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Volker
This must be him!

Her attacks against enemy arms proved more and more fruitless, but bnc finds another way to aid her party in combat. She marks their target's commlink and highlights it in their party members' field of vision, making him easier to spot.

[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy responded to the automatic fire with an explosive arrow, quickly aimed thanks to bnc's tag.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


The man saw the arrow heading for him and fell quickly back behind the door frame.
Thanee
Nova followed up on Sharkboy's arrow with a burst from her Enfield, after getting her shotgun ready.


[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade
Another shot, and another dodge from the man with the mask

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Seeing how elusive the man was, Anna ignored for a moment the gun in her hands and mentally whacked him with her stunbolt spell.
Jack_Spade
The spell connected and the man visibly staggered under the mental assault.
Luckace
With the little cross in his hand and a short prayer spoken, Wraith had finally mustered up the courage to jump outside and join the fray:
He pushed the door open and jumped outside, where he immediately kicked the door closed behind him. Murmuring "Strike him down, almighty...", his right hand made a striking gesture towards the leader, sending a magical attack his way.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
The second strike went home as well, making their target stagger again.
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


As her comrades seem to fare pretty well in the fight, bnc wants to make sure that the fellow doesn't send any messages she doesn't want him to send. Thus, she places a little virtual bug in his commlink.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy drew and fired another explosive arrow at the target, hoping to keep his attention away from the two mages.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
The leader almost managed to avoid the arrow - almost.
And although his armored suite prevented the missile from penetrating, the force was enough to knock him to the ground where his head bounced once and he lay still.
The two guards had enough at this point, firing wildly behind them, they ran like one man towards the exit, not caring for their fallen boss.
Thanee
"Nice shot, Sharky!" Nova applauded, as she gave the running guards a sideway glance and shrugged her shoulders. These goons were no concern for her.

Instead she immediately moved over to where their mark has gone down, disarming him and quickly searching him for anything important, commlink and such.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy aimed an arrow at the retreating guards, but thought better of it and then relaxed at Nova's compliment.

"Thanks. Everyone alright?"

Sharkboy let Nova handle their mark as he went around to clean up what was left of his stick'n'shock arrows from the guards. He probably couldn't fix them, but that wasn't a reason to leave them behind to be found later The explosive arrows would take care of themselves.
Luckace
"Damn...", Wraith murmured as the explosion rang through the facility, seemingly impressed, nodding in approval at Sharkboy.
He raised a thumb up to reply that he was all right, then he let his mind wander to the telepathic link with his spirit to see if it was ok.
Gilga
"I am fine... Impressive fighting everyone. These arrows sure got some impressive punch behind them." Anna reported. >> So, we need to find the lead researcher, steal the plans and load the van with tons of BTL. Whose going where?
Thanee
"Well. This guy here is the head of operations, whom we are to take in. We still need the computer files, so best to proceed to the offices."
Gilga
"Help me carry him inside" she replies and took his legs to be placed inside the van.
SquirrelDude
Right, we're not just here to pick a fight. Sharkboy left his bow on his back as he started heading down the hall towards the offices.

"Anna, let James take care of moving the target. You're healthy, so come help clear out the offices."
Gilga
"Alright, lead on Sharko"
Jack_Spade
Finding the office wasn't hard. An expensive... bnc corrected herself mentally - a very, very expensive simsense recording station dominated the middle of the room.
A comfortable, reclining seat in the middle was its focus point. Next to it was a space with padded mats on the floor and the walls as well as a sparring drone. Dozens of sensors dotted the walls, allowing recordings from every angle. Next to it a small table with refreshments waited.

The server was of course locked down and not wireless active.

[ Spoiler ]
Luckace
Before he moving out, Wraith checked if his spirit had destroyed the enemy watcher.
He then activated his astral sight to be ready for any astrally moving reinforcements.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
The spirits had taken out the watcher just as the hounds.
The team knew that whatever they did now, they were on the clock - reinforcements were likely on the way since both watcher, boss and decker certainly had already sent out a distress call.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy looked over the room and the machine trying to figure out what it was, but quickly relented.

"I have no idea what this is, or what we need to do with it."
Volker
"Roger" was all bnc said to Sharkboy's suggestion, then mentally commanded James to lift the victim into the car, while she herself returned to her loathed junk of meat body to jog over to the server room.
She whistles softly as she sees the equipment used her, but this was neither the place nor the people that could leave her in admiration. Also, not the time. As soon as the server was identified, she moved over briskly, sat down, drew a cable out of her datajack and plugged it into the computer. She shifted to make herself comfortable and once again dove into the depths of cyberspace.

[ Spoiler ]
Thanee
Nova stayed near the van in the meantime, making sure that nothing unexpected would surprise them. She mostly kept an eye on the suit and the door leading to the office part of the warehouse, while taking a closer look at the equipment she had taken from the unconscious man and searching him more thoroughly, too.
Jack_Spade
The workers and the remaining guards had run, leaving the warehouse empty of enemy activity.
bnc entered the offline host to find a very retro looking, comparatively low resolution environment dominated by chrome and neon aesthetics.
Still there was quite a lot of computing power behind this host and the patrol IC looked far from harmless, despite only wearing the default skin.
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


bnc orders her agent to assist her looking for the file and, once they found it, support her with an analysis feed. Then she dives off, wearing herself a non-descriptive male/androgynous standard persona.
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


Hesitating only a split-split-second, bnc cracks the file's protection, while sending her agent out to search for other files that are relevant for the BTL production.
Jack_Spade
The first file bnc finds is indeed the current master file from which the btl are produced. The whole search took the agent 30 seconds. bnc managed to crack the file and copy it. Another quick search like that might show her who is behind the whole operation.
Wraith and Anna received at the same time warning from their spirits outside: Two brawny looking fire spirits have appeared in the astral and are moving toward them. It seems like the security mage on duty has woken up.
Luckace
"Two spirits approaching. Be ready! ", Wraith alerted his comrades. He then called his spirit to get inside the mana-barrier (through the meta-planes, I guess) so they would face them together. Closing his third eye, he left the astral plane to give the spirits no immediate target and hopefully force them to materialize first.
Volker
Ignorant to the danger, bnc and her agent continue to dig deeper. She would know who was after her sister, no matter the price!

[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
"Shouldn't we all circle the wagons so that they don't pick us off separately?" Ask Sharkboy over subvocals as he activated he imbued his body with magic to make it lethal to spirits.
Volker
"Who'y 'they'?", bnc asks with a hint of panic, while she frantically searches for the file in need.

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna replies to Wraith "Let's have our spirits intercept them." she commands her spirit to intercept and says "I'll cast a mana barrier around us to slow them down."

Mana Barrier F4 (2 drain):

Mana Barrier: 13d6t5 7
Drain: 15d6t5 2
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


The two enemy spirits didn't hessitate to attack the runner's spirits on the astral, despite being weaker.
Luckace
While it appeared to stay calm in the warehouse, the astral plane shook as the two fire spirits threw themselves relentlessly at the runners' spirits: With a wild charge, they attempted to disrupt Karl and the angel with one powerful blow, but the two withstood the reckless maneuver and immediately counterattacked.
For about ten seconds, the mages could feel their spirits trade blows, then the astral plane became peaceful again, as both Karl and the angel had vanquished their attacker.
Volker
"Would someone answer me? Dafuck's going on out there?"
Gilga
Anna replies "You are protected from spirits with a mana barrier, and our spirits intercepted and disrupted the enemy spirits before they could reach us. I assume that any kind of other defense would take significantly longer to arrive. Just finish the geek job, we are keeping you safe."
Volker
"thanks", bnc said, then focussed again at the task of finding out who was behind this shit.
Jack_Spade
Indeed, the next 30 seconds nothing much happened.
The file's encryption yielded after a few moments of persuation and bnc learned that the guy they just captured was called Captain Ramon Herrero, and worked here in his capacity as fighting instructor for Ares Macrotechnologies. There was no overt mention that Ares funded this little operation, but reading between the lines it became clear, that this was an off-shoot of military research to create instant soldiers.
Luckace
Wraith nodded at Anna's explanation, but added: "We're still on a clock, though. That security mage must be pretty pissed by now, the next strike will be harder."
While bnc was working her magic on the computer, Wraith lazily took a superficial look around for things of obvious value - both with his physical and astral vision. He also kept his eyes open for cerosine or something else inflammable.

[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
Are we finished downloading yet whatever we came for, yet?
Gilga
Anna helps wraith in robbing the place - stealing things is her most passionate hobby after all.
Jack_Spade
Surprisingly enough, the people here didn't seem to keep inflamables ready to burn down their base of operations. The servers looked expensive but were in general to heavy to move. The simsense recording stuff though was just heavy enough to be annoying but light enough to be carried by Sharkboy and Nova
Gilga
Anna texts >>Nova, Shark, James - the simsense recorders seem expensive, too heavy for me though. Also let's finish loading the truck with BTL.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
QUOTE (Gilga @ Mar 4 2019, 07:50 AM) *
>>Nova, Shark, James - the simsense recorders seem expensive, too heavy for me though. Also let's finish loading the truck with BTL.[/color]

"They are. This is real high-tech stuff.

I'm done here. Prepare retreat."


[ Spoiler ]
Thanee
<< Alright, then let's pack the rest of it up and move out. >>

Nova had spent the waiting time by loading the boxes of BTL chips into the van, while keeping an eye out for trouble and checking on their captive every now and then. With James staying with him the whole time, she could move around a bit more freely without completely abandoning her post. She moved into the office part of the warehouse to help carry the heavier stuff then.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy helped Anna move the equipment back to the Van, while making sure that bnc stayed with the rest of the group so that they wouldn't be split up the next time some spirits showed up.
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]

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