Awakening Apocalypse - Chapter 2: The End of the Beginning

Heartbreak

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[sblock=OOC]
HB figures he needs to find the drones and ready to cut them off from their controllers, redirect them to the demonstration auditorium, and switch their targeting protocol. He also wants to find the back-up video and be ready to cut from it to a live feed.

Current Deck stats: Attack 1, Sleaze 4, Data Processing 3, & Firewall 3. Running Virtual Machine with Exploit and Sneak.[/sblock]

Saint nods and stations himself just outside the door where he can listen for movement.

Heartbreak knows the back-of-house labyrinth here better than anyone else in the group, and indeed probably better than most of the CTI employees themselves. The best place he can think of for having a good chance of being able to work without being interrupted is the "star" dressing room/lounge backstage of the CTI showroom. The room belongs to Evan "Extra Yardage" Yearly, the star of the televised show "CTI Sport City," which films on Fridays in the showroom. The only way anyone would enter that room today would be for cleaning or maintenance. Aleksander's files included the cleaning schedule for the room, so Heartbreak knows the room wont be serviced again until Wednesday night. It's electronically locked, and there is a camera on the hallway outside of the room. There is no camera inside the room, for Yearly's privacy.

The only problem is that there is a security team assigned to patrol the hallway where the dressing room door is. Heartbreak can see a PAN (personal area network) icon for the drone handler, along with individual icons for each of the drones. Looking a bit closer, Heartbreak can see various individual devices slaved to the drone handler's company-issued comlink, most notably a gun with smartlink capability, a status monitor reporting each drone's status, and a "panic" device that will broadcast an emergency signal (along with the handler's location) if he pushes a button. The handler himself appears to have no special drone-control equipment. Apparently CTI (perhaps naively) trusts the security drones to operate almost entirely independently, as advertised.

If Heartbreak wants to examine the drone icons closer, he may find out more about their specific abilities. However, this would be an opposed roll using the drone's firewall rating (which Heartbreak will not know the value of in advance).

Heartbreak looks through the digital blueprints for any alternative room that fits his criteria. There are plenty of options, but in every case there is a security drone/handler squad somewhere between him and the destination. It seems as if the group might have to fight if they want to progress any further. If that is the case, Heartbreak will have to shut down communications between the handlers, or find some other way of making sure no alarm is sounded...

Once inside the relatively secure stairwell inside the emergency door, Casper takes a moment to check her gear. Knife secure in its ankle sheath, and her taser snugly tucked up along her forearm in its spring loaded holster. No pistol or crossbow...they were too obvious to easily smuggle in...but hopefully it'd be enough. Her fannypack had her respirator in it, in case there was smoke or tear gas, along with her flashlight and medkit. She hung her goggles around her neck but for now relied on her 'sunglasses' for vision augmentation. And of course, a set of lockpicks up her left sleeve.

She fiddled with the settings on her clothes, tweaking their color via the electrochromic controls to approximate the colors she'd seen workers wearing. It wouldn't fool anyone paying attention...but it might mean someone who caught a glimpse of them in the distance wouldn't get suspicious.

"All right," she subvocalized to the others. "I'm ready to go in. Heartbreak any information about where they keep the Pow?"

Casper looked at Skinny and said in a low voice, "We'll probably need to acquire a badge. Time and opportunity permitting, maybe uniforms too."

Heartbreak

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[sblock=OOC]
Heartbreak will start placing marks on the status monitor.

Current Deck stats: Attack 1, Sleaze 4, Data Processing 3, & Firewall 3. Running Virtual Machine with Exploit and Sneak.[/sblock]

Heartbreak is able to place a mark on the device that is monitoring the CTI security agent's drone team. He scored 4 successes in the attempt. I had Heartbreak only attempt to place a single mark, as I wasn't sure how many you wanted to do.

At almost the same time, Heartbreak sees the referee IC coming around for another patrol sweep of the host network in this area. (Frak, the thing works fast!) The IC uses its Matrix perception skill, and Heartbreak has a sinking feeling as the icon blows a digital whistle. Heartbreak hasn't been spotted, but the IC has figured out that something around here is running silent within the system.

The patrol IC makes a Matrix Perception test to determine if anything is running silently. This is not an opposed roll. The patrol IC scores 2 hits on 4 dice, more than enough to determine that something is in here running silent.

Immediately the IC makes another Matrix perception test, this time looking for specifically for the silent running icon. From what Heartbreak can tell, just the simple fact that the host now knows an icon is running silent isn't enough to put the entire host on high alert just yet. But, all that will certainly change when the patrol IC inevitably eventually finds him. For now, Heartbreak holds his digital breath as the IC carefully sweeps the area.

Matrix perception opposed test-
Patrol IC dice pool - Host rating X2 - 4 dice total = 1 hit
Heartbreak dice pool - Logic + Sleaze - 10 dice = 5 hits (Heartbreak's Sleaze limit reduces this to 4 hits, more than enough to avoid the patrol IC for now)

Although the referee-looking patrol IC is about as competent as a deflated tire, it will be able to make tests like this every couple of seconds. Every moment Heartbreak spends in this physical area is more time the patrol IC has to try and find him. (For game purposes, the patrol IC will get a new search roll every five seconds or so, until Heartbreak either disconnects from the CTI host, or leaves the physical area he is in.)

It's time for the team to get a move on. Heartbreak's now working on borrowed time! He has a mark on the drone status monitor for the security team in the backstage area of the CTI showroom. The security guard's "panic button" device and his comlink (neither of which Heartbreak has marked yet) are both capable of physically alerting the rest of the CTI security crews in case of trouble. The drones themselves aren't programmed or equipped to send an alert signal. The runners could reach this security squad in about 20 seconds of navigating the back hallways, if they use a robust pace.

"Tell us where to go," Casper says tensely, "And keep the drone off our backs, and we can handle the handler."

Saint nods,

"One guy won't be a problem. Let's just get you somewhere you can do your thing."

Skinny gives both his pistols a once-over before drawing them. He looks barely capable of jogging, much less defending himself in a firefight, but if he's nervous it doesn't show. "Ready when you are," he says with glance at Casper. His voice is calm - still weak, but the tone fortifying in its confidence. "We'll be fine."

Heartbreak

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[sblock=OOC]Current Deck stats: Attack 1, Sleaze 4, Data Processing 3, & Firewall 3. Running Virtual Machine with Exploit and Sneak.[/sblock]