Well, I confess no small amount of disappointment! In the final push of planning, the HALO jump idea was abandoned (hey- maybe they
do read DS?!), and thus the whole idea has been rendered a mute point, except for those folks that might be wondering about this issue and thereby stumble upon this thread through the miracle of search-fu.
For those who were wondering about what would happen (like Shrike30), they ended up opting for something much more in line with Edward's plan- creeping in under false pretenses. Probably just as well, to be honest!
With some help (yes from the AI as well as some allies) they co-opted a Waste Collection truck to get into the area (shades of Firefly: Trash, though it didn't quite go as far), as well as a second vehicle, a Limo, also rendered plausible through a combination of fast talk and AI record-altering.
Sadly, things weren't what I would call 'fully thought out', so things went a bit rat shit. They got to the gate of the house in question, found they couldn't just walk to the front door (the house's grounds had a gate), so buzzed on the doorbell at 5am on a Sunday morning, while a KE drone closed in on them, wondering why they'd deviated from the route that had been 'booked'.
Oh and then one of the hackers glitched a roll to take over the drone, and.. AWOOGAH, AWOOGAH! Or.. nearly.
They really should have died, but to tell you the truth I had from the start expected this to go wrong (this particular situation has been on the cards for about 2 years- in-game and out-of-game time), and I had in place a degree of plot-enhancing Deus-Ex-Machina (i.e. Megaera) to bail them out of one heap of trouble. Into another heap of trouble of course, but that's another story!
It was a cool session (but sadly not because they did especially cool things), but it just goes to show: I only asked about the Levitate-vs-Parachuting question. Couldn't possibly, and wouldn't, have covered all the ins and outs of the situation in a public forum like this.
Still, I appreciate all the comments that people have made, so thanks for participating. 1 karma apiece.
P.S. The family lived. Just. But medical aid was needed, because sure enough one of the kink bombs was set off. Happily it was more of a vein-popping charge than a full blown brain blaster, and only one of three went off in one of the children. Magic was able to save her (long enough to get to a decent medical facility at least). Ain't I nice.
