IC: Striding the Soul's Edge Options

[BishopMcQ]

Jake stirs after a few hours and rolls out of bed, grabbing the towel as he does so to make sure it stays firmly in place. He shrugs back into the designer clothing that he had worn earlier and walks out into the main part of the house.

One eyebrow raises at the sight of the shattered table but he says nothing as he takes in the team in the middle of what sounds like a heated discussion.

At least their bonding...

Sliding his gaze into Astral space, Jake feels the work that Loki has begun, bending his will to the task in complement.

[Fenris]

Tuesday, April 6th, 2064 10:00am

The gentle roar of traffic out of the suburban area recedes as the rush hour commuters leave, heading off to various corporate cubicles. You've got three and a half days until your ship pulls into port, literally and figuratively.

[Blitz]

:: Moe moves directly from her van to the bathroom. Her usual grumpy just woke up attitude familiar enough that everyone avoids contact. Thirty minutes later, she exits the bathroom, smelling fresh and clean and wearing a new set of clothes. Her t-shirt is almost cliche for her with it's british flag sewed against the black cotton material, and her deep red pants are voluminous to house several small families. The outfit is completed with actual platform sneakers, a good 2 inches tall. Her morning frown has been washed away and she grins at the group as she braids her lock. ::

"Alrigh' we 'bout ready ta git dis plan cemented?"

[WinterRat1]

Nameless over at her.

"Well well well. It's good to see you too sleepy Moe." He grins up at her from his seated position. "If you want the plan though, you'll have to ask the boss."

He gestures towards Jake's room. "I want to know as much as you. He's been keeping us in suspense since we got back."

Shrugging, he adds, "So if you want to go bug him about it, I'm all for it. I'm ready to get this show on the road."

[Buddha72]

Iblis's body jerks to life as she reaches out from the depths of the bean bag to unplug herself from the deck. She gives a little yawn and stretches. "Did my part for Queen and country. I have the plans and layout of the boat. I also found a juicy nugget while looking for their sat up-link. It seems one of the crew has a 10k marker that's past due with Vinnie's people so we might have a way to sabotage the ship from the inside but I'll let the boss-man decide how we play this." With a few quick movements over the touch pad the deck starts spitting out images of the ship's design.

[BishopMcQ]

Jake waits a second for the last few members of the team to come in as he looks over the printouts iblis provided.

"Ok, here's the plan. For the ship--Moe, I need you to arrange with Schnell passage about 300 miles into international waters and 2 degrees south of the primary shipping lanes. That is where Iblis is going to direct the ship through the satellite GPS connection. Steel get ahold of people in the family, I want to buy this crew member's mark. Once we have that, Iblis will need to send a fairly convincing message explaining when the ship is going to have unfortunate engine difficulties or his wife and children will have a painful end.

Loki as we approach the ship, we ar going to need a sizable sea spirit to move us faster, hide us from view, and slow their vessel down to cancel out their spirit. Once we get closer, I'm going to project and with a few watchers take out their mage. When our ship comes up, I want a stealth team to go aboard, eliminate any resistance you come across on the way to the air duct and introduce the neurostun to the environmental control systems at this access point." Jake points at the schematic, illustrating the shortest route from the boarding point to the ventilation system.

"After we have introduced the neural toxin into the air, it should clear out about a minute later and the security crew that is still standing will know that we are coming. Loki, Moe and Iblis will go to the bridge to take command of the boat. Nameless, Diesel, Steeland I will take the engine room. Diesel, you are going to basically hunker down in the Engine room and not let anything survive the trip down the hallway. Once there, Loki and I will make an astral sweep of the ship, to identify pockets of resistance--Nameless, Steel you two will need to sweep out and take care of them. Depending on the magnitude of resistance, I will go with you to soften them up. From there, we need to take the ship somewhere we can hide it for a few days until Vinnie is ready with the buyer."

Jake pauses to check the reaction of the team thus far.

"If Iblis can't hack the ship, we will need to hit it en route to the bay. I want to be on board that ship and in control, 12 hours before it is due at the dock. That means we will need to get a copy of its path. Moe, I need you to get in touch with any smugglers you may know and find us a quiet bay to hide in for a week. Ok, that's the basic plan, questions or anything I missed?"

[WinterRat1]

All business now, Nameless nods. "Sounds like a plan Jake. Couple questions though."

Ticking them off on his fingers, he continues, "First, what if our boy does not cause our ship to have 'unfortunately engine difficulties'? Aside from killing his family, that's not going to help us while we're out there. What's our backup plan? Second, who's on the stealth team? I can probably disguise myself if we can get any idea of uniforms or what they look like, so I guess I volunteer."

Grinning, he adds, "Besides, sneaking around is what I get paid for. Time to earn my money."

Putting a straight face on again, he continues, "Last point. What if for whatever reason the gas dosn't work? Say if they manage to control the ventilation system before it spreads? Then what do we do?"

[Blitz]

:: Moe's face brightens. ::

"Yes! I luv i' when I git ta go in!"

[BishopMcQ]

"Nameless, I'm taking volunteers for the stealth team--I presumed you, Medesha, and Iblis as a combination of talent and ruthenium. If our boy doesn't cause the engine troubles, then Loki's spirit will still be slowing the vessel down after I've killed off their spirit. My plan for the gas is pretty simple, if we can't get the fast acting stuff into the ventilation system we go the old fashioned route. Drop a few canisters of the old stuff which hangs in the air for 10 minutes or so and take the bridge and engine room. Because it is odorless and colorless, the guards won't know they've hit it until they've already been exposed. That just means our people will have to wait a little longer before heading out to clean up the pockets of resistance."

[Panzergeist]

"While you are taking out their spirit, and possibly fighting their mage," Loki asks, "do you want me to watch astrally and be ready to back you up, or just focus watch the ship physically in case I need to take out guards as the boat approaches it?"

[BishopMcQ]

"If Iblis takes them off course, then I want them under our control 300 miles past the line of international waters. If she can't then I want a 12 hour head start on getting to the safe harbor. The timing will change depending on how successful our favorite decker is."

Shifting his gaze to Iblis, Jake smiles at her brief yawns and fur that shows the hours spent engulfed by the beanbag.

"I've asked a lot of you so far, do you think you can do this as well?"

[Buddha72]

" I can handle it J-J, I just need Flower to get the info from Vinnie about the 2nd mate's marker. Does this guy have family we can use as leverage?" She turns the screen of the deck towards herself. "I will be out from 3-4 am to start the hack to bump the boat off course. That's my window of opportunity to play with their computer system. I will see if there's anything else I can do to make our job easier while I am there."

[WinterRat1]

Nameless nods. "Well I got what I'm supposed to be doing. Ibs, you wouldn't happen to have found their personnel dossiers or what their uniforms look like or anything like that, would you? If I could manufacture disguises for people, it might help us throw them into a bit of confusion when things get nuts. An extra split second could help us out quite a bit. Just an idea."

Scanning the girls on the team slowly and deliberately, he adds with a grin, "Course, with the good looking ladies we got, the bad guys will probably all be frozen anyway, cause they'll be too busy checking you girls out."

[BishopMcQ]

Jake raises one eyebrow.

"And I suppose that I'm beneath notice? We've got work to do boys and girls and little time to do it in. Let's get started canvasing the steps I've already laid out. While we're doing that, Diesel I want you to get your hands on some old fashioned Neurostun grenades in case we need to fall back to plan B."

[Joker9125]

Diesel falshes a big toothy grin

"Aight boss man whatever you say. Well my job sounds easy enough Ill give my guy a call and see what he can dig up for me. If I dont come across any neurostun will regular consussion work? And what if the boat picks up an escort? Should I bring my other toys along as well? Ya know jus in case?"

[BishopMcQ]

"They'll work in a pinch, but I'd prefer the neursotun as it is not nearly as loud. Bring the others in case, better to be over prepared on this one."

[WinterRat1]

Nameless grins back at Jake. "Aw heck no bossman. From what I hear, you're killer with the ladies. But I ain't exactly checking you out. So I wouldn't say you're beneath notice, per se."

He pauses, searching for the words, "More like, you're ranked number 4 on my list of people on this team to check out. How's that sound?"

Turning serious again, he looks over at Steel and Iblis. "So you ladies want to discuss loadouts for this run? Especially that whole us sneaking on board a ship with an army of hostiles thing? Oh, and if you could pull up some kind of template I could use to start making disguises, I'd appreciate that Ibs."

Thinking for a moment, he continues, "OK, so I'm not exactly packing stuff to deal with guys in security armor. All I got is my trusty SMG and handgun, plus the good old 'touch of death' thing going. So personally, I'd prefer to avoid direct confrontation and firefights in narrow corridors type action. You two have any thoughts?"

[Buddha72]

Iblis gives Nameless a sleepy smile as she strolls to the kitchen. "I wish he played with girls or more precisely, this GIRL but alas no." The sound of the fridge door opening and some rummaging around. "The boat is corp owned and I have their logo but no uniforms to speak of." The sound of a microwave being opened and programmed. "I was going to take Mr. Bang-Bang and friends. I think we could sneak our way to the bridge or we can go the route of giving them something to focus on while someone takes the bridge." The shrill beep of her food being done rings out and she saunters back in with a bowl of noodles. "But I think the best is hard, silent, and fast. We need to lock down the critical areas first and then we can 'pacify' the rest of the crew. I'll know more when I take a look around inside their system tonight. If I can access their security I can leave some changes to work with us. Changing codes, locking them out, etc."

[WinterRat1]

Nameless nods. "Just their logo wll help. If you can get a crew manifest, it probably should give us a general idea of what they look like. That should be enough to fashion something. We're not trying to sneak past them clean, just buy ourselves a second or two before they start shooting."

Turning to Steel, he adds, "So what are you packing on this one girl? You'll probably be the heavy hitter on our stealth team." He smiles an evil smile. "So feel free to pack some of the highly destructive stuff."

[Joker9125]

"So Nameless if the big boss man is number 4 I guess that makes me number one eh? Diesel says trying to supress a grin"

"Aight ill give my guy a call and see what I can dig up"

[WinterRat1]

Nameless pretends to throw up. "Uh, number one, yes Diesel. But not on my list of people on this team to check out."

[Medesha]

Steel nods to Ibs and pulls her phone out, taking a few steps away from the group and pressing her free hand to her ear. "Hey, Vinnie? It's me. I - would you stop calling me that? Look, I hear the first mate on the boat owes your family a little something. Any chance you can get that info for me? I'd owe you." She pauses. "I wouldn't owe you that much." Another pause. "Sure."

She moves her hand from her ear to the phone's mouthpiece and glances at the others, obviously waiting for Vinnie to get back to her. She smiles a little wistfully. "I'll have my Ingrams with me." The guns are visible in her holsters, and she touches a blue-steel handle with an engraved lotus on it, almost as if reassuring herself that it's still there. "My blades, of course, but I hope I won't need those. I don't like getting close enough to use them."

"I've got the Defiant and a '97 if we need 'em," referring to her shotgun and assault rifle, "but my Ingrams are usually enough to handle anything."

[WinterRat1]

Hearing this, Nameless raises an eyebrow. "Right...so you're definitely our heavy firepower. Glad to know someone will be loaded for bear, because I won't be."

Turning to the cute fuzzy decker of the team, he adds, "So what you got for us Ibs?"

[Fenris]

Medesha - Vinnie's back on the phone after about 5 minutes.

"Yeah sweets, you can pick it up if you're looking for it. It's 10k. Drop the money off at my office and it's yours."

[Medesha]

"Thank you, Vinnie. It's much appreciated. Do you have any other info on the guy? Family he's got, why he owes you, anything we can use as leverage. Or does that info come with the marker?"