Primetime Taipei IC thread

[fibericon]

Chun had asked you all to gather in this "conference room" - more of a rundown warehouse on the Danshui docks that smells of old fish. You've all met him in person once, and for most of you, that was probably the last time. He usually contact you over commlink, but in this case, he's opted for video chat.


https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d1/a4/8a/d1a48a52bb8a28bf30e5cce1a2b8c8bd--shadowrun-game-shadowrun-troll.jpg


No idea who setup the equipment - it was like this when you all got here.

And speaking of all of you, this is most likely the first time you've met the other runners.

"Figured I should get you all together before sending you off to meet the Johnson, even if you're going in blind. You're meeting him at Luxy in four hours if you want the job. All I know about him is he speaks Chinese with help of a language soft. I always pick up on that - the four sounds are exaggerated."

Luxy is the sort of place street kids think is nice, but it actually isn't really all that. They have the occasional live entertainment, and they clean the place, but it's not as high class as its reputation would lead you to believe - another sign this Johnson is a foreigner. He probably thought he was going to dazzle you with brilliance, but instead, he's just baffling you with bull****. The locals among you, at least, and probably those of you who have been here a year or more.

"Let's make this group a team. I got all your info, but I talk too much anyway."

[Syless]

Yixuan beams at the other runners in the room and bows politely. Nothing like a bit of formality to confuse people in a situation like this. Her tailored suit is immaculate, clashing with the ambiance of the warehouse. She radiates an atmosphere of complete calm, a far cry from the corp middle management she looks like would be in any similar situation. But runners are runners. Time to get to know a new motley crew. "A pleasure to meet you all, I am Yixuan Li. May I inquire as to what names you would prefer I call you, or should I come up with a series of clever-but-annoying nicknames?"

[Volthawk]

Gamma simply nods in response to Yixuan's bow and introudction. "I'm Gamma." Physically, it's obvious that the large ork has had a large amount of augmentations, his head is covered in ware - cybereyes, cyberears and a collection of simpler eyes cars nd the side and back of his head and neck - and his visible flesh shows the obvious signs of dermal armour (unlike some, he seems to have done little in the way of cosmetic modifications). His armour jacket and the assault rifle slung over his shoulder completes the look - this is a man whose speciality is violence.

[RedSand]

Analog stood a good head shorter than everyone else-a scarred, greying old man with an outdated induction port on his temple and a chameleon suit underneath his silk jacket and slacks. An overstuffed purse sat at this side. He scratched his salt and pepper beard as he sized the team up. Former corp girl, probably a face of some kind-good to have around but probably not much better in a fight then he was. Ork with a lot of cyberware and a big gun-Analog had seen a billion of them, but they tended to be reliable. Hopefully this one wasn't an idiot. Third guy was either an adept or too green to have gotten many augmentations-didn't look very bulky to be carrying that sword but what did he know? Elf with a big gun. Probably ex-military. And...a dogman. With hooves. Yeah, alright. Analog made a note to never let this guy near his house, where he could easily be recognized, but...fine. He'd survived the 60s, when you literally couldn't run the shadows without tripping over a pixie or a naga. This was fine. This is fine.

He decided to speak up. "Analog. Long-time Decker, Medic and Tracker. Not one for pet names, yes, I'm old, I've been doing this since the word 'shadowrunner' was invented, and I'm fine in a firefight as long as you don't ask me to fire a gun bigger than my head. Oh, and don't smoke near me. Can't stand the smell."

[TheFederalist]

Of all the runners that had gathered in the conference room, Chun included, it was Alaric who felt most out of place. The sight was somewhat familiar, but that had been a decade ago, when the business had been much smaller, on a different level, and a different country to boot! He was dressed in his typical sort of outfit, but in Taipei, it felt wrong. Even though he'd covered up his sleek flight suit with an open jacket, and removed every bit of insignia from it, it felt like a bit of a dead giveaway. The boots on his feet, USMC standard, were definitely not helping his case. Finally, the aviators on his face, the kind that either a pilot or an ******* (or both) would wear indoors, was like having the word lǎo měi tattooed onto his face. It wasn't that Alaric felt uncomfortable, but it was almost certainly something he didn't feel right in, not after the past decade of flying straight.

Still, he decided to rise out of his internal self-commentary to glance over at his future "team", and it was far more diverse than either his test or combat squadron had ever been. Ironically, Chun's overt face was the most familiar of them all, considering he'd chatted the man up only hours ago about this meeting, but it was from a reassurance. A sierra hotel Ork was the most stand out of the lot, it's- his ware glaring right back at his glance. Second person to meet his eyes was another oddity, a rather old fellow who looked like he'd fought against Imperial Japan Part One. The suited elf was most disconcerting so far, having the look of the Aztech corpcat he'd dealt with not that many months ago, but he waved his concerns in order to have some semblance of trust for the team he'd be working with. There was a visible raising of eyebrows that came out of Alaric, however, when his eyes passed over the Asian fellow with the longsword. That was no ceremonial officer's saber, he was looking at a genuine hunk of metal, with the look of something one would actually try to use in combat. Not unlike a chuck he'd worked with in his second run ever...

The dogman was the last to meet with Alaric's gaze, and his very existence sent a tremble up Alaric's cheek. The werewolf stories Ma had told him were things he'd shrugged off long before he'd entered his teen years, even, but they still came to mind as he glanced at him. What the hell kind of racket was he involved with that he was about to run with a Corgi version of Michael fragging Corvin? He let his mouth extend into a small smile as he brought his attention back to the others, listening to each of their introductions, before butting in with a "Capt-, eh, KitKat. I'll be on long distance firepower, and if needed, driving or flying. Don't ask why I have the name of a God-fragged candy bar, so I'll take clever-but-annoying nicknames happy enough. Seconding the old man's thing on smoking."

[Novabomb]

Kalin
Appears to be a young naive local, with a shoulder mounted sheathed sword, a ****ty gun at his waist.
oo, you should definitely do the second one. Thats what they always do in the trids :smallsmile:.
I'm Kalin by the way. My specialty is getting into hard to reach places.


To Benji
Do you like being petted?

[Triskavanski]

The smallest of the runners was the changeling, looking something like a bipedal corgi, was dressed with gear from head to toe. Little gizmos and gadgets hung all over his body, with a fancy cape meant to protect people from the acid rain draped over him. He looked over the rest of the tall folk, not yet trusting a single one of them. He had been burned in the past, like that time with the prince of nigera needing his help. A few of his comlinks were hacked because he though got a call from a support company to stop a virus in them. Its part of why he was here now, despite his distrust, he needed to get money to help Mr. B clean up after his messes.

Shaking his head at Kalin's question, "Not by people I don't know, I'm Benji though.. and uh.. hmm.. I talk to the matrix?" He says rubbing the back of his head.

[fibericon]

Chun quietly surveys the group as they give their introductions, maintaining his trademark sly smile. After Benji, he speaks again.

"I didn't dig into the Johnson - I'm not gonna be a dog who catches mice."

That probably annoyed Gamma in particular - possibly KitKat as well - at least the first time you heard it, but you know now that meant Chun minded his own business. Sure, Chengyu made sense to people who spoke Chinese natively, but they just didn't translate very well to English. "Horse horse, tiger tiger"? Oh, that means "so-so". Sure it does, chummer. This language had a lot of nasty tricks in store for non-native speakers. At least you've got the suit to do the talking, right?

"But ah, some of you are still new here, and I've got some time to kill before my next appointment. Anything you need to know about this city, you can ask me. Or one of the locals, that works. The drive to Luxy in this traffic is probably about 20 minutes - 45 if you use public transport. Either way, you've got some time. But if we're done here, I'd like to send my boys in to pick up the equipment. It would be a shame to let the salt water rust perfectly good electronics."

[RedSand]

First job was important. Set the stage for everything else. He knew Chun was reliable but Analog couldn't be sure about everyone else. He raised his hand. "I got a couple questions. What's the standard faire for a run in this part of town? How much action are we likely to see? How important is this client to you, and how much pull does he have? Are we able to walk?"

[fibericon]

Chun grins at Analog. He knew this guy already knew all these answers - just his way of helping out the new fish.

"I filter out anything below five thousand a runner, so thirty thousand for your group is your baseline for this job. You can negotiate it up, but if he tries to talk you down, give your uncle Chun a call and I'll fix it. That said, it means I filter out the milk runs. Something's probably going down, unless you're really sneaky. This guy probably has zero pull here, but he's gonna be tied to a corp. I'm thinking since they flew in a foreigner, the job's either really important, or it's a corp that has a small time presence on the island. Either way, that makes it interesting to me, but I already got paid for arranging the meet. If you walk, that's on you, but I don't have another job lined up today since, like I said, no milk runs."

[Volthawk]

Gamma grins as Chun tells them the payout. This is what he came for - with that, he'll be nearly halfway through paying off the month's interest, and it suggests good things about the future with Chun. "Sounds good to me. I can handle it if things go down."

[Novabomb]

Kalin
I am familiar with the samurai arts, as well as the ninja arts, not a problem
Gives double thumbs up.

[TheFederalist]

Alaric shot a glance over at the "ninja", and was about to question what counted as ninja arts at all, before he decided it probably wasn't something he was going to find out. Plus, if he had no such abilities, Alaric wouldn't be able to keep the guy's credibility, and so if he didn't find out, it'd be like a Schroedinger's trust. Instead, he turned back to Chun, and asked "What's the standard on negotiating up? Considering we're likely dash-2 in terms of priority, I'm guessing it's not high for us. Still, would be good to know for later."

[Syless]

There's a dismissive wave of the elf's hand at the mention of negotiating. "That's my job. The only question is how high everyone wants me to aim. If I can't get ten percent, quite frankly, I'm a failure, but I'm aiming for around thirty to fifty percent."

It's quite a group, really. She's used to seeming rather normal within a group of runners, but this takes the cake. She's never worked with a corgi or a... 'ninja'... before.

[Triskavanski]

Glancing between the different people there again Benji huffs, crossing his stubby little arms. "Whatever you want to do, as long as I don't have to talk to them. You're already strangers enough..
But Mr. B says that I can trust Chun and the people he gets together."

[fibericon]

Once satisfied with your information and small talk, Chun bids you all adieu. The warehouse might not have been in the best part of town, but you're still relatively close to the Danshui market area. Less busy during the day, though there are still vendors and tourists about. Dock workers make it their business to not see you as you exit the building. It seems that the building itself was responsible for the stench - you mostly only smell the salt water now that you're out, though there are definitely fishing boats nearby.

Though there aren't exactly stalls with guns on display here, it is the type of place where if you know a guy, he could probably show you where to get something. The basements don't go very deep this close to the coast, but you can stuff a lot of guns into a storage room.

It's just after 2pm, and the Johnson wanted to meet you all at 6pm.

[Volthawk]

As they leave, Gamma sets about making himself a bit more presentable, disassembling his assault rifle and putting the pieces in his pack - no point risking trouble from openly carrying that around in public. He looks to the others, particularly Analog and Yixuan Li, the two who seemed to know best about his question. "Four hours. Any prep we can do? Not sure what our options are. Not what I was trained for."

[TheFederalist]

Weapon in his duffel bag, and shades right on, Alaric was ready to wait. He was milit- ex military, he was used to waiting around because of being made to arrive early, so he made no complaints as he found a wall to lean on. As soon as Gamma asked his question, he replied "Usually, small talk, followed by harmonized singing of songs we find in common and then the final stage of boredom, attempting to set fire to various hair around one of ours' body in some desperate search for humor.", cracking a smile but still looking down at the ground.

[Triskavanski]

"I've got a few things I can do in that time." The Corgi says, waddling out to his car, a horseman, huffing as he climbs up and into the thing. "Anything that anyone else needs?" he asks, rubbing the back of his head.

[Novabomb]

Kalin
This is gonna be sweet. Maybe do you want to plan some sort of presentation?
or Maybe we can cross blades for practice?

[RedSand]

Analog thought for a minute. Meetings with Johnson's usually didn't require decking-and if they did, you shouldn't be working with the Johnson anyway. He didn't need to buy anything. He was crap at disguises. But...

Analog trots onto the stalls and, after a bit of searching, purchases two objects: The cheapest, ****tiest handgun he could find, which he then holstered to his waist, and a pair of gaudy stylized contact lenses. To a Johnson, the lenses would be a dead giveaway that he was trying badly to hide a pair of cybereyes that he didn't actually have. The crappy pistol could make The Johnson not notice the gun hidden in his bag-and if it didn't, it might make him more surprised by the second gun hidden in his arm.

[fibericon]

After a few hours of shopping and preening and sword clashing, the hour of the meeting approaches. Luxy is in a shopping district, and the area is rather crowded. There are a few "how cute!" remarks directed at your furry friend, though he's probably used to it by now. When you step out of the elevator and into Luxy's lobby, security is waiting to tag weapons. Any obvious weapons are taken, and you're given tickets to reclaim them upon exit, but no actual search is performed.

Arriving a few minutes early is usually a good idea, and one of the waitresses, after verifying that you have a meeting with a Mr. Johnson, leads you to a reserved booth. She informs you that the Johnson is picking up the bar tab, and that the booth is reserved for three hours. You could set your watch by this client's arrival - down to the second.


https://i.imgur.com/oxOqf9o.png?1


He takes a seat, and glances over everyone. If he has some opinion of your appearance, he doesn't share it, save for looking directly at Yixuan when he speaks.

"Good evening. Do you know Avatec? It's a biochemical research subsidiary of Honhai. Avatec has been doing some work on K-10, and my client wants you to retrieve as much of it as you can. I mean crates of the stuff. Don't waste my time and bring back a couple of vials."

A waitress brings him a vaguely brown drink, and immediately leaves to minimize the risk of being accused of listening in. The client brings it up to his nose, sneers, and puts it back down.

"You can hit the lab, or you can hit the transport while they're delivering it. Both are going to be well guarded, but the lab probably moreso. The transport is going out in broad daylight, though. Your call how you want this to go down. You have about… 18 hours to prepare if you want to hit the transport. Don't pick the lab as an excuse to waste my time - I won't wait more than three days. Any questions?"

[Triskavanski]

Benji blushes a little, pulling his hood down to cover his face a little more as they go through the market. Despite his stubby legs and short stature, he was surprisingly quick at moving when he gave a bit of a hustle to it.

Checking in he gives up his taser and a few gas gernades.


At the table he was silent, having his pouty face on as he looked up and down the man. He knew the name K-10. Dangerous stuff, not even he would take that stuff, and he was practically built for it. Kamakazi was as high as he'd go for drugs. Biting his lip, he glances around at the big folk, hoping one of them would speak up so he didn't have to.

[Novabomb]

Kalin
Has many questions, but waits patiently for the experienced negotiators to do their thing.

[Syless]

Yixuan hands over her far more obvious Predator, but keeps her concealed Walther tucked into its secured holster. These usually go smooth, but she'd hate to be the one caught unarmed if this is one of the exceptions.

The Johnson runs through the job quickly. A man of business. A shame, they're always harder to negotiate with. Playing nothing but a wall. At least he was a wall with nice taste in suits. "Sounds straightforward enough." Never a good sign in the business. Especially since they'd been promised it was no milk run. "Let's talk bonuses- subtlety, silence, safety." Yixuan pauses, placing a contemplative finger to her chin. "Unless you're fine with an open bloodbath. One can probably be arranged, but usually such things are frowned upon."

[fibericon]

Mr. Johnson leans back and shrugs with his hands.

"Here's the thing. The lab is probably quieter, but it's also lower yield. They're not producing the K-10 - they're doing research on it. It's subcontracting work by the National Taiwan University - the campus in Shida. They add some chemical to it for their work that makes it no longer K-10. That makes it useless to my client. Now, I didn't mention hitting the supply center, because it's honestly above the paygrade of this job. They have a deluxe Lone Star contract, so, good luck with all that. My primary concern is the yield. I need at least three crates. A crate only typically has one hundred vials, so it's not really that heavy - it's mostly padding, armor, and a keypad lock. Yeah, the transport is more vulnerable, and will likely have five or six crates, so that might be your best bet. As for the noise, well, you do what you have to do. My client might whine, but if they get what they want, that's the real point, isn't it?"

[Syless]

Yixuan leans over and tents her fingers. The wall shrugged. Obviously his pay wasn't based on how successful the mission was... but she still hoped hers might be. "In my experience, clients that whine tend to be less... grateful for the work. As are clients that get extra over what they requested... any incentive to bring back the full contents of the transport, or would your client not care after the third crate?"

[fibericon]

The Johnson nods, reaching for his drink out of habit before remembering why he wasn't holding it in the place. He smirks at it and withdraws his hand, then looks back at Yixuan.

"Three is the minimum that will be useful to them. Now, I can get you an additional five thousand for each crate after the third. If my information is accurate, you're unlikely to get more than six. There are laws about how it has to be stored, and NTU just isn't secure enough to store massive amounts. Of course, if you think you can do better selling it yourselves... Well, I'm not going to tell you how to do your job."

He beckons the waitress over and hands her his glass. "Either bring me something not made out of soy or don't come back."

She hurries off, but doesn't seem to be hurrying back.

[TheFederalist]

So far, Alaric had kept his mug behind a bottle of the cheapest trash that some would call alcohol as he let the clearly Mandarin trained negotiator go first, but he paid great attention to the Johnson's words, cogs in his mind turning as he considering their options. So far, the lab seemed like the more consistent hit, since attacking a convoy was something he could handle and plan for better, but had a greater number of anomalies none of them could account for. They also had to consider their options with the actual acquirement, and dealing with it in the end. A satisfied client was repeat business, but he was pretty sure they could find some rich idiot willing to pay way more. He didn't like the idea of drug peddling, especially not with something so harmful, but he knew how this business worked, and he wasn't planning on getting himself shagged based on morality, at least not yet.

He opened up, rising above the table, piecing the Mandarin together before he started speaking, "Any ideas of exact security detail on the transport or the lab? Transport type, expected armor, and the like, I mean. And of course, any preferred extraction point for your merchandise?"

[fibericon]

The Johnson looks over toward where the waitress ran off for a moment, then apparently decides she's not coming back. He looks back at Alaric and replies, "Ares Roadmaster, probably. I don't know who's on security detail, but I know you're usually looking at three people, including the driver. They're going to be traveling Zhongshaio road, then turning onto Roosevelt road to get to NTU. Both are heavy traffic, but they're going to be stopped the longest at the intersection of Roosevelt and Heping. But that's just my two cents."

[TheFederalist]

Alaric broke off eye contact with the Johnson, glancing at the mouth of the bottle to take his time to think it over, before looking back at the man to say "Well, cheese my milk, no low-traf areas? That complicates plans, though I knew a Roadmaster wouldn't be the worst of the issues."

[Volthawk]

Gamma shrugs. It seemed like Alaric had a good sense of tactics, which was appreciated. "Just means we need both speed and aggression, don't hang around. Can be handled, no problem."

[TheFederalist]

Alaric's eyes drifted towards Gamma, taking a sip from his bottle before looking at it with disgust, and put it down. He returned his eyes to Gamma, and said "High-traf is the problem. Roadmaster ain't big enough to make sure we can move without interruption. Too many cars and I don't know if we can guarantee even a low speed of movement. A low-traf would be bravo Zulu since it would make the hijacking the only part to worry about, but... that's out of the question here. Still, let's not bore our friend here with the strategy. We got any more questions?"

[RedSand]

Analog wondered if there actually was K-10 in those crates. Johnson's usually preferred to not tell their runners what they after-it was unnecessary risk that usually did nothing for them. He did his best to analyze the man as he finally spoke up from his yellow tea. "Do you know the route the transport takes? There are limited routes from A to B either way, but we'd need to hit it far enough from the supply center that they couldn't immediately mobilize and no matter where we hit it we'd need some place nearby to hide the truck once we stole it. That said, stopping the transport should be fairly easy-hack some fools sedan and have it ram into the transport's front. Maybe shoot out the tires to really make the crash spectacular."

[fibericon]

Analog's seen this trick before. Hell, it's older than the guy trying to pull it. He's pushing for the high noon smash and grab, and trying to make it seem like your idea. He's probably more interested in a higher yield than he's letting on, knowing damn well you can't just sling K-10 on a corner and expect to make a dime.

https://i.imgur.com/gIooDOD.png

"Yeah, it's a high visibility route. Long way around, so you have about 5km to play with."

[Volthawk]

Tactics and planning attacks was on of the few subjects Gamma was actually taught about, so he mulls it over a little before a question hits him. "The crates. How strong are they, how..." He pauses to think of the right way to say it in this langauge.
"How secure are they? I mean, how careful do we need to be with them or when around them?

[fibericon]

"There's a keypad lock you can probably hack, and the outside should be able to withstand small arms fire. Individual vials are set in stiff foam, so if you drop it, it shouldn't matter. That's the legal requirement, anyway. What they actually do might be different."

[TheFederalist]

With a disapproving click of his tongue, Alaric adopted graver tone as he said "I'm not a fan of smoking the transport, especially not with some poor jock driving around. Furthermore, getting a vehicle capable of carrying a few of those crates might take time. I've got a Growler, which isn't doing anything of that sort any time soon. I say we deck the 'master, put a bullet in the guards, and use the transport itself. Would be much more slick with other ways, but refining can come later. "

[RedSand]

Analog nodded to Kitkat. Avoiding collateral was usually the best bet-never know when you're going to off someone important by accident. But jobs still needed to get done. "I agree, hacking the transport itself would be ideal, but I imagine they might very well have seen that coming and found some way to take it offline. If they have, that's usually the easiest, quickest way to stop a moving vehicle. It's not particularly stealthy, but no option we have likely is and if we time it right it should resolve quicker than just shooting out the tires."

[TheFederalist]

Alaric rolled his eyes a bit, sighing with a tiny bit of frustration as a bit of emotion broke through a crack in his outer shell. Not something he'd wanted to let happen in front of the fixer, but he'd handle this. "In my flyboy days we'd just have a surplus chinook intercept, strafe and pick the motherfragger up. We'll have to make do. We could consider faking an accident to block the road in front of them, pay someone or have someone argue with another and bring the drivers into it. Use that distraction to either nab the vehicle or knock their toes in."

[Triskavanski]

Benji had a lot of things to say. Ways that he could help assist. He glanced around the meeting room, and then towards the johnson and then back to the rest. He didn't trust that johnson any where near as far as he could throw him. And since Benji really couldn't throw people...

Soon he sent a message to his team mates comlinks <<Uh..
guys, shouldn't we like.. go somewhere else to plan this.. if um.. well.. thats okay.>>

[RedSand]

Analog might've been embarassed if he'd been younger. He'd never been very good at meetings with Johnsons, or anything involving face-to-face communication. Age had just made him more stubborn on the matter, if anything else. At one point he'd even been made to talk classes on negotiations! A nuisance. In any case, this Johnson didn't seem to be the type to mind a bit of planning to his face, and Analog did take note that he had not a single objection to collateral damage. "We can deliberate on it later-though not much later. Anything else you think we might need to know, sir?" He said, turning to the Johnson.

[fibericon]

"Just one thing. You're going to be delivering the goods to the Xindian docks. Call this commcode and the pickup, along with your payment, will be ready within the hour."

He reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a folded piece of paper, then places it on the table and slides it forward.

"If you're ready to accept the job, I'm ready to shake on it."

[Syless]

Yixuan shakes her head. "The job, on its face, is acceptable, but you've been playing too much of a game with the parameters. You're trying to bait us with the promise of additional nuyen for the 'extra' crates, when you're after as many as you can get to begin with. Either play fair with what you're asking from us, or give us a real bonus on the additional objectives."

[fibericon]

Mr. Johnson stares silently at Yixuan for a moment, tapping his index finger on the table. When he speaks again, he seems to have dropped the blase attitude.

"Very well. I had hoped your association with an American would make you a bit more 'gung ho', but we can do this strictly by the book. We want maximum yield, and we believe attacking the transport en route is the best way to achieve that. Associated collateral is acceptable because of the difficulty in procuring a license for K-10 in Taiwan, not to mention the fact that any further attempts after this may very well be impossible, due to increased security. The original offer was thirty thousand for three crates. I can extend that rate to any additional crates. That makes it ten thousand per, with a minimum requirement of three."

[TheFederalist]

The fixer's sudden turn of tables elicited a smaller grin from the elven pilot, one he desperately tried to hide behind a long swig of the bottle in his hands, as he desperately balanced his urge to remain professional with the utter disgust he had built up for the "beer" that was in his hands. He brought his bottle down to the table, before regaining his composure and breaking the silence with a graveled "Back home, Mr. Johnson, we have a saying. Assumptions make an ass of you and me. Don't worry, old friend, maximum yield was what you were going to get from us either way."

[RedSand]

Analog got up to leave with the rest of them, turning on his commlink as he did. He sends, as a group text:
"We'll need a secure place, near wherever we hit the transport, to hide the score before shipping it off. Does anyone have a place or a contact for that?"

[Triskavanski]

<<I don't have a place I let people come to.>> Benji texts people as he gets up ready to head back out into the streets. They had a few hours.. he could make more powerful sprites.

[TheFederalist]

In keeping with their current line of comms, Alaric punched in his own message, turning off location-sender before he did so "I'd suggest my house, but I think neither me nor anyone else wants to use that. Rent a small storehouse? Sounds like our only option, unless others have anything better?" He paused as they walked, taking a moment to silently lament the loss of his MILSPEC firmware and the horrors of civilian GUIs, before continuing on.

[Novabomb]

Kalin leaves with the rest of them.

I'm going to scout the route, heres my com-code if you need me before I finish.

[Syless]

Yixuan lazily taps at her comlink along with the others. <Sounds good. Considering we're going the explosive route, where will I be of most use? I'm decent with a pistol, but not exactly the aggressive sort.>

[Volthawk]

Gamma also gets on the comms as he leaves, responding to Yixuan's question.

"Depends on the plan. The run won't just be the attack, we will need you for preparing and what comes afterwards. The attack and cargo will bring attention and trouble, you can work to avoid that, yes?"

[TheFederalist]

Reading each text on individual screens, Alaric responded as he walked <I don't know about explosive, but I have a plan. We drive on the route in front of the convoy, stage a crash and an argument. That should give us fair excuse to delay them from moving again as traffic starts up again, and give us time to smoke the doors, unless we get incredibly lucky and get one of them to open the door and come out to see what the commotion is. Sort of a rehash of a plan I pulled a decade back, but chums, even the old techniques do work.>, making sure to encrypt it as he sent it.

[fibericon]

Without a vehicle of his own, Kalin is reduced to scouting a 5km route on foot. Taipei has a lot of alleys and side streets, and it takes a good three hours before something useful comes up. Just off of the intersection at Heping and Roosevelt is Lane 11. It's a tight back alley area, but it connects to Chaozhou Street after a few blocks. Getting a four door through there would be a challenge, and getting an armored vehicle through there would be impossible, but a motorcycle could tear through it no sweat. Since the lane opens up directly onto the intersection, it might be a good place to stash the team while you wait for your opportunity.

The rest of you have three hours, at minimum, before receiving this information.

[Triskavanski]

<I can assist with somethings there.. I'm uh.. not much of a fighter but the matrix doesn't know I'm a dog.> says the canine human thing

[Volthawk]

"Plan works for me. Are we attacking at the intersection or somewhere else? Making crash means less need for normal delay there, still might be best to hit there anyway. What about the vehicles? Act needs team members driving, not just hacking at the time. Otherwise argument doesn't make sense. Should we steal the ones we need now?"

[fibericon]

Monday, January 13th, 2070. 21:30. 14.5 hours until the delivery launches.

The night's clear, and about as cold as it gets in Taipei. All the way down to a bone chilling 10C, or as the Americans call it, "sandal weather". Kalin has finished scouting the route. The night markets are in full swing, and the clock's ticking. If there's any prep work left to be done, now's the time.

[Novabomb]

Kalin

Found a good spot around Heping and Roosevelt

[Triskavanski]

While he's still working on his sprite, "Well that could be good. I could convince the matrix to do somethings for us too, like mess with the maps for a vehicle or enhance our own sensory equipment. I'm not good at decking but I can help a decker out."

[TheFederalist]

Alaric still had his jacket on, but unlike many of the people in Taipei, he had virtually no use for it. The weather was 10C, or as he knew it in civies, 50F, which was hardly cold for him. Wisconsin winters regularly hit negatives in Fahrenheit, not something people here could even imagine, he figured. Still, he took his mind off the basic small talk topics, and onto the big one. He had his bike up at the ready, and he knew the plan well. They still had fifteen-ish hours, however. Wasn't sure what he could do in Taipei to handle it. "Aight, buddy, but what happens if we're offline? I keep my dreg offline at all times, what if we're dealing with bogeys that like meatspace more? Got a gun, right?"

[Triskavanski]

<<Ah.. well if you're offline then I can't really do anything for you..I've got a taser though! It makes them go zipzap and dance some!>> Benji wasn't going to tell someone to go online, and he didn't like to admit that if things were completely offline then he was nearly useless.

[TheFederalist]

<<Ah.. well if you're offline then I can't really do anything for you..I've got a taser though! It makes them go zipzap and dance some!>> Benji wasn't going to tell someone to go online, and he didn't like to admit that if things were completely offline then he was nearly useless.

A raised eyebrow was Benji's only answer, before Alaric spoke up at all in response, "If we succeed here, I am personally buying and teaching you hardware." He turned his attention to the others, and said again "Alright, so if we're going to stage the accident, we need both timing, knowledge, and a few extra vehicles yeah? One of us has to go through those alleys, map out the best route. Some of us gotta go jack a vehicle. I figure I'm on driving duty here, so... Anyone wanna go steal cars with me?"

[Novabomb]

Kalin

I'll find us a route, what types of vehicles are we using?