Theres an easily noticable night glider sitting on the roof, that was supposed to be the way Ghost and the Package were getting out of here.

The original idea for the relay drone is that the infiltration drones would run on wires, this way there would be no radio signals to intercept. If we stuck with that idea, there is also a Condor drone anchored to the roof, with some wires running out of it.

Best get into the evevator and run to the roof. The one that the guards are in can be made to stop at every floor or some other delay tactic. There's no way the gear on the rrof is going to avoid notice.

If 'the thing' can wait, then we can deal with it at the medicine lodge. Any discusison can be had during the elevator ride. This will also bring Ghost and Trodgor closer to what support the rest of the team can give.

And the silence was deafening

All I'll say is, you aren't screwed yet. There's still ways out of this, within the parameters and without straying into that spoiler

Actually, my vote would be for a simpler solution.

Have the rigger get the Nightglider to take off. Have the Condor unanchor and get the hell out of it as well, shedding the wires to drop after the drones. We can pick up the drones and the wires on the way out. We may have to hide out inside the building until they get off the roof for a while but it offers the greatest possibility of getting out of this unseen and unknown. The Condor can gain alittude aplenty and let us know when the roof clears - amongst other methods open to us.

Solitaire's immediate priority is to deal with the LS call.

Diamond - needs to move to a position he can see the two about to hit the roof, preferably from a position or in such a way as to remain unseen himself - and if things continue to go to hell in a handbasket like they have been, offer support while we get the flock outta there.

As for the inside team...I believe we have a 'option path' picked out - engage in dialoge, see if Trogdor can assense and risk a dispel while Ghost is getting the room to stop spinning for herself, trying to help Juliana up - and get their asses moving towards the elevator while offering if they'll help access to her medical supplies...

(I'm personally thinking that the last aren't really going to be useful to her but hey, you don't know until you check.)

Before implementation - Crusher, Shansu - add your ten cents and if you don't like any of the above, suggest alternatives...

My vote is that we get to a less exposed position before doing too much messing around. If the security guards age going to get the to roof first, then the glider and condor will have to take off. But sitting around in the basement hallway fiddling around with medical supplies does not seem like the best course of action.

Asking the package if being brought out (past the outer room) is going to ge bad for her (maybe she knows whats going on, I certainly don't). If she thinks it isn't getting into a part of the building with more hiding places and less weird astral currents should be the first order of business. Remember that the area is not a good place to be hanging around.

"Unique physiology"? Do either of them say that?

Leaving the area isn't going to be bad for her. She's definite about that! So I'll assume that, whatever else, the three are - well, trying to run - for the elevator. Given the condition of all three, it's really more of a quick, motivated stagger. At this point, they've only just reached the cross-corridor leading to the elevator. "But -" (she hesitates, torn, and trails off)

Mostly, she wants that thing off!!!!! You also get a terse, snapped comment that if she knew exactly wtf that was, she'd have gotten it off herself. She backs off and apologises almost at once, her hands moving in something of a semi-explanatory wave at the area. Close-up, the burns look even nastier, although at least now they're scabbing over. And then she grins and it transforms her again: magnetic, extremely distracting, extremely sexual (even here, even now, even with the tangled mess that she is) - and after a look at her eyes you're absolutely sure you never, ever want to cross her.

What exactly is Ghost doing about her near maximum stun damage (which would be the reason the room is still spinning)? She's not going to have time to heal it naturally before the Great Escape.

The rest seems to be more still brainstorming than actual course of action ...?
Edit: oh, and if you're asking her something, I need to see the actual questions.

How do the chances of an escape out of a window via spider silk look? If the gangs storm the fence, getting out in the confusion could probably be done? Putting Diamond at the window to levitate them all out would probably work as well. Though tere are those guards on the roof...

Remember that it's quite hard to do anything with alot of damage stocked up, at +3 TN even an normal TN 4 task is pretty difficult. Don't be expecting Ghost to do much more that walk straight, count fingers, and be reasonably quiet.

Just read through this entire thread and, wow. Just... wow.

If noone sees a pressing need to get out Right Now, we could have Ghost and the rest of that group duck back into that room on the way back to the elevator that she was already in once to put herself together a little. Fifteen minutes or so should be enough for Ghost and the Package to put themselves back together, heal a box or two of Stun with a decent check, and afterward she can toss on a low-level Stim pack to keep herself mobile for the rest of the run. Also the time will allow everyone to regroup a bit in a tactical sense too. Ghost is pretty much useless until she gets healed up a bit, so she'd better do so.

I really doubt that any kind of exit other than the glider is going to happen easily, so personally I'd perfer to stick to that. Any other extraction point will have to worry about the dogs now patrolling the lawn as well as the guards. Seems to me the best thing to do here would be to get out before those guards get to the roof. Having Solitaire delay their elevator and speed up Ghost and Co's might work, but still cuts it a bit fine. Also this percludes being able to sit tight and patch themselves together.

If that's not possible, then Ghost and crew should relax, sit tight, and recover a bit. A (short) time later Solitaire can set off an alarm to get both guards somewhere else--the parking structure seems likely--while Ghost and crew head up to the roof. Either way, it goes without saying that the roof must be empty whenever the guards are up there.

Thinking a little ahead, maybe if we're going with the rest up option we should have Ghost and Co. head up to a room on an upper floor. It'll keep them away from that (frankly frightening) ritual area, and give them quicker access to the roof.

I don't have much time to give a full comment at the moment, but whatever alarm we set off (if the group decides to do it) to distract guards, I think our best chance would be doing it while the pair enroute to the roof is still in transit... if they are just headed to the roof to take a look-see or something, they're more likely to be re routed by the two in the security office. If the two make it to the roof, we don't know if they'll be dispatched or the team in the office will go themselves or even just one of them might go... does any of us have "Security proceedures" or anything similar as a knowledge? Ultimately I suppose it's in Talia's hands and we could deliberate on it until the cows come home, but I suppose that could be said about alot of things. Ok, I think I invested way too much energy in this.

Lets not set off any alarms just yet. Once an alarm goes off...

We have whole floors worth of empty space underneath the roof in which Ghost, Juliana and Trogdor for that matter can lurk for a bit. They can't stay on the roof all night is my bet - so lets just give them some time. We can use it ourselves.

Immediate priority for Ghost, Juliana and Trogdor is to get out the area in which they are right now. Before they continue to exit though...

Trogdor: "Is that effect triggered by you trying to leave? What exactly sets it off?"

If Diamond can take the time to trot down to the riggers van perhaps and to astral himself - if Trogdors not up to speed, a combined effort at dispelling on that lattice?
What is Trogdors assessment of the thing - dispelling possible?

Have the rigger disengage the drones and clear the roof is pretty much a given at this point - as is having Solitaire deal with that LS call.

As for Ghost - gritting her teeth, weaving for the elevator - and thinking 15-20 minutes sitting down in an empty office sounds like a mahvellous idea.

An alternative exit strategy if we have to do it - Diamond levitating them down from an upstairs window while they're under the concealment power of a spirit would probably be the best alternative.

Lets stick with the slow and sneaky - and leave the frantic and furious well the hell alone unless we're given no real alternative but to put the foot down. So far we're still sneaky and unknown - lets try and keep it that way. Observe, plot and recover a little.

For what it's worth, I'm still squeamish about mentioning Galina. Especially considering the Package is already talking to us and we seem to have marginal cooperation for the time being. Let's play this close to the vest and not offer anything we don't have to, we don't know what the consequences are. And despite my earlier wisecracks, let's be very subtle about being aware of her obviously demonstrable talents, even while asking her to use them.

My suggestions:

***
Ghost: <hand to head shakily> Guys, my head is ringing like a church bell, can either of you do anything about it? <glance at Trodgor, gaze settles on Package> (as if to say "You did this to me, but I understand it wasn't intentional, besides not sure what you can do about it)

Trogdor: <glances at both, but hesitates, maybe thinking about the drain or something> depending on reaction, then offers to do something about it himself.

***

Trogdor to Package: If you know anything that would be useful to getting us and you out of here safely, now's the time to volunteer it.

***

Trogdor to Package: Listen you hesitated earlier... is there anyone or anything down here which would be *immediately* useful to escorting you out of here? <intense furrowed astral brow and narrowed eyes> (as if to say, we've been straight shooters with you so far...)

Ghost: <weakly> (as if to smooth out Trogdor's straightforward approach) Or any gear you might be able to make use of??


(wrought with subtext, but hopefully it'll help with emotions, body language and the general feel of the execution)
***

Also I think it *might* be a good idea to hide out somewhere and rest up a bit... maybe... but wandering off the beaten path might make our discovery more likely. ( and even though we can't make all our decisions based on stuff like this -> ) it might make us more expendable liability-wise to our Johnson, if we see something we weren't supposed to, not necessarily a factor, but something to maybe consider when making the decision.


My 2 Take any, all, or none... I'm just honored to be a part of this collective effort.




PS: Anybody else nervous at how she's *much* more attractive in person than can be replicated by technical representations? Especially when she intentionally "turns on" the charm?

Heh, guess I ought to change "should" to "could" there. You're right; she seems to trust us for the moment, so let's not commit anything until we have to.

I like the first "conversation starter" Shanshu has, if we decide to go with that. I really don't think we should encourage her to try to do anything other than physically move though; if that whatever-it-is stuck to her aura goes off again Ghost and maybe Trogdor are taking a nice long nap in a hot zone, and we don't need that at all.

Good points about wandering off the beaten path, but I don't want our guys to sit around here in the basement longer than absolutely necessary. There's no cameras for one, and the comm is about to get cut off for two. The top floors let us use our comms and let Solitaire overwatch through the security cameras.

Also good catch about the "turning on the charm" bit, although she could just have a really high Charisma. Looks like our more-than-Awakened theories are starting to get even more evidence behind them, even if most of it is circumstansial. I would worry though if Ghost/Trogdor starts to get all on us. None of this is necessarily important right now, though, so let's just keep out eyes open and play it safe for now. We can always do a little more connecting the dots later on after the run.

Some number of force 4 elementals with 2 services each (4: air, air, fire, water, irrc).

Close:

Not forgotten, just drowned!

Quick question so I don't have to hunt for it tomorrow: did Trogdor have any great spirits on-call? I know there was talk of them.

And oh crap we all forgot about the background count didn't we? This whole dispelling thing will be much harder if we have to do it *inside* the building. Let's leave it for afterward, or (preferably) not at all unless we're getting paid extra.

Another question I've been wondering about: what, besides the high background count, flagged this mission as "immediate turndown" for so many veterans? Surely most of the elements other than the background aren't that much different than many or even most other runs?

Thanks for the hunt and find, Eyeless Blond, and belated welcome to the thread (also to tjn - I'm starting to get close to ten days behind on the thread!).

Edit: Don't see any need to edit that out, Shanshu Freeman - unless you want to use it to start up the postmortem thread a tad early? There's background things which can be discussed already without throwing what's left of the scenario. I also remind that your fixer mentioned that the J had a good rep, that there was some nice nuyen coming out of this, and that no team would have been hired which had to be blackmailed into doing the run: it was of your own free will, or not at all.

Once again I have to beg off on any detailed answer for "swamp" reasons. (Two pages! ) Once again I hope for a proper tomorrow update. I need to conjure an ally spirit with a secretary/research assistant form and associated skills.

For now, quickly: a couple of nice catches (not the only ones, but the ones that stood out on the quick sweep):

Question: did we scout out the 9th and 10th floors? And do they have security cameras installed on them? From what I gathered none of the cleaning crew go that high, and the security guards treat them as storage space, so either floor would be a good place to hide out, particularly if Solitaire can overwatch us. We might want to hide up there.

However, if the answer to either of the above questions is "no" we'll stay in the basement for now, in the room we already ducked in previously. The "storage area" being on the *top* floors rather than near the loading area on the lower floors makes it very suspicous...


Oh, sleg! I just thought of something really stupid and horrible. We're about to lose our communication relay when we cut the wires on Advert's laser-->wire rigger network, aren't we? More to the point, we're going to lose everything that's being transmitted *through* those wires, including possibly:

1) The drones (but we know that already,
2) The comm link to Ghost (being transmitted through the rigger network as a relay atm), and
3) the data tap for our decker, and thus our only way of securing the, er, security system!

The first two are expendable, but that last one we need to keep up, for obvious reasons. How do you suggest we do that?

<no 'current' game stuff contained in this post>

The things that turned me off this job were:

Time period and mission success parameters: having to do the mission a certain way might be ok, having to do the mission in a certain amount of time is ok. Having to do both is almost always a turn down. In general, you cannot get enough information within the time limit to be certain of jumping through the hoops.

Nature of opposition: considering the location and structure, the opposition is likely to be in the ‘unusual’ category. Some sort of magical/conspiratal group seems the most likely suspect (background count). (Most ‘normal’ powers like corps or governments would have a different MO).

Attention to detail: from the description of the place, the opposition has security with good to reasonable attention to detail. This makes meeting the schedule and succeeding within parameters (and living, for that matter) much less likely.

If you are willing to torture a few homeless people to death, it’s easy get to a background count. With this method a count in the 3-5 range is ‘easy’ to get. So the existence of a background count is not ‘unusual’ in itself, but points to one of two things: that what they are doing in the building is ‘very bad’ and that causes the background count, or that they do not mind doing ‘very bad’ stuff to increase their security.

Notice that it would be ‘trivial’ to defeat the team trying to carry out the mission by putting a 24 hour guard on then package. Since a 24hr guard of the package cannot be *absolutely* ruled out by intelligence, mission success is something not really controllable by the team.

In short it’s the combination of time, success parameters, and opposition that make this mission a pass.

Do I leave it to the brainstorming, then? Are there any questions you urgently want answered? Edit - that I can answer without a dedicated plan of action?

Start with this, then.

Well, here's what I'd suggest:

Ghost[chuckling weakly]: "It's the 60's, Miss -. It's been a long time since you tell what a person has on 'em by just *looking*."

(Replace "-" with Juliana's last name. I can't remember what it was ATM.)

"Solitaire to Ghost. We've got a situation here. Guards are heading to the roof, probably 'cause of our distraction. They'll be up there in-" [include time estimate here] "and that means I gotta jack out."

Now, option 1: If that amount of time is, say less than 3-5 miutes (eg. no way they're pulling out in time), try to have Solitaire find an out-of-the-way spot to put the team, somewhere the cameras can't reach. In that case ell Ghost to, "Sit tight," [insert location] "and we'll be back soon as we're clear again."

Option 2: If Solitaire judges that there's enough time to get them out before the guards get to the roof--maybe by delaying the elevator for a couple of minutes?--then have her tell the group to, "Turn your wires up and get to the elevator fast, and I'll hold the door for you." It just occured to me that Ghost isn't piloting the glider so she can get rested up in there; maybe toss on a stim pack so she can get up there without stumbling too much.

If we're going with option 1 and there's truly nowhere to go that's not watched (highly unlikely) then there'll probably be a bit more discussion.

I think it's pretty clear we are here to get her, the stuff about not using her name seems a bit silly. It's not like we broke in here with the intention of taking home the first pretty girl we came across.

Having spent time with the security computers, can they be caused to crash in a believable manner? (BSOD?) if the systems are a type that fail occasionally generating a normal looking systems crash may be a useful tactic. Inserting 'virus.bin' into Mr Exec's porn collection can do the trick too (though that is not likely to apply in this case).

What is the time again, how long until normal daytime operations start again?

Incidentally, she is "Juliana" on every public and Shadowtalk medium you pulled up; and she would be very recognisable. It would be reasonable to assume she expects to be recognised.

Time estimate of guard's arrival at roof of Solitaire to Ghost: 1 minute without elevator tampering, 6+ with.

p8 - too much to quote, I thought. Bear in mind it is a Tir birth certificate.

6 minutes sounds like plenty of time to get to the roof, strap in to the glider and jump off. Anything else is liekly to increase our chances of getting detected.

Heh, I wasn't really expecting Ghost to actually *say* the glib comment so much as think it to herself. The commtalk from Solitaire was the important bit really.

And yes, definately time to go. Six minutes is plenty of time to get to the roof and gone. Heck in six minutes I can get from my house to the library, check out a movie and come back home All in favor of ditching the building ASAP?