[IP] Uncaring Stars Options

[Gilga]

Anna says "Now that we can breath, can someone explain why we prevented the rescue of the decker if we still have the deck, and why did we kidnaped the dwarf? No judgement - I am just struggling to figure out what is going on. I thought these are the vampire hunters, but perhaps they also look to do the ritual at the gallery? I mean why would vampire hunters gain access to the gallery? Can the two groups we learned about actually be just one group?"

[Volker]

"That's exactly why. We know nothing and we want to know. Taurus tried chatting nicely. As it failed, I geared one step up. You can do the taking, by the way. Flashy grins are more your expertise."

[Thanee]

"Just for the record, we do not know for sure, the spirit wanted to rescue the boy. Just because they wanted him alive can mean a lot of things. We can assume so, and it does seem likely, but there are other possibilities. Maybe they just wanted to find out what he knows about us, which they can do a lot easier, if he is alive. But, yeah, let's assume they are not the bad guys and this is all just one big misunderstanding due to lack of talking on their part."

[Gilga]

Anna seems pensive she looks at the boy - do you recognize this dwarf mage? Is she the one you warned that we grabbed you? Was this an expected rescue? I can tell if you lie, so please no bullshit. Getting you back alive took its toll on my health and patience.

[Jack_Spade]

The boy looked pretty traumatized by this time. He stuttered "That's Lizzy."

[Thanee]

"Well, then we will hopefully get this cleared up soon. Relax, okay? We have no intent to harm you or Lizzy. There are bigger things at work here, than you might realize."

[Volker]

Using the matrix channel, bnc adds. "Or they might just have wanted to silence him and extract infos about us first."

[Jack_Spade]

"Well, then we will hopefully get this cleared up soon. Relax, okay? We have no intent to harm you or Lizzy. There are bigger things at work here, than you might realize."

"You fragging shot Lizzy! How much more intent to harm can you have?!"
The boy wailed exasperated

[Thanee]

"We approached her multiple times in the gallery, assuming that she is not our enemy, but not knowing that it was Lizzy at that point, obviously. She really gave us little choice here, with the nasty spirit and all that," Nova replied calmly.

"When you got snatched away by that spirit, it could mean anything. We actually tried to protect you there, you do understand that, right? You should have seen the look on your face, you were not exactly happy by the situation either. Besides, she is just unconscious. I'm not going to sugar-coat this, but it was nonlethal, she is going to be completely fine. Anyways, let us get somewhere safe and talk, okay? Now, I think it will be in all our best interest, if you try to calm down a bit."

[Crossbow]

>>I can get a van and meet you somewhere if that will help you lose the tail, or do you want me to stay on post here?

Taurus is quite used to not doing much. A lot of being a corporate bodyguard is just this, sitting and waiting for something to happen and being ready when it does. He always figured that shadowrunners were a little more active though.

[Jack_Spade]

"We approached her multiple times in the gallery, assuming that she is not our enemy, but not knowing that it was Lizzy at that point, obviously. She really gave us little choice here, with the nasty spirit and all that," Nova replied calmly.

"When you got snatched away by that spirit, it could mean anything. We actually tried to protect you there, you do understand that, right? You should have seen the look on your face, you were not exactly happy by the situation either. Besides, she is just unconscious. I'm not going to sugar-coat this, but it was nonlethal, she is going to be completely fine. Anyways, let us get somewhere safe and talk, okay? Now, I think it will be in all our best interest, if you try to calm down a bit."

"You approached her? Like the robot or you razor girl? The lot of you are scary as drek mother fraggers.
And what the frag was she supposed to do when I was abducted? Send my brother an apology letter and leave it at that?
Frag, I mean - what have we done to you? Couldn't you just have called her - or let me speak to her?"
The boy was still worked up and for some reason telling him to calm down didn't have the desired effect.

[Gilga]

Anna chimed in "Nobody died and you got to ride with the most exciting hotties in this city. That is fun in my book, how often do you get such chances? Live a little! It is going to be a pleasant day."

[Thanee]

"We would have called her, but she sent her spirit for you before we really got a chance to do that. Can't blame her for trying, of course."

[Volker]

"Taurus, you don't need to stay stationary. We'll send you the location where we'll stay as soon as we figured it out. Leave Prague in the meanwhile. We might want to have you nearby when the questioning begins."

James then turns to the boy. "Now stop whining. We don't claim to rescue orphans from fires but we don't eat their hearts either. You can talk to your Lizzie as soon as your heart rate drops below 80 and your breathing returns to normal. I know being abducted by shadowrunners isn't what you expected but grow a pair. We're not the bad ones, really."

James leans back, mumbling. "I know I'm not helping, damn faces."
Before doing any more damage, bnc leaves the conversation to the others again, checking police feeds, the matrix and the air around them, the dwarf's vitals, and whatever parameters help to give her an illusion of security.

[Jack_Spade]

Checking the dwarf reveals that she is concussed - but with the right drugs and care should be up again in an hour or so.
That did nothing to alleviate the boy's tension, though. It was almost as if he expected something worse to happen
Eliza came on: <<Bad news: There is a police alert out about a group of terrorists abducting a dwarf in the old city. There are some photos of James and Nova shot from witnesses commlinks. You two best keep a low profile and do something to disguise yourself. Police and their drones are on the lookout for you.>>

[ Spoiler ]

Where are you intending to bring the two? Back to the blimp?

[Volker]

"Awesome. Can you get us a new car and a safeplace on short notice or shall I search myself?"
Did no one even mention the fragging flying unconscious kid that predated the "terrorist attack"?? Sixth World, chum...

[Jack_Spade]

Eliza replied: <<Yes. Give me a minute. Ok Cross the Moldau to Mala Strana and head for the park. Rošických 8. I'll sent a car over for you.>>
bnc found one mention of the flying boy, but realized that the whole thing had taken less then 3 seconds until the boy was on the ground again, while the shootout and the abduction had taken more like 20 seconds - with a lot more witnesses around.

[Volker]

bnc organizes the rest of the transfer for the team, and, for good measure, fakes a couple of eye-witness testimonies regarding the shooting while the others talk to the lad.

[Thanee]

Nova drove the car to the specified location, so they could switch and send their previous car on autopilot towards the other end of the city.

<< We should probably head out of town for a while, to talk to the mage girl and find out what this is all about. @bnc: Can you change the code that the boy entered for the door lock? >>

[Jack_Spade]

As promised, Eliza delivered the car and the team soon found themselves outside Prague on a lonely dirt road.

[Crossbow]

Taurus will join the rest at the remote location.

[Volker]

Nova drove the car to the specified location, so they could switch and send their previous car on autopilot towards the other end of the city.

<< We should probably head out of town for a while, to talk to the mage girl and find out what this is all about. @bnc: Can you change the code that the boy entered for the door lock? >>

<<@team <sure can. wat4? Their team aint gonna strike soon, we can use the backdoor 2 and no1 noticed yet. i c more danger than benefit atm>>

[Thanee]

<< Do we know what they are doing and when? If they cannot use it, but we can, we are one step ahead of them. Otherwise, we will probably learn that they are striking and won't be in a position to do anything about it. And if that boy could do it, it really shouldn't be any problem for you to do it undetected, or am I mistaken? >>

[Volker]

<@team <usually no but i also dint expect2raise the alarm when i tried2hack the black mage back in bav. im pretty decent &so is my stuff but things can always go south. im on it>>

[ Spoiler ]

I assume the door is directly wired to the host, right? What rating and firewall does the host have? Does the door itself has any unusual stats?

[Thanee]

Nova made sure, the dwarf was blindfolded, not wanting her to throw spells around, before waking her up.

"Hello Lizzy! Let me just preface this with the promise, that we do not intend to harm you or your friend here. I mean it. We simply want to clear the situation up. I am sorry, that it had to escalate, you were not exactly open to a more friendly approach. And we do have a very important task here, which you are interfering with. So, can we talk now?"