PCs
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
The Fin – female human con artist and gambler from India, by way of Russia, posh and elegant
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
NPC’d
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it
Thursday, March 19, 2076
Early the morning of the run, Bookie accessed the Ares Macrotechnology Motor Pool systems to verify the previously targeted vehicles were still assigned to the vehicle requests matching the times Mr. Johnson supplied. They were, so the job was “Go”. The team split into three groups: Void and Murdoc in the “Team A” vehicle (a recently “borrowed” GMC Commodore with tinted windows) jumped into by Sin. Prometheus and Killroy, as Team B, took a non-descript Nissan-Chrysler Jackrabbit to a point in Issaquah that would allow them to intercept the target easily if Plan A failed and Plan B was needed. Sin was in his GMC Bulldog at a mid-point to reduce distance noise, with The Fin there to protect his body while he was jumped into the other vehicles. Bookie and coldpulse were in the Matrix, waiting to do their part.
The primary target, with an “O” spray-painted on its roof in UV-only paint was given the code name “Hugs”, with the secondary target vehicle (having an “X” on it) designated “Kisses”.
8:40 AM
Sin flew one of his Lockheed Optic-X2s modified to pick up the RFID tags Void placed on the target vehicles earlier in the week. He found nothing, meaning the tags had been located and removed. This was not unexpected and had been planned for. The team hoped it would boost the overconfidence of Ares personnel. As a result, Sin sent out his other Optic X2 and put both on “racetrack” orbits between the parking garage in Bellevue and the R&D lab in Everett, looking for the target vehicles.
10:04 AM
Both target vehicles were detected in route to the R&D Lab, the invisible UV markings still on them. After being loaded, both convoys headed south towards the testing range in Renton, “Hugs” taking an easterly route, “Kisses” a westerly one. Team A moved east on 522 to intercept “Hugs” just north of the Snohomish border with Redmond.
Once Team A was in position, Murdoc cast invisibility on Void. She then climbed onto the top of their car and Sin was given the go to move alongside “Hugs”. Once Team A was adjacent to “Hugs”, Bookie hacked its rigging system and forced a reboot, dumping the Ares rigger hard. Sin then took control of “Hugs”, using the access codes Bookie had collected earlier in the week. The NeuroStun X device hidden in the AC unit was triggered as Void gracefully made the jump between the two vehicles. Due to the light rain, the gecko-tape gear she was wearing wasn’t much help, but Void ended up not needing it.
After a minute [to let the NeuroStun X dissipate], Sin rolled down one of the windows on “Hugs”. Void peeked in to verify the driver and security guards were all knocked out and found an Ares Duelist drone embedded into the car as a back-up driver! This was unexpected. Void contacted Bookie and coldpulse and asked them to brick the drone pilot, which they quickly did. Bookie had Void wait while he checked the card for any hidden cameras inside “Hugs”. He found the AR signal of one camera and bricked it before signaling “all clear”.
Void then climbed into “Hugs” and located the gun case that was the target of the run. She slipped it into the canvas carrying bag she had with her – Murdoc’s invisibility spell now covered the gun case. She then shouldered the bag and climbed back onto the roof. Once on top, she signaled Sin to bring over the team car so she could leave “Hugs”. Sin set the auto-pilot on “Hugs” to continue to the testing range in Renton and jumped back into the GMC Commodore. He brought it up alongside “Hugs” and Void leapt back to the Commodore. Sin then took the next right and calmly drove the Commodore away from the target and to where his GMC Bulldog was parked. Void opened the gun case [after disabling a NeuroStun gas trap attached to the latch] to verify a prototype was actually in the case and it wasn’t a decoy. There was a disassembled assault rifle of a kind she did not recognize inside, which was good enough. Team B was told to stand down as the job was a success. Void re-armed the NeuroStun trap before re-closing the case. The client was paying for the case, not a safed case.
Prometheus and Killroy drove to the drop-off point to set up to cover The Fin’s the meeting with Mr. Johnson. The meeting was to take place in a small greenspace between a small shopping center in Bellevue and the adjacent parking garage. Killroy took a position on the top floor of the parking garage; Prometheus took one down the alley behind the shopping center, remaining in the Jackrabbit.
3:00 PM
The Fin, with the package (still in the canvas bag) sat down next to a suited exec on the only bench in the greenspace. After a perfunctory greeting, the exec passed The Fin a platinum credstick and The Fin nudged the canvas bag to the exec. The Fin then got up and walked away, checking the value on the credstick. The pay was correct, but an AR message was also attached. The Fin opened it and it was a short note that said:
“Good work. I’m not who you were expecting, but I recognize good talent when I see it. Expect to hear from me in the near future with some work.”The exec wasn’t the client, but an Ares man! The first words out of The Fin’s mouth were said over the Pleiades Group comm network: “Shoot him.”
Prometheus immediately obeyed and clipped the exec (who was walking towards the parking garage with the case) with an APDS round from his Remington 950 sniper rifle. This dropped the exec without killing him [below average roll on damage], but also triggered a return shot from a hidden Ares sniper on the second floor of the parking garage! [Prometheus has a terrible Perception skill and really needs a spotter to work with him.] The Ares sniper hit Prometheus in a weak part of his armored clothing, doing significant damage [my defensive and armor rolls were very poor and Prometheus took 5 points of Physical Damage out of the 10 he has].
Prometheus, being the mostly cyber-machine he was, ignored the Ares sniper and shot at the exec again, specifically the trapped case release. This triggered the NeuroStun trap in the gas, knocking out the exec and keeping him from leaving under his own power. A second shot from the Ares sniper was absorbed by Prometheus’ armored clothing [I rolled much, much better], but aggravated Prometheus. Prometheus dropped his Remington into his lap in the Jackrabbit and pulled the Aztechnology Striker out of the backseat. Prometheus then put the loaded anti-vehicular missile into the concrete pillar right behind the Ares sniper. It was hard to tell which killed the sniper first: the explosion or the spray of concrete shrapnel. With all known hostiles stopped, Prometheus pulled out his CelGene Medkit [Rating 4] and then attached and activated it. He started quickly and carefully following the medkit’s expert systems instructions to deal with his gunshot wound. [I rolled well enough to reduce the 5 points of Physical damage by 2 points.]
Meanwhile, Killroy was rapidly running down the stairs from the roof of the parking garage. With the sniper dealt with, Killroy instead retrieved the gun case from the exec [Killroy’s body armor is chemically sealed, so he was not affected by the NeuroStun gas]. The Fin left an AR note with the Ares exec explaining the team were professionals and were hired to deliver the case to the client, not him, but in the future the team would have no problem providing the same level of professional service for him. She then had Killroy trigger the exec’s DocWagon bracelet before the group left the area.
4:00 PM
The Fin dropped a careful message into a drop-box for Mr. Johnson, explaining the group had the package and still wished to deliver it to complete the contract. [It would be several days (and another game session) before a reply was received.]
6:00 PM
All the local news channels had an article about the unusual explosion at a Bellevue shopping center. Knight Errant was reporting it to be an unusually energetic stress fracture in one of the load bearing pillars of the parking garage. City inspectors were checking the rest of the parking garage to verify it was completely safe. The only reported injuries were a local business man and his bodyguard who appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
End of Session
[And this is why we did all that planning and prep-work before the actual run – it made the run quick and as safe as possible for the PCs. We were happy to have the quiet Plan A succeed and to not need the extremely noisy and violent Plan B. Still, having the necessary equipment turned out to be handy for dealing with the Ares sniper.]
[We’re not certain how the Ares exec is going to handle us taking his money but not handing over the goods. We were not expecting the client to be taken out before the hand-over of the package. On the plus side, we are getting paid twice for the job.]
Session 1
Session 6
Session 8: The Conclusion
No comments:
Post a Comment