[IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Deadline

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid

What should have simpler was getting out of hand. So Diego decided to draw a line. "It is complex, so let's make it simple. We abduct Jacob at the xray location, with me adopting the appearance of the xray technician. Whoever is with him or present will be dealt with through nonlethal means if preferable to avoid too much attention. There is also always the option of a distraction to buy us time, but that may only serve to complicate matters. We do not know who might be expecting him before or after the xrays, so altering hospital records serves little purpose if he has plans after the X-Ray. Once we get him out on a stretcher or some other means at our disposal to the appropriate location, we remove the organ and deliver it. Since he will be dead, his kidnapping will correctly be assumed to be associated if they find his body.", begins Diego starting to get exhausted by all this medical detail.

"The only worry is the authorities identifying you Iona. Peter will be in bandages under some pretense of a serious injury. This wold not be out of place at a hospital as burns and possibly broken bones could be part of the same accident. I am sure we can fake a hospital band so long as it is not examined to thoroughly. For your face cover Iona, you can wear a burka we will steal from somewhere, we hack the cameras, or you are not present at all around the abduction site. While your manufactured powers would be useful incapacitating anyone present, I understand if you prefer to be offsite.", continues Diego addressing one obvious issue.

Turning to post abduction, Diego tried to avoid as much medical lecture as he can. "After we get Jacob, we can steal an ambulance disabling the GPS at a safe distance with the OCS inside if you feel we need t to keep the organ viable for the drop off. It may also be able to carry the knocked out Jacob if you feel an offsite location better. Off site, the problem will be moving or stealing equipment and setting up the location. That can be mitigated if we use the equipment from our infirmary. There will be logistical issues with transporting of it out of Hadron City and bring it back in, but if inside the hospital is too complicated we need to do what we need to do.", says Diego to Iona leaving out all the bits on a sterile environment, possible infection, and minutia.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

"Simpler is better." she says softly. "If I could simply take equipment from the infirmary, then I'd be certain to have all I need. A semi-trailer truck or even a medium-sized moving truck would be sufficient to fit the necessary devices into it. I would need a power generator as well. We could keep the patient alive until we get close to the destination. Then we could stop the vehicle and I could quickly perform the procedure. Without the OCS, we'd need to keep the heart in ice-cooled container. This will only keep it alive for 3 to 4 hours as opposed to the 12 hours granted by the OCS, but that should be enough time. Does that plan seem more to your liking?"

"Oh, and I'd rather not enter the hospital unless I absolutely have to do so. I'd rather not draw attention to myself."

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 1

"So I come in for the purpose accessing the cameras. No altering the records for myself or you, Diego?" Peter asked. "Come in, wait and access, leave and join you when you've completed the grab?"

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid

Diego took turns addressing each of the speakers. As a cloud, it was a bit tough to tell whom he was speaking, but the dialogue was clear enough. "Getting the equipment out of and back into the city will not be trivial. If you see no other way though it must be done. I only warn you to be ready that it may no longer be available in your infirmary if we need to weigh keeping it outside the city and compromising us to Stronghold.", says Diego already trying to think of a way to get the equipment out.

Changing positions to Peter, he spoke with softer words. "Your role would be to keep me appraised of any security notices and cover the cameras so they do not record anything we do not want. Hopefully, you will also be close enough to provide backup. In a field operation with so many unknown variables, I do not know what will happen. This all assumes we will be able to grab Jacob in the X-Ray room and I will be able to replace the technician. While it is risky, we may also need the name of the technician and his work schedule if possible.", says Diego.

Its been a long day. So I apologize in advance for the brevity of the post. I wanted to get a post up though.

[Sakuro]

What this sets the characters up for may be upsetting, given real world events. If it makes any of you uncomfortable, let me know and I will revise the scenario. I do have a backup already in mind. You do not need to explain why and you may PM me if you wish to express you discomfort privately.

Sunday 11th, Marsh 2019 - Herald the Night Pt. 2: The Blight After

You talk and plan into the early hours of the following day. Morning comes and time forces you to prepare or miss out on your scheduled rendezvous with Dutch's people. It is a gloomy, gray, and drizzly morning when you find yourselves waiting at a rickety warehouse. Fortunately you do not have to wait long before your ride arrives.

It is a single trailer semi-truck with a lone driver: a salt and pepper haired older man in blue jeans and a flannel shirt. He's hauling sides of beef in a freezer truck and you're expected to ride in the back. Not with the meat itself though. Towards the front of the trailer there is a secondary wall that he opens up and ushers you behind. Closing it seals you off from most of the chill of the freezer and hides you from the inevitable Stronghold inspection when you leave the city.

At a way station well outside of Hadron City the truck pulls over, the back is opened, and you are shown to a gray van with a plumber's logo on the side. After that you are left to your own devices as the old trucker drives off with his cargo of frozen meat. You pack yourselves into the van and head south towards Wichita and St. Luke hospital.

About two hours into your drives a convoy of military vehicles are seen in your rearview mirror. Cars pull off to the side of the road up and down the highway as troop transports escorted by Humvees with heavy machine guns mounted on them race by. After the convoy passes and traffic returns to normal, you turn the radio on … or perhaps connect to the internet … in search of information about the what is happening. Eventually you come upon news reports: St. Luke has been quarantined. The Center for Disease Control is on site and the Army National Guard have been called in to enforce the quarantine.

The rest of you trip to Wichita is uneventful. News reports are sparse on details concerning the events taking place at St. Luke, leaving your mind to fill in the blanks with the worst possible scenarios. When you finally arrive at the hospital you see that the National Guard has set up a perimeter around the building, with transport vehicles and machinegun mounted Humvees acting as improvised barricades.

Everyone receives 1 HP for the RPing and planning that took place over the last couple of scenes.

When you respond, make mention whether you are bringing anything with you or not.

If you are bring equipment from your Infirmary, I want to know how you are getting it to the rendezvous site.

Note that without this surgical equipment your Infirmary will operate at a -2 penalty to all medical checks. If you loose this equipment, the penalty will remain until you replace it.

The meat truck you leave the city in allows space for the surgical equipment in the hidden compartment with you, but it would be tight and uncomfortable. The van you are supplied can carry this equipment as well, however there is nowhere near enough room to perform a surgery in the van even if you have an adequate power source.

On that note, I am going to advise you not to take your HQ's power generator, because it is what supplies your entire base with power. Loosing that would invalidate a lot of other Features.

As you arrive at St. Luke, make a Perception check.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

Iona is left alone for a brief period to gather all pertinent equipment and materials. She reflects as she wheels various machines to a staging-area where helpers will take it to a warehouse for loading onto an awaiting truck. We are constantly surrounded by danger in everything we do.

To be safe, she decides to bring her own portable power-generator. A gift from Doctor Sokolov, she persuaded him that it might be necessary for some of her critical experiments should internal power suddenly become an issue in her laboratory. Now she was taking a valuable piece of facility equipment along in order to complete the mission. I hope this is worth it. We can ill afford to lose such items. After insuring the main equipment is together, she turns her attention to surgical instruments, power cords, and less bulky yet equally important items.

OOC: I'm assuming that we have made it to the van, have stored the equipment into it, and have arrived at the hospital.

The ride in the van is cramped. All the room in the back is needed for hauling. She sits in the front wedged between Diego and Peter. So many thoughts race through her mind. She has never traveled far in her brief "life". Every mile is an adventure as sees new things along the trip. Times like this cause confusion. She has a vague experience of riding in cars, seeing things on the highway, yet she has no specific memories...no concrete history of memories that she can recall. She tries not to dwell on the dissonance within her own mind. There are too many other important issues for today.

As the van arrives at the hospital, the police presence is immediately evident. Wearing sweatpants and a slightly over-sized hoodie, she pulls the covering over her head and draws it tighter so that only a small portion of her exquisite face shows.

OOC: Here's my perception roll: Supernaturalist:1D20+10 → 13(3 + 10). So, a total of 13.

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2

Along the drive, Peter observed the National Guard convoy and began to wonder if Stronghold knew about their trip, unlikely as it would be. Investigating the internet explained what was going on, but hinting the plan had become the first casualty. Arriving at the vicinity of St. Luke's confirmed this, assuming Jacob was inside there.

Mentally, the bandage-covered Ascendant reached out through the web again, weaving that layer of digital obfuscation before delving into the hospital's computers again: records and cameras, to find out what was going on and determine if their target was present. If not, that would actually be better, and hospital records on their employee would help in tracking him down.

Perception: 1d20+8 12
Expertise: Computers: 1d20+16 27

[Sakuro]

Peter had learned that his abilities were not as simple as thinking a thing and then they happened. When he decided to try to hack into St. Luke's cameras he reached out and tapped an Augmented Reality icon in his vision with a hand. In response a command window opened opened up before him. As he worked Iona and Diego could see Peter making bizarre gestures in the air. He tries to connect from the internet to St. Luke's internal computer network but he can't. Where there was once a digital system he could open a window into and peer upon, now there is nothing for him to connected to. No cameras. No records. Nothing. As though it had all been taken offline.

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 1->2
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid

After the planning was completed, Diego made sure to get the information requested by the smuggler for the forged documents. He made sure to change into the Argentinian man used as the previous cover for his picture as a black swarm of nanites would be more of an inkblot test. With that done, he made sure to read up on the information gathered by Peter so far to be prepared as possible. He never liked going in half blind, but the times called for it.

When the appointed time came for the travel out of the city, Diego didn't bring much. Iona had brought enough for the lot of the group. When the medical supplies were brought out and loaded into the truck, Diego didn't bother repeating his earlier warning. Once was enough. If Iona lost some infirmary equipment, so be it. She was the one who championed a medical facility and since it did make some sense, so Diego didn't fight it. Taking equipment from it though didn't seem practical given how difficult it was to get supplies.

Inside the van, didn't want to take a chance of someone seeing his natural form. So, he did his best to fit. Iona bringing all that medical equipment was starting to look like an even worse idea to him now. There wasn't much time to stew on it though as the military came by. Something was afoot. Diego hated not knowing important details, but this seemed like a new development he couldn't predict. A quarantine of a hospital. This one seemed like it was serious as the military was called in to enforce it. It was the sort of thing only seen in zombie movies or scifi B-movies.

Perception: 1D20+11 = [2]+11 = 13

And we are blind as a bat as my string of bad rolls continues.

[Sakuro]

None of you notice anything beyond the obvious: No one is entering or leaving the hospital. The National Guard has formed up around the property. Police are keeping people clear of the area and directing traffic away.

What do you intend to do now? Charge in guns blazing? Park across the way and observe? GO somewhere to drop off your equipment?

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 2->1
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid

Diego looked at the others. No plan survived contact with the enemy, but most could be salvaged. In this case, it would be tough, but possibly doable as they had the advantage of having the equipment. Getting the OCS machine out was looking highly unlikely as simply getting in to steal it would be a great trick. Even in that case, they needed the patient. Trying not to draw too much suspicion, Diego kept driving hoping to park in a place that wouldn't look too suspicious for a van to park yet still had a decent view of the quarantine area.

As they moved, Diego turned to the others. "Was the number of the target in his records? If it is would it be possible to track his phone?", inquires Diego of Peter. Over the mental link, Diego added a little extra. I don't think it is a good idea for the driver to know our powers. So if possible make it look like you are doing mundane things and excuse the movements of your hands as your style if he inquires., transmits Diego.

Looking over to Iona now, Diego addressed the next task. "If we can find Jacob, would a motel suffice to do the procedure? We can get the cheaper ones where they don't care to ask questions.", asks Diego of Iona.

Military Expertise: 1D20+6 = [7]+6 = 13
to see if he would know anything on how the military would handle a quarantine situation.
Reroll as this info might be important.
Military expertise: 1D20+6 = [3]+6 = 9
so yeah only 19.
Stealth 13 hopefully nothing bad happens

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

Oh no. She sits silently, her eyes peering through the front windshield at the military and police presence lying between her comrades and the hospital.

OOC: "If we can find Jacob, would a motel suffice to do the procedure? We can get the cheaper ones where they don't care to ask questions, asks Diego of Iona."

The young cyborg wastes no time nodding in agreement. "Yes, the more isolated the motel the better. It might even be in our interest to pick a 'shady' area of town to do our business. That might insure that the police scrutiny is at a minimum."

But then her head turns to Diego. Her perfect, aquamarine eyes glittering even under the cover of the hoodie. "But finding an acceptable surgical location seems to be the easy part of our mission. How in the world can we get him out of there discreetly now? It looks to be better guarded than a prison."

Falling back on silence, she continues to stare into Diego's ruthless face. After a few seconds she speaks again. "Do you think they will keep the place on lock-down into the night? If so the patient should not be allowed to leave. Perhaps you alone could infiltrate the hospital under cover of darkness and extract him. Of course, we need to keep the van parked further away than we are now, and that could complicate your efforts."

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2

Peter shook his head. "All the hospital systems have been taken offline. The good news is that I remember our target's phone number from the records. I'll begin working on tracing his phone. We don't know if he is in fact, inside."

Peter brought up new windows and began working on the phone trace, so they could find out.

Intelligence: 1d20+8 22
Expertise: Computers: 1d20+16 32

[Sakuro]

You steer the car to a discrete location from which to monitor the scene. You have to get fairly far, as police are not allowing anyone within a block's radius of the hospital. Lingering in a parkinglot or off the sidewalk. You are able to go undisturbed for now, though the longer you remain in one place watching the higher the risk of drawing someone's attention. There are people and vehicles in the way, so watching from your current location does not ideal either. You at least get an exterior view of movements outside the security perimeter.

Diego's military experience doesn't extend that far into the medical realm. He does know that the National Guard isn't just a bunch of people carrying guns. They're often deployed to assist with disasters, to assist in engineering endeavors, and for medical or relief efforts. Diego is also aware that the CDC holds jurisdiction is this type of scenario, not the local police, and not the National Guard's command structure. While the police and National Guard are supplying martial manpower to contain the area Diego realizes that the Guard is also likely to be supporting the CDC's smaller specialized personnel with additional medical staff. Though he doesn't know much about the CDC's procedures he realizes that they won't just be working from the outside. They'll have people moving in and, depending on the reason the quarantine, out of the hospital.

Peter, recalling Jacob's personal cell number from a his personal file, runs the number through a GPS tracing program. In one window in his AR display Peter sees a map of the United States. A red dots overs over a midwestern location. Zooming in he narrows it down to the state of Kansas, then the city of Wichita. The red dot hovers over St. Luke hospital. He tries to zoom into the map more to get a more precise location for Jacob's cellphone but cannot. The tracking system itself isn't accurate enough.

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2

An unappealing result then. "It appears Jacob is within St. Luke's, but I cannot determine precisely where." Peter answered finally. "We will have to get inside, find him and somehow get out."