Southern Hospitality, Ya'll come back now ... Options

[Redjack]

Dalton replies, "Nope. No drones. Though we got a sizable enough retainer...."

[Redjack]

Book scowls as the spirit takes notice of him looking to the headquarters. He looks away, quickly changes his perception to the meat world and moves away from the headquarters. Time to make myself scarce before they decide my actions warrant reporting or something.

He moves on down the street then cuts a block over before heading back towards the van.

Dalton meanwhile kicks back while Book and Vick perform the initial recon. He shakes Dean, "Wake up Chummer. We're here."

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 06:30 EST; Druid Hills Country Club, Atlanta, CAS

Jazz is taking a small nap in the meantime.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Sunday March 2, 2070

Dean wakes up with a start and his eyes snap open. The visage he finds himself peering into isn't one to inspire confidence and he instinctively reaches for a gun before getting a hold on his emotions. He stares at Dalton for a second while his wetware re-boots


"Shit, must of dozed off, sorry mate. I'm up to speed now."

It takes only a few seconds for Dalton to fill him in on what was happening and soon Dean is back up to speed.

"Okay, so now what? I hope Jazz can spoof our comm signal cause if I were a security goon for this guy I'd be taking some random samples of the local nodes to check the traffic.

Does anyone know who provides security for this guy? Are they all in house operators or are they hired thugs? I mean, if he's got close ties to the Azzies or to Ares then it would make sense for them to put security guys in his retinue to serve as the corp's eyes and ears. Maybe one of them would have data available."

[ludomastro]

A middle aged ork in rags bangs up against the side of the van and starts screaming, I need suh monie. Cun ya spaw a few neyuan?

[Redjack]

Dalton replies to Dean, "Book and Vick are both on recon right now."

The banging on the side of the van causes Dalton to instinctively reach for his sidearm. He stops then for a moment to think. Could just be a bum.. Could be undercover security... Could be a freaking Peacekeeper/Scarran hybrid in a bunny suit...?

Looking down at his mode of dress he looks back to Vick, "You want to go around and handle it?"

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Dean nods to Dalton.

"I'll take care of it."

The adept checks to be sure his weapon is free in it's holster then slides out the door to find out who's banging on their ride.

[ludomastro]

The individual banging on the van reeks of alcohol - and not even the swill they sell in the barrens. He looks at you cross-eyed and again asks for money.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

"Stop banging on the car chummer, it's bad for your health."

Dean approached the booze drenched vagrant but kept his eyes moving, looking to be sure this idiot didn't have friends.

[ludomastro]

Hey, a mans gatta eat ... I mean drink, I mmmm ......

With that he slides to the base of the van apparently passed out.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Dean breathes himself into astral perception and view's the apparent bum's aura, then steps forward and quickly begins to frisk the man for weapons.

[ludomastro]

He sees an aura damaged heavily by drink and old cyber. The search for weapons comes up naught.

[Redjack]

Book rounds the corner a block away and sees Dean outside the van and dealing with some situation. He looks around for Vick...

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Dean lifts the old drunk from his place on the van and gets the guy moving towards a nearby wall, anywhere away from the team's ride. He tried to settle the old drunk down comfortably against the ferrocrete wall but with the condition and the smell eventually just settled for dumping him in a drunken wad.

He headed back for the van, wishing he kept some wet wipes to clean the filth off his hands. Course, if they'd contained alcohol the old boozer probably would've gone berserk and tried to take them.

[Redjack]

Dalton stays in the rig, watching to see if they've gotten the attention of anyone in the area.

Book, mask still in place, returns to the van.
<<@All [Book] Magic surveillance is pretty tight. I'm not getting in there and depending upon the spirit orders, we may have a problem going around them. They were watching for magically active near the perimeter. Anyone seen Vick?>>

[Redjack]

As the team arrives back at Dalton's Chrysler-Nissan Patrol, he locks it down and pulls out into traffic. Vick's com going silent had Dalton concerned.. It's not unheard of for a runner to throw away an LTG and walk away. Hell, several runners had done it on this run in the last 24 hours. It's not gonna be a cake walk, but this is ridiculous!

As he monitors the agent navigating traffic he spins the command chair around to look at Book and Dean. A pair of spell-slingers here and a hack-master back at the safe house.. Perhaps this was for the best. Trim the team down and finish this baby out.

As the pair in the back kicked back for the ride home, Dalton did the same. The auto-pilot was more than adequate and he did get up and 0:dark:30.....

[ludomastro]

The auto-pilot begins taking the car back to the gated community. The group passes the incoming traffic headed downtown. The grid can't keep up with the number of people and the traffic jams start. Those who stay awake see the various security forces, both professional and amatuer chase the homeless away from businesses so that the illusion of a highly functioning downtown is maintained. The air is sweet for the first time in weeks which means that a thunderstorm is on its way. The rain will clean the streets for a while and then the afternoon sun will bake the area with true southern humidity. Leaving the center of town they pass by several neighborhoods that have seen better days; however, the presence of the Star has kept problems to a minimum. Farther out, they cross over into true desolation and the grid stops working. The auto-piloit is content to plow on through and the group reaches the resort with minimal delays. Now that others can see them in the daylight, they get several stares and each can feel the unspoken question, "What are they doing here?"

[Redjack]

Monday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Downtown to Druid Hills, Atlanta

The deceleration of the vehicle awakens Dalton as they exit the highway and begin to navigate the smaller streets in route to their safehouse. At one point, Dalton pulls over in a car wash and quickly applies the Super-Flush Plumbing decals to the side of the vehicle.

As they stop at the gates to Druid Hills. Dalton again enters the supplied pass code and rolls the vehicle into the gated community. He rolls on past the various over privileged lot out for their morning walks with Fluffy or Atlas or whatever silly name they give their pampered pets. Those ugly little furballs eat better than half the kids of this city. The thought darkens his usually indifferent mood for a few minutes before he releases the thought from his mind and focuses back on the short drive through the heavily wooded properties.

The stares of the strolling residents and their air of righteous indignation are not lost on Dalton, he simply smiles and waves. A plumber is so beneath these people...., but the knowledge that they are providing the needed cover for the team's operation right under their noses injects a bit of joy in Dalton's day.

As the Chrysler-Nissan comes to a halt in the secluded driveway of the safehouse, Book stirs from his nap, invigorated. <<@All [Book] Jazz - You up? Did we agree to make a run out to the neighborhood where the partially deleted message originated?>>

[Thanee]

Monday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Druid Hills, Atlanta

< [Jazz] Morning. Not sure if we already agreed on what to do, but this still sounds like a good idea. Anything you could figure out on your trip? >

[Redjack]

<<@All [Book] I believe that conversation actually occurred while you were napping. As far as magical surveillance, he's spent a great deal of money. Large, expensive wards.. Multiple spirits one of whom actually observes magically active people near the building.. I'd like to own the magical security company he employs.>>

<<@All [Dalton] Physical security was pretty much the same. Saw a number of cameras, crossing zones.. You have a back-door into his computer system? I bet you'll find a bit that I missed. Fair enough to say, it sounds like physical penetration would not be pretty.>>

<<@All [Book] And we seem to have had another of the crew walk off into the night. Just the four of us now. Perhaps you should contact your fixer, Cole, right? .. and let him know about the changes to the team size and complement. The pay was by person at seven people. Being down three, we need to rethink a little bit here. Not sure what we want to ask for to get evened back out though.... >>

<<@All [Dalton] Drones..? We could use a few of those...>>

<<@All [Book] Of course. Back to next steps. I think the Azzies money angle and the ork girl are the two we need to focus our time on. Shall we load up and head back to the meet area.. Check out the phone booth? See what shakes out in the neighborhood? We need to find out if we've been made or if the ork girl is the connection to the neighborhood... >>

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Dean watched the ghostly text scrolling down into oblivion and tried to figure this out. With physical security that tight making a direct run on the HQ seemed conterproductive, the money wasn't much good to a guy sitting inside a prison cell. The girl seemed to be the best angle at this point.

<<All: [Dean]: I think the ork girl is our best bet. Security at the site was insane, he can't have serious security on the girl or everyone would know about it by now.

[Redjack]

<<@All [Book] Agreed. Giving her security, at least in any realistic measure, simply draws a target on her.>>

<<@All [Dalton] Listen. I've been thinking. We need multiple vehicles to begin trail him unless we can establish some other method to follow him. He's not kept his secrets this long without being able to slip out unnoticed. We need to figure out his angle... How does he slip in and out for these meetings and not be seen?>>

[ludomastro]

The momentary sun is again covered by clouds that are dark black. In truth it is smoke - thick curling black smoke. There are sirens to be heard in the distance. A few moments later the AR pop-ups begin with news stories about a building off in the residential area that was ... depending on which station you listen to:

* bombed
* caught fire
* the victim of a gas main explosion
* sight of ritual magic gone terribly wrong
* etc.

[Redjack]

<<@All [Dalton] Ok crew, let's load up and move out. Ready to go Jazz?>>

Book looks over at the driver, not pleased with infusion of military hoopla. He raises an eye brow lets a small frown slip out, but remains silent for the moment. The variety of incidents currently reported in Atlanta raised an idle curiosity, but nothing therein presented an opportunity associated to the current objective... at least not at the moment.

[Thanee]

< [Jazz] I agree on the ork girl angle. If security in his office is a nightmare, than we should stay away from it unless absolutely required.

As for the vehicles, I got my car, my bike, and a few drones.

As for the team... maybe we should take a look for some replacements? I could give a call to Cole so he checks if someone trustworthy enough is available. >