Ic: A New Beginning, The New Beginning Game Thread Options

[Mysterio]

Codec takes the cred stick of 1500 :nuyen: and pockets it. "Yeah I've got a meet to do tomorrow. I'll see what I can dig up." Finishing off his last bit of burger, he turns to Ace abd Bluebird as Flip is leaving "Uh...I should go as well." he pays the waitress and hurries off home, not really running. more like a fast walk. Lousy meat bodies.... he thinks.

[Drain Brain]

The cab, its odiferous driver wheezing in the heat of the interior, dropped off Flip at the corner of the nondescript Tacoma street. The Ork slowly walked down the road, idly chewing on a candy bar, looking for the building.

The Floyd-Pertman building was old - almost half a century - and looked like it had definately seen better days. It was one of the pre-fabs that had gone up in the wake of the Night of Rage but it was still here - testament to the lousy civil planning of the Sea-Tac Civic Commission.

Pulling at the door - unlocked and squeaky - Flip made his way inside. Up the stairs to avoid the urine-scented lift and to the fourth floor.

401 - the appartment.

He knocked on the door three times, a polite, English tap. Perhaps half a minute later, it opened. The little Irish woman stood before him, recognition springing to her face.

"Hi See-Oh. Long time no see..." he embraced her, lightly. "I've got a job going, if you're interested..."

[GunnerJ]

So... all alone with Ms. Bluebird...

A sticky situation. He didn't trust her. If she was legit, she had no reason to trust or even get along with him. He'd like to pump her for info on Kitao, but he didn't want to give away the location of the drop box by inviting her along. Maybe if I left the Van around the corner from it... NO! That would leave her alone in the Van. No, not at all.

He nursed the (now warm and watered down) cola he'd ordered, looking across the table at her occasionally. She was always looking out the window. What do you say to someone you don't know and can't trust? See ya, or something? He was locked in indecision. He didn't even trust her enough to turn his back on her to go out the door. So he waited for her to say something.

[Rakshasa]

401 - the appartment.

"He knocked on the door three times, a polite, English tap. Perhaps half a minute later, it opened. The little Irish woman stood before him, recognition springing to her face."

"Hi See-Oh. Long time no see..." he embraced her, lightly. "I've got a job going, if you're interested..."

Sure, 'an if it isn't yerself. Fer the luv of....Come in, come in.

The long lost soul of a man..thing..follows the slight form of the Irish coleen into her apartment.

"A job y'say. And what sort of job would that be. Bearin' in mind I'm a good catholic girl an' all."

Seonid O'Donnel flounces her skirt as she turns toward Flip, a smile spreading across her almost pretty face.

"Can I get you something?"

[Drain Brain]

"Whatever, petal, I don't mind." He took a seat on the comfortable (although very old) couch. "The job is a corporate intrusion - get in, plant, get out. Relatively straight forward and with a potential for other gigs from the same employer. Most importantly, there's a 500 :nuyen: downpayment if you're interested."

He shifted his weight a little as he popped a cigarette into his mouth, dragging the "hubcap" ashtray across the scavenged coffee table toward him.

"We've got no magical support, see, and we don't know what kind of mojo they've got guarding the place. I know you don't walk the way of the spirits any more than I do, but I for one would be more comfortable with some form of spellslinger on hand.

"At the moment, there's me, a rigger, a decker and this other woman who appears to be a primary combatant. Not a lot of juice for busting into places without getting seen... we can do the "in" but not the "not getting seen," if you catch my drift.

"So... how about it?"

[Silverspur_2020]

Bluebird looks at Ace and smiles as sweetly and politly as she can manage, its been a long time since she gave anyone a genuine smile...over the last six months there hasnt been much to smile about!

"So... Im guessing you dont trust me much, not that I totally blame you... after all, I was caught watching your team mates through the sights of my gun! Look, im not here to cause trouble, all I want is to get a regular gig going so I dont have to worry about money..." knowing that this rigger wasnt the trusting type, Bluebird carries on "look, if it helps... after this mission, I have a friend who can set you up with some drones if you need... I know for a fact she has a Bulldog with machine guns mounted onto it, an expert Rigger like you would be handy to have along rigged into one of those puppies! -The way I see it, if we work together regularly then it will pay to help each other out...."

Feeling slightly uneasey about having made such an offer Bluebird finishes off her warm soda, she could guess by his body language he wasnt keen on her... but she just wanted him onside, she didnt know he wouldnt double cross her...and she couldnt go through that again....

[Mysterio]

Arriving home Codec immediately sets up his deck and jacks in, embracing the virtual world that is the matrix. He idly surf's around for what seems like minutes turns out to be hours.Jacking out he starts to go over his mental check list:
1) retrieve program from Kitty
2) Visit Hotwire tomorrow about the progam and the other tap.
3)Get this blasted run over with and get some nuyen handy for some upgrades.
The final thought puts a smile on his face as he closes his eyes to get some needed rest

[Rakshasa]

"500? That'd sure keep the landlord off my back for half a month. I'm paid to the end of this one but after that….. OK, I'm in. Where'd you want me and what's to do? Slipping over to the small hotplate to make a brew. "D'you want a cup of something? Nettle tea? Erzatz coffee?"

"I …don't think so." Nettle tea? No way. This girls real down on her luck. " I thought you and I might take a gander at our target."

"Which is?"

"Which is a communications exchange. Difficulty is to get in, put a tap on one of the lines and get out again without being spotted."

"Get the usual security gizmos all over the place I suppose. Not to mention all the goons crawling out of the woodwork as soon as we make an appearance."

"I should think so."

"Thick as two short planks or will I be up against people with a bit of intelligence and imagination?"

"That I couldn't tell you. We know nothing about the target as yet. Which is why we have to make a field trip…today if you're up to it. Just have to make a quick stop off to pick up one of those disposable digi-cams."

Light dawns in the coleens brown eyes and she rummages in a drawer.

"Like this d'you mean? I scrounged this from a bag lady two weeks ago. Bin meanin to sell it, just not got round to it yet." Tossing the small lensed object toward the Ork. "It's only got about eight or nine shots left in it, but it might do?"

"Should do. In that case, we might as well get going. If you're OK with leaving your bike here, assuming you've still got that ancient piece of drek, we'll take a cab. It'll look more `touristy' in case our mugs appear on any cameras."

"Fine by me. I don't want my bike in harms way, anyway."

The two young Runners head out of the apartment block and down onto the street. The neighbourhood's not fit for cabs to venture too far in, so a short walk to the end of the street is required.

"One o' these days I'm gonna move uptown!"

"I might just join you."

The pair hail a ubiquitous yellow taxicab, it's paint peeling and the rust showing through, to make the short trip to the Exchange, Seonid looking the place over with her Astral vision.

[GunnerJ]

As nice as the offer was, Ace wasn't put off. He was sure now, she was part of it. She was following him. They'd sent her to spy on him. How else to explain the sudden generousity, the obvious attempt to disarm his suspicions?

But wait, wouldn't they know me better than to fall for it? No, they're counting on me thinking that! Like plots within plots... no, she's not to be trusted. But then, how did they pick someone who could screw up so badly? Unless getting caught... even getting shot... was just another part of some plan! Amazing. The hunt is on.

He chose his words carefully: "Well, that's generous of you. I'll think it over. So, is there somewhere you need to be? I have some business to attend to, and I could drop you off anywhere you need." Yes, let her think you trust her. Let her get close to thinking she has you, then you can get her.

[Silverspur_2020]

As Flip and Seonid approach the area they see that the location of this building has been picked well!

On the edge of town its built into was used to be a quarry, so there is only road going in and out of the area, on that road is the standard check point security with barriers and cameras. The road goes down an incline to the main carpark in front of the building, then goes around the back of the building to where assume is anther carpark, and possibley underground parking...but you can't be sure. The building itself appears to be small and squat, four stories high with mirrored windows. Using the zoom on the digicam you see a tracked drone on a perimeter patrol around the building.

[Silverspur_2020]

"well if everyones turning in for the night, you could give me a lift back to my apartment... its one of the high rise apartments in Redmond" and with that she stands up and picks up the rifle (now in its case) before following Ace to the van.

[Silverspur_2020]

As Codec gets back to his apartment, he finds a package waiting outside.... Taking it in he finds a note on in...

"This is the part you need, hope all goes well, Mr Kiteo"

Opening it up carefully...thinking it might be a bomb, Codec reaches inside the foam and finds that the chip is exactly what he thought it would be...

[Drain Brain]

The quarry, ancient ruin of a strip mining operation, looked quite…pretty in the early evening sunset. Walking along the top of the man made escarpment the two Runners made a play of being without a care in the world, throwing grass at each other and small pebbles at larger rocks. Actually, just being big kids. But there was deadly serious work going on under this light hearted façade.

The scouting of the front and sides of the Exchange had been moderately easy, Flip taking telephoto shots of each face of the main building. These would be very valuable when the time came to refine the plan of attack.

"I wonder if the City Planners did a risk assessment of this site when the Company put in their application." Seonid looked at the Ork, red sunlight bouncing off his black hair giving it an inner glow.

"Probably. UCAS can't be too different from the UK in terms of Health and Safety Law so I should think there was some requisite surveying before they started building this place. Why d'you wanna know?"

"Two reasons. One, if there was an assessment, the surveyors might have taken TriD's of the rock face as well as making a geo survey to make sure the land was stable after years of explosives going off to quarry the rock. Second, said geophys might just show any tunnels, storm drains and so on that might, I say, might still be in place and usable even after all this time."

"Not to mention the fact that any analysis of the quarry might be useful in general terms, when we plan our attack. I'm sure Codec would be able to source them on the Matrix somewhere."

"If he can, ask him if there's any way to download digital stills, or even movies, of the original rock face, looking out of the back windows of the Exchange. We might be able to rig them into their external cameras and cover our intrusion."

"Sounds like a plan. See if I can raise him."

Flip entered the LTG code for Codec's matrix link, hoping that the Decker would have some way of taking the call even if he was on the line.

"Codec, it's Flip. While you're cruising the matrix, see what you can discover about the target site - the place is built in an old quarry. There must be some form of planning survey or documentation from the days when this was active. I should think that there will be something along those lines - mining operations must have some sort of rules on frequent risk assessment. See if you can find them. If there are any pictures we might be able to doctor them for use as a cover when we come in - it looks like the only approach barring a frontal assault is to come down the cliff behind the building."

[Mysterio]

Codec sits and wonders how Kiteo knew that he'd need the extra tap,,,he thinks back to Bluebird..
She has to be informing him on our progress and strategy Not liking the fact that they are being spied on from the inside, he tries to think about what to do next
I don't think she'd want us to fail, what's the point of a Johnson hiring a team just for the sole purpose of killing them?
He then answers his phone and talks to flip for a moment "Yeah okay I will..." and hangs up. Man I'm tired he thinks as he scribbles down a message to himself to look for photos and movies etc on the site I'll just catch some brief shut eye for like a few hours
:ooc: Since really he didn't get to according to the timeline of events of him finding the tap before he went to bed.

[Silverspur_2020]

Waking up just four hours later, Codec feels awful.... "i really really need a new bed!" he thinks to himself...

booting the deck up, he jacks himself in and gets an instant vitual caffine hit as he brain swarms with information from the matrix surrounding him! Taking a full moment to think things through, he heads off to the council cambers again to see what they can provide...surely any blueprints of planning applications have to be ran through the coucil to get permission!

logging in as a "legal" decker Codec makes his way through the maze of corridors that make up the coucil building, going to the one marked planning applications he walks through... the room seems to go back further then the eye can see! a little floating robot appears by his side,

"May I help you?" it asks in an unnatural voice...

"Yeah err...im looking for some plans of a quarry...."

And Codec explains to this Robot what it is he is looking for......

Several secounds go by and its getting to the stage that Codec thinks the Robot isnt going to come back.... but just then he seems it come hurrying back with a virtual blueprint.

Taking hold of it Codec looks through and finds that the planning application for this building only shows above ground...strangly it doesnt even show where the foundations are!

[Mysterio]

"May I have a copy of this?" Codec asks the Robot, "And I'd also like to know how long the quarry was mined for. When was the site first established?"

[Silverspur_2020]

The robot automatically sends a copy to Codec's deck....as its public property, anyone can have a copy!!

taking a microsecound to process the relevant data the robot says "opened in 2010 to mine a number of materials it stayed open for 5 years before Taxotere mining co went bankrupt... due to a lack of interest from other mining companies the contracts expired on the digging and the Quarry was bought by the highest bidder, which turned out to be TelCo... what is now one of the main RTC companies in the country"

[Silverspur_2020]

Early the next morning Bluebird gets up... watching the morning sun rise over the sprawl she gets her firearms, and goes through her daily routine of dismantling,cleaning, oiling and rebuliding them. After checking each works fine by firing an empty chamber she loads each one in turn, taking the time to feel the cool reassuring metal run through her hands. One day... revenge WILL be hers!

[Mysterio]

"Taxotere Mining Company...who started that?"

[Silverspur_2020]

Heading through the sprawl downtown Ace finds a spot to park and pulls up by the side of the main road, looking accross the street he looks at the large and imposing Lone Star head office and ideally wonders how many people they have framed this week!

Picking up his pistol he puts it safely inside his jacket and locks the van up... heading into the park he looks straight ahead and walks quickly, not wanting to meet anyone. After all, this may be right next door to Lone Star but it still didnt mean it was safe!

In the middle of the park is a crossroads, and thats where Ace had to be... looking around he quickly saw the bench and the litter bin that he had been told about, so trying to look casual he strolled over and put an old packet in. Pretending to do his shoe laces up he feels under the bin and finds the key taped underneath... taking the key he quickly takes the cred stick and puts it where the key was.

Standing up Ace picks a direction and heads out of the park, before doing the counter servallance techneques that Rhet had instructed him to carry out. Eventually he heads back to the safe confines of the van, and rumbling into life he pulls away into the dark night.....

[Silverspur_2020]

CODEC



The robot simply says...."we have no records of that"

[Mysterio]

Taking the copy Codec leaves the archives. He heads over to the bar where he et Kitty the day before, to pick up his program. Getting there in less than a second he walks inside and up to the bar.

[GunnerJ]

The evening's errands left Ace a little disturbed. Anyone could have taken the key from right underneath that trash bin; in fact, there wasn't any apparent safeguard against him just taking the key and leaving. The important word here is "apparent." Rhet was not so trusting, even of his friends, and Ace wasn't exactly sure how Rhet would define a "friend." This made it certain that he was being watched the whole time. Even though he knew it was Rhet on a hacked sec-cam, he still didn't like it. He knew Rhet wouldn't do it, but he couldn't shake the image of his form being watched through the scope of a sniper rifle as he made the drop. A rifle held by the woman... "Bluebird..."

Ace resolved to ask Codec to make a check on that name. But it could wait till he checked out their digs.

[Silverspur_2020]

CODEC
Walking into the bar he looks around casually... and in a millisecound he spots the stunning feline at the bar in her usual seat, "hey prescious, you got my money? coz ive got your program!" and with that she smiles.. looking like the cat that really did get the cream! I am ready to exchange whenever you are.

ACE
Heading over to the apartment, he keeps the windows closed and his speed steady... watching out for biker gangs as he makes his way through Redmond, and eventually finds the place he is looking for... If he didnt know better, he would swear this building was condemmed!

Using his key to open the garage he pulled in and took time to look round. The garage turned out to be plenty big enough for the van and as he made his way through the ajoining door he found that the inside wasnt too bad, if a bit basic. There was an old lounger and a TV set, and a couple of beds thrown into some empty back rooms.... making it just about big enough for the team. looking around the lounge Ace did notice one thing that pleased him! and that was security cameras covering the surrounding streets!

[Mysterio]