Grey is more a vehicle rigger than a drone rigger. Well, no, its both, its just that I spent 500k on my van and 75k on my drones.

Kara's got issues she needs to work out with the whole 'team' thing. Last team she was on was one she hand picked, trained, worked and partied with for years (and slept with most of the members at one point in time too), and they ended up trying to kill her. Needless to say she's not long on trust. Mind you, Lone Star doesn't have a clue about the team, or the incident in question.

Just alerting you all that I'll be fairly slow in updating for a bit, as my laptop seems to have died on me. Further updates as events warrant.

~J

Lone Star doesn't know she killed her own mutineeing team?

Nope. She was handed a nice happy clean slate from a certain benefactor. Tis her Dark Secret...

[Plants listening device on Kara]

*knows her gear inside and out, kills the last person to touch her things*

I'm gonna chalk Kara up to a PR nightmare right now, well, at least from a legal perspective. Sure, she'll get the reporters and media watchers oohing and aaahing with her ultra slick style and how good she looks in a tight sweater, but the fact that her definition of non-lethal is "winds up still breating" is gonna bring down some hell...

Don't get ahead of us Bearclaw. We aren't in the van yet.

Rolling leadership to get the clerk to give us what we want without asking for a bunch of papers to be signed and stuff. 1, 2, 3, 5

I am suddenly painfully aware of a distinct lack of clothing. Kagetenshi, do you think I could fudge a duster/secure longcoat? I have the creds...

Anyone else get that a lot? All my characters end up with shopping lists at the end of a run, 'things I needed last time but forgot to buy'.

Whose sig was it that read something to the effect of "I had to kill off a contact to buy some clothes"?

Anyway. Go for it. Getting my laptop looked at later today, so hopefully we'll be back in action soon.

~J

Speaking of clothes, should I ditch my trust inspiring dark suit for a fear inspiring set of fatigues?

Well there is the trouble, I went in assuming we would be wearing uniform/armour and so didn't buy any normal clothes (that and the whole 'off-duty' thing slipped my mind in all the excitement)

Are we a uniform/armour unit like SWAT or more of a plain-clothes 'do not arouse suspicion until they cannot run away' kinda team? (I am assuming Loki are mainly plain-clothes / stealth suits)

My character will be wearing a uniform or suit (depending if it's supposed to be official or not), generally under a heavy security armor... so don't worry to much about it. You should still think about what your character wears off work (and buy it or just plainly add it on your sheet if you had some cash left, it's cheap to buy anyways)

I'm going to wear my light security armor. I'll also bring my helmet, but I won't put it on until we start the assault.

Heh... oops. I forgot to buy armor. Oh well, I'll just stay in the Van.

Rick will also be wearing his heavy security armor, and bringing his helmet. I misunderstood before; I thought this mission was supposed to not even be publicly known about. But apparently it is not secret, merely low-profile, so beeing seen with armor on shouldn't be a problem. I still draw the line at assault rifles, however.

Hey guys Sorry I'm so late getting rolling here. Pending Kagetenshi's approval, I'll be your #7. (Approval on character details, that is.)

Samuel Becker ("Sam", to most) is an ex-merc turned SWAT negotiator (mental image: Bateau for build, with a later-in-life focus on face-ness). He's not a consummate face, but that's balanced by the fact that he's got the nerve, cyber, and skills to take action, rather than simply being a guy on the sidelines with a megaphone.

On assault rifles - why not? ;-D Loaded with gel rounds they're no worse than an SMG, I suppose... tho I guess they do look more threatening. He'll leave his in the van, and just take his sidearms in, for the most part. Armor: no sec armor yet

I'll post character details in the Char Intro thread once Kagetenshi approves them. (figured I'd say Hi here first since you probably watch it more closely.)

Oh bother... Now I have to update the team listing...

Sorry, Firewall. I'll also freely admit to swiping the dart pistol idea -- i'd never used one before, and thought it was a good idea.

At 170 a shot, not many people opt for narcoject. I have my reasons though...

Don't Worry about the team-listing; I need to get it onto a more appropriate medium anyway, so I am bound to end up re-writing it...

Alright, let's get through this armory scene and get to the building.

Kage, just to help you if you want to auto-GM the plot along; Connor will be asking for floor-plans (the real ones, not public-records) and access-codes to avoid setting off security and alerting the criminals to his presence within the system. He will also ask if someone can call ahead to arrange matrix access where he will not be disturbed (like a command post) or if there even is external access to the security system.

What are we waiting for? Can we get the supplies we want? And does anyone else need anything before we go?

I cannot wait to get going. This looks like it could be a very promising game...

Patience my friends. Look at it this way: The longer that Kagetenshi's laptop is glitched out, the longer he has to think up cool ideas for the story.

Ah, I forgot about his computer being glitched.

Tentative date of computer repair is Tuesday, though I'm not entirely certain of the accuracy of that. I'll try to move things along slightly tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get back into at least partial action on Tuesday regardless of laptop status.

~J

All we need from you for now is, does the armory guy give us the supplies we request without bureaucratic whining? The actual fight won't occur for a few days anyway.

Fight? Can we at least pretend that this could be resolved by negotiation and/or stealthy extraction? C'mon, just for me...

That's my plan. We'll convince them to talk to us, then stunball them until their ears bleed.

That's the plan! Stunballs and an air elemental should do the job. If that's not enough, we have concussion grenades and neuro-stun canisters.

Unless we re-write the magic rules, I think I may have to adapt the 'stun-ball' plan to use more mundane methods.

Ok. Remind me quickly: what are all the items being sought? I don't see anything offhand that doesn't fly, but I want to make certain.

~J

i agree with Firewall - I likethe idea of negotiation ;D (well, admittedly, it's because that's my char's forte ). How about we negotiate with them until such time as you guys are able to go in and mop up? Who knows, we might actually be able to get them to give up.

If we go in guns-blazing, that risks hurting the hostages, which is very bad PR. I think that when we get on scene, we ought to find out (a) what negotiation has been done -- have they made any demands? made any threats? Do we know who they might be? (the demands part is really the main one, as it shows that they might be negotiable.). If there already is a negotiator on scene, we can offer to help/take over (tho, kindof rude ... );

If there IS no negotiator on scene, I certainly think we should try it -- otherwise our boss might get mad if a hostage is lost and we didn't at least try a nonviolent method. That said, Stunball + stun gas + concussion grenades + gel rounds should do the trick; hard part will be hitting them all at once so as to confuse them and deny them concentrated fire oportunities. We'll want a floor plan or at least general idea of the layout of their room (1 door? 2 doors? windows to the outside?). If there's more than one door, we might want to use door-breaching charges and bust them open at the same time. (Anyone good with demo? )

We should requisition gas masks if we are using stun gas. Also, I'd like to say from previous experience (from the receiving end ) ... that stun gas + stun weapons (esp. darts) can_ do physical damage. We'll probably want to make sure the windows get opened/broken once we have cleared the room. Or, we could use concussion grenades. Or both, hehe...

items being requiested (so far):

Rick:
2 Concussion grenades, stun gas canister x 1

Carlos:
Flash-pak, concussion grenade

Sam:
gas masks (one for each of us), 2 gel clips for his service pistol, and a rifle loaded with gel rounds.

I imagine others have requests, but haven't stated them in IC yet.

I am skipping the armoury; if I end up in combat, things have gone very wrong... Instead, I am trying to grab data - both while here and while on the way.

• Up-to-date floor-plans
• Matrix access-codes
• Matrix access near to/on the scene
• Map of the matrix-host
• Detail of security systems, inc. cameras, etc.

Yes, we will try to negotiate while we make our assault preparations. We might even have gknoy negotiate with them right as we assault, to distract them. If these guys aren't very proffesional, which they probably aren't, they might crowd around the radio/cell phone to listen to their leader negotiate. That would make them easy to take out with stunballs and grenades.

Something tells me that making the assuption that they aren't proffesional or inteligent is a bad idea... Better to assume they are as smart as us and be really really careful...

I concur with that... give the criminal all the credit in the world, just be prepared to take it away quickly...

I completely agree with Grey. These tangoes are certainly well-prepared, if they have been able to take six (?) hostages. That there are five or more tangoes also speaks to their organization and professionalism.

In fact, I wonder what organization they represent - what special interest, what message they want to be heard. This isn't just some guy with a gun to some bank teller's head and a few sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest who cracked because his rent check bounced. (I hope ) I imagine that they are trying to get some media coverage (we shoudl watch that the media doesn't inadvertantly screw our operation), too.

- They almost certainly have a leader in their group. Probably a lieutenant and a plan in case the leader bites the dust.
- They probably have a contingency plan.
- They certainly have goals of some kind. If we can find out what they want, we can use that to help get the hostages free.
- They probably have a decker - I imagine they'd have needed it to have been able to occupy the building in the first place. Might be all the more reason for James to get legitimate access.
- Given the situation in the sixth world, they might even have magical mojo on tap. (and cold filtered, I bet ...)
- They might have booby-trapped some of the entrances to the room. If we can get video feeds/images of the doors, we might be able to determine that.

Questions Sam will be asking (if no one else does) once we get there:

- Have they made contact with us? Have we contacted them?
- Do they claim to represent any particular group or agenda?
- Have they made any demands?
- Have any of them identified themself as the leader?
- How did they enter the building?
- What floor are they on?

We need to be able to manipulate their environment, too, to get them to soften up -- shutting down air conditioning, for example, or reducing power availability, for example.

[you know, right about now, I'm really wishing I'd seen that movie with those two negotiators ... ]

That was a great movie.

Kara's also going to be talking to our team techie about possibly aranging some problems with the media's recording capabilities...

Hell, she can't just shoot the reporters... as much as she'd love to...

They almost certainly have outside Matrix support. They may also have a rigger standing by for drone support or an escape vehicle, and they may have a ringer in the crowd around the building. Our first order when we arrive should be to move the crowd back, and have the cops search anyone who they see using a cell phone, especcially someone doing so out of earshot from everyone else. Magical support is unlikely, but possible.

Reading Kara's description, I am not sure she can mingle for long before someone does something that leaves him staring at the stump where his wandering hand used to be...

And that is when the media will be panning across and just 'catch sight' of her...