Exiles Hope, Sometimes, the only way out, is through! Options

[Shadow]

Blackjacks slumps over as she plugs into the jack point. THe neon world of the Matrix fills her vision. A sign reads "15 Troll Bar, don't do anything stupid." Blackjack sends out a search string, a beat barely passes when a window opens. Four satelite images pop up of the island at different angles and distances. The island appears exactly as Blaze described it. A weather beaten island soaked in rain and battered by waves. It looks very unhospitable.

[Leowulf]

Blackjack thinks to herself, 'Wow. What a place! They weren't kidding when they said it was a death sentence. How could anyone survive there?

She makes sure that her Sleaze utility is online to help disguise her actions from anyone who might be watching and runs a Scanner utility to make sure that no one is watching.

Blackjack initiates a transfer of the information to her pocket PC, which she jacked into another port before logging in. In a matter of seconds, the transfer is complete. She runs her Relocate utility to make tracking her more difficult and then logs out, using a Deception utility for a Graceful Logoff. Blackjack raises her arms above her head and her icon blinks out of the matrix with a puff of flame and smoke.

Light returns to her senses as Blackjack becomes conscious again. She sits up and clears her throat.

Excitedly she says, "Ok! I found a map! Who wants copies?"

[grendel]

"As others have already indicated, I'm the rigger. I'll be covering transportation and communication issues. Everyone who has radios set your primary comm channel to 300.6 MHz, codename Remington. Our backup will be 123.45 MHz, codename Attic. I will be Base, Delacroix One, Jessie Two, Danny Three, Warpath Four, Sedryk Five, BlackJack Six. I run a rotating 128 bit encryption cypher that's rated an 8 overall on the Ares CounterIntelligence scale. I can tune that down, though, depending on the max ratings in the group. If we have no encryption, that's fine, just refrain from passing locations in the clear. Once BlackJack gets us our maps, we'll establish a common grid reference system. My network is fully BattleTac capable, if any of you samurai are so equipped, I'll add you in based on an encryption of today's date."

"Transportation wise, if we want to consolidate vehicles that can be arranged, I've got room enough for everyone. However, I suspect we have a number of individual tasks to accomplish prior to jumping off on this rescue. I recommend that we keep our separate rides until meeting up at the hangar. Unless you have no supplemental tasks to complete, in which case you're welcome to ride along with me."

"The TR-55C is a good choice for this extraction: it's fast, effecient, yet maneuverable and has plenty of cargo room. The tilt-wing has both side mounted door with hydraulic hoist and a rear cargo ramp. Insertion wise, I recommend a fast rope from the rear ramp. That will minimize our time spent in a hover. Whoever's leading the ground contingent, I'll look to you to provide the necessary rappelling line and expertise."

"Transit to the island is going to be something of a problem, though, since we'll be crossing the ADIZ between Seattle and Salish Tribal Lands. The filing of the flight plan won't be too difficult, but once we deviate towards the island the game will be up. There are ways around this, of course, but I'll need to examine the appropriate charts. I'll get a list to you, BlackJack."

"Nothing further at this time."

Grendel shifts and closes the virtual windows overlying his view of the team, numbers running at speed through his mind.

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath wants a copy of the maps, which he loads into his headware and orientation system.

"I'm not running encryption right now since my last comm suite was rather... compromised." He says with a frown. "If that falls under reasonable expenses, maybe we should invest in that. In any case, who is running the ground team? That's not the kind of stuff I keep on hand, though I've done it a few times in the past."

He shrugs again. "If anyone wants a ride, my Brumby can hold four. Five if you don't mind getting real close to one another. Somehow, I doubt that our employeer's employeer's enemies haven't thought about someone trying to spring the kid from this death trap. If Mr. Blaze is as good as he acts, then they're probably ready for his team, which could well spell trouble for us, but give us some advantage since our capabilities are no doubt different."

This post has been edited by TinkerGnome: Nov 7 2003, 06:03 PM

[Grey]

Jessie sighs...

"Not being able to use our contacts is going to make things very.... different for me. Most of the work I do is through the people I have relations with...

Four, it looks like we're going to be relaying on you to get most of our information, as it doesn't sound like I can get away with any real world digging...

Oh, and I'll take a copy of that map."

This post has been edited by Grey: Nov 7 2003, 06:37 PM

[Leowulf]

Blackjack pulls a couple of optical cables out of her pockets and says, "Ok. Connect these to whatever you want me to upload the map into."

Blackjack then puts the other respective ends of the cables into two of her jacks, and disconnects her deck, putting it into her pocket. She leaves her pocket pc jacked and ready to initiate a file transfer.

"By the way, Grendel, I have a micro-transciever that is considered a six on the Ares scale, but it doesn't have encryption."

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath hooks the jack to his pocket secretary and lets the transfer commence. Once that's done, he runs the pocket secretary's viewer over the file to make sure it at least resembles a map file before dumping it to his headware. "No offense, omae, but I had a bad experience once." He grins. "Besides, I doubt you want to know what's going on inside my head, even by accident." He gives a joking wink.

"For this run, we're going to want the descent gear, of course. What about diving equipment and survival gear? I have a good bit laying around, and if it comes to that, we might want sufficient for those who can use it." He shrugs, apparently not too sold on the idea, himself.

[Shadow]

THe front door of the bar slams open, unleashing a gust of wind, napkins fly out of control, posters on the wall flap, small glasses are nocked over. The group entereing quickly grabs the door and wrestles it shut. The clock on the wall reads 11:55, it looks like lunch time.

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath looks up, his senses already sizing up those entering. "This place ain't so great for a quiet conversation. Particularly with most of us being rather more pink than the general clientel." He nods to the back exit. "Maybe we should adjourn to a more secure location."

[Grey]

"Jesus... the weather much be getting horid out there..."

Looking a bit timid, Jessie turns to Grendel, "Care if I take that ride now? I don't think my car can handle in that storm... Frag! What about flying a plane in that?"

[Chance359]

Sedryk looks over at Warpath "Shotgun! You'll have to give me a minute to grab a few things from my van."

Sedryk walks up to the bartender and whispers something to him over the rising noise of the crowd. Walking outside into the storm, Sedryk grabs a large black duffel bag from his van and heads over to the Brumby.

[Fortune]

Danny pulls the cable from his pocket secretary and hands it back to Blackjack with a nod of thanks, having finished transfering the map file.

"Ah'm not so much bother'd 'bout the flyin' part as ah am 'bout the actual insertion." He turns toward Grendel before continuing. "Ah'll be takin' you up on that there ride offer. Ah'll also be needin' some form of comm gear, as mah last unit supplied its own." Looking around the table, his gaze falls on Warpath. "As to us movin', Ah'm sure this place's got some type o' meetin' room. Ah mean, where was this Blaze chummer hidin' hisself 'fore the meet? Might be better t' use it than tryin' to org'nize relocatin' us'all."

[grendel]

Grendel nods to both Danny and Jessie.

"BlackJack, I'm going to need copies of the Vancouver and Kittimat Sectional Aeronautical Charts. I've got an idea that I think we'll be able to make work. Also, I second Warpath's suggestion for survival gear, but only because I'm in favor of having a back-up egress plan. Too many things can go wrong that could force us to either ditch or land and abandon the tilt-wing. We should consider both over water and over land extraction routes back to Seattle. Speaking of that, where did we want to adjourn to in order to continue the planning?"

[Leowulf]

Blackjack says to Warpath, "Well, you can never be too careful." She giggles after he winks.

Blackjack says to Grendel, "Ok.. you mean Vancouver, British Columbia?" Feeling ditzy, she says, "Forget it. I'll do a search."

She jacks back into the matrix and retrieves the map information the Grendel requested in under a minute. Coming back to her senses as before, she offers one of the optical cables still attached to her datajacks to Grendel.

Smiling at the group, she says, "I think Grendel has a good point. I mean.. we could probably get to the island, but getting off of the island might be the problem. What are we going to do if we get there, and then they shoot down our plane?"

"Let's plan this out somewhere else," she says, as she looks around the room.

[TinkerGnome]

"There seem to be five main portions of this mission," he says in a hushed voice. "One, we have to get to the location. Two, we have to find the package. Three, we have to load the package. Four, we have to get back to town. Five, we have to take a road trip."

He licks his lips, which have dried out from all of this talking. "I figure Gren is in charge of one and four as well as being our possible go-to for two and five. Who has the expertise needed for three? I can back up on two, three, and maybe five, but they're not entirely within my forte."

[Shadow]

The day wears on, customer come and go from the bar, but not a lot. The rain and wind continue to pound the area in an unrelenting storm that seems determined to drowned all of Seattle. The clock strikes 3 pm, Tigger, the big troll behind the bar turns on the large flat panel that dominates the wall opposite of the bar.

A man stands on a pier, he is dressed head to toe in bright yellow rain gear, it doesn't look very effective. The camera shakes as he speaks, the man is leaning hard into the wind.

"This Rayco Rogers reporting live from Eliot bay. Behind me you can see the 10 foot swells rolling through the channel. City officials have closed the marina and Alaska avenue for fear the pedestrians might be swept out into the sound. The national weather institute has issued a large craft advisory as well as grounding any planes under 300 horsepower. Sea-Tac is also considering rerouting all non essential flights. The Tir, Salishe, and Seattle Coastal Patrol are stretched to the limits with all the maydays from craft stuck in the..." He stops suddenly, a look of horror crosses his face. "I think were going to go live to lake Washington," the camera angle switches to I-90's floating bridge, the 4 lane road that stretches across Lake Washington from Bellevue to Seattle. A section of the bridge is completely under water, cars and people are struggling to stay on the bridge. "The word is that a section has collapsed, it looks like the city may be closing the bridge, and reopening the old 405 bridge..."

The reporters voice is drowned out as a large *crack* echoes from outside, through the bay window a large tree can be seen toppling over into the parking lot. It doesn't look like anything was hit... yet.

[Fortune]

"Merde!"

Danny looks around at the rest of the group as the broadcast ends. "Ah'd say that'd be damn fine cover for the op, if'n we was willin' t'fly in this here monsoon."

[Chance359]

Sedryk reenters the bar, shaking several gallons of water off his has he procedes back to the table where everyone else is gathered.

"Hell of a time to be working eh?" Calmly he pulls a pack of cigarettes out from inside his long coat and procedes to wring them out. "Anybody got a smoke?"

Without waiting for a responce, Sedryk digs into one of the two large duffel bags that he retrieved from his van, and produces a pack clove Blacks. "Grendel, do you think you'll be able to fly through this shit?"

[grendel]

"I won't promise a smooth ride, but I'll get us where we need to go."

The planes of his face smooth in response to a brutal memory, before shifting once more into a neutral expression.

[TinkerGnome]

"What kind of window are we lookin' at from the storm front? Does it restrict our operating timetable any? For that matter, what is our operating timetable?" Warpath asks.

[Leowulf]

Blackjack's attention diverts to the viewscreen for the duration of the weather coverage up until the point where the bridge washes out. She looks around the table nervously and says in a heightened tone of voice, "Guys!.. we need to get going! I don't want to be stranded here! We're already going to have to find another way to go, since I-90's bridge just collapsed. We can talk about this on the road!" She stands up, ready to leave.

[Grey]

"It may be best to leave. Where should we all meet up again to finish plans and get things into action?"

[grendel]

"I recommend the hangar in Tacoma where the tilt-wing is located. No later than 1200. Make sure either myself or Warpath has your list of desired gear prior to leaving here, though. We might as well get those requests in to Zoe early. Also, anyone who fears his or her vehicle might not make the trip back to the sprawl are welcome to ride with me."

[Leowulf]

Blackjack says, "How about meeting at the hangar. We can assess the plane there and see where we can all fit for the ride and stuff. Zoe can bring stuff by once we decide what we want. Why don't we put together a list so we can give her time before we hit the road? I can compile one right now on my computer."

Thinking to herself aloud, she says, "Let's see... gel rounds for me... 1 clip, since we might have to capture the kid. He probably doesn't know we're coming. Climbing gear, camo full suit with four arm sleeves, an encrypted micro-tranciever, Ares whatever rating 6, a survival kit, including a survival utility knife..." She looks up and says with a smile, "How are we going to land? Parachutes?"

[Grey]

Jessie gets up and heads for the door. She opens it just a crack to see how the weather is doing, trying to figure out if shes up for the drive back or if she should just catch one with Grendel.