My drones were slowly expanding the search area starting from where I lost my target when one of them spotted the black, unmarked van again. A quick check of the numberplates confirmed this was indeed the target I was after.

Sadly, the amount of little back and forth weaving even on this straight main street, meant there was a real human driving it. ‘Probably couldn’t afford the newly raised license fees Horch put on their in-house autopilot.’  I thought to myself. ‘People really need to stop falling for the dealer’s upsale on the manufacturer autopilot install. Then again, doubt they would even know where to get a bootleg one, let alone code their own.’

Giving a mental sigh, wishing very hard I could actually do the real thing while in cyberspace like this, I returned control to the worker usually running this drone and ordered it to follow that van. 

Converting that virtual window to a simplified distance indicator so I knew how far the target was from its final destination, I turned my attention to the other screens, most of which showing the feeds from the presumed path it would take there. While so many Krackers loved to create, or at least claim to use, virtual avatars even for work like this, I never saw the need to waste processing power on one while not interacting with other humans. So instead of a fursona or cheese OC’s arm, or just a model of my own, reaching out to virtual inputs, I simply used the direct neural link required to do this all anyways to think all the inputs I needed. 

It also helped with multi-tasking, letting me spin up a worker for my homunculus grabbing the necessary pre assembled bot packages for the role it would have to play in this all. While simultaneously maneuvering my way into the traffic system’s cameras along the route. 

Many a Kracker decried manipulating traffic signs and guidance as utterly impossible. And if one tried to just brute force their way into the control softs, they’d be correct. Which is why I came prepared for this. Manipulating the AI controlling the whole city's traffic was beyond even me. What was not, was feeding it misinformation. As it relied on the same traffic cameras I was currently using to keep track of the target, one could perform small scale manipulations through these. 

Spinning up a simple image manipulation bot, I set it to remove all traffic that would cross the target’s path. Before letting it loose though, I booted a virtual machine on some random coffeeshops wireless network. Starting up the bot there, I wrote a quick script that would remove all traces of my backdoor and recent access to this network, and cut my connection.

Then I simply had to watch as the seemingly, at least to the AI, only vehicle on these streets was given priority at every street crossing. Once I was sure everything was going according to plan, I checked on my homunculus’ feed. It had just finished the first of its tasks, judging by the temperature readings on its synthskin covered hands.

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Seeing that everything was indeed in place and should not need any further input from me, I disconnected from cyberspace and opened my eyes back in my living room. Disconnecting my interface, the cable quickly retracting into my cybernetic left arm, I got up from the recliner I usually used for Kracker work. Moving over to my couch, where a nice ice cold Pepoke was waiting for me, a pop up on my AR overlay alerted me to an incoming call. 

Picking up the call, it turned out to be a group call. The Holocall soft quickly projected the avatars of everyone in it around my couch table alongside various fake furniture. 

“Cutting it a bit close aren’t you?” Tamamo, the young woman usually in charge of our small group greeted me. Her avatar was, as usual, based on her namesake from Japanese mythology. And the only one of our small gang not to base her Avatar for this off of herself irl. Well except maybe the fact she was still of Japanese descent.

“Don’t be too hard on him.” Oni, our groups muscle said as his avatar scratched behind the horns I knew he had had installed irl too so as to model himself more after his code name. Never got a clear answer as to if they were modular like his right arm. He had at least two of those, one with an SMG in the forearm, and another with a smuggling compartment and a taser integrated into the palm.

“Yeah, there’s still like 5 minutes left.” Ibex, our resident furry grumbled impatiently, more annoyed that she had to wait still than that I had blocked calls while kracking. Even her avatar was scraping her goat hooves nervously, while the huge horns on her head clipped through my ceiling. Luckily she didn’t actually have those irl. If she had those alongside the furry hooved biomods she insisted were vital to letting her climb and kick like she did on the job.

“So what is the plan for tonight?” I asked just as the drone’s worker alerted me that the target had arrived. opening a screen with its camera footage again, I watched as the hand of was taking place. "Oh and Ibex, remember that Coffee shop that kicked you out because of your mods? They'll likely get a nice long visit from the CyberPolice soon."

“Well once you have everything you need.” Tamamo began as Ibex gave me a smirk and thumbs up. Meanwhile I also watched the driver of the van grab a black box, and exchange it for another such box from the asian looking cat girl waiting for him. “We will need to go back over your guys’ plan to storm Neuschwanstein Palace.”

“Are we going to go through with the actual assault as well?” Ibex asked.

“Maybe if we are fast enough.” Oni chirmed in, trying to placate the impatient goat girl.

Just as she groaned, the door to my living room was opened by my homunculus, her two cat tails swishing back and forth behind her jeans clad legs, while the two sizes too large hoodie just made her look even cuter. 

Taking the pizza carton out of the box she had brought up for me, I placed it on the table before me and grabbed a slice.

And, as I had been taught manners unlike Oni and Ibex, instead of trying to talk with a full mouth, I just dropped the group a text message.

[Pizza finally arrived, I am ready for some Shadowrun Miss ST.]