You can add ammo, no problem. Your character certainly would have noticed the lack thereoff

And yes, spoiler tags contain vital information, I'm just using them to not interrupt the narrative parts.

To the spirits
Rea+edg: 3#8d6t5 1 0 1

They all take the damage of 7S AP-5

Their hardened armor is at 3 after AP, so 2 Auto soaks
Soak: 3#8d6t5 1 1 3

Spirit 1 takes 4 damage and stun effects
Spirit 2 dito
Spirit 3 takes 2 damage and stun effects

Stun effects -5 ini, -1 to actions


Round 1

Raven 25 command spirit
Tamarind 22 suppressive fire, 3 hits, shots remaining 12/32
AM 21 Copying two files (lockbox, passwords)
Mato 17 ???
Spirit 1 and 3 13 Materializing, stunned
Spirit 2 10 Materializing, stunned

Good choice of action on Tamarind's side

@Jack: I believe, you only lowered their Initiative by 2. Also, my book says -1 to actions and defense tests, not -2.

Oh, and in the IC you wrote something about four spirits, but there only seem to be three.

Bye
Thanee

I had indeed not gone back far enough in posts to read the right spoiler

Log 5+ Will 5
resist corruption (Wil+Log): 10d6t5 5

Phew, fortunately enough successes to not have to go adjust the suppression fire rolls.

That's what I get from going by memory

But yeah, 3 spirits are enough for now (brain autofilled four F4), though don't worry, there are more from where those came from...

I'm not by my books, but IIRC ignoring suppression fire gives a penalty equal to the suppression fire successes, barring a few corner cases (I think super-human psychosis might let one ignore it?). So I think they should also be at -3 on all actions until they get out of the suppression area. (but as I said, I'm not at my books to double check the exact rules)

Yeah, that applies as long as they stay within the suppressed zone, but since they just took the damage, they can move out on their next turn.

Ah, man, when was the last time we ran combat? And when was the last time fired a gun? Did he shoot an engine back in San Angelo? And then maybe one shot at Pike Hall?

Time to knock some rust off. I had to go back and review the list of possible actions. I think I'll go with:

Simple: Take Aim (+1)
Simple: Burst Fire (-2 to dodge)

AK has plenty of recoil compensation so recoil shouldn't be a factor.

Blat blat: Agility 10 + Automatics 5 + Specialization 2 + Take Aim 1: 18d6t5 6 hits

AK has a base Accuracy of 5, although Mato's has an external smartlink. Wireless is turned off so he does get the dice pool bonus from the smartgun, but does the base Accuracy bonus of the smartgun system still apply or is that negated by the environment? Mechanically I think it would still apply, but I'm open to answer to be "no" if it suits the narrative.

So, 5 or 6 hits, depending on the answer to that question. Base damage is 10P -2AP, modified to 8S(e) -5AP by the stick-n-shock.

Sorry to have crossed up Mato. I figure that training in the military with regards to spirits would be to apply suppression fire to reduce their dodge accuracy, in hopes that the rest of a squad would manage to land some good enough hits to do damage. (And she doesn't know that they are only force 4)

Dodge: 5d6t5 2
Soak: 8d6t5 4

2 automatic successes from hardened armor reduces damage to 6

That's enough to disrupt spirit 1

Raven 25 command spirit
Tamarind 22 suppressive fire, 3 hits, shots remaining 12/32
AM 21 Copying two files (lockbox, passwords)
Mato 17 burst fire on spirit 1 - disrupts form successfully
Spirit 3 13 Materializing, stunned
Spirit 2 10 Materializing, stunned

Turn 2

Raven/spirit 15 spirit defends team
Tamarind 12 suppressive fire
AM 11 Copying two files (??)
Mato 7 ??
Spirit 3 3 corruption effect
Spirit 2 0 no action

AM next two files are drones, lockbox (second file).

Exactly what I intended to do (focusing, especially, on any attackers that target AM, who is the most vulnerable right now).

Bye
Thanee

Suppression is one of the very best uses of a modest dice pool, so I'm not complaining.

Mato is pleased with how things worked during the first pass, so he'll rinse and repeat for the second pass.

Simple: Take Aim (+1)
Simple: Burst Fire (-2 to dodge)

Agility 10 + Automatics 5 + Specialization 2 + Take Aim 1: 18d6t5 6 hits

Second verse, same as the first.

Edit: Not sure if it's too metagamey to target the spirit with actions remaining. Not sure how obvious that would be ICly. Rolling randomly, he would shoot... Spirit 2 or Spirit 3: 1d2+1 Spirit 2

It's perfectly fine - being out of actions is apparent as being slower than anyone else.

You may change your target if you want

Dodge: 6d6t5 2
Soak: 8d6t5 5

7 damage - just enough to fill up 9 boxes and disrupt

New initiative round? Or is there something still to go?

Raven and AM (and technically Tamarind) get another turn

But first Tecumseh has to answer if he wants to take out spirit 3 before it can act or take out spirit 2 as he indicated with his roll

AM's third and last action is 1. Simple action take the second drone file, and 2. jack out.

Are you sure, you don't want the rest of the files?

If it's apparent which one is slower, then Mato will shoot the one that's moving faster. I'm just trying to consider how obvious that would be to mundane eyes. Who knows, maybe Mato has enough exposure to the team's spirits that he can understand their 'body language' so to speak.

You certainly can see if one of them is in the process of readying an attack

Turn 3

Raven/spirit 5 spirit defends team
Tamarind 2 suppressive fire
AM 1 Copying file, jacking out
Mato 0 no action
Spirit 2 0 no action

Round 2 - roll initiative


Spirit
Ini: 10+2d6 19

Acid IC
Ini: 3#12+3d6 26 19 20

I assume AM rolls meat space initiative, I'll roll again if she stays in the matrix for some reason.
Initiative: 11+1d6 16

Hi Jack, sorry I misread - I thought there were just five files. (2x drone design, 2xlockboxes and passwords AM would stay logged in a bit more to keep copying the files.
First round instead of jacking out, she'll get a 6th file offsite assets 1.

and try to do 7 and 8 in her first pass offsite 2, AI 1
and 9 and 10 in her second AI 2 and AI 3.

She is likely to only get too passes since she'll want full matrix defense to survive the onslaught.

https://orokos.com/roll/1049411: 11+4d6 21

Initiative 22

Bye
Thanee

init turn 2: 15+2d6 26

Derp, I thought I rolled this but evidently it was only in my imagination.

Initiative: 1d6+16 22

Looks like we'll go first. Tamarind may wish to conserve ammo. Or not, maybe she has a heavy trigger finger.

I did not know we were so combaty - all with 3 passes

Round 2

Turn 1
Tamarind 26
IC A 26
Raven/spirit 22 spirit defends team
Mato 22
AM 21 Copying files (Offsite Assets, AI) Full Defense

IC C 20
Spirit 19
IC B 19


IC A and Tamarind act at the same time, but since the IC only acts in cyberspace, I'll roll its' attack against AM directly:

Brute Force Attack: 12d6t5 6

Defense with Firewall+Will + Full Defense (Will or Logic if she has the quality)

Full defense: 16d6t5 6

Good, no damage to your Firewall Attribute

Well there are at least 3 more attacks, lets hope she can ride it out.

Sorry, somehow I got caught up on what was happening with AM in the matrix and missed that Tamarind needs to go (she rolled an 11 on her 2 dice of init, I'm not used to going this early!).

I'll post IC shortly, but in summary going to take aim on any spirits incoming and fire a burst if one is materialized and within short range for an SMG (not by my books, I forget exactly what that is). If nothing is in that range this pass she'll keep taking aim at what seems like the most likely target.

(she doesn't have enough ammo in this clip for suppression fire, and honestly the threat at this point seems too diffuse to keep blasting away with suppression.)

I'll put a roll in my IC.

Dodge: 8d6t5 2

Soak: 8d6t5 3

Two auto hits, spirit gets hit for 2 damage and another stun

Turn 1
Tamarind 26 shoots spirit for 2 Stun (total 6)
IC A 26 attacks AM - no success
Raven/spirit 22 spirit defends team
Mato 22 ???
AM 21 Copying files (Offsite Assets, AI) Full Defense

IC C 20
Spirit 14 stunned
IC B 19

Third verse, same as the first.

Simple: Take Aim (+1)
Simple: Burst Fire (-2 to dodge)

Agility 10 + Automatics 5 + Specialization 2 + Take Aim 1: 18d6t5 12 hits

Geez, Limits are going to eat a big chunk of that. It's probably the difference between kill and overkill, but still stings to lose a lot of hits.

I believe the Accuracy of his AK is 8, as the smartlink boost to Accuracy is not dependent on wireless. He also has a personalized grip that boosts Accuracy.

For this mag, 29 of 38 rounds remaining.

Base damage is 10P -2AP, modified to 8S(e) -5AP by the stick-n-shock.

Dodge: 7d6t5 6

2 hits

Soak: 8d6t5 3
5 soak

5 damage remaining, enough for a disruption

IC Attack

Attack: 2#12d6t5 6 2

AM
Full defense: 2#16d6t5 6 10

Successfully defended against the IC attacks

I'm all for retreat, but Tamarind won't know that we can retreat until AM jacks out. in case we need initiative in the meantime:

turn 2 init: 15+2d6 18

rolled an 11 on 2d6 on turn 1, rolled 3 on turn 2. Comes out about average overall, but I feel like the dice are trying to tell some story of adrenaline rush (turn 1) and adrenaline excess (turn 2).

Indeed, we will surely stay until AM signals us that we have everything that we could achieve here.

Initiative 29

Bye
Thanee

Turn 2
Tamarind 16
IC A 16
Raven/spirit 12 spirit defends team
Mato 12 ???
AM 11 Copying files

IC C 10
IC B 9

IC
attack: 12d6t5 7

full defense: 15d6t5 7

AM's luck continues

Dang, that was a good dodge. That was 99th percentile shooting almost countered by a 99th percentile dodge. I suppose that reinforces the importance of weapon modifications that boost Accuracy.

What's the spoiler in the IC mean? That AM can act first, copy the last file, and jack out, so we can essentially drop out of initiative and fall back?

AM should be done by the end of round 2, and jack out as he first action of round 3. Despite having initiative of 21, she did full defense which lowered it by 10 costing her the third action.

The IC might score another attack if they act before her.
Initiative: 11+4d6 24

My autocorrect has eaten a "no" from "no more physical opponents around this round"

There still can be IC attacks, but since every attack can reduce firewall only by one, AM is guaranteed to finish her mission with one point of firewall to spare, so we can jump ahead to that point, which is the start of Round 3

Alright, so at initiative 24 she'll jack out, I'll move to there and let you resolve the rest of the attacks. Is the firewall damage repairable?

A simple restart will fix it

Raven isn't doing much at the moment. She will resume control, when it becomes necessary, but until then the spirit is better-suited to deal with any attacks that might happen.

Bye
Thanee

Alright I moved away, from the trix and caught up with the spell failing. Feel free to jab at her if you wish.

Speaking of which, wasn't there this guy that Tien III put us in contact with that asked for that kind of stuff?

Bye
Thanee

Yes, exactly

Pulling it out of the IC, here is what AM found:

10 documents
3 revolved around theories how expert programs could get over the hurdle to turn into true AI
2 listed offsite assets of Renraku
2 had detailed building plans for drones employed during the arcology shut down
2 contained access codes and account information for lock boxes at four different banks across Seattle
1 The last document contained a long list of passwords and user names

We have to figure out what Diego's team would physically return for.

- Probably not the theories around expert programs
- Probably not the offsite assets of Renraku which, by definition, are offsite and thus not here
- Probably not the lock boxes, which are also offsite and thus not here
- Probably not the long list of passwords and user names

That leaves the detailed building plans for drones employed during the arcology shut down. I would suggest starting there to look for clues about drones that might have generated enough curiosity for Diego's team to wade back through this mess.

@Jack: The IC said "A total of ten of those files lay open and had been copied recently." Can we tell how recently? In short, does it seem like something that happened during Diego's initial visit?

Yes, the time stamp on the files show that the files were opened and copied, a day before the crew left their house early in the morning.

The files vary in length - technical documents about AI are each over a hundred pages. The drone specs are about 50 each.
The passwords are 10 pages.
The access codes for the lockboxes and the off-site assets are one page each.

I agree with Tecumseh's logic -- but also there might be something we are missing so far (possibly buried in the files? Possibly some other clue that they took/moved/destroyed so that SIS didn't see it).

Those files are too big to review quickly, but it might be worth the effort, in case there is something in there?

I assume the list of passwords might be what you need to keep digging in there