Saturday 1st July 2070
Six, Ash, Glyph.
Cross Applied Technologies had begun the rapid collapse into financial ruin
Mr. Johnson contacted six. He worked for a ‘well funded organisation’ that wanted a team of runners to break into a research facility owned by a subsidiary of Cross Applied, called Fleche Armaments, and snatch a prototype device called CORe.
The CORe (Centred Ordinance Research) research was to test the viability of harnessing biometric energy and the organisation Mr. Johnson represented understood that a prototype had been made which did just that. The job for the runners was to find and recover the prototype and to destroy the hard copy records of the research so that Ares, who were clamouring to get at the data wouldn’t be able to. Mr. Johnson had made arrangements for a hacker to access the digital files and wipe these records separately.
Ash wasn’t keen on the price offered and was able to haggle the Johnson up an additional 15 grand for the team.
The runners took the job and Six dispatched his fly spy drone to have a look-see at the facility in question. Ash got in touch with Daisy and got her to work on tracking down some blueprints for the building but she turned up blanks. For whatever reason there were no files on the floorplan for Fleche Armaments San Fran Facility, she did discover that the security systems had all been turned off, probably because they were manned by Cross, but Knight Errant had been put in place to guard the building until Ares were allowed to move in.
Six’s fly spy was sending back video footage of the building. 3 stories of faceless concrete, two doors in and not a window to be seen.
Seeing this Glyph had the idea that they could find a previous employee who may be able to fill in the blanks in their knowledge. She started in chat rooms and got surfing the net. Eventually tracking down a disgruntled employee who told them for a fee that the building had 6 lower levels.
The runners bought up equipment that they thought they needed and made plans to storm the building in the early hours of the following morning.
Glyph approached the Knight Errant patrol car that was parked outside, and when she found that there was no-one in it, called in Six and Ash to begin infiltrating the building. Glyph then attempted a booby trap for the squad car, with a grenade and gaffer tape. It didn’t work too well, and the car was blown to pieces before Glyph even made it into the building. It would be one of those nights.
The runners swiftly cleared the first floor without any problems, but as they began sneaking down the stairs they heard muffled gunshots, and as they approached the door for the first basement level they found Knight Errant having a blazing gun battle with someone. As the runners appeared, the semi-soldiers thought they were being flanked opened fire. Ash has a habit for being in the wrong place and was shot up.
The runners cleared the Knight Errant from the room and found a wounded girl. As Glyph went to offer her first aid, the girl sprang up from the floor and tired to bite her. The runners dropped her with Stick-Shock bullets and surmised that she was a vampire.
She had a silver circlet around her head with an indentation in the centre, which looked about the size for the CORe device, and the runners began to see the bigger picture.
The runners left the girl bound, and pressed on down to the next floor, only to find a couple of butchered Knight Errant guards. They pressed on to the next level and found the file store. Ash and Glyph began to search for the CORe files while Six guarded the door.
Two more of these ‘vampires’ charged at Six and he had to be quickly backed up by Ash before he got overwhelmed. They both got into melee combat and both were scratched and bitten, Ash more so, loosing a lot of blood from a throat wound.
Glyph found the files they were looking for as the vampires were taken down.
Moving down to the next level the runners found a testing lab and they found 30 or so of these CORe devices. They contacted the Mr. Johnson and informed him that there were more than one. Mr. J. wanted one and the rest were to be destroyed. Glyph planted explosive charges.
The runners had got what they had come for, but they wanted to do the job properly and carried down to the next level. They found 5 test beds where it appears these human/vampires had been kept sedated before breaking out when they didn’t receive their daily dose. The runners did a quick count and realised that they were missing two, when they saw another coming across the room. He had a CORe device in its holder and fired an arc of electricity toward the runners. They returned fire, filling the air with lead. And once they were sure the vampire was dropped they fixed him up with some compound 15 plastic explosive. The Man had an ID badge. Cross Applied Technologies Mr. Johnson.
The runners split and detonated the bombs. Ash didn’t feel to good, and as he used his medkit, it warned that it had detected an unusual pathogen.
They met up with the Johnson as soon as they could and handed over the prototype. The Johnson was very please with their nights work and paid in full before departing.
… The next day, Ash went round to see Mal, the St. Doc, to see what the medkit meant regarding the unknown pathogen...
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Six's blog. Triad bounties.
By N.Barnes
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 17: 29.06.70>
Creed, like the vagrant he took fashion advice from, had moved on by daybreak. Evidently he preferred the cold hard planks of a park bench to the warm soft cushions on the sofa or decided he didn’t want to share any more bounties with Ash and I. For our part, we resolved to head after drug addled fattie Zhang Jie while our intel was hot. He was worth £25k to us if we could bring him in alive and given the number of goons and mooks we had seen caught up in the gravitational pull of his flabby gut we knew we’d need a bit more back-up to have any chance of pulling the job off. Glyph and Ki-rinn got the call and both responded – it was beginning to feel like the team was back on song.
Given the time of day, we decided to look in on Fu Hong at the Paper Dragon restaurant and see whether we could do anything about collecting his bounty as a bit of a Brucie Bonus. We did see him hanging around the fringes, haranguing some poor fool on the other end of the telephone in warp-speed Cantonese but by the time we had decamped and moved into a position from which we could attempt to throw down a kidnap, he had jumped into a vehicle and steamed off. There was every chance he would return however so we had the rest of meal put into doggie bags and settled down in Ash’ pick-up to stake out the streets for his return. Like all of our stake outs thus far, it proved to be fruitless and after an idle few hours we reset the stake out outside the Province strip joint.
Security had been ramped up, front and back and even on the roof. There were disposable ninja everywhere we looked and it was obvious that getting in after our man was going to be far from easy. Ki-rinn found himself a sniping position, Glyph and Ash set up to watch the streets and I took my balls in my hand and headed inside to scope the joint. Apart from the increased security, all was as it had been 24 hours earlier although there did seem to be some sort of high level bigwigs meeting going down on Zhang Jie’s all-you-can-eat balcony. That part of the venue was thoroughly rammed with muscle so when I thought I saw one of them gesture in my general direction, my sphincter squeaked and I fled double-time.
Agreeing that discretion was the better part of valour, and that life as a coward was the better part of a short career as a brave fool, we decided there was no way we were dumb-ass enough to try and raid Province until the heat was off. We hung around figuring they’d have to go home sometime and sure enough the party began to break up as the night ticked by. Now we took visual idents of as many of the main men as possible, just out of curiosity, and Ki-rinn ran an agent over them on the Matrix and we turned up the movers and shakers from all of the major criminal organisations on the West Coast.
Hell, even Nunzio and a couple of his Mafioso batty boys where there. Not getting involved was beginning to look like the best tactical decision we ever made and that was confirmed when the place finally emptied out with no sign of Zhang Jie. Fatty Jap Perp was still holed up inside and by our reckoning there were no more than a dozen toughs left at his side.
The operation was sweet. Ash and I used the winch on his pick-up to rip the security grills off of the front doors, while Glyph used an improvised explosive key on the fire door at the rear. Ki-rinn played commando, sniping the guard on the roof and then swinging in through a skylight. Flash-bangs flew, followed in short order by hot lead and after a few minutes of mopping up, we were winching Cartman Hong’s fat ass down the fire escape and onto the load bed of the pick-up for a one way trip to the local Lone Star precinct.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Say what you like about Lone Star but if nothing else, they pay out promptly on their bounties and that meant I had some green with which to go cruising for a little race action down on the strip.
Now this dog who called the meet had hooked himself up with a sweet little gig. Four racers take each other on for Pinks, lured in by a tidy looking little Mustang charger being offered up as a prize. The hit is, while the winner keeps their car and drives away the charger, the Big Dog keeps the three losers rides – all of which are custom, race tuned rides. He essentially trades one stock boot for three custom sleds and keen to prove that they’ve got the biggest balls on the circuit, dumb Street Racers keep falling for the gig. Now how could I resist?!
The kid Bumfluff who’s trying to make a name for himself with his souped up, welded together Toyota Commuter was there on the starting line along with a couple of lads I didn’t know by the names of Pimp and Quarterback. I again lost out at the start to Bumfluff but got the drop on the other two both of who dropped it sideways into the wall at the first corner. They came back strong though so as well as trying to gain ground on Bumfluff, I had to watch my mirrors and hold off the pressure they were putting on me.
Down the back straight, I was pushing Bumfluff dodging the rims, wing mirrors, door seals and bits of exhaust pipe he was shedding as the welds began to fail. Quarterback had some top end under his hood and put it to good use, screaming up like a cat amongst the pigeons but he tried to take the penultimate corner too fast. His brakes gave way in a shower of brake dust, carbon and glowing metal and he hit the bricks hard. Bumfluff had a sticky moment and by keeping the revs high and the ride smooth and consistent I was able to draft past to take the final corner and the flag with a flourish. Hand over the keys Poppa Smurf, Daddy’s taking his new girl home tonight!
Celebrations were short-lived. Someone picked up on the fact that Quarterback had taken a pretty heavy hit when he span off and collected the corner of that warehouse. I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead but it was the sort of accident to get the Heat steaming in on our location so we had to split fast before I could find out. I’ve never met the guy before but we all feel it when one of our own buys the farm in a race. If you’re gonna go, go doing what you love I guess but no one deserves to die because they couldn’t make the turn.
Mood: Subdued. Here’s to the Quarterback’s memory.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 17: 29.06.70>
Creed, like the vagrant he took fashion advice from, had moved on by daybreak. Evidently he preferred the cold hard planks of a park bench to the warm soft cushions on the sofa or decided he didn’t want to share any more bounties with Ash and I. For our part, we resolved to head after drug addled fattie Zhang Jie while our intel was hot. He was worth £25k to us if we could bring him in alive and given the number of goons and mooks we had seen caught up in the gravitational pull of his flabby gut we knew we’d need a bit more back-up to have any chance of pulling the job off. Glyph and Ki-rinn got the call and both responded – it was beginning to feel like the team was back on song.
Given the time of day, we decided to look in on Fu Hong at the Paper Dragon restaurant and see whether we could do anything about collecting his bounty as a bit of a Brucie Bonus. We did see him hanging around the fringes, haranguing some poor fool on the other end of the telephone in warp-speed Cantonese but by the time we had decamped and moved into a position from which we could attempt to throw down a kidnap, he had jumped into a vehicle and steamed off. There was every chance he would return however so we had the rest of meal put into doggie bags and settled down in Ash’ pick-up to stake out the streets for his return. Like all of our stake outs thus far, it proved to be fruitless and after an idle few hours we reset the stake out outside the Province strip joint.
Security had been ramped up, front and back and even on the roof. There were disposable ninja everywhere we looked and it was obvious that getting in after our man was going to be far from easy. Ki-rinn found himself a sniping position, Glyph and Ash set up to watch the streets and I took my balls in my hand and headed inside to scope the joint. Apart from the increased security, all was as it had been 24 hours earlier although there did seem to be some sort of high level bigwigs meeting going down on Zhang Jie’s all-you-can-eat balcony. That part of the venue was thoroughly rammed with muscle so when I thought I saw one of them gesture in my general direction, my sphincter squeaked and I fled double-time.
Agreeing that discretion was the better part of valour, and that life as a coward was the better part of a short career as a brave fool, we decided there was no way we were dumb-ass enough to try and raid Province until the heat was off. We hung around figuring they’d have to go home sometime and sure enough the party began to break up as the night ticked by. Now we took visual idents of as many of the main men as possible, just out of curiosity, and Ki-rinn ran an agent over them on the Matrix and we turned up the movers and shakers from all of the major criminal organisations on the West Coast.
Hell, even Nunzio and a couple of his Mafioso batty boys where there. Not getting involved was beginning to look like the best tactical decision we ever made and that was confirmed when the place finally emptied out with no sign of Zhang Jie. Fatty Jap Perp was still holed up inside and by our reckoning there were no more than a dozen toughs left at his side.
The operation was sweet. Ash and I used the winch on his pick-up to rip the security grills off of the front doors, while Glyph used an improvised explosive key on the fire door at the rear. Ki-rinn played commando, sniping the guard on the roof and then swinging in through a skylight. Flash-bangs flew, followed in short order by hot lead and after a few minutes of mopping up, we were winching Cartman Hong’s fat ass down the fire escape and onto the load bed of the pick-up for a one way trip to the local Lone Star precinct.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Say what you like about Lone Star but if nothing else, they pay out promptly on their bounties and that meant I had some green with which to go cruising for a little race action down on the strip.
Now this dog who called the meet had hooked himself up with a sweet little gig. Four racers take each other on for Pinks, lured in by a tidy looking little Mustang charger being offered up as a prize. The hit is, while the winner keeps their car and drives away the charger, the Big Dog keeps the three losers rides – all of which are custom, race tuned rides. He essentially trades one stock boot for three custom sleds and keen to prove that they’ve got the biggest balls on the circuit, dumb Street Racers keep falling for the gig. Now how could I resist?!
The kid Bumfluff who’s trying to make a name for himself with his souped up, welded together Toyota Commuter was there on the starting line along with a couple of lads I didn’t know by the names of Pimp and Quarterback. I again lost out at the start to Bumfluff but got the drop on the other two both of who dropped it sideways into the wall at the first corner. They came back strong though so as well as trying to gain ground on Bumfluff, I had to watch my mirrors and hold off the pressure they were putting on me.
Down the back straight, I was pushing Bumfluff dodging the rims, wing mirrors, door seals and bits of exhaust pipe he was shedding as the welds began to fail. Quarterback had some top end under his hood and put it to good use, screaming up like a cat amongst the pigeons but he tried to take the penultimate corner too fast. His brakes gave way in a shower of brake dust, carbon and glowing metal and he hit the bricks hard. Bumfluff had a sticky moment and by keeping the revs high and the ride smooth and consistent I was able to draft past to take the final corner and the flag with a flourish. Hand over the keys Poppa Smurf, Daddy’s taking his new girl home tonight!
Celebrations were short-lived. Someone picked up on the fact that Quarterback had taken a pretty heavy hit when he span off and collected the corner of that warehouse. I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead but it was the sort of accident to get the Heat steaming in on our location so we had to split fast before I could find out. I’ve never met the guy before but we all feel it when one of our own buys the farm in a race. If you’re gonna go, go doing what you love I guess but no one deserves to die because they couldn’t make the turn.
Mood: Subdued. Here’s to the Quarterback’s memory.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Thursday, September 21, 2006
The bounty hunt at Province
Friday 23 June 2070
Six, Ash, Glyph, Ki-Rin
After splitting up for the night, Six, Ash and Creed woke late, Creed had received a call from one of his contacts who needed a favour and he left, but Six and Ash were still keen to work on the other Lone Star bounties.
Deciding they would need some back up they called in Glyph and Ki-Rin and the four of them discussed how they would collect the bounties. Finally deciding to check out the Paper Dragon restaurant first and then to move onto the strip club called Province.
Booking a table for lunch at the Paper Dragon the runners mulled over their options, in a back room Six spotted Fu Hong, one of the two bounties that they were after. He was having a loud and animated conversation in Chinese on his phone but they couldn’t make out what was said. The runners sat and discussed whether to make a move on Fu Hong here and now but as they talked he came out of the back room and headed for the back door. The runners spent a few minutes deciding their plan of action as to how to take him down and by the time they had gone round the back he had already left in one of the red delivery vans.
Guessing that he would come back, and that the club, Province, wouldn’t open until much later the runners set about a stake out of the Paper Dragon. They observed the comings and goings for a few hours before noticing a black sedan arrive out the front, collect 5 heavies and leave. The runners had an inkling that something might be up.
Little else happened at the restaurant, and as the doors were closing, they headed off to check out the strip club. Security was heavy. More so than the last time they were here a day or so ago. The club was still open to patrons though. The back alley of the building had been blocked off by a couple of large pickups, and goons were on high alert to anyone attempting to access from the rear.
Six headed in, as a punter, and spent a time checking the place out. He didn’t even try to get up to the balcony level of the club, but could see from the ground that there were almost 30 people in a meeting where Zhang Jie held court.
As the runners checked in all of the intel that they had gathered, they realised that something big was going on, and tonight was not the best night to be staging a hit on the fat Chinaman, Zhang Jie. Rather than pulling out completely, they sat tight and watched. And after about an hour the meeting seemed to break up and interesting characters left with their own entourage of goons. Ki-Rin gathered images of the people and ran various matrix searches on them. Of the ones Ki-Rin found records of, they seemed to be wanted by various law enforcement agencies across the UCAS states.
By about 03:30 in the morning a lot of the hubbub seemed to have passed, and the runners took the opportunity to strike. Glyph nearly blew her arms off with a home made door lock breaker, Ash and Six tag teamed the front doors with a tow line and pickup truck, and Ki-Rin swung in from above through a skylight.
Too many flash bangs were deployed, and most of the opposition were out for the count, the rest took a few moments to take down with small arms fire.
The runners gathered up Jhang Jie, his girth proving to be a bit of a problem, again solved with the winch and Ash’s pickup. And then they took their catch to the cop shop to claim their bounty. Ash filled in the paperwork again and the runners got their bounty paid.
The runners headed home for some well-earned sleep and down time.
Ki-Rin wrote some fake ID’s for the team to use in an emergency. Ash headed out to his plot of desert to dream of what it could become. Glyph continued to work on her latest weapon and Six won another street race. For pinks this time round.
Six, Ash, Glyph, Ki-Rin
After splitting up for the night, Six, Ash and Creed woke late, Creed had received a call from one of his contacts who needed a favour and he left, but Six and Ash were still keen to work on the other Lone Star bounties.
Deciding they would need some back up they called in Glyph and Ki-Rin and the four of them discussed how they would collect the bounties. Finally deciding to check out the Paper Dragon restaurant first and then to move onto the strip club called Province.
Booking a table for lunch at the Paper Dragon the runners mulled over their options, in a back room Six spotted Fu Hong, one of the two bounties that they were after. He was having a loud and animated conversation in Chinese on his phone but they couldn’t make out what was said. The runners sat and discussed whether to make a move on Fu Hong here and now but as they talked he came out of the back room and headed for the back door. The runners spent a few minutes deciding their plan of action as to how to take him down and by the time they had gone round the back he had already left in one of the red delivery vans.
Guessing that he would come back, and that the club, Province, wouldn’t open until much later the runners set about a stake out of the Paper Dragon. They observed the comings and goings for a few hours before noticing a black sedan arrive out the front, collect 5 heavies and leave. The runners had an inkling that something might be up.
Little else happened at the restaurant, and as the doors were closing, they headed off to check out the strip club. Security was heavy. More so than the last time they were here a day or so ago. The club was still open to patrons though. The back alley of the building had been blocked off by a couple of large pickups, and goons were on high alert to anyone attempting to access from the rear.
Six headed in, as a punter, and spent a time checking the place out. He didn’t even try to get up to the balcony level of the club, but could see from the ground that there were almost 30 people in a meeting where Zhang Jie held court.
As the runners checked in all of the intel that they had gathered, they realised that something big was going on, and tonight was not the best night to be staging a hit on the fat Chinaman, Zhang Jie. Rather than pulling out completely, they sat tight and watched. And after about an hour the meeting seemed to break up and interesting characters left with their own entourage of goons. Ki-Rin gathered images of the people and ran various matrix searches on them. Of the ones Ki-Rin found records of, they seemed to be wanted by various law enforcement agencies across the UCAS states.
By about 03:30 in the morning a lot of the hubbub seemed to have passed, and the runners took the opportunity to strike. Glyph nearly blew her arms off with a home made door lock breaker, Ash and Six tag teamed the front doors with a tow line and pickup truck, and Ki-Rin swung in from above through a skylight.
Too many flash bangs were deployed, and most of the opposition were out for the count, the rest took a few moments to take down with small arms fire.
The runners gathered up Jhang Jie, his girth proving to be a bit of a problem, again solved with the winch and Ash’s pickup. And then they took their catch to the cop shop to claim their bounty. Ash filled in the paperwork again and the runners got their bounty paid.
The runners headed home for some well-earned sleep and down time.
Ki-Rin wrote some fake ID’s for the team to use in an emergency. Ash headed out to his plot of desert to dream of what it could become. Glyph continued to work on her latest weapon and Six won another street race. For pinks this time round.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Six's Blog. The rendering plant
By N.Barnes
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
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Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
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Initializing…>
Entry 16: 27.06.70>
Exquisite bliss… It’s late and I’m posting this from my favourite armchair.
There’s a replay of last night’s Giants match on the Trid. I’m wearing nothing but my comfiest pair of boxers and there’s a bourbon on the rocks and a stogie laced with a little weed on the table at my side. In a little while I’m going to go curl up in my own bed and sleep for a good ten hours.
Bliss.
Why am I so caught up in simple home comforts? Because they’re MY home comforts and having paid the Devil his due and danced to Croner’s tune, I can now enjoy them for the first time in ages. My record has been made to disappear, I’ve a few G on my Credstick again and I can relax – at least for a little while.
We never did head down to the Museum. Snow and Croner wanted us to move and move fast so, considering how much I wanted my name cleared, we damn well blazed. Croner’s gig was to locate an undercover cop called Han Tze. He’d been masquerading as a street-level drug dealer trying to infiltrate the Seven Stars Triad when he last made contact but a clear fortnight had passed with no word. Was he still working the case? Had he been compromised? Had he gone native? Croner wanted us to find out. By way of cover, he tipped us off to three bounties out on members of the Seven Stars Triad. Not only did this give us just cause to distract the Triad from our real objective within their ranks, it presented Lone Star with an opportunity to clean some pond scum off of the surface of the San Fran underworld while we lined our pockets.
We hit Chinatown and while Ash and Glyph opted for a little B & E at Han Tze’s apartment, I tapped up some of the local kids for info on who was dealing and where. I can’t say the little bastards were as easy to relate to as I’d hoped – not my circle at all – but for a little green they fessed up the location of a club called Province which they seemed to think was a hive of local drug activity. Meanwhile Mr Contacts and Rapunzel had spotted a little spy cam Han Tze had set to watch his pad. The footage showed Han Tze leaving, two weeks previous, in the company of one of our Bounties – Fu Hong, a Seven Stars Lieutenant with a penchant for explosive solutions and a reputation for running a sideline in the white slave trade. If Han Tze had been rumbled, maybe Fu Hong had found alternative employment for him as a slave?
We knew Han Tze had been reporting in to his faux masters within the Triad at a restaurant called the Paper Dragon and it was rolling on toward dinner time so we went for a recce on the pretext of getting us some grub. There was some sort of commotion outside with Trid Cams and a local news reporter lauding the Paper Dragon for handing out its left over food to the homeless each night. We’d hit jackpot in one respect – by happy coincidence, Fu Hong was the interviewee taking all the praise for his generosity and it’s not every day you stumble across a media savvy Triad lieutenant outside your local MSG emporium.
Mr Contacts did his thing and managed to have words with Fu Hong across the remains of the prawn crackers and pineapple fritters. Unsurprisingly Hong played dumb about Han Tze which left us contemplating kicking off and beating some answers out of his smug face. Before we could do anything rash, we received word that Han Tze’s PAN had just gone active out in the barrens and that was just about too much of a coincidence for us. We figured it was a trap and that having been quizzed about Han Tze, Hong had rumbled us and decided to lure us out by lacing a snare with a little Han Tze PAN bait.
Continues: 1/3>
|| >
Stuff that. We’ve learnt to be wary and we’re savvy enough not to be that dumb. We’re not that desperate for leads yet so we leave the Paper Dragon and head for Province instead, which turns out to be a lap dancing joint where the drugs are being passed around quite openly. As expected, we find the second of our Bounties here – Zhang Jie, Deputy Master of the Seven Stars who handles the Triad’s drug trafficking activities. We also find a hell of a lot of Triad mooks, toughs and heavies. Zhang Jie is quite obviously the big cheese and any attempt on his Bounty is going to need to be handled very carefully indeed. We back away with our tails between our legs – for a little while at least.
Having given anyone manning a trap for us and luring us in with Han Tze’s Comm signal chance to get bored and drop their guard, we now blazed out to the Barrens to hit them hard and fast. Turned out two street kids had found the PAN at a local dumpsite and were busily whacking off over Han Tze’s collection of Oriental Bongo. The dumpsite yielded a couple of other clues and after a couple of hours sleep, on Glyph’s sofa again, we split into teams to work the leads, Ash was the only one of us to hit paydirt – Daisy managed to recover the data from Han Tze’s wiped PAN and that connected up the dots for us. The last recording on Han Tze’s PAN showed us that the Paper Dragon’s delivery van was being used to shuttle slaves around the city and that Han Tze had been knocked out and unceremoniously dumped in amongst the rest of the ‘merchandise.’
It was clear now that we’d have to investigate the Triad slave trade if we were to pick up any further leads on Han Tze so we set about monitoring the movements of the delivery vans. Sure enough, in the dead of night, we scoped them laying claim to the city’s vagrant population as well as picking up a choice target or two from obviously predetermined drop off points. We tracked the Triad snatch team to the Hong Abattoir and Rendering Plant and watched them bundle their catch inside.
I scoped a black fellah sitting on a bench down near the gates to the plant paying much more attention to us than I was happy with. I figured maybe he was a spotter for the Triad – a fear confirmed when he hauled his carcass up off of the bench and headed towards the perimeter. Ash and I double timed over to head him off at the pass and were startled when he took a running jump at the fence and began to climb. Either the Triad were in the habit of locking their early warning system out for the night or we had a third party on our hands and he was about to blow the entire gig for us.
We got him down off of the fence and turned on the charm. He introduced himself as Creed and told us he was here to take a Triad bounty down – Ruan Shu a rising young star within the Triad who had probably been given a leg up by well-placed siblings. Sure enough Ruan Shu was the last name on our list of potential bounties and with a common goal, we were able to find some middle ground from which to work together on cracking the Triad. Using a handheld welder we made short work of both the fence and the fire door and found ourselves in a staff canteen where it kicked off. Ash was still keen to make amends for the past couple of weeks and put himself in the firing line. He took out a couple of goons but copped a volley of bullets in return so I called in the Medibot. I’m not too proud to admit taking cover and picking my shots with care, while Creed proved to be a decent shot to boot.
Continues: 2/3>
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The canteen gave access to a series of offices, soundproofed against the rest of the plant, which meant no one else had noticed our John Woo shit.
The main body of the abattoir seemed to be split into a warehouse area and a separate freezer and there were about half a dozen heavy hitters out on the shop floor. Most of there were wearing furry parkas against the chill of the cold storage so we liberated the least blood stained and snuck out. Ash dealt with the nearest mook while I laid down covering fire against the others as Creed advanced. The fight was brief and bloody and having discovered and freed half a dozen unknown vagrants locked in ISO containers we were soon moving on toward the heart of the plant.
Past the jointing machines and the offal store, we found the rendering plant proper – a basement level dominated by a huge vat containing the chemical bath. The floor above had a large trapdoor and crane arrangement for lowering the animal carcasses into the vat, as well as a ladderway down to the basement level. We could hear voices issuing up from below so while I watched the ladder, Ash and Creed got the trapdoor open. As shots began to ring out, I heard Creed call out that Ruan Shu was down there and heading my way so I cooked him up a little Ki-rinn Special and tossed a flash-bang into the hole. As the ruckus continued, I felt footsteps on the ladder and to my surprise, a quick peek revealed Han Tze clambering up towards me. I didn’t want to blow his cover so I used the codeword ‘Blue Dragon’ which Croner had given us and made like I was taking him prisoner, holding him at gunpoint and playing tough guy.
From the main trapdoor, I could hear a mixture of live ammo and Stick/Shock rounds being fired as Creed and Ash tried to take Ruan Shu alive. Give them their due – they were brutal and efficient. No one but Han Tze made it up out of that hole. In the aftermath, I put Croner and his man in touch. Seems Han Tze was still down with the Triad but in some way had slipped down the pecking order and had been put to work out of sight at Hong’s. He wanted to stay with the Triad and continue his assignment and Croner agreed. I think his cover’s blown – he wouldn’t even trust us to put him down with Stick/Shock like we had some of the other mooks – but that’s not my problem.
Croner verbally confirmed that he was happy with the job and that we were square so we hauled Ruan Shu to the nearest Lone Star precinct house and collected our 11K bounty. In the cars on the way back we had a little chat with Creed. We’re going after the other Triad bounties while we know where they can be found and Creed said he’d come in on the job with us and give us a hand – we’ll need the extra trigger finger, especially against Zhang Jie’s mob down at Province so that’s cool and we’ll take things from there. Maybe one day he’ll join the team…
Oh yeah, just as an aside. My birthday came and went in the flurry of action between Vegas and San Fran. Ash’ birthday wasn’t so long ago either. Kitty, Daisy and Snow threw us an impromptu, surprise party – a lovely thought and a welcome break from an otherwise stressful run of days. It’s to my family and friends’ generosity that I owe my ability to participate in the run against the Triad. They rebought most of the gear I lost as presents for me.
Hell Snow even went one better – he got me these trippy number plates that can be written and rewritten and a third party PAN that he’s promised to mock up for me with a fake identity. From now on, Vincent Caznotti is a straight up, above board guy, wholly separate to the dashing enigma behind the wheel - a Shadowrunner known only as Six. Man what a gas ;o)
Mood: Chilled. Bottom of the 7th and the Giants are 4-1 up. Life is good
Ends: 3/3>
||
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 16: 27.06.70>
Exquisite bliss… It’s late and I’m posting this from my favourite armchair.
There’s a replay of last night’s Giants match on the Trid. I’m wearing nothing but my comfiest pair of boxers and there’s a bourbon on the rocks and a stogie laced with a little weed on the table at my side. In a little while I’m going to go curl up in my own bed and sleep for a good ten hours.
Bliss.
Why am I so caught up in simple home comforts? Because they’re MY home comforts and having paid the Devil his due and danced to Croner’s tune, I can now enjoy them for the first time in ages. My record has been made to disappear, I’ve a few G on my Credstick again and I can relax – at least for a little while.
We never did head down to the Museum. Snow and Croner wanted us to move and move fast so, considering how much I wanted my name cleared, we damn well blazed. Croner’s gig was to locate an undercover cop called Han Tze. He’d been masquerading as a street-level drug dealer trying to infiltrate the Seven Stars Triad when he last made contact but a clear fortnight had passed with no word. Was he still working the case? Had he been compromised? Had he gone native? Croner wanted us to find out. By way of cover, he tipped us off to three bounties out on members of the Seven Stars Triad. Not only did this give us just cause to distract the Triad from our real objective within their ranks, it presented Lone Star with an opportunity to clean some pond scum off of the surface of the San Fran underworld while we lined our pockets.
We hit Chinatown and while Ash and Glyph opted for a little B & E at Han Tze’s apartment, I tapped up some of the local kids for info on who was dealing and where. I can’t say the little bastards were as easy to relate to as I’d hoped – not my circle at all – but for a little green they fessed up the location of a club called Province which they seemed to think was a hive of local drug activity. Meanwhile Mr Contacts and Rapunzel had spotted a little spy cam Han Tze had set to watch his pad. The footage showed Han Tze leaving, two weeks previous, in the company of one of our Bounties – Fu Hong, a Seven Stars Lieutenant with a penchant for explosive solutions and a reputation for running a sideline in the white slave trade. If Han Tze had been rumbled, maybe Fu Hong had found alternative employment for him as a slave?
We knew Han Tze had been reporting in to his faux masters within the Triad at a restaurant called the Paper Dragon and it was rolling on toward dinner time so we went for a recce on the pretext of getting us some grub. There was some sort of commotion outside with Trid Cams and a local news reporter lauding the Paper Dragon for handing out its left over food to the homeless each night. We’d hit jackpot in one respect – by happy coincidence, Fu Hong was the interviewee taking all the praise for his generosity and it’s not every day you stumble across a media savvy Triad lieutenant outside your local MSG emporium.
Mr Contacts did his thing and managed to have words with Fu Hong across the remains of the prawn crackers and pineapple fritters. Unsurprisingly Hong played dumb about Han Tze which left us contemplating kicking off and beating some answers out of his smug face. Before we could do anything rash, we received word that Han Tze’s PAN had just gone active out in the barrens and that was just about too much of a coincidence for us. We figured it was a trap and that having been quizzed about Han Tze, Hong had rumbled us and decided to lure us out by lacing a snare with a little Han Tze PAN bait.
Continues: 1/3>
|| >
Stuff that. We’ve learnt to be wary and we’re savvy enough not to be that dumb. We’re not that desperate for leads yet so we leave the Paper Dragon and head for Province instead, which turns out to be a lap dancing joint where the drugs are being passed around quite openly. As expected, we find the second of our Bounties here – Zhang Jie, Deputy Master of the Seven Stars who handles the Triad’s drug trafficking activities. We also find a hell of a lot of Triad mooks, toughs and heavies. Zhang Jie is quite obviously the big cheese and any attempt on his Bounty is going to need to be handled very carefully indeed. We back away with our tails between our legs – for a little while at least.
Having given anyone manning a trap for us and luring us in with Han Tze’s Comm signal chance to get bored and drop their guard, we now blazed out to the Barrens to hit them hard and fast. Turned out two street kids had found the PAN at a local dumpsite and were busily whacking off over Han Tze’s collection of Oriental Bongo. The dumpsite yielded a couple of other clues and after a couple of hours sleep, on Glyph’s sofa again, we split into teams to work the leads, Ash was the only one of us to hit paydirt – Daisy managed to recover the data from Han Tze’s wiped PAN and that connected up the dots for us. The last recording on Han Tze’s PAN showed us that the Paper Dragon’s delivery van was being used to shuttle slaves around the city and that Han Tze had been knocked out and unceremoniously dumped in amongst the rest of the ‘merchandise.’
It was clear now that we’d have to investigate the Triad slave trade if we were to pick up any further leads on Han Tze so we set about monitoring the movements of the delivery vans. Sure enough, in the dead of night, we scoped them laying claim to the city’s vagrant population as well as picking up a choice target or two from obviously predetermined drop off points. We tracked the Triad snatch team to the Hong Abattoir and Rendering Plant and watched them bundle their catch inside.
I scoped a black fellah sitting on a bench down near the gates to the plant paying much more attention to us than I was happy with. I figured maybe he was a spotter for the Triad – a fear confirmed when he hauled his carcass up off of the bench and headed towards the perimeter. Ash and I double timed over to head him off at the pass and were startled when he took a running jump at the fence and began to climb. Either the Triad were in the habit of locking their early warning system out for the night or we had a third party on our hands and he was about to blow the entire gig for us.
We got him down off of the fence and turned on the charm. He introduced himself as Creed and told us he was here to take a Triad bounty down – Ruan Shu a rising young star within the Triad who had probably been given a leg up by well-placed siblings. Sure enough Ruan Shu was the last name on our list of potential bounties and with a common goal, we were able to find some middle ground from which to work together on cracking the Triad. Using a handheld welder we made short work of both the fence and the fire door and found ourselves in a staff canteen where it kicked off. Ash was still keen to make amends for the past couple of weeks and put himself in the firing line. He took out a couple of goons but copped a volley of bullets in return so I called in the Medibot. I’m not too proud to admit taking cover and picking my shots with care, while Creed proved to be a decent shot to boot.
Continues: 2/3>
|| >
The canteen gave access to a series of offices, soundproofed against the rest of the plant, which meant no one else had noticed our John Woo shit.
The main body of the abattoir seemed to be split into a warehouse area and a separate freezer and there were about half a dozen heavy hitters out on the shop floor. Most of there were wearing furry parkas against the chill of the cold storage so we liberated the least blood stained and snuck out. Ash dealt with the nearest mook while I laid down covering fire against the others as Creed advanced. The fight was brief and bloody and having discovered and freed half a dozen unknown vagrants locked in ISO containers we were soon moving on toward the heart of the plant.
Past the jointing machines and the offal store, we found the rendering plant proper – a basement level dominated by a huge vat containing the chemical bath. The floor above had a large trapdoor and crane arrangement for lowering the animal carcasses into the vat, as well as a ladderway down to the basement level. We could hear voices issuing up from below so while I watched the ladder, Ash and Creed got the trapdoor open. As shots began to ring out, I heard Creed call out that Ruan Shu was down there and heading my way so I cooked him up a little Ki-rinn Special and tossed a flash-bang into the hole. As the ruckus continued, I felt footsteps on the ladder and to my surprise, a quick peek revealed Han Tze clambering up towards me. I didn’t want to blow his cover so I used the codeword ‘Blue Dragon’ which Croner had given us and made like I was taking him prisoner, holding him at gunpoint and playing tough guy.
From the main trapdoor, I could hear a mixture of live ammo and Stick/Shock rounds being fired as Creed and Ash tried to take Ruan Shu alive. Give them their due – they were brutal and efficient. No one but Han Tze made it up out of that hole. In the aftermath, I put Croner and his man in touch. Seems Han Tze was still down with the Triad but in some way had slipped down the pecking order and had been put to work out of sight at Hong’s. He wanted to stay with the Triad and continue his assignment and Croner agreed. I think his cover’s blown – he wouldn’t even trust us to put him down with Stick/Shock like we had some of the other mooks – but that’s not my problem.
Croner verbally confirmed that he was happy with the job and that we were square so we hauled Ruan Shu to the nearest Lone Star precinct house and collected our 11K bounty. In the cars on the way back we had a little chat with Creed. We’re going after the other Triad bounties while we know where they can be found and Creed said he’d come in on the job with us and give us a hand – we’ll need the extra trigger finger, especially against Zhang Jie’s mob down at Province so that’s cool and we’ll take things from there. Maybe one day he’ll join the team…
Oh yeah, just as an aside. My birthday came and went in the flurry of action between Vegas and San Fran. Ash’ birthday wasn’t so long ago either. Kitty, Daisy and Snow threw us an impromptu, surprise party – a lovely thought and a welcome break from an otherwise stressful run of days. It’s to my family and friends’ generosity that I owe my ability to participate in the run against the Triad. They rebought most of the gear I lost as presents for me.
Hell Snow even went one better – he got me these trippy number plates that can be written and rewritten and a third party PAN that he’s promised to mock up for me with a fake identity. From now on, Vincent Caznotti is a straight up, above board guy, wholly separate to the dashing enigma behind the wheel - a Shadowrunner known only as Six. Man what a gas ;o)
Mood: Chilled. Bottom of the 7th and the Giants are 4-1 up. Life is good
Ends: 3/3>
||
The rendering plant
Thursday 22nd June 2070 01:20am
Ash, Six, Creed.
Ash and Six watched as the red delivery van drove into rendering plant, the driver removed his human cargo, and then went inside. Glyph retreated back to the cars to keep an eye on them and offer a quick getaway option while the other two runners sussed out what to do next.
Running out of money fast, Creed had to take a job to pay his rent at the end of the month, the police bounties weren’t the highest paid work, and not generally considered by real Shadowrunners and bounty hunters, but times were hard and Creed took a job to track down and bring in a Triad lieutenant called Ruan Shu. Paying informants, and doing the legwork brought Creed to a park bench outside the Hong Rendering Plant. Staking out the plant, Creed saw nothing of note, until a red delivery van turned up. On the heels of the red van, two men, runners, also began to scope the building.
Not sure of their intent Creed decided to make a move on bringing in Ruan Shu, as he approached the fence Six and Ash approached, they confirmed that they were all after the same bounty, and retreated to discuss a coordinated plan.
They cut their way through the rear fence, and assaulted the back fire escape door, Daisy had the cameras out of action while they hit hard and fast. In though the fire door they met some opposition, triads armed with Uzi’s.
They fought their way through the factory taking out all the guards. Ash and Creed were shot up pretty bad, Six was fairing better.
They found two ISO containers and inside they made the grim discovery of half a dozen drugged people slowly dieing. Leaving these containers open the runners headed into the cold store. They found a large trapdoor which dropped into a basement level. Creed opened up this trap door, and Six headed over to a ladder down to the basement level. The triad guards below the trapdoor opened fire almost as soon as they saw the runners and another gun battle ensued.
Six was covering the top of the ladder and was shocked to see Han Tze, the lone star officer the runners were trying to find, and were convinced was dead. Six took him captive while the others eliminated the guards and took down their bounty, Ruan Shu, using Stick and Shock rounds.
Han Tze told Six that his cover might have been compromised so this is why his reports were not forthcoming, and he had been put in the charge of Ruan Shu to keep an eye on him. Six was not convinced so put a call through to Duncan Croner, the police chief, who then confirmed that he was happy for Han Tze to remain undercover, and that Six would get his record cleared as agreed.
The runners pulled out, taking their unconscious pay check to a Lone Star precinct. Six and Ash told Creed that they were after two more bounties, and wondered if he might be interested in joining them. They split for the night, heading to bed, set to take out the other bounties the next day.
Ash, Six, Creed.
Ash and Six watched as the red delivery van drove into rendering plant, the driver removed his human cargo, and then went inside. Glyph retreated back to the cars to keep an eye on them and offer a quick getaway option while the other two runners sussed out what to do next.
Running out of money fast, Creed had to take a job to pay his rent at the end of the month, the police bounties weren’t the highest paid work, and not generally considered by real Shadowrunners and bounty hunters, but times were hard and Creed took a job to track down and bring in a Triad lieutenant called Ruan Shu. Paying informants, and doing the legwork brought Creed to a park bench outside the Hong Rendering Plant. Staking out the plant, Creed saw nothing of note, until a red delivery van turned up. On the heels of the red van, two men, runners, also began to scope the building.
Not sure of their intent Creed decided to make a move on bringing in Ruan Shu, as he approached the fence Six and Ash approached, they confirmed that they were all after the same bounty, and retreated to discuss a coordinated plan.
They cut their way through the rear fence, and assaulted the back fire escape door, Daisy had the cameras out of action while they hit hard and fast. In though the fire door they met some opposition, triads armed with Uzi’s.
They fought their way through the factory taking out all the guards. Ash and Creed were shot up pretty bad, Six was fairing better.
They found two ISO containers and inside they made the grim discovery of half a dozen drugged people slowly dieing. Leaving these containers open the runners headed into the cold store. They found a large trapdoor which dropped into a basement level. Creed opened up this trap door, and Six headed over to a ladder down to the basement level. The triad guards below the trapdoor opened fire almost as soon as they saw the runners and another gun battle ensued.
Six was covering the top of the ladder and was shocked to see Han Tze, the lone star officer the runners were trying to find, and were convinced was dead. Six took him captive while the others eliminated the guards and took down their bounty, Ruan Shu, using Stick and Shock rounds.
Han Tze told Six that his cover might have been compromised so this is why his reports were not forthcoming, and he had been put in the charge of Ruan Shu to keep an eye on him. Six was not convinced so put a call through to Duncan Croner, the police chief, who then confirmed that he was happy for Han Tze to remain undercover, and that Six would get his record cleared as agreed.
The runners pulled out, taking their unconscious pay check to a Lone Star precinct. Six and Ash told Creed that they were after two more bounties, and wondered if he might be interested in joining them. They split for the night, heading to bed, set to take out the other bounties the next day.
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