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Jack_Spade
Below the entrance, a staircase stretched down into darkness with only a few emergency lights providing illumination. As far as Wraith could hear and see, there was no-one around.
On the astral a strong barrier blocked his view.

[ Spoiler ]


bnc's door opened without a sound. One moment the maglock kept it closed, the next it swung open. Outside, she could make out a short corridor with four more cell doors - two on each side, of which the one next to her was also open now. A moment later a slight Japanese girl in the same hospital gown as she had had exited. She looked to be about 17, with dark, short hair and a pretty face.
She smiled when she saw bnc and bnc realized that her matrix access had been restored.

At the end of the corridor, another locked door waited, but this one had an easily accessible UDP in plain view.
Gilga
Before:
Anna augments her senses, and then summons a spirit of man. She allows the spirit to cast two invisibility spells, and then cast two spells of her own. Turning the four party members invisible to mundane eyes.

When seeing the ward, she shrugs "This is where the spell get us. Let's cross the ward without spells to keep quiet. She said and moved pased the barrier, gun at hand.
Thanee
Nova slung her rifle over her shoulder and signaled to the others, that she would climb down first. She switched her ultrasound to passive mode for now, relying on low-light and thermographic vision, as she descended down the staircase, silent as a cat.


[ Spoiler ]

Gilga
Anna follows quietly, trying her best not to be the one that exposes the team. It is nice to have the woman of steel and restraint leading the way she must admit. Since she notices Wraith astrally active, she remains mundane most of the time. With the exception of quick looks when she is stationary, Anna does not feel confident enough to sneak with the distraction of astral sight. If there are no more wards she'll consider more invisibility spells.

sneaking: 12d6t5 4
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy followed down behind Nova, his bow hanging from his back as he descended, doing his best to stay quiet and relying on his electroception to notice anything out of the ordinary.

Electroception: 10d6t5 4
Sneaking: 13d6t5 4
Volker
bnc steps out of the cell and looks around. When she sees the young technomancer, a very strong but decidedly irrational and out-of-place emotion rushes over her: shame. Looking at this young, pretty girl, she gets painfully aware of what she herself looks like: almost naked, worn-out not only from drug-abuse and malnutrition but also from the aftereffects of the narcoject. Her skin, unnatural in color, stretches unhealthily over ribs and hip. Though some might even find this even pleasant, it makes bnc sick, and seeing herself exposed to this way more beautiful girl, gets her deeper than she'd ever admit. She tries to cover up her feelings with a faint smile - a smile so uncomfortable that it just makes it more plainly obvious how out of place bnc feels.
Dumb slitch. Now really isn't the time to compare boobs. Don't be silly!, bnc chastised herself, trying to regain focus.
After a short moment of hesitation, bnc nods towards the door and runs over to it. She casts a hasty look around the shoulder, before she plugs herself in without saying a word. She stays in AR, however. The notion of leaving her body in this environment sends shivers down her spinal cord.
Jack_Spade
The team encountered three separate wards on their way down - which explained why having spirits patrol wasn't very feasible for the occupants of this facility.
They reached a locked door behind which they could hear two voices conversing:
"...I don't like it. They are still talking with Rosenberg, but there is no sign of where the other mercenaries have gone. Send another team out to secure the perimeter and look for them. I'll go down and look after the girl. She spend an awful long time at the sink before going back to sleep."
"Aye Sir, we'll take the bikes and report as soon as we find anything."


Meanwhile, bnc found herself persuading the lock with little effort to open up - Nyan allowed her also a glimpse at her pet sprite: The resonance creature was a massive presence in the matrix that nevertheless blended in almost effortlessly between the many device icons.
Unasked, Nyan explained: "I'm a Techno Shaman, so the resonance helps me out whenever I call sprites to my side."
The door opened and revealed a sterile looking room beyond - hightech autodoc units, medicine cabinets and an operating theater lay beyond. Two Caduceus anthro drones assisted a human dressed in scrubs with the preparation of a surgery tray.
So far he hadn't noticed them.
Volker
For a moment, bnc looks almost irritated. She fought down the feeling with great effort. The young decker had been fascinated - drawn - by magic and its myths as a child. When she grew up to become a decker, the interest shifted to the more digital aspects of the world. But the mythical still had a place in her heart, though deeply buried by, among others, bitterness. That this young girl, who got bestowed with prettiness, too, was also gifted with a quasi-magical gift that allowed her to do almost intuitively what bnc had worked for long and hard, angered her. But there was something even bitterer below the anger. Envy. She knew she should be excited to meet a technoshaman in real, to be thrilled by the opportunities it gave.
But for the moment, bnc didn't even manage to suppress a glare.

"Nice", she mutters under her breath while she opens the door. bnc glances inside, then quickly closes it silently.
"One worker, two anthrodrones. You control the one with the ID 'surgery 0x0fD8', I'll take the other one. Roger?"

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]

Nyan nodded. For a moment, bnc could see how she spawned a sprite from nothing before it somehow vanished from sight. A moment later she noticed the designated drone suddenly had three new MARKs.

Luckace
Knowing full well that he wasn't much of a sneak, Wraith moved after his companions and stayed some steps behind them.
These wards are annoying.
After passing through the lid, he carefully - unless one of his companions objects - closed the lid so patrols would find no evidence of their coming.

@team:
<<Gotta strike before he leaves for bnc. Who moves first?>>




[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy glaces over to Nova. "Do you want to knock, or should I?"
Volker
[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
"Hold me please" she subvocal to Wraith and takes a moment to project through the door and peek. She wants to know how many people are out there.

[ Spoiler ]


She returns with her findings a brief moment later.
Jack_Spade
bnc noticed that the two anthro drones didn't have any weapons beyond their precision limbs - allowing her to use whatever unarmed combat moves she knew. More interesting was the fact, that the drone had just prepared an anesthetic in a hypospray.

[ Spoiler ]


Anna peeked through the door. There she saw the auras of two people. One of which was moving towards an exit, while the other stood at the dark gray form of what was probably the elevator doors.
A look through the elevator doors confirmed that the elevator car was at least 10 m below them - that's where her line of sight ended with another ward.
Volker
QUOTE (Luckace @ Oct 11 2019, 04:28 PM) *
@team:
<<Gotta strike before he leaves for bnc. Who moves first?>>


"The fuck's going on?", bnc asks alertedly. They haven't included her in her plannings until yet.
Luckace
"Guy on top floor moving down to check on you. We're on him.", he replied to bnc.
Wraith did as asked and stabilized Anna's body, activating his combat focus while doing so. He took a deep breath to clear his mind and felt his heart racing in his chest and his divine focus pulsing vibrantly I'm his clutched fist. He was tense as a bowstring and high on anticipation and adrenaline.
It was moments like this that he lived for.

"I don't care who knocks, just knock it down quickly or I'll do it myself."
Gilga
She stabilizes and says "Two men, we take them one by one silently. ll make Shark invisible, and he'll be first. The rest of us help without being detected. Have the drone scan for biomonitor or something." She says.

[ Spoiler ]
Thanee
Nova nods.

"Do we have a jammer? Might be a good idea to prevent them from raising an alarm."
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy nodded and moved up towards the door. "I'm getting whoever is the closest to the opposite door. No jammer here, just squash 'em."
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]

Thanee
[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


@Nyan "Back me up", she says. Then the drone turns around in a more or less fluid motion to "accidently" touch the surgeon with the hypospray.
Gilga
As the Shark and nova got ready for their assault Anna finished casting some spells, the invisibility for the strike team, and some enhanced agility for herself.
Luckace
Wraith had quietly drawn his gun - the bracelett that was his combat focus around his other hand - while Nova and Sharkboy turned invisible in front of his eyes. Damn, illusion magic sure is usefull.

While positioning himself at the wall, he almost hit a small metal pipe on the floor with his foot. Frag, almost would have given us away. Gotta be more careful.


[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
Surprised by the sudden action of the drone, the doctor stumbled back - only to find the other drone blocking his way. Three seconds later the man lay unconscious on the ground, leaving the way open to the other side of the room where another door promised them to get another step closer to freedom.

Three stories further up, the team managed to surprise a tall man in the uniform of a Mitsuhama Corp security guard. He didn't seem to wear a biomonitor, but he seemed to have an open connection to the rest of the facility.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
bnc nods towards Nyan in appreciation. She casts a quick look at the matrix environment before proceeding towards the door.

[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy blitzed into the room through the door and smashed the guard with a discus elbow.

"RIPTIDE ELBOW!"

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
.
Jack_Spade
bnc found the other sensors protected by the high level host, but the drone she just had hijacked had a pretty sophisticated sensor package itself. Getting it close to the door it took only a short burst of radar to recognize a long corridor and a form of something that looked worryingly like a guard standing at ease with their back towards the right wall. Since the door opened inwards it would be quite hard to surprise that sentry.
Thanee
Nova aimed her silenced rifle at the man and fired a single shot.


[ Spoiler ]
Volker
Kuso!
@Nyan "There's a guard behind the door. Don't do anything rash."
@Team "Are you entering the building? Do you want us to keep a low profile or to get offensive and try to find our way out ourselves?"


While waiting for an answer, bnc attacks the guard's commlink.
[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna fires her most discreet weapon the taser and hits the back of the unsuspecting guard, transferring its painful charge through the wire.
She thinks of bnc the whole time.



[ Spoiler ]


Luckace
There was a short moment of hesitation before Wraith stroke. You could use a Stunbolt. No need to use lethal force on the man, he's just doing his job.
Frag that, there's too much at stake. I stun him, he's back up shortly later. He'd kill us without blinking an eye.
"Strike him, almighty!", he murmured as an arc of electricity left his hand and dashed towards the guard - whose armor proofed to be impressivly resistant to the spell.

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna is awed by the bolt of lighting, she never considered using magic in such a destructive manner before, she was already proficient with small pistols by the time she learned to use her magic. So much has changed, and killing seems to become something they do. Perhaps she should learn such tasks.

>> bnc, make your way toward us if you can, be safe hon. Once they discover us you will no longer be safe. Also, if you can use your matrix mojo to locate the cure for Kerstin do it - we will not be breaking into this facility again.
Volker
The cure! Of course - how could I forget about that?? Oh Anna, sweet, sweet Anna, always thinking of others.
@Nyan "Can you take care of the guard as best as you can? I'm going to need a couple of seconds. My team's coming,", she half-lied.
@Team "We are here <physical location attached>. We'll hold out for a moment, then try to somehow pass the guard. But we both are no fighters."

Then bnc looks for a port to insert herself into the host.
[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]

Nyan replied: <<I'll see what I can do. Or rather if Junkcat can find something. Those host defenses are too much for me to deal with>>

The team upstairs meanwhile had a very unconscious guard with a very surprised look on his face on their hands.
The elevator doors were open and already had the authorization to take them down to the third sublevel.
Volker
bnc nods absentmindedly before she jacks herself in. She's determined to find the cure for Kerstin, no matter what it takes.

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna loots the guard with the skill of someone that has done so before. She looks for key cards and anything else that may help them. "We may need to bring him in case they use biometric identification." She says.
SquirrelDude
"So Ka."

Sharkboy lifts the man over his shoulder.

"Where to next"
Jack_Spade
As the elevator moved, the magic users noticed that they traversed another three wards. Whatever Nyan's sprite was doing, it seemed to keep working, because no alarms called out.
The ride seemed to take an eternity, but was probably more like 20 seconds long.

As bnc was inside the host, she didn't notice as her friend's signals came within her 100m radius.
She was to engrossed in searching through what files were available. Working as fast as she could, she finally stumbled upon what she was looking for: Retroviral restoration of HMHVV contaminated organisms (Krieger Strain).
There was a code to its location. A quick cross reference told her that this was not inside a lab, but a secure room next to the executive office on the second level: Dr. Rosenberg's own private office.

The elevator doors opened. There behind a counter, a bored guard looked up with sudden shock on his face.

[ Spoiler ]
Luckace
"Their armor is pretty buffed against electricity attacks. Think I'll have to switch to less direct means of attacking. Stun spells, or influencing them.", Wraith had to admit after the fighting was done.

In the elevator, Wraith finally had the time to brief bnc via the team channel:
"50 meters to your west should be an elevator shaft. That's where we'll pop up any second now and work our way towards you. Be careful. And keep your techno close."
This unexpected aid is either a miracle or a trap... Whatever it is, I'm determined to find out. That is, as soon as I don't have a million wards between me and them.

When the elevator came to a halt, Wraith reactivated his focus and had gun and focus ready to strike.
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
@team"Roger. Did you raise alarm yet?"
@Nyan "Team's a-coming. Prevent the guard from raising alarm. I'll take care of cams.

bnc looks out for their team's icons on the matrix. When she finds them, she turns against the host.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna turns off the spells as they enter the elevator, and if time permits would recast a moment before the door opens.
On the way, she replies "I always find pistols more efficient."

>> bnc, not yet - but they'll figure it out soon.
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


"We'll see, hon. I'm angry."
Thanee
[ Spoiler ]
SquirrelDude
[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


Anna's taser found the man, who was only lightly armored in this position down below. Still, the hit didn't knock him out... yet.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy dropped the unconcious guard like a sack of potatoes and introduced himself to the next rent-a-cop with a flying knee.

[ Spoiler ]
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