The shooting stops, followed by splashes as the alleged pirate crew makes their exit. The remaining diesel fuel slowly sputters out, occasionally sparking on some pollutant in the seawater. The smell of hot brass and cordite competes with the sickly sweet tang of scorched long pork and the acrid diesel smoke. After a few short moments of silence, a few locals quickly and quietly retrieve the fallen puppy and its concussed owner.
GIL
Gil looks through his boat to see what the "pirates" had stolen. It is plainly evident that nothing was stolen, no locks were forced, and the vehicle has not been disabled. An access panel has been removed, and the ships computer is hanging by bare optical cables, but appears unharmed. The smuggler in Gil felt something just not right about this scene.
KENSEI
The electronics he had been wearing are torched. His contacts have melted to his eyes, and he is forced to claw the front of his eyes off to let his natural regeneration push the fused plastic out of the wound, and he'd had to burst his eardrums repeatedly to dig the carbonized remains of his earbuds out. All of his electronics he was wearing were burned, but somehow Ricardo was calling him. That bastard had had a commlink dropped in Kensei's room, and it was ringing. He probably wanted a blow-by-blow so he could impress his drinking friends with his proximity to the event. Ricardo would probably be able to use that story for free beer off of every tourist coming through this forsaken human nest for the next twenty years.
KEY
The soothing coolness of the water only lasts a brief moment before the painfully bright sunlight evaporates away her skin of water. She caught herself feeling body-shy again. How had she managed to grow up in the confines of an aquacology and still come out of it afraid someone was stripping her with their eyes? Fuck it. Fuck them. They are only land creatures, after all. None of them understood how dependent they will be on her once they come into her world. The dolphins would understand; having to act like trained dogs for those soldiers must be grating on them. They might not even comprehend the danger they were being put in, and might not appreciate it if they knew.
Gear time now, kill them all later. It's so much harder to get away from a knife when struggling underwater, don't you think?
B BANDIT
After closing her eyes for less than a minute, B Bandit smiles in triumph. Gobs of data and a clean get away. She can't believe the "pirates" are relying on such cheap-shit hardware. She hasn't pulled this much paydata from a system this open since she was avoiding school as a child. Sure, the Firewall hadn't been a slouch, but she also hadn't been a Technomancer as a child, so it balanced.
The pirates had full scream sheets on everyone, including the drake magician who ducked out early. This is good, it means the opposition's news is stale, and it isn't comprehensive. B Bandit is especially proud of their lack of details on herself. It's a little thing, but in the end, aren't those the only things that matter?
Now she will just need to have a small, sharp conversation with this Simon, who's grasp of security is so gods-be-fracking-damned terrible that he probably uses 'god' as his log on password. Seriously! Who posts on a public forum and doesn't clean it up? Is that gold-plated commlink of his an off-the-shelf Fairlight Caliban, or is he just that dangerously useless with it? The butler seems on the ball, probably a bodyguard at that, so what gives?
FINS
This rum is really quite excellent. He wonders if Simon or his elf butler will care if he claim a few, dozen, bottles as part of his pay? Call it a bonus for a fight well survived. Would they even notice?
It seems like the rest of the team managed decently against that CAS SEAL team. Bunch of punks are lucky they were only on a bugging mission, so they were packing less-lethal armaments. He would bet a bottle of Simon's rum that the SEALs had been operating off a list of targets, and he was sure as shit that the rich brat was in the "political disaster" section of that list. This? This is going to be a daisy run, neh?
Full Version: [IC] 20,000 nY Under the Sea
SIMON
"Um. Hi. This is awkward. Look, this wasn't supposed to be that bad. I had no idea 'Loc was, I don't know what. He's in deeper than I thought he could get, and I don't even know into what. You're right about the payment, though. 20,000
might be enough to get your expertise in picking up a friend who was crashed in an inconvenient location, but not to go up against whoever that just was, let alone a few governments.
"Take the 20,000 as talking money. You have the account information on your 'links by now, as a show of good faith on my part. If you aren't interested anymore, you can take it and walk, no hard feelings. We can get you paid more, if you like, but I just dumped a chunk of my liquid capital on building my new house, so it will take a few days to free up substantial funds. If you would prefer goods and services instead, I have access to the whole Worldwide catalog. If you would prefer gear or 'ware, we can manage that.
"Cain here will take care of details with you. I can do more good for 'Loc from Zurich Orbital than I can down here. Feel free to make use of my vacation house, and please bring my friend back safely."
CAIN
Bows gracefully to you.
"Um. Hi. This is awkward. Look, this wasn't supposed to be that bad. I had no idea 'Loc was, I don't know what. He's in deeper than I thought he could get, and I don't even know into what. You're right about the payment, though. 20,000
might be enough to get your expertise in picking up a friend who was crashed in an inconvenient location, but not to go up against whoever that just was, let alone a few governments."Take the 20,000
as talking money. You have the account information on your 'links by now, as a show of good faith on my part. If you aren't interested anymore, you can take it and walk, no hard feelings. We can get you paid more, if you like, but I just dumped a chunk of my liquid capital on building my new house, so it will take a few days to free up substantial funds. If you would prefer goods and services instead, I have access to the whole Worldwide catalog. If you would prefer gear or 'ware, we can manage that."Cain here will take care of details with you. I can do more good for 'Loc from Zurich Orbital than I can down here. Feel free to make use of my vacation house, and please bring my friend back safely."
CAIN
Bows gracefully to you.
Key shrugged at Simon's little speech...
"I'm still in..."
Got debts to pay, she thought to herself
"Things will go more smoothly once we are geared up"
She hoped again that wasn't wishful thinking...the heat was certainly increasing on this run but beggars can't be choosers.
"I'm still in..."
Got debts to pay, she thought to herself
"Things will go more smoothly once we are geared up"
She hoped again that wasn't wishful thinking...the heat was certainly increasing on this run but beggars can't be choosers.
Keeping up his calm outside appearance, Kensei turned towards Simon and Cain.
"Well this was fun. Nothing starts of a day like getting shredded by shrapnel ammo and then set on fire. Anyway, firstly I'll need some new electronics, contact lenses, earbuds and a commlink specifically. Mine are less than functional now as they were not built to be fire-resistant."
He threw the ruined pieces of melted plastic on the table.
"They're cheap and I can get them myself but that will take some time, so if you want us to leave soon you should get them. Secondly: payment. Let's say 80k more on mission completion and I'm still in. If I'm going up against special forces of at least two nations and who knows what else it should at least be worth it."
Then he turned towards the door.
"I'll be out for 10 minutes getting a shower, new clothes and my gear. Especially my gear so this doesn't happen again."
"Well this was fun. Nothing starts of a day like getting shredded by shrapnel ammo and then set on fire. Anyway, firstly I'll need some new electronics, contact lenses, earbuds and a commlink specifically. Mine are less than functional now as they were not built to be fire-resistant."
He threw the ruined pieces of melted plastic on the table.
"They're cheap and I can get them myself but that will take some time, so if you want us to leave soon you should get them. Secondly: payment. Let's say 80k more on mission completion and I'm still in. If I'm going up against special forces of at least two nations and who knows what else it should at least be worth it."
Then he turned towards the door.
"I'll be out for 10 minutes getting a shower, new clothes and my gear. Especially my gear so this doesn't happen again."
Gil crosses his arms as Kensei speaks, nodding along with most every word. "On top of that, those sumbitches did something to my boat, which is going to take time to diagnose and probably more to fix. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure I got some cracked ribs back there -- so I think that extra eighty grand will help cover my medical expenses."
He winces as he strips off his jacket and the kevlar vest he was wearing underneath, prodding at a few tender spots under his skin. "And I've got no problem shooting at Azzies -- Hell, I'd do that for free -- but if the Confederation's involved. . . let's just say patriotism invokes moral qualms at times."
He winces as he strips off his jacket and the kevlar vest he was wearing underneath, prodding at a few tender spots under his skin. "And I've got no problem shooting at Azzies -- Hell, I'd do that for free -- but if the Confederation's involved. . . let's just say patriotism invokes moral qualms at times."
QUOTE (Karoline @ Aug 19 2010, 04:15 PM) 
B Bandit spends her fleeting time in the system gathering all she can and performing her usual covering of her tracks. It may have only been 9 seconds, but to her it seemed like 9 minutes at least as she ran through large swaths of information looking for anything useful, while setting herself up for a return visit, this didn't seem like a random occurrence. While her searches don't return much, a good hacker knows that any information has value, especially if you know how to look at it.
Before she can do any more with the system, she fells the signal growing weak as they dive deeper into the salty water, and so she erases all information of her and Librarian's presence, sets up something to make sure even her exit is missed, and leaves the system. Knowing that what was said could be important, she spends several seconds working on the message, but quickly realizes that the few seconds of conversation she has isn't enough, especially because it could be in an unknown language.
((You guys lost? I was kicking butt, I even got everyone souvenirs.)) She pulls up the tacnet recording and watches as the two men get mowed down, and Key doesn't get a chance to do much besides take a refreshing swim. ((Well, come on up, I've found out some interesting things.))
While waiting for the team to get back she contacts the hotels and requests them to bring several towels to the conference room.
Once everyone arrives, she explains a bit about what she learned "So, these guys were really well informed about most of us, or at the least knew more or less what they were getting into. They certainly weren't just pirates. They were also very interested in not killing us, and particularly not interested in coming face to face with Simon." Without turning to face him, she addresses Simon "This is turning into a way bigger deal than you first let on, we're dealing with multiple nations and corporations. Granted they're more friendly than most, not wanting to kill us, but I'm guessing that won't last as we dig deeper. I'm not sure 20k will be enough, especially considering we don't even know how long this will take. It could take months just to find this guy. Also any ideas why they would want to avoid contact with you? I know you're important, which just makes it all the odder that they wouldn't want to try and kidnap you or threaten you to keep you out of this."
Before she can do any more with the system, she fells the signal growing weak as they dive deeper into the salty water, and so she erases all information of her and Librarian's presence, sets up something to make sure even her exit is missed, and leaves the system. Knowing that what was said could be important, she spends several seconds working on the message, but quickly realizes that the few seconds of conversation she has isn't enough, especially because it could be in an unknown language.
((You guys lost? I was kicking butt, I even got everyone souvenirs.)) She pulls up the tacnet recording and watches as the two men get mowed down, and Key doesn't get a chance to do much besides take a refreshing swim. ((Well, come on up, I've found out some interesting things.))
While waiting for the team to get back she contacts the hotels and requests them to bring several towels to the conference room.
Once everyone arrives, she explains a bit about what she learned "So, these guys were really well informed about most of us, or at the least knew more or less what they were getting into. They certainly weren't just pirates. They were also very interested in not killing us, and particularly not interested in coming face to face with Simon." Without turning to face him, she addresses Simon "This is turning into a way bigger deal than you first let on, we're dealing with multiple nations and corporations. Granted they're more friendly than most, not wanting to kill us, but I'm guessing that won't last as we dig deeper. I'm not sure 20k will be enough, especially considering we don't even know how long this will take. It could take months just to find this guy. Also any ideas why they would want to avoid contact with you? I know you're important, which just makes it all the odder that they wouldn't want to try and kidnap you or threaten you to keep you out of this."
SIMON
"I don't know. 80,000nĄ a pop comes to 400,000nĄ for the five of you. Are you sure you are worth that? I just watched you get ripped up by a couple of pirates."
CAIN
"Please excuse my interruption, but I'm sure what the master was meaning to say was that payment in cash on completion might not be the most efficient use of your paycheck. The master has access to resources you might have difficulty acquiring on your own. Perhaps you could take a percentage of your payment ahead of time in the form of equipment, somatic augmentation? This might go some way towards reduce the likelihood of encounters with the local enforcement being painful."
SIMON
"I'm sure that's what I meant." Simon shrugs and stares off into space with the concentrated look of someone using the Matrix.
"I don't know. 80,000nĄ a pop comes to 400,000nĄ for the five of you. Are you sure you are worth that? I just watched you get ripped up by a couple of pirates."
CAIN
"Please excuse my interruption, but I'm sure what the master was meaning to say was that payment in cash on completion might not be the most efficient use of your paycheck. The master has access to resources you might have difficulty acquiring on your own. Perhaps you could take a percentage of your payment ahead of time in the form of equipment, somatic augmentation? This might go some way towards reduce the likelihood of encounters with the local enforcement being painful."
SIMON
"I'm sure that's what I meant." Simon shrugs and stares off into space with the concentrated look of someone using the Matrix.
Key needed the job, and hoped that greed wouldn't interfere too much in getting the team started, not that she was going to say anything about it at this stage...they weren't a team yet and she didn't feel she'd yet earned the right, not having risked her own skin too much in the confrontation.
While she kept an ear out for arguments she slipped out to retrieve her gear, slipping in to the comfortable weight of the armoured suit and checking the diagnostics on her weaponry...now she was ready!
While she kept an ear out for arguments she slipped out to retrieve her gear, slipping in to the comfortable weight of the armoured suit and checking the diagnostics on her weaponry...now she was ready!
B Bandit listens to the debate for a bit, only tossing in "They got their butts kicked." She reasoned that she was doing quite well until the pirates had decided to run away, her time cut short. Longer and she could have tried tracing that encrypted call.
At the suggestion of equipment as payment, she gets a thoughtful look on her face, then spends a half instant pulling something up from her commlink, and tossing the ARrow onto the table "Do you have access to that?" she asks.
The ARrow displays a brain with several areas marked in different colors, electricity racing through it quickly. Accessing the ARrow shows it to be the latest and greatest in intellect enhancing bioware. It's outside of the cash payment for the mission by a fair bit, but this guy seems to be loaded, so it's worth a shot. "I'd gladly take that in lue of any cash for the mission."
She looks towards Simon, right at him as though suddenly able to see, waiting for an answer.
At the suggestion of equipment as payment, she gets a thoughtful look on her face, then spends a half instant pulling something up from her commlink, and tossing the ARrow onto the table "Do you have access to that?" she asks.
The ARrow displays a brain with several areas marked in different colors, electricity racing through it quickly. Accessing the ARrow shows it to be the latest and greatest in intellect enhancing bioware. It's outside of the cash payment for the mission by a fair bit, but this guy seems to be loaded, so it's worth a shot. "I'd gladly take that in lue of any cash for the mission."
She looks towards Simon, right at him as though suddenly able to see, waiting for an answer.
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