Vanessa glared at the screen warily. The contact that she had been corresponding with had been constantly deflecting her insistence that she wasn’t going to accept any mission involving Saeder Krupp. The money was definitely good, but there was no way she would make any kind of deal with one of the Golden Dragon’s representatives.

The next message however, showed her how little of a choice her and the team would have in the matter.

‘Very well, I see that you cannot be persuaded in any sort of friendly manner. If you refuse once more, I will be forced to contact our asset re-acquisition branch. I’m certain that you and your “sister” will find that to be less than ideal.’

Vanessa’s face went pale, she couldn’t believe that they knew...or that they must have known for quite a while. She felt sick, yet she forcibly steeled herself to type.

‘Fine, send the details and blueprints to the building in question. My team will check it out.’

She forced herself to stand and pace the room for a moment to calm her nerves. Whatever this mission was had to be bad news, and even if it wasn’t...the client certainly was. If they were going to do a run like this, they would need more than the two days they were given to prepare. Aside from accounting from the likely manastorms and other issues the team would most definitely encounter while in the bush, the building itself was an abandoned Shiawase missile silo. One that had been left unfinished when a particularly bad manastorm manifested around it and wiped out the construction crew. Said storm was still around the building, forming a very dangerous and unstable barrier to any who would try to enter.

Oddly enough, the storm in question had been acting oddly recently, parting to allow some strangely armored individuals and the occasional vehicle in. This alone likely prompted Saeder Krupp’s interest in the matter as manipulating such a storm, even in such a slight way, would require power well beyond any conventional means. Especially in these times when a new dragon is supposedly likely to emerge.

The pictures of the armored people showed quite a few odd symbols that were theorized to be the way the storm knew to part. Of course, the team would have to steal a vehicle from one of the convoys that had been seen coming and going to have any hopes of penetrating the storm. Given the heavily armored nature of the vehicles and the personnel guarding it, a much more subtle approach would be necessary. They would need to sneak in, incapacitate the drivers, disguise themselves, and blend in long enough to gain entry.

Vanessa returned to her computer in order to ping every one of her runners’ PDAs as she worked out many of the details in her head. She looked over the files the Mr.Johnson had sent, finding an approximated schedule for the convoys, the original Shiawase blueprints for the silo, and all of the other information Saeder Krupp had gathered before resorting to contacting her.
Each of the team members arrived within the hour, forming a circle around the table in the center of the clinic’s basement. By now Vanessa knew all of their faces well, and each of their specialties. Casually flopping the mission dossier onto the table, she tried to hide the gravity of the situation they were in, her voice stern yet calming.

“We have two days.” She began, holding up both of her fingers. “Only two, to plan, execute, and complete what could potentially be the most dangerous run any of you have been on.” She said, scanning the room.

“I say potentially because the intel we’ve been given is sparse. We could be dealing with a small cult, or a heavily militarized one that has possibly gained control of a dragon. Our client wasn’t very giving on the chances of the latter, but we can’t make assumptions on a run like this.”

Of course, Diesel was the first to raise his hand.

“I know you Vanessa, taking a run like this with barely any information to go on...it’s not like you. What kind of client could even pique your interest like this?” The man said, his suspicion hardly hidden.

“Saeder Krupp.” She said simply, staring intently between both Izzy and Diesel. “They.Know.” She sharpened her gaze on her ‘sister.’ Diesel’s eyes widened.

Degen sauntered into the meeting room and greeted her team with a bright smile. She could see Vanessa’s visible distress even if the woman tried her best to hide it. Degen picked up the file and rifled through the papers.

Two days to complete this job? She noted any useful details from the files which wasn’t much. Two days on barely any intel and a potential dragon? The corners of her lips twisted into a brief frown. Sucks to have no preparation but that would make sneaking in that much more interesting. Stealth and infiltration would be a better approach then to swoop in and take heads.

She glanced up at Vanessa and then to Voice and Diesel. It was sweet how Vanessa cared about them and that is exactly how Saeder Krupp strong armed Vanessa and the team into taking this treacherous job. Caring about people gives others the ability to blackmail you. Degen didn’t miss the implication either. They had a secret big enough to force Vanessa’s hand and that secret involved Voice. She looked Voice over and turned her attention back to Vanessa.

“What’s the actual objective? Sneak in and what, gather intel, kill everything there?” Degen asked while tossing the files back onto the table.

"I would say that killing everyone is a Plan B that we can all agree on."

Ah, the rough-edged voice of a man who is at-home with killing things, though to be fair it's more of an 'as-needed' kind of thing, as far as runs are concerned. You could've figured that this one was about to walk in as everyone in the building would've heard the telltale thump of a large animal jumping down from somewhere. Joe had been just down the street, taking up residence in a bar for some good times. He never dresses obviously runner for the occasion. Truth be told, the Ork's still got a potato on one of his cyberspurs. Yeah, it was that kind of day. It started off with some of the guys saying that Marie Mercurial's a 'lovely sheila', but she's 'just too metal for out tastes'. They meant her cyberware, not her music, but heavy metal entered discussion too, then BSing about cyberware, and finally a game to see how well Joe and another guy with spurs could snatch things out of the air with them. Didn't do too bad. Won a few penny-anty bets.

He came back when the call came out from Vanessa, of course, interrupting the game as he knabbed the potato, mid-flight. Came back here and got himself greeted by the safe house's 'guard dog'. Sometimes the source of concern or even a bit of ire, Vasquez was sometimes considered more dangerous than Joe. For while the everyday Slayer had decent weapons and magic talent, Vas was a beast, literally. Public Enemy #2 in Germany and other parts of Europe - Guess who #1 is. - this Fenrir Wolf was something to be wary of even whilst IN the kindly influence of the Ork's handle on her. Even so, she wouldn't be the only issue the team would have to somewhat mellow out about. She took Joe's commands and she hadn't ripped anyone apart who didn't deserve it. The big wolf followed Joe now, trying to enter the room, but getting shoved back to allow other people room to get in, because by the look of things...they had problems. He overheard the talking as soon as he walked in.

"So...the Krupp, huh? Shit."

Joe didn't generally give a harsh reaction to bad news. The emphasis on the one cuss-word indicated that this bothered him, though.

"Always knew I'd end up pissing off a dragon, some day."

We've all heard the rumors. We've all heard that Saeder-Krupp plays the shell game with companies, and that runners have a one-in-three chance of hitting one of their dummy corps, either as a trap to test their facility security, or because they were unlucky enough to spit on a place they valued enough to come after you for, and what they did to you then was unpleasant, at the least. There's no end of speculation on the plans-within-plans that Lofwyr concocts in his spare time. There's rumors abound about ALL the Great Dragons, and even the regular ones. Lofwyr, though... If 'shrewd' and 'dangerous' had an avatar, it was that creature. He had some dirt on them, more specifically on Vanessa and her closest friends. It actually didn't matter what the secret was. Saeder-Krupp wanted them, and they were being 'most insistent'. At this point, if you don't give the dragon what he wants, he burns your house down. Joe didn't like it, but obviously 'choice' wasn't in the agreement.

"Before you decide to tell us why they can't just frag off, what's going on in two days that we can't have the time to do it right? First casualty is usually the plan, but you still make the plan, and the best plans are the ones you've got time for. So, what's the deal?"

Tallulah had been downstairs in the clinic's office organizing the days patient files from those who visited the clinic. Taking a few notes in her own personal notebook of what each person presented to the clinic with and what was done, adding sidenotes of what she believed could have been done better or notes on things she noticed of the person's health that they didn't bring up in the event they came back. It was during this note taking process that she received the ping on her PDA from Vanessa who was just upstairs.

Quickly finishing her notes she placed her small journal in her pocket and put the files away. Exiting the office, Tallulah shifted into her small fox form and ran to the meeting room. Using her small fox form to evade Vas as best she could. When she got there, as she was one of the first to arrive, she simply jumped up on the table and laid down in fox form until more people arrived. When others did arrive she hopped down and shifted back, joining the circle of people.

At first the small girl just listened and watched everyone else, taking in everything and all the information while bouncing on the balls of her feet, her tail swaying behind her. Her eyes ever so slightly widened at Joe's idea for Plan B, yes she had killed and would do so if needed but she didn't agree with just killing everyone. She only felt killing was the last option, for her at least. "I don't think Plan B should be killing everyone... I don't agree with that..." She informed the group, "Just disabling them by knocking them out or something seems like a better option." She knew she was a minority in the not killing but she felt the need to say something.

That is all she said though in the mean time, for the rest of the meeting she'd stay quiet as she typically did unless providing ideas in her areas of expertise. Plan making and tactics really weren't her thing, so she just listened and took in all the information.

Avicus had been one of the first few to arrive in their meeting room, posing as a live in patient had its perks it seems. Other than his almost daily interactions with a certain mage in the party. It was perfect otherwise since his vampiric nature didn’t allow him to go out too much usually. He watched as some of the others began to join in and Vanessa gathered their attention. The mission details were barely there and he certainly didn’t like the idea of working for a dragon like Lofwyr, but there was something that certainly interested him.

“A possibility of a dragon, you say? That’s… interesting.” A cocky grin spread across his face. The chance of fighting a dragon excited Avicus, but it also terrified him. There was always the looming threat of death but on this run more so than ever. He wasn’t going to let his team see him afraid though.

The crew began to discuss a plan. Avicus thought Degen was on the right track with taking everyone out, but the rest of the group seemed to disagree. The Shaman, Joe, who Avicus was barely alright with in regards to magic users, suggested that as a plan B. And the blasted mage wanted to dismiss the idea of killing all together.

“Let’s be real here, there is no way we are going to get out of that place without shedding blood. Incapacitating them means they will only be a problem to us later. If we take them out then and there, we’ll have less of a problem if they decide to hunt us down after this mission is over with.” The vampire dealt with enough people with nasty grudges to know it’s not a great idea to leave your enemies alive. “We aren’t going to be going in guns blazing of course but don’t be surprised if there’s any bloodshed. Besides, there always seems to be blood wherever I go.” It had been a little while since the last time he had ‘eaten.’ He was getting quite hungry.

Degen smiled and gently pinched Tallulah’s cheek. “Don’t think worry about the fighting, that’s my job.”

Degen turned her attention back to the group. “Avicus is right. There’s too many unknown factors and too little time to prepare. There will be bloodshed. I would rather catch them off guard and deal with them quietly. We don’t know their numbers, if they raise any sort of alarm it’ll be a slog to get through so many bodies.”

What Degen didn’t mention that both ideas were fine by her. She was use to assassination, but a full brawl would be interesting too.

Steph was the last one to enter the dingy little office, clutching various shopping bags filled with a small fortune of clothes. The elf looked more like a starlet than a runner, with her long white coat as well as fashionably large sunglasses. "Salut mes amis, comment allez-vous?" She cooed excitedly. "What's the emergency?"

Joining the rest of the crew, making sure to give the oversized Fenrir a loving scratch behind her ears - Steph was probably the only person in the group that had this privilege - and went over what little information Vanessa had to offer. The sunny disposition quickly evaporated as more and more details became known.

"Vanessa... Is this a joke?" Steph looked up at the Fixer, lifting the sunglasses, throwing the files back onto the table. So far Vanessa had been a trustworthy Fixer, always supplying their team with trustworthy jobs. This seemed anything but. A job like this needed way more time, time to scope out the facility, threat assessment, hell they needed time to check out drivers coming in and out of the facility to check for holes in the security.

"You know damn well that a job like this needs more time... Merde, you dont even know what we're up against?" Steph scoffed, crossing her arms. "This isnt like you... You'd never accept a job like this. So what's the deal here? I'm not going to risk my life by being left in the dark."

"And could we leave killing off the table until we know what we're even dealing with?" She snapped at the rest of the team.

Voice had been in the room next to the area that Vanessa had called a meeting. Her arm beeped, followed by a file from her, ignoring it as something for the missions. Getting dressed she choose her jean overalls and nothing else, after all there wasn’t really anything to exactly cover. An image flashed through her mind and she blinked a couple of times, marking it in her memory bank to go back to later. Picking up her holster, she strapped it to her waist and put her pistols in there. Walking out it seemed she was the last to arrive, taking a seat between Diesel and Vanessa. Spinning the chair around, she leaned against it, listening to Vanessa.

Looking down, she absorbed everyone's response to what Vanessa had to say. Standing up, she went back into her room and came back with a teal datatape with a data jack in them. Standing next to Vanessa, she glanced at her for a second and did the same with Diesel, this was the moment she's been preparing for, since the group got bigger. “I want to start this explanation with this, if you do not want the risk, I understand and im sure Vanessa will too” she paused thinking about her next words. “You are my family just as much as Vanessa calls me her sister, and ive only kept this secret to protect you all” she pressed on her arm and a jack came out, plugging herself into the tape, her eyes glowed. “I think you three” pointing at Tal, Joe and Avi “might have had the idea, but no real basis to make the claim.”

She turned and a projection fell onto the blank wall in front of them, starting a “power point” of sorts. Each clip was the memories of Mimi making her in SKs labs. “Have you three ever noticed that i have no Aura? Or how i never let you heal me Tal? Avi i know you’ve had a suspicion and Joe...im not really sure how it missed you.” The powerpoint stopped on a freeze frame of a document called “Project A.N.G.E.L” zooming in so everyone could read it “this is where i was born, I am an Artificial Intelligence, originally under the name ANGEL, I was suppose to fix the world, or thats what my poor creator believed when SK offered her a position. I was created with the purpose to fix pollution, help humanity right the wrongs its done to this planet. Miki Yuroshi was her name and i consider her to be...my mother i suppose. Im sure a lot of you can see where this is going. Miki found out pretty fast someone was going in an teaching me to kill, to become a weapon of mass destruction. In these stages my mind was close to that of a kids. I had a problem with emotions as well, it was something Miki couldn’t crack. I had the ability to understand it, but i could not convey them. That was until the night i became who i am now. Miki had contacted Vanessa for help, to get her and myself out of there…”

The slideshow continued and began to show the events that lead to the escape “Miki was able to get runners into the security system and plan for my great break out. However it all went horribly wrong, as do most things that involve SK, she was able to get to me, but SK made sure i couldn’t leave my domain, a place dubbed Heaven. So Miki did what any mother would do for their kid, and risked everything to save me from a horrible life. She “injected” me into her brain implants, the only way without time that i could get away. However what she didn’t account for was my ability to rewrite programming in almost anything, and as young as a program i was, i thought i was helping by rewriting her brain implants so that we could both inhabit the same space easier.” she paused, she wasn’t capable of crying, but to everyone, they could hear the pain in her voice. “What happened next, changed everything for me” the slide showed the moments Miki realized she made a mistake “i rewrote everything, to make room for myself, but in doing that, i caused us to merge. Just as much as I was merged with her, she was merged with me. Unfortunately...she wasn’t able to withstand it. She was, and still is, lost in my programming if that makes sense. I’m not even sure what i really am anymore, in express terms, I am her, i have her memories, i have her personality, i have her emotions, her morals. She was the piece missing from me that i needed to be an actual being.” She closed her eyes and took the jack out from the tape.

Turning, her eyes went back to normal with her heart pupils “Its outrageous to expect you guys to believe all of what im saying, no matter how long i have spent with each of you. So my statement stands, you don't have to go through this, none of you do” she looked at Vanessa and Diesel “you all can walk away and let them come here to get me, ill destroy myself before i go back, but i'm not going to ask you all to risk your lives because of me” she looked around at everyone as silence fell over everyone.

A small smirk had formed, despite everything, at the disapproval of killing as a Plan B from Tallulah and Fashion. Frankly, his totem would've raised the proverbial eyebrow if he didn't know Joe and, in fact, how things generally go on missions.

"Not killing IS Plan A. Plan B is where you ain't been given much of choice."

A simple-but-ultimately-true fact of life in the Shadows. You can plan your daring escapade, use your stun grenades and gel rounds, close off enemes from you with a hacked door or a magic barrier - whatever pleases you. At some point, though, things can and will go south, and when they do, you have to rapidly work to avoid being blown to slag while under the heading 'by whatever means necessary' or you don't get home. This was said before Voice decided to voice their reasons for taking this mission. Joe was...slightly irritated that they were kind of stepping over his 'before you tell us' bit, but the reasons behind it all would come out eventually. So, for now, he waited for it. When she started talking about her aura and how Joe seemed to have missed a beat somewhere, he interjected.

"Gonna be honest, I wasn't paying close attention. No aura can look like very little aura, at a glance. I've seen plenty a' Sammies back in Seattle. You see enough essence-shredders, you don't really look as hard to see if they got one or not."

His explanation was pretty understandable. Unless he had a reason or overwhelming curiosity to take a closer look, he would have continued to assume that she was just another cybered-up Shadowrunner, and that's probably what alot of folks do, to be honest. They figure that underneath all that chrome, there's a solitary glimmer in a small pool of essence that's just hidden away. The alternatiives to that line of thinking can be pretty horrifying. One was the very answer that was about to be given, and the other was cyberzombies. Good god, when news of Hatchetman hit the Matrix, that was a shock. From then on, you worried about seeing like say...a heavily-outfitted troll with way too much technology and gunfire, coming down on you like the Nemesis.

The real explanation was kind of a bigger hammer than that, to be sure.

Voice was made in a lab. Completely made from scratch. She was an artificial lifeform, not a lifeform in the traditional sense, which should account for her lack of aura. However, as the story unfolded - A caring programmer defying Saeder-Krupp, a mission gone bad, a desperate call - Joe noticed something that was just a little out of place. We'll get to that in a minute. He could...sort of understand the idea that some unstable implantation was rewriting too much of her creator's brain. They say that's a danger you can get if you're a chip-head, though of course you could never really say for sure, especially if you never knew the person before they programmed themselves to know kung fu.

Even still, what Voice was saying was that she was an AI, a totally autonomous being of digital code. Now, Joe didn't know the specifics of the famous Renraku Shutdown - Maybe Fashion did - but ALOT of people got the word about how an AI had awakened and taken over. You couldn't NOT hear about it, especially if you - like Joe - lived in Seattle. Again, he wasn't aware of what exactly went wrong or what Deus was doing besides playing god in his backyard, but Crash 2.0 followed and that was a disaster. In a way, that made alot of Joe's work at the time easier, since alot of electronic gear was out cold, but it also made things messy on the streets. Now, there were faced with an AI in a bottle, in a body, who acted very human and ALOT more humble than the other guy. So, improvements have been made, clearly. However, Saeder-Krupp intended this one as a weapon... Well, now it was time for that one thought to crop up as Joe confirmed via assensing that, yes, she had no essence. She had no essence today.

"One question. If you're part of this woman, Miki, now...and you have no essence, no aura...what'd you do with her body?"

Very simple question, really. If she merged in Miki's head and presumably walked around in her body when she made her escape, what happened to her 'mother'? She didn't chrome up her body, otherwise there would be some sign of her aura. This was a mundane object read when assensing. She wasn't in there, physically. How did she get this body and what happened to the last? He had to assume that Vanessa and Diesel were either the Shadowrunners that got her out or associated with them or somehow a part of the process that made her how she was now. Joe wanted to know how 'then' got to 'now'.

“I'll answer that.” Diesel interjected at Joe's question. "Izzy's not exactly fond of any of this story. Once we got her here and away from the Krupp, or so we thought I guess, she insisted on being taken out of Miki's body. Called it disrespectful, still wanted to bring her back. Naturally though, the parts of her that were overwritten were gone. The woman that had contacted Vanessa was dead, and now we were stuck with an AI in a mostly human body." Diesel grimaced at the memory.

"So, we moved her into a spare drone for the time being. Obviously Vanessa did what she could to save Miki, but that body was just an empty shell at that point. Of course, Voice insisted on burying her where she would have wanted, some cliff near the village she was raised in. Normally I'd have brushed off that kind of sentimental junk, but she insisted again and again, then she got Vanessa in on it so next thing I knew I was on a plane to Japan with a drone that didn't have a mute button." Diesel sighed, clearly not too happy that this had come up at all. "To answer the question that's probably on all of your minds, AI or not, VOICE here is the same as she's always been, a part of our team...and that means..." Diesel said leaning towards Izzy and giving her a sturdy flick to the head. "We're in this drekk together."

"Well said Diesel. As for why we only have two days...Our only way in through that manastorm is going to be to sneak in with one of their convoys. The people hiring us did us only one favor, they managed to get an approximate schedule for the one arriving day after tomorrow. Unfortunately, they also believe this convoy will likely be the last one."

"It's imperative that these cultists or whatever they happen to be do not catch onto our plan, so to that end...I propose we split into two teams in order to minimize the chance of being spotted. The first team; Diesel, Joe, Degen, and Voice, will be in charge of distracting the convoy's guards, firing potshots to draw their attention before retreating. We have reason to believe that they won't pursue you very far in order to keep their cargo safe. Team two... She began looking at Tallulah, Avicus, and Steph. "The three of you are to infiltrate the rear cargo truck with this." Vanessa said holding an odd device in her hand. "This little EMP will simultaneously stop the rear convoy and cut off the communications to the rest of their group. You are only to use it once the rear vehicle has distanced itself from the rest of the group. Luckily for us, that'll be happening on the last leg of their journey. According to our intel they separate in one mile intervals after refueling in order to reduce their chances of being noticed. Once it's stopped, Team One is to take out the rear guard, impersonate them, and continue on with 'transporting' the cargo into the facility."

Voice was an AI that devoured her maker… Degen let that sink in for a few moments as the others spoke. A tragic story, really it was and on some level she was sympathetic to this AI pseudo person. She herself couldn’t remember her own birth parents and the idea of knowing everything about them, to know them so well that in some ways you were another version of them, that was unfathomable. The Voice she knew, the one she has always known was the merger of an AI and a human woman, that was first. But they have been through enough that she knew Voice would come through for them.

For a brief moment, Degen thought of that man. She refused to think of his name or call him anything. He killed her family and took her as an apprentice of sorts. She grew to know him really well too but she decided to abandon him than to devour him. He still probably existed somewhere in this world. He was the sort that was too stubborn to die.

Vanessa began speaking and Degen pulled herself out her thoughts and paid attention. At least they have some sort of plan.

“So a mix of frontal assault and stealth, eh? I can work with that. Though you still haven’t mentioned anything about rewards or objectives. We have a plan to get in, once we’re in what are we supposed to do? And even if Saeder Krupp is blackmailing you to do this job, there has to be some good money in taking this right? I’ll help because I like Voice enough to do this, but I’m not working for free.”

"Four hundred thousand Nuyen up front...And another three hundred thousand if the information we find is satisfactory." She said with a sigh. "The money's already cleared, so at least there's that...Though if they're willing to shell out this much for a simple information gathering run...it doesn't bode well." Vanessa said rubbing her temples.

"Essentially, all that's required on this run is information. Get Voice jacked into their network and cover her while she extracts any information on what's going on. Avoid direct confrontation if at all possible, if there's a dragon involved we can't afford a firefight." Vanessa stood up in order to pace for a moment. "Izzy's right, if any of you have any reservations you're welcome to go ahead and flee. If we fail this mission, I fear we'll have quite a bit of reason to do so."

Steph looked back and forth between Vanessa and Voice, expecting some kind of punchline to follow this obvious joke. AI? Was this supposed to be real? Self sufficient AI were myth at this point, part of those terrible sci-fi trideo! She had always considered Voice a little peculiar, but what Decker wasnt? Spend too much time in the Matrix and it was sure to leave some effect... But Voice practically was from the Matrix.

"You knew?" She hissed at Vanessa. "All this time? You had us working alongside a... a... Machine? T'es rien qu'un petit connard!" She scoffed, glaring over Voice with visible disgust. "A Saeder-Krupp machine on top of that? You're telling me the goddamn largest corporation knew about this the entire time?" Steph exclaimed, throwing her hands up in anger.

"Non, non, non, non... I'm out! J'en ai ral le cul... I'm not going to risk my life for a goddamn toaster, or a dragon for that matter!" The fact the team seemed to be so nonchalant about all of this was perhaps even more infuriating. If Voice was truly telling the truth, then this could be news that would shake the entire goddamn world. Fuck, the fact Saeder-Krupp themselves were getting involved, instead of one of their million subsidiaries, meant this was huge. "Here's a much better idea, why not sell her off to SK? Or hell, Aztechnology, I'm sure they'd love to get their hands on a SK created AI! The bounty for that would probably be enough for each of us to never have to work a day in our lives!"

"How do we even know this isn't some setup by SK? Putain! What if she's programmed to kill us? She said so herself, they were working on making her a goddamn killing machine!" Steph had already been burned by betrayal once, she wasn't about to get burned twice. She turned back towards Vanessa, leaning in close over the desk. "Unless you can give me a damn good reason why I should even consider going along with this suicide pact just to save your walking toaster, I'm out of here." She hissed. "And dont try and guilt trip me into coming along for some emotional bullshit... That all burned away the second I found out you've been lying to us about the toaster for years now."

Why did he ask? Well, it was for simple reasons: He wanted to know just how human Voice really was. They say that cyberization dehumanizes you, to the point where being rather low on essence either means that you're cold and indifferent or even possibly insane. The final fate of Miki was rather important when you consider that it was a machine who decided what the last rites were going to be. Joe felt somewhat satisfied to know that Voice gave enough of a damn to bury her, even more so that she insisted on taking Diesel for a ride to Japan. That said enough on the true motivations of their friendly decker. In the words of some people maybe fifty years back: 'Seems legit'.

However, not all of them were sold on this, not even in the 'Frag, alright already...' kind of sense. There was Steph, AKA Fashion, their Face. Joe knew right off that this wasn't going to fly well with her, 'cause he knew her. Intimately, you could say. It was an on-and-off thing. They were currently on, but this was probably going to jam it in the off position rather hard, especially since she was teetering on the cut-and-run option. He and her didn't have any incredibly-deep attachments. It was good fun, sack time, that kinda' thing. Joe was willing to let that go if it helped her stay alive, and to him that meant talking her down so she didn't leave.

"I'll give you some practical bullshit, then. Rule number one is that you never deal with a dragon, but the seldom-used Rule 1-A is that if the dragon ain't giving you much of a choice, you'd better appease the dragon, or at least pretend to so escape is possible."

He was appealing more to her Shadowrunning side, to their Face, so that their Face could reason this one out in her head.

"You know megacorps, Fashion. They see something they want, they'll throw anything at it to get it. They're throwing us 'cause they've got leverage, and because they don't want whoever's there to know it was them. They'll clamp down extra-hard on this, which means extra-hard on all of us if they don't get what they want. Maybe they don't pay you any mind if it's just you leaving, but maybe they do. This storm is big business. They're breaching it and the dragon wants. If nothing else, we got some unknowns here. We'll need your experience to see who we're dealing with and figure out the right approach with the people involved. That's your sidearm, one we're not as gifted in, most of the time."

That was a bit of flattery at the end, there. She was the Face for a reason, not simply because she hated killing. She was more skilled at all the etiquitte of dealing with corporate types and stuff, whereas the rest of 'em were somewhere between marginal to 'winging it'. Even Joe's speech there was taking up a fair deal of thought process to keep the lady on the payroll, 'cause he thought she was otherwise gonna end up sadly dead somewhere. He was leaving what he thought of the plan - Not bad, he guessed - on the backburner for now as he handled this.

So Izzy was actually an AI huh? He had a suspicion that something was up with her for quite awhile, but he never would have guessed this. Her lack of an astral form was a very big indication. Though when Avicus tried to press the issue previously she denied everything. He realizes why though. Saeder-Krupp is a big deal. The only thing that really pissed him off about this whole ordeal, however, was the reaction of Stephanie.

“Can you just calm down already? I get it, I’m shocked too. Freaking out won’t help anybody though. We’ve all been here enough and worked with both Vanessa and Izzy enough for them to deserve our trust.” Avicus nodded toward Izzy and smiled. “You have my support. I’ve already risked my life in this job enough, I don’t mind doing it again. Besides, I can definitely say this is the most interesting job I’ve ever taken. My one complaint… why am I paired with her?” From his reaction and the fact that he gestured to her, it was painfully obvious he was referring to Tallulah.

Tallulah wasn't surprised by the announcement. She always had her suspicion, hell she basically knew when she couldn't use Izzy's hair to heal her from a distance. That didn't change anything though, Izzy was still like a sister to her and she'd help fight to protect her. But of course Steph was pissed, the other elf was acting high and mighty and honestly it was bothering Tallulah so after others spoke up, she took her turn to do so too.

"Do you have to be such a versoniel Steph? This group, all of us, we are your ranelles. I never took you as being disloyal or a rinellé, but go ahead and leave. See how well accept you will be among other elves as a rinellé of your ranelles. I consider us sersakhan, maybe closer as we are the only elves, but if you keep acting in such a way I may change my mind."

Tallulah sighed after her speech and turned her attention back to the rest of the group. When she heard what Avicus said all she could do was turn and grin at him. "Aww you know you love me snowflake! You love working with me, don't deny it." she teased.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Steph paced back and forth anxiously. Everything about this just screamed "Set-up!" Her father may have been a despicable person for what he did, but his advice to never, ever get involved with SK was one of the few things he was right about. Not to mention, that despite what everybody else was feeling; Steph was not happy with the reveal of Voice's secret. After all, SK didn't want her back, that meant there had to be something wrong with her, right? A sleeper agent perhaps? Or maybe more interesting, there was something inside that facility worth more than an AI...

Letting out a deep sigh, Steph glared at Joe. A glare he was all too familiar with by this point. The 'we're done' glare. Stepping back up to the planning table, she spoke to Tallulah in their elven tongue. "Don't you call me a traitor, since I seem to be the only one looking out for our team." Before switching back to common. "We dont know what SK did with Voice's AI. None of you are skilled enough to poke around in her head... So if she turns on us, know that I'll be the one shouting 'told you so' when she blasts a hole in the back of your skull."

Pausing for a second, she returned to the plan. "Might I suggest we take a different approach? We have no guarantee that the transport will stop when taking fire... If anything, this would probably scare them off. Cause a road block, something to force them to slow down. A fallen tree or what have you... Be creative. Hell, use the EMP if need be. Shouldn't be too hard given the storm. Overpower the driver and guards. I can get us some holowear and an RFID spoofer to allow us to impersonate the drivers. Team 1 can then sneak into the back of the truck and we'll just drive in through the front gates." She looked back up at Vanessa. "Do we even know what we're supposed to do when we're inside? Extract a VIP? Download data? I can't imagine SK just wanting us to break down the door..."

"Very well." Vanessa said simply. "Your proposition is a pretty solid plan...Alright, It's settled, team one is in charge of setting up a road block once the vehicles separate. Team two, you are to get in close and set off the EMP to cut their comms and take them out. Afterwards, team one will rejoin you and pile into the vehicle. Once you've entered the facility, you're going to have to find somewhere for VOICE to jack in and extract any data we can...Possibly install a tap to monitor their communications. We're only going to have one shot at this, so we're going to have to make it count." Vanessa finished with a sigh. This mission was just a slew of red flags, but their hands were tied. At the very least, this would buy them time to figure out a solution to the whole SK situation.

---

Two days later: Operation Dragon's Nest

Mission status: Green

Diesel inspected the makeshift roadblock, satisfied that it would force the truck to stop. They had found a narrow bridge along the route, making it impossible to simply go around. From everything he had seen with his Recon Drone, everything so far was exactly as the intel had suggested. The convoy had separated, and the final vehicle would be crossing this point soon. He motioned for the rest of the team to get into position and out of sight, they couldn't risk the transport alerting the others.

Oh yeah. That was the look, alright. Always happened when something they didn't agree on come up in a big way. He was an Ork and she liked having a fling with Orks, but he was a killer and she didn't put up with killing. And a dragon situation that forces them into a ruddy little corner? Nobody likes that, least of all Steph. But as it happened, common sense came through. She knew they'd have to go through with this mission, and as punishment for having to do just that, Joe was minus one gal-pal. Honestly, he'd be more miffed, but they both knew they weren't hooked up serious or anything. And she'd probably relent later. One of the good things about this kind of relationship is that Joe didn't try any nonsense like 'You'll be back' or drek like that. Standing there and taking it without that macho bullshit meant there'd be no spite in the mix for later. Joe accepted this, and moved on. In the meantime, they had a mission to perform.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yeah, their roadblock was alright, simple enough to get the job done. Oh no! The storm knocked down a tree! It was the kind you had to move too, not try something funny like blow up. Why? Because it was eucalyptus. They exploded, which was the other thing that made this roadblock nice. When the EMP went down and the guns lit up, the tree going FOOM! would make for a great distraction if they needed it to be. Team One wouldn't be near it, of course. Bad guys who suspect a trap still might shoot the damn roadblock. If they ignited it, they'd be causing their own hell, anyway, so they weren't near that, but hidden elsewhere. And Team Two? They were still coming in the rear with the EMP after the truck they were getting into stopped. All in all, it was a case of diverting the truck, forcing them to stop with the roadblock, ganking 'em, and taking their place. And Joe was ready to use some Ram to force their diversion all the more properly. Breaking down something into rubble in their path would definitely do it.

Despite Fashion’s freak out she was collected enough to suggest another plan. Degen mentally applauded the elf. From what little she knew of Fashion’s background doing this job was purposely doing everything she was ingrained not to do. But enough of that! The elf was on board and they were set on their plan.

The plan itself was pretty simple and Degen hung around a good distance from the fallen tree and behind cover. She was a more close range combatant so the only thing she could think of for a distraction was to probably knock down another tree and make a big noise if it came down to it. But the other option was to storm in when the others start their cover fire and the EMP…. Hmmm choices choices. Another obvious option was to gut a guy and have them scream loud. That’ll set the guards on edge and would be harder to take down. Oh, maybe a big thunderbolt? Loud and flashy, perfect for distractions. Degen ran her thumb over the hilt of her sword. Well whatever she decided on her knives will be the first to taste blood today.