- Location
- Texas
Well of course quipping should be involved. If we can't make a smartass out of our badass, then we've done something horribly wrong.
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Maverick Quest (MMX)
- Thread starter Aquarium
- Start date
Well of course quipping should be involved. If we can't make a smartass out of our badass, then we've done something horribly wrong.
This plan is better than some of the other proposals I've seen, but it all hinges on the guards coming out of the limo? What if they stay inside their safely armored limo, and just call for help, instead of heading out into an obvious ambush? It also relies on getting into close quarters with Joe when he has freedom of motion.
Now, since @Aquarium has confirmed that Weld is good enough to change out our cosmetics and let us steal somebody else's appearance temporarily...
[X] Plan Icebox
-[X] Follow Joe's chauffeur. Learn his schedule, and learn about the limo he drives. Research its model, and find out about its security features in particular. Make sure it's possible to get the metaphorical 'keys' from the chauffeur. (Also find out how its shocks are rated, to facilitate Step 3!)
-[X] Grab the Chauffeur when he's off the clock. Grab him without letting him see our face (easy enough with Lattice Fog). Keep him unconscious or at least sensory-deprived, and have Weld Scarab remove his face, and install it on our chassis as a disguise.
-[X] If it's plausible to convincingly impersonate the chauffeur without any face-stealing, just do that instead.
-[X] Rig up Black Ice Mines under the limo's seats so that they'll explode with an impact, but not someone sitting on the seats
-[X] Pick an ambush location along Joe's route. Preferably a narrow alley, so that he can't get out via the doors. The armor will keep him from going through the ceiling or the rear.
-[X] Set up a speedbump in the ambush location that's sharp enough to trigger the mines.
-[X] Fill the car's interior with transparent Lattice Fog just before the attack, and shift it to opaque as soon as the attack begins to disorient the enemy.
-[X] Tag everyone with the freeze buster while they're hurt and disoriented. If anyone gets loose, the frost blade will be a backup option.
-[X] If our surveillance shows that the Chauffeur is never vulnerable, if we cannot steal/extort Limo Security Access from him, or if Weld is unable to put his face on us, we'll default to a different ambush location and just run the limo off the road per Plan: Cold Shoulder.
This plan, I feel, has a few benefits. First off, instead of having to get at him while he's in an armored limo and his bodyguards are moving around, we instead use the armored limo to trap him and keep him and his guards from being able to maneuver or escape. It becomes an asset to our plan instead of an obstacle.
By impersonating someone who works on his security, we play heavily to his paranoia. We'll be convincing him that anyone can be subverted, nobody is trustworthy, and he can't hide anywhere. This should make him a lot more likely to pay back his debt/take a fall as is expected of him. Playing to his psychology, instead of just a head-on attack.
Perhaps most importantly, this keeps the heat off of us. Whether the plan works or not, nobody's going to be looking for a silver fox. They'll be looking at the chauffeur- and he'll never have seen us. We can just keep him captive and blindfolded a short while, and give him his face back when it's all done. And if this plan does work, unlike the other plan, it means there'll be no evidence there was ever an attack. No limo run off the road, no battle damage in a public area, no loud flashy stuff. The ice will melt and Joe will be a few minutes late, but there'll be no evidence he got his arm twisted. This gives us our best odds of everything going well and the gambling commission not getting involved, which means we should be safe to lay a bet against Joe, if we bully him into taking a dive in his next match. We can like quadruple our paycheck. It'll be great.
So yeah. I say let's play into our trickster fox roots and go with a clever disguise here. Turn his security into a trap. Don't get into a straight fight against the prizefighter.
EDIT: Added bonus? This plan is swag af. Super slick. Lots of fun. On top of giving us more optimal combat circumstances, more privacy to intimidate him, and less exposure if it fails.
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- Location
- Geneva
If we're taking a dude's face, I think our eventual codename is going to be "Skinwalker" or something.
I'm of a mind that we should figure out what we can about his armored limo. It might be easier (or harder) to get into or out of than we've bargained for, and I feel like that would be a major factor on whether we go for the spinout with ice on the road or the bodyguard impersonation plan.
On a more broad note, plans with the least moving parts are the best. "Freeze road, spin out, gank" is about as simple as they come, and we've got the advantage of research, training, surprise, and excellent zone control trickery. It also plays to our strengths in training. Impersonating the guard is going to rely on Joe not being overly familiar with his help, us being able to take the driver's place on the sly, passing muster for as long as we have to, the limo being the kind with the opaque divider, etc. It's not impossible but it relies on us being a good actor and infiltrator.
If we can crack the limo from the outside with our arms (they ARE military-grade), or find some kind of weakness to cold (maybe we could freeze moisture in a hinge until it pops off), then I'd say we should definite go for the road ambush instead of the driver impersonation.
I'm of a mind that we should figure out what we can about his armored limo. It might be easier (or harder) to get into or out of than we've bargained for, and I feel like that would be a major factor on whether we go for the spinout with ice on the road or the bodyguard impersonation plan.
On a more broad note, plans with the least moving parts are the best. "Freeze road, spin out, gank" is about as simple as they come, and we've got the advantage of research, training, surprise, and excellent zone control trickery. It also plays to our strengths in training. Impersonating the guard is going to rely on Joe not being overly familiar with his help, us being able to take the driver's place on the sly, passing muster for as long as we have to, the limo being the kind with the opaque divider, etc. It's not impossible but it relies on us being a good actor and infiltrator.
If we can crack the limo from the outside with our arms (they ARE military-grade), or find some kind of weakness to cold (maybe we could freeze moisture in a hinge until it pops off), then I'd say we should definite go for the road ambush instead of the driver impersonation.
- Location
- MN
I know this might be a bit late but couldn't we blackmail him. I mean we know the guy that gave him his muscles so we could easily get the paperwork/schematics to prove it. All we'd need is a way to contact him and show him that we know and have proof and if he wants to keep his dirty little secret he'll take them money he owes and leave it at a dead drop and if their is even a single cent missing his secrete goes public.
I mean the boxing league he's in already suspects he's cheating they just can't figure out how so if someone where to tip them off our champion here would be fucked.
I mean the boxing league he's in already suspects he's cheating they just can't figure out how so if someone where to tip them off our champion here would be fucked.
I'd rather just repo his cheat muscles and sell them for sweet, sweet cash. (No point installing them. We fight in the fog, photoelectrics aren't great for us. And the heat resistance could be better achieved by way of a dedicated defensive component. Besides, I want the extra money to bet against him in the match where he takes a dive.
If our assault fails, we can call that plan B though. B is for Blackmail. It's a good idea, but if we can go big and succeed, we might as well.
Punchweasel
Maverick Weasel
- Location
- Central Illinois, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Him
I'm willing to vote for Icebox, especially considering if we succeed well we could increase our paycheck by a pretty penny.
[X] Plan Icebox
[X] Plan Icebox
- Location
- Texas
Mine was more relying on the fact they Don't actually know it's an ambush. They only see mist and the car sliding, but nothing about those seem extraordinary. I should put in something if he does stay turtled up, though I have no doubt he'd send out his goons to see what was wrong with the car.
Granted yours seems like a pretty good idea too, so I won't mind if I lose, but I'll stick with me plan for now.
I'd submit that while the direct attack on the limo has a simpler setup, it leaves us with a more difficult, complicated fight once we engage- more room for our enemies to maneuver and surprise us. Less initial shock factor. The possibility of calling for help or being stumbled on by someone. Lots of things that couldn't go wrong with mugging the Chauffeur for his face.
I figure it this way- if we try the disguise and get spotted, our worst case scenario still has us fighting Joe and his Goons in the open, on the street. Same as we basically would have been doing if we ran the limo off the road. We'll just have a fake face to take the heat off of us if we fail and are forced to retreat. So even our worst case scenario with this plan isn't that bad.
Oh sure, you steal one face and you've "become a face-stealer"
Besides. We'll give it back when we're done with it. Being a face-borrower isn't so bad.
- Location
- On the edge
I think the face might not be necessary if we try the chauffeur route, just don't make small talk or exit the car before you spring the trap.
Taking off your ears and tail for the day might be helpful, though.
Vozen
Magic Adventure Cat
- Location
- Seattle
Ok, listen:Oh sure, you steal one face and you've "become a face-stealer"
Besides. We'll give it back when we're done with it. Being a face-borrower isn't so bad.
1. Do we know the first thing about removing a face without damaging it, let alone using it convincingly enough to fool anyone for even a second?
2. How does this ultimately help us accomplish anything strategic application of beamsaber on car door would not?
3. All attempts to justify ourselves to anyone and present a moral grey area will be countered with "yea, but you took a guys face!"
4. It will mark us as a total psycho from job one in the eyes of hunters and public both, and if we really decide to do it they won't be wrong.
5. It really creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable, so can we please not?
1. We don't need to know anything about taking a face off or putting it on. We've got access to an ace Chop Shop Street Doctor to do it for us.
2. With the infiltration plan, we can have Joe and his brutes immobilized before they know they're fighting- and it traps them in close quarters, where Joe can't put his fighting skills to work. If we come from outside, he could just y'know... go out the other door?
3. Only Scarab's going to know we took a guy's face. And he's not the sort to take the moral high ground.
4. Again, nobody's going to know. All the chauffeur will know is that somebody grabbed him, knocked him out, and returned his limo in a pretty fucked up state.
5. I mean, it's a little creepy, but these are robots. Faces are just cosmetics, you know?
Think of it like just stealing the guy's uniform. The face isn't actually important for anything functional. It's more like putting on a disguise in a Hitman game. We'll leave the chauffeur in a closet somewhere, and give the guy's uniform (face) back to him after the mission.
Like, is trapping the poor chauffeur in the middle of a firefight more moral than locking him away for a couple of hours? Because that's what you guys are proposing instead. It's actually more dangerous to him.
Anyway, @Hunter Command raised some valid points, so I've edited a bit of additional detail into the plan, re: surveilling the chauffeur, researching the limo, making sure this is doable. And if it looks like it won't be doable, we'll just default to Plan: Cold Shoulder and run him off the road. (And if we fail at that we can always fall back on the OTHER plan B and blackmail him- even after a failed attempt). And hey if we do have to do Cold Shoulder, we'll know more about the car itself with this new Step One of Plan Icebox.
Here's the plan in its current form:
If anybody else has more feedback, I'll happily amend further.
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- Location
- On the edge
I still want to do the impersonation, just without taking the chauffeur's face. We don't even know if he's a Reploid or not!
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I mean, that part should be covered under the surveillance step. But you make a fair point. I'll add in a bit about how if we can convincingly impersonate him without taking his face, we'll do so. Sound alright?
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Vozen
Magic Adventure Cat
- Location
- Seattle
1. A chop-shop swapping the face out fast enough to pull this off and well enough to fool anyone for even a second even with our likely wildly different body types? And with what money? Do we try and drag his entire body back or try and remove the face ourselves? It just has too many holes in it.
2. We can run them down in the fog if they run. Or just freeze the door or their legs. We can make this work.
3. IF everything goes right, then he, the target, and the bodyguards will know we took a damn face...and there's even odds one of them will spill it later.
4. See above. Also, do you intend us to take this guy's face and return it later? How is this madness even going to work. It relies on this going perfectly for it to have any viability. The other plans don't hurt us much other than needing money, this one will get us labeled a psycho for doing it. AND even if it never comes out, it still shows that we ARE that sick...and I don't want to play a character like that.
5. Robots raised in a human society, on human values, with a noticeable human-like mindset and personality. Also, to get meta, played by humans. You're right in that it's not quite as messed up, but it's still miles from being ok in any way.
Here's how I figure it: If we run the car off the road, we'll cause a crash, lots of collateral damage from the fighting, there'll be emergency responders on the way- and we'll put that chauffeur in the middle of a shoot out. Way more dangerous for him than being tied up in a closet for the afternoon. We'd also be attacking in open air against a strong fighter and his goons, in a situation where they have a chance to react.
If we steal the limo, and launch our ambush in the alleyway, they'll be frozen directly by the landmines, blinded even inside of the car (rather than just fogging the area around it), and most importantly, nobody will see or hear anything. We'll have time to make our message clear to Joe after immobilizing him. We'll also have the privacy needed to repossess his photoelectric muscles for Weld if we want to make a little extra scratch. (Which means more money beyond our paycheck, which we can bet on a match we know he's going to lose)
And the intimidation factor is important to consider here. If he gets attacked, he might just beef up his security even further. But if he's taken in a single instant by part of his security detail itself, he'll know that he's not safe anywhere. And let's be honest, a chauffeur with a wrong-fitting face extracting your muscles while you're frozen to your seat? It sends a message. He ain't gonna fuck around after that.
And as a bonus, if we do the infiltration plan, it'll leave no long-term evidence that anything happened. Nobody will have any reason to suspect anything fishy happened with Joe, like they would if he got into a big fight on the roadside after someone crashed his car. There'd be the chauffeur and emergency responders to potentially compromise things if we run him off the road. We don't want anyone questioning the dive we're pressuring him into taking.
Most of what can go wrong with my plan would go wrong during the planning and preparation phase, at which point we would just scrap that plan, default to running the car off the road, and roll with that. If we get through the planning and preparation, we'll be guaranteed to have a cleaner shot at him than if we ran his car off the road. Worst case scenario, he spots our disguise and we still get to fight him when he's flat-footed and outside the car, instead of having to break in and get at him inside the armored limo.
And as @Vee Ess rightly pointed out, if our surveillance reveals that this guy looks similar to us (some kind of canine or vulpine model, presumably. Maybe even some mustelids
) we can probably get away with just impersonating him with a more traditional disguise.As for your personal discomfort with the idea? I mean it's a bit weird, but it won't permanently hurt anyone. Turning a road into a warzone in broad daylight probably will though. So I don't see how the disguise plan is somehow the one that makes us a worse person.
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- Location
- Behind You
Sorry, research went long today, didn't end up synchronizing info across all chat channels
> Limo driver is a 'similar enough' model that you can pose as him briefly, so long as you wear the uniform and don't move around too much. With your external ears removed, things are gonna be a bit muffled, but that's the biggest concern.
That's something you could find out from the tabloids, so it's a freebie.
Doing something more elaborate as a disguise would take a lot longer to set up (or getting some dedicated systems like Double), but I honestly find a Face/Off scenario novel enough that I'm not gonna throw spokes in the wheels the first time you try it.
Anyway, I feel like things have collapsed into two major plans, both based off of an interception. Are there any other questions people need answered before voting? I don't want to lose too much momentum on planning, but I do like having a lot of scheming as a tonal thing. Mavs gotta scheme, it's part of being a villain.
> Limo driver is a 'similar enough' model that you can pose as him briefly, so long as you wear the uniform and don't move around too much. With your external ears removed, things are gonna be a bit muffled, but that's the biggest concern.
That's something you could find out from the tabloids, so it's a freebie.
Doing something more elaborate as a disguise would take a lot longer to set up (or getting some dedicated systems like Double), but I honestly find a Face/Off scenario novel enough that I'm not gonna throw spokes in the wheels the first time you try it.
Anyway, I feel like things have collapsed into two major plans, both based off of an interception. Are there any other questions people need answered before voting? I don't want to lose too much momentum on planning, but I do like having a lot of scheming as a tonal thing. Mavs gotta scheme, it's part of being a villain.
I feel like it maybe says something that it didn't naturally occur to me that we might not have to steal the chauffeur's face.
Vozen
Magic Adventure Cat
- Location
- Seattle
Life lesson everyone. It's not that face stealing is never an option, but one must ask oneself "do I HAVE to steal a face to make this work?" in the planning step.
Anyway, edit out the whole 'face' bit and I'll gladly back your plan.
There's actually already a bit in there about doing it without face-stealing if that's enough to make for a convincing disguise. I edited it in after Vee Ess pointed out the hole in my thinking.
It's a shame, though. "Skinwalker Boreas" has a really nice ring to it. 'Skinny' to his friends.
- Location
- Nowhere
You know this is a bad guy quest, right? There's only one way out with the Maverick Virus. Moreover, if we join Sigma things will escalate. The best way to stay alive as a Maverick is to have Boreas swallow his pride and join the robo-army (Repliforce) if they're around, as they'll go Maverick for political reasons. If that's not a thing... Then joining a mercenary band might work.
That's not a good argument, and again this is fiction with animaloid robots doing stuff.
That reminds me: Would Weld consider the "face-changing" operation as part of the debt we owe him and thus keep it around? I would assume that if Boreas proves to be valuable, he'll delay returning his systems to exploit him a little more, doubly-so with something as personal as his face.
- Location
- Behind You
== Vote Closing tomorrow afternoon ==
Ack, sorry, I think I've made things more confusing instead of less.
Doing a Face/Off AND a disguise is enough to impersonate.
Differences in your body types are small enough to hide under a uniform, but the new face is necessary for the bits Joe will see.
It's not that you're magically immune or anything, but until X3 starts a trend of people turning computer programs into energy beings, it's a lot harder to get infected (canonically, the original x1 stage bosses were all either coerced or joined of their free will), and even after that starts happening, free willed maverick agents like Dynamo are still hanging around. And I also would find a loss of agency really uninteresting.
*If someone offers a million zenny he'll sell your face to them and give you the cash. "If someone wants a new face that desperately, it's a bad idea to tell them 'no'."
== Vote Closing Tomorrow Afternoon ==
Ack, sorry, I think I've made things more confusing instead of less.
Doing a Face/Off AND a disguise is enough to impersonate.
Differences in your body types are small enough to hide under a uniform, but the new face is necessary for the bits Joe will see.
Unless you guys do stupid stuff like hanging out with Serges and accepting an offer to improve your DNA, or asking Doppler to hook up his neurocomputer directly to your skull, I'm not gonna do anything involving you getting hijacked by the virus.
It's not that you're magically immune or anything, but until X3 starts a trend of people turning computer programs into energy beings, it's a lot harder to get infected (canonically, the original x1 stage bosses were all either coerced or joined of their free will), and even after that starts happening, free willed maverick agents like Dynamo are still hanging around. And I also would find a loss of agency really uninteresting.
Weld is fine just holding onto it for you*. Since you're doing a job for him, he charges for parts, not installation.
*If someone offers a million zenny he'll sell your face to them and give you the cash. "If someone wants a new face that desperately, it's a bad idea to tell them 'no'."
== Vote Closing Tomorrow Afternoon ==