File: 1616976332746.jpg (327 KB, 779x1080)

327 KB JPG

>>5590114

Spectres trained here, once upon a time: de facto military superheroes equipped with bespoke nanotechnology and trained in sites hidden among the general population. Extreme conditioning courses took place in “normal” fitness centers; firing ranges were rented out for rigorous combat drills, and dying fullsense virtual-reality arcades were co-opted into group training simulation venues. Normal talents, honed to excellence, became vectors in heartless military calculus—what could one person do, and what technology could they use, to save or take as many lives as possible in the shortest time?

There are no Spectres anymore. Their technology and their research data are the legacy they leave behind, in abandoned server banks, black boxes, and secret rooms forgotten by new proprietors. This is the legacy you intend to use to take control of the Avenue. By searching these sites, which you found based on tips from the Worm, you hope to track down their secrets, and find a lead you can follow back to the source of their technology. You dart forward, avoiding light sources beside the foot path, and vault the sign—‘Marion: Unleash Your Optimal Lifestyle’—as you approach the facility.

> [[ Continued ]]

File: 1625273151149.jpg (175 KB, 1215x810)

175 KB JPG

>>5590118

> [[ Encrypted Chat ]]
> [ w0rm ] » you better not be busy with something wack
> [ w0rm ] » OH W8
> [ w0rm ] » DOG r u at the fsckin marion center rn??????
> [ stingray ] » { Busy: I can’t reply right now. }
> [ w0rm ] » no 4 real (￣m￣〃)
> [ w0rm ] » i need something from there if ur there
> [ w0rm ] » MSG ME BACK φ(ﾟﾛﾟ*)ﾉ
> [ stingray ] » { Busy: I can’t reply right now. }
> [ w0rm ] » scumbag moment honestly

Taking cover against the building, you take stock of your surroundings. While the facility is open 24/7, not all of it is in use: the exercise studio you’re looking into through the window is dark inside. Late visitors likely enter through the front door, but you tend to thrive when more complicated solutions are involved.

You. . .

[[ 1 ]]
> Pause and ask the Worm what they want. You owe them anyway: might be able to kill two birds with one stone.
> No texting while you're in the middle of an op. The Worm can wait 'till you find someplace safe to settle.

[[ 2 ]]>>5590118

> Break the window and vault in. (Challenge difficulty: Easy. Will make a very loud noise and leave obvious evidence of entry. Failure: You could injure yourself or trigger an alarm.)
> Circle around and attempt the front door. (You don’t fit in here. You could encounter resistance.)
> Sneak to the back in search of a rear entrance. (You’ll have limited time before a guard returns.)

Another blacked quest, randy?

File: 1624771909799.jpg (355 KB, 1920x768)

355 KB JPG

> [[ Note ]]
Welcome in, and thanks in advance for revisiting Inner District Blues with me! I’ve had this story in my head for a long time despite flaking once already for some personal difficulties: hopefully things will be comfortable enough this time to stick around for a little while longer. You shouldn’t have to read or re-read old threads to participate; as the thread progresses, I hope to provide context enough to obviate that need. However, there’s only a couple of them, they provide plenty of background on the story thus far, and I enjoyed writing them!

> [[ Archive ]]
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=IDB

> [[ Character Sheet ]]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mt3zzaA0918gGEl0DtjtXyGwdxBXGHH29Yo7VVNaZA

>>5590126
Welcome back, I was wondering where you went.

>>5590123
I don't think this is the same guy, this is a quest from before the blacked wish fulfillment rape spam, I mean even the older spam not the recent stuff.

>>5590121
> Pause and ask the Worm what they want. You owe them anyway: might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

If we get screwed then we know they were at fault and can cut ties, if they are genuine then we can help out a contact and get payment in return.

> Sneak to the back in search of a rear entrance. (You’ll have limited time before a guard returns.)

We aren't the brute force kinda guy based on our char gen, this is part of why I'm wary of the gang leader dude, if he wants to coerce us he can because we chose the subtle skill set.

>>5590121
>No texting while you're in the middle of an op. The Worm can wait 'till you find someplace safe to settle.
> Break the window and vault in.
Didn't expect this to come back. Hope your doing good.

File: 1562442728178.jpg (51 KB, 668x668)

51 KB JPG

>>5590140
>>5590246
Thanks! Good to be back in some capacity.
I'll probably wait for a couple replies between posts: not sure what pace things tend to move at nowadays.

>>5590250
I doubt you'll get enough votes in to fill out more than a update a day. If you demonstrate that your quest moves fast with multiple updates in a day then you can get correspondingly fast votes if you keep it up and enough people notice, but I usually find this is only applicable to the 1st thread of new quests with an interesting premise or quests with an established dedicated voter base.

>>5590121
> No texting while you're in the middle of an op. The Worm can wait 'till you find someplace safe to settle.
> Break the window and vault in. (Challenge difficulty: Easy.
VVurm.

File: Loki - The Marion Center.png (62 KB, 464x298)

62 KB PNG

>>5590309
>>5590246
Psychological acceptability is one of security’s greatest enemies. To the Marion’s key demographic, the Center is a place of peace and exclusivity. They would not countenance such things as bulletproof glass, window bars, or high-security surveillance systems here, as implementing anti-criminal measures would be as acknowledging and accepting that they coexist with criminals. Thus, while the window beside you is not so trivial as the breakaway glass from a movie set, it is mundane enough that the hammer and nail punch from your kit should be able to break through it with relative ease. This will not be quiet. Once you’re inside, you’ll have to move quickly or avoid detection, and you’ll probably have to make your egress via a different exit; this, however, you already expected.

Confrontation is best avoided. Your best self-defense option is a handgun, and though the advanced suppressor means it won’t be heard easily from across the estate, chances are good that catching a bunch of bodies is just going to make things more difficult for you in the immediate future. You’re in good shape, but pretty thin compared to some of your contemporaries; being pretty scrappy, thanks to your upbringing, unfortunately doesn’t make you a favored candidate for winning extreme close-quarters engagements. You intend to rely on defense technology; for present lack of that, stealth and your wits are your best options. Quickly, you check the Loki AIS—as you fish it out of your pocket, panchromatic static flickers across its smooth surface, and it gathers geolocation data for a few moments before the image shifts to form a relatively convincing subscription card. In the worst case of crossing paths with the grunts or gymgoers, you might be able to pass yourself off as a guest.

> [[ Encrypted Chat ]]
> [ stingray ] » { Busy: I can’t reply right now. }
> [ w0rm ] » omfg
> [ w0rm ] » cant text back cause hes 4real dumpster diving atm
> [ w0rm ] » do u not have a neural interface or EMG or smth
> [ w0rm ] » guess not huh? OK sorry my bad w/e they are pretty hard to get
> [ w0rm ] » ITS NOT LIKE U HAVE A FSCKN NANOFABRICATOR OR SMTH
> [ stingray ] » { Busy: I can’t reply right now. }
> [ w0rm ] » (;´д｀) (;´д｀) (;´д｀)

> [[ Continued ]]

File: 1617103045916.jpg (4.16 MB, 1920x2880)

4.16 MB JPG

>>5590431
Yet again, you apply physics to your benefit. The punch concentrates force into a single point, shattering the window into so many shards. It’s louder than you intend or originally imagine, likely courtesy of the window’s size; you spend another moment scraping some of the broken glass away from the bottom of the frame with your hammer to avoid unfortunate injury, then vault over the wall and into the Marion Center proper, assessing your surroundings. It seems like you’ve landed yourself in an open studio for group classes, with a variety of treadmills and stationary bikes lined up against the far wall; in front of each is a flatscreen television playing an ad reel that affords the room eerie illumination.

The multilevel facility is built around a central elevator: following the main hall to the reception area would afford you the fastest access to any of the building’s amenities, as well as let you scope out an up-to-date map of the area instead of following signs and guesswork. If anyone heard your entry, though, they’re likely coming toward you *from* that route, making it a questionable path. You could exit through the locker room, then, in search of an auxiliary staircase; the question is where to make your first destination.

[[ 1 ]]
> Exit via the main hallway.
> Make your way through the locker room in search of the stairs.

[[ 2 ]]
> The health science center boasts a 3D printer, per the ads you're seeing. Make your way there in search of resources to lift.
> Search the equipment rooms on the other side of the ground floor. Training took place at the pool and climbing wall long ago.
> The administrative facilities are most likely upstairs. You could find activity records and signs of the Spectres.
> The physical plant is probably on a below-ground level. Maybe there's a server room down there? If not, you could potentially cut power to the building or cause some other distraction.

>>5590436
> Exit via the main hallway.

We belong here, we have a membership card and everything. If we bump into anyone then just literally bump into them and act like we belong, say sorry and then walk past. If we have the right attitude then any staff or guards will press on to focus on breach site, maybe they'll think it is vandalism or something.

I'm fine with taking the long way too though.

> The physical plant is probably on a below-ground level. Maybe there's a server room down there? If not, you could potentially cut power to the building or cause some other distraction.

Maybe the most likely place to have what we are looking for, if not then we can cause a distraction. Lets just hope the admin facilities have paper records, otherwise cutting the power will be a bad idea.

File: 90237902357.jpg (297 KB, 615x609)

297 KB JPG

>>5590537
The primary hallway leading back to the lobby is lined with entrances to side-rooms and facilities closed off by security shutters: all but a handful of individual rooms with strength training equipment are closed down for the night, as are the building’s small nutrition bars and restaurants, which close completely or transition to vending-only service outside of full-service hours. The Center boasts private spa services, too—you imagine such things are subject to scheduled sessions reserved for daylight hours. The use of space is extravagant and inefficient, but the layout is easily navigable; the signage is clear enough for a child to understand.

You note that the building isn’t completely unoccupied by guests, too; there’s someone in one of the weight rooms, though they’re listening to music with their back turned when you pass. Believing outside presence will help you blend in, you continue forward with firm resolve.

Sure enough, there’s someone heading towards you. They’re just part of the overnight service crew, by the look of them, though it sounds like they’re communicating with security via radio over their earpiece. You look as the figure draws closer. The girl’s ensemble is rounded out by a tight-fitting Marion Center shirt and an official looking tablet, which she repeatedly consults as she makes her way down the dimly-lit hallway to the source of the disturbance.

“Hey, sorry—” You thought you’d gotten by her, too, but she swivels on a heel as you pass. Her gaze is a little bit of a glare. It does not suggest trust or respect. “I don’t remember checking you in. Could I. . .”

“See my ID?” You intercept her by displaying your ID, in a quick flash to catch her off guard with a finger partially disguising the barcode and member number. The Loki is a brain hack. It’s a trick of the light—adaptive as it is, it can’t breach the Marion Center’s servers and fabricate an entire false identity for you on demand. What matters is how you sell the distraction, engage with her, and keep her from investigating much deeper. “I know how it is, sorry. I’ve been here for a hot minute now—was just about to head out.”

“Ouh, I apologize. Must have been before my shift started, then.” The girl’s expression softens. Your deception is successful; there are more important things on her mind, and she’s placated in simply being able to see and believe that you’re One Of Them. “Did you come from the studio just now?”

You shake your head. “Was getting some stuff out of the lockers. Something wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Enjoy your night, and thanks for your loyalty,” She replies, raising a hand to her earpiece as she continues past you. “Sorry, just a late guest walking around. No, I—I think he came from somewhere else. Huh? No, not with the meeting party: he came from downstairs. Listen, I’m checking it out now. Meet me in Studio 2. . .”

> [[ Continued ]]

File: fu2jpg.jpg (257 KB, 882x1000)

257 KB JPG

>>5590753
Did they have some other kind of surveillance, or was your break-in just loud enough to hear from the reception area? Whatever the case, you probably don’t have infinite time here. You pass through the wide-open reception area where membership fees are paid and waivers are signed, making your way to the elevator. It opens with a pleasant chime at the touch of a button, and you cross the threshold inside. That accessing the primary elevator buttons requires no special security effects suggests to you that cards are scanned at the door or front desk. Accessing the maintenance levels, however, seems to require the use of a turnkey rather than the touch of a button. Curiously enough, there’s also a nine-digit keypad lock on a panel opposite the elevator buttons.

You. . .
> Make your way to the upper levels instead, in search of the administrative facilities.
> Make your way to the lower level and try to find an alternate maintenance access.
> Attempt to circumvent the turnkey via lockpicking. (Difficulty: Medium. Failure: You could waste a lot of time or end up on the wrong floor.)
> Your kit has a tool for breaking these keypad locks. Attempt to access the keypad. (Difficulty: Medium. Failure: You could trigger an alarm or render the elevator completely inoperable.)

>>5590756
Wasting time isn't something we can afford given the possible alarm or just general suspicion we've triggered. Getting trapped in the elevator or triggering a possibly second alarm would also be bad, giving them an idea of our objective and location or trapping us. Instead we should go for the Spectre records and opportunistically pickpocket/steal a elevator key that has been left lying about. Or check for new passwords scrawled on whiteboards in meeting rooms or left in drawers by PCs.

Actually, never mind, I was just stream of consciousness writing, lets just try and go down the elevator and use cutting the power as our exit strategy once we find a stairwell. Getting into the admin area may also require a similarly tough DC lock or bypassing guards standing in the only entrance or something. If we get trapped then we'll have to rely on our firepower or hope we can fix the problem before the guards reach the elevator.

> Your kit has a tool for breaking these keypad locks. Attempt to access the keypad. (Difficulty: Medium. Failure: You could trigger an alarm or render the elevator completely inoperable.)

>>5590756
>Your kit has a tool for breaking these keypad locks. Attempt to access the keypad.

>>5590756
>Your kit has a tool for breaking these keypad locks. Attempt to access the keypad.
Ayyyy, I'm happy to see this quest up and running again. Thanks for continuing Chairman.

File: 25061786.jpg (76 KB, 1600x711)

76 KB JPG

Rolled 4, 3, 4 = 11 (3d6)

>>5591076
Thanks for the welcome back!

>>5590838
>>5590842
>>5591076
Dice are always a difficult spot for me, so I might take some opportunities to experiment. Here's what I've currently got in mind: Xd6, highest result, higher is better. An initial 1d6 if it fits the character's skillset, +1d6 if using some beneficial tool, +1d6 if it's built for the specific purpose at hand, and +1d6 if it's Spectre technology. Other circumstance-related bonuses and penalties may add or subtract dice. The difficulty of the challenge determines how low the highest die result can be before consequences are incurred.

File: iegjazkp.jpg (175 KB, 1920x1200)

175 KB JPG

>>5591136
The small device from inside your kit attaches to the outside of the keypad. All interfaces like this have some form of weakness; the lockbreaker serves first as a magnetic probe that might actuate some form of hidden metal latch on the inside. Failing that, it emits a variety of signals in hopes of probing a wireless frequency that emulates an identification card or some other scannable component. And failing that. . .

There’s a spark, and your fingers snap away from the keypad. The scent of burnt plastic wafts from the casing, and the elevator offers another pleasant chime as it begins to descend. It stops after a couple seconds, and the door begins to open. Then, the light inside flickers off and the buttons go dark, with the inside of the cubicle bathed promptly afterwards in the soft red glow of backup lighting. An error code flashes on the digital clock that reads out the current floor number. You doubt this will suffice to get you back upstairs.

Regardless, you disembark after a brief struggle to get the door open a little further, then stop to catch your breath. The modern design of the building gives way to concrete and steel; the air is warm and dry, and you can feel the humming of machinery from somewhere in the area. A maze of metal pipes lines the walls and ceilings in the physical plant, hallway lit dimly from overhead bulbs. The equipment down here constitutes heating, cooling, filtration for the water that supplies the plumbing and the massive pool on the ground level; there’s hydraulic pumps that serve as part of the equipment fixtures upstairs, and an entire mess of machines built and installed to support other machines.

You squint. Amidst the pipes and fixtures snaking across the ceiling, there’s a length of network cable slithering into the depths of this place.

You. . .
> Search for the stairs first. You haven’t seen a lot of signage yet, and you need a new escape plan. (This will take time.)
> Follow the network cable.
> Search for the power technology room.
> Search for equipment or supply rooms.

>>5591149
> Search for the stairs first. You haven’t seen a lot of signage yet, and you need a new escape plan. (This will take time.)

Better to know our escape plan beforehand, if it takes time then we won't be able to find it in a hurry when we really need it.

>>5591149
>Follow the network cable.

>>5591149
> Search for the stairs first. You haven’t seen a lot of signage yet, and you need a new escape plan.

File: 19248712901.jpg (513 KB, 768x768)

513 KB JPG

>>5591193
>>5591467
You have good fortune to thank that there isn’t an after-dark engineering staff. The bespoke equipment, you presume, is either managed by maintenance drones that aren’t on rotation, or by some on-call custodian that only shows up when there’s a problem. This place is what keeps the facility above running, and it’s constructed with absolutely none of the ease of access that the Marion Center promises. You gradually familiarize yourself with the maze of concrete and steel, passing circuit breakers and rooms with oversized water tanks and heaters before finding the offshoot hallway that leads to the maintenance stairs.

You peer inside: it seems to only ascend a single level. Convenient enough—you’ll have to make your way back to the auxiliary staircase once you’re back in a member access area. Unfortunately, however, this is the only route by which someone following the path your disturbance has left behind can find you. Still, you trust yourself to transcend any confrontation ahead.

> Locate and follow any bundle of network cables nearby to see where they lead.
> Head back and flip some breakers. Creating a little chaos should be to your benefit.
> Search for a way to disable the power more definitively.
> Look around for any equipment and supply rooms.

>>5591586
Eh, we'll just let them enter the room and hide in the maze of equipment and wait for them to get lost looking for us before we slip into the stairs when we need to get out.

> Locate and follow any bundle of network cables nearby to see where they lead.

Access the servers first before we start breaking shit and alerting folks to exactly where we are.

>>5591586
> Locate and follow any bundle of network cables nearby to see where they lead.

>>5591586
>Locate and follow any bundle of network cables nearby to see where they lead.

File: 68786757467.jpg (101 KB, 1280x720)

101 KB JPG

>>5592058
>>5591902
>>5591595
You are unsure of how much data actually comes from and travels through the Marion, but nevertheless, bundles of network cable are concealed in the maze of concrete and steel like lurking serpents. You follow them like Theseus’s thread through the labyrinth; though you weren’t investigating side rooms in detail as you sought out the stairs a moment ago, you don’t recall seeing a server room or seeing a branch in the winding cables. Thus, once you identify the thread, you follow it deeper and around the corner into a narrow corridor.

Past a metal door, a short flight of industrial bar-grated steps leads into a room that is much cooler, bathed in the same dim light as the rest of the maintenance area. The room is small and cramped; along the walls and in two narrow aisles in the space are rows of microblades in glass cases. Cables feed into wall panels and along the floors; there’s a stale scent in the air, and your ears are filled with the humming of machinery and the whirring of cooling fans. Countless little blinking beads of green light dot the faces of the stripped-down machines, suggesting that everything is in perfect working order; it was rather nice of whoever broke that window and the elevator to leave the network totally intact.

Despite the quiet, and the fact that the servers are running fine, you are possessed of a strange sense of uneasiness that you can’t quite discern the source of and can’t quite shake. You hope it’s just nerves.

Besides this, there’s one tangible problem. Your ability to interact with the data stored on the microblades is limited to what you’re capable of with your personal device. No data security is stronger than physical access, so you needn’t worry about anything locking you out now that you’re here. But even though you should be able connect to the individual machines directly and retrieve data without trouble, there’s more here than you can store on your smart device. In a different place and time, you could remotely upload it elsewhere and retrieve it later. Presently, this would be time-prohibitive, as your connection to the outside is stymied by several feet of concrete.

> Break some glass. Rip off as much as you can carry and tuck it into your bag: solid-state drives, memory cards, and even the microblades if there's room. (Fastest. You’ll be encumbered.)
> Download as much as you can from older sectors without being too discerning. Attempt concurrently uploading the excess data to a private server of your own, to store as much as possible in the shortest time span. (Fast.)
> Attempt to parse some of the data using your device’s interface. Prioritize logs from past private or training sessions, as well as individuals that don’t appear elsewhere in the database. (Slower)
> Investigate the servers and the room closely, looking for anything that might be out of place. (Slowest)

>>5592100 (nice digits)
We are looking for the spectres right?
Accurately observing everything seems logical. This place is quite a mess so i am sure there's something hidden in those corridors
There's probably some guards that are searching for us though
>Download as much as you can from older sectors without being too discerning. Attempt concurrently uploading the excess data to a private server of your own, to store as much as possible in the shortest time span. (Fast.)
Will probably retrieve the biggest amount of data in the shortest amount of time, hopefully without alerting everybody in the facility
Oh and we can try to ask w0rm the fuck he needs there while downloading. Not sure if we have enough time for that

>>5592100
> Break some glass. Rip off as much as you can carry and tuck it into your bag: solid-state drives, memory cards, and even the microblades if there's room. (Fastest. You’ll be encumbered.)

Get as much as possible, as fast as possible. This way we don't miss out. This looks like the jackpot. Speed will be our security, we hopefully avoid hiccups by acting faster while being comprehensive in our burglary. If we encounter anyone then really our reaction would probably be the same regardless, stealth, social stealth if it is plausible, or violence. We aren't outrunning multiple people boxing us in from multiple angles even if we were unencumbered, maybe only one when unburdened, so if it came to a chase I'm assuming we're pulling out our gun anyways.

Given the super science nature of what we are dealing with I wouldn't be surprised if attempting to upload spectre related stuff involves some magic air-gap hopping thing that alerts someone about our private server and compromises it.

>>5592100
>Download as much as you can from older sectors without being too discerning. Attempt concurrently uploading the excess data to a private server of your own, to store as much as possible in the shortest time span. (Fast.)
Guess we're not alone.

File: dhh1v2.jpg (429 KB, 1920x1080)

429 KB JPG

>>5592135
>>5592195
A brief scan reveals an access port on one of the microblade servers. Wasting no time, you plug a data cable into the rack and begin the process, transferring and attempting to upload files in parallel. The hardware on both sides of the cable is thoroughly sophisticated—transfer should be quick enough. Space is the limiting factor, and because you only have so much, you need to apply some sort of logic. The date range, you think, is most important. You don't have an exact idea, but can sort out a span. The Spectres were already decommissioned by the time you were a kid in the organizations; that year would have been the absolute latest, and thus you elect to omit anything beyond that point. If you had more time, you might be able to locate the identifiers designating private events, meetings of interest. Instead, you search for off-hours activities during the Marion Center's early years, storing as much raw event information on your device as possible before pulling the cord and closing the link; in this subterranean concrete chamber, your wireless access is so poor that attempting to upload much more would be too time-costly without another reason to linger.

Tucking your hard-earned data away, you make your way back up the metal steps and skulk through the hallway to the maintenance staircase. You squint, peeking inside. The door leading to the upper floor now hangs slightly open.

You...
> Proceed upwards, alert, to the member-accessible levels.
> Take a detour and cut the power.
> Other. (Write-in.)

>>5592688
> Take a detour and cut the power.

May as well, they know someone is here, getting back down here for a distraction later will be a pain, may as well do this now.

>>5592688
> Take a detour and cut the power.

>>5592688
>Proceed upwards, alert, to the member-accessible levels.

>Take a detour and cut the power

File: eea4cf78f02029e756c6c4c90(...).jpg (131 KB, 1280x720)

131 KB JPG

>>5592696
>>5593192
>>5593620

By now, you’ve got a good feel for the layout of the area. If you need it, your device has a flashlight, and there’s little emergency light nodes in the maze of concrete and steel; while they don’t provide enough illumination to properly see someone or something coming at you in the hallway, they do ensure you’ll be able to find your way back in the dark. The lack of light works both ways, too, unless you’re up against someone with some manner of advanced optics—which is entirely possible. With your device packed with Marion Center data, you loop back to the power room.

Sabotaging the power supply to a building could involve a variety of factors. Were a hacker to infiltrate the control system, for example, they might be able to disable networked devices remotely or by physically accessing the main electrical room. Were it maintained by engineering staff, one could execute another social engineering brain-hack, posing as a worker or authority figure in order to convince operators that a shutdown was necessary.

You, however, just break the shit. The other side of knowing how to put stuff together and make it work is that you know how to take it apart and make it stop working. Cassandra Cross was a “combat engineer”, and as you act intuitively on the knowledge she embedded in your subconscious, you begin to understand that this means she must have thrived in any situation in which technology was involved. Lensed outward, your expertise becomes a talent for sabotage.

Many electrical rooms, especially those which support large facilities, have become more like electrical vaults. Current corporate code requires almost all designers to supply heavy electromagnetic shielding; walls and floors must be reinforced to support transformers, heavy cables, and metal bars. The rooms must be adequately cooled, as sensitive equipment tends to only tolerate so much heat. Asphyxiant fire suppression systems have become much more common. You enter, and take stock of the area, much larger than the server room. Your masterstroke kills the lights, dozens of machines simultaneously whining out a downward portamento as the monotonous backing track of humming equipment dies out all at once. You can only imagine what the situation is like upstairs. If they didn’t know something suspicious was going on down here before, now they do.

It is pitch dark. You. . .
> Head back upstairs. There’s one door, and it’s best you beat the others to it.
> Return to the server room, attempting to catch anyone tailing you.
> Check the area and auxiliary closets for any equipment and supplies.
> Other. (Write-in.)

>>5593785
> Check the area and auxiliary closets for any equipment and supplies.
>After we are done looting quickly duck into the elevator and then open the emergency exit at the top. Close the trapdoor behind us and hide on top of the elevator until we are sure the coast is clear.

Sprinting upstairs through the only exit practically guarantees we run into someone in my mind. If that someone is some special spectre related agent then that is a big problem and I'd like to avoid confronting such a person at all. If they aren't then it isn't too big a deal as we could bluff our way past or just assault them, but this way still avoids confrontation and secures us some loot. In my mind it is better to hide in an area well suited for it rather than risk confrontation with guards, spectre related or no.

>>5593785
>Head back upstairs. There’s one door, and it’s best you beat the others to it.

>>5593785
>>5593812
This sounds like a plan.

File: bcxajjhuozfx.jpg (469 KB, 1920x1080)

469 KB JPG

>>5593812
>>5594334
The electrical vault has an equipment closet, and you help yourself to some equipment, flicking your device’s light on for a moment to take stock of the space. Since you didn’t physically make off with any of the server equipment, you’ve got plenty of carrying space left for whatever else you might find; while you’re here, you intend to help yourself. You locate a variety of useful items, scooping up a standard hard plastic flashlight presumably left as a spare, as well as some basic electronics replacements for the power equipment in the vault. There’s a dry-erase board here where the techs presumably leave messages for one another between shifts. It reads: “This place is a shitshow! Take some of this to the health center when you get a chance,” above an arrow pointing down to an open, half-empty box of printer filament.

> [ Gained: flashlight ]
> [ Gained: electrical components (+4 Circuits)]
> [ Gained: enthusiast-grade printstock (+2 Nanofilaments)]

The building’s printer likely comes in handy, if on the small scale: specific replacement parts can be made as necessary rather than outsourced, not to mention anything from stopwatches to athletic braces to accoutrements for medical prosthesis users. This stock, and these electronics, are not exactly what you need—not designed to run an industrial fabrication stage and tech assembly suite—but you’ll find use for them. The flashlight is perhaps less necessary, but will likewise be useful, if only for the next handful of minutes. In the absolute worst case, you could smack someone with it, though it hardly seems sturdy enough to continue functioning as a flashlight afterwards. Once you’re done in this room, you slip back out and out of the vault, shutting the door behind you and promptly making your way toward the elevator shaft, where you know you won’t run headfirst into opposition. After another flashlight flick to see the path ahead, you reach up and pop the emergency exit hatch, then jump and pull yourself up to ascend through.

> [[ Continued ]]

File: 000000.jpg (304 KB, 1920x1080)

304 KB JPG

>>5594451
The elevator shaft is dark and has the same stylistic flair as the concrete maintenance tunnels; it looks almost like you turned the area you just came from on its side. The elevator cab is sturdy and stable, a solid surface beneath you as you climb up and stand in the shaft, closing the door behind you. Pointing your light briefly upwards, you can see the hoistway doors to the floors above, but with the elevator unpowered, you have no way to reach up to them; a ladderway beside the cab looks as though it could accommodate the addition of a ladder, but it appears mostly empty. The only ladder present leads from the pit beneath the elevator up to the maintenance level, just about at the height you’re presently at.

> Listen carefully for movement on the maintenance floor. You know you’re being followed: wait until you hear something, then move when you don’t.
> You haven’t been spotted and don’t hear anything now, so just wait quietly for a few minutes. Catch your breath and head back down with a cool head.
> Check back in with the Worm if your wireless connection abides. They could have valuable information.
> Attempt to climb up a floor or more using the elevator cables and the empty ladderway. (Difficulty: Hard. You could ascend undetected. Failure: You could badly injure yourself.)

>>5594452
>Listen carefully for movement on the maintenance floor. You know you’re being followed: wait until you hear something, then move when you don’t.

>>5594452
> Listen carefully for movement on the maintenance floor. You know you’re being followed: wait until you hear something, then move when you don’t.

What I would give for an exoskeleton or jetpack right about now.

>>5594452
Now that I think about it, could we try and fix the elevator and wait until someone restores the power and then just take the elevator up? We have access to the inside and outside of the elevator and some supplies with us that we just looted. Though I guess there may not be a need if we hear nothing outside, we could just take the stairs. I'm just worried that whoever is following us may wait in the stairwell or it's exit but the elevator wouldn't be guarded if they think it is broken.

File: 1616839229507.jpg (135 KB, 1334x750)

135 KB JPG

>>5594451
>>5594452
Dropped trip. Sorry!

>>5594882
I'd allow an attempt. Antoine has the capacity to diagnose and solve the problem, but currently does not have any tools or components specialized to the task. Failure would constitute potentially alerting others to your location.

I'll check back and write some in a bit.

File: 0192471907190jpg.jpg (309 KB, 1920x970)

309 KB JPG

>>5594466
>>5594734
You begin to feel hemmed in as minutes pass. Silence grows deafening as time passes in the dark of the vertical tunnel; with naught else to focus on, you begin to hear your beating heart and the blood swirling in your head, loud enough to drown out the mechanical buzzing and the HVAC white noise. Had you really been followed, or were you just imagining? Are you intending to stay up here all night? What if they’re waiting for you to come back through?

You nearly startle when you hear a voice, muffled in the tunnel outside the elevator beneath you.

“Yeah, the shit’s out,” A man relays. There’s a pause with no response before he continues speaking: ultra-high frequency comms. “I’m trying to figure that out now. No idea why someone would have done this, but I think they’re gone now.”

There’s a familiar click like a round being chambered in a firearm. A heavy footfall rattles the metal box you’re sitting atop; the conversation from beneath you stalls briefly, then continues.

“B2, all clear, over. …Say what? Tell her it doesn’t matter how important her presentation is. Folks are gonna have to pack it up and descend via the stairs—it’s gonna take a tech to fix this, and we ain’t getting one here ‘till tomorrow.” There’s pacing from beneath you on a metal-plated floor. You close your eyes, trying to follow the sound, and imagine an exasperated security guard slumping against the elevator wall. “Huh? No, serves ‘em right for doing whatever the hell they’re doing this late at night. Swear to God, money really does just make people forget how to be normal. Anyway, uh, B2, all clear for now. I’m comin’ back up. Maybe check again in a little bit, I dunno. There’s probably no surveillance footage, so we’ll get started on the incident report early, over. . .”

It takes another few minutes for you to feel confident that the coast has cleared. You drop down, taking some of the shock with your knees in an attempt to quiet your fall; it’s not a long drop, but it stings nonetheless. Walking it off, you maneuver through the dark to the maintenance staircase and ascend to the next floor. The area feels about as wide open as the ground level; the facilities are mostly compartmentalized into private suites, and only dimly illuminated by backup lights. You don’t know the layout of the area, but there’s probably valuable technology on this floor, provided you’re able to get into any of the rooms.

> Search the area as quickly as possible, scanning signage to determine which suites might contain worthwhile tech.
> You’re working on borrowed time. Cross over to the stairs and head up to the ground level for exfil.
> Whatever’s going on here can’t be as important as the administrative facilities. Make your way to the highest floor.
> Other (Write-in.)

>>5595601
> Search the area as quickly as possible, scanning signage to determine which suites might contain worthwhile tech.

So there IS tech here and perhaps some sort of ongoing operation being run out of here. I'd like some tech samples. The admin center can wait or be put off for another day, we've got the data, that'll have to be enough.

>>5595601
>Search the area as quickly as possible, scanning signage to determine which suites might contain worthwhile tech.

File: 04829048120.jpg (127 KB, 952x423)

127 KB JPG

>>5595606
>>5595639
The lower floor is a nest of suites that put the Marion Center’s wealth of cash and technology on display. Taking advantage of brief flashes of illumination from your newfound light source, you quietly make your way from room to room, investigating signs and taking stock of the area.

You locate the health and science lab where the printer is located, foremost. As anticipated, it’s not an industrial device, but a small-scale machine suitable for manufacturing replacement parts for equipment as well as custom prosthetic and orthotic fittings for clients with unique needs. There might be tools or more printstock hanging around nearby, which you could appropriate for your own purposes.

There’s a virtual reality suite: enthusiast-grade workstations set up with direct neural interface technology. Tools like this have been deployed to effect as assistive physical therapy agents for individuals with neurological damage or lost motor and sensory skills. There’s also a game room affixed, employing similar technology like a mini virtual reality arcade; the area rests past an archway beneath a chintzy ‘Adventure Zone’ placard, and you presume parents attending routines or procedures at the Center offloaded babysitting responsibilities to the computers here while they handled business. Accessing full-depth DNI requires an implant which you don’t presently have, though they’re trivial—if a shade expensive—to acquire and remove via a procedure that’s carried out with the same gravitas as a body piercing and often done by techs operating autoinjectors. You aren’t here to play with the toys, though; there’s computers with hard drives of their own here, and the technology could be of value even if you were to simply pawn it.

The Center boasts a sensory deprivation chamber, a kinesthetics lab where body motion can be recorded and analyzed for areas in need of improvement, and even a suite where the pressure and oxygen content of the air can be modulated by machine. The last thing you come across that catches your interest, however, is an imaging facility. Not only are there installations that provide quick radiographic assessments of health and fitness levels—there’s also a high-resolution neutron imaging device designed to view the small internal components of advanced mechanical prosthetics. These machines are essentially powered by small research-grade “reactors”—with some tweaking, this could be exactly what you need to power the Spectre exoreactor.

> Loot tech from the printer lab.
> Loot tech from the DNI lab.
> Loot tech from the imaging lab.
> Other (Write-in.)

>>5596073
>Loot tech from the imaging lab.

>>5596073
> Loot tech from the imaging lab.

File: 01f024bd1c833d0adf007dc90(...).jpg (260 KB, 1700x850)

260 KB JPG

>>5596140
>>5596150
The imaging suite is divided, with the procedure chambers separated from the operators’ rooms by thick walls and cloudy windows; you enter the former, noting colorful warning posters indicating the hazards of powerful magnets and radiation in use inside. Maneuvering quietly through the darkened suite, you let intuition inform you as to what’s what in the laboratory. The last thing you need is to end up causing some manner of radioactive incident, though you imagine in a place like this every precaution has been taken to prevent the possibility, with equipment primarily handled automatically even with the supervision of trained operators.

The imaging device you seek is unsuitable for biotics, designed to examine the small components of advanced prosthetic limb replacements and certain mechanical devices. You locate the black box: water-cooled and moderated with power sources contained within heavy, rad-proof, breadbox-sized cylinders with onboard leakage detectors. You carefully dismantle the device as much as needs be to access the sealed canisters, ensure they’re properly sealed, then tuck them away, occupying most of the remainder of the space in your bag.

> [ Gained: research canister x2 ]

You stop, gaze flicking toward the room’s entrance. There’s a brief flicker in the dark, like light from the emergency lights refracting through rippling water. You hear nothing—not even footsteps or quiet laboratory white noise.

> Attempt to harvest scrap and electronics from the imaging devices.
> Ready your weapon and wait patiently, scanning the room for any sign of another intruder.
> Move immediately for the stairs as quickly as possible.
> Call out in search of another presence.

>>5597163
> Ready your weapon and wait patiently, scanning the room for any sign of another intruder.

Invisible motherfucker.

>>5597163
>Ready your weapon and wait patiently, scanning the room for any sign of another intruder.

File: 93476983472.png (840 KB, 823x675)

840 KB PNG

>>5597572
>>5597391
Making your way slowly and cautiously into the suite lobby, you ensure your bag is soundly sealed and strapped tightly to your body in case you need to make a quick escape. The hair on the back of your neck stands on end, the beginnings of an adrenal drip that anticipates the attack of an unseen assailant. It’s as though a pair of eyes is boring into you, or like your every move is being watched. Another check of the darkened suite for cameras, before your gaze flits over to where you saw the flicker, hands gripping your suppressed pistol tightly.

“Little slow.”

The man’s voice is nasaly—scheming, with a playful lilt—and sounds vaguely digitized as if bitcrushed and played through a speaker. You swivel, weapon pointed at the source, but see nothing in the dark. There’s scurrying from that direction, papers flung off a desk and sent fluttering into the air, medical equipment tossed clattering to the ground. You’re alone in the suite. There’s a knock from one of the windows leading back into the hallway proper.

“I told the guards that a rat had probably chewed through the power,” The voice is muffled by thick glass. Two glowing eyes fix on you, headgear marrying the aesthetics of a ceremonial parade mask to the sensibilities of ballistics face protection. His streetwear jacket is fitted with a variety of gadgets and protection; you can’t quite see the whole of it from here. He tosses a baton idly up and down in one hand, while the other braces on the glass like an ill-behaved child at an animal exhibit or an antique jewelry store.

The man doesn’t wear any kind of badge of affiliation that you can see, but his fit is a little too bespoke for some street punk. His movements are quick and twitchy. Wired up or drugged out—pick your poison. He continues. “I was right, of course. But I think they thought I meant a smaller one.”

You . . .
> Keep him talking while you maneuver away; he seems chatty enough to fall for it. “Who the hell are you?”
> Shoot at him through the window and haul ass.
> Attempt to trap him by triggering a lockdown or fire alarm—here or in the hyperbaric suite.
> Other (Write-in.)

>>5598747
>Attempt to trap him by triggering a lockdown or fire alarm—here or in the hyperbaric suite.

>>5598747
>Try and keep him talking.
> Attempt to trap him by triggering a lockdown or fire alarm—here or in the hyperbaric suite.

File: d1afd856fd62322fca9f4a972(...).jpg (60 KB, 800x600)

60 KB JPG

>>5598970
>>5599164
“You’re on the Marion Center’s payroll?” You snap back, glowing eyes in the dark following you as you slowly maneuver around the outer perimeter of the room.

“Would be, perhaps. But our investors insisted on having this meeting in person, in the dead of night, in this shithole. And they can’t exactly do that if the lights are off.” He replies, an air of smug confidence projecting through his voice-altering mask. Even when his baton twirls in the air, it feels as though he never loses control of it.

“Something special going on tonight?” You counter. “The kinds of things they usually do in venues like this don’t tend to require a security detail.”

The merc pauses briefly from drumming on the glass. He lays an extended index finger as a divider across the mouth of his mask, static issuing from his speakers as a pointed—‘shhhh’.

“You ain’t even look like corp-sec,” You continue, unfazed. Your gaze flits briefly away from his for an instant at a time, looking for some means of triggering a manual lockdown. In the hyperbaric suite, this would be easier. You could potentially start a fire—break a valve or puncture a tank, then cause a spark from afar—that would trigger locking firebreaks or the release of asphyxiant gas, forcing a tactical retreat. Here, there must be some countermeasure against radiation or the leakage of hazardous materials. You can see some manner of manual emergency switch on the wall nearby the entrance, and you continue circling the room’s perimeter.

“We are no ordinary security. Think of us more like ‘exception handling’. ‘Modern problems require modern solutions’, as they say. New technology and new appearances, affording our services to high-profile clients.” A hissing issues from the speakers that sounds like a little laugh. If his mask could smirk, you imagine it would be. “I am Ruyi. Artisan. Torn, truly. I’m not being paid to catch rats, after all. But bringing one back now would be a fine proof of concept, and an excellent show of good faith for our prospective clients.”

Tension lingers, thick in the air from the very moment his free hand falls toward his hip from the glass. You must draw first. You shoot from the hip with a flick of the wrist, retrieving your suppressed pistol and squeezing the trigger before your arm’s moved far enough to aim. The muted *pop* dissipates into the air, quieter as it reaches your ears than the sound of glass shattering. Ruyi is fast, ducked low behind the waist-high wall beneath the window, moving before you can take a second shot. Distracting him, thankfully, was more important than hitting him. You dart the rest of the way to the emergency switch, open the case, and pull—

> “Please remain in place and stand clear of emergency shutters. Please remain in place and stand clear of emergency shutters.”

> [[ Continued ]]

File: 1616788926720.jpg (46 KB, 900x506)

46 KB JPG

>>5600125
The red hue of emergency lights soaks the hallway, engaged by backup power, as you slam the suite door open hard enough to shake the frame and rush through, nearly stumbling. The merc is behind you, pursuing, with your view of the hallway squared off around him like a portrait that rapidly shrinks in resolution as thick shutter doors close in from either side to form a barrier between you. You expect him to reach for his firearm; instead, he thrusts his baton, and it *extends*, narrowly boosting between the closing doors and telescoping toward you like the lunge of an ambushing viper, tipped with the white-hot glow and crackling of a voltaic arc as its fangs and its hiss. You feel it come just short of grazing you as you flee; sparks disperse as the tip hits the floor at your heels, striking at an angle like the twitchy merc is bracing for a pole vault.

The blast door slams around the rod with an ear-ringing clang, angry clicking issuing from the wall-mounted machinery. You expect it to snap the overextended baton into pieces like a twig, but instead, the weapon bars the door. Metal groans and sparks issue from the wall as Ruyi begins to pry the door open from the other side. How could it telescope that far and be that durable? You don’t stick around to figure it out, having bought yourself just enough time to flee back to the main staircase; adrenaline surges, legs pumping like pistons, carrying you up to the main floor. A quick over-the-shoulder look suggests the coast is clear behind you for the moment. The merc is still dealing with the shutters, but the lockdown from the below-ground suites means that any eyes still inside the Center have likely turned their attention downstairs.

You aren’t sure what Ruyi’s deal is, but have a feeling going shot-for-shot with him is just asking to get fragged—or at least, with the firepower you’ve got, you don’t think your odds are good unless you can find more environmental features to leverage against him. Now is the best chance you have to escape intact with your haul; otherwise, the computers upstairs will be off, but you’ve got space to potentially snatch a hard drive if necessary, and supposedly there’s high-profile folks elsewhere on the premises, most likely in the midst of an evacuation.

> Run—don’t walk—to the nearest exit. Waste any more time and you’ll have a staff-wielding maniac on your heels.
> Head back out through the front lobby in search of execs.
> Head upstairs in search of more loot.

>>5600125
Well, fuck, that is a hell of an unfortunate coincidence.

>>5600128
> Run—don’t walk—to the nearest exit. Waste any more time and you’ll have a staff-wielding maniac on your heels.

I was thinking about taking a hostage to negotiate a better getaway, but they may have additional security and it could just land us in more hot water. The issue is having this guy on our ass means that if he can catch up even a bit or access security footage of us then he could track us. I don't want the perpetual threat of some invisible asshole hanging over our head or that of our community, but trying to playing hardball against a bunch of powerful people we aren't ready to go up against just yet doesn't seem like it would help.

As for loot...we have enough loot, we've got what we came for and more. Don't get greedy.

>>5600128
>Run—don’t walk—to the nearest exit. Waste any more time and you’ll have a staff-wielding maniac on your heels.

File: 1616803630547.jpg (37 KB, 640x891)

37 KB JPG

>>5600146
>>5600564
You got what you needed: it’s time to move lest you give anyone more reason to come hunting for you than you already have. As you burst back through the door to the ground floor, you need only check your corners to ensure the coast is clear; you flee toward the side of the building opposite your entry point and make a new exit through a window, clearing the grounds undetected.

After dark, everything in Freeland looks the same—a blurry mess of streetlights and neon projecting through fog, set to an incessant backing track of industrial humming underlined by the buzzing of drones and the grinding of engines. You know how to keep your head low; you know where to go and how to behave to make it back to the nest from most anywhere in the District undetected. It’s very late when you get back. Your place is undisturbed. This time there are no uninvited guests and no suspicious packages sitting around.

[[ 1 ]]
> Sleep first. You’ve got a whole day ahead of you to process.
> Get started on projects immediately. You might be able to run a print job while you sleep.

[[ 2 ]]
> Begin scouring the data from the Marion servers for blueprints and research data.
> Contact the Worm.
> Review the drone project. You’ve only got so much time before the Quarters come knocking.

>>5601183
>Sleep first. You’ve got a whole day ahead of you to process.
> Review the drone project. You’ve only got so much time before the Quarters come knocking.

>>5601183
> Get started on projects immediately. You might be able to run a print job while you sleep.

The textile print head oughtta be started on at least. Printing armour or disguises would be good. For my worries in particular, body armour is a must. Security is such a high concern for me because of a combo of our char gen build, threat of being coerced by a fellow PHREAK, (I will never not laugh at how edgy this is) and now potentially having some spectre related assholes on our trail that I personally don't think we should make any super obvious moves to help our community like powering the whole block with our reactor or printing everyone free PDAs or clothes, at least not without an adequate explanation of how we managed it to throw the feds/corpos/Denzel off our trail. If we do go ahead with that sort of shit, then I think we ought to try and get the community to help out with local defence, they owe us that much if we go through with this.

It's big enough of a deal that aside from the portable upgrade for our reactor I want to switch research focuses entirely to the combat/augmentation or infiltration research trees offered in the previous threads. Seriously, if anyone that means business comes knocking looking to literally enslave us or steal our shit, I don't think we could stop them.

> Review the drone project. You’ve only got so much time before the Quarters come knocking.

I forget, did Denzel just want us to refurbish him some drones to buy him off or as "protection" taxes or something. Either way, appeasing the gang leader who knows our skills and potential is a priority at least until we get body armour/better weaponry and some spectre related gear going.

Short break. I'll reply in a lil' bit with a tiebreak if necessary; thanks for your patience!

>>5601183
I'll switch to working overnight.

>>5602209
Waiting warmly.

File: 1616929400051.jpg (80 KB, 467x420)

80 KB JPG

>>5602238
>>5601278

Your engineering expertise took the form of drone tech and drone avionics when you worked with the Quarters. You retrofitted captured fulfillment and surveillance drones into automated drug mules. Their pre-existing ID tags allowed them to bypass the District’s countermeasures against illicit UAVs; the city’s own infrastructure was your trade route. Since then, new tagging methods and improved friend-or-foe-identification technology have invalidated their old strategies.

With your knowledge and the tech samples they’ve provided, assembling a solution will be logistically trivial for you, though it will incur a cost of time and resources when every hour counts. The Pattern has given you an ultimatum of just a handful of days—treating you, essentially, like you still work for him. On one hand, he must be in a desperate situation; on the other, you get the sense that this will not stop here. Your service may placate him for a time, but you have no doubt he will come back to you in search of a greater fortune once he knows you’re willing to give him ground. And were he to send Obediah or another one of his enforcers after you—whether or not you can win, you don’t want to deal with an altercation on your home turf.

You have options to tip the scales in your favor, however. Off the top of your head: you could cut corners in the project and keep the extra materials for yourself, you could implement backdoors or trackers that’d allow you to keep tabs on the Pattern’s operation, or you could just keep the drones for yourself, and refit them with small-caliber firearms or surveillance tech to aid you in the field. Feigning incompetence won’t work against someone who knows what you’re capable of; rather, you need to find a solution that works for you too. The last thing you’re thinking of is outside of your expertise, but if you had help—you could go higher, and attack Freeland’s drone network at the software level, potentially subverting active-use drones rather than releasing zombie drones back into the District.

> [ resources ]
> scrap: 490
> circuits: 31
> nanofilaments: 7

You. . .
> Refurbish and replace drones with printed hardware to serve the Quarters’ agenda. (-280 Scrap, -10 Circuits).
> Refurbish and replace drones, cutting corners to keep materials for yourself. (-200 Scrap, -5 Circuits. You’ll upset the Quarters if your design does not abide.)
> Keep the drone tech for yourself for now. Freeland could be a different landscape by the time the Pattern knocks.
> Contact the Worm about the possibility of a software attack.

>>5603604
Did a partial reread of the previous threads.

I think we have to play ball with the Quarters for now. I'd love to play hardball and equip our drones with guns, tell Denzel to piss off and leave us alone or even preemptively strike them. But knowing what Denzel is capable of it'd probably end up with them knowing we mean business but ultimately with him coming out on top or getting away because of his holographic tech and gang. If we don't preemptively strike then they can just pressure the 'Ave or take hostages until we relent.

So, basically my plan would be to acquiesce but go equipped for a fight and set boundaries, he tries to play hard and break those boundaries then we go zero sum game on his ass and just death war until one of us gives up, regardless of the cost to our friends/dependants.

The boundaries would basically be that we don't mind occasionally doing shit for him, but the whole "we're just another gang member and he's the boss" thing ain't gonna fly, I'd wanna prevent him from finding out about what we've got cooking in our residence or hurting any of our buddies. We don't need payment or a cut of what he's doing, we understand he's the "big" local player on the streets and he's collecting his dues but he better fuck off between asks from us.

Kinda naive on my part given that he's a psycho and we aren't, so he'd have less to lose, but I'd like to at least try and give communication a try. We've both got bigger foes to worry about than each other. Maybe we can get in touch with Obediah and work on him some.

Still think maybe we should rig up the drones with easily detachable guns to support us when we meet. If he doesn't show up in person to receive them or doesn't play hardball with us then we can just detach them and leave, but if he does go hard then we have backup.

>Refurbish and replace drones with printed hardware to serve the Quarters’ agenda. (-280 Scrap, -10 Circuits).
>Equip the drones with guns to support us during the hand-off, we'll remove them if all goes well.
>Contact the Worm about the possibility of a software attack.

May be worth inquiring about the software angle, no need to commit to it, just ask.

Once we have some body armour at least, ideally some combat augs + a portable reactor, then we can see about outright refusing the Quarters.

>>5604022
Or we could just skip the whole talking thing and just hand them over and hope we get enough time to ourselves to be ready the next time they come rolling around. Play the submissive if he makes additional demands and just work on our own shit and hope we are ready in time. But I don't want to do that.

>>5603604
>Refurbish and replace drones with printed hardware to serve the Quarters’ agenda.

File: The Nest.jpg (72 KB, 784x520)

72 KB JPG

>>5604022
>>5604037

> [[ Encrypted Chat :: w0rm ]]
> [ stingray ] » Yo, Worm.
> [ w0rm ] » (ﾟﾛﾟ*)
> [ w0rm ] » we are NOT talking rn
> [ stingray ] » I was busy not getting killed, sorry.
> [ w0rm ] » (“￣m￣)
> [ w0rm ] » lemme guess
> [ w0rm ] » u want more Stuff
> [ w0rm ] » and have absolutely no things to offer in return
> [ stingray ] » Some info, yeah.
> [ stingray ] » What do you think it’d take to subvert the Freeland drone network?
> [ w0rm ] » a fat fkn pair of nuts
> [ w0rm ] » from what i know shit is locked down but there are endpoints
> [ w0rm ] » my guess is that people keep their intel Secret until absolutely necessary
> [ w0rm ] » or theres something massive to gain
> [ stingray ] » Sounds like a powder keg.
> [ w0rm ] » who the fuck says that lmfao
> [ w0rm ] » if the fed caught u, theyd probably fsck u
> [ w0rm ] » same w/the corpos, actually way worse cause theyd be more likely 2 actually do something about it
> [ w0rm ] » im not exactly a “hacker” in case ur dumb ass forgot so i can only speculate
> [ w0rm ] » idfk what happened to wolf but thats more her field iirc
> [ w0rm ] » so u might want2 get in touch w/her if u can
> [ stingray ] » As in The Wolf?
> [ w0rm ] » as in “The” Wolf (ﾟヘﾟ)

You busy yourself with idle conversation, working mostly by hand on the refurbishing project. Grinding ‘till sunrise is not unfamiliar for you, though it’s important not to forget you are only human—regardless of how those in power regard you and your peers. You would prefer not to destroy your brain with lack of sleep in the long run. As anticipated, the project is but a drain on your resources and should serve the Quarters’ specifications. The updated security measures, while novel, are no less exploitable: a patch fix to shut down current attacks while providing limited defense for the future.

While printing off some stock parts, you explore leaked blueprints for old-generation drone-mounted weaponry. The remote-controlled devices could also be equipped with “smart” avionics that would allow them to follow simple routines. What might be possible with neural interface frameworks is difficult to clearly imagine.

> [ resources ]
> scrap: 210
> circuits: 21
> nanofilaments: 7

[[ 1 ]]
> Ask the Worm if they have any intel on the Wolf and her whereabouts.
> Ask the Worm if they know anything about a merc with a Wukong staff.
> Inform the Worm about the group called ‘exception handling’.
> Ask the Worm if there’s anything you can do to help them now.

[[ 2 ]]
> Mount light drone turret (-40 scrap, -1 nanofilament) x2. If the exchange goes well, you’ll dismount and keep these for later use.
> Install tracking and remote backdoor mechanisms in the drone avionics.
> Get some rest for now.
> Get to work on other projects for now.

>>5605385
> Inform the Worm about the group called ‘exception handling’.
> Ask the Worm if they know anything about a merc with a Wukong staff.

Give and take. Not interested in having another plate to spin. Wolf can wait. If Worm isn't knowledgeable in the angle we were after then it probably isn't worth pursuing in the short term.

> Mount light drone turret (-40 scrap, -1 nanofilament) x2. If the exchange goes well, you’ll dismount and keep these for later use.
> Install tracking and remote backdoor mechanisms in the drone avionics.

Both of these. If all goes well and relations are friendly then us being a bit more up to date can't hurt and our subtlety can be explained as paranoia or an insurance policy if discovered. If things are sour right away then all the more reason to do this.

>>5605385
>Ask the Worm if they have any intel on the Wolf and her whereabouts.

>Install tracking and remote backdoor mechanisms in the drone avionics.

bump?

>>5634724
My guy, this is dead, at least for now. QM flaked and it is about to fall off the board. Maybe QM will return in a year or something again.