Contract #1: Big Man, Japan!

[Drew Buddy]

Doc starts to speak, then pauses to think, then starts to speak again.

"Wait, isn't Shiawase bankrolling this little adventure?" He asks.

[GM Nick]

"I am... what is the words... Johnson-san?"

[Conway]

Walking casually into the room, Sinjin finds an open chair, unfolds it, and sits down without comment. Eyeing the eccentric newcomer, he notes the bulge in a breast pocket presumably containing the packet of cigarrettes the man seems intent on depleting before hours end. Continuing his visual pat-down, he notices nothing else resembling a concealed weapon For a man who claims to have no money, he sure keeps himself dressed to the nines...

Never having possessed a talent for words, the ork often found himself relying on his fists to finish his negotiations. Feeling fortunate to have found new employers with a tangible charisma, he decides they don't need his unlikable face fragging up their conversation. Remaining silent, he pulls out a mirror and tweezers and begins removing the stitches he earned in last weeks "evening exercise."

[John]

Max nods at Sinjin as he walks in and continues,

"Yes, in this case you are, Kato-san. Now please, the hard figure for the job is... ?"

[GM Nick]

"250,000 nuyen," replies Kato with a grin. "That's a whole 'lotta chedda! You can have it all, if you do me favor."

[John]

Max responds flatly,

"And that favor is flatlining your former Yakuza boss?"

[GM Nick]

"...and delete from computer records."

Kato smiles good-naturedly.

[John]

The elf nods,

"Alright. Well, we'd better get moving. Doc, any thoughts on our time table?"

(( Again, what time is it in the game? ))

[Drew Buddy]

"Got it."

Doc looks at Kato quizzically,

"What I'm trying to understand, is why Shiawase would come to you for help, and then make you pay for this operation out of your own pocket?"

(( And yeah, what time is it? ))

[GM Nick]

(( 9ish AM. ))

Kato waves his hands in front of him.

"No, no, friends. You not understand. Shiawase ask Kato to find team and head up. My cut is just a favor, you dig?"

[John]

Max is beginning to understand,

"I see-- what portion of that are you chipping in?"

[GM Nick]

"Shiawase say, Hey Kato, you find people to do this and we give you 250 big ones to pay them. You take whatever cut you want. But you are my good friends and number one bosses, so I don't ask for any-thing. Except a little favor."

[Drew Buddy]

Doc taps the table with his forefinger.

"A shame, really. I imagine Max here could have convinced Shiwase to lighten their corporate accounts a little. So they offered you a favor, and you in turn are subcontracting out to us."

He turns to the rest of the team,

"Okay, we've got 9 hours to do this. If they need to be done simultaneously, we may have to split up. We have a crowded pachinko parlor, a weapons cache, and a data center."

[John]

Max nods,

"I get it now."

The elf checks his watch and continues,

"Alright, it looks like we've got about.. niiiiine hours to get all this done, so this is going to have to be done largely on the fly. Any suggestions on where to start first, Kato? Doc? Tyros? Let's walk and talk boys-- get downstairs and grab our gear on the way out the door."

Max stands.

[Elliott]

Turning to Kato, "and your old boss you want rubbed out is at the Pachinko parlor now?"

Starting down the stairs, "I can take the parlor. It needs to catch fire and look like an accident, and I can get in, force one of the cooks to open a gas value and light a match. Offing Kato's old boss in the confusing won't be a problem. Maybe I will just have him light the match next to the gas leak." Tyros let's out a sadistic chuckle.

"I can catch up with another team at the weapons cache or data center afterwards. Obviously, Val will need to be on the data center team. Val, do you need to be at the mainframe to delete the files?"

[John]

Max thinks and responds,

"So you think splitting up is the way to go? Alright, if so, and I don't mean anything by this, we should probably have you take the job that requires the least amount of delicacy. You stand the best chance of getting in unnoticed since you can go invisible, but remember what I said-- we need there to be no collateral damage. Can you handle that? You don't have a good track record of not killing people when it isn't necessary..."

[John]

Max continues his considerations as the team walks,

"Alright, how's this-- Tyros and Sinjin-- you guys hit the pachinko parlor. That one requires the most stealth, so that sounds to me like a job for an invisible troll and our infiltration specialist. Meanwhile, Doc, Val, and I will head to the data center. We coordinate our movements so we both advance on our targets at 11:00."

Reaching the armory, Max begins loading his gear into his pack and checks his shotgun. As the elf does his combat inventory check, he continues,

"We finish our work there and reconvene here at 2:00 before approaching the weapons cache as a team. Sound like a plan?"

Max dramatically loads AP shells into his shotgun.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc pulls his Sig battle rifle off the rack, and pushes a magazine of AV ammo into the receiver.

"I like that idea. Having only one of us hitting one of the three locations sounds too risky."

He racks the bolt, and loads up the underbarrel MGL-6 with high explosive grenades.

"Kato, is it absolutely necessary that all three locations go up simultaneously? We'll have a better chance at this if we can stagger the hits."

Retrieving the SMG, he finds the magazine of blue-tipped stick-n-shock rounds, and feeds it into the gun.

[John]

Max thinks aloud while checking the blade on his utility knife,

"Since the second target is a date center, perhaps sabotage doesn't even need to be physical. Perhaps Merrin can get in there and just destroy their data storage system from the inside with a virus..."

[Stephen]

"Don't think I'll need to be at the mainframe itself to delete the files, assuming I can access it wirelessly. I'll check it out on the way over there."

"By the way, if any of you hombres get the chance to find me some admin or security credentials to the data center... say by holding a gun to some important-looking suit's head... you let me know. Of course, you have creative license with the method." Val grins mischieviously.

Val follows the rest of the team, anxious to get close to the data center so he can begin to nail down a proper plan for a virtual offensive.[/color]

[Stephen]

Val turns to Max.

"Well, my virus library got corrupted a few months back on another job. I suppose if I could locate one in the data center's quarantine though... I may be able to stage a little jail break."

[John]

Max smiles,

"I like the way you think."

[Elliott]

Tyros raises his eyebrow at Max, grabbing him forcefully by the shoulder and turning him away from the rest of the ground before saying in a low voice, "Are you high, elf? The last time there was an issue of bystanders getting hurt, mine survived locked in a closet while you and the good doctor hacked an innocent man apart and carried his dismembered body around in a suitcase. Or have you conveniently forgotten your dabbling in murder? Don't fucking lecture me on collateral damage. The work I do is precise and upright. My hands are clean buddy, unlike yours."

Releasing Max, Tyros turns back to the group, "Happy to take the ninja along! We'll meet up at the weapons cache when the jobs are done. If we can do it fast enough and make it look like an accident, hopefully the guards there won't be on high alert yet."

[John]

Max glares into Tyros's eyes and says,

"Don't ever fragging touch me again, trog. You and I work well enough together, but next time you touch me it ends badly. And innocent? Asshole was Renraku. And You leaving what's-her-slitch in the closet is precisely why that entire job went to drek. Precise? Apparently trolls have a different definition of precise, but the common definition is keeping things from getting fragged because you didn't cover all your bases. Exactly what about this isn't getting through your thick fraggin' head? WE ARE A COMPANY NOW. We don't fly anonymously under the radar. If we kill innocents, we go down. It's not fraggin' rocket science. It's not even fraggin' Linkin Logs."

[Elliott]

Tyros' patience with Max's provocations and racism is at an end, "I'll keep that in mind the next time you are lying split open and bleeding out on the floor. Wouldn't want a trog's hands healing you again now, would we? Just keep your drekking prejudices to yourself, and maybe we can continue to work together. Like I said, I've never murdered anyone, a claim you cannot make. You need to get your head out of your own asshole and realize that not all trolls walk around murdering folks for fun."

[John]

Max's fuse is running short,

"Get fragged, drekbag. You healed me once, and I've taken down whole armies of guys who would've turn you to fraggin' hamburger before you woke up enough to see that there were hostiles in the room. We don't like each other and we don't have to, but don't pretend that you've done me more favors than I've done you. That's the job, and that's the situation."

[Elliott]

Tyros shakes his head and laughs, turning his back on Max as he walks towards his bike. "Let's go Sinjin, you got wheels?"

Kicking the starter on, he yells at Kato, "Send my comm a picture of your boss so we know who gets to stay inside as the parlor goes up in flames!"

[Drew Buddy]

"Ladies, ladies," Doc says as he steps between Tyros and Max.

"Stow that drek for later." He glances apologetically at Kato.

"We're in agreement that there will be no civvie casualties on this job? Good. Let's leave it at that."

"In the mean time, let's get to the garage, and start heading into town. We have a lot to do, and not much time to do it."

[John]

Max is just about at his wit's end,

"Before Blynken zips off to hopefully-maybe get the job done, I'll just say this. Drek happens. I get it. Especially where explosions are concerned. But for fragssake, we can be cautious about it. Is that too fraggin' much to ask?"

[Conway]

Sinjin eyes the big troll appraisingly after his brief outburst. Not one to take lightly, it seems. Strong willed and confident...not a bad friend in a sticky situation. Seems the tension between he and the elf will either end well or end deadly, though....but let's hope he leaves this drek at the office before it gets us both killed

"No wheels for me, big guy. Didn't you know that ninjas teleport?" he chuckles as he checks the straps on his knife collection. "You got room on that thing for two? Cuz I got zilch for cab money."

Turning to Kato, he asks "How many exits to this dog house? Fire escapes? Any idea what room your old boss likes to settle down in?"

[Drew Buddy]

Doc spins a set of keys on his finger.

"It seems that our business partner forgot about a rather large aquisition our company made. The rover's parked in the garage. It'll get all of us where we need to go, and do it quietly and in style."

(( No, seriously, according to the description of the included amenities in the rover, apparently it has a wet bar ))

[Elliott]

Tyros slips his visor down on his helmet as he revs the bike engine, his blood pressure just beginning to level out, and switches to the comm frequency, <"Haven't forgotten, but I think I'll take my own ride on this one. We need getaway wheels too, and the rover will be with you at the data facility. Kato needs my seat anyway. You ready Sinjin? Hop on the back of my bike and hold on.>"

[Conway]

"We're on a pretty tight shedule, perhaps it's better that we split up now. Save me some gin!"

Climbing onto the saddle behind Tyros, Sinjin activates his comm-link and adds,
<Give us an update on your progress, f there's time we'll rendevous before the last hit.>

Giving a light tap to Tyros' shoulder he remarks "Good to go, boss"

[John]

Max remains quiet and eyes Tyros balefully as the Troll gets onto his bike. Turning from the troll, Max climbs into the rover. Responding to Sinjin, Max says,

<Will do. You do the same. We should have plenty of time to meet back up. >

[Drew Buddy]

A quick comm signal opens the large outer door of the garage, as Doc backs the rover out of its bay.

"Okay, Kato, tell us where to go."

(( Max, Val, and Doc are heading to the Data Center. Are we dropping Kato off at the pachinko parlor first? Perhaps it's time for some narrative fast-forwarding ))