[Trespassers IC] Shadowrun: Seattle By Sundown: Breaking Point

[Strider]

"Yeah, well we aren't. But it's not gonna happen, you all. It'd be stupid to go through such a hassle to get us a bomb. There's so many better ways to do it that wouldn't have put us face to face with him in a meeting where he very clearly did not want to be!"

 

Liliya moved forward to look over the others shoulders at the documents.

[Chevaleresse]

"W-Well, pardon me for being nervous on opening a dubious case that I've already been told is designed to destroy its own contents, by a suspicious man I did not at all like and would rather not be within a mile of, in a strange city full of criminals!" Heidrun's irritable tone contrasted her shuffling away from both the case and Friedhold. She was almost less worried about what would happen if she was killed by the bomb - though she wasn't exactly eager to die, to say the least - and more about what might occur if she survived and was grievously injured. "And pardon me for looking like I'm concerned about dissection around someone such as yourself." She realized slightly belatedly that the statement was a bit uncalled for, given what the man had told her so far - but that didn't make Friedhold unsettle her much less.

[Yours Truly]

On 5/8/2019 at 2:55 PM, StormLord said:

"Bah.  People get shot all the time, and obviously he survived.  So as long as we are useful to him and he is useful to us business can continue."

With that Friedhold took a step closer to the table to examine the papers and noticed that Heidrun was still visibly nervous.

"You look like frog about to be dissected.  Calm yourself.  If the case does explode it is very suddenly no longer your problem."

Friedhold was the first to actually take a look at one of the documents, picking up the topmost folder marked by a red marker as 'Important', he opened it to find a document that described something called 'Project Aegis'. Judging by the information they were willing to provide, it was/is a semi successful attempt at creating an extremely lethal aerosol based agent meant to exterminate vaguely defined 'large insects' without endangering metahuman life. Unfortunately the contents of the spray was discovered to be extremely lethal to...fuck did they have to put the black bars there?.

(Natural fucking 20 v 16)
Of course, while a mere uneducated plebian would have stopped there, being the erudite individual that he is, Friedhold naturally deduces from the array of tiny little details presented to him throughout the document that the group is looking for some form of biological weapon, most likely some sort of modified bacteria by the concerns left in the document about how long it would linger inside of the environments it is applied in. You're not quite sure what sort of 'large insects' would require a years long bioweapon research program to deal with, but it doesn't seem like finding out would be a pleasant experience,

On 5/9/2019 at 5:15 AM, Powder Miner said:

"I am afraid I do not. Then again, he was saying that it would, if it does explode, explode to get rid of its contents after we read it. So, for now, we should be looking at these documents, so we do not miss our chance." Navin scooped the folders out of the briefcase, opening them up to facilitate the group being able to read the documents. "This is our chance to at least start to find out if what he wants us to do is moral, after all. There might be a catch, though --there often is-- so we should keep paying attention to that after we actually embark on the mission." He then began to read some of the documents himself.

Navin picks up a much lighter folder marked as an "After Action Report", an eyewitness report that describes how several samples of something called "AEGIS" was stolen along with the weapons shipment it was embedded in on it's way to Ares's main Seattle Headquarters. The armored convoy the samples were sent in was apparently intercepted by a flying man and a very well armored van, who collectively tore apart the well armed and armored guards, took control of the drones guarding the armored truck itself, and left the now driverless vehicle to plow into nearby traffic after taking anything they could fit into their van.

The document goes on a bit to describe the nature of the attackers, as it turns out while the attackers had tried to scrub the drones and truck's systems clean during the attack; a spoken sentence contained within fragment left over from a mostly deleted recording was used to identify them as former members of the Berlin based group Anarchy 2039, an offshoot of the original AMB movement known for launching terrorist attacks on corporate enclaves as 'part of their mad quest to ensure the continued survival of a Berlin free from any corporate influence'.

The attackers are known to have found work as Shadowrunners after the majority of Anarchy 2039 perished in the brutal German government backed military invasion of the then Flux state, and it is believed that they are planning on using the weapons shipment and AEGIS samples to fund or carry out a terror attack on Government/Corporate held West Berlin, as the newly elected district representatives are set to hold their first meeting within the next month.

Solomon himself an increasingly worried look on his face while he read the contents of a folder marked as a "Target list". He let out a slight sigh when he dropped the document down on the table in front of him, taking in a deep breath before he said "Well it looks like we've got our work cut out for us, they've apparently caught or 'dealt with' some of the nastier ones, but the others? They're just....well I don't think the senator's gotten over that time Halley shot him that's for sure."

 

There was still another folder left in the briefcase apparently, a particularly thick one that simply stated, "Operation Wintergreen", with a bold red marker written, "Memorize this one while you can."

[Hal Henderics]

"I hate bugs.  They taste terrible, at those sizes.  Something about their meat becomes off as they grow to titanic proportions, and I would be better off not mentioning giant spiders at all."  Mar says.

 

"They don't even have meat.  Just rubbery useless tubing."

[StormLord]

Friedhold simply glanced up and raised an eyebrow at Heidrun's irritable response and insult.  He'd been called many many far worse things in his life by people far more intimidating than her.

"It may ease you to know I gave up cutting on humans for academic purposes a very long time ago.  Only so many times you can cut the same thing open over and over before it starts getting boring."

 

 

With that he casually glanced back down and continued reading a bit.

"I believe we are looking for an extremely lethal biological weapon designed to kill some variety of large insect.  Someone spent quite a lot of money on this and--"  He shook his head slowly with the look of disappointment that a master has being shown a beginner's first "success". "They can not even properly control it."

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun looked down for a moment, almost embarrassed at the way she'd snapped at Friedhold before what he'd said fully clicked. A long time ago? But that meant he'd done it before. Maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt - it wasn't his fault he looked just enough like that man that she was sure she'd be having nightmares tonight. Unfortunately for her nerves, the subject matter was more science experiments of dubious ethics - specifically some kind of pesticide. Or "pesticide," for dealing with things corporations might not like. Were she a bit less unnerved by the prospect, she would have commented on Mar's response to the prospect of giant bugs. Taste? Did he eat bugs regularly? As it were, he got a quizzical glance before Heidrun returned to looking nervous and thoroughly uncomfortable. As if it weren't liable to make matters even worse, she reached for the final folder, shuffling slightly so the others could still get a decent look at the contents as she opened it and began to browse the contents.

[Yours Truly]

Solomon gave Friedhold a bit of an odd look, before he said, "What is it with megacorporations and committing crimes against humanity or releasing biological horrors into the populace anyway? It almost seems like they're doing it just for fun by this point..." He then turned a little to face Mar and said, "Well I hope that we'll never have to find that out, hum-insect meat's a bit iffy."
 

Heidrun would, after picking up the last folder and giving it's first page a bit of a quick read, swiftly discover just why it was so important in the first place, since it's the document that told you what your mission actually is after all. 

Turns out that Ares actually has a fairly solid lead on where the group you're after has been hiding the stolen goods. Thought they were being smart when they hid it in plain of sight, warehouse in port of Seattle and all. Probably would have worked too if their face hadn't snuck off to a club after a meet up with prospective buyers and uh, got hot and sticky stuff liberally sprayed on his face in bed, more specifically mace, by an Ares agent, who wasn't even looking for him at the time.

 

Point is, they're hanging out in a warehouse at the very end of the harbor itself, which they own, and you lot will be needing to infiltrate by 2:00 PM tomorrow to 4:00 PM, when most of their group would be heading out for what they think are further meetings with prospective buyers, leaving their rigger, a chubby Ork man of ill repute and foul language by the name of "B4N0ND0RF", to defend it mostly by themselves, which should be easy enough for a professional group of Shadowrunners like yourselves, right?. 

And of course the fun part is, the face hasn't told Ares anything about what the base's defenses are, other than the obvious sounding alarms to summon the rest of the group, security cameras, possible drone guards, and that one 'giant ass mecha that will frag you up' that Ares is pretty sure he made up, but they are, "Confident in your group's ability to swiftly gather information about a target and defuse the situation without blowing up the entire harbor", also apparently you won't have to worry about the police for this one so that's good, but only because no one's dumb enough to head into that gang held part of the harbor, which is...less so.

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun read the papers aloud to the rest of the group, only stammering a bit despite her continued discomfort with the situation until the the rigger's "name" tripped her up entirely, at which point she just turned the paper toward the team and gestured at what was printed on the paper for a moment before hurriedly continuing. She looked to Alexandria first as she finished, gingerly placing the papers down on the table in front of her as if she still expected them to catch fire and detonate at any given moment. "So, umm, how do you guys plan on approaching this?"

[DragonRage]

"I am quite capable of breaching their defenses without suffering significant damage, and leaving an easy path for you all," Alexandria suggests, "However, this will not be quiet.  Or fast."

[StormLord]

"I am capable of surrounding myself and one or two others in a field of warped light, rendering involved parties invisible.  I can also create a powerful electrical pulse and powerful shockwaves."

Friedhold paused considering more options.

"Nessa is also adept at climbing through ventilation systems and avoiding...security detection."

He considered mentioning why, but assumed explaining such would be superfluous and time consuming.  Around that time a crash came from the background and a cup shattered on the ground at Nessa's feet.

"Also adept at breaking fragile objects."

[Powder Miner]

"It appears that these men are remnants of some German anarchist group -- getting a bioweapon out of their hands is moral enough, but I must confess... I do not know that I like the idea of returning this to the corporation that owns it. I have been tasked in the past with returning weapons of mass destruction to their owning governments, specifically Russian nuclear devices, but... that held a certain international approval to it. The United Nations, and the International Union of Heroes, and both groups sought to avoid these weapons being used. This is different. Returning this, we have no guarantee that it will not then be used in a way other than its stated purpose."

 

He sighed. "As for my own abilities, I am proficient in close combat and should be able to do so stealthily -- most of what I do is my nature loud though. I can deal with obstacles precisely, or deal with them... less precisely, through the directed blasts I am capable of creating around my body. I... am not as used to the quiet approach as the loud one, admittedly, but it is not my first time attempting stealth."

 

His mouth quirked into a decided frown when Friedhold spoke, and Navin turned to stare at the man. "Let us NOT send a child through ventilation shafts. We do not need to do that, and that-- sending a child out on a mission-- is the sort of thing that should never be done except in the moments of gravest necessity."

[StormLord]

Freidhold took Navin's objection with surprisingly little care, brushing it off with a sort of shrug and indifferent expression.  If Navin didn't want to use all the resources available to him, that was on him.

"If that is your choice."

Dropping the previous subject and turning back to the notes regarding the biological agent.

"I believe I may be able to synthesize a countermeasure against this spray...should a small sample go missing for some reason or another."

He turned back to Navin while still holding the papers and look up.

"A good deed I am sure anyone would approve of."

[Strider]

"Well, let's all make a quick schedule, how about. We scope out the place for, I dunno, three hours right now, in whatever manner. Then everyone comes back, meets up, we share all the info, and then figure out the next step. Like, if we want to buy a car or something for some weird distraction. That stuff happens, then we do the big break in at 2 PM to 4 PM. "

 

"I'm sure even the least stealthy among us could gather intel, like, figuring out how we can limit this Dorf guy from contacting his friends."

[Chevaleresse]

"Well, umm, I'm not sure how good I am at finding information, but I'll do my best, I suppose." She elected not to comment on the disagreement between Navin and Friedhold; Heidrun agreed with the former, but didn't feel comfortable bringing up the conflict again after it had been dealt with. "I'll just follow your lead," Liliya seemed to know the most about what she was doing, even if she questioned where the expertise came from. 

[DragonRage]

"Intelligence gathering is not my strong suit, but I will do what I can."  Alexandria considers simply standing in front of the warehouse for the duration and watching it,  But that seems a bit too far on the brute force side even for her.  Instead, Alexandria decides to look for a local cafe, bar, or other similar establishment where she can socialize and pick up local rumors/gossip/stories etc.  Events like large scale bioweapons thefts rarely go unnoticed, even if the locals don't know exactly what they saw.  If we have any, she'll withdraw a small amount of local currency to purchase a thing at the establishments she visits, so as to  be less conspicuous.  Well, as much as a huge, statuesque robot can.

 

Any food purchased will be ingested and packaged by her nano forge inside her internal storage tanks, to be given to homeless people she passes on the streets.  There's always a few.

[Powder Miner]

Navin's mouth stayed in its frown. "This is not simply about good or bad deeds, Friedhold. It is about what it does to someone when they are a child and they are in the line of combat, or risking life and death of themselves and others. I have seen it," though in this case "seen it" really meant that he had experienced it himself, "and it does not leave good outlooks for those who are involved with it." With that said, Navin seemed content to turn back to the rest of the discussion. "I am afraid I am not very versed in the gathering of information, either -- I have always been more of a combatant than a detective, unlike some of my compatriots. I suppose I could try and meet somebody who knows something about the place, though."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon seemed a bit taken aback by Liliya's suggestion at first, going so far as to ask, "Wait? We're scouting out the place tonight? Because uh...never mind, I'll just..go and get more soykaf then." He slowly stood up, gently walking towards the door before he stopped for a moment, and realized that it might be wiser to, "Or maybe we can get some over there, pretend that we're just visiting tourists out on a night time wa-." He stopped again, turning to look towards the rest of the party, his eyes focusing on Alexandria for a moment before he said, "Or uh... maybe not."
 

---

Everyone, Port of Seattle (Theme)

The trip over to the port was calm and uneventful, hailing a small fleet of taxis over, the eight of you were ferried through the thronging mass of people and cars in....well comfort, if not safety. The Port itself meanwhile was cold, miserable, and wet, and your arrival was met with hushed whispers and passing glares by the...female workers and 'honest' men prowling about the place. Which of course, meant that this was simply just one of the more reputable areas in Seattle, where people don't bother to dress up as much, but probably won't jump you on the open street, probably.

 

The target warehouse was located at the very edge of "Terminus Point" a commercial dock located at the outskirts of the ports, it was a perfect place for a group of criminals to hide in plain sight with their hot cargo, or so they must have thought anyway. A cursory search online about the dock didn't reveal much really, other than the point's dark past, a small smattering of diners, and the usual array of ghost stories and cautionary tales about the gangs that inhabit it.

Even so the information contained within the long burned documents gave you some potential leads to pursue. "The Broken Wheel" was the dive bar/eatery closest to the warehouse, and some good old fashioned bribery and skullduggery told the investigators that some of the beefier runners preferred this establishment in the past, heading over here to uh, down greasy krill burgers and while away their time.

Another potential lead was the abandoned warehouse on the dock alongside their's. Drones sent to observing the target's warehouse revealed very little of interest safe for the labyrinth of containers blocking the only land route towards it, but somehow the runners have been traipsing all around town and out of their warehouse undetected. There was a theory though, a small group of SINless has stated that they have heard strange sounds emanating from the abandoned warehouse, and one of their members had claimed to witness the team's Driver heading out of the warehouse last Thursday night. 
Unfortunately Ares was never quite able to locate the entrance by themselves, and outside of the usual ghost stories that accompanied creepy abandoned warehouses in a port once owned by a murderous psychopath, there was never really any proof that this was more than just their wild imaginations.

 

There was a cell tower located in the area as well, the only one around for miles really. A group of SINless had made the area around it their home years ago, calling it the "Reception Area", and well, the city just never got around to kicking them out, even if they were a bit of a nuisance to the skeleton crew working there. The tower has a small office located just beside it, and it should contain all of the controls and electrical stuff needed to keep it running? Probably not open at this time though, a bit too late for there to be anyone but some unlucky buggers working night shift.

 

And lastly, there's the warehouse itself, in all of its rundown and security covered glory. There are no visible guards walking about the place, but getting to the warehouse on foot would be...difficult. Someone went through a lot of trouble to place containers all over the place, to turn it into a veritable labyrinth. Of course you could always get there by sea, but you'd need a boat for that, and the closest boat rental place is...well you wouldn't want to go there, unless you like potentially getting jumped by chain gangs apparently.

 

Solomon paced around in place a bit, before he let out a sigh and quietly said, "Well then, if you don't mind, I'm heading off to the abandoned one, it seems like a fleeting lead, but it sounds better than trying to interrogate or stalk runners in a bar anyway."

[Powder Miner]

Navin mulled his options over for several moments -- the bar and the cell tower did not seem like particularly viable options to him, as he was not especially technologically literate or, er... socially literate. He had spent most of his life dealing with people actively trying to get involved in dangerous missions, whether for good or for evil, so just talking to normal people at a bar seemed something doomed to an awkwardly sputtering death. But by contrast, the warehouses seemed far more accessible to the Indian superhero. After all, he had dealt with more bizarre trap-laden, twisting supervillain lair layouts than he could count. A few containers shuffled into a maze weren't going to stop him, especially if he could manage to use his blasts to punch hand and footholds in the containers, something he admittedly had had some trouble with in past situations.

 

Admittedly, Navin could also just blow the things to smithereens, but that wasn't exactly a discreet course of action.

 

Between the warehouse and the abandoned warehouse, well... obviously, he was going to go for the one that didn't see him charging headlong into the entire enemy hideout with little backup. Admittedly, charging headlong into the entire enemy hideout with little backup actually worked quite frequently in his field, but he was going to elect to be cautious here. After all, if he messed up at the main warehouse, he would mess things up for everyone else, too.

 

"I am going to back you up at the abandoned warehouse, Solomon. My particular skillset is likely most suited to working there."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon seemed momentarily taken aback after hearing Navin's statement, having halfway expected that he would have had to go it alone, and thus be able to bugger off to the nearest cafe after surreptitiously taking a picture of the entrance and then getting chased away by potential muggers. But he regained his composure quickly enough, perhaps after realizing that there was someone who could get shot at instead of him if anything wrong happened. "Ah, well thanks? I hope we won't have to use your particular set of skills Navin, but warehouses in an unscrupulous runner group's area of influence don't gain a reputation for being haunted for no reason, _{especially on the murder pier} so uhh...I appreciate it," Solomon said in the awkward, slightly passive aggressive tone of someone who's trying to be nicer than they usually are.

He then shifted around slightly, examining his commlink for a bit before asking, "Where are we meeting after we've scoped the place out though? We could discuss this over our comms later, but I...don't really trust them right now, for...obvious reasons." 

[StormLord]

Friedhold looked around and took several whiffs of the rotten sea air.

"Smells like home....no, less corpses.  Perhaps we could meet here?  Or over at that radio tower?"

Friedhold thought for a moment in pause.

"Speaking of that, if it somehow collapsed would that prevent communications in the nearby area?"

 

Spoiler

Apparently I'm seeing trees, caves, and buildings

 

[Chevaleresse]

"Er, where do you think I should be? If there's going to be fighting, I should probably be nearby to patch everyone over, though I'm. . . not that useful in a direct one." A half-truth; she'd never really wanted to learn any sort of offensive magic on her own, and the closest she had was the ability to link her own life to a person attacking her so they couldn't harm her without harming themselves. "I'm afraid I'm not very good at blending into big cities like this, either."

[Yours Truly]

On 8/12/2019 at 3:37 AM, StormLord said:

Friedhold looked around and took several whiffs of the rotten sea air.

"Smells like home....no, less corpses.  Perhaps we could meet here?  Or over at that radio tower?"

Friedhold thought for a moment in pause.

"Speaking of that, if it somehow collapsed would that prevent communications in the nearby area?"

 

  Hide contents

Apparently I'm seeing trees, caves, and buildings

 

Solomon turned to reply to Friedhold's question quickly enough, as if he didn't even have to stop to think of a response to his question, "Yes, taking out the cell tower should do it, they're pretty far from the rest of Seattle, might not be another one here for miles...." He trailed off for a bit after saying that, before he realized something and added, "Except if we're taking out the celltower we might want to do it during the run, or sometime close to it anyway, before whatever corp's running this tower sends someone to fix it, and maybe even fly in a drone to maintain normalish comm operation in the area...if they care enough to do that much admittedly."

 

He took a bit more time to reply to Heidrun's question, sizing her up first before he asked, "Are you any good with staying quiet and keeping a low profile at least?  Because You could come with me and Navin to the abandoned warehouse, might be a bit too many of us going there, and I don't really expect us to fight anyone, but you never know."

[Powder Miner]

Such social subtleties as the exact kind of slightly passive-aggressive awkwardness in Solomon's tone of voice were rather lost on Navin, and instead he simply considered Solomon's question. "We could meet back here and then take taxis to another area of the city once again and find a private space -- if we are followed by someone truly dedicated, well, we are going to be followed and only having a room to ourselves would in most cases be a defense, but leaving the port to speak after our investigation could at least put us out of earshot of any simply mildly interested people, and at the least anyone dedicated would be outside of their usual turf, so to speak. Also, yes, Heidrun, your presence would not be unwelcome. It always pays to be careful when you are dealing with people like I suspect these runners are like - the particularly cunning, standard-breaking kind of villain."

[DragonRage]

"Take it from me, blending is overrated," Alexandria reassures Heidrun, "I think I'll head to the bar.  There's always interesting fellows at such establishments, and even if none of our marks are present, it'll be good to get a feel for the area."

[StormLord]

Freidhold nodded at Solomon's response.

"Well in that case I will be talking a walk in that area to determine any unpleasantries we may wish to avoid later."