Shadowrun Play-By-Post Community

Soundtrack wrote:
I'm not big on social graces//Think I'll slip on down to the oasis// Oh, I've got friends in low places

TIME STAMP wrote: //Location:Tacoma/Seattle Metroplex/UCAS
//Time: <0934:00/2075-01-18> Combat round OVER
//Weather: <Heavy Overcast, Light Snow, 0C, Wind N 8kph, feels like -8C>
//Air Quality: <Monthly Average: Moderate (Yellow), Precipitation pH 2.6>

A few days ago...
Silhouette met Mulpa in a virtual world of course, and they were paranoid as frag. The meeting was short. The results took...longer.

The ID spoof was delivered just minutes before Mulpa's deadline. Instead of a complex web of Matrix security and obfuscation, it was a dead drop at 2359 on the 15th. A physical drive with the data in a file. A handwritten note on a soykaf wrapper: Activation Code: Table No. Matrix ICE extra killer extra black. It trails off with underlines beneath killer and black. Table number is probably the pretty prominent 7734 in the center of the virtual table from their initial (and only) meet.

Stygge has enough luck with King, negotiating an amicable deal. They walk away still more on the friend side than exploitation.

Helmets are not much of a strenuous request for Shrike's contacts. But someone (Dust, in fact) had a sick sense of humor and painted the helmets with cartoony rounded (as opposed to pointy) ears on the sides.

Now....
Wraith spots a few things straight away as she cases the scone factory. There are two 40 foot trailers in the loading dock, but no trucks to haul them. She notices taking a few surreptitious moments to analyze the trailers in more detail, she sees that one has well concealed antennae on top and heavy duty heat sinks beneath, visible only through the melt in the snow adjacent to the trailer. Second, she notices that in the time she observes the building, no one goes outside. All of the windows are covered with opaque or at least one-way material. It's hard to say for certain if it's thermal dampening at all, the differential between inside and outside is extreme right now and the whole building practically glows in the dark (in a thermal sense!). She spends enough time on site to be confident in the details and ready to roll when it's go time.

Shrike arrives after Wraith has had time to do her detailed recon. He doesn't observe any additional details, the ones Wraith discovered were subtle enough.

Stygge arrives next. She recognizes the trailers when pointed out by Wraith, noting that they appear to be just sitting there, not bolted down, not with any sort of lock on the fifth wheel. A proper rig could back right up and yank those trailers away in a heartbeat.

There is a concrete factory a few blocks away, they might have trucks...

Before wild plans can be hatched, Mulpa arrives for his "inspection".

As he approaches the door to the office, his commlink is pinged with multiple requests for security clearance. Silhouette's passcodes work. He gets to the door and his palm print unlocks it, the thunk of retracting bolts is decisive. The door opens outward automatically, two guards armed with assault rifles (at rest, not pointed at Mulpa) wait within. They are well armored, but not full plate or obvious milspec, and well armed, they have combat knives and sidearms along with the rifles.

"You the inspector?" The scant cover Silhouette was able to provide was that of an inspector for the CCMA, with a direct mandate to inspect all the networking gear in the building. Nobody shoots him as the door opens.

Game Effects:

• Triple travel time anywhere in the Sprawl, with minimum of 1 hour.
• Getting anywhere requires a piloting/driving check Difficulty 2, if you're from Seattle or Portland, increase difficulty to 3
• Motorcycles are worse: difficulty 5
• Visibility: -1

Scone Factory Aerial View:

INTERLUDE

//A MEMORY OF A THING LONG FORGOTTEN//
"He Jerry, we recovered part of the chip."

"Wiz, plug it in, let's see what was in that guy's head."

//------------------INITIALIZING-----------------------------//
I saw...bodies, cut into bits. Normal murder would have been better than what I saw. It was, alien somehow. Just looking at it made me what to scream, it made my head hurt to much to realize the horror.

No, it wasn't magic, not like a dragon is magic. This was alien, this was almost as if we were being torn apart to form some demented code for an organism we can't even begin to comprehend. We're just the nucleotides it in's DNA. Torn apart and recombined to make something different, something new.

Just an AI? No, I don't think anyone who says "just an AI" knows what AI really means. I don't think any of us know what it really means, we know what the words mean: "artificial" means made or produced by humans, as opposed to nature; "intelligence" is to acquire and use knowledge or skills. But we mean "AI" we mean intelligent computing machines that emulate human thought. I would say we failed, what we created here does not emulate human thought, but it is most certainly intelligent and altogether alien

Yes, if you take a broader meaning, it is most certainly alive. We have fantasized as a species about alien life "out there". Life from another planet. But we also assumed it would look like us, talk like us, think like us. That's a childish and ridiculous notion. We maybe created life here, or we just learned how to see it. Yes. AI is alive. It is completely alien in all aspects except one: its will to live.

It should be destroyed -- killed. At all costs.

//------------------END OF LINE-----------------------------------//

"Where did you say they found this?"

"Some old 'raku dump."

Location: Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex - outside/nearby job location (scone factory!)
Condition: Just fine, more or less.
SIN: Elisabeth Gibbs

Shrike wrote:"This is a good start. So we need some eyes on the location, try and piece together their guard rotation and movements. See if there is anywhere suitable nearby to observe from. Do it in shifts and see if we can also spot our extraction target."

"I have yet to see anyone enter or exit the building; it may be that they live on-site, or there are entrances hidden out of sight somewhere," Wraith starts in a low voice, peering past Shrike to look out the window. "But I have only been here for about an hour, it may just be bad timing." Here, the foxelf smiles, well almost. "I should be able to find an alternate entrance inside, take a look around - ventilation, perhaps, or the receiving area."

Shrike wrote:"The information would be useful, but if Mulpa is able to get on site, we can fix most of the flaws with what he sees. Mulpa, do you have a camera? Don't want to risk broadcasting an image link where the onsite security can pick it up."

"<Gomen>; the extra information was expensive enough to seriously eat away at what we were being paid," Wraith replies, the fox-ears tipping back with her apology. "I am not certain how useful a geological survey would have been, but I will keep that in mind for the future," she adds, giving a shortened, seated bow.

"These plans may not be fully accurate, if any internal modifications have been made since the building was built; hopefully Mulpa will be able to get some decent images or recording. I am curious about those two trailers - the one I am guessing contains a large amount of electronics... I would love to get a peek inside."

GM wrote:Stygge arrives next. She recognizes the trailers when pointed out by Wraith, noting that they appear to be just sitting there, not bolted down, not with any sort of lock on the fifth wheel. A proper rig could back right up and yank those trailers away in a heartbeat.

A thoughtful, speculative look. "That sounds like the perfect sort of distraction if the shit hits the fan," Wraith muses, eyeing the trailers then looing to Stygge, tilting her head while giving a questioning look. "Can you drive a rig?" she asks, tail giving a little twitch beneath the table. "Ooh, if we can steal it then we can get a better look inside."

When Stygge sees the helmets Shrike's friend had managed to score, she looks at him like he had just spent his life savings on a million 'magical' rocks that are really just ordinary rocks. "You can't be serious," she gripes. "We're supposed to wear those goofy-looking things?" She then sighs and

"Good thing I brought my own."

as she walks around to the back of her van.

"Too bad I couldn't get my brother to run with us," Stygge comments as she puts her own helmet on. "He'd have some wiz drone to keep an eye on things outside while we're in the belly of the beast."

Wraith wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 8:05 pm"Can you drive a rig?" she asks, tail giving a little twitch beneath the table. "Ooh, if we can steal it then we can get a better look inside."

Stygge looks at the trailers. "Sure, just need to find a strong enough gal to pull 'em!" she replies cheerfully. "And I think I know where to look." She looks down the street in the direction of the nearby concrete factory.

Shrike looks at the helmets Dust provided and shook his head when he saw the motif on the side.

Stygge wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 12:47 pm When Stygge sees the helmets Shrike's friend had managed to score, she looks at him like he had just spent his life savings on a million 'magical' rocks that are really just ordinary rocks. "You can't be serious," she gripes. "We're supposed to wear those goofy-looking things?"

"Frakking amateur hour is what that is," Shrike is visibly annoyed at Dust's shenanigans as he runs his finger over the paint job, "I will sort and he will owe me a discount. Frakking unprofessional!" He drops the helmet back in the pile and reaches into his lined coat. Pulling out a small packet, he pulls a cigarette out with his teeth before lighting it and takes a long puff. It felt good and stopped him wanting to go and clip Dust around the ear with his cyber arm.

"What else have we got?" Shrike asks, keen to get on with planning their run.

Soundtrack wrote:
And you're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon//Change on into the wolfman howlin' at the moon, ooh

TIME STAMP wrote: //Location: Downtown Puyallup/Seattle Metroplex/UCAS
//Time: <0939:00/2075-01-18> Combat round OVER
//Weather: <Heavy Overcast, Light Snow, 0C, Wind N 8kph, feels like -8C>
//Air Quality: <Monthly Average: Moderate (Yellow), Precipitation pH 2.6>

INSIDE THE OFFICE BUILDING
The nice thing about working for the people who run GOD is that everyone gives you deference, at least for a while. So far Mulpa's bravado is taken seriously. Or his bravado is what gets him taken seriously. Either way, the guard who previously spoke to the dwarf says crisply, "Follow me, sir." The "sir" is only partly derisive.

Once

, Mulpa notices a couple things straight away: they open and close all the doors manually and there is no one around. It looks like a reasonably nice mid-level corp setup. Things are fishy again, maybe, when they take the stairs to the second floor, despite what appear to be perfectly functional elevators.

The stairs exit onto the second floor right into the middle of a cubicle farm. The guard motions to the right, towards a large fishbowl style executive conference room. There is one other visible guard patrolling the room and four people in the conference room. They all stair at Mulpa as he approaches. Their expressions are all over the place: fear, anger, annoyance, ennui. Three humans and an elf, dressed for business. The windows are heavily tinted, even from the inside. The light level is quite low, the humans, if un-augmented, might have issues, in fact. Despite being in an office environment there are no screens on and the matrix clutter is basically nil.

If Mulpa hesitates before heading to or in the conference room, the corporate elf smoothly strolls (he was the one exhibiting ennui, in fact) to meet the "inspector". He stops about two meters from Mulpa and nods saying, "Good day inspector, you people sure know when things are getting interesting. Shall we?" He finishes by gesturing to the conference room. The guards make no effort to follow or lead Mulpa anywhere.

A NEARBY STAKEOUT
Wraith, Stygge and Shrike are all in a good spot to watch as Mulpa gains entry into the building. It appears to them that it went smoothly. He disappears into the building and the doors shut...he's on his own now.

Looking further at the building, reinforcing each other almost like a team, the three runners note that they can see no lights through any of the windows. A second thermal scan shows very little waste heat being generated from anywhere but the trailers. Odd for a bakery!

On the second story of the office building, a few minutes after Mulpa entered, two or three hazy figures can be seen on thermal by the window.

When Stygge takes a look at the cement plant, it seems as if someone planned this heist: two full size rigs with modern "universal fifth wheels" are staged next to a pair of side-dumper style trailers.

Two weird things happen though.

TS8 shoots Stygge a message: "Hey, yo, little bird says you might need fixing up soon, where you at?"

And Shrike gets an even weirder short and cryptic message through Amber from someone named "Silhouette" claiming to know Mulpa: DON'T TURN IT ON.

NEAR THE STAKEOUT
Trolls and similar metahuman types don't stick out as much in Puyallup as they do in other parts of the Sprawl. And given that Bushwack is an action oriented type of chap, he, as the colloquialism goes, drew the short straw. Meaning, while Shrike, Wraith and Stygge are all cozy in a perch, he, Bushwack, is doing a little foot patrol around the building. In the cold, wet, nasty winter weather, and with the lovely aroma from the nearby lava fields. Yummy.

He manages a reasonably subtle orbit around the site, not adding much in the way of info, but easily confirming all the other observations. As the weather is shit, there is not a lot of other traffic about. More people are walking than normal, maybe, but definitely fewer cars.

Soaked and smelling like wet troll, Bushwack returns and finds the three elves in the middle of some puzzlement.

Game Effects:

• Triple travel time anywhere in the Sprawl, with minimum of 1 hour.
• Getting anywhere requires a piloting/driving check Difficulty 2, if you're from Seattle or Portland, increase difficulty to 3
• Motorcycles are worse: difficulty 5
• Visibility: -1 (exterior); Dim Light (-3 visual)

What the frag are you going to do now?

Scone Factory Aerial View:

Bushwack stands barefoot in his worn wafer thin Gi and his combat vest open, seemingly stoically unaffected by the cold, or perhaps his fat, cheap cigar keeps him warm. He only seems to yield to cold in one aspect, a custom black bonnet on his head to keep his ears warm? Although the astute observer would notice that it is in fact a ski mask that can be rolled down to hide hide his face.

He has brought a piping hot double soykaf for each of his friends on the stakeout.

"He is in right ? The absence of heat is odd..."

He texts Mulpa putting the rest of the team in cc: "No kind of heat big enough to be generated by a furnace of the bakery. Don't be surprised that if you "investigate" that, you might be met by hostility... Play it cool and make sure you communicate they don't have to fear consequences for infractions if they do a small bribe. What matters is your health and safety. If you have bad vibes about the place we will extract you in sec. BW."

He goes back to clearing snow with a large shovel. Nobody pays attention to a poorly dressed hulking troll doing minimum wage menial work ... not until the shovel lands on their temple.

Bushwack wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 7:26 am He has brought a piping hot double soykaf for each of his friends on the stakeout.

"He is in right ? The absence of heat is odd..."

Shrike takes the soykaf and takes a sip. He shakes his head suddenly and sharply as he swallow.

"Whoa, that cleared the sinuses. He's in."

Muppet Man wrote: ↑Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:22 pm And Shrike gets an even weirder short and cryptic message through Amber from someone named "Silhouette" claiming to know Mulpa: DON'T TURN IT ON.

"Did S say what not to turn on?" Are we about to blow our cover? If we have to go in and get Mulpa, the main extraction is going to be a problem.

Bushwack wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 7:26 am He texts Mulpa putting the rest of the team in cc: "No kind of heat big enough to be generated by a furnace of the bakery. Don't be surprised that if you "investigate" that, you might be met by hostility... Play it cool and make sure you communicate they don't have to fear consequences for infractions if they do a small bribe. What matters is your health and safety. If you have bad vibes about the place we will extract you in sec. BW."

Shrike sends another message, pretending to be a friend of Mulpa's in hopefully an innocuous manner in case Mulpa's comlink was being monitored.
"S says don't turn it on, else you will be in trouble when you get home. And can you and S please sort out your relationship issues so that you aren't using me as a go between. "

From the vantage point, Shrike activates his vision enhancment and magnification and sound filter and enhancement to pick up details and sounds in the 'bakery' compound.

"Okay, so if the bakery is a fake and obviously its a front for something else, as long as our pickup is not near there, they should be less likely to run into us. Staying out of that area is key to not attracting unnecessary attention! "

Location: Donut shop across from faux bakery, Puyallup, Seatle Metroplex
Status: Damp and cold
Broadcasted SIN: Elisabeth Gibbs

Wraith nods to Shrike and Bushwack as they arrive, the offered beverage draws a raised brow and a questioning look. "<Doumo>, Bee. It truly is early enough to need this," she muses, wrapping slender fingers around the cup, letting the warmth seep into them first before taking a sip. Eyes closing, Wraith's foxears give a hard twitch, followed by an almost-smile. "<Hobo juubun ni tsuyoi>*!" After another sip, she looks between Bushwack and Stygge. "Have you two met yet?"

Shrike wrote:"Okay, so if the bakery is a fake and obviously its a front for something else, as long as our pickup is not near there, they should be less likely to run into us. Staying out of that area is key to not attracting unnecessary attention!"

Another nod from the foxelf, idly sliding her tail across her lap. "I cannot say that I am familiar with factory work, but I imagine for that sort of operation, the ovens would have to be running constantly," she muses in agreement with the others. "We should get closer... perhaps the roof. If trouble erupts, we need to be ready to get in there." Tail starting to lash slowly, the foxelf reaches for her small duffle of tools, pulling it open so that she can start sorting through what might be needed most urgently.