How would you secure the meet, Frightened team needs some help Options

[GoldenAri]

My group needs to secure a meet that may be a trap or may be someone trying to help us.

Here's the scenario: Right before the end of our game session last night I recieved a call from a stranger who wanted to meet with our group, claiming that he had information about someone who might be trying to kill us. Now this guy had clearly not been refered to us by one of our contacts, because he didn't use our pass-phrase. When I asked him about how he got the number he told me his hacker had managed it. As far as we know none of us had been hacked.

Unsure what to make of it I tell him to meet us at a busy nightclub we regularly use in a couple days (enough time for us to do some leg work on what's going on). The stranger agrees and hangs up.

That evening our sam gets killed by an assassin in his apartment who was consistantly causing him to soak double-digit DVs from a light pistol, and is apparently god's gift to unarmed combat. Our GM was playing the details of this assassin very close to his chest, presumably so that he doesn't give us any clues.

The game session ended with us finding his body in his apartment, and discovering his commlink missing.

We don't know who is trying to kill us or why, and we have a bit over 24 hours to prepare for a meeting that may or may not be a trap.

How should we prepare? We have a magician, a fair bit of gear, and enough cash that we could probably expidite something we don't have. We lack muscle though.

We would rather not expose ourselves to this "informant" at all, but if it's legit then we definately want whatever info he's got.

We feel completely outclassed and need some new tricks, help.

[Moon-Hawk]

How's this for a "thinking outside the box" trick: Engineer a disturbance nearby just before the meet, maybe just paying some local gangers to cause some minor trouble. In any case, you've just guaranteed that Lone Star will have units within a block in case you want to call the cops. Obviously this is a double-edged sword, but if you're not planning to be the troublemakers, you could let them deal with the cyberzombie assassin long enough to give your team time to escape.

[ixombie]

Unless you're SINners, I don't think you should call the cops. "Always glad to help a citizen! Wait a second... You're not citizens! And you're bristling with contraband! No no no, none of this adds up!"

You apparently have someone very powerful on your ass. I think they killed your streetsam to prove that it would be a bad idea to resist. If you fight them, you're going to lose, so don't plan on fighting them.

That said, there are always your last ditch, suicidal tactics. Like show up to the meet with a whole bunch of explosives. Maybe sneak the explosives in and plant them beforehand. That way you have a bargaining chip, just hope they don't call your bluff.

Maybe something safer and easier would be to sneak in a bunch of gas grenades, and bring gasmasks. That way you could take everyone out, search them, and get away without being mass murderers, or killing yourselves.

You could also think about a drone army. Nothing like a bunch of machine-gun toting, expendable friends to help even the odds. If you could somehow get your hands on a whole bunch of hardcore combat drones and conceal them nearby, they could come to your aid and shoot up the place. Of course, that would be really really expensive.

By the same token, you could have your mage summon and bind a bunch of spirits. He could even bind the spirits to defend you, so he won't need to control them all. Only I think binding rituals take quite a while.

If you could find something the assassin left behind, you could use it as a material link to splatter him with ritual sorcery. Only your mage probably doesn't know ritual sorcery because it's very limited in use. But you might be able to use a spirit to track him based on anything he left behind. If he left shell casings, you could get those analyzed and then search the trix to see if any matching ballistics turned up at other crime scenes, you might be able to piece together a profile from that. But your GM might not be willing to just hand you the whole surprise of the plot just like that, your enemy might prove totally untraceable.

[kzt]

Would it have been personal or business? Do you have any heavy hitters looking for you? Is there a reason for them to be looking for you? Have you talked to your contacts about this? Is there any compelling reason for you to not take a vacation out of state, say for a few months, starting in say 5 minutes?

How are you going to recognize this guy? Or does he know how to recognize you? Would you mind if he recognized you through the scope of a sniper rifle as you walk in?

Get drones in there ahead of time to look for oddness, if you can. Fly spies are really small, and once above the lights (in the beams and near the ceiling) invisible. Get drones in the air over and around the place starting now. Look around the area. Look for people on rooftops, cars parked with people in them, cars or people that act odd. Does anyone show up outside a few hours before the meet that wasn't there the day before?

Think long and hard about grabbing your bug out bag and bolting out of town instead.

[Dashifen]

Use nano-paste disguises on other people and send them to the meeting. Then, use commlinks to send messages back and forth until such a time as the safety of the team can be determined. Just make sure you pay and dismiss the decoys before any sensitive information is shared.

[GoldenAri]

We have no idea who'd be out to get us. I mean we've run against a wide range of folks, but we're usually pretty good at covering our tracks.

The informant that called me seemed to know who I was (and why not - apparently he's got a hacker who can get into my commlink without me making any rolls), I told him to ask for Mr. Egg when he arrives.

We ended in our sam's appartment, so we haven't had a chance to talk to our contacts yet.

Running for it may be our best bet, but without any info even that seems a gamble since we don't know who we're running from. So we are wanting to find out what my suspicious caller has to say, but we want to minimize the amount of exposure at that kind of meet creates.

[masterofm]

Don't do a face to face meet (always such a terrible idea.) Now that your sami is dead and they have his/her comlink your bar has probably been compromised as a place you guys like to meet at. Set up a holo projector in the back of the bar and tell the bar tender that if anyone asks for you to go to the room in back. The room should be poorly lit so they might at least have a chance of not recognizing that your holo projector is not actually you. Use two or three comlinks to ping the signal around and make it harder to track followed by a comlink attached to a cable so even the signal still does not come from your exact location and set up a camera to make sure if anyone moves up on the last comlink that you will be able to instantly bug out.

If he wants to meet you face to face switch it from your bar to another location (be sure to have a safe word) that you have scouted out and fortified prior to this engagement. Make sure that this place has a few escape points (with cameras so you don't get ambushed) so it will be harder to cut off your team from retreat, and only have one person meet him face to face (disguised of course) while the others can easily pop out from behind something and kak the fool. Be sure to scan the skies for anything that might be hostile, and have other cameras, sensors, and traps laying around the place just in case things get heavy. That way you will have the advantage in any situation. Also hack into the camera feed of the bar itself so that if this guy comes to the bar and gets kacked by this crazy pistol wielding dude you know its time to blow up your apartment/s, change your names, and get the hell out of town. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

[JBlades]

Step 1: Whatever you normally do at a meet, write it down. That becomes your list of things NOT to do at this meet. Assume the enemy knows you, as they've taken out one of your members and contacted you, so they probably know your routine as well.

Step 2: Don't hold the meet where you told them it would be. Use the kidnapper's strategy of running them around to give you a chance to spot a tail (their backup). When they show up and ask for Mr. Egg, they get a location and a time. Just enough time to get there. Surveil them as they move from location to location, probably using drones and a spirit with the accident power. Take the opportunity to cause accidents for their backup and leave them alone at the actual meet. Use as many stops as it takes, probably about 4, and make the last stop look just like the rest of the stops.

Step 3: You probably usually meet somewhere that you have a little privacy. In this case, privacy might not be your friend. Meet somewhere with high security and right out in the open. Maybe at a diner across the street from a Lone Star substation. Bring only non-lethal weapons for which you have licenses. I realize they'll be fake licenses, but still... Oh, and wear suits. Makes a good impression. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Step 4: Rig all the drones from a freshly bought commlink separate from your usual commlink, and maybe have a couple near the actual meet point with aerosol canisters filled with neurostun. Bring gas masks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Step 5: Use your karma to buy some Edge points, just in case! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

EDIT: Almost forgot one of the important parts, still waking up. Make use of area and directed jammers to deny communications to your enemy. You can put them on the surveillance drones and at the meet points. Of course, you want to make sure that your commlinks and drones are running ECCM higher than the rating of your jammers or are relaying their feed through laser communications, depending on your resources.

There's also the option of not actually being at the meet. You could have them run around and then do a virtual meet, but if they do have a hacker that's that much better that could end poorly for you. Is there another way they could have gotten your number? The hacker thing could be a bluff, you know.

[Moon-Hawk]

Step 5: Use your karma to buy some Edge points, just in case! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Of course, it's cheaper, karmically speaking, to Escape Certain Death and then buy your Edge back, as opposed to increasing your Edge once and immediately having to ECD. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

[masterofm]

The problem is JBlades they already told the guy they would meet at the bar, but I think you can easily merge both Blades' plan and mine into a very effective plan. The biggest problem I find is that moving a character too much who may or may not be trying to save your life, he might just give up and go away after you have sent him to the second location. He also might be getting tracked so the more movement he makes might also kill him before he can even pass on the information. If he walks from the meet the only option you have is to run. The path you take him to the other meet location should have at least a few neutral security checkpoints so it will increase your chance of knowing what this guy can do.

If a comlink broadcasts in an area your comlink can pick up the signal without being traced by anything, but sending a signal is always the hard part. The minute you send a signal directly from your comlink a crazy hacker that can hack a comlink w/o making you roll will be able to pinpoint you in a heartbeat and then your team is boned. Sending him around town gives him (or his team) just as much of a chance to track you as you are tracking him.

*Edit* if this hacker is insane he could probably cut through a drones jamming like a hot knife through butter. If its a bluff your fine, but if it isn't.... Also sending drones against a hacker can be a pretty bad idea. You would have to make the drones be unable to receive signals or else a hacker will just face palm the drone and take it over.

[JBlades]

All good points, masterofm, I like your paranoia level. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[masterofm]

I'm a twitchy little bugger. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Method]

If I were you I'd hire another team to meet the informant at the bar and kidnap him. If the informant is an super-killy assassin (or a walking cranial bomb) the other team will get greased and you're on the next suborbital to Fiji.

If not, hit him with a high rating tag eraser and make him change clothes before you leave the club. If they make wifi blocking clothing that would be ideal. Then put the informant in an disguise and smuggle him out the back into a nondescript van. You might also coat the inside of your nondescript van with wifi blocking paint.

Next surveil the van as it moves to your selected site. See JBlade's step 2 above.

Move the informant to an ultra secure kill zone your team has set up. Maybe use a large secluded warehouse with lots of strategically arraigned cover, escape routes, spirits and drones, jamming equipment, etc. Mages Sight goggles. Neurostun and gas masks. Flashpacks a-plenty. There is something reassuring about a sandbag redoubt with a tripod mounted heavy machine gun. Wire the whole place with explosives or a F.A.B. (thats fuel air bomb, not fat astral bacteria). If he has a tail, (or if he actually is a super-killy assassin smart enough to bide his time) you should make sure you have every card in the deck stacked in your favor.

Then you're on the next suborbital to Fiji.

{edit} Just to clarify, this is all assuming the guy is out to get you. Obviously if he is friendly you aren't going to open up on him with an HMG. Also, if he is truly friendly (or has something to gain by your survival) he should understand your need for security.

[Ryu]

First question: How many of you are there? What are your skills?
Second: What is the player of the samurai doing now?

If all of you go to the meet, you should distribute in a larger room with overlapping fields of vision. So you are hard to surprise. Standing with your back to the wall indeed. So send the person in question on block down the street. Maybe you can take out persons on his tail while he approaches your meeting place. (The bartender in the bar will hand out a chip with directions once he hears the passphrase. No matrix connection!). You fortify the meeting place, and keep at least twice the needed number of necessary getaway transports close, and a few more a few hundred meters THROUGH a few blocks (to hinder vehicles) away. Everything doable on short notice. As for searching a place for the meet: Steal someones comlink, use it for a search for free flats in the area. Delete search history, give comlink back. No trace to you or your IDs. On meeting day, break into flat (should be doable without alert).

[KarmaInferno]

Don't meet at a bar.

Meet in the lobby of SeaTac Airport.

Past the metal/weapons detectors, and the legion of guards at the gates.

This ensures nobody has any nasty surprises they can spring.


-karma

[djinni]

This ensures nobody has any nasty surprises they can spring.

Except the one guy that took out their muscle without dropping his icecream cone
come on killing a player is bad form but killing a player when that player has no chance?

[ixombie]

Oh come on, nobody likes the idea of rigging the club with explosives? It's not as smart as some of these other ideas, but it's so classic and gutsy... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Teulisch]

sounds to me, like you have a legit contact, but can expect the badguy to show up as well, possibly killing the contact before you get the full info. you will probably need someone on-site to grab a physical item of some kind, a note or chip.

offhand, i would guess that your assasin is an initiated adept of some kind. If he knows his stuff, then of course he will hit the weak links first. a guy alone at home is a prime target, if you can just figure out when and where to strike.

[Ryu]

Oh come on, nobody likes the idea of rigging the club with explosives? It's not as smart as some of these other ideas, but it's so classic and gutsy... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Yeah, but they´ve choosen one of their primary hangouts for this gig, no can do. Else I´d specified that the contact has to go out through a back entrance (to lure follow-ups in), and then detonate the building. Our groups mage knew his ways around explosives.

[GoldenAri]

First question: How many of you are there? What are your skills?
Second: What is the player of the samurai doing now?

First question: There's 4 of us, well 3 now.
My guy's a social adept (grade 1 initiate) and a bit of a sneak thief sort.
Our tech guy has a maxed out commlink, I think all the programs at 6 or near there, and at least one just about everything in the BBB that has has a price tag.
Our mage is a classic hermetic (grade 3 initiate - though only magic 6) who is more spellcasting oriented, and heavily focussed on illusion magic.
We all have a bit come combat skill, but nothing like our sam.

Second question: quoth the player "I think I'm going to hold off on making my new character until the rest of you are dead so we can make a cohesive team."

come on killing a player is bad form but killing a player when that player has no chance?

Yeah, we were all WTFing at that but the more I think about it the more I think he kind of had it coming. The player regularly bitches about how quick and one sided the fights are because we tend to pick our targets well and make the most of surprise, instead of doing kick in the door style raid which his character is built for (which has come in handy but is very rarely needed). I think the thing that really screwed him in the fight was the assassin attacked him when he didn't have his armor (attacked him as he was coming out of the shower) and wracked up some severe wound penalties before our sam got to act.

[Cthulhudreams]

I'd hire a prostitute/escort with a data filter so she won't remember the conversation, then send him/her/itto the meet armed with a commlink that has a speakerphone function. They put it on the table and the social adept does all the talking. The commlink out there should just be a 1/1/1/1 job, you don't even care about that. Your hacker places a call from a drop commlink, preferably someone elses - tell him to hack into one in a display cabinent in australia, or some corp dudes one on the street, or whatever - and loads that one with black IC, then bounce it around back to you - or rather a 1/1/1/1 commlink you brought at the stuffer shack with a rating 1 fake sin.

Then the worst case is you lose a commlink you don't care about, a rating 1 fake sin, and you'll you have to explain to a pimp why his hooker got shot. Not that you'll have to have that conversation because you'll be in LEO enroute to fiji or moscow or something.

If you are worried about the contact being killed, meeting in an airport lobby is a good idea if you have watertight IDs. If not, bind the most hardcore spirits you can and have them waiting in astral with the escort with orders to defend her, and have the mage telepathically order them to protect the contact too if he is legit. Have the team waiting in a van outside.

[ixombie]

I think your sam disregarded one primary principle of SR4 combat: running away is ALWAYS an option. In SR3, combat was pretty easy to survive, since most sammies could fully soak small arms fire, and anyone with high karma could be like superman at will. But in SR4, it's all about position and tactical advantage. If you're in cover, you can stay in the fight, but if you're pinned in the open, you're dead. The thing to do when you're ambushed naked by an assassin is to full defense and then jump out the window and go scooting off down the street. Maybe get on a city bus which will carry you to safety in full view of other people (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

Either that, or pick up the detonator to your C12 stockpile and say, "I wouldn't try anything, if I were you." Suicidal explosives bluffs are the BEST! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

[Narmio]

Your sam got assassinated in his own home and now you're booked at a suspiciously arranged meet at a place you're known to frequent with a complete stranger?

I hear the weather in Vladivostok is good this time of year.

[djinni]

Maybe get on a city bus which will carry you to safety in full view of other people

with the way the fight was I doubt that would have stopped him, on top of the bus in full view, just shot him to death like in the apartment.

Either that, or pick up the detonator to your C12 stockpile and say, "I wouldn't try anything, if I were you." Suicidal explosives bluffs are the BEST!

bluff?

[GoldenAri]

His plan was to knock the guy over, then run for the pistol in the kitchen and shoot him. He never got to the pistol part of that plan. Mind you our GM told us after the session that the assassin had unloaded his gun while he was in the shower so he was screwed anyway.