Charm City II [IC] Options

[sunnyside]

(OoC: Link to post where Monifa drops a bunch of names and numbers

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1370238
)

OOC: (We've discussed it in OOC, but I think everyone wants to move on right now. You can give a quick overview at the start of your next post wrapping things up or describing things you did such as getting drones operational, learning things, Selina inviting Mike over to her new apartment, Bongo playing with Rose in her garage with a variety of college kids. Some things could also be handled retrospectively afterwards. Some discussions and things could be picked up after this run. )

----------

It's Sunday May 25th in Baltimore. In the afternoon morning showers give way to the more typical dry cloud cover and temperatures climbing into the high seventies. The Boyz have set up something of a first aid station near the rear of the safehouse. With the warmer weather they've been doing crazier stunts without as much clothing to protect them from their poor choices. Also a little road rash can be as impressive to the lady chipheads, alcoholics, and squatters from the places on either side of the safehouse. With free nutripacks arriving daily and electrical connections the city doesn't cut off the boyz have to compete with other vices.

Brester puts in a call to Bongo, Paul, Willie, and Selina, requesting an actual AR link. He waits until each confirms availability before starting.

He looks a little rough, like maybe he didn't sleep much last night. However he also has some extra chrome shining around his right eye socket, so presumably he got something extra put in there.

He starts <<Hopefully you've managed to settle in. You might need some of that for this one. I've got a job for you, or really rather two jobs.

The first is working with a gang leader out of Harlem Tower 3, located here>>

He flips the group an ARO with coordinates
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UQGvKDzc2CQLD9iu6

He then continues

<<I suppose Harlem Tower 3 was supposed to be a nice place, being situated next to Harlem Inner Block Parks K101, Q112, and Za125. However as the level of effort they put into naming may suggest there was a certain lack of foresight.

Since it was a city project, they used eminent domain to level all the buildings there. What they put in is a ferrocrete and plastisteel brick about a hundred meters by a hundred meters on the ground and a hundred stories up, plus a few more stories for a parking garage below.

The key feature of these towers is they're trying to create Jeremy Bentham's panopticon for low cost housing instead of a prison. The apartments are narrow and long, kind of like from the footage you showed me of Frank's place. Except instead of doing it to give everyone a window, they do it to give everyone a visible door to the central maintenance tower.>>

He pauses for a moment and smirks a little before continuing. <<Well, you probably don't want to hear me going on about architecture or pre awakening Utilitarianism philosophy. Feel free to ask, but you'll probably do better getting more detailed information elsewhere. Let me get to the key points.

That monolithic rectangle has a couple tens of thousands of unfortunate SINNERs, probably about as many SINless, and a number of gangs, with Monifa's crew being dominant. She's the one with the problem>>

He sends another ARO with an image of a large black female Ork wearing a tank top to show off her muscles and many scars. Chrome eyes seeming to glow from the sun reflecting off the image, with West Baltimore stretching out in the background. Indicating the picture was taking from very high up.

<< Her problem is she's made an enemy but she doesn't know who. First there was a swarm of gangers that came from outside, rode the elevators up to the top of the building where her crew operates, and tried to take them out. They were noticed very early and that went very poorly for them.

He waves a hand <<Actually, a rather large part of the job description was describing how her gang won these battles. Anyway next a team more like runners tried a stealthy surgical strike using the stairs. Using stairs was also a poor choice. The third attempt involved a team coming in with a helicopter. Despite her descriptions of her gang's martial prowess it sounds like this attack nearly managed to geek her.

The job then is to keep her alive long enough to figure out who is after her and stop the attacks. She didn't explicitly specify bodyguard duty. However as a general rule if a Johnson dies they don't pay you.

You'll have to work out the details with her. If you accept I'll pass on your likenesses, or whatever disguise you'd like to use, and you'll meet her at the top of the tower. I did inform her that you're seasoned Runners who won't be working for less than three thousand. >>


He then pauses, takes a long breath, and a drink of something in a shot glass and continues.

<< However for all that I don't care about that job. I mean my reputation is on the line whenever I'm involved to be sure. But as a matter of priority all of that is secondary.

Monifa shared some images of the dead from her raids, and also of a number of other denizens of the tower that have been killed recently, in case that's related. I have some automated agents running to find certain images, and they took note of these >>

He pulls up a series of three photographs. Two with dead Orks and a third with a dead human. The thing they all have clearly in common is what appears to be a flower growing out of their right eye. They don't obviously have other wounds aside from some blood coming out of their noses or mouths.

<<That odd little feature is something I've only seen from a single spirit. I'm not sure if it was unbound, bound, an ally spirit, or what. In any case it's presumably a free spirit now, as I understand these things>> His visage gets a little clouded and angry (OOC: For anyone that can manage two hits on a social awareness test, which I think all of you can buy) before he gets serious again and continues.

<<This all comes from a run gone bad. An uncommon occurrence with my crews, but they knew this one was a high-risk high-reward scenario. Four team members, this spirit, and a client of sorts went out. Only the spirit and two of the runners got out, I have some camera footage of that, but after that they promptly dropped off the grid. I was worried the runners succumbed to their wounds and the spirit simply vanished into whatever spirits vanish into when their time is up.

Maybe not. >>

He shares a still image. It's of a woman who is clearly a spirit. Her opalescent skin, beautiful face, and hair full of flowers could have been done with cosmetics, but her flowing green dress seems to work like a snake's tail without any legs where legs should be. She's also clearly stronger than a woman of her apparent size and light musculature as she holds up a large dazed looking troll in obvious black body armor with an array of horns growing out of his head that almost makes it look like he has a mane. A little bit behind them a human woman in similar black armor with a katana hilt poking out over her shoulder and a black Mossberg AM-CMDT shotgun in her hands. Her race is a bit hard to pin down. She has a nose that seems to not have healed properly after getting broken and looks like she recently took a nasty slash to her face that lets you see through her right cheek to where some teeth should have been. She isn't that large, but the thick soles on her black boots raise her up to maybe five foot eight. Those boots are leaving splotches of blood behind leading up to a wall, however the photo appears to have been blurred to obscure if those prints lead to a door or entry.

<< I'm very interested in being able to still derive some benefits from that run, and to do that I need the help of that spirit. If they're messing around in that tower presumably they have some business. Business means they care about something. Caring about something means there must be some leverage to get them interested in working with me. Perhaps that won't even be too hard. I don't think they'd have any reason to dislike me. Maybe they'd have called if they'd ever had a comlink or any awareness of myself. The team shaman handled all spirit interactions, but she seems to not have made it back at all.

Before you ask I don't feel at liberty to discuss the nature of the run. In part because I wouldn't want to ...taint any information you might get about what happened should you come across any. Also client privacy and all that. But maybe you'll find out more later if this pans out.

I have teams that I've worked with longer than you. But if any of the runners from that job are still around I don't want them getting hurt, though I'd very much like to talk to them as well, and I don't want any situation with the spirit escalating. You've shown a particular and surprising restraint in your last jobs that I think makes you my best bet for success and not burning bridges.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot more information for you. The troll runner was a big tough razorboy going by Double Barrel, and the female was a physical adept and informal team leader going by Cadillac. She liked to use the first name Camila with her fake IDs so that might be her real name, but not necessarily. I don't know their real names or SINs, or even if they properly have them. I'll send you some aliases from fake IDs, but I haven't gotten any pings on them. I have no idea what the spirit went by.

I'm offering 50k if you can get me some useable info on what the spirit has going on in the tower and get them to share with me about the run. You can get part of that money by finding either of those runners, if they're able to share anything useful. Finding them might pay other dividends as well.

I anticipate working with Monifa will give you a sort of license to investigate in the tower in a way that would usually be very bad for your health. Though don't get my runners or that spirit on their radar. Also, as an advance if you agree, I'm sending over some narcojet pistols to the safehouse. I guess you can sell yours if you want, but I wanted to make very sure you all had a non-lethal option. Careful about overdosing with multiple shots too quickly.


One last matter. You're going to want a hacker for this. Angel has really been working on their athletic skills. Lenny, well, at least he's interested in another run. If you'd rather someone new I have a hacker I trust called Livewire. He can't do some of the amazing things Angel can, lacks some of the sophisticated corporate hacking techniques of Lenny, but he's able to operate on his own initiative, shoots straight, and conserves ammo. Let me know who you'd like to include. >>

Having gotten that long winded speal out he leans back at his desk and waits for the team to reply.

[Thanee]

As the month nears its end, Selina (or in this case Kimberly McKenzie) can finally move into her new apartment. A big improvement over the safehouse, even though that also has its purpose.

It takes her a few days to get settled in, getting a few new pieces of furniture, and to rearrange everything to her taste. Almost a whole week is needed to prepare her Magical Lodge, which Selina puts up in her own bedroom (the one with the direct view over the harbor; Dawn will get the bedroom with direct access to the terrace). It still feels a little weird, that both of the bathrooms can only be accessed through the bedrooms, and the walk-in-closets only through these, but she will surely get used to it. It's not a big deal, and the rest of the apartment is super nice and the view and the cool terrace totally make up for it, anyways. And it does keep the whole floor plan tidied up, so there is that as well.

Kim also got to meet her direct neighbors, who have the other side of the terrace, a lovely couple in their fifties, who also happen to have two cats. Selina's charming nature quickly won them over. They were very friendly and welcoming, and immediately offered to help in case she needed anything. [ OOC: Friendly Neighbors Quality ]

With only a couple more days to spare, much of her time is also occupied with her fashion design job, the shaman spent a number of hours with summoning and binding two spirits, who agreed to a number of services after some friendly negotiations. Selina tends to treat her spirit as equals and not as servants, which usually goes over well.

Dawn arrives from Seattle a day before Brewster calls. It's been over a year now, that the teenager was rescued from the grasp of the two dwarf brother pimps along with a bunch of other girls. The petite elf was very reclusive and forlorn back then, but a lot has changed in the meantime. The physical abuse took maybe a month or two to heal, while the emotional scars will likely stay with her forever. Despite those, she lives a happier life now, and she is grateful for the opportunity provided to her. Not everyone in her position ever gets that chance. It still feels a little bit like a dream to her, one from which she hopefully never has to wake up. Cole had provided her with a proper SIN under the name Dawn Summers back then, an orphan that was taken in by Kimberly McKenzie, who acts as her legal guardian until she becomes an adult herself.

Together with the new apartment, Selina has been looking into leasing a car, as she only has her bike otherwise, and so she drove to the airport to pick up Dawn in a sleek, white Rover SUV. Happy to see her, after being about a month apart now, the elf girl rushed in with a big smile to give Selina a hug, then immediately took a step back to play it cool. Yeah, that really didn't work out so well. On the drive back to the apartment, there was a lot of talk about how blue the sky is and how pretty those clouds are. Dawn compared the color of the sky to her own blue eyes. She likes it already.

School will only start in late summer, so there will be at least three more months for Dawn to get used to her new surroundings. Not that it will be hard to get used to her new space, considering how nice it is. And she is not leaving that much behind, either. Mostly bad memories. And those can stay in Seattle.

[Thanee]

<< Runner teams and helicopters? If this Monifa is actually looking for protection, she will have to do a lot better than three thousand. Digging up some information about what is going on there might be more reasonable. Stopping the attacks... that really depends on who that is and what it is they want. Only thing that is clear, they have quite a few resources on their hands and are willing to waste them for this. But, well, no harm in hearing her out. I understand that this part is mostly an excuse for digging around there, but it's still a job. >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo spends the time he has before any new run Brewster comes up with sussing out the infrastructure and the social structure of the area around Frank's building. Over time, he starts to blend into the daily comings and goings of the vendors, shoppers, buskers, sun seekers etc. A plan begins to formulate in his mind, but it is still nascent.

Rose gets him to meet the college students she thought might be worth a shot to form a group that plays together occasionally. In general, not too bad. With some help they will tighten up. One of them, Johnny Tate, is a passable composer and does pretty well on keyboards and trumpet. He seems to be the leader of the crew and garners respect from them. There is a young drummer, Teddy Smith (why do young people hang on to the diminutive of their names? Huh. There is Willie, too.), who is eager as all get out, and once he hears Bongo play he latches onto Bongo as if he were a second skin. Questions flow like water from a fire hose.

"What do I do to get my high hat more salient"
"How do you get that multi-rhythm so smooth?"

The answer is almost always the same: practice till your limbs feel like falling off.

##########

Willie spends his time in between constructively, practising with his knives till they feel more a part of him than they did before. Once in a while he drops in on the Boyz to watch their driving antics. Nothing like what he can do, of course. After a few days he is just part of the background for the gangers. Fine by him. Talking usually gets him into trouble.

[sunnyside]

Brewster leans back with a smirk <<To be clear I impressed on her that was three thousand per individual. Just establishing a baseline for being worth your time. The fee from myself for my project was for the group. You could add more crew if you think it would help, but you would need to divide the payout. Also keeping things discrete gets harder with more people.

Their opponent might have deep pockets. However we don't know the nature of things. Also less scrupulous Johnsons have been known to take advantage of the fact that Shadowrunners are substantially cheaper if they don't come back. Either way it makes financing a follow up run cheaper, especially if you have a fixer worse than myself that doesn't know about what happened to the least team. >>

[pbangarth]

Willie mulls over what Brewster said. He adds his two nuyen worth. (Inflation affects opinions, too.)

<<Whoa. If that body needs guarding, I'm in!>> Oh, Willie.

<<But, yeah, there was some kinda power creep going on. What comes after helicopters? Dragons?

<<By the look of it, the spirit could have been the next level, but I think if it wanted Monifa, we wouldn't need to worry about protecting her and her gang.>>

<<Yes, >> pipes in Bongo. <<Monifa looks like she could handle mundane attacks well enough, but weird shit magic and things that materialize right out of thin air look to be beyond her gang. I agree with Selina that if we have to deal with the next level of escalation, 3000 each seems low. If it weren't for Brewster's link to her, it would almost look more profitable to help out mystery Enemy Number 1. But then, what would our in be?

<<Having said that, I am in for negotiating with Monifa and then using her permission into the building to work towards the bigger job.>>

Willie adds, << If there have been raids with gangers and helicopters, the protection gig isn't likely to be quiet should the next wave come.>>

a funny look comes over Willie's face should anyone be watching him. "Should the next wave come? What am I becoming, some college twit?"

Bongo comes back, <<Any idea how the other gangs in the building will react to agents of Monifa poking around? And if we get to talking to the spirit, are we to keep your name, Brewster out of it at the start? >>

[sunnyside]

Brewster leans back and rubs his chin while he thinks, then he replies <<I have heard of free spirts doing various sorts of jobs. However Monifa didn't talk about defeating a sprit. You'd think if a spirit was trying to kill her she'd either have something she'd want to brag about...or she'd be dead. Now, it does occur to me that someone might leave a little detail like that out prior to negotiations. Just defeating a spirit doesn't solve your problem, you'd have to expect another to be sent your way, or for that one to return.

But then why being willing to share the pictures of the unfortunate souls getting flowers ahead of the funerals? She wasn't shy about mentioning a spirit in the fight with the first runner type team, though she felt she resolved that through the gangers being well versed in "geek the mage first" tactics.

I think it unlikely our free spirit is out to get her. But in any case please don't antagonize it. That's also probably good advice for your health as well.

By the way being the head gang of a tower like that means she has at least some magic user or users in her crew. She didn't mention it, but I feel reasonably safe presuming. That's also part of why I'd expect the other gangs to continue to be at least somewhere deferential. Also there's the old Bedouin proverb "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, my cousins and I against strangers. " An outside force tends to be unifying.

As for my name don't spread it around too broadly, but I think it would be fine to share with the spirit. Though it's quite possible they aren't any more aware of my name than I am of theirs. If they operated near the team long enough maybe they could have picked it up. Without my comcode they wouldn't have known how to get ahold of me, if they'd wanted to. I don't think I'd be perceived as having done anything untoward in regards to the team or the spirit's summoner, but it's possible all the spirit knows is that their summoner didn't make it back.

I'm afraid you know as much or more than I do about how much summoners fill their spirits in on such details. >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo thinks for a moment. <<So, how many of Monifa's crew have died? This could be a concerted effort by the other gangs in the building to get rid of the top dog. Or at least weaken her.

<<I mean, how else did two separate teams make their way up the building without being harassed by the gangs they passed? >>

He scans the images to see if there are any common elements to the flowers growing out of the corpses.

[ Spoiler ]

I assume any roll for that would be the GM's.

<<Selena, you have any clues about this flower spirit? Like, stories, myths, whatever?>>

[pbangarth]

Willie pipes in. <<What kinda helicopter was it? And what happened to it? Did Monifa's crew bring it down or was it used by survivors to escape? Uh. Maybe these questions are for Monifa, but maybe she shared info?>>

[sunnyside]

Brester smirks a little <<It would be atypical to bring someone outside for an assault on the building. But sometimes atypical leadership is how people get to the top. I wouldn't rule it out.>>


Though for that reason I'd almost rule out Monifa being forthcoming about the details of her current strength and casualties. Certainly she didn't tell me. I also have my doubts of her ability to visually identify helicopters, but you could ask. I care more about someone's reputation. She doesn't seem to have a reputation of screwing over business partners. Though she's a bit unstable and, perhaps necessarily, prone to violence. It sounds like she's quick to make friends which could have its advantages, but being professionals with some distance might help keep her on better behavior.

In any case she knows I know you're interacting with her. Assuming you take the job.

Normally legwork ahead of time is a good idea, but I presume her whole crew is on edge and keeping an active eye out for any runner types nosing around. >>

He screws his face up a little in though <<I doubt it's one of the other gangs though. She probably makes it her business to know all about them, and she could go after them directly. Wanting a group like you implies she thinks the threat is external. But again neither she nor I know that for a fact.>>


Even crappy cameras used by crappy photographers in 2070 are pretty good. Bongo can zoom in on the digital images. In all cases it's a single English Daisy
https://www.thespruce.com/thmb/w21mOMB7AnUn...63c062e3463.jpg

The flowers don't look exactly right, as if maybe they were fake. Though obviously they didn't grow naturally out of the corpses. The bodies appear quite fresh in the photos, and not arranged, as if the pictures were taken before the bodies were even touched, as opposed to the decomposition that would exist if the flowers grew naturally.

[Thanee]

<< @Bongo: Sorry, no idea about the spirit. Never heard of any that do something like this. >>

Getting back to Brewster, it probably does not hurt to let him know they are not simply accepting a first offer, just because, even though she does think it is a decent offer.

<< Alright. Let's say we are interested. There is a lot of vagueness involved, and probably some pretty nasty people. We also don't really know, what Monifa is good for. Assuming we take your job, we pretty much have to take hers as well, regardless of how it pans out. So, I feel that you could do a little better here... >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo adds his opinion. <<Absolutely right, Selena. Seeing as we are the best team you have, Brewster, for this particular kind of mission, one that requires a nuanced touch and sensitivity, backed up with considerable firepower if absolutely necessary, I think twenty five thousand for the team for the Monifa part of the job is a much more appropriate amount. That works for me. How about you, Brewster?>>

[ Spoiler ]

It seems as if you want me to do the roll, sunnyside, so here it is.

Negotiation 4 + CHA 6 + Teamwork 1 = 11 dice: 2 hits.

Well, shit. Brewster will eat that for lunch. But I don't want to use up a point of Edge just for a few extra bucks. We've got a crazy ass spirit to deal with.

Hey, Brewster could flub.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Only 4 hits for Brewster, but still enough).

Brewster gives a little smile. <<I'm offering you a substantial sum for your skills and discretion. Well, in some ways more for your particular predilections. As for the Monifa part of the payment, you'll just have manage that yourself with her. She'll be expecting you to negotiate. It would actually be suspicious if you didn't. Don't walk away. But she doesn't know you wouldn't be willing to walk away. >>

He leans forward towards the trideo camera that must be sitting about where a chair would be in front of his desk. <<And beyond the usual payment, if you can pull this off properly, it can open up all sorts of opportunities for all of us. Just be careful to keep the two jobs compartmentalized. You don't want Monifa knowing you're operating with even slightly ulterior motives on her turf, and I don't want any of my old team, whatever shape they're in, caught up in whatever Monifa has stirred up. >>

[Thanee]

<< @Team: Okay, I think his offer is pretty good, actually. Let's do this! >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo looks at Willie with a shrug. "I tried. Hopefully I can do better with Monifa." <<Yup, I'm in.>>

<<Me, too>> Willie adds.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Based on discussion in the OOC thread that Paul might not want to speak up and wanting to keep things moving)

Brewster waits a few beats and then says <<Great. I'll ping Monfia that you're going to be coming before she gets the idea to call someone else. Soon I'll need to give her your info so her lieutenants know to watch out for you, so decide fast if you want to use a different face or name. I expect she'll want you to meet roughly as soon as you can. Sunset is at 8:22. To get a good look at the place in color you probably want to be there before then, that gives you about five hours. That might strain her patience as it is. But I'll leave it in your capable hands.

You'll also want to select your hacker, or any other teammates. A hacker can probably operate remotely, though having another asset on site can be useful. I don't anticipate blacked out areas in the gang-controlled areas. Though RF paint is pretty cheap if any of them really wanted to use it. There's an operations and maintenance tower within the structure, but I don't know if they'd be blocked off.

I've got other things to deal with, and I want to get back to Monifa in a live call. But understand that I consider this a priority. I'll always try to answer if you call. >>

At that he hangs up.

(OOC: That leaves you free to chat amongst the team or take actions. I need to deal with something IRL, but I may start dumping info on the location in the thread in anticipation of you getting the info between Paul or a hacker. )

[pbangarth]

Bongo continues the conversation. <<So, do we want to get in touch with that hacker Livewire? See what he can dig up about the building and who lives there?>>

[Thanee]

<< Wanna give the new guy a shot? I would probably have picked Angel, as we know the we can rely on her, and she certainly knows what she is doing. At least, virtually. On the other hand, if we are all supposed to get in there, she might not be too comfortable with that. So, yeah, why not. If Brewster says he is okay, we can probably trust him. He hasn't given us any reason not to. Quite the opposite, in fact. >>

[pbangarth]

Quick Willie joins in. <<I worked with Lenny out in the boondocks a couple of days back. He was pretty good at finding things out, taking over drones and things. He's a little bit on the self-protective side, but paranoia ain't always a bad thing.>>

[Thanee]

<< Sure, why not. As I said, Angel might not be ideal to go in there physically, even though she is a total wiz inside the Matrix. >>

[pbangarth]

Willie adds, <<I've worked with Lenny, so I'll see if he can drop into a meet with us to form plans. >>

<<@Lenny: Yo, chummer. Got a line on a job that could use your talents. Let me know if you're interested in making some money and I'll send you time and place for the meet.>>

[sunnyside]

Lenny had been rattled after his very first run. He'd spent the next few days at work being pretty ineffective. It occurred to him that he hadn't thought all this Shadowrunning stuff through. What if it meant doing bad things to good people? That tended to not happen on the trid. Or, He thought to himself, maybe it did, and it was just that corporate security was depicted as faceless minions, with the implication they took part in oppression or puppy kicking or something.

Well, at least on the last job he'd mostly gotten to help heal up some hurt people, and all he hurt were some really nasty critters. That was definitely a metahuman skeleton suck on one of their backs. Maybe he shouldn't be worrying about this all that much, he thought. But worry he did.

However after a week or so he did find himself standing taller, and his managers somehow didn't seem nearly so scary. He even got more confident around women, maybe not quite enough to ask his crush out just yet. But he felt himself getting closer. At the least he found himself saying "no" to more people. He wasn't sure if that helped or hurt his relationships and promotion possibilities, but it did let him focus of those comlink upgrades he could afford now, and a little more time practicing with his taser in case that came up again.

When Willie called he tried to grab onto some of that growing confidence, he found just trying seemed to get him some, and he liked that feeling.

<<Yeah. I'd be up for working with you again. Glad you liked my job. If it's somewhere remote just let me know where you'd like to meet up to ride out together, and give me a heads up on the sort of gear I should be bringing. >>

It occurred to Lenny that Brewster had said some things about running without a fixer being involved, and implied some about fixers other than himself.

<<Is this a Brewster job? Should I connect with him about it? >>

[pbangarth]

Willie responds to Lenny. << Yeah, Brewster hired us and suggested we need someone with matrix skills. That'd be you. I'll fill you in on the details. >>

Willie proceeds to do so, bringing Lenny up to speed. He suggests Lenny come to the safehouse so they can all converse in person, rather than through the matrix.

He figures Lenny might be able to hit it off with Angel if he can introduce them, and they can share skills. That cognitive upgrade is continually paying off for the street thug turned pro.

[sunnyside]

Lenny does ping Brewster just to make sure, but he was already on his way in a taxi to the safehouse. He was glad they were meeting there, he realized he doesn't know nearly as much about life downtown as he probably should have living his whole life in the city, but it doesn't sound like they're heading to a great place.

As it is this safehouse sure doesn't seem very safe from the outside. He quickly hustles across the sidewalk to the front door to get let in. Trying to simultaneously stay well aware of his surroundings while also not making eye contact with the chip heads on one side of the house of the dancing drunks on the other, and particularly not the gangsters that are definitely watching him at the door. He thinks maybe he should have already put his helmet on, and is tempted to stop and open up his bag and put it on before the door opens.

(OOC: Presuming Willie doesn't leave him hanging out there. The rest of the team would also get pings about the doorbell if they'd configured their systems that way. Paul had, and Angel has, not sure if Selina would have bothered or wanted matrix link. ).

As Lenny comes in a small drone comes wheeling around the entrance way. The small coffee cup tank that Paul got for Angel. It does a little spin to get it up on one thread.

This relaxes Lenny a bit and it appears this was to warm up the room as Angel back into hallway in their wheelchair, peering over the back.

(OOC: But presumably Willy is there to kick off conversation so I'll pause here.)

[pbangarth]

Willie answers the door, knowing ahead of time that it is Lenny, so no weapons drawn. He gives Lenny a good, friendly whack on the back as a greeting and a nod to the bikers eyeing their front door. """Great to see ya, Lenny. C'mon in."""

Willie leads the way in and brings Lenny to the others. """The gang's all here.""" He chuckles at the antics of the drone.

"""So, we gotta figure out how to start the show. Like, how are we gonna do the investigation? Are we gonna see what we can find about the building through some electro-boogie-woogie? Is there any info in the city authorities' files about some helicopter buzzing the building? That's gotta have caught some attention."""

"""You're asking some good questions Willie.""" Bongo replies. """You're taking a much more careful approach than you used to. I agree we should have some information before we step foot in the building. Monfia is expecting us, and will likely tell us what she wants us to know, but there might be more we can find out. Maybe, the registration ID of the 'copter?"""

[Thanee]

"Hey Lenny! Welcome to the team! I'm Selina," the shaman introduces herself.

Looking at Willie in particular, she asks: "Does her know all the details? If not, maybe we should start there. So we are on the same page."

"Getting any kind of info on the building would be great, like floor plans, even if they are not completely current."

[pbangarth]

"Yup. I filled Lenny in on the details we know before he got here. "Course, there's lots we don't know."

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Well, Brewster did say you could choose to add more people. Some negotiators might be able to manages something with maybe her making some of Paul's drones dance for different rates than being in person ).

Lenny manages to take the thumping from Willie as he'd been expecting something like that, but he blushes as he's introduced to Selina as he wasn't expecting her, he manages a "Hi.... I'm Lenny"

After a brief but awkward moment he spends wishing he'd just put that stupid helmet on after all his brain catches up and he starts answering questions.

Lenny says "I got the jist of it, and pinged Brewster, but didn't get any more details. " Some of his experiences on the corporate side of things start lining up as he thinks of answers to the other questions. " I can try looking up flight plans and things. But you have to appreciate that anything public facing like that is horrible to try and secure. Even amateurs can get in. It might take them days, but the system is always up so they can just keep probing until they find a weakness. When securing a system like that you have to think about what you actually care about, and they just care about aircraft not crashing into each other, not if the credentials were legit or if flights are recorded properly if there isn't a crash. If the gangers had a hacker they might have been able to get some info while the chopper was there though. "

Still peering over the back of their wheelchair so only a crest of aquamarine blue hair and a pair of eyes are visible Angel says "Could you tell me about it. I've been in the matrix and learning to make drones work well and I don't know about the run yet."

Lenny finds it easier to deal with a pair of eyes and a chair than the rest of the team so he focuses on her. "Well, I'd like to avoid the telephone game problem, so I'll let the rest of the team fill you in on most details."

Angel replies "What's a telephone or a telephone game?"

Lenny has to think of how to explain that one and just settles on "A corporate retreat kind of game. Never mind."

(OOC: There's more info Paul in particular might know. Though some research could find more of it.

The city had long known that despite the attractiveness of relative affordability, easy logistics, and containment of high-rise affordable housing that it tended to result in some very bad situations, going back to before the awakening.

From what Brewster said

"I suppose Harlem Tower 3 was supposed to be a nice place, being situated next to Harlem Inner Block Parks K101, Q112, and Za125. However as the level of effort they put into naming may suggest there was a certain lack of foresight.

Since it was a city project, they used eminent domain to level all the buildings there. What they put in is a ferrocrete and plastisteel brick about a hundred meters by a hundred meters on the ground and a hundred stories up, plus a few more stories for a parking garage below.

The key feature of these towers is they're trying to create Jeremy Bentham's panopticon for low cost housing instead of a prison. The apartments are narrow and long, kind of like from the footage you showed me of Frank's place. Except instead of doing it to give everyone a window, they do it to give everyone a visible door to the central maintenance tower."

Paul might know that adds up to a building about 300 meters tall, which pushes it into at least 20th century skyscraper heights, but its wide enough to appear squat and small from a distance. The central maintenance tower handles nearly everything that requires moving parts as far as the builders could manage. All the water is pumped up there as well as HVAC. Pressure and gravity get water and air into the apartments. Between the square "ring" of apartments and the central tower is a region dominated by pipes, ducts, and cable trays going out form the central tower to the floors cris crossed with elevators going up and down. The styling here is all skeletonized or glass to allow for better visibility and make it hard to ever rush the central tower. Catwalks are raised like folding drawbridges allowing staff in the central to access any of the floors directly to the north, south, east, or west of the tower, connecting with the "promenade" everyone has to walk along to reach their apartments.

Parking underneath the building is only for staff, deliveries and the like. The idea of a parking garage being too hard to manage and the expected tenets too poor to have much for vehicles. There's a lot of public transportation. But the original idea was that government subsidized businesses, schools, and clinics would be established in the 20 by 20 meter spaces in each "corner" of the square and people would get their needs met there instead of bothering the rest of the city.

This worked out a little bit. However overcrowding meant that the city started setting up coffin motel style pods in many of those areas. Also people started mouse holing the apartments. Creating internal paths out of sight of the central tower. So they got crime after all and eventually gave up trying to manage the apartments in the building, though they're still pretty well positioned to deal with a large riot and prevent crowds, and could deploy a SWAT team suddenly on any floor this just isn't typically done. However with the central tower they can at least keep the building going and the people inside, which seems to satisfy enough folks.

In terms of basic layout, each floor is the same. )

[Koekepan]

Paul muses to himself: ""300m, about 100m square. That's a lot of space. Not counting structural and logistical elements, 3 million cubic metres. As broad as that building is, they'll need huge HVAC facilities, probably with redundant fluid control. Real element of control is central access. Hm. OK.""

<<I want footage of that chopper. In fact, I want to know its flight history, so I want time-and-date data on that. Even if there wasn't a filed flight plan, public radar and other sensor data should give us a good idea where it came from, even if stolen, so that we could assess its background. It will also give us a good idea of the size of the team that came by it. The building's own load sensors should give us some idea how heavy it arrived and how heavy it left, if it successfully left.

<<Aside from that, I don't believe that Monifa really doesn't know who's gunning for her. She's holding out. People don't get big, mean, expensive enemies without having some idea who. This is someone big enough to pour in tens, if not hundreds of thousands of nuyen into trying to take her down, multiple times, using expert assistance. We could dance a silly congaline up and down the building, but if we don't address who's sending the killers, we're just delaying the inevitable, and by hanging around that building we're creating more heat there and less heat elsewhere. The only exception is if the source is inside the building, which might help outsiders get in - but either way we need to address that. So job one is establishing total domination of the data systems there, so that we're not operating blind, and so that we have real-world intel on what's going down. It'll also tell us more about the attackers. I bet it wasn't the same crew over and over. If someone wants a direct line on their systems, I can sneak in a drone and splice in - if you like.>>

[sunnyside]

Angel had been trying to get some experience, and have some fun, by playing Shadowrunner related VR games. An odd aspect of some of these was that you either agreed to quests or missions or didn't and got paid whatever you were supposed to get paid at the end, but it was a surprise how much it would be.

With everyone acting so straightforwardly about getting the job going she slips into this mode.

Also, without hardly having to think she likes one of those options better.

Still mostly looking over the back of the wheelchair she speaks up quickly. "Oh! I can probably look around for helicopter stuff. " Though on thinking more about it, she isn't exactly sure how to start, if Lenny is right about the air traffic control "Well, I'm not quite up to speed, but if you give me some information on the area I can start looking around for another sources that might have seen it!"

Lenny says "I can help with that. Just set something of yours in open mode and I'll shoot you the basic location and date information. "

Angel replies "Ok. Just send it to the coffee can tank! "

Lenny chuckles and messes around in AR.

He says to Paul "Having a drone in the building helps with everything. I bet I could get in from the outside though. But then you're probably going through a choke point of some point. At least they'd have an easier time dumping you if their security people suspect anything. Hacking from a drone helps a lot with targeting. "

[pbangarth]

Bongo smiles broadly. "That's great. Let's get as much information before we go in. I like the idea of a sneaky little drone crawling around the bowels of the building. I saw what they could do in Frank's building.

"Selina, any chance you could send a spirit to snoop around the building. Wouldn't it be a break if it found our flower-power free spirit still in there?"

[Thanee]

"Astral scouting is very risky, when we know there is at least someone awakened there," Selina ponders.

"We should probably wait with that until we are at the location."

[Koekepan]

Paul mutters to himself, then says: ""The volume of air pushed by an HVAC system like that would make flying drones a real challenge to get in and out. Utility spaces and crawlers are the way to go, fitted with data tap tools. I could also plant a node directly on a line. Thinking about it, with the building's administration in as much of a shambles as it is, I'll bet that a bootleg node showing up wouldn't raise many eyebrows as long as it looked harmless.""

[pbangarth]

"Alright, then. Once our Matrix gurus have done what they can to glean information, we can head over. My van can carry the lot of us, but I think Tubesnake needs to get his creepy crawlies close. Am I right?"

Bongo looks to Tubesnake for confirmation.

[sunnyside]

Angel knew Lenny was right about hacking being something highly reliable if you take your time. But she does like doing things fast! And often you don't exactly have to hack things at all! She whistles up some little matrix friends and starts hunting.

There's probably more, but she gets something quick enough to share with the team while they're still talking.

She tries to formulate proper words but it mostly comes out as excited chirps as she pushes an ARO to a video link to everyone through her little drone.

The image looks like it's taken from somebodies glasses or maybe a helmet. People tend to flick their eyes around more with contact or cybereye recorders, and a proper camera would be a whole lot steadier. It seems to be someone with a bunch of folks on the street. Crude black boxes are used to hide everyone's identity and there's no sound of their voices.

The film shows the action already in motion and a chopper already over the building. There's a Hugh's stallion punishing the roof of the building from a gun in its nose. It's hard to get a good view of the thing. It's night time. Angel annotates that the attack happened at 4:21 in the morning. Still, there's some measure of night pollution, the mostly full moon, and illumination from the gun flashes. A sudden magical fireball on the roof goes off like a firework. Since the camera is much closer to the ground than the roof you can't see what those on the roof are up to. However if they've managed to do anything to the chopper itself it isn't apparent. The flashes are what let you see that the chopper seems to be sky blue at the moment. But soon the chopper stops firing and four dark figures are lowered by cables, also vanishing from sight once they get too close to the roof.

A spirit, there aren't any big glowing bats that look like that, comes out of the building and rushes the helicopter. It stops like it hits a wall when it reaches the open passenger doors. It acts like it's in a physical fight with something that isn't visible and after a few moments it disappears entirely.

After a little less than two minutes the helicopter heads first directly upward, revealing people attached to the four cables that have been dangling down the entire time. Two are grabbing onto their cables and joining the helicopter in once again firing on the roof. The cables are being reeled in, but the helicopter gaining altitude gets them clear of the roof faster. Without having them stowed it heads off.

Angel annotates that it's heading southwest (OOC: Paul would know that's the direction to go to get outside the Baltimore Police Union's jurisdiction the fastest, it also avoids the heavier traffic near the L).

It doesn't have the people reeled in when it first starts out. At this point two of the people on cables are just dangling non-responsively, one of them upside down from the belt attachment point, the other folded over with cable attaching to the back of their belt. But it doesn't seem to take any effort on their part for the cables to winch them up. However it takes substantial effort on the part of the two people still moving to keep from getting smacked into or overly tangled in the lines. They aren't providing any meditech care, but it's unlikely they could if they wanted to. Trying to fly with four cables out without all that much spacing doesn't look like it's very safe. The video ends before they're pulled all the way in. They seem to all be wearing headgear and something like a jumpsuit with webbing around the chest and small backpacks. It's really heard to tell anything about them, but one is something big like a troll, and none of them are short enough to be a dwarf or something like that.

If there was any BPU or other aerial response it isn't visible in the two minutes and forty-seven seconds of footage.

Lenny says "The digital brochures for the place are much nicer. There's supposed to be autowatered trellises all along the sides. Maybe it was just the dark. Those just looked like bars. Well, and the death from above and gangers on the roof. They don't list those amnities. " He gives a small laugh at his own jokes.

(OOC: With appropriate knowledge skills you could try and determine some things about the chopper etc. )

[Thanee]

"Looks to me like they want something or someone from the building," Selina comments.

"Otherwise, why bother with those cables and getting people down on the rooftop."

[Koekepan]

Paul says as an aside to Bongo: ""Distance is more a matter of time than anything else, but closer is always easier.""

Paul takes particular note of the helicopter, and anything that he can tell about it with his skills, both mechanical and aeronautical.

[pbangarth]

Bongo considers Selina's point. "Maybe the attackers are after the same thing the flower spirit's team was."

He doesn't know much about the helicopter. What he can do is memorize the video and try to pick out any details that can be relevant later. Yeah, he can store the video in his commlink, too, but accessing his own memory is faster.

"It looks like Monifa has some serious firepower and magical backup. If anything else comes after her and the scaling up of attempts is any indication, it will be nasty. I'll pack for trouble."

He makes sure his backpack has all the climbing equipment, a couple each of of the distraction/smoke type grenades, lock picking materials, half the Laes-laced cigarettes, medkit and supplies and stimulant patches. Throwing weapons are handy. No point in having the holdout pistol. He stashes that and straps on the Ares Predator with ex-ex rounds. He finds a place on his Urban Explorer to put the Narcoject pistol.

Oh yeah, the weapon focus knife. Big glowing bat, indeed.

It all fits and he's still able to move spryly. He'll bring along the lined coat, more to hide his arsenal till they are inside than to wear once they are working. "I think I am ready."

Willie looks at Bongo and exclaims, "Daaaamn! You are ready to dance!"

"I hope dancing is the worst of it. Silver tongue before lead bullets, I say. But I was a boy scout, once. Or, at least I read the manual."

Willie figures he won't need to be any more secretive than Bongo. Along with his two standard FA weapons (no point in having the undetectable HK Urban combat, with Bongo hung round with metal gewgaws) he is fully armoured and will pack materials into his backpack. Flashlight, gas mask, geiger counter, radiation film badges (hey, who knows what these people are after?), water purification tablets and stim patches. The new memory blade would be nice, but it stays for the same reason the HK does. The Cougar fineblade, though, it comes. Yeah, OK, he holsters a narcoject as well. The corners of his lips turn down a bit at that.

"So, let's go and work that silver tongue to get a good deal."

[Thanee]

"Monifa said someone was gunning for her," Selina ponders. "But we do not know, yet, if that is really the case."

"She could simply be sitting on something someone wants. And they just send one team after the other instead of asking. Hopefully, talking to her will clear some of this up."

"As for the further escalation... yeah, I'm afraid, if they do not give up, they will just come back with more. Whatever that might be."

[Koekepan]

""My drones have all been patched up. I don't know if this is the right mission for spiderdoggie, but I'm ready to pack up and park somewhere. Even a little further away, then I can use a utility dolly to get things conveniently closer. Do we have a specific plan or need?""

[sunnyside]

Angel had been about to report something else she'd found, but got distracted by Tubesnake "OOh. What's a spiderdoggie?! Can I see it? Could I an my friends drive it? I've gotten so much better with the little tank right? "

She realizes people are staring at her, and, feeling unprofessional, she starts blushing, though that would be hard to spot as she ducks down behind the back of the wheelchair.

Refocusing she clears her throat and says "Also I found someone who works there that posted on social media. No video or anything cool, but they messaged somebody and said they were worried about all the gang fighting and was worried that at this rate someone in the maintenance tower could get hurt. " After the words are out of her mouth it occurred to her that maybe she should have looked at the names of people instead of just their numerical addresses. But, she thinks, names are so boring! I hope nobody minds.

Lenny isn't feeling all that much more comfortable with the crew, but feels he can reach out to Willie about something bothering him and sends him an AR message <<So are we doing some kind of child solider thing? Maybe a bring your kid to work thing? >>

(OOC: Based on the engine noise of the chopper, Paul can tell that it's been modified. But that isn't the noise of high-performance mods. Too many vibrations, and it's having to rev up too high as it moves. The audio isn't the best and the action had started by the time they were recording. But if he had to guess that's an old workhorse somebody is keeping together with elbow grease and a prayer. And a little practical help from the concealed turret gun they were using on the building. He should be able to recognize it by sound unless it gets some new fixes or modifications, even if they change the paint job after the run so it doesn't look the same. )

[Koekepan]

Paul smiles. It's hard not to be pleased by her excitement at spiderdoggie, the tarantuladrone the size of a large dog. He grabs a copy of his structural design renderings, and sends them over to her.

""There you are. That's what I've been building.""

After some consideration of the chopper, he says: ""That chopper is functional, but a bit junky. Definitely not corp-maintained. They may have subcontracted a smuggler team for its use. I'm actually surprised that they used a chopper for insertion against such a well-defended location. Normally they're pretty easy to interdict.""

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Figuring the delay means Thanee and PB would like me to keep things moving. Though even a little post lets me know you're read up and just want me to keep rolling. )

Angel looks at the schematics. They sort of make sense to her, but not really. Not the way a working VR model would. She doesn't want to say that exactly, so she settles on "These look really cool. Does it work? Could I see it? Maybe have access? "

Meanwhile Lenny is considering the other part Paul's statement. "Well, the thing was going after a city run low-or-no income apartment complex. Maybe they expected to just be able to touch down without any opposition. In any case it looks like they managed whatever was on the roof easily enough.

Actually, on that note." He says, and drifts off while he messes around in AR. "Huh. Well, I'm beginning to get a sneaky suspicion that there's a general shortage of cameras pointed up on buildings. Everybody is look at doors and windows instead of the stars. I might be able to hunt around in security cameras, if they haven't deleted the footage. Even something aimed horizontally can see upwards to a fair altitude if it's far enough away. But I think you hit woods eventually on that path. They might pop out somewhere that some camera could spot them. "

Angel starts listening as he goes on. "Can you tell that helicopter from others at a distance? "

Lenny frowns. "Well, maybe not. I could try though. "

Momentarily thinking about things more broadly brings him to think about something he's now much more anxious about. "If we're going to talk to people there. Well, that's a little freaky. Maybe we should go forward with the plan of getting access to the city systems. Or even better getting a drone in there. What we want eyes on are where we might be meeting. I guess they don't have a reason to ambush us. But still. Well, anyway I'm open to suggestions. Don't let my paranoia get to out of control and bother you. " He gives another awkward little chuckle.

[Thanee]

Selina nods to Lenny. "Those are sound ideas. Anything we can get in terms of information about what we are heading into, without raising any suspicion, could be useful later on. I will get a look at the astral side, once we are near the building. As for spotting the helicopter. I doubt there are that many flying around and most importantly towards our building at that hour. So, if there is one on any of those, it is likely the one that we are looking for."

"And I really doubt that the gangers will ambush us. They know that we are there to do that job for them, after all. Still, doesn't hurt to keep our eyes open, even in the beginning. And, of course, have each others back, if the need arises."

[Koekepan]

""There are publically available radar records. They track commercial flights as well as others. A real nap-of-the-earth flyer can sometimes get away with it, but usually in hills or other very cluttered environments and if you're that low then every camera with a view of the horizon would pick you up. Also, I'm not convinced, based on the people dangling from the ropes, that it went all that well for them. Mission not accomplished, and casualties sustained. As for chopper identification, odds are good. Its engine is not running up to spec for some reasons - might be the wrong engine or a bad setup or maintenance - but regardless of the reasons that adds to the signature.""

[sunnyside]

Lenny says "Hmmm. Well, it'll take a bit, but I can check air traffic control in case they didn't delete themselves out of it. There might be some other systems they didn't scour, maybe other aircraft or something? There's a fair bit of traffic between choppers, drones, and the odd T bird as you get near the ports and main corridor. But you might have a point that there shouldn't be nearly so much as you get near our lovely destination. "

He thinks a little bit more.

"If we have any time first, do you think it would be safe to a run a little caravan through there? That would let us get a bead on wireless stuff in the vicinity, and let magic lady do her magical stuff."

he blushes again a little bit and again awkwardly says "hi" and gives a little wave to Selina from near his waist.

[Koekepan]

""We could run a caravan at least past there. Or simply some rental maintenance drone to run by. It doesn't even have to look as if it has much to do with the building - it comes from elsewhere, goes elsewhere, but in its path it does a street-level pass to the building, then up, over, down the other side and onwards. Plenty of opportunity for scans.""

[pbangarth]

Bongo adds, "Wanna do that now, before we introduce ourselves? Willie could drive while you guys do your control thing."

[sunnyside]

Angel ducks a bit further down the chair. "Uhhh. How about I handle all the things with the radar and stuff. Lenny could send me addresses of things to hack as you go, and I'll stay here?" Angel knows that Brewster wants her to be more mobile, and she's been working hard, but it's still really scary out there.

Lenny isn't exactly thrilled either. He's now having a hard time looking at folks, but eventually screws up his posture and tries to look and sound confident. After all they're just driving around. It's a bad neighborhood, but Willie seemed pretty tough and the rest probably are too. Maybe the cars have pop up machineguns if any go gangs show up.

He says "I figure any magical types need to be there in person. Drones are pretty good for matrix stuff, though in person's probably still better. But in any case we need to get there physically eventually right? So this might just give us a little time to get the lay of the place. And, you know, make sure we're on time.

If you all can keep us out of trouble. "


(Scene shifting can be a little tricky for groups. You're free to assume that Lenny will come along if you head out. He's carrying all the gear he'd bring at the moment. He'd have to go back to his apartment for anything else. Angel would require some convincing if you want her to come in person. )

[pbangarth]

Willie has been listening to the conversation, trying to figure out what the plan actually is. Eventually he gets around to Lenny's message. <<Angel is some kind of rescue from a corp facility. She is whiz in the Matrix and doesn't need a deck to do it. I think she is one of those. Pretty good at it from what Bongo tells me. Don't let her age or lack of street experience fool you. And I ain't much older. I suspect she could eat things in the Matrix for breakfast.

<<My kinda gal if she was ork and three times her size. >>

[Koekepan]

Paul says: ""OK, if we're moving out, which vehicles are we taking? I'd rather not compromise the van too much if we don't have to. My drones are pretty small so I can drag a few along if it comes to that.""

[pbangarth]

Bongo replies, "We can use my Range Rover if necessary. Doesn't have drone bays or anything, but it'll drive through a lot of drek. I hope we can park inside the building somewhere seeing as we are looking to work for Monifa."

[sunnyside]

Lenny says "Uh. I don't think Monifa has an official position that would help with parking permits. I bet I could swing something there, though over an extended period of time there might be issues with people asking too many questions about a vehicle. Well, I guess we'll just have to ask. In any case I don't have a ride. A range rover should fit everybody right? I just mentioned a convoy because it sounds safer if anything happens. But that might be the paranoia about that part of town."

Conversations threads finally catch up to him, after he processes the message from Willie and he finally registers Bongo talking about introductions.

"Oh, and I'm Lenny. Hacker working for Brewster, did a run with Willie here already. Pretty crazy stuff. Lotta action. "

Then he turns towards Selina and says "And that was Selina. "

"hi"


He turns to the chair.


"and I guess that's Angel back there? "


Angel doesn't pick up on that exactly at all and has actually started communicating with Paul over coms instead of really paying attention to the conversation. "Hey. I still have a little money left over after the run. Could I get some kinda flying drone? I've seen ones that look like little helicopters. Can drones just fly anywhere they want? I could try flying around where the helicopter was and scan for cameras actually pointed at the sky. I'm getting a bit better at working out the wireless stuff. Maybe I could trace it back that way to where it came from or where it went? Maybe they're really expensive though.... and we don't have much time. "

Lenny just looks in her direction awkwardly while she stares at Paul .

[Koekepan]

Paul looks back at Angel, but answers her vocally rather than electronically.

""You could surely get a flying drone. Plenty of off-the-shelf models in various sizes depending on your budget. What you might wanna do is get one, but leave enough in your budget so you can add a few extra sensors. I can do that for you, easy enough. Where they can fly kinda depends on size, though. The bigger they are, the more rules and regulations. If it's the size of a big insect, you're mostly good to go.""

[sunnyside]

Angel replies. This time verbally, though with the chair angled so she's facing Paul but hidden from the other guys, with her back toward Selina.

"Oh. Uh. Since you've helped out with some freebies and Brewster has been making training cheap I think I could get something like this. "

She flips Paul an AR image of a MCT-Nissan Rotor drone. Wherever she got the pic of, it's an old model. They were actually more expensive back then, but on the used market they've had to drop below the price of the new ones, which, since the picture looks new, might be what she actually wants.

Lenny is somewhat left hanging. But he starts speaking again.

"Hey. Uh. So just to get a go on things how about we let the fellow with the Rambler drive me, the guy who doesn't want to drive his van, and Selina"

"Hi" followed by another wave.

"And then Angel stays in the house, and Willie goes ahead and looks scary. He's pretty good at that. "

We can handle introductions and details in the car. Sorry, if I seem pushy I've just had to deal with a LOT of meetings what went to long and then I'm late to something. Often meetings with a scary boss in regular life too. "

While he waits for people to reply he spaces off just a little as he wonders why he managed to say that here to a bunch of people with guns, but not back at the office.

[Koekepan]

Paul waggles a hand to Angel. ""Maybe. Maybe not. If it's second-hand you should get it checked out - I can do that for you. In fact, you should get a new one checked out for unwanted tags and other goodies too. Anyway, let me get locked down and bring a bag of fun for Willie's ride out."" With that, he wanders off to lock down his van thoroughly, but not before bringing a hefty rolling case with small drones, cables and ancillary supplies.

[Thanee]

"The Rover has an autopilot, yes? You could just have it drop us off and park in the vincinity. Maybe that would be safer, too. For the car, I mean. I could also have Fiona keep an eye on it, until it is at a safe place."

Selina chuckles lightly, when Lenny tries to point out who is who. What's a Rambler, though? Clearly, he is talking about Bongo.

"Also, what Lenny is trying to say oh so subtly is... you guys havn't introduced yourselves, yet."

[sunnyside]

Angel figure Paul is probably right. She doesn't exactly want to argue with him, but she's not used to having people hear what she says unless she hits "send" or is in full VR so anyone listening close could hear her whine to herself "But I want in noooowwww."

She also not used to having to wait for most things more than a few microseconds.

"Reality sucks" she continues to mumble as she curls up in the seat of her drone wheelchair.

Since Lenny can't see her he feels like he shouldn't reply. He also feels like he shouldn't jump in on the other conversation. At least nobody is trying to threaten him to see if he's tough. He was worried about that.

[Koekepan]

Paul, between rounds of trundling around his box of gear and locking his van up tight including the kill switches, says to Angel: ""Hey, remember that you can't hack a machine that doesn't exist. That includes all the sticky little wires and cables that make it work. If you want to get inside the machine, sometimes it helps to start by getting inside the machine.""

[pbangarth]

"Okay," says Bongo. "Autopilot it is, then. No point wasting Fiona watching a vehicle."

He looks around. "Sorry, I thought we all knew each other. I'm Bongo Slade, drummer extraordinaire and many other talents. My buddy here, Quick Willie, " Willie nods to all, including the shy, hiding one. "Is almost as good on wheels as he is with a firearm."

"Yup. Lenny knows me and has seen some," Willie adds.

[sunnyside]

Angel remains basically oblivious. There's little reason to introduce names online when your tag is generally visible over your head, and really, shouldn't everyone's AR interface do the same thing? She doesn't think this in detail, simply believes introductions mean explaining what it is that you can do, which is mostly required because shadowy types don't have proper profiles setup on their avatars or comlinks. However, she mentioned that she could fly a drone around can try to hack cameras, which is what she does, so she figures she's done.

Lenny is a bit more aware of the reality, and some social norms. At the moment this is just torment. For one he's pretty sure he called "Bongo's" Range Rover a Rambler a minute ago, and maybe he just missed the dwarf's name. He makes up his mind to get it somehow or other without pressing the issue.

Mostly just wants to get a change of scenery before he starts sweating profusely. Maybe do some useful things. Though he felt like he did some good stuff with Willie, so that might help if they start gossiping over their subvocals.

He shakes his head, and, not especially wanting to lead the conversation but not wanting to stay here says.

"Willie, does your bike have an autopilot? Where you could cruise ahead while we scope out the scene in the Rover, and then it could go off on its own while meeting Monifa? Well, unless you feel decently about any of the parking in the area as we look around. In any case it I think he seems ready." Lenny nods his head towards Paul,

"Let's get rolling. I'd like to at least get some feel for the area and Brewster said we shouldn't keep Monifa waiting too long. "


Angel is still a little pouty about not getting something right away, and doesn't care about the logistics of driving off since she has no intention of leaving.

She says to Paul, using actual words this time "How about I ask Brewster to get one? That's the sort of thing he's supposed to be good at right? Like, professionally? Maybe you could still look at it quick?"

[pbangarth]

"Yeah, yeah, my Mirage has autopilot. I can send it home when I want to. Never as much fun as burning up the streets, though." A toothy grin from Willie follows. "Sure. Let's get going. I'm itching to do something."

Bongo chimes in, "Alright. Let's pack into my Rover and enjoy the ride. The reality is we don't actually have the job till we negotiate with Monifa. I'll take point on that if it's OK with you." He points to the back door beyond which the vehicles await.

[Koekepan]

""Angel, if you're in a hurry for a 'bot of some sort, the fastest way is to go straight to Stuffer Shack and get a Bust-a-Move straight off the shelf. Cheap, quick and minimally functional. On the other hand, it's probably stuffed full of tags, and won't do much more than scoot around. Working through a third party will basically always be slower. So why don't you go get something now, let me scan and clear it, and then you can later mod it with whatever you want?""

[sunnyside]

Lenny isn't sure where the vehicles are, but he's eager enough to get going.

This has been a lot of people talking for Angel too. Sure folks had been around the place, but usually not all crowded around at once. Mostly she's pouting about the drone situation. She doesn't want a bust a move, she wants a helicopter and she wants one now. She tries to figure out how to professionally ask Brewster for one.

She sends a message with the image she sent to Paul. <<I'd like one of these, please>>

He'd mentioned the words please and thank you, though she isn't sure you should use it in a case like this.

She sinks down lower as she realizes she probably needed to send more detail <<It's for the job. I can pay as long as it isn't too much. Like, less than the last job paid.>>

Glumly she realizes this is "negotiating" and she's pretty sure that some of the others are supposed to be better about that. She makes a mental note to figure out how to ask them to do that in the future.

Out loud she mumbles "I've asked Brewster about one. Maybe you can look at it when it arrives?"

[Thanee]

Selina is ready to move on. "Alright, let's get this on the road!"

She checks the time, always good to know when the sun goes up or down, when you are a shaman. It has quite some importance, especially when it comes to negotiating with the spirit world.

Once outside, the elf heads towards the front passenger door.

[Koekepan]

Paul turns to Angel from packing up. ""Sure thing, I gotcha. Probably a few minutes unless they got cute and embedded tags in the composites - but that's usually more work than they want.""

[sunnyside]

(Alright, I'll get this rolling. I'll leave it ambiguous where Paul jumps in the Rover or stays with Angel while the others scout. )

If Angel could get eyes on them, she'd be much more impressed with the Rover 2068 and the Mirage for a Shadowrunning team compared to Tubesnake's van. Even without extra add-ons, the Rover is a van with a spoiler. It looks blocky and tough, with its long backward swept antenna whip giving it a military look. But these made it popular enough with people who didn't want to be known as the sort of people who need a third row of seats that it doesn't stick out, except perhaps for being a little upscale. And the Mirage is slick as always.

Lenny gets in behind Bongo and gives Selina another "hi."

As the group heads out first things get nicer and more congested as they cross from their area on boarder of the east wing of the butterfly into and through the "L". The looming structures blocking out what remains of the natural sunlight this time in the afternoon, but making up for it in with artificial lighting, as much from hung LED array screens showing ads as any planned streetlights.

Soon the group on the other side, and soon there aren't any more actual skyscrapers, just uptown structures squatting on three and four story buildings, and soon that starts thinning out and you just have blocks of mostly rowhomes. Many boarded up, though, with the boards removed from where the doors should be, maybe not abandoned. The traffic is light out here, and the Baltimore Police Union does not seem to have a great deal of presence. Willie gets the feeling this is the sort of place he could really open up the throttle.

Gangers of the pedestrian and Go Ganger varieties, though primarily or entirely composed of Orcs, stare at the traffic going by, with it being hard to tell if they especially care or if they're just really board. Some metahumans lurching around like zombies seem to find everything fascinating.

(OOC: Depending on how he wants to play it, Willie should make some sort of social test, with Intimidation or etiquette being the most natural, to those in this area to avoid getting hassled. It's hard to be particularly expressive with an SUV. But either way you get to the building, this would be more applicable as you loop around.)

Sitting among these smaller structures, Harlem Tower 3 is massive, its companions off in the distance also clearly visible.

Staring at it, Lenny says "Esh. It really looks better in the materials online where its covered in greenery and flowers. It said those systems were supposed to be automatic. I wonder if they busted or if they just stopped being willing to reseed."


As he mentions, and as was partially shown in the video of the helicopter attack, the greenery is mostly dead, leaving behind the bar like black trellises. On a closer look in the daylight there are still some plants growing here and there, and in other spots the trellises have been knocked out. This is especially frequently the case in the upper floors. Most of the windows seem to be intact, though with some yellowing, if anyone zooms in, indicating being partially or wholly polymer based. Bongo's mind starts automatically filling away this information, so he'd have a pretty good idea anywhere in the building where to go depending on if he wants to find intact or missing windows or trellises.


To Fionas or Selinas senses the Tower is even worse. They've gotten to enjoy the elevators in their place at 414 Light or Mike's at the Tourmaline lifting them out of the pervasive but low level background count the downtown Baltimore generates. Maybe because of the massive number of people and their conditions the Tower is worse. At least a background count of two. Not a place a Spirit would want to stay, unless its aspect matched the local mana or more likely was straight up toxic. The flower spirit Brewster is interested in didn't look toxic, and certainly seemed to be helping a metahuman that wasn't its caster in the video. A giant glowing bat flying around the building in the astral plane, like the one from the helicopter video, has a bit more of that twisted look, and flies erratically near and sometimes dipping into the building, with the trellises and walls not impeding its astral form.

Anyone looking might note that nobody seems to be hanging out on the balconies on this beautiful day.

They also might spot an actual presence of BPU as a few cars escort busses coming to and from in front of the building.

It looks like parking might not be a problem. Spots like Harlem Inner Block Park Za 125 don't have a lot of buildings around them, and despite the nearby Harlem Tower 3, the street parking isn't filled up, or even metered, at least not by the city.

There's also still a lot of open grass one could hop up on near the thundering Franklin-Mulberry expressway just to the south, full of Road Trains hauling shipping containers out of Baltimore's crowded Harbors to the rest of the UCAS.

Folks are loitering around in the parks and sidewalks, but not by the expressway. As a nice breeze picks up, discarded foil containers from the nutrition packets the city gives out waft around in the air like low grade chaff. In the rearview mirror a ways back Bongo might spot some more BPU vehicles leading in some trucks that look like the one giving those out back at the safehouse towards the Tower.

[Koekepan]

Paul sits in the back of the Rover, next to a folded seat where he stacked his rolling cargo bins. He takes in the rich cultural ambience of Baltimore, experiencing the visual language of entropic development and liminal socio-political spaces with a connoisseur's eye to the layered applications of purpose and context over a dense tapestry of historic construction.

For now, he also sets aside his hard hat, favouring the ballcap and goggles.

[pbangarth]

As they pull up to the building, Willie guns the motor of his Mirage before he stops the bike. He looks around, projecting the image of one who has killed and is prepared to do so again. Easy to project the truth. If no challenge from the gangers in the neighbourhood materializes, he instructs the bike to go home and park in their spot.

Bongo pulls in behind Willie and parks. The background count sucks energy from him, making mana harder to access. He grimaces, and says to Selina, "Damn. This place tastes awful. Gonna be tough to be in top form inside this thing."

He steps out from the driver's seat and waits for the others to exit as well before instructing the vehicle to go home.

[sunnyside]

Willie is aware of a lot of eyes on him as that give the building a look over (OOC: Presuming they at least go around once for Bongo to get the layout) but none of them try anything.

There are loading docks on the north side of the building, but the main entrance is on the south side. There are only emergency exists on the east and west.

The south entrance is a gaping maw though., with a ramp going down to the garage in the middle and wide pedestrian access on either side. Old consoles, more fitting for the 2050s, exist on the side. (OOC: With a single hit Bongo could remember one of the young homeless adults from the park under the Tourmaline, mostly trying to get into public housing, working something out on one of the consoles while looking nervously around the place.

Most people just walk in, and a recent bus has disgorged a load of them. Though for folks presumably coming home from work they seem to mostly lack enthusiasm for arriving. Some are comfortable, but most seem on edge.

There are no guards, but plenty of cameras.

Inside you're pretty free to walk around ferrocrete floor. The central maintenance tower does have doors on this level, but they're heavily reinforced, and built to look like it. Relatively "open" cage style elevators form a ring as they go up full of partially visible people to the many floors. You can see all the way to the underside of the roof from the bottom level. Though even with the various metal walkways and elevators all being partially see through most of the time it isn't a clear view. There are a few spots where something could fall top to bottom in between all that, and someone could get pretty crazy with parkour here.

This level seems to have some cheap bars and restaurants, though it looks like most are for take away only. Possibly because it's an enclosed building, some folks are openly drinking. There are a few beggars, but not as many as one might expect. Possibly because the crowd here seems to take no interest.

Near the entrance the small is pretty decent as the building seems to suck in air from the outside, but a few unpleasant whiffs can be caught here and there.

Lenny says to the group "Well, do we want to try and look around or just go ahead and give Monifa notice we're here and to send somebody to get us up there without trouble. Also, can I wear my helmet?"

Without asking he pings Angel to let her known they've arrived. She replies back to the group. <<Aw. You're already there? Brewster hasn't gotten me my drone yet! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) >>

[Thanee]

When Bongo mentions the astral taint, Selina nods in agreement. "Yes, I can feel it, too. There is a taint here, which will make it hard to do much."

While they are still outside, Selina and Fiona take their time to get a good look at that spirit and whatever else they can see from the outside. Focusing their senses on the astral, Selina mostly points out a few things she can see, but leaves the main task to Fiona, who is much more at home there, naturally.

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing the spirit and the environment from the outside (with -2 visibility modifier).

Selina (Teamwork) -> 2 hits
Fiona -> 7 hits

As Lenny asks about the next steps, Selina says: "Honestly, after seeing it up close, I don't see much of a point in trying any astral reconnaissance here. And there is this spirit on patrol also, that might not like that too much. Even approaching the building astrally might set it off. So, yeah, I would say we get in touch with Monifa. We can still look around, while we get to her." She shrugs and adds. "Helmet should be fine. I brought one, too." Hers is more of a motorcycle helmet fitting with her outfit, the black bodysuit she also wore when she first arrived at the safehouse with her bike.


<< @Angel: Things just move a lot slower in real life. It is what it is. >>

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake takes a quiet moment while the others discuss the nature of things that he can't see, to flip open part of the lid of the top crate, and extract a Fly-Spy and an annelid. Then he locks the crate up again, and checks the electronics.
""Let me know what you want checked out, folks. I have options, but advance warning is better.""

[sunnyside]

Assessing the spirit carefully, Fiona determines that it's a force 5 spirit of fire. In brief moments when it looks like it's outside the area of the background count that doesn't jump up. Implying it isn't being affected the way spirits typically would. That background count, which Fiona shortly gets to experience up close and personal, or at least Selina does if Fiona holds back, is a nasty thing carrying a cocktail of negative emotions from the crowded masses stacked here. The sprit doesn't give the impression of being completely toxic. But there might well be a twisted of some sort about to be able to fit the aspect of this domain.

Another thing Fiona noticed was that the background count on the roof seemed a little different. Maybe something left over from the fight earlier. Being twisted isn't a path to ignoring the effects of every roiling of the mana in the astral. Things might be even up there. Though again, the spirit seems to be on patrol instead of any sort of attack pattern.

She also catches sight of someone stepping out on their balcony. The spirit doesn't materialize, but seems to deviate from its path to cross through the astral shadow of the ork who had stepped out. The ork doesn't seemed harmed, but they quickly take their large rolled blunt and heads back inside.

Lenny breathes a sigh of relief as he puts on his helmet. The cameras interfacing with his systems to give him an all-around AR view.

He says "Alright Bongo, I could ping her, but maybe you ought to. "

Even though he could keep looking at the actual building and the people in it. He finds himself picking around information online. Getting a thought he replies to Paul.

"Hey. So I don't know if it's anything you can use. But those trellises should be blooming. The public facing info on this place says the systems outside of the maintenance tower are supposed to only require very minor maintenance. But that's different than no maintenance. I guess I'm not exactly sure how stuff not working is helpful, but stuff might not be working. "

Angel doesn't think to reply as they pout and wonder what they might be able to do, at least Brewster indicated he'd get something to her "soon".

[pbangarth]

"Thanks, Lenny. I'll contact her. Good call on the maintenance. By the feel of the astral, there might be a magical component to the general dying of the plant life."

Bongo fires off a message to Monifa at the link Brewster provided. He copies the team members so they know what he said. <<Team from Brewster here. Ready to talk job and price.>>

[Koekepan]

""No problem, I can send up a FlySpy right now and get an assessment of what's up with the trellises. That should also get me a visual map of facilities on the outside like water delivery and telemetry. You want that now, or should I wait until we park?""

[sunnyside]

""No problem, I can send up a FlySpy right now and get an assessment of what's up with the trellises. That should also get me a visual map of facilities on the outside like water delivery and telemetry. You want that now, or should I wait until we park?""

(OOC: Pbangarth is skipping to being out of the vehicles, however as I don't want to make it harder to move along, feel free to have released something prior to arriving, much as Thanee had her character and spirit assensing from the outside)

Lenny puts his hands up "I have no idea about building maintenance. Don't ask me to deal with anything that can't access the matrix. I just thought that seemed like your kind of thing. " Lenny worries that it isn't actually his thing, but everyone seems to have responded positively to his comment. He decides to follow his corporate training and not risk spoiling a good thing by keeping talking.

(OOC: Presuming Bongo at least gives a breadcrumb from his comlink so they can find him in AR.)

He gets a message back << Stay where you are on the first floor, we'll send some people down. >>

Of course, there are a fairly steady stream of people coming and going. Though at this time of day it's distinctly many more coming. Others are moving around on the elevators or stairways, their bodies visible to varying degrees though the slots in the metal.

That said, those with a feeling for etiquette (OOC: 2 hits) will notice that the team sticks out in the crowd. Even if someone doesn't notice the armored clothing or other items, the team's gear has a certain quality and state of newness or at least repair that doesn't match. There's also something of a downtrodden nature to many here. Except the gangers in charge of various levels or territories or however this place is divided up, at least presumably that's who those folks are. However they tend to spend time noticing each other.

Eventually it becomes apparent why so many people are out and about on the promenades on the different levels. Those floors are solid, but you can see people assembling on the floors on the opposite sides of the building. The food packet truck Bongo saw in the rear view mirror earlier must have unloaded its cargo. Catwalks descend like retractable bridges, connecting the maintenance tower to the many floors of the building. A small army of cargo drones roll out, and start dispensing the food packets. They seem to be willing to give out two food packets to each person. Some try to talk to them, but while the gangers seem to get first place in line, if they line up, generally everyone just shoves people forward, impatient to get their own. It looks like the crowd could carry off a drone if they wanted to, or smack one around, but they must somehow have learned not to. (OOC: You all have enough perception to also notice some dead bodies brought out, that the drones drag back into the maintenance tower. Nobody seems very bothered about that. With this many people a certain rate of death would have to just be normal, especially given Ork lifespans as at least three fourths of the people here are Ork.)

Eventually a group of five gangers with significantly better gear approach the team. All of them are Ork, looking to be in better health and with shiny leather gear and barely concealed pistols and submachineguns. (OOC: On a biomed 2 you'd be able to notice that two of them seem to still be recovering from wounds, likely bullet, though at this point only light wounds. On just perception you could notice some are hurt. )

A male Ork with a rather impressive pompador haircut matching his black leathers and black Colt Cobra takes the lead he raises his upper lip on one side of his face to give something between a smile and a sneer and wordlessly waves at the team to follow him as he turns and heads back towards the elevator they got out of.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake elects to lie back in the Range Rover, so that he can go full AR on a FlySpy. Besides, ain't it nice to have a burglar alarm that can do more than make noises?

He sends the little cybercritter flying up, starting with a closer look at the exterior of the building to get an overview of its exterior maintenance condition. He does know that people will grow plants to somehow interfere with magic, although the details escape him, so whatever he can tell his desperate confederates about that will be on the agenda, especially if it looks as if external sabotage played a role. Then he sends the FlySpy down to hitch a ride on Bongo's shoulders into the building.

<<Bongo, I'm dropping my microdrone on your shoulders to nestle in your clothing on the way in there. Saves a little battery, and that way I can map where you are and all that too. Just don't slap it, please.>>

Inside, Tubesnake makes sure that his Remington 990 is in easy reach, rather than buried beneath cables, and loaded. No point being a burglar alarm without a noisemaker.

[pbangarth]

<<<Roger. I"ll keep the Rover here, then. Don't let them scratch her paint job.>>>

Bongo loves fluid plans. It's like jazz improvisation. At its best, magic happens even with the mundane. Sometimes you bomb.

He follows the leader. Willie takes up the rear. Weapons are holstered or shouldered. <<<You're lucky, Willie. The magic in this place tastes awful. >>>

<<<Probably the same as where I grew up.>>> Willie responds. <<<A lot of the ordinary stuff tasted bad, too. I ate it anyway.>>> He chuckles, drawing a look from the escort.

As they approach the elevator, Bongo is about to compliment the ork's hairdo, in Or'Zet, but thinks better of it. No sense letting them know. Who knows what info might slip out?

Willie notices Bongo about to say something, then hold back. <<<What, Bongo?>>>

Bongo replies, <<<Kept to myself I can speak Or'Zet.>>>

<<<Good idea. I'll hold back too. Who knows what info might slip out?>>>

Bongo bites his lip.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Are you keeping the Rover nearby the building or heading off somewhere? )

The flyspy doesn't need a lot of time to get a feeling for what's wrong with the plants. The watering systems are clogged. Plants wrapping around them, roots growing into them, maybe sometimes bugs or internal crud. Since some are still watering some of the plants they must not have shut off the water, it just isn't always getting out. Of course plants die for a lot of reasons if they aren't replaced, and there's probably a limit to how many Nicostick butts and trash they can handle in their planter. One might be able to criticize the design, but really it seems like it just lacks basic maintenance out here. The ad copy indicated they weren't supposed to require maintenance, but there are practical limits to that.

Inside riding with the team what Paul would notice different from the rest with the flyspy is that the signal strength stays high. Nothing blocking it at all, at least not here outside the maintenance tower. All that metal scaffolding must be counteracted by a lot of digital devices.

In the elevator the group rides in silence a moment. People heading off with their packs has led to some trouble, or perhaps there's just a regular amount of shouting and screaming when this many people are near each other if you have the sort of augmented senses the team has. If you ever feel like wandering barging into an apartment to be a hero it might not be hard to find an opportunity. The elevators slides past.

Eventually the Ork with the pompadour speaks. "I'm Jett. Let me give you some free advice. We're bringing you in to do a job, but don't go putting on airs. Nobody here, especially Monifa, got where they are by tolerating disrespect from outsiders. Get me? "

He looks around as the elevator climbs "Maybe you can mess with someone obviously not with Monifa's crew. But not us. "

The other Orks try to look casual while alternating between eyeing over members of the team, and keeping an eye out on everyone outside the elevator. Not quite as good a view as the maintenance tower has, but from the elevator you can still see most of the entryways on any gives floor and most of the promenade circling the building on each floor between the doors and the central open area with elevators, stairs, and, for a little longer, the catwalks that fold back up to the maintenance tower.

(OOC: In part because I'm out of time I'll pause here for a beat, but I can continue on with the elevator ride if folks don't want to particularly get up to anything here.)

[Koekepan]

Paul thinks to himself about the maintenance problem. The real question is, as always, how much the denizens care. If they like the fresher air and the privacy afforded by the plants being alive and well, then they might scratch together some cash for a little drone gardening - but if it failed owing to outright neglect from an advanced case of not giving a frag what happens to green things, then there's no play there. Still, a few snips and tugs from properly equipped flatworkers would be easy to arrange, and an easy payday.

[pbangarth]

Wow. A chance to frag the job even before we get to meet Ms. Johnson. Bongo replies, "It never pays to piss off the client. We get hired, we'll do our job. End of story."

He makes note of the disturbances and the opportunities they might provide.

[Thanee]

Fiona also stays in the Rover for now, but in her astral form, that does not make much of a difference for Tubesnake, who is still inside. No reason to go into that messy area, until it is really necessary. And since the car is close enough, the ally spirit can stay within the radius of Selina, where she can help her out, if needed.

[ Spoiler ]

Spirit Range is summoner's Magic x 100m

Inside the elevator, she simply nods towards the ork. "Yeah, no worries. We are not here to mess with you. Quite the opposite, in fact."

[pbangarth]

In fact, while the ride continues, Bongo gets a good look at a couple of the "incidents" they notice.

[ Spoiler ]

Multi-Tasking gives Bongo two Free Actions per Initiative Pass when not in combat and makes Observe in Detail a Free Action, so I'll roll a couple of Perception Tests. Just because. You never know what info might slip out.

1) Perception 7 + INT 5 = 12 dice: 4 hits
2) 12 dice: 4 hits

[pbangarth]

Willie tries to determine the state of the guides' armour: any damage, what quality.

[ Spoiler ]

I dunno, Perception or Armorer, so I'll roll both.
Perception 3 + INT 5 + vision enhancement 3 = 11 dice: 5 hits
Armorer 1 + LOG 4 = 5 dice: 1 hit

[sunnyside]

Jett just nods at the replies, seemingly satisfied.

That does let Bongo focus a bit on the sounds. The one thing that sticks out as he tries to sort out disturbances and noise is that nothing too horrible is happening on any of the promenades. Though he also notices that there are prominent cameras mounted on the maintenance tower watching all those areas. Their prominence really sticking out, as there's no need to have cameras so big or bulky nor to not conceal their presence or direction under a sphere of one way glass. All the trouble seems to be happening behind closed doors. Unfortunately, they aren't yelling or screaming out informative details. However, with his spatial memory, Bongo is pretty sure he could find where things had gone down accurately.

He also notes that the "corners" which are supposed to have things like restaurants, clinics, schools, or jobsites seem to be particular sources of trouble, and have a lot of people heading back with their packs similarly to how people are going into their homes. Bongo also notices that too many people seem to be going into the apartments.

Everyone is wearing armored clothing of various types. Bongo (or others) could on inspection spot recent patches that likely indicate where a bullet would have gone. They don't stick out much on the black outfits though. Selina could have done better, but the fixes are reasonably functional and keep the armor looking new from a distance. Any blood has also been cleaned off. The exact armor type varies as some are wearing jackets and others trench coats, but fairly standard stuff, and doesn't seem to have the complex layering popular with some runners, though Jett does seem to have some sort of arm bracers or something ridged under there.

As the elevator reaches the top floor the team is ushered into one of the apartments with a gesture to the open door from Jett. However, it's immediately obvious that it isn't an apartment anymore. The walls have been knocked down allowing five apartments to function like one large room. Though structural pillars, pipes and some electrical cabling, and the five bathrooms, with the original doors intact, and attached kitchen appliances are still there.


There's a good two dozen additional gangers present here. At least they definitely aren't trying to copy the greaser look that Jett sort of has going. The common thread is black armored clothing, usually shiny and always in reasonably good repair, it would make them stand out among the more mixed fashions and relatively scuffed gear on the other floors. Some gangers get more creative with their look that others, the most common outfit is probably the armored trench coat with submachinegun and black shades and a crew cut.

Monifa sits on a large recliner, set on top of a forklift pallet to get it an extra six inches up in the air. She sticks out. Her pants match the gangs black and shiny theme, but her muscular form under a tank top makes her visually pop out from the rest. The outfit doesn't really leave much room for concealed weapons anywhere but the boots, but she has an Auto Assault 16 shotgun with its rather large ammo drum propped up against the chair.

She gives a toothy Orkish smile "Welcome, welcome. I know you negotiate in dark bars or whatever, but somebody keeps trying to geek me, so I need to keep the crew around. Grab a chair and have a seat."

She indicates the short table in front of her and a bunch of rolling office chairs off to the side. Standard black ones with armrests and a mech back. Behind her the back of the room seems to be used as storage, with all sorts of boxes piled up among assorted odds and ends or the occasional pistol or SMG.

(OOC: Could you indicate how your characters make their entrance and the gear/look they have. Actually, I think you mostly have that early if you're up for a copy paste. )

[Thanee]

Selina is dressed in a black bodysuit, much akin to a biking outfit. She has taken off her helmet during the elevator ride. She is wearing orange sunglasses and (barely visible) earbuds.

There are no weapons, neither open nor concealed. Her only other piece of equipment is a black messenger bag, which contains some of her stuff, like her commlink, a flashlight, and some forearm and shin protectors for extra protection in case the helmet is not too appropriate; probably similar to what Jett has under his armored jacket.

She nods towards Monifa. "Oh, that's okay. We have been to all kinds of places. Looks like you and your crew could handle the heat pretty well. So, from what we understand, our job will be to figure out the who and more importantly the why more than do something about it? We could probably use a few more details here to fill in the blanks."

[pbangarth]

Willie is decked out in his full armour, mostly black and gray, with lots of metallic studs and clips and things. His main weapon, the SMG, is slung on his back; machine pistol holstered. As Selina speaks, he positions himself standing to the back and left of her, eyes on their six.

Bongo is in his Urban Explorer, a flat tan colour, but with a yellow kerchief tied around his neck, the ends tucked in his white shirt. Lots of smaller items are in the various pockets, throwing knives on a bandoleer across his chest. Predator IV pistol is holstered, and knife weapon focus is sheathed. He has a small backpack with more equipment stored there. He seats himself beside Selina, to the right, and nods slightly to support her statement. He has a view in the direction Willie is not facing. He commits the layout of the large room to memory, right down to cables and pipes.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake sits quietly ensconced in the Rover, while his FlySpy sits as quiet as a decorative badge on Bongo's backpack. If things get crazy, it's easy to take off and buzz around.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: It isn't clear if everyone is sitting, so I'll leave that vague in this reply)

Lenny, in his black jacket, black helmet, and blue jeans, takes up a position behind Selina, putting her at the front of a diamond formation. Consequently, Monifa focuses on her.

"I like the look. You could fit in with my crew, as long as you keep the helmet on. We don't get many pointy ears so fine out here. " She brushes one of her own pointy but robust ears as she tucks a few brown strands back.

"It'd be a bad look if you just sat around while lead is flying, so that should be part of the deal. Our mutual friend said you might be better at taking people alive anyway. We've been going a little too hard. " She gives her fellows one of her smiles. Before looking back.



"We'd be willing to put up some cash if you can solve the problem too."

She thinks about that for a moment. "Don't go gunning somebody down and start asking for Nuyen while pointing fingers. If you got the proof, dealing with anybody on my turf is my business. My business. If it's one of the neighbors trying to move in, we can handle it, 'cause they wouldn't be doing all this sneaky stuff like a bitch if they had the muscle to mess with us. But if you've got the shot, you could take it, you know? "

She leans back comfortably in her recliner throne, the light finally catching a little in her chrome eyes. "If we had any good intel we wouldn't need you. Nobody recognized any of the bodies. Folks here get to know people. Every other rumble I've had somebody recognized somebody, and you know who needs a lesson. So we never needed to screw around with getting anybody alive, not that anybody wants to let me get 'em alive. These're outsiders. If they're that afraid of me, they might be letting the Nuyen do all the talking for them instead of letting them know who they're working for, even if one of them did make it.

So, yeah, I got drek all right now. We got some pics of bodies and a couple on ice.

Figuring out what the fuck is going on is what you're mostly for. With outsiders in the mix I figure it might take screwing around outside my turf, and sending my people to do any of that could start a beef with crews that got nothing to do with any of this."

She leans forward. "So I'll front a thousand each just to get into this drek. Two more when you solve it, and another one each if you take the shot to really solve it. Like you catch somebody red handed. So long as they aren't on my turf. "


Lenny has been paying attention to the conversation. Mostly. Enough. He'd have put this on double speed as a video, after being in a lot of corporate meetings with hard stops he feels like she just talks so so slow. So he's been scanning the electromagnetic spectrum for anything interesting. To his own surprise, maybe he's found something. He subvocally transmits to the team.

<<Hey, I think she's connected to that doll up on those boxes. It looks like crap, but it's transmitting. Probably running some social softs. I bet I could hack in. >>

Internally he winces that he can't just seem to say anything with full confidence.

[Thanee]

Since they are talking, Selina just continues: "Well, that is not much to go with. We should probably take a look at the bodies then, see if we can figure out who they are. That might get us somewhere. Did they have any electronics on them? Like, communications? That might be a way to get more information as well. If we could discern how they were hired, maybe there is a way to follow that further. Heck, we might even try to get 'hired' ourselves... not to actually do that job, of course, but to get closer to those in the background. There's likely middle-men involved, too."

"And who would gain something when you would be taken out? There are other players around here, right? Like... vassals? As I understand, this whole building is your turf, so whoever is in here is following your orders. But many are not directly part of your crew. Just trying to get a full picture here."

"On the video parts you sent, there clearly is some magic showing. Who controls that spirit that is visible there? We could also see it patrolling around the building. And there were those weird flowery things somewhere. Any idea where those came from?"

If possible, without looking too weird, Selina turns to an angle, where the doll will have a less good view of her face.

"All of this is, of course, assuming that we come to an arrangement. Given the open nature of this, and the obvious tenacity and resources of whoever is pulling the strings here, I am a bit reluctant to accept your offer as is. But it's just a first offer, right? Surely you can do a bit better. How about you double all those numbers."

[ Spoiler ]

Oh well, what a terrible roll... Negotiation 1 hit.

[Koekepan]

<<<If they still have the corpses I can do autopsies and scans on 'em to look for identifying data.>>>

[pbangarth]

Bongo is glad that he didn't speak first. Monifa seems happy to be negotiating with Selina. Maybe more than that? Lenny's comment piques his interest. <<Yeah see what you can do without triggering an alarm. Does it know about Tubesnake's drone riding my shoulder? You never know what info might slip out. >>

Ow. Selina's upsell was a bit clumsy. Bongo can see Monifa's countenance change. Maybe he can help. He stands up and nods to Selina, holding a hand to his chest over his heart. Like a team member acknowledging the boss. He steps to the side a bit and looks around. Hands out to the side, palms up. Eyes will be on him, not all of them friendly. What's he trying?

"Yes, you have an impressive team here, ma'am. At the same time, the attempts on your life have been escalating. I mean, a helicopter? Really? What will come next? That kind of money means serious intent. It's a life and death matter. And if they want you, they'll deal with anyone working for you the same way. Terminally. So, here's what seems to us to be a fair deal. There are five of us, so 1k up front for each. 2k more when we come up with a legitimate suspect. And if it comes to violence, another 3k each for danger pay. So, all told, 15k for finding out the rats looking to dig into your storehouse, and another 15k if we need to exterminate a few for you.

"How does that sound?"

[ Spoiler ]

Spending a point of EDG leaving 3 left
Negotiation 4 + CHA 6 + EDG 6 = 16 dice exploding 6s : 9 hits

He smiles that Bongo smile.

Willie thinks to himself, How many times could I get laid if I could do that?

[sunnyside]

Monifa replies to Selina "Well, you can check out whatever we kept yourself. This is Abeje and Bello. They can show you around, everybody in this tower knows not to mess with them "

She indicates a couple orks off to the side. These seem to be even more distinctly black and shiny than most in the crew, with some sort of artificial leather making up their pants, boots, and long coats. Some black plates are visible on their shirts as well. Their skin is also darker than most of the crew who are generally light skinned like Monifa, roughly tracking population demographics before goblinization back in 2021. She's got an impressively regular afro and he sports an equally neat close-cropped hair, with little paths cut in it to accommodate the temple tips of his shades.

"As for other crews, well, that's just something kids do. They want to feel connected and tough, and I ain't got time to know absolutely everybody or have introductions because some punks of the forty-seventh floor think they're tough now. So they kinda get to do their thing. But they want to do any kind of biz. ANY kind of biz. It's gotta be through me. As long as they don't get it twisted on who is in charge around here, we can have a mostly commercial partnership.

Thing is we don't let 'em get too big for their britches. Even if my whole crew was gone most would just get eaten up in the chaos. I guess Lucan has a pretty tough group down on Seven. And Bear is an asshole pervert on Sixty Nine. I don't know if anybody would tolerate his ass trying to make a play on the Penthouse up here, but he does a whole lot of biz.

The neighboring gangs are a bunch of bitches or they'd be in here already. But they aren't in my supply line, so they keep offering their asses to any big syndicate that waggles some product or Nuyen. Harlem Revival to the South always thinks they so "Cosmopolitan" or whatever, which means they'd love to suck some Yakuzza or Seoulpa dick, and maybe they found a big enough one. Or maybe the Panzers to the Northwest finally have an angle on getting an actual Panzer instead of being a bunch of posers with a stupid name."


She manages to get some smiles and laughs out of her crew as she thinks about how to answer Selina's next question.

"Don't worry about the spirit. A friend of mine summons those. She lives on Forty Four and you just want to leave her the fuck alone. I repeat, leave her the FUCK alone. She'd tell me if she knew anything and if she wanted me dead I would be. She needs me to stay alive anyway. "

She turns always around in her chair to see an Ork off in the corner. "C'mon over here Lisa. You can help them out with any mojo questions, might be good to get around a little. Just hang by Abeje or Bello and you'll be fine."

A surprisingly small female Ork comes forward out of the shadows. Struggling a little to move in her black armored jacket. Her long red hair almost a little brown from needing cleaning and conditioning.

She looks puzzled by the other request and cranes her neck to look at all the other Orks around. "Anybody know what they're going on about with the flowers. I don't mess with flowers."

Abeje answers, her voice curt and professional. "There have been a couple incidents with cloth flowers being left on bodies down on Forty Nine and Fifty Two. I put them in the file I sent you, just in case they're related. But that was a while back. I just wanted to be thorough."

Monifa waves a hand as if to disregard that, and scoffs at Selina's initial bargaining attempt.

Lenny knows he doesn't have the time he wants with the toy and doesn't want to zonk out in front of all the gangers either, but he suspects it isn't that much of a hassle, plus, he's been practicing this and has his shiny new hardware even if he stuck it in an old and scuffed casing. He wants to avoid detection so he crashes through the login protocols at a low access level, and messes with settings instead of more elaborate editing. At least he's confident he wasn't detected and gets it done while Selina is talking.

To not distract people too much, he just pings out to the team <<Got it>>

(OOC: So he cancels out the bonus Monifa would get. I give Monifa a bonus from Selina's first attempt. She rolls shockingly hot with her smaller dice pool, but Bongo still wins by two. Mostly to end on a 20% bump up, but with a couple twists).

Monifa purses her lips. "I can see there are only four of you, but I'm guessing you've got a hacker lounging on a couch somewhere yeah? I give a lot of shit for drek like that, but they might be too useful with this secrecy bullshit. "

She makes a show of rolling her eyes for the crew. "So fine, a fifth member. But I'm only giving them half up-front compared to the folks with their hoops on the line if the drek hits the fan again in here. I'll put their other half in the pot for solving the case, you can give 'em what you feel is right after.

So, OK, that's 15k for solving the case to our satisfaction. And I appreciate the eagerness to take things all the way I can come up to (OOC: 20k * 1.2 = 24 total minus 15 and a little rounding up because she doesn't like math or extra digits if she has to divide it 5 ways. ) 10k if you REALLY solve it.

Make sure to keep me in the loop on that, again, no just hucking somebody off the Seventieth floor and trying to collect."

[Koekepan]

<<<See if you can get her to tell us what's completely off-limits in terms of access to the building. If she's uncooperative, point out that so far she's had ground assault, aerial assault, magical assault, and we can't be picky about trying to solve this problem for her. I also bet she knows more than she's letting on about who, or what, wants to push her around. Attacks like this don't generally come without someone trying to be persuasive by other means first.>>>

[Thanee]

Selina nods to Monifa and then acknowledges Abeje and Bello as well.

"Alright. I guess, that should give us something to start with."

Turning to Abeje, she says: "Love the hair! Okay, so these flowers are not actually related to the attacks then? I thought they might be, since the images were in there. But if you say, that these incidents are older, then maybe they are not. We might still look into it, just in case. It was just something that... stood out."

She also makes a mental not about Lisa's jacket and hair. Maybe she can help her with that later. Might be a way to win her over.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Was waiting for PB who might have one of his characters relay Paul's thoughts, but it occurred to me he might just be waiting for others to go back and forth. What I will say is that just a little post is fine, or just a note in OOC to keep going lets me know to advance).

Abeje doesn't directly respond to the comment on her hair as she tries to keep her sharp professional frame (OOC: But folks looking at her face with a couple hits on perception will notice a smile form for a moment). Her manner stands out from most of the gang who are standing around loosely, Monifa positively lounges. Only Abeje and Bello maintain impeccable posture. Abeje replies to the second bit " The similarity is that we don't know who was behind those killings or why they did the thing with the flowers. But since nobody in our crew was involved, we didn't look that deep at the time, and a lot of things happen to people in this tower. It isn't that odd that nobody gets caught. It's only the flower thing that makes these stick out. There isn't much to show. There wasn't anything obvious to follow up on, and we didn't keep the bodies. Best I can do aside from the pictures is take you to where we found the bodies. There should be local crews that know more on those floors. "

[Thanee]

Selina nods.

"Okay. Thank you! Let's keep that in mind, but for now, we should focus on the more obvious things, that are directly related with these attacks. Maybe we should start with those other bodies that were mentioned. Let's figure out who those are!"

[pbangarth]

Bongo tilts his head as if listening to something. "Our partner situated elsewhere might show up later. On a different note, is there some code or password that allows us to get around where we need to go without constantly checking in with you? We assume that since you've faced ground assault, aerial assault and magical assault, you really don't want us to leave any stone unturned.

"And, since we're talking about unturned stones, do you have recollection of any kind of negotiation or attempt at persuasion towards you recently that might be useful to explore?"

[sunnyside]

Bello replies "Alright, we can take you to the bodies. They're on the other side of the 100th. I'd suggest rearranging your equipment, so you aren't so obviously armed. We don't have any particular relationship with the maintenance tower. Never been considered worth it to try and arrange. We usually don't even think about them. They're supposed to use their gangways to charge out to anywhere crimes have occurred. A short run and they're at any door that's supposed to be in the tower. They don't tend to do that in practice, and never against a proper crew. But I've heard of precedents where gang warfare gets bad enough that they feel a threat to the tower or themselves, and they'll come out in force. Since I'm sure they don't have any idea why a helicopter was laying into the top of the building they may feel the best bet at getting back to normal with their cushy jobs is to come after us. I'd prefer not giving them reasons to start anything. "

Monfia gives a laugh to keep the mood up, but she doesn't contradict them. She does add "You've got my comcode and Abeje and Bello can share theirs, so you don't have to bother me. There's no secret handshakes or anything. Most folks recognize my crew and impersonating my crew or lying about working for me is a very bad idea as I'm going to hear about it, so just saying that you're working for me should open some doors. You can have an escort if you need, but just looking reasonably tough should get you around if you can manage it."

As for the other question she puzzles over that for a bit, and notably nobody else jumps in. Eventually she leans forward and says "Not a single bitch out of their place. I guess lucky there. I beef often enough with the other tuskers up in here that I oughta have a prime suspect. Well, maybe lucky for them as I'd come hard. It'd be nice to get into a scrap that really feels like a win. But gotta be ready for whatever drek might be next. "

She shrugs and gets up from her chair

"I think that's all I got for ya. Lisa go with 'em too so you can answer questions and shit. I gotta get to training some noobs getting moved up from lower floors to the big time. "

Monifa starts moving towards a door to the west, obviously one not installed professionally. It must lead through what should have been a side door to a hallway or bedroom in the apartment from the original construction. A number of Ork just seem to hang out in this big room, but a few including Jett follow her. Lisa shuffles over to Bello and Abeje. Bello waves you over towards the door you came in through as they start moving that way, but they aren't moving fast.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake sighs. Time to get active. He looks around the area from inside the Rover, then prepares to head out. He closes up his armour jacket, puts his goggles firmly on then replaces his ballcap. He fetches a few things from his boxes; a shankworm and a flatworker slack over his left forearm, and a medkit in the other. His headphones go over his ears, and his endoscope goes into his work pants on the opposite side from his computing device. He flips on a shankworm in the Rover, just in case, but puts everything that he's not bringing along into his boxes. Then he exits the Rover and closes it up.

<<On my way, I'll rendezvous at the location and play cybercoroner. You can lock up the Rover, I'm walking. I have a live drone as a first line watchdog in there.>>