IC: Post or Die, Lifelines, and deadlines Options

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:25 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

As if practicing a conjurer's trick, Void stared at his comm willing it to ring. He stared and glared and went to the kitchen, but nothing seemed to be appetizing. Nothing was happening. He contemplated going out for the night to look for a piece of action, but midnight in Loveland was more likely to find trouble than anything. Cruising the matrix a bit didn't result in anything productive either. He just wasn't plugged into that whole digital "job" market, even though he knew it existed in there somewhere. Eventually, sleep began to pull his restlessness down and smothered him in its warm embrace.


Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:08 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

Void woke up to the gentle strobing alert of a message coming from his digital eyes and ears. It was Mick. His trick had worked, if only a few hours late. A generic contact request was all he left with the description <<Your specialty - sooner is better.>>

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Crosstown Depths


The spirit plunges through the downed dog once more to finish it and replies I would like to evicerate all of these things and leave this disgusting place. I do not know how you can stand it here. The spirit seemed to pick up some of Jovan's personal flavor in its communication now. Perhaps it was a result of just taking the dog's life, perhaps it was the area itself.

[Sephiroth]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Inside the Flipped Van

"The tiger was just a short-lived anomaly. Pity that Jade is dead, but I haven't the time to worry about that right now - just have someone pick up her belongings, and I'll sterilize them myself later if needed. I'm about to go back into the warehouse basement where the ghouls were; one moment."


12:16:02 AM, Crosstown Depths

Jovan's astral form became tinged with cold, grim amusement. Heh. I like that attitude. It is by no means a pleasant experience for me either, so let us see if this situation can be resolved quickly and allow us to move on to other business.

Wait for me to finish rearranging this creature's memories, then we will strike. Let's split to opposite sides of the room and fly in parallel. If the ghouls are still there, use the trucks and the walls as cover and let's neutralize the subordinate ghouls first and quickly. The Awakened ghoul can be dealt with last.

[Glyph]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:08 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

Void slowly exhales, a hiss of breath accompanied by a slight twitchy grin. Even without knowing any details, he gets the impression that this might be more than another muscle job. His "specialty" usually refers to wetwork, and that's the kind of job where a hobo with a shotgun gets the easy jobs, and people like him get the hard jobs.

He quickly replies to the message. <<Sooner suits me, too. Just say when and where.>>

Idly, he wonders if Mick will be running this from his back room, or whether he'll actually get to meet the client. He knows that he tends to unnerve people, but for people hiring him, that very thing sometimes seems to reassure them.

[Warlordtheft]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:17 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

Zo keeps covering the entrance the ghouls came out of. Frag, dat was fun, I wonder how long I'll be shaking. Its taking me lot longer ta react ta drek..

[Notsoevildm]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:17 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

The flashpak held gingerly between two fingers in an outstretched arm, Ferret circles carefully back towards Zo. He keeps well clear of the ork's field of fire and takes up position behind him and to his left. He seems relieved when the ork's shaking hand takes the flashpak back and wipes his hand several times on his stained jogging pants to remove any blood whether Jade's or the ghouls.

As Prof enters the room, he nods towards the door down into the garage.

"Let's do this before common sense gets the better of me and I chicken out."

[Warlordtheft]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

As ferrt hands the flashpack back to Zo, Zo grabs it by his finger tips avoiding the suspect gore, his hand twitching somewhat causing him to drop it down the stairs.

"Ferret, didn't I tell you not ta ta b-bother?"
Moving from his firng position down the stairs to go after the flashpack, Zo saw an old dried out oil rag on one of the workbenches below. Grabbing the rag, he wiped the blood from the flash pack. After a few seconds of wiping it clean, Zo tosses the rag on to the floor by th remains of the the dog drone him and Jade destroyed.He then remembered the wall remains of the wall drone.

<Ferret get down here, Could'-ya ya use th-that wa-wall drone to g-get into der-system?>

[pbangarth]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:17 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

"Right behind you, Ferret." Professor skirts the edge of the room as he moves to catch up to his teammate.

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

A message shoots right back. <<Golden Panko node [link]. We'll talk there. Wear something civilian, hey?>>

The link was a grinning cartoon shrimp, battered and fried, winking at you and waving. Void had to brace himself before entering the retro kitsch sculpting of the Golden Panko public node. Mick liked to hijack a minor site like this to run VR meetups sometimes. Better than risking getting compromised through a direct linkup though. All around the node, ordering and pricing information floated on black menu-boards covered long thin rails while several tempura shrimp hovered about offering assistance. The visible traffic was fairly minimal. Mick was nowhere to be seen.

Void groaned a little bit as the ridiculous shrimp scooted over, offering assistance to him, but it was cut off mid greeting as an interrupt popped up, <<"Just a moment. Routing.">> and Void found himself in a shadowy bubble whose walls reflected dimly the same node he had just recently found himself suffering. Across from him stood Mick's avatar, looking pretty business-like for a guy with a head like a cartoon fox out of an ancient Warner flatvid, greasd back hair and all. He smiled a toothy grin. <<"Hey there Mr. Vee. Good news just hit the nets. We've got a twisted Mage at large in the city. Nothing too flashy, but there's a solid 50k on his head and a line on his whereabouts. Info's your for free, but I expect a 10% finder's fee on the bounty if you end up collecting. Sounds like a good way to start the day, hmm?">>

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Inside the Flipped Van

"Feh. That broad was loopy as hell. You want any of her swag though, you'll probably need to fight the lollypop guild for it. You know how Dwarves are attracted to shiny objects. If you're headed after papa ghoul, you'll probably want to hurry up. Wasn't keeping a close eye on them, but their signals went dead almost as soon as the firing started."

While Oswald was jawing on Jovan felt the ground shake from a nearby explosion.

[Glyph]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

Void smiles a feral grin, one that doesn't translate over too well to his generic low-resolution sarariman avatar <<"Hrmm. Yes, yes. Most excellent. I will expedite the hunt. As Sun Tzu says, 'The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.' He will be my prey, yes.">>. Void glances distastefully at the blurred crustaceans outside of the dark bubble. <<"I doubt any abominations he could summon could be worse than those things.">>.

Void is happy, though. Not only at the prospect of a rewarding job that will challenge him, but beause he got to use his Word of the Day, expedite. Expedite, expedite, expedite.

[Notsoevildm]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

Ferret gives the wall-drone a cursory glance.

"Doubt it. The system's probably still on alert from my previous attempt to get in via the node down the street.

He points a thumb over his shoulder towards the terminal he used to access system before. He does send a ping down the trail of commlinks to check the status of the Annex node, just in case it has reset.

"With these old systems, the only way to get round it now is to find the mainframe and hack that directly. Plus, I'd need a fragging ladder to reach up there. And anyway, I don't think the ghouls have access to the system. I think it's still following the last orders BDLL programmed into it."

<<Oz, we're heading in deeper. Can you get ahold of Jovan and see if he can scout ahead of us for trouble. Assuming he's not in any trouble himself.>>

[Warlordtheft]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

"W-worth as shot. Da-da-tr-trucks are just around d-dacorner. B-but we we gots ta kill all da vermin with guns f-first. Prof, ferret, ya recall how big da room is with all da da t-trucks? And would a grenade or t-three h-help?

[Sephiroth]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Crosstown Depths

Jovan paused for a split second as he floated in astral space above the terrified dog, having just completed the desired manipulations of its memories. The trucks. That might have come from one of the trucks. We cannot afford such a loss when we are so close to the objective.

He Looked down with disdain at the fleeing dog below him as it continued to run down the tunnel. Can't this mongrel canine run any faster?

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Golden Panko Public Node, Outer Evo Subnet.

<<"That's why I like you Mr. Vee. You're a man of action. Here's the info dump.">> He flipped a coin into Void's hand. <<"Guy's named Charles. Shouldn't be hard to find once you get a whiff of him. I understand he's got a certain fashion to him. Tophat and tails. Messed up hair. First breadcrumb came from an ex-associate he left for dead, name of Sandy. He tried to screw her team and failed to kill her properly, so she put the word out on the bounty boards. I sweet-talked her into a bit more. Turns out, when this Charles guy flipped on them, he bungled the job they were doing. Their employer subsequently sent a 2nd team to finish the job. That's the only reason she's not dead. Anyway, she seems to think that the 2nd team will be going heads up against this guy since he already wasted the first team. She was real reluctant to give up this info, but I've got the contact number for someone from the 2nd team. She says he was an old geezer who called himself Doctor Spaceman. If he's set to cross paths with this Charles guy, it'd do to contact him beore it happens and the hatter goes off into the wind.">> With that, Mick tipped his own hat and disappeared. The bubble was gone and Void was once again standing in swarm of tacky tempura bullshit.

[Glyph]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

Void grimaces and wastes little time in logging out, feeling uncharacteristic relief to be back in his cramped, spartan apartment once more. Well, it may be a slender lead, but while Void has floundered a lot in trying to make it as a freelancer, he has accomplished a lot by moving from point A to point B with a certain bullheaded obduracy. He meticulously composes a text to comm to this next link in the chain that will hopefully lead him, in the end, to his prey.

<<"Mr. Doctor Spaceman. I hope you might be able to assist me, enabling me to assist you in turn. I am looking for an individual named Charles, a twisted mage with a distinctive appearance - striking hair, but overly formal attire of a top hat and tails. I understand he may be causing you problems. I can help you. Not out of any charitable impulse to help a total stranger, I will admit. I am hoping to collect a bounty on this individual. If you can give me any lead that can expedite my hunt, we both win.">>.

Void hmms. He managed to work "expedite" into the terse missive, but he couldn't really think of a good, pithy Nietzsche quote to end it with. Oh well, it should still suffice, assuming his message reaches this person. If he is in the middle of a job, he might not exactly be checking his correspondence regularly. Still, what other leads does he have? He queries his commlink, but a distressingly large number of results show up for "Charles". How do hackers do this?

In the end, he controls his fidgety impatience by assembling his gear - getting into his layers of unobtrusive armor and checking his gun over. He won't be packing any gel rounds this outing. Other than that, he will be packing light this time - probably just his medkit. He glances at the case holding his sniper rifle, but he doubts he will be able to take it along - the gun is really only useful either with a lot of advanced preparation, or in a Z-zone.

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

It wasn't but a moment before a reply came back, but not from the expected source. The reply came from a rather sophisticated Agent program <<Apologies, but I'm afraid the doctor isn't exactly "in" just now. Perhaps I can offer some assistance. Would you be so kind as to provide your name and reference? I can search the doctor's brain for the validity of your response, and we can work from there.>>

[Notsoevildm]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

Ferret looks nervously at the shaking ork.

Man, the dogs really got to him. Guess he was closer to them but he's making me nervous just standing next to him.

"I don't think grenades are a good idea, Zo. We don't want to damage the merchandise. You say the trucks are just round the corner. Hmm, I wonder."

Maybe now that I'm down here, I can pick up the trucks' nodes. That's assuming BDLL didn't deactivate them.

He pings the area for any active or passive nodes, then boots up his scan program and sets it looking for any hidden ones. He is only slightly worried that he can no longer detect the ghouls commlinks.

Heh, seems even ghouls don't care for troll porn.

"If I can access the trucks' systems, I might be able to use their sensors to spot the ghouls or just program them to drive themselves out of the garage."

[Warlordtheft]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

"We'll da-da trucks may be controlled, b-but d-dat don't-t mean the gear is still in d-dem. Y-ya can r-run o-over da-da gouls with d-da trucks."

Zo smiles a twitchy grin.

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

The air in the area was still completely quiet. Ferret marvelled at it a little. There was no noise, and all digital signals were conspiciously absent save for those of the people on his network. It wasn't really a change from how things had been, so maybe it was still shock from the recent combat. A funny thought couldn't help but pass through his mind. Intelectualizing shock is a symptom of shock.

The nothern opening, from which their recent attackers poured, yawned darkly in front of him as he clutched his machine pistol. Thermally it was cold. Visually it was dark and menacingly empty. At the end of this bleak, man-made cave lay his goal - their goal.

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Crosstown Depths

The dog continued down the main hallway all the way to the solid warehouse door, now closed. Perhaps Archer never expected the thing to return? The dog, no longer fleeing for its life stopped at the entranceway, sat and barked twice. No response. It growled a bit and began to beat on the door. Trained as it may be, this beast was still quite ready to fall back to violence rather than waiting for response. Committed now to get through the door, the beast circled back and charged the door, splitting the lock from the metal frame, and slamming it open with gusto.

The beast sniffed around for a moment before it ran back through the warehouse garage, from the western door toward the far larger tunnel entrance on the north side.

[Glyph]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:10 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

Void mutters irritably to himself, but truthfully, something like this is about what he expected. <<Name: Void. Reference: Sandy. Regarding: Charles. Requesting a reply or a meeting, sooner would be better.>> He idly wonders how sophisticated this program is, or whether it is little more than an inbox-sorter. Hopefully he won't end up in the spam folder.

[Saint Sithney]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 8:12 AM, Void's apartment, outskirts of Loveland, Puyallup Barrens.

There is a brief pause. <<I would not expect a reply from the doctor too soon. He is right now unresponsive from his most recent amphetamine binge. I tell him often that he must not indulge in such habits, but he is a forgetful man. That is one of the many reasons why he has me though. I am confident enough in your references and what I have gleaned by a cursory search of your name to tell you these things. I would not otherwise. That said I have answers for you and a proposition besides.
Charles' presence was last confirmed interfering with the delivery of goods currently in the doctor's possession. He was last observed in the company of a go-between hired by the doctor's most recent employer. The man is entangled in affairs which have yet to conclude. These affairs could use an outside hand, and one which the employer's go between is unaware of. If you were to join the doctor, and those with him, in the task of safeguarding the aforementioned goods, there would be both remuneration in the act and a high likelihood of finding your bounty. If you do not feel comfortable negotiating these things with me, I can put you in touch with others.>>

[Sephiroth]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:16 AM, Crosstown Depths

Jovan flew soundlessly through the now-open warehouse door behind the dog, air spirit coming up behind him. His attention immediately snapped to where he had seen the trucks parked before, as he Gazed over the emotionally-tainted warehouse room to verify that the explosion he had felt did not come from one of the trucks. Next, he assensed the room for any trace of the ghoul Archer and his entourage - a finger of the carnage-induced background count extending down the northern tunnel or through a side door or hallway, or perhaps the fading aura of one of the metahuman cattle who had not completely been torn to shreds by Archer's ferals (dog or otherwise). He kept his sixth sense open to any quiet mutterings coming from where Jade and ZO had fired on the ghouls as well, which would indicate how close the others were to Jovan's position.

[Notsoevildm]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2071, 12:18 am, Deep inside the Annex in Redmond

Ferret stares into the darkness. The lack of digital signals was both comforting and unnerving. There were no data spikes waiting to ambush him but he also felt a sense of loss, a hunger for input. So quiet.

"There's no signals down there at all. It's like there's nothing there. Maybe they've gone or are just hiding, waiting to ambush us", he mutters in an awed, almost reverent whisper.