[gilga]

Spikes listens to pale horse but remains silent, her brainiac brain calculates several witty remarks on the fly. Yet she decides to remain silent, so in response she just grins at the stoic elf and then nods her head. The little fly teaching the mighty spider... I am definitely not in Kansas anymore. She thinks, yet the idea of a criminal shadowrunner looking out for her is still difficult to accept these people are all sINless scum, people that contribute nothing to the economy of the world, create or invent nothing of their own...

"Perhaps she is just afraid that I will mess it up for her... but I do not need a remainder I am never giving up my deck. Life are miserable without it." she thinks.

[Ravensoracle]

The RFID tags are easy to follow otherwise, and the group arrives at the port hole doors.

Cas keeps an eye on the others and directs them the best he can to keep everyone hidden and safe. Once he reaches the doors that Eddie found he begins to study them.

"Which door do we use?"

[Tecumseh]

Ichante descends into the sewer, less annoyed than she otherwise might be since she's already wet from the unrelenting rain. If anything, the sewer might actually be drier than the surface. That optimistic thought lasts for a few steps, until she hits a slimy patch and almost belly flops into the fast-moving center channel.

The dwarf gets up off her hands and needs, hyperventilating a little at her close encounter with the water. She has never liked water deeper or bigger than a bathtub, not since she was a little kid. The phobia tugs at her insides, but recedes as she stands up and straightens out her jacket and her gloves. Summoning as much dignity as she can muster, she resumes her lead on point. She soon feels better when the much more nimble Pale Horse also takes a fall.

On the astral, Ichante can see squat. Sure, there's algae and other microbial life, but evidently the rising waters have motivated the rats and devil rats to seek higher ground. Thermographically, there's just as little to see so she flicks on her infrared flashlight, carrying it in one hand and her borrowed club in the other. Pale Horse follows behind her, peering over her head with her adept senses.

They follow the crumb trail of RFID tags left by Eddie until they reach the door in question.

"Hey, muscles," Ichante says to Casket. "Do me a solid and keep me out of the drink while I poke my head in."

Once the larger man has a firm grip on Ichante, she goes limp as he astral form slips away. She gets her bearing for a moment - lest she get lost underground - and then pushes through the door to the other side.

The room is disgustingly thick and cloying, like swimming through gelatin. She can only make out half the room but doesn't see anyone around. What is there is a palatable sense of dread, fear, and anguish, intermixed with a persistent feeling of curiosity. As a cat shaman, Ichante knows curiosity, but she would hope to find it in a more welcoming space.

Rejoining her body, she pats herself down to make sure no one mussed up her hair while she was away. Then she covertly burps a few times to help settle the nausea welling up in her stomach.

"The coast is clear," she announces to Casket. "We can pop the lock. And by 'we' I mean 'you'." She steps aside to let the big man work.

She turns to Pale Horse. "You and I are going to feel like drek in there. Imagine all the miserable emotions you feel when coming off a hit of Jazz. This is a dark corner for doing dark deeds." She grips the gunstock club tightly, as if it might help ward away the evil within.

[rednblack]

Upon descending in the sewers, which really is a step up from the constant downpour, Chaim turns to supervisor mode, whispering into his subvocal mic.  "PaleHorse, Casket, take point.  Ichante take the middle, and have your spirit on the lookout, Spikes, hang back with me.  All, keep your eyes out for Casket's advance orders."

It's nothing that needs to be said, really, their advance was already planned out, as was the marching orders.  Casket had shown them back at the safehouse how to move in a diamond formation, so that they could keep the best lookout and be prepared for any angle of attack.  Still, Chaim has noticed both with his time at Aztechnology and especially in his present role as shadowrunner, that running according to plan made everything work out more smoothly.  Hell, sometimes just being reminded of a bad plan could salvage it.

In turn, each of the three females take a knee, or worse, in the muck and algae, and for a moment the team stops, the splashing echoing down the walls of the sewer, soon to be lost among the sounds of running water.  Thankfully, no one is worse for the wear, though Ichante seems thoroughly displeased.  "Hang in there," he whispers to her, turning his subvocal mic off for a few seconds.  "We'll be topside soon enough.  Just focus on keeping us on track, wiz?"

They advance slowly, carefully, with Chaim periodically calling attention to a chest-high drainage pipe, or blind corner as they make their way to the door Eddie found.  When they get there Ichante swoons into Eddie's arms, Any excuse, eh, ya old bird? and Chaim pulls back the gloves on his chameleon suit and washes off his hands with some of his bottled water.  By the time he's changed out his contacts, Ichante is back to herself and warning PaleHorse of some nasty drek going on in the astral. 

With the new contacts in Chaim can't see nearly as far, though he'll be thankful for them should it come to any shooting.  He considers going ahead and popping some jazz, but without any real idea of how far hey have to go, much less the pace they'll be able to keep, it'd be bad news if the drugs gave out before he could.  The drug quality varied so widely, there was never any telling of what you were going to get for a ride. 

[Ravensoracle]

Cas took out his lockpicking tools and set to work on the door Ichante pointed out. It wasn't all that hard. Cas always did have a knack with the old tumbler style locks. He put pressure on the mechanism and raked the tumblers. one smooth movement and the lock was undone.

He turned to the others before he started to open the door.

"So I'm guessing either me or Pale Horse takes point." he subvocalises across the team channel.

[Tecumseh]

"Pale Horse and I might be compromised by the environment," Ichante whispers into her micro-transceiver. "Cas should take point with Pale Horse sweeping behind."

[CraterShip]

The lock slides smoothly open, and with a not-so-gentle push the section detaches from the rest of the wall, Casket manages to keep a hand on the bottom, keeping it from crashing into the floor inside the room. He moves in first, setting the panel to the side so no one trips on it, and begins checking the room.

Inside is something from Eddie's nightmares. The center of the room is dominated by a bare metal surgical style table, complete with shackles, a bolted on IV branch, and runnels for various bodily fluids. Directly above the table is a large bank of spot lights, interwoven with cameras and haphazard cords tying it all together. Every surface, from the table to the floor, to the walls and even the lights are covered in various amounts of dried blood and bits of human tissue.

This must be what was meant by a "popper."

Across the room is a single doorway, but no discernable knob is on this side of the door.

[gilga]

Spikes looks at that atrocity and it makes her sick, "awww... that is awful" she thinks and then heads on to the spotlight and cameras, "Should I get a mark on these cameras?" she suggests sub vocally.

[Ravensoracle]

Casket sweeps the room with his silenced Pred V at the ready. He nods toward the other door.

"Do you think they are on the same network as the door so we can get out of this shithole?"

[gilga]

Spikes subvocally say "Yes they are connected and I already have a single mark on the camera and host. I'll need someone to protect me if you want more because I really need hot sim in order to continue poking around in that host.

[Tecumseh]

Ichante brings up the rear to keep the team in front of her and provide counter-spelling if necessary. She tiptoes into the room bracing for a wave of nausea that never arrives.

Huh, this isn't so bad, she thinks, sidestepping the remains of a popper as she swings her infrared flashlight around. A little lax on the housekeeping. Too bad Eddie's missing out.

She gives Achak orders to hang bang, as she doesn't want to expose him unnecessarily to the room's miserable aura. She rotates through her contingency plans.

If anything walks through that door, Petrify it. If it pushes through that, stab it with Chill. If we conduct a fighting retreat, Ice Sheet. If I'm surrounded, Flame Burst. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

She hunkers down, keeping an eye on the door without a doorknob while Spikes does her thing. "Let's make sure those cameras aren't running right now, while we're at it," she subvocalizes. "Footsteps and flashlights might tip them off, even if they can't see us."

[gilga]

"I have access to the cameras, I am forwarding camera feeds." Declared Spikes and added "The way I see it we have two options, stealth and slow or quick and dirty. If we favor stealth I can loop cameras in our movement path to keep us invisible to the main security. If we go dirty, I can hack smart gun systems on our movement path reducing our chance of being shot at. "  Spikes took a deep breath and examined her equipment to make sure that they are still stealthy as she waited for response. She made sure to loop the cameras in their room in case anyone would make a mistake while planning.
 

[rednblack]

The team discusses how to deal with the two guards in hushed tones, their soft words muffled in the air beyond by Achak's mojo.  Once everyone has made their contribution Spikes dips under again, her back against the wall, as she moves into the matrix for some old-fashioned signal jamming, while Casket, Ichante, and Pale Horse pile up by the door.

"Rememer," Casket whispers into his subvocal mic, "I peel left, Ichante, you're right, Pale Horse you follow her to clean up."

Chaim positions himself by the door, ready to open.  "Center mass," he says to Cas.  "This guy's not even going to know what hit him.  You ready to put those reflexes to the test, old man."

Casket crouches low with the shotgun looking natural in his hands, a practical extension of his body.  His eyes peer forward like a predator, his lips pursed as he breathes in deeply through his nose.  "Go."

[CraterShip]

At Spikes' command the door opens quietly on hidden hinges. Casket and Ichante simultaneously lean into the hall and perform exactly as planned. The guard nearest to the door had begun to take a step forward, but found himself unable to continue to move at all. Casket leans the opposite direction, his shotgun at the ready. The silencer muffles the bang to little more than a whisper, and an electrically charged round hits the second guard square in the chest. Reflexively, he moves to aim his rifle at the runners, but his muscles fail to obey, locking up as his world goes dark from the immense shock overloading his senses.

The runners pause for a moment to see if anything changes, but no alarms go off, Spikes registers nothing on the matrix side. The coast is clear for now.

The hallway is barren, cement walls stained from seeping water, the doors line the two sides, and at the far end stands the ominous looking vault door.

[Ravensoracle]

Casket is moving forward on the stunned guard before the guard can even drop. He looks left and right at every door down the hall just to make sure none of them are open with any surprises to jump out at the team.