Contract #1: Big Man, Japan!

[Stephen]

His datatrail cleanup done, Val flicks back to AR, unnecessarily dusts off his hands, and responds to Doc. <Affirmative, 'mano.>

Val awkwardly attempts to climb over the generator wall, hoping he won't have to ask his new comrades to assist him with such a mundane task.

[Conway]

[Pachinko Parlor, Office]

Rebounding from his dodge, Sinjin springs forward to drive his stiffened fingers into the startled goons windpipe. Fingers contracting forcefully he attempts to separate the man from his voicebox with a yank.

"Shouldn't have squeaked, guinnea pig." Sinjin growls menacingly. "A second of silence would have bought you time to talk."

Switching to Japanese, he adds, "Kato sends his regards."


((Killing Hands, Critical Strike,))

[Elliott]

Tyros' invisible eyes widen as his magic encounters surprisingly stubborn mental resistance from the dishwasher. Under his breath, "I guess we do this the hard way." With a grimace, Tyros reaches out (centering) and delves into the man's mind again - he does not try to be gentle (mind probe, f3, same query).

((Let's see if I can break the shitty dice roll streak I'm on!))

[GM Nick]

Val frowns at the wall, failing to see how his comrades were able to leverage the miniscule abrasions in the concrete to their advantage. He realizes that he will be unable to climb the wall without assistance.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc taps Max on the chest with the back of his hand.

"Hey, you still have that spool of rope you're always carrying everywhere? I don't think our decker has been running as many obstacle courses as you, and I sort of cheated to get over the wall," He says, dumping the climbing skillsoft from memory, and re-loading the Knight Errant package.

[GM Nick]

Melee Combat

[Martial Arts (7) + AGI (5) + Counterstrike (2) = 6]
2 5 3 6 5 3 1 1 6 4 3 4 5 6
[Unarmed Combat (3) + AGI (5) = 3]
1 5 2 5 2 6 1 1

Damage Resistance (13P)

[BOD (4) + Armored Suit (2) = 2]
1 4 4 5 4 6

Sinjin's hands are lightning quick. His fingers penetrate the Yakuza's throat flesh and tear free his larynx. (( 11P damage. ))

The Japanese gangster clutches at his throat and makes a gurgling sound as blood spurts from beneath his fingers. He collapses to the floor, bleeding out.

[Stephen]

Swallowing his pride, Val calls quietly to his teammates over the generator enclosure wall.

"Uh... little help down here?"

[Drew Buddy]

Doc climbs back up the ladder to the top of the generator. He peers over the wall.

"Yeah, just a sec!"

Looking back, he calls,

"Max, the rope?"

[John]

Max has been in something of a trance going through the unconscious smoker's pockets, searching for anything useful. Shaken from his search momentarily, Max slings his pack off his shoulder and digs around inside. Finding the rope, Max tosses it to Doc without saying.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc tosses one end of the rope down to Val, before tying the other end to a rung on the ladder.

"Okay, good to go!" He calls down.

(( I think the rope will be +2 to the climbing dice pool? Also, if I'm not mistaken, the mag-locked door should still be open, with Doc's jacket wedged between the door and the frame. ))

[John]

(( Yes, but it wouldn't hurt to have a key or maybe a facility ID nonetheless. ))

[Stephen]

"Thanks, 'mano." Val grabs hold of the rope, plants his feet on the vertical concrete and begins to haul himself up the wall, hoping not to further embarass himself during what seems to him to be a long and arduous climb.

[Conway]

Dropping the dismembered and dripping chunk of flesh into a wastebasket with a snicker, Sinjin pauses to wipe his hand clean on the sprawled form of the dead Yakuza before he checks and locks the door. Turning back to the unconscious man breathing softly on the floor, he drags his body to the desk chair and begins securing him in place with a length of rope from his kit. Removing the mans necktie, Sinjin loops it around the Yak's head and ties it tightly between his teeth to gag him.

<Tyros, whats your status? Ive got one dead Yak and another man knocked unconscious up here...not sure which of the two is our mark. Overheard a bit of a power struggle, Ill see what I can learn from this guy when he rouses. Im going to give this office a good thorough searching in the meantime...may be I can find something interesting...

Sinjin moves quickly about the room, checking for wall safes before heading to search the desk drawers.

[GM Nick]

Max recovers a broken mag-lock key from underneath the unconscious technician. He can only deduce that the unfortunate sap landed on it during their scuffle.

[GM Nick]

Climbing (2) Test

[Strength (2) + Defaulting (-1) + Rope (2) = 2]
3 5 6

With great difficulty, Val scales the concrete wall and scrambles over the top.

[GM Nick]

Mind Probe (f3)

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) + Power Focus (2) = 0]
4 2 3 4 3 3 2 2 3 4 2 4 1 3

Tyros slips over the man's mind again, unable to glean anything useful.

Resist Drain

[WIL (4) + LOG (6) + Centering (4) + Focused Concentration (2) = 6]
5 4 5 2 3 1 6 2 1 1 4 5 2 5 2 6

[GM Nick]

Perception Test

[Perception (3) + INT (3) + Heightened Perception (2) = 5]
3 1 6 6 6 4 6 5

Sinjin sets to work searching the office. After a thorough inspection, he's almost ready to give up when he spots something wedged behind a filing cabinet. Kneeling down, the ork gingerly withdraws a large bag of nova-coke and a cred-stick wrapped in a wad of (seldom used anymore) ameribucks.

[Elliott]

((Are you kidding me?!!? I should be getting an average of 4 successes. We need a new dice roller:P ))

Tyros' face contorts into one of absolute frustration. Feeling like he is having a senior moment, Tyros reaches out and tries again (mind probe, f3).

[John]

(( It happens, Elliott. ))

[Stephen]

Val scrambles over the top of the wall and lowers himself to the ground with a mildly sheepish look on his face. "Guess I'll have to hit the gym to keep up with you two..."

Whilst checking his gear after what he hopes will be a seldom repeated exercise in mountaineering, Val glances at the limp elven form lying on the ground near the door. "We gonna wipe this one's mem--" Val's vision finds the discarded deepweed spliff lying next to the slumbering elf. "Oh. How very sportsmanlike. Didn't expect anyone here to be doing us any favors."

Val chuckles and makes his way to the facility entrance, peeking inside through the crack between the door and jamb.

[Conway]

((No idea what your talking about Elliot, Im having great successes ))

Pocketing the envelope of cash and coke, Sinjin searches the body of the dead Yakuza for an ID, keys, or anything else valuable. Sinjin then turns his attention to the cyberdeck on top of the desk.

((How big are these cyberdecks? If I cant access it, is it small enough for me to take out with me and bring to Val?))

[Drew Buddy]

Doc chuckles,

"Yeah, it's like he practically handed that one to us. If an employee is found unconscious with a spliff, are they really going to believe his story that he was accosted by a group of strange men while he was toking up? They'll probably reject it out of principal alone."

As Val opens the door a crack, Doc stoops down and retrieves the jacket he'd wedged there. He slips it back on over his worn ballistic vest, covering the torn, faded, and out of date CrashCart logo on the back of the vest.

[John]

Max pauses and listens for movement on the other side of the door.

[GM Nick]

Mind Probe (f3)

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) + Power Focus (2) = 5]
2 5 6 2 1 1 6 1 2 6 1 6 2 3

Tyros refocuses and plows into the little man's mind with the force of a freight train. He wades through flitting memories and subconscious dilemmas. After parsing for a few moments, Tyros finds what he's been looking for...

(( PMing results. ))

Resist Drain

[WIL (4) + LOG (6) + Centering (4) + Focused Concentration (2) = 5]
5 5 4 4 2 6 5 2 2 4 3 6 2 3 4 2

[Drew Buddy]

Doc looks around, as if he's forgetting something important. His eyes suddenly go wide, "Oh drek!"

Quick as he can, he climbs back up the ladder, and looks down over the wall.

"Kato, you coming, buddy?"

(( For brevity's sake, let's just assume the rope is still there, m'kay? ))

[GM Nick]

Kato grabs the rope and slithers up the wall, pausing at the top to brush off his slacks and make disgruntled noises. Performing a totally conspicuous squat on the top of the wall, he stares down at the unconscious technician.

"Wow, you beat him up?"

[John]

Max looks down at the man, then back back up at Kato, and says,

"He didn't want to share."

[Drew Buddy]

Doc unties the rope, and coils it up.

"Catch," he says, tossing it down to Max.

He climbs down the ladder, hopping off near the bottom. Press-checking his gear, he looks at his teammates and motions his head toward the door.

[GM Nick]

Kato slides down the ladder and taps Doc on the back.

"Hey, captain, you careful which door you choose, okay? The family don't go around writing yakuza on everything. The right door will be marked with Yamamoto or Kanejiro."

[John]

(( Moving my post from before to this position. ))

The door cracked, Max slips through and stops a couple feet inside, surveying the surroundings. Opening the comm channel, Max asks,

<Tyros, Sinjin-- what's your status? We are inside the facility.>

[GM Nick]

The interior of the data-center consists of a series of corridors, beset on both sides by alternating doors to customer rooms. Octagonal ferro-carbon panels line floor to ceiling, giving the whole place a sort of space-ship ambiance.

The entire building is heavily climate controlled; Max can see his breath as a swirl of vapors as he steps inside.

[John]

Max moves cautiously into the facility, keeping an eye out for the doors Kato suggested. Whispering to the team, the elf says,

"Anybody in here won't necessarily know that we aren't supposed to be here, so while I'd suggest we shouldn't be seen if possible, we should act natural if we are."

Max presses forward.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc drags the unconscious man around the hydrogen generator, stashing his limp form between the generator and the outer wall. He slaps a tranq patch on the man's neck for good measure.

"Nothing personal, pal, but we can't have you waking up while we're still inside," he says under his breath.

Following Max's lead and advice, he does his best to keep a busy, yet bored look on his face as they start walking down the hallway.
It isn't the first time they've strolled into a facility that they aren't supposed to be in, but getting back out has always proven to be the difficult part. Past experience tells Doc to expect armed and armored soldiers to come crashing out of the ceiling at any moment. Or maybe ghost bugs. Or ghost bugs with guns...

He clears his throat, and in a low voice says to Max, "they'd better not have a Doombot here."

[Elliott]

(Is the Panchiko Parlor building made predominantly of wood?)

<"Well, we are out of luck with any flammable source or substance in the Pachinko parlor. I'm running out of ideas. Maybe we can call in Lone Star and they will shut the place down when they find the novacoke? Someone ask Kato if that will be sufficient.">

[GM Nick]

<I hear you boss. Lone Star paid off--it's what you say, no go.>