[IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Deadline

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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Sakuro »

Diego asked for some recommendations, and no one had to wait for the woman's response. She had a suggestion ready. Probably even before she spoke up about including a dedicated driver in the operation. While her voice has a casual personal aspect to it, she keeps her comments informative.

"Other than me, Sergeant Hendrick Kreppler is your best option. He isn't a professional driver, but he's above average. Hendrick knows the city well enough to get around without issue, but don't expect him to point out short cuts. He has a car and his own fake ID for getting around. You'd only need to worry about IDs for yourselves. You may be able to get away with tucking a couple people in your trunk. Stronghold doesn't usually do a detailed check of cars unless something is sketchy, but they do check the ID of everyone in the vehicle."
OOC wrote:You know Tilly is an urban combat specialist, is a really good driver, knows the city well, and has a keen military mind. She has also favored taking you around the city on a motorcycle, not a car. That way checkpoints could be avoided altogether.

Hendrick Kreppler is your chief of security. You have a dossier on him, but haven't looked into the man. Or any of the base personnel.

Tilly has been managing people for you while the PCs remain aloof and distant for the most part. Iona being an exception, as she has done some management of the medical staff.
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mrdent12
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid
Trauma Trigger: 1


Thinking for a moment, Diego gives his response. "Having to go through check points is not ideal, but moving with Iona and and John on a motorcycle to take the back routes may be tricky. This base has been so well managed by you, I have been negligent in keeping track of its stores and personnel. Sergeant Hendrick as the driver in his vehicle and plus John and Iona in the trunk if possible would be risky if we get searched as you noted. If you feel like getting back out into the city again and can get away from your management duties, the safest approach would be you and Iona on a motorcycle with John possibly trailing in another motor cycle we borrow. I can get around the city well enough in my native form especially when it is darker.", remarks Diego.

"Hiding or guarding two motor cycles would be easier than a car while Iona, John, and I meet the contact.", adds Diego. Uncharacteristically, Diego deferred to Tilly and used a more human tone.
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Sakuro »

"If you aren't needing to bring more gear than would fit in a backpack, motorcycles are the way to go."

The Corporal looked from Diego to Iona. From Iona to John. Then from John back to Diego, checking to see if anyone was going to comment on needing to bring in something bulky. When no one did, as John only wanted his knife, Diego was a living weapon, and Iona had no equipment she wished to take ... Tilly offered a quick nod of affirmation.

"Sounds good then. I'll source the second motorcycle. Sure there is someone I can bully or charm one off of for the night."

The dark skinned military woman waited either to be dismissed, or for the group to disperse after the meeting. Then she was off to carry out her own pre-mission prepping, which included hunting down the additional motorcycle she promised.
OOC wrote:Since you're bringing Tilly in on the mission, and going with her style of strategy, she's volunteering to use her connections to acquire a second motorcycle. You won't have to worry about the vehicle being traced back to one of your people. But if you loose the motorcycle, you might need to help Tilly pay the owner back a favor or otherwise compensate the person she is borrowing the bike from.

You have already made navigation related checks to chart a route to your destination and otherwise move into position/egress. Having Tilly along would get you to your destination easily anyway. Since you are choosing to take motorcycles, you'll bypass security checkpoints and thus your disguises won't be at risk yet as well.

If everyone is ready, you may post any last minute preparations or social interactions you want to undertake. Then I'll narrate your arrival near the Autumn Dawn building.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

John Steiner
HP:1
Cnd:Normal
PP:0

John remembers riding around on his little Honda “50” as a kid. He also did some dirt-biking with his buddies in high school, but he hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in many years. He hopes that the old saying, “It’s like riding a bicycle” applies here.

Satisfied with his disguise and with his knife hidden away, he meets up with Tilly, Diego, and Iona for the approach. He doesn’t like the fact that he must go to a potentially hostile area with so little weaponry, but he reminds himself that the Ascendants perform missions that are often more akin to espionage, while he his experience involves the destruction of enemy forces. Though assured by Diego that relatively minor resistance, if any, would be met, John has a paranoid side. And although that paranoid side can prevent him from taking action at times, it has kept him alive in the face of a superior enemy thus far.

When prompted about his readiness to begin he responds with a mere, “Yes, sir.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

Iona
HP: 1
Cnd: Normal
PP:0

The young cyborg has been heavily preoccupied with her own work for over a week now, but zero hour for the mission is fast approaching. Mentally, Iona goes over the basic principles for success. She desperately wants to improve her standing with Null and Sokolov. Another screw up could take her to a new level of misery. Secrecy, patience, and restraint are the keys. Even though less resistance is expected that in her previous mission, she has learned that assumptions can be wrong.

But what is done is done, and the mission is a go. There is no need to obsess about possible failure. In fact, she thinks to herself, there might be the possibility of discovering other research projects under development at Autumn Dawn. Wouldn’t it be interesting to get her hands on some of that? She would be sure to keep her eyes and ears open for the opportunity.

When “the crew” meets, Iona assumes that she’ll be riding with Sander just like she did on a previous mission. Even though Sander was female, like herself, Iona could not help but find the young woman very attractive. Sokolov must have designed my AI network that way.

At present she simply looks from face to face at her operatives. “I’m ready.” She says softly.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid
Trauma Trigger: 1


Generally ready to go Diego goes to get four burner phones to fit in and provide some means, however in secure, of communication. In his native form, he wouldn't be able to carry them, but instead passes them around to the others. The meeting time he also relayed to the others. "Its only scouting and information gathering, unless an we are forced to move tonight. So, keep a low profile.", remarks Diego. A stash of fake id was going to be something he would need to look into getting, but once the tracking system went online it wasn't going to matter. Hopefully, their small army would be assembled by than. Hopefully.
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Sakuro »

A couple blocks from the headquarters in the dilapidated ruins of a hollowed out husk of a skyscraper you assembled to pick up the second motorcycle Tilly had promised. There was no sign of her contact, but she had requested that you come here rather than her bringing the bike nearer to your base. While Corporal Sander mounts a sporty black Kawasaki Ninja, with Iona joining her, John is left with something that looks better suited to driving off road. While it wasn't doing to have a lot of speed, Tilly assured him it would be maneuverable, and that is what he was going to need more than speed if things went bad.

There is some brie consultation between Tilly and John, reconfirming the route they intended to take, then you head out with John taking point, Iona and Tilly following, and Diego flanking them in the shadows of the city. Of the four while he had the least speed, his stealth and flight allowed him to go almost anywhere he wanted. John and Tilly, both having served in the same army, find coordinating movements and adjusting to unexpected changes in their chosen route easy to do. Even without having to speak. A hand signal from one of them is all it needs to communicate what is needed.

You move between road, alley, and sometimes drive through abandoned buildings gutted open from the war. The route you end up taking is winding and takes longer than a direct trip, but it saves you the trouble of coming face to face with Stronghold mercenaries guarding checkpoints at almost every entry or exit point to each Ward you pass through.

The sky is clouded. The streets are wet. Everywhere you go there is the smell of garage and plants rotting. Just as pervasive are the homeless, though they have developed a talent for hiding and though you know there are more, you only see a couple on every street. Until you reach Ward 8. Entering the Ward is like driving into another city. You do from ruins and drudgery to almost pristine towers of steel and glass. There are no homeless obscuring sidewalks, only well dressed busy people moving about their affairs.

You do a quick drive-by of the Autumn Dawn building before parking your bikes in an alley a block away, between an upscale restrain and a cramped office building. The agri-corp branch office is towering, standing head and shoulders above it's neighbors. With it's spacious campus, it looks as though all other building sin the area had stepped aside to make room for it's imposing figure. To those who spent time under Imperator's reign, it would seem like a decadent waste of urban space that could have been better utilized in the finite confines of the city.

In the alley Tilly turns off the engine of her bike, removes her black visored helmet, and braced up her vehicle. Once settled in he offers Iona a nod, signaling her passenger it was alright to dismount.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid
Trauma Trigger: 1


As the others moved through the ruins on bikes, Diego stuck to the walls and shadows. Night time suited him just fine in his true form. He kept track of the route as best he could, but of equal interest to him was the disenfranchised and hopeless vagrants trying to stay out of sight. For the militia they were going to form, the fittest of the bunch would make good fighters with the less well serving other appropriate roles. A few of the better hiders would make good eyes and ears for the network he was already cultivating slowly. Praetor Null deserved his due and the others served a role, but the thought of his forgotten network was never far from Diegos mind. Technology only went so far. Human intelligence and subterfuge by the unsuspecting vagrant kept people on their toes.

Once in the ward that Stronghold seemed to care about, Diego took note of the styles of dress. He wouldn't copy exactly, but get close enough. After the bikes were parked, Diego floated from the wall once he was reasonably sure no one was looking and assumed the form of a forty something slender Chinese American man with black hair dressed in business casual attire. His garb was formulated to not be too flashy or too low for the area. It was tailored to fit a mid level scientist or white collar worker. When he spoke, Diego adopted the dialect of a someone raised by Chinese parents from a young age in America complete with the vocal ticks he learned in his years working as a linguistics professor.

"That was a quite the interesting route.", remarks Diego not too loudly. "Our first priority should be getting to the meeting place. Once we have the intelligence, we can scout the area while keeping a low profile. Without his information, any scouting would be futile. Stronghold is likely watching this area closely, so keep your heads down.", adds Diego. After speaking, he took stock of everything he saw and how best to get to the meeting place.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

Iona
HP: 1
Cnd: Normal
PP:0

Iona relaxes her grip on the motorcycle as Sander slowly brings it to a halt in the alley. The young cyborg's business casual attire is - in fact- "dressing down" in the sense that it contributes to obscuring the robot's beauty. Swinging her leg back over the seat she dismounts the vehicle and stands beside it. John's "dirt bike" had already come to a halt a few meters in front of theirs.

At least this time we will not have to move through a sewer system to enter the building, she thought to herself. The lack of a police perimeter also added to a less tense feeling as Iona looked out of both ends of the alleyway for signs of law-enforcement authorities.

Walking to the front of Tilly's motorcycle, Iona adjusts her clothes as she speaks to Tilly. "Thank you for the lift..." she says softly, "...we'll try to return without a horde of police on our tail."

Waiting for Diego to round everyone up and begin the stroll to the meeting point, Iona begins to mentally go over the basics for mission success. It was a little obsessive perhaps, but the failure of the last mission still haunted her.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

John Steiner
HP:1
Cnd:Normal
PP:0

John had to be conscious of his paranoid tendencies. He wasn't expecting a major firefight this mission and every effort was going to be made to avoid it. Still, he wasn't use to making forays out into the city without considerably more firepower at his disposal.

He still manages to keep things positive. If everything goes well, this could prove to be not only a beneficial mission for Imperator's forces, but a great opportunity to reconnoiter an area where a future battle may take place. He was simply going to play the part of someone who belonged in the area, relax, and reconnoiter the region for military intelligence. If things got messy, he was just going to improvise like any soldier must do.

When Diego, Iona, and Tilly are all together, John looks to Diego. "So what's our group's story on the off-chance that security of some sort stops us in the parking lot or garage?"
OOC: I don't think we have any kind of laminated badges/fake ID, do we? I don't recall us discussing that. It's probably best not to have them as they could be read from a camera and then potentially falsified.

Perception roll: Supernaturalist: 1D20+8 → 14(6 + 8)
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Sakuro
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Sakuro »

On your way through Ward 8, before stopping in the alley, the three of you are able to take in some basic information about the area you will be operating in. The area has a mix a refurbished buildings that are smaller than they were originally. Rather than building several structure back up, the damaged levels were cleared and the intact were repaired. This leaves area for some business such as restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and so on.

A lot of these things, during Imperator's time, would have been inside skyscrapers along with housing and businesses. Urban space had been more efficiently used then, the crops growing on buildings, and solar absorbent materials would have been employed to take some of the strain in energy usage. Both the urban gardens and solar paneling were stripped away here.

There are checkpoints at there perimeter of the Ward, as is usually the case, the foot or vehicular patrols filling the in between. In your area, you have only seen one such foot patrol consisting of the usual eight man squad. Diego and John are able to notice that, overhead, are two drones spread wide apart. Like the soldiers on the ground, they are patrolling rather than remaining in a fixed location, and they do not seem to be keeping to a predicable pattern.

Getting to the Autumn Dawn building will be simple enough. Out of the alley you are a straight walk down the street from it's spacious campus. The familiar mirrored-dome-cameras that are so pervasive throughout Hadron City are just as much present in Ward 8. Every building has them. But you have disguises, and sneaking around to avoid them may make you look more suspicious should someone come upon you attempting to go unnoticed on your approach.
OOC wrote:You do not have fake IDs, of any kind. Iona use to, but her's was compromised last mission.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid
Trauma Trigger: 1


Drones and patrols were to be expected after the last bomb scare. With the infection raging out in the world, there was also the scare of the creatures getting into the city. Diego couldn't help but mourn the low the city had been brought. He'd only seen it during the war and after, but one day he would help restore it. Today, they needed info to get the plant.
When Diego, Iona, and Tilly are all together, John looks to Diego. "So what's our group's story on the off-chance that security of some sort stops us in the parking lot or garage?"
"Keep it simple and straight forward. We have a meeting we are here on business and meeting up with our host. No need to go too much into details so long as we look professional enough. I can talk business, which should be enough.", remarks Diego. "Best to approach as if we belong here and aren't sneaking about. Just try to avoid looking towards the cameras.", adds Diego. Diego checked the time on the burner phone and checked how much time they had. He wanted to make sure they left soon enough to arrive on time without loitering around the parking lot.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

John Steiner
HP:1
Cnd:Normal
PP:0

John 's disguise is somewhat uncomfortable, but that is the price to be paid for obscurity. He was not unaccustomed to wearing business clothing, however, as his career as a mercenary occasionally required meetings with corporate types who seemed to be big on "professionalism". In other words, the appearance of integrity and propriety.

The soldier emerges from the alley with his comrades. As he begins the trek towards the Autumn Dawn building, he takes special notice of the patrols and drones. In particular, he scrutinizes their armament, body-armor, and any other tactically relevant parameters. Behind his sunglasses, and face-distorting makeup, he hopes that his disguise holds up.

Fortunately, the veteran has been in battle. Despite his initial paranoia, he's aware that - once committed - worry does one absolutely no good. In fact, it often proves fatal. He relaxes and begins to walk just as if "he belongs".
OOC: Does John know anything about the Drone-models being used? Armament? Durability? Sensors? communications? Max speed? vulnerability to hacking/countermeasures? Etc.?
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by Supernaturalist »

Iona
HP: 1
Cnd: Normal
PP:0

Iona has knowledge of business etiquette, though no memory of ever interacting in a corporate setting....another gift in her memory-banks from Dr. Sokolov.

Making sure that her clothing is adjusted correctly, and that her disguise has no obvious defects, she walks with her peers out of the alleyway and towards the large facility. Having never been in this part of the city, she is overwhelmed by the bustle of it all. For one isolated in a lab, running experiments all by their lonesome, the crowds cause her some small amount of anxiety.

It is also obvious just how much effort Stronghold (and the outside world) is trying to reshape Hadron City from its former glory. Diego is right. We don't have much time to get our forces mustered and into the battle. If Stronghold and the US government go unchecked for too much longer, the transformation from Imperator's vision may be irreversible.

The young cyborg's keen mind analyzes the environment from power lines to cell phone towers, surveillance cameras to street lights. Her magnetic sense is used from time to time in order to detect potential cables and wiring that might indicate power lines to security cameras. Her pace is relaxed as she walks to the Autumn Dawn building. There's no great hurry; and has no desire to draw attention to herself.
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Re: [IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Recovery

Post by mrdent12 »

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid
Trauma Trigger: 1


As the group walked, Diego made idle chatter with the others on various mundane topics like the weather recently, mention of needing the general meeting to go well, and other such topics that were at a high level and seemed to fit in the environment. At the same time, he kept his eyes out for if anyone had badges or id normally associated with office visitors or workers.

If anyone dug too deep, their story would fall apart. Luckily, stealth startups, NDA's, and such allowed for some reason to not reveal too much if anyone pushed. A lot could go wrong, but if they did this by the book and drew little attention to themselves they might just be able to get away with the meeting. In all hope, the meeting would allow the group easier entrance into the building and info on where the plant was.
As part of the possible next step, he's checking if any office id badges are visible in a subtle fashion. Knowing what sort of ids companies in the area use would prove useful if the ever can make fake ids.
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