IC: Don't Get Comfortable, SR4 Online Forum Game Options

[MrMiracle]

His issue addressed, Josie answers, "Very well, I'm in."

Dr. Alfred Fitzgerald, likely male by the name. Hopefully not elderly, I can't stand trying to extract 80 year olds.

[BlackHat]

A-in nodded and meakly replied, "Yeah, me too." Inside, he felt as though he was quickly getting in over his head. My first job, and I'm going up against one of the Top Ten. He looked around as the remaining Runners said their bit, and with strangers, no less.

[DireRadiant]

//Calendar

Benji'll have to cover another couple of shifts for me at Hooligans. The Mothers of Metahumans Rally is Thursday, I can set that up to run without me, but I think they'll want me on call even if it's just to come bail people out. Probably can do the UG Spring Children's fair planning committee meeting in AR if I need to, but that holoprojector at the rec center is on the fritz. But for ten thousand, I can manage it.

Josie is in. Don't sound much like a country Tusker when he talk like that.

Chiller grins widely, pausing in his slow head turns, he looks across at Josie inclines his head in an affirmative nod, then turning his head and focusing briefly on the man in the white suit sitting by the elf guarding Mr. Carver, "Tuskers got to work together, I'm in." He then resumes with a slow look around the table, still smiling.

Must be an interesting story there.

Let's see what questions the others come up with. Give a handle on what they care about, maybe a bit on what they can do. Pretty obvious what Josie and I get to do, act as spear carriers for the Man.

[ARKARY]

"I accept as well."

Mr. Scorpion paused for a moment, not taking his eyes off Carver even as he started to hear the replies from the other runners. After thinking for a second, he continued,

"I just have one question at the moment. How likely is it that Mitsuhama will want the doctor alive and his work intact? That will drastically change both their tactics and ours."

[Mister Juan]

Patrick took his glasses off, polishing them off with a white cloth.

"Well well well; this all seems like a quite a nice deal you bring to the table, Signore Carver.

He blew on his glasses, apparently trying to clear something out of the lense.

"But I unfortunately do not believe that your first offer is enough... As you 've mentioned it" he slid his silver glasses back on his nose "this is a one shot operation; failure is not an option. There is also the restrictive timeframe: you are giving us only 5 days. That means 5 days to get the general feel for one another, do the recon, get the plan in order, get the gear, and pull the extraction. And this is a triple A megacorporation: their resources in guarding a certain subject, or coming after it, can be virtually unlimited."

He gave a quick look around the table. 10 000 was a very good price, but Johnsons always brought more cash than they needed, and Patrick was going to pull as much from this one's pockets as possible.

"All in all, with the high degree of complication of this whole affair, and all the risks involved, I am afraid we" he opened both his arms, as if designating the whole table "will need a higher payment".

[TinkerGnome]

Nvwati inclined her head in a slow nod. "I am in, as well."

At least this is a willing extraction. The other kind are just too much work, she thought to herself, remembering more than one bad job of that sort.

[thewolf]

Mr. Carver looked as if he expected this sort of exchange. Speaking directly to Patrick, he says:

"As true as that may be, those mission parameters were factored in when I considered your direct compensation. Mitsuhama is certainly one of the larger and more powerful corporations around, but that just means they have more holes for you to exploit. Also, your liability for the client is limited to his retrieval and transportation."

"I'm afraid the best I can do is provide you the full expense allocation in advance. For this project, a maximum of 18,000 :nuyen: was available for approved expenses. I certainly see no problem with giving you the full amount today on a certified credstick. Would this allay any concerns regarding the amount of your payment?"

He looks around the room for general approval, but comes back to Patrick for a response.

[BlackHat]

A-in euetly watches the two men enter negotiations. He wished his team was chatting online so they could discuss things amongst each other before presentign them to the Johnson, but the Shadowrunner doing the talking seemed to be making some good points.

Then the Johnson responded with some good points as well. A-in could definatly see both men's arguments, and was glad he wasn't in charge of negotiating their compensation. It ended with what sounded like a small victory for the Shadowrunners. Looks like we got him for another 18 K, up front. I suppose he was already planning on letting us have it though. I'm not sure if we actually convinced him, or if he wants us to think he's being generous.

In any case, with 6 of us here, that 18,000 won't go far. 3,000 each for supplies for a run like you see on the trids.... and with 5 days, we're not going to have a lot of time to go shopping. A-in began to day-dream about what gear he'd want if he could get his hands on it within 5 days, and he kept seeing price tags well above 3,000 nuyen. Probably best just to use it as a group for one really nice thing (something that will actually help us pull this off), rather than each of us getting something cheap. Wonder if these other Runners see things that way? I better not bring it up right away, they might think this is my first time.

After hesitating a second, A-in speaks up, "Do you have a commlink ID for this 'Dr. Alfred Fitzgerald'?... and if he is in on this extraction, will we be planning it with him - or simply informing him of how it's going to happen? or is it best that he not know anything about it until it is happening?" He then seems to notice that his question was drawn out, and shuts up.

[DireRadiant]

Mr Death
Mr. Money
Mr. Commlink
Josie Spear carrier 1
Myself - spear chucka 2
leaves the woman, process of elimination makes her Mz Mojo...

and I think the extraction target might work out as a rigger. Something to think about.

[Mister Juan]

On the outside, Patrick was all smile.
On the inside, he was cursing in all the languages he knew.

It was obvious that the man was used to this kind of dealing. He almost hadn't flinched at Patrick's statements.

18 000... that makes about 3000 a head. Leftovers of about 2 000 after buying the gear...

Worst came to worst, Patrick could always make sure that all the needed gear was procured through him. Of course, he'd have to take his cut.

Leaning a bit back in his chair, both of Patrick's hands came up, joining finger in a pyramid shape. A slight smile crept up on his face.

"Eighteen? You've been allowed a maximum of Eighteen? You're already deploying 60 000 just for man power, and you're going to expect us to believe that you've been allowed 18 000 for equipment costs? I am not saying that this isn't doable for such a salary. You and I know very well that 10 000 a head if quite generous. What worries me is this fixed 18 000 issue. Since we know nothing of the target, it is a rather difficult thing to already estimate the kind of funds we will be needing. Extraction are best done when they are quiet, fast, and almost undetected. Unfortunately, stealth always costs more than blowing up the door, popping everything that moves and going back out. "

Uncrossing his hands, Patrick looked at Carver from over his glasses, fixing his deep brown eyes on him.

"This advance is generous... but does not cover the reality of the current market prices. Weaponry is starting to dry up, and electronic gear is getting more expensive by the day. Especially since the crash."

His gaze stayed on Carver for a few more seconds. Patrick than broke into a large smile, sitting back in his chair.

"But then again; we will make with what you give us."

He smiled at him.

[thewolf]

At last, Mr. Carver finally looked ruffled. Patrick's acute negotiating tactics had backed him into a corner. He tapped at his commlink a few times, in silence, and then looked back at him, saying:

"I'm willing to go as far as 30,000 :nuyen: on the equipment. Obviously I want to make sure that you have everything you need to be successful, although as professionals you should already have at least a few tools. Your point is carried, but that is sincerely as much as I can provide."

Turning with pleasure to A-In, he replied:

"I am in contact with Dr. Fitzgerald, but certainly our communications with him must remain limited. I have an opportunity to meet with him once more in a public place, and one of your, uh, more discrete professionals can join me. I get the feeling he is being watched, though, so the less contact the better. There is no doubt he will be fully cooperative, since he is paying for this operation."

[TinkerGnome]

The girl inclined her head a few more times, once in appreciation of the smooth talking negotiation which had increased the upfront for the job by a significant measure. Her eyes wandered from person to person in the group and she tried to figure out how they fit together.

[OOC: Using names though she doesn't know them yet for clarity.]

Patrick had just shown his colors. He was a face, through and through, and would likely be an important part of the on-the-ground for this mission if subterfuge was chosen. She found herself forgetting what he looked like in the time it took her to glance to another person and that was the halmark of a good operative.

Chiller and Josie were both tuskers and there was only one reason you hired on tuskers for a sensitive job, unless one of them had some mojo and she hadn't had a chance to notice yet.

That just left A-In and Mr. Scorpion. The second one looked like a killer, so that was probably his role. The former was probably a rigger or techie. That was certainly a capacity missing on the team otherwise.

Three pieces of muscle, a face, and a maybe little bit of technical support. And I specialize in patching up big holes in people. This doesn't look like it's going to be a finesse operation.

[Mister Juan]

When Carver practically doubled his price, Patrick could do nothing else but beam at him. With a bit of luck, the rest of team would appreciate what he had just done for all of them, and thank him later.

Maybe they'll let me pocket some of the surplus... After all, I got them the creds...

Taking a cigarette case from a breast pocket, he clicked it open.

"Well Signore Carver, that is a very generous offer. "

He slowly took a cigarette out, the closing metallic *click* of the cigarette case echoing in the room.

"You will not regret your... investment signore."

With a lighter matching his glasses, the irishman (passing for an italian) lit the cigarette.

"Count me in."

[ARKARY]

Looking at the "Italian" man as he talked with Carver, Mr. Scorpion thought to himself,

Of course. The first thing to come out of his mouth would have to do with the payment.

But then again, he did have a point. 18000 was a bit low, especially if they had to procure some more expensive methods of tackling the situation. Getting Carver to almost doulbe the up-front payment was impressive. Mr. Scorpion was going to wait until he heard all the details before worrying about the payment, but it was nice to get that out of the way up front.

Of course, Mr. Scorpion wasn't thinking about the money exactly. 15000 :nuyen: per person was pretty good, but he was more concerned with what they would need to simply complete the run. Going against a major corporation like Mitsuhama would take more resources, and would be a lot mroe difficult, even with the supposed "additional holes" to exploit. As he thought about this, Mr. Scorpion turned his attention back to Carver.

[MrMiracle]

Josie was floored, but kept his mouth shut. His idea of negotiation was to simply say 'no' to a job that seemed unrealistic. He had done a good job up until now of sticking to contacts and employers he could trust. Oso and McNader understood him, and knew that cheating him meant losing a useful resource. He quickly realized that these one-shot Johnson's had no such issues, and played by completely different rules. He was glad someone was looking out for his interests.

Gravy, these guys are squeezing Carver like a ripe melon. 5 large buys a lot of insurance.

[DireRadiant]

Chiller continuous his slow metronomic scanning back and forth, pausing at various moments in the interchange to focus a bit on the speaker if they happened to be whom he was looking at.

Mr Money is really sharp, give Streets a challenge, except he'll need to run that trick against four or five people at once. Labor and equipment is all the same to this Tusker, I am the tool. I got the equipment.

Chiller smiles wider.

Must be something tough behind this, Mr Carver caved. Mr Money has got to do the bail hearings for the MOM protesters next week.

Chiller almost laughs as his glance passes across the slick signore. But almost immediately he pauses thoughtfully.

Better chill myself.

Frag! The extraction target is footing the bill, this could go really bad, someone is going to think about turning him over. Megacorp on one side, and this doctor going independent doesn't balance. When fighting the megacorps men, you need to get them working against each other. One man alone don't cut it.

Chiller comments, "And now for all the stuff we haven't been told yet."

Tuskers used to being kept in the dark... let's see what we are allowed to know.

[thewolf]

Carver continued,

"Well, I have a datachip prepared with Dr. Fitzgerald's lab location in the Mitsuhama complex, as well as some basic building diagrams and layouts. I'm sure most of you are familiar with their 6-building corporate center out on the south side. The Drone Research Center is located in Building 5."

"Also included is a list of code letters and colors, with their corresponding meanings. Please use a great deal of discretion when contacting me: use the codes and make sure your comm has a decent encryption cipher installed. The safehouse drop point location is also included. You will be taking Dr. Fitzgerald to a basement apartment in Renton, where my agents will meet you at 17:00 on Friday and take custody. The chip has an access key necessary to enter the apartment."

Delicately reaching into his suit pocket, he produced a credstick and then tapped it to his comm. He then removed a datachip from his comm as well, and slid the two items over to A-In.

"I trust you, A-In, will make a suitable custodian of these items for the group?"

[BlackHat]

A-in nodded and responded, "Yes, thank you." Then he hesitantly took the chip and the credstick. He couldn't remember if he had used his name or not when texting the Mr. Carver earlier, but he was a little surprised the Johnson knew it. Perhaps Open Casket had mentioned it. He hadn't used anyone else's name, at least, and this made him feel a little bit special. He was also holding :nuyen: 30,000 in his hand. What if this isn't okay? He quickly added, "...if it is alright with everyone else, that is."

He then looked around to see if there were any objections.

[DireRadiant]

Why does Mr Commlink look familiar?

Chiller shrugs in response to the question.

We need to get out of here and start working things out. Looks like we got all the basic information that we can. Time for the legwork.

[MrMiracle]

"Fine by me, for now," Josie responds, "I don't have anything else to ask. If the rest of you are ready, we should swap comm codes and choose a place to plan."

[TinkerGnome]

Nvwati pauses for a moment, as though trying to think of anything else she can ask but comes up short. Then she nods and rises. "Sounds good to me."

She flipped her commlink into passive mode and prepared to exchange numbers.

[BlackHat]

A-in put the credstick and the datachip in his pocket, along with his commlink. A second later a passive wireless node appeared in AR, as A-in wirelessly changed the device mode of his commlink. With the difficulty he was having communicating with the Matrix outside the walls of this room, A-in felt confident that his commlink was safe from prying eyes not privy to this meeting. Sure enough, in his vision in AR, he saw a red icon blinking connectivity icon informing him that his commlink was unable to locate a wireless Matrix access point within range.

[DireRadiant]

Noticing the appearance of the various icons in AR, Chiller kicks off the routine of exchanging commcodes.

Focus on what's real. AR can tell you a lot, but in the end it's going to be a bullet that hits you in the gut, and it's only in the trids that everyone has AR bullets.

[Mister Juan]

Both palms on the table, Patrick got up from his chair. He looked at everyone around the table, assuring to make eye contact. The irishman gave a subtle nod to A-In, and settled his attention on Carver.

"I we don't have any further inquiries... for the moment. We'll contact you if anything should arise."

Straightening back up, Patrick picked up his hat and turned his attention toward Josie.

"Indeed Signore, that would be the thing to do."

Seconds later, Patrick had his commlink out, and running in active mode so everyone could pick up his signal.

Puffing some smoke toward the ceiling, Patrick smoothed some imaginary wrinkles out of his suit, as he walked around the table. Slowly he paced up A-In's back, his eyes obvious looking for an ashtray.

"Unless someone has some objection, Signore A-In" he rested one of his manicured and smooth hand on the young man's shoulder "and I will go secure a safehouse right away, so we can start this operation as soon as possible."

He gently tapped on the young man's shoulder and smiled at him... as if trying to transfer his own composure and calm.

This way, I can always take a little cut off the top

[thewolf]

Carver stood up again, personally greeting the ones around him as they prepare to leave.

"Very well, our deal is concluded. Please keep me informed of your progress. As for tonight, Mr. Hawthorne will see you all back to the club. Best of luck."

He seemed relieved to have something going on this project, and somewhat confident in your abilities to get it done. The elf in the corner continued to observe what was going on, although his cigarette was long gone. Hawthorne, on the other hand, stood up as well and opened the door, expectantly waiting for the characters to file out.

A-In

[ Spoiler ]

As soon as the door opens, your Matrix connections magically restore. Presto!