On the Road
Saturday 8/23/70 18:03:02
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Offline

Rocky sat quietly in the borrowed truck with it parked on the side of the road a few hundred meters from the Love Machine, but close enough that he could see if anyone or thing approached it. Between watching it and checking his mirror for signs of anyone coming up behind them he could not find the sleep he knew he should be getting.

Over the last three weeks he had gotten better at sleeping and eating when the chance came up, because he had learned it may be a while till you get the chance again. But he had also learned if you are out in the open, like sitting in a truck on the side of the road you gotta watch out or someone will try to take whats yours, and most of them aren't worried if you get dead in the process, hell most preferred it that way.

Since the self preservation was over riding the need for sleep he used the time to go back to playing with the software Dr. Kline had loaned him to figure out what he wanted to look like after he got his work done. That and his constant checking to make sure things were still quite slowly burned the down time the new hacker had needed to get the path clear for the trip downtown. Every twenty minutes or so he would switch his comm on in to hidden mode to see if any word had come in yet.

Saturday 8/23/70 19:01:52
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

The second hour of the needed down time had passed and for the sixth or seventh time he switched his comm on to see if their was any news. His comm almost immediately beeped at him as it showed a new message from Smith.

<<@Team:: "Okay, let's get this show on the road. Fort should be in good shape, now, and will be on-site before we will. Everything shiny on your end, Error? I'm hoping no-news is good-news.>>

Rocky sent a quick message back and then started up the truck.

<<@Team:: "Ready to go here, lead the way.>>

With the message sent and the truck running Rocky adjusted his borrowed hard hat and did a quick review of the things Sledge had gone over with him.

The Waffle Shack
Saturday 8/23/70 18:28:15
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Inactive

As Fortunato munched on dinner he wondered, perhaps somewhat pessimistically, if he would start to wonder if every meal he had was his last meal. The slightly burnt hash-browns, the soy toast and the egg substitute that he was putting away at the nearby pancake house were not putting him in a can-do frame of mind. Granted, after having another brush with death trying to summon spirits added to his already impressive brush with death resume, it would have taken a Herculean breakfast for dinner to rouse him. At least the coffee was relaxing.

He looked out the plate glass window on the front of the waffle house and watched the water pool and flow in the deep, asphalt filled cracks in the road. The neon ambience painted them like ice floes on a glacier or magma on a volcano depending on whether the hotel or the strip club's lights were brighter at any present second.

The dinner was a welcome escape from his apartment, where he'd been confined all day in his ill-fated binding attempt. Johnson's response to his last message, that everyone could use a nap, was a great mercy for the mage who now felt significantly more like a human being than the walking dead he had been moments ago. Unfortunately, it had given him some time to cogitate on the fact that his apartment was now the place he'd be chased if any astral security was to follow him home. He needed a safe house badly, and -- as much as he hated to admit it -- he needed ERROR's guidance on how to be invisible. He would have been happier asking Angel. A fake SIN that wasn't affiliated with the CIA wouldn't be a bad step either. The appropriate middle ground for now was to minutely detail of the display on Jefferies and Montressor in case something went wrong and he had to abandon the apartment. Sure, he'd done it just before this weekend had started, but he might see something new.

He paid the bill and trudged home. Half-an-hour later he was astrally winging his way to the target site having summoned two watchers and sent one final message before his departure.

<<@team: Going to site. Will watch for you there.>>

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:14:00

The ride through the rain-shiny streets had been uneventful save for the sit-reps from the Matrix and Magical support. Traffic was brisk on a Saturday evening, but there was not the paralyzing congestion seen at this hour on a weekday.
The further they penetrated the downtown business district, the cleaner things got, until the sidewalks, parks and storefronts were nothing short of pristine. The attire of the passersby under their umbrellas likewise grew increasingly expensive, with even the uniforms of service personnel ever more tidy and professional looking.
Most people in Seattle breathed an inward sigh of relief as the security ratings added A after A. But the steady proliferation of cameras and Lone Star drones did nothing to comfort the intruding shadowrunners.

Their problematic hacker, however, had assured them he's managed a workaround on their traffic issues - in addition to constantly monitoring the building'g interior cameras, he had identified and gained admin access to the Gridwatch hub for the blocks around the target building, and was prepared to issue commands from that lofty point to keep the constabulary in the dark about whatever mischief might arise. For now, however, the best thing to do was stand by and hope for no trouble.
He also let them know that at this point his resources were stretched fairly thin - new requests could potentially compromise other tasks.

They'd also heard from one of Fortunato's mini-spirit-things. He had just made a fresh astral sweep of the placa and continued to report no magical security at all. He would be standing by in his non-corporeal form - all they had to do was whisper their requests to his spirit.

Now ten blocks from the site, it was showtime.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:14:00
Smith
PAN - Hidden

The ride downtown seemed to go smoothly. Fort and Error had checked in, Rocky was manning the truck, and Sledge was driving the van. Smith watched out the passenger window of the van as the city gradually transitioned into the high-class, high-security area they were in now. There was a time, not too long ago, where he would have felt safer in this part of town. Dealing with Franco, and the types of people he associates with, however, had made him appreciate areas of the city where he could find a little privacy. This was not one of them.

The sky above was filled with drones. It was dark enough that he had trouble making them out, but he was sure they were there. Every street-corner and shop-front had innumerable microscopic sensors polling all sorts of innocuous data that might be useful to marketing teams. Every electronic device for miles was probing for his PAN - which he had instructed his commlink to pass along the fabricated documents provided by Nym. He was, after all, pretending to be semi-legitimate foreman, and nothing would make his team stand out in this part of town more than if they were a suspicious vacuum in AR space. The vehicles, as well, were broadcasting their forged identification for anyone who would care - probably any number of Lone Star drones circling the area.

He could not speak for how the rest of his team was feeling, as they moved into higher security areas, but in addition to the suspense and sense of danger, Smith breathed a little sigh of relief every time they crossed another intersection undetected. He had faith in Nym's work - but the job had been rushed - and the moment one of the automated systems picked up anything unusual, he imagined the area would erupt in sirens and AR warnings. Every second that went by in nerve-wracking silence spoke volumes for the quality of the false information they had purchased.

Assuming the information holds, and the team makes it home to collect on their favors, it will have been worth every nuyen.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:15:32
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Offline

All Rocky could do was follow the Love Machine and wait to see what happened next. He had the address and instructions for the site in his comm but didn't really need them yet. So far the drive had been quite, but it had been a workout for him to make sure the truck stayed on the road and didn't do anything that would draw attention to him.

It was hard to believe only a month ago he would have been driving his own car downtown or riding along as someone else drove to the latest club to hang out and be seen on a Saturday night. Now he was hoping he wouldn't be seen or noticed by anyone and was on his way to do some dirty work for someone else.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:20:19

Approaching from the west, the vehicles passed between a karaoka palace on the left - upscale Japanese and Russion women in evening dresses and wraps chatting on the corner - and a MushiSushi on the right - Lone Star cruiser paked out front.

Crossing the intersection when the signal went green, the open tiers of a five-storey parkade rose up on the left, and the walls surrounding the back of the Hirotomo Building, festooned with Amerind-style mosaics, followed their course on the right.

The rain pounded down with a steady drumming on the roofs of their vehicles.

Pulling up to their 30-floor target's back gate, they saw what looked like a hardwired vidcom in the wall beside it - probably seldom used, given its AR equivalent hovering in space above it. Before Smith could reach out virtually to access it, however, the gate swung open, with an accompanying AR signal stating:

Traffic Hazard - Please proceed to loading gate and state business there.

Swinging the vehicles down into the concrete canyon, they arrived at the end to find plenty of room to swing the big truck ass-first toward the loading dock, the Love Machine parked near it. Beside big and small doors was another pairing of AR and physical intercoms, both initially unresponsive to their arrival.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:20:49

Smith reviewed his fake documentation one more time in AR before giving Sledge a confidant smile, and hopping out of the passenger door of the van. He began barking order back towards the truck and across the van, as Rocky and Sledge began to get out - nobody seemed exactly sure what their next move was going to be, except Smith. Smith however, gesticulated wildly for a moment, giving orders that probably didn't even make much sense, but sounded like he knew what he was talking about and leaving little doubt in the minds of anyone listening in that he was in charge, and in a hurry. As the other two started to unsecure the machinery, Smith turned, with a scowl, and approached the AR icon for the vidcom, activating it once he was withing range. As the screen crackled to life, he tried to get the first word in, "I know we're late, but we'll still be out of your hair by midnight." Smith hoped his choice of words, and inflection in his voice gave the impression he wanted it to - that his arrival should have been expected, and that he was going to be rushed.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:30

For a few moments, there was only silence, then a hurried <<Right, okay, sure. I'll open the doors right now.>>

"Right now," however, turned out to be ten seconds, then twenty. Just as the team started to worry, the doors started rolling up. A young man in a Knight-Errant uniform ducked under the still-opening doors, recoiling back against the wall as the rain hit his face.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:30
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

Most of the drive she'd leaned back in the seat and let the tractor pilot software handle driving. Most of the time she concentrated on the standard traffic imagery from the target area. Not that it showed much except low resolution indicators for likely traffic loads and times, but sometimes it might catch something. It probably helped convey a sense a comfort if she was laying back with her eyes closed. Occasionally she opened up and checked the others to see how they were handling it.

Sledge had no idea how the others were handling the pressure.

Right after Sugar Lips flashed one of his smiles at them she turned to Rocky and murmurred, "Just going to work... just like every day, let the boss boy handle all the talking. We are just dumn trogs."

She snarled silently and hopped out as soon as she could and started checking the load for unshipping.

...breathe..

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:36

Watching the young man scurry out to greet them, Smith read in his face a desperate desire to please - a vapid, ingratiating smile, nervous gestures, and involuntary eye flashes back toward the door. It seemed clear that this fellow would do anything needed to keep the arriving work crew happy. Smith also noticed the holstered pistol on the man's hip. It was small, but then a bullet to the head was a bullet to the head.

While Smith focused on the man's manner and gear, a few details were not lost on the two metahumans. Sledge saw that while the man's shirt was tucked in at the front, in the back it was not. Better yet, Rocky noticed what looked like lipstick on the man's collar. And then they both heard what sounded like a woman whimpering inside - it was loud enough to be audible out in the rain.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:45
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith nodded once at the young man, while maintaining a stern expression - as though the 30 seconds he was forced to wait might jeopardize whatever job they were here to do. He then turned to the others and waved them towards the door as they unloaded the equipment, backing himself towards the doorway and hoping the flustered man will make way for him. He hoped that if he kept his mouth running, the guard wouldn't be able to ask too many questions. "Okay, lets pick up the pace! Time is money, people!" He then looked over his shoulder, at the guard, in order to check that he was stepping aside for them, and to add "Mind calling the service elevator, for us? We'll be out of your hair, as soon as we can." He also took the opportunity to look for the physical or AR name-tag on the guard.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:51

Smith added the man's name - Larsky - onto the tail end of his last request/command, as the other two "workers" started unlimbering the beat of a device that sat on the back of the big flatbed.
As Smith ascended the steps up to the loading dock, the obsequious guard couldn't say yes fast enough. "Sure thing, I'll...I'll just...I'll go inside and flip the switch." And he ducked back under the half-open roll-up gate.
It struck the runners' leader as odd that the guard didn't have AR access to the loading dock controls, but it was a new building.

Downtown
Saturday 8/23/70 19:21:55
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

The whimpering noise became more noticeable as Smith climbed the steps. He could tell it was a woman whimpering - its just a different sort of sound, and not one Adam particularly liked to hear. He felt uneasy, all of a sudden - and it wasn't just because the sound was unexpected. Externally, however, he kept his cool. Odd though it may be that Larsky didn't have AR controls for the dock or elevator, his physical departure gave Smith and excuse to peek around the corner after him.

As the guard righted himself on the other side, Smtih ducked, as well, taking the opportunity to peek around under the door, under the pretense of having more to say to Larsky. "The ramp, too, before you go. We've got a pretty big cutter to get down there."

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:22:10
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith peeked in, and could not see much. From where he was standing, he could see the guard-station, but didn't have an angle to see anything useful through the window. He also saw that the guard was heading there, and hadn't looked back at him, yet. He waved to his crew, reiterating the sense of urgency, but this seemed less in-character, and more like a real request for speed. It didn't really make any difference, both Sledge and Rocky were already working to unload the gear as fast as they could. Smith then cautiously stepped under the door, after the guard. He stops himself just on the other side, though, and has a better idea. Playing it off as though he simply prefers to wait for his crew inside, out of the rain, Smith turns away from both the guard-station and (he hopes) any cameras, and mutters, quietly. "Yo, Fort, you around? What's going on in the guard-booth?" Smith would have preferred to ask Error for a eyes-on camera-feed, but had been given the impression that Error was up to his eyeballs, already, running over-watch on the downtown grid - and not going to jail forever trumped his curiosity. He then glanced over his shoulder at the window to the guard-booth, mentally crossing his fingers that the message was received, and that Fortunato was on the job.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:22:10
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Inactive

Fortunato had been fluttering invisibly around the building for nearly fifteen minutes when Smith arrived in the truck, traffic must have been a bit dense. There was little to distract him other than th ecouple vigorously enjoying each other's company in the guard shack. Fortunato felt like a voyeur watching it ... he supposed he technically was trespassing and spying any way he sliced it, but this felt bad none-the-less.

Hearing Smith's command he flitted invisibly to the security room and saw the same woman as before getting hurriedly dressed. He returned to the loading dock and, after pushing his head through the wall one last time to check the guard was out of earshot, he manifested and said "One lady in the guard-station, getting dressed. Comms. through this watcher while he lasts, talk about that later." His apparition vanished again.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:22:15
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Offline

The rain seemed to be slowing Rocky down this evening for some reason, or maybe it was something else. He slowly made his away around the flat bed truck releasing the tie downs he has used to make sure the cutter would stay in place for the drive over.

Some how over the rain and idling engine of the truck he had caught the sound of wimpering or crying coming from the building but brushed it off as his imagination.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:22:15
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith wasn't entirely sure what all of that meant, but tried not to let it show. In fact, he tried not to react at all to the ghostly image of Fort, just in case the guard or cameras could somehow see his reaction, but could not see Fort. Smith thought about the woman - picturing a crying, whimpering woman hurriedly trying to put her clothes back on before her assailant returned to the privacy of his booth. He wasn't entirely sure how the situation came to be, but he knew he didn't like it, but he also knew that doing anything about it, now, jeopardized the mission (and their lives). This was why he typically just went with his instincts, and didn't bother checking his facts. Now that he confirmed his suspicions, his team could blame him for acting on them, if doing so compromised the objective.

He was a team player, and wanted them to succeed tonight for a number of reasons, but Smith didn't think he could just look the other way, and leave the poor girl to his fate. He thought of Angel briefly, before making up his mind. It was not news to him, at all, that he was a sucker for a damsel in distress. That was pretty much what brought him to this point in his life.

With one last glance under the gate to make sure his team was still progressing towards the door, he started to walk, as casually as he could, towards the guard-booth - taking care to check if the window was one-way glass, or if he could use that to get a better (and less suspicious) glance at whoever the guard was hiding in there.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:23:47
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith was only a few moments behind the guard, who seemed to either be playing it cool or did not notice he was being followed. In either case, he had barely made it into the room and began hushing the woman while trying to control the volume of their movie when Smith coughed politely at the door. Both the guard, and the woman he was with, turned with horrified expressions, then the woman dashed out of view again. The guard began to mumble something incoherent as his thoughts stepped all over themselves trying to come up with an explanation. The look in his eyes was one of desperation. He was caught, and was probably going to be fired. It was clear that he did not want to be fired, but had no idea how to make this scene look like anything other than what it was. The look smith gave him, in return, seemed to disarm him for a moment, giving the young Shadowrunner a chance to get a word in edgewise.

"I'm sorry. Look, don't sweat it, man. You think this is where I want to be spending my Saturday night, either?" Smith shook his head. "Tell you what, you don't mention that my crew and I arrived late, tonight, and I won't mention how bored you looked when we got there." He winked, hoping the man would take his offer, and that he would believe that these people had as much to loose as he did if anyone found out about it. Larsky stood there for a moment, then grinned and nodded. Good. Smith thought the guard would be far less likely to check up on them if he had something like this to keep him busy.

"Okay, so, if you could just get the door and ramp, for us, we'll be on our way to the basement - and you two can have plenty of privacy." The guard nodded and began to move towards the controls, but seemed to be hesitating and still looking at Smith. "I'll just, ah, go help them with the gear." As soon as he moved away from the door, he heard the groan of steel as the first two barriers between his team and their prize were lifted.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:00
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith waved his team forward, playing the role as best he could, but a good deal more relaxed knowing that he was probably not at the forefront of the lone guard's mind. Sledge and Rocky managed to get the gear from the street, inside, and to the lift device that would transport it to the basement. He could tell that his two accomplices were relieved to have the worst of the heavy-lifting over-with - that is, of course, assuming the did not try to make a clean exit. Smith hadn't totally given up on that idea, but wasn't sure how they would repair the floor after they cut it all up. Like most roads, he would cross this one, when he got there. For now, he allowed himself a small sigh of relief as the elevator started downward, taking his team to the sub-basement level. He was sure there were still a hundred things that could go wrong, but he wasn't going to stress himself out worrying about any of them, yet.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:10

The elevator doors opened to a feeling of surreal synchronicity - some of the runners had kept AR windows of the feeds Error offered from the sub-basement's cameras, and as the doors opened, their eyes saw a meet world indentical in every detail but the angle to what they saw virtually.

And a key feature - the most key on many minds - was the vast ocean of smooth, bare concrete that lay before them.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:30
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith walked out into the room, and got a feel for the place, and then glanced at Sledge. "Okay, lets see if we can find their little sewage problem.... Which of those things has a pilot program?" Smith was hoping, at least, that the heavy lifting was over, now, and that the GPR could drive itself around the room looking for abnormalities. He didn't have a sense yet of where he thought the bodies would have been buried, but if he had to dig blind, he would suggest starting in the far corner by the water room. Luckily, they had secured the equipment they would need to avoid making two or three large holes, and could instead, hopefully, save time by just making one.

Thing was, he didn't really know the first thing about construction - or de-construction, for that matter - and so now that they were out of view of the guard, he was hoping for Sledge to take the lead.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:30
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato rode down the elevator shaft unseen by the rest of the party. He wasn't looking forward to the dull task of monitoring for physical and astral intrusion while staying in touch with the team. It was walking in a circle for hours while retaining a razor's edge of vigilance -- difficult.

As the team fanned out into the expansive sub-basement, the spirit Fortunato manifested, the astral expression of his pea coat drifting off into writhing, waving tendrils which twined and squirmed endlessly. He addressed Johnson, the projection of his voice arriving hollowly and with more reverberation than the sound damping concrete warranted.

"We need to chat for a minute."

Johnson turned to the appration and Fortunato laid out his worries.

"This is a longer astral surveillance mission than you've had me on before. So there are a few things that I want you to be aware of. One, the little guys you usually use to talk to me don't stick around forever. I'm leaving one with you now, but he's going to fade away in a few hours and you'll only be able to reach me through direct contact -- I'll need to be floating around the room that you're in. Two, I can't stay out here forever, in six hours I need to get back to my body or bad things happen -- I won't be able to come back for about an hour after that and then I'm one hour on and one hour off until I get some sleep."

The astral form has been ticking these points off on its fingers. Where there would have been a physical collision there were faint bursts of magical energy and bits of the image flickered off into space like pieces of smoke disturbed by objects moving through them.

"If you want me to disappear for a few minutes after the little guy fades away. I can bring in some fresh ones to keep us in touch. Otherwise, I was planning on flying in circles around the first floor to look for trouble and checking in with you guys fairly frequently by floating through and manifesting. If you have any particular desires or input, let me know. Otherwise I'm going to get started."

Fortunato arched an expressive astral eyebrow, throwing off more of the visible energy his will had loosely pulled together, and waited expectantly.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:28:45
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith steps aside with the ghost of Fortunato, waving Sledge and Rocky towards the machinery so that not a moment would be wasted. Fort even made sense, mostly, which was good for any conversation about magic. "Don't sweat it, Fort. Six hours is a long workday, and I'm hoping to we'll be wrapping things up before then - but, ya know, if we're not, feel free to pop out and do whatever you need to do. Don't worry about replacing the little guy. This place seems pretty non-magical to me, so if you don't see anything interesting in the next hour, we can probably get by with you just popping in and out when you can."

"Hey, can you just float down under the floor and look for bones, or something - might be faster than the radar." Smith glanced back towards the other two.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:28:45
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Projecting

"Not so easy. I'd be all over it, but ground is just about as solid for me as it is for you. Though, there is one trick I can try."

Fortunato floated around the room, sprialling to the corners with his eyes peeled for changes in that astral background.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:10

She'd only just realized something had been going on as the elevator doors closed. Getting the gear off the truck and keeping Rocky busy and focused on unloading the gear both correctly, and without making it seem like it was their first time unloading heavy gear together was taxing. Then moving the things along quickly and safely was a problem. They weren't going to get another chance at this. Normally she'd run one piece down, then the other so any screw ups wouldn't impact the ability to move the other, but that required time.

Then the elevator door closed and she had closed her eyes.

Andy squeezed her left hip as the cage moved between floors and half the crew on the lower level cracked a few laughs and hollers when she slapped his hand away with the rebar. The pouring crew above started yelling down through the open slats to be let in on the joke. Andy rubbed his hand and grinned, "Don't worry babe, soon we can tell everyone." He laughed as she glared at him sceptically.

The doors opened and she looked out over the smooth pour.

... oh andy what did you do?...

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:28:55

"4 spots to check first. And we need to get setup for the cuts."

Sledge lit up the sections on the ARO grid, "One of you can walk that off for our friend while I get the GPR running. While I'm running the GPR, one of you needs to pull the water and power lines into those four spots for the cutter. After the cutter gets going, we'll need a few places to keep the pieces."

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:30:00
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Projecting

The more Fortunato looked at the astral plane of the basement, the less pleased he was to be there. Something ugly, black and spiky welled up from the corners and the walls -- it was deeply unsettling. The feeling only intensified as he continued his search for any negative emotional imprints that may have been left by the untimely burial of their "client" for this run. Below the concrete was especially bad, the entire space took on an oily feeling as pressed through it. He wasn't able to discern anything physical -- the world was a mishmash of concrete, rebar and other thoroughly physical things, but the emotional imprint troubled him. He scoured the subterranean world -- an endless maze of claustrophobic, gray material that was entirely insubstantial until he found the peak in the astral disfigurement.

The mage resurfaced, his ghost dripping and frayed at the edges, to report. "Johnson, I can't verify for sure, but mojo suggests that we should think about starting in this corner." He was floating in the Southeast part of the room. "Something bad happened down here, sets my teeth on edge. Any rate, take the advice or leave it, it's time for me to do the eyes and ears thing."

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:30:25
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

"Let's start there." agreed Smith, pleased that his idea seemed to work, and completely oblivious of the fact that Fortunato had not been able to just go down and look for bones, and had come up with a different, creative, solution which was relatively unrelated to what Smith thought he had just been doing.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:27:03
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Offline

Rocky had followed Sledge's directions when unloading the equipment and getting it in to the elevator. He was doing his best to stay quite and not give away he had no idea what he was doing.

Saturday 8/23/70 19:30:30
Once in the basement Rocky relaxed a little, but made sure to keep things under control and waited for what ever it was that he was needed for next.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:30:50

Sledge stared at the South East Corner. Then pointed Rocky at the spots to carry things to.

sets his teeth on edge... what does it do to a tusker?

She pulled up the safety goggles and wiped away tears.

time to work

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:47:45

Having started at the far south end of the southeast quadrant, Sledge had worked her way steadily north, systematically scanning the area. It was slow work due the the jumbled distribution of solid hunks of rubble under the new cement floor, clearly laid over remnants of the old, felled building. There was a lot down there to confuse with a body.

Rocky and Smith had finished arranging the water and power lines down to that end of the basement a few minutes earlier, confident in Fort's tip.

And now here it was - another false hit? - one, then two, then three humanoid-sized forms, all too parallel for it to be accident. The forms were twisted and broken, and well down under the rubble - they would have to dig once they cut away the cement. But adjusting the density readings on the GPR it was clear that they'd found what they were looking for.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:48:20

For a while it had been easy to get lost in the routine. Scan, move, scan, move, an easy rhythm, the working of her muscles eased the lingering soreness from the earlier encounter with betrayal.

magnusson, heimar, peterson, ibn gassoul, chang, ieto, gonzales, alonso, hriedarson, which ones....

Sledge hadn't seen any of them, hadn't looked for them, tried not to think about them, everything left behind. Andy's crew, her crew, maybe even someone from the management team. Buried in the scrap. Thrown away. Gone.

breathe

"No one messes with my crew."

Sledge sprayed the markers over the concrete.

"Drundeah Zakhan, cerri."

Sledge got the cutter ready.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:48:23
Watcher Spirit
PAN: non-existent
Astrally Projecting

Amidst the preparation of the cutter, the watcher piped up. Floating to Rocky, the twisting cylinder of mana spoke loudly and with some agitation.

"My boss said to say 'Unknown astral forms in Love Machine. Rocky, prepare for spirit combat. Observing and engaging to cover operations.' He didn't sound very happy about it."

The spirit started to flit towards Smith, but no sooner had the diminutive spirit delivered its message than the team's comms were filled with choked cries for help from a voice that might have belonged to their new hacker.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:48:38
Smith
PAN - Active (Showing information for fake SIN)

Smith had been "overseeing" the operation with feigned interest for only a few minutes when the watcher spirit showed up and gave Rocky an urgent sounding message. Smith picked out the words "spirit combat" and "love machine" and his heart sank. Things had been going so well. Just then, their comms crackled to life with gags as gasps - presumably from Error.

"Guys, I think things just got bad." His smirk said that he understood that they had both understood this, already. " Rocky - if Fort thinks you can help... go to. I'll see if I can hop online and give our new friend a hand. Sledge... keep at it. We need to evac, asap."

He was already sliding down the wall into a comfortable position to drop into VR. This is going to suck.

A quick glance around the security node's VR space showed Smith what he was looking for. Error's icon was quickly de-ressing before his eyes - and the fact that he could even find the thing told him that nobody was behind the controls, anymore. He did not, however, see anyone else on the node who might have done this, and he had not been immediately attacked, himself, so he decided to drop back into meatspace to manage things from there.

He logged off, just seconds before Fortunato's watcher spirit showed up to tell him that the mage was doing some recon to find out what happened. Smith thought briefly about calling the team back to rush the job before things got worse - but, if a few more minutes were going to make a difference they were all dead, anyway. Instead, he passed the message off to everyone else, via comms. <Fort scanning. Stay sharp.>

Then, from the floor, he began loading an agent onto the security node, to keep an eye out there. Whatever was going down, whether it was on the matrix, physical, or astral - it had targeted their hacker, and vanished before help arrived. It might have been an unintentional consequence, but the team was now basically without overwatch support. His agent-code wouldn't take the place of a real hacker like Error, but it might give him a second-or-two of warning if anything showed up on the security node to cause more trouble.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:48:38
Fortunato - Utility Mage
PAN: Passive
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato started his rounds listlessly, flitting back and forth as if trying to dodge the chafing load of being on watch for the next six hours. The tone of his haphazard astral jaunt changed sharply as the spell slinger accidentally dove through a wall into the garage and found himself within 20 real feet ... it felt like astral inches ... from a pair of astral forms. Time froze as the big orc and the wispy silhouette hung next to the former spy in the impossibly long snakeskin-lined pea coat. But as soon as Fortunato's physical heart had kicked up a notch, before his body even had time to sweat, the astral forms vanished into the Love Machine. Fortunato barely had time to register the white handprint on the orc's chest.

He messaged the team to hold still as he assumed a position to observe and ambush the attackers if they were going to blow the operation's cover, crouching in the floor with green energy crackling around his hands. And he waited interminably ... one second ... two seconds ... three, when it hit him.

I'm so fucking dumb. They are blowing the operation.

His astral form surged toward the van the energy coalescing around his open palm.

Go for the hacker while he's sleeping. Worst spy ...

He couldn't finish the though as he burst into the van and hurled a green bolt of zig-zagging mana into the orc's skull with a perfectly executed palm strike. Wheeling towards what was now very apparently an elemental he hurled another stunbolt from the fingertips of an outstretched spear hand, bug the energy flew wide and fizzled. The spirit gazed at him, then vanished looking like it enjoyed the taste of freedom.

Fortunato wound up a fist, to smash the skull of Error's assailant and put him permanently out of the picture. There was no time for self-recrimination and certainly no time to deal with an unconscious and probably hostile astral form; he had to kill it and find the strike team before the job was blown to succeed against the odds. His hand was stayed as Error's aura caught his eye -- injured and unconscious but not permanently damaged if he remembered his training correctly.

He fired another message to the team and the back door flew open. Fortunato wheeled around, hand already charging up, to see Rocky's familiar aura there. He manifested and said "Why the fuck are you here? Whatever, keep your head down. He's unconscious and stable because of a spirit attack -- I plan to find the rest of our assailants." and then returned to astral and flew off dragging the orc with him.

Hirotomo Building
Saturday 8/23/70 19:48:38
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Offline

Rocky knew things had been going to easy when he got the first message from Fort that something was going on in the van. The cries for help from the new hacker quickly confirmed his thought that this had been to easy.

With out a word he took off at a dead run across the room easily stepping over the cables they had strung out for the evenings work. Rocky knew he needed to get upstairs quick if he was going to be any help for Error, so instead of going for the elevator he made a b-line for the stairs he had seen on he maps provided earlier figuring he could make one level faster that the elevator could.

Luckily the doors on the stairs were not locked and with the length of his legs he was taking the stairs three and four at a time. Exiting the stairwell he tried to slow down a little hoping to draw less attention to himself and the team. His luck only lasted so long as the guard had already closed the main door which took him a few extra seconds to get started opening.

Once the door was high enough to allow his bulk through he hit the ground and rolled under the door, straightening himself as he dropped to the ground below.

At first glance nothing was amiss outside and the rain was still slowing coming down. He quickly made his way to the van and pulled the doors open, readied to defend or attack based on what he saw. As he expected Error appeared to be unmoving on the floor of the van, but their were no obvious signs of injury or blood on his body.

As Rocky started pull himself into the van to check on the hacker he was stopped short as the teams magical support appeared in the van standing over Error yelling at him.

"Why the fuck are you here? Whatever, keep your head down. He's unconscious and stable because of a spirit attack -- I plan to find the rest of our assailants."

And then he was gone again.

Rocky finished his climb in to the van, pulling the door closed behind him. Once the door was closed he opened the team channel and relayed Fort's message to the others.

<<@Team:: "Heads up! Fort says we have visitors onsite and not the good kind, he's doing recon. Error is out cold but alive. I'm going to see if I can get him up and moving.>>

With the message done he leaned down to see what he could do.