Through the Looking Glass [2075 Game World], Persistent World [SR5] IC Sub-Thread Options

[Jayde Moon]

Rodeo rolled her eyes somewhat as the newcomer entered. She reached into a pocket and produced the requested lighter.

"Here y' go, hun," she said, as she offered it to him. "An' once yer' all stitched up t' your liking, I can help out a bit more, if'n y'like."

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Jan wedged his knife between his knees and took the lighter. "Thanks". He wasn't sure if Rodeo's comment was some sort of pick-up or if she was a medic, but he was wary of strangers.

Holding the lighter in place he heated the tip of the blade before pressing it into his wound. It singed and stunk horribly. After a few seconds he firked out a long, slender piece of metal followed by a smaller square shard. He heated the blade again, hotter this time, and grimaced even through the painkillers as he sealed the wound before starting on the pock marks down his arm. The whole thing only took 2 or 3 minutes, but he had no idea what had been said in that time. He'd ask Al later.

He released the tourniquet and shot in some more of the pain killers before starting the stitching and SkinGlu. "Hey Al, you got any cousins or young sisters you'll be wanting to bring along with us this time?" Jan jested. It's useful to know though whether your main backup has his head in the game.

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Al couldn't fault the question. Didn't surprise him if the elf merc had a bone to pick, and he was sorry they hadn't had a chance to talk since they'd parted ways outside Sound Mental Health that night a couple of months ago. Hell, he hadn't really had any reason to expect they'd cross paths again, but here they were. On balance, Al was glad, because he knew Jan was not only tough but wily, which made for a crackerjack combo.

But there was air to clear, and this wasn't really the place to do it.

"No sisters, no cousins," Al answered, trying in vain to pitch his rock-grinder voice low enough to keep the exchange semi-private. It was the truth, technically speaking, though he knew Jan would spot Peaches in the room sooner or later. "Still an' all, reckon ol' Al owes ya a drink or three once this little tete a tete winds up."

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"Pleasure. I need to get my blood alcohol levels back up before I get shot at. Takes the edge off the searing pain." He'd lost more blood (and thus alcohol) than he thought. The room spun gently for a minute before he was able to focus back on the conversation. He'd got no issue with Al, he seemed good people, but that wasn't going to stop him having some fun with the old redneck. Peaches was no doubt in here somewhere, though he couldn't see her and now this Rodeo girl was in on the deep south twang. Get some CAS flags about the place and we'd have a right good party.

[Jayde Moon]

As Rodeo noticed the newcomer fade for just a moment and shook her head. "Right, that started y' off, but hold still."

She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder, noting the wary look in his eyes. Hope he doesn't stab me with that knife, she thought. In the end, he allowed her the contact. She closed her eyes for just a moment, sending a wave of healing energy through his body, calling the magic from within herself and pushing it through to the wounds.

After a moment, she opened her eyes. "There, not my absolute best, but that'll keep ya on your feet."

[RdMarquis]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

LeFey was fairly certain she had a question for Silk. Then Jan walked in, looking like he'd come from a war zone. Which was a distinct possibility. She could only stare, mouth agape, as the man tended to himself with a field kit and a knife. The technomancer looked like she was about to scream. Instead, she opened her backpack and clumsily produced a medkit. "D-did you need...?" But Rodeo was already casting a spell. "Are you alright?! What happened?" Whether he explains or not, LeFey takes a few breaths to regain her composure. The meeting had well and truly been disrupted, anyway.

At length, she turns her attention back to another concern. Sybil. LeFey knew the name from a psychological case study. But she had also recently become aware that it belonged to something else. Something dangerous. A looming threat and subject of much speculation, as far as she could tell. Her hands clench unconsciously. And the reason for all those deaths, if Silk was to believed. Was it some kind of disease? A force that was controlling those patients? "I would think most of us have the same question. If Sybil is going to be an issue on this run, we need to know what it is."

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Jan recognised LeFey's voice and looked up. He'd not seen her much during the last job, but now that he looked her face did at least seem familiar. "Y'know, kak happened, people died" he responded. "I'm lekker, let's get on with it."

"Assume" he added, looking up at Silk "assume I know nothing about any girls named Sybil."

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Silk smiled grimly at you all

"You would hardly be alone in not knowing anything about Sybil, much as it galls me to say, I perhaps only know a little more than yourselves...innuendo and street gossip. I do know that it has stirred the corps up and that is never a good thing. There is reportedly a Jackpoint compilation that discusses it in some depth, I am working with my contacts to get hold of a copy. In essence people seem to be saying that it is a virus of some sort, one that can subsume the personalities of its host. I do not know what its vectors are but for those of you who were involved in the last run I will tell you that I took the precaution of monitoring you closely in the last month and as far as I can tell there haven't been any aberrant behaviours, well at least not any that don't fit the profiles I have on record for you..."

she holds up a placatory hand, perhaps detecting a degree of justified paranoia

"I know runners do not like to be spied on by their fixers or anyone else, and I can only apologise for the intrusion. It was a precaution I felt I had to take. I will ensure that the records are expunged and I can assure you that only myself and Gossamer have viewed the files...I hope I have in some way earned your trust following previous events but I would understand any reticence..."

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Jan snorted a laugh under his breath as Silk felt the need to qualify 'aberrant behaviours'. It slipped into a chuckle as he leaned his head back against the wall and thought through with equal parts joy and despair some of the things she must have witnessed. "I'd quite like to see my profile, if you don't mind..."

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"Well, hon, ya wanna have a gander at ol' Al, can't hardly blame ya. Women's got they needs too, same as menfolk. I ain't got nothin' ta hide - never do nothin' ya wouldn't want onna cover o' the screamsheets, that's what my Pa always said. Words ta live by. Hell, no need ta erase mine. Keep it fer posterity, I say. Or fer the occasional lonely night."

He stubbed out his spent Lucky on the floor beside him.

"But if by 'subsume they personality' ya mean turn reg'lar folk into ravin' homicidal maniacs with not a possum's whisker o' self-preservation, then I reckon we done seen yer Sybill friend up close an' personal. But as fer it bein' a virus, you talkin' the bio or the digital sort? Or, if both, wouldn't it then only affect computer telepathy types?"

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"It is rumoured to be a nanovirus so I would suspect that the vector would have to be contact, possibly even bodily fluids...but I wouldn't want to stake my life, or my mind, on that..."

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"Alrighty, so does yer Jackpoint whatsis say anything about what we do for any pore sumbitch catches this bug?"

[RdMarquis]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

"So, it works like a personafix program?" With more effort than she would have liked, LeFey unclenches her hands and lays them flat on her lap. She was trying to remain (or seem) calm, and as she judged it, doing a middling job. Less than middling, when Al brought up the so-called Mental Health Facility. "I hope to God what we saw on the last run would be considered an inhumane response to the disease." She closes her eyes and breathes deeply before continuing. "But I have the feeling there was a reason those patients were isolated and being studied." She knows that if they continued on this subject, the conversation would go somewhere she deeply did not want it to. So, LeFey brings up the run.

"That said, we might be able to shed some light on things. We know that we have to infiltrate a data storage owned by NeoNET. But we need more specifics on the matter. Especially the location itself. Is it explicitly a corporate facility? Or something less conspicuous?"

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"Is it perhaps disguised as a bar?" Jan ventured hopefully. "I don't mind doing recon if it is...". He'd noticed some of the laaities were a little shaken by mention of this Sybil thing so moved to break the tension up with a little humour. He could never be serious at the best of times though.

"Seriously though boet, you reckon it's worth sporting some o' those bad ass looking chemsuits?" he said sarcastically. The chemsuits he'd seen looked bulky, uncomfortable and made you look like a giant rubber clown.

He managed to stand up again, using the wall for support, and tested his leg to see if it was still alive after the morphine shots. A few experimental stamps told him it would probably be good for walking.

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Before responding to LeFey’s query Silk spreads a sheet of electronic paper in front of Al with a quiet nod and then brings up a larger scale version of the information on an open ARO for the rest of you to see. Deftly flicking through the displays she brings up an aerial shot of the target building, rotating it briefly so that you can see it from all sides…

“As far as I can tell the facility is exactly what it pertains to be; a data farm and associated offices. The heat loads are certainly consistent with the kind of servers we would expect a NeoNet facility to be running. As you can see from this thermal overlay there is significant heat shedding, particularly at key activity periods. Of course I don’t expect you to rely totally on that assumption, the last run proved all too clearly that they are not above concealing other activities behind something else.

With the information that eTher provided we can extrapolate staffing, again it seems relatively normal for this type of facility. It’s a twenty four hour a day operation, although it looks like staff numbers reduce out of normal office hours. That will make your lives more difficult but not insurmountable. The codes she has given will get you one mark on the host and access to the non-secure office areas. I suspect she didn’t want to tip her hand by giving you fuller access. Once inside you should be able to fabricate something more useful.

Most of the security is handling the perimeter, and the matrix of course, but it looks like there are random patrols out of hours. They probably rely on facial recog for the busy periods and LeFey should be able to bypass that. There’s not much information on magical security but I wouldn’t expect them to be lacking. It’s probably passive rather than active though, at least until the shit hits the fan.

I don’t have a record of any HTR response but when there was a demonstration that got out of hand last year with a neo luddite group the facility turned to the Knights. I don’t know if that’s protocol, you may be able to find more with your own digging.

From eTher’s comments I can assume that the data she wants won’t be available online so it looks like there are three main terminals to access archive data. One in the eastern office building, although that is more likely to be manned at all times, one behind the main security hub and the third in the data farm itself. That seems to be the easiest to approach but at the end of the day it’s your call…”

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Al appreciated the hard copy visual aid. This fixer - that’s what she was called, right? or was it Johnson? he needed to go back and watch a few episodes of Neon Shadows again - this fixer had class, even after the hard time he’d given her. Problem was, now he’d have to haul his ass up onto a chair at the table and pay attention.

He listened and looked, blew up the image and scrolled about a bit as the woman spoke. Once she’d finished her spiel, he asked, “Jist ta save us some time, ya know anything about they utility providers? An’ if they subcontracts maintenance services, or plumbin’, or rat fumigatin’, or got anyone else on they speed-dial should this, that, or the other thing go tits up? Hell, they got a service on tap fer they bachelor parties an’ such?”

[mister__joshua]

Jan
[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

"...and home addresses for the on-duty guards would be handy." Jan continued, sitting down besides Al so he could get a good look at the map. "The more information the better. If you could get their daily routines, shift patterns, where their kids go to school... all the better." Jan didn't intend to take any chances this time, and when you control what a man holds most dear then there's little he won't do.

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Silk frowned, the barest flicker of emotion before she is business like again

"I am sure that eTher could be persuaded to part with that information, she doesn't seem to have any particularly protective feelings towards her corporation's employees. I will not tell you how to conduct your operation but personally I would prefer it if nobody, who isn't actively opposing you, is harmed, physically or mentally. That might sound idealistic but I have found that the fewer people who are involved in a run the less chance there is of something going wrong. Minimal fingerprint usually means minimal comeback afterwards..."

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, Crime Mall; Puyallup, Seattle]

Something Silk said brought Al back to the moment. His mind had drifted back a couple of weeks to a spot not far south of here, down in the ash wastes of Graham. Some drug-addled psychopaths in clown get-ups had tried to make him fold his cards by grabbing a family, butchering the parents in front of the kids, then threatening to off the children.

Not one of those pathetic freaks had lived another five minutes, and Al had been sorely disappointed when the one he’d put down himself had gone and expired before he could hang him from a tree and skin him alive. The mix of outrage, revulsion, and heartache he’d felt was an emotional cocktail he’d not soon forget, much as he wanted to.

No way in hell he was joining that club.

He hadn’t figured the merc for the type either, but he did come off as a pragmatic SOB. Talk to him later, point out the downsides.

But what had Silk just said?

“Not ta worry, missy, light touch, shades o’ subtlety, there without bein’ there, that’s how ol’ Al operates. Low key like a whisperin’ specter, that’s what they say ‘bout me. Set yer mind ta rest ‘bout footprints or fingerprints or whatnot.”

He leaned back in his chair.

“But let’s take it back a tick. Glad to hear Star Dragon is gon’ fork over this extra intel, but did you jist say he works fer the very corp he’s payin’ us ta knock over?”

And the way the others around the table looked at him like he was an idiot made him think maybe he should have paid more attention to the meet back in Gameland.

“Um, so y’all already covered that? I knew that. Just wanted ta double-check is all, you know, make sure we warn’t losing any of our steam in the crazy-as-a-loon department. Wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”

[RdMarquis]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

And she was an idealist, for better or worse. "Agreed." She said icily. This job was important to her, and the safety of her teammates even moreso, but there were lengths LeFey would not go to for anything. As far as she knew, she was the only Matrix specialist among them. It would be tough for anyone to catch her doing something...reckless to make sure their plans didn't include hostage taking. LeFey fiddles with the old dog tags, guilty at that thought. No. Not unless she had no other choice.

Speaking of treachery..."It happens, Mr. Guthrie. More often than you would think." Blood was not enough insurance against it, let alone membership in the same corporation. "And from what I understand, the factional tension within NeoNET is particularly high."

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

Al raised an eyebrow and flashed his most wolfish grin at the bespectacled brunette, teeth clenched around a half-spent Lucky Strike. "Mr. Guthrie's my pa, hon. Friends call me Al. An' I am sure as hell glad we got someone on board unnerstands the politics o' this here shindig. All way over my head. But if Star Dragon represents one faction, question for you or Silk here is - what do we know about who's on the other side o' that equation?"

[Aria]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

"The point of the run, Al, is to ascertain who it is on the other side of the equation as their actions have upset eTher's research at the Sound facility..."

[Vegas]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

Ali had been mostly quiet during the meeting, becoming nearly forgotten by most in the room as she was hanging back and running her own review of the new faces Silk had brought on board and trying to get a handle of their strengths. When she spoke, she tossed her hat into the ring to offer up future intel while still keeping things civil.

“I can leverage some resources to get a better handle on any external response that they might employ at the data center. That being said, any chance eTher can provide us with limited security schematics for inside the building without tipping their hand as you say? Even an original manifest for hardware from the building’s construction or any subsequent security upgrades for the less than common areas? Anything that can give us a better shot at getting to the hard data eTher needs in the quietest and quickest way possible?”

Ali looked towards LeFey for a moment before pinning Silk with her gaze as she waited for an answer. She added calling Rory to her list of things to do once she was free of the Crime Mall and back on more friendly ground.

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

After what was only a slightly abridged edition of eternity, the questions were finally all asked and answered. Al was first on his feet and headed for the door, muttering perfunctory thank-you noises around his cigarette. Before he could make good his escape, however, some genius announced a planning meeting later that evening.

Now the rest of his afternoon would feel like the final deathwatch of a condemned man. Only without a 40-26-36 last request.

Best make the best of it. Catching the eye of the South African merc: "So hey amigo, whaddaya say ta that drink ol' Al owes ya?" And then to no one in particular, but of course really to Peaches: "Anyone care to come 'long fer some liquid fortification afore gittin' down ta brass tacks?"

[adamu]

[Thursday September 26th, 2075, Crime Mall, Puyallup, Seattle]

In no time at all their small group had driven north on Meridien and then hung a left just a few hundred yards shy of the relative civilization of Puyallup proper.

Most of them felt better staying in the Barrens.

The joint was called Zero's. The floor was sticky with spilled beer, the air crunchy with jagged shards of shattered hope.

They sat at a table. One leg was too short, so it wobbled when anyone put weight on it. Al lit up - no one would mind - as it was, they could barely see each other through the cigarette smoke that filled the place. Didn't help that half the lights in the place were on the fritz, some just out, others strobing erratically.

Some local tuskers had some of their music on loud enough that the runners would have to raise their voices a bit to hear each other, but had little fear of anyone eavesdropping.

Drinks arrived, and Al raised his glass. "Ta perfessionalism."