By N.Barnes
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Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 23: 19.07.70>
Dunklezahn’s Balls! It’s happened again! We’ve been screwed, again, and this time by Nunzio’s boy Carlo! Goddamnit… It broke down like this. By the time Orange Jay had deposited us back in Birmingham, Alabama, it was about 9pm.
Ash was still sweating about being out of contact with Daisy so I rang Nunzio and asked him to send some of his boys over to check things out. We had a couple of beers while we were waiting but even the edge of inebriation couldn’t soften the blow when Nunzio reported in that Daisy was missing from her apartment and there had clearly been a struggle.
Understandably, Ash was all for heading straight back to San Fran until I pointed out that it was a road trip of several days back across country.
Instead, I talked him into heading back to Atlanta with me where we could arrange to have a charter plane waiting for us so we could make a quick overnight jaunt back to the Bay Area. He could see the plane was quicker and made more sense, so agreed to do it my way. En route back to Atlanta, Carlo called to say he had set up a meet with a buyer for the guns. We were going to just make it back to Atlanta in time so it seemed prudent to attend before catching our flight. How could we know it would turn out to be a mistake?!
We drove the wagon load of hookey shooters to an abandoned industrial park for a 1am meet and were joined by Carlo and his muscle – a runner named Hilt. In due course, a motor and two transits cruised up and Mr Cowboy himself, Johnny Kickback, lazily hauled his ass out of the driver’s seat and came on over for a chat. He reckoned the guns were his – obviously the Yakuza hit we interrupted was their attempt to spoke his wheel – and didn’t seem to care about the circumstances under which they entered our possession. I told him about the Yaks, pointed out that without our intervention the guns would be a couple of hundred miles away and offered to return them for a small consideration – a finder’s fee, if you will. Well, that just seemed to wind him all the way up to inarticulate rage. He spat out that we had been a thorn in his side for too long, drew down and just started shooting.
I scrambled for cover in the back of the wagon while Ash gave the Cowboy a gutful of hot lead slug. I didn’t see it myself but apparently that was when Carlo turned on Ash and shot him with one of our own guns! Cheeky feck!
Carlo had clearly decided there was a brighter future for him in Johnny Kickback’s employment but fortunately, Hilt has a conscience… Hey, I guess that makes him our kind of Runner! Carlo had told Hilt they were there to sell the guns and make sure nothing went wrong. Clearly Hilt felt that everyone shooting at Ash and I counted as something having gone wrong. As the Cowboy’s friendly neighbourhood muscle lumbered from the vans, Hilt picked a side. Ours.
While Hilt moved off to draw fire away from the unconscious Ash, I did the only thing I could and remoted the Dodge into a position from which I could offer supporting fire. I took care of Carlo as he tried to frag me then concentrated fire on the petrol tank of the transit. I saw it blow, catch the Cowboy’s car before he could escape and the secondary explosion from that was enough to topple the second van. His goons were toast but Hilt said there was no sign of Kickback in the wreckage of his burned out car…
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
We didn’t have time for mysteries; I just wanted to get the frag away from there. We blazed to the other side of the industrial estate where we could lay low long enough to patch Ash up and give Nunzio a mouthful of abuse for his sell-out staff. I don’t think he knew. Hard to tell with Nunz but I think he was genuinely surprised and hacked off that Carlo would turn his back on the family and compromise our safety.
Either way, he picked up where Carlo had left off and made moves to buy the guns from us himself for the family to use. I took a risk and told Nunzio we were heading back into San Fran. He didn’t push that either – I think he understood that with Ash’ sister missing, there was sufficient personal interest for us to justify heading back into the city against his express warning.
We’ve just handed over the guns to Nunzio’s buyer and taken payment. We’re going to cruise over to the Safehouse and give Ki-rinn, Sickle and Glyph a heads up that it might be time to find new digs. Hilt is apparently a San Fran native so by way of thanks for his help, we’re going to take him on the flight back with us. I’d like one of the others to come with us as back-up too but Ash and I are intending to head back to Atlanta so it might serve our purpose better if a couple of the guys stay with the vehicles and use the time while we are away to find us a safe Safehouse!
On a more positive note, as I mull things over, it occurs to me that we’re probably not going to have to do the Cowboy’s dirty work and fabricate the death of April Walker and Snow to lay a false trail for the Separatist Shamans now. Still no word from Snow though which remains a concern. I just feel exhausted by the bullet train of events we’ve been riding. It shows no sign of slowing, so here’s to Johnny Kickback! May his soul burn in Hell.
Mood: Numb.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The stolen guns sell out.
Tuesday 18th July 2070 pm
Six, Hilt, Ash.
Six Ash and Ki-Rin finished up their talk with April Walker and began the drive back to Birmingham Alabama. They quizzed Jay some more on what she knew of shedim, and their brush with Alisom. She didn’t know much but she did tell them that their aura’s had been scarred and torn by their brush with the shedim and their astral presence was lit up like a beacon. If the shedim returned it would be able to find the runners very quickly. She told them that they would need to find out the spirits true name, and banish it for good if they were to be rid of it forever.
The runners fell asleep as Jay cast the spell to conceal the meeting location once again.
Waking in a bar at about 21:00 somewhere near where their cars had been left the runners tried to work out what to do next. There was still no answer from Daisy back in San Fran, so Six contacted Nunzio to see if he could see where she might have gone. Nunzio called back to say that Daisy’s flat was empty, but there was sign of some kind of explosion. Ash was keen to get back to San Fran that minute, but Six held him off warning that there was still danger for them in their home city. Six arranged for Nunzio to get his mafia goons out looking for Ash’s sister.
Carlo called. He had found a buyer for the stolen guns, and he made arrangements for a meet at 1am in an abandoned industrial estate.
Six told Ash that once they had off loaded the guns, they would hire a private plane, fly back to Frisco, and see if they could track Daisy down, ignoring Nunzio’s best efforts to keep them out of the city. Ash agreed, and they drove straight back to the safe house where Glyph and Sickle were watching the truck of guns.
Collecting the truck Six and Ash went to the meet. It was dark but in the headlights they saw Carlo’s car. He got out, and was backed up by another who was introduced to the runners as Hilt. He had been working with Carlo for a few months. They stood and talked for a bit, Carlo helped himself to one of the MP5’s, before the buyer turned up. A car, followed by two transits.
The Cowboy stepped out of the car. He smiled at Carlo and greeted him before telling the runners that they had stolen his guns and he was going to take them back. He wasn’t in the mood for Six’s bargaining and the fact that he held a gold Revolver in his direction showed his intent.
Six instinctively dove for cover as the Cowboy loosed off a shot. Ash fired at the cowboy, Carlo shot at Ash, Hilt stood there for a moment not sure who was on who’s side, before 4 goons stepped out of the transits firing a hailstorm of bullets in his and Ash’s direction. Ash was dropped after the first volley of fire but Six was able to fend off Carlo with his own pistol, while he brought the Car with mounted FN-HAR into play.
Bullets flew, and the Cowboy attempted to flee in his car while his goons plugged the runners but Six was wise to it, and carefully aimed shots at one of the transit van fuel tanks blew the van and the Cowboys car to pieces, the remaining goons perished in the fireball.
Hilt, Six and Ash patched each other up and made more formal introductions. They had no idea Carlo was about to set them up, and Hilt had no loyalties to him other than financial so they were cool.
Six phoned Nunzio and told him that they had been played by the Cowboy and Carlo, and that they were sitting on a truck load of stolen guns. Nunzio arranged for some more reliable contacts to collect the guns from them, and Nunzio paid Six himself.
Wednesday 19th July 2070 03:00
The run seemed to be off, the Johnson (The Cowboy) was dead, so Six and Ash vowed to head back to San Fran and track down Daisy. Hilt, a San Franciscan himself agreed to tag along. They headed to the private airstrip and picked up the plane that they had chartered.
Six, Hilt, Ash.
Six Ash and Ki-Rin finished up their talk with April Walker and began the drive back to Birmingham Alabama. They quizzed Jay some more on what she knew of shedim, and their brush with Alisom. She didn’t know much but she did tell them that their aura’s had been scarred and torn by their brush with the shedim and their astral presence was lit up like a beacon. If the shedim returned it would be able to find the runners very quickly. She told them that they would need to find out the spirits true name, and banish it for good if they were to be rid of it forever.
The runners fell asleep as Jay cast the spell to conceal the meeting location once again.
Waking in a bar at about 21:00 somewhere near where their cars had been left the runners tried to work out what to do next. There was still no answer from Daisy back in San Fran, so Six contacted Nunzio to see if he could see where she might have gone. Nunzio called back to say that Daisy’s flat was empty, but there was sign of some kind of explosion. Ash was keen to get back to San Fran that minute, but Six held him off warning that there was still danger for them in their home city. Six arranged for Nunzio to get his mafia goons out looking for Ash’s sister.
Carlo called. He had found a buyer for the stolen guns, and he made arrangements for a meet at 1am in an abandoned industrial estate.
Six told Ash that once they had off loaded the guns, they would hire a private plane, fly back to Frisco, and see if they could track Daisy down, ignoring Nunzio’s best efforts to keep them out of the city. Ash agreed, and they drove straight back to the safe house where Glyph and Sickle were watching the truck of guns.
Collecting the truck Six and Ash went to the meet. It was dark but in the headlights they saw Carlo’s car. He got out, and was backed up by another who was introduced to the runners as Hilt. He had been working with Carlo for a few months. They stood and talked for a bit, Carlo helped himself to one of the MP5’s, before the buyer turned up. A car, followed by two transits.
The Cowboy stepped out of the car. He smiled at Carlo and greeted him before telling the runners that they had stolen his guns and he was going to take them back. He wasn’t in the mood for Six’s bargaining and the fact that he held a gold Revolver in his direction showed his intent.
Six instinctively dove for cover as the Cowboy loosed off a shot. Ash fired at the cowboy, Carlo shot at Ash, Hilt stood there for a moment not sure who was on who’s side, before 4 goons stepped out of the transits firing a hailstorm of bullets in his and Ash’s direction. Ash was dropped after the first volley of fire but Six was able to fend off Carlo with his own pistol, while he brought the Car with mounted FN-HAR into play.
Bullets flew, and the Cowboy attempted to flee in his car while his goons plugged the runners but Six was wise to it, and carefully aimed shots at one of the transit van fuel tanks blew the van and the Cowboys car to pieces, the remaining goons perished in the fireball.
Hilt, Six and Ash patched each other up and made more formal introductions. They had no idea Carlo was about to set them up, and Hilt had no loyalties to him other than financial so they were cool.
Six phoned Nunzio and told him that they had been played by the Cowboy and Carlo, and that they were sitting on a truck load of stolen guns. Nunzio arranged for some more reliable contacts to collect the guns from them, and Nunzio paid Six himself.
Wednesday 19th July 2070 03:00
The run seemed to be off, the Johnson (The Cowboy) was dead, so Six and Ash vowed to head back to San Fran and track down Daisy. Hilt, a San Franciscan himself agreed to tag along. They headed to the private airstrip and picked up the plane that they had chartered.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Six's Blog.
By N.Barnes
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 22: 19.07.70>
Alright, today is a better day, Today, I’m chilly. There are three reasons for that. One – I think I have a better handle on what the frag is going on out on the streets; Two, we’ve decided on a course of action that I’m happy with and we’re not just going to sit around waiting to get dicked any more and Three, Ki-rinn finally showed up. Hell, I’m first to admit Frosty and I have a fractious relationship – he hadn’t been in Atlanta 24 hours before we were at each other’s throats but damn it feels better knowing he’s watching my back too. Hell with Glyph and Sickle playing Roomie back at the Safe house, it’s getting to be like we moved the entire damn team coast to coast!
So anyways, while my brain was still frazzled and while Ash and Sickle were still trying to get their asses off of the Express and back into Atlanta, Ki-rinn made contact. He’d been chasing Skirt and Bastards with a fucked-up old army buddy over in Singapore and was on a flight path back that meant he could detour via Atlanta. I picked him up and filled him in and got myself a tight bundle of cynicism for my trouble. Frosty thinks we can’t keep our asses outta trouble without him and we’re reading way too much into the situation. Maybe he has a point.
Just about the one thing he believes least of all though is these visions from Allisom. Which meant it was a bad time to suddenly get hit by one – of Snow, in a marshalling yard, with a datadisk, getting his card punched by that laser with the high pitched whine. While my head’s still clearing, Ash gets on the phone. He had the vision too and now he’s looking out of the express train window at the self same marshalling yard. He resolves to dump the emergency brake on the train and bail out and I tell him Ki-rinn and I will blaze over there. Man Ki-rinn thinks we’re overdoing the dope. He has some valid points – there is a certain sort of devil may care lunacy to just taking these visions on faith. We don’t even know WHEN this vision is of but I tell him we’ve followed our guts on them so far and been done right by.
Trusting your gut is right out of Frosty’s Mantra of Modern Warfare. It’s something tangible he can believe in so for once he takes it on faith too.
Now the marshalling yard turns out to be an interesting place but not because it fulfils our vision. We find the warehouse soon enough and there is a welcoming committee waiting there packing heat. Thing is, they look more like manual labourers than Separatist Shaman’s or whomever the frag it is that has it in for Snow. We sit tight a while and in short order the San Fran Yakuza turn up, bold as brass, including Mr Cock of the Walk himself Yutaka Seto driving MY beloved car! Two things strike me as odd – firstly that Seto is looking to use my car out here for his own business, he isn’t just rubbing my nose in the fact that I lost the Bullet to him and secondly that these are the San Fran Yakuza – in Atlanta of all places! It’s like the entire Bay Area has been evacuated to the East Coast for the week – why are there so many familiar faces turning up out here?!
The Yaks spring a surprise on the manual labourers waiting in the warehouse and when they begin loading up crates of gear from inside, we can’t resist the opportunity to spoke their wheel and try to snatch the stuff for ourselves. Combat breaks out but we’ve got the drop on them and they aren’t quite expecting the level of trouble we bring to them. It’s short, bloody and brutal and I make sure no one sees me knocking around the place – extra trouble with the Yaks I can do without – but Ash could be in a world of hurt back home. He reckons they got a good look at him. That could incriminate me too – but I’ll have to play dumb.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Seto takes off so we grab the Yak truck full of merchandise and Ki-rinn and Ash blaze with it while I go back on over watch. Frag all happens at the Marshalling Yard thereafter and there’s certainly no sign of Snow. Frosty and Ash report it that we’ve struck pay dirt and picked up a wagon load of hooky guns. We cherry pick the best of the lot for ourselves and after a few heated words, brought on mostly because Ash doesn’t take kindly to me ripping the shit out of his idea that we can sell these babies on the street, I make contact with Carlo and ask him if he’s interested in taking them off of our hands and selling them on through the family. I figure if the Mafia can’t use a load of hot shooters, who can?!
Right while we’re cooling our heels, I get a call from Orange Jay, the beatnik hippy chick who was running the shop over from April Walker’s talismongery in Birmingham, Alabama. Seems Sickle didn’t meet the real April Walker after all and that just about clears up some of the confusion – evidently Sickle met the Cowboy, Johnny Kickback, who was fishing for info on the actual whereabouts of Binary Pulse. Jay tells us that April has seen through the thinly veiled charade I’d constructed for wanting to meet up with her but is willing to have a chat nevertheless. There are conditions – we have to meet Jay and travel in her unmarked, beat up Datsun. We have to accept some herbal magic tree shit that sends us right off into the land of nod – that or some sort of damn sleep spell I presume – so we lose track of the route and we get to have our PANs hacked by Binary Pulse herself so that as far as we can tell, the lakeside cabin where we hook up is actually at the North Pole… Neat.
A long and in-depth conversation ensues at the meet and I’ve no intention of boring you with too many details. Suffice to say the key points are that a Free Spirit is looking to find and kill Binary Pulse and her team because of a run in which they learnt its true name. That gives them some kind of hoochie koochie power over said spirit apparently. Last April knew, the spirit was masquerading as her dead team mate Solace. Maybe Johnny Kickback is another incarnation of this spirit or working for it to ice April – either way, he’s bad news too. Worse, now that we’ve hacked April’s computer, the files we’ve all downloaded to our PANs could make us targets for this spirit too. Daisy is almost certainly in a lot of trouble. Jay tells us our ‘auras are bleeding into the Astral’ which goes right over my head. It sounds bad though and apparently could be responsible for the visions we’ve been having. Something else to curse the name of Allisom for.
We also confirm that Shift is Snow by another name and that means to complete our run, we’d have to give up April and Snow…
Now none of us are keen on that. April has been very helpful and well, professional courtesy and a budding friendship means we aren’t going to give up Snow on a whim. So we’re faced with another botched run and I am not a happy lad. It almost spills over into an open argument at that point but I manage to talk Ki-rinn and Ash round. Rather than just binning another run and taking another hit on our reputation, I argue that there’s a way we can justify our pay without giving up April and Snow. Ki-rinn produces the memory foam face mask disguise kit he’s been sitting on for the last few runs and we take a scan of April’s face figuring that this spirit didn’t know Kote was dead so it won’t know the truth if we fake April’s death at some future point. We’re in no rush – we weren’t given a time limit, so we can afford to wait for a prime opportunity. If we can just get hold of Snow, we can explain the whole gig to him and set up something similar. We’ll then hand over the info that the team of runners is long since dead and Bob’s your Uncle, Fanny’s your Aunt.
Now, if we could only get hold of Snow…
Mood: Concerned.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 22: 19.07.70>
Alright, today is a better day, Today, I’m chilly. There are three reasons for that. One – I think I have a better handle on what the frag is going on out on the streets; Two, we’ve decided on a course of action that I’m happy with and we’re not just going to sit around waiting to get dicked any more and Three, Ki-rinn finally showed up. Hell, I’m first to admit Frosty and I have a fractious relationship – he hadn’t been in Atlanta 24 hours before we were at each other’s throats but damn it feels better knowing he’s watching my back too. Hell with Glyph and Sickle playing Roomie back at the Safe house, it’s getting to be like we moved the entire damn team coast to coast!
So anyways, while my brain was still frazzled and while Ash and Sickle were still trying to get their asses off of the Express and back into Atlanta, Ki-rinn made contact. He’d been chasing Skirt and Bastards with a fucked-up old army buddy over in Singapore and was on a flight path back that meant he could detour via Atlanta. I picked him up and filled him in and got myself a tight bundle of cynicism for my trouble. Frosty thinks we can’t keep our asses outta trouble without him and we’re reading way too much into the situation. Maybe he has a point.
Just about the one thing he believes least of all though is these visions from Allisom. Which meant it was a bad time to suddenly get hit by one – of Snow, in a marshalling yard, with a datadisk, getting his card punched by that laser with the high pitched whine. While my head’s still clearing, Ash gets on the phone. He had the vision too and now he’s looking out of the express train window at the self same marshalling yard. He resolves to dump the emergency brake on the train and bail out and I tell him Ki-rinn and I will blaze over there. Man Ki-rinn thinks we’re overdoing the dope. He has some valid points – there is a certain sort of devil may care lunacy to just taking these visions on faith. We don’t even know WHEN this vision is of but I tell him we’ve followed our guts on them so far and been done right by.
Trusting your gut is right out of Frosty’s Mantra of Modern Warfare. It’s something tangible he can believe in so for once he takes it on faith too.
Now the marshalling yard turns out to be an interesting place but not because it fulfils our vision. We find the warehouse soon enough and there is a welcoming committee waiting there packing heat. Thing is, they look more like manual labourers than Separatist Shaman’s or whomever the frag it is that has it in for Snow. We sit tight a while and in short order the San Fran Yakuza turn up, bold as brass, including Mr Cock of the Walk himself Yutaka Seto driving MY beloved car! Two things strike me as odd – firstly that Seto is looking to use my car out here for his own business, he isn’t just rubbing my nose in the fact that I lost the Bullet to him and secondly that these are the San Fran Yakuza – in Atlanta of all places! It’s like the entire Bay Area has been evacuated to the East Coast for the week – why are there so many familiar faces turning up out here?!
The Yaks spring a surprise on the manual labourers waiting in the warehouse and when they begin loading up crates of gear from inside, we can’t resist the opportunity to spoke their wheel and try to snatch the stuff for ourselves. Combat breaks out but we’ve got the drop on them and they aren’t quite expecting the level of trouble we bring to them. It’s short, bloody and brutal and I make sure no one sees me knocking around the place – extra trouble with the Yaks I can do without – but Ash could be in a world of hurt back home. He reckons they got a good look at him. That could incriminate me too – but I’ll have to play dumb.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Seto takes off so we grab the Yak truck full of merchandise and Ki-rinn and Ash blaze with it while I go back on over watch. Frag all happens at the Marshalling Yard thereafter and there’s certainly no sign of Snow. Frosty and Ash report it that we’ve struck pay dirt and picked up a wagon load of hooky guns. We cherry pick the best of the lot for ourselves and after a few heated words, brought on mostly because Ash doesn’t take kindly to me ripping the shit out of his idea that we can sell these babies on the street, I make contact with Carlo and ask him if he’s interested in taking them off of our hands and selling them on through the family. I figure if the Mafia can’t use a load of hot shooters, who can?!
Right while we’re cooling our heels, I get a call from Orange Jay, the beatnik hippy chick who was running the shop over from April Walker’s talismongery in Birmingham, Alabama. Seems Sickle didn’t meet the real April Walker after all and that just about clears up some of the confusion – evidently Sickle met the Cowboy, Johnny Kickback, who was fishing for info on the actual whereabouts of Binary Pulse. Jay tells us that April has seen through the thinly veiled charade I’d constructed for wanting to meet up with her but is willing to have a chat nevertheless. There are conditions – we have to meet Jay and travel in her unmarked, beat up Datsun. We have to accept some herbal magic tree shit that sends us right off into the land of nod – that or some sort of damn sleep spell I presume – so we lose track of the route and we get to have our PANs hacked by Binary Pulse herself so that as far as we can tell, the lakeside cabin where we hook up is actually at the North Pole… Neat.
A long and in-depth conversation ensues at the meet and I’ve no intention of boring you with too many details. Suffice to say the key points are that a Free Spirit is looking to find and kill Binary Pulse and her team because of a run in which they learnt its true name. That gives them some kind of hoochie koochie power over said spirit apparently. Last April knew, the spirit was masquerading as her dead team mate Solace. Maybe Johnny Kickback is another incarnation of this spirit or working for it to ice April – either way, he’s bad news too. Worse, now that we’ve hacked April’s computer, the files we’ve all downloaded to our PANs could make us targets for this spirit too. Daisy is almost certainly in a lot of trouble. Jay tells us our ‘auras are bleeding into the Astral’ which goes right over my head. It sounds bad though and apparently could be responsible for the visions we’ve been having. Something else to curse the name of Allisom for.
We also confirm that Shift is Snow by another name and that means to complete our run, we’d have to give up April and Snow…
Now none of us are keen on that. April has been very helpful and well, professional courtesy and a budding friendship means we aren’t going to give up Snow on a whim. So we’re faced with another botched run and I am not a happy lad. It almost spills over into an open argument at that point but I manage to talk Ki-rinn and Ash round. Rather than just binning another run and taking another hit on our reputation, I argue that there’s a way we can justify our pay without giving up April and Snow. Ki-rinn produces the memory foam face mask disguise kit he’s been sitting on for the last few runs and we take a scan of April’s face figuring that this spirit didn’t know Kote was dead so it won’t know the truth if we fake April’s death at some future point. We’re in no rush – we weren’t given a time limit, so we can afford to wait for a prime opportunity. If we can just get hold of Snow, we can explain the whole gig to him and set up something similar. We’ll then hand over the info that the team of runners is long since dead and Bob’s your Uncle, Fanny’s your Aunt.
Now, if we could only get hold of Snow…
Mood: Concerned.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Meeting April Turner. Yakuza and Guns.
Ash, Ki-Rin, Six.
Tuesday 18th July 2070
Ki-Rin had been overseas helping one of his contacts for a few weeks, but as he flew back towards UCAS airspace, his comlink pinged with a few messages; one was from Six warning of possible trouble, so Ki-Rin gave him a call. Six gave him a very rough outline of the situation and Ki-Rin decided to join the party.
Ash and Sickle were en-route to Charleston on the east coast express train. Six was on his way back to Atlanta in his car after chasing Binary Pulse/The Cowboy.
The runners were hit with another vision. Snow again, this time he was at a warehouse in a train marshalling yard. He handed over a microdisk to someone unseen, and then there was a high-pitched whining sound and then the vision ended.
Ash blinked as the train made it’s way through a marshalling yard. Ash saw the same warehouse that he had seen in the vision. Ash phoned Six and told him that he had located the location of the marshalling yard and that he will be back in about 4 hours once he had got on a train to make the return journey.
In the meantime Six gave Ki-Rin a detained run down of all that had happened so far. Ki-Rin was sceptical of these visions, which he himself had not been having while overseas, but he took a look at all of the footage that the runners had gathered and gave his opinion of what might be going on.
They eventually decided to meet up with Ash at the train yard, and when the return train Ash was on came near to the yard, he jammed on the emergency brake. After the train had rapidly decelerated, Ash leapt out and went to ground until the fat controller gave up the chase.
Six and Ki-Rin drove past the warehouse and saw a pair of goons stood at the rear of the building near a door. Ash walked past the front and saw that the roller shutter door was half open. He suggested that Six sent the Flyspy in to have a look about. There were three yard workers inside who seemed to be waiting for something or someone.
The runners chose to wait and see what happened and enjoyed a quiet smoke of their preferred brand.
Half an hour or so passed and then the Yakuza turned up. A transit van pulled round to the roller shutter door. Six’s old muscle car headed round toward the rear. That meant that Yutaka Seto, the Yakuza Oyoban’s son was here. They came equipped for action, and went into the warehouse guns blazing. They had clearly come for hostages, using stick shock rounds to drop the warehouse guys. They quickly bundled one of them into the transit for questioning. The Yakuza came for the crates though, and as soon as the warehouse was clear they brought up a curtainsider and began to load the crates in.
The runners were holding a watching brief, and as soon as they saw the crates were loaded with weapons and munitions, they decided that they were going to take the lot. Moving in close, the runners waited for the Yakuza to load up all of the crates before attacking.
The gunfight was fast and short lived, Seto was able to make a break for it, clocking a good look at Ash before being forced to flee under a hail of bullets, and the runners quickly secured their load and drove away with 100+ guns and ammo to suit.
Six calmly parked up and waited for Snow to turn up while Ash and Ki-Rin looked at making moves at selling on the weapons that they themselves hadn’t laid claim to. Eventually Six contacted Carlo to see if he was interested in the weapons and Carlo said that he would come back to him.
While Six waited he received a phone call. From the woman from Orange Jays, the hippy shop he had left his contact details at. The woman on the phone named herself as Jay and said that April was prepared to meet up with them. She implied that they already knew what Six was really after and Six guessed that April had put to use her long time learned Decking skills to have a poke around in Six’s past.
Without a better lead Six agreed to the meet and the three of them headed back to Birmingham (Alabama). The truck full of weapons was left in the care of Glyph and Sickle.
Jay, met with the runners and told them that they would have to ride in her jeep, so that she could protect April’s hiding place, and once en-route she case sleep on them. Waking some hours later, the runners were understandably annoyed at being magicked, but they found themselves at the side of a large lake surrounded by woodland. Jay, and a slight attractive woman in her forties stood talking by a Ford Americar.
Jay cam across and told the runners that she had studied their auras and had seen that they had been damaged somehow. That essence was leaking into the astral plane and that they should be experiencing vivid dreams and other connections to the spiritual world.
Then, April came across and told them that she wanted to warn them of the trouble that they were getting involved with. She used to be a runner and her old team had broken up after a run had gone sour. The team’s mage, a girl called Solace had been taken by a free sprit that they were trying to banish and the rest of the team took her loss badly.
Now it seemed that the spirit was back in the form of Solace, wanting to find all in that team who knew it’s real name, the only thing that had power over a spirit.
The runners listened and then got back to the job in hand. They had been paid to find 3 people. One was already dead. One was Snow, their contact. And one turned out to be a charming woman who just wanted to settle into a quiet life. The runners weren’t prepared to hand them over to their employer, but at the same time they were fully aware that they had jacked far too many runs lately and that another DNF would harm their reputations irreparably. The runners decided to make moves at handing over faked info. They would stage some kind of death of April and Snow, and although the details hadn’t been worked out yet they took a face mask of April to use on some other poor sap they would kill.
The runners got back into the Jeep with Jay, who began to drive them back to town.
TBC…
Tuesday 18th July 2070
Ki-Rin had been overseas helping one of his contacts for a few weeks, but as he flew back towards UCAS airspace, his comlink pinged with a few messages; one was from Six warning of possible trouble, so Ki-Rin gave him a call. Six gave him a very rough outline of the situation and Ki-Rin decided to join the party.
Ash and Sickle were en-route to Charleston on the east coast express train. Six was on his way back to Atlanta in his car after chasing Binary Pulse/The Cowboy.
The runners were hit with another vision. Snow again, this time he was at a warehouse in a train marshalling yard. He handed over a microdisk to someone unseen, and then there was a high-pitched whining sound and then the vision ended.
Ash blinked as the train made it’s way through a marshalling yard. Ash saw the same warehouse that he had seen in the vision. Ash phoned Six and told him that he had located the location of the marshalling yard and that he will be back in about 4 hours once he had got on a train to make the return journey.
In the meantime Six gave Ki-Rin a detained run down of all that had happened so far. Ki-Rin was sceptical of these visions, which he himself had not been having while overseas, but he took a look at all of the footage that the runners had gathered and gave his opinion of what might be going on.
They eventually decided to meet up with Ash at the train yard, and when the return train Ash was on came near to the yard, he jammed on the emergency brake. After the train had rapidly decelerated, Ash leapt out and went to ground until the fat controller gave up the chase.
Six and Ki-Rin drove past the warehouse and saw a pair of goons stood at the rear of the building near a door. Ash walked past the front and saw that the roller shutter door was half open. He suggested that Six sent the Flyspy in to have a look about. There were three yard workers inside who seemed to be waiting for something or someone.
The runners chose to wait and see what happened and enjoyed a quiet smoke of their preferred brand.
Half an hour or so passed and then the Yakuza turned up. A transit van pulled round to the roller shutter door. Six’s old muscle car headed round toward the rear. That meant that Yutaka Seto, the Yakuza Oyoban’s son was here. They came equipped for action, and went into the warehouse guns blazing. They had clearly come for hostages, using stick shock rounds to drop the warehouse guys. They quickly bundled one of them into the transit for questioning. The Yakuza came for the crates though, and as soon as the warehouse was clear they brought up a curtainsider and began to load the crates in.
The runners were holding a watching brief, and as soon as they saw the crates were loaded with weapons and munitions, they decided that they were going to take the lot. Moving in close, the runners waited for the Yakuza to load up all of the crates before attacking.
The gunfight was fast and short lived, Seto was able to make a break for it, clocking a good look at Ash before being forced to flee under a hail of bullets, and the runners quickly secured their load and drove away with 100+ guns and ammo to suit.
Six calmly parked up and waited for Snow to turn up while Ash and Ki-Rin looked at making moves at selling on the weapons that they themselves hadn’t laid claim to. Eventually Six contacted Carlo to see if he was interested in the weapons and Carlo said that he would come back to him.
While Six waited he received a phone call. From the woman from Orange Jays, the hippy shop he had left his contact details at. The woman on the phone named herself as Jay and said that April was prepared to meet up with them. She implied that they already knew what Six was really after and Six guessed that April had put to use her long time learned Decking skills to have a poke around in Six’s past.
Without a better lead Six agreed to the meet and the three of them headed back to Birmingham (Alabama). The truck full of weapons was left in the care of Glyph and Sickle.
Jay, met with the runners and told them that they would have to ride in her jeep, so that she could protect April’s hiding place, and once en-route she case sleep on them. Waking some hours later, the runners were understandably annoyed at being magicked, but they found themselves at the side of a large lake surrounded by woodland. Jay, and a slight attractive woman in her forties stood talking by a Ford Americar.
Jay cam across and told the runners that she had studied their auras and had seen that they had been damaged somehow. That essence was leaking into the astral plane and that they should be experiencing vivid dreams and other connections to the spiritual world.
Then, April came across and told them that she wanted to warn them of the trouble that they were getting involved with. She used to be a runner and her old team had broken up after a run had gone sour. The team’s mage, a girl called Solace had been taken by a free sprit that they were trying to banish and the rest of the team took her loss badly.
Now it seemed that the spirit was back in the form of Solace, wanting to find all in that team who knew it’s real name, the only thing that had power over a spirit.
The runners listened and then got back to the job in hand. They had been paid to find 3 people. One was already dead. One was Snow, their contact. And one turned out to be a charming woman who just wanted to settle into a quiet life. The runners weren’t prepared to hand them over to their employer, but at the same time they were fully aware that they had jacked far too many runs lately and that another DNF would harm their reputations irreparably. The runners decided to make moves at handing over faked info. They would stage some kind of death of April and Snow, and although the details hadn’t been worked out yet they took a face mask of April to use on some other poor sap they would kill.
The runners got back into the Jeep with Jay, who began to drive them back to town.
TBC…
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Six's Blog.
By N.Barnes
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 21: 17.07.70>
Man, my Swede is fragged. What a head-fuck! If you wanna follow what’s been going on in the World of Six, take your time and read slowly or you’ll never keep up…
Sickle joined us at the Safe House in Atlanta after we’d gotten Ash’s ride fixed up some. It wasn’t too long before Nunzio’s contact in Atlanta, Carlo, showed his face to sub-contract some work out to us. Seems the Shindig we spotted at the Triad club Province happened at the behest of someone called The Cowboy. IIRC, at the time we identified this fellah as an Atlanta mover and shaker called Johnny Kickback. The Cowboy was buying up the services of the West Coast crime syndicates and getting them to work for him. It was the first job he’d handed to the Mafia that was being subcontracted to us.
Carlo put 100k on the table and asked to find three Shadowrunners who were big time back in the ‘50’s – Shift, Kote and Binary Pulse. All that was needed to earn the dough was the current location of all three so we immediately put our contacts to work. I tapped up Snow and had another one of those damn Allisom visions in which Snow was shot dead in his living room so I advised him to get the hell out of dodge at the same time. Snow had heard the names and added a fourth who used to be part of the team – Solace.
Now it turned out that Solace had died, mid-mission, in the late-‘50’s and it was this which led to the break-up of the team. Kote had gone postal, possible because of Solace’s death, and had killed 13 people in a botched raid on Renraku, before killing himself. So far, so easy. Binary Pulse had kept on running solo into the ‘60’s before finally handing herself over to the heat to answer for her crimes. That meant Lone Star had assigned her a criminal SIN and that made things much easier because it allowed us to identify her as April Walker, owner of a Talismonger’s in Birmingham, Alabama called Walk the Path.
Daisy told us there was a heavily encrypted signal coming from the shop.
Binary Pulse had been a Decker so that made sense – Daisy said she could give us some kit that would help her do a data-steal and decryption if we could get access to the source of the signal. We cruised out to Birmingham, Alabama and found that Walk the Path had been abandoned for a month or more.
With little alternative but to take direct action, Sickle and Ash broke in while I provided cover and FRT. As the download started, the Daring Duo heard something downstairs so I sent the Fly-Spy in to investigate. There was some sort of fragged up Bot just standing at the bottom of the stairs (though Sickle later heard tell it was a spirit – which figures in a
Talismongers) but the Drek only seriously hit the fan when Ash started to break into the shop safe.
Suddenly the freaky Bot is on my boys and worse, a remote-rigged drone turret flips from the ceiling to start handing out tickets for the Chaingun Cha Cha. I blaze down a back alley, blow open a fire door and let rip with the vehicle weaponry while Ash and Sickle take down the Bot. In short order they complete the download and we blaze but once in the car Sickle reveals that April phoned her own shop after that little confrontation. I guess she was watching their tomfoolery through the building’s security system.
Apparently they had a nice long chat and agreed to meet – sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but with Daisy estimating that decryption will take days rather than hours, it’s at least a quicker way of earning our cash.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Personal misgivings aside, I wasn’t about to let Sickle hang his ass out to dry so as he took the meet play by play, Ash and I provided cover from a vantage point nearby – ready to leap to his defence. To all intents and purposes, Sickle and his date had a nice quiet breakfast together. They discussed her and her team’s history, the dangers of Shadowrunning and her (fairly justified) paranoia that someone was out to get her but she didn’t exactly spill the beans. With little to go on, we decided on the spur of the moment to follow her via a combination of remote vehicle ops and matrix nous.
The canny lass certainly gave us the run around heading north by train only to switch onto a southbound express train to Atlanta. Fortunately, with little else to do in Birmingham, Alabama, Ash and Sickle head headed for the safe house and were already ahead by some margin. As I pursued the train by car, Ash and Sickle took up point on the platform, watching and waiting for April to arrive. Shame she didn’t get off of the train. Our best laid plans had gone to rack and ruin but quick-thinking by Ash meant Daisy was already hacking the camera feeds from the train carriage…
April had locked herself in the bathroom en route to Atlanta and emerged dressed all in denim, complete with moustache. She looked depressingly like Johnny Kickback in her new outfit and had obviously walked right out past Ash and Sickle as they kept tabs on the platform.
Now this is where it all gets just a tad surreal. Either, April Walker is masquerading as Johnny Kickback or Johnny Kickback is masquerading as April Walker. Whichever it is, it doesn’t make much sense that April/Johnny is then bringing in hired help to try and find Binary Pulse – unless it’s some sort of test. Maybe April is pretending to be Johnny to throw the people she knows he is sending after her off of the scent. Alternatively, Johnny has been trying to find April, keeping her shop under surveillance and, not realising the Mafia had subcontracted the job to us, thought he should try to screw information out of us ASAP when he saw us busting in.
I have no idea.
All I do know right now is that we are missing several pieces from the jigsaw. And here’s another surprise: Daisy decoded a forwarding number for Shift from the encrypted files on April’s server. Shift’s number matches Snow’s. Sure, Snow has his fingers in many pies, but does that mean he used to be Shift or just that he’s acting as an agent and go-between for April’s team-mate? What a twisted web we weave…
We’re not sure we’ve done the job yet. Frankly, if finishing the job means handing over Snow’s address, I’m not sure we want to – and that’s without even considering my vision of Snow’s death. We’ll protect Snow – no doubt about that. It’s a matter of honour and professional courtesy – you don’t rat out your Chummers.
Which kinda means this job is another fragging bust. Another screw job.
Sure, we’ve got the money up front this time but unless we cough up the information in return, keeping it will mean dicking the Mafia and that gives you the life expectancy of a woodchuck on the freeway. To say nothing of the fact that my brother subcontracted this to us and blood is thicker than water.
We are so screwed.
Mood: FINE: Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.
Ends: 2/2>
||
Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 21: 17.07.70>
Man, my Swede is fragged. What a head-fuck! If you wanna follow what’s been going on in the World of Six, take your time and read slowly or you’ll never keep up…
Sickle joined us at the Safe House in Atlanta after we’d gotten Ash’s ride fixed up some. It wasn’t too long before Nunzio’s contact in Atlanta, Carlo, showed his face to sub-contract some work out to us. Seems the Shindig we spotted at the Triad club Province happened at the behest of someone called The Cowboy. IIRC, at the time we identified this fellah as an Atlanta mover and shaker called Johnny Kickback. The Cowboy was buying up the services of the West Coast crime syndicates and getting them to work for him. It was the first job he’d handed to the Mafia that was being subcontracted to us.
Carlo put 100k on the table and asked to find three Shadowrunners who were big time back in the ‘50’s – Shift, Kote and Binary Pulse. All that was needed to earn the dough was the current location of all three so we immediately put our contacts to work. I tapped up Snow and had another one of those damn Allisom visions in which Snow was shot dead in his living room so I advised him to get the hell out of dodge at the same time. Snow had heard the names and added a fourth who used to be part of the team – Solace.
Now it turned out that Solace had died, mid-mission, in the late-‘50’s and it was this which led to the break-up of the team. Kote had gone postal, possible because of Solace’s death, and had killed 13 people in a botched raid on Renraku, before killing himself. So far, so easy. Binary Pulse had kept on running solo into the ‘60’s before finally handing herself over to the heat to answer for her crimes. That meant Lone Star had assigned her a criminal SIN and that made things much easier because it allowed us to identify her as April Walker, owner of a Talismonger’s in Birmingham, Alabama called Walk the Path.
Daisy told us there was a heavily encrypted signal coming from the shop.
Binary Pulse had been a Decker so that made sense – Daisy said she could give us some kit that would help her do a data-steal and decryption if we could get access to the source of the signal. We cruised out to Birmingham, Alabama and found that Walk the Path had been abandoned for a month or more.
With little alternative but to take direct action, Sickle and Ash broke in while I provided cover and FRT. As the download started, the Daring Duo heard something downstairs so I sent the Fly-Spy in to investigate. There was some sort of fragged up Bot just standing at the bottom of the stairs (though Sickle later heard tell it was a spirit – which figures in a
Talismongers) but the Drek only seriously hit the fan when Ash started to break into the shop safe.
Suddenly the freaky Bot is on my boys and worse, a remote-rigged drone turret flips from the ceiling to start handing out tickets for the Chaingun Cha Cha. I blaze down a back alley, blow open a fire door and let rip with the vehicle weaponry while Ash and Sickle take down the Bot. In short order they complete the download and we blaze but once in the car Sickle reveals that April phoned her own shop after that little confrontation. I guess she was watching their tomfoolery through the building’s security system.
Apparently they had a nice long chat and agreed to meet – sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but with Daisy estimating that decryption will take days rather than hours, it’s at least a quicker way of earning our cash.
Continues: 1/2>
|| >
Personal misgivings aside, I wasn’t about to let Sickle hang his ass out to dry so as he took the meet play by play, Ash and I provided cover from a vantage point nearby – ready to leap to his defence. To all intents and purposes, Sickle and his date had a nice quiet breakfast together. They discussed her and her team’s history, the dangers of Shadowrunning and her (fairly justified) paranoia that someone was out to get her but she didn’t exactly spill the beans. With little to go on, we decided on the spur of the moment to follow her via a combination of remote vehicle ops and matrix nous.
The canny lass certainly gave us the run around heading north by train only to switch onto a southbound express train to Atlanta. Fortunately, with little else to do in Birmingham, Alabama, Ash and Sickle head headed for the safe house and were already ahead by some margin. As I pursued the train by car, Ash and Sickle took up point on the platform, watching and waiting for April to arrive. Shame she didn’t get off of the train. Our best laid plans had gone to rack and ruin but quick-thinking by Ash meant Daisy was already hacking the camera feeds from the train carriage…
April had locked herself in the bathroom en route to Atlanta and emerged dressed all in denim, complete with moustache. She looked depressingly like Johnny Kickback in her new outfit and had obviously walked right out past Ash and Sickle as they kept tabs on the platform.
Now this is where it all gets just a tad surreal. Either, April Walker is masquerading as Johnny Kickback or Johnny Kickback is masquerading as April Walker. Whichever it is, it doesn’t make much sense that April/Johnny is then bringing in hired help to try and find Binary Pulse – unless it’s some sort of test. Maybe April is pretending to be Johnny to throw the people she knows he is sending after her off of the scent. Alternatively, Johnny has been trying to find April, keeping her shop under surveillance and, not realising the Mafia had subcontracted the job to us, thought he should try to screw information out of us ASAP when he saw us busting in.
I have no idea.
All I do know right now is that we are missing several pieces from the jigsaw. And here’s another surprise: Daisy decoded a forwarding number for Shift from the encrypted files on April’s server. Shift’s number matches Snow’s. Sure, Snow has his fingers in many pies, but does that mean he used to be Shift or just that he’s acting as an agent and go-between for April’s team-mate? What a twisted web we weave…
We’re not sure we’ve done the job yet. Frankly, if finishing the job means handing over Snow’s address, I’m not sure we want to – and that’s without even considering my vision of Snow’s death. We’ll protect Snow – no doubt about that. It’s a matter of honour and professional courtesy – you don’t rat out your Chummers.
Which kinda means this job is another fragging bust. Another screw job.
Sure, we’ve got the money up front this time but unless we cough up the information in return, keeping it will mean dicking the Mafia and that gives you the life expectancy of a woodchuck on the freeway. To say nothing of the fact that my brother subcontracted this to us and blood is thicker than water.
We are so screwed.
Mood: FINE: Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.
Ends: 2/2>
||
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