IC: Working Nights, Earning a living the only way we can Options

[BishopMcQ]

Pesto

You navigate Clara carefully around the block, but there are no unusual vehicles in the area. It looks like the coast is clear for the moment, though if the NSA has any second thoughts it may not stay that way. Best to move quickly while it's safe.

[amra28]

After giving the block a once over Pesto brings Clara back to the vacinity of the van and fines an out of the way spot where she can park. Once that is done he sets her up to run on her own with the simple task of watching the van. The orc then pulls himself out of virtual reality and turn to look at the other team members.

"Ok I took a look around the block and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Of course if these guys are really NSA then they may just have assets in place that are much better at staying hidden then I am at spotting them. So what is the next move? Does some go in there after the stuff?"

[adamu]

Al sleepily slitted a single socket. "Hell yes, that's whut we came here for. Dunno how much there'll be, so reckon send someone in ta check it out, keep the ride back less'n we know we'll need it. Send the elves. Comes trouble, they kin talk, fuck, or shoot they way outta anythin'."

[BishopMcQ]

Team

"Whatever." Ryan says before kicking the bike back to life. He gives a tip of his head to Sun who quickly climbs on behind the gunslinger.

The dull roar of the chopper's engine fades away as Ryan drives away.

Time passes...

[DireRadiant]

*** pop *** "Scary elf... keeps looking at Bubbles funny."

"You watching them?"

Bubbles stretches and starts flipping a set of lockpicks and keycards through her fingers.

[amra28]

As the elves drive away, Pesto again jumps into Clara. He moves the drone into a position where he watch watch the entrance of the storage facility. Once in place he sends the rest of the team a video feed.

[BishopMcQ]

Team

The image feed from Clara shows Ryan drive up to the main gate. He turns to Sun and nods towards the key panel. She punches a few buttons, but there is no response from the gate. They pull away and drive away from the entrance. Clara rotates to watch them, and about fifty meters down Ryan pulls out a set of wire cutters. Moments later, a line is cut through the fence and Sun pulls the links apart enough for the bike to ride in.

The pair of elves drive the length of the building, find an entrance and park the bike. They head inside.

Over the comms, Ryan's voice comes through clearly.

"Oy, slitches. We're here. Come on up."

There is an odd sense of vertigo as feed from his cybereyes comes across the feed. The hallway is empty. Up and down the length of it, industrial metal rolling doors are pulled down across storage units. You see the red flash of a monowhip retracting into Sun's hand. A lock falls to the ground. You see Ryan's hand grab the base of the door to open it.

A white flare momentarily blots out the signal. When the signal comes back, you see concrete floor. There is blood and red squishy tissue that you are sure is supposed to be inside a person, not on the floor.

The signal dies.

[adamu]

Al had ignored the feed from Clara, happy to let the elves take care of some business. They were the professionals, after all. He was just killing time until the dock foreman calmed down a little, gave him his job back.

But Ryan's brash voice roused him in short order, and he blearily switched on his comm's viewscreen. Winced when the vixen cut open the lock without even a cursory examination, held his breath and...nothing. He was about to press-to-talk and warn them to...and that was all she wrote.

He took three seconds to play back Clara's feed and see where they'd breached the fence, then he was out of the van and running, medkit in hand. He realized he was using it a lot more than his shotgun, which was probably not a positive indicator.

He didn't know if the goblins were following him - if they were smart they weren't. He half expected a bunch of balaclavaed goons to start popping up from behind cars and close the trap, but there was nothing for it. They'd shared smokes. And the girl keeb could still be alive.

[BishopMcQ]

Al

By the time you clear the fence, you are breathing heavily. The damned sickness still hasn't left your lungs. You follow the path that the keebs had taken before you and come slipping to a halt next to the gunslinger and his broad.

It is clear that there is nothing to be done for Ryan, fully half of his chest has been blown away by the shaped charge. Next to him, the woman is unrecognizable. The clothes were those that you saw Sun wearing but the face and body structure are different. Where previously had been a tall, gothic European beauty, lays a round-faced, striking Asian. She coughs once wetly, blood pushing out from her lips and falls limp. The medkit is applied and her body jerks--once, twice, and falls still. They are gone.

Beyond, the storage unit looks mostly undamaged. The charge was apparently placed to explode outwards with minimal back blast. A card table and folding chair are set in the corner, with two small cases on the desk and a broad flat case beneath it.

[amra28]

Pesto whatches through Clara as the elves do their thing. Maybe they were tired or maybe they were over confident but the orc just gets the feeling that they are rushing a bit. Hell maybe he's the one who is tired and everything is normal.

Pesto is busy arranging the new video feed to the edge of his vision when an all to familiar white flare dominates it. Even though it is not the first time he has watched this type of event unfold through a video feed he still mouths the words Oh Frag!

Quicky pulling himself together Pesto switches Clara's view to look up and down the street, trying to determine if company is coming crashing. Doing so gives him a view of Al running to the scene, who he hopes is thye only one he sees running in the street.

The orc gives the sailor a minute to get into the storage facility before he asks over the comms:

"What do you see man?"

[DireRadiant]

She winced, and then shook her head uselessly to clear her eyes. By the time she looked the softie had run off. Still shaking her head Bubbles slid out of the van and loped after him. Arriving at the unit she looked around sadly.

"Only one door gone?"

She started scanning the area.

"Keep the icky bits off, the Star might trail it."

She blew a large bubble and sucked it back in quietly as she reviewed her results.

[adamu]

Of course the easiest way to answer Pesto's query would be a simple pan of his comm around the area. But it just didn't seem right.

"Flint was the lucky one. Went quick," was all the answer he had for the ork.

First order of business was a moment of silence - not for the dead, but to see if there was any reaction from anyone in the building. Then he had to get their up-front payment off Sunny. Her Majesty's advice was good, and with no way to avoid the muck, he wrapped plastic sheets from his medkit - used to keep the air off burns - around his combat boots.

Then he went to the boxes, watching for further traps on the way. If he reached them, they would ALL get checked before they were touched.

Working quickly, he considered the ugly irony of this sort of work. Flint had wanted to put bullets in the girls' heads, and he'd still be breathing if Al hadn't dissuaded him. It had been the right choice - the elf had been careless. Still...the NSA bitch probably figured it was some sort of test to separate the pros from the wannabes - if they died, they weren't worth dealing with anyway. Typical revenoor bullshit - he'd gone to the mat for her, saved her life, and then she pulled her little joke. Or maybe she just plain forgot to mention the bomb. But he doubted that. And he very much doubted he'd be so generous if he ever crossed her path again.

[BishopMcQ]

U-Stor Unit

Al quickly pats down Sun before slipping a slim credstick into a pocket on his jeans. He scans the area and each package before sliding them out from their positions by the table. No innocent bystanders and it looks like there was only the single charge set on the door. Most of the initial charge has been destroyed, but the small electronic pieces from the backblast show that there was some kind of wireless system attached. Either a remote detonator or kill-switch to be triggered before opening.

The plastic minimizes the disturbances, but there were already deep stains in the knees of Al's jeans from tending to Sun. Gently, the old-timer slides the cases forward and out of the storage unit. Opening the cases shows that the contents will be much easier to move in the cases than without them.

[DireRadiant]

After tapping the cases closed, she scooped them up, and started heading out.

She pumped her vocal through the channel so the skinny tusker could hear as well.

"Keep moving while I clean these of trackers."

With a grin, Bubbles comments, "And take your pants off." *** pop ***

[adamu]

Al had already stepped clear of the gore and used his knife to cut his boots free of the wrapping. Wiping their soles on the inseam of his trousers, he'd been all set to walk away without leaving any tracks.
So it took him a minute to figure out why Bubbles wanted him to remove his fatigue pants; an altogether different meaning for being trailed. And if that was what she was worried about, she'd need the boots too...
Hands going to his laces, he paused and asked, "So, what exackly ya fixin' to do with 'em?"

[DireRadiant]

*** pop ***

"Just wanted to see if you do it."

[adamu]

Al chuckled as he stood back up. He had to admire someone that could crack wise amid scattered pieces of their erstwhile companions--no point in getting sentimental about them that done passed--they was the ones in a better place now anyhows--any questions come up about getting in, he had no doubt Sunny could keep ol' St. Peter plenty distracted while the gunslinger made his way past them Pearly Gates.

"All right, let's beat feet. Owners o' this here boom-boom know where we's goin' with it anyway, if'n they really wanna find us. An' by the time it's done, we kin burn all this kit." He shrugged. "Don't matter no hows - ol' Al's voodoo powers stop anyone comin' after us that way dead in their ethereal tracks."

And with that he led the way out of the building, watching the exterior view from Pesto's drones on his commlink as he went.

[amra28]

When Pesto sees the remaining team members head out of the storage facility he starts the van and drives down the road to pick everyone up, including Clara.

[adamu]

Once back in the van with their costly loot, Al was glad to hear Pesto vote for sleep and head for a truck stop. But he couldn't wait that long, and the next thing he knew they were there.

The place had a diner, a konbini, some showers, some coffins, and a motley assortment of whores.

The ork secured the van and they grabbed some of the all-day soy-breakfast. Al had been spending all his cash on real food lately, trying to get back to his normal self, but nothing like that was on the menu, and it wasn't as though he had a finicky palette anyway. Pesto, too, looked like he preferred better fare, but didn't say anything.

Once they'd chowed, Pesto headed out back for the coffins, which Al thought was a bad idea, but the van was locked and he wouldn't feel right asking the ork to open it. Man's ride was his castle, after all. Her Majesty had way too much demon teamster powder in her for sleep, that much was plain as vanilla. Maybe she'd take a look-see for info on the new-fangled wifi matrix that was all the rage with the kids these days, since he'd got back to the world.

Pesto disappeared into a coffin after they agreed to meet back up in four. Al popped the hatch on his own capsule, and it was just as bad an idea as he'd thought - it wasn't like he couldn't handle tight spots, if he needed to. But since Phnom Penh...He supposed it would be against some sort of shadowrunner union rules just for everyone to go home and meet up later. Yeah, he reckoned if the Johnson - that's what they would've called the Cap'n/Major on the trid - knew where he bunked, the other players would too.

So he slammed the hatch shut and slunk back to the diner. Bubbles was gone - who knew where - and he ordered the soykaf strong and black. Helped himself to the upfront money to slot a Y50 tip so no one would mind him nodding off in the booth, slumbering peacefully amongst the hardworking truckers and hashslingers.

One more afternoon dozed away on the wrong side of the road, dreaming of girls with hair like root beer.

[amra28]

Pesto secures the van for the team's downtime. He sets the sensors to watch for any meat world intrusions. Then he sets the vans's IC to run analyze to watch for any matrix intrusions. On the way out of the van he grabs his Fly-spy Clara, to keep a watch over him while he sleeps. After he closes and locks the doors he gives the van, Gina, a pat goodbye.

The orc walks to the coffin knowing that the others may be wondering why he wanted to rest outside the van. He smiles to himself knowing that while he loves his ride, every now and then a guy just has to go into the outside world in his meat body and see things through his eyes instead of sensors.

Pesto spends about fifteen minutes just walking around streching his legs before shutting himself in the coffin. Once inside he sets Clara's IC program to watch her with analyze and sets her up to watch the door, notifying him immediately if she detects anyone. After that it doesn't take long for the orc to fall asleep.

[BishopMcQ]

Bubbles

You watch the others go inside to sleep, but you are wired. The Long Haul is still racing through your bloodstream keeping your body in a constant state of alertness.

Search results for the "South Seattle Medical Center" come back with varied responses. The clinic was initially opened as a free clinic to service workers from the docks and industrial plants who were injured. Most of them were SINless day laborers who the companies didn't record and thus didn't bother getting medical help for. After the Second Crash, the clinic filed for and won several municipal and government grants. With the influx of money, they increased their psychiatric facilities to help victims of AIPS. Most recently, it was attacked two nights ago by Halloweeners looking to score drugs from the pharmacy. One of the gang members died on scene, the others escaped through a daring jump from the rooftop on to the I-5 freeway.

Armed with your information, but no vehicle, you debate on ways to get down to the clinic. Public transportation wouldn't be right, so you call up your boys to see if anyone is in the area. Inevitably, one of them is nearby and takes you the northern edge of Tacoma within the twenty blocks or so of the transition into Downtown. Walking around the neighborhood, there are a few all-night liquour stores and coffee bars, along with a smattering of worker's bars. Most of them are already closed up, making their trade when the first and second shifts get off. Around the clinic are warehouses and low-grade industrial processing centers.

The clinic itself shows signs of a fire near the lobby, scorch marks from molotov cocktails shattered against the wall. Scanning the area, there are no active signals nearby.

[adamu]

Al awoke with the mother of all cricks in his neck, but that was hardly anything new - happened every time he slept for four hours in the booth of a truck-stop diner.
The place had a big old-fashioned clock above the counter that told him he'd slept somewhere in the vicinity of the right amount of time, give or take a few nightmares and a snoring spell summarily arrested by an annoyed waitress. No hard feelings.
The trogs weren't there yet, but he assumed they'd be along shortly - after all, he was holding the cred.
So he ordered some more coffee, another plate of soy-hash, and started thinking on the contents of the big box.

[amra28]

Pesto's commlink alerts him to the fact that his four hour nap is concluded. After hitting snooze a few times the orc finally drags himself back to reality. First things first, Pesto contacts his drones and van to make sure everything is working as it should. The orc also runs his analyze program on each of his devices to make sure there are no uninvited guests.

Once he is assured that everything is ok he grabs Clara, pops out of the coffin and heads over to the diner.

[DireRadiant]

She chewed absently as she scanned the area, and unable to keep still, she circled the neighboring blocks inventorying items to no purpose. Internally the image link clock started blinking, and she tapped into the ARO feeds and started leaving the area.

<<@team:: Mronign sleepy heads!>>

[adamu]

Al took a loud slurp of soykaf, waved at Pesto, and typed back: <<Good mronign to you, Your Glory. We're here, where r u?>>

Somehow he'd lit a fresh Lucky while typing.