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FuelDrop
((OOC: I may have to change characters to help balance the group, so I'm not naming the thread after DOA. Hope I don't have to change, I kind of like her. Special Australia day public holiday game tomorrow, so that should be good smile.gif ))

02/11/2070.

Arrived in Seattle. Sill feel ripped off, our smuggler charged us an arm and a leg for a cramped up cargo hold. Her name’s El’telana, which I believe is the elvish word for “Pretentious poser”, and she drives a t-bird she’s dubbed the ‘Faroth’. She insists it means ‘Hunter’, but I believe the proper translation is “I’ve-trawled-the-lord-of-the-rings-wiki-for-cool-sounding-words”. In spite of all this she got us here in one piece and put us in contact with one of the local gangs. Not the ancients, in spite of her claims that she’s well connected with them, but that’s probably just as well. Have managed to secure a lease on an unoccupied basement in gang territory. Not fantastic, but it should be defensible and well hidden. It’ll do for now. Also got a lead on a street doc. Another elf, this one going by Celinia. She’s a mage of some description which is never a good thing, but whatever. Hooking up with her to get some meds this afternoon, then I can get to setting up our new digs.

Trevor handled the trip fairly well, all things considered, but he really needs fresh meds and preferably a trip to a proper hospital. I’m going to need to get some work and buy him a decent SIN before that can happen, so I need to start getting my name out ASAP.

03/11/2070.

I’ve worked out why the gang was willing to let us have this place. Other than the simple fact it’s an unfurnished basement it sits right on the edge of their DMZ with an orc gang calling themselves the Crimson Crush. This can only end well…

Feeling a bit lethargic, still getting used to the new drugs. At least these ones probably aren’t radioactive. Scavenged some old office furniture from an abandoned office the next street up and hit the jackpot with insulation, so that’s bedding and soundproofing taken care of. I’m going to need to source a space heater of some kind before winter hits in full, but I may have a lead on that. Rigged up some frag grenades as a nasty surprise for anyone trying to sneak in, just in case. I really should look into getting myself an autoturret or something to guard the place while I’m out.

05/11/2070.

Got a call from a fixer by the name of Jenkins. Not exactly sure on this guy, but I need the work so I’ll check it out.

06/11/2070.

Well that was a waste of my f***ing time. Okay, starts out fine. I turn up and the crew is a bunch of muscle. There’s an orc ex-bodyguard, a farm-boy with a sword, and a troll who appears to specialize in punching stuff. So, the Johnson wants four drug dealers from the mafia assassinated, a human an orc and two trolls. No problem. Johnson’s offering 50 grand for the job, but I talk him up to 60. All routine stuff. At this point we get some more intel on the targets. Their stomping grounds are downtown. I haven’t actually been to Seattle’s downtown yet, but I hear that it’s not a massive radioactive crater. Should be something of a novelty.

So the Johnson leaves and I start asking the group about their assets and talents, with an eye to planning this operation out. This is the point where we run into our first problem: Neither farm-boy nor bodyguard have a SIN, not even a fake one. Good luck getting out of Redmond without one of those, chummers. So now I ask if anyone has access to some way to hide us from the myriad cameras that’ll be sure to cover downtown. No joy. We toy with sending the two of us with SINs to try and backtrack the suppliers for these guys with an eye towards rigging their next shipment to explode, but we abandon that plan because of too many variables. So we call the Johnson and ask about him hiring a decker. He says yes, but it’ll come out of our pay. At that point we politely tell him where he can shove it, and point out that he should have hired a decker as part of the team in the first place.

Not sure who to blame for this one, but I’m splitting it between the Johnson for not being clear with the fixer and the fixer for putting together a group that can’t do much beyond fight.

16/11/2070.

Got another call from Jenkins at 10 pm, tells me there’s a meeting in an hour. Head out to find he’s gathered together the same team as last time. The job is convoy escort duty going out to Boston. Well I need the cash, sure, but I’m not leaving Trevor alone for that long. I’ll find another way. The others look like they’re good with the idea so I bid them good luck and head home. I doubt I’ll ever see them again, as two melee specialists and a guy with an SMG is not a good team to defend a moving convoy. I mean seriously, are we the only runners on this guy’s roster or something? Maybe he’s pissed at us for not doing the last job and trying to get us all killed, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m betting I never hear from Jenkins again either. Good riddance.
DMiller
Love the post, and story. Sounds like a very poorly balanced group though. Maybe the players should get together off-line and re-tool?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (DMiller @ Jan 27 2014, 08:35 AM) *
Love the post, and story. Sounds like a very poorly balanced group though. Maybe the players should get together off-line and re-tool?

Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

Two of the others are new players (the ones that had no SINs), and all three of them were put together by the third player, who was also covering for the GM while he finished his diving lessons for the day. We're going to have two more players in the group's regular sessions so that should even things out a bit, but I agree we're very muscle heavy. Not a problem, it just means that we'll need to try for jobs that use our talents to the fullest.
toturi
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Jan 27 2014, 08:42 AM) *
Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

I'd have gone with a deck/hack-er.
attilatheyeon
Why, can't you play a magic or technomancer? That seems weird. Anyway shadowrun teams are always higher than average magic, so that shouldn't be the reason? Or at least that's how i think of it
Sendaz
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Jan 26 2014, 08:42 PM) *
Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

Wellllll.... he wants 'normal' eh?

Let's give him normal.

Make a Grrl Scout from Troop 7143 (Seattle Branch).

No cyber, no magic, no heavy weapons. Just a plaid skirt and knee-high socks, a disarming smile, several boxes of cookies, and a buttload of merit badges/skills.

A recent camping tragedy has wiped out the rest of the family and the brave lonely Grrl Scout is going to have to try and make ends meet while staying one step ahead of social services.

See how long you can keep her alive/out of foster care.

okay maybe not totally normal, but if he is gonna leash you......
kzt
So the Johnson didn't "just happen" to be willing to give out some fake IDs? Come on, the GMs job is to make the game happen.
FuelDrop
QUOTE (Sendaz @ Jan 28 2014, 07:49 AM) *
Wellllll.... he wants 'normal' eh?

Let's give him normal.

Make a Grrl Scout from Troop 7143 (Seattle Branch).

No cyber, no magic, no heavy weapons. Just a plaid skirt and knee-high socks, a disarming smile, several boxes of cookies, and a buttload of merit badges/skills.

A recent camping tragedy has wiped out the rest of the family and the brave lonely Grrl Scout is going to have to try and make ends meet while staying one step ahead of social services.

See how long you can keep her alive/out of foster care.

okay maybe not totally normal, but if he is gonna leash you......

Next time I am so doing that.
Skills A
Attributes B
Metatype C
Resources D
Magic E
I'd put Resources at E except, well, no magic. I wonder if my GM would let me take 2 E priorities...
bannockburn
I like your story threads. Thanks for the entertainment smile.gif
FuelDrop
19/11/2070.
Got a call from a new Johnson, a Miss Misa. Wants to run an assassination of some drug dealers, Vory this time, downtown again. Did the local drug dealers declare open war on the local shadowrunner community or something? Why does everyone want them dead. Couldn’t make the meet because Trevor had a reaction to the insulation I found, so I had to join the job half-way through. Not a great first impression. Turns out that she’s hired the same guys that the other Johnson did, but this time included a bit of decker support and some fake SINs for the SINless into the bargain. Already I like her more than the other Mr J. I catch up and find out that the first two dealers are already dead, along with everyone around them. It looks like our ex-bodyguard type (Goes by the name of Deadbolt) has a passion for grenades which he shared with the first target, then took out the second by driving by him on the street and mowing him down with a machine pistol on full auto. Subtle. The drive-by also took out most of the guy’s associates, but since we’re getting a bonus for that I can hardly complain.

Well I’m asked to strut my stuff for the next job. No problem. I smuggle my trusty Remington 100 rifle to the top of a building near the club the target’s at and wait. After half an hour he steps out and I put an APDS round through his forehead. Almost take out his bodyguard with the same shot, but the bastard was an orc and survived. Still, clean kill and I get away with no fuss, though farm boy (he wants us to call him Low-jack, but Farm boy has stuck) manages to nearly get mugged due to his incompetence at hiding. Next target is in another club. I’m assuming Misa’s decker was working overtime to keep the pigs off our back, because they weren’t giving us any trouble. Twice as surprising considering Farm boy’s screw-up earlier. I’m asked to provide sniper support again, so up to the roof of another hotel and out with the Remington. My cyber-leg’s smuggling compartment is working double shifts tonight. Farm boy is sent to lurk out the back where he can’t screw anything up.

Anyway, the others get impatient and decide to go in after the target. Jade (a MALE troll. I don’t want to know.) gets tasked with flipping all the switches on the fuse box while Deadbolt goes in and takes the guy out in the ensuing confusion. Quick, clean, efficient.
Naturally, it doesn’t happen like that. I’m not sure of the details but grenades end up coming out again and the club needs a new top floor. No civilian casualties, but the property damage is pretty immense. Hopefully this doesn’t become a regular thing. Anyway, Miss Misa is happy enough with the resulting carnage and we get paid, though I get some docked for being unavailable for the first half of the run. I get the impression this was more about putting a team together than the actual assassinations. Misa apparently has some kind of ‘Runner hotel’ she’s setting up, but I’m not interested in communal living like that. Far too risky, and it doesn’t cater to dependants. Pay is crap, but enough to live on for a while longer. Maybe I should try out some of this fast food stuff that seems so popular. It can’t be worse than devil rat stew.
Sendaz
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Jan 27 2014, 08:31 PM) *
Next time I am so doing that.
Skills A
Attributes B
Metatype C
Resources D
Magic E
I'd put Resources at E except, well, no magic. I wonder if my GM would let me take 2 E priorities...

Don't worry so much about resources D, I would suggest 1-2 months High Lifestyle to represent the house running for a bit while the estate is being sorted and the system takes over, then she is out on her backside if social services doesn't snag her first.

Throw in some expensive but only moderately useful stuff a typical teenager from a wealthy background would have and you can probably blow a good chunk of those resources right down. Maybe a moped or similar..

Then you can have some fun Macgyvering them into crazy uses on the fly. biggrin.gif

Oh, and the cookies... lots of Grrl Scout Cookies. nyahnyah.gif

They say the Big D was fond of the Thin Mint Cookies, but hey who isn't? smile.gif
FuelDrop
29/11/2070.

Miss Misa called again. Another job. Meet is downtown in a neo-gothic club called the Helfire club, which makes the business suit I blew some of my last paycheck on a bit of a waste. More money gets blown picking out a stupid outfit for this place, something black and horribly uncomfortable. My online research said that heavy makeup was the go too, so more money gone there and about an hour wasted on video tutorials learning how to use the stuff.

I take a cab and meet up with the others there (Note: I really need to learn to drive. Now that I’m somewhere that has roads that weren’t nuked to hell a vehicle of some kind seems like a good way to travel). Deadbolt and Jade have made an effort to blend in, while whatever look Farm boy was going for failed. Badly. Miss M has highlighted some drinks on the menu so we’d order something that doesn’t stand out too badly, but Farm boy has to go and order a pineapple juice. What is with him and pineapples? Miss M pranks him by changing his order with the kitchen staff, which apparently has something to do with something he pulled at the last meet. It’s all very immature, but Miss M has the money to pay us so what do I care? The cocktail I ordered arrives and I try it, but it lacks the punch of proper home-made booze. I’m still cautious with it, since I can’t risk being impaired if I’m called upon to negotiate.

The job is to assault a Vory safe-house where they’ve stowed some girls en route to the Russian slave trade. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to considering the number of places that’ll pay top dollar with no questions asked in America, but maybe the motherland is running out of women or something. We get payed by the hostage, with bonuses for dead Vory and making sure KE can’t miss the hidden dungeon when they turn up to check the place out. We’re going to need to spray paint big arrows to the entrance with ‘Secret dungeon here’ written all over it, just to make sure they get the point. Miss M is willing to source us some gear and take it out of our pay, which is fine considering the time-frame we’re working with. Some Chameleon suits and a new gun for Deadbolt and we’re in business.

30/11-01/12/2070.

We decide on a midnight hit. The target building is in the middle of a large corn field pretending to be a farm house, so we sneak through the corn on foot in our new Thermal camouflage Chameleon suits. I peel off early to be sniper support from the edge of the property while the others sneak over to the garage to cut the power lines on the enemy vehicles and prevent them from escaping if they slip past us. A decker hired by Miss M takes out the cameras and stays in the system to kill any alarms. The doors are sealed by maglocks, but we brought the universal key: A troll with a crowbar. The others get inside the garage and I settle down to wait. Not long after someone wonders out to take a look and see why the door’s open (I found out later that Farm boy was last in and forgot to close it behind him), but I get called off from taking him out as Jade reckons he can ambush the guy and disappear him without arousing suspicion when he reaches the building. Just as the guy leaves my line of fire I hear an unsuppressed assault rifle firing full auto echoing through a tunnel of some sort. Turns out that there was a trap door beneath the garage and it lead to a tunnel guarded by an auto-turret, which Farm boy then went and triggered. He’s not answering comms so could be dead or pinned down, and at this point I’m pretty sure that the stealth part of the mission is over.

I stay put to provide sniper support as Jade and DB charge the main structure. Long story short frag grenades start flying so I pop jazz, switch to my HK 227 and move in to help. The fight is over by the time I reach there and we get a call from FB telling us that the last of the Vory have grabbed the hostages and are making for the cars.
I sprint there and manage to arrive just as one of the Vory are getting into their car, so I put ten rounds into him. It’s just gel, but it puts him on his ass and he rolls under the car to get cover. I charge over and climb into the car, locking the door behind me and putting a burst into the passenger seat. Unfortunately the person in the passenger seat isn’t another Vory thug but one of the hostages we’re here to rescue. Fortunately I had gel loaded for this very reason. It’s my own fault for going into a hostage situation while high, but the Vory were packing speed-ware so I had to do something to keep up. Anyway, with one hostage secure and one car locked down the other car starts and they reverse out of the garage. Apparently in the excitement of finding a secret passage step one of the plan, ‘Cut the power lines in case the Vory make a break for their vehicles’, slipped my co-runner’s minds.
I’m working with people who can’t follow a plan through to its first step. Well, the only way to go from here is up.
FB manages to shoot himself by bouncing bullets off the armoured window of the Vory car, but then Jade through a couple of knives through the window and killed the driver. He was high as a kite on nitro at the time but even so I am seriously impressed. So the car with the other two hostages in it reverses out of control onto a corn field until I double-tap the engine with my sniper rifle. We rescue the other hostages, the last Vory guy removes himself from the gene pool by catching his gun on a grenade pin when he draws it to try and shoot us, and we get away to get paid. I ask Miss M to put me in contact with a shadow real estate dealer and she says she can find me a place if I give her the requirements. I list some stuff off, and she says she’ll give it a look. I’m not going to take her up on whatever she finds, but I need an idea of what I should be paying so I know if someone’s trying to rip me off.
AndrosDeragon
... so the GM wouldn't even allow adepts because compared to mages, they are normal. Also does anyone in your team have any utility skills like B&E or First Aid at the very least?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (AndrosDeragon @ Jan 28 2014, 11:10 AM) *
... so the GM wouldn't even allow adepts because compared to mages, they are normal. Also does anyone in your team have any utility skills like B&E or First Aid at the very least?

3/4 of the team have first aid, between Deadbolt and DOA we've got a half-assed face, Farm boy is branching into decking, and Jade is an adept and our expert on all things magical (Jade is a conversion of an old character, so managed to slip passed the GM's no magic rule. Also, Jade's player was GMing for the start of the campaign when the regular GM was late). Jade is played by the same player as Sarah, Farm boy and Deadbolt are both new blood and got sams because they were the easiest to learn the system with. Shadow's player couldn't make the campaign start because it was his wedding anniversary, but will be back next week, while Seth's player is our GM.

Much as I bitch and moan I really am liking DOA so it's all good. After my girl scout I may ask the GM if he's had enough and is willing to let me play a mage (My girl scout, as an unaugmented mundane, is going to specialize in destroying obstacles which by all rights should be insurmountable. After that he should be glad of giving me mere magic to keep me distracted... devil.gif )
FuelDrop
Also:
Due to my character being somewhat peripheral to the action for much of this run I couldn't note this IC, but out of the 8 Vory thugs Jade killed 5, Deadbolt killed 2, and DOA killed 1. Jade is fricking badass!
AndrosDeragon
Oh. My mistake then Fueldrop, I shouldn't have just assumed.
Tecumseh
I'm enjoying this. My favorite line so far, which still makes me laugh even after reading it five times:

QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Jan 27 2014, 05:58 PM) *
19/11/2070.
It looks like our ex-bodyguard type (Goes by the name of Deadbolt) has a passion for grenades which he shared with the first target

Tymeaus Jalynsfein
QUOTE (Tecumseh @ Jan 28 2014, 12:17 PM) *
I'm enjoying this. My favorite line so far, which still makes me laugh even after reading it five times:


That is an awesome line... smile.gif eek.gif
FuelDrop
01/12/2070.

Used the money from running to find a new home, a quiet out-of-the-way apartment in Renton. The neighborhood is nice, and there aren't any gun-fights breaking out in the middle of the night between rival gangs so all in all things are getting better. The whole place looks serene on the surface, but I'm not buying into that. I picked a house down an obscure back-road that used to belong to a reclusive orc, and I'm still trying to find all the booby traps he had set up. Getting in takes a key, a code, a card and an RFID chip, and on the inside the whole place is lined with ballistic plaster and sensors everywhere. There's even a small pistol range in the soundproofed basement.

In other words it's perfect.

03/12/2070.

There aren't any metahumans in the neighborhood. It's weird. Everyone seems too friendly and welcoming. There's something going on. Found a driving instructor, too. I got some odd looks with the cyberarm and never having driven before but he was patient enough and I'm quickly getting the hang of most of it.

05/12/2070.

Got a flyer from some social group called 'Renton's Revival'. Apparently they are inviting me to come along to one of their meetings. I figure I may as well, what harm could it do to get to know the neighbors?

08/12/2070.

Well that was a complete load of horse shit. Turns out the RR are just a club for meta-haters to go and drink before heading out to beat up metahumans. Why the hell would I want to get involved in that? People have enough problems without that load of assholes adding to them. Screw it, I don't care.

On a side note, need to change meds. Threw up blood this morning, my doctor said that my lung cancer was coming out of remission. Caps off a perfect day.

12/12/2070.

Got another call from Miss Misa. Met up at the same club as before, same stupid outfit as before. Corsets are fantastic when you're already having trouble breathing. The Vory are getting hit hard and are looking to take the market back with a massive gun shipment, and Miss M wants us to take as much of it out as possible. The payout looks good and we provisionally accept, but after a few hours of going over the intel we face up to the fact that the mission is well out of our league, and call her back to tell her that with the information she's provided we're not seeing any way we can get the job done.

14/12/2070.

Got another call from Miss M. She's located a warehouse where the shipment we didn't hit ended up and wants us to take it out before the product hits the market. We hold a planning session that lasts for a few hours, then head home to get some rest. We'll hit it tomorrow night. New drugs are working better and my lung cancer is back in remission, but it looks like the price is my hair starting to fall out. I may need to get that looked at.

15/12/2070.

So we're geared up and good to go. We've got a new guy along for this one, one Mr Shiny. He's a professional eliminator, whatever that means, but from what I can tell he uses something designed this century to kill things unlike about half of the team so he's bringing something new to the table. I'm on sniper duty again so I'm running my stealth suit while everyone else is kitted up for heavy fighting.

While we're on route to the target we get a call from Miss M. One of her contacts is under attack by the Vory and we're being diverted to pull her ass out of the fire. The pay is right so we change targets and move to intercept.

The Vory have 3 cars blocking in our target, all heavily armoured SUVs of some kind. We engage and things are initially rather bad, with farm-boy charging head-first into full auto fire and he gets shredded. Jade also takes some auto-fire to the back but unlike farmboy he just shrugs and continues on to the target. I start picking off their turret-mounted guns while Mr Shiny decapitates one guy with a mono-filament garrote then starts shooting the rest with his pistol. They decide to take cover and start lobbing grenades but he still manages to take one down. Meanwhile the cars decide to prove that ramming always works by driving full throttle down the street side by side. It turns out that driving full throttle is a lot harder when a sniper puts three rounds of APDS through your engine block, as I decide to demonstrate to one of the Vory drivers. We get the target to our car safely and so the inevitable high speed chase begins. Mr Shiny stabilizes Farm Boy while Jade tends to the package, leaving Deadbolt and I to deal with getting away. Of course having a large gunfight with grenades and turret mounted machine guns in the middle of my home neighborhood (yes, all this went down about two blocks from my front doorstep. I thought I'd left the gang violence behind!) kind of attracts the Knights. I pick off their pursuit drones fairly easily but then I spot an armoured pursuit car shadowing us a street over. Well there was no chance our bullet-ridden step-van was going to outrun a dedicated police pursuit car and lets face it those things are armoured up the wazoo, so I shot out the engine of the civilian sedan about a hundred meters ahead of it. Instant traffic jam, with the pigs stuck in the middle. That just leaves the Vory pursuit and a metric ton of drones. Whoever this chick is, someone wants her bad.

Long story short our employer has us lead the Vory through an ambush which costs us our car, but we then get a milspec helicopter ride out of the city with a couple of paramilitary types who don't talk much. Package gets delivered, we get told we'll get paid soon. I'm not impressed, but the big guys with heavy armour and assault rifle convince me to hold my tongue on that. Farm boy survived his ordeal and Jade makes a pass at the package, though I have serious doubts that he's her type.

18/12/2070.

We get called over to the Helfire club again and Miss M treats us to dinner and more importantly payment. Fifteen grand each, and Deadbolt's car is replaced on top of that. I hate this place with a passion, but I play nice for the Johnson. I've lost a noticeable amount of hair by this point but now I've finally been paid I might actually have a chance to do something about it.

19/12/2070.

Got a doc-wagon basic contract for Trevor. This way if anything happens when I'm out working then he'll get help quickly. Considered getting one for myself too, but right now I can't afford both it and some new gear I'm going to need. I called El’telana to see if she could lay her hands on a Colt Inception for me, and now I'm heading out to hunt down a Krime Spree and some accessories. Plan is to load it up with a laser sight and tracers so I've got a Decker-proofed gun, should I ever need it. Also, I like the design.
FuelDrop
((Backstory of DOA, current working copy as of 03/02/2014.))

Dara Odette Anderson was born to Patrick and Velma Anderson on the 18th of October, 2042. Working as a janitor at Truman Distribution Networks (a local company known for their work on the development of simsense) while his wife worked as a maid, the family never had much money to their names. They rented a small apartment near Shattergraves, not big enough for a starting family but the best they could afford. Dara’s childhood was about as peaceful as you’d expect for a human kid growing up in a neighbourhood in the shadow of one of the biggest reminders of the night of rage in existence, and she learned fairly early on to fight with anything she could pick up, and to stay in after dark. When Shattergraves became ghoul central in 2053, well you can imagine what that would do to an 11-year-old. The local school was about as good as can be expected considering the district, not that the family could afford to keep sending her after Ares bought out TDN in 2055 and made her father redundant at the same time as her mother fell pregnant.

Then came August 23, 2055. The Universal Brotherhood revealed its true face to the world, and everyone knows the rest. All Dara really remembers of that fateful night was the family huddling in the laundry while her mother told her that everything would be alright. After that… well, life within the cordon wasn’t exactly paradise. The family scavenged what they could to survive, but as things worsened they had to travel farther and farther from home to find food, dodging bug, gangers and panicking civilians as they did so. On October 1st Patrick went to scavenge near Cermak power plant, heading out early to hide from the bugs. Shortly afterwards a nuclear bomb was detonated in that area, presumably by an Ares Firewatch team. Even considering the anomalous nature of the blast radiation soaked the containment zone. On the 29th of October Velma gave birth to a very sick baby boy, who she named Trevor. With her father missing and probably dead and her mother in no condition to support the family, Dara became their primary provider and defender.

By the time Ares launched Operation: Extermination in late February, 2058 all three members of the family were showing symptoms of radiation exposure. A visit to one of the few remaining doctors in the zone had revealed that Dara had bone cancer in most of her extremities, along with lung cancer and a small but growing tumour in her brain. Bartering with food she managed to get enough medication for herself and her family, though at the cost of several very lean weeks. It was worth it, as the meds sent the cancer into remission… for as long as the medication would hold out. It was at this point that Ares showed up with heavy weapons and little compulsion about using them. Velma was hit by a stray shot from a drone, an APDS round punching through the wall and taking her in the leg while Dara was out scavenging. When she got back she found that her mother had bled out while she was gone.

After that, she survived however she could while still tending to her kid brother. Joined a gang, had that wiped out by roaches. Ran out of meds, lost a limb and had it replaced. Smuggling, thievery, violence, if it payed enough to eat and keep the cancer in check she’d give it a crack. Of course, this kind of life rarely went by without injuries, the odd cracked rib or broken arm. Normally that would be bad enough, but when the broken bone is brittle with cancer and won’t heal in the conceivable future, it’s better to lose the limb than lose your ability to work. Of course Cyberlimbs don’t come cheap by any means, and every such injury cost the nest egg Dana had been saving up to get her brother and herself out of this hell-hole, often along with anything of value she could sell. Finally, at the end of October in 2070 Dara had enough saved up to get to Seattle… just. A smuggler by the name of El’telana agreed to get her to Redmond and hook her up with a street doc, though the price tag for her and her brother was fairly staggering. Dara had to fence most of her few remaining possessions to afford the steep fee, but finally she was out of bug city. It couldn’t be any worse in Seattle, right?
FuelDrop
DOA's Stats, for those who like those kind of things smile.gif
[ Spoiler ]
FuelDrop
21/12/2070-22/12/2070.

Before I begin this entry I should note that El’telana came through for me and got me some new toys. I may have underestimated her. Specifically she got me a Yamaha Raiden (which I've pimped out with a bipod, a gas vent, a shock pad and a scope) and a Cavalier Falchion (because I needed a shotgun) along with a ton of ammo for each. As it turns out I needed it.

Okay, let's start at the top. We get a call from Miss Misa to come to the Helfire club for a meet, pretty standard stuff. Deadbolt is a bit late and Farm Boy is still supposed to be in hospital, so unsurprisingly he's a no-show. The job is to hunt down a bunch of other teams who've been doing some Decking that our employer disapproves of and get them to stop. I figure that a couple of headshots should be pretty convincing, but I'm open to just talking them out of it if the opportunity arises. Then we get interrupted as Farm Boy decides to rock up uninvited... and promptly gets stopped by the bouncers. Jade is sent to get him out of the club before he does something stupid, preferably getting him back to the street doc who he's somehow escaped. Anyway, we go to head out when a bunch of Cutters decide to stop us in what appears to be a poorly thought out kidnapping attempt. I taunt their leader for a bit in an effort to make them do something rash and he insults me back. Big deal. Jade on the other hand seems to be in a protective sort of mood and flattens the guy. I know a fight was inevitable, but I was hoping to force them to throw the first punch. Anyway these guys are so badly outclassed it isn't funny and 6 Cutters are on the floor in under three seconds, Half of them going down to Jade while the others found our non-trolls to be almost as deadly. Side note: I loathe fighting in heels. Good thing this place is compromised, we won't have to come back again.

Unfortunately and predictably the bouncers weren't too impressed with our antics and brought us to a room out the back to wait for Knight Errant. There's a reason I wanted them to throw the first punch Jade! Anyway we get a heads up from our employer that there are about half a dozen black vans full of Vory turning up to surround the place, and we had to get out now. Naturally we solved the problem the same way we solve every problem: telling Jade to punch something. One hole in the wall later the bouncers came in to find out what the hell was going on. One drew his gun, and from his expression I'm going to guess that he wasn't expecting me to be quicker on the draw, especially considering I wasn't supposed to be armed. Well I shot the gun out of his hand since he's just a guy doing his job, no need to hurt him, and we then proceeded to escape. Sort of. Misa had a rigger or the like on overwatch to provide sniper support and Deadbolt managed to hotwire the oldest vehicle I have ever seen (I think it was from the 1960 or something), thus we made our toxin-spewing getaway. The Vory shot the car to pieces with SMGs as we were leaving, so some poor sod who's spent a ton of money keeping his baby running is going to break down and cry when the cops return it to him.

Also, Jade decided to stay and party or something. I never did get a full explanation of what happened there but according to the news he led the goths in a charge that mosh-pitted a bunch of Vory enforcers to death. Then danced on their bodies just to make sure.

So we get a call from Misa. Apparently Farmboy has been talking to Jenkins, who sold us out. More on that later. We get tasked with bringing Farmboy and Jenkins in, no pay promised but considering how pissed the Vory are and Farmboy knows where Deadbolt and Jade live... yeah. Unsurprisingly Mr Shiny decided to sit this one out, what with it not concerning him at all and there being no pay on the horizon. So we get Farmboy by the simple means of having Jade invite him into a club and getting him smashed by spiking his pineapple juice. That was the easy part. We drop him off for Misa to interrogate, and head home to resupply and get a bit of shut-eye before we get our next target.

Jenkins decided that the best place to hide was in glow city. Joy. We track him down to a ruined neighborhood and search the area for any escape vehicles he may have hidden around. No joy, but a bunch of the local gang decided that 8 to 1 odds were enough to try and shake me down as I was leaving a potential hiding place. There wasn't a fight, they didn't live long enough for it to be called a fight. Anyway Jenkins is ready for us and has a submarine on a mine cart which he jumps into at the first sign of trouble and scoots off into a radioactive lake. Yeah, not following him into that. we regroup and Miss Misa locates a heavy convoy heading into Cutter territory, presumably to pick up Jenkins. By heavy convoy I mean 6 armoured cars full of thugs with mounted gun turrets, along with 12 escorting rotor drones packing belt-fed AKs. So while we're on route to get to Jenkins first we discuss plans. One suggestion was to drop Jade in a derelict multi-story building and have him punch out supports until the whole thing collapsed onto the convoy, thus keeping our string of 'solve all problems with Jade's fists' alive and well. In the end it was clear that there wasn't time for anything like that so we went for plan b: put a dozen frag grenades into the safehouse where Jenkins was hiding.

This was very effective. Unfortunately, the Vory convoy now blocked off the only road out of the area so we headed into the... forest? Plantation? whatever, it was a large stand of trees between one farm property and another. Jade and I start putting bullets and knives into the lead pursuing vehicle. It takes about half a mag of APDS to finally put the damn thing down but eventually it dies and acts as a road block to the rest of the cars and we get out onto another property.

It's at this point we realize that every last one of the hundreds of bullets the Vory had shot into our car was a tracker round, and there was no way to get them all. Through a combination of luck and... actually, pretty much just through luck none of the rounds had penetrated our body armour so we didn't have to cut any bullets out, but many were caught in our clothes. We'd just finished zapping them with our tag erasers when the drones turn up and we pop smoke and run for the tree line. The drones proceed to shred the car with full auto fire and eventually a lucky shot detonates one of Deadbolt's spare grenades, leading to the car no longer being there. That makes, what, two cars in two missions? More if you count the oldsmobile.

Anyway we call in a chopper ride from Misa (she can't afford to let us be captured or the Vory might be able to track her down again and are unlikely to be very happy) and start clearing the skies. We're able to take out the drones fairly effectively but then their cavalry arrives in the form of two more armoured cars. They tell us that if we surrender now we won't be tortured. Great motivation there guys, you should take up the lecture circuit as motivational speakers. Anyway, after we refuse their generous offer they put a couple of hundred rounds down-range in our general direction while we hunker down. They keep firing until a missile removes one of their cars from existence and we use the resulting distraction to return fire, taking out the four guys in the open just as the chopper cuts the last car in half with its minigun.

We escape and compare notes during the flight. It looks like Farmboy was feeling put upon and under appreciated so he went to Jenkins for a sympathetic ear. He blabs about pretty much everything in between moaning about not getting enough pineapple juice and every other petty complaint that popped into his head. It wasn't a malicious betrayal, merely some childish sulking. As far as we know Jenkins only told the Vory where we met, and was holding the rest of the information until he was payed. So now we have the question of what to do with Farmboy. As we land the guys are talking about shipping him off somewhere that he can't do any harm and are questioning whether it's worth the cost, but the question is moot since I walk over and put a round through his head. He may not have betrayed us intentionally, but I'm not putting myself and my family at risk for someone who'll sell us out for a pineapple juice and a sympathetic ear. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

Considering that it managed to render Miss Misa speechless I don't think that she saw it coming, either.

We sold the body to a street doc for some decent cash thanks to his 'ware and split his savings between us. It covered what we'd lost on the mission with a bit left over. Miss Misa also managed to get us a replacement vehicle, a Rover, and I split with Deadbolt for a concealed manual MMG turret (I bought the gun and ammo, he payed for the turret) so that we wouldn't have to open the back door every time we ran away from someone. It's basically a hatch on the top of the vehicle that unfolds a lightly armoured firepoint but it's better than what we're used to.

I also picked up an Azzie Striker Missile Launcher and some AV missiles, complements of our employer. I want an ace next time I find myself going up against an armoured Vory convoy, particularly considering how often it seems to happen.

So yes, big day. Killed a team mate in cold blood, used the blood money to buy new guns, probably coaxed my cancer out of remission with the visit to glow city... yeah, today sucked.
Grak
You killed off a PC for a poor choice in confidant? That's cold man, especially for a first timer.

How'd it play out at the table?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (Grak @ Feb 11 2014, 12:13 PM) *
You killed off a PC for a poor choice in confidant? That's cold man, especially for a first timer.

How'd it play out at the table?

The player had decided he was going to use being near-mortally wounded last session to create a new character and had declared that he didn't care what happened to this one. He was also a no-show for the session, so at this point he was an NPC.

And yes it was cold, that was very much the point. OOC knowledge: the character was going to be quietly killed off by our employer no matter what we did, she just wasn't expecting one of the people he'd been running with to casually put a round through his brain... Well, through his head anyway, the consensus is that I missed the brain due to how small a target it was.
FuelDrop
23/12/2070.

Since our old meeting place is no longer secure (YES! No more stupid Goth outfits!) Miss Misa had us meet up at a pub called the Moon and Six in lower down-town. The food's good, no special clothing is required, and no-one tried to kill us while we were there, so I'm calling this a step up. Not so much with the new team. We now have:

Kymrhyl: A dwarf thug with an axe-and-bow combo that would be more suited to a lord of the rings set than cyber-crime. Hard to be certain as he doesn't wear it on his sleeve but I'm pretty sure he's so augmented that the only thing he fears is magnets. Remember, I've got no natural limbs left and I think he's heavily augmented.

Zak: A troll rigger. Kinda on the weedy side for a troll, but still the biggest member of the group by a long way.

Kitty: An elf street-sam/anime cosplayer. Only other girl on the team, so hopefully she doesn't let the side down.

Mr Shiny: Our resident bad luck charm, a human hit-man. Seriously, we haven't even reached a mission since he's joined the team, and we've also lost a car a mission since he joined the team. This guy is walking bad karma.

Deadbolt: The best dressed orc in Seattle, and some flexible muscle to boot. doubles as team wheel-man, medic, demolitions expert, lock-breaker... he's not very good at any of it, but he's the best we've got.

The job is the one we didn't get to complete two days ago. Hunt down some Deckers and convince them to focus their efforts elsewhere, via applied lead poisoning if necessary. Well we talk it over and I get stuck with sniper overwatch again, which means I'm not going to be getting shot at unless things go really bad. I'm not complaining about that. I ask both Zak and Kitty if they want the sniper job instead but neither seems particularly enthused for it so I'm up. Five nuyen.gif says my contribution is completely ignored at the end. We are en route in Deadbolt's pimped out new rover right now, working out a plan. Basically Kymrhyl is going to try a pizza delivery scam on the target and when they open the door I snipe whoever answers over his head. Not a great plan, but the others seem convinced it'll work. We're maintaining radio silence for the whole mission because, well, Deckers.

23/12/2070. Supplemental.

That makes two in three days.
Okay, let's take it from the top. The only part of the plan that went, well, as planned was me setting up a sniper position on the roof across from the target. No-one saw or heard me, Chameleon suit ensured that any cameras are only getting a blur if that. From there, everything went downhill. Place your bets on how bad this goes.
While I'm busy getting into position the others speed off to get the pizza, except Zak who's theoretically getting his drone net up. That's the last we'll here of him for a while.
So the others FINALLY get back, minus the pizza, and get to work... kind of. Mr Shiny starts going up the street towards the target looking like the sleaziest door to door salesman I've ever seen, though granted I've only been introduced to the concept in the last month or so. Still, he's at least 20% more sleazy than any of the assholes who've had the misfortune to end up on my doorstep. Deadbolt is no-where to be seen, probably waiting in the car in case we need an undeckable getaway. Kitty is loitering up the street a way. Finally we have Kymrhyl, who goes up to the target's house without a pizza... the entire reason they drove off in the first place... and encounters an insurmountable obstacle. A gate. So he gives up. I'm going to add at this point that he's left all his weapons in the car. So Mr Shiny goes up and tries his spiel, which works about as well as you'd expect. Then he moves on to the next house and tries there. Whatever he said worked as they let him in, tailed by our dwarf. Let's leave that for a moment as another situation is brewing.

Some guys start hitting on Kitty and she starts walking off with one of them. I watch through my scope because to be frank I am completely unprepared for this. I've worked with many runners of various skill sets over the years but I've never seen one try and ply their trade as a prostitute in the middle of a run. If I'd known then what I know now I'd have pulled the frekking trigger right then and there. Anyway, they head in to the house next to the one the dynamic duo have infiltrated. I switch to thermal and see the guy pulling the moves on her, then give myself a mental kick in the ass and get back to the job at hand.

It turns out that Mr Shiny was selling being tazed into unconsciousness, and both inhabitants had decided to buy into the plan. With them out of the way our dynamic duo climb to the roof and vault across to the target building. Mr Shiny lands light as a cat and begins creeping along while behind him Kymrhyl leaves dwarf-boot-sized dents in the roof. I'm still not sure how. Now maybe I'm just having a hard time focusing tonight but Kitty grabs my attention when a bunch of alarms go off in the house she's in. Deadbolt comes running out to investigate and I put a round through the bolt on the gate before turning back to the actual job. He can deal with the date-rape or whatever far better than I can with thermal and APDS.
The events of tonight have made me institute a new policy: Shoot any team member who jeopardizes the mission. Through the head.
So I turn my attention back to the job in time to see the dynamic duo enter the house. Mr Shiny sneaks in through a window, clean and quiet. Kymrhyl starts whistling the Indiana Jones theme and swings in on a gutter after him, bringing down all the guttering on his side and smashing the window into shards. All power is instantly cut to the top floor.

I provide sniper support in case anyone runs out the front door but the building is thermally shielded so that's about the limit of my contribution for the next two minutes or so until the others come back out carrying an unconscious Decker and a couple of HD screens for resale. The cops are on their way so we make a bee-line to Redmond. It's at this point that I notice Kitty is covered in blood. I ask her what the hell happened and she tries to feed me some BS about the guy trying to force her to drink some date-rape drugs so she defended herself. I put in a quick call to Zak to see if he has any footage to corroborate her story and get told no. It is at that point that I learned a really interesting fact about our new rigger: He can't lie for drek.

Before I can grill Kitty any further the back of the car is riddled with bullets. In the middle of a main road, during Christmas traffic. I have a pretty good idea by now about why we're being shot but first things first: I pop the new turret open and open up with the MMG on the police drones that're following us. I take down two while Kymrhyl takes down the other two with his bow. Why does no-one use modern weapons around here? Are they out of style or something? Anyway, I see two pursuit cars closing fast but decide that riddling them with machine gun fire on a crowded highway would just attract even more heat as it'd mean we're cop killers and that's a whole lot of trouble I have no need of. Trying to take out some civilian cars to cause a traffic pileup again is also out of the question: I'll try a stunt like that when using a precision rifle, but firing an MMG wildly at civilians is once again just asking for trouble. It doesn't take long for us to realize that we're not going to get away and our only option is to bail, so we pull into an alley and split up. Where was our rigger support through all this? Good question. Oh, and Deadbolt and Kitty are both all over the news with bounties and everything. Turns out that breaking into a house without wiping the security footage is bad. Killing the owner in cold blood and hiding his body in the bathroom is much worse.

Yeah. Kitty basically picked up that guy and went into his house so she could murder him, for kicks. I am not amused. She then lied to me about it. I am even less amused.

Well being outfitted for stealth already I make my way to the rendezvous, as does everyone else except for Kitty. This is a pity, as I'd switched to gel just so I could unload a full auto burst into her face when she rocked up. Our employer arrives and she's almost as angry at us as I am with her for saddling us with that psychopath. I'm putting the entire failure on her shoulders. It will not surprise you to hear that we get stiffed on half the payout for that part of the job (1 of 3 teams were disbanded. There is no way I'm going with this bunch to try and take on the other two)... but on the bright side we get Kitty's location. She's holed up nearby.

That makes two team members I've executed in three days. it's not a great habit.

The story doesn't end here. See during the meet Zak hands footage over to Miss Misa. Footage he swore to me he didn't have. I have nothing against trolls, I really don't, but I do have quite a lot against someone who'll lie to my face to cover for the psycho that almost got us all killed and lost the team yet another vehicle. I'm keeping a VERY close eye on Zak from now on and if necessary I will take him down. He's a troll in a tank. I have a rocket launcher with AV missiles. It's fairly even odds at this point.

So, to sum up:

Payout: After factoring in Kitty's 'ware resale we come out at 5 grand per surviving team member. Deadbolt lost a 55 grand car with a 7 grand mod, I lost an 8 grand gun and about a grand in ammo. In other words, we made a loss except for the POS rigger who sat in the van away from the action, bailed at the first sign of trouble, then lied to my face. That asshole made a profit. Also, that's a vehicle lost each run Mr Shiny's been involved in. Coincidence? I'm beginning to doubt it. He's an adept, maybe he's got some bad mojo or something.

Kitty: Two to the chest, one to the head. Cut the body up for parts.

Deadbolt: Going to ground as every cop in Seattle is still gunning for him, still has a bounty on his head as accessory to murder. Down his car and investment.

Zak: Worthless leech.

Kymrhyl: Badass.

Mr Shiny: The curse continues.

Miss Misa: Foists bad team members onto us, then blames us for the failed run and stiffs us on the pay. Better make it worth my while next time or I'm walking. Pulls a stunt like this again and she takes a bullet.

Me: Down almost 5 grand in investments and likely to not make the rent this month. Extremely unhappy.

Summary Summary: I like our dwarf. No-one else is worth the bullets it'd take to kill them, but the dwarf is good at what he does and doesn't screw everything up.
FuelDrop
OOC: That could have gone a bit better, if we're honest. One of our players is now on their last chance. And yes, Kitty was Farm Boy's next character. We're getting a stat-clone next session.

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

We have a new player too smile.gif. Kymrhyl's player is a new addition to the group and means that for one glorious session we had a group member of every metatype!
ProfGast
I have to ask, has anyone sat down with Farm Boy/Kitty's player and well… talked about world ambiance? He seems to be playing completely pink mohawk in a setting where the GM is running much closer to mirrorshades. Also possibly riding the "pillage everything, you own the world" high that some other RPGs inspire in players.

That or well, recommend the old "Common Sense" quality for their next character? (I realize it's not actually printed out in 5th but…)
QUOTE
A character with Common Sense is down-to-earth, practical,
and sensible. Any time such a character is about to do something the gamemaster deems foolish, the gamemaster must act as the proverbial inner voice of reason and warn the player: “Something tells you that’s a bad idea.”


On the other hand, if they already had the talk, aren't listening or whatnot that's another story.
AndrosDeragon
Wow Kymrhyl is very badass, yet another combat monster into the mix eh?

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

Plus they are flashy as all heck.
FuelDrop
QUOTE (ProfGast @ Feb 17 2014, 12:09 PM) *
I have to ask, has anyone sat down with Farm Boy/Kitty's player and well… talked about world ambiance? He seems to be playing completely pink mohawk in a setting where the GM is running much closer to mirrorshades. Also possibly riding the "pillage everything, you own the world" high that some other RPGs inspire in players.

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


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

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

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

EDIT: Amusing note: Every member of the group IC had a reason to want Kitty dead for her actions. No two members of the group wanted her dead for the same reasons.
FuelDrop
QUOTE (AndrosDeragon @ Feb 17 2014, 12:22 PM) *
Wow Kymrhyl is very badass, yet another combat monster into the mix eh?

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

Plus they are flashy as all heck.

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

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

His augmentations:
[ Spoiler ]

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

EDIT: Oh, and he has 0.15 essence left. He is literally more machine now than man. Also a warriors code, meaning that he won't cut you in half with your axe if you're unarmed... he'll just punch you. 13 P damage from that by the way, so have fun.
psychophipps
It has been many moons since I've run into a situation like yours, FuelDrop. One of the reasons we changed our format to employees of a paramilitary/investigation company, you need to have a markettable skillset within the group and you can tailor the mission so everyone has a job. Also really cuts down on the "I don't trust you...or you...or you..." stuff that sounds all cool and exciting, but really wastes time and energy you can use to, y'know...do stuff that gets you paid.
ZeroSpace
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Feb 16 2014, 08:28 PM) *
EDIT: Amusing note: Every member of the group IC had a reason to want Kitty dead for her actions. No two members of the group wanted her dead for the same reasons.


I think this warrants further discussion. DOA wanted Kitty dead over hosing the job bad, Shiny because of a lost car, and Deadbolt because he's wanted now. Any special reason Kymrhyl and Zak wanted her gone, besides the basics?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (ZeroSpace @ Feb 18 2014, 02:18 PM) *
I think this warrants further discussion. DOA wanted Kitty dead over hosing the job bad, Shiny because of a lost car, and Deadbolt because he's wanted now. Any special reason Kymrhyl and Zak wanted her gone, besides the basics?

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

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

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

Mr Shiny is a consummate professional. He kills the target cleanly and quietly and gets away with minimal collateral. Murdering random civilians for no reason in the middle of the job is the antithesis of this (I believe he also has a code of honour to that effect but not certain). Also, her antics meant that half the group were dealing with the fallout from her BS rather than providing him with support, like they were supposed to. She was meant to be with him helping to take down the targets but instead wandered off to sate her bloodlust at random.
FuelDrop
Deadbolt's player and I have been making models for our tabletop game, and so here for your enjoyment are DOA and his unnamed new character.

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

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

Anyone know some good models for Orcs & Trolls?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (Grak @ Feb 19 2014, 03:38 PM) *
Minis? Cool.

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

Anyone know some good models for Orcs & Trolls?

I heartily recommend these and these for humans and elves and possibly even orcs, but I'm still having a lot of trouble finding good trolls, dwarfs and civilian vehicles for this scale and genre. Hence me starting a thread asking about sprawl gangers.
FuelDrop
I've spotted a potential problem:
The Vory have probably worked out that someone has declared war on them by this point. Right now they are trying to find out who.
Among our group we have Mr Shiny, who has a signature weapon in the form of a mono-filament garrote which kills in a very distinctive fashion, and Kymrhyl who uses titanium arrows or a massive axe of doom to cut people and objects in half. Neither of these people will be that difficult to trace when they start building up a body count...

On second thoughts, I can't see anything that could possibly go wrong with this situation. Ignore this post.
Grak
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Feb 19 2014, 09:57 AM) *
I heartily recommend these and these for humans and elves and possibly even orcs, but I'm still having a lot of trouble finding good trolls, dwarfs and civilian vehicles for this scale and genre. Hence me starting a thread asking about sprawl gangers.



Ha! I actually have those dudes. I haven't cracked the box open yet, need a new can of primer first. The only Dwarves i've found are from the old Ral Partha stuff, not bad but ancient and N/A most places. If Sprawl Gangers comes out I will buy all of the minis! I want a dapper looking Orc so very much.
FuelDrop
24/12/2070.

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

I'm not bitter.

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

30/12/2070.

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

Great way to start the mission.

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

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

Okay, our plan in brief:
1 ) Hollywood joins the local cutters.
2 ) We hit whoever is taking care of the new recruits and kidnap Hollywood.
3 ) Throw Hollywood into the cell with the other Cutters.
4 ) Hollywood leads an escape attempt, "killing" me in the process.
5 ) Hollywood returns to Cutters and is welcomed as a hero.
6 ) Ambush retaliation strike against location where we were holding the Cutters. We have an inside source who's trusted and on the rise.
5A ) Hollywood returns to Cutters and is found out.
6A ) Rescue mission on Hollywood's position, giving us a target.
7 ) ???
8 ) Profit
FuelDrop
30/12/2070. Continued.

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

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

Yeah, I'm taking my upfront pay and skipping town. It'll make up for that bitch stiffing us pay on the last job.
DMiller
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Feb 25 2014, 12:55 PM) *
30/12/2070. Continued.

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

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

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

Could always try for the 100k¥ and then skip town. smile.gif
FuelDrop
QUOTE (DMiller @ Feb 25 2014, 02:54 PM) *
Could always try for the 100k¥ and then skip town. smile.gif

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

(note: Know Misa is spying on everything everyone does OOC, strongly suspect it IC.)
Also, there's a difference in most runners minds between dumping an unreliable group and selling them out. I want to work again so am not risking a rep for the second.
FuelDrop
Ok, new character is going to be an Elf thief, specializing in Stealth, Athletics and Escape Artist-style infiltration, Aka climb the wall and sneak in through a window everyone swears is too small for a person to get through. She's from a lower lifestyle bracket and lacks a dependent needing cancer meds so her monthly overhead is lower than DOA's and she's willing to work for less money. Also has far less of a stick up her ass than DOA and is less judgmental in general.

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

It also means you're a little removed from the "Cold Pro" aspect of the Shadowrunner theme and more "learning the ropes" of it as a thing (exploiting your cat burglar like talents). A few false ID's, maybe a couple of lifestyles running on the down low (Bike Ganger Girl by day, Thief-Shadowrunner by night, one or two safe houses on the side).
FuelDrop
QUOTE (Moirdryd @ Feb 26 2014, 08:15 AM) *
You could come from the Tir under the care of the Ancients (so is connected to the gang) but it's a favour for back in the Tir, as they do from time to time to hide faces etc, so you're not fully 'Patched In'. It gives you some ground connections within Seattle while still being able to be an outsider and keep a distance with things.

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

Unfortunately the ancients and our boss don't get along. May convert it to the mafia and run with that, barring other suggestions catching my eye. Thanks for the idea.
ProfGast
Just as a note, as-published in SR, the Mafia are notoriously male-oriented so while there ARE high ranking female mafioso and definitely having females in the mafia itself, According to Fianchetto in Vice, they don't encourage feminine behavior when attempting to rise in the ranks.

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

As an elf however, you have the option of having been attached to the Laésa, who are based in Tarislar, Puyallup, Seattle. They are an all-elf Syndicate who specialize in transportation and smuggling, emphasizing all sort of stuff from the Tir.
FuelDrop
27th December.
I’m starting this blog to collect my thoughts. It’s not really a proper blog as it’s never going to see the light of day, but writing it is the main thing, right?

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned, hypothetical reader! There’s a gang war hotting up in Redmond and I doubt many journalists are going to be covering it. Time to get busy.
FuelDrop
We've had the universe reset back to the start of DOA's last mission due to a huge surge in players. We've split the group into 2 teams of 4 and 4, with Zak's player GMing the second group. That gives us a total of 9 gamers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of the other team, only Zak is there.

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

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

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

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

Things went downhill after that.

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