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Maverick Quest (MMX)
- Thread starter Aquarium
- Start date
Thinking about it... if Boreas is like a new teacher who hasn't had much practical teaching experience. All the knowledge, little of the practice.
Then, heh, maybe we'll be the ones to show off some teaching strats at the gun range? If there's somebody there who could use the practice, or somebody who's Doing It Wrong, then maybe Boreas might have a chance to shine and try out his teaching chops?
If nothing else, we could use the mini-practice (if it turns out that way) for if/when we end up schooling those doomsday preppers from the last mission.
Then, heh, maybe we'll be the ones to show off some teaching strats at the gun range? If there's somebody there who could use the practice, or somebody who's Doing It Wrong, then maybe Boreas might have a chance to shine and try out his teaching chops?
If nothing else, we could use the mini-practice (if it turns out that way) for if/when we end up schooling those doomsday preppers from the last mission.
- Location
- Behind You
split vote, I'll be asking the AI what to do
Seems like the AI wants to go shoot big guns.
Seems like the AI wants to go shoot big guns.
- Location
- Texas
lol. Was about to finally throw in my vote for the range, but there we go!
Huzzah for victory!
Huzzah for victory!
Home on the Range
- Location
- Behind You
"I'm heading to the range," Hare says, dropping a few buster rifles into a tote bag. "Wanna tag along and test these out?"
You shrug. "I'm game."
Navigating the upper levels is a confusing mass of staircases, skybridges, underpasses and elevators. The last leg of the trip is walking on the edge of an overpass, watching the cars whiz by a few feet away. It's a little relaxing to watch people whizzing to and fro, without having anything urgent to do.
Hare stops close to the end of the overpass, and points you to a rickety steel staircase. It clings to the side of the overpass, leading down alongside and beneath it. You climb down gingerly, seeing the dark abyss between skyscrapers far below. Soon you're low enough that the sun is blotted out by the vancrete of the overpass, leaving you in shade. You take the last turn, and are finally beneath the elevated highway, on a long rusty pedestrian catwalk. Behind you, it extends through the perpetual gloom into the distance between buildings and out of sight. In front of you, neon strobes as businesses compete to outglitz each other in the shadows. Muffled techno beats compete with the rumbling of traffic overhead.
Your destination, apparently, is Bullseye Shooting Range, an unpromising storefront wedged between a stripclub and a rundown bodega. The windows are reinforced with metal bars, and covered in peeling brown paper, letting only slivers of light out.
The proprietor is lazing with his feet up on the counter. He's a humanoid model, with gray and black plating, and a visored helmet that covers the eyes. One of his arms is normal, the other a massively oversized buster.
"Watch what you say," Red Hare stage-whispers at you, "He's a cop."
Hex laughs politely.
"And as you know," Hare continues. "We have every respect for the law, and are committed to making the jobs - and lives - of its underpaid executors easier. Speaking of which," he flips something shiny and metallic into the booth, "Three lanes, Hex."
Hex catches it and works the register. "This the new kid?" he asks, waving his arm in your direction. "Heard some rumors about a skinwalker around the time Joe cleared up his little issues. Nothing actionable."
"Well, that's the thing about shapeshifters," you reply, "anyone could be one."
"You're alright, kid." Hex says, and nods. "Hope we never meet in my other job."
You walk down the lanes, noticing that most of the half-dozen other customers seem more preoccupied with chatting than with shooting.
"Seems a bit risky hanging out in a cop establishment," you say once you reach your reserved section.
Hare hands you a rifle. "Being on Hex's radar is less risky than being off it. It means that if something comes up, then the right people can deal with it before it's a full-blown problem. Hex realizes a certain degree of 'work' is going to be done in New York no matter what, and it's best when it doesn't interfere with everyday life."
"And he gets a cut?" you ask, looking the gun over. There's a geometric tree engraved into the side, and a few faintly glowing dials you decide not to touch.
"That, and some occasional occupational assistance. People think bringing those hunters down to Wadsworth is why there are so few unsolved maverick murders in NY. The truth is that psychos are bad for business."
You sight down the rifle, carefully line up with the target - center mass, easy - and pull the trigger. A bolt of lime green plasma rushes out with a woosh. Halfway down the lane it splits in half, one bolt going left and the other right. They hit the targets in the adjacent two lanes, incinerating the head of one and the crotch of the other.
Hare cracks up behind you.
"Are these all gimmicks?", you ask, lowering the rifle to inspect it.
"Pretty much," he shrugs. "If you just want raw power, all you need to do is toss more money and energy into the system. If you're doing serious modding you've got a different goal." You hand him the rifle back, and he tweaks the dials with his thumb before firing. The shot splits at the last moment, giving your target two glowing eyes.
A bell ting-a-lings over the door as it opens. A short but round bird model with a blue-black sheen, and a polearm far taller than he is walks up to the register. He talks with Hex, head barely peeking above the counter, pays, and starts heading down the lanes.
Hare looks up at him as he approaches. "The other thing Hex knows is that providing a place for heavily armed individuals to talk in peace is a useful public service. Boreas, meet Excisor Gybill. He's usually down in NC. Bill, this is Boreas the new guy."
Bill looks you up and down. In his case, mostly up. "You're replacing Razor Naga? Big shoe to fill."
"So I've heard," you reply, for lack of a better idea.
"In town long?" Hare asks.
"Forgot my wallet when I left. Won't have time to run any errands."
"Good to hear. If you want to pick up some snacks for the return trip, there's a great taco truck down by the Rockefeller center."
"I just might do that," Bill replies. He nods and continues deeper into the range.
You try out a few more of the gimmicked weapons as Hare makes more introductions. One creates a three-shot spiral that unravels to cover more area as it flies. The last fires a spray of small blue bullets that *ping* off the target and richochets back at you, earning Hare a glare from Hex.
You also meet Steel Moth, a wideset brute with a scarred face, razor wings and armor polished to a mirror sheen. She asks something about delivering a 'seven-seventy' message, and Hare deflects by saying his friends are currently swamped with work. He's more blunt with Ruby Piranha, but also buys a weeklong right of first refusal on her services when she mentions she's looking for work. She leaves with an unsettlingly large grin on her face. The hulking Polar Tidemaker is looking for a hacker for his next job after a last moment change of plans, and ends up leaving with Surveyor Harp, a member of the Selkies. Finally, Electrode Spider politely requests that your crew stay out of the East End tomorrow. Hare brings up the topic repeatedly, but none of them seem to be "urgently seeking specialty equipment", which seems to please him.
The last gun is your favorite, firing spinning crescents of plasma which shear through things rather than detonating. After a few tries, you time the rotation right and decapitate a swinging target. A buzzer sounds, the targets start retreating, and you realize your range time has expired.
You stow the guns back in the dufflebag and head for the entrance. "Good shoot," Hex says as you leave, Hare flipping him some more cash. "Always glad to spend my day getting paid to do nothing."
The music is still thumping loudly as you exit. It's gotten late, and the descending sun can send a few shafts of bloody light across the metal catwalk. As you walk away, you finally decide to ask the question that's been prodding at the back of your mind. "What exactly did happen to Naga?"
"Let's just say she made some poor decisions, and got a complete redesign with a one-way ticket out of town." Hare replies. "Police found most of her body in the subway tunnels the next day, case closed."
You stop mid-step. "Wait, you ran her over with a train?"
Hare stifles a laugh. "I wouldn't bet on a train in that case. No, we gave Hex an easy win, and Naga is somewhere in Europe enjoying actual legs instead of a tail. A real fairytale ending."
"I'll buy that," you say, and keep walking. "But you were definitely pumping the other guys for information to see if they were interested in a job, right? I get that, but what was the point of that conversation with Bill?"
"He's in town to pick up pay for a previous job, and won't be sticking around to do any work. Which is good news for us - I wasn't checking if others were interested in a cut, so much as making sure they weren't already hired by our target. Professional courtesy to work out conflicts of interest in advance, and it's more polite to do it on neutral ground instead of coming to someone's turf."
"And the tacos?" you ask, climbing onto the metal staircase.
"They're just tacos. Don't overcomplicate things, Boreas."
==================
[ ] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
[ ] I have something else I want to do (Write in)
You shrug. "I'm game."
Navigating the upper levels is a confusing mass of staircases, skybridges, underpasses and elevators. The last leg of the trip is walking on the edge of an overpass, watching the cars whiz by a few feet away. It's a little relaxing to watch people whizzing to and fro, without having anything urgent to do.
Hare stops close to the end of the overpass, and points you to a rickety steel staircase. It clings to the side of the overpass, leading down alongside and beneath it. You climb down gingerly, seeing the dark abyss between skyscrapers far below. Soon you're low enough that the sun is blotted out by the vancrete of the overpass, leaving you in shade. You take the last turn, and are finally beneath the elevated highway, on a long rusty pedestrian catwalk. Behind you, it extends through the perpetual gloom into the distance between buildings and out of sight. In front of you, neon strobes as businesses compete to outglitz each other in the shadows. Muffled techno beats compete with the rumbling of traffic overhead.
Your destination, apparently, is Bullseye Shooting Range, an unpromising storefront wedged between a stripclub and a rundown bodega. The windows are reinforced with metal bars, and covered in peeling brown paper, letting only slivers of light out.
The proprietor is lazing with his feet up on the counter. He's a humanoid model, with gray and black plating, and a visored helmet that covers the eyes. One of his arms is normal, the other a massively oversized buster.
"Watch what you say," Red Hare stage-whispers at you, "He's a cop."
Hex laughs politely.
"And as you know," Hare continues. "We have every respect for the law, and are committed to making the jobs - and lives - of its underpaid executors easier. Speaking of which," he flips something shiny and metallic into the booth, "Three lanes, Hex."
Hex catches it and works the register. "This the new kid?" he asks, waving his arm in your direction. "Heard some rumors about a skinwalker around the time Joe cleared up his little issues. Nothing actionable."
"Well, that's the thing about shapeshifters," you reply, "anyone could be one."
"You're alright, kid." Hex says, and nods. "Hope we never meet in my other job."
You walk down the lanes, noticing that most of the half-dozen other customers seem more preoccupied with chatting than with shooting.
"Seems a bit risky hanging out in a cop establishment," you say once you reach your reserved section.
Hare hands you a rifle. "Being on Hex's radar is less risky than being off it. It means that if something comes up, then the right people can deal with it before it's a full-blown problem. Hex realizes a certain degree of 'work' is going to be done in New York no matter what, and it's best when it doesn't interfere with everyday life."
"And he gets a cut?" you ask, looking the gun over. There's a geometric tree engraved into the side, and a few faintly glowing dials you decide not to touch.
"That, and some occasional occupational assistance. People think bringing those hunters down to Wadsworth is why there are so few unsolved maverick murders in NY. The truth is that psychos are bad for business."
You sight down the rifle, carefully line up with the target - center mass, easy - and pull the trigger. A bolt of lime green plasma rushes out with a woosh. Halfway down the lane it splits in half, one bolt going left and the other right. They hit the targets in the adjacent two lanes, incinerating the head of one and the crotch of the other.
Hare cracks up behind you.
"Are these all gimmicks?", you ask, lowering the rifle to inspect it.
"Pretty much," he shrugs. "If you just want raw power, all you need to do is toss more money and energy into the system. If you're doing serious modding you've got a different goal." You hand him the rifle back, and he tweaks the dials with his thumb before firing. The shot splits at the last moment, giving your target two glowing eyes.
A bell ting-a-lings over the door as it opens. A short but round bird model with a blue-black sheen, and a polearm far taller than he is walks up to the register. He talks with Hex, head barely peeking above the counter, pays, and starts heading down the lanes.
Hare looks up at him as he approaches. "The other thing Hex knows is that providing a place for heavily armed individuals to talk in peace is a useful public service. Boreas, meet Excisor Gybill. He's usually down in NC. Bill, this is Boreas the new guy."
Bill looks you up and down. In his case, mostly up. "You're replacing Razor Naga? Big shoe to fill."
"So I've heard," you reply, for lack of a better idea.
"In town long?" Hare asks.
"Forgot my wallet when I left. Won't have time to run any errands."
"Good to hear. If you want to pick up some snacks for the return trip, there's a great taco truck down by the Rockefeller center."
"I just might do that," Bill replies. He nods and continues deeper into the range.
You try out a few more of the gimmicked weapons as Hare makes more introductions. One creates a three-shot spiral that unravels to cover more area as it flies. The last fires a spray of small blue bullets that *ping* off the target and richochets back at you, earning Hare a glare from Hex.
You also meet Steel Moth, a wideset brute with a scarred face, razor wings and armor polished to a mirror sheen. She asks something about delivering a 'seven-seventy' message, and Hare deflects by saying his friends are currently swamped with work. He's more blunt with Ruby Piranha, but also buys a weeklong right of first refusal on her services when she mentions she's looking for work. She leaves with an unsettlingly large grin on her face. The hulking Polar Tidemaker is looking for a hacker for his next job after a last moment change of plans, and ends up leaving with Surveyor Harp, a member of the Selkies. Finally, Electrode Spider politely requests that your crew stay out of the East End tomorrow. Hare brings up the topic repeatedly, but none of them seem to be "urgently seeking specialty equipment", which seems to please him.
The last gun is your favorite, firing spinning crescents of plasma which shear through things rather than detonating. After a few tries, you time the rotation right and decapitate a swinging target. A buzzer sounds, the targets start retreating, and you realize your range time has expired.
You stow the guns back in the dufflebag and head for the entrance. "Good shoot," Hex says as you leave, Hare flipping him some more cash. "Always glad to spend my day getting paid to do nothing."
The music is still thumping loudly as you exit. It's gotten late, and the descending sun can send a few shafts of bloody light across the metal catwalk. As you walk away, you finally decide to ask the question that's been prodding at the back of your mind. "What exactly did happen to Naga?"
"Let's just say she made some poor decisions, and got a complete redesign with a one-way ticket out of town." Hare replies. "Police found most of her body in the subway tunnels the next day, case closed."
You stop mid-step. "Wait, you ran her over with a train?"
Hare stifles a laugh. "I wouldn't bet on a train in that case. No, we gave Hex an easy win, and Naga is somewhere in Europe enjoying actual legs instead of a tail. A real fairytale ending."
"I'll buy that," you say, and keep walking. "But you were definitely pumping the other guys for information to see if they were interested in a job, right? I get that, but what was the point of that conversation with Bill?"
"He's in town to pick up pay for a previous job, and won't be sticking around to do any work. Which is good news for us - I wasn't checking if others were interested in a cut, so much as making sure they weren't already hired by our target. Professional courtesy to work out conflicts of interest in advance, and it's more polite to do it on neutral ground instead of coming to someone's turf."
"And the tacos?" you ask, climbing onto the metal staircase.
"They're just tacos. Don't overcomplicate things, Boreas."
==================
[ ] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
[ ] I have something else I want to do (Write in)
[X] Head to briefing (and upgrades)
And here I was expecting Hare and/or Boreas to suddenly go maverick and shoot up all the things after that preview. I mean, who could blame me?
Not every other place is as free of unsolved maverick murders, because not every place is as crime-ridden as New York.
So it sounds like what this update was, was like...
Introducing us to the fixer/shadowrunner-hangout-place. Other than the bar, that is. If the bar is one main hang out area, this shooting stand is another one.
Like a videogame tutorial that introduces you to the Sidequest Missions mechanic or Hiring Mercenaries mechanic, except here it's... 'not-getting-in-each-other's-way' and side-deals and stuff.
Also, looks like Hare is pulling off or getting ready to pull off some job, and was checking to make sure he wasn't going to be going up against anybody in the business.
But, yeah, this was definitely an Introduction To The Shadowrunner Environment sort of update, as far as story updates go.
This cop guy is corrupt as heck, but apparently a pretty useful contact.
(Actually, I like that. Having it in plaintext to hit me over the head with it is nice.)
Cerberus Labs, much like Cain Labs, makes a killing off of its taco carts.
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades), but don't forget that paintjob!
Because I want to fully fix all our paint stuff.
Erm, unless the appropriate time to decide on whether we keep the scuffed look or repaint our stuff would come after we buy any upgrades? In which case, I'd be fine with just having this counted as "Head to your briefing."
In hindsight, I guess it does make more sense to have the 'keep scars, or repaint yourself?' vote to more organically be after/at-the-same-time-as the upgrade vote...
That certainly sounded like madman behavior to me.
The Vetinari approach to crime, apparently. "If we must have crime, let it be organized crime."
Not every other place is as free of unsolved maverick murders, because not every place is as crime-ridden as New York.
"Always has been," says Hare as he shoots a gun down his own target lane.
Hm.
Hm.
So it sounds like what this update was, was like...
Introducing us to the fixer/shadowrunner-hangout-place. Other than the bar, that is. If the bar is one main hang out area, this shooting stand is another one.
Like a videogame tutorial that introduces you to the Sidequest Missions mechanic or Hiring Mercenaries mechanic, except here it's... 'not-getting-in-each-other's-way' and side-deals and stuff.
Also, looks like Hare is pulling off or getting ready to pull off some job, and was checking to make sure he wasn't going to be going up against anybody in the business.
But, yeah, this was definitely an Introduction To The Shadowrunner Environment sort of update, as far as story updates go.
To quote Boreas himself: "Well, that's the thing about shapeshifters, anyone could be one."
This cop guy is corrupt as heck, but apparently a pretty useful contact.
Well, there goes all my clever "Aha's!' then. Just up and say it outloud.
(Actually, I like that. Having it in plaintext to hit me over the head with it is nice.)"From the finest Cerberus Labs that money can buy!"
Cerberus Labs, much like Cain Labs, makes a killing off of its taco carts.
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades), but don't forget that paintjob!
Because I want to fully fix all our paint stuff.
Erm, unless the appropriate time to decide on whether we keep the scuffed look or repaint our stuff would come after we buy any upgrades? In which case, I'd be fine with just having this counted as "Head to your briefing."
In hindsight, I guess it does make more sense to have the 'keep scars, or repaint yourself?' vote to more organically be after/at-the-same-time-as the upgrade vote...
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- Location
- Texas
It's good to have friends in low places, especially when they give you cool guns to play with. I'll try to remember that crescent cutter gun later.
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
We've got more parts to buy and plans to make!
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
We've got more parts to buy and plans to make!
- Location
- MN
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
Pred1059
All you are is an empty muppet
- Location
- Home Sweet 192.168.1.1
Another avenue for the rumor mill. Though one a bit closer to police influence. Granted, Hex is on the take. Could work for us or against us when the time comes to go against Jaff. Also I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some of those busters as options for the next upgrade section.
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
[X] Head to your briefing (and upgrades)
And the paintjob, we're in no rush for a new look.
It's all coming together
- Location
- Behind You
The meeting place this time is Wasp's perfectly legitimate office, located halfway up a downtown skyscraper. It's not really that surprising to you that she has a legit front, but you're a bit put back by the certificate that says she's a licensed psychotherapist. The office is a clinical modern style, with white walls and carpet, dark wood furniture, and a couple of small plants to add a touch of life.
You're not the last to arrive, but are close to it, Turbine slipping in moments later. She slouches into a chair and kicks her feet up on a coffee table.
"So," Ember says, "All six of us here. What's the big job?"
Weld dims the lights and a screen drops from the ceiling. It lights up, displaying a blue and gold massproduction model. A single red eye stares from a visorlike slit in the faceplate. Information to the side displays combat systems and successful hunts, including yesterday's takedown of Flect Liana.
"Jaff, one of our hunter customers, has contacted me with an apology," Weld says, "After a few members of the Zero unit got extremely 'upgraded' at a strip club, the Oversight Committee has demanded more… well, oversight. Upgrade funds now need to go through 'approved channels', and Jaff simply couldn't figure out how to get me my money. Thanks to the sincerity of his apology, I will pretend to believe him."
"So I'm supposed to think you have a soft side?" Ember asks, "What'd he pay you?"
"Not a thing," Weld says. "He asked me for a favor, too. I must be going soft in my old age."
"Yeah yeah, we don't have all day," Ember says, crossing her arms. "So can the theatrics."
"Fine." He flips to a new set of slides. "Molt Caddis, a member of a Libyan splinter group, is currently coming to town in order to purchase nuclear materials. Due to some tedious internal politics, preventing this from happening has been assigned to Jaff, an unqualified B-rank hunter. Jaff, in turn, was wise enough to realize he was not up to the task, and proud enough not to want to ask for help from his comrades. Instead, he came to me and offered a deal. We help him stop the transaction, he gets the credit for a job well done, and if we get the warchest – about a ton of untraceable precious metals – the hunters won't pursue it. Normally, I'd turn him down out of hand - buying a job can become a bad precedent, and these political nutjobs are hard targets."
"However?" you ask.
"You remember the Microsol lab accident a few months ago?" he asks.
"Yeah, real pain in the ass," you reply. "Whenever it started raining, people would run inside like they were gonna melt. The news kept saying no radioactivity escaped, but they kept freaking out anyway."
Weld nods at that. "Exactly. Humans are big emotional wimps whenever they hear the word 'radioactive'. So when a perfectly good isotope cracker starts glowing a bit, they decide to bury it in Yucca Mountain. I made a little under-the-table offer to direct it my way instead, only to find out that there was already a buyer. Caddis is new in town with nuclear ambitions, this is a box that you can stick in the back of a pickup and make a nuke in a decade. I can put two and two together."
"And I assume you want it instead?" you ask.
"It's a machine that prints money. Yes, I want it. And call me greedy-"
"You are," Ember interjects.
"-but I want both the payment and the device. We get just one, each of you gets half a million. We get both, each of you gets a million, cash."
He makes a formality of asking whether you all are in, but that's a lot of money. Of course you're in.
"What's the catch?" Ember asks, crossing her arms.
"Caddis." Wasp speaks up for the first time. "He was built – or so he has said in multiple interviews and manifestos – as an environmental remediation unit. Centuries of accumulated waste from the rest of the world have poisoned much of Africa. In theory, Caddis was supposed to go to the most contaminated sites, extract the metallic content, and render the nonmetallic inert through incineration. In practice, his 'owners' kept him in the bottom of a pit and threw garbage on him. At some point – and his exact story on this varies – he snapped. He is, in many ways, the ideal face for the SDR: a clear grievance attached to a charismatic voice and a body that is – for all practical purposes – indestructible."
"How indestructible we talking?" Turbine asks.
Wasp pulls up a video on the screen. The city is a warzone, and the camera is shaky as hell, obviously taken from someone running away from the fight. Molt Caddis is walking down the middle of the street, center frame, a tall lanky body obscured by a glowing, shiny mass of molten metal. Technicals come into view, pickups with bolted-on armor and massive machineguns in the back. They race towards Caddis, weapons spewing lines of bullets. His armor ripples under the rain of fire, but does not yield. One of the vehicles accelerates to ram him. The camera frantically dims the world around Caddis to near-black as his glow intensifies, and then without breaking stride, he walks through it, leaving significantly less than half a pick-up on each side.
She puts down the remote. "That indestructible. Caddis has concentrated exclusively upon upgrading his core systems. His maximum surface temperature has been recorded at an appreciable fraction of the sun's. In addition, any molten metal he is in contact with – and due to the first system the 'molten' distinction is academic – can be manipulated, effectively creating a 'skin' of liquid metal. Not only does this armor block direct damage, but most energy-based attacks simply cause a small area to flash-vaporize from liquid metal to gaseous, producing a small divot that is rapidly healed."
"Well shit," you say. "He took my trick and went pro."
"Fortunately," Weld quickly adds, "Caddis is Jaff's problem, not ours. We just need to steal the product and the payment, and get out. The Hunters are the ones who will have to deal with the 12 foot giant who's literally incandescent with rage."
"How long is it gonna take?" Turbine asks.
"We have a little under a week – Caddis gets into town day after tomorrow - he's booked a suite at the Waldorf Astoria for a full week, Wednesday-to-Wednesday, but we can't depend on him leaving his purchase sitting around the whole time while he does meets-and-greets. He's got a freight ship coming in early Saturday Morning, so the handoff is likely going to happen on or before Friday."
"Okay, stupid question," you ask, "but why is this guy just walking around, if he's an African guerilla looking to go nuclear?"
"It's political," Red Hare says. "There's a lot of proxy interests involved, and locking up the poster boy of SDR would seriously piss off France and Chad, both of which are currently on the OSC; do you want a crash course on Libyan diplomatic factional politics?"
You think about it for a moment.
"Nah, not really. Unless he can call in reinforcements, it probably doesn't matter."
Weld waves his hand. "No foreign reinforcements – blowback would be horrific if they got caught. Libyans in general don't have a real foothold here, so unless they hire local muscle it'll just be Caddis himself with his two combat capable 'attachés' - Joyous Tiger and Solar Scorpion. And local muscle is out - nobody in our circles has anything big planned, and none of the foreign mercs have been recently hired." Weld pauses. "I suppose there's the tech smuggling out of Zyg; until now I didn't really care about Libyan politics, so I honestly don't know whether Caddis's Libyan buyer is pro- or anti-SDR."
"You mean Cicada's buyer, right?" Hare says, "Their faction is nominally against, but it's Libyan politics so I can't be sure of anything."
"Bleh, Cicada, right, can't talk today. Anyways, could be something there for someone."
Wasp says "Let's work on the plan. Here is, roughly, what we have so far:"
The screen pops up with photos, combat analyses, and speculative loadouts.
"So far, this 'plan' seems to have a lot of holes in it," Ember remarks.
"If it were easy, anyone could do it. We have a couple days to gather more intel first," Weld says. "Worst case, we pass up this opportunity, Jaff fails his mission, and I lose some money. Boreas, what do you think?"
You look it over.
"I think I'm going to need some upgrades."
<see next post>
You're not the last to arrive, but are close to it, Turbine slipping in moments later. She slouches into a chair and kicks her feet up on a coffee table.
"So," Ember says, "All six of us here. What's the big job?"
Weld dims the lights and a screen drops from the ceiling. It lights up, displaying a blue and gold massproduction model. A single red eye stares from a visorlike slit in the faceplate. Information to the side displays combat systems and successful hunts, including yesterday's takedown of Flect Liana.
"Jaff, one of our hunter customers, has contacted me with an apology," Weld says, "After a few members of the Zero unit got extremely 'upgraded' at a strip club, the Oversight Committee has demanded more… well, oversight. Upgrade funds now need to go through 'approved channels', and Jaff simply couldn't figure out how to get me my money. Thanks to the sincerity of his apology, I will pretend to believe him."
"So I'm supposed to think you have a soft side?" Ember asks, "What'd he pay you?"
"Not a thing," Weld says. "He asked me for a favor, too. I must be going soft in my old age."
"Yeah yeah, we don't have all day," Ember says, crossing her arms. "So can the theatrics."
"Fine." He flips to a new set of slides. "Molt Caddis, a member of a Libyan splinter group, is currently coming to town in order to purchase nuclear materials. Due to some tedious internal politics, preventing this from happening has been assigned to Jaff, an unqualified B-rank hunter. Jaff, in turn, was wise enough to realize he was not up to the task, and proud enough not to want to ask for help from his comrades. Instead, he came to me and offered a deal. We help him stop the transaction, he gets the credit for a job well done, and if we get the warchest – about a ton of untraceable precious metals – the hunters won't pursue it. Normally, I'd turn him down out of hand - buying a job can become a bad precedent, and these political nutjobs are hard targets."
"However?" you ask.
"You remember the Microsol lab accident a few months ago?" he asks.
"Yeah, real pain in the ass," you reply. "Whenever it started raining, people would run inside like they were gonna melt. The news kept saying no radioactivity escaped, but they kept freaking out anyway."
Weld nods at that. "Exactly. Humans are big emotional wimps whenever they hear the word 'radioactive'. So when a perfectly good isotope cracker starts glowing a bit, they decide to bury it in Yucca Mountain. I made a little under-the-table offer to direct it my way instead, only to find out that there was already a buyer. Caddis is new in town with nuclear ambitions, this is a box that you can stick in the back of a pickup and make a nuke in a decade. I can put two and two together."
"And I assume you want it instead?" you ask.
"It's a machine that prints money. Yes, I want it. And call me greedy-"
"You are," Ember interjects.
"-but I want both the payment and the device. We get just one, each of you gets half a million. We get both, each of you gets a million, cash."
He makes a formality of asking whether you all are in, but that's a lot of money. Of course you're in.
"What's the catch?" Ember asks, crossing her arms.
"Caddis." Wasp speaks up for the first time. "He was built – or so he has said in multiple interviews and manifestos – as an environmental remediation unit. Centuries of accumulated waste from the rest of the world have poisoned much of Africa. In theory, Caddis was supposed to go to the most contaminated sites, extract the metallic content, and render the nonmetallic inert through incineration. In practice, his 'owners' kept him in the bottom of a pit and threw garbage on him. At some point – and his exact story on this varies – he snapped. He is, in many ways, the ideal face for the SDR: a clear grievance attached to a charismatic voice and a body that is – for all practical purposes – indestructible."
"How indestructible we talking?" Turbine asks.
Wasp pulls up a video on the screen. The city is a warzone, and the camera is shaky as hell, obviously taken from someone running away from the fight. Molt Caddis is walking down the middle of the street, center frame, a tall lanky body obscured by a glowing, shiny mass of molten metal. Technicals come into view, pickups with bolted-on armor and massive machineguns in the back. They race towards Caddis, weapons spewing lines of bullets. His armor ripples under the rain of fire, but does not yield. One of the vehicles accelerates to ram him. The camera frantically dims the world around Caddis to near-black as his glow intensifies, and then without breaking stride, he walks through it, leaving significantly less than half a pick-up on each side.
She puts down the remote. "That indestructible. Caddis has concentrated exclusively upon upgrading his core systems. His maximum surface temperature has been recorded at an appreciable fraction of the sun's. In addition, any molten metal he is in contact with – and due to the first system the 'molten' distinction is academic – can be manipulated, effectively creating a 'skin' of liquid metal. Not only does this armor block direct damage, but most energy-based attacks simply cause a small area to flash-vaporize from liquid metal to gaseous, producing a small divot that is rapidly healed."
"Well shit," you say. "He took my trick and went pro."
"Fortunately," Weld quickly adds, "Caddis is Jaff's problem, not ours. We just need to steal the product and the payment, and get out. The Hunters are the ones who will have to deal with the 12 foot giant who's literally incandescent with rage."
"How long is it gonna take?" Turbine asks.
"We have a little under a week – Caddis gets into town day after tomorrow - he's booked a suite at the Waldorf Astoria for a full week, Wednesday-to-Wednesday, but we can't depend on him leaving his purchase sitting around the whole time while he does meets-and-greets. He's got a freight ship coming in early Saturday Morning, so the handoff is likely going to happen on or before Friday."
"Okay, stupid question," you ask, "but why is this guy just walking around, if he's an African guerilla looking to go nuclear?"
"It's political," Red Hare says. "There's a lot of proxy interests involved, and locking up the poster boy of SDR would seriously piss off France and Chad, both of which are currently on the OSC; do you want a crash course on Libyan diplomatic factional politics?"
You think about it for a moment.
"Nah, not really. Unless he can call in reinforcements, it probably doesn't matter."
Weld waves his hand. "No foreign reinforcements – blowback would be horrific if they got caught. Libyans in general don't have a real foothold here, so unless they hire local muscle it'll just be Caddis himself with his two combat capable 'attachés' - Joyous Tiger and Solar Scorpion. And local muscle is out - nobody in our circles has anything big planned, and none of the foreign mercs have been recently hired." Weld pauses. "I suppose there's the tech smuggling out of Zyg; until now I didn't really care about Libyan politics, so I honestly don't know whether Caddis's Libyan buyer is pro- or anti-SDR."
"You mean Cicada's buyer, right?" Hare says, "Their faction is nominally against, but it's Libyan politics so I can't be sure of anything."
"Bleh, Cicada, right, can't talk today. Anyways, could be something there for someone."
Wasp says "Let's work on the plan. Here is, roughly, what we have so far:"
The screen pops up with photos, combat analyses, and speculative loadouts.
"So far, this 'plan' seems to have a lot of holes in it," Ember remarks.
"If it were easy, anyone could do it. We have a couple days to gather more intel first," Weld says. "Worst case, we pass up this opportunity, Jaff fails his mission, and I lose some money. Boreas, what do you think?"
You look it over.
"I think I'm going to need some upgrades."
<see next post>
Upgrade List 3
- Location
- Behind You
Upgrade List 3
Budget: $175,704Z
Votes will be by plan, and you should probably consider how likely something is to help in the upcoming heist (and perhaps, what you want to spend your winnings on when it's over)
Budget: $175,704Z
Votes will be by plan, and you should probably consider how likely something is to help in the upcoming heist (and perhaps, what you want to spend your winnings on when it's over)
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- Location
- MN
so our goal is just to steal the radio active stuff and run and to avoid a fight if possible as non of us are really built to handle an A rank. Thinking our best bet would be to try and grab the stuff before the trade off in that Wednesday to Friday range and maybe find out more about the seller. If the seller really does have some beef with the buyer's faction like Hare says it might be possible to see if weld has some other radio active doodad laying around that we could try and switch with the real product and boobytrap our fake and make it seem like Caddis got stabbed in the back.
As for upgrades. I'm honestly eyeing the mobility ones right now as being able to make a quick getaway if things go pair shape sounds like a good idea though that oil buster upgrade has me wondering if worse comes to worse and we're forced to fight Caddis that by spraying him with a quick spray of liquid cold we might be able to cool his armor for a short time allowing us or someone else to actually attack him and have said attack actually able to damage him or if he just generates to much heat for us to actually do anything to him. I mean they did say that the way his armor works is that it just heats itself so high that any kinetic weapon just melts on impact and energy based weapons just kinda fizzle before they reach him doing little to no damage which his armor will quickly heal. Cool it down enough to become solid and you might be able to land a hit with some damage that will actually stick. In theory at least.
As for upgrades. I'm honestly eyeing the mobility ones right now as being able to make a quick getaway if things go pair shape sounds like a good idea though that oil buster upgrade has me wondering if worse comes to worse and we're forced to fight Caddis that by spraying him with a quick spray of liquid cold we might be able to cool his armor for a short time allowing us or someone else to actually attack him and have said attack actually able to damage him or if he just generates to much heat for us to actually do anything to him. I mean they did say that the way his armor works is that it just heats itself so high that any kinetic weapon just melts on impact and energy based weapons just kinda fizzle before they reach him doing little to no damage which his armor will quickly heal. Cool it down enough to become solid and you might be able to land a hit with some damage that will actually stick. In theory at least.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
I don't know if we're going to be able to get the kind of cooling we'd need to freeze Caddis's armor. The fact that he can keep that metal molten basically indefinitely must mean that he's pumping out serious heat.
- Location
- Three feet to the left
- Pronouns
- He/They
I say get the Tag Projector and the Black Icecicles. I also want the elephant, but like it says, we got nowhere to put it. Maybe after we get paid.
[X] Plan Just The Basics
[X] Slide
[X] Busters Akimbo
[X] Contact Crystallizer
[X] Water Softener
[X] Chamber Tuning: Pierce Tuning
That should come in to 175k zenny, if I did my math right.
[X] Slide
[X] Busters Akimbo
[X] Contact Crystallizer
[X] Water Softener
[X] Chamber Tuning: Pierce Tuning
That should come in to 175k zenny, if I did my math right.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
Honestly, I kind of agree more with Nothing. We aren't super spec'd for combat, and monsters like Caddis and his fellows are out of our league even if we blow everything on weapons.
[X] Quick as a Shadow
-[X] Slide
-[X] Sleidenfrost
-[X] Chamber Tuning: Sever Tuning
-[X] Paintjob
Comes out to 160100Z. Slide and Sleidenfrost should let us zip in and out of lattice fog before Caddis or co. can burn it out of the air, which is going to be important for a reliable get away, assuming we have to go loud at all (which we might not, but I have a bad feeling). Sever Tuning because Boreas liked it at the range and because it seems like it might be usable as an emergency plasma cutter if we need to cut through any locks or make our own doors. Paintjob because we are trying to keep our profile down and if we get public coverage then having battle scars will make us seem more dangerous (and thus warranting greater public suspicion).
[X] Quick as a Shadow
-[X] Slide
-[X] Sleidenfrost
-[X] Chamber Tuning: Sever Tuning
-[X] Paintjob
Comes out to 160100Z. Slide and Sleidenfrost should let us zip in and out of lattice fog before Caddis or co. can burn it out of the air, which is going to be important for a reliable get away, assuming we have to go loud at all (which we might not, but I have a bad feeling). Sever Tuning because Boreas liked it at the range and because it seems like it might be usable as an emergency plasma cutter if we need to cut through any locks or make our own doors. Paintjob because we are trying to keep our profile down and if we get public coverage then having battle scars will make us seem more dangerous (and thus warranting greater public suspicion).
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Y'know what, you have a point. I might get the oil slick instead of the cutter, but this is a good enough plan. Changing my vote to:
[X] Quick As A Shadow
Still effective against his flunkeys, and basic probability says that we're more likely to run into them. But like I said. Good enough plan.