Thursday, June 22, 2006

Six's blog. Silk

By N.Barnes

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Entry 9: 01.06.70>

Just got back into signal range and I’m posting this update quickly while we wait for the cars to drone around to our position and pick us up. We’ve been and poked some sort of hornets nest with our collective stick and now I can’t get hold of Kitty or Pops, hell I can’t even get hold of Nunzio. I fear the worst. Oh Gods please don’t let this be my fault as well…

The run up to Seattle was pretty uneventful although we did have a run in with a Go-Gang looking to hijack the cars. We taught them a lesson but it cost us two sets of tyres when we ploughed over a Stinger spike strip. Don’t know much about that Glyph but she can at least handle her ride. I’ve kept the Stinger for my own personal future use.

Once in Seattle, Sickle said Lamb had tipped him off to a Shadowrunner called Silk living out in the Barrens. Silk’s name had appeared on some official CAT documents in reference to Dreamseed contract work so she figured we could all do with talking to him.

With nothing to go on other than a name and a rough location, we took a quick blaze into the Barrens and Mr Contacts started laying down his charisma on a couple of the locals. The place is rough – no way is the wheelman leaving his sled unguarded in these parts so Ki-rinn and I left research mode to Ash and the Replacement Killers. We sat in stony silence. I wanted to talk to him but I don’t know what to say now. He’s cold as ice.
Untouchable.

A couple of hours legwork, turn up the fact that everyone knows of Silk and is terrified. The nearest we can get to pinpointing his location is a tenuous suggestion that he hangs out at a church a few miles away so we head that way, only to find the streets blocked off with barricades. These barricades ain’t there to keep us out though – they’re there to keep something in. I drone the vehicles out and we make to clamber over these barricades on foot. One of the locals, a guy by the name of Cable, tells us we’ll piss off if we know what’s good for us and when we say we don’t want trouble, just a quick word with Silk, he reiterates that Silk IS trouble. He tells us it’s our funeral and him and his boys let us by with pity in their eyes.
I figure this is all bullshit, That Silk is trading on a Rep, plain and simple; that he has all these bumpkins believing his hype. About half a mile past the barricade I think again – the whole area, three square miles, is shrouded in spider web and at the centre of the web we find an old Church.

Place is seriously freaky shit and we really have to steal ourselves to go in. I spot a manhole cover and we figure we’ll sneak in through the back door but the sewers are a dead end and we’re forced in through the front door.

I hang back, having loaded up on Stick/Shock rounds and agreed I’ll be responsible for knocking Silk out if necessary while the rest of the team handles any combat. I figure they can risk their asses. There’s a brief fire fight with some sort of paranormal critters that look like Preying Mantis but I don’t get involved and then we have to trek down underground into what looks an awful lot like a Funnel Web’s lair. Glyph can’t deal with the bugs and lets rip with a teen drama queen scream that alerts something to our presence and in the heart of the lair we find the biggest fucking spider going.

Continues: 1/2>
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I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s an enormous Black Widow, it’s pissed and it goes for Sickle, hard and fast. Feeling a little out of my depth I sock two Stick/Shocks into it but it ignores them. It doesn’t ignore Sickle’s hand cannon though or Ki-Rinn’s personal artillery. Neither of them flinches. Neither seems surprised to encounter a spider quite so big and they take it down pronto. Once again I wonder why I’m here at all.

On the far side of the lair I spot someone and call out Silk’s name. He looks up and nods but before we can even think of talking to him or trading for the info’ bullets thud into him from all around me. He’s unarmed. We’ve busted into his turf and killed his pets. Now we’re shooting our only lead?

Ki-rinn is all for killing him. We’ve seen cocooned human bodies hanging around the place like spider snacks and for once it’s gotten to Frosty. I ain’t exactly keen on me or my loved ones becoming dinner but I know what a fucking food chain is and I guess a spider that big has to eat. Ki-rinn seems to think it’s Silk’s fault though and Sickle agrees. Whatever. It’s too late now. We’ve shot Silk so diplomacy is out of the question. It’s just a good job they had enough self-control to only use Stick/Shocks. I wash my hands of it. If they can’t get any info out of Silk by force, they’ve fucked the entire mission. Not that they give a shit. So long as they get their guns off, who cares about the consequences eh?

Ash and I move off to explore the lair, leaving Frosty and the Replacement Killers to try torturing Silk for any Dreamseed titbits. Unsurprisingly he turns out to be uncooperative. They were right about one thing though – he is an evil Fragger. He keeps repeating something like "I am Silk, Herald of Alisom, Bringer of the Scourge" and all Ki-Rinn and Sickle manage to do is beat him enough to piss him off. Dude’s eyes went black, totally black and he now starts telling us "I am Alisom, Bringer of the Scourge." That’s when it hits me. Some sort of vision or flashback. Of Kitty. Of Mom and Pops. Of Nunzio. Of Ono running through the PS programme to escape some fucker in a black robe. Of the moment I ripped the Neural Net Trodes from his head and triggered the dump shock that killed him.

As quick as it starts, the flashback is gone. Fragger’s still chanting and Frosty’s beating isn’t making him shut up. I suggest a gut shot – painful enough to distract him and keep him occupied but slow enough we can get him out for further questioning later. Ki-rinn shoots to kill though and having given us precisely squat, Silk expires. What a waste of time. Glyph says she had a vision of her loved ones and can’t reach them via PAN. In a panic, I hit my phone book and get nothing but voicemail. Please let them be ok.
Please don’t let their blood be on my hands now as well.

We hightailed it back to the barricades. Frosty is talking to Cable again – probably telling him the Barrens should be safe from Silk’s menace now – while I drone in the getaway cars. Sickle and Glyph say they’ve heard from Lamb and she wants to talk. I hope she’s got more info than us because all we have are some sigils Ash and I found marked on the wall of Silk’s lair. I still can’t raise anyone in my phone book on the PAN. We’re a three day ride away from San Fran. If I don’t manage to speak to anyone soon, I don’t know what I’m going to do…

Mood: Desperate and scared.

Ends: 2/2>

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry you feel that way kid. Don't get me wrong, i like you but I found getting close to people usually stands in the way.
I'll do my best to keep you alive on the streets, just don't expect me to get all weepy over fallen comrades.
Death and shit happens.

Anonymous said...

I would have thought getting close to your comrades made for a better team...

I'm not asking you to be my best friend and buy me soda Ki-rinn but I do need to know that in the middle of a shit-storm, you've got at least one eye on my back.

At the moment, I don't know what you're thinking. I don't know how you're going to react. To me, you're gung-ho and unpredictable and that makes you an additional risk factor that right now I don't need. There's enough hurt kicking off around me without an unstable, trigger-happy, anger-monkey on my back.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with you kid.

My actions have been constant, always. I've kept an eye out for you since day one, and i'd say you've done the same for me. I trust you, i didn't think i'd given you reason to not trust me. I'm sorry if i don't show my feelings the same as the rest of you. Maybe i'm a little de-sensitised to killing and dying.

As for being a trigger happy anger-monkey. I've only ever returned fire on hostile targets who were attempting to maim/kill my team. If you're talking about the giant spider, well it had it coming.

The Shaman? Well I admit we could've handled that better.

It's like this Six. If you have a problem with me or the way I operate, tell me. I may not like it, but we'll talk it through.

Anonymous said...

I don't have a problem with you K but I don't like the way things are going down. Some of that is out of our control but some of it results from our actions - which just lately have been shoot first, ask questions later. No I'm not into animal rights and don't give a shit about the paranormal critter but I do think we shot our bolt and any chance of a peaceful resolution with Silk. Maybe we wouldn't have got one anyway - but we'll never know.

Would you at least consider that sometimes keeping an eye on your teammates means more than putting lead in the air? Where were you when Ono died at my hand? His death may not bother you but I pulled the plugs and it damn well bothers me.

Anonymous said...

I kind of see your point. But stop blaming yourself.

You only jacked Ono out, he was gone already man, dump shock killed him, not you jacking him out. The worst he could've got from you pulling the leads out was a fuzzy feeling.
Something happened in that game man. Hell we shouldn't even of been there!

I'm here for you Six, no matter what. I'm rubbish at telling people how to deal with things, so i won't condescend you. All i'll say is if you need a pound of flesh to clear your conscience then we'll do it. We'll make the Duke and C.A.T. pay. Or if you don't want to that's also fine. Just tell me what you need to do to get you out of this rut you're in.

Anonymous said...

I need a win K - just something to cheer. Something we can sit back afterwards with a beer and a cigar over and say 'Ono, that one was for you.' I think we all need it, to get us all out of this rut of failure we've been riding.

Anonymous said...

(OOC) Owain/Al - Can we assume we've had this little pep talk in the car en route to meet Lamb?

Owain said...

OOC Yes we can.

Anonymous said...

OOC Yes we can.

I'm wholeheartedly with you there Six. Lets kick some ass/take some names!!