[Sichr]

I still say we shouldn't split the party just because it's way too much bookkeeping for the GM. Speaking as someone who had players do that a lot in another system, it's very frusterating because it essentially requires you to keep 2 separate campaigns running at the same time.

I would understand this argument if we are playing together in my living room.
This is PbP, I think that that makes things much easier, because you are in no hurry. But it is up to Rock.

OR. We dont have to split the party. Let us all take care of the transportation of our equipement, then we should take a plan and then let us all do the recon, infiltration and whatever else needed. The only "-" is that we lost 3 days.

[Xzylvador]

It doesnt matter if the Aztech wipe them iout. The core is, that all those VIPs, who survived this, would never come again for some new Grand opening.

If/when they found out the real motive behind you sending them that data, you've got yourself an Enemy... one who doesn't care if they have to blow up half a residential block if you might be in it; hell, they probably consider it a bonus.

We need to get to their network and make that +1 bus exists.

... it's not computers I worry about. Buses don't just appear. The people who handle the vehicles will know. The system just saying +1 in a day with no explanation? Right. A mechanic takes a 3 second look at it and knows it isn't like all the other buses. Even management and administration will notice. In a decades old park with a depot full of buses that are used as spare parts for the other buses, it wouldn't show up, I agree, But this is a brand new park with brand new equipment, I'm guessing that means X identical buses. Management's trying to iron out any wrinkles and watching out for even the slightest detail so that when the VIP's show up, nothing can go wrong. If they don't notice, they're not doing their jobs.

I still have no idea how the bus should be our advantage.

Because walking our way back and forth across a 250km² island will be a bit tiring... we're not going to be taking the tourist tour buses to "top secret lab on the other side of the island".


Rock: When I say ferry, it's because I don't know the appropriate name. Ocean liners that have comfortable passenger capacities as well as a cargo hold large enough to carry their transportation... hell, doesn't a cruise ship do that? There's smaller ships too.

If nothing else, it'll be harder to pick that one out as 'extra' when it's moving about.

Buses out in the park at night would be kind of obvious. I'm guessing busses return at night, no?  Or are they those kind of travelling buses for trips that take days, with sleeping commodities? Would be kind of unusual in a safari park, and again, Gaunt's bus wouldn't match the description...

-- just to be clear: I don't want to force your hand or anything, it's your campaign, considering our chances in all this, do it any way you like, we'll all die eventually :p Just saying that if outsourced transportation isn't allowed on the island, I see no way of getting them there without other glaring holes (as pointed out in this and earlier posts) in the story... unless of course I'm being paranoid and they aren't paying that much attention... but LK was supposed to appear the paranoid one :p

Cheyenne: Enter her any time. I'll reply asap. But like I said, feel free to write Silk's actions too... Or just a summary of what happened there and how it turns out for Silk. I don't want to block this whole weekend of possible IC planning with the whole group, with just Silk and Cheyenne playing their (flirtuous) conversation games and dancing.
If you really think it's important enough to play that out, I'd love to, might not really be productive for the campaign and be boring for the rest though, unless we get really graphic when they end up having sex _{... maybe a threesome.}

[Chrona]

My bus doesn't contain any glaringly obvious mods iirc, mostly concealed and internal, even the workshop is hidden under seating.. In the time we have I can make it look like one of their buses, especially if anyone has the disguise skill to assist rolls
also if we can get there it can "replace" a bus their if +1 worries you, we could drive one into the ocean at night?
Maybe do the same/similar to a driver and place me in the system as a replacement?

[Rockopolis]

I've got a race tomorrow, so I'll probably be missing the middle of the day...well, actually, I'll probably be posting before and after the race, come to think of it.

You know, I don't know what would be between a ferry and a cruise ship.  They don't really have passenger liners anymore these days.  It's a pity, they're like the zeppelins of the sea.
...You know, I believe the Shadowrun future does have commercial zeppelin service, doesn't it?

No time like the present.  I get distressingly little practice soft roleplaying; it's so hard to find a dress that goes with gore.  And it's easy to wrap up and move on for more IC.
Not easy, but it's possible to have two timestreams going at once in a PbP game, so you're partying last night at the same time you're planning strategy tomorrow afternoon.  You should be okay as long as you're not drinking counterwise wine with lunch tomorrow.  Seems almost like that flashback and forth movie technique, actually.

[Presidentevil133]

"Replacing" a person is likely to be difficult, moreso than a bus. Buses usually don't have friends family or colleagues who will go looking for them if we dispose of them in the ocean. People do.

[Chrona]

If It's easier not to take the bus just say, but then gaunts not going because I wouldn't have any drones.

Im going to PM  rock Gaunt's message to his contact tomorrow. see if Mr. 6/6 Johnson who-owes-me-his-life can help get me work on the island through corp politics and contacts to get me, my gear and maybe you guys gear there. then you guys can get there by other means

[Presidentevil133]

Damn. My iPhone seems to have a problem with invisible castle. Mind if I start that probing test in a few hours when my shift ends and I get home?

[Xzylvador]

I want that bus, for several reasons.

[Sichr]

I see no reason for why we shouldn be able to add that bus on the supply list: we dont just do (+1) but let it look that this bus is designed for special tours, VIPs or so. We just need to figure out the right packing to sell this package.
Once the bus is in, there will be no problem to get it for the drive, saying that we love Conestogats and we would be more than happy to test it int the field...or something like that. This way or another, it would be almost impossible to make a move without beeing spotted. 250 km is possibly the size of Redmont. For azzies it would be no problem to keep the security real tight. But we will find out the way how to deal with this.

About that ecoterrorist / pirates tactic.
1) Ecoterrorots - worse variant. If they get on the island they will probably dig there with hostages, make some madia statement about "freeing your brothers, stop that mining etc." or i dont know what and after the will be overruned by Aztech Jaguars and "most of" the hostages will be freed.
Result: Ecoterrorists are dead, but they make theirs statement. One way ticket is an option for them, because they are lunatics. No enemy for us, the knew the risk and they will die happy to fullfill theirs goals.

2) Pirates: The best variant: They hit the island, take the hostages, board them to theis ship/s and then dissapear and let the Aztech cruisers hunt them acros 7 seas. Their advantage is in the movement and stealth, they wouldnt give it up to fight for the piece of turf, crawling with dinos and Azzies. Shortly after the ransom requests will arrive for those who have some value, others will be sold in slave markets or so. Collateral damage, not our problem.
The greatest bonus from this is that Aztech wouldn`t even know that doctor was not one of hostages and it would take them some time to find out, that there is something absolutely different behind this. I we manage to fake some public info about our rescue from pirates or not so well hiden transaction, indicating the ransom had been paid for us, it should look like that we were hostages also and that would make us look completely innocent in this affair. That is what i call exit strategy.
Now, that risky part: we will be dealing with pirates. We will need to find some trustworthy crew...


Id love to hear some other ideas on how to get in/out.

And what interrests me even more...how we should disable that mainframe.
- Virus
- Cyberattacking the node and simply erasing the data
- Blowing up data storage

We also need to transport those paydata. do ve have the safe datastorage device with enought space?
And we wil need to cut off theirs satelite uplink before we get into this, this should give us some time to get the hell out of there (even if we are not using any third party variant)

I doubt that we would hardly be able to make it looks like an accident, but maybe someone will have an idea.

[Xzylvador]

I do like the idea of getting them to believe the Doc's been captured by pirates for ransom instead of us.
As long as we agree that this does not suffice to complete the 'delay for a month' mission; and it doesn't cost us, Silk could live with that.

Bus: *shrug* Silk might be able to sell that VIP bus thing, might not... 50/50 chance probably; that's kind of risky, stuck on an island.

Split the party, I still think it's risky. Anyhow, Silk doesn't have any useful contacts outside of Seattle or in the pirate world... getting a motorboat stowed somewhere on the island for quick getaway on the island would be nice though.
Just know that she won't be doing too dangerous things without being certain she's got enough people behind her back if things go bad. (She's not a Thrill Seeker; sure she loves the danger, but it has to be a calculated risk.) Sitting around and playing tourist for a day or 3 while gathering some info, no problem.

[Sichr]

I think the prior part of that "VIP bus thing" would have to "sell" Nomad, Injecting some false data into their Supply ordering system.

Then we would have to load it to supply line (ship/zeppelin).
After it will get to the island, it would probably be parked in docks before technical crew takes care of it.
Maybe we should use some influence on that technical skill to skip detailed inspection and let it go with just routine check and approval. This part would be risky.

After that procedure it will be probably deployed in some depot or parking ground. From there, it is the matter of: "We would like to try this bus for our trip around an island. could anyone make it happen?" So those three days in advance (and some more, before the supply ship arrives) would be useful to make inside contacts or influenbce some people...hell, if I know who will be responsible to do the check, Ill simply Influence him to use his Approval stamp when he sees something specific, and make that specific thing to be part of the Bus (painting, i.e. Im) and then forget about whole thing.
But this I believe is Silks playground where she will hardly have a worthy oponent.

I (LK) would be the part of Honolulu team, whos task would be to get the bus to the supply chain and if possible, make contact with pirates or/and local smuggler. I`m not skilled negotiator, but lets hope we will figure out something. After this part is closed, we take another plane (chopper) and make our way to the island, using our tickets.

How that looks?

[Xzylvador]

Looks like one side will be without a face (though influence spell helps a lot), the other without magical support... Only one hacker to split in two too.

Working on an IC post, can only write one or two sentences at a time...
New IC color code for me: "Spoken lines with some italic parts", the spoken italic is using voice control to make it heard only to who she's talking to.
Silk's probably acting a bit less flirtatious and more childlike enthusiastic than even Aswan normally does...

[Sichr]

For that magical part...we ahve adept who is more than capable to fought off the magical threat like spirit or something. And island team would do nothing too dangerous (Well...except someone is trying to infiltrate theirs nodes ) I also don`t want to enter the island without proper astral recon...

Well, Im just guessing about that supply line would go throught Honolulu, we will find this out from datasearches. We also need to find a way to tranport bus to Polynesia.

For the negotiating with pirates or smugglers, I hope we would find a way to use some of our contacts for this..
Pirates: This may be done via astral or matrix meeting also. Flesh meetings are better.
Smuggler: at the worst case we would pay him/her good price, if we dont get any "friendly" contact.

I recall that Johnson said something about that he knows some people with boats...

[Sichr]

LOL funnz idea hits me when readindg the post where Silk reads some articles about Big Game hunting...
You know
LOL
If we shot something on that island...we would be probably made to pay for damages. How much should that be for new SOTA prototype of geneticaly revived bronto? LMAO....

[Xzylvador]

04:00 hours, lying on the couch with food poisoning or worse (sure makes stuff come out fast). So if there's some weird stuff in my post, apologies.