IC: Post or Die, Lifelines, and deadlines Options

[Acme]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Acme blinks at the sudden tirade and yelling, but ultimately has to agree with the point. He wasn't much for technology but he'd been around enough hackers to know a few things about what they do. Black IC on ones own commlink sounded like they were just playing with fire and waiting to screw up with a forgotten password.

<<@team: Who the hell does that to their own system.... It could be a plant then, waiting for a hacker to try and blunder into it? But 15 minutes doesn't give us a lot of time, though I can be a little bit better by then.>>
[/quote]

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"Fifteen minutes is an eternity at digital speeds," Oswald chimed. "I've got an idea that should work. Ferret, you still have those garbage comms? I've got a specialized Agent here that could be used to create a makeshift botnet. We load him up with Spoof, Exploit and Attack and set him to task. He goes in each comm we've got access to and then bum-rushes the Viper comm's Firewall. Next thing you know, it's one piece of Black IC versus a conga line of Agents, and you've got meat shields to keep you safe... and nuke the IC's response to garbage with excess traffic."

Oz paused for a moment.
"Or we could just ask Joe for the codes. He seems to be doing well."

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"You keep talking about 'Joe' or this Viper character you've taken prisoner. Where are these people? Maybe I can help extract that code from him..."

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Professor Approaches Amber and offers his hand. "Welcome to our little party. I'm Professor. Our interrogator, Jovan, prefers to conduct his business out of sight of the rest of the team. By happenstance, I am the only one to have been granted license to be in his presence. He is working in Oswald's vehicle which contains a medical unit inside. The prisoner, if my guess is correct, is at this point offering up information as Jovan asks for it. It might be best to just leave the two of them to their dance. Jovan is strongly concerned about maintaining his privacy and becomes agitated if that privacy is threatened. The final state of the informant depends on how Jovan leaves him. That is also being determined as we speak.

"I'm glad to have you aboard. I have been filling the role of front-line negotiator, but frankly it is not one of my strengths. We are at a lull in activity at the moment, but our acquaintance, Rusty, appears to have some knowledge of the whereabouts of our quarry, Big Daddy Long Legs. or at least his hideout in the Barrens. Having seen his friends treated well by us, Rusty is now prepared to divulge that information, and may in fact guide us part of the way through some tricky territory. We should be leaving soon. If you have any gear that protects you from toxic materials, bring it along.

"We are newly formed as a team, and in fact have been reforming as the run progresses. I don't know if you have a rundown of the current roster. Our mutual employer is suggesting more work should this endeavour conclude successfully. It would appear we have been kept in the dark about some things she-slash-they know about other forces at play. This is something we will have to talk about with our employers once we are done with this run. Of immediate concern is this 15 minute countdown thing. Ferret our Matrix expert is looking into that, and Oswald's idea has merit. Jovan is extracting information from our prisoner, one of the mercenary team called Viper 12. Oswald is both medic and Thor-shot rolled into one. Acme and Jovan are both magicians with facility both with spells and spirits. I find clues and facts and collate them into information and patterns. Thirty is our heavy hitter on the ground, but he is suffering under the effects of poison from a spirit sent by the Vipers against us a few minutes ago. We will likely be without him for the rest of the run."

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Amber takes the Professor's hand as he offers it, and covers it with her other hand. She holds it, and eye contact, while he speaks to her.

She favors him with a beaming smile, all perfect pearly whites, as he finishes. "That," she says happily, "is what I'm looking for. A succinct executive summary of the minutes from the last meeting."

Releasing his hand, she takes a moment to think. "I didn't bring any gear more protective than this kevlar weave I wear most of the time. I did come straight here from Elliot's, you know. I didn't even stop at the condo for my explosives..."

Still considering, she stops her pacing for a moment. "Wait... if I'm reading you right, I'm the closest thing this team has to a street sam right now. That... can't be right."

Dear lord, don't let me be the muscle on this run...

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"Yes, I'm afraid you may very well be. All of us have some facility with firearms, but Thirty was the primary in that regard." Quickly changing the subject, "Do you need any help unloading gear from your vehicle?"

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:47 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"What you see," Amber says, spreading her arms in a manner that doesn't point her MP at anyone directly, "is what you get. Heck, I already sent the Honda on home."

She holsters the Crusader under her jacket, and pats one of the side pockets reassuringly, causing the pair of extra magazines to clink against one another.

"While Thirty's out of commission, he doesn't happen to have something of a bit higher caliber I could borrow does he? I do most of my practice with the Crusader, but I'm checked out on automatic rifles and SMGs."

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:48 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"Thirty favored pistols if I recall correctly. His personal effects are with him, and therefore currently unavailable. You might be able to buy an assault rifle off our pals Pit-stain and Dog-rectum over in the bar. This shanty is full of AKs." Oswald spoke bluntly, twirling the laser pistol in his audibly whirring cyberarm. "And, while I don't have a single muscle in my whole arm, I can still light a cigarette from across a soccer field with this here blaster. But, hey, if we're busy listing our qualifications and all, I'm also a pretty good resource from a logistics standpoint. For instance, I might point out that, if your enemy knows where you are, don't frakkin be there. I mean I have my bad days and all, but I still haven't forgotten that we are currently under immediate threat of, attackers appearing out of thin air. Why am I the only one who seems concerned about this? Did I go mad? Is that what's happening here? Am I over the fraggin rainbow with the lollipop guild and everything? Acme, you wouldn't lie to me, would you? Have I lost it over here? Brain simmering in speed, haven't slept in three days... hot damn! This kinda fun is why I don't just snooze my last years away doing Deltaware implants for rich assholes."

<<@Jovan: Hey, Jay! What's their shopping list? How much for what items? In addition to the invoice, we could use the access codes to the guy's comm. Ferret tried to bust in and caught both a bit of trouble and a glance at a countdown. We've got less than 15 minutes until it hits quadruple aught. Your man might know what that means, how to log in properly, and how to make the badness go away.>>

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

An almost feral grin spreads across Ferret's face. <<@Oswald: I like your thinking Ozzie.>>

He hops of his chair and scoops up Viper5's commlink.

Nobody messes with the Ferret's head.

<<@Oswald: I had all those shitty comm's linked in a cool web earlier so they are all clean and ready to go.>>

He hops over the back of his chair landing lightly on his feet in the back of the van.

"You, up front with Rusty" he orders Acme, then takes his seat at the workbench. He starts pulling the commlinks out of the bag, powering them up and reforming the web of nodes he had built earlier, likely when the Vipers were bugging his van.

Payback time! he thinks, his grin turning nasty.

As the first 'links start blinking into existence on his AR, he begins weaving them together into a spider web of connections while juggling the software in his head to control them all.

<<@Oswald: Okay, Oz. Let's do this. If Joe gets the code from Viper5 in time we use that. Otherwise we go with this. I'm slaving all these comms to each other and then slaving the better ones to my comm.>> He laughs. <<Frag, I haven't tried anything like this since my freshman years. My head might explode just trying to run all these nodes, so I'm going to open up my comm to you: {access codes}. You're the rigger after all and I'll need to drop control when I go in, so get ready to grab the whole mess. You'll be running interference while I go for the data. Oh, and stay in AR, you'll be a tortoise but the IC won't be able to frag you up.>>

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Oswald shook his head, as if to wake himself and then stepped into the van's interior and its relative safety.
"Ah! Okay! Just dupe your Exploit and Attack tools over to the link's memory, and I'll have my gent pick them up. Hopefully these rinky-dink-links don't collapse under the weight of two programs running at once.."

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Oswald had the strangest feeling of deja vu... A glitch in the matrix perhaps?

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Amber listens to the byplay between Oswald and Ferret. She's tech savvy enough - more than enough to have kept tabs on her co-workers from time to time - but these two were way off in geek la-la land.

She looks over at the Professor with a furrowed brow. "Where did you get those two wireheads?" She shakes her head. "And does this mean we're ready to saddle up and move out of ground zero? Or do I have time to go in there and sweet-talk some troll out of his AK-98?"

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Professor moves towards the van. "Jovan is still interrogating, and it looks like Oswald and Ferret are diving into the commlink, so there should be a minute or two. If you can negotiate something in that time frame, go ahead. Mind you, our contact with the gangers here is Ferret, but at the same time, we are customers of theirs currently, so there may be no issue. I will stay here, as this is the place likely to be hit if the Vipers take another pass at us."

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Not one to waste time, Amber strides over to the door of the bar. She briefly pauses to smooth out her suit, sure that as she walks in, she'll look like nothing more than a three and a half foot tall school teacher to these guys. Deep breath, and in she walks.

With a quick scan of the room she looks for the guy with the most obvious automatic weapon on him. Approaching his table, she puts on her best street slang: "Hoi, I'm a chummer of Ferrets, and I'm in need of some firepower. How'd ya like to make a quick buck and hook me up?"

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:48 PM, Oswald's Rover, Redmond

Jovan let his prisoner finish responding to his previous question before glancing briefly at his comm. He let out a mental sigh in the back of his mind at Oswald's continued misuse of his name. <<@Oswald: You're still high, I see. Fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes, not two minutes; I will find for you what that timer is for, but be patient, old man. And do you truly mean to tell me that you yourself, clearly competent with the Matrix in your own right, have no way to break through his firewall and black IC defenses? Surely you jest.>>

<<@team: Update. The 9 Vipers are not after the same goods we are after. It seems they had arranged for a meeting with Long Legs to buy some high-quality communications equipment he'd procured on a recent shadowrun, but the troll apparently took their prepayment and never showed up. I am working on finding when that occurred in relation to the 'run on which Long Legs disappeared. They had, as we expected, 12 core members in their ranks - two of them seem to be Awakened and magicians or adepts of the Magician's Way - as well as several times that many in rotating recruits. It seems that, as we also expected, most of the Vipers are either spec ops or specialists. Their general, Viper 12 himself, is a very shady 'hot shot black op's type,' old and sharp, about whom little else is known. He seems to prefer working for governments over megacorporations, but they are not currently on a job as far as this one here knows - only seeking the gear they paid for, albeit in a tactless and destructive manner. I am of course not finished getting information from him, so expect more such messages in the near future as you promptly vacate the area where the Vipers know you to be. Now, if not sooner. It will buy you a bit of time from astral searches.

<<I suppose I might as well say this now, and direct it a bit more toward the two newest members than everyone else. My specific talents make me quite effective at what I do. The captive himself claims that he has been dangled by his ankles off a twelve-story building and talked less, and such is often the case with those who find themselves on the receiving end of my questions. I am of course very willing to utilize these talents in the service of our group and its survival throughout this run. But in return, it is critically important that you heed my wishes - in particular, that you respect my desire for total physical, astral, and Matrix privacy. I have various reasons to demand this, and I'm not inclined to elaborate on them. If you are willing to respect and honor this, then we will likely have a good and supportive working relationship through this run. If you decide to dishonor and break this agreement, however, then I can only say that you will have brought the consequences upon yourself.>>


Jovan returned his rapt attention back to Viper 5. "You did not answer my other earlier question, Viper 5. Please tell me what reason Long Legs might have had to take your money and vanish without delivering. And do not tell me that he just wanted to take your money and run; apparently no one has been able to find or talk to him for some time, and it seems that this is more than just a 'take-the-money-and-run' case, so think deeper than that. After that, let's move for the moment to the subject of your commlink. There's a timer currently running on it. What is this timer for?"

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:50 PM, Redmond,

<<Mission Control@Commander Shankles: We can't spare the resources at this time commander. Keep us posted and we will help if we can. Don't lose site of the mission objectives soldier!>>

Amber catches the eye of everyone in the makeshift bar. Several conversations pause as she sidles up to a man with an M23 slung over his chair. He was human, but as big as most orks. He had a fat face, maybe Polynesian in ethnicity. He and his two friends were playing some trid game on their comms. As the ganger turned to engage the chatty dwarf, he grinned a half toothed grin,"I got some firepower right here, slot." he said as he grabbed his crotch suggestively" If you can handle that, I might give you a buck or two"

In Oswald's van, the mood was tense. Viper five wriggled against the side of the van, moving into a sitting position, tubes from the medkit dangling from his arms. He screamed at the top of his lungs for a change of pace,"I DON"T HAVE A FUCKING CLUE WHY THE BIG DUMB BASTARD DIDN'T SHOW! "
He immediately switched to mumbling under his breath,"The timer ---s you kn-- wh-- t-e -om b--ns ou-"Even with his heightened sense of hearing, Jovan couldn't make out what he said after yelling so loud the second before.

[Saint Sithney]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:49 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

"Comms gear! Hilarious! They're massacring gangs and picking fights with dangerous fucks like us over a new set of links?! That's just too great. Let's get this contact info so that we can call up Viper mojo and taunt them some more."

<<@Agent: Alright Monty, time to croak a link. Let's form up the posse. Once Loaded into one of the following [IDs,] grab the Attack and Exploit programs for your payload and start cracking at this link [ID]. Ping me when you're inside.>>
Oz made sure that the Agent had the tools it needed. The lightweight Stealth and Analyze programs for sure. The Spoof prog. Adding the Attack and Exploit should put it at its load max. No problem. Probably won't be able to run more than one regular and one lightweight program at once. No reason he shouldn't write a short script.

CODE

Start
Load Stealth and Exploit
Use Exploit to acquire user access to [ID]
Load self into [ID]
Load Attack and Analyze
Respond to aggressive action with Attack.
Analyze looking for ICe
When ICe is found, attack it.

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:50 PM, Redmond,

Rolling her eyes, Amber says, loud enough for the room to hear, "Yeah, you strike me as the type that has to pay for it..." as she looks for another opportunity. "Are you telling me there's not one of you in here smart enough to turn a profit on this deal? My boys are out front, and they're ready to roll, and they're looking to me to make big holes in the bad guys." She ends her tirade with her hands on her hips, back to the ganger that played it wrong, but with plenty of attention on him just in case.

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:50 PM, Oswald's Rover, Redmond

Jovan was silent for a full ten seconds, though to Viper 5 it must have felt more like ten minutes under the psychological strain he was under. Normally, at this point in an interrogation when a captive started being uncooperative, he would crouch over his bound captive - whoever he or she might be - and subject them to some of the excruciating pain that accompanied having one's life energy sucked from one's body. But in this case he was starting to worry that the psychological duress Viper 5 was under would soon result in a nervous breakdown. It was very important that that be postponed as much as possible, because the man was currently their only source of information on the Vipers. Jovan was also experiencing a subconscious slipping of his cold, inhuman nosferatu persona. Against his better judgment, and although it might do more harm to him than good, Jovan was falling into a brief flash of pity for his prisoner. I'll let him rest. If he behaves like that again, I'll suck the life out of him until he continues talking. But for now, I'll let him rest.

"Viper 5." He paused a moment. "I did not hear what you said about the timer. Please tell it to me again, so that I can hear it this time. Once you do that, and once I get any necessary elaborations, we can take a break and give you some rest from my insistent questions."

[Acme]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:50 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Acme nodded, shifting his position as questioned so he wouldn't get in the way. He was feeling a little better, but he knew that even with this rest he'd still be under a lot of strain. He looked at the patch in his fingers disdainfully. He hated these things, about the only foreign thing he put into his body was Jack, and that was probably making his liver look like cheese.

[Notsoevildm]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:50 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Ferret hums a little tune as he floats in the spaces between nodes. He sets up a long line of agents and spoofs a user ID for the first one. Then he realises the flaw in his carefully constructed plan. He is unable to assign the new ID to the agent.

Well bugger me sideways with black IC. Guess I should have thought of that. Well back to the drawing board.

<<@team: Plan B just went tits up. Only way I'm gonna get anything off this link before it wipes is if I take it apart and read the fragging memory myself....hmm, y'know that might just work.>>

Still humming the same tune, he shifts perception and reaches for his tools.

[Red-ROM]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:51 PM, Redmond,

The man removed his hand from his genitals and scratched his chin,"I ain't got any real attachment to this rifle here, how much we talkin?" His buddies haven't chimed in, but they are listening intently.

Ferret Busily fidgeted with the pile of comlinks while the rest of the team waited to leave, or to be jumped by giant spirits again.

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:51 PM, Oswald's Rover, Redmond

Viper 5 was at a new plateau of calm. His captor was not easily drawn into action, a stone cold professional. He felt a little better about being bested by this group. "It's a count down to when we change comms. I'm sure you found the second one bagged up. At 2100 hours, that one gets wiped. Of course, now that I've been compromised, I doubt they'll use the second one."

[J. Packer]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:51 PM, Redmond,

Amber turns to look back at the fat faced man. "Well, that depends, doesn't it? M-23's not all that special on it's own - how do you have it kitted out? I don't need fancy, but a smartlink system would be nice."

[pbangarth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:51 PM, Redmond, Ferret's van

Seeing as Acme is in the van and trying to clear his head, Professor opens his perceptions to the astral while outside the van. He patrols around the perimeter, keeping an eye out for incoming astral threats.

[Sephiroth]

Friday, Sept. 11, 2071, 8:51 PM, Oswald's Rover, Redmond

Jovan briefly checked the time on his commlink, then nodded. "I see. Very well then, Viper 5. True to my word, you shall have your bit of rest." With that settled, the nosferatu turned his attention to other matters for the moment, though still keeping an eye and a keen ear on the mercenary for any suspicious, violent, or otherwise uncooperative moves or activity.

<<@Professor: Wrestling with the morality of it all, are you? I do not intend to rush you in your contemplation of the ethics of the Viper's fate; I've been in that position before myself. But a decision of practicality would be nice to have sometime soon. I do not know how long I can keep him talking without resorting to measures of pain. In the meantime, why don't you tell me some of what you know of our employer(s)? The prisoner and I are taking a small break, and I wish to speak with someone about that woman, her associates, and this job.>>

<<@Oswald: Comms changing. That's what the timer is for. In 9 minutes, one of his two commlinks will be wiped, and he would have switched to the other one. The way he said it, it appears that it will be the bagged one that will be wiped. No doubt you have enough time to verify that.>>

<<@Acme: How soon can you bring in spirit support to watch your backs for another Viper attack?>>