[Poindexter]

"-outta gas. Going to have to take the first place we find unless we want to walk."

In an instant, Sam is awake and alert. Somehow, his sleeping brain had made good and damn sure to keep him appraised of important developments, and those two words, "Outta" and "Gas" had registered on the scale. He inhales to speak, about to suggest they just take some corps vacation home who aint usin it when Ace asks the Mask to repeat herself and she spits out that same exact idea. He exhales and closes his eyes again. Five more minutes is better than none... he thinks as he starts to drift off.

As he fades out again, he is aware of the words,

"So, I don't speak mage talk, or whatever, but is whatever is going on with that thing the reason our memories are all fragged?" 

"Probably." he grumbles as he adjusts his seating, trying to get comfortable.

[Malevolence]

We might be better off ditching the car sooner than later. We're under a spirit veil that should make us difficult to spot, the vehicle - not so much. The sooner we disassociate ourselves from it, the better. My main concern is street surveillance, so if we can get that under control - Ohanzee nods toward Crumpled - we can scout places more or less at leisure. I'm thinking we disembark on the main street about 100m from the street corner, unless there are too many people around, and go from there.

[Zweiblumen]

"Feels more like you're the boss for now Ohanzee, so I'll defer to you.  That said, my suggestion is to check out some of these bigger houses out in the 'burbs rather than heading downtown.  We will stick out like a sore thumb walking the streets, where as we could get the van into a garage and out of sight out here.  Your call sir."

[Malevolence]

Definitely outskirts. The rover is going to take a long drive off a short cliff. Relatives of the owners - or the owners if it was a company vehicle - will come looking for it soon enough. It needs to be clean and nowhere near us when that happens. It doesn't have enough fuel to get it far, so discreetly off the road would be ideal, but discreet is out because we need to burn it to make sure there is no blood or DNA. Forensic teams could do miracles with those, magicians could do even worse. Considering the amount of fuel it has, downtown would be too far for it to get back out of town for its swan dive, even if it wasn't a bad idea for the reasons you mentioned.

So, first thing, make sure external surveillance in the neighborhood is taken care of so we can't be tracked easily. Second, crack the car so you can command it to commit suicide. Lastly, find a house for us to crash in. That can be done while Sam rigs the car to go boom, or while we walk if need be.


Ohanzee hoped his instructions weren't too specific. Professionals hated being treated like children, and nothing upset one more than telling them how to do their job. But he hoped it was forgivable - everyone was a little out of sorts, so things might beed to be spelled out a little more clearly than usual.

[Poindexter]

Definitely outskirts. The rover is going to take a long drive off a short cliff. Relatives of the owners - or the owners if it was a company vehicle - will come looking for it soon enough. It needs to be clean and nowhere near us when that happens. It doesn't have enough fuel to get it far, so discreetly off the road would be ideal, but discreet is out because we need to burn it to make sure there is no blood or DNA. Forensic teams could do miracles with those, magicians could do even worse. Considering the amount of fuel it has, downtown would be too far for it to get back out of town for its swan dive, even if it wasn't a bad idea for the reasons you mentioned.

So, first thing, make sure external surveillance in the neighborhood is taken care of so we can't be tracked easily. Second, crack the car so you can command it to commit suicide. Lastly, find a house for us to crash in. That can be done while Sam rigs the car to go boom, or while we walk if need be.

Maybe it's hearing his name, or maybe it's the familiar, "Ok, here goes..." tone in the dwarf's voice, but something had woken him up again and forced the massive borgbeast to pay attention. With a throat full of sleep and mountain blown cold, he responds, "Gotcha, Big O." Then, after sitting up, rubbing his eyes, and getting his gear and goggles situated again, begins running though some test patterns on the best way to blow up a rover, occasionally grumbling, "Hmmm? Rrrrr."

[Tecumseh]

@Ace
Katsina nods to Ace in response to his question. "Yeah, I think the artifact is the culprit. Our talents and our expertise are coming back to us slowly, so maybe the effects are temporary, or reversible."

She pauses, her thoughts wandering toward epistemology and the nature of consciousness. It's entirely possible that they are completely different people than they were before - for all she knows, her talents could be as new as her personality - but that's a metaphysical can of worms that she's not ready to dig into yet. She glances at the crate again before Ohanzee seals it the best he can. The value of an ancient amnesia device seems questionable, both in terms of ritual use and practical applications, but it is clear that some people want it very badly.

She nods to Ohanzee's plan, signalling her agreement and her readiness to contribute.

@Van
"It's Friday morning. We should keep in mind that while a place might be vacant now, it could be occupied by this evening. It's ski season and one would think that the owners use their chalets on the weekends."

[Zweiblumen]

The Doc pulls a length of fiber optic cable from one of his pockets and plugs one end into the car, and the other into his wrist.
"I'll get this started while we find a pull off.  Chino, I'm gonna steal your ears, and Sam your eyeballs.  You'll get messages from me via text."

As he sinks into the comforting embrace of VR his body goes limp, and his mind relaxes as his consiousness expands.  The van glows as a data point directly infront of him, and he worms his way in, tossing mark after mark on it as he's in no hurry.  A simple gesture is all he needs to prepare a command to send the vehicle to it's rather untimely death.
With that task complete, he recalls his Agent from the previous search.
<<<@Agent [Doc] Search[surveillance objects along route]>>>
He then pulls up his own search and runs alongside the agent carefully scaning the route.

[Malevolence]

@Van
"It's Friday morning. We should keep in mind that while a place might be vacant now, it could be occupied by this evening. It's ski season and one would think that the owners use their chalets on the weekends."

Good point. You're better at spotting things in the astral. Please pre-scout the houses and find a few empty candidates. If you can match them to a map so that Doc can match them to an address, then from there to an owner, he can maybe dig into their schedules and see which ones will be remaining vacant for the next few days.

[8-bit]

Chino scans the area around him, looking for a suitable spot to park the torn-up Rover. He notices a small spot under some evergreens; the trees kept the snow from piling up. Taking a glance around, it seems to block line of sight.

Perfect.

He drives the car in, although the ride was a little bumpier than he expected.

"We've arrived at our destination. This is probably the best spot we're going to get before we hit the town."

Chino turns off the car to save what little gas is left for when Crumpled "disposes" of it. He takes out his simrig and looks at it thoughtfully. I suppose now is as good a time as ever.

He puts the unlabeled chip into his commlink, adjusts the trodes on his head, and sits back as the simchip starts to play.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina nods to Ohanzee. "I'm on it."

She settles in toward the front of the Rover, hoping to be out of the way of Sam's demolition activities. She glances to Ace before slipping off into astral space.

@Ace (private)
<<Keep an eye on me while I'm out, if you would. We'll synch up once we're settled in for the night.>>

She astrally projects, disappearing into the nearby neighborhoods in the blink of an eye.

[rednblack]

<<@Katsina [Ace] I gotcha covered.  We'll talk soon.>>

After sending off his text, Ace tops off his magazine, and considers his options.  With most of the team disposed in their various jobs he would probably be more useful out of the Rover than inside of it.  On the other hand, Katsina was the last surviving member of his team, and he couldn't help an unfounded suspicion that if the rest of the crew wanted to off them, they stood a better chance doing so while they were separated.  Finally, while he reasoned that wasn't very likely, he wanted to stick to the request as it was given to him, moved to the back of the Rover, squeezing in next to the obelisk -- Ghost he hated being this close to that thing -- wiped the back window, switched his vision to thermographic, and kept an eye out for what might be on their six.

[Malevolence]

Seeing everyone busying themselves with their tasks, he felt a moment of pride. He was more optimistic that they might survive the night, indeed, maybe even the whole ordeal. After APB, he had to admit that his confidence was shaken.


He tried to stay out of the others' way and busied himself with preparing the crate to move. After working with the crate for a few minutes, he realized that he was unconsciously avoiding touching the artifact. He found that curious, but also prudent, and did not stop avoiding contact with it.


Once he was finished with the crate, he did a quick look to see just how far from their current location Gloria Winters lived. He didn't plan on visiting her, but he didn't rule out some surveillance. Was she awakened? Could he pop out really quick and check on her house from the astral without being noticed? Or would she spot him, and be angry at his avoiding her? Was she even still alive? He decided it was probably best to have a spirit pre-scout the house, but that would have to wait until they no longer needed the concealment provided by Raven. He briefly considered asking Katsina, but felt that this was too low a priority, possibly bordering on personal interest, and decided to keep it to himself for now.


He got as comfortable as he could and tried to relax. Soon they would have a solid next step and things would move quickly. But for now, all he could do was rest and mentally prepare for the tasks ahead.

[8-bit]

As Chino exits the embrace of VR; he is hit by the bitter disappointment of the real world. The cold, biting wind, and hard seat were nothing compared to what he had just experienced.

He forces his eyes open and looks at the man lying limp in the back of the van. Hack and he made a pretty good team. Wait. Hack? Chino feels as if he was drugged, he can't remember things clearly. No, his name's Doc. No, wait. Crumpled. Shit. I can't remember which one is him. He could have sworn all of them were his friends. Or were none of them? Chino jabs his sinuses with his fingers, hoping to stimulate a coherent thought. His mind flashes back to the ectasy he felt during the simchip; the joy he felt as those humans' lives bled out of them; it was like a drug ...

He shakes his head to try and clear his thoughts. Looking around him, he sees he is in a driver's seat. Frag, where am I? Last thing I remember, Crumpled, no, Hack ... He snarls quietly to himself. He can't get remember what the hell he and his friend were doing here.

Chino nudges the limp figure of the person he thought he recognized. No response. The breeder was in VR. In frustration, he opened the door and stepped outside. Drek, it's cold.

He spotted a dwarf levitating some crate. No, not a dwarf. His name started with an "O". Shit. Chino watched him for a minute, and then it hit him. He remembered. That was Ohanzee; the man inside was Hack, no, Crumpled, ah, forget it. They had woken up with amnesia in a van on the side of a cliff in the middle of god damned nowhere. They were currently looking for a place to break into to lay low. Oh ... Ghost. Best not tell the others about this.

Chino opens the car door again and sits in his seat, looking at his hands and wondering just how the hell he was going to bluff his way through this.

[Zweiblumen]

Realizing that he hasn't a clue how to drive this thing Doc puts the van on the back burner while he creates an ARO with all of the surveilence equipment he and the agent find.

<<<@ALL [Doc]: Lupine Drive heads to a corp-owned community called "Mountain Valley."  We've got all kinds of monitoring and security that way.  Stillwater Drive is quiet though.  Did a pretty through scan, and I think that's the way we should head.  We've got some standard municiple gear about half a klick up the road, but that'll be a cakewalk.  I think Ohn and I should team up and check out Stillwater drive for an empty, him on the astral, me in the Matrix.  That work for you omea? Then we can plot our course.  Also, anyone got any bright ideas on the van as I can't drive for dreck.
<<Send File: hotSpots.aro>>
>>>

"Damn I'm in a good mood, must be leavin' the meat.  This is obviously where I'm most comfortable."

<<<@agent [Doc]: Make sure no one sneaks up on me.>>>
While keeping an eye on his windows into the meat, he heads off to the virtual Sillwater Driver and starts examining the buildings.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina snaps up out of her astral sleep. She looks around, making sure everything is alright. She glances at Chino, sees his aura. "What the hell happened to you? she asks, noticing the change in his mental state.

She shakes her head, not waiting for a response, then sends a text via DNI to the team.

@Team
<<We have light astral security to our right. A handful of watchers, a couple low-level spirits. On the left there's nothing looking for us on the astral. There's a stretch of three houses, of which the southernmost is occupied. The middle house and the house on the north are empty. Doc, can you cross-reference in the Matrix?>>

She tags the three houses in question with AROs.