Call Dir: Shadownet/ShadowlandsBBS/>
Select Region: Region=SanFrancisco>
Call SubDir: SanFrancisco/WeBlogs>
Select Blog: Author=V.Six>
Initializing…>
Entry 28: 03.09.70>
Life has a habit of getting on top of you from time to time, which is why it has been a while since my last update. It has been a wild few days – hell at one point I even thought my friendship with Ash was gone. We’re still on patchy ground but I’ve been able to lay some doubts to rest.
Back around the 26th of August, Snow put us on to a job from a small marketing Corp called Ocean Blue. On the verge of closing a major deal, one of their star execs had gone missing and with his handshake and signature needed for the contract, Ocean Blue needed to find out what had happened to him – pronto.
Research mode revealed that our boy wonder, Brent Masters, had been taken away for some ‘recreation’ by two delightful looking young ladies but it was a clear set up, less legit than a 30 buck Rolex, and we quickly tracked Brent’s last known location to a Shadowrunner flophouse where we assumed he was being held hostage.
I watched the street while the rest of the team busted in. The place was empty but Ash quickly started jabbering that he could see Brent Masters there and that he was trapped in the Astral plane. Before we could even start to puzzle that little snippet out, I saw the runners who owned the flophouse coming home, laden down with jerry cans of petrol. Who burns down their own flop and why?! Well, we had the drop on them and after a brief and bloody scrap we were able to ask the survivors exactly that. They claimed to have kidnapped Brent as per their contract, only to have him disappear on them. They claimed the flophouse was now haunted and had planned on burning it down to exorcise the spooks and recoup some of the costs of their botched job from the insurance. It was our only physical link to Brent, if a somewhat tenuous one, so we had other ideas. We sent the surviving runners from the other team packing and holed up. Inevitably, they came back looking for revenge and we were forced to shoot up the flophouse for a second time but the scrap was more dramatic this time out and with Lone Star closing in, we fled the scene.
The other team’s Mage had speculated on Brent’s disappearance with us and Ash had sorted out some sort of magical tracking that linked the flophouse where Brent was supposed to be astrally trapped with a familiar location in Silicon Valley. The former home of CAT’s CORE project had been refurbished, rebadged as a Genesis facility and was once more on our radar. We went for the direct approach, busting in and working our way down to the basement where the CORE project had been based. This too had been refurbished and now boasted a corporate suite to rival any Penthouse in the city. In residence?
None other than the previously deceased Dominic Cross.
Now I’m no Doctor but people who get their fucking heads blown off are not, in my experience, in the habit of getting up and strolling around afterwards. I was stunned. So was Glyph. Ash however, strolled into the suite like a friend of the family and sat down for tea, biccies and a nice chat. To say we felt betrayed was an understatement. Who sits down and takes tea with a supposedly dead scumbag whose life achievements including brain washing your brother and kidnapping your sister. Ash’ actions were way outside my comfort zone but before we could twitch, the door to the suite was slammed in our faces and despite our best efforts proved utterly impassable.
Continues: 1/3>
Ash emerged, unharmed and unfazed by our astonishment with his blasé reactions, clutching an ornate wooden box. I was mightily pissed at this point. I just could not comprehend why we weren’t putting Cross back in his grave. Glyph agreed so with a small C-15 charge, we did just that and you better believe I made damn sure this time. Drone obs confirmed Cross was pate. All that remained was the CORE orb he’d had embedded in his head but I even rolled that into the heart of the flames and stopped to watch it melt.
Ash started in on us with some damn fool scheme to free Brent that Cross had given him and that just about pushed me over the edge. I couldn’t accept the fact that Ash was going to tamely accept anything Cross had told him and take it at face value. We’re talking about Cross, a man who should be dead, a man who brainwashed Ash’s brother, a man who kidnapped and threatened our loved ones, a man whose schemes have caused us no end of trouble and loss.
And Ash is going to trust him and follow his instructions to try and free Brent Masters? Not happening, no way. I told Ash there and then in the middle of the Genesis facility exactly what I thought of him, his unpredictable behaviour of late and his reaction to meeting Cross again. I walked, packed up my kit, drew the Lone Star away from the facility to at least help the team make their getaway and washed my hands of the Run.
I kept an eye on the news and the development of the run as best I could but it gave me no satisfaction to be proven right when Lone Star discovered the bodies of Brent Masters and our liaison at Ocean Blue and put the time of death several days before we had first met them. From start to finish the whole thing had been a screw job, and I could only assume it was done to manipulate Ash into doing Cross’ dirty work for him.
Hours ticked by and nobody responded to my warning. Even having fallen out with Ash, I couldn’t stand the thought of the team being in trouble so I headed back to the Flophouse, where I was picking their vehicles up on GPS.
It seemed the guys had been involved in a third firefight there but beyond a Lone Star mopping up operation there was no sign of them. Worried now, I quickly linked into the stealth tag I had put on Ash and tracked them to a Corp called the Alamais Foundation. All set to bust in and try and get them out, I was somewhat surprised to find them sitting in the lobby, a little shaken up, a little battered and bruised but otherwise OK.
They filled me in. It seemed Cross had given Ash a statue – a magical seal that it wouldn’t be a good idea to break. Cross was prevented from breaking the seal by the magic worked into it but someone with pure intentions, such as rescuing a trapped man from the Astral Plane, could have broken it. The whole plot had been a set up by Cross to persuade Ash to break the statue for him. Fortunately a Dragon called Alamais, CEO of this Alamais Foundation, had gotten wind of the plot and intervened, sending his goons to subdue Ash and the team and haul them in front of the Dragon. Alamais had taken the statue and clearly had no intention of giving it back, but he had filled in a few blanks. The Legion and CORE projects CAT had been working on were designed solely to create clones of Dominic Cross that Allisom could possess and work through. At least we know now why Cross appears to have more lives than a cat.
And so to the bombshell. Ash had cut a deal with the Dragon and taken on a job to kill the head of the Legion project and throw a spanner in the works of Cross’ clone factory. Hell I would have done that for free, so when the team asked me to come back onboard, I agreed, despite any misgivings I had about whether or not the Dragon was out to screw us over too. Ki-rinn picked up a data trail on Simon Crusher, the man Alamais identified as leading the Legion project and we soon found ourselves masquerading as horsey types to gain the confidence of a man called Philip Myers. Myers had part-owned a racehorse with Crusher and we thought he might still be in contact with our target. Sure enough, he sang like a canary and using a nanopaste facial disguise we decided I would pose as Myers to meet Crusher at the racetrack.
Continues: 2/3>
The meeting went like a dream, in spite of a couple of hairy moments and we all worked together to con Crusher into believing he was talking to his old friend while we slipped a stealth tag on to his jacket. I played Myers, Glyph played the drunken broad who made a pass at Crusher and Ki-rinn played my personal bodyguard, intervening physically to tag our man while hauling the horny drunk away. I wasn’t keen on staying any longer than necessary and increasing the risk our deception might be noticed so we made our excuses and left. When Crusher finally departed the racetrack he used a helicopter and while he had the edge on us for speed, we were as close behind him on the ground as four wheels and a beefy engine would allow.
The Legion Facility was on the shores of Pyramid Lake, near Nixon and we made our way there without too much fuss. Glyph and Ki-rinn teamed up well to gain us access to the compound and although ill-advised use of explosive ammunition soon gave our presence away, our slick teamwork meant we were able to mop up the opposition without too much trouble. During the firefight, Glyph and Ash had discovered an access point for an underground extension of the facility and we cautiously headed inside.
Security was tight. Automatic blast doors. Steel Lynx security drones. It took all of us, working together to access the lower levels and fight off the security detail – more of CAT’s damned console soldiers. Most of the lower level was dominated by a huge cloning room with hi-tech medical bays for 16 copies of Dominic Cross. Only 8 of the bays were occupied by fledgling clones but there were also experiments being conducted on the good townsfolk of Nixon, who were presumably supplying the raw genetic materials for the clones. It was a drawn out and bloody battle down there and I’m not ashamed to say that I kept my head down. A fly-spy drone made for a good targeting spotter, locating and marking targets for the heavy guns of Ki-rinn, Glyph and Ash but my rudimentary skills as a medic were also in demand. I pumped so many medical Nanites into Frosty it must have been like a miniature Charge of the Light Brigade in his bloodstream.
We’d still seen no sign of Crusher so headed deeper into the facility, out under the lake and up inside the pyramid shaped rock formation that had inspired its name. Here we found Crusher, protected by a pair of the CORE vampires we had previously encountered, engaged in some sort of huge ritual.
Glyph and I dispatched the Vamps, previous experience making us wise to their moves, while Ki-rinn and Ash concentrated on Crusher. Ash I think got the killing shot in and his fall seemed to disrupt the ritual, sending lightning arcing explosively around the room and earthing through us! I’ve cursed the wasted cash since buying insulated armour for the swipe of the Thunderbirds but it paid dividends that day!
We figured it wouldn’t take that long for Crusher to be replaced and then the clone factory would get back on track. Well we couldn’t have that could we? I know we’re making something of a habit out of blowing up CAT facilities but Glyph had plenty of C-15 and some damn fool had tunnelled out under the lake which made flooding the place laughable simple. It was too good an opportunity to resist, so we didn’t. We added insult to injury by making our escape in a stolen helicopter too…
Ki-rinn has his ex-army buddies stripping the chopper down as we speak and Ash even managed to get the Dragon to pay up. It has been a wild ride these last few days but things seem to have turned out alright in the end. We all deserve a break now. I’ve got the Step Van up on the ramps and a few devious plans for modding it so I’ll welcome a couple of week’s alone in the garage.
Mood: Well satisfied
Ends: 3/3>
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
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.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Simon Crusher
Things had been getting progressively worse for Simon Crusher, Philip had been holding back on him, in fact at the race track he got the feeling that there was something going on, Simon couldn’t place it though, was Meyers compromised? The feds maybe? Or was he back to his old trick of squeezing every last nuyen out of the deal. No matter, he was becoming less than useful now and would need to be dealt with.
Arriving at the facility hadn’t improved matters; he had been away for just over two weeks setting up the big play for Dominic and he expected his deputy to keep things on schedule, this was not the case. He learned that the Legion project had suffered four unrecoverable failures because the civilians in the local town were becoming “edgy”. Not only that but last night a snatch had been rammed off the road, and the team were still alive. Simon dispatched the useless deputy with a single bullet, and then instantly rued his short temper, he could have made amends by joining Legion.
Simon handpicked three of those cold ass console soldiers, Perfect Shooter was a stroke of brilliance by Dominic, and sent them into Nixon. The Snatch team would not be able to tell the authorities anything by morning. And then he decided to take the bull by the horns. Jacket off, sleeves up, Simon did a quick tour.
The facility had been running on tick over since he left, the guards were efficient as always, both above and below ground but for some reason the labcoats were on half shifts, it took all of Simons control to not put a bullet into each and every one of them. Their brains were more useful not spread across the back wall he reasoned.
The growth chamber was more pleasing. There were four pillars that ran floor to ceiling, to each of these pillars four growth pods were secured. Eight fully formed husks were ready, and a further eight were close to completion. Each one looked magnificent, trapped from their waist down in their own pods, their arms pulled and locked into the pillar thrusting their naked torso forward.
Each one looked like the visage of Dominic but not quite. Simon was sure Dominic wouldn’t mind that he had spliced in sections of his own code. All sixteen strained at their tethers, mouths biting silently at the air in front of them, their dark eyes focusing on Simon. He knew they wouldn’t be able to understand his words but he found himself taking to them anyway.
Simon’s eyes traced the cables that fed the lifeless husks the essence from the living, up to the ceiling across the humid camber wall and then back down into the unassuming room where four people were slowly dieing. His gaze lingered there for a moment when his eye caught sight of the little red light. How long had the security alarm been triggered? Was this some kind of drill organised by the new deputy in a vain attempt to impress him. Then he heard the gunfire.
Arriving at the facility hadn’t improved matters; he had been away for just over two weeks setting up the big play for Dominic and he expected his deputy to keep things on schedule, this was not the case. He learned that the Legion project had suffered four unrecoverable failures because the civilians in the local town were becoming “edgy”. Not only that but last night a snatch had been rammed off the road, and the team were still alive. Simon dispatched the useless deputy with a single bullet, and then instantly rued his short temper, he could have made amends by joining Legion.
Simon handpicked three of those cold ass console soldiers, Perfect Shooter was a stroke of brilliance by Dominic, and sent them into Nixon. The Snatch team would not be able to tell the authorities anything by morning. And then he decided to take the bull by the horns. Jacket off, sleeves up, Simon did a quick tour.
The facility had been running on tick over since he left, the guards were efficient as always, both above and below ground but for some reason the labcoats were on half shifts, it took all of Simons control to not put a bullet into each and every one of them. Their brains were more useful not spread across the back wall he reasoned.
The growth chamber was more pleasing. There were four pillars that ran floor to ceiling, to each of these pillars four growth pods were secured. Eight fully formed husks were ready, and a further eight were close to completion. Each one looked magnificent, trapped from their waist down in their own pods, their arms pulled and locked into the pillar thrusting their naked torso forward.
Each one looked like the visage of Dominic but not quite. Simon was sure Dominic wouldn’t mind that he had spliced in sections of his own code. All sixteen strained at their tethers, mouths biting silently at the air in front of them, their dark eyes focusing on Simon. He knew they wouldn’t be able to understand his words but he found himself taking to them anyway.
Simon’s eyes traced the cables that fed the lifeless husks the essence from the living, up to the ceiling across the humid camber wall and then back down into the unassuming room where four people were slowly dieing. His gaze lingered there for a moment when his eye caught sight of the little red light. How long had the security alarm been triggered? Was this some kind of drill organised by the new deputy in a vain attempt to impress him. Then he heard the gunfire.
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.
Monday, February 12, 2007
RL gets in the way!
Another Shadowrun-less Wednesday. This week we can blame Valentines day!
Back on course next week.
interesting valentine facts
Back on course next week.
interesting valentine facts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
