"Bit of a talker aint ya, whole life story on the table like. Look. I'm just here to make a paycheck and go home. If you guys can keep it quiet then I won't actually have to do anything this run, if not well..." The troll leaves the implications hanging in the air.
"Hey chill big guy. I can cut in and out of that system like butter. Should be a snap, and if it's not..well that's where you come in!"
She does a little spin as she completes her speech and smiles at Catcher and Venom.
Venom looks to the troll. Well, I wouldn't be a good hitman if I always spout out before I make my mark... Also, for some reason wherever I go, records of me disapear. Could have something to do with my youth... And yes, to awnser your question earlier, I spent some time on the isles, however the stay was short and rather unpleasant... he sighs. although it is where I first learned English...
Catcher shrugs and finishes the last bite of his sandwich.
"Is what it is, just try to keep your head down and we will get along all fine like."
With those sage words of advice, the large troll proceeds to move out of the establishment.
<From: Blackjack - So you're the matrix wiz, right? Good to have a hacker on the team. Be a good girl and get us some info, will you? I'm guessing if the pay data was on an open-network system you could just get it yourself. But that seems unlikely. See if you can find any info about their network (spiders, IC, etc) and the location of their software system. Also, schematics of the building and surrounding buildings would be helpful. I'd suggest sleazing your signal through a matrix bot node and sending agents to gather similar data from surrounding locations,
just to throw anyone off if they notice your snooping.
Oh, and don't get caught./>
He set off to make a wide perimeter and find periodic lookout points where he could observe unmolested. He kept an eye out for delivery vehicles, contractors (not unlike what his current disguise resembled), employees, parking & transit, entrances & exits, and the comings and goings of anyone wearing at least a blazer. He recorded notes to his commlink and saved some images with his eye recording unit.
Val leaves the others at the restaurant and heads down to the industrial park.
She will scan the area first just to see what is there and then will concentrate on their objective.
Matrix Perception: 2 hits
-Posted with Wayfinder
Fairview is a buzz of activity during the day, crawling with wage slaves in business casual wear. Various vendors and deliveries enter the area through the front gate, some needing to stop for extended periods as they receive authorization from someone within one of the buildings, others seem to have authorization already. None of the blue-collar visitors remain on campus for long after completing their business, including city contractors.
Most of the employees of the more secure areas park personal vehicles in an equally secure underground garage, but the two outer buildings have small parking lots filled with about three dozens cars each. Other employees walk through the pedestrian gate beside the larger vehicular one, coming from the nearby Metro Transit Company stop two blocks away.
The other building in the outer gate is dedicated to a small Matrix media company and appears to have the same overall architecture as the building SCES! is housed in, only as a mirror image. The same can be said for the employees coming and going.
The building itself has three visible doors: the main entrance, a steel delivery door, and a red fire-door. The main door faces the street, the delivery door on the parking lot side, and the fire-door on the opposite side.
As far as employee's schedules are concerned, the entire park seems to be a generally 9-to-5 affair. There are some stragglers at night, and some early birds, but nothing beyond the typical.
The green spaces are unused, even during lunch time, except by the landscaping drone cutting the grass to a precision height, despite having a pair of picnic tables and benches.
The wireless surrounding the campus seems to be mostly normal. The media company has multiple, heavily encrypted data streams coming and going, otherwise the other buildings appear to keep their traffic in the pipes, rather than in the air.
Towards the end of Lyst's recon mission, the landscaping drone wakes up and drives to the center of the main entrance road, where it waits for a moment. His comm buzzes, detecting a new wireless signal. His sniffer indicates the signal is coming from the drone, and is delivering an encrypted data packet to someone close by.
Not too sure how to go about this, but can Val call the sprite over and ask it questions, or does it seem to be controlled by someone else?
Venom leaves, riding his bike away, checking his Comlink for the briefing he had missed, all the while letting his bike do most of the driving. Once he's done reading he finds a descret place to park near the building before glancing into the astral plane to examine the building, checking for any spirits or anything more dangerous wandering the gounds.
(2hit, 2glitch(
Venom's sight moves from the material to the spiritual. The green spaces of the business park swirl with weak color, swallowed by the orderly urban energy. The SCES! building has no obvious magical wards, and does not appear to have any spirits visible, though a few watchers and minor spirits are quite visible beyond the fence.
Lyst opens a group chat from the comfort of his apartment.
<From: Blackjack - There's a dive bar not far from where I live. It's not very good, but that means it's not very crowded. Meet me there in an hour. Coordinates included./>
Cinder Block considers the area, the relative lack of external security, and the fairly high response likely from law enforcement.
"Wonder if the boys wanna start a little arson, cover our tracks on the exfil?"
To the team: <Scoped the building. Light external Sec, seems primed for a quick B&E or Crash&Grab. Can call my boys for some distraction on the way out, pull eyes off our angle.>
Catcher is not having a good day.
Why did it have to be today, why couldn't it be tomorrow... or yesterday... or any other bloody day. Valentine's day, El's birthday, our anniversary... I WAS GOING TO PROPOSE TODAY.
Catcher was really not having a good day of it. He wasn't being allowed back in the house. His girl was not even talking to him. Oh, it was going to be a hard day.
"Come on baby, it's work, I can't help that." The Irish Troll bellowed at the house. "Ya know I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to"
Silence.
"You can't be like this hon... you know I'm crazy about you. Sweaty, come down and we can have a talk. I love you hon"
It started snowing shredded shirts.
"Oh come on, ya don't have ta go an do that."
A cast iron skillet comes down amidst the flurry of rent garments, bouncing off the Troll's stomach.
"El, don't do anything hasty El. just come down an talk is all ya have ta do."
An urn peaks out the window, a suspiciously bronze urn with the face of an motherly woman etched in to it.
"El NO, NOT ME MUM!!! Wait, just wait. Please. The dresser, go to the dresser. Open the dresser. Please just open the dresser El. The blue jogging pants, the ones you hate. Right pocket just pull out what is inside"
Catcher drops to his knee as a squeal of pure happiness comes shrieking forth from an upstairs window.
"El, you make me the ..."
Outremer, Seattle
February 14, 2073
Ironsides is a bar catering to the local blue collar shipyard workers in Bremerton, accessed via a short stairwell from an alley. An old-school style neon beer mug sign hovers in AR and buzzes from the mouth of the alley in the real world.
Inside is a dark, narrow space with an ancient wood bar on one side and rickety, mismatched chairs and tables on the other. Stale cigarette smoke and beer fill the air and the sound system blares music from fifteen years ago.
There are exactly two customers at the moment, one is passed out face down on a table in the corner, the other is a prostitute who is far past her prime, chatting up a bored looking orc bartender.
Venom arrives at the bar early, and sits at the counter. His scales slowly blemd into a dark shade, making him seem like a a dark skinned man... Save for the tail and bright eyes. He orders some water... Mindful of his body. He waits patiently for the others...
CB arrives at the bar a bit more subdued than earlier. His armored jacket shows less patches, and no bright orange to be aeen. Spying Venom already at the meet, he orders a SoyWeiser and heads to the booth.
"What's biz? We da firs' ones here?"
Lyst comes shuffling out of a door at the end of the bar and finishes zipping his pants. He swipes a hand under his nose and assesses the crowd, or lack thereof. He nearly missed the lizard at first--apparently the freak could change his color--but the big ganger was familiar. That guy had a head on his shoulders. He'd even had the sense to dress down a little. Up? Whatever.
He strides down the length of the bar and whistles at the bartender, knocking on the bar on his way down. "Hey, three over here." He points over his head towards a booth in the far corner from the passed-out fellow. Without breaking stride he heads that direction, tapping his teammates on the shoulder on his way. The way he walks shows that he's comfortable here, almost like he owns the place. He crashes casually behind the duraplast table and leaves the overhead LED bulb swinging and flickering slightly.
"Beer's wiz an' all, but I figure we got more than jus' drinkin' in mind tonight. I guess we wait fer da others, den we star' planning dis job?"
CB's hand dwarfs the glass SoyWeiser bottle as he drains half the beer in one pull.
Val wanders into the bar a few minutes after Lyst.
"Hoi chummers! How do you all fair this wonderful evening?"
She plunks herself down beside Block and starts playing with her comm.
Venom sighs. Just water... I don't drink. he sighs. I did some spiritual Recon, so far all there is is your standard watch spirits, looks like if they have anything more dangerous it's hidden inside. he slides into the back of the booth, feeling his hidden holdster for his weapon, sighing when he finds it. if ya need anything more I'd have to progect, but my aura is is like a signal flare, bright as the sun...
"Don' know bout tippin' our hand so early like that. Dis place really does seem like an easy hit, 'least from what I sw on my cruise by. If we can get someone in sneaky like, they can prob grab the payday and scoot, while the rest of us give cover and watch their hoop. I had an idea that some nearby 'random acts of violence and arson' might draw the pawns off us, in case an alarm does get tripped. Won't give us gorever, but should add a couple minutes at least on the response time."
CB finishes his beer and takes the one ordered by Blacklyst in replacement.
"I can sneak, I can definitely shoot, and I'm good with locks or doors. Talkin' and blendin' in, I ain't so good at. Plus, I can ride pretty damn well, if I don't say so, myself."
Venom sighs, If that was the case, our Johnson wouldn't have had to hire a whole team, he could have gotten away with two... Something doesn't taste right here, and it gives me a bad feeling. he leans forward, taking a deep breath. Ugh... And please, I do dislike the conditions of the city here...
"Yeah, I got a bad feeling the pay data is going to be locked in a data vault inside the main complex. Something like that." Lyst says as he swirls his bottle. "But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, all we have to go on is what we were told. So let's roll with that for a bit." He takes a drink and leans back.
"So, I know I can get in, but a teenager, a ganger, and..." Lyst waves vaguely at Venom, "Whatever you are, none of you are walking in the front door. And if you get spotted inside, we're blown. Which reminds me, where's big guy?" He scans the bar as though he might've missed the huge man's entrance.
As if by magic, a large form darkens the doorstep. Catcher stomps forward staring directly at Lyst, a look of frustration on his face.
"Ya had ta do this today? couldn't do it yesterday? Couldn't do it tomorrow? You had ta choose the poor Saint's day of love an romance like? Yer a right miserable sot."
Venom laughs. Well, I guess Saint Valentine just has to wait, We've git bigger Fish to fry. he leans back. Alright, now, I guess now is a good time to share any special skills... I'm excellent with a crossbow, and have experience in flying. And in case your wondering, I can disguise myself. Not everyone understands that we Changelings are just people like you... I'm sure you understand, after all I know places where orcs and Trolls are shunned. But back to what I was saying, I also have my hands on some explosives, but it's not likely they will come in handy, except maybe to help with that distraction you mentioned... Blow a car up perhaps?"
Lyst shrugs. "It wasn't on my calendar. Hope you didn't have plans."
As Venom starts fantasizing about blowing things up, Lyst rubs his temples with two fingers on each side. "Can we just not blow things up?" He looks incredulously at the changeling. "Bring some narcoject arrows and maybe you can help out. Especially if you can look..." He gestures at Venom's entire figure with a slight frown, "Different." He lets out a small sigh before continuing. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to bring some small amount of explosives in case we need to make a hot exit. But you'd better know what the hell you're doing."
Lyst leans back and puts one hand behind his head while the other holds his nearly-empty beer. "Now I can handle getting in. I can disguise myself pretty well too." He says with a glance to Venom. "I'm also good with locks and such." He nods to the ork. "I can hack when I need to," he says, pausing to tip his beer towards the girl, "But most importantly for a job like this, I can manipulate people. And no hacking or smashing is quite as good as having a paid employee unwittingly do the job for you." He grins proudly.
Blowing bubbles and playing another game on her comm, Val just waves it in the air.
"Hacker...duh!"
"Mebbe we go wit' a two-parter? Sneaky blendy guy," CB waves towards BlackLyst as he speaks, "Gets in, orders up a delivery or a work thing or what. Rest o' us get dolled up like plumbers or sometin', head in ta grab da t'ing, we pocket it and split. Bonus style points I guess if we fix da toilet er AC er whatevah, walk put like we own da joint."
Lyst cocks an eyebrow and shrugs. "Not bad, but a new vendor would be suspicious, both because we don't have a matrix presence for it and because companies usually have certain whitelisted vendors. In a company that size, it isn't just logged, it's probably managed by a person or small department that would know better. Can it be done? Sure. But it would be simpler, I think, to hijack a legitimate operator." Lyst smiles as he continues. "Find a big service provider, log one of their vans as 'out for maintenance', swipe a few uniforms, then show up by real contract schedule." He taps the table at the end for emphasis. "Clean."
"Sounds good ta me. One word a warnin' tho, I ain't so good wit a wrench er stuff. If it can git fixed by bashin', I'm yer ork. If not, mebbe we ask someone else. But I like da 'grab a van and sneak in' deal. Seems like a good 'un."
Venom smiles. Ah, and no-one would wonder why a Changeling like me is working as a Mechanic. After all, you often see my kind in low end jobs like that. Bonus, those baggy uniforms are great for hiding weapons... Although I'd be careful still... One thing I can do that is very useful, everywhere I go, records of me disapear. So if I where to be in a room with lots of cameras, all of them would erase as soon as I leave the room. Our passage would have never happened...
"Now that is strange phrasing. Is it something you can do, in which case we wouldn't need you in the room, or is it something that just happens, in which case we now have to worry about who is following your every move and doing the dark dump of anything you do."
Venom thinks for a moment. Ah... Well it just happens. I am pretty sure I know who or what it is... When I was young my life was erased. All trace of me vanished. A program was made to make sure anyone who wanted to find me couldn't. The program should have stopped years ago, but for some reason it continues... I don't know why, Evo-Corp made it clear they don't care I'm free... Perhaps they don't want evidence of their wrongdoings leaving a digital trail... It only effects things that I use my personal info in, hence why I go by Venom. Anyone who tried to figure out who I am gets shut down.
"Yeah, I don't feel great about that. Reminds me of a guy I ran with once that just had static on him. I had a hell of a time getting a stable matrix connection around him and my stuff kept rebooting. He just said 'sorry' like that made it all okay. Nearly cost us the run, maybe more." Lyst throws back the last drop of beer and slides the bottle onto the table casually. "But at least you're telling us now."
"So, ghost McMatrix face ovah here got an in. Sneaky blend-in-derson got a way in. Da rest o' us, we gon' need dat van or some'in like it. Got a line on a comp'ny display places uses? Lemme know an' we kin pop ovah, whoop some heads, and take deir drek. Den we jus' gotta wait fer da call at come fix da pipes er clean da toilets er whatevah."
CB drums his fingers on the table of the booth, obviously antsy and wanting to get moving.
"Er ye wan' me ta call up some boys, do a little property damage and give us a window ta sneak on in?"
While waiting, Val decides to access the places ordering system and get the table a round of drinks and a couple orders of nachos.
Hack: 5 Successes
"I like your attitude." Lyst says with a smirk to Cinder Block. "But let's avoid knocking people out or breaking drek unless we need to. I think Val can liberate a van for us, but you'd better go with her in case it doesn't go down that way. Once we're on-site, if we need a quick exit, you're our guy. And if things really go south, well, then we call your 'boys'."
Lyst leans forward and puts his comm on the table. It's clearly a fairly expensive unit, but not some corp pocket supercomputer. But for now it's just a display as he scrolls through some of the data he gathered for the others to look at. "Any of these companies strike your fancy? They all service our mark."
So this would be a hack-on-the-fly?? I would need to roll my hacking (10 dice). Also I have access to a machine sprite, and have read that it sometimes is best to let the sprite do the test with the technomancer assisting??
The team checks out the vendors list and narrows down the companies most likely to work out. With some simple light prodding Lyst and Val determine that an office supply delivery company with light 'trix security on both their main distribution house and vehicles makes regular stops with a two-person crew to deliver everything from snacks for the vending machine, coffee, printer paper, storage chips, and even replacement office furniture of all varieties. The next delivery is scheduled for the eighteenth of February, four days from now. Images of their uniform are readily available on their public site.