"I like everything Garret just said minus the explosion. I don't know if that's neccesary. We could just walk right out the front door. I doubt the bums on the street will care. If we do everything while the guy is out then there shouldn't be a problem. Even if an alarm is triggered and I don't disable it, police response should be slow to this area. We do our job without explosions and the cops are going to be less of a problem. But everything else I really like."

"Ok so a low key external quick surveilance added to whatever our matrix friends can dig up and then we plan our infiltration from there sounds like what we are all saying. I like that best and think we should get to work on it first thing."
"I should mention that I am pretty decent when it comes to avoiding magical detection. Not fantastically good mind you but way better than most." I'll disguise myself up pretty good and take a stroll around that neighborhood to get a lay of the land and copy some vid feed while I walk into my comlink."
"I can also perform a quick astral survey so Ghost has a second view of the external target."
"Say, can we get out of here? Maybe to a place where we can work that's in friendly territory?" Jill asks.

"Yes lets roll on out of here and meet at some other location we all feel a bit more secure about. Any suggestions Jill?"

Garrett grins sheepishly, "Sorry i just wanted to blow something up. But as for the scouting, i don't know about anyone else, but i have cybereyes with thermal, ultrasound, low-light, vision enhancement, magnification, the whole works. So i would be glad to to a walk by recording in multiple spectrums. But lets go find us a safehouse to work out of, i figure if we all chip in 200 then we should be able to rent us a pretty damn good safe house for a week."

Garrett looks around at the group waiting for approval.

Slyph agrees and beams over 200 to Garrett.

"I assume you know a good place?"

Ghost hands over 200 as well.

"Sounds good. I guess then it sounds like we have a bit of a plan to start on. Let's start digging up info and figure out how exactly we want to do this."

Garrett taps the side of his head with one finger, as if he just remembered something important, "Oh yeah, here is my comm number and email contact info, so we can all stay in touch and send files to eachother....." Garrett beams his contact info to the others.

He continues, "And I will be making a call in a few minutes to see if i cant find us a decent place close to here, I am going to try for a pretty decent quality place, as after all, we all work better when we have gotten a full night of sleep and have a place we can feel at least somewhat safe in. Although i do not want to spend too much of our money, as we have other expenses as well."

The team heads for the newly acquired safehouse. As they leave downtown Seattle and enter the Queen Anne neighborhood, the contrast is a bit unsettling, like stepping back in time. The chrome, neon, glass and plascrete world is replaced by wood, stone, grass and trees - and moss. So much moss. When a beam of light from the setting sun breaks through the overcast, it lands on the moss, exploding in a sparkling display of emerald. It makes the entire neighborhood seem enchanted. It hits home like a sledgehammer how the area got its nickname, the emerald city.

As the vans roll to a stop in the driveway beside the safehouse address, you are brought back to reality by the condition of this property. This is a real estate investors dream - the worst house on the block. Garrett goes inside to finalize arrangements, as the rest of you realize even this block has the same general layout as the target. Moments later, Garrett comes out and waves the vans to the detached garage behind the house.

The garage has swinging doors, not the accustomed modern overhead type, and one of them opens only about half way as grass and dirt has accumulated. Hayter pulls into the space that has obviousely seen use. Obviouse because the door on that side opens fully, and there are no boxes sitting in the parking area. A couple of the group are asking themselves how much did we pay for this?, while a couple of others are totally unphased and jump to explore the marvels the safehouse contains.

You make short work of clearing the second door to fully open, and while a couple of people were busy with that task a couple of people scoot boxes to places along the walls. The explorers discover a couple of circa WWI army cots, or that is the appraisal from their ease of assembly and ultimate comfort. The bathroom is of interest to the women of the group and holds all the horror their fears conjured. How anyone could expose themself to such a hideousely dirty contraption, much less sit on it, or even levitate inches above it is beyond imagination. Hopefully someone knows the sterilize spell. The sink is a deep plastic cube dredging up memories of a sink that would accompany a washing machine. After turning on the faucet, it only takes about 30 seconds for the water to run clear. After five minutes, you have given up on hot water. The "shower" looks to be an area beside the sink opposite the commode. At least that's what the fixtures head high on the wall would have you think. You now notice the tiled section of floor in that area as opposed to the concrete throughout the rest of the building. Sure enough, water flows from the head high fixtures, clear within seconds, but again not getting hot. At least there is a door on the little room.

You turn to the "kitchen". A light actually comes on when you open the microwave door. It illuminates a food encrusted interior. You decide not to more closely examine some of the detritus that has you thinking mouse droppings. The refrigerator is running. Good you think, remembering all the times you have opened ones that were not and the mold and food cultures that awaited within. This one contains mainly half used condiments, well past their expiration, handfuls of assorted condiments from various take out joints and the centerpiece, two mismatched beers, one in a bottle and the other a can.

Stairs lead up around a back corner of the garage to its attic. Upon looking, you decide this must have been a storage area and childrens makeshift playhouse. Boxes are arranged to form two nearby "forts". There is a faded and stained couch as well as improvised furniture. Bucket seats from a car, milk crate end tables, a cable spool coffee table. It is a big headache that the high point for the roof is about 6 feet and tapers down to the walls way too fast, leaving the average height of the attic about three feet.

Welcome home chummers!

Upon arriving at their new abode Slyph does a quick but thourogh astral scan of the immediate surroundings to see if there are any astral presences taking an interest in the new arrivals. He also takes the time to do a physical inspection looking for any surveilance of any sort in the immediate vicinity interested in them or not. Always best to know whats capable of recording us purposefully or by chance he chants his rules in his head
After helping clear the other door he then picks an out of the way spot and stows his gear that he brought for the op.

"So anything good in the fridge?" he asks as he brings up the local map to see how far the target is from their location.

Slyph sets up his white noise generator in the kitchen "area" as he thinks that is the most likely place for planning and conversations not wanted to be overheard by outside ears and turns it on.

"After we are set up, provided the daylight is still good I want to do an initial walkby if thats ok with everyone."

"Wow. Hope we didn't pay a cleaning deposit," Ghost says as he entered the house, carrying a couple bags with personal items along with a strange assortment of magical ingredients and other unidentifyable things. He went over to where the cots were set up and claimed one as his own, tossing his bags down and hopping onto it.

"Can't say this is very comfortable, but I guess this'll have to do."

Jumping off again, Ghost moved to explore the rest of the house. As he went through the kitchen digging through cuppboards and the like, he heard the other runners making themselves at home too.

"So anything good in the fridge?" Sylph asked.

"Hey! Beer! There's a couple beers in here, have no idea if thery're good or not," Ghost replied as he took the bottle out. Holding it up to the light, he examined the contents and the label for anything that might indicate whether or not it was safe to consume.

After a cursory examination of the house, Hayter decides that staying in his van would be the safest route. Hayter climbs to the second floor of the garage and sets up his satellite uplink, pointing out of a window. Setting it on the floor, he decides, is best so that no one questions why the new neighbors with the crappy house have an expensive satellite uplink. After that he takes a seat in his van and prepares for the 'trix-infiltration. They've got some time, so probing the system would be the best way to go. No need rush it.

Comm-ing the rest of the group >>>>[I'm set up in the garage getting ready for recon. I'll be busy the rest of the night, but feel free to come out and run something by me if you need an opinion or you're changing plans. You could e-mail me too. Oh, and one tiny favor. Could someone check on me every once in a while? If I get ICed I really don't want them tracking us back here. I'll set up my FlySpy to watch me so you guys have a feed of what's going on with my body. If I start convulsing, come pull off my trodes, please. I don't expect too much trouble from this system, but you never know...]<<<<

Jill frowns as she looks around. The bathroom is horrible, and the kitchen... If it wasn't for the fact she chipped in for this place, she may have just unleashed a couple of drones on it with orders to make sawdust and watched the carnage. Right now, she's thinking how lucky they are to find it has a roof. How very lucky they are. Her van just became her new sleeping spot.

"I hope the owner doesn't mind if we burn this place down when we're done. Anyway, since we're here, can we begin to go over scouting plans now? I know it's redundant to plan what to do to plan, but..." She grins. "It's better than the alternative."

"Eh, that works. This stuff looks like crap anyway," Ghost replies. Scouting the place in astral would be the best thing to do before they all decide how they want to proceed. And besides, he really didn't want to stay around here longer than necessary.

"Oh, and if we're going to be staying here longer than a few days, we really need to get mroe beer."

Garrett talks to the group, "well so this place is a bit of a dump, but i'm going to run over to a local thrift shop and see if i can't pick up some cheap touristy clothes and a disposable camera for 10 or less. I will try to look around for decrepid/barely used buildings myself and look for a good sniping spot as well as an alley to drive down to escape. I will try to look like a touristy elf, and pretend to be lost if found in a restricted area. Then maybe we can meet back here and grab a van to gather up discarded boards and stuff and try to fix up and fortify the place. Maybe then i will practice a bit with some of my spare regular ammo in the garage. Anyone who wants to join me to practice can."

Jill looks to the group, saying "Anyone need a driver? It'll look less suspicious if there's two elves and the 'wife' is berating you for being lost, or if there's just a couple in general."

She then winks, and looks around the place. Yes, they'll have to burn this place down as they leave. It has no alibi for what it is and should be put out of its misery. Maybe the owner as well.

"Does anyone mind if I burn this place down when we leave it?"

Lilith receives a message from Hayter, as if he was listening in on the conversation from a far.
>>>>[No, it deserves it]<<<<

"Well if we're gonna drive by the place, I'll just be sitting in the back invisible checking the place out for anything glowy and spooky," Ghost said as he headed for the garage. Not really waiting to see if anyone else was following, he opened the garage door and hopped in the van.

Garrett Grins, "Those are all very good ideas, lets do it. But i think someone other than me, perhaps someone who drives well should do it, and maybe you shoudn't go invisible, because that might just bring more attention. If you are out floating around, nobody is going to notice your meat body sitting there if we put some of these old boxes from the garage around it. After all our target can see in the astral, and invisibility doesn't help against that."

"Well I don't mind driving though I am not the best driver in a pinch and I agree with Jill...looks around on both points."
Slyph walks over to the van and waits to see if Jill is driving or he is.

Jill grins, walking over to the van. "Ride shotgun, chummer." Oops. She slipped into old slang. "I'll drive for now. If we have to switch up, we can do that. It's best if whoever is riding passenger in the front is ready to pretend to be arguing. Nothing quite like lost tourists."

Jill winks, then hops into the driver's seat. Yeah, this is more like it.

Garrett grins sheepishly, "i guess i will ride in the back." He grabs his Gear,"Better to be prepared." He puts all the gear in the proper pockets under his chamealeon suit, dons his lined duster and holsters his Predator. "Never know when you may find trouble." Garrett hops in the back seat.

Alright, now to get down to business. Hayter relaxes back into the old MeditationBoi '64 cyberterminal recliner he found on sale. The chair was designed for long periods of physical inactivity of its user and made sure to keep the body comfortable to avoid camping. It was a sweet find but had to be modified to fit in the van. Settled into the plush comfort of the MeditationBoi '64, Hayter submersed himself in full VR. The van jerked suddenly in darkness below him. His homemade sim module ran diagnostics on itself, testing various sensations and monitoring feedback. Hayter tasted sunshine, which meant the synaethesia-filters were down. Crap, stupid thing is acting up again. Though "front" had very little meaning in the state he was in at the moment, "front" is still the best term to describe where the simsense debug menu appeared. Dataflow charts described exactly where Hayter's trodes were sending simsense signals, but the sheer number of readings would take a while to sift through.

I don't have time for this. This needs to get done tonight. Instead of running lengthy debug protocols, Hayter decides to manually override the safety seal, engaging cold-sim VR regardless of the sensory crossover. Hot-sim gets weird anyway. I probably won't be able to tell the difference between the two. Hayter's carefully sculpted personal system fades into exsistence, displaying an underground lair of floating holoscreens and odd control panels. The VR hacking base is a mock-up of old movie and videogame concepts. This is HQ, where it all goes down. Here Hayter is the suave millionaire archeologist Chernobyl Jones. There he takes a seat in the Captian's Chair, a device that allows him to manipulate the complex control panels around him with only the power of his enomrous intellelect! After engaging the device, the dark cavern around him lights up with bright holo-displays of news, forums, active chat rooms and virtual secretaries ready to aid Mr. Jones's every action here in cyberspace.

"Listen up ladies. We have a job to do. It's gonna take a while so I'm gonna need your support as much as possible!

"Of course master Jones! We'll be glad to help. Whatever you need.", all three of them speak in unison.

"HA HA. Alright! Let's get cracking!, Chernobyl Jones, the millionaire genius hacker, sits down in the Captian's Chair with his virtual companions massaging his feet and large, tense shoulders. "Let's show these goons what for!"

A muffled chuckle escapes from Hayter's lips back in the real world as the MeditationBoi '64's automated drool mop dabs saliva from his chin. The miniture FlySpy drone sits nearby, editing the embarassing footage to exclude drool. The footage is available to each member of the team, an active feed being sent to their e-mail. In the real world, there's not much to see. Back at HQ, Chernobyl sneaks his remote control Stealth Recon Droids deep into enemy territory. There they find the bland security system of the target's onwer. The abupt change in system theme from action hero to boring computer windows shakes Hayter from his fantasy. The firewall doesn't look that tough. All this stuff looks stock, bought right of the shelf. Guy must have put this stuff up fairly recently. Okay, how do I want to approach this...

Two and a half hours later, Master Jones is celebrating with the ladies back at HQ after having successfully navigated into the enemy base. Okay, where were we Hayter checks the feeds from his other FlySpy, seeing if there are any developments in the RL. Nothing new since the drive-by. He checks the feed of his body. Nothing to worry about. Redirecting his attention back to the job at hand, Hayter pulls up security camera feed, making copies of all three of them while he scours the rest of the system. That's when system starts looking a lot like a simflick. What the hell? Neil the Ork Barbarian stands in front of Jones' brave Droid commando, the two alone on a desert plain. Fuck! IC! Hayter's first reaction is to attack the scrappy warrior IC but the attack fails. Instead the image changes to Suki Redflower blasting lackeys in an abandoned warehouse. Instead of trying another attack, Hayter scans the image just to make sure. >>>>[Interference detected. Please adjust Simmodule to safe levels of input]<<<<

Hayter clicks out of VR back into AR, the security system still accessible through open AR windows. He sets his agent to copy info off the security system ehile he adjust the simsense plug. With a screwdriver, Hayter disengages the Sim Module pluged into the back of his neck. It slides out easily enough but must be replaced immediately to avoid infection. A plastic plug stopper takes it's place while Hayter fiddles with the SimModule, no longer able to see what's going on with his internal commlink, he's nervous. Two minutes later the plug is temporaily fixed and Hayter's back in the Captian's Chair, ready to prop open the target's defenses. With a finesse and tactical genius only known to the world's foremost archeolgoist, Jones directs his mechanical soldiers in disabling perimeter defenses so that a return visit will be easier and nigh-undetectable. With done, Hayter covers his digital tracks, logs off, and gets up to walk around a bit.

>>>>[Hey, gang. I finished early. Only took about, oh, 3 hours or so. I have trideo feeds of the front, back, basement, and garage doors. I have pretty detailed info on the alarm systems and I'm sure you'll be happy to hear I wasn't IC'd through the whole trip. How's that for professional?]<<<<

"Woohoo, road trip!" Ghost said as the van started up. As they drove to the target, Ghost took a good look at Garrett seated next to him, "Wow. Do you dress like that when you go to a Stuffer Shack too? I don't think we were planning on blowing anything up just yet."

As they got closer to the target, and closer to pedestrians who might see them, Sylph turned on his "arguing spouse" act. Ghost leaned forward and whispered, "Psst. You do realize that having the guy argue about directions kinda gives it away, right?"

As they neared the target house, Ghost's face became serious as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His perception shifted to the astral realm, and he examined the location as they slowly drove by. The dim glow of the Earth itself was a warm and relaxing sight that starkly marked the contrast with the cold grey of the non-living objects on top. Between the occasional glow of the auras of passers-by the house seemed dim and vacant. No visible wards or spirits could be seen from here, meaning that if there was any astral protection, it was inside.

When the van stopped for Sylph's little ruse, Ghost took the opportunity to do a little more detailed investigation of the place. Ghost's head slumped back and his limp body collapsed in his seat as his astral form got out of the van to look around. Weaving between trees, bushes, and rocks to hide his astral presence, Ghost examined the house for anything else he may be able to spot. Once this quick look around was over, Ghost retreated to the van just as Sylph got back in and the engine started. Just as they pulled away, Ghost's body jolted back awake as he sat up in his seat.

"So how was that? Oh and you were great by the way," Sylph commented.

"Yeah, thanks mom," Ghost added.

"Oh, on the way back, can we pick up some beer?"

"Yeah, thanks mom," Ghost added.

Slyph laughs

"Oh, on the way back, can we pick up some beer?"

"Oh hey good idea! No beer for you son your too young," Slyph says to Ghost. "We should get something to eat too. I'm hungry"

Jill, of course, grins as he straps in. She has to admit, to herself, that he has a nice sense of what's the best. She nods at the info they get from Haytor, and then begins to go into argument routine as soon as they near the area. To those listening, she uses a whiny, annoying voice that will either grate on people's nerves or make them want to die laughing. Thus, the point behind it.

Once they stop to look around, Jill smiles as he gets out, trying to look relieved he's no longer in the van. On the one hand, she could release a drone... But, she doesn't tempt fate now. A drone release can wait until the future. Especially with the hacking attempt. Then, on the way back, she looks to Ghost.

"Beer? You buying? Oh, and is it the cheap kind, or the quality stuff?"

Strangely, she doesn't respond to Sylph's attempts to flirt during the trip...

After getting a fairly decent nights rest despite the constantly dripping faucet and the incessant snoring of Ghost Slyph gets up and goes for his early morning run. Upon getting back he starts prepping for the infiltration that they were probabley going to pull off today while the target was away. After a full check he goes over to the fridge and pulls out one of the beers they bought. Seeing Ghost walking over he tosses him a beer," Sleep well?"

"Did now," Ghost replies as he catches the beer tossed to him. Most people would find beer to be a little inappropriate for a morning beverage, but to Ghost it's breakfast.

Downing his "meal," Ghost says to everyone who's awake, "Well since there wasn't really anything as far as external security, if there's anything at all defending the thing we're after we aren't going to be able to do much about it until we actually get there. In that case, I say we just go and wing it from there."

"Sounds good to me," Slyph replies. "So what time should we begin the infiltration?"

Garrett looks thoughtful, "Well these business types usually leave later than the common working class, so i would say 9:00 AM at the earliest, maybe even 10."

After a long night in the safehouse and 6 people trying to use one filthy bathroom, the group decides to get this show on the road - or at least out of this place. Plans are discussed, talents and gear that could prove useful are offered.

Just as noon approaches, Hater announces that someone is leaving the target. Everyone gathers around the monitor to watch the jacked feed of a figure under an umbrella walk through the rain to a garage. Moments later, a window tinted Porsche Winter pulls out of the garage, maneuvers down the drive and leaves the monitors field of vision.

"Hmm looks like the time has arrived," Slyph says. "Infiltration through the back of the house with our sniper covering the front from acrossed the way?''Once inside we will sweep bottom to top in a standard search pattern or do we know where the target item is?"

While speaking Slyph is checking his Chameleon suit and other equipment preparing to hop into the van.

Sliding throwing knives into their respective pockets, Ghost adjusts the goggles on his head as he checks the rest of the equipment he's bringing. As a mage he probably has less need for all the stuff he's bringing than the others, but it never hurts to be relatively prepared. Physical security shouldn't be too much of a problem, and he can tackle whatever astral security they find as they come to it. With everything good to go, Ghost jumps into the van and says,

"Ok, it's now or never. Let's go!"

Garrett readies his equipment, Grabbing everything he needs and throwing it in designated pockets under his chamealeon suit, then stows his rifle on his back and puts his duster overtop. "Lets go then." Garrett says. Then he grabs his recently delivered pacage of equipment and stows it where needed. As a last minute thought, Garrett adds, "Hey guys, think i should take my bike to the target area to escape, or will you all swing over and pick me up? I mean i can just drop off the roof onto the van if we need to hurry away."

"Well my plan is to get to the van after the extraction. Barring that I will simply get away from the location change out of this suit and jog to the nearest public transportation spot. I assume we are all planning on rendeveuing here?"

Garrett says, "I think so, we will need to at least lay low here for a bit after the run."