2607/WoS: Trouble in the Happy Valley

WoS: Trouble in the Happy Valley
Date of Scene:	11 July 2015
Location:	Techno Urbania
Synopsis:	The Light Warriors move to secure the last possible link to whoever hired the Shadowrunners to attack Shiva: A hidden backup that is making use of security through obscurity in the middle of a storage unit.
Cast of Characters:	626, 627, 633, 655, 666, Lyria Mason, 742, 766
Tinyplot:	Warlords of Shiva

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Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Happy Valley Storage Facility is a nondescript storage group that just happens to be completely bought out by the apartment building company that Albert Dorn used to live in... Until the building was ripped out of the ground by a Star Destroyer tractor beam.

But that's neither here nor there. The storage facility consists of a fenced in area with barbed wire fencing, camera security, a small front office, and seven large three-floor air-conditioned storage units. The front gate has a keypad to enter an access code, or you can call to the front office to have them open it... If anyone is there when you arrive. The flickering sign, however, reads that there's no available units to rent at the moment. Odd, usually they're advertising stupid things like the first three months free or referral programs.

Either way, your last chance to figure out who hired Dorn is in that storage facility. You just have to get there. Surely, breaking into a place like this wouldn't be difficult at all, right?

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Dominic is back and still wearing his Denver Disguise: A brown, slightly beatup leather jacket, a black t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, along with a ballcap on his head. He's got the diamond-bladed katana he stole a few months ago on his back too, completing that Street Samurai look he was trying to go for in order to fit in around here.

He's putting on a pair of gloves, too, since there's no sense in leaving fingerprints behind at the scene of a potential break-in. As he slips the gloves onto his hands, he remarks, "I am willing to keep a watch out to quietly subdue any guards that could be patrolling. That seems like the most opportune use of my particular skillset. Or posing as a bodyguard, something to that effect."

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle, in a dark hoodie, tights, and soft-soled shoes - why she has such a shady almost ninjaesque getup is either plainly obvious or wildly out of character - looks around, nodding to Dominic while adjusting her glasses - now on an althetic loop around the back.

    "Soan, Lyria, can you crack the keypad? Otherwise we can force the fence. Dominic, keep watch out and hit anyone who spots us with silence and sleep effects. I didn't have time to get a full network in this area because of all the heat Darth Vader brought in - so we're pretty much on our own. Since we know what building we want, my suggestion is to hit the two containers next to them too, to throw the heat off of our intended target. A little vandalism, a little looting, and it'll look like we were a bunch of hooligans or thieves, and not people looking for information. Leave the obvious clues for the law, mmm? It'll give us better odds of our investigation evading detection. Radio if you see any Imperials, too, we don't want surprises. Our chance of a stealth operation drops to unreasonable levels with Imperial involvement."

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
"This isn't a happy valley at all!"

Dorotea misses the wide outdoors, away from big cities although, admittedly, occasionally infested with monsters. The one thing this place does not have is wilderness. She's been in Ramuh long enough to tolerate big cities, but at least Ramuh has (in some regions) clean air, with the reasonably pleasant smell you get after a storm.

Here? Not so much.

Dorotea is wearing her own disguise, which is 'her usual clothes under a long coat', which she is also sweltering in. It's already warmer around here than she likes, and the only long coat she could find in a hurry was a winter coat - and it's summer. Her face is a little red and sweaty and she hasn't even started running around yet. She is really hoping the air conditioning is running in there.

"Just so long as we do it," Dorotea says. She doesn't know much about breaking and entering; she's only good at the first part, though to her credit she's /really/ good at that part.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard is kitted out as normal. Breastplate leatherjacket, giant wooden bundle on his back, backpack, GRAPPLE GUN, and shield. He is also wearing a baklava over his face and sunglasses. Because if he's going to be bad at this, he might as well be bad the right way. "So uh. Just tell me when to stand in front of something big... I guess?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Hooligans and thieves and looting, huh? Sounds fun." Kyra grins beneath her own hoodie-which is /not/ the usual moogle hoodie she wears. Hers is a nondescript dark blue and she wears equally nodescript jeans and boots. The CURE-ALL is nowhere in sight but her body is still puffy-looking, indicating that she's still carrying her gear underneath that hoodie.

    Her hunting rifle is in her hands, ready to be used sooner than later if needed.

    "I'll be sticking with Dominic and providing you both backup." she says to Mirielle before turning away, "Mirielle's got the right idea but I'm going to add another one-don't go off anywhere alone. If Vader shows up, get away, do not engage him, do not one on one."

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason has bene thankfully studying extraversal tech in regards to her own intrest and this is going to be hopefully usedful.

"I should be able to crack it with Soan."

She nods to Miurielle and seems confident but she's not acting as cocky as she normally is about a lot of things. Vaders' done a very good job in smacking some of that out of her.

"Shouldn't take too long ig we got some cover."

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle glances at Ellard. "Do you think I'm actually useful at this? I have /people/ for this kind of stuff, usually. Nice mask, by the way." She deadpans at the fighter. "You two have, in fact, the best job. Once Soan and Lyria do their magic, everyone has a part to play. We may have to do a little 'interrogating' if our container is a bust. These 'nice folks' were paying our mark for the privelege of holding his stuff, so they're accomplices at worst, and we may be able to pump them for information best case. And when you're 'conducting negotiations', I find someone big and scary is quite helpful. A sort of 'bad fencer, terrifying fencer' strategy." She elucidates coldly.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan has made a full recovery from his mangled, broken leg. It was a pain, a long few days, but he made out of it more or less af if nothing happened. He has Kyra to thanks for setting the bone right while he healed himself, it's not easy to set your own limbs back together to fuse them again. The Thief is wearing a different costume this time around: a coat that follows down to his knees, keeping close along with a short hat over his head. The fake 'datalink' implant over the base of his neck still hangs there, now with more carefully hidden duct tape!

     "Not a lot in this city is really 'happy' looking. Or a valley, at all." Soan muses, having returned from a brief stalk out around the area. "I've looked around. There's some weird party store down the street," He points down the street. It got neon that's barely hanging on to life, "And we could make our way through the abandoned strip mall, but, that'd either require explosives, or searching for another way in."

     He gives the assembled Light Warriors and Friends, giving them a smile. "Alright, can do. Lyria, I'll disable the alarms and feed it back, so it don't trigger -- and realizes it's being tripped." The Thief says, taking out his electronic tools toward the point, watching out for cameras -- and disabling them first from his interfacing.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard grimaces behind his baklava. He holds up his hands. He's wearing black leather gloves. "Okay. But don't make me punch them while they sit in a chair or anything. I'll try to be menacing, though." He reaches back, grabbing the tower shield from his back.

He has Armor Mastery, so the -10 AP doesn't apply.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea Grahn doesn't believe in shields. Or armour. She has gauntlets and boots; those are as much as she needs.

"Sure," she says, slightly more at home. Moving heavy objects she both understands and is good at. And hey, if they want to more obviously bust into one of the /other/ rooms, she can do that, too.

She does not look quite as menacing as Ellard by default, though.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
The keypad has seen better days. The casing itself looks like it's been hit with a baseball bat a few times, and takes a little effort to force open. The internal systems are quickly hotwired, and with a loud rolling noise, the front gate rolls open with the sound of old engines roaring to life. Probably could have used a little oil or something, but oh well.

There is no response fron the front office. Either any security in there is dead asleep, just dead, absent, or something else entirely.

The way is open. Now all you have to do is cross the broken up pavement between the buildings to get to the area you want.

You /do/ know which building has what you need, right?

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason is going to back up Soan, while she knows her way around electonics? She also knows Soan is one of the best theives in the school. So with both them it should be a thing. She gets a few tools out of a pocket on her vest. She'll get to work with Soan and making sure there's no other systems.

"I'll ride shotgun and make sure there's no other tricks waiting for us. They tend to be pretty paranoid on this world."

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle looks at the opening gate, hearing the noise and wincing, a dark look crossing her face as she looks up to the sky, then scans the horizon, then looks to Soan. "Well that may mean we're blown."

    But, surprisingly... Nothing.

    "Soan, you know where we're going. Take Ellard and Dorotea, and crack the storage container with what we need. Kyra, Dominic, Lyria, front office. They're /asleep/ if they didn't hear that, and I don't see any guards. If Lyria can pull their records and access their computers, we can see if there's anything worth taking. I'll go with Soan and disable anyone that we find over there. Does that work for everyone?"

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
When the gate rolls open, Dominic lifts his head a bit. Louder than he would have liked, but that's unavoidable. He looks around the group and says, "If you're planning to touch anything, wipe down your fingerprints or put on gloves," He says to the others, pointing at his hands, "Don't leave prints. We're all in trouble if we get flagged as being here," He adds, putting his hands into his coat.

Mirielle has the good gameplan, clearly experienced in break-ins and light thievery. Then again, this doesn't surprise Dominic at all, "Right, I'm on it," He puts his hands into his coat pockets and starts to slowly trudge over to the front office to inspect for signs of life, or perhaps just for a peek to see how easy to break in it would be. He's making sure to keep track of where he's going and where Kyra is in relation to him, to avoid her potential lines of fire.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea Grahn stops quiet contemplation about the possibility of using Blue Magic to cool herself down a little. (She has decided that it would be difficult.)

"Okay," Dorotea says, somewhat taken aback by Mirielle being able to plan criminal activity so well. Maybe she has experience. Or maybe she's just guessing, which is what Dorotea would be doing in this situation.

She starts to move as if she was going to pound a fist into her opposite open palm, but stops herself at the last moment to avoid that particular kind of noise. Dorotea shoves her hands in her pockets instead, looking vaguely guilty.

Dorotea, as it turns out, does not know which storage unit it is. Fortunately, she has Soan for that. She's pretty light on her feet for someone wearing metal boots.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard shrugs. He doesn't clank a lot, at least, and he's worked with Soan before, so he knows what's up. He adjusts his baklava so he looks extra stealthy, surveying the area, he then nods over to Dorotea. He walks on the other side of Soan, putting his tower shield on his other arm. This sounds pretty easy, at least. There's no one here, no one he's going to have to beat the tar out of. He likes not beating the tar out of people.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason says "Its a solid plan. If things get deep sized I got Remora near by if we need some heavier firepower too. Give the word and I'll call him in."

She thinks the plan is solid as she said she's got no questions she's ready to go anf follow Mirielle's plan it's a good one and she calls in wth Dominic, and Kyra. She also passes a glue grenade to Kyra and one to Dominic if they will take it.

"Here a less lethal option. Most of the people working here likely are just here for the pay check and don't quite know they got."

OR maybe Lyria just doesn't want a body count? Who knows She'll make her move with the group for the Office while keeping an eye out for traps or notable security measures.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Mirielle, Ellard and Dorotea accompany Soan, who swiftly scouts ahead. The only thing breaking the noise of distant traffic and the gunfire and screaming from similarly distant low-income housing is the snap and crackle of barely-functional neon signage.

Their goal is the seventh building, all the way in the back. Of course. It's like some asshole level designer set up this scenario or something.

Meanwhile, the others head to the front office. The office door is glass, the signage reading CLOSED on it. A set of tacky blinds keeps people from casually seeing into the building, but a faint glimmer of light can be seen between the slats. The door is locked. Presumably, the cameras will feed into a security system either here or offsite, but who knows who or what is maintaining guard here. If anyone. No one came out and no alarms seem to be sounded, so the mystery remains... For now.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra frowns. "...something seems off. Why haven't we seen any outside patrols yet? Unless they don't do that here. But I somehow don't think..." she trails off as she follows after Dominic, keeping to his diagonal left.

    He won't have to worry about line of fire at least. She wouldn't shoot with him downrange but it's good that he's mindful. She herself keeps an eye out for any other movement or signs of functioning surviellance equipment.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Mirielle is taking full control of the heist, if it can be called that. The security's a joke, the alarms are also similarly hillarious, not much defenses. Soan don't particularly mind. She's not giving bad orders and advices, anyway. He leads them down the area, searching on.

     "We're looking for 'Site 77'." The Thief explains as he leads the split party along, quietly and covertly, just in case there IS people. "So it's either a lot numbered 77, or something related to it."

     This is going well so far. Too well, actually. His senses tingles when things go far too well. Not stressed -- just... aware. It'd be a nice change of pace after the few other operations in Denver. "Should be this way."

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"I agree," Dominic says to Kyra as he peers at the building, "But the only way we can know what's going on in there is to try to pick the door lock, then we risk getting caught anyway," Dominic mulls the point over before deciding to ask for advice.
Dominic puts two fingers to his ears and activates a short-range radio for everyone in the mission, "At the front office," He quietly murmurs, "No activity. Suspiciously quiet. Lights on. Do we enter?" Dominic asks to Mirielle, not wanting to go too far off plan.

He declines the Glue grenade from Lyra, "No thanks. I've got sleep blade if I need to put anyone down for the count, among a few other non-lethal options." He advises to her, "Keep it for yourself if you need it."

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
"77, okay. 77." Dorotea repeats it so she doesn't forget it. Fortunately it's a short number. (Just try her on phone numbers.)

Dorotea speeds up once she actually thinks she knows where she's going. She tries not to get far ahead, but she's definitely moving to the front of the small group, because - well, she's tough, and if you bring muscle you usually want them to deal with problems from the front.

This means stairs again. Dorotea sighs to herself when she realizes that. Hopefully these ones aren't electrified. She checks before she steps on them. Admittedly, she checks by poking the stair with the toe of her boot, but that is still technically checking.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard slows his steps, moving not quite so fast. He turns his head back, watching the group move out of site, then around at the area. It's quiet. Bleak. No plant life. No animals. No people. Ellard's eyes glaze over briefly as he stops entirely, then starts moving forward again, pumping his arms a little harder. There are no Nightmare Golems here, nothing to worry about. He takes a deep breath, doing what he always does with his fear, his misgivings. He stuffs them down and puts on a grin. This is pretty cool. Like an action movie. Except they aren't driving a car away from the sheriff.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason nods at Dominic refusal of the grenade she had honestly forgot about his sleep blade spell. She pockets the weapon and heads on out with the rest of hier group. She looks at this place and she doesn't like how well this is going. It feels like a trap almost.

"This is too easy, no one in my family likes it when something goes /this/ well. I smell a set up."

She's gong to look about trying to spot any movement or other things of note.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle isn't 'taking charge' and more coordinating with the others to create an optimal scenario. With this sort of group, it generally boils down to 'telling people to do things they were already going to do and helping out with guiding groups and keeping skillsets straight.

    She gets Dominic's message, bringing her phone to her ear. "Use your best judgement, Dominic. That's why you've got two out of three disablers. If Lyria can plug in outside, that's fine too, but you're the expert." She replies, before turning back to Ellard, Dorotea, and Soan. "Seventy-seven."

    She plugs in a headset to her phone, putting the earbud into her ear and pocketing the device. "Stay on the line. We're coming up on the container - 77. It's at the end of the line, so it'll take us... At least a minute to reposition to you if something bad happens. I'll ask Soan."

    She turns to Soan. "Front office is potentially occupied, light's on. No resistance. Want them to breach it?" She asks, checking Soan's advice.

    On the 'too easy', she simply shrugs. "Don't get spooked. You should always expect problems. Soan, check for booby traps - bombs, firetraps, the like. Is there roof access or ventilation?"

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Team Soan gets to the rear building. The door is locked with a cardkey of some kind, but the cheap security is no barrier to Soan, who bypasses it with a little bit of work. There is no apparent roof access to the buildings, no external stairs.

The building interior is very cool, and well lit. The entry hall has number of interspersed vertical-opening doors, each one locked with a keypad-keycard combination to the left of the door, the windows in the halls providing an inviting view of the doors from outside. The first floor has 33 such units, while to one side they can see an elevator and stairwell that will take them to the second or third floors. Unit 77 is on the third floor, and like the others, locked. Nothing is jumping out at them. They are not being stopped by security. There are no alarms.

So why is the atmosphere thick enough to cut it with a knife?

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan waves a hand at Mirielle. "I know. That just makes me on edge more to be more careful when I don't see anything." The Thief says, manuvering the party through. "No, there's no roof access, ventillation's actually sensible. Tell Dominic to breach in, but if there's people in there, disable before they can do anything. Try to find another way in that's not the obvious door. If no option aviable, be careful. The guy had shotgun traps ready when I breached his apartment."

     As he leads the gang inside, the painful quietness get further killed by soan as they reach Unit 77. The Thief's hair stands on end as he stares at the door, giving it a close over, peering at cracks, the edge of the door and seemingly invisible things. "This is trapped." He states, crouching down to spot things. "Probably from the inside."

     He looks around. "I can get at it. Another option's opening an /non/ trapped door and go through the wall." He says, pointedly looking at Dorotea and Ellard. "But that'll get us /REAL/ loud."

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
The floor fails to electrify. No turrets flip out. It's way too peaceful, but Dorotea is more grateful than worried.

Dorotea goes up the stairs without slowing down. She heads toward 77 and is in fact one step away from reaching out and just grabbing the door to see whether it's locked when Soan stops her; she refrains from approaching it any closer than she already has been, letting him do his thief magic.

"I dunno, that plan's pretty simple," Dorotea says, which means it's probably got her vote. "Or maybe you can try to open it, and if that doesn't work, /then/ we can punch a wall down?"

Berserkers, man.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard shrugs. "I didn't bring anything sharp with me." He looks at his shield, then lets out a deep sigh. "Alright, open the door." He starts moving down the hallway away from the door, gauging the angle of where he is to the door, and presumably the wall besides it. "This is going to be loud." He backs up a little bit further. "Oh yea, and make sure you get out of the way quick." He keeps backing up further.

Then he starts running at the door, hoping to burst through it and the wall just as Soan gets it open, shield out in front of him. His steps are thunderous in the hallway, and his bellow is not quite.

"BEAT! DOOOOOOOOOWN!"

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Upon getting a clear signal from Mirielle, Dominic's next action is pretty simple: "Cover me in case this sets something off. I'm going to breach the door," He warns to Kyra and Lyria.

Then, drawing the katana off his back, he swipes at the door frame a few quick times. Rather than open the door, or breach or, or try to unlock it? He's cutting the middle of the door out, leaving about an inch around the frame so that all the locks, hinges, and outer rim of the door is untouched. They can slip in through the hole.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason gets the warning about the door breach. She makes her self ready for what might come. She watches Dominic quite creative lock picking be put to use and she'll slip through the hole as soon as Dominic has passed through. She's also got one of her grenaes in hand just incase. She's going to have to recall that trick for later if she ever needs to do something like this again.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Soan opens door 76 for Ellard and Dorotea, or that's the idea.

That's when Dorotea, too, bursts into action.

She lets Ellard take first swing, because she's building up momentum. She has shoved the sleeves of her coat up to reveal her metal gauntlets, and as soon as Ellard swings, she leaps past him in a flying punch against the wall. "CRACKDOOOWN!"

If nothing else, they're currently two of a kind.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
The office door is pierced through and precisely sliced with Dominic's fencing techniques. The glass falls out of the door along with the crossbar, and hit the floor, The glass breaks of course, but if no one was called up from the office at the gate opening, why would anyone think this would?

The front office itself is a plain and decrepit affair with dusty plastic plants and a faded, outdated wall calendar. There's a junky, old terminal on the counter, likely for handling records and accounts, and there is a tinny noise of what sounds like a baseball game playing in the background over a radio. The noise and light seems to be coming from a room labeled SECURITY.

The Security room is a small affair with a bank of cheap CCTV monitors, a comfy-looking swivelchair, and an old radio. The floor is littered with trash and junk, magazines of dubious nature and virtue lying crumpled on the floor. There seems to be a low wheezing noise that can be heard too. Maybe the security guard is a /really/ deep sleeper?

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra waits until Dominic clears the hole he made in the security office before following in after him. She waits until he gives an all-clear and not a shout or yelp in pain that would have signaled some kind of trap going off.

    Slowly, she moves into the office and switches on a rifle-mounted flashlight just in case. She doesn't say anything out loud, reserving her observations on the messiness of this place to the radio. It lets people hear that wheezing noise that...

    ...snoring? It doesn't quite register as snoring to Kyra, especially since all that glass breaking should have woken this guy up. Quietly, she motions to Dominic in the direction of the wheezing.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
STORAGE TEAM:

The group smashes into Unit 76 with epic impacts, the metal door ripping off of its rails. The first thing Ellard notices is that the room happens to be full of plastic cases of some kind, matte black and with locks on each one. They kind of look like-

CRASH! Ellard has no time to react as Dorotea slams into the wall with him, crushing a hole into the wall in question and causing a thick layer of cement dust to billow through the area. From here, Soan and Mirielle can see the small electric eye that was set up inside the unit, as well as the computer terminal with a small humming data storage unit attatched to it.

Once your clear off the dust, it appears that the screen shows that the system had recently performed an automated backup recently. Even more odd is that the system appears to already be logged in, waiting for an interaction of some kind.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
The low, wheezing noise immediately has Dominic on guard. There's no way that HE could be here, could he? It was impossible! There were no security leaks this time.

He moves slowly, in careful and deliberate steps across the floor as he holds up the katana in his hands, taking a skilled stance with it as he moves, "Miss Mason, please check out the computer for what you can take off of it," He says firmly.

He, himself, starts trying to creep his way from room to room and find the source of that godawful wheezing.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason gets in with the others as they find no response to the breaking glass. That leaves her even more on ege now as they press in. She hears the sound it does sound liek snoring, she is now making quitely for the terminal but wait that wheezing? What in the gods name? Was he laying in wait for them.

"I'm on it."

She creeps for the PC and is going to see what she can do to get into it without tripping any arms and looking for the information they need.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard hammers into the wall with Dorotea, staggering out into the room as he KOOLAID MANS through cement, his shield making a god awful noise as it plows through. He peers out over his shield, looking over it carefully. Then he slides it back and away so he can see more fully what is going on. He's okay with computers, but not able to HACK THEM or anything. He waves Dorotea forward, brushing off his shoulder. "You guard Soan in this room." He jerks his head back towards the room with the boxes. "I'm going to make sure those aren't filled with... I don't know, evil bees or something."

He moves up carefully on a plastic box.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea Grahn pounds through a wall via flying punch, yelling (but as quietly as she can manage) while she does it. It crunches; she lands, skidding to a stop on the other side of the wall.

She dusts dust off herself, nose wrinkling as she tries not to breathe concrete dust. "I bet they have weapons," she says, helpfully, to Ellard. "They look weapon-y." She has no real proof of that.

Dorotea steps further into the room, but just a little. She should not be trusted to use computers, and lets someone else handle that part; instead she looks around otherwise, making sure nobody (or nothing) is hiding in there.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     If he had a berserker and a warrior on hand each time he went to get something inside somewhere they aren't supposed to be, Soan would... probably be a very poor thief, admittedly. In this case, it proves to be effective.

     Soan steps inside as the dust settles, giving a quick glance around the two rooms. The plastic boxes are interesting, sure. What gets him more is what lies inside the 77. Ellard said he'll check the boxes in question. Going through the wall proves to be the correct choice. "Good job, you two, by the way." The Thief says, specific to not say any names as he steps inside, getting in front of the computer unit. He sits down, taking out an electric reader, fumble to find an appropriate plug, checks for fail-safe mechanisms on the computer and it's surroundings.

     This includes the power supply.

     Once he his satisfied, he let Mirielle to go mess with it.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle holds her hand in front of her nose almost demurely as the two biggest members of the 'Light' Warriors of Breaking and Entering break through the wall between 76 and 77.

    She gestures to Soan, even as he's already casing the room for traps, and then the computer. When all is clear, she steps over the rubble of the wall, and towards the computer. "Well, I'm no machinist, but..." She repeats, looking at the electronic eye, holding a hand to her earpiece. "Dominic. I've got an internal camera. Can you have Lyria check if this feed is CCTV or outgoing? We may have met our patron. If it's CCTV, cut the line and wipe it. Leave it alone if it's outgoing."

    She looks to Soan, Ellard, and Dorotea, as she settles in by the computer. "Toss the place, check for traps, and get to looting. Stay within sight of each other at all times." She notes, before typing an initial query, getting use to...

    To computers that aren't magic. S-she should be fine, right?

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
OFFICE TEAM:

The only thing that could be making that noise is whoever is sitting in the chair in the Security room, Dominic. What do you do about it?

Lyria, meanwhile, begins cracking a mom and pop-grade computer terminal. It's full of boring account information. Albert Doan /is/ listed as having an account, however, as well as it mentioning the room was requested with an active Matrix connection.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
STORAGE TEAM: ELLARD meanwhile begins looking at the plastic storage boxes. They're locked. Is Ellard going to get Soan to help jimmy them open or is he going to use his own special brand of lockpick?

Mirielle begins typing on the computer. The OS seems usable enough, and it looks like it's a storage serer that holds all of Albert's records. Given the location, it probably involves records he doesn't want other people to see. What is she going to look for?

Dorotea, in the meantime, keeps an eye out. Things are kind of boring. Amidst the view over the area, In the distance, an orange light flicks on a little above her eye level. It doesn't look like a street lamp or neon. It's probably nothing.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"Miss Mason. Please check if there's a security feed in Locker 77. If there is, wipe it and cut it. If there's not, please tell me," Dominic says in a hushed whisper before looking to Kyra. He points at himself, then at the chair, then at her and her gun. He wants her to cover him while he investigates.

Slowly, he moves towards the source of the noise in the chair, trying to carefully creep around said chair to peek at what could be making such a noise without waking it up. He wants to gauge threat level before he responds, but he wants Kyra ready to tranq dart whatever this is if it's hostile and wakes up.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
They are plastic boxes. Ellard has a fifty pound solid piece of steel. Ellard puts his foot on one storage box to make sure it stays in place and swings downward with the tower shield to break off the lock. He doesn't even need to scream anything!

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra shuts off the flashlight on her rifle and slowly moves around to the other side of Dominic, positioning herself so she and Dominic have the person in the chair trapped in a pincer attack. She lifts her gun up, ready and poised just in case she needs to unload the tranquilizer darts into a squirming, hostile body.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
OFFICE TEAM:

Lyria finds that the computer she's on isn't connected to the security system. She'll want to look at the systems in the Security room.

Like where Dominic is, who looks around the chair carefully.

There is a man sitting in the chair, dressed in rumpled rent-a-cop blues. He looks middle-aged, with a raspy five'o'clock shadow on his chin. He smells of cheap beer and despair.

He's definately the source of the wheezing noise, as Dominic finds that the man's eyes are open and glassy, his breath shallow and wheezing out of a long cut in his throat, wherein blood had begun to coagulate on the front of his clothing.

Despair. Blood. It smells pretty similar.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea poked around a little and then started to keep watch. She actually isn't too bored by it; she's gone hunting before, and hunting involves /way/ more waiting around than this (unless you do it the way she prefers to, which involves more chasing down monsters and wrestling them).

She sees something out the window, but frankly there are so many lights in the city it barely registers at first. By the time Dorotea realizes it might be something, it's been there for a few moments. She squints, trying to make it out. Is it a torch? A signal? Or just reflection off something?

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
STORAGE TEAM:

Ellard chooses to FORCE THE LOCK. He breaks the locks off of the first container he sees, and what greets him is a pile of bubble-wrapped assault rifles.

Yeah, Dorotea was right. There's goddamn guns in here.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
DOROTEA:

Dorotea's squinting makes out a little more detail: It looks kind of like a segmented orange ring of some kind of varying thicknesses. It looks kind of techy. The ring is surrounding some object she can't quite make out.

The segments of the ring begin to change color to purple.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason is looking through the PC, she's trying to not make too much of a mess here. She takes a moment to look over the information that she finds. Humm Albert does have an account but he asked for a matrix connection she keeps digging for information. She does however speak up over the comm.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
Soan could helped picklocking. His more refined methodes would've made short work out of the boxes. Ellard's own ways are very effective, considering what they are inside.

No, instead, Soan is using his jailbroken recording equipment to take photos, videos(with his recognition software to disort the features of his fellows if they somehow get in te frame), gathering information in the local and where they are. When the boxes get opened, Soan go to see them, eyes widening. "Well, well, well," He mumbles, peering at the bubble-packaged weapons. "Would you look at that? Guns. Can you identify what sort of--"

     Soan stops, dead in his tracks as Dorotea speaks on the radio. He hurries up to where the tall Shivan is, looking around. "What is? What is going purple?" He asks, while spotting the thing. Perhaps his Thief eyes will have a better idea.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle starts working the keyboard, pulling out a notebook and taking notes of any stored data she can access about his rolodex of contacts, personal notes, and recently accessed files. Thanks to her shorthand, she's not slowed terribly down, but it is slow going copying over screns of data. If there's anything like electronic contracts or bills of sale in the system, locations of further dumps...

    The mission was to get the details to backtrace this guy's involvement in hiring the goonsquad that started the Shiva war.

    Perhaps there was some references to Galianda here? That would be the smoking gun.

    Speaking of smoking guns...

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Dominic calls for a medic and Kyra pushes closer to the man that Dominic now stands in front of in the chair. Her green eyes widen as the realization of where that wheezing noise came from strikes her-no wonder it didn't sound like snoring. She drops her rifle, which dangles in front of her due to the strap she's wearing over the shoulder, and immediately moves to the dying security guard. A hand clamps down over the wound, dried blood smeared over the palm of her hand.

    Magic rushes into her fingers, which shimmer white for a brief second before shifting green. The white magic that had just been flowing into the wound suddenly reverses, flowing back into Kyra-and then some. "Wait...no...no no no..." A panicked look overcomes Kyra's face as she realizes a little too late that her magic did the exact opposite of what she had wanted.

    DRAIN

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard reaches down and grabs up one of the assault rifles.

EQUIP > ASSAULT RIFLE

He hmms. These are pretty ridiculous. And lethal. He tilts the gun back and forth, then grimaces as he hears the radio. Dammit. He can't do a thing though. He is considering tossing it back into the container when he hears the radio.

Ellard plunges his hand into the box and pulls out a clip. With practiced ease, he slams the clip into the assault rifle and rushes into the room, shield forward. "BACK UP!"

The warrior slams his heels down, puts his shield out as cover, braces the assault rifle against the shield, and opens fire in short accurate bursts out the window.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"He's down," Dominic says in a distracted tone. He turns away from Kyra, leaving her to do her medic thing as he takes stock of the area. He looks around at the windows and the building, as if checking for explosives or trippable security measures that would let whoever it is know they were in the office.

"Pack up. Take what you can, wipe what you can't, get ready to go," He says to Lyria as she works at the computer. Beyond that, he leaves her to work, not wanting to interfere in the area where she has more skill than him.

Of course, trying to cover all the bases, means he didn't spot Kyra until well into the Drain effect, most likely. He can generally tell by her body language and facial expression that she's having another hit of Wild Magic. He would normally do something comforting and soft, but he's in mission mode.

So instead, he tries to grab her wrist and pull it off the man's throat if he can, "Let's go. We need to move." He says to her urgently.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
OFFICE GROUP: Kyra attempts to save a man on the brink of death, but it seems that she cannot even rely on her own power. It, too, betrays her in her time of need. With a surge of Black power, the scraps of the man's life are drained away, accelerating his death by approximately 1-3 minutes or so, varying on prognosis of blood loss and lack of oxygen.

STORAGE GROUP: The interdiction is detected. Ellard decides to fire back at the distant target, but range and concealment penalties are a bitch. Did he hit whoever it was? Can you even see them? It's hard to tell without some kind of way to deal with those issues. At least Ellard has that shield. Surely it'll hold against anything that can get thrown at it, right?

Inside the storage unit, Mirielle begins researching. Some quick checks pull up an audio log of a phone conversation that is tagged with some odd metadata: 'Galianda', 'Space Russians', and 'Independant Contracting'.

DOAN: All right, so tell me the details. I need to know what you want before I can get it for you.

???: I need a group. Tough. The less human-looking the better.

DOAN: Okay, whatever you want. What am I going to tell them the job is?

???: Smash and grab. Call it a territory dispute. Tell them they're going to be fighting in a very cold area. We will provide transport once they reach the Warpgate. Tell them the people are... like your Russians.

DOAN: Russians? I'm gonna charge you extra for this. Russians are crazy.

???: More than you know. Your monetary needs will be met.

DOAN: Fine. Have the money wired to my account. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mister

        CALL
        > JUDGEMENT BOLT

The air splits, the night lightning up light day as a massive blast of electricity erupts from the location of the ring (Building 1, Rooftop), shearing directly through the air, pointed at Unit 77. Metal melts, glass shatters.

The computer is not on a surge protector.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra inadvertantly murders a man she was trying to save. She freezes up where she stands, unmoving until Dominic grabs her by the wrist and pulls her off. By then it's far too late, the last tiny bit of lifeforce the guard had remaining pulled into Kyra. She can feel it and it makes her sick.

    Now looking quite listless, she allows herself to be pulled along by Dominic before she starts to move on her own volition. Tears drip down Kyra's cheeks as she does.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    E-electricity?!

    Mirielle smells the ozone, and as things get really bad, she realizes that she's surrounded by tanks but none of these jokers would save the data. From the electricity! Electricity is bad, but she has just the spell!

    Extending her hand at the computer, she incants loudly.

    "Che... Can't be helped. BarThunder!" She announces.

    The spell surrounds the CPU, stopping the flow of dangerous electricity to it.

    Dangerous.
    Electricity.

    ... Mirielle isn't used to computers that don't work on magic.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea points it out. "See, purple," she says. She has no idea what it is. It's a ring, a -

A gun?

Dorotea's response to possible gun is to prepare to shoot something back at it, rather like Ellard. Unlike Ellard, she doesn't use a weapon to do it; she gathers her energy, flickering blue for a moment. She brings her hands up in front of her body, making some particularly mechanical gestures. It looks ridiculous.

A goddamn missile flies out of Dorotea's hands as the blue energies are released in eight distinct diamonds radiating around her. It flies off at the ring, though she's not sure how well she aimed it, and she immediately throws herself to the ground. Hopefully someone else is getting the computer; she sure isn't!

Also, throwing herself to the ground might not work, but at least she's not the one wearing all-metal armour.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason is going to try to do what she can to trace the connection now. The protocalls for the infromation network on this world are a bit strange. Even for the various worlds which have tech in some form or another. she has to do what she can can do to get the information. Well anyt inform that can help right? She's unable to do what she can with the wounded man she doesnt wuite know but he likely beyond the potions she's carrying with her. For now she works on downloading end with the connection.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Despite the urgency of the situation, Dominic's grip does lighten a bit on Kyra and switch to a hand on her back instead of a hand around her wrist. He gently tries to rub the center of her back in a reassuring fashion, patting her a couple times. He knows this is gonna be something hard for her. He remembers how it hit him when he took a like in a justified setting, this was way harder on someone than even that, "Hang in there. Just a bit longer, Kyra," He says to her quietly, trying to do what he can to keep her stable.

Ellard Asha (766) has posed:
Ellard continues firing. Short burst, realign. Short burst. Realign. Short burst. He concentrates on getting bullets out the window. He isn't worried about hitting his target, just scaring the gunner away.

Only it doesn't work. Lightning forks through the air. Not just lightning, a called lightning. Power of Ramuh itself. The lightning of wisdom, of judgment.

One hand sweeps back, hurling the rifle away to the side of the room. The other hand brings the tower shield forward, pushing it towards the window. Ellard keeps his hand against the tower shield's metal rim and both feet on the floor.

Dorotea leaps away, leaving Ellard the only one to tank the blast of lightning. If he were a Knight, he could save the entire building. If he weren't afraid of... he could parry the blast. Instead, he puts his will into it, letting the massive blast roil against his tower shield, into his bones, down into the core of his skeleton, like one big lightning rod.

The pain is everywhere. He howls, eyes, mouth, his body glowing like one of those cartoon X-Ray moments with blue fire.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan don't know of any rifles that do like this. It does, however, QUITE PLAINLY looked like one. His first instinct, pushing down the initial desire to scramble, is to tell /others/ to scramble. "GET DOWN! IT'S A RIFLE!"

     Soan, instead of obeying his own advice, rushed back just as the lightning came out. It's not a regular rifle, it's probably something far more devastating. Ends up, he was right! He didn't expect LIGHTNING.

     The Thief rushes back inside, sizing up the entire room up as he charges for anything plugged, or placed on the walls. Not heeding or bothering to look at Mirielle, Soan lunges out at the various electronics out that are in clear danger. Lightning courses through metal, which is what most of this is MADE of, the door will not help. He's wearing grounded boots, but against this much power, it probably wont help very much.

     Soan's hands blurrs as he unplug, takes out and pockets anything electronics into his mysteriously high-containing coat. It wont, however, safe them like this. The boots WILL help, but he'd need to /FLY/ or something to--

     Soan blinks, once, in this brief moment of total clarity that while he cannot fly, he can...

    
     DRAGOON ARTS -> DOUBLE JUMP
    

     Soan leaps. It is one of the Mile-Long Strides he's used two. Rather, it is the causal trick of giving the biggest finger to Air Magic by gaining a good distance up then, against everything, leaping up against while keeping some pretty damn good air without touching the surfaces.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle doesn't have broad healing powers - her effects tend towards Green and Black magic rather than White. Kyra is the medic of the group! She doesn't really have many good ways to fix the problem of Ellard becoming a human lightning rod, especially to an effect like Judgement Bolt.

    Instead, she recasts BarThunder to negate any thunder-based DoT's Judgement Bolt may have left, and then follows it up with Bravery to bolster him and cut down the pain.

    "Ellard, we need to leave. Dorotea, Ellard, if you can grab the guns, we can still complete all our objectives! I'll protect you with Shell and Reflect while we run! Grab as much as you can."

    But the guns are slag.

    Double che. "Nevermind. Grab anything that doesn't--... Full retreat. Dorotea, help Ellard out. I'll cover you. Make for the airship."

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Today is not Kyra's day.

Then again, it's not a lot of people's days. Mirielle quickly reacts to the incipient blast of electrical pain by casting BarThunder. This is a reasonably great idea, except now the computer tower is insulated from its own power. It promptly shuts off. This, at least, makes it safer for Soan to stuff the tower in his coat and bail, even as Ellard sacrifices himself to tank the initial blast.

And a few seconds is what he buys, as the wash of the lightning melts the guns and their containers, blowing out the front of the building and setting off car alarms for miles.

Dorotea retaliates with Blue Magic, firing the Missile at the the unknown assailant. The impact of the Missile results in an explosion of magical power, throwing the assailant back. They are visible now, a tall male adult clothed in form-fitting black clothing, with a polarised faceplate. No skin is visible, nor does the blast breach the suit. They are wounded, however, as he falls back and holds up a hand.

A humming single-man fast-movement flyer sweeps up and he flips onto it, trying to escape the area at high speed.

The make of the craft is Galiandan.

Mirielle keeps people moving in the wake of the aftermath of the shot.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea Grahn pops back up as soon as the electric blast has passed.

This is partially a mistake, because she's half-deaf and covered with shrapnel. She is glad for her coat now because it means not all of it hit her, but the winter coat is shredded and torn and is pretty much a write-off.

But it /does/ mean she gets to see the fleeing man. Dorotea, slightly wobbly, considers firing another missile. But she doesn't. She stares at him instead, trying to determine anything about him and his craft that she can - a Scan, an invaluable talent for any Blue Mage who's trying to pick up new skills from strange monsters.

Dorotea doesn't try to chase herself, though. She practically grabs Ellard - goodness, she's strong - and practically levers him up to help him out. She can in fact literally carry him if she has to, so retreat is not a problem, once she gets him settled.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     By some miracle, everything survives. There is singed eyebrows, people blasted apart by the improbably strong Lightning that's been summoned from a /GUN/. His jumping buys at least the continued existence of the electronics they stole. Sadly, not as much for the rest of the loot they wanted to carry out. The Thief lands back down, staring with some awe the sheer amount of destruction caused by the Call.

     For about a split moment.

     "Hold that for me." He says, plainly, stipping off his jacket (and leaving him with a skin-tight shirt beneath, showing the tell-tale signs of a Mesh Armor beneath), not waiting to see if she don't crumble beneath it, then dashes out. As he does, a long wire follows him out of his coat, ploping out of one of his pocket ending in a large metal bulb.

     Soan leaps straight out of the corridor into the wide blasted out area, grabbing on the melting rails as he leaps off them. It's a pretty prodigious leap, the young Thief swinging the long chain to grab out at an still standing wall. The bulb splits open like a maw of metal, grabbing into concrete and giving him further grabbing. He then shoots himself out further.

     Then he mumbles.

 % "FLOAT!"

     His boots glows, snapping his heels together, creating an etherial platform beneath him as he slingshots himself out of the building, shooting straight like a bullet after the fleeing vehicle. Soan calculated this. He probably wont be able to stop him, or even capture him. What he /can/ do, is grab some things out of his person.

     Or leave something. Like a tracker.

     Whatever the case, a thief is shooting out of a blasted out building, a long pseudo-grappling hook spinning around him as he gain speed.

     Float gives no tractions. It also makes it hard to stop /saftely/ when it's started.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Now would be a nice time to just break down and cry, wouldn't it?

    But given the urgency of the situation, Kyra doesn't have time for that. It's only Dominic's herding that really keeps her going as they quickly leave the security shack and now-corpse of the guard behind. She's moving now, with Dominic's help, and at the very least trying not to be a burden as they move to escape.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Owing to the mission objective shifting to 'Get the hell out of here', Dominic is focusing most of his attention on helping to herd Kyra out of the area and towards a rendevous point. Lyria is left to handle her own set of affairs, being far less in need of immediate guidance.

He does stop to listen to a couple radio transmissions that come in over his private band, trying to turn and watch the escaping ship as he leads Kyra.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason gets all the data and traces she can. There's nothing she dan do for the dead she doesn't know till she catches up with the other's readlly. She looks to Kyra with a sympathic look on her face and mvoes to get moving with her two friends. She's done her cleaning up and it's time to go.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
In the Security Room, Lyria, meanwhile, manages to get access to the CCTV recording systems. It's weird hacking next to a corpse. She can delete or copy the information as she likes, or control the cameras.

Dorotea scans the man and the flyer. The flyer is an unmarked magitech flyer. Several companies in Galianda make variants. Yes, one of them is the Murasame Zaibatsu. They're popular for short distance trips, mainly because they have few safety options for longer journeys. The man...

    Lv. ?? UNKNOWN ASSAILANT

    Race: Hume (Ramuhan)
    Jobs: Caller/Mechanist

Soan gets ap ractical demonstration of this fact as he bullets himself towards the unknown man. With a sweeping motion, there is a flash of light as the strange ringed rifle assembles itself in mid-air before the main, and MP visibly pours into the weapon. As it does so, the segmented ring changes color to a bright... Blue.

        CALL
        > DIAMOND DUST

There is an explosion of light as he fires, the air before him instantly freezing in an expanding spray as the Dragoon's grappling hook is caught up in it... And perhaps Soan himself.

The ice hangs there like a brilliant crystalline flower for several moments... And the man turns away, snapping a finger. The sound resonates through the air as the ice explodes, dealing heavy ice damage to everything and everyone caught in the blast. This might be an opportunity for Kyra to regain some confidence in her healing abilities, because Soan and Ellard probably need it pretty badly now.

The unknown man then continues to fly off. Sirens begin to be heard. The massive conflagaration seems to have tripped a whole lot of alarms in a very jumpy Sixth World Denver.

Later on, when they finally get a chance to look over the computer again, they can listen to the end of the recording.

"... Mister Greaves."

Dominic's record search will turn up the man immediately: Dmitri Greaves, Caller/Machinist.

Head of RAIJIN, the Murasame Zaibatsu's internal security division. Some say that RAIJIN has been involved in shadier dealings in the past... And could this be one example of them? What could someone do with this information?

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle lacks anything that she's willing to use to address this problem. Instead, she has her hands full. Literally - she has Soan's coat! With Dorotea, she's escaping to the ship, angling to link up with the rest of the group. As it stands, this now what she can do.

    "Dominic! Is Kyra ok?" She calls, slightly worried.

    But, if they can get to their suspiciously (for students) heavily armed LAAT Gunship, even the local police won't stop them. And with two people down... This wasn't optimal at all.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Not a terribly useful Scan but not a useless one either. Dorotea wasn't expecting much; honestly, she was too far away to see very much. If she had been closer...!

More of her attention is on giving Soan a quick warning (too late, as it turns out) and lugging Ellard, who is giving her trouble - not because he's too heavy for her to lift, but because he's a good half foot taller than her. Feet may be dragged while she makes it out with Mirielle.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     This was a pretty good plan, at first. Go in, fly like a maniac, try to reach for the guy.

     Unfortunately, with the momentum he's going at, with the speed and THAT asshole seeing him come by some ungodly miracle, this leaves little space for Soan to perform an emergency dodging manuvers. His eyes widen at the blue gathering, the Call manifesting right before him. The plan of getting a tracker hin, or stealing his pants off goes straight out of the window when you have a Called Second Divine manifesting it's fury right before you.

     As the icicles blasts into him like a supernatural cold shotgun, Soan's abdnormaly strong sense of smell register things, as he clearly can't really do anything else except scream, and take breaths in. As he speeds away, plummeting from his momentum and the blast of the attack, the scent of the man gets engraved in his brain.

     Sweat. Machine Oil. Ozone. Cologne. Smells like almonds. Heavily. Far too much.

     "Disgusting." Soan mutters to himself, meteoring into the party shot up t he street. The second floor does not survives impact.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason is going to pull off all the data she can, and remove any trace of them having been here. She'll go over the data in full later. She sadly looks at the dead guard but ther's nothing she can do for him. He's on his way to whatever gods have claim over him.. Hopefully she's able to do once wshe's got things clearne up? She also makes sure to tap the camers to send data to an cloud site for later pick up. She also sets up a self termination program to that will trigger after several hours. Before she goes to catch up with the others.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Hey if the mission objective has changed to 'GTFO', Kyra can easily comply with THAT one. She doesn't move listlessly when the heat is suddenly on, running alongside Dominic now with ease. She still looks pretty upset and in no mood to chat about anything but she's not immobile with sobs. After a long time of uncomfortable bouncing aro(und, she even takes up her rifle again and runs with it properly.

    "I'll manage." she eventually says quietly as she swings herself up onto their (NAME PENDING) LAAT Gunship.