Breaching through the wall into his TAP, you see a long stretch of hallway in front of you. On either side are rows of desks. Each one has a single flower on top of it, in a vase, slightly wilted. At the head of the room, a young man kneels, his back to you, in front of a blackboard. His knees shudder in barely repressed pain as he sits formally on a tatami mat.
"I'm in," 1dr0meda announces to the group a few moments later.
** spoiler omitted **
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The sword slashes down, tearing through her high-impact ballistic armor like tissue paper...
2 hits!
also 2 hits!
...but her nano-tech enhanced physiology is already working on the site, knitting the tissue back together, and in a moment the bleeding has stopped with new, pink skin already growing around the site.
She grunts in pain momentarily and grits her teeth, but she mutters out, "You're gonna haf ta do better'n that, omae."
The driver of the last motorcycle revs his engine, pulling up closer to Alanna's car. Without Neon manning the Bessy, he gets as close as he can, drawing a weapon and aiming.
He feels the first hint of mojo he's had all night, but picked exactly the wrong target. Inside Hanzo's VR, you see a momentary shadow passing behind one of the screen doors that line the room, but it's gone as soon as it came.
On Emily's Ten of Clubs: The shot lines up and pops Hanzo across the scrap of armor surrounding half of his head. He growls again, cursing furiously in Japanese and swinging blindly into the air, at places where he has no real target, barely able to see.
On Ghiv's Six of Clubs: The biker's brow furrows, trying to concentrate as he tries to line up a shot...
...and goes suddenly slackjawed, unable to concentrate, his gun hand dipping and waivering as he shakes his head, trying to clear it.
Atop the car, Hanzo howls, throwing his head back. "UrrrrrGRAH!! You're gonna need an ENERGON CUBE the size of WYOMING to defeat MY AUTOBOTS, HOAK-hghk!" Distracted by his own rambling, he fails to notice the wire being stretched across the archway in front of him, directly at neck-level...
The high-tension cord snaps tight around Hanzo's neck, and he makes a choked noise as the roof of Alana's cruiser carries on without him, leaving him suspended in midair for a moment before he drops six feet onto the pavement. Looking back, you can see a set of tiny eyeborg drones on each side of the archway, digging their tiny wall spikes in and holding the wire in place.
A message flashes up on all of your TAPs.
PRE-RECORDED MESSAGE 07: TOLD YOU :)
You can see the bike with the hacker come to a stop next to Hanzo, who's thrashing around incoherently with his sword, still bleeding grievously from the head. Your team is approximately three-quarters of the way along the route to Royce's destination. Neon is stable, but has lost a lot of blood. Alanna's cruiser is riddle with bullet holes and has a liberal quantity of blood splashed across the top.
Ghiv sends a message to everyone via TAP
Let's get clear of this! This way.
and unless anyone objects he guns the Harley further down the route.
Ghiv responds to Alanna and the others via TAP Yeah, sure pull over so those a@~$$*+s with swords can catch you again. I don't know about you, but I value my life. We have a job to do, let's do it.
Ghiv isn't stopping.
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Alanna replies, the text message somehow bearing the sweetness of fresh lilacs.
>>I'm gonna say this as nicely as I can. Dear f@!#er: we're stopping so this lady doesn't die.
Also, we found an alternate route. I'm gonna go down that one and pull over. You are free to follow us or go die in a fire.<<
Alanna heads down the alternate route that 1dr0meda found and pulls over half a mile down it.
"I'm inside Hanzo's TAP. He'll be sleeping soundly in seconds. Then I'd like to see if I can find any files to indicate who these bad bonze's were working for," 1dr0meda broadcasts. As she works she gets out of the car to see if she can see Hanzo's sword. She'd like to scavange that blade.
Inside Hanzo's TAP, she raised her bokken and swung it at the seated man.
Skill Specialization Engram +1
Result = 4 + 1 = 5
Nonlethal Damage
Result 10 + 3 + 1 = 14
If/when he's unconscious, 1dr0meda tries to find files that identify who they work for or any connection to Royce.
Result = 10
Opening it, inside, is a small boy wrapped in a blanket. Nine televisions, old CRTs stacked on top of each other, beam light onto him. The outer televisions are all projecting children's programming, pro wrestling, and super sentai shows. The center, disturbingly, is Hanzo's screaming, anguished face, with electrodes affixed to his temples. You're able to clearly read the kanji on his cheeks for the first time: the left cheek says "BODY" and the right cheek says "SEVENTEEN". The boy does not seem to notice you as you enter.
However, a moment later a hand lands on his shoulder, and you can see the hacker from the road look up and make eye contact with you. <"Shit,"> he says in Japanese. <"Johnny Po's not going to be happy about this. Who are you people?!">
The route is a peaceful, winding side street just now. The lowrise apartments look sleepy and uncrowded, but there's not much in the way of cover or a good place to pull over. You settle for a small parking lot in front of one of the buildings that doesn't have any windows facing the street.
I thought you were a Runner. You're a goddamn amateur. Mr. Royce will not be happy you endangered his interests. Ghiv sends via TAP.
He then spins the bike around to meet up with the others.
Emily stutters, glancing back at Neon. She makes the quick decision that she's got to do something, "I ain't a doctor. But I'll do what I can. Where's the kit?" Emily pulls her self between the seats and carefully settles down next to the woman bleeding all over the back seats. She pulls out a stim patch from her jacket and tears off the wrapper and backing. She pulls down Neon's collar and slaps the patch onto her neck.
"That should help with the bleeding. Do we have a Emergency Support Patch (ESP)? It's the only way I'm gonna get her on her feet again."
I thought you were a Runner. You're a g~%!~*n amateur. Mr. Royce will not be happy you endangered his interests. Ghiv sends via TAP.
As 1dr0meda explored Hanzi's TAP, she heard Ghiv and replied, "My intel says Mr. Royce was setting us up. Looking for info on our enemies and why they were attacking. No one attacking us with guns. Hacker still in area."
Then she returned to her search of files. She discovers something strange and disturbing and then is confronted by another hacker. She steps back into the car and focuses on the scene playing out in VR.
"Ah come on," Says the hacker, stepping back from your first attack, drawing a short blade. "This is not a good place for a fight. Talk it out. I can switch Hanzo's TAP back off any time I want and we both get kicked out."
"...Anyway, you know he has the only link anybody knows about going into Phoenix? We have people in there, and it sounds like it's gone crazy. And he's keeping the only way to talk to our family to his damn self." He spits. The child on the ground is settling down a little, but squalls when he says Royce's name again. "F!~* Royce."
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Alanna scrambles to the back, awkwardly climbing over Emily and settling next to the two women.
She grabs out a MalMart medkit from the storage locker and stares, dumbfounded, at the deeply cut N30N. She places her Bioprobe on her wrist and gets out some supplies...which holds in her hands as if they were live snakes.
"Um, alight, the probe thingy is saying some things. And also some stuff. Help me apply some of these white thingys onto her red thingys and we'll see how it goes."
Alanna notices a basic first aid pamphlet in the medkit and refers to it.
Alanna looks over her handiwork and murmurs. "No, that doesn't look quite right."
She uncaps her flask, takes a fortifying swig, and gets out another roll of bandages.
= 12 Yes!! =D
The bleeding has since stopped, and between the extra patch keeping her blood in and a double-layer of properly applied bandages, Neon looks miles better than she did a minute ago. However, the lights are beginning to turn on in the lowrise. Very distantly you can hear a siren sounding.
As the others minister to Neon's wounds, she feels nothing, experiences nothing...no dreams, or visions, no awareness of anything.
When Alanna inserts a proble, Neon's hands twitch and her eyes roll around beneath thier lids.
Applying the bandages, Alanna is forced to lift Neon's head, then when she lays it back down, she sees that Neon's eyes are open...staring.
"Unit N-30N operational, Internal diagnostics complete...uhhh...mmmm..." Neon says, eyes suddenly blinking furiously, looking about , then settling on Alanna, "Uhhg....what did that crazy do to me? OUCH! " she says, rolling her shoulder where Alanna has bandaged her.
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Alanna handles N30N as gently as she can while spraying most of her severed torso with an antiseptic bonding agent. When she comes to, she returns the stare. "Oh, hi, heya. Welcome back. You got a whole heart full of high-carbon steel back there and we were able to put back pretty much in the same way that we found you. Before you got sliced open, that is.
You ain't all human, is ya? Yer innards look all fine, but most of us aren't born with a unit designation. I mean, I'm not one to judge, right? Jus' sayin' is all."
Alanna slaps both girls on a thigh and gets up. "Well, Mr. Accountant Tightwad is gonna be on us for laying down on th' job any second now so how about we get back in the business of doin' the job an' getting paid? A'ight?"
Provided there are no objections Alanna climbs back over Emily and resumes the driver's seat. She pulls up 1dr0meda's alternate route.
>>1dr0meda? We're fixin' t' get goin'. I'll come by an' pick you up, and we'll go, alright?<<
Agreed, let's go. We have a timeline. Ghiv sends via TAP.
Outside the VR, you can faintly hear sirens off in the distance.
"Well. Time for us to go. I'm switching Hanzo's TAP off. Oh, uh, I'm Typo, by the way. Nice to meet you, robot lady." He waves, fading gradually from view as Hanzo's TAP goes through a graceful shutdown. The infant, and the central television of his silent, screaming face are the last things to fade from view.
While Allana is administering first aid to N3ON, 1dr0meda's head straightens and she looks around the car, taking in the real world after being focused on the virtual world inside Hanzo's tap. At that time, she says only, "Threat over for now; they are retreating to do for their wounded what Allana is doing for ours. I did get some intel. Let me look it over and I'll get back to you."
Then she tries to help out with the medical stuff, although she has no immediately useful knowledge. "She going to be ok?" 1dr0meda asks. Inwardly the android struggles with disconcerting surges of half-formed thoughts that mingled hope and anxiety. She knew that these were emotions, complicated subroutines that AI researchers discovered had to be included in an AI to make it capable of communicating with other sentients and to enhance performance by providing incentives to treat certain situations as priorities. This was the first time 1dr0meda had had to deal with the possible death of a colleague. She decided she needed to develop a good healing engram so she could contribute more to the situation in the future.
Eventually, she realizes she has forgotten that others may have been injured. "Ghiv, Allana, Emily? What is your state of health?"
Then she opens the file she received from Typo.
I'm fine. Is the package secure? Ghiv responds over TAP while cruising ahead on his Harley Iron Horse.
You ain't all human, is ya? Yer innards look all fine, but most of us aren't born with a unit designation. I mean, I'm not one to judge, right? Jus' sayin' is all."[/b]
Neon looks sharply at Alanna, her brow furrowed, "Human enough. " she mutters, then "Thanks for patching me up."
She rolls her shoulder and twists her torso, getting a feel for just how much damage was done. She knows she'll need a cutter as some point, but she can continue for now.
"I'm fine" she calls up to Alanna, who's taken her place behind the wheel.
She reaches down and retrieves her pistol, spotted with her own blood. As Alanna accelerates, she checks the action and makes sure the pistol is good to go.
The last ten minutes of your drive pass peacefully as you head to Royce's planned location. The sirens get louder, likely closing in on your earlier tussle. Distantly, flashing lights and a strange ominous glow light up the edges of the suburbs, and faint chatter and brief, automatic warnings light up the edges of your vision with holo-tags of "Active Shooter", "Traffic Rerouted" and "Possible Gang Activity". You get the feeling that there may be more going on tonight, and that 1dr0meda's alternate route may have saved you some trouble.
Arriving at Royce's destination, it's a clean mid-rise apartment building. A sign out front lets you know that YOU TOO could live clean at Airy Heights Condos. The date says that you would be able to move in six months from now. A fresh message from Ten-Speed flashes up on your TAPs:
PRE-RECORDED MESSAGE 01: The back door is unlocked. You're looking for Apt. 413. The door is tagged to open in range of the briefcase.
"We'll be talking to our boss in the next thirty minutes and negotiating terms. Please contact us at any point after that."
Penalty -2
Result = 2 - 2 = 0
This is a roll to see what 1dr0meda might know about Johnny Po and the gang associated with him. 1dr0meda does have some experience in Japan and probably had to deal with similar gangs while getting her documentation for her new identity.
Result = 5
And this to see what a quick search for what's on the net.
Result = 6+5=11
I'm assuming you'll apply any penalties that may apply.
Question from earlier: never did get the answer to the question of what 1dr0meda found on the projector's secondary data bank. Also, can 1dr0meda communicate with Ten-Speed via the 'Net or the projector?
During the drive, once it's clear everyone is okay and the sirens are not following us, 1dromeda opens a channel to Ghiv and talks to the group.
"While I was in the TAP of their swordsman, I had a chat with their hacker. They are of the Osannawa family, a part of Japanese organized crime. They were on the losing end of a war in the Vegas area not long ago and Royce may have had a business relationship with them for a time before the war. Their boss is someone identified as Johnny Po. Their hacker, tagged Typo, claimed he was upset that Royce was going to destroy the connection to Phoenix and wanted it to find out what is going on there. I suggested we might be willing to share the connection for a price and they suggested that their boss could match whatever Royce offered. I'm not sure how they knew we were connected with Royce. I'm supposed to contact them in 30 ... make that 24 minutes."
"You should also know that Ten-Speed is an AI who wants to get free of Royce. I'm willing to help out a fellow AI, so long as it doesn't unnecessarily put others or myself at risk. Ten-Speed also indicated Royce intended us to 'take the fall' for something."
Ghiv is unaware of anything untoward as he dismounts the Harley and walks over to the Cruiser.
So, you'll take the word of an AI and a Rival gang over your employer. Some loyalty you have...
Ghiv stares at 1dr0meda for a few seconds.
Doesn't matter. What are we going to do, stand here with the damned case in the open?
Pistol cleaned and the majority of her lifeblood wiped off of her Thredz, Neon cocks her head as 1dromeda fills them in on her VR exploits.
"There's always another angle. I say we stick to our deal with Royce, it's what we agreed to." Neon says, shoving her pistol back into it's holster.
Stepping out of the car she looks about....
... and doesn't see anything out of the ordinary.
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"Keep it in yer pants, Ghiv, a girl can talk. But, yeah, no side deals. Not on this one. I'm as likely to be bought off as the next guy, if the money is good, or if I think I'm getting played, but I don't wanna torque Royce on this one. He...he has something that I need."
She takes a reflexive swig from her flask. "I'm not sure about rogue AIs. He say exactly what we're gonna take a fall for? I need some hella details before taking a flyer on that."
She starts to look around, searching with her eyes not unlike a burger casing a joint.
=10
She looks up. "Well frag my hoop, we got us a real go-getter putting in some hard labor after hours. Hey, you guys go to 413 like normal people. Me..."
She walks next to a wall. He hands seem to emit a feint 'click'. "Imma take the more direct route."
Like the undead spirit that is her namesake she blends into night, climbing up the building like a black spider.
Emily peels out of the car, clutching the case close, "Yes, the package is safe..." She kept herself between the door and the car as she peered around.
Spying no trouble, she closed the door. She gripped the case handle and the grip of her weapon, "I agree with Griv, we need to get to a secure location and figure things out."
She trailed off as she watched Alanna scale a building with ease, "Umm... I think we should stay together as a unit." She was getting antsy. She spotted an alley next to the building and headed forward, "Lets move shall we."
Although tensions politically between Japan and China have cooled somewhat since the 20th century, they're still generally rivals in the criminal elements. The Osannawas must be in pretty dire straits if they're willing to job out to Triad bosses.
With Regards to Ten-Speed: The secondary drive appears to contain a heavily fragmented AI, taking up the hard storage equivalent of over ten active memory sectors. The code is archaic and appears to be written in a language you don't completely understand, for an operating system you haven't seen. It has multiple converter programs that seem to work as peripherals, allowing it access to the GDN through a large series of buffers. The drive is powered and active, and over the course of even a few seconds of watching it, a large portion of one AMS is almost completely rewritten. A message appears on your TAP when you try to contact the AI directly:
Pre-Recorded Message 11: (file$in_case_of_local_hack): Please leave. I'm changing right now.
Further attempts at contacting the AI lead to a repeat of the message, and eventually, the following:
>:(
You do still have file access to your copy of Ten-Speed's original communication with you.
They take a step back after a long moment, and one of them, wearing a red bandana, stands up with a long tube on his shoulder. The side of the rocket launcher is cut open, with dangling wires, one of which they affix to the metal half of his face. "You better make sure you shootin' down the right plane, omae," says one of the others, punching him in the shoulder.
"Yeah right," says the one with the rocket launcher. His cyber eye tightens, the reticle drilling down into a pinpoint as he stares into the distance. "Like it's possible to miss with an Act of God, tomo."
The inside is sparsely decorated and in some places, still under construction. The backdoor is unlocked, true to form, and the elevator even works just fine to get you to the fourth floor. 413 opens up once Emily steps within ten feet of it, revealing a complete, furnished condo. A Bosch painting sits behind a couch, across from a desk with a computer terminal sitting next to a server rack. a wire runs out to the small, enclosed deck, with a plastic wand-shaped satellite uplink.
The briefcase beeps once, and a second later a holotag of the same child's bicycle appears, hovering, next to the computer terminal and beeps twice. The server rack initiates a graceful startup, lights flashing gently, then intently as a self-contained network begins to communicate with itself. A data port duct-taped to the screen of the terminal looks compatible with the drives in the case.
Ghiv looks around warily, he's waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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Alanna engages her night vision to keep an eye on the half-a-dozen thugs, and sends the group a text as she clings nonchalantly to the top of a ten-story building. She doesn't have anything else to do, so she takes her time.
>>Good evening everyone. If you'll look six stories above your location you'll notice six guys wearing colors from three actively warring gangs.
If that isn't hoop-fragged enough, they've got an honest-to-goodness anti-air launcher and are talking about shooting down a fragging airplane.
The good news is that it probably doesn't have much to do with us.
The bad news is that if things get any kind of remotely noisy down where you are, they're gonna come investigate. The better...or worse...news is that I've always wanted a rocket launcher of my very own and could probably take them all out.
I'm gonna chill right here and keep peepers on 'em, but if you're gonna go loud, let me know an I'll start the party early.<<
Alanna figures she has enough time to contemplate weather she'd -actually- sit by and let an airliner get shot down. Of course they're not gangers...they're probably runners, just doin' some biz. No need to even worry about them.
'Target acquired.'
'Not. Helping.'
Well, what now? Ghiv mutters.
This is beginning to feel wrong. Ghiv sends over TAP Let's finish and be rid of this place.
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Wraith chews over her options, and the more she thinks about it, the more she doesn't like it. Why they'd pick here? Why this exact building to fire a missile? Sure, it -might- be the best site, but the odds of them being at the building that her team just happen to need is just...not passing the smell test. She starts to lean toward the 'gonna need to take them out' school of thought.
Speaking of chewing on things, she realizes it's been too long since she had some nutrition.
>>>Hey guys, I'm gonna get a snack. Anyone want anything?<<<
She jazzes her Eat or DIE app and checks the "MAX (stealth)?" option.
Within moments a Helios BlackFly CarGObug noiselessly deposits a medium, protein-infused, VitaSoy WIRED N-R-G shake into her waiting hand.
She slurps on it and ponders.
So, you'll take the word of an AI and a Rival gang over your employer. Some loyalty you have...
Ghiv stares at 1dr0meda for a few seconds.
1dr0meda wishes she could roll her eyes to show annoyance. Instead she just says, "You read much into my words that was not stated or implied. I am sharing data not expressing an opinion of what to do with it. The attack we just experienced may have been set up by Royce. The gang knew we were with Royce and they knew we were heading for the communication node to Phoenix. Think about how they knew that and also knew to be on the route given to us by Royce. Something is up. The AI warned us ... or me anyway, that Royce was setting us up. And Ten-Speed helped us take down the swordsman. So it seems he's proving himself trustworthy. Can't say the same for Royce."
"As for the gang, I did not say I trusted them nor that we should pay them and double-cross Royce. I merely indicated we might be interested in a counteroffer, mostly to get them off of their attack vector. The gang seems to be led by a Chinese named Johnny Po. Not sure why they are using Japanese gangers for the attack. And the AI seems to loaded into the projector. All I ask is that we not destroy the machine until the AI has a chance to escape."
Once in the room, 1dr0meda examines the technology and sets about looking over the connection ports. After Wraith reports the gang preparing to take down a plane, she comments, "Considering our employer was getting on a plane that ought to be taking off soon, it might be they are planning to try to shoot down his plane. Sounds like something we should try to stop, both because it's evil to kill innocents and it might also kill our paycheck. Let me work on sending Royce's message."
1dr0meda tries to figure out what will happen if the briefcase computer is linked to the one in the apartment.
Bonus +1 (Cutter Edge)
Result: 8 + 1 = 9
Result = 6 + 5 = 11
Result = 4
Emily blinks at 1dr0m, "That is some fine detective work. I never would have thought of that." Over her TAP, <<What do ya say Alanna? take out the guy with the big gun?>> meanwhile, she uncuffs herself from the briefcase and uncouples the latches. She glances around at her companions nervously as she lifts the lid. She keeps her face to the door in case someone happens to want to join the party.
She peers at the insides, looking for a data cable.