"I don't know, if she is going to help us, but I am happy as long as she does not stand in our way. I do think, she will contact us, though. We'll see."

"All right... - wait, what? I drove the face away? What face? Anna's our face. And tits. I did try to drive her away, admitted, but I'm glad I failed. You don't mean the sushiman, do you?"

"I haven't seen Anna negotiating our pay."

"And that is what you think a face is for? Oh boy..."
James rubs his temple.
"Sharkboy most assuredly was not our face. Even I was more face than him. You are more face than him. A robot rubber duck is more face than him. What he did was antagonizing our Mrs. Johnson, grab the money and flee when the job got dangerous. I argue that, at this point, he was already planning on abandoning us, because, in the long run, all he did was to sour our relations with Muhme, and he full well knew it. Also, I wish I did drive away that self-centered cowardly brute, but it was the job. He left, when Muhme explained to him what the second run was gonna be, and he chickened out. Jeez, Taurus, I know you don't like me, and I don't like you, but can you please keep a minimum of professionality? Blaming me randomly for things you don't understand will not contribute to shape a team."

James then turns towards Anna. "You make a good point. Fighting them in their turf will only lead to our defeat, especially as we don't know drek about them, and, as Taurus correctly pointed out, our allies are unreliable at best. Worst case, they'll stab us in the back at some moment or the other.
As I see it, we have two possibilities: Either we change the location where we fight, that is, we set up an ambush or so outside the gallery where the statue doesn't have its effect.
Anna, how far does that thing's tainting of the background count reach? Would it, for example, stretch to the immediate surroundings of the gallery?
The second option is, as Anna says, to prepare the battleground in our favor."

Anna says "Shark negotiates well but he also has other deficits because he is too memorable and too much of a celebrity. He might become a liability in a job like ours. As for myself, I tell a good story, seduce or mislead, and I can be polite and can impersonate people but I do not negotiate very well. I can augment Nova with magic and follow her lead if we need to negotiate. We can do much better when we work as a team and leverage our strengths."

She pauses and looks at James The background count lasts for say 10 feet. So we can get far enough, but I'd look for technological means to defeat a bunch of mages. They may be able to counter my spells with their combined might, and summon spirits for additional security, I assume that anything I can do five mages working together can do better. Our advantage is that they have to be at the gallery, and cannot do the ritual anywhere else. We should set up a nonmagic trap.

"We can't set up anything, we have to be reactive unless we are going to simply ignore the vampire hunters, or specifically attack vampires ourselves. I don't know much about the infected myself, does the stuff on the trids work?"

"Sure we can. We just need to warn them in time.
I was thinking about what to do with the statue. If we fight in the gallery, the BGC will definitely not work in our favor. Simply destroying might just release the energy in it - in the short run, this might make their magic even more powerful, and hamper yours, so that's pretty much off the table. We could try to swap it for something without this unnerving twist of mana or whatever this is. If we do it a couple of hours before they arrive, some of the BGC mighta faded, but some might still linger - but it's difficult. If too much is gone, they will notice. If too little is gone, it's of little help.
So I would definitely suggest to change the battlefield. They'll be difficult to best in any case. We don't want them to have an additional boost. This might also decrease the probability of harming our potential new allies."

James clears his throat.
"any thoughts?"

"Well, magic is far from my area of expertise, so I cannot say, what we should do about that. But we definitely should prepare some surprises for them. A few gas grenades with some nasty stuff might make the ritual site less appealing, for example."

"So:
Do we agree that tampering with the statue will not bring any benefit?
Where would be a good place for an ambush? I assume that it should be very close to the gallery as we don't know where they come from.
Next, do you believe we can achieve a sort of cooperation with the vampire slayers?

About the gallery itself: I would indeed suggest to set traps there. But I believe they should only be a plan B if our own attack fails. If they go in there, we already failed. Do you agree?"

"If they are actual vampires, I doubt we can stop them before they get inside. We do not even know how they are going to approach it, but can't they turn into mist and stuff like that? They will easily get in there from just about anywhere. No, I think we should be prepared to take them on inside. If we can catch them before entering, all the better, but let's assume we can not. As for the hunters. We'll see. I think that Lizzy will call us before it goes down."

Anna says "They are well organized and also mages, they'll get in even if they can't do myst form. Right now we only know that they plan to do a ritual in the gallery so we have no information to ambush them ahead of time.

We need to consult Mhume but my mojo may not work there at all during the ritual. Mana levels will be very high, and that statue would aspect it against me. So gas grenades are a good option, because they don't do collateral damage to the gallery. Smoke grenades would help limit their line of sight and ability to cast spells on us. "

Finished talking, Anna texts Mhume about the statue, and consults her about the mana levels during the ritual itself. >> ... given this information, what do you think the conditions during the ritual would be for me? Do you know of non violent options such as sabotaging the lay line?

She'll text Eliza>> Hi Eliza we need to ambush vampire mages, what kind of equipment we can get on short notice? Gas grenades? FAB weapons? Falshpak and fleshbang? Any other suggestions for disabling a bunch of mages?

"I really don't think we are ever think we are going to hear from that dwarf again, but we should try and get a hold of some wooden stakes. That is what they use in the trids. Maybe some fans to scatter the mists."

Muhme replied: <<Sabotaging the Leyline needs an expert - it is very risky for any mage to attempt so without deep knowledge about them. Standing on the line during the spike could mean the end for you if you are careless enough to peak into the astral. But that is academic. You need to stop the ritual before it comes to the peak, or the best you can hope for is a zombie apocalypse.
A skilled geomancer can tap a line and deplete it of power, reducing its potency and make it unusable. Though that requires a ritual in itself and therefore time at the nexus.
Another option would be to poison the line with an aspect that's antithetical to vampires. Catholic rites for example. Though it would need a concregation of very strong believers to do so.>>

Eliza replied: <<I hope you meant flash bangs and not flesh bangs. I am currently asking around in my contact network. There is a Rabbi, Moishe Russie, who is alledgedly providing vampire hunters with gear in this city. You'll have to tread very carefully though. He has very high security in his business and is known to have a temper. I'll try to establish a contact for you.>>

"Good point, Nova.
I actually don't really care about whether or not we destroy some old paintings in the process of saving the world. Gas grenades are fine, but I want other options. If need be, I'm happy to blow up the entire fucking gallery if I take those bastards with it. I'd place some serious explosives there if we can get a hand on it in time.

Can we get UV weapons? Beamers? Grenades? Anything?
They also might suppress their light allergy with magic. Are there any means to break their spells even if they have the ley line on their side?

Does anyone know shit about vampires? Are they immune to mundane weapons? Do stakes really harm them? Do they breathe? Can you attack them in mist form?

Anna, you brought up a good point. If we can't fight them magically, maybe we can hamper their magical abilities. Smoke grenades are a good start. I'll try and get hold of some Noizquitos. Are there specifically anti-magic combat tactics? I don't know - grenades with live bacteria to create a living wall that blocks spells? Something like that?"

"Thanks for the contact. Can you get me Noizquitos, grenades and explosives in time? What about tactical anti-mage combat geat?"

"Well, we did fight one vampire mage back then. You know."

"Well that is one more than I have, bnc you are asking a lot of questions, aren't you supposed to be able to get answers?"

"Yeah, and we had a rough enough time as we knew pretty little. Now we have a whole bat's lair of them, and I'd love to better prepared then last time."James rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sure, and because I'm a decker I wouldn't ask our mages how to fight mages or our muscle how to kill enemies. Are you even trying to contribute or are you still just antagonizing me to piss me off? Cuz if that's it, it's not working. I'm working on a problem here, and so should you.
All right, ladies, excuse me for a moment, I'll so some research. It would be amazing if you came up with something in the meantime"

bnc will keep the HMHVV skillsoft running while performing an extended search about weaknesses of vampires and myth busting. She focusses on the questions above: Do stakes, holy water, fire or silver do any additional harm? Are there specifical anti-vampire weapons like strong UV-lamps? Are they vulnerable to toxins? Do they breathe and inhale toxins? Does the smell of blood distract them? She doesn't check garlic, however. Not specifically.

"Do you still have some of these mean bacteria?"

It doesn't take bnc all that long to find an interesting and well regarded article on vampires:
According to this, vampires do have a severe allergy to sunlight/UV and wood. They can be forced into dormancy through lack of air, but they aren't killed by it. Their regeneration does take care of most toxins in a short time though.

"Actually, I thought you matrix-monkeys knew everything, you sure act like you do. I am heading down to HomeHelpers for stakes, possibly a big fan if I can get one. Let me know if I am getting anything else."
.

"And how is asking people for information acting like one knows everything? You really try to live up to clichée you are, do you not?

From my research, I couldn't find any viable source of information that claims that fire would slow down or cancel the regeneration of a vampire. Apparently they do breathe, but damage from toxins would be regenerated as quickly as those of physical wounds. That being said, many of the tactics we discussed will suit us little: grenades, explosives, gas grenades, regular fire power - none of them are going to do us any help. Maybe even the opposite: If we blow the place apart, they might restore their full power within seconds, then use the confusion to their advantage and escape the trap.

From what I found, basically four things can really harm a vampire: UV light, magic, wood, and massive force applied to the spine - that is, chopping their heads off.
Taurus, Nova - you good with swords or katanas or halberds, for what it's worth?
As for magic. Direct combat magic might not be a good idea in there, but that doesn't mean you can't do useful stuff, Anna. Vampires are dual-natured beings. You could, for instance, cast mana barriers. They would hinder them but not us. Of course, they'd be able to easily destroy weak barriers but it would slow them down and limit their movements. And those mana-eating bacteria you got yourself infected with - they would be real killers in there.
Alas the Shark chickened out. His bow skills would have been useful in here. Does anyone of you know how to wield a crossbow or a bow? I hate how these words sound like one was a subset of the other in English, by the way.
Drones would have the amazing advantage that they are difficult to spot on the astral and immune to most, but I don't really see how they can harm vampires. An Ares Dualist can wield a sword, but the autosoft is likely too bad, and I'm not much of a sword fighter either. Also, jumping in would mean that any harm to the drone might actually physically kill me. It would be a whole different thing, however, if Eliza or Russie could get me crossbow-equipped drones who can shoot actual wooden stakes. That would be neat."

"Can you organize us UV flashlights? Are there UV weapons? Kind of, like, UV laser weapons or such? Crossbow-mounted drones which can shoot stakes?"

It was past 11 when Eliza replied: <<I have an appointment for you with the Rabbi. Though you'll all have to be on your best behaviour. I mean it. He is very prickly and by all accounts an asshole. But he is also an honest business partner. He should be able to organize whatever you need for a vampire hunt. Meanwhile, I'll keep looking for other sources, should this one not pan out.>> The message also contained time and place for the meeting - 1300h next to the Old Synagoge.

Taurus only had to consult his link for the nearest HomeHelpers - on foot about half an hour, or 10 minutes by bus.

She continues with Mhume >> but what should the background count in the gallery be during a ritual? Or in blunt words, are spirits and spells part of such an ambush?



"If only I kept my hands to myself" she responds, feeling a bit guilty for just opening the priceless, super dangerous bacteria bag and endangering herself.


She sighs about explosives I am consulting Mhume about how terrible the magic conditions are going to be. I can perhaps level the game a little bit by binding spirits and placing Mana barriers on them. To the very least, a multiple-barrier spirit may be part of the GTFO plan.

====----After a while---======



Anna replies >> Thank you Eliza, you are better than the wizard of Oz. She gets up to take her coat and says "Time to go shopping.

"Alright, let's visit the Rabbi."

<< @bnc: Swords? Halberds? Bows? Crossbows? No, sorry, never tried any of those. >>

Nova made sure her sidearm was stored securely and loaded with non-lethal ammo this time. She used her bike to drive through the city.

James sighs in frustration. "All right, I'll just assume that all questions you and Eliza didn't answer were all nos. Just don't piss me off if I stop discussing tactics with you at some point. There's hardly been any reaction whatsoever from your part - let alone a single thought on how to pull this off.
I'll leave you to talk to the psycho jew. I'm not good at talking to assholes. Also, there must be something you are willing to do in order to get this paycheck. Seriously..."

bnc turns off James and goes offline for the moment. She gets up, rubs her temples - she's been having some bad headaches lately - stretches and starts doing some light workout to prevent her body from turning into mush in her early twenties.

Muhme replied to Anna: <<For any ritual you need a circle or something similar. The mana inside that circle becomes aspected to whatever you need. High mana will make it easier to do that, no matter its aspect. So if you prepared a lodge in the gallery beforehand - even a weak one, you could act and fight without problem - or even profit from the high BGC.
What I can't tell you is, what exactly the Vampires are going to do and what it will entail. Getting rid of the statue now would clean the mana until the mana peak appears. You'd also have a chance to observe if someone comes to replace the statue. I'd assume that this was the plan of the vampire hunters.
Another path would be to find out where the statue came from - it's certainly no coincidence that it has been planted there.>>

As bnc moved around the cabin, Muhme frowned first, then reached into her desk and produced something that looked like a cookie. "Here, you look like you could need it."

At 1300h sharp, the team found themselves at the entrance to a cellar. No sign or ARO showed that this was anything but a subterrain entrance to an old building. The heavy oak door had an old fashioned hatch through which a porter could take a look at anyone desiring entry.
The air was mild and quite a lot of tourists were out and about.

"I guess it's polite to knock..." Nova concluded and knocked on the door three times.

Taurus will get the stuff he wanted and bring it with to the meet if he doesn't have time to bring it back. If the room doesn't seem accommodating to his bulk, he will stay outside.

>> Thanks Mhume, it brings up some ideas.
Anna follows, a bit nervously she has not met a Rabbi in about a decade.

Taurus reached the HomeHelpers quickly, though he did draw more than a few looks from people on the sidewalk - some even took obviously videos of the towering minotaur riding on the somewhat ridiculous looking monowheel.
Getting fans and stakes was no problem at all. Transporting his haul inconspiciously on the other hand was even more a problem.
Yet he was back in time for the meeting with the Rabbi.

The door was large enough to admit him, though he would have to watch out not to have his horns scratch along the ceiling.

The knock made the hatch open and the immovable face of a humanoid drone appeared. bnc's reflexive look into the matrix revealed no obvious icon of such a device.
By appearance, the drone had to be the same model as James, maybe one or two generations older.
Anna sensed a very strong ward between her and the drone.
"Who acted as your intermediary to receive an appointment with the Rabbi?" The voice was the default option, lacking any emoting features, like those James had. It likewise lacked the realistic features.

"Eliza"

"Correct. Please enter"
The hatch closed and the drone opened the door. Inside, a corridor made of rough stone ended in another large door - this one a modern security door. Just as the team had entered, The drone closed the door again. A loud "Thunk" indicated that this door wasn't just wood and had a heavy bolt lock it down.
"Close your eyes. This chamber will be decontaminated with strong UV light for 10 seconds."
Hidden lamps came to life and flooded the room with painfully bright light. It certainly felt much longer than 10 seconds.
Finally, the drone went for the second door and opened this one as well. It led to a slightly larger room, bisected by what looked like a very heavy transpex window. On the other side a man in the garments, beard and locks of an orthodox jew sat behind a desk. He was old with quite a lot of grey in his beard and hair. His gaze was piercing from behind a pair of wire framed spectacles.
In surprisingly good English with a slight hint of an Oxford education he said:
"Take a seat. Your fixer vouched for you and made a deposit. So you have 10 minutes of my time. Don't waste them. Say what you need."

"Thank you for seeing us. I'm sure, you have a busy schedule."

Nova took a seat.

"What we mostly need are effective means to combat vampires. And we have about two days to acquire them. For me, that means ammunition that can be used in a sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotgun, or heavy pistol. Mini-grenades, or regular grenades also work. I also need some more mundane ammunition, APDS for the sniper rifle and heavy pistol. And if you have Zapper Rounds for the aforementioned weapons, that would be great."

"If it isn't too much trouble you can add assault cannon rounds to that list. Any other gear for fighting vampires we would take also, we have to stop a ritual they will be trying to perform."

Anna carefully assense the man and the surrounding and takes a seat by Nova. She is not looking for anything in particular but she trusts her astral eyes more than her mundane eyes.

"We were told that you are the expert on such things Rabbi. Powerful UV lights can also work for us, wood-based ammunition, alchemical preparations, magic eating bacteria, stun gas grenades. If you can get it, we can buy it - and we are open to additional suggestions. "

The transpex pane prevented Anna from assensing anyone but her own team, though the Rabbi did listen intently.

He answered: "Lots of vampire hunting going on right now. No custom Assault Cannon rounds to be had, I'm afraid. Other ammunition, no problem. Wood Pulp rounds for pistols, rifles and sniper rifles are no problem. Be aware though, that those have vastly inferior penetration and damage potential. I do have wood shafted arrows though and a Winchester Airbow to go with it. Anyone with a good foundation in longarms can wield it with a reasonably degree of accuracy. Comes with a top mounted smartgun system.
For UV, I've got Narcoject Dazzlers, upgraded with UV lamps. Not mounted but as heavy pistol systems. You'll have to be very careful not to blind each other.
And finally, my personal invention, the Stake Hammer."

He pulled out what looked like a short sledge hammer with the tip of a wooden stake protruding from its center.
"Shutgunshell primed stake in a sledgehammer chamber, ignites on impact and rams a 3cm diameter ashen stake right where ever you hit. Reloadable, but obviously chambered one shot only.
Stun grenades are also no problem, but I'd suggest using a carpet of them, rigged to go up simultaneously. No sense to take any chances with the blood suckers.
I do not have any FAB. The only thing I can provide you with is a strong preparation to create a heavy dissonant astral background. Drop it and a good 30m in radius will be a pretty hellish environment for any mage or dual natured critter.
Anything else you need?"

"Let's see... for myself I would like... That Winchester Airbow and 50 arrows. One of those Narcoject Dazzlers with a few reloads. 50 Wood Pulp rounds for the sniper rifle. 50 APDS for the sniper rifle and another 50 for heavy pistols. 12 stun mini-grenades for an underbarrel launcher. 50 Zapper rounds each for the sniper rifle, assault rifle, and heavy pistol."

"Anna, could you please ask him, whether he has any drones equipped with stake-compatible crossbows? A Lockheed or a Nissan rotodrone, equipped with it?
Also, can we get a portable UV lamp roughly the intensity he used on you before you entered? Or will Taurus's stuff do?"

The Rabbi made a note. As Anna relayed bnc's wishes he frowned:

"I do have heavy crossbows - no problem - but mounting those on flying drones is a major pita - especially if you want to use the reload feature. I'd have to subcontract building those, making them more expensive and taking longer to manufacture. Getting them on an anthrodrone would be no problem.

The lamps I'm using around here are special Mercury vapor, high intensity, Gallium-Indium exemplars with microwave igniters and watercooling for prolonged high intensity radiation. Those are portable only in the sense that you can mount them on a car. The dazzlers are the best compromise in power and mobility you can get. I have a few cloaks treated with high intensity UV-LEDs instead of the normal ones used in Flash-Weave™. But those are both expensive and usually burn out after about five uses.

Also, don't make the rookie mistake and think the vampires go out unprepared. There are people creating kits of filter clothing and masks that reduce even high intensity UV radiation to a mere annoyance that they can tolerate for up to an hour. Not to mention their thrice damned spells to reduce their allergies. That's why I suggest getting the preparations too, to disrupt any such spells.

But if you don't want them, that's fine. It's your funeral and I'll be able to sell them anyway."

"We will take whatever you can get to us, I'll even try the sledge, though I am usually a fist and horns kind of guy."

"I guess you could mount one of those Winchester Airbows on a drone, it does look pretty much like a rifle, but the biggest problem will be reloading."

"I want the preparations, and if you have a vault of the ages to keep them in- then I want that one too. Would the UV light affect vampires in myst form? I'll take a Dazzler as well, with enough ammo, and two magazines of heavy pistol wood pulp chips. Anything else you suggest?"

"It's the main reason to employ UV light - prevents them from using their powers.
I have it running continually in my vents - quite a bit of a mess to clean them after one attempts to get in that way.
Vault of Ages is a no, can't spare mine, but you can pick it up whenever you need. Should last at least 5 hours"
The Rabbi replied.

Since no-one seemed to want to add anything to that, the Rabbi began to calculate:
"Assorted ammunition, including, bolts and arrows plus standard rounds for an Assault Cannon comes to 1500€
The dazzlers go for another 1000€
The grenades including the preparation are 1500€ - I'll include some Blight/DMSO grenades, because you look like you'll need them.
The StakeHammer goes for 1000€
The Airbow for another 1000€
A capable Anthrodrone CRIADO JUAN with an upgraded Pilot as well as the right autosoft sets you back 14000€"

A nice round 20000€"

>>Are we splitting this evenly? Are one of you going to try to negotiate? I have never done this kind of thing, we simply requisitioned things we needed at Ares.

<< @Eliza: What was that about the deposit? How is the payment done? Do we pay for the stuff? >>

Eliza replied:
<<The deposit was to make the Rabbi see you. For his wares he takes cash.>>

"Please ask how much of a hassle it would be to mount the crossbow on an anthrodrone I already possess. I don't need a new doll. Otherwise, I'm good."

"We won't need a new anthrodrone, already got one that is pretty tricked out. Would it be possible to mount the crossbow on that one?" Nova asked.

<< @Eliza: I see. Are his prices negotiable? Or should we just accept them. >>