Echoes of Egypt

“Fine if you want to do that, fine. But so help me if you screw this up for us, I will personally end you!” Doc said with venom in his voice. He didn’t like it, but night had a point. Boxes could get you in but you’re pretty much stuck there if it doesn’t work.
“Shan, let’s get to setting up the crash site before someone takes the job out from under us” Doc said. He pulled out his knife. We need to make this work, no matter what he thought. He sent a message to the arms dealer to deliver a junked vehicle to the coordinates of where the ‘crash site’ was pronto; with a 1000 nuyen compensation fee.

Right side of the ribcage, third rib down, 4 centimeters from the sternum….

"You got it Doc, let's get this thing working and under wraps." She says, looking up at the night sky. "Umm... I don't suppose you all see at night like I do... huh? Do night vision goggles make it workable? I don't want too much flashlight problems giving us away." Shan mentions, looking somewhat concernedly at Doc. Never can tell when someone on 'the other side' is looking in the right direction at the right time. Why, this one time, at some strange human gathering with tons of big metal noise things, I caught a mouse for breakfast just in the midst of a noise-making competition, or some strange such. It was just sitting, waiting... And it was tasty!" She got caught up a bit telling her story, but clearly it was a fond memory. Never know when someone on 'the other side' might be watching...
Shan shakes her head a bit, coming back to the present. "Yeah, like I was saying, will night vision goggles work?"

Night makes a request of Hal. "Hey Hal as soon as one of the two teams set of the alarms let me know so I can send in a astral strike team to deal with watchers since they are the major threat to us under the cover of a spell. Thanks much appreciated." Night keeps his ear phones in and on site will talk through his comlink via his sub vocal mic to the rest of the team.

"As for night vision I can see fine thanks with the eyes God gave me."

"Oh, uh, sorry Night. I meant that sort of locally, I forgot that my Commlink was on." She says, her embarassment coming through clearly. Shan, being an Owl, isn't likely to be as comfortable, nor as literate, with the technology available to metahumanity.
"Sure, I am definitely on it." HAL responds.

Night iKapa and Will wait out of site at the dig site ready to move in just as the locks on the boxes are set to go off. As the group sits at the best hidden spot they can find iKapa starts to speak up. "I have a bit of a background in stealthy attacks if you want as we sit here waiting for the clock to run down on the box timers I'll give you some pointers on how to stay undetected." Night answers him on the group of 3's commlinks. "OK that would be great and seeing how you have these skills and what looks to be cyber arms how about you lead the 3 of us into the complex and here you go for the chain link ahead." Night hands over the wire cutters so iKapa can cut through the fence ahead. After grabing at air and looking for foot prints iKapa grabs hold of the wire cutters then he starts to tell the 3 of them how to go about being stealth.

Well the 3 talk all 3 do their best to observe the camp to get a understanding of any movements.

It takes some time and a little negotiation as well as a fair bit of time for the Arms dealer to come through, but eventually he manages to pull together the required setup right down to the typical sort of light cargo aircraft that the dig site suppliers are known to frequently use. All in all it takes two days however to clean up the wreck hauled out of god knows where from his scrap yard and dress it up properly to look the part of downed aircraft. Ultimately it's the crates everyone is supposed to hide in that prove to be the most difficult thing to work out. People needed air and there's always the concern that one of the rescue teams would try to open the crates prior to moving them.

Still, enough nuyen will grease any wheels and eventually the 'wreck' is properly setup and the various tracks leading to the 'crash site' are cleared away readily enough thanks to all the sand and light rock, at least far back enough that the only thing that would give it away would be satellite imagery, and this far out they weren't likely to be watching that closely going by the security run down everyone had been given. The time is put to good use however as HAL winds up needing a significant amount of time to track down and hack the appropriate channels. A mortal hacker would have a beast of a time, though fortunately AI's like HAL didn't actually ever need sleep by and large.

While the others are busy setting up the crash site, Nite, iKapa and Will set themselves to finding a place within reasonable distance to the dig site to hide the team's vehicles in case they need a quick get away. Their best efforts however still mean it's going to be a long hike for the trio to actually reach the perimeter fencing about the dig site, and with all the loose sand and other concerns of an otherwise mostly open desert, it still takes them several long gruelling hours to get into place before the final pieces of the plan are set. Fortunately however while the trio are getting into position to move in, the others are able to finish up their fake crash landing and hide themselves away in the cargo crates before HAL triggers the faked signals to show the approaching cargo craft right on time before it's inevitable 'mayday' consisting of mechanical failures and an engine blowout before it eventually 'crashes' into the desert below. While the site security finds itself largely unprepared for such an event, they at least are equipped with a number of desert worthy vehicles and it's just another few hours under the blistering, but thankfully setting, sun before the rescue team arrives at the prepared crash site to search for survivors. All in all the rescue team is consisted of several armed and armoured jeeps and two transport trucks as well as what the dig site could pull together in the way of medical staff.

Back over near the dig site itself however, Night and his fellows can easily see the rescue convoy gather up and head off with what they could easily estimate to be about half the live security force, leaving mostly just a few security staff along with the usual compliment of security droids and but a handful of watcher spirits to provide security for the facility itself.

Night watches as the convoy leaves the dig site. Over his sub vocal he lets the team now the plan. "We wait until the jack in the box team has there timed locks open before we move we don't want to spook anyone until their in place." Night and the rest of the 3 man team wait for their timers on their comm links to let them know that the jacks have popped their locks and are on the move before they head into the camp.

It might look inviting to storm the place well some of their guards are off site but that will ruin the jack in the box teams plans, so we will wait until they are up and moving then make our move at the fences. Night thinks this to himself as he tries to wait patiently

When they show up with the "crates" that will house the team heading in, Shan shivers somewhat. She wasn't too worried about herself, since she can take up quite a bit less space than most humans, when she wishes. But that is a small space... Especially for a human. She shoves her longcoat into the crate and climbs in, not the least bit worried that it was extremely cramped, even for her female body. As soon as the lid is closed, Shan shifts into her owl form, immediately removing both the size and the darkness as a factor for comfort. The only thing left that could cause her discomfort now was the heat, and there was nothing to be done for that.
- Hey HAL... How's everything for the rest of the team? Are they all in, and as comfortable as can be? I hope none of them are claustrophobic, because this would be some kind of miserable for them if they were! She sends out toward HAL.
"Seriously? Claustrophobic? What is the problem with little spaces anyway? Is that a fleshie thing? 'Cause I fit no problem into something you can't even see, and it doesn't bother me!" HAL's response does nothing to either answer her question, nor to let her know how the team is doing.
- HAL, you didn't answer my question." Shan states, trying to put the discontent into her mental voice, but not the least bit certain that it was carried over.
"Right... They're fine. In. We're just waiting now for the rescue team to come "save us" now. And I know they are on the way." HAL says, clearly coloring her mental voice. Shan could hear the boredom mixed with annoyance at the mundane tasks she was being forced to deal with so far.

Night is kneeling with one hand on Will who has one hand touching iKapa so when the team moves out they can fallow iKapa with out any trouble. As Night waits for the timer to click down on the lock boxes he decides to send a request to Hal. Using his sub vocal mic and comm link Night puts in a request to Hal. "Hal when you get in range try to hack into the cameras used on site to locate our target also try to keep an ear on the alarms and let everyone know if we trip any. If we get into trouble you could try hacking a near by drone to help with fire support too. Thanx" Night keeps the message to the point with a bit of an add on about the drone. Well you never know when a AI piloting a drone will save your bacon in fire fight if this is the first time it happens for me at least my bacon was saved Night thinks these things to himself as he does his best to stay down and out of sight.

Wedged in one of the boxes Jack checked the ammo of his Fichetti Security 600. As he has time to think it through again, the plan was risky. Dividing the pack in two teams..one wedged in boxes. Stupid! But what the hell, here he was, in the box, waiting to get started. He activated the thermographic vision of his googles, and activated his astral sight, so he could recognize astral patrols checking the boxes.

Thbbbtttt HAL made a noise, and Shan's head popped up. It turned out to be a somewhat painful movement, since even in Owl form she couldn't stand up straight in the box. There was more than enough room to relax comfortably, but she couldn't move around in them. She wished she could rub her head, but that wouldn't have been quite the way wings were designed, even in sufficient space. She would have to live with it...
"Uhh...What was that all about?" She "thought" to HAL.
One of your fleshies is giving me tasks... She could "hear" the emphasis on "your" from HAL, and it tasted somewhat reticent, although HAL seemed like she was going to do as she was asked.
"Fine... Shan mentally rolled her eyes, or whatever it was that HAL would interpret as exasperation.
"Did you really need to share that with me?" Shan said, following up on her exasperation.
Uhh... Yeah. They're your fleshies. HAL responded, returning the exasperation in kind. And you don't do a very good job of keeping them in line either.
"Hey! I'm not even human! It's not like I know the first thing about controlling one!" Shan responded, quite taken aback by HAL's attitude.
HAL, of course, started to cackle in both amusement and victory. Shan's upset melted into the sheepish humor of one who had just unknowingly walked into a very funny trap.

Artemis takes a few moments to wedge herself into a box annoyed at the situation and not the plan itself. **Just fraking great I'm a cargo hauler. I'm not cargo. Why do I allow myself to be talked into these situations** As she folds herself into the box attempting to find a comfortable spot that will accomodate her legs she starts to run an internal diagnostinc of her hardware. **Just relax, its all normal. The hurry up part is done now we do the waiting part. Then we survive what comes after that. Might as well take a few minutes of down time while I can.**

Keying the local network on the commlink "I'm in. I suggest everyone set a chronometer to our arrival time."










standard Dialog - :: ..... ::
alternate languages Je suis foo!
thoughts = ** my thoughts **
matrix activity and rigger activity
radio/cell phone communiques
Telepathy/Spirit

Answering on the link: I'm in position, too. I thaught the locks of these *rumbling as he trys to shift to a more comfortable position* fracking boxes are on a timer, aren't they? Ok ok I'll set a timer myself.. he says as he trys to reach his commlink. Got this timer thing wrong hu? Uhm, what is our arrival time, by the way?

"Oh Frag! I forgot the timer part too... HAL, do you remember?" She says, mentally keying in the local frequency for everyone to hear her cursing. Hopefully the AI would remember... Hopefully.

Still hearable over comm: Oh great, I'm not the only senile here.

Smiling to herself :: You want to keep your own timer in case some idiot on the outside decides to change the timers, or they malfunction. Hal should be able to handle that Shan, its only a minor protocal that most pilot programs have.::

After William listened to all this drak over the com thinking well it could be worse i could be in a box wondering if the dam thing is going to unlock...

*Summed up: I don't have any clue when this damn box will open* he thinks to himself. *Better prepare early* he closes his eyes, trying to breathe steadily and feels the mana arround him. As he's better not singing loud here he remembers the verses in his head. He channels the mana to his body centre, slowly stretching his muscles in the process. Resisting the emptyness the mana leaves behind were it goes through his body he manages to finish the spell at the moment the short melody he remembered finished as well.

[OOC:
- Casting Increase Reflexes Level 3, Spellcasting 4 + Magic 5 = 9d6 : 3 Hits
- Resisting Drain (F/2)+2 with F=3 => Drain value is 3: Willpower 5 + Charisma 5 = 10 d6 : 2 Hits

Spell result: Success resulting in +2 Initiative and +2 Initiative Passes

Damage Track:
Physical: 0
Stun: 1
Modifiers: ??]

Ignoring the pain in his forehead he waits for the show to start, the short melody still in his head.

Time seems to pass incredibly slowly for those in the shipping containers, all the more so as there's little in the way of any sort of sound to hear of the outside world from within, only the slow steady hiss of oxygen from the canisters that were in with each occupant, that way they wouldn't die of asphyxiation before the job even really got going. By the time everything is set in place dusk arrives, and with it an increasingly chilly night. Blaz

From the wonders of having a perspective view out in the vast and rapidly cooling desert, Night, Will and iKapa watch as a small security force heads out from the fenced in dig site towards the so called 'crash site' about 10 minutes after HAL broadcasts the fake distress signal, neatly rerouting an actually expected delivery to the arms dealer Akil in payment for the little ruse the team has setup. The setup had been relatively basic for the AI to accomplish, simply modify a few records so a shipment that was actually going out by a large drone, instead looked like it had been altered at the last minute to cram a few extra needed supplies in, and thus required the services of an actual light aircraft instead. Of course that's the appearance that the dig site saw. After that all he had to do was hack into the relatively simple minded drone AI and tell it to go where he wanted it to instead, and then confirm delivery. All told the team in the boxes are waiting a good thirty minutes before they finally feel themselves being shifted about, though fortunately there's still a good hour and a half of air left. Or at least that was the general claim on the duration of the air canisters at any rate....

Meanwhile Doc managed to put on a decent enough show as the supposedly wounded light aircraft pilot that the security and rescue team sent out to the fake crash site don't bother with more than a cursory inspection of his forged identification, before packing him up on a stretcher and rushing loading him into the back of one of the jeeps before it raced off back to the dig site, while the rest of the rescue and security team set about recovering what they could from the surprisingly intact wreckage..

In good time, the plan was working well...

So far.

"Hey, listen, quit all of your fragging complaining!" Shan "said" sharply to HAL. And by "said", she was actually speaking through her mind in to the 'Trode net on her Commlink.
"But, did you do anything like what I am doing for this group? You fleshies just don't understand!" HAL continued her complaining to Shan.
"Don't Understand?!? Do you have any idea what it's like being stuck inside a tiny box, with only barely enough space in the box for my beak to reach the other side!" She countered, her moderate claustrophobia starting to show through a little. It's not like most people are really claustrophobic, but this kind of environment would get to anyone, unless they were specifically trained for it! And Shan wasn't even remotely prepared. Her only benefit, unlike the metahumans, was that she did actually fit in the box.
"I can't even imagine what this would feel like for a normal human, or metahuman! You don't have ANY right to complain about this!" She said, quite sharply this time.

At long last the containers are moved into the dig site proper and offloaded in a large, temporary building that doubles as a storage warehouse. While generally such areas are kept relatively clean, the floor and walls are coated with a fine powder of sand, something that just can't be kept out of anything when it comes to the deep desert. Fortunately going by the briefing the team got from the Johnson, the security measures from within the compound are considerably less than those around the fenced in borders. Too much security got in the way of a proper archaeological dig after all, not to mention the prohibitive cost of keeping delicate electronic systems such as security cameras, laser trip wires and similar devices working for any extended period of time. Of course there was one slight problem that posed itself in this whole situation. No one in the crates would know when it would be safe to come out, assuming they could even get out on their own, and then no one was sure just how much time doc would be tied up for with the on site medical staff, nor what sort of restrictions would be placed upon him once he was there.....

Which left the team outside of the fence still trying to find a way in, and those inside the crates, needing to decide how long they wanted to wait before trying to break out on their own without alerting security.

Jack still laid inside one of the boxes. He tried to move inside and get a glimpse on the oxygen container fill level. It was near to zero. "Hey out there, anyone got an Idea when this boxes will open up? My oxygen is nearly depleted, got maybe 10 minutes left. We should get out of here soon, don't you think? Apart from that, my legs get numb, so let's move!

"Hmm... I'm doin' fine with the Oxygen, as my form takes up considerably less than yours. But we are going to have to make a move soon. HAL, can you check to see if there are any metahumans nearby? I'm not sure if you could pick up their Commlinks talking to each other or something?" Shan replied through her 'Trode net to her Commlink on the local channel. Her response was bringing out her glaringly obvious techno-illiteracy. If the situation wasn't so immediate, and dire, it would likely have been cause for significant laughter. Of course, HAL probably could detect localized active emissions. But there isn't much chance HAL would understand her techno-illiterate-speak.
"What are you saying, fleshie?!" HAL responded nearly immediately. Clearly she didn't know how to speak HAL's language in this respect...
"Uhh... I'm not sure, really, what I'm saying. Does anyone know how to, uh, translate my idea in to HAL-Speak?" She said. Despite the repeat opportunity for humor, Shan likely had no idea she was being funny.
"Also, how do we get out of these things again? I don't remember." She said, again, revealing her utter incapacity with all things tech - except somehow her rifle.

Hearing the chatter on their closed link, Artemis wakes from her snooze. She looks up to the canister monitor, notes the levels and compares that with how much time they have left.

"Don't panic we have plenty of air. You're telling me Hal that your evolved dog brain can't figure out to scan for the local sensors in the nearby area and exploit them so you can use them to track any movement within the immediate area and download that to the rest of us in real time ar? As an evolved pilot program that should come naturally to you."

"Clearly your contorted body position is cutting off oxygen to your brain. If your dog's brain was half as valuable as my evolved super-processing capacity, you dog would have taken over for you in your position, relegating your job in his life to opening and closing doors.
"HOWEVER, what I was actually saying is that the bird-brain here hasn't learned enough of your language yet to be able to effectively communicate her ideas. Perhaps you all should have a metahuman pow-wow and teach her to speak properly. As for what she really wanted me to do, now that you have translated it from techno-neanderthal, and I can finally understand it, I can absolutely take care of that request." Shan gasps in surprise at HAL's words.
"HAL! That was Aweful!" She said in immediate reprimand, also noting with displeasure that the computer recreation of her voice didn't carry anywhere near as much emotion as she had intended to convey.