A Time for Secrets

Specter followed Ashes example and left her body, which slacked. Her upper body slid to the side and her head came resting on Ashes Chest accidentally. Specter, floating in Astral space, looked at it. "Oh, sorry." Her aura showed a trace of embarrassement which should be clearly visible for Ashe. She had just materialized to become visible for the others. "Yes, I think we should go now," she said, maybe a little too hasty, as to act over her embarrassment.

The elf girl dematerialized again, looking at the elf woman. "I think we should approach carefully. Better safe than sorry."


Infiltration roll, approaching on the astral Log3(instead of Agility)+infiltration1= 4d (4d6. hits(5)=2)

Perception roll (astral) Approaching Int3+Perception1=4d (4d6. hits(5)=1) (Ack, a Glitch)

Mentally, Kesslan let out a sigh at LT having yet another outburst. It wasn't that the guy wasn't at least sometimes right, but he seemed an increasingly angry and potentially dangerously unstable individual. "Now isn't the best time for this LT. We should discuss this after the mission once we have some time to breath again. Right now we have to just focus on the job. As to the Nexus think of it as a big wireless hotspot, but this one has the range to keep us all in touch, secure for an area almost as big as this city. As to why it's in your truck, I would assume because it offers both he best protection and had the most available room for it. That or your just trusted to be able to take proper care of it." While the shifter wasn't fully aware of everything going on with LT he was more than painfully aware how LT seemed to have some considerable issues with his temper as of late. That he realized could at some point cause a serious rift in the team at a very bad time and knew he'd have to get to the root of it sooner rather than later, but right now he was quite sure, was a very bad time indeed.

"Don't worry, LT. I won't be driving your truck without your permission." Eleanor started to say, but stopped speaking when Kesslan responded. If she had a head, she would be nodding. Kesslan handled that situation like the leader he was becoming.

Ashe nodded and smiled. Or, rather, her aura showed consent, and contentedness. There isn't any real difference between "nodding and smiling" and an aura showing consent and contentedness; at least, on the Astral.
"Alexia, can you remember his aura?" Ashe asked while she was still materialized. Knowing what the aura of Brandon Bright looked like would be helpful; particularly if there were still traces of his aura in the area.

As soon as Alexia answers, Ashe thanks her and returns to the Astral.
"Perhaps it would be best for you to lead?" Ashe suggested. She started moving toward the docks, knowing that being noticed wouldn't be an issue from so far out.
"My Stealth skill is not terribly well developed... And, of course, by "not developed" what I really mean is: I'll hang back a bit." She added as Specter caught up.

LT was looking around for threats when Kess responded "eh rights rights latas is best" The shifter had, a point and it was well recieved. He could have said "Shut your pie hole and get yer fragging game face on... "Dont worrys its forgotten" He grumbbled... and returned his attention back to surveying the area For threats Magical threats or any other threat for that matter...

He stood Feet shoulder length apart his foundation solid the blades tip on the in the dirt and his Left hand resting lithly on the back of handle. In his right hand there was a troll modified Super-Mach 100 system and he scanned For enimies. Now and then he would circle the truck. Just to check "Security mode clearance Tiamat Omega 1,3,A" He Growled setting up his anti-theft system if anyone attempte to open a door from in or out he would know on the out side of course if the door was opened without the code well that would be bad for them... The inside would only set off an alarm and Also it would not drive without the code.

Satisfied with his priemptive mesures. He continued his guard duty without further complaint or out burst it was not like he was screaming, but he was out of line. And he knew it... That often happen when kids had to do adult things and and LT was still only ninteen for a troll pretty young. And his attitude sometimes left something to be desired...

Alexia nodded at Ashe Its been awhile but i think i still remember it. she spends a moment describing what she could remember of the Aura, though not expecting it to be of to much help for how do you put into words something that has to bee seen to understand. though easier that describing the color orange to a blind person its almost as difficult. she spends the next few moments after checking over her gear then loading up into LT's vehicle to be heading on to the location

Spoiler:

Specter and Ashe arrive in the Docks area quickly. Ashe, slightly in the lead, slows as she approaches the general area.
"Ok, you're up. I'll be just a bit behind you. Hopefully we can get at least a minimal idea of what kind of resistance we face without being noticed." Ashe says to Specter.

Game stuff
Ok, I need the following:
Infiltration
Perception
Survival

If you don't have a survival skill, keeping in mind that neither Specter nor Ashe knows where they're going (and there aren't GPS in the Astral, unfortunately), and you don't know what exactly you're looking for... you'll have to roll a Perception Extended test using the following parameters:

Threshold: 40
Time: 1 minute

What that means is this: Roll perception. Is it 40? If no, that was 1 minute. Roll it again. Add up the results. Is the total 40? If no, that was another minute. Etc. until your results total 40.
Using IC, I suggest you enter 20 in the number of rolls section. Then count up the number of rolls it took to reach 40 (my guess is it will be somewhere around 12-13 rolls), and post the link with the full 20 rolls, and tell me how many it took.
Glitch/Critical Glitch:
- If you get a Glitch, simply count that roll as a 0.
- If you get a Critical Glitch, the count starts fresh after that. i.e.: All previous rolls don't count anymore. Start adding again after that roll.
Edge:
If you choose to add edge, it counts for all rolls, not just one (at a cost of just the one edge point). Edge is added (for this situation) for the "Test" not for the specific roll. As this is an extended test, edge counts for the entire test.

Specter went on. It was an almost erratic criss crossing through the city blocks. Always looking out for watchers or spirits that might notice them. A few times she thought she had found the warehouse, but instead lead Ashe into a completely wrong direction. Only after she had started to get frustrated, did she get to a location that looked like what they were searching for. I think this is it. Though only by elemination. We've been at all the other places already so this should be the place." Her aura showed a mix of relief about finally being there and the aforementioned frustration that it took so long.

20 rolls; 30 successes Total of 30 with two glitches (Already counted out).

20 more rolls; 40 Successes made on 5th roll Threshold of 40 reached after 25 rolls =25 minutes.

Ashe enjoyed the joke.
"Well... not quite all the other places..." Ashe replied, laughing.
"The Docks aren't quite small enough to search the whole place in 20 minutes, or so." Ashe finished. She wasn't laughing at Specter, and hoped that this was clear. And, it had actually taken about the amount of time Ashe expected anyway.

The Warehouse - Astral
Like many warehouses, but certainly not all or even most, this one is situated on a pier, out over the water. It is a modern pier, more or less, built of plasteel and plascreet. It appears to be a fairly wide version of a pier, approximately square, in shape with somewhere around 100 meters to a side. One side of the pier is entirely open to the waterfront; likely the spot where boats tie up for pickup and drop off. The Warehouse itself is set back somewhat from that side of the pier, as well as the leeward side (away from shore), while it is built right up to the water's edge on the other side of the pier, likely not taking any deliveries there at all.
From the distance Specter and Ashe stopped to investigate, the place looked more or less deserted. There were no obvious astral signatures travelling around, announcing themselves as magical. There were no obvious Spirits, nor Adepts. There was one single mundane signature moving about at a leisurely pace; most likely a night-watchman or some such.
There was, obviously, only one entrance to the Dock itself. It is quite easy to get to, as the gates to that pier were directly off the main service road, set back only slightly from the shore. The gates looked solid enough, from our Astral vantage. There was no obvious gate guard; though without being able to see in windows, it's difficult to tell in the Astral.

There did not seem to be any reason, in the Astral, for the team to be anything other than normally cautious.

"Ok... I'm not sure I feel comfortable investigating any further than this without our team close by. We're several miles from them, and they're not moving our bodies. So I say we head back with news, and come back here with the whole group." Ashe said. She obviously had reservations about further searching, despite that there didn't seem to be any reason not to investigate further. Perhaps it was that cautious attitude which had helped her survive for as long as she had. Paranoia, they say, is a common feature of ShadowRunners who survive. For any length of time, that is.

LT pipes up the code to silent the alarm. He then looks around "What?" he exclaimed the alarm shuts down... He Swings his sword in one hand in a circular motion then sheaths it on his back. Standing to the side to let the ladies out of the truck...

While the two were out doing their astral scouting, Kesslan had finished readying his gear and had moved his bike down the ramp and out of the aircraft before propping it up on it's kickstand just a little ways past and deciding to quietly stand guard. The way, whom ever it was, was able to track his team bothered the Shifter. That his old employer was also involved in this some how bothered him more, even wondered just who it was he was really working for. Watashi had seemed fairly up front, and certainly had paid them their considerable advance, on that he couldn't complain, yet there was something he was hiding about the whole thing, of that Kesslan felt certain. Worse still, he was oddly starting to feel somewhat responsible for the other members of the team, something rather contrary to his natural instincts and desire to work alone. Jaguars were not known for being a very social species, but then Kesslan, as a shifter, was at least in some way somewhat human, and perhaps it had been that side of him that reacted in such a way now.

Seig stood scanning his side of the aircraft, his submachine gun held across his body, muzzle tilted slightly skyward. He felt too exposed, too easily targeted. He would have preferred a more clandestine insertion, but the team was not skilled or prepared for such a maneuver. And he had taken Kesslan's point about attempting a HALO jump, and the certain result had not filled him with the promise of survival.

The darkening night soothed him. As one of the rare breed of 'dark' elves, sunlight brought with it distracting irritation and sometimes even pain. In small doses he could compensate with enshrouding clothing, but even covering up had its drawbacks. But the fading light held no menace for him now.

He was glad, though he'd never admit it to anyone, that Viking had taken up his flank and was scouting the other side of the jet. Seig had taken on the task of providing some cover for the rest of the team, as they disembarked, without orders or discussion, but his position so out in the open discomfited him. As soon as everyone was clear of the craft and heading for the city, Seig planned to find a likely outpost within the nearby treeline from which to monitor the area.

Scanning said treeline for signs of unfriendlies, but with an eye for a suitable spot for later, Seig almost didn't register the slight movement on his peripheral right. As it was, nothing but sheer luck had saved him from giving away the fact that he had, and thereby alerting the mark to his having been spotted. Seig had been turning his head away from the 'bogey' just as he'd noticed the movement and so had simply continued the motion. He didn't know if the intruder was alone, so it was best not to 'trip the alarm' just yet.

Subvocalizing, Seig spoke to Viking as well as anyone else on the team who might be listening in:

"Heads up. Bogey on my 3."

Using the mil-speak he'd heard in all the trideos he'd ever watched about combat, Seig could only hope that Viking, or one of the others might understand the direction he'd indicated. He felt the less he said the better.

"Can you get an astral fix?"

Again, Seig was going on vague rumor and hearsay. He had some experience with the astral - as an adept he used the influence of mana to drive his physical body to feats that would appear to some as almost magical - but he had little knowledge of how magicians manipulated mana to their own ends. But what he did know, and this took no skill with mana at all, was that they needed to identify this intruder fast.

Doing her name honour, Specter floated along the side of the warehouse. Unseen on the physical plane, and keeping her distance even on the astral, but with a good sight at the warehouse anyway. She took all sights and feelings in. And they felt... false. Something was off. After 15 more minutes of predatorial peeping, she nudged Ashe lightly. From experience she knew that time on the astral plane seemed to go by much quicker than on the physical. What felt like hours only has been about 30 minutes. The speed of thought. She chuckled at the thought. "I don't think there is much more to see from the outside for now. At least nobody has noticed us... I think." Ashes approval made the decision easy. They returned to their bodies.

As always, upon settling back into her milky white flesh, her lungs automatically filled themself deeply with air and her mouth gasped audible. Almost like a drowning metahuman did after minutes submerged under the surface. Then she became aware of a certain softness under her cheek.

And that softness now started to move on its own. Oh excrement. I'm lieing on Ashe! Quite a bit embarrassed, the elf girl sat up straight. The furious blush was made well visible in the dark of the car by her own, blueish luminecence.

"Erm... well... we've found the warehouse." She started, still flustered. But for the heck of it she won't let it disrupt her professionality. "And something feels really wrong about it. There's a nightwatch on post." She looked at the ceiling of the car, just to have a point to focus as she adressed Eleanor: "Didn't you say the warehouse is filed as empty and unowned, Eleanor? Why does it need a watchman then?" The young shamaness looked into the faces of the others, lit clear as day for her night vision by the blue shine of her skin. "I'd bet my income of this job that this is an ambush of some sorts." She grinned, neither unfriendly nor malicious. "Good thing we scouted it out a bit beforehand, right Alexia?" It was clearly meant as a friendly tease. Although it bore a grain of truth. At least from Specters point of view.

At the mention of 'bogey' Kesslan activated the ruthenium polymers covering his suit and moved around closer to Seig's position to take a look. Looking out over the astral first in hopes of having an easier time of spotting whom ever it was in the dark he also, without even really thinking about it, checked them out on the physical plane as well. As a dual natured being it was just something he'd learned to do. You never knew what differences you might see between the planes and he was always vulnerable on both.

Physical Perception = 3 hits
Astral Perception = 3 Hits

Assuming he spotted who Seig was talking about the shifter took the time to actually assense the individual on the off chance it told him anything more about who, or what this person was that was out here in the middle of the night. Could have been just coincidence but lately there had been far too much of that.

Assensing Aura = 3 Hits

LT was standing by his truck when Siege put up the warning on a sub-vocal channel they were all tuned into (i think). LT had spent time around mercs. in there hang outs, and he understood what or where Seige's 3 was. As he could not make out anything very well astrally(I assume because i got no feed back on my roll last page )He let his vision go thermal. It was natural for a troll to see in the dark in fact thermal vision was LT's preferred visual standard. There were slight things that people revealed when you could see there body temperatures, and though LT had not quite learned the nuance of this trick. He knew he would figure it out sooner or later. For now it was enough that he could see in the dark... Quite well infact and he looked out on Seige's 3'oclock scanning the area as he put his sword away so as not to alert the enemy that he was aware of there presence but he wanted to get a make on them at least... he moved into the shadowy area of the landing area. And when he did he followed that shifters lead and activated his stealth suit...


perception roll thermal vis. vis enhancement perception and intuition all = 9 dice = 3hits

(I assume i see them if i don't i will delete the rest of this)

In a very low tone over the sub-vocal, and in a very poor but understandable Spanish LT asked "Tan lindo gatito cuál es el plan de?"(or so pretty kitty whats the plan) His sword away LT Decided to keep his super mack handy but he knew they were to far and he did not he knew he would probably not get off a clean shot. dropping the Mack to his side the sling hanging the fire arm limply useless for now. He grabbed the Berrett slung over his shoulder and took off the safty...

"Está listo cuando usted es mi amigo..."(Ready when you are my friend) LT Got down on one knee ruthenium polymers shifting slightly to compensate. And he trained site on the treeline Looking for targets of opportunity...

Are there any problems? Specter asked over the group channel concerned. And could you please talk in a language we all understand? Would be very helpful to coordinate. After all I don't just give out commands in sperethiel either, do I? She thought to herself.

She did not perceive the statement about contact as she had still been in astral space at the time, hence she was not informed.

Out of habit, she pulled down the face mask that covered her head and thus cut off the light emanating from it. One hand went to her gun in the shoulder holster while she switched to astral sight and started to scan the area she faced through one of the windows.


Perception roll (Astral) Int3 plus Perception1= 4d (4d6. hits(5)=0) ((Halelujah. A critical glitch. And a big one... She sees a dozen feathered serpents dancing skyclad on the lawn, performing a fertility ritual involving the sacrifice of an old chevvy truck.))

Her eyes went wide and instinctively she tried to crawl backwards, away from the window, crawling across Ashe in the process, not noticing neither caring. Oh sacred excrement we've got to get away. Go go go! Out of instinct she spoke sperethiel, ironically contradicting her own thoughts of just seconds ago.

Fire elementals surrounding the car. HUGE ones... attacking go away away away. She immediately reached out into the mana to jerk a water spirit out of its natural plane.

Conjuring roll, water spirit force 5. Magic5 plus conjuring4= 9d (9d6. hits(5)=3)

Water spirits (force 5) resistance roll against 3 successes from Specter (5d6. hits(5)=1) ( Means 2 net successes for Specter )

Drain test DV2 Cha6 +Will5= 11d (11d6. hits(5)=3) (No drain)

The water spirit rose from the astral, less willing than it could, but without a chance against Specters panic induced forcefulness. 'What will it be?' it asked mentally. Specter answered both aloud and mentally: 'Protect us from them!' She gave it a mental image of the fire elementals so it knew what to expect. The spirit hesitated, not seeing the threat. But it gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. 'If that is what you want, I will obliege.' It manifested on the physical plane as a shield of water suddenly surrounding the car completely, protecting it from fire damage that might occur, fire elementals or otherwise.

Humans... came a blubbering, fleeting voice from the mass of water. It sounded somewhat annoyed. Like someone called to the front door just when he had slipped into the nice hot bath he had prepared after a long day of working, just to be interrupted by the ring of the doorbell at the most inconvenient of times. It was a lot of emotion to convey in a single word, but then water was the element of emotion, wasn't it?




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