[aria]

[Friday March 19, 2077; Oakfarm Estate (Argent’s House), North Bellevue, Seattle]

Silk jolted out of VR to the sound of gravel scrunching under the heavy tyres of the two laden SUVs that powered up the drive. They clearly had a hacker on site to bypass Gossamer’s security so Silk took the precaution of hitting the virtual wifi kill button on her gear. Rolling away from her recliner she slipped stealthily out of the room, briefly regretting that she didn’t have her running gear to hand. Still, she was paranoid enough to at least have a firearm to hand and she eased the machine pistol in to a shoulder holster as she crept on all fours like a spider conscious all the time of her vulnerability. How could this be happening with no glimmer of it in the Pattern? She realised ruefully that she had come to rely on her gift of foresight and its failure shook her more than she would like…

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; Cirque de l’Ombre, Outskirts of Marrakech, Morocco]

Autocannon rounds slashed through the caravans in an arbitrary display of violent power. Circus folk scattered away from the sudden hail of ruin, futily trying to put some cover between themselves and the inbound helicopters.

Phoenix cast a powerful barrier around the ritual but it wilted under the sustained fire and his tattered body was bowled over in to the dust…Desire and the Child fled in to the astral away from the horror that tainted the manasphere around them.

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; The Gothicum (Southwark Cathedral), The Squeeze, London]

As the beam of the Firelance passed across the Old One’s hooded form he let out a roar that dwarfed even the explosions of moments before. Reality rippled as he resumed his natural form and the black dragon sprang from the courtyard. Spells and spirits scythed outwards in a scintillating wash of power and woe betide any that stood in their path…

#04

[aria]

@Jack: if you fancy a trip to Morocco could you adjust your SK meeting with the boss to the morning of the 20th? 🙂

[aria]

And so it begins… <evil grin>

[aria]

[Friday March 19, 2077; Aria’s Domain, Citadel Game Host, Seattle]

Suddenly the matrix environment shivers as if a minor earth tremor had swept across it. Aria looked up in apparent alarm

“Someone is doing a deep run on the Foundation! They want to destabilise the host…the timing is too convenient, whilst I have dealt with hackers in the past nobody is likely to try something as risky as this for a gaming site, it must be connected to our ritual. Go, I will deal with this…” and with that her persona had disappeared from the garden

“I…” was all Summer was able to say before her persona suddenly disappeared too leaving Silk standing alone. Concerned she sent a flurry of messages out to her network and to the other ritual sites and then disconnected from VR…

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; Cirque de l’Ombre, Outskirts of Marrakech, Morocco]

As the swirling mana kicked up dust devils around the ritual there was a sudden outcry from the circus folk and heads turned to the horizon where three matte black helicopters bearing SK insignia and AROs where approaching fast…the waspish and aggressive shapes felt threatening even at this distance and there was no mistaking their destination, there was nothing else of significance on this hilltop…

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; The Gothicum (Southwark Cathedral), The Squeeze, London]

With no warning, not even from the circling spirits that accompanied the mages below, the southern wall of the cathedral courtyard erupted in smoke and flame and raining debris…the gargoyle flock leapt into the air with a chorus of shrieks. X froze in surprise his eyes widening as they briefly had a chance to glimpse the reflected dazzle of the drone mounted Firelance laser as it bored a hole through his chest before sweeping on to its next target…

#03

[aria]

Glo
Tuesday, 26 November, 11:50; Storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex

“Will you be able to smuggle in a sufficiently big canister and dispersal system given the likely security? We may be able to introduce it via the air intakes on the roof if we can disrupt any airborne contamination sensors and filters…either way I trust you will have an epi pen with you for when our target succumbs?”

#31

[aria]

The further you go past dusk of the 19th (UK) the longer it’ll take to drag you back to the main action 😛

[aria]

@Mercy & all: post at will 😀

[aria]

That will be good to go once SG rematerialises, but I’m planning to do a recruitment drive so you’ll have time!

[aria]

We are rapidly approaching June when I said we’d kick off SoP in earnest… there are still some characters still to take fully fleshed form, so how soon do you all want to think about seriously getting going on this one? Particularly as SG is out for the count at the moment…

[aria]

[Friday March 19, 2077; Aria’s Domain, Citadel Game Host, Seattle]

Silk smiled a greeting to Aria and Summer as she appeared beside the limpid pools and swaying alien plants of Aria’s personal expanse. Aria was idly running her fingers through the mercury like liquid and inspecting the drops as they plunged back, somehow rippling inwards rather than the more conventional patterns of the mundane world. Although Silk couldn’t sense the Resonance the two technomancers before her would draw the skeins forth so that her own gift could sift through them…together they would trace the many paths of the digital future and feed the information to the other two rituals happening in England and North Africa…

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; Cirque de l’Ombre, Outskirts of Marrakech, Morocco]

The Child Seer began to hum, a tone more suited to her natural form than the disguise she wore for the benefit of the mundanes around her. The song wove its way in to the ritual as they teased at the Pattern…

***
[Friday March 19, 2077; The Gothicum (Southwark Cathedral), The Squeeze, London]

The magic flowed out and bound itself to the other two rituals as the Choir began this most important reading of the Pattern. X drew the mana in to the circle and channelled it through each of those present, his Chaos paradigm allowing him to manage the disparate traditions and even the non-magic users. And slowly but surely the possible futures were read, catalogued and the Darkness that was coming analysed, at least tentatively…danced around like a martial artist weighing his opponent…perhaps, just perhaps, a path could be found that would steer metahumanity along a precarious path to survival…

#02

[aria]

Glo
Tuesday, 26 November, 11:50; Storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex

“If this Ving Sung has the intel I require then I would like an opportunity to discuss it with him prior to his demise. It is a little difficult to interrogate someone who has been subjected to a large explosion. As to Lady T, it sounds like she is even better placed to get the mark on you two lifted if she is in bed with the person who called it. She is clearly a good manipulator, or considers herself to be one, and the intel I have on her suggests she might genuinely be trying to achieve her goal of reforming the 88s, however deluded that might be…”

#30

[aria]

Glo
Tuesday, 26 November, 11:36; Storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex

While Glo began the analysis of the intel that Tanya had sent to them she responded

>>I do not suggest that I will not work with you, simply that my skills do not lend themselves to guarding people, rather circumnavigating protections people have in place…The plans you have sent suggest a number of possible insertion points but the lack of a reliable internal layout is a problem and I would prefer to get a drone to recon the area ahead of time. But John is right, if we can get the target out of there and on the road he is a significantly more vulnerable target, as no doubt he knows. Is there a compelling reason that we can create to draw him from his nest?
>>Glo

#29

[aria]

Glo
Tuesday, 26 November, 11:36; Storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex

Glo shook her head in disbelief…there was confidence and then there was wilful disregard for the realities of a situation…Urban Brawl…there was a reason she tended to work alone clearly, this group dynamic was the craziest thing she had ever seen. But if it assisted her in her goal then she was willing to give it a go, she owed them nothing and she had her own brand of confidence in her abilities to walk away if their actions screwed things completely.

>>I prefer to work from the shadows and I believe I would be more effective there than in the open as a guard. Any info you have on the best way to penetrate the meet location would be helpful, or I can find my own way in…
>>Glo

#28

[aria]

Glo
Tuesday, 26 November, 11:36; Storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex

“That sounds like the beginnings of a plan at least. I have a data file from my infobroker which may have intel on where to track this man down…here, I will send it to you all, some of it makes for interesting reading, particularly in light of the stuff we gleaned from the 88s servers…”

And to Tanya

“You misunderstand, the programme is a training regime, one that should never have seen the light of day. I intend to bury the good doctor under it, and anyone who thinks to replicate it…”

[aria]

The equinox is always an important date 😀

[aria]

If you want to expand your post that’s ok, events in my opening IC clearly don’t directly impact on you. As I mentioned on SG I’d prefer to see posts from the other players before we get too far but I’m not sure I can restrain you for long 🙂

[aria]

I’ve updated the opening IC post so it actually has some IC in it 🙂

Not as long as I had at first envisaged but it will make the next bit all the more interesting! I can hang fire for further IC posts or put it up once it’s written, we’ll see how we go!

[aria]

No, I looked and couldn’t see it so maybe I didn’t do it correctly 😛

I think Mr J wants to run it on MythWeavers so may ask you to rename it 🙂

[aria]

I’ve begun the penning of the opening IC but want to work to make it suitably epic! If any of you want to begin to draft opening ICs then please make them just before the spring equinox 2077! March 19th… anywhere in the world is fine, I’ll find a way to drag you in 🙂

[aria]

Great. If you can move Triads and Tribulations somewhere we can all see it I will get things migrated from DS. On a side note Mr J seems to be struggling to make a user profile here, can you help?

Thanks