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Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]
Thanee
Seeing that the guardsman wasn't quite taken care of, Nova moved out of the elevator and into the room, drawing her Savalette Guardian, while she did so. She fired a single silenced shot at the guard, who finally decided to go down.

"Well, he didn't see that coming..." she joked.


[ Spoiler ]

Volker
[ Spoiler ]


Cursing silently, bnc reboots her deck in AR mode. She gets up again to expect her teammates. Just in case, she uses the time until then to charge her biomonitor with informing both Kerstin and the team about the location of the cure should bnc's vital parameters drop to a dangerous level.
Luckace
Seeing that his comrades had everything well under control, Wraith activated his astral sight and inspected their surroundings, watching out for the watchers that Kerstin had mentiones in her intel.
"Smooth work.", he commented.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
Only now had the team a chance to look around. The room behind the elevator contained the guard, it's desk and a terminal where people had their faces scanned to gain access to the next room - which appeared to be a changing room, complete with showers and a decontamination chamber dividing it from the rest of the sub level.
Large warning signs told the interlopers that on the other side bio hazzards awaited them.

Wraith saw on the astral, that the next part was also neatly secluded by a dual natured barrier. Someone had been very conscientious to prevent any kind of astral phenomenom to enter or exit this area. No Watcher was in sight, which was a relieve and mitght have something to do with the facility looking outside for Kerstin.
Still, he found that the astral space here was quite foul and got fouler the closer he got to the barrier. Whatever happened down here, it wasn't good for anyone's soul...

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna felt the foul BGC, and briefly wondered what they were doing there. As she was not strong enough to lift a fully grown man easily, she asks >>Can we use his head to gain access to the next room? Shall we hack it instead? She looks at Shark, and Nova expectingly.

Anna would drop her spells prior to going through the ward, granting bitterly partially from BGC, partially from the tedious task of maintaining spells in this place.
Luckace
"Dual-natured barrier right ahead. Looks like they're being extra cautious nothing gets in. Or out...", Wraith informed the team.
"Also... The background is starting to feel darker. It's like a foul stench covers the magical plane. Coming from there.
Not as bad as in the bunker, but the farther we get, the heavier the background count."
, and he points at the door.

God, what is this place?

A worrysome thought flashed through his mind and he called bnc via the team's channel.
"bnc, before you enter anywhere, use whatever sensors you have to check for dangers. From our side, the area warns of biohazards."

<<Before we attempt any hacking, I guess let's try his face, right?>>, he replied.
He also looked around if there was seemingly special protective clothing to be worn in the changing room, or if the guards just seemed to rely on their uniforms against the hazardous environment.
Volker
"Awesome. And I somehow lost my anti-biohazard full body armor, alas.", bnc replies dryly.
"Nyan, how are you doing with the guard?"
Jack_Spade
The face worked and opened the way for the team into the changing room. There, lockers full of bio-hazard suits were lined up. The suits were bulky, but at least they would cover their faces from being recognized on camera. Unfortunately, the things were awkward to move in and didn't offer any way to conceal weapons.

Nyan replied to bnc:
<<Junkcat has entered all his devices. I could send him a message to go somewhere if you want and he should believe it comes from his boss.>>
Gilga
Anna gets dressed, quietly and then packs two more hazmat suits for bnc and their mystery technomancer.

>> We found hazmat suits, I'll fetch you and your friend.
Thanee
Nova holstered her pistol again and took up a guard position, while the others were getting into the suits.
Luckace
Wraith quickly and quietly put on the hazmat-suit and then took Nova's position with his weapons ready, while she changed.
Thanee
"Thanks, but no need. I actually have a chemical seal on this armor."
Jack_Spade
Once the rescue team had donned the protective clothing, they were able to move through the decontamination showers and into the laboratories propper.
Sharkboy noticed with his electroception sense a drone moving past. Once he thought it save, the team was able to open the doors. They found themselves on the corner of two corridors meeting at an 90° angle. All in all it looked like a square with 25 m sides. On both sides, secure doors every 5m denoted different labs. According to bnc' signal she was on the diagonal opposite side of the team.

It was not hard to guess, that a single drone was patrolling in rounds along the sides of the square. At what Sharkboy had felt, the drone would take about a minute for a full circle around.
Thanee
"Should we try and sneak past, or take that drone out? I still got some of those zapper rounds, which might do the trick. It will be loud, though. No silencer on that gun. Or should we coordinate with bnc? I mean, she's the one that knows about this stuff."

Just in case, Nova shouldered her rifle and made her shotgun ready and loaded it with the zapper rounds.
SquirrelDude
"If we can find a good angle, I could try taking it out with my bow. I've got the heavy-duty shock-arrows to drop it."
Gilga
Anna says forwarding it to the team's channel >>I can take it out with my taser. It is silent, with Sharks provides enough redundancy. bnc, perhaps you want to hack the drone? Use it for our advantage or something?
Thanee
<< @Anna: Maybe tell her about the drone first? Might as well... >>

<< @bnc: We are now at the entrance to the lab area on the same level, where you should be. There is a drone patrolling a large square room, maybe 25m per side with exits to various labs. We are discussing how to take it out, but maybe you can do something from your end as well? >>
Luckace
Wraith had reactivated his focus after crossing the barrier and was now - like the rest - wagering whether to attack the drone or let bnc handle it.
@team:
<<Background taint is getting darker. This screams infected.>>

With his astral sight, he looked around if any wards would impede his vision of a Detect Enemies spell, or of the area was clear of wards.
Volker
@Nyan "Yeah, send him off. You could say that he should report to Rosenberg in person and discreetly. Also, your sprite has marks on him? Please forward his position to the channel I attached. My team needs to know which direction he goes."
@Team "We're sending the guard away. You get his position forwarded. Take care. We can't do a lot from here."

Jack_Spade
Nyan replied <<Alright, I told him he is wanted at the front desk>>

What followed was a pretty well coordinated strike: Anna and Sharkboy used their electricity based weapons to deal with the large and menacing looking drone, allowing Nova to slip by and take on the guard in full body armor. With surprise on her side it took only one shot to take the man in full body armor down.

Behind the door, Nyan jumped a bit as she heard the shot ring out but calmed down quickly.
<<Junkcat tells me, the man is still alive but unconscious and the sensors are still surpressed>>
Volker
@Nyan "Awesome!"
@Team "Was that you who just shot down a guard who tried to walk off?"


bnc anxiously awaits the team's response, then turns to move towards them. A short moment she considers taking the stunned doctor's apron but then decides otherwise. To cover herself up, she'd need to undress him wholly, and there really was no time for that. The young decker steps out of the room to meet the others.

bnc looks as vulnerable as a person can look. Usually, she wears wide hoodies or several layers of clothes, but now she is almost naked. Save for a white slip and bra, bnc is entirely naked. Without any fabric to conceal the protruding rib cages and collarbone, bnc looks even more gaunt than usually. Hair, body and what little she wears are soaked with water. Her bare feet leaves trails of wet footsteps on the cool floor. Gooseprickles cover her from head to heel, and she has dark rings under her eyes. Yet, she is agitated, and though the team can read a mix of emotions in her face - anxiety, nervosity, shame, guilt, and more - relief and happiness dominate.
SquirrelDude
"Yeah, that was probably us. Making sure the coast is clear."
Gilga
When Anna spots bnc, a mixture of emotions strikes her. She is happy to see her, but she is also very angry still. She tosses her the suit and says "Dress up.". Anna is completely covered with the biohazard suit so aside from her voice, it is difficult to make out her shape. Shark and Nova are invisible although the background count takes its toll from the spell, making the invisibility flawed.
SquirrelDude
"So let's hurry out of the drek hole, and make contact with Kerstin. Can our dumb-ass decker run and keep up, or does little girl want a piggyback ride?"
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


bnc catches the suit, casting a short, guilty glimpse at Nyan, then smiles faintly when she spots the second suit. Anna really does have team spirit, you can't deny her that, she reflects.
Her joy over the reunion quickly wears off, however, when Sharkboy opens his mouth. Her eyes dart needles at the unsteady silhouette from which the voice came. "Just shut the fuck up, sushi."
She quickly changes into the bio-hazard suit.
Gilga
As bnc catches the suit, she hands the second one to Nyan, introducing herself as "Anna". Seeing the exchange between Shark and bnc, and seeking to prevent escalation she difflects the subject. "Any luck with locating the cure?.

[ Spoiler ]
Luckace
Wraith was incredibly relieved to see bnc safe and sound.
While he wasn't the type to display grand emotions, his body langue likely gave him away to some degree.

He didn't allow himself to become complacent, though. Stay professional. There's still a potential trap.in your midst.
Having checked that no wards were between himself and the technomancer, he delved into the divine conduit that was his magic, weaving a spell that would bring out the worst in humans and reveal hostility.
Lord, you know the heart of all men. Grant me a glimpse of this stranger's intentions.
He didn't introduce himself to the technomancer - no need for such courtesies yet.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
"Yes, I did!", she answers while dressing. "It's in Rosenberg's personal apartments. I have the exact location, but it's not going to be a stroll..."
Thanee
<< Guard is down. >> Nova commented, when the body hit the ground. << He was coming right at us. >> she replied to bnc's question.


When the gaunt decker emerged, she only remarked: "You really need to eat more. And work out some..."
Shrugging her shoulders, Nova focused more on the other person, the one that supposedly helped bnc in here.
"Thank you for helping her, kid. How should we call you? And how did you end up in here?"


She still listened in to the other conversations. The part about the cure seemed most interesting.
Nove smiled a little, not that anyone could see it under her helmet.
"Then we should hurry up. The rest is still buying time up there with negotiations. Directions?"

"Also, can you guys start the alert down here? Not right away, please, but might be a good distraction at some point."


[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
When they finished dressing Anna hands bnc her Ares Predator. The Predator is Anna's faviorite gun, and has a load of sentimental value. While she constantly upgraded it, its core is the same gun that she got shot when she failed to pickpocket a rich battered. The gun is coated with Rothanium polymer which makes it nearly invisible at a casual glance. "Don't lose it honey. she says after a brief silence. She has another pistol in case the new girl is interested she offers it with an hand gesture, it is the streetline special a tiny concealable pistol which is also covered in RP polymer. Sadly, both guns are personally fitted to Anna's hands which makes them a bit awkward to use by other people.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
bnc accepts the gun with a gasp. Sie looks at Anna, incredulously. She swallows, not turning her eyes from Anna, then grasps the gun firmly and nods.

After a brief second, she turns to Nova. "Yes, we can. That is, Junkcat can. Nyan's in charge of his system."
She seems to feel guilty. I should have been the one who controls the guard. What's wrong with you, bnc, trusting a key element to a stranger? You appear to your team weak, because you acted weak. Don't do it again!
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy doesn't visibly react the sushi comment, but retorts. "What? It was an earnest question. In your state you might need some help getting out of here with speed. You're not going through the DTs, yet, are you?"

Sharkboy piggybacks off Nova's idea to start an alarm.
"Maybe start the alert in a section away from our exit once we get close to the cure."
Thanee
"Yeah, here. This section is away from our exit. It is also the obvious place we are trying to get to. It makes sense, if an alarm is triggered here. I suppose, our next stop will be further up somewhere, so once we are there, we can divert their attention here, giving us some more breathing room, hopefully. I mean, these guys are not dumb, right? They know we are around here, somewhere. And they will find us, eventually. Let's do that on our terms, while we are still undetected. And judging by the reactions of the folks down here, we still are. But it is only a matter of time, until someone checks on the guards here. So... where to now?"
Gilga
"If an alarm is triggered they will lock down the entire facility sealing us from the outside world. Let's keep them oblivious as much as we can. Perhaps trigger the alarm when we are already outside to prevent them from going after us and making them lockdown the facility and wasting their time searching for us instead of chasing us. "
Volker
"Anyway, we don't trigger now. But we do move." Towards Sharkboy, she adds. "I'm fine, thanks. They propped me up somehow."

bnc includes Nyan to the teamchannel, then shares what she found about the cure's location.

"Quickly now."

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
Wraith noticed no enemy within the wards - certainly, Nyan didn't harbor any malice towards the team.

On cue, Nyan replied: "Thank you for taking me with you. I'll try to assist you in return. My pet is busy keeping the sensors occupied. But it has to reboot soon. We should not be here when this happens."

bnc had meanwhile conjured a rough sketch of the facility as an ARO. Their next target was one level above them. There was a lobby just like down here next to the elevator door, followed by a guard post and a layout similar to the one down here - only that this square corridor had offices arrayed around them. Dr. Rosenbergs office was likewise on the far side - directly above her cell. There was likely even some kind of excavation free of earth through which the mage was able to move in astral form.

As the team moved onward they became aware of soft howling from behind some of the doors they passed - not unlike people screaming as loud as they can, but kept away by a few rooms or so.
Luckace
Either I'm getting paranoid or my friends at naïve..., Wraith thought as his team opted to hand a stranger weaponry like candy. Well, they're probably right.
@team
<<Magical background check says the girl isn't planning to backstab us. Huzzah.>>
, he commented dryly, not bothering that Nyan now received team messages as well.
"So, Nyan. We'll have to take a little detour, that's likely to get rough.", he said as he got ready to move.

A bit puzzled by the howling, he tried to listen closely to get more clues what the sound was and from where it came.

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Magical background check... In this background count?! Spell resistance? hello... nothing is surefire. Why use magic when intuition is so much better. If this is a trap, it is a crappy trap - and adding a gun to the girl does not make it any more dangerous. The problem is that that technomage seems to control the facility rather than bnc, which means that they need to believe that she really is that good. Anna does not like relying on strangers with mystical powers that she cannot understand. bnc seems to trust her, and that means... well very little.

She cut her thoughts shorts to remain as alert as possible. She moves silently, alerts her surroundings, heading directly to the office.


Jack_Spade
Wraith listened, but couldn't make out more than before, although he was sure that the howling came from several different rooms from the outer side of the square corridor. If the layout was anything like bnc and Nyan's cell and operation theater, there was likely a bunch of those cell complexes down here. If even half the cells were occupied, there had to be about 40 prisoners down here - most of them infected.

The team reached the decontamination chamber uncontested, but once again found themselves faced with a facial recognition scanner to let them out again.
Volker
bnc's stomach twisted. As much as she liked to see herself as a tough shadowrunner, in truth she wasn't. The howls made her shiver. Yet, there was little to be done. They couldn't risk letting loose dozens of infected. She felt sorry for the lot - but this wasn't their fight.

[ Spoiler ]
Thanee
"We left the guy outside, right? I guess, that other guard here should work as a 'key' as well..." Nova said and trotted off to pick up said guard and hold his face in front of the scanner.
Gilga
Anna keeps her temper, if any the sense of danger makes her feel alive. "If we want a distraction, we may free these poor people once we leave. Let them show their captors what they really feel. If there is a way to do so remotely..."
Anna watches in fascination as Nova lifts the unconscious guard like a sack of potatoes. "Nova is so strong... and she always keep her cool." she thinks.
SquirrelDude
"Let's just release the ones that aren't between us an our way out. I doubt the people who have been locked up in here will be that willing to listen when our tin-lady with a boomstick tells them she isn't a bad guy."

"Now let's gets upstairs."
Jack_Spade
Dragging the unconscious guard to the scanner showed a problem: His face was recognized, but it seemed there was a countersign necessary to be input from the front desk and a waiting icon appeared while the system pinged the dead guard.

Nyan turned to bnc: "Can you take care of this? Junkcat is busy keeping the sensors spoofed."

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


"Sure can."
Working as fast as possibly, bnc quickly removes the case and plugs herself in. Two seconds later, she removes the cable. "Done. After you, ladies and gents."
She forces herself to smile, but it doesn't even look convincing for a forced smile.
Thanee
Nova let the guard down on the floor again. "Looks like you do need the one outside, after all."
Gilga
Anna takes the position behind Nova, and comments casually "Nah... bnc is like a master key.". It is impossible to tell behind her helmet and the hazmat suit but she is smiling as the door opens.
Jack_Spade
The ante room was as the team had left it, although a small light blinked next to the dead guard on his console. A missed call?
Once again, the face of the unconscious man called the elevator where bnc pressed the button for the second floor.
Once again the elevator moved through a heavy ward. It didn't take a genius to know what to expect on the next floor...
Volker
bnc stays behind, out of combat. Instead, she picks up the guard's console and plugs herself in to check on who or what tried to reach out to the fallen man.
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