Wannabe's smelled of rancid fish, unwashed bodies and the stink of despair.
Kikuchiyo exhales sharply at the scent of the restaurant, on first shouldering open the door. He quickly recovers, transforming his face into the studied stoic mask that he had practiced so often. Heavy duffel bag over one shoulder, he looks around for where the meet is likely to be held.
Wannabe's smelled of rancid fish, unwashed bodies and the stink of despair.
Wannabe's smelled of rancid fish, unwashed bodies and the stink of despair. 10 re-enforced round tables are bolted to the floor each with 6 re-enforced chairs bolted around them. 6 Shaded booths occupy the left and right sides of the square room. A bar sits at the far end of the room opposite of the entrance. To one side of the bar are the entrances to the kitchen and the uni-sex toilets on the other is a staircase leading upstairs to the private rooms.
Most of the side booths stand open and unoccupied despite the crowd of people at the bar and center tables. The crowd shares a tense ease with one another like hungry bears, wolves and lions forced to share a too small watering hole. Orcs and Trolls dominate the bar with the exception of a couple of natives dressed in shamanic garb. Elves and Dwarfs vie with the Humans for the tables the rest stand awkwardly about.
Johnsons enter every once in a while, scan the "talent pool" and pick the runners they need before heading to a booth to work out the details.
The clock hits 01:21 when a regular Johnson enters with a fat middle management type hiding in his shadow. They head to the bar ignoring the cries of the runners begging for work. They get a key from the barkeep and head up stairs to a private room. Twenty minutes later each one of you is sent an AR key for the private room, each key has a five minute countdown to deactivation.
Yoshi sits at his little table waiting for a job, while he's been nursing his tea he looks on his AR forms and gives a groan while he looks on his bills. He gives up and switches to a game, he looks on two see if he see's any new runners. The waitress looks annoyed when he asks her for another tea refill.
Seeing a new face coming in he offers the man with that duffel bag to share his table.
Moses is at the bar, face on the table and a large beer in the hand, trying to forget his recent misfortunes.
Alistair reclined easily in the booth, the untouched drink sitting on the table before him. The smell of the place was nearly overwhelming but it helped mask the scent of all the other patrons for which he was grateful. As the night wore on he was ready to give up on finding a job and then he received the AR "invitation". Picking up his beer he walked unhurriedly towards the stairs. He caught a rather unflattering remark about elves from one of the trolls at the bar and made a mental note of the man's face, possibly to have a discreet "talk" with him at a later point that night.
Keying past the lock, Alistair noticed he seemed to be the first runner in the room and took a seat near a back corner to await any other job seekers.
Yoshi sits at his little table waiting for a job, while he's been nursing his tea he looks on his AR forms and gives a groan while he looks on his bills. He gives up and switches to a game, he looks on two see if he see's any new runners. The waitress looks annoyed when he asks her for another tea refill.
Seeing a new face coming in he offers the man with that duffel bag to share his table.
Kikuchiyo makes his way through the tables and around the patrons and takes the offered seat with a curt nod, settling his bag under the table.
After a silent moment or two: "Have you found much work here.", he inquires, in a flat tone.
As Kikuchiyo sits down Yoshi flips up the other cup for tea and moves it to him, seeming to ignore his first question he says "Would you care for some tea? Oh work, well I hoping for something ,but haven't gotten a call or anything how about you?"
Kikuchiyo takes the offered cup and fills it, taking a sip without waiting for it to cool.
"This is the first time I've been here, I only moved here recently. Call me Kikuchiyo."
He extends a mechanical hand to Yoshito across the table.
A tall figure entered who stood out among the crowd. His clothing was not that of a typical runner, but possibly more suited for a night uptown at the theatre. Or it would be if its design wasn't nearly two hundred years out of date. To those familiar with the era, the troll would appear right at home amongst any of the gentlemen in Queen Victoria's England from the tophat right down to the cane he walked with. His overcoat however appeared to be buckskin, although the likelihood of it being faux skin was great. As he took his hat off and liked around, it was fairly obvious he was not a standard troll, as his skin was not as rough and his features less 'troll'. With a nod to those around him, he stepped up to the bar and placed his hat on it as he waited his turn to be served. He appeared a bit disappointed when the bartender didn't have his first preference and shortly had a large beer mug in front of him.
He took his drink in hand and collapsing the tophat to a disk, tucked it under his arm as he slid into a booth to wait and see what the evening would bring.
Moses observes his sorroundings with a confused look on his face. This is the sort of place you go if you a looking for a run, they said. But what are you supposed to do? Wave your arms and say "hey, I want a job and have loose morals", like those people over there?
When they give him the key, he stares at it puzzled for a solid two minutes, before realizing that it's timed and he needs to move his ass if he ever wants to find a job there.
He takes a deep breath, and more antidepressants go through his body. Better sorry than safe, then. He goes upstairs and enters in the private room. At the sight of the elf already in the room, he puts on a fake smile and says: Cheers, cheers. Are you Mister Johnson?
Alistair glances up as the door opens and an ork walks into the room. For a moment he wonders if this is the contact but then the ork asks him the same. Another runner it seems.
He nods in return to the ork. I'm not Johnson, no. Just another soul in search of work. Alistair. Alistair can smell the chemicals pumping through the tube in the ork's nose and gives him a doubtful glance before motioning to the other chairs around the room. Appears we're the early birds.
Yoshito shakes the man's hand, he looks down at the cyber arm, "Nice hardware, man I always wished I went with a cyberarm always thought they looked cool but never could through with losing my arm. Oh yeah how rude of me, people around here call me "Random Hero", but most call me just "Hero" or "Random" and I try get a few to call me "Rand" since that was my favorite character in Robotech:new gensis. Sorry I'm I can go off subject a little bit. What were we talking about?"
Yoshito shakes the man's hand, he looks down at the cyber arm, "Nice hardware, man I always wished I went with a cyberarm always thought they looked cool but never could through with losing my arm. Oh yeah how rude of me, people around here call me "Random Hero", but most call me just "Hero" or "Random" and I try get a few to call me "Rand" since that was my favorite character in Robotech:new gensis. Sorry I'm I can go off subject a little bit. What were we talking about?"
"They're useful, especially if you fight hand to hand. I've never needed a bottle opener after getting them, either.'"
That may have been a joke, but his tone of voice implies that it's a statement."'Robotech'? Is that a sci-fi trid or something? We were discussing..."
Kikuchiyo blinks, stops midsentence to read his AR display.
"...oh, that will have to wait. Seems I have to meet someone upstairs."
He rises and bows, grabbing his heavy duffel bag.
"Best not to keep them waiting. My thanks for the tea, Rand."
He chuckles at the bottle opener statement,"Yeah its a old sci-fi trid before there was trid hehe. Alright glad to meet you Kikuchiyo good lu..." He trails off as he receives his message. "Well looks like I got one too, fancy that." He says standing up and readjusting his crimson duster. "Hey maybe we got hired on the same run that would be so wiz." He follows his new friend up the stairs.
A guard asks to see your AR key before he waves you up the stairs, once upstairs you see doors to 4 private rooms one of them is marked with the same signature as the key you were sent. When you flash the key to the door it opens allowing entrance. The room inside is even more shabby than the bar below. A large U shaped table dominates the room and dozens of folding chairs are hung on a rolling rack by the door. At the head of the table waits the two men that entered Wannabe’s half an hour ago.
The Johnson is Caucasian tall and athletic with a natural smile that can only be achieved with a combination of supreme confidence and homicidal ruthlessness. The other is of mixed race, fat, balding and is medium height. He mostly unremarkable and looks like someone who should be managing a Wal-Mart.
Johnson greats everyone with an apprising glance and a shark like smile saying, “Welcome, welcome come in have a seat…yes, you’ll do nicely… don’t be shy gather round”.
Once you’ve seated yourselves Johnson continues. “I have a job offer for you; the job might seem fairly easy at face value but is a bit more complex”. “Our patron,” he nods to the middle management type, “is having inventory problems as well as some ‘unfair’ competition from a larger rival”. “Some of you might be aware that the new Aztechnology ‘Nuance’ com link is being débuted here in Seattle before being released for general North American sale”. ” The ‘Nuance’ is expected to be a hot seller for the teenage market and the current supply cannot meet the demand for the new com link”. “Because of the short supply Aztechnology has only shipped units to the big-box electronics stores leaving smaller independent stores out of luck”. “Our patron wishes to change this ‘unfair’ distribution insuring that his chain of stores gets the shipment of com links that they ordered”. “Your task is twofold; first you must find the warehouse the com links are in and hack the system replacing the original shipping orders with ones that will favor our patron. Second you will steal the majority of the remaining stock and destroy it preventing our patron’s competitors from befitting from the early release of the com links”.
The Patron speaks up for the first time saying, “The pre-sale is this coming Friday at midnight and the units will arrive in Seattle Wednesday and be shipped to the stores Thursday night”. You have to fix everything by then.”
Johnson looks harshly at the Patron who shuts up with a squeak and quakes a bit under the withering stare.
Johnson continues, “To clarify what our patron a has stated you have 3 days to find out where the shipments will be stored when arriving in Seattle and just one day to adjust the shipping orders and dispose of the extra inventory”. “Remember not to destroy all of the remaining stock as it is needed to allay suspicions of tampering by our patron”.
“The pay will be 5000Y each minus 10% paid to the Dragon Mother for use of her Tea House, half now half upon satisfactory completion”. “Reasonable expenses will also be covered upon satisfactory completion of your tasks”. “We will rejoin here on Friday after you have finished your tasks, if you do not finish your tasks do not bother returning”.
"Any questions? "
"Any questions? "
Moses has bucketloads, but since this is his first run, he will wait for more experienced runners to speak up first.
Kikuchiyo looks curiously at the rest of the motley assortment of Runners before half-raising one cyber arm.
"Is there a preference for how you would like us to handle the destruction of the competitors' goods? For instance, a warehouse fire that conveniently damages a large portion, highjacking the delivery truck after our client's are delivered, a simple b&e?"
"We are not too particular as to how you carry out your task but we would prefer excess damage be keep to a minimum. We don't want to damage anyone else's freight except for our competition." Johnson replies.
Yoshi holds his hands together like a diabolical master mind, "So do you know what shipline service Aztechnology uses around here, just to quicken our search."
Eugene sat quietly, hands resting on top of his cane, listening to the Johnson, Patron and any questions the others may have. "Perhaps instead of destroying the commlinks, they could all be rerouted to one of Aztech's competitors? And should other evidence be left behind to implicate another competitor it seems it would make a most worthy distraction for the client's acquisition...
I've always found distraction to be most effective when wanting to remain unseen..."
@Random - "Unfortunately we do not know what shipping line is carrying the com links".
@Mr. Wilde - "We do not want the remaining inventory to be sold at all. Giving the excess stock to another competitor would put our patron in the same bind he was in before".
Alistair listens silently, nodding his head at the end. I would assume that it won't be an issue if a unit or two were to end up in our own pockets?
@Shadowfaux - "We would not object if you take a few units for personal use but if your intent is to sell the excess stock on the black market you again defeat the purpose of the run. Exclusivity is our goal, we alone must have the com link during the pre-sale".
"So what is the name of your patron's store cause we don't want to frag his by accident, if you know what I mean." As he asks this, his cybereyes save the image of the two Johnson's faces for future reference.
"Bertinelli's Custom Eletronics. The compitition is of course the Supreme Purchase stores".
Moses, looking pretty confused, talks to the man. So, let me get this straight, alright? We have to hack into the warehouse system to ensure Bertinelli gets his shipment of Nuance thinghies, and then steal and destroy what we find there? Is that it? This is the first time Moses is asked to destroy a shipment instead than deliver it. He puts on a fake smile and says Of course I can do that, for sure. Not a problem for me. I can also help the other gentlemens over here, if they want of course. You have your man, Mr Johnson.
"Steal and destroy what's left, Mr. Blake. Other than that your summation is correct".
"If there are no further questions Mr. Bertinelli and I shall depart and allow you to get to work". Johnson stands and begins to leave with Bertinelli close behind.
"I only have one more, could we use this room to set up our plan or did you only have it til about now?" With that in his mind, Random sets up a couple of programs.
"You have the room till Saturday when we will meet after you are successful in your task. The room rental is part of the 10% Mother Dragon is charging".
@Random - You're analyze didn't detect anything unusual.
The data search turns up the basic info about Bertinelli's Custom Electronics, the com numbers and addresses of the 5 locations, promo data for the upcoming 'Nuance" release and so on.
Alistair turns to the others around the table. Any ideas on how best to approach this? It appears the clock has begun ticking.
"Well first thing first is introductions, I go by the name "Random Hero" or you can call me Hero or Random for short, been trying to some to call me Rand cause he's....." He stops himself there and continues with his point, "Anyway I am your decker for this run and also I am pretty good with a few guns both shooting and repairing. How about everybody else goes around and introduces themselves and there specialty and then we can figure what our first step is." Random suggests.
"Call me Kikuchiyo. I am a street samurai- deadly in short to mid range combat. I'm well-versed in fighting with a katana or my fists, as well as pistols and automatics."
He hoists the duffle bag onto the table with a heavy thunk.
"I also have access to heavier ordnance. Some experience with infiltration and recon operations and I can treat a gunshot wound, blood loss and other combat trauma."
Kikuchiyo holds up his right hand and makes a fist- a spur of metal pops out of the cybernetic appendage, perpendicular to his smallest finger. He opens his hand and electricity crackles in the palm.
"I am never unarmed."
Oscar overlapped his hands on the top of his cane and smiled. "For now, call me Mr. Wilde, like the author for any of you in the know about such matters. I have a talent for, as you may call it, 'sneaking'. I can use a pistol if I have to, but I'd prefer not to. I'm also skilled in the pugilistic arts as well as the use of swords.
While not a mage, I do have a talent for perceiving the Astral as well as an ability to memorize spaces in great detail."
There is an akward moment of silence before Moses realizes that the people around him are waiting for his speech. Oh, right. Right. My name is Moses Blake. I've always been a businessman, up until some... unfortunate, circumstances, mind you I didn't have anything to do with it. But I digress. I am skilled in commerce and bartering, and can gey you pretty much anything you need for a fair price. Have a long list of trusty friends all around. Not a killer but I can defend myself he says, showing his big handgun. Oh, I also have a van. Just in case we need one.
Alistair listens to the crew and their introductions, nodding where appropriate. Their heads to turn to him and he gives a simple nod. I have some ability to get into places where I shouldn't but mainly I'm extremely hard to kill.
Ok, good. So, from what do we start this, uhm, run?
Alistair steeples his fingers in front of himself, his eyes distant in thought. Well those of you skilled in handling the matrix should look into how we're going to hack and replace those files. But even so we're still going to need to have a look at this facility because there will be some legwork on this one as well. If we can pull detailed guard rosters and rotations that would help as well. The sooner we get that done, the sooner we can make our run on the wharehouse.
"Ultimately, however, our first task is finding this warehouse. Does anyone have a likely contact with inroads on Aztechnology? I know a fixer, but he'll have an asking price for information- if he can even find the right contacts."
Can't help you with the matrix there, but if you guys, I meant, gentlemen, need some particular equipment I can start looking around...
"If you chummers want I can search around tonight and see if I can find out the location of the warehouse. Probably check the local nodes over any of them corp defended ones. Just wish our Johnson gave us more info on the shipping companies."
Tanya will want something for the info and are you going to call her now, it's 2am?
Random stops talking as much as he just goes searching for the warehouse in AR mode since it's just finding it. He'll mumble little comments here and there as he does his search.
After 8 minutes Random looks to the group and says...