Dissent in the Ranks

GM: Pith
Players: Dalton, Aeden, Renegade, Raggedy Annie, Pepper
Synopsis: Dissent leaves the team two members down with only days to go!
Date: September 23rd 2070


We find our heroes at a room rented by the hour for all the worst reasons. A seedy room in the Crank. There's nowhere you'd ever want to sit down and even walking across the floor makes you feel a little dirtier as it seems to suck at the soles of your shoes. But it is cheap and the screaming of the neighbors and the sound of bedposts slamming against the walls from the other room cover any conversation you might have.

Renegade arrives at the clank just a tick before the scheduled meet. She comes unarmed and in regular street clothes as per normal standards since the Crank is such a swanky place. Yeah. That sounds good. The dirt doesn't seem to immediately bother here, as it's just another room. Once she sits plops down on the loveseat, a cloud of dust 'poofs' up into the air and seems to sprinkle back down to take its place on the floor. Its seat has been stolen.

Pepper has been scoping out the place for a while, in her ruth cloak. She stands in an out of the way corner, watching people show up to the meet.

Dalton stands in the room, he never stayed in the crank, and there are obvious reasons why. He crosses his arms as he watches the other runners. "So, we have a few basic ideas of what to do, I'd like to know what everyone thinks of them. We ambush these people at thier homes the night before, best if we do it in small teams, in case of trouble. Second option, I spend the day implanting suggestions that after work they want to get something to eat, and send them somewhere we can ambush them. Its least likely to work, but also gives us the least exposure. Or third, I cause a storm around the apartments, drive off all the bystanders, and we hit them in thier van. Thats really risky because if they have comm gear, it only takes a second to get out a message. Anyone with any other ideas, let me know."

Rags is there before anyone else … maybe she lives nearby? "Heya, Ren", she says to Renegade as the woman enters. "Careful with that chair it's….", she starts, then Renegade creates a dust-cloud. "… dirty…", she finishes, waving a hand in front of her face to try to fan dust away before she breathes it in… and goes over to open a window.

"The night before's a bad idea", Rags says. "They hafta do their day of work, or red flags go up, and we get extra scrutiny when we get scanned… I think we hit 'em after they do their work that day, so there's less chance of anyone noticing anything wierd."

"Oh." Renegade says simply in response. Once the dust settles on her, she pats it off her white sweater. "I will be hitting my target at home in several hours." The dust doesn't seem to want to immediately come off.

Pepper removes the cloak before coming in, satisfied that no one is following. She steps into the room and locks the door behind her. Listening to Dalton, she says, "I'm not some mushy girly girl, but if we let them work all day, that's a lot of kids who won't grow up to become parents. That's pretty fucked up."

"Better than red flags going up…", Rags says to Pepper. The, turning to Renegade, "which is exactly what'll happen if someone doesn't show up to work in the morning, like she's supposed to, by the way."

Dalton nods "Yes, but if we hit them the night before, we show up and do the work. I have the medical knowledge to get by, and I'm hoping a few others here has some medical skills." He looks to Renegade "I'm sorry, is that your vote on what we do, or just what your doing?" He turns to Pepper "If we show up though, how do we know the chemicals we are given arent already tainted?"

Pepper stares at Renegade for a hard moment and then says, "You're telling us what you're going to do, rather than suggesting a plan for the group to have a say in?"

Aeden is familiar with the Crank as a meeting place, as his gun dealer always calls his meets here. Just down the hall… this room is new, though. He sets up the usual sweep with the vehicle… this time with aerial cover of his rotor drone. All of it's being piped in trhough his deck and into his image link, so should he need to do a quick jump out into the vehicle, he can. He walks in to see the others already planning.

"That would be correct." Rene says ambivalently. "Sticking together poses a greater risk in something like this." After being satisfied that she's no longer dusty, she rests on her hands on her lap, now choosing to lean back in the chair.

"If you ain't gonna be part of the /team/, you ain't part of the team, and we'll let Mister Shakes know you opted out", Rags says, pointing to the door. "Get out."

Pepper humphs softly, rolling her head as though trying to pop her neck, her hands going to her hips as she activates her wired reflexes. She's ready when Rags makes her comment, looking tense and twitchy.

Dalton holds a hand up "Calm down now ladies, lets just take a moment to sort this out. Rene has an opinion that sticking together is risky, I'm not sure we all agree with that though. I think if we split up into small teams, we can take out all the targets in one night, safely and discreetly."

Aeden blinks at the scene he's stumbled into. "Uh… I'll jus' figure out what's goin' on 'fore I start t' toss out ideas," he offers, finding the cleanest section of wall to lean up against. He doesn't trust the seats here.

Renegade says, "I was assigned to do a run." That's really all she feels to say about that, if the other runners don't like it, they can leave. "One or two people missing from the roster in the morning won't draw attention and will make your position easier later in the day if you choose your latter plan." She's still perfectly calm.

Dalton nods "I'm assuming we take out all of them, since unless your an actual doctor, you wont be able to carry on an conversation with one. Are you a doctor Rene?"

"I procured a chip this last week for a simsense medical background. I know enough to hold a proper conversation, yes." Renegade responds.

"Even one person missing when the workday starts, with no call-in, gets noticed by a corp. It'll draw extra scrutiny, which is what we don't want. Either it's a team action, or you're going at it alone and risking the job the rest of us are trying to do", Rags says. "This hasta be planned out so we work together, or it /ain't/ gonna work."

Pepper glances very briefly at Dalton and says in a voice that's both calm and very dangerous all at the same time, her natural irish accent sneaking in, "I don't have a problem with ideas. I have a problem with someone not making their plans part of the group decision." Her fingers drum on her hips as she says, "Such thinkin' makes one a liability. A liability that could get me killed." She stares hard at Renegade, "Do y'understan' wot I be sayin'?"

Aeden just watches, much like if the discussion were a tennis match. He still hasn't caught onto what's being said enough to offer his own input on anything.

Dalton shakes his head "We can't start fighting between ourselves or nothing will get accomplished. We have to make decisions as a team, and all of us agree on them, or at least a majority vote."

Renegade says nothing immediately, not really acknowledging Pepper's statement. After a short pause she suggests, "I can subdue the target and take her place to make sure your mental suggestions go unnoticed. If something goes wrong, I can comm the rest of the group."

"That's what I'm saying", adds Rags to Dalton. To Renegade, she asks, "You sure the rest of that team won't know that you ain't /their/ missing teammate? They're all, supposedly, Humanis folk who're working together to do this thing."

Dalton shakes his head "They are not familiar with each other, at least they are not supposed to be, they may know each other. So its a risk, I vote we all take everyone out and replace them ourselves. We show up to work, we do the days work, and then we get our IDs setup."

"I have a polymorphic mask. That will allow me to take the target's visual identity." Renegade adds constructively. There are a bunch of little gadgets she has/

"I've… read up on basic first aid stuff, but I don't think I can give shots all day long. I really think letting these folk do their work all day and taking 'me out /after/ is a better idea. Less chance that something wierd will be noticed. What if someone tries to call one of 'em on the phone during the day, when they're supposed to be able to answer? What if they hafta check in? Or receive supplies part-way through the day?", Rags wonders, leaning her butt against the sill of the window she's next to. "Heck… all /kinda/ things could happen during the day that'd blow our covers if we try to do their job for 'em all day long."

Pepper reaches behind her back in one quick, fluid motion, almost drawing something out from between her back and the armored vest, stopping short at Dalton's comment of not fighting. She eyes Renegade hard and then relaxes her hand back to her hip. "I disagree. I think hitting the individual targets is too much of a risk. It's five times the risk for no increased reward. It's better to hit them all at once. Maybe a spirit? Bring on a storm and fog, we walk in, take them out all at once. No one will be the wiser. If we do it right as they show up noone will be there and we can save some kids."

Pepper nods at Rags, "That's a good point as well. Helping the kids is good, but taking them out after the work is safer."

Dalton looks to Aeden "Whats your vote on the matter, take out the targets before the days work, or after?"

"You don't think it's possible that these people will just ignore the storm and keep giving vaccines?" Renegade responds ambivalently again. At least she was trying to be constructive at one point.

"I really hate that the kids'll get messed up… but we gotta make sure our /job/ gets done right, too", Rags says to Pepper with a nod of her head. "I vote we take 'em out /after/ the days' work, 'cause there's less chance of any kinda red flag being raised."

Aeden finally begins to follow what's going on. "So… yer mask'll keep theri buddies from hearin' a different voice, match their handwritin', an' any other number'a things that'll screw us over," he says. "Side's, if we got a way t'make 'em wanna meet up later, why not jus'… make 'em think that it's too risky t' use th' drugs that day?"

Dalton nods to Aeden "I guess I could make one of them drop the sterilaztion drugs, spill it all over the place."

"However we do it, we gotta make it not draw attention to /us/ later, when we try to pose as them at the scan-in", Rags says. "But I like that idea, really… if we can keep those kids from getting the shots, too, it's a win."

"Also," the dwarf says, "Point of interest? Waitin' til after means we'd hafta hit 'em on th' drive… cause we gotta have their IDs when they get back t' their headquarters. There's a crazy small time t' hit 'em after th' shots're given out."

Dalton nods "Alright, how about this for a start. We pick one of the targets, and I go read thier mind, find out if they know who the others are at all, what thier plans are for the day, how they plan to go about the sterilizations."

«OOC» Aeden is basically saying, we have their drive from the place they're giving out the shots until they get back to headquarters. We'd have to 1) hit them while they're packing up (crazy public), 2) on the drive (this is a docwagon transport. Those things are armored as hell), or 3) hit them in the parkinglot outside of headquarters.
«OOC» Raggedy Annie says, "alternative: let them get back to HQ… and leave HQ and go meet up someplace else (via implanted suggestion?)… and we hit 'em /then/."
«OOC» Dalton says, "Depends on thier route, if they go through a low security area, we can hit them there."
«OOC» Raggedy Annie says, "off-duty, they don't have a DW transport vehicle, or their DW gear…. and they won't be expected for scan-in until the… hey… when /do/ they get the scan-in at which we're supposed to replace them?"
«OOC» Pith says, "Aeden it's a slightly modified SRT that they have pulling the trailer, which is their basic van/ambulance. Not much armor."
«OOC» Pepper says, "the problem is that if the van/ambulance doesn't make it back safely, we're fucked"
«OOC» Aeden says, "The whole point of this… is for us to masquerade as them. To go to their HQ (a place they've never been seen before), and get physicals. The new physicals (which match our vitals, not theirs), will be used for our fake SINs. We canNOT wait until after."
«OOC» Pepper says, "the best time is before they go to work or while they're on the job"
«OOC» Renegade thinks it's funny how everyone is making imaginary things that could go wrong.
«OOC» Raggedy Annie says, "so… we /wanna/ take 'em out and replace 'em BEFORE they get to HQ for the first time."
«OOC» Renegade says, "No one has really done any legwork on their schedule, checkpoints, if they know each other, etc."
«OOC» Pepper says, "are you volunteering?"
«OOC» Aeden says, "We were given all that."
«OOC» Renegade says, "I could do it. Yep."
«OOC» Renegade says, "We were give a lot of information, yes."
«OOC» Pith says, "They are aware of eachother and have worked together in the past at different times. So they would have a fairly good chance of recognizing an imposter (more so if it was a meta posing as a human)."

"We just… needa keep 'em from scanning in /at all/ at their HQ, right? This means we hafta hit 'em before that day, actually… we should go start hitting 'em /now/… so that they never meet up, and never get themselves scanned", Rags says, after a moment's thought. "This'd also keep the kids from getting the bad drugs."

Dalton shakes his head "Too risky, you don't know what they are doing tommorow or the next day, you only know what they are doing friday. We hit them the night before, take thier place, do the days work, and go to HQ. At least thats how I see it."

"Long as it's before they get scanned at their HQ, yeah", Rags says. "Hitting 'em after wouldn't make that happen, so I guess that's out… I'll hafta change my vote."

«OOC» Pith says, "The information provided indicated they will be pulled aside after today's work for a physical before being reassigned, you must take their places before the physical."

Dalton nods "Alright, so we scout out these peoples homes for the next day or so, then ambush them quickly the night before. Going to need to be teams, invisibility on the bodies will be a good idea to get them out of there homes. Everyone ok with this?"

"As long as everyone sticks to the plan and doesn't go off on their own, I'm fine," Pepper says.

Rags nods. "I can do the invisibility, so I guess I'm definitely on a 'grab' team", she says, glancing at Pepper and nodding her head, just once.

Aeden nods, now that talk of hitting the convoy has stopped. "Yeah. I'll be overwatch, I guess? I'm not exactly whatcha call sneaky, an' I can keep an eye out better with sensors than I can with eyes. Less you got better ideas?"

Dalton nods "Thats fine, but we need two vehicles, each team needs a way to transport the targets to another location."

"This appears to be my original plan. Okay. I can help Aeden with his target on his team." Renegade replies, without looking at anyone but Dalton and Aeden.

Dalton shakes his head "No, your original plan was to do it solo and impersonate them, which would have failed."

"No, your original plan was to go off all on your own, regardless of what the /team/ wanted to do", Rags says to Renegade. "Nice of you to get on board", she adds.

Dalton looks around "Anyone have a second vehicle? Something that can hold a few bodies?"

Pepper nods at Rags and turns to Renegade, "And if you do it again, you will not be a part of the team. Understand?"

"All's I gots is my bike", Rags says to Dalton, grinning at him as she says it.

"I have a bike as well," Pepper says.

Rene nods to Dalton and Rags, "If you say so." Still she doesn't say anything towards Pepper. This is a very comfy, dusty, seat. If you can ignore the springs.

Dalton nods "Ok, so the next step is to divide the targets up by location, so we can hit them all in one night with two teams. Lets figure out who lives near who."

Pepper sighs softly and eyes Renegade, "If you continue to disrespect me by ignoring me, I shall be forced to save face amongst my peers. Do. You. Under. Stand?"

"Teammates don't ignore teammates, anyway, even if they're pissed off at each other", Rags adds. "Communication's what makes a team a team. Not grandstanding or doing it all YOUR way. Work with the team, or don't be part of it. Seriously, Rennie!", she concludes. Her grin, that she'd earlier displayed at Dalton, is now /gone/.

Aeden's advice as the driver… to not hit the transport, has apparently been accepted. And now it's just down to the normal measureing stick tactics, see who will blink first, and all that. Which he has no mood for. He just keeps quiet, and watches the argument, somewaht amused.

Each of the targets lives in a middle class establishment similar to the Cottonwood apartments you might be familiar with. Given that they work at out of the same offices it looks deliberate that the live in different appartment buildings. The buildings are all within 20 minutes drive of the office, two withing 5 minutes of eachother to the south, two to the northwest and west about 10 minutes apart and one to the east that's 30 minutes from closest apartment to the south or 35 from the one to the north.

Drive times are mostly due to city traffic, if you could do a straight shot without stopping, you could reach them much more quickly.

"Sure." Renegade responds again in a terse manner. She doesn't seem to be tense or affected at all by the arguments. "I think I'd like to take the two to the west. It would then be simple to swing by north to grab the other bodies if we have no other transport."

Dalton nods "Alright, so we split up, take down the targets, and then load them one by one into the van our rigger has. We dispose of them somewhere in the warrens, and show up for work as them the next morning. We just need to check out thier security setups before we go after them."

"Right", Rags says to Dalton. "We'll need to decide which team's going after which targets… and which team'll go after the one that's way down to the south, too… and plan out how to get around the security at their apartments."

Dalton looks to Rene "Well, maybe our decker can find out about these apartments security setups, so we know what to expect?"

"Yes, I could do these things you ask of me. Does everyone still have their chips as provided by the Johnson? It will make my search faster to have all of the digital information available." Renegade replies, still relaxed in her love seat.

Aeden pops his chip out of a slot on his RC deck and tosses it to Renegade. "Sure do," he says. "Got a copy of it, so don't need it back."

Pepper glares one last time at Renegade and then looks to the others, "I can't stay here with her. I think she's doing her best to poison this team and I'm out before it kills me." With that, she walks to the door and leaves.

Rags pushes away from her windowsill. "Y'know… I hafta agree with her", she says, gesturing after Pepper. "I ain't dying because someone wants to be a diva", she adds as she walks over to Dalton. "Sorry, Sugar Daddy… but I ain't dying because someone who's supposed to be part of the team is just gonna sabotage the job anyway", she says to him, before shooting a withering look at Renegade. That done, she also heads out.

Rene catches the chip when tossed to her, "My bad?" She glances at Rags before she leaves then looks to Dalton and Aeden. "I apologize for that, for some reason that other runner irked me. How would you two like to approach this?" She pauses, "I'll need to get my deck, too."

Dalton frowns "If we don't have a full team of five, this isn't going to work. I'm not sure of anyone we can get to fill in on short notice, and two females at that."

"There problem ain't that they're irked at you," Aeden says. "There problem was you was set on what you were doin', an' any plan we came up with be fragged. Jus' turned out that what you wanted t' do turned out what we'd end up doin' anyway." He takes a minute to think. "Funny that the three who'd want to whip it out an' measure it don't even got th' parts that get measured."

Rene nods, "I was really against the idea of those children being sterile, though. My plan, I felt, was the only justified way of completing that objective. What they're doing just doesn't sit well with me." Renegade frowns.

Dalton nods "I agree with that viewpoint, but saying that first probably would have been a better idea."

"From my viewpoint, it appeared as though it was their plan or any plan be fragged." Rene replies.

Dalton nods "Alright, so, who do we get to replace them?"

"That ain't th' issue," Aeden explains. "Th' issue is… lets say we was talkin' bout food. You say yer goin' t' get nukit burgers. 'fore we get a chance t' even talk 'bout it. Say someone else wants chinese? th' way you was talkin', it was you were gettin' Nukit's, no matter what we talked 'bout first." He shrugs a bit, then. "Their plan was t' talk things out… figure out where our strength lie. That's what audition runs're for." He considers who might fit in well enough now that there's room for others. "I dunno. My little black book seems to get more names init every day I'm here. There's a ton of folks we could call in. Question is… what're we lookin' for?"

Will our heroes find the people they need to succeed, let's find out together next week.

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