Clusterfrag

Max looks around the barren, sterile halls, and asks,

"What the frag sector are we in?"

Adams grins,

"Well, at least they'll be distracted! This might be a win for us."

Max looks doubtfully at Adams, and says,

"When does the table ever break for us, amigo?"

Max turns back to Val and asks,

"If we get prompted to present access ID, any chance you can fake our way through that? If not, we need to go back and ask Akira back there if we can use he, and something tells me we'll have to ask pretty hard... And that's assuming he even has the clearance."

Max is starting to consider slapping some sanity into the decker, but says instead,

"Agreed, but we do it with our heads about us. Control yourself. And Doc's right-- this could cover our actions. Don't forget-- Sinjin commed out as the technician to give us a diversion there."

Val takes a deep breath and tries to calm his nerves, and his rising anger.

"Of course there's no way I can spoof all our Access IDs. I mean, I could... It'd only take a minute or two with each commlink, but I'd need five valid Access IDs to replace them with. Which we don't fragging have. Unless... ah drek... I could try hacking into that guard's security console back there to see if there's a list of cleared employees... but..."

Val looks around at the faces of his teammates. "Drek... we're running out of options at this point aren't we?"

Val hands the jammer to Sinjin, careful to keep it pointing at the heavy security drone. "If I set off an alarm at this console, you can bet they'll try to wake that drone up, so for Christ's sake keep that fraggin' thing painted."

Val begins stalking back toward the security kiosk. He pauses and turns his head back. "Someone come cover me in case that uniformed drekhole wakes up while I'm under."

Max nods and follows Val with Marlowe in killing position. The elf reassures,

"I've got your back, amigo."

Adams keeps his rifle trained on the drone, in the event that it wakes despite the team's best efforts.

<"Val, that guard is awake, don't go near him! Can't you spoof some id's when the motion detector asks for them?">

Val stalks down the hallway, equal parts anger and nervous energy fueling his vigorous gait. He'd sincerely hoped to avoid the need for a stunt like this. The stress is getting to him.

< No, Tyros, I can't. I have to associate them with each of our PAN nodes by tweaking our virtual firewall settings. I could explain in more detail, but I'm a bit busy at the moment and I'm sure it would bore you silly anyway. Stick to fragging with people's minds and/or cleaving them in half. I'll take it from here. >

Val crouches against the wall, just out of sight around the corner of the kiosk. He signals to Max with his fist: cover me. Val drops into VR and scans the matrix space around him, looking for both the guard's commlink node and the kiosk's security console node. He analyzes each of them. He attempts to acquire the guard's Access ID, and Analyzes the security console node in an attempt to ascertain the strength of its defensive systems (( Firewall and System ratings )).

(( The guard's PAN has a firewall rating of 4. The security console has a firewall rating of 6 and system rating of 5. ))

"Frag man, I hope this thing works," says Sinjin as he keeps the jammer locked on to the inanimate drone.

"Something tells me this sentry bot was was designed without a glass jaw."

<Val be careful. Expect the latest and most sophisticated tac-net on the market...maybe even something proprietary we've never seen.>

Max stands over Val with his trusty shotgun at the ready. The elf is ready to defend his compatriot from any physical attack, which is to say that he's also ready for everything to go to drek in the blink of an eye.

Val momentarily drops out of VR and wipes both hands down his sweating face.

< OK guys, the way I see it, we have two options. Either way, this may turn into a smash and grab pretty fast. Either I can try to get into this console to get us some valid Access IDs, which will be pretty fragging difficult to do without tripping security, or we could try something else, but it would mean inviting some company our way. If Sinjin can call acting as the technician, he can request another team of technicians to assist with the grounding problem. If he can get at least three of them to show, and we can subdue them, or even kill them if necessary, then I'll be able to obtain the five Access IDs we'll need to traverse the hallway without pissing that hunk of metal off. You want me to hack, I'll try it, but be ready to drag my half-conscious body out of here if drek goes bad. I suppose you can just leave the corpse if it comes to that... You want me to go for it? Say the word. >

Val realizes he's babbling, but simply couldn't resist throwing another alternative out. Perhaps he's just trying to make excuses not to try what he's just contemplated; however, if he goes through with this, it might be--no, it will be--the most difficult and dangerous hack he's ever attempted, and it scares the drek out of him.

With the drone still inactive, Adams takes a moment to look around the room, hoping to find any kind of electrical access--or anything--that might let him take the motion sensors offline at the hardware level.

(( Perception roll? If nothing else I'd like to roll engineering to see if there is any alternative way to get these fraggin' things out of our way. ))

(( PM'd. ))

Retrieving his toolkit, Adams gets on the comm,

< Hang on a sec, Val, gonna check something out... >

He wedges a small shim into the seam of one of the plasteel panels on the wall, and gently pries it loose. Lowering the panel slowly to the ground, so as to not make too much noise, he searches the exposed area behind the wall for the power conduit he hopes to find.

Adams exposes a meticulously designed series of conduits, carrying electricity and data to and from various parts of the arcology. Doc frowns as his eyes make contact with a large plastic box over the electrical conduit. Anti-tamper device.

So goddamn close, Adams thinks.

He wracks his memory for any information about the affixed devices, especially anything that might let him bypass them.

(( Looks like engineering again! ))

Doc traces the circuits lightly with his fingers, then blinks several times at the strain of trying to comprehend the insane mesh of electronics. He is positive that the anti-tamper device would raise general alarms in the area.

(( A threshold of 2 is required to defeat the anti-tamper device. ))

Doc sets the toolkit on the ledge created by the recession into the wall.

< Okay, I think I can do this. There's a chance that I'll set off the alarms, but it sounds like we'll have a better shot at this, than we will at hacking that system. Stand by. >

Sweat beading on his brow, he slides the shim under the top panel of the device, and torques it down onto what he hopes is the pressure sensor designed to detect the removal of the cover. Shim in place, he gently pries off the cover, and sets to work deactivating the anti-tamper device.

(( I'll use 2 edge points on this ))

Max taps Val on the shoulder to indicate that they may as well go back to join the rest of the team. Backpedaling gently, Max keeps Marlowe trained on the doorway through which the mind-molested guard would come barreling were he alerted to their presence. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the elf wonders if Tyros's mind manipulation could lead to a higher chance of brain cancer.

Doc feels the light, fuzzy feeling from his cerebral booster and the queasiness from his protein exchange as he guides the wire clippers to the array of bundled cables leading to the pressure sensor. Ever so gingerly he liberates a wire on the razor's edge of the clippers and snips. He repeats this twice. Three times. Hands held steady by the cyberware, he reaches across his forearm and retrieves a pack of quick-solder. Ignoring the fantastic heat generated by the silvery powder, Doc smears a dollop between two of the wires with his thumb, says a silent prayer to the security hardware gods and falls back on his haunches. The anti-tamper device has been defeated.

The red strobes continue their relentless pulsing, bathing the team in consistent flashes of crimson.

Adams takes a moment to steady his hands, and refocus his eyes.

< Almost there, guys. Just another minute. >

He unslings his SMG, and sticks it into the wall, pointing down the conduit toward the motion sensors. Flicking the gun's flashlight on, he cranes his neck to peer down the gap, hoping to spot the wiring coming out of the main harness, and going into the infernal devices. He makes a mental note of their colors.

Using a pipe cutter, he slices open the conduit, exposing the dense mass of tangled wires inside. He spreads them out between his fingers, and slices the power to the first motion sensor.

He double checks the motion sensors' wiring a few more times with his gun's flashlight, taking his time to match up the colors in the conduit. He's breathing hard as he pulls the blade through the final wire.

Doc completes his work, though his forehead is beaded with perspiration when he is done.

Red LEDs, no doubt on a battery, flicker in dismay inside the motion sensors to indicate that they are offline to any passing technician.

Doc nods and grins at the team as he sets the panel pack in place and slumps against the wall.

"Well fellas, shall we?" He asks.

Looking at the LEDs, he has a final thought; he takes a roll of electrical tape, and slices off several tiny pieces, affixing each one over an LED. It won't stand up to scrutiny, but he hopes it will prevent the devices' visual distress calls from grabbing anyone's attention. He takes the last piece and strides over to the giant robot sleeping in the corner. He gently places it in the middle of its optical sensor.

"In case we have to come back this way," he says by way of explanation.

Max arrives back at Doombot Mk. II and proceeds past it to the elevator. A sense of foreboding runs through the elf as he pushes the call button-- this infiltration has been tough so far, and Max fears that it will only get tougher.

Tyros follows the elf past the huge drone, thinking absently that they should get one or two for the base. The sense of trepidation eminating from the team is palpable, the stress of infiltrating the arcology clearly fraying nerves. If history is any guide, the drek will hit the fan soon, without a doubt, but Tyros isn't too worried. His comrades have been through tough situations like this before, and when the bullets start flying, they will hold together.

There's a violent shudder as the massive cargo elevator begins to descend towards the group. The alarm strobes are here too, illuminating the elevator shaft upwards until they seem to converge.

Sinjin speaks, his eyes fixed on a distant point as he translates the comm traffic.

"Fires in labs 3, 4, 10 and 14."

Val, relieved at having been released from the duty of almost certainly bringing Rikei's security team down on their heads, follows the rest of the team toward the cargo elevator. He raises an eyebrow at Sinjin's translation of the comm traffic.

"Sounds like the drek's already hit the fan in Takahara's neighborhood. We'd better pick up the pace before he gets relocated. If there are fires burning up there, there's no way they're going to leave a valuable asset like him lying around."

Val stacks up on the wall beside the shaft in which the cargo elevator is descending, his suppressed assault rifle held at ready low.

"Heads up, 'manos. I have a feeling things could get real here very soon."