[IP] Uncaring Stars Options

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy at least had the retraint to not outwardly speak Like you could make me leave.

"20k with the suggested 10k seems like a great bet about who's correct about our value. If we 'overestimated our value,' we end up with the 20k you propose. If we're right, then we get the 30k. Besides I haven't met anyone who doesn't try a little harder when they know there's a little extra cash waiting for them at the pay-window."

[Jack_Spade]

"Did I fragging stutter?" Muhme replied with ice in her voice: "25k is all you are going to get. The reason I'm spending that on you instead of just bribing the police, is that I am interested in retaining your service afterwards. Interest that is vaning by the second, I might add."

[ Spoiler ]

FYI: She is not budging, short of putting a control thoughts or influence spell on her

[SquirrelDude]

As greedy as Sharkboy's trained to be, he can't help but smile under his mask at a job well done. He looks around the room, as if contemplating the offer or surveying the room for extra opinions, but he's just doing a victory lap.

"Take the offer or leave, huh? Howabout I play hardball and get us another 5,000 Nuyen. You all better believe you're paying my bar tab after this."

"25k. No bonuses. No expense account beyond travel and board you've already arranged. An additional 5k for making it to this meeting as already agreed upon

"Deal."

[Jack_Spade]

Eliza had waited for that moment after everyone had agreed to change the screen:
On it a satellite image of a nondescript wooded area appeared, shaded in twilight. An overlay revealed that this was a hidden installation. Suddenly, smoke began to pour from the ground and a single person emerged from a hidden exit.
The movement froze, and an image appeared on screen of a handsome dwarf with a neatly trimmed full beard and wavy gelled, black hair.
The video continued and showed the dwarf running towards the cover of the woods, only to be hit by a lightning flash. Meanwhile, a crater formed in the background, where the installation had been. The source of the lighning wasn't in frame, but only a second later it became visible: A towering figure made of wind, bearing down on the still form and then vanishing.
The tracker in the lower left corner indicated that the video was now on fast forward and stopped when night had fallen completely. From somewhere out of frame flashing blue lights indicated police presence. People with flashlights began wandering into frame, walking toward the prone figure. They seemed to stand around for a long time, before someone with a gurney appeared, the three man loaded the prone figure on the gurney and transported it away out of frame again. The video cut out and Eliza reappeared.

<<As you just saw, this happened the day before yesterday in the evening after the team of Richard "Rabe" Angström successfully assaulted a hidden underground data storage facility. They managed to get in, plant charges and physically connect to the offline host in there. After that, something must have gone wrong - terribly wrong.
This was the last message I received from them: <<Eliza, mission accomplished. Location is clear. My team... they didn't make it. Extraction... oh drek... [Connection Lost]>>
Rabe was one of the more proficient runners out there, although it seems his proficiency in demolitions didn't quite translate into proficiency in exfiltration.
It took me a while to find this footage from a low orbit commercial satellite.
I found out, that Richard was taken into Worms Sternschutz Medical Facility, but I was unable to find out if he is alive or dead. What I know from drone surveillance is, that there have been no transports from the facility so far. According to his last transmission he was in possession of the data we need.
You need to get in there and get the data out.

Any questions so far?>>

[Thanee]

Nova had been pretty much motionless during the more and more heated exchange earlier.

"How about the obvious questions. Whose underground facility did you blow up there? What can you tell us about Angström? Awakened? Does he have cyberware? Maybe even some way to store the data internally? What is his insurance status? Why has he been brought into that facility, specifically? And what can you tell us about this medical facility? Who does it belong to? Blueprints? Security? Do we have anything like that, yet? Otherwise, it seems like the first step to take."

"If we can get into their systems, I could probably pose as a doctor in some fashion."

[Crossbow]

Rabe was one of the more proficient runners out there, although it seems his proficiency in demolitions didn't quite translate into proficiency in exfiltration.

Ouch, fraggin' ice cold.

"So we are hitting a hospital, how much is too much exposure? I assume you don't want us to bring the place down and sift through the rubble."

[Gilga]

Anna feels a bit worried when the option of tearing down an entire medical facility is put on the table. She does not want that to be their action.


"What kind of medical facility are we talking about? Is it a place for interrogation or something more public with sick Sinners with medical insurance? How reasonable it is to send some of us in there through the front door?

[Jack_Spade]

Eliza replied with a smile:
<<The data center belonged to a private company called π-Rate Data, who specialize in secure offgrid data protection. Various criminals and politicians use it to store their dirt securely.
Angström is a moderately cybered individual. He has cyberhands and a datajack, so could indeed carry the data in his head. Otherwise it will be among his belongings.
No insurance to speak of.
The facility was the closest to the datacenter.
It belongs to Sternschutz and is used both for their own personal as well as prisoners and corpses.
It's a three story top site affair with a basement for the morgue. Ground floor is reception, emergency bay, operation rooms and staff offices.
Basement is morgue, locker rooms and break room.
Second floor are rooms for regular customers - i.e. people working for or with Sternschutz.
Third floor has intensive care units and secure rooms for criminal patients.
Roof has a VTOL platform.
Blueprints are available for you. Security is provided by Sternschutz, focused on the reception area and the third floor. Wireless camera network with ultrasound detectors, slaved to a secondary Sternschutz host (R6, A7 S6 D8 F9). There are usually around 10 officers around, 20 MDs and nurses as well as 20 or so staffers. No armed drones, but one healer mage on site.

As far as I know, they are using the place also for enhanced interrogation i.e. mind probes and truth drugs.
The service is not available for the public, but all members and workers of Sternschutz, so there are quite a few civilians around.
I have refrained so far from hacking into the host as to not raise the alarm there.>>

[Crossbow]

"We are going to have to own that system to have a chance, we have to know where the dwarf is to extract him or his gear. Anna, how you about astral recon?" Taurus said, then immediately looked chagrined. "I apologize, I don't mean to be pushy, I am just used to running a detail for Mister I...for my former employer. You guys probably have a protocol for this kind of stuff."

[Volker]

James took everything in silently. When the teams questions are answered, he adds some of his own.
"Where exactly is the facility. What do you know about security contracts? HTR team responding times? Security mages? Leased spirits? How far are they from other - less medically focussed - Sternschutz departments?
As for the data. How will we recognize the data you are looking for?
What kind of profession was Rabe's? He didn't seem to be a decker nor a muscle. Decker? Rigger? Covert ops? Do you have marks on any of his gear? Do you have his commcode? His fake SIN? Did or does he have a bio-monitor? If so, is it internal or external?"

[Jack_Spade]

<<I have attached the address
Security is handled by Sternschutz, naturally.
HTR are only five minutes away.
They have mages in their employ, but as far as I know, they aren't military trained - they do have fireballs, but most of them are trained to shield from hostile magic and call up spirits.
Usually they don't deploy directly, but send their spirits.
The next Sternschutz Wache is about five minutes away.
The data will be about 60 gigapulse large and heavily encrypted. Elster, Rabe's girlfriend liked to place backups of their files with all their teammates.
Rabe was a demolitions expert. His girlfriend was the hacker. None of his gear has appeared online beyond his commlink - and that went offline as the lightning bolt hit Rabe. I have attached the commcode, but the device remains offline. He has more than one Fake SIN. Those that I know I have attached. He had no biomonitor as far as I am aware - only his cyberhands and the datajack.>>

Eliza supplied

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy starts to wonder if him and a minotaur are really the kind of people you want sneaking into a hospital.

"You said earlier you wanted people who are willing to do 'anything' for this data.

"How loud can we get?
"Do we care about civilian casualties or property damage?
"How do we get out of there after kicking the hornet's nest?"

[Volker]

"All right. No file name? No parameters? Right, I'll just download anything encrypted between 50 and 70 gp and hope nothing's changed in the meanwhile. But do be aware that it'll be nigh impossible to find, say, copies on a Sternschutz server, if I don't know what I'm looking for.

Have you already searched the remains of your old team, then? Inside a strong skull, a storage device might have survived whatever its bearer did not."

While Muhme or Eliza answer to Sharkboy's simpler questions, she quickly composes and sends a message to someone they've met a couple months ago, taking care of all the obvious security measurements. <@Abdecker <Good morning. It's bnc. Do you have a copy of Nosync or Cloudless or any other program along the line at hand? I'd need it on short notice.>>

[Jack_Spade]

<<I would tell you the file name if I knew it. It will contain most likely the word "constellation" or "position" or "map", or something to that effect.
The rest of the team has not emerged from the collapsed bunker. They are burried under tons and tons of concrete.>>
Eliza turned to Sharkboy:
<<You know my stance on violence. The less the better...>>

Muhme cut in: "Nonsense. I don't care how you do your job, as long as you aren't complaining afterwards that you are now hunted by one of the largest security providers in Europe. Use your head, you have a mage that can turn you invisible and a hacker that can take care of the sensors.
After you do this job, we will relocate. How much notority you gain while doing that is your business. But my advice would be: Don't sow wind if you don't want to reap the storm."

Abdecker replied: <<No sweat. Regular price, paid here and I'll send you a copy to your link.>>

[Volker]

"That'll do.
"There are salvage drones specialized on that kind of task. Considering how much time has been wasted and how much is left, it's not an option for us. But if you're keen on removing possible copies, you might want to consider buying a drone like this and making sure that the data didn't survive. It it's been brought down by explosives, there'll be cavities. Chips are damn small and skulls are tough to crack. There might still be copies in there, waiting to be found.
No more questions from my side. Maybe one: If we find Rabe alive, do you care about what happens to him?"

James looks around if anyone of the others has something to say. If they don't, he stands.

[Jack_Spade]

"That kind of destruction was Rabe's job. I can only assume that at least that he has done adequately. If you can extract him alive, do so. He might be able to help you later and tell us what happened in there."

[Gilga]

She responds to Taurus Tactics later, but yes I can do astral scouting."
Anna replies 30k are not enough to retire, and are a bit of a stretch if we need new SINs, and several months of cooldown because of all the shit we did.

"Eliza, any information on their personal and routines? Any magical defenses? "

[Thanee]

"Do we know if there is any connection between π-Rate Data and Sternschutz? Have they provided security for the company, for example? I guess, by now, we have to assume that they know that Angström hasn't been working there, or did they infiltrate the facility with forged ids? Depending on how things stand, we could maybe have him transfered out of the Sternschutz facility. Or will we have to infiltrate it, in order to get him out?"

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy was glad that "do anything" did in fact mean "do anything" when it came to making noise, but wasn't so keen it didn't mean they'd be covered for extraction, safehouses, or new identities after doing said anything.

"So what are our best options for getting out of there when this is done?

"How has Sternschutz changed their stuff since you blew up their other underground bunker?"

"How vindictive are these people? A little bit of local fame isn't always that bad in my line of work."

[Jack_Spade]

<<Sternschutz is responsible only in general for the local policing. They don't have a contract with π-Rate Data. The team broke in silently - no IDs involved. At the moment he should be a John Doe with no real SIN.>>
To Sharkboy she replied:

<<No Sharkboy: The bunker has nothing to do with Sternschutz. They are just the police around here. As for how vindictive... They do see themselves as a police force, and react pretty nasty to anyone attacking them. All in all it would be healthier not to attack them or not to be identified.>>

[Thanee]

"So, if π-Rate Data had many clients, everything being highly confidential, and Sternschutz likely does not know who Angström is, that should provide us with the opportunity to claim him, or not? We pose as clients of π-Rate Data and we are going to retrieve our asset. With many thanks to Sternschutz for picking him up and keeping him safe. Does that seem viable?"

[Jack_Spade]

<<Possibly. As I said, I refrained from hacking the Sternschutz host to avoid the risk of putting them on alert>>
Eliza replied.

[Crossbow]

"Can we get viable credentials and transportation in the timeframe we have?" Taurus sounded hopeful, this looked to be the most viable way to get himself into the facility. He had pretty much resigned himself to being overwatch, but he knew that was not really his wheelhouse.

[Volker]

"How vindictive are these people? A little bit of local fame isn't always that bad in my line of work."[/color]

"As far as I know: bad. Like, real bad. Their policy is: always hit as hard and fast as you can. The only reason why they would ever refrain from zero tolerance would be, because you're a white norm and they need some space to be even more brutal to those who aren't.
They might actually "shoot you while escaping" even if you were a well-mannered SINner whose only crime is having gills or whatever it is you have under that mask. At least that's their reputation."

To Abdecker, she sends ¥ 250 and a message in which she thanks him. She rechecks for mark on her deck, just for good measure, while James walks over to the door.

[Thanee]

"We do not necessarily need to hack their facility for this approach, or do we?"