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Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

Tran posted:

Seems at least one of you may be confused about what Ogryn are. They're just a form of acceptable human mutation. Hulking brutes with sharp teeth and dull wits.



That's kind of how I look and act when drunk.

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Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Ogryn have specially reinforced guns because sometimes they forget that they aren't really big clubs.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Casino Imperalis

You smile back, oozing confidence. “I’m here to have drinks with the Captain.”

He looked at you, eyes narrowed, his smile briefly faltering. His eyes glanced up and down at your clothes, calculating their value. Finding a number to his liking, he plastered on a grin. “Of course, madam. Right this way.” Without looking to see if you were following, he turned into the crowd, began walking towards one of the sets of ladders.

Glancing about you, you mentally catalogued the banners and sigils. You internally thanked your adept tutors; three months ago you would have had no idea who they were. Now, you could see them as regimental signs. Primarily hive worlds, primarily penal units. Savlar Chem-Dogs, Necromunda Delaque House. You wondered if they were units that the Water Dogs had fought, or came from. You needed more information.

Effortlessly, you reached out with your mind, seeking the Machine-Spirits that occupied the ether. Being Spirits, they often wandered away from their metal forms, flickering through the air on waves of electricity and binary. Here, you found a communications web of some complexity, and immediately began cracking it.

Your body moved clumsily behind the servant as your mind worked its way through the code. It was an interesting puzzle, of rather excellent encoding. You had nearly reached the interior wall of the building when your mind got through the web, nimbly avoiding several alarm traps. It was the internal security feed - communication and cameras both.

Quickly, you began working your way through it. Even as your feet were climbing the ladder, your eyes were looking through a dozen lenses, ears listening to a dozen voices. It was a disorienting effect, managed only by your years of training. Several things immediately stood out as important.

Firstly, many of the card games had ringers. Professional players paid by the house, and told to act like a normal visitor. Even beyond their considerable skill, they had access to visual and audio feeds, allowing them to see other people’s hands, get advice on plays. It was virtually impossible for someone here to win, unless the house wanted to lure you to bid more.

The security team was actually more impressive than you expected. An emergency response team of half a dozen Bullgryn - close combat specialist Ogryn, armed with Power Mauls. What sounded like a platoon or more of Nallani with … Cadian NCOs and Officers. Really quite impressive. Devries must have been building this power base for years.

Your foot slipped on the last rung of the ladder as you received the final bit of information. All the servants in the room, older men dressed in blue, had the same face. Your skin crawled as you realized - Devries was making use of Replicae. If they weren’t tech-heresy, they were halfway there. Replicae split their soul with every copy, and if they were made in any number, had no soul at all.

You did a quick count, just in case. It looked like only a few had been made, thank the Omnissiah. Assuming all of them were here. You suppressed a shiver. Soulless men. Replicae were considered Abhuman, and for good reason. Not least because of their high rate of mutation. You wondered at what mutations this batch might of had, and was increasingly disturbed by Devries.

He so openly associated at the line of legality, even using half forbidden tech like the Replicae. You knew some units tried to use them, but they were without souls, and suffered the most terrible luck - signs of the God-Emperor’s disfavor. Unconsciously, you made the sign of the Omnissiah. You hoped their curse hadn’t gotten to you, even though it seemed to have spread to most people who came here.

As you ascended to the second floor, you disconnected from the ether. Disappointedly, Devries didn’t seem to trust his quartermaster or logistic records to the Machine-Spirits. Nor was his schedule or calendar available. It seemed he had kept them to paper records for security, which made your job that much harder. Sound distracted you from your thoughts - the murmur of hand drums and piping of flutes.

The second floor was much better furnished, built for low-nobility and mid-level officers. Here and there were scattered dancers, and music came from carefully out of sight. Devries seemed to prefer the debauched lifestyle, or at least the appearance of it. Idly, you wondered which one it was.

The Replicae brought you to one particular set of tables, bowed, and walked away. As it brushed by you, you only stopped a full-body shudder by sheer force of will. Forcibly, you brought your mind to the matter at hand - Captain Devries and his retinue. You straightened your posture, adopted a position of strength, and took them in.

Starting on your left, the Comissar. He was young, chiseled. Looked like he stepped out of a promotion poster. His eyes, though, were glazed, hands digging into the arms of his chair. This was probably his first posting, the fool. He looked young enough to be right out of the Academy, and you wondered if Devries had enough influence to select a Commissar, or if he had just taken advantage of the opportunity this one offered.

Three Abhumans. You barely repressed curling your lip - the fact that Devries chose to put mutants in his command staff said enough about his deviance. One was a female Bullgryn, and your eyes swept her weapons with practiced ease. Stormbolter, Mars variant. Underbarrel belt-fed grenade launcher. Heavy carapace armor. Power Maul. Looked like she was his bodyguard.

A bird-like thing, perhaps a vulture. Nothing in the face, but in the folds of the neck, the posture … Avian. This impression was only reinforced by the metal spines rising from his back, like a metal corona. His clothes were all spikes and feathers, purple and scarlet. He had a machete at his belt, and a long sniper rifle his too-long fingers played with.

Some sort of snake variant. Sea-green scaled armor, overlapping plates. Showed skin, enough to distract those who were concerned about such things. Your eyes noticed good flexibility in the metal though - she looked like she could be a contortionist. Armed with kukris. A close-in fighter, then.

Sprawled languidly between them all, Captain Devries. Pale skin, pale blond hair, violet eyes. Probably from some dark world or Underhive. Blue lips, likely from the poor circulation given by the drug he was smoking. Narcotic, unless you missed your guess. He had unusually good focus though. Interestingly, a gas mask and small air tank hung from his belt - perhaps sign of paranoia?

His clothes were carefully tailored and cut - still fitting the requirements of a Captain’s uniform, but still giving the impression of wealth and taste. He wore blush and mascara, meshing well with his blue lips. Looking closer, you could see the tight skin of rejuv treatments, possibly several. All in all, he looked every inch the fop.

All in all, he looked like a killer in clown paint. You wondered how many people it fooled.

He smiled lazily at you, passing the pipe around the circle to you. “My dear Lady. What brings you to my humble abode?” His voice was high pitched, with an unplaceable accent.
You declined the pipe with a wave, and he shrugged as it was put in the center. “I’m from the Beast. You know it?”
Devries gestured languidly. “Of course, of course. Our noble support ship. What can we do for you?”
“It was more what I could do for you. I’ve worked on the ship for a long time, and the Quartermaster and I have … come to an understanding.”

You smiled humorlessly at each other.

“Well, that does sound promising. Let me introduce you, and we can talk shop.” He pointed at the bird. “Akkad Nacisse, my XO,” At the snake - “and Crista Ehnia, my aide-de-camp.” She licked the air with a split tongue. “Minnie, my bodyguard.” The Bullgryn shifted at her name, but didn’t say anything. “And Commissar Payna.”

The boy shook his head, half shouted. “We should shoot them! Shoot all the traitors!” Devries smiled easily at you. “Don’t mind him. Just missing his medicine.” A nun approached, one of the Silent Quiet Sisters. She stuck an IV bag in him, and he slumped down into the chair again. “See? No problem at all. And you are … ?”

You paused. “Amacita.”
“Splendid. Now, what did you have in mind?”
As you spoke, he opened a deck of cards, began dealing without looking.
“My understanding with the Quartermaster means I have access to a whole store of the Rogue-Trader’s goods. I lack a local distribution network, and yours was the best name that came up.”
You took the cards that were handed to you. You had a hunch how this would play out, but ‘falling’ for his con would let you follow up with your own.

“The game is Tonk. Familiar?”
“Passingly. What’s the bid?”
“A thousand Thrones.” He said it easily, like it was nothing.
You shrugged indifferently. “Can’t say I brought that much with me.”
Devries waved. “Don’t worry, I’ll loan you the seed money. After we go in business, you can pay me back.”

You gave a hopeful smile. “We’re in business?”
“Let’s play a few rounds first, I like seeing the style of my partners.”
“That makes sense. Perhaps a drink?”
The Captain gestured, and a servant came over. Not one of the Replicae, thankfully.
“Wormwood Spirits, with Tincture of Laudanum. Quite enjoyable.”
You took what was handed to you, sipped lightly. Your filtering system should handle most typical mixes, but just in case. Your eyes wandered to the servant, and you did a doubletake.

There was heavy scarring on the scalp, and his eyes were utterly vacant. Lobotomy.

You looked back at Devries, who was waiting for it. He smiled at you. “Lovely, aren’t they? Cheaper than servitors, and they make such a good message. They are castrated as well. Servants should know their place.” He laughed, a high pitched sound.

You joined him. “Anyone I might know?”
Devries shrugged. “Debt slaves, mostly.”

You played a hand, won. The table cheered you. “Beginner’s luck! Quite impressive, you’ll be worth working with.”
“Now we’re in business?”
“Another hand. Another drink!”
You won again, and a third time. The pile of Thrones was beginning to look quite impressive in front of you.

Devries was looking dejected, folding his cards, said, “I’ll be out of business if I keep playing with you. One more?”
You chuckled. “I’m always happy to take your money.”
He dealt again. “So, what were you thinking of offering?”
“The Beast gets around. Archaeotech, xenotech. Grey or Black Market Goods. Abhumans, chattel. Its a big ship, we probably have whatever the locals want.”
“I do have to say an interest in xenotech - or, as you’ve noticed exotic abhumans. Ah, I win this one.”

You glanced at the cards, at his eyes. There was a faint sheen over them. Ah. Memory augments, and elegantly installed at that. You barely noticed the scars at the temples. You reached out with your mind, felt nothing. Even more interesting, it had a physical jack. A paranoid man, was Devries.

“So you do. Another?”
“Of course.”
The pile of Thrones slowly vanished from your side, stacked on his. You made a show of hopeful desperation. “Double or nothing? I think I can come back from this.” After all, a debt that couldn’t be enforced was no debt at all, and you had ten thousand troops at call.

He was eager to help, and the doubling happened again and again. Soon you owed ten thousand thrones to him, with nothing to show for it. His smile vanished, face went hard. “Well, Amacita. We seem to have a problem.”
“I.. I can come back from this.”
“We aren’t playing any more. I want the money.”
“... Give me time.”
His eyes became sapphires, all cold fire. “You come to my house and try to walk away from a ten-k debt?”
“No! … no. I just had a run of bad luck, is all.”

The snake shifted. “Captain, perhaps we could use her.”
He glanced at her. “Oh?”
“We’ve been having trouble getting access to certain unique medicinals. Use her to get it. If she fails, no loss.”
Devries looked at you. “Well? Think you can do a break-in?”
You nodded eagerly. “Yes, of course. I’m not a welch.”
“Good, good. And if you show your stuff, maybe we can go into business.”

What do you do?
A. Hue and cry. Hes cheating and you can prove it with his memory augment
B. Open fire. Your palm implant will have surprise, you can bullseye the Ogryn and the Snake before anyone knows what happens
C. Play along. Incriminating him in a vice is still the plan, and he’s walking right along it.
D. Do the reveal. Tell him how you know hes a con, and you can respect that as you are too. Thats why you should work together.
E. Something Else.


Oh man I loving love this character. I hope he makes it

Loel fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jan 31, 2015

generally I prefer
Apr 17, 2006

C, we're playing a long game here, no need to raise a ruckus until we have something to nail him to the door with.

mepstein73
Sep 18, 2012

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.
C as well. But definitely try and figure out where his jacks plug in; they've got to be somewhere close by. He wouldn't want to leave his memories out of sight for long. Might I recommend eventually stealing those as evidence? (I'm picturing this like a HP Pensieve, but digital).|

Edit: Also! If he's using memory augmentation, the drugs are probably there to deaden those. If he's absorbing 2x the information, then he'd probably be getting some headaches (or worse) without full augmentations. That explains the drug use, and we can use this: Implant a virus in his Pensieve, to make him absorb even more. Like, 10x normal. Drugs aren't gonna help unless he really ODs, and I want to see him neurofry.

mepstein73 fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Jan 29, 2015

paragon1
Nov 22, 2010

FULL COMMUNISM NOW
C too early to play our hand.

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

Man I feel bad for that poor drugged out Commissar. :saddowns: You don't just keep the poor guys as pets.

C for now but I wanna shoot this dude in the face already and all his buds.

My bet's they're injecting him with kalma, poor dude :( maybe obscura if they're nasty. Or maybe just generic drugs and I'm looking to deep into it haha.

Successful Businessmanga fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Jan 29, 2015

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
I love the virus idea but that might be tipping our hand. Just C for now.

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN
C for now

We have a magic ancient cogitator, we can use it to help create a virus to slip in to his memory implant. Even if he's hardwired he has to plug in to something networked.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

paragon1 posted:

C too early to play our hand.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


Calm as we can manage, like.

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver
C. I support keeping an eye out for the physical location of his memories, but if we do find them let's not do anything with it. Yet.

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
Well, this is awkward now. What's the fastest way we can set the whole building and everyone in it on fire?

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

C

Lets

Lets help out the babby commissar??

I have no hat based motivations at all. None. Hats.

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
This commissar is a failure and therefore a write-off. Under different circumstances, I might suggest helping him out and covering his rear end to earn a favor, but he seems pretty fried upstairs so we might not get that much from that arrangement. Certainly not worth going too far out of our way for him.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
I don't suppose we could ask a battalion of Earthshakers to land some rounds on these exact coordinates...

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

I don't suppose we could ask a battalion of Earthshakers to land some rounds on these exact coordinates...

Call in a favor or two with the nallani to "fudge" some numbers?

How about a strike from the [i]Beast [i/]?

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

Chantilly Say posted:

This commissar is a failure and therefore a write-off. Under different circumstances, I might suggest helping him out and covering his rear end to earn a favor, but he seems pretty fried upstairs so we might not get that much from that arrangement. Certainly not worth going too far out of our way for him.

We'd be doing the commissariat a solid by turning over one of their embarrassing moments! :commissar: They'll go "Good job Ohone here is an honorary Cap and Bolter shoot this moron in the face"

e: More likely they'd just detox him and reassign him :v: a lot of work goes into making a commissar and they aren't sent into the field proper alone until they've proven themselves capable.

Successful Businessmanga fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Jan 29, 2015

Tsyni
Sep 1, 2004
Lipstick Apathy
C

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
Hmm if we get another hellgun implanted in our other palm does that count as dual wielding

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Just play it nice and Cool, its too early to show our hand and we have a number of methods of dealing with him from summoning the Commissariat to playing the inquisition card to shooting him in the face.

Its obvious he's careful and experienced enough to survive and gather the resources that he has so he'd probably be prepared for any unexpected attacks not to mention who knows how many xeno artifacts he's got hidden on him.

We're here to make money so let's wait till he reveals his master plan before making our move. After all Devries has no way of actually enforcing payment, given that he can't kill us as an official emissary of the Beast and he knows that once we leave here, we can always bugger off back to the ship where he has no influence.

There's also no helping the Commissar since even if we do free him, he'd just get :commissar: by the brass for getting in the position in the first place.

Skellybones
May 31, 2011




Fun Shoe
Getting a Commissar in the good books with Ohone would be really useful, particularly with future Imperial Guard interactions (assuming he's not permanently incapacitated from whatever happened here)

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!

A Darker Porpoise posted:

We'd be doing the commissariat a solid by turning over one of their embarrassing moments! :commissar: They'll go "Good job Ohone here is an honorary Cap and Bolter shoot this moron in the face"

e: More likely they'd just detox him and reassign him :v: a lot of work goes into making a commissar and they aren't sent into the field proper alone until they've proven themselves capable.

True, but then they might start asking us questions and that would be annoying.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
C

I'm not exactly happy that our plan was to get desperately in debt to this guy as our way in.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Volmarias posted:

C

I'm not exactly happy that our plan was to get desperately in debt to this guy as our way in.

We're just reenacting Ohone's Eleven

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
Is ten thousand a lot, for us? I really have no idea. We haven't been trying to get rich while we've been running around, at any rate.

This guy seems to have turned out to be significant so I suppose it's possible he actually has us in a bad position now; we're still... here for the trucks? Here to investigate him? If he's this rich, do we get to keep his money after we kill him? Do we want to keep any of his retinue alive and take them for ourselves?

Switching tracks, if one of our hands is a gun, can the other be a retractable spike? I'm picturing the fight scene from Robocop with Boddicker at the steel mill. Hidden, until we need it not to be, of course.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Firstly, I just wanna say how :3: I am at how everyone hates Devries. I was going for 'human monster' so its awesome everyone is getting emotionally invested in it.

I had originally planned for him to just be a person who cheated at cards, but the plot bunny kept growing on me. In the 'Only War' system, its important to have a rival, so I think he is fitting the slot in nicely.

Don't worry too much about the money debt. We're transitioning from 'Dark Heresy' where money is important to 'Rogue Trader' where its more of a favor economy. At level 1, you were getting 500/month, which is the highest pay grade (as a noble). Right now though, you are a literal general. The Imperium is paying you for thousands of troops, so graft is easy. Even beyond that, we can do a mini adventure for more money whenever you want.

Besides all that though - how is Devries going to enforce his debt on you? He has a few Ogryn and Cadians. You have ten thousand troops. He's a Captain. You are a (brevet) General. What is he going to do, ask the chain of command to enforce a gambling debt where you can prove he cheated?

His games work for the poor bastards who don't have resources. Imperial Guardsmen, naive nobles. You are neither. You knew it was a cheating game going in, and wanted to see where he took it. Now he's asking you to do something illegal, which you can build off of.

Just as planned.

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

LowellDND posted:

Firstly, I just wanna say how :3: I am at how everyone hates Devries. I was going for 'human monster' so its awesome everyone is getting emotionally invested in it.

Not important, but it's nagging me to no end and you skipped it before. Did you chose the name at random or where you thinking of another human monster?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Yup, he totally started as an expy of Piter. Blue lips, drug addiction, memory augments, etc.

I've added some Draco Malfoy and Valentine Wolfe (from Deathstalker), and he's developing nicely into his own.

Pump it up! Do it!
Oct 3, 2012
C taking over his operation and bodyguards when we dispose of him would be pretty cool.

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
Would adding abhumans to our retinue make us radical? I'm never sure quite where/how abhumans fit into the Imperium these days.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Chantilly Say posted:

Would adding abhumans to our retinue make us radical? I'm never sure quite where/how abhumans fit into the Imperium these days.

Ogryns and such are well accepted, and ratlings (think dirty hobbits who like to gamble) too. Some of the most respectable people in the Imperium have Ogryn bodyguards. At worst, the locals might eye you suspiciously after a particularly loud and smelly ogre fart.

Half-animal guys? :commissar:

Cannon_Fodder
Jul 17, 2007

"Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc
Vile and somewhat fascinating.

Lore-wise, how does this guy get away with so much banned/frowned upon bullshit?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Cannon_Fodder posted:

Vile and somewhat fascinating.

Lore-wise, how does this guy get away with so much banned/frowned upon bullshit?

He's old and politically powerful, and goes just up to the line of full Heresy.

And people who investigate him end up like the poor Commissar. Or the servants.

Cannon_Fodder
Jul 17, 2007

"Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc

LowellDND posted:

He's old and politically powerful, and goes just up to the line of full Heresy.

And people who investigate him end up like the poor Commissar. Or the servants.

Thanks!

C.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
It's also worth noting how people get classified as abhuman rather than mutant. If you're not quite human, but your parents looked like you, and your kids look like you, and there's no sudden turning point at which your family line went from human to not-quite, the Imperium is more-less fine with you, and regards you as an unfortunate product of natural human evolution. If you or your family mutate rapidly, or have extreme deviations from the Sacred Human Form, it's curtains for you - you're most likely tainted by chaos or xeno influences, and they aren't going to wait for confirmation.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Just a little something before class

Thé à la menthe

Devries smiled companionably, the mask back in place. Or perhaps the previous face of ice and metal was the mask - in many ways, he struck you as the consummate sociopath, able to shift emotions and viewpoints as he needed, without any concern for consistency or the reality of things. You were struck by the sudden image of him as an animal of hunger, without higher goals. A parasite worming its way into the heart of the Imperial Guard.

The vulture shifted, pulled some papers out from a bag. His voice was nasal, shrill. Repulsively mutant. “The target is a nearby drug warehouse. Its primarily used to distribute goods to the hospitals and field clinics. Our local contact has recently developed scruples, and we are in the middle of several operations that can’t wait. We need you to go in, collect the materials, and come back. If you get caught, of course, you will be subjected to the full extent of Imperial law.”

You looked at the maps interestedly. Standard prefab buildings, of course - there were a million of them in the war - but the security system looked particularly elaborate. You recognized many of the sub-components, and how they were placed. “What’s the drug?” The vulture and snake looked at each other, then you. “Its labeled Bone. Don’t worry about what its for, just bring it back. We need two canisters.”

You sat back in your seat, thinking. Bone was actually BONE - Biochemical Ogryn Neural Enhancement. It was used to turn Ogryn into nearly human intelligence, crafty and strong. As such, it was highly restricted by the Mechanicus - no one wanted Abhumans getting above themselves, and only Ogryn of particular loyalty were selected for it. The fact that Devries wanted some suggested some very interesting illicit experiments.

You pointed at the map. “Any guards?”
“Some combat servitors. Not very smart, but nasty in a fight. You’ll want to avoid them.”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“We will have a truck nearby to pick you up as you leave. Don’t think you can come back without the BONE, they’ll check.”
Snake narrowed her eyes. “Don’t think you can just bail on this operation, either. You owe the Captain ten-K, and this is to pay your debts. Try to run, and you’ll end up serving wormwood with the others.” She gestured to the servants, who were staring vacantly.

Keep playing the frightened noble. You smiled nervously. “Of course. I want to help my friends.”
“I’m sure you do. The second sun just set, so you only have a couple hours. You’d best get moving, the Captain isn’t a patient man.”
As you left the den, you wondered how much of that scene had been improvised, and how much had been preplanned. Were they just planning to spring this operation on the first debtor that came by? Or were they really in a time sensitive situation? The whole thing did seem unreasonably rushed - maps readied, but no one to follow them.

In many ways, the base could be considered a city that never sleeps. Even though the suns had set, and only the most rudimentary lighting had been set up to replace it, the armies still worked. Much of it was recreation - drinking or fighting or competitions of strength and skill. Much of it was preparation for the days ahead - repairing weapons, counting ammo, fixing straps and belts and all the wear and tear that was war.

No one really noticed one more person, walking by herself at night. You were invited to a few games of chance, a few competitions of darts or knife throwing, but you smiled and kept on your way. The warehouse was at the intersection of several roads, and you looked at it thoughtfully from the shadows as the occasional truck drove by.

Three stories. Rooftop window access. Two ground entrances. Alarm system connected to the wall. You couldn’t see inside the building, but you expected guards. Not like Vulture would tell you full information, or was even likely to have it. You reached out with your mind, seeking Machine-Spirits. Camera system. Alarm system. Exterior/interior lights. Environmental controls.

You waited for the traffic to slow to nothing, and then decided to

A. Work with the Machine-Spirits. You wanted intel on the inside, and could possibly provoke or redirect whatever guards were inside.
B. Climb/grapple up to the rooftop. There were good shadows there, and was less likely to be watched.
C. Faster is better. Smash through the front entrance, trust you can turn off servitors as you see them, get the job done before any response team can arrive.
D. Hack the side entrance. It was probably where the clerks entered, and would likely be closer to your goal.
E. Something Else

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
A+B


They'll probably have eyes on us to see what we're capable of. Sticking to the shadows and making sure we aren't followed or traced would be a great idea.

Do a quick assessment of our surroundings and see if anyone is following us before we do anything overt. Once we're inside, identify the easiest access points for someone to follow us, station a servitor there to surprise and terminate with extreme prejudice.

Oh, and pick up a tracking device before we enter or leave, we'll want to trace the truck once we deliver the BONE (if we do deliver it, any chance we can grab canisters and fill it with fake poo poo? maybe reverse the compound so it decreases intelligence?)

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

A+B


They'll probably have eyes on us to see what we're capable of. Sticking to the shadows and making sure we aren't followed or traced would be a great idea.

Do a quick assessment of our surroundings and see if anyone is following us before we do anything overt. Once we're inside, identify the easiest access points for someone to follow us, station a servitor there to surprise and terminate with extreme prejudice.

Oh, and pick up a tracking device before we enter or leave, we'll want to trace the truck once we deliver the BONE (if we do deliver it, any chance we can grab canisters and fill it with fake poo poo? maybe reverse the compound so it decreases intelligence?)


+1!

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Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
A

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