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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 12, 2010 9:47:15 GMT -5
At this stage of events the biggest thing I can think about is there goes my insurance premiums. Strange what you think about at a time like this. I did the one rump hump towards a rebuilt and incredibly armored Humvee. A real collectors item. Someone had invested a lot of loot putting it together with 2060 specs of survival. I crawled under it and watched the bullets bouncing on the armor. I wondered what the mage was up to.
Then I found out. Wanker had crept up on the creep. There wasn't much left of him. He must have been in the astral when Wanker came up on him and being mostly machine the mage hadn't detected the cyberred up mutt. Like I said, he's worth every penny. Couldn't have happened to a more needy personality. I hoped he was a snake shaman.
Wanker crawled in next to me and gave me the cold red eye. Then the fragging mutt went to sleep. I got behind his armored cyberred up body and looked. There was muzzle flashes going off all over the place. At least now with no mage they weren't sure where I was. I didn't advertise my position. Trolls ain't to bright but you shoot at them, they will naturally shoot back. They have more guns than I do at the moment. This would have been a good time to have a Doc Wagon bracelet or a Lone Star panic button. Some stone cold shadow runner I was. Like I said, I'm a business man these days. I shouldn't have to keep doing this drek.
The next thing I see is the garage elevator ding and the door opens. I couldn't believe my eyes. A red-haired dwarf girl wearing a Templetons Uniform and black shades, carrying a Requiter mini-gun was in the doorway. She opened up. The echoes and roar were tremendous. The thing sounded like the world's biggest gas attack. The bullets, every fourth round, looked like a solid shining iron bar. The recoil should have knocked her hoop over tea kettle but it didn't.
Like I said, trolls will react. They started firing back. They were outclassed from the get-go. She waved that monster gun around like it was a fagging magic wand. In seconds about five trolls were pasted across the landscape. Cars were exploding. The trolls got smart, quick. They fragging ran for it. The girl daintily dropped the Requiter amongst the empty shell casings. The fragging thing was empty. I heard another gun going off outside. Maybe a 50 caliber. I had the feeling not many trolls were going to make it home for a little jam session with the missus. No great loss.
"You can come out now Mr. Gobwit." came the message from the speakers. I considered flipping whoever the bird. I'll come out when I think it's safe. Wanker opened his eyes, gave a puppy grin and walked out to the red-haired girl. She was petting him and telling him what a nice fragging puppy he was. Stupid dog.
Just to be safe I put my guns away. Anyone that can hold and fire a mini-gun at full bore and hold it rock steady is not someone you want to frag with.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 12, 2010 10:22:53 GMT -5
I smelled something rotten in the state of Seattle.
Templeton himself had given both Fall and myself the night off with pay. It appears that he was all happy about us discovering the Spiked Wheels the other night. I have the feeling despite his friendly smile and aw-shucks I just one of the boys personality that he was not as happy with us as he made it appear.
I had moved a work bench and some tools from my car into the room Fall and I shared. I was working on a new drone. Drones are a specialty of mine. I had picked this one up cheap from a Unit known as the Executive Action Brigade. It had seen some use in the desert wars and was tricked out with some military grade equipment. It was going to be my pride and joy when I got it back together. Fall was watching the trid. Some trash about a corp exec boffing his way through a secretary poll. The woman had all found out about each other and were planning assorted plans of mayhem against each other and the exec. Fall was offering the vid-girl's unheard advice about what they should do.
I felt a shudder in the building and heard the sun sound of an explosion and then gun fire. It sounded close. Like it was right in the building and sounds came from down below. Fall wasted no time and neither did I. We were thinking the same thing. The Spiked Wheels were back.
Fall pulled a modified Requiter out of the closet and strapped it on. Taking her mirrored and armored shades she clicked them into place so that the HUD came on line. I heard the click of the safety being removed. I jacked into the security system. The underground garage was lit up like the fourth of July. There were several burning vehicles and I saw no sign of the target. I did see a large cyberred up dog crawl up on a mage. What he did to the mage was not a pretty sight, not that trolls are pretty to begin with. "There in the garage." I told Fall through her comm. She nodded and like the Terminator she strolled out the door.
I linked into my car and released a drone that looked something like a garbage can lid. A modified Headhunter MK IV. The almost silent rotors took to the air and I ran it outside through the garage doors for a look/see.
The outside was blocked off by Templeton Guards but no one was going into the garage. They were even keeping Lone Star from responding, but they weren't doing any responding themselves. IT stank of setup. I wondered if the target was still alive inside. I placed my drone on hover and looked at the sec cam again. When I cranked up the mag... I spotted Gobwit under a Humvee hiding behind the cyber dog. He had two pistols out but wasn't doing drek but hiding. BIG HERO that one.
I got Fall's call to pop the doors. She had her hands full so I did. Her gun went off. I was glad I hadn't put a silencer on the thing after all. I was going too, but Fall stated she liked the noise it made. It was over in seconds. I told Gobwit he could come out and went back to the drone. I was in time to open up with the water-cooled 50 cal. The Teflon rounds cored nicely right through any armor the remaining trolls were wearing. Scared the Drek out of the other Templetons and the Star too. I didn't hang round. I scurried back into the garage and re-docked the drone in the back of the car.
So much for Spiked Wheels. They must have lost at least two five man teams here. The garage though looked like a war zone. I noticed Fall talking with Gobwit. Looked like the job was done. I unclipped the jack and got back to my relaxation with the Omega Drone.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 13, 2010 14:27:42 GMT -5
OOC: On 1 June the count on this section of room six was 239. We've made a total of 32 entries to this point. That would make the count 271 in the last 13 days. However, today the count reads as 394. That means 122 reads in the last 13 days. Not bad for a dead board.
Hope you're enjoying Braddoc's storyline.
I go over to where the red haired chick is petting THE Wanker. The dog is so big next to her she could ride it like a wolf in one of those old flat film movies. She had Red Hair all done up in a large braid. She had brown eyes and rosy cheeks. Give her a double bladed ax, a horned helmet and Wanker and she could have been ferrying the souls of the dead off to Valhalla. Faced with a girl my own height, I was as chivalrous and thankful as could be.
"What the DREK is wrong with you Templeton's people?" I screamed in her face. I was an inch taller than her. "Do you know what it's going to cost to fix all this? I'm going to sue the lot of you worthless incompetents."
She smiled sweetly up at me with those big brown eyes and gave the standard courteous dwarf reply. She grabbed the front of my suit and chucked me across the room. Frag! I forgot how strong this slitch was. I bounced off the concrete wall about ten feet above my eye level and crashed to the ground. Luckily for me, I'm built to take it but it doesn't mean I wasn't feeling some pain. I waited for Wanker to sic her. The stupid dog just gave me a big doggy grin, the traitor.
I groaned.
She walked over and pulled me to my feet. "How dare you yell at a defenseless girl?"
Defenseless? The slitch was fragging Godzilla in disguise.
"Here I am off duty and I come down, save your life, and this is the thanks I get."
I glared at her. "You didn't save my life. I was luring them into a trap. I already had the mage and the guy with the cannon down before you even got here. All you did was muck up my plan to take them all prisoner." I barefaced lied to her.
"You lying cow-pie toadstool! You were cowering behind your dog when I got here. I think you owe me a bonus. Believe me when I tell you that you're going to pay it, one way or another."
She looked like she could back up that threat. I looked around. No lawyers or Calvary's were coming over the hill to rescue me from this lunatic. It was time to change tactics, reverse course and get myself out of her clutches. "Well you're saying I should be happy my ride got trashed, my insurance premiums are going ballistic, and I'm going to have to get new security and a re decorator?"
She looked at me and shrugged, then let go of my suit. I saw that as a gain. I might be able to run before she rolled me up to spitball size. "I see your point. So sue Templeton, but don't blame Winter or me for saving your hoop. She sent a warning 24 hours ago that the Spiked Wheels were casing the place. By the way my names Fallon but everyone just calls me Fall."
Winter? Fall? Surely Spring and Summer would be nicer but they were probably in the entertainment industry posing as joy-girls. I didn't mention that out loud. If this was going to be a cool Fall I sure didn't want to meet Winter. She was probably the one with the 50 cal outside. Then it hit me. Maybe I needed personal bodyguards? People couldn't keep strong arming or shooting at me if I could get a couple of bodyguards.
"You know what Fall? I think you do deserve a reward, both you and Winter, who by the way is what?"
"Winter isn't a what, she's my sister. A rigger. She works for Templetons too. So how much do you have in mind High pockets?"
This was going to take some time. Dwarf negotiations always take some time and it looked like I was going to be outmatched by two biffs against me. "Let's go talk about it in my office. Bring your sister."
She gave me the cold glare. "OK but you better not try any funny stuff, stud, or we might just Bobbittize you."
That didn't sound good. I wasn't sure what she meant but I'm also sure I don't want to find out. I nodded. The perfect gentleman of business.
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 14, 2010 8:24:10 GMT -5
OOC: Nice, I'm quite surprised we're getting that much traffic for a dead board..heh...Nice to see people are intrested, or at least following what's going on. Perhaps some will step forward get into the fray. At Worknow, so more postin' tonight. Keep on lurking
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 14, 2010 17:29:02 GMT -5
For some strange reason I have a full office. The mage and his girl Friday. Two female dwarfs. The Wanker. Templeton has done a runner. No one at his office can seem to locate him. That fragger and his lame security are all out on their hoops anyway. I'm sure when my lawyers get done with them, I'll get a freshly remodeled garage. That's the good news. Now for the bad news, every single one of these people had their paws stuck out to collect. They must think I'm made of money. What they don't know is that I didn't get this rich by paying for stuff. I put on my hard negotiator's face. I'd show these rubes.
I glared. I didn't do me a fragging bit of good. I glared at the mage anyway. I might as well deal with him first. "Now let me get this straight. You answered my advertisement for a runner to bail my hoop out from the UCAS? Well the UCAS has already bailed so why should I hire you now?"
He relaxed in my chair and examined his nails. "Are you really sure the UCAS are gone for good? Part of the reason the UCAS bailed this much was because of some of the things I did. Like that explosion at their headquarters. Now if you decide to stiff me and not pay me my just and righteous wage I might just go have a case of civic conscience and go down their and implicate you as the one behind it all. I'm sure I can cut a better deal than I'm getting here."
I'm not stupid. I know blackmail when I hear it and like any business man I knew just how to handle it. Never pay a blackmailer. "You're hired." Now the bastiage is working for me. No special deals for him.
The secretary also turned out to be another runner that responded to my ad. "Don't tell me you're part of his expenses either." I warned her.
She smiled. I didn't get a feel good feeling about this. "What do you know about Charles Boyson? What do you know about Miss Elver? What do you know about Athbell Marting?" I wondered how the heck she knew those names. As far as I knew that was just between me and two dead UCAS cops. "I almost certainly know a lot more about them than you do. I also have leads on lots of others who disappeared the same way. I'm working as a free agent, on my own too. You don't hire me? That's fine. Go look for the reasons the UCAS is on your hoop for this yourself, I'll sell the data to someone that will pay me for my trouble."
At least she wasn't blackmailing. She had information that I needed. The fact she had this much meant that she was good enough for me. At least I would be getting something in return for my money. "You're hired. Welcome to the Gobwit Team at Z Street." The girl and mage nodded to each other. Strange how both of them insisted they hadn't known the other was banking for the same job. RAT DREK! was my thoughts on the subject.
I looked at The Wanker. "I'm not paying you." I growled at the canine moocher. "I fragging own you already." Wanker growled. He showed teeth. They were big, shiny, sharp looking surgical steel teeth with maybe a mix of chromium. I decided to renegotiate before he decided to test them out on my hoop. "ALL RIGHT, I'll upgrade your food!" He took his paw off my desk and went to sleep. That was cheap enough and he had proved useful. I was already paying his fragging expenses anyway.
I looked at the devestation girls, one a rigger, the other a brick wall. They looked at me like they were waiting to see how creative I would get in trying to slide out of this.
I smiled. "Might just as well bring you both in too. Tell you what, I'll give you the same deal as the others."
Winter looked at me like I was something you scrape off your show on a street. "Does that include what your dog got? The little slitch was angling for an upgrade in her food supply. She looked like the kind that would eat dog food. White hair, blue eyes, white skin. She looked like death on the hoof. I had no problem seeing her in long black robes and a sickle.
"Of course. High grade dog food for all." Everyone glared. I don't think they appreciated my sense of humor. "Just a joke. You eat what I eat." I think it was the mage that said he didn't eat dire rat. He said it so low though I wasn't really sure that's what he said. The dog was making some kind of sound that seemed like some kind of snicker. A wheezing kind of snicker.
I eyeballed at my new team with that stinkeye that said to them that I controlled the money. A reminder. I was the Boss now. That had to count for something. Then they handed me the expense accounts. I looked at the tallies. The dwarf girls handed me their contracts. the numbers looked fragging endless. The room started swimming in circles.
When I woke up the doctor had just finished injecting something into my hoop. "That should fix you up." He said with a smile. "What happened?" I asked. I just somehow knew he was going to add this to his next expense list. I don't know what that stuff was he stuck in me, but it did the job. I just couldn't get to concerned about it. I could afford it easy.
The laughed and stuck out their hands. "Pay us." stated Winter in that nice cold voice. It sounded like the voice of doom. I smiled and started to count out the money. Inside I was screaming in rage.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 14, 2010 18:01:49 GMT -5
Addams walked in with a slight smile on his face. "The Spiked Wheels tried to whack Gobwit tonight. Templeton let them in and they set an ambush. IT's like the desert wars at Z Street."
Janie looked at Addams steadily, "May I remind you that the object of this exercise is not to get Gobwit killed."
"One can always hope. Don't get your panties in a bunch. He survived. They're still hauling the bodies out of that garage of his. Twelve at last count. We did get his Harley though."
Janie sat back. "good thing for them an you but I didn't know Gobwit had it in him. Twelve bodies and counting? How many holes has he got in him?"
"They got his bike like I said but they never laid a glove on him. There were body parts all over the fragging garage. Talk about the luckiest fragger alive. There was enough fire power in that place to level a mastodon and they didn't put even a scratch on his Bill Blasted suit."
"Maybe we underestimated his abilities. He glides well and he's good with locks and taking things, but I never saw him as a fighter." She mused.
"He's not. It appears more of his team appeared. They had infiltrated Templetons. Word is that one person did all that. I brought a file on her. Her sister was involved with the UCAS before. That makes both of them suspect." He handed her the file. Janie plugged it in scanned it then opened it. She read quickly.
"Looks like a first class team and it appears none of them have any love for the UCAS. So now he has the mage, the decker, a rigger and some muscle."
"So you finally agree that the mage has to be part of this? I thought you had decided he was too legit to be in this mess?"
"I got some reports on him and the girl. Did you know the mage was an operative for Shin Bet? He still may be. The girl is a scam artist. One of the best in New York. You put that kind of talent with Gobwit and we got some options in accomplishing what we want to accomplish. Now you show me these two. The UCAS has been looking for them a long time. They were part of the Phoenix project. They escaped when it was closed down. They took the formula with them, we think. We need to recover that formula and make sure they don't pass it on to someone else. What's the odds that they would end up all in the same room with Pelch Gobwit?"
"Does that mean your plans to use Gobwit are scrubbed?"
"No. You see I don't care what the UCAS is trying to cover up in the Phoenix Project. I'll handle that. What we ware doing is a lot more important right now. It just means that we are more successful than we thought."
"Templeton's dead. They just discovered his body in a dumpster up in zombie territory. Maybe you're right on this one. Someone is covering a failed hit."
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 14, 2010 20:51:42 GMT -5
“Hey Stick’em! Look what I’ve got!” Stick’em was the baddest ganger around. The boys respected him, the bums feared him, even the whores gave him freebies. So when I got my first gun, he was the first to know about it; Colt American L-36, with the extended ‘military/security only’ magazine, all the numbers limes off and even a laser sight. “Damn kid, nice heater you’ve got. Musta’ve cost a bunch.” “Drek yeah it did! I had to jack 16 car radios to pay for it, took me a week AND I got zapped 7 times while gettin’ them.”
“Not bad kid, but you just copied me! I bought myself a gun too!...a fraggin’ Ares Predator!” He unholstered his pistol, it was the greatest thing ever: It looked badass, it inspired badass, and it made a loud firing sound like a badass (At least on the Trid it did). It shined under the streetlight, even if it was matte finish. “C..can I hold it Stick’em? Huh” Can I can I?” “Pff..nah, you ain’t cool enough to use that one yet. Besides you got your own piece now. Where you gonna stash it?” “Same place I stash all my stuff!” “What? You stupid or somethin’?” “I’m not stupid.” “Well don’t put all your’drek in the same stash like that, people are gonna call you stupid humie and they gonna laugh at you. Th’trick is to get a few stashes around y’see? So then if someone found your stash, you still got drek at other places!” “You’re right! You smart Stick’em!” “I know that. Even better: hide a gun near your stash so when those fraggers come and push you around ‘cause they all when to steal your drek after you show’em where it is, you can show’em what happens when people mess with your stash.” He quickdraws his Predator out, turning it around his finger before putting it away again. Badass. “Can you teach me how to do that?” “Yeah, b...frag, Princes.” Across the road a few elven bikers pulled up in a vacant lot, just staying there. “They’re...6 of them! How we gonna kill’em?” “You stay behind the car and cover m’back. Me and Harry’s crew are gonna take care of it.” “But they’re Princes! They’re fraggin’ tough!” “Not for long. Word is they gonna get hit real hard soon. Just don’t show your head to them, you gonna be all right.”
He just got up and crossed the streets diagonally. A few of Harry’s guys were doing the same. Harry stayed bad behind the car like me, just some 100 meters away, but he wasn’t just parading with his AK. The Princes didn’t even reacted. Everything was fine until Stick’em was passed 20 meters or so from the alley beside the Mafia peep show. 10 meters down the road from me, a Prince with a SMG just popped out of there and aimed down. I still don’t how Stick’em could have missed him. I took out my gun, aimed and fire at the Elf, once twice..then nothing. I pulled the trigger but nothing came out; the second shell jammed itself. I froze. My shots got everyone shooting, even my target. He didn’t even seems to noticed me. I’m a terrible shot. I panicked and ran, hiding in the entry of the Stuffer Shack. Then I heard bike engines roars, and 4 Princes riding off, firing all over the place, yelling like monsters.
I stick my head out of my cover. Harry’s callin’ his guys, one seems to be moving. Stick’em’s cut to shreds, he took so many rounds that his guts bursted out, his head’s gone from the jaw up, his arms and legs twisted and curled in impossible angles. I rolled into a ball. I killed Stick’em. I’m not even holding my gun. I don’t want to anymore. I’m clutching my chest and I noticed there’s a big hole in the middle of it, I can see the wall behind me. I begin to sob. I got shot, there’s nothing in me, I’m dying, I’m hurt.
It fades to black as it get warm, all around me. Feels like fluffy carpet. My sorrow just go away, replaced almost instantaneously by joy, or more like an ease, like some weight just flew off my shoulders. Everything’s all right. I just roll around, having a blast.
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 14, 2010 21:02:23 GMT -5
My toe hits the box-set, waking me up. My bedsheets are all rolled up around me. I’m on the floor, and it’s the worse time ever: 5:10, too late to get back to sleep and too early for business. I gotta stop buying my dope from that Indian behind the Weapons’ World. It’s like the 9th time I had that dream since I started buying from him. At least this time I didn’t woke up in sweat, stressed outta my mind.
Had my morning smoke then did my meditation things. Extra bonus from Meg’s Aikido teacher. People say they can see how less hyper I am when I got the spells kicked-in. I didn’t see any change. Then breakfast, laundry, dressing up, gunslinging while watching the traffic report and laughing at all the poor suckers stuck in rush hour northbound. They all looked miserable while I drove passed them going south.
I exited at Puyallup, I’ll get my car from my lock-up then go check on Lianna. ‘Still can’t believed she failed hard on that one. I passed by Anderson’s shop. Someone did a number on his entrance, half the wall was curved in. The Dwarf was busy bitching and yelling at a Templeton’s rent-a-cop, who was trying to get someone on the phone. Poor bastard, Anderson’s a douche. ‘Why didn’t you shot the guy, he stole my things’. ‘Why did you shoot the guy, there’s blood all over my inventory!’ Blablablabla. Not like doing the Templeton beat’s full of pride and glory too. At least it was money.
There was alot of Shivs walking the streets too. They were easy to spot. All about getting the most cyber crammed between your ribs. Some cut to the chase and got full cyber-torso, minus the sythskin. Looks real killer with a cyber skull too, but they are, or were, easy to deal with: they only used blades, hand razors, drek like that, until Switches got beat up by Eva. Then she decided cyber-guns were fair play. Stupid self-hating Elf. At least they got a quarter of Puyallup City’s streets under their hands now, so it wasn’t all that stupid. Musta been her old human self talking sense.
Speak of the devil, the man himself is crossing the streets in front of me with his crew. They begin to slow down and get half-circle in front of the van. They’re not looking for a fight at least. And Switches is coming to my window. That’s always good news. I rolled it down and got my arm out, making sure my gun’s visible. Not to look for a fight, just a friendly reminder. “’Sup Switches.” He leaned on the side view mirror. Half his head was metal, he was going for that ‘machine with half a human face’ style. ‘Worked all right. I could even see myself in his shiny red cybereye. “Eva wants to see you.” “What she wants?” “She wants to see you.” “All right, I got time this aftern-“ His spurs popped out of his hand. “Eva wants to see you now.”
“Huh..right..’suppose you and your crew gotta stick around, make sure I got there all right?” “Drek Delly, you’re readin’ me like a fraggin’ book.” “I told you not to call me ‘Delly’” “I can call you what I fraggin’ want in my streets, Trog-lover.” ‘I thought those were Eva’s streets now’ sounded right, but like I had the time now. He yelled at his crew to get in. He got shotgun, the rest got the back. With no benches. “Yeah yeah, so what she wants?” “Dunno Delly. Maybe she’s just bitch mad someone got to cut’ya before she did. Where’d you get it?” “Ghouls.” That seemed to drop the temperature a few notches. They looked at me liked I had the plague. “Ooooh.. big scary gangers afraid of a lil’ Ghoul huh?" “I ain’t scared o’ drek, especially not you.” “Well lucky you, that was 2 days ago. If I were gonna turn, I’d be blowing fluids from every orifice I’ve got. So where’re we going? She’s at that downstairs place right?”
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 15, 2010 10:34:16 GMT -5
Gobwit paid off. We now have long term contracts and a piece of his business. I can't believe I'm actually in the roll of an administrative corp boss. How's that for a secretary that didn't have to sleep her way to the top? Whiz.
It seems Gobwit wants us to run in teams. I've been paired up with the rigger Winter. That's chill with me. We're going through the mainframes in something Gobwit calls "The Lair". So it's sounds like some kids idea of a half-hopped Bat Cave. It's not bad. First thing we did was upgrade the Security. We hired Lone Star for the building security. It was expensive but Winter had some contacts there and the Star liked her. We got a good deal. The interior part of the Lair was going to be our baby.
Winter was going over the matrix hardware while I was checking the software. I had come to the conclusion that I was going to have to do a total rewrite of the OS before this would be secure enough to use. To many people had used it and it hadn't been upgraded and changed in over a year. Stupid cheap dwarf. We started by pulling all the outside connections. When the machine was Tempest shielded I went to work. Luckily I wouldn't have to rewrite from scratch. I figured a couple days work and I could bring it all back on line.
Fall and the dog were making the rounds on the new security. Making sure we were physically secure. Gobwit was sleeping off the drug the Doc gave him.
The Doc was setting up some interior watchers and elementals with specific patrol spots in the building. We had a Hell Hound down in the lair on astral patrol. They don't like sunlight and I pity the fool that tries to mess with the one here. The Fab IV was at least fresh.
Templeton was finally found. In a dumpster near Zombie/Ghoul territory. Someone had cut his throat. No robbery was apparent. His wallet wasn't touched. It appears the Doc has become second in command while Gobwit is dreaming of piles of gold. He says there is someone else in this mess. I asked him how he knew and he smiled and told me experience. All the signs were there that this was not the UCAS or Gobwit. After I saw Winters logs and we had a sit-down it was pretty obvious that someone else was involved.
The first thing that I would do when I got the matrix connections back on line was to try and run down some leads.
So much to do, so little time to do it.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 15, 2010 11:06:10 GMT -5
I'm out of debt and things are looking good for me. I haven't had the urge to gamble since the situation became more lethal. I had surmised earlier that someone else had to be in the game. I was right. The UCAS was obviously in contention with someone big, powerful, and well covered. So powerful they didn't dare go head to head themselves. Both sides were moving pawns to fight each other. Templeton was a pawn for the other side. We saw how he ended up when his usefulness was over. That could be our fate, neither side had a real vested interest in keeping us alive.
Someone then, as big or bigger than the UCAS. Our little group was outgunned to say the least. We didn't even know what the giants were fighting over. It had to be big. Not big enough that they would attack each other openly or directly but something they didn't want anyone else to get wind of. That was a plus for us. At least we could expect no direct attacks directly from either parent group, just their pawns.
I was going through the records of the Lair that Izzy had pulled from the mainframe before she and Winter gutted it. The signs were all there even back when this first started. Tony, Nestles, Spiked Wheels, Wheels, Vankler, Dom, Holloweeners, a missing key card and a host of others clues. Then the informatrion and logs all abruptly stopped when Krass and Cronies left Seattle. Not another fragging hint or clue, which usually means they were the losers, the winners would have kept on doing business as usual. The only one left from those days we had access to? Gobwit. He had to know more than he knew or maybe even was telling. The rest of the old teams seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. Headcrack, Freddy, Widow COULD be with the UCAS. If so they might turn up later. What of this character called Mao and the references to the BEAST? Nothing on that at all but there were signs that information on him had been gutted and wiped past all hope of recovery, especially after over a year.
I thought about it.
Guesses mostly, but let's try to fit some pieces in this puzzle. Krass and crew were in a head to head conflict with the Swiss based Nestle's corporation. That was pretty obvious from the beginning. Something about a search for a Maltese Falcon and some formula. Could they have lost that battle? It would seem likely that indeed they did. Krass was a big name in Seattle but he didn't have the power or the resources of a triple 'A' corp like Nestle. Krass also got involved in that fusion project, they had to have taken on more than they could handle and it stopped them cold. To many enemies and not enough resources or protection. All the signs were there that the situation had been getting bloodier and bloodier.
The records indicated the problem. There own teams like this original one at Z Street were actually working at cross purposes. They were tearing themselves apart. It was obvious. EVERYTHING was shutdown. Liquidated. Everyone headed for the mountains and pulled the door closed behind them. Nothing happened except galloping deterioration in Seattle for over a year.
The battleground had changed. I had no doubts the war was still going on. How do I know? Drassels assasination. Either the enemy located him or he was still in the battle and got whacked. If he was hidden and they found him they would have had information on the others from the same source and more than one attack would have been registered or successful. It was more likely that the fight was still going on behind the scenes.
A beast was reawakening after licking it's wounds. It had new weapons and a lot of caution. It was looking for an opening. It seems obvious that Krass, before he left, seemed to have struck some kind of deal with the UCAS and the NAN tribes, probably when things were getting real bad. I saw no sign that the alliance had ever been dissolved. If we wanted to know what was happening there? We were going to have to see if we could locate Janie Andrews.
It was obvious that she was the one still behind the UCAS involvement. Her stated goal from the records was to put together an unknown team. I looked around. Her goal had not changed. At least the UCAS was still in the fight. They also had to be the ones hiding Krass and his group. How else could they all have so completely disappeared? Witness Protection Programs of course. The UCAS has whole sections to funnel people they want to hide through.
We could concentrate, as the UCAS wanted, on those missing people, but that was only part of the picture. The UCAS was hiding a lot of things from us. Things that were likely to get us killed. The problem is that if we started looking at the wrong things we would be setting ourselves for the Templeton treatment. If we didn't investigate this, we were setting ourselves up for the Templeton treatment.
Don't you just love a well organized setup?
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 15, 2010 22:11:31 GMT -5
The downstairs place was the basement apartments under a tenement building right in what used to be ‘Hackers turf. Judging by the corridor’s decoration of gang symbols, obvious signs of melee, human-shaped holes in the walls (possibly when one of the gangers decided to walk through it, since the concept of doors is beyond them now) and spurs scratches, anyone with a little sense can assume the gang decided to claim the basement as their own. At least you don’t have nobodies running in the middle. No one hears, no one snitches. No one to come and save you too.
Switches led the way, his crew closing the march. The place smelled of blood, human blood that is. Someone got something removed recently. Dark too, everyone who was a Shiv had low-light in those cyber eyes. At least some lights from those who weren’t broken or burned out and left there. The gangers seemed grim, at least those that still were capable of facial expressions. Eva was sitting in an old dentist chair, rusted, the leather turning black from all the layers of dried blood it had accumulated with time. Her brand new cyberskull was getting getting engraved. At least now she won’t be laughed at for being an Elf, but I liked her sorta better with a real head on.
Then a massive force pushed me from behind. Well, not quite, more from the side and back. It still got me flying a couple of meters into a waiting ganger. I didn’t had the time to think that I was turned over and gripped, face to face with the Man of Steel. He was like a tall Orc when he was meat, now he’s more like a short Troll. Enhanced strength and size, boosted reflexes, twin cyber SMGs, eyes and ears with everything you can possibly cram up there, legs with pistons in it that can get him 5 meters in the air, extra armour all over, spurs, fangs (of all things), hand razors, the works. He got all this gunning down a family of 4, sold the organs and chop the car out for parts. I didn’t do anything, so what gives? I tried to ask, but that pretty much cut my wind, the ganger holding me didn’t helped my case crushing me like he did. He began to walk, his grip wasn’t failing and brought me in front of Eva. That close, she looks decent, at least her torso was still original or looked the part on the outside. I was let go right before she kicked me in the chest. This time on one was there to grip me, they just bumped me down toward the ground. At least nothing cracked.
I managed to get up, no one’s making a move this time. I can manage to catch some breath now. “Whatthefrag?” “Yeah what the frag Four-Eyes,” even her voice was cybered up, “what the frag you’re doing doin’ drek in our turf without me approving it huh? How come I got people telling me you hired Stitches to do some monkey work and then you fraggin’ blew him up huh?” I shrugged “I don’t know what you’re talking about Eva. Didn’t came here for biz in weeks.” Man of Steel locked my good arm up before kicking me behind the knee. His boss popped out of her chair and got her spurs out. Frag.
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 15, 2010 22:20:44 GMT -5
She swing her arm, but I’m way too slow for all that metal, not that I was able to do anything short of turning my head. Her spurs bite my face. Great I’m bleeding now. “You dunno?” “I dunno!” “FRAGGIN’ LIE TROGGY!” Man of Steel picks me up by the sides, squeezing my arms on my torso all the way up to the ceiling. I managed to close my eyes before my skull broke through the gyprock. At least there wasn’t a 2by4 behind . “WHY’D YOU KILL STITCHES FOR HUH?” “I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS SOMEONE NAMED STITICHES IN HERE ‘TIL YOU SAID THE FRAGGIN’ NAME!” Again I get passed throught the ceeling. A little higher too, I think I felt the floor. “YOU FRAGGIN’ HIRED HIM TO RAM THAT DREK EURO CAR O’ YOURS INTO ANDERSON’S LAST NIGHT! THEN WHEN HE DID IT, YOU FRAGGIN’ BLEW’HIM UP!”
She started to to cut me like the nutcase she was. Adding in the cyber screams, yeah I was scared now. At least she concentrated on the torso this time. Nice work from the cyber monster keeping me higher than eye level. My armour took most blows. Most. I got to start wearing my form-fitting armour more often. “AAAHH! YOU FRAGGIN’ CRAZY SLITCH! MY AUDI GOT JACKED 2 DAYS AGO THAT’S WHY I’M RIDIN’ IN SOME FRAGGIN’ VAN!” At least that got her to stop slicing me. “WHERE!” “ZOMBIELAND, I WAS TAILING A GUY AND SOMEONE KIDNAPPED THE GUY AND JACKED MY RIDE! WHERE’D YOU THINK I GOT MY FACE WORKED OUT HUH? I HAD TO FRAGGIN’ RUN INTO GHOUL TOWN TO GET CLEAR OF OF THOSE FRAGGIN’ CLOWNS WHO WERE SHOOTING ME!” She calmed herself, thank God for that. “Who jacked your ride?” “Beats the hell outta me.” I felt myself going up, so I just did some stopping sounds. I saved that. “All I know it’s the guy I was tailing wasn’t who I was told he was. I was on my way to check out my buddy who feed me the job and the info when Switches and his crew got in my way and fraggin’ dragged me in here.” I was dropped to the ground, almost lost my balance, but I held on my feet, somewhat. “Where’s your buddy at now?” “East side, ‘Hacker turf.” She approaches fast, almost bumping on my nose. I'm not even halfway done blinking. “You tellin’ me he’s...a Reality Hacker?” “Nah, just around ‘cause they got the programs he needs. Just like you make buddy-buddy with the hacksaws for discount installs.” Eva musta had some new cyber up in her arm, because she lifted me up in the air, maybe an inch or tow, but it was still something new. “Listen up Four-Eyes, and listen well: it’s your problem now It was your car and your name, so it’s your responsibility too. So you better find out what the frag happened with all this drek, and bring me who did it, or ‘else I’ll start to think you did it, and that you’re just Bulldrekkin’ me. And if that’s the case, I’ll skin you and wear you as a fraggin’ coat y'hear? I’m only letting you go this time because it ain’t your style to pull drek like that, and I’m in a good mood this morning. Only because of that. We understand each other?”
I just nodded my head and she let me down. “You’ll take Switches and his crew with you, in case you need help..or a reminder.” I looked at the man. He was looking as happy as I about the deal. Fraggin' mornings. That’s why I never get up before 10.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 16, 2010 10:39:39 GMT -5
I got a promotion out of all this. I'm in plain clothes and in charge of physical security. I've finished briefing the Lone star guards we've put in place and now I'm making the rounds. I'm being followed.
Pelchies Poochie. I've gotten the impression that the dog is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for. If I could just get him to stop lifting his leg on every Lone star officer he can sneak up on. It's like the dog is keeping score. One thing it is though is keeping them really alert. They never know when the animal is going to come around day or night and he doesn't do it IF you can catch him in time. I guess as an alarm test it's a good thing. The cleaning bill is going to get outrageous though if they don't stay alert.
You can't just walk in the front door of the building anymore. We have doormen who check your credentials before you even get in. The other doors are guarded and locked. They also are wired and have cameras on them which are monitored. We have several riggers on drone security. When we are done everyone in the building is going to have a transponder on them that will monitor their progress inside the building. Right now with the matrix relays down and the mainframe in pieces? That ain't happening. Hence the patrols.
The Spiked Wheels mess is being cleaned up. The secret entrance and the garage are also under guard by OBVIOUS guards again. You need a pass to get in there and the cars are again scanned/searched. No one had taken the old scanning gear out. It just needed some minor fix up and some upgrades and it was back on-line. It was the good stuff.
I went outside to have a look on the street. Drones in the air, outside cameras. Drones on the sides of the building. Everything under surveillance. No Spiked Wheels in sight. Lone Star patrols passing at irregular intervals and a FRT squad on standby just down the street. The building also had steel pop-up barriers to discourage anyone driving through the walls.
Security should be able to stop anything truly overt. For a start it's not bad. I turned around just in time to catch Wanker taking a leak on a Lone Star foot patrol officer who had stopped to talk to the doormen. He tried to kick the dog. His friends were laughing. The dog easily dodged the kick. He was going for high score though. One of the guys that was laughing got the next dose.
Maybe as punishment for laxness I could argue that they had to get their clothes cleaned at their expense if the dog got them. Pelch would like that.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 16, 2010 11:28:41 GMT -5
Like I said, a setup. A setup where the only things they lose are the things they can afford to lose. That includes our lives as well. I'd inject Pelch Gobwit with some scopalamine IX if I thought I could get away with it. He's still sleeping off the Ambidelamine I gave him earlier. It's my impression from the records that he would be pretty clueless about anything that was happening. His goal is money. Mostly acquiring it. That works for me. Mine is mostly spending it and living long enough to do so.
Izzy had done a pretty good job of tracking down the three names and gutting the Lone Star files without getting caught. It looked like this crime had been ongoing for at least a year. I was going through the data on just those three individuals looking for correlations. They were all approximately the same age. They were all retired. They were all good solid RETIRED SIN upper management. They all disappeared leaving no clues and no bodies to indicate foul play. That was it.
They didn't know each other. They didn't change their habits or life patterns prior to the disappearance. The wills are to different and also non related people. Izzy had hacked into their accounts at the banks, each different, where they kept their money. They had not been touched since the people left. Their retirement money was still being deposited because they weren't legally dead. No one was touching the accounts. At least up to this point. Attempts to track them? Clear up until a time-frame when someone noticed they weren't following their routines. Sometimes, given the individual it could be anything from a couple of days to a couple of months. No clues after that. In life they hadn't even worked for the same companies. It was like they just stepped off the face of the planet.
No wonder the UCAS was stumped. If the money wasn't being touched...smart that, then how the heck were they living? Izzy had looked for secret stashes or bank accounts by checking matrix records, looking at interviews with relatives and friends. Nothing. We know exactly how much they were getting a month. No extra money according to the bank records. No unusual matrix records what so ever.
Magic?
The Matrix end was obviously too well covered for us to find anything. Izzy will stay on it of course but we are not going to crack this one in the matrix. The only thing it might do is tell us where we don't need to look. Interviews, will net us nothing either. Both the UCAS and Lone Star had enough feet they could put on that, and they logged a lot of miles with interrogations and interviews. Not a clue. Their forensic teams were all over the areas involved. Nothing. Not even signs in magical forensics that their might have been sixth world intervention.
We we're going to have to approach it another way. Now the next obvious way would be to bait a trap. Get some semi-wealthy SIN geezer to act as bait willingly or stake him out as a JUDAS goat and wait for the bad boys or girls to bite. That would be just what they would be looking for. I'd rather they didn't see us coming given the nature of their actions to date.
Create a person from scratch and inserting a very likely candidate along the matrix parameters that Izzy could dredge up? It would probably be noticed right away and meticulously checked for just such a trap. I know I would if I was running the opposition.
They could just not approach us at all and continue with the ones they know are safe. Not to high to excite interest, not to low as to be worthless. Did you notice that? It's still coming down to a money thing. It's being done so slickly that you can't track it. If it's money why is it still in the accounts and building up. Even the interest is staying in. Izzy is watching the accounts. Many have not been touched in a year. If they go seven years? They go to the beneficiaries along with the insurance. How do they get their hands on the cash?
We needed to get a jump ahead of their thinking. How would I get that cash if that was what I was after? I have an idea but I'm betting Gobwit won't like it. We'll probably do it anyway though.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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Post by Braddoc on Jun 16, 2010 17:35:31 GMT -5
It took me half an hour getting patched up, all the while having to listen to Switches and his crew bitching about ‘wastin’ time’ and ‘not doing what you’re told’. What they don’t get is that’s MY head on the line here, I make the shot; just another 10, 15 minutes maybe, then the playing field’s gonna be even. Right now the boys were carving their symbols here and there, Switches was having a smoke. Like he had any organs to poison.
In the meantime I’m stuck on the phone with Red; My guns, ammo, grenades, shaped charges and the rest of my stash’s there. Thank the man who invented duck-tape: at least my jacket and armour aren’t loosing precious kevlar now. But my Americar’s gone from the lock-up. And the only one who had the code aprt from me was him. “Hmmm...parked..at your place? I should I fraggin’ know!”
“Bro, you had the code, and except if someone just barged in here and jacked my wheels, I’m thinkin’ you took it.” “Oooohhh, THAT set o’ wheels. Yeah I got it in my shop.” I rubbed my eyes. At least it was in good hands. “Why’d you took it?” “Don’t you remember? Barrens Race’s 3 weeks away! And since you have that fancy Audi..” “..HAD the Audi. It got jacked 2 nights ago.” “Oh drek, sucks to be you man! What’cha got now? Takin’ a ride on the Boots express? Hur hur hur..” “You wish, I’m stuck with some dumbass van..’think it’s armoured a bit; I rammed it into a building and the bumper barely got dented.”
“A Van? Man, you fell down from high. Can’t go fast and make tight turns with a van!” “Yeah well, that’s why I need my car now, Red.” “Sorry man, got’her guts all over the place, I’m right in the middle of settin’ up a sweet superturbo engine, right off a Westwind DSE, The tires are gonna be there in 3 days, ‘got Bean gettin’ the armour in the chassis, Spick getting that armoured glass installed, ‘got the juves gettin’ those armoured flaps done..” “How’s the car looking NOW?” “Skeleton. For the most part. But the chucks are installed, top quality drek I lifted from..” “I don’t care right now! Next time lemme know when you’re doin’ somethin’ like that, ok? Frag!” “Drek, what’s wrong Jack?” “Woke up too early this morning; one of those days...Lemme know when she’s be good to roll, will’ya?” “Yeah man no problem...Oh! Yeah before I forgot, I found your chip, the one with Dark Tide’s Live concert at the Stuff Club. Was under the seat.” “’least that’s that I guess. Call you later bro.”
“So, where’d your ‘Bro’ hacked that car up at?” “It ain’t hacked, Switches. It’s gettin’ an over-haul.” “Better that way, I hate the stench of old Trog when I’m ridin’.” “Just get your idiots in the van. We’ll get going.”
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