SHADOWRUN MISSIONS: SCRAMBLE 2
An After-Action Report about the goings-on in Denver.

Tamanous's shadow auction was a limited success. They held the auction in an attempt to improve relations between their organization and the shadow community, with Nikolai Kirillov of the Vory providing the draw with many items of interest for the auction.

Representatives were sent from the Casquillho, the Chavez, the Koshari, the Triad, and the Yakuza, ostensibly to see and be seen among the shadowrunner elite. However, there was a lot going on in the underworld that day. The magical thesis of Mark Longfeather, Koshari elder, was missing. Someone had been stealing the brains of awakened animals. The Yakuza was in arms about a Matrix construct. The Triad was plotting to control Kirillov. There were a number of veiled insults among the lots of the auction, including the head of Jonny Ono. It was shaping up to be an interesting day.

On the day of the auction, there was much elbow-rubbing and clandestine dealings. Rumors flew about Longfeather's thesis. A number of nearly identical white bio-hazard boxes were seen circulating the room. A small bomb exploded in one corner, injuring half a dozen shadowrunners, but causing no lasting damage.

The auction itself went without a hitch, but shortly afterward, Kirillov had a seizure and fell to the floor. DocWagon arrived suspiciously quickly to resuscitate and evacuate the Vory captain. Rumor reached the auction that Kirillov had fallen due to a malfunction in an implanted cranial bomb, of which Kirillov and the Vory had been previously unaware. A number of underworld representatives were suddenly interested in hiring shadowrunners:

The Vory hired a team to find out what happened to Kirillov. The Triad hired a team to cover up what they had done to Kirillov. The Casquillho hired a team to frame the Triad for doing something the Kirillov. The Chavez hired a team to take out Kirillov. The Yakuza hired a team to preserve the evidence that the Triad had done something to Kirillov. The Koshari found out what was happening and decided to let it unfold before making a move.

As the day continued, the teams bumped into one another as their objectives intersected or conflicted. There were epic confrontations between celebrated shadowrunners. While there were no dead among the shadow elite (about half a dozen came dangerously close), there were a number of casualties among others.

The bomb that had been implanted into Kirillov was taken to the Rocky Mountain Instrumental Labs for analysis. Shortly thereafter, the Triad team arrived and left a large mess (mostly in pools of blood), but took the bomb.

Meanwhile, the Yakuza was in the process of switching a disguised con artist with a doctor from Hong Kong who had performed the implantation on Kirillov while she was posing as a prostitute at a massage parlor called East Meets West. They got away just as the Vory team arrived to investigate Kirillov's visits to the place. They bought the Yakuza plant's (true) story about how the Triad was behind the implant.

While this was happening, both the Casquillho and the Chavez teams were speaking to different doctors, trying to find ways to accomplish their own goals. Both doctors pointed to the same weak link in the bureaucracy: a man named Dr. Beararch. Both teams arrived at Beararch's house at about the same time, and with just a bit of sporadic violence, managed to negotiate a plan that would benefit both teams. Kirillov would be ordered moved from the DocWagon Emergency Services Unit to the Rose Medical Center.

The Triad team, having cleaned up the physical evidence, was then sent to extract the doctor that performed the implant. They arrived at East Meets West, only to find the Yakuza impostor. The team learns that the real doctor has been taken to a Yakuza safe house on the south side of the CAS sector, and head out to get her back.

Having reported the perpetrators of the crime, the Vory team is hired to help protect Kirillov while he is moved to the Rose Medical Center. As their convoy drove down Airport Blvd. approaching Colfax Ave. in the UCAS sector, the Chavez team slipped in behind them. An earth elemental appeared and flipped the ambulance, and a nasty fight began.

Meanwhile, the Casquillho team was tasked to plant a cranial bomb with Triad ties at the RMIL. They arrived and saw the cleanup in progress from the Triad team's attack, and carefully sleazed their way into the lab, planting the (fake, but inadvertently truthful) evidence.

As this was happening, the Triad team began probing the defenses of the safe house, which was defended by the Yakuza team. As part of the defense, a number of parked vehicles were hacked and rammed into the Triad team's vehicles. The Triad team decided to cut their losses and left the Yakuza team unscathed.

This was not the case in the UCAS sector. With a lot of lead and explosives flying, both teams took heavy damage. Kirillov barely escaped with his life, but was permanently injured in his fragile state: his skull was later replaced with cybernetics, and he now mumbles and lisps when he speaks.

There are many more details to the incidents described above, but not in this report. That information can be found in the war stories of the nearly thirty shadowrunners that were involved.

The city is calm now. The official reports describe random acts of terrorism, gang activity, and road rage, but wise heads have an idea of what actually happened. Rumors have been flying that the Denver underworld is starting to get a bit too small for the factions vying for control. Was this the bursting of the bubble, or just a hint of what is to come?

I'd be interested in reading the stories of those who participated. I was there, but I was a bit too busy to catch a lot of what was going on. I'm sure others would be interested, too.

Kirillov's that bad off? Damn. I tell you, that's a crying shame. Hot guy like him...

But he's alive. We worked hard as hell to get even that, and let me tell you, that's no small thing.

Maybe I better start off at the beginning.

The auction was the place to see and be seen this year, so I swallowed my past griefs with the Vory and headed out. It's no secret we've had disputes in the past, mainly due to their competitors hiring me. Hey, I'm a professional! I go where the work is, and the Vory never came looking to hire me before now. It's a part of my code that I do the job, and I get paid. I usually don't care about who hires me, unless they've previously breached contract, or are vetted as unreliable. But I'm getting off track...

The auction was fabulous! Plenty of nifty things, plenty of nifty people. Got to chat up a hot elf, (Love that Irish accent!) touch base with old friends, check out the new talent on the Denver runner scene, and pass my card around. Good times!

The guy running the show was Nikolai Kirillov. Almost handsome enough to make me forget about my past grudges with the Vory... But it's not good to mix business and pleasure. Besides, my read on him detected that he was straight as an arrow. No go. But I chat with him, like everyone else, we have a good time, then a while later he starts flopping around and dying. Real Mood-killer, let me tell you! Docwagon shows up, and he gets hauled off.

I don't know why, but the Vory turn to Nimnu and Mel Gibson to put a team together. No, scratch that, I do know why. They're good, even if the Vory doesn't like them much more than me. We go chat with Nikolai's right hand man, and do some legwork. It's investigation stuff, no big deal. Just finding out who did the bad stuff to Nikolai, is all. That was standard pavement pounding, and we handled that just fine. Then immediately after we wrap that up, Nikolai's second gives us another call. Turns out Docwagon's moving Nikolai, and the Vory want us in as added protection. They've already sent out a decoy, we're to ride with the real convoy and make sure Kirillov lives.

I don't know WHY Docwagon's moving him. Serious injuries like what he's got, you don't want to do a thing until they're taken care of. And it hasn't been nearly long enough for an operation... Honestly, it smells like someone's set him up. But I don't say that, because if I do we're out of a job. And with the crew we've got, I think we can do it.

Huh? Who did we have? Fair enough. I don't think they'd mind me telling.

First, there was me. I'm Briefcase Chan, a freelance consultant, and specialist in Aggressive Negotiations. You'd probably think I look like a sharp-dressed salariman, and you're right! Though I have to tell you, it's amusing the number of times I've gone out for dinner, and been interrupted by shady people looking for Mr. Johnson. Anyway, I'm a good talker. I'm human and still single, guys!

Next, there was Mel Gibson. Mel's from Seattle to begin with, a real veteran runner. He's a troll, and a street samurai from way back. Mel has a quirky sense of humor and likes the ladies, but overall he's a pretty simple guy. I respect that, and he's a great guy to have in front of you when the flying feces hit the rotary air manipulating device.

Then, there was Nimnu. Nimnu is Mel's partner, a seriously good hacker. He looks like a human kid, can't be more than 15. At least, that's his appearance, which means nothing in this day and age. He's a little off in the head, and annoying as hell sometimes, but he's a good kid. Likes to build his own drone friends... I think Mel keeps him human, weird as it sounds. Without the big guy around, Nimnu might forget he's not a machine.

Fourth up was a creepy human mage guy... Called himself Manos. I seem to remember an old movie by that name, so I checked his hands out. They looked fine to me, so I dunno. He didn't socialize much, but he knew the ropes and provided some seriously good backup.

Fifth was another troll, a guy all in white. Turns out he's an ex sous-chef! What the frak? But then I think of some of the other runners I've known and eh, I've heard weirder. He calls himself the Iron Chef, and it fits. Guy's a specialist in throwing knives. He had more cutlery about his person than your average banquet.

So anyway, back to the job.

We got an ambulance, with Kirillov in it. It's got a driver, two Docwagon medtechs, and two Vory guys in it. (Both wearing red shirts, for some reason.) We got two limosines of Vory goons, one in front and one in back. The plan is for our sedan to follow the convoy.

I start trying to figure out ways to make this a better setup. See, one of the problems with a job like this, is that the attacker's got the advantage. Unless they care about collateral damage, there's jack-all a defender team can do to stop someone determined. So I hope that the opposition is professional. If they're amateurs, we're gonna have problems. The difference is that professionals are easier to stop, but harder to kill. They'll try to do a clean, elegant job and not waste the non-combatants. Amateurs are unpredictable... They might be determined, they might panic and botch the job, they might kill the guy, they might get killed themselves, they might get YOU killed... You know how it goes.

Anyway, I figure I'm not going to be much use at long range, so I decide to ride in the ambulance and keep an eye on Kirillov. Manos sticks a spirit in there as well, with the orders to kick the drek out of anything that comes in astrally. So THAT's covered. Nimnu makes a backdoor in the ambulance's software, and keeps a part of his mind on overwatch. So we're good there.

Remember, you always gotta cover at least three vectors with this type of job! Physical, Astral, and Matrix. You don't have PAM, you ain't really bodyguards. You're just speedbumps. There's ways to cover if you don't have one or two angles, but they rely on speed and being tricky bastards. And there's no guarantee the opposition won't be faster and/or trickier.

Iron Chef goes in the front limosine with the Vory. Everyone else rides in Mel's sedan.

It goes okay for the first twenty minutes. I make small talk with the guys in the ambulance, and life is good.

Then all of a sudden we're flipped off the road, tumbling down the cloverleaf! We end up in a little patch of ground, and lie there for a little bit, recovering. One of the Vory tossed his cookies. Almost hit the suit, pissed me off to no end.

We don't know what's going on, but it's obvious there's an attack. I can hear gunfire from behind and off to the right, and explosions. Bad stuff. And from what I can hear over the comm net that Nimnu set up, it looks like it could go either way.

That's when I have an epiphany! An idea that might not be needed, but is too cool not to try. Remember how I said that sometimes the opposition's trickier than you? That's no excuse NOT to be the trickiest bastard you can be.

I turn to the non-barfing Vory, and tell him "Get Kirillov off the gurney, and cover him up." I tell the Vory who pissed me off "You're going to take a bullet for your boss. Lie on the gurney." He does so, and I cover him up with a blanket. Then I tell the med-techs "When we open the doors, take the gurney and run for cover."

The Vory get the idea, and obey without hesitation. One's lying on Kirillov, kinda doing the bodyshield thing. That can't be good for Nikolai in his current state, but we don't have time to be gentle.

The med-techs realize they're likely to get shot at, if they do this, and start arguing. I talk them into laying their lives on the line. During this discussion I crack the doors a bit, and smoke starts seeping in. Looks like someone put a smoke grenade on the ambulance. Perfect!

Then I realize that there's only a few reasons to smoke up the ambulance. Drek! The gunfire's a distraction!

Before I can do anything, the window between the ambulance front and the back blows out, someone's popped it with gunfire. Then there's a FOOP, and next thing I know there's a dart sticking out of the poor bastard on the gurney. He gurgles, and thrashes for a second, and that's that.

When there's no second dart, I swallow my better judgement and put my face up to the divider window. Nothing. I put a medkit up against it just in case, and wait. By now the gunfire's stopped, and the tactical map is showing friendlies coming up to the ambulance to check things out.

My team comes up, they see the medtechs working on the sheeted guy on the gurney, and oh man do their faces start to droop. It's all I can do not to start laughing.

So, I whip the sheet off, and there's the Vory redshirt, dead as Jetblack. I got a big-ass grin, and can't help but laugh. "How sad. He took one for his boss! Such a tragedy..."

I think I earned a little respect that day. I know that this was the most clever thing I've ever done in my running career. Wouldn't have happened, if I hadn't been at the right place at the right time, and said the right things in the right 3-5 seconds. Yeah, I'm gloating. I earned it.

Anyway, we got him to the hospital, a little more banged up than he should have been. No help for that... The opposing team was GOOD.

Their strategy had been to use an earth elemental to flip the ambulance. Immediately following, they'd rammed the back of the convoy with a van, and every gunner in the vehicle had opened fire on the opposition. Mel got most of the shots... He nearly died. He held off the entire van of bad guys until Manos' spirit and Iron Chef could get over and lay in some pain, and paid in blood, flesh, and cyberware repair bills for every microsecond. While this was going on, the stealth guy was creeping up on the ambulance, to carry out the real goal.

It was a good plan, and the opposition was scary good. I don't know who they were, or if they survived, but I hope I don't run up against them again any time soon.

So yeah, apparently Nikolai's got a little brain damage now, and yeah, maybe he's got a little more cyber than he used to. But Omae? He's ALIVE.

And THAT was no easy task.

-----------------Briefcase Chan

I just want to poke my nose in here and offer a HUGE thank you to Aaron, Dashifen, BishopMcQ, and all of the other GMs who organized and executed the Scramble this year. It sounds like things went off beautifully!

Hey everyone Ganavio asked me to post for him as he is off dealing with biz else where for now.

Well dang it all Briefcase I leave town for a weekend and you go and have all the fun I'll be back soon and then maybe we can meet at the usual location to discuss anything else that has happed lately while I've been away.

Till then stay safe
Ganavio

Briefcase Chan likes men? DAMMIT.

Well, ok. Someone else on my team can probably do a better writeup. I'm not exactly the brains of the operation; I just hit people. Anyway, I was trying to lay low at the auction; the Vory aren't my best friends in the world. I did score a nifty sword, and got a tarot card reading from the Tammanous representative. Nice girl. Surprised she'd be in that kind of business. Anyway, the cards said something about troubles with my family. Hahaha! If she only knew! But they also said that the one who caused me trouble might be coming back. I don't think he will; I made sure of THAT 9 years ago. But that's a story for another day...

It was just about then that Kirillov fell. In the ensuing chaos, we got hired by the Yaks. I got to sneak into a Triad whorehouse and watch Red and Kipling and Bill cause all sorts of trouble and distract the madam. In the meantime I'm standing here invisible, waiting for my signal. When it comes in, Kipling casts Stealth on the doctor so she can't scream. I grab her. Then Kipling drops invis on the decoy while casting it on the doctor. Getting her out wasn't really a problem.

What *was* a problem was the border crossing. Jana was too busy to meet us, so she set us up with a route. Knight Errant vehicles and drones chasing us all over the place! Barely escaped with our lives and it was definitely no thanks to me; it was Kipling's illusions and Macavity's drone hacking skillz that got us through. And just when we thought the worst was over, BANG! A rain of bullets blasts out our back window, barely misses me. And then I notice the blood.

The girl had taken a shot in the center of her back, right through her chest. F*ck! Why hadn't I thought to keep her behind cover?! Thank Kali, I at least know how to use a medkit. I manage to prevent her from dying immediately, but that's about the best I can do for her.

We drive to the Yak safehouse and set up a guard. After a while I sense an astral presence rushing through the safehouse. Well, f*ck! If they have a mage, we're screwed! Razen's in the trees outside with her gun. I'm guarding the first floor. Kipling's going to cast an illusion to make it look like we're leaving with the girl.

And then all of a sudden I hear cars crashing everywhere. WTF?! "Oh, that's just me," says Macavity. He's hacking every car on the street and crashing them into the other team's vehicle! After a bit of that, we hear a voice: "Is it too late to talk now?"

Well, I'm not someone who should be allowed to talk, so we let Red handle it. And he keeps them distracted until the yaks show up to pick up the girl.

Part of me wishes there had been a fight at the safehouse, but you know what they say, any run you can walk away from...

Like they’ve all said, it started with an invite from the Vory to a “shadow-gathering� being held at an abandoned mall in Denver. Myself, I’m not on too many Vory guest lists these days, except for the special one they keep down at the morgue, so of course the whole situation has me a bit skittish. I get my drones saddled up, put them on overwatch around the area, and have a spirit riding shotgun when I walk in. Make sure to call my chummer I.D. while I’m at it; he’s good with a piece and may as well be a drone himself for all the flesh that’s left on him.

Once inside things seem on the up and up. The Russians probably didn’t plan to start a ruckus with 30 other ‘runners from around the sprawl rubbing elbows at an auction, five or six of whom might be willing to spray some lead or lob a spell on my behalf if things go to drek so I calm down a bit. After some compliments to all the right people I get a tip from a fellow ‘runner that the Casquillo rep making the rounds had some magic to sell. Figured I wouldn’t turn that down and stroll on up, lay down a hundred nuyen, and walk off with a white biohazard box that supposedly contains a “magical thesis.�

Time to get worried again. Rumors have been flying wild about a white biohazard box containing items ranging from a new type of cranial bomb to the brains of stray animals (I couldn’t make this stuff up, don’t look at me like that). Anyway, I send ID to talk to the Koshari about unloading this thing – they’re a nicer bunch than the rest in my opinion as far as murderous thieves go – and they turn us down. Alright, no problem. I’m about to talk to the Chavez rep when I see another bleeding white biohazard box layin’ right there on the ground in front of me. Raven isn’t one to let something shiny get away from him, and I like nuyen so I do what any self respecting runner would do and grab that one up as well.

Raven’s also a curious fragger, and two boxes is two too many boxes not to open. I get I.D. and another chummer and we find a nice secluded corner to go about satiating our inquisitive nature. Box number one is a nice looking magic urn, probably what the Casquillo rep told me it was and probably valuable to someone, somewhere. The only thing I saw in box two was a bright, white light.

I wake up probably twenty seconds later with part of the chair I had been sitting on impaling me through the shoulder onto the permacrete wall. It’s times like that I’m glad to be among a profession that has a much higher rate of magical aptitude than the metahuman norm. Seres, new to the scene but a real good guy, rushes up and slams some mana into me. The familiar rush has me back on my feet in a couple minutes with a pounding headache and a new scar to show off while drinking. Of course things just get crazier from there when the Vory rep starts flopping on the ground like a fish out of water and DocWagon carts him off.

Anyway, a Johnson pulls me aside along with Seres, the mage I told you about, I.D., Gabriel, Derek, a street doc, and Styles, a guy with a real nice smile. Lady Johnson wants us to set it up so that a doctor working for her will get to do the med-work on the Vory that just did the seizure shuffle by forging some records and making sure the correct doctor doesn’t show up to work. Easy money.

We hack what we need to hack and then drive on up to the second doctors house to let him know he’s calling in sick. We send Styles to the door and just as he gets there he sends us a standby message and walks off somewhere down the block. He’s gone for a bit when Gabriel spots a couple of party crashers coming up on the back door of the household. Styles tells the other team he’s now in contact with to stand down and stay out of the building but someone doesn’t get the message and the other team enters. Seres, scouting astrally, comes screaming back to his body and gives us the heads up. I tell my water spirit to go introduce himself to the uninvited guest.

Just as the spirit is starting to have some fun, Styles calls back with a hold fire command. Both teams meet up and most of the opposition are ‘runners I know. Some guy in a very expensive and very wet suit explains that we have the same goals and shouldn’t have any problems working together. He’s working with Manchego, one great chef, so I figure he’s legit and we all agree to the deal. Everything else goes off like clockwork and we’re home in time to drink a fifth – or two.

That's quite a story, Mr. Chan. And sounds like you kept a cool head, did some quick thinking under fire... the Denver shadows could use more runners like you!

They say "no good deed goes unpunished". I do hope your saving of Kirillov doesn't end up biting you (or the rest of us) on the a**. I've heard more than a few people voice dissatisfaction with the way he treats people... enemies, friends, employees, even family. I'm not really the sentimental type, but one has to wonder just how much blood will be enough for him.

Oh, we could start a whole new thread on professionalism. I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes a 'professional'.

Regardless, Chan, you must admit that the 'accept the job, do the job, get paid' model is more of an ideal than a reality in your line of work. I'm sure you've had your fair share of employers who've omitted critical details, flat-out lied about the nature of a job, shorted or stiffed payment after successful completion... the list goes on.

I guess my (obvious) point is: good employers are about as hard to find as good employees.


((OOC: hey, to those of you who set up the tabletop SR missions at Cons - I have a suggestion. Most of the SRMs seem to open with a call from a fixer/johnson who then goes on to describe a job. Would it be possible for players to view that part before signing up for a game? Perhaps posted on a website or something? The fixer always asks, "so, will you do the job?", but from an OOC perspective it would be very awkward to say "no" after sitting down at the game table. As runners become less desperate for cash and more involved with the various Denver factions, I think they'd start to be more choosy about which jobs they actually accept.))

Geez, I put the word WETWORK in the title. How much more obvious do you want?

Mark

In other news, anyone else notice the very stylin' threads those Docwagon goons showed up in, to cart off Kirillov from the auction? Almost made me want to join Docwagon myself.


((OOC: Nice work on the costuming!!))

As far as payment goes, I'm actually surprised that there are not more fixers that offer escrow services.

[I'll pass along the good words to the costumer. I'm getting a uniform done, myself =i) ]