[Malevolence]

It only needs to be within 100 meters, so the outer edge of that I imagine. However, with conditions as they are, the rain might interfere with the laser, shortening the range, so however close it needs to be to make up for that.


Fly-spy Perception (Pilot 3 + Clearsight 6): 9d6t5 3 Limit 3
Fly-spy Stealth (Pilot 3 + Stealth 6): 9d6t5 2 Limit 3 I think


Perception [INT 5 + Perception 6 + Audio Enhancement 3]: 14d6t5 3 Limit 2 I believe due to the sensor rating (though that may only apply when using EWar)

[Tecumseh]

So, some questions:

1) Was the break room illuminated or was it dark before Achak stepped in? I'm trying to determine if there's a reasonable chance that the patrol would skip looking in the break room.
2) Any obvious places to hide in the break room?
3) What's the visibility to the hallway? Is the only sight line through the door or is it more open and/or with windows?
4) How much time do I have before the patrol passes, or reaches a point where it will have sight lines down the hallway?
5) Is there a storage closet nearby? If so, does it appear to have a lock/maglock?
6) Can I send a feed of the conversation to Mercer and Nori via my earbuds, or do I need to repeat and rephrase?

A quick reminder, before it might come up, that Achak has Traceless Walk.

[rednblack]

Good questions.

1) Was the break room illuminated or was it dark before Achak stepped in? I'm trying to determine if there's a reasonable chance that the patrol would skip looking in the break room.
--The break room is dark save for the lights from the vending and soy processing machines.  The patrol would be looking at the -3 Dim Light modifier, unless he's turning lights on.  Achak can hear him open a door, ostensibly to a bathroom or similar around the hall.

2) Any obvious places to hide in the break room?
--There's a little alcove where he would have to come all the way into the room and down about five meters to see.

3) What's the visibility to the hallway? Is the only sight line through the door or is it more open and/or with windows?
--Sunrise, as well as the other offices, have front windows, about waist-height and up to the ceiling, where their AROs are projected.  If you look at the blueprints]http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=19196.msg424097;topicseen#msg424097]blueprints the window is in the bottom left-hand corner in the waiting area.  As an aside, @Mal, the drone will have access to what's being said in the Director's Office and the two Sales Offices, while Achak is reasonably sure that he's hearing the conversation from the main area, or perhaps the Conference Room if the doors are open.  Otherwise, the hallways are well-lit and bare.

4) How much time do I have before the patrol passes, or reaches a point where it will have sight lines down the hallway?
-- 80-100 seconds. 

5) Is there a storage closet nearby? If so, does it appear to have a lock/maglock?
-- There is a storage closet between Achak and Sister Rebecca that is maglocked.  There are two office suites in front of and between Achak and Sister Rebecca that are also maglocked.

6) Can I send a feed of the conversation to Mercer and Nori via my earbuds, or do I need to repeat and rephrase?
--Achak doesn't have a Sound Link, and I'm not sure that his ear buds alone would be able to pick up the conversation with as much clarity.  It might be good for Achak to give some broad strokes.

[Malevolence]

We'll try all three rooms and stop at the first one that has an active conversation (or other interesting sounds).

[Tecumseh]

Huh, sound link. I never think about sound links because they're only mentioned in the context of cyberears, ot earbuds or headphones. They're not even listed as an audio enhancement. I wonder if I've been playing it wrong all this time then. All the sample characters have image link clearly mentioned for the glasses and contacts but none of them have sound link listed for their earbuds. I'll ponder that.

Another "how does the world work question": if I unlock the storage unit and slip inside, will the maglock automatically lock behind me, or does it have to be relocked from the outside? I'm thinking about ducking in there, but if the sentry is checking all the doors (including the bathrooms) then he might expect to find the storage unit locked. Or perhaps Nori could lock it after me? I'll comm Nori and ask if she can lock the storage unit behind me if I go that direction.

Alternatively, I suppose I could leave the Fly Spy to do the surveillance (and hope it doesn't get caught) while Achak just stays one hallway ahead of the sentry at all times.

I'm not sure that blueprint link worked the way you wanted to. I presume you meant this one:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Have to run to catch my bus. I'll IC post tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Poindexter]

As for sound link, that's why I always go for either trodes or a datajack; always gives image link and sound link so i don't have to use slots in other items.

[rednblack]

Another "how does the world work question": if I unlock the storage unit and slip inside, will the maglock automatically lock behind me, or does it have to be relocked from the outside? I'm thinking about ducking in there, but if the sentry is checking all the doors (including the bathrooms) then he might expect to find the storage unit locked. Or perhaps Nori could lock it after me? I'll comm Nori and ask if she can lock the storage unit behind me if I go that direction.

Another good question.  Hmm, if they used a standard maglock, then it would lock from the inside.  A janitor's closet maglock might not, but locking and unlocking from the inside is probably a good safety fail safe.  We'll say Achak can lock it from the inside.

I'm not sure that blueprint link worked the way you wanted to. I presume you meant this one:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

That's it.  Thanks.

As for sound link, that's why I always go for either trodes or a datajack; always gives image link and sound link so i don't have to use slots in other items.

Yeah, I think the text on DNI says, "user's perceptions," or something like that which would make me think that anything scored on a Perception test would qualify.  I think you could broadcast from your link or earbuds, etc so you can share conversations and things like that, but I wouldn't put that streaming at the same level as the ungodly 8 hits Tec scored on his test.

[Tecumseh]

Work is hectic so I'll be stretched thin today.

Achak will try for the supply closet. If it's locked, he'll ask Nori to unlock it. If she can't, he'll try to do it himself.

Per the IC, he'd like the Fly Spy to continue the surveillance if Nori or Mercer can keep an eye on it.

He's asking Sister's air spirit to keep tabs on the patrol and use the Confusion power if the patrol gets suspicious. That said, he's hoping it doesn't come to that because he doesn't want Pachis - if she is Awakened - to detect any astral signatures.

Open question to the group about what to do about Pachis. Maybe Mercer tags her car with a tracker, but what then.

[Malevolence]

So, does anybody else want to call the number of the Johnson on Iki's phone right about now and see which of the voices answers?

[Poindexter]

So, does anybody else want to call the number of the Johnson on Iki's phone right about now and see which of the voices answers?

fucking brilliant.

"I'm calling from inside your office. How's Iki doing?"

[Tecumseh]

I presume it would be Pachis but there's nothing stopping you, other than the tizzy it might cause. It does bring to mind the triumphant line from The Bourne Ultimatum:

Jason Bourne: If you were in your office right now we'd be having this conversation face-to-face.

Until I am told otherwise, I will presume Achak did not hear the Iki conversation. His current thinking is that Iki is on the other end of Pachis' comm call. He also doesn't know that a hunt for icons running silently is about to begin. OOCly I don't know if they are referring to me and the good Sister or to the Fly Spy outside. Perhaps both.

Achak's Crusader does have a sound suppressor, if it comes to it, but he's still wary of direct action. Sister Rebecca can probably generate a significant distraction with her boom stick if they needed to make a getaway. But Achak's primary mission is information gathering, not collecting scalps, so he'll put off direct action until his hand is forced.

Until then, picking the maglock on the supply closet: Agility 5 + Locksmith 6 + Spec 2 + Maglock Passkey 4: 17d6t5 8 hits

The hot streak continues. Hopefully the dice don't got cold if there's a firefight.

[rednblack]

@Tec, that's correct.  Achak can hear the conversation Pachis is having, but not the conversation between Ikiryo and the other woman/man.  Achak can also pop the lock no problem.  While not mentioned in the rules, I'd imagine there's a test to put the case back on once the door is opened.  I would also imagine that test would be an Extended Test (1 Combat Turn) but that it would be a bit easier to do, (Maglock Rating) as opposed to (Maglock RatingX2).  Can I have a roll for that?

Also, my understanding is that Achak is going to leave the drone in the hallway.  Correct?

@Mal, Does it also have a laser mic?  Can I have another Stealth roll?  Also,

So, does anybody else want to call the number of the Johnson on Iki's phone right about now and see which of the voices answers?

I love it.

Next up, IC posts from Tec and Poindexter.  Nori is going to reboot her deck, and then do some Matrix Perception to see if she thinks that she has a chance against the enemy decker.  If she thinks she has a chance, he'll ask Mercer if he thinks that she should 1. MARK and defend, 2. MARK and hack, or 3. keep a close eye on the team's silent devices before stepping in.  If Mercer thinks they should alert the team about the search, he should send the comm. 

Also, so I won't have to do any secret GM rolling, can I get a LOG test  and an INT + Firewall test from everyone.  You may, or may not have been chosen.

[Tecumseh]

Another hair-on-fire day at the office so I won't have the IC for a while.

Rolling twice, first time for the case reassembly and second time to defeat the anti-tamper system, if any.

Agility 5 + Locksmith 6 + Spec 2 + Maglock Passkey 4: 2#17d6t5 4 hits 5 hits

I suppose it doesn't make sense to include the Maglock Passkey in the reassembly. That would drop 1 hit and make it 3. Let me know if that's enough or if the rating is higher than that.

Achak would like to leave the drone in the hallway but is hoping someone else can give it directions.

Oo, Logic tests. I'm good at those. Am I defaulting or is it straight Logic? Logic: 2d6t5 2 hits, 2 dice, 2 hits, the hot hand holds

Firewall test: Intuition 6 + Firewall 7: 13d6t5 3 hits, cooling off a bit but not disastrous

[Malevolence]

The fly-spy outside is not running silent (none of Mercer's gear is - the presence of silent running gear is too easy to spot and raises too many hackles - nothing puts an enemy on alert like the sudden appearance of a bunch of running silent devices) - just blending in to the background of other drones/devices that litter the cityscape. The one that Achak took inside is in whatever mode he placed it in, otherwise it is probably still running wireless on (not silent). Both of the Fly-spys are outfitted similarly with Ultrasound, Camera w/Vision Mag & Low-light, Omni-Mic, Directional Mic, Laser Mic, Atmosphere sensor, Rear Camera (no mods), and Radio Signal Scanner. It occurs to me that with a camera that already effectively includes an omni-mic, having that separately makes no sense if I'm not putting any mods in it, but not sure what else I'd put there, so meh.


I'll IC it, but assume that Mercer is running the conversation through a Speech to Text program and transmitting the results in real time. In game, this is largely that same as him mentally typing it out as he goes except it is much cooler and ties in better with what I feel the technology of the time would be like (complete with the software automatically attributing what is being said to the appropriate speaker and allowing Mercer to tag one of the voices as Iki).


If she asks, Mercer is likely to prefer option 3, shifting to option 1 if the enemy hacker starts marking our devices. The jammer is on standby (wireless off, currently, but on Mercer's body), which should help Mercer and Nori, but unfortunately doesn't do much for Achak and Becca.


If Nori has a better Matrix defense than Mercer (and she almost certainly does), he'll hand off the Fly-spys to her when her deck comes back up. If the enemy is already tipped off, running silent might be a good option, but it might also be the case that they'll be too busy taking a close look at the running silent stuff and ignore the (presumably, or at least comparatively, innocent) non-hidden items for a while. I'll let Nori make that call - he'll hand them off to her wireless on (or whatever mode Achak left his in), and let her switch them to running silent if she chooses. Heck, she could even wrapper them to make them look even less conspicuous.


Of course, there are other, more insidious things that could be done, but it gets into the whole "anything we can do a mega can do too (and probably better)" bit. Basically, you have the drone run wireless off. Every IP it randomly chooses whether or not to switch wireless on and transmit what it has collected, then go wireless off again and repeat. The random portion would be rolling a 1 on a d6 (or a 1-2, or a different die size/time interval depending on how often you want updates). The upside is that it is likely to be offline when the enemy is looking, and even if it is noted, so long as they haven't uniquely identified it (placed marks) they are likely to think it is just multiple transient devices. Even if they do uniquely identify it, it dramatically reduces their window of interaction and the randomness makes it difficult for them to predict when it comes back online, thus hindering their ability to plan ahead or optimize their action economy. Obviously, it also robs the operator of the ability to get realtime information from the drone.


Anyway, that'll all be in Nori's hands.


Rolls:
Fly-spy Stealth (Pilot 3 + Stealth 6): 9d6t5 4 Limit is 4 (Handling)


Logic: 4d6t5 1 - Twice the dice, half the result, yay.
Matrix Defense [Int 5 + FW 7]: 12d6t5 5 - Come at me, bro!

[Poindexter]

can I get a LOG test  and an INT + Firewall test from everyone.  You may, or may not have been chosen.

Logic roll (Log 2): 2d6t5 0 Nope.
secret Gm rolling (Int 3 + Firewall 7): 10d6t5 3

eh, I'll take it.

IC post incoming tonight or tomorrow. Gotta lotta shit a gwon a tonight.