COMPLETED: Revenge is a dish best served with bullets!

[GM Nick]

Negotiation Test (Max)

[Bargaining (7) + CHA (7) + Pheromones (2) = 7]
1 1 2 5 6 6 2 2 2 6 5 1 1 5 3 6
[Negotiation (2) + CHA (3) = 0]
1 3 1 2 2

The man's slightly open, surprised mouth slowly forms an idiotic grin. He shakes a finger at Max.

"I don't know why, but I like you. I tell you what, you give me 12,000 and we make a deal, eh? Come, I'll send you the address."

[John]

Max slams his open hand into the man's with a force that catches both of them off guard, but Max is fully immersed in his character at this point. With his other hand, Max raises his arm and points with an open palm in the universal gesture of 'lead the way.'

Looking over his shoulder, Max gestures for the team to follow him with a slight jerk of his head.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc stands, and follows Max.

"Dude, seriously, I owe you one man! You're the best!"

[GM Nick]

[ Highway 16, Seattle ]

The Rover races down the "old" Highway 16, the Mercedes-Benz v12 belting out a demon scream as Doc pushes the revs. According to the coordinates given to Max by the lecherous gangster, the supplier's base of operations is an abandoned solar farm on the outskirts of the city.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc holds the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip. His eyes remain dead ahead as he addresses Max,

"So, you want to pay that guy back there a little 'visit' when we're done?" He asks.
"Might be good for a few laughs. Target practice never hurt, either. At least not us."

[John]

Max, generally willing to crack jokes at the drop of a hat in even the most inappropriate of situations, keeps his eyes fixed on the road ahead, and says,

"I just want to find out what happened to my daughter. Find out what happened to her and kill the fraggers who did it."

The elf sits in the front passenger seat as stiff as a board and waits for the team to reach their destination.

[GM Nick]

A pale moon shines down from a rare break in the haze, casting a ghostly hue over the marshlands as the Rover claws its way down a hill towards the solar farm below.

[Elliott]

Tyros sits in the back seat, watching as they approach their destination. Max's furry is palpable and contagious and Tyros feels the tension building to the point of breaking as he hopes they arrive soon. Still, he can't help but wonder, as he looks out of the solar plant, why some fool developer would build a solar field in the Pacifc Northwest where it is overcast and rainy 9 days out of 10...

[Drew Buddy]

Doc keeps his thermo running, scanning the area for any guards, or people lurking on the premises. He drives the rover down the hill toward the entrance.

[GM Nick]

There are several troll-sized thermo signatures moving around the front of a warehouse near the rear of the farm.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc pulls the rover into the solar farm, coming in through the front entrance with the headlights on. He doesn't bother trying to mask the vehicle's approach; after all, why would a group of chummers on a stag night try to sneak in?

He looks over at Max,

"You want to handle this?"

[Conway]

Reaching into his coat, Sinjin withdraws a handful of mixed nuts he'd pocketed at the Plastic Jungle and begins gleaning them of cashews. Making eye contact with Val, his grin is returned by a disdainful, if amused snicker. Sinjin shrugs and tosses the remaining nuts into his mouth before wiping his hands clean of the salted crumbs.

"Right then, from a plastic utopia on into the haunted marsh. Good call guys." Sinjin jokes.

[John]

Ignoring Sinjin completely, Max nods and gets out of the rover confidently.

[GM Nick]

One of the trolls, garbed in a lined coat and holding a Remington pump-action, steps in front of Max as he approaches. He narrows his eyes at the elf.

"You the John?"

[John]

Max's voice is friendly, but he largely drops the schmultz of his performance at the club from earlier. The elf nods definitively and says,

"I am."

[GM Nick]

The troll grunts and lowers the shotgun a bit.

"Fine. This way. Your friends have to stay in the car."

[John]

Max nods and begins walking. As he walks, he comms out,

<Tyros, can you back me up here? Val, can you hack their PANs and listen in to the comm chatter?>

[Stephen]

< You got it, jefe. >

Val leans his head sideways against the rover's pillar, appearing to drift off to sleep. He drops into full hot-sim VR, checks to make sure his Stealth program is running, and forcibly obtains a subscription to one of the gangers' PAN nodes. Val logically assumes that any security-related chatter will be routed among the entire gang, and that one hack is all he needs to risk at the moment. As soon as his digital infiltration of the ganger's PAN is finished, he fires up his Sniffer program and captures all wireless traffic going to and from the node.

[Elliott]

Tyros makes a quick gesture and reengages his invisibility (invis, f4, foci). Using the open door that max exited, he slips out of the vehicle and follows the elf and two trolls towards the warehouse.

<"Right behind you.">

[GM Nick]

It's a long walk to the warehouse.

Max takes each step with purpose, silently screaming at the troll leading him to hurry the frag up. Gravel crunches under his feet. The noise is impossibly loud in his head. His eyes dart from guard to guard. There are now four visible. They're equipped similarly and they're all glaring at Max.

[John]

The night air is cool on the elf's face. A breeze kicks up from the south and brings with it the smell of industrial machinery and their associated chemicals. The grime of decades-old tools swirls in the air and makes the place feel filthy and sweaty.

Max has never been so on edge. Somewhere over the drive from the club to the solar farm the frail and wispy hope he had to find out what happened to his daughter had grown strong and volatile. What if these are the trogs that took his family from him? For all he knew, the one leading him into the lion's den could be the very one that raped his wife before beating her to death. Or one of the many. And what if his daughter isn't dead? What if he's one door from coming face to face with his flesh and blood whom he'd long taken for dead, leading him however unfortunately down the road of pills and death which he'd been walking since that fateful night. Max had become a walking private eye cliche turned mercenary because of that night. So what if she's alive? What happens to Max's life then?

The elf dares not get too far ahead of himself at the cost of the moment. Max can't afford to lose focus, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that if his daughter is alive tonight he'll step away from the life that her presumed death created. Maybe-- just maybe-- Max can be happy again.

[GM Nick]

The guard leads Max through a muggy corridor of hanging plastic sheets, past at least half a dozen more trolls, their fearsome visages illuminated by fluorescent bulbs. They crane their necks, watching the elf with the same animosity that he feels towards them. He stops near the end of the warehouse, at a battered steel door with several locks on the outside.

"No marks," barks the troll. "She's sedated, so don't expect much of a fight. You have ten minutes."

A shuddering creak escapes the door as the troll yanks it open...

[John]

Max attempts to brace himself for anything.

[GM Nick]

Max steps into a dark room that's been hastily partitioned off from the rest of the warehouse. There are several young women inside, in various states of undress. Most of them are unconscious on the floor, but two of them watch Max with glassy eyes. The elf's eyes sweep over the women, his heart beating inside his throat. When at last his gaze falls on the last young woman, his heart stops.

Her hair has been dyed black, her skin pigmentation altered, and she's aged, but there can be doubt it--it's Max's daughter.

[Elliott]

Peering over Max's shoulder, even Tyros can see the resemblance of the young elf in front of them.

Subvocally comming back to the team, <"Get ready boys, I think we've found her, and I'm pretty sure this place is going to burn.">

[Stephen]

(( Nick, can I get a roll on getting into that ganger's PAN? Might wanna do something with it in a moment. ))

[John]

Max collapses to his knees beside the bed on which his sedated daughter now lies. Mumbling incoherently, Max wipes the hair from brow and caresses the side of her face. Tears are pouring down the elf's cheeks, his eyes are clenched shut, and he drops his forehead against her's. Max's weeping continues for several minutes as he offers gratitude to gods he doesn't believe in for his daughter's life.

[John]

Max stands and turns to Tyros. The mixture of emotion in his eyes is dizzying; joy, sorrow, and rage all swirl in equal parts in him. Slowly, the rage seems to take over. In a very low, very serious voice, Max says,

"When that troll comes back in here for me, make him hand me his gun."

[GM Nick]

One of the other girls stirs and sits up. Her eyes are unfocused, but she manages to speak coherently.

"She fought back against them. You can't fight back here. But she fought back, so they erased her."

[John]

Max takes several quick steps forward and asks,

"What? What do you mean??"

[GM Nick]

The girl's head lulls to the side and she stares at Max's daughter with an expression torn between sympathy and envy.

"They wiped her memories. She's been rebooted. They just brought her back this morning. To have all those things that were done just washed away..."

Her eyes drift back to meet Max's.

[John]

Max's dart from the girl and back to his daughter. His eyes glance between the two for a moment as the elf's gears spin. As simple as the words are, Max can't grasp their meaning.

They... WIPED... his little girl.

The violence in Max's heart wells and gurgles beneath the surface. His hands begin shaking.

Max moves quickly over to his daughter's bed and rubs his hand once more over her forehead. Taking a silent moment to look at her, the elf then darts over to the door to the room and peeks out to check for any trolls.

[Conway]

Opening the rover's door slowly, Sinjin slips from the seat and into a crouch beside the vehicle. The soft, wet ground beneath him yields to the pressure of his boots. A nearby cricket pauses momentarily before continuing its melody with vigor.

"Time to play some hide and seek."

Cycling through the optic settings of his goggles, Sinjin scans the thermal imaging for metahuman heat signatures between the rover and the facility.

<Max, Tyros. Im engaging to reconnoiter the exterior grounds. I'll be sweeping east before circling in toward the rear of the building. I'd imagine this place will come alive in a few minutes....perhaps I can remove some resistance. Bad things happen in the dark. >

Sinjin sets out, crouching and moving swiftly into the cover of the marsh.

[GM Nick]

Hack on the Fly Test (3)(Val)

[Hacking (5) + Exploit (4) + Hot Sim (2) + Codeslinger (2) = 3]
3 3 1 3 3 3 1 6 5 2 4 6 4

Val taps into the troll's commlink node, quickly installing a trojan program.

[GM Nick]

Infiltration Test (Sinjin)

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

Sinjin creeps along the periphery of a old solar panel chassis until he's within meters of one of the guards. He remains undetected.