Slim the Argo-naught or
Your Insurance Is Going To Cover That, Right?When last we left our intrepid heros they were lamenting the loss of both their grenade laden van and their GPS Survival Knife. They also had the small problem of having lost the trail of contract targets.
I guess I never got around to explaining the job: We were to stop, by whatever means nessasary, a team of runners that were attempting to penetrate the Renraku Arcology. Our run was to stop at the doorstep. If they, the Numbers Gang hired by some Tir Ghost chap, managed to enter the Arcology the job was a failure.
So some more legwork and we picked their trail again, down on the water in a large cargo boat that had Tir diplomatic standing. Basically a floating consulate. Reconnaissance and legwork found them stocking up on rebreathers and renting a nice motorboat. We surmised they were going to try go up the Arc's tailpipe.
Noone had Pilot Watercraft, so Slim decided to pop down to the Sim Shack for a refresher course. Spent 4 of his 5 karma earned so far. After all having grown up in the desert "I've been around boats all my life."
So now we needed was a boat, and a fast one because the Numbers Gang had one with a top cruising speed of about 45 knots. The rigger/decker used his Fake ID (6) to convince a dealship of his outstanding credit, and arranged to try out a very expensive boat for purchase.

We rented a limo and Slim, as the personal assistant/butler, and the rigger/hacker met to salesman to pick up the boat at the docks.
After stopping for the rest of the team and the gear we waited to intercept the target once they moved away from the protection of the Tir ship. We spotted them at 800m using our night gear scopes, and the Troll shaman had a Force 4 water spirit attempt to Conceal us. They still spotted us and pursuit began. Fortunately we had shopped well and we had the speed advantage. With Slim at the wheel we were closing, and they never really resisted. Our spirit made a couple of accident attempts, which they avoided. At about 500m gunplay began, as a full auto volley ripped into the very expensive finish of "our" boat.
Slim mostly kept his head down, using PIP on his contacts coupled with his camera sensor stuck up over the dashboard. Their hacker had a small VTOL drone drop a grenade on the back of our boat, and we all got sound perception checks to notice it. Slim normally does well on these things, with Perception 5, Intuition 4, and Ear Buds with Enhanced rating 3. But he rolled a single succcess, and six 1's. Glitch! The sound startled him and as he turned to look at it he threw the boat into a flat spin. Driving test to see how far we fell behind in pursuit. GM ruled we'd fall 6 - hits Combat Turns. This pursuit was chewing up the boat, didn't think we could afford the extra time. Edge up front, 12 exploding dice with 2 rounds of rerolls and Slim gracefully *cough* handled the boat out of the spin. Only one passenger failed the Reaction (2) test to stay on their feet, but oh how that stubby legged dwarf whined. "Hey I've been around boats all my life, but grenades dropping on them is new to me."

More gunplay ensues. Fortunately I had brave shipmates to draw fire away from the hull and they had managed a handful of hits on their boat and crew too. Unfortunately their mage summoned a water spirit of his own and I was forced to make a couple of Accident checks. The spirit must have been BIG and using Edge, or the GM was just rolling hot because both times Slim faced a Threshhold of 8 hits. Edge up front managed the first one handily, but came up short on the second. Another driving test of 6 - hits to determine how many Combat Turns we fell back. 4th point of Edge used and I didn't even need to finish the rerolling to reach 8 hits. "No problem, I've been around boats all my life."
At this point we'd closed within a few hundred meters, and some of the team have taken some serious hits from some souped up rounds (the GM calls them Thumper rounds, I'm not sure what they give for numbers because Slim doesn't pack ammo). The mage had sent a bound fire spirit in and also summoned a spirit of air, but they hadn't faired much better than the spirit of water, and both had been banished. So she decided to step it up a notch. The Numbers Gang was all under cover, so she decided to shove a Flamethrower straight down boat's figurative throat. Force 10 that is.

She till then had only taken 4 boxes S, and has 2 boxes of P leftover from earlier in the run. She connects with the Flamethrower, and their boat is engulfed in an explosion that shakes this corner of the Sound.
She also has a dozen dice to resist with, and uses her sole Edge point. Still this is 8P drain, and she rolls very poorly. You can fry an egg on her sloping forehead as she eats 6 boxes of Physical.

But the day is won, as we move in to confirm the kill. We scoop a bit of equipment, but find no bodies on board. So the mage pops out to astral and about 10m below the waves under their boat she finds an ENORMOUS dual natured creature, snacking on a corpse, that turns and speaks to her astral form. The shaman books it back to her body, and Slim peels out as tentacles break the surface of the water to rip apart the smoldering remains of the Number Gangs boat.
Epiloge
Our Johnson paid us the remainder of our fee for thwarting the Arcology run, and a handsome bonus for ensuring no relalitation by the Numbers Gang. Back on shore Slim used his medkit to do some prelimarnary healing, and got everyone back to near full health. Followed up by the shaman using Heal, after resting away some of the Stun damage, there were little more than a few scrapes and bruises left.
But what of the extremely expensive boat that was shot all to crap? Well it seems that the dorf had his swank boat party crashed by pirates, those dastardly heathen of the high seas. His Fake Id survives its brush with the law, and since the purchase hadn't been completed the boat gets covered by the dealer's insurance. The dwarf, shaken by the harrowing experience of being accosted by pirates, cancels his order for the boat.
Thoughts on Slim's Effectiveness
Slim did well piloting the boat with limited AR, and using the expensive, stylishly retro steering wheel option on the cruiser. I think he did as well as he did because the other team didn't really try to break off the pursuit, so the 1 IP per combat turn was fine. Slim was mostly just holding the course, and saving his 1 IP till towards the end of the Combat Turn incase something came up. If involved in a more interactive vehicle combat he would have been far more outclased. If he had gone VR it would have greatly made up for this, but he is going to be hesitant to do that with the Scorched Quality. Here we see how 5 BP for that Flaw, even though Slim wasn't intended to be a rigger or hacker, isn't much of a bargin at all.
Once again the Edge proved extremely effective in having a weak skill function like a moderate-to-strong skill, pulling the bacon out of the fire 3 times. The Firstaid was also effective, and had this been time sensitive after the run this would have been very helpful getting us back up and in fighting condition within a few hours instead of a day or two.