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[Shadowrun] Seattle Calling (Chp 1 Completed 1/25/2009)
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<blockquote data-quote="Zen_Pollo" data-source="post: 4612716" data-attributes="member: 11404"><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Showdown at STTC</strong></p><p></p><p style="text-align: right"><em>London is drowning-and I live by the river</em></p> <p style="text-align: right">The Clash, <em>London Calling</em></p><p></p><p><em>Setting</em>: The front gate of the Shiawase-Tacoma Transmission Components Corp compound. The compound sat in an industrial area of Tacoma. Gray dust and soot covered the streets and sidewalks. Even the AROs popping up had a somber tone – Marketers already had figured out the demographic in this neighborhood didn’t have the sort of disposable income to merit more flashy advertising. The only folks traversing this part of town commuted to work or had no money to spend.</p><p></p><p>Carlito met with Slone and Alexander at the front gate the just before noon. The gate was the main entrance to a 5 meter tall electrified fence surrounding the compound. Alexander looked at the giant hazard signs posted along the fence’s exterior with animated public AROs depicting stylized current flowing in endless loops along the links. The AROs were complemented by old-fashioned signs reading, “Notification of Lethal Countermeasures Beyond this Point. ExtraNational Territory Act 2001 Applies. Trespassers are not protected by UCAS law.”</p><p></p><p><em>Awesome</em>, thought Alexander whom knew very well what the notice implied – the corporation wrote the law inside that compound which meant it was free to do whatever it choose to trespassers.</p><p></p><p>“So ya get what you needed?” Slone asked Carlito. </p><p></p><p>“Yep, had to run an errand,” replied the scientist. Carlito clutched the case containing the blood samples under his coat and a smaller case containing some hypodermic syringes and single-use aerosol dispensers. Carlito had siphoned off a small portion of each blood sample and had them sent to Dr. Samratha for testing earlier this morning.</p><p></p><p>Waiting with the trio was the head of the security detail, an orc with a tag that read “Captain”. Slone eyed the orc’s Ares Predator IV holstered at the hip; the orc had scratched the word “Betty” into the grip. <em>Looks like we’ve got ourselves a cowboy, here</em>, thought Slone. The other two members of the security detail were dwarves whom must have been identical twins – they even had the same brand of wire-framed smartglasses.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, the metahuman-sized door next to the main vehicle gate opened and Keith Summers walked out to greet the trio.</p><p></p><p>“Howdy, Folks,” greeted the human salaryman, “Glad you could make it for the interviews today on such short notice.” Keith licked his lips as he glanced at the security guard. “Have they got their security tags?” Keith asked the Captain.</p><p></p><p>The orc crossed his arms. “So you say that you didn’t have any notice for these interviews?” the Captain asked the human. The guards had already searched the group for weapons and contraband. Fortunately, Carlito’s cases and Slone’s monofilament whip had evaded detection.</p><p></p><p>Alexander didn’t need weapons.</p><p></p><p>“Ummm…it was my fault; I forgot to submit the badge request for the interview. Can you cut me some slack this one time?” pleaded the human.</p><p></p><p>The orc acquiesced, “Okay, boss, but you owe me.” The Captain waved to his minions and the dwarves moved forward and gave the trio RFID enable security badges. </p><p></p><p><em>Wonderful, now they can track us</em>, thought Alexander. The elf had extreme misgivings regarding the legality of this operation and the likelihood of failure. In fact, the only factor keeping the elf going was he knew that someone in his corp had set this cluster-frag up and he had placed his trust in the corp his entire life. <em>They wouldn’t completely slag me over, would they?</em> mused Alexander as he followed the human. Sadly, Alexander knew the answer to that question but chose to go forward with the plan anyways.</p><p></p><p>Keith led the trio through the man-sized gate and into the compound proper. The STTC was actually several facilities rolled into one. The compound was arranged into quadrants. The first quadrant was an industrial stock yard where giant crane-drones labored to move huge transformers, ocean containers and other bulky machinery into systematic piles. The second quadrant housed a warehouse with railway access openings in the middle. Attached to the front of the warehouse was a two-story administration building. The trio could see the warehouse loading dock on the front of the structure adjacent to the admin building. The third quadrant contained the medical storage and laboratory building. The lab building was separated from the warehouse complex by a paved cement roadway 15 meters across. Finally, the fourth quadrant had the security station, the power plant and the employee parking lot.</p><p></p><p>Keith led the trio into the admin building first – the building was made out of brick on the first floor with Plexiglas lining the walls of the second. Keith walked the trio to a ground level entryway and swiped his security badge through the card reader attached to the secured entrance. When the team had entered the building, Keith gave his standard tour spiel. “This floor contains the general administration area, HR and accounting,” articulated the human. Keith pointed to the stairway on his left, “Upstairs houses the data center, the command post for the industrial drones and warehousing ops.” The human led the trio along a central path between the beige cubicles of the first floor and out through a door on the far side of the building which led directly into the warehouse. Slone noticed more crane-drones and saw that on the opposite side of the warehouse there was an opening for the railcars to leave the facility.<em>I’ll have to remember that</em>, thought the troll.</p><p></p><p>Turning to the left from the doorway, Keith continued to a southward facing exit from the warehouse that opened up to a paved roadway. Across the road was the gleaming medical center. While the admin building was made of brick and Plexiglas and the warehouse was made of heavy metal siding, the medical center was constructed of industrial grade mirrored Plexiglas. Keith led the group to the sealed entrance of the medical building and paused to swipe his badge so they could gain access. </p><p></p><p>As the group entered the building one-by-one, Carlito hung back and took out one of the single-use aerosol sprays from his equipment casing. While the others had been busy sating their baser needs last night, Carlito had used the downtime to secrete various nanomachines from the nanohive lodged in his abdomen. The nanohive felt like a cold turd in Carlito’s gut. Carlito told people who bothered to ask that having the nanohive implanted in his abdomen was like feeling constipated all the time. In any case, the nanohive had been busy last night – Carlito had downloaded the nano-schematics Sadie had sent him and had programmed his hive to create nanomachines he could put to good use. Just before meeting up with the rest of the team, Carlito had attached the syringes and aerosol canisters to small nipples grafted to his belly. Without his shirt, Carlito looked like a six-teated-bitchdog. </p><p></p><p>Passing the threshold of the doorway, Carlito discretely sprayed the contents of his aerosol on the door itself. The colorless aerosol adhered to the surface of the door; even an observant individual searching the door would only notice a faint-sheen of moisture on the paint. However, Carlito’s commlink popped up an ARO with the nano-spies’ video feed. Carlito had the odd experience of watching his own back departing from the entrance displayed on the vid-link in front of him. Fortunately, the ARO was private-use so no one saw the nano-spies’ video. <em>But I’ll be able to see if anyone follows us into the building</em>, thought the human.</p><p></p><p>While Carlito deployed his nano-spray, Alexander grew more nervous. This was as far as the team had planned. In fact, Alexander was completely at a loss for what the next step might be. The cool-headed elf hated taking a risk without a plan to mitigate the outcome.</p><p></p><p>Keith was also showing signs of strain. Without clear guidance from the group, the human led them aimlessly around the lab. First, Keith passed by the secured entrance to the bio-hazard area and then led the trio through the administrative section of the building. Keith saw Dr. Smith, the head of the lab facility, and thought to himself, <em>This is it, I’m so getting fired!</em></p><p></p><p>Dr. Smith was a no-nonsense human dressed in a white lab frock; he walked directly to Keith and asked the callow man, “What’s going on here? Who are these people?”</p><p></p><p>“Ummm…these are new hires, I was giving them the tour of the facility,” replied Keith.</p><p></p><p>“I didn’t authorize any new hires. I’m going to call Bob Vance,” stated the irate Doctor.</p><p></p><p>As Smith raised his hands to manipulate the virtual controls of his commlink, Alexander had had enough. The shaman reached into the astral plane and pulled down the mojo. A Control Actions spell later and the team were in business. The elf directed the captive Dr. Smith to lead the group into the storage area for the samples. The Doctor walked stiffly like a marionette towards the containment zone. </p><p></p><p><em>This is going to be bad</em>, thought Carlito, as the team reached the airlock leading to the secure bio-hazards area. Alexander made the Doctor don one of the level 4 containment suits hanging from the racks, and Carlito and the elf followed suite. Slone stood by with Keith and watched the human squirm uncomfortably while the others cycled through the airlocks.</p><p></p><p>Once in the secure zone, Carlito attached his suit to the airflow umbilical cord and the others copied his movements. The spare room painted a sterile turquoise color had few employees – the majority of the work was performed by drones remotely controlled by scientists outside the secured zone. Carlito looked wide-eyed at automated testing and material handling equipment. <em>The real sample must be a severe bio-hazard – they don’t even let people handle the test bed equipment</em>, thought the scientist.</p><p></p><p>The Doctor led them to a glass-sealed cabinet and interfaced his commlink with the controls. Alexander instructed the Doctor to pull the sample ID the group needed and Smith stiffly complied. The elf noticed the tightened glare of the Doctor’s eyes through the Plexiglas visor of Smith’s helmet. Alexander sent a private ARO to Carlito – <em>Dammit, I’m controlling his actions, but he is going to remember this – what are we going to do?</em></p><p></p><p>As the team strategized, the auto-storage unit had retrieved the sample and lowered a tray containing several sealed test-tubes with blood samples into a small exchange chamber. The Doctor cycled out the exchange chamber and withdrew the samples to the outside of the storage enclosure. Carlito took the samples from the doctor and discretely placed them into his alloyed storage unit. Carlito then withdrew the replacement blood samples from the case and gave them to the Doctor to load into the storage cabinet. Once the fake samples were loaded into the secure cabinet, Carlito subscribed to the unit via his commlink and initiated the testing protocols required based on the test profile Tommy had provided. <em>We’re going to have to destroy the security data – the machine probably logged my access and testing instructions</em>, thought the scientist.</p><p></p><p><em>Well, now what?</em> Alexander AROed Carlito.</p><p></p><p>In a flash of insight, Carlito took out one of his syringes and jabbed Dr Smith in the back -- puncturing through the plasticized exterior of the containment suit. Carlito depressed the plunger and injected a stream of nanomachines directly into the doctor’s blood stream. “Let’s go, now!” Carlito exclaimed quietly to Alexander.</p><p></p><p>Alexander directed Dr Smith to start walking towards the rear of the zone and the duo hastily retreated to the airlock. As the airlock door closed behind them, Carlito initiated a command via his commlink to the nanites injected into Dr Smith’s blood stream. The cutters were nanomachines designed for one purpose – to destroy all the cellular material they detected. The nanites worked wonders when you absolutely had to destroy dangerous biological materials. In this case, Carlito saw the Doctor fall to the ground as the violent seizures overtook him. The scientist knew that the hard nanite cutters absolutely would not stop shearing away at the internal organs of the host until they ran out of power. When the Doctor was vivisected for autopsy, there would be nothing but a puddle of viscous goop where his organs once stood.<em>Sweet Mother protect me, I have committed murder once again</em>, thought Carlito as he watched Dr. Smith convulse on the floor through the airlock window.</p><p></p><p>As the duo left the outside airlock, all hell broke loose. One of the techs had hit the bio-hazard alarm. The entire building immediately entered lockdown mode. While Carlito and Alexander shed their containment suits, Slone looked at the security monitors outside the airlock showing hapless technicians beating futilely at the inner airlock doors.<em>Poor Bastards</em>, thought the troll as the screens showed the technicians being hosed down with industrial solvents.</p><p></p><p>Carlito’s nanospies’ showed other workers inside the medical building running to the door – but the entrance was already sealed. The salarymen beat helplessly against the door to no avail. “We are going to have to find another way out – they locked down the entire building,” explained the scientist.</p><p></p><p>“Drek it All!,” Keith exclaimed, “What are we going to do?”</p><p></p><p>“I’ve got an idea,” replied the scientist. Carlito led the group to a corner conference room he had noticed during their earlier tour. The conference room seemed to be vulnerable to breakouts due to the large floor to ceiling windows lining the exterior facing walls; however, Carlito knew that material science had come a long way – while the glass might seem easy to break, the windows were as hard as the concrete and steel comprising the rest of the building. </p><p></p><p>Nevertheless, Carlito had a plan; he took another aerosol spray from his case and quickly sprayed the surface of the Plexiglas. While the Destructor nanites ate through the material at the molecular level, it appeared to the team that the window simply dissolved in the air in front of them. Shortly, a one-meter hole had appeared in the window leading to the team’s freedom.</p><p></p><p>The team wasted no time leaping through the aperture and racing towards the front of the admin building. As the team ran, Alexander yelled, “We’ve got to get to the datacenter and smash those records!”</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately for the team, the SecSpecs had other ideas. The Captain and his two sidekicks were running towards the team from the main gate across the complex. Yet the team was lucky that the guards’ submachineguns were not accurate over the long distance. Therefore, the team and the guards ran towards each other with opposite goals in mind. Keith had had enough and chose this moment to split off from the team. The callow human was already thinking about what he was going to tell his superiors regarding the heist.</p><p></p><p>About thirty meters out from the team, the guards stopped and ordered the team to stop, but no one listened. Slone raced further ahead than his allies due to his gangly troll legs. As the SecSpecs opened fire at the troll, a few bullets found their mark, but the troll’s armor jacket, dermal plating, titanium bone lacing and platelet factory absorbed most of the impact. Still, Slone felt a slight bruise welling on his breastbone and it angered him.</p><p></p><p>“Who brings a popgun to a Fraggin’ firefight?” groused the angry troll as he drew his monofilament whip from its hidden holster. Slone kicked on his synaptic accelerator and the scene took on the slow motion quality that turned the ordinarily tough troll into a hyperkinetic cyborg killer. Lashing out at the Captain, the troll found his mark with the monofilament whip and the orc’s gun hand was instantly severed at the wrist – blood gushed into the faces of the orc’s allies.</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile Alexander pulled down the mojo magic and launched a Stun Bolt at the dwarf on the right. The dwarf had some willpower, so the blast only staggered him. <em>I need to invest in some better offensive spells</em>, thought the elf. Of course, Alexander’s spell selection featured low Mana Drain – pulling down the mojo had its price after all. Besides, constantly experiencing massive migraines would hamper the elf’s style.</p><p></p><p>Carlito chose his final aerosol canister and sprayed the face of the dwarf on the left – it contained a dose of hard nanites specifically designed to foul up commlinks and smart displays. The nano-scale machines were programmed to seek out commlinks and inject false signals into the commlink’s wireless data stream. The end result was that the dwarf’s smartglass display suddenly exploded with Bad AROs momentarily blinding and disorienting him.</p><p></p><p>Not feeling particularly magnanimous, Slone cut down the orc whom crouched helplessly at the troll’s feet cradling the stump of his severed limb. Slone hacked at the Captain’s skull and cleft the orc’s head in twain.</p><p></p><p>Moving faster than mere human limits, Slone swung a savage backhand strike towards the dwarf on the left whom was still dazed by Carlito’s interference. Slone’s wicked barb split the dwarf from crown to codpiece. The poor sod’s organs spilled out onto pavement. <em>Too bad we won’t be able to sell those to an organlegger</em>, thought the troll.</p><p></p><p>Alexander dodged the poorly aimed shots from the remaining dwarf – it’s hard to shoot when you are suffering from the effects of a massive concussion. The elf struck the dwarf with another Stun Bolt and laid the SecSpec low.</p><p></p><p>Seizing the opportunity, Carlito jumped on the bodies and looted their commlinks, smartglasses and weapons. “These will help us get into the datacenter, let’s go!” yelled the human as his passed out the goodies to his teammates.</p><p></p><p>From the warehouse exit the trio had used a few minutes earlier, a human guard came running towards them. The team ran for the corner of the admin just 10 meters ahead of them. As the party turned the corner, Slone crouched behind the wall and waited for the guard to run closer into the weapon’s effective range.</p><p></p><p>Carlito moved to the front entrance to the admin building, but the door was sealed due to the alarm. The scientist used the access code from the Captain’s commlink to wirelessly subscribe to the door’s datanode and used the security override to force the door open.</p><p></p><p>Alexander waited impatiently behind Carlito while he scientist attempted to hack to door. Looking over his shoulder, the elf saw a sight that filled him with dread – 4 GM-Nissan Doberman security drones were scuttling towards them from the security center. Each drone carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle mounted on a 360 degree turret on its back. The elf did not have any spells which could affect the metallic drones. Alexander yelled at Slone, “We’ve got company!”</p><p></p><p>The troll cursed under his breath and fell back to his companions. As the troll retreated to the doorway, he caught a glimpse of the security drones. <em>Dammit, those drones have too much armor for these submachineguns, I need a real weapon</em>, thought the troll.</p><p></p><p>Just then, Carlito finished hacking into the door and the team burst through the entryway. As the troll covered the doorway for the team, Slone saw a second human security guard approaching from the stockyard. Once the team was through, the troll closed and locked the doorway and then shot the electronic panel hoping to buy the team some time. “We’ve got major problems,” yelled the troll.</p><p></p><p><em>No Kidding</em>, thought the elf as he wryly observed the scared salarymen jump up from their cubicles as the troll opened fire at the door. The elf told Carlito, “We’ll hold them off here, you go crash the datacenter!”</p><p></p><p>Carlito wasted no time dashing up the stairs to the second floor. The scientist saw the secured door leading to the datacenter. Racing over to the access console, the scientist deftly removed the outer casing from the device and began hotwiring the maglock. </p><p></p><p>While Carlito finished cracking the doorway and raced into the datacenter, the team downstairs watched as the security guards and drones started breaking down the exterior security door. The troll and the elf hid behind the thin beige wall of the first line of cubicles near the doorway. Crouching behind the partitions on opposite sides of the central walkway, Slone looked at Alexander and they shared a silent moment of desperation. When the first drone burst through the door, its auto-pilot program paused for a moment to assess the situation. </p><p></p><p>Slone looked at Alexander and said, “Frag it if they can’t take a joke!”</p><p></p><p>The troll leaped out at the drone and quickly closed the distance before it could react. Slone let loose a massive overhand swing at the drone scuttling in front of him. Sparks flew as the monofilament whip cut through the hardened outer shell of the drone and exposed its electronic guts.</p><p></p><p>Alexander noticed one of the guards poked his head around the broken-down door hoping to take aim at the troll. The elf Stun-Bolted the guard and was rewarded as the human crumbled to the ground with blood oozing out of his ears and nose.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Carlito was rewiring the datacenter like his life depended on it.</p><p></p><p>It did.</p><p></p><p>When Carlito had first entered the temperature-controlled datacenter, he had had no idea how to even find to correct server to disable amongst rows of identical black server closets. However, Carlito had noticed an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) humming along nearby and a crazy idea sprung to life. If Carlito could bypass the UPS and route the building’s power directly to the server room’s electrical infrastructure, he might be able to fry all the servers at once. Yet Carlito knew that he would need a monster power surge for that to happen – but what if he disabled the safety features of the UPS and used the stored up charge as a giant capacitor to initiate a massive discharge? And that is when his encephalon kicked into gear. The cyberware implant was made for such logic problems. It appeared to Carlito that the servers disappeared and only electrical conduits lined the false floor and walls of the datacenter. The encephalon helped his mind complete the circuit diagrams almost instantaneously. The wires and circuit modifications fell into place in his mind as fast as Carlito’s hands could move. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately for the scientist, he knew exactly how long it would take to re-wire the room – five minutes minimum for an expert electrician.</p><p></p><p>Downstairs, the fight was not going well for the team. The first drone, badly damaged by Slone’s first slash, opened fire point-blank at the troll with its Kalashnikov. Unlike the small caliber rounds of the submachinegun, the assault rifle badly injured the troll. Slone’s Kevlar and ceramic lined-jacket prevented the rounds from piecing his flesh, but jacket and all his cyberware could not mute the raw kinetic force of the rounds. Each burst from the drone created subdermal bruising and staggered the troll to his knees.</p><p></p><p>Gritting his teeth, the wounded troll lunged at the drone, aiming for the slash in the drone’s armor created by the first swipe. The hit connected and Slone roared with triumph as the whip made havoc with the fragile electronic systems secured behind the hard shell of the drone’s exterior. The drone fell crashing to the floor. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately for the troll, three more drones awaited him and the second drone wasted no time scuttling through the doorway to engage Slone. The troll hacked at the second drone and brought it down in one massive swipe.</p><p></p><p>Alexander could do nothing to aid the troll – his spells did not affect inanimate objects. Moreover, the last guard chose to let the drones dispatch the angry troll and so he remained hidden outside. <em>Fragging coward</em>, thought the elf as he cast Improved Invisibility on himself and hid in the cubicles.</p><p></p><p>Carlito had already shut down the power to the datacenter and he was busy re-routing the main powerline to bypass the UPS. <em>Not enough time!</em> Carlito panicked to himself.</p><p></p><p>Downstairs, the remaining two drones laid down the rain on Slone. The troll buckled under the combined assault of the two remaining drones. The two drones fired burst after burst at the troll and Slone was forced to fall back to the cover of the cubicles; where he noticed the elf was gone. “Frag it all to Hell, you dandelion-eatin’ slitch!” yelled the gravely injured troll. <em>Screw this, I’m not being paid enough to die</em>, thought the troll as he fled full speed towards the door to the warehouse Keith had led them through earlier that day.</p><p></p><p>The final guard finally worked up to courage to peek around the corner and saw the troll running flat-out towards the rear door of the office. Knowing better than to open fire in the occupied office space, the guard gave chase to the troll on foot – but his human-sized legs were no match for the troll’s long stride.</p><p></p><p>Slone ran as fast as he had ever run to the rear door. The troll was half-delirious with pain – his long body was covered in impact bruises and Slone knew that tomorrow he would feel worse. <em>If I make through today</em>, reasoned the troll.</p><p></p><p>The drones followed the troll but held their fire since their programming precluded the drones from endangering friendly civilians.</p><p></p><p>Alexander watched silently from the safety of his invisibility spell as the drones and the guard ran past him. Once the SecSpec ran past, the elf stood up and walked out the front of the building. <em>Forget it, I’m not being paid to die like some criminal</em>, thought the elf as he walked away from his companion’s plight.</p><p></p><p>Carlito blithely carried on with his hack, not knowing his teammates had abandoned him. The scientist had successful re-routed the power to circumvent the UPS and was now manually disabling the safety circuits in the UPS which prevented a massive discharge of current. Carlito’s encephalon laid out circuit after circuit in a seemingly endless parade of diagrams. <em>How much time do I have left?</em> the scientist thought briefly.</p><p></p><p>Slone burst through the rear door and rushed into the warehouse. The troll’s plan was to hide amongst the tall warehouse racks and pallets and make his way towards the rear of the building to the railcar exit opening.</p><p></p><p>Alexander nonchalantly walked towards the front gate safe in his invisible cocoon. </p><p></p><p>The drone and the guard cautiously followed Slone into the warehouse. Fortunately for the troll, the racking and the pallets provided all the cover he needed to lose his pursuit. Slone booked it to the railway entrance cutting a diagonally path through the warehouse – first running up one aisle of racking and then cutting across to the next through breaks in the racking of each row.</p><p></p><p>Carlito was so close to being done – the geek had successful circumvented the safety measures on the power supply and only had a few circuits left to turn the UPS into a giant discharge capacitor. <em>Where are the rest of the guys?</em> wondered the scientist as his hands worked feverishly.</p><p></p><p>The guard made it to the central area of the warehouse but could not see where the troll had went, the drones’ sensors also lost the troll. <em>Wait a minute</em>, thought the guard, <em>the Captain had given them RFID tags – I can use the warehouse RFID tag readers to locate him!</em></p><p></p><p>Slone ran out the railway access door at the rear of the warehouse and encountered a problem – the railway access had a gate – an electrified gate. <em>Oh frag it!</em> thought the battered troll as he glanced behind him for the pursuit drones.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Alexander made it to the front gate the trio had entered at the beginning. Seeing the side entrance was locked, Alexander used one of the stolen commlinks to access the door’s data node. With the guard’s access code and permissions, it was simple to open the gate. <em>All too easy</em>, thought the elf as he made his escape.</p><p></p><p>Carlito madly completed the final circuit. Racing to the fuse box, Carlito whispered a short prayer,<em>Please Merciful Father, Let this work!</em></p><p></p><p>The scientist pulled the switch.</p><p></p><p>Sparks flew from the servers like fireworks! Carlito looked in wonder as, one after another, the servers exploded and sparks flew from their fried circuits. In fact, the explosions seemed to follow the same timing as the cannon fire from Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture. Carlito looked down at his watch – the impossible hack only took him 30 seconds from start to finish.</p><p></p><p>The guard cackled triumphantly as he brought up the RFID locator program on an ARO from his commlink. Just as the program finished its sweep of all the RFID security badges in the complex, the link to the datacenter went dead. Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the complex as the transformers in the power substation all short-circuited. The halogen lights in the warehouse exploded throwing sparks everywhere.</p><p></p><p>Slone flinched back as charges flared from the electrified fence and then died out. Taking it as his cue, Slone took his trusty monofilament whip and cut a hole in the chain links so he could escape. The troll ran deep into the alleyway across the street and hid amongst the area’s tenements. After he had found a safe spot, Slone sent Alexander a nasty-gram via his commlink, <em>You and I are going to have some serious words about this, Nancy-Boy!1!1!!</em></p><p></p><p>Alexander, however, was long gone. The elf barely looked back as the transformers exploded behind him. <em>Just act cool, McQueen. Act cool</em>, the elf keep telling himself as he walked away.</p><p></p><p>Carlito’s pure joy at his amazing hack was short lived at the lights went out and the emergency lighting kicked in. <em>Time to go!</em> thought the jubilant scientist. Carlito ran back outside the datacenter and joined the throng of people running down the stairs to get outside. The corporate wage-slaves normally ignored fire-drills, but when automatic weapons were fired and the power went out, it lent much more motivation in compliance from the average worker-bee. Once in the parking lot with the rest of the workers, the scientist simply walked to the front gate. As Carlito stepped through the gate to freedom, he glanced back at the growing throng of people in the parking lot and saw the last confused security guard standing around looking for the intruders. </p><p></p><p>Shortly after Carlito left the compound, the parking lot guard was joined by the guard whom had followed Slone into the warehouse. Running up to his partner, the warehouse guard asked the parking lot guard, “Where’d he go?”</p><p></p><p>“Where’d who go?”</p><p></p><p style="text-align: right"><em>The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in</em></p> <p style="text-align: right"><em>Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin</em></p> <p style="text-align: right"><em>A nuclear error, but I have no fear</em></p> <p style="text-align: right"><em>London is drowning-and I live by the river</em></p> <p style="text-align: right">The Clash, <em>London Calling</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zen_Pollo, post: 4612716, member: 11404"] [b]Chapter 1: The Showdown at STTC[/b] [RIGHT][I]London is drowning-and I live by the river[/I] The Clash, [I]London Calling[/I][/RIGHT] [I]Setting[/I]: The front gate of the Shiawase-Tacoma Transmission Components Corp compound. The compound sat in an industrial area of Tacoma. Gray dust and soot covered the streets and sidewalks. Even the AROs popping up had a somber tone – Marketers already had figured out the demographic in this neighborhood didn’t have the sort of disposable income to merit more flashy advertising. The only folks traversing this part of town commuted to work or had no money to spend. Carlito met with Slone and Alexander at the front gate the just before noon. The gate was the main entrance to a 5 meter tall electrified fence surrounding the compound. Alexander looked at the giant hazard signs posted along the fence’s exterior with animated public AROs depicting stylized current flowing in endless loops along the links. The AROs were complemented by old-fashioned signs reading, “Notification of Lethal Countermeasures Beyond this Point. ExtraNational Territory Act 2001 Applies. Trespassers are not protected by UCAS law.” [I]Awesome[/I], thought Alexander whom knew very well what the notice implied – the corporation wrote the law inside that compound which meant it was free to do whatever it choose to trespassers. “So ya get what you needed?” Slone asked Carlito. “Yep, had to run an errand,” replied the scientist. Carlito clutched the case containing the blood samples under his coat and a smaller case containing some hypodermic syringes and single-use aerosol dispensers. Carlito had siphoned off a small portion of each blood sample and had them sent to Dr. Samratha for testing earlier this morning. Waiting with the trio was the head of the security detail, an orc with a tag that read “Captain”. Slone eyed the orc’s Ares Predator IV holstered at the hip; the orc had scratched the word “Betty” into the grip. [I]Looks like we’ve got ourselves a cowboy, here[/I], thought Slone. The other two members of the security detail were dwarves whom must have been identical twins – they even had the same brand of wire-framed smartglasses. Eventually, the metahuman-sized door next to the main vehicle gate opened and Keith Summers walked out to greet the trio. “Howdy, Folks,” greeted the human salaryman, “Glad you could make it for the interviews today on such short notice.” Keith licked his lips as he glanced at the security guard. “Have they got their security tags?” Keith asked the Captain. The orc crossed his arms. “So you say that you didn’t have any notice for these interviews?” the Captain asked the human. The guards had already searched the group for weapons and contraband. Fortunately, Carlito’s cases and Slone’s monofilament whip had evaded detection. Alexander didn’t need weapons. “Ummm…it was my fault; I forgot to submit the badge request for the interview. Can you cut me some slack this one time?” pleaded the human. The orc acquiesced, “Okay, boss, but you owe me.” The Captain waved to his minions and the dwarves moved forward and gave the trio RFID enable security badges. [I]Wonderful, now they can track us[/I], thought Alexander. The elf had extreme misgivings regarding the legality of this operation and the likelihood of failure. In fact, the only factor keeping the elf going was he knew that someone in his corp had set this cluster-frag up and he had placed his trust in the corp his entire life. [I]They wouldn’t completely slag me over, would they?[/I] mused Alexander as he followed the human. Sadly, Alexander knew the answer to that question but chose to go forward with the plan anyways. Keith led the trio through the man-sized gate and into the compound proper. The STTC was actually several facilities rolled into one. The compound was arranged into quadrants. The first quadrant was an industrial stock yard where giant crane-drones labored to move huge transformers, ocean containers and other bulky machinery into systematic piles. The second quadrant housed a warehouse with railway access openings in the middle. Attached to the front of the warehouse was a two-story administration building. The trio could see the warehouse loading dock on the front of the structure adjacent to the admin building. The third quadrant contained the medical storage and laboratory building. The lab building was separated from the warehouse complex by a paved cement roadway 15 meters across. Finally, the fourth quadrant had the security station, the power plant and the employee parking lot. Keith led the trio into the admin building first – the building was made out of brick on the first floor with Plexiglas lining the walls of the second. Keith walked the trio to a ground level entryway and swiped his security badge through the card reader attached to the secured entrance. When the team had entered the building, Keith gave his standard tour spiel. “This floor contains the general administration area, HR and accounting,” articulated the human. Keith pointed to the stairway on his left, “Upstairs houses the data center, the command post for the industrial drones and warehousing ops.” The human led the trio along a central path between the beige cubicles of the first floor and out through a door on the far side of the building which led directly into the warehouse. Slone noticed more crane-drones and saw that on the opposite side of the warehouse there was an opening for the railcars to leave the facility.[I]I’ll have to remember that[/I], thought the troll. Turning to the left from the doorway, Keith continued to a southward facing exit from the warehouse that opened up to a paved roadway. Across the road was the gleaming medical center. While the admin building was made of brick and Plexiglas and the warehouse was made of heavy metal siding, the medical center was constructed of industrial grade mirrored Plexiglas. Keith led the group to the sealed entrance of the medical building and paused to swipe his badge so they could gain access. As the group entered the building one-by-one, Carlito hung back and took out one of the single-use aerosol sprays from his equipment casing. While the others had been busy sating their baser needs last night, Carlito had used the downtime to secrete various nanomachines from the nanohive lodged in his abdomen. The nanohive felt like a cold turd in Carlito’s gut. Carlito told people who bothered to ask that having the nanohive implanted in his abdomen was like feeling constipated all the time. In any case, the nanohive had been busy last night – Carlito had downloaded the nano-schematics Sadie had sent him and had programmed his hive to create nanomachines he could put to good use. Just before meeting up with the rest of the team, Carlito had attached the syringes and aerosol canisters to small nipples grafted to his belly. Without his shirt, Carlito looked like a six-teated-bitchdog. Passing the threshold of the doorway, Carlito discretely sprayed the contents of his aerosol on the door itself. The colorless aerosol adhered to the surface of the door; even an observant individual searching the door would only notice a faint-sheen of moisture on the paint. However, Carlito’s commlink popped up an ARO with the nano-spies’ video feed. Carlito had the odd experience of watching his own back departing from the entrance displayed on the vid-link in front of him. Fortunately, the ARO was private-use so no one saw the nano-spies’ video. [I]But I’ll be able to see if anyone follows us into the building[/I], thought the human. While Carlito deployed his nano-spray, Alexander grew more nervous. This was as far as the team had planned. In fact, Alexander was completely at a loss for what the next step might be. The cool-headed elf hated taking a risk without a plan to mitigate the outcome. Keith was also showing signs of strain. Without clear guidance from the group, the human led them aimlessly around the lab. First, Keith passed by the secured entrance to the bio-hazard area and then led the trio through the administrative section of the building. Keith saw Dr. Smith, the head of the lab facility, and thought to himself, [I]This is it, I’m so getting fired![/I] Dr. Smith was a no-nonsense human dressed in a white lab frock; he walked directly to Keith and asked the callow man, “What’s going on here? Who are these people?” “Ummm…these are new hires, I was giving them the tour of the facility,” replied Keith. “I didn’t authorize any new hires. I’m going to call Bob Vance,” stated the irate Doctor. As Smith raised his hands to manipulate the virtual controls of his commlink, Alexander had had enough. The shaman reached into the astral plane and pulled down the mojo. A Control Actions spell later and the team were in business. The elf directed the captive Dr. Smith to lead the group into the storage area for the samples. The Doctor walked stiffly like a marionette towards the containment zone. [I]This is going to be bad[/I], thought Carlito, as the team reached the airlock leading to the secure bio-hazards area. Alexander made the Doctor don one of the level 4 containment suits hanging from the racks, and Carlito and the elf followed suite. Slone stood by with Keith and watched the human squirm uncomfortably while the others cycled through the airlocks. Once in the secure zone, Carlito attached his suit to the airflow umbilical cord and the others copied his movements. The spare room painted a sterile turquoise color had few employees – the majority of the work was performed by drones remotely controlled by scientists outside the secured zone. Carlito looked wide-eyed at automated testing and material handling equipment. [I]The real sample must be a severe bio-hazard – they don’t even let people handle the test bed equipment[/I], thought the scientist. The Doctor led them to a glass-sealed cabinet and interfaced his commlink with the controls. Alexander instructed the Doctor to pull the sample ID the group needed and Smith stiffly complied. The elf noticed the tightened glare of the Doctor’s eyes through the Plexiglas visor of Smith’s helmet. Alexander sent a private ARO to Carlito – [I]Dammit, I’m controlling his actions, but he is going to remember this – what are we going to do?[/I] As the team strategized, the auto-storage unit had retrieved the sample and lowered a tray containing several sealed test-tubes with blood samples into a small exchange chamber. The Doctor cycled out the exchange chamber and withdrew the samples to the outside of the storage enclosure. Carlito took the samples from the doctor and discretely placed them into his alloyed storage unit. Carlito then withdrew the replacement blood samples from the case and gave them to the Doctor to load into the storage cabinet. Once the fake samples were loaded into the secure cabinet, Carlito subscribed to the unit via his commlink and initiated the testing protocols required based on the test profile Tommy had provided. [I]We’re going to have to destroy the security data – the machine probably logged my access and testing instructions[/I], thought the scientist. [I]Well, now what?[/I] Alexander AROed Carlito. In a flash of insight, Carlito took out one of his syringes and jabbed Dr Smith in the back -- puncturing through the plasticized exterior of the containment suit. Carlito depressed the plunger and injected a stream of nanomachines directly into the doctor’s blood stream. “Let’s go, now!” Carlito exclaimed quietly to Alexander. Alexander directed Dr Smith to start walking towards the rear of the zone and the duo hastily retreated to the airlock. As the airlock door closed behind them, Carlito initiated a command via his commlink to the nanites injected into Dr Smith’s blood stream. The cutters were nanomachines designed for one purpose – to destroy all the cellular material they detected. The nanites worked wonders when you absolutely had to destroy dangerous biological materials. In this case, Carlito saw the Doctor fall to the ground as the violent seizures overtook him. The scientist knew that the hard nanite cutters absolutely would not stop shearing away at the internal organs of the host until they ran out of power. When the Doctor was vivisected for autopsy, there would be nothing but a puddle of viscous goop where his organs once stood.[I]Sweet Mother protect me, I have committed murder once again[/I], thought Carlito as he watched Dr. Smith convulse on the floor through the airlock window. As the duo left the outside airlock, all hell broke loose. One of the techs had hit the bio-hazard alarm. The entire building immediately entered lockdown mode. While Carlito and Alexander shed their containment suits, Slone looked at the security monitors outside the airlock showing hapless technicians beating futilely at the inner airlock doors.[I]Poor Bastards[/I], thought the troll as the screens showed the technicians being hosed down with industrial solvents. Carlito’s nanospies’ showed other workers inside the medical building running to the door – but the entrance was already sealed. The salarymen beat helplessly against the door to no avail. “We are going to have to find another way out – they locked down the entire building,” explained the scientist. “Drek it All!,” Keith exclaimed, “What are we going to do?” “I’ve got an idea,” replied the scientist. Carlito led the group to a corner conference room he had noticed during their earlier tour. The conference room seemed to be vulnerable to breakouts due to the large floor to ceiling windows lining the exterior facing walls; however, Carlito knew that material science had come a long way – while the glass might seem easy to break, the windows were as hard as the concrete and steel comprising the rest of the building. Nevertheless, Carlito had a plan; he took another aerosol spray from his case and quickly sprayed the surface of the Plexiglas. While the Destructor nanites ate through the material at the molecular level, it appeared to the team that the window simply dissolved in the air in front of them. Shortly, a one-meter hole had appeared in the window leading to the team’s freedom. The team wasted no time leaping through the aperture and racing towards the front of the admin building. As the team ran, Alexander yelled, “We’ve got to get to the datacenter and smash those records!” Unfortunately for the team, the SecSpecs had other ideas. The Captain and his two sidekicks were running towards the team from the main gate across the complex. Yet the team was lucky that the guards’ submachineguns were not accurate over the long distance. Therefore, the team and the guards ran towards each other with opposite goals in mind. Keith had had enough and chose this moment to split off from the team. The callow human was already thinking about what he was going to tell his superiors regarding the heist. About thirty meters out from the team, the guards stopped and ordered the team to stop, but no one listened. Slone raced further ahead than his allies due to his gangly troll legs. As the SecSpecs opened fire at the troll, a few bullets found their mark, but the troll’s armor jacket, dermal plating, titanium bone lacing and platelet factory absorbed most of the impact. Still, Slone felt a slight bruise welling on his breastbone and it angered him. “Who brings a popgun to a Fraggin’ firefight?” groused the angry troll as he drew his monofilament whip from its hidden holster. Slone kicked on his synaptic accelerator and the scene took on the slow motion quality that turned the ordinarily tough troll into a hyperkinetic cyborg killer. Lashing out at the Captain, the troll found his mark with the monofilament whip and the orc’s gun hand was instantly severed at the wrist – blood gushed into the faces of the orc’s allies. Meanwhile Alexander pulled down the mojo magic and launched a Stun Bolt at the dwarf on the right. The dwarf had some willpower, so the blast only staggered him. [I]I need to invest in some better offensive spells[/I], thought the elf. Of course, Alexander’s spell selection featured low Mana Drain – pulling down the mojo had its price after all. Besides, constantly experiencing massive migraines would hamper the elf’s style. Carlito chose his final aerosol canister and sprayed the face of the dwarf on the left – it contained a dose of hard nanites specifically designed to foul up commlinks and smart displays. The nano-scale machines were programmed to seek out commlinks and inject false signals into the commlink’s wireless data stream. The end result was that the dwarf’s smartglass display suddenly exploded with Bad AROs momentarily blinding and disorienting him. Not feeling particularly magnanimous, Slone cut down the orc whom crouched helplessly at the troll’s feet cradling the stump of his severed limb. Slone hacked at the Captain’s skull and cleft the orc’s head in twain. Moving faster than mere human limits, Slone swung a savage backhand strike towards the dwarf on the left whom was still dazed by Carlito’s interference. Slone’s wicked barb split the dwarf from crown to codpiece. The poor sod’s organs spilled out onto pavement. [I]Too bad we won’t be able to sell those to an organlegger[/I], thought the troll. Alexander dodged the poorly aimed shots from the remaining dwarf – it’s hard to shoot when you are suffering from the effects of a massive concussion. The elf struck the dwarf with another Stun Bolt and laid the SecSpec low. Seizing the opportunity, Carlito jumped on the bodies and looted their commlinks, smartglasses and weapons. “These will help us get into the datacenter, let’s go!” yelled the human as his passed out the goodies to his teammates. From the warehouse exit the trio had used a few minutes earlier, a human guard came running towards them. The team ran for the corner of the admin just 10 meters ahead of them. As the party turned the corner, Slone crouched behind the wall and waited for the guard to run closer into the weapon’s effective range. Carlito moved to the front entrance to the admin building, but the door was sealed due to the alarm. The scientist used the access code from the Captain’s commlink to wirelessly subscribe to the door’s datanode and used the security override to force the door open. Alexander waited impatiently behind Carlito while he scientist attempted to hack to door. Looking over his shoulder, the elf saw a sight that filled him with dread – 4 GM-Nissan Doberman security drones were scuttling towards them from the security center. Each drone carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle mounted on a 360 degree turret on its back. The elf did not have any spells which could affect the metallic drones. Alexander yelled at Slone, “We’ve got company!” The troll cursed under his breath and fell back to his companions. As the troll retreated to the doorway, he caught a glimpse of the security drones. [I]Dammit, those drones have too much armor for these submachineguns, I need a real weapon[/I], thought the troll. Just then, Carlito finished hacking into the door and the team burst through the entryway. As the troll covered the doorway for the team, Slone saw a second human security guard approaching from the stockyard. Once the team was through, the troll closed and locked the doorway and then shot the electronic panel hoping to buy the team some time. “We’ve got major problems,” yelled the troll. [I]No Kidding[/I], thought the elf as he wryly observed the scared salarymen jump up from their cubicles as the troll opened fire at the door. The elf told Carlito, “We’ll hold them off here, you go crash the datacenter!” Carlito wasted no time dashing up the stairs to the second floor. The scientist saw the secured door leading to the datacenter. Racing over to the access console, the scientist deftly removed the outer casing from the device and began hotwiring the maglock. While Carlito finished cracking the doorway and raced into the datacenter, the team downstairs watched as the security guards and drones started breaking down the exterior security door. The troll and the elf hid behind the thin beige wall of the first line of cubicles near the doorway. Crouching behind the partitions on opposite sides of the central walkway, Slone looked at Alexander and they shared a silent moment of desperation. When the first drone burst through the door, its auto-pilot program paused for a moment to assess the situation. Slone looked at Alexander and said, “Frag it if they can’t take a joke!” The troll leaped out at the drone and quickly closed the distance before it could react. Slone let loose a massive overhand swing at the drone scuttling in front of him. Sparks flew as the monofilament whip cut through the hardened outer shell of the drone and exposed its electronic guts. Alexander noticed one of the guards poked his head around the broken-down door hoping to take aim at the troll. The elf Stun-Bolted the guard and was rewarded as the human crumbled to the ground with blood oozing out of his ears and nose. Meanwhile, Carlito was rewiring the datacenter like his life depended on it. It did. When Carlito had first entered the temperature-controlled datacenter, he had had no idea how to even find to correct server to disable amongst rows of identical black server closets. However, Carlito had noticed an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) humming along nearby and a crazy idea sprung to life. If Carlito could bypass the UPS and route the building’s power directly to the server room’s electrical infrastructure, he might be able to fry all the servers at once. Yet Carlito knew that he would need a monster power surge for that to happen – but what if he disabled the safety features of the UPS and used the stored up charge as a giant capacitor to initiate a massive discharge? And that is when his encephalon kicked into gear. The cyberware implant was made for such logic problems. It appeared to Carlito that the servers disappeared and only electrical conduits lined the false floor and walls of the datacenter. The encephalon helped his mind complete the circuit diagrams almost instantaneously. The wires and circuit modifications fell into place in his mind as fast as Carlito’s hands could move. Unfortunately for the scientist, he knew exactly how long it would take to re-wire the room – five minutes minimum for an expert electrician. Downstairs, the fight was not going well for the team. The first drone, badly damaged by Slone’s first slash, opened fire point-blank at the troll with its Kalashnikov. Unlike the small caliber rounds of the submachinegun, the assault rifle badly injured the troll. Slone’s Kevlar and ceramic lined-jacket prevented the rounds from piecing his flesh, but jacket and all his cyberware could not mute the raw kinetic force of the rounds. Each burst from the drone created subdermal bruising and staggered the troll to his knees. Gritting his teeth, the wounded troll lunged at the drone, aiming for the slash in the drone’s armor created by the first swipe. The hit connected and Slone roared with triumph as the whip made havoc with the fragile electronic systems secured behind the hard shell of the drone’s exterior. The drone fell crashing to the floor. Unfortunately for the troll, three more drones awaited him and the second drone wasted no time scuttling through the doorway to engage Slone. The troll hacked at the second drone and brought it down in one massive swipe. Alexander could do nothing to aid the troll – his spells did not affect inanimate objects. Moreover, the last guard chose to let the drones dispatch the angry troll and so he remained hidden outside. [I]Fragging coward[/I], thought the elf as he cast Improved Invisibility on himself and hid in the cubicles. Carlito had already shut down the power to the datacenter and he was busy re-routing the main powerline to bypass the UPS. [I]Not enough time![/I] Carlito panicked to himself. Downstairs, the remaining two drones laid down the rain on Slone. The troll buckled under the combined assault of the two remaining drones. The two drones fired burst after burst at the troll and Slone was forced to fall back to the cover of the cubicles; where he noticed the elf was gone. “Frag it all to Hell, you dandelion-eatin’ slitch!” yelled the gravely injured troll. [I]Screw this, I’m not being paid enough to die[/I], thought the troll as he fled full speed towards the door to the warehouse Keith had led them through earlier that day. The final guard finally worked up to courage to peek around the corner and saw the troll running flat-out towards the rear door of the office. Knowing better than to open fire in the occupied office space, the guard gave chase to the troll on foot – but his human-sized legs were no match for the troll’s long stride. Slone ran as fast as he had ever run to the rear door. The troll was half-delirious with pain – his long body was covered in impact bruises and Slone knew that tomorrow he would feel worse. [I]If I make through today[/I], reasoned the troll. The drones followed the troll but held their fire since their programming precluded the drones from endangering friendly civilians. Alexander watched silently from the safety of his invisibility spell as the drones and the guard ran past him. Once the SecSpec ran past, the elf stood up and walked out the front of the building. [I]Forget it, I’m not being paid to die like some criminal[/I], thought the elf as he walked away from his companion’s plight. Carlito blithely carried on with his hack, not knowing his teammates had abandoned him. The scientist had successful re-routed the power to circumvent the UPS and was now manually disabling the safety circuits in the UPS which prevented a massive discharge of current. Carlito’s encephalon laid out circuit after circuit in a seemingly endless parade of diagrams. [I]How much time do I have left?[/I] the scientist thought briefly. Slone burst through the rear door and rushed into the warehouse. The troll’s plan was to hide amongst the tall warehouse racks and pallets and make his way towards the rear of the building to the railcar exit opening. Alexander nonchalantly walked towards the front gate safe in his invisible cocoon. The drone and the guard cautiously followed Slone into the warehouse. Fortunately for the troll, the racking and the pallets provided all the cover he needed to lose his pursuit. Slone booked it to the railway entrance cutting a diagonally path through the warehouse – first running up one aisle of racking and then cutting across to the next through breaks in the racking of each row. Carlito was so close to being done – the geek had successful circumvented the safety measures on the power supply and only had a few circuits left to turn the UPS into a giant discharge capacitor. [I]Where are the rest of the guys?[/I] wondered the scientist as his hands worked feverishly. The guard made it to the central area of the warehouse but could not see where the troll had went, the drones’ sensors also lost the troll. [I]Wait a minute[/I], thought the guard, [I]the Captain had given them RFID tags – I can use the warehouse RFID tag readers to locate him![/I] Slone ran out the railway access door at the rear of the warehouse and encountered a problem – the railway access had a gate – an electrified gate. [I]Oh frag it![/I] thought the battered troll as he glanced behind him for the pursuit drones. Meanwhile, Alexander made it to the front gate the trio had entered at the beginning. Seeing the side entrance was locked, Alexander used one of the stolen commlinks to access the door’s data node. With the guard’s access code and permissions, it was simple to open the gate. [I]All too easy[/I], thought the elf as he made his escape. Carlito madly completed the final circuit. Racing to the fuse box, Carlito whispered a short prayer,[I]Please Merciful Father, Let this work![/I] The scientist pulled the switch. Sparks flew from the servers like fireworks! Carlito looked in wonder as, one after another, the servers exploded and sparks flew from their fried circuits. In fact, the explosions seemed to follow the same timing as the cannon fire from Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture. Carlito looked down at his watch – the impossible hack only took him 30 seconds from start to finish. The guard cackled triumphantly as he brought up the RFID locator program on an ARO from his commlink. Just as the program finished its sweep of all the RFID security badges in the complex, the link to the datacenter went dead. Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the complex as the transformers in the power substation all short-circuited. The halogen lights in the warehouse exploded throwing sparks everywhere. Slone flinched back as charges flared from the electrified fence and then died out. Taking it as his cue, Slone took his trusty monofilament whip and cut a hole in the chain links so he could escape. The troll ran deep into the alleyway across the street and hid amongst the area’s tenements. After he had found a safe spot, Slone sent Alexander a nasty-gram via his commlink, [I]You and I are going to have some serious words about this, Nancy-Boy!1!1!![/I] Alexander, however, was long gone. The elf barely looked back as the transformers exploded behind him. [I]Just act cool, McQueen. Act cool[/I], the elf keep telling himself as he walked away. Carlito’s pure joy at his amazing hack was short lived at the lights went out and the emergency lighting kicked in. [I]Time to go![/I] thought the jubilant scientist. Carlito ran back outside the datacenter and joined the throng of people running down the stairs to get outside. The corporate wage-slaves normally ignored fire-drills, but when automatic weapons were fired and the power went out, it lent much more motivation in compliance from the average worker-bee. Once in the parking lot with the rest of the workers, the scientist simply walked to the front gate. As Carlito stepped through the gate to freedom, he glanced back at the growing throng of people in the parking lot and saw the last confused security guard standing around looking for the intruders. Shortly after Carlito left the compound, the parking lot guard was joined by the guard whom had followed Slone into the warehouse. Running up to his partner, the warehouse guard asked the parking lot guard, “Where’d he go?” “Where’d who go?” [RIGHT][I]The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin A nuclear error, but I have no fear London is drowning-and I live by the river[/I] The Clash, [I]London Calling[/I][/RIGHT] [/QUOTE]
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[Shadowrun] Seattle Calling (Chp 1 Completed 1/25/2009)
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