Hellraiser
Arcane
Holy fuck, talk about a mind fart. Yeah, it should have been Borg, I fixed it.
-
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Europareich 2057 - A Cyberpunk CYOA
- Thread starter Hellraiser
- Start date
Hellraiser
Arcane
This one will be long as fuck, so the ETA is sometime today but I'm not exactly sure when.
EDIT: Really fucking long, at least ten damn pages.
EDIT: Really fucking long, at least ten damn pages.
Hellraiser
Arcane
Chapter IX
You and your hand-picked team arrive at an undisclosed location somewhere in Berlin. The car that took you there had no windows, you guess you’re lucky enough that they didn’t force you to wear any odd headgear. Then again they could have just stuck you in some kind of “brain dance” as they call it, an advanced neural simulation that cuts you off from outside stimuli.
But you don’t really have an neural I/O port that would allow them to do such a thing. Then again, with these *specialists* as the Major called them, you never know what kind of things they’re hiding, maybe they can broadcast such a simulation directly into your brain without the need for a neural I/O port? It is best not to dwell on such things.
The vehicle stops, its rear door opens revealing a small underground parking lot devoid of any other automobiles. However a man in a black suit is standing in front of a single elevator, he looks at you from behind his sleek neural-linked shades.
„Feldwebel Westgard I presume?” The man says.
„Yes, and this is my team.” You tell him and point at your squad. “Unteroffizier Muller along with Gefreiters Laukaitis and Beauvis.”
“A pleasure to meet you, you call me Jack, I am an agent. That’s not my real name obviously.” He introduces himself. “Now please follow me, we have much to discuss.”
“One question though,” Laukaitis interrupts, “what agency do you represent?”
“Mr. Laukaitis, if I told you that, I would have to kill you.” He jokes, however you have an odd feeling that’s not exactly that far from the truth.
You follow him to a very bare bone corridor, two rows of identical doors stretch across its entire length from the elevator. The only other noticeable feature inside of it are the mostly obscured, yet still visible, cameras observing the hall and you. They rooms are unmarked yet the agent seems to knows exactly where he needs to go, he stops before one of them.
“This is the place.” He says.
“Are you sure? All of these look alike.” Sven comments.
“Believe me Mr. Borg, we have ways of knowing things.” Jack replies in a suave manner. “These rooms, well, they’re just one of those things. Now please, come in.”
You spend a number of days in this facility, it is like a decent hotel, only there are cameras everywhere and internet access is monitored so closely, you can’t even post a message on a forum without approval from the SysOp who reviews every outgoing communication first. Well that and you can’t really leave the place until they let you. Still, Jack teaches you and your men how to quietly observe a target, stalk it, break into his home and kidnap him as silently as possible. You also get a crash course on how to plug an uplink into a broader network.
Sven in particular seemed keen to listen to the observe and stalk parts, it reminded him of tracking game, apparently he used to go hunting with his father back in Sweden when he was younger. That’s how he learned to shoot so well, better than the other rookies at least.
*
Rows upon rows of boats, a sight one could expect from a harbor. Most of these look like they have seen better days, the rust slowly eats away the splendor of their past. You can’t really roam the seas when petroleum is in such short supply in Europe as it is today, so all these vessels sit here abandoned, waiting for the day when that will change. Only the fishermen, a somewhat privileged group in regard to fuel, are out on the piers preparing to depart into the big blue beyond the horizon.
You approach one of them, the one who matches the photograph that was sent to you. He stands in front of a “purse seiner”, a medium sized fishing vessel that is supposed to take you near Spain.
“Another chilly November night in Sardinia.” You tell him.
“A man of the sea doesn’t complain about the cold Madame. The name is Carlo.” He replies with his phrase.
“Carlo, well I am sure you know my name. It is Laura.” You reply with your assumed identity just like he did with his.
“A pleasure to meet you Laura, you and your acquaintances are welcome to come aboard my vessel. She is a fine ship, the Elisa, a lady with an attitude. She will take us anywhere so long as you are nice to her. Otherwise she’ll send us to Neptune’s kingdom in the depths!” He laughs.
Another agent, another fake identity. With a ship bearing her name as well, did he read your files? Or is this just a coincidence. You wonder if he and his ship play some bigger part in a game of cloak and daggers you’re not entirely aware of. Somehow, you doubt the spies just bought the ship to let you catch that one hacker tied to a minor attack in the TSZ.
“Carlo, I have a question. Are you the only one piloting this boat?” Muller asks.
“Technically yes, but do not worry. You see, she is equipped with a fine passive sonar. Ideal for fishing, can detect large swarms of them from miles! So we’ll know if they’re there in advance before they even begin to suspect we’re out there, ready to catch them.”
“Ah yes, was a bit worried we might miss the *fish*.” Paul tells him.
“Either way we have a nice good course plotted. You see Elisa is a smart lady, she can swim on her own, until there’s a problem. But if there’s one she lets you know of it in a way you notice, you know, just like all women do. Ha ha! No offence Madame Laura.”
“None taken Carlo, let’s just head out.”
“Naturally, to the open seas!”
The engines start, their roar signalizing the beginning of your journey deep into the sea. It will take you three days to reach Spain, it is a long and potentially dangerous journey. You do not know what waits for you out there, in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.
*
A few hours have passed since you left the safety of Europareich waters, you’re in the untamed part of the Mediterranean. You spend the time observing the sea, the waves are gentle but they seem to hide some kind of fury, one which they will surely unleash when they get the chance. Carlo is sleeping along with Paul and Oskaras, you and Sven volunteered to take the day shift. An indicator is flashing, you check to see what’s wrong.
“Scheisse!” You yell. “We’ve got an incoming contact heading in our direction fast. Wake up the rest, we’ve got minutes before they pick us up assuming they haven’t already.”
Sven rushes to wake up the sleeping crew.
“What is it Laura?” Carlo asks as he rushes to the ship’s display.
“You see that?” You ask him as you point at the display yourself..
“Not good, they’re close and pretty fast.” He picks up a headphone and listens. “It’s an old engine but fast, probably a re-purposed fishing vessel slightly smaller than ours judging by the sound. Four to seven men, definitely pirates. At least half of them armed.”
“What do we do?” Paul asks.
“Well odds are they won’t start shooting outright. What they usually do is get close and yell at us to stop using a directional speaker. Then they order everyone to gather in a visible place with their hands behind their backs before they come aboard. Then they check to see if they can steal anything.” The agent explains.
“I have an idea, I’ll distract them when they come aboard. You two,” you point at Sven and Oskaras, “grab the rifles and hide below deck. Remember what they taught you, take them out quietly. You don’t need to worry about killing them though, their mudslime pirating scum got it?”
“You’ve got a gun Carlo?” You turn towards him and ask.
He unzips his coat revealing a Bhatnagar-Kapur SAP-5 9mm submachine beneath it.
“I call it Vera, she sings like a goddess.” He tells you.
“Good, I assume you have yours as well?” You ask Paul.
“I’m ready.” He replies confidently.
“Alright, here’s what we’re doing. We wait until one of them goes down to check, I’ll keep distracting the rest. You take out the ones who’ll go below deck. Do it silently, they’ll get suspicious when they don’t come back. Hopefully they’ll get distracted by that, then I open fire and the rest of us here will do the same. You hear gunshots you go in all guns blazing.”
“What if we fail to take them out silently?” Oskaras asks.
“Then we open fire anyway before they shoot us. Now move! We don’t have much time.”
With Gefreiters Laukaitis and Borg hiding, you act like you don’t know they’re coming. Two minutes later you spot the boat, it’s heading right towards you, traveling far faster than Elisa can. It is a smaller craft, barely able to get this far out into the sea from whatever sand-ridden hellhole these pirates crawled out of.
As it gets closer and closer, you notice four men, one steering the craft, another one with a cheap Chinese QBZ-3 assault rifle knock-off and a RPG launcher, the other two are armed with similar rifles.
“Attention western vessel! Stop your engines or we will shoot you.” One of the rag-wearing corsairs yells over the loudspeaker, another points his RPG launcher at your ship. Carlo stops the engine, Elisa comes to a halt.
“Good! You will now all come on deck where we can see you! Stand there and do nothing suspicious, otherwise we will kill you! Put your hands where we can see them!” The neo-berber barks over the speaker again. The three of you gather and wait. The dark-skinned north African mob comes aboard.
“Gives us your money and anything of value!” The RPG carrying pirate tells you.
“But we’re just fishermen, barely scraping for a living. We barely have for enough fuel to go out to sea.” Carlo attempts to act your way out of this.
“Lies!” The pirate is unconvinced.” “What are you doing out here, outside of your precious Europareich waters?! Smuggling cargo yes?! Drugs, some Jazz maybe to poison more of our children?! Then you have money!”
“Please I beg of you! We’re just fishermen, there are not many fish left closer to home, we sail out in hope of finding more. We haven’t even caught anything yet!” You join Carlo’s act.
“Silence infidel whore!” He yells and points his gun at you, the other pirates do the same. “Ahmed! Go check the rest of the boat, just be careful.”
Ahmed walks below deck, he opens a door. Sven is hiding next to it waiting, Oskaras is behind a corner nearby waiting to help if something goes wrong. Ahmed walks in, Sven thrusts his hands forward ready to grab and snap the pirates neck. In an odd twist of fate, the Berber notices there’s some dirt on his shoes and swiftly crouches to clean it. Sven’s momentum makes him fall on him making a lot of noise.
“Foul djinn! What was that!?” The RPG-armed guard curses as he hears the sound of Sven’s fall coming from below.
It’s now or never you think. You swiftly punch him in the stomach with your ArmStrong cyber-limb. The force of the augmented punch makes him fall into the cargo hold, he probably breaks a few bones in the process. The other pirate turns around to react, but before he knows it “Vera” fills him full of lead.
Below deck Sven wrestles with Ahmed, they’re deadlocked like two serpents, caught in a desperate struggle. Oskaras rushes to help Sven, he punches the Berber in the face with the force of a truck, breaking his jaw. All that time spent at the gym and in minor bar fights finally paid off for him in the middle of the Mediterranean. It knocks Ahmed out, with one swift move Sven finally snaps his neck.
“The feisty beast is down.” He says victorious.
Paul fires at the pilot of the enemy vessel, however he ducks and fires back with a pistol. Bullets ricochet off the metal hull and equipment, but outside of the steel parts nothing was hurt by them. Clearly Allah’s favor is not upon him.
You aim your arm in his direction as you hide behind one of the larger machines on deck, a simple thought – the word kill and your hostility - the SMG inside of the cyber-limb pops out. You see the remaining pirate on the zoomed-in video feed of your SMGs camera, he’s cowering just behind the entrance to the wheelhouse, desperately trying to reload. You end his hope with a simple mental command which causes a three-shot burst to fire in his direction. He falls and dies in a pool of blood.
Carlo checks in on the Berber in the cargo hold, a storm of bullets fires in his direction. Luckily they all miss as the crippled pirate can’t even hold his rifle straight anymore. The Italian puts him out of his misery with Vera’s final number this day.
You clean up, dump the enemy bodies into the sea, get rid of the blood in the cargo hold. Onboard the pirate vessel you find some halal canned food and water along with fuel. You take all of it, there was nothing onboard the vessel that could have helped you indentify the attackers’ base of operation. Sven hit himself in the head badly when Ahmed ducked, he feels a bit woozy. Hopefully he’ll get better before you get to Spain.
*
Ahmed grabs his machete, he tries to strike you. You grab his hand, struggling as he the edge of the blade keeps getting closer and closer to your neck. Your heart keeps pacing faster and faster, as you feel you are just an inch away from the end of your life. You can’t let him kill you, you won’t let him kill you, you’ll kill him for Elise and everybody else. You gather all the strength you have, but the Ahmed’s hand refuses to back. You feel it touching your neck, is this the end?
“Laura! Contact on approach vector!” You hear a voice, it’s Carlo. You open your eyes and finally wake up from your nightmare.
“Another one? How long before it gets here?”
“Thirty four minutes, they showed up on our rear and have been trailing us. They’re faster but it will take them some time to catch up. They’re not hailing us so it’s not the Spaniards, that and the engine sounds like a small old yacht.”
“Damn it! This fucking sea is just crawling with them. Couldn’t they all stay in their fucking desert?”
“So what now? We do what we did last time?” Paul asks.
“Yes, let’s hope these guys are as dumb as the last bunch. This time though,” you point at Oskaras, “you will be ambushing whoever goes below deck.”
In the darkness of the night the raiders approach. They fire off their rifles in your direction to draw your attention before shouting “stop” on all radio frequencies. An old rusting Spanish Yacht approaches, probably captured by one of the Berbers ten years ago when piracy in the area started growing rampant again. It’s dark and cold, the wind howls across the deck and water occasionally gets onboard when a bigger wave splashes against the hull. The corsairs rush to the side of their ship, preparing to board Elisa.
“You give money, if not we kill you.” One of them yells waving his RPG around. This time there are five of them, a pilot, two Berbers with RPGs, one of whom also has a rifle, the last two just with rifles.
They come aboard pointing your guns at you. Carlo tries to use his fisherman act again, you have a feeling he does this often.
“Please I beg of you! We’re poor fishermen, the catch has not be very favorable. We have no money kind sir.” He fakes a desperate plea.
“Silence! We take all we want. Ali! Tie them up.” One of the RPG-armed goons orders.
Ali grabs your hands, he latches on firmly and ties a solid knot his rope.
“Your arm is heavy…” Ali notices, however his pirating mates start mocking him, probably joking that Ali is so weak he can’t lift a woman’s arm. Good, the idiots doesn’t know that you can easily break this restraint of his with it.
They chat for a moment amongst themselves, apparently they were deciding who goes below deck. Ali is chosen. Oskaras waits behind the door, the corsair opens it, he walks inside and takes no more than two steps before the Lithuanian grabs him from the shadows. Before he knows it his life ends without a sound.
Irritated by a lack of any shout or any other sign from Ali, the corsairs start arguing. One of them goes to check in on him and the rest turn their backs for a brief moment. A mistake which they will regret. You break the rope as the servos of your Blakemore Systems limb power up and fill the nearest pirate full of lead, he drops his only weapon – the RPG – on the deck. Two are still standing onboard your ship while the pilot grabs his pistol and tries shooting you.
Carlo grabs his trusted BK SMG from beneath the coat, he tries to fire at the RPG and rifle armed Berber, due to some freak stroke of luck his gun jams. “Why are you doing this to me baby?! I need to hear you sing!” He yells furiously.
Paul tries to finish the enemy off, unluckily the darkness of the night makes the Unteroffizier miss.
The corsair is greatly disturbed by this sudden hailstorm of bullets flying in his direction. He desperately fires in Muller’s direction, however he ends up wasting all of his ammo in a very inaccurate burst.
The other pirate decides to aid him, he shoots in Paul’s direction as well, missing him by at least a meter or two. The bullets plunge into the sea, maybe he hit a fish if he’s lucky.
You fire at the desperately trying to reload Berber, he ducks just in time, the bullets just barely miss him.
“Vera baby come on, don’t do this to me, sing! Yes!” Carlo yells excited as he unjams his SMG, he fires it at the Berber without a RPG. He gets hit and goes into shock as the bullet enters his body. He’s out of the fight it seems. “Ha! You like that towel-wearing scum?!” Carlo shouts in joy.
Paul goes after the heavily armed corsair again. The boat rocks on the waves causing him to miss. “Scheisse!” He yells furious, this is not his night.
The corsair has just barely finished reloading, however unluckily for him Oskaras just appeared on deck to aid you.
The Berber’s black rag-covered head appears in the video window in the middle of your field of view. You fire, he grabs his ear in pain. Luckily for him that bullet just grazed him. “I’ll make a shaheed out of you arschloch!” You yell as you fire.
Carlo tries to fire but once again his gun jams. “I give you flowers, I give you diamonds! Just please sing for me baby!” He tries to convince the gun to function with words, you seriously doubt if that works.
Paul goes for the kill, he aims, fires and completely empties his magazine without hitting the enemy. “Scheise! Scheisse! Schiesse!” He curses.
Oskaras however is eager to prove the corsair does not have Allah on his side. But he misses somehow, a sharpshooter he is not.
The Berber, no doubt pissed off by all the fire he has been under lately, finally reloads his gun and tries to fight back. Bullets swoosh through the air, unluckily for him he still misses.
From the other ship the Pilot fires his pistol, he fails utterly as his poor aiming skills, along with the vessels rocking slightly in the darkness, make it impossible for him to hit anything.
Just barely the last Berber on board gets into your sights again. You fire and hit him in the chest, he collapses from the shock. Carlo unjams Vera and rushes in to finish him and the other pirate off as pistol rounds fly all over the place.
Paul aims his SMG and fires a burst at the Pilot’s legs. It sweeps him off his feet and he bleeds out. He screams in terror as he dies there, lying hopeless on the old yacht’s deck in a pool of blood gushing from his right leg.
“Well Carlo, it seems Vera threw a hissy fit.” Paul comments as the last enemy falls.
“Do not worry! I’ll get her all the chocolate in the world. Still, I am surprised how you mowed that pilot down.”
“You know, my bad luck quota ran out.” Paul replies joking.
“How is it below deck?” You ask Oskaras.
“Guy went down quietly, didn’t see me coming.” He replies.
The enemy ship had little in what could be used to by you. After dumping the bodies into the sea, you head out towards Spain once again, leaving behind a dead vessel doomed to the mercy of the currents and winds in middle of the sea.
*
You notice something on the Sonar, it’s fast and is moving towards you. The crew gets ready for another attack however the craft changes direction just after it gets into visual range. They were definitely Berbers, you guess they deemed your vessel was unworthy prey.
The sea is calm, the sun begins to set. It’s getting darker, hours pass, suddenly Elisa stops.
“We’re here.” Carlo says.
“Finally! I have had enough Berber corsairs to last me a lifetime.” Sven says.
“What, you didn’t enjoy cuddling Ahmed below deck?” The Unteroffizier jokes.
“Knock it off, get the gear on the boat. We need to get to the shore. We’re not at our target yet remember.”
The small powered boat takes the four of you towards the coast, an agent is waiting for you there. He stands at a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere, his figure is barely visible in the darkness of the night. Your boat reaches the shore, you drag it onto the beach and greet the agent.
“They told me this part of Spain is beautiful in the night.” You say your part.
“This time of the year doesn’t really show it Laura.” He says his.
“Good, where is the car?”
“Over there.” He points at a van labeled „Raul’s Cleaning Goods - wholesale distributor of German chemical products”. „Get your gear inside and move out, my men will hide the boat.” He adds.
You get into the van, you decide to drive first while Sven sits in the back with an assault rifle. Paul and Oskaras take a nap. It
is still a long way to Toledo, but you’ve got most of it covered and at least there are no Berber pirates ahead.
*
You’ve be on the road for over two hours, the Spanish roads here are empty and silent. Occasionally you pass by other vehicles, mostly trucks. However what you just noticed in the rear mirror worries you, it is a military vehicle. The armored car drives next to the van’s left window, a soldier makes hand gestures implying you are to stop at the side of the road. This is bad.
You stop the van, two soldiers walk up to you a man and a woman.
“Seniorita,” the female solider addresses you, “we need to search your vehicle under the Martial Law Royal Decree’s article 14, you are to comply with our request or face the…”
Suddenly she turns her head to the side and vomits.
“Camila what is wrong?” The males soldier asks worried.
“We need to talk Esteban, *alone*.” She says with a degree of concern in her voice.
“Alright, you don’t look like jihadists anyway, you can go now. Get moving nothing to see here.” He lets you go, truly fate works in mysterious ways, you could have swore this would be the end of this operation. The van drives away leaving Esteban and Camila to whatever business they might have.
*
You are just 40 kilometers away from Toledo. You’re driving along the main road when you notice an unmapped checkpoint in the distance. You take the available last turn off the road and avoid it.
Toledo itself greets with decaying buildings, people camped out in the streets and policemen patrolling but not really bothering anyone but a bunch of gypsy beggars. You contact McKay.
“We have arrived, what now?” You ask him.
“Infiltrate the local university. The uplink must be interfaced directly with the university network.” The augmented SysOp replies in his typical no-bullshit outright mechanical manner.
“Is there any alternative or is that my only option?”
“Breaking into the city hall or police HQ would most likely result in termination of your life functions. The university contains a local Net Node you are most likely to access efficiently.”
“I see your point. So what do we need to find in there?”
“A spare network cable. Plug the device into the network, enable a connection. I will use that to bypass their outer security and breach the firewalls of the main server. It is improbable they prepared for an attack from within the network, that way I will have access to their entire Net traffic monitoring system. Finding the inefficient intruder will be easy using it.”
“So in that case we have to do what exactly? Walk into a dormitory and ask nicely for someone to let us use his connection?”
“As a female you may have leverage over some of the younger male specimens. Assuming they get aroused by scars and cyber-limbs.” Adam says without even a single hint implying that he may be joking.
“I would appreciate it if you would *not* suggest or say such things in the future.” You reply irritated by his comment on your appearance.
“Your feedback is noted, but remember that the human element is the weakest part of any security system. Humanity is flawed by design, unlike machines. Another option is the university library, which contains a fair number of networked computers, you may try to enter it and disconnect one of them replacing it with the uplink.”
“Would be best to sneak into the back, we kind of lack any ID allowing us to just enter the building and use them. Unless we get it from somewhere.”
“How you get in is your concern, contact me when you’re there. McKay out.”
Decisions decisions, it seems that killing Berbers was the easiest part. The question remains what to do now. Two people need to remain in the van, you and somebody else can try to infiltrate the Campus. Hopefully you can get this done before the cops start asking you about your German cleaning products.
You will try to get access to the Toledo University Network by…
A)…”making new friends” on the Campus. Work on that “human element”.
B)…trying to convince the librarians to let you use the computers there.
C)…finding a back door and sneaking into the library at night.
D)…finding a back door and sneaking into the library during the day.
E)…stalking one of the university employees to steal his access card.
F)…looking around town for any information that may help you.
During your attempt at gaining network access, you will be accompanied by…
1)…Sven Borg, the Swedish hunter.
2)…Oskaras Laukaitis, the Lithuanian beefcake with a passion for explosions.
3)…Paul Muller, the snide Unteroffizier.
4)…no one. Leave the three of them in the van, one person will draw less attention.
You have lost 1 Fate Point: Your van nearly got searched by a Spanish patrol, luckily it seems Esteban and Camila who wanted to search it, need to start thinking of a name for their unborn child.
You have gained 1 Fate Point: Due to an odd twist of fate you ran into as many as three Neo-Berber vessels. Somehow neither you nor anyone else suffered any harm from them despite bullets flying all over the Elisa. While the third one ignored you, you have an odd feeling it would end up like the last two pirate crews trying to raid you.
You have gained the following traits:
Black Op Certified – When it comes to shady business that of course doesn’t really happen under Europareich auspices, you are ready to do the job. If such operations took place, which of course they don’t. You gain +1 to your stealth skill and can now incapacitate targets silently using CQC without killing them, which you usually did.
Bane of the Barbary Coast – Even when the ship is rocking on the waves, you can put a bullet inside of your enemies, raghead pirates in particular. Also all the killing you did while aboard the Elisa, may have spawned some memes and urban legends among the North African pirates and netizens. Your accuracy penalty when firing from a moving vehicle is slightly reduced.
Updated my IdaWestgard.txt, will post the updated character sheet in a moment.
You and your hand-picked team arrive at an undisclosed location somewhere in Berlin. The car that took you there had no windows, you guess you’re lucky enough that they didn’t force you to wear any odd headgear. Then again they could have just stuck you in some kind of “brain dance” as they call it, an advanced neural simulation that cuts you off from outside stimuli.
But you don’t really have an neural I/O port that would allow them to do such a thing. Then again, with these *specialists* as the Major called them, you never know what kind of things they’re hiding, maybe they can broadcast such a simulation directly into your brain without the need for a neural I/O port? It is best not to dwell on such things.
The vehicle stops, its rear door opens revealing a small underground parking lot devoid of any other automobiles. However a man in a black suit is standing in front of a single elevator, he looks at you from behind his sleek neural-linked shades.
„Feldwebel Westgard I presume?” The man says.
„Yes, and this is my team.” You tell him and point at your squad. “Unteroffizier Muller along with Gefreiters Laukaitis and Beauvis.”
“A pleasure to meet you, you call me Jack, I am an agent. That’s not my real name obviously.” He introduces himself. “Now please follow me, we have much to discuss.”
“One question though,” Laukaitis interrupts, “what agency do you represent?”
“Mr. Laukaitis, if I told you that, I would have to kill you.” He jokes, however you have an odd feeling that’s not exactly that far from the truth.
You follow him to a very bare bone corridor, two rows of identical doors stretch across its entire length from the elevator. The only other noticeable feature inside of it are the mostly obscured, yet still visible, cameras observing the hall and you. They rooms are unmarked yet the agent seems to knows exactly where he needs to go, he stops before one of them.
“This is the place.” He says.
“Are you sure? All of these look alike.” Sven comments.
“Believe me Mr. Borg, we have ways of knowing things.” Jack replies in a suave manner. “These rooms, well, they’re just one of those things. Now please, come in.”
You spend a number of days in this facility, it is like a decent hotel, only there are cameras everywhere and internet access is monitored so closely, you can’t even post a message on a forum without approval from the SysOp who reviews every outgoing communication first. Well that and you can’t really leave the place until they let you. Still, Jack teaches you and your men how to quietly observe a target, stalk it, break into his home and kidnap him as silently as possible. You also get a crash course on how to plug an uplink into a broader network.
Sven in particular seemed keen to listen to the observe and stalk parts, it reminded him of tracking game, apparently he used to go hunting with his father back in Sweden when he was younger. That’s how he learned to shoot so well, better than the other rookies at least.
*
Rows upon rows of boats, a sight one could expect from a harbor. Most of these look like they have seen better days, the rust slowly eats away the splendor of their past. You can’t really roam the seas when petroleum is in such short supply in Europe as it is today, so all these vessels sit here abandoned, waiting for the day when that will change. Only the fishermen, a somewhat privileged group in regard to fuel, are out on the piers preparing to depart into the big blue beyond the horizon.
You approach one of them, the one who matches the photograph that was sent to you. He stands in front of a “purse seiner”, a medium sized fishing vessel that is supposed to take you near Spain.
“Another chilly November night in Sardinia.” You tell him.
“A man of the sea doesn’t complain about the cold Madame. The name is Carlo.” He replies with his phrase.
“Carlo, well I am sure you know my name. It is Laura.” You reply with your assumed identity just like he did with his.
“A pleasure to meet you Laura, you and your acquaintances are welcome to come aboard my vessel. She is a fine ship, the Elisa, a lady with an attitude. She will take us anywhere so long as you are nice to her. Otherwise she’ll send us to Neptune’s kingdom in the depths!” He laughs.
Another agent, another fake identity. With a ship bearing her name as well, did he read your files? Or is this just a coincidence. You wonder if he and his ship play some bigger part in a game of cloak and daggers you’re not entirely aware of. Somehow, you doubt the spies just bought the ship to let you catch that one hacker tied to a minor attack in the TSZ.
“Carlo, I have a question. Are you the only one piloting this boat?” Muller asks.
“Technically yes, but do not worry. You see, she is equipped with a fine passive sonar. Ideal for fishing, can detect large swarms of them from miles! So we’ll know if they’re there in advance before they even begin to suspect we’re out there, ready to catch them.”
“Ah yes, was a bit worried we might miss the *fish*.” Paul tells him.
“Either way we have a nice good course plotted. You see Elisa is a smart lady, she can swim on her own, until there’s a problem. But if there’s one she lets you know of it in a way you notice, you know, just like all women do. Ha ha! No offence Madame Laura.”
“None taken Carlo, let’s just head out.”
“Naturally, to the open seas!”
The engines start, their roar signalizing the beginning of your journey deep into the sea. It will take you three days to reach Spain, it is a long and potentially dangerous journey. You do not know what waits for you out there, in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.
*
A few hours have passed since you left the safety of Europareich waters, you’re in the untamed part of the Mediterranean. You spend the time observing the sea, the waves are gentle but they seem to hide some kind of fury, one which they will surely unleash when they get the chance. Carlo is sleeping along with Paul and Oskaras, you and Sven volunteered to take the day shift. An indicator is flashing, you check to see what’s wrong.
“Scheisse!” You yell. “We’ve got an incoming contact heading in our direction fast. Wake up the rest, we’ve got minutes before they pick us up assuming they haven’t already.”
Sven rushes to wake up the sleeping crew.
“What is it Laura?” Carlo asks as he rushes to the ship’s display.
“You see that?” You ask him as you point at the display yourself..
“Not good, they’re close and pretty fast.” He picks up a headphone and listens. “It’s an old engine but fast, probably a re-purposed fishing vessel slightly smaller than ours judging by the sound. Four to seven men, definitely pirates. At least half of them armed.”
“What do we do?” Paul asks.
“Well odds are they won’t start shooting outright. What they usually do is get close and yell at us to stop using a directional speaker. Then they order everyone to gather in a visible place with their hands behind their backs before they come aboard. Then they check to see if they can steal anything.” The agent explains.
“I have an idea, I’ll distract them when they come aboard. You two,” you point at Sven and Oskaras, “grab the rifles and hide below deck. Remember what they taught you, take them out quietly. You don’t need to worry about killing them though, their mudslime pirating scum got it?”
“You’ve got a gun Carlo?” You turn towards him and ask.
He unzips his coat revealing a Bhatnagar-Kapur SAP-5 9mm submachine beneath it.
“I call it Vera, she sings like a goddess.” He tells you.
“Good, I assume you have yours as well?” You ask Paul.
“I’m ready.” He replies confidently.
“Alright, here’s what we’re doing. We wait until one of them goes down to check, I’ll keep distracting the rest. You take out the ones who’ll go below deck. Do it silently, they’ll get suspicious when they don’t come back. Hopefully they’ll get distracted by that, then I open fire and the rest of us here will do the same. You hear gunshots you go in all guns blazing.”
“What if we fail to take them out silently?” Oskaras asks.
“Then we open fire anyway before they shoot us. Now move! We don’t have much time.”
With Gefreiters Laukaitis and Borg hiding, you act like you don’t know they’re coming. Two minutes later you spot the boat, it’s heading right towards you, traveling far faster than Elisa can. It is a smaller craft, barely able to get this far out into the sea from whatever sand-ridden hellhole these pirates crawled out of.
As it gets closer and closer, you notice four men, one steering the craft, another one with a cheap Chinese QBZ-3 assault rifle knock-off and a RPG launcher, the other two are armed with similar rifles.
“Attention western vessel! Stop your engines or we will shoot you.” One of the rag-wearing corsairs yells over the loudspeaker, another points his RPG launcher at your ship. Carlo stops the engine, Elisa comes to a halt.
“Good! You will now all come on deck where we can see you! Stand there and do nothing suspicious, otherwise we will kill you! Put your hands where we can see them!” The neo-berber barks over the speaker again. The three of you gather and wait. The dark-skinned north African mob comes aboard.
“Gives us your money and anything of value!” The RPG carrying pirate tells you.
“But we’re just fishermen, barely scraping for a living. We barely have for enough fuel to go out to sea.” Carlo attempts to act your way out of this.
“Lies!” The pirate is unconvinced.” “What are you doing out here, outside of your precious Europareich waters?! Smuggling cargo yes?! Drugs, some Jazz maybe to poison more of our children?! Then you have money!”
“Please I beg of you! We’re just fishermen, there are not many fish left closer to home, we sail out in hope of finding more. We haven’t even caught anything yet!” You join Carlo’s act.
“Silence infidel whore!” He yells and points his gun at you, the other pirates do the same. “Ahmed! Go check the rest of the boat, just be careful.”
Ahmed walks below deck, he opens a door. Sven is hiding next to it waiting, Oskaras is behind a corner nearby waiting to help if something goes wrong. Ahmed walks in, Sven thrusts his hands forward ready to grab and snap the pirates neck. In an odd twist of fate, the Berber notices there’s some dirt on his shoes and swiftly crouches to clean it. Sven’s momentum makes him fall on him making a lot of noise.
“Foul djinn! What was that!?” The RPG-armed guard curses as he hears the sound of Sven’s fall coming from below.
It’s now or never you think. You swiftly punch him in the stomach with your ArmStrong cyber-limb. The force of the augmented punch makes him fall into the cargo hold, he probably breaks a few bones in the process. The other pirate turns around to react, but before he knows it “Vera” fills him full of lead.
Below deck Sven wrestles with Ahmed, they’re deadlocked like two serpents, caught in a desperate struggle. Oskaras rushes to help Sven, he punches the Berber in the face with the force of a truck, breaking his jaw. All that time spent at the gym and in minor bar fights finally paid off for him in the middle of the Mediterranean. It knocks Ahmed out, with one swift move Sven finally snaps his neck.
“The feisty beast is down.” He says victorious.
Paul fires at the pilot of the enemy vessel, however he ducks and fires back with a pistol. Bullets ricochet off the metal hull and equipment, but outside of the steel parts nothing was hurt by them. Clearly Allah’s favor is not upon him.
You aim your arm in his direction as you hide behind one of the larger machines on deck, a simple thought – the word kill and your hostility - the SMG inside of the cyber-limb pops out. You see the remaining pirate on the zoomed-in video feed of your SMGs camera, he’s cowering just behind the entrance to the wheelhouse, desperately trying to reload. You end his hope with a simple mental command which causes a three-shot burst to fire in his direction. He falls and dies in a pool of blood.
Carlo checks in on the Berber in the cargo hold, a storm of bullets fires in his direction. Luckily they all miss as the crippled pirate can’t even hold his rifle straight anymore. The Italian puts him out of his misery with Vera’s final number this day.
You clean up, dump the enemy bodies into the sea, get rid of the blood in the cargo hold. Onboard the pirate vessel you find some halal canned food and water along with fuel. You take all of it, there was nothing onboard the vessel that could have helped you indentify the attackers’ base of operation. Sven hit himself in the head badly when Ahmed ducked, he feels a bit woozy. Hopefully he’ll get better before you get to Spain.
*
Ahmed grabs his machete, he tries to strike you. You grab his hand, struggling as he the edge of the blade keeps getting closer and closer to your neck. Your heart keeps pacing faster and faster, as you feel you are just an inch away from the end of your life. You can’t let him kill you, you won’t let him kill you, you’ll kill him for Elise and everybody else. You gather all the strength you have, but the Ahmed’s hand refuses to back. You feel it touching your neck, is this the end?
“Laura! Contact on approach vector!” You hear a voice, it’s Carlo. You open your eyes and finally wake up from your nightmare.
“Another one? How long before it gets here?”
“Thirty four minutes, they showed up on our rear and have been trailing us. They’re faster but it will take them some time to catch up. They’re not hailing us so it’s not the Spaniards, that and the engine sounds like a small old yacht.”
“Damn it! This fucking sea is just crawling with them. Couldn’t they all stay in their fucking desert?”
“So what now? We do what we did last time?” Paul asks.
“Yes, let’s hope these guys are as dumb as the last bunch. This time though,” you point at Oskaras, “you will be ambushing whoever goes below deck.”
In the darkness of the night the raiders approach. They fire off their rifles in your direction to draw your attention before shouting “stop” on all radio frequencies. An old rusting Spanish Yacht approaches, probably captured by one of the Berbers ten years ago when piracy in the area started growing rampant again. It’s dark and cold, the wind howls across the deck and water occasionally gets onboard when a bigger wave splashes against the hull. The corsairs rush to the side of their ship, preparing to board Elisa.
“You give money, if not we kill you.” One of them yells waving his RPG around. This time there are five of them, a pilot, two Berbers with RPGs, one of whom also has a rifle, the last two just with rifles.
They come aboard pointing your guns at you. Carlo tries to use his fisherman act again, you have a feeling he does this often.
“Please I beg of you! We’re poor fishermen, the catch has not be very favorable. We have no money kind sir.” He fakes a desperate plea.
“Silence! We take all we want. Ali! Tie them up.” One of the RPG-armed goons orders.
Ali grabs your hands, he latches on firmly and ties a solid knot his rope.
“Your arm is heavy…” Ali notices, however his pirating mates start mocking him, probably joking that Ali is so weak he can’t lift a woman’s arm. Good, the idiots doesn’t know that you can easily break this restraint of his with it.
They chat for a moment amongst themselves, apparently they were deciding who goes below deck. Ali is chosen. Oskaras waits behind the door, the corsair opens it, he walks inside and takes no more than two steps before the Lithuanian grabs him from the shadows. Before he knows it his life ends without a sound.
Irritated by a lack of any shout or any other sign from Ali, the corsairs start arguing. One of them goes to check in on him and the rest turn their backs for a brief moment. A mistake which they will regret. You break the rope as the servos of your Blakemore Systems limb power up and fill the nearest pirate full of lead, he drops his only weapon – the RPG – on the deck. Two are still standing onboard your ship while the pilot grabs his pistol and tries shooting you.
Carlo grabs his trusted BK SMG from beneath the coat, he tries to fire at the RPG and rifle armed Berber, due to some freak stroke of luck his gun jams. “Why are you doing this to me baby?! I need to hear you sing!” He yells furiously.
Paul tries to finish the enemy off, unluckily the darkness of the night makes the Unteroffizier miss.
The corsair is greatly disturbed by this sudden hailstorm of bullets flying in his direction. He desperately fires in Muller’s direction, however he ends up wasting all of his ammo in a very inaccurate burst.
The other pirate decides to aid him, he shoots in Paul’s direction as well, missing him by at least a meter or two. The bullets plunge into the sea, maybe he hit a fish if he’s lucky.
You fire at the desperately trying to reload Berber, he ducks just in time, the bullets just barely miss him.
“Vera baby come on, don’t do this to me, sing! Yes!” Carlo yells excited as he unjams his SMG, he fires it at the Berber without a RPG. He gets hit and goes into shock as the bullet enters his body. He’s out of the fight it seems. “Ha! You like that towel-wearing scum?!” Carlo shouts in joy.
Paul goes after the heavily armed corsair again. The boat rocks on the waves causing him to miss. “Scheisse!” He yells furious, this is not his night.
The corsair has just barely finished reloading, however unluckily for him Oskaras just appeared on deck to aid you.
The Berber’s black rag-covered head appears in the video window in the middle of your field of view. You fire, he grabs his ear in pain. Luckily for him that bullet just grazed him. “I’ll make a shaheed out of you arschloch!” You yell as you fire.
Carlo tries to fire but once again his gun jams. “I give you flowers, I give you diamonds! Just please sing for me baby!” He tries to convince the gun to function with words, you seriously doubt if that works.
Paul goes for the kill, he aims, fires and completely empties his magazine without hitting the enemy. “Scheise! Scheisse! Schiesse!” He curses.
Oskaras however is eager to prove the corsair does not have Allah on his side. But he misses somehow, a sharpshooter he is not.
The Berber, no doubt pissed off by all the fire he has been under lately, finally reloads his gun and tries to fight back. Bullets swoosh through the air, unluckily for him he still misses.
From the other ship the Pilot fires his pistol, he fails utterly as his poor aiming skills, along with the vessels rocking slightly in the darkness, make it impossible for him to hit anything.
Just barely the last Berber on board gets into your sights again. You fire and hit him in the chest, he collapses from the shock. Carlo unjams Vera and rushes in to finish him and the other pirate off as pistol rounds fly all over the place.
Paul aims his SMG and fires a burst at the Pilot’s legs. It sweeps him off his feet and he bleeds out. He screams in terror as he dies there, lying hopeless on the old yacht’s deck in a pool of blood gushing from his right leg.
“Well Carlo, it seems Vera threw a hissy fit.” Paul comments as the last enemy falls.
“Do not worry! I’ll get her all the chocolate in the world. Still, I am surprised how you mowed that pilot down.”
“You know, my bad luck quota ran out.” Paul replies joking.
“How is it below deck?” You ask Oskaras.
“Guy went down quietly, didn’t see me coming.” He replies.
The enemy ship had little in what could be used to by you. After dumping the bodies into the sea, you head out towards Spain once again, leaving behind a dead vessel doomed to the mercy of the currents and winds in middle of the sea.
*
You notice something on the Sonar, it’s fast and is moving towards you. The crew gets ready for another attack however the craft changes direction just after it gets into visual range. They were definitely Berbers, you guess they deemed your vessel was unworthy prey.
The sea is calm, the sun begins to set. It’s getting darker, hours pass, suddenly Elisa stops.
“We’re here.” Carlo says.
“Finally! I have had enough Berber corsairs to last me a lifetime.” Sven says.
“What, you didn’t enjoy cuddling Ahmed below deck?” The Unteroffizier jokes.
“Knock it off, get the gear on the boat. We need to get to the shore. We’re not at our target yet remember.”
The small powered boat takes the four of you towards the coast, an agent is waiting for you there. He stands at a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere, his figure is barely visible in the darkness of the night. Your boat reaches the shore, you drag it onto the beach and greet the agent.
“They told me this part of Spain is beautiful in the night.” You say your part.
“This time of the year doesn’t really show it Laura.” He says his.
“Good, where is the car?”
“Over there.” He points at a van labeled „Raul’s Cleaning Goods - wholesale distributor of German chemical products”. „Get your gear inside and move out, my men will hide the boat.” He adds.
You get into the van, you decide to drive first while Sven sits in the back with an assault rifle. Paul and Oskaras take a nap. It
is still a long way to Toledo, but you’ve got most of it covered and at least there are no Berber pirates ahead.
*
You’ve be on the road for over two hours, the Spanish roads here are empty and silent. Occasionally you pass by other vehicles, mostly trucks. However what you just noticed in the rear mirror worries you, it is a military vehicle. The armored car drives next to the van’s left window, a soldier makes hand gestures implying you are to stop at the side of the road. This is bad.
You stop the van, two soldiers walk up to you a man and a woman.
“Seniorita,” the female solider addresses you, “we need to search your vehicle under the Martial Law Royal Decree’s article 14, you are to comply with our request or face the…”
Suddenly she turns her head to the side and vomits.
“Camila what is wrong?” The males soldier asks worried.
“We need to talk Esteban, *alone*.” She says with a degree of concern in her voice.
“Alright, you don’t look like jihadists anyway, you can go now. Get moving nothing to see here.” He lets you go, truly fate works in mysterious ways, you could have swore this would be the end of this operation. The van drives away leaving Esteban and Camila to whatever business they might have.
*
You are just 40 kilometers away from Toledo. You’re driving along the main road when you notice an unmapped checkpoint in the distance. You take the available last turn off the road and avoid it.
Toledo itself greets with decaying buildings, people camped out in the streets and policemen patrolling but not really bothering anyone but a bunch of gypsy beggars. You contact McKay.
“We have arrived, what now?” You ask him.
“Infiltrate the local university. The uplink must be interfaced directly with the university network.” The augmented SysOp replies in his typical no-bullshit outright mechanical manner.
“Is there any alternative or is that my only option?”
“Breaking into the city hall or police HQ would most likely result in termination of your life functions. The university contains a local Net Node you are most likely to access efficiently.”
“I see your point. So what do we need to find in there?”
“A spare network cable. Plug the device into the network, enable a connection. I will use that to bypass their outer security and breach the firewalls of the main server. It is improbable they prepared for an attack from within the network, that way I will have access to their entire Net traffic monitoring system. Finding the inefficient intruder will be easy using it.”
“So in that case we have to do what exactly? Walk into a dormitory and ask nicely for someone to let us use his connection?”
“As a female you may have leverage over some of the younger male specimens. Assuming they get aroused by scars and cyber-limbs.” Adam says without even a single hint implying that he may be joking.
“I would appreciate it if you would *not* suggest or say such things in the future.” You reply irritated by his comment on your appearance.
“Your feedback is noted, but remember that the human element is the weakest part of any security system. Humanity is flawed by design, unlike machines. Another option is the university library, which contains a fair number of networked computers, you may try to enter it and disconnect one of them replacing it with the uplink.”
“Would be best to sneak into the back, we kind of lack any ID allowing us to just enter the building and use them. Unless we get it from somewhere.”
“How you get in is your concern, contact me when you’re there. McKay out.”
Decisions decisions, it seems that killing Berbers was the easiest part. The question remains what to do now. Two people need to remain in the van, you and somebody else can try to infiltrate the Campus. Hopefully you can get this done before the cops start asking you about your German cleaning products.
You will try to get access to the Toledo University Network by…
A)…”making new friends” on the Campus. Work on that “human element”.
B)…trying to convince the librarians to let you use the computers there.
C)…finding a back door and sneaking into the library at night.
D)…finding a back door and sneaking into the library during the day.
E)…stalking one of the university employees to steal his access card.
F)…looking around town for any information that may help you.
During your attempt at gaining network access, you will be accompanied by…
1)…Sven Borg, the Swedish hunter.
2)…Oskaras Laukaitis, the Lithuanian beefcake with a passion for explosions.
3)…Paul Muller, the snide Unteroffizier.
4)…no one. Leave the three of them in the van, one person will draw less attention.
You have lost 1 Fate Point: Your van nearly got searched by a Spanish patrol, luckily it seems Esteban and Camila who wanted to search it, need to start thinking of a name for their unborn child.
You have gained 1 Fate Point: Due to an odd twist of fate you ran into as many as three Neo-Berber vessels. Somehow neither you nor anyone else suffered any harm from them despite bullets flying all over the Elisa. While the third one ignored you, you have an odd feeling it would end up like the last two pirate crews trying to raid you.
You have gained the following traits:
Black Op Certified – When it comes to shady business that of course doesn’t really happen under Europareich auspices, you are ready to do the job. If such operations took place, which of course they don’t. You gain +1 to your stealth skill and can now incapacitate targets silently using CQC without killing them, which you usually did.
Bane of the Barbary Coast – Even when the ship is rocking on the waves, you can put a bullet inside of your enemies, raghead pirates in particular. Also all the killing you did while aboard the Elisa, may have spawned some memes and urban legends among the North African pirates and netizens. Your accuracy penalty when firing from a moving vehicle is slightly reduced.
Updated my IdaWestgard.txt, will post the updated character sheet in a moment.
Hellraiser
Arcane
Ida Westgard, Europareich Bundeswehr Feldwebel
Fate Points: 1
Implants: ArmStrong cybernetic right arm with 9mm automatic gun module, Optical Display Implant, Military Netlink Implant
Skills:
Marksmanship 4/5
Close-quarters Combat 4/5
Explosives 3/5
Medicine 2/5
Lockpick 1/5 (+1 lockpick from breaking and entering training)
Electronics 1/5
Mechanics 2/5
Hacking 0/5
Stealth 3/5 (+1 stealth from kidnapping training)
Bluff 2/5
Traits:
Manager – you know how to organize things so that they work efficiently, more or less.
Fledgling Commander – you have limited experience in commanding people and making them do as you want. Convincing some to follow orders may be hard if you go about it the wrong way.
Ambitious – you seek to overcome the toughest challenges, sometimes however you may pick challenges that are far too much for your abilities.
Traumatized – some memories, of things seen during combat and not only then, haunt you this very day. This motivates you to prevent similar situations from happening, sometimes to your own detriment.
Slightly Transhuman – your cybernetics aren’t immediately noticeable but anyone spending more than a minute in your company should notice them.
Veteran of the French Islamic Revolution – you have considerable experience in fighting jihadist guerillas which should help you fight groups using similar tactics. You know how to keep calm under enemy fire.
Scarred – you have a noticeable scar just under your left ear, the odds of you getting flooded with requests to tell the story behind it at a social gathering are very high.
Fearless Public Speaker - no matter how angry the rabble before you is, you have no problem telling them what you want to tell them. Whether or not they will like it is a different matter, but your message *will* be heard.
Black Op Certified – When it comes to shady business that of course doesn’t really happen under Europareich auspices, you are ready to do the job. If such operations took place, which of course they don’t. You gain +1 to your stealth and lockpick skills, along with the ability incapacitate targets silently using CQC without killing them, which you usually did.
Bane of the Barbary Coast – Even when the ship is rocking on the waves, you can put a bullet inside of your enemies, pirates in particular. Also all the killing you did while aboard the Elisa may have spawned memes and urban legends among the North African pirates and netizens. Your accuracy penalty when firing from a moving vehicle is slightly reduced.
Fate Points: 1
Implants: ArmStrong cybernetic right arm with 9mm automatic gun module, Optical Display Implant, Military Netlink Implant
Skills:
Marksmanship 4/5
Close-quarters Combat 4/5
Explosives 3/5
Medicine 2/5
Lockpick 1/5 (+1 lockpick from breaking and entering training)
Electronics 1/5
Mechanics 2/5
Hacking 0/5
Stealth 3/5 (+1 stealth from kidnapping training)
Bluff 2/5
Traits:
Manager – you know how to organize things so that they work efficiently, more or less.
Fledgling Commander – you have limited experience in commanding people and making them do as you want. Convincing some to follow orders may be hard if you go about it the wrong way.
Ambitious – you seek to overcome the toughest challenges, sometimes however you may pick challenges that are far too much for your abilities.
Traumatized – some memories, of things seen during combat and not only then, haunt you this very day. This motivates you to prevent similar situations from happening, sometimes to your own detriment.
Slightly Transhuman – your cybernetics aren’t immediately noticeable but anyone spending more than a minute in your company should notice them.
Veteran of the French Islamic Revolution – you have considerable experience in fighting jihadist guerillas which should help you fight groups using similar tactics. You know how to keep calm under enemy fire.
Scarred – you have a noticeable scar just under your left ear, the odds of you getting flooded with requests to tell the story behind it at a social gathering are very high.
Fearless Public Speaker - no matter how angry the rabble before you is, you have no problem telling them what you want to tell them. Whether or not they will like it is a different matter, but your message *will* be heard.
Black Op Certified – When it comes to shady business that of course doesn’t really happen under Europareich auspices, you are ready to do the job. If such operations took place, which of course they don’t. You gain +1 to your stealth and lockpick skills, along with the ability incapacitate targets silently using CQC without killing them, which you usually did.
Bane of the Barbary Coast – Even when the ship is rocking on the waves, you can put a bullet inside of your enemies, pirates in particular. Also all the killing you did while aboard the Elisa may have spawned memes and urban legends among the North African pirates and netizens. Your accuracy penalty when firing from a moving vehicle is slightly reduced.
That was epic!
I'll be back with my vote later.
I'll be back with my vote later.
Hellraiser
Arcane
I have to tell you that when I thought of the encounter odds I did not expect you to run into Berbers 3 times, that was rather improbable. Then again so was Carlo rolling critical misses twice. That's what he gets for having giving a female name to his gun.
Monty
Arcane
Yes, great update. Could have done with Borg in the second firefight - I assume he was below deck the whole time? Muller was surprisingly inept.
I don't think making contact with students or librarians is our best option here. We'll be recognised as foreigners (with implants in our case) pretty damn quickly. We'll have to try breaking in at night, and trust that a student library doesn't have great security. Perhaps take Laukaitis as backup in case we run into anyone and have to take them out in cqc.
C2
I don't think making contact with students or librarians is our best option here. We'll be recognised as foreigners (with implants in our case) pretty damn quickly. We'll have to try breaking in at night, and trust that a student library doesn't have great security. Perhaps take Laukaitis as backup in case we run into anyone and have to take them out in cqc.
C2
Hellraiser
Arcane
Borg would have gotten to the fight in the next round if it would last that long. He was below deck a bit deeper than Laukaitis.
Bloodshifter
Educated
C1 Stealth would help a bit more then randomly blowing shit up *though blowing stuff up would be fun*
Monty
Arcane
Possibly, although I'm hoping a wooden door wouldn't last long against our Darth Vader Arm.
If the student library has some sort of armoured metal door then we'll have to think again, but judging by the general state of Spain it seems unlikely for a University library.
Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,771
How many dices did you have to roll for this update ?
Voting C. Let's put our improved Stealth to work ! As for the second decision, it'd be useful to know whether any of our subordinates is skilled with lockpicking.
Ilsa isn't exactly inconspicuous, so I don't think sneaking around in daylight is going to work. Her Bluff score is okay, but I wouldn't rely on it too much.
Voting C. Let's put our improved Stealth to work ! As for the second decision, it'd be useful to know whether any of our subordinates is skilled with lockpicking.
Ilsa isn't exactly inconspicuous, so I don't think sneaking around in daylight is going to work. Her Bluff score is okay, but I wouldn't rely on it too much.
laclongquan
Arcane
C 1. I dont think her appearance and soldier's walk will pass scrutiny, unless she ran into some lesbian chick/sub male into female Nazi. And the hunter is better than other options.
EDIT: She got a Stealth 3. Coupled with the darkness factor, a stealth strike in the night will work. Daylight is not good for that. C is the right choice.
EDIT: She got a Stealth 3. Coupled with the darkness factor, a stealth strike in the night will work. Daylight is not good for that. C is the right choice.
Esquilax
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 4,833
Guys, this is a university, not a secret bunker ffs. The place is probably full of rent-a-cops and as long as we don't do anything foolish, we aren't going to draw suspicion.
Breaking in at night seems to be a shit idea. We have a cover story, so we had better damn well use it. Yes, our augs will get noticed if we draw too much attention to ourselves, but like I said, as long as we do things quickly and cleanly, we'll be fine. Remember the training we received:
Sven seems a natural fit to bring with us - he can observe and stalk a target for us, then Ida can take it out quietly with her CQC skills. However, the question is do we even need anyone with us to begin with? It seems that Ida could do everything Sven does on her own, and draw less attention that way.
Voting E1 for now, but I'll flop to E4 if it gains traction.
Breaking in at night seems to be a shit idea. We have a cover story, so we had better damn well use it. Yes, our augs will get noticed if we draw too much attention to ourselves, but like I said, as long as we do things quickly and cleanly, we'll be fine. Remember the training we received:
Sven seems a natural fit to bring with us - he can observe and stalk a target for us, then Ida can take it out quietly with her CQC skills. However, the question is do we even need anyone with us to begin with? It seems that Ida could do everything Sven does on her own, and draw less attention that way.
Voting E1 for now, but I'll flop to E4 if it gains traction.
This? On my Codex? On the RPG Codex?
The plural is DICE and singular is DIE, you pleb!
Also, voting E1
Baltika9
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2012
- Messages
- 9,611
I think it would be best if we used this opportunity to train not only Ida up, but the rest of the squad as well.
Bwsides, if all goes well, we may be considered for future black ops and we'd better have a good team prepared.
Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,771
Puddingspeak is teh hard.
E1 we are trained to this, can take mark without killing it and Borg as hunter will be great aid.
I agree with the reasoning behind choosing E1. A & B can be dismissed out of hand, F is like begging to hang around waiting to get caught, which leaves us with C, D and E. C & D have the problem that, no matter how thirldwordian Spain got, they still must have video surveillance, so trying to break in will leave a trace. On the other hand, if we manage to steal a keycard and then disguise/act like we belong there, we may pull it off without anyone realizing we were there, so E it is. As for getting the keycard, I agree that Borg, with his hunter instincts and infiltration training is the best choice for getting/helping us get that keycard, so 1 it is. Muller isn't cut out for this and neither is Laukaitis.
Hellraiser
Arcane
A lot, most for the second Berber encounter obviously. The first one not so many as both the number of pirates and how they handled you was in your favor. They didn't try to tie you up which pretty much sums up how inept at combat they were. Despite Sven's critical failure below deck you still had a ridiculous advantage due to lucky rolls determining how good those guys were.
Hellraiser
Arcane
skuphundaku Remember that any security system is still tied to the network. If you manage to get in and connect the uplink, McKay or one of his ECK associates will erase any trace of you on the footage. Whether or not anything or anyone will spot you earlier is an entirely different matter. This is a black op in foreign country, there is always a risk even if you do nothing.
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