Yet another FuelDrop Shadowrun diary Options

[FuelDrop]

30th January.

And once again I am blogging about a massive explosion which my team caused. Nice return to form.

This time our story starts at 9 pm last night at the Black Watch. It would have been 8 o'clock, but I had promised to do a review of their theater class for the local high school's newsletter. The play was Hamlet, and the actors were pretty lousy. Still, I'd made a promise to review it so I felt obliged to follow it through.

So at 9 o'clock I get to the club and meet the team Misa's put together. Boris and Erza are back, along with an orc named Deadbolt. More on him later. The job on offer is hitting the last big drug lab the Vory have in Seattle after, what, a 6 month war of attrition? It's in the far south of Puyallup and disguised as a soy farm 20 km on a side with the target in the middle. Misa estimates maybe 20 guys guarding it with a rapid response team of some description likely to be on standby. Furthermore, with the damage the Vory's infrastructure has taken of late it's not unreasonable to expect them to throw everything into defending this place if given time.
On top of that this isn't a regular hit. We have to attract the attention of Knight Errant to the farm and point them to the hidden lab, along with getting enough footage to leak to Horizon and force them to deal with the problem rather than let the Vory go for a bribe. It'll be a tough mission but the pay is enough to make it worthwhile.

So first order of business is Erza getting some drones to do a flyby and getting an overhead of the place while I get changed into my chameleon suit to do some on-the-ground scouting. I had to trek through 10 km of snow-covered fields (Thankfully I remembered to bring thermal underwear!) to get to the target but with Erza's help it wasn't difficult to avoid their drone patrols. I get there and poke around for a bit, setting some stuff up for later. I suggest Deadbolt shoots out a few cameras to attract their attention so we can observe their response and plan accordingly.

Now is probably a good time to talk about Deadbolt. He's a bulked up orc who's as quick as I am and when pressed on what he does he said he makes problems 'go away'. Naturally this was followed with 5 minutes of good-natured ribbing about how ambiguous his skill set was. Anyway, his kit for this run was some SWAT issue full body armour, a pimped out Ares Alpha and a fricking Panther assault cannon! After some discussion our 'sting' escalated into grenading the front gate.
Naturally, after this the team has two options: Drive away and watch the response, or drive in and hit them. Do I even need to say which option our team picked?

So the Vory send out a couple of farm hands on bikes to check things out... who promptly fled when the patrolling rotor-drones attracted assault cannon rounds. I can't blame them. Naturally, the response escalates at this point and a couple of heavily armoured vehicles with heavy machine guns on heavy turrets with heavily armed and heavily cybered crews accelerated heavily towards our team. I feel sorry for the suspension. The first one takes an assault cannon round at extreme range and doesn't take it well, flipping over as what's basically a tank shell ripped a massive hunk out of the undercarrage. The second one was approaching 150km/h when Boris threw up a physical barrier directly in front of it. The barrier doesn't survive the impact but the front of the car takes some hefty damage in the process. Naturally, this damage to the armour doesn't do them any favors when an assault cannon round impacted in about the same place about half a second later. At this point the Vory at the house are busily setting up a barricade and setting up RPGs from what appears to have been some kind of armoury. You'll see why I can't give more details on it in a bit.

Out of the tops of the two largest soy silos heavy weapons sprout and start taking shots at our car. Well, one shot between the two actually, as Deadbolt puts an assault cannon round through the southern one before it can get a shot off. I put a round of APDS through the north one in an attempt to stop it from firing again. It worked. I don't know what I hit but it caused a chain reaction and basically blew the top off the silo, sending a rain of concrete everywhere. I almost get hit and have to get moving quickly, so that was the only shot I got off for the entire fight.
At this point the Vory have dug in like a tick and have dozens of rockets, grenades and assault rifles ready to repel intruders, along with a machine gun on a tripod. Unfortunately, their defenses weren't really prepared for a 12-meter-radius super-fireball being dropped into the middle of their ranks by Boris. Naturally, the chain reaction from that is somewhat impressive and the Vory line is reduced to a crater. If I didn't have dampener hardware in my cyberears I'd be deaf twice over from all the explosions going on around me. Another fireball hits the farmhouse and sets that on fire while a couple of small ones hit the fields and start yet more fires.
Yeah, it turns out Boris is a pyro.
I help Erza's drones search for the drug lab while Boris and Deadbolt gear up to deal with the incoming reinforcements. They're coming in by chopper, with a belly-mounted HMG and missile rack to soften us up before deploying. Guess how this problem gets solved?

I'll give you a hint: How has every problem been solved this mission?

Yeah, the pink panther strikes again. Deadbolt targets the missile rack, puts the round pretty much perfectly on target, and you can guess what happens next. I find the drug lab and use my endoscope to take pictures without getting shot to pieces by the turret waiting on the other side of the door, and we bid a hasty retreat before the cops show up. As an afterthought I hit the detonator for the bomb I'd set up earlier as we leave. The level of destruction we left in our wake was monstrous.

As of writing this we're wrapping up the follow-up meet at the Black Watch and I've invited Misa and Erza to spend the rest of the evening clubbing with me. Deadbolt has to get back to his day job and Boris has an appointment with his street doc after overdoing it with the magic, so it looks like another girls night out.

You know what? I think I'm going to take some time off after this one. The pay was enough that I can afford it, and I want to get some practice in with the shiny new deck Misa rounded up for me as part of last run's payout.

[FuelDrop]

So, yeah. That was the scouting phase done. Next time we actually perform the assault (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Won't be playing next week so no story (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[toturi]

So, yeah. That was the scouting phase done. Next time we actually perform the assault (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Won't be playing next week so no story (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

I love the smell of burning vory in the morning. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Shortstraw]

Your group needs more flamethrowers.

[FuelDrop]

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long, real life got in the way and I was on the wrong side of the country last session.

However I have now been brought up to speed. Before I start posting our latest escapades I am doing a brief catch-up post full of metaplot and recent events for you to enjoy.

Okay: At 8:00 PM on the 5th of February 2071 all the surviving runners we've played who're not complete idiots got called in to the Black Watch, where an entire floor has been set aside for our use. Also there are every 'Runner our group has ever played who isn't dead yet.

The person behind this is Sylvia, an extremely influential rigger who has been keeping an eye on us in the guise of Misa and Erza, two of her cover identities. She's been recruiting people for an extremely high risk mission in the near future involving attacking a slaver ring operating out of a pimped-out cruise liner, which will require a lot of specialists to have any chance of succeeding. The reason she's so eager to take these guys down is that last time they were in town they decided to try and kidnap her and a couple of her friends, which upset her.

This entire war against the Vory has been to put them in a position where they'll turn on these guys in exchange for someone digging them out of the hole they're in. The Mafia and Yaks were both independently approached for funding for the operations and in return they got to pick the targets, allowing them to capitalize on the changing situation quickly. Now that the Vory are suitably desperate Sylvia has been instructed to turn her attention to the Triads, who have lost neither the funding cost of the Mafia and Yaks nor the men and material of the Vory and so have come out of this whole thing in a really great position so far.

So naturally Sylvia sparked up a war between the remains of the Vory and the Triads by framing the Triads for this whole covert war and framing the Vory for a couple of strikes against the Triads. Naturally by this point everyone with an agenda has been framing everyone else as the ones behind the attacks but since the Cutters were recently bought out from under the Vory by the Triads the Vory are less than happy with them anyway.

The upshot of all this is that we're now running missions for the Vory against the Triads as part of the whole 'save the Vory for information' deal. Also, power struggle within the Vory. Good times.

The session I missed was a hit on a Triad Smuggling boat which we successfully captured. A contact of Sylvia's in the Mafia fixed up the boat for us (It was damaged rather heavily in the fight. It turns out Boris the fire mage doesn't know how to use a fire extinguisher...) in exchange for what survived of the cargo. Himori had to burn her identity due to not bothering to cover up her distinctive style and getting pinged as a result, much mayhem ensued, ect. Good times were had by all.

[FuelDrop]

12th February.

Not much and a lot has happened over the last few days. From the top.
On the 7th we got called in for a meet. After what happened to Himori I've decided to take some extra precautions in protecting my identity on the job so for this run I'm going blonde with pigtails, along with some other tricks with makeup and disguises to make me harder to recognize. I'm not in love with the look but it'll do for now. Himori has finally ditched her green hair and tie and would look comparatively normal with her gel-free bright red hair were it not for her constant scowling and glowering. She's going to be a joy to work with this run, you can just tell. She's going by the name Hanna Bay now.

Also sporting a new name is Darkblade, who now wants us to call him Darkraider. I honestly had difficulty keeping a straight face when he said that but what the hell, no skin off my nose what he calls himself.

Anyhow, back to the story. We're called to a meet by 'Misa' (Darkraider and Hanna aren't in on her secret identity shtick) in the barrens, in a place called 'Quick Eddie's'. It's basically a strip-joint/brothel setup that recently had the bar area extended in an attempt to project sophistication or something. It didn't really work, but at least in the front area you can hold a conversation in relative privacy (Mainly because most of the clientele are out the back). I got Sylvia to organize a lift for me into Redmond as there was no way I was driving my car in there. Given the area I figured that the whole 'Longcoat/Sawn-off shotgun' outfit was in style so went with that.

The gig is simple enough, protecting a Vory VIP from the Triads. Really not my thing but the pay was too good to pass up, so the team agrees to do the job. Hanna, Grimdarkbladeraiderkillerthroatslitter, Deadbolt, Boris, Erza and myself formed team 1 on the 31st floor of the Hilton. Above us on floors 32-34 were three more teams of runners, all Sylvia's associates and each protecting one Vory guy per team. Directly above us was Jack and his team, you could tell by the way the reinforced floor bowed wherever he walked. Apparently a LOT of money had changed hands in order to get the hotel to allow this confab or whatever as there was a real risk of the four floors we were occupying being gone by the end of the job. Our employers were willing to cover some damages, but excessive collateral was coming out of our pay.

So we turn up and begin securing the place. A thick armour plate beneath the client's bed was set up in case the triads decided to simply walk into the room below and open up full auto into the ceiling. The rooms to either side were secured. Flash-bangs were rigged up throughout the building for us to remote detonate in the event of a security breach. Turrets were set up. Rosters were organized.

Then our client turned up. A human male in his late 40's that goes by the name of Pelusey, anyone who keeps an eye on such things would be able to ID him as one of the Vory's lead spin doctors. Right off the bat we run into a minor hiccup as he makes some suggestive comments to the females in the team. Erza and I don't have any real issues there and keep up the professional facade, while Himori... doesn't. Nothing too bad, but suffice to say that she's not on the roster for bodyguard detail.

Speaking of which, I pulled that job first. This pretty much entailed watching the guy get it on with a couple of prostitutes and a lot of drugs until the end of my shift, which couldn't come soon enough. I'm not a prude, but watching high old Russian guys get it on is really not my thing. Just to re-iterate, the pay is really good.

Time passes and for a few days, nothing happens beyond confirmation that Hanna is weird (Refuses to sleep on the bed and instead insists on sleeping on the couch), learning that black1337killstreak likes to watch (and take flipping notes!), finding out about Deadbolt's favorite porn channels (that poor pixie...), discovering that Boris isn't that big on commlink security (Hey, I have to practice hacking somehow! He had a file on there marked simply 'Bubba', and what was within will never be spoken of again. Ever.), and finding out that Erza/Sylvia has access to drones I've never even heard of before.

Then, about half an hour before midnight on the 11th all hell breaks loose. Explosives take down all the windows and a team of three of the hardest sammies you've ever seen come zip-lineing in to the clients room, supported by sniper fire. Darkraider grabs the client and runs into the 'his' bathroom with him, surviving a sniper bullet solely because Boris had a barrier up inside the client's bedroom window 'just in case' and that took most of the oomph out of the hit. The girls weren't so lucky and had APDS-shaped holes punched through their heads.

Now I was asleep until the windows got blown in, which unsurprisingly knocked me out of bed. Fortunately it also knocked me to the side of the bed where I kept my weapons in easy reach. First priority is throwing on an armoured jacket over my nightdress (which can be added to the casualty list by the way. Turns out normal material isn't so great at being showered in broken glass and frag grenades and coming out in one piece. Who'd have thought?), then grab my gun and sound the alarm (primarily to alert the teams on the other floors).

A brief tangent: this is where I show my combat inexperience as I had loaded up my shotgun with beanbag rounds because, well, minimum collateral damage and all that. I figured it wouldn't be that big an issue. At time of writing I am looking at the wiki page for a piece of brain augmentation known as a 'Pain Editor'. I think you can see where this is going.

Long story short: These guys take a ton of hits to take down. Like, 4-5 flashbangs and multiple full autos from assault rifles with APDS each. I'm pretty much useless with my one drum of non-lethal ammo for my shotgun but I do what I can. They kept ducking into cover so I couldn't get a decent bead on their weapons or anything and they kept flash-banging us back. Good thing I have a Dampener installed in my cyberears as otherwise I'd probably be deaf by now. Highlights of the battle:
Hanna runs out from safety in front of all three members of the initial breaching team and takes full auto to the center of mass at point blank range. She goes down and only survives because Darkblade manages to snatch and grab her and provide emergency first aid (which as I understand it consisted of grabbing stuff out of the medkit at random and hoping it helped. The guy was half-blind from flashbangs and had a cracked rib from that sniper round at the time).
Boris eats a shotgun full of APDS and takes it like a troll, retaliating by setting his attacker on fire. Both troll and attacker are hurt badly in the exchange but neither falls.
Deadbolt empties half a clip of flashbangs into the room where the attackers are.
One of the Triad guys sprays and prays into the bathroom where Erza has holed up, a location they wouldn't have known about if Hanna (Erza's bodyguard at the time) hadn't drawn their attention. Erza survives, just.
A second team try to zipline in on our flank. A magic invisible wall in their way puts a stop to that ambition quickly, though the last of the three gets through due to the force of the others hitting the barrier being enough to take it down. The barrier is large enough to do the same thing to the guys hitting the floor above us as well.
Boris then gets dropped by another flashbang.
The last guy throws a flashbang around the corner. I try to shoot it out of the air and manage to knock it back into the room but am still in the blast radius when it goes off and go down.
In the end we didn't lose anyone, though in Hanna's case I'm suspecting that divine intervention was involved. The knights are somehow talked down and the Vory don't dock us for the considerable collateral damage since most of it was caused by all the guys we took down exploding.

Did I mention that the Triad hit men exploded? They exploded! We were just lucky no-one was in the room with them when they went off.

About two thirds of Sylvia's stockpile of runners are now in intensive care but preliminary reports suggest that everyone is walking away from this in one piece, or at worst two. Can't say it'll do her rep as a fixer much good but those are the breaks I guess.

[Sendaz]

12th February.

Also sporting a new name is Darkblade, who now wants us to call him Darkraider. I honestly had difficulty keeping a straight face when he said that but what the hell, no skin off my nose what he calls himself.

Yeah, hope he realizes he just became DorkRider. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Sadly what you might want to call yourself is not what everyone around him will refer to him as, military nicknaming methods jump to mind here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Did I mention that the Triad hit men exploded? They exploded! We were just lucky no-one was in the room with them when they went off.

Was there the usual tells of normal explosives being used or did these seem unusual?

Been getting some weird tales of captured/contained Triad members in some circumstances self immolating, bursting, and even in some cases going boom with no signs of the usual accelerants or combustibles on what was left in the residue.

There have always been rumors of some of the more mystically bent chapters using their oaths to enforce loyalty among the ranks, the Death by a Thousand Cuts for traitors is a popular one, but it seems someone is upping their game.

Rising mana levels meaning more powerful oaths/bindings?

[FuelDrop]

Yeah, hope he realizes he just became DorkRider. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Sadly what you might want to call yourself is not what everyone around him will refer to him as, military nicknaming methods jump to mind here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Was there the usual tells of normal explosives being used or did these seem unusual?

Been getting some weird tales of captured/contained Triad members in some circumstances self immolating, bursting, and even in some cases going boom with no signs of the usual accelerants or combustibles on what was left in the residue.

There have always been rumors of some of the more mystically bent chapters using their oaths to enforce loyalty among the ranks, the Death by a Thousand Cuts for traitors is a popular one, but it seems someone is upping their game.

Rising mana levels meaning more powerful oaths/bindings?

In this instance they appeared to be under the mystical influences of implanted fragmentation grenades, a rare and powerful magic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Rubic]

In this instance they appeared to be under the mystical influences of implanted fragmentation grenades, a rare and powerful magic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

There's some support for this in the 4e flavor text (I think Runner Havens?). The triads are under oaths/bindings/anchored spells that kill them if they get captured or try to turn on their Family. The example in the books indicate bleeding from the eyes, mouth, and ears. The ritual to cast this sort of spell is closely guarded in the Triad teamasters.

[kzt]

The induction ceremony that the real-world Mafia uses has lines like that. In SR it should actually work, but the whole thinking things out has never been a strong point of SR devs.

[FuelDrop]

12th February. Addendum.

This next bit may be a bit stream of consciousness as I'm going to write each section just after it happens, so stay with me.

I'm currently flying out over international waters in a vector thrust VTOL at close on mach 1 with a bunch of untested recruits to hit the ship that the surviving Triad guys are retreating to. Sylvia says she's modded this thing for stealth but I'm still worried we'll get spotted and blown out of the sky before we can drop onto the corvette. It's looking like the triad teams we fought off were brought in specially from Hong Kong via a pocket warship for the job.

We are so far out of our league here that it's not funny. Hell, the reason I'm stacked in here with rookies is because most of Sylvia's contacts were too badly injured in the fight to participate in the counterattack.

Anyway, I suppose I should introduce you to the two new guys before continuing.

Firstly, our latest model troll. We always have a troll, for some reason. His name is Chuck, and from what I can tell he's an Irish immigrant to Texas who's enthusiastically gone native. When I met him he was wearing a full cowboy outfit, complete with 20 gallon hat (Like a 10 gallon hat, but troll sized) and spurs on his boots. Fortunately he's changed into a chameleon suit for this mission, and he says he's good at sneaking around. A troll infiltrator is a bit of a new concept for me but at least no-one will expect it. His weapon of choice is apparently pistols, specifically a pair of Super Warhawks with explosive rounds and a silenced Predator for backup. He's the team muscle.

Then there's Mac. He's an elf, maybe 19, and I'm having a hard time working him out. I mean, the guy is such a stereotypical basement dweller that it has to be an act, right? The glasses, the shyness around girls, still living with his mother... I didn't think anyone actually lived like that. Anyway, he's our tech expert for the mission. He has a bunch of drones but says he's not a rigger, doesn't carry a weapon of his own... I really don't know what to make of him.

We've been stacked 3 deep in the copilot seat of this strikecraft for the last 15 minutes and are still looking at another 5 before we hit the target. This has not been a comfy trip, to say the least.

Part 2.

Okay, the plan's gone well enough so far. We got onto the ship without anyone noticing, rewired their communications array so they couldn't send, then I started killing sensors along the path to the bridge while Mac dealt with doors. They've got a high-end host on board so I've been having to plug my deck into the cameras physically in order to have a shot at them. Still, whatever works, right?

So we get to the bridge and Chuck and a humanoid drone of Sylvia's that we've dubbed 'Dave' get to work clearing it out. It's not much of a fight, as wired in Riggers and Deckers aren't exactly physical powerhouses, but the damned Decker manages to lock down the entire system before they can drop him.

I try to hack it open but no joy, and we get a heads up that there's a counter-attack on the way. Fortunately we've got air support in the form of the strike craft and another of Sylvia's choppers, which has been flying in while we've worked with some reinforcements. The bridge has 3 entrances but the two that lead to outside the ship are being covered by our air support, leaving just one for us to cover. Mac's just finished re-purposing some breaching charges into mines and setting them up and now everyone's hunkered down and waiting for the bad guys to burst through the door.

Part 3.

I hate the Triad's tenancy to wire up their troops with grenades. I was lucky I only caught a nick on the arm from shrapnel when the attack team exploded.
Anyway, I'm trying to browbeat this host into co-operating while Mac works on repairing the bridge and the others are clearing out the last remaining resistance. The mission is almost over now, with the main potential trouble being another team that's on its way to rendezvous with this ship via speedboat. We've got some ideas on how to deal with them.

As a bonus the Triad helicopter on the helipad is also ours for the taking. Someone is having a good day out of this mission.

Epilogue.

The Triad speed boat was easy enough to deal with in the end. They didn't have enough fuel to get back to shore and in any case had been relying on the rigger on board this ship to drive. Captain America (as Chuck introduced himself to them. I think the name's stuck.) basically gave them an ultimatum, either surrender and hop into the life boat provided or get left in the middle of the ocean to either freeze, starve or die of thirst. They refused at first, but after a night in temperatures of around 25 F with no protection from the elements they were a lot more co-operative. Captain America made them strip off and leave all their gear in the boat but because we're not completely heartless we gave them a ton of blankets and a chemical heater in the life-boat. We also ensured a nice warm welcome when they got to shore as I programmed the pilot to take them to the Lone Star pier (KE had been getting all the good press of late so I figured it was time to let the Star have their day in the limelight.)

[Umidori]

These posts make me laugh, and make me really wish I had a game to play in.

~Umi

[FuelDrop]

These posts make me laugh, and make me really wish I had a game to play in.

~Umi

Well, making people laugh is the entire point of this thread so I'm glad it's working (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Hope you get yourself a game soon.

[FuelDrop]

19th February.

Well, almost everyone has recovered enough to celebrate the success of our Vory protection with a party. I am still amazed at how much alcohol Jack can drink without passing out, though it would seem that the old lampshade on the head gag doesn't work so well for trolls. The horns get in the way.
Also, Protip: Getting your insides shredded by APDS takes more than a week to heal. Hanna is still hooked up to life support waiting for new organs to grow.

21st February.

Well, I got divorced twice tonight, a new personal record!
The Triads have a bunch of deckers trying to match names to faces after our job protecting the Vory bigwigs. So now we're hunting down Deckers again. This time it's a bit different, as instead of independent contractors these guys are in house, hiding out in front organizations rather than holing up in the Barrens. Hollywood and myself were invited to the meet and told to pick the team. Our first choice of troll, Boris, was unavailable for undisclosed reasons so we went with option 2, Captain America.
Since it's probably going to be tight quarters we figured we should round out the team with a melee specialist so I give Darkblade a call. He says he can't make it and mumbles something about a big raid that he can't miss or something, but he knows a guy who might be up for the job.

This new guy's name is Richard, but everyone calls him Dick. There's a good reason for that.
Dick is an elf, about 5'5"-5'6", black crewcut, British appearance but speaks English with a Japanese accent. As elves go he's not much of a looker, and... well, you know how some people are said to be born in the wrong century? I'm not entirely certain when this guy got his morals from but it's somewhere before women got the right to vote.
As you can tell, we got along like a house on fire from the word go. People screaming and running for cover, emergency services rushing to the scene...

Actually, it's not that bad. If he does the job then I really couldn't care less that he thinks I belong in the kitchen. What I'm more concerned about is that he's insane enough to carry and use a monofiliment lash as his primary weapon. Those things scare the bejeses out of me! He also carries a machine pistol in his off hand which he loads up with Stick and Shock, which already makes him more flexible than Hanna ever was. I know that if this were being read it'd be by my fellow runners so I'll appease your curiosity and say the gun looks to be a Yak knockoff of the Ares Crusader 2, and quite a nice replica at that. Not so sure about the whip, I think it may be a Renraku model but those things are so rare I really can't tell even after a matrix search.

So, some final things about Dick. Firstly, whatever twisted code he has regarding women it includes a very strict "Thou Shalt Not Kill" clause, which may prove to be a bit of a problem if any of the hackers we're supposed to kill are women. Secondly, he is really bad with computers. Really, really bad. He didn't answer my first call because he couldn't answer his commlink. He called back by hitting random buttons until something happened, but we're attributing it to luck more than skill.

His introduction to the group wasn't what you'd call fantastic, what with demanding to be put onto someone who could make decisions rather than talk to me. Since his job description involves taking bullets I don't really mind so much since he's probably going to die so getting too attached isn't a good idea anyway. We decide to take him on despite that rocky start and a fairly mediocre recommendation because what I could find on the matrix said he'd be able to do the job well enough, and that's the priority.

Anyway...

We decide to hit one of the high-class restaurants first, since Hollywood and I were already dressed up for the meet so we'd fit right in. The plan was simple enough: Hollywood and I would go in as a couple and have a meal while a couple of my Shiawase Kanmushi drones mapped the place out. They're slaved to my deck and running stealth and evasion software so it's unlikely they'll be spotted, and they're small enough to crawl down vents and other similar crawl-ways. It takes them a while to find out where the hackers were hidden, a safe-room made up to look like a walk-in fridge, and Hollywood spend most of the time hitting on me. I'm still not sure if any of it was genuine or if it was all part of our cover, he's such an accomplished liar that it's impossible to be certain. Anyway, once we had the map and location it was time for the heavies to come in. As Dick and the Captain came around the loading dock Hollywood and I started our distraction, and it appears that our marriage will not last as he's been sleeping with the maid, the housekeeper and the neighbor's daughter (All at once!) along with flings with a couple of other women he meets at bars and shops, while I'm apparently going through the local cop shop at a steady rate. Both partners routinely cheating on each other makes for a lousy marriage but a great distraction, though in hindsight I should have been a lot more careful storming out in 4" heels as stumbling really stole my thunder.

While security were dealing with this the heavy team barged through and did the job with no civilian casualties, always what I want to hear. Hollywood managed to talk the manager into forgetting our little spat by impersonating a food critic, and we were done with location 1.

When we hit the next place we used pretty much the same technique, this time refined a bit because we knew going in what we were doing. I even hacked us a reservation and wrote some quick articles under Hollywood's assumed name to add credence to his food critic shtick.

Not wanting to try our luck at the third place we mixed things up with the distraction, setting off the fire alarms remotely before the heavies got to work. As a side note, we're changing vehicles between each target to make it harder for the Triad to pick up a common thread.

Say what you will about his attitude but Dick is really competent at what he does. I don't like him, but when he gets his game face on he does his job well and avoids extracurricular killing.

With all the posh restaurants on our list dealt with it was time to move on to a different target, the last one for the night. Since this one is a bar in Redmond we decide to ditch the subtlety angle and go in guns blazing, with Hollywood and I acting as rear guard while the Captain and Dick clear the path. It turns out that Shotguns>Pistols for crowd control, and between Hollywood's Krime Boss (Which he looted from the Vory a while back) and my Enfield we absolutely shredded, possibly even more effectively than the designated heavy hitters. I'm going to say it's because our opposition was numerous but wearing only light armour, which left them vulnerable to toying with the choke settings. Dick got shot up pretty bad when we were making our escape but I dragged his ass out of the fire and we bailed to my safehouse, on the theory that if the Triads track us down it's better that I burn a disposable safehouse than everyone has to abandon their homes. I also lost a drone in there, which was annoying but an acceptable loss. Captain America also knocked out and kidnapped one of the Triad hackers because she was a woman and Dick has strong views on violence against women, so we dropped her off to Misa.

After a LONG night we spend most of the day sleeping. There's only one bed but Hollywood somehow convinces me to share. He didn't try anything, and we wake up and head out in the mid afternoon. We're going after a cafe next so I do my usual shtick of letting my drones map the place then sending the Captain and Dick to deal with it while Hollywood and I create a distraction. This time we go for something a bit different with a political flash mob, Hollywood getting up on a soapbox to preach about how awesome things were before the jackbooted thugs of Knight Errant brought the city under their heels while I acted as a foil, calling out Lone Star on their institutionalized corruption. Long story short another fairly successful hit, though Dick got shot up pretty bad and some guys tried to hijack the car we'd rightfully stolen. The nerve!

I'm writing this as we gear up for the next mission, with Hollywood and I prepping some soycaff laced with tranquilizers to distribute in a roach motel run by the Triads. Misa's managed to get us an official looking van and uniforms to go with the coffee gear, so hopefully by the time Dick and the Captain are ready to go all their targets will be sound asleep.

[FuelDrop]

Due to lethargy leaving me with no enthusiasm to write today, I'm leaving a brief summary of our last session and will hopefully write it up properly when I feel a bit better.

1) Sedative-laced soycaff followed by assault. Successful, but with serious injuries resulting.

2) Meet in which rules of engagement change. Hollywood tags out for Deadbolt.

3) Zero solos the next location with a car bomb, being the only character on the team at this point with any skills outside of stealth and combat.

4) Next location summarily demolished. Dick set off multiple grenades simultaneously in a building we'd been strategically weakening, dropping several stories of rubble on both the enemy bunker and the entry team. Captain America was seriously wounded by having a wall drop on him and the enemy team, though currently buried, is still at large. Unable to finish job due to police arriving on scene.

5) Stealth infiltration and assassination. Zero and Dick handle most of the job, with Zak handling recon and transportation while Deadbolt sat in the car as backup.

[FuelDrop]

23rd February.

Erza contacted Zak, Darkraider and me to meet up at Quick Eddie’s. The job is an assassination run on the head of the Vory in Seattle, and the pay is high enough that she’s obviously not kidding. This mission was obviously going to be nightmarish from the word go.

The target has set up a club downtown as his base of operations and has a palatial estate in Everett. Given that we have 2 riggers on the team the logical time to hit him is when he’s commuting between these two locations, but for that we’re going to need a positive ID on what vehicle he’s driving, and that means heavy recon.

First order of business is heading out to the Everett mansion to do some snooping there. The place is huge and surrounded on all sides by an electrified fence at least 6 meters high topped with monowire and anchored a similar distance into the earth. It’s also troll-proofed and can probably withstand a hit from anything short of a Roadmaster. So our riggers unleash the fly-spy drones to get a bit of a look around. Erza opts for high altitude sweeps while Zak sends one to fly around the perimeter and the other to hop the fence. The one that’s supposed to hop the fence jumps straight into it, shorting out and bursting into flames as the high voltage electricity runs through it. Zak’s second fly-spy checks out what happened to it then flying in to check the area out. He notices a camera by virtually running into it then high-tails it out of there straight for his van. Fortunately for him I’m watching through Erza’s drones and note that his fly-spy isn’t alone. I warn him and he zips the drone into an orbit of the property and takes off. I think he still got made though.

Fortunately, I’m in Erza’s van rather than Zak’s (Where Darkraider is hanging out) and we don’t get pinged. We go to my new safehouse to pick up some B&E gear then head off to the club, where Zak is supposed to be waiting for us. Somehow this translated into ‘take Darkraider to a high-class brothel for an hour and get rid of his virginity’. We do physical recon of the location and it is a fekking fortress. The air circulation system is too narrow for even me to squeeze through and is so heavily criss-crossed with sensors that my drones would probably trip them. I still manage to get a good scan of the exterior of the building and plot all the camera locations. The only way in is through the loading dock entry, and that’s only going to open if they’re unloading something. So, it looks like I’m going to need to stake the place out in full chameleon gear until their next load comes through. I made a couple of purchases from the local hardware store to help with that.

Meanwhile, Zak has dropped Dorkraider off at the front of the club with a couple of girls, and he manages to talk his way in by the simple expedient of dropping a ton of money to the doorman. He goes in and attempts to become a member by throwing money around, including flashing a 20-grand credstick in the centre of Russian organized crime in Seattle. Now just to be clear he made no effort to hide his identity, and gave his full ID when asked. Also a reminder, the Vory have several days’ worth of footage of him from the bodyguard job.

*Facepalm*

That goes absolutely nowhere, he doesn’t get up from his table to do further recon so we don’t get the layout, and afterwards he takes the girls back to Zak’s van. Zak’s van has a bed in the back, and I don’t think I really need to go into further details there. Eventually they drop the girls back off at their workplace and go on a pub crawl.

Finally someone comes to deliver more supplies and I manage to slip into the loading dock. It takes a few hours but when the staff drops back down to four bored and inattentive security guys I get to work. First order of business is drilling a hole through the wi-fi inhibiting wall and putting an uplink out to the world. Some work with a studfinder and I was ready to rock with my power drill, fitted with vibration reduction and sound countering additions. I only brought a 6-inch drillbit and the reinforced concrete was 8 inches thick, but some suppressed APDS rounds manage to make up the difference. I set up a few cameras so that when I get out of here we still have eyes here, and due to the level of security I end up having to put a hole in the interior wall as well so one of my drones can get out into the club proper. I’ve set the other one on watch, and am going to try and get some shut-eye while I wait for an opportunity to get out. Still, this part of the run is going fairly smoothly.

24 February.

I think we’ve broken all our records.
Most incompetence in a run? Check.
Most property damage done? Check.
Most media coverage on a run? Check.
Biggest explosion? Double check.
Biggest payout? Check.

Okay, where were we? Ah yes, I’d just gotten ready for a power nap. Given the above list I think you can guess how well that went.

So, just after I finish drafting the last post I get a couple of text messages, one from Dorkrider and one from Zak. Verbatim:

Darkraider: “zero I need u to be at these acordants at ??? to launch a surprise attack on second black van”

Zak: “26:68:35 strike two vans we are in 1 van”

I’m like “WTF?” and forward the messages to Erza because I’m in no position to do anything else. After that I kill the commlink’s wireless and start checking the messages for trackers. It should surprise no-one that I quickly found out my position had been compromised. I had to get out quickly. I have a silenced Colt Agent Special, vs 4 guys with SMGs and more of their buddies on call. Luckily they’re all playing cards around a small table in the centre of the room, and I have some new purchases that I haven’t tested out yet.

I tell Erza that I’m going to need a hot pickup and activate my directional jammer to stop them calling for help, then lob a grenade. It hits the card table and detonates, spraying liquid everywhere. The liquid in question? Hold-fast adhesive. Boom, they’re covered head-to-toe in fast-drying glue. Now unfortunately it doesn’t harden instantly so I chuck my second party favour: a bomb full of ultra-glide industrial lubricant. They’re coated in hardening glue and slipping on lube, so their response is closer to a three stooges routine than a proper fight. Just to make sure I put a round through what guns aren’t jamming from being covered in superglue. I dash to the loading dock door, crack the maglock with my crowbar (I suspect they might work out that I was here anyway…) and start rewiring it just as a bunch more guys break through the glued-up door and open fire. I manage to avoid the bullets but because of the lube I get my arm caught in a glob of glue. Since I don’t have time to grab the solvent and apply it properly so I grit my teeth and shoot the pressurized container on my belt. That hurts, but it does get me free. The new hostiles step into the room and join the three stooges routine just as the door starts going up to reveal Erza with an RPG… one of the ones we liberated from the Vory so long ago.

Now the thing is that glue is pretty flammable. Lubricant is VERY flammable. Wooden forklift pallets are flammable. Wooden storage crates? They burn too. Inside them? Vodka. I don’t know if it was the rocket’s tail or the explosion that set it off but moments after I jump out the entire place goes up.

So we meet up with Zak at his safehouse. It turns out that, amazingly, the Russians put 2 and 2 together and worked out that the dynamic duo were up to something and had some guys go to pick them up. They were too drunk to come up with any lies at that point and manage to rescue themselves by sacrificing most of Zak’s assets and causing multiple high-speed collisions in heavy traffic, along with Zak drunk-programming a rotor-drone so that it starts targeting the people climbing out of the cars they’ve just crashed instead of the guys he wanted to shoot. End result both Darkraider and Zak are very heavily wounded, they’ve brought a Vory enforcer with them because apparently Zak asked him if he thought he could catch them this easily, he’d said yes, so Zak dragged his unconscious body through miles of rat-infested sewers and a high speed chase just so he could wake the guy up and rub in that he’d escaped.

It’s also at this point that Zak shows that he routinely wires his safehouses to blow, and that he also is willing to toss around explosives with live detonators in them. It’s about this point that Erza and I retreat to her car and drive up the street a way.

We come up with a plan that lets us salvage something from this disaster. Our target is going to have to move from the club after the fire and security breach, so we’ll hit him on the road. Now this guy doesn’t just get in a car and drive home, we’re talking an armoured convoy with air support, outriders, the whole thing. So we come up with the idea of diverting them then dropping 3, yes 3 buildings on them. We contract out to a hacker who’ll call in a damaged gas main along their root when they head out, ensuring that they’ll have to divert down the target location. Then we set up no less than 75 kg of AMFO to ensure a staggering amount of destruction. On top of this, we come up with the idea of framing Nitro.

Some backstory. About this time last year a terrorist called Nitro went on a terror campaign of bombings not entirely dissimilar to this until supposedly being killed by Knight Errant. It turns out that Erza was in some way related to the whole thing and as a result knows how to mimic his style perfectly. For some unknown reason she also has a ‘Nitro Drone’ on standby at all times. She also has contacts who can biosculpt our Vory prisoner and reprogram his mind to make him think he’s Nitro. In effect we’re sacrificing one of the bonus criteria for our run (Erza delivers the killing blow) in order to ensure that all the heat goes elsewhere… we hope.

Amazingly the plan goes pretty much perfectly, though all the drones ect we used had to stay and hold the line as news drones and KE strike teams arrived pretty quickly after we demolished a couple of city blocks to get this guy. More impressively he was so heavily cybered up that he stood up after having a building drop on his car, engaged the nadachi-wielding combat drone in hand to hand and was winning until I put a round through his heart at extreme range. That staggered him enough for the drone to finish the job. Finally, as we leave Zak fires up his last three hours of work: The street’s entire length is covered in burning letters that spell out to the sky “Nitro lives!”

Fortunately Jack is a registered bounty hunter, so we conscript him to bring in ‘Nitro’. The bounty split up is 15% each to Erza, Jack, Zak, Darkblade and myself, with 25% going to the contact that ensured that ‘Nitro’ would be legit enough to collect the bounty. Now naturally the Vory had a hefty bounty out at a healthy half-mill, but they were trumped by Knight Errent’s offer of… A Million Nuyen! Of course, Lone Star is overjoyed that Knight Errant is getting shown up so badly including getting a Firewatch team shot down on the news and match that bounty, so we go with their offer just to rub salt in KE’s wounds.

So much for stealth.

[Gyrox10]

Fueldrop,

That was beautiful.

[FuelDrop]

Fueldrop,

That was beautiful.

*Takes a bow*

What was your favorite bit? I personally like the part where instead of meeting for the rendezvous Zak and Dorkraider decide to go whoring, then introduce themselves to the target while handing over all their details, then after that go pub crawling.

Now the part my character didn't know: the Vory, having more that two brain cells to rub together, had pinged Zak's van as he fled the mansion recon and had recognized his other van when he dropped off Dorkraider. So they sent a team to pick them up from their pub crawl and find out what was going on.

This is the point I got the cryptic drunk texts.

What they were trying to do was co-ordinate an ambush between our two halves of the group. Naturally I was in no position to assist at that point but they didn't know that. Since their message was so unreadable Erza couldn't get much in the way of assets to the target location in time so it was pretty much up to them to spring themselves. So Zak sends a couple of commands to his remaining assets and shuts off the wireless. The commands?
well, both of his vans were ordered to ram the Vory vehicle he was in at full speed, while his sniper-equipped rotor drone was to target any surviving Vory. The first van misses, flies off into traffic and causes a massive pile-up, but the second van hits, knocking out everyone in the vehicle except for Zak. Dorkraider's player had somehow gotten the idea that organized crime don't believe in seatbelts, but fortunately we did convince him that the black van he'd been stuffed into did include that particular piece of tech. Anyway, Zak pulls himself from the wreckage, picks up Dorkraider and the Vory guy he'd decided needed to be taught a lesson (He's a troll so dragging 2 people isn't that big a deal for him, even if he is a particularly weedy one) and throws them into the van that had rammed the Vory vehicle, then drove off.

Meanwhile, Zak's sniper drone? Critically glitches its pilot check to interpret its drunken orders correctly and decides it's supposed to target anyone getting out of a car on this street. Like, say, the civilians fleeing the mayhem from Zak's second van. KE drones shot it down fast enough to contain the damage but still...

It is the single most botched mission I have ever seen, and yet it also netted us our biggest payday yet. Granted, we've had about 6 hours to grab our gear and go to ground before all hell broke loose and we have to flee Seattle, but we were leaving Seattle anyway so no biggie.

[Gyrox10]

Sometimes those botched missions work out best.

Last fall I was playing an elven face/fixer who hired the team out Charlie's Angel's style (Yes, his name was Bosley).

While my character was attending a fancy party with his girlfriend, the "Angels" attacked the shit out of a Ares junior VP who turned out to be both a state of the art sammy who had a good merge with a decent force bug spirit.

Several sniper rifle shots to the face and an Ares Roadmaster full speed ram later, they'd knocked the bastard unconscious. Then they called me.

Bos put together a warehouse by calling in a favor he had with the Ancients (Still run by Lucifer, because GM says). Within 90 minutes we were ambushed by an Ares Fast response team and narrowly manage to escape, three attempts to sell our little friend failed. As a last ditch effort I called Lucifer up (Protip: If the GM "hints" you can have a powerful NPC as a contact... take it. Strings are fun!) and see if he knows anyone interested in a good merge cybered-monster with a mega-corporate pedigree. The exact phrase I used was, "He'd be a cyberzombie if they put anything else in."

So we got two weeks vacation in lovely Cara'sir (5 star accommodations, of course) and a two-million nuyen payday with some extra benefits.

By FAR the biggest payout I've ever gotten in SR, gotten by the skin of our teeth. After the vacation we had to take the damn thing back to its hive and recon it.. without leaving a bodycount. But that's a different story.

My favorite bit is the growing sense of impending doom and Zero's fatalism about it. Had a nice avalanche feel to it.

[Gyrox10]

Sometimes those botched missions work out best.

Last fall I was playing an elven face/fixer who hired the team out Charlie's Angel's style (Yes, his name was Bosley).

While my character was attending a fancy party with his girlfriend, the "Angels" attacked the shit out of a Ares junior VP who turned out to be both a state of the art sammy who had a good merge with a decent force bug spirit.

Several sniper rifle shots to the face and an Ares Roadmaster full speed ram later, they'd knocked the bastard unconscious. Then they called me.

Bos put together a warehouse by calling in a favor he had with the Ancients (Still run by Lucifer, because GM says). Within 90 minutes we were ambushed by an Ares Fast response team and narrowly manage to escape, three attempts to sell our little friend failed. As a last ditch effort I called Lucifer up (Protip: If the GM "hints" you can have a powerful NPC as a contact... take it. Strings are fun!) and see if he knows anyone interested in a good merge cybered-monster with a mega-corporate pedigree. The exact phrase I used was, "He'd be a cyberzombie if they put anything else in."

So we got two weeks vacation in lovely Cara'sir (5 star accommodations, of course) and a two-million nuyen payday with some extra benefits.

By FAR the biggest payout I've ever gotten in SR, gotten by the skin of our teeth. After the vacation we had to take the damn thing back to its hive and recon it.. without leaving a bodycount. But that's a different story.

My favorite bit is the growing sense of impending doom and Zero's fatalism about it. Had a nice avalanche feel to it.

[Kyrel]

FuelDrop. These stories/reports are utterly entertaining. Please do not stop doing them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[psychophipps]

I will add that I enjoy them as well. I have been thinking about posting up my Shadows of the RGV sessions but my game is far more low-key so I don't think it would be even half as entertaining. Not enough explosives in it, you see...

[FuelDrop]

Well, if my shadowrun game ever bottoms out I might start transcribing my journal of our group's Pathfinder campaign, just to keep you guys entertained. For those of you who're unfamiliar with Pathfinder it's basically version 3.0 of that other game, only done right. Really really fun, no dead levels, worth checking out if you're into fantasy gaming.

Also going to point out a site I recently discovered that you folks might enjoy: rpgmp3.com. live recordings of gamers playing various systems, with most of the recordings being free downloads. Enjoy.

[FuelDrop]

I will add that I enjoy them as well. I have been thinking about posting up my Shadows of the RGV sessions but my game is far more low-key so I don't think it would be even half as entertaining. Not enough explosives in it, you see...

Post them anyway. It's all in how you write them, not the explosions. Heck, in my old thread the game was FAR more low-key and a mission once went exactly as planned. Still made for a good read.

[FuelDrop]

24th February.

First off, I haven't had my soycaff this morning so I'm not in a great mood. Warning my hypothetical readers ahead of time.

This is about the time to reintroduce my father to our narrative. I mentioned him during my first ever post, and dedicated readers will remember that he's the reason I'm in Seattle. He also lives within a few blocks of me and still does some wheelman work on the side. Nothing fancy, and most definitely not runner league stuff, but if you want someone to get a package from place to place in Seattle discreetly, Zero's old man is the one to ask. How does he do it? Well, he's a friendly guy who obeys all the road rules, never speeds, gives way to others and meets up with the local highway patrol guys for a synth-beer down the pub every Friday evening to chat about the game, regular. He also works legitimately for a small distribution company, which means that no-one really thinks about it if his van's full of boxes.

At about eight o'clock we drop a building on the head of the Vory. Eight oh one, dad gets a call: "Hey dad, I may have kinda sorta brought down an itsy little bit of heat. Do you think you could swing by my place and grab my going to ground kit, along with the jewelry box on my bedside table, then meet me at the safehouse? Actually, if you could grab the really expensive dress and coat in my wardrobe too that'd be fantastic. Uploading the details to your PAN now."

Yeah, that went down about as well as you can expect but we ended up meeting up at my safehouse just as the cops busted down my home's front door. Cost me my car (a Jackrabbit, in case you're wondering. Insert your own joke about it barely counting as a car here) and the new wardrobe I'd just finished getting together (Some of those dresses were to die for. Damn cops!) and my SIN is crispy, but considering the mayhem we've instigated over the last few months that's getting off lightly.

What wasn't getting off lightly was the talking to my dad gave me. And I'll be honest, I deserved it, since now he's got to ditch the life he's spent the last two decades working his ass off to put together because of me. Oh, and something about me putting myself in danger with all these shooting jobs, which I do agree with him about. Shooting people isn't exactly fun to begin with, but when they start shooting back things really go down hill.

Sylvia (you remember her right? She's Erza and Misa's real identity... I think. I mean it's possible she's just another fake front for someone else, but that'd just be getting ridiculous) warns everyone to go to ground and stay as dark as possible, since I think the lowest bounty on any of the group by this point is about 100 grand. No I am not selling anyone out, this team has enough trust issues without backstabbing to add to them, and in any case they might sell me out right back. Naturally Dick decides that this is just Sylvia being a hysterical woman and heads off to the pub, where he is promptly arrested. I don't think it's a coincidence that shortly after that my old safehouse gets a visit from the Knights. Everyone else has the good sense to drop off the grid, with varying degrees of success. Some guys apparently busted into Zak's old safehouse, based on the explosion that made the news a short time later.

So yeah, I lost my wardrobe, my SIN, my house, my car, my job, and I haven't had my soycaff yet. Not a great day. The fact that most of it is my fault isn't making things any better.