Oh boy, Dealer just landed in a world of trouble then!

@Seth

10 ewar + scan
Scanning: E-War 3 + Scan 6 = (9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=5, 9d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=4)

10 perception + intuition
Perception: Intuition 4 + Perception 1 + Audio / Visual Enh 3 + Tacnet 2 = (10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=2, 10d6.hits(5)=6)

infiltration check, snuggling in a little on the lightpost.
Hide on lightpost: Agility 4 + Infiltrate (Urban) 3 + TacNet 2 = (9d6.hits(5)=1)

Infiltration check for Marvin (rotodrone):
Marvin's infiltration: Pilot 3 + Covert Ops 4 + Tacnet 2 = (9d6.hits(5)=3)

For refference:
Percieving Pixel by vision (including low-light or thermo): -9 to dice pool
Percieving Pixel by everything else (including astral): -5 dice pool

Gotta say I agree on the SnS as well. Even times I expect it to be in play I just kept it as a gel-round replacement for non-lethal work. I'll be happy to swap out the little bit sitting around for good ole gel rounds.

Oh, any problem if I go ahead and upgrade some sensors and what not on a drone or two that haven't hit play yet? Figured they just got installed last night before the run got under way. Perhaps grab a new software package from the Warezhouse to upload as well.

I also figured out uses for the retrans. Low avilability Signal 6, and it gets around the normal +2 Response / Signal upgrade limits on devices (so Drones normally cap at 5, but retrans takes it to 6)

Here's the shopping list of changes, just let me know about any price changes:


At average prices that's: 2,870

Do you need me to do some rolls for checking on details for the building we're heading to, or would that be in data already dug up?

I left out my Matrix Perception against the rigger's Stealth. Invisible Castle is not working for me.

I rolled on the hypertext srd dice roller. Computer + Analyze = 10d6. I got two successes.

@Seth:
Apologies if I jumped ahead on the gear purchasing. Here is the final list including form fitting armor but no SnS. If this is okay I will update her character sheet to include it.

Form-fitting half suit 4/1 with non-conductivity 3, 2250 yen
Urban camo suit 8/6 with non-conduct./fire and chem resist 4, 4500 yen
Enfield AS-7, top mounted smartlink, underbarrel foregrip, 2400 yen
100 rds normal (4 drums and change), 300 yen
1 drum gel 108 yen
1 drum explosive, 180 yen
1 drum APDS 252 yen
4 flashbangs, 180 yen
4 smoke grenades, 180 yen
2 Flashpacks, 600 yen
Respirator (rating 6), 225 yen
5 doses of Cram, 75 yen
3 stim patches R4, 450 yen
Tacnet goggles R4, lowlight, smartlink, image link, microcamera with lowlight, 1500 yen

Total: ~13000 yen including Molly's markup. That will put a bit of a dent in Copperhead's savings.

Hook up the gift Commlink, give it a quick once over (Invisble Castle is till freaking out Comp 4 + Logi 6, 5x hits, 4x ones..the bell curve is furious right now), then allow it to be slaved to Pixel's tacnet.

Slave the FLY-SPY, goggles, and active imaging systems to the gift-link hooked to Pixels tacnet. Disable auto-eject feature on all smartguns.

Set high end personal commlink to skinlink only. The Ares stays on this one, as do the contact lenses. Just in case Pixel gets killed in the middle of this.

Once we have jurisdictional data, buy 2x comprehensive RFID sets from Molly with on-off functionality. They should represent what Joe Q. Average looks like for the planned jurisdiction of entry and the target area - the intent being to broadcast all sorts of I'm a good wageslave, and go balck when corssing jurisdiction lines. And to be able to turn on reaosnable looking RFIDs on exfil. Call it 200 nuyen for the batch, unless pxiel wants to spend a good bit of time recoding some standards?

Final sweeps of all gear with tag erasers before applying the new tags.

That's the techie approach - Ember will probably look at the commlink and wonder how you turn it on

Just to clarify, Ember can barely send a text message let alone use a tacnet - it's more willful ignorance, he's had plenty of chances to learn but never bothered - he distructs tech with a passion (hence ditching the comms earlier) so not sure he'll want anything more than an audio link to the others...

It's fun playing a luddite for a change

Ah, a gasmask! Thanks for reminding me, Notsoevildm. I luckily dodged that bullet with my asthmatic elf in the other game, so I probably shouldn't rely on luck again.

Demon will try negotiating. I'll toss up a buttering-up IC post before rolling the dice, though.

Wooh...I knew I bought respirator 6 at chargen this time! Of course, i forgot perception...guess where the firts 8 of those 10 karma points went...

As for luddites, pah, your a mage. Its like a techie, only the science doesn't need to make sense. I think a true luddite would be very anti-magic. OCuld be wrong though.

Lol, Copperhead isn't quite as bad. She can use a trode net and image link to work AR but couldn't set it up without help from a friendly techie.

@General
Feel free to apply the tacnet bonus, I will modify it as seems appropriate to me based on circumstance. (Mostly on whether or not other sensors could help you)

@AppliedCheese

200 nuyen is ok for some tags and stuff.

The destination is 4179 70th Avenue East, Fife, WA, United States (If you google maps it, you'll find a warehouse there for mercer).
The warehouse is currently boarded and appears abandoned.
The security for the area is reported as a C, but actually this bit is perhaps a little lower (abandoned warehouses tend to reduce the security level all by themselves)


@Pixel
Shopping list fine

Marvin flies out to the SE. I asked for the wrong rolls as it was a Marvin perception check. Still I'll go with the die I asked for: Marvin spots a female figure in the junk yard, dressed in chamo gear. She is lying on top of a a four story pile of lorries. Her thermal image is heavily damped but you lucked out on your first perception roll. Marvin flew 30 feet over her head, and you just spotted it on the camera image. You moved past the image, and had to hit replay to spot it. The image was poorly focused.

There is a clear line of sight from that figure to your self. I'm assuming that you took a good look, but you see nothing even though you know exactly where to look (even when you look astrally).

If you want a better image you could send Marvin back again, fly over, send another pet... or just keep looking.

The location of the figure is 150m SE of the cafe. The figure has a really good view of the cafe door from where she is.
You can now admire my fine art work The regular black splodges are very tall lights. There are around 30 lorries parked there

Do you have Marvin slaved to your commlink? slaved elsewhere? free flying and all alone?

A few more die for you to roll: 10 Analyse + Firewall for Marvin, and for yourself...cannot image what they are for

Marvin is slaved on me for the tacnet feed right now. Which also means that sensor feed is available to the other tacnetters tied in.

Firewall + Analyze rolls for my link:
Commlink defenses: Firewall 6 + Analyze 6 = (12d6.hits(5)=3, 12d6.hits(5)=5, 12d6.hits(5)=6, 12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=6, 12d6.hits(5)=2, 12d6.hits(5)=5, 12d6.hits(5)=3, 12d6.hits(5)=5)

Fresh Perception checks for Marvin:
Marvin's perception: Sensors 6 + Clearsight 4 + TacNet 2 = (12d6.hits(5)=3, 12d6.hits(5)=5, 12d6.hits(5)=1, 12d6.hits(5)=8, 12d6.hits(5)=3, 12d6.hits(5)=2, 12d6.hits(5)=6, 12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=5, 12d6.hits(5)=3)

Also, for refference, all my drones are currently functioning in Hidden mode, set to accept signals from each other, me, and those on my tacnet. Beanie goes Active when we're in public areas that aren't shadowy spots, but for now, he's still Hidden.

I'll have to be more precise when I say keep some altitude. The goober's sensors are good out to 5km. There's no reason for him to be hovering on the deck a piddly 30 feet over the piles

*edit* also, some e-war scanning for Marvin:
Marvin, Detect Hidden node: E-War 4 + Scan 6 = (10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=0, 10d6.hits(5)=6, 10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=1, 10d6.hits(5)=3)

Ah well you wouldn't have seen the figure if you had been 5km's up. Chamo gear exists for a reason.

The images in Marvin's memory are very blurred, just about make out a female figure (human eyes are good at that sort of thing, peering down some sort of ...is that a telescope or a sniper scope? difficult to tell.

You have just lost control of Marvin... I'm moving into combat rounds. Initiative totals please everyone and declarations of intent.

No need for surprise rolls...its not that sort of combat.

Init:Initiative roll: Intuition 4 + Reaction 6 = (10d6.hits(5)=2)
So Init 12, 3 IPs

Losing control of a slaved drone running ECCM and Encryption with no indication of being hacked or spoofed (I get to do Hacking + Stealth vs attempts to get my ID for spoofing). That's never a good sign O_o

So, as this is likely to be my first action... what check would it be to figure out what happened to Marvin? Did the feed just cut out or what? Matrix perception maybe to spot the cause of connection loss? Normal perception to see if I can spot him getting shot down?

Alright, after some prior matrix confusion, I thought I should give a run-down to make life easier on Seth in regards to my own setup and how to break it. I've been trying to bone-up on the matrix rules to play a hacker / rigger, and this is the result so far. I figure it's enterly feasible for Pixel to have layed the security on thick, given her own Hacking skill and orientation, not to mention her protectiveness of her little metallic friends.

Normal Matrix defense architecture for Pixel and her 'family' of drones:

Hidden mode (E-War + Scan to locate)
Slaved drones redirect hacking attempts to master.

For spoofing:
Matrix Perception vs Pixel's Hacking + Stealth requiring at least 1 net hit to aquire AccessID.

Then, the command must be Spoofed using (Hacking + Spoof -6 for spoofing an admin account) vs the drone's (Pilot 3 + Firewall 3). The bust-a-moves are easier at only (Pilot 2 + Firewall 3)

Furthermore the drone communications are handled in encrypted format, and the drone is set to refuse any signals that aren't using the correct encryption. That means the signal must also be scanned down and decypted (Intercept Wireless traffic, which triggers my Matrix Perception to detect the snooping; then the Decrypt action, which just takes some time). It slows enemy hackers down, gives another chance to notice them, and has the downside that if Pixel's Encrypt program is crashed it must be restored before giving any drones orders.

In light of recent drone-jacking Pixel will likely also be adding a passphrase to execute a command, with failure to provide the phrase triggering an Alert.

For hacking:
Once forwarded to Pixel's node, or having scanned it down, there's the normal Hacking on the Fly. Enemy's (Hacking + Exploit) extended check with target of 12 (Firewall 6 + Admin required 6). Lower level accounts can be hacked, but have no access to do or view anything. I get (Firewall 6 + Analyze 6) for every on-the-fly roll they make in my own extended test with a target of thier running Stealth program's rating (auto-detecting on first hit if no Stealth running), typically maxing out at 6 (barring extremely rare bleeding-edge military software that the military keeps a really close eye on), often 5 or less.

Once they get in on an Admin account, they must then break the node's Encyption 6 (another extended check vs target 12, 1 combat turn interval) before they can do or see anything. this also makes Mute program options fairly worthless since you'll almost never break the encryption before it wears off. The Access Log is likewise encypted and must be cracked before any tweaking, viewing, or editing can occur.

If I or my commlink spots them on a matrix perception check or while they attempt to hack in, then an alert triggers, upping the Firewall by +4 against them (including upping thier hacking target number if they're not in yet) and changes all attempted actions to opposed checks. It also notifies me of the intrustion and attempts to terminate the intruder's connection.

An important side consideration is if we're using the suggested limitation on extended tests in SR4A (-1 die per interval), or the older SR4 option of max number of intervals = total dice pool.

*edit*Also, here's a cheat-sheet of programs you'd need to be running to perform the above options:

For spoofing:
Analyze, Spoof, Encrypt, Decrypt, Sniffer, Stealth

For hacking:
Decrypt, Stealth, Exploit, Analyze, Browse (to find what you're after), Edit (to change anything)

So keep in mind potential effects on the enemy's home node in terms of Response and System. Without at least some ergonomic and / or optimized apps and a solid bit of hardware they're going to be suffering under at least a little bit of reduced Response.

And if it's emm, he's probably got at least 1 BlackIC attack program running, and possibly some other combat options like Armor and Medic. Otherwise it's a complex action per program to start it running.

Init: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3161689/ (Intuit 5 + Reaction 8, 3 hits)

Initiative 16, 3 IPs

One time burst last tacnet data to skinlink commlink, then send final transmission with bone-mike/microtransceiver freq to the group. Then cut the gift link: all weapons and gear reslave to skinlink only. Leave fly spy under pixel's control. Leave public commlink and RFIDs on, stand up slowly and make sure to grab the bag. I think that should probably cover initial reaction pretty well.

If this doesn't become machinegun fury, and we are playing loose combat time by posting nature, this is the plan:

Ask Molly where I can get a good shot on the marked tacnet icon from inside the building, without scaring the customers. Walk there calmly, go completely matrix black except for skinlink when out of customer view. Remove wildhuter (silenced) from bag, and line up the shot with APDS. Kill the spotter. Work near simultaneosuly with Demon if he's on the same wavelength.

If the drek hits the fan, plan changes to: get to cover, matrix black except skinlink, get the Ares alpha, and figure it out from there.

Keep in mind that you lose any updated data feeds and all access to the TacNet if you cut the slaved link. Not saying you can't or shouldn't, just be aware

Also, since you're all on the tacnet at the start of this, you'll all notice when Marvin's feed suddenly drops out, and the tacsoft is probably pinging some warnings about the unexplained loss of an asset.

Copperhead is slow: Init 6 + 6d6.hits(5)=1 = 7, 1 pass. She actually has an extra die from the Combat sense spell in her sustaining focus - but it doesn't help: 1d6.hits(5)=0

Her 1 action is to take the big shotgun back out of the bag, sling the bag and move over to the table.

Dealer figures that if your hacker's tacnet slaved drone just got hacked, the anti hacker now has feed to everyone on the tacnet as well. He may be wrong...he's not a hacker after all, just a guy with some pretty good computer skills, and a vague idea of how that all interacts as far as cybercombat. He's acleaner, a second stoyr man, an infiltrator, and a shooter....but he was never a UCAS squad/platoon leader who knows a tac-net like the back of his hands.

Which is good, because my matrix rules are just about on that level as well

One of his first audio trnasmissions will be telling pixel to let him know when its safe to link back in. You should still have his FLY-SPY by the way...its completely unmodded (no rigger here), but its in your kitbag.

He should have known better than to take this run...3 minutes and half an omellette in and its already shooting time. (Smiley..no really...arggh..freaking pop up won't work)

@Xarin
Normally when GMing a stealthy operation on the bad guys part, I wouldn't go though a line by line detail, but I want to make sure I have done this right:

• The attacker has 4 matrix actions / round
• The Encryption between your node and Marvin was cracked before he hacked you
• Hacking + Exploit needs Firewall + 6 successes (I'm assuming 12) to give the hacker an admin account
• The hacker was spotted by the firewall on the second and successful attempt. As there is a mute option on his exploit, the alert was not triggered until 1 round (i.e. 4 actions is his case) have passed
• At this point the hacker is an with an admin account. This is what the Firewall + Analyse requests were for.
• In his first IP covered by the mute he initiated crypto analysis, and took a matrix perception test to get a valid access ID (as admin he can send command from any valid access ID, he doesn't need yours. If I am wrong, well, it's only 1 or 2 more complex actions to get it)
• In his second IP he sent two simple actions spoofing Marvin (he has already cracked the encryption to talk to Marvin)
• In his third IP covered by mute, he had cracked your encryption and cancelled the alert
• You have only seen the hacker at this point if your Firewall + Analyse beats his Hacking + stealth, or if you undertake matrix perception actions.

From a handwavium point of view (which I prefer) he is very skillful, with good kit and rolled very well. You are very good as well, and you have spotted that something is wrong.

I'm kicking off the initiative now. Once I have your Firewall + Analyse tests I'll let you know at what point in the timeline you are in... either he has just hacked in, or you just noticed Marvin isn't doing what you want. In retrospect I could have handled this better (I thought I'd asked for the correct rolls, then I reread the rules after I published the results and realized that I needed a different one). For your personal happiness: The opponent you are facing is good (he's a prime runner), but he's built around roughly the same number of points as you so he has strengths and weaknesses too. Just like in stealth operations the person sneaking around has an advantage until they are spotted. With the current rules a hacker can get into any system, the only question in a battle between hackers is "if/when did you get spotted".

On a totally unrelated note: The pass phrase idea won't work. By their very nature passphrases are passwords, and tools that can crack passwords can crack this (i.e. the Hacking on the Fly abstraction is exactly designed to deal with this). If this idea worked then everyone would use it, and every time you hacked into a system the alert would be raised.

I actually get to oppose this roll with 15d6.
Speaking of which: Matrix Stealth check: Hacking 9 + Stealth 6 = (15d6.hits(5)=5)

Oh, and Initiating the decrypt is a complex, analyzing for the AccessId is a simple, so that's 2 IPs with some change left on the second one to attempt a spoof at -6 dice pool (admin spoofing).

And while the signal encyption may be broken, the node encryption is not yet, and will not be for a minimum of 1 full combat round. (The absolute minimum time for a decrypt action to finish)

Cracking encryption is not an interval of IPs, it's an interval of Combat Turns. So he cannot stop the alert from triggering. That's the point of Encryption really. It won't stop anything, but it will slow it down enough to detect a lot easier.

So actually, he should still be stuck waiting for the decrypt to finish, and may not have my AccessId at all. And then when he does break encrpytion, he'll be facing a full Alert for everything he attempts.

Remember, he may be good as well, but my home node is more secure then most corp nodes (even some AAA nodes, given my single-user status letting me kick in more user-unfriendly security options).



Actually this idea is expressly given in Unwired as valid. The passphrase could be gotten around by hacking the drone, but not by spoofing. He'd need the passphrases for the commands he wanted to spoof. Most security setups don't do this for user friendliness, but with only 1 user it's not an issue.

Gotta head to work, be back later this evening.

That last post took a long time to write, so I note a whole load of other posts. I will try and ensure that all questions are answered. If I haven't responded to something in this post then you need to ask again

@Xarin

Think WOW or some other game: the latency meter is going up.


Encryption takes 2 or 3 seconds to crack for a good hacker. Ever since the revolution in cryptoanalysis in the 2060's cryptography has had a bad name. The hacking + stealth only adds a few seconds to the time taken, and you aren't aware of it happening. This is why corporates train people and don't just rely on drones. Runners still have a place!

Initiative: You can go first.
I mostly need the Firewall + Analyse (which doesn't take time), so we can work out where in the timeline we are.

@General
Most of you are "out back" at the moment (you have complete the shopping). There are high walls surrounding the place, with nowhere (that you can see) that a sniper could line up on you. The only easy exit is back through the cafe, although you could try scaling the walls if you had a high climb.

If you move slowly its about 12 seconds /4 rounds to walk to the front of the cafe. If you run you can do it in 2 combat rounds.

@Applied Cheese
Good response for the electronics. I think that is around 2 IPs to do a handful of simple actions. You can move as well. You were standing up anyway (being outside), but you can pick up your bag and move into the cafe if you want. I'll do Molly's IC tomorrow.

@Copperhead
Snake is not hissing at you (yet), you are detecting no enemies.

@Seth
Wall question: I'm assuming going over the t-barriers would skyline myself for the sniper/spotter, given relative heights.

I'm considering going full chameleon, slapping on the gecko tape gloves, and moving around to flank the sniper as an alterrnate course of action, but thats pretty pointless if I skyline and the powers that be know they have a squirter. Of course, if the powers that be are doing this right, we are all already marked...

I'll wait for some Molly IC and othe rplayer action/reactions before fully committing to the "walk into the bathroom and pop the spotter" plan, but if I'm off the net for too long you can assume I'm probably either going to try that

OR

a full chameloened up, goggles on, geckotape gloves, stealth be super sneaky and clover leaf around to get the spotter from another angle depending on which makes more sense.

@ Suicide Kings

Well, if they have drones up, we're already made. No overhead cover. That they're dropping our drones likely means they're covering the final approach, so its reaosnable that they have identified us as their targets...it'd be way too much warning to nab a random drone and then give us 5 or 6 minutes to get out of dodge, and the people going for targets this big know that we WOULD get the frag out. The real question is if they were professional enough or have enough resources to set up a good cordon before sending in the hit stick.

Anyone have ideas on how to figure out if we're being contained other than diverting a drone sweep from Pixel?

Detect Enemies is not up at the moment as she needs to sustain it. Only Combat Sense as that is in her sustaining focus. Top of her shopping list is a R3 Sustaining focus and the Detect Enemies (extended) spell, but she needs to get to Lenny or a better talismonger for that (and spend the karma to learn the spell and bond the focus).

@Seth, I've also dug up some other interesting things we need to know, as they're rather relevant to having a Hacker around (group and prime runner both). Saw a related post on the SR4 forums and had to double check it. Turns out AccessIDs can be a little more secure then I had originally thought possible.

AccessIDs are part of the personas, not the nodes. So you can't get an AccessID by analyzing a node, you have to tag the Persona to do it. (SR4A pg 223-224)

Matrix topology consists of an ad-hoc mesh network of nodes, and your personas are therefore always located in those nodes.(SR4A pg 216)

Entire nodes can be Encrypted (Unwired pg 65-66), which includes everything in it such as personas.

So, in order to get the AccessID of a persona in an Encypted node, you must first break the encryption. It doesn't take a good hacker long to do so, typically 2-3 combat turns (not many can generate 12 hits on a single decrypt role to get it done in 3 seconds flat vs my Encryption). But that's a long time when you've got an Alert looming over your head.

So, in this case, in order for Marvin to be spoofed, the hacker must first hack thier way into my home node, then crack the encryption, then analyze my icon, then succeed in the spoof commands to the slaved drone. And I can potentially try to stop them every step of the way.

Are your eyes as strained as mine after reading through the labrynthine matrix rules?

This is actually good news to me even though it impacts Pixel's offensive punch. I always thought spoofing was a ridiculously easy way to steal a rigger's life savings out from under them (the SnS of hacking against riggers). Turns out that with the right setup, not so easy after all, even for a top-end hacker like emm386 or Pixel.

So, we're at the part where the hacker is trying to get into my firewall, before Marvin gets ganked...?

Here's the Analyze + Firewall rolls for the system.
Detect Hacking attempt: Firewall 6 + Analyze 6 = (12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=5, 12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=6, 12d6.hits(5)=5)

That should be triggering an Alert on the 2nd pass (can't imagine we're facing a hacker so uber they possess and can run a rating 10 stealth program). Mute can delay the alert for 1 combat turn. Alas, that's not enough time to break the encryption, even if he makes it past the firewall at the same time.

Eep! Didn't realize we were moving so quickly! Demon is going to do some shopping before the techno fighting starts rolling.

Demon's shopping list is pretty simple:
1 Respirator (Rating 6)---Molly's Reduced Price 180
126 APDS rounds for Demon's customized Ares Alpha---Molly's Reduced Price 1059
27 APDS rounds for Demon's customized Kompakt S---Molly's Reduced Price 227
45 APDS rounds for Demon's customized Savalette Guardian---Molly's Reduced Price 372
30 APDS rounds for Demon's customized Walter MA-2100---Molly's Reduced Price 252
3 extended ammo clips for Demon's customized Ares Alpha---Molly's Reduced Price 18
3 extended ammo clips for Demon's customized Kompakt S---Molly's Reduced Price 18
3 extended ammo clips for Demon's customized Savalette Guardian---Molly's Reduced Price 18
3 ammo clips for Demon's customized Walter MA-2100---Molly's Reduced Price 18
1 Hidden Arm Gun Slide for Demon's customized Kompakt S---Molly's Reduced Price 420
3 Cannisters of Breathtaker Toxin---Molly's Reduced Price 180
5 Fragmentation Grenades---Molly's Reduced Price 210
5 Thermal Smoke Grenades---Molly's reduced Price 210

Along with the 50 nuyen tip to the waitress, the total comes to:
3052 Nuyen


Etiquette: Trying to lower any suspicions Molly has about him before asking her to lower her prices
Cha(3) + Eti(1) = 4d6 for 2 hits.

Negotiation: Asking her to lower her prices just a teensy bit for someone who is going out to avenge her fallen friend.
Cha(3) + Negotiation(2) = 5d6 for 3 successes. Don't know if there are any other modifiers on the table, but woohoo for being a smooth talker! XD

Initiative:
React(4) + Intuit(3) + Wir Ref(1) = 8d6 for 4 hits. I'm so happy Invisible Castle loves this character as much as I do.

Current Init: 12
Current IP: 2

@ Xarin:

I'm going to leave the tech stuff up to Pixel because you definitely know more about it than me. I try to read those posts and my eyes literally cross. Demon's eyes and ears are all cybered up, so feel free to use them as an extra data source. Here are the augmentations:

Cybereyes Rating 3: Image link, eye recording unit (ugh, I should have been using this!!!!), flare compensation, thermographic vision, smartlink, vision enhancement rating 2, vision magnification, eye light system.

Cyberears Rating 2: Sound link, audio recording unit (again: ugh, I should have been using this!!!!), audio enhancement rating 3, dampener, ultasound sensor.

I don't know if any of this will be useful. When I put it together, I tried to think of what Demon would need if he was stripped of his equipment and tossed in a deep, dark hole...

The important thing for Demon on this is that he has enough sensor channels to participate in the TacNet. That gives him +2d6 bonus (we have enough to fill the net to that point easily) for the following actions as long as other tacnet members are in the area (and GM sees a use for the extra intell):
Close Combat
Dodge tests
Firearms
Infiltration
Maneuvering
Perception
Shadowing
Suprise

It's basically tapping everyone's senses, then interpreting the data into something useful for the other members of the net. Examples for using it are in Unwired on page 126

Awesome, thanks!

@ Xarin:
Copperhead is cyber light in the sensor department but has earbuds with audio enhance 3 and the tac goggles with low-light, smartlink, image link and a separate lowlight camera feed (darn forgot to add video enhancements again)

@Seth:
Is it okay to add video enhancement R3 to the goggles (adds about 500 yen to the price at Molly's rates)?

Don't think Ember has a shopping list - too distracted at the moment!

Initiative 9D = 4 hits = 13 2IPs (I still have improved reflexes in my sustaining focus and I'm sure I got 1 IP when I rolled it before?!?)

Spirit Summoning (Air) Fc 5! Tempest coming back I hope...

13D = 5 hits. Spirit resist = 3 (ouch!)

Drain 9D = 1 hit?!? Edge reroll! = 2 more hits so that's 3 stun (not great but I have 2 services from Tempest so...)

Edge remaining = 1 (?)

So, need a summoning focus to help resist that hideous drain

Trolls come with 4 sensor feeds naturally (Sight, Thermovision, Sound, Smell). So trodes + sim module will suffice for Copperhead. Otherwise you're 1 short with just sight, low-light, and sound from gear.

@Seth
Mind if I add a Nuke Rating 6 program to the shopping list? It's not currently running, but it would give Pixel some actual teeth on the matrix. The crcked version is availability 12 and costs 600 nuyen on a VPN (like Warezhouse, her contact).

@ Seth
I forgot to include my first action. I'll be popping in one of the APDS clips in one of my Kompakt S, his "hold out pistol." If we're fighting KE, I probably won't use it out of respect to Hansai Jones. If we're fighting gangers, then I'll probably not be so nice.

Also, I love how ridiculous our running crew is. We're like the setup of a hokey joke: A magician, a troll, a fop, a talking toy and a paranoid robocop walk into a bar...

hehe, yeah the group is certainly high on variety. Not sure if it's better or worse when you consider the toy is run by a 17" tall fairy Tinkerbell.

@Xarin:

Let's assume Pixel's spiffy commlink has a built-in sim module (or that Molly added one to Copperhead's pile of gear at Pixel's request) so you can add Copperhead's feeds to the tacnet pool along with her electronic feeds. However, the lady is sticking to AR for feedback. Astral good, Matrix bad!

Let me know if that prevents or limits Copperhead's benefits from the tacnet, I'm not familiar with how they work.

No worries. TacNet is an AR software piece. It's taking in all the overlapping sensory data and running it through all it's tactical databases and algorithms, analysing attack patterns, martial arts styles, projectile tradjectoies and all that stuff. Then it plugs some suggestions, highlights potential threats and targets, and so on in your AR.

If you read Jotamon's experiences with his software in the IC thread, that's a fair idea of what a tacsoft can do. But with 4+ members in the net, it's actually useful info.

My take on it is if you can link the feed to commlink, you can link it to tacnet. Mostly digital stuff like cyber eyes, drones, and goggles, but I would guess that if you're running DNI even mark I troll eyeball and makr I troll nose is technically linked?

It doesn't even need to be DNI linked. You just need a simsense feed to get the organic sensory data into the network, and that's what a sim module does. AR can be done 2 ways: gloves / feedback clothes (what Pixel uses) and simsense directly through trodes and such for mental control over your AR. The later forms the link needed to pull sensor feeds for a tacsoft.

While we wait, a little table talk ( I would shoot it IC, but don't want to break the GM's scene by mistake)

We really have two basic options here, tactical issues of how exactly bodies, bullets, spells, and electrons move aside::

1) Try to stay and damage whoever is on us - I don't think we'll be able to eliminate them unless they all pile into the line of fire like lemmings, but we can hurt them pretty bad.

2) Get the frag out.


A lot of it depends on who's coming in...if its Firewatch, aside from a warm glowy feeling you get by whacking a HTR team, we don't have anything to gain by hurting them. It'll actually hurt us since the hype will only build over how that's two whole teams we killed, being evil murderous cop-killing bastards.

If its just another runner team out for the bounty, schwacking all of them actually nets us nothing besides whatever we can pull off their bodies, and if we're lucky, a tenuous data trail to their Mr. J...which may be nothing more than someone gave them a hot tip on where a million nuyen in bounties were. In return, we run the risk of taking losses and burning assets ourselves in what was probably an unnecessary fight. Plus a bar full of bullet-holes and a rather displeased Molly. Might be worth it if we think Mr. Teague or Allanby sent them though.

Either way, we're going to have to GTFO when we're done. The matrix is going to be tingling with personal feeds of the epic Toxic Terrorist's most recent firefight.

Alternatively, we just turn off their sensors (kill the spotter, mages clean the astral, pixel sweeps us free of drones and such) and run. Or even just run, though if we still have a tail, that might be an issue.

As for factors weighing in, we already have our target data, and our kit, so there's nothing tying us here.

Mr. Half Cut J is an unknown.

I'd go with GTFO with a little bit of get the pursuit off our tail.

Pixel ideally needs/wants to get Marvin back under her control before she bugs out.

Ember's spirit could go play with the spotter. Or Ember's spirit could conceal the team and Copper can try and summon a beast spirit to go harass the spotter (note that she can try - with Copper there are no guarantees when it comes to magic).

I'm away for a long weekend now and as I don't really like typing on my phone there won't be much action until mid next week. So I don't hold the action up assume Ember will go for concealment fc 5 and perhaps astral scouting.

Seth, Galen et al. You've taken out the drone effectively and have a window now to escape. Feel free to IC going through the light industrial buildings to the north...assuming you want to hook up with the ride Mr J is offering. I'll run with whatever you decide!

Sorry for not responding earlier: I am in a place with poor internet connection, and it took me sometime to get this post out, and sadly I've run out of time to dumpshock today. I've not been able to spend the time reading the above posts. I'll respond better tomorrow (internet cafe?)

I've not read peoples responses but barring surprises I'll be posting this. I'm postin it now so that you can work ou

As Molly heard the news, her face became red with anger. "Active defence plan alpha" she said to the thin air. "Pixel dear: Move now. That could be a sniper aiming on you. ".

As she said the word "alpha" there were four explosions, and four pillars of fire reaching 100s of metres into the air from the scrapyard. As she finished the words "...aiming on you" a massive electro magnetic web slammed into everyone's commlinks, and all matrix operations ceased. The lights illuminating the car pack switched off.

In the back yard, two turrets popped out of the ground. Each of the turrets had twin heavy machine guns and a mortar. The mortar began to fire "phut phut phut".

From the top of the pillars of fire came an intense flashing light brighter than the sun, making it impossible to see what was there.

"Follow me" Molly said, and walked to the hole that had appeared in the courtyard floor, complete with fireman's pole. Grabbing the pole she descended three stories into the antechamber of a control room.

The control room had huge old fashioned displays everywhere. "Don't trust this modern ARO stuff in time of trouble" Molly muttered. "This is our auxillary control room". Wireless communications were working down here, but provided very little capability other than duplicating the displays.

One of the screens was a millimetre radar sweep of the junkyard. Three humanoid figures had been spotted and were being highlighted. Most of the parked lorries were susceptible to the radar, but seven of them were highlighted as risks, as they could not be pentrated. The body count inside each lorry was displayed as a number, along with a weapons count.

Another display showed the deployment pattern of the microdrones being launched by 6 mortars scattered around the junk yard. The drones showed a heat map of threat. The three humanoid figures were shown, as were the remains of 2 microdrones and 2 hover drones designated wasp 1, wasp 2, bandit 1 and bandit 2.

A group of four screens showed a birds eye view of the junkyard from the four weapons platforms that had been rocket launched and were now descending on parachute. The weapons platforms were currently illuminating the humanoid figures with multiple laser targetters.

Images of the party which was just approaching its climatic finalle, were superimposed over the guests. Each of the guests had a little ARO tag showing weapons, ammunition count, threat rating and trust rating. The commedian was taking charge of the guests giving an obviously prepared and very funny speech for their benefit. Several of the guests were running towards their vehicles, and an expert system was detailing recommendations for each.

A cluster of screens showed the images from crawler bots that had been hidden in the junk, several of them moving toward's the figures.

"I don't know who they are" Molly said. "No corporate marking. Their equipment is expensive. I cannot afford a war with an unknown corporation, so with plan alpha I will try and take them alive, but while I can destroy equipment, I am not going to shoot them unless they shoot at me first"

As Molly was describing the rules of engagement, two of the figures slowly dropped their weapons, and put their hands in the air, but the third (the one that Pixel had spotted) was suddenly surrounded by a haze of thermal smoke. The millimetre radar tracking blured a little, but it could see the figure moving at superhuman speeds towards the lorry park.

Three of the lorries that were immune to radar popped turrets, which began to fire at the parachuting weapon platforms, and began to disgorge armed people and flaming elementals. The weapons platforms in response dropped canisters. "FAB and HE" Molly winced. And many of the figures including the elementals dropped. But already two of the platforms were reporting critical damage.

"Drek, they are serious about this" Molly said grimly. "This is a full corporate assault. You need to get out of here. " As she spoke a trap door opened. "This is a disused service tunnel. It takes you to the storm drain system. Take this <ARO Link to a map soft>. The tunnel is trapped but the map soft includes a how-to to avoid dying. Use it!"

Turning her back Molly began to orchestrate the defense of her cafe.

Here's the thing:

Marvin should, by all rights, still be under Pixel's control. I understand the occassional GM hand-wavium, but tossing aside a pile of work (many hours worth) both in-character and out on matrix defense is, well, depressing. I mean, why bother having me on the team when my defenses get hand-waved away regardless for an enemy that's even not supposed to be overwhelmingly superior to me? If emm386 beats me fair and square, no biggie.

emm386 is trying to Hack on the Fly, which good hackers only do out of absolute desperating or outright cockiness when facing a high security node like Pixel's. The odds of getting caught by the security are extremely high, making the odds of pulling off anything useful extremely low. Which is also why Pixel told Hansai it could take a few hours to "do it right" hacking into Allanby's node if it's well-protected.

The upcoming IC post doesn't clarify Marvin's current status, so I'm kinda curious about that On the bright side, Pixel's commlink is hardened against EMP and ECM both, so it should be fine out there in that nastiness. And I'm guessing the others were tucked away in hardened storage like all the ones Molly is launching now?

Sounds like we just went straight to option 2. GTFO.

Question

Wheres Hansai?

What are the effects of the EMP? Are our commlinks, drones, and smartguns all junked, or are they just in need of reboot?


To the group that knows Molly better: is she legitimately a sociopath, or what? She is literally about to send her customers into the parking lot in the middle of machine gun fire, mortar fire, and platform dropped bombs. The shrapnel and the ricochets alone are going to ensure anything without armor stands a good chance of joining the dead or dying. I don't know what she hopes to gain by their deaths, but it can't bode well for us. I she goign to kill them to get a better chance at capture on the corpies? jeesh, she is nasty.

Slummer

Shes rich, shes smart, she sexy, shes had all the immaculate privileges of an upper tier corp citizen. And now she's shadow running for a lark. She may be a bit naive about the real world, and Horizon groomed junior marketing execs don't practice with guns that often, but hey: some boardroom cynicism to go hand in hand with streetside naivete, a big pile of nuyen, a lot of powerful connections and plenty of natural assets...maybe she'll survive long enough to get an LA show? Or, you know, there are worse communities than the shadows to have on your side if you go into politics.

Work in progress