[Jayde Moon]

Pacing through the bodies, they were killed mostly via bullet.  Gauges varied, though most of it is assault weapon.  A few have gashes made by knives or axes.  Without proper forensics study, more than that cannot be determined.

What CAN be determined is that the attackers must have come through the main front entrance of the cubicle farm.  While you entered from the back stairwell, the 'front' possesses double doors and exits into a lobby with a larger stairwell and the elevators.  Near those double doors, bodies are slumped at their desks, some appear to not have been able to react at all.

Further away, people seem to have fled their desks, many shot in the back as they attempted to escape their pursuers.

Assessing the area finds that the astral has locally assumed the taint of death and fear.  Magic was definitely used, though enough time has passed that it is hard to discern exactly what sort of magic or if spirits were involved.

Ravener finds a bit more on the various camera feeds.  A black van, unmarked, enters the parking garage.  The windows are all mirrored.  It doesn't park in a space, but rather stops in front of the elevator.  Doors open to reveal... empty space.  The van rocks a bit, then the elevator call button lights up.  A few moments later, the elevator opens... then closes.

Seconds later, the elevator doors open in the lobby, then the main doors open.  One man looks at the doors and drops his papers, immediately turning to run from the doors.  No one else seems to note the doors, though a few people turn to look at the man in confusion.  Then, the carnage starts, the man being one of the first to fall as wounds sprout in his back.

After the death, one man appears to slide to a workstation.  He appears to still be alive.  A few moments later he types something furiously into the workstation and then is apparently shot in the head.  The workstation's screen is turned away from the camera.

After another few minutes, the lobby doors open, then the elevator call light comes on and the doors open.  Returning to the parking garage, the elevator doors open, the van rocks a bit and then the doors close and the van drives out of the parking garage.

[Beta]

Assuming that Ravener shares this footage with the group

While the sight and smell of the dead bodies hadn't bothered her, the camera footage sends a chill down her spine.  Invisible killers ... she really needs to learn how to see into astral space, and soon.  The gap from the gang issues she'd been dealing with lately and a real shadow run suddenly seems far, far, larger than she'd imagined before.

Fortunately, she has attitude to fall back on.  Don't worry Forty, you weren't expecting this, but they ain't expecting you!  Watch out, invisible chumps.  With that self-pep-talk out of the way, she asks the lieutenant "I dunno how much use the elevators and parking garage have had since then, but I'd still like to see if I can pick up a scent.  I hope that they were not as careful about that as they were about the invisibility.  Could you walk me through the route they would have come in?"

Assuming he does so, or gets someone to do so

As they start the walk, Forty instructs Bolt "I request your assistance.  Can you please come with me, on the astral, and look for any traces of magic along our route?"

[Turkish]

"Such carnage..."  Shaking his head, VanGuard contininues.. "This does not match any of the tactics that I am familiar with, unless y'all have picked up on some other clues, I am beginning to think another shadow team was involved.  That makes this much more dangerous and much more difficult to determine who is ultimately responsible for the attack.  As deplorable as this attack was, my thinking is that it was 'just a job', that means that with the right resources, the group may be willing to kiss and tell if it means that they get to live to see another day."  Another brief pause.  "In a way, I hope I am wrong about that.  It might be wise to hit up Needle Net and see who all is willing to admit to running in Tacoma.  At the very least, see who is willing to admit they are working in Tacoma.  It looks like the group, whoever they may be, were of approximately the same size as us or smaller.  And they were very cohesive, to say the least."

[Yok]

Continuing to guard the door as the rest of the team conducts their investigation, Henway tries to ignore the coppery scent of blood that permeates the environment of the HR department of the Shiawase Tower.  None of dis makes much sense ta me.  Dis ain't da act of any org or gang dat I know about....hopefully some of de rest of de team can get a read on dis drek so dat we can make good on da contract.

Commenting on the team commlink, he adds, Copy dat Van, might be dis was straight wetwork, but why da frag would anyone wanna ace a whole section of wageslaves?  Dis don't match up wit anyting I ever seen.  I'm gonna say again, if it was pros den it ain't da team we need ta find, it's da Johnson dat hired dem.

[WillAsher]

Ravener leans against a clean area of wall while he reviews the videos and data.  Shortly afterwards, ARO appear to each of his fellow runners with both the video and detail pics of various items:  The van as it pulled up, the van after it unloaded it's team, the van after the attackers got back into it, the face of the man who ran from the elevator, and the face of the man who survived to reach a work station...

Ok party people, we have a real dangerous team involved.  I forwarded you the vids and some pics I pulled out.  The attackers were all Invis.  That takes some serious magic.  Also, can anyone tell the the van is further loaded down leaving than it was coming in?  I find it a bit suspicious that one guy got a workstation and then got killed.  May be nothing, or this may be some sort of extraction gone wrong...or just messily right.  While his companions review the video and think about his question, Ravener approaches the Lt while nodding at Forty.  'Before you lead my associate out, could you see if I could get personnel files on these two men?' he asks while sliding an ARO with the two men from the video over to the Lt.  Ravener then works his way over to the terminal that was accessed and examines it.

[Turkish]

Ok party people, we have a real dangerous team involved.  I forwarded you the vids and some pics I pulled out.  The attackers were all Invis.  That takes some serious magic.  Also, can anyone tell the the van is further loaded down leaving than it was coming in?  I find it a bit suspicious that one guy got a workstation and then got killed.  May be nothing, or this may be some sort of extraction gone wrong...or just messily right.  While his companions review the video and think about his question, Ravener approaches the Lt while nodding at Forty.  'Before you lead my associate out, could you see if I could get personnel files on these two men?

Finally a lead.  VanGuard then loads up NeedleNet to see what the shadows have to say. After checking in on Needle Net, VanGuard sends the following message:

>> Joey [VanGuard] Hey Joey, if you are able to, I'd like to know any info you may be willing share about the van in the attached image. It is related to the job you set me up with. Let me know what you would like in return for the favor. // Attachments: mysterious_van.png5 <<

"Team, I forwarded the picture of the van to one of my contacts who might know something about the van or know someone who does.  I suggest that we all put our feelers out there, because as we have all mentioned, time is of the essence and whatever group did this isn't going to just sit around waiting for us to find them."

[Beta]

"For sure for sure I wanna know more of what we're chasing.  But if they were also runners, is posting about it on Needlenet safe?  Maybe they'll be reading it too and find out other runners are after them, not just Shiawase security?"  Forty reviews what she said, and doesn't think it was a stupid question.  Well, the team will let her know one way or the other.  And none of that changes that she should ask Heather about whether she knows a vicious team that can keep invisibility up on a bunch of people at once.

She carefully composes a message to Heather, gang-leader, dog-shaman, and the person who passed along word about this job.  >>Hoi Heather, guess what: I didn't quite totally frag things up in the first two minutes.  Mostly fragged it up for sure, but not totally.   I went way heavy paranoid street on someone who likes more corp-style butt kissing, but I'm still on the job.  Guess that means I'm getting better?  But I'm not messaging to brag, I got a question.  Looking for a team with good shooters, all invisible to cameras and to most of the double-digit people they shot.  Don't know how many cause, duh, invisible, but more than one shooter for sure.  They used a black van, so I guess they like the classics.  Sound like anyone you heard of?  And any idea how hard that level of invisibility is?<<

Then she has another thought that seems like a good one to her, and she gets worried-- the odds of her having two reasonable ideas in a row seem low.  Still, she feels she has to ask "Hoi, I couldn't tell, but maybe one of you is real clever, or can get a computer to figure it out, or somethin'.  I know we can't see the attackers on that film, but we can see the people dying.  From when they are hit, where they are hit, the way they were falling, that sort of thing, can anyone figure how many shooters?  I guess they could'a had non-shooters too, but at least we'd know somethin'."

[Jayde Moon]

@ Forty

Forty is granted access to the elevator where sh roams down to the parking garage and takes in all of the scents, storing some of them away in her memory.  Intermingled with the smell of gunfire and blood, sweat and musk is... lavender and another... somewhat familiar smell...

Bolt takes a few moments and returns to Forty, informing her that there isn't anything left in the magical auras to identify much but what is already know, some manner of invisibility spell, powerfully cast.  No residual spirit energies, though, which is a plus.  Probably.

A few moments later, an initial return text from Heather is received.  <<Forty [Heather] You got more info than that, rather than just 'good shooters' and 'invisible'?  That could be our boys!>>


@ VanGuard

<<VanGuard [Joey] Black Bulldog, no plates... nothing to connect it to, you aren't giving me much, but let me check some sources and see what I can come up with.>>


@ Ravener

The LT takes you to the workstation.  "You folks aren't really on the access list.  You'll have to go into the workstation without authorized access.  Best I can do is look the other way and hope you don't root around outside of your area of interest," he says, waving his hand to indicate the carnage around him.

[Yok]

A thought enters the brain of the large troll; not entirely unusual, but not necessarily expected either.  He tosses it around in his mind for a while as he monitors the entrance to the massacre scene, then nods to himself before deciding it is worth mentioning.

He vocalizes the thought over the team's comm channel.  Ya know, maybe some o' dese victims had headware or some kinda recording drek implanted - youse dat's checkin' dem out might see if dere's any way to get at de data if dey do.  He pauses, then shrugs to nobody in particular.  Or maybe not.  Just a idear.  I been known ta have dem sometimes.

[Turkish]

"For sure for sure I wanna know more of what we're chasing.  But if they were also runners, is posting about it on Needlenet safe?  Maybe they'll be reading it too and find out other runners are after them, not just Shiawase security?"

"I didn't even need to post anything to see that the shadows are quite thick currently, someone else posted with my exact same question..  I could drop a little bait and see what the hook draws in, if you all are ok with it?"

@ VanGuard

<<VanGuard [Joey] Black Bulldog, no plates... nothing to connect it to, you aren't giving me much, but let me check some sources and see what I can come up with.>>

>> Joey [VanGuard]  I know, I know, but if you come across anything.... Your help is ALWAYS appreciated. I will certainly make it worth your while if you find anything.<<

[Beta]

"I didn't even need to post anything to see that the shadows are quite thick currently, someone else posted with my exact same question..  I could drop a little bait and see what the hook draws in, if you all are ok with it?"

"Sounds good to me.  Any info we can get on these fraggers is good.  And speaking of sharing info, I smelled lavender.  Not sure if you should say that part, but maybe it could help pull in info?

"Ya know, maybe some o' dese victims had headware or some kinda recording drek implanted - youse dat's checkin' dem out might see if dere's any way to get at de data if dey do.  Or maybe not.  Just a idear.  I been known ta have dem sometimes."

Forty chuckles, and shoots back "I know that feeling.  I usually put 'em up for adoption as soon as possible, cause I sure don't want to have to take care of 'em.  So I'm no expert, but that looks to me like a promising young idea, I just hope one of the team can raise it properly."

A few moments later, an initial return text from Heather is received.  <<Forty [Heather] You got more info than that, rather than just 'good shooters' and 'invisible'?  That could be our boys!>>

<<Heather [Forty]You didn't frag an office full of wageslaves yesterday, I hope?  If you did, we need to talk real soon, so we can head off problems.  But I don't think this looked like Sidhe Devils' work.  I got maybe one more thing: smell of lavender.  Can't be sure-sure it came off the attackers, but probably.  Some other scent that I can't quite place.  Teasing me from just outside my thoughts.>>

Writing that gives Forty an idea.  She's not sure if she'll have time, but seeing that Ravener appears to still be deep into the matrix, Forty digs through her pockets and pulls out the paper wrapper that the chopsticks had come in, and rips it in half.  She kneels by one of the desks, being careful to avoid corpses and blood spatters, pulls out her pen, and starts carefully sketching symbols and asking the kami to infuse the preparation with their power.

By the time she finishes she is rubbing her temples, trying but failing to drive away a growing fatigue headache.  Righ, that is why I don't do this so much.  But still, she has her two preparations, and she is even rather proud of the logic one.  After I pop that one and think about the smell, I should use the rest of the time to try and think if there is anything else we should be looking at

She re-traces her earlier route to where the smell had been strongest, commands the preparations to release their magic, and tries to remember what it reminds her of.

[Yok]

"I didn't even need to post anything to see that the shadows are quite thick currently, someone else posted with my exact same question..  I could drop a little bait and see what the hook draws in, if you all are ok with it?"

Henway continues to monitor the comms from his position at the doorway, and responds to Vanguard.  I dunno, seems like a bad idea ta me if it puts dis team on guard dat we might be lookin' for dem.  If dey tink dey are clear dey might not be lookin' for someone lookin' for payback, if ya scan what I'm sayin'.

Hearing Forty chime in, he adds, Ain't dat da troof, Fawtee.  I know what I'm here for, but I figure if I got a thought I should let dem dat can sort dis drek out know about it so dey can check it out better dan I can.

That said, he goes back to scowling at anybody that might approach the doorway that isn't part of the team.  Size and intimidation has its advantages, after all.

[Agleaca]

As Angus scans threw the camera feeds he thinks of something. " Is there and camera feeds from outside the building?" He pauses once again thinking over what he just said. " We might be able to find the direction they came and left, maybe even follow them via traffic cams history or something."

[Turkish]

I dunno, seems like a bad idea ta me if it puts dis team on guard dat we might be lookin' for dem.  If dey tink dey are clear dey might not be lookin' for someone lookin' for payback, if ya scan what I'm sayin'.

"Yea, I was thinking that would be a last ditch effort to find them if other options never presented themselves. Right now our most solid lead is the van."

As Angus scans threw the camera feeds something else catches eye. "Did they come from two directions? The elivators opens as well as the main doors, which suggests a two pronged attack. Is there and camera feeds from outside the building? Could be another vehicle involved." He pauses once again thinking over what he just said. "Also if we could get outside camera vids we might be able to find the direction they came and left, maybe even follow them via traffic cams history or something."

Good catch, I'm going to jump into my drones, see if I catch anything with their sensors. Ravener, think you could hack into the grid to follow the camera footage back to their staging area? They probably are less careful about their defenses on their own turf.

VanGuard then finds a relative clean and comfortable place to sack out while is in VR. Once he has jumped in to one of his drones, he then flies close to the ground near the elevator and door ways which had opened, looking for bloody boot prints in various vision modes. VanGuard then flies into the elevator giving it a thorough go over while waiting for the elevator to arrive at the garage, he also instructs his other two drones to go inspect the area immediately outside the doors, looking for any signs of a vehicle making a fast departure.

>> Ravener [VanGuard] Mind sending the elevator to the garage? Thanks. <<

Once the drone arrives to the garage, he flies out to where the van was parked and snaps pictures of the tread patterns left on the concrete. He also looks to see if any of the hit squad left any other clues which may have been previously missed.

[Jayde Moon]

The group continues to look for anything to give them a clue.  Ravener begins preparation to access the Host through the workstation while VanGuard seeks out any physical signs of the attackers that the invisibility spell would not have covered up.

Blood bootprints are easy to find, revealing a... hiking boot of all things.  The letter 'NFP' can be made out in the center of a thick tread.  'North Face Patagonia.'