ALL THE BRICKS - Prologue: What Rough Beast

[TillForPie]

Death Otter - The Matrix, NYNet, NYS Transit Train 213 Host

Death Otter continues to make good progress. One by one the train's systems are yielding themselves to her. She tries to shake the feeling that it's all about to fall apart.

At the back of the car her crack sprite's corruption is overwhelming more IC. This time it's a security guard with a massive stun rifle. A Tar Baby, designed to keep intruders from escaping.

[sblock=OOC]13 dice = 7 successes ^link
Beat target's resist roll

The Tar Baby has been delayed from launching by three rounds. It'll launch at the beginning of round six.[/sblock]Matrix Initiative - Round Three, Pass Two
FUTBOL - 15 ^link
Death Otter - 13 ^link
Crack Sprite - 13 ^link

Shayuri, it's Death Otter's turn.

---

Faust confirms that Woodley isn't hurt and moves on to the rest of his crew. Lum and Herald are both badly injured and they'll need medical attention. Faust can certainly call Doc Sweet but nothing is free, even among old chums. It'll cost.

Lum keeps his focus on the briefcase-contained device that's been opened in his lap. The Bulldog is making good progress - it's unlikely it'll beat the runners to whichever station they stop at but they shouldn't have to wait long.

A sudden notification appears for everyone not currently in the Matrix: It's a tiny Augmented Reality (AR) notification shaped like a fat, hairy belly and it's bouncing around in midair before the eyes of each of the runners. Big Mac Sexy's calling. Anyone can choose to answer the call, either taking the call solo or patching it through to everyone. Or the call can be ignored.

 

[Shayuri]

Death Otter eyes the new almost-arrival warily. Getting trapped in a host with Black IC was not what we call a good thing.

Time was short, but she was nearly done.

She turned her attention to the tracks and called up a route map. She needed to direct the car to switch tracks; get off the line they were on now.

A chance to do that was coming up. Maybe it'd be a good idea to start slowing down, too.

(So if she can tell the car to turn 'now' with this action, she'll do that. If it will take some time to reach the next turnoff, she'll start our car slowing down...but not too much yet. Spoofin' it with 13 dice.)

 

[TillForPie]

The junction is a few hundred meters up, just beyond the terminal the train is about to pass. There are two other tracks the car can jump to when it reaches the junction: One track heads generally north and eventually winds through Newark's North Ward, a much poorer area of the borough you're already in. The other track heads southeast and will continue through Newark's East Ward (the nicer, more commercial area you're currently in), eventually reaching Staten Island. Both routes will have more junctions down the line to keep hopping tracks if you'd like.

And yes, it occurs to Otter, slowing down (at least somewhat) before hitting the junction would be a good idea.

[sblock=OOC]13 dice = 5 successes ^link
Beat target's resist roll

The car won't hit the junction until round five but you're giving the order now. If you don't pick a route it will default to switching to the track that heads through Newark's North Ward.

The front two cars will continue along on their current course (including striking the next train further up the track - but that's quite a few rounds away, especially if Otter slows all the cars down when the train hits the junction, and hopefully a Spider will get to it and stop it before that happens).[/sblock]Matrix Initiative - Round Three, Pass Three
FUTBOL - 05 ^link
Death Otter - 03 ^link
Crack Sprite - 03 ^link

Shayuri, it's Death Otter's turn.

 

[Shayuri]

Death took a deep digital breath and sent a spoofed command to the car's engine controller, telling it to bring its speed down in anticipation of the upcoming turn.

A few more seconds before the IC came online, but once this was done she could in theory jack out. The crack sprite could be left with orders to handle the details of stopping the car at the station, and one or two other odds and ends.

It'd be worth seeing how it shaped up though.

With their car moving at a normal speed, it shouldn't ring any alarms moving forward. Yeah, it'd be a little weird for just a single car to come through, but unless there was a live attendant standing by it wasn't likely to raise any flags. Hell, it might not even be that unusual for stray cars to move through the system to be garaged or reassigned to busy routes.

She glanced at the message and snickered. Destination. Like she'd planned it out that far.

In the time it took her to answer that, she could just emerge from the host. Let him dangle.

(and spoofing our speed to a 'normal' speed for train cars moving through the subway. Our tail will gain on us, but hopefully will be delayed by the little present I left for them. 13 dice.)

 

[Mosier]

Herald answers the call from Big Mac Sexy. He makes sure the other runners can see and hear him on the line.

"Strange for you to call us, Mac. Wouldn't it have been more prudent for us to call you when the coast is clear?" He very specifically neglects to mention the ambush and betrayal, or their escape. Herald is very suspicious of Big Mac Sexy, and is on the lookout for anything in the man's response that might give away how much he knows.

[sblock=OOC]Judge intentions roll during this conversation, please![/sblock]

 

[GlassEye]

Lum listens in on the call but doesn't interupt. Dealing with Mac is Herald's job and Lum is glad to leave him to it. Nor does he worry when Death Otter doesn't immediately answer his message. It's only been a couple of seconds and besides, Lum is managing to follow the train with the van fairly well. His main worry, now that Lunchmeat is just dead meat, is the amount of blood soaking his clothes. That can't be good.

 

[Rubberneck]

Faust patches into the call to listen to the exchange as well. His focus however remains on basic care that he can provide via pressure to wound and bandaging. He doesnt have any supplies on hand but there might be a first aid bag somewhere in the subway car. He begins to look while listening to the call.

 

[TillForPie]

There's loud, wet crunching in everyone's ears. Big Mac Sexy is eating. His chewing stops momentarily. He's considering what to say to Herald.

"Reduce the chit-chat, sparky" is what he goes with. Crunch crunch crunch. "Mr. Johnson wants to handle the drop personally. I'm sending you an address. Get the package to the roof." Everyone gets a message from Mac via their commlinks directing them to a large housing complex in Elmont. Elmont is a neighborhood in Jamaica, Queens, and one of the grimiest places in the sprawl. A lot of immigrants, orks, trolls, and gangs.

Hold it. Hold it. Big Mac Sexy has never before set you up a meet with Mr. Johnson. Then again, he's never before given you a big payday gig like the Pensodyne run. It's easy to let paranoia overwhelm you in moments like these. Maybe this is it, maybe you're finally moving to the big leagues. Maybe Mr. Johnson knows how totally messed the run is and doesn't want to wait for you to hand the goods off to a middle man.

Or maybe you're about to get slammed.

"Everything copacetic?"

[sblock=OOC - Judging Intentions]Herald tries to Judge Intentions:
Charisma 8 + Intuition 5 = 13 dice, 3 successes ^link vs BMS's Charisma + Willpower

Big Mac Sexy is as slippery as a greased pig and getting a read on his response is incredibly difficult. Was his timing a complete coincidence? It very well could have been. But he also completely ignored Herald's question. No "What are you talking about?" or "I assumed you'd be in the clear by now." Just a total dodge. But Big Mac Sexy is kind of an ass in general. Does he know that things have gone to hell? Is he aware of the betrayal? Was package meant to refer to Woodley plus the swag or does he know she's all that's left? Questions without answers.

Herald realizes better than anyone else in the crew that while Big Mac Sexy might be a disgusting desk jockey, he's still a fellow face. And he didn't get where he is and make all the connections he has by being a pushover. If he has betrayed the runners he won't show his hand that easy.[/sblock]
Faust doesn't find any first aid in the car. Any kit worth using would be worth stealing by some SINless hop-along.

The runners' car lurches under their feet. It's braking. Cars one and two are falling away, their speed unaffected.

Another commuter-packed terminal flashes in the windows as the car speeds by it without stopping.

[sblock=OOC - Spoof]13 dice = 3 successes ^link
Beat target's resist roll

The car is slowing. It will now arrive at the junction during round 6 rather than 5.[/sblock]

---

Matrix Initiative - Round Four, Pass One
Death Otter - 27 ^link
Crack Sprite - 27 ^link
FUTBOL - 24 ^link

Shayuri, it's Death Otter's turn.

 

[Shayuri]

"Hey, Crack Horror," Death Otter said. She felt rather than saw the hidden sprite glance slightly towards her, acknowledging her.

"Once the host breaks your suppression, keep running silently and slow down the first two cars that used to be hooked up to the train here. Then take control of this car's speed controls. Don't let anything change them. Once this car's stopped and we've gotten off, you can head on home."

And...now that the WORK was done...maybe there was time for some fun.

She paged through the icon index quickly, and paused over one. Ah yes. The recordings made by the internal cameras. The train company and Knight Errant would DEFINITELY be interested in finding these.

Death Otter grinned.

It was just a shame she wouldn't be around to see it when they did.

(Okay! Burning another couple of services on the crack sprite, then going to try to set a databomb in the file representing the camera recordings made before Death Otter shut off the sensors. Software+Logic is 12 dice, +2 for hotsim for 14 dice. Bomb is Rating 4...a good roll on that could possibly fry someone's deck hopefully...and it will delete the host file if it detonates.)

 

[Mosier]

Herald stands in silence for a moment, considering whether to confront Mac directly. Then he thinks better of it, barks "you got it, Jefe," into the comlink, and promptly ends the conversation.

"There's no way we're going to that rooftop blind," Herald says to the others. He thinks for a moment, and then addresses Faust. "Big Mac said to go to this meet. He didn't say when. Any chance we could get some slap-patches from your doc pal while we decide what to do? Lum looks like drek-smeared concrete, no offense, and I have to admit I'm not feeling swell, myself."