Atlanta 2070, Hot time in the old town tonight Options

[ludomastro]

System smiles, Here comes our new wheels. A van come around the corner and pulls into the space next to Tank's van. Let me edit the camera footage and we can be on our way. Seemingly to no one he says, Thank you for your help, please go about your business.

A few minutes later he adds, No more worries about the cameras for us.

Wheeling around in his seat he looks at the librarian who is standing there with a smug look on her face. She hands System what appears to be a sheet of paper with writing on it. Thank you Miss Duckworth. Please take the rest of the day off. Turning to the rest of the group he explains, Los Samurai appear to have contacts all over the area. The most likely location for their drugs is a pharmacy at this address. He pulls up a display on AR. The dots in red show the most recent deals. The ones in green show other high sale areas near the 51st Street Nomads.


Time: 0857

[Redjack]

Book replies, "Excellent. I'm glad Digger hooked us up."

Checking the surroundings, Tank pulls on his gloves, then maneuvers the new van into position to best conceal the transfer of his doberman. The run now on, he didn't want to get caught short on defensive capabilities. Meanwhile, Book pulls on his gloves as well and tucks his hair into his jacket.

When they are all aboard, Tank locks down his vehicle and navigates the new van out to the street. His destination is the pharmacy. "Initial recon of the pharmacy?"

Book nods. "Yes. From there we can make some decisions about exactly how to make our play with the Los Samurai."

Tank responds, "Next stop Los Samurai turf."

[ludomastro]

The trio passes typical scenes in the city - a few prostitutes and a couple of muggings in progress. The old lady on the second mugging was packing a large caliber weapon and her attackers went down in a hurry. They pass some random elements along their way. Once they reach 51st Street Nomad territory the neighborhood actually starts looking better. Perhaps this group is better at controlling order than others?

They soon find themselves in Los Samurai territory. The area is far more rundown and dirty. They soon reach the pharmacy in question. It is a little storefront set in the bottom of a larger building. It may have been a commercial building at some point in the past. Now it looks mostly abandoned except for the top floors which still show some life to them. The windows on the pharmacy are darkened with grime and dust. Despite the seeming frequent rains in Atlanta, the windows don't appear to have been washed in ages.

A few young men in leathers are milling about in the area when a Japanese woman walks out of the building. She is immediately surrounded by the young men who escort her to a waiting town car as if they were her bodyguards.

[Redjack]

The duo watch the scenes transpire. Tank looks for a parking spot nearby in order to perform a short recon.

[ludomastro]

Tank finds a nice spot with some overwatch capability nearby. It is also perfect for launching drones.

The town car drives away and the "bodyguards" return to their positions around the door. A man stumbles out of the pharmacy and walks away.

[Redjack]

Tank sends his fly-spy on recon, though the two guards give him pause. Too much chance of them seeing my drone. He instead sends the drone around the building in search of an alternate entrance; a fly-spy sized entrance.

Book meanwhile takes flight to the astral. Time to check out what, if any, astral defenses are in the area.

[ludomastro]

Tank is quickly able to find an open window on the fifth floor; however, it leads to an other wise empty room. The furniture looks to be around 20 years old.

Trying again, he finds another window high in a hallway that is open. There are several people milling around inside. In contrast to the dust and dirt covered furniture this area seems clean and well cared for if old. There are several young women, girls really in thin, virtually see-through clothes who seem anxious to please the young men (and old men) standing the hallway as if inspecting merchandise. It seems unlikely that the drone will be noticed anytime soon.

-----

Book picks up on two well enforced wards on the top floor. They seem designed to cover the entire floor; however, there are two wards with a small gap between them. The oddity, is the low force ward around the middle of the third floor.

[Redjack]

Book returns from his recon of the spirit-world to survey Tank's recon of the physical world. He looks over at System, "It would help credibility if a couple of Lone Star drones were available for our charade. What are the chances of that? Later, of course, when this goes down."

He knew the clock would start ticking as soon as the drones went off-grid. His plan would require keeping Tank in the line of fire for only a short time anyway, but they really needed to sell this.

Tank looked over at the shaman and began to wonder if he needed to tidy up his will before this run started in motion today.

[ludomastro]

System's normal smile fades a bit when Lone Star drones are mentioned. He replies, Can and want to are two different things. Those drones have a temper and don't take orders well. They also like to rat you out when they get a chance. Most things are happy to serve but Lone Star drones just seem built to punish. He takes a deep breath. That said, I can probably convince them to assist with a law enforcement action if we can sell it. What do you have in mind?

[Redjack]

Book nods, "Let me elaborate on my current working plan. I will mask Tank to look like Junior. He'll ride Junior's bike in and deliver demands to the Los Samurai-"

Tank exclaims, "To hell I will!"

The shaman pauses, looking at the adept and making a face. "Hear me out." He turns back to System, "My hope is to use a Lone Star drone or two to take down the guards outside. Or at least distract them while the doberman takes them down. I prefer not to engage the doberman initially though as there will no doubt be other eyes that may cause additional complications to be dealt with."

The adept again interupts, "Ya!... and they will want to kill me."

Book again wrinkles his face and waits for Tank to finish. "Your message will be delivered quickly. It will simply be that they will begin paying 30% or face increase police activity in their turf. Then we cut and run. That should stir things up and even provide video on police drones incriminating Junior and by the message, Daddy."

Tank grumbles, "It's still my ass on the line."

"Yes. I will also have the most powerful spirit I can manage to protect you." He pauses, "I'm hoping not to have to resort to that though. Magic will bring doubt on the ruse though, but better alive with a failure than dead with it." He turns back to System a smile hesitantly on his face, "That, of course, brings us back around to the drones. Can you make that work?"

[ludomastro]

System Error visibly puffs up. I can do it. Just let me think. He spends a few minutes in contemplation before speaking again. Let me see if I can hack the goons guns out front first. That way, even if the shit hits the fan, they won't be able to kill Tank. Then I can start nailing the drones.

A few minutes later, he pops up and says, Got 'em. I can shut down the guns whenever I want.

Time: 0942

-----

System sits down in the back of the van finding a niche between the wall and the drone. He slumps over and begins muttering again. He ends up with his head in his hands. Oh, that's tiring. I came up with one high powered helper for the day. I'll bring in a smaller one to help pilot the drone while big brother tears the ice a new one.

Time: 1007

[Redjack]

Book smiled at the news and turned to Tank. "Time for us to consider step number three of today's plan: Junior."

Tank eased the borrowed van out of the parking spot and onto the street. He was beginning to feel a little more at ease with the crazy shaman's plan. "So how do we nab Junior?"

"Still got zip ties?"

"Yea," Tank replied, "but how do we get him?"

Book continued, "Gonna have to be a little magic involved I think... and we need to be prepared to nab the girl as well. We're can't count on him being alone. Furthermore with Daddy's little deal today, we have to assume his schedule will change. Get us to her apartment."

"Ok" was Tank's reply as he set to figuring the best course and driving it.

The shaman put a hand on the ork's shoulder. "When we get to the apartment, we'll need to get access and have any surveillance video edited. You still up to working that out?"

[ludomastro]

I take it back. You mages aren't crazy, you're insane. And here I though the Resonance and those sprites I deal with are off the level. Hell, your thoughts don't even compute. System shakes his head. But, yeah. I got ya covered.

The trio makes the trip in good time. Far from record but great for the day. There was only one crash. A troll on an oversized trike is yelling at a dwarf on a motorcycle about something. From what the trio can see, neither side has anything to complain about; however, even the Star is having trouble with these two.

The roads get progressively better and the streets cleaner as they cross the distance to the gated community where Junior and the girlfriend reside.

System smiles as the gates swing open. We are now a delivery service, he explained. I'll edit in a company logo here in a bit.

Arriving at the house without incident the trio arrives to find that Junior's motorcycle is not in the driveway.

Time: 1049

[Redjack]

Book smiles, "Secret paths. Emotions. Flow of the universe. Almost a feng shui type of thing."

Tank looks over, "Hog wash! You're just making this up as you go."

The shaman continues to smile, but it grows slightly. "Adapting. Improvising. Going with the flow."

Tank grumbles an incoherent response and focuses his attention back on the road.

-------

As they approach the gates Book asks, "Has Junior left Daddy's yet?"

[Redjack]

10:49 Hours

"What the-?!" is Book's reply to the position update from System.

"Ah, hell..." Tank sighs as he looks for a place to turn the van around.

[ludomastro]

Feng Shui, huh? asked System. I knew that I should have been tracking him more closely he muttered to himself.

Tank, what do you think about the interection I'm highlighting on AR. It is in a run down warehouse district that it looks like he's gonna go right through. Between your driving, and my matrix skills we can nail him there.

The trio continues out the gate and down the road.

[Redjack]

Tank nods to the ork, "Yea. I can work with that."

As the duo work through the specifics of where to nab Junior, Book focuses elsewhere for a moment to summon a spirit to assist them. Once the spirit arrives, pledging a service, Book turns his attention back to his team mates. "We need to pull along side him. As we are pulling up, I will stun him. My spirit will catch him so that nothing looks awry and bring him over into the van. I will then mask Tank and he can return to the bike. We then depart the intersection much as we left it, except the real Junior will be zip tied and wearing our mage mask."

Tank then states the obvious, "But he's not a mage."

"Yea, but we don't want him to hear anything if he awakens."

The driver then has an epiphany, "What if the girl is with him?"

Book raises an eyebrow, "She shouldn't be there, unless they are getting ready for another job. In that case we grab them both." He looks to System, "If you still own her com, we will want to block anything outgoing if she is there."

[ludomastro]

System Error adds in, "Not a problem. From what I can tell, she's not with him." System then lets his attention drift. Tank notices that there are no red lights in their way. Soon they reach the intersection in question with a red light. Within seconds Junior arrives coming up behind the van. He is alone.

[Redjack]

Book adjusts the passenger side rear view mirror to watch the approach of their prey. He issues a quick command to the waiting spirit, Manifest behind him and catch him once I enspell him. Do not allow him to fall, insure he is unconscious and bring him in the van. Move him as if he was walking.

He then exhales and lets loose an extremely powerful stun bolt hoping to bring step three to an uneventful close.

[ludomastro]

Junior flies off the back of his bike and into the waiting arms of the spirit. After the second stunbolt, his head is lolled to one side. The spirit corrects the issue and "walks" his limp form to the van. System's eyes gloss over as he focuses his attention elsewhere. The spirit places Junior in the back of the van before vanishing into the astral. System adds, "I've edited the records - we shouldn't have any issues with a trace."

The bike is still sitting in a stationary position - the gyroscopes working overtime.

[Redjack]

As the spirit dumps Junior into the opening door of the van, Book nods his head to the spirit. "Go with my thanks. You are dismissed." Looking back at the young man, Book feels a pang of regret as the youth is zip-tied and his head covered in a mage mask. Book sighs, This kid's life if about to get totally frelled. The kid is a bad kid from a bad family, but does he deserve this? It was times like this that Book was glad his totem is snake and not eagle.

When Junior is bound and moved to the back, Tank pulls his mask over his face. Book then casts a powerful mask spell, the strain showing in the sweat forming on his temples. Using Tank's fly-spy camera, he reviews his work. He is not happy.

The spell fades and Book takes a breath and a moment to clear his mind. Once again focuses his mind and energy and warps the mana around his companion. This casting, while easier than the first, is much more to his liking. "Junior. Get back on your bike before someone notices."

Tank-Junior nods, smiles and goes out to the bike. "Let's do this." he says as he drives around the van and onwards towards the Los Samurai pharmacy.

For Book, now comes the worry. This is the chanciest part of the plan. The most variables and least amount of control. He sincerely hoped he would not be burying the former tanker in a few hours, but dared not share his skepticism.

[ludomastro]

Time: 1109

System says, "I have a lead on an LS drone. Three blocks west. We should be able to nail it with the sprite I've got in tow.

[Redjack]

<<@Team [Tank] Let me know. I sure as hell don't want to be driving in without enough support.>>

Book decides that now is a good time to call in his spirits of beast and air and having them standing by. He also decides to summon an unbound spirit to have it on call as well. I really hope it doesn't come down to using spirits, that could definitely cause some questions as to the validity of our ruse.

Book wrangles with a spirit, sweat again rolling from his brow. This time he fails. He sits a moment, contemplating risking the drain. Looking out the front window at his team mate about to head into a pit of vipers, he makes his choice. His second attempt at a summons is the opposite. While the spirit does not offer more than one service, it does so willingly.

[ludomastro]

Upon reaching the block in question the trio finds a hovering LS drone harassing a couple of young orks. System begins hacking the drone. For a second the drone pivots toward the trio and then stops. It dances back and forth for a minute then does a corkscrew manuveur before telling the orks to go about their business. The kids don't know what to do for a minute but then take off running down the street. The drone flies into the back of the van and settles down on the floor.

[Redjack]

Drone procured, Book considers further refinements to the plan. He's prepared all that he can to protect his friend, now its time to earn some nuyen. He turns to System they arrive in the neighborhood, some half a dozen blocks from the pharmacy. "Send the drone ahead to the street the pharmacy is on. We want it in the area to keep their response minimized and record Junior. Just don't relay or broadcast the video." He pauses for a second to keep his thoughts straight. "The van goes next. Parking in sight of the Pharmacy entrance. Finally, when we are in place Junior will drive up."

Listening to the conversation from his fly-spy on the dash:
<<@Team [Tank] And do what?>>

"Improvise. You have no problem improvising when picking up the chickeetas. Your role is messenger for Daddy. He wants a 30% cut of the action or the Star starts to interfere with their business. The drone outside should lend some credibility to your claim. The will, of course, initially decline. I cannot see them attacking the messenger as they are currently unaware of the extent of the threat. Tell them to bring the first payment to the ceremony today."

<<@Team [Tank] Ballsy.>>

"Overkill perhaps. But it will surely make them curious."