Six, Glyph, Ki-Rin, Ash,
The runners had made their way onto Alcatraz, and were now engaged in a firefight with Allisom’s elite Seraphim troops. Ki-Rin, Ash and Glyph were inside the main prison block backed up by Six’s drones, while Six remained hidden in an old unused concrete toilet block.
Ki-Rin lobbed in a few grenades into the kill zone and a few moments later Six’s drone led the charge into the corridor followed by Ash, Ki-Rin and Glyph. It could have easily become a kill zone, with Seraphim soldiers overlooking the corridor they ran down but Six spotted the movement of men suiting up and the team lobbed some well aimed grenades which reduced the fighting fit to mortally wounded. Glyph and Ash made their way up to make sure they were dead.
Six, outside, heard movement and braved a snap look out from his hiding place to see a small squad heading over to a underground emplacement not far from where he hid. An inspection with a drone indicated some kind of concrete bunker, he gave the others a heads up, and this was enough for Ki-Rin who left the main block to investigate.
Ash had made his way over to the now dead Seraphim and found that the area where they were was an equipping station. There were sets of their hi-tech armour scattered about the flooring, and although blast charred from the grenades, seemed relatively undamaged. His mercenary tendencies shone through and he quickly began to don bits and pieces of the armour, until someone remembered that the last time they were able to inspect one of these suits they saw that the man inside was attached to the suit cyberneticaly and a warning was shouted out that he may become entwined into the Seraphim system. He had a moment of clarity and aborted the idea.
Ki-Rin came to the top of the concrete emplacement and saw that it lead down into some kind of bunker. Six tried to send a drone down to investigate but there was some kind of signal shielding and nearly lost contact with the drone completely. Ki-Rin waited for the rest of the team but managed to tweak a signal booster so that Six could drop a eyeball drone and get information back. The drone reported that there was a circular room at the bottom of the ladder that was completely empty with the exception of a dead body, that of a Seraphim trooper.
Glyph announced her arrival at the top of the bunker by lobbing a grenade down, obliterating the corpse, and the eyeball drone.
The runners had gathered at the top of the concrete bunker when Six realised that they were in the open and could be fodder for the sniper, he aligned the Flyspy onto the lighthouse tower and both the Sniper and the spotter were overlooking their position and for some reason hadn’t fired. This news was enough to hustle the runners out of sight into the bunker despite Ki-Rin’s protestations that they could be dropping into a trap.
Cautiously the runners investigated and discovered that this bunker seemed to be the housing for a gigantic computer that they presumed housed the A.I, Choir, but when they descended into the computer room they were surprised to find more dead Seraphim troops. Each seemed to have been in the process of laying anti-personnel mines before having been killed with some kind of laser, the runners assumed that Choir had struck them down.
The runners experimented by taunting the A.I.’s weapon system and realised that she tracked the runners constantly but only fired when Ash brought out his weapon in the computer room, Ash was lucky to survive, but his combat reflexes were good.
Ki-Rin decided to engage the A.I. in the matrix, and was surprised and a little intimidated when the computer was able to impose it’s own profile over his own powerful persona, he persisted and tried to talk to the AI. Being given nothing but riddles and unhelpful answers he gave up and apologised to the rest of the team. They then barracked him back into the matrix and he tried again.
Choir was more helpful than he imagined, and once he cut through her computer jargon, she told him that she had killed the guards so the runners would be able to stay alive to cease the scourge. When questioned deeper, she knew nothing of what she had just said and the runners assumed that she had been hacked in some way. Choir also told the runners that Blake was on route with the Primary (whom they took to mean Allisom) and that the Primary had stood down the rest of Seraphim.
The runners realised that this was their chance to take out Allisom and hurried up to the only helipad which was on the roof of one of the buildings. They set the anti-personnel mines around and took up positions around the helipad. They then watched in dismay when two helicopter gunships and an executive helicopter swooped over head, the executive touching down on the scrubland at the other end of the island. The runners moved quickly and hustled across to where Allisom stood outside the helicopter.
Allisom had Blake at gunpoint and was surrounded by six handpicked Seraphim troopers, the runners were quickly closing on the scene. Ki-Rin was first on the scene and fired the first Salvo at Allisom. The Sedim realised that it was not going to be able to bargain with the runners and dispatched Blake with a single bullet before ordering his troops to open fire.
The runners were forced into a desperate fight, Six had to break cover, his drones stranded on the rooftop ambush, Ki-Rin was strafed by both helicopters and had to make a do or die shot at the pilot through the windshield. Glyph and Ash engaged the Seraphim guards in a close run firefight.
After the dust settled, Dominic Cross/Allisom lay dead in the dirt. The runners weren’t sure how to kill a Shedim but urged Ash to decapitate the body with his weapons focus. There was a slight glint of light at the cut, but that was all. They weren’t sure if they had banished the spirit but they could think of nothing else to do.
The runners took Dominic Cross’s helicopter and flew back to San Francisco main land with Blake’s body which they left in Ash’s care.
The runners returned to their homes. Blake was dead. Allisom was gone. Cross Applied Technologies had become nothing more than corporate assets divvied up between the bigger corporations.
But was that the end?...
Showing posts with label glyph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glyph. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Rock. Part 2
Six, Glyph, Ki-Rin, Ash.
Monday 13th November 2070 03:00
The explosion sent a shower of debris down the tunnel back toward the runners and none were aware of the prickling sensation that accompanied the activation of a spell. After a moment or two to gather their wits the runners began to make a move, but before they could react, Six was knocked off his feet by some kind of projectile web and dragged into the dusty darkness beyond the breech in the wall. Ash and Glyph reacted quickly firing shots into the gloom towards some kind of massive arachnid. Seraphim troops stormed towards them from the entrance to the pipe that the team had made their way up. A desperate battle ensued, The massive spider was topped with a muscled human torso belonging to the long dead mage, Silk. Ash and Glyph deployed grenades towards the three Seraphim troopers who were blown to pieces, Six managed to free himself from the web, but in an effort to aid the rigger, Glyph became caught up in the spiders silk. Ash made his way to the entrance of the tunnel to fight off any more Seraphim troops and was horrified to see that one of the troops they had already killed was Blake. In a flat panic he tried to medikit his brother, but as he sat waiting for the nanites to do their work, he saw that all three troopers were the visage of Blake. Thoughts of cloning and other horrors flashed through Ash’s mind. The runners fought on, the mutated Silk/spider seemingly ignoring horrific wounds inflicted onto it continued to try and cocoon the team,
Six’s attention was attracted by a familiar voice, he sent his drone across to investigate and was shocked to find the long dead troll runner, Ono. He seemed to be gesturing back towards where Six’s meat body stood, and Six was confused. He called out over the com that Ono was here but the others had become bogged down in a firefight with more Seraphim troopers. Six focused on what Ono was trying to tell him, and eventually he could see a faint outline of words hanging in the air across where the new concrete wall had been. He yelled for Ash to come and investigate, but was snatched from his feet by the spider and he too began to get cocooned. Ash made his way over and could see that the writing was some kind of spell lock, he swiped once with his weapons focus which broke the spell. The runners found themselves in what seemed to be an old pumping room underneath Alcatraz, they had been firing at mirages and their own fears, made real by the spell. They knew they could well have made enough noise to bring the Seraphim army down onto them and they hustled.
They arrived at another pumping room with the all of the equipment removed. The pipe continued onward through the island but again was blocked up with a newer concrete wall. This room seemed to be a junction for some kind of sewage system and there were several apertures in the ceiling which had old crumbling pipes. Six dispatched his flyspy drone up one of the larger pipe sections and planned out a navigable route that led to a toilet block. They would need to smash their way through a toilet but it was doable.
Glyph was sent first and set a small explosive charge beneath one of the porcelain thrones. The team quickly swarmed into the toilet block and secured it. They then considered their options, they guessed that the supercomputer would need power and identified the buildings around them which did seme to have power. That logic discounted all but four buildings. The light house, the large building in the centre, and two of the lower outlying buildings. The initially planned to start at the lighthouse, but the sniper nest and the open ground made them change their minds. They instead went for the large building in the centre of the island. Ki-Rin was first, and he bypassed the doorlock, the rest quickly followed, with the exception of Six who remained hidden in the toilet block, preferring to use the drones.
The searched the building from room to room, until Ki-Rin opened one door that lead directly into the main prison cells. Six, through one of his drones saw that Ki-Rin was already compromised. Although there seemed to be no reason why the alarms hadn’t already sounded.
No longer used as cells, Seraphim used the main prison building as the bunkhouse for the troops while on base. Ki-Rin opened his account with a shotgun blast through the bars of one cell. But the Seraphim soldiers, although not dressed up in their full mil-spec armour were still more than capable of returning fire and very quickly the room Ash and Ki-Rin hunkered in became a fire trap. Ki-Rin was dropped, but Ash, on hand was able to administer first aid. And although this floor of Seraphim were all but wiped out, there were more on upper floors.
The fight continues…
Monday 13th November 2070 03:00
The explosion sent a shower of debris down the tunnel back toward the runners and none were aware of the prickling sensation that accompanied the activation of a spell. After a moment or two to gather their wits the runners began to make a move, but before they could react, Six was knocked off his feet by some kind of projectile web and dragged into the dusty darkness beyond the breech in the wall. Ash and Glyph reacted quickly firing shots into the gloom towards some kind of massive arachnid. Seraphim troops stormed towards them from the entrance to the pipe that the team had made their way up. A desperate battle ensued, The massive spider was topped with a muscled human torso belonging to the long dead mage, Silk. Ash and Glyph deployed grenades towards the three Seraphim troopers who were blown to pieces, Six managed to free himself from the web, but in an effort to aid the rigger, Glyph became caught up in the spiders silk. Ash made his way to the entrance of the tunnel to fight off any more Seraphim troops and was horrified to see that one of the troops they had already killed was Blake. In a flat panic he tried to medikit his brother, but as he sat waiting for the nanites to do their work, he saw that all three troopers were the visage of Blake. Thoughts of cloning and other horrors flashed through Ash’s mind. The runners fought on, the mutated Silk/spider seemingly ignoring horrific wounds inflicted onto it continued to try and cocoon the team,
Six’s attention was attracted by a familiar voice, he sent his drone across to investigate and was shocked to find the long dead troll runner, Ono. He seemed to be gesturing back towards where Six’s meat body stood, and Six was confused. He called out over the com that Ono was here but the others had become bogged down in a firefight with more Seraphim troopers. Six focused on what Ono was trying to tell him, and eventually he could see a faint outline of words hanging in the air across where the new concrete wall had been. He yelled for Ash to come and investigate, but was snatched from his feet by the spider and he too began to get cocooned. Ash made his way over and could see that the writing was some kind of spell lock, he swiped once with his weapons focus which broke the spell. The runners found themselves in what seemed to be an old pumping room underneath Alcatraz, they had been firing at mirages and their own fears, made real by the spell. They knew they could well have made enough noise to bring the Seraphim army down onto them and they hustled.
They arrived at another pumping room with the all of the equipment removed. The pipe continued onward through the island but again was blocked up with a newer concrete wall. This room seemed to be a junction for some kind of sewage system and there were several apertures in the ceiling which had old crumbling pipes. Six dispatched his flyspy drone up one of the larger pipe sections and planned out a navigable route that led to a toilet block. They would need to smash their way through a toilet but it was doable.
Glyph was sent first and set a small explosive charge beneath one of the porcelain thrones. The team quickly swarmed into the toilet block and secured it. They then considered their options, they guessed that the supercomputer would need power and identified the buildings around them which did seme to have power. That logic discounted all but four buildings. The light house, the large building in the centre, and two of the lower outlying buildings. The initially planned to start at the lighthouse, but the sniper nest and the open ground made them change their minds. They instead went for the large building in the centre of the island. Ki-Rin was first, and he bypassed the doorlock, the rest quickly followed, with the exception of Six who remained hidden in the toilet block, preferring to use the drones.
The searched the building from room to room, until Ki-Rin opened one door that lead directly into the main prison cells. Six, through one of his drones saw that Ki-Rin was already compromised. Although there seemed to be no reason why the alarms hadn’t already sounded.
No longer used as cells, Seraphim used the main prison building as the bunkhouse for the troops while on base. Ki-Rin opened his account with a shotgun blast through the bars of one cell. But the Seraphim soldiers, although not dressed up in their full mil-spec armour were still more than capable of returning fire and very quickly the room Ash and Ki-Rin hunkered in became a fire trap. Ki-Rin was dropped, but Ash, on hand was able to administer first aid. And although this floor of Seraphim were all but wiped out, there were more on upper floors.
The fight continues…
Friday, July 27, 2007
Finding Blake
Ki-Rin, Glyph, Drifter, Six, Ash.
Sunday 12th November 2070.
The runners had to spend a bit of time R&R after the clash with Book but they were beginning to get a bit restless when Ash finally received the phone call from The Juggler about his brother, Blake.
Ash went round to see the Juggler at Clive’s Dive where he was told that Blake had been drafted into the Seraphim, the strong arm of Cross Applied Technologies. Apparently Seraphim had two classes of soldiers, C1 and C2, Blake was designated as a C2 soldier. Both class of troop were interlinked with a semi autonomous AI called Choir, which coordinated their actions. It seems that Choir was in constant communication with each Seraphim troop.
The Jugglers network of information gatherers had also managed to locate the headquarters of the Seraphim and that it was on the Isle of Alcatraz. Cross had somehow managed to move in as General Saito was moving out and now that they were there no one really knew that they occupied it, and those that did, didn’t have the balls to try and oust them.
The Juggler told Ash that his brother was sure to be on the old prison island, and if he wasn’t then that computer would know exactly where Blake was.
Ash made his way round to Six’s apartment and after filling him in on the intel, Six took charge, summoning the rest of the runners to remove some of the burden from his friend.
Once the team had arrived and the information had been shared, they swung into action formulating a plan to storm Alcatraz.
Ki-Rin tapped the information that he could from his contact who used to be a member of Seraphim. They discovered that magical security had been provided by Dominic Cross himself, that the surface was covered by two separate sniper nests, and that the rest of the troops would stay inside the buildings of the island. Ki-Rin’s contact also told him of two ways into the island that he considered to be weak points. One was an automated re-supply ship that departed on a weekly basis from a Cross controlled facility. The other way was an inlet pipe that the patrols would to use as a sneaky smoking spot, he suspected that it led deep into the interior of the base.
With the intel gathered the runners set about ordering ordinance. Bullets and grenades featured highly. Six dispatched a newly purchased skimmer drone out to the island to get a closer look.
They decided on getting to the island by swimming the 1 mile cordon underwater to gain access to the inlet pipe.
The runners launched from Glyph’s boat and swum unhindered to the pipe. The team quickly and relatively easily made their way into the pipe and changed their scuba gear for their armour. The Flyspy drone was sent on ahead and came to a square sump room which seemed to be occupied by a small crystalline ring that hovered and rotated in the centre of the room.
The runners went closer to investigate, Ash, being the magical one went first but retreated back as the ring began to head towards him. After discussions they decided to head into the room two at a time to try and trick the ring. Ash and Glyph headed in, one on either side but they hadn’t counted on the power inherent in the magical trap, and both were whisked off to an astral realm where they were assailed by some kind of spirit.
The rest of the team watched in horror as the two runners disappeared, but a matter of seconds later they both reappeared as the ring winked out of existence, battered and bruised, by their encounter with the spirit but they were able to defeat it.
The runners made their way out of the sump and continued down the tunnel into the heart of the island when they came across a new cement wall that now covered the tunnel. To a man they turned to the demos expert, Glyph, who declared that she hadn’t bought any more plastique since the last run. They stood around as if it was a union meeting for a while before they all shuffled out of the tunnel and headed back to Glyph’s boat. While the rest of the runners waited Ki-Rin went back to his apartment where he had a can of explosive foam and a detonator cap lying about. He got back to the boat, the team suited up and made the long swim back to the pipe. 3 hours later the runners were back in the tunnel, explosive foam primed and ready to blow. The team retreated back to the sump and Ki-Rin detonated the explosive sending chunks of concrete wall down the tunnel.
TBC…
Sunday 12th November 2070.
The runners had to spend a bit of time R&R after the clash with Book but they were beginning to get a bit restless when Ash finally received the phone call from The Juggler about his brother, Blake.
Ash went round to see the Juggler at Clive’s Dive where he was told that Blake had been drafted into the Seraphim, the strong arm of Cross Applied Technologies. Apparently Seraphim had two classes of soldiers, C1 and C2, Blake was designated as a C2 soldier. Both class of troop were interlinked with a semi autonomous AI called Choir, which coordinated their actions. It seems that Choir was in constant communication with each Seraphim troop.
The Jugglers network of information gatherers had also managed to locate the headquarters of the Seraphim and that it was on the Isle of Alcatraz. Cross had somehow managed to move in as General Saito was moving out and now that they were there no one really knew that they occupied it, and those that did, didn’t have the balls to try and oust them.
The Juggler told Ash that his brother was sure to be on the old prison island, and if he wasn’t then that computer would know exactly where Blake was.
Ash made his way round to Six’s apartment and after filling him in on the intel, Six took charge, summoning the rest of the runners to remove some of the burden from his friend.
Once the team had arrived and the information had been shared, they swung into action formulating a plan to storm Alcatraz.
Ki-Rin tapped the information that he could from his contact who used to be a member of Seraphim. They discovered that magical security had been provided by Dominic Cross himself, that the surface was covered by two separate sniper nests, and that the rest of the troops would stay inside the buildings of the island. Ki-Rin’s contact also told him of two ways into the island that he considered to be weak points. One was an automated re-supply ship that departed on a weekly basis from a Cross controlled facility. The other way was an inlet pipe that the patrols would to use as a sneaky smoking spot, he suspected that it led deep into the interior of the base.
With the intel gathered the runners set about ordering ordinance. Bullets and grenades featured highly. Six dispatched a newly purchased skimmer drone out to the island to get a closer look.
They decided on getting to the island by swimming the 1 mile cordon underwater to gain access to the inlet pipe.
The runners launched from Glyph’s boat and swum unhindered to the pipe. The team quickly and relatively easily made their way into the pipe and changed their scuba gear for their armour. The Flyspy drone was sent on ahead and came to a square sump room which seemed to be occupied by a small crystalline ring that hovered and rotated in the centre of the room.
The runners went closer to investigate, Ash, being the magical one went first but retreated back as the ring began to head towards him. After discussions they decided to head into the room two at a time to try and trick the ring. Ash and Glyph headed in, one on either side but they hadn’t counted on the power inherent in the magical trap, and both were whisked off to an astral realm where they were assailed by some kind of spirit.
The rest of the team watched in horror as the two runners disappeared, but a matter of seconds later they both reappeared as the ring winked out of existence, battered and bruised, by their encounter with the spirit but they were able to defeat it.
The runners made their way out of the sump and continued down the tunnel into the heart of the island when they came across a new cement wall that now covered the tunnel. To a man they turned to the demos expert, Glyph, who declared that she hadn’t bought any more plastique since the last run. They stood around as if it was a union meeting for a while before they all shuffled out of the tunnel and headed back to Glyph’s boat. While the rest of the runners waited Ki-Rin went back to his apartment where he had a can of explosive foam and a detonator cap lying about. He got back to the boat, the team suited up and made the long swim back to the pipe. 3 hours later the runners were back in the tunnel, explosive foam primed and ready to blow. The team retreated back to the sump and Ki-Rin detonated the explosive sending chunks of concrete wall down the tunnel.
TBC…
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Rescue from the Volcano Casino
Six, Glyph, Ash
Friday 27th October 2070
The runners were in Las Vegas trying to find and capture a Mage who had gone AWOL with an orachachum book. Glyph and Ki-Rin had found him in a casino and had played a round of cards before trying to take him down. Glyph and Ki-Rin were out gunned and were near killed and were taken captive. Six and Ash, powerless to do anything initially, decided to stage a daring rescue attempt.
Six phoned his brother, the mafia man, and arranged for 5 mafia goons to come down and help out lay down some bullets and maybe draw some fire. Meanwhile Ash contacted Snow and arranged a weapon upgrade complete with under-slung grenade launcher.
Glyph came round, seemingly in Book’s private quarters, Ki-Rin unconscious in the room with her. She heard the mage talking on the phone outside the room, clearly making preparations for some kind of robust defence of the building. Eventually he left leaving a couple of guards watching over the captured runners.
Glyph seemed to be in Books bedroom, and after checking that Ki-Rin was alive she sought around to try and fashion some kind of improvised weapon.
At about 6 in the morning the Volcano casino emptied rapidly. Although early, Casinos never completely emptied but over the course of an hour every guest was ushered out of the building. Ash and Six had the feeling that someone was onto them. Six’s mafia goon squad turned up, and not long after, a Ork fixer known to Snow called Baz turned up with Ash’s bullets and grenades. The plan was simple, Six was going to drive his drone van, in through the plate glass lobby and lay waste to the pop up targets. After that point they would pick their way through the building killing anyone who would be a threat until they found Glyph and Ki-Rin.
Six rolled and exiting the road at speed, ploughed through the glazing of the casino. The mounted gun began taking out the guards who were in the lobby area while Ash the mafia goons and the drones deployed. The ground floor was relatively easy considering, and while Six sat in the comfort of the van controlling the drones, Ash and the Mafia made their way up the escalators.
Glyph had managed to fashion some kind of electric prod, out of a bedside lamp, a pole from a wardrobe, a length of ripped cloth and 3 metres of flex, and then began to try and lure the guards into the room. Eventually one of them stupidly opened the door and was electrocuted when Glyph jabbed the home made lightsabre into his ribs. She quickly dropped the second guard with the first guards weapons.
At the top of the escalators Ash and the mafia goons were coming under heavy fire. The Red Samurai guards had prepared a killing zone and despite Ash delivering a grenade to the minigun nest, three mafia goons had been cut down, and Ash was lying unconscious on the floor before the drones reached the top of the escalator and were able to come into play. The Steel Lynx was devastating though and the Red Samurai were quickly dealt with. Ash was brought back round and they moved onward to the next floor.
Glyph had checked around the apartment and had found a chair that seemed to be used by the mage. An orachalchum chippy lead had been strung through the eye sockets of five skulls and linked into an old Fairlight Excalibur. She had no idea what it was for but took the cyberdeck so that Ki-Rin could have a look at the data once he was up and well again. She then took the unconscious decker across to the lift to make their way down.
The next floor for Ash, the Mafia goons and Six’s drones had been cleared back of all furniture and two static mounted pintle gun drones, these locked onto and tracked the team making their way in and opened fire. The team kept their heads down while Six’s drones went in to distract these gun turretsbefore Ash finished them off with some well aimed bursts of armour piercing bullets.
They moved across to the single glass lift, and decided to send up the drones first. They sat in the lift and made their way up to the room where the card game went wrong for Ki-Rin. The drones sensors scanned the room and detected amongst the 6 guards, Book was in their. The Steel Lynx and the Doberman drones began to take down targets.
Glyph and Ki-Rin descended into the same room from a different lift. And as the doors opened Glyph let rip with the guns she had liberated. Book wasn’t getting taken without a fight and fired an acid stream at the Doberman which fizzed before popping. The Steel Lynx took down as many guards in the room as possible before running out of ammo. Ash summoned the lift and the last thing Six saw through the drones cameras was Glyph getting dropped by another magical stream of acid. Two grenades dropped into the lift with the Steel Lynx, and that drone was reduced to twisted metal.
Six was now out of contact with everything that was going on, and after a brief mental debate hopped out of the van and decided to dash up the stairs to help out.
Ash and the remaining mafia goon called Mario (the one with the big shoes and the AK97) made it to the top floor and were instantly under attack by the mage, Ash instructed Mario to use the medkit on the unconscious Glyph and then was also hit by one of Books acid stream spells which dropped Ash. The mafia goon was able to keep Books head down long enough with suppressing fire to administer more first aid to Ash, and long enough for Six to arrive. Ash and Six moved round either side of the bar Book was using for cover and shot him with stick shock rounds and whacked him on the head.
Ash, Six, and Mario then had to haul the unconcious Ki-Rin, Glyph and Book down three stories and back into the van. After thanking Mario for his efforts and an exchange of phone numbers Six blazed from the wreckage of the casino lobby and headed back to San Francisco to hand Book over to the Juggler.
Friday 27th October 2070
The runners were in Las Vegas trying to find and capture a Mage who had gone AWOL with an orachachum book. Glyph and Ki-Rin had found him in a casino and had played a round of cards before trying to take him down. Glyph and Ki-Rin were out gunned and were near killed and were taken captive. Six and Ash, powerless to do anything initially, decided to stage a daring rescue attempt.
Six phoned his brother, the mafia man, and arranged for 5 mafia goons to come down and help out lay down some bullets and maybe draw some fire. Meanwhile Ash contacted Snow and arranged a weapon upgrade complete with under-slung grenade launcher.
Glyph came round, seemingly in Book’s private quarters, Ki-Rin unconscious in the room with her. She heard the mage talking on the phone outside the room, clearly making preparations for some kind of robust defence of the building. Eventually he left leaving a couple of guards watching over the captured runners.
Glyph seemed to be in Books bedroom, and after checking that Ki-Rin was alive she sought around to try and fashion some kind of improvised weapon.
At about 6 in the morning the Volcano casino emptied rapidly. Although early, Casinos never completely emptied but over the course of an hour every guest was ushered out of the building. Ash and Six had the feeling that someone was onto them. Six’s mafia goon squad turned up, and not long after, a Ork fixer known to Snow called Baz turned up with Ash’s bullets and grenades. The plan was simple, Six was going to drive his drone van, in through the plate glass lobby and lay waste to the pop up targets. After that point they would pick their way through the building killing anyone who would be a threat until they found Glyph and Ki-Rin.
Six rolled and exiting the road at speed, ploughed through the glazing of the casino. The mounted gun began taking out the guards who were in the lobby area while Ash the mafia goons and the drones deployed. The ground floor was relatively easy considering, and while Six sat in the comfort of the van controlling the drones, Ash and the Mafia made their way up the escalators.
Glyph had managed to fashion some kind of electric prod, out of a bedside lamp, a pole from a wardrobe, a length of ripped cloth and 3 metres of flex, and then began to try and lure the guards into the room. Eventually one of them stupidly opened the door and was electrocuted when Glyph jabbed the home made lightsabre into his ribs. She quickly dropped the second guard with the first guards weapons.
At the top of the escalators Ash and the mafia goons were coming under heavy fire. The Red Samurai guards had prepared a killing zone and despite Ash delivering a grenade to the minigun nest, three mafia goons had been cut down, and Ash was lying unconscious on the floor before the drones reached the top of the escalator and were able to come into play. The Steel Lynx was devastating though and the Red Samurai were quickly dealt with. Ash was brought back round and they moved onward to the next floor.
Glyph had checked around the apartment and had found a chair that seemed to be used by the mage. An orachalchum chippy lead had been strung through the eye sockets of five skulls and linked into an old Fairlight Excalibur. She had no idea what it was for but took the cyberdeck so that Ki-Rin could have a look at the data once he was up and well again. She then took the unconscious decker across to the lift to make their way down.
The next floor for Ash, the Mafia goons and Six’s drones had been cleared back of all furniture and two static mounted pintle gun drones, these locked onto and tracked the team making their way in and opened fire. The team kept their heads down while Six’s drones went in to distract these gun turretsbefore Ash finished them off with some well aimed bursts of armour piercing bullets.
They moved across to the single glass lift, and decided to send up the drones first. They sat in the lift and made their way up to the room where the card game went wrong for Ki-Rin. The drones sensors scanned the room and detected amongst the 6 guards, Book was in their. The Steel Lynx and the Doberman drones began to take down targets.
Glyph and Ki-Rin descended into the same room from a different lift. And as the doors opened Glyph let rip with the guns she had liberated. Book wasn’t getting taken without a fight and fired an acid stream at the Doberman which fizzed before popping. The Steel Lynx took down as many guards in the room as possible before running out of ammo. Ash summoned the lift and the last thing Six saw through the drones cameras was Glyph getting dropped by another magical stream of acid. Two grenades dropped into the lift with the Steel Lynx, and that drone was reduced to twisted metal.
Six was now out of contact with everything that was going on, and after a brief mental debate hopped out of the van and decided to dash up the stairs to help out.
Ash and the remaining mafia goon called Mario (the one with the big shoes and the AK97) made it to the top floor and were instantly under attack by the mage, Ash instructed Mario to use the medkit on the unconscious Glyph and then was also hit by one of Books acid stream spells which dropped Ash. The mafia goon was able to keep Books head down long enough with suppressing fire to administer more first aid to Ash, and long enough for Six to arrive. Ash and Six moved round either side of the bar Book was using for cover and shot him with stick shock rounds and whacked him on the head.
Ash, Six, and Mario then had to haul the unconcious Ki-Rin, Glyph and Book down three stories and back into the van. After thanking Mario for his efforts and an exchange of phone numbers Six blazed from the wreckage of the casino lobby and headed back to San Francisco to hand Book over to the Juggler.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Mage in the Volcano.
Thursday 26 October 2070
Glyph, Six, Ki-Rin, Ash.
The runners drove away from the facility with an injured and unconscious Manton Ford. They drove to a secluded spot on the highway and parked up. Six had a bit of a heart to heart with Ash while Ki-Rin and Glyph questioned Manton Ford.
The questioning was light and friendly, an approach Ford hadn’t steeled himself for, and he found himself opening up to the runners, hinting at his fear of Dominic Cross. He gave the runners a phone number for Book and after Ash joined in the questioning gave them the number for Dominic Cross as well.
Ki-Rin ran a trace on Books number while Six made a phoney call, and they pin[pointed his location to the Volcano Club. They suspected he was going to be there, but now they were sure. Six and Ki-Rin went onto the Volcano Club in Las Vegas, while Ash Glyph and Drifter went back to San Francisco to palm off Manton Ford onto The Juggler and to seek medical attention.
Six and Ki-Rin pressed onto Las Vegas, and after setting themselves up in the Volcano car park, set about surveillance. Six deployed drones for visual obs, while Ki-Rin picked up a tux and headed into the casino to see what he could see. After about an hour, and after loosing one of Six’s drones Ki-Rin came out and retired back to the van with the knowledge of the rough layout, the security measures laid on by Red Samurai and that there was a high rollers table on the 3rd floor of the building. The pair settled down and waited for Ash and Glyph to catch up.
Friday 27th October 2070 02:00
Ash and Glyph caught up with the others at about two in the morning, they caught up on what had transpired so far, and they came up with a bit of a plan, Glyph and Ki-Rin would go in to see if they could get up to the high roller table to see if their quarry, Book, was up there. Six and Ash were to remain outside as a fast response.
Ki-Rin started splashing the cash at the tables, and eventually his keenness to loose his money was noticed by someone. He was approached by a bouncer who told him that he could make his way upstairs with a 50k buy in. Ki-Rin accepted and then had to pool the teams money to be able to afford the buy in.
Heading upstairs, Ki-Rin was introduced to Book and his four gambling mates. Glyph joined them at the table, and watched in horror as over the course of half a dozen hands Ki-Rin lost a good chunk of the money. Ki-Rin himself readily admitted that he was no card shark, and he knew soon enough that he was going to loose the lot, he was in on the last hand an knew he would be out, he got on the phone and called Six and Ash to tell them that they had Book in their sight but needed a distraction.
Ki-Rin painted up the targets with the smartlink, and seeing this, Ash took Ki-Rin’s sniper cannon and found himself a sneaky place to shoot from. He was shooting at range, through the external concrete structure at an unseen target marked out only by the smartlink system, he had two armour defeating high velocity anti materiel shells left, and two guards near the lift to take out.
Ki-Rin was shaking the hands of the card players when Ash took the shoot. It punched through the wall but a lot of the potency had been taken out by the exterior cladding only winging the guard. He kicked up a stink all the same, and guns appeared in the hands of his colleagues and one of the card players had come in with a six shooter too. Ki-Rin went over to the guards all pally-pally asking what was going on before snatching the gun of the guard who was shot.
Glyph saw what was going on, and was going to take out Book, but instead went for the card shark with the six shooter. A mistake, as bullets flew, he attacked magically, dropping first Ki-Rin and then Glyph bringing them to the very brink of death.
Ash and Six were helpless, loosing the smartlink feed from one, then the other. They knew it had gone badly, and didn’t even know if they had survived. They sat outside, and thought, and were unable to do anything. They watched, and hoped that they would be dragged out by security, or that lone star would turn up and collect the body bags, or their friends would get a message to them but there was nothing.
It was Six in the morning, the sun was just coming up, and then they decided to go in. Six made a phone call while Ash checked the trunk of Glyph’s car to see what they had in the way of ammunition.
Glyph, Six, Ki-Rin, Ash.
The runners drove away from the facility with an injured and unconscious Manton Ford. They drove to a secluded spot on the highway and parked up. Six had a bit of a heart to heart with Ash while Ki-Rin and Glyph questioned Manton Ford.
The questioning was light and friendly, an approach Ford hadn’t steeled himself for, and he found himself opening up to the runners, hinting at his fear of Dominic Cross. He gave the runners a phone number for Book and after Ash joined in the questioning gave them the number for Dominic Cross as well.
Ki-Rin ran a trace on Books number while Six made a phoney call, and they pin[pointed his location to the Volcano Club. They suspected he was going to be there, but now they were sure. Six and Ki-Rin went onto the Volcano Club in Las Vegas, while Ash Glyph and Drifter went back to San Francisco to palm off Manton Ford onto The Juggler and to seek medical attention.
Six and Ki-Rin pressed onto Las Vegas, and after setting themselves up in the Volcano car park, set about surveillance. Six deployed drones for visual obs, while Ki-Rin picked up a tux and headed into the casino to see what he could see. After about an hour, and after loosing one of Six’s drones Ki-Rin came out and retired back to the van with the knowledge of the rough layout, the security measures laid on by Red Samurai and that there was a high rollers table on the 3rd floor of the building. The pair settled down and waited for Ash and Glyph to catch up.
Friday 27th October 2070 02:00
Ash and Glyph caught up with the others at about two in the morning, they caught up on what had transpired so far, and they came up with a bit of a plan, Glyph and Ki-Rin would go in to see if they could get up to the high roller table to see if their quarry, Book, was up there. Six and Ash were to remain outside as a fast response.
Ki-Rin started splashing the cash at the tables, and eventually his keenness to loose his money was noticed by someone. He was approached by a bouncer who told him that he could make his way upstairs with a 50k buy in. Ki-Rin accepted and then had to pool the teams money to be able to afford the buy in.
Heading upstairs, Ki-Rin was introduced to Book and his four gambling mates. Glyph joined them at the table, and watched in horror as over the course of half a dozen hands Ki-Rin lost a good chunk of the money. Ki-Rin himself readily admitted that he was no card shark, and he knew soon enough that he was going to loose the lot, he was in on the last hand an knew he would be out, he got on the phone and called Six and Ash to tell them that they had Book in their sight but needed a distraction.
Ki-Rin painted up the targets with the smartlink, and seeing this, Ash took Ki-Rin’s sniper cannon and found himself a sneaky place to shoot from. He was shooting at range, through the external concrete structure at an unseen target marked out only by the smartlink system, he had two armour defeating high velocity anti materiel shells left, and two guards near the lift to take out.
Ki-Rin was shaking the hands of the card players when Ash took the shoot. It punched through the wall but a lot of the potency had been taken out by the exterior cladding only winging the guard. He kicked up a stink all the same, and guns appeared in the hands of his colleagues and one of the card players had come in with a six shooter too. Ki-Rin went over to the guards all pally-pally asking what was going on before snatching the gun of the guard who was shot.
Glyph saw what was going on, and was going to take out Book, but instead went for the card shark with the six shooter. A mistake, as bullets flew, he attacked magically, dropping first Ki-Rin and then Glyph bringing them to the very brink of death.
Ash and Six were helpless, loosing the smartlink feed from one, then the other. They knew it had gone badly, and didn’t even know if they had survived. They sat outside, and thought, and were unable to do anything. They watched, and hoped that they would be dragged out by security, or that lone star would turn up and collect the body bags, or their friends would get a message to them but there was nothing.
It was Six in the morning, the sun was just coming up, and then they decided to go in. Six made a phone call while Ash checked the trunk of Glyph’s car to see what they had in the way of ammunition.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Back to the Facilty. Looking for Ford.
Thursday 26th October 2070
Glyph, Ki-Rin, Six, Ash, Drifter
Glyph, Ki-Rin and Ash returned from the barrens with the business card that they had acquired from the gang called the Whites. Six was back up and well, and had met Drifter who was back in town looking for work. The team all met back up and discussed their options.
Ki-Rin was the first to do some legwork in the matrix. He tracked down the number for the Mr. Johnson and hacked into his comlink. He had some security but Ki-Rin bypassed that with ease and was able to have a sniff round. The Mr. Johnson was a Lone Star Facilitator, whatever that meant, and he had files on hundreds of people including Dr. Ford. The data itself was deleted though. Six contacted Croner, his Lone Star contact and found out that a Facilitator was the Lone Star equivalent of the Company man. He arranged for things that the normal bobby on the beat can’t do.
They decided after some debate to arrange for a meeting with this Johnson, and Drifter was going to make the meet as he hadn’t been seen by anyone involved in this shadowrun and was the least likely to trigger suspicions.
The team decamped to the Bowlarama and Ice rink complex, and set themselves up in various locations within eavesdropping distance of Drifter. The Johnson arrived and quickly deduced who it was he needed to meet. After introductions they asked him about Dr. Manton Ford, and after a fee was negotiated, he told them that he was solely responsible for Dr. Ford’s disappearance. He worked for Cross before he moved across to Lone Star, and while there was instructed to extract Ford and move him to Nixon by someone higher up in Cross Applied Technologies. Ford’s life was being threatened and Johnson’s job was to make him disappear. After scrubbing his identity and hiding him out in the barrens for a few days, Dr. Manton Ford became John Austin, resident of Nixon, and employee of Tectonic Industries.
The runners had been to Nixon before when they had launched the attack on the underwater facility at Pyramid lake. The team kitted up and set off.
Arriving late into the afternoon the runners headed directly round to the home address given to them for Manton Ford, and after a bit of surveillance Ki-Rin and Ash went in with some smooth talking and good hacking they were inside the flat without a problem. It was an off the peg residence with standard fixtures and fittings and barely any personal touches. They did find a smashed up comlink and after traling through the damaged memory they found that Ford was receiving instructions from Dominic [assumed to be Dominic Cross] and his demands appeared to be driving Ford to acts of frustration, including the smashed comlink. Ki-Rin scanned the airwaves for any other signals in the building and found that there was a camera that was fixed in the lighting. Not part of the building security and the team suspected that it was there to keep an eye on Ford. There was nothing that they could do about the signals that had already been broadcast, but Ki-Rin recovered the hard memory and watched back the moments that led Ford to smash his comlink and then leave the apartment the following morning.
The runners feared that he had become spooked by Dominic’s demands and did a search on his credit trail and car. They were surprised and pleased to discover that he hadn’t fled as first thought and was in fact smack bang back at the facility that they had bombed not so long ago.
It was about now that the Juggler informed Ash that his brother, Blake, had been drafted into Cross Applied Technologies mini army, called Seraphim. Ash took the information on board but could do nothing about it at the time.
The team headed off to have another look, and after parking up in the same place that they did last time out and walking the trail that they did they looked down onto a building site. A lot of the pre-fab buildings had gone, and some kind of bio-dome was being erected over the whole site. There were dive teams working the lake, and there was a good deal of construction activity all over the place.
Ki-Rin cracked out his sniper cannon and started scoping the site. He picked out their mark, Ford, inside a building talking to a site foreman, and while Glyph tumbled her way into a better position, Six dispatched the flyspy.
The flyspy made it’s way in and using a circuitous route crawled it’s way onto Ford’s jacket, but the keen eyed foreman spotted it and swatted it thinking it to be a biting bug. When they saw that the insect was actually a small drone, Ford got onto the phone. The runners knew the game was up and moved. Ki-Rin handed over the sniper cannon to Glyph and led the walking charge down toward the compound with Ash and Drifter in tow. Six remote controlled the trio of vehicles to the site and ran to meet up with them.
Entering the site wasn’t too hard, the civilian contractors fell under Ki-Rin’s stick-shock rounds and the trio made their way quickly toward the building where Ford was. A helicopter thundered overhead, a rapid response troop transporter flew low. Glyph started shooting at it but didn’t have enough time to bring down the chopper before it was able to unload its cargo of six heavily armoured soldiers. A squad of Seraphim troopers.
They moved quickly and began shooting up the team who had made their way inside the building and had dropped Manton Ford. Bullets flew and the runners found themselves fighting a desperate battle with Glyph firing armour piercing shot after another, even these shots were being mostly deflected by their armour. Ash and Drifter were taken down, and only with the aid of their team did they survive.
After the smoke had cleared and the team had survived did what had transpired dawn on Ash, who frantically checked the bodies of the Seraphim soldiers to see of they were his brother. None were, but this didn’t stop the rush of emotion which took over Ash.
The others were out of there, with an unconscious Ford and Six knew that now was not the time for Ash to be soul searching, he picked him up and bundled him into his car and the team left the scene.
Glyph, Ki-Rin, Six, Ash, Drifter
Glyph, Ki-Rin and Ash returned from the barrens with the business card that they had acquired from the gang called the Whites. Six was back up and well, and had met Drifter who was back in town looking for work. The team all met back up and discussed their options.
Ki-Rin was the first to do some legwork in the matrix. He tracked down the number for the Mr. Johnson and hacked into his comlink. He had some security but Ki-Rin bypassed that with ease and was able to have a sniff round. The Mr. Johnson was a Lone Star Facilitator, whatever that meant, and he had files on hundreds of people including Dr. Ford. The data itself was deleted though. Six contacted Croner, his Lone Star contact and found out that a Facilitator was the Lone Star equivalent of the Company man. He arranged for things that the normal bobby on the beat can’t do.
They decided after some debate to arrange for a meeting with this Johnson, and Drifter was going to make the meet as he hadn’t been seen by anyone involved in this shadowrun and was the least likely to trigger suspicions.
The team decamped to the Bowlarama and Ice rink complex, and set themselves up in various locations within eavesdropping distance of Drifter. The Johnson arrived and quickly deduced who it was he needed to meet. After introductions they asked him about Dr. Manton Ford, and after a fee was negotiated, he told them that he was solely responsible for Dr. Ford’s disappearance. He worked for Cross before he moved across to Lone Star, and while there was instructed to extract Ford and move him to Nixon by someone higher up in Cross Applied Technologies. Ford’s life was being threatened and Johnson’s job was to make him disappear. After scrubbing his identity and hiding him out in the barrens for a few days, Dr. Manton Ford became John Austin, resident of Nixon, and employee of Tectonic Industries.
The runners had been to Nixon before when they had launched the attack on the underwater facility at Pyramid lake. The team kitted up and set off.
Arriving late into the afternoon the runners headed directly round to the home address given to them for Manton Ford, and after a bit of surveillance Ki-Rin and Ash went in with some smooth talking and good hacking they were inside the flat without a problem. It was an off the peg residence with standard fixtures and fittings and barely any personal touches. They did find a smashed up comlink and after traling through the damaged memory they found that Ford was receiving instructions from Dominic [assumed to be Dominic Cross] and his demands appeared to be driving Ford to acts of frustration, including the smashed comlink. Ki-Rin scanned the airwaves for any other signals in the building and found that there was a camera that was fixed in the lighting. Not part of the building security and the team suspected that it was there to keep an eye on Ford. There was nothing that they could do about the signals that had already been broadcast, but Ki-Rin recovered the hard memory and watched back the moments that led Ford to smash his comlink and then leave the apartment the following morning.
The runners feared that he had become spooked by Dominic’s demands and did a search on his credit trail and car. They were surprised and pleased to discover that he hadn’t fled as first thought and was in fact smack bang back at the facility that they had bombed not so long ago.
It was about now that the Juggler informed Ash that his brother, Blake, had been drafted into Cross Applied Technologies mini army, called Seraphim. Ash took the information on board but could do nothing about it at the time.
The team headed off to have another look, and after parking up in the same place that they did last time out and walking the trail that they did they looked down onto a building site. A lot of the pre-fab buildings had gone, and some kind of bio-dome was being erected over the whole site. There were dive teams working the lake, and there was a good deal of construction activity all over the place.
Ki-Rin cracked out his sniper cannon and started scoping the site. He picked out their mark, Ford, inside a building talking to a site foreman, and while Glyph tumbled her way into a better position, Six dispatched the flyspy.
The flyspy made it’s way in and using a circuitous route crawled it’s way onto Ford’s jacket, but the keen eyed foreman spotted it and swatted it thinking it to be a biting bug. When they saw that the insect was actually a small drone, Ford got onto the phone. The runners knew the game was up and moved. Ki-Rin handed over the sniper cannon to Glyph and led the walking charge down toward the compound with Ash and Drifter in tow. Six remote controlled the trio of vehicles to the site and ran to meet up with them.
Entering the site wasn’t too hard, the civilian contractors fell under Ki-Rin’s stick-shock rounds and the trio made their way quickly toward the building where Ford was. A helicopter thundered overhead, a rapid response troop transporter flew low. Glyph started shooting at it but didn’t have enough time to bring down the chopper before it was able to unload its cargo of six heavily armoured soldiers. A squad of Seraphim troopers.
They moved quickly and began shooting up the team who had made their way inside the building and had dropped Manton Ford. Bullets flew and the runners found themselves fighting a desperate battle with Glyph firing armour piercing shot after another, even these shots were being mostly deflected by their armour. Ash and Drifter were taken down, and only with the aid of their team did they survive.
After the smoke had cleared and the team had survived did what had transpired dawn on Ash, who frantically checked the bodies of the Seraphim soldiers to see of they were his brother. None were, but this didn’t stop the rush of emotion which took over Ash.
The others were out of there, with an unconscious Ford and Six knew that now was not the time for Ash to be soul searching, he picked him up and bundled him into his car and the team left the scene.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Pig in the Barrens
Wednesday 25th October 2070
Ki-Rin, Ash, Glyph.
The runners have been approached by The Juggler who has told them of his friend Book, who has taken into his possession an orachalcum book that had belonged to Dominic Cross and was in some way related to the Shedim, Allisom. The Juggler has since been informed that the book could be key to destroying Allisom and now wants the runners to help him find his friend and the book for the fee of 50k and the promise that the Juggler will do everything in his power to find Ash’s brother, Blake.
The runners had tangled with Book more recently that the Jugglers last sighting, and remembered that they had seen him headed for Las Vegas with an unidentified man in a cowboy hat. They had traced him to the Volcano, a club in Vegas. They had also seen Book at a party that had been held by Dr. Manton ford, a man that they were employed to terminate, but failed to do so.
It was nearly 3am by the time that they had pooled their information, but they were keen to make the move there and then and rushed round to the house where they had spied Manton Ford. Six was beginning to come down with some kind of flu that was making it hard for him to focus and he elected to stay in the van while the others went in.
They had spotted that security had been ramped up since the last time they were parked outside the doctors AAA mansion but Ki-Rin worked the security from the matrix, disabled the alarms, and looped the cameras to playback the previous night. They then headed over toward the front gate. A pair of security guards spotted them but did nothing as they were presently only loitering. They didn’t seem to care for the idle banter that the runners were offering, so Glyph opened fire on them, Ki-Rin dropped the second before Ash could even get his hand on his gun.
The trio stole into the property and made their way into the house. Ki-Rin mooched around downstairs and found a fridge full of beer. He helped himself and couldn’t help but think that Manton Ford didn’t seem the type to drink this much beer.
Ash and Glyph headed up stairs, and Ash made his way into the main bedroom, stick-shocking the pair in the bed. He then flicked the light on and drew back the covers to find a young couple now comatose. The man he recognised, an up and coming simsense musician called Johnny Rock.
The runners had a brief discussion before leaving. Ash convinced Ki-Rin to find out when the house had been sold and where ford had gone, and after a bit of a data search Ki-Rin found that Ford had stopped paying his rent from July 1st and had defaulted the house. Not only his household bills stopped being paid, everything, his SIN trace, transactions, his comlink activity, all had stopped on the 1st of July. The runners retired for the night planning on heading out to Las Vegas the following morning.
Six’s fever got progressively worse, and by the morning he was in no state to do anything but lie in bed.
Thursday 26th October 2070
Ash got a mysterious message left on his comlink advising him that if he was to find Dr. Ford, then it might be worth talking to Sergeant Buck at the NRA shooting range in downtown. The team met at Ki-Rin’s before heading off to the range.
The team went through a few checks at the range before they were let in, and they met up with Sergeant Buck, a shooting instructor. They asked about Dr. Ford, and after some money changed hands, Buck told them that he used to be part of a Cross Applied Technologies elite guard called Seraphim, he quit when the Corporation began to fall apart and his squad was being bolstered with “console kids” who had only done simulator missions. But the last mission he had done before he left involved Dr. Manton Ford. For some reason Cross (or whoever his employer was that day) wanted him extracting for his own safety, and then have him delivered out to the barrens where he was to be handed over to a street gang called the Whites. He gave the runners the coordinates and told them that the gang leader was called Silence. The runners chatted for a bit longer, and one ex-forces man to another Ki-Rin made a new contact.
The team decided to head out. Ki-Rin bought a third hand scrambler bike, and then joined Ash and Glyph on the rat bike that they had acquired a while ago.
After an uneventful drive into the barrens the runners found the hang out for the Whites, an old power station. A rough barricade had been set up around the perimeter and as they rode up the runners were approached by the spokesman of the barricade. He insisted that they could only see Silence if they were unarmed, and not keen to leave his battle rifle and the bikes in the barrens unattended, Ki-Rin went in alone leaving Glyph and Ash on watch.
Silence was a two bit gang leader who had beaten his way to the top. He had charges to look after and a rival gang was causing him troubles. He decided that the information he had about Ford was clearly valuable to this runner stood before him, and told Ki-Rin that he would tell him what had happened if he dealt with the other gang.
It turned out that the gang called the Razors had gotten lucky not so long ago and had managed to liberate a Lone Star Citymaster during a riot. They are now driving around in the vehicle killing the Whites and capturing and booty that they find. This riot van had been called the Pig on the streets and Silence wanted the Pig for his own gang.
Ki-Rin made a friend with a packet of cigarettes who had warned him that the Razors liked their booby traps. After Ki-Rin told the others what they had to do, he headed back to San Fran to pick up the Sniper Cannon, which would be more than capable of punching through the armour of a riot truck. Ash and Glyph headed down to the Razors territory for a bit of a mooch.
After setting up a look out from a building Glyph got bored and headed out for reconnoiter alone. In no time at all she was being followed by a couple of gangers and Glyph decided to challenge them. They drew a knife while politely asking for a tithe for walking around in their turf. Glyph drew her guns. She then began to make her way back the way she had come, aware that she was on their turf. The pair followed her although he guns were loosely trained on them. One broke off to get reinforcements the other just followed at a distance. Glyph continued to retreat and spotted one of their improvised pipe bombs that appeared to be quite obvious. She took a detour around it and stood on another explosive.
Glyph picked herself up from the explosion and dusted herself off quite unharmed but something had gone off in her head. She drew a grenade and pulled the pin, and made her way back to the ganger who was following her asking if he liked to play with explosives, the ganger was scared but he had buddies (one with a shotgun) and as his eyes flicked to his friends, Glyph drew her gun a killed both of them before they moved a muscle. The ganger ran.
Ash having watched all of this suggested that they get out of dodge and wait for Ki-Rin to get back, but Glyph was having none of it, and while Ash left she rode around the streets of Razor territory. The Razors reinforced but they also knew that the crazy has at least one grenade and a pair of SMG’s so they held back until the Pig got on the scene.
Ki-Rin called in to see Six before he picked up the sniper cannon to drop off some lemsips and was completely unaware of the action that Glyph had kicked off.
The Pig duly arrived and Glyph decided that a single handed assault of the riot van was in order. She began to ride rings around the slow moving pig on the rat bike. Inside the vehicle gangers fired from gun ports, and Glyph took many hits triggering the nanite medkit. She finally leapt on top of the vehicle and began to cut her way through the windshield. The driver rammed the vehicle trying to shake her off but she was on a one girl mission and when the rear bulk head doors opened so gangers could shoot her off she lobbed in a flash bang which disabled almost everyone.
She drove down the street triumphant, picking up Ash on the way, who bundled the unconscious gangers out onto the street. Glyph phoned up Ki-Rin to tell him that the sniper cannon was not needed. Ki-Rin rode back to make the hand over with Silence.
Silence was pleased and told Ki-Rin that he had been approached by a suit who wanted the gang to look after a man and ensure that no harm came to him, when he made arrangements for him to disappear. Silence agreed and a few days after that call, a team of soldiers arrived in a helicopter and dropped off the man. Silence and the Whites looked after him for two days, and then another helicopter turned up and the man was taken away. Silence had kept the business card left by the suit. A Mr. Johnson, and a telephone number, and he handed that over to Ki-Rin.
Ki-Rin, Ash, Glyph.
The runners have been approached by The Juggler who has told them of his friend Book, who has taken into his possession an orachalcum book that had belonged to Dominic Cross and was in some way related to the Shedim, Allisom. The Juggler has since been informed that the book could be key to destroying Allisom and now wants the runners to help him find his friend and the book for the fee of 50k and the promise that the Juggler will do everything in his power to find Ash’s brother, Blake.
The runners had tangled with Book more recently that the Jugglers last sighting, and remembered that they had seen him headed for Las Vegas with an unidentified man in a cowboy hat. They had traced him to the Volcano, a club in Vegas. They had also seen Book at a party that had been held by Dr. Manton ford, a man that they were employed to terminate, but failed to do so.
It was nearly 3am by the time that they had pooled their information, but they were keen to make the move there and then and rushed round to the house where they had spied Manton Ford. Six was beginning to come down with some kind of flu that was making it hard for him to focus and he elected to stay in the van while the others went in.
They had spotted that security had been ramped up since the last time they were parked outside the doctors AAA mansion but Ki-Rin worked the security from the matrix, disabled the alarms, and looped the cameras to playback the previous night. They then headed over toward the front gate. A pair of security guards spotted them but did nothing as they were presently only loitering. They didn’t seem to care for the idle banter that the runners were offering, so Glyph opened fire on them, Ki-Rin dropped the second before Ash could even get his hand on his gun.
The trio stole into the property and made their way into the house. Ki-Rin mooched around downstairs and found a fridge full of beer. He helped himself and couldn’t help but think that Manton Ford didn’t seem the type to drink this much beer.
Ash and Glyph headed up stairs, and Ash made his way into the main bedroom, stick-shocking the pair in the bed. He then flicked the light on and drew back the covers to find a young couple now comatose. The man he recognised, an up and coming simsense musician called Johnny Rock.
The runners had a brief discussion before leaving. Ash convinced Ki-Rin to find out when the house had been sold and where ford had gone, and after a bit of a data search Ki-Rin found that Ford had stopped paying his rent from July 1st and had defaulted the house. Not only his household bills stopped being paid, everything, his SIN trace, transactions, his comlink activity, all had stopped on the 1st of July. The runners retired for the night planning on heading out to Las Vegas the following morning.
Six’s fever got progressively worse, and by the morning he was in no state to do anything but lie in bed.
Thursday 26th October 2070
Ash got a mysterious message left on his comlink advising him that if he was to find Dr. Ford, then it might be worth talking to Sergeant Buck at the NRA shooting range in downtown. The team met at Ki-Rin’s before heading off to the range.
The team went through a few checks at the range before they were let in, and they met up with Sergeant Buck, a shooting instructor. They asked about Dr. Ford, and after some money changed hands, Buck told them that he used to be part of a Cross Applied Technologies elite guard called Seraphim, he quit when the Corporation began to fall apart and his squad was being bolstered with “console kids” who had only done simulator missions. But the last mission he had done before he left involved Dr. Manton Ford. For some reason Cross (or whoever his employer was that day) wanted him extracting for his own safety, and then have him delivered out to the barrens where he was to be handed over to a street gang called the Whites. He gave the runners the coordinates and told them that the gang leader was called Silence. The runners chatted for a bit longer, and one ex-forces man to another Ki-Rin made a new contact.
The team decided to head out. Ki-Rin bought a third hand scrambler bike, and then joined Ash and Glyph on the rat bike that they had acquired a while ago.
After an uneventful drive into the barrens the runners found the hang out for the Whites, an old power station. A rough barricade had been set up around the perimeter and as they rode up the runners were approached by the spokesman of the barricade. He insisted that they could only see Silence if they were unarmed, and not keen to leave his battle rifle and the bikes in the barrens unattended, Ki-Rin went in alone leaving Glyph and Ash on watch.
Silence was a two bit gang leader who had beaten his way to the top. He had charges to look after and a rival gang was causing him troubles. He decided that the information he had about Ford was clearly valuable to this runner stood before him, and told Ki-Rin that he would tell him what had happened if he dealt with the other gang.
It turned out that the gang called the Razors had gotten lucky not so long ago and had managed to liberate a Lone Star Citymaster during a riot. They are now driving around in the vehicle killing the Whites and capturing and booty that they find. This riot van had been called the Pig on the streets and Silence wanted the Pig for his own gang.
Ki-Rin made a friend with a packet of cigarettes who had warned him that the Razors liked their booby traps. After Ki-Rin told the others what they had to do, he headed back to San Fran to pick up the Sniper Cannon, which would be more than capable of punching through the armour of a riot truck. Ash and Glyph headed down to the Razors territory for a bit of a mooch.
After setting up a look out from a building Glyph got bored and headed out for reconnoiter alone. In no time at all she was being followed by a couple of gangers and Glyph decided to challenge them. They drew a knife while politely asking for a tithe for walking around in their turf. Glyph drew her guns. She then began to make her way back the way she had come, aware that she was on their turf. The pair followed her although he guns were loosely trained on them. One broke off to get reinforcements the other just followed at a distance. Glyph continued to retreat and spotted one of their improvised pipe bombs that appeared to be quite obvious. She took a detour around it and stood on another explosive.
Glyph picked herself up from the explosion and dusted herself off quite unharmed but something had gone off in her head. She drew a grenade and pulled the pin, and made her way back to the ganger who was following her asking if he liked to play with explosives, the ganger was scared but he had buddies (one with a shotgun) and as his eyes flicked to his friends, Glyph drew her gun a killed both of them before they moved a muscle. The ganger ran.
Ash having watched all of this suggested that they get out of dodge and wait for Ki-Rin to get back, but Glyph was having none of it, and while Ash left she rode around the streets of Razor territory. The Razors reinforced but they also knew that the crazy has at least one grenade and a pair of SMG’s so they held back until the Pig got on the scene.
Ki-Rin called in to see Six before he picked up the sniper cannon to drop off some lemsips and was completely unaware of the action that Glyph had kicked off.
The Pig duly arrived and Glyph decided that a single handed assault of the riot van was in order. She began to ride rings around the slow moving pig on the rat bike. Inside the vehicle gangers fired from gun ports, and Glyph took many hits triggering the nanite medkit. She finally leapt on top of the vehicle and began to cut her way through the windshield. The driver rammed the vehicle trying to shake her off but she was on a one girl mission and when the rear bulk head doors opened so gangers could shoot her off she lobbed in a flash bang which disabled almost everyone.
She drove down the street triumphant, picking up Ash on the way, who bundled the unconscious gangers out onto the street. Glyph phoned up Ki-Rin to tell him that the sniper cannon was not needed. Ki-Rin rode back to make the hand over with Silence.
Silence was pleased and told Ki-Rin that he had been approached by a suit who wanted the gang to look after a man and ensure that no harm came to him, when he made arrangements for him to disappear. Silence agreed and a few days after that call, a team of soldiers arrived in a helicopter and dropped off the man. Silence and the Whites looked after him for two days, and then another helicopter turned up and the man was taken away. Silence had kept the business card left by the suit. A Mr. Johnson, and a telephone number, and he handed that over to Ki-Rin.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Jugglers hit on Cross
Six (book), Glyph (O’Bannon), Ash (Slab), Ki-Rin (Fenix)
Wednesday 25th October 2070
The runners were contacted by their St. Doc contact, Mal. He seemed a bit odd on the phone and when the runners headed to meet him at 11pm as instructed they were cautious. He met them in his surgery at the back of the Gym and sat them down in his office. He then asked the runners if they remembered when they had first met, and they recalled that they were trying to track down The Juggler. He then began to tell them a story of a run against Cross Applied Technologies that happened over six months ago.
Friday 3rd March 2070
The gang sat in the back room of Clive’s Dive for 20 minutes. The Juggler was always late. There was the dark skinned, bespectacled mage, Book. The street doctor, Mal. The troll bruiser Slab, the face of the party, O’Bannon. And the covert ops specialist, Fenix.
The Juggler turned up and like always carried on as if he wasn’t late. He had another hit against Cross Applied technologies. He had been tipped off that Dominic Cross had recently acquired a small book, the pages made from orachalchum. His little bird also had suggested that this book had something to do with summoning a spirit called a Shedim, and the Juggler thought it best that they recovered this book before Dominc got himself into trouble with things he shouldn’t.
O’Bannon had a contact on the inside of Cross Applied technologies, a security guard who would be prepared to open the doors and things. The team began to put together a plan.
The team were going to go into Cross HQ late into the evening disguised as cleaners. They would make their way up to the 15th Floor where they suspected the book to be. Book would confirm the location of the book by assaying the area astrally before they set off. The team split up to get hold of the various bits and pieces, ammo, overalls and cleaning equipment, a battered van and signage to imply a contract cleaning company. O’Bannon let his contact know that they wanted the underground car park un-attended, and also asked for passes for the five of them. His CATco Security guard contact obliged.
The Juggler made his way into Mal’s surgery to the surprise of the runners. Six was especially perturbed as last time out The Juggler was the enemy. But he came with coffee as a gesture of goodwill, and the story Mal was telling was making for interesting listening, the enemy of my enemy and all that. The juggler just encouraged Mal to carry on to the good bit.
The team went in. Book was able to confirm that the book was clearly visible from the astral plane even though the 15th floor was isolated from the astral plane by a bacteria shield that had been embedded into the walls, floor, roof and glazing.
The team snuck in, and the security guards waved them past without really studying their ID’s. Inside the team were again waved past by the security guards who were quite blasé, although after they had made their way to the lifts, they did notice that the guards were making a quick phone call to someone. It was enough to make O’Bannon nervous and he contacted his security guy, who told him that all was fine.
The team made their way to the 8th floor where they had to change lifts, and were briefly accosted by an indignant cleaning lady who was having her floor invaded by outside contract cleaners. (When she buzzed down to security she was told that they were going to be got rid of shortly). Fenix was sure that they were being flanked by some security and went into a door that had just clicked shut, backed up by Slab. Going in there was a stressed out young exec who was working late. He didn’t like being disturbed and decided to run the ID he had demanded off the cleaners through the database so that he could file a complaint. Slab made out that he was getting the bin, before inverting it and jamming it onto the head of the suit. Fenix lifted the bin off the stunned exec, and then smacked him out cold with a decorative glass paperweight.
The team continued up. This time using the emergency stairs. Rather than the lifts. They made it up to the 14th floor, the last floor they could get up to before changing lifts one last time to get to Dominic Cross’s executive apartments on the 15th. Book too a quick peak through the wall in the astral plane and saw that there were guards out there, and also a watcher spirit. He warned the others who burst from the stairwell, guns blazing.
The fire fight was short lived, Book took on a watcher spirit in astral combat and dismissed it with flagrant ease, and the rest of security were dropped without too much of a problem by the other runners. Almost too easy. The team dashed across to the lift and Fenix bypassed the executive override system. Book thought of a gap in the security and astrally projected through the lift out into the apartment. He found the orachalchum book. And there was some kind of spirit actually reading the astral form of the book. The mage returned to his body and warned the team what was up there.
The lift came and they all headed up. They spread out in the plush apartment of Dominic Cross. The book was left open on a table. Switching his perception from the mundane and astral planes Book could see the spirit regarding them and almost encouraging them to take the orachachum artefact. Slab found Dominic Cross in one of his offices, his eyes black pits, he was coughing up blood. Slab killed him there and then.
Book was worried with how keen the malevolent spirit was with them taking the book and he sought advice from contacts, and the rest of the team, take the book, destroy the book, leave it here. In the end the mage took charge, took responsibility for the magical artefact and they left…
And this is where Mal ended the story. The Juggler then took over explaining what happened since. The mage had taken the book, and over the course of about a month had lost contact with his friends, and now was missing. The Juggler had received advice that implied that this book was key to dispelling this Shedim, and now wanted the runners in to help.
Knowing that the Juggler knew a bit about CATCo, Ash asked if he knew about the Dreamseed project, about Perfect Shooter, and about his brother, Blake, who was missing again and probably in the clutches of whichever guise Cross Applied was working under. The Juggler knew nothing new.
Six wanted to see the colour of the green, and when they were offered 50k they were set to leave. The Juggler came in with one last offer. 50k to cover the expenses of finding his friend, and the book that could deal a death blow to Alisom, and in return The Juggler would pull his resources to help find Blake…
Ash was set to refuse the job on account of being fragged with too many times over this. Yet something in the Jugglers voice made him really believe that he could help. Six was there and would back up Ash no matter what. Glyph and Ki-Rin were also ready to back up their team.
The runners and the Juggler traded information for many hours, they learned that the Notable Anarchists was a front used by the Juggler to strike out at incursions by a type of spirit called a horror. Alisom was just one Shedim trying to pervert one corporation, but there were many more, The Juggler was at the forefront of the battle, trying to stem the tide. the Dragon, Alamais, who also worked against these spirits was financially backing the Notable Anarchists.
The runners then remembered that they had seen Book more recently than the Juggler. He was embroiled in a run that they had trying to solve the deaths in the Castro sector. They had seen him enjoying a party with Dr. Manton Ford, a man they were paid to kill but failed to do after the run went sour. They also trailed the mage, Book, to Las Vegas again before the run went wrong.
They had some leads and were going to start with Dr. Manton Ford…
Wednesday 25th October 2070
The runners were contacted by their St. Doc contact, Mal. He seemed a bit odd on the phone and when the runners headed to meet him at 11pm as instructed they were cautious. He met them in his surgery at the back of the Gym and sat them down in his office. He then asked the runners if they remembered when they had first met, and they recalled that they were trying to track down The Juggler. He then began to tell them a story of a run against Cross Applied Technologies that happened over six months ago.
Friday 3rd March 2070
The gang sat in the back room of Clive’s Dive for 20 minutes. The Juggler was always late. There was the dark skinned, bespectacled mage, Book. The street doctor, Mal. The troll bruiser Slab, the face of the party, O’Bannon. And the covert ops specialist, Fenix.
The Juggler turned up and like always carried on as if he wasn’t late. He had another hit against Cross Applied technologies. He had been tipped off that Dominic Cross had recently acquired a small book, the pages made from orachalchum. His little bird also had suggested that this book had something to do with summoning a spirit called a Shedim, and the Juggler thought it best that they recovered this book before Dominc got himself into trouble with things he shouldn’t.
O’Bannon had a contact on the inside of Cross Applied technologies, a security guard who would be prepared to open the doors and things. The team began to put together a plan.
The team were going to go into Cross HQ late into the evening disguised as cleaners. They would make their way up to the 15th Floor where they suspected the book to be. Book would confirm the location of the book by assaying the area astrally before they set off. The team split up to get hold of the various bits and pieces, ammo, overalls and cleaning equipment, a battered van and signage to imply a contract cleaning company. O’Bannon let his contact know that they wanted the underground car park un-attended, and also asked for passes for the five of them. His CATco Security guard contact obliged.
The Juggler made his way into Mal’s surgery to the surprise of the runners. Six was especially perturbed as last time out The Juggler was the enemy. But he came with coffee as a gesture of goodwill, and the story Mal was telling was making for interesting listening, the enemy of my enemy and all that. The juggler just encouraged Mal to carry on to the good bit.
The team went in. Book was able to confirm that the book was clearly visible from the astral plane even though the 15th floor was isolated from the astral plane by a bacteria shield that had been embedded into the walls, floor, roof and glazing.
The team snuck in, and the security guards waved them past without really studying their ID’s. Inside the team were again waved past by the security guards who were quite blasé, although after they had made their way to the lifts, they did notice that the guards were making a quick phone call to someone. It was enough to make O’Bannon nervous and he contacted his security guy, who told him that all was fine.
The team made their way to the 8th floor where they had to change lifts, and were briefly accosted by an indignant cleaning lady who was having her floor invaded by outside contract cleaners. (When she buzzed down to security she was told that they were going to be got rid of shortly). Fenix was sure that they were being flanked by some security and went into a door that had just clicked shut, backed up by Slab. Going in there was a stressed out young exec who was working late. He didn’t like being disturbed and decided to run the ID he had demanded off the cleaners through the database so that he could file a complaint. Slab made out that he was getting the bin, before inverting it and jamming it onto the head of the suit. Fenix lifted the bin off the stunned exec, and then smacked him out cold with a decorative glass paperweight.
The team continued up. This time using the emergency stairs. Rather than the lifts. They made it up to the 14th floor, the last floor they could get up to before changing lifts one last time to get to Dominic Cross’s executive apartments on the 15th. Book too a quick peak through the wall in the astral plane and saw that there were guards out there, and also a watcher spirit. He warned the others who burst from the stairwell, guns blazing.
The fire fight was short lived, Book took on a watcher spirit in astral combat and dismissed it with flagrant ease, and the rest of security were dropped without too much of a problem by the other runners. Almost too easy. The team dashed across to the lift and Fenix bypassed the executive override system. Book thought of a gap in the security and astrally projected through the lift out into the apartment. He found the orachalchum book. And there was some kind of spirit actually reading the astral form of the book. The mage returned to his body and warned the team what was up there.
The lift came and they all headed up. They spread out in the plush apartment of Dominic Cross. The book was left open on a table. Switching his perception from the mundane and astral planes Book could see the spirit regarding them and almost encouraging them to take the orachachum artefact. Slab found Dominic Cross in one of his offices, his eyes black pits, he was coughing up blood. Slab killed him there and then.
Book was worried with how keen the malevolent spirit was with them taking the book and he sought advice from contacts, and the rest of the team, take the book, destroy the book, leave it here. In the end the mage took charge, took responsibility for the magical artefact and they left…
And this is where Mal ended the story. The Juggler then took over explaining what happened since. The mage had taken the book, and over the course of about a month had lost contact with his friends, and now was missing. The Juggler had received advice that implied that this book was key to dispelling this Shedim, and now wanted the runners in to help.
Knowing that the Juggler knew a bit about CATCo, Ash asked if he knew about the Dreamseed project, about Perfect Shooter, and about his brother, Blake, who was missing again and probably in the clutches of whichever guise Cross Applied was working under. The Juggler knew nothing new.
Six wanted to see the colour of the green, and when they were offered 50k they were set to leave. The Juggler came in with one last offer. 50k to cover the expenses of finding his friend, and the book that could deal a death blow to Alisom, and in return The Juggler would pull his resources to help find Blake…
Ash was set to refuse the job on account of being fragged with too many times over this. Yet something in the Jugglers voice made him really believe that he could help. Six was there and would back up Ash no matter what. Glyph and Ki-Rin were also ready to back up their team.
The runners and the Juggler traded information for many hours, they learned that the Notable Anarchists was a front used by the Juggler to strike out at incursions by a type of spirit called a horror. Alisom was just one Shedim trying to pervert one corporation, but there were many more, The Juggler was at the forefront of the battle, trying to stem the tide. the Dragon, Alamais, who also worked against these spirits was financially backing the Notable Anarchists.
The runners then remembered that they had seen Book more recently than the Juggler. He was embroiled in a run that they had trying to solve the deaths in the Castro sector. They had seen him enjoying a party with Dr. Manton Ford, a man they were paid to kill but failed to do after the run went sour. They also trailed the mage, Book, to Las Vegas again before the run went wrong.
They had some leads and were going to start with Dr. Manton Ford…
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The (un)-sinking of the Nova
Six, Glyph, Ash.
The runners had returned from a successful run in the Nevada toxic zone. They had to spend some time to disinfecting themselves and their kit but the Naga bite that Ash had suffered became infected, for two days he suffered a raging fever which filled his nights with nightmares. By Monday though he had snapped out of it and was better than ever.
Monday 16th October 2070
Snow contacts the team and tells them that he has a Mr. Johnson from Mitsuhama who wishes for a team of shadowrunners to field test a new bit of kit that his company are looking to bring to market in the first quarter of ’71. The runners agreed to meet up but Six was concerned that they had messed with Mitsuhama a run or two ago and chose to go in a nanopaste disguise.
The Johnson was not only from Mitsuhama, but was also the executive that had been on the receiving end of the cat prank but he didn’t seem to make the connection to the runners in front of him.
The device was called Shugotenshi, or as it was to be marketed in the west as the Guardian Angel. It is a medkit device which hooked up to the bio-monitors and when the users life was threatened it would automatically fire life saving nanites into the blood stream. Mr. Johnson openly admitted that the final prototype device that they would be testing for about a month would have monitoring systems for Mitsuhama to assay the systems workings but assured the runners that they knew their client base and wouldn’t do anything to compromise their anonymity. The pay was 10k up front, and a further 10k if the device was used successfully or not, there was a payout to next of kin should the worst happen also. Six called a private meeting and argued that it wasn’t for him and warned the others that this was bad. Glyph and Ash however were not swayed by his decision and opted to take and use the device.
Tuesday 17th October 2070
Daisy had arranged a meeting and Ash had met up with a construction company to quote him for the building of his house in the desert, and after a good meeting where Ash aired his needs for the site, he was approached from yonder, by a distinct and unpleasant troll. There was an air of disease and corruption about him. The troll didn't introduce himself but he knew Ash's name and also knew that Ash’s brother was missing. The troll then professed that Blake was going to be killed but would be prepared to tell Ash where he was, for a favour. There was a ship called the Nova bound for San Francisco and the troll wanted it sunk before it arrived. With that the troll departed, walking back off into the desert.
Ash’s mind raced, and the first thing he did was get Daisy onto the matrix to find out about the Nova. The info she came back with wasn’t good. The Nova was a bulk goods ship which was escorted by a mercenary frigate, Greenpeace were haranguing the ship because of it’s cargo. Cyanogen Chloride V, a lethal toxin destined for the UCAS Naval port in San Francisco.
Ash wasn’t going to be fragged with by some ugly pig faced troll and drove across the desert towards the retreating form. Ash demanded that he give him some proof that he knew about Blake’s whereabouts. The troll was dismissive, if Ash didn’t believe him it was his problem. Ash’s temper flared and drew a gun on the shaman.
The fight was short. The shaman had a bound toxic sludge spirit that tossed the pickup truck Ash was in as though it was a toy. Ash woke in the desert sun a few hours later, covered in a foul smelling substance, the van a battered mess. Ash tried to find this toxic shaman again but couldn’t.
He sought the help of his friends, Six and Glyph. They debated long and hard about the pro’s and the con’s of doing the work of this toxic, they contemplated how they would go about the mission and the consequences that their actions would have on the environment as well as the corporations that it would affect. They knew that it would be folly to even attempt this mission and vowed to try and find this troll and get the answers they need from him by other means. Ash sometimes wished that he didn’t have family that he had to look after.
The runners had returned from a successful run in the Nevada toxic zone. They had to spend some time to disinfecting themselves and their kit but the Naga bite that Ash had suffered became infected, for two days he suffered a raging fever which filled his nights with nightmares. By Monday though he had snapped out of it and was better than ever.
Monday 16th October 2070
Snow contacts the team and tells them that he has a Mr. Johnson from Mitsuhama who wishes for a team of shadowrunners to field test a new bit of kit that his company are looking to bring to market in the first quarter of ’71. The runners agreed to meet up but Six was concerned that they had messed with Mitsuhama a run or two ago and chose to go in a nanopaste disguise.
The Johnson was not only from Mitsuhama, but was also the executive that had been on the receiving end of the cat prank but he didn’t seem to make the connection to the runners in front of him.
The device was called Shugotenshi, or as it was to be marketed in the west as the Guardian Angel. It is a medkit device which hooked up to the bio-monitors and when the users life was threatened it would automatically fire life saving nanites into the blood stream. Mr. Johnson openly admitted that the final prototype device that they would be testing for about a month would have monitoring systems for Mitsuhama to assay the systems workings but assured the runners that they knew their client base and wouldn’t do anything to compromise their anonymity. The pay was 10k up front, and a further 10k if the device was used successfully or not, there was a payout to next of kin should the worst happen also. Six called a private meeting and argued that it wasn’t for him and warned the others that this was bad. Glyph and Ash however were not swayed by his decision and opted to take and use the device.
Tuesday 17th October 2070
Daisy had arranged a meeting and Ash had met up with a construction company to quote him for the building of his house in the desert, and after a good meeting where Ash aired his needs for the site, he was approached from yonder, by a distinct and unpleasant troll. There was an air of disease and corruption about him. The troll didn't introduce himself but he knew Ash's name and also knew that Ash’s brother was missing. The troll then professed that Blake was going to be killed but would be prepared to tell Ash where he was, for a favour. There was a ship called the Nova bound for San Francisco and the troll wanted it sunk before it arrived. With that the troll departed, walking back off into the desert.
Ash’s mind raced, and the first thing he did was get Daisy onto the matrix to find out about the Nova. The info she came back with wasn’t good. The Nova was a bulk goods ship which was escorted by a mercenary frigate, Greenpeace were haranguing the ship because of it’s cargo. Cyanogen Chloride V, a lethal toxin destined for the UCAS Naval port in San Francisco.
Ash wasn’t going to be fragged with by some ugly pig faced troll and drove across the desert towards the retreating form. Ash demanded that he give him some proof that he knew about Blake’s whereabouts. The troll was dismissive, if Ash didn’t believe him it was his problem. Ash’s temper flared and drew a gun on the shaman.
The fight was short. The shaman had a bound toxic sludge spirit that tossed the pickup truck Ash was in as though it was a toy. Ash woke in the desert sun a few hours later, covered in a foul smelling substance, the van a battered mess. Ash tried to find this toxic shaman again but couldn’t.
He sought the help of his friends, Six and Glyph. They debated long and hard about the pro’s and the con’s of doing the work of this toxic, they contemplated how they would go about the mission and the consequences that their actions would have on the environment as well as the corporations that it would affect. They knew that it would be folly to even attempt this mission and vowed to try and find this troll and get the answers they need from him by other means. Ash sometimes wished that he didn’t have family that he had to look after.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Project Buttercup
Six, Glyph, Ash, Ki-Rin.
Friday 13th October 2070
The runners were contacted by their fixer, Snow, he was quite keen to pass on the latest job that had come to him, this one from Saeder Krupp, and they asked for this team specifically. Snow game the team a word of warning about SK’s intolerance of failure and then passed them the job.
Contacting the Mr. Johnson they met up with him in a swank five star hotel where a boardroom had been booked for the meet. The Johnson, told them the details of the run.
70 years ago the then government of the united states instigated a black project called Buttercup. A genetic research program aimed at integrating genetic code into the human genome via viral carriers to make the population resistant to biological terrorist attacks. This project disappeared off the radar during the crash of ’29. The government forgot about it, and for whatever reason the scientists working the project didn’t start screaming out when the funding from central government stopped.
Following the 70 year rule, the CIA released documents purporting to the Buttercup project into the public domain. Saeder Krupp were keen to see if any evidence of this project still existed and were prepared to speculate 200k on the off chance that it did and that they could make use of some of the findings.
This is where the team came in.
The only evidence that the runners had that this project existed was the CIA document. But this did mention the names of the doctors who would head up the project. Ki-Rin hit the matrix and found the doctors details. Both dead. One died during the Eurowars in Belgium the other was killed during the crash of ’29. One of the doctors, William Schaefer, had a wife who was living in a retirement home in San Francisco.
The runners also looked into medical facilities around the city that could accommodate the Buttercup project because the report that they were given suggested that it may use an existing facility in San Fran. They had three set aside and would follow those leads if everything else dried up.
Heading to the retirement home the runners quickly discovered that a pair of company men was a few hours ahead of them, having already visited William Schaefer’s wife. Ki-Rin got their images up on camera, while Glyph and Ash asked the old lady a few questions. She didn’t remember much, and as her husband had worked for the government, she didn’t know very much either, but she did point the runners in the directions of one of Schaefer’s undergraduates who worked with him not long before he had died.
Ki-Rin isolated the sound feed from the surveillance cameras and determined that the company men already knew about the undergraduate.
The runners were already on the move heading out of San Francisco to get out to the undergraduates house in Sacramento CA.
Screaming into the residential area, the runners spotted the Company men’s car parked on the drive of the ex-undergraduate, a rotor drone hovered in the air above the cul-de-sac and then they saw the muzzle flash from an upstairs window. Six dropped a flash bang grenade and then a smoke grenade into the window of the house, while the rest of the team surged out of the cars to storm the building Ash and Glyph went in through the front, Ki-Rin surged round the side and to the rear of the house.
Ki-Rin marked two targets, one began to flee and as soon as he was painted up on the smartlink Six headed off in the car to head him off at the pass, the other stopped and began shooting at Ki-RIn. Between Ash and Ki-Rin the first company man was dropped, the second had got away over the fence but Ki-Rin charged through the fence and trapped him into fighting.
Ash and Glyph headed upstairs and found the ex-undergraduate bleeding, Glyph used her medkit to save his life, while Ash helped out Ki-Rin finish the fight with the company man by shooting him from one of the upstairs windows with a harpoon.
The ex-undergraduate was alive and told the runners that the other men begun to ask him about his life working for William Schaefer. He told them that they had worked together ion a place called Duckwater until the crash of 2029. The power was cut off and the people they were experimented on tried to escape. A fire started and all but him were killed. There were bigger things going on in the world, and the death of a few scientists in a secretive and forgotten science project didn’t register and the whole incident was forgotten.
Duckwater was a town in the Nevada Desert. It was until the nuclear power plant at Ruth blew creating a toxic zone across a large portion of the desert and had to be evacuated, surrendering the town to the corrupting elements.
The runners weren’t keen to head into the toxic zone but guessed that this was the best lead they had at the moment, so the team headed back to see their fixer to source chemical seals for their armour more ammo, and a bit of advice.
Five house later the runners were en-route in the helicopter, Six had remote rigged his drone van out into the toxic zone already to give them some obs. on the ground, the road was rough and Six knew that the thin polluted air would make the flight a taxing journey.
The runners flew into the toxic zone, the governmental health warnings displayed on the runners AR giving them one last warning to the dangers beyond. The polluted air quickly began to tell on the helicopter engine, surging and choking, Six did his best to manage the engine, but the buffeting was too much for Ki-Rin who was getting air sick.
The runners were 20 minutes into the flight when they were joined in the air by something. Looking like a large skeletal carrion bird with tattered leathery wings and completely lacking flesh it assayed the runners helicopter for a moment before diving into the engine ducts, using its powers to starve the engine of oxygen to bring the helicopter down. Six fought to handle the now heavy controls to bring the helicopter into a controlled landing.
Landing heavily the runners spilled out of the helicopter to attack the spirit that was attacking them.
Spirits barely notice mundane weaponry but the sheer volume of fire that the runners put into the corporeal form of the Harbinger made it think twice about being manifest, and it fled to the astral plane.
The runners were able to get the helicopter airborne again and flew the rest of the distance to the ruined town of Duckwater. A quick flyover the runners saw that the town consisted of approximately 100 buildings, most of which seemed to be residential but one building Six picked out was larger and completely demolished. They all agreed that this building was worth a closer look. The runners also saw movement on the ground, ghouls were eaking out a living amongst the spoiled remains of the land, and they were steering clear of the large demolished building.
The runners landed near the van and swapped vehicles. They headed back into town on the ground and although regarded by the ghouls, threats from Ki-Rin seemed to keep them at bay.
The runners headed across to the building and began to pick their way amongst the rubble. Six stayed in the van, rolling out a Steel Lynx in his stead. Around them, they saw flickers of movement, the heard noises, they heard a child’s voice plead a single word “Please”.
The runners didn’t know what was going on, but they headed to the source of the voice, the centre of the ruined building. Ash was picking his way through the rubble jumping at shadows.
The rest of the team found a short strip of concrete steps which led down to a fire door. The acid rain was pooling at the foot of the stairs and the bottom of the door was mostly rotted away. Ki-Rin kicked the door down and Six (the Steel Lynx) Ki-Rin and Glyph made their way though into a short corridor, Ash was convinced that they were going to get ambushed from the rear and remained on guard near the steps.
There were Six doors off the corridor and the runners quickly checked the rooms. They found some kind of nest with discarded bones that the runners assumed were that of Ghouls. The sixth room they found computers, files and data tapes, a lot of them were rotting away in the acidic atmosphere.
Glyph was the first into the room and she heard the pleading voice again behind her. A large Naga rose up behind her using it’s mimicry to lure its food to it’s nest. It lashed out, and the rest of the nest came out of the walls and through the vents to kill. The nest of Naga has become lazy and complacent, more used to hunting sluggish Ghouls rather than wired shadowrunners and they were all slain quickly. Ash received a bite though and the toxic tainted Naga pumped venom into his system before being taken down by the Steel Lynx’s gun.
The runners were keen to get out of the toxic zone and quickly bundled up the files, computers and hard copies into the back of Six’s van, and they left. The drive out of the toxic zone was a long and arduous one, but it passed off uneventfully, and the runners headed back to San Francisco once they had spent a bit of time in a jet wash.
Ash headed off to see Mal who treated the Naga venom, (although he had to cross his fingers that the linctus he gave his patient would combat the toxic corruption too) They were going to make an impression on the Mr. Johnson from Saeder Krupp, and while Ash sought medical help, the rest of the team stayed up through the night sorting filing and cataloguing the information. The runners met up with Mr. J. the next day and he was happy to pay the runners, confident that the Saeder Krupp reputation for dealing with defaulting Shadowrunners would ensure he got what he wanted.
The runners left happy. Saeder Krupp got what they wanted and the Mr. Johnson was equally happy. Maybe the runners had found a corporation they could work for?
Friday 13th October 2070
The runners were contacted by their fixer, Snow, he was quite keen to pass on the latest job that had come to him, this one from Saeder Krupp, and they asked for this team specifically. Snow game the team a word of warning about SK’s intolerance of failure and then passed them the job.
Contacting the Mr. Johnson they met up with him in a swank five star hotel where a boardroom had been booked for the meet. The Johnson, told them the details of the run.
70 years ago the then government of the united states instigated a black project called Buttercup. A genetic research program aimed at integrating genetic code into the human genome via viral carriers to make the population resistant to biological terrorist attacks. This project disappeared off the radar during the crash of ’29. The government forgot about it, and for whatever reason the scientists working the project didn’t start screaming out when the funding from central government stopped.
Following the 70 year rule, the CIA released documents purporting to the Buttercup project into the public domain. Saeder Krupp were keen to see if any evidence of this project still existed and were prepared to speculate 200k on the off chance that it did and that they could make use of some of the findings.
This is where the team came in.
The only evidence that the runners had that this project existed was the CIA document. But this did mention the names of the doctors who would head up the project. Ki-Rin hit the matrix and found the doctors details. Both dead. One died during the Eurowars in Belgium the other was killed during the crash of ’29. One of the doctors, William Schaefer, had a wife who was living in a retirement home in San Francisco.
The runners also looked into medical facilities around the city that could accommodate the Buttercup project because the report that they were given suggested that it may use an existing facility in San Fran. They had three set aside and would follow those leads if everything else dried up.
Heading to the retirement home the runners quickly discovered that a pair of company men was a few hours ahead of them, having already visited William Schaefer’s wife. Ki-Rin got their images up on camera, while Glyph and Ash asked the old lady a few questions. She didn’t remember much, and as her husband had worked for the government, she didn’t know very much either, but she did point the runners in the directions of one of Schaefer’s undergraduates who worked with him not long before he had died.
Ki-Rin isolated the sound feed from the surveillance cameras and determined that the company men already knew about the undergraduate.
The runners were already on the move heading out of San Francisco to get out to the undergraduates house in Sacramento CA.
Screaming into the residential area, the runners spotted the Company men’s car parked on the drive of the ex-undergraduate, a rotor drone hovered in the air above the cul-de-sac and then they saw the muzzle flash from an upstairs window. Six dropped a flash bang grenade and then a smoke grenade into the window of the house, while the rest of the team surged out of the cars to storm the building Ash and Glyph went in through the front, Ki-Rin surged round the side and to the rear of the house.
Ki-Rin marked two targets, one began to flee and as soon as he was painted up on the smartlink Six headed off in the car to head him off at the pass, the other stopped and began shooting at Ki-RIn. Between Ash and Ki-Rin the first company man was dropped, the second had got away over the fence but Ki-Rin charged through the fence and trapped him into fighting.
Ash and Glyph headed upstairs and found the ex-undergraduate bleeding, Glyph used her medkit to save his life, while Ash helped out Ki-Rin finish the fight with the company man by shooting him from one of the upstairs windows with a harpoon.
The ex-undergraduate was alive and told the runners that the other men begun to ask him about his life working for William Schaefer. He told them that they had worked together ion a place called Duckwater until the crash of 2029. The power was cut off and the people they were experimented on tried to escape. A fire started and all but him were killed. There were bigger things going on in the world, and the death of a few scientists in a secretive and forgotten science project didn’t register and the whole incident was forgotten.
Duckwater was a town in the Nevada Desert. It was until the nuclear power plant at Ruth blew creating a toxic zone across a large portion of the desert and had to be evacuated, surrendering the town to the corrupting elements.
The runners weren’t keen to head into the toxic zone but guessed that this was the best lead they had at the moment, so the team headed back to see their fixer to source chemical seals for their armour more ammo, and a bit of advice.
Five house later the runners were en-route in the helicopter, Six had remote rigged his drone van out into the toxic zone already to give them some obs. on the ground, the road was rough and Six knew that the thin polluted air would make the flight a taxing journey.
The runners flew into the toxic zone, the governmental health warnings displayed on the runners AR giving them one last warning to the dangers beyond. The polluted air quickly began to tell on the helicopter engine, surging and choking, Six did his best to manage the engine, but the buffeting was too much for Ki-Rin who was getting air sick.
The runners were 20 minutes into the flight when they were joined in the air by something. Looking like a large skeletal carrion bird with tattered leathery wings and completely lacking flesh it assayed the runners helicopter for a moment before diving into the engine ducts, using its powers to starve the engine of oxygen to bring the helicopter down. Six fought to handle the now heavy controls to bring the helicopter into a controlled landing.
Landing heavily the runners spilled out of the helicopter to attack the spirit that was attacking them.
Spirits barely notice mundane weaponry but the sheer volume of fire that the runners put into the corporeal form of the Harbinger made it think twice about being manifest, and it fled to the astral plane.
The runners were able to get the helicopter airborne again and flew the rest of the distance to the ruined town of Duckwater. A quick flyover the runners saw that the town consisted of approximately 100 buildings, most of which seemed to be residential but one building Six picked out was larger and completely demolished. They all agreed that this building was worth a closer look. The runners also saw movement on the ground, ghouls were eaking out a living amongst the spoiled remains of the land, and they were steering clear of the large demolished building.
The runners landed near the van and swapped vehicles. They headed back into town on the ground and although regarded by the ghouls, threats from Ki-Rin seemed to keep them at bay.
The runners headed across to the building and began to pick their way amongst the rubble. Six stayed in the van, rolling out a Steel Lynx in his stead. Around them, they saw flickers of movement, the heard noises, they heard a child’s voice plead a single word “Please”.
The runners didn’t know what was going on, but they headed to the source of the voice, the centre of the ruined building. Ash was picking his way through the rubble jumping at shadows.
The rest of the team found a short strip of concrete steps which led down to a fire door. The acid rain was pooling at the foot of the stairs and the bottom of the door was mostly rotted away. Ki-Rin kicked the door down and Six (the Steel Lynx) Ki-Rin and Glyph made their way though into a short corridor, Ash was convinced that they were going to get ambushed from the rear and remained on guard near the steps.
There were Six doors off the corridor and the runners quickly checked the rooms. They found some kind of nest with discarded bones that the runners assumed were that of Ghouls. The sixth room they found computers, files and data tapes, a lot of them were rotting away in the acidic atmosphere.
Glyph was the first into the room and she heard the pleading voice again behind her. A large Naga rose up behind her using it’s mimicry to lure its food to it’s nest. It lashed out, and the rest of the nest came out of the walls and through the vents to kill. The nest of Naga has become lazy and complacent, more used to hunting sluggish Ghouls rather than wired shadowrunners and they were all slain quickly. Ash received a bite though and the toxic tainted Naga pumped venom into his system before being taken down by the Steel Lynx’s gun.
The runners were keen to get out of the toxic zone and quickly bundled up the files, computers and hard copies into the back of Six’s van, and they left. The drive out of the toxic zone was a long and arduous one, but it passed off uneventfully, and the runners headed back to San Francisco once they had spent a bit of time in a jet wash.
Ash headed off to see Mal who treated the Naga venom, (although he had to cross his fingers that the linctus he gave his patient would combat the toxic corruption too) They were going to make an impression on the Mr. Johnson from Saeder Krupp, and while Ash sought medical help, the rest of the team stayed up through the night sorting filing and cataloguing the information. The runners met up with Mr. J. the next day and he was happy to pay the runners, confident that the Saeder Krupp reputation for dealing with defaulting Shadowrunners would ensure he got what he wanted.
The runners left happy. Saeder Krupp got what they wanted and the Mr. Johnson was equally happy. Maybe the runners had found a corporation they could work for?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Urban Scavenger Hunt
Six, Glyph
The runners had spent a bit more down time finishing off projects, and getting more cyberware installed. Ki-Rin was having some problems with his bone lacing, sections of the dikote sheath had failed and his body was presently trying to reject his elbows and knees, Mal got him back into surgery to fix the problem.
Glyph had also spent some time at Mal’s getting some more headware squeezed into her skull. Ash, had not been heard of for a couple of weeks and the suspicion was that he was hanging out with his new magical friends.
Wednesday 27th September 2070
Six got a cryptic message on his Comlink from a man calling himself Milan. He had a job and the runners had to meet him at The Cat Club at 7pm sharp. Six put the call out but only Glyph was available, with a quarter of a million nuyen being touted for this job the small team would have to do.
Heading round to the Cat Club the runners realised that it wasn’t open for usual business. Rather than the street lined with taxi’s and clubbers cars, there were four pimped motorbikes, and a modified Citymaster parked outside. To the experienced eye of Six, he guessed that these were the vehicles of shadowrunners.
Heading inside they found two separate teams of shadowrunners. Both were also here to take the high paying job. They introduced themselves and it was cordial enough. The man who had called them all here arrived quarter of an hour late, and he let the runners know that only one team would be taking home the money. To get the payout they would have to compete against each other and the clock in a game of Urban Scavenger Hunt. He was going to com them a list of items, and the team back at 11pm with the most items checked off would win the money. Everyone was game.
He went round the teams, asking their team name and taking a comlink number to contact them on.
Gecko were first to pipe up, they were the team with the citymaster.
Gecko are an experienced team who have been running for about 3 years, made up of three individuals they have an elven mage (Kiss) , a human face / rigger (Bates), and a human Merc type (Tex)
Banshee were next to offer their comlink number and team name.
Banshee are a young team from Vegas. They are exclusively humans, and are all hooked up to their bikes. There is a hacker (Crimson) and two gun bunnies (Easter, Freshman) in the team and the mage (Lucid).
Six and Glyph were panicked, they didn’t have a name and when Milan pointed at the pair and asked if they were in Six just said that they didn’t have a name. Glyph quickly piped up that they were team Brutal Deluxe, and they handed over their comlink number to be contacted on.
Each team received the list and quickly skimmed through the host of bizarre items before heading out to their vehicles. Six and Glyph followed last contemplating taking out both of the other teams to ensure that they won, they wisely chose not to take on two experienced teams of runners.
[It was at about this moment that I checked my watch and Nick realised that this game was going to be timed in real time. 11pm my time, was 11pm San Francisco 2070 time]
The Urban Scavenger Hunt List
1. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. 2 points.
2. Grid guide traffic camera. 1 point.
3. A gangers jacket. 1 point.
4. Live devil rat. 1 point.
5. Photograph of the team at the top of a support of Golden Gate. 2 points.
6. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. 5 points
7. The first base from the Giants stadium. 5 points.
8. Get a photograph of you having a drink in the Troll exclusive bar Hatchets. 1 point.
9. A tribal shamans Medicine Stick. Bonus points for how powerful it is. 1 point +
10. Steal one of the mayors monogrammed bathrobes. 2 points.
11. The entire door from a civic building. 1 point.
12. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. 1 point Bonus point if you can prove the shell was fired at you.
13. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. 2 points Bonus points if it an A corporation.
14. Lone Star shoulder patch. 1 point. Additional points if it has a rank
15. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. 1 point.
16. A car that predates Gridguide. 2 point.
17. Video feed of being cuffed and escorted away by Lone Star. 2 points.
18. Lone Star footage of you speeding along Golden Gate Bridge. 1 point.
19. Severed Yakuza finger. 2 points.
20. Footage of you jumping from the golden gate bridge. 1 point.
They studied the list quickly and Six remote rigged his Dodge car to him, if they were going to do this they needed a bit more speed than the Step van offered. Once swapped over they sped to the San Fran Giants stadium. Six and Glyph were mentally working on which corporations lettering would make for something obscene.
En route to the Giants Stadium the runners spotted one of the thousands of grid guide cameras looking down to the road below from the bride they were on. Six Stamped on the brakes and skidded onto the footpath, Glyph leaped out with the miniwelder and chopped the thing off, chucked it into the rear of the car and one point was in the bag.
Screeching to a halt outside the Giants stadium they found that the team were having a training session. Six headed over to the window and attracted the attention of a cleaner in the merchandise booth. He spun her a line about how he was doing a charity treasure hunt and wanted to know if he could have the Giants first base for Unicef. The cleaner went off to ask someone if they could.
Six remote rigged Glyphs car to them and they split up, Glyph was off for some cats.
Then while Six waited he remote rigged his Jeep to the airfield and contacted his flying instructor and asked to buy 50 gallons of aviation fuel. And once paid he pursueded Jerry to load the two barrels into the back of the Jeep. Jerry was more than happy to help. 20:40 the Jeep rolls into the airfield remote controlled. Jerry loaded the fuel into the rear and the Jeep groaned under the weight.
Six then contacted his dad. As an old car nut he was sure to be able to source a pre-gridguide car. Papa was interested in his sons new project of restoring old cars, but didn’t know any off hand. He said he would call back. Dad actually liked the idea of this new vintage car project that Six was about to take up but his son is always so keen to just take on any project and finding a good vintage car took time and couldn’t be rushed. No point in looking till the morning, so he carried on watching the trid.
Six then got onto the phone to Nunzio, a mafia man he would be able to source a Yak finger. Nunzio told Six that a Yakuza man wouldn’t just let his finger be hacked off and it would be easier to whack him. The Mafia were more than happy with wet-work but Six would have to pay the rate for it. Six paid. At about 10:30 the severed finger gets dropped into a remote rigged Jeep which is heaving under the weight of 50 gallons of aviation fuel in the rear.
Six got onto the phone to Snow. He asked to borrow a Panther Assault Cannon for a couple of test shots. Snow agreed to hire it to him, and then as Six tried to tap him up for some more of the bizarre items on the list, Snow guessed what was going on. Snow knows Milan, a fixer with flair. Milan’s thing is to find good shadowrunners in cities around the world, he then sells the shadowrunners contact numbers to corporations who are looking for good runners. Milan finds these cash cows with high paying Urban Scavenger Hunts, the money fronted by his backing corporations.
Six’s conversation was interrupted as the 1st pitcher of the San Fran Giants, Rickie Diamond opened the side door and asked which charity Six was collecting for. Unicef is a wonderful charity and when Six used its name he was lead through and out onto the pitch. A lifelong Giants fan, Six’s jaw dropped slack. Not only was he stood on the pitch that he had worshiped from the stands, he was surrounded by the first team, the second team and the reserves who were all having a mid week training session.
The next twenty minutes was a roller coaster. Press photos of Vincent Caznotti being handed the first base was just the start. The team manager came out after hearing what Vincent was doing for charity declared that the San Francisco Giants would also make a pledge and handed Six a cheque for a hundred thousand nuyen. Six’s head was swimming and he quickly called Unicef San Fran to get one of their men down to take the cheque. As it was for charity the team manager then thought that the first base would be better signed, and that was whisked away from Six to be signed by every member of the team.
Six contacted Ash’s sister, Daisy. He had panicked, and now tomorrow morning his civilian SINned name along with his shadowrunning face will be splashed all over the media and that could only be bad, he needed Daisy to hit that delete button.
Six made his excuses and was waved away by the San Francisco Giants as the hero of the hour.
Glyph was talking to women in comfortable shoes about cats. She was at the San Francisco Cattery and spun them a yarn about how here cat had been put to sleep when she was a child and now Glyph wanted to make amends by taking in as many poor unfortunate cats who were destined to be euthanized. Glyphs story was so compelling and heart felt, that the cattery owner was prepared to hand over 20 evil, mangey furred, flea bitten, hissing, spitting cats to be cared for by Glyph. Upon hearing about this Six convinced his girlfriend to drive the beaten up transit van to meet up with Glyph to collect these cats. Six had to promise a holiday to Paris in return.
Six, in the Dodge with a grid guide camera and a signed Giants first base headed to Snows to meet up with Glyph who was driving in the transit full of caged cats intent on tearing her to shreds. The runners had a brief chat with Snow, thanking him for the Assault cannon and the climbing gear he had dug out for them. Six asked if Snow could pull some favours with Duncan Croner, the San Fran Police chief, and Snow pointed out that they knew his phone number as well.
Leaving the van of livid cats they headed off to the barrens, the plan was for Glyph to shoot at Six with the assault cannon, so that they could film it and collect the spent casing. They found a strip of run down suburbia and they staged a faux shooting of Six. He was going to run and leap clear and the shell fired by Glyph would just miss him. They were going to film it first person shooter style from Glyphs perspective.
It took three attempts to get the footage just right, Six jumped too early, Glyph fired too late, and it looked phoney but the third one was the charm. Collecting up the spent casing they sped away.
The phone call to Duncan Croner came up with some more good news. They had to pay, but he would be able to get them a set of Lone Star wheels and a shoulder patch, they would have to pay, and Six and Glyph now owed the Police chief again. They would have to collect the wheels a bit later.
Back to Snows to drop off the Panther AC and to pick up the van load of felines vehicles were remote rigged all over. The helicopter that they had liberated a few weeks ago was controlled into San Fran airspace, the Step van was brought back online, and Six drove the cat van to a water works. The helicopter was landed nearby and cats were loaded into the hold. The rappelling gear was lobbed into the footwell. Six and Glyph ran back to the water works and nicked the main door with the alarms going off they hot stepped it across to the step van, and threw the heavy door into the back. The step van was remote rigged across to their next target. Mitsuhama.
Six noticed on one of his car feeds that one of his cars had attracted police attentions. They were looking to tow the vehicle away. They guessed that the traffic camera that they nicked had a RFID tag. Six got Bum Fluff to do a high speed drive by the scene to draw away Lone Star so that he could move the car.
10pm and time was getting tight. The helicopter landed briefly on top of the Mitsuhama distribution centre. Not quite the main HQ, but good enough. In the down draft of the rotor blades Six and Glyph hopped out and unloaded 20 cats onto the roof. Once done Six remote rigged the helicopter away. The rope was secured off and Glyph hung over the side of the building she got out the miniwelder and started cutting off and repositioning sign letters.
Lone Star had a hi-ab crane ready to hoike his car away and Six had to move it, he reversed hard and rammed the Lone Star car and then jammed it forward and remote rigged his car away. Bum Fluff was speeding in the opposite direction to draw off Lone Star and narrowly missed Six’s car. Six sent this car to meet up with Snow, who he had arranged to burn the RFID tag out of the camera.
Glyph had attracted the attentions of Mitsuhama security and Six had to drill them with the flip turret gun mounted on the van. And this caused the alarm to go off. Glyph had to work quickly. Cutting off letters and re-welding in a different position.
Six was pleased. u shit Mama was too good to leave alone and Glyph had done well. Now for the cats. Glyph put in one of the windows and they were lucky to come across the CEO’s office. Six verified with the flyspy which he then positioned to film the cats getting pushed in through the window.
ushitMama security reinforcements turned up and began to start shooting at Glyph, while she passed screaming cat after screaming cat into the executive officers office. Six dealt with these also with the HMG on his van and a grenade.
Time was running really tight now, and they called back the chopper and fled the scene. They sped as fast as they could to Lone Star HQ where Duncan Croner had the wheels and the shoulder patch set aside. Six and Glyph headed inside and Six spotted a ganger being booked in. He headed over and asked for his jacket. The haggling was quick, and in the gangers favour, but Six got the leather gang colours Glyph got the wheels and the shoulder patch.
They sped back to the Cat Club and arrived with only a few minutes to spare. The other two teams were already there and were sat with their collections. Six and Glyph brought in their collection.
Banshee were surrounded by their collection Set of 4 lone star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A ganger jacket Photograph at top of golden gate The door from the national library. Lone star sgt. shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Footage of jumping off golden gate (bungee)
Gecko Sat with their Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera Gangers jacket Live devil rat Rearranged corporate letters. AAA corporation Photograph in hatchets.
Seeing their oppositions collections Six and Glyph surveyed their own trophies. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A gangers jacket. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. The first base from the Giants stadium, signed. The entire door from a civic building. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. Lone Star shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Severed Yakuza finger.
Milan joined them a few minutes shy of 11pm and was pleased to see that all three teams were gathered. He quickly totted up the points, and it was clear to see that Brutal Deluxe had won. The money hit the comlink.
A few days later Six and Kitty flew to gay Paris, and were able to confirm that there are a lot less street cameras than in the UCAS.
The runners had spent a bit more down time finishing off projects, and getting more cyberware installed. Ki-Rin was having some problems with his bone lacing, sections of the dikote sheath had failed and his body was presently trying to reject his elbows and knees, Mal got him back into surgery to fix the problem.
Glyph had also spent some time at Mal’s getting some more headware squeezed into her skull. Ash, had not been heard of for a couple of weeks and the suspicion was that he was hanging out with his new magical friends.
Wednesday 27th September 2070
Six got a cryptic message on his Comlink from a man calling himself Milan. He had a job and the runners had to meet him at The Cat Club at 7pm sharp. Six put the call out but only Glyph was available, with a quarter of a million nuyen being touted for this job the small team would have to do.
Heading round to the Cat Club the runners realised that it wasn’t open for usual business. Rather than the street lined with taxi’s and clubbers cars, there were four pimped motorbikes, and a modified Citymaster parked outside. To the experienced eye of Six, he guessed that these were the vehicles of shadowrunners.
Heading inside they found two separate teams of shadowrunners. Both were also here to take the high paying job. They introduced themselves and it was cordial enough. The man who had called them all here arrived quarter of an hour late, and he let the runners know that only one team would be taking home the money. To get the payout they would have to compete against each other and the clock in a game of Urban Scavenger Hunt. He was going to com them a list of items, and the team back at 11pm with the most items checked off would win the money. Everyone was game.
He went round the teams, asking their team name and taking a comlink number to contact them on.
Gecko were first to pipe up, they were the team with the citymaster.
Gecko are an experienced team who have been running for about 3 years, made up of three individuals they have an elven mage (Kiss) , a human face / rigger (Bates), and a human Merc type (Tex)
Banshee were next to offer their comlink number and team name.
Banshee are a young team from Vegas. They are exclusively humans, and are all hooked up to their bikes. There is a hacker (Crimson) and two gun bunnies (Easter, Freshman) in the team and the mage (Lucid).
Six and Glyph were panicked, they didn’t have a name and when Milan pointed at the pair and asked if they were in Six just said that they didn’t have a name. Glyph quickly piped up that they were team Brutal Deluxe, and they handed over their comlink number to be contacted on.
Each team received the list and quickly skimmed through the host of bizarre items before heading out to their vehicles. Six and Glyph followed last contemplating taking out both of the other teams to ensure that they won, they wisely chose not to take on two experienced teams of runners.
[It was at about this moment that I checked my watch and Nick realised that this game was going to be timed in real time. 11pm my time, was 11pm San Francisco 2070 time]
The Urban Scavenger Hunt List
1. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. 2 points.
2. Grid guide traffic camera. 1 point.
3. A gangers jacket. 1 point.
4. Live devil rat. 1 point.
5. Photograph of the team at the top of a support of Golden Gate. 2 points.
6. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. 5 points
7. The first base from the Giants stadium. 5 points.
8. Get a photograph of you having a drink in the Troll exclusive bar Hatchets. 1 point.
9. A tribal shamans Medicine Stick. Bonus points for how powerful it is. 1 point +
10. Steal one of the mayors monogrammed bathrobes. 2 points.
11. The entire door from a civic building. 1 point.
12. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. 1 point Bonus point if you can prove the shell was fired at you.
13. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. 2 points Bonus points if it an A corporation.
14. Lone Star shoulder patch. 1 point. Additional points if it has a rank
15. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. 1 point.
16. A car that predates Gridguide. 2 point.
17. Video feed of being cuffed and escorted away by Lone Star. 2 points.
18. Lone Star footage of you speeding along Golden Gate Bridge. 1 point.
19. Severed Yakuza finger. 2 points.
20. Footage of you jumping from the golden gate bridge. 1 point.
They studied the list quickly and Six remote rigged his Dodge car to him, if they were going to do this they needed a bit more speed than the Step van offered. Once swapped over they sped to the San Fran Giants stadium. Six and Glyph were mentally working on which corporations lettering would make for something obscene.
En route to the Giants Stadium the runners spotted one of the thousands of grid guide cameras looking down to the road below from the bride they were on. Six Stamped on the brakes and skidded onto the footpath, Glyph leaped out with the miniwelder and chopped the thing off, chucked it into the rear of the car and one point was in the bag.
Screeching to a halt outside the Giants stadium they found that the team were having a training session. Six headed over to the window and attracted the attention of a cleaner in the merchandise booth. He spun her a line about how he was doing a charity treasure hunt and wanted to know if he could have the Giants first base for Unicef. The cleaner went off to ask someone if they could.
Six remote rigged Glyphs car to them and they split up, Glyph was off for some cats.
Then while Six waited he remote rigged his Jeep to the airfield and contacted his flying instructor and asked to buy 50 gallons of aviation fuel. And once paid he pursueded Jerry to load the two barrels into the back of the Jeep. Jerry was more than happy to help. 20:40 the Jeep rolls into the airfield remote controlled. Jerry loaded the fuel into the rear and the Jeep groaned under the weight.
Six then contacted his dad. As an old car nut he was sure to be able to source a pre-gridguide car. Papa was interested in his sons new project of restoring old cars, but didn’t know any off hand. He said he would call back. Dad actually liked the idea of this new vintage car project that Six was about to take up but his son is always so keen to just take on any project and finding a good vintage car took time and couldn’t be rushed. No point in looking till the morning, so he carried on watching the trid.
Six then got onto the phone to Nunzio, a mafia man he would be able to source a Yak finger. Nunzio told Six that a Yakuza man wouldn’t just let his finger be hacked off and it would be easier to whack him. The Mafia were more than happy with wet-work but Six would have to pay the rate for it. Six paid. At about 10:30 the severed finger gets dropped into a remote rigged Jeep which is heaving under the weight of 50 gallons of aviation fuel in the rear.
Six got onto the phone to Snow. He asked to borrow a Panther Assault Cannon for a couple of test shots. Snow agreed to hire it to him, and then as Six tried to tap him up for some more of the bizarre items on the list, Snow guessed what was going on. Snow knows Milan, a fixer with flair. Milan’s thing is to find good shadowrunners in cities around the world, he then sells the shadowrunners contact numbers to corporations who are looking for good runners. Milan finds these cash cows with high paying Urban Scavenger Hunts, the money fronted by his backing corporations.
Six’s conversation was interrupted as the 1st pitcher of the San Fran Giants, Rickie Diamond opened the side door and asked which charity Six was collecting for. Unicef is a wonderful charity and when Six used its name he was lead through and out onto the pitch. A lifelong Giants fan, Six’s jaw dropped slack. Not only was he stood on the pitch that he had worshiped from the stands, he was surrounded by the first team, the second team and the reserves who were all having a mid week training session.
The next twenty minutes was a roller coaster. Press photos of Vincent Caznotti being handed the first base was just the start. The team manager came out after hearing what Vincent was doing for charity declared that the San Francisco Giants would also make a pledge and handed Six a cheque for a hundred thousand nuyen. Six’s head was swimming and he quickly called Unicef San Fran to get one of their men down to take the cheque. As it was for charity the team manager then thought that the first base would be better signed, and that was whisked away from Six to be signed by every member of the team.
Six contacted Ash’s sister, Daisy. He had panicked, and now tomorrow morning his civilian SINned name along with his shadowrunning face will be splashed all over the media and that could only be bad, he needed Daisy to hit that delete button.
Six made his excuses and was waved away by the San Francisco Giants as the hero of the hour.
Glyph was talking to women in comfortable shoes about cats. She was at the San Francisco Cattery and spun them a yarn about how here cat had been put to sleep when she was a child and now Glyph wanted to make amends by taking in as many poor unfortunate cats who were destined to be euthanized. Glyphs story was so compelling and heart felt, that the cattery owner was prepared to hand over 20 evil, mangey furred, flea bitten, hissing, spitting cats to be cared for by Glyph. Upon hearing about this Six convinced his girlfriend to drive the beaten up transit van to meet up with Glyph to collect these cats. Six had to promise a holiday to Paris in return.
Six, in the Dodge with a grid guide camera and a signed Giants first base headed to Snows to meet up with Glyph who was driving in the transit full of caged cats intent on tearing her to shreds. The runners had a brief chat with Snow, thanking him for the Assault cannon and the climbing gear he had dug out for them. Six asked if Snow could pull some favours with Duncan Croner, the San Fran Police chief, and Snow pointed out that they knew his phone number as well.
Leaving the van of livid cats they headed off to the barrens, the plan was for Glyph to shoot at Six with the assault cannon, so that they could film it and collect the spent casing. They found a strip of run down suburbia and they staged a faux shooting of Six. He was going to run and leap clear and the shell fired by Glyph would just miss him. They were going to film it first person shooter style from Glyphs perspective.
It took three attempts to get the footage just right, Six jumped too early, Glyph fired too late, and it looked phoney but the third one was the charm. Collecting up the spent casing they sped away.
The phone call to Duncan Croner came up with some more good news. They had to pay, but he would be able to get them a set of Lone Star wheels and a shoulder patch, they would have to pay, and Six and Glyph now owed the Police chief again. They would have to collect the wheels a bit later.
Back to Snows to drop off the Panther AC and to pick up the van load of felines vehicles were remote rigged all over. The helicopter that they had liberated a few weeks ago was controlled into San Fran airspace, the Step van was brought back online, and Six drove the cat van to a water works. The helicopter was landed nearby and cats were loaded into the hold. The rappelling gear was lobbed into the footwell. Six and Glyph ran back to the water works and nicked the main door with the alarms going off they hot stepped it across to the step van, and threw the heavy door into the back. The step van was remote rigged across to their next target. Mitsuhama.
Six noticed on one of his car feeds that one of his cars had attracted police attentions. They were looking to tow the vehicle away. They guessed that the traffic camera that they nicked had a RFID tag. Six got Bum Fluff to do a high speed drive by the scene to draw away Lone Star so that he could move the car.
10pm and time was getting tight. The helicopter landed briefly on top of the Mitsuhama distribution centre. Not quite the main HQ, but good enough. In the down draft of the rotor blades Six and Glyph hopped out and unloaded 20 cats onto the roof. Once done Six remote rigged the helicopter away. The rope was secured off and Glyph hung over the side of the building she got out the miniwelder and started cutting off and repositioning sign letters.
Lone Star had a hi-ab crane ready to hoike his car away and Six had to move it, he reversed hard and rammed the Lone Star car and then jammed it forward and remote rigged his car away. Bum Fluff was speeding in the opposite direction to draw off Lone Star and narrowly missed Six’s car. Six sent this car to meet up with Snow, who he had arranged to burn the RFID tag out of the camera.
Glyph had attracted the attentions of Mitsuhama security and Six had to drill them with the flip turret gun mounted on the van. And this caused the alarm to go off. Glyph had to work quickly. Cutting off letters and re-welding in a different position.
Six was pleased. u shit Mama was too good to leave alone and Glyph had done well. Now for the cats. Glyph put in one of the windows and they were lucky to come across the CEO’s office. Six verified with the flyspy which he then positioned to film the cats getting pushed in through the window.
ushitMama security reinforcements turned up and began to start shooting at Glyph, while she passed screaming cat after screaming cat into the executive officers office. Six dealt with these also with the HMG on his van and a grenade.
Time was running really tight now, and they called back the chopper and fled the scene. They sped as fast as they could to Lone Star HQ where Duncan Croner had the wheels and the shoulder patch set aside. Six and Glyph headed inside and Six spotted a ganger being booked in. He headed over and asked for his jacket. The haggling was quick, and in the gangers favour, but Six got the leather gang colours Glyph got the wheels and the shoulder patch.
They sped back to the Cat Club and arrived with only a few minutes to spare. The other two teams were already there and were sat with their collections. Six and Glyph brought in their collection.
Banshee were surrounded by their collection Set of 4 lone star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A ganger jacket Photograph at top of golden gate The door from the national library. Lone star sgt. shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Footage of jumping off golden gate (bungee)
Gecko Sat with their Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera Gangers jacket Live devil rat Rearranged corporate letters. AAA corporation Photograph in hatchets.
Seeing their oppositions collections Six and Glyph surveyed their own trophies. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A gangers jacket. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. The first base from the Giants stadium, signed. The entire door from a civic building. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. Lone Star shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Severed Yakuza finger.
Milan joined them a few minutes shy of 11pm and was pleased to see that all three teams were gathered. He quickly totted up the points, and it was clear to see that Brutal Deluxe had won. The money hit the comlink.
A few days later Six and Kitty flew to gay Paris, and were able to confirm that there are a lot less street cameras than in the UCAS.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
The Eleven Nameless Men
Six, Ki-Rin, Glyph.
The runners spent some quality down, getting a chance to catch up and spend some cash that they had earned over the last few months worth of shadowrunning.
Six started work on a van conversion to turn it into a drone dispensing command vehicle. Having had a very near death experience twice, Ki-Rin decided to invest in some bone lacing, and Glyph worked on the design and build of a pair of snap-on gyromounts after she had some cybereye upgrades.
Monday 18th September 2070
Six got a call from a man called Donovan. Six and the team had been recommended to him by Duncan Croner, the Lone Star chief and he had a job that needed immediate attention. The meet was at the Jetty Point Café, a little continental style café nestled amongst some shops on the westward facing coast.
Six conference called every member of his nefarious friends, and all but Ki-Rin and Glyph were unavailable. He told them where to meet and set off there himself.
Donovan was sat outside at one of the tables and invited the runners to sit. He laid the job on the table; he was representing a group of people called The Eleven Nameless Men, a semi secret society who advised corporations and governments on the ebb and flow of the stock markets. Their predictions could be seen as self fulfilling prophecies and at a word they could make one corporation happy and at the same time, make an enemy of another. They knew this, they were comfortable with this, and they took physical and magical security precautions to protect themselves.
It seemed that The Eleven Nameless had triggered some kind of vendetta from some organization and an assassin had already killed two of their number. The Eleven needed to find out who this killers employer was so that they could negotiate an amicable solution.
The conversation wafted across Ki-Rin, but he was distracted by someone sat a few tables away. The elf was paying a bit too much attention to their conversation. Maybe because they were talking about contract killers, maybe something else. He pointed it out to the other two and then while Donovan talked about the ins and outs of the run Ki-Rin tried to find this man on the Matrix.
A facial scan and a few clever search programs later, Ki-Rin found him. A guy called Louis Veron. A Republic of France national, who served in the BFST, the French special forces. Not only that but he was part of the magical strike division. He was discharged after failing a psychological exam. He failed to re-submit his SIN number after the crash
and then his records run dry. Ki-Rin shared this info, and although now suspicious all they had was a nosey Frenchman.
Donovan finished the meeting by telling the runners that Duncan Croner would allow them to look through the evidence that Lone Star had gathered so far, and then headed away. The team slowly split as well. Ki-Rin made arrangements for the Elf to be followed using the street surveillance cameras while Six wired one of his Vans to a spot not far away so that he could switch into an un-spotted vehicle, Glyph was detailed to go and view the evidence that Lone Star had.
Ki-Rin got into Six’s spare car while Six sat in the van, both ready to tail their mark who was presently ordering another coffee.
Glyph headed down to Lone Star and was shown into Croners office. As she was about to ask to view the files he gestured to the files on his desk, and went off to get them a coffee. Glyph didn’t need telling twice and took the hint.
The files related to the two murders. Both shot with a single bullet, and the evidence bags with the bullets was what caught Glyphs eye. They were an odd bore and they appeared to be an orachalchum full metal jacket. Moreover, they had been etched on the side with the victim’s name. This was bespoke ammunition and an small engraved ‘A’ hinted at the manufacturer. Glyph was done and she left thanking Duncan Croner.
Ki-Rin and Six tailed the Frenchman and watched as he got onto a tram. Six was remote driving his Dodge with Ki-Rin as passenger while he drove the Transit.
Glyph contacted them and let them know the info about the bullets. Ki-Rin quickly found the manufacturer on the matrix. A Dwarven weaponsmith based out in the Tir Tangire. He hand made bespoke arms and ammunition. Ki-Rin contacted him but didn’t know how to take that line of enquiry forwards, so dropped it.
Six was getting twitchy. His gut feeling said that this Elf that they were following was related to this investigation and let Ki-Rin know that they were going to make a move before the tram drove into the station. He waited for the tram to make its next stop and then parked the Dodge in front of the tram. Ki-Rin got out and got on board ignoring the tram drivers complaints about the car he drew his pistol and started firing stick-shock rounds at the elf. Six drew up along side the tram and shot the driver dead while in the back Ki-Rin first wrestled with their elf, and then with a have-a-go-hero. Six then had to deal with Lone Star who were closing on the alarm that the driver had triggered One flash bang through the windshield of the cop car, knocked the driver out, and the patrol car careened at speed toward the tram full of screaming civilians. Six dumped a frag grenade in front of the front axle of the car. His timing was perfect and the car was flipped away and past the tram. Six and Ki-Rin sped away from the scene with the now unconscious French Elf.
After an hour or so of running avoidance from the Lone Star patrols that hit the street, the runners met up at an abandoned end of the East coast docks. They brought the elf round and began to interrogate him. Ki-Rin played the good cop, Glyph played the sadistic cop and they got nothing. They cut him, they threatened him, they asked civilised non consequential questions and they were only told that his name was Tristan, that he was an author and that he was in San Fran researching a book. The only thing is that he was as cold as ice. Nothing more than a slight grimace when Glyph cut him nothing but casual flippant answers to any questions. His comlink was clean too, this man was either so good at the stealth assassin persona, or they had got the wrong man.
Ki-Rin went back to basics and let the matrix do the work His hacking was good. Hundreds of French nationals had come into San Francisco over the last few months, but one called Tristan Veron stood out as too much of a coincidence. He then followed the camera feeds from the airport and saw their man arriving from France three weeks ago. He got into a taxi and headed away. Ki-Rin then followed the taxi trial through town to a block of flats near the San Francisco barrens. He got footage of Tristan coming and going from that residence for a few weeks and was sure that they would find what they wanted their. Their best lead yet, the runners headed off that way.
Six had a feeling that Tristan would be one of those slippery types, and was not keen for a French stealth assassin escaping on them, so even though he was unconscious and bound, they gaffer taped his head up, tied his hands and feet to the inside of the van, smashed his left knee to beyond repair and then left him locked in the back. Six still wasn’t happy about leaving him here but agreed to go inside the flat to help track down his flat.
They knocked on doors and asked questions. On the 5th floor Six met a bear of a man who took an instant dislike to him. Six’s usual charisma when meeting people let him down and when asking if he had seen a French friend of his the guy kind of assumed that Six was one of those, you know, reverse parkers, and wasn’t having any garlic flavoured baguette chomping going in this apartment block. He went off to get his shotgun.
Ki-Rin and Glyph saw the guy come out and stick shocked him. Six then went into his apartment and liberated his beers for the trouble.
The gunfire did however cow the locals and no-one was keen to open a door for the runners after that. Ki-Rin lost his rag a little bit and booted down a door. No one had answered the door, and the reason for this was that the owner was bound in the back of their van.
The team had found his base of operations. They found a box full of these special bullets, minus two. They found a pen sized etcher and some photos of the Eleven Nameless Men. Their was evidence of some kind of ritual magic, and they found the rifle. The Mercedes Benz of custom made firearms. The team also found another comlink; this one was running French language software. Ki-Rin hacked it and found this hitmans contact list. His most recent employer, Index-Axa, a French finance company whose stock collapse a month or so ago has all but ensured their takeover by a rival firm. This was good enough for the runners who contacted Donovan to tell him the run was done.
The runners dealt with the hitman in the obvious way, broken neck and ditched somewhere in the barrens, before they headed off to meet up with Donovan. They managed to squeeze an extra 5k each out of the deal by offering up the sniper rifle and the bullets with an explanation as to how the hitman had bypassed their magical defences. The runners headed home 6 hours after starting out, 45k richer.
The runners spent some quality down, getting a chance to catch up and spend some cash that they had earned over the last few months worth of shadowrunning.
Six started work on a van conversion to turn it into a drone dispensing command vehicle. Having had a very near death experience twice, Ki-Rin decided to invest in some bone lacing, and Glyph worked on the design and build of a pair of snap-on gyromounts after she had some cybereye upgrades.
Monday 18th September 2070
Six got a call from a man called Donovan. Six and the team had been recommended to him by Duncan Croner, the Lone Star chief and he had a job that needed immediate attention. The meet was at the Jetty Point Café, a little continental style café nestled amongst some shops on the westward facing coast.
Six conference called every member of his nefarious friends, and all but Ki-Rin and Glyph were unavailable. He told them where to meet and set off there himself.
Donovan was sat outside at one of the tables and invited the runners to sit. He laid the job on the table; he was representing a group of people called The Eleven Nameless Men, a semi secret society who advised corporations and governments on the ebb and flow of the stock markets. Their predictions could be seen as self fulfilling prophecies and at a word they could make one corporation happy and at the same time, make an enemy of another. They knew this, they were comfortable with this, and they took physical and magical security precautions to protect themselves.
It seemed that The Eleven Nameless had triggered some kind of vendetta from some organization and an assassin had already killed two of their number. The Eleven needed to find out who this killers employer was so that they could negotiate an amicable solution.
The conversation wafted across Ki-Rin, but he was distracted by someone sat a few tables away. The elf was paying a bit too much attention to their conversation. Maybe because they were talking about contract killers, maybe something else. He pointed it out to the other two and then while Donovan talked about the ins and outs of the run Ki-Rin tried to find this man on the Matrix.
A facial scan and a few clever search programs later, Ki-Rin found him. A guy called Louis Veron. A Republic of France national, who served in the BFST, the French special forces. Not only that but he was part of the magical strike division. He was discharged after failing a psychological exam. He failed to re-submit his SIN number after the crash
and then his records run dry. Ki-Rin shared this info, and although now suspicious all they had was a nosey Frenchman.
Donovan finished the meeting by telling the runners that Duncan Croner would allow them to look through the evidence that Lone Star had gathered so far, and then headed away. The team slowly split as well. Ki-Rin made arrangements for the Elf to be followed using the street surveillance cameras while Six wired one of his Vans to a spot not far away so that he could switch into an un-spotted vehicle, Glyph was detailed to go and view the evidence that Lone Star had.
Ki-Rin got into Six’s spare car while Six sat in the van, both ready to tail their mark who was presently ordering another coffee.
Glyph headed down to Lone Star and was shown into Croners office. As she was about to ask to view the files he gestured to the files on his desk, and went off to get them a coffee. Glyph didn’t need telling twice and took the hint.
The files related to the two murders. Both shot with a single bullet, and the evidence bags with the bullets was what caught Glyphs eye. They were an odd bore and they appeared to be an orachalchum full metal jacket. Moreover, they had been etched on the side with the victim’s name. This was bespoke ammunition and an small engraved ‘A’ hinted at the manufacturer. Glyph was done and she left thanking Duncan Croner.
Ki-Rin and Six tailed the Frenchman and watched as he got onto a tram. Six was remote driving his Dodge with Ki-Rin as passenger while he drove the Transit.
Glyph contacted them and let them know the info about the bullets. Ki-Rin quickly found the manufacturer on the matrix. A Dwarven weaponsmith based out in the Tir Tangire. He hand made bespoke arms and ammunition. Ki-Rin contacted him but didn’t know how to take that line of enquiry forwards, so dropped it.
Six was getting twitchy. His gut feeling said that this Elf that they were following was related to this investigation and let Ki-Rin know that they were going to make a move before the tram drove into the station. He waited for the tram to make its next stop and then parked the Dodge in front of the tram. Ki-Rin got out and got on board ignoring the tram drivers complaints about the car he drew his pistol and started firing stick-shock rounds at the elf. Six drew up along side the tram and shot the driver dead while in the back Ki-Rin first wrestled with their elf, and then with a have-a-go-hero. Six then had to deal with Lone Star who were closing on the alarm that the driver had triggered One flash bang through the windshield of the cop car, knocked the driver out, and the patrol car careened at speed toward the tram full of screaming civilians. Six dumped a frag grenade in front of the front axle of the car. His timing was perfect and the car was flipped away and past the tram. Six and Ki-Rin sped away from the scene with the now unconscious French Elf.
After an hour or so of running avoidance from the Lone Star patrols that hit the street, the runners met up at an abandoned end of the East coast docks. They brought the elf round and began to interrogate him. Ki-Rin played the good cop, Glyph played the sadistic cop and they got nothing. They cut him, they threatened him, they asked civilised non consequential questions and they were only told that his name was Tristan, that he was an author and that he was in San Fran researching a book. The only thing is that he was as cold as ice. Nothing more than a slight grimace when Glyph cut him nothing but casual flippant answers to any questions. His comlink was clean too, this man was either so good at the stealth assassin persona, or they had got the wrong man.
Ki-Rin went back to basics and let the matrix do the work His hacking was good. Hundreds of French nationals had come into San Francisco over the last few months, but one called Tristan Veron stood out as too much of a coincidence. He then followed the camera feeds from the airport and saw their man arriving from France three weeks ago. He got into a taxi and headed away. Ki-Rin then followed the taxi trial through town to a block of flats near the San Francisco barrens. He got footage of Tristan coming and going from that residence for a few weeks and was sure that they would find what they wanted their. Their best lead yet, the runners headed off that way.
Six had a feeling that Tristan would be one of those slippery types, and was not keen for a French stealth assassin escaping on them, so even though he was unconscious and bound, they gaffer taped his head up, tied his hands and feet to the inside of the van, smashed his left knee to beyond repair and then left him locked in the back. Six still wasn’t happy about leaving him here but agreed to go inside the flat to help track down his flat.
They knocked on doors and asked questions. On the 5th floor Six met a bear of a man who took an instant dislike to him. Six’s usual charisma when meeting people let him down and when asking if he had seen a French friend of his the guy kind of assumed that Six was one of those, you know, reverse parkers, and wasn’t having any garlic flavoured baguette chomping going in this apartment block. He went off to get his shotgun.
Ki-Rin and Glyph saw the guy come out and stick shocked him. Six then went into his apartment and liberated his beers for the trouble.
The gunfire did however cow the locals and no-one was keen to open a door for the runners after that. Ki-Rin lost his rag a little bit and booted down a door. No one had answered the door, and the reason for this was that the owner was bound in the back of their van.
The team had found his base of operations. They found a box full of these special bullets, minus two. They found a pen sized etcher and some photos of the Eleven Nameless Men. Their was evidence of some kind of ritual magic, and they found the rifle. The Mercedes Benz of custom made firearms. The team also found another comlink; this one was running French language software. Ki-Rin hacked it and found this hitmans contact list. His most recent employer, Index-Axa, a French finance company whose stock collapse a month or so ago has all but ensured their takeover by a rival firm. This was good enough for the runners who contacted Donovan to tell him the run was done.
The runners dealt with the hitman in the obvious way, broken neck and ditched somewhere in the barrens, before they headed off to meet up with Donovan. They managed to squeeze an extra 5k each out of the deal by offering up the sniper rifle and the bullets with an explanation as to how the hitman had bypassed their magical defences. The runners headed home 6 hours after starting out, 45k richer.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
The end of Simon Crusher
Six, Glyph, Ki-Rin, Ash.
1st September 2070 17:00
The runners gathered outside the ramp which ran down underground. They hadn’t found Simon Crusher amongst the dead on the surface of this facility and guessed that he had fled down. They were also keen to find out if there was a cloning facility here too.
Looking down the ramp they saw that it was 3 vehicle widths, well lit, terminating in a roller shutter door. They decided to hotwire one of the vans and drive it down the ramp slowly. Approaching the roller shutter doors Six and Ash noticed that there was a pair of some kind of slam plate in the floor, one near the roller shutter, one ten metres away. Ki-Rin and Ash hopped out of the vehicle and jogged over to the pedestrian door set in the left hand wall, Glyph covered them while Six rolled the van’s engine block over the slam plate. Ki-Rin found that there was a decker on site who cut his connection to hacking the electronic lock on the door, and rather than take him on in cyberspace opted to bust the door lock by bypassing the circuitry.
Ki-Rin triggered some kind of security device, and two massive bulkhead doors slammed home onto the plates in the ground. The one nearest the roller shutter door nearly took out Ash’s arm; the other drop bulkhead crushed the van but was unable to slam completely home, leaving a gap of about a foot.
As soon as the kill zone had been set up, two Steel Lynx drones dropped down from hatches in the ceiling to join Ash and Ki-Rin. One drone squatted low and rolled under the gap in the rear bulkhead to take out Six and Glyph. Bullets flew. Ash stuck his AK into the mid section of the drone and fired a couple of bursts into it at close range. Ki-Rin scrambled across the floor and blind fired at the other drone, Six and Glyph finished it off before anyone was badly injured.
Ki-Rin finished cracking the door, while Glyph and Six slipped under the gap in the drop door. The door clicked open and the team announced their arrival with a flash bang grenade, the three stunned guards stood no chance when all four runners unleashed a volley of lead from the doorway.
A window ran the full length of the wall and the runners could see the expanse of the cloning chamber beyond, at the far side of the room was another door. The runners kept low and made their way to the next door. Glyph popped the door open and saw four civilians, strapped to chairs, tubes and cables running from their bodies. Ducked low just out of sight was another guard. Glyph didn’t have any flash bangs. A frag grenade was rolled into the small room instead. The explosion destroyed everything in the room. Ki-Rin began shooting out through the glass screen into the guards the he spotted moving around in the clone chamber. The guards returned fire, shooting through the walls at the runners.
Six sent out his flyspy drone to mark the targets for the rest of the team and they began to take out the guards.
Ki-Rin was filled with lead and he died. The rest of the team were taking hits as well. Six stood in cover and saw the decker go down. He dashed to his side and administered first aid, with the help of the nano-medkit Ki-Rin was brought back from the brink.
Glyph and Ash finished off the rest of the guards. Inside the massive cavern four pillars ran from floor to ceiling. Embedded into each of the pillars were four growth vats. Tow pillars worth, eight in total, housed the nearly fully formed clones of Dominic. Alive, but lifeless. The other eight pods had been opened. Ash Shot each clone dead.
A bulkhead door at the rear of the chamber was the only other way out and the runners donned gas masks before throwing a nerve gas canister in. On the other side of the bulkhead was a long corridor. This terminated in a ladder which went up. Checking the GPS the runners could tell that this would go up and inside the Pyramid shaped island in the middle of the lake. The runners were beginning to experience electrical interference with their equipment and disconnected unused electronics.
Looking up the step ladder the runners could see a large vaulted space above them, a mesh catwalk running overhead. Inside the pyramid had been hewn away leaving a vast space. A catwalk ran around the outside edge of this about two metres up, and a walkway from either side liked up to a dais in the centre. Electricity was arcing from sigils and symbols daubed on the walls and focusing down onto 5 forms that were out of view on the dais. Glyph stuck her head up for just a moment and then a shot rang out. Simon Crusher was stood on the cat walk and was laughing as he fired off a couple more blind shots toward the now out of sight shadowrunner.
The team surged up the ladder, each diving out in a different direction as quickly as possible. 2 essence hungry Dominic clones surged at the runners and attacked them with tooth and claw, lead flew. Two of the clones were dead before they could do any damage and then Ash fired the fatal shot that killed Simon Crusher. There was a moment before his body tumbled from the catwalk, then their was an explosion of energy. Electricity arced from the dais struck the catwalk and then earthed through the runners.
Six, Glyph and Ash all wore their electricity non-conductive armour that they had bought when they were paid to steal some Thunderbirds, Ki-Rin became the conduit for the full charge; the energy struck his chest and burned a deep wound.
For the second time that day, Ki-Rin died. For the second time he was resuscitated. The runners took stock and then made moves to flee. Ash gathered up dropped weapons. Glyph and Ki-Rin set explosive charges. Six made preparations to bring one of the helicopters online.
The runners hovered over the site in the stolen helicopter long enough to watch the explosion they had set cause the underground base to be flooded by the water of Pyramid Lake before turning back towards San Francisco.
The next day the runners did their own thing, Ki-Rin headed to the street doctors who told him that the wounds would Scar. The Six and Ki-Rin sent the helicopter to one of Ki-Rin’s contacts to have it stripped down to check for anything incriminating.
Ash Sold on the stolen weapons to Snow, before getting the runners back to meet up. Ash had decided that he should march into Alamais’ headquarters and demand their payments. Only Glyph accompanied Ash, and after getting told that the Dragon was out of the country Ash lost his temper. The runners dragged Ash down to the pub, and they all got drunk.
The next morning, Ash received a package. A credstic with enough money to split amongst the team, and a weapons focus in the form of a dagger. Ash assumed that it was from Alamais.
1st September 2070 17:00
The runners gathered outside the ramp which ran down underground. They hadn’t found Simon Crusher amongst the dead on the surface of this facility and guessed that he had fled down. They were also keen to find out if there was a cloning facility here too.
Looking down the ramp they saw that it was 3 vehicle widths, well lit, terminating in a roller shutter door. They decided to hotwire one of the vans and drive it down the ramp slowly. Approaching the roller shutter doors Six and Ash noticed that there was a pair of some kind of slam plate in the floor, one near the roller shutter, one ten metres away. Ki-Rin and Ash hopped out of the vehicle and jogged over to the pedestrian door set in the left hand wall, Glyph covered them while Six rolled the van’s engine block over the slam plate. Ki-Rin found that there was a decker on site who cut his connection to hacking the electronic lock on the door, and rather than take him on in cyberspace opted to bust the door lock by bypassing the circuitry.
Ki-Rin triggered some kind of security device, and two massive bulkhead doors slammed home onto the plates in the ground. The one nearest the roller shutter door nearly took out Ash’s arm; the other drop bulkhead crushed the van but was unable to slam completely home, leaving a gap of about a foot.
As soon as the kill zone had been set up, two Steel Lynx drones dropped down from hatches in the ceiling to join Ash and Ki-Rin. One drone squatted low and rolled under the gap in the rear bulkhead to take out Six and Glyph. Bullets flew. Ash stuck his AK into the mid section of the drone and fired a couple of bursts into it at close range. Ki-Rin scrambled across the floor and blind fired at the other drone, Six and Glyph finished it off before anyone was badly injured.
Ki-Rin finished cracking the door, while Glyph and Six slipped under the gap in the drop door. The door clicked open and the team announced their arrival with a flash bang grenade, the three stunned guards stood no chance when all four runners unleashed a volley of lead from the doorway.
A window ran the full length of the wall and the runners could see the expanse of the cloning chamber beyond, at the far side of the room was another door. The runners kept low and made their way to the next door. Glyph popped the door open and saw four civilians, strapped to chairs, tubes and cables running from their bodies. Ducked low just out of sight was another guard. Glyph didn’t have any flash bangs. A frag grenade was rolled into the small room instead. The explosion destroyed everything in the room. Ki-Rin began shooting out through the glass screen into the guards the he spotted moving around in the clone chamber. The guards returned fire, shooting through the walls at the runners.
Six sent out his flyspy drone to mark the targets for the rest of the team and they began to take out the guards.
Ki-Rin was filled with lead and he died. The rest of the team were taking hits as well. Six stood in cover and saw the decker go down. He dashed to his side and administered first aid, with the help of the nano-medkit Ki-Rin was brought back from the brink.
Glyph and Ash finished off the rest of the guards. Inside the massive cavern four pillars ran from floor to ceiling. Embedded into each of the pillars were four growth vats. Tow pillars worth, eight in total, housed the nearly fully formed clones of Dominic. Alive, but lifeless. The other eight pods had been opened. Ash Shot each clone dead.
A bulkhead door at the rear of the chamber was the only other way out and the runners donned gas masks before throwing a nerve gas canister in. On the other side of the bulkhead was a long corridor. This terminated in a ladder which went up. Checking the GPS the runners could tell that this would go up and inside the Pyramid shaped island in the middle of the lake. The runners were beginning to experience electrical interference with their equipment and disconnected unused electronics.
Looking up the step ladder the runners could see a large vaulted space above them, a mesh catwalk running overhead. Inside the pyramid had been hewn away leaving a vast space. A catwalk ran around the outside edge of this about two metres up, and a walkway from either side liked up to a dais in the centre. Electricity was arcing from sigils and symbols daubed on the walls and focusing down onto 5 forms that were out of view on the dais. Glyph stuck her head up for just a moment and then a shot rang out. Simon Crusher was stood on the cat walk and was laughing as he fired off a couple more blind shots toward the now out of sight shadowrunner.
The team surged up the ladder, each diving out in a different direction as quickly as possible. 2 essence hungry Dominic clones surged at the runners and attacked them with tooth and claw, lead flew. Two of the clones were dead before they could do any damage and then Ash fired the fatal shot that killed Simon Crusher. There was a moment before his body tumbled from the catwalk, then their was an explosion of energy. Electricity arced from the dais struck the catwalk and then earthed through the runners.
Six, Glyph and Ash all wore their electricity non-conductive armour that they had bought when they were paid to steal some Thunderbirds, Ki-Rin became the conduit for the full charge; the energy struck his chest and burned a deep wound.
For the second time that day, Ki-Rin died. For the second time he was resuscitated. The runners took stock and then made moves to flee. Ash gathered up dropped weapons. Glyph and Ki-Rin set explosive charges. Six made preparations to bring one of the helicopters online.
The runners hovered over the site in the stolen helicopter long enough to watch the explosion they had set cause the underground base to be flooded by the water of Pyramid Lake before turning back towards San Francisco.
The next day the runners did their own thing, Ki-Rin headed to the street doctors who told him that the wounds would Scar. The Six and Ki-Rin sent the helicopter to one of Ki-Rin’s contacts to have it stripped down to check for anything incriminating.
Ash Sold on the stolen weapons to Snow, before getting the runners back to meet up. Ash had decided that he should march into Alamais’ headquarters and demand their payments. Only Glyph accompanied Ash, and after getting told that the Dragon was out of the country Ash lost his temper. The runners dragged Ash down to the pub, and they all got drunk.
The next morning, Ash received a package. A credstic with enough money to split amongst the team, and a weapons focus in the form of a dagger. Ash assumed that it was from Alamais.
Friday, February 23, 2007
The Facility assault
Six, Ki-Rin, Ash, Glyph,
1st September 2070
Tooled up, the runners sped out of San Francisco following the tracking signal they had placed on Simon Crusher, the man they had been tasked to kill by a dragon.
The tracking signal stopped moving not far from the shore of Pyramid Lake, which itself was situated not far from a town called Nixon. The runners headed there as quickly as possible although they were about four hours behind the helicopter they were following.
They blazed through the streets of Nixon and linked up with the main trunk road, headed north toward the facility when they very quickly came upon stationary traffic, and before they could swing the cars round they had traffic backing up behind them.
The runners checked traffic and news reports and discovered that there was a civil disturbance up ahead. Some kind of demonstration about corporate illegal activities seems to have been sparked after a vigilante group attacked a vehicle, which they claimed had been responsible for a spate of disappearances. The people who were attacked had been picked up by Lone Star and brought to the hospital where the demo was now going on and the media had whipped up the crowd who now blocked the roads.
There was nothing to do but sit tight. Ki-Rin used the time to gather some matrix info on the location of their mark, and discovered that there was a whole facility built up on the lake shore. Gaining satellite photos of the area they could see that there were a couple of aircraft hangars and half a dozen other buildings surrounded by a pair of high voltage fences. No corporate owners, no information at all. Whatever Simon Crusher was doing up there was being kept off the radar. With the civil disturbance keeping the runners pinned in one spot for a while Six did some flyspy reconnaissance and tracked down the injured men in the hospital. They were guarded by Lone Star who didn’t have any idea as to their identification. Six and the team surmised that these men might be part of a snatch squad to supply people for the CORe and Legion projects that they knew to be going on at the facility.
The traffic started to be backed up by Lone Star officers who coordinated removing vehicles from the rear of the line and after about a two hour delay the runners were on the move again. It was dusk by the time they parked up at a leisure walk car park, and they spent a moment donning armour and stowing armaments the team set off on a 3 mile hike to the site.
They chose to come in from the east and apart from a moment when a small squad of soldiers walked past where they hid they were not spotted. They looked down on a heavily guarded base and the runners had to formulate a plan to get in. Six sent his Flyspy drone down to have a quick look round. The base had everything medical facility, barracks, offices, hangars complete with two helicopters and a STOL fighter jet. The Flyspy couldn’t see everything, and didn’t pick up their quarry, Simon Crusher so Ki-Rin and Glyph headed down to isolate the electric fence and snip themselves a way in.
Twenty minutes later after some tense moments with the guards Ki-Rin and Glyph returned to where Ash and Six sat with a small gap in the fence and a base full of guards unaware of their presence. The team moved silently to the edge of the fence, and in teams of two they slipped past the patrols. They were inside the base and the silently stole from shadow to shadow eventually meeting up in hangar two.
They rigged up an explosive charge to the helicopters in case they were spotted and then they could use the detonation as a distraction and then they split up. Six and Ki-Rin kept an eye across the base while Ash and Glyph snuck round the rear of the hangar to access a small building that had aroused their suspicions. There were two guards. Ash and Glyph had sound suppressed weapons, aimed and fired. They also had explosive rounds, and the quiet muzzle was betrayed by the loud impact. Ash and Glyph quickly tried to hide the bodies before the another patrol found them out, but it was too late, the whole base went onto high alert and bullets started to fly.
Six and Ki-Rin made their way to the next hangar, and with half a mind on stealing the helicopters they sabotaged the fighter which could, if able to get airborne, shoot them down. Ki-Rin and Six then worked their way to Simon Crushers helicopter to see about rendering that incapable of flight as well, bullets continued to fly and Six found himself dancing across the helipads and was forced to dive for cover into another building. Ki-Rin on the other hand was trained for this kind of arena, and was taking out guards from all angles with short controlled bursts, all the while dodging incoming fire.
Glyph and Ash were likewise watching each others backs, Glyph dual gunning foes both left and right, Ash’s assault rifle picking off surviving stragglers. Inside the building that had caught their attentions in the first place they found a ramp that led underground, and from deep in the bowels of wherever this ramp led, there was a deep resonating sound.
Glyph knew that they would need to help the others above ground before heading down so rigged up a grenade booby trap before heading out to finishing off the guards who remained in the base.
Ki-Rin was running low on ammo, and had to switch to single shot mode. Six had cleared out the building that he had dashed into and was now making his way around the outside to where he suspected there was a remaining guard.
Tony Mulholland had watched as a team of 4 men burst into the camp that he was employed to guard and saw as they had slain every friend he had on the base, he was scared, but his training in the computer program kicked in. He scrambled onto the roof of the building and silently drew his combat knife from his boot. He watched as one of the punks crept round the edge of the building, looking for him, looking for Tony Mulholland. Tony leapt from the roof of the building with a scream of rage and set about this man with his knife. Stab at the neck, thrust for the gut, slash at the face, Tony heard gunshots, but Tony was invincible.
Six fended off the frenzied attack, but the knife wielding guard was too close and every time he tried to fire a shot the gun was batted away and the shots went wide, every time Six landed a punch the guard just kept coming Six thought his number was up.
Ki-Rin was making his way through the building and saw through infrared the fight outside. He aimed carefully, and shot through the wall, the first shot took out the assailant’s throat.
The guard staggered, blood pumping from his neck, Six took the moment to finish the guard with one last gunshot.
Ash and Glyph made their way round the camp, and it seemed every guard was dead. The runners were pretty shot up, and running low on ammo, but they hadn’t found Simon Crusher, and they hadn’t found the cloning facility that they suspected was here. They knew that they had to go down the ramp that lead underground.
To be finished next week.
1st September 2070
Tooled up, the runners sped out of San Francisco following the tracking signal they had placed on Simon Crusher, the man they had been tasked to kill by a dragon.
The tracking signal stopped moving not far from the shore of Pyramid Lake, which itself was situated not far from a town called Nixon. The runners headed there as quickly as possible although they were about four hours behind the helicopter they were following.
They blazed through the streets of Nixon and linked up with the main trunk road, headed north toward the facility when they very quickly came upon stationary traffic, and before they could swing the cars round they had traffic backing up behind them.
The runners checked traffic and news reports and discovered that there was a civil disturbance up ahead. Some kind of demonstration about corporate illegal activities seems to have been sparked after a vigilante group attacked a vehicle, which they claimed had been responsible for a spate of disappearances. The people who were attacked had been picked up by Lone Star and brought to the hospital where the demo was now going on and the media had whipped up the crowd who now blocked the roads.
There was nothing to do but sit tight. Ki-Rin used the time to gather some matrix info on the location of their mark, and discovered that there was a whole facility built up on the lake shore. Gaining satellite photos of the area they could see that there were a couple of aircraft hangars and half a dozen other buildings surrounded by a pair of high voltage fences. No corporate owners, no information at all. Whatever Simon Crusher was doing up there was being kept off the radar. With the civil disturbance keeping the runners pinned in one spot for a while Six did some flyspy reconnaissance and tracked down the injured men in the hospital. They were guarded by Lone Star who didn’t have any idea as to their identification. Six and the team surmised that these men might be part of a snatch squad to supply people for the CORe and Legion projects that they knew to be going on at the facility.
The traffic started to be backed up by Lone Star officers who coordinated removing vehicles from the rear of the line and after about a two hour delay the runners were on the move again. It was dusk by the time they parked up at a leisure walk car park, and they spent a moment donning armour and stowing armaments the team set off on a 3 mile hike to the site.
They chose to come in from the east and apart from a moment when a small squad of soldiers walked past where they hid they were not spotted. They looked down on a heavily guarded base and the runners had to formulate a plan to get in. Six sent his Flyspy drone down to have a quick look round. The base had everything medical facility, barracks, offices, hangars complete with two helicopters and a STOL fighter jet. The Flyspy couldn’t see everything, and didn’t pick up their quarry, Simon Crusher so Ki-Rin and Glyph headed down to isolate the electric fence and snip themselves a way in.
Twenty minutes later after some tense moments with the guards Ki-Rin and Glyph returned to where Ash and Six sat with a small gap in the fence and a base full of guards unaware of their presence. The team moved silently to the edge of the fence, and in teams of two they slipped past the patrols. They were inside the base and the silently stole from shadow to shadow eventually meeting up in hangar two.
They rigged up an explosive charge to the helicopters in case they were spotted and then they could use the detonation as a distraction and then they split up. Six and Ki-Rin kept an eye across the base while Ash and Glyph snuck round the rear of the hangar to access a small building that had aroused their suspicions. There were two guards. Ash and Glyph had sound suppressed weapons, aimed and fired. They also had explosive rounds, and the quiet muzzle was betrayed by the loud impact. Ash and Glyph quickly tried to hide the bodies before the another patrol found them out, but it was too late, the whole base went onto high alert and bullets started to fly.
Six and Ki-Rin made their way to the next hangar, and with half a mind on stealing the helicopters they sabotaged the fighter which could, if able to get airborne, shoot them down. Ki-Rin and Six then worked their way to Simon Crushers helicopter to see about rendering that incapable of flight as well, bullets continued to fly and Six found himself dancing across the helipads and was forced to dive for cover into another building. Ki-Rin on the other hand was trained for this kind of arena, and was taking out guards from all angles with short controlled bursts, all the while dodging incoming fire.
Glyph and Ash were likewise watching each others backs, Glyph dual gunning foes both left and right, Ash’s assault rifle picking off surviving stragglers. Inside the building that had caught their attentions in the first place they found a ramp that led underground, and from deep in the bowels of wherever this ramp led, there was a deep resonating sound.
Glyph knew that they would need to help the others above ground before heading down so rigged up a grenade booby trap before heading out to finishing off the guards who remained in the base.
Ki-Rin was running low on ammo, and had to switch to single shot mode. Six had cleared out the building that he had dashed into and was now making his way around the outside to where he suspected there was a remaining guard.
Tony Mulholland had watched as a team of 4 men burst into the camp that he was employed to guard and saw as they had slain every friend he had on the base, he was scared, but his training in the computer program kicked in. He scrambled onto the roof of the building and silently drew his combat knife from his boot. He watched as one of the punks crept round the edge of the building, looking for him, looking for Tony Mulholland. Tony leapt from the roof of the building with a scream of rage and set about this man with his knife. Stab at the neck, thrust for the gut, slash at the face, Tony heard gunshots, but Tony was invincible.
Six fended off the frenzied attack, but the knife wielding guard was too close and every time he tried to fire a shot the gun was batted away and the shots went wide, every time Six landed a punch the guard just kept coming Six thought his number was up.
Ki-Rin was making his way through the building and saw through infrared the fight outside. He aimed carefully, and shot through the wall, the first shot took out the assailant’s throat.
The guard staggered, blood pumping from his neck, Six took the moment to finish the guard with one last gunshot.
Ash and Glyph made their way round the camp, and it seemed every guard was dead. The runners were pretty shot up, and running low on ammo, but they hadn’t found Simon Crusher, and they hadn’t found the cloning facility that they suspected was here. They knew that they had to go down the ramp that lead underground.
To be finished next week.
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