Dumpshock Forums > Umbrae Europae [IC] (part 3)

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Romain Pelisse

Mar 4 2018, 10:34 PM

[ Spoiler ]

With the alert's message deleted, the little drone stepped into the hangar and got closer to the VTOL. The first component Waywalker needs to remove is only accessible from the inside, so the decker was quite happy to find out that vehicle, while being shutdown, was left open. The loading door, at the rear end was wide open. However, as the drone started climbing the ramp, it almost fell as the stickiness of the floor surprised the rigger.

Waywalker looked carefully and suddenly realized the all interior of the GMC was covered in blood. On the floor, and against the wall, several bodies were depicted using ARO. Of course, the actual bodies were gone, but the runner could see that five people were found dead in this vehicle, and that given the ammount of blood and the quite complicated blood pattern described by the ARO left by the forensics team, whatever happen, must have been a bloody massacre...

Nevertheless, the rigger carried on and orderred his drone to start scavenging the GMC...

[ Spoiler ]

The drone was effecient but it was hard work. Operating remotely was not as good as being there, and Waywalker had to deal with some pieces being replaced by different model, or simply being covered in rust or dried up oil. He was at it for almost an hour, when heard something falling outside the vehicle. During the last hour, he had stacked up the pieces he already move just outside, on an old luggage trolley that the airport staff. A piece could have just fell on the floor, but somehow the noise made Waywalker nervous.

He knew that nobody had came close to the hangar. And there was nobody inside... Well, at least, he thought...

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 5 2018, 07:39 PM

Rex concentrated and sent another call across the void. This time to one of the Unseen Princess. He could never be sure if his call had succeeded until they gave him a subtle hint that they had been there for quite some while already. Yet, the infiltrator was ready and Rex transmitted to him what he needed done. The only recognition of his wishes was the fact that the Kami had vanished and only the aura of a small, not particularly interesting bird remained that flew away quite rapidly.

[ Spoiler ]

Rex kept watch from his position so he could see any vehicles closing in and warn the spirit to jump into action

Haywire

Mar 5 2018, 09:40 PM

#109

"There is a ton of blood here. Whatever happened inside this GMC was quite gory, and I hope we won't be caught in the crossfire.
I need another time to finish here, and something do not feels right..."
Waywalker activated the drone sensor suite to identify the source of the noise.

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 6 2018, 06:11 PM

<<Be careful. I'm just glad we are doing this one as a remote operation. I'd hate to have to deal with the background count of a mass murder. Let's hope this wasn't a ritual to call a blood spirit or something equally bad.>>
Rex replied, not letting his concentration slip on his surveillance.

Romain Pelisse

Mar 7 2018, 11:45 AM

Waywalker maneuvered the small drone to leave the VTOL, bringing the last piece of it, he just successfully dismantled. As it walked out of the ramp, an other noise - an other piece of the VTOL falling, ringed. But when the drone finally gets to the pile of pieces, nobody is here - despite the fact that two pieces of the stacks he has been carefully assembling have been displaced.

Using the drone full sensor array, Waywalker scans the hangar, but can't detect anything.... But suddenly, the drone body is violently pushed to the ground, by an invisible forces apparently! The small drone slides for a couple of meter, but does not get damaged...

Haywire

Mar 8 2018, 09:23 PM

#110

Waywalker sent a distress message to his partner and switched to AR.
"Rex! Red alert! Something invisible is here!"

Jack_Spade

Mar 8 2018, 10:24 PM

<<Shit. I'm on it. Pretend your drone is shut down. I'm coming for you.>>
Rex was fast, but he wasn't that fast - yet. And there was still the not inconsiderable matter of the strong ward. Maybe, just maybe it hadn't been meant to keep intruders out but to keep something in...
While he ran towards the fence, using a quick bit of magic to conjure up a floating stepping stone from... well, a stone actually, he hurried along towards the still open door where he very carefully tried to slip unnoticed through the ward.

The unseen prince would have to keep the police from interfering on his own.

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 10 2018, 03:49 PM

ex's astral forms rushed to Waywalker's drone and managed to quickly pushed through the astral barrier. The minute he got inside the hanger Rex could taste the lead in the astral. Blood, blood everywhere. Fortunately for the mage, if the astral was tainted by the horrific events, it was not enough to have permanently shift the astral background. The lights in the astral was red and black and it smelled like death everywhere, but his magical ability were not impede yet but the recent crime.

[ Spoiler ]

While Rex was trying to focus to see whatever, in the astral space, could be responsible for Waywalker's drone current predicament, the little drone had finally managed to stand up. Only for a few seconds. He suddenly got pushed away again, with even more violence this time.

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 10 2018, 04:58 PM

Rex looked around, trying to determine just what was going on here and ready to defend himself and his friend's drones.

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 11 2018, 09:22 PM

#111

The Nestor drone was pushed against a wall by the mysterious force, and it crashed the little drone like a tiny insect. Waywalker was grateful to his "sixth sense" that told him to go in AR...
"That would have been a nasty headache! Anyway, I currently cannot do anything of value with this thing, so I'll do some Matrix overwatch now."

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 12 2018, 12:34 PM

The little drone was tossed across the hangar. While not as strong as an armored drone, the small robot should have been able to handle such a push. Sadly, it crashed against the left over piece of chopper, all pushed to the end of the hangar. It made the effect of tossing a rat on a hedgehog. The poor little device got tear up to pieces...

On the bright side, Rex senses just located a strange aura and assessing it, it discovers that indeed, the brutal death onboard may have stiirs up the dead. A few meters from his astral form, a ghost-like apparition was howering where the drone was, just a few seconds ago. Feeling the gaze of the mage on his aura, the spirit, was looked like an angry, torn part man wearing a suit, raise his heads in his direction.

Suddenly, Rex feels the two black,empty eye socket looking at him and suddenly feel death itself breathing on him. The urge to just run is strong...

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 12 2018, 05:54 PM

[ Spoiler ]

The fear washed through Rex' mind but could not take hold - much. Still, it triggered his fight or flight instinct and since he had nowhere to run to he attacked...

Romain Pelisse

Mar 13 2018, 02:19 PM

When the drone being destroyed, Waywalker could not longer provides any help to his partner, who was now battling with angry spirit in the astral space. Waywalker decided to focus his attention again on the Airport security. As far as he could see, there was no indications the security has caught up on them. At some point, it was doom to happen that a spider or patrol IC notices the missing devices (either the camera or the drone). But if this was somehow noticed, there no indication that security of any kind has been dispatched. Yet.

In the astral, Rex overcame his instinctive fear of the unresting spirit and charge against it. The malicious spirit, however, dodged, at the very last minute, the astral strike of the mage. Moving as far as away as it could from the astral form of Rex, the ghost opens his dead mouth and released a swarm of bugs, that suddenly surrounds Rex's astral body!

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 13 2018, 08:30 PM

[ Spoiler ]

Rex felt his mind getting overwhelmed with sensations - and just for a second he glimpsed some of the memories that lay buried beneath his amnesia. He knew he had to resist the sensation, but some part of him wanted to stand transfixed, focused inwardly as ghostly insects swarmed over his astral body.
With an effort of will he managed to wrench himself back into the real world just long enough to once again lunge at the Kami, this time connecting just long enough to overwhelm its aura with his own, tearing and rending its essence.
But the creature was strong - strong enough to keep itself together although a large cleft now ran through it's essence.

Haywire

Mar 13 2018, 10:18 PM

#112

Waywalker was reassured that the Matrix looked silent for signs of police activity. "Thank you Rex for coming for this damsel in distress!"
He waited for the situation to resolve before resuming his work...

Romain Pelisse

Mar 14 2018, 10:59 AM

To Rex's surprises, the unrest did not opted to keep on fighting. After the powerful blow that Rex gave it, the unrest spirit - ironically fearing for its (un)life, simply disappeared in the astral realm it came from. Rex waited a couple more seconds, carefully looking for trace of it returns, but it did not came back.

At the same instant, on the floor of the hangar, the shattered Nestor unit had a last tremor, as the last electric circuit "bliped" to death... The malevolent spirit was gone, but so was their drone.

Jack_Spade

Mar 14 2018, 06:44 PM

Rex shut off his astral perception. This was no good - the pile was much smaller than Waywalker had said it would have to be and now the drone was gone too.
He answered his partner: <<De nada, sorry I wasn't quick enough to prevent the destruction of your drone. I'll buy you a sparring drone or something like that for your birthday. Those are probably less squishy.>>
At least the confusion was slowly fading away. Very carefully he created a pair of invisible hands and began to scoop up what remained of the Nestor and put it on the pallet together with all the other stuff that had dropped down.
The drone was supposed to push the stuff through the barrier without the help of magic, but now he would have to push it himself awkwardly halfway through, cross the barrier again and only then be able to float the stuff out over the fence and into the waiting car.

At least he would leave only dog hair on the scene.
With grim determination he went to work

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 14 2018, 09:41 PM

#113

After waiting for a few seconds and not noticing strange activities Waywalker went in VR and jumped in the Evo Proletarian.
"Well, this isn't the best tool for the job, but we have only it... If you take the parts to the van I should be able to gather what we need."
Seeing the pieces of the Banshee flying, he restarted from where he was interrupted.

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 15 2018, 01:20 PM

Rex and Waywalker had left the place for over 20 minutes, when the security of the airport finally arrives at the hangar. Seeing that Neo-PD seal on the building was breached, the airport security responded with courage and dedication by immediately calling their "partner" of Neo-PD and stay clears from the building. Ten minutes later, the detective in charge of the investigation arrives, in a small, blue electric car from Renault-Fiat. The man is badly dressed, wearing a large, brownish trench coat, which despite covering most of his body, still seems to do a poor job protecting him from the rain. He is followed by a small man. Both are humans and sporting, in AR, official AROs from Neo-PD broadcasting their names and rank, and reminding people that Neo-PD's duty is to "protect and serve" (emphasis on the "serve").

The two scruffy police men are certainly not fitting the bill of the "always nice and polite" image advertised by the corporation. But, as people knows, many cops from the former french Police has been embarked into Neo-PD when the corp won the contract of Paris in early 2077. The detective is clearly on the phone when he arrives, and he is not happy with whoever is speaking with:

"So, you are telling me that no ones breached into Astral Barrier? What the frag do you mean by 'it does not appears to be the case'? Weren't you told to make this thing impenetrable? Or, at least, not without you knowing? Oh, don't give me this crap about 'mysteries of the magical art'!!!"

The two partners had, at this point entered the hangar, and the silent, smaller one put out an electronic device, akin to a commlink, but specialized into forensics analysis and evidence processing. He got closer to the remains of the drone as the detective hang up angrily on the mage.

"OK, what have you?"

"A destroyed Nestor unit, of all things."

"Those cheap knock off? Gosh no way will get anything out of this. They are barely keeping track of anything their doing or receiving when they are already in good shape..."

"Well, this is why criminal and runners quite much appreciated them, boss... Oh."

"What?

"Err, it finished the ADN forensics analysis. It just found only one strain of unregistered DNA."

"And? Is the guy on file?"

"Err..."

"What! For fuck's sake, spill it."

"It's dog's DNA, boss".

The detective loudly exhales and put a small plastic flask out of its coat, before popping a pill out of it and toss it into his mouth.

"It's going to be one of these days..."

His small partner acknowledges silently, as the frustrated detective starts barking orders and questions at the security airport personal...

[ Spoiler ]

Only a few kilometers away from the crime scene, Waywalker's car is already parked at the junkyard own by their "M.Johnson du jour", Anne Dupont. The woman was looking at the loot gathered by the runners and despite missing a few pieces, she was quite happy.

"Well, it is a bit sad you could not get all the parts but I'm quite happy about what you got. Given the list of part you are still messing I can probably gave what you missed for your own purpose. I would love to do be able to just gave them to you, but as you also missed a couple of parts for me, I can be set that back."

She fired an ARO displaying the list of items, missing from both the runners list for Racer and her own list. She quickly crossed the one successfully stolen from the Banshee, and then move to attach a price to the missing ones (a negative ones for hers, a positive ones for the runner's ones). After a few seconds, she waved away the old list and conjured a new ARO showing her stock. Fortunately for Rex and his partner, everything they had to leave she already on stock. A couple more hands gestures and a new list was conjured, attached to a price tag.

"Hum... OK, if I sell you the parts you need, I'll miss a couple for the Banshee I have to repair for my other customer. That being said, he is no hurry, as far as I know, so I can just ordered those parts. However, I'll need then to charge... Let's make a bulk price. What about 20 000 nuyens?"

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 15 2018, 06:27 PM

Rex panted happily and sent Waywalker: <<Sounds like a fair deal to me. I'll take care of it, if you spot me some lunch later.>>
With a mental command, Rex made the wireless transfer, adding the message: "Pleasure doing business with you."

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 15 2018, 08:59 PM

#114

Waywalker was happy of the result of their little run in the airport.
"Sure Rex we can go grab a soyburger before doing business!" After a pleasant meal it was time to set up a meeting with Racer.
"Rex, we will contact Racer, but first I would buy another Nestor to go in the SOX... I don't want absolutely to enter again in there. Could you lend me the money for this? When we have the book and the payment I'll give it back to you."

Jack_Spade

Mar 15 2018, 09:30 PM

<<Looks like it's your birthday today. No problem.>>
Rex replied and transfered another 20000 to Waywalker's account.

Romain Pelisse

Mar 16 2018, 01:25 PM

As Waywalker wired the money to Anne, he mentioned that he was in need for a new, untraceable Nestor unit to the junkyard manager:

"Oh, you are in luck, I have one lying around somewhere... Let me try to find it."

She waved into the air, activating some devices through the small RCC hanging on her belt, and immediately, the noise of falling metal pieces suddenly rang into the large warehouse Anne used as an office. Waywalker, and Rex, lying next to him in his latest canine breed of predilection, turned around and saw a small Nestor unit, literally coming out of a pile of junk. However, this unit looked very different from the standard one they got used too...

"Err, yeah, sorry about that, it was a gift from my niece, but she... outgrown it."

The little Nestor unit was pink. Flashy pink. And a red ribbons on top of his left ear. A metallic one, melted, very nicely, into his body. Spending sometimes beneath a bunch of oily garbage had stained it a bit, and the pink was less flashy then it used to be, but still.

The unit stopped in front of Waywalker and turned his head up to look him in the face. The regular eyes had been replaced by huge, googly eyes that Japanese manga so much appreciate. Anne caught, clearly embarrassed, before carrying on:

"Well, at least, there is some reinforced armor on it... I'll sale it to you for half the retail price..."

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 16 2018, 08:24 PM

[ Spoiler ]

Rex refrained from sending any messages, but suddenly seemed to have a sneezing fit with the widest doggy grin that Waywalker ever saw on him.

Haywire

Mar 18 2018, 12:41 PM

#115

"Don't laugh, it's still a Nestor at half price! My grandfather was pureblood Genoan, and infamous for his stingyness that could have rivaled with a Scottish!"
Waywalker spoke to Ms Dupont transferring the money:
"I will gladly accept your offer. Now we should both have business to attend. It was a pleasure being in business with you."

Romain Pelisse

Mar 19 2018, 12:38 PM

With their business concludes, the two runners went back to their safe house, with their loot - the parts required to restore Racer's VTOL into a working state. All that remains for the runners is to recover and start moving, once again, toward the dreaded SOX...

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 19 2018, 07:28 PM

#116

With a new drone (and a pink one!) to set up and some planning to do, Waywalker was busy in the safehouse.
"We should contact Racer to set a meeting point. In the while, I'll buy another Armor Jacket for this Nestor...should I get it pink too?" He laughed as the thoughts were writtn by the commlink and sent to Rex.

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 19 2018, 08:49 PM

<<Maybe add a helmet. They are a bit squishy after all>>
Rex replied, before contacting Racer:
<<Greetings. We have the supplies we need to get you again into working condition. Tell us where to meet you and when. As mentioned, we are in Paris, so our approach is from the west and we would appreciate a meet up somewhere along that border.>>

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 20 2018, 03:30 PM

The two runners had to wait the day after for Racer to reply. In any case, they needed the rest and still had to run some errands, such as buying armor for the brand Nestor unit. As always, the reply of the AI was blunt, it just contained an highly encrypted file that turned out to be simply a set of coordinate with a time. Apparently, Racer will not be able to meet them before three more days. The meet location was nearby the SOX border, into what used to be a natural park, around midnight.

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 20 2018, 07:15 PM

Rex took some time to relax and get his strength back. Tangling with that dead soul had shaken him more than he wanted to admit - even to himself. Well, at least they hadn't have to hurt anyone - and he had reconnected with his past - even if it was only for a brief moment and he hadn't actually retained any memories. Still, it gave him hope. Once he got rid of those nanites, he could stop being a dog all day. Sure, he knew that he was still hunted and that his real body was weak like shit, but one step after the other.
On the day of the departure, he was up bright and early, taking his by now customary place next to the drivers seat, hanging his head out of the window.
All in all, it wasn't so bad anyway.

Romain Pelisse

Mar 21 2018, 11:36 AM

Waywalker was cautious and left Paris by going through the West suburbs and then stick to the small, almost forgotten roads. France, like many other countries of the 6th World, had entire chunk of its countryside being abandoned. With the VITAS epidemic, followed by the Euro War and the Matrix crash, the population had dropped significantly and aggregate to the largest city. There is was still some barely used network of small roads, tying up ghost villages and abandoned small town. On those roads, no camera, less control... but obviously more danger. Whether the danger was some paracritter or thrill-seeker go-gang.

Fortunately, Waywalker was a competent driver and knew to use his sensor array to spot any threats, way ahead, and change direction if needed. No, his main worry was to not attract the attention of the french Police, which was still a thing outside Paris, or, worst the SOX border security control. Rex and him were definitely staying outside the wall perimeter, but it would have naive of them to think the MET2000 did not extend its monitoring to the immediate vicinity of the SOX...

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 21 2018, 04:54 PM

Rex once again had called a Kami to provide overwatch, so he didn't have too spend to much time hanging his head out of the window.

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 21 2018, 10:24 PM

#117

Waywalker knew better than to go out in the open and be a big target. "The secret is to hide in plain sight, but not stand out too much."
Now was time to go to that border...

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 22 2018, 03:02 PM

Friday 12th March 2077

[ Spoiler ]

When Waywalker arrives in the vicinity of the SOX's border, he doubles his effort to remains discreet but he also needs to switch to a more "off-road" style of driving. The roads he was taking have been now not care for years, and the last kilometers required him to go completely off-road into a bumpy ride through hills and trees. He finally reaches the top of the hill where Racer gave them the coordinate.

It was pretty dark, despite the new moon hidden being the dark clouds emitted by the SOX. However, chopper and drone, buzzing over the border, were often casting partial light on the clearing Waywalker was now parking his vehicle. The surroundings were filled with tree and lower vegetation that has been allowed to grow freely since the metahumanity had more/less abandoned the region. Waywalker actually had a hard timing finding its way up there, and last hundred meters have been quite difficult to negotiate. He really hoped that nobody would jump on the meeting because fleeing the scene would be a driving fit he was not sure he could achieve.

The runners were looking nervously at their clock. Racer was late. The meeting was supposed to have happen for more than ten minutes. But to be fair, there was a lot of MET2000 activity at the border nearby, so it was not a surprise that the AI may have been postponed. But many (bad) thing could also have happened and the two partners were sitting duck in this place. But, finally, the choppers flying over the border decides to head West and the flashing light coming from them slowly disappeared, letting the runners into an almost perfect pitch black darkness.

A few instant after that, almost twenty minutes after the rendezvous, a large, dark shapes suddenly arrives and hovers, quite silently, over the clearing before landing inside it. Despite the ambient darkness, Waywalker could immediately see how badly damaged the GMC Banshee was. If its original owner had certainly did everything right to make it as ready as possible to roam through an irradiated place like the SOX, the lack of maintenance, since then, was showing. And clearly, Racer had some brushes with MET2000 - bullets impacts and even nearby explosion traces could be seen all over its body.

>>> ENTITY WAYWALKER. I HAVE ARRIVED. PLEASE FIX THE SHELL OF THIS DEVICE IMMEDIATELY.

As always, the AI certainly lacked social skills...

Haywire

Mar 22 2018, 09:31 PM

#118

Driving off the road through a forest was not easy, even being able to control the vehicle up to a millimeter. Only when the chopper were gone Waywalker relaxed a bit.
Twenty minutes (and a lot of tension on his side) later Racer showed up.
"Before I start fixing this Banshee I want to be sure nobody is bothering us..."

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 23 2018, 07:29 AM

Rex had once again taken the form of a wolf, keeping his eyes open while the Kami did the same on the other side of the astral.
His greeting to Racer was a lot warmer than the machines:
<<Good to see you are still in one piece. We really need to teach you how you can take care of yourself. Watch and learn how Waywalker is doing it, so you can use drones too.>>

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 26 2018, 10:57 AM

It took a few instant for Racer to reply to Rex. The AI seemed quite confused by his proposal.

>>> ENTITY REX. DRONE ARE ... TOO SLOW. RACER CAN NOT USE SO SLOW DEVICE. ENTITY WAYWALKER: PLEASE ACCELERATE YOUR WORK, RACER NEEDS TO FLY AGAIN... SOON.

The rigger has been deploying the drone and start the repair as quickly as possible. He actually looked at the time and it was barely 3 minutes since the GMC Banshee arrived....

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 26 2018, 05:04 PM

[ Spoiler ]

Rex replied patiently: <<This is as fast as it goes, Racer. We are neither in the digital realm nor moving with rocket speeds. Time might move faster or slower for your perception than for ours, but this repair speed is an absolute, a constant. You can't bypass this, or at least, you can't without employing dozens of drones at once.>>

Haywire

Mar 26 2018, 05:07 PM

#119

Waywalker deployed the drone and started immediately to fix the rather numerous holes in the vehicle.
Racer's message didn't sot with him too well; he knew machines and was a little suspicious of the hurry.
"Rex, stay ready, I don't have a good feeling..."

[ Spoiler ]

Romain Pelisse

Mar 27 2018, 04:05 PM

While reading the state of mind of a digital being might seem, at first glance, like a particularly esoteric task, it was pretty clear to both Waywalker and Rex that their AI friend, Racer, was utterly restless. It appeared clear that the AI has been on the run since they parted way a few weeks away and has certainly got used to be constantly on the move. Even as Waywalker was performing the require reparation, the AI was still running part of the system, but not to help him, but just to push them to the limit and trying to (over)optimize every piece of hardware inside the GMC. And the optimization were all geared to solely one achievement: getting even more faster.

[ Spoiler ]

More than once, Waywalker almost burned himself because the sub-system he was working on had barely been shutdown a few seconds ago and the casing or the component itself was thus quite warm. While the Banshee is a rather quiet vehicle, Racer's shell was constantly emitting engine noise along with electronics beeping. It was pretty unnerving. That being said, Waywalker was making progress and the VTOL will be ready for flight in a few minutes.

Whether or not the runners will be safe on board the vehicle remained to be seen.

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 27 2018, 05:11 PM

While Rex kept an eye open for trouble he had time to talk things over with Waywalker. After learning about the dysfunctionality of the matrix net in the SOX, he said:
<<Well, we still have the 300m optical cable. That should enable you to remote pilot the drone into the bunker. We just have to make sure it doesn't disconnect and if it does that the pilot has the order to reconnect it again.>>

Haywire

Mar 27 2018, 09:33 PM

#120

"Racer, I understand your eagerness to fly again, but give me only a couple minutes more and we're ready!"
After fixing the Banshee and almost getting a burn, he replied to Rex:
"Good idea. I, for sure, have no intention of putting a foot down in the SOX."

Romain Pelisse

Mar 28 2018, 12:44 PM

It was unclear if Racer has been vexed by the runners comments or just convinced by their argument, but it became silent for several minutes. As Waywalker fixing work was getting closer to the end, Racer resuming communicating with the runners by displaying a local map as an ARO. The map was heavily loaded with numerous information so it took a few instants for both Waywalker and Rex to ascertain what is was all about.

In fact, Racer had been busy is the last month, building a very accurate map of the SOX's border. Through the map, one could see that the AI was proposing several options to get to their destination, Kastel-Staadt. Most of them were strongly impaired by a rather powerful radar station recently added to the Eastern part of the SOX wall. Given the specs given by Racer, it will be fairly difficult, but not impossible, for the GMC Banshee to slip through its surveillance. To make worse, like most devices across the border, the damn thing was running on SOXnet - a completely separated Matrix grid, that one can only access using dedicated hardware. So no hacking through it. However, looking at the specs, Waywalker was wondering if he could maybe generate enough background noise to make it blind.

[ Spoiler ]

In the meantime, Rex was looking at the data on the radiation level - and it was not looking good. Kastel-Staadt was inside a level 4 radiation field. The coating of the GMC Banshee will protected them, for several hours, but not forever... And with such a level of radiation, the magical background count will severely hindered his magic.

[ Spoiler ]

Haywire

Mar 28 2018, 05:34 PM

#121

"See Racer? Another moment and the vehicle will be fixed. However, I think I can blind the radar...the secret is no to be invisible, is to be too visibile. Could you find a Rotodrone that flies with one hundred ducks?" Waywalker smiled as he said the last sentence.
"The radiation level is indeed very high. I hope we stay in the location on for the strict time required... and the drone will go with the cable."

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Mar 28 2018, 05:36 PM

Studying the map, Rex concluded: <<I'll have to construct a temporary lodge inside racer, or I risk having my shape change spell disrupted - and I'd rather avoid that. If necessary I'll be able to call a Kami to go out for me instead, but I'd rather avoid that, since the radiation has a corrupting influence on them.>>

Romain Pelisse

Mar 29 2018, 03:39 PM

With the cloud of noise now surrounding the GMC Banshee, Racer had no issue flying under the radar but above the SOX's wall. Packed inside the cramped, heavily modified VTOL, Waywalker was watching Rex's building his temporary lodge. It was quite a scene to see dog taking rocks out of a bag to carry them in his mouth and set them all around the floor. It became even more unique when he got to drawing kabbalistic symbols with just some paint on his bare paws. Fortunately for both, Racer was a soft driver. He was clearly flying faster than needed, and the all body of the Banshee was vibrating, but there no stern left or right turn or anything kind of stunts that could toss around both runners and their temporary lodge material.

[ Spoiler ]

It took barely twenty minutes to cross the border and immediately Racer manoeuvred to get to some heavily tree-covered hills. From afar, the place could look nice, but when the armored Banshee went below the tree canopy to hide, both runners get to see how twisted looking and "wrong-looking" the tree were. It was already quite dark outside, as they were travelling in the middle of the night, but any external light literally disappeared as the large vehicle hoovered into the clearing between the deformed trees. The darkness and the silence was quite unnerving.

>>> ENTITY REX. FINISH YOUR WORK. WE CAN REST HERE.

Waywalker looked at the mage in dog's shape. It was very clear, for both of them, that this was nowhere close to a place they would feel safe to rest. But the radiation level were quite low around them and they were indeed quite well hidden. After a second of hesitation, Rex resumed working on his lodge, while Waywalker tinkered with the Nestor unit, to attach his 300m long cable to it... A few hours later, still surrounded by darkness and silence, they were finally ready to go.

Racer fired up again the large VTOL and, despite its size, managed to get out of the tree without tearing to many branches away from their trunks. Then, he hovered, in a very stable fashion, vertically, back above the tree line and resume a discreet, low flight toward their target. Barely a few minute later, the Banshee landed exactly on the coordinate given by the runners. Waywalker and Rex had more less expected to find some kind of building, or at least, an entrance to the bunker. However, they were thoroughly disappointed.

The VTOL had landed in what appears to be the remains of XX century city park. Here also, weird, twisted tree had overgrown a bit everywhere and the ground of the nearby kid's game place (or Spielplatz) was slowly being ripped apart by the large roots crawling underneath.

Looking at some old schematics Waywalker had dug up from some pre Crash archive, the runners quickly came to the same, terrible conclusion: the VTOL was currently parked on top of a small hill, thirty meter above where the forgotten bunker should be....

Jack_Spade

Mar 29 2018, 09:16 PM

Rex sighed. Inside the temporary lodge he didn't feel the ravages of this places background count, but seeing mountain of dirt that stood between them and their aim was nonetheless depressing:
<<If I see this right, the bunker is hidden deep beneath this place. I conclude that there must be a hidden exit around here somewhere. Unfortunately we can't stay here all day to search for it.
So I think it would be best if we looked at a map and compared it to whatever images the sensors were able to get from this place. Then we can stick our heads together and make some educated guesses where the hidden exits could be. When we have narrowed it down I'll try to get in touch with one of the hardier Kami's and have it poke around, to see if it can find the entrance and hopefully open it.>>

Haywire

Mar 31 2018, 07:35 PM

#122

"I lost count of things that went south this run. Judging on our current situation, we're heading straight to the South Pole..."
Waywalker opted to laugh at the matter instead of depressing himself.
"I'm telling you Rex, next I want to get an insurance from Johnson that our next job is not going in this SOX hellhole...otherwise, triple pay!"
"Now, returning at our job: I think the same as you per the hidden exit. I could forge a connection to the Matrix to get the map, but I fear the MET2000 would find me...
Racer, could I use the GMC Banshee sensors? Maybe we can find it without leaving the vehicle..."

Haywire

Apr 3 2018, 02:53 PM

[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade

Apr 3 2018, 05:20 PM

[ Spoiler ]

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