Puts on sunglasses "Kept you waiting huh?"
Sorry it's been a bit. Enjoy!
I sat back as the boys looked over the displayed BD. Just like I had, they both were going over the Showroom footage, to see if they noticed anything extra that I had missed.
Hiromi was on calls talking to Dakota, setting up an Anti-Raffen gig, while I was doing my own study.
I had a list of every piece of hardware I’d seen in the showroom, and I was creating Cracked ICE for each of them.
It wasn’t just cameras, sensor systems, thermal mapping, even weight distribution in the floors.
I’d have to be ready for any and all of it.
As I worked, checking the net for info on the security systems, and finding already made solutions, as a baseline, I watched as everyone kept fairly focused.
I guess it had been a while since we had done a big gig. Malcolm, and Ichi were both chatting away as they watched the BD on the small laptop screen.
Then as we all worked the door opened, and in walked a grinning Rebecca.
“Sup chooms!” She cheered arms behind her head, the massive Cyberarms she’d chipped in massive on her small body.
I just waved a hand behind me as I continued typing to crack another part of the security, if I could convince the thermal sensors in the showroom that there was nothing there, then that would solve a big part of the infiltration. Avoiding the weight sensing panels was easier, no way they would fit every inch of the floor with the panels, so I just needed to shut off a section of them, or maybe none of them?
No, if we were going to pull the drives I needed we’d likely have to wheel them across the floor.
I’d need to completely overwrite them…
Maybe the data that us netrunners could get would give me more info?
I grumbled, Sasha was talking to the others, but I was getting anxious as more and more of the situation hit me.
This needed to be clean, it needed to be more than just some stupid heist that brings heat down on us.
“So… I got an idea.” Rebecca called out, and I looked up. She was looking over a marker board of all things that Hiromi had brought in.
We were currently hanging out in Hiromi’s home. I’d been kinda hesitant to even consider it, but Hiromi had apparently told her parents we were doing a Militech Op, and they had insisted…
Apparently they loved Hiromi’s decision and wanted to support her. So they set up some things to make it easier for us to plan the raid.
Kinda a weird family bonding thing, but I would take it.
“What’s that?” I called out. Rebecca was looking at our current timeline plan.
Then she reached up. On her tippy toes I noticed, even with her larger cyberarms to point at the top few things.
“This is a lot to do in one day for any of us, you especially Strings. But… Why not split it up? When you are starting your netrunning to infiltrate, the rest of us can take out the Raffen, an get the vehicles moving that way you don’t have a bunch of Raffen vehicles just waiting around the city… You know people tend to attack Raffen in the city right?”“I never had any issues with my Quadra.” I muttered, and Rebecca turned and gave me a look.
“One Raffen vehicle driven around by a kid wearing normal stuff is weird, but not an issue. But we’re moving in with an entire convoy.”“She’s right.” Hiromi muttered aloud, but then went back to her call.
I sighed…
Malcolm, Ichi, and Rebecca… Would that be enough to take out the Raffen group we were aiming for?
I think so, but… I wanted to be there.
Not just because I was worried something might happen, but… XP!
That was my XP she was talking about!
But no. She was right.
Hitting a Raffen camp in the desert. Driving into the city with the Raffen vehicles netrunning into the Showroom security, cracking the system, and then infiltrating in to unlock everything and then actually stealing everything. Escaping out of the city, ditching the Raffen equipment, moving the stolen goods onto our normal vehicles, and then escaping back into the city to hide the gear…
I groaned.
Even if we split the Raffen raid into a day before… It was a lot to do, a lot of things to juggle.
I tapped my fingers on my laptop, listening to the metallic sound as I did…
“Ichi, if we take the Minotaur to make sure we clear the Raffen, would we still have space?”
“Uhhh… Well we can’t take the big truck anyways, so in the van? It depends on how big the packages are.”
“We can do it without the Minotaur.” Rebecca scoffed, but I could see Ichi hesitate.
“I believe in you Rebecca, but a lot can go wrong with just the three of you. Ichi, and Hiromi aren’t great Solo’s and the Raffen can get nasty. I was planning on wiping them out from stealth so they can’t get in their vehicles. The last thing we need is to have to blow up the things we came to steal, or worse. They start firing back.”“Why not ask the Nomads then?” Rebecca said with a shrug. “Maybe hire some mercs?”“I don’t really want to get more people involved.” I grumbled, and Hiromi hummed at the same time, waiting for me to finish talking before she spoke.
“We could. We have the funds, and its not like we need to tell them what is going on.”“People talk.” I argued back and she nodded, but then continued.
“Sure, but you have friends in the Nomads, right?”“Sauls people? Yeah technically, but Saul is… He isn’t going to want his people going after Raffen like that… Probably.” I knew Panam would be into it, but…
I shook it off.
“No, best not to bring in any more outsiders than we already have. We already have a potential leak.” I said, and Hiromi frowned.“If you were worried about that Netrunner you wanted to hire, you shouldn’t have brought her on.”“She’s an Elite, and one of the few Netrunners I know.” Besides… Kiwi was probably trustworthy still at this point. Maine hadn’t gone Cyberpsycho on her so she was probably still pretty happy with her crew.
“We’re getting a bit lost.” Malcolm called out, interrupting. “How are we doing this? Change the timeline? I think letting Motoko focus on the infiltration isn’t a bad idea. No offense Motoko, but you’re taking on every aspect of this job. But you should be focusing on the part only you can do.”
I looked at him, and then puffed up in annoyance.
But I wanted to kill Raffen!
“Fine. Rebecca is right, having the Raffen part happen while we’re already starting the netrunning… It’s a good idea, but it is dangerous.”“What about David?” Malcolm called out, and I twitched a bit but shook my head.
“No, he’d hesitate, we need to bring him into a simpler gig first for sure.”
“Alright then we need someone as backup.”“Well, you’re already hiring on Kiwi and Lucy, why not just finish it?” Rebecca asked, and I hesitated…
“How much does Maine usually need for a gig?”Rebecca shrugged…
I didn’t really like the idea, but… If I wasn’t there…
Yeah. I couldn’t let Ichi Malcolm and Rebecca go alone.
“Hiromi?”“We still have the funds. Your savings, and you got a lot from MSM’s contract.”
“Okay, we’ll reach out to Maine, no need to explain the rest of the gig to him, just tell him we need to take some Raffen out, and steal their rides. Ichi, make sure you get the transport sorted, it can’t be traced back to us.”“No worries. I got that sorted. We’re going to ‘steal’ a van from the company I work for, its one they wanted to get rid of for a while anyways.”“Just as long as it doesn’t break down mid gig.” I added cause that didn’t sound good.
“Nah it’s fine. Trust me.”I just nodded and moved on. Back to cracking the systems.
So much to do, and a lot to plan for.
—--
I was wearing a disguise, as I stood in the elevator. Going up a few levels in a building downtown.
A building right across from the Militech Showroom.
I needed more data on the back end of the building, and of course the best way to do that was to just look at it with my own eyes.
It took a bit of doing, sneaking around, hacking into the building's security to get access to an office overlooking the location.
I was actually pretending this was some other gig, sneaking into a managers office of some small corpo.
I was going to fake stealing their files, but the real goal was the view.
I could see over the barrier wall around the side of the large skyscraper that housed the Showroom.
Right into their loading docks.
Either way the elevator opened, and I slipped out.
Taking a breath as I moved, and letting all my instincts come out.
Security camera in the hall, accessed instantly and shifted to look the opposite direction. Then I slipped into the network accessing the interior cameras to their little office space.
My stride didn’t stop as I reached the door to the corpo office, the security shard already plugged into my port. I’d picksocketed the guy as he left for the day. He’d never even noticed his shard pop out as he climbed into his car, and I’d just walked over and picked it up.
With that I slipped through the office, using the Cameras to avoid anyone seeing me, as I entered the office with the view I needed.
Slipping a shard into the computer on the desk I walked to the windows and looked.
Yep… That’s a loading dock. Three large roller doors, and space for trucks…
Okay enough joking. Security?
Tight.
I could see four turrets ready to pop out at any sign of trouble, sensors all over it, and… Huh. The walls around the lot had a bunch of pock marks.
Those turrets had activated and taken out people before.
Probably homeless people. I could see the alley next to the lot had enough refuse built up people could just climb over.
Why allow that…
Ah, I nodded.
It’s so the location could have a rep. If everyone knew anyone trying something would get torn apart they were less likely to sneak around.
Okay moving on.
Cameras, same as the inside ones, that’s good. A quick scan verified the software version, and I added that to my list of data.
The gate though.
The rear gate to access the loading dock was large, we’d have to hack it to open it, which was not good, more things to spend netrunner resources on.
I moved on, the dock gates themselves. Heavily armored. I wouldn’t be surprised if the damned things could shrug off my Uragan.
I scanned the security panel next to the large rolling doors, but narrowed my eyes.
That panel…
It wasn’t for those doors. Wrong software the panel would only lock unlock, not activate other systems. Those doors couldn’t be magnet locked, as they needed to roll, an-
I turned around and checked the computer pulling the shard I had slipped in. Download was complete.
I’d pass the data to Yoko and see if she could use it.
So I headed out.
Taking a minute at the office door as a few of the workers were wandering around, but soon everyone got back to work and I slipped out, and through, a complete ghost unseen by every camera, and the security would only register an access from the managers shard.
I tossed the shard into the trash as I stepped back out onto the street and slipped into a tiny little Maimai.
I’d needed an inconspicuous vehicle and Rebecca had come through.
The tiny little thing buzzed as I drove away.
The roller doors… The security panel…
It was a trap.
So, where was the access panel to actually lift the roller doors?
—--
“Thank you all for coming.” I spoke as I looked over the three women. My nose scrunching a bit as Kiwi and Lucy were both smoking. We were meeting at Sasha’s house, mostly due to Sasha being the go between and inviting everyone here.
I probably should have picked somewhere else, cause as I sat down on the cat themed couch cover it sort of stole some of the seriousness of the situation.
“Well we were promised Eddies.” Kiwi offered with her drawl, and I nodded.
“That’s right, one day of work, just netrunning, no physical combat required.” I explained and I could see Sasha twitching as she obviously resisted butting in.
“Three Elite netrunners, and yourself, for one gig? What, are you trying to hit Arasaka Tower or something?” Kiwi spoke after taking a draw of her cigarette and blowing it out.
“No, but gig details will be released after you accept or not.” I said firmly, and she looked me over, but didn’t say anything, that wasn’t anything that unusual for a netrunner.
“If your gig needs so many Netrunners I’m not sure I want to be involved.” Lucy said, and I shrugged.
“The pay is good, and the fact there are so many of you should make the gig easy. Also I offered to hire all of you because I know you and Kiwi are a team. I’d have been perfectly happy with just one of you.”
“Three is still a lot.”“I’ll be busy for a majority of the gig.” I explained.
Lucy then looked at Kiwi, and I could see the two communicate with each other over a call. I stayed out of it, as Sasha was still bouncing up and down beside me…
Sasha. Please don’t blurt anything out.
Finally Lucy and Kiwi stopped talking and looked at me.
“We’ll accept, as long as that rule for no combat stands. We end up needing to fight, we want a bonus.”
“Ten K extra for both of you.” I said instantly and they looked at each other.
“Fifteen.”“Ten. I’m already paying you over price, and you won’t even be on site, any combat happens it’s gonna be gonks doing something stupid.”
“I want the details then.”“I want to hear you say you’re in.” I responded back to Kiwi, the two of us staring each other down.
“Fine. Lucy and I are in.”
“Great. We’re hitting the Militech Showroom, the heist will be over a million Eddies worth of Computer equipment. Along with a few extra bits and bobs if we have time.”
There was a funny moment where Lucy actually looked a little disappointed. She probably wanted us to go after Militech, but Kiwi was the one my eyes were actually locked on.
I could see it. The moment she considered telling.
“Militech Showroom. Tough target.”
“Hence why I wanted so many elite netrunners.” I agreed, and then Sasha exploded.
“It’s gonna be awesome!” I jolted a bit as I was too focused on Kiwi. “The Kitten has been doing such a good job, she already found out almost all their security systems, and has been cracking the ICE for us, already!”“Hmm? How did you get that data? Militech alters their systems fairly often.”“They invited me into the Showroom, I made an ad for them, scrolled a BD. So unless they update it in the next day or so, we’re in the clear.” I explained and I could see Lucy looking confused where, Kiwi’s eyebrows shot up.
“A BD?”“Yep.” I grabbed the Laptop I’d walked into the room with and placed it on the table in front of me, casually moving the waving cat statue out of the way. Seriously Sasha, we need to talk about-Nevermind.
I pulled up the BD and spun it around.
The two women leaned in as the video played through, showing my entrance into the Showroom, and since this was an edited one, showed all the stops and reveals as I looked at every security feature.
Kiwi was the first to speak.
“And you think you’ll have cracked the ICE for everything?”“I already have.” I said back flatly, honestly even with the latest Militech patches, it wasn’t like they were updating the stuff daily. And I wasn’t using the open cracks that Militech would be aware of and trying to fix anyways, I was making my own.
“Impressive. I’d like to look at your solutions before we move.” Kiwi said, and I narrowed my eyes at her.
“I already plan on selling the data as an extra bonus, I hope you aren’t thinking of doing the same.”
“And if I am?”I narrowed my eyes, but Lucy interrupted.
“Kiwi won’t sell the data, neither will I. We just need to verify that it’s legit.”“Hey! Kitten is a preemo-preemo Programmer you know!” Sasha interrupted, and then she pointed at Kiwi. “No swiping!”
Kiwi made a snorting sound as she took the final drag on her cigarette and then put it out, in an old can of Ni-cola.
“I was just teasing. Stealing programs like that while on a gig is bad luck.”“Then of course you can look it over, I don’t want anyone to feel like this gig isn’t going to go smoothly.” I agreed, and slipped out a shard from the laptop, already prepared just in case, and offered it to her.
As she reached for it, I considered how to actually act here.
Do I threaten her? Tell her, I know about Faraday?
Instead? I decided to just trust. “Thank you for agreeing to help Kiwi, I feel a lot better having you on the team.” I said, smiling at her, and then at Lucy as well.
Besides.
If Kiwi did betray me?
Well…
I guess it depends on if something hurts my chooms. If it doesn’t I might just mess with her, but if one of my chooms is hurt by Militech because of this gig?
Because I wanted to play around with a heist instead of just buying something? And I was stupid enough to trust a snake?
Then I would probably lose my cool for a bit.
—--
“I swear, what is it with you and ice baths, you can get a system for literally nothing. Just go steal it from someone or something.”
“It’s considered a bit crass to steal netrunning setups from other netrunners.” Lucy said, taking a drag as she looked at me with an up and down look.
“Hey! It was a fixer gig! He wasn’t going to use it after!” I countered, and then brushed off her words. “But that’s bullshit and you know it. I’m not saying go after some runner. I’m saying look for a gig targeting a runner and if you get some stuff you get some stuff.”
“Unfortunately Lucy and I moved a bit too much to bother with something like that. Ice Baths and port connections can be hooked up anywhere. The additional safety of not hacking from where you shit is worth it.” Kiwi offered, as she was sitting at the side of the tub filling up the third tub.
I sighed.
We were hacking not from my netrunner cave. Not from Sasha’s home she’d put her foot down about that. Nor either of the other girls cave.
No, we basically just took over some abandoned apartment that Kiwi confirmed would be secure.
I’m pretty sure it was one of her own boltholes.
Which I did appreciate.
What I didn’t appreciate was the stupid ice bath!
Four tubs.
Four netrunners.
I swallowed. Rebecca and Team A would already be in the desert, hitting a Raffen camp that Dakota pointed out to us, and our job was to get into the showroom systems, verify everything was there, and then keep security quiet. Once we got everything, I would disconnect and race a mile or two into downtown to the showroom, and sneak in, only once Rebecca confirmed they would be there on time…
I took a breath and checked the time.
I was worried but…
Instead of anxiety, it was all excitement. It was time to get to work.