Paint Shopping

Primer

You've been called by Silk to a meeting in her study by her usual means: (A) She calls Sam and makes an appointment through Marcus, and (B) Kass yells down the hall, "Alllllly! Sam is coming over and we are going on a run! Get a drink and come down for a meeeeeeeeting!" Settling back into the big chair, Kass goes over the information for the run, tenting her fingers and waiting.

Johny would actually take the call himself, and be happy to come over. He's not reclusive so much as he has just tried to not be up in Kass and Ally's face or show up unannounced. He's trying, in his way, to give the new couple space and time to do what couples do.

Ally can't be late a meeting when it's in her own place, can she? "Commmming Kassie," she calls from the kitchen as she's in the middle of making one of her trademark smoothies. When she comes in with two huge glasses of them, she looks about and then smiles at the lady called Silk. "What we gonna do?"

Bribing the fixer already. It's a sad world we live in, but Kass accepts it and takes the smoothie with a smile, "As soon as Sam gets here, we are going to talk about stealing some paint. I think the base needs a new coat of it, and we're going to need a heck of a lot to get it done. That means we've gotta go get it from someplace other than the local paint store."

"Stealing some paint, huh?" Ally asks as she sips her smoothie contemplatively. "Seems like this will be a high-risk job. Armor-piercing rounds…full elemental complement…wish that military had come in…"

"Smart Alec!" Kass grins and shakes her head, "I *think* the three of us should be able to do it. If not, there is something sadly wrong with us and we may want to seriously look into that retirement plan."

Johny pulls up in front of the house then, looking somewhat grim. Just his usual bearing, one supposes. A leather jacket wards off the bitter cold of Denver's 33 degree spring day. What the fuck is up with that?

When the house alerts its mistresses that Johny has arrived a signal is set to automatically unlock the front door, the mechanisms swinging it open silently. Lucky looks out quizzically at Johny and then heads back inside.

Ally chuckles at Kassie and then ooohs when the house announces that Johny has arrived. She smiles when Lucky automatically goes to see the guest in. "Well we'll have a good go of it, I'm sure."

He doesn't stop at the front door, just heading on inside. He takes a moment to hang up his jacket, followed by the distinct thunks of two pistols being placed on the hall table. Gently, so not to scratch, but audible all the same.

Making sure that Sam's favorite scotch is poured as well as having coffee on hand, Kass returns to the Big Chair and waits for the man, nodding to Aladriel. "We'd better. The fate of the colour of our walls depends on this. Otherwise, we'll have to shop sales and that never works out well, plus, people are pushy at those." She snickers and sorts her data out, waiting.

"The fate of the paint color is in our hands," Ally repeats solemnly, trying to keep a straight face and succeeding for about ten seconds before she bursts into a fit of giggles.

Johny enters on that fit of giggles. "It's like having two teen aged daughters." He says simply. You know, one daughter who's like a daughter, one daughter who's like that naughty, naughty step daughter from all the movies?

"Ha!" Kass grins, waving Sam to a seat and shaking her head, "Good thing we got dressed then, otherwise it'd be like a really bad trideo show. The exasperated dad, the half naked nubiles running around? Sit, sit, time for work." Kass schools her expression, the smile fading as she gets ready to do work.

Yeah. Just like that. Sam chuckles, moving to take the coffee, but leaving the scotch untouched. "Work work work work. S'all I ever get from you. Never 'Hey Johny, come over, we want to have hot three way awesome sex'. No no, it's always 'johny, we need to steal something' or 'Johny, we need to kill someone' or 'Johny, we need to take over a third world nation.'".

"Oh that'd be too much," Ally laughs at Kassie's suggestion, smiling warmly at Johny. "How are you, Mr. Sam? We have booze and coffee and…well, not so much left of smoothie, but I didnt' think you'd want one anyhow."

Rolling her eyes, Kass starts, "Our target today is Schwalbach Industrial Products."

paintfactory.jpg

She clicks a button on the desk and the screen comes up with an image of the industrial park, showing it from above and at an angle, probably taken via helicopter or unmanned drone.

"Schwalbach Industrial Products is the rebrand of Krylon, which broke away from Sherwin Williams in 2043. SCHIP has been known to use questionable practices in testing their products, though everything sold seems to check out. SCHIP has been under investigation for problems with releasing toxins into underground water supplies as well as excess carbon emissions.

Our objective is to liberate enough product for our base and get away scott free."

Johny quirks an eyebrow. "I rather like the final point there. Scott free. I wonder what Irish free is like, or perhaps Welsh free."

Ally ooohs with interest as she hears the preliminaries about the company in question. "Well…that's not a very nice thing for them to allegedly be doing. So I won't be feeling too bad about taking some of their paint, nope."

Kass mutters at Johny, "Stop it, I'll lose my place!" She ahems, clicking on icons and pulling up a travel map, "This particular facility is located in Sterling, Colorado, which is just a hop up Highway 75. It is one of those lovely places that manages to straddle those pesky international borders, although the majority of the town .. and the site we are after, lies in the UCAS rather than Sioux Nation."

The facility map comes up again, switching to various modes and showing time lapse movement around the facility. "Security is not incredibly high, because, well, it's a paint factory for God's sake, but there is more than one might imagine. I had some people take a look and there is definite drone activity there as well as patrols of humanoids, some four legged creatures, some light wards."

Johny nods slowly. "Chems always get some guarding, simply for the propensity of druggies to wander in and try and huff a vat of krylon blue."

"Droneeees!" Ally groans, running a hand through her hair before tugging on the strands. "I hate the person who came up with drones. They're like…argh!" She mutters darkly and then hops up and goes around the desk to scribble something down. "Going to learn a spell to do something about those stupid things."

Base Coat

"Looks like we have combined forces, fences, big lights, that sort of thing to contend with. We'll need to get a truck, as well, either taking one in or leaving with one, because we'd look silly running off with buckets of paint." Kass grins at Ally scribbling notes, "Questions, comments, and so forth?"

Johny nods, forming his thoughts… "Any matrix interlinking of security measures, Who contracts for local physical security, who's the on site security manager, Who holds their police-response contract…" A pause. "And did you do something new with your hair?"

Kass reflexively touches her hair, then shakes her head. "There is a matrix connection but I am not certain how deep it goes into their security. Doors? Probably. Can you override the drones? Probably not."

"On site physical security is held by the Rocky Mountain Security Services, established in 2060. On site security manager is," she checks her notes, "Evan Nickles. Local police contract is Sterling Steel Security, a local contractor for the town of Sterling."

"Each question more useful than the last," Ally suggests with a quirk of a smile towards Johny. She then hrms a little bit, trying to do her thinking. "I dunno. I'm not used to something like this. Seems like it might make sense to try to do it when they're sending out shipments…so our truck or whatever wouldn't look out of place.."

Johny nods. "Thats my thought. We use the matrix to insert a legit looking order, then hijack it from the address we send it to."

Kass watches the other two, offering a smile of encouragement to Ally, "That's why we're doing this: practice. We've gotta get better at what we are doing, as a sub team to the main team and so forth. I figure, while this is somewhat dangerous, it is less dangerous than trying to practice by kicking in the doors to the Ares R&D facility."

"Yeah. Ares has the bullets rather than the paintballs," Ally points out with a glum expression. She looks to Sam, then. "Well….good. You have to do that part because I may as well tell them we're coming to steal paint if I try to use the computer. I can….mm, make us look like other people, sound like other people…all that good stuff."

Johny nods. "This is a soft target, Ally, good for practice." He says simply, looking back to Kassandra. "Matrix operations within the scope of this exercise?"

Kass nods to Johny, "However we want to pull it off. It's pretty much our show for our base, no outside contractor for this, so whatever we feel comfortable doing" She smiles to Ally, "We'll all do our part, never fear. If nothing else, Ally, you can drive the getaway truck!"

"Oooh, drive a getaway truck? Do they work just like the cars, cause I'm getting a better hang of that." Hmmming a little bit, Aladriel stands up and waves a hand over herself. What was pants and vest and all now becomes overalls with a white t-shirt and various colored streaks on it. It looks more like markers than paint, however. "Could go in like this?" she asks with a wink. Yes, trying to look like a painter.

Johny raises an eyebrow, looking to Ally. "Oh come on, no teasing an old man." He says, sipping his coffee. "Putting in a false buy order with a rush shipment won't take much. I can do that in about a half minute on the matrix."

"Where did you want to deliver it to?" Kass watches Ally work magic, grinning at the 'painter' outfit, "You need to be more gloppy with paint, love, it tends to spread." She indicates a few spots, "Make those places bigger, like you spilled a sundae and let it drip."

Ally chuckles at Sam and then gives Kass a look as she explains how the costume can be improved better. She hmmphs a little bit, "You make it sound like it's *easy* to do this! Silly elf 'oooh just make it like a sundae spilled' she says," the mage goes on.

Johny chuckles quietly. "Any of a hundred unused warehouses will do. Company like that will use drone vehicles to do standard industrial delivery."

A Small Spill

Kass rolls her eyes, "Mages, you have to lead them by the hand, I swear." She looks around a moment and spies her smoothie, hefting the glass. She points at Aladriel, "You, girl, watch." She pours the drink on her shirt in various place, "Like this!" Kass blinks a few times, then sets the glass down. "Cold!" She rushes from the room, "Keep going, just talk loud!"

Johny blinks.

Kind of just staring at Kass as she spills both her delicious smoothie and then down her nice clean shirt, Ally just tsks and shakes her head. "And she says *I'm* weird," she tells Sam with a small shake of her head. "Okay. So we're going to have a drone delivery truck take our fake shipment to a warehouse that doesn't exist. So…I suppose we should start there and see what roadblocks you hit so we can plan whats next?"

Johny blinks again.

"I'm sorry. Johny is not here right now. He's still trying to figure out why Kassandra made with a wet tee-shirt in front of him."

Kass's voice comes from down the hall, growing louder as she reappears, pulling a clean shirt into place, "It was an example!" She shakes her head with mock sadness, "And I have to explain my examples. What am I going to do with her?" She wanders by and flops back into the chair. "Ok. So we have you zip into the trix, make with the plans, the truck with nine thousand gallons of baby pink shows up at a warehouse, we get it and go home? It sounds so easy!"

Johny blinks then, looking to Kassandra as she comes back in.

"So we just wait for you to make with your magic, then we pick up the truck and drive away?" Kass leans back in the chair, "Sounds like a breeze to me. We should do all our crimes this way."

Johny comments. "With a face, a decker and a mage, theres almost no direct combat that can't be avoided."

No combat!?" Ally asks, pretending to be rather alarmed at that. "You're saying I got the ladies all lined up for nothing?" she asks, raising her clenched right fist. She sighs and gently opens her hand. "Fine. Fine. So do you start here, then, or do we need to go somewhere or…?"

Johny shakes his head. "I have a satellite uplink. I can deck from anywhere."

Kass grins at Ally, "We are the 'what if' contingency. If he sends it somewhere and there happens to be a Great Dragon there, or if the company randomly tracks it, or if there is a gang war, whatever. Otherwise .. should be like taking candy away from a baby. Which isn't actually all that easy. That is a stupid saying." Kass shakes her head.

"Well get to it then!" Ally tells Johny with a little laugh before she regards Kassie with a little nod. "Great Dragon…wow. That'd be neat…ask a dragon to borrow our paint…"

Johny stands up, to move out to the car. "I'll be right back with my deck. Can I get a refill on the coffee?" He asks… "Maybe some eggs and cheese? Decking makes me hungry for solid food, and this meeting is terribly early in the day."

Kass bounces up, "Coffee refill, eggs and cheese." She stops, looking Ally over critically, "Two eggs and cheeses." She starts off to the kitchen to do her own little work, the intel portion over.

Paint It Black

Sam asks to use his old office. From there, he patches in to the old secure line he has stored there. Maybe he forgot to tell Kassandra about it, but when she's doing the intel work he just sort of walks in, unlatches a book case, lets it slide to the side and plugs in to a red port in the wall. "Don't mind me." He says, moving over to the couch.

Aladriel lingers about a little bit just because she's interested about decking. She truly knows precious little about the practice. So she watches Sam do what he does while trying to amuse herself…by playing with the dogs on the floor.

Kass is running back and forth between the kitchen and the office, busily cooking and bringing drinks. She hms at the moving book case, the red port, shaking her head and adding it to the list of things about the house she didn't know.

Johny uses the deck's external mode for a few minutes, setting himself on the right servers, ghosting across local RTG's. "I'm going to route my visual feed to the trideo, so you can see what I'm doing, if your interested, Ally. See what the matrix looks like to me."

Kass moves back through, setting a fresh cup of coffee down near Johny, but far enough away he can't accidentally hit it in a dumpshock induced spasm. "No porn," she admonishes, rushing back to the kitchen.

"All my porn is text based anyway." Says Sam as he settles down on the couch, one hand peeling back a bit of realskinn on his right arm, to insert the datajack.

Ally lays on the floor and coaxes Lucy and Rollie to lay beside her so she can take her time showing affection to both animals while Johny does his cybersleuthing.

Green-5/14/15/11/13/14
5 - Tar Baby-7
9 - Bod Crippler-7 with Sparky-5
13 - Killer-7 Expert Offense
19 - Tar Pit-7 Shield
24 - Passive Alert
28 - Blaster-7
32 - Active Alert
37 - Scout-7 Expert Defense
43 - Masking Crippler-5 Cascading
48 - Killer-7
54 - Black Non-Lethal-5

The trid screen goes from blank, silent static, to what seems like a headlong plunge down a waterfall of disembodied sound, sight and sensation, a screaming face turning itself inside out through the mouth. It stabilizes slowly in to what looks like an old Flatvid screen. On the screen, a heroic scene. A flight of B-17 Bombers on a green field in England, low rolling hills and high tech weaponry.

Standing in front of one bomber (labeled the Confederate Railroad, painted with a steam locomotive flying the stars and bars) is Sam. He's got a sort of grizzled war veteran look to him. Next to him are two airmen who walk with him to the plane. "Agent A."

"Sir!"

"Rear guns. Watch my ass."

"Sir yes sir!"

"Agent Z"

"Sir!"

"Navigation. Get me where I need to be."

"Sir yes sir!"

Johny slides in to the pilots seat now, flipping switches as the engines come to life with a deafening roar. Sliding a head set on, the engines come down to a dull roar. "Alright! This ones for god, country and little Mary Sue back in Saint Lewis! This ones for America, for England and for the Gipper! Lets get this mission done, then get back home so we can get back to those English floozies in the officers club!"
With that, the plane starts to rumble down the dirt highway, clawing for the air.

«Plot» Johny says, " Logon to host. Deception program 8 vs Access 14, TN is 6."

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 10 vs TN 6 for "Logon to
Host": 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 8 9 9 10 = 4 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 5 vs TN 12 for "Green-5 Host says, "I hate you."":
1 2 3 3 9 = 0 Successes

The plane makes its way in to the air. "Navigation reporting sir, come about to sector G, dog leg turn, north by northwest for 60 seconds." Reports the Navigator.

"Very good." Says Johny then, looking to his dials and gauges, then peering out the window as he wings his way across the host.

«Plot» Johny says, " Analyze host. Analyze vs Control. I am looking for the possibility of other deckers currently in the system."

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 10 vs TN 9 for "Analyze of 6. I need to upgrade this program. Control of 15.":
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 5 5 11 11 = 2 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 5 vs TN 12 for "Green-5 Host says, "Detecting activity??"":
2 3 4 5 10 = 0 Successes

There is almost no activity here. The system is on stand-by, with no alerts being registered at this time.

Johny settles back down in to his seat then, putting the plane on auto pilot while he looks at the map now. "Airspeed!"

"180 knots sir."

"Wind direction?"

"North by northwest, steady at 15 knots sir."

"Good… Now, if we fly through the pass here, over Luftberginspisterin…. Then course back along the west…"

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 vs TN 3 for "Browse is 8, index is 11.":
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 8 8 = 12 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 5 vs TN 12 for "Green-5 Host says, "Detecting activity??"":
1 1 5 5 11 = 0 Successes

The bomber levels off, engines going to conservation mode. "Alright! We've located the target! We're going to make a pass over it to check for enemy aircraft and defenses!"

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 vs TN 7 for "Files vs Analize, checking for databombs, worms, other sorts of nasty defenses.":
1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 8 10 = 2 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 - 2 vs TN 7 for "Files vs Analize, checking for databombs, worms, other sorts of nasty defenses. KP 1/46":
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 9 = 1 Success

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 - 3 vs TN 7 for "Files vs Analize, checking for databombs, worms, other sorts of nasty defenses. KP 3/46":
1 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 8 = 1 Success

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 2 for "Mystery":
2 5

«OOC» Kassandra says, "There does not seem to be anything in the realm you are detecting for. It is as clean as a nun."

Johny opens the bomb bay doors. "Prepare to deploy weapons. The Nazis are sleeping." The plane banks dramatically, loosing altitude to come down to bomb level. Slowly, carefully, the plane comes over the target now…

«Plot» Johny says, " Edit file. Read/write vs files."

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 vs TN 4 for "Read/Write of 8 vs Files of 13, edit file":
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 9 9 11 17 = 11 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 5 vs TN 12 for "Green-5 Host says, "Detecting activity??"":
2 3 4 5 5 = 0 Successes

Now, falling like rain, hundred pound bombs slam in to the city of Luftberginspisterin, bringing fire, devastation and ruin in their wake. The city doesn't seem to blow up though, with the areas the bombs hit quickly rebuilding, just slightly different. One house has a different colored roof, one house has a new porch. One guy's only got half a house.

"Alright. Set a course for home, we've made the bombing run and hit the target directly. Return to base."

«Plot» Johny says, " Graceful Log off, Deception vs Access. Access is 14"

«Auto-Judge[]» Johny (#799) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 11 vs TN 6 for "Loging out":
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 5 8 10 10 10 = 4 Successes

«Auto-Judge[]» Kassandra (#9777) rolls 5 vs TN 12 for "Green-5 Host says, "Detecting activity??"":
1 2 3 3 4 = 0 Successes

Letting It Dry

A short time later, the plane touches down with an iconic sound of bouncing, skidding tires and engines powering down. Theres a parade, some cheering, and then the screen goes blank. The datajack pops out, and Sam opens his eyes. The entire run took about… 20 seconds.

Kass comes back into the room, carrying two plates carefully on a tray with silverware, napkins, condiments. She sets the tray between Ally and Sam, looking curiously to him as the screen is dark, "Done already?" She tosses a treat to Rollie and Lucy, grinning as they sit up and snatch them out of the air. "Lint brush on the next trip, love, you're covered in hair."

Johny nods. "Yeah. The orders inserted." He says, rubbing his eyes. "This is always the worst part. Shifting between stimulus formats. Makes me itch."

Hmming, Kass shakes her head, "I think we have some allergy meds around here somewhere?" She chuckles and heads to get her own plate, returning with another tray laden down with juices and coffee; nothing fancy, although nice, she isn't serving out of any sort of expensive serving vessel. This looks like something from the local big box store: sturdy, cheap, easily replaceable or left behind in a hurry.

*Just* having settled in to enjoy time with the dogs, Ally looks pretty surprised when Sam comes back to alertness and consciousness. "You're *done* already? You like didn't even do anything! How'd you do that?" she demands.

Johny glances to Ally. "You didn't see the little world war two docudrama?" He gestures to the Trid screen. "I'll have you know that was not as easy as I made it look."

Setting down the tray, Kass appropriates one of the glasses that looks to have at least four colours swirling around in it as well as her plate of food. She considers the expensive desk and then moves to sit on the floor, shaking her head at Rollie, "Mine." She snickers at the exchange between Sam and Ally, "So. Easy or not it is done, and we can go get it and then .. damn. Painting."

"No, I was looking at the dogs! I didn't think you were going to be done so fast!" Ally tells Sam with a little furrow of her brows. She hops to her feet and grins at Kass making sure Rollie know what's what, and, most importantly, who's who.

Johny chuckles quietly. "Well, Ally. Decking is somewhat of a speed issue. I could have gone -faster- if I really wanted to push it. But I saw no need."

Kass laments between bites, "It took me days to get all that data together and he just zipped through and got the paint ordered in less time than it took me to cook breakfast." She shakes her head, "I am in the wrong business. So. Did you order any pink?" The elven girl snickers, shaking her head.

Ally just shakes her head at Johny, "That's like….really impressive. So you ordered the thing…do we have to do anything now?" she wonders, "Or are we pretty much…just go pick it up?"

Johny shrugs. "provided all goes according to plan… we go pick it up, move it and call it a day."

Kass remarks, "Scary, no? We just boosted thousands of nuyen worth of product *and* had a good breakfast. That, my friends, is what this job should be. All that hiding and getting shot at is fun, but this? A job well done without having to get hurt."

"It's *fun* getting shot at?" Ally asks Kassie quietly, her cheeks paling just a little bit. "It's…maybe exciting and all, but I dunno if I'd say it was FUN!"

Johny reaches for his eggs and cheese now, scooping some in to his mouth with the fork. "Hey, look. If we wanted to be professional criminals, this team right here, you, me, the other you? We could write our own ticket. Your magic, Kass's interface and my back end. Nothing we couldn't do." A pause to swallow. "But meh. Whats the fun in being insanely rich?"

Ally literally starts to see dollar signs, and mentally returns to their piggie bank / rainy day fund. Kassandra will know exactly what the mage is thinking.

"Alright, not *fun*, but certainly exciting? It gets the adrenaline rushing, sort of like when .." She trails off with a faint blush and shifts gears quickly. One might even imagine hearing things grind to a halt in her brain and change directions. Kass nods to Johny, "Well, affording good eggs is always a good thing about being insanely rich. And why is your back end always part of this? You and your butt, I swear!"

Johny smirks, setting his plate aside. "Hey, my back end is just as good as your interface, kiddo."

Kass laughs, draining her weird juice concoction. "Still, that went off pretty well. I have some .. clients, or soon to be clients, that wanted me to look into that place as well. Seems they have offended a few people, so .. two birds, one stone, so to speak."

Ally ooohs with interest at that, "So maybe we'll be revisiting this place, then? Well…at least Mr. Matrix here will know his way around that neck of the woods, hm?" Finally standing up, Ally goes near Kass to peer and get an idea at what the elf was drinking.

Johny nods to Ally. "I can go back in in a few hours and set up a few user accounts on their server. It's only a Comsys Protocol-5… really bottom basement stuff. They probably rent server space on someone else's host"

"Oh, we'll be going back definitely. The person I'm speaking with about a job wants all sorts of things, many of which aren't really realistic, but at the very least there may be a short hop inside. These SCHIP folks are .. not nice." Kass shows Ally the glass, "Pineapple, orange juice, kiwi, and lime. It's .. odd, but not too bad. It needs something tho."

April 27, 2009

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