On the job - Knight Errant Training Center: Seattle

Ike took a moment to assess his condition after his graceful tumble. His shin was slightly scraped, but otherwise he was uninjured. He looked over at his dropped rifle. You shoulda seen the other guy. He felt a slight static buzz in the Resonance. God, I hate jammers. It feels so...lonely? He shook his head. Get over yourself, guy. You're a SWAT officer. You don't have time for trivial emotions like loneliness. He quietly stepped over to his gun. He looked at the small mechanical monkey running diagnostics on the device, and it gave him a mocking face of disdain. Cheeky bugger, ain't ya? Ike chuckled softly at the thought. Through the sprite's sarcasm, Ike could tell that the device should still be running smoothly enough. [Or is it, GM?]

Ike subvocalized into his mic. "All clear up here, one door leading into the building. I'll check it out. Thanks for the heads up on the bogeys." He quietly steps up to the doorway and checks the door frame for anything potentially hazardous, and especially explosive. Wouldn't look good to get fragged here and be out of commission for the rest of the exercise, now would it? His helmet's visor provided a good quality vision enhancement modification, so he made sure to make good use of it.

If he finds nothing immediately dangerous, he will decide to try to listen for any noises on the other side of the door. Utilizing a tip he had learned from a grizzled old instructor at the academy, he will remove his helmet and place the open end against the door, listening at the "top" of the helmet. This has two benefits: it should increase his ability to hear noises from the other side and should provide some protection, however slight, in the case of a prepared shooter on the other side trying to shoot him in the side of his head.

After he listens at the door, he will see the watcher spirit coming to his aid. He will whisper, "Well, bub, do you see anything worth mentioning?"

Seeing that the others were clearing the rooms, Collider was free to take a closer look around the main area of the floor. However, with very little to go on what he was looking for, he couldn't seem to get any extra information he could relay to his teammates. As the rooms were called clear one by one, he joined the main group at the entrance to the stairs. Right about this time he was wishing he had brought along those magesight goggles he saw in the guncage. being able to look under the door for whatever is on the other side would be invaluable in later missions, and he resigned himself to remembering to pack them in his kit next chance he got.

In the meantime, he awaits the next move, whether it be a quick and dirty attack through the door or a stealthy creep up the stairs.

Daniel follows up Ginny and Ramme close closing there march (sorry nothing really to had at this moment of the assault)

GM Note: Everyone please make audio and visual perception tests



Everyone on the first floor soon finds the side offices are empty, and while Ramme takes up position near the old shell of an office printer everyone else prepares to check the back offices. However as Collider was preparing to head into the back area where the stairs would likely be located he heard... something. He wasn't sure what but it was just enough to tell him he should wait for the others before forging on ahead alone. Or maybe it was the fact that all of a sudden the jamming cut out without warning and everyone could see in their AR that the team network had promptly re-established itself.

Meanwhile Ike wasted little time retrieving his weapon and finding it little worse for wear. There were a couple of new small scratches on it but that was all merely superficial. As he checks the door for traps or sounds, he hears little if anything at first though after a little while longer he picks up some faint high pitched whine though it was hard to place what the source was. It could simply have been a sound carrying from one of the other practice zones or possibly something from the stairwell. And while he doesn't see the spirit approaching on the astral plane, he none the less finds it appearing next to him to report that the edge of the roof was a potential falling hazard, the very pipe that had tripped him up had a sharp edge and was a hazard, and that there was a drone watching him from above. A quick check however soon showed it was merely one of the standard, unarmed and brightly painted KE monitoring drones that had moved in to no doubt take footage of his actions during the training and was no actual threat.

The coast for now, at least seemed clear. It was also around this point in time when he suddenly felt the jamming simply cease, and he once again could feel the comforting hum of the matrix around him once again.

Ginny took a deep breath as she "Cleared" the last side room with Ramme. - No paint blotch on my armor yet... So far so good... She thought to herself, filing out of the room and toward the back of the big room, where the door to the next section stood. They would be heading through there to get to the back-cubes, and the stairs.
"Ike, any word up there? She mumbled in to her mouthpiece built in to the helmet. One thing she could say for her job with KE: they took good care of her. This was nothing like when she was "on the beat," back in the day. She got what she needed, and if she could come up with reasonable requests, she sometimes even got a bit of what she wanted, in order to do her job well.
- Huh, curious... She thought, - The watcher hasn't checked in regarding the staircase yet... And it's been... She checked the time counter on her AR readout. - It's been nearly 10 seconds. Despite the complexity, it should have checked in already... Ginny finished her thought, looking around at the team.
"Guys, take a breather for a sec, I haven't heard back from my "Staircase" watcher... I'm going to check in with it."" She said to the team. She knew that magic made them nervous, and if they had any idea what kind of "magician" she really was, it would likely make them even more nervous. Fortunately, she had managed to stick to normal "Magician" tasks so far, and had been able to keep them thinking that she was just a standard, "run of the mill" Hermetic Mage. It was better for her that way. If they had seen what she used to do back on the beat to keep herself safe, it probably would have freaked them out.
"Report" She sent the mental command to the Watcher she had tasked to the staircase. She knew that since she had asked it to check in before heading back to it's metaplane, there was no way that it wouldn't have done that. She also knew that she would know immediately if it had been attacked. Which meant that if there was a magician on the staircase, it was a very clever one. It's tough to fool a Watcher in to "not noticing" you.

4 hits out of 5 dice! Yeah!!
Only 1 hit for the second test
[OOC] Since I forgot to label them, you may choose either to be Audio or Visual; I was intending them to be in the order you posted: Audio then Visual.

Just as Ginny orders the spirit to report in, it was on it's way back slipping in through the walls as it travelled through on the astral plane. 'There are machines that fly in the stairwell. Others have come and gone who carry weapons, others who did not. There are now only the machines that fly.' (GM Note: The spirit's 'search' power takes a default period of 10 minutes per attempt, not 10 seconds. As a result it has not had a chance to really 'look around' as per the power in question.)

Ramme checks his comm to make sure his AR is really back online and looks to the Hacker:
Hey, can you try to hack into the camera system now?

He waits till he get an answer from him or a info from Ginny and her watchers. Ramme isn't quite sure was he should think about this situation. They haven't encounter any enemy or hostage yet. It was too quiet although he remember that the difficulty should has be increased. In the last weeks he learned in his training that something like that usually means problems and that was something Ramme didn't want to happen in this mission.

Ginny sighs, somewhat annoyed at herself that the strain of upkeep for the two spells was wearing her down so much. She should have known that the Watcher would take at least 10 minutes to do it's search power, and been patient with it. She takes a deep breath, looking around at the group. Knowing what's coming next, Ginny kneels down on her right knee at the base of the door, pointing her rifle in, at an angle so that anyone near the door would be within her range of fire. She wasn't very good at shooting lefty, but since Collider had the other side of the door, Ginny would take this side. She flicked the safety on, then she switched hands, holding her left index finger out over the trigger housing.
"Watcher reports drones in the stairwell, and previously armed metas, but none now. I made it report too soon, so it doesn't have full details for me." She said to the group, giving them a moment to assimilate the information.
"Thank you for your service. You are dismissed" She said to the watcher, knowing that if she wasn't out of services, she was close. She would rather free this one up, and summon another if she needed it, later.
"Ok, I am out of services, so that watcher is gone. I'm ready when you are." She says in the Com, checking quickly to make sure that the safety was switched back off. Noticing that she had missed that detail, Ginny flicks the safety to the "Off" position, and sights down the barrel in to the door, waiting for either Ramme or Collider to kick it.

Daniel checks his commlink and indeed the jammer has been turned off. He then quickly gets back into AR and find anything he could hack.
He loads up his icon persona a faceless man in a old trivid detective suit with a "fedora" hat and a raincoat. The persona takes out a magnifying glass from his pocket and tries to scan for nodes in the Matrix.


(Scan)
(stealth program)
(Hack on the fly)

"Even if they are observers a little paint won't hurt em. I say we take the stairs quietly if possible though, if there is anyone up there, they'll have he upper ground advantage." Collider adds to the ongoing stream, then checks the door knob slowly to see if it is locked. If it's not, he will open the door and peek around the doorframe. hopefully they won't be able to see him while his stealth suit is still active.

"Yeah. Sorry, I requested a report from the Watcher before it had a chance to really get a good look around. It couldn't tell me what kind of machine they are." Ginny responded, holding perfectly still. Just because her group wasn't opening the door didn't mean that the "other guys" wouldn't. She intended to remain ready through when the door opened, no matter who did it.
Ginny idly rubbed her finger up and down against the trigger guard. She had worn that spot from black to a matte silver, having worked that area down to the metal underneath the paint. Her gun wouldn't pass a "Regulation" level inspection as a result, if the inspector was thorough, as a spot without paint was a potential hazard. There were any number of things that could go wrong: rust, a shine spot that someone else could see as she walked, increased heat transfer in the case of the gun overheating, or a plethora of other hazards which Ginny didn't really want. It was a nervous tick, so to speak. She would likely notice it again when she cleaned the gun. And she would remind herself, again, to have it repainted.

So be it. Time is running so we should keep moving.Ramme take a quick look to check if everybody is ready and in position around the door. So the stairwais are empty now, so the runners went either upstairs or are in the next room. Nothing I can change - at least not without go there and ask them nicely to leave.

He noded to Collider and who opeed the door. Ducking near the opening Ramme listens for suspicious noise, (like moving or breathing people or like starting gunfire: Perception: 6hits)

"Woah!! Get back!!" Ginny shrieked, snagging a hand on Collider's body armor to keep him from rounding the door. It may only be paint that they were about to be plastered with, but it was meant to simulate a real scenario, and unless Ramme's reflexes were something extraordinary, he was about to get colored. And, of course, "Colored" means "Dead" in this game. Fortunately, it's just a game, otherwise there would be blood consequences for what Ramme just did.
"Ike, hope you're not somewhere difficult, 'cause I'm dropping your Invis now." Ginny barked out, keeping her hand on Collider's body armor for the moment. This left her vulnerable to gunfire, theoretically. But her concentration was just freed up a bit to "retaliate" in somewhat different fashion than her rifle. She knew she didn't have time to Levitate Ramme out of harm's way, she just had to hope that he could manage a faster reaction than a "normal" Metahuman might have.
And just then, it hit her.
"Uhh, guys... We're about to be flanked." Ginny said, noticing that the only other door in the big room had opened at some point over the last 30 seconds or so. Her voice had lost all traces of emotion. This may have just been a game, but Ginny was experiencing it like it was real.
She could see the door clearly, standing ajar, over the tops of the cubicles that they had been backed up against. And with that, Ginny relaxed her grip on Collider's body armor.

She was going to need all the concentration she could muster.

(OOC: Everyone please post new initiatives)

As the door opens and Collider makes his way in, Ginny shouts out her warning, but her movements are a little too late to catch the cloaked man and her fingers miss his collar. The warning however proves enough as the air suddenly fills with 'lead' and tracer rounds coming from the left side. The door and part of the waist high cubicle wall provide Collider just enough cover to duck behind as the whole area gets plastered with coloured gel rounds and tracers. The noise in such close confines is almost deafening (Those without sound dampers will find their audio perception tests reduced by -3 dice). There was no doubt what the weapon was, nor that it was clearly using some sort of gas ventilation system to compensate for the tremendous recoil such a weapon typically produces. None the less the drone down the hall clearly jumps up and down slightly as the barrels fire. There was also little doubt that not only had the drone likely been moved into place recently, but it had clearly been lying in wait for some one to open that very same door. Worse still the angle from which the drone was firing was sending some of the projectiles through the open door way and in Ginny's general direction. (Anyone moving through the 'cone' area, be it in or out of must make a Reaction +Edge test. Dodge skill is applicable if on full defence. Collider and Ginny must also make such a test if they wish to move from their present positions but are other wise 'in cover' from the drone's guns.)

To complicate matters Ginny's second warning is followed by a pair of thermal smoke grenades being rolled out towards the team, though it's hard to pin down just where exactly they came from (Visual perception test with a -2 dice penalty). Clearly with no one having kept an eye on the second door, the team had found themselves flanked. That no opponents were immediately visible however indicated either the use of invisibility or active camouflage.

Meanwhile up on the roof Ike could easily hear the sounds of sustained gunfire from below, a sure sign that things had kicked off. Were he waiting for a moments distraction before slipping into the stairwell, now would likely be as good a time as any, for the watcher with him still reported no really notable threats, and combat had clearly been engaged going by the visual feeds from his team mates.

On the side of the Matrix, Daniel had sufficient fortune to locate two hidden signal sources, but had so far lacked the time required to actually act against them, or otherwise properly probe them to see just what the devices actually were. Given that he could clearly see the tag headers in his AR for any 'off limits' items, it was easy to assume they were some sort of device related to the scenario they were in. The recent activity about him however would prove ample distraction, though not necessarily too much to overcome in the event he wanted to try and actually hack one of the devices (Appropriate penalties will however apply)

Initiative: 10 + 5hits = 15

8+1hit = 9

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3094830/

14, 3 passes

Perception 3 hits

Outpost: 10 + 2 hits = 12
3 Passes

Initiative Order:
Larzarus: 15 (3 Passes)
Gala: 14 (3 Passes)
Outpost: 12 (3 Passes)
???: 10 (??? Passes)
Sly: 10 (3 Passes)
Collider: 9 (1 Pass)
Drone: 9 (3 Passes)
Present Presence: 6 (1 Pass)

Larz, Gala, Outpost. Since you three are first, please post your first action. I'll then post for ??? and Sly if Sly has not returned. After that Collider, and then the Drone and if he hasn't come back by then Present.

Since Collider is in the way, Ramme can't tackle the drone so he ran to the left door. The thin cubide walls should'n stop a troll like him.

He holding his shield infront of him, so he won't take to much damage when he crashs through the cubide wall.

Right before the cubide wall Ramme focus on his inner strength, pushs himselft up from the ground and jumps through the wall.

Running (no Edge): 4 hits

Ginny, seeing Ramme head in one direction, opening up an "escape" route for the group, decides to cover their retreat. This was somewhat poorly planned, and even more poorly executed, but that was as much her fault as that of anyone else. She was, after all, the veteran. She had been through this before.
Keeping her head low, Ginny turns away from the Drone, and the back room, and toward the wide open space behind the team. There would likely be a 'runner or two heading up the cube wall behind them, and Ginny intended to give her team the best chance at "survival" as she could manage.
Fortunately for the team, Ginny had a few tricks up her sleeve yet. She gave her vision a quick "switch", viewing the world before her in the Astral plane, rather than the Physical plane. This would help her locate, and hopefully get a count of, the number of Magically active metahumans and spirits in the room. Of course, hopefully the number was low...

Actions:
Simple: Shift Perceptions - Physical to Astral
Free: Perceive in Astral
Simple: Shift Perceptions - Astral to Physical
3 hits to see any magically active characters (characters with active spells on them count) in the Astral.

Corson moves for cover as the drone opens up and the smoke grenades start to roll out. At first he tries switching to his thermal optics but soon switches back when he finds it's thermal smoke which makes that avenue unfortunately pointless. However his low-light vision switches on to at least help a little when it comes to piercing the billowing smoke around him. It wasn't a perfect solution but it worked a lot better than just the naked eye. However without being able to see any threats the best he can do for the time being is take cover and keep a watchful eye out for the threats he knows will be coming even as Ramme barrels past to knock down the cubicle wall. That at least gave the group a potential exit and Corson held his ground to help the group retreat if need be.

Just as he finds cover, two assailants open fire on the group with the tell tale chatter of an AK-97 and a shotgun. One of them, clearly having circled around near the front fires down the 'corridor' near all the offices with a shotgun. Daniel winds up being the target in this case, distracted the way he was by hacking via his AR. Fortunately for the first shot went high giving him a warning though the second shot seemed to possibly have his name on it (Please make a dodge test. You need 3 net hits. If you fail you may then roll your Impact Armour against the remaining damage and may need to make a knock back test to remain standing.)

Gala winds up being the target of the second assailant as stick-n shock rounds start to fill the air around her (Please make 1 dodge test at -2 vs 2 hits and 1 dodge test at -3 vs 1 hit)

Please note: For any perception tests modifiers for Thermal Smoke apply.

Once the smoke began billowing from the grenades, he knew the majority of his team would be running nearly blind. Collider pulled his facemask down over his eyes, activating the ultrasound vision attachment, cutting through some of the thermal smoke and attempting to fix the locations of the enemy. From his position inside the door, he had no visual of anyone outside clearly, and unfortunately, he was a bit pinned by the Steel Lynx inside. His only hope would be to sneak his way backward and hope to fend off the ambushers.

With the ruthenium polymers obscuring his outline, Collider slides back into the room with his teammates and scans the room for targets.

Perception 4 + Int 4 - Visibility Modifier (-2) = 6d6. 2 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3123172/

Ginny sees the two attackers, and notices that they were winding up to lay down some fire for the group. She knew that, at least at the moment, she was right in the middle of their target area, and despite that she wasn't necessarily their direct target, she was most definitely one of their targets! She knew that she needed to act quickly - as quickly as possible - in order to continue to be any assistance to her team.

"Uh, guys... Behind us!" Ginny hissed in to her Commlink as she recoiled her body in to action. She didn't really want to get taken out this early in the game, and hadn't really had a chance to work her magic yet!

Actions:
Interrupt action: borrow my action from next round to switch to Full Defense (complex action).
Free Action: Speak
Dodge test 1: First roll, 1 hit
Dodge test 2: Second roll, 0 hits
OOC: Not sure if you want to rule a 2-dice roll as a critical glitch or not, but by RAW, my second dodge roll is a critical glitch. 2 dice, 0 successes, one 1; that's half or more dice came up as 1, and no successes... Up to you, of course.