Duck sighs, running his fingers through his hair. He seems genuinely concerned as he looks around him for a second at the other gangs gathered.

"Alright, frag." He sighs, taking a drag of his cigarette.

Frag, now you got my interest piqued. I'm looking to get in. I got some info that your boss needs to hear about this. This can get bad. Full fraggin' meltdown bad. You know I enjoy a good tussle, and I got your backs if it does, but frag , look around. There are way too many other humies here right now for it to be a fair fight, even if I had your backs. Mind giving me an escort in?" Duck asks, not having to disguise the serious worry on his face when he looks around. Besides, he wasn't even trying to bullshit the ork. He wanted these young toughs to survive the day for another shakedown, and with some crazed chiphead likely running things, worry wasn't something he had to hide at all.

"I told you for real. Bosses only, and some fragging 'honor guard' they keep around. I go there, they put a bullet in me."

Duck sighs, looking at the warehouse as if it were miles away. He shrugs. "Well, I can come and go as I please, but you and your boys are in a pinch so long as you stay. Know who wins if shit goes down here? The cops. Tell them I'm a boss if you need to. You wouldn't be mistaken." He unbuttons one of his cuffs and rolls it back, discretely, and only for a moment to show the ork something, then buttons it back.

"Christ, is this guy even an ork?"

The Tusker looks around. "yeah, I know. Stuff is weird. Don't know about this guy though. Heard he's a troll. Ten feet tall. But you know... haven't seen him or nothin'. All I know is they said we protect our camp, and anyone who goes in there gonna get shot. So we been watching this spot all day. This and the air, ya know. For drones. Two days ago I was in the underground, today I'm in a fragging... biker town or something. I don't know."

Copperhead's voice broke in over the comm.

"Gonna move da van a bit.  'for it 'tracks any 'tension.  Holler if ya needs a pick-up.  Oh, an fine out what der plan is if dey spots drones."

For good measure, she returned to a height above the 1k cutoff limit for rifles.  Anyone who wanted to take her out was going to have to fire heavy ordinance.  And thus far she hadn't noticed any of that.

Or at least I presume I haven't noticed any of that?  My perception rolls were decent, so I presume I'd have noticed any heavy weapons that weren't well-concealed

There are some larger guns... But it's also night and the flashing lights on the ground pretty much guarantee everyone's night vision is shot.

Does that affect night-vision for those with low-light or other cyber modifications?  By larger guns, what are we talking?  LMG or bigger?  also did the Tusker respond to White Duck's suggestion to tell them that WD was a boss?

Also, is there any place where the van could be positioned outside the biker lines that would give a clean line-of-sight to one of the warehouse windows that I could use my laser listening device on?  (Assuming that there are any that aren't boarded up)

There's some mounted weapons; LMGs, some small explosives here or there. These people have some pretty wild toys. Copperhead has run into street gangs enough to know it's not wise to underestimate them, and these people are clearly gearing up for something.

Yes, the light difference affects everyone. Flare compensation helps. But the gangers have lit themselves up pretty nicely, which helps you pretty nicely (both the drone and the van). It's possible there's some snipers or somesuch hidden out in the camp who will also have a bonus to their camouflage, but their vision will also be negatively impacted unless they have a pretty tight little nest to block out all the extraneous light sources.

The Tusker does not seem to have really registered Duck's claim. Duck will have to push it a little harder if he wants to play that angle.

If someone got out and climbed the roof of one of the nearby vacants, you could set up a microphone pretty easily. Possibly even a camera, if you get high enough to see past the obstructions on the ground.

Where's the nearest building with the necessary line of sight that would be outside their lines and where getting up the side would be relatively straightforward?  I presume you're saying that there are glass windows we could use the mike with.  Do I notice any broken windows or other means I might be able to sneak my scorpion in if I wanted to?

The door to the cab slid open with a soft thud and Copperhead emerged.  She attempted a smile at Noruas, though the rigid skin on the left side of her face resulted in more of an awkward grimace.  "Ya wanna keep an eye on tings fer a bit?  I wanna do a bit 'o tinkerin."

"Don' open da door 'til I say 's ok, less ya wants ta bring down a mess o' trouble".  The last was primarily addressed to the snake shaman, though she shared it over the comm too for good measure.

Reaching into one of the many drawers in the RV, she extracted a metal box containing the DocWagon bracelet and began working at it with her tools, removing the casing, repairing the broken continuity connections in the wrist-band and digging through her supply of additional electronic components, soldering odd bits onto the existing circuitry, occassionally glancing at the display of a small screen showing a flickering waveform.  When she was satisfied, she coated the device the device in some sort of black spray foam.  "Water-proof" she explained to no-one in particular.

I'm trying to set up the bracelet so it will do the following:
- power on when it receives a remote signal
- think it's still attached to a human being
- think that human being is in serious medical distress
- not report past events such as having been cut off the wrist of said human several hours ago and had various other things done to it

For rolling, I can do Electronics (6), scrounging (6) and Biotech (first aid) 1/4

Let me know what you'd like

The dwarf nods curtly at Copperhead and plugs himself back into the gunnery system.

Caduceus felt bad for his city spirit getting attacked like that, but it was doing a good job of keeping the mages distracted like it was asked.  There wasn't too much else he could do at the moment so he watched Copperhead work while staying out of her way.  As he did, Caduceus quietly conjured another city spirit up out of the city's framework.

13:00, Today: Caduceus rolled 5 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of (6+4)10,2,(6+4)10,(6+1)7,(6+6+5)17,3.  Conjure Force 3 City Spirit.
13:00, Today: Caduceus rolled 3 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 1,4,3,3,1,1.  Drain Test.

"Well, this should be an easy ask then- Can you call up your boss for me, get him on the phone? I'm seriously trying to save all of our hoops here, and that would greatly assist." he asks in earnest, flicking ashes from his cigarette and scoping out any possible alternative entrances, say via the sewer, that would get him into the building.

The area is overall pretty flat; large parking areas or empty lots, with interspersed warehouses. If you want to keep close, there's a warehouse 500 feet away with an aerial. Someone comfortable doing some climbing could get up the side and attach a mic there.

The target warehouse has some windows open. This time of year, things get muggy, and you don't imagine there's any climate control in there. A bit of a climb for your scorpion, but popping in through a second-story window is pretty much the best cover you could ask for.

While White Duck talks up the ork, Copperhead brutalizes the docwagon bracelet. She removes the memory chip, erasing any device memory (as well as some of the higher functions of the health reports). It's not hard to cause it to go into an alert, but not all of the sensors will be active. With a little tweaking, Copperhead adjusts the available feeds into a proper narrative that (approximately) fits a diagnosis--amputation. Maybe not the best story, but it'll take an hour or two to make up the missing feeds.

Caduceus reaches out to the local spirits, begging their presence. It takes longer than it should. A grumpy, squat gnome appears in the corner. "What."

White Duck pushes the 'gang leader' angle... It's a long shot, he knows. The ork listens, impassive, then nods. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks." He pulls out his phone and dials. "Boss, listen... there's a friend here of mine. He's got some info. You got a moment?"

There's a long pause. While he's talking, Duck scans the area. There are some power lines leading to the warehouse from a utility tower close by. The fence around the warehouse is down in places, but all the people here make that line of attack rough. He also notices a manhole cover or some sort of utility access port on the edge of the parking lot. Hard to make out details from here though.

The tusker hands the phone over. "Make it quick, okay?"
The woman on the phone sounds like she swallowed a bucket of nails, and would willingly swallow a second if it meant kicking your ass personally. "This better not be a sales pitch, breeder."

Duck puts on his very best airs of charm here, along with subtle layers of his serious concern. His voice is confident, like that of a ship's captain barreling through a storm. He takes a drag, exhales, then speaks.

"Nope, this is Duck. Shaolin Master of the Ork Underground. You know me, perhaps you know of my status. Look, the guy in charge in there is officially a grade-A nutter. I got proof. I want to get any Tuskers outta here before folks catch on and things get ground zero. I have a way to stop that from happening, dig? But I need to get in the building. I'm with your boys now. Maybe tell this whack-job I'd like an audience?"

Copperhead half-listened to the face's discussion while she ran a couple of final checks on the bracelet before jury-rigging a harness to attach the package to her scorpion.  She tested it out a couple of times climbing the wall of the van, adjusting the payload to better balance the weight and keep her drone from toppling to the floor.  She also tested the harness release, ensuring that a quick snip with her claws and a wiggle of her tail would be sufficient to leave the package where she wanted to drop it.

It wasn't her most elegant piece of work, but hopefully good enough to get the job done.  She held it out to the Snake shaman.

"Kin yer spirit frens help ta 'ceal dis critter?"  She waited while he did whatever it was finger-wigglers do before popping the hatch in the floor of the van.  Getting down on her knees, she gently set the metal scorpion down on the wet pavement before closing the hatch again.

"Here goes nuttin . . ."

The drone skittered along, keeping to the shadows and taking advantage of the LoneStar drone's overwatch to slowly make it's way towards the warehouse.

"Spirits willing, it should be concealed.  Your flying one too. And the van." he replied to Copperhead.  Then, to the gnomey spirit, he tilted his head toward the drone and offered up his sincerest "I'm-sorry-I-got-your-buddy-sniped-and-then-had-the-audacity-to-ask-you-favors" look.  He honestly did feel bad.  And he knew that to a spirit, emotions would speak louder than words.

Just to make sure it is clear, this is Caduceus using a service to have the city spirit use Concealment on Copperhead's scorpion drone and aerial drone.
Edit: the van too.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:53, Thu 06 Apr 2017.

As a force 3 spirit, You can use it to hide one more thing - you or the van would each be reasonable options

Makes sense.  I edited my post to include the van.

The gnome glowers, but disappears. Whether it accepted the apology enough to comply is anyone's guess.

How close is the drone getting to the warehouse?


The woman on the phone goes silent for a while. "Give me back to Bunker."

(I assume Duck complies, handing the phone back to the ork.)

The ork listens for a moment and nods, "But boss...  Alright boss..."

He hangs up the phone. "Sorry man, boss says I gotta shoot you now..." He pulls for his sidearm.

The scorpion is moving (carefully and keeping to cover) all the way up to the warehouse and then to whatever side is likely to provide the most concealed approach to climb up to the second floor.

I'm trusting Noruas to lock onto the ganger and be ready to fire if necessary - I'd suggest gel rounds.  I presume we should wait to see if Duck can talk/fight his way out first.

Noruas switches to the vehicle's rifles and aims it at the ork with just a momentary thought.  He then takes another moment to switch out the ammo for gel rounds, before getting ready to fire at the team's behest.

"Ah, c'mon chummer, no need. I'll be on my way. I've been nothing but friendly to you and your boys. I'd rather not have to get violent." He moves his hand into his coat, palming a few bladed cards just in case things went south.

21:21, Today: White Duck rolled 6 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of (6+4)10,5,5,(6+1)7,(6+3)9,5.  Street Etiquette.

The ganger pulls his gun clear and starts firing over Duck's head. He keeps approaching, and the sound of gunfire is drawing a lot of unwanted attention (and drowning out any further talk). Hearing the commotion, another ganger pulls her gun and brings it up. She fires a quick burst as she shouts something inaudible. Duck hears the rounds whistle past him.


Navigating the Scorpion is a little harrowing; scuttling between camps, avoiding bikes and stomping feet. Copperhead moves from cover to cover, but there's an empty lot she has to cross and too many eyes for comfort. Scuttling around to the most empty, least lit part of the lot, she waits until a moment of commotion to move, painfully slowly, across the broken asphalt.

Finally she makes it to the far side, the warehouse wall. The scorpion begins its climb. Sometimes the footpads come away with a puff of broken mortar, and the robot catches itself on its remaining legs. A fall from the second story could be enough to disable a little robot like this. Copperhead has to adjust her route slightly to avoid sections with the most peeling paint or, harder to spot, loose mortar and dust. But eventually, finally, the little robot manages to pull itself over a second story window ledge and peer inside.

The inside of the warehouse is set up like a war council; crates have been set up in the room upon which a giant map of Seattle is laid out. Copperhead has enough knowledge of the city to know those little red flags are stuck in Lone Star and DocWagon operational centers. The red lines on highways and railways don't look too promising. Less so the stack of poker chips on the National Guard depot.

Around the map are a half-dozen gang leaders, bespangled in their trophies and weapons. At the head of the table is a man, clearly sporting fresh cyber, wearing a biker helmet. He stands out due to his chrome, and that the fire and iron in his eyes doesn't match the soft skin of a face that doesn't get shot at much. Everyone is shouting disagreement, but they go quiet when he speaks.

Around the periphery a dozen gang toughs loiter among the crates and cots of the warehouse. In the far corner is a cold corpse. By the look of it, she didn't die quietly.

Copperhead let out a low whistle as she looked at the map.  The guy was clearly off his rocker.  She knew the kind of firepower a gang could deliver, but taking on the national guard was a fools errand.

The "shots fired" indicator tingles in the arch of her heel and she jumps back to captains chair mode, watching as Duck scampered away from bullets.  It seemed clear the gunman who'd initiated fire wasn't trying that hard to hit, but it wasn't clear the other woman had gotten the message.  She watched over Noruas' virtual shoulder to see who he was aiming at and whether he'd recognized the biggest threat.

"Ducky, holler if ya wan cover"

She listened with half an ear to the upper floor of the warehouse while she watched the evolving situation on the ground.

Lines on the roads look like road-blocks or something else?  What kind of cyber does he have?

Duck takes the hint and weaves away serpentine, leaving the ork a friendly nod before he departs, knowing the shots won't hit him anyway. He fades into the crowd and makes his way subtly to the van (will roll stealth if necessary)