IC: Reign of Shadows Options

[Silverspur_2020]

After having stopped and sent the Codor out into the night sky to look down on the target from a safe distance... Ghost sits back and watches the area with the others.... "anybody would think that the stuff wasnt even there!! - this looks too easy, but maybe thats because there is nothing of value!"

[Grey]

Todd walks over to the payphone and takes out his electronics kit to see if he can patch a connection together.

[Yum Donuts]

"Tell me about it. I think that we could do this whole job with a decker on the outside, and me and some muscle going invis through the front door. All we need now is the decker to confirm the security level. pressure plates, pheremone sniffers, anything that my invisibility wouldn't fool."
thinking for a minute, he continues
"I guess that sounds about right. 5k isn't that much, so it makes sense that the job is cake."

[grendel]

All that remains of the tridphone is a hollow, gutted shell of preformed plastic. Poking through the carcass, though, you discover that whoever pulled out the phone's modules has left a majority of the access cable to the matrix intact. Attaching a pair of F/O vampire clips, you power up the system hoping for the best but anticipating the worst. Luckily, PacRimComm has not gotten around to shutting off the feed to this particular phone, and you plune headlong into the digital realms of the matrix.

[Grey]

Todd sets his skateboard down on the ground below the phone and takes a seat on top of it, indian style. He then plugs the dataline directly into his skull and lets his mind enter the matrix.

The first thing to do is finding the target companies hosts...

[Silverspur_2020]

Adjusting the mirros in the car, Ghost makes sure that he can see Todd at the payphone.... he knows how dangerous it can be to deck in the open!

"If its that easy.... I would suggest we start making preperations and plans of entrance and more importantly.... escape!"

[Silverspur_2020]

Hearing his phone go off.... he picks it up, but doesnt say anything.... letting whoever is on the other end to start the conversation...

[Emp]

How rude not to say anything ... or maybe he doesn't know which name to use on this number. Let's not jump to conclusions and give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Hello Tusken?", Kim asks in a sweet voice. "I know it's kinda late, but I thought you were expecting my call anyway."

[grendel]

It doesn't take long to find, Bicson's node is designed to appear as a pale gray hospital. Slipping inside, you find a matronly looking nurse avatar sitting at the front desk. Cloaking yourself with green surgical scrubs, you sleeze your way past her, heading towards the "Operations" section of the host. Once there, it takes you a minute to sort through the corporate LTG before you can successfully locate their supply depot.

[Silverspur_2020]

hearing the female voice on the end of the phone Jim softens his voice (but keeps it just as professional) "Good evening madam, and yes, I do have a place which could be filled... if you go to the old combat biker stadium and meet me there in half and hour I will go through the job details with you...."

[Emp]

Yeah right, a place I really wanna be alone at night, Kim thinks. Perhaps I should propose another location at walking distance, so I don't have to take a cab.

"Please call me Kim. I have no idea where that stadium is, but it doesn't sound like a place for a lady to be this time of day. Would it be terribly inconvenient to just pick me up at home?"

[Silverspur_2020]

Well, Jim thinks to himself... she obviously isnt a street sam. "Ok then Kim, how about somewhere public? do you know the shopping centre on fifth and western? meet me there instead... and just out of curiousity... what kind of skills are you going to bring to the party?"

[Emp]

Kim definitely doesn't like this Tusken. Not only did he lack the most basic etiquette, but by making her go to the shopping centre within half an hour she won't have time for a shower or even "breakfast".

"What did you ask for ... entertainment? How will I recognize you?"

[Raiko]

Mirage gets back from her walkabout as Firmpoint is discussing the security.

"This big coat of mine is equipped with active camouflage, it can hide me in the visual and infra-red spectrums, though it is not as effective as invisibility magic, it would allow me to operate independently of your spells if necessary."

"I have checked around the perimeter, and I haven't seen anything that Ghost hasn't already described, but I have noted that their camera coverage is barely adequate, if we can disable one camera either with a rifle or by providing a false feed via the Matrix it will open a huge hole in their surveillance capability. We could use this either to help us enter undetected, or as a diversion."

She turns to Jim, "If you need a hand or some backup meeting the rest of the team, we might as well make use of my car as well."

[Silverspur_2020]

"Well at this time of night there arnt going to be too many people walking around anyway. I will be the clean shaven dwarf wearing a navy blue pin stripe suit" thinking to himself that there always seems to be one ackward one he keeps him calm, even though if she had called earlier she could have gone to the meet at the biker ground with everyone else!!

[Emp]

That was all Kim needed to know. The suggested location had made her question she had anything suitable to wear, so she was relieved to hear about the suit.
"Ok, I'll meet you there in 30 minutes." She hangs up and calls for a cab.

After feeling if she needs to cover her legs, she quickly changes into a midnight blue, mid thigh length, narrow lower slant notch, lapel covered front jacket with classic straight skirt. She grabs her raincoat and walks out the door.

Down in the lobby she walks to the security desk.
"Heya Sam, how do I look?"
She turns around still holding her raincoat over her arm.

"As if you come straight out of bed. Hehe, just kidding. You look gorgeous as always."

"Thanks, I always appreciate your honesty too. Did my cab arrive yet or could you tell me all about this new guy?"

Sam points at the front door that just opened.
"That must be the driver, so we'll have to gossip later. Have fun."


At the mall Kim magically fixes her appearance (just to be sure) and watches out for a dwarf.

[Silverspur_2020]

Walking through the mall slowly and casually, looking in shop windows (actually, the reflection in the window to see behind him) and trying to appear as causal as possible.... Not having had a description from the women meeting him he waited until he was approched and when this would happen, he would smile and greet the young lady with an outstreched hand.... that way it was a warm welcome for the lady meeting him and to anyone else it would look like a blind date or some such thing...

[Emp]

It doesn't take long before Kim notices the window-shopping dwarf. As she gets close to him, Jim turns around. She takes the offered hand and bends forward to kiss him. "Hello, you must be Tusken."

[Silverspur_2020]

"Good evening, and I assume you must be Kim.... I must apolagise for my attitude on the phone earlier, I have had rather a stressful night tonight and seem to have been nominated as the teams leader!" with that he starts walking casually, all the while keeping an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious. "would you like a lift to the site or do you have your own transport? I was hoping we could talk about the job at hand and talk through any ideas you may have"

[Emp]

Kim smiles; a kiss on the cheek usually helps to set a friendly atmosphere right from the start. "No problem, I might have been a bit moody because I just woke up and haven't got time for coffee nor food yet." Let's hope he gets the hint this time, she thinks, while Jim starts walking. Looking down at the dwarf to see if she could take his arm, Kim decides he's too small to walk like that comfortably.
"I'd love to ride with you, but I have no idea what the job is you're talking about. So, where are we going now and will we meet the team there?" Kim thinks if she should add /or on site/ to the question, but doubt that would make a good impression. It should be obvious enough what she wants.

[Grey]

Meanwhile, in the Matrix...

Todd sets his board down and steps onboard. Logging onto this local telcom grid was a breeze, now he had to make his way over to the company hosts. He kicks his foot and the skateboard moves down the pipeline before him and out onto the Seattle LTG. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle of bubbles. He dips the wand into the bottle and bringing it up to his mouth, blows, sending bubbles swirling around him. One by one, they all pop, until only one remains as he drifts off into the distance. The boy smiles to himself and skates off after it, chasing it down as it leads him to the Bicson PLTG.

The bubble pops in front of a plain office building with the words BICSON scrawled across it and Todd doesn’t a kick flip on his skateboard as he jumps through the door. No one notices him as people wander back and forth through the host; he is just another kid after all. Skidding to a stop in front of the corporate directory, Todd takes a moment to scan through it.

Down the hall, first door on the right, then the second door to the left. No problem.

It is only a moment before Todd skates onto the scene of the Tacoma Depot Host and skids to a halt. Here he takes a moment to get a feel for his surroundings and analyze the host. Just as the data filters through his head, he spots a small bloodhound sniffing at his feet. Taking a moment to look it over, he confirms it to be Probe IC. He almost feels sorry for the thing as he picks up his skateboard and bashes it against the head, scattering its code. He quickly scoops the code up into his ball cap and places it back on his head.

Alright, time to get down to business.

Pulling out the bottle of bubbles again, Todd searches out the file store that has references to the package the team was looking for. Skating down the corridor he skids to a halt in front of a filing cabinet. Instinctively, he reaches in and pulls out the file he is looking for an gives it a quick scan.

Damnit. Nothing on here but numbers!

He shoves the file back into the cabinet and slams it shut in frustration.

Let’s give the security system a look and see what we’re up against…

Chasing after his locater bubble, Todd finds himself in a corridor full of display screens.

Ok. Twenty-four cameras total. I wonder if there is any way for me to do a mass control loop on them…. Ugh, nope. One at a time it is. No biggy, this place isn’t exactly the toughest system to crawl around in. Lets see… Oh yeah, I gotta check the maintenance records.

Skating through the host, Todd stumbles onto the information he is looking for. Reading over the documents, he can’t help but get frustrated. It looks as if just about everything is done in-house except for when heavy machinery is brought in and it was doubtful that was gunna happen any time soon.

Better verify the security schedule while I’m here.

Skating back over into the security sub-system, Todd brings up their records and looks them over. He is able to quickly verify that what was found out by astral security is true. Shift changes every eight hours. Pretty standard stuff.

A buzzing in his ear alerts Todd to a new presence. Turning around, he watches as a little eyeball with wings flys off down his data trail.

Crap! Trace IC… No biggy.

He swats at it with his hand, but the damn thing continues on. Frustrated, Todd skates off after it, casing it down in a heartbeat, kicks the board and leaps into the air. He catches the pesky little program in his hands, opens his mouth and gulps it down.

Alright, one last thing before I go…

He skates back over to the maintenance sub-system and grabs a copy of the building blue prints off the wall. After looking around to make sure he isn’t being watch, Todd skates out of the host, leaving no trace behind.

[Grey]

Todd reaches up and unplugs the cord from his datajack. He decides to leave this terminal hooked up, but takes a moment to make it look messy and out of service. After that, he jumps on his skateboard and rolls up to Mirage's car.

"Alright, I got some stuff. Not a lot, but at least its something to work with. You ready to go?"

[Silverspur_2020]

"Well we can stop and get some coffee and something to eat on the way if you like, I wouldnt say no to something to eat either... when working you never really know when your next meal might be!" and as they walk off to the car, Jim sets about explaining what is involved and what the payment is like....

[Emp]

"Like you read my mind." Kim says. "Anywhere is fine with me."

After all her questions about the team, Reign and whatever happened before are answered she's quietly brainstorming. Something about it all is bothering her, but she's not sure what it is yet. She goes over the numbers, to see if that's it...a quarter, 1/8, 1/64,1/21 times 55 ...27kg plus the canister itself makes about 30kg if filled with water. So 17kg would make them half empty or filled with something light? Nah, this isn't strange at all. There must be something else. Too bad I don't know anything about those negotiations between Bicson and Doc Wagon, definitely something to look into. What was the reason for stealing again? To teach them a lesson? Clearly it's something else, since there's no proffit in teaching. The stuff must be worth something especially if it is only available in a limited quantity. So why would Reign pay us for stealing it, in stead of for what it's worth? Seems easy enough to check that, but is it really only a clever way to haggle? How about not opening the canisters? Seems like they don't want us to see what's inside, but the explanation sounds sollid enough.

Kim sighs. I'll figure it out eventually.

"If our employer wants to pay Biscon a lesson, he would pay more for the Prolaxine than it's worth, or someone who would be able to get his hands on it might consider selling it back to Biscon, right?"

[Silverspur_2020]

"Yeah I guess so" Jim nods his head thoughtfully... sencing the womans feelings Jim carries on... "what I cant help but wonder is why this all seems a little too easy!"


Meeting up with the rest of the team Jim introduces Kim to them all so they can set about sorting out the run.