[Shaman_Yuri]

Oh drek!  A mage!  When did she get here!

I retreat to the bush I'd been hiding in for cover in case she turns around my way and watch carefully for what happens next, doing my best to interpret the flowing mana to tell me what she's casting...

Assensing the mage: 6d6t5: 1 [6d6t5=6, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4]

Well, at least I got a hit.  Still one hit for 18 rolls...what is with this?!?  What are the odds?

[ismilealot]

@ Subaru. The mana flow from her is steady and it's energies arepositive of that much you are sure. But, youjust can't seem to tell more. Would that Allah had granted you the wisdom of your grandfather. But, that wish is presumptuous in one so lowly and newly come to the faith. 

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc sat herself next to Firefly, making sure her lifeless form was settled and comfortable while she and the rest of the team waited in silence for the mage decker to do her thing.  She glanced at the others, noting their edge and tension from having their comrade trapped in a building.  She gave a little reassuring smile, giving the aura of calm and confidence.   They weren't done yet.   As they waited, her mind drifted back to when she was with Jaime...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@ Arc. Jaime kisses you back, holding you against him molding your body to his as he drags you from your seat into his lap. "I ain't starting drek babe. You need ta go, you go. But, I wouldn't be your Vrukart if'fen I didn't worry. An I been thinking maybe we name our first Henri if it's a boy. An maybe his momma can teach him how 'ta chop his first tricycle." He smiles at you trying hard to make light of his worry. "She's just gotta makesure she lives through all this." He swallows and looks you in the eye. "You're always sayin' you survived a blood mage an 'nothin can kill ya. But, you lost an arm in that fight. People don't get  that lucky twice. I guesswhat I'm trying to say is be careful. Come home. I'm ok with it not being tonight. Just so long as you come home.

Arc had given a little squeal of surprise at the pulling into his seat, curling up next to him and listening intently.  Her brows rose up as he explained himself, her mouth parting a little as he talked about how he felt, and how he continued the comments on their future children.  Whenever that happens  She smirked a little, biting her lip as she embraced him, head curled up under his chin, fighting back the little tears that were escaping her eyes.  "...i like that name.  It sounds nice.  I promise.  I'll come home.  There's too much good in my life now to not to.  Your vruken is too happy to throw it away, okay?  I know you'll worry, but you will see me again.  Stakara bich Arraya."  The tender moment seemed to linger until she was reminded of her duties to save her friend, the girl shaking her head and sighing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shaking herself out of it, Arc snapped herself back to reality and looked at the group around her, glancing over at Firefly and wondering when she'll return...

[Shaman_Yuri]

I watch carefully for many moments, trying to discern just what this new potential threat is up to.  Her spellcasting continues, suggesting after 10 seconds of no change in the mana that she's performing either an involved summoning or a ritual.  No spell would take this long.  Also, the magic shows no taint of blood.  It seems alight with energies similar to what i use rather than that of someone who has committed or intends great evil.  Curious given what we've been told of the Goblins.  If this is one of the six newcomers Oohrah saw enter a couple of hours, ago, then why is she here?

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of asking her a polite question.  Sticking around long enough to talk to Lexi seems unlikely either.  I still haven't been able to make out her aura, but maybe that means neither has this newcomer.  Rabbit is good, and if she was smart enough to hide where there was some life, she likely could still hold out all night.  If only I could send her a message...

For now, though, my first responsibility is to make sure we don't create yet more of an alarm and warn them of our interest.  Also, Arc should know we're now up against a 'mana slinger' as she put it.  Cursing my impotence, I carefully retreat back to my body to warn Arc of what I have seen.  We need to change our plans.

When I awake in my body I see Arc looking with worry over me.  I smile to reassure her, then grimace when I remember my news.  "I didn't get very far, curse it," I say as I sit up.  "There's a mage in there now.  I guess one of the newcomers Oohrah saw.  It's a she is all I really know and she's doing something.  It's taking forever so I'm guess it's ritual magic or some serious summoning.  No blood taint to it, though.  And it doesn't have an evil taint either, at least nothing screaming evil.  Based on what I saw, she's better than me magic-wise."  I turn my eyes away and try not to let tears touch my eyes.  "I'm sorry I'm useless when it really matters."

I was trained in team operations.  "Never take risks unless no other option is available," was the mantra for special ops like me.  Always bring new information back to the team rather than push forward and possibly lose info that could help the rest of the team.  I've done what I was trained to do, so why do I feel so pathetic?  Probably because this isn't what cool, elite shadowrunners do.  I'm sure Arc will toss me out on my hoop the next chance she gets.  Who needs such an inept and cowardly kid, anyway?

[gilga]

Ginny’s passion overwhelm me and I feel like I could explode. I do not recall feeling like that despite my exhausted state and the fact that I already spent my good hours partying and having passionate and quite active sex, her excitement catch me and I feel alive. I am happy, I cannot remember how many times we climaxed but I cannot forget how beautiful she was in that Balcony as she climaxed and her entire body shivered in release. As if all this sexual energy that was built over many years finally found its way out. I climaxed just from my excitement of that moment. I have no idea how we ended up in the bed and I can remember some very steamy scenes in the shower. That morning was the best one of my life I was proud of myself and perhaps for the first time in my life I felt as if I really did good.

I slept like an angel hugging and snuggling Ginny and I wanted her closeness so much that in a way I do not understand how I liked to sleep alone just until yesterday. When sleep finally got its grip over my body and mind.  I held her and dreamed about never letting go, I really could not get enough of her that night and I was a very attentive lover. If yesterday I was the one that took her to explore this strange new world. Today the depths of her emotion,  depths that I never thought were even possible and her assertive sexual approach that demanded that I satisfy her. These made me her student and I did everything that I could to please her and keep up with her sexual demands. I felt that I wanted to give myself fully to Ginny and that  perhaps she really does love me. As for myself... I can never be sure but I could not deny that I have never felt what I felt that morning.

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc did not mask her relief at seeing the form of Firefly stir, helping her up without a second thought as she went through her debriefing of the situation.  She could see the younger's dismay, and at her own dejection the trigger could only shake her head, giving a smile.  "Naw, girl, that makes kinda sense.  We kinda new this drug drek had some mono influence what fueled it.  Maybe they just gettin a recharge eh?  So we improvise."

Looking to the others, the mechanic steeled her expression as she pulled off her jacket on one side, her cyberarm exposed to the chill night air.  "okay, a bit o change of plans, but we may as well do this thing.  I'm gonna get some eyes going up in here, and we gonna get Rabbit out.  Bootstrap, you on diversion duty, we want the guard attentions away from our point . Hopscotchers, find us a way in.  Someplace we can slip in widdout making a scene sight?  Firefly, sounds like mono ain't a good idea this time, so focus on that deck of yours amirite?  I'll need all the support I can get."

At a command, a trio of Fly Spy drones shot out of ports in her upper arm, flying and buzzing into the air as they zoomed off, flying a perimeter spread around the building, the feeds that Arc shared with Firefly providing aerial views of the location.  Wiz.  As they all nodded and broke off to do their thing, Arc stopped the young hacker, looking her dead in the eye.  "You're doing wiz girly.  What that was set us up with what we know coming, and none of us woulda known the mage in there.  Thanks.  You got this."

[ismilealot]

@ Arc & Subaru. OohRah nods and whispers "Got two ways in. One closer to cook pot. One closer ground. Not got no hopscotch way in." She looks at Subaru. "Which way fewer peeps?" Bootstrap looks at Arc and whispers, "Noisy distraction or sneaky?"

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc closed her eyes for a moment, confirming the entrances as her drones got into position, hopefully giving her enough visual confirmation of how the building is set up and where guards and gangers were located.  In the event Firefly can't say which entrance is better, I can try as a backup  Shrugging a bit, she looked up, nodding.  "Two entrances good.  Means we good to flex up, chummer.  Ah..."  Turning to Bootstrap, she grinned a little at him and gave a wink.  "Y'all want some sneaky thing.  We don't need all of em alerted away.  Just those in our way, got it?"

[Shaman_Yuri]

Arc seems to be taking the change in plans better than I had feared she would.  Still, a real shadowrunner mage would have engaged the newcomer in astral combat and wiped her from the map, I'm sure.  I'm all Arc has right now and she's be nice to keep my spirits up.

"I had been thinking along the same lines," I tell the rigger in agreement as she suggests the reason the mage might be casting.  "Either "topping off" what they have or maybe making more?  That would fit with how long she seems to be casting.  It's got to be a ritual.  And the extra guards make sense - they're protecting their mage.  The other masked goons might be the mage's protection while moving.  Maybe the different colors mean the mage is hired?  Or maybe....maybe she's part of a group higher up on the pecking order of the people you're going for?" 

I pause for a moment taking the next step in my logic.  "Maybe it might be better to sit tight and see if she leaves in a bit, then try to capture her and her detail?  If I'm right, the guards might even relax when the mage is gone.  But that assumes Rabbit is safe inside for more waiting."  I look at Hoppy with guilty eyes for even suggesting more delay.

I wait to discover the woman's answer before suggesting ideas on how to approach either infiltration or ambush.

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc paused for a bit, eyeing the younger decker with an intent look in her eyes as she sized up her input.  Yeah...waiting might be the best option, the rigger thought, but without knowing Rabbit's positch, we drek deep in the turbofan now, ain't we?

"That's a thought.  If she wasn't caught, then waiting might be the best bet.  Likely this mage is outside help...they making this product outside of their former supplier, that make sense.  But you bring up what our real problem is: we don't know drek about how Rabbit's doing.  We take it easy, one step at a time..."  Arc noted the others as they got ready, herself holding her pack and tying it around her hips, snug and secure.

"I shared my feed with ya...got my toys going in right now.  If cyberspace and mojo space causing trouble, maybe a bug in meatspace will tell us where she is, amirite?"  If there was one thing that could be said, it was that the mechanic didn't accept defeat easy, bouncing back from these minor setbacks like she was on rubber feet.

Directing one of the drones to find an opening towards the upper levels of the warehouse, she engaged its stealth protocols, directing it inside, running a sweep of the facility, looking for their missing partner in crime...

Drone Stealth (-6 opposing from size): 8d6t5 4
Drone Perception: 8d6t5 5

the following is transcribed by proxy for Shaman_Yuri.

I slip between AR and astral, monitoring the drone's progress and then dropping to astral perception to focus on on where the drone is exploring.

Assensing where Arc's drone in wandering in the warehouse: 6d6t5: 0 [6d6t5=2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2]

[ismilealot]

@ Arc & Subaru. When the drones pop out of Arcs arm and take to the skies all of the kids are in awe. And her confidence gives them hope. A hope that they need, but that she hopes isn't misplaced. Rabbit is in there because of her. If anything happens to her . . . . Still, she can't think of that now. She's got to focus on the job at hand. And that job needs Intel Arc thinks as she focuses herattention on the flyspies. The programming on the drones is easily able to take advantage of the many shadows and beams and boxes in the warehouse to avoid detection. And Subaru has no trouble with the equipment. But it seems that Allah has not deemed His servant worthy of the knowledge in the realm where He alone is supreme. It has gone from a riot of colors to a darkness in which Subaru can sense nothing.

OohRah moves off. The drones capture her movement and then trace her path and that of a slightly larger human male. Both of them jumping and moving and using impossible hand and foot holds as well as small grappling lines to do what should be impossible for metahumans to do. And in a few moments are in positions to take advantage of small openings in the warehouse walls.

Bootstrap puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out something hehides in his palm and he begins the task that is his alone. You see him whisper. The words themselves to soft to hear. He gestures, describing to the mana what he wants. Nothing happens. He licks his lips. And a bead of sweat forms on his upper lip and forehead. His head ducks down and he glances embarrassed back at Arc and Subaru. Then, he begins again. And once again nothing happens. He begins to look scared and he's swearing profusely now. He looks down at his open palm looking down at the object held in it and once again gathers himself. A third time he casts, desperate now his movements are more urgent. And this time a dog and cat appear, complete with furious barking as the dog chases the cat. It's what OohRah and Slider7 have been waiting for and both use the sound to slip into the warehouse.  Bootstrap is sagging with exhaustion and there's a small trickle of blood coming from his nose.

[SgtBoomCloud]

The adrenaline of things actually going into motion, coming together, the commitment of the actions that the group...and their leader...had decided upon... Arc could feel all of this through her veins as her heartrate quickened palpably as she recovered her cybernetic arm, jacket synthleather covering the metal and chrome.  She organized the views  of each Flyspy drone for easy viewing, instructing them with minute course adjustments as needed but letting the programming plot its own pathing, keeping to the shadows.  Once one was inside, she set the sensor suites to scan, looking for signs of their mark while the others kept eyes on the rest of the team.

Arc noted Oorah and Slider7 playing their hopscotch, mouth parting to give a hushed, low whistle that Firefly could hear.  "...I'd fall on my hoop just thinking of tryin' that, I tell ya..."  The rigger glanced over, seeing a look of concern, frustration...and dejection?...on the younger's face, complete with the white knuckles against her thighs.  Reaching out with her left, hand, Arc took her by the shoulder with a firm grasp, bringing him to look at her after her eyes refocused.

"Take a breath.  You lose your head, you become prey.  Out here where we at, that ain't good girly.  Take your time, we ain't rushing this."  Her jaw was set a bit as she looked towards her drone feeds, the underlying hint of worry on her face.  It was easy to spot: this human was holding herself responsible for everything that was about to transpire in these next several, critical moments.  What was in the warehouse?  Who all was in there?  and more importantly...where was Rabbit?

At that point, Bootstrap's frustration came apparent, and Arc shot him a look, her green cybereyes a fierce contrast to the dark of the night as she projected her faith in his abilities to him without a word.  An exhale of breath through the nose was all that came out of the mechanic as the mage gulped, nodding slightly as his eyes narrowed, focused in on one last try...and it worked, the diversion set, the HopScotchers going in...

[ismilealot]

The flyspies stealth programming takes stealth them the entire perimeter of the warehouse. No Rabbit. But, it does get a good view of the mage and several of the gangers. And itwas what they suspected. She was singing mojo while theguys cooked the drugs. And there were guard on the inside as well as the outside.

[Shaman_Yuri]

What am I doing wrong!

I’ve never been much of a believer in luck, whether good or bad.  You make your own luck by being prepared, I’d always been told by mother as well as my teachers.  Father was perhaps more Japanese and would often look sheepish during such discussions.  He put a lot of weight on luck and mother looked down on him for it.  As I grew older, I would join her in the teasing.

Maybe there is such a thing as karma...

Or perhaps Allah is still displeased with me.  Perhaps later I will seek the reason why, but right now a life is on the line…no, now several lives.  I won’t let my friends down.

So Allah has chosen now to withdraw His blessing from me.  Or has He?  Maybe He’s trying to tell me something and I’m too foolish to listen.

What am I supposed to do?

Well, for one thing, magic right now is out for me.  Let’s stop even worrying about it.

I drop entirely out of astral space, even for perception, rather than risk my luck worsening and me being seen.  Given I’m blind in meat space and at the very least I have a fantastic feed from Arc’s drone, I decide to go totally VR.  I let me body once again go limp, but this time my conscience darts into my little Erika and out onto the ‘trix.  Given the feed Arc gave me, I can drop at will into experiencing what the little drone is sensing.  Between peeks at that feed I take a really good look around me…and see something I’d taken for granted before.

The warehouse is old, possibly pre-awakening.  If not, then pretty close.  Inside, the tech dates from before wireless, possible even before the Crash of ’29.  But leave it to a corp to ensure their money stream is secure.  In this case, the power company.

The power meter for the building is on line!

I ‘poke’ the icon just enough to taste its modernity and discover it is pretty old, although not nearly as old as the building.  Maybe 2050’s tech.  New enough for me to hack but old enough for the security to be pretty archaic.  If I’m right, given there’s no other on-line icons in the warehouse, I’d say the thing controls all the environmental settings too- heating, cooling and such.   With the skills Renraku taught me, taking control of this building should be child’s play for me.

Taking a deep virtual breath and giving a prayer to Allah for his guidance and mercy, I take on the security protocols of the device…and those of the power company that the old device can permit…using my best hacking skills.  I’ll have to work fast given I’ll invoke GOD this time, but I don’t have to jump grids, search for files, or anything else that would delay me.  I just have to get my marks, make the device mine, set it to connect locally to my Erika since I’m within range, and get the heck out.

Mark #1 on the warehouse power meter/transformer: 12d6t5: 5 [12d6t5=5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 3, 5, 4, 3]
Mark #2 on the warehouse power meter/transformer: 12d6t5: 2 [12d6t5=3, 2, 1, 3, 1, 6, 4, 5, 1, 2, 4, 4]
Mark #3 on the warehouse power meter/transformer: 12d6t5: 4 [12d6t5=6, 3, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 1, 5, 4, 3, 3]
Spare mark roll on the warehouse power meter/transformer: 12d6t5: 2 [12d6t5=3, 1, 3, 6, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1]
Spare mark roll #2 on the warehouse power meter/transformer: 12d6t5: 4 [12d6t5=1, 6, 4, 3, 2, 4, 6, 2, 5, 4, 6, 2]

Hacking the meter for back door access and regular control: 12d6t5: 5 [12d6t5=6, 5, 6, 1, 4, 6, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 6]

Still some disappointing die rolls, but at least I got hits this time.  I should have averaged 4 hits a roll but instead got two 2's and one 5 to offset it.  Sigh...

Now that I own the device, I back out of VR to reboot my Erika and get GOD off my tail.  With a grin I look over to Arc who is controlling her drone in AR.  “That warehouse is my bitch!” I whisper triumphantly with relieved satisfaction before I explain further what that means.  “I’ve taken over electricity and environmental control of the building.  I can cause a blackout, send power surges wherever we want, cook them, freeze them, or whatever else we can come up with.”

Only then do I note Bootstrap and the state he's in.  I give him a smile and thumbs up.

Seem's like I'm not the only one having mojo problems.  Something else we can share when we talk...

[SgtBoomCloud]

After the moments of the younger human was spent in VR, Arc had finished her iniitial sweep of the building from the exterior, and was drawing up a rough ARO map of the layout and pinging the locations of the gangers she could see . Upon hearing the news, the digger raised a brow and gave a grin.  "That's hella wiz, omae.  Nice work.  We can use that to our advantage...maybe warm things up a bit to make en a little sluggish for now?  I'll let You use judgment on this one, you see what I do.  Hmmm..."

After a thought, she spoke up again.  "Guards are posted inside too.  Guessing the mage slitch ain't trusted by the Goblins and vice versa.  Maybe we use that to advantage eh?" . Go ing a thumbs up she kept two drones on the perimeter sweeping, directing one to follow the hopscotchers inside, while also looking for a way she herself could skip in to do her thing...should conditions favor it, one step at a time.

At this point, she kicked herself a bit for realizing that they really don't have much means to communicate.  Gonna hafta set these kids up with transceivers if there's a next time...make this hella easier...