[Sichr]

Or, we can just blow this place to hell, find a nice observation spot, and wait to see who shows up.

[inca1980]

@Storm:
You know that in order to create a ward an anchor must be nearby.  You begin a search of the room using your knowledge of where these things are typically placed and sure enough you find it.  A rune in chalk of a most ancient kind placed right behind the wall next to the doorway.  The only place you've seen that rune before were used by the Noctis Society and last you checked Noctis was on exclusive contract with the security branch of Manadyne.  Due to the lack of any other type of magical security and this being  a stand-alone ward you'd be willing to bet you're looking at contract work and this magic was paid for.   

[inca1980]

@Stake:
You access the wireless connector's gps coordinate log and see that the console you are working on was transferred from another fixed location.  The former coordinates show to be in one of the NeoNet towers downtown.  It also looks as if this console was dedicated to Project Bootcamp and has other modules attached to it which are inactive.  Dr. Lowenstein mentioned in her logs that the soldiers were able to interface with the UV environment so it would seem that this special module might be somehow part of this device.

Make a hardware check Hardware + Logic [mental] (4)

Even though it appears you have found the physical location of some pieces of Project Bootcamp, generally AI's prefer to reside and lie safe in a home host.  Host's are not connected to physical devices but lie apart as separate pieces of the Matrix.  You decide it's worthwhile to find out how big the TVH host actually is.

Make host-wide search roll Computer + Int [Data Processing] (4) test. 

[Ren]

Hmm… Multi-location system? Maybe decentralized as well? Inactive modules, probably still inside NeoNet. Let’s see! Stake worked on, still using the physical approach. It was strange and slow, but secure. He was glad they still taught about keyboards in matrix security courses. Also, the size and architecture of the current host was intriguing. Which level was it on actually? Was there a “ghost” host above and behind the apparent one?

LOG(7) + Hardware (5) [Mental(11)] (12d6.hits(5)=5)
INT(6) + Computer(5) [Data Processing(5)] (11d6.hits(5)=3)

[Thermo]

Storm sobers up and informs her companions about her newly discovered information concerning her suspicions on who created the ward.

"I believe the magical ward was created under a contract with one of two possible agencies, namely the Noctis Society or Manadyne. If we're able to snoop into their records, we may be able to determine who paid for the services. Be careful though, as these are security companies. They aren't going to leave their information sitting around for the taking."

[Sichr]

You know, what really intrerrests me in this moment, if this runner hunt ends in the moment we slit this vegetables throat. Take? Your opinion?

[inca1980]

@Stake:
You start looking around the console and you notice a panel to the side of the black-plastic key-screen.  As soon as you find the switch to pop it open a small tower rises out of it which are lined with two rows of circular racks each holding 6 trode interfaces for a total of 12.  Your best guess is that these were the main interfaces between the trainee soldiers and the Bootcamp.  A diagnostic monitor also lights up with a graph for the ASIST signal levels to the brain.   

[inca1980]

The three of you look at each other, trying to read the expression on each others' faces for at least a clue of what to do next.  The AI Requiem is no where to be found and you aren't sure if this whole nightmare is over yet, or merely postponed.  After a detailed study of the trode-sets, he determines they feed directly to a second host called Boot Camp, high-up and tucked away in the electron-night sky of the Emerald City grid, a piece of NeoNet cut-off in order not to be destroyed.  If the ASSISt signals he is reading are correct, placing on the trode-net should sky-rocket you directly into the Boot Camp host, whatever lies beyond it's chromium virtual walls; however, is a mystery to you. 

You decide.  Plunge head-first into a computer program that fried the brain of 12 UCAS Marines?  Or hope for the best, leave TVH and return to the shadows, hoping the job market picks back up after having cut-off Requiem from his fleet of shadow-running drones?

[Sichr]

So what. We sell the data we have to MCT and let their brains-in-the-jar do the dirty work? Hell...even GOD would jump for the oportunity like this to prove their grip over network...

[inca1980]

Storm almost interrupts Zach mid-sentence and looks at her teammates, her cyber-eyes focus and narrow.  "We've come too far, this ends now....".  She grabs one of the trode sets off the rack and places it over her temples as she sits on the floor with her back to the terminal.  Both sides of the trode pads have an inset glowing blue ring which encases a button and she gently taps her slender fingers down on them and immediately her body jolts from an ASIST signal more powerful than any she's felt before.  After a few seconds she slowly relaxes and her breathing slows back down until her eye-lids are fluttering as her brain enters the REM state of virtual reality.  Stake and Zach look at each other.  Zach's already grizzled expression hardens with determination as he grabs second set of trodes and does the same, plunging himself head-first into an electronic void.

 Stake stands there alone, shaking his head.  The small dwarf utters a brief "Aww heck..., and quickly grabs a third set of trodes.  Instead of placing them on his temples like his new-found comrades did, he cracks it open and pulls out his mini soldering iron.  After tinkering a bit with the micro-electronics, the whole time muttering profanities, he fashions himself a little jury-rigged Universal Data Connector port, pulls the retractable cable from his tablet-sized deck, sits down next to the other two and jacks in......