Yet another FuelDrop Shadowrun diary Options

[FuelDrop]

OOC: That could have gone a bit better, if we're honest. One of our players is now on their last chance. And yes, Kitty was Farm Boy's next character. We're getting a stat-clone next session.

Poor Jade/Zak's player never really had a chance this run. A rigger on a strike against Deckers isn't in a good position to start with, but our lack of a Decker of our own to defend him combined with the fact that everyone went to radio silence meant there was nothing he could really do to contribute. His misguided attempt to protect Kitty was really half-hearted and I believe was just a token "We stick with our own, no matter what" moment rather than actually trying to defend her. DOA's just in a very bad mood right now.

We have a new player too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . Kymrhyl's player is a new addition to the group and means that for one glorious session we had a group member of every metatype!

[ProfGast]

I have to ask, has anyone sat down with Farm Boy/Kitty's player and well… talked about world ambiance? He seems to be playing completely pink mohawk in a setting where the GM is running much closer to mirrorshades. Also possibly riding the "pillage everything, you own the world" high that some other RPGs inspire in players.

That or well, recommend the old "Common Sense" quality for their next character? (I realize it's not actually printed out in 5th but…)

A character with Common Sense is down-to-earth, practical,
and sensible. Any time such a character is about to do something the gamemaster deems foolish, the gamemaster must act as the proverbial inner voice of reason and warn the player: “Something tells you that’s a bad idea.”

On the other hand, if they already had the talk, aren't listening or whatnot that's another story.

[AndrosDeragon]

Wow Kymrhyl is very badass, yet another combat monster into the mix eh?

Also I kinda realize that conventional modern weapons don't tend to do as much overall damage per roll as unconventional weapons (can't blame them as my bow does almost as much damage as a sniper rifle for my adept character) without mods or special ammo.

Plus they are flashy as all heck.

[FuelDrop]

I have to ask, has anyone sat down with Farm Boy/Kitty's player and well… talked about world ambiance? He seems to be playing completely pink mohawk in a setting where the GM is running much closer to mirrorshades. Also possibly riding the "pillage everything, you own the world" high that some other RPGs inspire in players.

That or well, recommend the old "Common Sense" quality for their next character? (I realize it's not actually printed out in 5th but…)


On the other hand, if they already had the talk, aren't listening or whatnot that's another story.

We've talked to him and discussed it among ourselves and the general consensus is that he's doing this intentionally for attention. He gets one more chance and then we're kicking him out, call it a 3 strikes rule if you like.

I'm kind of wondering if I'll get to bag all three of his characters, as Miss Misa will be sending along a sniper to secretly observe our progress next run or some such.

EDIT: Amusing note: Every member of the group IC had a reason to want Kitty dead for her actions. No two members of the group wanted her dead for the same reasons.

[FuelDrop]

Wow Kymrhyl is very badass, yet another combat monster into the mix eh?

Also I kinda realize that conventional modern weapons don't tend to do as much overall damage per roll as unconventional weapons (can't blame them as my bow does almost as much damage as a sniper rifle for my adept character) without mods or special ammo.

Plus they are flashy as all heck.

Let me put it this way: Kymrhyl outclasses JADE at unarmed damage, and that's not even his focus. He's rocking strength 11 after his augmentations and his first battle scene had him destroy a turret by RIPPING IT OUT OF THE CEILING, MOUNTING AND ALL!

He subsequently went and killed another turret by smashing it with the first one. He kicked down the door that the Decker was hiding behind in spite of the fact that it was reinforced steel. The only reason he wields a strength ten bow is that they don't make them any more powerful.

His augmentations:

[ Spoiler ]

Second Hand Muscle Augmentation 3
Second Hand Muscle Toner 3
Wired Reflexes 1
Reaction Boosters 2
Aluminium Bone Lacing
Orthoskin 3

Add to that soft caps on all his physical attributes except strength (Which is hard capped) and a willpower of 5 to handle the stun he takes, plus high pain tolerance 3 and he's nigh-immune to small arms fire (Which he has to be as melee characters tend to be bullet magnets as they charge their targets). With his axe in hand he's rolling 16 dice (8 agility 6 blades 2 specialization) and packing a healthy 16 P -4 AP Reach 2.
He does one thing, does it very well, and that's about it.

EDIT: Oh, and he has 0.15 essence left. He is literally more machine now than man. Also a warriors code, meaning that he won't cut you in half with your axe if you're unarmed... he'll just punch you. 13 P damage from that by the way, so have fun.

[psychophipps]

It has been many moons since I've run into a situation like yours, FuelDrop. One of the reasons we changed our format to employees of a paramilitary/investigation company, you need to have a markettable skillset within the group and you can tailor the mission so everyone has a job. Also really cuts down on the "I don't trust you...or you...or you..." stuff that sounds all cool and exciting, but really wastes time and energy you can use to, y'know...do stuff that gets you paid.

[ZeroSpace]

EDIT: Amusing note: Every member of the group IC had a reason to want Kitty dead for her actions. No two members of the group wanted her dead for the same reasons.

I think this warrants further discussion. DOA wanted Kitty dead over hosing the job bad, Shiny because of a lost car, and Deadbolt because he's wanted now. Any special reason Kymrhyl and Zak wanted her gone, besides the basics?

[FuelDrop]

I think this warrants further discussion. DOA wanted Kitty dead over hosing the job bad, Shiny because of a lost car, and Deadbolt because he's wanted now. Any special reason Kymrhyl and Zak wanted her gone, besides the basics?

Both have codes of honour that make the murder abhorrent. Kymrhyl has the warriors code, which means that murdering unarmed civilians with nothing to to with the job in cold blood pretty much hits him as dishonorable at all levels. Zak has a less formal code of honour but is pretty close to the assassin's creed (I believe, I don't have the sheet in front of me) in that he doesn't like killing and will only make people dead if there is no other option or the job requires it of him.

DOA would have been a lot more forgiving of Kitty if she hadn't tried to lie to her face. Screwing the run is one thing, everyone makes mistakes when the adrenaline gets pumping. Screwing the run then trying to cover it up by lying to the team? Yeah no, that's a no go unless you're a really charming face. Then she doesn't turn up to face the music? As an afterthought she also lost me almost 10 grand in MMG, accessories and ammo, plus turned a 60 grand payout into 10 grand one, so soothing the wound with money? Not happening.

It was Deadbolt's car that got shot to pieces, he's a former bodyguard so unless the job calls for death he prefers to keep things non-lethal if possible, most of his pay is going towards a new face and he can barely scrape together enough for a new SIN, and he can't find work until this all blows over because at the high end he's considered too well know to use and at the low end he's liable to be sold out by his boss instead of payed. Oh, and if he runs out of funds before the heat dies down he'll be out on the street, and he can't leave Seattle because his new SIN isn't strong enough to stand up to customs and he can't afford a smuggler. So yeah, he has reasons to be a touch upset at the situation. (OOC the player felt he was becoming a bit redundant due to skill overlap and wanted to try something new so he's all good with this.)

Mr Shiny is a consummate professional. He kills the target cleanly and quietly and gets away with minimal collateral. Murdering random civilians for no reason in the middle of the job is the antithesis of this (I believe he also has a code of honour to that effect but not certain). Also, her antics meant that half the group were dealing with the fallout from her BS rather than providing him with support, like they were supposed to. She was meant to be with him helping to take down the targets but instead wandered off to sate her bloodlust at random.

[FuelDrop]

Deadbolt's player and I have been making models for our tabletop game, and so here for your enjoyment are DOA and his unnamed new character.

Here

[ZeroSpace]

That all makes a lot of sense. It's truly a special game where you can team kill twice in two sessions, and not get too much flak from the player for it. I will admit that, while I do prefer things a bit more mohawk-y than is considered the norm on Dumpshock, I would have put two into Kitty and Farm Boy as well. That is a rather unhealthy level of stupid your player has.

[Grak]

Minis? Cool.

I've been looking at using Infinity models for that myself, can't paint worth a damn so it's slow going. What do you do for maps? Lot of the time I just draw something crude on the fly and we keep it vague.

Anyone know some good models for Orcs & Trolls?

[FuelDrop]

Minis? Cool.

I've been looking at using Infinity models for that myself, can't paint worth a damn so it's slow going. What do you do for maps? Lot of the time I just draw something crude on the fly and we keep it vague.

Anyone know some good models for Orcs & Trolls?

I heartily recommend these and these for humans and elves and possibly even orcs, but I'm still having a lot of trouble finding good trolls, dwarfs and civilian vehicles for this scale and genre. Hence me starting a thread asking about sprawl gangers.

[FuelDrop]

I've spotted a potential problem:
The Vory have probably worked out that someone has declared war on them by this point. Right now they are trying to find out who.
Among our group we have Mr Shiny, who has a signature weapon in the form of a mono-filament garrote which kills in a very distinctive fashion, and Kymrhyl who uses titanium arrows or a massive axe of doom to cut people and objects in half. Neither of these people will be that difficult to trace when they start building up a body count...

On second thoughts, I can't see anything that could possibly go wrong with this situation. Ignore this post.

[Grak]

I heartily recommend these and these for humans and elves and possibly even orcs, but I'm still having a lot of trouble finding good trolls, dwarfs and civilian vehicles for this scale and genre. Hence me starting a thread asking about sprawl gangers.

Ha! I actually have those dudes. I haven't cracked the box open yet, need a new can of primer first. The only Dwarves i've found are from the old Ral Partha stuff, not bad but ancient and N/A most places. If Sprawl Gangers comes out I will buy all of the minis! I want a dapper looking Orc so very much.

[FuelDrop]

24/12/2070.

After the last run I decided that the group needed to pull together, so I called around to try and organize a social get-together of the team. Deadbolt can't make it, fair enough, Zak doesn't answer, and Kymrhyl says he's busy. It is Christmas eve, so fair enough I suppose. Mr Shiny says he can make it so the team building becomes just the two of us hanging out. After about half an hour we get a call from Miss Misa. She's doing the same thing as me, but people are actually answering her.

I'm not bitter.

Mr Shiny and I relocate to the "Punch Bowl", a waterfront establishment themed around the cliche public perception of Hawaii (Seriously? Where does she find these places?). It turns out that Kymrhyl wasn't kidding when he said he couldn't make it, so let me introduce the two new members of this 'team'. Firstly we have a new elf chick, who'll hopefully be less suicidally dumb than our last one. She's a Japanese street samurai, specializing in a pistol-sword combo for short range and some good old fashioned sniping for long range. I'd say that we didn't need more muscle on this team but I'm not exactly going to complain about having someone else to take bullets for me. She goes by the name of Himori, has hair that looks like Goku dumped his head in a bucket of green dye, and seems to have a thing for brightly coloured ties. Our other new guy is apparently an Elf who goes by the name of Hollywood, though at a glance you'd swear he's Human. Since he's nowhere near as arrogant as many elves I've met and he's both charming and funny I actually like him, something that normally takes a lot longer than one meeting. He started hitting on me pretty much immediately after I introduced myself, and as corny as his pickup lines are the novelty of someone flattering me is kind of nice. Anyway, he tries hitting on Himori and is shot down in record time, then heads off to seduce the nearest hot drunk chick on the dance floor. He's pretty good as he manages to get her into bed before we're even done eating. He even recorded it and sent it to us, for some reason, and Himori pretty much flips out. Sure it's not very professional, but I consider it a good audition for the role of face. Miss Misa naturally hacked the cameras, cleans up the image and posts it on the matrix. I hate that bitch.

30/12/2070.

Back to the Punch Bowl for a meet. Misa goes for a floral dress today, which is far better than that stupid goth look. Himori has gone for a Hawaiian shirt and bright green tie look, and I may not be one to point fingers but I think it looks dumb. Hollywood is sporting a blue suit with a red tie, not exactly blending in. Anyway, after the disaster last time we've been demoted to gang-busting duties as the Cutters are using Vory backing to start expanding through Redmond. The pay is absolute crap but the high risk of death makes up for it. Not one fixer in this goddamn city has managed to find a different employer for me. Nor a better team, for that matter, as apparently Himori has spent the last six days brooding about the whole porn thing and so as we're leaving she tries to take a swing at Hollywood. Fortunately she's been telegraphing that she'd do something stupid for the entire meet and I catch the blow by the wrist and explain that if she has a problem within the group it should be solved with words, not violence. Hollywood then strangles her with shock gloves, knocking her out. I seriously don't care if these morons kill each other in their spare time, but we're on the clock here so I tell Hollywood where to shove his behavior and call Misa to get any footage cleaned up.

Great way to start the mission.

We set up in a warehouse on the edge of Cutter territory and Mr Shiny and Hollywood set out to organize alliances among the local gangs while I take Himori to go scouting in Cutter territory. We end up ambushing a patrol and take three out of five alive. A plan begins to form.

Firstly, some notes on Himori who I got to talk to during the scouting mission. Apparently she's searching for her family who she's afraid are dead, but this is hindered by amnesia past a few years back. She was taken in to a gang and they raised her into a... law-enforcing vigilante professional criminal. Yeah, I got nothing. I'll be keeping an eye on her in case she does something stupid.

Okay, our plan in brief:
1 ) Hollywood joins the local cutters.
2 ) We hit whoever is taking care of the new recruits and kidnap Hollywood.
3 ) Throw Hollywood into the cell with the other Cutters.
4 ) Hollywood leads an escape attempt, "killing" me in the process.
5 ) Hollywood returns to Cutters and is welcomed as a hero.
6 ) Ambush retaliation strike against location where we were holding the Cutters. We have an inside source who's trusted and on the rise.
5A ) Hollywood returns to Cutters and is found out.
6A ) Rescue mission on Hollywood's position, giving us a target.
7 ) ???
8 ) Profit

[FuelDrop]

30/12/2070. Continued.

Hollywood has joined up with the Cutters with Zak and I providing sniper cover in case things didn't go as planned. Then, while he's off getting initiated we go on a road trip around Cutter territory hitting small patrols, pretty standard stuff. Zak's gone and painted all his drones up with clown makeup and plays maniacal laughter from them as they blaze away full auto at the enemy, which to be frank is batshit insane and terrifying because of it. He's also trying to get me killed with his driving, something which I don't appreciate at all.

To sum up:
I hate the boss.
The team turn on each other at the slightest provocation.
Everything is escalating except for our pay, which has been so terrible I'm not going to be able to make the rent next month.
The boss is a total bitch.
I can't trust the team.
Our rigger is trying to kill me.
There's 100 grand out for any information that leads back to our employer, complements of the Vory.

Yeah, I'm taking my upfront pay and skipping town. It'll make up for that bitch stiffing us pay on the last job.

[DMiller]

30/12/2070. Continued.

Hollywood has joined up with the Cutters with Zak and I providing sniper cover in case things didn't go as planned. Then, while he's off getting initiated we go on a road trip around Cutter territory hitting small patrols, pretty standard stuff. Zak's gone and painted all his drones up with clown makeup and plays maniacal laughter from them as they blaze away full auto at the enemy, which to be frank is batshit insane and terrifying because of it. He's also trying to get me killed with his driving, something which I don't appreciate at all.

To sum up:
I hate the boss.
The team turn on each other at the slightest provocation.
Everything is escalating except for our pay, which has been so terrible I'm not going to be able to make the rent next month.
The boss is a total bitch.
I can't trust the team.
Our rigger is trying to kill me.
There's 100 grand out for any information that leads back to our employer, complements of the Vory.

Yeah, I'm taking my upfront pay and skipping town. It'll make up for that bitch stiffing us pay on the last job.

Could always try for the 100k¥ and then skip town. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[FuelDrop]

Could always try for the 100k¥ and then skip town. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

tempting, but given Misa's general attitude to these things I'm betting I am being watched. Lets face it, if you were screwing people over like she does and someone was offering good money to sell you out you'd keep a close eye on them too.

(note: Know Misa is spying on everything everyone does OOC, strongly suspect it IC.)
Also, there's a difference in most runners minds between dumping an unreliable group and selling them out. I want to work again so am not risking a rep for the second.

[FuelDrop]

Ok, new character is going to be an Elf thief, specializing in Stealth, Athletics and Escape Artist-style infiltration, Aka climb the wall and sneak in through a window everyone swears is too small for a person to get through. She's from a lower lifestyle bracket and lacks a dependent needing cancer meds so her monthly overhead is lower than DOA's and she's willing to work for less money. Also has far less of a stick up her ass than DOA and is less judgmental in general.

Willing to take ideas for backstory and appearance, if inspiration strikes anyone.

[Moirdryd]

You could come from the Tir under the care of the Ancients (so is connected to the gang) but it's a favour for back in the Tir, as they do from time to time to hide faces etc, so you're not fully 'Patched In'. It gives you some ground connections within Seattle while still being able to be an outsider and keep a distance with things.

It also means you're a little removed from the "Cold Pro" aspect of the Shadowrunner theme and more "learning the ropes" of it as a thing (exploiting your cat burglar like talents). A few false ID's, maybe a couple of lifestyles running on the down low (Bike Ganger Girl by day, Thief-Shadowrunner by night, one or two safe houses on the side).

[FuelDrop]

You could come from the Tir under the care of the Ancients (so is connected to the gang) but it's a favour for back in the Tir, as they do from time to time to hide faces etc, so you're not fully 'Patched In'. It gives you some ground connections within Seattle while still being able to be an outsider and keep a distance with things.

It also means you're a little removed from the "Cold Pro" aspect of the Shadowrunner theme and more "learning the ropes" of it as a thing (exploiting your cat burglar like talents). A few false ID's, maybe a couple of lifestyles running on the down low (Bike Ganger Girl by day, Thief-Shadowrunner by night, one or two safe houses on the side).

Unfortunately the ancients and our boss don't get along. May convert it to the mafia and run with that, barring other suggestions catching my eye. Thanks for the idea.

[ProfGast]

Just as a note, as-published in SR, the Mafia are notoriously male-oriented so while there ARE high ranking female mafioso and definitely having females in the mafia itself, According to Fianchetto in Vice, they don't encourage feminine behavior when attempting to rise in the ranks.

Also, depending on the family, they might be hesitant on inducting metahumans of any stripe.

As an elf however, you have the option of having been attached to the Laésa, who are based in Tarislar, Puyallup, Seattle. They are an all-elf Syndicate who specialize in transportation and smuggling, emphasizing all sort of stuff from the Tir.

[FuelDrop]

27th December.
I’m starting this blog to collect my thoughts. It’s not really a proper blog as it’s never going to see the light of day, but writing it is the main thing, right?

You know what? I’m going to start at the beginning. After all, it’s not like anyone’s going to complain.

I was born back in February 2046, down south a bit in Tir Tairngire. I grew up there till I was a bit over 14, and I can’t say I miss the place. I live in Seattle, specifically the least crappy part of Puyallup, so let that sink in for a moment. I actually did fairly well in school, and not due to cheating. I mean, I stole lunch money from the better off kids sure, but that average of B+ was from my own hard work. Probably would have got even better grades if the school had any resources behind it but we weren’t exactly in a good neighbourhood. My dad was an ex-farmhand turned petty crook once the local landowners started upgrading to drone labour. He wasn’t actually bad at it, but he had nothing on me. I don’t know why but I just got the right genes for good looks, brains AND an incredibly athletic body, though I don’t have much in the way of raw strength backing it up. After mum passed away due to ‘complications’ when I was born (Read: the council wanted another statue of themselves so diverted funds from our nowhere hospital, so there weren’t the antibiotics we needed), he decided to try and raise me right. That lasted until I was about 6 and he’d fallen on even harder times. Now a child can get into places that an adult can’t, so I was ‘daddy’s little helper’ for all forms of heist. The late nights weren’t exactly great for my early education but it was better than starving.

Anyway, inevitably dad’s life of crime finally caught up with him and he was exiled. I was about ten at the time and became a ward of the state. I’m going to skip over that part but suffice to say my skill at sneaking around didn’t exactly degrade during this period. Then when I was fourteen I was kidnapped. Sort of. See, dad had done relatively well for himself in Seattle when he set up with the Laésa, an elvish smuggling outfit that specializes in shipping stuff to and from the Tir. So once he had some money and influence behind him he got them to grab me and bring me over. Strings attached. So I get basically press-ganged into their operation to help pay off the debt for bringing me across the border. Okay, I can live with that. Then I get to keep working for them to pay my way through college. Meh, it’s no worse than selling your soul to a corp, right? Of course, with the council dissolving in 2064 (Yay corp-funded democracy substitute, AKA I can’t believe it’s not democratic) the inrush of refugees kept us nice and busy. It took me years to work off all my debts, and I had to do some things I’m not entirely proud of, but by 2068 I was in the clear and working for them on my own terms.

I just re-read the post. This whole think is very stream of consciousness. My English professor would kill me if he ever saw it. So anyway I got my degree in journalism about a year ago and began doing some freelance work as a journalist/photographer, using my extensive skill at getting into places that I’m not supposed to be in order to get good scoops and exclusives. I enjoy the work, but it quickly became clear that I couldn’t live off of it. As a result I returned to the shady world of covert acquisitions in order to round out my income a bit.

Stay tuned, hypothetical reader! There’s a gang war hotting up in Redmond and I doubt many journalists are going to be covering it. Time to get busy.

[FuelDrop]

We've had the universe reset back to the start of DOA's last mission due to a huge surge in players. We've split the group into 2 teams of 4 and 4, with Zak's player GMing the second group. That gives us a total of 9 gamers.

Shadowrun: Bringing people together to roll dice and have fun.

EDIT: The Moon and 6 has been retconned into an English-themed bar as a result of the universe resetting. Oh well, at least its less than the usual DC reboots.

[FuelDrop]

2nd January.
Well I'm back, hypothetical reader! Stay tuned, it's crime-time!
Now first things first. Yes, that massive Lone Star taskforce that cut a 2-block-wide swathe through Redmond last night was related to our activities. Yes, the Docwagon and Crashcart HTR units were also related. Have I caught your interest?
Tough, I'm starting from the beginning.
On the evening of the thirtieth of December I got contacted by a Johnson named Misa. She wants to organize some crime and my name came up through her contacts. I rock up at a bar called the Moon and 6, an English themed joint which mainly attracts middle-class types in sensible attire, and meet my partners for this mission. Boy are they a weird bunch.
From the top:

Misa: A blonde elf with ass-length hair who looks to be about 18, tops, but could be using disguise to seem that young. Definitely a heart-breaker, though with the exception of Hollywood's casual flirting no-one was dumb enough to try and put the moves on her during the meet.

Hollywood: A very cute male human, probably about my height, mid-twenties or so. Dark hair, suit, sunglasses, martini shaken not stirred. The guy has enough animal magnetism that I half considered propositioning him but I decided not to risk it after seeing him hit on every female that came within arms reach on his way over from the bar. Who knows where he's been? Still, the guy is incredibly personable and should be a real asset.

Kymrhyl: Now I knew from the moment I saw him that I'd seen this guy before and a bit of research proved me right. It's fricking "Kleaver" Kymrhyl from urban brawl a few seasons back. I can't honestly say he was my favorite brawler but he sure new his stuff. He declined to be interviewed, unfortunately. Oh yeah, 4 foot 11 and 3/4 inches tall (the 3/4 inches is important), dark and sightly graying hair and bigass bushy beard. Favors a massive combat axe as big as he is called Gertrude and a compact bow of a draw normally only usable by trolls which he calls Brunhilde.

Himori: Himori is... distinctive. The first thing ANYONE notices on her is her massive neon green spiky hair that would not look out of place in an anime. The second thing guys notice about her is a very impressive rack with a tie the same colour as her hair lost somewhere in the valley. I never did get an explanation as to why but the tie stays, regardless of what she's wearing. She lost her parents so maybe it was her fathers or something? Anyway, she's a Japanese girl with a bit of a bitchy attitude and a broad familiarity with killing people.

Mr Shiny: Another human, Mr Shiny seems to be quite the smooth operator. There's an air of professionalism about him and a quiet disdain for Himori's attention-grabbing outfit. I don't really know anything about him beyond that because he pretty much refused to speak to me. I think the note-book scared him.

Zak: If Jak were a woman I could only describe her as 'the troll equivalent of petite'. As he's a guy, he's a bit of a runt as far as trolls are concerned. He's still far and away the biggest member of the group, he's just the weediest troll I've ever heard of. The guy could probably pass for a large orc. Anyway, it turns out he favors brain over brawn and works as the group rigger, with a focus on driving.

Darkblade: The final runner around our table, Darkblade is an elf with evident disdain for humans. He didn't say anything, but I'm familiar enough with the type to know what the look means. He's fairly average looking and quite young, though to be fair he's very athletic-looking and would probably scrub up nice if he made the effort. He was also the most talkative, which makes him... what? Less professional that the others? More social? Whatever. I'm taking this with a big grain of salt but his story is apparently he's a former MMO addict who decided he wanted more from his experience and said 'LARPing? Buncha geeks! I'm going to become a professional murderer to get my fix!'
I'm not sure if I like him or not. He's friendly enough, but if he's telling the truth he's a genuinely insane psychopath. I suppose I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

So we place our orders and our job gets laid out. The Cutters are taking over south Redmond with Vory backing, and we're being hired to stop them. A bit violent, but since the Cutters are a bunch of psycho murderers I suppose that killing them off isn't like killing security guards or anything else like that. As a side note: those guys are just doing their job for something not far off minimum wage! Cut them a break!
Anyhow, we're being split into two teams. Team 1 will be in charge of helping a gang called the Blood Claws hold against a Cutter offensive, while team 2 is tasked with hitting the Cutters from behind while they're vulnerable and forcing them to regroup, calling off their attack. The pay is ten grand apiece, plus an extra five per lieutenant we bag.
Drinks arrive, along with the final member of our crew: K0mmando Ka0s.

What to say about Ka0s? Well, he's a male human. Very athletic. Magically so, in point of fact. He was late because the bus he took to get here got bricked by some kid Decker trying to hack open a vending machine. Apparently this sort of thing happens to him about half the time. The rest of the time he's liable to be walking along the street and have a winning lottery ticket blow into his face. In a fight he does only one thing, which is throwing stuff. I'm not really seeing how that's better than shooting people but whatever. He can also run up walls and walk with absolute silence, and I have to admit I am really jealous of the last one as it'd be so useful in my job it's not funny.

Anyway, long story short we get organized and split up into two groups. Darkblade; Himori; Hollywood and Zero (Me) in team 1, K0mmando Ka0s; Kymrhyl; Mr Shiny and Zak in team 2. Hollywood negotiates a base of operations in Crimson Crush territory and we set out in Zak's vans, no-one really wanting to risk their own vehicles in the barrens and, well, Zak is the rigger so this kind of goes with his job. It's about midnight now. So group 1 decide that we need a car so we can be mobile, not least of which because we're going to be operating on the other side of Cutter territory to our base. On that logic we decide to check out the near edge of Cutterville and see if they have any cars they're not using and are willing to donate to the cause. Unfortunately while I manage to fit in fairly well, considering, and Hollywood even traded his signature suit jacket for an armoured jacket, our other two team members were less inconspicuous than they could be and after a brief poke around we decide we'd be better off just heading over to the Bloodclaws and infiltrating via cham suits from there. Zak lends us a van to get us around and when we arrive it turns out that the Cutters made a probing attack while we were trying to acquire transport.
Um... oops? To be fair our Intel was that the attack wouldn't be till tomorrow evening but missing the party wasn't exactly a great way to make a first impression. Fortunately Hollywood was there to charm the gang leader, Clinton, who has to be the second ugliest troll I have ever met. Not being racist, it's just that the guy has enough scars to make Rambo wince on a face that wasn't exactly pretty to start with.
So we get to work fortifying, brokering an alliance with the neighbors, picking out a sniper roost and setting up a deck chair (Himori. That girl is hard to move when she gets comfortable.) or in my case sneaking up to the edge of enemy territory to get a feel for their numbers. It takes a while but I put it as just south of a thousand guys arranged against the four of us and 120 trolls, half of whom are decades-old enemies of the other half. Oh, and the Cutters have Vory backing so there's an intimidating number of assault weapons mixed into their troops. Mainly AKs, in good old fashioned Vory tradition.

Cutting a long story short we decide to thin the herd and organize a joint operation between our two gangs. I draw a bunch of Cutters into a kill zone by sniping them until some come after me (letting the gang leaders call my shots to help keep them on good terms), then running ahead of them until they got into Himori's range. Now I'm fielding a Springfield M1A hunting rifle on the grounds that it's legal, it packs a good punch, I can use it on the move, and it has a good ammunition capacity. Also, it's fairly easy to get into a proper shooting range so I've had a lot of practice with it. Himori is using a milspec battle rifle firing APDS rounds. I almost feel sorry for the Cutters. The guys following me decide that they ain't getting paid enough for this and take cover, pinned down by sniper fire. At this point Darkblade moves in and begins slitting the throat of anyone who moves out from the main pack. Eventually they decide to try and make a break for it en mass, which goes fine until they get flanked and cut to pieces by trolls on motorcycles. Hollywood was kind of disappointed that they didn't keep advancing into the mess of explosives he'd set up to greet them but oh well.

A few minutes after we hightail it back into friendly territory about a dozen tacticals sporting machine guns rock up, but even so we manage to loot our troll allies a whole bunch of Cutter gear.

Fast forward past a day which we slept through most of and spent the rest of the time preparing, and I'm lying on my stomach in a burned out apartment in no mans land watching the Cutters mill around through my scope. Don't get excited, I'd been doing that all day. They've backed off with the army and vehicles until they had maybe 3 dozen guys left across the front. We considered making a counterattack but it looked like a pretty obvious trap. Anyway, I look around and I see explosions on the far edge of Bearman territory. Now we'd been focusing on reinforcing the Bloodclaws positions, particularly the ones on the borders of Cutter territory. If the Cutters take out the Bearmen and sweep through our right flank we are so screwed its not funny so Darkblade, Hollywood and I grab the van and rush over to assist while Himori declared that she was comfy where she was so would cover the Bloodclaw's center approaches and work on her tan like she had been all day.
Normally I'd make a comment about this behavior but it's a sunny enough day to get a tan, in Seattle, in the middle of winter. That happens all of never, so I can't blame her for wanting to take advantage of it. Anyway we swing in and take out about 50 more Cutters and capture maybe 4 vehicles when we get a report from Himori that the Cutters are hitting the Bloodclaws left flank with improvised AFVs and literally dozens of RPGs and thrown grenades. There are 4 of us, and even if we used every shot from every gun we owned we couldn't have stemmed the tide. So our mission hinges on the other team doing their jobs...
One call to Zak later and our mission has changed from hold the line to medivac for anyone still breathing in the areas we'd already cleared, along with grabbing as much loot as possible. We take them to Celinia, a street doc I know, and meet up with our employer for debrief.

Of the other team, only Zak is there.

Now we hear the tale. The other team had spent the time we'd been fortifying prepping enough explosives to level a city block and scoping out targets. They'd jacked a vehicle and set it up for Zak to rig remotely, then headed out to create a distraction the moment we reported contact. Now they'd scoped out a Cutter base and had breaching charges ready so they could blast their way in and cause havoc. At the last minute they changed their mind and for some unknowable reason decided "You know what? This Cutter HQ won't get enough attention. You know what we should do?

WE SHOULD BLOW UP A PACKED BAR FULL OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS!

YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT WASN'T ENOUGH! THERE'S ANOTHER BAR AROUND HERE! PASS ME THOSE GRENADES!"

Now Zak wasn't actually in on this plan of wanton murder and merely drove them to the right blocks when asked, and they didn't detonate the first bombs until they were already grenading the second place. When they got back in the van and Zak started driving them away he was all "What the fuck man?!? What in the actual fuck did you do that for?!?" he never got an answer as a dude on a rooftop with an RPG decided to reach out and touch someone, taking out the car he was driving out of there for them. It turns out that taking all the safety limiters off a device that pours feedback from a car straight into your brain isn't fun if said car then takes a rocket to the face. Zak's pretty much out of it at this point and the others run into ambush after ambush until finally Zak informs them that they've caused enough chaos that Lone Star is sending what amounts to a national guard division with drone tank and air support in to see what the hell was going on.

Things went downhill after that.

In the end Misa was able to scrounge up enough to give us 3 grand each and replace our expended resources in barter for our looted vehicles, weapons and tactical data. The monsters that made up team 2 were given bad directions that basically sent them straight into the Cutters we'd been trying to hold off with Lone Star hot on their tails and enough explosives left over to clear the street... and Zak the near technical pacifist holding the detonator. I don't think we'll be seeing them again.