Life in the Barrens AAR, How did it come to pass? Options

[FriendoftheDork]

TY guys. Let's hope they get into some serious shit next friday - I want to see how Uzz and Trog can stand up to security guards with initiative scores close to their own, 2 init passes, 12 ballistic armor (and 8 body), and 15 dice with gas-vented ak97s?

Yup, sounds bad, but keep in mind this team has never ever entered a fair fight. The concept is not in their vocabulary! I fully expect them to somehow ambush these guards when they are seperated, have removed parts of their armor, and are more or less incapacitated :)

[DTFarstar]

I hope they do, I found last week that my team wasn't a match for a Force 6 Air Elemental and a Mage with only 5 magic. They got the drop on them but were trying to incapacitate them and take their vehicle with no damage to it. Needless to say the Air Elemental hit the mage that was using Influence to make the driver pull over with an Elemental Attack and incapacitated him before he could make it permanent and then they after much effort and good driving on the hacker/riggers part managed to finally disrupt the spirit. (Note no less than 3 of these characters are mages with combat spells AND banishing. A spirit shouldn't have been a problem for them. They just didn't think) Then they shot the mage with Gel rounds to the point that he was pissed off and afraid of them and overcast Lightning Bolt their vehicle(overcast at 8 I believe) and shut down their vehicle, two of them had to burn edge to live from the crash damage since the hacker used the last of his edge shooting out the window while driving and couldn't use any on the crash test when he critically glitched while going 100+ in a Bull Dog. Anyway, just to say I hope your players are smarter than mine.


Chris

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

Here we go again, the latest edition of "Life in the Barrens." The runners certainly got a challenge this time! Well without further ado, and in spoiler block here it is:

[ Spoiler ]

Well as you know Trog is inside the Hope Relief camp belonging to Project Hope, the organization the FBI agent hired them to infiltrate in order to learn what Renraku CS wants with it.

The night was a bit tiresome to Trog - after all he's used to being up late at night, especially considering his sleep regulator 'ware. So basically in the evening hours he walks on the walls - the project hope computer has nothing but propaganda, and although it slightly brainwashes poor Trog it gets booring quickly. So he takes a walk around. It doesen't take much time till he's spotted by the guards patrolling (all using night vision equipment), and eventually persuaded to go back to Solace house.

The guards have already been told to keep an eye on Trog since he tried to enter the camp with lots of cyberware and bio, so they pretty much spots him even when he tries to sneak out and climb up on the roof. With a good climb test he gets on top no problems, but the guards tell him to get down. When he tries to get to cover on the angled roof, the guards starts firing stick'n shock on him until he agrees to get down (he has pretty much awesome body).

He keeps pestering the guards that he has nothing do to, and so they find a solution: They take him to the shed and gets out a shovel, and orders him to dig a deep hole and fill it up again. Well Trog doesen't mind doing some hard work, but he wonders why he should fill the hole again to which the guard answers "so that no one falls into it", which Trog happily accepts (ignorance is bliss).

So Trog spends most of the night shoveling dirt, happily.

The next day when Jonathan Tung comes to wake his large "family", he takes along a few guards (in case some of his family are not "morning people"). He finds Trog already awake and in good spirit. Tung doesen't mind that at all, and lets Trog help in waking up the rest. When Trog later tells him that he doesen't need much sleep and wants to work more, Tung happily accepts and even promotes Trog as an example to all in work dicipline.

Trog recieves heavy labor that day of course, working the fields, heavy lifting, carrying etc. He gets to use his immense muscles and Trog is actually quite content with this. It's not very exiting, but he does gets to see things he's never seen before and learn amazing facts such as that you can actually build something instead of just destroying and actually feel good about it afterwards!

Anyway, Trog doesen't forget his mission completely so he gets the tools needed with little trouble, and during the night he drills holes in the walls in order to point the laser link to a previously agreed on ruin a couple hundred meters away.

Trog gets to speak to Uzz who has set up his transciever at the exact spot the ir laser is pointed, and tells what he knows about the facility, including pictures of the Solace House terminal to be sent to Jimmy so he can figure out if it can be hacked or not easily. Trog isn't the best with computers though, so he didn't find out if the Solace terminal is connected to a network or not.


Meanwhile, Simon tries to probe the astral security of Hope relief camp. He knows that previous attempts to enter himself or sending watcher spirits has resultet in astral magicians manabolting them or him. This time, at the behest of Jimmy, he tries a different tactic: diversion. He sends in a watcher spirit at the opposite side he attempts to enter himself.

The spirit is of course noticed, but this time the security shaman percieves the spirit for what it is, and simply follows it trying to hide and starts astral tracking. The watcher spirit isn't really very good of watching (2 dice), and fails to even notice the shaman.

Simon tries to sneak into the camp himself astrally, but it discovered by the shaman after checking out Tung's residence and learning that the security building is warded. A small duel breaks out, where the shaman almost hurts Simon with a manabolt before Simon gets the hell out of dodge.


Back to Trog: After a days of hard word, he of course has to join the group councils, where they talk of their problems. Here he learns about a few fellow enrollees, including 2 men who later talk to him: Ted Wiley (the Environmental Protection Agency spy) and Garret Armstrong (the Universal Brotherhood counterspy). Armstrong first contacts Trog to tell him about his priviliges - he supposedly has gotten hold of the secret password to the terminals in the registration office which means he can log in and give himself easier jobs and such.

Although Trog thinks it's cool, he doesen't really want more relaxing work, he likes what he's got... but when Armstrong mention he could get hold of alcohol Trog is sold (he has moderate addiction). So Armstrong promises to give Trog perimition to get a bottle of vodka from the kitchens, which he gets (but only when no fellow enrollees can see him). Oh happy day!

Later Wiley approaches Trog and starts asking questions - especially about Project Hope and New Dawn Environics. When he realizes Trog has hear about this and thinks it's odd that NDE can make good soil and clean water out of industrial waste and effluent, Wiley tries to recruit Trog.

In fact, that's piece of cake. Trog is dying for some action and is more than willing to help, as he is also curious. Wiley also offers him 10k for the help, which is making a distraction as Wiley sneaks on the outgoing trucks to the New Dawn treatment facility.


Anyway, later that night Trog has talked to Uzz and Jimmy through their link and after learning about the terminals in the registration building, they plan to hack the computers there through the laser link to be set up again. They plan to shoot in some more equipment in the orchard area were there are fewer guards (and were Trog works at night anyway) around 3am.

But before that Trog and Uzz hears a truck slamming into the electrifed fence, killing the driver and passengers pretty quickly. It a gang attacking Hope! 15 mad mutant gangers living in Glow City runs into the comound shooting wildly with SMGs at everyone and everything they see. Trog is even hit by some stray shots.
The guards take up position and starts taking down the gangers with ease. They have enough armor (12) that the gangers can't even harm them much, especially with their 9 body.

Trog thinks this is his chance and runs to checkout the registration building, and finds out it's unlocked and even the windows are openable to the outside! (project Hope does not believe in locks, chummer! Just guards armed to the teeth who will frag your ass ;) ) However he is spotted by the single guard patrolling the building, and stays there under his observation for the duration of the firefight.

Meanwhile, Uzz things this is a good time to act (he was about to try to hire some gangers to attack the place in the first place!), so he pulls out his army sniper rifle and proceeds to test the armor of a security guard with no cover from him. He pulls off a nice shot (at around 300 meters), and the guard was unable to defend with reaction after failing his suprise test. However, in order to not arouse too much suspicion Uzz used regular ammo, so the guard was only slighty wounded by the shot (2 boxes).

Uzz shot him again (getting a complex action in a suprise round is a bitch), and wounds him some more. The fact that Uzz shot at the guard twice and he was still standing surely told him these guys were tough indeed, so he packed up and snuck away. The guards tried to see where the sniper was, but with his silencer and flare suppressor, and hiding at 300 meters he was not spotted (even with their 13 dice!).

Meanwhile, the gangers was shot to shreads by the guards, it wasn't even a doubt who would win this fight as there were still no fallen guards. Uzz got into a new position and waited for a target. Then he saw a couple of gangers blow up in a multicolored fireball. Magic! Uzz scanned the area for the potential magician, and the next time a fireball went at the enemy he fired at the guy the fireball originated from (the magician in the same armor and the same weapon as the rest).

The security shaman was not as tough as the soldier guards though, and this time Uzz loaded APDS ammo... At that range he didn't even have to use scope, so shot at the shaman twice. Despite the fact that the shaman was not suprised, and that he had an armor spell with 4 hits on him, he went down by the second shot because of his body 3. The shaman had taken 5 boxes of damage when he tried to get up (thanks to liberal use of edge), but he couldn't both get up and move into full cover with his speed divided by 3 (initative passes), so he didn't quite get into cover before Uzz shot him again (I made a mistake here, thought it was a complex action to get up and move half speed). The Shaman was splattered though, and Uzz shot him 2 more times for good measure.

After this he sent a message to Simon telling him the mage was not a problem anymore. Simon got up and in a few minutes was astrally projecting when Uzz's second message came in saying "it might be dangerous still."

Simon checked out the security building this time, having learned that it was warded, he tried to break through it thinking the mage that made it was dead. Of course, this was a force 6 ward, and when he failed to break through it he was disrupted and knocked unconscious, going back to his body. He obviously


Unbeknownst to Uzz though, the Shaman had a mate who was awakened (literally) by the fighting. When the remaining few gangers fled the scene, after Simon had banged his astral head, this shaman went astral and quickly searched the area around where the shots had come from, and found only a single living being in that area - Uzz. She followed him to the Locos where he met Claudia, his ganger girfriend and contact.

After some time he took her out to eat and drink in "touristville" Redmond, and as they stayed at a restaurant the astral spy went back again to gather 4 of the guards to set up an ambush. They travelled to Redmond in their truck, and all the while the shaman made sure Uzz didn't leave the place too soon.

When the guards were in place, the shaman manifested before them and gave told them that the couple was leaving the restaurant. So as Uzz and Claudia walked towards their turf they were ambushed. Uzz spotted the ambush right before the guards were ready to fire at once, and started firing with his Ares Preadator with APDS. He wounded on of the guards, but they had cover and were 30 meters away so he didn't manage to incapacitate him. He also moved towards cover but couldn't reach it in the first initative pass. Then it was the guards' turn to act. They fired at him with stick'n shock in their assault rifles and fired short narrow bursts... at that range their only penalty was their cover (-1) and with their 15 dice they hit pretty good... Uzz managed to resist the first 2 burst but after that the player asked me to just determine that he would lose and fall down. And really he didn't have any chance there, despite his insane skills with firearms.

Both of them were captured alive - in order to be interrogated and assimilated :evil:

Well since the party pretty much were all at different locations and only communicated sporadically through their commlinks (or the laser link in the case of Trog), it took awhile before any of them realized Uzz was missing. Jimmy talked to Simon about Trog and the plan to hack from a distance. But before going to the place the laser link should have been pointed (that Trog never got around to) Jimmy asked Simon to scout the place astrally. And lo and behold he spotted 6 guards and the second shaman lying in wait.

Since this plan was compromised, they started thinking what could have happened... Trog could be captured or Uzz - or they just found the laser link.

The next day Trog talked to Garret Armstrong again, who this time had learned that Trog was an infiltrator himself. He tried to pry for information about his plans, and after some fast talking got poor Trog to talk about helping out the EPA agent, even when it was supposed to happen, promising to help out creating a diversion. (Of course the player understood he was a mole, but good roleplaying made him play Trog as naive as he is - as he failed his judge intent check totally).

Tung also came to see him, making a speech that his excellent performance has caused him to be transferred to the Faith relief camp. Trog was uneasy about it at first, but Tung was of course very persuasive and also made it clear that there was no other option. Of course Tung had learned from Uzz all about Trog and his mission, and now wanted to make Trog a flesh form ant spirit as well.

And yeah Uzz... he woke up in an operation hall down below Faith relief camp research centre, being strapped to a table. He soon realized he was going to be tortured, so after awhile he spilled his guts to Tung and pretty much revealed who he was working for and everything. Tung didn't really believed him of course, so he brought him to the Ant Queen, who used her Compulsion power to compel the truth out of Uzz (his 3 willpower vs a force 10 spirit didn't help much).
Then he was placed inside a cocoon for transformation and possession. However, something wrong happened! Although the merge was almost "good", somehow Uzz managed to remain free of the Ant Queens influence and the possessing ant spirit never got to control him. Besides having some physical signs of being an ant, Jimmys' mind is free and he can escape (yeah, hand of god).

Jimmy checked out New Dawn again - to see how easy it could be to sneak on the truck coming in. What he found was that the guards pulled out a man from under the truck (Ted Wiley, the EPA agent), who was taken inside the compound and summarily executed for tresspassing (they're extraterritorial).

Trog was kept guarded by two guards (flesh form soldier ants really, which explains their insane stats and iniative) until he should be transferred and assimilated. However, before that he talked to the guards, asking them question. They knew what was going to happen to him, and one of the guards began laughing evilly (ok, that was me but the guard also mwuhahaa!), and Trog felt insulted. Trog picked up the guard (with body 9!) and threw him into an apple tree. His colleage however fired a full burst at him with ex-ex ammo, and then the second short burst brought him down. He was stabilized with first aid and sent to Faith relief camp for healing and possession.

Well, that's were we cut off. It will be exiting to see what happens. Although Uzz will probably get out of Faith relief camp easily since the other ants thinks he's one of them, perhaps he will learn some first, possible even free Trog.

Trog's player will probably also have to scratch off a point of Edge permanently, after all he attacked a guard and was shot almost dead, and unless something miraculous happens he will either die or become an ant spirit as well. However, I'm loath to allow players to keep their characters after escaping certain death etc. without them having some sort of drawback. In Uzz case, even slightly becoming an insects spirit is anatheme, since Uzz hates these things for what they did to the love of his life, Euphoria. And another drawback is that he loses his current girlfriend the same way he left euphoria! Oh, boy, this is going to mess up Uzz personality even more, since he can't have sex without revealing his malformity.

Exactly what's going to happen to Trog I'm not sure of yet, but I figure he'll be used for experimental cyberware, meaning some of his existing ware will be ripped out in exchange for something that does not work properly and may even be a danger. It won't have a very big essence cost, but every piece matters and there should at least be a flavour drawback with this operation if not a game mechanically one.

That's all for now folks. Comments are as always appriciated, especially now regarding Trog.

[Guest_It trolls!_*]

Ah, I've waited for this all week. The adventures of your group make for an interesting read indeed.
Especially Trog is a very funny incarnation of the big but naive troll. Kinda reminds me of Obelix.

As for experimental 'ware for Trog's body: Does it have to be cyberware? Such a big troll just cries for an iron gut. Get him a digestive expansion. As Trog is an alcoholic make it so he needs more booze to satisfy his addiction. Maybe even go as far as raising his addiction level to severe so he will have to invest some time (and karma) into reflecting and processing what's happened to him.


And from my Rescue-the-Trog POV: How about letting some cows fall out of the sky and kill the guards?

[ Spoiler ]

Honestly, having two players now die/HoG the same way would be uninteresting. With Uzz just escaping his doom, he could probably get a glimpse of Trog being on his way to the queen and get a chance to rescue him.

[FriendoftheDork]

[Guest_It trolls!_*]

Drop Cows are a devious menace you can find flying through the woods of the Odenwald, south of Greater Frankfurt. When you hear them mooing, you're already dead...

Serious stuff:

[ Spoiler ]

Uzz just escaped from a cocoon, right? As the hive wouldn't want anyone to harm their precious cocoons, they'd most likely place them near the core of the hive. That means he shouldn't have it too far to the security center (just imagining here, never played UB). If he can sneak there he might disable the alarm system and even find himself a rifle or some grenades. Also if you can get Simon close to them he could wrap a mana barrier around the worker to disrupt her from the hive.
The genitals of an ant would most likely be inside their body. If you've planned that, you turned Uzz into Ken as in Barbie's Ken. I remind you that male ants usually just fertilize the queen and then die. Also if you allow Augmentation in your group, Uzz can quite quickly replace his ant genitalia with a penile implant.
Same with Trog and his experimental cyberware unless you use something that can't be removed anymore. The old boosted reflexes come to mind. You could Trog have some implanted that replace his current wired reflexes, but sometimes send spasms to certain muscle groups or even his whole body.

[Big D]

[Guest_It trolls!_*]

[ Spoiler ]

Don't have Augmentation yet but can't you remove MBW again?

Edit: Do we have to spoiler all of this?

[Fortune]

Shouldn't that be 'Mooooove-By-Wire'?

[Big D]

With something new and all-invasive like MBW, you could make the case that a botched implant of experimental MBW could be too dangerous to remove without access to a true delta clinic, which means he'd be stuck with it for a long, long time.

[Whipstitch]

You could simply just say that some of Trog's 'ware was damaged irreparably since I imagine the bugs probably favor Heal spells over biotech. I can't imagine they'd care too much about fixing the cyberware of the troll they just plugged. There's also the option of using an extremely dangerous experimental combat drugs in lieu of experimental cyberware. The Burnout quality gives precedent to the fact that substance abuse with nasty enough drugs can do long term harm to one's essence. Just tick off a moderate amount of essence off his char sheet and don't bother to worry about messy stuff like implant surgery and the cost of having mystery 'ware removed later.

[FriendoftheDork]

[cx2]

I assume you mean the dead tree version of Augmentation isn't available? The PDF is, but then that isn't for everyone.

[FriendoftheDork]

[cx2]

Well lucky for you Augmentation's street date is around about now.

I accept PDFs aren't for everyone, they do have their uses however. Especially if you live outside the US, and if you have sight problems like me. If it can be put on a computer it can be made so it can be accessed by anyone if you have the right equipment and/or software, right up in theory to a deaf-blind person or perhaps even people with serious motor trouble/paralysis. Though they might have trouble finding a gaming group...

[FriendoftheDork]

True, I read as much... I'll check out Outlands (my local gaming store) before going to play today.

[FriendoftheDork]

Damn it seems like they don't have it yet, and that they don't plan to get it either. I can probably have them order a copy, but then again I might as well order it myself online, right? So any tips on where to get a cheap copy?

[darthmord]

Amazon has it listed for $34.99 (new).

I don't think you will find it cheaper anywhere else unless you go to a brick and mortar bookstore (Waldenbooks, Borders, Barnes & Nobles, etc) that has it and you are a book club member. If you are and can find one there, you'll typically get 10% off.

Good luck though. All the ones local to my house carry nothing but White Wolf games, Heroes & Masterminds, and D&D. The specialty stores (RPG stores, Bit O' England, etc) all have decent selections if they have the books in stock (they tend to sell fast since no one else carries them).

[FriendoftheDork]

OK guys, time for a new look on "Life in the Barrens."

Things worked out a bit different that I'd though, but at least here it is in spoiler block as usual:

[ Spoiler ]

Alright we left off at a precarious moment - Uzz stick'n shocked down and taken by the PEOs, Trog shot down (by EX-EX) and taken to the Faith relief camp medical centre/research facility, and the rest of the team barely escaping the same fate and reaizing their companions might be compromised.

Now back to Uzz. He was taken to the research centre and put on the table for interrogation (the Renraku doctors were happy to oblige). There he met Jonathan Tung who started questioning him. Although mr. Tung is a nice guy (really), he didn't hide that they knew that Uzz was the one who had sniped one of the security shamans, and suspected him of being involved with other incidents of espionage as well (astral and drones). Lying there pretty much helpless, Uzz realized that he couldn't sweet-talk himself out of this one, and more or less gave in. Instead of making a stupid lie he told he was sent by the FBI (true) to learn about why the project is so good (erh....) and so on. Although there was alot of truth in it Tung had desided beforehand that Uzz would probably lie anyway, but this amount of cooperation persuaded him that physical torture was unnecessary.

Uzz was transfered to a location Renraku does not know about, the secret Hive undernath the research centre. The PEOs (guards) are all flesh form ant spirits with "good merge", and therefore it was easy for Tung to smuggle Uzz down below. There he was brought before the queen who used her mental influence ability. Her 20 dice easily beat his willpower+counterspelling, and soon he was under her complete control and willfully told all about the operation, including who was involved. At this point Uzz and Tung had a nice chat (where Uzz pretty much believed in what he said (and even the player was almost convinced this ant thing wasn't as bad as he thought). Tung used this information to get his mole in Hope relief camp to make Trog come clean about his motives, which led to Trog being shot.

Uzz tried to convince Tung to let him go out and lure in his friends so they also could become part of the Hive, but even though the player wanted to burn edge to gain a critical success, Tung knew the Queen's influence would pass and the only way to ensure Uzz's loyalty was to have him posessed (he couldn't be persuaded otherwise since he was under orders from the Queen as well).
So instead Uzz was placed inside a cocoon and the posession began.

Meanwhile Trog met a slightly different fate. Although he was stabilized and treated for his wounds, the Renraku people already had tabs on him for entering the camp with lot of cyberware, and he was already earmarked for experimentation. He woke up on the operation table, surrounded by masked doctors going about the business of performing cyberware implantation on him - while he was still awake and unsedated. He tried to break free with his huge muscles, but the straps were reinforced (they'd have augmented people before there, and this was the troll table). When he asked questions and screamed in pain, they simply gagged him and proceeded. After painful hours of slicing and injections of nanites, he was drugged and left in the recooperation hall.

3 days after Uzz entered the cocoon, he emerged again this time an ant spirit (I guess Simon was right about him being dual natured after all!). Or was he? When he emerged (and burning edge) Uzz noticed he was still himself... almost. Looking down he saw that a part of him were missing... the important parts! Tung was happy to explain though that he still had them, they were only inside his body and of ant type, since the merge was almost good.

At this point he should have been completely taken over by the ant spirit, who would keep his memories and personality but be of a different and alien mind. Perhaps it was his experience with (queen) Euphoria, perhaps his extreme hatred for ant spirits, or perhaps the merge simply went wrong on some level, but it seemed that although posessed, the spirit in him was repressed into the subconscious of his mind. Still, he acted like he was one of them, and although he was distraght when he saw his second girlfriend Claudia transformed as he was, he kept it cool and used his awesome acting skills to convince everyone that he was one of them.

Now Tung trusted him though, and he got the answers to many questions, his equipment back, the card to the elevator to the research facility and to the Hive, and then he was sent to lure in his friends so that they too could see the glory of the Queen and become true brothers.

While picking up his gear though, he saw Trog being rolled away in a hospital bed after having been implanted some more cyberware, back to the recooperation room. Although I attributed this coincidence to Trog burning a point of edge, Uzz didn't do anything to rescue him then and there, instead he tried to find out what was happening to him, found out where things were, and then made a test to bring out a junkie enrollee and have him hit a piece of rubble outside the camp. Although the guards thought the request was odd, they had been told he was one of them know and thought he had a good reason.

Of course this was part of his plan to free Trog.

More about this tomorrow, getting too tired to write now

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok, here's part 2 of the story, where we wrap up Double Exposure:

[ Spoiler ]

After Uzz had checked out the facility, he contacted Juarez to set up a meeting the next day. Then he contacted Simon and Jimmy, to meet with them as well. Jimmy was very sceptical, especially because Uzz didn't at once tell them he had been captured at all. Jimmy wanted to have Gadget/Michelle to check him and his commlink out, but Uzz outright refused.

In the end they agreed to send Simon to talk to him and Jimmy was a backup if things went wrong.

So Uzz told his tale (with heavy modifications and leaving out the becoming a bug part), which Simon bought easily. Then, Simon told the tale to Jimmy, and Jimmy asked about a particular sentence which then Simon said "hmm that don't sound right!". Still, Jimmy agreed to meet with Uzz while having Simon there in astral space, and asked enough questions till he almost believed Uzz wasn't working for the enemy.

Now the plan was to first meet with the feds and ask for their backup in taking out the Hive.

Early next morning they met with Juarez at McHugh's, and reported about the ant spirits infesting Faith relief camp and the research centre there. This was augmented by Uzz having filmed it all with his cybereyes, so although incidentally skeptical the Feds did buy it after verifying that the video recording had not been edited at all.

He agreed to take extreme action against the Hive, but again demanded that the runners go in before that and get the ecconomical data against Renraku that the mission was all about.

Jimmy insisted that the attack had to ocurr very quickly, and they agreed it could be performed at noon. Still Juarez demanded that they sent a signal when they had the data and about to leave camp, since when he attacked this data could be destroyed.

So the plan to infiltrate the camp was pretty simple this time, since Uzz was trusted by the guards and Tung, and could pretty much enter and leave as he wished. Additionally, his "job" was to lure in his friends in the first place, so when he drove there in a stolen sedan with Jimmy in the backseat (faking unconsciousness). Even so, in the spur of the moment Uzz pulled out his SA taser and plugged Jimmy (called shot to the foot, -4 attack and damage) with a dart. Jimmy wasn't too happy about this, but he restisted all the damage with his nonconductive chameleon suit, and after the obvious shock he was faking it again.

Well they got in no problem, and Uzz with the help of a hospital bed brought Jimmy down below to the secret research centre. Here he met Tung, who congratulated him on getting Jimmy. Uzz brought Jimmy to the recooperation room, and found out that Trog was out there, walking around in an experimental dreamgate BTL chip world. Tung called the PEOs though to bring Jimmy into the Hive for posession, then said good luck getting Simon next.

After Tung had left, Uzz talked to Jimmy when he realized all the subjects in the room were unconscious and they were alone. He gave him info about where he belived the main server was, in Tung's office. But after some talking the heard 2 PEOs coming down to carry Jimmy downbelow. Uzz tried to bullshit them first, but their orders were from Tung and they wouldn't listen to anything else. When it seemed he agreed, Uzz silently warned Jimmy, and drew his pistol when the guards had turned their backs.

The guards were suprised, but their amazing armor and body meant that even with APDS in an Ares Predator the first guard still survived the two shots. Jimmy tried to tase the second guard, but didn't do that much damage. Since both PCs beet the guards in the suprise check, the guards couldn't act against them and only got their weapons out and tried to asess the situation.
Next second Uzz shot again, but this time at the second enemy, to even less effect. Jimmy spent edge to be able to act again, but his shot was meaningless. This time the guards shot back at jimmy with long burst, but their wound penalties meant that their bursts missed Uzz totally. I the end Uzz managed to down them both.

Since the medical personell in the next room didn't have much perception skill, the silenced ares predator remained unheard (3 dice -4.. uhm). Uzz and Jimmy got the guards onto beds and covered them with sheets, then Jimmy went to the mainframe. He had to bypass the maglock first - piece of cake.

Then it was hacking time. Jimmy had gotten some nice programs since last time, but his commlink didn't have much response, which again limited his System so he couldn't use the programs at their highest rating.

I was very lucky with my rolls, (5 of 10 possible hits 2 times in a row) so even if he had a working rating 6 stealth program he would be detected. Additionally he rolled abysmally, and couldn't get in. He had to burn edge to be allowed a critical success (the analyze program crashed and was permanently corrupted). Since there was no security riggers in the system he had pretty good time. He also found and copied the black Ice, and deactivated it in the system. He then proceeded to copy the programs he dared, looking for databombs and searching for information.

In the end he got what he was looking for (and more), and they left the facility. Uzz was to fetch Trog, and Jimmy was to sneak out with his chamelon suit. Trog was walking around drooling, but when Uzz plugged out his BTL he snapped back to reality again and he tried to take him out. The guards though this odd, but they'd seen it before and trusted him, so he got out. However when Jimmy tried to sneak out he was detected, and the guards threatened him with weapons. While Uzz and Trog walked to the car, Jimmy sent a holographic image of himself running away while standing perfectly still and cloaked. Of course, it's not too hard to see the difference between a hologram and a real person, so the guards saw through it at once and one of the guards shot a warning shot into Jimmy... "wait a warning shot INTO Jimmy?" Yep. He went down easily. Had it been a burst Jimmy would be dead instantly but he was still alive. However, Uzz and Trog jumped into the car and drove around in between the line of fire , and Trog picked up Jimmy before the guards could take him for questioning.

The guards opened fire at the car, but although heavily damaged they couldn't stop it before Uzz had gotten away with a nice vehicle skill test.

Trog had first aid skill, so he used it on Jimmy... and found out he had tits and a feminim form! "Wait this isn't Jimmy, its' a girl!" Luckily they didn't throw her out, but "Jimmy's" cover was busted and soon the whole party knew it.

While they escaped the scene they saw black verti-chopper coming in, armed to the teeth. Wisely they decided to get away instead of attempting to see the carnage ensume.

Mission Accomplished! It would be likely to fail without HoG though, other Gms beware. Still, what else is Edge good for? And really Uzz and Trog needed to get a challenging encounter they wouldn't easily shoot their way out of.

Later the party met with the Johnson and delivered the data. When he asked if this was the only copy Jimmy lied and said "yes of course." Then, after mr.J gave them the blackmail footage they asked him if it was the only copy, to which he lied and said "yes of course."

The runners were paid an ok amount, they got 5k bonus each on top of their agreed sum of 16k twice. More importantly, all but Jimmy got rating 7 fake SINs and licenses. Actually they were made just like real SINs are, and should be added to the international databases. Of course, the feds have their new SINs on file in secret networks reveal them as fakes, but they only save it in case the runners act against them. They have no inentions of screwing with them any more than they already have. Jimmy refused to give a DNA sample to make the SIN, so he didn't get one. Paranoid as always.

That pretty much ended it. Later, they learned about a mysterious gas explosion in caverns beneath Faith relief camp destroying it, and that the leadership of Project Hope were arrested on charges of corruption and tax evasion. None of the info on ant spirits got out, and no drek on Renraku either. I guess the feds are saving it for a rainy day, for example if they tries to get their arc back.

Next time the runners want to go down in the old Renraku secret facility in the Barrens, and this time they should be better prepared to face whatevers' down there than they was at 320 BPs and 500 :nuyen: each :)

[D Minor]

I'll echo what has been said before good story and sounds like fun.

[fumble]

Yep.

Sucks to be a sexy ant, though, and I guess you haven't quite finished with Uzz and his being half-possessed...

Keep up the good work.

[Warmaster Lah]

This is pure amusement!

Such an interesting team too. Knew I'd like Trog the moment I read the name.

And Jimmy the "Shades" aka Michelle "Van" though. Pure art. Such Duplicity against ones own teammates... ah classic.

[FriendoftheDork]

Guys, one day I'll gather your remarks in a "feel good" file, kinda like the quotes in the beginning of some books lavishing praise on it ;)

BTW in case anyone didn't notice I marked all the story posts in this topic with the In Character icon, so that it will be easier for new people to read it and skip the questions and comments in between :)