Darkness Falls

Artemis uses her commlink to bring up a hybrid roadmap/comsat image of the target, paying close attention to roadways, parking, and nearby businesses or public structures. Specifically, she looks for a good place to park her truck or have a seat and casually observe the facility without drawing attention to herself (a cafe or parking garage or some such right across the street would be too perfect for words).

"I think I'm gonna go check the place out on the ground. Subtle-like. If anyone wants to tag along, I've got room in the truck. Also," she stuffs all the photos back into the manila envelope, "If nobody else needs these, I'll see to it that they're disposed of properly."

As she drove back to her apartment, the Major checked her messages. Hmm. While it would be nice to seek some kind of retribution on the Johnson, she'd learned not to do that unless she was actively screwed with.

<Begin Message>
To: Needle
From: The Major
Subject: Package received

Got it. Will take time to go through all the data. I'm going to spend the next few hours making sure I get in without causing a stir.

Oh, and if you have sensors for it, scan the prints and DNA. Never hurts to have a backup.

--Motoko
<End Message>

Before long, she pulled up in front of her building, and rode the elevator up to her penthouse. Stripping out of her clothes, Motoko dressed in a silk nightgown, and went to bed. Or rather, she lay on the bed, and went to work, diving fully into the Matrix.

Before she got too far, she called out to one of her contacts.

<Begin Message>
To: Lady Godiva
From: The Major
Subject: Information Request

Hey there, Lady. Been a while, hasn't it? I need a favor. I need you to run down any information you can for me on TacTech, and any projects they're doing for Lone Star. Concentrate on the office at [insert address here]. Let me know how I can make it up to you.

--Motoko
<End Message>

--
Calling on her contact, Lady Godiva, a rogue AI with connection 2, Loyalty 3, to see what she can sniff out.
--


Reaching out into the Resonance, she made the call. Ishikawa! I need you here with me!

--
Compiling a Crack sprite, Rating 5. I get 5 net hits, so thats 4 tasks owed. Since sprite got no hits, that's no Fading to resist. Optional CF is Spoof.
Resonance 5 + Compiling 4 + 1 Paragon = 10d6 : 5 Hits
Rating 5 = 5d6 : 0 Hits
--

The sprite appeared next to Motoko in her internal node, almost instantly. Nodding to the sprite, who, like all those she compiled, took the form of a character from her favorite anime, Motoko smiled, saying, Good to see you, Ishikawa. Care to help me crack this system? Then she turned, and then jumped from her node, moving at the speed of thought to the TacTech office's public node. Now came the long, drawn out part. Fortunately, she had Ishikawa to help out with that.

--
Probing the target, Extended Hacking+Exploit (1 hour) test. Threshold is the node's System+Firewall+6 to get Admin access. Using Ishikawa to aid the attempt, which counts as 1 task for the whole probing process. After 4 Hours, got 18 hits. Unless the system or Firewall are above the typical max rating of 6, that puts me in, with Admin level access.

Hour 1:
Ishikawa Rating 5 + Exploit 5 = 10d6 : 0 Hits
Motoko Logic 5 + Hacking 3 = 8d6: 2 hits
2 hits total

Hour 2:
Ishikawa Rating 5 + Exploit 5 = 10d6 : 3 Hits
Motoko Logic 5 + Hacking 3 = 8d6: 4 Hits
9 Hits total

Hour 3:
Ishikawa Rating 5 + Exploit 5 = 10d6 : 1 Hit
Motoko Logic 5 + Hacking 3 = 8d6: 3 Hits
13 Hits Total

Hour 4:
Ishikawa Rating 5 + Exploit 5 = 10d6 : 4 Hits
Motoko Logic 5 + Hacking 3 = 8d6: 1 Hit
18 Hits total
--

About halfway through Mokoto's hack she feels a slight mental nudge that indicates Lady Godiva's presense. The AI dumps a datastream directly into her head, an odd feeling like someone pouring cold water into your skull. A faint echo of 'own me one' sounds in her head as the AI wastes no time and moves on her way. Mokoto pauses her hack for a moment to review the info - it seems Lonestar has increased cyber security effors across the board by 12.7289% in the last three months, and by 31.8883% with regards to TacTech specificly. TacTech funding has also been increased bt 48.2986% in the same time frame. However, the only project notes beyond the norm of training officers that Godiva came arcoss is a revisted of an older project to create a water-based taser. She turned up nothing in regards to the specific building the team is looking into.

Motoko's avatar grinned at that, as she shifted the data to her home's node, where she could save it for further study. Turning her attention back to her hack, finally she and Ishikawa slipped in, getting through as an admin account. Hopefully, this would even keep the spiders from looking too close at her. That, and her stealth form, which she put up at full before diving in.

Slipping past the public area of the node, Motoko and Ishikawa went into administrative areas. Lets see. First thing to do would be to construct a more permanent backdoor into the system. She'd need to hack in again, no doubt, and it was a lot easier to do if the system just let you in, legit.

--
Since I'm in with admin privileges, creating a new admin account should be simple and straightforward to do, and not set off any alarms.
--

Looking over to Ishikawa, she chuckles. "Ok, Ishikawa. Which do you wanna tackle first? Security, checking for traces of the project, or personnel?"

Artemis hops into her truck, and decides to swing by her shop before going to stake out TacTech. While she's there, she unloads the MGL and its ammo from the truck, and tosses the manila envelope into a steel trashcan, burning the contents. Then its back to the truck and off to TacTech. She circles the block once, letting the truck self-pilot while she takes a good look at the facility, and then parks behind the neighboring strip mall. This gives her a good view of the parking lot and shooting range and D-line out back, and gives her a pretty decent view of anyone coming in or out.

She takes out her handgun and disassembles it, lying the pieces on the passenger seat, as if she's cleaning the weapon, and then settles in to watch TacTech for at least an hour or so. If anyone comes buy, she can say she just bringing her pistol to the WeaponMasters to have it looked at and found them closed.

[if the place looks empty and no one comes by, she'll go home and try against during the day, tomorrow]

The place is quite this late at night, though the WeaponMaster and (suprisingly) one of the nail salons are still open. The TacTech building is dark other from Artemis's position and there is no noticable movement or activity. There are, however, still nearly two-dozen cars in the parking lot. A domestic disturbance across the street grows load enough to be noticable and Artemis decided that discrtion is the better part of valor when the sounds of a siren start to approach.

*the next day*

When she tries again during the day, the place is clearly more active. There is a relatively regular flow of folks in and out - maybe one every 15 minutes, many of them wearing LoneStar uniforms. A training group cycles out to the firing range while she watches and she notes that it seems to be of six individuals and one instructor. They practice with tasers, a heavy pistol, and a shotgun of some sort, though they are distant enough that she can't tell exact models. There seem to be about fourty cars that stay in the parking lot all day, with the others cycling in and out as people come and go. There is no sign of any of the three faces from the holos.

Ishikawa chuckled. "I'd go with Personnel, first. Scoping out the security system won't do any good if you can't get in the building, right?"

Grinning, Motoko nodded. "Just what I was thinking. Let's get to it, then." And with that, she shifted to the subnode dealing with TacTech's personnel department. Looking to Ishikawa, she said, "All right, cover me while I'm in here. Don't want anyone sneaking up on me."

And with that, she went to work, searching through the records for the three people that the Johnson showed them, as well as getting files such as new hire forms, psych evals, background checks, and all those things she'd need to make several good cover IDs for the team.

--
Using Ishikawa's second task to get him to cover her tracks while she works.

Using Data Search to find info on the three Project Falcon players, and all the forms and files she'll need to make cover IDs for the group.

Logic 5 + Data Search 3 + Browse 2 = 10d6 : Person 1, Person 2, Person 3, Files : 3 Hits, 5 Hits, 2 Hits, 2 Hits
--

Finding the forms is simplicity itself - from the looks of things almost all of them are accessable to the public for legitimate new hires and the internal ones have no security on them. Unfortunately information on the thee targets mentioned by the Johnson is more problematic - you find nothing on any of them.

Artemis saves the data from her eyeware during both her drive-bys (day and night) to her commlink, and also captures a handful of recordings of inidividuals and groups using the outdoor facilities. She also makes it a point to sweep her gaze over the nearby strip mall and residences. This should give the rest of the team a good idea of the place's layout, at least from the exterior. She saves a few verbal notes to her commlink as well, describing opening and closing times, the vehicles that don't seem to leave the parking lot, and the capabilities of what appear to be the facility staff.

She debates actually walking in and asking about signing up for lessons or some such, but figures it'd be best if she didn't reveal her face to anyone inside just yet. On her way home, the next evening, she sends out a message to the rest of the team:

"I've been to the facility. Everything looks pretty ordinary. Haven't seen any of the persons of interest. I'll burn some copies of my footage to share when we get together next. Speaking of which . . . do we have anything resembling a timetable or a plan yet? How about a meeting . . . Diamond Diner at 9?"

Artemis swings by a Big Box Supercenter and picks up a dozen data chips to make copies of the images she's gathered and her personal notes, and heads home to wait to hear from the rest of the team.

Well, well. So these guys were completely off the books, hmm? Or at least they were paid elsewhere. Either way, that would be trouble. Still, might as well do what she came to do.

Bringing up the files, she added in Artemis and the matron as the new security guards, under the names Rita Munroe and Lana Turner, respectively. Both had top security clearance, and would be able to go almost anywhere in the building.

Needle got the inglorious job of being the new janitor, Rick James, also with top clearance. Like Artemis and Matron, he'd be able to move about pretty much at will, without seeming inconspicuous.

Motoko, of course, didn't sign up for either of those, but instead inserted herself as the newest worker in the IT department, working the day shift, as Asuka Soryu. Like the others, no one looks too hard at the IT guy. And, like the others, she gave herself top security clearance.

Then she added everyone to the payroll, making the average wages for their respective jobs. Well, she might have given herself a few extra nuyen an hour, but whatever. Finally, she put notes in to supply for uniforms, ID badges, and all other necessary equipment to be sent to the home addresses of all four new employees.

--
Basically, setting everyone up with jobs that will allow them to poke around without drawing too much attention to themselves, and getting a few more nuyen on the side.
--

Pleased with her work so far, Motoko fired off a message to the others.

<Begin Message>
To: Artemis, Needle, the Matron
From: The Major
Subject: Infiltration

Set you up with legit work inside TacTech. IDs and uniforms should be arriving at your address before end of the day. Start tomorrow. No information on our three friends, they appear to be ghosts.

--Motoko
<End Message>

Its going to your mailing address, wherever you get your packages. And no, I haven't had time to check the entire 'trix for those three. I've spent the last few hours making sure I could get into the system without getting caught. There's nothing on them in TacTech's personnel files, which means they're off book, or paid through someone else. Now I've got hours of work left before I'm done with this hack, so I'm going to get back to it.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, Motoko slipped over into the security section of the node.

The Major spent the next four hours examining the security system, both physical and matrix, getting an overview of the ins and outs of the system, as well as downloading a copy of the building blueprints available to the security department and storing it on her home node, which she used to cross-check against what she found in the security node.

--
Essentially, she's going to map out all the security checkpoints in the building, as well as mapping out the security system (what kind of locks are on each door, pressure sensors, laser grids, thermal scanners, security cameras, etc.). Basically, she's going to give the team as much info as she can before they go in.
--

That done, Motoko looks to Ishikawa, and says, "All right, Ishikawa. That's good work. Clean up, and then take a rest. I'll call again soon." And with that, she slips out of the node, back to her home node. Once she got confirmation of Ishikawa de-rezzing, she slipped out of VR, and back into her meat body. Almost eight hours of work hacking the building made her tired, and hungry.

--
Sending Ishikawa on a remote task to clean any evidence of her hacking in, using up the rest of his tasks.
--

Yawning, Motoko got out of bed, and headed into her kitchen, where she prepared a simple meal of chicken, rice, and a salad. No soy here, Motoko only ate real food when she was at home.

Not long after dark, you begin slipping into the Diamond Diner. Soon, everyone has arived. You are crowed into a small corner booth, the pleather seat covers stained and torn, and the room reaking of stale smoke. A watress, who might once have been pretty, long ago, drops off your slightly burnt, soy-based meals and otherwise leaves you a long. An elderly couple sits down at the far end of the bar, and a couple of gangers are hassling the man running the register, but no one is close enough to overhear you.

Needle is there, this time in more generic looking clothing. He looks bored and vaguely disinterested, and his clothing just slightly disheveled - as though he was uncontiously matching the decor. He ordered a breakfast plate for dinner for reasons only bog knew.

Once the food was there and he'd quickly scanned himself for RFID's and other gear, he decided to start the ball rolling before eating his questionably prepared food.

So what's the plan? We going to do this in one go or a soft run for recon?

He began mopping some overly yellow runny egg substitute with his slightly burnt bread subsititute, then threw on some scopham for good measure.

Motoko, much to the waitress's displeasure, wasn't eating anything. In fact, the only thing she had in front of her was a glass of water. In truth, the technomancer had eaten before coming out to the meet. She disdained places like this, and would only ever eat here if a cover truly depended on it.

"Since we have no clue where in the building the data is, or how its protected, I figured we go in, with the cover IDs I prepared for you all, and gather information. I've put each of you in positions where you can reasonably explore the entire building. A bit of gossip will get the rest. I'll be working in their IT department, which will allow me to be in an overwatch position, if things come to that."

He finished a piece and a half of the food and settled down to some ProPure enhanced water.

One of the best things about the diamond was it's location - stuck in the section of middle class retail shops just outside the corp zones, it got a very mixed trade of low to middle class people. It was AMAZING what you could over hear using a sound filter, and image link photo's of people were extremely useful for his disguise kit, as well as studying the way people moved.

I'm not sure about a dry run. We don't know enough about their security and hiring proceedures, and I can't imagine new employees not getting a through security check, or being escorted around by someone to 'show them the ropes'.

If we get made in THAT place, the bonus will be the least of our worries.

I think we need to do a more through search on the three persons of interest outside of the site, maybe have a little chat, see if we can't run some social engineering
on one person at home rather then crazy security place.

Any chance of magical recon?

Motoko's eyes narrowed at Needle, clearly taking what he said as a slight against her skills as a hacker. "You clearly are still sleepy, because I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I got in, and made you all cover IDs, and they're already hired. Let me spell it out for you, though. That system sees me as god."

"You all have cover IDs. They've all had a proper background check, and all of them have top security clearance. You all have legitimate identification cards and uniforms being sent to your mailing address, which will legitimately get you past most security measures in the building."

"And we want the more experienced people to lead you around and show you the ropes. Because you're going to listen to what they say, and find out where the super secret projects are, such as anyplace your security clearances aren't enough to go except in case of emergencies."

"As for those three, did I not say they were ghosts? They aren't anywhere in the system for that building. Which means that you're not going to find them on the 'trix in general. Now if you want to go hacking into Lone Star's home node, and check things out, you're more than welcome, but I'd rather not."

Artemis gets the tall stack of pancakes with "maple" syrup.

"This is the only thing that's any good here, but man, are they good," she adds, digging in, and listening to the beginnings of the conversation.

She talks over a mouthful of pancake after the Major describes the situation. "There were people in an out of there all day. I don't think they'd notice a few more. Hell, we might even learn something. And isn't the whole point of us going in there to find information on those three? If it were out on the streets, the Johnson would have it already. I'm pretty sure even if we get made, we can get out okay. Place is pretty public, and the Major's given us maps, so we know the layout, including which doors are locked."

Artemis shoves in another forkfull of flapjack.

"I say we go in. If we find what we're looking for, we don't come back from lunch and the Major deletes our files. Otherwise, we play it cool for a day or two. If we haven't found anything within three days, we should probably either bail, or turn it into a smash n grab.

"What's my cover, again?"

Motoko looked to Artemis, and brought up four AR windows for the team to see. The first had Artemis's picture in it. "You're Rita Munroe, Seattle native, one of the new security guards they've hired. You've got full clearance, and your background check came back clean, except for a couple speeding tickets. And you're ex-UCAS military, several tours, but all further information has been redacted, likely black ops, no file written."

Turning to the Matron, she grinned, sliding the next window to the front. "You are Lana Turner, UCAS native, east coast. Moved to Seattle two years ago. Worked security at a matrix hub in the Barrens for a while, but just got hired on to work security at TacTech, to beef up their defenses against awakened assailants. Full clearance, background check came with a note of reprimand in your docket, for using excessive force against a Luddite adept who wanted to take down the hub, but an internal review found it to be justified."

She turned to Needle, bringing his window forward, and said, "You are Rick James, CAS native, out of Georgia. You'll be the newest janitor. Background check came up clean. Though if you doubt my abilities again, it may turn up a couple incidents with you, underage girls, and a couple farm animals."

Leaning back in her chair, she turns to her own window, and said, "And I'll be Asuka Soryu, Japanese native, came to Seattle on an internship with Renraku. After the internship was over, I started doing IT work for several companies. Background check comes in clean, and I've got clearance to work on any computer in the building."

Needles looks momentarily shocked How did you find out about Sasha and Bessie?!? That was years ago! Don't tell anyone, I swear I'll never disrespect your hacking skills again!

After a few more seconds his voice went back to a more serious tone.

I'm sure that system is yours Major, just as sure as my name is Rick James. I really didn't mean to imply you'd screwed up. I'm just a cautious involving large numbers of armed men who would happily make our lives short and painful if they knew who we were.

If you say it's time for a little recon, we do a little recon.

Artemis squints at her data file (people squinting at thin air being an all-too-regular sight these days), "Only 20 k over the limit? I must've been sightseeing."

Artemis sops up the last of the syrup with the last mouthful of pancake, nodding in agreement with Needles, "Unless one of us finds a drawer full of data chips labeled 'secret files' with our three marks' photos on them, in which case we make some copies and and walk away clean."

Artemis downs her glass of soymilk (which is a far cry from milk, but much cheaper), and leaves a proper tip with the diner's cashier node. "Well, it's getting late, and I've got work in the morning. See you all there?"

Her clothes and ID ought to be waiting for her at the garage. It's not secret that that's where she lives, at least among the city's gangers and shadowrunners, so it's where Motoko would've sent everything.

---

The next morning, she makes it a point to put ALL her gear in the truck, just in case, but to park in a far corner of the parking lot. The only things that come into TacTech with her are her sidearm, boot knife, commlink, and smoke grenade and tag eraser hidden in the left leg. She brings her jacket with her, but leaves it in the truck, concealing the MGL-12 and crate of grenades.

She makes it a point to arrive ten minutes before her shift starts.

Edit: Ignore me - posted in the wrong game...