Later that night, we met up at a warehouse that Babydoll managed to rent out in Redmond. The neighborhood was shitty, and there were signs of recent fighting on full display. According to Babydoll, one of the local gangs was running a ‘protection’ racket, looking to take tolls from some of the people passing through. One of their prospective ‘protectees’ had a grenade launcher, and no qualms about using it. There were pieces of the gangers splattered all over, they said. Of course, the dumb slot who went around using that artillery found out that bikes don’t protect you against guns all that well, and are even worse at stopping people from throwing grenades back at you.
Babydoll didn’t outright say that the idiot involved was a player, but we all knew that was definitely a ‘player’ kind of play. Some people needed more help than others adjusting to the fact that this game wasn’t going to let you just roll around killing all the mobs you could see as you went grinding for XP. Shadowmen’s developers straight up laughed at those people and told them to enjoy rerolling.
Anyways, that’s why rent on this warehouse we were in was only a couple hundred a month. Not a bad deal, all told. And plenty of room for all the rides, too, which was a big plus. I’m pretty sure that Babydoll was already thinking about what she could do to add a couple drones to the place to add to the security, even when she wasn’t present.
A main base we could all meet at was probably a good idea. Something to think about in the future. For now, we would just move from place to place as was convenient.
“How did it go?” I asked as I walked up to the table where Babydoll, Twilight, and Shadowgirl were looking over the data from their initial reconnaissance. Sexkitten and Berzerker trailed behind me, offering a cheerful nod to the women as they gathered around the table.
“Ah, Icy. Good timing,” Babydoll said. “Been looking over the drone footage. Like we expected, nothing fancy about the facility on the outside. Security fence is chain link, with razorwire and sensors. Not exactly high security, but it’ll keep out random thieves. Gate is kept shut at night. Chain and padlock. Nothing too crazy, but we’d need bolt cutters to get through it, unless someone wants to play locksmith.”
“Would it stand up to one of the vans?”
“Hehe. You mean just crash through, and to hell with it? Yeah, that’d work. Berzerker’s van would be best for that, since she’s got that thing armored to hell, but unless there’s something about that gate that I’m not seeing from the footage, then even my van could do it, no problem. Like, the vehicle would need to resist maybe four or five damage, and mine would be rolling twenty-six dice to deal with it. Berzerker’s would be going for thirty-six. So long as Twilight and I can watch the Matrix, then I’ll start worrying about those vans when people bring out anti-vehicle ammo or the rocket-propelled grenades, and not before.”
“Works for me. Then we’ll crash Berzerker’s van right after the gangers start their part of the show. Berzerker, Sexkitten, and I go in through the front, guns hot, shooting the shock ammo.”
“About that,” Twilight cut in. “How did the meet with the gangers go?”
“Well enough,” I nodded. “Sexkitten and I made contact with one of the Reality Hackers, going by the charming name of Slitsplitter.” There derisive snorts from the other women, and I had to grin. “Yeah, but that’s gangers for ya. Especially the kind that meet at a virtual sex club where they were about to spit and roast a girl on stage. Not exactly a high society type.”
“As if any of us could count as high society,” snickered Babydoll. I cleared my throat, causing her to look my way. She blinked, and then said, “No way! Really?”
“When you get to checking on the in-game history, the elven country of Ola Serin, in what used to be Oregon, went through a bit of a revolution during the Crash. Some nobles found it distinctly unhealthy to remain in the country, and so made their way out of the country, trying not to make waves until some of the vengeful peasants forgot about their grudges.”
“So, you’re telling us that not only are you one of the few men from the Beta, but you’re freaking elf nobility?” Twilight’s voice was incredulous, but then, it wasn’t hard to see where she was coming from.
“I’m not slated to log out for about eleven and a half months, unless some emergency causes shit. So, sue me if I decided to enjoy myself.”
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“Anyways, the Reality Hackers are set up to smash and grab?”
Babydoll was quick to keep the conversation on track, and I had no objections. Nodding, I said, “Yeah, two nights from now, we give them a call, and they’ll storm the outer network, tag, loot, pillage, all that fun stuff. Got them to promise no black ice attacks, so we shouldn’t lose the bonus.”
Twilight got her head back in the game, and said, “I’ve already slipped into the outer network. They didn’t notice me as I slipped in, so no problem, there. I’ve already set up a hacked account for Sexkitten to access. It will log into the accounting node directly, since that is where it last was. There’s a slush fund there, to be used for extra marketing campaigns, reshoots, or any of that other stuff. There’s 1.2 million nucred in it. Chump change, for movie budgets, but split six ways, that ain’t bad at all for some extra pay.”
I caught the catgirl’s eye. “You’ll need to transfer to the certified credsticks one at a time. Shouldn’t take too long. Basically plug and play, but you’re not going to be shooting during that time.”
“Sure, I can do that. We try and take out all the guards, first?”
Twilight frowned. “Well, there’s limits to what I can do, but I can probably rig a few ‘malfunctions’ and ‘accidents’ to happen when the distraction starts. Fry a maglock or two to lock people in the rooms they’re in. It’ll get blamed on the hackers actively wrecking shit on the network.”
“Good call, Twilight.” I took a breath, and said, “So, you’re set up for the outer network, the slush fund is ready to drain, and we have an account ready to log into. We can probably fry a couple doors to make things hard on the corpsec and keep any late workers in place. What about the infiltration? How will that affect you and Shadowgirl’s part in this?”
Shadowgirl spoke up. “I’ve been looking over the plans for the site. There is a building coming up close to the property line. Bit of a gap between the wall and the fence, but I’m pretty sure I can clear the distance if I jump from the roof of the other building. That’s a fall of eight or nine meters, and I’d need to get three meters out to miss the fence. Rough, but doable, especially if Twilight loops the sensors.”
“You’ll be fine with a drop from that height?”
“One of my adept abilities lets me drop eight meters without even feeling it. So long as you give me some help beforehand, I’ll be good.”
“Good to know,” I nodded. “What about on the inside? Have you and Twilight gone over the building plans?”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, bringing up three-dimensional image on the table display. “As you can see, the building is a three-story affair, plus two basement levels. First floor is where accounting and other business offices is. Both basement levels are full AR environments, where the workers do their thing. Fortunately, these floors are almost completely disconnected from the outer network, and they have strict controls on external devices, so any of the artists and editors still working will not be getting messages from the outside, unless someone comes on the intercom for them. Should be able to disable the elevator and the maglocks on the stairs.”
“Third floor is executive territory, obviously. Where the big guys who get the big money make all the big decisions. Blah, blah, blah. Second floor is where the real action is, for us. Security office, server space, tech office, and more. Basically, all the people who make the place work, and the tech they need to actually make it work.”
“So, our going to Accounting will draw any guards who aren’t trapped elsewhere away from the server room?”
“Yeah, that looks like it will work out fine.”
“Question,” Berzerker cut in. “Why are the servers on the second floor? I understand not putting them up with the executives, but why not on the first floor, or underground?”
“That’s actually mentioned in the building plans, since the facility was built post-Crash. Actually ties into why all the people doing the work are in the basement, and accounting is on the first floor.”
“Let me guess. Corporate impact study said it would be cheaper?”
Twilight actually smiled as she pointed at me. “Got it in one. You can’t use just your handheld commlink for the kind of work needed for editing, digital effects, and all the other stuff that goes into a movie. Not nearly enough power. So, you need a nexus, which is a fancy way of saying a server farm. Way more processing power, and usually much nastier IC than you’ll see on any home node. The outer network is running on a bog-standard corporate net. Technically a nexus, but not all that powerful. The inner network? Its big sister, and she’s a beast, if I’m reading the specs right.”
A spec sheet came up on the display, for something called a Ritsuhama Sentinel (Custom). “What am I looking at, Twilight?”
“This is the spec sheet for the Nexus. To drop it into game terms, Matrix attributes are 4 across the board out of 6 for civvie stuff, except for the Firewall, which is a 5. Can host up to thirty people in the node at the same time, not break a sweat, running up to fifty programs at once. Some of those are guaranteed to be IC. I’ll need to go slow, and probably going to need a sprite or two to help cover my back when I go in.”
“All right. Do you need to be nearby for that?”
“No. Probably better if I’m not, actually. If they manage a backtrace, it’ll still give us time to split before they can get to me.”
“Right. We’ll find a nice parking garage to park the vans at, and let you do the final intrusion from there, then.”
“Both vans?” Berzerker asked. “What for?”
“Because if the corpsec or Knights come calling, we’ll have two different targets for them to chase, both of which will have ways of making them rethink their life choices. Or are you saying you wouldn’t like an excuse to fire your machine gun out the back door at some cop cars?”
“Aw, shucks. You know just how to get a girl’s heart racing, Sir.”
I just grinned back at her, before looking at the group. “So, two nights from now, we make our ‘distraction’ strike, and maybe get some creds while we’re at it. Shadowgirl should be able to get in the building with Twilight’s help, no problem. Once that is done, everyone splits, and in the morning Twilight starts working on the main run.”
“I can start probing right after the distraction run. Don’t need to wait.”
“If the system is as tough as you say, then you’re going to want a sprite with you, which is going to hit you like a brick. Means you’ll want to rest up a bit and remove some of that damage. And even if you get the sprite, no problems, I want you going into that node fresh, meaning at least eight hours sleep, and preferably a full meal between when we finish the distraction and when you start working.”
“You’re not my dad!” She immediately blushed a bright red when she realized what she said.
I smirked back at her. “You can call me Daddy if you want, but you’re right, I’m not your father, I’m your teammate, and I’m looking out for what is best for the team. Which means making sure our Matrix maven is bringing her A game.”
“Hmph. Fine!” She said, trying to cover her embarrassment.
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