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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 30, 2010 11:27:10 GMT -5
OOC: "It appears the questions on magic have again come to the fore as I predicted it would. I'll insert this thought for contemplation. IF magic is a form of energy then there could be, as Braddoc points out, several ways to energize it or attune it to a human body. Now in SR magic is LIFE energy so it would make sense that the more LIFE energy a person has or can amass, the more powerful a mage would tend to be. Maybe that is why cyberware DETRACTS from magical ability. I think I'll wait a bit before I add to this to give others the opportunity to respond if they wish. For Braddoc's question at heart is; what path seems the most believable given the SR world?"
I'm at the party being introduced around and making light conversation. The Skodas were there talking powder and guns to Ares of Ares Tech. Charles Mainboicher of Infinity Aerotech spotted me and spoke just loud enough to draw the attention of several people around him. "Gobwit? That clown? What's he doing here?"
Lady Shrapnel of Vesta Genetech nodded in agreement. "That's him. Everybody has been talking about him."
Victor Pallos of Pallos Medicines looked closely. "Are you sure that is the same man? Couldn't be. I've seen the commercials and this one almost looks human."
I approached the group non-chalantly and nodded politely. The chip made it clear that I should wait to be invited to the conversation. Lady Shrapnel looked at me in amusement. "Are you that dreadful man with those completely obscene commercials?"
"I am, madam. You may touch me if you wish."
"Why, you actually seem proud. Are you proud of your bad taste?"
"The problem today, Lady Shrapnel is to have any taste at all. I think I am lucky."
"Lucky but dreadfully indecent."
"Indecent but not dull."
"Dreadful but delightful. Why aren't you cavorting now?"
"I'm under the influence."
"Oh dear. Are you drunk? When will you be sober again?"
"I'm under your influence Lady Shrapnel."
"You totally wicked young man. Charles! Charles come here and save Gobwit. I'm ruining him."
Charles Mainbocher approached and look down his nose. "Gobwit, is it? Delighted. What do those ghastly commercials cost?"
"Forty thousand, Mainbocher."
"Good Lord, a month?"
"A week."
"My God, Why would you spend that much a week, a notable tightwad like yourself?"
"For notoriety, Mainbocher. I like people to know who I am and to see me often. It makes things so much easier to deal with." I was starting to gather a crowd as many crowded around to listen.
"Ha! Are you serious?"
Lady Shrapnel laughed, "I told you he was wicked, Charles."
Mainbocher laughed, "Damned refreshing. Victor! Here a moment. This impudent young man is spending forty thousand a week; for notoriety, if you please."
Victor Pallas looked at me curiously, "Good Evening Gobwit. Are you by chance a direct descendant of the original Gobwit Mining Corporation?"
"No Pallas, It's a title by purchase. I bought the company. I'm an upstart."
"My word, Gobwit! You're certainly frank about it."
Mainbocher shook his head in amusement. "Told you he was impudent. Very refreshing. There's a parcel of damned upstarts about, young man, but they never admit it. Elizabeth, come meet Gobwit of the Gobwit Mining Company.
I watched as Lady Elizabeth of Phaeton Motors approached. She spoke sternly.
"Is it true that you travel about by foot?"
"I do, I spend my money on the Foundation to Save the Dire Rat."
She looked surprised, "But why on Earth, Gobwit?"
"Well Lady Elizabeth, it's so difficult to spend money these days. We have to find the silliest excuses. If only someone could invent a new extravagance."
"You ought to travel with a portable inventor, Gobwit."
"I've got one. Haven't I got one Dockery?" Dockery nodded affirmatively as he watched amused. "She wastes her time building bigger guns. What I really require is a resident spendthrift. Would any of you care to loan me a worthless, younger son? Millions of NuYen for nonsense, but not one cent for taxes or civic improvement."
The crowd roared with laughter.
I was a success.
The only mistake I made was that I tipped the Seattle Mayor when I asked him the way to the john. Luckily, they all had a good laugh and accepted that I had done it on purpose."
Impudence of course.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 1, 2010 14:49:25 GMT -5
Gobwit and Dockery and I are at the party, correct?
Fall and Winter are also at the party sitting in the chopper, correct?
Gobwit has a fairly large crowd of ultra-bored rich around him. I must admit he's using just the right technique of boldness, rogue and scandal. The crowd is eating it up. Dockery is on the outskirts watching just in case. No one of course, is watching me. Just another personal secretary with one of the rich and famous.
Time for some more tip of the hand I suppose. Let's start with this little thought. Did you ever wonder why no one uses a full on magic attack against one of the rich guys vehicles? Seems pretty obvious. It's because they have Mucho protection, Omae. It seems like it would be easy to just astrally send some beastie in to rip all the occupants apart. Do you think no one has thought of this? Not likely.
Remember the old On-Star system? Someone jacks your wheels. Next thing they knew the police were on your hoop and the car doors were locking and the car was shutting down. You think those guys didn't add magical protection as well when it came out.
Any high corp car has enough innate protection around it, especially when transporting the big guys and gals that they would fry your brains if you even thought of trying. Gobwit's new vehicles have that kind of protection. Warded, and guarded the systems now perform LETHAL responses to any kind of attack. Sort of like you going up bare handed against a tank. Comprende?
Remember Dockery's talk about water elementals and how good with illusions they are? What makes you think Fall and Winter are even in that chopper? The UCAS or Villiers security is not going to mess with that corp chopper, physically or magically. IF say a water elemental was inside and maintaining an illusion of Fall and Winter sitting there with one of Dockery's aura masking spells who could say for sure? So where are Fall and Winter? It could be them in the chopper, right? Maybe, I'm just playing head games. However, under the right illusion spells and with no active magical scanning possible on all the guests vehicles, remember that would be bad form for the rich to do that, how could you tell if they didn't use part of that illusion to actually leave the chopper and blend in elsewhere? Especially since I could have done the disguises before we left.
As Gobwit and Dockery said. In this caper it's all about the timing! Pretty soon the party is going to become more lively. Some will get drunk. Some will slip away for a little extra curricular sexual activity. Some will imbibed their drug of choice. As Gobwit pointed out previously, people are going to be preoccupied with other things and when that happens, we will slip out.
So Fall and Winter, if they were smart, which they are, will know what guests are likely to stay all night. That means a smart rigger can deactivate the warning alarms on one of the cars, which we can use as transport to the UCAS depository, full fill our dastardly deed and come back. Then we just reverse the whole thing. We are effectively invisible. Split second timing.
See you at the UCAS.
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 1, 2010 22:13:34 GMT -5
16 half-floors of stairs later we came out of the building, the eyes took a second to adjust to the morning sun. Mine at least, the sunglasses helped a bit. I put off my smoke, not that I actually smoked more than a quarter of it; it’s kinda hard jumping down stairs while having your lungs filled with menthol-flavoured smoke, and I’m not risking leaving DNA around. The Shivs must be packing integrated commlinks since the van was waiting for us there. I got behind the wheel with Switches riding shotgun and we drove off. Everything seems normal, no cops or anything yet.
I rode in silence while the gangers where talking about getting even with that mage who got their chum's head. Switches seems lost in thought as well, I think, but it’s not like I was gonna ask. Bigger problems than knowing his state of mind.
Ok..so one or many person went in, killed all those guard eels, got inside the base, killed Lianna and plugged her to that key-less deck, which in turn was connected to her deck. All the while without her seeing, or knowing, it and before she can hit her panic button, call help or get to her gun. Good thing for those back-up recordings. Question is, why? I’m tempted to say it’s to get to me, but it’s a pretty long and useless detour to take.
Granted, I know my way around a gun, but it’s not like a Mage can’t get to me easy, I got nothing going for me. Sure most of Puyallup’s in my pocket, but it’s not like I go around wiht 20 gangers of every flag guarding me with magical support and the like. Of course having a solid rep with a drekload of gangs, organizations and people will make alot of them looking for whoever offed me. I guess. Most will just say “ah frag”, roll over and keep going. Some could still surprise me. Not that I’ll be around to see too. Still whoever did this knows about me, and people I know. People I know well too. I better makes calls.
Thing is, why connect her to that box and her deck if she was dead? It’s not like she could do anything on the Matrix without breathing. Maybe it was just too make it look like she got fried jacked-in, but she never does work without back-up. She was in good, no, excellent terms with the Reality Hackers, hell she was one of them. Inside job? No, they don’t have the magical firepower to do that. Those of the gang who actually visit her are few as well, maybe half a dozen. Great. Now to visit some asocial deckers who can’t see the difference between real life and the Matrix. I looked at my watch, it was 10:30.
Frag!
“I’m gonna drop you guys off at your hideout. I got something to do.” “Frag you are. Eva said we got to stick close to you at all times. Where ever you go.” “Huh huh. I’m going downtown to some fancy restaurant to meet a buddy of mine. So except if you and your buddies are gonna wear a suit and tie, act decent and don’t rouse up attention, I’m droppin’ you off. I don’t want problems wiht the Oinkers, they must be on my case anyway, ‘supposin’ they got my car that is, which they do.” “Yeah bulldrek Delly. Afraid we gonna embarrass you in front of your date huh?” His boys were having a good time laughing at my expense. Fraggers. “It ain’t a date jerk-off, I’m meeting a Keeb.” Silence fell quickly after that one. Funny how supremacists can be dead serious real fast sometimes. “Throw your drek somewhere else Four-Eyes.” “It ain’t drek, it’s true. Contacts man, that Keeb got fingers in ever organisation, Corporation, lots of backing on it’s own too. If there’s someone who can help me find out who the frag did this without exposing themself, drawing attention or being a target it’s them. So except if you and your crew want to dress in a penguin suit and sit silently for an hour or two at the same table as a Keebler while I talk business, you’re free to stick around, but I ain’t gonna tolerate any comment. Neither will the management. Those place got a guy with his hand on the Panic button ready to call drekloads of Oinkers who’ll be more than happy to pump you full o’ lead ‘cause the suits don’t like seeing street scum while they eat. Cuts their appetite.” “And they tolerate you with that face you’ve got?” “More than your face at any rate. Besides, it’s not like you don’t know where to find me. I’ll call you when I’ll be done.”
“That Keeb’s with who?” “Some paranormal magazine.” “HA! Like that’s gonna be a big help.” “You’ll be fraggin’ surprised by what they can accomplish.” “I’m more surprised you gonna spend a couple of hours having a nice dinner with a fraggin’ Keebler of all people. Trog I’d get it, Shorty ok, but a Keeb? Heh..fraggin’ laughs man.” “Laughs like some Poli-gang being run by some Elf?” “She didn’t chose to turn into a freak. Lucky you we’re ain’t that much fond of her.” “I got better things to do that be concerned about what Eva’s thinkin’ of my actions. In the mean time, you’ll get time to shake down your own trail. Didn’t you tell me you had some cops on the payroll back in the good ol’ days? We’ll need that police report on the incident. Including the medical reports of your man Stitches and the one about the explosives.”
“Don’t think Eva’s gonna front me the cash to make it happen.” “Frag...is she your mother or somethin’? She doesn’t need to know about it, ok? In fact, I don’t want your sorry ass to even get close to that slitch and her psycho killin’ machine understand? I ain’t workin’ for her, I'm in this for myself ok? We’re ain’t dealin’ with some unorganized gangers here, we got someone who’s got a plan, and I don’t need some metalhead Elf breathing down my neck at every turn or someone I gotta ask permission to do things. She wanted things goin’ her way, she should have come herself. But since she didn’t well, I’m in charge on how I work. And since I got a lil’ more experience than you on this, I want you to back me up here. No need to report to her when there’s nothing to report. Swavy?”
“She ain’t gonna like this when she finds out y’know?” “Frag it. If she doesn’t like the way I work she can put those metal lips of hers on my pink meat ass and call it a meal for all I’d care. Her fraggin’ mistake going crazy and slicin’ me man. She brought it on herself; she’s gonna live with it."
"Here’s 5 grand in script. Use that money to shake down your Copper pals. And try not to use it all, ok?”
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 2, 2010 9:40:32 GMT -5
Which probably means we're hosed to the max. The driver of the mid-sized Mercedes we lifted at the party was safely drugged in the trunk. He never saw what hit him and if we get him back to the party in time and propped him up in his seat he probably wouldn't say a thing about it.
It was late in the graveyard shift. As I had known in advance, the job cuts had taken their toll. Most of the remaining guards were asleep. The UCAS doesn't pay enough for them to stay awake. The bosses nod out first and the others when it's safe, usually taking turns with a buddy who will wake them if needed. Like I said a piece of cake.
There was no fragging fence. The alarms and cameras? I deactivated and reactivated as we made our way past. No one saw us. The doors would be a little more difficult, you think? They weren't. Simple lock bar doors not even fragging electronic. Old style manual locks. I had them picked so fast I might as well have had the key. Actually? I did have the Master key once I saw what they were.
The inside was a fragging dire rats maze of cubicles and desks. No major alarms inside, just a few ceiling cams that didn't even work. I guess some of the maintenance people got laid off too. See how your tax money is REALLY spent? All that money they say they are paying for upkeep and such is really siphoned off to pleasure trips to Vegas before it even gets here. Ever notice that in any civil servant type setting the boss has a big fancy office. The rest of the place looks and smells like drek?
I quickly opened the Boss man's desk, he wasn't there of course, and Izzy soon had the master password he had stored in it. Of course he had locked his door and desk. Yep, standard locks, factory issue, never been changed. Seconds dude.
I pitied the guys that worked there in that soul killing place. Imagine doing forty-two years in conditions like that? Every now and then we encountered a standard magnetic/electronic lock that required a pass-card entry. I had several makes of master bypass cards and the security obviously had not been changed or upgraded in a long time. I was easily able to issue a maintenance bypass order that opened the doors and did not even register in the logs let alone audible alarms.
My interior maps had proved accurate. We got to the vault door without setting off any alarms. The Doc had to get us past some elemental guards but they were low grade. He just flat out banished them before they could give a warning, but he kept feeding a magical signal to the creators that they were alive and well. Normally a mage knows when an elemental was destroyed. Doc had a spell that seemed to overcome that issue. Once we got back the elementals would suddenly register as dead. We would be long gone.
Now catch this bit of prime stupidity. The only security left was the large vault door itself. The thing must have been installed in the 1900's Maybe 1950 or there about. It had a standard for that period time-lock. The only change was the psycho/physio scanner and computer outside the door and of course the camera that didn't work. I guess now that money and transactions were mostly electronic they had felt no need for updating the security. It's sort of the old Fort Knox idea. Never heard of it?
When they went and made Goldfinger they showed this huge bank-vault door. Remember the scene? Well they didn't show the Secret Service guards in the bunkers underground out near the gates, just GI's and that door itself? It doesn't really exist, it was completely fabricated. The real interior is cargo pallets stacked in a room holding the gold with a FEW fluorescent light up top giving it a really gloomy atmosphere. The place looks like a dump. It is. It's how the public views it that actually keeps it safe. That and the thought of government retribution and the problem of moving that much heavy metal. Believe me government facilities can be easier to penetrate than your standard corp facility. Especially in hard times like this.
They're bears on security after something happens and they run around just like a fragging elf fire drill doing all kinds of stupid and commonplace things. Sort of like making lots of loud noises but not actually physically accomplishing much in fixing the problem which is replacing the money they siphoned off to bring things up to par. Then again, it's still run by people who usually don't know drek about real security. The scanner was easy. Locate the chips that controlled the scan. Replace them with some of my bypass chips. Stand in front of the door and let it read. It went to the computer. Computer registers no match. It sends the deny code, it hits my bypass chip and gets intercepted. The door not getting the deny signal opens the first lock. So simple it could make you cry. Then I just increased the electronic pulses to the time lock to extreme speed. It was opened in minutes instead of hours.
I watched as Izzy plugged into the Master Console, issued the Boss's password and she was in.
This was getting to easy. I kept waiting for the shoe to fall.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 3, 2010 9:26:41 GMT -5
I sat down at the console and jacked in. I had not believed for a minute that the physical security of the building was so pathetic. Mid Tier corps had better. The matrix security was a problem. Why? It was so fragging OLD! I would estimate that it was ten to fifteen years behind current tech! The iconology was even worse. It would be like running Windows NT when the latest was Windows Vista. Some of my utilities were so sophisticated they couldn't run on this system!
The iconology here was like a government office in some drek spot like downtown St Louis. The outside matrix security was fairly robust but it was just as archaic. Masked in the Icon of the Director of this facility I was able to pretty much gut the system at will. I created several back-doors and hid them well. I traced possible accounts for laundering the m9money and moving it around in smaller and smaller amounts without tripping the cutoffs.
That's when I suddenly found something interesting. An account to Janie Andrews. She had drawn heavily lately on expenses. The account was fragging huge. I smiled and placed a leech on the account. By the time they figured out the NuYen was being siphoned it should have taken maybe a third of the account. It was in the billions. Once the leech was discovered and investigated? IT would hide the transaction by suddenly sending amounts of varying kinds all over, wiping previous transactions and self destructing. The best programs destroy themselves when discovered.
In moments it was done. See you back at the party.
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 4, 2010 20:36:26 GMT -5
I dropped them near City Hall then drove back to my place in Tacoma. My shirt, tie, jacket and armoured vest were scrapped. I almost had 2 days in them. Not my worse stretch, but not my best as well; lucky me this lil’ dinner required something more than work pants and camo clothing. At least my torso wasn’t cut, only my face, but nothing a good cleaning and some first aid spray didn’t help cover. I just have to not smile ear to ear and it’ll hold. I took it easy in the shower, lighting one up, letting the water just rain down. Frag..Lianna...why did it had to be her of all people. She wouldn’t even kill a fly, much less someone. In the Matrix it was something else entirely, but in the meat world, she wasn’t a killer. Except when it came to Elves. That’s one of the things that brought us together. Drek that’s how ‘Commander’ Dan (back in the day, now it’s ‘Dandy’) introduced us. Good times...Good times indeed. Good times are done now. Fraggin’ fraggers...I’ll enjoy killin’ them slow.
I got my suit on, not my..someone of London one (never stopped and looked at the damn name), just my regular; Illiya ain’t a sucker for flash or money, so at least I don’t have to bring out the costly stuff, not that I’m going to impress. It’s just our monthly get together, touch base, see what job there is, and also to get paid. The payout for the nest of Dzoo-noo-quas we cleared out a month ago in this case. ‘Wonder if we did the cover again. The decks will stay behind, I’d rather get confirmation of help before throwing everything out there.
'Never thought i'd go there but...The Space Needle, of all places. Heh..well I was the one proposed the idea, since I never ate in a rotating restaurant before, and I was getting sick of that damn Chinese place. It was good, fancy but meh..see one Chinese restaurant, you saw’em all. Being a touristic place, it had metal detectors in case someone brought a gun or a bomb and had bad intentions, so I had to leave my guns behind. It didn’t stop me from packing that all-polymer pepper-box pistol I got. Only fired 4 .38 shots before needing a reload, but it was enough for most situation. Backed by my ceramic folding knife, at least I wasn’t naked. The guards let the detectors do all the work, no pad down at all; the machine peeps, they’ll frisk you with a hand scanner and that’ll be it. Only bad thing is that I’m suck with that stupid van, not the best thing in the world cruising around with that downtown, but it’s better than a cab or the bus; at least I don’t depend on others to get me ‘round the ‘plex.
Almost noon. Better get going if I want to be there for 1 o’clock.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 5, 2010 7:34:43 GMT -5
It was easy to breeze right back through the gates. The guards were trained enough to recognize the guest cars. We propped the driver back in his seat and wandered back in by various routes. Fall and Winter went back to the chopper disguised by the water elemental.
Only extensive questioning of the guests would show a hole in the time we were their. Not much we could do about that except drop hints that we were there all along. With some of the people blotto enough it was easy to establish that we might have been with a few of them when they passed out. Or with each other. Suspicious? Yes. A real clue? Not unless you have enough evidence to back it up. About now they would notice that the elemental guards at the UCAS we're dead. We made our good bye's and went out to the chopper and headed back to Z Street. If things worked out right they would be looking for the problems now.
The only mess we couldn't cover was the elementals. WE had relocked all the locks, erased all the logs of our transactions. We had planted back doors, but if we were careful in our withdrawals? It might be years or at worse months before they started to notice that monies were missing. Especially under all the transactions they were doing every day. For most government agencies? We are talking the September/October time frame when they finally balance the budget. They will for a month suddenly try to rectify and look closely at what they actually did for the year. If monies are missing, eventually rather than really look, they will look at their own people especially managers to see if someone is playing fast an loose with the money.
We covered that as well. Janie was going to have to explain her budget. Couldn't happen to a nicer person having to deal with all those whining accountants and pencil pushers trying to cover their own hoops because they only just started to figure it out. Would it be likely that Janie would want to explain her budget outlays to THEM? Not bloody likely, mate. If she was in strong position the higher ups would cover it all up and someone in accounting would take the rap and get drek canned. Same as it always is. The UCAS is very unlikely to make in any way public the fact that their spies used more money than they were supposed to. Not that the accounts could have stopped her from using it, but it's easier to drek can them.
It was one sweet steal. They could suspect all they wanted but we were Teflon on this one. First; you had a clean entry and departure. No deaths and little changed. Second; When things started happening we had excellent, not air tight, alibis. The people they should question would not be inclined to answer questions and had the money and lawyer power to really tell the UCAS investigators to frag off and die. Sure some of the lesser companies could be bribed to talk, or coerced to talk through various nefarious deals the UCAS did know about, but not all. The big dogs, Villiers and such, could make it so bad they wouldn't dare. Without enough people it was pretty solid. The lesser companies also would not want to frag off the big guys by going against them! That means none would ever go public and a trial of this nature would have to be public. Third; we had a backup scapegoat. Feed the right information, and Izzy gutting the fiscal systems had plenty, we could really cause the UCAS a lot of problems by releasing the information anonymously through various newscasters as data bombs.
It was going to be a lucrative year. It was going to be the account that keeps on paying.
To me.
Don't you just love a good con?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 5, 2010 8:02:58 GMT -5
Addams was talking with Janey.
"Ever had the feeling you've been diddled?"
"That's not something that is new or exciting to me." Janie replied with a slight smile.
Addams didn't look amused. "The mages out at the UCAS depository says that two of their elementals suddenly snuffed it early this morning."
"Gobwit?"
"Not sure. He was at the Villiers party last night. His whole crew. You can't just walk in and question people like that without something solid. His chopper was there all night. Several guest cars left early and throughout the evening but Gobwit's copter never moved until it took off about a half hour after the alarm went out. He went straight back to Z Street. Sat. links show the two dwarf girls were with the chopper. If he did do it, he didn't leave many clues."
"Anything missing?"
"The UCAS budget forensic people are going over all the logs now. There are some suspicious blanks in some of the sec. cameras, detectors, and mics hinting that someone did penetrate up to the vault doors where the elementals were guarding. The doors show no signs of entry. The guards were on the door within five minutes of the elementals destruction. Nothing, except the dead magic guards. It makes no sense."
"Yes, it does." Janie stated grimly. "Assume that it was Gobwit and his full crew. Dockery is good enough to play hanky/panky with the elementals. Gobwit could have easily gotten past the physical security, If the decker was with them, you can bet they got into that vault. Tell those idiots to shut the depository down. Disconnect the outside lines. We can at least stop the money hemorrhage. No telling how much they already got to. Concentrate on the NuYen flows in the master computer. We don't have to know HOW Gobwit did it, yet. We just know he did. It's not something we can ever take to court. I'm betting he didn't cover the secondary depositories at all. Not enough time and he and his people have to maintain an alibi. There enemy on this was a tight timeframe. Have them take up the slack while we get forensic teams on that system."
"You're probably right but it is a long reach. Have you asked the question Why?"
"Gobwit did a lot of spending lately that he will need to payoff. It makes sense he would want us to pay for all the trouble we put him through. It's pretty obvious and knowing Gobwits greed and revenge index, pretty simple."
"Too simple. Dockery is in the game. I wouldn't stop with Gobwit. It smells like a distraction. If Dockery was able to delay the warning on the elementals why not just influence them and leave them in place? He could have taken them over temporarily, kept the links going and just put them back in operation when he wanted. We would have never known there was a break in. It's all a distraction to make us concentrate there and waste time while they are doing something else."
"If we are going to be distracted then his break in will point directly to us, as the culprits, to keep us busy and out of his hair. It does make sense. Gobwit might not see that part. He would have been blinded by the money. I'll change our money pipe immediately. So, what's your next move?"
"Easy, we already shut off the money pipe. We button it all down and don't say a thing. Let them wonder what we are doing for a change. Let someone in the UCAS depository take the blame. Arrest them, put it on all the trids, and put out how the security stopped him. Get the shmoe that noticed the break in first place and make him the hero. He'll cooperate for the rewards and say anything we tell him to say. In the meantime? We let Gobwit run. Let's see where those bungers go."
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 5, 2010 22:29:03 GMT -5
20 minutes and no spirit in sight. Do they even have magical security or what? Some landmark like that, you’d think, but I guess some Director voted himself a pay raise instead of getting security. Make sense, it’s so hard to live in these difficult times with only a 6-digit salary. Even the security guard looks cheap, cheaper than when I visited with school some 15 years ago. That red jacket and that clip-on tie will help’em stop anything over 70 years of age. ‘Pretty sure that scanner’s only for show too. I didn’t bother to take my pills, the only mage that can be a trouble`s a fast-fingered one who makes credsticks disappear. And not the Awaken kind too.
Oh man, this was great! Nice ambiance, staff looks pro, and they even had an Ork playing the piano; the big fancy-kind too. Too bad Renraku’s eyesore of an Arcology was messing up the scenery, but the good news is it’ll be gone from view in a couple of minutes. Illiya was sitting alone in an almost empty restaurant. I got there in 3-4 steps, or at least in the time it could take someone to do so. “Vincent...Jesus what happened? You face have more scar tissue than I remember, and looking at you, it seems you have..Micro’s touch on you.” “Oh yeah..I was doing something, didn’t bother to drop it..as for the face well, close encounter of the ganger kind. Nothing I couldn’t handle. You look good, you did something with your hair?” She smiles a little in a “I know” kinda way. The worse kind. “A compliment? My, a rare deed coming form you.” “I guess I’m having a good day.”
She opened up her briefcase and passed along half a dozen credsticks with this month’s copy of the Fortean Times. Another 80 grand in my pocket, but no front page. “The LoupGarou of Pickup Bank? Is it because it’s a LoupGarou of because it’s from some unknown place in the middle of the ‘sticks?” “Pickup Bank is a town in England; while the paracreature is nothing new, the fact that we managed to get this information out of the country makes it enough a scoop. I don’t have to remind you how the Lord Protector loves to keep anything and everything that happens in ‘his’ Protectorate secret.” “So I heard. Well, we’re the third article, so that’s all right. Is there the hmmm..weapons article in there?” “No, we’re still conducting tests before we can publish it. While I have no reason to doubt the team, we will be the ones putting our reputation on the line, and we would prefer make sure for ourselves that those weapons actually works beyond a good bet. Thought we were quite impressed with the ‘2-steps’ grenade. As a whole, they are quite an effective way for mundanes to battle magical entities without the need to close in melee.” Magical entities...a more PC expression for Spirits, even since free-roaming ones started to actually be numerous enough to get taken seriously, effectively creating some gray area as to their nature as dumb slaves or intelligent hostages. “Yeah I’m pretty proud of that one. Just make sure you’re not too close when the second detonation goes off. Ice shards hurts like hell.” The waiter brought up some soup, followed by some salad. Good to see she ordered well before I arrived. At lest we’re not wasting time bouncing off ideas on what to eat.
“We could use your help in the testing.” “Not now I’m kinda in the middle of something.” “Still doing the independent contractor routine?” “Yes. What can I say, I love having space to move around. If I wanted something ordinary, I would have listened to my mother and signed in with DocWagon after school.” “What we offer something that is far from ordinary.” “I know, I’m here, right? I don’t mind working in a controlled environment like a corp or anything else fir a while, but every day, every month? I can’t stomach it, it gets too boring too fast. I survived school and it wasn’t to just change the classroom for a cubicle or an ambulance or lab or anything else.” “Are you certain? You worked with Meg for close than a year.” “True, but I did alot of sidelines off the clock to keep busy. And I ran the thing it was different than being another one in the masses.”
Oh yeah, steak! And just the way I like it too, rare-medium with lots o’ greens. Good call. For a Keeb she’s almost all right. ‘Least she ain’t magic. But my appetite wasn’t all there, I almost had to force myself to eat to keep appearances. Not to mention she kept staring at me for some reason. “Vincent, are you sure everything is all right? You seem..distracted and you don’t appear to have your regular appetite.” Well, better her than me getting into it first. “Well..I won’t bother you with the details...” The image of Lianna flashed before my eyes. I looked outside toward the Snohomish farmlands. “..but someone I know, well knew, very well died recently, and I suspect foul play. Of the worse kind too. That's what I'm working on now.” “I’m sorry to hear that. You should have called me I could have re-scheduled.”
“No, no, it’s all right. It kinda happened at a good time actually. I would like your help. I need to get a decker. A good one. It could be risky.” “I’m not in the business of supplying shadowrunners.” “No, nothing like that, I need to have a couple of decks checked out.”
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 6, 2010 8:53:56 GMT -5
The UCAS reacted a lot faster than any of us expected, or hoped. Fall and I were relaxing eating breakfast with the Trid on when it all came on the air. The UCAS ALREADY had a culprit. They were parading him around like they had Gobwit when he got caught. They also had themselves a hero. The man of the hour? Some wimpy looking drek mage with coke bottle glasses. I wondered for a moment what a coke bottle was then lost that thought. I had bigger things to consider.
It came as no surprise when I heard Izzy over on her deck suddenly unjacked from her deck with a string of curses issuing from her mouth. The UCAS had already cut the money pipeline. Way to early for our tastes. They weren't supposed to have caught on this fast. Luckily? we had gotten enough to pay everyone up to now and to eliminate our expenses, but it was WAY to soon. The main problem became immediately obvious. Maybe they didn't know for sure what had happened, but someone with a brain had made some very uncomfortable and very close predictions. Gobwit and Dockery were up in the Penthouse. I'll bet Gobwit has a fit when he finds out.
At least by shutting the pipeline down the program would have erased itself so they had no way to trace anything. They would be going over the code line by line and find nothing. Izzy assured me of that. She also said that the regular banking transactions were noticeably slower today, they had obviously switched over to secondary stations. What's worse was that now the UCAS would be spending the money to upgrade the security and equipment. That meant we couldn't pull the same whiz job again. Not without a lot of prep time. Things would be totally different. You can bet that any company associated with Gobwit Mining Company would not get that contract for these improvements, this time.
Dockery and Gobwit arrived down on the elevator. They had seen the same newscasts and Dockery looked unconcerned about it. I wondered if he suspected the ramifications. He actually smiled. I looked at him in surprise. "You expected this?"
"Yes. This Janie Andrews is not stupid you know. The trick is did she get the big picture? I certainly hope so or we just wasted a night and may have to do something else to drive the point home."
Gobwit looked surprised as well, "What big picture? You mean you knew she would shut off the money? All that beautiful money after all that work. It's sacrilege!"
"Gobwit? Stop being an ass. We got enough to pay off the debt YOU incurred, enough to pay everyone, and to meet all our expense up to now. We also showed the UCAS that once again we can bite back. They maybe much bigger than we are but they are also more vulnerable to raids like this, everything has a downside. She won't want to temp us to hit them where they are weak again, so the attacks will be less overt now. They won't stop, they just won't be mostly, the type of attacks that are in your face. The value of those blunt force attacks is that they are reactive and easy to set up. Now? The planning time the UCAS needs to set up an operation will take them longer, be more expensive, and not as immediate. Their reaction time is decreased and that helps us. They have to cover their hoops and take a more defensive stance and that lowers the aggression factor on us."
Izzy spoke up, "Dockery? We are still not ready to take the field either. Tight communications is non existent. We have supplies, but the backup tech is still not operational. Training is not bad, but one partially successful run is not a good indicator of how the team will work together down the road. Transport is limited. Information retrieval and analysis is going to be a big problem. Equipment is going to take some time to issue and we have to train our people to use it properly. Let's face it, we aren't exactly ready to go out and kick UCAS tail except for targets of opportunity like this last one or when they make a mistake. Looks to me more like a stalemate. We definitely don't have a better hand yet. The worse part is we may never get the upper hand on them."
Fall smiled, "Considering where we started from, we've done pretty good so far."
I looked at brain-dead Fall. "Sister? Don't be naive. We're just plain lucky. Luck doesn't always last. We got them because they never saw us as a threat. Well now? They do. That means all those fraggers who messed with the last team will mess with us too. Don't make the same mistake the last team made. Sure we don't have Krass and his buddies, or the UCAS, or the Nan to mess internally with us, but that doesn't mean they won't try other things and what of this Nestle's group? They got big fingers inside the UCAS you can bet on that. They will know what happened last night and will try to take advantage of that. Sooner or later they are going to pop up like weasels and either try to use us or cack us. That was another mistake the last team made, they didn't realize how FAST and HOW MANY precipitants this fragging war has. Think you can keep pace with that?"
Dockery nodded in agreement. "We got on this tiger, we better be able to ride it home. Get it through your heads now. This is a war, not a battle. There are going to be casualties. We could, as Winter points out, lose it all including our lives and everything we have. Gobwit this is for you, especially. There's no walking away now, ever. You do? We're all dead meat and you're the main course, savy?"
Everyone looked at Gobwit. He didn't look happy. I guess he hadn't thought that far ahead when he went to tweak the UCAS tail. Dockery sure had pushed his survival button on that one but would it be enough to make the fragger part of the team? The big question is would he take it to heart before some of us got geeked? To me the odds didn't look all that great.
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 7, 2010 20:15:28 GMT -5
OOC: Coke-bottle glasses Mage? I wonder if he had a pocket protector for his magic wands.
--
“So you gonna pick me up or what? I’ve been waiting close to 6 fraggin’ hours what gives?” “Hey man, we didn’t glub down a couple of soy tacos down at the Stuffer Shack. I fraggin’ told you we ate at some high-end restaurant. Service is always slow at those places. Makes it more fancy for some reason.” “You tellin’ me it took 5 hours to eat? You sure you ain’t bangin’ that Keeb behind everyone’s back you frag.” “No I ain’t ok? And don’t start tellin’ story that’s gonna end with up with you havin’ lead between your gears y’hear?” “Yeah yeah troggy I'm shakin' in fear..” “We had to talk shop. ‘Meetin’ some guy tomorrow to have the decks checked out. You talked to your Oinker buddy for that report?” “’Course I did, I had fraggin’ 6 hours to kill. I’m seeing him tonight down at the Howling Good Times. ‘Bet you wanna come huh?” “Yeah sure man. I accidentally beat up the owner’s son a few months back I ain’t riskin’ a battle right now.” “Accidentally?” “Yeah he 'accidentally' got his face in my bat’s swing after I spotted him and his pals beatin’ up some workin’ girls.” “Like ‘them Trogs know what work is...So you gonna pick me up or what?” “No. I got those tapes to look at, and traffic’s startin’, I’ll be down there around 6 if I’m lucky, and I still go my face to fix.” “I ain’t givin’ you a choice Delly.” “Yeah well, I’m callin’ the shots here Switches. I’ll pick you up at 9 in front of City Hall. Be there, end of story.” “Just who the frag do y..”
I close the line. Frag’em. They fragged up my day already, I don’t need no cyber chaperon to watch over me in my own place. ‘Least he didn’t call back. He got the message. And my 5 grand, which will probably be gone tomorrow. Oh well, I’m at +75 000 anyway. I took the time to call Red, my mom, the boys, Meg and pretty much everyone I knew could be made a target. ‘Least my mom moves out and lives in Puyallup City with Doc Summers. Me and Red know where she is and that’s it. No one needed to know other than us. Now the hard part, look at the recordings.
Outside..huh..didn’t even know there WAS an outside camera...might as well start there. Well, nothing for now...reverse...3..4..5 minutes, nothing..9 mi...wait someone just walked over. Ho-ly F-r-a-g, it’s me! Well, not me, I know it ain’t me but it’s someone who looks like me. Down to the clothing too. And alone. The eels just fell to the ground as he advances with that sling bag of his, must have that small heavy deck. Where’s the entry corridor chip...here we go, back 9 minutes. Lianna jogging toward the airlock as ‘I’ enter. “Jack, what the frag’s go..” Big blast hit her square in the chest, she flies backwards, coughing blood, clinching her chest, in pain. That fragger. Hard to say what it was from that angle, maybe some mana bolt or somethin’. ‘Nother spell, a different spell, flies out from ‘my’ hand getting her again. She’s not moving. Then ‘I’ grabbed her arm and drag her toward Ops and out of view. I get it forward. My copy is no longer carrying that bag. The emergency sirens are yelling and turning red lights are all over the place. He stops near the generator room and get all lightning bolt on it, putting an end to the recording.
Where’s that other fraggin’ chip? I’m loosing my cool now, being eager and well, scared to see the rest. One thing being there and being able to DO something about it, to stop it, another to just be a witness, weeks after the deed is done. I’m paying attention now. He keeps dragging her toward Ops and get in. Not strong too by the way he leans. They get in, then some sound is heard, lightning, and the sirens and alarms goes on. He gets out again, dragging her to the bedroom. Silence after they get in, then again the lightning sound. Then he simply walks out. His walk is funny, almost like someone sleepwalking. Slow as well, I walk faster even when I don’t have my spells on.
Ops showed him looking for something, her deck no doubt, then getting the chips and frying everything, including the camera present. Nothing there.
Bedroom now...I actually hesitate to look at it. Call it curiosity, or just the need to know the what went down, I stick it in. He drags her inside, her deck was on the bed. Even when she was sleeping she was sleeping in the Matrix. Don’t know how, but she managed to pull it off. He gets her deck plugged into that box, then the box into her head. Then he zapped her with lightning
And again, And again. I can feel my head going numb, my temples being pressed on. A warm sensation gets into my sinus. He suddenly stops and seems to be thinking about something. Then shoot lightning at her again, this tie, it’s not short weak burst but a long powered up magical bolt that pops her eyes open. The warm felling get to my eyes as I start crying. No big boo-woo cry, just tears, kinda like opening the flood gates when it’s about to get over the dam. It’s not a good death for her. Not a good death for anyone. She deserved better than this. Tricked that it was me too. Drek, what a horrible feeling it must have been. Sadness gets pushed to the side and changed by hatred, madness, fear.
The heavy box sparks and he stops. He stands still for a moment then leaves. I let the recording roll until the generator gets fried, staring at a blank screen.
It didn’t brought any new development, it was just twisting the knife in the wound. The perfect end of a fraggin’ perfect day and it’s only 5:30. Great. Just fraggin’ great.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 8, 2010 9:05:12 GMT -5
I hate being maneuvered. As you probably guessed by now, I like to do things my own way and in my own time. Call it that natural dwarf tendency to tell the big ones to go slot themselves. They don't own the fragging world. They make a good case that they do but not while The Gobwit is around.
The elf had a point. The UCAS had made it pretty obvious they weren't not going to back off. Lately, like the Star and old Capt Knuckles, may he rot in cyber hell, they have backed off a mite. It's been years since I ran with the old Z crew and the UCAS goons are still breathing up my fragging hoop. Elf bastiage was right. It was a war. I hate wars they aren't good for business.
Now the old ratbag, drek kicked Gobwit, would have said frag them all. He didn't have anything to lose at all except his life and what was that back then?
Practically nothing.
Now?
The situation has changed, radically. I've started to live the good life. NuYen, food and drink, Power, especially the power. To get all that taken away by the same fraggers that took me several times before? Not without a fight.
I could tell everyone to slot it.
There side, my side, any side. The trick is could I make it stick without some comeback? Doubtful. I might feel good when the words were rolling from my mouth. It would be all down from that point on. It's not like saying the words is going to net me major NuYen so that I can console myself later. In this case, money and survival are on the same game trail. I have to work with the people that are MY fraggers, so the people that are not MY fraggers don't frag me over like the people who are MY fraggers.
That kind of sucks.
The only thing I can say for that is that MY fraggers have a vested interest in keeping me solvent, rich and alive at the present time. You know those tall ones though, if they decide I'm going to be stingy or they just want something I have? Yep, they'll frag me over and justify it later.
They are looking at me like I'm a Christmas turkey.
The chip tells me I should put them at their ease and the longer I wait, the harder that's going to be. Sometimes you have to admit to lesser crimes in order to get away with a bigger one and it gives an illusion that you're being honest. Time to make with the fragging words.
"You think I should trust you? That's a two way street tall one." I tell Dockery as earnestly as I can. "You haven't been exactly honest with all of us and you do have your own goals. Now I haven't pushed any of that with any of you. It seems pretty obvious to me that we all have an ax to grind with the UCAS. We all got in this battle because we had personal reasons for it. I admit I gave you a reason to get in, but you people all made the choice. Now you want me to be totally loyal."
"We all know why I am in this, but until you guys start coming clean yourselves then how can you expect me to just be your fragging stooge. If we are going to be a team then you have to give yourself. We all know why I'm in it up to my ears with the UCAS, so what do you have against them that made you take this job, and why are you still going on. What's your level of commitment to this so-called loyal fragging team? Neh?"
If you want us to be a team, tell me why each of you considers yourself part of a team. Teams are built on trust, not just the Nuyen. Give me reasons to trust you or we go on with each of us and our enlightened self interest."
I could tell no one like that at all. I would have smiled if it wouldn't have given things away. As it was the dwarf in me was saying, GOTCHA!
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 9, 2010 8:05:02 GMT -5
I didn't like it a bit. After Gobwit finished his fancy speech about trust and loyalty it was quiet for a few minutes as everyone thought about it. On the face of it, the whole thing sounded like a legitimate request. On the face of it. You dig a little deeper and it takes a bad turn. Gobwit was looking for an angle. He wasn't looking for a reason to trust us, he was looking for a handle so he could manage us better. Right now we had him pretty much under control because he didn't know much about any of us or our backgrounds.
That would all change if he knew what made each of us make the decisions to get involved. Stall.
"You are absolutely right, Gobwit. Each team member should show their commitment to this cause. The cause to keep you alive and solvent. If we give you exactly what you want, do I have your absolutely unbreakable promise that you will indeed work with this team and that you won't KNOWINGLY compromise anyone? If so? I'll be glad to tell you whatever you ask about in relations to the UCAS and this run, right here, right now."
I smiled my most sincere smile.
Pelch appeared to be in heavy thought. "Why the limitation on just the UCAS?" He asked cannily.
I had hoped he hadn't picked up on that. You see in a case like this we are both dealing with the literal truth, which did not require either of us to be totally honest. I had limited the conversation to UCAS for a reason. It would keep other things, things I didn't want anyone to know hidden. Luckily I was ready for that question.
"I'm not a recorder Gobwit. I don't have time to give you every detail of my life and I probably wouldn't remember it that well anyway. I could just give you the highlights but are you really interested in how many woman I've boffed? I limit it because you don't need to know things in my personal space that don't affect what you need to know now. Beside that you asked specifically about our relationships to the UCAS when you outlined your latest proposal. Since you set that as the parameter, I thought perhaps it would be best if we stuck to that point."
Gobwit didn't look happy about that and I knew why. If my reasons for being here weren't directly related to some deep dark secret with the UCAS? He wouldn't get drek. He just didn't know enough at this point to be able to ask the right questions. Worse in his mind, how would he be sure we were telling the truth? I had also surreptitiously put a time limit on the questioning. It was open ended. I wasn't sure he had picked up on that yet."
Gobwit gave me the big eyed puppy treatment. "Can I ask questions anytime as things become clearer?"
DRAT! He had picked up on that. Unfortunately? I had to appear to give somewhere. Better to let him think he was just being paranoid. I reversed direction. "If you're part of the team? Of course you can ask questions at any time about anything that you think affects the situation. You always have a say. We all have an equal voice and stake in this. After all it's all of our necks on this chopping block."
I could console myself that he still didn't know enough to ask the right questions. The problem is would he take the the bait or would he back away for another day leaving things unresolved? If you went by all the signs from previous Z streeters then he would back away and look for another opening later. Thus he would retain his own freedom of action. A plus for him. If he went for the deal the team would gain and we had a fighting chance. The question was, which way would he jump?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 10, 2010 9:07:45 GMT -5
Here I was jockeying for position and the elf was light footing all around the place. I wasn't fooled for an instant about the sincere smiles and the good old boy attitude he was putting out. He was fragging me and I knew it. Drek all thing to build trust on. I wondered for a small moment what the others were thinking. They were probably on the elf's side. Frag the rich dwarf again, he can afford it, besides he has a wide hoop already.
It seemed like it was a good time to bring out another card.
"It appears I'm on the down side here. You must admit things aren't exactly fair. Before I can ask the questions I really need to ask I have to know something. The fact that you put a limit on this tells me that maybe you ain't being perfectly honest. I have to start somewhere and someone has to take the first step, but with a slight change. I don't want a time limit on this. I'll ask just the one question, for now and I'll give you my WILLING cooperation until we find the scammer that got me into this. Then we will revisit my questions and decide if I need to do more if we decide to continue fighting the UCAS. "
The elf didn't give anything away. He nodded in agreement, for now.
I smiled in satisfaction, "I would like to know what dealings, with an S, chummers, in the past all of you have either individually or collectively had with the UCAS and the outcomes? That's my one question, for now."
I waited to see if I had struck gold, or sand.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 13, 2010 7:08:06 GMT -5
I watched as Dockery went to work on Gobwit. I was kind of bored. They were talking away like two old chummers with knives hidden behind their backs. Not real knives mind you just the figurative kind.
The way I read this was that Dockery wanted Gobwit to make a firm commitment to the cause so he could limit the dumb, greedy things the Gobwit normally did. To me that made sense.
On the other hand, Gobwit had done his part in the hit on the UCAS. He had earned some measure of trust. It seemed to me that he was asking Gobwit to trust him and Gobwit was just asking why? It did make some sense to me. One thing for sure in the Shadow world is chummers can turn on you. They worked together for a while but there wasn't a whole lot of the loyalty. Gobwit was looking for a reason outside of money to trust us. Nothing wrong with protecting yourself until you really got to know the people who had your neck in their hands.
In this case I had nothing to hide. The others didn't look to happy with giving the Gobwit anything. When it appeared that Dockery reluctantly agreed, I decided that I should go first. It would give the others some time to accept the situation.
I looked at Gobwit and nodded. "The UCAS and I are old enemies. Not that they consider me high on their list. It's about equal to the way Lone Star, Knight Errant, Patriot, or any of the other security services would view me."
"I'm sure all of us who've been on the streets for a long enough time have had our run in's with the so-called law. The law that protects the rich and powerful and hoop frags everyone else. Having seen your history already, mine is no where near as involved with the UCAS as yours has been."
"Sure I've ripped off some UCAS accounts from time to time as well as a lot of first, second, and even third tier corps. To hold on to it I've had my share of run ins with the usual street monster cops and the mercs they hire to track me down. It's all been just standard biz till now."
"So I have no deep dark secrets that involved the UCAS that brought me to this point. I'll be honest and say that I do have some secrets, but they aren't linked to any UCAS involvement in the project we are in now. No Nestle's connections. The criminals you've previously met in the logs? I don't know them, at least not under the profiles they use now."
"I came out here because the money looked good, it was step up the ladder, and I wanted a change with a little more Shadow room. After all the places I worked in the Rotten Apple, I was getting to well known. I decided a change to some shadows where I wasn't so well known would be a good thing. Since you offered expenses, it seemed like a good opportunity."
"As for answering any other questions you might have? I have no problem with that as long as they remain within the bounds of decency. You need to know more? I'm willing to talk."
Gobwit had listened intently. He spoke with a smile. "Thank you. I really appreciate your honesty. Maybe you can tell me more about your life later when we get some real down time. I won't hold you up too long for now by grilling you."
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