2072: Game World, IC thread for 2072: Recruitment always open! Options

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Dante
[September 1, 2072, 21:01, Hai Fuk Noodle House, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: hidden, Response 1, Signal 3, System 2, Firewall 1

The noodle house is busier, but Dante notes that while there are a few couples, most of the patrons are male. He also notes that although there are more geisha girls than earlier, only a few of them are working the tables. The rest are clustered around a couple of tables near the stairs to the upper floor, smoking and drinking tea. Occassionally one of the male diners goes upstairs accompanied by one of the girls.

He scans the girls. The details of their outfits are different but their makeup makes them all look the same. Despite that, he is fairly certain that the girl from earlier is not amongst them. Lucky Lee and Silent Bo are also nowhere to be seen, so he is sure that Xaio is not here either. The only person that might be able to help him is the old crone sitting by the counter. Her outfit is more ornate that the other girls, but somehow also faded. She scans the restaurant with a withering, disparaging glare that none of the patrons or girls seem willing to challenge.

[Aria]

@E:Tribes / Travellers
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Heading north to Bellevue]

You haven’t made particularly good time because of the hellish traffic but at least you are all converging on LeFey now and you’ll shortly be in visual range of your various final jumping off points. Your vehicles are a little more battered that when you started but it’s only cosmetic damage to go along with slightly raised stress levels. This area of Bellevue is extremely quiet, away from the hubbub of main commuter routes and bustling wage slaves. Thankfully though it seems that KE have more than got its hands full and if you play this right there should be nobody around to see you snatch LeFey from her corporate security blanket.

@E:Tribes / LeFey
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Senlis Residence, Bellevue]

Everything is as done as it can be, you’ve made the preparations suggested by these strangers coming to whisk you away…it sounded like they knew what they were talking about, nearly time see if they really do! A message breaks through your reverie

<<@LeFey [Mordred]: Sorry sis, I don’t know what you wanted me to stall dearest Mum and Dad for but I’m afraid I blew it. It was always a bit of a long shot but they pissed me off…anyway, they are on their way home now. Don’t know how long they’ll be with all the crap going on in Seattle today but there you go…again, sorry, hope you manage whatever it is you are up to! Call me!>>

Crap, your window of opportunity just changed! …

[phlapjack77]

@Virtual Scream / Dante
[September 1, 2072, 21:01, Hai Fuk Noodle House, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: hidden, Response 1, Signal 3, System 2, Firewall 1

Dante approaches the old crone cautiously, deferentially.

<<Chinese>>

Grandmother, I'm very happy to meet you. May I buy you some tea? I believe a proper oolong tea would be perfect for a night such as this. It's cold outside and a person needs a way to warm themself.

[Machine Ghost]

@E:Tribes, Sprogget
[September 1, 2072 21:00:43 Heading north to Bellevue]
Bionode: Response 4(5), Signal 2, System 4, Firewall 3; Hidden; Analyze(3), Command(1), Edit(1), Scan(1), Sniffer(3), Spoof(1), Stealth(3), Shield(1), Tacsoft(2), Simrig(1)
CMT Clip: Response 1, Signal 3, System 1, Firewall 1; Passive; SIN: Paul Brickhill (R3)

Sprogget relays what the news has been saying about >1rtu@l5cr3@m to LeFey.

"That's just scary. You think it actually knows what it's infecting?"

Sprogget considers that idea along with what he discovered in the news.
@LeFey via Tagget:<<{thoughtfully} I guess that depends what you mean by knowing.  This actually looks similar to a mass probe used to setup a botnet.  A whole lot of random targets that happen to have an exploitable weakness.  The 'knowing' part is that each targeted node seems to be analyzed for its capabilities before the payload is delivered.  At the same time, it does not appear to be very smart about what nodes to target.  The process of infecting some of the nodes has overloaded them, causing physical damage, which does not seem very smart.

Unless you start by assuming it, or its source, is smart, and for some reason is desperate for everything it can get hold of.>>

"If there's nothing else, I'll be waiting."

@LeFey via Tagget:<<See you soon.  The traffic has been murder,>>
@self:A little too literally at times.
@LeFey via Tagget:<<but we are getting close.>>

[September 1, 2072 21:12 Heading north to Bellevue]

@self:Should be getting into signal range for Glyph pretty soon.  Also better link Tagget's connection to Lefey to the direct connect group.  Should really have conferenced those earlier.  That will get rid of any issue with the limited range of LeFeys 'link.
Sprogget cross links the connection to Tagget with the directly connected jailbreakers feed, so that information from either will also send to the other.
@combined jailbreakers: <<I've conferenced my connection to LeFey with the main direct connected conference.  Any chatter will be passed both ways.>>

[RdMarquis]

@E:Tribes / Travellers
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Senlis Residence, Bellevue]
SIN: Morgan Senlis, PAN: Active

Morgan scowls at the message, feeling a headache developing in the area of her temples. "Riley, if you could just reign your temper in for once..." She sighs deeply. "Sometimes, I just can't understand you." Then again, she might have told Mordred why she needed the diversion, rather than leave him talking aimlessly to a pair of people he very much didn't care for.

<<I'll fill you in when I have a spare moment. Thanks for trying.>> Morgan didn't want him to feel concerned. She was doing so enough for the both of them. <<We may have a problem.>> The girl calls the Sprogget through his sprite. <<My parents are on their way home. If traffic is as bad as you say, they might be delayed, but that's no reason to take any unnecessary risks. I'm going to check on them.>> Jailbreak aside, she was worried.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Dante
[September 1, 2072, 21:02, Hai Fuk Noodle House, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: hidden, Response 1, Signal 3, System 2, Firewall 1

Eyes follow Dante as he approaches the old woman. Several of the girls sit up staighter in their chairs, fussing with their outfits or makeup.

Close up he can see that the woman is truly ancient. Even with heavy makeup, her white painted face is lined and wrinkled. She looks up as he speaks, heavily cataracted eyes sizing him up from head to toe, before she speaks.

<chinese>"Sit. Tell an old lady what a Beijing ronin is doing in her restaurant. I see hunger and not just for food. I see fire, one that burns within and one that burned without."

Long lacquered nails tap on the metal of his left arm.

[Aria]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead
[July 8th, 2072, 23:43; Finally in the open, somewhere north of Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

Requiem grins at you before settling the helm of his milspec armour back on his head. Both he and Stitch are scarred and battered and both make you feel seriously underdressed for an excursion into the zone. Poor fraggers, you’ve no doubt that without their beetle suits they’d both have been squashed by something long before now, still, it wouldn’t hurt to be surrounded by that much protection. Those damn ghouls may have ended up blunting their claws on you but there are much nastier fragging things in here and the stink of those ant spirits is still lingering in your nostrils despite the dunking you’ve had in raw crap…

Requiem gestures and your small rag tag group begins the trek north out of the zone. And it is your group. Despite all their obvious military training the two soldiers are deferring to you…you are the one with the mission to complete now, theirs was fragged a couple of hours ago when the shit hit the fan. It feels good and even Snake seems to approve judging by the warm almost purring noises in your mind.

The crack of the rifle round comes almost as a complete surprise to you all although everyone is alert enough to rapidly seek cover. Requiem makes a couple of curt gestures, combat cant of some sort but the meaning is fairly clear, and following his direction you look up and over to your left. Standing out in the open on the edge of a roof about two blocks ahead of you, tatty hunting rifle leaning casually on his hip, is that bloody ghoul! Given that he appears unhurt you suspect at least one of the group must have some healing talent, just bloody great!

At least the blind fragger can’t hit anything…his voice floats to you on the wind, as casual as his stance

"Now will you pay the toll you trog bitch?"

[Aria]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:16, Argent's home/Old node]
PAN: N/A, SIN: None, Response *, Signal *, System (5), Firewall (4), (Analyze, Scan, Decrypt, Exploit, Stealth [5, inherent], Armour, Browse, Encrypt, Medic [6, ergo, optzd])

Taking the proffered gift with a smile Gossamer briefly wondered if there was a price to be paid for this aid. She had been around metahuman society long enough to recognise that altruism was a rare thing but Aria had never asked anything of her before. Nothing material anyway.

"Thank you. I hope the Citadel servers weren’t hit too hard by this thing? "

"The Citadel?"

"I felt your influence all over those nodes, the sculpting in particular, I doubt anyone else would spot it but my nature gives me certain advantages" her tone was light, she knew that she was potentially stepping on a secret here and she wanted it to be clear that it would go no further.

Thankfully it seemed Aria wasn’t upset, perhaps it even proved she’d passed a test

"Nothing we couldn’t cope with, keeping all those gamers out of the score boards means our firewalls are substantial!"

"Do you know what this >1rtu@l5cr3@m is? I can feel it even now, calling to me…"

[Machine Ghost]

@E:Tribes, Sprogget
@E:Tribes, Sprogget
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Bellevue, near Senlis residence]
Bionode: Response 4(5), Signal 2, System 4, Firewall 3; Hidden; Analyze(3), Command(1), Edit(1), Scan(1), Sniffer(3), Spoof(1), Stealth(3), Shield(1), Tacsoft(2), Simrig(1)
CMT Clip: Response 1, Signal 3, System 1, Firewall 1; Passive; SIN: Paul Brickhill (R3)

As he finishes linking the connections, Sprogget sees an indicator popup in the CMT Clip connection window.
@self:Ah, There's Glyph now!
@Glyph via CMT Clip: <<Hey Glyph.  We finally made it here.  I don't know if you've seen any news since you have been keeping to direct connections, but the matrix mess Prospero warned about is some sort of virus.  Among other things, it glitched grid guide, which fragged traffic.  I have switched my connection to the group to a more virus resistant link.  Please slave your commlink here {Sprogget current bionode address} for tacnet and comms.  Everyone else except LeFey is on tacnet now, and she is linked in for comms.>>

As Glyph connects to the tacnet, Sprogget removes the jailbreakers firewall exceptions file from the CMT Clip, putting it back in normal passive mode for the Paul Brickhill profile.
@self: {grin}The Gang's All Here.

Just as Sprogget is about to ask Glyph about a good place to park, LeFey announces.

<<We may have a problem. My parents are on their way home. If traffic is as bad as you say, they might be delayed, but that's no reason to take any unnecessary risks. I'm going to check on them.>>

@jailbreakers: <<So what other surprises are on the way tonight?  Just a sec LeFey.  Before you call them, could you give me access to your commlink?  When you call, I will use the connection to get a fix on the commlink you call.  I'll need 10 seconds, then as long as both ends have matrix access, and I pay attention, I'll be able to keep track of where they are.>>

@self:LeFey could do this herself, but no need for her to be any extra distracted while talking to the 'rents.  Good thing we are out of the traffic now.  Would not want to do this in the middle of a bunch of angry, scared, and inexperienced drivers!  10 seconds unless they run stealth, or do redirects.

Sprogget sets the Revolution to pilot itself, just driving around the block, then exits from the cycle node, back into his bionode, in preparation for subscribing to LeFey's commlink.
@self:I'll get Glyph to point out a place to park, or set a patrol route once I have the trace locked.

[RdMarquis]

@E:Tribes / Travellers
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Senlis Residence, Bellevue]
SIN: Morgan Senlis, PAN: Active

<<If anything else decides to rear its ugly head, I don't think I can take it.>> The headache was there now, and throbbing. Trying to distract herself, Morgan sends him the commcode to her Avalon. <<There. Standby for my call.>> She mentally imagined her parents were on the other line, waiting to reveal that they already knew what she was up to. All the same, Morgan wanted to hear from them. She might not have that chance for a long time.

<<Are you alright? The news says there's some kind of virus causing chaos all over the city.>>

[Machine Ghost]

@E:Tribes, Sprogget
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Bellevue, near Senlis residence]
Bionode: Response 4(5), Signal 2, System 4, Firewall 3; Hidden; Analyze(3), Command(1), Edit(1), Scan(1), Sniffer(3), Spoof(1), Stealth(3), Shield(1), Tacsoft(2), Simrig(1)
CMT Clip: Response 1, Signal 3, System 1, Firewall 1; Passive; SIN: Paul Brickhill (R3)

With access to the Avalon, Sprogget opens a subscription to it, and focuses his attention there.  Sculpting a basic track program from the resonance, he waits for LeFey's comm call to go through.  As soon as the icon for the called node shows up, he starts a trace, to locate where the called commlink currently is, and follow it as it moves.

Once the trace is complete, Sprogget overlays the reported position as a fuzzy dot labeled 'Parents' on simple map centered on the Senlis residence, and connects the live information as an ARO to the combined jailbreakers channel.  The map is set to update by adding a new dot each time the location changes, modifying the label for the previous dot to show the timestamp when the location changes.  This Leaves a trail of locations with time labels.
@self:There.  That new ARO will let LeFey know that tracking is active, and anyone in the group that wants to can see about where they are.  Or at least where that commlink is.  Soon as we start seeing changes, we can start estimating how they are making out in the traffic.  Need to remember that as they get closer to home, the traffic will thin, and there will be fewer delays.

Now to find a place to 'loiter' while Alpha does his thing with the CHN.

@jailbreakers: <<Glyph, you got any suggestions where to park the cycle for a bit?  Or should I just cruise around until everything is ready?>>

With the trace active and stable, Sprogget closes the subscription to LeFey's commlink, and takes back control of the cycle again, relishing the feel of the street below his feet.

@self:Don't drive on roads that are this well maintained much.  Hardly any potholes to smooth over with the smart wheel.  Oh.  One more for tacnet.
Not wanting to disturb LeFey while she is talking to her parents, Sprogget sends a text message through Tagget, that will close when LeFey confirms it has been read.
@Lefey via Tagget: <<If you add the sensors included in the package to your PAN, or have other valid channels, you can slave to attached {current binode address} to become part of the group tacnet.  For now that will just let you keep track of what we are doing, but it will really start to help when you go to leave the house.  Like knowing not to open the door just as a KE patrol happens to be going past.>>

[phlapjack77]

@Virtual Scream / Dante
[September 1, 2072, 21:02, Hai Fuk Noodle House, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: hidden, Response 1, Signal 3, System 2, Firewall 1

The surprise on Dante's face disappears as quickly as it appeared.

<<Chinese>>

"Ah, Grandmother, I should have known that one as wise as you would see the truth. My tale of leaving Beijing is long, and probably not fit conversation for someone as respected as you. Fire plays some large part in the tale, one that I'd not wish to remember..."

A shudder passes through him at the memory, the tremble passing down his metallic arms and conducted through the lacquered nails.

"Let's talk of happier things. Here, I've ordered you a pot of the best oolong tea for sale in this place, I'm sure you can smell the fragrance and the quality. Not quite as good as you can get from Guangdong, but passable it seems. In this weather, oolong really does have the best medicinal qualities for the body. Some people think puer does, but that can create too much of an imbalance if a person isn't careful. Here, now that the tea has steeped for a minute, let me pour you the second serving. The flavor should be much stronger, see how the color is darker and the tea sticks to the sides of the cup."

After going on about tea and other niceties for a short time, Dante smiles at her and says,

"Tell me, am I lucky enough that you're available to keep a cold man warm tonight?"

[Aria]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:35; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]

Mordred & Tsubaki

The door is indeed unlocked, and you both cautiously enter the room beyond taking care to watch for blind spots and other potential surprises. If there’s anyone beyond they are doing a good job of making it look like they aren’t home. The air is stale, although still perfectly breathable, and the damp makes it feel decidedly unloved.

Gemeaux

The incoming drone sweeps round in an arc and you can almost feel the eyes watching through its sensors. Monsieur Collot comes up beside you, thankfully loudly enough that you aren’t startled into any sudden response despite your concentration on the barely visible aerial spy.

"It is being rigged. I tried to reach it’s dog brain but couldn’t get in…I could try and trace its signal…?"

Mordred & Tsubaki

As you progress further your linked GPS tells you that you have moved around forty meters under the far bank of the reservoir. The chambers and corridors are uniformly empty, although they more and more indicate that they were once comfortable quarters with splashes of art on the walls and the paraphernalia of daily life scattered around. Wherever the Clearwater lot are, they don’t seem to be here now. There’s no indication of why they left or where they went. Certainly no signs of violence and there is no taint of death on the manasphere.

Gemeaux

"Oh merde...!" and looking where Monsieur Collot is indicating you see another drone crest the valley skyline. It’s making no attempt to hide, speed and armour is on its side, the Nimrod air combat frame is definitely not something the hippies should be making use of…before you can even swing your rifle round to target it tracer fire whickers out towards the RV. The RV lurches, crunching you painfully into the side panelling, as the armour piercing rounds shred the tyres on that side of the vehicle, and probably most of the wheel hubs too…

[Aria]

@E:Tribes / LeFey
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Heading north to Bellevue]

<<Are you alright? The news says there's some kind of virus causing chaos all over the city.>>

<<Yes, yes, we are on our way home now. Don’t worry we’ll be back soon. We’re avoiding the main routes that seem to be affected and James is very good, he’ll get us home.>>

Well, so much for the hope that they would be delayed for long, now you just need to decide whether to make the break for it now or wait until later on tonight when they are finally tucked up safely in bed…although if Dad’s schedule has been knocked out of whack by meeting Mordred there’s a chance he will be up half the night catching up on the oh so vital corporate drudge…

[RdMarquis]

@E:Tribes / LeFey
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Heading north to Bellevue]
SIN: Morgan Senlis, PAN: Active

<<Take your time. And be careful.>> She meant every word of it.

With the call over, Morgan turns her attention to the message. "...valid channels?" She mutters, reaching for a button on her headphones. "So, anything I'm using right now should work." In her left field of vision, she can now see what the tribe is looking at. "Have to remember to wink or rub my eye when I need to look at something on my end."

<<Are we ready?>> She takes a look around her house, both through the doors and security cameras.

[RdMarquis]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:35; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]
SIN: Spencer Lovett, PAN: Active

"Looks like we missed them..." Mordred briefly examines the former home.

He had meant to turn back anyway, but the drone sends him running. "But someone's still living around here. And they're hostile!" The adept waves at Tsubaki to follow. He heads toward the exit at a run, slamming a clip of explosive ammo into his weapon.

[Fairy]

@E:PL UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:35; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]
PAN=Active; SIN:Nina Okada

A small frown appears on Tsubaki's face. No answers and just a lot of questions. The frown fades from her appearance as Mordred turns around and hits the ground running. If she had anything to say, it will have to be missed. Time to go!

[Notsoevildm]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead
[July 8th, 2072, 23:43; Finally in the open, somewhere north of Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

Copperhead drops into cover, moving to put herself between the ghoul and the kids.

"Keep yer heads down youse two."

She takes a bead on the ghoul, but he's a long way away and the Enfield is designed for close range combat. She struggles to get the smartlink targ to settle on the ghoul, finally taking a deep breath, holding it and squeezing off a single shot as the targ drifts across the ghoul's torso.

"Dere's da first installment ya fragger. One piece of 12 gauge lead. An I gots plenty more where dat came from. How much you wantin?"

Lowering her voice, she whispers to the mercs.

"Watch dis one. He's a sneaky fragger. His buddies are prolly sneaking up on us right now. Hmm, I'm guessing neither of youse got a sniper rifle stashed in your backpacks?"

She looks around, hoping to see another way past the ghoul and hoping not to see any of his buddies closing in on them.

[RdMarquis]

@E:Tribes / LeFey
[September 1, 2072 21:12 Heading north to Bellevue]
SIN: Morgan Senlis, PAN: Active

The issue wasn't one of trust. Morgan sincerely trusted the tribe members. After all, she was placing her safety in their hands. No, the issue was that she was about to head into a dangerous and isolated area without anyone at all knowing. Which was the point, but Morgan had to let at least one person know, just in case one of the many worst case scenarios she imagined came to pass.

Gently, using only a little effort, she seized the Resonance with her will. Just a warm up. Morgan focused data into a single, glowing light that hovered over her finger. The girl raised it into the air as if it were a signal. And something was indeed alerted by the light. A sprite resembling a crow flew to her side, alighting on her arm. "Hello." She greets it with a smile. "Thank you for answering my call. I promise I'll not detain you long." Morgan had already prepared the message she wanted the sprite to deliver.

"Take this to Mordred. Use your abilities to conceal it from detection." The message was a short explanation of what she was doing tonight. Morgan mentioned the tribe, and that she would be staying in Puyallup.

It turned out, that the warm up wasn't enough. As hard as she tried, Morgan just couldn't summon her next sprite. Twice she tried to compile a "physical" form for her paladin, and twice she had ended with so much garbled data. She couldn't understand. Morgan had summoned this particular sprite before. Was it merely a case of nerves? She tried once more, calling his name. "Accolon. I need your help. Perhaps more than ever." This time, a knight appeared to don the dark armor she had forged with the Resonance. Though clearly human, a shadow concealed his exact features.

Morgan lay back on the bed, exhausted. One task. It was enough to afford her a measure of protection, and would have to do for now.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:16, Argent's home/Old node]
PAN: N/A, SIN: None, Response *, Signal *, System (5), Firewall (4), (Analyze, Scan, Decrypt, Exploit, Stealth [5, inherent], Armour, Browse, Encrypt, Medic [6, ergo, optzd])

"Some sort of virus/worm/agent/emergent AI. I haven't had the chance to look into it in any detail yet." mutters Aria with a shrug and brief frown of frustration.

"However, I do have a couple of pieces isolated on my servers."

The grin she grins is far too malevolent for the form of the little girl she is wearing.

As Aria chats, Gossamer realises the earbuds have morphed into seeds and the seeds have sprouted little tendrils of green that are quickly growing up her arm followed equally quickly by tiny pink flowers. As each flower blooms, a tiny pink fairy pops out, with a tinkling laugh. Soon there are so many fairies that they drown out the sound of the scream and then all at once they all pop, showering her in pink faerie dust.

The scream is gone.

So is the empty node. Postal workers now rush back and forth carrying sacks filled with letters and parcels. Aria beckons to a portly security man eating a donut. She hands him another pair of earbuds and his form shimmers, becoming slimmer and taller, the donut replaced with a clipboard and pen.

Aria scrunches up her nose.

"It's a start. I've updated the firewall and installed a basic reality filter routine. You should be safe here for now. However, if it does come after you again, use this."

She hands over an envelope with Gossamer's name printed on the front.

"It's a one time admin level access to the Citadel's servers. It will only work for you and will expire in 24 hours. Don't use it unless you have to! It's a dirty piece of code and cleaning it up will take simply ages. Okay, gotta go. Things to do! Bye!"

And with a cheeky grin and a wink of an eye, she's gone.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream/Uller
[September 1, 2072, 13:31; Puyallup Barrens, Seattle]
Sony Emperor: Active | SIN: Luke MacAuley ( Re 2 - Sig 3 - Fi 2 - Sys 2)

Having to take the Metro to the crime scene is bad enough, but it seems like everyone else decided to do the same. Uller overhears snatches of conversation, complaints about the traffic, mentions of >1rtu@l5cr3@m, discussions of the last play of the Urban Brawl game. Fortunately no-one pays any attention to his 'equipment' bag.

He also notices a new icon on his link. At first glance it looks like a wig, or a scalp, but on closer examination he realises it is the top of a skull, complete with skin and hair. He has no idea how it got there until the checks the filename: >1rtu@l5cr3@m. Looks like his link is infected too!

Arriving at the Stuffer Shack, he finds a bored beat cop guarding the scene. A flash of his credentials and a 20 yen donation to the police retirement fund is enough to get him a look inside. There's not much too see, an outline of a troll-sized body around a blood stain, lots of yellow tape and crime scene numbers.

However, he does pick up a scent. Fear and cheap perfume almost drowned out by unwashed troll and convenience store snacks. The bored cop points him in the direction the troll fled with his hostage and he picks up the scent again. It takes 30 minutes on foot, occassionally backtracking before the scent leads him to a row of abandoned lock ups. Most of them are wrecked, but one of the few intact ones sports a new padlock on the rusted, graffiti painted door.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream/Cipher
[September 1, 2072, 13:52; Downtown, Seattle]

Cipher reaches out to the matrix with his mind, looking for any information on >irtu@l5cr3@m. He gets plenty of hits, mostly people complaining about being hit with the virus and either having a piece of hardware infected or in some cases destroyed. All reports of infection claim to have some random piece of a body left behind on their devices after the attack. He glances over at the cab, and sure enough, there is the skeleton waving back to him with a handless arm.

Searching on how to get rid of it delivers plenty of controversial suggestions, most of which Cipher immediately recognises as unlikely to work or worse, likely to further damage or compromise the infected devices. He comes up blank on how to get it out of a sprite or a technomancer's bionode.

He does come across a couple of sites claiming to be able to remove the virus from infected devices, but can he trust them with his sprite or his brain? And does it really matter anyway? After all, wont they all be controlled by the same intelligence that runs the matrix anyway?

[Aria]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:36; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]

Mordred & Tsubaki

You pound your way back through the complex, hoping against hope that you will be in time to assist the others. It seems longer, darker and slipperier on your return, the air seems threatening but that is nothing compared with the sounds of autofire that drift down strangely to your position.

Gemeaux

The drone jinks and peels off, whether to get a better angle for another attack run or because it’s done what it came to do is anyone’s guess. You know that the RV will offer you meagre protection against it if it decides to strafe the body…you are jolted almost off your feet again as the RV lurches down the hill towards the pumping station. Beside you Monsieur Collot is muttering under his breath and clearly concentrating hard, beads of sweat springing out on his forehead

"I can get us down, yes? I think it is only gravity that can help us now..."

The RV is listing heavily towards the shattered wheels and in the back Luc has begun to scream his head off. You can’t see the attack drone anymore…is that a good thing…?

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Cat / Dubstep
[September 2, 2072, 01:00, Anathma]

Despite the hour and the weather, the queue to get into the Anathma still runs halfway around the block. Most are human, but there are small clusters of orcs, elves and a few of the more unusual metatypes in the line. One of the club's attractions is that all are welcome, unless they happen to be humanis policlub members.

The queue creeps slowly forward as people are checked through security. A troll and a human pat down the partygoers, extracting an impressive assortment of firearms, blades, knuckledusters and armored outerwear. Even then, several people in front of you still set off the metal detector, some with more obvious cyberware than others.

Inside, the hallway splits into three. A ramp on the right slopes down to the mosh pit, where pounding metal beats can be felt. Most of the orcs and trolls head down that way. The ramp to the left leads up to the skybar where faint ambient beats can be heard. Most of the club's 'business' meetings take place in the soundproofed booths upstairs. But the majority of patrons just head straight through to the main dance hall and bars where Seattle's hottest DJ, Reed Caspa, is playing tonight.

[RdMarquis]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:36; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]
SIN: Spencer Lovett, PAN: Active

<<Talk to me if you can.>> Mordred slows to a walk when he approaches the door. <<What's happening?>> Making sure his smartgun display is ready, he eases the door open. The adept scans the area for enemies. "See anything?" He mutters to Tsubaki. Mordred's mind races. The hippies had gone. Signs pointed to the place having been peacefully abandoned, but peaceful didn't mean voluntary. And now they were under attack. That maglock could have been equipped with an alarm, but who would go to the trouble of guarding empty rooms? Mordred had to guess that the area had new residents. This was a perilous situation. They had to get to safety and contact Argent (assuming she hadn't meant for them to be in this gunfight).