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Thanee
<< @Papa [Siren] Hey! Ernesto, the guy who bought the electronics stuff, can provide me with the software I would like for the commlink. The price is fair, so I will just get it from him. Maybe you could take a look at the programs later, to verify if everything is alright. And if you want to get in touch with him, maybe I could set up a meeting. >>
Fenris
Jenni casually re-settles her hat on her head, ensuring that the trode net there is firmly placed, and sweeps a hand to the side, revealing the heavy pistol strapped to her hip in a definite "It's like this because I know how to use it" style, and takes a seat at a table by herself somewhere that puts her back to a wall and has some sort of line of sight on Dalma and the door.

<@Ollie[Jenni] Ollie, hun, you need ta' be here right-quick like. Ah'm not saying there's gonna be trouble, but if there is, we gonna need ta' kill some boys to get out of it. Hiring these guys is like using foxes to guard ya' henhouse. Just as likely to eat the hens.>
Redjack
The night after all the hardware and software is procured, Papa has several of the team's comlinks laid out on his workbench. Looking up from the assorted parts, he clothes his eyes and takes a breath. He never understood the calm that working at the house brought. Perhaps a feeling of home, even when it wasn't him home. Perhaps the smell of the plants outside or the cedar used in the cabinets inside. Perhaps just the layout of the house, inside and out. Whatever the source, it felt comfortable and inspired.

After assembling and upgrading each of the comlinks, he felt pretty good about each one, except the response chip on Ollie's. He configures each agent to run analyze on the comlinks and, in the event of an infection, purge the malware. In the event of an attack on the comlink, Black Hammer users and Nuke anything else. Smiling, he feels reasonably confident in his work.

From the 17k nuyen.gif the team cleared from the run, a flat 9,625 was pulled for software upgrades... pirated software at that. Worse yet, he began to itemize support and realized that the drones and vehicles need upgrades as well. Putting those to the back of his mind, he focused instead on the next phase and the team they are hunting.

Having driven some of the team to the bar, Papa stayed in the van while the team performed their recon. None of them, nor the van are believed to be known to team... Papa on the hand stared down a number of them. For now, he sat in the van, deployed fly-spies to set up a sensor net and provide video of all entrance/exit points and began to catalog all nodes in range.

<<@Team [Papa] Grid in place, feeds available in TeamNet. I'll highlight hostiles as I ID them - check that, everyone is hostile. I'll ID direct threats.>>
Buddha72
On the Street
Olethros blinked at the message - he felt the echoes of previous friends or at least people this vessel knew and had connections to but he could never push them forward into conscious thought - they felt like old reflexes left in this body. He opened an new window and sent out a request for a pick up for a cab.

<<@Team[Ollie] Send me the address and I'll be in route shortly. Can someone feed us visuals from the inside yet?>>

He opened the channels on his commlink to bring the tacnet feed online and began to shift through whatever data was available to him. He moved his way down the block to an intersection to look for the cab and updated his location through the AR window. He attached a note of adding a 25% tip for speedy pick up.
Saytr
At the bar

Brock looks up the address in his A/R HUD and highlights the address then sends it to Ollie. <@team[brock]"papa how secure are we? If they all come here it's safe to think their matrix support might have recon set up as well at least maybe. If spys are out is there sign of the others outside? Threats I'm worried about are the rival team the others are secondary for now. Ollie dalma and I are at the bar and jenni is sittin against the wall as you come inside the knife thrower is against the back wall in the booth." Brock looked over his shoulder and then around the bar again looking at the bartender " nice place you got here, how long you been open?"
BishopMcQ
Ollie

The auto-cab signals that it will arrive in five minutes and estimates a transit time of seventeen minutes based on current traffic conditions.

Brock

"What are you drinking?" His body language is tense. Up close, you see thick bands of muscle under the fat.
Saytr
Brock could see from muscles corded under the fat the bartender had been taken care of himself, Brock tried his best to seem calm and not at all confrontational. "you serve food in this joint?"
BishopMcQ
Brock

"Just what comes out of a bottle." He continues to wipe down the counter. The rag shows old stains of blood and dark messes that have never washed out.

A few patrons move up to the bar, and their glasses are refilled from taps and various bottles. They never exchange words with the bartender. A knock on the bar, amber liquid flows, and they move back to the hunched down positions.

Outside

Four motorcycles roar into the parking lot, their engines rumbling for several blocks. Behind them a black SUV with tinted windows and four more motorcycles roll in. The riders quickly dismount, drawing automatic weapons and shotguns from holsters built into the bikes. All of them have red and black flaming wings on their riding leathers and bikes.

As the sight lines are cleared, the SUV opens and two men step out. Both have a star carved into their cheeks. Hand gestures flash between them and the rear guard, leaving two armed riders near the SUV along with the driver. The other two flank the door to the bar.
Fenris
Peering at the group through one window, Jenni whistles softly under her breath and tags everyone that came with the group as immediately 'HOSTILE' in the team TacNet.

<@Ollie [Jenni] Sweety, Ah promise ah'll make it worth your while if'n you can get here jus' a mite sooner. All sorts of extra trouble jus' rolled up, and Ah think thus place had it's fair share already, if ya' get mah meaning.>

<@Papa [Jenni] How's things looking outside for a quick exit, hun?>
Saytr
Brock didn't want to get drunk or even buzzed he needed to keep his wits about him " jack and coke then boss and what ever my lady wants and a shot for yourself if you'd join me" and slings his arm around dalma for a sec closes in and smells her hair masking what he is actually doing which is checking out the scenery behind her and the group walking in.
Redjack
Hostiles lighting up in AR, Papa perches a fly-spy on a rooftop to both get a clear line on newly arrived trouble and give the chameleon coated drone cover on top of its concealment. Sitting in the van, he reaches out and mentally touches the two firearms and array of drones subscribed to his comlink. Patiently, he waits and watches, considering the damage to the SUV driver from the van's LMG. Not yet... not quite yet.

Instead, he passes the time scanning for hidden nodes on the newly arrives crew.
BishopMcQ
Inside

Two men enter the bar. One has an automatic shotgun hanging under his coat. The other has a large pistol on one side and something that looks like an underbarrel grenade launcher strapped to a pistol grip. Neither is taking any efforts to hide their weapons as they stride across the bar.

The sound of chairs shuffling away from the corner and men turning their backs on the Aztlaner echoes through the bar.


Hamagen
As Brock places his arm around Dalma, she at first blushes a bit and seems unsure on what to do

<<@Team [Dalma] Wow he is strong, don't think I ever really realized how big and strong trolls are...>>

A few moments pass as Dalma seems to concentrate on something and then gets a bit of a confused look...

<<@Team [Dalma] Wait, why did that show up in the team message...>>

<<@Team [Dalma] Why did THAT show up in the team message??>>

Dalma seems to get irritated

<<@Team [Dalma] crap, how do you make this thing stop broad casting what I'm thinking...>>

<<@Team [Dalma] Dammit sto...>>

Dalma fidgets a bit with her commlink, her face red as she tries to hide it away from Brock, as she turns her head she notices the men with guns, looks over to the troll near her...

"...Brock?"
Saytr
Brock smirked a little at dalmas hardship with technology, the Mage must have the worst time with tech stuff, pretending to be whispering in her ear while still close<@team[brock]"dalma If drek hit the fan jump behind the bar, Ollie two heavily armed guys inside and what looks like two more from papas bird eye view outside. They definable have business with the knife thrower. Everyone is ignoring them however for now. We will see what happens"> Brock switches seats to put himself between the trio in the corner and dalma.
Buddha72
On the Street
Olethros waits and watches the text scroll by. He looks for the cab, not seeing it but knowing its on route.

<<@Team[Ollie] I won't be there for at least 20 minutes unless Papa hacks my cab or someone sends a spirit to help things along. I think after this it may be time to boost a bike or buy something.>>
BishopMcQ
Inside

The men sit down at the table and begin a rapid, muffled staccato exchange in Spanish. The Aztlaner speaks with a quiet heat while the gangers are much more animated about their anger.

Jenni

The exchange is hard to follow over the distance and the speed of their conversation. You are able to catch something about blood debt, two men, UCLA, and a missing smuggler.
Saytr
Brock Watches the interaction and aggressive motions from the two men. "what's with the bigs guns, making every body all tense" Brock asks the bar tender. <@team[brock]"well what ever they are talking about its serious. Any one speak Spanish?">
Thanee
<< @Team [Siren] Hey guys! What's going on? Sounds like you are in quite a situation there. Be careful, ok? As for speaking spanish. I'm fairly fluent, so if you can send me recordings, I can probably translate it. >>
Fenris
Jenni's transmission is filled with the general noise of the room and the bar, and the indistinct static that comes from an open mike at long distances.

<@Siren[Jenni] Best Ah can do.>
Redjack
Papa reaches out to Dalma's comlink and sets the DNI training mode to new user to stop everything she thinks from being broadcast on teamnet; he does open a new AR window to keep an eye on her input to insure that relevant information is not also filtered.
<<@Dalma [Papa] I've tweaked your sensitivity controls. Try thinking of the phrase 'to team' prior to sending a message to us and 'end, end' to end the message.>>

The team's hacker feels a sudden affinity for the new member he never considered; she is as out of place in his world as he is in hers.

<<@Team [Papa] I speak a fair amount of Spanish as well.>>

Its times like these that Papa wished for a fly-spy with a laser microphone. Rather he sits back in his seat, pulls the video feeds from the van and jumps into Ollie's comlink.

<<@Ollie [Papa] Using your comlink as a local router. Hold on..>>
He slices at the car's firewall like a hot knife through warm butter amazed at the misconfiguration of carrier protocols on the cab's node allowing his to not only access the node via the fair request subsystem, but also perform a privilege escalation attack using a 1,048,577 bit overflow in the authentication sequence.
Once inside, he confirms alerts were not tripped, then sets up a script to upload false telemetry data about the cab to the cab company's monitoring system. He then modifies the safety protocols to allow the car to run at top speed.
<<@Ollie [Papa] Hold on, this could get hairy...>>
Buddha72
The Autocab
Seeing the message pop up from Papa, Olethros quickly checks the safety belt of the passenger area then props up his foot to brace himself in place and one arm against the roof.

<<@Papa [Ollie] Got it.>>
Buddha72
The Chicken Choker
The men continue their arguing. With each crescendo from the two gang members, there is a flash of guns. Around the bar, several of the men guzzle down the last of their drinks and unclip their holsters. Outside, the men stay vigilant with two watching the occupied van.

Ollie
You watch the seat and mirrors begin to move as a new profile takes over. The radio dial switches to a news talk station from Horizon. Then, the speed comes. The cab whips and winds through traffic, collision warnings constantly blaring.

Team-Net
Between Siren and Jenni, a conversation begins to unfold. The gangers are accusing Kieri, the Aztlaner, of backing out of their deal. They think he killed their supplier and that Coltrane is going to up the price. Kieri is denying all of it, saying the men the Angels provided were slack-jawed cowards. They were good for suppressing an area but couldn't hit a moving target when their lives depended on it.

Siren
Several of the dancers around you finish their makeup. The stage manager moves through the area, checking them off with a stylus.

"Time to shake your money maker, get on stage."
Saytr
Brock can see that a fight is bound to happen if the knife throwing fool didn't suppress the situation soon. Brock seeing the others unclip their holsters looks for the bar tender calling him over " who is with who in here?"Leeting the his gaze go around the bar.
Hamagen
Dalma stands steady behind Brock, her arm outstreached gently touching the back of one of Brock's arms, almost as is she is react when he reacts, trusting his instincts for danger more than her owns.

She seems to remain very calm and almost perfectly still during the interactions as her eyes seem to move from the bartender to Brock.
BishopMcQ
Brock

"There will be plenty of bleeding for everyone."

The bartender begins to move several expensive looking bottles off the high shelf, placing them below the bar.
Saytr
"all hell, last thing i Need". Brock looks around trying to gauge how fast he could clear the distance and get both jenni and dalma behind him and keep them out of a all out life or death bar fight. <@team[brock]" frag is hitting the fan between the gangers and the knife, Ollie the sooner the better. Papa if you can cut the power to this place that would help me out I think dalma, jenni you guys have thermal or night vision? Once drek starts dalma let's make our way to jenni." Brock stands up wishing he had his hammer with him the added distance in the type of scenario would have been nice even be shot from that scatter gun would have been nice.
Hamagen
Dalma focuses on the images in front of her eyes as she stands perfectly still, she looks over to Jenni then back to Brock as she seems to concentrate...

<@Team [Dalma] to team, is it working? Yes!>

<@Team [Dalma] I do not have any kind of thermal or night vision, but I have some magic that could make us harder to see>

<@Team [Dalma] Though I it might be a bit obvious to everyone here what I'm doing if I try, may not be the best option...end>

Dalma seems to be a bit proud of herself as she successfully navigated the perils of the commlink.
BishopMcQ
Ollie

You feel the cab hurt the curb and make several small collisions. It drives across sidewalks and freeway shoulders with impunity, unable to engage the brake as it reaches triple digit speeds. Arriving at the location, there is a squeal of brakes and tires skidding.

The car fishtails.

With your body braced and seat-belted, you feel it begin to roll but regain balance just before the tires lift off the ground. Across the street, two men lift assault rifles to their shoulders taking aim with your sudden arrival.

The Chicken Choker

Minutes drag on with the growing tension. The conversation continues, with the Aztlaner dragging it out. Toying with them to see how long they can stay on the razor's edge of violence without acting. With the squeal of a car nearly crashing outside, one of the gangers draws the handgun out of his holster and nearly fires. Guns and knives appear around the bar from beneath tables.

Kieri smiles.

"Very well, here are the people who killed your men."

You see the tell-tale shift of attention to an AR display of some kind. The gangers nod and rise. They move toward the door, back to back, taking slow, careful steps. Weapons stay visible, some tracking the gangers, others on Kieri. A few also point at Brock and the other strangers in the crowd of regulars.
Buddha72
Outside
Letting the motion of the sudden stop to throw him from the cab and rolling out along the sidewalk. Cursing and hollering he comes to a stop slamming against the building front. Doing his best to look genuinely angry and confused - he yells at the auto cab as he gathers himself up and gets to his feet.
Redjack
As the passenger exits the autocab, the horn blasts in three sort, high-pitched beeps, the tires squeal and the car resumes its reckless journey out of the parking lot and back onto the street, honking twice more to draw the gangers attention to the street and away from the shadowrunner. Quickly wiping the logs and video, he exits the cab's node and sends it on its way.

His attention back to the activity inside, Papa uses the cataloged nodes and Brock's comlink & line of sight to locate Kieri's node. Got to get a look at that video...
Thanee
<< @Team [Siren] I'm off the grid for a while. Be careful, guys! Don't get yourself killed. >>

With that message, Siren's commlink disconnects from the team-net (commlink is shutdown).

She had to concentrate on different things now. Her magical skills, especially those of Centering, where very useful to find the inner calm she was looking for in this situation. Her mind still wandered to the others in her team occasionally, not knowing exactly what was going on certainly made it harder to put her mind at ease, but eventually, she found it and the ability to focus at the task at hand. Looking at all the hasty last-minute preparations dragged her back into another world. Her world. A smile crossed her lips. Showtime.
Saytr
Brock just stands up with arms down to is side " oh drek" Brock looks towards the bartender" hey man what's the deal? This is a lot of heat just for a drink." Brock alerts team net with his com feeding it audio.
Saytr
Brock just stands up with arms down to is side " oh drek" Brock
Buddha72
Outside
Still hollering and yelling after the cab - he dusts off his clothes and straightens his strap for the duffel bag. Puling up the interface he sends a message to the rest of the team.

<<@Team [Ollie]: So it looks like no one's going to get killed right now though they look primed to kill someone. Are we going to tail our target back to the rest or see if we can get info from this group? Papa can you get anything from their comms? Who are they and why do they hate him so much? If we can find someone else to do the heavy lifting then all the better. >>
BishopMcQ
The Chicken Choker

The two gangers move out of the bar, back to back, until they are outside and the door closes behind them. Outside there's a fast exchange in Spanish. The two men climb into their SUV as half the men holster weapons and climb on to their bikes. As the outriders and SUV pulls away, the last watch for anyone tailing them. With no apparent pursuit, they mount up and ride out as well.

Inside, the bartender ignores Brock's question. One of the regulars, holding a wide bored pistol, gestures slightly with the barrel from the troll to the door.

"You two best just leave, we ain't in a mood for trogs and tusk-suckers."
Saytr
The Chicken Choker

Brock takes account that the bar is obviously not meta friendly to just outsider friendly. Noticing they didn't say anything about jenni being inside he figured the team would still have a in. Brock smirks at the remarks and grabs dalmas arm and escorts her towards the door. <@team[brock]"that was interesting to say the least, knife boy is still inside so we will see how this goes.">
Fenris
Jenni's fingers fidget towards the pistol at her waist as the bar patron swings his barrel towards Brock and Dalma. She wanted to remain separate enough if she could, just for the potential info, but if that man's finger even started to twitch near that trigger, he was going to find out how fast Jenni could make that pistol sing.

<<Team [Jenni] - Alright, so, with tha' gangers gone, Ah kin stay for a while and keep an eye on our Down South boy there. Ah don't know how well Ah can track him if he's driving something, though. Papa, what's the good word?>>
Hamagen
Dalma lets herself be taken as Brock takes her by the arm...

"Sweety, I though we were getting a drink, are we going some where else?"

Saytr
Brock just nods and ushers her out."this ain't no place accustomed to modern times, I'm sure we can find another place"
BishopMcQ
The Chicken Choker

A few seconds after Brock and Dalma leave, Kieri looks down at his commlink. Around the bar, there is grumbling and griping as weapons are slowly tucked back into holsters. A few stay on tables with hands hovering nearby. The bartender takes several bottles and begins moving through, refilling drinks. His shirt shows a thick band of sweat down the center of his back.

Kieri taps a few buttons on his commlink, smiling to himself.

As the Aztlaner tucks the knife away under his coat, Jenni sees a small bandoleer of them. He moves through the crowd, lifting Dalma's glass up. Sniffing at it, he pounds the drink back quickly. A small, dark curl of liquid rolls off at the edges of his mouth like twin blood smears. Wiping it off with the back of his hand, Kieri heads out of the bar.

Outside

Ollie is hanging out in a nearby alley, the pretense of crazy cabs dropped once the gang had moved off. Brock and Dalma are in the parking lot, talking. Kieri walks toward a racing bike, painted matte black. There's a crackle of electricity through the air near the bike, then he climbs on and drives at a leisurely pace down the block.
Buddha72
Alley
Olethros tries to keep out of sight but still keeping the front of the bar in view. He opens his senses to the spirit realm just beneath this one to make sure nothing unusual is happening - with Locket involved nothing was certain. As he maintains his vigilance he reopens the window with all the team communications.

<<@Team [Ollie]: With the knowledge that these people are working for Locket - they know where the house is since she knows.>>

He feels the comforting weight of his possessions resting against his back in the duffel bag.
Fenris
<<@Team[Jenni] - Who's Locket? Either way, Ah'm pretty sure Ah don't want him nor nona-his friends knowing where Ah'm sleeping.>>

Heading out to the truck that was the sum of her possessions up here in the frigid north after the knife-wielder is pulling out of the parking lot, Jenni tucks herself into the cab and follows, discretely as she can, stopping near the alley where Ollie waits and inviting him up and onto the bench seat beside her with a wink and a teasing, "Need ah ride, sailor?"

<<@Team[Jenni] - Ah'm gonna try and follow, unless we gotta better idea of how'ta find out where they're stashed up?>>
Buddha72
Alley
Olethros smiles, taps his head and with a wink he slides into the cab of the truck. He feels an uneasy ripple across the fragments of this vessel's memories but as eh tried to pull the recollection forward into consciousness it slipped loose and faded.

"Why in fact, I do."

He talked to try and cover the disassociation he felt.
Saytr
Brock can see where jenni and Ollie are via the head up display <@team[brock]" papa can you pull up map softs to track Ollie and jennis position? Dalma and I will follow them via the mapsoft as to not alert the azatlaner of us following him, we will be a few miles back just in case for back up. Dalma can look for magical threats right?"> Brock opens the gophers passenger door for dalma and gets on the road taking his time to not arise any suspicion for n lookers.
Hamagen
Dalma smiles and nods as the door is opened for her and she steps in, when she gets situated she looks at her commlink and attempts to answer...

<@Team [Brock] At team...Yes I can keep an eye in the astral to make sure no magical threats are coming...End>
BishopMcQ
Jenni and Ollie

Following behind Kieri, it is obvious for the first mile that he is expecting to be followed. He speeds through stoplights, makes sudden lane changes and goes through a covered market to shake aerial tracking. Jenni follows with a practiced hand that knows when to back off. The rancher seems to have an intuitive understanding of tracking dangerous predators and how to keep from spooking them.

After a few minutes, the Aztlaner puts on more speed and heads north into the mountains. Just before Crestline, he turns the bike down a narrow road with trees on either side. Following down without the car being seen will be nearly impossible.

At the Safehouse

There's a thundering crack. Father looks up from the small box that he had been studying, the formula complete and compelling. He places the box in his pocket, as he steps into the living room.

A massively stone figure, moving with slow deliberation picks up the silver and turquoise necklace. The elemental turns to face the old man.

"You have stolen from us. Leave and take the fleshling. Do not mistake this for mercy."

Without pausing to see if Father was paying attention, the spirit begins to crush furniture and shatter support beams. The old man moves quickly to gather what he can and get Etain out of the crumbling house.
Buddha72
Jenni & Ollie
Seeing the road and an opportunity he opens the team chat.

<<@Team [Ollie]: I think we have them tracked down to where they are holed up. He took a lot of time and effort to get here without a tail so they are tense about something. I think we should scout out this bolt hole and seriously think about hitting them here or as they leave. Can people get out here to look it over? >>
BishopMcQ
Brock

You are driving along freeways paralleling the route on the map that Jenni and Kieri took, coming up the mountain on the Big Bear side instead of right behind them. Next to you, Dalma grows distant for a moment, as if hearing a voice from far away.

Team

<@Team [Dalma] Team. Is this working? Uh, yeah.>

<@Team [Dalma] Father just told me there is a problem at the house. A spirit of the earth tearing it apart. It has the necklace.>

<@Team [Dalma] He said the girl is safe. Umm, END.>
Redjack
The moment Papa realizes that the encryption level of the node is in the stratosphere, he immediately loads a copy of the agent onto his spare comlink and sets it to the task of redirecting a trace on his node. He sends a single replicated command to the agent on every teammates comlink to do the same, followed by another single, replicated command to every comlink to perform a full system scan for back doors, intruders, attacks and recent log file modifications. He then has the van's pilot program move the van out of the parking lot and into the street.

When the video of the home invasion begins, he spools out to teamnet.
<<@Team [Papa] We are about to be homeless. Anyone got mojo enough to counter that damn thing?>>

Seeing the spirit's interest in the necklace, he grimaces. We were sloppy.
Monitoring the decryption program, he continues to wonder. Or are we still?
Buddha72
Jenni's Truck
Olethros watches as the spirit lays waste to the house.

<<@Team [Ollie]: I couldn't get there fast enough to make any difference - sorry. >>
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