IC: SRM04-00: Back in Business, IC thread for Back in Business Options

[Dak]

Mr. White smiles, "I have heard that Mr. Turner is a business man. I am as well. If he is interested in hearing what I have to say, or discussing business, I would prefer to discuss things with him here - it contributes to my safety, in the same way that you gentlemen contribute to his safety. Surely he would not be willing to accompany me out of the site of his associates, and the same goes for me. If he has interest in discussing Ms. Craig and the stone, then I would be happy to discuss it with him here. Or perhaps I could ring him up - it would save him the exposure to my associate here." He offers a business card with his comm number on it.

[Slacker]

The ork that's been talking takes Mr. White's card, steps back away from the door and over the rails set in the floor. His partner looks up and does the same at a nod to the de facto leader they both continue to point their guns at you.

Never looking at the card, the leader glares at you for a moment. ""Stay here.". Speaking to his companions he calls out loudly. "If they twitch, kill 'em."

He then lowers his gun and heads upstairs. A minute later he returns with a wicked smile.

"Yeah, guess I should have been more clear earlier. You are going to come with me to talk to Jack and you're buddy is going to stay right where he is." He raises his pistol once more to emphasize his meaning. With a nod to the ork that is towards the back of the room, he says simply "Now."

The ork towards the back of the room does something with his hand out of site. Then you here a metalic whirring sound as something rolls up into view along the rails in the floor. It's a smallish drone with a not so smallish MMG loaded and primed to open fire in an instant.

[Dak]

Mr. White sighs. "If you insist." he glances over his shoulder at TundraWolf. "I'll be back in five minutes." He walks in the door and pauses. "But if I'm not, I may need your help with our negotiations. Now - which way, gentlemen?

[Slacker]

"Right this way," he says with a smirk. He gestures with the gun for Mr. White to lead the way up the stairs in the back left corner of the building.

At the top of the stairs is a heavy steel security that opens with a call from the ork. "It's me." Yet another gun is pointed at Mr. White as the fourth of Jack Turner's ork guards is revealed inside.

"Come on in chummer." He back's away keeping his aim relatively steady as Mr. White steps inside the living quarters of the warehouse.

The current room appears to be the central entertainment room with a large screen trideo system and couch at the far end (along the front of the building and covering up one of the two windows that could be seen from outside). In front of that is a comfy looking couch, though dated and well used. In the center of the room is a conference table with a number of chairs around it. This is where a smiling, strung out human stands....obviously the infamous Jack Turner.

His eyes show the strain of being awake for quite a while, perhaps even the glint of paranoia. Still he seems quite confident with the situation considering he and his goons have you outnumbered 3 to 1.

"Ah, welcome to my humble home. My men have tell that you wish to do a little business with me. Why don't you be a dear and elaborate?"

[Dak]

Without beating around the bush, Mr. White replies, "I'm looking for Fiona Craig, and her stone."

[Slacker]

"The 'stone' you say? So you know something of the Morel Stone do you? That works out quite nicely for me then. Tell me everything you know about the Stone or I will have my boys shoot you dead here and now."

[Dak]

Mr. White laughs. "I know its a stone. I am interested in acquiring it. I infer that you have it. Are you willing to part with it?"

[Slacker]

"Do you really expect me to believe that is all you know? Do you think me a fool? Jack doesn't give Mr. White the chance to respond. He just carries in a ranty sort of way. "I know it was you that sent the Spirit to test my defenses earlier. That is oh so obvious with your lack of 'ware or only the most token of guns from what my men have told me. You allow us to separate you from your dumb muscle. So you must be pretty confident in your magical skills. But they aren't going to save you here friend. I've already made arrangements for just such eventualities. Still, being so strong in magic and seeking out the Morel Stone leads me to the only possible conclusion....that you know exactly what it's power is! Jack practically screams his final words as he lays out his triumphant, if deluded conclusions.

"Now. Tell me what I want to know or before I have to treat you to the same fate as Ms. Craig." With that, he snaps his fingers and the room gets significantly brighter as the firey form of an elemental materializes at top the conference table in between him and Mr. White.

[Dak]

Mr. White frowns at the spirit and smooths his hair with his hand. "I'm no magician. Since I am looking for Ms. Craig, one of my associates used a spirit to assist in the search. I am a businessman, and I came here looking for Ms. Craig and her stone. If you are not interested in doing business with me," he shrugs, "that is your choice."

[Slacker]

Jack starts to laugh maniacally at what the words he expected Mr. White to say.... Then he realized that nothing Mr. White just said was even remotely what he had expected. His laughter peters out in an awkward way.

"Wait...You aren't a mage at all? You are just some idiot runner that walked in here expecting me to hand over Fiona and the stone without a fight? He is seriously confused now. He looks to the fire spirit as if to ask if Mr. White really isn't a mage. And the spirit shakes his 'head' not in answer but simply at the stupidity of the mundane he's been forced to serve.

Jack seems to sag in his seat as he starts muttering curses under his breath. The two orks behind Mr. White look at each other and just shrug. After a minute or two. He finally looks back up at Mr. White. "Fine. Tell me who you are working for; then take your friends and get out of the Cove."

[Dak]

Mr. White straightens his suit and glances at the two orcs in the room with them. "My employers are clever enough to not reveal their identities to me, specifically so that I cannot in turn reveal their identities to other people. They take steps to keep themselves anonymous and I don't ask too many questions." he sighs. "I'll be sure to relay to them that we could not come to an arrangement. Thank you for your time, Mr. Turner." he turns, and then pauses. "Did you say that Ms. Craig is no longer with us?"

[Slacker]

Jack ignores Mr. White's question as he glares at him through the flames of the spirit at his command. A bit of his confidence starts to return.

"Get this drek out of my sight and see that he and his team leave immediately."

A moment later, rough hands grab Mr. White by the shoulder and start pulling him towards the door.

[Dak]

Mr. White offers no resistance as he's led from the building. However he does offer to the last orc to push him out the door the chance for a little extra nuyen. "Hey chummer - where's the girl - Fiona?" He offers him a credstick.

[Slacker]

Krag looks over his shoulder at his buddies, notices that they are momentarily distracted trying to figure out what just happened upstairs while they were stuck down here guarding TundraWolf. In a quick motion he shoves at Mr. White one last time, swiping the credistick while he does so. He mouths the word "Upstairs" and then slides the large wooden door shut and audibly locks it in place.

[Dak]

Mr. White claps TundraWolf on the shoulder. "Lets go." he says.

Walking away, he briefs the team on what he saw, giving an idea of the layout of the place and the expected opposition. "I think that maybe we should go make Mr. Turner another offer."

[Kiirnodel]

Gardner's face is grim as Mr. White returns. "I don't like the implication that he did something to Fiona. We need to act quickly in case it was just a bluff... no need to give him the time to make good on it."

[ChromeZephyr]

Thursday afternoon, in the Ork Underground
Hermes Ikon: Hidden | SIN: Ivan Mozhayev

The pistols trained on him barely register a twitch of his lip, and he continues to watch the orks impassively. The smartlink feeds him target data, limming the guards in amber outlines, and he idly contemplates firing order as Mr.White converses with the lead ork. When the drone rolls up, he frowns slightly, and the outline around the ork in the back turns red as he designates him as the primary threat.

While Mr. White is upstairs, Nikolai studies the drone with professional disinterest. More and more I regret not purchasing the heavy armor Konstantin was trying to unload before I came to this place. I shall have to remedy this later.

Nikolai turns as Mr.White claps him on the back and listens attentively while the smaller man lays out what he has learned. He frowns again when he gets to part about Fiona, seeing the promised money disappear from his accounts when their first employer learns that she is perhaps far from unharmed.

"The drone will be the hardest physical target, especially with our own...what is word...rigger...not being ready. Though if it's controller is dead, it becomes less dangerous. He should be the first to die." Nikolai turns to Gardner. "Can you suppress the fire spirit and still cover us against direct magical threat?"

[Dak]

Mr. White walks down the street, looking for the nearest cluster of locals. He approaches them and shows his palms. "You see that warehouse down the way there? No, no, the one with green paint. Yes, that's the one." he indicates the warehouse across from Jack's bolt hole. "I own that building, but the renter has chosen to stop paying for the space. I need it cleaned out. If any of you know a group of fellows who can help, they'd be welcome to keep anything they find inside. The renter is a chip-head, and I presume has installed a lock on the door. They'd have to take care of that. No worry about damages though... " He sighs. "Otherwise I'll just have to hire someone to come empty it and pitch whatever's inside into the water."


Con test:
10D6E5 => 3

[Slacker]

Mr. White's smooth words and the orks inebriation make them forget that they know that place. They know who's warehouse that is. But what ork can think about that when there is the chance for free loot.

"Yeah man, but if their ain't drek there. You're paying us 200 each." Without even getting confirmation from Mr. White the three orks charge off down the street.

A minute later you see them bang on the door of the warehouse across from Jack's.

[ChromeZephyr]

Thursday afternoon, in the Ork Underground
Hermes Ikon: Hidden | SIN: Ivan Mozhayev

Nikolai watched the ork trio head off to loot the warehouse and shook his head. Drunken fools. Useful, but still fools. A second later the world seemed to become a little flatter and less colorful as the water spirit's concealment powers covered them, and with a grunt of effort and the assistance of the team's giant mage he clambered onto the roof of the building next to Jack's warehouse. The rope and climbing gear wasn't something he had expected his comrade to carry, but was thankful for it as they ascended to the roof of their target's dwelling.

The mercenary watched as Gardner set the rappelling rope in place, checked that the Kalishnikov was secure on it's sling, and activated the cybernetic enhancements to his already primed reflexes. He'd breached buildings before, but never like he was about to try. Like something out of trid fantasy or comic book…

The rope bit securely into his hands, and with three powerful steps he launched himself off of the roof of the building. For a heartbeat he simply sailed, then gravity took hold and the rope described a curt arc that had him aimed squarely at the second story window beneath where he had taken off from. As he wrenched his torso around to place his feet into position to go through the window first he caught a glimpse of a man at the window. It was almost comical how his expression changed as Nikolai closed on the building, and the mercenary smiled as he crashed through the glass. In his hyper-charged mental state he noticed a hundred tiny things before he let go of the rope and rolled onto his knees in the room; the way the pulverized glass glinted in the afternoon light, the woman his memory showed him was Fiona Craig tied to a chair unresponsive yet not obviously injured, the surprised smuggler yelling a shocked obscenity as he flung himself out of the path of Nikolai's entry.

The room abruptly brightened as a vaguely human-shaped form of roiling flames appeared from the air next to the unconscious woman and advanced on him. Nikolai bared his teeth in challenge as he swung the assault rifle up on it's sling and into his waiting hands. "Ура!!!" roared from his lips and the Kalishikov stuttered, the gyromount buried in his wrist deploying to counteract the recoil. The fiery form barely twitched as the explosive 5.45mm rounds punched into it and melted with bursts of light, and out of the corner of his eye the scarred mercenary saw an ork with a pistol charge through the doorway of the next room.

Experience and his enhanced reflexes already had him rolling to the side as the pistol barked twice. A hard thump against the upper part of his armored jacket caused him to grunt, then pain blossomed and alarm icons flashed in his vision as the second round punched through the jacket and into his cybernetic torso. System integrity at 86% flared across his vision along with an indicator showing the damaged subsystems, which he cleared with an irritated mental command. He grimaced as the smuggler fled through the doorway behind the armed ork, bellowing a command, then his metal and wire arm shot up, the cyberspurs over the hand snicking out and knocking aside the haymaker blow the elemental tried to land on him.

A shadow in the shape of his humungous colleague fell over him, and Nikolai called out over his shoulder "The spirit is yours, comrade," as the stock of the assault rifle slammed back against his shoulder. The lizard part of his brain screamed to fight off the burning opponent right on top of him, but he suppressed it and the targeting reticle of the smartlink flashed red as it gave him the firing solution on the ork who had shot him. The assault rifle blazed again, and the guard shuddered as bullets tore through him, spraying the doorway and floor behind him with bright blood. Nikolai raised his appraisal of the man as he backed through the doorway while still firing at him, though the grievous wounds ruined his aim and the rounds skipped off the impact plates of the Russian's armored jacket. At least this smuggler hires competent guards, though it is a pity he will not survive the day.

Nikolai lunged to his feet, batting away another blow from the fire elemental as he chased after the wounded ork. A glance as he cleared the doorway showed Jack cowering behind a couch and the bloodied ork trying to bring the pistol to bear on him behind a table further in the room. Muscle memory snapped the AK up and a volley of fire loosed before the barrel of the handgun could finish it's arc. He was turning to cover the smuggler before the guard's corpse had hit the ground.

"Call off your dogs, or I ventilate you." It was a statement of fact, nothing more. The muscles tightening around the smuggler's eyes before he raised the taser in his hand had Nikolai twisting his torso just enough for the dart to skip off the scarred jacket and bury itself in the wall behind him. Nikolai sighed, then changed his point of aim a hairsbreadth and fired again. Three rounds destroyed the forearm of the smuggler in a spray of gore, and the taser clattered to the ground.