By N.Barnes
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Initializing…>
Entry 27: 22.08.70>
Just back from a track day and I can still smell the burnt rubber and gasoline. What a great day :o)
I suppose a word or two of explanation. First things first, we’re back in good old San Fran and all seems sweet. Kitty is as hot as ever and someone gave my apartment a new lick of paint to repair the damage done by the Triad before we smoothed things over with them. I’ve decided I’m never getting caught unawares again and Mal has very kindly fitted me out with the latest Betaware cyber leg – fully synthetic and realistic to look at and touch but with a nifty little cyber holster built in so I can keep a surprise or two to hand. Good kit.
In addition, while I was away I seem to have become Grasshopper or Old Father Time or something, invested with the wisdom of ages. Why? Because Kitty and I took a reunion cruise down the strip for race night yesterday and that punk Bumfluff came to me with his life story begging for my help.
For real. I mean this kid has got serious stones and vitamin Reality deficiency if he thinks getting his ass handed to him on the streets a few times in some way makes me his protector and mentor… However, we all know I’m really a soft touch and it can’t do my rep any harm – so I listen.
Seems Bumfluff fell foul of Seto’s gig the same way I did. There was a 100k bet down on a simple drag, Bumfluff felt certain he’d have the edge but as soon as things got underway experienced an few ‘technical’ troubles. Now Seto’s an ass and he’s pulling this shit on decent folks. I’d love to sock one to the smug fragger so Bumfluff has my attention but he ain’t done yakking. To try and rectify his first mistake, he made another. Trusted a nobody by the name of Grifter who offered him a suitcase full of Smack for 20 or 30 large. Figuring he can sell it on for enough dough to cover his debt to Seto, Bumfluff bit the scam. He then tries to sell the Smack to the local Vory Novacoke dealer, only to be told the Smack is hookey, ripped off from the Vory not 24 hours before. So now Bumfluff has a fat debt and some explaining to do to the Russian Mafia if he hopes to live out the day. I’m about ready to walk and let the knobhead swing but maybe just maybe we can help…
I bring in the team, Glyph, Ash and our infrequent tagalong Drifter.
Drifter’s worth his weight in gold and remembers that when we were down on our luck, Ash paid this Grifter dude who just scammed Bumfluff for a run to pick up a piece of art from a museum exhibition. We never did get around to that run and a little checking now proves Drifter right – Ash has also been scammed by Grifter.
Well, now it’s personal so we make moves to track Grifter down. Thanks to Daisy, it soon transpires that Grifter was responsible for doing over the Vory drug den and lifting the Novacoke. From our knowledge of Sickle and a couple of other brushes with the Vory we know they set a great store by personal honour so I make contact with the Dealer, Kier and offer a trade.
He lays off Bumfluff and we give him the little turd who raided his safe house. Kier’s a reasonable chap it seems. He’s happy with the trade, so we set a fake hard luck story circulating on Shadowlands BBS and set Drifter up as a honey trap – a down on his luck Runner looking for a quick, no questions asked buck. We strike gold, Drifter is invited to a meet and we set up a stake out and get ready to bust some heads. On Fly Spy I watch Drifter make contact at the meet. He’s joining a gang of Hispanics and Grifter for a raid on a poorly defended drug den. Drifter makes his excuses and leaves, somewhat smacked off his tits from the Blunt the Hispanics are toking and we hastily rearrange our hit.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
It soon becomes apparent that Grifter and his new friends are about to turn over the same Vory drug den he struck gold at, just a few days ago. It’s too much of an opportunity to really impress Kier so we take our chances against the whole crew and make our move – Glyph and I run a little drive-by as the Hispanics make to bail out of their vehicles and they come blazing after us.
Grifter, loaded down with the cash the Hispanics put up to buy into the hit, decides he’s got what he wanted and pushes off pronto with Ash and Drifter in tow.
Up and down the hills of San Fran, Glyph and I have our fun, taunting the Hispanics, outburning their lowriders and trading shots. They get outdriven, outclassed and outgunned – it’s Glyph and her custom automatics and me with the turret mounted Ares Antioch against SMG firing hippies so high they can barely shoot straight. It’s no contest – like shooting fish in a barrel. I lay down smoke and flash bangs as a distraction, dropping them through the windows and into the vehicles where I can, while Glyph methodically works her way through the whole damn crew. You’d count to ten slower than we made two burning messes on the highway!
By the time we catch up with Ash, he’s already run Grifter off of the road.
Glyph and I pull up just in time to watch the show as Grifter’s tub goes over on its roof and crunches to a stop in front of us. While Ash has a one-to-one with our itinerant scammer, Glyph and Drifter retrieve the cash – a cool 50k for the Bumfluff benevolent fund – and I arrange to hand Grifter over to Kier.
Kier is good to his word and I warn Bumfluff to steer clear of the Vory in future. He’s been a knobhead this time but he’s smart enough to know what a close shave he’s had – he could have been sleeping with fishes at the bottom of the bay if the Russian Mafia got hold of him. We still have a problem though – Bumfluff needs another 50k for Seto, PDQ. Fortunately, this time, Ash has a cunning plan…
And that’s where the track day fits in. Ash, Glyph, Drifter and Bumfluff came with me down to the track. I laid down a marker time for the others and they tried to beat it. If ten seconds slower can be counted as beating me, then I guess I’m in trouble lol. Bumfluff came closest though – kid’s got some skills and that was all Ash needed to know. At his suggestion, Ash and I have put up 25k each to cover the rest of Bumfluff’s debt and now the Punk’s gonna race for us. He’ll race in the colours and livery we choose, so we can advertise some of Ash’ contacts, my Custom work etc and he’ll race when we tell him to race. That means he’ll either play wingman to me and watch my back out on the track or he’ll split his winnings with us, 60:40 in his favour with Ash and I take 20 per cent a pop until he’s quits with us.
Bumfluff’s fragging ecstatic and while I have my reservations, Ash is convinced that we can make this work…
Mood: High. I can still hear the NOS firing!
Ends: 2/2>
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Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
August 2070 NPC update
Kier – Vory dealer in San Francisco.
Yutaka Seto – Yakuza Oyabans son who has Six's old car.
Bum Fluff – Young Street racer.
Grifter – Con-man. Preys on wannabe shadowrunners with deals that seem just a little too good to be true.
Han Tze – Lone Star undercover cop who has infiltrated the Seven Star triad gang.
Ka-Hil – An Ork recruiter for the secretive magical group that approached Ash.
Halifax – Physical adept and mentor to Ash.
Smith – Fixer the runners met in Atlanta.
Fu Hong – Ex-Seven Star lieutenant. He was captured by the shadowrunners as part of the Lone Star arrest for cash program. After being released he was incensed to discover that Kung Lok had given the runners clemency. After declaring a blood feud against the runners he was disowned by the Seven Stars.
Kung Lok – Seven Star Triad gang leader. Impressed by the way that the runners had out smarted his Lieutenants, has called off the vendetta against them and has offered some work for the future.
Yutaka Seto – Yakuza Oyabans son who has Six's old car.
Bum Fluff – Young Street racer.
Grifter – Con-man. Preys on wannabe shadowrunners with deals that seem just a little too good to be true.
Han Tze – Lone Star undercover cop who has infiltrated the Seven Star triad gang.
Ka-Hil – An Ork recruiter for the secretive magical group that approached Ash.
Halifax – Physical adept and mentor to Ash.
Smith – Fixer the runners met in Atlanta.
Fu Hong – Ex-Seven Star lieutenant. He was captured by the shadowrunners as part of the Lone Star arrest for cash program. After being released he was incensed to discover that Kung Lok had given the runners clemency. After declaring a blood feud against the runners he was disowned by the Seven Stars.
Kung Lok – Seven Star Triad gang leader. Impressed by the way that the runners had out smarted his Lieutenants, has called off the vendetta against them and has offered some work for the future.
The problem with Bum-Fluff
13th August 2070
Ash, Drifter, Glyph, Six
The runners were in Atlanta but they had little to stick around for, and once they had packed they drove the drive back home.
Six had put a call through to Mal, the Street Doc, a few days before to order a cyberleg, with a few customisations and made arrangements to head round and have his meat leg replaced with the better harder faster version.
Ash made some enquiries about having his strip of desert turned into some kind of racing strip, although the verbal quotes he was getting were quite steep.
Glyph got back to normal as soon as possible. Clearing up the mess that the Triads had left she got back to finishing the large bore quad barrelled gun she had started for Six.
21st August 2070
The young street racer called Bum Fluff had been on the circuit for a couple of years, a talented but inexperienced driver, he wiped out as many times as he won. He had entered a race for ¥100k, against the yakuza oyoban’s son Yutaka Seto and after some engine trouble, he lost. He didn’t have the money and had been given a time limit to come up with the cash. Desperate for some way to make some quick money, he was quick to snap up an offer of a suitcase full of nova-coke worth in excess of ¥200k on the streets for a fraction of the price from a mystery man called Grifter. Bum Fluff then sold the class A drugs to a Vory drug baron called Kier who paid in counterfeit credsticks. Which mean’ that Bum Fluff was still unable to pay off Yutaka Seto.
Kier then discovered that the drugs he had just bought from Bum Fluff, had in fact belonged to him all along and someone had knocked off his own drug den the night before. Kier was fuming and gave Bum Fluff an ultimatum, get him a suitcase full of Nova-coke by Friday or face the consequences. Seto was expecting his ¥100,000 by Friday also, and Bum Fluff was scared.
Bum Fluff had always looked up to Six, and begged him to help him. He didn’t have much to offer, only his car, and Six was less than impressed that Bum Fluff had come begging to him.
Leave him to fend for himself and he could wind up dead, and neither Six’s conscience or reputation could take that. Help him out, and Six would either end up out of pocket, or pissing off both the Vory and Yakuza of San Fran, or both. Six agreed to help.
Getting the other runners involved they talked over what had happened in the twisted web that Bum Fluff had woven and it seemed that the one man who they could do wit questioning was Grifter. Ash thought on about it, but Drifter was the one who remembered the name. Grifter sold Ash a Shadowrun to raid a museum when Ash was on a loosing streak, and at a bit of a low. Ash called the contact number for that run and after a brief chat to a man that was supposed to be German and wasn’t ended up speaking to tone.
The runners set about tracking down Grifter. His car had been seen at a bar, and the runners headed there, Daisy tracked down the city cameras to try and find the car and eventually found a piece of footage of Grifter running over a Vory guard and taking the drugs.
The runners decided to set up a honey trap to lure the elusive Grifter out. He seemed to prey on shadowrunners and criminal elements when they are down on their luck, so Drifter was set up as a runner touting for work. Daisy spread the word on message boards and before long Drifter was inundated with spam offers to make money quick. He spent many hours filtering through the spam before receiving a message from Grifter himself. They had a brief conversation and Grifter let him know that he could help him out of he comes down to a run down bit of San Fran for a meet.
The runners swung into action and surrounded the place with sniper cover and FRT while Drifter headed in to make a move. Drifter found himself in a smoking den owned by a group of hispanic gangers. A reefer was passed to Drifter and after a couple of tokes, it became a bit surreal.
Grifter rolled in after half an hour or so later and tried to squeeze some cash out of Drifter, he feigned that he had left his wallet elsewhere and Grifter lost interest in his new mark dismissing him to go and get some cash.
Drifter left, and Grifter led his new gang of mugs to a stash of drugs that was going to be lightly guarded. The Vory drug den again.
Six and Glyph in one car, Ash and a slightly stoned Drifter in Ash’s truck took up pursuit. They followed two lowriders and an Americar across town, and watched in horror as Grifter led his little gang back to the Vory house, Six and Glyph did a drive by to attract their attention and the gangers took the bait, chasing the runners up the hill, Ash followed Grifter who decided that there was too much lead flying about.
Six and Glyph dispatched their Lowriding gangers with a few well-placed grenades, and joined Ash to see him ramming the Americar off the road.
Grifter was dazed in the crash; the runners dragged him from the wreckage taking about ¥60k in cash. They contacted the Vory baron, Kier to be told that he wanted Grifter bringing to a secluded location so that he could have a long chat with him. And the runners duly obliged as long as Bum Fluff was let off, after all he had his drugs back, and although neither made the point, the drugs were paid with counterfeit money anyway.
The runners then had the other problem. To pay off Seto, they would need to give Bum Fluff the 60k they had just taken, and still have to pay in 40k of their own money. Ash suggested that they take Bum Fluff onto the payroll; his earnings on the strip get split between the investors. Six wanted to see how good the kid really was, so arranged to spend an afternoon on a track day in his car. Everyone had a go to try and post a time. Six put down the benchmark, and all the runners were about 10 seconds off the pace. Bum Fluff was fast, better than the other runners, not as good as Six, and Six was satisfied enough to put his money alongside Ash’s on the kid.
Ash, Drifter, Glyph, Six
The runners were in Atlanta but they had little to stick around for, and once they had packed they drove the drive back home.
Six had put a call through to Mal, the Street Doc, a few days before to order a cyberleg, with a few customisations and made arrangements to head round and have his meat leg replaced with the better harder faster version.
Ash made some enquiries about having his strip of desert turned into some kind of racing strip, although the verbal quotes he was getting were quite steep.
Glyph got back to normal as soon as possible. Clearing up the mess that the Triads had left she got back to finishing the large bore quad barrelled gun she had started for Six.
21st August 2070
The young street racer called Bum Fluff had been on the circuit for a couple of years, a talented but inexperienced driver, he wiped out as many times as he won. He had entered a race for ¥100k, against the yakuza oyoban’s son Yutaka Seto and after some engine trouble, he lost. He didn’t have the money and had been given a time limit to come up with the cash. Desperate for some way to make some quick money, he was quick to snap up an offer of a suitcase full of nova-coke worth in excess of ¥200k on the streets for a fraction of the price from a mystery man called Grifter. Bum Fluff then sold the class A drugs to a Vory drug baron called Kier who paid in counterfeit credsticks. Which mean’ that Bum Fluff was still unable to pay off Yutaka Seto.
Kier then discovered that the drugs he had just bought from Bum Fluff, had in fact belonged to him all along and someone had knocked off his own drug den the night before. Kier was fuming and gave Bum Fluff an ultimatum, get him a suitcase full of Nova-coke by Friday or face the consequences. Seto was expecting his ¥100,000 by Friday also, and Bum Fluff was scared.
Bum Fluff had always looked up to Six, and begged him to help him. He didn’t have much to offer, only his car, and Six was less than impressed that Bum Fluff had come begging to him.
Leave him to fend for himself and he could wind up dead, and neither Six’s conscience or reputation could take that. Help him out, and Six would either end up out of pocket, or pissing off both the Vory and Yakuza of San Fran, or both. Six agreed to help.
Getting the other runners involved they talked over what had happened in the twisted web that Bum Fluff had woven and it seemed that the one man who they could do wit questioning was Grifter. Ash thought on about it, but Drifter was the one who remembered the name. Grifter sold Ash a Shadowrun to raid a museum when Ash was on a loosing streak, and at a bit of a low. Ash called the contact number for that run and after a brief chat to a man that was supposed to be German and wasn’t ended up speaking to tone.
The runners set about tracking down Grifter. His car had been seen at a bar, and the runners headed there, Daisy tracked down the city cameras to try and find the car and eventually found a piece of footage of Grifter running over a Vory guard and taking the drugs.
The runners decided to set up a honey trap to lure the elusive Grifter out. He seemed to prey on shadowrunners and criminal elements when they are down on their luck, so Drifter was set up as a runner touting for work. Daisy spread the word on message boards and before long Drifter was inundated with spam offers to make money quick. He spent many hours filtering through the spam before receiving a message from Grifter himself. They had a brief conversation and Grifter let him know that he could help him out of he comes down to a run down bit of San Fran for a meet.
The runners swung into action and surrounded the place with sniper cover and FRT while Drifter headed in to make a move. Drifter found himself in a smoking den owned by a group of hispanic gangers. A reefer was passed to Drifter and after a couple of tokes, it became a bit surreal.
Grifter rolled in after half an hour or so later and tried to squeeze some cash out of Drifter, he feigned that he had left his wallet elsewhere and Grifter lost interest in his new mark dismissing him to go and get some cash.
Drifter left, and Grifter led his new gang of mugs to a stash of drugs that was going to be lightly guarded. The Vory drug den again.
Six and Glyph in one car, Ash and a slightly stoned Drifter in Ash’s truck took up pursuit. They followed two lowriders and an Americar across town, and watched in horror as Grifter led his little gang back to the Vory house, Six and Glyph did a drive by to attract their attention and the gangers took the bait, chasing the runners up the hill, Ash followed Grifter who decided that there was too much lead flying about.
Six and Glyph dispatched their Lowriding gangers with a few well-placed grenades, and joined Ash to see him ramming the Americar off the road.
Grifter was dazed in the crash; the runners dragged him from the wreckage taking about ¥60k in cash. They contacted the Vory baron, Kier to be told that he wanted Grifter bringing to a secluded location so that he could have a long chat with him. And the runners duly obliged as long as Bum Fluff was let off, after all he had his drugs back, and although neither made the point, the drugs were paid with counterfeit money anyway.
The runners then had the other problem. To pay off Seto, they would need to give Bum Fluff the 60k they had just taken, and still have to pay in 40k of their own money. Ash suggested that they take Bum Fluff onto the payroll; his earnings on the strip get split between the investors. Six wanted to see how good the kid really was, so arranged to spend an afternoon on a track day in his car. Everyone had a go to try and post a time. Six put down the benchmark, and all the runners were about 10 seconds off the pace. Bum Fluff was fast, better than the other runners, not as good as Six, and Six was satisfied enough to put his money alongside Ash’s on the kid.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Six's Blog.
By N.Barnes
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 26: 12.08.70>
I knew Chuckles was going to be trouble… How much trouble? How about persuading Ash to bail out mid-run, trouble. Yes, that much trouble. I’m fragging fuming, not least because I had to put my ass on the line to pull Chumpzilla’s fat out of the fire afterwards too.
The day started well. I had a call from Nunzio who had negotiated a deal for us with the Seven Stars Triad. They respected our effectiveness at bypassing their security to take their boys in and collect the Lone Star bounty and understood that it was just a job, nothing personal. However, they needed to save face and that meant reparations had to be made. The Triad Head Honcho said that for 30k, all sins could be forgiven and we’d be free to return home. As an added sweetener, Kung Lok threw in a warning and a sop to our ego. The sop? That our skill and success rate had not gone unnoticed and the Triad might be interested in employing us at a future date. The warning?
That restaurant owner Fu Hong had disagreed with the Triad’s upper echelons about letting us off so lightly and been thrown out on his ear after swearing a blood oath against us. Glyph and Ash agreed to chuck in 10k a pop with me to settle up so that we could go home and Nunzio agreed to facilitate the deal.
Before we could even think of packing up and leaving Atlanta, Ash took a call from a local fixer called Smith – the fruit of his efforts at contact development and relationship building. Smith offered to put us in touch with a Corp Johnson who was looking to employ a team. I liked the idea of having a fixer on side here in Atlanta and a bit of a rep – if we could cultivate both San Fran and Atlanta it meant we could switch between patches and would always be able to use the other as a bolt hole. Glyph agreed it was worth trying to make a spot more money before we left and we let Ash make the connections.
We met Smith and then the Johnson at a hotel downtown. The introductions from Smith were costing us ten percent and though both Ash and I considered this money well spent, Glyph had her reservations. Johnson represented Future Concepts, an R&D company who had signed a deal to head hunt a research scientist by the name of Dr Lawrence Callahan from Mitsuhama.
Callahan had never shown up for work and Future Concepts wanted their employee delivering to them. Wrangles about cash, golden handshakes and contingency payments aside, it all seemed fairly straightforward and we happily took the gig on.
Straight to the horse’s mouth, I decided to check whether Callahan was contactable through his former employer or not and after playing the hold game with a series of switchboard monkeys I was surprised to be put straight through to our quarry. Callahan claimed to have changed his mind and rebuffed me fairly quickly and left us with any number of conspiracy theories running through our heads. Had he feigned interest in Future Concepts to carry out some sort of industrial espionage? Were Mitsuhama holding him against his will? Did they have some sort of leverage over him?
Ultimately, the whys and wherefores were unimportant, our job was simply to deliver Callahan to Future Concepts, but at least we now knew where to find the good Doctor and what we would be up against in order to extract him successfully.
A recce of Callahan’s old apartment turned up little other than the telephone number of Flick Stevens, a co-worker who claimed to know nothing of Callahan’s whereabouts or contract with Future Concepts so we blazed to Mitsuhama where we had our first unpleasant surprise.
Continues: 1/3>
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Mitsuhama is one of the Big Ten – the world’s largest corporations and that grants them extraterritoriality, the right to claim their buildings and compounds as sovereign land, exempt from the laws of the country and subject to laws set by the corporation itself. You can expect those laws to be stacked in the corporation’s favour and get short shrift and no assistance if you should happen to cross them. Knowing this, we gave the Mitsuhama compound a wide berth and set up surveillance in the hills overlooking it from the north. The compound covers roughly a square mile of territory, ringed by a double fence and houses five separate buildings. A quick hackette from Daisy was able to identify the building where Callahan worked and the accommodation block housing his apartment but even so, we faced a tough infiltration if we were going to get into the compound.
Glyph snuck down to within 500 metres of the exterior fence and was spotted, attracting the unwanted attention of a dog team. I expected to be picked up instantly over corporate air space but with little other option I sent the Fly Spy down into the compound and began to worm my way through to Callahan’s apartment.
It was then we got our next surprise. An announcement from Ash that he had to go meet someone and would be leaving us for an hour. He tried to use the fact that we were settling down to do some surveillance as an excuse to bail, claiming it didn’t need all three of us to watch the compound. He was right of course, but leaving us still sucked and I damn well told him so.
What if an opportunity to snatch the good Doctor presented itself? How could he help us if he was having a beer and a chinwag miles away? It all harked back to the bad old days, when Ono was captured by the Notable Anarchists.
It was asking for trouble but Ash was resolute. As it turned out, he was gone for much longer than an hour and would have cause to regret his decision before the end of the night.
Glyph and I debated entry methods until nightfall and then in the darkness, we spotted approaching headlights. A two-man security team had come to sweep the area and I instantly realised the control feed for the Fly Spy could have been detected and traced. Killing the signal we slipped away, then took the opportunity to circle around, break into the Mitsuhama security van and stow away in the back. They carried us right into the heart of the compound without so much as a harsh word. Talk about providence!
From their own garage, we hot-wired the van and used it to move unnoticed around the compound. Across at Callahan’s accommodation block, we aped a maintenance team and slipped unseen up the fire escape. As we climbed, all hell broke loose. Dogs were barking, security klaxon’s began blaring and shots were fired. Below us, we saw Ash sprinting across the compound like a fun-runner at the New York marathon. Knobhead. We had no idea how he’d gotten in but he clearly hadn’t been as savvy as us about it. We had a hurried conversation but there was no alternative, Ash was providing the perfect distraction and we had to capitalise on it. Helping him would jeopardise the entire run and all of our lives. He had made his bed, we had to let him lie in it. It was hard. Damn hard. Whatever those bastards were doing to Ash, it was making the poor fragger scream like a bitch. I think I had a little coming of age on that fire escape. I had no alternative but to harden my heart to those screams and the only thing that gave me any comfort was the thought that if he’d stuck with us, it would all have been fine.
These were the consequences of his own decisions, made at his own volition and he’d have to deal with them… Damn I sound like Ki-rinn but that’s all there was to it.
In Callahan’s room we found his lover Flick Stevens. I was shocked that the little bitch had lied to me with such aplomb and put a Stick-Shock in her to keep her compliant. When Callahan arrived and saw our hostage, he had little alternative but to cooperate. Ash had stirred up a hornet’s nest at the rear of the accommodation and that meant sucking it up and walking bold as brass, right out of the front door.
Continues: 2/3>
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We got back to the van without any hassle and made our way down to the gates. As we approached, there was clearly a lockdown in effect – again, a legacy of Ash’s stupidity – and we had to think fast. Glyph surrendered one of her weapon projects but the grenades wouldn’t fire for me. Typical! I stamped on the gas, roaring towards the outer gate and Glyph took matters in her own hands, shooting the windshield out and then pinging a grenade off of the fencing. We roared toward the explosion just preying the gates would be weakened enough for a ramming and we got a lucky break smashing our way out on to the open road.
As Glyph strip searched Callahan and Stevens for RFID security and stealth tags, I played logistical Kerplunk with the security van, my car and Ash’
pick up. With the FN-Har in the back of the Dodge, I downed a tree so that it fell across the road behind us. We then ditched the van and all possible tags, switching into the pick-up before returning to Atlanta. Once in Atlanta, Glyph and I split again. She took Callahan to see Johnson and collect our pay while I took Stevens to negotiate a hostage exchange for Ash and managed to evade pursuit.
My heart was in my throat for the next couple of hours. I’ve never played spy before and I didn’t really know what I was doing. First I made contact with the head of R&D at Mitsuhama – Stevens’ and Callahan’s boss. I told him I had Stevens and gave him 15 minutes to ascertain if Ash was alive. Then I moved on, changing location and phone so they couldn’t track or trace me. On the second call, I offered a prisoner swap and gave them time to prep Ash for transport. It was then I broke the news to Daisy and with her help selected a suitable location for the exchange. On the third call, I gave my instructions, timing it so that Mitsuhama had time to get to the meet but little time for any dirty tricks. They’re a Corp for frag’s sake. I was expecting them to double cross me. I knew it would go wrong somewhere on down the line but I had to secure Ash’ freedom and just did what I could to protect myself. Tense? Check my pants…
At the appointed time, Stevens’ boss pulled up at the appointed place and we made the exchange. Ash got halfway to the car before Mitsuhama hit me with the double-cross. Ash was strapped with a TNT waistcoat and unless I sold my employer down the river it was goodnight good buddy. I made a quick call to Glyph on my other PAN to get her to explain to Johnson that Ash had been captured and there was a risk his PAN had been hacked for sensitive info. It was a feasible story that I figured would cover our asses and explain to Johnson how he had been compromised without actually souring our relationship or deal. And then a weird thing happened. I trusted the Corp. I mean, I had nothing to lose, Ash was dead if I didn’t co-operate and I suspected they’d betray me and kill him even if I did co-operate so all I could do was train the FN-Har on their car, whisper a silent promise that if he died, they’d all die too, and trust them. I gave them half of Johnson’s phone number and made them take the explosives off of Ash. With him walking toward the car, I gave them the rest of the number. I steeled myself for the gunfire, the sniper shot, the explosion. Nothing. They got back in their vehicle and drove away. The Corp dealt with me on equal footing. We negotiated and for the first time in my short career, I got what I wanted and the Corp got what they wanted. Colour me surprised… and relieved!
There was still every chance Ash was tagged so we hooked back up with his pick up and gear and he scanned himself for RFID transmitters before we blazed back over to Glyph’s location to help fight off the imminent arrival of Mitsuhama’s Snatch Back Squad. We were too late. Glyph was covering the doorway with smoking guns and two corpses, still warm, were slumped behind her near the unconscious Dr Callahan. Forewarned by Glyph, Johnson arrived in short order to collect the Doc and paid his dues. Job done. We blazed.
We still have issues. Mitsuhama may not let sleeping dogs lie and Ash needs to decide on his priorities. It’s either Chuckles or us and the job, especially when we’re mid-job, but for now we can breathe a sigh of relief and head home. Apologies have been made and the air between us cleared.
We’ll see if it sours in future.
Mood: Tense.
Ends: 3/3>
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Entry 26: 12.08.70>
I knew Chuckles was going to be trouble… How much trouble? How about persuading Ash to bail out mid-run, trouble. Yes, that much trouble. I’m fragging fuming, not least because I had to put my ass on the line to pull Chumpzilla’s fat out of the fire afterwards too.
The day started well. I had a call from Nunzio who had negotiated a deal for us with the Seven Stars Triad. They respected our effectiveness at bypassing their security to take their boys in and collect the Lone Star bounty and understood that it was just a job, nothing personal. However, they needed to save face and that meant reparations had to be made. The Triad Head Honcho said that for 30k, all sins could be forgiven and we’d be free to return home. As an added sweetener, Kung Lok threw in a warning and a sop to our ego. The sop? That our skill and success rate had not gone unnoticed and the Triad might be interested in employing us at a future date. The warning?
That restaurant owner Fu Hong had disagreed with the Triad’s upper echelons about letting us off so lightly and been thrown out on his ear after swearing a blood oath against us. Glyph and Ash agreed to chuck in 10k a pop with me to settle up so that we could go home and Nunzio agreed to facilitate the deal.
Before we could even think of packing up and leaving Atlanta, Ash took a call from a local fixer called Smith – the fruit of his efforts at contact development and relationship building. Smith offered to put us in touch with a Corp Johnson who was looking to employ a team. I liked the idea of having a fixer on side here in Atlanta and a bit of a rep – if we could cultivate both San Fran and Atlanta it meant we could switch between patches and would always be able to use the other as a bolt hole. Glyph agreed it was worth trying to make a spot more money before we left and we let Ash make the connections.
We met Smith and then the Johnson at a hotel downtown. The introductions from Smith were costing us ten percent and though both Ash and I considered this money well spent, Glyph had her reservations. Johnson represented Future Concepts, an R&D company who had signed a deal to head hunt a research scientist by the name of Dr Lawrence Callahan from Mitsuhama.
Callahan had never shown up for work and Future Concepts wanted their employee delivering to them. Wrangles about cash, golden handshakes and contingency payments aside, it all seemed fairly straightforward and we happily took the gig on.
Straight to the horse’s mouth, I decided to check whether Callahan was contactable through his former employer or not and after playing the hold game with a series of switchboard monkeys I was surprised to be put straight through to our quarry. Callahan claimed to have changed his mind and rebuffed me fairly quickly and left us with any number of conspiracy theories running through our heads. Had he feigned interest in Future Concepts to carry out some sort of industrial espionage? Were Mitsuhama holding him against his will? Did they have some sort of leverage over him?
Ultimately, the whys and wherefores were unimportant, our job was simply to deliver Callahan to Future Concepts, but at least we now knew where to find the good Doctor and what we would be up against in order to extract him successfully.
A recce of Callahan’s old apartment turned up little other than the telephone number of Flick Stevens, a co-worker who claimed to know nothing of Callahan’s whereabouts or contract with Future Concepts so we blazed to Mitsuhama where we had our first unpleasant surprise.
Continues: 1/3>
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Mitsuhama is one of the Big Ten – the world’s largest corporations and that grants them extraterritoriality, the right to claim their buildings and compounds as sovereign land, exempt from the laws of the country and subject to laws set by the corporation itself. You can expect those laws to be stacked in the corporation’s favour and get short shrift and no assistance if you should happen to cross them. Knowing this, we gave the Mitsuhama compound a wide berth and set up surveillance in the hills overlooking it from the north. The compound covers roughly a square mile of territory, ringed by a double fence and houses five separate buildings. A quick hackette from Daisy was able to identify the building where Callahan worked and the accommodation block housing his apartment but even so, we faced a tough infiltration if we were going to get into the compound.
Glyph snuck down to within 500 metres of the exterior fence and was spotted, attracting the unwanted attention of a dog team. I expected to be picked up instantly over corporate air space but with little other option I sent the Fly Spy down into the compound and began to worm my way through to Callahan’s apartment.
It was then we got our next surprise. An announcement from Ash that he had to go meet someone and would be leaving us for an hour. He tried to use the fact that we were settling down to do some surveillance as an excuse to bail, claiming it didn’t need all three of us to watch the compound. He was right of course, but leaving us still sucked and I damn well told him so.
What if an opportunity to snatch the good Doctor presented itself? How could he help us if he was having a beer and a chinwag miles away? It all harked back to the bad old days, when Ono was captured by the Notable Anarchists.
It was asking for trouble but Ash was resolute. As it turned out, he was gone for much longer than an hour and would have cause to regret his decision before the end of the night.
Glyph and I debated entry methods until nightfall and then in the darkness, we spotted approaching headlights. A two-man security team had come to sweep the area and I instantly realised the control feed for the Fly Spy could have been detected and traced. Killing the signal we slipped away, then took the opportunity to circle around, break into the Mitsuhama security van and stow away in the back. They carried us right into the heart of the compound without so much as a harsh word. Talk about providence!
From their own garage, we hot-wired the van and used it to move unnoticed around the compound. Across at Callahan’s accommodation block, we aped a maintenance team and slipped unseen up the fire escape. As we climbed, all hell broke loose. Dogs were barking, security klaxon’s began blaring and shots were fired. Below us, we saw Ash sprinting across the compound like a fun-runner at the New York marathon. Knobhead. We had no idea how he’d gotten in but he clearly hadn’t been as savvy as us about it. We had a hurried conversation but there was no alternative, Ash was providing the perfect distraction and we had to capitalise on it. Helping him would jeopardise the entire run and all of our lives. He had made his bed, we had to let him lie in it. It was hard. Damn hard. Whatever those bastards were doing to Ash, it was making the poor fragger scream like a bitch. I think I had a little coming of age on that fire escape. I had no alternative but to harden my heart to those screams and the only thing that gave me any comfort was the thought that if he’d stuck with us, it would all have been fine.
These were the consequences of his own decisions, made at his own volition and he’d have to deal with them… Damn I sound like Ki-rinn but that’s all there was to it.
In Callahan’s room we found his lover Flick Stevens. I was shocked that the little bitch had lied to me with such aplomb and put a Stick-Shock in her to keep her compliant. When Callahan arrived and saw our hostage, he had little alternative but to cooperate. Ash had stirred up a hornet’s nest at the rear of the accommodation and that meant sucking it up and walking bold as brass, right out of the front door.
Continues: 2/3>
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We got back to the van without any hassle and made our way down to the gates. As we approached, there was clearly a lockdown in effect – again, a legacy of Ash’s stupidity – and we had to think fast. Glyph surrendered one of her weapon projects but the grenades wouldn’t fire for me. Typical! I stamped on the gas, roaring towards the outer gate and Glyph took matters in her own hands, shooting the windshield out and then pinging a grenade off of the fencing. We roared toward the explosion just preying the gates would be weakened enough for a ramming and we got a lucky break smashing our way out on to the open road.
As Glyph strip searched Callahan and Stevens for RFID security and stealth tags, I played logistical Kerplunk with the security van, my car and Ash’
pick up. With the FN-Har in the back of the Dodge, I downed a tree so that it fell across the road behind us. We then ditched the van and all possible tags, switching into the pick-up before returning to Atlanta. Once in Atlanta, Glyph and I split again. She took Callahan to see Johnson and collect our pay while I took Stevens to negotiate a hostage exchange for Ash and managed to evade pursuit.
My heart was in my throat for the next couple of hours. I’ve never played spy before and I didn’t really know what I was doing. First I made contact with the head of R&D at Mitsuhama – Stevens’ and Callahan’s boss. I told him I had Stevens and gave him 15 minutes to ascertain if Ash was alive. Then I moved on, changing location and phone so they couldn’t track or trace me. On the second call, I offered a prisoner swap and gave them time to prep Ash for transport. It was then I broke the news to Daisy and with her help selected a suitable location for the exchange. On the third call, I gave my instructions, timing it so that Mitsuhama had time to get to the meet but little time for any dirty tricks. They’re a Corp for frag’s sake. I was expecting them to double cross me. I knew it would go wrong somewhere on down the line but I had to secure Ash’ freedom and just did what I could to protect myself. Tense? Check my pants…
At the appointed time, Stevens’ boss pulled up at the appointed place and we made the exchange. Ash got halfway to the car before Mitsuhama hit me with the double-cross. Ash was strapped with a TNT waistcoat and unless I sold my employer down the river it was goodnight good buddy. I made a quick call to Glyph on my other PAN to get her to explain to Johnson that Ash had been captured and there was a risk his PAN had been hacked for sensitive info. It was a feasible story that I figured would cover our asses and explain to Johnson how he had been compromised without actually souring our relationship or deal. And then a weird thing happened. I trusted the Corp. I mean, I had nothing to lose, Ash was dead if I didn’t co-operate and I suspected they’d betray me and kill him even if I did co-operate so all I could do was train the FN-Har on their car, whisper a silent promise that if he died, they’d all die too, and trust them. I gave them half of Johnson’s phone number and made them take the explosives off of Ash. With him walking toward the car, I gave them the rest of the number. I steeled myself for the gunfire, the sniper shot, the explosion. Nothing. They got back in their vehicle and drove away. The Corp dealt with me on equal footing. We negotiated and for the first time in my short career, I got what I wanted and the Corp got what they wanted. Colour me surprised… and relieved!
There was still every chance Ash was tagged so we hooked back up with his pick up and gear and he scanned himself for RFID transmitters before we blazed back over to Glyph’s location to help fight off the imminent arrival of Mitsuhama’s Snatch Back Squad. We were too late. Glyph was covering the doorway with smoking guns and two corpses, still warm, were slumped behind her near the unconscious Dr Callahan. Forewarned by Glyph, Johnson arrived in short order to collect the Doc and paid his dues. Job done. We blazed.
We still have issues. Mitsuhama may not let sleeping dogs lie and Ash needs to decide on his priorities. It’s either Chuckles or us and the job, especially when we’re mid-job, but for now we can breathe a sigh of relief and head home. Apologies have been made and the air between us cleared.
We’ll see if it sours in future.
Mood: Tense.
Ends: 3/3>
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Monday, December 11, 2006
Mitsuhama assault
Sunday 12th August 2070
Ash, Glyph, Six.
Nunzio contacted six. He had been working hard behind the scenes with the Triads to bring an end to this feud that they had with his little brother. Nunzio put a call through from the Triad gang leader, Kung Lok.
Kung Lok told Six that he was not happy with the disrespect the runners had show to the Seven Star Triad family, but that he understood why they had taken the Lone Star bounties. He offered Six a deal. 30k payment as a show of deference and Kung Lok would end the attacks on the runners. Six accepted, and the triad leader also hinted that their effectiveness didn’t go unnoticed and that work may come their way in the future.
Meanwhile Smith contacted Ash again, the fixer he had made contact with a week or so ago. Smith told him that there was the prospect of a job available and if the runners were interested to meet at the McMurray Grand hotel.
They were, although they had the chance to head back home, they fancied one last job in Atlanta. It may open up possibilities to make a few more contacts outside San Fran and may provide a familiar bolthole to retreat to in the future.
The runners met the fixer at the hotel and he took them through to the bar to explain the deal. Rather than get his fingers burned with runners he doesn’t know, he offered to pass the runners to the Johnson directly. That way his rep wouldn’t suffer so badly if things went wrong for the team. He asked that he took a 10% cut of their final pay. A finder’s fee for linking the runners up with the job. They accepted and they headed to a hotel suite where the Mr. Johnson waited.
The job was simple, a simple search and retrieval of a doctor who failed to turn up for work, he job was coming from Future Concepts a corporation who poached the best scientists, innovated the next big thing, and then sold the ideas back to the bigger corporations. They had been approached by a Dr. Lawrence Calahan who wanted to move from Mitsuhama and they gave him a contract. Only, a week after he was due to start work, he never showed. They accepted the job, but Glyph quibbled on the pricing structure between the Johnson, the Fixer, and the three of them. Wanting to make friends and influence people in Atlanta, Six took Glyph to one side, and Ash closed the deal with no more arguments.
Settling down in the bar area with all of the information to hand, the runners planned their moves. Six called Mitsuhama to see if Dr. Calahan was still working for them. After getting passed through the switchboard system he eventually spoke with the man they were after. Six briefly mentioned the job at Future Concepts Calahan dismissed it and said that he no longer wanted to work for FC.
Ash contacted the Johnson again, who was only mildly surprised that he was still working at Mitushama, as far as he was concerned the job was still on, and the runners agreed. Glyph again quibbled that the remit had changed and they should try to squeeze more money out of the Johnson. Six and Ash ignored her.
The runners pulled down some information about the Mitsuhama complex, and found that it was a sprawling self contained corporate enclave with housing and working requirements fulfilled in the 1 mile x half a mile extraterritorial portion of the CAS. Surveillance was in order, but first the runners wanted to get together some equipment and visit his old flat.
His old flat was empty. Cleared out of all personal effects. The runners hunted around and found little. A few scraps of paper with some phone numbers jotted down. Six called one of the phone numbers and seemed to turn up a colleague of his. But otherwise they found nothing.
The runners then headed to the Mitsuhama complex. Ash and Glyph parked up and took up observations about a mile away, Six drove on and parked the car on the road, just in case they needed options. And then they sat and watched. Glyph had to abort a closer inspection because guards spotted her, so Six then sent his fly-spy drone in for a look.
Meanwhile Ash took a call from Ka-Hil. He wanted to meet up with Ash to discuss the magical group. Ash was torn, he was desperate to further his relationship with this mysterious magical group, but at the same time didn’t want to leave the job part way through. Six didn’t make it any easier when Ash told them that he was off. Ash took the truck and headed back into Atlanta. Glyph and Six sat on a log watching the complex. It started to rain.
Hours passed, Six had managed to get his Flyspy drone into Dr. Calahan’s apartment and the two runners sat and waited. A van pulled up nearby. It was still raining and it was dark but they could see that Mitsuhama security also performed sweeps of the local countryside if prompted by something. Six realised that his Drone link could be giving them away and killed the connection. They then moved off.
Thinking quickly, they then moved back toward the van. They disabled the alarm and slipped into the back while the two security men performed their sweep. They sat quietly and then were driven straight into the heavily guarded complex unseen, with not a shot fired.
Ash spent 3 hours talking to Ka-Hil. He explained the magical group, he told him the practices, and he told Ash that he would need to choose an adepts way. Ash had a tough decision regarding the way he wanted his training to be focused but eventually chose the Invisible Way. Ka-Hil nodded his agreement with the choice and told Ash that he would get a chance to meet up with his mentor soon.
Ash then blazed back to his friends outside Mitsuhama. Only they were no longer outside Mitsuhama. Ash got worried. He could see that another vehicle had pulled up, and he could see that people had gotten into the back of the van, and Ash feared that his friends had been taken prisoner.
Meanwhile Glyph and Six were sneaking around inside the complex. They had taken one of the vans and were presently making their way up a fire escape into Calahan’s living block.
Ash made a rash move. He snuck down the hill to the main security fence and cut his way through. Then after crawling through the gap he had cut he saw that a guard dog had spotted him even if the handler hadn’t. Ash ran, scrambled over another fence, only to hear shouts of alarm from more security guards. Glyph and Six saw Ash in trouble but would jeopardise the run if they went to his aid. Ash ran past the fire escape they were climbing up, but came face to face with more guards, He ran back the way he had come but again guards were closing in, Ash got his shotgun and began shooting, and the guards began to return fire. And then Ash screamed. They pinned him to the ground with a pain inducer, before knocking him out cold. Six and Glyph heard Ash’s screams cut short.
They made their way to the fire escape door and cut their way through. The headed to Calahan’s door and Calahan’s girlfriend answered. They pushed in and after trying to explain that everything would be okay if she co-operated they shot her with a stick-shock™ round. Calahan turned up not much later and Glyph forced him to co-operate at gun point. The plan was simple. They would head out casually to the van, and then once on the move, they would drive out of the automated gates before anyone could stop them.
They got to the van; Calahan was able to provide enough credibility to bluff the guards. And they drove out towards the gates but the second set of gates were on shut down. Glyph handed Six her custom gun with mini-grenade launcher and Six leaned out of the window and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Glyph had forgotten that she had put a biometric safety on the weapon, the van ploughed into the firmly shut security gates.
Glyph and Six were unhurt, and they fled.
Six got his rig on, firing up Ash’s truck and his own car while driving the van. Glyph searched for RFID tags on their two hostages while Six worked an escape plan. His own car parked up next to a large tree and as the van flashed past he remotely shot out at the base of the tree, if fortuitously fell across the road barring any pursuit vehicles.
Once the RFID tags had been found they ditched the van and switched to Ash’s truck and fled into the night.
Ash was captured. The Chinese corporation employed a specialist interrogator to find out what was going on. Ash screamed as he was tortured but he didn’t give away anything. Even his own name he protected.
Six and Glyph contacted the Johnson to tell him that they had his man. And the Johnson asked a favour. Look after him until the morning, Future Concepts didn’t realize that they would have a hostile employee, and needed to put measures in place to ensure that he stayed with them once the runners left. Six and Glyph had to split. Glyph looked after their scientist. Six took the unconscious woman who was also employed by Mitsuhama and contacted them to exchange her for the captured Ash.
Things happened quickly, Mitsuhama agreed to meet up with Six at a park he had arranged.
The two cars, Six’s and Mitsuhama’s were parked 100 yards or so apart. The man Six had been negotiating with stepped out of the car and Six instructed him to send Ash. Ash was sat in the car with an explosive device strapped across his chest wasn’t keen on getting out to be used as some kind of remote control mine, but at the same time didn’t like the idea of being sat in the car either. He stepped out.
Six sent the woman back to her employers, and then Six got a call from the Mitsuhama man. He explained that Ash was rigged to blow, and he wanted to know who their employers were. Eventually Six told them the Johnson’s number and the name of the Corp who was employing them. Ash had the explosives taken off and was free.
Glyph sat in Future Concepts HQ alone with a magazine and a cup of coffee for company waiting for the morning. Two men approached. They told her that Mr. Johnson had sent them and that she was relieved of watching Dr. Calahan. She didn’t believe that their employer had sent them and called him to confirm that the two goons were not from Future Concepts. A hail of bullets followed leaving nothing but two dead goons.
The runners quickly met up again, and were relieve when the Mr. Johnson from Future Concepts finally took delivery of Dr. Calahan. They were paid in full. And Ash treated them to dinner…
The runners were free to get back to San Francisco if they choose. Six has ordered a new bit of Cyberware that he wants Mal to fix him up with when he is next at the street Doc’s.
Ash, Glyph, Six.
Nunzio contacted six. He had been working hard behind the scenes with the Triads to bring an end to this feud that they had with his little brother. Nunzio put a call through from the Triad gang leader, Kung Lok.
Kung Lok told Six that he was not happy with the disrespect the runners had show to the Seven Star Triad family, but that he understood why they had taken the Lone Star bounties. He offered Six a deal. 30k payment as a show of deference and Kung Lok would end the attacks on the runners. Six accepted, and the triad leader also hinted that their effectiveness didn’t go unnoticed and that work may come their way in the future.
Meanwhile Smith contacted Ash again, the fixer he had made contact with a week or so ago. Smith told him that there was the prospect of a job available and if the runners were interested to meet at the McMurray Grand hotel.
They were, although they had the chance to head back home, they fancied one last job in Atlanta. It may open up possibilities to make a few more contacts outside San Fran and may provide a familiar bolthole to retreat to in the future.
The runners met the fixer at the hotel and he took them through to the bar to explain the deal. Rather than get his fingers burned with runners he doesn’t know, he offered to pass the runners to the Johnson directly. That way his rep wouldn’t suffer so badly if things went wrong for the team. He asked that he took a 10% cut of their final pay. A finder’s fee for linking the runners up with the job. They accepted and they headed to a hotel suite where the Mr. Johnson waited.
The job was simple, a simple search and retrieval of a doctor who failed to turn up for work, he job was coming from Future Concepts a corporation who poached the best scientists, innovated the next big thing, and then sold the ideas back to the bigger corporations. They had been approached by a Dr. Lawrence Calahan who wanted to move from Mitsuhama and they gave him a contract. Only, a week after he was due to start work, he never showed. They accepted the job, but Glyph quibbled on the pricing structure between the Johnson, the Fixer, and the three of them. Wanting to make friends and influence people in Atlanta, Six took Glyph to one side, and Ash closed the deal with no more arguments.
Settling down in the bar area with all of the information to hand, the runners planned their moves. Six called Mitsuhama to see if Dr. Calahan was still working for them. After getting passed through the switchboard system he eventually spoke with the man they were after. Six briefly mentioned the job at Future Concepts Calahan dismissed it and said that he no longer wanted to work for FC.
Ash contacted the Johnson again, who was only mildly surprised that he was still working at Mitushama, as far as he was concerned the job was still on, and the runners agreed. Glyph again quibbled that the remit had changed and they should try to squeeze more money out of the Johnson. Six and Ash ignored her.
The runners pulled down some information about the Mitsuhama complex, and found that it was a sprawling self contained corporate enclave with housing and working requirements fulfilled in the 1 mile x half a mile extraterritorial portion of the CAS. Surveillance was in order, but first the runners wanted to get together some equipment and visit his old flat.
His old flat was empty. Cleared out of all personal effects. The runners hunted around and found little. A few scraps of paper with some phone numbers jotted down. Six called one of the phone numbers and seemed to turn up a colleague of his. But otherwise they found nothing.
The runners then headed to the Mitsuhama complex. Ash and Glyph parked up and took up observations about a mile away, Six drove on and parked the car on the road, just in case they needed options. And then they sat and watched. Glyph had to abort a closer inspection because guards spotted her, so Six then sent his fly-spy drone in for a look.
Meanwhile Ash took a call from Ka-Hil. He wanted to meet up with Ash to discuss the magical group. Ash was torn, he was desperate to further his relationship with this mysterious magical group, but at the same time didn’t want to leave the job part way through. Six didn’t make it any easier when Ash told them that he was off. Ash took the truck and headed back into Atlanta. Glyph and Six sat on a log watching the complex. It started to rain.
Hours passed, Six had managed to get his Flyspy drone into Dr. Calahan’s apartment and the two runners sat and waited. A van pulled up nearby. It was still raining and it was dark but they could see that Mitsuhama security also performed sweeps of the local countryside if prompted by something. Six realised that his Drone link could be giving them away and killed the connection. They then moved off.
Thinking quickly, they then moved back toward the van. They disabled the alarm and slipped into the back while the two security men performed their sweep. They sat quietly and then were driven straight into the heavily guarded complex unseen, with not a shot fired.
Ash spent 3 hours talking to Ka-Hil. He explained the magical group, he told him the practices, and he told Ash that he would need to choose an adepts way. Ash had a tough decision regarding the way he wanted his training to be focused but eventually chose the Invisible Way. Ka-Hil nodded his agreement with the choice and told Ash that he would get a chance to meet up with his mentor soon.
Ash then blazed back to his friends outside Mitsuhama. Only they were no longer outside Mitsuhama. Ash got worried. He could see that another vehicle had pulled up, and he could see that people had gotten into the back of the van, and Ash feared that his friends had been taken prisoner.
Meanwhile Glyph and Six were sneaking around inside the complex. They had taken one of the vans and were presently making their way up a fire escape into Calahan’s living block.
Ash made a rash move. He snuck down the hill to the main security fence and cut his way through. Then after crawling through the gap he had cut he saw that a guard dog had spotted him even if the handler hadn’t. Ash ran, scrambled over another fence, only to hear shouts of alarm from more security guards. Glyph and Six saw Ash in trouble but would jeopardise the run if they went to his aid. Ash ran past the fire escape they were climbing up, but came face to face with more guards, He ran back the way he had come but again guards were closing in, Ash got his shotgun and began shooting, and the guards began to return fire. And then Ash screamed. They pinned him to the ground with a pain inducer, before knocking him out cold. Six and Glyph heard Ash’s screams cut short.
They made their way to the fire escape door and cut their way through. The headed to Calahan’s door and Calahan’s girlfriend answered. They pushed in and after trying to explain that everything would be okay if she co-operated they shot her with a stick-shock™ round. Calahan turned up not much later and Glyph forced him to co-operate at gun point. The plan was simple. They would head out casually to the van, and then once on the move, they would drive out of the automated gates before anyone could stop them.
They got to the van; Calahan was able to provide enough credibility to bluff the guards. And they drove out towards the gates but the second set of gates were on shut down. Glyph handed Six her custom gun with mini-grenade launcher and Six leaned out of the window and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Glyph had forgotten that she had put a biometric safety on the weapon, the van ploughed into the firmly shut security gates.
Glyph and Six were unhurt, and they fled.
Six got his rig on, firing up Ash’s truck and his own car while driving the van. Glyph searched for RFID tags on their two hostages while Six worked an escape plan. His own car parked up next to a large tree and as the van flashed past he remotely shot out at the base of the tree, if fortuitously fell across the road barring any pursuit vehicles.
Once the RFID tags had been found they ditched the van and switched to Ash’s truck and fled into the night.
Ash was captured. The Chinese corporation employed a specialist interrogator to find out what was going on. Ash screamed as he was tortured but he didn’t give away anything. Even his own name he protected.
Six and Glyph contacted the Johnson to tell him that they had his man. And the Johnson asked a favour. Look after him until the morning, Future Concepts didn’t realize that they would have a hostile employee, and needed to put measures in place to ensure that he stayed with them once the runners left. Six and Glyph had to split. Glyph looked after their scientist. Six took the unconscious woman who was also employed by Mitsuhama and contacted them to exchange her for the captured Ash.
Things happened quickly, Mitsuhama agreed to meet up with Six at a park he had arranged.
The two cars, Six’s and Mitsuhama’s were parked 100 yards or so apart. The man Six had been negotiating with stepped out of the car and Six instructed him to send Ash. Ash was sat in the car with an explosive device strapped across his chest wasn’t keen on getting out to be used as some kind of remote control mine, but at the same time didn’t like the idea of being sat in the car either. He stepped out.
Six sent the woman back to her employers, and then Six got a call from the Mitsuhama man. He explained that Ash was rigged to blow, and he wanted to know who their employers were. Eventually Six told them the Johnson’s number and the name of the Corp who was employing them. Ash had the explosives taken off and was free.
Glyph sat in Future Concepts HQ alone with a magazine and a cup of coffee for company waiting for the morning. Two men approached. They told her that Mr. Johnson had sent them and that she was relieved of watching Dr. Calahan. She didn’t believe that their employer had sent them and called him to confirm that the two goons were not from Future Concepts. A hail of bullets followed leaving nothing but two dead goons.
The runners quickly met up again, and were relieve when the Mr. Johnson from Future Concepts finally took delivery of Dr. Calahan. They were paid in full. And Ash treated them to dinner…
The runners were free to get back to San Francisco if they choose. Six has ordered a new bit of Cyberware that he wants Mal to fix him up with when he is next at the street Doc’s.
Six's Blog
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Entry 25: 06.08.70>
Ash is up to something. Devious little turd. I know he’s been out and about in Atlanta, doing his thing, flexing the feelers and trying to set us up with sufficient contacts to make us more effective. However, he’s going about it in a manner I’m not sure I like, getting us involved, again, in far deeper shit than I think we can handle.
He came in from one of his contact meet-n-greets a few days back with a mission he told us just had to be done. Pressed, he told us it was for ‘a friend’ and admitted that we wouldn’t be getting paid. Now give the lad his due, he offered to pay Glyph and I for our assistance, out of his own pocket but alarm bells were already starting to ring – none of us know anyone down here well enough to be doing jobs on the house… With reservations then, we agreed to help and soon came to realise that there was a philanthropic kilter to the Run he’d picked up. Atlanta has its very own Orkish Underground, which goes by the name of The Falls. The place has been getting terrorised for the past six years by a serial killer dubbed Lobo and Ash wanted us to go down there and serve up a slice of justice. The authorities don’t care about the place – evidently this new ‘friend’ Ash has made, does.
We resolved to head down there as disguised as we could make ourselves. We bought a couple of Rat Bikes and I got them running, while Ash invested in some tatty clothing and dirtied up our gear – we didn’t want to get lynched for our ‘shinies’ by a horde of Ork Tramps. Reasoning that cash would have little value in the slums of the undercity, Glyph collected together some barter items – food stuffs, medical supplies, booze and fags and suitable togged up we went looking for trouble.
Just getting into the place was a trial. Friendly and welcoming they ain’t but we made our way around the barricades, observation posts and obvious ambush points thanks to the bikes and rode on in. Place is called The Falls because of the constantly streaming water that cascades from the foundations of Atlanta above down on to the undercity – a brackish mix of rainwater, spill from cracked utility pipes, sewage overflow and the natural leak from the water table. It’s a shitty way to live basically and whole areas of the place are flooded with several feet of collected water.
The inhabitants could see through our disguises straight away. Proud to a man, they were unwilling to accept help from outsiders and it took all of our collective powers of persuasion just to get them to talk to us. The art of persuasion often includes violence however and as Ash negotiated, Glyph and I clocked a group of Toughs moving in to get personal. One of them was carrying a sap and intended to use it but when it was shot right out of his hand, he took the point that we might object. The air was thick with unspoken threats of violence for a while but I twigged we were outside what passed for a hospital down there. Medical supplies changed hands and we ‘bought’ the information we were after.
We were pointed in the direction of an area of the undercity known as The Dark. The power seemed to be out in the entire area, evidently giving the place it’s name and as we made our way down to that sector, we mulled over the information we’d been given. It seemed Lobo’s victims were often found with circular abrasions on their chest and temple. We speculated that they might correspond to the medical pads used to monitor heart rate and brain activity and suddenly we began to smell rat. It was beginning to have all the hallmarks of another fucking Corp screw-job, using The Falls’ inhabitants as guinea pigs.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
We were all twitchy, but it was Glyph’s eagle eyes that spotted the first concrete evidence we were right about Corp involvement. As we hunted for a likely-looking building to serve as a temporary base of operations, she spotted that we were under surveillance from the distinctive profile of a set of night vision goggles. It was kit far too high tech for the undercity’s indigenous population so we began to revise our expectations of what we might come up against.
A quick recce soon confirmed that we would need to descend down to the lowest level of The Dark and overcoming a mixture of fear and distaste, we pressed on, chasing half seen shadows of movement, flickers at the edges of our vision and a deep baritone growl. Down at the bottom of the Underground we encountered our first serious resistance – a Corp kill-team kitted out for surveillance. Pinned down at the bottom of the stairwell we had to think fast and pull a twin flanking manoeuvre to switch around behind them and put them out of action. It was then we discovered the first body. It had clearly been the Corp team’s objective – relatively fresh but fitted with sophisticated medical monitoring equipment. Here was a pretty puzzle. Were the Corp ‘feeding’ civilians to Lobo? What information could they hope to obtain from the medical data of a sacrificial lamb?
Pushing on, we got a stroke of luck and spotted light reflecting off of the waters. Tracing it back to the source, we found a relatively intact building, with its own power supply and slipped inside the building opposite so we could make our way up to the windows and see what the hell our neighbours were up to. Jackpot! We were looking across at the Corp nerve centre, just a street’s width away, fully kitted out with computer equipment, signal uplink, medical monitoring bay and armed guards. We lined up, showdown style, at the window and on the count of three let hot lead rip from room to room. It was over in seconds – a concerted burst of fire that took them completely by surprise and finished the battle in our favour before they even knew they were fighting for their lives.
The Corp Ops were monitoring four camera feeds – three from ordinary residents going about their business and one from the viewpoint of someone stalking the Dark near our position. Figuring this to be Lobo, Ash and I headed out to pick up his train leaving Glyph at the monitoring station. She soon found that the Corps had been doing more than simple monitoring – they were directing the flow of certain stimuli to Lobo, effectively switching him on and off, controlling when he was a killer and when he was indistinguishable from other civilians. The bastards had themselves a Manchurian candidate and by the looks of it, several more waiting in the wings. Glyph turned down the stimuli so we could approach this Lobo and try to talk to him but the instant he came down from his drug-fuelled high, he was wracked by remorse, threw down two monowire scythes and fled sobbing.
We had ourselves a dilemma. These Lobo’s weren’t in control of their actions and that made bringing them to justice unfair at the very least. We also didn’t dare sabotage the equipment for fear it would activate all of the Sleeper Lobos and send them running riot. We needed guidance so Ash phoned his mystery contact. In moments, the Run was off. Ash’ new buddy Chuckles had known about these goings on all along and set the whole thing up so that the true evil of the corporations would be revealed to us. What a crock. If Chuckles had bothered to talk to us instead of being all pious and holier than thou he’d have found out our true feelings where the Corps are concerned. With the trials and tribulations we’ve had, he’s preaching to the converted and I don’t like it. I don’t like being taught unnecessary lessons in morality by strangers and worse still, I don’t like the thought that Chuckles is effectively party to the problems in The Falls. He admits to knowing what’s going on yet permits it to happen? Poor form. Ash needs to wise up pronto and ditch this paizon.
Mood: Irritated.
Ends: 2/2>
||
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Entry 25: 06.08.70>
Ash is up to something. Devious little turd. I know he’s been out and about in Atlanta, doing his thing, flexing the feelers and trying to set us up with sufficient contacts to make us more effective. However, he’s going about it in a manner I’m not sure I like, getting us involved, again, in far deeper shit than I think we can handle.
He came in from one of his contact meet-n-greets a few days back with a mission he told us just had to be done. Pressed, he told us it was for ‘a friend’ and admitted that we wouldn’t be getting paid. Now give the lad his due, he offered to pay Glyph and I for our assistance, out of his own pocket but alarm bells were already starting to ring – none of us know anyone down here well enough to be doing jobs on the house… With reservations then, we agreed to help and soon came to realise that there was a philanthropic kilter to the Run he’d picked up. Atlanta has its very own Orkish Underground, which goes by the name of The Falls. The place has been getting terrorised for the past six years by a serial killer dubbed Lobo and Ash wanted us to go down there and serve up a slice of justice. The authorities don’t care about the place – evidently this new ‘friend’ Ash has made, does.
We resolved to head down there as disguised as we could make ourselves. We bought a couple of Rat Bikes and I got them running, while Ash invested in some tatty clothing and dirtied up our gear – we didn’t want to get lynched for our ‘shinies’ by a horde of Ork Tramps. Reasoning that cash would have little value in the slums of the undercity, Glyph collected together some barter items – food stuffs, medical supplies, booze and fags and suitable togged up we went looking for trouble.
Just getting into the place was a trial. Friendly and welcoming they ain’t but we made our way around the barricades, observation posts and obvious ambush points thanks to the bikes and rode on in. Place is called The Falls because of the constantly streaming water that cascades from the foundations of Atlanta above down on to the undercity – a brackish mix of rainwater, spill from cracked utility pipes, sewage overflow and the natural leak from the water table. It’s a shitty way to live basically and whole areas of the place are flooded with several feet of collected water.
The inhabitants could see through our disguises straight away. Proud to a man, they were unwilling to accept help from outsiders and it took all of our collective powers of persuasion just to get them to talk to us. The art of persuasion often includes violence however and as Ash negotiated, Glyph and I clocked a group of Toughs moving in to get personal. One of them was carrying a sap and intended to use it but when it was shot right out of his hand, he took the point that we might object. The air was thick with unspoken threats of violence for a while but I twigged we were outside what passed for a hospital down there. Medical supplies changed hands and we ‘bought’ the information we were after.
We were pointed in the direction of an area of the undercity known as The Dark. The power seemed to be out in the entire area, evidently giving the place it’s name and as we made our way down to that sector, we mulled over the information we’d been given. It seemed Lobo’s victims were often found with circular abrasions on their chest and temple. We speculated that they might correspond to the medical pads used to monitor heart rate and brain activity and suddenly we began to smell rat. It was beginning to have all the hallmarks of another fucking Corp screw-job, using The Falls’ inhabitants as guinea pigs.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
We were all twitchy, but it was Glyph’s eagle eyes that spotted the first concrete evidence we were right about Corp involvement. As we hunted for a likely-looking building to serve as a temporary base of operations, she spotted that we were under surveillance from the distinctive profile of a set of night vision goggles. It was kit far too high tech for the undercity’s indigenous population so we began to revise our expectations of what we might come up against.
A quick recce soon confirmed that we would need to descend down to the lowest level of The Dark and overcoming a mixture of fear and distaste, we pressed on, chasing half seen shadows of movement, flickers at the edges of our vision and a deep baritone growl. Down at the bottom of the Underground we encountered our first serious resistance – a Corp kill-team kitted out for surveillance. Pinned down at the bottom of the stairwell we had to think fast and pull a twin flanking manoeuvre to switch around behind them and put them out of action. It was then we discovered the first body. It had clearly been the Corp team’s objective – relatively fresh but fitted with sophisticated medical monitoring equipment. Here was a pretty puzzle. Were the Corp ‘feeding’ civilians to Lobo? What information could they hope to obtain from the medical data of a sacrificial lamb?
Pushing on, we got a stroke of luck and spotted light reflecting off of the waters. Tracing it back to the source, we found a relatively intact building, with its own power supply and slipped inside the building opposite so we could make our way up to the windows and see what the hell our neighbours were up to. Jackpot! We were looking across at the Corp nerve centre, just a street’s width away, fully kitted out with computer equipment, signal uplink, medical monitoring bay and armed guards. We lined up, showdown style, at the window and on the count of three let hot lead rip from room to room. It was over in seconds – a concerted burst of fire that took them completely by surprise and finished the battle in our favour before they even knew they were fighting for their lives.
The Corp Ops were monitoring four camera feeds – three from ordinary residents going about their business and one from the viewpoint of someone stalking the Dark near our position. Figuring this to be Lobo, Ash and I headed out to pick up his train leaving Glyph at the monitoring station. She soon found that the Corps had been doing more than simple monitoring – they were directing the flow of certain stimuli to Lobo, effectively switching him on and off, controlling when he was a killer and when he was indistinguishable from other civilians. The bastards had themselves a Manchurian candidate and by the looks of it, several more waiting in the wings. Glyph turned down the stimuli so we could approach this Lobo and try to talk to him but the instant he came down from his drug-fuelled high, he was wracked by remorse, threw down two monowire scythes and fled sobbing.
We had ourselves a dilemma. These Lobo’s weren’t in control of their actions and that made bringing them to justice unfair at the very least. We also didn’t dare sabotage the equipment for fear it would activate all of the Sleeper Lobos and send them running riot. We needed guidance so Ash phoned his mystery contact. In moments, the Run was off. Ash’ new buddy Chuckles had known about these goings on all along and set the whole thing up so that the true evil of the corporations would be revealed to us. What a crock. If Chuckles had bothered to talk to us instead of being all pious and holier than thou he’d have found out our true feelings where the Corps are concerned. With the trials and tribulations we’ve had, he’s preaching to the converted and I don’t like it. I don’t like being taught unnecessary lessons in morality by strangers and worse still, I don’t like the thought that Chuckles is effectively party to the problems in The Falls. He admits to knowing what’s going on yet permits it to happen? Poor form. Ash needs to wise up pronto and ditch this paizon.
Mood: Irritated.
Ends: 2/2>
||
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