While you are waiting on the docks, a new message arrives from your employer. He'll be there in ten minutes, and will pay for dinner at a small corner cafe he gives the location on. He invites you to splurge, as it will be a busy night for all of you.

Searching through the matrix for information, Lady Tonight isn't able to find too much pertinent about the dock itself, although she's able to find a small piece of news related to a dock nearby. Some low-level executive from Ares is in town and has brought his private yacht with him, currently docked at that nearby pier. Going to the dock indicated in the message, each of the four of you arrive at a corner cafe still open for business. No one else is there, but the two people on duty are clearly eager for any customers to seat themselves. A new message arrives from this potential employer, stating he will be there in ten minutes and to get yourselves seated. Dinner will be on him.

Bod: 5 | Agi: 2(3) | Rea: 6 | Str: 3(5) | Wil: 3 | Log: 4 | Int: 4 | Cha: 2 | Edg: 1 Limits: Physical: 7 | Mental: 5 | Social: 4 | Astral: 5 Damage: Physical 0/13 | Stun 0/10 Initiative: 10 +1d6 | Rigger Initiative: 10 +1d6 Matrix AR: 10 +1d6 | Matrix Cold: 4 + DP +3d6 | Matrix Hot: 4 + DP + 3d6 Black not white-> That is one BIG trog! Well, it's time. Come on back Gail. He reaches up and opens a small door in the roof. It is not even big enough for one to put their head out of. A few seconds later a small dragon fly looking drone flies in and moves over to a shelf on the side of the vehicle. Luke closes the door and secures it. He then drives the truck over to the meeting. He places his helmet on his head and then gets out. He will keep his appearance hidden until he learns whether he can trust these guys and Mr. Johnson. Besides he feels safer in full armor. His outfit is a black leather outfit much like the large bikers and he has a black full helmet with blackened visor. Each hand sticking out of the sleeves is obviously cybernetic. Evening folks. I am Legion.

It was mid day as the sun was shining high in the sky, obfuscated by the Miami smog high above in the sky. As the sun beat down on him Blockade spread out a few engine parts and began to assemble them. The other much smaller troll by him watching him carefully as Blockade assembled the junked parts he had fished out of a dumpster. Beneath them was the frame to a smaller motorcycle that they had begun to put together on every visit. "Alright Vorrka. This is called a carburator. It mixes air and gasoline, sending that mix into the engine, and powering it." he began as he set the part in and watched the younger troll screw the bolts into their makeshift engine. "So it sits on top of the engine block?" the boy asked as he looked up with genuine interest a moment that made Blockade smile with pride as he nodded with genuine enthusiasm. The makeshift bike was a rat rod to be sure with every single part scoured, cleaned up, and fixed from dumpsters, junk yards, and bargain bins but it was the perfect project for a father and son to work on. He was about to continue the lesson when the message appeared in his augmented reality setup and he paused, reading through its contents before he heard the smaller trolls voice. "Dad? Something wrong?" the voice said, shaking him back into the real world. "Huh, oh yeah. Everything's fine. Just a job opportunity, Ill take a look at it after I take you back to your moms." The rest of the afternoon would be spent together, building the rat rod of a motorcycle and Blockade would drop his son off before going to the meeting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later that day the Harley rode along the road stopping at the dock, a huge troll dressed in bikers leathers and with a helmet with a tinted glass visor over his face, his long curved horns sticking out through hole he had cut in the material. The roar of his bike could be heard far off and it was intentional as he wanted to advertise his presence. The presence of a large, loud man, that none could easily ignore. The bike itself was an old Harley Davidson, rebuilt several times over the years and painted black with gold trim. Everything about it said it was the love of the man's life, clean and polished, running perfectly, and tuned up for his exact needs. The roaring engine shut off and the bike visibly lifted as the man stood, swinging one leg over the side before he stood at a full nine foot, two inches in height, not quite counting his long curved horns. The biker leathers hugged his frame tightly showing a man that was nothing but muscle from head to toe with the armored jacket over his heavy and well built frame. He reached down to his bike and picked up the combat ax securing it to his back with a long leather strap. Under his jacket was an FN HAR assault rifle that was not hidden well by any stretch of the imagination. The way he stood and held himself betrayed a man of discipline and consideration but as his helmeted head constantly looked around it also said he was careful, seeking out trouble. He paid special attention to the few who were gathered together and sized them up for a moment before he walked forward, not hiding his weaponry but not reaching for any either. He reached up flipping up the tinted visor of his motorcycle helmet as he looked at each of them, revealing his different colored eyes. One red, one blue. "Hmmmm none of you look like a Mr. Johnson. Must be some other runners. Names Blockade, nice to meet ya!" he says in a jovial and welcoming tone of voice that ran counter to the way he held himself in these circumstances.

Sounds good.

Trid Phantasm is a physical illusion spell. No, there's no limit to the number of hits you can roll on resistance against spells. You resisted the illusion and saw right through it. By the way, , I checked with some forum threads on the topic of illusions and drones. The consensus seemed to be that you'd use the full object resistance (15+) when affecting the drone directly, such as with a direct manipulation spell. If I'm only trying to fool the sensors (with illusions), you use the lower object resistance of 9.

Just to get some practice I added a couple of rolls to my last post. So to determine the maximum hits I can have for resisting a spell I use the Astral Limit, right? And is there any way to tell the dice roller that I can only have so many hits? Or do we just have to figure that out after the roll?

I am not sure of exactly how hard this drone would be to spot. I will have to look it up. What I do know is that it is a minidrone about the size of a bug, like a dragonfly and it is made to look like a bug. Currently Luke is jacked in to it and so almost all of its checks are made using his stats. If he was to make a resist check vs the illusion, would it be Illusion - Mana or Illusion - Physical. He has a pool of 7 and 8 respectively. So the good news is he can't buy a success, he would have to roll. 😉

How hard is it to spot the drones? Can someone ( ? ) help me with the interpretation of rules on drones perception vs illusions? If no one is plugged into the drone at the moment, it appears to use Object Resistance, right? If someone is plugged in, does it still use the object resistance? I'm also unsure what object resistance to use. The table on p295 lists "sensors" at 9, but "drones" at 15+. Since I am only attempting to fool the sensors, do I use the 9, then? Honestly, if it's 15+ that makes it almost impossible to reliably use illusions against drones. I have gone hyper specialized into Illusions at a dice pool of 17, but I may get myself killed if I go beyond force 7, which becomes the limit for the number of hits I can get. I think I remember from the 3rd edition rules that Regeneration would not heal damage from physical drain. I haven't read that rule in the 5th edition, but I assume it's still the case.

, Fox shapeshifter Bod 3 Agi 3 Rea 5 Str 1 Wil 5 Log 2 Int 7 Cha 6 Edg 2 Mag 7 Limits, Mental 6 Physical 4 Social 8 Damage, Physical 0/10 Stun 0/11 Perception, Astral 12 Scent 15 Visual 11 Audio 14 (can hear Ultrasonic) After getting a good sniff, Pup looked around the astral for any spirit that could she could ask for the lay of the land. It would also give her a clue if the spirit was friendly or not. She lay down for a moment to dart out of her body, examining all living things nearby. OOC This is typically a post where I'd wait for GM feedback after each action, so I'll just state my intentions here. Perception by mundane means; scent, visual, audio. Astral perception without leaving the body. If there are nearby spirits except the one Pup brought, try to speak with them. Astral projection, darting around to get a feel for the surroundings and all creatures nearby. Contact spirits, if any. Assensing on any nearby living creatures or spirits. Return to the meat body after finishing the task.

Yeah, it's not a hard illusion to see through at force 3. You resist with Intuition + Logic, or Object Resistance for items, I think. +2 from Mentor spirit, too. Pretty much as high as it gets. Now, if only I could resist all the drain that inevitably comes my way...

Ah, so if I understand it right then if I tried to resist the magic, it would be my hits vs her 3 hits and I would have to get at least 4 to see through the illusion? Or do I just need to tie it?

So, with magic you have two different pools of dice. The first is the pool with which you actually cast the spell (via declaring force, etc etc). That's derived from your skill with Spellcasting, and your Magic attribute. In this case, iirc, Pup has a magic of 7 and a skill rating of 6, with spec for Illusion spells, for a total casting pool of 15. Once it's cast, she then has to roll for spell drain, aka the "headache" mentioned in an earlier post when she tried and failed to summon a beast spirit the first time. This pool is derived from the caster's "tradition" aka the lens through which they focus their power. Pup's tradition of "Red Magic", centered around beast spirits, uses Intuition + Willpower as that pool. In both cases, the 1:4 ratio of bought hits to dice in the pool would leave both pools with 3 hits total.

Bod: 5 | Agi: 2(3) | Rea: 6 | Str: 3(5) | Wil: 3 | Log: 4 | Int: 4 | Cha: 2 | Edg: 1 Limits: Physical: 7 | Mental: 5 | Social: 4 | Astral: 5 Damage: Physical 0/13 | Stun 0/10 Initiative: 10 +1d6 | Rigger Initiative: 10 +1d6 Matrix AR: 10 +1d6 | Matrix Cold: 4 + DP +3d6 | Matrix Hot: 4 + DP + 3d6 Black not white-> Luke watches the two new arrivals. That is either one of the best trained dogs he has ever encountered or there is something more to that mutt. Most dogs he has encountered were not able to ride on motorcycles. And then the dog sort of drops and appears to go to sleep. Some guard dog that is! He holds his spot in his truck and waits to see if anyone else shows up. Once it gets within 10 minutes of the meet time he will bring the drone back to the truck and then walk over to join the others.

I am trying to figure out what this means. Granted I have not read over the magic rules. Just finished the Matrix rules and am in the middle of the Rigger rules. I have read them before but it has been a long time and I wanted to reread and see what major screw ups I made. 😉 Not sure what casting at force 3. I think that buying 3 hits was referencing how you can buy hits at the cost of 1 hit per 4 dice in the pool. So that would give you 3 successes, right? Not sure what the 3 hits to reduce the drain to 0 means. It sounds like you burned 3 of your hits to reduce the drain. But that would mean you dropped your hit total to 0 which would mean the spell failed. What am I missing? Also does everyone who sees the illusion get to try to resist it? Or is it only if they have some reason to doubt what they are seeing? Just to be clear, I am not trying to mess up your actions. I am trying to understand them.

You can roll when you want to if you feel it's in character for your character to be searching for details. I'll roll it versus hidden things happening. So #4 pretty much.

How would you like us to do perception? You handle it, no need for anything from us. You handle it, but we should list our perception-related dice pools somewhere easily available, like our header. You roll for us when there are hidden stuff happening, but we can also request additional rolls when we want to be extra vigilant. You roll for us when there are hidden stuff happening, but we can also roll ourselves in the post without asking for permission first. I am sure there are more variants, just tried to list the more obvious alternatives.

, Dryad Street Samurai Bod 3 Agi 7(9) Rea 4(6) Str 4 Wil 3 Log 2 Int 4 Cha 5 Edg 1 Limits, Mental 4 Physical 6 Social 7 Damage, Physical 0/10 Stun 0/10 Initiative 10+3d6 Kamikaze+Narco: Bod +2, Agi +2, Str +3, Wil +2, Physical Limit +2, High Pain Threshold 3, +2d6 initiative dice The dryad, now glamoured up, smiled at Pup and gave her a scratch. "Nah, just ... 'professional skepticism' is the best way to put it. You're getting better at these illusions. Well done!" A small mote of pride resonated down the mindlink. She'd gotten used to how Pup weaved her spells, after a bit of initial apprehension. Llorona had a ... spotty history with magic, summoned spirits especially, but she wasn't about to let her baggage stunt her charge's growth. "Go ahead and take a look around in the Astral, just like we practiced. I'll be here with your body." With that, Llorona settled in to protect Pup's physical form, her eyes scanning the surrounding area while her hands rested close to her Savalette Guardian and combat knife, both ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. OOC Not able to access my sheet at the moment, need to tally a few modifiers and the like, but Llorona is doing meatspace visual Perception.

So I've been trying to write this program to estimate when I should change my kid before I need to change him right? Oh btw, I got someone from your way looking to hire some matrix muscle. I sent it to you right now. No way Cat is gonna let me go that far to avoid babysitting. -Slamm-o! Good timing, was just about to look for work. I distinctly remember Clockwork posting something about a new Genescaping product from Renaku coming online in about six weeks. I'm sure there's a code variance there you could tweek into something close to what you're looking for. Happy wife, etc etc etc. I'll look into it. I'm sure you've fully vetted them and everything. Thanks Chum. -Spirit So, Slamm-o! had something for me? That was interesting. I've been a member for nearly a year and this is the first job sent my way. I guess I'm coming up in the Matrix world. Spirit chuckled to himself. As he woke up to his annoying alarm, he got down to business. Closing his eyes, he did a quick diagnostic of his cyber systems. Long ago, the first thing he would do would be a long, long stretch in the mornings. Now, he first had to make sure his limbs were working properly, articulation, senses, weapon systems. Then he had to run a diagnostic of his deck and outlying accouterments like his satellite linkup, and offline data bases. Next came the checking of each module. One at a time he would pull the connector out of the back of his head and slip in another. Each time running diagnostics and filters. Harding Module: check (get through this you black IC jacknugget) Vectored Signal Filter: check (no more fighting for signal in the clubs for me) and his baby. Multidimensional Coprocessor (he loved saying that word out loud): Very Check People used to rub the sleep out of their eyes, now we spray Windex on it. He thought to himself as he reached for the Windex bottle by his bed. Eyes now. Thermographic: (he watched as his left arm and bed glowed softly but his right arm hung dull and lifeless except for pockets of electrical buzzing) check Low Light: check Vision Magnification: 1 check 2 check 3 check (at three he realized he really really needed to vacuum) Vision Enhancement: check Flare Compensation: (he watched his vision dull tremendously and then come back) check Smart Link: (he took the holdout from under his pillow, mentally clicked it to smartlink, then watched the red dot on his vision as he scanned the room. Boom, dead camera, boom, dead trideo player, boom dead Roomba) "damned roomba should be dead for letting this floor get so messy" Check One by one his cyber systems and computer controllers were checked. It didn't take long as he was used to it. But sometimes they downloaded updates which tended to carry more bugs than fixes and he'd know he'd be spending the first couple of hours each day "fixing" their fixes. Things never change and SOTA can kiss his hoop. Next, messages: "Ah, Jeremy Stonecrow has another consulting job at that plant. Strange how they seem to ignore his advice and are then willing to pay him another 5k just to tell them the same thing again. Seems like JackPoint! is updating again, hmmm apparently it was last night. Wow that sleep regulator helps me get work done! I guess I'll update my account with them and upload my latest Lone Star Vehicle Registration work around. People always get a kick out of those. Melissa got home safely. There's a reason I pay the I-fivers to watch her home. I guess I owe them another ATM crashing chip. Maybe I'll do a United Oil one this time. Spam, Spam, Publisher's Clearing House? Time to reset my filters again." As Spirit switched to cold sim, an icon of a ghostly owl slowly made itself seen. As it lightly landed on his Cherokee Warrior Icon's wrist, he stroked its feathers and lightly scratched under its beak. "Bubo, report." The owl fluffed a little and said in a kid's voice, "Dude! We had a wanna-be hacker loser from one of the no-name matrix gangs sniffing around your perimeter. I fed him some advertisements for Jeremy and asked him to become a subscriber and he bolted!" The owl's eyes squinted in mirth. "Also, I got a few more hits on the keywords you were looking for, I uploaded them to your offline storage. Groceries are due to be delivered today, the auto receiver is set to distribute them to the fridge, freezer, and cabinet as usual. You should really cut down on the caffeine you know, not good for you." Bubo admonished his master. Spirit rolled his virtual eyes. Why he thought it would be fun to put a kid's voice and slang on his agent he had no idea, but it did seem to fit. As they walked around his jungle home system, he went through his mental log. recheck the MAD scanner on his home cameras. run another diagnostic on his new programs to get the last of the tracer code out of it. spend more time on his pet project (the same one all deckers have, upgrading their decks) "Oh, and put the Roomba on double shifts until this floor is clean. Someone has been slacking. Also," he thought to himself, " do a check on Slamm-o!'s contact and see what this job is about. Upload the details and location to my online storage so I can grab it later. One last thing: check out that sniffer. If he looks promising, keep tabs on him. Maybe we can help him out if he has skills." Petting his owl again, he prepared to switch back to his system. "Yessire, No prob bro. I'll keep you jumping!" And with this, his teenage ghost owl vanished. He then looked through the trees to see if he could spot his Panther. Yep, barely though, just the eyes. Maybe he could do something about that. Noticing that it was noticed, the panther shot down from the branch and landed at his feet. Absently stroking its neck, he said "Kitana, report." In a sultry feminine voice, she said, "I am almost done re-calibrating your commlink protocols and have put your attack programs through your testing regimen. Why you do that so often, I have no idea. The home security is still at optimal levels. Lone Star drones were seen about three blocks northwest, they coordinated with a suspected BTL ring that was hit not from from there last week. I checked with dispatch and they are just combing the area in case more buyers show up late. It should be nothing but I'm keeping an eye on them. It has been nearly a month since we had to fry a console cowboy and my claws are getting dull." She looked accusingly at him as she cleaned her paws for a second. He took a knee and hugged her for a second. As she began to purr, he said "I have a contact who needs something done. I am going there tonight to find out what. Most likely, my little Kit will get her claws dirty." She smiled and sauntered off into his jungle. He smiled. Things were going well. Popping out the sim, he started towards the shower. Unlike a lot of deckers, Spirit reveled in the feelings of a physical body. While not the most muscular of specimen, he was solid and virtually hairless. Of course, the fire had had a lot to do with that. They can grow you new skin, but often they have no follicles as it's considered pointless. Still, he did the typical male thing of flexing for a moment in the mirror before going in. Some things are expected. Now that he was fully aware, Spirit started looking at his spam folders... How did this get passed my filters? Popping back into cold sim, Spirit started a trace. Then, he contacted his agents. Bubo, report. : Sorry boss. Didn't catch this one till it was unfiltered, HAH! I'll try to track it down. But, if you want the job, looks like you gotta have a little faith. He sped off into the matrix to do what he did best. Kit? Yes? Go over our firewall again please. I don't like uninvited guests. It will be as you say. Logging out, Spirit said to himself, "It may be time to wake up Ursa." Looking at his time display, he noted it was early afternoon. I decided that he'd eat something and go ahead and scope out this meeting. You never knew, and 15k¥ was 15k¥.

, Fox shapeshifter Bod 3 Agi 3 Rea 5 Str 1 Wil 5 Log 2 Int 7 Cha 6 Edg 2 Mag 7 Limits, Mental 6 Physical 4 Social 8 Damage, Physical 0/10 Stun 0/11 While Isadora got ready, Pup tried to call one of her friends to tag along in case they needed help. Not only were they busy, Pup messed up the summoning to leave her with a bit of a headache. She was uncharacteristically silent while her her mistress prepared everything. Once the headache had subsided, Pup tried again, undeterred by her earlier failure. This time she got a good call out, and a spirit of beasts showed up. It complained a bit that it had been busy, but was willing to help Pup out, provided she played with it later. Pup eagerly agreed and gave the spirit a good lick, which it didn't seem to mind at all. She asked the spirit to guard them against mishaps. A fox and a dryad climbed onto a motorcycle. A punk and a bulldog stepped off. While riding, Pup had weaved an illusion around them, concealing their real appearances. It wasn't her best illusion, but it would, as Fox put it, keep them guessing. She took in the scents as they looked around the area. Some were familiar, though stronger than usual, such as the scent of salt from the sea. Others, not so much. She wanted to run around and take a good sniff, but maybe that was a bad idea? Isadora looked a bit tense. Pup pushed her body against her mistress, trying to offer her comfort. "Are you scared? I'm not scared. Not while you're with me," she eloquently shared her thoughts. "Want me to fly around and have a look?" she asked her mistress, "I mean, Astrally? Though I can also do it physically if you prefer." OOC Summoning a Spirit of Beast, force 3 with the optional power Guard. Got no net hits, so no spirit. And then I take 2 points of stun damage. Yay! Since they had some time to kill, Pup rests for 2 hours to recover from her stun damage. The second summoning was a lot more successful, yielding 3 net services. Spending one service to ask it to Guard Llorona and herself. Casting Trid Phantasm at force 3 to mask their real appearances. Buying 3 hits on (the limit) on the spellcasting, and 3 hits to reduce drain to 0. Sustained by Illusionist. Also keeping extended Mindnet up at force 2, sustained by her Focused Concentration. Trying to pick up as much information as possible with her senses, particularly with her scent.

, Dryad Street Samurai Bod 3 Agi 7(9) Rea 4(6) Str 4 Wil 3 Log 2 Int 4 Cha 5 Edg 1 Limits, Mental 4 Physical 6 Social 7 Damage, Physical 0/10 Stun 0/10 Initiative 10+3d6 Kamikaze+Narco: Bod +2, Agi +2, Str +3, Wil +2, Physical Limit +2, High Pain Threshold 3, +2d6 initiative dice When Pup sees Isadora's aura through the astral, as she likely had several times before, she'd see very clearly that it was ... dull, almost like the outline had been hollowed out and replaced with something else. The dryad's astral imprint was almost as dull as the metal of the weapon she'd recently held, except for a few tendrils of greenish light that intertwined through the grey, like vines through concrete. The light tendrils began to lose their green glow, looking for all the world like they were sickly and withering. They usually only did that when Isadora couldn't sleep at night, when she woke up with a cold sweat and heavy breathing, with the scent of panic, fear, and rage pungent around her. She usually dismissed it as bad dreams to Pup. Fortunately, those things had happened less frequently ever since Pup had taken up residence with her. As the fox shifter licked the dryad's chin, however, the light of the tendrils came surging back, as Isadora laughed and scratched Pup on the back of the head, smiling. "I'm fine, docinho. Just thinking about some things." Things you'll never have to worry about, not if I can help it, she carefully didn't say, or project through the mental link. "Let me get my things ready, and I'll get you a treat before we head out, yeah? Speaking of which, we need to get you a commlink, and more importantly teach you how to use it..." A few hours and a favorite treat later, a black and gold Suzuki Mirage carrying an elf-looking Latina woman and a canine form approaches the dock location specified in the message. They arrive a few minutes early, stopping a bit away to get a better view of the place.

, Fox shapeshifter Bod 3 Agi 3 Rea 5 Str 1 Wil 5 Log 2 Int 7 Cha 6 Edg 2 Mag 7 Limits, Mental 6 Physical 4 Social 8 Damage, Physical 0/10 Stun 0/11 Pup's tail was wagging. Hear that, Fox? It's time! she called out to her mentor spirit. Fox didn't immediately answer, but that wasn't uncommon. Maybe he was asleep or busy; he'd appear as suddenly as he'd disappear when he felt like it. "Yes! Shadowrunning! I remember. I want to go!" Pup could see that Isadora's aura flickered a bit, appearing a bit darker than before. Why? What was wrong? The fox darted around the table and gave her a lick on her chin. "Are you hurt somewhere? Or sad?" she asked. She examined her fingers to make sure the dryad hadn't cut herself with the sword. Cutting her nose on it once had been enough to teach her that it was scary. But her mistress liked it, so Pup hadn't thrown it away. OOC With 13+ dice on perception tests, you're going to struggle to hid things like that, but you can reasonably easily talk your way out of it.

Nyx Phys [ ][ ][-1][ ][ ][-2][ ][ ][-3] { Bod 1 Agi 3 Rea 2 Str 3 Wil 6 Log 4 Int 2 Cha 6 Edg 1 Mag 5 } Stun [ ][ ][-1][ ][ ][-2][ ][ ][-3][ ][ ] "Record: Are you sure sending the b--" Nyx was talking but stopped mid message to declare something in Sperethiel, backing up from the windows in the lobby. It certainly attracted some attention. "Sorry. I forgot my anti-allergens, that's all. Please carry on with your day." the message continued recording her voice as she pushed her way past some wary blobs of life. When the blobs stopped moving and turned towards you, you knew they were looking. "Just let me know if anything seems strange. I can feel the eyes on me from all these diurnal's. You'd think they'd never seen someone with a coat of fur before. Send." Nyx finished the voice recording. A brief shake of her head at her own outburst was allowed to herself before resuming the quiet and stoic appearance she tried to keep in public environs. Nyx was small by human standards, let alone an elf, so she tried to do all she could to make herself look as... Mystique as possible. The everyday mugger wasn't likely to try his luck with someone so blatantly magically able. Even if her magical abilities started and stopped at the most basic of combat spells. Still, Nyx carried on, passing over the strange, unnatural feeling of sidewalk and road alike. The solitary elf had wandered her way to a (thankfully sheltered) station, awaiting one of the many trains. Surrounded by the blurry sensations of others. "Record: Do you know if there are others? Sounds like a big get together. Something you would need catering for more than two people. Send." That was about the extent of her questions for Lady Tonight, for the most part Nyx preferred to remain quiet, she had the nasty habit of drawing attention. Though that was the downside about peacocking: Scare off smaller problems, attract larger, more social ones.

Realized I did not have a credstick, so I went ahead and purchased one and updated the file.

Lady Tonight gets the call in the Matrix. She's standing on a virtual boat, surrounded by pillars of light that display moving datafeeds. She's been browsing the CarribNet for interesting stories, flicking through amateur trid recordings for something interesting to work with for her next show. It's not too encouraging. Terrible shots, uninteresting fights, vague objectives. Some days, you just get bad material. You just have to try and make it work. That's when, amidst the field of screens, a bird chirps. It's technically an alarm. A comm message from an unknown sender is... concerning. But Tonight's eyes narrow as she reads it over. A payday is a payday. Even a fraction of fifteen thousand nyuen would be useful. It's why she'd been looking into it as a sideline. She pulls up an image of the dockside. Not the ideal location for a meeting. Lots of spots to hide people, a fair distance to get away. She'd have preferred a nice public spot, hide in the crowd, but odds are good this is an outsider. UCAS folk have all sorts of strange ideas about how shadow business is supposed to work. The second message takes her aback, but only for a second. Tonight's digital self chuckles at the barn owl icon she'd assigned the Tir-born traveller. ["You too, huh Nyx?"] She watches in a side view as her camera drone starts buzzing its way towards the pier, ready for a preliminary scan. ["I'm about to start digging up detail on it. If you know anything, it'd really help. Nothing obvious to go with for now. But I can still make the meat meet after pulling that, and I'll send Badda-Boom ahead. If you're showing in person, least I can do is have your back."] The heavier combat drone starts to whir, slowly following its lighter cousin towards the pier. It'll hang back, not wanting to worry civilian traffic, but it's better to have it at a higher altitude ahead of time than right with her going through the streets. For now, Tonight turns her attention to a search bar. It's a guess, but if we're going to the docks, this is probably water work and the message mentions liberation. Any targets of note going to be on the waves tonight?If I can work out the target, I could maybe backwork to identify potential employers.