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GM: Cyrrius
Players: Chiron, Eshe, Merek, Jo, Robin.
Synopsis: The runners get hired by the Mile High Club smuggling ring to steal a truck full of electronics.
Date: Jan 26th, 2086
Eshe is small, and for that reason she hasn't claimed a chair, but the corner of a table, so she sits cross legged wearing a pretty white dress, an off white furry jacket and a pair of white heels. A glass and bottle of water sit next to her, and opposite her is Jo, the two redheads talking over said drinks.
"I dunno…" She begins, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, "… he's cute enough, have you given his blanket back yet, or is the poor guy hunting by laying on the cold snow…"
Robin looks down at her cell as she arrives and glances about moving ot stand near by, her expression distant.
Chiron is hanging out at the bar in his biker leathers and long coat with a messenger bag close at hand. He's sipping a beer and watching something on his pocket secretary.
"He hasn't asked yet." Jo grins back to Eshe, settled across from the delicate woman in white. She's drinking something that's a colour not generally found in nature and fizzy. "Nor, to be fair, have I seen him yet. I've been doing other things. I should ping him and check in on him." She hasn't bothered to remove her leather jacket, reaching over to pick up her drink. "He's cute enough." She agrees. "He's going to get himself slapped at some point."
The door pushes open, bringing a blast of cold air with it. A pair of people enter before shutting the door back out against the cold. In the lead is an elven woman with short green hair, shaking off her long coat and stomping the snow off her black boots. It's not that loud a noise, she's not that big of an elf. Behind her is a dark skinned dwarf with a pink mohawk, and his boots do make a bit of thunder as he clears the slush off of them. While he grumbles something about the cold, the elf steps further in towards the bar and sweeps her eye over the crowd with an appraising eye.
Merek walks into the Cybered Arms, wearing their dark sleek loose attire. They are wearing their goggles and checking the data on it, before sliding their PocSec out to make a few notes. They need to find work, so that they can get a more comfortable space. It has been a while since they had been in this side of work before.
«Auto-Judge[]» Cyrrius (#12262) rolls 4 (Kylie's Shadowscene Players) vs TN 4:
1 1 2 4 = 1 Success
«OOC» Cyrrius says, "So not a great success, but not a fail. Eshe, Jo, and Chiron don't have huge reps, right? Maybe a few professional jobs in the past? Or are you brand new to the scene with no work history? And how much is there on Robin and Merek?"
«OOC» Eshe says, "Old jobs, some dangerous, but years ago. :)"
«OOC» Jo says, "A few piddling jobs, but functionally none."
«OOC» Eshe also did work in a Gentleman's club, so /might/ be known from that.
«OOC» Robin says, "Only had one recent run, a successful snatch and grab.."
«OOC» Merek says, "Merek ia a runner called Knight from a while back, Dragonslayer Shaman."
«OOC» Merek says, "Fairly experienced but hasn't been on a run in a LONG time."
Eshe gets a grin on her face, "Okay, you hold him, I'll slap him, since I would do the holding, but he might not notice. He also leers a lot, which is kinda funny." The little Dryad squeaks as the door is opened, she does it every time the cold blast hits her, perhaps letting her choose the table closest to the door was a bad idea. Still, she looks over the two, no, three who enter, each is given a bright friendly smile, the last of which also gets a wave since apparently she knows him. "Aaaanyway, he probably deserves more than a slap, what do you think?"
Chiron looks over at the new folks coming in but mostly is minding his own business, whatever's on the screen in his hand seems entertaining at least.
Robin spots Eshe and smiles a bit moving over towards the Dryad as she glances to the fixer that just arrived, trying to keep her expression nutral.
"He probably deserves more than a slap, but who knows if he'd like it or not." Jo snickers softly in reply to Eshe and glances up to Robin as she approaches, smiling a greeting. "Still, I think at his core he probably mostly means well. Ish. Under the leer, perhaps I'm just optimistic."
The green haired elf leans over the bar to exchange a few close words with Keegan, the proprietor of this delight of a booze joint. There's some sort of grunt and nod, and a pointed chin that manages to include several of the PCs in it. (How convenient!)
She stands back up straight and turns around to give a longer probing look at what the bar has on offer tonight, brushing escaped green hair back behind a long and metal-heavy ear. Chiron, being at the bar, is closest. She looks to her dwarf companion, then nods her head in Chiron's direction.
The dwarf takes the hint and slides down the bar a meter or so to lean against it next to his spot. "What's up chummer? You here for leisure tonight, or are you open to some employment?"
While he's doing that, the elf heads for the table where most of the others are gathering. Her face cracks into a light smile as she gets closer and picks up on the current topic. "Ah, am I interrupting a good gossip night? If so, that's a shame, sorry. But I'm also on a schedule tonight, and I was looking to hire a few hands. You lot got time to talk business?"
Chiron looks up from his phone and grins wryly at the dwarf "A self imposed 'get out of the lab' night. I know if I let myself I'd not surface till I had to. Employment would be good, funding my research isn't always cheap. Almost never cheap to tell the truth."
"I mean, two things can be true at the same time, right? Buuut, leering often means he just knows what he wants… but he could be good overall." Eshe notes back to Jo, canting her head a little before taking a gulp of water, "People are stupid." She glances to Robin who seems to approach, giving her a big grin and a little wave, "Hey Miss Robin!" Before any follow-up question is silenced by the pretty green haired elf, who gets the Dryad's undivided attention, at least for now, "Pretty much! I loooooove your hair, green suits you perfectly… Pull up a chair if you like!"
Merek seems to notice the woman going to a table and walks that way to listen to the business offer, for the moment glancing to the man across from them talking to Chiron. Seems there is some running to be had tonight. They pocket their PocSec and let out a little sigh, before they lean in to listen. They nod to the people, a couple recognized, although they seem to be focused on whatever the offer will be.
"People are stupid." Jo agrees. "Just half the time, that's useful." She looks up as the elf approaches and chuckles. "There's always time to talk business, and it doesnt' even half to inturrupt the gossip" There's a glance to see who Eshe's inviting to the table, a smile to Robin, and then back to the one wanting to talk business.
Robin grins to Eshe and says softly, "Good evening Ms Eshe." before looking up to the green haired woman and says, Business is always a welcome source of conversation."
The dwarf nods sagely to Chiron at the bar. "Ain't that the way of it? Time is NuYen, and there's never enough of either. Anyway, tonight's a good night for it. No details here of course, but come on along with whoever she manages to scoop up over there, and we can talk turkey. Fair enough?"
The elf takes the offered seat, folding into the chair and hooking her right heel on the edge of it so her knee sticks up over the table's surface. Eshe gets a nod and a smile first. "Well, thank you. I'd say it was an effortless effect, but I'd be lying. Nice to meet you, I'm Kylie. Kylie Rainleaf. I do some work in this district, perhaps you've heard of me? ((Roll Shadowscene Players or other appropriate knowskill if you want to.)) And for the short version of a longer story, I need more hands for a delivery type job tonight. The fairly complicated and time limited sort. Anyone interested in that sort of work?"
«Auto-Judge[]» Merek (#12895) rolls Shadowscene Players:
1 4 5 5 8 9
You paged Merek with 'Kylie is part of a crew called the Mile High Club, a smuggling and fencing outfit that operates across Denver. A small group that outsources a lot of labor on acquisitions, but has good contacts for moving loot.'.
Eshe visably perks up, though it could be said that was impossible, "Eshe, I do work everywhere, odd jobs, and especially deliveries! Complicated is fine, I'm not the smartest, but as long as other folk can tell me where to go, I'm good. I can get just about anything, anywhere… long as people can open doors for me." She offers a little shrug, all her shrugs are little, since she's little, "So, yeah, I'll lend a hand, or paw, or hoof if you like!"
Robin nods in agreement with Eshe and says, "I am mainly a courier so a delivery sounds just up my alley."
Merek looks over to Kylie and considers for a long moment. "Given who you work for, I would assume it's something we have to get picked up or shipped a bit more quietly," they say, smiling a little bit, "Done plenty of work like that, I would be willing in exchange for some contact work."
"Nice to meet you, Kylie." Jo settles back with her dayglo drink. "I chat with people, I'm happy to come along and lend a hand here. I'm not busy tonight."
Chiron nods at the dwarf and glances over at the other conversation "Good enough for me. I do like money and I've met some of those folks before so there is that."
Kylie turns her head to give a nod Merek's way, acknowledging his recognition with a flash of a smile. She plants one hand on the raised knee as she looks back at the others, giving them each an appraising glance one by one. "Alright, then let's talk details. Not here, of course. Grab one for the road if you need it, and come along. Not far, I've got a spot just down the road here where we can get into the nitty gritty."
She pushes herself back up out of the chair and toward the door, tossing a beckoning wave the dwarf's way. Time's a wasting, and there's a deadline approaching.
Eshe finishes her drink, water of course, gives a little sigh, then jumps off the table. "Right then, sounds like a plan." Spending a moment then to brush her dress down, she moves to follow the green haired woman and likely too, the dwarf who guards her. "Jo I'm gonna rely on you to guide me, cause techy things get confusing for me and I don't wanna mess up, okay?"
Plot Room #5(#2009RJT$)
Warehouse on Hard Times
This Aurora warehouse still technically counts as a building, but it's seen better days. There are gaps in the walls where starlight seeps in and heat leaks out. Or it would, if there were any heat in here. At least there's enough wall left to block out the wind. It looks like the crew is more squatting here than paying on a lease, with just some scattered folding tables and chairs, camp stoves and coffee pots, and the like. There's also a big transport truck parked behind one of the rolling doors.
"I gotcha, lovely." Jo notes to Eshe as she finishes her drink as well and moves to stand. She offers her hand out to the delicate dryad, a casual gesture.
Merek nods a bit taking the time to walk with the group and make a way to the next area for them to discuss details.
Kylie leads the way to a disheveled warehouse still standing in Aurora. A large bay door clanks open to let any cars brought along in off the street. She waves people in, pausing to run a hand over her hair to clear it of snow now that she's inside again. She waves an arm around at the space, where a few more of her associates hover in the background, a large ork woman and a larger troll man. She waits for people to settle in and get the door closed before continuing her pitch. "Alright, ladies and gents, welcome to the Mile High Club. For tonight, at least. So, tonight's opportunity involves a delivery, but it's of a pile of goods that we don't own. Yet. And it'll take some level of effort to take possession. So, if you've got any objections to that sort of work, this is the time to bow out and forget you heard anything. Anyone who's still with me can get the full rundown. And questions, or quitters?"
She looks around expectantly, curling a dark eye brow in a high arch.
Chiron followed along, giving whoever needed a ride in his Roadmaster (a big truck/van sort of thing). After Kylie explains he grins and shrugs "Well I don't mind crime and I do like money. I'm in."
Merek walks into the warehouse, taking the time to turn off their PocSec, to make sure that it isn't tracked. It seems they are going the distance to make sure that the meeting is secure. They look around, and nod to the words from Kylie, "No objections, as long as I'm not killing innocent people I'll do most work, first thing is first though, going to want to know the pay for this work," they say.
Eshe accepts Jo's hand with a grin and walks with her to the warehouse, heeled feet digging into the snow and causing her to be slower than usual, "Ugh. Finding practical footwear, /that/ has always been the biggest challenge. Oh, and jackets that aren't pink, or pants without holes in them… Okay it's all pretty rough." She gives her head a shake once they get inside, throwing snow this way and that, before tossing it all back over her head so she can spend a moment looking around the room. The ork is given a grin, the troll a respectful, though curious nod. She holds her questions for now, though she's got some, she'll wait for the rundown to see what, and how much they're moving.
Robin makes her way into the warehouses and finds a spot to lean up against the wall, listening in, not seeming to bat an eye at the loose ownership of the product they are supposed to deliver. her eye stay on the green haired elf.
"Cute shoes are never the shoes you can walk in." Jo notes to Eshe with a sympathetic note. "Pink doesn't do either of us any favors, but wear it with enough oomph and screw 'em." She glances around the warehouse, looking over those who are already there as the door is closed up them. She shakes her head at the query about objections to acquisitions preceding deliveries.
Eshe sighs softly, "Ain't that the truth. My hair does change colour though sometimes, so I can wear it here and there. It's /supposed/ to change with the seasons, but this colour seems stuck on… and I really like it." She gives a grin to the other red haired, brown eyed woman, then squeaks and follows her lead by shaking her head to the objections, not that she really understands them anyway.
Kylie takes a moment to make sure nobody's taking off, then claps her hands together. Then she rubs them together, because it is chilly tonight. "Alright then, welcome aboard. So, the deal tonight is that we got a lucky break, because someone fucked up. Over in the UCAS sector, there's a truck all loaded and ready to ship out, but the truck had a failure and got stuck in the warehouse. And by the time they got it fixed, they didn't have a driver for it. So there it sits until they get someone from the day shift to get it moving. Or until we can get there first, ideally. So, phase one is to get entry to the warehouse and the truck. There will be security guards. This sort of thing works better without a body count though, alright? You lot think you can bamboozle a few rent a cops long enough to get a truck out past them without making a scene that lands on the news feeds? If not, this gets a lot riskier."
She gives a long stare around to check for objections, before adding some more to the plan. "That's the hard part, really. Then we just need to link up with the second truck, transfer the cargo, and dump the truck. None of you look like wheelmen or women, am I wrong there? Because if I'm not, we've still got that covered. You just need to connect the dingus to the truck, and we can remote it out. Greta, you got the dingus?"
Kylie looks back to where the other truck is parked, and the Ork leaning against it. She answers quickly. "Yeah boss, I always got the dingus."
Chiron grins at the mention of the dingus "I've got something like that in my Roadmaster. It is a pretty great thing to have since I'm not much of a driver. I don't know about fast talking but I can knock them out one at a time fairly easily."
Robin says, "If I can get a look at the uniform they have I could try to use fashion to make someone look like they are supposed to be there…" she thinks.
"Getting, or faking.. the uniform helps. So does getting .. or faking.. an ID card from the rent a cop place." Jo nods to Robin in agreement. "Absolutely works better without a body count."
Eshe cants her head with a few blinks, thinks about it for a moment, then gives a confident nod, "Was not expecting a truck, buuut a few guys we can deal with I'm sure." She looks from Jo, to Robin, the green haired girl, the Ork, then finally Chiron, "What's a dingus?" To Jo she then whispers, "Seriously though, what's a dingus?"
Kylie parks herself in one of the folding chairs and stretches her legs up and over to rest her heels on the edge of the table. She interlaces her fingers behind her head, letting a big smile spread across her face. "See, this here is why I'm hiring you for this part. I rather hoped you'd have a deep enough toolbox to pull it off. As long as we get it done before sun up."
She takes a moment to look at Eshe, getting an expression of faux concern. "Oh, dearie, have you really gotten this far in life without ever seeing a dingus? That's so sad!"
Merek nods a little bit to that, "Of course," they say. "What's the basic fare for all of us for this?" Meanwhile they take the time to make a few notes mentally while they consider, sounds easy enough.
Eshe tugs on Jo's pant leg, "Jo she looks concerned, why is she concerned! Why is it a sad thing that I haven't seen a dingus? Why can they drive trucks, why does that ork have one, why haven't I seen one!"
"Driving trucks isn't the question here.. and I dont know what a dingus is either." Jo has to admit to Eshe. "Might be a language thing for me though." Her voice holds an accent that firmly illustrates that Jo is Not From Here (tm). Somewhere in the UK at a guess.
Chiron comments to Eshe and Jo "I think the implication is that its a sex thing, considering their group name is also a sex thing there's probably some of that to be expected. Sometimes a Dingus is a penis. This time the dingus is a Auto-Nav self driving program to handle the truck for us." Then to Kylie "Yeah I am pretty sure between us we've got tools to solve whatever."
"Oh." Eshe notes, wrinkling her nose, "That explains why truck drivers can be such dicks."
Robin cant help but giggles a bit at Eshe and says, "Don't feel bad, I had no idea either.
"Oh.. that is absolutely a language thing." Jo confirms wiht a nod and then snorts her amusement at Eshe's quip. "Well then. We can seduce the rent a cops, but that seems liek a Plan B."
Greta grins in the back, something out of her pants to show off. It is in fact an electronic device, and not a penis. It's pocket sized, providing you have big cargo pockets like she has. "Yeah, close enough. But I drive trucks, and I'm not a dick. I don't have one, either. But that's not really important for tonight's business, is it? So take this, and get it connected to their nav computer. That will let me take over and guide you to the rendezvous point. Easy peasy from there on."
Kylie shakes her head, still grinning widely. "Right. Serious business tonight only. Just like we always do. But like she said, the rest is easy. Dump the hot truck, and meet back here with the goods. Get paid. Drive to great success. Sound good?"
This intersection has a chainlink fenced in parking lot on the northeast corner, with a guard booth there to operate the gate. At this late hour, there's not many vehicles in the lot, just a half dozen or so that probably belong to the guards. At the back of lot is the wall to a warehouse, with several large truck bay doors that roll up from the ground. They are currently closed, just like the building itself.
The building has maglocks on the doors, including the truck bay ones. There's also a pair of security cameras clearly visible on the wall above the truck doors, scanning the parking lot area.
At the moment, there are a pair of guards in the gate booth, a human and an ork.
Chiron looks over the area and considers "I can probably get us past the maglocks on the doors once we get past the guards. Does someone want to look up the shipping company and try and counterfeit the driver uniforms?"
Merek nods a bit to that, "That works for me," and with that they look to the others, thoughtful. "That might be useful," they say to Chiron.
Robin murmurs to the group, I am not good with computers but if someone can look up the uniform and I can do the spell for the disguise.
The little dryad casts her eyes about the yard as well, canting her head while pondering options and abilities, "Well that's handy, I can get us past the gate and /maybe/ deal with the cameras? Well, one camera maybe? Like, I'm sure a bull could lean on that fence and bring it down, right? That could attract the guards, and if not I can chase them around a bit?" She glances to Robin, wrinkling her nose, "Not good with the whole computer thing… I could poop on one of the cameras though if I turn into a bird?"
"I can look things up." Jo confirms wiht a nod as she squints over towards the guards from where they are quietly watching to try and see better what they are working with. "Am I the only one here who is not allergic to computers?" She asks as she's trying to see the logo to type it into her pocsec.
Robin looks to the others, "Ok who is going in as drivers, so I can try to cast the spell on you?
"I'm full of cyber, is that gonna mess with your spell?" Jo asks warily.
Robin says, "It only affects your clothes.
Robin casts Fashion on Jo to change her clothes to the driver's company uniform.
«Auto-Judge[]» Robin (#12069) rolls Sorcery + 3 vs TN 7:
1 1 3 3 4 4 4 5 8 = 1 Success
«Auto-Judge[]» Robin (#12069) rolls Willpower + 3 vs TN 4:
1 2 2 3 4 4 9 10 11 = 5 Successes
This was based on Jo's roll to look them up, which will be a supplemental roll:
«Auto-Judge[]» Jo (#15165) rolls Computers vs TN 3:
4 4 = 2 Successes
Robin steps up to Jo raising her hands about her and concentrating, to cause her clothes to shift and to that of a drivers uniform.
Chiron grins at Jo "And i can be someone riding along for security? or Just because you want to? In case I need to fiddle the locks."
Robin looks to Chiron and says, "Give me a minute if you need me to adjust you to, maybe to the security?"
"I absolutely want someone riding along, I dont want to be there alone." Jo nods as she stands still waiting for Robin to (literally) work magic upon her clothes.
Eshe watches as her team goes to work, magic cast, plans somewhat solidified, she gives a firm little nod. "Okay. Assuming this works, we should be good. If something goes wrong, what do we do? Cause the way I see it, we're sending two people in and expecting everything to go off without issues. Do we wanna trust that it will?"
"Distract the shit out of them for me, Eshe?" Jo offers over to her with a smile. "Is that a valid plan B?"
Chiron grins at Jo "I've got a stunbolt as an option. A non-lethal violence but then we'll need to move faster once it goes that way."
Robin says, "I will be watching with stunbolts ready as well.."
"You got options there." Eshe notes with a little shrug, "I can run in naked screaming to see if their dingus can drive a truck, or can barrel in as a cow and pin them to the wall. What kinda distraction do you want?"
Robin casts Fashion again on Chiron:
«Auto-Judge[]» Robin (#12069) rolls Sorcery + 3 vs TN 7:
1 1 1 3 4 4 4 5 8 = 1 Success
«Auto-Judge[]» Robin (#12069) rolls Willpower + 3 vs TN 4:
1 1 1 2 2 4 4 4 4 = 4 Successes
Chiron nods for Robin to go ahead with a security disguise for him as he suggests "don't even need you to get that close. Just confuse them long enough." then the spell settles and he looks to Jo "Lets roll."
"Alright. Let's get this show on the road." Jo looks around "Alright. Comms synced." She nods. "C'mon, lets go pretend like we know what we're doing." She gives a tug on her 'uniform' and then resettles her 'hat', her long red hair tucked into a pony tail. She murmurs softly, to confirm that everyone hear. <"Everyone good to go?">
Chiron walks over towards the guard post with Jo, following behind a smidge since he's her security detail. Settled into the disguise Robin provided.
There's a moment as Jo settles into her new uniform, illusionary as it might be and she reaches over to smack Chiron lightly on the arm. "Sucks that we have to work, but lets get this overwith." Her accent is as muted as she can manage as they walk.
Two guards are hanging out in the booth next to the gate, staying warm and out of the cold. The human is up front, the ork in a chair back behind him a couple of paces. Small pocket computers get slid away as they spot people approaching their post, squinting to see them in the streetlights. The human's nametag reads "Boothe", and the ork is "Givvens".
Booth looks at his watch to check the time, then looks up at the pair. "You're either super early, or super late?"
Eshe watches Jo and Chiron leave, spending just a moment looking over the rest of her team before she moves away a bit, lowering herself to her knees in the snow to consider just what 'plan b' would consist of. Distractions are easy, depending on what you're trying to do and when, the more suspicious the targets, the… bigger the distraction needs to be. For now, she watches, waits and tries not to hold her breath or bite her lip too much.
"I should be relaxing, but oh /nooooo/." Jo rolls her eyes as she approaches the guards. "Someone got their knickers in a twist over getting the delivery early, because something something.. willing to pay overtime. And all I heard was 'willing to pay overtime', so I ain't got a cup of tea, I'm driving a damn truck. Can you believe it?"
Chiron snorts at the comment from the security guards "I'm sure someone will be yellin at us either way. We get told to get going and we're getting paid so we get gone."
«OOC» Cyrrius says, "Etiquette test I'm setting a TN of Boothe's INT, which is a 3."
New Content
«Auto-Judge[]» Jo (#15165) rolls Etiquette vs TN 3:
1 1 3 3 4 4 = 4 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Cyrrius (#12262) rolls 2 (Boothe's Security Procedures) vs TN 6 for "Jo's Etiquette":
3 8 = 1 Success
Boothe stares at the pair for a minute, first one, then the other. It seems more like confusion than diligence though. Especially when he grunts at them and slaps the button that starts the gate clanking slowly open. "Tough luck. Not like we didn't have to be here tonight too anyway. Goddamn shitty cold night, too."
He steps back from the window and plops down into his chair with heave thud, his hand already reaching into his pocket for his entertainment device.
Merek easily puts on the uniform and takes the time follow with the team, taking their time to flank and look presentable. Professional but not too excessive, enough that it looks like they're not really happy to be on the job, they just need a paycheck. They follow Jo's lead as she's taken to being the Face.
Robin moves off near to Eshe looking in the direction of the guard station holding in case plan b needs to happen.
A nudge of Jo to Chiron as she waves to Boothe and then heads for the truck. "Stay warm!" She calls back to the guard and then moves away. No sense giving them more reason to wonder about what is up.
Up next is the building itself. The guards let you by, but the doors are still locked. And you don't know any codes or have keycards or anything. There are presumably more people inside, based on the number of parked cars in the lot. How are you getting inside the building?
Chiron steps up, to the door with a quick glance around before sending over comms « Stand around like you're having a smoke or something before we go inside » and assuming they do, he'll use his allies as cover and take his tool-kit out and get to work.
A little stroll around behind Chrion as Jo taps out a smoke. "Just a quick one, before we get going." She tries to sound apologetic, as if she's holding them up before they go inside.
Chiron cracks the maglock, total time 30 seconds.
«Auto-Judge[]» Chiron (#13400) rolls Electronics B/R vs TN 4:
1 1 2 5 = 1 Success
«Auto-Judge[]» Chiron (#13400) rolls Electronics B/R - 1 vs TN 4 for "kp 1/12 spent":
3 5 7 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Chiron (#13400) rolls Electronics vs TN 2:
2 2 2 3 3 4 = 6 Successes
The guards sit on their asses, eyes partially outward but mostly on their screens. And within a handful of seconds, Chiron cracks the maglock to a cheery chirping noise and a green light as the door releases. The signs of tampering will be clear, later. You want to be gone by then, ideally.
The door now open, the inside of the warehouse is visible. There's shelves with stacks of crates, but the real prize is the truck parked and ready to roll. On the minus side, there's a table set up down the bay from it, with another four guards playing cards and scarfing down a cheap greasy looking pizza.
"Oh sure, apparently you want to actually work tonight." Jo grumbles goodnaturedly and reaches over to put out her smoke and tuck it away. The best defense for this sort of thing is a good offense. So she starts heading for the truck, just as if she's legit supposed to be driving the truck outta there.
Commlink-Jo> Jo sends, « We've got visual on the truck and more guards. We're inside now. »
Chiron nods as he heads in and just gestures for Jo to lead the way to the truck as he wanders over to the door to open the way for the truck to drive out. Like the crew belongs here.
"Huh." Eshe notes with a glance to Robin, "This might go smoothly after all. Fingers crossed, yeah?" The Dryad does indeed that, crossing said fingers while watching from a distance. For now it's all she can do, but at the very least she's not being shot at, which is a plus!
Robin mummers softly, "knock on wood, but dont jinx us on it." she smilse as she keeps her eyes peeled.
The guards glance up at the intrusion, but only just barely. That pizza ain't gonna eat itself. Business as usual, right?
On the outside though, a new potential problem arrives. A Knight Errant patrol car comes down the street from the east, and pulls over by the curb in front of the parking lot. They loiter there for a bit, the officers inside conversing about something or other. Boothe in the booth glances up, but doesn't even shrug as he goes back to whatever he's watching or reading.
Eshe turns into a cow, F3 Shapechange:
«Auto-Judge[]» Eshe (#11263) rolls Sorcery + Spell Pool: 5 vs TN 5:
1 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 9 = 3 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Eshe (#11263) rolls Willpower vs TN 2:
1 2 2 3 4 5 = 5 Successes
Small brown eyes watch the car pull up, and of course, alarm bells go off in her head. Complications bad, so, add more complications to counter them! "Ahhh well. I liked these clothes too, least they might go to someone who needs them." Eshe closes her eyes, takes a breath, then lets it out in a slow, soft… Moo? An instant later the little dryad rises as a large brown bull, complete with horns that could end up being a BIG problem.
She walks across the road casually approaching the driver, then licks the window, letting out a long and mournful MOO in their ear.
Officer Reynolds catches the movement and turns to tell whoever's approaching the car to fuck off. Then she pauses with wide eyes as the big ass bull start licking her window. "Jones… Jones! Are you fucking seeing this? Shit, did they lace the donuts with acid again? I can't afford to fail another drug test…"
The truck manages to leave the warehouse without further incident, driving right past the quite uncaring guards at the gate. Guards who are as mystified as the police at the rogue beef in the street. In remote control, Greta directs the truck down the road in the other direction to be quickly forgotten about. At least until tomorrow morning when the real drive arrives. Which is not your problem.
About fifteen minutes later, it winds down to a stop under an overpass, and the cargo truck you saw in Aurora earlier in the night backs up to it. Both rear doors open, revealing a pile of crates in the truck you're in, and the team of Gustav and Hugh in the other. They quickly start moving cargo from the borrowed truck to theirs.
Hugh leans around the edge of the truck to holler up to the cab. "Everything go smoothly then?"
Chiron nods to Hugh as he climbs down from the cab "Not a cross word spoken or shot fired. Though a police car window get did licked by a rather timely bovine to give them something else to pay attention to. So that was nice."
After a final long and loving lick on the window and a long and mournful 'MOOO', the horned and hairy cow starts meandering up the street in the direction of the truck… After a bit she breaks into a jog, then a run, only to flip forms to her snow owl form once they're out of sight of the guards, gaining altitude to follow the truck from the air.
Jo was comfortable 'driving' the truck, aka leetting Greta do the work while she tokenly made it look like she was doing anything at all of value. At least to the mystified guards. Moo. "So there might be some questions about their sanity, or at least their drug habits on the job." Jo adds after Chiron's sum up.
Hugh makes a loud harrumphing noise, shaking his head. "Sanity? If they were sane, they wouldn't be working for Knight Errant. Fuck 'em. But alright, sounds good. Go ahead and hop over here. Except one of you needs to stay with the truck until we dump it, to recover the rem-"
He pauses, then sighs before continuing. "The dingus. The boss will pick you up from there and bring you back in."
Chiron nods and grins at Hugh before looking back to Jo "You comfy stickin in the driver seat? I expect the others will be along in a bit."
Eshe lands with a flap and a hoot onto the bonet of the stolen truck, a moment spent shaking herself removes any excess snow from her body. She cants her head a little, blinks a few times, then shifts back to her Dryad body, without clothing of course. "Hey! I have /no/ idea why that worked, it shouldn't have, but it did. So yay!"
"Yeah, I'm good." Jo nods in confirmation. "I can stick with the truck 'til …" And then there's a naked dryad on the bonnet of the truck and she looks and there's a smiles. "Hey sweetie." She laughs and shakes her head. "Cow? Really?"
"Eeeeeh…" Eshe notes with a giggle and a shrug of her shoulders, "I didn't wanna escalate things, and anything else would've maybe started a fight. I mean, a bear would've scared them, a bunny would've done nothing… a tiger would've had them pooping their pants. So, I picked a cow… and at least they got a free window clean, right?"
Chiron nods considers the truck carefully "On second thought if I go with the truck I can scrub it for trace evidence with a sterilization spell once we're done with it. I should probably be last out."
"Oh.. you can do that?" Jo blinks at Chiron and then moves to slide out of the cab and let him get in. "All yours then." She smirks a touch to Eshe. "I'm not suck covered in cow spit entirely qualifies as 'clean'."
"Look, it's cleaner than it was, okay? Let me believe in that little lie." Eshe, for her part, slips off the bonnet of the truck and onto the cold ground, squeaking as she does, "Ugh, hate the cold, it's so… cold."
«Auto-Judge[]» Chiron (#13400) rolls Sorcery + Spell Pool: 3 vs TN 4:
1 2 3 3 3 4 7 10 15 = 4 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Chiron (#13400) rolls Willpower + Spell Pool: 3 vs TN 3:
1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 11 = 6 Successes
The cargo moves quickly, mostly thanks to Gustav. Then the trucks roll out in opposite directions, one taking most of the gang back to Aurora. Jo has to pretend drive a bit longer until the truck can get dumped in a not so great part of town. Parts might be missing by the time it's recovered, but again that's somebody else's problem. Jo gets a call with a reminder to yank the dingus, and walk down two blocks to catch her ride. Which is a familiar green haired elf driving a drab looking Ford Americar. Just like tons of other ones on the road just like it, blending in.
Smash cut to about a half hour later, everyone's back in the shitty warehouse in Aurora. Kylie has her feet propped back up on the table and is looking pretty pleased with the night. Gustav and Greta are messing about in the boxes, checking out the fresh merch. Hugh is digging about for a celebratory bottle of booze, which should have been in this box, but nobody can put things back where they belong, grumble grumble grumble…
Chiron nods as he explains "Yeah. Its a thing of my spellcasting style. The bits of latin help me concentrate on what I'm trying to accomplish. The phrase meant 'Cleansing, by will commanded'. Not why I learned the spell but it has all sorts of uses outside the surgical theater."
"Cold is one of the many reasons we, as a society, wear clothes." Jo points out to Eshe before they end up eventually, in the warehouse. "Yeah, I spend a bit of latin. I've not spent a lot of time around magic, apparently tonight's an excpetion to that." She nods to Chiron.
"Well cows don't wear clothes, so if I decided to keep them on they would've torn off. So, this is why I sometimes don't bother with them. Warm? Yes. Impossible to keep? Also yes. Anyway, admit it, the cow was adorable." The Dryad continues to defend her thought until they're in the warehouse, whereupon she finds a box to sit on, legs crossed.
Hugh eventually finds what he's looking for, or something close enough, anyway. A bottle of decent enough looking whiskey from Kentucky. He brings it to the table along with a stack of small plastic cups, they're not so fancy here as to have actual glass shot glasses or anything. While he pours, Kylie smiles as she leans her head back into her interlaced fingers. Just radiating satisfaction with a night that ended in a haul of goods, not messy drama. "So, things went smooth as spider silk then tonight, huh? Although I'm still not clear on this whole cow thing? For one thing, we usually try not to create beef with the cops."
Kylie grins as she takes her own cup from Hugh, dropping her boots off the table to get to her feet. "See, that's what I love about hiring random people out of the Cybered arms. It might go well, it might not, but it's rarely dull! And in this case, you managed to pull this off without a clusterfuck. And on short notice, even! Not a lot of time for casing the place, which I kind of want to apologize for. Mostly out of habit. But there was an opportunity for easy NuYen waiting to be seized. And we did it! Or we seized the stuff that we can turn into NuYen, that's actually the longer and harder part. But that's not your problem, it's mine. You lot at least earned your payday already. And you can grab one of the units out of the case if you want it, too."
Merek takes time to settle in after the run is finished, drinking and celebrating with the group while taking the time to make a note of important things with the PocSec. Afterward making sure to offer a thank you to Kylie.
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