To Catch a Mockingbird, Operation Dissonant Cadance Options

[Galedeep]

[Ivan Beckett/Dean Keaton]

"Aw, hell, of course I want a bike. I could fly there, but why waste the effort? I might work up a sweat, and that just won't do," he said with a chuckle and a wink. He rummages through the various bags, picking up gear and fiddling with it, dumping some things into a backpack, strapping things down on the '59 Predator with quick, efficient actions.

"I see you reserved yourself the good gun," he said with a grin, grabbing a Glock and a quick draw holster, buckling it to his belt and leaving it low, on his right hip. Slipping one of the much sleeker HK's into a hidden arm rig, he rolls up his right sleeve, going about strapping the contraption into place.

Looking over at Mosby as he finishes up, he nods. "Yeah, I can get us there quick. Only question is whether we want to arrive tight like, or spread out a bit. Could be we gun it on towards the city, and I drop ya'll back to normal speeds going in. That way, Ash and I can pull ahead a bit, and ya'll can take in the sights while we case the joint...that's right, isn't it? Case the joint?" Shrugging, he grins again, in that oafish way of his, and says, "Well, sounds criminal to me."

Strapping a long leather gun sheathe to the right of his bike, he acquires and loads a Remington M1370, sliding it in and going back to pick up several clips of ammunition for everything, along with a few minor tools, a couple of smoke grenades, and a helmet.

Sliding in his contacts, and slipping their metal case in his pocket, he fits the snug little earbud provided into his ear and hops on the bike. "I'm ready when you guys are. Make sure communication stays open, though; the mojo shouldn't mess with it, and I want to hear what you guys are talking about."

[Ol' Scratch]

[Rozhenko]

Nick didn't have much to say, at least not until he saw his usual Smith & Wesson on the table. "Hey, you were able to get ol' Matilda! Right on," he cried out, holding 'her' up and oohing at how she felt in his oversized hands.

"So you guys are taking two of the bikes? I guess I'll take the SUV, then, and wire into the other vehicles for the trip down. At least the windows are tinted so no one'll see in," he says with a hint of disdain at the line-up. And, with that, he seems to withdraw into himself again as he resumes trying to find his 'character.'

[Fortune]

[Ashley]

Ashley grabs the now-empty bag and takes another trip out to the truck, where he shrugs into one of the armored vests. He then rummages around until he finds a double shoulder holster amongst the gear, strapping that on before pulling on a worn jean jacket over the top.

Satisfied, he wraps a commlink around his wrist, then starts to fill the canvas bag with incidentals; a medkit with a few slap patches, a few assorted grenades, a couple of respirators, duct tape, an electronic tool kit, and of course, a fair number of survival ration bars. Finally Ashley throws in a handful of spare clips and a box of 9mm SLAP ammunition, before slinging the bag over his shoulder and heading back to the rest of the group.

Slipping a pair of Glocks into the empty holsters, he then shoves a couple of the pre-prepared clips into each jacket pocket. Looking up, Ash slides a pair of shades onto his face, and grins broadly at the others.

"I'm ready to go."

[Cthulhudreams]

[Mosby/Frank Carden]

Mosby sits on the fork of the trailer hitched to the Toyota while he's watching the others get ready to roll out, donning his glasses.

"It be good if you could Ivan, don't if it costs anything though. I'm going to hit the 'Trix and find somewhere to stick this" he leans over and slaps the side of the trailer "near the meet site then get a lift with Byrne or Sam for the last leg."

Mosby then flagrantly disobeys orders and very briefly connects the cheap TCL comm to his Skynet Systems comm with a piece of fiberoptic cable for just long enough to copy across a browse and edit program, then guiltily terminates the connection, ordering the agent on the TCL comm to kill the log file of that transaction with a sub vocal command - hopefully before Nick notices.

Having done that he switches his attention back to Skynet, checking out an agent from Nick's system, then loads it with the browse program and wills it to find him some suitable rental properties, specifying for a double lockup garage, largish garden and preferably a basement.

[Fortune]

[Ashley]

Hearing the last part of John's statement, Ash pipes in.

"Y'all might be wantin' to find a few of them there 'U-Store-It places. Y'know, the kind that provides space t' work on yer vehicles."

[TheOneRonin]

1330 hours (Central Timezone), Wednesday, June 10th, 2071
Location: I-12, westbound, heading into Baton Rouge

As you make your way into Baton Rouge, the residential areas along the interstate slowly give way to commercial and corporate property. While not nearly as built-up as Atlanta, Baton Rouge is almost as spread out. The "downtown" area, which in the early 21st century was defined as a few square miles along the Mississippi, has grown several miles past the I-10/I-12 Split, pushing well past the old commercial boundaries. This area has experienced very substantial economic growth across the last 50+ years, owing mostly to the fact that the Louisiana government was one of the first state legislatures to unilaterally recognize Corporate Extraterritoriality, and has some of the least restrictive commercial laws for those corporations without Extraterritorial status. Baton Rouge quickly became one of the primary telecom hubs for the gulfcoast, and it's growth hasn't slowed down since.

A side effect of such rapid growth has been a substantial increase in local population. Nowhere in Louisiana is this more evident than in Baton Rouge. Traditionally, most residents have lived outside of the city proper, in such residential towns as Denham Springs, Walker, Prairieville, and Gonzales. Baton Rouge's rapid economic growth forced commercial interests to push out past the traditional corporate areas and into places that had always been mostly residential. This pushed residents even further outside of town, and exacerbated the already pre-existing traffic issues. Since Baton Rouge is a VERY traditionally southern city, there is VERY little in the way of public transportation. Everyone drives, mostly because there are few other alternatives to allow one to get to work. The morning commute for most people is in the neighborhood of 60-90 minutes, with the afternoon commute being close to double that. In an effort to mitigate all of that lost time, many corporations began buying up nearby apartment complexes, condo-complexes, and town-home complexes to use as corporate housing for their employees. Some of the wealthier corps built their own adjacent apartment towers, and bought up nearby grocery and department stores and incorporated them into their own corporate enclaves. While not "proper" arcologies, these enclaves were attractive to many Baton Rouge residents who wished to avoid the long commute and wasted time in traffic.

The only residential areas left inside the city that are not part of a corporate enclave are the government housing projects for financially destitute. Most of those employed in Baton Rouge's service industry live in these projects, and, just like 70 years ago, they are often the center piece for much of the crime in the city.

The Baton Rouge office of Lone Star is woefully understaffed, mostly because the State Politicians always seem to have their hand in the pot, and leave less and less for Law Enforcement every year. As a result, the cops mostly work towards keeping the criminal elements from spilling over into the corporate districts. As long as the crime in the C-level neighborhoods and below stays relatively quiet and remains isolated to those districts, Lone Star ignores it. But they aren't afraid to react in force when it gets loud, violent, and spills over into other districts.

As a side effect, most of the working-class folk in the poorer districts have armed themselves (firearm laws are relatively lax in this state), and formed "neighborhood watch"-type vigilante gangs to protect themselves from the real criminals.

[TheOneRonin]

1740 hours (Central Timezone), Wednesday, June 10th, 2071
Location: Bocage Village shopping center, approx 1.5 blocks from meet location

<Nick> "Bird's in the air. Sending feed to your commlinks in 3...2...1...now."

A window pops up in your AR display showing you the feed from Nick's Fly-Spy drone. The view tilts and pans as the micro-drone flies up and over the buildings in Bocage Village and speeds towards the parking lot where you are to meet Bourgeois.

The innocuous drone perches itself on roof of the southern building cluster, giving it a clear view of the parking lot below, and the other buildings surrounding it. The area looks busy, with a few dozen vehicles scattered across the lot and shoppers moving back and forth between the lot and the various stores and restaurants. A quick scan of the surrounding rooftops shows an absence of metahuman presence, and nothing going on below looks the least bit out of the ordinary. Traffic on Jefferson is thick, which is normal for this time of day in this part of town. Weather conditions are hot, humid, but clear, and sunset won't be for another several hours.

[Cthulhudreams]

[Mosby]

John flicks the feed up to the centre of his vision with a mental command, briefly running an eye over it. Reassured by the sight of a heavily trafficed area and not an isolated parking lot, he shunts the visual to the edge of his vision.

John then looks back behind the seats to make sure nothing is obviously attracting attention, and with a mental impulse he transmits as facsimle of his voice over the comms

"Looks good Nick. I'm about to drop this truck off if you can give me a lift for the last leg Byrne" calling up and confirming his booking via the lot's 'trix interface, wiring across his funds, recieving his virutal key fob and uploading the lot number directions to the trucks systems as it glides quitely towards the parking.