Thursday, April 13, 2006

Run 7a. Highway Piracy

Friday 24th March 2070 03:40am

Six, Ki-Rin, Drifter, Ono, Ash.

Six, Ash, and Ono met Ki-Rin and Drifter in the same café that Mr. Mason left a few minutes before so that they could discuss how to help Snow out of this hole he found himself in.

He was trying to make contacts within the Yakuza and agreed to source some military armaments and took payments for the goods. The goods were coming in from Seattle and didn’t arrive. The Yakuza were getting concerned that their new friend was trying to stitch them, and it was only a matter of time before they paid Snow a visit. Snow called his San Fran runners to see if they could help him out.

Ki-Rin had already been approached by a contact, Mancini, who himself had been approached by a man calling himself The Merchant. He was offering to sell a very similar list of weaponry and they suspected that Snow’s guns were already stolen and being flogged on the black market.

Drifter wanted to find out more information on the runners who were running the guns over the boarder and he got Ki-Rin to search the Matrix on Hazard and Swordfish. Ki-Rin found that both were well respected runners and both had their Comlinks on and pinpointed their location about 200 miles north, in Death Valley.

They were separated by about 40 miles, the first, Hazard seemed to be along I55 and the other comlink signal was out in the desert. After much deliberation they decided that heading out in the desert was preferable to waiting for the Merchant to call back with this sale. They got themselves a couple of hours of kip, before hiring a van and heading out.

The runners headed in convoy, with Six and Ki-Rin blasting ahead along the near deserted blacktop. Driving past a warehouse which had sprung up on the interstate, Ki-Rin detected the PAN of Hazard, they U turned and headed back to a nearby petrol station to wait for the others driving in the slower van.

They decided to bust in, Drifter on the roof, Ki-Rin Ono and Six through the door. Six shot out the door, Ki-Rin rolled in some flash bangs before stepping in and Stick-Shocking one of the men who were caught unawares. Ono Strode in and smacked the other guy in the face with his big troll fist. Drifter shot out the skylight and fell into the warehouse.

Room cleared in a phase, and the only injury was sustained from hitting a transit van roof at speed. The runners found a Battered Red Ranger inside and discovered the PAN was coming from a smashed helmet which was inside. They were about to bring round the two men and begin questioning them when Drifter discovered that they were lonestar Border patrol, and this warehouse was where they stored wrecked vehicles. They left the unconscious forms and split before the alarm was raised.

Heading out toward the other Comlink signal, the runners find that it is coming from a rocky rise in the desert. A bit of looking around they discover the crash site of the Red-Ranger, and further investigation by Six and Drifter locate where the VTOL was immobilised with a electric pulse delivered through a net strung across a shallow gulley that is used by smugglers.

Ki-Rin and Ono discovered the bodies of the runners, shot dead, and then see a young lad watching them. They follow him and see him stood out in the open between two high banks of rocks. As he turns to run Ki-Rin shoots his leg off.

Ki-Rin and Ono make their way toward the boy and too late realise that they have strolled into an ambush, the kid as bait. They come under heavy fire from both sides shot at from the high rock walls. Hearing gunfire the rest of the runners dash to their aid, and quickly turn the fight on the ambushers. They try to flee on a couple of quads but are brought down before they get too far.

The equipment they were using was top notch. Brand new rifles, APDS rounds. The runners fancy that the cache of weapons is being split up and used by these bandits. Looking to where they were trying to flee the runners see an abandoned gold mine about half a mile away, and they mount up on the remaining quad bikes and head out across the desert at speed.

From range the runners start taking fire from snipers on the roof of a mine building, and they find themselves dodging and weaving on the speeding quads.

As the runners got close they split up and began to engage the targets. Ash tried to ride at full tilt under a slowly opening shutter door, smacking his head. Dazed he then fell at the feet of a gunman who drilled him. Drifter began to clear out the only other building, and when he tossed a pipe bomb the enemy sped out.

Ash was brought round and followed behind Ki-Rin assuming it was safer behind. Ki-Rin attracted the attention of a man wielding two rocket launchers and was forced to dodge a rocket. Ash was less lucky and was hit. Blasted off his feet his clothes living up to his name.

In short order the runners cleared out the rest of the desert pirates and found most of the military equipment. They loaded it into the back of the hovercraft that the Merchant had been using to move around the desert and retired back to San Francisco.

They handed over the goods to the Yakuza and gave Snow the stolen hovercraft and other scavenged equipment to sell on to recover some money.

With that they went home…
A few days pass, and Ash feeling better got Six to do some work on his sisters car. Ash owes her a favour or two. And the runners waited for the next job.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would like to thank you Six, for the work you have put into my car.

Anonymous said...

Well that's nice but tell Ash his ass now owes ME a favour or two...

Anonymous said...

We kick ass!! I don't think such a young band of runners has ever been so professional. Watch out bad guys, here we come!!

Anonymous said...

You? Ha! Don't make me laugh.