[Sentinemodo]

OOC:
assuming I get the parts

Construction -> rating 4 -> Logic(6) + Computer(1) + Juryrigger(3) - WorkingEnvironemnt(1) -> 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=1, 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=3
no glitches along the way , 12 treshold reached after 4 intervals -> 1 hour

usage -> Logic(6) + Electronic Warfare(2) + MathSPU(2) + DeviceRating(4) -> 14d6.hits(5)=4, 14d6.hits(5)=6
14d6.hits(5) → [4,2,5,4,1,1,2,4,6,3,3,5,3,6] = (4)
14d6.hits(5) → [3,1,6,1,6,4,6,6,4,2,6,5,3,2] = (6)
10 hits achieved after 2 intervals - half an hour
4 ones scored along the way so the device continue to work as I finish

15 minutes for decomposition and handing out the parts back

For those of you that were sleeping and waking up every 15 minutes for ten seconds Jerry's actions might have looked like taken out from a invention series on some educational trid. Piece this to another, wire over to another, setup some wireless here or there, hack a short script to make it communicate with each other and voila. For those that looked closely, the dazzling feat took almost two hours, and if you aren't into techie talk and act, was boring as hell, with only entertainment being Jerry's curses - that make a plane quite crowded with hard working females.

Here.

[Thermo]

After disassembling the makeshift signal enhancer, Jerry spends a few moments putting the message pieces back into the correct order. He turns the external speaker of his commlink up to the max volume so the rest of the party will be able to hear.

"Hoi Hyena! Got your message. Good to hear from you. Things here have been.. rough. Since you left, mercs and terrorists have flooded the city with weapons and seem intent on showing how big their cajones are. The slums are seeing the worst situation in years, since representatives of several national armies have set up makeshift camps to take advantage of the arms dealers. It does mean that there are some great toys, if you've can get your hands on them. Best place to go is the Dúdú Dúdú Ôjà market in Agege, they have weapons that haven't even hit the UCAS yet. Left-overs from the corp ways, prototypes, you name it, omae. You need magical support, check out Amulet Market in Oshodi-Isolo, if you need big-mojo foci they even help customers bond with them through some kind of special ritual, and they even have all kinds of unbound spirits for hire - if you've got the cajoines."

After playing back the message, Jerry allows himself a smirk to the rest of the group. He asks, "Anything more on this Samriel Lockwood?"

Jane sits back and crosses he arms in front of her chest. "Unfortunately, we don't know anything else about him. He doesn't even show up on the official registrar for the Atlantean Foundation. Might be some kind of sub-agency, but we were unable to find anything more."

Jerry searches for the aircraft's nodes, and finds that the plane must have a flight system that is physically removed from the Matrix, probably skin linked to the pilot. The communications node is fairly high-security, but the team was given access to it so they could take advantage of the super-fast Matrix access. Other communications came through the node in a standard encrypted format, but didn't contain anything remotely interesting. Flight approach info, weather updates, tower chatter, blah blah blah. The plane broadcasts its flight manifest in an unencrypted format so it is visible to anyone who would be interested, including feds, customs agents, baggage handlers, etc. The plane is owned by Mitsuhama but has been leased to the charter company for the better part of three years. Past flight info is easy to find, and you see that the plane has been all over the world, mostly to Europe but also as far away as Australia.

[Unscrambling the signal took about 2 hours, meaning that 5 hours are left before the flight lands. Matrix availability will be sketchy after leaving the comforts of the Gulfstream executive jet, so now's the time for more legwork!]

[Sentinemodo]

Jerry digs more after Atlantean Foundation

[Thermo]

roll your data searches, I'll let you know how long it takes you to find anything interesting

[Sentinemodo]

OOC:
4 intervals (assuming thirty minutes interval, judging from the previous results) two hours of searching -> 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 -> 26d6.hits(5)=6

[Thermo]

You do some additional searching on the Atlantean Foundation, and discover rumors of a hidden order within its ranks, known as the Mystic Crusaders. This may be why Samriel isn't listed as part of the Atlantean Foundation's ranks.

[now that you know what you're searching for, you can datasearch on the Mystic Crusaders with a 15-minute interval. You can also search more effectively on Samriel Lockwood, enabling you to search using the same 15-minute interval]

[Sentinemodo]

So two one-hour searches -> 26d6.hits(5)=5, 26d6.hits(5)=13
1st on Mystic Crusaders -> 5 hits,
2nd on Samriel Lockwood himself - 13 hits.

[Thermo]

[do another half hour on each, you're almost there, you just know it!]

[Thermo]

After spending the final hour of the flight searching on Samriel Lockwood and the Mystic Crusaders, you find a shadowboard blog written by a former merc turned antiquities hunter, called "TREASURES OF BEYOND!" In the blog, there's a thread that talks about the competition for private collectors, and here you find references to both topics.

“Samriel is a hard-core member of the AF. Heavy hitter, black ops type. Completely devoted to the Mystic Crusaders. I hear he’s an adept, too, although you wouldn’t know it from all the cyber- and bio-ware he’s crammed in himself.”

-TrezzureHunt ::ts:09093-3040-101AA 2071

Later in the thread, you glean the following information about the Mystic Crusaders:


MYSTIC CRUSADERS
This paramilitary group is a secret order within the Atlantean Foundation, allegedly organized around the precepts of an ancient Atlantean codex. Part knightly order, part relic hunter, they serve a variety of roles for the or- ganization, although they remain mostly the stuff of rumors even in the shadows. Rumors persist that the Mystic Crusaders are fanatically devoted to the organization’s charismatic leader rather than the Foundation itself, and largely autonomous of the Foundation’s hierarchy. No one knows if they work for Sheila Blatavska or if they have their own, separate agenda that happens to coincide with hers.

[Sentinemodo]

One. Ms. Johnson (the real one) lost an magical item - mariner's sextant mounted on a carved staff, or to be exact it looks like a cross between an armillary sphere and a navigational sextant. In the center is a sphere, and the sphere is mounted on a staff, which is intricately carved with spiraling designs and glyphs.

Two. Ms. Johnson (the real one) hires Jane to find the artifacts, and she believes we should go to Lagos.

Three. Ms. Johnson (the real one) nor Jane don't have a clue where is the artifact or who took it, but they know that a rival collector hired Samriel Lockwood to find it.

Three-a. We don't know who is the real owner
Three-b. We don't know who is that rival collector who hires Samriel Lockwood. Nor how the real owner got to know that his rival hired him.
Three-c. We are not sure if this Smariel Lockwood is a Samriel Lockwood, that I've been searching for because he uses fake names
Three-d. We don't know how the real owner tracked Samriel Lockwood to Lagos, since they don't really know anything about him.
 

Four. If The Samriel Lockwood, I've found is the one we are following, he is a leader of a Atlantean Foundation subgroup called Mystic Crusaders. He is a mean bastard full of magic and cyber.
Four-a The real owner went for a tight budget approach, and hired runner team and Jane. We are equivalent of the Mystic Crusaders. She is a an equivalent of Samriel. And he probably paid more to Mitsuhama more for this flight than what we agreed to work for, which means Jane is really important to him or that the real owner is from Mitsuhama.

Five. The group he is leading is called Mystic crusaders. Fanatics autonomous form the Atlantean Foundation hierarchy, but not without access to the AA corp class funding - which means top class magic and cyber.

Conclusion. Going head to head against Samriel and his knights is not one of the options.

We need to know more Jane. What did you found out during the flight? What is your plan once we arrive?

[Thermo]

You've made it all the way to your layover in Accra, the capital of the Asante nation. Your flight touches down on a well-maintained runway, and taxis to a simple but well-maintained single-story airport. When you get off the plane, your luggage is waiting for you. The airport security, under the protective eyes of four heavily armed border guards, fusses over your travel documents and licenses before waving you on to the “Intra-Continental Waiting Area.” An armored guard stands in front of a narrow gate, looking bored. Over the gate is a small sign that reads “LAGOS.”

The guard looks you all over, raising an eyebrow and smirking. “Going to Lagos?” he asks, in English.

Jane nods.

“There’s a travel tax for each of you,” he says.

Jane sighs. She turns to you.

“I’ll take care of this,” she tells you.

“Go ahead and see if you can find our pilot. Goes by the name Innocent Dobiri. He’s supposed to be waiting for us here. Tell him Black Mamba vouched for us.”

what do you do?

[Mirikon]

Iceblade had spent the flight profitably enough, sleeping for the most part, and taking advantage of what food and drink were on the plane for the rest. His attitude was a distinctly military one at this point. He wasn't a hacker, and you had to have some kind of target to do astral searches (not that he was that good at them), so he took in calories, which would give him energy, and slept, which would stave off fatigue if they had to hit the ground running, and didn't have a secure place to rest.

When they landed, he shouldered his bag, and politely put a hand up in front of Jane, stepping off the plane in front of her, and taking up a stance at the bottom of the steps until she was down. They were there as bodyguards, and the moment they got on the plane, they were on the job, in his mind. So while he's there, she isn't the first one to get in or out of a vehicle, if he can help it.

When they hear about the 'travel tax', he sends over the private channel, Hyena, why don't you stay close to Jane while she deals with the 'tax'. The rest of us will go talk to this Dobiri.

With a nod to Jane, he turned, still silent as far as anyone not on the channel was concerned, and headed through the gate, looking for the plane. Time to find a ride to hell.

[Sentinemodo]

Jerry's irritation growth seems to have no visible limit, an astral sight would reveal that he is boiling ...

Fuck ...

Jerry grabbed his bags and moved out of the plane. Searching for an active or passive PAN broadcasting 'Dobiri'. At some point an audible Fuck ! was heard and he sat on his bag for few seconds.

OOC:
Inventory all active/passive nodes withing 400 meters (assuming, that if he is active at all he would be having at least signal 3 rating in his commlink); complex action,  automatic     
Spoofing ID of my commlink to exchange it with the closest airport officer: Hacking(4) + Software(1) (2) -> 5d6.hits(5)=1 complex action spent without success, retry 5d6.hits(5)=1 complex action spent without success, retry 5d6.hits(5)=0 complex action spent without success, retry 5d6.hits(5)=1 complex action spent without success, FUCK,
dropping the bag, sitting on it, free action to flip into  VR -> again -> 7d6.hits(5)=3 SUCCESS

simple action to verify if the node broadcasting PAN including 'Dobiri' exists in the list of inventoried nodes
if it does extended test searching to locate it's position DataSearch(1) + Browse(5) + VR(2) (treshold 6 - public information, interval complex action - searching within signal range -> 8d6.hits(5)=3, 8d6.hits(5)=5) -> treshold reached after two seconds

[farothel]

When they hear about the 'travel tax', he sends over the private channel, Hyena, why don't you stay close to Jane while she deals with the 'tax'. The rest of us will go talk to this Dobiri.

With a nod to Jane, he turned, still silent as far as anyone not on the channel was concerned, and headed through the gate, looking for the plane. Time to find a ride to hell.

"Okidoki," Hyena said.  She put herself one step behind Jane in a standard bodyguard position.  While her heavy weapons were still in her luggage, she could defend herself if needed.

[Thermo]

@Jerry: After a brief inventory of broadcasting nodes, you see one that appears to be what you're looking for. It's a bewilderingly low-tech commlink that appears to be at least a decade obsolete. The name being broadcast is "Innocent Dobiri". You triangulate its location and see a small airplane... at least, you think it's an airplane... the commlink appears to be inside.

@Iceblade: You walk out onto the tarmac and see Jerry shake his head incredulously as he stomps towards a rusted heap parked about two hundred meters away.

@Hyena: The guard appears to be hesitant to deal with the two women, looking extremely uncomfortable as the two male traveling companions walk away to find the pilot and his airplane. Jane gives him an icy glare that says she isn't about to accept any bulldrek from him. He stammers out "that will be.. umm... 400 cred for your group". Jane fishes out three pre-paid certified credsticks for a hundred each, their purple stripe identifying the denomination. You haven't seen old-school certified cred in a long time, it's quite rare and valuable since it's one of the few forms of currency that can't be traced. The guard looks her over, sighs, and accepts the 300 credits. Jane looks over her shoulder at you and nods her head towards the rest of the group. She obviously approves of the group's choice in body guard being a female.

@Lost: You stumble off the plane, having fallen asleep in the comfortable chair while the rest of the group disembarked. The sun is *blindingly* bright and you have an extremely hard time seeing where everyone went, even with your tinted goggles on. You don't think you've ever had your skin burn so painfully, even back in the Kingdom of Hawa'ii. You try to see Jane, try to see Iceblade, but all you see is glare. You walk towards the nearest building, where you see three armored guards leaning against the wall. One, an ork, has his visor up and is smoking a cigar.

As you approach, the ork smirks and says "hey you, chalk-boy. You owe us a travel tax. Your backpack, open it up."

Fast-talk: Cha(7)+Defaulting(-2)+Distracted(-2) (3d6.hits(5)=2)
Fast-talk resist: Cha(2)+Intimidate(3)+Outnumbering(2)+Physically Imposing(1) (8d6.hits(5)=4)

Your attempt to deflect the ork's request did not go well. The ork sizes you up and decides that he's going to make an example of you.

Initiative: 6 (6d6.hits(5)=2)

Guard's Initiative: 8 (8d6.hits(5)=3, 8d6.hits(5)=4, 8d6.hits(5)=3)

The three guards pummel you to the ground before you have a chance to ready any spells or even mount a decent defense. As you look up at the blinding sun, you see an armored foot slam you in the face. Your trip to Lagos is over.


@Jerry and Iceblade:
The waiting area opens out into a private runway. On the runway is a small airplane. At least, you think it’s an airplane. You saw something like it once in a trid. It has dual propellers and a rusted airframe, and looks like it should’ve been scrapped before you were born. A rail-thin African man is leaning against it, smoking. When you approach, he carefully looks you—and your luggage—over. You see a few flakes of rust drift to the ground when he pushes away from the plane to speak to you.

What do you do?