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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zen_Pollo" data-source="post: 4751387" data-attributes="member: 11404">Rolling the DiceLondon calling at the top of the dial And after all this, won't you give me a smile? The Clash, London CallingSetting:  The 21st floor of the Hotel Furto in Pullayup in a suite overlooking the adjacent Obiettivo Building.  The suite was filled with various duffel bags packed with gear.  A young Thai-Filipino man paced the floor.Carlito had a case of nerves regarding the incipient heist.  During last evening’s dinner, Svetlana Simoneov had explained the service she required from the team in order to support the United Corporate Council in the upcoming election.Later that evening, the Obiettivo Building across the street from the Hotel Furto would be the site for a charity casino and auction.  The proceeds would benefit the Federated Rescued Orphan Newborns Trust.Except that the team was going to rob the charity casino’s vault and remit all the funds to the Russian Mob.A hastily planned casino heist, laundering money for the Vory y Zakone, What could possibly go wrong?, thought Carlito.  The scientist answered his own question, Oh yeah, cracking a vault with no time to prepare and no information about the safe.Preparation is the key for success.  Now get back to work, Carlito, his mother would say, I’m sorry, Mother, not this time.At least the human had been able to procure some gear for the job.  In every family there is one cousin that has a few shady connections.  The sort of cousin that you could turn to if you needed to score a stereo that had “fallen off the truck”, get the hook up on an ounce of herb or hire a prostitute for a bachelor party. Or locate 6 kilograms of plastic explosives for making shaped charges.Carlito’s cousin RoRo was the right man for the job.  Cousin RoRo was Uncle Santiago’s son and was a very resourceful individual.  When Carlito had approached the heavily tattooed Filipino regarding the requirement for plastic explosive explosives, Roro was somewhat taken aback.“What you need that stuff for, Carlito?” asked RoRo, “Your Mother know about this?”No, and I intend to keep it that way, thought Carlito.  “The lab rats are getting smarter,” replied the scientist out loud, “I have a plan to set a trap they won’t be able to evade so easily.”“Yeah, right,” replied the incredulous RoRo, “Whatever, man, it’ll cost you 3,600 nuyen.  And if you get caught, I don’t know you man, got it?”“Yeah, thanks RoRo,” said a grateful Carlito.  Mother definitely would not approve of Cousin Roro’s behavior; not at all!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"I’m Mick Bishop,” Alexander lied to the gentleman sitting next to him the Hotel Furto bar.“Hans McGruber, they call me ‘Fingers’,” the man replied in kind.Alexander had wandered about the Hotel Furto during the morning and afternoon prior to the scheduled heist.  It turned out that the same day of the charity casino in the Obiettivo Building; the Hotel Furto across the street was hosting a safe-cracking contest.  Omnicron Security, inc. used the event to showcase the impregnability of their new SecureBox 2070 line of vaults.Sometimes, luck goes your way, reasoned Alexander when he had discovered the event.  It was a simple matter to arrange rooms for the team and to secure entry into the event.  Carlito had wanted to participate in the contest to sharpen his safe-cracking skills, but Alexander had discovered through some of his contacts that the safe-cracking event was rigged – no one ever succeed at breaking into the vault.  And that is the point of the publicity, right? Alexander had explained to the scientist.So the lawyer had used his time scouting out the competition.  In spite of Carlito’s technical prowess, Alexander had severe misgivings concerning the scientist’s safe-cracking capabilities.  The way the elf figured it, the contest might be a good place to find a real burglar.And so Alexander found himself discussing the contest with ‘Fingers’ McGruber.  “So Fingers, have you been in the safe cracking business long?” asked the elf nonchalantly.Fingers replied, “Long enough to know this game is rigged.”“Then why are you here?” queried the lawyer.“I might ask you the same question,” retorted the burglar.“I’ve got a job,” Alexander explained, “I’m looking for good help.”“I’ll bet,” snickered the burglar, “What sort of help?”“The kind that knows their way around a safe and can keep their mouth shut,” stated the shaman.The burglar shook his head and paid his bar tab, “No thanks, buddy, forget you ever met me.”  Fingers glared at Alexander, slammed back the last of his scotch, and left the bar.Just great, thought the elf, Who the frack is going to open the safe now?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Later that evening, Slone joined the team in their hotel suite.  The troll had had quite the evening last night with Svetlana.  The Russian had kept him up all night – her appetite for carnal pleasures was as great as her appetite for seafood.  In addition, Ms. Brickhouse was used to only getting four hours of sleep a night.  Sleep modulators free up so much time during the day, thought the troll, I’m gonna have to get me one of those.The sexual activities, coupled with the large meal from last night’s dinner, had caused Slone to sleep in all morning.  By the time the troll woke up, Svetlana had already gone about her business for the day.  The Russian had left an ARO with a video message thanking Slone for the evening, instructing the troll to help himself to some breakfast and then to show himself out.Actually, it’s better this way, thought the troll as he had fixed himself a sandwich, Slotting that slitch was like humping a beach-ball.After leaving the condominium, Slone received an email from Alexander with the directions to the hotel and a basic outline of the plan; so the troll had taken some time to find equipment to outfit the group for the evening’s heist.  In Slone’s duffel bag was some climbing harnesses and rappelling gear.By the time the troll arrived at the room, it was almost time for the heist which was set to start that evening.  “Thanks for showing up,” scoffed Terrance, “We weren’t sure if you were still going at it with your girlfriend.”“Suck it, razor-boy,” snarled the troll, “You in a hurry to get glitched?”“Enough,” cried Alexander, “Let’s just go over the plan.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The plan was short and sweet.  The team’s room was situated on the 21st floor of the Hotel Furto.  The quartet could easily spy the roof of the Obiettivo Building outside their window about three stories below them.  Around 3am that evening, after the casino night had closed down but before the safe could be moved, Terrance would use a grapple gun to launch a grapple bolt and a microwire zipline across the street to a maintenance shed centered on the roof top of the Obiettivo Building.  Meanwhile, Alexander would use some of his mojo magic to quietly incapacitate one of the two rooftop security specialists.Hopefully, if the guard went down quietly, the plan would provide enough time for the team to slide down the zipline before the other SecSpec could notice.“And after that?” queried the troll.“We improvise,” replied the lawyer.“Maybe you should stay here Tommy,” said the scientist to his pet skull, “It’s going to be dangerous.”But Terrance was not amused, “I totally dig that skull and all, but I think we’ve got company.”The street samurai pointed out the window to the old Postal Building on the other side of the Obiettivo Buildling.  The team could just make out a group of four black-clad individuals preparing to rappel down to the Obiettivo Building from the other direction.  “Those sorry sons of slitches stole our plan,” exclaimed the troll.As the rival team zipped down the opposite monofilament line one-by-one, Terrance launched his own zipline to the shed.  The rival team’s line was anchored on the opposite side of the shed from the group.  The roof guard closest to the rival team was busy text-messaging his girlfriend and utterly failed to notice the black-clad team zip down to the roof of the building.As soon as the team’s microwire line was securely anchored, Slone sprang into action.  Using the microwire rappelling gloves he purchased earlier that day to grasp the line, the troll leaped into the chasm between buildings and slid down to the roof below.Midway through Slone’s descent, Alexander pulled down the mojo magic and targeted the roof SecSpec closest to the team with a wicked Stunbolt.  Yet the (not so) carefully laid plan met with failure – the guard remained conscious!Frack it all, Slone thought, If you want something done you gotta do it yourself!  Already half-way down the line, the troll could see the guard shake off the effects of the Stunbolt.  So Slone reached back with one hand and grasped the long handle of his trusty combat axe.  In one smooth motion, the troll drew the axe and hurled it, spinning end over end, towards the SecSpec’s helmet.  Splat! went the guard’s head as Slone’s axe split it in twain.  The troll’s boots hit the Obiettivo Building about the same time the guard’s lifeless body slumped to the roof.But the troll had company waiting for him on the building.  The rival team already had completed their descent and had observed Slone’s Herculean throw.  When the troll reached the roof, the rival team opened fire.  Fortunately for Slone, the rival team’s weapons were not up to the task of penetrating the troll’s armored jacket and protective cybernetics.  The remaining security specialist was still texting his girlfriend and did not hear the report of the rival team’s silenced weapons.Carlito jumped on the zipline next.  In spite of his earlier reticence, the scientist had strapped Tommy to his back and made the leap with wild abandon.   The human soon was able to land on the Obiettivo Building roof behind the troll.Terrance turned to Alexander and gestured to the line, “Ladies first.”“Go frak yourself, I don’t need a zipline,” replied the shaman as he pulled down the mojo once more and floated out the window with a Levitation spell.The street samurai shrugged and zipped out the window.  However, one of the rival team took aim at the street samurai’s zipline anchored to the maintenance shed.  Drawing a katana from its sheath, the black-clad ninja sliced the microwire zipline just as Terrance was about to reach the edge of the building.The street samurai almost plummeted to his doom but he grabbed the ledge of the Obiettivo Building just in time.  Slone wasted no effort – the troll grabbed the dangling elf and pulled him onto the roof.  Then, the bodyguard ducked the gunfire from the rival team as he searched for his thrown combat axe.Terrance’s wired reflexes finally kicked in.  Time slowed down for the elf and even the hyperkinetic troll seemed to wade through a waist-deep pool.  Carlito and Alexander simply appeared frozen.  But for Terrance, time moved normally.  The street samurai caught two of the rival team members moving along the wall of the maintenance shed and the ninja whom had sliced the zipline was unable to drive for cover in time.  In the street sam’s wired state, the trio seemed rooted in their spots.  So Terrance drew his Ares Alpha and let loose three controlled shots on the hapless rival team; they died.Good thing I remembered to bring my sound suppressor, thought the elf, Best 300 nuyen I’ve spent so far.  The remaining security specialist still hadn’t noticed the firefight.Quickly, the group reassembled itself and moved to the front entrance of the shed.  As Slone and Carlito policed the bodies of the dead, Terrance peeked around the shed to spy on the last guard whom was relieving himself over the edge of the roof at the far corner of the building.Terrance found the barrel of a pistol pointed at his forehead.  “So that’s where you went,” stated the street samurai to the last of the black-clad ninjas.“Keep quiet or I’ll aerate your cranium,” whispered the ninja.“Suck it, ninja-gaiden,” snarked the elf as he once more kicked in his wired reflexes.  The street samurai could see the ninja’s trigger being pulled and the movement of the weapon’s chambering mechanism.  As the firing pin struck home, the street samurai moved his head out of the way and drew his Ares Alpha.  When the smokeless primer vented near his head, Terrance felt his ear-drum shredding.  Grimacing in pain and slightly disoriented, the street samurai’s shot nevertheless found its mark and the last ninja crumpled.That’s four bullets so far, thought the elf as he wiggled his finger in his bleeding ear canal.The final living guard finished his business and looked over at the shed.  The SecSpec narrowly missed the receding boots of the black-clad ninja being dragged around the corner.  The security specialist propped up his Kalashnikov rifle against the crenellation of the roof and sat down to take a nap.  Dozing off briefly, the security specialist woke with a start to find a large troll standing over him.  One troll-sized boot to the forehead later and the guard was dreaming about the meatless loaf his girlfriend had made for supper back home.The team went through the gear from the rival team, whom were filthy with breaking and entering equipment.  Carlito giggled like a school-girl when he discovered assorted key-code crackers, code sequencers, and maglock passkeys.However, it was Alexander whom had the most satisfaction; the fourth ninja turned out to be Hans “Fingers” McGruber.  Guess you should have taken me up on my offer, the lawyer grimly thought.Carlito used one of the security specialists’ commlinks to subscribe to the maglock on the maintenance shed.  Fortunately, the guards’ commlinks already had user access to the lock’s node; therefore, Carlito did not have to hack into the lock on the fly.Once inside the shed, the team examined the area.  There was a central elevator shaft which ran the entire length of the building from the roof to the second sub-basement.  The maintenance shed housed the mechanical components to run the elevator, so the team had a clear view all the way down the shaft to the elevator car itself.  “Frak!” examined Slone as he observed the car which appeared to be stationed at the first sub-basement level.  All the roof panels had been removed from the elevator car.  Sitting on the floor of the open elevator were two smart firing platforms wielding Ares White Knight Light Machineguns.“Oh it gets better”, sighed Terrance.  The street samurai had used his ultrasound vision enhancement lenses to spot the monofilament wires stretching across various points of the elevator shaft.While the troll and the elf argued about how to rappel down the shaft without alerting the smart platforms or running into the wire, Carlito attempted to hack into the wide-area network of the building using the SecSpec’s user access code.I am Horatio!  I am the Survivor! Carlito thought triumphantly as he managed to subscribe the commlink to the wireless network.  Thinking quickly, the scientist subscribed all of the group’s commlinks to the wireless network of the building.  Moreover, Carlito was able to pull up a map of the building layout as well as detect signals of all the other nodes and commlinks in the Obiettivo Building.  Carlito created an ARO detailing the building schematic.  In the ARO in front of him, the building appeared as a 3-D wire mesh with each node and commlink showing as little red orbs.  The first floor of the building housed the casino area proper.  There were two sub-basements and eigthteen floors to the building.  The building had three stairwells, one running from the first floor to the top floor and two others going between the first floor and the first sub-basement and the first sub-basement to the second.The scientist made sure all the team’s commlinks stayed in hidden mode so the building’s network would not detect the intrusion.  Carlito explained to the team, “All the guards are wearing RFID badges so they will show up on here, so keep an eye out for any moving nodes – those will belong to the SecSpecs!”Analyzing the building further, the human found many of the nodes were tied to sensors along the first floor and the first sub basement.  There were also sensor devices arrayed through out the stairwell running from the first floor to the roof.  That’s strange, thought the scientist, According to the layout, there is a second sub-basement, but I can’t seem to pickup any wireless reception from that area.Carlito also noticed that many of the nodes were also subscribed to a master node on the third floor; Must be the command center thought the scientist.Meanwhile, Alexander began to listen to the security specialists’ chattering on the voice channel of the wide area network.  Six guards where stationed on the first floor of the building – they seemed to be engaged in a game of poker now that the patrons of the casino were long gone.  Six more guards where arrayed outside – four on the ground at each corner of the building and two on the roof.  Of course, the two on the roof have been neutralized reasoned the elf.  Finally, six more security specialists were located in the first sub-basement, including the Lieutenant whom periodically would ask for guards to report.After the team completed reconnoitering the area, much argument ensued regarding the best means to get down to the second sub-basement – the team figured the safe would be there.  However, neither rappelling down the elevator shaft nor traversing the stairwell with its sensors seemed palatable to the group.  Finally, Slone came up with an idea.“Let’s just rappel down the sides of the frakin’ building and break in on the second floor!” exclaimed the exasperated Troll, whom was sick of arguing about the plan.“Yeah,” agreed Terrance, “I like that idea way better than Carlito’s plan to blow up the roof”“Hey, don’t blame me,” whined the scientist, “It was Tommy’s idea!”So the team prepared the rappelling gear to zip down the sides of the building.  Carlito hitched himself in tandem with Slone since the scientist was not particularly athletic.  Terrance would rappel down on his own line – he had done this maneuver many times.  “See you down there,” stated the shaman as he jumped over the edge and recast a Levitate spell.  The mojo flowed down and Alexander pulled up just as he reached the third floor.Fortunately, the SecSpecs outside on the ground floor were not paying much attention to the roof – they still figured their buddies were still alive to look out for them.  Slone and Terrance made the descent without attracting any notice.Slone cut through an exterior glass panel using some of the tools he had looted from Team Ninja-Gaiden and entered the second floor.  The floor, much like the rest of the building, was abandoned – there weren’t even lights.  The troll’s natural thermographic vision kicked in and Slone declared the room safe to proceed.The team made their way to the second floor stairwell and Carlito attempted to hack into each sensor as they passed to conceal the team’s movement.  Once the team made into the stairwell, the group hurried to the first floor.Terrance peaked through the stairwell doorway to observe the situation on the ground floor.  Perhaps 15 meters away from the central elevator shaft and stairwell, the six first-floor guards were all sitting at a table playing a game of Texas AROed’em.  Approximately 15 meters in the other direction was a corner stairwell leading to the first sub-basement.  Directly in front of the stairwell door was the first entrance to the building.Meanwhile Carlito reached under his shirt and pulled off an aerosol spray from one of his abdomen nipples.  The scientist lightly spritzed Destructor nanites onto the cement wall separating the stairwell from the elevator shaft.  Carlito patiently watched as the cement dissolved in front of him and the shaft came into view.  Once the scientist was able to establish a wireless signal to the smart platforms below, he attempted to spoof the devices by sending false wireless packets whose instructions appeared to come from the command center.  I wish I had more experience with electronic warfare! lamented Carlito.In any event, Carlito signaled to the group to get ready and sent a series of false packets to the drone instructing them to open fire at random.  Despite Carlito’s misgivings about his skills, the drones complied with the scientist’s orders and began to unload shots at the walls of the elevator shafts.And then the quartet sprang into action.Terrance’s wired reflexes activated first.  The amped-up street samurai kicked open the first floor stairwell door and swung his Ares Alpha around towards the six guards still seated at the table.  In Terrence’s hyperkinetic state, the SecSpecs seemed frozen in stride as they appeared shocked at the cacophony emanating from the elevator shaft, but they hadn’t yet jumped up.  The street samurai sent a mental command via his smartgun link to use the Alpha’s single shot mode.  APDS bullets are expensive, reasoned the street samurai as two rounds from the weapon immediately dropped two security specialists.  A private ARO appeared in front of the samurai counting out shots fired, 5…6…Carlito’s commlink sent warning signals as an intruder hacked through his firewall like Paper Mache.  An icon of a cackling dwarven Musketeer popped up in an ARO.  Son of a Biscuit! thought the human as his commlink systems started shutting down.Slone towered over the crouching Terrance and launched a grenade towards the sitting guards.  The troll’s well-placed salvo landed on top of the table and the explosion scattered the remaining four SecSpecs – killing one of them outright.  Good thing I had Carlito disable the safety timers on my grenades, Slone thought.Alexander, whom was still monitoring the guard’s communications circuit, heard the lieutenant order his minions to get into position as the smart platforms blasted way.  “Watch out!” yelled the shaman to his comrades.  However, the elf had other ideas.  The shaman pulled down the mojo and turned himself Invisible.  Reaching over the scientist, the shaman yanked the aerosol canister from the human and ran out the central first floor stairwell towards the corner stairwell leading to the first sub-basement.The remaining three SecSpecs finally were able to recover and they fired bursts at Slone and Terrance whom were taking cover near the central stairwell.  Slone’s rugged hide, cybernetic implants and thick armored jacket absorbed the guard’s fire, but the elven street samurai took some blunt trauma from the impact of the rounds.Carlito attempted in vain to stave off the hacker’s onslaught, but the Musketeer was too skilled.  The scientist watched in dismay as the hacker shut down various systems in his commlink.  The human cried out to his allies, “There's a hacker loose; watch yourself!”Terrance ignored the scientist and moved out from cover; running towards the corner stairwell.  Firing another shot behind him, the street samurai killed one more guard; his ARO read, 7 Shots Fired.Alexander overheard the Lieutenant asking his SecSpecs over the commlink channel for a status report and yelling at “The Musketeer” to do something about the drones.Instead, the Musketeer hacked into Terrance’s commlink.  The elf was surprised as his smartgun link shut down and his smartlenses showed a solid black ARO obscuring the entire range of his vision.  “Frak, I’m hacked!” yelled the street samurai.Slone had had enough of the hacker’s shenanigans.  The troll reasoned, Bet that Chiphead is at the command center!  Slone ran up the stairs with his long troll legs taking the steps three at a time.  Quickly, the troll reached the third floor and saw a single room with light a few meters from the stairwell.  Racing to the room, Slone turned the corner to the doorway and saw a dwarf with a commlink sitting on a cot wearing tighty whiteys and an old Niel the Ork Barbarian t-shirt.  The troll smiled and let loose two bursts from his Ares Alpha – and then there was a dwarf Musketeer lying in a pool of blood.After the hacker fell, the elf’s commlink operations rebooted.  Terrance killed the last two security specialists on the first floor with shots 8 & 9.  The elf made it to the entryway of the stairwell and leaped over the railing to land on the first sub-basement below him.  Terrence saw two more guards waiting behind cover at entryway to the sub-basement.  However, the elf was faster than the guards and shots 10 and 11 laid the SecSpecs low.Alexander sustained his Invisibility spell and ran around Terrance to observe the action in the sub-basement.  Situated in the center of the basement were the elevator shaft and the second stairwell leading to the lower level.  Both the doors of the elevator and the doorway to the second set of stairs were on the opposite side of the shaft from were the shaman stood in the corner doorway.  Carlito’s hacked smartplatforms still thundered away at random inside the elevator shaft almost causing the shaman’s ears to bleed.  Three more security specialists were positioned behind cement support columns – all with weapons trained at the doorway in the corner.  However, the elf’s Invisibility spell cloaked his presence, so Alexander slipped out from the doorway and went around the central shaft the long way towards the elevator doorway. Once Carlito regained control of his commlink, the scientist ran down the first floor stairwell just in time to spot two of the exterior guards poking their heads around the sides of the doorway to the entrance.  The human whipped out his Yamaha Sakura Fubaki light pistol and fired two bursts at one of the Security Specialists; his first shot missed but the second burst wounded the SecSpec and knocked him prone.Nevertheless, the second guard opened fire on the hapless scientist, but the SecSpec could not find his target.  Carlito ran to put his back to the exterior wall so the outside guard faced an oblique angle from the doorway to fire upon the scientist.Slone ran back down the stairs to find Carlito in trouble.  The troll launched a second grenade at the doorway and it landed exactly in the middle of the two guards; the explosion killed them both.  “Beat it kid,” grunted out the troll, “I’ve got this entrance covered.”As Alexander snuck around behind the elevator shaft, the lieutenant somehow noticed the elf’s movement.  Turning around, the lieutenant shot his Ares Predator IV into the empty air where he thought the shaman was lurking.  The elf pulled down the mojo and launched a Stunbolt at the lieutenant – nearly knocking him out in one blow.  Frack! thought the lawyer, That was too close!Meanwhile, Terrance poked his head around the doorway at the corner stairwell to observe the SecSpecs preparing to open fire.Slot’em if they can’t take a joke! thought the elf as he burst out of the doorway attempting to dodge the hail of bullets coming his way.  The three guards opened fire, but their bursts found nothing but air and Kevlar – the agile elf’s gymnastics avoided the most serious damage and his armored jacket soaked the rest.  Once he cleared the doorway, the street samurai fired two more single shots, 12 & 13 according to his ARO’d counter, which blasted away two of the three SecSpecs.Outside, the final two exterior guards finally made it to the entrance to the Obiettivo Building.  As the security specialists rounded the corners of the entryway, they shot at the troll to no avail – their Ares Predator heavy pistols simply didn’t have the stopping power to penetrate the troll’s defenses. Slone smiled grimly when he realized his advantage over the SecSpecs; he simply walked up to the entrance and shot both guards with his Ares Alpha at point blank range.  Needless to say, the exterior was soon secured.The lieutenant crawled to the doorway leading down to the next sub-basement and sat with his back to the door.  The lieutenant’s brain felt like it was on fire and he could barely concentrate enough to plead for back-up over his comm-channel.  Alexander slyly followed the lieutenant to the stairwell entrance and noticed that, according to Carlito’s building display, there were two more guards waiting behind this doorway.  Stepping over the oblivious lieutenant, the shaman activated the door’s electronic lock and stepped aside.The panicked stairwell guards, whom had been waiting for intruders, blindly opened fire at the open doorway – killing their own lieutenant in the process.  All too easy, smirked the satisfied lawyer.Shot 14 killed the final basement guard and Terrance gave the all clear signal over his commlink.  Hearing the all-clear, Slone and Carlito, made their way downstairs to join the others.The street samurai bumped into the invisible Alexander near the doorway leading to the next sub-basement and heard the elf whisper that two guards were waiting on the stairwell.  Terrance burst around the doorjab before SecSpecs could react and fired two rounds – shot 15 did its job and laid out a guard, but 16 must have been a factory reject, because the guard managed to survive and run down the stairway to warn his companions.Alexander chased the last guard down the stairs and finally made it to the second sub-basement.  As soon as the elf passed through the stairwell exit, his commlink connections went dead.  That’s not good, reasoned the elf; so the cautious shaman astrally projected to observe the layout of the floor.  The elf could see the dull grey reflections of the material world in his astral vision.  The tiny sub-basement had a short hallway with the stairwell door, the elevator entrance to its left, and another door on the left side of the elevator – all on one wall.  The guard had run down the hallway to the far door – Alexander could see a bright splash of emotion were the Secspec’s bloody hand had pushed open the door as he had gone through.  Following the guard astrally, Alexander pulled up short; just past the far door was a short corridor leading to the room with the vault.  However, blazing in astral space, the shaman could see an Astral Ward blocking the hallway past the door and a lurking spirit keyed to the barrier.  Better wait for the others – that spirit looks nasty, reasoned the elf.Once the rest of the team made it downstairs, they paused to catch their breath and make a new plan.  From Alexander’s astral surveillance, the team knew that six heavily armored security specialists waited on the other side of the astral barrier.  The barrier would prevent any living matter from crossing – but bullets would pass through just fine.  The last wounded guard from the sub-basement was stuck in the corridor between the vault room and the hallway door – he couldn’t join his companions due to the barrier and he knew better than to run back into the arms of his assailants.  So the broken guard simply sat down on the floor and bled, weeping in pain and frustration.Carlito finally figured out why the second sub-basement was sealed off wirelessly from the rest of the building; the walls and doorways likely were lined with copper wire mesh.  “It must be a Faraday cage!” exclaimed the scientist.  Shortly, the quartet developed a plan for attack.  Alexander and Carlito pried open the door to the elevator shaft.  The elevator car with the smart platforms was stationed at the sub-basement floor above them; so the duo crawled into the empty space under the car and took cover.  Meanwhile, Slone and Terrance positioned themselves near the elevator doors adjacent to the hallway door leading to the vault.  With his back to the wall next to the entryway, the troll nodded at his colleague and flung open the hallway door with his left hand.Immediately, the six guards opened fire at the doorway.  Their assault rifles blasted the door to kindling and left pockmarks on the cement wall opposite the entry.  Slone waited for the first salvo of rounds to pass and propped his Ares Alpha over his left shoulder.  Firing blindly, the troll’s grenade ricocheted down the short corridor behind the entry and landed towards the rear of the vault room.  The resulting explosion snuffed out two of the SecSpecs immediately and wounded the rest.After the blast, Terrance popped around the corner and killed two of the injured guards with shots 17 & 18.  However, the elf’s eyes grew wide when he saw the last two security specialists take aim with the underbarrel-mounted grenade launchers from their AK-97s.  “Incoming!” yelled the street samurai as he attempted to dive for cover behind the troll.Yet, Terrance’s warnings came too late. First, one grenade, then another, landed in the hallway almost at the feet of the troll.  The two concurrent blasts completely incapacitated the svelte street samurai.  Even Slone was injured as the two grenades tore off small chunks of flesh from his hands and face.“Frak this!” yelled the bloody troll whom was enraged from his wounds.  Before the smoke and dust could completely clear, Slone ran down the hallway until he crashed into the astral barrier. Undeterred, the bodyguard aimed his Alpha at the remaining guards and let loose with two bursts.The troll wiped blood from his brow as the final two guards fell to the ground.  Slone gazed down at the ruined body of the sub-basement guard beneath him.  The hapless SecSpec been caught in the blast radius of all three grenades. The troll thought, Looks like Chunky Salsa.Carlito jumped back up to the sub-basement and tended to the fallen street samurai.  Yanking a syringe from one of his abdomen nipples, the scientist plunged his nanite-seeds into the gut of the stricken elf.  The Savior nanites quickly worked to repair the lacerations and internal bleeding – from the inside out.  Carlito guided the actions of the nanites via his commlink and performed more traditional first-aid.  Shortly, the street samurai was motile.Meanwhile, Alexander approached the astral barrier standing between the team and the vault.  “Get ready,” the elf told the troll.  The shaman attacked the astral ward using, not his physical might, but rather, the astral strength of his personality.  The elf’s raw moxie penetrated the astral barrier sufficiently that both Slone and Alexander were able to move into the vault room.No sooner than the ward went down, the spirit immediately fled at speeds only possible in astral space.  Probably went to summon his Master, figured the elf, but he spoke out loud, “We’ve got company incoming!”Slone and Alexander wasted no time breaking into the safe.  The elf spritzed the safe with Carlito’s remaining Destructor nanites and waited for the metal to dissolve.Yet, before the nanites had completed their work, the Magician whom had set up the ward returned via astral projection.  Although the Magician could not directly influence material events via astral space, she ordered her spirit to attack Alexander.The elf found himself engaged in astral combat with the spirit.  Staving off the spirit’s onslaught, the elf made a critical decision; rather than fighting both the spirit and the Magician, the elf focused his counter-assault directly against the mage.  With a focused astral thrust, Alexander knocked the Magician unconscious.The spirit, suddenly free from the Magician’s control, immediately turned on its former Master.  Alexander watched in astral space as the spirit tore into the Magician, utterly rending the woman’s soul to pieces.  The shaman thought, And that is why I don’t summon spirits!Once their adversaries had been laid low, the team began to loot the building.  Carlito was able to determine that, even though the Musketeer was in charge of the command post, the dwarf never had activated any external alerts.  Coupled with the fact that the casino night had inexplicably been hosted in the lawless Pullayup Barrens, the team figured that no help from the authorities would be forthcoming.First, they emptied the vault of the certified cred-sticks from the casino night.  Next, the quartet collected weapons and commlinks from the bodies of the guards.  Terrance even pulled off the security armor from the vault guards.  Maybe Carlito can patch these damaged suits together to make one good one, thought the elf.The scientist took the Musketeer’s commlink and the two smart platforms with the LMGs.  Slone backed up the CityMaster to the casino and the team loaded all their merchandise into the back.As the team finished loading the equipment, a group of local gangers whom had heard the explosions and gun fire, approached the group.  Alexander noticed the gang’s colors and figured the ragtag lot was a small time outfit known as The Chulos.“Hey Vato,” called out the leader, a Hispanic woman, “What the frak you doing, Senor?”“Collecting my mortgage payment,” replied the tired elf, “What of it?”“Well,” chuckled the Chicana, “If you want to talk about payments, we should talk about what you’re going to pay us to walk out of here alive.”“That so?” stated the elf flatly, “Why don’t we talk about how much I will give to you so I don’t have to kill everyone in your gang instead?”La Chicana watched as Slone “accidentally” dropped one of the machinegun firing platforms and Terrance adjusted the sights on his assault rifle.  “Alright,” swallowed the gang leader, “What did you have in mind?”In the end, Alexander ended up giving the gang two suits of security armor and 10 of the Ares Predator IVs.  While the rest of the team finished loading the gear, the elf sent Svetlana Simoneov a text message indicating their success and asking about the final drop off.Meet me at the Stuffer Shack at Highland park in Tacoma, came the reply.  “Stuffer Shack?” sighed the street samurai upon hearing the news – he felt a little anemic after all the adrenaline pumped out by his suprathyroid gland, “I’d rather go to The BarrelHouse of DenniWaffles instead, but whatever!”As the team climbed into the beat-up Citymaster, La Chicana called out to the lawyer, “Hey, you gotta name, Vato?”The shaman turned to the ganger leader and replied, “Call me, McQueen.”The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin A nuclear era, but I have no fear Cause London is drowning and I, I live by the river The Clash, London Calling</blockquote>

Verification