"So, as long as you walk and talk, you give commands, also in combats?"

"Obviously not in a tactical capacity. I certainly won't tell you how to use violence. But I reserve the right to tell you who to use violence against."
Schmitt replied with a sardonic grin.

"All right. Then we need someone who does tell us how to use violence. So Slob is our tactical commandor and whenever you, Mr. Schmidt, say something else, it is the voice of God which stands above all earthly officers. But unless you do, Slob's in charge.

Okay, can we continue? Let's just assume Krestov took out that lad over there. We continue clearing, and you go down to vault. Ready when you are, sisters."

"Well then time to start cutting open these lock boxes.

"Someone start a timer and see how long it takes us to get through all of them."

"Running. Go!"

As it turned out, it took exactly 3 seconds per box. All in all, Slobber was cutting non-stop for five minutes to open all boxes.
"We'll use a tarp to empty all the lock boxes into. For this exercise, we have metal scraps. Unless all boxes are packed with gold, those should be a bit heavier than our expected haul, so we can exercise.

Anna, this is your cue: When we are finished with loading, you have to levitate the bag up and out."

Krestov and bnc's drone meanwhile checked on the remaining guards. "Everything cleared. Kite, get the van close to the entrance."

Slobber was breathing a bit heavily after going through all the boxes.

"So that's 5 minutes, call it 8 with setup and take down where I can't support with my rifle if things go bad.

"Special K that means you need to be fast upstairs and faster getting downstairs to secure the main entryway"

Anna grimaced "up and out? How far... if you ever watched star wars you'd know that levitating is painfully slow..."

"But it certainly beats carrying around a half ton of stuff up a flight of stairs. We could use the elevator, but if something goes wrong we'd be trapped in there.
As for how far: If we park directly at the back door it's a little bit under 45 m. If your spirit is capable of using movement, your levitation should be able to move at quite a decent speed."
Schmitt replied.

"Anyway, that's the course so far. Now we do this a few times more, so we get a routine. I'll list the new, amended action plan, including the preparation stuff. You all can take five, get a donut, some soycaf or a yogurt, while Kite and I update the simulation."

After the short break an easily visible AR board popped up at the wall of the hall:

Step 1: Use incriminating evidence to get Mercenary Kynos to turn against Zola and Ramirez, hopefully causing a distraction for Zola.
Step 2: Visit Bank to infest building with spy drones

Day of break in:
Step 3: Activate gas grenade in hotel to take out mage to stop watchers reporting activities and subsequent combat spirits arriving
Step 4: Hack biomonitor of Corporate Decker
Step 5: Send spirit to knock out Decker

Actual break in
Step 6: Drive up with van to backside of bank
Step 7: Don RP capes, have Kite use Invisibility and Spirit Concealment on team and Van
Step 8: Direct connect to camera over back door and enter Security Host (R7)
Step 9: Hack camera feeds with loops
Step 10: Open door with SOK, wait for patrol to be out of sight.
Step 11: Anna enters, moves directly to women restroom
Step 12: Anna levitates to ceiling, places Gasgrenade in vents
Step 13: bnc hacks Utility host (R5) to control vents to all places where guards are present
Step 14: bnc fakes message from Commanding Officer to tell guards to stay at their stations and help being on the way.
Step 15: Activate gasgrenade, Slobbertooth, Krestov, Anna's spirit, bnc drone and kite drone storm building to neutralize remaining guards, while bnc data spikes Leggios commlink (as he is most likely to withstand gas attack)
Step 16: Everyone in building is subdued with no alert (if not, it's 10 minutes running until reinforcements arrive)
Step 17: Slobbertooth, Krestov, Schmidt and Anna enter vault to empty lock boxes (6 minutes)
Step 18: Levitate loot out through staircase and backdoor into Van.
Step 19: Evacuate to boat house, unload haul into minisubs, have Kite pilot them back to the safehouse.
Step 20: Leave Island as regular, inconspicous business people (suits ready at the boat house)

bnc goes for a coke Xtreme, one of this extra caffeinated cokes they launched a couple weeks ago, and prepares a bowl of tsampa. When she comes back, she shows signs of being impressed.

"Jeez, sounds sound. You certainly do a great job doing my great job. Though I'd like to mark Leggio's 'link before we let loose the grenade. Do we whether his 'link will be slaved to the Security Host?"

"Not to my knowledge, but if you want to be save, you should probably do a little penetration test. And as always, I'll let you guys handle the details of your craft."
Schmitt replied.

"Good, I'll check on him. Then allow me to update the list:"


Step 1: Use incriminating evidence to get Mercenary Kynos to turn against Zola and Ramirez, hopefully causing a distraction for Zola.
Step 2: Visit Bank to infest building with spy drones

Day of break in:
Step 3: Activate gas grenade in hotel to take out mage to stop watchers reporting activities and subsequent combat spirits arriving
Step 4: Hack biomonitor of Corporate Decker
Step 5: Send spirit to knock out Decker

Actual break in
Step 6: Drive up with van to backside of bank
Step 7: Don RP capes, Kite uses Invisibility and Spirit Concealment on team and van
Step 8: Direct connect to camera over back door and enter Security Host (R7)
Step 9: Hack camera feeds with loops
Step 10: Open door with SOK, wait for patrol to be out of sight.
Step 11: Anna enters, moves directly to women restroom
Step 12: Anna levitates to ceiling, places Gasgrenade in vents
Step 13: bnc hacks Utility host (R5) to control vents to all places where guards are present
Step 14: bnc hacks Leggio's 'link
Step 15: bnc releases the fake message from Commanding Officer to tell guards to stay at their stations and help being on the way.
Step 16: Activate gasgrenade, Slobbertooth, Krestov, Anna's spirit, bnc drone and kite drone storm building to neutralize remaining guards, while bnc data spikes Leggio's commlink (as he is most likely to withstand gas attack)
Step 17: Everyone in building is subdued with no alert (if not, it's 10 minutes running until reinforcements arrive)
Step 18: Slobbertooth, Krestov, Schmidt and Anna enter vault to empty lock boxes (6 minutes)
Step 19: Levitate loot out through staircase and backdoor into Van.
Step 20: Evacuate to boat house, unload haul into minisubs, have Kite pilot them back to the safehouse.
Step 21: Leave Island as regular, inconspicous business people (suits ready at the boat house)

Anna chuckled "So all we need is 21 simple steps going according to plan... What do I do when Slob and Krestov do their tour of doom...? Should I wait for them? Secure bnc when she hacks? but bnc remains int he van rright? Go with them...? I mean I am handy with a gun if I am not sustaining too many spells." The chaos mage could not even imagine such a complicated plan going on without a hitch... but randomness - random - and it meant that she needed to keep an open mind that the plan might just work. Unlikely - -but it was a possibility and Schmitt and the rest seemed confident enough in that plan. Well, she did not care much if it worked or not - they'll get out alive... they planned well enough for that. At least she hoped they did. Succeeding or not, life was about embracing surprises and danger was the thing that made them worth living for. What could be more invigorating than robbing that bank?

"You command your spirits and watch us from the astral."

Schmitt gave another sardonic chuckle:
"If it was easy, everyone would do it.
All the preparations and training and spying... It's the necessary groundwork for the 15 minutes of work we will do.
I'm under no illusion that everything will go according to plan. And I am happy to hear your ideas for redundancies, back ups and alternatives that we can add to make this whole thing safer.

For example, if the gas doesn't work, we'll have to subdue the guards with old fashioned violence. I am in the process of obtaining hand loaded gel and S&S rounds for our weapons."

Projecting is a bit dangerous if I am in the bank, I do not want to leave myself helpless. I can either join the party and give you a hand, or just make my way ahead of you to the vault. Shorten the time it takes us to clear it?"

"Never said anything 'bout projecting, did I? Sure you can come along. I don't think you should approach the vault alone. If there are guards, I'm left without someone I can make fun of."

"Since you'll be maintaining quite a few spells to keep Krestov and Slobbertooth save, I'd prefer you staying behind them and control your spirit. Once the place is clear you need to get down to the vault fast."
Schmitt added.

bnc leans back and reflects a bit about the plan.
"So-ka. Let's see...
Maybe we can position a second killer drone nearby the mage's apartment, in case the grenade doesn't hit. Also, I should monitor his commlink, lest he alarms Lavadora. I will do the same with the decker.
Also we should bring gear to unlock the door manually, in case the SOK doesn't work for whatever reason. What kind of door is it? Maglock? A mechanical one?
Flatline should come with us. This way we have some magical support and a proper healer.

What do we do, if Lavadora is at the scene? We can't risk an additional bloodmage without proper sprinkler systems."

"If Lavadora makes an appearance, kill him. I don't say that lightly. If he survives he will track you down. He has both the resources and the will to do so.
Which reminds me: One of you mages has to wipe down the signature of your spells before we go.
A backup for the gas grenade at the mage's room certainly is a good idea.
The bank doors are secured with R6 maglocks, passcodes with iris scans and R4 anti-tamper devices. If the SOK doesn't work this whole operation is a bust since we can't get into the vault. Period."
Schmitt answered.

Well we've got the mono saw and thermite bars to break it but it won't exactly be subtle, and will take too many cycles for us to slash and burn our way through.

"Okay, Flat has fewer tasks right now. Can you do that?
Kite, do you have a spare killer drone? If not, Mike, can you get us one? I'll take mine with me."

Mike shrugged: "As I said, already got one in the workshop. Ares Alpha on an Aztech Crawler with gecko tips. You can let that baby crawl up the outside wall of the hotel and take care of the mage through the window."
Flatline shook his head to bnc's question: "Only outside. I'm supposed to guard our exfiltration route. But I suppose I can just nip inside the ward, call up a spirit and have it wipe down spell signatures."

bnc nods to Mike. "That should do."
After Flatline's reply, bnc looks surprised. "Spirits can do that? Wiz. Guess that's the problem with theoretical magology - they just assume that you already know the practical stuff.
Awesome. Are we done here? I could use a massage or something."

I mean a dose by that, lighters. I've been feeling way too sober way too long.

"It's getting late, yes. Tomorrow we'll do this course again, including the modifications. I'll go and try to get a bit more information on the points we discussed. Enjoy your evening and relax a bit. There's still some more work to be done."
Schmitt turned to go, while Kite turned to the simulation and began to input the new parameters.

The car was packed on the way back to the safe house.

bnc sighs deeply. It's been a tough day.
"Back home, I'm gonna turn off my deck and go into recluse. Anyone's disturbing my better have a good reason..."
She runs her hand through her hair - a gesture you know from her youth that makes you realize how much she changed in the course of the last two years. She doesn't, though, and just briskly walks over to the car.

Slob did two final sprints through the course. One down to the vault and then one back to the exit. At the end he was visibly upset with his shooting, he checked his comm to see the time and his mood didn't improve

"Yeah, let's see if I can not suck at this tomorrow."

The evening in the safe house turned out to be a pretty cozy affair: A winter storm had hit Seattle and heavy snowfall blanketed the area. Kite and Mike turned up hours later while Schmitt didn't return at all until the next morning.
During breakfast, Kite and Mike approached bnc:
"So we went over the simulation again and noticed that you have to hack like a lot of shit at the same time and also switch hosts a lot.
Mike had an idea for that and we'd like your opinion before we start full production."
Mike pulled a little black box from his pocket and handed it to the hacker.

"Inside this box are four stealth tags and a Renraku Gerbil drone. The drone has gecko tips and is modded to carry an induction receiver, allowing it to create direct connections simply by being next to a cable or device.
The drone is wired with direct connections to the stealth tags. Those are modded to carry Program Carriers with virtual machines running Agents. One R4 and three R2 to be precise. The R4 Agent also has a Smoke and Mirrors program running.

Now, since those tags have sleaze capability, the R4 agent can actually hack whatever it is attached to through the drone - helped through the three other agents, potentially doubling it's effectiveness.

You could use those to control the cameras and the vents."

bnc tries not to look impressed, but fails.
"You buggers really do your homework, eh? I already went over the problem, though, and I don't think it's that bad."
bnc takes a spoonful of cereals, then continues.
"Entering the security host will be the small 1-times-1, as I'm directly connected via the cams. Once I feed-fed the cams, I'm free to leave it as long as I stay online. Then I switch to local, hack Leggio and the officer without any hurry. Once I marked that chipsies - and this is in fact the most crucial part -, I'll swap to the utility host. We're still under no hurry at all. Now comes the only time-critical part: I turn on the vents - or let the agent do it - then immediately swap to public. I release the message and burn down Leggio. Still in the same grid, my drone would be waiting for me to go rambo.

So there's only one point in which I need to do 7 things at once. Step 1 - releasing the vents - and step 2 - releasing the message - shouldn't be exactly at the same time. I want them to feel that their officers react to a threat, not forecast them. At least that'd give 'em a pause. Thus, the only moment when I need to be fast is, when I simulatenously attack the officer and Leggio. In neither of those would these drones come handy.

So I'm not entirely sure. I can't quite see the pros from this perspective, though I see the risk of working with gear I'm not used to, switching my attention between two devices and using shittier tech that I'm used to. Call me a gutter rat, but I think you might have to point out the bens for me."

bnc again dips the spoon into the soymilk, looking at Mike expectantly.

"The main benefit will be one less point of failure. Should you be forced to reboot all your MARKs would be lost. With this little contraption taking care of the camera editing, you'd be free to concentrate on the commlink hacks. With direct connection hacks, the resistance will be minimal and without the admin to nose around it should in theory be fool proof.
For example, if you let this thing take care of the vents, you'd be able to set them off with a simple command while you concentrate on the commlinks.

As for being unfamiliar: We still have a few days for you to get comfortable with the setup.
If you are worried about it's ability to perform: I think I can install a military grade agent and add a few more support agents to get its hacking competence up. I'll just need a day or two to organize the programs.

But as I said, if you feel confident that you can get this done without help, that's totally ok. I'll leave the prototype with you."
Mike replied.

"I can try to make friends with it. I'll call it Slimer and it will be my pet."

Anna used the training time to run around and fire her almost invisible guns. She seemed content to get physical rather than plan and plan. Her shhoting proves to be uncharistically good.

The next morning, Anna is up refreshed and opened the day with a short excercise. She watched the interplay between Mike and Kite and bnc with amusement.
Debating to herself whether to interrupt with something funny or stay professional. As disappointed as it made her she kept the professional face.
"So, how are we going to handle Kynos? Perhaps one of us should try to talk to him?"

"He's not exactly social, and is on thin ice with his employer. We'll probably need to drop some evidence of what is going to happen to entice him to squirrel himself away from his ward for a private conversation"

"Why not just spr- Wait, what? Spoil our plans to make Cyborg talk? What exactly did I just get wrong?"

"Well obviously he can't know who we are, but being closer to him when he finds out about the whole 'you're going to be sacrificed for your god's crazy blood mojo' means we'll have a better idea whether he'll react to it.

"The reaction will probably be violent if he chooses to act on it."

"You're kidding, right? You didn't just offer to tell the main objective's best-paid bodyguard that we attempt to assault one of his most important assets, did you?"

"Why would we need to tell him that?"

"We can come up with a better cover story. Just say we're some regulatory agency that's doing the investigation, and although that's the official limit of our powers, we're breaking the rules and telling him about the whole blood sacrifice thing because we're nice people."

"Yeah, nice people doesn't make sense. Better go with racists who hate Azzie's."

Mike chimed in: "If you tell him about them being blood mages, you can also say there is a bounty for living blood mages, paid by the Draco Foundation. Maybe he is greedy enough to switch sides alone for that - or chicken enough to run immediately."

Anna said, "I know a thing or two about convincing. When would be a good situation to approach Knyos? Preferably somewhere where you can extract me if he misbehaves..."

"There is the possibility that he recognizes either your or me from our business a few evenings ago. Don't know what kind of augments he got for his memory or vision. Could either be ready for it and make it part of the cover story, or we could send Special K out to speak with him on the topic.

She replied"He might - if he cared enough... I am also not half bad with disguises, and can make an effort to look differently- perhaps even a face mask."

She replied"He might - if he cared enough... I am also not half bad with disguises, and can make an effort to look differently- perhaps even a face mask... but Special K is also a good option."

"I'll leave the face stuff to the faces, but I'd like to point out that a tinman psycho like him might take an 800 pound cybered-up cop more seriously that a 90 pound barbie girl twitching around because the Azzies are sooooo gruesome."

Anna chuckled "90 pounds?!", being of human rather than elven, proportion and a bit tall curvy and busty, Anna's weight was closer to 160. She sighed "...and I was going for greed rather than altruism. If I approached Kynos I would make a business proposition.
I would like part of the bounty on these blood magic practitioners. I supply the intel and he provides the muscle.

Greed is always better than altruism as it raises fewer questions. Everybody likes money... but when you show up with altruism people look for some ulterior motives... If he looks deep enough then our mission is a bust. It is better if the motive is simple and easy to understand. Thus frankly, I don't mind approaching Kynos as I think that we can profit from this gig. Our information is valuable and I doubt that psychopath just assaults people for no reason. He needs to work for people and maintain some form of humanity to keep being employed."
She also did not mind if the stoic troll does so, but he remained silent, observant and not very fluent in English - perhaps they were speaking too fast for him.

bnc nods, thoughtfully.
"Sounds sound, chicken. Go for it!"

She grinned "Okay, now what is the strongest evidence we can use to convince him that he works for Blood mages with a fat bounty on their heads?"

Mike snorted at that: "You mean he doesn't suspect that himself, being close to a Jaguar warrior and his Aztec mage master? Your strongest card is the handwritten letter, detailing that they want to sacrifice this guy. You should probably lead with that to get his attention. It's much easier to get someone to betray their master if you can convince them that their master has betrayed them first."

Anna nods "The letter is good... So I am starting with the letter. What else do we have - anything meaningful out of the book we acquired?

The second question is when or how to discreetly approach him, the guy does not seem to have much leisure time. "