"There's two more options I can think of:
Firstly, I could try and hack supply chains, basically having something sent to a location where we can pick it up. It bears some risk of being discovered if we don't act quickly after it, and it would essentially mean that I need physical access to any device slaved to the host, but it would also give us access to stuff we can never rob.
Secondly, if it's mostly small things we need, I can actually just code them myself.

So what do you need? Short of James, there's not much gear I could use that's not already inside myself.
Huh, except for ... a ton of drones, actually. So that's my shopping list: mean drones, sneaky drones, buzzy drones if we can get them.
What's yours?"

"Mostly armor and weapons, really," Nova answered.

"So, I don't know exactly what kind of weapons and armor you're gonna need, but I guess everything's better than what we have. This make me the bottleneck. You can get basic weapons and armor pretty much anywhere, but drones not so much.

Armed drones, I assume, we can only get from the bunker. So that's where we need to hit. Since raising the truck didn't work out so well, I say, we should go directly for the bunker itself. This is gonna be tough, however. I think I would not need more than a good connection to the host itself. Since it's heavily guarded, it'll boil down to my getting something that is slaved to the host. Therefore, we have three options:
a) we get in and I slap my cable at something. That's gonna be tough. Like bastante tough.
b) we find something outside that's slaved. We might stumble over some official whose 'link is slaved to the host or something. We'd need some luck for this, though.
c) we, uhm, make something connected.
I know it sounds weird, and perhaps it's too weird to work, but I have an idea that might just work and might be a loophole in the whole design.

What I need to access is a host. Only, it's not a real host, as we're not in the 'trix. Essentially, the host is no less real than our bodies are, or those trees, as everything is just sim'ed. Fox told us that it's possible (if hard) to alter the environment's code itself. So what we could try: We take some gear, any gear that holds a uni ad - a universal adapter - then I rewrite the environment so that it is actually slaved to the host though no one actually slaved it. Then, I just hack that gear and get access to the host. It's a gamble, but it just might be the craziest and thus best way to get us geared up without drawing too much attention.
Or else, I'll just get my ass utterly kicked.

What do you think?"

"Well, I cannot tell you what risks you will be taking there, as you know that better than I do. So, if you think it is worth trying, let's go for it. Just remember, the last time we were there, there was a warning, that the whole bunker is a nasty trap. On the other hand, it is the place where we know things are being kept. What is different, though, is that we now know that the guards there are actually not part of the adversary group, as I at least thought previously. We might want to keep that in mind, too."

"I have no intention at all to get engaged with the guards. If that feat doesn't work, we'll just make a new plan."

Taking it as green light whips out that small gun she is carrying, double-checks whether it really has an uni ad, clicks her tongue in a somewhat strange half-smile.

"I have no idea whether I'm a genius or a maniac.", she says grinning. She leans against a rock or tree, closes her eyes and immerses herself into full VR, contemplating the oddity that she enters a virtual virtual reality to alter a virtual reality so she can then manipulate the virtual virtual reality in order to obtain virtual real drones to save the fucking real world.

The simulation yields without much resistance. Perhaps she is lucky, and it is a glitch, perhaps some aid, bnc is uncertain, but she elevates her user status into a privileged user, and she can now change subtle details about the world around her.

"It ... worked.", bnc concludes with some surprise in her voice.
"So, uhm, whaddaya want?"

bnc checks what drones they have listed in their inventory.

The facility has multiple unarmed delivery drones (rotor drones), as well as three steel lynxes (large wheeled drones) and medium walker drones (dog-like). All are armed with tasers. The large drones are also armed with neuro stun gas grenades.

"Ideally, a heavy sniper rifle, but I will take pretty much anything. Some armor would be useful, for both of us."

bnc will check the arsenal.

The bunker has a lot of ammunition, most of it is capsule rounds with some bacteria to be used against spirits. There are also flechette rounds for hunting, gel rounds for riots, and a few standard rounds. There are no highexplosive or APDS rounds, apparently nobody has saw a need for these. As for weapons, they have a variety of pistols (any pistol would do), sub-machine guns (Colt Cobra TZ–120 model) and assault rifles (FN HAR). The closest thing to qualify for a sniper rifle is a hunting rifle (Ruger 100) that has a similar range but less of a punch. There are also combat knives, two swords, about a dozen gas masks, twelve flash bang grenades, and 20 x 500 gram C4 bricks used for demolition, aside from that the storage has a few old mines, survival gear, medical equipment, and a few growler bikes.

As for armors, it has armored jackets, big game hunter, and a protective vest for under the clothes. While there are body armors, they seem to only come at orc size. They also have a variety of helmets, and two riot shields.

As for misc gear, they have smoke grenades, thermal smoke grenades, night vision googles (vision modifications of your choice), earbuds (same), and a mechanical toolkit for small vehicles and drones.

"Okay, honey, here's what I got for you."
bnc reads out the list.

"I would suggest:
For you:

• Can you handle an FN HAR? You can also go for the Ruger, your call.
• I'd get you an array of ammo, focussing on normal rounds, with only some gel and spirit-hunter ones. I don't see why you'd need flechette.
• I'd suggest you take a side-arm. Personally, I just love the fact that they have an Ingram Smartgun and I'm totally take one, but feel free to name your preferences. Same approach to ammo.
• Do you like swords? I'd give you a sword.
• Combat knive, obviously.
• I think, a big-game hunter would be cool for you. What do you think?
• You wanna go big, with helmets and shields and stuff?
• How about grenades? Can you do something with them? If so, I'd take a half-dozen flash-bangs, three smoke grenades and a thermal smoker. Mind you, I don't do infrared, so you'll blind me with those.

For myself:

• I can't handle big guns, so I'll just go with the Ingram.
• For protection, I'm gonna take a simple armor jacket. Never gets old.
• I'm unsure about the explosives but if we have to blow up some server or something, I'd sure like to have at least a pound of a good ole banger.
• I'll take a survival knive. Always good to have. Also a lighter.
• Do we need food in this sim? I think now, as long as we're fed in RL, right?
• I will definitely take a medkit.
• I think, I'll like some earbuds.
• Dronewise, I definitely want one or two of those rotor drones and one dog drone.

They also have these steel lynxes. Give me one of them and we have big time punch. I'm quite solid at gunnery. Still, I'd rather not take them. I don't know how easily they would be fooled into delivering those somewhere into the wilderniss, and they are as sneaky as a naked drunk troll with a foot-long shlong.

What do you think?"

"The FN HAR is fine, the Ruger might still be useful, because of the range. I have my own sidearm with me, already, but a Taser could be useful. A Defiance EX? As for ammo, regular and gel will do. Flechette could be useful. Maybe some of thoses capsules? Not sure what good they will do, though. A sound suppressor and shock pad for the FN HAR, and a silencer for the Ruger, and Smartlink for all of them. A couple flash-bangs, smoke and thermal smoke grenades sound good, as does the C4, who knows what we might need it for. the Big Game Hunter is cool, yeah. Helmet, but no shield. And no melee, only good with hand-to-hand there. Definitely a medkit for me, too. A backpack would be useful. And one of those bikes. Got my own glasses and ear buds."

"And there we are. Let's wait for the delivery then".

She grins, apparently back to good mood. Still, also anxious. It seemed too easy.

The delivery arrives within 20 minutes on order via a rotor drone. There are no obvious complications with it, and everything ordered is there.

bnc is baffled.
"It ... worked.", she states, somewhat redundantly.

After blinking two more times, she finally breaks a grin.
"It worked, Nova! I just changed the environment to hack a virtual host. This is fucking crazy! Sheesh! That's more awesome than a "plain" (she does the quotation marks with her fingers) UV host. I can't fucking believe this worked!!"

bnc is about to hug Nova. Actually, if her body language allows it, she'll do it.

After having calmed down, she runs her hand through her hair.

"So, Nova. Core-bottom, right? I guess, impersonating a resident is not an option anymore, with you looking like a cyberzombie single-unit assassination squad from a trid. So sneaking in, I guess.
Let's go there, and I'll have the rotors do some intel."

"Nice job! Now we can hopefully take them on," Nova comments.

"Sneaking is fine. And, I agree, that we should head for our target now. I don't see what else we could do to prepare."

It would take the bunker several hours to notice the intrusion and illegal delivery; by that time, the couple should be well at Core. The central bunker lies below the apartment complex, fortified by a central, secure building. Currently, it has a perimeter with doglike drones and a bunch of soldiers in the lobby; from the information Fox gave you, the building itself is accessible either by an elevator from the Lobby or by a cave network half a kilometer away from Core.

"Frag. I don't have any deepweed, and we don't have any ma...
Do you suppose, the astral works here as we know it? Are there spirits, magicians, and stuff? Because if there are, we are screwed. We can't even if a spirit isn't hovering just above our heads."

"I have no idea," Nova replies.

"But didn't Fox say something about that at some point? I could ask him."

"Oooooh, yes, now that you say it!
Wicked. One trouble less. Only seven-hundred and something to go!

Okay. About that cave network Fox mentioned - let's just ask Fox about more details. If we can avoid attacking the fragging bunker full front, I'll take it. I don't think we stand a chance sneaking into core from the main building. So, we can either go in by disguise - and leave our weapons behind - or check those caves out."

"Sounds good," Nova agrees. "The caves are probably our best bet."

Nova will transition over to her physical form and check on Fox. She will keep him updated on their progress and ask him about the caves.

Traveling to the caves, similar to the one you entered the facility, would take a few hours at night. You roughly know where they are but without the comforts of modern technology such as mapsoft and a GPS navigating to find them is a nontrivial task. It is continuously snowy and windy, but not to the degree of your first trip.

bnc's enhanced data processing capabilities help her calculate distances, judge pathways, and remember details. Thus, they reach the caves within four hours.

Or at least: They would, would finding the caves be the only challenge. bnc's body is less enhanced, however. After no more than half an hour, she starts showing signs of exhaustion, and after having walked another hour, her malnutritioned, undertrained, fickle body gives in, or her willpower does.

Panting, bnc leans against a tree. "I can't ... can't walk anymore. Frag, this is ... 21st century ... can't we use a fucking car..."

"I did ask for bikes," Nova remarks. "You need to work out more. Guess we have to take a break."

"Too bad the delivery drones weren't outfitted for full-blown bikes. Ugh, we should just ambush somebody. How can a person walk so much?

What kind of resistence to you think we will encounter? I don't think they'll leave such a security gap unwatched."

It takes about four hours of sad, miserable walking in knee-deep snow, in pitch black woods, with strong winds, but lucky no more than light snow before you find the cave. Whatever passed as a road is long covered with snow and is almost invisible. The sky begins to light up when you finally have a look at the entrance, which appears to be unguarded; there is no visible matrix activity and no light or movement. The grand entrance to the facility has a paved road entering the massive mountain, which becomes apparent only once covered by the cave.

While there is no security the cave seems to be teaming with wildlife, especially bats and creepy noise that you probably have no way to associate with a specific animal.

bnc heaves herself up and forces herself to walk. After the conversation dies, she loads some music. Nothing springy, nothing energetic, but a steady rhythm, somewhere between motivating and meditative. She falls into a steady step, half-awake, half-dreaming, and somehow bests the fatigue. As a matter of fact, she's surprised, when they finally stand in front of the cave, and bnc is not the miserable heaps of useless bones she expected herself to be.

"Wow, we there? I totally lost track of time the last two hours, and I was sure it would take us at least another hour to find the slitch. Damn. "
Mumbling, she adds, "Anna's never gonna believe me." Or, well, she will, but think nothing of it, as working out is routine for her. Daught'rovabitch.

Varily, she eyes the cave. "So, that's our secret passage, huh? Didya know that batshit is goddamn poisonous? I'd look up, how bad, but they forgot to connect this thing to the real 'trix. Ugh, I need to get home."

Frustrated - why does she have to do everything herself, that's why she bought James! - she prepares a dry spot to lie down, then jumps into one of her rotordrones to scout into the cave.

bnc lies at the cave's mouth, sheltered from the light snow but not quite inside. It may be dangerous, and she knows it. She proceeds carefully until she suddenly realizes the safety net above their heads. Her entire body is alarmed as she realizes that the drone is on a collision course with a literal net made of razor-sharp monofilament wire. It is almost invisible until a moment before she runs into it. It resists most of the sensors due to being air temperature and thin beyond their normal detection accuracy. Somebody did not like flyers in the cave.

"Wotcha!", bnc cries out, using their team-channel since she's Jumped in. "Beware of the net. I have no clue how the bats got in there, but they ain't coming out this way. That's monowire, lass."
Just in time, she turns back the drone, lest it gets badly damaged.
"That's nasty. How do you remove mono wire?"

Nova uses the time that bnc spends on exploring to rest up a little bit.

"Monowire, huh?" she comments. "Nasty stuff."

"I don't think we have the proper tools to remove that. Just be careful?"

once not surprised and managing to stop and pull back in time bnc can easily bypass the net. She can go under it, which seems to be about two meters tall. low enough for most humans and even elves but problematic to trolls and some of the orcs. The rest of the cave is a relatively straight cavern with running water and plenty of wildlife, which begs the question of why there is a hazardous mono-web on the way. bnc suspects that it is not always there or the bats would be harmed - but then again, she does not know much about them.

About fifty meters inside the cavern, there is a door and an elevator. bnc does not spot any guards or other obstacles to overcome.

"Let's check the area ahead for additional security measures," Nova suggests. "Assuming the door leads to stairs, we should use those."

Nodding in agreement, she uses the drone's sensor array to gather additional intel.

Carefully observing the room and moving very slowly - you notice two well-hidden smart firing platforms which you have no idea if they are active or not. Several sensor arrays in the elevator's surroundings look like small boxes on the cave's walls. While not exactly hidden, the darkness provides them with ample cover.

"The whole thing here is on standby but online. I can frag the sensors and guns ma'mojo-wise but the 'trix don't work the way it does in RL. I can't del my Ossy - my OS, that is - here. The AI's watching every move and noticing anomalies. So if you have a good idea how to deal with 'em offline, I'm in. Otherwise I'm tempted to find out what AI convergence looks like", she says with a wink, never wondering if Nova even understands what she's talking about.

"We don't even know what they are here for," Nova wonders. "Surely, they do not just open fire on anything that moves."

"Let me try to see, if I can reach the stairs."

Nova will slowy move towards the stairs, but ready to make herself a harder target, if necessary.

Nova reaches the stairs without a hitch, and there is no noticeable change in the platforms.

"Well, sensors usually do a lot of sensoring and then alert he ... uhh, nevermind.", bnc concludes, as Nova just runs into a sensor array that's connected with the entire defensive mechanism we are trying to evade. She instead carefully observes whether the sensors give any sign of alerting the security sys.

bnc discovers that the sensors do send traffic to their controller in a continuous manner. bnc, can observe that multiple sensors have powered up.

"As I thought, the sensors are perking up, Nova. If they have a spider, they know we're coming now. Didn't we agree on going in silently?", bnc says, still standing in the mouth of the cave, now using matrix communication.

<< Well, you said you can pretty much only frag those sensors, which would also make it obvious someone is here, and even that would draw more attention by the AI... either way, we should not wait too long. You coming? >> Nova sends back, holding the door to the stairs open.

"Ignoring them was not what I meant by 'deal with them offline' ..." bnc says with an exasperated smile, then walks directly in, trying to give it the air of someone who has a right to be here whilst also trying to hide her face from the camers. She closes up to Nova and follows her down the steps.

<< Sorry! My bad. >>

The stairs are unguarded but exiting the stairs requires passing a magnetic lock. After a long climb, the bottom floor called "Command and Control" appears with a neat metal sign and a locked door. No other visible security there. If you are headed toward the control room, this is the door you want to enter.

Could you remove the casing please?

<< Sure thing. >>

Nova immediately gets to work on the maglock's casing.

Nova disarms an anti-temper system very skillfully, and within a minute or two, the physical barrier is removed, and the maglock is free for direct connection hacking.

"I hope that förböveln AI doesn't gather Ossy via a stud...", bnc mutters under her breath as she directly plugs in her cable into the slot.

The door yields and unlocks without a hitch, and the way to the control room is open. There does not appear to be anyone guarding the door on the inside.