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Charles wanders over to the notice board, trying to overhear various conversations as he does so. Unfortunately it looks like this is a gamer-heavy outfit, and almost everyone is playing one game or another.
NOble notices that the Pact World infosphere actually has coverage here. Curious, as it was not available outside, he starts to do some digging.
Freeman meanwhile makes his way toward the unoccupied terminal. There is a physical slot for a cred-stick attached to it. Looks like it costs 1cr a minute to use... although perhaps someone with the right skills might be able to bypass that.
Charles notices that one of the local gamers is going by the tag Awful_Luck_Bro is busy warming up to play Mechalizard Crawl!
NOble, in his digging discovers a config file in the patching through to the Pact Worlds info sphere that has the tag of Noname on it.
The paper notices on the wall are layered thickly over each other. They vary from computer repair services, through to water cooling kit.
As Freeman sits down he can't help but notice the terminal next to him is occupied by a colourful verthani. "Hi, I'm Roselle!" she says
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A number of the augmentations seem to be glitching in some way or another. What you do notice is that all the glitching augmentations have network links of one type or another.
No-one is keen to have you try and remove their augmentations in the street though.
Roselle makes her own beep at drone. Her cheeks are flushed red and blue, matching the color of her jersey which looks like is probably aligns her with a sports team of some description.
“I know this is awkward,” she nervously says.
“Our coach never showed up this morning and the rest of my team is scattered. If you’re not busy, could help you us out? Shouldn’t take more than a few moments...”
Charles continues to look at the posters. "Pizza-Nut delivery drivers required!" says the first belonging to Pizza-nut. "Expert Technicians Needed!” screams the bold font of the Rachet-n-Wrench Cyberaugs ad. "Hair-cuts and fur-trims. Beauty technicians required, top rates!" is a faded third add.
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Vecro joins Charles in looking through the written posters, he can't really help with computers.
"My guess here is that network is infected with viruse, that is why augmentations are malfunctioning. If someone would restore the things to normal that could get us the attention we want. "
He picks up Pizza-nut delivery offer "Dynamic workplace, learning opportunities, good payment, plenty of benefits... just like in Starfinder Society, but here you also get a company car..." Wonders about his career choice
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Chk'tarlsh turns to look at Vecro, incredulous. "Not me. Havinhk to deal with customersh when their order ish late?" he says aloud, mandibles clacking.
"Much safer with the Ssstarfindersh. Give me the jinssulsh any time over that."
His attention drawn to Awful_Luck_Bro's game, he settles in to watch for a moment. "I've not played thish one before. What's it like?" he asks the gamer.
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Roselle makes her own beep at drone. Her cheeks are flushed red and blue, matching the color of her jersey which looks like is probably aligns her with a sports team of some description.
“I know this is awkward,” she nervously says.
“Our coach never showed up this morning and the rest of my team is scattered. If you’re not busy, could help you us out? Shouldn’t take more than a few moments...”
"Well, I dunna know much aboot coaching..."
Drone actually laughs. Freeman gives him a dirty look."But what'cha need me ta do?"
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Upon further perusal Vecro and Charles discover that at Pizza-Nut "Earnings are uncapped"... and provided entirely by customer tip. Ugh.
Roselle sighs in relief. "Got a note pad? Like, a physical one? I'm going to have to coordinate the strategy for our next Mechalizard Crawl! match." he explains.
"Okay, here goes... xX_Rambler_Xx " she points out anothe verthani in the crowd. "needs to swap over to defense. Awful_Luck_Bro needs to tighten up her combos." she adds, pointing to a vesk near Charles.
Speaking of Charles, he notices a large supply of empty LifeCrush cans scattered around her console. She seems to go through them at a rate of knots - almost as if they were powering her mech-lizard rather than herself.
"We're pretty good actually. But need Just_Ine to keep us stocked on drinks and focused on the game." she says, looking hopefully at the pile of empties. "Kind of odd that she didn't show up... you couldn't get me some more could you.. the next game is about to start..."
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"A physical note pad? Da people still use tha'? Well, gimme a minute and I'm sure I kin grab some 'o that paper over yonder and make sumthin' up to write on it..."
Unless she says no he will do just that, going through his belongings and various tool kits to make something that will write on the paper he gathers from the board and such.
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The vesk, who is most definitely not a 'bro' grins back at Charles. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not on my game when I'm out of LifeCrush." she adds meaningfully. "Vendormart next door normally has some.." she says hopefully.
Freeman has come to the conclusion that MechLizard Brawl must be the game of the moment. Players upgrade mech-lizard avatars and use a variety of unlikely special powers activated by increasingly difficult keyboard combinations in order to rip each other to shreds.
xX_Rambler_Xx nods as the note is passed to them. "Boring. Who wants to run defence?" he mutters. "You know, if you want to help, you could find Just-Ine for us. She probably just overslept. She's been staying at the Slumber Warehouse down the road. I'm sure she wouldn't stick me on defense."
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Initially, Chk'tarlsh stiffens at the suggestion (and expectation!) of fetching drinks for the gamers. The need for information - and current lack of better options - tempers his response.
Shrugging, he nods. "Ssure. Not much elsse to do at the moment, anywaysh."
He slips out to the store, returning a moment later with a 6-pack of LifeCrush for the gamer gang. "Sso, where'sh thish Sslumber Warehousse? Got a room number or anythinhk?"
He will set off to check in on Just-Ine, with any of his companions that may wish to accompany him.
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Heading next door to VendorMart (tm) Charles finds row after row of old style machines. Ones that don't even have connections that would enable them to attach to a network. Payment is my physical cred-stick only.
A couple of machines are a little more advanced and have culinary synthesizers built in to make whatever meals you want. Others can do hot drinks as well as the revoltingly sweet-and-sour flavor of LifeCrush.
Electronic posters line the walls, with constantly shifting advertisements.
The LifeCrush machine lists the cans at 10cr each.
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Unless Roselle looks like she is expecting him to come back to help further, Freeman will follow people next door.
"Ey, we should nay be splitting up. Oh, this place be interesting..."
He will saunter up to a more pleasing entree choice and..
"Anyone else want a snack? This one seems ta be open and free. Must be tha bigger issue going on..."
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At the vendormart, Freeman notices one of the posters is a little odd. There is another poster hidden in the patterns. This one asks for "Skilled infosphere dlevers to come by Rachet-N-Wrench Cyberaugs and ask for the 'Doctor's Doctor'"
He bumps the vending machine and acquires a six pack of LifeCrush to return to Awful_Luck_Bro. "Gee thanks. That'll help, but my game keeps lagging... any of you good with computers?" they ask hopefully.
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Daata has a quick look at Awful_Lcuk_Bro's machine. The problem is simple, its still trying to ping the Cuvacara infosphere a few thousand times a second. A quick reconfig and machine springs to life, twice as fast as before.
"Awesome Bro!" she high-five's. A high-five with claws. Yeah, moving right along from that potential for disaster. She lowers her voice. "Look, you know your stuff. If you want to do a bit more than just helpout a vidgame team, you should ask around at Rachet-n-Wrench. Introduce yourself as a 'meatspace recruit', and ask to speak to Doctor Doctor Grun."
Leaving the team well stocked with LifeCrush and fast computers, you head off to the SlumberWarehouse. An electronic sign flashes "Fully open![/b]" in large friendly letters. However going through the door you find a reasonable sized crowd all trying to use the check-in kiosk, and not having any luck.
"Locked out!" moans one. "And all my clothes are inside" bemoans a heavily overdresses shirren. "What about my goods?" says an elf who is dressed like a travelling salesman.
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Vecro convinces the crowd to give you space, and NOble and Freeman go to work on the kiosk. With a bit of work you remove the corrupted code from the computer and install a new freeware firewall that should keep even that ancient thing safe... at least from this particular intrusion.
And as a bonus, you find Just-Ine's room, which was listed as locked and occupied. With the computer back on line it should respond to normal keycode access now.
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The number of glares you get from people in line when you even think about trying to get ahead of them answers that questions. It turns out the line is moving reasonably fast, mostly because it is just a line to get an appointment. The actual surgery takes a little longer.
Thirty minutes later you are standing in front of an appointment desk. The receptionist looks up at you.. "You're not one of our, ahh, regular.. customers.." she notes.
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"He is on his break at the moment..." she says. A door creaks open and a head pokes out. "Did I hear someone say 'meatspace recruitments'? Asks a voice... "[b]Come in, come in. I could use a hand. Let's see how good you all are."
You are ushered into the back office, which is not quite an operating theatre, but looks as if it is a lot more than just a place for paperwork.
The man changes tone once the door is shut. "Okay, who sent you, and what can I do for you?"
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Chk'tarlsh follows his companions into the back office.
Lacking the technical knowledge and training called for here, the shirren stands toward the back of the group. Thumbs hooked over his belt, he waits with the casual readiness of one well versed in a more practical application of technological discoveries.
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Dr Dr Grun watches over your work for the first few minutes, and then satisfied that you do know what you are doing goes back to his own desk to catch up on paperwork. After a while he gives you a wave, puts on a white gown and heads through another door to the "operating theatre".
By the time he is back, your pile of datapads is all fixed.
He raises an eyebrow.
"Well, that is one job done anyway. So, perhaps you should tell me why you decided to spend an afternoon fixing out of date technology for me."
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"Well, I know lots of someones.." suggests the good doctor.
"For example Rudolf-23, who I just removed a tail from. An android with a tail, who would have thought it.... but I'm guessing that is not the person you are after? Come on, if you are not willing to tell me the name, why come here?"
"Someone contacted us. We know very little about that person. We expect them to be a very skilled hacker, at one point in time they were a female and most likely still are, the nick that they shared is Noname. So we are looking for a female hacker going by Noname."
"Do you know anyone that would match that features?"
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"Noname... now that's a handle...[/]b" hums and haws the doctor.
"[b]Well... I guess you are not law enforcement or you wouldn't have spent so long helping out here.."
He wanders off to his desk and pulls out an old paper atlas. Circling an old solar farm, he suggests "I'd try looking here. But Syzygy is cagey and careful...They might shoot first and ask questions later.."