Figuring that he needed to scope out the place first, Anders parked his car across the street and started to walk around the block of the bar, checking for entrances and exit to the place.  When he was sure he memorized the outside, he moves into the bar and orders a soda.  He continues to scope out the interior surreptitiously making sure to note all points of entry and exit as well as the patrons inhabiting the area.

With ten minutes to spare, he walks back up to the barkeep and says, Who's the steward around here?

Toombs pats himself down one last time, ensuring that everything your punk-on-the-move needs is in his pockets or attached to the assorted chains and studs somewhere.
"Good. Great, thanks." He follows her out, "If you want, I got a tab running here. You can grab a bottle for the road, or I can cover gas." He fishes another cig from one of the folds in his cap, "Want one?" Even if she takes it, he'll mutter "probably shouldn't, awful stuff these."
Rolling Etiquette to not be a total drekstain; 1,2,1,(6+4)10,3,1; 1 success.

Arriving two hours early (minus travel time), Toombs announces he's here to see Steward, but can wait out here 'til they're ready. He takes a booth, strings his headphones and electric guitar through his wrist comp, and begins playing through a few songs - starting with Barracuda and bridging into the Ramjam edition of Black Betty; all while watching crowds and deciding whether Trixie should be the one running the negotiations.

St. V grunted his acknowledgement before heading for the bathroom door.  He had heard enough.  It was either a setup or a genuine job.  Either way, he had some business to take care of at Matchsticks in two hours.  He needed to get prepared.

---

After saying goodbye to Rose and the guys, St. V went to his house to pick up supplies before heading to his destination.  He had his armored vest and coat on, hiding his silenced pistol in his concealable quickdraw holster.  His shock gloves were also in his coat, just in case.  After watching the place for a few minutes from across the street, St. V goes in at right around the specified time and asks whoever looks to be managing the restaurant, "Your name Steward?"

Matchstick's is in the substreet level of an office building near the Needle. Access is through a door that leads down into a comfortably furnished bar, where a large ork bouncer is keeping an eye on things.

Toombs arrives first. The place has just opened. There's a few regulars and the band is still setting up. It's not an unusual scene for him, but usually the band can expect at least a free sandwich or some bottled water. That's not quite the case when you're just another bar fly. The ganger doesn't seem eager to hang out for drinks, and she scrams as soon as her passenger is dropped off, but at least she seems to be in an okay mood about it.

The bouncer at the door seems a little incredulous that Toombs is asking for Steward quite so early, so Toombs has to make do with the booth and headphones for about an hour before the bar tender waves him over and points at a door in the corner of the lounge.

Noruas and Copperhead both get to scoping out the area. Since Matchstick's is built underneath another building, it's tough to get a lot of good information. The building on top is older; all concrete and mortar with metal fire escapes and wood-frame windows. Over the door there's a marble placard declaring it an insurance company, but signs around indicate it's now some sort of financial firm. There are a few windows that would seem to peer into the basement, but otherwise it's tough to get a sense for the footprint or escape routes from the bar. There are also a few other basement-level shops around; a tattoo parlor and a little coffee and book nook are tucked in around the corner.

Noruas arrives first out of the two. At the bar, he gets a full Aztec Cola and a nod towards a door tucked into the corner of the bar.

When Copperhead arrives, the bouncer will stop her. "She's waiting for you. There's a white door in the back corner."

St. V arrives last (but definitely not least) and is similarly directed by the bouncer.

(For those who go through the door ...)

Past the door is another flight of stairs, then a short corridor. There's a faint but definite buzzing in the air. At the end of the corridor is another white door. Through that is a small 'office'; a table with five seats, but otherwise featureless. Likely an old store room. A woman sits across from the door; tall and athletic, with midnight-black hair cropped short. She's wearing loose-fitting white pants and a shirt the same color of deep blue as her eyes.

Noruas enters the room and takes the chair furthest from the door.  (Unless Toombs takes that seat, I'll take the one next to him.)

The dwarf keeps his shades on and sits down quietly waiting for the meeting to begin.

Focusing through the music, Toombs draws the bar's hearth spirit forth and shares the sounds in his mind with it.
Just making sure I have a handle on conjuring.
Summoning a Force 3 Hearth Spirit. Conjuring 6 vs TN 3; (6+1)7,5,1,4,2,4; 4 successes.
Drain is 3L (half his CHA), resisted with his CHA. 1,3,3,4,5,4; 5 successes, drain is dropped to nothing.
With a poof, a small cartoony beer bottle with Mickey Mouse style hands and feet appears in the seat opposite Toombs. "What can I do for you, boss? ha-HA!"
"If you please, spirit. Wander around this bar and Search out any weapons I should know about. If there is anyone about who's itching for a rumble with me, I'd like to know ahead of time. Come back to me when you're finished, aye? I'll see if we can't scrounge up a sandwich to share."
Spirit should now be down to 3 services.

=-=-=-time skip-=-=-=
Toombs nods as he walks in the meeting room, and will perhaps waggle his eyebrows seductively at St V. If the table is low enough for him to see while standing, he takes position on the corner opposite the J's left. Otherwise he takes a chair, spins it about and uses it as a stepping stool so he can see the entirety of the table.
Toombs takes the initiative, "So. Sounds you've got a problem. Well looks like we got yer shining armor. What's yer gig?"

"Thanks."

Anya nodded and looked at the door but headed to the bar instead.

"Soycaf.  Black."  She checked out the bar's other selections.  Mostly standard fare, but a few higher end products.  And a locked cabinet that probably held the really good stuff - for those celebrating a big score without the good sense to know what to do with their earnings.

Steaming mug in hand, she headed for the door in the corner and then down the hall, trying to get a sense of where she was within the building.  Somewhere right in the middle of the basement.  The cavalry was going to take a while . . .

On opening the second white door, she paused in the doorway, surveying in the occupants.  None of them were familiar, but that wasn't a huge surprise.

She moved into the room, allowing the door to swing closed behind her, but opted ignore the two empty chairs, preferring to stand in one of the corners.  She leaned quietly against the wall, left hand in a pocket, the other clutching her mug.  Her sunglasses and respirator were still in place - the latter looking military issue, though a little the worse for wear.  A black skull-cap, now rather damp, covered most of her head.  However, visible patches of skin around her forehead and cheek still exposed the discolored and misshapen skin of a burn victim to anyone looking at her for more than a second or two.

The rest wasn't much to look at.  A dark nondescript long-coat with the odd bulge, hung almost to her feet, still dripping with the last remnants of Seattle's current weather.  A pair of combat boots left slightly muddy tracks where she walked.  After waiting a few moments for reaction or comment, she unstrapped the respirator, allowing it to hang beneath her chin, exposing significantly more of her face.

Copperhead kept her mouth closed.  The Johnson obviously knew who she was - well enough to send her peons out with her name, a description and a pretty good idea of where she'd be.  Whatever the Johnson said about herself would be lies.  The information from the other runners too, most likely, though perhaps with a few more half-truths mixed in.  No-one worth anything dropped trou in front of a Johnson or a bunch of strangers.  At least at no one who hoped to last long.

She took a long, slow sip of her drink and waited, lazily studying the others in the room as well as the room itself.  There had to be another entrance.  The only point of the long hall was to give whoever was in the office sufficient time to bolt before whoever was coming in got through the second door.

quote:

15:29, Today: Copperhead rolled 1 success using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4. Observe in detail.

St. Velveteen headed toward the white door without making any stops.  He looked around as he walked though, keeping track of who might be keeping an eye on him.  Although he was a troll, so it was probably more suspicious if anyone was making a point to not keep an eye on him.

At any rate, he enters the white door when he reaches it and heads down the stairway to the hall below.  Most would probably think a guy like as big as him might start to feel claustrophobic underground in such tight quarters, but he actually found it a little comforting.  Almost like he was reliving the instincts imparted on trolls from the fifth world or before.

When he opened the door and say the two empty chars and a woman in the corner, he put two and two together and decided he would slide the last two seats together to make himself a double-wide.  Once seated, he took a moment to inspect the others.  Apparently this was going to be a four man operation.  Unless the woman who looked like a Johnson was actually a fifth member.  He raises his eyebrows at the flirting dwarf but otherwise remains silent.  It wasn't odd for metahumans of all kinds to be attracted to his rugged good looks, but most were more subtle about it, and he had learned that confronting people about it usually made them deny anything about it.

St. V folds his hands together on the table and twiddles his thumbs idly while waiting for a response to the flirting dwarf's gig question.

Toombs' little hearth spirit does a little dance from one leg to the other, before holding up both hands and a total of 17 fingers. "Lots fun guns and stuff, boss! Something big behind the bar too. But no one wants to show anything off, it would ruin their dance moves!" The bottle does a little scooching dance across the table. "But I wouldn't worry. Everyone is having a GrEaT time tonight."


Once everyone is settled in the room, the fixer begins.

"It seems one person has refused the invitation. No matter, four is enough.

"My name is Eve Donovan. Each of you has been selected for his or her particular skills, and favorable loyalties. I need you for a data steal; a single file, currently held in the data banks of one of our local megacorps, Mitsuhama, or specifically their subsidiary, Cavilard Research Center. They do pure research and development, focused on compu-optic systems and biotechnology. I do not expect significant physical security, or really, much difficulty for you whatsoever.

"However, the matrix security is more substantial. The file you are looking for, codenamed Silver Angel, is stored on their air-gapped server in the Executive System, accessible only from the facility's server room. This of course will require the skills of our decker, Mr. Noruas.

"There are two additional requirements you should be aware of.

"Firstly, the run must go down at precisely 2:00am three days from now.

"Secondly, while I will not accompany you on the run, I must be present at any meetings with external actors as part of your prep work.

"There are no exceptions to either of these conditions.

"The pay for the job is 40,000¥ each upon acceptance, 30,000¥ upon completion. Another 15,000¥ to be paid for maintaining absolute secrecy. The target should not know the file was ever accessed."

As people are discussing, Eve puts a tablet in the center of the table. Clearly displayed is a map of the facility.

Note the updated Game Map.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:08, Mon 02 Mar 2015.

Noruas whispers loudly, Why do you need to be present at any meeting involved?  Isn't the point of having us the very idea of deniability?  And why must the hypothetical deed be done at that specific time?

Um...can someone please direct me to the Game Map, please?  Is it the old Google Map account?  Oh, and can someone please explain to me what air-gapped means?  Is it an internal system with no connections to the outside making it impossible to hack from the outside?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:01, Mon 02 Mar 2015.

Copperhead's eyebrows rose a bit at the notion of "favorable loyalties".  At this point she had loyalties to very few, and the Johnson certainly wasn't one of them.  The notion that Ms. Steward or whoever the frag she was would be meeting with any of Any's contacts was laughable.  Though the request itself was a bit of a concern.  The only reason the rigger could think of for a Johnson wanting to meet their contacts was to clean up loose ends, and Anya was going to be a lot looser than any of her contacts.

While the obvious questions were being asked, she walked over to the table where her chair had once been.  Putting down her cup and picking up the tablet, she scrolled through the maps.  As per usual, the Johnson was under-selling the risk.  A 16-square-meter armory plus another 32 square meters devoted to security offices sure smelled like "significant" physical security to her.  And it was naturally in the most secured part of the facility.

There were a few possible angles, but this map wasn't going to be sufficient to tell how feasible they'd be.  She placed the tablet back on the table, retrieved her cup and returned to the corner.

Exactly.  Air gap = no electrical/optical connections to external networks/matrix.  So we need to get you physically into the server room before you can deck.  Or at least before you can deck that particular piece.  It also means that while you're digging for the file, we'll have no matrix overwatch on the rest of the facility and we'll have to be watching your hoop while you're at it.

"I want to be involved because this is my mission as well, and I want to ensure that we do everything feasible to ensure it succeeds. My skillset is dealing with people, so unless one of you is more skilled than I am, it is prudent that I come along as well. I know Shadowrunners are usually independent-minded to the point of self-destruction, which is why I am including it as a stipulation, not an option."

She considers her second answer, clearly weighing her trust in you all before continuing. "There is a second run planned for another facility at the same time. If one run comes before the second, they'll likely increase security at all corporate locations, making the work more difficulty."

Copperhead smirks.  "So when I rent a coffin ta frag a couple of go-boys ta convince'em to give us a nice distraction, you wanna make sure y' get in on the action?"  She removes her shades and eyes the woman slowly up and down before slipping them back on.  "I'm sure yer skills are gonna be real appreciated."

Eva scowls. "I think you overestimate your bargaining power there.

"But yes, if you're meeting in person to bargain with a subcontractor, I want to be present."

Riiiiight...people skills...like that's going to fly with me.  Noruas smirked at the Johnson's response.  It was highly likely she wasn't going to be paying the extra 45 large.  And he wasn't going to have any of that.  The dwarf furtively pulls out his cellphone and beings recording the Johnson's answers as well as her face.  He's going to need some answers before he throws himself into this mess.

So how do I roll stealth in this situation?  I would like to get down the Johnson's features and voice.

"Great. You can fade back into the woodwork for now, but keep an ear on me - I might need your help if this meet and greet goes poor." (putting the spirit in reserve and back in its plane).

=-=-=-=-=-=-time skip-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Just for clearing purposes, you need us to start the op at 0200 and be out when it's out? or do you need us to be out by 0200?
And By 'present for prep' do you mean hiring extras for the gig, or do you also mean when we call for intel and gear too? Because I'm afraid you're grabbing a little far if you think we're just gonna show you all of our secrets out of hand."
If she stipulates gear & intel in addition to extra hands, Booster will respond "How about I meet ya halfway. You don't get ta know all our contact network. That's not how we do biz. But if you wanna be there for negotiation, we can get comms over burner phones and secure Matrix drop sites. You don't meet our men, but you're there for the greet. That scratch the itch?

He leans against the table and takes careful measure of her responses. You can't trust your J, but they can usually be confidenced enough not to scrag their own run.
"Now way I figure it, you lay out a couple of tricky stipulations. Pay seems fair, but with your extra requirements we should get expenses covered. That's how it sounds - beans, bullets, bandages. I danno about the others, but I got some gear I need 'fore this run can go down successful, and I think we can both agree that's important, ja?"
Negotiation, 5,5,3. If he's right on his position, then that could be 3 successes, especially since he's not asking for more money. Pity I can't use Etiquette.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:10, Wed 04 Mar 2015.

"Covering some business expenses sounds good to me too," St. V adds.  "In fact, If you really think you need to be there for every bump along the road, then maybe you should be in charge of paying the tab at every meet-and-greet.  Especially if you're so sure you can get a good deal for us."  Saint Velveteen also suspected she may be trying to collect information on their contact networks.  Possibly to add to her own.  After all, St. V himself had somehow been inexplicably added to her contact network. Sure, the fixer probably had her own agenda separate from their own, but he had known her for exactly the same amount of time as he had known his fellow runners, so he was at least willing to entertain the possibility that she actually wanted to help them succeed on some level.  If she was willing to pay them to complete the mission, then, well, she could pay to complete the mission.

"I could prolly handle any negotiations on my own anyhow, but that kinda work is boring.  Tedious.  Not usually my style.  So if I can tell you what I want from a contact and you can manage to get it, then as far as I'm concerned you are yet another asset for us to utilize.  To get the job done."

Anya grins back, though there's little humor in it.

"Maybe you'n me get t'gether and I'll demonstrate"

At an appropriate interval, she interjects her own questions.
"What's "abslute secrecy" mean?  They dunno we was there, or we slag the server and mebe most o' the basement so they dunno if we took dreck, let alone what?  Or mebe somethin in between?

Also, you got any intel 'sides this drecky map?  Like ductwork, elecricals, s'curity charts, org charts?  Somethin we can use t' plan?"

@Toombs: She actually did offer us some up front - $40k a piece.  Which, scares the dreck out of me, actually.  She's paying more up front than for completion.

OOC: Guh, this is what I get for trying to read all bleary eyed. I can edit for accuracy, or we can just agree that Toombs is now limited to asking for "expenses covered".

"Your entry should be at 0200, and you exit when you're done. I don't expect you to be more than twenty minutes for this whole operation.

"And by 'present for prep', I mean interviewing people, interrogations, and so on. If you need to talk to your fixer for more rounds for your guns, you're welcome to do that in private if you want. My focus is only on the points where this directly intersects with my employer's interests.

"Fine, we'll cover additional expenses, up to 10,000¥. I don't expect to be purchasing a new vehicle for anyone, but I understand your 'beans and band-aids' can be a considerable offset." If Eve is upset by the party's balking, she doesn't show it.

She does not, however, react so well to Copperhead's offer. Her face visibly blanches. "No. Thank you."

"By 'secrecy', I mean no one is aware you were there.

"I don't have any more details on the map than what I've provided, except to say they take their bio-containment features very seriously. There is a significant concern of bacterial infections of their biotech work. You can expect any ventilation systems to be closed off and difficult to use for your purposes. This facility has been custom-built for their work."




Noruas: Stealthy recording is just a Stealth roll. This is an open test, so your highest roll (plus modifiers) is her TN to see it.

"Your loss . . ."


"So we gets our ¥15k if there's nothin in the papers and the s'curity chief don't get called on the carpet 'next day, but s'ok if a janitor takes an un'spected snooze they decide's better to not chat 'bout?  Cuz genrally 'terogations an 'secret' don go t'gether, 'less you wan' a wet op, an that costs more.  An innerviews gotta be real su'tle.  Havin' a corp to the party ain't much su'tle."

"Whatabout d'livry?  How soon y'wan it after?"

"Precisely. As long as they don't document a security incident about a break-in or data manipulation, that is considered 'secret'.

"The file should be delivered immediately upon your return, and I expect I will receive the only copy. We can make the exchange using a location and method of your choosing."

"Excellent, glad of the accord. Do you have any other information you would care to share with the class?"

"In my homeland, there's a phrase 'no bad weather, just unprepared people'. I'm more of a boom-and-gloom mage myself, so... well let us say I will aim for a clandestine operation, but be prepared if the storm breaks."
His smile is stained from years of tobacco use. The unnerving aspect is that the stains are not uniform - many of the teeth seem mismatched, or even split in different colors on the same protrusion. This is the smile of a man who has had teeth broken and replaced, regularly.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:17, Thu 05 Mar 2015.

How big is the file?  And which room is it in according to the plans you just showed us? whispered Noruas again.

"I understand the file to be approximately 250Mp, but that's just an estimate. It's in the server room. I believe that's marked as '18' in the basement level.

"We do have a little more. I imagine you're interested in security. They do have 24/7 night watchmen. I'm not sure the company. There are cameras in the facility. A lot of the internal doors have keypads, for controlled access.

"The facility itself is built into a hill in a wooded area that used to be a park. They purchased the entire area from the city, and it gives them a good field of view of the surrounding area. It will be difficult to reach the front door unseen.

"You're also going to want to be careful about your inquiries. Mitsuhama has people watching for signs of a possible mission. Tip your hand to early and you can expect a full security team waiting for you."