our other life support machinery.

The only known opponents will be the security detail and the drones. Some of the researchers are ex-military and they do develop weapons, so don't underestimate or unnecessarily engage them.

You'll have full documentation and the specs delivered alongside the pods. Please don't steal them."

[Volker]

bnc drains the rest of the lassi, then looks around, if anyone else has any questions. If not, she gets up.
"You might want to invite my deck to mark a single piece of gear you're bringing to the base. That way, I can track you down easily and quickly once. Since you're no newbie to the data highways you know what kind of authorization I'm gonna need for it."

[Jack_Spade]

"I will. Thank you for your cooperation so far. We'll be in touch."
Dr. Schmitt folded his napkin and inserted a cred stick in the little console at the middle of the table. He took his time getting ready, in case there was a last question.

Afterwards he went into the main building of the restaurant and descended to the restrooms.

[Volker]

Before he leaves, bnc actually does have a question.
"Ah, Dr. Schmitt. I take it you are trying to get rid of them commlink of yours..."
She smiles her most winning teenager in need smile.

[Jack_Spade]

He genuinely smiled at that: "Maybe after you have saved my life."

[Volker]

bnc returns that smile, biting back any comment that might stain a professional relationship.
She's ready to fly.

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth is unimpressed by the offer, but does not voice his concerns at this point. He sends a message to Torrent. "10k upfront, for a 2 month gig? Good thing we're splitting the rent."

Slobbertooth makes sure his food is secure, buttons his coat and prepares to leave. he wipes food off his tusks with  a napkin before addressing the prospective client. "Thank you for paying for the meal, Dr. I'll do you the courtesy of giving these three the next two days to convince me that your offer would be worth the time and risk." He turns towards the toward the others and lets them know that he'll be in their ride.

[Sabato Kuroi]

Good think we will be sleeping!Two months without feeding you?Talk about savings!

[SgtBoomCloud]

Krestov stood up with Dr. Schmitt..a professional courtesy..and shook his hand before leaving.  "You have give much to think about, Doctor.  We will be in touch."  was all he said before their Johnson departed.  For the troll, not being an Awakened,  tech expert, or infiltration expert, this job was pretty cut an dry: protect the principle.  Sure, the conditions were weird, but he--and the rest of them, he hoped--have faced situations less than favorable and come out profiting.  After seeing the man disappear from view, he lifted a hand up, rubbing his brow for a few moments.  "huu.."  Nodding to Slobbertooth, he watched him go as well, frowning a bit as he glanced towards the other two.

"I guess stereotype of trog and stubborn is true, no?  What you two think of job?"

[Volker]

Back in the car, bnc asks: "Is this vehicle sound proof?"
If the answer is no, she waits for another two or three minutes, before she shrieks: "Boooyah!" and hugs whoever is next to her.
"Fifty-thousand nuyen. At least. Fifty grand, sweet Jesus! C'est mucho grande Kohle, omae!!" (She's got this habit of mixing up languages, when she's excited, but four languages on five words even for bnc is a lot.)
Not heeding any counter-opinions, warnings or basically anything anyone says, it takes quite a while, until giddy bnc is calm bnc again. Even calm bnc's got a hard time hiding her grin. On occasions you hear her singing softly: "I'm gonna have a control rig, I'm gonna have a control rig."

But, sure enough, also her exceeding mirth ebbs down after a while (supported maybe by Slobb's grumpiness), so back in our home, she's back to normal (yeah, her hair's black again, too. Although she looked quite lovely as a blonde).

"So, let's discuss some few things. First, there is the thing of when to say yes or no. If we don't agree before we see the bots it means we don't get any details before we go to the base. Means I can't do any research about it. Means no one of us can actually have a look at it beforehand.
Second question: Do you want me to try to break into 20kMUS's database It's quite a nut to crack and while I'm confident I can do it, it's not guaranteed. A failure might prove fatal because it would raise alert which we really should try to avoid.
I'm gonna start my intel quite soon. I'll check on the documentation, try to find out what I can safely find out about 20kMUS, Schmitt and their business. Anything else pops to your mind quite now?
Oh, and I though of buying a spy drone"

[Sabato Kuroi]

Torrent  turns to Krestov, momentarily holding his gaze, and then his attention casually shifts elsewhere.

"We need the money.We have lain low after the Azzie run, we need this job.Still, I don't like it.An isolated environment with workers being really  familiar with each other means I will be next to useless if the good Doctor fails to provide us the list."

He throws bnc a glance.

"Kid seems to love the whole idea though.Haven't seen her so excited since she told us how she  won her first deck."

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth allows bnc her moment of happiness. "I should be upset or frustrated with her for her exuberance for a suicide run, but I guess I was like that not too long ago." Slobbertooth can't help but smile, as the excitement is a little bit infectious.

His grin turns sour, when he turns to Krestov and Torrent. His volume increases as he speaks "But you two, you should should fucking know better than this. A 10000 Nuyen down payment for a two month gig? Drek! For all the doctor knows, I hope, he's only going to be paying for our rent. 1 week to prepare for a protection and extraction assignment of unknown parameters,  in a completely foreign environment, against an unknown number of targets, with an unknown level of training and equipment? The hell is wrong with you two?!"

Slobbertooth is angry, and doesn't let them answer his question, instead asking more questions. "Tell me, Krestov and Torrent, looking at our current armament," Slobbertooth points to their weapons and pulls out his Ruger for emphasis, "how many, if any, weapons do we have that stand any chance of putting a scratch on a troll in full body suit armor? I'm currently counting somewhere between 0 and one half!" He bangs on the wall of the van for emphasis. "But hey, at least we'll have some basic armor on, right? Oh wait! We'll be wearing FUCKING LAB COATS because the client expects two big trogs to blend in!"

Slobbertooth continues to look at them, but points at bnc, "She doesn't know better, and you're going to get her killed."