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Stormcrow ::I suppose it's time I earned my keep, then.:: Stormcrow subvocalizes back, as he walks a short way from the trucks. He hadn't been running in the shadows long, but hostage situations were something in which he had practice, they being one of the situations serious enough for Research Unit 13 to be called in. He is back on familiar ground. He kneels, and in a low, droning voice begins chanting a prayer to the 8 million kami in Japanese, extolling the virtue of their mission and the spiritual purity of his actions and begging them to send him aid. The prayer was just a formality, of course, but the words calmed the local ether and eased the way for the spirit's journey. Plus, the kami were old-fashioned. They usually appreciated the attention to form. Perhaps that was a good thing, as he has several false starts and has to strain a bit more than he was expecting. It is as though the island itself is resisting. But at last, the call gets through. A chill breeze blows, whipping up dust from the ground, cool and crisp like a night wind on a mountaintop. When it settles, a seven foot bird man stands by the road, eyeing Stormcrow quizzically.  It is a daitengu, a variety of spirit the Huk probably know well, given that the Japancorps were fond of using them for frontline assault troops. "You call, and I come, Kannushi," it said in Japanese. "I do hope you've a good reason to bring me to a forsaken place like this." "Patience, honored kami," Stormcrow answered. "I promise this won't take long." ::The spirit can hide us as we make our approach on the building. Once inside the rebels should go down quickly. It's that bomb that concerns me. Noise, is there anyway you can spoof the signal from his biomonitor to keep it from triggering the explosives? Otherwise this could get tricky, as we'll need to figure out who the leader is and knock him out first.:: Failed my initial summoning roll, but didn't take any drain from it. On my second roll I rolled a 4 and the spirit rolled a 2, so I have two services. I'm going to use the first to get it to use its Conceal power to cover our approach, which gives a -6 to perception rolls to notice us. The second I'll hold in reserve but will probably use to get it to kill some rebels. I'm also going to cast a Force 2 Enhance Reflexes spell on myself, sustained through my Focus. Rolled a 5 but since it's only Force 2 I get two hits, enough for +1 initiative and +1 initiative passes. Daitengu's stat block: pre:Daitengu (Rank 6 Spirit of Air) Daitengu appear as winged men with bird features, generally wearing medieval Japanese clothing, and carrying katana. They are surrounded by an aura of preternatural cold that causes frost to condense on nearby objects. Body 4 Agility 10 Response 10 Strength 3 Charisma 6 Intuition 6 Logic 6 Will 6 Edge 6 Essence 6 Magic 6 Initiative 15 Initiative Passes 2 Movement 15/75 (Flight) Skills Assensing 6 Astral Combat 6 Dodge 6 Exotic Ranged Weapon (Elemental Attack) Flight 6 Perception 6 Unarmed Combat 6 Powers Accident Astral Form Concealment Confusion Engulf Materialization Movement (Flight) Sapience Search Optional Powers Elemental Aura Fear Baby Babbeh fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Apr 15, 2013 |
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Apr 15, 2013 11:10
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On the Clock Snipey approaches the office building. It would be crazy to creep forward without concealment under normal circumstances, but the elf's ruthenium armour cloaks his advance, mimicking the asphalt underfoot as he moves. You reach the building--you believe unseen. Closer now, you see there is a well-concealed camera in the access panel beside the main entry but it appears to still be focussed on the wounded guard. Most surveillance cameras are only a resolution sufficient to identify faces. They don't expect to come up against an $8000 chameleon suit. The polarised windows are frustratingly reflective. You can hear a few brief sentences spoken from inside the admin building... but it's hard to make out individual words above the groans of the nearby guard who is dying in the middle of the parking lot. "Indeed we have a computer specialist," Kale whispers back, exchanging your commcodes. "Patching you into the secured network now." Noise manages to search out the booster node, keeping an eye on the blueprints and searching the south side of the upper floor. It's been switched to hidden mode, but you find it before long. There's a password lock on it. You imagine you'll need at least a security account if you want access to cameras--user accounts would likely only be good for reading reports on water quality and other mundanities of the desalinisation process. "I cannot help with advanced accounts," the fixer reports. "For security reasons which seemed quite sensible when we were concerned with corporate espionage and not... this, those codes beyond user-level are on a need-to-know basis. Only the chief engineer on site holds the admin password. It sounds as though he is currently occupied lying on a grenade. If we can rescue the guard--or find the other one still living--they will know the security account code, however." OR you could just brute-force hack it, but most people don't think like a hacker. "As for the Panthers, as I mentioned they are largely concerned with traditional terrorist tactics. They are the more militant branch of the fractured Huk movement, frontline soldiers hardened by the insurrection against more advanced Japanese forces. But if they have a hacker on this operation, then I would guess they are merely competent as opposed to frighteningly skilled. The best tech brains joined the Araknida cyberterrorists." At Nail's request, Kale shuffles through folders in his commlink. "Access to the doors, however, will not be an issue," he says, flicking a file to your comms. "Run that code and you will have the same access as our employees." It looks like there is a roof hatch above the elevator in the main office building--a maintenance shaft. It'd lead down into the elevator and might be a good way to get the element of surprise. There's also a maintenance access on top of the storage tank but that's probably of limited use unless you're looking to go for a swim in 4.5megalitres of water. Meanwhile, Stormcrow reaches into the other planes. The collected sorrow of Yomi Island protests the spirit's presence but eventually the thing breaks through. "Ffwcio," Gerraint swears unbelievingly as the little Welsh driver stares on. The spirit does not know why it has come back to this place to kill Pinoy again but it stands ready to do your bidding. - If you do want to climb up onto the second storey it's a Strength+Climbing[6, 1 combat turn] extended test. You'll be fine as long as you don't glitch. If you DO do something like pop out of the elevator shaft, that will totally get you surprise advantage. Stormcrow looks like you took 2S from the first summon attempt (DV on spirit drain is their hitsx2, see p 188), second one soaked fully. Noise, if you want to do as Stormcrow suggests and spoof the biomonitor signal you'll need to find and hack into it first. This is harder than finding the booster node (which was marked on the blueprints) because you're not sure where the bastard actually is and there are so many wireless objects like kettles, fridges, computers and comms floating about. For this you roll Electronic Warfare+Scan [15, 1 combat turn] extended test, and for this kind of difficult test the rule on p64 would apply: Each successive roll reduces the dice pool by 1, and if you go down to zero dice then the action fails. Alternatively, if you can get an idea of where the hostage taker is you can just do the simple Electronic Warfare+Scan[4] test same as you did with the booster node. Map:  Note 1: For this mission you get 2 karma for each hostage that survives. Hard mode: You get an additional 2 karma if you manage to save the wounded guard, but he's going to bleed out in 1 minute. Note 2: To clarify my map: The square at the bottom is the top floor of the admin building (so the stairs and lift on the ground floor lead to the second floor). I think everyone picked up on this but just making sure no one thought there was a weird floating building in the forest outside the perimeter  Note 3: 'Ffwcio' seems like a made-up parody of a Welsh word but apparently it is indeed Welsh for 'gently caress'.
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Apr 15, 2013 16:00
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Snipey I knew I shoulda gotten a radar system when I had the yen, I knew it... Focus. Snipey inhales deeply, exhales, and sends an AR message to the team: ::Hidey ho, chummers! I'm at the building. They got their eyes on that guard. Camera at the entrance.:: At another groan of pain from the wounded guard, Snipey rolls his eyes and activates his Select Sound Filter. He focuses on the conversation inside and attempts to hear it better (Perception (audio, conversation): 12d6t5 2) while creeping southward to get closer (Infiltration, moving south (if needed): 14d6t5 3). If the conversation is interesting, he'll pipe it through to the rest of the team. Wasn't sure if I needed to make a second infiltration roll. If I don't, ignore this one, it's ... kind of crappy.
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Apr 15, 2013 19:12
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Noisechildren overboard posted:On the Clock Noise grits his teeth as he gathers up his gear, loading his weapons and slinging the AK-97 over his back. drat, drat, drat - gotta move faster. Won't be able to sleep well for a while if you let some poor schmuck get mulched for doing his job on the wrong day. Too many kids without moms and dads already because of this hellhole island. The world slows down as Noise triggers his wired reflexes. His eyes flicker across a strobing mass of AR windows and scrolling ideograms, moving too fast for an unaugmented mind to follow. The booster node's firewall resolved into clear focus amid the pulsing AR data as custom icebreakers came online, ravenous datavore engines and script-injection talons seeking out weaknesses. One shot to get this right. Better make it count. Okay, let's get this show on the road. Getting access to the plant's booster node will hopefully give me access to cameras so we can locate the gunmen. That will make subsequent tasks much easier. Let's go nuts - I have ideas and would really appreciate some advanced access to make it work. First, Analyze Icon to tell me about the node and any lurking icons, prioritizing Firewall, running programs, active personae and alert status. Analyze booster node: 9d6t5 4 successes Second, load up Exploit and Stealth and start Hacking On The Fly to establish an admin account on the booster node, boosting the attempt with Edge for more dice and the Rule of Six. Hacking (Exploit) 5 (7) + Exploit 5 + Codeslinger 2 + Edge 5 = HACK THE PLANET: 19d6t5 5 Rule of Six = Rule of Six: 4d6t5 1 Hack #2: 14d6t5 4 Hack #3: 14d6t5 5 So, I've accumulated 15 total successes in one Combat Turn of AR hacking (if needed), thanks to my wired reflexes.  Once I'm in on my fake account, my first priority is to access all camera feeds - I want to know where any hostages, gunmen (especially the leader) and booby traps are. Next, I want to Edit external camera feeds to show a loop of the current, empty exterior of the plant with a correctly advancing time stamp, if applicable. Edit external camera feeds: 9d6t5 4 successes The windows are a problem - if the polarized windows can be controlled through the booster node, I may be able to do something there. It kind of depends on how the gunmen are equipped though. Children Overboard, please give me a reality check on this idea - if the rebels are using visual AR interfaces (contacts, glasses, cybereyes, etc.), I think it would be a neat trick to resculpt the interior AR overlay to cover their side of all the windows with an innocuous loop of the exterior. This, in combination with the spirit's Concealment and our own skills, should let us safely move across the exterior of the plant. If that works, we might even be able to get to the wounded guard safely in time to save him. Obviously, I would need to figure out what gear the rebels have to make this work. Alternately, could I depolarize or reverse the window polarity and plausibly make it look like a system malfunction or something? Once I see what's going on inside, I'll work out a solution to our grenade problem. Baby Babbeh posted:Stormcrow Nodding absently as he tracks the hack-in-progress and secures his gear as he fires off a response. Sounds like Stormcrow has done this sort of thing before. Glad someone knows what they're doing! ::If I can pin down the leader's PAN, I should be able to take care of the dead-man switch, but I'm worried about him just command-detonating the grenades once we hit whatever building he's in. I've got a couple of ideas to take care of that, but I need to see what their network setup looks like before I try anything. Stand by.::
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Apr 16, 2013 02:21
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Stormcrow ::Right, that's why we hit them hard, we hit them fast, and we hit them by surprise. The fact that he's got a dead man switch means he's probably relying on his dead man switch, and that means he's probably not in there with his finger hovering over a detonator button. If we know who to shoot for we can probably geek the bastard before he can move.:: He turned to the spirit. "I need you to conceal us from the people in that building, then stick close in the astral," he said. "There's some people I will probably need you to kill." ::Once concealment is up and the cameras are down, I'm going to try to get to the guard in the driveway and heal him. :: Absently, he touched the side of his head, where his hairline just barely hid a thin scar. ::He doesn't need to die just because these corp assholes think he's expendable.:: Can I reach him before he bleeds out if I sprint? If so I'm going to go over there and use Heal on him.
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Apr 16, 2013 03:13
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Natalya Equipment checked and loaded, Natalya reached back and pulled her jumpsuit's hood over her head before pulling the built-in mask over her face, then sent a mental command through her commlink to activate the ruthenium polymer weave. The vivid purple and blue pattern melted away into solid white then faded away into invisibility, the casing on her legs following suit. Within moments only her eyes were visible, a rippling outline as she moved the only thing betraying her presence. ::Once you're in the system, see if there are any break-sensors in the fence and disable them,:: she subvocalized to Noise, ::and patch me in to any camera feeds you pick up. I'm heading south to the tower. Don't be too long now boys. You don't want to miss all the fun, do you?:: And with a laugh she vanished into the jungle, heading for the building from the other direction. I'm going to cut through the jungle and swing around to the south side of the office building just outside the perimeter fence. I'm assuming that with tools it's possible to cut a gap in the fence to allow entrance but I don't want to do that until Noise checks and disables any security that might trigger an alarm if that happens. Alternately, how high is the perimeter and how close is the nearest tree? If all else fails I can climb up on the latter and jump over the former. For now, an Infiltration check to approach the building gives me 5 successes. Natalya has both the equivalent of a Chameleon Suit and 5 points in Thermal Damping if that becomes relevant.
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Apr 16, 2013 04:15
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Nail As his AR runs through a checklist and confirms that all his cyberware is fully functioning with no problems, "If we need to swarm them, I suggest we take a couple different ways in. I really want to see the cameras before we plan much, we don't know where the hostages even are at this point. But I'll take the roof and drop down through the elevator shaft, one of you going with me from that route would be great. "Once we get the intel, we can head out with the spirit thing hiding us." Knowing that this was their shot at showing Newport that they can work together and be a useful asset for his corporation, Nail grabs a bottle of pills from his bag, removes one pill and pops it into his mouth and dry swallows it. Taking hit of Cram. For the next 5 hours Nail gets +1 reaction and +1 IP for a total of 3 IPs counting cyberware. Still want to see locations of guards/hostages in the building before busting in, but no problem with heading to the building and saving the guard along the way. Just to speed things along, children overboard can roll climbing for me whenever we get to the building. I've got a grapple gun with me to help with climbing(10 dice to climb) along with a miniwelder to get access to the elevator shaft if we need to cut in.
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Apr 16, 2013 04:31
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MysticMongol is on probation for 12 more hours. I'll update when I get home, but one quick thing: Noise does not appear to have a Stealth program. It's a vital bit of software and since we're still in the first mission, do you want to retrospectively purchase one now? (or have I missed it on your sheet somewhere?)
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Apr 16, 2013 12:51
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Also the reason I bring this up is because Noise's matrix perception test revealed the booster was a rating 4 node with an idling security account logged on (the account is currently focused elsewhere but without a stealth program running the system's R4 firewall will almost certainly notice you break in!)
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Apr 16, 2013 13:02
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children overboard posted:MysticMongol is on probation for 12 more hours. No, I absolutely bought a Stealth 5 program. I was looking at my Chummer files last night while I typed all of those words. I must have goofed up the copy/paste somehow. I'll edit my sheet. Edit: What's the Signal rating on your average 2070's era hand grenade, anyway? If I'm within range, I could use Capture Wireless Traffic to make the job of spoofing the grenades a bit easier. Emerald Rogue fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Apr 16, 2013 |
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Apr 16, 2013 13:08
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Vincent Coll Vincent has been following quietly behind the rest of the group, eyes closed whenever they weren't traveling. He accepts the gun from Natalya, and slips the barrel into an inside pocket, ruining the cut of his suit, but is otherwise largely still, the chaos of the slapdash planning washing over him like a stone at the bottom of a creek. As Nail lists all the things the team simply doesn't know about the target, Vincent sighs slightly and opens his eyes. "As long as you don't know where the hostages, the cameras, and the security emplacements are, rushing in will be suicide. And if you care about the lives of the hostages, you can not take the time to do a methodical infiltration. It would be simplest to submit to their demands, and give you poor souls breaking in the time and distraction you so clearly need. Also it would help find out who's in charge." He opens his eyes and looks over the motley crew and shudders slightly. "Being a reporter is easy, but we need a second warm body to make up an emergency news crew. I will need one of you to be my cameraman.... not you, dear," he says to Natalya. "You have no business behind a lens." His gaze continues on to Stormcrow. "If you can cast your spells without people in the room knowing, you would be ideal." Unless otherwise indicated, the signal of a generic wireless capable device is 1.
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Apr 17, 2013 02:40
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Nail "Hold up people, Vinnie's actually got a good idea. Two posing as reporter and camera man will distract some of them and give us two more inside the moment we take them down." "I'll still take the elevator shaft, since it works for either floor they are on, we can figure out where the rest of you are going in from when we get cameras up." I was hoping someone brought up the posing as crew route to get a couple bodies inside. I was kinda hanging back with the planning too, just asking for specific intel and other things we needed before everyone started running off to infiltrate like we knew where everything was. I think it should be Vincent and Stormcrow as reporter/crew, Nail through the elevator, Snipey and Natalya through security and/or front door and up stairs if needed? And is Noise going in too?
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Apr 17, 2013 04:03
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ltr posted:I think it should be Vincent and Stormcrow as reporter/crew, Nail through the elevator, Snipey and Natalya through security and/or front door and up stairs if needed? And is Noise going in too? I had planned on joining you on the rooftop/elevator approach if you don't mind the company. Stormcrow wants to heal the guard on the ground, but we have 30 minutes before hostages start getting shot so he should be able to do that and still pose as a cameraman if he wants to.
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Apr 17, 2013 04:26
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ltr posted:Nail Noise is willing and able to go in with the rest of the team. I'm doing everything in AR right now, and another gun couldn't hurt when we storm the building. My basic plan is to get those grenades safe/disarmed by spoofing a command from the leader's PAN (once I locate him), then fire up my area jammer to take the rebels offline entirely. After that, I shouldn't need to do much in the Matrix and will be able to give my full attention to shooting dudes. I'd offer to pose as a cameraman/broadcast tech, but none of my guns are particularly concealable.
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Apr 17, 2013 12:56
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Priorities Doubtless this is not the first time Snipey has tuned out the cries of the dying. Listening closely his wired ears can now make out two voices speaking on the ground floor. "Are you certain Newport does not have a mage on staff?" a locally-accented voice asks. "I'm tellin' ya mate, Newport's security is Mickey Mouse stuff," a British accent replies. "They're fuckin' muppets, mate." Stormcrow's spirit breathes out a hush of air over the group and then disappears into the astral realm. Stormcrow moves to the edge of the jungle. While harder to see, you're not quite invisible: Heading out to save the guard is still a risky prospect. Natalya slips around to the southern fence, readies her kit, and waits for word from Noise. If the fence is alarmed, you could indeed make the jump from one of the nearby trees (of course they cleared them a few metres back specifically so people couldn't do this, but they were accounting for regular people). In augmented reality, Noise busts through into the booster node... but not without a hitch. Warnings start flooding your overlay that an alert has been triggered. Don't have long. You take a look at the options open to an admin user: *Cameras: [ON/OFF] *Door locks: [ON/OFF] *Fence alarm: CIRCUIT MALFUNCTION, REORDER PART 31F-11B *Window polarisation: [STANDARD/INSURGENCY COUNTERMEASURES] *Emergency tank release: [ON/OFF] (WARNING: CONNECT OVERFLOW PIPE BEFORE RELEASE: [CONNECT/DISCONNECT]) The cameras reveal the interior of the admin building, along with an outside view of the front and rear doors. On the ground floor you see a tall, thin local man in an armoured vest with a commlink in one hand and a large pistol in the other. There's a biomonitor around his wrist. His hawkish face has the hard, mean look of someone who's lived through some awful parts of history, and he moves with the slight jerkiness that suggests his reflexes are wired. He's talking to a chubby security guard dressed in the light blue uniform of the Newport Group. There is still a pistol in the husky guard's holster. At the ground floor security station, two Panther insurgents have taken cover behind the steel-plated desk, with their AKs levelled towards the front door. They monitor the security screens in front of them, keeping an eye on the parking lot in front and the area behind the door. The troops are equipped with vests, sidearms and knives, but don't appear to be cybered. Up on the second floor, the four hostages are lying face down, shaking, sweating, one of them looks like he's praying softly. Another rebel with an AK stands over them, while a second Panther watches the eastern windows. There's also a weedy rebel soldier slumped in the chair in the corner, an uzi resting in his lap, his jaw slack and drooling. Weird time for a nap. But you don't have long to take in the view. You see the hawkish man downstairs put his commlink to his ear and his face grows dark. He presses another button on his commlink and speaks. The broadcast plays through the booster node and the car radio picks it up too, forwarding it through Kale's comm. "This cyber intrusion is intolerable," the voice speaks. "If the account has not logged off in 10 seconds, we will shoot the first hostage early. Perhaps that will give the news crew a breaking story and incentive to get here faster." - Signal rating on grenades: Let's go with 1. Stormcrow, you can make it out to the guard in time (you don't really have to sprint) but it will be risky even with the concealment power: Without any infiltration skill, the threshold to spot you is 1 hit, so you'd be relying on anyone overwatching to have bad perception skills brought down by the concealment penalty. Nail: The IP from Cram doesn't stack with Wired Reflexes (WR description says it doesn't stack with any init enhancers). If this makes the drug unattractive for this character, feel free to switch out the addiction for a different drug. Also Mystic Mongol, your dude doesn't have any ranks in Intimidation (it's not covered under Influence skill group). Do you want to rejig and add this before the heavy rolling starts? Map:  Legend: N: Noise V: Vinnie S: Snipey G: Natalya (er... Gecko )L: Nail C: Stormcrow The lead terrorist is the one with the little yellow chevron on him. (also ignore the infiltration roll I made on Orokos for Nail, I reread your post and that was a bit premature!)
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Apr 17, 2013 13:49
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Whoops. I don't have my books with me, but I did want to ask a question - as an admin user, could I make myself a hidden account that their security-level lurker wouldn't be able to detect in the 10 seconds I have before they start shooting hostages? I will make a more substantial post this evening.
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Apr 17, 2013 14:03
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Yep as an admin you could make a second hidden account. Roll Hacking+Stealth to determine how well you hide it. If the other logged in user comes snooping around they'd roll an opposed Computer+Analyse. Just eyeballing the mods, I'd give you a +2 bonus to your roll for having an account one step higher.
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Apr 17, 2013 14:27
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I'll make a post after Noise relays all the info. If it's too risky for Stormcrow to venture out to heal the guy let me ask, would applying a Trauma Patch be enough to stabilize the guard? I ask because Snipey has some and has both Infiltration and a chameleon suit. That could buy us some time on that front.
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Apr 17, 2013 14:46
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Yep a trauma patch would do fine. As a concession to the PBP format, should we assume since you're all patched in to a group network (and sending messages is a free action) that intel is shared by default as you come across it? (unless otherwise noted--but I'm assuming in the vast majority of cases it'll be beneficial to share intel).
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Apr 17, 2013 14:59
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children overboard posted:Yep a trauma patch would do fine. As the current intel-monger and network wrangler, I would be A-OK with this. You are free to assume I share all discovered info, up to and including patching my team into accessed camera feeds and such, unless I post otherwise.
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Apr 17, 2013 15:02
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NatalyaMystic Mongol posted:"Being a reporter is easy, but we need a second warm body to make up an emergency news crew. I will need one of you to be my cameraman.... not you, dear," he says to Natalya. "You have no business behind a lens." "Of course not darling," Natlaya agreed with a grin. "Clearly I belong in front of the cameras. Still, it is a good idea. We are in no grave hurry...well, perhaps he is," she said, gesturing towards the convulsing guard lying on the ground, "but otherwise we have no need to rush things. You see? You are adapting already." children overboard posted:Natalya slips around to the southern fence, readies her kit, and waits for word from Noise. If the fence is alarmed, you could indeed make the jump from one of the nearby trees (of course they cleared them a few metres back specifically so people couldn't do this, but they were accounting for regular people). ::I'm in position,:: Natalya relayed across the group's commnet once she has made her way to the south side of the tower overlooking the facility, hunkering down and watching from a concealing spot within the foliage. ::Looks quiet from this side.:: She watched as a quick flurry of images superimposed themselves over her field of vision, camera feeds from the inside of the building. Eyes flicking over the exterior of the tower, she quickly sorted the feeds into a mental 3D layout with practiced ease, mouth twisting into a moue of disappointment once she was finished. ::Aw, I lose the bet. Looks like they decided to put all their eggs in one basket after all. Tsk, that's just asking for trouble. Well at least we know where they all are.:: Slowly shifting in place, she studied the feeds carefully as the leader...there was the biomonitor strapped to his wrist...was apparently alerted to Noise's presence within the system. ::Hmm, now how did he know that I wonder? There's a guard on the ground floor too, still has his weapon. That seems like a strange thing to let one of your hostages keep, don't you think? Then again I suppose I'm not an insurgent leader. Maybe he has a reason to, hmm? Hmm.:: Her eyes scanned the list of options that sprung up in her AR overlay, paying particular attention to the one for the fence alarm. While I gather that the notice about the fence alarm having a circuit error is intended to be a sign saying HEY THIS IS BROKEN, just as a formality I went ahead and rolled my Security Design skill for 2 hits to make sure that is what it means before I start cutting.
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Apr 17, 2013 15:44
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Yep that means it's busted, cut away. Looks like when they smashed through the gate they ripped out some important part of the fence's alarm system. Also all the camera feeds you found were inside the admin building (and one overwatching the exterior outside the admin front door and another watching the back door). There was a gate camera/sensor to read vehicle tags but someone drove over it and it's now a bit broken.
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Apr 17, 2013 15:55
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Stormcrow "Fine by me," the elf says. "I can be as overt or as subtle as needed with magic. The chanting and the gesture is mostly formality." He studies the camera feeds. Amateurish. They should have split the hostages into groups of two or three per gunman and kept them in different rooms. He supposes he should be thankful instead of critical. The guard inside was an interesting case. Perhaps an inside job? ::Sniper. If you can get to the guard in time we will attempt to buy time for everyone to get in place by posing as the reporters.:: I'm assuming I can just drop concealment on Coll and I without using up a service? Because it would be suspicious if the reporters showed up cloaked by magic.
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Apr 17, 2013 16:40
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Natalya Satisfied with what she'd read, Natalya slowly crept forward with a chuckle and approached the fence, being careful not to move too quickly lest the camouflage have a hard time keeping up. ::So much for those break-sensors. Guess that's what happens when you drive a car through the fence. Oops. You worry about other things, sweetie,:: she subvocalized to Noise as she pulled out a pair of wire cutters, ::I've got things over here. Guess I'll save the fun way for later since we're on the clock.:: Working methodically and quietly she carefully clipped a hole in the fence outside the line of sight of any of the building's windows, making sure not to let any of the cut wires lash wildly once they were loosed, then slowly crawled inside and quickly made her way over to the corner of the building. ::And I'm in. South fence is open if anyone else wants to join me.:: She peered around the corner, eyes flicking through multiple spectra as she scanned the perimeter, and she grinned as she caught the telltale barely-noticeable shimmer of a chameleon suit next to the front door. ::I seeeeeee you,:: she subvocalized to their team's latest addition, laughing playfully. ::Hey new guy, if you do go and play DocWagon don't let that exterior camera catch whatever it is you do. And make sure he stays on the ground until this is all over too. Last thing we need is for you to patch him up just to watch him catch another bullet.::
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Apr 17, 2013 17:09
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Baby Babbeh posted:I'm assuming I can just drop concealment on Coll and I without using up a service? Because it would be suspicious if the reporters showed up cloaked by magic. Yep the spirit will drop that on you two freely.
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Apr 17, 2013 17:28
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I knew it was a good idea to be The Guy With Slap Patches. Snipey children overboard posted:"Are you certain Newport does not have a mage on staff?" a locally-accented voice asks. Snipey records and forwards those two lines of conversation to the rest of the team (except Coll, of course). ::Listen to this. They know we're a buncha amateurs. Ain't it beautiful?:: Once Snipey deactivates his sound filter, the guard's groans of pain come back. Pausing to plan his approach, he examines the camera feeds and takes note of their positions. Minding the camera's cones of vision, he steps away from the building and toward the security guard. (Infiltration: 14d6t5 6) There's nothing to be done about the camera at the access gate, but hopefully he can present a minimal profile. After applying the Trauma Patch (Palming: 9d6t5 3), Snipey keeps his hand on the guard for a moment and hisses, "Don't move or you'll die. They're watching you. I was never here." Then, job done, he steps out of sight of the cameras. ::Reporters? Good. One of those reporters have a medkit?:: Was Daitengu's Concealment power used on Snipey, or am I still just rocking my Chameleon Suit?
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Apr 17, 2013 19:39
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Stormcrow Stormcrow laughs at the security feed. ::Good. That means they probably don't have anyone who can see into the astral watching, which could gum our reporter schtick. I think these guys are in for a shock. I will work out something more permanent for the guard once every terrorist in the building is dead.::
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Apr 17, 2013 20:09
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children overboard posted:Also Mystic Mongol, your dude doesn't have any ranks in Intimidation (it's not covered under Influence skill group). Do you want to rejig and add this before the heavy rolling starts? Awww, snap. Dropped a rank from the Athletics skillgroup (ouch) to pay for enough intimidate to make my earlier rolls accurate. Vincent Coll "Very well. We had better get moving. Stormcrow and I will be playing for time, but the sooner we engage the better. Stormcrow, you'll be acting as the link between us and Noise... make sure he has an admin account on your commlink, he'll need it to hack the biomonitor once we're talking with the clownshoes in charge." Vincent begins talking and walking faster, knowing that Stormcrow will have to keep up on both accounts. "You're supposed to be a cameraman, so keep your eyes and commlink pointed at me at all times unless otherwise instructed. When the biomonitor is down, complain about how soft the lighting is. If the others secure the hostages, complain about noise pollution. If Noise manages to cut off whomever we're talking to from the rest of the terrorists, complain about the room symmetry. If you get a report of something unexpected and we need to play it safe, compare the job to one in the southern hemisphere, and if we need to kill them all, the northern hemisphere. If I tell you to contact the communications office, that means I'm about ten seconds out from killing someone, so call your spirit back." Just as the two runners get within sight of the guard house, Vincent turns on Stormcrow in a faux fury, his voice much louder and two fingers pointed accusingly at him. "Oh, and if you screw this story up, you won't have to worry about your promotions getting held up because of your networking scores. You won't have to worry about getting promoted at all!" Without giving the startled Stormcrow a chance to respond, Vincent spins on one foot and strides up to the guardhouse. "Vincent Coll, Horizon Action News Reporter Double, class B. Where's the story?" Let's infiltrate the hell out of this place.
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Apr 17, 2013 21:51
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children overboard posted:Priorities Noise winces. That's embarrassing. ::Not to worry, I can cover this. Stand by.:: The little(ish) troll slouches to the ground behind Nail's truck, RAS override keeping him upright as his mind rides the lightning of a boosted BTL signal into the Matrix. Less than a heartbeat later, twin bronze lions materialize in a cloud of glowing steam in the bland, corporate architecture of the water plant's node. Each dashes away in opposite directions, locked on to different targets. One slashes a series of ideograms into a blank wall with its great claws, embedding a new profile into the node's permissions file. A swipe of its long, furred tail wipes the carved sequence away from sight. Meanwhile, the other stalks a sparkling pulse of transmission data like a kitten with a ball of yarn, pouncing at it and teasing out a single thread of vital information - the rebel leader's access ID. Tasks accomplished, the lions freeze and vanish again in in a flash of blue-white light and steam. Noise shakes off the heart-pounding rush of the hot sim signal and rises to his feet. Oof, had to run hot twice today. I gotta talk to the boss about getting some kind of security access if this is the kind of work we'll be doing. Maybe a line of credit for Advil in bulk. Unslinging his assault rifle, Noise jogs into the treeline towards Stormcrow's previous position. ::Okay, I think I cleaned up my mess. I'm standing by to spoof those grenades - got the boss-man's access ID. Two things: Where do you want me, and do you needs any cameras tweaked?:: Oh boy! I screwed up!  Given that a Combat Turn is 3 seconds long, I do have a bit of time to fix my mistakes. Let's do that first - Noise is going to hunker down behind the truck for cover and drop into Hot Sim for a couple of seconds for this.First: Using my current admin account, I am going to create a "backdoor" account for my future use - one that will (hopefully) not trip the Firewall, and is not visible to the security-level rebel hacker. Hopefully this is another admin account, but I will take what I can get at this point. With any luck, this will make the rebels think that we are complying with their commands while still allowing me the access we need. Per Children Overboard's post, Hacking 5 + Exploit 5 + Hot Sim 2 + Admin Bonus 2 to hide the account: Create/conceal backdoor account: 14d6t5 6 successes Second: I am going to take advantage of the fact that Fearless Leader is currently transmitting his demands through the booster node to Capture Wireless Traffic, with the intent of acquiring his access ID for future spoofing purposes. Electronic Warfare 3 +Sniffer 5 + Hot Sim 2, TN is 3: Capture Wireless Traffic: 10d6t5 2 Spending Edge to reroll failures: Edge reroll: 8d6t5 2 Four successes total. Third: I will Log Out of my current account, and immediately Log In with my new backdoor account. If I've read everything correctly, all of that took about 4 or 5 seconds. Noise will then swap back to his AR interface, ready his AK-97 and move up to Stormcrow's former position - holding an action to spoof a deactivation command to the grenades using my newly acquired access ID from Fearless Leader's commlink. Edit: What does the INSURGENCY COUNTERMEASURES option on the windows do? Sounds like fun! Emerald Rogue fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Apr 18, 2013 |
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Apr 18, 2013 02:01
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Nail Seeing the camera feeds pop into his AR, "So, three groups of two for this sound good? Once we're in place and the biometrics reader is hacked, we can take them." Moving up to where the spirit is waiting to conceal their movement, Nail makes a final check that all of his gear is with him. Didn't think about Cram not stacking with wired reflexes. So we can ignore Nail taking it and I'll sort out a new addiction in the next day or so. So far it sounds like: Vincent and Stormcrow posing as reporters Nail through the elevator shaft Would like 1 more with Nail. I'm guessing the shaft is big enough that we can fit two of us side by side. And two at the door to security?
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Apr 18, 2013 04:17
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ltr posted:Nail through the elevator shaft That would be me.
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Apr 18, 2013 04:55
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Cool, so: Vincent and Stormcrow posing as reporters Nail and Natalya through the elevator shaft Snipey and Noise at the door to security
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Apr 18, 2013 05:19
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This looks good to me. Snipey ::About this plan. We just shooting everybody? Their leader might have intel worth getting out of his head. Don't get me wrong. Shooting everybody sounds great.:: Snipey calmly unslings his rifle and considers the situation. ::You know, Hacker, if you looped the cameras and cut the door alarm, I could take out those first two guys without the others noticing. Just a thought.:: As he considers whether to put his rifle away again, Snipey's enhanced ears hear: quote:"Vincent Coll, Horizon Action News Reporter Double, class B. Where's the story?" Hands frozen in place, his head turns slowly to see if he heard that right. "Mad Dog Coll?" Snipey mouths to himself, not quite believing it. I remember somebody proposing an interrogation/mindreading character, but I forget who and if they got in. Vavrek fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Apr 18, 2013 |
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Apr 18, 2013 07:43
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Stormcrow reads minds! I was hoping to capture at least one alive, preferably the leader. Stormcrow "Wait, Coll slow down! I want to get some B Roll of you walking toward the complex. It will make a good establishing shot!" ::Looks like we're rolling. I'll do what I can do covertly to pave the way for you guys once the shooting starts. And I'll try to reign Coll in if he starts to bull through things.::
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Apr 18, 2013 07:51
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Baby Babbeh posted:Stormcrow reads minds! I was hoping to capture at least one alive, preferably the leader. Ooooh! Good luck with BOTH of those things.
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Apr 18, 2013 08:02
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Medic! Natalya snips the fence and sneaks in without incident. Snipey approaches the downed guard. Blood's bubbling at the man's lips and his face is pale. As you slap the patch on him and whisper for him to keep quiet he nods very slightly. The powerful drugs start to work their way through his system clotting blood and keeping his heart pumping. "Thank you," he whispers. "And be careful. Andy went bad. He's with them now." Vincent and Stormcrow approach the gatehouse. There's a moment of silence after Vincent makes his spiel, and then a voice crackles through the commlink of the dead guard whose body has spilled out of the gatehouse. "You may enter the front door," the rebel captain says as the portal slides open. The two gunmen keep their AKs at the ready. "Keep your arms where we can see them. If we see a weapon on you, we will open fire." Noise slides into VR. Your system's metaphor struggles against the node's reality filter. Glitches start to appear.  No... you can't... ack!  The node's filter dominates. You feel a little sluggish in this new world as you try to create the new account, but you manage to rig together something pretty low profile. A second later you're following the leader's transmission to his commlink. Analysing his node gives you his access ID. Back in the node, you log off just as the security account reappears with an attack program in tow. Looks like they haven't spotted your new account.  In the real world, Noise and Nail move forward. They can't see the spirit now that it's back on the other plane, but can feel its cool otherworldly breath circulating around them and (hopefully) hiding them from enemy eyes. - Noise: With your knowledge of Security Design, you believe "INSURGENCY COUNTERMEASURES" would flip the polarisation on the windows (meaning those inside can't see out). Vavrek: It's just the suit hiding you at this stage. The spirit needs to be on the material plane to affect you (which, as a seven foot bird with no stealth, would have risked giving him away if he came to the edge of the jungle to get LOS on you, as you'd already moved ahead when he was summoned). Also, if it comes up, the rules for how noticable magic is are on p179 (basically the perception threshold is 6 minus force). Map: 
children overboard fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Apr 18, 2013 |
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Apr 18, 2013 13:02
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children overboard posted:Medic! Just posting to let you know that this made me laugh this morning. Thanks!
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Apr 18, 2013 13:14
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Natalya Fence slipped and plan apparently underway, Natalya glanced up the side of the building appraisingly. ::Sounds like it's showtime, boys. Break a leg,:: she sent over the commnet with a subvocal giggle before beginning her ascent up the tower. 18 bloody dice and I score 3 bloody hits. Well I'm halfway at least, no glitch either. Honestly, what's the point of having massive dicepools if they roll this badly? Climbing using gecko gloves, sticking to the corner of the building to stay out of the windows. I'll go ahead and roll the next Climbing test whenever children overboard says I'm good to.
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Apr 18, 2013 16:59
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Vincent Coll Vincent cringes slightly as he starts to walk through the door, hands held up at shoulder level. He walks into the doorway and pauses for a moment, and then straightens up, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "No, this is terrible. The whole commlink thing only works in the trideos, when we can put a mike on it--without a way to put emotional focus on a tiny thing four meters away, it just makes it feel fake, like the voice clip has been added afterwards." Straightening up, Vincent plucks a few invisible bits of fluff off of his suit, and turns away, walking back down the road. "I'll make the approach again--this time one of the guards delivers the line. And for God's sake, be ethnic, would you?" Starting the long con--that although I am a news reporter, I'm one who's completely unimpressed by their showboating. I'm trying to make this whole process take as long as possible and being as much of a hassle to deal with as possible, so more attention will be on me and less where it's supposed to be, guarding other points of ingress. Seven hits should be a good start.
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Apr 18, 2013 19:21
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 03:22 |
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Stormcrow The white-haired elf swept the two guards with camera of his commlink, smiling apologetically. "Sorry. He's a bit of a perfectionist. But if you want your news to spread you need more than a good story these days. It takes craft, you know, production values. We wanna get this right and they'll be talking about your group from here to Seattle, chummer." "Anyway, it's not all bad, Coll. The location has a certain charm. And those Kalashnikovs! Very authentic-looking." 7 successes on my con roll as well.
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Apr 18, 2013 21:48
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