On the Job

The year is 2071 and boy have things changed, especially in good ol' Seattle. Many businesses have come and gone over the years, and even the government has seen quite the flip around with not one but two presidential assassinations in relatively recent years. Even the old Renraku Arcology downtown has changed, once a heavy camp of military and shadow activity, it's seen that profile greatly reduced in years and now serves as a place to go if your homeless. Not that it's really gotten rid of the problem since once you go in, you supposedly can't get out again (Though that's not what all the official information will tell you). At the very least it's cut down on the number of homeless people seen out and about on the streets these days.

Speaking of the streets, there's a new cop in town too. Lone Star lost it's contract and now Knight Errant is in, struggling to make a name for itself under the watchful and critical eye of the pro-human Governor Brackhaven. Not that he hasn't managed to shoulder the bill, not on the backs of Seattle Tax Payers, but rather 'corporate sponsors'. One of which happens to be Knight Errant's own owner, Ares Macrotechnology. Thrown into the security mix is of course the ever anti-metahuman Seattle Metroplex Guard, who, ever since the problems with the Renarku Archology have had to play a little (though not much) nicer under the watchful eye of Joint Task Force Seattle. That's of course not counting the innumerable number of private security forces, not the least of which are those belonging to the corps big enough to rate extraterritoriality. None the less, racial tensions are reaching an all time high in Seattle and crime has been growing at a steady pace ever since Crash 2.0. Given that Knight Errant had to win the contract over it's competitors rather than just having the job handed to them, Knight Errant has been sinking in significant time and resources into putting on a good show. Now and then that might mean that real justice falls through the cracks, but... well. That's a problem for another day.

Part of the big PR push from KE has been in the form of the highly publicized appointment of Melehara Imiri to the rank of Lieutenant and placed in charge of SWAT Team 7. Unfortunately despite the big PR push and Melehara Imiri's own apparent natural charismatic flair, public reaction has thus far been mixed, and internally the results have been mixed to say the least. Especially when her past as a stripper of all things have been brought into light. Combined with racial bias and people questioning the capabilities of a so called 'cat girl' regardless of the fact that she came about it due to, and in some cases specifically because it came about due to Class III SURGE has also further muddied things. Not that it's had any reduction on the demand from the public for a pinup calendar featuring her, though one has yet to come about. Internally it's lead to a fair bit of bias and the fact that the squad was soon filled out with a mixture of metahumans and others deemed.. unusual soon lead to SWAT Team 7 being unofficially named 'Freak Squad'.

You are the members of the so called 'Freak Squad' and today your tale will be told. It may lead you to fortune or fame, or it is just as likely to lead you to ruin and infamy.

Only time will tell.

Time: 02:32
Date: October 1st, 2072
Location: Seattle Metroplex

The alarm goes out and SWAT Team 7 is called in to deal with the problem. Earlier that morning an armoured vehicle reported to be carrying a load of jewelry to one of Seattle's high end stores was hijacked, the crew reportedly taken hostage and the whole truck and it's contents disappeared. Little over an hour after it was reported stolen, the company supposedly managed to track down their vehicle and sent in it's own security force to try and retrieve the property in question. The only problem was, they didn't have the legal authority to do so. To make matters worse, they got wiped out by the crooks in question who are now believed to be well armed and equipped Shadow Runners. None the less once the shooting started Knight Errant acted swiftly to intervene and has the whole building surrounded, but the problem is their standard squads of security personnel just don't have the training, experience nor firepower to take on the team inside and to try and rescue any hostages.

That is why the freak squad now finds itself on site outside the building in the wee hours of the morning geared up and ready to rock....

As soon as you all have a plan anyway...

The building is a fairly squat two story office style building in one of the more run down areas of the city that suffered economic losses during Crash 2.0. Fortunately it's not as bad as having to go into the Barrens but it's best the whole thing gets wrapped up before some gang or other decides to try and pick a fight with the police because they got bored. Roof access may be possible through one of two large vents, though it's questionable if the vents themselves could actually hold a person's weight. Beyond that most of the windows are boarded up or otherwise blocked off. To top it off they are all barred for added safety and at least three individuals inside are using specially cut holes in the wall as firing points to keep everyone at bay while they no doubt try to figure out how to escape.

On top of you usual issued loadout you have the following equipment available for your use:

Standard, Subsonic, Gel, Stick-n-shock or APDS (Sniper rifle rounds only), Shock-Lock (Shotgun only) Ammunition.
Tear/Knockout and other non lethal gas grenades
Flash Paks, Flash Grenades and other non lethal grenades
Silencers (For weapons that can equip one)
Spyballs
A selection of various spy and surveillance drones (Most types are available in limited numbers. All are stock versions)
B&E Gear: Saws, Crowbars, Prybars, Rams, lock pick guns, maglock keys, wire cutters etc
Explosives: Det cord, breaching charges and other related explosive devices and tools

Rules of Engagement:
Rescue any hostages.
Minimize casualties. It's preferable that the crooks be captured alive.
Try not to bring down the whole building, but if you have to blow a hole in the wall, by all means go for it. No one around here will care, and if some one does and complains, no one will listen to them anyway.

Shinny arrives at the site on time heads over to the rest of the group, waring his SWAT armor making sure to keep the helmet on. Shinny does his best at work to keep his face and anything that can id him hidden from the public unless Ares trys to show the world how different he is Shinny does his best not to advertise his identity. Shinny begins to brain storm ideas with the groups. "So we have a hostage situation I'm guessing the first step is to get the blue prints on our comm links and send me in asrtally to see who is in there and where they are. Then come up with a plan. Fallowed by a second astral check of the building to make sure they haven't moved too much. Shinny pauses for a moment fixes his helmet to make sure it is ready for what is ahead then continues "Just give me the order and I'll check out the building and try and have the blue prints ready for when I get out so I can tell you where everyone is with some kind of accuracy

Melehara looks up at Shiney as he approaches. She's dressed in her full suit of form-hugging armor with her helmet's face-plate up. It looks a bit like someone took the normal SWAT gear and vacu-formed it onto her. Predators strapped under each arm, stun batons on each hip, and the Alpha slung from her back, Mel looks kinda like one of the characters from the Firewatch trid show. Her tail, covered in a ballistics fabric sleeve, motions to each person as she address them.

"Ah, Shiney, good timing. Yes, it'd be great if you and Ruh could check the place out. Be careful though, we don't know if they've got a mojo-slinger of thier own in there yet. RamJam'll keep an eye on your shoes while you're out."

Looking to the rest of her team, "Mike, can you get those building plans for us? Soon as you can pull them, let Adrian get a look at them. We may need to blast our way in, or find some good places to pop gas on them.

Cornai, see if you can track down any matrix activity coming out of that building. If it's runners, they've probably got some sort of network for at least thier team that we could use a tap on."

Her tail curls back around her waist like a belt. "I'll see what the Beat Boys have. Maybe they can help us get a spyball in there. And hopefully they have some more details on what's in that truck that these shadow creepers have gotten us out here for."

Cornai got the call, retrieved her gearand headed to the scene. She had geared up and reported to Mele for tasking. once she received her task she opened to the resonance called forth her sprites and began threading a scan complex form. [url]http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2729978/ [/url]

RamJam got out of the citymaster the team drove up with. Lucky they weren't many, for he takes up half the passengers seatings on his own. The giant Troll looked around to locate his chief, walks over to Mel and says Chief Man, I'll take their shoos back in the master. Let me know if we're ready for action man he then lifts the body's of his mage friends over his shoulder and carry's them back to the citymaster.
Put's on his helmet and closes his visor. He then checks his alpha to make sure it's in a good working condition

Earlier this morning, Mike's day was a normal one. He was woken by his household drone as per usual. He kissed his sleeping mother gently on the cheek, and was off to grab the bus to work. Mike, at the first glance of the other bus patrons, looked like some kind of cybered ganger, and they all guessed his weaponized racing cycle must be in the shop. There perceptions changed somewhat when he used his bulky cyberarms to help an old woman up the bus's steps. He had gotten off the bus not at a seedy gang HQ but instead Knight Errants. He was blissfully pondering whether or not he would have time to modify his SWAT armor today when he got the call. Suit up, get in the van. Showtime.

"Alright, Mel, lemme see what I can scrounge up. Might take me a minute. Freezin' my tusks off out here..."
[Wanna make this a Quick Extended Test? 7 dice.]

GM: If you wish to make an extended test to modify your armour, by all means do so. However, it would not be in a usable state until your modifications are completed.

"Sure thing Mel. Shinny, Why don't we check the perimeter before slipping inside? We can meet up again on the back side, and then I suggest you let me slip in first. That way if we do have to take a mojoslinger down, he'll be focused on me while you can take him from behind.

Mel, do we know the numbers we're dealing with in there? I can tap a couple of them to try and see what their plans are if you want, but you know how these types react when they realize their mind is being messed with."

As RamJam tries to pick Ruh up, "Oi! We can walk just fine thank you! I know you're a troll and all, but there is such a thing as common courtesy. If someone is trying stab or shoot me, feel free to be as rude as you like, but for now I can handle myself."

"Shinny, I'll be in the City Master. Meet you on the other side."

RamJam looks at Ruh as he protests to his pickup and says Hey Man, relax, I thought you were already far out there

[I meant for the Data Search, but I'll just roll it. I'm not sure what the threshold is, but I'll start off with a single roll and go from there.]
Mike activated his commlink, made sure Analyze was running, and then ran his Browse program to see if he could find some blueprints on the dilapidated old building.
[Data Search 1 + Browse 5 (Crashguard) + Optimization (Browse) = 7d6; Result:2,5,6,1,2,4,4 2 hits]

As Melehara moves off to find the one in charge of the cordon, she tosses a last remark over her shoulder on the way, "Null sweat RJ, We'll have our fun soon enough. And don't worry Ruh, I'll get every data scrap they've got."

Upon locating the ranking officer on site, she holds out a hand, "Lieutenant Imiri, SWAT Team 7. What's our sit-rep?"

Adrian hops down from the back of the City master after Ramjam. Taking a moment to tie his bandanna down over his white hair, he glared at the rest of the 'freak' squad.

He grimaces at the idea that he would need any thing from that Ork, but says nothing, turning toward the building, he takes a good hard look at it. The old walls were in a moderate state of disrepair.

Hmmm, probably can't use anything too much stronger than det cord, breaching charges should be okay for the doors, but anything heavy and that roof might collapse on us. He thought to himself.

Adrian walked back into the city master and cut off 30 feet of Det cord in two 15 foot lengths, he rolled it up into easy to carry rolls, and taped them in the middle, so they wouldn't fall apart. Adrian grabbed two breaching charges, and detonators for all of the explosives, he then filled up 4 drums of gel rounds for his shotgun, and 1 mag of regular ammo for his Predator. Loading both weapons he hops out of the city master again, and looks around for the cat lady.

Shinny gets himself seated in the city master placing his assault rifle next to him and gets ready to leave his body. "Ok I'll take the back and you take the front and we will see what we can find if you get into a fight in there head straight up to the roof and hopeful back up will be coming soon. Shinny sits back in the chair and leaves his body.Well I wish I had time to summon a elemental and bond the thing to me I could summon up one and keep it ready for the fight I guess when I see what we are up against I'll summon one for fire support in there but until then lets take a look at what we have on the inside of this building .Shinny moves to the back of the building and slowly lets his head move through the wall to see what is on the other side trying to use stealth of only showing his head through the wall a technique he will use when ever he enters any new room in the building assuming there is a mage in there this should help to limit the mages abilities to spot him on his survey of the building.

(OOC let me know if I need to roll anything)

(OOC: Sorry again folks, I think I've got most of the problems sorted out.)

The first thing Shinny notices in his attempts to stick his head through the wall and see what's on the other side, is that something is resisting his attempts to go through, something at least was acting as a barrier to his attempt, though how hard it might be to penetrate would be another story entirely. Meanwhile Mike finds some good leads on finding proper blueprints for the building, but it's an old building and the blueprints are not so readily accessible. It seems, they only exist in physical form and have no digital copies, or at least none that survived the crash. Meanwhile Cornai manages to successfully thread her desired complex form, though perhaps not quite to the ability she had been hoping for.

That left Adrian and Ramjam to do what preparations they cared to while Melhera tried to get an update on the ongoing situation. While things are not exactly grim, the news is perhaps not as good, nor as organized as she'd like. She actually gets bounced around to several different people before being directed to one beat cop that had been there since the start of the present situation, a young man in his early 20's, fit, though it was clear he'd likely not been in a situation like this before as he took partial cover near the hood of his patrol car, one that was already sporting a few bullet holes. "Ah, well.. the situation's not so great. We tried going in earlier and they've got some sort of booby traps on the doors, not to mention some pretty good fields of fire. I think the only good part is we've not seen any awakened activity yet.. spirits that kinda drek, but they've definitely got some pretty good hardware. They were launching tear gas at us a little while ago, but it's dissipated since then. So far they just take the odd pot shot here and there, seems like their waiting on us to make a move first. We tried talking to em but they never responded."

Ugh, physical copies only? Looks like I'll have to get some bureaucrats to scan them for me...and this early in the morning, they'll probably be sluggish about it, too. Nothing the badge can do about that...case of the Mondays my tusks. I guess I'll get Ruh on it, I'm not much of a motivator. It'll have to wait until he finishes his astral scans.

Mike leaves a text message on Ruh's commlink with a link to the records office that holds the physical copies and instructions on how to get them. He then message Mel to see what is required of him next.

[Hey Mel, the blueprints are gonna be on hold for awhile. In the meantime, need anything from your knight with the shining armors?]

Just as Ruh was about to go astral he heard his comm chime. Taking a look he sees Mike's message.

Well, at least there is something...

Ruh calls the number from the link Mike gave him

(OOC: I'm guessing you want this in PM)
GM: PM or in posts here is fine.

Shinny does a quick look around the building to see if any windows or holes will let him see into the building since he is blocked from astrally moving into the building. Well I could try and attack the barrier but that might not work so great time to look and see if there are any ways to see in then report back to the group.After the quick look for windows to see in Shinny returns to his body. Shinny stretches his arms above his head to help get use to being back in his meat shell again and then give the group the info he got so far "Well guys there seem to be a barrier on the astral side of things around this building keeping me from getting a peek anyone talked to a cop that know anything about the number of runners and a gear assessment of what they might have in there waiting for us or are we going in blind?

Melehara taps the squad's commlink, running the encryption-du-jour. "Finally got to the beats that have been here since it started. The suspects are playing a waiting game, pot shots to keep our boys back and teargas and booby-trapped entrances to stop the attempted assault. Not interested in talking either. If they're tossing gas, they've likely got gear to handle it coming back, so that option's off the table. what have you guys got?"

She catches the updates from Shinny and Mike. "Astral barriers? Drek. They've been working on this bolt-hole for a while then. How long do you fellas think it'll take you to pick up those blueprints? It looks like the normal entrances are all covered so we'll probably want to make our own. Adrian, that's your department, suggestions?"

Turning back to the young officer as she crouches beside him behind his squad car, "Any attempts to get an iBall or other surveilance inside yet? Any blind spots outside on the building's perimeter where they don't have a good field of fire setup?"

Adrian frowns and looks much closer at the walls, using his vision magnification he carefully studies the outside of the building. However he can't get a good idea of the materials used in making it, just from looking.

Hmmm... I don't know Ma'am without more information, which that ork has yet to provide... I don't know what I should use to cut a hole in those walls, furthermore without an accurate location of those hostages i wouldn't even dare try. I could end up blowing them to pieces just making a door. Adrian said turning back toward the citymaster

Then again assuming that the walls aren't steel, or something equally hard, i could whip something up in about 5 minutes! He finished cheerfully

Hoo boy! I might actually get to blow something up today!! Adrian thought grinning

Shinny spends some time trying to look through the windows, but just as the Astral barrier blocks his path, so too does it obscure his vision. He thinks at least once or twice he can spot some movement up on the second floor, but he cant make out anything thats actually all that distinct or useful, at least not without trying to actively pass through, or destroy the barrier. Of course the other problem with forcing one's way through a barrier is that you then have to force your way back out! Returning to his body, he realizes that the team will have to seek some alternative answer to their problem.

Meanwhile Wreck can hear his call going through and kicking over to an automated answering machine, it takes a few such calls before a sleepy female voice picks up the phone "Listen buster, *Yawn* you better have a damn good reason for calling this early in the morning."

The officer Melehara is dealing with shakes his head "No.. uh.. mam. We tried getting close once or twice but in the end wound up being ordered to pull back and wait for backup. We've got a few spotter drones on station but.. we've not seen anything too useful at the moment. We can confirm it's definitely the guys were after and they seem to be pretty well armed, but that's about it. We're just not equipped to deal with a situation like this."

Meanwhile Adrian realizes that a frame charge in this case may be the ideal method of entry, even over a booby trapped door a remote detonation would allow the group to remain safe from any trap, which in turn would likely be destroyed along with the door. However he did have an entirely valid concern about not knowing who or what might be caught in such a blast and the last thing the team no doubt wanted to do was accidentally injure or kill one of the hostages. Technically he had an alternative in thermite bars, but that's something he'd have to place a special request to HQ for, and would have the added issue of risking setting the place on fire. There were any number of ways one could force their way through just about any barrier, the real problem was the potential for unintended collateral damage if it was done incorrectly.

back in the van RamJam gets rather impatient. He goes out on the streets again and looks for his chief.

Rhu starts talking as smoothly as he can given the circumstances Negotiation Charisma 7 + Negotiation (Bargaining) + 3 First Impression +2 Circumstance -1 =11; 5 hits

I am so sorry to have to wake you this early M'dam, but innocent people are in dire need of your assistance. I'm officer Oniel, with Knight Errant. Some criminals are holed-up and threatening hostages and we need your help getting the blue-prints for the building. We've already checked the database, but the schismatics we need aren't scanned into the system.

I'm sending the address now. If you can get me these prints quickly, we may just save these poor citizens. More importantly, I will owe you a favor (OOC: to qualify for bargaining dice pool mod). What do you say? Will you help me save these people?

Mike decides he wants to put his knowledge of armor and weapons to work. He goes to find one of the officers on duty during the initial firefight, hoping to find someone with cybereyes or ears or maybe some surveillance footage. If he could determine the make, model, and modifications of the gear in question, he might be able to give the squad a leg up on the opposition. Weak spots in their armor and the capabilities of their firearms would be particularly helpful.

Mike (based off of buying hits on the armourer skill) soon enough finds a relative wealth of information. The perpetrators such as they were got sloppy and wound up recorded any number of ways at various times, though there's scant footage of the intital stages of the heist itself. The fact that they got traced back to their bolt hole however pretty much guaranteed that there was some paydata to be found on these guys. That said there's no word of any sort of ID on who these guys are, and only vague guesses at metatypes based on builds.

As far as the equipment goes however, the guys seemed to have been definitely well equipped, at least three were either using some sort of magical based cloaking, or far more likely had suits covered with Ruthinum polymers and at least some light level thermal masking. Firearms wise they were packing mostly heavier weapons such as modern assault rifles and the grenade launcher they had used earlier to fire out gas and smoke canisters at the gathered KE forces. Couple that with the recorded usage of both plastic explosives and various hand grenades these guys were at the very least almost if not as well equipped as the SWAT team that was now expected to go in after them. Fortunately at least they didn't show any sign of sporting any milspec level gear such as laser based weaponry, armour piercing rounds or rocket launchers. Still.. these guys either had serious cash, or serious backers. Not that it seems to have saved any of them from winding up basically trapped in their building like rats backed up into a corner.

Rhu also manages to get at least somewhere with his administrative contact he managed to dig up in his searching. "Ahh.. ok. You mind verifying your ID Mr.Oniel?" she asks, sounding skeptical but her request is pretty standard and required little more for Rhu to do but to send her some basic information that was pretty standard fare for any KE 'police officer' to prove he was in fact who he said he was. Once that was done the woman on the other end lets out a slight yawn and a deep sigh as there are noises sounding like their coming from a kitchen in the background "Alright Mr.Oniel... I can do it but that's going to take me a while to dig up from the hard copy archives. I'll get what I find sent your way as soon as I can, though it's going to take me at least twenty minutes to get into the office at this hour."

Thanks, if we pull this off, I'll owe you. With that, Rhu hangs up and walks over to Mel.

I've got prints coming, but.. it's going to be a while. My best guess is 45 minutes, maybe closer to an hour. I say we send in a couple of drones while trying to make contact. Someone in there has to have a commlink, maybe Cornai can find it and get them to talk with either you or I?