It's almost twenty hours later before you start to come in range of Cote d'Infini. Jetz comes on over the ship's intercom to let you know that you're on final approach to the station.
[info]Feel free state what your character might have been doing over the course of your trip. At this point you've become fully accustomed to your new morph and are no longer experiencing integration sickness.[/info]
Estella spent the travel time Picking over the corpses of the Predators they had killed, seeing if any of their equipment was still usable. When that was finished, she tried to look up more information on Dorian Holbach.
[info]Research, looking for information on Dorian Holbach
Skill: 80
[blockquote]Rolled 1d100 : 11, total 11[/blockquote][/info]
Research into Dorian Holbach yields the following:
Dorian Holbach is a hyhpercorp trillionaire that earned his initial trillions through the whaling business for Inner System terraforming. That is to say that he secured asteroids and comets and brought them in for resource extraction or controlled impact. After accumulating a decent sum in this trade he, like all other trillionaires, diversified into just about everything but most notably expanded into security contracting and heavy military hardware. His military contracting has included deals with all of the major powers of the solar system, from the Planetary Consortioum to the Joain Republic. His primary security contacting company: Barracuda Tactical Solutions, is a modest PMC better known for providing streamlined in-house security for Holbach's other companies than as a real mercenary power in its own right.
Holbach's personal story seems rather typical for most of Earth's children. He was born in New York 127 years ago and had a wife and two children. At the time of The Fall he was off-planet managing Martian terraforming contracts and as such was saved the fate of being an eyewitness to the horrors of The Fall but lost his wife and children who were on Earth at the time leaning him with no known living relatives. For a time after The Fall, he spent millions on gambling and chemical indulgence in his new primary residence of Cote d'Infini, though even his reckless burning of credits was hardly able to put a dent in his vast wealth with the massive influx of cash he saw from security contracting in the scramble to establish the post-Fall order. Eventually, like most of transhumanity, he moved on and began to make a name for himself as an outspoken advocate and patron of reclamation efforts. Despite this advocacy, he tries to remain out of the limelight and hasn't made any press appearances for years.
In recent months Holbach has been surrounded by whispers and rumors alluding to a "big project" of some kind, the exact details of which remain shrouded in mystery. Rumor has it that he has reached out to a number of other big hitters to try and draw them into this project but these seem to remain unconfirmed.
Over the course of your journey, you have been able to familiarize yourself with Jetz and his ship the Flash12. The ship is a rather large courier, not built for speed but capable of carrying a decent and varied amount of cargo in its various holds for a ship of its class. Jetz himself uses it to travel the inner system as part of his normie profession as an oldschool free merchant buying and selling select goods at various stations and taking advantage of the planetary consortium's tight nanofab restrictions to make his living. Of course, this allows him plenty of freedom to help with Firewall and he has worked as a proxy for several operations before being assigned to your budding cell.
Making it to the cockpit of the Flash12, the cylinder station takes up the center of the viewing window. Two glittering blue rings at one end slowly become apparent as giant windows into the habitat that are displaying vast quantities of water, enough to create the station's namesake artificial coastline. "Looks nice... I'll have to remember to come back for a real vacation sometime... We'll be coming in on a black market berth. I don't suppose either of you have any bad experiences with 14K?" He asks as a talon hovers over the communications console.
"Not that I recall." Estella answered while floating nearby.
"What about you?" Asked the bird with a look over to Donovan. "No debts, no enemies?"
"Should be good to go. Haven't made any new enemies recently and the old ones have already died. Unless I made some new friends on our failed operation, can't say there's too many people out to get me"
Alrighty, sounds good then. Sorry, last op I was on one of our cell members happened to have neglected to tell us that they had made bigtime enemies with the eco-terrorists we had to work with. Needless to say... that didn't turn out well." He said as you the ship started to accelerate into an upward curve, pulling you down into near normal gravity as the ship approached the wall of the cylinder habitat.
Jetz cleared his throat before activating the communications line. "Hi, this is the Flash12. I have some pork to deliver..." He said in an extremely stilted and suspicious tone. There was an uncomfortable pause before the response crackled in as mandarin, muses translating for those otherwise unfamiliar with the language. "Come on in." Jetz let out a sigh of relief as the ship slipped along the exterior of the cylinder until coming up to a platform punched out from the shell. Accelerating even more, Jetz maneuvered the ship onto the makeshift runway, engaging magnetic landing gear that sends a shock through the hull as the ship synchronizes with the rotation of the station. The runway then ascends back up into the superstructure of the station to reveal a dingy hanger. Blinking AR displays outside the main window show a warning in Chinese characters "WARNING: HANGER NOT YET PRESSURIZED."
Jetz, finally relaxing with the landing maneuvers completed, leans back onto his haunches and stretches his wings in the newfound gravity, spinning his chair around to look at the two of you. "So... What do we do now? The way I see it we have a few tasks we have set before us. Number one: figuring out what Holbach is up to. Number two: figuring out what happened to our first operation. Number 3: get a base of operations set up. Number four... I dunno I guess getting a better idea of one through three will give us a better idea of where to go from there... You guys have any other ideas of where to start?"
"A secure base of operations is probably the best first move. Someplace to hide out while we figure out what happened before."
"Probably a good idea. We'll need to start from scratch I guess. We had a safehouse set up for the original operation but looks like it's been seized by the local cops from those reports. Anyone know someone that could pull us a favor for someplace secure? We could try some of the local syndicates too. I'm not sure what 14K might have on offer but they are usually pretty cheap from my dealings with them. Oh that reminds me. I set up some operational funds in case shit went sideways. We have a fund of a million Planetary Consortium credits to work with for anything that might need it so we'll need to budget accordingly." As you talked the AR warning screen eventually turned off to indicate the hanger becoming fully pressurized. Jetz jumped down from his chair and took on the waddling gait his leg structure allowed, heading back into the ship. "So what'll it be?"
[info] If you wish to use a Rep network to get a safehouse, state what level of favor you would like to use and make a test with the appropriate modifier to find out what might be available to you.
You can supplement your request with some of the Cell's operational funds, gaining a +10 for every 10,000 credits you offer.
[/info]
"Let me see what I can do..." Estella said, and started to compose a request to some contacts for discrete quarters on the station.
[info]@-Rep, Minor Favor
60+10=70
[blockquote]Rolled 1d100 : 61, total 61[/blockquote][/info]
It doesn't take you long to get a response from your @-rep contacts.
Crabzilla#MarsForTheMartians: If you're looking for someplace discreet to crash, I'm in on a collectively owned property on that station and you can use my share. I can give the caretaker the heads up that you'll be using it and they can let you know the ground rules. It's C block but we set up a counter-mist ALI so you don't have to deal with the noise. You can crash there for a week probably before people start getting weird about it.
Estella set a thank you in reply, and relayed the information to her companions.
"Well I got us a spot, if this works for us. We got about a week to use it."
"Sounds good. Hopefully we can get set up for what we need to do in that week. Perhaps next we can try to figure out what happened to our last operation? Maybe knowing that will help us figure out what Holbach is up to as well."
"Sounds good. Hopefully a week is enough time." Said Jetz as you entered the main cargo bay. Jetz stopped briefly to drop the cargo bay's loading ramp. "Guess you'll take your car and we can just ride the mule?" He asked as he looked to Estela. "I'd say we'll meet you there but maybe it's a better idea to stick together. We don't know what's going on yet so should be safer in numbers I would think."
After getting situated in your respective vehicles and packing your gear, Jetz dropped the cargo ramp and set you on your way, making a quick stop at the makeshift hangar's control room to make a quick negotiation for a week long stay with the triad members. After coming to some kind of agreement, the hangar doors slide open to reveal crowded streets which your makeshift caravan pushes its way into.
It's barely a second after you emerge into the streets crowded with small vehicles and pedestrians that you find your AR senses overwhelmed with the mist of advertising floating through the cyberspace. Porn, beverages, prostitutes, banking, morph leases, casinos, all zipping through the public space like a school of ravenous fish. Within less than a minute you each accumulate a distracting cloud of adverts bombarding you with AR sensations in an attempt to win you over.
Your muses notify you that they are attempting to clear the adverts and you find mixed success. Jetz squints his eyes and flails at the adverts with one claw while his other swipes at AR screens of his own before settling down. "Fuck, I forgot how bad the Mist gets in some of these stations. Usually I barely leave the Flash12 enough for it to get on me. Is it true they don't have this shit in the outer system? "
[info] The Mist: Block C is the lower class section of the station and filled with AR advertisements of dubious sources. Whenever you enter into the public spaces or areas that lack a counter-mist ALI or something similar you or your muse will need to make an Interface test or suffer a -10 penalty as long as your AR functions are enabled.
Estella's muse was successful in staving off the Mist
Donovan's muse was not successful. Donovan can make their own Interface test to try and clear the Mist. [/info]
"It is certainly less pervasive..." Estella remarked, thanking her muse for clearing her vision.
The hustle and bustle made Donovan smile. It would be easy to hide here.
"Don't remember seeing any mist this bad. Don't hang around population centers too often though. I'm sure some people are somehow used to it."
[info] Interface. (20)
[blockquote]Rolled 1d100 : 89, total 89[/blockquote]
[/info]
While Donovan was able to clear a window of space to see clearly, they are unable to get rid of most of the ads and are still swarmed by the distracting noises and sensations as your tiny caravan slogged its way through the crowds of biomorphs and clanks, winding through labyrinthine streets and ascending a few elevators until you come out into a high enough level to see into the "sky" and across to the other side of the cylinder. It's daytime according to the stations local clock but this end of the cylinder seems to be too far from any windows for enough light to penetrate, leaving it in a perpetual night illuminated only by the omnipresent glow of artificial lights.
Eventually you come to the communal residence: a squat apartment building with a single miniature palm tree sitting in a pot next to the door. The windows are barred and a security grill bars the door. Jetz looks around the neighborhood and the similar defenses the other buildings seem to be employing. "Real cozy place you picked us. Does it come with complementary parasite infestations?"
[info]Donovan suffers a -10 penalty from the Mist[/info]
Estella shoots a glance at him from the corner of her eye. "Look pendejo, you wanted a free low-key place to crash while we work this job. If you want to stay at the space Ritz-Carlton be my fucking guest."
"Home sweet home, I guess. What should our next step be? Should we try to stick together? Or split up to tackle what we need to get done."
"Good question, but first maybe we should discuss this inside? Where it's... whatever it is exactly..." Replied Jetz with a look to Estela. "After you." He says with a jerk of his beak towards the door.
Estella cocked an eyebrow at Jetz, as if mocking him for being afraid of opening a door. She still opened it with caution, despite giving her compatriot a tongue lashing earlier for being skeptical.
You entered into a dimly lit entryway. Sparsely decorated, the only obvious features were a door leading further in and a thickly reinforced window with curtains hiding what lay further in. As soon as the heavy security doors slammed shut behind you with a reverberating thud, the curtain shifted enough for a small camera to slither into view on a prehensile myomeric mount. You feel it scrutinize you all for a second and notice Jetz putting a nervous talon on the gun at his breast before a harsh voice comes in over a speaker hidden somewhere behind you. "You are Crabzilla's guests. Meet me inside." You hear the mechanical clicking of locks disengaging from the inner doors as the camera withdraws back behind the curtain.
Jetz, clearly even more unnerved by all this looked to the two of you. "I swear on an orangutan's nutsack if I get skinned alive and turned into some serial killers codpiece..."
"Oh quit your whining. What's the worst that can happen? We die... Again?" Estella replied, and proceeded to head through the door once it was possible.
"Well..." Jetz started to say before you pass through the door. "Shit. Didn't see this coming." He finished as you ask step into a courtyard filled with various potted plants and lawn furniture and warmly lit by paper lanterns strung along the roof's edge.
"We're communists, not savages." You hear voiced from right behind you in that same harsh transmitted voice. This seems to have startled Jetz who squawks in surprise as he jumps up and promptly drops his gun in an attempt at trying to draw it. The clatter of the machine pistol punctuating the serene quiet of the courtyard.
Turning, you are met with a hulking serpentine synthmorph, its eyes glowing a dull red. The morph was larger than your average slitheroid, easily two heads above you in height, and possessing several extra sets of arms. It's primary(?) set of arms clasped in front of it as it leaned forward towards you all. It continued to speak "I am Sarah. Crabzilla said you would not know the ground rules. First, no violence. Second, respect the privacy of our comrades. Third, maintain the public spaces. Finally, no oppression of any other sapient beings. That includes taking advantage of any prostitutes forced to work under the oppressive yoke of the hypercorp. We're trying to bring some semblance of civilization to this godless capitalist hive. Understood?"
"Of course. You'll hardly know we were here." Estella replied, with a measured smile. "I'm sure these two agree." She motioned to Donovan and Jetz.
"Ha Ha! Yeah no problems." Laughed Jetz nervously as he picked his gun back up. "Good." Replied Sarah as they loomed a bit closer to the party, their gaze focusing in on Jetz then other two of you in turn before returning to the avian. "You seem. Familiar." They said before rearing up to their full height, easily almost a meter above the two of you, even more for Jetz who even waddling upright on his feet was barely up to your waists. "Crabzilla's room is this way." Continued Sarah, as they began to slither across the courtyard with that uncanny silence that seems to have let them get the drop on you all.
Sarah leads you to the room and takes their leave as soon as they open the door, giving you directions to the communal kitchen and bathrooms before they go. The room is sparse with a bed, a couch, and a small table with an armchair. A single small window looks out onto the courtyard. After you all got inside, Jetz closed the door and put an ear to the door for a second. "Fuck that motherfucker creeps me the fuck out. Anyways, I guess back to Roland's question. Where to next?"