Salted Wounds [IC], a Deep Black Sea game Options

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy makes it back to the rest of the team, tossing the auto-shotty to Nova and taking the restraints from bnc. "Thanks, but we don't need these quite yet. Turn down the heating on the car a little bit as well. Don't really want him to be warm and comfortable."

"A little help here." Sharkboy gestures for someone to join him as he starts the task of removing all the merc's clothes and armor. He unceremoniously throws what he rips off into a corner. He puts the man into the plasteel restraints after doing so. "Someone check his drek and his body for bugs. Try to disable it, but leave it in. We can leave once we've done that."

[Gilga]

Anna helps the Shark strip and search the man, restrain him and she does her best to look for bugs.

[Volker]

Once the man is undressed and restrained, bnc draws a cable from her datajack.
"Nova, if you feel any sympathy with that cyborg, you better look away. From my perspective, what's going to happen is kind of shaming."

bnc plugs herself into Assault's universal port and roams through his 'ware. Most of it, she simply shuts down or ignores, depending on what it is. She makes sure that no signals whatsoever (internal commlinks, biomonitors, et cetera) leave the Mühlviertel. At last, she takes care of his cyberlimbs, GIGOing them in a way, that all the movements will be translated into signals which perform the very action he wanted - but twisted by 60°. That way, he will, after a while, still be able to move, but can't perform any coordinated actions with them. At good last, she replaces the "close fist" signal with a "wiggle your pinkie" signal to be sure.

[ Spoiler ]

Any interesting 'ware I should be 'ware of?

[ Spoiler ]

"No signals going away from that fella. Chipsie's gonna move like a spastic toddler with rabies, but he will recover. If we allow him to.
Anna, did you plant the bug?"

[Jack_Spade]

Beneath the FBA and helmet, the much bruised face of a clean shaven man in his forties appeared. His head only has a thin blond 10 mm stubble coating. All in all he looks like a professional soldier. The extensive augmentations have left only his torso alone - which is not only bruised and adorned with broken ribbs, but also bears countless scars of previous altercations.
Among his posessions is a survival kit and another drum of ammo for the Auto Assault. The armor contains another autoinjector and bio-monitor combo, but for some reason this one did not trigger - likely due to a different programming.

Much more interesting is what bnc finds within the man's 'ware:
His left leg is equipped with a smuggling container, which has both a full set of lock picking tools and a cheap cyberdeck. A quick look confirms that it has all necessary software to hack locks and security measures. The other leg contains a very sophisticated nano hive. At the moment it seems to be dormant but contains cyberware repair nanites. One of his arms is loaded with a nanite saviour medkit - besides the cyberspurs. The other arm contains an induction receiver, making it possible for the man to use the cyberdeck in his leg without wireless connectivity on whatever he happens to touch.
Finally, there is a grapple hook canon neatly embedded within his other arm.
His wired reflexes and reaction enhancers are also connected to the lot through an internal router.

Finally and most disturbing, bnc finds a high powered cortex bomb, that can turn the man into a frag grenade.

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

:-O
How can the bomb be accessed? Is it linked to his commlink/cyberdeck? Does it have a wireless transceiver? Is it to a diagnostics unit of his medkit?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

The bomb is offline, but is connected to the internal router
But you'll need to be very careful if you want to hack it. Any detected intrusion attempt will set it off.

[Volker]

"Ugh, frag!" bnc exclaims.
"Everybody step back. Robo Cop's god a bomb in his head. Shshsh..."
She bites her lips nervously. A fing has already, subconsciously, moved towards the cable to unplug it. bnc swallows.
It's simply gear. Don't panic only because it explodes. You cracked nuts hairier than this.
Forcing herself to stay calm, she continues in her instructions voice. "Wraith, Anna. If anyone of you can do some protection mojo, I'll appreciate it. Physical barriers, armor spells, whatever you can provide. Just in case. Don't exhaust yourselves, though. I don't think..." She nods, as if to encourage herself.

[ Spoiler ]

She should still be wearing her chameleon suite armor. If not, she'll unplug, dress, and replug.

Watchdog: 19d6t5 6
Watchdog: 19d6t5 11 haha, overkill!!
Watchdog: 19d6t5 5
Format Device: 17d6t5 7
Opposed roll: 4#8d6t5 2 2 3 2
easily

bnc tunes a calming melody for a couple of seconds, seats herself, closes her eyes and dives into the monochromatic virtual world that is the largely uncreative representation of a cortex bomb's system. After the second mark passes without a hitch, the tension slowly falls of her body. When everything's done, she almost laughs about her ridiculous nervosity. When she removes the cable and returns to the world, her mood is light.

"All right, boys, cans and barbies, this is one is not going to blow up on us. Ready for interrogation?
Ugh, I need a drink. Do we still have some strudel? I want strudel. Right now."

[SquirrelDude]

"Well that was both more stressful than I expected and relatively anti-climatic."

"How do ya'll want to wake him, up?"

[Volker]

"Uhm ... yeah. Considering, I totally agree. I'm surprised, though, that they teach words like "anticlimactic" to wrestlers. Nothing more awesome than an eloquent beating machine.

How to wake him up? Basically, it's an application of adrenaline, glucose and the natrium chloride solution along side some symph-... or was that a rhetorical question, wrestler's speaker?"

Once he's nikkid, tied up, hacked, restrained and flying, oh, and ballgagged to prevent him from swallowing his tongue, ballgagged, too! - "Sheesh, that's a lot of precaution for an unarmed man" - bnc sets to treat him with her medkit.
"And from the ashes a phoenix will arise," she greets the mercenary, not without a hint of pity in her voice. She then turns away and indicates Wraith to enter the scene.

[ Spoiler ]

I just buy some hits.

[Gilga]

Anna lacks much in spells that make one tougher, but she makes a mental command to learn the improve body spell.

[Jack_Spade]

The mercenary blinked.
That was all the outward indication available that he was awake.

[Luckace]

Assuming the cable is long enough, Wraith cast a physical barrier between the merc and bnc by waving his hand in a line and murmuring "Hold your hand over her and shield her from damage.". On his gesture, a translucent wall rose from the ground between bnc and the merc, shiny and not looking too firm - but then again, how to judge the stability of a wall of magical light?


While Anna began lifting the tinman into the air and the team ballgagged him, Wraith started compiling all the information they wanted to get out of the man, should anything force them to end the "investigation" earlier, like the last time. He had put on his helmet, should the floating man try to kick for his head.

Wraith@team:
<< So... basically:
- Any knowledge on Bean Si?
- Connection to Rosenberg and his lab and ny info on them?
- Anything about the mage (what exactly was he doing?) and the hacker?
- What places are they monitoring and how?
- What threats should we expect?
- Did they already make a dossier on us /Anna and Sharkboy from Munich?
- How is spider planning to follow-up on my face?
Anything else? >>

The blink was the signal he had been waiting for: He reached out for the man's leg (or whatever he can grab with the least risk of getting hit) and on his touch, a powerful magical impulse left his hand and echoed through the mercenary.
Lord, you know the hearts of all men: reveal to me this vile man's heart.

[ Spoiler ]

Sorry that this is so much cramped into one post. Had an awful lot to do the last days.
Physical Barrier f4: 14d6t5 2
Not a lot of protection... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
Resist drain (barrier): 12d6t5 4

Now, to the actual business:
Mind Probe f3 (pushing the limit): 21d6t5 9
Exploding sixes (mind probe): 5d6t5 4
Motherfragger faces 13 hits. (it's actually 1d less, as he already has 3 boxes of stun filled, but doesn't change the outcome
Resist drain without prayer: 11d6t5 5
No drain.

Two edge remaining.
Probing for the noted information (in that order), as well as any additions from the team

[Thanee]

Nova was standing a few meters away, still armored up and carrying her rifle leisurely pointed to the ground. She did appear a little tired out, not having had much time to rest after the fight, where she was exposed to some pretty serious combat gas and a few grenade blasts. Maybe not quite as tough as the guy floating in front of them, but that girl could take a beating and still be going, so much was for sure.

<< I would add: What is that strange box for? It was in his bag, after all, so he should know something about it. >>

Of course, Wraith knew that 'alchemical preparation' was a more appropriate term for that 'strange box'.

[Jack_Spade]

The first thing Wraith noted was the fact that Assault tried and failed to activate the cortex bomb as he noticed the incursion into his brain.
Once past this first thought, his mind opened up to him.

The word "Bean Si" conjured up the image of a cloaked woman who looked remarkable like bnc, just a bit taller and a lot more muscular. Her eyes were two red crystal spheres. Her left arm also was made from the same material. Otherwise she seemed to be healthy and normal looking, not at all like a Ghoul. It was hard to place that memory, but it felt like it came from a month ago as Christmas decoration was in evidence, as Kerstin ran from Assault, jumping from one rooftop to the other, only to be followed by Assault. For a moment she went out of view, but when Assault reached the place, she was nowhere to be found. He looked down over the roof edge but there was no-one there.

The name of Rosenberg did not bring up an image, but there were images of Assault as he had been discharged from the Austrian Bundesheer, badly wounded after a fight with Russian Mercenaries trying to rob a weapons convoy.
There was a man, whose name Assault couldn't recall and just called in his mind "the Piefke with the suit". He'd offered him a contract for full limb replacement. Destitute and nearly unable to care for himself, Assault - or Andreas Sauter as he was called in reality - had agreed and taken the job offer. Six months he had been worked on and trained to use his new limbs. He didn't remember how he'd gotten to the facility, but it was somewhere in the Alps with a very sophisticated medical facility.

He had then been introduced to Battery. Both men had hit it off immediately, both originating from Kärnten, having similar lifepaths. Bernhard Werner became his best and only friend while on deployment for the company they both just called in their mind the office, since every few months or so the firm changed its name. The last name he remembered clearly was Steirer SKV.
About a month ago they were both hired to hunt down a runner and asigned to Dr. Johann, the mage. The man was very standoffish, keeping both of them at arms length, but calling them late at night to do jobs for him or to accompany him. After moving around a lot on Dr. Johann's behest, they did manage to track down Bean Si but lost her in Linz. Dr. Johann decided that he needed to learn more about her. A week later he led them into the old appartment complex, now cleared of its inhabitants. Both mercenaries were ordered to take one of the flats and stay there until needed.

Having learned that asking questions would not get them anywhere, they instead passed their time with VR games, training and reading. Both had a complement of non-lethal weapons so they could take her alive. But both mercenaries decided to have the heavy stuff available too, since both had the feeling that their prey way very dangerous and tougher than both of them combined.

Until about an hour ago, when they were told to get into position at the appartment door, where Dr. Johann had gone to ground. The worker drones had vanished from the windows and now shots were fired somewhere.
They received a message from someone using the authentication keys of their employer that they both hadn't met before. The sender, his persona looked like liquid metal, told them that there were runners coming and that they should get ready to defend Dr. Johann. They asked to that from inside the flat, but were denied. Dr. Johann said, the ritual was at a critical stage.

Then his radar told him that they were getting surrounded. After confirming the tactic with Battery, he opened up and the combat began.

After that Wraith finds a lot of guilt and self loathing for letting his friend die, confussion about his situation and the wish to wake up from this nightmare.

He didn't recognize any of the runner team and had no clue why they where attacking.
Probing deeper into the memory of the message of the decker, Assault remembers that the decker had a funny dutch accent - or maybe South African. There was something about being attacked by an "Hey I" he hadn't understood, bud didn't have time to think about as the combat started.

The box in the bag was the gear kit of the mage. Assault had carried it together with the big ass sword for Dr. Johann and asked about the rifle. To which the Dr. had said: "My Daemon has use of it. Don't worry about it. Just be careful not to drop it or it will be the last thing you do."

[Volker]

Once Wraith tells the group what he found it, bnc feels very sick.
"Sheesh ... that motherfragger didn't so much as hesitate to kill the one person on Earth that was dear to him ... not even to commit suicide. This psycho is more professional than I ever want to be. Darn, if loss of essence makes you that inhuman, I won't implant as much as a second data jack.

Can you find out how they managed to track Ke... Bean- Bean Si ... twice? And how did they contact Johann or the other way round? Do they know anything about his hideout? The spider had a host to retreat, so he's likely associated with a corp. Does he know which corp Jakob works for? And how the frag did Jakob get infected?"

bnc puts down the strudel, suddenly not hungry anymore, opens the driver's cabin of the van and sits down. She closes and locks the door behind her.

[Jack_Spade]

A further dive reveals only, that Assault and Battery got instructions from Dr. Johann where to go and what to seek. But Assault suspected that it was rather mundane detective work, as the tipp sounded like "Go there at that time. She should visit that spot. Close in and grab her."

They had accompanied Dr. Johann to various locations all over Austria, but they had always picked him up at train stations. The first time in Vienna, the last time here in Linz.

He does not know anything about Dr. Johann's condition, didn't even suspect he was infected.

[Gilga]

Anna says softly "Don't blame essence loss, you are nothing like him." she does not follow bnc but then suggests "Ask about how he intended to recontact his employer, he might want to rendezvous with that Jakob somewhere."

[Luckace]

Wraith's attention stayed focussed on the spell as he probed for the requested information and shared it with Anna and the rest right away.

[Jack_Spade]

It didn't take much to find a comlink number - which fits the one they found in the suit left behind by the mage...

[Gilga]

Anna texts >> Let's hack the links to see what's on them? We may be able to trick the mage into meeting with Assault if we dare. Where do we go from now?

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

I moved this into the spoiler section because it was based upon a misconception:
"Do you think we can make a setup? Like, can anyone of usconvincingly impersonate Assault? I'm happy to try and locate the mage."

My former question was:
Just to be sure rulewise. I cannot see a commlink's icon just by having his commcode but I can trace a 'link when it's connected to a link I have marks on, right?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

I'm not sure what you try to achieve: you are currently in possession of the very link that Assault gave you the comcode for.

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Ah, okay, I misunderstood. I thought he gave us Jakob's number.

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy responds to Anna's text. @Team>> Well, we need to kill him, and then find a place to hide or dispose of the body. We can't exactly just catch and release here.

[Gilga]

>> Isn't there any way that we keep him alive? Whoever hires him, has more like him - it is not like we'll be much safer.