[IP] Uncaring Stars Options

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

I assume that there's no mentioning of who those "powerful people" she put the statue up for are?

bnc forwards the info and the address to her team.

"Anna, you said something about you wanting to find out about the origin of the statue. There's your lead. I don't really know where this should bring us, but if you wanna break in and fight out yourself, there you go. It's our only lead to find the vampires before they find us, anyway."

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

nope

[Gilga]

Anna paused for a bit, and looked away "I can go check it out. she says.
She walks to her bike, trying to see who will join her.

[Thanee]

"Well, it's not like we have anything better to do at the moment, right? Except, getting our gear, of course. We might want to do that first."

Nova went to her bike as well, putting on a backpack with the broken-down Ares Alpha and some ammo in a briefcase inside, and room to spare for the ordered items.

[Jack_Spade]

After an uneventful collection, the team found themselves in front of the building the art gallery director was supposed to live. It was a modern high rise with a lobby and a doorman - a well dressed dwarf that looked as broad as he was tall. A facility host ran the building at a moderate R5 (A6S5D8F7), AROs warning potential intruders that the building was under contract with the local premium police force as well as being staffed with a security team and defense drones. All in all one of the more safer neighborhoods, but far from perfectly safe.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception (Visual) test

[Thanee]

[ Spoiler ]

Well, if it is that well-protected, they will likely have weapon scanners. Nova is certainly not taking an assault rifle inside, then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

So, either she will wait outside, or we have to do another round trip first.


Perception (visual) 6 hits

[Gilga]

[ Spoiler ]

perception: 15d6t5 5

[Crossbow]

[ Spoiler ]

Perception: 14d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

As the team looked on, they noticed a drone hovering somewhat suspiciously across a flat - which according to the address belonged to the director.
Could it be, that someone else was also surveiling the director?

[Volker]

If they all come together, James'll tag along.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception: 15d6t5 4
Matrix Perception: 16d6t5 8
Especially I'd love to know stuff like:
What is it slaved to?
What was its last action/What are its orders?
How is it controlled atm?
What's its firewall rating?
Is it streaming? If yes, where to?

Once they spot the drone, bnc analyzes it more thouroughly.
What kind of drone is it?

[Jack_Spade]

bnc identified the drone as a HORIZON CU^3, a a simple single fan, vectored thrust drone with a sophisticated sensor array, normaly used for news footage. It was slaved to a Proteus Poseidon Command Console within 100m. It currently was running silent and recording/streaming to the console - apparently using radar. As a slaved device, it's firewall was at a respectable rating 6. No-one seemed to be jumped in at the moment and therefore the R4 auto pilot was in charge.

[Gilga]

Anna asks Taurus to look out for her, and then projects into the apartment. She checks if there is astral surveillance, and if it is warded. If she finds no noticeable astral security she tries to sneak in.

[ Spoiler ]

Sneaking (astral): 16d6t5 3
Assensing: 16d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

Anna made her way into the astral. There was a low level ward around the building - wage mage stuff, barely worth the hassle, but likely advertised as "Top notch astral security" to the mundane renters.

[ Spoiler ]

I'm assuming you can buy enough hits to overcome an F3 ward without breaking it

There ware no spirits or watchers around - outside. But as she slipped into the building, she became aware of a rather bad astral "smell". The director was at home it seemed. Emotions littered the whole place - mainly despair and fear. What she could make out from the mundane side, looked messy and filthy. Empty cartons lay around, half eaten meals, dead plants and creeping mold on the walls. And in all this, the director sat, rigidly, staring into empty space, not moving a muscle. Her aura showed huge chunks of essence missing, but no corresponding cyberware. And spells. A layer of three, quickened.

[Volker]

bnc testively tried to get hold of the drone.

[ Spoiler ]

Watchdog: 22d6t5 7

"The rigger's who's controlling the drone is right here. I think I can pin him down."

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Defense: 11d6t5 3

bnc got her MARK on the drone and the Rigger. At the moment there was no persona formed on the Command Console.

[Gilga]

Anna takes a look at the spells, and then carefully makes her way back.

[ Spoiler ]

buying 3-4 hits would suffice? depending on BGC (she has 16 dice).

The sight deeply effects the young mage, in principles vampires are just sick people to her, but a person that does THAT to another human being true a monster. The young woman reported, suppressing her own emotions as she spoke.
"Director is there staring at the dark and feeling terrified and desperate. She has massive essence loss and no augmentation, and it has been like that for a while because the level of neglect in her apartment. She has three quickened spells on what is left of her aura."


Then she took a few deep breaths trying to relax.

[Crossbow]

"Should we knock?"

[Volker]

"Give me a couple seconds to work"

[ Spoiler ]

Watchdog: 22d6t5 8
Trace Icon: 16d6t5 7
3 rounds of camera looping:
Edit File: 3#18d6t5 7 6 6

Opposed roll: 5#11d6t5 6 6 3 2 3

OS = 20, if they need three full combat rounds, less otherwise (bnc is running a Baby Monitor)

Before the team enters, bnc tracks down the RCC's physical location, indicates to her teammates and sends her Munin that way.

"I can loop the drone's camera but don't dally. Every second I have to edit you out of the stream is a second the spider can notice I'm messing with his stuff. Go for it, tigers. James stays outside this time."

[Thanee]

"Well, at least it does not sound like someone who has been working with the vampires out of her own free will. Maybe we can get her to talk and find out more," Nova suggested.

"Can you say more about the spells? What is their purpose? Quickened means like permanent, right? Is she a mage and has cast those herself, or has someone else put them on her?"

[Jack_Spade]

Anna found the background count elevated but not too much for her to deal with it:
The first was a health spell - likely something impairing her willpower
The second was controlling her thoughts
The third was a kind of telepathic connection to whoever had cast these spells.

bnc found the source of the signal down the street, corellating with a GMC Bulldog parked along side the curb.

As before, the doorman inside the building kept watch for any unwanted intruders - just as the building's sensor network which was obviously separate from the drone spying through the wall.

[Gilga]

"Mind control. First spell reduces resistance, second conrolls her thoughts, and the third allows for a telepathic connection, to control her remotely."

[Thanee]

"Is it a good idea to tamper with this, then? Obviously, whoever put those spells there, will find out if we do. And then figure out, that someone is on their trail with that statue. I don't know. This seems proof enough to me, that it is there for the ritual."

[Volker]

"Sweetmeat, could you go check out the Bulldog I marked? Who's in there? Astral analysis would be wiz."

[Gilga]

Anna agrees "I did not dispel these spells for that particular reason." she takes another deep breath still horrified by such a long applicability of mind control at its cruelest form. Her voice breaks when she speaks "They use her own thoughts against her, and her primal self is left inside terrified and helpless... Even as they feed on her, she is in there and cannot even cry."

She closes her eyes and says "Sure thing babe" it was a good opportunity to not feel so vulnerable in front of everyone. She smiles despite herself as the sensation of being separated from her body becomes unbearable brief moment before she no longer feels her meat body, and its stupid urge to cry or hug something. Shouldn't professional criminals be tough, and ice cold or something like that?
Anna feels a combination of being pathetic for caring so much, or cowardice for being intimidated so much by such a cynicism and unrestricted use of mind control. Ever since Flatline that spent his entire life caring for people became a murderer under that terrible spell... The mere thoughts of mind control terrify her. The sight was horrifying, and so were the consequences... He gutted a helpless teammate with the precision of a surgent while she was jumped inside her drone. As helpless as herself at that very moment or as bnc is most of the time. It can never happen again... These monsters must be stopped! This game is not fun anymore when people start dying.


She thinks, and then moves to the Bulldog focusing on not getting seen, and on being alert to astral viewers. The distance does give her some stability, and control. Apparently the body provides feedback that fuels her emotions, and the astral distance makes her emotions different - they do not escalate as quickly as her sobbing body and traumatized soul do.

[Thanee]

"Once we have taken care of the ritual, we should head back here and free her from this ordeal. But right now, as much as we all hate to leave her like this, it is simply not a good idea and will only endanger everything we are trying to accomplish."