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>>33233060
For the team’s contribution…
>The stealthy option. (Send in Tripwire and Hardesty. Have Quetzal assist from a covered position. Bunny and Dreadnought will establish a flank.) DC 13. Opponents detect you on a DC 15 check.
>The fast option. (Send in Dreadnought and Hardesty. Have Bunny assist from a covered position. Quetzal and Tripwire will establish a flank.) DC 12. Opponents detect you on a DC 10 Check.
>The big hit. (Send in Dreadnought and Quetzal, Bunny assists, Hardesty and Tripwire make a flank.) DC 10. Opponents automatically detect you. However, this one may have a hidden benefit.

Also, choose Echo_TRACER’s contribution…
>Scramble enemy Tacnets. (DC 15. Success will reduce the enemy’s roll to return fire by 3.)
>Send in the drone to assist the assault team. (DC 10. Success reduces ally DC by 3.)
>Send in the drone to assist the flank team. (DC 10. Success aids the flanking party in defending against potential reinforcement.)

My absence probably permanently lost me at least a couple of players. Oh well, I'll keep the thread up for a little while. Unfortunately, I have something to do in the morning, so if not enough people show up in, say, the next twenty minutes, I might have to call this one for this time.

>>33233074
Woops! Didn't even see this was up.

>The big hit. (Send in Dreadnought and Quetzal, Bunny assists, Hardesty and Tripwire make a flank.) DC 10. Opponents automatically detect you. However, this one may have a hidden benefit.

>Scramble enemy Tacnets. (DC 15. Success will reduce the enemy’s roll to return fire by 3.)

>>33233074
>The big hit. (Send in Dreadnought and Quetzal, Bunny assists, Hardesty and Tripwire make a flank.) DC 10. Opponents automatically detect you. However, this one may have a hidden benefit.

>Scramble enemy Tacnets. (DC 15. Success will reduce the enemy’s roll to return fire by 3.)

Oh boy this is going to be good.

Oh, right. I completely forgot about the first voting period being twenty minutes. The things you forget from being away for a bit...

>>33233473
>>33233509
Might as well move on, then.

>Writing. Roll prompt at the end of the next post.

>>33233074
You direct Dread and Quetzal to make a full assault against the soldiers, and Bunny to provide cover fire. It would be a shame to kill them, but Neurophage’s tampering is making you all unidentifiable anyway, so it makes no real difference. At the same moment, you direct Hardesty and Tripwire to circle back around and form a flank, in case of enemy reinforcements. Finally, you bring up Babylon and target the enemy group’s tacnet. They’d have a hard time shooting back with their senses disrupted and their targeting reticles going crazy.

Dreadnought does a final check on his machine gun while Quetzal draws out his obsidian knife. Bunny moves a bit downhill into the shadow of a building and aims her assault rifle downrange. You keep a couple feet behind her. Tripwire and Hardesty inform you that they’re both in position. You take a breath and count down in your head.

“Three… two… one… Now.” You whisper.

>Roll 2d20 (First one is for the team, the second is for Echo)

Rolled 66, 58 = 124

>>33233897
Rollin Thunder!

Rolled 6, 1 = 7

>>33234120
WoopS!

Wrong dice

Rolled 5, 5 = 10

>>33233897

Rolled 17, 17 = 34

>>33233897
Here goes nothing!

>>33234136
>>33234147
>>33234192

Okay, the team's roll is a hit, and Echo's is a Critical Glitch.

Spend Edge to negate a Critical Glitch? (Current Edge: 3)
>Y
>N

>>33234136
If memory serves this counts as a critical glitch so the answer is: Yes, I want to use a point of edge.

>>33234254
Y

That last thing we need is for us to CG at this point.

Rolled 3, 6, 11 = 20

>>33234266
>>33234297

Quick couple of rolls for reasons, and...

>writing

Rolled 10, 1, 4 = 15

>>33233897
>Edge spent. Critical Glitch averted!

The second before you launch Babylon for the cyber-assault, Sybil’s analysis spits back a familiar program configuration. Your breath catches in your throat as the opponent’s milspec firewall detects your intrusion. On instinct, your thumb hits your commlink’s off-switch just in time for a data bomb to go off. By the time you get back online, the digital danger has passed, but you won’t be able to pursue the same avenue of attack.

Not that you’ll need to. The roar of dozens of bullets flying from Dreadnought’s machine gun drops a couple of the soldiers more or less instantly. The few who survive unscathed are kept pinned behind a few metal crates of makeshift cover by Bunny’s rifle.

At the same time, another six soldiers disengage from the gangers are pull out of the commissary. The first four drop in seconds as Hardesty’s Barrett and Tripwire’s Remington each fire off two rounds, and each of those rounds perforates a different soldier’s chest. If they’re still alive, they’re not happy.

The remaining two soldiers manage to get within twenty feet of their comrade’s cover just in time to be caught in an exploding fireball courtesy of Quetzal.

Dear God… Looking around, you realize that it took your team less than a minute to turn Fort Lewis into a warzone. You’d be repulsed with yourself if you weren’t so focused.

The gangers stream out of the commissary, carrying boxes of supplies, just in time to meet a group of reinforcements. These guys are much more heavily-armored than the group you just mopped up. In all likelihood, engaging them won’t get you an easy fight. You’ve got a clear shot at the armory, but rushing in will leave the gangers to die.

(cont.)

>>33234707
>Leave them. They knew the risks when they took advice from shadowrunners.
>Leave part of the team to help them (Choose between Dreadnought, Quetzal and Fury, and Hardesty, Bunny and Tripwire.)
>Let the team keep the heat off. It’s just you and the drone from here on out.

(PS. I can't believe I forgot about Fury. Oh, well. She was... helping Bunny with covering fire or something. Yeah, sure. That's the ticket)

>>33234707
>Let the team keep the heat off. It’s just you and the drone from here on out.

Going to take a break to make dinner, which is fine because this is moving slow enough that I was planning on extending the voting period anyway.

Be back in about twenty minutes

>>33234707
>>Let the team keep the heat off. It’s just you and the drone from here on out.

Back. Sorry for the delay.

>>33235078
>>33235174

>Writing

>>33234741
“Guys, I’m going in.” you say. “I need someone to keep the heat off of the armory.”

“You don’t need six people for that, hacker.” Hardesty growls, lining up a shot on one of the reinforcements.

“He does if we’re expected to keep the gangers alive.” Fury says.

“Gangers? You expect us to put our lives on the line for a bunch of-”

“Shut up, Hardesty.” You say firmly. “All of us are in this for our own reasons. Those guys are Fury’s family.”

“If those guys were mercs instead of gangers, you’d be doing the same thing.” Tripwire chides. “Come on. This is hardly the worst jam we’ve ever been in.”

“I don’t know.” Bunny groans. “This is pretty bad.”

“Come back alive, Echo.” Dreadnought commands.

“You got it.” You nod your head and run towards the concrete building. You’re about to think of how you’re expected to open the door, when you see it wide open, the door hanging by a badly-damaged lock mechanism and only one of its melted hinges. Never change, Quetzal.

(cont.)

>>33235968
The inside of the squat building is barren save for a set of concrete stairs leading downward. The sounds of battle outside feel strangely distant from here. The only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, the scratching of Walter the drone’s feet against the floor, and the buzzing of harsh fluorescent lights.

The stairway ends at a metal door. You crouch down next to it and hold your commlink up to the window. From your ‘link’s camera, you can see a long hallway lined with support pillars leading to an unoccupied desk. Beyond the desk is a massive steel door. This is pretty obviously the door into the armory. A quick check of your wireless connectivity confirms your worst fears: you’re cut off from the outside in here. There’s probably a jackpoint at the desk, but you’ll need to get by obstacle number two: a camera. More to the point, it’s a wired camera.

>Ignore it. You’ve already made your presence here extremely obvious.
>Shoot the camera. It’s not like you can trip anymore alarms than you already have.
>Recon is why drones exist.

>>33236157
>>Recon is why drones exist.

>>33236157
>Recon is why drones exist.

>>33236195
>>33236251
>Writing

>>33236157
The autopicker in your pocket is enough to take care of the exterior door, and Walter obediently rolls on in. Every second he walks along the hallway, you’re expecting… something. An explosion, a bunch of turrets, a bunch of other drones. But, no matter how long you wait, nothing happens. Walter easily reaches the other end of the hallway. Once he gets there, you command him to extend a fiber optic cable into the camera. Just because the camera isn’t wireless-enabled doesn’t mean Walter isn’t. You wait a second while you connect to the security node connected to the camera, and immediately become deeply uneasy.

It’s open. Like, wide open. From here, you can turn on any of the six cameras in the armory building, lock or unlock the main door, or even turn the lights on or off. You disconnect immediately. This is wrong. This is a trap. There’s something you’re not seeing here. If you want to find it, you’ll need to…

>Scan for hidden nodes. (DC 13 to find anything)
>Open the door remotely.
>Crash the security node. (DC 15)

>>33236583
>>Scan for hidden nodes. (DC 13 to find anything)

>>33236583
>Scan for hidden nodes. (DC 13 to find anything)

>>33236947
>>33237003

>Roll 1d20

>>33236947
>>33237003
>>33237192
(Fuck. Forgot my trip.)

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 16

>>33237192

Rolled 12

>>33237192
Rollin!

Even though I'm pretty sure we're down to two players, I'll wait a couple extra minutes for another roll.

Rolled 20

>>33237293

>>33237298
>>33237371
>>33237434 (Oh, yes.)

>Writing.

>>33236583
(Just a quick reminder that nat. 20s are totally boss)

>Critical Hit! +1 Edge.

You launch a Scan and look around for any hidden nodes. You immediately notice a radio signal hiding just beyond the frequency you’d usually look for. Without wasting a beat, you launch Sybil and get a full read-up on the PAN hiding in the room. You are met with a powerful array of high-grade cyberware, milspec armor, and one hell of a gun. Naturally, all of these nice toys were coated with the highest-grade optical camo on the market. Had you walked in there, the spec-ops lying in wait would’ve emptied his gun into your back. Of course, given that you didn’t…

When you scanned the operator waiting to murder you, one of the things you took off his helmet’s integrated commlink was his access ID. Using this access ID, you can easily spoof commands to his various integrated devices and, so long as he remains unaware that you have him tagged, he will not be able to do anything about it. Given that UCAS milspec armor is designed with a quick-release function in case of hazardous-material infestations, and that SOP for UCAS soldiers is to carry emergency grenades on their persons…

Your satisfied smile returns at the sounds of plasteel hitting the floor, an explosion, and quick burst of gunfire. You open the door and walk into the hallway before the gunsmoke from Walter’s turret has time to blow away. You use his wired link to the security system to open the armory door and give a quick glance to the dead soldier before going inside.

(cont.)

>>33237863
The armory is everything an armory should be. Everything is in its proper place. Every piece of equipment is catalogued, indexed, tagged and stored for maximum efficiency and ease-of-use for the intended military end-user. It’s easy to find what you’re looking for.

A plasteel crate contains a number of commlinks. You’ve dreamed of owning heavy metal before, and it looks like it’ll be everything you've wanted. You pick one up from the crate and run a hand along it. The sleek, black, palm-sized machine feels like alien technology in your hands. You know it’ll only be more powerful once you get it home. Before you get too excited, you run the radio signal scanner over the commlink and take special care in removing every RFID tag you find. You make sure to check your work three times. You don’t want anyone finding you with this thing.

Once you’re through, you shove the 'link into your pocket and dart back towards the entrance. With Walter at your heels, you reach outside without resistance.

The moment you re-emerge, the whole team puts their focus into the escape. Dreadnought uses his body as cover for you while Hardesty, Tripwire and Bunny lay down a few flashbang grenades. Once the military realizes that you’re escaping, they seem strangely defeatist about detaining you. You can tell that they’re watching you, but don’t take any action the whole way back to the vans.

Of course. Acceptable losses. They weren’t going to pursue diminishing returns. It should’ve been obvious from the start that getting in would be harder than getting out. Once you make it back into Puyallup, you manage to get your pulse back under control.

“So, did you get the commlink, Echo?” Dreadnought asks.

“Yup, and it’s a thing of beauty.” For the first time since this whole ordeal started, you’re starting to think that you might be able to do this. You remind yourself to sleep well tonight, because the easy part’s over.

[THREAD 14: END]

That's all for tonight, chummers. Shadowrun Hacker Quest returns next Sunday at 1800 EST. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for schedule updates and be the first to know when the next thread goes live.

https://twitter.com/NullFearQuests

As usual, I'll hang around for a little bit before archiving the thread.

Let me start by saying that I was originally planning on ending the thread with tacticool motherfucker stepping out of optic-camo and making the next thread about fighting him in that hallway, but you guys just had to get a critical hit and make Echo look like a total badass. Things like that make quest-running it.

>>33238296
Thanks for running, Null. See? Wasn't so hard at all!

>>33238296
Thanks for running!

Clearly the dice gods want something interesting to happen since we avoided a critical glitch and got a crit for our trouble.