Ok, picking up from having just kidnapped Euphoria. The team took her to the old Renraku secret lair after checking that the air there was safe. Unfortunately they had no power there now, so trog had to use his immense strenght and a crowbar to open most doors.

The good news was that by getting a power source (aggregate?), Jimmy got the front armored door going, since he had already bypassed the rating 5 maglock with a critical success the first time they went in. So now they were pretty safe from enemies.

This, and the force 4 ward Simon set up didn't prevent a certain Lion Shaman named Shaka to track down Euphoria with a ritual sample, but we'll be back to that soon.

There was some debate by the team on how they should proceed. Some wanted to simply drug euphoria to keep her from learning their identities, but Trog didn't mind that she was awake and wanted to talk to her anyway, being a huge fan (literally). They did attempt to keep her down with Neuro-stun, but once they learned that using a second dose as soon as she woke was dangerous (she took alot of physical damage after the stun overflowed!), they gave up that idea and the more paranoid characters simply stayed out of sight while Simon's Earth Elemental and Trog guarded her.
Trog, being a very wise troll had seen commercials of Euphoria loving the Amber Gel foodstuff, so of course he had bought a bunch of them beforehand, so when Euphoria asked for it she got it right away (the other players laughed when trog did this, but were quite suprised when they found out she actually liked it!).

Simon had a scene were he saw the stuff in Astral, with lots of small ants crawling in it, and into the mouths of Euphoria and Trog. After trying to warn them, he later had a talismonger look at it, who found nothing... but Simon was pretty freaked out after this

Meanwhile, Uzz waited at the Royal Meadows apartment to collect the reward. After he got it, he went to the Barrens secret lair, using the sewers to get in discreetly.

They even tried to cover up the front door by making it seen no on had been there in a while.

When Uzz arrived, he started talking to Euphoria, checking that she was ok (she had been healed), getting trog to open up more doors to find more comfortable quarters, getting her some food, entertaintment etc. He told her a story about how Vincent Burroughs of Strice Foods had done this in order to keep Euphoria safe from someone close to her that may have betrayed her... possibly her manager Robert Barrone or her bodyguards! A wild story of course, but despite this Uzz performed very well on his Con check and after awhile Euphoria believed him.

He spent the rest of the days being as nice and charming as he could, and got a horribel amount of hits on his social skill check. Basically he made Euphoria fall in love with him, and even later after the hit they kept contact and became lovers! It backfired of course, as Uzz also fell in love with Euphoria, and things didn't work out very well in the end...

Anyway, they were attacked the last day by an African lion shaman and 3 poorly equipped security guards (uzi 4s and armor vests). He used power bolt to force his way through the main door using stats for armored/reinforced material armor 24 structure 15... but i forgot about the doubling of armor to resist... however security doors have typically low armor in comparison. Hmm, is hardened armor supposed to count when trying to break a barrier as well? The rules do not say so, but otherwise anyone shooting a light pistol will destroy a ballistic glass window in 5 shots (assuming no skills and no hits rolled).

Ok, after finding out they had retreated further into the complex, and easily defeating the earth elemental, he projected astrally and found his target, as well as Simon's second elemental, which he fought and destroyed in astral combat. He found out how many they were, and then he destroyed a second door and was about to rush in when uzz and trog started blasting away at them, using a rifle and uzz grenade launcher to take them all down in the first combat phase (Shaka only had a leather jacket). The survivors were shot again, and I used the hand of god on Shaka so that he lived, caus he was cool (if stupid). They dumped them in the sewer, and will probably not belive it when Shaka returns!

Well it all turned out right, they delivered Euphoria while she was sleeping, and got paid what was promised. Now, 20 000 nuyen richer, Uzz was dating Euphoria, Trog was partying wildly, Simon spent time researching (instead of worrying about his bills), and Jimmy ordered a bunch of stuff, including ruthenium hair implants.

Then it happened again. Elliot Whitecastle called them, telling them they had been busted but that Megamedia (Euphoria's record company) would forgive them if they showed up to give info about previous employers, even money.

Trog and Uzz went - they wanted to make more nuyen and why not? Jimmy went along, but didn't enter the building itself (Pacific Towers). Simon got paranoid and hid in his home. Elite teams of Knight Errants were deployed to get them to the meet (fault in the module I think), and Simon was almost killed as he was levitating out of his home when he heard them knocking on the door. Only after I made clear there was no safe way to escape, did he angrily come along.

Jimmy went a bit smoother - although he couldn't figure out how they got his number so they could trace him (he mentioned that he had never given his number, only an email dump), but he came along when alot of plainclothes errants surrounded him and insisted as he is nothing in combat.

Then after everyone met Robert Barrone (euphorias manager) told the tale on what had happened, as well as some finger wagging for doing a job against them. Euphoria had been kidnapped again, this time a bunch of knight errants had been brutally slaughtered. He wanted to hire them to find out who, and return euphoria, offering 20k each again.

With no real choise the runners accepted without haggling (although feeling railroaded, and I can't blame them somewhat), and started investigating. After finding obscure clues (holes in the ceiling, icky stuff smelling like Amer Gel on the floor, troops massacred by something large and inhumanly strong..) they found the Sim that Euphoria played by her wireless Simrig while kidnapped, and some thorugh the cameras that the knigths had placed in her apartment (something I mentioned to Uzz's player while he was there).

In the sim of her abduction, they learned that Burroughs was involved, and one of the kidnappers worked in Garrety's bar and grill. They went there, Uzz intimidated the bar owner to talk some with his gun, and they got more info from a sympathetic waitress saying she saw Van (the one with the t-shirt from garrety's) standing outside a magic shop in barrens - Magic Crafts.

They went there, found Van outside the same shop, tasered him, checkout out the shop and found Craft's living quarters where he had killed a bunch of people, as well as a map of the Amber Gel production facilty, including the address
in Puyallup barrens! Simon found out that Van was posessed by an ant spirit and Uzz shot him dead.

Then it was off to Puyallup. The place looked deserted and they failed to notice the
2 force 3 flesh form ant spirits on the roof.

After checking it, they advanced cautiously. The ants heard simon though, and the fight begun. Uzz blasted away, while trog readied his axe against them. Still they jumped them, and alhough hurt managed to wound uzz once before going down, and their weakness to Simon's manabolt were revealed (they had only willpower 2 yet body 8!).

They went inside, found the ground level deserted. Jimmy contacted Burrows, and he found out about Ant Spirits and called the rest of the team. Once the details were clear, they were to wait for reinforcements. Burrows rolled out a bunch of Knight Errants, and offered the PCs a new contract - legally one offering 75k nuyen! They were also outfitted almost with whatever they wanted, including a sniper rifle, Panther Assault cannon, super lightweight full body armor w/ a bunch of mods, anti toxin stuff, anti stun patch etc.

They went in, blasted the worker ants with ease, and even the force 5 soldier spirits went faster than I expected, even with the use of edge on their behalf. Uzz used his pistols with APDS ammo to great effect, while Trog used a ballistic shield and his Spurs, and Simon his spirits and manabolts. Jimmy mainly did the communications, using a drone to scout, and threw grenades when needed.

The last fight we had to do quickly since a player had to leave soon, so I tried for a more cinematic approach, by describing the bunch of ant spirits rushing them, mostly weak ones with some soldiers. The main challenge was Craft the Insect Shaman, his two force 5 ant spirit bodyguards. After they were overcome (again faster and easier than expected), they learned that Euphoria was under change.

Simon banished the Queen Spirit, yet that only left a Euphoria with her mind gone, to Uzz's avail.

Later on, megamedia made a huge sim called "Against the Hive Masters" where the teams feelings were recorded (yet faces changed to actors of course), something the team had signed for in their contract.

They got alot of nuyen for this job, and total 16 karma each. Woah.

Now the module gives 3 ways to hook the character(s): Impregnating Ms. Johnson with the runner's sperm/egg cells, the good old cranial bomb, or rumors of a target having valuable snuff BTLs.

I chose to go with option B, as option A simply was too far-fetched, and I doubted it would be any strong motivation. I even asked the player in question afterwards to what Simon would say if Ms. Johnson said "do the job or the embryo gets it", and just as I expected he answered "Ok" with a shrug

In hindsight I should probably have gone for option C, as I found out the player didn't like his character being blackmailed like that.

Simon (the sorcerer) was kidnapped outside his apartment in a shady area of Renton. The kidnapper were Chaco, the previous ower of the "Biskey Wack" and Ms. Johnson who wanted to blackmail the runner by implanting a stolen cranial bomb.

Ms Johnson wanted the runner to free the boy-toy (Choi) of a local crime lord called "The Greek", so that she could be with him. But since she couldn't afford to either buy Choi from the greek, or hire runners to get him, she resorted to blackmail.

She learned that Chaco wanted to wack the Greek so that he could get his bar back, and they decided to work together. Now, Chaco as a friendly bartender hears alot of rumors, and since the Greek runs his criminal activites in his bar, he probably snapped up information about Shadowrunners there. On of the Greek's accociates, Mr Singh (Barrens Fixer) was also the teams's primary fixer, so chaco knew about most members of the team, and learned from people that Simon was observed in the area alot, as he had his apartment in the Greek's turf.

Ms Johnson provided the (stolen) cranial bomb, while Chaco provided the Neuro-stun gas and muscle to take down Simon. Originally he wanted to take down Uzz, but the elf was on vacation to Maryland so he chose Simon instead, despite him being a magician.

Well that's the background, more or less.

After Simon got rigged with his new bomb (of some old model that went "beep" every second and counted down hours left in a pleasant female computerized voice!), he first contacted the only remaining team member not unavailable: Jimmy "the Shades."

Now if you've been reading this you know Jimmy's a girl in disguise, so this time he said that he was busy but an accociate of his called "Van" could help him instead. "Van" a.k.a Michelle is presented as a Rigger, doing mostly hardware and alot more sociable than Jimmy.

Simon remained oblivious that Jimmy and Michelle are the same person.

The mission started slowly at first. Simon was informed of his new bomb and his mission to free Choi and deliver him to a fertility clinic (where the Johnson worked 2 days a week and actually performed the surgery).

He didn't tell Van this at first, but rather asked for her help in trying to find out if his commlink was bugged, hacked etc. They came up with nothing of course, so they went to step 2: Checking out the Biskey Whack. At this hour the place was closed (8AM), but Simon learned that there were armed ork gangers there at all times, some awake. Van stayed away from Simon, only communicating through their commlinks, and observing Simon with drones.

They never asked around the block or even walked together once, so they did not get any attention from the local crooked cop "The Pig". Simon went home and slept until around 1500 when he knew the bar would open. He went alone again, with van following him at a safe distance. This time he got to talk to Chaco the bartender, and after asking about young male whores he learned about Choi, and was told to talk with One-Nail: resident hatchet-man. One Nail, a houngan (voodoo) priest magician trying to pretend to be a magician in order to fool.... argh magicians?
Anyway, this character talked to Simon about Choi, and after talking to the Greek told him Choi was unavailable at this time.

Well after Simon made his inquiries in the Biskey Wack, Chaco the bartender and conspirer tipped off Paul Mansky a.k.a "the Pig", the local crooked lone star cop.

As Simon was walking home from the bar, two lone star cruisers surrounded him, and the Pig introduced himself (as Mansky). He threatened Simon, pushing him for 20% of whatever he got for his job with the greek. Simon accepted (whatever), with a bomb in the head he just didn't care anymore.

Of course the encounter with the Pig didn't go unnoticed by the Greek and his gangers, so the next evening Simon is invited to talk to the Greek. He shows up, is scanned for weapons etc. and forced to turn off his comlink to prevent recording.

This time around, the Greek explains his little problem with Mansky, and wants to hire Simon to take him out, telling him that One-Nail can clean up afterwards. He offers 30k nuyen for the job, 10k upfront. (this is half of what is in the module, since there were only 2 players). He also throws in Choi as a bonus after Simon asks about him.

On the way out, Chaco stops Simon to deliver him a message - Mansky wants to meet him - in this very bar! Chaco knows when the Greek and One Nail will be out of the office, so he sets up the meet. Simon accepts to meet him - why not.

Mansky tells him he knows he has a contract on him, and offers to pay whatever the Greek payed to geek him instead, as well as whatever loot he can find. He also threatens Simon about his (forged) Lone Star record, and promises to delete the dirt they have on him if he does the job. Simon belives him, but interprets the offers as a threat. He's paranoid, getting very edgy if not downright psychotic after being pressured into the job, especially since the bomb constantly makes beep every second and counts down the hours left to live for him

So he opts to kill Mansky. He communicates with Michelle (who has kept him under surveillance all the time). As Mansky leaves the Biskey Wack, Michelle strolls by him, planting a live grenade in the pocket of mansky's coat. (9 hits Palming check!)

Mansky meets up with his undercover backup, and they walk almost away. When Simon exits the building, Michelle detonates the frag grenade with her commlink.

BOOM!

the human undercover lone star cops lies on the ground, both taken heavy damage despite their armor vests (7-9 damage IIRC)

The "Pig" however, stands there still, squinting through the smoke and brushing off dust... now he was angry!

(ok I did increase the grenade's damage by 50% since it was in his pocket, but his incredible amount of body combined with his armor and edge meant that he soaked a hell of alot of damage! Of the 18 damage he recieved he only took 3!

Now Mansky is pretty angry and he doesen't know who bombed him - but he sees Simon so he aims at him and starts asking questions. Meanwhile Michelle has gone in stealth mod with her cham suit, very hard to spot.

Simon starts hitting Mansky with Manabolts - to great effect (not so tough are you know?) Even with high willpower mansky has little defense against manabolts and goes down pretty fast. Unbeknownst to Simon though, he isn't dead - only filled his condition monitor. Simon turns around, goes in the bar and orders a drink!

People start showing up to see what has happened, and the injured lone star officers gets on their feet, tries to help Mansky and calls for backup and an ambulance. Michelle realizes that Masky is not quite dead, and informs Simon of it. So Simon goes among the crowd to look at the scene, and Michelle tries to get in range for a grenade - with strenght 1 that is quite hard.

Simon starts hitting the other cops with manabolts, and people around him notices this, and old man starts shouting he's a magician. The second cop turns his attention to Simon when Michelle (still cloaked) walks closer and drop a grenade on both the cop and Mansky... this time no amount of body saves him.

Although several eyewitnesses have seen Simon, they do get away before the Star comes.

Simon lays low for awhile, dodging Lone Star and moving away from his old place.

The next day he goes to meet the Greek. Although pleased the job is done he is not pleased that he got observed, not to mention that the assassination took place just some meters away from HIS bar! Still he pays up with the 20k worth of onyx Dreamgate BTLs and tells him he can take Choi.

When Chaco realizes that Simon chose not to geek the Greek, he spikes Simon's drink with Kamikaze as a final desperate act to get Simon to kill the Greek. Despite him being agressive and tense, he manages to keep hold of himself.

(there was supposed to be guns under the table next to Simon and Chaco shouting "watch out he's got a gun!" to the Greek in order to start the fight, but I forgot about that part)

Simon then heads to the Livetech facility in which he met Ms. J and got his cranial bomb. He has not recieved any instructions on how to deliver Choi. Still, on the the Kamikaze works it's ways and Simon drives like a maniac. Only sheer luck (edge test) keeps him from running down passersby or crashing his vehicle. He brings Choi with him (who's pretty apathic since he's still plugged into BTL), and walks in the front door. Now it is business hour though, so the waiting area has customers and the reseptionist is intimidated by Simon's agressive behavior.

Simon walks to her thinking she knows everything, but neither says his name or Choi's. Since the reseptionist only got the names from Ms. Johnson, she doesen't know what this is about. As Simon get's angrier and more frusttrated she calls for Lone Star and lowers a protective ballistic glass cover on the reseption desk. The customer leaves, and Simon takes a seat with Choi waiting for Ms. Johnson.

Instead Lone Star shows up, and at first they only want him to leave quietly thinking he's some addict causing trouble. Then they ID him and tries to arrest him, aiming their guns at him. It doesen't help that Simon seems completely unfaced by their aimed guns and even screams "I got a bomb!"

In a little while Simon makes some moves that can be interpreted as spellcasting, and both officers fire. Simon goes down. Although he recieved medical attention and survives, he's arrested. And since he's a Sinner that means he's in double trouble.

However, by letting him permanently burn a point of Edge I let One-Nail use his metamagic to clean up the crime scene, and the Greek bribes the star officals so that Simon goes free in a couple of days for lack of evidence. Mysteriously those BTL never showed up either, and the Greek's lawyer offers it to Simon later, in return for a favor to be called in later, which Simon agrees to.

Michelle tracks down Ms. J and manages to deliver Choi to her (smuggling him away from Lone Star), in return she get's the code to disable to bomb. Michelle then tries to intimidate the Johnson into spilling her guts, but she escapes as she's behind armored glass when michelle fires her taser at her.

Ms. J eventually flees the country with Choi, fearing for her life (and rightly so).

Simon and Michelle later investigates what has happened, and after being convinced it was the Greek that engineered the all in order to get Simon's favor, Simon remembers it was Chaco that gave him a drink. They easily track him down with the aid of Trog (the cybertroll), and they intimidate him into spilling his guts, and makes a deal with him to forget that he almost killed Simon through his drugs, in return for info, favor, drugs etc.

In the end at least they did not end up with Zero Sum, but it was a close call!

Nice touch on the talking cortex bomb!

Ok initially I had planned to emphasise the blackmail part of this module, in order to inspire a feeling of anger and futility in the characters, but the reaction of the previous game made me realize that the players don't like people threatening them and forcing them into things they otherwise wouldn't want to do. So insted I tried to tone down the blackmail part, and just tone up the hiring part.

The background for this module is that Mr. Johnson is a federal agent involved in an independent operation to gain blackmail material against Renraku. They have already found out that the megacorp is secretly funding Project Hope: A charity organization trying to rebuild the Barrens and provide work, clothes and food to the homeless and sinless of seattle.

Ok, that's not exactly what you'd call dirt. This is mysterious because officially they have only donated 10,000 , but unofficially they have invested enough dough to buy small nations for apparantly no real benefit. Thus the feds sent in one of their agents to investigate one of the camps belonging to Project Hope. He never reported back.

Instead of wasting more assets, special agent Juarez has planned to use Shadowrunners for the job. He knows just the ones - a while ago he intercepted some security camera footage shot at Council Island where two Shadowrunners penetrated the island's security (with Trog and Jimmy). After this he spied on them, and even set up two "fake" runs in order to both see how they operated and to use as blackmail material against them. These runs were "Digging their Own Graves" and "6 feet under" which the party have already played (divided between sessions so not to arouse suspicion).

This adventure starts with Trog being called and invited to meet with Juarez, talking about Aztech and Docwagon (the corps they made runs against), and offering 5k each just to hear him out. All the party agree to meet him.

They meet at Mcdonalds (or whatever the 2070 equivalent is called), which has pretty good security, but not too good as Juarez has set up two FBI snipers outside ready to shoot the runners if they attack Juarez. He tells them about the job: to learn what Renraku and Project Hope Hope is up to.

Juarez offers 30k each for the job, half upfront. Uzz is of course the spokesman and he... outright refuses. He says it's not enough to go against a megacorp like Renraku, and demands 10 times the reward!

Jeez, he got me there I hadn't anticipated that they would refuse like that... ah, well time to draw out the black letter...

Juarez showed a small trid of the team planning and executing the runs against Aztechnology and Docwagen, and mention that they would have to take action against them of this fell into their hands. He also assured them that if anything were to happen to him, it would.

The players were unimpressed. It seems like they preferred to have those runs publitized rather than risk really angering Renraku.

Now, according to the module I should have said "ok" and have the Johnson leave. Then the party would start being targeted by the corps, and probably at least most of them would be found and attempts on their lives or capture would be made. Unfortunately I didn't plan this in detail, and in order to make it anything but "free xp" I'd have to take off my gloves and really try to kill them. Basically there were 2 possible outcomes: Either the party would be more or less wiped out, or the party would wipe out the teams sent against them until they stopped sending them. In either case the adventure would be ruined, and alot of my work would be to.

As for the perspective of Juarez, well he had already spent alot of time and money into hiring the runners and didn't want it to fall apart before it even began. Some negotation were in order (but he would never have agreed to 300k each!

So i opted for another solution: Negotiation. The players all wanted to play the game, but their characters did not want this for measly 30k. I guess they were spoiled by Euphoria where they got almost 100k each! And they got the impression this mission was very dangerous and the risk of being discovered by a megacorp very large. So after negotations Uzz managed to raise the price by 2k each (Juarez got a good negotation roll as well). Also, the Uzz wondered if Juarez could provide them with fake IDs for the party's vehicles and for themselves since they'd likely have to change IDs after doing the job. Now, if they government can't get SINs who can? So Juarez agreed to get them "fake" SINs made within the system (thus as good as real ones.. rating.. 7?).

Well so finally the runners agreed to take the job and got the other information: There were 10 camps altogether, the recruitment office was in downtown Seattle and a possible way to infiltrate the camps, other orgs may also be investigating the camps, the camps get their excelent water and fertile soil from New Dawn Electronics... and possibly more I can't recall.

They start with the good old Legwork... asking Juarez alot of questions, getting satelite images of the camps, getting drone surveillance, asking about any of their people having infiltrated the camps..

After some more prodding they learn that another agent tried to infiltrate Serenity Relief camp and didn't report back after awhile (Clint Ranger), that the security of the camps are very high (highly armed and armored guards, high fences etc.).

They find out that a very few people have ever left the camps, and track down one of them: An ork named Grugash. They have his image from the Fed's surveillance footage, so they go to their old turf in the Barrens and start asking questions. Among the Vatos they find out that Grugash was a Blackrock ork (their rival gang).

Trog, Uzz and Simon walks into Blackrock territory to find out more. The last time they were there they had barely 500 nuyen to their names, but this time they are armed and armored, cybered up and ready to take them on. They're also armed with Street Cred and a little bit of Notoriety. They find and face down a group of 4 orks.. it begins like a mexican standoff, everyone pointing guns at eachother but not side willing to shoot. Well, the PCs are certainly willing but they want to info first

They do learn that Grugash has left the gang to join Project Hope, and that his former gangers thinks of this as betrayal. After some more negotation Uzz tries to intimidate them by holstering his weapons to show he's not scared of them and calmly explains that they need to find him or he'll shoot them. They learn than Grugash has joined another gang called the Black Mesa (ok I'm bad at inventing my own names).

Uzz wants more of course, and orders them to leave their commlinks and weapons behind with any credsticks they have. With his gun still holstered.

When they refuse, he slowly draws his taser, when an ork panics and fires (using edge to go first, no one is suprised). Uzz dodges the bullets easily, and then him and Trog takes down all the gangers but one, who uses the opportunity to run away.

Well they got the info at least. They track down the Mesa, and although the gang appear hostile at first, the party gets through with their Street Cred (3 hits). They find Grugash and talks with him, which confirms that it is possible to get through without massive brainwashing or death. Grugash was basically thrown out for tearing out the internal organs of a fellow worker who got too friendly with him. They also learned that the guards were ultra fast - possibly cybered or adepts. (They are actually posessed by ant spirits). Otherwise he had little of valuable organization (except that apples actually grow on trees! Who could have known?)

In the end of the session Simon started to work his magic. He projected astrally and was attacked by a security magician by manabolt the instant he went into one of the camps. He retreated to heal his wounds, and probed some of the other camps with watcher spirits, who encounter other spirits that destroyed them pretty quickly. Apparantly the magical security was also high.

Jimmy hacked the Enrollment Office and found out who had joined the project and what camps they had been sent to (Cliff Ranger was there), but didn't get access to their main computers and economical data.

He tried to hack Project Hope's headquarter, and only barely won a cybercombat against a security spider, and he copied the system for later analysis.

For next time they plan to spend a bit more time legworking, then possibly infiltrate the camp through the legal channels. Stay tuned next week!

Just when I thought they were ready to go in through Hope Relief camp, they turn around and plan something else: Infiltrating a New Dawn Environics processing plant. Now this facility has insect spirit flesh form guards, with awesome stats, as well as a bunch of spirits inside.

So far the PCs don't know that though. All they know is that the guards are better armed and armored than usual.

The first plan is abit of probing. After using their drones and vision magnification to map all the cameras and other visible security devices, Jimmy sends a minidrone into the compund. No alarm is triggered as it pass the electrified fence, and he manages to get it right above the security camera on the guard building. He keeps it there for a while, getting a feed of pretty much what the camera would get, but then the guards spots it and with a single ak bullet shoots it to pieces.

The guards are more alert now, but after scanning they can't find out who sent the drone.

After learning that the cameras are wired, Uzz sets up 1.5 clicks away and zooms in with his militairy sniper rifle. He fires at an angle so that the bullet will hit the wire and then continue past into the air so that the guards can't know what has happened.

Although he gets alot of penalties, he aims for several rounds and hits the small wire with no difficulty. Some of the guards could hear the bullet flying in the air (the rifle was otherwise silenced and fired 1.5 kilometers away), so they try to check out what has happened. They also recieve signal from the guard buldings were the cameras are monitored that camera xx114 is offline. A solitary guard walks to check it out, and sees that the wire has been cut somehow. After some patrolling they can find no intruder, and they call for someone to fix the wire.

20 minutes later a small van with the logo "Surveillance R-US" drives towards the facility. Jimmy tries to hack the van and fails, then gives up. The drivers of the van notices this, and they and the guards scans for wireless, but by then Jimmy and everyone else nearby has turned off their commlinks.

The pary still wants more info, so they turn their eyes to the Entrollment center in Downtown again. Since Jimmy already hacked the place, he has access to the people that work there. After learning that the a Ms. Montague is in charge there, Uzz asks for info about where she lives, what she likes etc. He learns from Jimmy the details, including her membership in Brackhaven's party. Turns out she's sympathetic to Humanis Policlub as well, despite the fact that she works with orks, troll and other scum on a daily basis

When Uzz's player learns that racism also applies to elves (and not just ugly orks and trolls), and that Brackhaven has pointed out that 80% of the prostitues in the city are elves and that they spread Syphilis, he almost plans to assassinate him. Instead he starts thinking and says "Syphilis? Can I buy that?"

Undeterred by possible racism, Uzz plans to "accidentally" run into Ms. Montague on the metro, and charm her wits off. At the same time Jimmy plans to steal her commlink.

They're both in the same cab when Montague steps on. Jimmy (disguised so not to be recognized as easily) walks by hear and palms her commlink which she has in a pocket. Since she has her musicplayer wirelessly connected to her earplugs she doesen't notice anything odd before the commlink is out of range to the devices, when Jimmy has already left a stop ago.

She's pissed of course, and it doesen't help that some slimy elf is sitting nearby smiling at her. She tries to avoid his attention, and when she steps off the platform closest to her home she talks to a rentacop about the elf. The cop talks to Uzz, who is more than willing to reveal that he has no commlink belonging to Montague on him.. and he has licences for his 4 guns and a SIN that checks out!

Uzz offers to take ms Montague out for dinner. Although she dislikes elves, he's way too charming and she's just lost her phone, wallet and ID! After all an armed elf that actually seems to like her might not be too bad a company.

During the dinner and the way home to her he doesen't learn much though, and he doesen't get her commcode either. After all, 9+ net hits on a con(seduction) check can only take you so far, and she really doesen't like elves.

Jimmy hacks the commlink with little difficulty, but doesen't get any good info out of it except Jonathan Tung's (a camp director and spokesman of Project Hope) personal commcode.

At this point Trog's player gets a bit impatient, and decides to enroll with Project Hope. He get's in with no difficulty, and although his cyberware is flagged, Project Hope and the Universal Brotherhood that controls it only gets a little bit aware of him.

3 hours later he drives through the Barrens with a host of homeless people, and although he's been living good for the last months he's not unused to the stench and the people.

When he enters Hope Relief Camp he undergoes a thorought search (taking away all his remaining beer), and deactivates his cyber Spurs. He gets to chat with Jonathan Tung (which seems like a nice guy), check out his new living quarters, goes through a thorough delicing and chemical cleaning process for hours. When he speaks with Tung he learns that Trog is actually an offensive nickname for troll! So far noone has had the nerve to tell him... and the truth comes as a shock to the poor trog.. erhh, troll.

A problem surfaces once he's inside though, he can't communicate with his mates as he can't access the Matrix! In fact all wireless signals seems to be jammed. So his team, skilled in electronic warfare goes to a store and buys a... bow? Not just a normal bow, since Uzz is pretty weak (str 1), but a childs bow with suction arrows! Then Uzz waits until Trog walks near the fence and proceeds to shoot him in the face. Pop! On the arrow is a paper message, and then the communications are up and running. Uzz sneaks within 60 meters of Trog to deliver a message, while Trog simply tosses rocks with paper around them 100 meters with no difficulty

Now there's a new plan to improve communications (rocks and arrows are a tad too low-tech for them!), so they buy laser links and shoots in the components.

Ok, I don't know drek about these things, and it's not exactly RAW, but you must admit it's pretty inventive!

Well anyway, the plan is for Trog to drill holes through the Solace house wall and plant the laser link emitter and tranciever there, but to do that he needs access to tools, which he probably won't get until the next workday begins. Since there is construction going on in the camp (by the entrollees!) getting those tools should be piece of cake.

Until next week!

Well as you know Trog is inside the Hope Relief camp belonging to Project Hope, the organization the FBI agent hired them to infiltrate in order to learn what Renraku CS wants with it.

The night was a bit tiresome to Trog - after all he's used to being up late at night, especially considering his sleep regulator 'ware. So basically in the evening hours he walks on the walls - the project hope computer has nothing but propaganda, and although it slightly brainwashes poor Trog it gets booring quickly. So he takes a walk around. It doesen't take much time till he's spotted by the guards patrolling (all using night vision equipment), and eventually persuaded to go back to Solace house.

The guards have already been told to keep an eye on Trog since he tried to enter the camp with lots of cyberware and bio, so they pretty much spots him even when he tries to sneak out and climb up on the roof. With a good climb test he gets on top no problems, but the guards tell him to get down. When he tries to get to cover on the angled roof, the guards starts firing stick'n shock on him until he agrees to get down (he has pretty much awesome body).

He keeps pestering the guards that he has nothing do to, and so they find a solution: They take him to the shed and gets out a shovel, and orders him to dig a deep hole and fill it up again. Well Trog doesen't mind doing some hard work, but he wonders why he should fill the hole again to which the guard answers "so that no one falls into it", which Trog happily accepts (ignorance is bliss).

So Trog spends most of the night shoveling dirt, happily.

The next day when Jonathan Tung comes to wake his large "family", he takes along a few guards (in case some of his family are not "morning people"). He finds Trog already awake and in good spirit. Tung doesen't mind that at all, and lets Trog help in waking up the rest. When Trog later tells him that he doesen't need much sleep and wants to work more, Tung happily accepts and even promotes Trog as an example to all in work dicipline.

Trog recieves heavy labor that day of course, working the fields, heavy lifting, carrying etc. He gets to use his immense muscles and Trog is actually quite content with this. It's not very exiting, but he does gets to see things he's never seen before and learn amazing facts such as that you can actually build something instead of just destroying and actually feel good about it afterwards!

Anyway, Trog doesen't forget his mission completely so he gets the tools needed with little trouble, and during the night he drills holes in the walls in order to point the laser link to a previously agreed on ruin a couple hundred meters away.

Trog gets to speak to Uzz who has set up his transciever at the exact spot the ir laser is pointed, and tells what he knows about the facility, including pictures of the Solace House terminal to be sent to Jimmy so he can figure out if it can be hacked or not easily. Trog isn't the best with computers though, so he didn't find out if the Solace terminal is connected to a network or not.


Meanwhile, Simon tries to probe the astral security of Hope relief camp. He knows that previous attempts to enter himself or sending watcher spirits has resultet in astral magicians manabolting them or him. This time, at the behest of Jimmy, he tries a different tactic: diversion. He sends in a watcher spirit at the opposite side he attempts to enter himself.

The spirit is of course noticed, but this time the security shaman percieves the spirit for what it is, and simply follows it trying to hide and starts astral tracking. The watcher spirit isn't really very good of watching (2 dice), and fails to even notice the shaman.

Simon tries to sneak into the camp himself astrally, but it discovered by the shaman after checking out Tung's residence and learning that the security building is warded. A small duel breaks out, where the shaman almost hurts Simon with a manabolt before Simon gets the hell out of dodge.


Back to Trog: After a days of hard word, he of course has to join the group councils, where they talk of their problems. Here he learns about a few fellow enrollees, including 2 men who later talk to him: Ted Wiley (the Environmental Protection Agency spy) and Garret Armstrong (the Universal Brotherhood counterspy). Armstrong first contacts Trog to tell him about his priviliges - he supposedly has gotten hold of the secret password to the terminals in the registration office which means he can log in and give himself easier jobs and such.

Although Trog thinks it's cool, he doesen't really want more relaxing work, he likes what he's got... but when Armstrong mention he could get hold of alcohol Trog is sold (he has moderate addiction). So Armstrong promises to give Trog perimition to get a bottle of vodka from the kitchens, which he gets (but only when no fellow enrollees can see him). Oh happy day!

Later Wiley approaches Trog and starts asking questions - especially about Project Hope and New Dawn Environics. When he realizes Trog has hear about this and thinks it's odd that NDE can make good soil and clean water out of industrial waste and effluent, Wiley tries to recruit Trog.

In fact, that's piece of cake. Trog is dying for some action and is more than willing to help, as he is also curious. Wiley also offers him 10k for the help, which is making a distraction as Wiley sneaks on the outgoing trucks to the New Dawn treatment facility.


Anyway, later that night Trog has talked to Uzz and Jimmy through their link and after learning about the terminals in the registration building, they plan to hack the computers there through the laser link to be set up again. They plan to shoot in some more equipment in the orchard area were there are fewer guards (and were Trog works at night anyway) around 3am.

But before that Trog and Uzz hears a truck slamming into the electrifed fence, killing the driver and passengers pretty quickly. It a gang attacking Hope! 15 mad mutant gangers living in Glow City runs into the comound shooting wildly with SMGs at everyone and everything they see. Trog is even hit by some stray shots.
The guards take up position and starts taking down the gangers with ease. They have enough armor (12) that the gangers can't even harm them much, especially with their 9 body.

Trog thinks this is his chance and runs to checkout the registration building, and finds out it's unlocked and even the windows are openable to the outside! (project Hope does not believe in locks, chummer! Just guards armed to the teeth who will frag your ass ) However he is spotted by the single guard patrolling the building, and stays there under his observation for the duration of the firefight.

Meanwhile, Uzz things this is a good time to act (he was about to try to hire some gangers to attack the place in the first place!), so he pulls out his army sniper rifle and proceeds to test the armor of a security guard with no cover from him. He pulls off a nice shot (at around 300 meters), and the guard was unable to defend with reaction after failing his suprise test. However, in order to not arouse too much suspicion Uzz used regular ammo, so the guard was only slighty wounded by the shot (2 boxes).

Uzz shot him again (getting a complex action in a suprise round is a bitch), and wounds him some more. The fact that Uzz shot at the guard twice and he was still standing surely told him these guys were tough indeed, so he packed up and snuck away. The guards tried to see where the sniper was, but with his silencer and flare suppressor, and hiding at 300 meters he was not spotted (even with their 13 dice!).

Meanwhile, the gangers was shot to shreads by the guards, it wasn't even a doubt who would win this fight as there were still no fallen guards. Uzz got into a new position and waited for a target. Then he saw a couple of gangers blow up in a multicolored fireball. Magic! Uzz scanned the area for the potential magician, and the next time a fireball went at the enemy he fired at the guy the fireball originated from (the magician in the same armor and the same weapon as the rest).

The security shaman was not as tough as the soldier guards though, and this time Uzz loaded APDS ammo... At that range he didn't even have to use scope, so shot at the shaman twice. Despite the fact that the shaman was not suprised, and that he had an armor spell with 4 hits on him, he went down by the second shot because of his body 3. The shaman had taken 5 boxes of damage when he tried to get up (thanks to liberal use of edge), but he couldn't both get up and move into full cover with his speed divided by 3 (initative passes), so he didn't quite get into cover before Uzz shot him again (I made a mistake here, thought it was a complex action to get up and move half speed). The Shaman was splattered though, and Uzz shot him 2 more times for good measure.

After this he sent a message to Simon telling him the mage was not a problem anymore. Simon got up and in a few minutes was astrally projecting when Uzz's second message came in saying "it might be dangerous still."

Simon checked out the security building this time, having learned that it was warded, he tried to break through it thinking the mage that made it was dead. Of course, this was a force 6 ward, and when he failed to break through it he was disrupted and knocked unconscious, going back to his body. He obviously


Unbeknownst to Uzz though, the Shaman had a mate who was awakened (literally) by the fighting. When the remaining few gangers fled the scene, after Simon had banged his astral head, this shaman went astral and quickly searched the area around where the shots had come from, and found only a single living being in that area - Uzz. She followed him to the Locos where he met Claudia, his ganger girfriend and contact.

After some time he took her out to eat and drink in "touristville" Redmond, and as they stayed at a restaurant the astral spy went back again to gather 4 of the guards to set up an ambush. They travelled to Redmond in their truck, and all the while the shaman made sure Uzz didn't leave the place too soon.

When the guards were in place, the shaman manifested before them and gave told them that the couple was leaving the restaurant. So as Uzz and Claudia walked towards their turf they were ambushed. Uzz spotted the ambush right before the guards were ready to fire at once, and started firing with his Ares Preadator with APDS. He wounded on of the guards, but they had cover and were 30 meters away so he didn't manage to incapacitate him. He also moved towards cover but couldn't reach it in the first initative pass. Then it was the guards' turn to act. They fired at him with stick'n shock in their assault rifles and fired short narrow bursts... at that range their only penalty was their cover (-1) and with their 15 dice they hit pretty good... Uzz managed to resist the first 2 burst but after that the player asked me to just determine that he would lose and fall down. And really he didn't have any chance there, despite his insane skills with firearms.

Both of them were captured alive - in order to be interrogated and assimilated

Well since the party pretty much were all at different locations and only communicated sporadically through their commlinks (or the laser link in the case of Trog), it took awhile before any of them realized Uzz was missing. Jimmy talked to Simon about Trog and the plan to hack from a distance. But before going to the place the laser link should have been pointed (that Trog never got around to) Jimmy asked Simon to scout the place astrally. And lo and behold he spotted 6 guards and the second shaman lying in wait.

Since this plan was compromised, they started thinking what could have happened... Trog could be captured or Uzz - or they just found the laser link.

The next day Trog talked to Garret Armstrong again, who this time had learned that Trog was an infiltrator himself. He tried to pry for information about his plans, and after some fast talking got poor Trog to talk about helping out the EPA agent, even when it was supposed to happen, promising to help out creating a diversion. (Of course the player understood he was a mole, but good roleplaying made him play Trog as naive as he is - as he failed his judge intent check totally).

Tung also came to see him, making a speech that his excellent performance has caused him to be transferred to the Faith relief camp. Trog was uneasy about it at first, but Tung was of course very persuasive and also made it clear that there was no other option. Of course Tung had learned from Uzz all about Trog and his mission, and now wanted to make Trog a flesh form ant spirit as well.

And yeah Uzz... he woke up in an operation hall down below Faith relief camp research centre, being strapped to a table. He soon realized he was going to be tortured, so after awhile he spilled his guts to Tung and pretty much revealed who he was working for and everything. Tung didn't really believed him of course, so he brought him to the Ant Queen, who used her Compulsion power to compel the truth out of Uzz (his 3 willpower vs a force 10 spirit didn't help much).
Then he was placed inside a cocoon for transformation and possession. However, something wrong happened! Although the merge was almost "good", somehow Uzz managed to remain free of the Ant Queens influence and the possessing ant spirit never got to control him. Besides having some physical signs of being an ant, Jimmys' mind is free and he can escape (yeah, hand of god).

Jimmy checked out New Dawn again - to see how easy it could be to sneak on the truck coming in. What he found was that the guards pulled out a man from under the truck (Ted Wiley, the EPA agent), who was taken inside the compound and summarily executed for tresspassing (they're extraterritorial).

Trog was kept guarded by two guards (flesh form soldier ants really, which explains their insane stats and iniative) until he should be transferred and assimilated. However, before that he talked to the guards, asking them question. They knew what was going to happen to him, and one of the guards began laughing evilly (ok, that was me but the guard also mwuhahaa!), and Trog felt insulted. Trog picked up the guard (with body 9!) and threw him into an apple tree. His colleage however fired a full burst at him with ex-ex ammo, and then the second short burst brought him down. He was stabilized with first aid and sent to Faith relief camp for healing and possession.

Well, that's were we cut off. It will be exiting to see what happens. Although Uzz will probably get out of Faith relief camp easily since the other ants thinks he's one of them, perhaps he will learn some first, possible even free Trog.

Trog's player will probably also have to scratch off a point of Edge permanently, after all he attacked a guard and was shot almost dead, and unless something miraculous happens he will either die or become an ant spirit as well. However, I'm loath to allow players to keep their characters after escaping certain death etc. without them having some sort of drawback. In Uzz case, even slightly becoming an insects spirit is anatheme, since Uzz hates these things for what they did to the love of his life, Euphoria. And another drawback is that he loses his current girlfriend the same way he left euphoria! Oh, boy, this is going to mess up Uzz personality even more, since he can't have sex without revealing his malformity.

Exactly what's going to happen to Trog I'm not sure of yet, but I figure he'll be used for experimental cyberware, meaning some of his existing ware will be ripped out in exchange for something that does not work properly and may even be a danger. It won't have a very big essence cost, but every piece matters and there should at least be a flavour drawback with this operation if not a game mechanically one.

Honestly, having two players now die/HoG the same way would be uninteresting. With Uzz just escaping his doom, he could probably get a glimpse of Trog being on his way to the queen and get a chance to rescue him.

Uzz just escaped from a cocoon, right? As the hive wouldn't want anyone to harm their precious cocoons, they'd most likely place them near the core of the hive. That means he shouldn't have it too far to the security center (just imagining here, never played UB). If he can sneak there he might disable the alarm system and even find himself a rifle or some grenades. Also if you can get Simon close to them he could wrap a mana barrier around the worker to disrupt her from the hive.
The genitals of an ant would most likely be inside their body. If you've planned that, you turned Uzz into Ken as in Barbie's Ken. I remind you that male ants usually just fertilize the queen and then die. Also if you allow Augmentation in your group, Uzz can quite quickly replace his ant genitalia with a penile implant.
Same with Trog and his experimental cyberware unless you use something that can't be removed anymore. The old boosted reflexes come to mind. You could Trog have some implanted that replace his current wired reflexes, but sometimes send spasms to certain muscle groups or even his whole body.

Don't have Augmentation yet but can't you remove MBW again?

Alright we left off at a precarious moment - Uzz stick'n shocked down and taken by the PEOs, Trog shot down (by EX-EX) and taken to the Faith relief camp medical centre/research facility, and the rest of the team barely escaping the same fate and reaizing their companions might be compromised.

Now back to Uzz. He was taken to the research centre and put on the table for interrogation (the Renraku doctors were happy to oblige). There he met Jonathan Tung who started questioning him. Although mr. Tung is a nice guy (really), he didn't hide that they knew that Uzz was the one who had sniped one of the security shamans, and suspected him of being involved with other incidents of espionage as well (astral and drones). Lying there pretty much helpless, Uzz realized that he couldn't sweet-talk himself out of this one, and more or less gave in. Instead of making a stupid lie he told he was sent by the FBI (true) to learn about why the project is so good (erh....) and so on. Although there was alot of truth in it Tung had desided beforehand that Uzz would probably lie anyway, but this amount of cooperation persuaded him that physical torture was unnecessary.

Uzz was transfered to a location Renraku does not know about, the secret Hive undernath the research centre. The PEOs (guards) are all flesh form ant spirits with "good merge", and therefore it was easy for Tung to smuggle Uzz down below. There he was brought before the queen who used her mental influence ability. Her 20 dice easily beat his willpower+counterspelling, and soon he was under her complete control and willfully told all about the operation, including who was involved. At this point Uzz and Tung had a nice chat (where Uzz pretty much believed in what he said (and even the player was almost convinced this ant thing wasn't as bad as he thought). Tung used this information to get his mole in Hope relief camp to make Trog come clean about his motives, which led to Trog being shot.

Uzz tried to convince Tung to let him go out and lure in his friends so they also could become part of the Hive, but even though the player wanted to burn edge to gain a critical success, Tung knew the Queen's influence would pass and the only way to ensure Uzz's loyalty was to have him posessed (he couldn't be persuaded otherwise since he was under orders from the Queen as well).
So instead Uzz was placed inside a cocoon and the posession began.

Meanwhile Trog met a slightly different fate. Although he was stabilized and treated for his wounds, the Renraku people already had tabs on him for entering the camp with lot of cyberware, and he was already earmarked for experimentation. He woke up on the operation table, surrounded by masked doctors going about the business of performing cyberware implantation on him - while he was still awake and unsedated. He tried to break free with his huge muscles, but the straps were reinforced (they'd have augmented people before there, and this was the troll table). When he asked questions and screamed in pain, they simply gagged him and proceeded. After painful hours of slicing and injections of nanites, he was drugged and left in the recooperation hall.

3 days after Uzz entered the cocoon, he emerged again this time an ant spirit (I guess Simon was right about him being dual natured after all!). Or was he? When he emerged (and burning edge) Uzz noticed he was still himself... almost. Looking down he saw that a part of him were missing... the important parts! Tung was happy to explain though that he still had them, they were only inside his body and of ant type, since the merge was almost good.

At this point he should have been completely taken over by the ant spirit, who would keep his memories and personality but be of a different and alien mind. Perhaps it was his experience with (queen) Euphoria, perhaps his extreme hatred for ant spirits, or perhaps the merge simply went wrong on some level, but it seemed that although posessed, the spirit in him was repressed into the subconscious of his mind. Still, he acted like he was one of them, and although he was distraght when he saw his second girlfriend Claudia transformed as he was, he kept it cool and used his awesome acting skills to convince everyone that he was one of them.

Now Tung trusted him though, and he got the answers to many questions, his equipment back, the card to the elevator to the research facility and to the Hive, and then he was sent to lure in his friends so that they too could see the glory of the Queen and become true brothers.

While picking up his gear though, he saw Trog being rolled away in a hospital bed after having been implanted some more cyberware, back to the recooperation room. Although I attributed this coincidence to Trog burning a point of edge, Uzz didn't do anything to rescue him then and there, instead he tried to find out what was happening to him, found out where things were, and then made a test to bring out a junkie enrollee and have him hit a piece of rubble outside the camp. Although the guards thought the request was odd, they had been told he was one of them know and thought he had a good reason.

Of course this was part of his plan to free Trog.

After Uzz had checked out the facility, he contacted Juarez to set up a meeting the next day. Then he contacted Simon and Jimmy, to meet with them as well. Jimmy was very sceptical, especially because Uzz didn't at once tell them he had been captured at all. Jimmy wanted to have Gadget/Michelle to check him and his commlink out, but Uzz outright refused.

In the end they agreed to send Simon to talk to him and Jimmy was a backup if things went wrong.

So Uzz told his tale (with heavy modifications and leaving out the becoming a bug part), which Simon bought easily. Then, Simon told the tale to Jimmy, and Jimmy asked about a particular sentence which then Simon said "hmm that don't sound right!". Still, Jimmy agreed to meet with Uzz while having Simon there in astral space, and asked enough questions till he almost believed Uzz wasn't working for the enemy.

Now the plan was to first meet with the feds and ask for their backup in taking out the Hive.

Early next morning they met with Juarez at McHugh's, and reported about the ant spirits infesting Faith relief camp and the research centre there. This was augmented by Uzz having filmed it all with his cybereyes, so although incidentally skeptical the Feds did buy it after verifying that the video recording had not been edited at all.

He agreed to take extreme action against the Hive, but again demanded that the runners go in before that and get the ecconomical data against Renraku that the mission was all about.

Jimmy insisted that the attack had to ocurr very quickly, and they agreed it could be performed at noon. Still Juarez demanded that they sent a signal when they had the data and about to leave camp, since when he attacked this data could be destroyed.

So the plan to infiltrate the camp was pretty simple this time, since Uzz was trusted by the guards and Tung, and could pretty much enter and leave as he wished. Additionally, his "job" was to lure in his friends in the first place, so when he drove there in a stolen sedan with Jimmy in the backseat (faking unconsciousness). Even so, in the spur of the moment Uzz pulled out his SA taser and plugged Jimmy (called shot to the foot, -4 attack and damage) with a dart. Jimmy wasn't too happy about this, but he restisted all the damage with his nonconductive chameleon suit, and after the obvious shock he was faking it again.

Well they got in no problem, and Uzz with the help of a hospital bed brought Jimmy down below to the secret research centre. Here he met Tung, who congratulated him on getting Jimmy. Uzz brought Jimmy to the recooperation room, and found out that Trog was out there, walking around in an experimental dreamgate BTL chip world. Tung called the PEOs though to bring Jimmy into the Hive for posession, then said good luck getting Simon next.

After Tung had left, Uzz talked to Jimmy when he realized all the subjects in the room were unconscious and they were alone. He gave him info about where he belived the main server was, in Tung's office. But after some talking the heard 2 PEOs coming down to carry Jimmy downbelow. Uzz tried to bullshit them first, but their orders were from Tung and they wouldn't listen to anything else. When it seemed he agreed, Uzz silently warned Jimmy, and drew his pistol when the guards had turned their backs.

The guards were suprised, but their amazing armor and body meant that even with APDS in an Ares Predator the first guard still survived the two shots. Jimmy tried to tase the second guard, but didn't do that much damage. Since both PCs beet the guards in the suprise check, the guards couldn't act against them and only got their weapons out and tried to asess the situation.
Next second Uzz shot again, but this time at the second enemy, to even less effect. Jimmy spent edge to be able to act again, but his shot was meaningless. This time the guards shot back at jimmy with long burst, but their wound penalties meant that their bursts missed Uzz totally. I the end Uzz managed to down them both.

Since the medical personell in the next room didn't have much perception skill, the silenced ares predator remained unheard (3 dice -4.. uhm). Uzz and Jimmy got the guards onto beds and covered them with sheets, then Jimmy went to the mainframe. He had to bypass the maglock first - piece of cake.

Then it was hacking time. Jimmy had gotten some nice programs since last time, but his commlink didn't have much response, which again limited his System so he couldn't use the programs at their highest rating.

I was very lucky with my rolls, (5 of 10 possible hits 2 times in a row) so even if he had a working rating 6 stealth program he would be detected. Additionally he rolled abysmally, and couldn't get in. He had to burn edge to be allowed a critical success (the analyze program crashed and was permanently corrupted). Since there was no security riggers in the system he had pretty good time. He also found and copied the black Ice, and deactivated it in the system. He then proceeded to copy the programs he dared, looking for databombs and searching for information.

In the end he got what he was looking for (and more), and they left the facility. Uzz was to fetch Trog, and Jimmy was to sneak out with his chamelon suit. Trog was walking around drooling, but when Uzz plugged out his BTL he snapped back to reality again and he tried to take him out. The guards though this odd, but they'd seen it before and trusted him, so he got out. However when Jimmy tried to sneak out he was detected, and the guards threatened him with weapons. While Uzz and Trog walked to the car, Jimmy sent a holographic image of himself running away while standing perfectly still and cloaked. Of course, it's not too hard to see the difference between a hologram and a real person, so the guards saw through it at once and one of the guards shot a warning shot into Jimmy... "wait a warning shot INTO Jimmy?" Yep. He went down easily. Had it been a burst Jimmy would be dead instantly but he was still alive. However, Uzz and Trog jumped into the car and drove around in between the line of fire , and Trog picked up Jimmy before the guards could take him for questioning.

The guards opened fire at the car, but although heavily damaged they couldn't stop it before Uzz had gotten away with a nice vehicle skill test.

Trog had first aid skill, so he used it on Jimmy... and found out he had tits and a feminim form! "Wait this isn't Jimmy, its' a girl!" Luckily they didn't throw her out, but "Jimmy's" cover was busted and soon the whole party knew it.

While they escaped the scene they saw black verti-chopper coming in, armed to the teeth. Wisely they decided to get away instead of attempting to see the carnage ensume.