[Quick summary: Kurt successfully infiltrated the convention and put a bug patch on a Vanguard employee's computer. However, the employee watched T.V. for a while before using the computer, so Kurt snuck out. A few hours later the guy logged in and Kurt picked up the login and password through the bug still on the guy's computer.] [Kurt's remaining objectives (if he follows orders): To infiltrate the facility, find the computer hub, put the ward generator on a mainframe, slip in a bit of cybermage-ware once the mystical security is temporarily down.] [At that point he should grab the ward generator and get out. Ideally he shouldn't be seen at all, backup plan is to be seen as the other ninja and provide misdirection as to his objective (e.g. blow stuff up).] [Resume!] * Kurt heads now for the main building, where all the mystical super-processing and computing stuff takes place. Too bad he doesn't get to blow shit up. [The main headquarters is a fairly new building, one tall central tower matching but not exceeding the height of the surrounding sky-scrapers.] [It has four attached smaller building, one on each side, each connected to the main building by skywalks on multiple levels.] [The complex takes up more than a city block, but there is direct street access to entrances.] [There's obvious multi-level gardens on higher levels with mirrored walls.] [End descript.] * Kurt heads for the main access to the central building, conveniently getting "lost" in a crowd while crossing the street. [Stealth concealment roll. -4 bonus, because there's a lot of people.] [Time: 1600 Local, the streets are fairly bustling, though not as crowded as when work gets out.] [Not only is Kurt unobtrusive as he approaches, he manages to keep other people between him and the suspected location of security cameras.] [The main entrance has a good number of conventional and revolving doors opening to a lush lobby. There's a large reception desk, a fair number of discrete security guards, and a good number of monitors showing commercials or infomercials about vanguard's products.] * Kurt heads into the library, already in disguised disguise, and looks around for a restroom. There's always a restroom near a lobby. [There's a holo display in the center of the lobby cycling currently showing a new satellite and giving technical information. Given what you know of holo projection tech that was probably hideously expensive.] [Kurt finds a bathroom fairly quickly. There's an older Chinese man washing his hands at the moment, a younger man is using one of the urinals.] * Kurt heads for one of the stalls, looking around discreetly for any cameras. [There's about six stalls and another six urinals (with dividers). The floor and walls are tile and quite clean.] [Visual awareness check. +2 for discretion.] [There's cameras in the light fixtures. They do provide a view into the stalls.] [Oh, and if you want, give me a +6 visual check.] [You think you can see some text written on the side of the camera, but you manage to get spots in your eyes when trying to read it, that'll take a minute or two to wear off.] * Kurt shrugs and does his business at a urinal, washes his hands thoroughly, and exits the restroom. [The didn't wash is hands alarm is not set off.] (Joke. :P) [A few business men come in an seem ready to hurriedly brush past Kurt as he leaves.] * Kurt stands aside for the men. [The older of the two goes for a stall, the younger to a urinal, both seem in a bit of a hurry.] [There might be a camera blind spot, but you aren't sure enough to feel confident where it would be.] * Kurt walks out of the bathroom and through the lobby as though he knows exactly where he's going now. (Performing arts roll (acting) -4 bonus as this is just body language) [Not only does Kurt look confident, everyone seems to think that he's some higher up and gives him a little polite distance, including security.] [There are elevators past a security desk. Awareness check -4 bonus. Electronics (security helps). Kurt thinks he can walk right past the desk without any trouble from the guards.] [Kurt notices that there's an embedded security gateway embedded in the ceiling and walls discretely separating the lobby and the elevator hallway. It'll give a metallic X-ray type scan of anyone walking through. It's inlayed into the walls and ceiling, but not hard to notice if you're paying attention.] * Kurt walks confidently through the scanner, and since he doesn't really have any visible metal on him, the guards probably shouldn't find anything amiss. [Guards don't even raise an eyebrow. Kurt's to the elevator area. It's actually a central tube in the building. There's alternating enclosed and transparent open shaft elevators. Everything is gold plated and black tile. You can see almost all the way up to the top of the building if you're so inclined. There's a total of sixteen elevators. Some express, some only to the lower floors, some to middle, some to top.] * Kurt heads for the elevator with the largest waiting group, and listens around himself for people talking about computery things. [Give me a hearing awareness roll and a luck (soul) roll.] [Kurt doesn't manage to hear conversation outside of the group he's standing with. The group he picked is very diverse and is currently being spoken to by a Chinese man in a good suit.] Now that you've seen the lobby we'll take you to the biodome level, built in anticipation of the day when we'll need to sustain ourselves while traveling to the stars.] [The elevator for the group arrives.] [A man and a woman near the back of the group chat quietly. "Wonder how much input they need to maintain it." "Shouldn't it be self maintaining aside from artifical sunlight." "You'd think, but we're not quite there yet." * Kurt follows along behind the group. [They're taking one of the glass express elevators, incidentally.] [Kurt gets in without any trouble, it's fairly large and can easily fit the dozen or so people. Larger even than most of the other elevators, probably made for this purpose.] [There's still incidental conversation "Wish they put this money into the payroll." "In this business, you got to impress people to make money." "Yeah, but still."] ["I prefer the Caribbean branch, much more laid back, I feel like a corporate drone here." "Eh, you get used to it, keeps things more professional." "Bet you we work harder." "Bull, well, let's check productivity reports later."] * Kurt chuckles a bit. "And what do the two of you do here, precisely?" [The rise is fairly fast and the view is view is nice, so long as you aren't prone to vertigo.] I'm Rob Jenkins, telemetry, just here for the convention and the tour. Sally Ying, also telemetry though I focus on integrating with the Chinese government systems. [Sally bows and Rob offers to shake your hand.] * Kurt gives Rob's hand a firm shake. "I'll have to look into those reports myself. Which floor are you on, Ms Ying?" Sixth, east building. So, what's your concentration? * Kurt smiles warmly. "Administration. I handle personnel transfers." * Sally nods. "Bet this is a busy time for you, with so many of the outer branch people here." The main headquarters are in Singapore, don't get cocky. For now, China's space program will change all that. [A few people glance back, perhaps interested in getting to the Caribbean branch, but the elevator arrives!] [You're actually let out a level above the base of the biodome, there seems to be a weak forcefield in the central shaft at the base level of the biodome.] [The view is fairly impressive, some species of plants you recognize, a few you don't, and a good number that seem a bit different, tuned to produce more fruit or take up less room.] [The guide leaves the group out and down a set of stairs to the base level. There's also a ramp and a fountain integrated into the setup. The place has more of a botanical garden then agricultural lab feel, with benches and winding paths. Not to mention a terrific view of the city.] [End descript] So our dome, well technically cylinder, is arrange more for aesthetic sensibilities than production, although aesthetics will be important for long term journeys, don't want our astronauts going insane from cabin fever. [There's a few chuckles, your companions seem to have tuned into the tour a bit, he's starting to lead the group to an orchard, passing by a gazebo on the way.] * Kurt continues following along, waiting to see if the tour says anything about the computer systems. (Lesse, another luck roll) [After a few minutes pass and your shown around much of the level (there's actually a discussion of genetically engineered shrubs that don't require pruning. The guide mentions something of interest.] * Kurt perks up a bit, listening carefully! The lighting, temperature, and moisture are all run on biological feedback systems, requiring minimal computer control. The computer core simply acts as a check on this system, separately monitoring the health of each section. It will suggest overrides if the situation warrants it, but that'll require human approval. We keep these systems separate to save power and protect against catastrophic computing failure. * Kurt raises his voice a bit. "You mean the systems are all run from the main computer systems?" Bah, that'll just get in the way and prove a waste of time. Eh, better than having to say 'water the plants Hal.' Yes, some of the neural nets are still sufficiently complex that distributed or localized systems haven't been able to efficiently handle them. Sufficiently complex? So that means what, five, six floors worth of computers? * Guide shakes his head. "No, just part of a floor, for this area at least." I occasionally run tests over there, those guys are serious, needed an escort the whole time and I've been here ten years." * Kurt looks satisfied and drops his voice back down, but says more quietly to Sally, "Yeah? That's crazy. They must keep those... what, in the basement, where there's no light?" [Tour guide starts up about how energy efficient the system is.] No, fourth and fifth floor, central tower. We keep the Gamera clone in the basement. ...we have a Gamera clone? Why didn't anybody tell me? * Sally grins. "Joke, man, you admin types don't get out enough." True. Very, very true So what do we really have in the basement? Or would they have to kill us both if you told me? No, just you, I'm more valuable> Ha! We'll see when I check those reports. * Kurt chuckles. Looks like I'm gonna have to cut my tour short. Meetings. * Kurt rolls his eyes and waves to the pair. Maybe I'll be seeing a transfer request from one of you, eh? I know how that is. We have our meetings on the beech, at night there's a wet bar. I will see you in hell Rob. Oh, I don't think I caught your name? [Some of the rest perk up at that, probably ready to copy it into PDAs.] Jeb. Jeb Ngyun. [A few copy that down. A pleasure Jeb. I'm quite content where I am, for the record.] A pleasure to meet you, milady. * Kurt bows deeply to Sally and makes his exit. [Kurt is on his own in the garden. There's occasional wandering people.] * Kurt heads back for the elelator. [Kurt gets to the elevators. Although the one he rode in on was an express.] * Kurt goes for one that's not an express, and signals it. [It shows up after a few minutes, and the two business men he saw before entering the bathroom walk out, leaving an empty elevator.] * Kurt quirks an eyebrow once they pass, then steps inside and triggers the button for the fourth floor, and looks discreetly around for any cameras. (Awareness roll, sense of choice.) [There's control panels, light fixtures and the like, could be hiding behind one of them, but you don't see it.] * Kurt decides to just keep going with what's working so far. [The elevator gets down to the fourth floor and the doors open on to a central ring hallways. There's a sign with advanced computing to the left, cybernetics and I.T. to the right.] * Kurt heads for advanced computing, waiting for a moment when there's nobody in sight. [Two women in slightly more relaxed dress do walk buy. "So I powercycle it, laser arm works just fine after." "Geez, I know that is, give someone a prototype and they'll expect everything to work without a hitch the first time." "And on a mech! I mean what the hell, everyone knows that's experimental and fairly unpromising tech. Don't know what that girl is doing with it anyways.] [They pass you by.] * Kurt waits for a moment when nobody is in sight, prays these people don't have a way to detect someone doing this, and goes invisible. [Kurt is invisible! When he gets to advanced computing he sees that they've got a rather heavy shut security door flanked by a guard boost and posters saying authorized personel only and how to tell if you're authorized. Awareness check!] [Kurt doesn't immediately notice any extra security precautions.] [Pause!]