Hey, I do applogize for the long time between posts, Finals time for my students and things have been mad trying to get final prep done and a crapload of marking done.

you know if you don't give them work to do than you don't have to grade it.

Hmm quick question, if I recall correctly they are not supposed to know we hit the vehicle or we tampered with the data right? Kinda hard to plant fake data when the truck is in pieces....

no. He wants them to know they've been robbed, but not that the data has been tampered with. The idea is that the data swap will be hidden by the robbery, and DSI will rush the remaining data to their customers to limit their losses. Than only after the data is utilized will it be clear there was a switch.

If you guys are happy with your plan I will time advance to a few hours before the hitl.

Well, what exactly is the plan? George proposed something but no one gave any feedback...

i was sort of thinking the same thing unfortunately.

I mean, I'm still up for the game! Really up to it... but it looks dead

I can always jot down a more precise plan, and we can run with it if no one replies

I'm down with it, we just need to hammer out the details of getting a car and which site we're hitting (and then do the tactical business of figuring out who goes where). Other than that, the plan is golden; blow something up, swipe some stuff, head for the hills.

I suppose it would also be good to figure out where to go to ground subsequently.

As to it being dead, Glyph and Tashio are in and out sometimes, and I'm still here with a vengeance.

Still around. I think we had everything except the car, and I'll do a post about that. The only thing I was still wondering about was that mechanic - should I assume we've decided it would be too much trouble to turn him on such short notice? I had assumed we were using the spot with the best hiding place for the car initially, then we were going to split up after fencing the loot.

I don't recall if someone had volunteered a fence, but if so then I have no trouble with anything else that's been outlined (except that cortex is going to need to arrange a safehouse, but that's my business not the team's).

I'd prefer going for the less populated, T-intersection because it allows us to use the car to block the van and gives us a better field of fire (from the apartment). Also, we can take care of a Gridguide camera much more easily than a whole passle of eyewitnesses, but I'm not vehement about it. If the other site, with the side alley for the car, is widely preferred then I'll gladly go with it.

Edit: My OOC Dissenting opinion has been officially dropped.

Negotiation: 4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 (good thing this isn't SR4!).

Possible complementary skills -
Psychology: 5, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1.
Seattle Black Market: 9, 3, 2.

Bah, how humiliating, a face who will probably pay pretty close to the sticker price.

So, I take it we're going with the "car upfront to block the van, C4 under the front left wheel. Boom it goes. Boom we blow the doors out. Bang bang bang we shoot'em dead. Off we run."

Simple. To the point.
All we need, like it was said, is to hammer out the details.

So, here is how I see the plan.

So, we drive in front of the van. At a stop light, which we'll be controlling (as well as the grid cams), we spring off our ambush. One of the runners not in the car will have to be standing outside, probably at the street corner. We throw our paint nades to disorient them and use that timeframe to stick the C4 on one of the wheels. As soon as it's on, 5 seconds max and boom: we blow one of the front wheels off.

Depending on what happens after, plan A should consist in going round the van (if they don't get out by themselves to defend their cargo), place a shape charge on the doors and just blow them off. The pression caused by the explosion should be enough to knock almost anyone off. If not, we can flashbang them and just shoot it out. We make the loot change, grab as much stuff as possible and bug out.

As for who is going what:
-Cortex will take care of keeping an hear/eye on the frequency scanner. As soon as the call for backup goes out, I say we don't stick around for more than 3 minutes. As soon as the call is out, we all start the watch. In a 180 seconds, if we don't have what we need, we get the frag out. I don't know how combat efficient Cortex is, but I would suggest he hangs back in the car... maybe getaway driver? If he could jam both the gridguide and the van's radio, that would be sweet as hell. Also, since he'll be in the car, he can watch out in case the two guards in the front cab decide to get out. If they're bright, they'll stay in.

-Caitlin will play her usual slinger support. The van isn't supposed to have any magical support, but we never know. If any spirits come up, it'll be her job to deal with them. If any of the guards jump after the initial explosion, they'll be out in the open and in LOS. I know Caitlin is good with her stun spells, so I'll trust her to that. If by some unfortunate chance, bystanders decide to "intervene", it would be very nice if we could dispatch them in a none deadly way. You know... limit colateral damge?

-Markus and George: Being the two wired up gunners, they'll be leading the assault, with Caitlin in support. To my knowledge, George is the only one with demolition knowledge, so he'll probably be one doing the C4ing.

----

Gear wise, George will leave both the Ingram LMG and the LAW in the car. They are for the SHTF plan: ie, if the Star shows up IN FORCE, of if we don't manage to stop the truck. Nothing better than a rocket to stop them... or a squad automatic weapon to make the blue boys duck down.

Also, I know George and Caitlin both have micro transceivers. What about Markus and Cortex?

I'll post George's gear list in a minute so we can make sure we all complement each others.

George's Loadout for the hit.

-Combat Vest with ammo pouches

-The sawed off Defiance T-250 fully loaded with Shock Lock Shells (5 extra shells in a pouch), on a sling, in case we need to "pick a lock"

-Gas mask (both agaisn't gas, and to hide his face a bit )

-Savalette Guardian loaded with one clip of Capsule rounds (acid), one extra load of EX EX. in a quick draw leg holster

-Ares High Velocity Assault Rifle
Loaded with one clip of regular rounds. Three more reloads in ammo pouches mounted on vest.

-3 Concussion grenade
-3 Smoke (IR) grenade
-3 IPE Offensive HE Grenade

-The LAW (with rangefinder) and Ingram (with external smartlink and bipod mounted, as well as the 200 rounds of ammo) will stay in the car, back seat).

-Micro Transceiver (rating 6)

-Secure Jacket

-A random none-armored longcoat

-Enough commercial explosive for both charges (one on himself to blow up the wheel, the other waiting in the car for when we're ready to breach the back door (maybe Markus can hang onto it)

-All his patches (stim, antidotes, trauma)

Tashio: George has a Balistic Shield, but he's already carrying a lot of ware with him. If Markus wants it, he can have it.

I think the car described is a bit out of Caitlin's price range - she doesn't even have 15,000 Nuyen. When I said a few hundred Nuyen, I meant a few hundred Nuyen - you can buy a junker for a few hundred dollars now, so I figure it's similar in the 2070's. This is a disposable car - use it, then drop it somewhere where it will get stolen. If 15,000 is the lowest this guy will go, she'll try another lot - she isn't going to ask for something around the 3-5 hundred dollar mark and go up to 15,000.

@Sicarius:

Etiquette for the safehouse: dice = 4 || target = ? :: 3 4 5 1
Etiquette for the neurostun: dice = 4 || target = ? :: 8 1 3 10
Etiquette for the scoot: dice = 4 || target = ? :: 3 1 2 10

Cortex is going to spend the next two days frantically learning how to drive evasively. He's got 48 hours before he needs to sleep and Caitlin's going to get the junker in eight or so, I think. Let me know what rolls you need and if you'd like me to PM karma details.

Thank god for the pnemonic enhancer and sleep regulator.

@Mister Juan and everyone else

Cortex is slow as hell in a fight, but he's a passable shot. Getaway driver seems like a decent place for him. He's not great at driving, but trying to rectify that in a hurry (see IC).

Running electrical overwatch is going to be a bit tricky -- he's got a nice jammer and the power boost we can get from the Sedan ought to be able to knock some signals out of the air, but its certainly going to make using microtranscievers more difficult. Also, unclear on when you want me scanning vs. jamming --- if we're jamming the area then the scanner isn't going to be terribly useful.

Sicarius, could I tinker with the jammer to leave our team frequency (and maybe the police band, for the purposes of eavesdropping) unmolested while still stopping everything else?

Gear List for hit:

-- Secure jacket
-- Silenced Browning Max Power
-- Spare clip in jacket pocket
-- Flash Pack in other jacket pocket
-- Ultrasound Detector in breast pocket
-- White noise generator in other breast pocket
-- Micro-Transceiver on neck
-- Ski mask covering head
-- Respirator over the top -- for gas rejection and further facial obstruction
-- Gloves

Car mounted with quick release:

Jammer
Scanner

In a backpack:

Microtronics Kit
Electronics Kit
General Tool Kit
Duct Tape
Survival Kit
Pocket Flashlight
Handset Cell Phone
Digital Watch
Windproof Lighter
2 changes of clothes including some particularly nerdy glasses
6 power bars

In the car somewhere:

Collapsed dodge scoot -- I'm assuming this is small enough to stick under the seat.
Bleach

Caitlin's gear list for the job:

On person
secure jacket
dark, utilitarian clothing
ski mask, cheap mirrorshades, and gloves
cell phone
pager
pocket flashlight
micro-transceiver

In duffel bag
medkit with supplies (x1)
3 antidote (6) slap patches
survival kit
change of clothing
12 splash grenades:
>5 with paint
>4 with slip spray
>3 with bleach

Alright... we might have to leave the whole jamming bit off. Considering the need for tactical communication during the hit, I think we should forgo jamming. Also, if we start the jammer too soon, we'll give ourselves away. If we start it too late, it's just pointless.

We might as well keep the scanner running to know when the call for help goes out. As soon as they call for backup, Cortex will start the timer and keep us posted.

Beside that, I think all we need to is to fine point everything.

What sort of distraction should we have going on to allow whom ever will plant the explosives? We can have the car backup and hit the van (and use the 5 seconds of light confusion to put the plastic). We could create some sort of commotion (Caitlin and Cortex getting out of the car and screaming at each other like a couple arguing... blocking the street in doing so. Or we could simply throw paint grenades on the windshield, and once again, us the element of surprise to plant the explosives.

As to how we'll plant them, we have 3 options of where the "planter" can be.
1- On a bike running next to the van
2- On foot, on the sidewalk
3- In the car with the rest of the team.

Personally, I think #1 and #2 are better.

Also, if for some reason, everything goes bad and we need to split, we should establish a point to regroup.

Since George will be the one planting the explosives, I'll leave that part up to you, although I agree that 1) and 2) are better. Since we know their route, there shouldn't be any problems with him getting there early.

As far as the distraction goes, I thought we were going to use the paint grenades (Caitlin will hand some to Tashio) on the windshield.

The problem with staging a fake argument is that two people getting out of a car in ski masks might be a bit suspicious.

I agree that we should have a point to rendezvous if we need to split up - maybe some out of the way spot like a hole in the wall bar near the Redmond Barrens.

Works for me, Markus is carrying
SMG
Guardian
Form fitting
light security armor,
stun and regular rounds
defensive stun grenades

Things will be a little bit slow till around Thursday. Tuesday is the American Election day, and I'm a journalist, so it will keep me pretty busy, both the day of, and immediately after. So look for the next post some time Thursday.

refresh my memory? which site is the team using? the one with the Gridguide cam and the apartment building or the one with the cafe, people, and car sized alley way?

I think it was number two.

I started bulding something to take care of the camera a while ago (just before the meeting at Matchstick's) and never heard back about it. I had intended to install that device before the hit and then remotely kill the camera before we started shooting the van up.

If that's a valid plan I'd like to go with it. If not, I've included a few electronics B/R rolls to find where the camera is getting power from or where it is sending its signal and take one or the other out (again, shortly before the hit):

Electronics B/R + Task Pool = 9, Microscope eyes -> -2 TN, Schematics ->-1 TN
Roll 1:
1: 1
2: 1
3: 5
4: 2
5: 4
6: 5
7: 6 + 2 = 8.
8: 3
9: 2

Another, just in case its needed.
1: 2
2: 2
3: 5
4: 6 + 2 = 8.
5: 6 + 1 = 7.
6: 2
7: 5
8: 6 + 1 = 7.
9: 4

I think i ignored it Pragma because the consensus seemed to be that you were doing the hit at the first site (the one with the alleyway but public street) rather than the second site (the one with the apartment building and camera). So I don't think there is a camera in need of disabling. stop me if i'm confused

Truth be told, I was under the impression we were using the first site as well. I just jumped on the opportunity to use the second because I prefer it. It would be convenient if someone else jumped in with a definite answer.

The last time the location was mentioned was by Caitlin:

Cortex is banking for the second site because the camera is easier to take care of than a lot of eyewitnesses. Also it minimizes the chance of collateral damage.

The advantage of the first site is that we can make a cleaner getaway.

The final decision probably depends on the group, but I think the second seems nicer just because we'll be seen less.

Like I said, Caitlin tends to defer to people in their areas of expertise, so she would have no problem following Cortex's suggestion. I can't speak for George or Markus, but I doubt they would have much of a problem with it, either.

I'm willing to fastforward to the jobsite, but i'm not quite sure WHICH site, that's what is slowing stuff down

The less public one would be Markus's choice.

Okay. It looks like the majority at least was for the Apt-Camera option. I will do a fastward to take you to the location, with a maybe 10-20 mintues to do the final check.

Pragma, assume camera switcher has been built, and fully functional.

Improved Invisibility, Force: 6, Drain 4M.

Quick understanding of what's supposed to happen so I don't screw this up in my next post.

Cortex and Markus are in the car, which is blocking the road. Caitlin is on the left, invisible, with paint grenades, George is on the right with the plastic explosive. The truck slows down due to the "traffic" of the car, caitlin hits it with a paint grenade to blind them, George places the explosive to knock out it's ability to flee. hell, promptly insues.

is that about right as everyone understands it?

Thats what I got from the plan at least.

Actually, Caitlin handed off the grenades to Marcus, who will presumably do the paint-spattering. She will be ready to stun the guards in the rear of the van when that door opens.

right gotcha.

Tashio you around?

Yup, back in the world of the living, school year is over marking all done and marks are in, its party time

Yup i'll splat once the car is stopped.

Make your rolls folks. I'll make mine here as well. Some of them will be in spoilers for rolls I want to make behind my "gm screen" so don't read those, they are just so I can remember their results.

GM Screen

Reaction, just in case of surprise: dice = 8 || target = 4 :: 7 5 4 2 2 4 9 5 -- 6 successes

Initiative: dice = 1 || target = ? :: 6. roll of 6 + 8 reaction = 14

Caitlin's rolls:

Reaction (surprise, if applicable): 10, 5, 5, 3, 2 (3 successes).

Initiative (5 +1d6): 5 + 3 = 8

Initiative: 2 5 5
Mod: 12
Total: 24

I assume Markus is 3 for call sign?

Yup. And Caitlin one, George two, and Cortex four.

Reaction:
# of dices: 8
Rolls: 09 09 05 03 03 03 02 02
3 Sucesses

Initiative:
# of dices: 3d6+8
Rolls: 06 05 05
Initiative Score: 24

Since Markus and George go on the same exact action, George will start moving at a sprint (well... he's on the side walk so thats probably a 4 meter run...) to place the explosive as soon as Markus starts his throw.

He's placing a 4k charge in the part that houses the front cab wheel (which ever side he's on) with a remote detonator. As soon as the charge is stuck, he'll dash away from the blast, grab the nearest cover, call in fire in the hole on the comm and blast it.

Then... it starts

Okay guess its defaulting throwing to erm can't recall if its quick or str so
9 or 8 +4 tn
Throwing: 1 1 2 2 3 3 8 9 (9)

Cortex's proposed actions:

1. If necessary -- switch the camera off (but I'd prefer it if he did this as soon as he pulled into position on the street, before George and Caitlin debarked) - simple

2. Do whatever George tells him - simple, I think (I'll have a complex available for this if I don't need to hit the camera)

3. Start the timer in his math SPU - free, I think

No rolls unless George asks for a fancy car stunt, just in case:
Car roll: dice = 2 target = ? :: 5 2

Initative Rolls:

Driver: 6+1+5=12 (drivers seat, door nearest Markus)

Guard 1: 6+5+2=13 (passenger side front, door nearest George)

Guard 2: 6+1+4=11 (rear of truck)

Guard 3: 6+1+4=11 (rear of truck)

Guard 4: 6+3+4=13 (rear of truck)