Contract #3: I, Robot?

[John]

Max creeps his way up the stairs toward Tyros and the confused guard.

[John]

(( He beat your control thoughts, Dougal, and Nick informs me that you can't cast again. ))

With Marlowe slung over his shoulder, Max runs his fingers along the plasteel walls of the hallway at the base of the stairs. Taking a deep breath and mapping his route with his eyes, the elf moves back to the landing beyond the bottom step. Taking his wire clippers from his pack, the elf taps their steel tips on the hard wall several times at fast, irregular rhythms. The object raps against the ferrocrete and reverberates in all directions. As he finishes the final tap, Max is already on the move toward his hiding place. Crouched beneath the stairs, Max waits for the guard to come down and investigate. While lying in wait, Max puts the clippers back into one of his pockets and readies his hands for the grab. He is poised like a snake about to strike the moment he has the opportunity.

(( To make it clear: What I'm going for here is grabbing the guard and keeping him from comming out or causing a ruckus, but I don't want to knock him out. As I see it, I detain him and the team slips past his post, Tyros wipes his memory and he goes back to waiting for his shift to end. ))

[GM Nick]

The security guard, now certain that something is going on, turns from the console and hurries towards the sounds. His Ares Alpha is in the ready position. In his haste, he forgets to turn the camera back on

[Drew Buddy]

Doc loads up his Knight Errant skillsoft package, and waits behind the wall adjacent to the door they initially came through.

[John]

Max waits for just the right moment to spring from the shadows. As the guard passes him on his storming down the stairs, Max slips out from hiding and grabs for the guard, aiming to clasp his mouth and subdue him on the ground.

[GM Nick]

Infiltration Test (Max)

[Infiltration (2) + AGI (9) = 3]
1 4 3 3 5 2 4 5 2 4 6

Perception Test (Guard)

[Perception (3) + INT (3) + Actively Searcing (3) = 1]
1 1 1 3 4 1 3 1 6 **Glitch!**

Max emerges from behind the stairs, totally undetected.

Subdue (Max)

[Subduing (5) + AGI (10) = 4]
2 3 5 5 1 1 5 2 1 5 2 1 2 4 1
[Unarmed Combat (3) + AGI (5) + Attacker Unseen (-6) = 2]
6 5

The lithe elf pulls the armored guard to the floor, hand clasped firmly over his mouth.

[Drew Buddy]

Adams hears the guard go down, and pops out from behind the door. He rushes forward, and piles on the guard, pulling his weapon away from him.

[John]

Max holds the guard hard and fast to the floor and wraps his fingers around his throat. If the guard tries to shout for help, the elf intends to close his works for good. With Doc securely in possession of the weapon and Sinjin stepping in to aid in the restraint, Max begins to move with the team back up to the guard's post. Calling out over his shoulder, Max says,

"Tyros! We're coming up! Get ready to give him a wipe as soon as we're through!"

It's a precarious thing when three men are subduing a struggling fourth and trying to walk up a flight of stairs. Precarious and awkward. Amid the struggling, Max bangs his knuckles against the wall and muffles an explosion of profanities while tightening his grip around the guard's throat with the other hand.

[Elliott]

((why can't I use control thoughts again? Nothing in the rules says I can't reinforce or replace the spell by casting it a second time.))

Tyros lends his large invisible hands to help bring the guard to bear back in his kiosk. "Val, switch the camera back on! Doc can you sedate him with something that will wear off in a minute? As soon as he goes under, I'll wipe his memory and we can get out of here."

Tyros waits until the guard is unconscious and the team is ready to move out before making a quick gesture (centering) and erasing all recollection of the team's presence (alter memory, f3).

[Drew Buddy]

(( I think it's safe to assume that Tyros' alter memory spell is taking place after the rest of us non-invisible folks leave the room ))

"Nothing for the short term, and certainly nothing that won't be noticed if we want him to continue with his day as if nothing happened," he says, slipping through the door.

"I'd say stay invisible, wipe his memory, then head out the door. We'll be right outside."

[Conway]

Sinjin's oversize teeth are clearly visible protruding from the grimace on his face as he works to control the guards flailing legs.

In Japanese, he says to the man, "Do not struggle, and you will not be harmed. There is no shame in this...as you can see, you are in no position to stop us."

Switching back to English, he addresses the air around him.

"Hold him tight, Tyros. He's squirming like a cat in bath water."

Feeling the weight in his arms suddenly lessen dramatically as Tyros' invisible form takes hold of the guard, Sinjin releases his grip and side-steps out of the kiosk to scout the way up the stairwell. Remembering the high-tech security environment, he scans the stairwell and landings with thermals to fish out any laser grids that might lie in their path.

[GM Nick]

The service corridor curves in both directions from the hallway the team emerged from, like a parabola. Max, Doc and Sinjin follow closely behind Val (who is leading via schematic) while Tyros attends to his dirty work.

Alter Memory (f3)

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) + Power Focus (2) = 5]
5 4 2 5 2 1 6 1 5 1 1 6 4 3
[WIL (4) = 1]
5 4 4 2

Resist Drain (4)

[WIL (4) + LOG (6) + Centering (4) + Focused Concentration (2) = 9]
3 2 3 5 6 3 2 6 5 5 5 6 5 6 2 3

Tyros successfully implants his version of events into the security guard's brain.

[Stephen]

After reactivating the hall camera, Val steps slowly and silently down the hallway in the direction of the service elevator as indicated by the engineer's tablet computer. His eyes occasionally dart from the schematic to the surrounding hallway, wary of any traps, cameras or unexpected company.

< Should be this way, 'manos. Let's keep quiet and with any luck that drone, wherever it is, will just sleep right through our passing. >

[Elliott]

While the guard is momentarily dazed from the memory alteration, Tyros backs slowly down the hall and rejoins the group.

"All good, lets go find the elevator", he whispers

[GM Nick]

Though well-lit by embedded halogen lights, the hallways of Mitsuhama are terrifying. The mirror-finish plasteel panels that line every surface project an almost inhuman sterility. It's as if the whole facility is a giant operating room. The team follows the curvature of the service corridor, feeling rather exposed in the obstacle-less, blindingly bright hallway.

A hulking behemoth lies dormant at the end of the corridor.

The security drone is man-size, but squat on large haunches. Twin vindicators are scissored vertically on the drone's sides. A targeting aperture is located on top, though currently covered by a security flap.

[John]

Max proceeds cautiously down the hallway and, as it goes, toward the sleeping doombot.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc sticks his arm out to bar the others from moving forward.

"Motion sensors," he hisses, indicating with a nod at the wall in front of the security drone.

[John]

Max stops dead in his tracks and mutters under his breath,

"Fragssake..."

[GM Nick]

(( Just a heads-up, all that spell casting does create an astral signature. It's a pretty safe bet there are mages working at Mitsuhama. ))

[Drew Buddy]

Adams squints and looks at the lenses of the motion sensors. He tries to identify them, and figure out a weakness.

(( Roll security design to see if there's a way to get by these things, or shut them down ))

[Elliott]

((Crap, was wondering if we'd get into astral signatures. I haven't read the rules in a while, but I'll want to erase/distort them.))

[Stephen]

(( I'd like to roll Security Design to find out whether the motion sensors are likely to set off any alarm other than activating the drone. ))

[GM Nick]

Knowledge Test (Val)

[Security Design (3) + INT (4) = 1]
4 2 5 4 3 3 2

Val is unable to deduce anything about the motion sensors.

[Elliott]

((So it looks like I can't do anything about my astral signature without an initiate power. But the signature does automatically disappear after force hours, so unless Mitsuhama gets a good ascensing mage down here within 3-4 hours, they won't find anything.))

[GM Nick]

Knowledge Test (Doc)

[Security Design (3) + INT (5) = 2]
2 4 3 4 1 5 1 5

(( PM'd. ))

[GM Nick]

(( Your signature becomes more and more visible on the astral plane. If there are any astrally projecting mages, they'll be able to track you down quickly. ))

[Stephen]

Val furrows his brow and rubs his chin.

"Well, if those sensors aren't hooked up to anything but the drone, I could jam the drone's wireless capability for about an hour and it wouldn't be able to respond, just sit dormant. That way we could just waltz past the thing, but I can't say for sure that they're not hooked up to another alarm system. Anybody have any other ideas?"

[Drew Buddy]

Doc stands back up,

"Okay, these motion sensors probably won't set off an alarm or activate the drone on their own, but they will activate an ID scanner. If we fail the ID test, it might set off the drone. I'm not too sure what else a failure would trigger."

He scratches the back of his head,

"Damn, we should have lifted the ID card off of that guard."

[Elliott]

((So my understanding of the astral signature/trackings rules are thus: if a mage detects an astral signature (which lasts for force hours) then he can attempt to read it (requires an assensing test with 3 successes, 5 successs tells you about the spell). Also, i just finished reading the rules, and I can take a numberof complex actions equal to the force of my spell to erase the signature completely. If an astrally projecting mage sees us as we walk through the physical plane, they will know where we are. Astral tracking only comes into play if I am projecting and a mage sees me and wants to track me or my active spells/foci back to their source, which requires an assensing+intuiting test, 5, 1 hour extended test. Anything I'm missing?))

(Can we say that Tyros took the 30 seconds to erase his control thoughts and alter memory signature, otherwise he's going to run back quickly and do that. Sorry but I didnt really understand astral signatures, etc.)

Tyros switches to astral vision (he is always switching back and forth pretty regularly during runs, so let me know if he detects anything. For this run, let's assume he spends almost all his time in astral vision while they are sneaking in.) as he scans for wards/alarms and astrally projecting mages on patrol.

<"Just a heads up, Mitsuhama is no stranger to magic, as we know, and if we run into a watcher spirit or astral mage on patrol, they will see us and set off the alarm unless I can destroy them pretty much instantaneously. I will try to do that, but if I fail, and start shouting, that means we are switching from stealth to assult mode. Copy?">

[GM Nick]

Somewhere in the distance a klaxon sounds and red strobes on the service corridor ceiling flicker to life.

[GM Nick]

A flurry of Japanese explodes in the technician's comm-set, perched on Sinjin's ear.

[John]

Max freezes and stands at the ready to draw Marlowe as he says to the team,

"We don't know that that alarm is for us. Keep it cool for now."

[Stephen]

Not pausing to think, Val whips an expendable directional jammer out of his pack, aims it at the drone, and depresses the actuator. He keeps the drone painted while frantically looking around at his teammates for someone who knows what the hell might be going on. He's not about to take any chances with the damn thing.

[John]

Max looks over his shoulder at the decker and says,

"You don't look like you're keeping cool, chummer. Relax-- we all know I'm the one who's gonna get shot anyway."

The elf hopes that the joke will calm Val's consistently and easily jangled nerves.

[GM Nick]

Sinjin repeats the Japanese bulletin:

"This is a priority 1 alert. All environmental technicians are ordered to return to base. There is an environmental emergency in Sector 7."