Dramatis Personae
Runners
“K”
Ivan the Jackle
Harmony Craig Bottow
Rolf Soren Ramis
Tobias Cheney
UltraBoy!
Others

The team reunites, and Tobias successfully ups the magnetism on UB!’s new oversized hand, similar to the work he did on HCB’s. UB! is still feeling weird about his completely mediocre date with Jaro. K is totally pumped on his new metamagic. Everyone else fills them in on the plan for the run-UB! got a parachute, as instructed, and they also stock up on thermite bars to cut through the shuttles. Ivan uses his knowledge of Mars maps to find a good spot to park, out in the desert, and covers the car with TA camo tarp that he has been saving for just such an occasion. K flies invisibly above, waiting to fly to the rescue. The team plans to go up and stop the first shuttle either via hacking or an EMP grenade, and then grappling gun over to the second shuttle, which they hope also to stop similarly.

Ivan and Tobais peruse some shuttle manufacturer websites, as well as general trid databases for any intel they can gather. Tobias cross references the shuttle number that Daedelus gave them with the manufacturing company on a matrix database, and finds some info out-the shuttle is probably sized to accomodate between 15 and 25 metahumans, and will have some sort of in atmosphere flight capabitlity. Good news, since HCB or Ivan can probably glide or fly it away from the spaceport, although that could mean a lot of TA goons.

Ivan then calls the spaceport, posing as a Renraku employee scared of flying, and eventually manages to navigate through a terrible matrix menu to get to a human operator, who he convinces to answer some of his questions. He finds out the the shuttles are not independently controlled, but are run up and down the monofil via spaceprt control (to make sure everything times out right), and that in the rare occasion of the a full stop on a line (usually triggered by birds flying into the lines and such) they can halt all shuttle movement from the central control. Hearing about the birds, he tells the other team members to get a netgun to blast into the second line, hopefully disabling it. The shuttles also have individual creches where people will spend their journey to Earth in a drugged sleep, ensconsed safely in gel, to avoid damage from high-g maneuvering. Also, passengers are required to enter their creches a few minutes before exiting atmosphere (at the leatest), which means the team aboard ther shuttle will be able to wander around freely until they make their exit.

Ivan successfuly infiltrates his firefly drone through outer spaceprt security and parks it watching the monofil wires for some much needed video surveillance. He and Tobias then re-enter the spaceport’s system throught the security-level backdoor that Tobias had left for them, and begin looking for ways to shut down the shuttles so that the team can jump across. They wait for the team to arrive and watch. Ivan sends the dragonfly up alongside the shuttles as they begin their ascent (the team’s shuttle is not going up for a bit yet, but the dragonfly is slower).

Meanwhile, Rolf, UB!, and HCB have arrived at the spaceport via autocab, Rolf has his lined bag (supposedly carrying corp secrets, according to their fake access codes) with a false bottom, containing two EMP grenades and the 4 thermite charges, as well as some narcoject arrowheads with a short, snapped-off shaft, just in case. Rolf and HCB get through security fine, but UB! gets pulled aside for questioning: it seems his boarding pass is out of order. He intimidates the clerk into letting him through, but Tobias and Ivan notice in matrix that UB! has been flagged for extra sedation on the ascent, and decide to try to turn off the sedative for all the team member creches. HCB puts on his parachute while in the waiting area, and a stewardess asks him what’s going on, to which he says he is scared of flying. She seems really weirded out, as do other passengers (for obvious reasons), and HCB decides to take it off again and stow it back in his bag. Tobias and Ivan notice he also gets flagged for extra sedation.

Small issues aside, they do all make their shuttle, and begin the ascent. Ivan notices another low level alert in the system, it seems his dragonfly has been spotted but not id’d as a drone yet. He ignores it for now. Tobias decides that gaining admin access is the only way to get to the nodes he needs to shut down the line from here, so he begins breaking in as Ivan tries to distract matrix security. Meanwhile, in the shuttle, Rolf is trying to surreptiously distribute the gear he brought aboard, although he is somewhat sabotaged by HCB freaking out his fellow passengers. After they complain, the pilot triggers another security alert, and an almost odorless gas begins entering the creches. The rest of the passengers calm down a bit, but HCB, smelling trouble (ha) exits his creche, and joins Rolf and UB! in the bathroom/kitchenette area. They all strap into parachutes and head for the door, as the pilot instructs everyone to enter their creches, for their own safety.

In matrix, Tobias punches through into Admin nodes, but sets off an alert in doing so: Ivan tries to make himself a target and distract the sytem security while Tobias spoofs the monofil brake node into thinking a bird (or something similar) hit the line, thus shutting it down. He then edits the node access history to disguise his activities, and jacks out. Ivan takes some damage from some Robocop looking IC, and hot dumps to avoid death. He hacks both his and Tobias’ datatrails, and then jumps back into the drone, to find it being assaulted as well: something is trying to come through the firewall. Ivan summons Tobias for aid, and readies himself.

The shuttle begins rapidly braking, and the 3 members aboard slam into the wall, taking some stun damage. The passengers begin panicking again, and a gas begins entering the whole cabin. HCB tells the others to hold their breath (although Rolf has an internal air supply), as the captain tells them that they really need to get to their creches while this is sorted out, as they are near the point where the trip gets bit rougher. They ignore him and bust out the thermite rods, netgun and grapple gun. The captain announces that security is now on its way, and instructs them to return to their creches. They slice throught the bulkhead, starting it burning in a few places, and then kicking the circle of metal out (and down), while holding their breath. Rolf takes two lucky shots with the netgun, and the second line begins to slow. They see their target shuttle (id’d by the numbers on the side) approaching, and HCB pegs it with the magnetized grapple gun. They prepare to jump over, and hopefuly be away ahead of security!

Meanwhile, another Robocop icon gets loosed in Ivan’s dragonfly, after something/one punches hole in the firewall, and it and Ivan begin to fight, while Tobias tries to look intimidatingly defensive in the background (unsucessfully).

Next time: So far, so good, but can they pull it off?