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Post by sleepingdragon on Oct 9, 2021 18:12:12 GMT
sd: 19 April 2084 marked King Abdulaziz's sixty-third birthday, and NEOM was full of people who'd come in from elsewhere in the Kingdom to join in the celebrations. many of these must have found their way to al-Nawaz arena, which had a capacity of 30,000 people and appeared to have exceeded this by several thousand people.
from even cursory looks around, it was clear that the clientele at this event was not that of a standard bit of entertainment. while there were those who appeared to just be interested local residents who had come, many of the onlookers obviously represented corporate or military interests. on the south side of the arena, near the entrance, there was a large foyer with stalls for various drone manufacturers, where representatives spoke to officers representing the militaries of numerous countries - America, Japan, India, the Federated States of Europe, as well as a myriad of private military contractors within the Western bloc. there didn't seem to be any Chinese officers present, nor of any nations in their orbit - while Saudi had moved away from their old alliance with the United States and to a more neutral posture, their business and military links were still more strongly with the American bloc.
the first event of the day involved battles between the Mini-Bots of the lgrthm corporation, who supplied many of the military-grade drones used by the Saudi army. this display was in honour of Prince Bandar, who had commanded successful anti-terrorist activity recently in South Arabia - the name 'Yemen' was now rarely used - and would continue for an hour. later, onlookers would get a glimpse of lgrthm's cutting edge CruizerMk3s, which would soon be deployed as a special guard unit for the President of the United States, and then after a break they would get to see CyberDragon's MegaDrones.
wearing employee uniforms, they were able to easily access the backstage area, however while they were still attempting to get their bearings they were quickly collared by a frazzled looking manager, who spoke with an American accent. "You're new, yes? Well I have three people off sick and two missing, so you're helping me now." He thrust a bucket and mop at Amber. "Someone threw up in the north stands, go and clean it up." He then looked at Bran. "One of the men's toilets in the foyer is blocked, you deal with that. Meanwhile you," he pointed at Melqui, "with me. I swear when I find Fahd and Nabil I'll break their necks." Bran: At his words Bran looked suitably apologetic. "I'm sorry sir, but all three of us have been ordered to go straight to the kitchens." Melquiades: Nodding seriously, Melqui raised up a pre-prepared text message they had with that order, dropping the name of Mr. Abdulmalik Sani. sd: Mr Sani was the site manager, who was now busily ingratiating himself with Prince Bandar. "Ordered? I don't fucking care about that, I'm..." he looked at the message. He gave them a hard look. "Oh for the love of..." the man took a long moment, seemingly weighing up whether he should try to pull rank or not. it took a bit more of an argument, but the manager who was trying to commandeer them had little time and a lot to do. "Fine. I'll talk about this with Abdulmalik later." A young woman began to walk by, and the manager seized on the opportunity, thrusting the bucket at her. "You can thank Fahd and Nabil for this. Some idiot threw up in the north stands and they should be cleaning that up but I can't find them. The next time they pull this kind of vanishing act I'll vanish them right back to Yemen. Idiots." He stalked off. Bran: Bran breathed a silent sigh of relief as they took off again. Bran: "Perhaps Fahd and Nabil couldn't face seeing Prince Bandar," he muttered. Amber: Amber is glad to get rid of the bucket and mop. At least it wasn't a bamboo toothbrush this time, she reflected provately. sd: having studied the blueprints of this area carefully, they knew there were ony two routes down - one was directly within Abdulmalik Sani's office, which was locked and in an area that was reasonably busy, and the other was via a supply elevator, which was less out in the open, but was both loud and slow to move. If they wanted to get in Mr Sani's office, they'd need to find somewhere to hide that was out of sight of the cameras and afforded them a view of the office itself, so they could pick a suitable moment to deal with the lock. having studied the map carefully, there were two locations they thought might be suitable - one was a supply closet, which afforded a better view but contained a security camera they'd need to disable, and the other was a single cubicle toilet, which mercifully wasn't monitored, but had only a small keyhole they could watch out of and was also very cramped. Bran: "You reckon you could deal with the security camera?" Bran asked Amber, frowning at the thought of them crammed in the cubicle with no proper view. "Pity I couldn't bring the drone." Amber: Amber considered it, "Considering how deep we are in at the moment, we do not want to alert the network that something is afoot before we get into the supercomputer." She frowned at that possibility Bran: "Well, I do have this," Bran said with a sigh, bringing out a thin wand of some flexible material with a small lens on the end. Melquiades: Melqui grinned and grabbed them both by the shoulders. "You've never crammed in a stall before? It'll be a bonding experience!" Bran: "Feck off!" Bran muttered. Bran: Pulling himself together, Bran peered around the corner and nodded to the others that the coast was clear. sd: considering that three people going into a single toilet was something usually only done for sex or other purposes that were frowned on in most workplaces, they made their move quickly and when no one was looking - this required specific timing given that the backstage area was bustling with activity, but they found the right moment for it.
the single cubicle was very definitely only intended for a single person, so they had to squeeze themselves in awkwardly and press up against the walls to avoid accidentally groping one another. Although the keyhole was very small, when they'd entered Melqui had noticed a bit of mirrored glass in the hallway opposite - if they aimed the camera directly at that, this would give them a very good angle to monitor the corridor and pick their moment to strike. Bran: Bran carefully inserted the camera on its thin wand and angled it as Melqui had advised. He hoped they wouldn't have to wait long. Amber: Amber merely waited for this to pass. After all, this was nothing compared to standing inside one of these infamous trains during the rush hours on Tozai Line sd: after about fifteen minutes, they spotted an opportunity - a large number of harried looking staff came out of the kitchens, and once these went by there was an opening. in mere moments, Bran made his way out, smoothly picked the lock into Mr Sani's office, allowed the others in and closed the door behind them.
the office was reasonably spacious, and even a quick look around revealed that Mr Sani was clearly a devout Muslim - there was a Qu'ran on his desk, as well as several photos of himself, his wife, and their children whilst on hajj, and a prayer mat was rolled up against one of the walls. his computer was locked. the access hatch to the basement was at the rear of the office, next to a filing cabinet. Melquiades: Melqui noted the computer, but moved past it to the access hatch. "We're getting close." Bran: Bran followed Melqui. "Maybe worth having a look round on the way back." Amber: Amber nodded quickly as she moved along with them. Bran: There was a lock on the hatch but Bran found it easy to open. sd: they swung the hatch upwards to reveal a long metal ladder leading down a good fifty feet. some red lights blinked on a small box set into the wall - this was probably a motion sensor device. they couldn't tell if it would detect them simply climbing onto the ladder, but in all likelihood it would notice them if they actually reached the bottom. Amber: Amber make a start on that moition sensor device at least sd: it took Amber a while to be able to hack it at this distance, but at length she was able to scramble the motion sensors - they'd be safe down there for at least a little while. Amber: Nodding at the others, "Scambled now! Should be fine to go on. Will keep an eye out for other sensors as well!" She confirmed. sd: at the bottom of the ladder was a very short corridor, only barely large enough for them to all squeeze into, and then off ahead of them was a little arch. beyond the arch was a reinforced white concrete wall, thick enough to withstand a gunshot. beyond the arch, the corridor extended left and right. sd: they waited for a while - Melqui thought he could hear something low and irregular, but it was hard to be sure and he didn't want to risk sticking their heads out until he was certain. after a few minutes he heard it more clearly - a sound of metallic movement. Khalid had warned them there might well be a drone here, given that this arena was the site of drone combats, and from the sound of it there was one off to the left. its movements were suggestive of a model that was vaguely humanoid, propelled by metallic legs, rather than a smoother wheeled model. it appeared to be moving back and forth, now closer to them, then moving further away, then back again - but there was no obvious pattern to this, which would make it awkward to sneak past. Bran: Bran frowned. "You know, there might be some kind of signal that Sani sends from his computer to allow people to get past this drone safely." Amber: Amber perked up at that, "We can give that a go at least." She starts heading for the ladder to shimmy up. Bran: "I'll go with her, might be able to help," Bran said to Melqui as he stepped up to the ladder. sd: Amber found hacking into the computer easy enough, however it took them longer to search Mr Sani's terminal to locate exactly how they could bypass the drone. the details were in a hidden folder hidden behind another folder which Sani had given a deliberately misleading title, as if it were merely a temp folder.
the drone was a Hiromishi HAP (Humanoid Anti-Personnel Drone), which was about the same size as a human. Its advantages were that it had legs, broadly equivalent to a human with cybernetic enhancements, allowing it to move very rapidly in combat situations, and it had inbuilt shotgun, rifle, and poisoned knife so it could fight at any range. It had onboard facial recognition software, so that only authorised personnel could pass it by - these were only Sani, two execs on the al-Nawaz board, and four members of an external IT agency who were specifically contracted to provide maintenance. they could use Sani's terminal to take photos of them and add these to the file so the drone would let them pass, but if they did this they'd need to act fast and then hack the machine again on their way out to delete any trace of their passage.
alternately, for emergency situations where the usual agency couldn't be reached, the drone had an onboard QR scanner. they could create a phony QR code and use this to get by, however this was an extremely delicate operation and if they failed, the drone would all but certainly attack them immediately Bran: There was little time to make a decision and both routes had great risks. "If you think you can fake a QR code, let's take that one." Bran suggested to Amber. Amber: Amber thought it over quickly and nods, "Worth a try. Better than leaving our faces on the system!" She agreed sd: Amber worked on creating the spoofed code, and then they headed back downstairs. they'd have no way of knowing if her handiwork had been successful until they actually faced the drone. sd: taking a deep breath, they stepped out into the corridor. the HAD was shaped like a human man of almost seven feet in height. it was jet black, with powerful arms, red dots to indicate its eyes, and mechanical legs. As soon as they stepped out into its field of view, it sprang forward with a single powerful movement. Amber held her phone up with the faked QR code, and they waited with their hearts pounding for a moment. if her work hadn't been good enough, then the bot would be on them in a murderous frenzy in mere instants. but fortunately, the work had been done correctly. the HAD emitted a beep indicating they were authorised, and it meekly glided back to its former position. there was a noise of a door unlocking somewhere elsewhere on the floor. Amber: Amber smiled slightly, she could sworn that she lost years of her life in just mere few seconds. She kept going, with a sigh of relief. "Sighs" Bran: Bran took a second as his breathing slowed. That had been a very hairy moment. sd: they went right, deciding it was best to keep some distance from the drone, and passed a small supply room as well as past the supply elevator shaft, then around into another narrow corridor. At the midway point of the corridor, directly opposite where they'd come, was the doorway into the control chamber. the door had been automatically opened when the HAD accepted their faked code, however they noticed there was a security camera directly over the door and they very much doubted this had been disabled - anyone entering the room legitimately, after all, would have no reason to need the camera off. wires ran from the camera along the near wall. Bran: Bran traced on the wires to the camera, using his engineering knowhow to work out just where to cut them. He had hoped to make it appear like a natural failure, but couldn't quite work out how to do that on this particular equipment, but the camera was at least now out of action. sd: with the camera out of action, they hastily made their way into the control room. there was a large mainframe machine there, humming with noise, as well as several monitors which showed the arena from different angles. as they entered, the CruizerMk3s had just finished their display, which meant that there would now been an interval and then the MegaDrones which they had been sent to sabotage would be the next ones out. one of the security cameras showed a caged off area where the MegaDrones were held. the MegaDrones were all at least fifteen feet tall, much larger than the HAD they had just passed. several were shaped like Godzilla or other recognised kaiju from innumerable properties - the rights to portray these characters must have cost Hiromishi a fortune in franchising costs, but so long as they had a memorable first showing they would likely make up for this. Bran: "Those really are something else," Bran said, gazing at the massive figures. sd: edit - must have cost CyberDragon Melquiades: "Yes. I wouldn't mind just watching, if we weren't here for the job," said Melqui. Bran: Bran nodded his agreement. "Almost as good as the hurling I reckon!" Amber: Eyeing the images, "Indeed, let's go this!" She looked postive at the hacking yet to come sd: the security on the supercomputer was very significant, and at one point Amber was concerned she may have locked herself out entirely which would have doomed the run - she withdrew before she could do this, took a breath, and began again, while Bran and Melqui amused themselves watching highlights of the first part of the show. These mostly consisted of demonstrations of the power of the Saudi drone force, with Arabic text saying these had been used to capture or kill members of over fifty terrorist cells in Southern Arabia in 2083 alone, under Prince Bandar's supervision.
Amber regrouped and went in again, and this time she went much more smoothly. as Khalid had suggested, she exploited the vulnerability of the link to the supercomputer's combat routine analysis to enter serious flaws in the MegaDrone's combat optimisation and weapon usage subroutines - the upcoming show was going to be a serious disappointment for CyberDragon and its shareholders.
while Amber was doing this, she gradually began to realise that something was odd about the combat analysis program files. they were all running smoothly, but there was something on the system that seemed to be using slightly more of its power than she had expected. it wasn't much, certainly not enough that anyone who wasn't down here for a long time would realise, but gradually the meaning became clear. there was some sort of hidden process running in the background, something that al-Nawaz might not even be aware of. she wasn't sure how long this had been going on for and it would take far more analysis than she could possibly subject it to now - but she could potentially download some of the files onto her own device and try this when they managed to get away. Bran: Bran went over to assist Amber once or twice, then returned to watching the show. It was fascinating, in the way that watching a fatal accident or a house fire is fascinating. Bran: "Back the way we came or try the supply elevator?" Bran asked Melqui when Amber seemed to be finishing up. Melquiades: "Our original route is faster, so unless we see any problems going that way..." Melqui trailed off, looking around a bit nervously as Amber kept working on the computer longer than expected. Bran: "I was just thinking it's more risky if anyone comes down the ladder or Mr Sani comes back to his office for some reason." Bran: "We need to get a move on," Bran added, feeling very antsy as Amber continued at the supercomputer. sd: Amber spent a few moments downloading the data that she'd need to analyse this further when they got home. it wasn't much, but by now the interval was about done and soon the MegaDrones would be out and badly underperforming - it was probably best that they flee the scene before this happened. Bran took a seat and helped her so they could speed up
they were able to finish just as the cameras showed people returning to their seats and the announcer called out in English and Arabic that now, CyberDragon would give an incredible demonstration of their new MegaDrones. The crowd gave a great cheer as the first, a twenty foot tall behemoth in the shape of the King of Monsters himself, rolled out.
as this happened, Melqui glanced over at the screen which showed Prince Bandar. he had a large entourage of military men, as well as someone he recognised as Abdulmalik Sani the building manager, in a private booth with him. when the Godzilla MegaDrone came out, though, all of them went to the window to gape at the spectacle. as they did this, he saw a quick movement from the door into the booth. there was a young man in his twenties who suddenly burst into the room. He screamed something and flung himself towards Prince Bandar. The Prince turned in surprise, one of his guards reached for a pistol, and the young man grabbed at his chest.
And exploded. Melquiades: "Dios mio!" breathed Melqui sharply. "Let's get the fuck out of here. Security will be out in force." Bran: "Feck!" Bran ran for the door and looked to make sure Amber was keeping up. Amber: Amber looked at the screen with surprise. "Hai!" before chasing up with Bran and Melqiu
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Post by sleepingdragon on Oct 23, 2021 16:42:17 GMT
sd: the feed that showed Prince Bandar's booth cut out as soon as the young man exploded, but from all the other cameras it was clear that pandemonium had just erupted in the arena. they had no time to waste - security would be pouring into this place any moment, if they weren't already, and their disguises and borrowed ID wouldn't last long under significant scrutiny. they had to get out and away by the quickest means possible Amber: Amber became more nervous as it is clear that they need to leave as soon as possible Bran: Bran dragged his eyes away from the scene playing out before them. sd: they rushed past the (mercifully subdued) HAP drone, then up the ladder into Mr Sani's office - although given how near he'd been to Prince Bandar when the bomber had struck, they suspected this was now actually the office of Mr Sani's successor. there were alarms sounding outside and they could faintly hear a computerised voice, alternating between Arabic and English, announcing that everyone was to evacuate and follow members of the security team to the emergency exits. Bran: "We just need to get into the crowd, it's going to be crazy out there," Bran said as they listened. Amber: Amber nodded with agreement, "Hopefully we can get out without any issues." sd: they peeked out the door, made sure there was no one looking at it who might query why they'd been in Mr Sani's office, and then hastily made their way out. Now that they were in the employee lounge they could hear the announcement more clearly. "Full evacuation in effect, please follow the directions of the security staff towards the emergency exits. Mutagenic warning, all guests in the northeastern quadrant must report for quarantine." The northeast part of the arena had been where Prince Bandar had been seated before the explosion.
As they exited, two security guards with American accents were arguing. "HQ is in my ear saying it was one of the damn staff here who was the bomber!" he shouted. "We should detain them!" he pointed at the party. His companion looked at their ID and asked them a few questions, then shook his head. "Fuck sake, you idiot, they're not Arabs, do you think any of them is likely to be an Islamist? You can go, merge in there." He indicated a large crowd of people being led out towards one of the emergency exits along the arena's southern wall. Bran: Bran felt his heart stop racing as they moved away. "This'll have banjaxed our act," he muttered to the others. Amber: Amber sighed but still look around warily since she like others want to get out and hopefully somewhere safe sd: they joined a huge throng of people who were being escorted out by a team of armed security guards. they went down a set of stairs and towards the foyer, where military contractors, officers and numerous representatives of the drone warfare industry streamed out to join them. the security guards barked repeated orders to keep moving, struggling to be heard over hundreds of raised voices.
they descended another set of stairs, and began to stream down towards a large, open area where there were numerous doors, protected by electronic ticket gates and full body scanners to check for hidden weapons. here, the crowd was able to spread out a bit and make for the exit. they picked out the quickest path they could find through the press of bodies, although doing so was extremely difficult in the chaos.
as they pushed through the crowd, they glanced back behind them. there was a supply closet, the door swinging open. In the confusion it took them a moment to pick out who must have come out of there, a young Arabic man in perhaps his early thirties, in the uniform of an al-Nawaz employee. He moved quickly to join the crowd, and one of the security guards noticed and moved to intercept him. As this happened the young man let out a deafening call in Arabic.
"GOD IS GREATEST!"
the security guard reached for his gun, but far too late. they caught a glimpse of a Psionisis crystal under the young man's jacket as he pressed at a button concealed in his palm. there was a deafening explosion, the emergency stairwell collapsed, and a pulsating wave of purple smoke roiled outwards to the exits they were moving towards Bran: "Run!" Bran shouted and he surged forward, heading for the nearest exit. Amber: Amber knew what the reactions of the crowd is likely to be, pure panic. Amber: She went after Bran and Melq Melquiades: Melqui's eyes narrowed the moment before the explosion. He turned and immediately began sprinting toward the exit with Bran and Amber, covering his mouth as they pushed into the purple smoke. sd: they rushed through - fortunately the electronic barriers had been disabled - and pushed out of the doors. Bran and Melqui got out first, keeping their breaths held as they did. Amber was less fortunate - a man in the uniform of an American officer had pushed ahead of her in the chaos, and she collided with him. Her breath expelled out of her and as she sucked in more air the smoke came pouring into her lungs. She felt it burning into her as she fell through the door. Bran: Bran looked back and was horrified to see Amber collapsing, clearly affected by the smoke. "Quick Mel!" he called and rushed back to aid her. Melquiades: "Shit, we've got to get her to the van," said Melqui with gritted teeth. He helped lift her with Bran. sd: others were pouring out of the building - Melqui managed to reach in and scoop Amber up just in time so she didn't get trampled, but as he did a woman who was screaming in terror burst through the door. She collided with Melqui just as he picked Amber up, and he had to strain himself to not drop her, landing awkwardly on his feet as he did so. he could feel his ankle throbbing in pain as he moved away with the hacker slung over his shoulder. Bran: Bran led the way to the van, keeping an eye out for anyone looking at them suspiciously, although he suspected this was unlikely in the panicking crowd. sd: they took a last look through the glass doors. there were hundreds of bodies there, killed in the second explosion or crushed when the stairs had collapsed, and others had been fully immersed in the mutagenic Psionisis smoke. Amber, who had only filled her lungs, would probably recover in a few days, but those who had been covered in the noxious smoke were unlikely to be so lucky. several fires were raging in the building, and all around them they could hear sirens and screams.
with some difficulty they got back to the van. they strapped Amber in and made her comfortable and prepared for a quick getaway. they had already seen several vehicles marked with the logo of the Deslauriers corp, the local police, moving towards al-Nawaz arena. Bran: Bran slid in behind the wheel and set off, careful not to draw attention by his driving. sd: Bran was a skilled driver and he knew he'd need to set a balance between speed and care - driving away from the site of multiple suicide bombings at full speed would be sure to attract unwanted attention.
the streets around them soon filled up with police and with terrified people fleeing from al-Nawaz. Bran slipped down a side street and made his way east. As they went, Melqui looked out the left hand window, towards the arena, and saw what appeared to be a local woman, who had fallen over and was slumped against the wall of a building. Her clothes were of poor quality and had been singed, as had her long dark hair. Her face was hidden, pushed up against the wall of the building.
She opened her mouth and spewed the contents of her stomach against the wall of the building just as two police officers stepped out of the nearby street to look at her. One moved ahead, calling out to her, and as he did she looked towards him. Just as they drove past and out of sight, Melqui got a quick look at her face and he felt his own stomach turn. The whites of her eyes had turned to iridescent violent, streaked through with thick red veins. Worse, her eyes were no longer spread evenly on her head - the right eye socket had drifted several inches to the left, nearly atop her nose. they heard an alarmed shout and then a gunshot rang out as they drove away. Melquiades: Melqui glanced back at Bran, focused on the drive, and Amber, looking dazed and sickly. He didn't say anything, planning to confide in Bran later on. sd: they hastily made their way back home. Leo called them frantically, hearing there had been explosions at al-Nawaz. "I've got a dozen different feeds open at once, these weren't the only bombings," he said. "There was one in lgrthm district just now, and I've seen some grainy video from MbS Memorial itself - someone made an attempt on the royal residence there. This is really fucking bad, there are going to be cops fucking everywhere. Keep your heads down." Bran: "We're doing our best!" Bran snapped. "And we got the job done." Melquiades: "Our heads could not get any lower, at this point," added Melqui. sd: "I'll have to twist bin Omar's arm hard to make him pay but I won't let up until we get that nuyen. You did what he paid for, no fault of yours someone interrupted before it could have the effect he wanted." Bran: "We could have died or worse in there," Bran said, calming a little. "It was fecking carnage." Melquiades: Melqui just nodded, taking a long drag of a cigarette. Bran: Bran asked if he could take one of Melqui's cigarettes. He didn't often smoke but this seemed the time for it. sd: they returned home and allowed Melqui and Amber to rest. Bran checked the hacker carefully and was relieved that she was showing no sign of mutation - she'd been overcome, but would be on her feet the next day he thought.
their Internet connection remained active long enough for them to receive confirmation of Leo's report - there had been another suicide bombing at the lgrthm headquarters in the district named for that megacorp, and there had been two foiled bombings - one at the royal residence in MbS Memorial district, and other attempt on the Line station in CyberDragon district, which would have effectively cut NEOM in half and prevented response from the western side of the city. Since that attack had been prevented, the Line stations remained active, and through this, reinforcement police from other districts, and even some Saudi soldiers, were shipped into Primazon.com. King Abdulaziz was apparently going to give an address that night on counterterrorism measures, but they didn't get to see it - soon all Internet was blocked in Primazon.com, except around the Lineside area. However there were loudspeakers set up announcing what the impact would be, although the sight of the armed police and soldiers in the street already gave a clear indication. All residents of off-Line Primazon.com district were confined to quarters, so that the police and the army could round up anyone who was involved in the attacks on al-Nawaz. Melquiades: Melqui wordlessly gave Bran a cigarette and lit it for him. He sat by the window, listening to the loudspeaker annoucements. "There's gonna be trouble from this. Might be opportunities too." Bran: Bran nodded tiredly. He got up and went to his room, coming back a moment later with a bottle which he waved. "It's supposed to be whiskey - not too bad for a fake." He produced two glasses and looked enquiringly at Melqui. Melquiades: Melqui nodded. As Bran poured, he spoke. "I've seen some awful things done to human beings. The scale of this was different, though." He left unsaid another difference - that this time he was just part of the crowd, a potential victim having to flee. sd: they sat by the window, drinking and smoking, and watched the night unfold. their first indication of what the night would be like came early. they heard police shouting at someone to stop, and soon a boy of no more than twelve came into view, clutching a bag of shopping. the police caught up to him, flung him against the wall, and struck him around the legs with their batons. the boy fell, and as he was down the officers leapt on him, cuffed him, and dragged him off, punching him several times as they did. Melquiades: As he looked out the window, face impassive, Melqui kept a camera trained on the street below. Perhaps it could be useful to the group, or to the families of the poor folk caught up in the crackdown. Bran: Bran watched this scene with angry eyes, and then he sighed. "It's a terrible thing when you're powerless to protect yourself and those around you from violence, without embracing violence yourself." Bran: "And it's always the innocent who pay, every time." he added. Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "That's why I decided at a young age not to be innocent." sd: they saw another dozen arrests throughout the night, including one of a woman who was shouting that the police had groped her, but the residents of Primazon.com knew they couldn't risk intervening. one of the people being dragged away was someone they recognised - it was one of the members of the Yemeni Circle, who had threatened them with retribution after one of their own crew had been caught cheating at dice. before their Internet had been cut off, the news reports had indicated the bombing was carried out by Yemeni terrorists, and seemingly the police were going after anyone who might be obviously connected to that now annexed and occupied nation. sd: in the morning, Amber recovered enough for them to tell her what had happened. being confined to the apartment block and with their connection to the outside world severed, there were relatively few sources of news, but one of their neighbours knocked on the door and told them that some other residents would be gathering and talking in the lobby, so at least they didn't suffer their confinement alone. Bran: Bran agreed easily to join this social gathering, but he wasn't sure about Amber. "Are you up to meeting strangers?" Amber: A comfortable stay managed to allows her to recover slightly. "Hai." She replied warily, "I don't mind. We still need more information" Bran: Bran nodded and held out his arm. "Let's go and meet our neighbours," he said, smiling for the first time since they had staggered home from the arena. sd: there were about two dozen people sitting in the lounge, drinking coffee and waving their arms excitedly. "They can't do this, this is unconstitutional!" a Canadian man who worked for a local construction company's HR department was shouting. "NEOM is under a separate set of laws, they can't deploy Kingdom soldiers on the street as if we were in Riyadh!" Others had a much more basic fear - as long as they were under confinement, they couldn't go to work, which meant, simply, that they couldn't be paid. Bran: Bran got himself a coffee and sat down, listening to the others until he got a feel for who they were and where they were coming from. Amber: Amber also went for the coffee machine as well, shuddering at the coffee that it spat out into one of these cups and start drinking it sd: one young man of about nineteen, who recognised Bran from the clinics he ran, came over and spoke to him quietly. "Doctor Finneran," he said. "You should see this. I was...ah...out late last night. I was with a girl and didn't even know about the curfew until after it happened, had to slip back when it was dark. Someone had put this up on a wall a few blocks away, where lots of people could look out their window and see it," he pulled out his phone - even without an Internet connection he had still been able to take a picture. It was a poster calling for a demonstration at 1pm today, at the local headquarters of the ruling Islamic Progress Party, under the slogan Resist the Crackdown. Bran: "If the current situation is anything to go by, the demonstrators will be at great risk," Bran said quietly. "Unconstitutional or not, there will be a heavy police and probably army presence and I doubt they'll think twice about using violence.. Especially as this will have been seen by those forces." sd: the young man nodded. "I saw them beat the shit out of a guy last night, I managed to hide in a stairwell and stay out of sight. Anyone going out today is brave but crazy." Bran: "Or desperate," Bran said, sighing. Melquiades: "Maybe we should get eyes on the situation tonight," said Melqui when he had a chance to speak separately to Bran and Amber. "Perhaps the drone. Or I could post up somewhere close." Melquiades: edit: this afternoon Bran: "The drone would be safer," Bran said, considering. "Although in daylight, it might get seen. It's not that far to send it though, could control it from here." Melquiades: "We can see if we can find a good vantage for it. The ground is shifting rapidly here, and I'd prefer to know which direction it's going." Bran: "The drone is very small, and I'll make sure it's camoflaged," Bran said. sd: they went back to their apartment and Bran gave the drone a quick paint job before sending it out the window. Controlling it at a distance was somewhat more challenging due to the Internet connection being severed, but he was at least able to get it into the air enough to see people trickling out into the streets. Most were wearing masks and garbed in black, though he suspected these wouldn't protect them much.
the individuals soon formed into a crowd, and from what he could see through the drone Bran estimated it was around a thousand people - for an emergency demonstration called under conditions of complete illegality and with no Internet, this wasn't insignificant. from circling around with the drone, Bran could see that some people had already been out for a while and had scrawled or stenciled slogans and symbols on walls - one he saw many times over were the letters ISJ, in both English and Arabic, under a symbol of an AK-47 crossed over the Islamic crescent moon, in an obvious variant of the classical hammer-and-sickle. some particularly brave person had also written in several places Al-Fuladh lives! Death to the House of Saud!
the crowd marched towards the IPP headquarters, but they never got there. there was a huge police presence already there, with huge barricades set up protecting water cannon. as soon as the demonstrators had started to gather, a police drone whirled above them and announced that they were in violation of the curfew and should return home immediately or face arrest. This was answered with boos and several chunks of stone flung into the air - one protester proved to be an adept shot and sent a hunk of masonry up to smash into it. the crowd set off. from the aerial point of view through the drone, Bran could see several police detachments gathering in streets around them, clearly intending to completely surround the demonstrators.
as soon as the crowd came near to the Lineside areas, they were shot at - as well as the water cannon, there were also many cannisters of tear gas fired into the crowd, and through the drone they could also hear the whir of what police forces around the world would term less than lethal rounds. to judge from the drone, they had not always lived up to their name - Bran thought at least four people were dead. then a shot rang out that didn't come from the police - it was impossible to tell if it had hit anything, but the mere sound was enough to prompt a heavy response. As the demonstrators were driven back, the other police detachments fell upon them from all sides with truncheons and riot shields. in these scattered melees they saw a few Deslauriers men taken down by large groups of demonstrators, but it was clear which side was winning the fight. within an hour, Bran thought at least half the crowd had been arrested, and the police were pursuing the others through the Primazon.com streets. Bran: Bran shook his head. "As we expected. But impressive that so many were ready and willing to take the risks. There will be many needing medical treatment after this - those who aren't languishing in cells. I'll have to find a way to hold a clinic." sd: the lockdown continued into the next day. intermittently, some phone signals were able to continue, and Amber was able to make some limited progress in circumventing the block on Internet access, although it was both very limited and painfully slow. as they debated what to do next, Melqui went looking through his goods and picked up one of his burner phones. there was a notification indicating a missed call about an hour before. he suddenly remembered that this phone was the one he'd given the number for to Nazim Nejad, kidnapper, psyker and trade unionist.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Oct 23, 2021 16:43:19 GMT
Melquiades: Melquiades spent a while in lockdown letting his ankle recover while he monitored police and civilian activity on the street below and watched Mexican and American television from a flash drive. After some time he grew antsy, and decided to get out of the district for a while to drink and socialize. A few nuyen in the right pockets got him there, and he returned somewhat refreshed - though still with a certain element of tension. Amber: Amber was much more anxious and uneasy in her surroundins, thinking back to her episode during the last job. Despite that, she became more paranoid than ever. She threw herself into a form of training from her time in the Army, becoming more ready. She even taken to keeping her new pistol, fully armed within very easy on Amber: a nightstand. Bran: As they watched the police presence tighten around the district, Bran worked on ways he could get out to visit the bars and clubs he frequented. That night he slipped out, finding his way through the back alleys to where he knew he could find a car. The relief of moving outside the cordoned area went to his head almost as much as the drink, and he was soon lost in the round of pleasure, and then pain as the fights started... He made it back to the apartment next day without the usual signs of violence, though his clothes had clearly been slept in. With tea (or something resembling tea) and rest he was shortly back his normal self, and this time when he slipped out it was to run the clinic, seeing locals suffering from beatings and woundings obtained at the hands of the forces of law and order. sd: the first time Bran had tried to run a clinic, the police had broken it up and he'd been forced to bribe them to avoid a beating - this time he was more careful. although the area was under lockdown and no businesses were officially open, there were some neighbourhoods that were heavily gang controlled, or that had especially anti-police populations, where Deslauriers were only prepared to go in large numbers. here, the lockdown was only partially in effect.
Leo had already contacted them with several offers of work. given the chaos in the district, and how, in particularly, people of Yemeni ancestry had been arrested, their enemies in the Yemeni Circle were suffering badly, and several other gangs were planning attacks on their territory. The Black Circle, a rival gang, had sent them an offer to launch a joint attack and split their holdings between them. On the other hand, they had another offer from a councillor from the Islamic Progress Party, the ruling party of the district, who wanted them to plant incriminating evidence on a rival which would lead to his arrest.
In addition to these offers, however, they had a more tempting one. The drop phone they'd provided to Nazim Nejad had rung the day after the demonstration which the police had crushed, and Nazim had told them that he and his comrades were now planning something bold. with all the summary arrests and beatings Deslauriers had dealt out in Primazon.com, the prisons were overflowing. Nazim proposed that they strike directly at Deslauriers, freeing the prisoners and blowing up one of their prisons as a symbol of resistance to their brutality. "If you want to be involved," he said, "sneak to this apartment block tomorrow night at 1 am. There's a car park there, go inside and look for a campervan - I'll send you the licence plate number. Some of us will be inside waiting for you so we can plan." Bran: Bran had returned from his clinic session in an angry mood. "Fecking cops are making life hell for the locals, and then they turn up at the clinic!" he growled, sounding most unlike himself. "I had to pay them to feck off." His face lit up at the news from Nazim Nejad. "A chance to even the score!" Melquiades: Melqui seemed hesitant. "Do we really want to draw attention to ourselves with this kind of job, right as the state is most watchful? And the Black Circle are offering more. It could be a chance to gather some strength for ourselves." Amber: Amber nodded, "It would distract them from us as well. Not mentioning making them looks like a fools" Amber: EDIT: Nodding at Bran's points Bran: "The Black Circle are just a gang trying to cash in on another gang's weakness, but the local people and especially the Yemenis are really suffering. The police are out of control, and lashing out at anyone. We can strike a blow back, if we do it right!" Bran's eyes were bright with passion. Melquiades has connected. Melquiades: Melqui continued to grumble a bit about the foolishness of the plan, but eventually agreed in the face of Bran's conviction and Amber's support. "We should be ready to get the hell out of the district if things go south though." sd: the next night they sneaked out and went to the address that Nazim had given them, an apartment block about six streets away from their own building. being near to the Line, this area was patrolled quite heavily. they had to make their way very slowly, one street at at time, regularly having to hide and wait for heavily armed cops to pass. The levels of wanton violence seemed to have ebbed a bit tonight, but they did still see the police enter one building, then exit about five minutes later with a woman whose face had been bloodied - some others in the apartment flung refuse at the police from the windows, to no particular purpose.
due to having to wait for patrols to pass they ended up a few minutes late, but eventually they reached a nondescript grey block about fifteen storeys high and they went to the adjoining carpark. since few people in NEOM actually needed cars there were only a few vehicles in there - they'd have spotted the beaten up campervan even without needing the licence plate number Nazim had sent them. Melquiades: Melqui slunk his way up to the van and gave the side a quick double knock. sd: the door at the back of the van opened a crack, allowing them to climb inside. there were two people already there - they had expected Nazim would be there, but instead there were two women. after a moment they recognised one of them - she was the Filipino woman who had been with Nazim during the kidnapping, who had been the most willing of that group to talk, before Bran had shot her with a poisoned dart when the fight broke out. The other woman appeared to be from somewhere in South Asia - she was perhaps in her forties, with short dark hair and a nostril pierced with a small silver stud. Bran: Bran nodded to them. "Where are the others?" sd: "Elsewhere. It's easier to avoid notice moving in a small group," the Filipino woman said. When the door was closed she spoke again. "I don't think I got to introduce myself last time, you seemed to be in a hurry," she said with a smirk. "I'm Joanna, and this is my girlfriend Chamunda. She has the lead on this run, since comrade Nazim didn't exactly lead us to glory when he was last in charge." Bran: Bran resisted the urge to smile at this. "You can call me Tomas." Melquiades: "I'll be going by Marco here," said Melqui, not bothering to hide that he was using an alternate pseudonym. "I hope everyone involved is well-recovered from our... confrontation." Amber: "Kiiro" Amber replied, using Japanese word for a different shade of colour after she introduced herself. "Nice to meet you all" sd: "Everyone's recovered, yes," said Joanna. "Although two of them have been arrested since the crackdown started. But we'll do something about that soon."
"But then we need your help for that," Chamunda said. "Deslauriers run two prisons here in Primazon.com. Their main one is near the centre of the district, very well protected, and where they keep the most dangerous of their prisoners. The second is a black site on the eastern edge of Primazon, which has more capacity. Normally it's used to torture people or beat confessions out of them, but given the situation they're now using it for an overflow site. We want to strike there." Melquiades: "And you have a plan for that, I assume?" sd: "We have the start of one, but we wanted to discuss your role in it. The first parts of the plan are already set - we're going to strike them tomorrow night at 3 am, when their numbers will be at their thinnest and they'll be at their least alert. Nazim is going to deliberately get himself arrested a few hours beforehand for something trivial and non-political. Normally when you get arrested in NEOM the cops have a device they can use to test whether or not you're a psyker, but it isn't quick to use and at the moment they have a large prisoner backlog so they're only using it on people they're suspicious of," said Chamunda. "So in this case, we think comrade Nazim should be able to get inside without arousing suspicions and start using his power to incite a revolt among some of the prisoners. That's when we strike - we have ten cadre with small arms who can descend on the prison all at once. With your help and the element of surprise that should be enough." Bran: Bran nodded to show his understanding. "What exactly do you want us to do?" sd: "There are four things to do in the prison - kill the guards, release the prisoners, hack the Deslauriers systems to delete as much information about the prisoners as we can, and then set the explosive. We have cadre who can handle the hack and the bomb, although if you have special skills in those areas then you can obviously help. The primary thing we need help with is the fight, which I understand you're pretty good at," Chamunda said. "Joanna and I were thinking earlier and we thought there were three approaches you might take. Perhaps you might think of some others, but I can lay out the ones we had in mind.
The first one is the simplest - you just join us in a frontal assault and add your guns to ours.
The second is that you could emulate Nazim and get yourselves arrested deliberately, then fight from the inside. Of course you won't have any gear then, but you might be able to help spark an uprising and then we can more easily hit the cops from two directions.
The last one is probably the most challenging so this is up to you. If you could find an isolated patrol unit sometime close to the attack, you could ambush them, take them out and retrieve their gear, and then pretend to be cops yourselves. You could then 'arrest' some of us and lead us to the prison. If you happened to forget to relieve us of our weapons in the process then that would obviously be very unfortunate for Deslauriers." Bran: "That is quite a challenge," Bran said thoughfully. "But could be extremely effective." Amber: Amber considered that final option with somewhat more doubt, "So many things can go wrong with the final plan. Everything will mostly have to go just right with that one." Bran: "We'd need to do some research to find a suitable patrol and know how they act," Bran said. sd: "We want to do that anyway - we want to know where the patrols might be so that if an alert gets out, we know how long we have before reinforcements turn up," said Chamunda. "That's one of the things you can do to prepare. You could also work on some surveillance of the site ahead of time, or preparing some kind of distraction - a fire or explosion on the other side of the district might draw cops away, as long as we don't kill anyone who isn't a cop in the process. We want to bring the people onside and make them confident to stand up against the cops, not to turn them against us." Bran: Bran nodded. "Yes, that's understood." sd: "Tomas, this time you might want to bring something a bit heavier to shoot than a blowgun," Joanna told him. "It made me very drowsy but I wasn't wearing riot gear." Bran: "I wasn't trying to kill you." Bran grinned. "Blowguns can be very effective and they're silent. But we'll see." Melquiades: Melqui spoke little, but it was clear his mind was working as he thought of potential approaches to the plan. "Been a while since I really broke out the firepower," he murmured as they discussed equipment. Bran: "Police weaponry isn't personalised or anything like that?" he asked. Amber: Amber agreed with Joanna's point and after Melquiades made his comment, "We can certainly see if there are any blueprints as well. Someone got to build the place in the past. Surveillance should be straightforward as well sd: "Well nothing in Primazon was built more than fifteen years ago, so you should be able to find those, but the limited Internet might make things awkward," said Joanna. She looked at Bran. "Not usually, that kind of thing is expensive and then if a cop quits or dies you can't pass the gun on to some other wifebeating piece of shit." Bran: "So when we take down the patrol we can carry their weaons openly, along with whatever we bring to the party ourselves." sd: Joanna nodded. "If you're going to ambush the patrol, you can pretend to arrest about half of us and bring us in. More than that would be suspicious with only three officers. We'll work out who from among ourselves - the two of us for sure. We'll need to stick nearby, that way if the attack fails we can always abort the run as well." Melquiades: "Gotta say, this'll be fun, after having to just sit and watch the crackdown." Melqui drummed his fingers on the hilt of his blade. sd: "I haven't attacked a police station since I left home," Joanna said. "Reminds me of the old days." Bran: Bran grinned at her enthusiasm. "It'll need some intensive work to set up, if we're doing it tomorrow night."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Oct 30, 2021 17:39:53 GMT
sd: "So you're going to ambush the police patrol then?" Chamunda asked. "If so, you'll want to meet up with me tomorrow night, a few others can be nearby for you to pretend to arrest once you've put on your pigflesh. Just a few last things to take note of." She counted off on her fingers. "First, we want this to look like a gang freeing its people who've been arrested - no use of any kind of slogan or shout that might give them clues. Secondly, we leave no one behind. If any of our people are killed, we're carrying them away to make sure we can't be identified through DNA. If any cops have even a chance of identifying us, then we shoot them dead. We wear masks or face concealing helmets the whole time and we wear gloves. Third thing - if it's at all possible, a few of our people need alibis. If you're any good at manipulating video footage, then I'll send you their details and you can pre-prepare some faked video, later on we hack the security footage in their buildings so they appear to have been at home. Fourth and last - unless you can find a good place in Primazon to lay low afterwards, then once the attack is done we flee out of the city for a time and lay low in the desert - we can sneak back in a few days afterwards. No using cars, they're too visible. Best thing for getting out of the city is to steal bikes, they're fast but don't make much noise." Melquiades: "This'll be delicate," said Melqui. "Godspeed, my friends." sd: "Hasta la victoria siempre," Joanna replied. Amber: Amber paid a close attention as to what Chamunda said, "I might able to help out with video potentially" She added, highlighing her computer skills sd: "Good," Chamunda said. "I'll send you the details through that drop phone you gave Nazim." Bran: Bran was unusually quiet, plainly he had something on his mind but was not going to speak about it. sd: they set out and went about their preparations. the first thing needed was to watch the patrol routes - since they had already sneaked out, Melqui went hunting around the district, sticking to the shadows, climbing up to high, unobtrusive spots, and watching. back at home, Amber did the same by searching online. although there were limits to this given the difficulty accessing the Internet in Primazon.com at the moment, Amber knew ways to avoid the block. this was time-consuming, but she was able to spend some time. she eventually worked out the digital signature given off by some of the police's communications equipment, and from this she could create a rough map of patrol sites which she cross-referenced with Melqui.
Bran, meanwhile, sent his drone out to watch the jail site carefully and quietly. by observing the entrance at various times of day he was able to estimate that there would be perhaps fifteen to twenty police and guards present at the jail when they attacked, although it wasn't clear how many prisoners there were. once Melqui had constructed a map with Amber, he sneaked out again and went to observe the jail more closely. he managed to find a building nearby which he could easily climb up on top of and sit and watch with some binoculars. at one point, he noticed a rear entrance that was very well camouflaged - he only noticed it because two men suddenly came out, carrying something shaped very much like a body underneath a thick cloth covering - they loaded this up onto an unmarked truck and drove off east out of NEOM. about two hours later, he saw the same truck come back, and the men exited - their burden was gone. Bran: Bran had seemed troubled, but when Melqui informed them what he had seen, something seemed to change. Melquiades: Melqui and Bran consulted about a potential distraction. Melqui liked the idea of a bomb. "The cops will already be on edge about that. They won't be able to avoid a response." Amber: Amber made a start on the video clips that she highlighted that she will help out with. Eventually she managed to purchase a black app that help her out on this. In generally it is people looking busy or bored watching whatever craps they are on the TV. Bran: "A bomb would work well, but wherever we place it, we have to be very careful - we must avoid any civilian casualties," Bran said. "The killer cops are another matter." His face was grim as he thought of what was going on in that prison right now. Melquiades: "Not sure we can assure such things," said Melqui. But he did head out and put more time into finding a location that met Bran's specifications, eventually identifying an empty house that could be collapsed without collateral damage. Bran: Meanwhile Bran worked on the bomb, obtaining the materials with difficulty but once he had them the work went smoothly enough. sd: having identified a patrol and placed the time bomb, they took what rest they could, although their hearts were beating hard. their other jobs so far had been dangerous and there had always been a risk of death, but now they were striking directly at the state, and the Saudis were not noted for their lenience or scruples when it came to hunting anyone they considered to be a terrorist.
they put on masks and dark clothing, then sneaked out of their apartment at about 1:30 am on 23 April 2084. even at this late hour it was incredibly hot, and they dreaded to think what kind of heat they would face in the summer, assuming they survived to see it.
they rendezvoused with Chamunda at pre-arranged spot near a small park. this district had only been inhabited for less than twenty years so the trees here were all still small, but there were still bushes and other greenery to hide in.
Chamunda took out a silenced pistol in one hand and a sharp combat knife in the other. "We should hit from as close to as we can, so if any of them survive the first attack we can still take them down without letting them get off an alert," she said. She concealed herself in one of the bushes. Melquiades: Melqui drew his own ornate dagger, a relic of his gangland past. His eyes were wide and focused, like a cat stalking its prey. Bran: Bran had a pistol, although he had not had time to work on it as he had Amber's. Amber: Amber took out her special custom made pistol she was pleased about as well, worked upon by Bran, the one they "literaited" from the very gang they are helping with, "All ready!£ sd: a few minutes later, the patrol they'd selected came walking by. by this point the time bomb Bran had planted had gone off, drawing many nearby cops away. these ones, fortunately, weren't among them, and furthermore they were having an animated discussion as they passed by. they seemed to be speaking French, although exactly what they were saying was hard to work out due to their full face shields. they passed directly in front of where the group were hidden. Chamunda held up three fingers, counted them off, and then leaped out of hiding Melquiades is disconnected. sd: Chamunda stepped up and fired a shot from her silenced pistol at the nearest cop. At such short range and with such a strong element of surprise, she was able to literally place the gun almost up against her target before she fired. As she did this, Melqui emerged from the other side and drove his dagger straight into his target's throat, up and under his visor. Bran and Amber, who had the least actual combat experience, took on the third officer. Bran's shot struck the man, but in the side, causing him to stumble and thus miss Amber's bullet. Like Chamunda, Amber had her gun in one hand and a dagger in the other - with a quick movement, she stepped forward and thrust her dagger right into her foe. Although none of the officers had weapons at hand, they were still fighters - as she dealt the killing blow, the man swung wildly and struck her a hard punch in the face. Though her nose was bloodied, she was able to shake herself quickly and there was no lasting harm done. While Bran patched her up quickly, Melqui and Chamunda cleared up all the blood and stripped the bodies of their weapons and armour and then hid them. Chamunda found good spots quickly - Melqui had the distinct impression this wasn't the first time she'd done this.
"Good work. I'll go get the others, meet up with us in five minutes and then you can fake an arrest." She gave the description of a nearby alleyway where they could stage the 'arrest' and then sprinted off quietly.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Nov 13, 2021 16:36:40 GMT
sd: they quickly disguised themselves by pulling on the dead cops' heavy riot gear - square shields, bullet proof vests, helmets with dark visors, batons, tear gas canisters, cuffs, and heavy pistols. although the gear wasn't electronically personalised, it was made to fit each officer, and they didn't perfectly match so it was uncomfortable and awkward - they could only hope no keen eyed officer noticed this until it was too late.
they moved off to the alleyway where Chamunda, Joanna, and two others awaited them. One they recognised - the last time they'd seen this big Arabic man, he'd been one of Rafa's kidnappers, and Melqui had almost killed him before Bran saved his life.
"You should take these," Joanna said, pulling out some red LEDs attached to suction cups. "Once the fighting starts, stick one on the back of your helmets and one on the front, that way our comrades will know you're not real cops. It wouldn't be ideal if one of us shot you thinking you were on the other side." Amber: Amber was slightly disappointed with herself on the performance so far. She took two suctions cups affixed with the red LEDs. "Yes, that is a good idea!" Bran: Bran took a set from Joanna with a wry grin. He hoped she couldn't tell how hard his heart was hammering. Melquiades: Melqui took the LEDs, while giving a nod to the big Arabic man. "Glad to see you looking well, friend. No hard feelings, yeah?" sd: The Arabic man harrumphed. "I hope you got paid well, I'll have that scar forever," he said. "But it was mistaken identity, whatever." It wasn't the most convincing show of forgiveness they'd ever seen.
"Yusuf bears grudges, but I'm sure he'll let you off after today," Joanna said. She quickly pulled on a mask, and so did the others. "Now it's time for you to arrest us," she said brightly, putting her hands up. "Leave the cuffs loose and we'll be able to break free when the time comes. Chamunda and Yusuf coughing heavily will be the signal to attack, we're going to get past the front desk and into the jail itself but that might not work." Melquiades: If Melqui was upset, he didn't show it, giving a bright smiled to Yusuf. The violence they'd been a part of not long ago did not seem to have fazed him. He affixed the cuffs loosely, whistling as he did so. Bran: Bran carefully attached cuffs to Joanna, checking twice to make sure they weren't locked. sd: "This is much more pleasant than getting arrested by the military police in Mindanao," Joanna said. "Hopefully less jail time too. Let's go." Bran: Before they set off, Bran checked the pistol, ensuring it was loaded and ready. Amber: Amber double checked her pistol and the knife sd: once Chamunda and the others were cuffed, they set out towards the jail, taking backstreets to avoid patrols. the jail was on the northeastern edge of the district, not far from Lineside but not actually there - presumably the well-to-do residents of Primazon.com didn't want to deal with having an actual prison in their backyard. the jail was surrounded by a fifteen foot high concrete wall with two metal gates - these were electronically locked, but fortunately they could get in using the passes they'd taken from the police who they'd ambushed.
the main building itself was squat, windowless and made of white concrete - from the blueprints Amber had found, the cells were in the basement. their hearts were beating fast as they approached. They entered into a small rectangular room with a large blue door leading inwards to the rest of the jail. There was a desk there behind some bulletproof glass, and there was an officer who looked like he might have been from North Africa on the desk, looking angry. "Thank fuck Dufresne," he said to Bran in Arabic. "Some of the cunts below are getting rowdy. Leave these ones here for me to process and get to the armoury." Amber is disconnected. Amber has connected. Bran: Bran raised his hand and replied in a voice as close as he could make it to the officer they had been observing. "There was some trouble with their friends outside, we have to bring them through quickly," he said in Arabic. sd: "What? Oh, fuck's sake, fine." The man muttered something under his breath and pressed some buttons on a keypad, and the blue door swung open into a short corridor with several officers off to their left. They noticed there was no way into the secure chamber where the guard had led them in from here - they'd need to find that later.
there were a few signs that pointed towards the armoury, although these were barely necessary as they spotted the door swinging ahead of them as one officer entered. as the door swung behind him there was the sound of raised voices and people rifling through lockers. sd: add - the armoury was at the end of the corridor and off to the right, seemingly behind the security chamber. sd: *let them in Amber is disconnected. sd: there were some security cameras dotted around the corridor, however as they looked at them, they noticed that they appeared to be switched off Amber has connected. Bran: Bran pushed Joanna as if to get her moving, and waved the gun threateningly. "Cells or armoury?" he muttered to her. sd: "Armoury," Joanna muttered, "you fucking pig!" she added in a louder voice Bran: "Move it bitch!" Bran growled, and they moved forward. Amber is disconnected. Amber has connected. sd: they went into the armoury, which was a square chamber lined with lockers on every side. there were eight officers inside, in varying stages of putting on heavy protective equipment and pulling out their gear - truncheons, stun grenades, and stab proof vests. "Christ, Dufresne, are you horny again or something?" a man said in Arabic, looking at their prisoners. It was the officer they'd seen entering just ahead of them - he had no equipment on at all yet, having only just got his locker open. This man was North African and had a Thin Blue Line tattoo on his upper arm. "Should leave these pricks in one of the offices until we've cleaned up downstairs. At least you're geared up already." Amber is disconnected. JOeAmber has connected. JOeAmber is disconnected. Amber has connected. Bran: Bran gave a heavy sigh. "It's going crazy outside, had to bring them back in here until it's clear." sd: the cop laughed and threw his arms around Bran in a rough hug. Chamunda gave a loud cough and then Yusuf started as well. sd: at the signal, Joanna suddenly sprang up, pistol appearing in her hand as she shook her cuffs off. She shot one cop in the head just before he could pull his helmet on. The others also moved to the attack. sd: "Wait, who are..." the cop who had grabbed Bran had caught a sight of unfamiliar eyes through 'Dufresne's' visor, just as Joanna attacked Bran: Clasped by the wretched cop, Bran had no chance to use his gun. Instead he slid one of his special hypodermic needles out of its sheath in his pocket, and brought it up behind the man, stabbing it quickly into his unprotected neck. The officer's face darkened, then his eyes rolled into his head and he fell heavily to the floor. Bran: Almost pulled down by the heavy body, Bran managed to retain his balance and stagger back. Amber: Amber's face expression shifted to more calm. She pulled out her pistol and aimed it at one of the dressing cops. As she fired one, the bullet went through one cop but such as suick, she moved on to next cop at the same pace and fired another. Within a matter of seconds, two cops hit the floor, suffering wounds that may be proven fatal in the end. Her eyes glanced around, finding for more enemies to try her practice on. Melquiades: Melqui slipped his blade into his hand from his sleeve, and rushed another of the cops. This one was more ready than the others, and managed to turn to put his stab-proof vest in between himself and the knife. At first the blade caught in the material, and Melqui was forced to defend himself from a couple of quick blows from a truncheon - but then he managed to use the force of the man's attack against him, drawing him closer until the gang knife suddenly slipped through the armor and into the cop's heart. Melqui drew him in as he breathed his last, and lowered him to the floor. Melquiades: Melqui turned to find the cops all fallen, and nodded to his companions, lingering especially on Amber, whose deadliness was now more apparent than ever. Bran: Bran leaned down and turned his adversary over, put the gun to his neck and fired. Bran: Then he pulled the LEDs from his pocket and attached them to the helmet. sd: Chamunda and one of the others took out officers with their guns, while Yusuf used a knife, tearing out the Deslauriers man's throat with one quick thrust. Chamunda glanced around to make sure the cameras were all off. "Good work comrades. Yusuf, take out the one at the front door and then take over there - here, use this to tell me if anyone else turns up, stall for time if they do," she said, taking some radio communicators off the dead cops. "Joanna, go open the back door and let the others in, start working on the bomb and finding the control centre, we need to wipe the databases as soon as the place is secure. Rest of you, with me, we head for the cells." sd: within the armoury there were a few weapons to hand that they could seek to grab quicky - the officers had been gearing up for hand to hand fighting so they had been taking out heavy truncheons and flashbangs. there was one locker which appeared to be where the heavier weapons were stored, but this was set with a heavy lock and appeared to be connected to an alarm Amber: Amber looked rather hopeful at Bran and Melq Bran: "How long do we have?" Bran asked, eyeing the lock. sd: Joanna set off for the back door and Yusuf on his own errand. "A minute," Chamunda said. Bran: Bran nodded. "Can you do the alarm?" he asked Amber as he took out a roll of tools. Amber: can Mel aid one of us as well? Amber: EDIT: Delete last post Amber: Amber nodded as she took her deck to start hacking the alarm at the same time, "Hai" she replied sd: they worked quickly and Amber and Chamunda were able to disable the alarm while Bran and Melqui opened the lock. Within were two very high powered firearms - there was a close combat, pump action shotgun, and a light, rapid fire military grade rifle. sd: Chamunda whistled. "Those are yours after this, if you're not dead. If neither of you want it for now, I'll use the rifle, but that's up to you. When I was with the Naxals my commander had a rifle like that." Bran: "You should use it then," Bran said. sd: Chamunda hefted the rifle admiringly. "A shame I can't shoot any Hindutva fuckers with this, cops will need to do. Let's go." Melquiades: "I'm best with my blade in any case," said Melqui. He gestured at the rifle and the shotgun, then at Chamunda and Amber. "I'm interested to see what you can both do with those things." Amber: Amber eyed the rifle and the shotgun and looked at her friends and replied, "Not a problem, will go for the other one then." She looked over the locker to make sure it is not trapped or anything and reached for the shotgun with a gleam in her eyes. Bran: Bran grinned at her expression. "Glad we made you happy." sd: they sprinted out of the room and made for the cells. they sped up a long corridor and just as they reached the heavy doors leading down to the cells, they were rejoined by Joanna, who was followed by half a dozen other masked fighter, most of whom were armed with pistols and knives. Chamunda pulled two of them aside and directed them to the armoury. "Start getting the bomb ready, but no fucking explosions yet or I'll hunt you through Jahannam," she said to one of them. "You, find the control centre, we'll be up in a moment when we've secured the cells." sd: they opened the doors and then headed down a thick staircase towards the cells, hearing the sounds of fighting and shouting below. the plans Amber had found online indicated that the jails here were quite primitive - there were two long rows of open barred cells, one after another, numbering about fifty. there was a central area, which they soon came out into, which had thick glass walls on each side, allowing the guards to watch the prisoners from this central point, with doors leading out of the room and into each row. In the row to their left, several cells appeared to be open, and about eight or nine police were struggling with prisoners inside, while others shouted or wrestled with the bars. There were only three cops on the right hand row - none of the prisoners appeared to have escaped here, but several were shaking at their bars, and one of the cops was walking up and down the row, striking at anyone who was doing this with a baton. sd: Chamunda sent Joanna and three others to take out the right hand row. "The rest of us go this way," she said. Fortunately in the confusion none of the police had looked towards the central chamber, although some of the prisoners had and they suspected it might only be a few moments before they worked out what was going on. sd: edit: "Joanna, with me, we'll take this side," Chamunda said, heading to the right and hefting the rifle she'd taken. "The rest of you, clear out that side, be careful with the damn guns." Fortunately none of the police had looked towards the central chamber, although some of the prisoners had and they suspected it would only be a few moments before they realised what was going on. Bran: Bran removed another syringe from his pocket, holding it carefully. sd: they opened the left-hand door and headed out into the row of cells. there were at least three or four to each small cell, and given these had shared toilets within them the smell was atrocious. As they came out, they got to see a familiar face nearby, for a brief moment before a pair of cops smashed it into the bars of a cell nearby. "Fucking psykers! Knock him the fuck out!" one of the police shouted as he bloodied Nazim Nejad's face against the bars. The psyker smiled through bloody teeth as he spotted the door opening, and the other cop turned to face them. Four other officers in the nearby cells were turning towards them, the others being distracted by melees occuring elsewhere. Bran: In the confusion, Bran slid behind one of the cops assaulting Nazim and stuck the syringe into his unprotected neck, forcing the plunger home. The man's hands reached out for nothing, then he fell with a crash into the blood stained bars. Melquiades is disconnected. Amber: Amber put away her lovely new shiny shotgun which she mentally named Shogun, and took out her sharp dagger and ran to join the fray. She stabbed one of the cops involved in the fight and once withdrew the dagger, she flung the dagger onto another cop taking down two cops in a short order. She quiickly rushed to reclaim her dagger. Melquiades has connected. Amber: Amber put away her lovely new shiny shotgun which she mentally named Shogun, and took out her sharp dagger and ran to join the fray. She stabbed one of the cops involved in the fight and once withdrew the dagger, she flung the dagger onto another cop taking down two cops in a short order. She quiickly rushed to reclaim her dagger. Melquiades: Melquiades looked at the four cops exiting the cells, and a grin slowly spread across his face even as his pupils began to shrink until they looked like black laser sights. The drugs which had swirling through his system were let loose to course through his brain, all his normal functions of mind washed away until the fight was everything. His steps forward turned into a run, until he suddenly hurled his dagger through the gap under the faceplate of the nearest cop, and was there a moment later to pull the blade free and twirl toward the next.
Two of them were on him now, striking repeatedly, but he parried or dodged again and again, while one of Chamunda's people kept the last of them occupied. Finally he found and opening and plunged his blade into the side of one cop's knee, then grabbed the man's helmet as he dropped and twisted, breaking his neck. As he grabbed his weapon again and turned, the other cop he'd been facing lashed out and struck against his face, but the blow was absorbed by the helmet; Melqui pulled it off to get rid of the cracked faceplate, and focused on the man, lunging forward with blow after blow against and past his defenses, until half a dozen cuts had felled him. Taking a breath, Melqui turned and walked up casually behind the last cop in the group who'd been struggling with Chamunda's ally, grabbed the bottom of his vest and lifted it, then plunged his blade into his unprotected back. Then he turned away, covered in blood, with the bodies of four cops around him. sd: elsewhere, they heard the deep thrum of Chamunda's rifle firing, while some of her men, with help from several of the prisoners, took out the few remaining officers in the same row as the group.
"Hi there officer, thanks for helping," Nazim said sardonically to Bran through bloodied lips. "We uhh, probably need to secure the cells now until we're ready to leave, otherwise we might have people trampling each other or running out into the streets before we'd planned." Bran: Bran gave him a brief bow. "Happy to serve." He looked around at the cells, estimating how many people there were in here. Bran: "How long will that be?" he asked. sd: "What have you done! They'll kill all of us when they catch us!" a woman was shouting from one of the cells near to Nazim. The psyker frowned, looked at her, and concentrated for a moment, and she quieted herself.
Nazim looked back at Bran. "Well if one of you is a hacker you should get back above and help get the databases wiped. Fortunately the cops turned off their own fucking cameras so there wouldn't be any footage of them using wanton violence. We'll go when Chamunda gives the all clear, need the bomb set and the computers wiped." Amber: ot hlp out at leasy Bran: "Amber, looks like you're up," Bran said, looking round for her. "If you have locks that need opening or closing, or machinery or electronics, just let me know." Bran: edit* Kiiiro not Amber Amber: Amber confimed as she went off to find the database while on guard. sd: Nazim used his psyker abilities to calm any prisoners who might be particularly difficult to handle on one side, while Bran and Melqui went into the other side. there seemed to be three general groups of prisoners - people of Yemeni family or connection who had been caught up in the recent sweep following the terrorist attacks; various people who had been forced to break the curfew, been caught, and not released, mostly due to uncertain immigration status; and finally people who had been arrested at the recent demonstration. People in the second group proved to be particularly difficult to calm down, but Melqui and Bran, with some help from Chamunda, were eventually able to do so. As they went along, Bran noticed that in one cell, there was a woman who might be Indian or Pakistani, in her early 30s, who was slumped against a wall, completely unresponsive. Her eyes seemed strange and it took him a moment to realise they had some kind of cybernetic implant. A young Arabic man was seated on the ground next to her, trying unsuccessfully to rouse her. Amber is disconnected. Amber has connected. Bran: Bran asked if he might check the woman over. sd: "Umm...I guess. You're obviously not really a cop, but she might not realise that. Shaafia's been out of it since they took her away yesterday." Bran: Bran removed his helmet and crouched down beside the woman. "You're right, I'm actually a doctor... or I try to be. Do you have any idea what they did to her?" sd: "I'm Alam Abed, this is Shaafia Bangash," the young man said. "We were arrested at the demonstration. Shaafia is kind of a citizen journalist - her implants let her record things going on around her and then replay them back as if she were there again. She was doing this at the demonstration so we'd have a record of the cops' violence. When they found out about this yesterday they weren't very happy. She was gone for hours and ever since she got back she's been like this. I think they fucked with her implants." Bran: "I'm no expert on cybernetic implants, but it seems likely," Bran said. He ran through some physical checks then gently examined her face and looked closely at her eyes. sd: Bran realised he could temporarily disable the implants, which he now saw were in both her eyes and ears, but he'd need to sever some wires which would be very delicate work. He instructed Melqui and Alam to keep the young woman still and calm while he worked. For a few minutes, she seemed to either be calm, or just not realise what was going on, and Bran worked very carefully. Just as he was about to make a very precise cut, however, her eyes seemed to suddenly focus on the police uniform Melqui was wearing and she thrashed and let out an ear-splitting scream. It took every ounce of Bran's will to keep his hand still and avoid accidentally severing an artery in Shaafia's neck, but instead he was able to take the opportunity and sever the wire that was buried beneath her skin behind her ear. Shaafia shuddered, thrashed for a moment, and then some clarity came back to her eyes.
"W...what's happening..." she said. She might have jumped at the two seeming police officers in front of her, however her eyes noticed the police bodies elsewhere in the corridor and Alam quickly explained what had happened. Bran: "I'm afraid I've had to disable your implants, it was the only way," Bran said. Amber is disconnected. Amber has connected. sd: Shaafia shuddered. "If you knew what they did to them, you wouldn't be sorry."
Elsewhere, Amber had joined some of Chamunda's men, who were hacking into the on-site computers. Given the recent volume of arrests and the chaos in the district, they had fortunately taken only cursory notes for many arrests, and these had yet to be passed to any off-site databases which would have made the job much harder. She acted quickly with help from the others. From even the marginal notes, she could see that about half the people in the jail were held pending deportation - in many cases, the people who'd been arrested had protested that their employer had stolen their passports on arrival, but this hadn't helped them much. sd: Chamunda had gone back above and was waiting for signal that the bomb was ready to go. Once she received this, she came down to give the all clear. "Let the prisoners out, move them towards the back entrance and let them out from there. Once everyone is gone, we give them one minute, then set the timer on the bomb and we run like hell. With this many prisoners leaving it'll only be a matter of time before they get spotted. Some of them will probably get arrested again but even if some of them can get out it'll be worth it. Marco, you and your lot should probably take off the pigflesh now and put on masks, you don't want to look like cops running away from here." Melquiades: Melqui nodded and began stripping off the uniform which had been over his usual gear. Bran: Bran was only too glad to shed the uniform with all its evil connections. He made sure that Shaafia was able to walk, and that she and any other physically damaged prisoners who might find running difficult were at the front of the queue for the exit. sd: "I'm not sure where we're going to go doctor," Shaafia said to Bran. "Can we come with you and lay low for a few days? The police will be on our trail. We can probably help you." Bran: "Yes, come with us," Bran said. He could let Melqui and Amber know as soon as they were all ready to leave. sd: Nazim, Chamunda and Joanna herded the prisoners towards the rear exit. Yusuf had come out to join them, stalking back and forth, ready to pass the signal to the bombers once everyone was gone. It took some effort to get everyone up above and move them towards the exit, but not allow them out until everyone was ready. Finally, sometime near to 4:30 am, they opened the backdoor and about two hundred prisoners went streaming out into the streets of Primazon.com. "You should just run now since you've got some people attached," Joanna said to them. "Thanks for the help." She carefully avoided mentioning any names or saying anything more, given Shaafia and Alam's presence. Amber: Amber finally got the IT sorted and managed to take off the uniforms before helping out Bran and Melq sd: Chamunda wordlessly thrust the borrowed rifle at them as they headed for the rear exit. there was already a lot of noise in the streets from the many people running off - patrolling police would be sure to notice in no time. sd: they ran out into the night, hearts pounding. they could already hear shouting as some people had looked out their windows to see all the escapees heading away. they burst through the gates and then out into the night, putting as much distance between themselves and the jail as they could. about ninety seconds after they left, they heard a deafening roar and the jail exploded into a million pieces. shards of concrete flew everywhere from the building and the walls, but they had been able to flee far away.
between the explosion and the huge number of escapees, the police rapidly converged on the spot. realising that many of the prisoners were going to simply get swept up in the net again, they deliberately allowed themselves to be spotted and fired a shot at one of the coming police vans, drawing most of the pursuers after them directly. they raced through the streets, using the backstreets they had carefully researched ahead of time. finally, when they had as many police after them as they could, they went to a particular abandoned building in a busy street which, unbeknownst to many, had a basement that opened into a disused bit of the maintenance network for the Line. Bran picked the lock, allowed them in, and they closed it behind them and then rapidly went down into the basement. the police had no idea where they had gone, and they quickly vanished and made their way to their safehouse to ride out the next few chaotic days.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Nov 13, 2021 16:37:00 GMT
sd: they spent two days hiding with Shaafia and Alam. after some coaxing Shaafia explained what had happened in the prison. When Deslauriers had realised she had footage of the demonstration in her implants, the police had dragged her from her cell and forcibly deleted the footage - then, as punishment, they'd taken turns to sexually assault her, which they also forced her to record. One of the cops' techies had then put this on a loop in her mind, leaving her in a traumatised trance until Bran had managed to detach the implants. She was now able to start processing what had happened to her, although it would take time. "I hope we can reactivate the implants, once we've purged that particular footage," she said. "I need it for my work." Melquiades: "Glad we tore those motherfuckers up," grumbled Melqui when he heard about what had been done to Shaafia. Bran: Bran set to finding a way to repair the electronic side of the implants. Amber: Amber helped Bran out with the impants, She also spent time looking into data she literabled from the drone arena they went to recently. sd: after a few days, they were able to sneak out in the night and return to their apartments, leaving Shaafia and Alam in the hideout until the coast was clear. They thought the plan might have originally been that the district-wide lockdown would have ended by now, but given the attack on the jail it would now be extended. There had been another major demonstration while they were in hiding, and the army themselves had intervened, firing on the crowd and killing at least a dozen people. The wave of petty arrests in the district started to slow, however, because Deslauriers had nowhere to put anyone in the district and would need to send them elsewhere that was out of their control. Melquiades: Melqui's excursions out of lockdown resembled Bran's more than his usual quiet conversations; the bloody fighting clearly had stoked a desire to for hard drinking (along with other substances), and he was bleary-eyed a few mornings in a row. Bran: The moment they were free to move around, Bran set out on one of his private excursions around the bars, and as the evening went on he progressed as usual from outgoing to obstreperous. When someone objected to his singing ancient Republican songs and accompanying himself with an impromptu drumming session using tables, stools and the bar, the inevitable fight started. Punches were thrown, and then glasses and furniture. Bran arrived back at the apartment reeking of drink, but a little less battered than usual. sd: the implants weren't difficult to purge and reconnect, so Amber had more time to work on the data she'd been able to pull about the previous hack at al-Nawaz arena. The purpose of the hack had seemingly been to monitor certain of the drone subroutines, especially those relating to the CruizerMk3s, lgrthm's newest state of the art combat and guard drone.
as she looked through the files more and more, she suddenly had a thought. when they themselves had gone down into the al-Nawaz supercomputer, they had needed to fool the Humanoid Antipersonnel Drone that the corporation had left to protect the supercomputer from unauthorised use. there had been two ways they could do this - either through facial recognition, or by spoofing a QR code. The former was the easier option, but since they'd been very hesitant to leave any traces of themselves on the system in case they couldn't returned, they had ultimately decided on the latter method. When she started looking through the data she had pulled, however, she realised there was evidence that the previous method might have also been used.
once she had had this realisation, it was easier going, because she knew what kind of files to look for. many had been deleted, but short of totally destroying a drive - not really an option when you hacked an expensive supercomputer - there were always ways such a file could be recreated. and after significant work, she found she was able to. the facial recognition software had files for the now dead site manager, as well as several of al-Nawaz's executives and some external specialist contractors who did maintenance work, however she found evidence that a new person had been authorised on 06 February, 2084, and then their details had been deleted only a day later, and the trail covered up. the files indicating who this person was had been scrambled, requiring her to write some specialist software to pull them back together, which she left running.
one morning, she awoke to find that one of these programs had had a breakthrough, with several possible matches on a file that was seemingly the very picture that had been used for the facial recognition. she clicked into the file and stared at the screen, because she had seen this face before. Indeed she'd seen it several times, on numerous fake passports that George Haven had showed them, in the conversation that had led to them coming to NEOM. The one who had hacked al-Nawaz's supercomputer before them was none other than Jordan Aragon - sc0rp10nst1ng. sd: it was clear enough that the monitoring of the CruizerMk3s was ongoing, and that this information was being sent somewhere else nearby, though sc0rp10nst1ng's code was extremely difficult to crack. if she could do so, however, then they might have a notion of where the man might be when he next came to NEOM. Amber: Amber giggled for a short while once she pulled the data up finding this bastard and shared the news with her friends, no doubt they will look forward to doing some paybacks! Bran: Bran grinned at Amber's news. "I'd like to see that fecker squirm!" Melquiades: Melqui laughed delightedly. "You're a miracle worker, Amber! We've almost got him!" Amber: Amber smiled, "At least we might be able keep an eye out next time he pop up in NEOM" she confirmed the possibiility sd: the lockdown continued for several more days, but finally, on 27 April, the government announced that it was confident it had arrested everyone responsible for the al-Nawaz stadium attack. There had since been a separate incident on a Deslauriers facility, and there would still be an elevated police and military presence in Primazon.com district until the perpetrators were found, however at least now, businesses could operate and people could make money again. The mood in the district was very grim - unable to make any money, most people had either needed to borrow, to burn through whatever savings they had, or in many cases, simply go without eating for a few days. The heat was now intense, reaching into the high 30s Celsius on the first day after the lockdown was lifted. Melquiades: "Well, at least it'll be a little easier to operate now," said Melqui upon the announcement. "And hopefully Deslauriers will still be in shambles." sd: Leo - who they'd kept in the dark about their attack on Deslauriers - sent them several offers of work once the lockdown was lifted. the most interesting offer seemed to be a very unexpected one. They had feuded with the Yemeni Circle before, however with the arrest of many of their members and encroachments on their territory, they seemed to have reassessed the situation. The Circle offered not only to bury the hatchet, but to make a full alliance between their crews, as well as to hand over the protection money they currently received from a gambling den, in exchange for the party's help in fending off two other gangs - the Black Circle and the Street Sweepers. They were hardly surprised about this - the Black Circle had asked them to assist in an attack on the Yemenis, an offer they'd turned down - but they were surprised to learn that the Yemeni Circle had decided to fight back in part because many of their lower level members had been unexpectedly got out of prison due to the jailbreak. Completely unwittingly, they had already done the Yemeni Circle a major favour, although it was hardly one they could try to cash in on. Melquiades: "Perfect time to insert ourselves in the gang politics here," said Melqui. "They're already received a boost the Black Circle and the Sweepers likely aren't prepared for, and they definitely won't be prepared for us. If we can help the Yemenis win this it'll make operating here a lot smoother." Amber: "And we go need more eyes on the ground as well." Amber erred towards the support with Yemini Circle as well more oppiunity to use the military weapons they literated from police station for research purpose. Bran: Bran agreed this job offer would bring advantages, but it would also be good to support the Yemenis, who had been at the very sharpest end of the crackdown. sd: Leo arranged for them to meet with the remaining leaders of the Yemeni Circle - the ones who hadn't already been arrested - on 29 April 2084 - at the insistence of the Circle, the meeting would be at 4 am, so they could avoid any prying eyes - even though they were now going to be working together, it would be helpful if they could give off the impression that they were still enemies for a few more days at least. Bran: This made sense, though Bran checked carefully through the special equipment he would bring, the same as if they really were enemies. You never knew. Melquiades: Melqui too was cautious, though excited about the alliance. sd: they sneaked out of the building again late at night and ghosted down towards al-Tayir, passing through the neon-lit streets of the city. as they went they passed warring bits of graffiti. some called for death to the terrorist attackers at al-Nawaz and at the prison, while other pieces called for an end to the ramped up police presence and for a May Day intifadeh. near these latter slogans they passed an image they'd seen before, stencilled onto a wall probably no more than a day before and not yet cleared away - a woman dressed in the green, white, red and black of the Palestinian flag, with a cyberdeck over her shoulder and one cybereye, hurling an EMP grenade. The words Fuhladin lives! and Power to the ISJ! were written in Arabic around the image. Bran: "Fuhladin - that must be the woman who led the attack on the stock exchange here a few years ago," Bran said quietly. "So they were called the ISJ," he muttered as it brought back the details of the news report he had originally seen. Melquiades: "Now, are they still operating? Or just a symbol? Perhaps we'll find out, with the way things are going around here," said Melqui. Melquiades: "I think it stands for 'Islamic Socialist Jihad'," added Melqui after thinking for a moment. "Think they were involved with the al-Nawaz incident?" Bran: "It does," Bran agreed as he recalled the news item. "Maybe we'll get to meet her." Amber: Amber listened to both Bran and Meqlquiades, she treated everyone else as a potential enemy as par tof her paraiondiness and this Fuhladin is no different" sd: they headed in to al-Tayir and had time to get seated and have a drink before their guests arrived. there were two leaders of the Yemeni Circle who were still moving around freely, and they had four bodyguards with them - they weren't visibly armed, but they suspected they had guns hidden on them. the guards, however, were left in the main part of al-Tayir, while the two remaining leaders of the Circle came back to speak to the party privately.
they were a man and a woman, he in his early 30s. for the woman it was impossible to tell, because she wore a full veil that showed only her sharp dark eyes, along with loose red and black robes. the man had a long white robe and a headwrap.
when the woman sat down, she pulled part of the veil back to show her face - they thought she was in her early 40s. "If several of our leaders weren't in prison or in hiding, I doubt they'd have agreed to meet with you," she said, "but I'm more forgiving. My father didn't start the Circle to get into petty feuds about gambling. I'm Kaheela Habibi, this is Azim Hamid." Bran: Bran introduced himself as Tomas Finneran, although he thought they might well already knew that from his work at the free clinic. "We hope it will prove in our common interest." Amber: Amber introduced herself with the name widely used in the gang they are in for now. Melquiades: "A rational family, from the sound of it," said Melqui, introducing himself as Marco Torres. sd: Melqui suddenly realised they'd met Azim before, though they wouldn't have known his name or who he was. In their first night in NEOM, while they'd been researching how to get a meddlesome journalist out of Leo's hair, they had stayed temporarily at a hotel made up of stacked shipping crates welded together in one structure, and now he realised that Azim had been the site manager there. Melquiades: Melqui looked to Azim and nodded. "And thanks for the accommodations, by the way. Can't say it was the most comfortable place I've stayed, but you can't be picky when you're new to a place." sd: Azim looked surprised. "I don't remember you staying, but thank you! We have too many customers for me to remember them all, and the last few weeks have been...difficult." Melquiades: "Can't blame you - we were keeping a low profile, as you might expect. Our position now is different, as evidenced by this meeting. Shall we get down to business?" sd: "Of course," said Kaheela. "The Circle is in a very bad way right now. Several of our leaders are in prison, others in hiding. Many of our members on the street were in prison as well until they were recently released due to the jailbreak. Whoever it was who did that has given us some hope to fight back, but things are escalating. There are two gangs who are making life particularly difficult for us - the Black Circle, and the Street Sweepers. They're trying to steal away clients and businesses under our protection, and in the case of the Black Circle, they attacked and even killed some of our members who had no choice but to be out in the streets during the crackdown. We need your help to fight both these gangs off. Which one do you want to hear about first?" Bran: "We've heard more of the Street Sweepers, so you want to start with them?" Bran suggested. sd: "A group of drug runners and slavers," Kaheela said. "My father despised them and never worked with them. They're cleverer than the Black Circle though."
"A few years after Primazon district was settled and my father came here, a businessman called Roger White came to his attention. He's English, but his mother is from an old Yemeni family that left as refugees decades ago. White came here to NEOM and set up what he called a 'casino' - a dark gambling den that smells of piss frankly, with more people playing at cards and dice than slot machines, but it brings in nuyen. At first my father tried to work with White, only for the piece of garbage to try to blackmail him. To make a long story short, my father found out, he and one of the other Circle leaders put the fear into White, and he's been paying us some very good protection money ever since."
"However during the crackdown, with the police hitting us hard, he decided he'd renege on the deal. Since we had to keep our heads down we weren't in much of a position to do anything about it first, and then four days ago I received a vidcall from a woman called Jana Halden - she's one of the Street Sweeper leaders, an ex-American special forces officer. She told me that White was now under their protection and they'd regard any attempt on our part to contact White as an act of war." She sniffed.
"I'm happy enough to see the back of White, but we can't just let the Street Sweepers steal from us - if they do this once, they'll come back for more. We need you to deal with Halden and bring White back to heel. When you've done this, I'll tell him to start paying his protection money to you instead." Bran: Bran nodded. "Understandable. You just want to remind them of the boundaries then?" sd: "Yes. You'll probably need to fight Halden and her people, or at least frighten them off, but we don't want an outright war with the Street Sweepers if we can avoid it." Bran: "Right. You give us the details, where we can find them and so on and we'll deal with that. How about the Black Circle?" Melquiades: "We're pretty good at that sort of thing," added Melqui. "As long as we can face them without a major numbers disadvantage." sd: "The Black Circle are a pack of murdering apostate scum," Kaheela said with heat. "A gang mixed with a cult. They could do us a favour and retire to a compound somewhere far away to drink poison, but instead they're plaguing us. They're led by triplets, all of whom are psykers, and they're working on some half-arsed new religion based on the Unlocking as a holy event. Madmen."
"They're being much more aggressive in how they come after us. As I said, they killed two of our people in the streets during the crackdown, and beat up five or six others. They're also putting pressure on another of our assets to try to flip it. Minnah Samad runs a massage parlour - which is to say a brothel - near the centre of the district. Maybe you've been there? At any rate, everyone knows Minnah pays protection to us, it's fine, and no one has tried to poach her before. Other gangs frequent the place sometimes. Since it reopened, however, the Black Circle have started going en masse. Minnah contacted me yesterday to say that the Circle have sent her an ultimatum - she starts paying them the protection money in the next few days, or they attack outright. They figure we're not strong enough to defend the place."
"We need to be a lot harsher with these people than we do with the Street Sweepers. You can either come to Minnah's, wait for the Black Circle to show up, and help us put them down, or alternately we can see if we can lure them into trying another of their street attacks. Then you'd be in position to help us take it down. In either case, the Black Circle's man on the job in this case is Dawud Kuma, an Ethiopian, ex-shadowrunner. We know he's been leading the attacks on us as well. We need him put down." Bran: "It might be easier to control the situation at Minnah's," Bran said thoughtfully. Amber: Amber looked with interest saying that this cult think Unlocking as a holy event,,, "Especially we can set something in the advance as well>" Amber agreed. Melquiades: "More collateral damage potential, though," said Melqui, though it was clear he didn't fully disagree with Bran. Bran: Bran nodded. "We'd need to ensure the safety of the workers and any clients. sd: "Weapons generally get left behind at Minnah's. The Black Circle have been sending their people in heavy-handedly, but they've not been bringing weapons with them at the moment, unless they're hiding something small. If there were a fight there, it could be kept to the minimum fists or knives - of course the Black Circle is full of psykers. Minnah has a dampener built into the walls but it would only be a minor inconvenience to a powerful enough psyker." Bran: Bran frowned. "We'll need to work on that." sd: "Which problem did you want to deal with first? We're not concerned either way, so long as we start as soon as possible." Bran: "If we start with the Street Sweepers, it'll give the Black Circle warning," Bran said. Bran: "An all out attack on the Black Circle first might be the way." Amber: Amber agreed, "Beside, Black Circles might have some weapon caches we may be able to take advantage against the Street Sweepersas well" Melquiades: Melqui slowly nodded. "I think that's the right choice. Psykers are my biggest concern, and they may be used less dangerously if we can make this operation unexpected."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Nov 20, 2021 19:10:47 GMT
sd: Kaheela nodded as the party decided to take on the Black Circle first. "Well that's probably to the best. They're the ones actually attacking us in the street - they're the most pressing problem to deal with. So there are two ways we can do this. Since they're targetting Minnah's parlour you can hang around in there and confront them when they turn up, or we could try to lure them into a street attack and then flip the script on them." Bran: "The parlour may be more risky," Bran mused. "We want to cause as little collatoral damage as possible. A fight in the street at least gives people the chance to get out of the way." sd: "Possibly, although a fight in the street is more likely to involve guns. Obviously Minnah doesn't let people take weapons into her place, and since you end up wearing a towel for most of the time anyway you can't really hide much more than a knife," Kaheela said. Melquiades: "The psychic dampener at the parlor seems useful, since they have psykers," said Melqui. "I'd bet on us in a straight fight." sd: "We can have some people there as well, although we need to make it not so many as to deter them from actually trying something foolish. The goal here is to thwart them, after all," Kaheela said. "I can give you a layout of the place - it has the kind of places you might expect from a brothel masquerading as a massage parlour." Amber: Amber nodded, "Especially we are less likely to get attention from other parties inside rather than outside." sd: Kaheela nodded. "I'll let Minnah know then that she should expect you. You'll be some extra security, but make sure not to appear as such. We want the Black Circle to be overconfident enough to push their luck. As I said before, the person in the Circle who seems to be taking the lead on this is an Ethiopian adept called Dawud Kuma, a former shadowrunner. If you could somehow spy on his plans or work out who he usually runs with we might get an idea of what they're planning. You can also speak with Minnah and persuade her to bend some of her security procedures just for you, to give you an edge." Melquiades: "I wouldn't mind a visit regardless, might as well mix work and pleasure," said Melqui, twisting his back and shoulders about. Bran: "Maybe we can make use of Minnah's facilities once the job is done," Bran said with a grin. Amber: Amber went on to study the blueprints to see how she could set up the cams for the various angels of the buildings. Needles to say, she got around to setting the cams althought she is not entirely happy with the layout but it would do for now. They do need to make an impression after all Bran: Bran went to visit the parlour and talk to Minnah. When he revealed he was a doctor, Minnah asked if he would see some of her girls and he was able to assist them. Though it took up valuable time, it did encourage Minnah to agree to them bending security. sd: Bran was able to persuade Minnah to let them bend some of her security rules - she wouldn't let them bring in guns, but she was happy to instruct her guards to look the other way if they brought in any knives or other small weapons, so long as they could be concealed on their person while they were wearing no more than a towel - ultimately they were not actually joining her security detail, after all.
meanwhile Melqui put out a quiet call to some contacts that they'd made in the district. Bran had run many clinics over the time they'd been here, and people that had been helped by Dr Tomas Finnegan had grown willing to help him and his companions with a few pieces of information. in this case, he was after leads on where he could find Dawud Kuma, so he could follow the former shadowrunner around. soon he got a call giving him a location to head to, and Melqui spent the day of 29 April shadowing the man. Kuma was very tall, about six and a half feet high, muscular, and had obvious combat experience. He covered his arms in tattooes that bore mystical patterns and he always had a small posse of three or four others with him, seemingly ready for a fight at any time. Throughout the day, he paid visits to a number of houses and apartment blocks - while Melqui wasn't in position to follow him in, on a few occasions he was able to look through a window with a pair of binoculars to let him try to read lips. Towards the end of the day he got lucky - or Kuma got lazy. A Black Circle member he had visited was outside having a vape, and they chose to speak outside rather than go in. Although it was dark, he was able to read a few words off their lips. The word 'tomorrow' was repeated numerous times, and they spoke of 'sending the whole coven in'. If the Black Circle borrowed their terms from classical occultists, then presumably there would be thirteen of them involved in the operation the next day. Melqui finally saw Kuma say that they'd go in in small teams, although he wasn't able to tell how many, because at that moment several people walked too close to where Kuma and his confederates were standing, and they decided that it was no longer good opsec to discuss the next day's run in the open. sd: Minnah's parlour was divided into three floors. On the main floor there was the entrance, which was a small rectangular room with a heavy door leading into the building itself. This was where people would be carefully searched for weapons and explosives - although NEOM had separate and lenient legal codes, not everyone in Saudi agreed with this and some considered it an affront to have such a place operating in the birthplace of Islam. there were also notices saying that photography was banned throughout the establishment.
once weapons were confiscated, patrons were brought inside to the adjoining locker rooms, where they could stash their belongings - they'd then be provided with a towel for modesty as well as a key strapped to a rubber band which could be worn around the ankle or wrist. the main floor also had bathrooms, a small cafe, and finally the main massage rooms, where clients could go privately with masseurs they hired.
there were also floors above and below this. the bottom floor contained a small spa and some baths, as well as a sauna and steam room. these were the more relaxing areas and sexual contact was banned here. the top floor, by contrast, was made up of various private stalls and two large public rooms. although many people who came here wanted to hire Minnah's people, she was also happy to host clients who wanted to hook up with each other, as long as they paid, and this floor was generally an orgiastic free for all. when you wandered the hall here, you would often pass men, or more rarely women, standing naked by a stall eyeing up potential partners. sd: after discussing their strategy for a while, they had thought the best way was to find somewhere unobtrusive where they could watch the numerous cameras they'd set up around the building. they could hardly just stand around and watch on the main floor, since this would be rather conspicuous, but similarly they couldn't really do this in the basement, as the environment around the spas and steam room was hardly a good place to bring small personal electronics. they therefore headed brashly upstairs, grabbed a private stall, and set up, watching the cameras through Amber's phone which they had been able to stash away. all they needed to do to keep up the pretence was make the occasional moaning sound, or ostentatiously slap their hands on their thighs to make a loud fleshy noise, and no one outside would be the wiser.
midway through the afternoon, they spotted the first Black Circle group entering on a camera which they'd managed to hide near the entrance. there were two men and women, and Melqui recognised one of the men as the one who'd been vaping outside with Kuma the night before. they headed into the changing rooms, then emerged a few moments later. the two men hired one of the hookers, while the two women started coming upstairs. Melquiades: Melqui looked to the others. "You think I'm their type?" He paused. "I think I'm their type." He stepped out into the hallway to lean against the wall casually. His toned physique bore a dozen small scars, and an impressive array of tattoos - skulls, beautiful women with sugar skull masks, a hodgepodge of Aztec and Catholic iconography, and an inscrutable mix of gang and literary references. As the women came up the stairs, he looked over and then did a feigned double take as if stricken by their beauty. "I am a man parched," he said. "And now I see an oasis." Bran: Bran hung back in the doorway. He couldn't help grinning at Melqui's chat-up line and he turned it into a wide smile at the women. sd: the two women exchanged a glance, then smiled. one of the women, who was tall and looked to be from somewhere in East Africa, pushed herself against Melqui's chest. "I hoped you might eat something rather than drinking," she said with a wide grin. A man further up the hallway, who had also obviously liked the look of the two women, glared at them enviously. Bran: Bran moved back to let the women in. Melquiades: Melqui put an arm over the woman's shoulder and gave a pleased chuckle, leading the two inside and closing the door with his foot. Bran: Bran had slipped one of the hypodermics quietly out into his hand, and put his arm around the other woman. "And what do you want darlin'?" he asked, playing up his Irish brogue. sd: the woman answered by putting her tongue down Bran's throat, which gave him very easy access to her neck. the other woman was pressing up against Melqui when she suddenly noticed Amber sitting in the corner with a phone. "Oh, I'd rather not have any video this time, I'm not that kind of girl. Well, not today anyway." Amber: Amber moved slowly and closer in case either of them need some help dealing with these two handfuls. Bran: While her attention was distracted, Bran pressed the needle against the woman's neck and pressed home the plunger. With a sigh she sagged against him. Melquiades: Moments after Bran made his move, Melqui began moving his hand to cover the woman's mouth while pressing her arms against her. She glanced over at the wrong time though, seeing her friend begin to sag, and quickly began to writhe away. Amber leapt into action and grabbed her by one arm though, giving Melqui a chance to restrain the other. Together, they quickly applied some duct tape over her mouth and bound her hands and feet. "I'm sorry, chica. If this were any other time I would have engaged in our feast happily." sd: once the two were restrained, they could be quickly searched. both women had combat knives hidden under their towels, in sheaths strapped around their thighs just beneath the buttock. the woman Melqui had restrained also had a small communicator which was cunningly disguised as an earring - only a very careful look at the gemstone revealed the circuitry within. Bran: "Let's get them locked up," Bran said, but he stopped to check their cameras. Amber: Amber looked at the earring. "Kawaii." She muttered off as she took the earring off as if she like the look of it. Amber: and then had a look at the cameras sd: looking at the cameras, they saw that the two men had picked their chosen hooker, a petite Arab woman, and were heading off to a private room. now that they'd already seen the communicator disguised as an earring, it was simple to see the another - the man Melqui had seen the night before had one as well. Bran: Bran picked up the unconscious woman from the floor and slung her unceremoniously over his shoulder. sd: knowing they would need to stash anyone they knocked out somewhere private, they'd arranged for several backstage areas, usually used by staff, to be vacated for their use. Amber peeked out the door, determined that the hallway was empty for the moment, and Bran and Melqui quickly carried the unconscious or bound women and dropped them off there, then headed back out again. Bran: "Which room are they in?" Bran looked to see if the men were still in sight. sd: they'd easily been able to spot which room the men had gone into - there was a hallway adjoining the main entryway and they had taken the second on the left. sd: since they'd arranged matters with Minnah, she had given them additional keys allowing them easy access to all the rooms which had mechanical locks - so accessing the room would be no issue, it would only be a matter of selecting the right time and doing it quietly. fortunately this hallway was kept clearer, since the only clients who could come here already needed to have paid and couldn't simply loiter around looking for hookups as they could upstairs.
they had hoped the two men would be occupied, busy, and hopefully looking away from the door when they entered, and fortunately their luck held. The room was about 10 x 12 feet large and there was a large bed against the right hand wall, along with a bedside table which had a small bowl filled with condoms as well as a bottle of lube. as they entered, the woman was lying on the bed with one of the men - the one Melqui had seen, who wore the communicator - straddling her face, thrusting into her mouth. the other man was down on the floor and had his face buried down around the woman's thighs. thankfully this meant the only one of the trio facing them was the woman, although she could scarcely see what was going on. Bran: Bran had carefully slipped his blowpipe from the holster on his thigh and focussed on the man with the communicator. The dart hit him but although he was clearly affected he did not collapse as he should. Bran silently mouthed an oath. Bran: edit* Bran had carefully slipped his blowpipe from the holster on his thigh and focussed on the man with the communicator. The dart hit him high on the back and he slumped forward over the woman's face. Melquiades: Melqui rushed forward at the same moment, grabbing the man on the floor around the neck. The man thrashed and tried to escape, but Melqui managed to pull him in close and choke him until he passed out. Amber: As Melq moved closely to the other chap, Amver moved forward to get the collasped man to make sure that the woman doesn't chocked on it. Bran: As soon as the unconscious man was dragged away, Bran stepped in to reassure the woman that they meant her no harm. He recognised her as one of the girls he had seen in his impromtu clinic when he visited before, and was able to explain they had been asked to look out for possible troublemakers. sd: once the man with the communicator was pulled off her, the woman looked nonplussed, but ressured by the sight of Bran. "Oh, hi doctor. I uhh, hadn't thought we'd meet again under these circumstances," she said in Arabic. She quickly pulled a robe on. As she was doing this, they noticed the discarded towels the men had had round them, lying in a corner, and pulling them aside they quickly found knives underneath them.
"Shit," the woman said when the knives were found. "Are they planning something? I heard that one there," she indicated the man with the communicator, "say something about two other groups arriving." Bran: Bran nodded. "That's really useful information, thank you. We'll deal with these two and be ready for the others." sd: "You can leave these two here, they're supposed to be with me for a while anyway so no one's going to think anything of it. As long as they, uhh, aren't going to wake up. Here." She reached into the bedside table and pulled out a few pairs of handcuffs which she handed to Bran. Bran: Bran grinned. "Very handy!" sd: "Actually you probably need these too, to make sure they don't scream if they wake up," she reached into the table again and threw two ball gags at Bran, then pulled out her phone and sat on the bed. Amber: Amber looked slightly impressed at how helpful the woman was in helping them and especially Bran out. Bran: "Lock the door behind us," Bran said as they left the gagged and shackled men with her. "And thank you for your help. Just don't let anyone know yet." sd: "Know what, that I'll get paid today without having to work for it? Not likely. Good luck with the rest of them." Amber: Amber took the earrings from the man just in case
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 1, 2022 19:05:57 GMT
sd: the brutal fight near the steam room had left one dead, four other Black Circle members wounded, and Amber with a shattered knee, but they had just barely managed to pull through. Bran dosed the injured hacker heavily on painkillers and bound her leg enough that she could at least move, although every step sent a jolt of pain through her. She'd be completely useless in a real confrontation - she'd need more medical attention than Bran could give her in a massage parlour before she'd be healthy and whole again.
When security got wind of the fight, and that one of the Black Circle was dead, they sent word up to Minnah and she immediately gave the order to close down for the day and send all clients home with full refunds. The party hoped their work might be done, but they also knew that there was meant to be a third wave of Black Circle members incoming, and that Dawud Kuma, the former shadowrunner heading the operation on their side, had yet to make an appearance. Bran: Bran looked ruefully at the carnage. "Amber is hors de combat, we're not going to be able to take them in a straight fight. Maybe they'll give up having lost so many." Melquiades: "Where I come from, we call her state 'seriously fucked up,'" said Melqui. It was said with an undertone of respect, however - as if Amber had undergone a rite of passage. "Anyway, there's no way for them to know she's one of the keys to our fighting skills, and they've suffered heavier losses as you say." Bran: "So are we going to let them in and try to take them, or use some other means? Maybe give them an ultimatum, in return for their wounded?" Bran suggested, then eyed the body of the woman Amber had killed. "And dead..." His voice shook slightly. sd: the two Yemeni Circle members had wrapped themselves in their towels again and came over to the party. "That woman there was a hard fucking kill," the thinner of the two men said. "Are you expecting more of them to turn up? If so, we're in. This is personal now, those fuckers obviously wanted to either kill us or at least use us as hostages." Amber: Amber gritted her eyes as she try to manage control of her legs, "I think I can figure." She looked determined for a moment but winced as the pain lanced through even the buffer of the minds. "At least I still got my fingers and I can still throw knifes at them if needed" She looked detmerined Bran: "There's a final group due," Bran said to the Yemeni Circle members. "One of them is the chief of this operation." He turned to Amber. "Aren't they supposed to be making contact first?" Amber: Nodding as she winced, "Maybe, that dead one might have the comms in her ears" sd: checking the dead woman they found that she did indeed have a similar hidden comms device to those they'd taken from the leaders of the first wave had. even in her wounded and drugged up state, it would be trivial for Amber to work out how they could use them to, if necessary, contact Dawud Kuma directly. Bran: "From what we heard, the intention seems to have been to take hostages among the working girls," Bran explained to the Yemenis. "But the second group decided to come down here to attack you." Amber: "The problem is that the leader may be aware that something has gone wrong elsewhere. At least ask about sending the hostages and dead back in exhcnage for leaving this place alone." Bran: "One of us could speak to them via the comms," Bran suggested. "They've lost nine people including the dead one, I can't see there's any advantage to them continuing their attacks. But we'd need to make it clear Minnah's is off limits from now on." Melquiades: "You can start us off as good cop, Bran, and I'm down to be bad cop. Amber can be smart cop, if there is such a thing." Bran: Bran gave a rather wan smile at that. "Okay, let's have the third earpiece. And give me a mo to work out what to say." He moved to one side and stood deep in thought. Bran: Finally he turned back and nodded that he would begin. "This is a message for Dawud Kuma and his remaining associates. We have the rest of your team here, safely under lock and key. This seems to be the right time to talk about what happens next." sd: there was a long pause and then a deep voice responded. "Well. It seems to me that what happens next is that I rip your spine out and then fuck you up the ass with it. Who the fuck are you? You're not Yemeni." Bran: Bran rolled his eyes. "Who we are is not of concern, suffice to say we were acting as security today - which was fortunate when your gangs arrived to take hostages. Do you intend to continue or can we arrange a civilised outcome to this?" Melquiades: Melqui spoke into his comm with a sharp tone. "The Yemenis have allies now. Ones who managed to fuck up nine of your people without much trouble. You're lucky we held back and only one is dead after such a half-assed plan - so I suggest you listen to my friend's generous offer." sd: "Hmm. Runners, most likely. Or some other gang I can't be bothered to keep track of. You're obviously cowards, or more of my people would be dead, and you're clearly not so confident of being able to beat me, or you wouldn't be trying to negotiate. From the all the dishevelled and disappointed punters I see streaming out of the whorehouse into the street in front of me, I see that whatever's happened has shut that place down." Kuma thought for a few moments. "Alright. I'll propose a civilised way out of this. You have eight of my people there as captives. You bring out whoever you've killed, along with four others - I want some from the first group I sent in and some from the second, so I can talk to them and make sure the other four are actually still alive. You can keep the other four as hostages. Then tonight at midnight we settle this. Whichever of you two is tough enough, at midnight, one against one. That's what I call fucking civilised." Melquiades: Melqui began to chuckle. "Oh, you're a fucking prick, but I do like your style." Bran: "I have to agree with my friend," Bran sighed. "But your bluster isn't going to wash. We'll be keeping all eight of them as hostages." Amber: Amber weighted in, "Can we please kill the rest? How about boiling them slowly in one of the steam room! No problem overriding the safety limit on the temp!" She suggested gleefully. Melquiades: Melqui was quiet a short while, as if suggesting an off-voice conversation. "As much as I'd like to see if you can back up your talk, my friends have convinced me there's not much point in giving up anything when we've already won. So our personal meeting will have to wait, Kuma." sd: the former shadowrunner laughed at Melqui. "Some brave talk. 'Oh, I'd kick your ass, but my friends are holding me back.'" Despite his talk, Kuma was obviously considering carefully - from the fact that all three of them had spoken, he knew that all three of the leaders of his earlier attack forces had been taken out and their commlinks captured. "So you work for the Yemenis? I'll go back to the triplets and they'll get in touch with the Yemenis. We leave Minnah's alone and she releases our hostages. Eight of us are just worth more than one whorehouse. But when I find out who you are, you're all dead." Kuma cut out and said nothing more. Bran: Bran removed the comm from his ear. "That's a result. Was never going to be easy but it's pretty good." Amber: Amber sighed as she shifted slightly to take the pressuress off. "Guess I will need to rest up after this!" She considered the bed rest coming up. "Thanks for your help!" She thanked Bran for his help in maintaining her kneecap. Melquiades: "Shame we didn't ambush and deal with Kuma too, but better not to push our luck after that last fight," added Melqui. Bran: "I'm afraid the next stop will be a hospital," Bran told Amber. "That knee needs more than first aid." Bran: Bran went to speak to Minnah, to let her know the situation. "We're sorry about the death - the woman didn't give Amber any choice. But you should be free of the Black Circle's interference in future." sd: "If Kaheela hadn't sent you, more of my people would be dead or I'd be a hostage. The only thing I'm sorry about is you didn't kill more of them," Minnah responded. Bran: "All out war would likely have been worse for business," Bran shrugged. "I can run a clinic now and then for your workers," he added. sd: the Yemeni Circle were able to use the hostages they'd taken to force the Black Circle to back off, and once news came out that the Yemenis were stronger than they looked, the Street Sweepers also abandoned their own plan to try to peel away their territory. Kaheela sent them the nuyen and also arranged to transfer a gambling den from Yemeni turf into that of the group - now they'd be the recipients of its regular protection money.
about a week later, while they were recovering, Leo phoned them up with an offer of work from his friends at Firestone. "Firestone sometimes hire hackers to do things like break into hotel databases - occasionally you can find out that some megacorp exec is having an affair because you find a pattern of them discreetly renting hotel rooms in a district other than the one they live in, and then you can coast on easy blackmail nuyen for a few months," he said.
"Well there's a hotel in MbS Memorial district that's very suddenly been booked out over two days. Not a few rooms in it, mind you - the entire hotel has been booked, and all the bookings trace back to the same crypto wallets. Crypto wallets they've traced back and found they belong to senior officers of the Primazon.com district of Deslauriers Security Incorporated." They could feel Leo's smile through the phone. "So what do you say? How'd you like to sneak in or hack in and find out what horrors the brave boys in blue mean to inflict on our district next?"
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 1, 2022 19:06:14 GMT
sd: they had a little over a week to recover from the vicious fight at Minnah's massage parlour before Firestone contacted them. the district was returning to calm now, with all the disturbances since the terrorist attack receding into the background. now that everyone could go out and work again, for many people there was a battle to get as many hours as they could - during the shutdowns, the many precarious workers in the district had lost their incomes, and would need to push hard to make up for lost time. the heat was rising noticably as the days went on - every day now reached into the mid-30s centigrade. Davide is disconnected. Davide has connected. Melquiades: Melquiades took advantage of the newfound freedom in the district to return to his old habits, spending time out drinking and chatting with strangers, hearing all their stories of the recent crackdowns and telling tall tales about surviving similar situations in the US and China. In between these excursions, he trained zealously while imbibing in his illicit substances and the associated mystical rites. He would go out at night and scamper through alleys and across rooftops, leaping and climbing like a monkey. He had always been quick and deadly, but the experience of their last few runs seemed to have brought his skills to another level. Amber: UInder very tender care of Bran, Amber's shattered knee cap was soon on the mend. She still winced at the pains but Bran's painkillers took care of that,. It was still worth it though she considered the consquences of killing that woman. Still she know that she will be out of actions combatwise for now. She currently focused on more eoroticis hacking side. Bran: As soon as they returned to their apartment and he had done what he could to make Amber comfortable, Bran set out into the night. He returned in the morning, unshaven and dishevelled but for once without visible injury and looking very relaxed. After a short rest, he began the delicate work of repairing Amber's shattered kneecap. Bran had brought a young woman back with him, introducing her as Aisha - she was a member of their crew who had been attending his free clinics and learning some treatment basics. With her assistance, Bran performed the delicate work of repair, finally pronouncing himself satisfied. The knee was stitched and bound - it would take a while to heal properly but with rest and then some special exercises Bran believed it would recover fully. sd: late at night on 06 May 2084, Leo phoned them with a job offer from his friends at Firestone. "Firestone sometimes hire hackers to do things like break into hotel databases - occasionally you can find out that some megacorp exec is having an affair because you find a pattern of them discreetly renting hotel rooms in a district other than the one they live in, and then you can coast on easy blackmail nuyen for a few months," he said. "Well there's a hotel in MbS Memorial district that's very suddenly been booked out over two days. Not a few rooms in it, mind you - the entire hotel has been booked, and all the bookings trace back to the same crypto wallets. Crypto wallets they've traced back and found they belong to senior officers of the Primazon.com district of Deslauriers Security Incorporated." They could feel Leo's smile through the phone. "So what do you say? How'd you like to sneak in or hack in and find out what horrors the brave boys in blue mean to inflict on our district next?" Bran: "It sounds like a good job for us," Bran said when they discussed it. Melquiades: Melqui smiled in tandem with Leo's likely expression. "I'd love to get one over on Deslauriers." sd: "Course it does, it's right up your alley. This job comes from the CEO of Firestone, Jim Mattis, he says he'll meet you early tomorrow morning at al-Tayyir to discuss the particulars." Amber: Amber was also listened in the call and nodded, "It would be nice to do something relaxing for once." sd: they rested, and early in the morning they headed over to al-Tayyir. as usual, they had arrived before the usual opening hours, and the backroom was left open for them. they'd obviously arrived first, although as the drone came over to take their order, they noticed that there was a glass of beer on the table opposite, which had been mostly but not entirely drained. sd: they put in their own order with the drone, wondering when Mattis would turn up. looking around, they had just about enough time to notice that the glass of beer had slightly changed position on the table opposite before a short, grey-haired, mousy man in mirrorshades appeared, his dark business suit becoming suddenly visible against the lightly coloured benches. the shimmer in the air as he appeared was indicative of chameleon-skin, an expensive and complex implantation that allowed you to blend easily with the background.
The man gave a faint smile and finished his beer, then came over to join them.
"Jim Mattis," he said in English. His voice barely rose above a whisper. "Leo tells me you're the best hackers in Primazon, which is all to the good. You'll need it to beat the security system at this hotel." Bran: "Tomas," Bran introduced himself. "Can you give us the details?"" Melquiades: Melqui introduced himself as Marco Torres. "Some of us are excellent hackers. Others are... support. But we do not shy from a challenge." Amber: She introduced hersle f as Kisumi this time around. sd: Mattis nodded to Bran. "Deslauriers have booked out every single room in a hotel in MbS Memorial District, the Chateau de Villa, for all of tomorrow and the next day as well. They've done this pretty carefully through intermediaries, but we've traced the payments back to crypto wallets that we know are theirs. Considering they've booked out the entire hotel, they obviously want to remove any possibility of anyone overhearing anything." Mattis took a moment to order another drink from the drone. "Now this hotel has a special feature. It's a seven storey hotel, but the fourth floor has a secure conference room - warded against psychic shielding, and with an ultra-high frequency electronic scanner to recognise all electronic devices in the room, and completely fry them if they're not registered. I'm betting they want to have a conversation there without any risk of being overheard." Amber: Kisumi smiled slightly, "A challenge then! Everything have a weak point after all. So you want to know what they are politely discussing inside that room hmm?" sd: "Yes. There are a lot of people who'd pay top nuyen for that information. I want you to plant a bug in the room and record everything. Ideally video and audio, but at a pinch, audio alone will serve. I'll pay you 18 nuyen, and another 6 as a bonus if you can get video as well." Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "So we'll need to have a device that can withstand their 'fryer', or disable it." Bran: "And a way of getting into the room to install our bug," Bran frowned as he considered how they would do that. sd: "Yes. The security device in their conference room scans the entire room repeatedly, logs every electronic device in the room, and if it's not one that's registered on the system as authorised, it blasts it with a small electromagnetic pulse. Problem is, all the registered devices are listed openly for the person running the meeting to see, so it's not even like you can just hack the security system and register whatever device you want to bug it with. You either need to edit the code the system runs so that it can mask a device, or you need to shield it in some way so it won't get spotted." Amber: Amber looked at other twos, "How do you think they keep the room cool for example." Suggesting one possible route into the room. Bran: Bran nodded. "There might be accessible ducts but I imagine they'd have thought of that. Someone might be able to infiltrate as a staff member?"
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 8, 2022 19:02:13 GMT
sd: Bran nodded. "There might be accessible ducts but I imagine they'd have thought of that. Someone might be able to infiltrate as a staff member?"
"You might," Mattis replied. "You'll have a problem with it though. Normally when a company rents a whole hotel that means they want to keep things quiet, often they'll rent rooms and leave them deliberately empty. When this happens, any hotel manager with half a brain will cut shifts and keep only a small crew around. No point paying enough staff to run a full hotel when most of the rooms aren't being used." Melquiades: "Might be time for some drone reconaissance," said Melqui. Bran: Bran nodded thoughfully. Amber: "There are options at least we can look at" Amber agreed. sd: "You'll also need to design some kind of shielding for whatever device you use to record the meeting," Mattis said. "Unless you're intending to hack their mainframe and rewrite all the code to include a security backdoor, which I don't really recommend. If you leave some line of code out then you could pretty easily cause the system to malfunction and that might get noticed." Bran: "We'll need something to avoid their scanners. I'll get onto that," Bran said. Bran: "I've been working on a signal jammer," he added. "Might be able to adjust that." Amber: Amber nodded with agreement and smiled slightly, "Maybe we should break their light bulbs and replace them with a tiny camera in every single light, Too obvious I think!" Bran: "I think something a little more subtle." Bran grinned back. Bran: He frowned in thought. "Maybe a camera in one light fitting, protected by a shield from their scanner. Just need to work out how to install it." Bran: "We need to get hold of plans for the room, electrical outlets and so on. And the hotel too might be useful." sd: Amber and Melqui searched online and were able to find blueprints for the Chateau, however they noticed that information for the secure conference room had been left deliberately vague - they could tell how large it was, taking up almost the entirety of the fourth floor, as well as certain basic facts such as that it had no windows, but no specifications.
they therefore set out on another search. Amber soon discovered that the hotel was extremely touchy about people taking photos of their secure chamber - their own site had no pictures and instead just listed the security specifications, and she found several threads on local networking sites in which the hotel's lawyers had forced people to pull down images that happened to include parts of the room. eventually, however, she found one that they'd missed - about a month ago a man had been in the lift and taken a picture of his wife, standing opposite him applying makeup. she had obviously twitched when she noticed the photo, turning her small mirror at just the right angle that Amber could see what was clearly the conference room reflected in it, with a thankfully open door. she had to download some separate image manipulation software so she could extract that part of the picture and then enlarge it, however soon she had it at a high resolution. they could now see the layout of the room - roughly rectangular, with a large table and comfortable looking leather seats. there were two electrical chandeliers as well as some lights recessed into the ceiling, and although there were no windows, she noticed that the internal walls were reflective and at several points there appeared to be screens built into the wall, mimicking windows and obviously looking outside of the building. she also saw that there was a door on the north wall which wasn't marked on their blueprints. this puzzled them for a while until they did some comparisons with other floors and noticed this was directly above the kitchens - presumably this was so that the guests could have long meetings in the chamber and simply call for food without having to leave the room. Amber: Amber looked really pleased at this find like a cat with the cream Melquiades: "There's always a weakness, and Amber will find it," said Melqui, clapping her on the back. Bran: "Great stuff Amber! I reckon attaching the bug to the chandelier would work." Bran said, gazing at the picture. "How about that way up from the kitchens for getting in?" Amber: "That would make sense and less likely to be discovered as well" She agreed with Bran's assessment sd: having decided where they wanted to put their bug, they got to work on creating the recording device. Shaafia, the journalist they'd rescued from prison, helped Bran with designing the bug's outer shell - given that she had cybernetics for recording implanted within her body, she had some familiarity with how this would work and had on a few occasions needed to shield her implants. Melqui studied the photos carefully to work out which colours to use for the body of the recorder, while Amber went to work on the electronics, buying some specialised parts to help her from a freelancer.
she set to work, however she had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. She examined some of the parts that she hadn't yet put to use and realised her worst fears were true - she'd been sold a complete dud. Fortunately she'd realised it before all their work was spoiled, but it was still a critical waste of their time and Amber would now have to remove it from the shell Bran had created and start over. While she did that, Melqui headed out and spoke to some of their contacts on the street who'd been helped through Bran's clinics - some of them recognised the description of the freelancer Amber had bought the parts from, allowing Melqui to learn what bars he liked to frequent. When the man went outside and started to return home, Melqui and Bran were ready to collar him and pull him aside for a polite, reasonable chat in a dark alleyway. After only a few moments of conversation with Melqui's arm wrapped firmly around the man's neck and shoulders, they had explained to the freelancer that there'd been a mistake and he'd - obviously inadvertently - sold their friend some dud electronic parts. Although he was resistant to the idea at first, soon Melqui persuaded him to give them a fresh set, and they returned home to Amber and left the freelancer to arrange an appointment with his dentist. This time, the parts worked very well, and Amber was able to make up for the lost time and make some excellent circuits for video and audio recording. sd: deciding that their best way inside would be some kind of direct delivery to the kitchens - this would allow them to enter the premises with little suspicion and give them access to an area that connected directly to the secure chamber - they then started to look for ways they could do this. digging around online, Amber found a post on a local social media site from about a month and a half ago. a woman who'd worked in the kitchens had started an abortive campaign to attempt to shame the hotel for firing her. only a short time before she was let go the management had recognised her for her particularly good work, however they then learned that she'd been attempting to unionise and therefore they immediately dismissed her. looking back at the social campaign, Amber found that the woman's account had quickly been banned, as had several of her supporters, on obviously spurious grounds - unless they were going after someone who already had influence, it was easy for most well-connected companies to persuade media companies that a troublesome user was employing 'bullying' or 'harassment' and get them removed this way. Amber didn't yet know her name, since she only had online accounts to go by, however it was a solid lead and soon she and Melqui set out to MbS Memorial district to hit a few sites in person and see if they could find the woman. after a few hours of asking in bars they had a lead and were able to hunt the woman down. Her name was Takiyah Raza and she lived in Goldline district, a few Line stops up from the party's home in Primazon.com.
Takiyah hardly needed any persuasion at all to help the party get a bit of revenge on the Chateau de Villa. She mentioned that one of their primary kitchen suppliers had a manager who was very greedy - she guessed that if the party tried to bribe him, they'd have an easy time getting him to switch from his usual drivers and let them take a shift for him. Takiyah's information proved correct - after splashing out just a bit of nuyen, they had earned themselves a tryout shift on the first day that Deslauriers had rented the hotel. Amber: Amber felt slightly more confident with the run ahead, maybe they can actually pull this off
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 15, 2022 19:17:38 GMT
sd: with the information Takiyah provided them, along with their disguise as delivery drivers, it proved an easy task to get into the Chateau de Villa and up into the kitchen storeroom on the third floor. a harried looking woman who muttered curses under her breath in Arabic helped them load the supplies onto several trolleys, then led them along to the lift. they saw very little of the first two floors, being taken into the lift with the supplies almost immediately, however when they came into the third floor they could see that the rooms all had their doors open and were being cleaned - there was no sign that any of them were being used at the moment. cleaners bustled in and out of the rooms. at one end of the corridor, at a junction where he'd be able to see almost every room, a man who clearly wasn't staff leaned against a wall. He had greying hair and was looking around with alert eyes. They passed him by fairly closely as they brought their supplies into the kitchen.
"Put them in the backroom there, Miqdaad will show you." There was no cooking going on in the kitchen at the moment, but they could hear the sound of things being stacked in a storeroom directly ahead of them. Off to the right there was a plain door with an electric lock which, from the floor plans they'd studied, must be the one that led up to the secure meeting chamber. "Miq!" the woman called. After a moment, a young man of about twenty stuck his head out of the storeroom. "I've got things to do, supervise this drop-off please." Without giving him time to object, the woman headed out, and Miqdaad shrugged and gestured for them to bring the trolleys into the storeroom. sd: "Bitch," Miqdaad muttered under his breath at the woman's back. "I'm sorting some things, carry them in here" Melquiades: "Let me guess, she always 'has things to do'," said Melqui conspiratorially as he lugged a crate in to set down for Miqdaad. "Had plenty of bosses like that. And the less they do the better they get paid." sd: Miqdaad laughed and proved very easy to distract. Bran and Melqui brought the crates in and out while talking to Miq, while Amber quickly got to work on the electrical lock.
"Tell me about it. It was better when Tak was here, but she got a bit too reckless I guess," he said. "Takiyah was fucking crazy but I liked her." At that point Melqui came into the room with a particularly heavy crate so Miqdaad helped him take the other end, all the while talking about his former coworker. "She was talking wild shit about how we should unionise, and I mean that stuff's fucking dangerous you know? I mean I like still having a job - ok I don't, but you know, I like getting paid anyway." Miqdaad laughed and, as he did, managed to lose his grip on the crate, which slid right down onto Melqui's foot. "Shit! Fuck, I'm sorry man, are you ok?" As this happened, Amber finished her work and was able to get the lock open. Bran: Bran gave Amber a thumbs up and prepared to enter the door. Amber: Amver sighed with relief on opening the door quielty but hoping that Melqui is doing fine as her newly healed knee twankled in sumsptpyh sd: behind the locked door was a small chamber including a table with a grey tray. there were prominent notices above the tray instructing employees to leave all phones and other electrical devices in the tray before heading upstairs, and warning that management took no responsibility for and would not replace any devices which were destroyed if they were brought inside. off to the side was a short set of stairs leading up to a door. Melquiades: Melqui had managed to twist his foot in time to avoid any real injury, but he decided to use the opportunity to continue his distraction. He hopped back from the crate on the other foot until he found a place to sit and slowly start removing his boot as if avoiding a painful area. "No worries, brother," he said, grimacing. "It was an accident. Just gotta... make sure it isn't serious." Bran: Bran handed over his phone and other electronic gadgetry to Amber to keep safe and slipped inside. sd: Miqdaad grimaced uncomfortably, and then, to avoid having to look as Melqui took his shoe off, busied himself emptying some of the crates and putting things on shelves Bran: Moving cautiously up the stairs, Bran quickly checked the door at the top. It seemed unlikely there would be alarms or other security devices but he made sure. Amber: Amber decided to help Melq in his effort by helping out with the crates on rather slow pace looking at Melq with faint concern. sd: there were indeed no alarms or devices on this door, which was also unlocked - and Bran found himself inside the large secure chamber. the centre of the room was dominated by one huge rectangular table with black leather seats, enough to seat at least twenty-five people, as well as four other smaller tables at the four corners of the room. there was a large locked cabinet on one wall, and a laptop computer at the far end of the large table. apart from the door he'd come in through, the only other entrance was on the left-hand wall, with a secure electronic panel for all entry and exit. above him were a great number of recessed lights as well as two large chandeliers. sd: Bran was swiftly able to pull himself up onto the table and plant the bug up on one of the chandeliers - in among all the lights there was no way one more would be spotted, and he'd designed the device carefully so it made no noise. he climbed down, carefully put the chair back, and then made for the door, and as he did he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye - the electrical light on the entrance panel lighting up. sd: "You definitely alright over there?" Miqdaad eventually asked Melqui. "I could uhh, go get the first aid box. Ah, shit, the one in the kitchen is empty and hasn't been refilled since they got rid of Tak, I'd need to go to another floor..." Melquiades: "Nah, man, I think I'm okay. Just a bruise, nothing broken. I'm just gonna walk it off a bit to make sure." Melqui stood to move around the room with a slight limp. Melquiades: Once he was apparently satisfied that he could walk alright, Melqui began to tell Miqdaad about other close injury calls he'd had, while unloading more of the supplies. sd: Bran was able to swiftly hurl himself through the door just in time. He couldn't get a glimpse of whoever it had been, but he was at least confident he'd gotten out without being spotted. He hastily made his way back down the stairs and returned to the kitchen. Amber: Upon the spare moment, Amber winced as she talked about the job she did a while bacl, showing off a nasty bruise Bran: Bran took a moment to steady his breathing then pushed the trolley to the door. "Are you alright in there Estaban? It's getting boring standing around out here!" Melquiades: "Think we're about done," said Melqui cheerily, hastening to offload the last of the supplies. Bran: Bran assisted bringing them in. sd: "Alright cool cool, sorry about your toe man. Have a good one, just drop those off at the front desk," said Miqdaad. Melquiades: Melqui clapped Miqdaad on the back. "Water under the bridge, man." The group gathered together to casually head toward the exit. sd: as they headed out of the kitchen and towards the lift they noticed the guard had a hand up against his ear as he listened to a communicator. "He what? Greedy ganger pieces of shit," he was saying. Amber: Amber also returned the equipeents and eletronics before they left the store Amber: to Bran* sd: they went to the lift and pressed the button, waiting there with their trolleys for it to come down to their floor. after about thirty seconds, it arrived and they prepared to wheel them into the lift, which opened to reveal two people, whose body language screamed that they disliked each other. one was a young white man in his mid-twenties, with a round face. he had large hands and thick arms, but they could hardly match those of the other man, because his arms were made of dark metal, and they had already seen once before that they had the power to lift a grown man like a kitten. the man with the cyberarms was grinning unpleasantly at his companion, but he glanced over at the three of them as the lift opened. Melquiades: Melquiades had been thinking of this cyborg since they first saw him, wondering if eventually he would need to face him if their role in NEOM's underworld continued to grow. It took a tremendous effort for him to disguise his shock, and he stepped onto the lift only after the others. Bran: Taking a deep breath and plastering a look of complete indifference on his face, Bran slid his trolley into the lift and stood like a tired worker just wanting to end his shift, though he was terribly aware of the damned cyborg standing mere feet away. Amber: Amber was quick enough to assume the Japanese expression of polite facade as one often use in Japan to avoid shameful display of shock and dismay. She is glad that they are not fighitng him at the moment sd: the man with the cyberarms gave them only a brief glance as they entered, then went back to smiling unpleasantly at his companion. They rode in silence down to the ground floor, although just before they reached there, the cyborg spent a moment listening on his commsdeck and laughed. "See, we will be able to work together after all, Bjorn's had a word with your boss and they've reached an understanding. What's twenty nuyen between friends hmm?" the cyborg said to his unwilling companion, reaching out in mock playfulness and putting a huge cybernetic arm around his shoulder. The lift door went and they hastily took their trolleys out and brought them to the frontdesk. It took all their willpower not to look back at the two men as they headed for the front door. sd: as the man with the cyberarms listened in on his comms device, Melqui concentrated his senses and focussed them entirely on the vibrations of the device. He could feel them crawling on his skin like ants, skittering up and into his ear, translating itself into a man speaking Arabic with a heavy accent, though not one he recognised immediately. "Didn't take me much to get the cop to agree to our demands, they'll double our advance from 20 nuyen to 40," the man said. "I hope this meeting doesn't go on too damn long tomorrow. Needed to dampen senses while I was in there to keep the security system humming in my damn ears. Cop's claiming they already know who it was who shot up their prison and they're just about ready to pounce on them, but wouldn't tell me who. Guess we're not getting hired to deal with that." Melquiades: Once they were clear, Melqui relayed what he'd heard to the others. "We'll have some friends to warn." Bran: Bran looked concerned. "Definitely, and we need to watch ourselves too." He thought for a moment. "As I was leaving the conference room, someone just started to come in - I had to skedaddle sharpish and didn't see who it was, but I reckon that was when the conversation took place. I wonder what they are being hired to deal with." Amber: Anber looks pradindod for a moment, "Nothing good!"
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 22, 2022 19:19:01 GMT
sd: they left the Chateau de Villa and reported back on their success to Jim Mattis. "Great work," he said. "Now we just have to wait for the footage. I can't exactly stop you from watching, but this is my recording - I trust I can count on you to keep everything stricty confidential." Melquiades: "With what you're paying, we can be discreet," said Melqui with a grin. Bran: Bran nodded in confirmation of what Melqui had said. Amber: Amber agreed, "Yes, we will!" sd: they headed back to their apartment to rest. they'd set the bug so that it would transmit a signal elsewhere, to a spot in the desert which they'd selected at random, and only after this it would relay back to them, through several layers of encryption and redirection, to finally arrive back at screens in their own apartments and another which Mattis would have access to. it meant there was a small delay of about a minute on the recording, but this was no great problem. they rested through the night in shifts, with one of them watching the screen carefully to see when the meeting would begin. Bran: When they changed over shifts, Bran spoke to the others about what they had heard. "If the feds really have that information we should be ready to get out." Melquiades: "It seems more likely they've located our friends, but yes we should be cautious," replied Melqui. sd: they passed on warnings to the Yemeni Circle, as well as to Nazim Nejad and his comrades, and rested through the night. they were making breakfast the next morning when Bran noticed people coming into the room. about twenty people came in and took seats around the table before the meeting began at 9:30 am.
The meeting began at 9:30 am the next day, and there were twenty people in the room. The majority of those at the meeting were senior officers of Deslauriers, but there were also some other people present. There were two businessmen who represented McKinsey & Company, the huge management, accountancy and outsourcing megacorp, who had overall responsibility for policing within NEOM and had subcontracted the enforcement in Primazon.com to Deslauriers. There was also the man with the cyberarms, along with several of his confederates, and another group, led by a woman with runic tattoos.
The first person to speak was Adam Henry-Hollinger III, of McKinsey & Company. They were extremely displeased with events that had unfolded in Primazon.com district recently. In addition to the bombings at al-Nawaz that had led to the death of the beloved Prince Bandar, there had been a further terrorist attack in the district resulting in the destruction of a gaol and had led to numerous criminals and illegal immigrants going free. The royal family were also distressed that there had been several riots and unlawful demonstrations, and that images of the deceased terrorist leader of Islamic Socialist Jihad, Aisha al-Fuladh, had been openly displayed in the city.
McKinsey had therefore called this meeting to put Deslauriers on notice - they would tolerate no further such disturbances in the Primazon.com district, and failure to restore order promptly and immediately would result in the termination of Deslauriers' contract. They set four objectives which Deslauriers were to meet promptly and fully:
1) The capture of the terrorists responsible for the destruction of the jail; 2) An end to the open gang warfare that had recently been seen in the district; 3) An immediate cessation of all illegal demonstrations and other agitation against the House of Saud in the district; 4) That all of the above should be accomplished without need of further lockdowns, shutdowns, deployment of the army, or other such extraordinary measures, since this had led to significant hardship for many businesses in the district, and McKinsey had received numerous complaints from entrepreneurs whose investments in Primazon.com had been damaged by the recent disturbances.
Standing in response was the senior officer Thierry Lacomte, for Deslauriers, who assured the McKinsey representatives that his dedicated officers had already worked out who was responsible for the attack on the jail, and that, in fact, they were undertaking a special operation to capture them this very moment. For the other measures, he and the remainder of the Deslauriers leadership team had reached out to two interested parties in Primazon.com district, who had also come to the meeting. Bran: As soon as he spotted movement on screen, Bran had called to the others. He watched grim faced as the meeting proceeded. "Big business, private cops and fecking gangsters - all crooked as each other..." he growled softly to himself. Melquiades: "Not sure how they expect to secure things without lockdowns if they couldn't do it with them," said Melqui, watching with interest to see who the guests from the district were. sd:
Lacomte and the others present from Deslauriers and McKinsey carefully avoided referring to their new partners as gangsters, although it would have been obvious to the party that they were such even had they not already been familiar with one of the groups.
Their first new partner were called Electric Blood, and were euphemistically introduced as a 'private security firm' led by Bjorn Velling. The party had not seen him before, but the camera showed he had two cybernetic arms and legs, and he was flanked on one side by the man with the cyberarms who they'd met before, and, on the other, by a woman whose only visible cybernetic enhancement were her eyes, which they could only detect because they changed colours throughout the meeting.
The second party was introduced as a 'group of highly skilled shadowrunners', known as the Street Sweepers, who had four representatives present. Their leader in this meeting was a woman in a business suit wearing mirrorshades and with several runic tattoos. The party already knew from previous runs that they were the most powerful gang in Primazon.com district, a ruthless and dangerous organisation with heavy involvement in assassination, racketeering, and human trafficking. As gestures of goodwill in connection with their new partnership, Electric Blood had been paid a substantial advance, while Lacomte had led a review into the imprisonment of the well-loved Street Sweeper, Zero Atallah, and found sufficient proof to overturn his conviction - he would be released later that day. Bran: "The fecking Street Sweepers!" Bran exclaimed. "Those bastards would have fingered the Yemeni Circle whether there was evidence or not." Melquiades: Melqui whistled. "They really are desperate, turning to the big gangs. But desperate is dangerous..." Amber: Amber winced, "We should be more careful and catious at the moment" she considered the possible risks ahead sd: As the Deslauriers officers began to discuss matters with their new gangland allies, it very quickly became clear to the party that what was being proposed was that Deslauriers would for all intents and purposes turn a blind eye to their criminal activities for the foreseeable future, and in exchange, the Sweepers and Electric Blood would crush any further gang violence, demonstrations, or other disruptive actions. The parties began discussing the different gangs within the district, with special attention being paid to four such groups - the Yemeni Circle, Daw'alqamar, the Black Circle, and a gang Lacomte referred to as the Red Crescents. Although they'd never heard them use this name before, the party quickly realised the Red Crescents were one and the same as Nazim Nejad, Chamunda, Joanna, and the others who had helped them in the run to blow up the Deslauriers' prison. Lacomte said that the Red Crescents, though a relatively small organisation, were a front for Islamic Socialist Jihad and that he believed they might have a liaison with the Hugo Chavez Brigades, an elite special forces unit who worked for the secret police of the United Bolivarian Republic. Their cadres included expatriate leftist terrorists from around the world, such as the neo-Naxalites in India and the New People's Army in the Philippines.
Although all four such groups were discussed, Lacomte believed that the most dangerous were the Yemeni Circle and Daw'alqamar, which he said had heavy links with Wahhabist terrorist groups including those responsible for the death of Prince Bandar.
When discussing the Black Circle, Lacomte suggested that perhaps they could be won around to a similar alliance with Deslauriers, however only one or two others present believed this was possible. The psyker gang was contemptuous of all 'mundanes' and 'burnouts', and their hatred of religions from before the Unlocking, including Islam, meant they would never be amenable to work for the state.
Deslauriers ultimately assigned these four target gangs to their two allies for them to 'handle' as they saw fit. Electric Blood were given the task of dealing with the Daw'alqamar Islamists and the Red Crescent leftists, while the Street Sweepers would handle the Yemeni Circle and the Black Circle. For opsec reasons, there were no definite actions agreed that day, and information about these would be passed on between the three partners at a later date on a strictly need-to-know basis. Bran: "Forewarned is forearmed," Bran said thoughtfully. "But this is going to be a pretty tough war to win. The only way I see is to strike first..." Melquiades: "If a war is worth it," said Melqui grimly. "Might be better to give our friends what heads up we can, and try to relocate ourselves." Bran: "Maybe..." Bran frowned and then sighed. "This is a shithole of a place." Amber: "Remember," Amber reminded them, "We are here to find that bastard who stinged us. Still, I am of two minds on how we react to this." Amber looked uncertain for a moment Bran: "We could get Leo to find us another base," Bran suggested. sd: Although the primary discussion was about these four groups, there were also discussions of other more minor gangs and disruptive elements within Primazon.com district. At one point, a junior Deslauriers officer mentioned the free medical clinics being run by a recently arrived Irish doctor, Tomas Finnegan. While Finnegan had not openly done anything illegal, some local commercial clinics were unhappy with this unfair competition. His unpaid work for the poorer residents of the district had meant that a number of illegal aliens with subversive sympathies had been treated, which would provide succour for anti-government groups in Primazon.com. Lacomte mentioned that this kind of charity work was often done as a cover for terrorist and radical work, mentioning the precedent of the Black Panther Party who had provided community clinics and other free programmes in the United States. At this the Electric Blood leader, Bjorn Velling, suggested that if Finnegan was setting himself up to serve a role like the Black Panthers, then perhaps he could be given the same fate as Fred Hampton, which Lacomte, frowning said he would consider, though he didn't believe Finnegan was an important figure.
Although it was very uncomfortable hearing the police and their gangland allies openly discuss murdering them, there was no link made by anyone at the meeting between themselves, or the Red Crescents who they'd discussed previously, and the attack on the jail. This was underlined about thirty minutes before the close of the meeting, when Lacomte announced that the operation against the terrorists who had attacked the jail was now complete - although many of the terrorists were dead, Deslauriers had captured three of the ringleaders in the attack, and they were being transferred to a black site nearby. The McKinsey representative, Adam Henry-Hollinger, congratulated them on this and said that King Abdulaziz's wish was for these terrorists to be publicly executed, in Primazon.com district, in order that the people there should be assured that the King wouldn't permit such atrocities on his watch, and reminded that NEOM was still ultimately part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and subject to its laws. With this, the meeting ended. Bran: Bran looked a bit pale when he heard himself and his possible 'removal' being talked about so casually, but then he gave a slightly forced grin. "Well nice to know my work is appreciated..." Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "Glad we got this forewarning. You could have been snatched."
When they learned of the operation that had apparently killed and captured members of the organization that had attacked the jail, he grimaced. "We should check in on our amigos. Let's hope Deslauriers is just fishing for results to show." Amber: Amber was not happy to hear Bran's harrd work treated so causally by their enemies, "Maybe an alert or a tracker for you to give us if you DO get snatched up" she considered this over Bran: "That might be a bit late!" Bran said with a grimace. "If only the various groups would work together there might be a way to push back. Apart from those maniacs in the Black Circle, the others could possibly make common cause" sd: they contacted Nazim Nejad through a drop number they'd exchanged. it took a few hours for him to notice, but eventually he phoned them. "I'm safe, Joanna and Chamunda as well. Everyone I've contacted is fine. You think the cops are after us then?" Melquiades: "Apparently on two fronts. They're looking for the Red Crescent as a criminal threat, and for those involved in the jail job. But it sounds like they haven't connected the two. They've killed and snatched some poor pendejos and are going to say they've dealt with the jail culprits." sd: Nazim laughed. "Poor bastards. Most of us are hiding outside of the city at the moment, although that can change...how did you find out about this then?" Bran: "Ah, that's privileged information," Bran said. "We can't go into details about how we obtained it." sd: "Hmm. Fine." They heard Nazim muttering something under his breath about dealing with shadowrunners. "So they've grabbed somebody for something we did. Any idea where they are or what the cops are planning to do with them?" Bran: Bran looked to the others. "We believe there will be a public execution right here in Primazon." Melquiades: "They're at a black site somewhere until that happens," Melqui added. Melquiades: edit: somewhere nearby sd: there was a long pause at the other end of the line. "Well. I suppose it's too much to hope for that someone might rescue these innocent people from a gruesome public execution. If that happened it'd be extremely damaging and embarassing for the local police and for the state in general." Bran: "Yes, that would certainly be the case," Bran said. sd: "It would be. Unfortunately you'd need an elite team of shadowrunners to pull something like that off." Bran: Bran shrugged and held his hands up in a 'what can you do?' gesture to the others. Melquiades: Melqui sighed. Embarrassing the police and the state wasn't profitable in itself. But it was hard to sit this one by. Amber: "Indeed, where one should get amazing and efficent team I wonder..." Amber questioned them with a evil smile. sd: "Well, if you know such a team, put them in touch with me. As I said, most of us aren't even in NEOM at the moment, but I know someone who is and they could possibly help out." Bran: Bran wrote on a piece of paper: TELL THEM ABOUT THE GANGS WORKING WITH THE COPS? Amber: Amber considered this over and gave a maybe sign with a small fingers gesutre to say smallest information possible basically Bran: "Let us know the details," Bran said. "We need to discuss a few things and then give you a call back." sd: "I'll tell you when you call back - I need to run this by the others anyway," Nazim replied. "To pull off this kind of run would need some pretty big help, and this person can provide it, is all I'll say now." Bran: "Stay safe!" Bran said and cut the call. "We need to get the information out there about the gang involvement." Amber: Amber agreed with the idea, "We can release some information on the net at least," Bran: "Can you seed it so we don't get attached?" Bran asked her. Amber: Smiling with a hint of confidence, "I am sure that is possiible," she answered Bran's question sd: as they discussed this, Bran's phone rang and he looked down to see that it was Jim Mattis calling. Bran: Bran answered. Melquiades: "If we can make it seem the Sweepers or the Blood leaked the information, it might put a bit of a rift in their alliance with the cops," said Melqui. He quieted as the phone rang. sd: "So when we met you said your name was Tomas," Mattis said quietly to Bran, "and I try not to pry when I'm doing business with people. You do sound Irish to me - is your surname Finnegan, by any chance? If so I hope you did watch the footage." Bran: Bran took a breath and released it. "I saw it. The clinic is for people who would never be able to pay for medical treatment... I suppose to some that might be considered a radical act." sd: "Some people have very uncharitable hearts," Mattis said, sounding somewhat indifferent. "I thought I should pass on a warning in case you hadn't watched it, if they were to capture you then you might give something away that led back to me after all. If I'd known the police might already want to kill you I'd have offered less money, but I'm a man of my word. Although there was this threat to you personally I trust I can rely on you to be professional and keep all this information to yourself yes? I have several front companies that are far enough away that Deslauriers can't touch them, and I suspect they'd pay a lot of nuyen to make sure this footage doesn't end up in the hands of the gangs they're planning to attack." Bran: "I understand," Bran said. Bran: "It was as much of a surprise to me as to you," he added. sd: "Yes, being marked for assassination isn't a pleasant experience. You should probably keep a low profile for a while," Mattis said. "Or just escape from NEOM altogether." Mattis didn't sound like he expected this. Bran: "I appreciate the advice," Bran said, sounding as if he meant it. sd: Mattis ended the call. Bran: "Well that was minus craic," Bran said, his anger now allowed to spill out. "Fecking shitehawk." Melquiades is disconnected. sd: Despite the warning from Mattis, they thought it would be important to leak the information that Deslauriers was now working with the Street Sweepers and Electric Blood - they would just need to find a way to leak this information in such a way as it didn't appear to be them doing it.
While they considered this, they contacted Nazim again and agreed to work with the Crescents to free the people who Deslauriers had framed for the attack on the jail. Nazim gave them the address to a small house near Lineside, and told them to be there at 2 am on 15 May. he also gave them several codes to use - the house was locked electrically and, he warned, was defended by several drones to prevent intrusion.
the house wasn't much to look at on first glance, just an ordinary two storey white house. they entered the codes and passed inside - there was a Humanoid Antipersonnel Drone in the first room, but since they had entered the correct access code it mercifully didn't attack them. they went into a sitting room, which had bookshelves which were filled with books, most of which were by leftist theoreticians - Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Gramsci, Jose Maria Sison, and many others. They noticed several works were attributed to Aisha al-Fuhladin, such as the twin works Cyberspace under the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie and Cyberspace under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Amber: Amber looked around the home with interests Bran: Bran examined the books, looking thoughtfully at them. sd: they had time to settle down on a leather couch when a door at the rear of the room opened and two people came into the room. One was an Arabic man who looked somewhat familar, though they couldn't immediately place him...until the second man entered behind him. He was a Chinese man in his mid-thirties, tall, lean, and clean shaven, wearing a Zhongshan suit.
"Good to meet you, comrades. You can call me Zhou." They knew though that this wasn't his name, because they'd seen him before, though he didn't know that. Standing before them was Chen Weixu, the youngest member of the executive board of the Beiwo corporation.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jan 29, 2022 19:01:18 GMT
sd: Despite the warning from Mattis, they thought it would be important to leak the information that Deslauriers was now working with the Street Sweepers and Electric Blood - they would just need to find a way to leak this information in such a way as it didn't appear to be them doing it.
While they considered this, they contacted Nazim again and agreed to work with the Crescents to free the people who Deslauriers had framed for the attack on the jail. Nazim gave them the address to a small house near Lineside, and told them to be there at 2 am on 15 May. he also gave them several codes to use - the house was locked electrically and, he warned, was defended by several drones to prevent intrusion.
the house wasn't much to look at on first glance, just an ordinary two storey white house. they entered the codes and passed inside - there was a Humanoid Antipersonnel Drone in the first room, but since they had entered the correct access code it mercifully didn't attack them. they went into a sitting room, which had bookshelves which were filled with books, most of which were by leftist theoreticians - Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Gramsci, Jose Maria Sison, and many others. They noticed several works were attributed to Aisha al-Fuhladin, such as the twin works Cyberspace under the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie and Cyberspace under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
they had time to settle down on a leather couch when a door at the rear of the room opened and two people came into the room. One was an Arabic man who looked somewhat familar, though they couldn't immediately place him...until the second man entered behind him. He was a Chinese man in his mid-thirties, tall, lean, and clean shaven, wearing a Zhongshan suit.
"Good to meet you, comrades. You can call me Zhou." They knew though that this wasn't his name, because they'd seen him before, though he didn't know that. Standing before them was Chen Weixu, the youngest member of the executive board of the Beiwo corporation. Bran: Hiding his surprise, Bran dipped his head in a kind of semi-bow. "Very pleased to meet you. I am know as Tomas." Melquiades: "Marco." Melqui waved a hand in greeting as he quickly ran through his recollections about Chen - or Zhou. Davide has connected. Amber: Amber introduced herself with the same name used for this partiular areas of jobs. Amber: "Kiiro" sd: "Chamunda told me about the good work you did previously," said Zhou. "I understand that Deslauriers, far from working out that you, Chamunda and the others were responsible, have picked some scapegoats to suffer instead. I suppose you can't tell me anything about how you came by this information." Bran: "We can't really go into detail, it was in the course of a job," Bran said, somewhat apologetically. sd: Zhou looked unimpressed with this reason, but didn't press the matter. "Very well. So our objective is to prevent the executions by any means possible. I'd think ideally, to do the maximum amount of damage to Deslauriers, we want to wait until they announce that they've caught the supposed culprits and set a date for them to be executed. If we just rescue them now, then none of the public will know that anything's even happened. I believe the remaining scapegoats are being held at a black site outside the city?" Melquiades: "That's what we know, but we don't know the exact spot," said Melqui. Bran: Bran nodded in agreement with Zhou's suggestion. Amber: "Make sense," Amber agreed with the idea of making this public as possible although still worrying about the fact their faces may be found out if they was doing this very publically sd: "That's unfortunate, but not necessarily insurmountable," Zhou said. "The firm I work for has some dealings with Deslauriers. Many of their officers use an app for tracking daily exercise that our firm happens to have produced. There've been security breaches around this kind of app before, I think it's against their policies to actually use it but no one bothers enforcing this. If the app's data got leaked somehow, it might be possible to analyse it and notice any unusual movements that might give an idea as to where they're being held." He paused. "Of course you don't necessarily even need to find them. If you felt particularly brave, you could just...wait until they announce where the execution will happen, and rescue them directly at that site." Bran: "Or we could do both," Bran suggested. "A rescue at the last moment would have tremendous impace, though there'll be a massive police presence no doubt." Bran: edit - impact Amber: "maybe police could do with some distractions" Amber considered this over Melquiades: "Yes, it'd be best to find the location quickly if possible so we can prepare," said Melqui. "Then we can move at the opportune moment." Bran: "Distractions can be arranged," Bran said. sd: "There'll doubtlessly be a huge police presence. Not to mention thousands - if not hundreds of thoudands or even millions if it's broadcast - of onlookers who might interfere or at least be able to identify you." Zhou paused. "I believe you've only been in Saudi for a few months. If you want I can offer extraction to Cuba or to the United Bolivarian Republic in place of part of your reward, there'll be far less reason to fear reprisals from the House of Saud if you're thousands of miles away." Bran: Bran sighed. "Before we can leave, there is a job we need to complete. It was the reason we came here, and I don't know that we can leave until it's done." Melquiades: "Not bad to have a failsafe though. I'd rather plot our return from overseas than in a cell." Amber: Amber smiled with a hint of iniquitousness, "Yes, I am looking forward to accomplishing that particular job. Always look look forward to seeing another country," She nods Bran: "We will need some thorough-going disguises anyway," Bran said thoughtfully. sd: "Well any transport I get you out of the country will be one way only, and deducted from your pay - my resources aren't infinite. You don't need to decide now. I also have some connections and I can help you get any specialised equipment you might need to pull off this job - weaponry or disguises or the like." Zhou paused. "I can also offer you help. Muhannad?" he looked to his bodyguard.
Muhannad cleared his throat. "Comrades," he said. "I've been working here in NEOM for three years. This is my last job before I leave for Havana. It seems to me there's three places we can strike here - we can find out precisely where the prisoners are being held and strike at the black site, we can hit them while the prisoners are in transit between there and NEOM, or we can rescue them from the execution site. I'd prefer to not have to do the latter option, I quite like being alive." Melquiades: "You and me both, amigo," said Melqui. "I feel some obligation to rescue these people, but making it a spectactle is less high on my priority list. Though if they happen to make the execution announcement before transporting the prisoners and we can strike on the way, that might be the best of both worlds." Bran: "They intend to make a big show of it - I'd have thought they'd announce it in good time," Bran said/ sd: "Definitely," Zhou said in agreement with Bran. "There'll be people unhappy about this happening. Public executions happen elsewhere in Saudi, but NEOM is meant to be a special jurisdiction. There haven't been any public executions here in twenty years." Bran: "Do you think this might lead to something more?" Bran asked Zhou. "On top of reaction to the lockdown?" Amber: "Maybe it is coming to an end, that special area, like Hong Kong for example" She suggests sd: "Well I expect it will lead to the termination of Deslauriers' contract for policing in Primazon.com," he said. "Most likely they'll need to bring in the army, or some very expensive and very violent private firm they'd need to hire at extortionate rates at very short notice. And the people here won't like the execution. Primazon.com didn't even exist the last time something like this happened in NEOM, and there's a lot of foreign capital in the district that won't like this reminder that their money is stil ultimately tied up in Saudi." Bran: "Is this just the authorities reacting but going too far?" Bran asked Zhou. "Or is it more planned than that?" sd: Zhou looked at Bran for a while. "There's been significant uncertainty in the House of Saud ever since the Second Cold War ended," he said. "King Abdulaziz's position isn't very strong. He only took power because his brother Salman was forced to abdicate, right before the nuclear strike on Tehran. He's been a puppet of his advisers for most of his reign, and a few of those who put him there are now dead. I think perhaps he's trying to assert himself to ward off any attempt to replace him, but the way he's doing it isn't very politically adept. He can't be that keen on the idea of dying under 'house arrest' the way his brother did." Amber: "Sound like using a sedgehammer to crack a nut..." Amber considered that thought Bran: "It seems perverse that such a man's weakness makes him more dangerous," Bran said. "How far will he go?" sd: "It means his life, so probably very far. His father was assassinated and most of his brothers died - probably executed - under house arrest," said Zhou. "In China we were able to do away with our monarchs and we reformed the last one before he died, but I doubt the revolution is that close here and it probably wouldn't be as gentle anyway." Zhou stretched. "I'll leak the app data to you tomorrow and then you can get to work on seeing if there's any kind of useful pattern. I'll come back to this house the next two days at this time of night, if you need to speak to me you can do so then." Amber: Amber was already itching to have a look at the damatmined apps Bran: "Thank you for your aid in this. If we learn anything new we will let you know," Bran promised. sd: Zhou/Chen did as he said the next day, and Amber went to work - Muhannad, who had some skill with programming, helped her out with the task. most of the location data was useless - just random routes around inside NEOM itself, mostly in Primazon.com. if they had the time to analyse them properly they could probably work out exactly which officers were having affairs by cross-referencing addresses with their location at given times, but they had more pressing business.
there were a few pieces of location data for officers outside of NEOM itself, for example many had trips to nearby Tabuk, and there were even a few that went to Jordan or Israel to the north. A handful of more senior officers had apparently been on holiday recently in France and Algeria.
eventually, however, they noticed some unusual data. they knew that the operation to capture these scapegoats had occurred on the same day as their meeting at the Chateau de Ville, so they limited their searches as much as possible to that date. there were three officers who had left the city the night before, and then travelled northwest towards the Midian mountains. from cross-referencing their routes to maps, they could see they must have travelled by private transport - their route was far off any major roads. after stopping at one spot near the coast sometime early on the day of the meeting, they then travelled up into the mountains proper, before disappearing. if the black spot was up in those mountains, then the signal was in all likelihood too poor to continue to transmit data to Beiwo's app. sd: they started to analyse the maps around that area, while Amber went online searching for reports of local activity that might explain what had happened. after a long night, Amber was able to find some grainy photographs from the day of the meeting in the Chateau de Ville, suggesting that there had been some kind of gun battle between a security firm and a Bedouin tribe that day. the Bedouins had apparently got the worst of it.
Bran and Melqui went out and hit the streets seeing if they could find any further information. they eventually met a drug dealer who'd done a number of dealings with Bedouins from the Howaytat tribe, including some near to where the shootout had happened. in the early 21st century, the Howaytat had largely become sedentary, abandoning the nomadic traditions of the Bedouin, but several thousand had been displaced by the building of NEOM. some had been bought off or scared off, while others tried to resist and were imprisoned or just killed. the children and grandchildren of those who'd tried to resist still had difficulty finding work, so many had turned to smuggling and gun running to make ends meet.
sensing that they'd need to take a risk to work out exactly where the scapegoats were being held, Melqui came up with a plan to follow Thierry Lacomte, the senior Deslauriers' officer who had run the meeting at the Chateau de Villa. with Muhannad in tow, they followed him around the district at a distance, observing him carefully. he was almost always in company while he worked, and again when he went out to dinner that night at a fine Lineside restaurant, which they watched through binoculars at a great distance. they'd seen Lacomte take at least a dozen phone calls while he was in company, but this time, he stood up from the table and went off privately, and they noticed through the binoculars that he was speaking on a different phone. Melqui went nearer and stretched out his senses, while Muhannad stood by with a handheld sensor device.
"...signal up here is goddamn terrible, have had to walk for twenty minutes to get to a place where I can actually call you," a woman was saying.
"Announcement is going out tomorrow at noon," Lacomte responded. "Call me at this time tomorrow night and we'll go over final preparations for bringing them in the next day."
Melqui gave the signal, and Muhannad then used his scanner to scan Lacomte's phone. Although he was only able to lift very limited data, this included information about the call the man was receiving at that moment and the number it came from. Sending these over to Amber, it took her only an hour or so of work to be able to work out GPS coordinates for the caller's position, high up in the remote mountains.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Feb 5, 2022 19:18:46 GMT
sd: with the data Muhannad had been able to scan from Lacomte's phone, they were able to get some rough GPS coordinates, which returned a spot just north of the Jebel al-Lawz mountain, which was near the Jordanian border. the area was rough and sparsely populated, and some of the coastal region directly across from the Sinai peninsula had been submerged when the oceans were still rising, but at least now they knew where they were going.
Muhannad thought they would only have just barely enough time to reach there, however Bran had already got ahead of things and, calling on the resources Chen had provided them, had already arranged a car to rent. Leaving NEOM behind them, they set out. Bran drove hard, with Amber navigating as they went, so they could make up for lost time. rather than reaching the area in the middle of the night as Muhannad had feared, they managed to save about five hours, and came to the area before the arranged call between Lacomte and the woman leading the Deslauriers officers on this operation.
"What's our plan here," Muhannad asked as they came into the area. "Are we going in shooting, or are we going to try to sneak in and break them out without a fight?" Bran: "We need some intel on the place before we can decide the exact method," Bran said. He lifted his small drone out of the back of the car. Bran: edit* He indicated his small drone in the back of the car Amber: In such a remote area, Amber smiled, "Should not be too hard considering finding something should be easier out in the countrysize rather than inside the countless bildings"! Bran: Bran took a glance at their surroundings, driving with more circumspection now they were in the general area. "Can you search for signals Amber, and narrow it down?" Amber: Amber glanced down at her gadgets, "I can try but it would be problematic but I will do my best." sd: it was very difficult to pick up anything - there were a few remote villages in this area, and she could pick up a few devices from there, however they were clearly all too far away to be what they were looking for.
after a number of minutes, Amber noticed a signal of some kind of portable device that kept flickering on and off, as if it were rapidly gaining and then losing signal. with some effort, she was eventually able to lock on to it, however it was clear that whoever was carrying the device wasn't stationary. they appeared to be heading towards the same area as the coordinates that they'd pulled. Amber: Amber gave a maybe symbol to the other, "I think I got one, a moving carrier signal!" She commented with a hint of surprise at her luck, "It look like it is going to the same region where we found the coordindates for. Maybe these are the ones we are looking for." Bran: "Well found! As soon as we're close enough I'll stop and deploy the drone," Bran said. Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "But be ready. There could be mines or other dangers." sd: they were coming closer to the signal, so Bran found a quiet mountain path to park, then got the drone out. Muhannad sat in the backseat, checking on his weapons, which were a long, nasty combat knife and a silenced semi-automatic pistol. "Group of cops is tougher meat than usual," he said. "I hope your drone is quiet." Bran: Bran just nodded, his eyes on what he was doing. Eventually he sent the drone up to look around the area, keeping it low enough not to show against the sky, although it was painted to break up the outline and blend into the background. sd: Bran sent out the drone, the footage coming back through a flatscreen they had set up in the back of the car.
the drone went up high above a desolate red-brown plateau. as it scanned the area, a woman in jeans, leather jacket, and hiking boots suddenly popped out of a barely perceptible path - if the narrow, treacherous rocky ledge could even be called that - and up onto the plateau. the drone quickly dived down and found a rock to perch behind near to the path which the woman had just come up from, seeing her pull a phone from her pocket and flip it open. "Trois minutes," she muttered under her breath, tapping her feet.
The drone settled in to watch, when suddenly they heard another noise on the path, another set of footsteps. Bran had to move fast, pulling it away from where it was perched and down behind a rocky outcrop just in time as a second person came up the path.
"Should have pissed before you left, idiot," the woman said, this time in Arabic. Despite her words the tone was affectionate. "Time for me to call the boss." Bran: Bran frowned and looked at the others. "With the cops or against them you reckon?" Amber: Amber considered this another potential problem, "Are they appear to be hiding? Is the drone still recoding what they are saying." She asked Bran Amber: *showing* Bran: "We'll keep listening as long as we can. Have to be careful when moving around though - it's very close to their position," Bran said. sd: the woman pulled out her phone, dialled a number, and waited a moment. Although they had only one side of the conversation, she was now speaking often enough that Melqui was able to identify her as the same woman he'd heard speaking to Lacomte the day before. With only a little preamble, the woman said, "I'm on a plateau now, I'll send you the coordinates. There's a road nearby, it's a good place for a pick up - the ravine's too narrow for anything but motorcycles to get in or out of. 0400 hours, yes sir. I'll leave three people behind to clear up after us and then they can head out on the bikes later in the day. No, no, they're not cooperating, but I wouldn't expect them to. The psyker's been working on them but they're pretty stubborn for a bunch of gun runners." She paused. "Yes sir. I'll see you tomorrow." sd: watching through the screen, Bran noticed that they both were carrying concealed weapons, though these were in all likelihood just small arms Bran: Bran passed the information on to the others. Amber: Amber eyed her weapons just to make sire they are in working orders. "Better to treat them as enemies just in case. Better safe than sorry." She muttered Melquiades: "But their presence could be an opportunity too. Might create the kind of distraction we need," said Melqui. sd: "I hate fighting psykers," Muhannad sighed. "Should we hit these two now, or follow them back?" Melquiades: Edit (ignore above): "They're with Deslauriers. She was speaking to Lacomte before." He furrowed his brow in thought as Muhannad spoke. "They don't seem like the biggest threats. Letting them head back might give us an opportunity to strike." sd: "It's two fewer of them to fight, but then I suppose the others will notice if they don't come back," Muhannad replied. "Best to follow them then." Amber: Amber perked up ghearing that they are proper enemies, eager to use their newly acqquired weapons from the prison against such enemies, "Yes, very carefully." She suggested. sd: with some help from Melqui, who kept a close eye out for hazards, Bran piloted the drone again and followed the pair back. they walked down a narrow path that zig-zagged its way down through the mountains. after about fifteen minutes, they came to a deep, vaguely triangular ravine, wider on its northern side and narrowing as it cut its way several hundred feet south. The bottom of the ravine was mostly flooded, but there was some dry land at the southern tip of the triangle. It would have been virtually impossible to spot without following the two of them, they thought - from higher up they'd only see the water, and if they'd looked on foot, they'd have needed to already know the path to even find a vantage point to see that there was anything dry down there. the two cops picked their way through the stones and down alongside the water until they reached the bottom of the ravine, stepping carefully as they moved out onto the dry patch of land at the ravine's bottom - presumably they'd left something there, although it wasn't clear what. as they came out, a man who had been sitting silent and unseen behind a large stone stepped out to greet them, a scoped rifle in his hand. They exchanged quick words - there was no way to get the drone near enough to try to hear without it being spotted - then the two stepped behind the large stone and kicked some dirt loose, revealing a trap door. The woman bent and pulled it open and they dropped down and out of sight. Bran: "So it was worth not hitting them," Bran grinned. "That's a grand little hidey-hole." sd: add - as they scanned around with the drone, they noticed there were three motorcycles in the small nook near the trap door, covered with grey red-brown cloth that blended in well with the landscape. Melquiades: "Shall we sabotage the bikes? Or consider them a backup escape plan?" Bran: Bran considered the idea. "Could be very useful to us." sd: "God knows how we get down there without being spotted," Muhannad groused. "I've repelled down an apartment building before, but not a mountain." Bran: "If we take the path they used, we need to be covered somehow - or cause a diversion?" Bran said thoughtfully. "Probably better to come down from above." sd: *rapelled sd: along with the rented car, before they left they'd reached out to Chen Weixu for more equipment, and he'd delivered - three sleek black wingsuits with dark-visored helmets, outfiited with parachutes and with connective fabric at the arms and legs which would increase their surface area. since Muhannad didn't have such a suit himself, they sent him along the path they'd seen the two cops take - he couldn't quite come as far as the route directly down into the ravine, since this would leave him completely visible, but he could wait not far from there.
leaving the van behind, they had clambered up to a ledge overlooking the ravine. they knew the dry land was almost directly below them, although it was impossible for them to see from here. the sun had set now, but they still had most of the night before the police were due to rise and take the prisoners away.
once they were sure Muhannad was in position, and when the wind had died down, they steeled themselves, and, as one, they ran towards the cliff and jumped off. the connective fabric of their wingsuits responded to their bodies' movements, so it was easy to glide down and quietly deploy their parachutes. since they'd never done this before, they'd feared they might all land in different spots, or that one of them might overshoot and land in the water, but instead they each easily slid down and landed on a small patch of earth about twenty feet from the large rock which hid the trapdoor entrance. they could see there was a man on lookout - a different one from before, as this one was about three stone heavier and six inches taller - but his eyes were on the path, not expecting anyone to fly down atop of him, and he didn't notice them. they would need to move fast, however, if they wanted to remain out of sight. Bran: Bran silently slid his blowgun out and took aim. sd: Bran's hand was steady. A quiet shot from the dart took his target right in the neck and he slumped over nervelessly. Melquiades: Melqui gave Bran a congratulatory pat on the shoulder and signaled to Muhannad. Bran: Bran grinned back. Amber: Amber lowered her gun, clearly she was un-needed at the moment, still, she kept a ware eye out sd: Melqui needed to walk up the path slightly to get an angle from which Muhannad could see, but soon enough the shadowrunner was loping down towards them. "Good work," he said. He glanced over towards the trapdoor. "If we weren't having to pull off a rescue this would be literally like shooting fish in a barrel. Strictly I suppose we don't actually have to rescue them, just stop the cops and the king from getting their public execution in NEOM," he said with a grin. Bran: "They're innocent scapegoats, so yes we do have to rescue them and try to keep them alive," Bran said, somewhat acerbically. Melquiades: "That's the goal. But we have to be ready for if things go south too," said Melqui. Bran: Bran said nothing but raised his eyebrows meaningfully at Melqui. sd: "Hey hey I know, I'm just not used to Zhou asking me to play the hero, it's usually a cover up or an assassination with him.." Muhannad said. He checked his autopistol again. "We going down now? Presumably they'll change guards at some point, we could just wait for the next one to come out and take them down silently too. Bran: Bran moved to the guard and started to search his inert body. sd: as well as a scoped hunting rifle and sidearm pistol, the guard had a flashbang grenade, a wallet containing Deslauriers ID showing his name was Raymonde Major, and a communicator. Bran: Bran looked up. "Some useful stuff here." He pocketed the ID and the grenade, and held the communicator out to Amber. "Care to take a look?" Bran: "It would be helpful if we knew when the guard changes, but it could a long wait and we don't want to waste time," Bran said. sd: "Then we're heading in. Who goes first? Things might turn into absolute chaos when we jump down there, and it doesn't look like we can all fit down at once." Bran: "The leader could wear this guy's jacket, at least would give us a few minutes before anyone realises," Bran suggested. Melquiades: "I'd pass the best for him," said Melqui, grabbing the jacket. Bran: Bran also removed the dart and slipped it away. sd: Melqui put on the jacket and took a breath as they all gathered around the trapdoor. carefully opening it revealed a ladder that led down about twenty feet to a plain grey floor and seemingly into a larger room, although it wasn't possible to see much of it from here. Melquiades: Melqui leaned down and took a deep breath, closing his eyes to focus on his enhanced hearing. sd: Melqui could hear a very faint rustling noise down below, one he eventually recognised - someone was shuffling a pack of cards. there was, he thought, only a single person doing so. Melquiades: Melqui signaled the presence of their foe and prepared to make a move. Davide is disconnected. sd: Melqui climbed halfway down the ladder, just enough for his feet to remain out of sight, turned, and then silently sprang down to the floor below. as he leapt down, he could see a square room, about 15 x 15 feet, that was plain, grey, and unadorned on all sides. there was a small TV on one wall, which presumably ran off a generator, along with a collection of old laserdiscs, however this wasn't on at the moment. there were doors leading off to other rooms on the walls to the left and right of Melqui, though these were both closed. sitting a folding table opposite the entrance was a bored looking man playing solitaire - Melqui quickly recognised it was the same man they'd seen earlier through the drone, who'd accompanied the woman who spoke to Lacomte. sd: Melqui sprang forward like a panther and drove his mystic blade straight through the man's throat with one forceful blow. It was so forceful in fact that it sent the man sprawling away - only a rapid, desperate movement allowed Melqui to fling his arms around the man, grab him as he died, and then carefully, noiselessly lower him to the ground, blood pumping all over the jacket Melqui had stolen from the guard above.
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