In reply to Tyler Gabriel Hope (msg #198):

"Okay, how about this for a plan."

"This is to be a covert recce. Avoid all conflict, if possible."

"The routes will be from here East down Broadway, North up Main, then back West down the Dunsmuir Viaduct to approach Brandies. You should travel by bicycle or other transport not known to be in use here at UBC. Exfiltration will be by the same route."

"We are aware of HAs in Brandies and the Stickmen in Stanley Park. No other known hostile or opposing forces nearby."

"You will pass through the perimeter checkpoint, then a new militia checkpoint established at Main and Broadway, and not too far away from the reaction team, which will be not too far away at Main and Hastings, although you'll turn off Main before you get to Hastings."

"There is a light rain out and the sun will have gone down, so there will be poor visibility and road conditions might be affected a little. Otherwise it's all urban area, uncontrolled in the downtown."

"At that time there will be an RCMP patrol going up and down Kingsway, one Militia patrol along SE Marine Dr. and another sweeping through the southern parts of East Vancouver and Vancouver south of the downtown (Kitsilano, Kerrisdale, and so on). These are all security patrols."

"You depart at 2000 hours, arrive at Brandie's around 2100 hours, then back by 0100 or 0300 at the latest."

"Let's have Kelsey rig up a wire for 1-way communications, as well as making sure you have a walkie-talkie for 2-way. Even a small transmitter will be picked up by the repeaters we placed in the downtown and be relayed."

He outlined challenges and passwords, so that they could identify themselves to friendlies they met, like Militia or RCMP patrols.

"Special instructions are: the reaction team will be stationed at the VPD police on the east side of the downtown on Main and Hastings. If you have to bug out, go east along Hastings, we will be coming to meet you. Hide somewhere along that route if you need to, and worse comes to worse if pinned down pop a smoke grenade and we'll know where you are."

"We want to know numbers, as well as how ready and willing the HAs are to react to disturbances in their area. Find out how close the relationship is between them and the Stickmen are, if you can. We'd like to know more about this "Brownstone" as well."

He thought for a moment.

"Kelsey, you can set them up with a wire, right? Please set up overall comms too, channels, call signs, pass-codes, and so on. As well, you've got to meet with Josh after the meeting but before Andy and Tyler head out, to pass on any information about Cyrus' change in patterns."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Tue 09 Dec 2008.

"Roger that chief, and with the relays we have set up, it need not be very powerful."  She nods a little and takes a few notes  "Check, I will have it all in place.  Will Comply."  She smirks a moment

"Sounds like that covers it.  It will be a late night.  If you want to take the remainder of the afternoon off and rest up for the evening, feel free.  Better for you to be sharp for this than over tired."

She thought for a moment.  "It's interesting, don't you think?  We have had patrols in the area of downtown for the last few days and other than the initial group of riders, the HA's haven't really responded.  When they did, it was pretty much to rev their engines and ask our guys to come down and have a beer."

"It's almost as if they aren't much concerned with our presence.  I wonder why?  It would seem to me that either they feel we are no threat to their position, or if we cause them too much grief they can simply move to somewhere else."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:45, Wed 10 Dec 2008.

"That all sounds fine to me," Andy replied, "once the meeting's over I'll get some shut-eye in readiness for the OP."

The team dispersed to their different tasks.

After briefing them, Lee took the reaction team out to the VDP station.

Andy and Tyler caught up on some sleep.

Kelsey rigged up concealed transmitters for the "plainclothes" recce. As well, she met up with Josh:

"Yeah, Cyrus seemed... dissatisfied. Seems something or someone he was expecting to see wasn't there, so he didn't party hard and came early, which is unusual. Sounds like he might be going back mid-week, maybe Wednesday night. He's also been hinting that after that is when the revenge against you will happen, say, late Thursday night or early Friday morning. He still thinks you're at the Marina, doesn't seem to know about here at UBC."
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:03, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

Kelsey shakes her head a little.  "He really thinks society has completely gone, doesn't he?  Thanks for the information, I will pass it on.  I do wonder who he expected to meet at the bar... "

When she passes it on to Clarke she adds her own thoughts.

"Not sure who he was planning on meeting, maybe a mole of our own that didn't dare show because they knew we had an eye on that meeting.  In that case we want to keep an eye on this next one too.  As far as his revenge attack, maybe we can set up a defense of the marina that will catch him with his pants down.  Hard."
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:03, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg #204):
"Taras would love that - catching the guy making a 'surprise attack' with a little surprise of his own.  We'll see what we pick up tonight.  But it looks like it would be a safe bet to make the Marina look like it is occupied by a small force for the remainder of the week and have a force ready to put the hammer down on stand-by.  It would be better if we knew for sure they were going to hit on Friday."

"Maybe this person he was supposed to meet is a hook-up for weapons.  Something he doesn't have now and wants to give him an extra edge when he makes the attack.  Molotov cocktails and crossbows only get you so far.  I wonder why he doesn't deal with the HA for it if that is the case."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:03, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg #204):

Before she left Josh clarified, "The Angels always say fuck society and the "citizens". As for what Cyrus wanted to see or meet, I heard people saying some kind of "special delivery" was supposed to come in, but didn't. Drugs? Guns? A girl? Boy? Dunno. Well, see you later."

She passed on this information as well.

"Well, if what he is waiting for are improved munitions, then it would be best to either take him down before he can take delivery, or before he can deploy the items to his troops.  Either would work for our purposes.  Thanks, and good work, Kelsey.

2000 hours

A few hours later, more work had been done, and Kelsey rigged up the required electronics.

Tyler and Andy got up and were ready to depart.

Belanger met them with a couple off-road dirt bikes. They were battered and indifferently painted, but ran well.

"If you have to vacate Brandi's and the HA's are on motorcycles and you're not, then that could be a problem. These shouldn't cause suspicion."

"Also, as a suggestion you need a cover story, so you're not caught flat-footed."

"The exact one is up to you, but here's something that might work. Tyler, well, your story is pretty self-explanatory, you came up from the USA after leaving the army. Andy, you moved down last month from North Van and after hooking up are both now living on Kingsway, where you met Van Dutch, who lives nearby. Some government people met you both when you were trading at UBC and asked if you wanted work, and there you are. You know the government's out at UBC, that's it."

"Sound good?"

He turned to Kelsey. She had checked the equipment and made sure that both transmitters and recorders were working properly.

"Can you give us some call signs? Just for them, the reaction team at the VPD station downtown, and UBC. Plus some kind of code word they can use when they're in trouble."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:43, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

Tyler, dropping his usual laid back facade, nodded his head.

"Yeah, I got it. Like Andy says, don't make any promises we can't keep, try not to say too much. Find out about their security setup, and how much they care about the Stickmen losers."

He was wearing his more faded and patched set of BDUs, .45 in a shoulder holster. No rifle. His .38 was in a clamshell holster in the small of his back. He was leaving his rifles behind, no easy way to employ it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:55, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

"That all sounds good, Sir." Andy replied, "I'll make my preparations now."

Andy returned to his room and got ready for the evening mission. He returned, ready to go. He stood by the bikes with Tyler and said, "OK, I'm good to go, what are the Callsigns and protocols?"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #210):

Come 2000, Kelsey assigned call signs and a "stress" word to communicate they needed help.

The two set out on the borrowed dirt bikes at 2015, managing to make it to Brandi's at 2100. Their backup was ready 10 blocks away, waiting for the signal to go in. They could be there in minutes, and they already had an ERT sniper team posted in the building kitty-corner across the intersection with night-vision gear and a radio, doing real-time surveillance.

It was still drizzling when the pair drew close to the club's entrance near the corner of Dunsmuir and Howe. Inside was an elevator lobby, as access to the upstairs club was strictly regulated. There were 3 elevators in the lobby, plus TV cameras and monitors showing the upstairs lobby.

Two bored-looking bouncers stood under the overhang, out of the rain. There was one car parked there, plus four motorcycles, some bicycles and an armoured bank car.

They were post-apocalypse bouncers, beefy steriod-enhanced body-builders in crew cuts, tattoos, dressed  in black fatigues and tac-vests, radio earpieces. One carried a Benelli puump-shogun, the other had an MP5K slung around his neck. Both were smoking.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:44, Sun 14 Dec 2008.

Andy pulled the bike up into the parking lot, cut the engine and deployed the kickstand. As he dismounted the bike, he paused to pull down the back of his coat which had ridden up. He could feel the reassuring weight of his Browning Hi-Power riding in a holster in the small of his back.

He looked over at Tyler and waited for him to dismount.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Sun 14 Dec 2008.

"Thank you Ma'm.  It would be sweet reward to drop the hammer on them while they think they have us, though."

Kelsey briefs everyone on new callsigns and the stress word.

"Ok boys, you are Bluebirds one and two, I'm sparrow one, the base sparrow nest, Clarke is Sparrow Mama, and XO is Sparrow Papa.  Your safe word is mealworm.  Any relief team is BlueJay, relief vehicles are BlueJay nest.  Am I missing anything?"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #212):

Tyler looked over at Andy and nodded, kicking the stand down and swinging his leg over. He was chilled by the night ride, his worn BDUs damp. Walking over to the bouncers he shook out the stiffness in his legs, and shot them a cocky grin.

"Hey dudes, where does a feller go around here to get a beer?"

He pulled off his thin leather gloves, pulling down the black-and-white Arab kheffiyeh he wore wrapped around his neck as a "drive on" rag.

The bouncers looked at each other without expression.

"Tweedle-Dee" (short black hair, goatee) stepped back, shotgun pointing at nothing but covering his partner.

"Tweedle-Dum" (shaved head, red goatee) moved up.

"Hey, Brandie's is the only place you wanna be. finest girls in the city, and we don't water the drinks. Why don't you step inside, but let me take your weapons first. You'll get 'em back, don't worry."

Andy noticed that he had a "Hells Angels" skull earring, and his buddy behind him had a longsleeved cotton shirt with the logo on the sleeve: "AFFA". He guessed this was somehow significant, but didn't know exactly what it signified.

The beefy man continued, "I don't recognise you guys... someone send you, tell ya about this place?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:43, Tue 16 Dec 2008.

"You, know, word of mouth is a wonderful thing," Andy said, "we got reccomended this place by two seperate sources, so you must be good." he looked at the two heavies and said, "An old tattooist caled Van Dutch said this was the place if we were looking for opportunity in this town, and I met a guy who headed up a cycle posse called "Bear". He told me to come to Brandies for a drink."

He smiled, "That was good enough for me, Bear seemed like a straight up kind of guy, I guess the question is though, is that good enough to let us in? I sure hope so because I have a terrible thirst on me."

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #216):

Clarke was on site at the Downtown Police Station.  She was close enough to respond in person but in a good location to command overall operation.  If things went as planned she'd have a long, boring night.

While she listened to the radio traffic, she took out a pack of cards, shuffled, and offered Kyoko the cut.  She asked the younger woman what was her game, then dealt and prayed for boredom.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #216):

Baldy grinned and nodded.

"Hey, any friend of Bear's is a friend of mine, and Van Dutch sends us guys all the time. Head on up and don't worry, we'll keep hour guns safe."

Slinging his MP5K, he held out his hand. Andy could see elaborate tattoos peeking out from the neck of his shirt.

His friend, goatee, spoke into his radio. "It's the door, 2 to come up. Friends of Bear and Van Dutch. It's okay."

In reply to Andrea Clarke-Sullivan (msg #217):

"Sure thing, mang. I can almost taste that beer!"

He opened his jacket and unholstered his Colt .45, handing it over butt-first.

Andy smiled back, "Bear ain't really a friend, yet, I met him the once and he invited me over. I hope to make him a friend, but I'm not claimibg over familiarity, you know, I'd hate to use a guy's name in vain."

He handed his pistol over and followed the bouncers' instructions.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #220):

Looking a little puzzled, like this was a lot for him to compute, he finally nodded his head.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just go on up, ask for Bear at the bar, he'll want to speak to you anyways."

Goatee moved in to possibly pat them down but Baldy waved him off.

"I said it's allright! Just go up, guys."

He pushed the elevator call button, then gave the guns to his partner, who knocked on an armoured window at the back of the small lobby. There was an armoured door beside it.

As the elevator arrived a thick access port beneath the mirrored window slid open and Goatee pushed their guns inside the slot on the counter. The gap was big enough to admit full-sized longarms. This seemed like a bit of a weak spot in the setup, there was no carousel or other barrier, so someone could stick the barrel of a weapon inside and both jam the slot open and fire on the room inside, although it would be hard to see anything through the mirrored glass.

Andy and Tyler stepped inside and the door closed. They could see a camera inside the elevator car. It was a somewhat jerky ride, a little longer than usual for a 2-story trip. The car jerked hard when it stopped, then the doors opened into the dimly lit smoky room.

The lobby of the club where they were was also the bar. The stage with the girls was through a curtain in the back. Loud pulsing techno music and the deejay's voice travelled through without impediment.

"AAAHHHH HELL YEAHHHH... GUYS... PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR MISS JADE.... HERE SHE IS AGAIN ON STAGE... AN ENCORE PERFORMANCE...."

The music changed to Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me".

A couple more armed biker/bouncers eyed them, as did the bartenders. There were a few men at the bar, more at a booth. Some had fatigues and were unshaven, some were dressed more normally, a few had expensive-looking suits and slicked back hair. The lush room smelled like beer and cigar smoke. Another open entrance led off to where there were some pool tables, and of course washrooms off the elevator foyer where they stood.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:04, Thu 18 Dec 2008.

Andy walked up to the bar and waited for a barman's attention, he looked at the guy and said, "Hi, we're new here, came to at Bear's invitation. I'm afraid I'm not sure what you use for cash here, I've got silver and a little gold," he'd been given a dozen old time silver dollars and two troy ounce krugerands from the Uni's funds, "or I've a dozen sedatives and ten broad spectrum anti-biotics I could trade. What would I get as a tab for either of those?"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #222):

Some catcalls, wolf-whistles and music drifted through the curtain to the stage.

"....POUR SOME SUGAR ON MEEE.... IN THE NAME OF LOVE!"

The bartender nodded.

"No problem, man. Hear you're a friend of Van Dutch's too. Gold, silver's fine, and I'll give you $4 each for the meds."

"It's ten bucks for a beer or a shot, double for mixer. Double that for pre-war liquor (no beer). We got Granville Island Lager, English Bay Pale Ale, Cyprus Honey Lager and Gastown Amber Ale on tap, locally-made bathtub gin, whiskey, rum and vodka. Smokes are four buck each, four hun for a carton."

Andy was shocked. Canadian alcohol and tobacco prices before the war were generally twice (or more) the US price for comparable goods, simply because of hidden provincial and federal taxes, added to the PST and the universal GST on top of that. Still, these prices were highway robbery! Especially as he was obviously not paying for taxes. The offer on meds seemed to be not much more than half what they were worth, indicating that they either didn't care for them or already had a good supply.

"Guys, if you're friends of Van Dutch here to see the Bear, then it's on the house. What'll it be? Just to let you know, the Bear's not going to be down for a half hour. So relax, see the show."