[inca1980]

@Ren:

While Zach and Storm go about making preparations you have spent the last 12 hours soaring through the Matrix following leads for more info on Lt. Marshall Goodman.  After a enough helpful tips off the forums you manage to score out of the Denver data dump a  complete classified military file on the guy.   He's 23 years old, enlisted when he was 17, grades average, I.Q. average.  Aptitudes in hand-to-hand combat and fire-arms.  Made it to the Second Marine Special Operations Battalion and did a stint in Bogota, came back unharmed and after a battery of tests he made the grade to be admitted to Project Bootcamp testing.  The acceptance letter to Project Bootcamp is signed by a Dr. Tara Lowenstein.  You search about half an hour more for information on her and all you can find is that she was a well known researcher and specialist in artificial intelligence and matrix technology that held a position at the University of Washington before taking a R&D position with NeoNet.  She appears to have disappeared completely because you find nothing on her present activities. 

Try as you might you can't find anymore leads on Project Bootcamp other than one reference in a short looted Renraku internal txt msg from about a year ago.  "Thanks to the Project Bootcamp fiasco things are looking good for us.  If we all push our weight in the coming months and don't get too over-enthusiastic, the UCAS armed forces stamp of approval seems inevitable...."

[Ren]

Stake threw himself down on a chair opposite Storm with a huff. He ordered some coffee and after the waitress left, he cut to the chase. ”This is starting to round out.” He sent all the information to the others links. ”Goodman ain’t seem to be a hacker, just your regular jarhead with a somewhat impressive service record. TL having been proved as an AI expert, I think he was used either as a prototype or a model for something. We still can’t know what we face, but I’m thinking it has to do something with a rogue AI or a fragged-up artificial environment software.
"The state of Goodman – being out cold for a long time, as our orc friend told us in the bar – suggests he was wired into a computer system, with a couple of his military buddies, when something went very wrong. So wrong actually that someone in NeoNet decided to revoke the funding of the project. This supposition is supported by the partial data from that Renraku message.
"I still have two theories, which could both work. Both start out at the Project Bootcamp fiasco in NeoNet. First is, when something went wrong, leadership just decided to put the injured people aside somewhere that don’t really stand out. Unknown to them, however, parts of the project product – a rogue AI? – got out inside one or more of the injured test subjects and is still at large since then. Second is, after the project was scrapped, the dedicated scientist, TL just couldn’t bear to give up her work and left the company, continuing to conduct her research secretly. Either way, the result is us being targeted, and I think the next step is getting into the hospital and trying to figure out Goodman’s exact connection to the case.”

[Thermo]

[catching up on some rolls from earlier when Invisible Castle was down]

Cast F5 Increase Willpower: Spellcasting(10)+Magic(4)+Power focus(4) [Force 5] (18d6.hits(5)=8) willpower increases from 5 to 9
Drain Resist[2]: Willpower(9)+Charisma(7) (16d6.hits(5)=6) no drain

Cast F7 Increase Charisma: Spellcasting(10)+Magic(4)+Power focus(4)-Sustaining(1) [Force 7] (17d6.hits(5)=6) charisma increases from 7 to 11
Drain Resist[4]: Willpower(9)+Charisma(11) (20d6.hits(5)=5) no drain

Summon F6 Spirit of Man: Summoning(7)+Specialization(2)+Magic(4)+Power Focus(4)-Sustaining(2) (15d6.hits(5)=5)
Summoning Resist: Force(6) (6d6.hits(5)=1) 4 services
Drain Resist[2]: Willpower(9)+Charisma(11) (20d6.hits(5)=8) no drain

Storm takes her Psyche injection prior to getting her bike. She's jumpy and has a severe case of ADD by the time she gets to the diner.

[Sichr]

You know what. To me this Project Bootcamp going south sounds as a succesfull shadow operation. My my opinion we are targetted as species, revenge being the motive. And as it wanted us to find the_piece_of_wall when we met it for the first time, My gues that big guy fucked them up. I serriously doubt that we woud find out who hired him, as by my opinion Amazing Larry, was the one who told this motherfuckers about the run and B´s common associates. Rest in pieces Larry. I dont know if they were working on some Echo Mirage revival or some transhumanistic black ops.I just wonder if killing Goodman would have null impact on the existence of his e-ghost, or if that vegetable still needs to be alive for this entity to continue.
Well, we are about to find out soon.
Security seems to be low, so I wonder if NeoNET even knows about this mess, by my opinion they just wrote those gusy off once the got flatlined. Well they still have serrious hardware, so who knows. I say we go in as soon as you both reach this place.I just hope Storm gives us some astral insight on the background of this shit.

[inca1980]

The three of you have arrived at the diner and the are observing the hospital from the both.  The sun is starting to set and the orange light makes the fumes of the plex sparkle with life.  Nothing unusual has happened yet as far as TVH is concerned but the dwarven waitress does arrive and asks Storm and Stake if they want to order anything.

[Thermo]

Storm is so wired that she's barely even able to respond to the waitress without her words coming out in a torrent.

"We're fine please dont worry about us go away NOW thanks we appreciate it and we're fine so no need to come back since we're fine and dont need anything..."

She stops abruptly and her head snaps to the side as the looks at something out the window, then she turns back to the waitress just as suddenly, but this time there's something.. different about her. Something that looks feral and cold.

"GO."

Then, just as suddenly, her expression softens and she laughs a full and rich laugh, her face incredibly beautiful once again. She gets distracted by something over the waitress's shoulder, and finally focuses on the waitress as though noticing her for the first time.

"Thanks, we're all set, we're waiting on someone." she says, in a perfectly normal voice.



Once the waitress has left the table, Storm astrally projects and heads over to scout the hospital. She gives a mental command to her Valkyrie spirit to stay by her side in the Astral realm.

Storm tries to see if there's any residual magic present around the hospital

Assensing(1)+Intuition(6)-Sustaining(2) (5d6.hits(5)=0) no glitch, fortunately

Not having much of a choice, she tries to get into the hospital itself. She commands her spirit to cast its extended range detect enemies spell before they head in. Warn me if beings with hostile intentions towards us are in the area.

[Sichr]

Shiiia. And now I would have to kill that waitress before she calls bouncers to throw Storm out. 

He raises his hand.

Here.here! I would like to make anozher order. Btw. that elf bitch is stoned as hell, I suppose. I bet she would spend lots of money when she wokes up. Fifty bucks against one coffee for free. What do you say?

[Ren]

Stake was about to order a sandwich when Storm’s words cut in. He tried to hide his surprise and concern when he heard her speak but he knew he probably was doomed to fail. Oh, drek, why do mojo-slingers always have to be weirdoes? Geez, the poor girl will surely remember the two of us now, we will be the topic for a few days. However, as he could do nothing to make the conversation not happened, he silently endured and waited for her to come back from the recon.

[inca1980]

Storm is clocked out and unable to hear how Zach just referred to her.  The waitress just holds her AR note-pad and stares at him disapprovingly.  She seems to decide to not ask any questions, refuses his 50¥ and goes to wait on another table. 

@Storm:
[spoiler]OOC: Valkyrie casts detect enemies F6, range radius 360 meters, which encompasses all of TVH and almost 4 city blocks.   drain resist will 6 + cha 6 = (12d6.hits(5)=4).  The Valkyrie takes 2S. [/spoiler]
Your astral form leaves the the diner and floats across the street and down to ground level with the Valkyrie by your side.  As you approach you ask her to wield her sorcery to cast a spell to find anyone with possible hostile intentions inside.  She nods, closes her eyes and utters a few syllables in an ancient tongue.  The strain this causes even one as powerful as herself is evident, but pain is the currency in which her kind barter.  She opens her glowing eyes again and reports back to you.  "I cast a powerful spell but did not find any enemies inside this fortress young-one." 

You look around the outside of the hospital and try to read the threads of astral energy dancing all over but do not see anything unusual, any wards nor any signatures of magic-use.  This part of Tacoma is quite drab and the dullness of the astral realm reflects this and nothing about TVH indicates the presence of magical defenses. 

In your muted conversations with the ork Dannyboy you only gleaned a cursory sketch of what the layout of TVH is like.  You decide to take a direct approach in order to map the place out in your mind and enter through the lobby.  As soon as you pass right through the front sliding plexi-glass doors which look completely opaque to you in the astral, you are greeted by the negative vibrations bouncing off the walls and echoing through the structure.  Neglect, impatience, incompetence and apathy all float through the ether and Valkyrie turns to you.  "Is this how you meta-humans treat your wounded warriors?  In Valhalla they would be honored and celebrated and not cast aside and forgotten like they are here."   She grimaces and seems to steel her resolve to search the place and leave.  You pass through and explore the first 4 floors, as always the signs and room numbers are incomprehensible to your astral form but you can tell that all the rooms are completely filled with what must be patients, most of them lying in bed, a few of them sitting in rec-rooms.  The 5th and final floor is completely devoid of astral forms or signatures.  Although inanimate objects look like mere dull shadows, it is still possible to tell that most of what you are looking at is electronic equipment strewn about.  Valkyrie is searching in a separate room and suddenly she calls your attention through your mind-link.  "I think you should see this."  You phase through a series of walls and when you arrive in the room she is in you see that the whole far wall is glowing with the energy of being right behind a ward which must encompass a whole room and in the center of the wall is a hydraulic sliding door. 


Wound: Valkyrie{2S(drain), 3 services} 

[Thermo]

Storm glides over towards the ward and tries to determine some basics about its construction. What type of magician erected it? How long has it been up? Did the mage spend the energy to make it permanent or is this just a temporary barrier? Finally, how strong is it?

Assensing(1)+Intuition(6)-Sustaining(2) (5d6.hits(5)=3) (sweeeeeeeet....)

I think we just hit pay-dirt...

[inca1980]

@Storm:
You analyze the swirling colors streaming over the ward as if it were sunlight glinting off the surface of a soap bubble.  This astral construct looks to be more powerful than your own power and must have taken several hours to construct.  It's most likely that it's creator invested part of his or her own power to make it permanent and you find the tell-tale signature he or she left behind. 

[Thermo]

Storm instructs her spirit to follow her and heads back to the diner. She enters her body once more, feeling the painful rush as her blood pressure hits the limit as she jolts back to consciousness.

"There's definitely a room in there that they don't want anyone spying on. Had a powerful mana ward around it, wasn't able to get inside without setting off whoever erected it. Top floor of the hospital is abandoned except for that room."

At this point, Storm begins furiously drawing a map of the hospital interior.

This way, that way, up several hallways, end of the hall, on the right, up the stairs, nobody home on this floor, hahaha, just the damn MANA WALL, why the HELL did that need to be there, no way in, gonna set off the mojo alarm, hahaha, FOCUS, gotta get back in meat body, lead the way for chummers to kill drek-eater inside, son of a bitch tried to kill me, ME, don't they know who I am, well now I'm good and pissed and I will fry his ass to pieces

She shows the map to Zach and Stake and hopes it makes sense.

Memory test: Logic(2)+Wil(9)-Sustaining(2) [Mental: 7] (9d6.hits(5)=5)

[inca1980]

From the AR sketched map that Storm drew you see that the fire escape in the alley back behind the hospital goes all the way up but you see that the back fire-escape door to the fifth floor has been cemented off with plasticrete blocks and mortar as if maintenance had marked off that floor as no longer being in use.  The only entrance Storm really could find was going astrally straight through the floor but you do see that the elevator shaft makes it all the way up, but you have no way of knowing for sure if the elevator is programmed to allow you onto the fifth floor. 

[Sichr]

Zach points at the shaft and sealed doors. Here and here. Possible ways in or outt. I have no mote explosives, so I would recomend goong in and out throught the shaft and leep those doors only if anyone has a meaning to break the wall. Storm? Wpuld amy of you minions able to help us with that? Or some spell you cast?
If we get to zhe elevator ot the shaft itself I can deply spy drone to do the recon ahead. But I will need to have the line hidden an protected. Stake? You ready to go im with us?

[Ren]

”Of course I’m ready to go in, just don’t expect too much stealth outta me. Elevator sounds good, hopefully if I can directly connect it, its defenses will be lower than the system from outside.” Stake thought for a second. ”I can also prepare some packages to make that exit usable again, I have the tools and the materials to open it up in a second. I can’t really make calculations, so I will have to overestimate the hardness of the structure. Zach, you mentioned a drone, if you could make a survey of the cemented-off door, it would make estimations more accurate.”