IC: Evolution, In Character - Epoch, Survival, Revolution Campaigns Options

[klinktastic]

13:50:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon

Corsair arrives to the pre-meet location to regroup with his new team. Hopping out of his Gaz Willy, he heads inside.

[Mister Juan]

13:50:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon

Eyes staring down into her beer, Ludi dug her hand into a bowl of peanuts. She had barely finished sitting down that the local boys had decided to accost her. She told the first one to get lost. She’d almost punch the second’s one pickup line into the back of his mouth. When the third one had showed up, she had talked about great length about her six kids, and that she could help him find Jesus. That had finally shut them up.

Stuffing herself down with handful of peanuts, Ludi crushed cigarette after cigarette into the ashtray, her boots drumming on the stool’s legs. Her neck was starting to strain from looking over her shoulder everytime the door creaked opened.

She wasn’t quite sure who had picked up this place as a spot to meet. Whoever it was, there was going to be hell to pay. A god damn fragging country bar. Just the music made Ludi feel dirty all over, and not in the naughty kind of way.

Every now and then, her hand would come up and run through her almost smooth skull. About two weeks ago, she’d gotten Roland to cut her head open and fiddle around with her brain. He could’ve made a few incisions, keep it clean. Ludi had been her usual drastic self and decided to shave her entire head for the operation. Sure, it wasn’t the sexiest of looks, but it was safer. Worst came to worst, Zina had more than three dozen wigs back at the beauty parlour. Taking a long drag on her cigarette, Ludi wondered what she’d look like as a blond.

She had barely enough hair to run her hand through it. Last time she’d gotten a cut this short, she had been one week into basic training. Somehow, the look apparently worked wonders for her. Boys, not men, had been all over her for the past three weeks. Zina kept telling her she looked like a man...

Blowing smoke through her nose like an impatient dragon, the young Russian woman checked the time on her image display. Country music whined in her ears, making her teeth grind.

[Bastard]

13:51:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

The bartender, in her late 30s, none of them likely friendly, placed a 10-ounce plain high ball glass on the bar in front of Ludi. The glass is three-quarters full of a clear liquid.

"Ain't you a fish outta wata." She pauses to shoo off another advancing redneck with a simple hard look, one that Ludi could respect. "Vodka neat. On tha house. We don't get too much of you in vogue city gals in here. You meetin' someone, hon?" A wry smile slides across her face, "A boy?"

[Kliko]

23:12: Tuesday, 28 March 2062 - Thunderdome supply area, Martinez

"Sounds like a plan, I knew you would make for a real good asset."

13:59:34 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

The big SUV pulled up in fornt of the Clayton Club Saloon. 'A good a place as any, they better not spit in my food.'

Walking in they looked very much like your typical Tarantino-style gangsters in their cheap business suits. Kliko formidable stature being dwarved by Bubba coming in behind him. The resident rednecks gazing in their general direction smelled trouble, or easier prey to pick at, or a combination of both. Meanwhile, the crew met right here just for a cheap lunch and the saloon's close proximity to Clayton park just a block away. To Ludi they must have looked like saviors from heaven. Finally some familiar faces!

Walking up Ludi gently touching her elbow whispering "Nice haircut Ludi, I like your style." ... "You per any chance have a menu Honey?... We'll be right over there" indicating an empty booth.

[Bastard]

13:59:55 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Menus at the table, hon." She gives a Ludi a girl-to-girl look, and smiles mouthing the words, "Oh, my."

The menu on the table consists of your basic breakfasts and some country themed layouts, basic sandwiches, plus your barbecue, and fried chicken and something called a "Cowboy Up" steak.

[klinktastic]

13:59:55 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

Corsair jumped out of his ride, to head in. Seeing Kliko, Bubba and Ludi congregating around a table set off to the rear of the saloon, Corsair brushed off the girl at the front to head towards the group. "Interesting spot for a team meeting....," he said, letting his voice trail off sarcastically.

[ntwi]

14:00:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

Felix walks through the swinging doors and glances around before moving to the table with the rest of the team. Wearing his 'Dallas' line suit, Felix fits in with the crowd to a degree, although it's several cuts above what most of the people in the saloon are wearing.

Brushing a fleck of dust from his sleeve as he sits, Felix begins to peruse the menu while waiting for the meeting to get underway.

[galenbd]

23:12:29 Tuesday, 28 March 2062 - Thunderdome supply area, Martinez
Jamie exchanges contact info with Kliko, Felix and Corsair. She grabs her helmet and janders out of the trucking container. Pulling the local map up on his image link. She recalculates her route to ignore the Thunderdome cameras. She keeps the cameras in the surrounding area in her awareness as she walks back to the BART stop. She takes her time crossing town looking for a tail.

01:17:15 Wednesday, 28 March 2062 - Jamie's apartment
Arriving home, Jamie does her usual sweep. She settles into her chair and jacks in.
She starts with advertising hosts starting in Oakland. Correlating location with the advertising sites, she starts building a 3D map of possible jackpoints.

She moves on to utilities and public notices for repair outages, updating the map as she goes along. After a couple hours, she backs up her work. Setting her alarm for six hours, she gets some sleep.

10:30:55 Wednesday, 28 March 2062 - Jamie's apartment
Waking up, she makes a fresh pot of soykaf, takes a shower and starts again. After a couple more hours, she gets bored. Breaking open her deck case, she spends a couple hours wiring her microtransciever into her deck.

Jamie spends ten hours working out jackpoints across San Francisco. She treds carefully as she gathers data on the corporate sector. When she's vetted jackpoints as thoroughly as she could, she uploads her map into her headware memory.

While she waits for Kliko's call, she works in a bit of shopping, finishes out the Browse utility design and starts the actual coding on the utility.

12:10:47 Thursday, 30 March 2062 TEXT MESSAGE SENT [KLIKO>>>JAMIE, FELIX, CORSAIR, BUBBA, LUDMILLA] >>>: "1400u, Clayton Club saloon."

Jamie takes a couple minutes to save her work. Then she pulls up her map and adds the Clayton Club saloon. Hacking into a secure text message system, she sends a message to Kliko.

12:12:33 Thursday, 30 March 2062 TEXT MESSAGE SENT [JAMIE>>>KLIKO] >>>: "Got it. Clayton Club saloon @ 1400u"

Grabbing her working gear, she heads for the nearest BART stop.

14:00:22 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton
She scouts a couple of the the nearest known possible jackpoint locations, then heads into the bar. "Hey everybody." she says as she sits down, ignoring the waitress who's not really serving their table.

[klinktastic]

14:08:25 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

Country music played in the background as everyone had gathered, seated around table and reviewed the menu. The waitress came, took our orders, and moved hastily away from our table in apparent fright or nervousness. With the waitress gone, and probably not coming back for a while Corsair initiated the conversation, "So Klinko....what's the word? I assume you've got some new intel on the meet?"

[Kliko]

14:03:01 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Everybody, this is Ludmilla, Ludmilla, Felix -our magical asset-, Jamie -our bithead- and Corsair -our motorhead-."using popular slang to introduce everybodies specialties. We got about two hours until our J arrives nearby, so lets get some real food in our systems and enjoy the good life for now." ...

"Yes, I will have a Cowboy Up ma'am and... a Jarritos... fruit punch." Handing back the menu. "The first one is on the team people, so spill some people."

14:08:30 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Yup, meet is set at the Clayton park one block to our west in. We worked for this J before so I don't expect any problems really"... "Besides, there's a Lone Star patrol station just at the other side of the park, I guess more for his, then our safety." ... "We stick to our plan with me and Ludmilla doing the face-to-face part and we should be fine... Any luck with the jackpoints Jamie?"

[ntwi]

14:09:13 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"That will certainly work for now, although at some point I'm going to have to either spin Kilko and Ludmilla up on the basics of magic or we might be fragging ourselves if the J wants something more magical than technical. Not saying what you have isn't good, but when you add the 'bithead' and 'motorhead' in addition to myself, the abilities of the group change quite a bit." Felix pauses for a second before continuing. "I don't know you and you don't know me beyond what Jaxx told you, I just want to make sure we're getting top nuyen for our efforts. Just things to think about for the future if we work out as a crew."

[Kliko]

14:09:18 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Sounds like a solid plan Felix. We shoot at a range between work for practice and fun too... We do milk runs to try various infiltration tactics, Ludmilla could do some workshops on electronics, Jamie on the matrix and you could do some on magic? Its good for teambuilding and makes us appreciate eachother better too..."

"To be honest magic scares the drek out of me, no offense, but in a fight I go all out to geek a mage first. I mean a sammie I can handle, but I've seen what mages do on Karl Kombat, thats some scary drek I tell you."

[klinktastic]

14:09:25 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Kliko, that's actually a pretty good idea. I got a good grasp on what you gun bunnies and matrix guys do, but I'm pretty curious about what mages can do. It'd be interesting to learn about them more indepth, that way we could formulate some strategies to deal with them if we are going up against them," Corsair says, gobbling up his food.

14:20:12 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

Upon finishing his meal, Corsair flags the waitress down for his bill. "I'm going to get an early jump on deploying one of my Condors as an eye in the sky. I'll be waiting in my rides, holler if you need me," he finishes up as he take the ticket and heads to the front to pay.

14:43:45 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - 1 Mile from Clayton Park, Clayton

Corsair pulls into an area in which he thinks he'll be ok to launch his "weather ballon", or well at least that's what he'll call them if someone asks. He pulls one of his Condors out of the Gaz, sets it up, and releases it in the air. Should be overhead by the time the meet starts, he thinks to himself.

14:55:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 TEXT MESSAGE SENT [CORSAIR>>>JAMIE, FELIX, KLIKO, BUBBA, LUDMILLA] >>>: "Eye is in the Sky."

[galenbd]

14:08:32 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton
"Well, I didn't find a jackpoint in range.", Jamie replies. She glances around the bar. "I think we could install a dataline tap here. The only problem would be keeping the bar staff out of my way."

[Kliko]

14:08:40 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

"Hmmphh, we got to improvise I see. Just let me check..." Kliko jacks in his mPhone pocket secretary looking up local businesses. It is not before long the opaque look comes back to the Clayton Club Saloon. "Guess its your lucky day Jamie. Contra Costa County library is just across Clayton road some 200 meters north of here. Sure you must be able to get a matrix connection from there?"

14:57:01 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton

Corsairs text message certainly triggered the old ork'We definately got to establish some SOP'. Pluggin an external transducer in a high-class datajack near the base of his neck, Kliko establishing silent comms. "Copy that Charlie" using the runnes first letter International Alphabet indication "stick to this medium for tac-traffic." Waving the waitress over and paying up the bill. 'WTF, 228,63 nuyen for some real food and a service charge. Frag that, no tip!'

"Alright lets get rollin." Distributing the personal comm-units from the back of his truck. The team set out in their respective directions. 'Here we go, lets see what mr. Radek is upto'

[galenbd]

14:08:40 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton
Jamie shrugs, "Sure, no problem."

14:57:03 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Clayton Club Saloon, Clayton
Jamie dumps her gun and ammo in the back of Kliko's truck. She sets her deck commlink to group's frequency and encyption schema. Slinging her deck into her back pack, she then heads north at a brisk walk, looking for the library.

14:58:57 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Contra Costa County library
Jamie walks into the library, stepping through the weapons scanner easily. She heads up to the upper floors. She finds a terminal without a lot of people around. Jamie sets her backpack up on the table. She checks the serial number on the library cyberterminal. Next, she slides her deck out and slides the library cyberterminal into the bag. Setting her deck up in the same place as the POS library terminal, she disconnects the library cyberterminal. Connecting her deck to it's jackpoint, she jacks in.

Jamie slices through the library system and adjusts the logging system to indicate that the library terminal is still connected. She then removes the prior disconnect entry.
Rifling through the libraries authentication system, she grabs one of the unused ID and jacks out. Logging back in using his newly compromised ID, Jamie wandering through the library internal system, slides out of the SAN and into the Oakland LTG.

15:01:38 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Contra Costa County library
Jamie calls up an intercom in her iconology. Triggering it with a thought she says, "I'm ready."

[Bastard]

16:00:00 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

Ludi and Kliko stand in the grassy area in the center of the round about area. No cars are present, and Ludi's sports car is parked on the just north of the park area on the turnout, in case a quick get away is needed. The sky is overcast, the ground is wet, but no rain is falling at the moment. The cool humidity is refreshing, but leaves the two remember the last time they were in the middle of a forest clearing, standing in thick green grass.

Though dark clouds hang above the entire Bay Area, Corsair finds them more of an advantage, than a hindrance. His drone is able to hide just above the cloud cover for a little concealment, while still having a clear view of the ground below.

"Got a black town car approaching your location from the south."
"Copy."

Kliko and Ludi tactfully adjust themselves without giving away the fact they were ensuring their concealable weapons were indeed ready if needed. Corsair continues to keep scanning the ground below, while Jaime scans the net, and Felix scans the astral plane.

A few minutes later, the black town car pulls in and stops in the middle of the parking lot. The rear door opens and Radek climbs smoothly out. His mid-length dark hair, few days stubble, and more than dress boots, do not match the car or his designer dark suit with subtle pin stripes, and radiant blue shirt.

He closes the car door, buttons the lower jacket button on his sports coat, scans the lot quickly and heads for the meet, all in one fluid set of actions.

"Good afternoon, my fine young friends. I hope all is well."

[Kliko]

15:59:36 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

Exiting the passengers side from the Honda 3220 made Kliko feel uneasy. He was used to drive instead of driven and no matter how you adjust it, there was just no way to get in or out the passenger side elegantly with the blue/green secure long coat he wore for the occasion. Putting on a black beanie hat he felt ready as he would ever be. Looking over Ludi's bald head, "You sure you don't want the hat?" 'Shame to catch a cold out here.'

"Thank you sir, it sure is. Bizz is bristling... We even had to recruit some new talent to further extend our range of services recently." 'How's that for a sales pitch?' "Care for a walk around the park sir?"

[Mister Juan]

15:59:36 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

Hands in her pocket, cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth, it didn’t take long for Ludi’s mind to begin wandering. As Kliko kept lookout, the young woman strolled a bit around the area. Ever since they had come back from French Guiana, she had felt pressed for time. She spent a few weeks getting back on her feet, and then it had been off to house hunting. The cred were coming in way faster than usual. She’d even started a “college fund” account just for Lana. Sure, it was located somewhere in the fiscal paradise of the Bahamas, but it was still semi legit. In a few months, she knew she’d have to bride a few people to get Lana into a decent elementary school. Any and every decent school at least asked for the parents SIN... something Ludi didn’t have. And she wasn’t about to sign her daughter up on some fake identity. Being here, under an open sky, smelling the cut grass, Ludi wished she was back home, undoing boxes and setting things up. They moved in barely a week ago, and somehow, she kept finding boxes to undo, and furniture to move around. Zina was still pestering her concerning how far their new home was from the beauty parlour. What she hadn’t mentioned though, was the fact that their hot water wasn’t rationed anymore. Lana was just happy to have a backyard to play in. It was nothing but a small patch of fenced out grass, but it was already a hundred times better than just running around in the hallway or playing on the glass covered sidewalk.

During the lunch back at the saloon, Ludi had kept pretty quiet. She knew what her job was concerning the meet, and didn’t have to be reminded. There was that, and the fact she had been too busy observing their new teammates. Gauging them. Sizing them up. As strong headed and direct as she was, she still understood how people worked. It had been too well drilled into her to lose the habit after a few years. Jamie and Corsair looked like good people. Maybe a little rough and green around the edges, but solid runner none the less. Felix, on the other hand... well... he was awakened. That was all Ludi needed to know. Kliko knew all too well Ludi’s view on magic, and on having a spell slinger on the team. She’d voiced her opinion pretty loudly when they had discussed it. Mages were bad karma. When you packed mojo on the field, you not only got hit twice as fast, but also twice as hard. Back in the Red Army, they’d firebombed entire villages in Yakut, instead of going door to door, just because there were a few rebel awakened in the separatist population. When they’d finally included a mage in her unit, he’d gotten almost every single one of her friends killed.

God damn mages.

She hadn’t said anything to Felix, and that was probably enough to make her feelings quite clear. She hadn’t just sat there not saying anything to him; she had flat out ignored him. Behaved as if he wasn’t. Looked through him as if he was invisible.

Hearing Corsair’s voice in the back of her head, she crushed her cigarette under her boot.

“You sure you don’t want a hat?”

Ludi stared at the approaching car, her right hand out her jacket.

“I do winter tour of duty in Yakut. Heaviest snow falls in years.”

She gave Kliko a passing glance. Ludi had never been what one might called “warm” with her team leader, but she had never been quite this cold. As far as she was concerned, he had gotten her shot for no good reason, and she was still pretty damn pissed about it.

“This is not cold. You do not know cold.”

When Radek emerged from the car, there wasn’t any discernable ounce of aggression coming out of Ludi. Posture, she had been told. It’s always in the posture. As he approached them, she gave him a nod and a smile.

“Good day, sir.” She said, trying her best to tone her accent down.

Mentally, she flicked a switched in the back of her brain, pipping her audio feed on the team's channel. Everything she'd heard, they would.

[Bastard]

16:01:06 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

"A walk would be quite enjoyable," Radek says with sincerity, "though I do not think this will take that long."

The two casually stroll through the parking lot toward a small trail thatwraps around the area, branching off to several hiking trails around the state park. Walking side by side, with a comfortable distance between them, eases some tension for everyone involved. There is no reason for any hostilities between the pair, but the relationship is still young and developing.

Radek's breath can be seen as steam in the cold air as he speaks. "I have a client in Denver who is looking for some 'politically independent' employees, locally speaking. He is offering 10,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) just to fly out there for the meet. I know you prefer to use your own contacts, but I can make travel arrangements if you would like."

[Kliko]

16:02:14 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

"Denver..." thinking about what he knew on the city... 'Yeah, thats some political mess alright... didn't they have this dragon take it up as his personal backyard kind of thing?' "Your client scheduled a date yet sir?"... Calling up a mapsoft, quickly checking territories along the major routes 'Its a 2 day drive through Ute, Ute should be ok for travel.' " "Depending on the clients schedule, we should be able to make our own travel arragements... Did the client per chance mention the type of employment sir?"

[Bastard]

16:02:28 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

"I believe he is looking for security and reliability over speed and cost, since he did not mention a time and is willing to pay a decent sum of cash to have a meet. I am sorry, he did not mention the type of job, but it seemed to be weighing on him heavily. I gathered by him paying just for the meet, there was some sensitive information and did not push for further details."

[galenbd]

16:01:06 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Contra Costa County library
Jamie's been sitting in the library for an hour when the channel selected for the audio transmission from Ludi comes to life. Jamie immediately starts recording it. I wonder if they realize the risk they are taking broadcasting this. I don't want to tell them their biz. Ludi especially has a handle on general communications. However, I should ask about eavesdroppers.

Triggering her file manipulation utility, Jamie starts transcribing the broadcast.

Denver...Politically neutral...I wonder if there's a new lack of trust, or too much factioning. Any local runner would have to be as neutral as possible to keep being hired. Maybe the number of truly independent crews is very low now. The PCC grid is robust. That will make general Matrix access more challenging.

Jamie pulls up the local Denver screamsheets to try to find some obvious local incident that might be driving the need to out of town talent.

[Kliko]

16:02:36 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Mitchell Canyon Park, Mt. Diablo, Clayton

..."Security and reliability..." 'Yeah, we can do that...' "I'm happy you recommended our services sir. You'll find we operate very discrete... We got some travel expenses to cover for the trip back and forth to Denver though, I'll be wanting some of that nuyen upfront sir..." Yes sir, no sir, the politeness dripped like sweet honey from Kliko's lips. 'Be polite, be upfront and don't bite the hand that feeds you.'

[galenbd]

16:02:40 Thursday, 30 March 2062 - Contra Costa County library
Jamie thinks back to her immigration to Cal Free. Triggering the intercom again, she broadcasts, J might be able to help us with travel visas.