OOC: (We've discussed it in OOC, but I think everyone wants to move on right now. You can give a quick overview at the start of your next post wrapping things up or describing things you did such as getting drones operational, learning things, Selina inviting Mike over to her new apartment, Bongo playing with Rose in her garage with a variety of college kids. Some things could also be handled retrospectively afterwards. Some discussions and things could be picked up after this run. )

----------

It's Sunday May 25th in Baltimore. In the afternoon morning showers give way to the more typical dry cloud cover and temperatures climbing into the high seventies. The Boyz have set up something of a first aid station near the rear of the safehouse. With the warmer weather they've been doing crazier stunts without as much clothing to protect them from their poor choices. Also a little road rash can be as impressive to the lady chipheads, alcoholics, and squatters from the places on either side of the safehouse. With free nutripacks arriving daily and electrical connections the city doesn't cut off the boyz have to compete with other vices.

Brester puts in a call to Bongo, Paul, Willie, and Selina, requesting an actual AR link. He waits until each confirms availability before starting.

He looks a little rough, like maybe he didn't sleep much last night. However he also has some extra chrome shining around his right eye socket, so presumably he got something extra put in there.

He starts <<Hopefully you've managed to settle in. You might need some of that for this one. I've got a job for you, or really rather two jobs.

The first is working with a gang leader out of Harlem Tower 3, located here>>

He flips the group an ARO with coordinates
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UQGvKDzc2CQLD9iu6

He then continues

<<I suppose Harlem Tower 3 was supposed to be a nice place, being situated next to Harlem Inner Block Parks K101, Q112, and Za125. However as the level of effort they put into naming may suggest there was a certain lack of foresight.

Since it was a city project, they used eminent domain to level all the buildings there. What they put in is a ferrocrete and plastisteel brick about a hundred meters by a hundred meters on the ground and a hundred stories up, plus a few more stories for a parking garage below.

The key feature of these towers is they're trying to create Jeremy Bentham's panopticon for low cost housing instead of a prison. The apartments are narrow and long, kind of like from the footage you showed me of Frank's place. Except instead of doing it to give everyone a window, they do it to give everyone a visible door to the central maintenance tower.>>

He pauses for a moment and smirks a little before continuing. <<Well, you probably don't want to hear me going on about architecture or pre awakening Utilitarianism philosophy. Feel free to ask, but you'll probably do better getting more detailed information elsewhere. Let me get to the key points.

That monolithic rectangle has a couple tens of thousands of unfortunate SINNERs, probably about as many SINless, and a number of gangs, with Monifa's crew being dominant. She's the one with the problem>>

He sends another ARO with an image of a large black female Ork wearing a tank top to show off her muscles and many scars. Chrome eyes seeming to glow from the sun reflecting off the image, with West Baltimore stretching out in the background. Indicating the picture was taking from very high up.

<< Her problem is she's made an enemy but she doesn't know who. First there was a swarm of gangers that came from outside, rode the elevators up to the top of the building where her crew operates, and tried to take them out. They were noticed very early and that went very poorly for them.

He waves a hand <<Actually, a rather large part of the job description was describing how her gang won these battles. Anyway next a team more like runners tried a stealthy surgical strike using the stairs. Using stairs was also a poor choice. The third attempt involved a team coming in with a helicopter. Despite her descriptions of her gang's martial prowess it sounds like this attack nearly managed to geek her.

The job then is to keep her alive long enough to figure out who is after her and stop the attacks. She didn't explicitly specify bodyguard duty. However as a general rule if a Johnson dies they don't pay you.

You'll have to work out the details with her. If you accept I'll pass on your likenesses, or whatever disguise you'd like to use, and you'll meet her at the top of the tower. I did inform her that you're seasoned Runners who won't be working for less than three thousand. >>


He then pauses, takes a long breath, and a drink of something in a shot glass and continues.

<< However for all that I don't care about that job. I mean my reputation is on the line whenever I'm involved to be sure. But as a matter of priority all of that is secondary.

Monifa shared some images of the dead from her raids, and also of a number of other denizens of the tower that have been killed recently, in case that's related. I have some automated agents running to find certain images, and they took note of these >>

He pulls up a series of three photographs. Two with dead Orks and a third with a dead human. The thing they all have clearly in common is what appears to be a flower growing out of their right eye. They don't obviously have other wounds aside from some blood coming out of their noses or mouths.

<<That odd little feature is something I've only seen from a single spirit. I'm not sure if it was unbound, bound, an ally spirit, or what. In any case it's presumably a free spirit now, as I understand these things>> His visage gets a little clouded and angry (OOC: For anyone that can manage two hits on a social awareness test, which I think all of you can buy) before he gets serious again and continues.

<<This all comes from a run gone bad. An uncommon occurrence with my crews, but they knew this one was a high-risk high-reward scenario. Four team members, this spirit, and a client of sorts went out. Only the spirit and two of the runners got out, I have some camera footage of that, but after that they promptly dropped off the grid. I was worried the runners succumbed to their wounds and the spirit simply vanished into whatever spirits vanish into when their time is up.

Maybe not. >>

He shares a still image. It's of a woman who is clearly a spirit. Her opalescent skin, beautiful face, and hair full of flowers could have been done with cosmetics, but her flowing green dress seems to work like a snake's tail without any legs where legs should be. She's also clearly stronger than a woman of her apparent size and light musculature as she holds up a large dazed looking troll in obvious black body armor with an array of horns growing out of his head that almost makes it look like he has a mane. A little bit behind them a human woman in similar black armor with a katana hilt poking out over her shoulder and a black Mossberg AM-CMDT shotgun in her hands. Her race is a bit hard to pin down. She has a nose that seems to not have healed properly after getting broken and looks like she recently took a nasty slash to her face that lets you see through her right cheek to where some teeth should have been. She isn't that large, but the thick soles on her black boots raise her up to maybe five foot eight. Those boots are leaving splotches of blood behind leading up to a wall, however the photo appears to have been blurred to obscure if those prints lead to a door or entry.

<< I'm very interested in being able to still derive some benefits from that run, and to do that I need the help of that spirit. If they're messing around in that tower presumably they have some business. Business means they care about something. Caring about something means there must be some leverage to get them interested in working with me. Perhaps that won't even be too hard. I don't think they'd have any reason to dislike me. Maybe they'd have called if they'd ever had a comlink or any awareness of myself. The team shaman handled all spirit interactions, but she seems to not have made it back at all.

Before you ask I don't feel at liberty to discuss the nature of the run. In part because I wouldn't want to ...taint any information you might get about what happened should you come across any. Also client privacy and all that. But maybe you'll find out more later if this pans out.

I have teams that I've worked with longer than you. But if any of the runners from that job are still around I don't want them getting hurt, though I'd very much like to talk to them as well, and I don't want any situation with the spirit escalating. You've shown a particular and surprising restraint in your last jobs that I think makes you my best bet for success and not burning bridges.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot more information for you. The troll runner was a big tough razorboy going by Double Barrel, and the female was a physical adept and informal team leader going by Cadillac. She liked to use the first name Camila with her fake IDs so that might be her real name, but not necessarily. I don't know their real names or SINs, or even if they properly have them. I'll send you some aliases from fake IDs, but I haven't gotten any pings on them. I have no idea what the spirit went by.

I'm offering 50k if you can get me some useable info on what the spirit has going on in the tower and get them to share with me about the run. You can get part of that money by finding either of those runners, if they're able to share anything useful. Finding them might pay other dividends as well.

I anticipate working with Monifa will give you a sort of license to investigate in the tower in a way that would usually be very bad for your health. Though don't get my runners or that spirit on their radar. Also, as an advance if you agree, I'm sending over some narcojet pistols to the safehouse. I guess you can sell yours if you want, but I wanted to make very sure you all had a non-lethal option. Careful about overdosing with multiple shots too quickly.


One last matter. You're going to want a hacker for this. Angel has really been working on their athletic skills. Lenny, well, at least he's interested in another run. If you'd rather someone new I have a hacker I trust called Livewire. He can't do some of the amazing things Angel can, lacks some of the sophisticated corporate hacking techniques of Lenny, but he's able to operate on his own initiative, shoots straight, and conserves ammo. Let me know who you'd like to include. >>

Having gotten that long winded speal out he leans back at his desk and waits for the team to reply.

As the month nears its end, Selina (or in this case Kimberly McKenzie) can finally move into her new apartment. A big improvement over the safehouse, even though that also has its purpose.

It takes her a few days to get settled in, getting a few new pieces of furniture, and to rearrange everything to her taste. Almost a whole week is needed to prepare her Magical Lodge, which Selina puts up in her own bedroom (the one with the direct view over the harbor; Dawn will get the bedroom with direct access to the terrace). It still feels a little weird, that both of the bathrooms can only be accessed through the bedrooms, and the walk-in-closets only through these, but she will surely get used to it. It's not a big deal, and the rest of the apartment is super nice and the view and the cool terrace totally make up for it, anyways. And it does keep the whole floor plan tidied up, so there is that as well.

Kim also got to meet her direct neighbors, who have the other side of the terrace, a lovely couple in their fifties, who also happen to have two cats. Selina's charming nature quickly won them over. They were very friendly and welcoming, and immediately offered to help in case she needed anything. [ OOC: Friendly Neighbors Quality ]

With only a couple more days to spare, much of her time is also occupied with her fashion design job, the shaman spent a number of hours with summoning and binding two spirits, who agreed to a number of services after some friendly negotiations. Selina tends to treat her spirit as equals and not as servants, which usually goes over well.

Dawn arrives from Seattle a day before Brewster calls. It's been over a year now, that the teenager was rescued from the grasp of the two dwarf brother pimps along with a bunch of other girls. The petite elf was very reclusive and forlorn back then, but a lot has changed in the meantime. The physical abuse took maybe a month or two to heal, while the emotional scars will likely stay with her forever. Despite those, she lives a happier life now, and she is grateful for the opportunity provided to her. Not everyone in her position ever gets that chance. It still feels a little bit like a dream to her, one from which she hopefully never has to wake up. Cole had provided her with a proper SIN under the name Dawn Summers back then, an orphan that was taken in by Kimberly McKenzie, who acts as her legal guardian until she becomes an adult herself.

Together with the new apartment, Selina has been looking into leasing a car, as she only has her bike otherwise, and so she drove to the airport to pick up Dawn in a sleek, white Rover SUV. Happy to see her, after being about a month apart now, the elf girl rushed in with a big smile to give Selina a hug, then immediately took a step back to play it cool. Yeah, that really didn't work out so well. On the drive back to the apartment, there was a lot of talk about how blue the sky is and how pretty those clouds are. Dawn compared the color of the sky to her own blue eyes. She likes it already.

School will only start in late summer, so there will be at least three more months for Dawn to get used to her new surroundings. Not that it will be hard to get used to her new space, considering how nice it is. And she is not leaving that much behind, either. Mostly bad memories. And those can stay in Seattle.

<< Runner teams and helicopters? If this Monifa is actually looking for protection, she will have to do a lot better than three thousand. Digging up some information about what is going on there might be more reasonable. Stopping the attacks... that really depends on who that is and what it is they want. Only thing that is clear, they have quite a few resources on their hands and are willing to waste them for this. But, well, no harm in hearing her out. I understand that this part is mostly an excuse for digging around there, but it's still a job. >>

Bongo spends the time he has before any new run Brewster comes up with sussing out the infrastructure and the social structure of the area around Frank's building. Over time, he starts to blend into the daily comings and goings of the vendors, shoppers, buskers, sun seekers etc. A plan begins to formulate in his mind, but it is still nascent.

Rose gets him to meet the college students she thought might be worth a shot to form a group that plays together occasionally. In general, not too bad. With some help they will tighten up. One of them, Johnny Tate, is a passable composer and does pretty well on keyboards and trumpet. He seems to be the leader of the crew and garners respect from them. There is a young drummer, Teddy Smith (why do young people hang on to the diminutive of their names? Huh. There is Willie, too.), who is eager as all get out, and once he hears Bongo play he latches onto Bongo as if he were a second skin. Questions flow like water from a fire hose.

"What do I do to get my high hat more salient"
"How do you get that multi-rhythm so smooth?"

The answer is almost always the same: practice till your limbs feel like falling off.

##########

Willie spends his time in between constructively, practising with his knives till they feel more a part of him than they did before. Once in a while he drops in on the Boyz to watch their driving antics. Nothing like what he can do, of course. After a few days he is just part of the background for the gangers. Fine by him. Talking usually gets him into trouble.

Brewster leans back with a smirk <<To be clear I impressed on her that was three thousand per individual. Just establishing a baseline for being worth your time. The fee from myself for my project was for the group. You could add more crew if you think it would help, but you would need to divide the payout. Also keeping things discrete gets harder with more people.

Their opponent might have deep pockets. However we don't know the nature of things. Also less scrupulous Johnsons have been known to take advantage of the fact that Shadowrunners are substantially cheaper if they don't come back. Either way it makes financing a follow up run cheaper, especially if you have a fixer worse than myself that doesn't know about what happened to the least team. >>

Willie mulls over what Brewster said. He adds his two nuyen worth. (Inflation affects opinions, too.)

<<Whoa. If that body needs guarding, I'm in!>> Oh, Willie.

<<But, yeah, there was some kinda power creep going on. What comes after helicopters? Dragons?

<<By the look of it, the spirit could have been the next level, but I think if it wanted Monifa, we wouldn't need to worry about protecting her and her gang.>>

<<Yes, >> pipes in Bongo. <<Monifa looks like she could handle mundane attacks well enough, but weird shit magic and things that materialize right out of thin air look to be beyond her gang. I agree with Selina that if we have to deal with the next level of escalation, 3000 each seems low. If it weren't for Brewster's link to her, it would almost look more profitable to help out mystery Enemy Number 1. But then, what would our in be?

<<Having said that, I am in for negotiating with Monifa and then using her permission into the building to work towards the bigger job.>>

Willie adds, << If there have been raids with gangers and helicopters, the protection gig isn't likely to be quiet should the next wave come.>>

a funny look comes over Willie's face should anyone be watching him. "Should the next wave come? What am I becoming, some college twit?"

Bongo comes back, <<Any idea how the other gangs in the building will react to agents of Monifa poking around? And if we get to talking to the spirit, are we to keep your name, Brewster out of it at the start? >>

Brewster leans back and rubs his chin while he thinks, then he replies <<I have heard of free spirts doing various sorts of jobs. However Monifa didn't talk about defeating a sprit. You'd think if a spirit was trying to kill her she'd either have something she'd want to brag about...or she'd be dead. Now, it does occur to me that someone might leave a little detail like that out prior to negotiations. Just defeating a spirit doesn't solve your problem, you'd have to expect another to be sent your way, or for that one to return.

But then why being willing to share the pictures of the unfortunate souls getting flowers ahead of the funerals? She wasn't shy about mentioning a spirit in the fight with the first runner type team, though she felt she resolved that through the gangers being well versed in "geek the mage first" tactics.

I think it unlikely our free spirit is out to get her. But in any case please don't antagonize it. That's also probably good advice for your health as well.

By the way being the head gang of a tower like that means she has at least some magic user or users in her crew. She didn't mention it, but I feel reasonably safe presuming. That's also part of why I'd expect the other gangs to continue to be at least somewhere deferential. Also there's the old Bedouin proverb "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, my cousins and I against strangers. " An outside force tends to be unifying.

As for my name don't spread it around too broadly, but I think it would be fine to share with the spirit. Though it's quite possible they aren't any more aware of my name than I am of theirs. If they operated near the team long enough maybe they could have picked it up. Without my comcode they wouldn't have known how to get ahold of me, if they'd wanted to. I don't think I'd be perceived as having done anything untoward in regards to the team or the spirit's summoner, but it's possible all the spirit knows is that their summoner didn't make it back.

I'm afraid you know as much or more than I do about how much summoners fill their spirits in on such details. >>

Bongo thinks for a moment. <<So, how many of Monifa's crew have died? This could be a concerted effort by the other gangs in the building to get rid of the top dog. Or at least weaken her.

<<I mean, how else did two separate teams make their way up the building without being harassed by the gangs they passed? >>

He scans the images to see if there are any common elements to the flowers growing out of the corpses.



<<Selena, you have any clues about this flower spirit? Like, stories, myths, whatever?>>

Willie pipes in. <<What kinda helicopter was it? And what happened to it? Did Monifa's crew bring it down or was it used by survivors to escape? Uh. Maybe these questions are for Monifa, but maybe she shared info?>>

Brester smirks a little <<It would be atypical to bring someone outside for an assault on the building. But sometimes atypical leadership is how people get to the top. I wouldn't rule it out.>>


Though for that reason I'd almost rule out Monifa being forthcoming about the details of her current strength and casualties. Certainly she didn't tell me. I also have my doubts of her ability to visually identify helicopters, but you could ask. I care more about someone's reputation. She doesn't seem to have a reputation of screwing over business partners. Though she's a bit unstable and, perhaps necessarily, prone to violence. It sounds like she's quick to make friends which could have its advantages, but being professionals with some distance might help keep her on better behavior.

In any case she knows I know you're interacting with her. Assuming you take the job.

Normally legwork ahead of time is a good idea, but I presume her whole crew is on edge and keeping an active eye out for any runner types nosing around. >>

He screws his face up a little in though <<I doubt it's one of the other gangs though. She probably makes it her business to know all about them, and she could go after them directly. Wanting a group like you implies she thinks the threat is external. But again neither she nor I know that for a fact.>>


Even crappy cameras used by crappy photographers in 2070 are pretty good. Bongo can zoom in on the digital images. In all cases it's a single English Daisy
https://www.thespruce.com/thmb/w21mOMB7AnUn...63c062e3463.jpg

The flowers don't look exactly right, as if maybe they were fake. Though obviously they didn't grow naturally out of the corpses. The bodies appear quite fresh in the photos, and not arranged, as if the pictures were taken before the bodies were even touched, as opposed to the decomposition that would exist if the flowers grew naturally.

<< @Bongo: Sorry, no idea about the spirit. Never heard of any that do something like this. >>

Getting back to Brewster, it probably does not hurt to let him know they are not simply accepting a first offer, just because, even though she does think it is a decent offer.

<< Alright. Let's say we are interested. There is a lot of vagueness involved, and probably some pretty nasty people. We also don't really know, what Monifa is good for. Assuming we take your job, we pretty much have to take hers as well, regardless of how it pans out. So, I feel that you could do a little better here... >>

Bongo adds his opinion. <<Absolutely right, Selena. Seeing as we are the best team you have, Brewster, for this particular kind of mission, one that requires a nuanced touch and sensitivity, backed up with considerable firepower if absolutely necessary, I think twenty five thousand for the team for the Monifa part of the job is a much more appropriate amount. That works for me. How about you, Brewster?>>

(OOC: Only 4 hits for Brewster, but still enough).

Brewster gives a little smile. <<I'm offering you a substantial sum for your skills and discretion. Well, in some ways more for your particular predilections. As for the Monifa part of the payment, you'll just have manage that yourself with her. She'll be expecting you to negotiate. It would actually be suspicious if you didn't. Don't walk away. But she doesn't know you wouldn't be willing to walk away. >>

He leans forward towards the trideo camera that must be sitting about where a chair would be in front of his desk. <<And beyond the usual payment, if you can pull this off properly, it can open up all sorts of opportunities for all of us. Just be careful to keep the two jobs compartmentalized. You don't want Monifa knowing you're operating with even slightly ulterior motives on her turf, and I don't want any of my old team, whatever shape they're in, caught up in whatever Monifa has stirred up. >>

<< @Team: Okay, I think his offer is pretty good, actually. Let's do this! >>

Bongo looks at Willie with a shrug. "I tried. Hopefully I can do better with Monifa." <<Yup, I'm in.>>

<<Me, too>> Willie adds.

(OOC: Based on discussion in the OOC thread that Paul might not want to speak up and wanting to keep things moving)

Brewster waits a few beats and then says <<Great. I'll ping Monfia that you're going to be coming before she gets the idea to call someone else. Soon I'll need to give her your info so her lieutenants know to watch out for you, so decide fast if you want to use a different face or name. I expect she'll want you to meet roughly as soon as you can. Sunset is at 8:22. To get a good look at the place in color you probably want to be there before then, that gives you about five hours. That might strain her patience as it is. But I'll leave it in your capable hands.

You'll also want to select your hacker, or any other teammates. A hacker can probably operate remotely, though having another asset on site can be useful. I don't anticipate blacked out areas in the gang-controlled areas. Though RF paint is pretty cheap if any of them really wanted to use it. There's an operations and maintenance tower within the structure, but I don't know if they'd be blocked off.

I've got other things to deal with, and I want to get back to Monifa in a live call. But understand that I consider this a priority. I'll always try to answer if you call. >>

At that he hangs up.

(OOC: That leaves you free to chat amongst the team or take actions. I need to deal with something IRL, but I may start dumping info on the location in the thread in anticipation of you getting the info between Paul or a hacker. )

Bongo continues the conversation. <<So, do we want to get in touch with that hacker Livewire? See what he can dig up about the building and who lives there?>>

<< Wanna give the new guy a shot? I would probably have picked Angel, as we know the we can rely on her, and she certainly knows what she is doing. At least, virtually. On the other hand, if we are all supposed to get in there, she might not be too comfortable with that. So, yeah, why not. If Brewster says he is okay, we can probably trust him. He hasn't given us any reason not to. Quite the opposite, in fact. >>

Quick Willie joins in. <<I worked with Lenny out in the boondocks a couple of days back. He was pretty good at finding things out, taking over drones and things. He's a little bit on the self-protective side, but paranoia ain't always a bad thing.>>

<< Sure, why not. As I said, Angel might not be ideal to go in there physically, even though she is a total wiz inside the Matrix. >>

Willie adds, <<I've worked with Lenny, so I'll see if he can drop into a meet with us to form plans. >>

<<@Lenny: Yo, chummer. Got a line on a job that could use your talents. Let me know if you're interested in making some money and I'll send you time and place for the meet.>>

Lenny had been rattled after his very first run. He'd spent the next few days at work being pretty ineffective. It occurred to him that he hadn't thought all this Shadowrunning stuff through. What if it meant doing bad things to good people? That tended to not happen on the trid. Or, He thought to himself, maybe it did, and it was just that corporate security was depicted as faceless minions, with the implication they took part in oppression or puppy kicking or something.

Well, at least on the last job he'd mostly gotten to help heal up some hurt people, and all he hurt were some really nasty critters. That was definitely a metahuman skeleton suck on one of their backs. Maybe he shouldn't be worrying about this all that much, he thought. But worry he did.

However after a week or so he did find himself standing taller, and his managers somehow didn't seem nearly so scary. He even got more confident around women, maybe not quite enough to ask his crush out just yet. But he felt himself getting closer. At the least he found himself saying "no" to more people. He wasn't sure if that helped or hurt his relationships and promotion possibilities, but it did let him focus of those comlink upgrades he could afford now, and a little more time practicing with his taser in case that came up again.

When Willie called he tried to grab onto some of that growing confidence, he found just trying seemed to get him some, and he liked that feeling.

<<Yeah. I'd be up for working with you again. Glad you liked my job. If it's somewhere remote just let me know where you'd like to meet up to ride out together, and give me a heads up on the sort of gear I should be bringing. >>

It occurred to Lenny that Brewster had said some things about running without a fixer being involved, and implied some about fixers other than himself.

<<Is this a Brewster job? Should I connect with him about it? >>

Willie responds to Lenny. << Yeah, Brewster hired us and suggested we need someone with matrix skills. That'd be you. I'll fill you in on the details. >>

Willie proceeds to do so, bringing Lenny up to speed. He suggests Lenny come to the safehouse so they can all converse in person, rather than through the matrix.

He figures Lenny might be able to hit it off with Angel if he can introduce them, and they can share skills. That cognitive upgrade is continually paying off for the street thug turned pro.

Lenny does ping Brewster just to make sure, but he was already on his way in a taxi to the safehouse. He was glad they were meeting there, he realized he doesn't know nearly as much about life downtown as he probably should have living his whole life in the city, but it doesn't sound like they're heading to a great place.

As it is this safehouse sure doesn't seem very safe from the outside. He quickly hustles across the sidewalk to the front door to get let in. Trying to simultaneously stay well aware of his surroundings while also not making eye contact with the chip heads on one side of the house of the dancing drunks on the other, and particularly not the gangsters that are definitely watching him at the door. He thinks maybe he should have already put his helmet on, and is tempted to stop and open up his bag and put it on before the door opens.

(OOC: Presuming Willie doesn't leave him hanging out there. The rest of the team would also get pings about the doorbell if they'd configured their systems that way. Paul had, and Angel has, not sure if Selina would have bothered or wanted matrix link. ).

As Lenny comes in a small drone comes wheeling around the entrance way. The small coffee cup tank that Paul got for Angel. It does a little spin to get it up on one thread.

This relaxes Lenny a bit and it appears this was to warm up the room as Angel back into hallway in their wheelchair, peering over the back.

(OOC: But presumably Willy is there to kick off conversation so I'll pause here.)

Willie answers the door, knowing ahead of time that it is Lenny, so no weapons drawn. He gives Lenny a good, friendly whack on the back as a greeting and a nod to the bikers eyeing their front door. """Great to see ya, Lenny. C'mon in."""

Willie leads the way in and brings Lenny to the others. """The gang's all here.""" He chuckles at the antics of the drone.

"""So, we gotta figure out how to start the show. Like, how are we gonna do the investigation? Are we gonna see what we can find about the building through some electro-boogie-woogie? Is there any info in the city authorities' files about some helicopter buzzing the building? That's gotta have caught some attention."""

"""You're asking some good questions Willie.""" Bongo replies. """You're taking a much more careful approach than you used to. I agree we should have some information before we step foot in the building. Monfia is expecting us, and will likely tell us what she wants us to know, but there might be more we can find out. Maybe, the registration ID of the 'copter?"""

"Hey Lenny! Welcome to the team! I'm Selina," the shaman introduces herself.

Looking at Willie in particular, she asks: "Does her know all the details? If not, maybe we should start there. So we are on the same page."

"Getting any kind of info on the building would be great, like floor plans, even if they are not completely current."

"Yup. I filled Lenny in on the details we know before he got here. "Course, there's lots we don't know."

(OOC: Well, Brewster did say you could choose to add more people. Some negotiators might be able to manages something with maybe her making some of Paul's drones dance for different rates than being in person ).

Lenny manages to take the thumping from Willie as he'd been expecting something like that, but he blushes as he's introduced to Selina as he wasn't expecting her, he manages a "Hi.... I'm Lenny"

After a brief but awkward moment he spends wishing he'd just put that stupid helmet on after all his brain catches up and he starts answering questions.

Lenny says "I got the jist of it, and pinged Brewster, but didn't get any more details. " Some of his experiences on the corporate side of things start lining up as he thinks of answers to the other questions. " I can try looking up flight plans and things. But you have to appreciate that anything public facing like that is horrible to try and secure. Even amateurs can get in. It might take them days, but the system is always up so they can just keep probing until they find a weakness. When securing a system like that you have to think about what you actually care about, and they just care about aircraft not crashing into each other, not if the credentials were legit or if flights are recorded properly if there isn't a crash. If the gangers had a hacker they might have been able to get some info while the chopper was there though. "

Still peering over the back of their wheelchair so only a crest of aquamarine blue hair and a pair of eyes are visible Angel says "Could you tell me about it. I've been in the matrix and learning to make drones work well and I don't know about the run yet."

Lenny finds it easier to deal with a pair of eyes and a chair than the rest of the team so he focuses on her. "Well, I'd like to avoid the telephone game problem, so I'll let the rest of the team fill you in on most details."

Angel replies "What's a telephone or a telephone game?"

Lenny has to think of how to explain that one and just settles on "A corporate retreat kind of game. Never mind."

(OOC: There's more info Paul in particular might know. Though some research could find more of it.

The city had long known that despite the attractiveness of relative affordability, easy logistics, and containment of high-rise affordable housing that it tended to result in some very bad situations, going back to before the awakening.

From what Brewster said

"I suppose Harlem Tower 3 was supposed to be a nice place, being situated next to Harlem Inner Block Parks K101, Q112, and Za125. However as the level of effort they put into naming may suggest there was a certain lack of foresight.

Since it was a city project, they used eminent domain to level all the buildings there. What they put in is a ferrocrete and plastisteel brick about a hundred meters by a hundred meters on the ground and a hundred stories up, plus a few more stories for a parking garage below.

The key feature of these towers is they're trying to create Jeremy Bentham's panopticon for low cost housing instead of a prison. The apartments are narrow and long, kind of like from the footage you showed me of Frank's place. Except instead of doing it to give everyone a window, they do it to give everyone a visible door to the central maintenance tower."

Paul might know that adds up to a building about 300 meters tall, which pushes it into at least 20th century skyscraper heights, but its wide enough to appear squat and small from a distance. The central maintenance tower handles nearly everything that requires moving parts as far as the builders could manage. All the water is pumped up there as well as HVAC. Pressure and gravity get water and air into the apartments. Between the square "ring" of apartments and the central tower is a region dominated by pipes, ducts, and cable trays going out form the central tower to the floors cris crossed with elevators going up and down. The styling here is all skeletonized or glass to allow for better visibility and make it hard to ever rush the central tower. Catwalks are raised like folding drawbridges allowing staff in the central to access any of the floors directly to the north, south, east, or west of the tower, connecting with the "promenade" everyone has to walk along to reach their apartments.

Parking underneath the building is only for staff, deliveries and the like. The idea of a parking garage being too hard to manage and the expected tenets too poor to have much for vehicles. There's a lot of public transportation. But the original idea was that government subsidized businesses, schools, and clinics would be established in the 20 by 20 meter spaces in each "corner" of the square and people would get their needs met there instead of bothering the rest of the city.

This worked out a little bit. However overcrowding meant that the city started setting up coffin motel style pods in many of those areas. Also people started mouse holing the apartments. Creating internal paths out of sight of the central tower. So they got crime after all and eventually gave up trying to manage the apartments in the building, though they're still pretty well positioned to deal with a large riot and prevent crowds, and could deploy a SWAT team suddenly on any floor this just isn't typically done. However with the central tower they can at least keep the building going and the people inside, which seems to satisfy enough folks.

In terms of basic layout, each floor is the same. )

Paul muses to himself: ""300m, about 100m square. That's a lot of space. Not counting structural and logistical elements, 3 million cubic metres. As broad as that building is, they'll need huge HVAC facilities, probably with redundant fluid control. Real element of control is central access. Hm. OK.""

<<I want footage of that chopper. In fact, I want to know its flight history, so I want time-and-date data on that. Even if there wasn't a filed flight plan, public radar and other sensor data should give us a good idea where it came from, even if stolen, so that we could assess its background. It will also give us a good idea of the size of the team that came by it. The building's own load sensors should give us some idea how heavy it arrived and how heavy it left, if it successfully left.

<<Aside from that, I don't believe that Monifa really doesn't know who's gunning for her. She's holding out. People don't get big, mean, expensive enemies without having some idea who. This is someone big enough to pour in tens, if not hundreds of thousands of nuyen into trying to take her down, multiple times, using expert assistance. We could dance a silly congaline up and down the building, but if we don't address who's sending the killers, we're just delaying the inevitable, and by hanging around that building we're creating more heat there and less heat elsewhere. The only exception is if the source is inside the building, which might help outsiders get in - but either way we need to address that. So job one is establishing total domination of the data systems there, so that we're not operating blind, and so that we have real-world intel on what's going down. It'll also tell us more about the attackers. I bet it wasn't the same crew over and over. If someone wants a direct line on their systems, I can sneak in a drone and splice in - if you like.>>

Angel had been trying to get some experience, and have some fun, by playing Shadowrunner related VR games. An odd aspect of some of these was that you either agreed to quests or missions or didn't and got paid whatever you were supposed to get paid at the end, but it was a surprise how much it would be.

With everyone acting so straightforwardly about getting the job going she slips into this mode.

Also, without hardly having to think she likes one of those options better.

Still mostly looking over the back of the wheelchair she speaks up quickly. "Oh! I can probably look around for helicopter stuff. " Though on thinking more about it, she isn't exactly sure how to start, if Lenny is right about the air traffic control "Well, I'm not quite up to speed, but if you give me some information on the area I can start looking around for another sources that might have seen it!"

Lenny says "I can help with that. Just set something of yours in open mode and I'll shoot you the basic location and date information. "

Angel replies "Ok. Just send it to the coffee can tank! "

Lenny chuckles and messes around in AR.

He says to Paul "Having a drone in the building helps with everything. I bet I could get in from the outside though. But then you're probably going through a choke point of some point. At least they'd have an easier time dumping you if their security people suspect anything. Hacking from a drone helps a lot with targeting. "

Bongo smiles broadly. "That's great. Let's get as much information before we go in. I like the idea of a sneaky little drone crawling around the bowels of the building. I saw what they could do in Frank's building.

"Selina, any chance you could send a spirit to snoop around the building. Wouldn't it be a break if it found our flower-power free spirit still in there?"

"Astral scouting is very risky, when we know there is at least someone awakened there," Selina ponders.

"We should probably wait with that until we are at the location."

Paul mutters to himself, then says: ""The volume of air pushed by an HVAC system like that would make flying drones a real challenge to get in and out. Utility spaces and crawlers are the way to go, fitted with data tap tools. I could also plant a node directly on a line. Thinking about it, with the building's administration in as much of a shambles as it is, I'll bet that a bootleg node showing up wouldn't raise many eyebrows as long as it looked harmless.""

"Alright, then. Once our Matrix gurus have done what they can to glean information, we can head over. My van can carry the lot of us, but I think Tubesnake needs to get his creepy crawlies close. Am I right?"

Bongo looks to Tubesnake for confirmation.

Angel knew Lenny was right about hacking being something highly reliable if you take your time. But she does like doing things fast! And often you don't exactly have to hack things at all! She whistles up some little matrix friends and starts hunting.

There's probably more, but she gets something quick enough to share with the team while they're still talking.

She tries to formulate proper words but it mostly comes out as excited chirps as she pushes an ARO to a video link to everyone through her little drone.

The image looks like it's taken from somebodies glasses or maybe a helmet. People tend to flick their eyes around more with contact or cybereye recorders, and a proper camera would be a whole lot steadier. It seems to be someone with a bunch of folks on the street. Crude black boxes are used to hide everyone's identity and there's no sound of their voices.

The film shows the action already in motion and a chopper already over the building. There's a Hugh's stallion punishing the roof of the building from a gun in its nose. It's hard to get a good view of the thing. It's night time. Angel annotates that the attack happened at 4:21 in the morning. Still, there's some measure of night pollution, the mostly full moon, and illumination from the gun flashes. A sudden magical fireball on the roof goes off like a firework. Since the camera is much closer to the ground than the roof you can't see what those on the roof are up to. However if they've managed to do anything to the chopper itself it isn't apparent. The flashes are what let you see that the chopper seems to be sky blue at the moment. But soon the chopper stops firing and four dark figures are lowered by cables, also vanishing from sight once they get too close to the roof.

A spirit, there aren't any big glowing bats that look like that, comes out of the building and rushes the helicopter. It stops like it hits a wall when it reaches the open passenger doors. It acts like it's in a physical fight with something that isn't visible and after a few moments it disappears entirely.

After a little less than two minutes the helicopter heads first directly upward, revealing people attached to the four cables that have been dangling down the entire time. Two are grabbing onto their cables and joining the helicopter in once again firing on the roof. The cables are being reeled in, but the helicopter gaining altitude gets them clear of the roof faster. Without having them stowed it heads off.

Angel annotates that it's heading southwest (OOC: Paul would know that's the direction to go to get outside the Baltimore Police Union's jurisdiction the fastest, it also avoids the heavier traffic near the L).

It doesn't have the people reeled in when it first starts out. At this point two of the people on cables are just dangling non-responsively, one of them upside down from the belt attachment point, the other folded over with cable attaching to the back of their belt. But it doesn't seem to take any effort on their part for the cables to winch them up. However it takes substantial effort on the part of the two people still moving to keep from getting smacked into or overly tangled in the lines. They aren't providing any meditech care, but it's unlikely they could if they wanted to. Trying to fly with four cables out without all that much spacing doesn't look like it's very safe. The video ends before they're pulled all the way in. They seem to all be wearing headgear and something like a jumpsuit with webbing around the chest and small backpacks. It's really heard to tell anything about them, but one is something big like a troll, and none of them are short enough to be a dwarf or something like that.

If there was any BPU or other aerial response it isn't visible in the two minutes and forty-seven seconds of footage.

Lenny says "The digital brochures for the place are much nicer. There's supposed to be autowatered trellises all along the sides. Maybe it was just the dark. Those just looked like bars. Well, and the death from above and gangers on the roof. They don't list those amnities. " He gives a small laugh at his own jokes.

(OOC: With appropriate knowledge skills you could try and determine some things about the chopper etc. )

"Looks to me like they want something or someone from the building," Selina comments.

"Otherwise, why bother with those cables and getting people down on the rooftop."

Paul says as an aside to Bongo: ""Distance is more a matter of time than anything else, but closer is always easier.""

Paul takes particular note of the helicopter, and anything that he can tell about it with his skills, both mechanical and aeronautical.

Bongo considers Selina's point. "Maybe the attackers are after the same thing the flower spirit's team was."

He doesn't know much about the helicopter. What he can do is memorize the video and try to pick out any details that can be relevant later. Yeah, he can store the video in his commlink, too, but accessing his own memory is faster.

"It looks like Monifa has some serious firepower and magical backup. If anything else comes after her and the scaling up of attempts is any indication, it will be nasty. I'll pack for trouble."

He makes sure his backpack has all the climbing equipment, a couple each of of the distraction/smoke type grenades, lock picking materials, half the Laes-laced cigarettes, medkit and supplies and stimulant patches. Throwing weapons are handy. No point in having the holdout pistol. He stashes that and straps on the Ares Predator with ex-ex rounds. He finds a place on his Urban Explorer to put the Narcoject pistol.

Oh yeah, the weapon focus knife. Big glowing bat, indeed.

It all fits and he's still able to move spryly. He'll bring along the lined coat, more to hide his arsenal till they are inside than to wear once they are working. "I think I am ready."

Willie looks at Bongo and exclaims, "Daaaamn! You are ready to dance!"

"I hope dancing is the worst of it. Silver tongue before lead bullets, I say. But I was a boy scout, once. Or, at least I read the manual."

Willie figures he won't need to be any more secretive than Bongo. Along with his two standard FA weapons (no point in having the undetectable HK Urban combat, with Bongo hung round with metal gewgaws) he is fully armoured and will pack materials into his backpack. Flashlight, gas mask, geiger counter, radiation film badges (hey, who knows what these people are after?), water purification tablets and stim patches. The new memory blade would be nice, but it stays for the same reason the HK does. The Cougar fineblade, though, it comes. Yeah, OK, he holsters a narcoject as well. The corners of his lips turn down a bit at that.

"So, let's go and work that silver tongue to get a good deal."

"Monifa said someone was gunning for her," Selina ponders. "But we do not know, yet, if that is really the case."

"She could simply be sitting on something someone wants. And they just send one team after the other instead of asking. Hopefully, talking to her will clear some of this up."

"As for the further escalation... yeah, I'm afraid, if they do not give up, they will just come back with more. Whatever that might be."

""My drones have all been patched up. I don't know if this is the right mission for spiderdoggie, but I'm ready to pack up and park somewhere. Even a little further away, then I can use a utility dolly to get things conveniently closer. Do we have a specific plan or need?""

Angel had been about to report something else she'd found, but got distracted by Tubesnake "OOh. What's a spiderdoggie?! Can I see it? Could I an my friends drive it? I've gotten so much better with the little tank right? "

She realizes people are staring at her, and, feeling unprofessional, she starts blushing, though that would be hard to spot as she ducks down behind the back of the wheelchair.

Refocusing she clears her throat and says "Also I found someone who works there that posted on social media. No video or anything cool, but they messaged somebody and said they were worried about all the gang fighting and was worried that at this rate someone in the maintenance tower could get hurt. " After the words are out of her mouth it occurred to her that maybe she should have looked at the names of people instead of just their numerical addresses. But, she thinks, names are so boring! I hope nobody minds.

Lenny isn't feeling all that much more comfortable with the crew, but feels he can reach out to Willie about something bothering him and sends him an AR message <<So are we doing some kind of child solider thing? Maybe a bring your kid to work thing? >>

(OOC: Based on the engine noise of the chopper, Paul can tell that it's been modified. But that isn't the noise of high-performance mods. Too many vibrations, and it's having to rev up too high as it moves. The audio isn't the best and the action had started by the time they were recording. But if he had to guess that's an old workhorse somebody is keeping together with elbow grease and a prayer. And a little practical help from the concealed turret gun they were using on the building. He should be able to recognize it by sound unless it gets some new fixes or modifications, even if they change the paint job after the run so it doesn't look the same. )

Paul smiles. It's hard not to be pleased by her excitement at spiderdoggie, the tarantuladrone the size of a large dog. He grabs a copy of his structural design renderings, and sends them over to her.

""There you are. That's what I've been building.""

After some consideration of the chopper, he says: ""That chopper is functional, but a bit junky. Definitely not corp-maintained. They may have subcontracted a smuggler team for its use. I'm actually surprised that they used a chopper for insertion against such a well-defended location. Normally they're pretty easy to interdict.""

(OOC: Figuring the delay means Thanee and PB would like me to keep things moving. Though even a little post lets me know you're read up and just want me to keep rolling. )

Angel looks at the schematics. They sort of make sense to her, but not really. Not the way a working VR model would. She doesn't want to say that exactly, so she settles on "These look really cool. Does it work? Could I see it? Maybe have access? "

Meanwhile Lenny is considering the other part Paul's statement. "Well, the thing was going after a city run low-or-no income apartment complex. Maybe they expected to just be able to touch down without any opposition. In any case it looks like they managed whatever was on the roof easily enough.

Actually, on that note." He says, and drifts off while he messes around in AR. "Huh. Well, I'm beginning to get a sneaky suspicion that there's a general shortage of cameras pointed up on buildings. Everybody is look at doors and windows instead of the stars. I might be able to hunt around in security cameras, if they haven't deleted the footage. Even something aimed horizontally can see upwards to a fair altitude if it's far enough away. But I think you hit woods eventually on that path. They might pop out somewhere that some camera could spot them. "

Angel starts listening as he goes on. "Can you tell that helicopter from others at a distance? "

Lenny frowns. "Well, maybe not. I could try though. "

Momentarily thinking about things more broadly brings him to think about something he's now much more anxious about. "If we're going to talk to people there. Well, that's a little freaky. Maybe we should go forward with the plan of getting access to the city systems. Or even better getting a drone in there. What we want eyes on are where we might be meeting. I guess they don't have a reason to ambush us. But still. Well, anyway I'm open to suggestions. Don't let my paranoia get to out of control and bother you. " He gives another awkward little chuckle.

Selina nods to Lenny. "Those are sound ideas. Anything we can get in terms of information about what we are heading into, without raising any suspicion, could be useful later on. I will get a look at the astral side, once we are near the building. As for spotting the helicopter. I doubt there are that many flying around and most importantly towards our building at that hour. So, if there is one on any of those, it is likely the one that we are looking for."

"And I really doubt that the gangers will ambush us. They know that we are there to do that job for them, after all. Still, doesn't hurt to keep our eyes open, even in the beginning. And, of course, have each others back, if the need arises."

""There are publically available radar records. They track commercial flights as well as others. A real nap-of-the-earth flyer can sometimes get away with it, but usually in hills or other very cluttered environments and if you're that low then every camera with a view of the horizon would pick you up. Also, I'm not convinced, based on the people dangling from the ropes, that it went all that well for them. Mission not accomplished, and casualties sustained. As for chopper identification, odds are good. Its engine is not running up to spec for some reasons - might be the wrong engine or a bad setup or maintenance - but regardless of the reasons that adds to the signature.""

Lenny says "Hmmm. Well, it'll take a bit, but I can check air traffic control in case they didn't delete themselves out of it. There might be some other systems they didn't scour, maybe other aircraft or something? There's a fair bit of traffic between choppers, drones, and the odd T bird as you get near the ports and main corridor. But you might have a point that there shouldn't be nearly so much as you get near our lovely destination. "

He thinks a little bit more.

"If we have any time first, do you think it would be safe to a run a little caravan through there? That would let us get a bead on wireless stuff in the vicinity, and let magic lady do her magical stuff."

he blushes again a little bit and again awkwardly says "hi" and gives a little wave to Selina from near his waist.

""We could run a caravan at least past there. Or simply some rental maintenance drone to run by. It doesn't even have to look as if it has much to do with the building - it comes from elsewhere, goes elsewhere, but in its path it does a street-level pass to the building, then up, over, down the other side and onwards. Plenty of opportunity for scans.""

Bongo adds, "Wanna do that now, before we introduce ourselves? Willie could drive while you guys do your control thing."

Angel ducks a bit further down the chair. "Uhhh. How about I handle all the things with the radar and stuff. Lenny could send me addresses of things to hack as you go, and I'll stay here?" Angel knows that Brewster wants her to be more mobile, and she's been working hard, but it's still really scary out there.

Lenny isn't exactly thrilled either. He's now having a hard time looking at folks, but eventually screws up his posture and tries to look and sound confident. After all they're just driving around. It's a bad neighborhood, but Willie seemed pretty tough and the rest probably are too. Maybe the cars have pop up machineguns if any go gangs show up.

He says "I figure any magical types need to be there in person. Drones are pretty good for matrix stuff, though in person's probably still better. But in any case we need to get there physically eventually right? So this might just give us a little time to get the lay of the place. And, you know, make sure we're on time.

If you all can keep us out of trouble. "


(Scene shifting can be a little tricky for groups. You're free to assume that Lenny will come along if you head out. He's carrying all the gear he'd bring at the moment. He'd have to go back to his apartment for anything else. Angel would require some convincing if you want her to come in person. )

Willie has been listening to the conversation, trying to figure out what the plan actually is. Eventually he gets around to Lenny's message. <<Angel is some kind of rescue from a corp facility. She is whiz in the Matrix and doesn't need a deck to do it. I think she is one of those. Pretty good at it from what Bongo tells me. Don't let her age or lack of street experience fool you. And I ain't much older. I suspect she could eat things in the Matrix for breakfast.

<<My kinda gal if she was ork and three times her size. >>