An anonymous message came through to your crew. simple The vale, 1900, casual.
So, Who got the message? By what channels? who goes? Who's rolling to Get The Job?
The Source runs his operation out of a back room of a bar by day, club by night sort of place. He and the owner have an understanding.
The barman was handed this message and told to take it "round back".
Hmm. Total lack of information. Secluded spot. Backup might be good.
I'll send a text to Lance.Hey. You busy tonight? Might have a job. Could do with a spotter nearby. I'll buy you a drink
Well, let's see what this is about.
The source checks his gun is loaded, jumps in his Porsche and heads to the vale.
Lance returns the text.
Of course. Happy to join you.
He rides along with John, no stealth suit. He keeps his silenced SMG under his coat, just in case.
The Vale is a dive bar, right into a pool that hasn't been cleaned in a decade. Most of the clientele are down-on-their-luck ex-blue collar workers, their livelihoods taken by one corporate merger or another. that's why you contact needs no signal for you to recognize him. A synthsilk-suit worth more than the bar, and a flechette pistol at his hip, with another suspicious bulge on his left ankle, denote a mid-30's man at the bar as your contact.
As he spots you, he turns to the woman next to him, and hands her a crisp note, saying Why do you get another round, on me, at that booth over there. And motions for you to take her place.
The source, I presume. My employer has heard a not-inconsiderable amount about you. We would like to give your team incentive to conduct one of your typical jobs against Hawk DataSystems. Specifically, their satellite office, on the west end of the city. My employer would pay a good bit for the data-storage from server number 148635239. In addition, if their on-site admin, one Sahadeva Vadekar, were to get in an accident that prevented him from assisting them in dealing with the breach... well, it ould certainly be tragic, but rather serendipitous.
aside from setting him apart, his watch, suit, compensating and targeting sunglasses, and gun are all Basilisk standard issue. if you were to wager who his employer was, that'd be a pretty safe bet.
Lance scratched the back of his neck lazily. Seemed like a pretty standard job and he had no specific beef with Basilisk.
This Mr. Vadekar. How permanently would you like him to be unavailable, and precisely how generous would this serendipity make you feel? These jobs can be unpredictable, but we have a reputation for clean work. An injury or a fatality is...sloppy. We’d have to be motivated to be that careless. Of course...accidents do happen...
He doesn’t touch his drink. John can buy him something to drink somewhere else.
Hit hawk? Could be risky. I got nothing in particular against them, but they sure will against me.
How much exactly is 'a good bit'? And as my friend says, how would you Luke Mr Vadakar indisposed?
Permanent removal is not necessary, but at least 72 hours unable to do his job would be a good lower bound. he says. He seems somewhat irritated by The Source's question, perhaps insulted by a quasi-imagined insult enough for you to recoup any expenses, and maintain your lifestyle for some time.
When the group comes out from the meeting, Elan is waiting there for them. "Evening all. How'd things go?"
Lance did the so-so gesture with his hand.
Basilisk offers an opportunity to lift a little data from Hawk DataSystems. There is a bonus to hurt but not kill a Mr. Sahadeva Vadekar.
He shrugged. It seems like an OK enough job. Clean enough, and I can do simple infil/exfil in my sleep. Pay is guaranteed to be more than what we put in to it, so I'm in.
Lance paces about their hangout, in front of the assembled scoundrels.
I don't think we're going to have The Source for this particular gig, and since I'm the least suited for Legwork and most suited for the actual job, I think I'll temporarily fill the roll of operator, at least until we find an appropriate replacement.
He splays his fingers, palms out, in a gesture of mollification. I'll be doing the heavy lifting when we're actually inside, so don't worry about me earning my cut.
He walks around the room to each of the assembled.
This is a simple enough job, and the margin isn't great. The less noise we make, the more we get paid, so let's keep the legwork to a minimum.
He stopped in front of Sahale. They'd worked together before, and quite well at that. Still...I don't like going in blind. I especially don't like hurting people without knowing why. Sahale, can you do a little research on Vadekar? Does Basilisk have a grudge or do they need him out of the picture for practical reasons?
The next stop was Ganzorig. He wasn't as good as John at what needed to be done ('Zorig's considerable skill lay elsewhere, and would likely be vital for the next phase) but still...needs must. The hit is on Hawk's western satellite campus. I don't know it. I don't know anyone who knows it. He pointed around the room None of us are exactly people persons, so we can't exactly find someone who knows it He chuckled a little. He REALLY missed John for this mission.
Ganzorig, why don't you take Flit for a spin? Assess the location. Check for holes, check for threats. I want to know about our best way in, I want to know about what's going to give me the biggest headache, and I want to know what they don't want me to know. In that order.
He finished his orbit in front of Elan. You, stay limber, stay ready. I don't know you, it's not personal, but you're not really...legwork material. If we decide it's worth the fuss, you'll likely be the one to get her hands dirty over Vadekar.
He returned to the front of the room. Any questions?
"Well, if you like, I can try and get mah hands on some drugs that you can use on him. How long does he have to be out of the way?"
"You are correct. Intel is not my specialty."
I was sort of thinking that you’d break his arm or shatter his collarbone. If you’re confident you can get the drugs, go for it, but we literally can’t afford to make noise on this one.
Ganzorig speaks over the end of Lance's speech. "Oh, I'll find holes they never knew they had." Ganzorig makes a lewd gesture as he grinds against the back of the reversed chair he's sitting in. No one else is watching, or listening, and even the pilot himself is more focused on Paris' sensors.
A cutaway shows him, a night later, watching Paris do her slow flyby from the roof of an adjacent building. Each exaggerated thrust Zorig makes now is a smash cut. First, Flit darts forward, scanning for hazards. Then Ganzorig skirts the property, getting an angle where he can pilot Flit on a closed stream. Then Flit shadows someone through a door, scans shedding off of her jamming field.
"Piece of cake," he says as he settles back into his chair.
"Basilisk, huh? I bet there's plenty of reasons. I'll hit the forums and some guys I know."
Sahale still has fairly good relations with a couple of guys in Basilisk, so he asks around about this Sahadeva Vadekar. In the same time he searches the Matrix, maybe for some public info.
Ganzorig
The noise to info rate here is really bad. so much crap on the wireless. you find a few "maybe"'s in terms of entryway, nothing fantastic, but better than the door (a window into a disused office 3 floors from where you need to be, an exterior ventilation grate, but you would have to quietly disable a few of the repair-bots in there, or a roof door that a few guards who smoke keep open with a bit of Padilla super-stick kevlar adhesive strip!.)
Before you can get to the real goodies, some computer security guy notices a stranger on the wireless, and starts trying to kick you off. good news: you have time to get Flit out of there, and your encryption held. bad news: Any further robotic incursions into the building are likely to draw a lot more attention.
Sahale
A little bit of digging, past the high-profile tech releases, and you find a decent candidate for the cause of this mission, a sat over a few lithium-mine towns in Mozambique. Hawk wants it for... well obvious applications, and Basilisk wants it for targeting chips.
You'd have to see the data in the server you're stealing to be sue, but you'd guess this is either industrial espionage/sabotage, or a ransom thing.
They had as much information as they were going to get. If Elan wanted to snag some drugs, she was welcome to, but they needed Vadekar out for days, not hours.
It was time to go in. Ganzorig would get them there, then then Elan, Lance and a small drone army would enter the facility. The drones would locate and mark their two targets (The server and the sys admin). Lance grabs the server, Elan neutralizes the admin. Everyone exfils the same way they came in.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Lance donned his stealth suit and started to lead the team through the vent grate. That would allow them to move safely through the facility and wait securely for the drones to return with their findings.
Before they start the mission, Sahale rummages through his spare parts and stuff to see if there is anything useful for the job.
At the place, he sets off his Fenghuang Messenger to scout the building.
Lance
Nearly 10 meters up, you quietly lever open the grate, and get yourself and the team inside. however, you aren't very far in when you hear the telltale clicking of the spider-arms they equip the facilities repairbots with. that could be a problem.
Sahale
Elan
Lance triggers the EMP dart built into his suit
With the drones temporarily stunned, there’s an opening for Lance, Elan and the drones to get into the vent.
Elan waited for Lance's signal. I have never worked with him before, but he is quite the professional. she thought to herself as she watched him work.
-7+: you successfully bypass the system without leaving a trace
-10+: you gain some valuable insight into the facility’s security, gain [intel]
Lance/Elan
you two immediately know where you are. the sound of Hawk employees making calls turns into a drone. This floor is a call centre.
Getting up into the next floor won't be possible from the vents. what do you do?
Lance clicks on his throat mic, subvocally calling the drone jockeys back in the suite.
We hit a dead end. I need a route to where we’re going. Once I know our direction, I can guide everyone. Can you two set us a path with your recon drones?
"I'll send Messenger to scout ahead for the server room."
Flit zips forward, stops, then slowly hovers back toward the infiltration group.
I could have done that Sahale. The tone of his voice shows he's more concerned than cross.
Thanks Sahale. Zorig we need a path to the admin too.
"Don't forget - we need to find the guy too. And I have just one flier."