Active security software. Interesting.

The troll adds the executable to his pre-deployment checklist, and files the executable away to be run later.

After a nice hot steam shower, DangerClose spends more than normal preening in front of a mirror. A hot shave and ten minutes of horn buffing is followed by another ten with a pick, combing out his hair. He’s just finishing when the bellhop brings his freshly pressed clothes up from the hotel laundry.

The doorman calls him a cab, he steps into the oversized SUV, and speeds off into the night, headed for the famous Lindsay House.

I hope Dust considered my stature in selecting this restaurant. Otherwise, this will be the shortest dinner in history.�

<<Dusty>>
<<Lilith you'll need nothing. Its nice and private. Cams only cover the ways in and out. They are discreet you think I'd pick a place that would show its customers face all over the trid with this rag tag band *wink* No one will eat you, you paranoid pixie unless we get a anti-HMVV contracts some time. Dont worry 'bout behaving just enjoy some of the best grub you'll ever eat.>>

Placing his new link in to the inside pocket he had Mortimer's make after he picked it. He waited for his transport.
Time to make some impressions this will be my first face to face with all of these and I want to awe them.
As if on cue the limo he just hired drives up the drive of his temporary residence, the driver getting out and opening the door for who he can only think as some elven noble.
"To Lindsay House good sir and quickly I have an important meeting to atend"
Mentally tipping the driver 50 (via his AR goggles/trode net he picked up along with his link)

"Lindsay House, sir." The cabbie's tone wasn't even sarcastic. Funny how good clothes and the right destination whitewashed so much racism. The troll left a decent enough tip then extricated himself from the rear of the Volvo truck. After a glance at the front of the converted townhouse, he double-checked the address, and shrugged. The address was right, and his commlink connected immediately with the restaurant's node.

An AR object informed the troll that it was customary for those dining at the restaurant to walk up and ring the bell. He shrugged, stepped over a parked moped, and stabbed a single meaty digit into the archaic doorbell button.

"aaand turn left here and... that must be the place. Least I hope there's not another giant troll wandering around London..." Lilith muttered to herself as she flew, following the directions in the mapsoft she downloaded earlier. She arrived at her destination just in time to see Dangerclose arriving and decide to enter with him, so she flapped her wings a couple times to get some speed up before gliding over to him and landing on his shoulder. "Didja like the footage I sent you? I thought it really captured your good side... teehee!"

DC laughs out loud. The deep, rumbling sound carries for almost a block in every direction. As it dies down, he speaks in South African accented english.

"You certainly did. I will be sure to have you contacted as a director when I get my own reality trid show. You are Lilith, are you not? DangerClose, or Donald when the shooting has stopped. I would shake your hand, but, well, you know."

His PAN is in Passive mode, broadcasting his SIN as Donald Chutzi, an employee of a mercenary staffing firm based in Dubai called PLI Incorporated.

Tam gets out of the cab just down the street as a loud rumble rolls down the road.
Looking up he realizes it is a large Troll, laughing. With a Pixie.

Tam walks towards the building, and stops before getting too close.
He lets the two go in the building, pauses a moment more, and then rings the doorbell himself.

Once he ends up in the same room with the others, he looks at the Pixie and says "You must be the inimitable Lilith", turning is head upwards, "And the effective DangerClose? I am Tam. Has Dust arrived?"

As Abaddon stared through the carriage window the rolling green fields slowly gave way to towns and suburbs before finally being overwhelmed by the brick and concrete forest that was London. The harsh metallic taste of the urban astral landscape was not to his liking, he preferred wilderness where the Astral was vibrant and alive or sterile labs where it was calm and serene. Fortunately the trains forward momentum quickly swept him out of any pockets of real unpleasantness before they overwhelmed his filters. As they rolled into Paddington he felt the calming influence of Central London's parks ease his jangling nerves.

Full of large open spaces Central London's Astral had always been less oppressive than many large conurbations and over the last two decades the ruling Green Party and their Druidic allies had gone to great effort to cleanse the City's Astral Smog. It wouldn't do at all for the ruling elite to have to live in such an 'atmosphere' now would it?

He eventually elected to take a taxi the rest of the way to Lindsay House. It was a toss up between being forced to listen to a cabbie right the wrongs of the world or being studiously ignored by a hundred ignorant strangers on the tube. In the end the cab won out simply because it could be easily escaped from in a pinch.

A modest tip ensured the cabbie neither remembered him as mean or generous and he walked the last block or two at Jean's insistence. He had designed his alter-ego with a reasonable dose of paranoia and trade-craft and rarely regretted indulging those traits.

He had never before worked with a merc unit so small or eclectic. As he pushed the old fashioned brass button to request admission to the exclusive restaurant he mused that he was looking forward to meeting them all in the flesh for the first time.

The troll extends a giant hand to the elf.

"I am, but call me Don. I have not seen Dust yet, but I would imagine that is fairly normal. At times, it is easier to try to be found than to seek, especially at my size."

The most recent ring of the doorbell snaps his attention around.

@Abaddon/Jane
As you are walking down the road you notice a black limo slowing down.
Just after pressing the bell you feel a tap on your right shoulder.
"You must be Abaddon, I presume?"
Before you stands a tall slender elf his third eye gives away who he is. However what is striking is his odd outfit. His dark gray greatcoat faintly monogrammed in what looks to be downward pointing swords on the sleeves and a ornate cross on the left collar and 5 playing cards on the right worn over his suit.

The door opens and the two of you are lead into the private dining room.
Just Seraph left to arrive then unless shes said she cant make it.

The sleek sliver sports car stops before the building, allowing a woman dressed in an opaque gown of a dark red shade to exit, before heading off to park. She moves with a seductive grace as she is lead to a private room. After reviewing the occupants, she begins to speak.

"It seems I am in the right place. Next time, we should meet somewhere a bit funner, Dust; I hate feeling like I must dress formally. Oh, yes. As you have likely guessed, I am Seraph. It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to learning more about you."

She spends a moment shamelessly examining the men with the last comment, before joining them.

DC looks around those gathered at the table, then down at his own clothes, then back at the little latecomer in her tight red dress.

What is wrong with going formal? After six weeks of chewing sand and sucking burning gasoline fumes, locked into a suit of anti-tank weapon resistant armor, I like cleaning up and putting on real clothes.

Dust looks around the table gaining a measure of every one here.

Quite true DC. After roughing it in hospitable climes for the fun of it, even I like a nice formal event now and then. I helps keep me socail. Right I'll tell you all i know the MoD is defending a joint venture between the govement and S-K. S-K is building a new new antarctic base on bristsh land. the cost of this venture is a government lab on the site as well. we are being hired to procet the governments' project. We will be working along side both government and corporate forces. Normally they wouldn't hire mercs however they have recently got intel that an eco-terrorist group. Possibility funded by a larger organization is planing to disrupt construction. Or job is to act as support and to track down a wipe out any treats to the base. As they would be hard press to send any men off site. To help with this we will have a say in what will be built when as we are a highly experienced group. The MoD is playing a flat rate and a conflict bonus however if we go to arms S-K will also likely reward us as well. Revers team lack the outdoors experience and skill sets to track in the antarctic so he passed the job on to us. I will be running a crash course in survival out there so you can at lest hope to be able camp out over night. That's all I know as of now.
Dust seems relived to have got business out of the way quickly.
Any questions? If not I'd like to get to know my team better.

"Arctic? As in, really flippin' cold arctic?" Lilith asks as she takes a moment away from glaring at Seraph and muttering about hussies and tramps. "I haven't tested my drones for arctic temps yet... I need to go shopping! Dusty, do we have any sort of an advance so that I can prepare for dealing with the cold?"

"I don't know as yet. But yeah I'll need to pick up some survival gear and a few maps my self im kitted out for a quick desert opp not a long polar one. So thats some thing we need to sort out give me a esimate of how mcuh i will cost you to sort your drones out as well might as well get them to cover all costs."

You do realize that it is less than two weeks since the winter solstice? Above the 72nd parallel it will be night and may remain so for some weeks to come. Do you know exactly what latitude this base is at? Above 78 degrees and we will have to do a little more than make basic mods to our gear.

On the plus side it is bound to be an excellent rate of pay for one nights work, no?

"It sounds like you are jealous, Lilith. Simply because you are to small to enjoy them is not cause to be rude."
Seraph grins and walks over to Dust, whispering something in his ear.
"You are welcome to get to know me better tonight, after this meeting."


"I will need a few modifications to my equipment, but nothing major. I think I will enjoy the cold, never-ending night."

"Aside from cold weather modifications to my armor and an increase in required electronics recharging because of the lack of solar power, I do not forsee the environment adversely effecting my operational readiness. Most of my equipment is already ruggedized for harsh environments, and my own...brutal requirements."

He pops an entire dinner roll in his mouth like a grape, takes a swallow of wine, glances at the annoyed pixie, then looks over the human woman again.

"Be nice, Seraph. To me, you all are quite small. But we are all friends here. No reason to let the lives we live get in the way of that."

"I'll need the name a of trustworth, competent, armorer to modify the two guns in the warehouse. And some means to get them to him. The armor of course needs insulation. And we need to pick up plenty of arctic survival kits. I do have to agree with Abaddon, just how far north are we talking this time of year?

An Armourer I can supply. I need access to the appropriate tools but assuming that they are available weapons will only take a couple of hours to modify. Vehicles will take longer depending on their degree of modification for Desert environments.

Lilith ponders for a moment, then shrugs. "About 75,000 if they want my full selection available for their defence, Dust. Maybe more if you want me to mod the rest of the groups vehicles and drones, too. I'll mod the teams' stuff at cost... except for the Hussy's. What does she do, again? Or is she just coming along as entertainment?"

She bites into a grape and chews for a moment, relishing the sweet, juicy fruit, before swallowing and holds up a single finger. "Oh! Before I forget, I'll be handing out some RFID tags. Don't forget to keep them with you at all times, or I can't be held responsible for any bullet holes inflicted by my drones..."

"As long as they don't broadcast any thing I'm fine with them. I don't want my presence to be given away at the wrong time."
Dust turns to looks at Seraph and shakes his head.
"No thank you. I have vows to keep."
Looking back to the rest of the team.
"I can help with weapon modification as well plus I think we could make use of the staff of the base for modding equipment as they will understand the need to have adapted gear even if it dose cost us a bit."
He turns back to his plate and finishes off his prawn cocktail egally awaiting the main coarse.

"So then lets get to know each other a bit better. As people Seraph. As people. I'm Dust or Andrew is you want a real name. I'm pushing 60 and I'm a good shot. I've been a merc for about 10 years and before that I spent 7 years running the shadows of this fair city."

Should you not have your drones subscribed to the team's TacNet? Friendly fire incidents should be impossible in such circumstances.

If we have access to appropriate facilities and Dust and Lillith are willing to assist my Armourer can have each vehicle ready to roll in about six hours, three if we put a rush on the job. The work can be started immediately if facilities can be made available.

As to myself, I am less than a quarter of your age Dust but I have been serving as a Mercenary for the same length of time. I am uniquely suited to the role of battlefield mage but my talents are sufficient in magnitude to only see specialized application. Every unit of any size that I have been contracted to has utilized me for the most complex and difficult of missions. Run of the mill combat has rarely been my lot.

The dark haired young man's tone is verging on arrogant but he delivers the words in a matter of fact manner rather than a boastful one. He pauses for a second to take a sip of water before continuing. His clipped precise Euro-English accent is suddenly replaced by a laconic French drawl.

And I am Jean, 'iz alter ego. As you might imagine age 'az little meaning to my kind. I specialize in 'eavy weapons and electronic warfare. I am also proficient in ze blowing sheet up.

As you might guess from meeting me, I break things. Fortications, armored vehicles, swathes of enemy combatants. I am not picky. I have been a professional soldier for ten years. Before that, I spent ten years fighting in tribal conflicts for a warlord you have never heard of, who has been dead for years. Before that, I was a very small child. My exact age, I am unsure of. My political leanings are non-existant. I am not looking to change the world. I am just trying to get by.

"Always better to be safe than sorry, no? Consider it a second line of defense against enemy hackers. Alright? I'd rather not risk someone hacking into our tacnet and switching our IFF settings." Lilith frowns at Abbadon for a moment before grinning as Jean takes over. "Oh, you and I will get along marvelously, Jean."

"As for me! I'm not big on breaking things personally... I much prefer finding out where, figuring out how, and having other people or drones do the breaking for me. For those of you who didn't follow, I'm skilled in scouting, tactical and strategic planning, and drone rigging. Listen to me, and we'll make sure things go our way. Tuig?"

Tam looks around the room. He is well dressed, but fairly conventional looking elf.

"I go by Tam now-a-days. I was raised in Wales. I have run the shadows, mostly around London, for a few years. Where I hear Dust is death with a rifle, I prefer an automatic weapons. I will admit to being impressed with the Gauss rifle, if only one could actually handle the dang thing. I will happily leave the computer side of this, including how to label us or the drones, to the rest of you. I don't know what good it will do in the field, but I am competent in hand-to-hand fighting."

"What exactly do you want to know? I was raised in Seattle, & my late childhood made me what I am, far moreso than most. I began my work there, & love what I do. Did a 2-year tour in the Desert Wars a few years ago; they did not like me much there - nearly 50% kill rate when given 'non-lethal' weapons. Accidents happen."

Seraph stops her pouting at Dust & grins at the last. After looking over everyone else, she begins eying the troll and continues.

"As for combat, I prefer stealth & am competent in a variety of ranges. When given the option, I prefer melee. You simply cannot enjoy killing the same way at a distance."

"Desert Wars. I have avoided them like the plague for my whole career. Something never felt proper about making a spectator sporting event out of war. Perhaps it is the purist in me, I prefer the organic conflicts. Resource disputes, coups, revolutions, inter-tribal warfare, that sort of thing. After kicking a hole in the side of an armored personnel carrier and filling the interior with white phosphorous, I like to know that the men inside were there because they were driven by their own convictions, rather than hoping for an endorsement deal."

The troll seems oddly introspective for a moment, then smiles a little bit.

"Probably hypocritcal, given that I am only there for the paycheck, but it all seems so dispassionate. Is my perception of them accurate?"

"Most "wars" are mock my friend then touched up by agents and the such. However its almost custom for the final round to be life or death but any round can be if both teams agree. I've never taken part but it's some thing to follow on long recon missions or when i want to get away from humanity more the cities than any thing. One thign si that the open round is just not worth the money 1,000,000 its but its the lure of endorsements and the closed league that makes entering ok. I've had a few friends take part in it they found it lacking as with out death hanging over there every move teams played stupidly moves or give 100%"

"Huh... I've never had the chance to get involved in Desert Wars... but the money sounds great! How do you think I'd do, Dust?" Lilith grins before chomping down on a strawberry. "I bet I could be a team on my own..."

"Its only god for the closed leagues and endorsements. I bet we would make a mighty fine team if we wanted. If you guys want to I could always see bout getting us a place after this mission? Or do you wont more 'real' work? " Dust says while tucking in to a huge joint of beef.

"No one wants to say no to becoming an international trid star, complete with swarms of nubile, adoring, groupies, so I willing to step into the arena, though I am fairly certain that competing would be more of an exercise in restraint than in warfighting."

"Actually, I am happy to say no to that. Trid stardom is not on my interest list."

"errrm... maybe trid stardom isn't right for me..." Lilith laughs nervously.

"How come? Plus we have enough flamboyant people here to direct attention away form you. Plus we'll only get major coverage if we want it. Lilith think of the good you would to for having pixies as being able to hold SINs. I know your not the most out going type. Look at me I'm up for it though part of me thinks they will have a hard time filming me and if they can get a shoot the I'm messing up. Trid stardom or not think of the kudos we would have for becomign champs or even close too."

"Weeeellll... I have some friends who would be less than pleased if I became a household name. Let's leave it at that, shall we?" Lilith smiles innocently.

"It would appear that we are out of the Desert Wars business before we even got into it. Probably for the best. I am not a role model."

"I wouldn't know Lilith could always use a pudendum or just stay hidden/appear only as a matrix avatar I know few riggers have done that in my time. Well we'll see what happens. So guys how will be up for the survival crash course?"

"I think the stuff I have pause Yeah, it covers arctic too."

"Hmm... I'm up for the training, although I want to look into training up a couple more outdoorsy skills at the same time... if you plan on having me do much in person scouting, Dusty."

It is probably not a good use of my time. I have other preparations that I could be making that will be more cost-effective. How long will this training take?

"I am already quite familiar with the techniques required for survival in any harsh climate encountered on earth. In the past, I have been able to teach the basics of polar survival fairly quickly, usually within the first few days of deployment. I would imagine that Dust has something more thorough in mind, though."

"I think I will pass on the training; I don't need it. How long should we expect until we leave?"

"You are going to skip hypothermia treatment class? The trolls smiles. "I would have thought that part would amuse you to no end."

"Its a mix of talks VR/AR sims and real life situations when we reach the antartic. Lilith I'll teach you the ful suit but all i ask is you are perpered to but more working in than the other guys. DC if you want to help your welcome one-to-one help is better than group"

"Of course I can provide instruction of cold weather survival. I have been contracted to do exactly that in the past, though it was more frequently desert or wetlands survival than polar, but I have taught that as well."

"You know... If someone wanted to purchase good outdoorsy skillsofts, I could crack them for the group. I just don't have the money for doing that..." Lilith grins sheepishly, then shrugs. "But if nobody wants to do so, I'm willing to put in the work, although a lot of it depends on how much time we have before we have to be active. I do still need to mod my drones for cold-weather operation, don't forget. Speaking of! Dusty, do you need an extra pair of eyes for the negotiations?"

"I presume that you can't use personalized ones?
Otherwise, as long as I get the original back undamaged I am happy to let you work on mine."

Jean pipes up.

I currently 'ave access to a source of 'igh quality cracked software. I can get you whatever you need at 10% of cost.

Guys Ive got to get going now to sort out some gifts for you all. This meals all on my tab send me a com-call if you want to atend the meet tomorrow. Lilith If you dont want to show in person ill rig a holoprojector for you avatare to atend if you waan to atend that is. Same aplays to any one who cant make it in preson. After the meet ive got to pick up a few gifts from some firends then well begin packing for our trip.

Lilith a quick question your node got enough free slots to subcribe our teams links? If so this will work out much better. I'm picking up a full tac soft suite plus senseor anyaliying programs if we can run them off you node I wont have to pick up another one.

"I, of course, intend to attend this meeting. If the contracts are in order and the negotiated agreements are satisfactory, then I will pack my snowshoes."

He glances over at the small human with the multiple personalities.

"I will have to decline your offer of unlicensed software. Due to my local authorities' quaint little prejudices, I find myself audited every quarter, so I prefer to ensure that all of my paperwork is completely in order, and all my dealings are legitimate and above board. I accept the risk that my career will come to an end on the field of battle due to a mistake of my own or simply failing to account for superior opposition, but I refuse to see it brought to a close by an extended prison sentence for tax evasion, fraud, or software piracy."