0.0 - Another Day On The Job

Breecha commits the images of Claw to memory. If one needed to look through Breecha's optics, they would see a thumbnail image of the bugbear in one corner with distinguishing marks of recognition cataloged and emphasized. The large robot waits in the back of the van, where the reinforced suspension is able to handle the extra weight. He sits facing the rear doors, a tactical habit that allows him a convenient exit once the double doors open, especially when entering a hot battlezone. Breecha's matte body seems to absorb what little light filters in from outside, but the worn corners and edges of his bulky frame glint with years of hard use.

The heavy doors do not have windows, so Breecha's red-lit optics cannot see the sparse crowd. Instead, his processors take the time to assess the condition of the large shield attached to his left arm. The pitted and worn surface still bear the burn marks from combat long before; perhaps they'll never buff out. An automatic pistol is holstered at his right leg, with a modified grip and trigger to accommodate his larger hand. When greater firepower is needed, Breecha has a double-barreled shotgun on two-point sling snug around his body; it also helps as a handy door-knocker. As a backup weapon, a solid rod of metal with a flanged head is secured horizontally at the robot's waist.

Breecha remains silent. The inventory of his special response vest flits across his field of view, reaffirming that he has the appropriate ammunition types and tactical gear ready and accessible. A warning indicator briefly flashes yellow and highlights the stock on slug-type shotgun shells is below minimal standards; he will have to bring this to Kessel Nor's attention later.

Preserver sits just in front of BR33CH, or behind him if one orients the back doors of the van to forward since that is how the assault mech will be leaving. Preserver sits back to back with the larger bot, the blue light given off by Preserver's muscle fibers and nonfuntional bio-printers mixes with the red glow from BR33CH causing some interesting patterns on the walls of the van. Normally Preserver would enjoy inspecting the light show, but the case the team has pulled is forefront in his banks at the moment. Taking out this gang leader seems simple enough, and would bring relief to the local businesses who Claw extorts. But Preserver is a big picture kind of guy, or that's what he's been told. The bodyguard is processing known associates and rival gang memebrs. He can't shake the feeling that they might be "stepping on a butterfly" by removing Claw, but no particular scenario has surpassed a 30% probability rating. Nothing that he can see coming in to fill the void left by Claw is panning out as a significant threat. But Preserver can't shake the feelings of unease.

Mack's in the driver's seat -- as the newest member of the team, he picks up a little bit of the menial work, like driving. But that's okay, he fancies himself a very capable driver or, at least, a lucky one. Despite the fact he's inside the van, he's still got his broad-rimmed hat on. It's well worn and is clearly well-loved. He looks over Claw and Scorch again and notes, "This Scorch one could be a little trouble. He's obviously seen something bad and is still standing."

He takes out one of the magically-imbued pistols he has -- its runes glowing softly in the dim light. Double checking the state of the pistol he preps the gun, and its partner, with the special shells he has prepped for today. "I've got a Magic Missile, a Thunderwave and a Sleep," he says to the team, warning them and... preparing them to provide tactical advice. "Otherwise, I think I'll be channeling firebolt. Perhaps Scorch has some latent fears of fire."

"Hey, guys. Remember, if you want to find something out feel free to search it :)", the robotic AI voice of your datapad's helper AI chimes in. Since getting this thing you haven't been able to find the source of the voice program to change it. It's helpful to a point. It seems to enjoy hopping onto your coms as well when it thinks it may be helpful. It talks in cryptic tones, seeming to pull phrasing from all over RAIN.

GM. If you want to search up some stuff on RAIN do investigation checks to find out info you may or may not want.

Kessel, riding shotgun, nods in response to Mack. Between the gunmage and Breecha, the team is armed to the teeth. This job Tymora found them really isn’t Kessel’s style. He’s more of the go in, get out clean kind of guy. If it can be done remotely then so much the better. But this is no time to get choosy. Kessel has racked up a substantial online gambling debt and he needs the credits. He speaks to PHANTOM.Nimbus, their A.I. helper, via the commlink, "Don’t we at least have a schematic of this roach den? Lemme see if I can dig something up." The technomancer's fingers dance across the datapad.

Breecha says nothing, but the robotic equivalent of annoyance briefly flits across his bus. Military AI were never this talkative, and usually just gave the facts in a straightforward and timely fashion. And the usage of emoticons seems particularly frivolous.

Still, the AI's capabilities are useful, Breecha would have to admit that. PHANTOM's near-limitless research functionality far outweighs whatever eccentricities the AI possesses.

Well, gents, I'm not sure how you managed to find a job at a seedy strip club, ;) but I've found rudimentary specs. I'm sure city hall won't mind the back door access. The building is The Dragons Treasure. Here is the layout. Almost failed my INT check on that one.

Layout specs appear on screen. You see a first floor that has plenty of seating and a bar on the west wall. The center of this floor is dominated by a large stage where the performers are. On the east wall are some private booths. The south wall has the entrance right out front, the north wall has a set of stairs that lead up to the second floor. These stairs are restricted access as the second floor is secured for employees only. The upstairs forms a large ring around the top of the stages. You can see over the balcony to the floor below, giving good eyes on everything.

On the south wall of this second floor is a larger secured office with bullet proof glass one way mirrors. No doubt the guy your looking for may hold up here.

On the outside there is a stairway in the back alley that would get you up to the second floor, it connects to the north wall, but these stairs are usually guarded as well.

"Phantom.nimbus, are there any security feeds that you can hack into? If we had Claws exact location when we start the assault it would minimize casualties and collateral damage."

Not sure if I should make a roll on that or let the A.I. do it. Let me know if I should.

Sorry Preserver, you know I can't do more than data retrieval. If you want to hack a feed to view you will need to roll this one yourself, the AI chimes back, It seems the building is equipped with video feeds. Chances are it's a DC 15 check.

The AI always keeps making these odd references to checks, rolls, but you can't seem to figure out what sort of meaning they denote to you.

"Is Claw a patron or a proprietor?" Mack asks, "That will likely have a bearing on where we might find him."

Preserver's eyes dim as he sends his mind out onto the RAIN network and seeks the security feed for the club and attempts to break in.

Preserver's optics cut off as he finds himself in a familiar digital representation of the world. His avatar looks around the blue haze of a street and sees the rudimentary wireframe representations of all of the buildings along the street. They are aglow with yellow pings of devices. Flying towards the opaque representation of the club Preserver outputs a hack into the sidewall and a small hole forms. He slips in unnoticed by any security protocols. Seeing the layout of the building inside he secretly tags all of the camera markers to output to his video feeds, and the groups com devices as well. If you have an audio com you can hear audio from any of the feeds listed. If you have visual com or other form of HUD you can see small thumbnail feeds.

There are 4 camera feeds. Two on the floor level where a particularly revealing show involving three female half-elves is going on, There is another one panning around the upper level balcony. You can see across the entire area from the stairs to the office on the other end. The last is a shot of inside the office. The bugbear and his hobgoblin bodyguard are in here doing some form of drug, it's hard to discern which one. There are two goblins in the room here and a few more are guarding the bottom of the stairs, the front entrance area. There is also a half-orc bartender keeping bar.

Most clientel seems to be humans, a few half-elves, some goblins, and some halflings. A varied crowd. There was no requirements for how queit or loud this job could get, but you are pretty sure some of the clientele is just honest citizens trying to unwind.

PHANTOM responds to Mack, Claw is the propriety of this establishment. Most likely a front for some other operation. Basic searching reveals nothing of other possible ties for this business. Though his BIZr score is only a 2.3 out of 10 stars.

BIZr is the Yelp of this world now. Also since Preserver went into RAIN directly (severing connection to the concious world to search something out, he could have added double whatever his Proficiency bonus is (generally 2 for first level characters) to his role. He can also choose to search around more inside the system if he wants, or he can return.

Breecha accepts the additional video feeds without question. He turns his head to address the occupants inside the van.

"Find Camera Feed For Alley In Back Of Building," he says, his words bulky and cumbersome as his processors were dedicated to combat, not conversation. "Ascertain Strength Of Security Presence Guarding Stairway To Second Floor."

Ah, yes. It seems the feeds that Preserver absconded with inside the building do not seem to show any of the outside locations to the building. Fine deductive work my grammatically challenged friend!, the AI chatters away with a faked accent, Beware Preserver. It's probably a DC15, but slip up here and the city is a lot more strict about finding hackers in it's network. Alarm bells may be the last thing you want in the area.

"Perhaps I should ask for assistance on accessing the cities systems. What say you fiends? Would someone like to run this hack instead? It is a good idea BR33CH-A had."

Kessel cracks his knuckles. "We'll have a better chance if we come at them from several directions at once. I have several algorithms here that'll have them chasing their own tail while I go in and piggyback on the data feed we need." His fingers continue to fly over the datapad as he unleashes a stew of hacker viruses int the city's network.

I don't know if that should still be an Investigate check (+2) or a Deception check (+5) or something else. Including a roll without modifiers.

EDIT: Oh snap! :-P

Kessel, I'm not sure if you understood the prime directive in your efforts. We have triggered a security protocol. We have about 20 minutes before they've noticed this infringement, after that it won't be long before they've converged on our location. I would suggest handling the job quickly at this point.

If still inside RAIN Preserver will see a flurry of security protocol activity on the vast grid that forms the city network. Their digital representation look like giant spiders. They crawl across the network like a large web. You are starting to see them in the distance as they are checking various nodes for the infringement Kessel has caused.

Preserver gives one last look at the spider protocols letting himself muse over their digital forms and wether some spect of their code dictated their form or if it was simply the need of the organic designers to apply recognizable forms to the virtual contructs. The thought doesn't slow him down. He smoothly makes the transition back to his real-space form and lights up again.

"We're humped, bad luck there Kessel. We should move now before the authorities arrive. They probably wouldn't object to our mission, but they are serious about not getting hacked."