[inca1980]

@Zach & Storm:

Ever since the meet gone bad you've been looking over your shoulder even to go to the bathroom.  It's been three days already and you know about as much now as you did the moment you were speeding away from the burning Puyallup Lodge.  You saw no reports in the paper of people dying from the fire but you've heard a few whispers in the shadows from survivors of the drones that were seen zipping up and down the hallways before everything went to shit. 

Speaking of drones, the only real outstanding detail that might have distinguished this from any other ambush is that there were no street sammies employed, no combat mages, no adepts.  As far as you can tell the only force that tried to take you out and was looking for Brick was an army of drones.  Even the Johnson was a drone. 

You haven't had a chance yet to get a professional to take a look at the rotodrone you confiscated, and Brick has been completely AWOL, which makes sense for someone who is hunted.  The only upside to the whole thing so far is that you haven't encountered any attempts on your life yet....yet.  And that's what's got you turning over the different angles of this pile of drek situation day and night. 

[Sichr]

Zach was ready to get down to the roots of this. He knows that some places may be under surveillance, well he dont fear Vory now as much as he does the unknown mechanical danger that threatened his and his partners life recently. As he knew that credsticks are of lesser value in barrens and ghetoes, he decided to get some real currency that would hel them convience local community to cooperation. Medical supplies. He hopes, that doctor Watson would be able to help him get what he needs, and since electronical messages and communication were quite vounerable this days, he decided to go the job old way. He get on his bike and merges with traffic to get there. Well, he is not careless, and before he reaches actual place, he runs a few circles around the block to see if the place is safe...

Sneaking:
Agi(4)+Sneaking(9) [Physical limit: 6] (13d6.hits(5)=3)

Looking for sneaking oponents:
INT(4)+Sneaking(9) [Mental Limit: 4] (13d6.hits(5)=4)

[inca1980]

@Zach:

Outside Doc Watson's you do a check and a double-check and the place looks safe outside.  Slipping into the alley, you walk down the brief flight of concrete steps that end at a maglocked doorway.  You already know where the overhead camera is located and imagine the good doctor seeing your tusked face all fish-bowled from your proximity to the lens.  Without a word being uttered the >click< of an automatic bolt unlatching and the >hiss< of the door sliding open welcome you to the grimy-sterility of the chop-shop. 



The door quickly hisses shut and locks itself behind you as soon as you enter and with well rehearsed timing a deviously beautiful blue woman almost instantly rounds the corner carrying a plastic bin.  Neena....the nurse....you remember her name as if through a dream.  The grey scrubs she's wearing, try as they might, do a poor job of hiding them sleek curves and her yellow catlike eyes lock with yours for an instant.

"Good evening Zacharias, would you please empty your weapons and electronics into the bin.  We've added extra security protocols so I apologize for the inconvenience."

[Sichr]

Nice to see you my sweet cat lady. I understand, this are difficult times.

With little hessitation, Zach took off his genades and H&Ks and placed them where he was told. His commlink is running in passive mode, with his new sin transmitting so je is safe from security checks while on the streets, here he has only a little use for it here. He remembers well that some questions were asked here about him, and he has hi ssuspicion about who was looking for the intel, but there were only a few other options and also...no risk means no gain. He kept his last backup as always, never separating from it, and follows the nurse

[Thermo]

"God damn fragging drones".

Storm felt like an animal in a cage. She didn't trust anyone these past few days. Her commlink was set to passive mode and she wasn't taking any calls unless she was sure as drek who was on the other end. And that meant that she wasn't picking up for any of her usual fixers, either. Not that she had to worry too much about that one; nobody had called.

She needed to reach out to Brick, as she'd promised Zach. She decided that using the services of her water spirits, known as the Fae, would be most appropriate. She decides to prepare by increasing her ability to resist the Drain that inevitably accompanies such actions.

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

Cast F7 Increase Charisma: Spellcasting(10)+Magic(4)+Power focus(4)-Sustaining(2) [Force 7] (16d6.hits(5)=8) Charisma increases from 7 to 11
Drain Resist (4): Willpower(9)+Charisma(11) (20d6.hits(5)=8) no drain

Summon F3 water spirit, optional power: Accident
Summon F3 Water Spirit: Summoning(7)+Magic(4)+Power Focus(4)-Sustaining(4) (16d6.hits(5)=4) hits capped at 3
Summoning Resist: Force 3 (3d6.hits(5)=0) 3 net hits
Drain Resist (2): Willpower(9)+Charisma(11) (20d6.hits(5)=6) no drain

Storm summons the water spirit, binding its contract by allowing it to hungrily lap its cold, wet hands across her chest. She feels some of the heat drain from her body as this happens. The spirit seems satisfied and nods curiously as Storm.

"Clever and nimble spirit, I require that you seek an ally of mine and deliver to him a message. You are then to bring back any replies immediately to me and are not to tamper with his words or meanings in any way. If other beings of any kind, whether living, spirit-form, or machine, are in the area, you are to report this to me as well.

She sends a mental picture of Brick to the spirit. She knows him well and her memory of him is crystal clear.

"The message is that he is to meet me at the coffee shop that I once told him about. The one that we would meet at should a run ever go sideways. Bring back his reply."

[inca1980]

@Storm:

Your spirit searches far and wide in astral space but returns in about an hour to report back to you that it has failed to find the aura of Brick.  It asks you to please be understanding that the quest you sent it on is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Having completed it's service for you it bows and departs. 
[spoiler]
OOC: remember all extended tests are diminishing in SR5 and the spirit couldn't possibly get enough hits for its Search power test.  Since it had to go beyond your Magic 4 x 100 meters that counts as a remote service and uses up all it's service once it's done searching.
[/spoiler]

Amazing Larry still hasn't returned any calls but you're a bit nervous about visiting him in person.   Well at least one piece of good news just came in....Olivia Black came through and dropped you a commcode for some decker named Stake.  You make a mental note to return the favor.  Even though you don't trust anyone, Olivia was more than just a contact, she was a friend, and someone you shared a following of the almighty Thor with.  The tip looked solid and by now it seemed like the only logical path forward to making heads or tails of this.



@Zach:
Neena's comfort with guns and grenades doesn't surprise you in the least and you return her smirk with a knowing smile as she casually puts the bin under her arm leaning it on her hip and with the other hand motions for you to follow her. 

Doc Watson is half focused on the AR output from a desk terminal as you walk into the consultation room.  His/her familiar mask is in place as usual and with the same computer masked voice scrambler he/she acknowledges your presence. 

"How's that liver working out for you?  I gotta say your a lucky bastard, but you runners are all a lucky bunch....well the breathing ones at least.  So, Neena says you wanted to talk."

[Sichr]

Luck usualy can use a little help...and new liver from time to time. Ive been sober even since. Drinking water and milk like a good cat. Youve practicaly changed my life. At least one ninth of it, I guess. I have much better aim since then, and that comes handy on the streets.
Got and answer and a biz. Which one you would like to hear first, good doc?

[Thermo]

Olivia's been a good friend over the years.

Storm sends an encrypted message to her new contact, a decker named Stake. It wouldn't keep Lone Star from deciphering it (or anyone else with a modicum of skill), but it would do against a casual snooper.

"Hoi, chummer. Got your name from a mutual friend. I have some wiz tech for you to look at for me, something big, you interested?" She sends him a crypto-code so his reply will be encrypted until she opens it using a matching key.

Storm decides to cast a few more spells using her sustaining foci.

Cast Improve Reaction (F3): Spellcasting(10)+Magic(4)+Power Focus(4)-Sustaining(4) (18d6.hits(5)=5) Reaction increases from 2 to 5
Drain(2) Resist: Cha(11)+Wil(9) (20d6.hits(5)=8) no drain

Cast Improve Intuition (F3): Spellcasting(10)+Magic(4)+Power Focus(4)-Sustaining(4) (18d6.hits(5)=7) Intuition increases from 2 to 5
Drain(2) Resist: Cha(11)+Wil(9) (20d6.hits(5)=9) no drain

(forgot to subtract (-4) for sustaining on the above rolls, first roll reduced to 3 hits, second roll reduced to 5 hits)


Now she waits.

[inca1980]

@Zach:
The Doc looks a little puzzled by what you mean...."How about the answer first....then we can talk biz."

[Ren]

Code swirled beautifully in the sterile environment of Virtual Reality. Stake stood in the middle of it, revolving in the opposite direction, sometimes taking pieces out of one place and putting them back to another. When ready, the Code would become part of an algorithm for analyzing chemicals, and he would put it up to OpenSource, for others to use it freely.

Sometime in the middle of the process, a disturbance appeared in the Code. Stake furrowed his brow and identified an incoming message with a moment’s concentration. His mood broken, he decided it wouldn’t hurt to check it immediately, especially when he realized it was encrypted. New momentum appeared in his activity, and he spent a short period with the decryption. The crypto-code which he received for the answer helped, at least in discerning the type of coding used. Boring but efficient, he thought.

After reading the message twice, he composed a quick answer. >>Hoi, chummer. A friend of a friend is always welcome. I’m interested in the main outline. Care to elaborate on details, like approximate job duration, estimated security category, and pay? Is the target a physical object or a virtual one?<< He applied the crypto-code to the reply and sent it right back. He also set the code aside, for use with later messages.
Hope this will be truly interesting. Haven’t met a real challenge in weeks.

[inca1980]

@Ren:

You get to thinking and one of the reasons a real challenge has been so hard to come by recently is that the jobs just haven't been rolling in.  In fact, you can't remember a time that it's been this bad.  You've been hearing some similar type of chatter while diving through shadow hosts of runners complaining about bulletin boards practically devoid of decent job postings.  So any work is somewhat of a relief. 

[Sichr]

OK. First, I`ll need my comm for this, I need to show you some pictures I take during last meetinhg with Johnson. Some serriously advanced chrome, not sure if its full cyborg or some kind of extremely augmented breeder suka. I`d like to hear your opinion on who can have such technology at his disposal. Here in this town. For shadows operations.

Zach waits for approval, and, if given, he gives doctor Watson avery piece of data available from his sensors, smartgun and googles, availale from meeting with that technoabomination.

[Thermo]

Storm reads the reply to her email and bites her lower lip, thinking on how to get a decker to help her when she has nothing to offer in return. She was nearly broke, living in a crappy squat in the barrens, and didn't have a clue about what to use as payment. Her best bet is to appeal to his curiosity and hope it's enough; if this Stake was one of those 50,000 nuyen per job types, then she'd need to look elsewhere. She didn't have the funding to become a fixer, and certainly not a Johnson.

She spends a few minutes running through a trideo playback of the incident a few days ago using the image link in her cybereyes. She crops out a few select clips and compiles them into small, neat files.

One is of the android being shot by Zach, her skin ripping open in patches and showing that underneath is only torn metal shielding, circuitry and LED's.  One round hits her head and exposes parts of a metalic skull underneath some sort of foamy skin-like covering.  The trideo shows her flying back on the couch on which she was sitting before and utters in a speaking voice that sounds glitchy all of a sudden: "Pre--pare to be e---rased."

The second is a similar file showing the same android, engulfed in flames, uttering its last words "Weee will render your professionnn irrelevant...." as it goes off-line.

The third is of the downed rotodrone, its service panel open, its memory circuits and logic boards exposed and relatively undamaged from the fall. Storm is careful to not include anything that could identify Zach or herself in the videos, including reflections off shiny surfaces, voices, or anything else.

Storm writes a note and attaches the videos. "Something is going down, something big. We're looking to get the info off the chips in the drone, info that can tell us who sent them and why. This is some seriously wiz tech, the kind of stuff that could be a game changer. If someone were able to replicate it for their own purposes, or post the source code so everyone had access, well let's just say they'd probably become pretty legendary."

[inca1980]

@Zach:

The Doc just stares at you through his full facial mask and doesn't reach for your comm at all.
"Whoa there buddy!... hold up a sec.  If your idea is to come waltzing in here and throw me images of places and faces I have no business seeing and frankly don't want any part of, then you're mistaken.  Dammit Zach I'm a doctor, not a street investigator.  I patch you up when you're broken and that's just about it.  It's how I do biz and it's what keeps everyone involved out of trouble! " 

[spoiler]
OOC:  Roll Smuggler Etiquette with a -1 since it's not shadowrunner etiquette.
[/spoiler]

[Ren]

Stake read the reply with a sour expression. Nothing about money. Not a darn word. Drek. Either can’t pay or wants a hard bargain. I don’t like this. Curiosity and disappointment battled inside. He knew that if he opened those attached files, he might be in on something that could cost him his life. But he couldn’t turn down potential revenue just because of caution, had he done that every time, he would have already starved to death.
However, he didn’t throw caution to the wind. He checked the package for malware before opening any of the files. He then watched the trids, first in their entirety, then checking and rechecking some frames. He noted where the recordings were cut, the speed of events, the background, all little details. He spent about 10 minutes before he remembered that someone was probably waiting for his answer on the other side. He texted back briefly, before continuing. >>Get back to you after I checked the files. Might take some time.<< The least the sender could do was wait a bit.

Stake spent about an hour investigating the details. He tried to find anything on the ‘warez in the trid, checking if it was a humanoid drone or possibly one of those full-body cyborgs rumors were flowing around of. He also checked what could be seen and deduced from the drone parts – manufacturers, tasks, uses, how advanced the tech was, and as an afterthought, how much the tech might yield if sold. And in all files, he looked for details standing out, something that might help him identify the places or the participants of the recordings.
[spoiler=tests and settings]For the duration of the searches, I set my deck as follows: Attack 3, Sleaze 5, Data Processing 6, Firewall 5. Running programs are (max. 3): Browse (cuts search times in half), Signal Scrub (reduces noise by 2 if needed), Toolbox (+1 to data processing). User mode: Hot Sim VR.

Drone:
Drone parts: LOG(7) + Hardware(5) [Mental(11)] (12d6.hits(5)=3)
Drone parts: LOG(7) + Engineering, civil(4) + Mnemonic enhancer(2) [Mental(11)] (13d6.hits(5)=3)
Drone uses: LOG(7) + Security design(2) + Mnemonic enhancer(2) [Mental(11)] (11d6.hits(5)=5)
Matrix search: INT(6) + Computer(5) + hot sim(2) [Data processing(7)] (13d6.hits(5)=4)

Searching the vids for details standing out:
Perception: INT(6) + Perception, searching(5) + actively looking(3) [Mental(11)] (14d6.hits(5)=5) (if I can enhance the quality with some computer method or use vision or audio enhancement to increase chances of success, please tell me)

Androids:
Recognizing hardware, parts: LOG(7) + Hardware(5) [Mental(11)] (12d6.hits(5)=3)
Recognizing hardware, parts: LOG(7) + Cybertechnology, defaulting(-1) [Mental(11)] (6d6.hits(5)=4)
Matrix search: INT(6) + Computer(5) + hot sim(2) + probably obscure info(-2) [Data processing(7)] (11d6.hits(5)=3)
Note: If I don’t find anything on the android by 60 minutes after I sent the answer to Storm, I will leave it for later.[/spoiler]