[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods as Al sends his code.  "Thank you, Al.  And thank you for nominating a leader.  Any other nominations or votes?"  She receives the other message from Al with a bit od surprise.  Is he toying with her.  Had she misunderstood him yet again?  She sends a reply.  >>Thank you for the compliment.  Um, I may have misunderstood you earlier. At the car.  Do you want to talk later?<< 

[Jack_Spade]

Once upon a time, Isaint would have tried to interfere with squabbles like this. He knew better now. Establishing a pecking order was quite natural for such strong personalities. With an absolutely straight face he waited until the little dominance play had finished.
To Iris' question he answered:
"I too am very much in favor of preserving life where- and whenever possible. Even in self-defense we have to weigh the consequences of our actions."
He glanced at Al: "I won't tell you to use non-lethal attacks - that is a decision every one of you has to make on their own. Weak opponents can be subdued, but capable and strong opposition usually is too well secured against those tactics. In such a situation I expect the combat capable parts of our team to finish them as fast as possible, to ensure the safety of the whole team.

If need be, I'll stay behind to hold the line. The saints have helped me to get out of worse situations, so don't worry about me."

To Robyn's request he just nodded and send her a message with his commcode: <<Here. Most of us should have a very high level commlink - I at least have a whole cluster of agents to secure my equipment.>>

Turning again to Iris he said:
"In my opinion, the very first thing we need to do is gather information on our target.
Then we determine a route from and to our target. The next question is where and how and who is securing exits and entries - that includes our contact points with Below. At some point we should also locate an access point for a direct matrix connection where we can set up our decker.
The rest of the plan will have to follow from that knowledge."

Regarding the team leader comment:
"I in no way intent to order you lot around - you are all capable individuals who don't need me to explain your job to you. But for the sake of coordination I ask you to heed my requests. My military experience stems from an army that very much embraces individual initiative and I have no desire to get into micromanagement.
All I'm asking is that if at all possible you give a short notice of what you intend to do next. Below is a dangerous place and in my last venture down there we lost some team-members who might have wandered off without letting the rest know. It's one of the reasons I did accept this mission - to find out what happened to them or if they are still alive.

During tactical operations I try to use positioning and timing to maximize our chances of success - this only works if every one cooperates and tries to fill their assigned role. And again I can't really order you to do so, but what I say is usually intended to benefit you all, even if - and I can't deny that - it might put one of you temporarily at risk. If done right, it will be very hard to break or ambush us.

As my second I nominate Iris, since I gather that you are a lot better equipped to lead negotiations in below than me."

[adamu]

Al congratulated himself on his exalted status as kingmaker. Meanwhile, he clumsily texted under the table as Isaint spoke, feeling like a damned schoolgirl. <<Well, if you thought I was never going to talk to you again, then yeah, I guess you misunderstood me. Sorry I was pissy - lot to take on board.>>

He wasn't at all surprised by Isaint's choice of second. It was the smart play operationally, the only play politically, and exactly what he'd expected to happen.

But he wasn't real sure how he felt about it.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn acknowledges ISaint's code and nods in his direction to indicate that she understands his message.  Her heart beats a bit faster at Al's message as she realizes that in her stupid school-girl manner, she has once again misunderstood what he had meant.  Why is it that she has so much trouble with the man? 

The lack of a clear chain of command makes her a bit nervous.  Apparently these people are less concerned and she will just have to adapt.  She is glad that Iris is second, at least in name.  The Dryad's beauty and tongue have opened many doors otherwise closed to Robyn during the search for Calista.  She will do well in the role of negotiator for passage and protection.

[BrickyardBabe]

Iris smothered her surprise, and very carefully did not smirk at Jackhammer when Isaint named her second. Instead, she nodded slowly and said, "I understand, and I appreciate your faith in me. I shall endeavour to prove that it is not misplaced." Leaning against the wall and tapping her teeth with a fingernail, she thought about where best to start. They needed information, that was true. And a hardline for a decker, and a route, and a negotiation of passage. She had a few ideas, but precious few of them could work with the information she had now.

Chewing on the corner of her lip, Iris said, "The easiest, funnily enough, will be finding a spot for our decker to set up." She flipped one hand palm up, and the small holoprojector in her glove lit up, displaying a glowing, stylized white loom. "This is the sigil for The Webweavers, also known as Whispers House. They are information merchants, and their face to the world is a technomancer." The loom faded to be replaced by a smiling, blue-eyed redheaded girl who couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen. "Her street handle is Whitefire. She's a sweet girl, an information broker, and if any house has a matrix hardpoint, it will be this one. Meeting their price is something we can discuss once we know what their price is, but it will probably involve data, either about what we're stealing or about something one of us is connected to." Iris shut her hand and the image winked away. "They're more fixer than muscle, so I don't anticipate any heavy combat with them if things go south."

Iris rolled her head back and forth. "I will see what I can do about securing a map and timetables. I have enough connections below to make a good start of it at least, and an apartment in The West End Underplex. One of my SINs is known there, so I can canvas a few of the locals there as well. I will be discreet," she added, looking at Isaint again, "So there's no need to warn me about the value of secrecy." She looked around at the assembled team, then back at Isaint. "Is there an angle you would like me to try when seeing what I can see about passage through Below, or will you leave it to my discretion?"

[pistolgrip]

Jackhammer liked the idea of Isaint being the official team leader. The man seemed to have a solid, if often unrecognizable, head on his shoulders. Jackhammer trusted his judgment. At least, until he appointed Iris as his number two. His barely-disguised incredulity slowly shifted to consideration as he thought about the decision more. "This is only my second run. Makes sense it's not me. Could've been Al though. Not too sure what he's all about though. Maybe leadership isn't his calling." Slowly some nodding began as he continued in his head. "But her? Really? Trying to get us all killed?" A look of puzzlement gave way as he listened to Iris begin planning. She seemed to have ideas about what to do, and that sure beat mapsofts and guns blazing. Or at least mapsofts. And it saved him the trouble of thinking. So he sat, ordered a leg of tofurkey, and just listened. Either she'd walk them through this thing, or she'd bungle it and leave someone better in charge by default. Either way, he didn't figure her for being able to get him in so deep he couldn't dig his way back out. Not like he was stupid enough to walk through any ghost fog again.

[Jack_Spade]

"Fast is good, safe is better. If you can find a way that combines both, that would be best. I'll leave the rest to you, but focus for the moment on Below. As long as we haven't solved this part we can't really plan for the Underplex", Isaint replied to Iris.

"You others, has anyone a good idea how to smuggle guns and explosives through the Plex? We could of course pose as weapons merchants, but that would surely bring a lot of scrutiny down on us and I' rather avoid the extra attention.
A shielded smuggling compartment on a large drone would be my preferred solution. Does anyone have something like that at hand?"

#250

[Csjarrat]

Halfpint nodded along, clearly there was going to be a clash of personalities during this job and a command chain would make things much smoother. He was eyes and ears, hunkered in a rigger cocoon mostly, so a military guy used to issuing commands worked well for him. Milspec men always wanting someone on point.
He forwarded his commcode as asked and requested broadcast rights to the team's AR feeds for drone imagery

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn accepts the halfer's code.  "Thank you, Halfpint.  And you may certainly share my feeds from my little friends.  Here is the code and feed from Sasha, who is currently outside the pub, and Misha, who is downstairs in the pub watching who comes and goes in general and up the stairs in particular.  Here is the code for Yuri, the Mule, but he is at my home right now, so nothing much to see there.  Please feel free to use them as needed,  I am not very knowledgeable about riggers, so what sort of authorization do I need to give you to allow you to deploy the drones as you need to?"

[Csjarrat]

three marks and I can control the drone's you invite me to. I'll need copies of any Autosofts you have for them if I'm going to run them I was only asking to be able to send images from my recon drones to the team, not for access to your drones for control purposes]

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods, "OK.  I am sending you the authorization for the marks for Sasha and Misha now and can do the same for Yuri when we get together.  In general, I would appreciate leaving them under my control until we get to Below, but after that, I would consider them your assets to use, at least Sasha and Misha.  After all, you are the expert here.  Say, what will you be travelling in when we go Below?  I am sure that either Yuri or the Johnson's Mule could carry you if you need to dive into one of the drones, sort of like me and going into VR.  Unless you have something of your own, I mean."

[Csjarrat]

I've got a modified tank-cycle with a cocoon, but thanks for the offer. I'll be in VR mostly myself. Thanks for the marks, I'll take good care of them!
He mentally accepted the marks as the popped up in his AR hud and immediately ran system diagnostics on them to see what their specs were.
large drones with shielded compartments are doable, but if the security is as good as they say, it'll be a lost cause without a distraction or tampering with the scanning process. They'll know to look, especially when a mismatched group appear out of the blue. What time were the distraction team making their hit?

[Jack_Spade]

"If I understood our Johnson correctly, we'll be able to ask for this distraction - but that's a good point. I'll send the man a text about it."
Isaint hesitated for a moment:
"Tampering with the scanning process... Robyn, would you be able to do that ad hoc? Obviously we'll still have to stash our weapons, but making sure that the scanners couldn't pick them up would do a lot to add to our security."

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods.  "I can certainly try that.  I just need to locate the icons and will try to edit their programs to ignore our equipment.  Just give me the word when.  I would imagine that their security is pretty good, so give me enough lead time to determine and get on the right grid and the closer I am the better."

[BrickyardBabe]

Iris was thingking fast, then, as the rest of the team got down to technical details. Possibilities flickered through her mind, examined, weighed, rejected or considered further, and a small smile spread to her lips. Her eyes lost some of that coldness that had filled them since the meet at Angel's and Robyn's reunion with Al, and it was plain to see that, like so many other 'runners, she was happiest when she was on the job.

After a few minutes, Iris looked for a lull in the conversation, then asked, "What about musicians?" The question was to Isaint, but she looked around the room after she asked it. "I know that Robyn here has some musical talent, as do I. Others on the team may also, though it isn't strictly necessary. Two musicians, budding composers perhaps who want to write a piece on the mysterious and near-mythical London Below?" Her smile grew. "The people down there have more of a fascination with tales than do those Above, and there is a great house that takes performance as its canon. It would give us an excuse to travel in force, as everyone knows that Below is dangerous. We," she gestured at Robyn and then at herself, "would have need of bodyguards and perhaps attendants. It would give us leave to travel, explore, and be seen without raising a fuss, and those who hunger for the fame of being in a published work might tell us things we otherwise would never hear."