Allen1
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This reformed Riau Sultanate came about during the Collapse as they were finally able to break away from Indonesia. This country now only consists of the islands of the Riau Archipelago. The islands of Singapore and on enclave on Sumatra have been lost to this restructured monarchy. The Sultanate received a large influx of of wealthy Muslims from the Middle East just like Brunei to their east. Initially, the country made a small fortune importing garbage from India, China and sweeping the local seas clean of refuse dumped at sea. This they used to build up the shallow sea areas between Mubar, Matak, Siantan and Bajau Islands to create a larger land mass. This huge project brought in many laborers from China, the Philippines, some Indonesians, and also many from Malaysia.
(see the Adventure book, Chrome Berets, on how this type of project worked)
The old capital was Ranai on the main Riau Island which still houses a Royal Palace and the MASJID IBNU SALIM, a mosque where the sultan's coronations are held. The new adminstrative capital is Tobong on the old Matak Island, and that is where the joint B&B Technologies / Arasaka project is being built. The population of this new "super island" has a large mixed ethnic population in a predominately Muslim country. a hair over half of the people from the Philippines are also Muslim, but there is a sizable Catholic minority. The huge Chinese minority follow old Chinese beliefs or are atheists. This has led to some friction, but the old Sultan and his son, the Crown Prince, who some of you have met, follow a policy of religious toleration.
Now oil has been discovered around some of the islands, which has brought renewed interest from a variety of corporate and international actors. International observers feel that, to use Mikael's terms, may be turning this place into "a pit of snakes".
This "plot hook" has been a long time simmering on the back burner, right from back in Colombia as has been pointed out. An opportunity was provided to get to know the Crown Prince, but besides a possible hello, no one made an effort to talk to him, besides Suzy, of course. Now B&B Technologies has a huge contract. No matter, that plot will proceed on and may never impact the Team anyway.
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That would be the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which no longer applies in Priority 1 & 2 crimes (Protect & Serve) in Cyberpunk America. Unless charges have officially filed, you do have the option of using this right to remain silent. This was the extreme danger of Governor Braxton Lowndes and his attempt to plant the Black Lace throughout the Team's vehicle. Had he succeeded in taking the tour column, you would all have been taken to Dothan, Alabama and been subjected to immediate trial by one of his corrupt courts without the benefit of attorney. Yes, a Federal Appeal would be possible, but extremely unlikely. Black Lace is a Type A Trafficking offense and is a Priority 1 crime.
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Tomorrow (4/15), we will be doing Episode 74 starting on Thursday, February 25, 2077 at the tour's hotel in Miami, Florida. Florida Law Enforcement hasn't paid you all a visit yet, but that is inevitable. A local lawyer is on stand by and will be on scene in the morning at some point. Suzy is adamant that NO ONE speak to the police without the attorney present. Also, no one is to speak with any media about the recent incidents. Suzy will handle the press for Whyte Hat and Nancy Chang will speak for Universal Records. Neither women expect the Dade County Sheriffs or the Miami Police Department, since the confrontation with the Alabama State Patrol happened outside their jurisdictions.
First thing in the morning, 8-Ball and Cossack will take the Armadillo to the Miami airport to pick up Donny & Kessie who will flying in from visiting family (Kessie's) in Havana, Cuba. Cossack will give the keys to the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV to Skip so the people at the hotel will have transportation in an emergency. The two will then head to the freight terminal with the two band members to meet the plane bringing the Team's replacement armor and gear. They will also drop off the damaged gear to be reloaded on the aircraft and returned to Wells, NV. On board the aircraft will also be Jesse Wayne, who has been assigned to the security detail. 8-Ball and Cossack will then drive back to the hotel with the new gear, Donny, Kessie and Jesse Wayne.
Tonight is the scheduled show at the Del Sol Club and a huge crowd is expected. The media should also be out in force. Everyone needs to be on their toes.
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And with this episode we are now caught up with the Cyber Revolutionaries 2077 Nation Tour!
Episode 73 – Fleeing the Big Easy
The Team aids the house of the suspected human traffickers and saves Marilyn, Viper’s sister and three other young women. During this raid they make a discovery that forces them to leave New Orleans immediately for Pensacola, Florida by sea. Governor Braxton Lowndes of Alabama’s campaign against the “morally corrupt” Cyber Revolutionaries escalates beyond mere words and violence ensues
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who the members who thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat. In reality, they discovered she was up and coming Drug Lord (or Lady?) connected with South American Alliance. In the end, they learned that she was actually cooperating with the C.I.A. to kill other Drug Lords who she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but it cost her to lose her life in the process.
On return to the United States, Mitzi reorganized the Team under the name Whyte Hat, which was the company founded years ago by the fixer’s first team. Whyte Hat has flourished and is now a regional security / paramilitary company with offices in Night City and Wells, Nevada.
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Covert Op 5 (Solo 5]: He is a former member of the Seattle Chapter of the Chrome Berets, a gang of military posers that practice urban combat tactics often with paintball guns and hired themselves out as “ringers” to corporate paint ball teams. He left his gang on good terms and is seeking to become a serious solo like his hero, the late Morgan Blackhand. His first experience in Night City made him an ‘honorary’ member of that gang’s local chapter and earned the deep friendship of all of its members. He also acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran and they are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 7]: He was a Ukrainian smuggler who made himself a pain in the ass to Interpol which pursued him relentlessly for the past several years. He lost a cargo belonging to a powerful Ukrainian mobster, Vyacheslav Morozov, who wished to take the loss of his goods out of Cossack’s hide, but his now deceased boss, Martina, assassinated the mob boss instead. His secret work in Colombia has led to the U.S. government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu.
J.J. Hunter [Authority 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Jayleen Blackhawk Hunter is the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Choctaw mother. Both parents were college professors, but J.J.’s interests lay elsewhere. After a brief stint in the Army, she joined the U.S. Marshal’s Service which eventually led her to work with Whyte Hat in their mission to re-open Interstate 80 through the Nevada Outback. When the Marshal’s service loosened its ties with Whyte Hat she accepted Mitzi’s offer to head up that company’s new but small Corporate Police Force. Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Rue Perla [Medtech 9]: This former Army medic came to Night City to visit her friend 8-Ball from Seattle and hooked up with the Team when it was working for Martina Vargas. She survived that dangerous mission and was rewarded with a chance to get her medical degree, which she has done. The young woman continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Nevada State Guard. The new doctor signed up with Mitzi’s Whyte Hat and along with Dr. Jamal Hemings, helped found a small hospital in Wells, Nevada. She is also a veteran of the 2072 Christmas Tour.
Zdravko Milinkovic [Interface 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: This man is a refugee from Serbia and the ongoing brush fire wars in that region. He is a combat veteran of a now destroyed and scattered Serbian militia, who has now become a NET Runner with a specialization in drone warfare and combat. He is a new hire for Whyte Hat.
The NPCs
Clark Winters (Viper ) An old friend and associate of Suzy Barnes; they won’t say how they know each other, but Clark sports a tattoo popular with American Special Forces in South America.
Jethro Wells: The president of the Pensacola Chapter of the Chrome Berets.
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour:
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 7]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker replacing Loco Skysinger as the lead vocalist of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Cassie Banes [Techie 4]: She is the bassist for the band who grew up in the 88th Street neighborhood of Nigh City. Her brother Tom Banes was an original member of Mitzi’s first team that was destroyed by Marco Baronti.
Donny Clark [Vehicle Zen 4]: The man’s true passion is music, but he is still a (more than) competent driver. Another original member of the band and denizen of the 88th Street combat zone area in Night City, he is currently the only male member of the band.
Kessie Ado [Scrounge 4]: The daughter of Nigerian immigrants ended up as a scavenger around the 88th Street Neighborhood. She fell in with Mitzi, Suzy and Cassie which led her to the rest of the band.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 6 (NET Tech 4 / Interface 3)]: She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and ended up working as an underage stripper in a sleazy combat zone club. The late Night City mob boss, Marco Baronti, put a bounty on her head after she had witnessed some serious criminal activity by the man. LEDiv scooped her up, faked her death hid her in Federal Witness Protection. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy. She has embarked on a new career as an actress, model and musician with her old friends the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Nancy Chang [Fixer 6]: Nancy is Universal Records president, Jack Masters, right hand woman. She is assigned to handle the most bands and tours for her boss. She is well known to the Cyber Revolutionaries since she was in charge of the 2072 Christmas Tour with two other bands. She is a genius for generating publicity for the bands under her win.
Rusty Walker [Jury Rig 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Rusty is a U.S. Army veteran turned techie who has become one of the rising sound engineers in the music business. He also was with the Cyber Revolutionaries on the 2072 Tour and the Battle for Rachel against the Desert Devils. The man served as Cossack’s machine gunner as the two tore through and disrupted two of the attacking Raffin Shiv. The pairs actions were videoed live across the country.
Skip Hansen [Vehicle Zen 4]: Skip is a new hire by Universal Records whose job it will be to drive the Armadillo RV carrying the Paulie while he runs the drones to cover them while on the highway. 8-Ball and Rue will also ride in this vehicle. His young man joins the Team in Newark when they leave Manhattan.
Usman Katusi [Vehicle Zen 5]: This man is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably close to thirty. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment. He was with the band on their 2072 tour that ended up in the Battle for Rachel, NV.
The Action
Sunday, February 21, 2077:
Saturday’s planning meeting about how to rescue Viper’s sister continues past midnight. There is much discussion with a preliminary plan of having Suzy kill the exterior guards with her considerable sniper skill and have the rest of the Team rush the house with silenced assault rifle to take out any opposition. Escape will be by fast speed boats. However, Suzy doesn’t want any unnecessary deaths and 8-Ball wants to take prisoners for questioning but Zdravko informs the group, “… but if I must be on the assaulting team I will not play nice. If I see any hint of sexual abuse to the target we rescuing. I will send them to see the lord so they may be judged for their crimes."
Suzy listens to this and overrules the lethality of the current plan. This is her operation and Whyte Hat is her company, along with Mitzi, but she is here on the ground, so she is in command. The Team will NOT be armed with assault rifles, but will be wielding paintball rifles with sleep loads. They will have back up handguns with silencers if the fighting gets out of control. She is the only one that will have a primary armament of a lethal rifle. Zdravko will not be on the assault Team, but will act as her spotter and assist with any NET intrusions that may be needed. Replacing him on the six man assault team will be the Pensacola Chrome Beret leader, Jethro Wells. 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter, Rue and Clark Winters (Viper) will be the other five. Paulie will fly high cover with the Oracle drone. Clark will acquire two of the locally built boats that slowly ply the waterways of sunken New Orleans. Suzy feels that speedboats will be too noticeable.
The two outside guards will be taken down with a small barrage of sleep pellets. The Team will the move up to the front door and rush the inside. The first pair (8-Ball and Cossack) will sweep the first floor. The second pair (Viper and J.J. Hunter) will sweep the second floor and then pull the unconscious porch guard out of sight. The third pair through the door (Rue and Jethro Wells) will pull the first floor porch guard in before checking for a basement. If there is no basement, then they will support any of the first two pairs that need assistance. Suzy is adamant that NO ONE be killed if possible. The New Orleans Police will take any deaths very seriously. Also, everyone inside is to be searched for identification and phones, which are to have their batteries pulled immediately. Pictures of them are also to be taken. Any papers or electronics found should be secured and taken. The Team believes this may be some kind of brothel. Only the women inside are to be taken and only if they want to go. No one is to be detained for questioning. Anyone left behind is to be left unconscious, zip tied or similarly secured to ensure a clean getaway.
Two of the other Chrome Berets who are familiar with the canals of New Orleans will pilot the boats. If all goes well, the Team and band will depart New Orleans on the evening of Fat Tuesday as planned. However, if things go badly, the Team and the Chrome Berets will leave immediately on board their converted trawler, the USS Brooklyn. Suzy suggests to Nancy Chang that the vehicles carrying the band’s equipment should leave this morning and drive to Pensacola, Florida. If everything goes well, then they should head on to Miami where they will meet them when the zeppelin arrives. If things go badly, the vehicles should wait in Pensacola for them to arrive on the USS Brooklyn. With a plan decided on, everyone is told to get some sleep.
Everyone gets some rest until dawn. Nancy Chang calls her travel contacts in Mississippi and Alabama and arranges for an early escort across those two states to Florida. She contracts one of the Chrome Berets to drive the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV with the convoy and gets all the band’s equipment loaded in the tractor trailer and the seals on that vehicle renewed. Nancy then has Rusty, Skip, Usman and the Chrome Beret driver take the tour vehicles to Pensacola to await the results of the next night’s raid.
The three NET Runners take turns running the Oracle drone and getting updated information on the target neighborhood. They then use their Creator programs to create a three dimensional map of the immediate area so Suzy and Zdravko can select the best location for their sniper nest.
The group definitely attends the fifth and biggest parade in the afternoon: The Endymion. This is the largest of the Mardi Gras parades; its throw is Beads. The whole band along with Cossack and 8-Ball go in full costume to avoid identification. Well, the women don’t have a lot to their costumes since they plan on collecting a lot of beads. The group finds a premium spot on a high arched walkway over the canal where the floats are to go under. All goes well until five members of Ricardo Vincent’s people cross the bridge. They don’t recognize the party, but one of the Bokor’s followers sees Suzy flashing a passing float and puts his hands on her half uncovered ass; not a good move, for him.
Suzy spins around and slaps him. 8-Ball steps away from the rail to partially block the five’s path. Cossack also turns his attention to the Haitians, who are just laughing at their friend getting slapped. The Bokor follower who got struck isn’t laughing and says something in Haitian Creole to Suzy. This comment is unintelligible to the Team, but Suzy understands and fires back a reply in their patois. Whatever she says, the man takes it badly and tries to slap the young woman back. In almost a single fluid motion, she blocks the strike, grapples him and throws him over the rail and into the canal below.
The Team is expecting a fight to break out, but the four other companions of the now swimming man’s just laugh even harder. At this point two things happen, two New Orleans policemen come into view and the Haitians see through Cossack’s disguise. The laughing stops. Violence doesn’t break out, as everyone sees the police, who notice the impending hostilities. The Haitians maintain their now somewhat forced smiles and go to help fish their friend out of the water. As one passes Cossack he says something to the Ukrainian in Haitian Creole behind his false smile.
The two cops come up and 8-Ball tells them that everything is just fine. Still, the police decide to wait at the end of the bridge walkway between the two groups. 8-Ball suggests it is a good time to go and everyone agrees since the group has already collected a good amount of Mardi Gras beads. They all head back to Antoine’s. On the way back Cossack asks Suzy what the bokor’s man said to him. He tells the Ukrainian that her Creole isn’t that good but he said something like, “We’ll see you in three days, or you only have three days left.”
By later in the afternoon, Viper, comes back with the gear he has secured for the operation later tonight. He has a collection of light armored clothes that will allow them to pass as locals and armored balaclavas for all. He has seven SGI “Geist” Paintball Assault Weapons each with a full hopper of 50 sleep drug paintball loads, seven Budget Arms Auto 3 pistols with silencers as back-ups for the assault team and Zdravko. For Suzy he has secured a Militech Cyborg Rifle fitted out with a silencer, bipod and scope. Viper reports that Ricardo Vincent and his 30+ followers will also be on the zeppelin headed to Miami. This is the same airship that the Band and Team is scheduled to be on. Cossack thinks back to what the Haitian said today and tells the Team, “Maybe we shouldn’t go on the zeppelin to Miami at all.”
All of the threats he has received put the day of his “showdown” with Ricardo Vincent as this Wednesday when they will all be on the zeppelin together. The Team begins to rethink their future travel plans.
The Team prepares for their operation tonight and also to escort the Band to the evening parade: The Le Krewe d’Edat; the only parade with a ‘Dictator” and not a “King”; it has the most new floats and is known for its originality, biting satire and fantastic flames and torches! Their Throw: Blinking toy skulls.
Again, the Team makes a point of watching the local news outlet.
NEWS Items: 1) New Orleans report the seizure of a large quantity of Black Lace that has been smuggled into the city. All the drug dealers die in a shootout with police before they can identify the smugglers who brought it into the city. 2) Ricardo Vincent holds a press conference in New Orleans to announce his candidacy for Haiti’s upcoming presidential election. He will be returning to Haiti after he meets with a group of his ex-patriate supporters in Miami on Wednesday.
Most everyone will go to this evenings parade except the NET Runners. As soon as the sun goes down, they coordinate flying the Oracle drone to the target house and again land on the roof. This time Suzy picks a different second floor window and again slips the tiny Grid Bug in. There are five men on the second floor, but also two rooms that she can’t get to without her drone being discovered. She does succeed in sticking to the shadows and gets to the first floor. There are more men down there. The drone is able to scan about 75% of the floor. She doesn’t find any entrance to a basement level, but suspects that it might be under the stairs between the first and second floor. The drone doesn’t find any women, but there are rooms the drone can’t see in. All the men inside seem relaxed and having a good time. No one is on alert inside, unlike the two exterior armed guards.
The Grid Bug retreats to the waiting Oracle and Paulie flies it back to Antoine’s. That NET Runner prepares the new video footage for the Assault Team to review when they return from the parade. Zdravko and Suzy start to pick out a sniper hide from the three dimensional map they have built of the area. The Serb has his own ideas, but Suzy over rules him. She points out other positions which Zdravko realizes are better. This young woman clearly has advanced sniper training. She also has a dull grey lightly armored body suit with matching a matching balaclava. The two pack up their gear, weapons and cyberdecks and a Chrome Beret takes them within 400 meters of the target house. They easily get to their sniper nest at the top of a ruined old church 210 meters from that house. Suzy and Zdravko set up their sniper’s nest and then search for remotes. They find small wireless surveillance system in the house that they can enter. They discover there are 3 cameras recording what is going on. One watches the front door and another the back outside he building. Only one camera is inside on the first floor. The two proceed to download all the recorded video files. Zdravko is unskilled in looping cameras that are recording so Suzy gives him a quick programming lesson.
The evening parade goes on without any trouble and everyone attending has a good time. They return to Antoine’s. Once there they inform the band that they should be ready to leave very quickly tonight. The rest of the Team gets to review the new intelligence that the NET Runners collected from their last done intrusion to be ready for the strike on the target house later on.
***
Monday, February 22, 2077:
Just after one in the morning, the strike Team heads out and to assault the house of the suspected human traffickers. If any in that neighborhood see them, no one calls the police. These aren’t the people who really trust local law enforcement anyway. As the Team gets into position Suzy and Zdravko loop the cameras so they won’t record the attack. With everything ready, 8-Ball calls the order of fire to take down the outside guards. Both guards drop and the Team rushes up to the door. Suzy is at the ready with her silenced Militech Cyborg Rifle and Zdravko is watching the first floor inside. No one in there has noticed their approach.
The Team sweeps in and 8-Ball and Cossack take down the five people on the first floor. Unfortunately, Cossack fires across Viper’s planned line of advance and the Special Forces operator takes a paintball hit. This slows him down a bit, but he makes his save and moves upstairs. Viper and J.J. Hunter get to the second floor quickly and Viper drops the two men upstairs quickly. J.J. drags the fallen upstairs outside porch guard inside quickly. Downstairs Cossack and 8-Ball zip tie the sleeping people and take their phones. Rue and Jethro Wells get the outside downstairs sleeping armed guard inside quickly and move to what might be a door downstairs.
Upstairs, J.J. and Viper start to clear the two other rooms. In the first is a naked man having his way with a young woman. He is shot with a sleep paintball and goes right down. They don’t shoot the young woman who is clearly terrified. In the next room are two other naked men. One is about to mount another young woman while the other holds her down. They are both hit with paintballs, but only one goes down. The man still on his feet runs and jumps through the closed window. The glass shatters as he sails through it. Back at the church both Suzy and Zdravko see a naked man come flying out the second floor. Suzy holds her fire. So far no one has died and she would like to keep it that way. Viper and J.J. start to secure the downed men on the second floor. The two naked young women really don’t know what is happening, so they take this time to jump from their respective second floor windows into the canal to the curiosity of Suzy and Zdravko.
Jethro Wells opens the door to the basement and is shot by a man with a pistol at the bottom of the stairs. Jethro returns fire and his paintballs take the man down. 8-Ball realizes that some of the men on the first floor have taken multiple sleep rounds and may be in danger of dying (true). He tells Rue to see to them and joins Jethro in sweeping the basement. They find four cells with five young women. Two have been beaten and another is dead. One of the beaten women is Marilyn, Viper’s sister. 8-Ball notifies Viper upstairs with a clever improvised code. The man comes down to tend to his sister.
The Team quickly secures their prisoners and strips them of their phones. The batteries are taken out and the place searched for the surveillance computer control. Cossack finds it and wisely checks it for a booby trap. He finds it is rigged with a pressure plate. He makes a superb demolitions roll and secures the prized laptop. The Team is almost ready for ex-fill and informs Suzy of what they have secured. She asks if they have pictures of the men and have secured any identification they have on them. The Team tosses the bodies for their IDs and makes a discovery that five of the men, the outside guards and one of the others on each floor is a New Orleans Policeman!
This changes the whole situation. Informing the local authorities is now out of the question as who knows how far this corruption goes. Suzy tells everyone to keep the IDs and begin the ex-fil. The women they have rescued are given the choice to come with or make their own way. All choose to go with the Team. The ex-fil goes smoothly. They pick up Suzy and Zdravko and return to Antoine’s. Paulie makes sure they are not followed by flying the Oracle to scout the route.
On return to the barge Nancy Chang is informed of this turn of events. This corrupt cabal of crooked cops was running a brothel for Mardi Gras using young female tourists. Any investigation of the women’s disappearance could be squashed by them. The Team is sure they got away clean, but eventually the police might figure out who did it. After all Viper did report his sister’s disappearance and she was one of the women rescued. The Chrome Berets are NOT popular with New Orleans law enforcement and feel it is time to take the USS Brooklyn back to Pensacola. Kessie Ado and Donny Clark are scheduled to take a flight to visit Havana, Cuba in the early morning to visit Kessie’s aunt and uncle. They offer to remain behind on the barge to give the impression that the band and Team are still there and leave a few hours later on their scheduled flight. This is dangerous, but if they don’t stick to their plan it may look suspicious.
The rest of the band, the Team and the rescued women along with Viper flees with the Chrome Berets on their trawler. Nancy sells the zeppelin tickets on line once they clear the mouth of the Mississippi River and enter the Gulf of Mexico. Suzy sets up her satellite uplink and transfers all the recorded video and audio to B&B Technologies for Samantha and her friends to assemble as evidence.
The USS Brooklyn is a slow vessel so they won’t get to Pensacola until tomorrow morning. Everyone pulls the batteries from any registered phone they have. Once in the Gulf, the Chrome Berets remount their heavy weapons and keep watch on their radar for pursuit, but there is none. During the day Viper and Suzy spend hours talking privately up on the bow of the USS Brooklyn.
As evening comes on Suzy activates her satellite uplink again to search for a news report. There is no mention of anything about New Orleans except standard fluff pieces about how well Mardi Gras is going. However, on the national and international level:
NEWS Items: 1) President Elizabeth Kress is released from the Bethesda Naval Hospital with a clean bill of health and resumes her duties as President. 2) Haiti’s current president, Claude Moreau, survives an assassination attempt, but is gravely wounded. From his hospital bed, he announces he is running for re-election.
That evening it is decided that J.J. Hunter will contact the U.S. Marshal’s office in Pensacola when they reach port. Since three of the young women are not from Louisiana this could be considered a Federal matter. There is no way the Team can pretend this never happened. Their only possible salvation is Federal involvement. Suzy will also work some of her contacts when they reach Florida.
***
Tuesday, February 23, 2077:
It is now Fat Tuesday
The Chrome Berets’ boat arrives in Pensacola around 7 to 8 am. The Team finds out that their vehicle convoy was detained for an unusually long time by the Alabama State Patrol, but did arrive eventually and is still at the Chrome Berets headquarters. The Team hires a lawyer recommended by the Chrome Berets and he, J.J. Hunter along with the kidnapped young women go to the U.S. Marshals office in Pensacola.
8-Ball is suspicious of why the convoy was so delayed by the Alabama State Patrol and makes an electronic sweep of the vehicles. Nothing is detected, but Suzy isn’t satisfied and a full physical examination of the convoy is undertaken. Cossack discovers trackers on every vehicle that can be activated by remote radio signal. Also, 8-Ball notices that the seals on all their equipment have been tampered with. An examination of all their guns and EMA-1 armor uncovers that all the gear and weapons have been sabotaged. The batteries powering the armor and all their onboard electronics don’t work. None of their weapons will fire. The Chrome Berets chief weapons tech discovers that all the firing pins have been reset so the weapons won’t fire. This is something he and his assistants can fix quickly and they get down to it.
When Nancy Chang finds out about this, she reveals that the tractor trailer is equipped with a hidden motion activated camera as an anti-theft device. She shows the Team where it is and the NET Runners download the cache. It shows the Alabama State Patrol removing the sealed cases carrying their weapons and armor and eventually replacing them back inside. Also, although they can’t see what it is exactly, they also bring something else in. Suzy immediately asks Cossack to start searching the vehicles again and pull of any bolted panels in the vehicles. He does with the help of some Chrome Berets mechanics. Every vehicle has a package with what looks like some kind of drug. Suzy recognizes it as Black Lace, possession of which is a Type A Trafficking Offense carrying 15 to 20 years in a high security prison and braindance. Anyone caught with it is denied a lawyer or any real trial.
While the Team ponders what to do about this, Suzy asks if the Chrome Berets can get them some body armor. Yes, they can, but it will cost money. Suzy produces another one of her WORM cards to pay for it. While the weapons are being fixed and armor bought, they again catch a news broadcast.
NEWS Item: Governor Braxton Lowndes of Alabama continues his public tirades against the Cyber Revolutionaries and the Team even suggesting that they were the smugglers that brought the Black Lace into New Orleans.
The Alabama governors plot becomes clear. He probably intends to have his State Patrol stop their convoy in the Florida Panhandle and arrest them with his planted drug evidence. This might be his plan, but there is no way to prove it. Suzy is enraged.
Meanwhile J.J. Hunter returns from the U.S. Marshals office. The Marshals believe her and the evidence they presented. They will undertake an official investigation of the New Orleans Police run human trafficking ring and keep the Team’s names out of it, for now. With this fresh evidence of an attempted frame up and the Governor’s accusation of drug smuggling, they turn over the Black Lace to the Marshals. There isn’t enough here to arrest a sitting governor, but it is a start.
Suzy decides that this is war! She wants to leave tomorrow for Miami. She will rig the trackers to let the Team know when they are activated. The Alabama State Patrol will not know that the weapons have been repaired and the Team will have (mostly) National Guard armor with inserts. She has the Chrome Berets secure an RPG-A with a few extra rounds. This she gives to Rusty who is a former Army heavy weapons specialist. Zdravko has a Barrett M-90 sniper rifle, but no scope. She gives him hers off her Militech Cyborg Rifle. She will fire her weapon with its ‘iron sights’. Mitzi is contacted and she will send replacement EMA-1 armor and a few item of Suzy’s. Also, she will try to send another solo to back up the Team. All of this will arrive in Miami in two days.
The Team will drive to Miami tomorrow for their show at the Club Del Sol on Thursday. If Braxton Lowndes wants a fight, he will get one!
***
Wednesday, February 24, 2077:
The Team says goodbye and thank you to the Chrome Berets, Viper and his sister. Suzy makes a gift of all the paintball rifles and Budget Arms pistols to the gang. Paulie will fly the Oracle to watch the road ahead. If the Alabama State Patrol is spotted, they will immediately pull over. Skip, Nancy and the band will hide in any cover they can find on the south side of the road. Suzy will set up across the road with Rusty and the RPG-A. The Team will take cover behind the vehicles out of sight. That is all except for J.J. Hunter, who has secured a set of heavy U.S. Marshal’s armor. If the Alabama State Patrol tries to arrest them, J.J. will identify herself and claim authority here. The Alabama State Patrol has NO legal arrest authority in Florida. This has never stopped them before, but they have also never been confronted by a U.S. Marshal who does. Suzy hopes the Alabama cops will back down, but if they don’t, the Team will fight.
About 45 minutes after the convoy heads out, they hear a news broadcast:
NEWS Item: Early in the morning the airship they were supposed to on going to Miami is hijacked by Ricardo Vincent and his followers. It is now being flown towards Haiti. The Team dodged a bullet with this one.
The tour vehicles are approaching the roads that lead north to Dothan, Alabama and the trackers in their vehicles activate. Everyone prepares. As the convoy approaches the interchange of Route 231 and Interstate 10 just south of Dothan, the new capital of Alabama, Paulie spies 4 Alabama State Patrol Cars and a Police BMW 2075 truck mounting a minigun in a small turret turning on to the Interstate and heading in their direction. Suzy orders the column to stop and deploy as planned. Off the road to the south there is a stand of Oak trees with lots of underbrush, followed by an orange orchard further down the road. On the north side of the road there are mixed trees with a number of tall oaks. Some low magnolia trees line both sides of the road.
Cossack takes position hiding behind the wheel and engine block of the Ford Mazda Thunderbird IV. J.J. Hunter takes her place by that car in full U.S. Marshal’s armor and waits. Usman sets up behind the front wheel of his truck with his M-1 Grand. Rue is in a similar place behind the inside front wheel of the bus. 8-Ball remains in the back of the Armadillo with Paulie inside. Rusty and Suzy sprint across the road, She has her Militech Cyborg Rifle and Rusty has his H&K MPK-11 and the PRG-A. Rusty hides in some brush and Suzy climbs a tall oak to get a good field of fire. Zdravko climbs a tall Oak on the south side of the road and readies his Barret M-90. Skip, Nancy and the band hide back in the bushes on the south side of the road and find cover in case the bullets start to fly. Paulie brings the Oracle to hover over the column and points its microphone at J.J. Hunter.
The Alabama State Patrol vehicles come to a halt in the west bound lane with two patrol cars first, the BMW 2075 in the middle followed by the remaining two patrol cars. The rear patrol car jumps the median and makes an attempt to cut off any movement forward by the tour’s column. Ten Alabama State Patrolmen dressed in their patrol armor with inserts and helmets deploy around their patrol cars. Six Alabama SWAT troops in full riot gear come out of the BMW. Four SWAT officers remain around their vehicle using it for partial cover. The minigun swings towards the Team’s vehicles. The renaming two SWAT troopers step forward toward J.J. Hunter.
J.J. identifies herself as a U.S. Marshal then tells the Alabama State Patrol that they have no authority here and to stand down. At a nod from one of the forward Alabama SWAT troopers the other fires his S&W Cyborg Assault Rifle at Marshal J.J. Hunter. The shot hits her leg and blows her right down. Suzy says to Rusty over the comm, “Fire.”
The RPG-A steaks out from the north side of the road towards the minigun armed police vehicle and hits the gas tank with a catastrophic hit. The BMW 2075 explodes in a fireball! The four men using it for partial cover are blown back a couple of feet and stunned a bit. The driver and gunner suffer a gruesome and fiery death. Suzy puts two .300 WIN Mag rounds in the head of the trooper who gave the signal to fire. The second round kills him. At that point all hell breaks out as everyone starts to fire. Two patrol officers turn to deal with Rusty and fire wildly into the bushes where the smoke trail originates. The SWAT troopers who were thrown by the exploding BMW 2075 will take a couple of rounds to get to their feet. The Team fires from their cover and score some hits, but the cops’ heavy armor turns a lot of the damage of their 6.5 hybrid rounds. Rue, however is using a FN-RAL which is more effective. Most of the police fire is directed south so Suzy waits till the end of each round and only fires on those coming after Rusty at first. She uses her expert sniper skills to call head shots and starts dropping any who are facing in her or Rusty’s direction.
With J.J. down for now, Cossack is outnumbered but holds off the advancing three cops from the car near him. He keeps the body of the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV between him and most of the Alabama police. At the other end of the line 8-Ball uses his cover expertly and thins out the cops facing him. Paulie fires from inside the Armadillo and gives a good accounting of himself. Zdravko fires his M-90 and the first shot just hits an empty space in a police car. His second shot blows a patrol officer straight to hell. Suzy takes down the two hunting Rusty quickly. The four SWAT troopers are getting up from around the burning truck. Anyone of them turning to look north gets a .300 WIN Mag to the head. Rusty reloads his RPG-A and sends another SWAT officer to see Jesus. Usman gets in a firefight with the SWAT officer wielding the S&W Cyborg Assault. His 30/30 rounds aren’t too effective. The Universal Records driver catches a 13mm shot in the head and is killed instantly.
By now the Team has killed or crippled most of the police. Cossack is trapped but Suzy and Rusty have taken care of the cops advancing on him. 8-Ball has turned the Alabama police’s flank and is rolling them up with Rue’s and Zdravko’s help. While Cossack is reloading, the last two Alabama cops jump in their vehicle and try to drive away. Both Suzy and Zdravko have shots, but neither one fires. Mercy stays their hands.
The firing stops with five of the six SWAT Team dead along with their driver and gunner in the burning BMW 2075. Five of the ten patrol officers are dead with two escaping, but both are wounded. Three Alabama State Patrol members and one SWAT officer are left wounded on the field. They are disarmed. Both 8-Ball and Rue see to their wounds and stabilize them. Usman is dead and everyone in the band and most on the Team are in tears, They have known him for almost five years and he has been on every tour with the Cyber Revolutionaries. There is little time to morn because they are still near Dothan and the Alabama line. All of the tour vehicles are still drivable. The Team takes and destroys the police radios and phones, but leave the wounded officers with water, food and some medicine. 8-Ball is licensed and skilled enough to drive the big rig, so he gets behind the wheel there. Paulie makes sure the drone records the four wounded Alabama police officers receiving medical attention and being left alive. The convoy drives right past Tallahassee and heads straight for Miami.
Just south of Orlando the Team catches another news report.
NEWS Item: The Army Airforce attempts to intercept the hijacked zeppelin. Ricardo Vincent starts throwing passengers out of the airship into the sea, one by one until the U.S. planes back off.
The tour arrives in Miami and contacts Mitzi. She confirms a plane will be arriving tomorrow with fresh armor and equipment. They are to send the damaged gear back. Also, Whyte Hat will be sending another solo to reinforce the Team. Universal Records is getting a local attorney in case legal problems arise. Suzy tells everyone that NO ONE is to speak to the press without her specific approval. Any conversations with law enforcement are to be done in the presence of their new attorney.
Late NEWS Item: Governor Braxton Lowndes calls for the arrest of the Cyber Revolutionaries and their whole security team for shooting up his State Police officers. Florida officials promise to investigate, but they have been a little busy dealing with the hijacked zeppelin and a multitude of dead passengers.
Next: Episode 74 – Showdown in the South
-
Episode 72 – Welcome to the Big Easy
A new member joins the Team before they leave Memphis. On the trip across Mississippi, which is escorted by the Mississippi Highway Patrol, they are treated like some sort of “cultural plague”. However, it is Mardi Gras time in New Orleans and the usual repressive authorities there stand down to allow the population and out of state guests to cut loose. The Cyber Revolutionaries are there for a three day gig at Antoine’s probably the only Cyberpunk club in the state. The band plans to do some partying themselves.
Trouble follows the Team as Cossack’s reputation attracts people with revenge on their mind against the Ukrainian. Also, a man from Suzy’s mysterious past comes to her asking for the young woman’s help. The whole Team rallies to assist.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who the members who thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat. In reality, they discovered she was up and coming Drug Lord (or Lady?) connected with South American Alliance. In the end, they learned that she was actually cooperating with the C.I.A. to kill other Drug Lords who she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but it cost her to lose her life in the process.
On return to the United States, Mitzi reorganized the Team under the name Whyte Hat, which was the company founded years ago by the fixer’s first team. Whyte Hat has flourished and is now a regional security / paramilitary company with offices in Night City and Wells, Nevada.
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Covert Op 5 (Solo 5]: He is a former member of the Seattle Chapter of the Chrome Berets, a gang of military posers that practice urban combat tactics often with paintball guns and hired themselves out as “ringers” to corporate paint ball teams. He left his gang on good terms and is seeking to become a serious solo like his hero, the late Morgan Blackhand. His first experience in Night City made him an ‘honorary’ member of that gang’s local chapter and earned the deep friendship of all of its members. He also acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran and they are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 7]: He was a Ukrainian smuggler who made himself a pain in the ass to Interpol which pursued him relentlessly for the past several years. He lost a cargo belonging to a powerful Ukrainian mobster, Vyacheslav Morozov, who wished to take the loss of his goods out of Cossack’s hide, but his now deceased boss, Martina, assassinated the mob boss instead. His secret work in Colombia has led to the U.S. government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu.
J.J. Hunter [Authority 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Jayleen Blackhawk Hunter is the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Choctaw mother. Both parents were college professors, but J.J.’s interests lay elsewhere. After a brief stint in the Army, she joined the U.S. Marshal’s Service which eventually led her to work with Whyte Hat in their mission to re-open Interstate 80 through the Nevada Outback. When the Marshal’s service loosened its ties with Whyte Hat she accepted Mitzi’s offer to head up that company’s new but small Corporate Police Force.
Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Rue Perla [Medtech 9]: This former Army medic came to Night City to visit her friend 8-Ball from Seattle and hooked up with the Team when it was working for Martina Vargas. She survived that dangerous mission and was rewarded with a chance to get her medical degree, which she has done. The young woman continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Nevada State Guard. The new doctor signed up with Mitzi’s Whyte Hat and along with Dr. Jamal Hemings, helped found a small hospital in Wells, Nevada. She is also a veteran of the 2072 Christmas Tour.
Zdravko Milinkovic [Interface 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: This man is a refugee from Serbia and the ongoing brush fire wars in that region. He is a combat veteran of a now destroyed and scattered Serbian militia, who has now become a NET Runner with a specialization in drone warfare and combat. He is a new hire for Whyte Hat.
The NPCs
Clark Winters (Viper😞 An old friend and associate of Suzy Barnes; they won’t say how they know each other, but Clark sports a tattoo popular with American Special Forces in South America.
Jethro Wells: The president of the Pensacola Chapter of the Chrome Berets.
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour:
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 7]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker replacing Loco Skysinger as the lead vocalist of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Cassie Banes [Techie 4]: She is the bassist for the band who grew up in the 88th Street neighborhood of Nigh City. Her brother Tom Banes was an original member of Mitzi’s first team that was destroyed by Marco Baronti.
Donny Clark [Vehicle Zen 4]: The man’s true passion is music, but he is still a (more than) competent driver. Another original member of the band and denizen of the 88th Street combat zone area in Night City, he is currently the only male member of the band.
Kessie Ado [Scrounge 4]: The daughter of Nigerian immigrants ended up as a scavenger around the 88th Street Neighborhood. She fell in with Mitzi, Suzy and Cassie which led her to the rest of the band.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 6 (NET Tech 4 / Interface 3)]: She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and ended up working as an underage stripper in a sleazy combat zone club. The late Night City mob boss, Marco Baronti, put a bounty on her head after she had witnessed some serious criminal activity by the man. LEDiv scooped her up, faked her death hid her in Federal Witness Protection. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy. She has embarked on a new career as an actress, model and musician with her old friends the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Nancy Chang [Fixer 6]: Nancy is Universal Records president, Jack Masters, right hand woman. She is assigned to handle the most bands and tours for her boss. She is well known to the Cyber Revolutionaries since she was in charge of the 2072 Christmas Tour with two other bands. She is a genius for generating publicity for the bands under her win.
Rusty Walker [Jury Rig 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Rusty is a U.S. Army veteran turned techie who has become one of the rising sound engineers in the music business. He also was with the Cyber Revolutionaries on the 2072 Tour and the Battle for Rachel against the Desert Devils. The man served as Cossack’s machine gunner as the two tore through and disrupted two of the attacking Raffin Shiv. The pairs actions were videoed live across the country.
Skip Hansen [Vehicle Zen 4]: Skip is a new hire by Universal Records whose job it will be to drive the Armadillo RV carrying the Paulie while he runs the drones to cover them while on the highway. 8-Ball and Rue will also ride in this vehicle. His young man joins the Team in Newark when they leave Manhattan.
Usman Katusi [Vehicle Zen 5]: This man is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably close to thirty. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment. He was with the band on their 2072 tour that ended up in the Battle for Rachel, NV.
The Action
Tuesday, February 16, 2077:
Before the tour leaves Memphis for trip across Mississippi to New Orleans, Cossack heads to the local airport to pick up a new Whyte Hat operative for the tour. His name is Zdravko Milinkovic, a refugee from Serbia and the ongoing brush fire wars in that region. He is a combat veteran of a now destroyed and scattered Serbian militia, who has now become a NET Runner with a specialization in drone warfare and combat. Whyte Hat has become a leader in corporate drone use and that company’s relationship with the B&B Technologies drone program led him to seek out employment with Whyte Hat. Although he hasn’t completely finished his Whyte Hat corporate training, his skills make him the perfect choice for this assignment. The Team needs a person to assist Paulie who couldn’t be expected to be on drone duty all the time and also filled the need for an experienced combat soldier. Zdravko is assigned to ride in the Armadillo.
The tour convoy stops at the Mississippi - Tennessee line where they are to pick up a Mississippi Highway Patrol escort that has been paid to get them to Louisiana. All of the Team’s heavy armor and weapons must be locked up and remain under seal in tractor trailer, while the group are in Mississippi, Louisiana and traveling through Alabama due to those rigid state laws regarding weapons and armor possession. Only Florida and Georgia have decided to honor Whyte Hat’s Federal permits. Again, J.J. Hunter is allowed to keep her Marshal’s sidearm. These restrictions shouldn’t put them too much at risk, since all citizens of these states in Dixie are similarly barred from weapons possession.
Their Mississippi Highway Patrol escort is grim, but professional. However, they treat the band and their entourage like some sort of “cultural plague”. If it wasn’t for their Mardi Gras gig, they wouldn’t even be allowed in the State of Louisiana. The Tour arrives in the area of New Orleans, but the vehicles remain outside of city. The whole group and their musical gear are transported by boat to Antoine’s in New Orleans, the Big Easy. The band is given an old barge to live on which is tied up on the big wharf at Antoine’s. The barge has 8 single state rooms (4 to a side) and two doubles (one fore and another aft). That evening they arrive at Antoine’s.
As they are moving into their rooms on the barge the Team catch a news broadcast playing on the big video screen in the living room:
NEWS Items: 1) Andrè Avoyelle, the ‘Grand Poo Bah’ (governor) of Louisiana declares that the Mardi Gras shall start tomorrow across the state and law enforcement will stand down for the most part so people can enjoy themselves. He tells his citizens to have fun and try not to kill each other. 2) Governor Braxton Lowndnes of Alabama goes on another televised tirade against the immoral and criminal Cyber Revolutionaries and their brutal thugs who murdered an innocent, unarmed ‘Priscilla’ at their last show in Memphis.
Suzy wants to head to bar once they are settled on barge. 8-Ball, Cossack, Zdravko, J.J., Cassie and Celestine go with her. Quite a number of people recognize many in the group. One of locals asks Suzy to dance. She, of course, accepts and the two hit the floor. Unfortunately, the man botches his dance roll, falls hurting himself and passes out cold. Two of that man’s women friends get in Suzy’s face and demand to what she did to their friend. Suzy responds with, “Nothing, he’s a clumsy oaf and fuck off!”
One of the woman tries to slap Suzy who just dodges her. 8-Ball and J.J. come forward along with a few local men. J.J. whips out her badge and uses her Authority to calm the situation, but botches her roll, badly. Nobody listens to her. The cyborg on duty then walks into the room. 8-Ball and Zdravko step between Suzy and the screaming fallen local’s girlfriend. The young man wakes up and assures his female friends that it was he that tripped himself. Cossack offers to buy everyone a drink and the offer is readily accepted. The Ukrainian suggest that 8-Ball dance with Suzy. The cyborg finally speaks and tells the band, “Music!”
Both 8-Ball and Suzy unleash Dance rolls in the mid-twenties. Drinks come out for everyone and all is well. J.J. searches out a dance partner, and the evening continues.
About an hour later a well dressed man enters the bar carrying a brightly wrapped present with a bow. Zdravko notice the man has skinweave and a handgun under his coat. He tells this to Cossack. 8-Ball moves to intercept the man with the box since he is heading towards Suzy. The bodyguard asks him, “Are you looking for someone in particular, sir?”
The man responds, “What I am here for is none of your business and I would step out of my way, right now.”
8-Ball refuses and the Team moves to back up their Team leader. Cossack calls out, “The guy has a gun!”
This brings the club’s security cyborg back in the room who challenges the box wielding newcomer. This man hands the cyborg a card or something after which the cyborg tells the Team to stand down. 8-Ball refuses and the cyborg makes it clear that he is in charge here and walks the well dressed interloper up to Suzy’s table. The man places the box on the table. There is a small envelope with the box which Suzy opens and reads the note. A small smile crosses her face and she thanks the man, who turns around and leaves escorted by the cyborg.
8-Ball walks up to Suzy and asks, “Anything we should know about?”
The young woman answers breezily, “Nope, just a gift from a friend.”
Clearly Suzy isn’t going to talk about this further. She waits a few minutes and then takes her present in arm and heads back to the boat. The band comes back out and the music begins again. J.J. Hunter asks Zdravko to dance. He agrees but tells her he isn’t very good at it. Well, neither is J.J., but both acquit themselves well. Cossack and Celestine go talk to the guy, who fell while trying to dance with Suzy and his two female friends. There are no hard feelings and the man introduces himself as Tom O’Reilly.
The evening ends with everyone having a good time. On the way back to the boat, Cossack suggests that they request another driver, maybe Jesse Wayne. They call Wells, NV and leave a message for Mitzi.
***
Wednesday, February 17, 2077:
Mardi Gras begins.
Suzy has arranged for a water taxi and heads into the business district in the morning along with Rue, Kessie, Donny, Celestine and Cassie to do some shopping and sightseeing. 8-Ball, Cossack and Zdravko go along as security. Suzy stops at bank to get cash and two more WORM Cards, and then, with Rue, goes to medical supply store for 2 more stims. After that, the four young women and Donny head to a couple of stores to pick up some costumes and materials for Mardi Gras. This will include a more colorful cloth and masks as they will customize their new purchases. The group get noticed and signs a few autographs before heading back to the wharf at Antoine’s. 8-Ball and Zdravko head out to an armor repair shop to get 8-Ball’s Memphis Belle jacket repaired. It will be ready by next Friday. The women go below and start working on their Mardi Gras costumes.
While the two are gone, a large trawler with empty heavy weapons mounts (owned by Chrome Berets of Pensacola) ties up at Antoine’s for Mardi Gras. Its name is the USS Brooklyn, flagship of Admiral Winfield S. Schley, commander of the US Navy’s ‘Flying Squadron’ at the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba. Cossack recognizes gang symbols of the Chrome Berets. He meets Jethro Wells, the president of the Pensacola Chapter of the Chrome Berets.
When 8-Ball and Zdravko return, Cossack tells them that the Pensacola Chrome Berets have arrived and gone in the bar at Antoine’s. 8-Ball, Zdravko and J.J. head into the bar. When they are inside, the water taxi shows up and the band piles into the boat. Celestine calls out Cossack, “You coming?”
The group attends the first parade in the afternoon: The Rex; One of the oldest parades where the official “King” of the Mardi Gras parades through. Young party goers recognize the band and come up to the band and ask for autographs and pictures. The krewe sponsoring this parade throws Golden (plastic) Doubloons to certain members of the crowd from their float/boats. Suzy flashes her breasts to the passing boats and the people on the floats toss her some of these “doubloons”. The other young women in the band follow suit and they are all showered with these golden plastic throws.
Back at Antoine’s the Team members get to know the Pensacola Chrome Berets. While there they all get to see the news on a video broadcast:
NEWS Items: 1) The Haitian National Assembly votes a motion of ‘no confidence’ against the current President, Claude Moreau, setting the stage for a new presidential election. 2) Pirates in the southern Caribbean are suspected of seizing a yacht and slaughtering the wealth British family aboard.
That evening the band works on finishing their Mardi Gras costumes and goes to bed. During Cossack’s late night watch, he hears a small splash in the water by the side of the barge. He finds there is nothing there, but he remains on alert.
***
Thursday, February 18, 2077:
The band attends the second parade in the afternoon: The Thoth; An Egyptian themed parade. Besides the band, which is now in full costumes with masks, there are only three open seats in the water taxi. 8-Ball, Cossack and J.J. Hunter go. Paulie and Zdravko follow them with a drone. Well, the band isn’t get recognized, but Cossack is. The crowd the realize that these costumed women (and one man) are the Cyber Revolutionaries. The crowd is a bit ruder than yesterday and one puts his hand on Kessie Ado’s breast. Donny defends his girlfriend with a punch. It looks like a fight may break out, but J.J. steps forward, pulls out her badge. The crowd backs off, but showers the security people with half full cups of alcohol and other liquids. Cossack gets hit with a cup of pee. It was aimed at J.J. Hunter, missed her and hit Cossack.
While getting ready for tonight’s show a news broadcast comes on:
NEWS Items: 1) A Peruvian businessman, Hector Mamani, and his six bodyguards were slaughtered in their supposedly highly secured villa in New Orleans. Police announce they have no suspects. 2) Arasaka announces a joint venture with B&B Technologies to build a high tech police security (surveillance) system for the capital city of the Sultanate of Riau located between Malaysia and Indonesia. It is similar to the one just built for the Morrison Square neighborhood in Night City. The team met the crown prince of that country a few months back in LA with Jack Entropy.
On hearing this, J.J. suggests daily sweeps of the barge for bugs; nothing is found.
Tonight, is the 1st Show at Antoine’s; The place is packed and the crowd is very positive. A team from NET 54 news is there and briefly interviews the band during one of their breaks. However, it isn’t a very good show. Celestine chokes her Charismatic Leadership rolls and Suzy stumbles during her dance routine. Celestine takes it out a bit on Zdravko and yells at him for standing right in front of her while she is performing.
After the show, Cossack and Zdravko see a man will walking down the dock to the barge. The stranger stops at the gangplank and asks, “Is Suki here?”
Cossack notices the man is sporting an American Special Forces tattoo and asks, “Who are you?”
The man says, “Tell her Viper is here to see her.”
Cossack radios 8-Ball who tells Suzy and she comes up and deck. The young woman bounds down gangway and the two greet each other warmly before heading down the dock away to talk privately. After a few minutes the two come back and want to meet with 8-Ball and Cossack in Cossack and Celestine’s expansive bedroom. Suzy introduces Viper by his proper name, Clark Winters and identifies him as an old friend and associate. Cossack knows since Clark initially referred to her as Suki, he must have known her years ago years. Suki is an old nickname that Suzy doesn’t use any more. Clark explains that his sister, Marilyn, disappeared last Tuesday in New Orleans and he fears the worst. All he has is a grainy picture of some people (in costume) that she was seen with last. Can she help find her? He has asked the New Orleans Police for help. They took a report, but didn’t seem interested in expending any energy on looking for a missing girl during Mardi Gras. Suzy tells the Team she is going to help Viper find his sister. This isn’t part of their duty with Whyte Hat to help, so she isn’t going to order anyone to help. Regardless, everyone signs on to help. Clark gives the Team all the information he has before they exchange phone numbers and he leaves.
***
Friday, February 19, 2077:
Very early in the morning, Suzy, Paulie and Zdravko enter the city’s security camera system and download all the footage they can find from the area around where Marilyn disappeared. Suzy she heads out later in the morning to buy a satellite uplink. She then taps into a network she has access to and the three NET Runners make a run to B&B Technologies HQ to use the large company mainframe where Suzy cleans up the photos. The three then run facial recognition programs looking for similar people with the costumes that are the suspects in Marilyn’s abduction were wearing. This takes most of the day. By evening they narrow the suspected operating areas of the kidnappers down to two areas.
Some of the group attends the third parade in the afternoon: The Zulu; originally created by the city’s African American population, it is a crowd favorite. The throw of this parade are prized hand painted coconuts. This time everyone is masked and costumed so there is no trouble as the group isn’t recognized. Celestine catches one of the coconuts.
Before the show, the Team catches the local news:
NEWS Items: 1) A fight broke out between what police suspect was two rival groups after the Zulu parade, which resulted in seven deaths; five of victims were shot by local police, when the brawling young men threw a bottle at the responding officers. 2) The local NET 54 affiliate runs a complimentary ‘puff piece’ on the band stressing they have two more shows at Antoine’s. They end by questioning why DMS hasn’t gotten to the bottom of the extraction attempt of Celestine and Suzy outside that corporations headquarters in Nashville.
[GM Note: As a chief competition to DMS, NET 54 can’t help throwing a little shade on their corporate rival!]
This evening is the Team’s 2nd Show at Antoine’s; during the show a group of costumed and face painted revelers walk in and take a seats. Cossack recognizes the regalia of voodoo followers. Furthermore, he recognizes the leader as a Haitian Bokor (evil magician). Cossack heads over to speak with Tom O’Reilly. The Ukrainian seems have attracted the attention of the Bokor and his followers. Tom identifies the head of this group as Ricardo Vincent, an infamous Haitian Voodoo leader. Cossack goes up to the bar and sends five shots of fine rum to Ricardo Vincent and his followers. When the Bokor finds out who sent the drinks, he looks to Cossack who offers him a toast from across the room. Ricardo Vincent and his people pour their drinks on the floor with distain. The waiter comes up and tells Cossack that Ricardo Vincent wishes to talk to him.
Cossack and some of the Team face off against the Haitians. The security cyborg has now entered the room and is watching the scene unfold. The Bokor is upset that the Ukrainian has shown so much disrespect to the Loa. Vincent puts his hands to his own head and tells Cossack he has had a vision that Cossack will give him his prized feather in five days and beg for Ricardo’s forgiveness.
The two verbally spar over the will of the Loa. Four of the Pensacola Chrome Berets now come forward to stand with Cossack and the Team. The cyborg now steps up and tells Ricardo, “Perhaps it would be better if you found someplace else to drink tonight.”
The Bokor agrees and the Haitians start to leave. As Ricardo Vincent walks by Cossack he says, “Perhaps, after you humble yourself before me, I’ll let your woman Celestine pleasure me.”
8-Ball talks with the cyborg to get any information about the Haitians, but the man doesn’t really know anything about them. The Cyber Revolutionaries retake the stage and people begin to dance again. Ten minutes later another Chrome Beret comes in and signals for the others to come outside. A little over a half an hour later the Chrome Berets reenter and go sit in the corner. They are very angry. 8-Ball goes over to see what the problem is One of the Chrome Berets has been decapitated by a Haitian. The Chrome Beret drew his gun first according to witnesses who saw this. Actually, this started as a friendly encounter as the outside ganger, who was unaware of the inside confrontation, was just responding to a friendly request to see his weapon. However, the witnesses were unaware of the “request”, so there was nothing the police could do, or want to do about this.
***
Saturday, February 20, 2077:
Early in the morning, Zdravko and 8-Ball are on deck when Suzy comes up in costume and jumps on the water taxi she has summoned. She tells the two, “I’ll be back later.”
8-Ball has long given up trying to control the movements of that young woman. Two hours later she returns and calls a meeting below. The NET Runners have narrowed down two possible areas where the suspected kidnappers might be operating. Suzy will want two teams of two to check out both areas. 8-Ball and Paulie form one group and Cossack and Zdravko form the other. Suzy gives each pair a map of the area they are supposed to cover. The two search groups borrow masks and some costume bits from the band. It is decided that the band will not risk attending today’s afternoon parade: The Tucks, which is named after a bar “Friar Tuck’s”. It was originally created by Loyola students and its throw is painted glittered toilet brushes.
When checking out their area, 8-Ball and Paulie run into some of Ricardo Vincent’s people. The two Team members are wearing masks so the Haitians don’t recognize them. They let the Haitians pass and continue on their search.
The other pair, Cossack and Zdravko, see two possible suspects half carry a drunk/drugged girl down a walkway over the flooded city towards one of the shadier neighborhoods. Cossack falls back out of sight to contact 8-Ball while Zdravko attempts to follow them. The Serbian botches his Hide/Evade roll and he is immediately noticed. One of the two possible kidnappers reaches under his coat and waits. Zdravko turns down another walkway to throw off the man’s suspicion. Cossack comes down the walkway, but doesn’t arouse this man’s suspicion. Cossack is able to follow the two men and girl to a two story house with armed guards outside. He notifies Suzy, who tells both surveillance groups to return to Antoine’s. They both get back very late in the afternoon or early evening.
Clark (Viper) is there and wants to move on the house. The Team will need guns. Viper says he can get those, but it will cost money. Suzy says not to worry, she will cover it. Viper is also asked to find out what he can about Ricardo Vincent and his followers; he will look into that. Both 8-Ball and Suzy agree they need more intel on the house and the area. They will discuss plans further after the show tonight. For now, Zdravko will fly the Oracle drone to the area of the house and record the comings and goings at a distance with the drone’s telephoto lens.
While getting ready for tonight’s show, some on the Team catch a news report.
NEWS Items: 1) It is reported the aged U.S. President Elizabeth Kress is taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital after suffering from chest pains and passing out. Vice President Samuel Ortega assumes her duties while the president recovers. 2) British SAS troops strike at Mayreau, a small island north of Grenada, and wipe out a den of pirates believed to be responsible for the murder of a British family earlier in the week.
3rd and last Show at Antoine’s start, and the band pulls off one of the best shows of the tour. With yesterday’s confrontation with Ricardo Vincent’s followers, there are two New Orleans Police officers outside the club.
Zdravko watches the suspect house with the Oracle drone and sees almost 30 men come and go that night. After the show, Suzy joins the Serb. She puts a small grip spot on the Oracle where her Grid Bug can nest itself. Zdravko flies the Oracle back and lands quietly on the building’s room unnoticed. Suzy moves her Grid Bug across the roof and finds a place where she can squeeze in through a rotted window sill on the second floor rear. There the bug sees two men sitting at a table by the window, but the bug is noticed. Suzy has her Grid Bug slip out quickly and run for the Oracle, which Zdravko gets away before someone opens a roof hatch and checks the now empty roof.
The drone returns to Antoine’s. The two will try this again on another day to gather more intelligence. For now, the planning begins. Although this was last show the Cyber Revolutionaries and the Team can stay on barge until Fat Tuesday when they depart for Miami.
Next: Episode 72 – Fleeing the Big Easy
-
Episode 71 – From Detroit to Memphis, TN
The Cyber Revolutionaries second show in Detroit goes off well. The tour moves across Ohio and has an almost unfortunate encounter with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The band inadvertently touches of a small riot in Cincinnati, before moving through Kentucky. All goes well till they reach Nashville, Tennessee. While the fans in music city are great, they run into corporate and gang trouble. Their final stop in that state is Memphis, where the band runs afoul of the notorious poser gang, the Elvises.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who the members who thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat. In reality, they discovered she was up and coming Drug Lord (or Lady?) connected with South American Alliance. In the end, they learned that she was actually cooperating with the C.I.A. to kill other Drug Lords who she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but it cost her to lose her life in the process.
On return to the United States, Mitzi reorganized the Team under the name Whyte Hat, which was the company founded years ago by the fixer’s first team. Whyte Hat has flourished and is now a regional security / paramilitary company with offices in Night City and Wells, Nevada.
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Covert Op 5 (Solo 5]: He is a former member of the Seattle Chapter of the Chrome Berets, a gang of military posers that practice urban combat tactics often with paintball guns and hired themselves out as “ringers” to corporate paint ball teams. He left his gang on good terms and is seeking to become a serious solo like his hero, the late Morgan Blackhand. His first experience in Night City made him an ‘honorary’ member of that gang’s local chapter and earned the deep friendship of all of its members. He also acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran and they are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 7]: He was a Ukrainian smuggler who made himself a pain in the ass to Interpol which pursued him relentlessly for the past several years. He lost a cargo belonging to a powerful Ukrainian mobster, Vyacheslav Morozov, who wished to take the loss of his goods out of Cossack’s hide, but his now deceased boss, Martina, assassinated the mob boss instead. His secret work in Colombia has led to the U.S. government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu.
J.J. Hunter [Authority 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Jayleen Blackhawk Hunter is the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Choctaw mother. Both parents were college professors, but J.J.’s interests lay elsewhere. After a brief stint in the Army, she joined the U.S. Marshal’s Service which eventually led her to work with Whyte Hat in their mission to re-open Interstate 80 through the Nevada Outback. When the Marshal’s service loosened its ties with Whyte Hat she accepted Mitzi’s offer to head up that company’s new but small Corporate Police Force.
Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Rue Perla [Medtech 9]: This former Army medic came to Night City to visit her friend 8-Ball from Seattle and hooked up with the Team when it was working for Martina Vargas. She survived that dangerous mission and was rewarded with a chance to get her medical degree, which she has done. The young woman continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Nevada State Guard. The new doctor signed up with Mitzi’s Whyte Hat and along with Dr. Jamal Hemings, helped found a small hospital in Wells, Nevada. She is also a veteran of the 2072 Christmas Tour.
The NPCs
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour:
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker replacing Loco Skysinger as the lead vocalist of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Cassie Banes [Techie 4]: She is the bassist for the band who grew up in the 88th Street neighborhood of Nigh City. Her brother Tom Banes was an original member of Mitzi’s first team that was destroyed by Marco Baronti.
Donny Clark [Vehicle Zen 4]: The man’s true passion is music, but he is still a (more than) competent driver. Another original member of the band and denizen of the 88th Street combat zone area in Night City, he is currently the only male member of the band.
Kessie Ado [Scrounge 4]: The daughter of Nigerian immigrants ended up as a scavenger around the 88th Street Neighborhood. She fell in with Mitzi, Suzy and Cassie which led her to the rest of the band.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 5 (NET Tech 4 / Interface 3)]: She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and ended up working as an underage stripper in a sleazy combat zone club. The late Night City mob boss, Marco Baronti, put a bounty on her head after she had witnessed some serious criminal activity by the man. LEDiv scooped her up, faked her death hid her in Federal Witness Protection. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy. She has embarked on a new career as an actress, model and musician with her old friends the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Nancy Chang [Fixer 6]: Nancy is Universal Records president, Jack Masters, right hand woman. She is assigned to handle the most bands and tours for her boss. She is well known to the Cyber Revolutionaries since she was in charge of the 2072 Christmas Tour with two other bands. She is a genius for generating publicity for the bands under her win.
Rusty Walker [Jury Rig 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Rusty is a U.S. Army veteran turned techie who has become one of the rising sound engineers in the music business. He also was with the Cyber Revolutionaries on the 2072 Tour and the Battle for Rachel against the Desert Devils. The man served as Cossack’s machine gunner as the two tore through and disrupted two of the attacking Raffin Shiv. The pairs actions were videoed live across the country.
Skip Hansen [Vehicle Zen 4]: Skip is a new hire by Universal Records whose job it will be to drive the Armadillo RV carrying the Paulie while he runs the drones to cover them while on the highway. 8-Ball and Rue will also ride in this vehicle. His young man joins the Team in Newark when they leave Manhattan.
Usman Katusi [Vehicle Zen 5]: This man is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably close to thirty. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment. He was with the band on their 2072 tour that ended up in the Battle for Rachel, NV.
The Action
Wednesday, January 27, 2077:
In the morning Suzy asks for an escort as she goes to the local EuroBankOne to get some cash from her account and an addition €10,000 WORM Card. She then goes to a store to buy a Micromanipulator Rig, a Micro Waldo Bracer and an electronics tool kit. 8-Ball deals with the local police and gets permission for the Chrome Berets to officially work security at tonight’s show as added security. Nancy Chang arranges with the car rental company for a replacement for the now destroyed Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV. She also arranges for AV transportation for the band to and from the venue tonight in case the Trash Chippers make another attack on the Team. Cossack’s clothes are picked up from the being repaired.
The 2nd Show in Detroit, MI goes off well. There is no more trouble from the Trash Chippers as all the fight has gone out of them, for now. During the night after the show, Suzy makes a NET run to NYC to talk with the A.I. from NYU about Paulie’s attack on it. For some reason the A.I., whose name is Abraham, is interested in talking with her about the incident.
***
Thursday, January 28, 2077:
The tour makes the drive from Detroit, MI to Columbus, OH without incident. Per previous arrangement the tour bus’s armor and structural damage is brought to a shop to be repaired. It will be ready by Monday when the tour is scheduled to leave the city.
Cossack finds a place to have his recently damaged armored clothes repaired. He will also have them back by Monday. The Ukrainian also buys a new High Fashion, Designer Black Fedora (SP10) to replace the one that was shot to pieces by the Trash Chippers. He has his prized feather taken from the late leader of the Voodoo Boyz, which survived the fire fight, attached to this new hat.
***
Friday, January 29, 2077:
At breakfast the next morning, Suzy sits down next to Paulie and ask him, “So, why did you ‘Pi in the Face’, Abraham?”
“Who is Abraham?” Paulie responds.
“He is the A.I. of the New York University computer,” Suzy answers. “Not a bad sort for an A.I.; fortunately for you, he isn’t vindictive. You’re lucky your Pi in the Face didn’t work. Abraham could have really hurt you, if he felt you were any kind of serious threat. Why did you do it?”
Paulie talks about his philosophy of spreading anarchy in the NET.
Suzy shakes her head and tells him, “The point of being a NET Anarchist is NOT getting caught. Prison is NO fun. I know you did 6 months in a low security a while back; try a stretch in Super Max; it can really fuck with your brain.”
In the afternoon before the show, Suzy goes to private high end Cyber Doc to get her Sythnskin patched that was damaged in the gunfight in Detroit..
The 1st Show in Columbus, Ohio plays to another full house and the band remains in top form. Celestine and the band rock the audience.
***
Saturday, January 30, 2077:
In the morning Suzy puts on a quick disguise and slips out of the hotel to go to a Parts and Programs store to buy two addition speed add-ons (€4,000) along with 6 levels of Data Wall Strength (€6,000) for her Langley Data Stick VII cyberdeck. She also buys another €3,000 of computer parts she needs for a new project. On returning to the hotel, 8-Ball spies her in the lobby and sees through her disguise. He moves to join her in the elevator, but the young woman closes the door before he can enter. Later Suzy pays 8-Ball a visit and tells him that if she is wearing a disguise, she is trying to remain incognito, so don’t act like he knows her! If she wants a bodyguard, she will ask for it. The unfortunate punk in New York City was right, Suzy can be quite the bitch.
The 2nd Show in Columbus, Ohio is another resounding success. The band also hears from Nancy Chang that the sales from their latest recordings are rising on the charts. Their album is now #44 on the nations top 100 and their lead single, Smash for the Smash Club is rising at #17!
***
Sunday, January 31, 2077:
Today is a Rest Day for the tour. Suzy spends time improving the Data Walls and jacks the speed of her cyberdeck during the day. At night, a few of the band members get together for an acoustic jam session in a private hotel function room. It is an informal affair and 8-Ball also pulls out his acoustic guitar and joins in. The alcohol (and other stimulants) flow as the band, tour crew and Team get to relax by themselves for the first time on the tour.
***
Monday, February 1, 2077:
Today the tour drives from Columbus to Cincinnati, Ohio. Paulie alerts the Team that there is a large police roadblock up ahead on the Interstate. These cops look pretty ‘scruffy’, but the convoy stops anyway.
[GM Note: The shabby gear is only because the state is low on money for their gear.]
The police keep each group from the separate vehicles apart and disarm everyone except for J.J. Hunter once she presents her U.S. Marshal’s credentials. These officers are clearly looking for something. If it’s illegal drugs, they will be out of luck as anything the band had was consumed last night. Nothing is found and all the tour’s permits are in order. The situation gets more relaxed and the Team members around the Armadillo notice that members of the band are now all laughing and joking around with the younger cops, taking pictures with them and giving autographs. Suzy has let herself be handcuffed and is posing with some of the police for ‘gag’ photos of them catching “Suki”, her villainous character that has been eluding the U.S. Marshals on the hit show, U.S. Marshals – Night City this season.
It seems they have been “SWATTED” by some unnamed pranksters (or worse). The police apologize for the inconvenience, and promise they will look into who filed this false report about them being drug dealers. Some of these state policemen also request photos with both 8-Ball and Cossack, which both men grant. A possibly dangerous and lethal encounter ends without incident.
The tour arrives at their hotel in Cincinnati by mid-afternoon. Suzy again puts on a quick disguise and slips out to buys some more computer parts for her mysterious side projects. On her return, 8-Ball again recognizes her (just barely this time), but wisely ignores her in the lobby. The solo waits a bit and then goes to talk to Suzy about what she is up to. He is told that whatever it is, it is none of his business. He may be head of security for Whyte Hat, but she is half owner of the company and doesn’t have to answer to him if she doesn’t want to. She does assure him that this doesn’t pose any threat to the tour.
Later on, 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter, Paulie and Rue discuss who may have been responsible for them getting “SWATTED” by the Ohio State Police. Most think it was either #1 – Loco Skysinger or #2 – the Trash Chippers. The five also discuss that fact that they will be vulnerable on the next leg of their journey that will be on the river steamboat American Queen II. They will not be able to bring their heavy armor or firearms, except for J.J. Hunter’s service weapon.
***
Tuesday, February 2, 2077:
The 1st Show in Cincinnati, Ohio is at a major riverfront rock club and performance space. Again, the band has sold out this show and also the following one tomorrow. Every cyberpunk, dorpher, ganger and rock music afficionado has gathered here and the band is totally energized. The show is great and the crowd suitably enthusiastic.
Due to the concern that the tour will be vulnerable on the steamship trip to Louisville, KY, Suzy and Paulie make a NET Run make a NET run to the steamship company’s office in St. Louis to check out the passenger list on the American Queen II. Mostly this is looking for possible threats. Suzy forwards the names to B&B Technologies in Night City and have them do some quick background checks on the passengers and crew. However, to avoid being identified if they get traced during this NET intrusion, the two will break into a local apartment house and tap into someone’s line for this Run. Cossack does the driving and 8-Ball acts as a lookout, while Suzy and Paulie break into the basement on a low security apartment house. It is a simple job against a low security system and goes off cleanly. Both NET Runners spoof the LDLs successfully, so no charges appear on the line and they easily download the information without disturbing the small datafortress’s simple defenses. On returning to their hotel Suzy transmits the stolen information to Night City.
***
Wednesday, February 3, 2077:
The 2nd Show in Cincinnati, Ohio at the riverfront club is sold out again, but there is a larger gang presence this time. Fortunately for the Cyber Revolutionaries they are all fans, rather rabid fans in fact. Unknown to the band there is a local corporation who is starting to build some luxury apartment houses on the site that is a popular local river front park. The Cyber Revolutionaries close their show with their rising hit, Smash for the Smash Club. Several gangs at this last show get inspired and proceed to wreck site of the local construction that is about to demolish this neighborhood park. Opps!
***
Thursday, February 4, 2077:
The local authorities don’t hold the band responsible for the riot last night, but the gangs do acknowledge the band and their song as one of their inspirations. The Cyber Revolutionaries are just fine with this. Samantha and B&B Technologies find no one suspicious on the river boat’s manifest. To quote Suzy’s longtime partner in crime, Samantha, “They are just a pack of rich assholes!”
The vehicles drive on to Louisville, KY with a hired driver for the new Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV and the bus, since Rusty will be on the steamboat to mix the band’s sound during the show. The Team and the Band board the American Queen II. It may resemble an old 19th century steamboat, but it is bigger and built as the pinnacle of luxury. Everyone settles in and then strolls though the vessel taking in the sights. Lunch and dinner are gourmet banquets. Once outside of the Cincinnati urban sprawl the vistas of the Ohio River are magnificent despite the damage caused by the acid rain.
However, the band’s style of rebel Edgerunner music is NOT appreciated by this type of crowd. As Samantha quite accurately put it, “…a pack of rich assholes!”
The lack of audience response does not inspire the band as they quickly realize these are exactly the type of people they rock against. This is easily the worst show of the tour. However, on the bright side, it is a good paycheck and the audience leaves uncomfortable and displeased. Making people like his unhappy doesn’t bother the band at all.
***
Friday, February 5, 2077:
Everyone disembarks the American Queen II in the morning and heads for the venue. Suzy again slips away on one of her mysterious shopping trips. She shows up at the venue with another box or two of electronic parts. The show in Louisville, KY goes off well, as the audience is more receptive to their music. After the show, the tour drives immediately to Lexington, KY for their next show.
***
Saturday, February 6, 2077:
The drivers immediately go to sleep on arrival at their new hotel and the band prepares for the next show. However, a news report does catch their attention as they are named in it. The governor of the State of Alabama, Braxton Lowndes, gives a major political speech on the moral corruption destroying the country. He fixates on the Cyber Revolutionaries as an example of this “moral decay” infecting America. In particular he questions why Celestine Antonescu, a convicted “political terrorist”, has been allowed in the country and calls for her immediate deportation. Cossack is called out by the governor as a convicted drug smuggler, who was thrown out of Europe due to his extensive ties to organized crime in the Ukraine. Of course, Suzy isn’t spared either as he drags up her (discredited) juvenal listing in the Night City Gang Database as a prostitute, gang member and drug addict. Of course, he also brings up her old conviction for manslaughter and her prison time, but fails to mention that this conviction was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct. 8-Ball is also called out as Governor Lowndes questions how the man escaped the Seattle Police manhunt for him on a number of charges from 2066 to 2070. The ranting politico fails to mention that 8-Ball was cleared of all those spurious charges, but that fact doesn’t see to fit the false narrative he is trying to push. On hearing all of this Nancy Chang just shrugs her shoulder and comments, “This will only fuel more record sales and large audiences for the tour.”
That evening the show in Lexington is quite a success. It wasn’t quite sold out this morning, but Nancy Chang’s prediction came true and after Alabama Governor Braxton Lowndes speech, the rest of the tickets were gobbled right up.
***
Sunday, February 7, 2077:
This day is another official Rest Day for the tour. Most of the band takes the tie to relax and take advantage of the small gym. Suzy, however, spends her day continuing to work on her new electronic project. People come to her door to see if she is all right, but she won’t let anyone in. Her roommate, Cassie Banes just says she is building some kind of new electronic device. Cassie and Suzy have been friends since high school and the band’s bassist tells the group that Suzy often gets obsessed with building “stuff”.
***
Monday, February 8, 2077:
This day the tour makes the drive from Lexington, KY to Knoxville, TN. The roads are rough and it takes pretty much most of the day, however they get to their new hotel without incident.
***
Tuesday, February 9, 2077:
Suzy doesn’t come down for breakfast. Cassie tells the band she is finishing up her new project. The young woman does come down for lunch and seems very pleased with whatever she was working on. However, she heads right back to her room after lunch to continue her work. That evening the band has another sold out show at a club in Knoxville TN. It is a good performance and the audience leaves happy.
On returning to the hotel Suzy invites anyone who wants to up to her and Cassie’s room. There she has hacked into the guts of the video screen in the room and has her cyberdeck patched in. While the band’s show was going on the 5th Episode of U.S. Marshals – Night City, was playing and featured Suzy as the season’s villain, Suki. She recorded it on her cyberdeck.
***
Wednesday, February 10, 2077:
Today the tour drives from Knoxville to Nashville, TN. The band will be in “Music City” for three days. The band has two shows at the famous club Exit/In and a video interview and performance at a local rock station. Suzy and Celestine have a meeting at the main DMS office in the city to discuss a new video series. On the last day of their stay Suzy has a meeting with some film producers and a screen test for a major motion picture shooting later this summer. The rest of the band has a list of music stores and clubs they want to see. This is going to be a busy stop. The tour gets to Nashville and checks into their hotel. Everyone gets to bed earl for tomorrow is going to be a bust day!
***
Thursday, February 11, 2077:
The morning’s plans are simple. Suzy and Celestine have an appointment the DMS offices in Nashville to discuss a possible video series. Universal Records approved this meeting since it had nothing to do with the two’s existing music contracts. Cassie, Kessie and Donnie want to walk down Broadway Street in the heart of Nashville. It is heart of the tourist area of Nashville with the best clubs, restaurants and stores. 8-Ball decided that he and J.J. will escort the three band members on their shopping trip on Broadway. Paulie and Rue will remain at the hotel with the vehicles and Universal Records personnel. Only Cossack will escort Celestine and Suzy to their meet with DMS. This turns out NOT to be the best decision.
The three band members on Broadway Street have no problems on that heavily policed street. No one bothers the people at the hotel either. However, the DMS meeting does not go as planned. The two young women went into the building and Cossack remained outside with the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV. The small plaza outside the DMS building has an eatery, some benches and lots of foot traffic. At the meeting inside, there is a brief discussion about a video series, but DMS’s Plan ‘A’ was to convince the two women to break their contracts with Universal and sign with DMS. In addition, they want Suzy to break her contract with her acting / modeling agent and also sign with DMS. Despite the generous terms offered both women wish to remain loyal to Jack Masters and Universal Records. Suzy thanks them, but is also quite happy with her current artistic representation with her acting / modeling career. The meeting ends cordially and the two young women leave the building.
However, DMS is not about to take no for an answer. Their reputation for extracting unwilling talent is quite well founded. DMS decides to go with their Plan ‘B’. Once outside the DMS building and in sight of the public, the DMS extraction team strikes. Six people with paintball guns loaded with sleep drugs struck. Four of that Team open up on Cossack whose dangerous reputation calls for his immediate neutralization. He resists the opening salvo, but is much slowed. An errant paintball hit a bystander and that girl goes down. That bystanders boyfriend takes this badly, pulls out his handgun and starts to shoot at the extraction Team. Celestine takes two hits and goes right down. Suzy takes just one hit and although she does resist the drug, she also falls on her face. However, her auto injector activates and gives her a stim to counteract the drug. She takes the time while falling to palm her pocket sized Constitution Arms Stub handgun.
The extraction van pulls up quickly and the next round of drugged paintballs take down Cossack. The angry boyfriend is also subdued by another volley of paintballs. Four of the attackers, two for each, pick up Suzy and Celestine to rush them into the arriving van. That is when Suzy puts her handgun under the chins of the two carrying her and blows their brains out of the top of their heads. Before the two carrying Celestine can bring their now holstered weapons out, Suzy puts point blank 12mm shots in their brainpans killing them both. The firefight with the outraged boyfriend has pulled the two remaining extraction agents to the other side of a line of topiaries in a planting on the small mall area in front of the DMS building. They don’t see what has happened to their four fellow operatives. The extraction van has just stopped and two more operators have just jumped out.
Suzy, who is deceptively strong and fast due to her extensive cybernetic and biological enhancements, throws the unconscious Celestine over her shoulder and starts to run. The young women stops briefly at the corner of the nearby building and put two bullets in one of the operatives who looks around the topiary. This forces the man back and Suzy uses her enhanced movement to run away with Celestine.
The DMS executives inside look on in horror as their simple extraction turns into a disaster. They had ordered their inside security to stand down and let the extraction happen, so they have no one at the ready. Outside, some of the crowd has scattered, but a number are drawing weapons when they see the other young woman and her boyfriend go down. Four of their eight man team are now dead on the pavement and a gunfight is about to erupt on the street. They order the rest of the extraction team to withdraw, which they do in the van under a hail of gunfire from some of the onlookers.
DMS security is now ordered out to secure the area and assist the victims of this “heinous attempt” at kidnapping. Suzy gets a distance away and calls 8-Ball, who calls Rue and dispatches her to the scene since she is closer. 8-Ball and the rest get two cabs. The band is sent to the hotel and he and J.J. go to the DMS building. The Nashville Police arrive quickly, but DMS claims the four bodies and insists this was a corporate matter and they will deal with it. Both Celestine and Cossack come around and Suzy comes forward once she sees Rue and the Nashville Police present.
The press is quickly on scene, especially DMS News. A DMS representative condemns this brazen kidnapping attempt and promises to use all the investigative power to bring the “escaped malefactors” to justice. Suzy lets 8-Ball field the press questions as she is “too traumatized” to answer questions at this time. Actually, she is furious at both DMS and 8-Ball. What was the chance of a serious incident occurring on Broadway Street with that unannounced shopping trip versus a planned visit to an unscrupulous mega-corp with a history of extracting unwilling talent. Besides without Celestine the tour couldn’t possibly go on and the independence of Whyte Hat and B&B Technologies would be in peril if Suzy was taken. She is half owner of Whyte Hat and one of the two major stockholders of B&B Tech. Still, even Suzy didn’t think DMS would be so bold as to try to grab them both right outside their own offices.
The band and Team spend the rest of the day back at their hotel. Nancy Chang contacts her home office to inform them of what has happened and expresses her belief that DMS is behind the extraction attempt. Suzy fumes as her carefully crafted public personae of a flakey, little rich girl is going up in smoke. 8-Ball contacts Mitzi and requests some reinforcement for the Team. He is promised a new operative in a few days.
That evening, the band does a local video music show they was scheduled and plays one of their songs. During the interview part of the show, there was no talk of the attempted extraction. However, Celestine was asked if she agreed with one New York City critic who said, the Cyber Revolutionaries will be bigger than Elvis. She answers, “Elvis Costello?” When corrected that he meant Elvis Pressley , she replies, “Oh, right, him. Well, he was wayyy before my time”.
Other than that, the interview goes very well.
***
Friday, February 12, 2077:
Today, Donny wants to go to a music store. Cassie wants to go to a small club to see an up and coming band she has heard of. 8-Ball doesn’t want to split up his protective detail to cover all these requests, which everyone agrees is probably a good idea. Celestine, Kessie and Suzy wanted to a Body Cure for a +2 ATTR and then walk to a clothing store to shop. Both Cassie and Donny will join them, except Donny isn’t interested in the Body Cure treatment. 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter and Rue will go with them while Paulie will fly the Oracle to watch out for them.
The Body Cure appointment goes well, and the group leaves the shop. Fate again intervenes as a local gang mistakes the group for a collection of tourists ripe for the picking. The somewhat large gang’s demand for money and the company of the now extremely attractive women is refused and violence ensues. The gangers are not at all prepared for this group of highly skilled protectors and the band themselves are no pushovers. 8-Ball and Cossack in particular mow through this collection of street trash like an industrial lawn mower. It is over in about 15 seconds with only two of the gang escaping with their lives. The Nashville Police show up and look at the carnage. When seeing 8-Ball, Cossack and Suzy, the lead officer can only comment, “Not you all, again.”
The police recognize the gang as street criminals with a penchant for robbing tourists. Security cameras and witnesses back up the Team’s story and they are released. After all, they have a show tonight. Back at the hotel they learn that DMS’s medwagon bringing the dead bodies to the police for identification was hijacked and the four bodies have now disappeared. Also, DMS reports that their security files were hacked and erased last night leaving no evidence of who the extraction team was; of course.
On the bright side, the Cyber Revolutionaries 1st Major Show in Nashville at the new Exit/In (club) is a sold out success! A lot of this is due to the press coverage of the band and its members for the last couple of days. DMS’s news coverage in particular is very positive. After all, it was the least they could do.
***
Saturday, February 13, 2077:
Everyone agrees it is probably best to stay near the hotel today. However, Suzy insists on meeting with the movie producers, who want to cast her for a major role in a feature action film being filmed in the Far East later in the summer this year. The young woman meets with the director and producers and does screen test for the film. She feels it went very well and they will be getting back to her later.
That night is the 2nd major show in Nashville at the new Exit/In (club). Again, the Cyber Revolutionaries play to a packed house and deliver an incredible two sets.
***
Sunday, February 14, 2077:
The band travels from Nashville to Memphis, TN today. Again, the trip is without incident and they all get to their hotel safely.
***
Monday, February 15, 2077:
The extra security man that 8-Ball requested is scheduled to arrive tomorrow so he feels that wandering around the city is probably not a good idea. After all they will be heading to New Orleans for Mardi Gras tomorrow and there will be plenty of time for fun there. The band agrees since their last couple of forays in public haven’t worked out too well.
The show at a big club in Memphis is tonight. It is a large place with an expansive dance floor. The place is packed, but some in the audience worry 8-Ball. There are a lot of Elvis Pressley impersonators here tonight. With them are small group of Pricilla Pressley posers. 8-Ball is informed that this isn’t unusual since Memphis is the international headquarters for the Elvises, a huge poser gang dedicated to their “God” Elvis, the King. They attend most any major music shows in town. There are also three Memphis Police officers in attendance, more than usual, but the club manager explains that this band’s reputation for violence precedes them. There does appear to be adequate local security, but still, 8-Ball sits near a couple of the Elvises on one side of the dance floor and J.J. Hunter takes up position near another pair of Elvises on the other side of the stage / dance floor. Rue and Cossack position themselves right offstage in case of trouble. Paulie launches the Oracle drone and keep watch outside.
Everything goes well, until the middle of the first set. At a break between two songs, someone cuts the power to the band’s amplifiers and sound system. An Elvis poser’s voice, amplified by his audio vox thunders out a cry, “Drive out these blasphemers who have insulted the memory of our God King, Elvis! Leave these premises immediately!”
As he begins to speak, the three police officers are struck with tasers by the Elvises standing next to them. All three go down. Both 8-Ball and J.J. are also attacked with tasers. Hunter goes down, but 8-Ball remains up. Many of the Elvises turn on the crowd and scream at them to leave. Many do, but fights break out everywhere. The band onstage is rushed by a large group of these posers. A huge melee breaks out everywhere. The band is a group of tough combat zone kids from Night City and hold their own. Rue and Cossack rush out to defend the band. 8-Ball disarms his taser armed opponent and then knocks him out cold. Donny wields his axe, well, like an axe, and another Elvis goes down.
Celestine gets a number of the attackers on her as the front person, but these gangers are not aware that this young woman has become a high level practitioner of Arasaka Te since arriving in the United States. It doesn’t go well for these gangers. 8-Ball fights his way to the band which is now surrounded by a pile of unconscious Elvises, many with broken limbs. Soon most of the audience has fled so the remaining Elvises retreat. There is only one death; a Priscilla who took a lethal head hit from a kick by Rue. The broken neck severed the girl’s spinal cord and it was instant death. This isn’t what Rue intended, but, oh well.
The police soon arrive and they are not pleased. Three of their officers have been attacked and stomped by the Elvises. They all will recover, but this show is definitely over. No charges will be filed against the band, but the Police make it clear that they should definitely leave the state tomorrow. That was on the schedule anyway.
Next: Episode 72 – Welcome to the Big Easy
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Episode 70 – And the Tour Begins: NYC to Detroit!
Violence rocks the opening show of the tour followed by an arrest after the second show, but the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The tour then goes through Pennsylvania to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland where again the Team catches the media’s attention. In Detroit, the Team runs into some friends, and also so enemies with a score to settle.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who the members who thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat. In reality, they discovered she was up and coming Drug Lord (or Lady?) connected with South American Alliance. In the end, they learned that she was actually cooperating with the C.I.A. to kill other Drug Lords who she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but it cost her to lose her life in the process.
On return to the United States, Mitzi reorganized the Team under the name Whyte Hat, which was the company founded years ago by the fixer’s first team. Whyte Hat has flourished and is now a regional security / paramilitary company with offices in Night City and Wells, Nevada.
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Covert Op 5 (Solo 5]: He is a former member of the Seattle Chapter of the Chrome Berets, a gang of military posers that practice urban combat tactics often with paintball guns and hired themselves out as “ringers” to corporate paint ball teams. He left his gang on good terms and is seeking to become a serious solo like his hero, the late Morgan Blackhand. His first experience in Night City made him an ‘honorary’ member of that gang’s local chapter and earned the deep friendship of all of its members. He also acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran and they are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 7]: He was a Ukrainian smuggler who made himself a pain in the ass to Interpol which pursued him relentlessly for the past several years. He lost a cargo belonging to a powerful Ukrainian mobster, Vyacheslav Morozov, who wished to take the loss of his goods out of Cossack’s hide, but his now deceased boss, Martina, assassinated the mob boss instead. His secret work in Colombia has led to the U.S. government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu.
J.J. Hunter [Authority 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Jayleen Blackhawk Hunter is the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Choctaw mother. Both parents were college professors, but J.J.’s interests lay elsewhere. After a brief stint in the Army she joined the U.S. Marshal’s Service which eventually led her to work with Whyte Hat in their mission to re-open Interstate 80 through the Nevada Outback. When the Marshal’s service loosened its ties with Whyte Hat she accepted Mitzi’s offer to head up that company’s new but small Corporate Police Force.
Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Rue Perla [Medtech 9]: This former Army medic came to Night City to visit her friend 8-Ball from Seattle and hooked up with the Team when it was working for Martina Vargas. She survived that dangerous mission and was rewarded with a chance to get her medical degree, which she has done. The young woman continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Nevada State Guard. The new doctor signed up with Mitzi’s Whyte Hat and along with Dr. Jamal Hemings, helped found a small hospital in Wells, Nevada. She is also a veteran of the 2072 Christmas Tour.
The NPCs
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour:
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker replacing Loco Skysinger as the lead vocalist of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Cassie Banes [Techie 4]: She is the bassist for the band who grew up in the 88th Street neighborhood of Nigh City. Her brother Tom Banes was an original member of Mitzi’s first team that was destroyed by Marco Baronti.
Donny Clark [Vehicle Zen 4]: The man’s true passion is music, but he is still a (more than) competent driver. Another original member of the band and denizen of the 88th Street combat zone area in Night City, he is currently the only male member of the band.
Kessie Ado [Scrounge 4]: The daughter of Nigerian immigrants ended up as a scavenger around the 88th Street Neighborhood. She fell in with Mitzi, Suzy and Cassie which led her to the rst of the band.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 5 (NET Tech 4 / Interface 3)]: She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and ended up working as an underage stripper in a sleazy combat zone club. The late Night City mob boss, Marco Baronti, put a bounty on her head after she had witnessed some serious criminal activity by the man. LEDiv scooped her up, faked her death hid her in Federal Witness Protection. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy. She has embarked on a new career as an actress, model and musician with her old friends the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Billy Chou: An original member of the Cyber Revolutionaries who went to Berklee College of Music in Boston when the band’s former lead singer left and the band went on hiatus. Suzy replaced him at the keyboards. He has joined his old band mates for the New York City gigs before returning to school. He graduates this June.
Nancy Chang [Fixer 6]: Nancy is Universal Records president, Jack Masters, right hand woman. She is assigned to handle the most bands and tours for her boss. She is well known to the Cyber Revolutionaries since she was in charge of the 2072 Christmas Tour with two other bands. She is a genius for generating publicity for the bands under her win.
Rusty Walker [Jury Rig 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Rusty is a U.S. Army veteran turned techie who has become one of the rising sound engineers in the music business. He also was with the Cyber Revolutionaries on the 2072 Tour and the Battle for Rachel against the Desert Devils. The man served as Cossack’s machine gunner as the two tore through and disrupted two of the attacking Raffin Shiv. The pairs actions were videoed live across the country.
Skip Hansen [Vehicle Zen 4]: Skip is a new hire by Universal Records whose job it will be to drive the Armadillo RV carrying the Paulie while he runs the drones to cover them while on the highway. 8-Ball and Rue will also ride in this vehicle. His young man joins the Team in Newark when they leave Manhattan.
Usman Katusi [Vehicle Zen 5]: This man is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably close to thirty. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment. He was with the band on their 2072 tour that ended up in the Battle for Rachel, NV.
The Action
Friday, January 15, 2077:
Cossack becomes concerned about the punk whose arm Suzy crippled last night and speaks to hotel security to try to find out about him. They don’t know his name, but they have seen him before so he is from the area, but not from inside the walled area of Gramercy Park. However, since he was inside the walls last night after the gates closed, he must know someone who does. It is nor hotel security’s job to hunt him down, although he is now barred from the hotel.
More importantly, tonight is the 1st Concert in NYC Skeleton Coast (club), located on the south end of the old Chelsea Piers building, in the walled Combat Zone. The round trip from Gramercy Park provided by the local combat cab, Manhattan Livery. The chief concern of the security team is if the Garden Men have figured out who ran off with all of their prisoners and ruined this week’s gladiatorial combats. The odds are good that they don’t yet know, but the Team will remain on alert. They meet with the Skeleton Club security people and learn that pistols can be brought into the club by the patrons. However, drawing and firing it is often the last thing the patron will ever do. The few fish down river of the club are well fed!
Club security will be responsible for external security and will protect the V.I.P. area inside the main room. The Team will look after stage and backstage security. Paulie will posted in the band’s green room and run the small Oracle drone that will watch the street outside and the dock-alley on the water. Rue will be with him in reserve. Cossack will be stationed backstage, by the loading dock entrance where he can react to threats in the ally and also inside the main floor. J.J. Hunter will be by the door that leads backstage to the right of the main stage and next to one of the bars. 8-Ball will set up to the left of the stage. Both will watch the audience for trouble.
The large club is packed for tonight’s show and a couple of media are present as the band’s final show of their last tour touched off a major riot in Los Angeles. The song that touched off the riot, Smash for the Smash Club, is the lead single off the Cyber Revolutionaries new album. A local band opens for them and warms up the audience. The Cyber Revolutionaries hit the stage and tonight the band is smoking hot! They are just beginning their second set when Celestine announces they have a new song for the crowd. She tells the audience, “If you have been watching the news lately you’ll understand.”
The band breaks out their newest tune, Who’s the Bitch NOW? From the audience’s reaction, just about everyone has seen that video clip which has gone viral in the past couple of days. There is one person in a hoodie down front that isn’t pleased. With his cyberarm repaired, the ‘Titular Bitch’ pulls out a pistol and draws a bead on Suzy. Either he is just a poor shot or got jostled by the dancing crowd, but his bullet misses. Suzy pushes over her keyboard and takes cover behind it. The rest of the band also drops to cover. 8-Ball charges the shooter from his side and J.J. moves toward him from her side. 8-Ball is very fast and disarms the shooter before he can bring his pistol to bear again. Both he and J.J. have the shooter on the floor quickly. The band is up with weapons drawn, but it is over. Celestine shouts to the crowd, “Looks like he’s their bitch now!”
The crowd’s mood switches from fear to excitement. The band starts the music again as 8-Ball and J.J. turn the would be killer over to club security, who take him away. The fish in the Hudson River will feast tonight. The two medias are also happy as they both were recording the incident. Nancy Chang, the tour manager, is also happy as she figures this incident will translate into more record sales and bigger future audiences.
The rest of the evening goes well and the Cyber Revolutionaries rock the house. It is a great start to this tour.
***
Saturday, January 16, 2077:
Tonight was the 2nd Concert in NYC Skeleton Coast (club). Again, round trip from Gramercy Park provided by the local combat cab, Manhattan Livery. Everyone just rested after last night’s successful opening. The local and regional media covered the attempted shooting which, in Nancy Chang’s mind, would build future audiences and record sales. Again, the Skeleton Club was packed and the band rocked the house. The band’s new song, Who’s the Bitch NOW, got a great reception and this time Rusty, the sound engineer, got a great recording which he forwarded to Universal Records for a quick release.
When the show ended, Rusty and Usman took charge of getting the band’s gear out of the combat zone and across the Hudson River to the truck terminal in the Jersey City to be ready for the move to Philadelphia tomorrow. The band and the Team returned to the Gramercy Park Hotel for a final party up in the penthouse. They are joined by some of the Bronx Chrome Berets, who had recovered from their wounds. Even Paulie, the new Team member came up to the penthouse, but brought his personal cyberdeck the party. He plugged into the NET access line there and dove into the Manhattan NET. No one really paid attention to this.
The NET in the combat zone isn’t really extensive, but off in the distance around 14th Street at the edge of the zone where a number of large datafortresses. Paulie considered himself a bit of a NET anarchist, so he went for the largest and shiniest one. He just slid in without any problem, but failed to notice that this was the main computer of New York University. It was a large system unlike any he had visited before. Although there were other users around, he couldn’t help himself and fired of a ‘Pie in the Face’ at one of the CPUs. The attack failed, but it did get the attention of the computer’s A.I. who took a dim view of this. The other users, students trying to get their work done, were also not amused. Paulie was hit by a cascade of Stuns, Glues and other non-lethal programs followed by a Bloodhound that quickly tracked his cybermodem to the Gramercy Park penthouse. Both NET Watch and the Port Authority were notified and an AV was dispatched to deal with him the real world.
Paulie couldn’t jack out or make a sound so just continued to sit quietly in the corner. No one knew about his situation or the incoming problem until NET Watch, the Port Authority police and hotel security came through the penthouse door. The party came to an instant halt. The officials took Paulie into custody along with his cyberdeck. Everyone was briefly questioned before the Team’s hapless NET Runner was taken away. This ended the party.
The Team got on the phone and called the Whyte Hat attorneys out on the coast and informed them of the arrest. It was about 6 am out there. The lawyers said they would get a local New York attorney to find out the charges and handle the case. With that, everyone went to sleep.
***
Sunday, January 17, 2077:
In the morning, two AVs landed in the Gramercy Park enclave to take the band to Jersey City and link up with the vehicles that would take them on the rest of the tour. Good-byes were made to the hotel staff and the Chrome Berets, who were now well enough to leave and return to the Bronx.
In Jersey City, the Team met their new driver Stephen ‘Skip’ Hansen, a young man who was a new hire by Universal Records. The tour would be traveling in four vehicles. Leading the convoy would be Cossack at the wheel of a Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV with J.J. Hunter riding in back with her assault rifle. Next would be the tractor-trailer carrying all the band’s gear as well as equipment and personal baggage of the band and the Team. Usman would be driving with Nancy Chang riding with him. Third in line would be the bus carrying the band which is driven by Rusty. Last up would be the Armadillo, driven by Skip Hansen and carry 8-Ball and Rue. Normally Paulie would be riding here too running the drones to watch the road, but he was currently the guest of NET Watch and the local authorities. The convoy would have to do without drone overwatch for this leg of the trip. Fortunately, they encountered no problems on the road and they made their hotel in Philadelphia without incident.
That evening, both 8-Ball and Nancy Chang received phone calls from a New York attorney hired to represent Paulie. The charge would be Illegal NET Running. The lawyer was going to speak with the prosecutor tomorrow at arraignment. He believed that if Paulie plead guilty and apologized, he could just pay a fine and be on his way. The attorney would call back tomorrow.
***
Monday, January 18, 2077:
Back in New York City, Paulie’s defense attorney works out an agreement with the prosecutor where he will plead guilty and get a €1,000 fine, forfeiture of his cyberdeck, but no jail time, since no harm was done. Paulie is then taken to the train station and put on a train to Philadelphia. Cossack picks him up in Philadelphia just before the show.
With all the recent publicity the Cyber Revolutionaries have generated, the show is a sellout. The band is energized and delivers a stellar performance.
***
Tuesday, January 19, 2077:
Today the tour drive from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA. The roads in Pennsylvania are not in the best condition and the trip takes a good part of the day. This evening is 2nd Episode of U.S. Marshals – Night City, which features Suzy as the season’s villain, Suki, so of course, she wants to make a party of it since her character gets the better of the series heroes and succeeds with her opening criminal gambit.
***
Wednesday, January 20, 2077:
This night is the show in Harrisburg, PA, and again, it is a sellout. Perhaps there was too much partying last night, but whatever the reason the band wasn’t on the top of their game. In fact, the entire performance wasn’t very good at all.
***
Thursday, January 21, 2077:
The tour drives from Harrisburg, PA to Cleveland, OH this day without incident.
***
Friday, January 22, 2077:
Tonight is the band’s show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The poor performance hadn’t hurt tonight’s box office as this show was also sold out. The fact that there was going to be an induction ceremony tomorrow where Jack Entropy was to be inducted had brought a lot of Rock & Roll fans to the city. The Cyber Revolutionaries were determined to make up for the poor performance in Harrisburg a few days ago. Their determination paid off and the band was again on top of their game.
A number of rock celebrities did show up since they were here for the ceremony tomorrow. However, one name did concern 8-Ball. Loco Skysinger was in town. He was the original lead singer of the Cyber Revolutionaries before Celestine. Four years and one month ago, the Team did security for a west coast tour for Universal Records with three bands including the Cyber Revolutionaries. This tour was a breakout moment for the band, or at least it was supposed to be. Loco Skysinger gained a lot of publicity on this tour and at the end of the tour, he dumped the rest of the band to go solo, leaving his old friends(?) behind. Moreover, he and Suzy were lovers at the time and he quite publicly “dumped her”. Needless to say, the young woman was very hurt by this. Suzy’s penchant for violence and reputation for holding a grudge worried 8-Ball.
Tonight’s performance was spectacular with a couple of encores. For the last one, Jack Entropy came out to join the band for their new song, Who’s the Bitch NOW? The crowd went wild! Loco and his new entourage were in attendance, but didn’t try to come backstage after the show. All of the band returned to their hotel after the show except for Suzy, who left arm in arm with Jack Entropy back to his hotel. Jack and Suzy made sure that the media saw them leave together.
***
Saturday, January 23, 2077:
Of course, the Cyber Revolutionaries and their entourage attend Jack Entropy’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Jack and Suzy arrive together. When Jack’s induction comes up, the rest of the Cyber Revolutionaries also head backstage and join Jack and his band for his musical performance. This isn’t unusual since they have opened for Jack several times in past years.
At the afterparty, the Team separates to protect the various members of their band. Suzy remains with Jack, so they leave her protection to Angus Kessler, Jack’s bodyguard. The Team mingles with the rock glitterati there. Even Paulie gets social wearing the fashionable outfit bought for him by 8-Ball and Cossack.
Most of the Team doesn’t notice Loco Skysinger and his all Apache entourage entering the ball room right near where Jack and Suzy are standing. Those that do, see that the exchange begins very cordially. However, Loco makes some remark as he turns to leave. Jack suddenly punches him in the face and Loco Skysinger goes down and out! The Apache Rocker’s entourage immediately attacks Jack, Angus and Suzy. 8-Ball, Cossack and Rusty are close enough and rush in. Jack and Angus are in a furious melee of flying fists. Suzy just goes all out defense and avoids any damage. Angus goes down, but by now 8-Ball is there and begins using his martial arts to grapple and throw Loco’s entourage to the floor, stacking them right on top of the unconscious Loco. Cossack does the same, but throws his opponents away from the brawl. Rusty arrives to take on Suzy’s attacker, but by now the Apache’s entourage are mostly down so his prospective opponent puts up his hands and backs away.
Event security arrives and everyone separates. Jack turns to check on Angus and to everyone surprise, Suzy pulls the bodies off Loco to make sure he is alright. The two ex-lovers express no hostility towards each other much to the bewilderment of the onlookers. Meanwhile, the attending media are gobbling all of this up. With event security separating the former combatants, Suzy rejoins Jack at his side. Loco Skysinger and his entourage leave to attend another party. The festivities continue as if nothing had happened. The Team eventually returns to their hotel. All except for Suzy, who goes back with the rocker to his hotel.
***
Sunday, January 24, 2077:
An exhausted Suzy gets back to the Team’s hotel just before they leave for their next gig in Detroit, Michigan. She has a huge smile on her face and goes right to sleep as the bus pulls out. The drive from Cleveland, OH to Detroit, MI is uneventful since this is a well patrolled highway.
8-Ball gets a visit in the evening at their new hotel from Ben Johansen, Vinnie, Stephen and Juan, four members of the Detroit Chapter of the Chrome Berets (Korean War). They have heard a rumor on the street that the reinvigorated Trash Chippers are planning an attack on Whyte Hat personnel. They don’t know where when or how.
[GM Note: Back in September, 2072 (Episodes 29 to 31) Whyte Hat got there first big corporate job working for Raven Micro Cybernetics. They recovered a small fortune in corporate property from that corporation’s old office building in Detroit from one of the toughest gangs in that city with no loss of civilian life. However, they did devastate the Trash Chippers earning the Team this gang’s undying hatred.]
News of the Team’s helping of the Bronx chapter has spread through every Chrome Beret chapter and the Detroit chapter stands ready to help 8-Ball and his Team.
***
Monday, January 25, 2077:
8-Ball informs event security about this possible threat and the police are duly notified. The Detroit Police feel they can handle the situation, but they will put their gang task force on it also. Meanwhile both Suzy and Paulie enter the local NET and look for any information about this possible threat, but find nothing.
Meanwhile Cossack has found a place to get his armored clothes repaired from the Manhattan Garden fight, His high reputation gets this repair job to the top of the shop’s que and it will be ready on this coming Wednesday.
***
Tuesday, January 26, 2077:
Tonight, is the first show in Detroit, MI. Again, it is sold out due to all the publicity (both bad and good) the tour has gotten. The Detroit Police have turned down any assistance from the local Chrome Berets, but have increased their presence at the venue. The show goes very well and the band is again in top form. There is no trouble from the Trash Chippers. That is because the gang’s plan is to attack when the Team and the band are returning to their hotel. Since the tractor trailer remains at the venue for the second show tomorrow the convoy is now just the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV, the bus followed by the Armadillo.
When the convoy is slowing to make a left turn by a small outdoor mall a (stolen) garbage truck cuts of the Thunderbird before the turn and another garbage truck blocks the intersection behind the Armadillo. Trash Chippers with shotguns and some automatic weapons are hiding behind a planting at the outdoor mall where the Thunderbird is stopped. There is also a similar group hiding behind a wall opposite where the bus is stopped. More gangers come out of a shop opposite the Armadillo and a pizzeria next to the mall. Trash Chippers also jump from the garbage trucks. There are 20 heavily armed gangers in all.
Fortunately, Paulie who was flying the Oracle drone noticed the garbage trucks just before the gang unleashed its ambush, so the Team was alerted. The band hit the floor of the bus and Suzy grabbed her Miitech Dragon that was at the ready. J.J. in the lead vehicle ducks and avoids getting hit as a gang firing line behind a planter at the edge of the mall opens fire. Cossack isn’t so lucky. Still the car’s armor stops him from getting shredded. The armor of the Armadillo protects those inside for now. This is Skip’s first combat so he hits the floor of the vehicle when the bullets start to fly. 8-Ball and Rue, both veterans of many combats immediately return fire through their vehicles gunports. They are joined by Paulie with his SMG. As a U.S. Army veteran, J.J. Hunter exited the front vehicle using that car’s body to keep out of sight of most of the attackers and quickly disposes of the gangers coming out of the pizzeria.
The Trash Chippers are still tough, but the Team has become much more skilled over the years. 8-Ball, Rue and Paulie made short work of those attacking the Armadillo. Suzy pops up with her Militech Dragon and starts taking down those attacking the bus on the right side. Rusty, also an Army combat veteran brings his H&L MPK-11 into action against the attackers on the left side of the bus. Suzy is starting taking hits, but by now 8-Ball is sweeping up the gang’s flank and puts down the rest of the Trash Chippers behind the wall. At the intersection behind the rear garbage truck a sedan screeches to a stop and four Chrome Berets who had been tailing the convoy (unknown to the Team) arrive to join the fight.
J.J. Hunter has moved low along the side of the Thunderbird and starts dropping the ambushers behind the planting at the outdoor mall. Cossack is returning fire, but is taking some head hits. His armored fedora is shredded by this point and the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV begins to burn from the enormous amount of hits it had taken. Sirens can be heard in the distance coming close. The Detroit police are on the way. The remaining Trash Chippers break and run. The Team isn’t feeling generous and a few of the fleeing felons are gunned down with only two escaping in the end.
Cossack finally bails out of the car as the engine is now on fire. Still, it doesn’t explode. Police and fire are quickly on scene along with a number of local media. With the fighting over Rue sees to the wounded, even the downed Trash Chippers. The Chrome Berets stand down with the police on the scene, but 8-Ball speaks for them and the police leave that gang along. The press is all over this and 8-Ball steps up as the Team spokesman to answer questions from the many news media that show up. There is no question about who the aggressor. Cossack has taken some head hits and is in Mortal 0. Fortunately, much of the damage is Impact Suzy is in Serious condition, but again it is mostly Impact damage. There are a few more Impact damage points spread around the group, but everyone is in good shape considering.
The Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV is a total loss. The bus has some armor and structural damage, but it is still drivable. The Armadillo just has some armor damage. The Thunderbird is towed away. The other two vehicles take everyone back to the hotel
Next: Episode 71 – From Detroit to Memphis, TN
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Well, it has been a while since I posted on this tread and the campaign has gone on. I have decided to give this another try to give my players and any readers a record of this Team's adventures. I will be somewhat briefer in my descriptions and just stick to the main points of what is happening. I will be posting our first five episodes quickly and then be posting one every two weeks just after they occur. I do intend to go back and fill in the previous episodes when I have the time in this new abbreviated format. For now, it is the year 2077 and Whyte Hat has grown considerably. Again, we begin with the Team escorting the band, the Cyber Revolutionaries on a new national tour.
A bit of a spoiler here; the last tour ended well, but Loco Skysinger, the rocker and lead guitarist, left the band at the end of this last tour to go solo. Loco also dumped his girlfriend, Suzy Barnes, as she wasn't the right image for him. No matter though. Cossack's girlfriend, Celestine Antonescu has stepped into the lead singer and Rocker role, now that her English is very fluent. They have clawed their way back and are about to embark on their first national tour. Well, enough introduction. The tour starts off in the walled combat zone on Manhattan in New York City, so away we go!
Episode 69 – In the Manhattan Combat Zone
The Team arrives with the Cyber Revolutionaries in the Manhattan Combat Zone to prepare for the first show of the band’s tour. A call for help is received from an unexpected source and the Team responds.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who the members who thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat. In reality, they discovered she was up and coming Drug Lord (or Lady?) connected with South American Alliance. In the end, they learned that she was actually cooperating with the C.I.A. to kill other Drug Lords who she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but it cost her to lose her life in the process.
On return to the United States, Mitzi reorganized the Team under the name Whyte Hat, which was the company founded years ago by the fixer’s first team. Whyte Hat has flourished and is now a regional security / paramilitary company with offices in Night City and Wells, Nevada.
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Covert Op 5 (Solo 5)]: He is a former member of the Seattle Chapter of the Chrome Berets, a gang of military posers that practice urban combat tactics often with paintball guns and hired themselves out as “ringers” to corporate paint ball teams. He left his gang on good terms and is seeking to become a serious solo like his hero, the late Morgan Blackhand. His first experience in Night City made him an ‘honorary’ member of that gang’s local chapter and earned the deep friendship of all of its members. He also acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran and they are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 7]: He was a Ukrainian smuggler who made himself a pain in the ass to Interpol which pursued him relentlessly for the past several years. He lost a cargo belonging to a powerful Ukrainian mobster, Vyacheslav Morozov, who wished to take the loss of his goods out of Cossack’s hide, but his now deceased boss, Martina, assassinated the mob boss instead. His secret work in Colombia has led to the U.S. government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu.
J.J. Hunter [Authority 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Jayleen Blackhawk Hunter is the daughter of a Greek immigrant father and a Choctaw mother. Both parents were college professors, but J.J.’s interests lay elsewhere. After a brief stint in the Army, she joined the U.S. Marshal’s Service which eventually led her to work with Whyte Hat in their mission to re-open Interstate 80 through the Nevada Outback. When the Marshal’s service loosened its ties with Whyte Hat she accepted Mitzi’s offer to head up that company’s new but small Corporate Police Force.
Paulie Malkov [Interface 7]: This man is a Shoshone Native American from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Idaho / Nevada border recruited as part of the growing cooperation between that tribe and Mitzi’s Whyte Hat. He is the newest member of the Team.
Rue Perla [Medtech 9]: This former Army medic came to Night City to visit her friend 8-Ball from Seattle and hooked up with the Team when it was working for Martina Vargas. She survived that dangerous mission and was rewarded with a chance to get her medical degree, which she has done. The young woman continues to serve in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Nevada State Guard. The new doctor signed up with Mitzi’s Whyte Hat and along with Dr. Jamal Hemings, helped found a small hospital in Wells, Nevada. She is also a veteran of the 2072 Christmas Tour.
The NPCs
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour:
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker replacing Loco Skysinger as the lead vocalist of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Cassie Banes [Techie 4]: She is the bassist for the band who grew up in the 88th Street neighborhood of Nigh City. Her brother Tom Banes was an original member of Mitzi’s first team that was destroyed by Marco Baronti.
Donny Clark [Vehicle Zen 4]: The man’s true passion is music, but he is still a (more than) competent driver. Another original member of the band and denizen of the 88th Street combat zone area in Night City, he is currently the only male member of the band.
Kessie Ado [Scrounge 4]: The daughter of Nigerian immigrants ended up as a scavenger around the 88th Street Neighborhood. She fell in with Mitzi, Suzy and Cassie which led her to the rst of the band.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 5 (NET Tech 4 / Interface 3)]: She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and ended up working as an underage stripper in a sleazy combat zone club. The late Night City mob boss, Marco Baronti, put a bounty on her head after she had witnessed some serious criminal activity by the man. LEDiv scooped her up, faked her death hid her in Federal Witness Protection. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy. She has embarked on a new career as an actress, model and now musician with her old friends the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Billy Chou: An original member of the Cyber Revolutionaries who went to Berklee College of Music in Boston when the band’s former lead singer left and the band went on hiatus. Suzy replaced him at the keyboards. He has joined his old band mates for the New York City gigs before returning to school. He graduates this June.
Nancy Chang [Fixer 6]: Nancy is Universal Records president, Jack Masters, right hand woman. She is assigned to handle the most bands and tours for her boss. She is well known to the Cyber Revolutionaries since she was in charge of the 2072 Christmas Tour with two other bands. She is a genius for generating publicity for the bands under her win.
Rusty Walker [Jury Rig 7 (Combat Sense 4)]: Rusty is a U.S. Army veteran turned techie who has become one of the rising sound engineers in the music business. He also was with the Cyber Revolutionaries on the 2072 Tour and the Battle for Rachel against the Desert Devils. The man served as Cossack’s machine gunner as the two tore through and disrupted two of the attacking Raffin Shiv. The pairs actions were videoed live across the country.
Usman Katusi [Vehicle Zen 5]: This man is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably close to thirty. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment. He was with the band on their 2072 tour that ended up in the Battle for Rachel, NV.
The Action
Sunday, January 10, 2077:
The Cyber Revolutionaries Tour takes Mag-Lev from Night City to Washington, DC., and makes the trip in First Class thanks to a ticket upgrade paid for by Suzy.
***
Monday, January 11, 2077:
Mag-Lev arrives in Washington, DC, in the afternoon and then they take short flight to NYC followed by an air taxi to Gramercy Park Hotel in the walled Gramercy Park neighborhood which is inside the Manhattan walled Combat Zone. All of the Team’s weapons and armor are taken to be returned when they leave the Manhattan Combat Zone except for J.J. Hunter’s side arm since she is also a Reserve U.S. Marshal.
On arrival in the walled Gramercy Park neighborhood, the band settles into their rooms on the top floors. Suzy has rented the huge top floor penthouse for herself, Celestine and Cossack. 8-Ball and Cossack speak with hotel security and get a tour of the premises. The two then walk around the Gramercy Park area and “get the lay of the land” so to speak. They also introduce themselves to the overall Gramercy Park security chief and make a good first impression. It has been a long day, so everyone gets to bed.
***
Tuesday, January 12, 2077:
Billy Chou, the original keyboardist of the Cyber Revolutionaries shows up. He has been attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston. He will also be playing with the band for the two New York gig at the Skeleton Club. The band heads out to practice in the basement of the National Arts Club in this walled neighborhood. Cossack checks out some of the local stores and buys himself some expensive, cool mirrorshades.
This evening is the season premiere of the hit video show, U.S. Marshals – Night City, which features Suzy who has filmed 5 of the 10 episodes as this season’s villain, Suki. She, of course, wants to watch it and most everyone joins her in the penthouse.
While the show is on, hotel security comes by to tell 8-Ball that some gang members have presented themselves at the now closed gates of the neighborhood wanting to speak with him and gave Gramercy Park security this. The hotel security man hands him an official beret of his old gang, the Chrome Berets. He and J.J. Hunter go down to the gate to see what is going on. Outside are three members of the local Bronx Chapter of the Chrome Berets (a WW1 group). They are Sargent Johnson, Corporal Thomas and Private York. Johnson is lightly wounded; Thomas is seriously wounded and York is critically wounded. They have come to talk to 8-Ball, but the guards won’t let them in. They gave the guards one of their dress berets to give to 8-Ball.
8-Ball insists that the three be let in despite there being a “no gang” rule in Gramercy Park. When he identifies himself as a member of this gang albeit a different chapter, the solo’s Reputation carries weight and an exception is made. The Team’s medtech, Rue, is summoned and 8-Ball rents rooms for the three wounded Chrome Berets.
Sargent Johnson explains to 8-Ball what has happened and why they are here. The problem is that a gang, the Wrecking Crew, captured three of their members under a flag of truce and sold them to the Garden Men to make them fight in their gladiatorial ring this Friday in Madison Square Garden. As to the Wrecking Crew, they have been dealt with and exterminated. The Bronx Chrome Berets need help rescuing the three of their members held by the Garden Men. Taking on the Garden Men inside the Manhattan Combat Zone is beyond them. They need his help.
[GM Note: The Team got a security file on the Manhattan Combat zone and here is the entry on that gang:
Garden Men: Despite their innocuous name, this is a very dangerous group. The have taken over the old Madison Square Garden on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 31st Street. Although most of the old Garden is in shambles, the main area is still functional. The horrific ‘Blood Bowl’ league’s Eastern Conference has a Team based her called the New York Night Elves, which supplies this gang with a veneer of legitimacy and a good bit of money. However, the season only runs from June (with four pre-season games) to the end of October. Following that there are two playoff conference games from Halloween to mid-November. The World Championship game is played around Thanksgiving. Needless to say, these “sport” is highly illegal in most states, since it is just a thinly disguised blood sport with many fatalities during its season. (FYI – Night City has the Night City Marauders & Las Vegas has the Las Vegas Hellions. There are also teams in San Francisco and Los Angeles.). When the Blood Bowl isn’t running, it is rumored that the gang holds gladiatorial games, which, if stories are to be believed, are even more horrific than a Blood Bowl game.]
This gang numbers 100+ and is rather well-armed. The whole security Team debates a number of strategies and finally asks Suzy, who has finished watching her video show for her opinion. She takes a copy of the security file to read and says she will get back to them. Paulie heads into the NET and looks for floorplans for Madison Square Garden and any underground videos of Blood Bowl matches to look for any changes in the building since the Collapse.
The Team will need firepower quickly which is extremely hard to come by in the Manhattan Combat Zone. Also, they could also use some allies. Cossack suggests speaking to two local gangs listed in their security briefing: the Brass Monkeys and the Rolling Donner.
[GM Note: Brass Monkeys is a nickname for employees of Harry's Ammo Emporium & Shooting Range at 215 Park Avenue South (1st Floor). Recognizable by their "safety orange" bowling shirts with a gun toting monkey on the back...affectionately known as Callahan. The shirts were to make them stand out in a crowd and to prevent accident on the range, but oddly enough, many of them do bowl, up on the 11th Floor of their building. There are a few other small business in that building, but it is mostly apartments of the gang or their friends. They are not really a gang, but might as well be, since they usually hang out together and typically walk around armed. Harry's first rule: if you work in a gun store, you have to know how to fire and weapon. Harry's second rule: If you wear the shirt (bowling shirt with the company logo), you best be packin...of course the shirt and lessons are free, but you either have to buy or build your own gun. You can't take home your shirt or be on the bowling team till you do. They avoid being closed down by the Port Authority Police by NOT openly selling weapons, but only ammunition to be used on their indoor range.
Rollen Donner is a heavy metal rock band that has taken over and refurbished a building at 190 3rd Ave., in the combat zone. While the band are not an actual gang, the bands fans and hangers on can be rowdy and dangerous (consider as Chromer gang) If they were of a mind to do so, the band could use their influence over the crowd to turn them into an angry mob, bent on destruction.]
***
Wednesday, January 13, 2077:
In the morning Cossack and 8-Ball walk down to Harry's Ammo Emporium & Shooting Range, which is actually close to where they are staying. They learn from Gramercy Park Security that walking down Park Avenue South is generally safe, in the day anyway. The two walk around the ground floor store and Cossack notices that one of the Brass Monkeys is staring at him, so he starts to talk to the young man. This is young Harry Callahan Jr, the owner’s son, and he is big fan of Cossack and “Cossack’s Wild Ride in Night City”! In fact, 8-Ball is recognized too and both men are soon asked for pictures to be taken with a number of the Brass Monkeys. Reputation does have its privileges.
This also gets the two men a private meeting with Harry Sr. and they decide to confide in him about their need for guns and a way into the old Madison Square Garden. The owner can supply them with guns, for a price, and can arrange for them to meet with the local chapter of the gang, the Sewer Rats. They are the only people who could sneak them into the old Garden. They exchange phone numbers and Harry will try to contact the Sewer Rats. He suggests the two men bring money with them when meeting with the Rats.
8-Ball and Cossack then head for the bar that acts as the headquarters for the Rollen Donner, but it doesn’t open until evening. They have lunch at a neighborhood eatery and wait. A call comes to them about 2 pm and a meeting is arranged at Pete’s Tavern for 4pm with the Sewer Rats. Two two stop back at Gramercy Park to get some money from various Team members and pick up Sargent Johnson. Fortunately for the Team, the Sewer Rats don’t like the Garden Men too much and agree to sneak them into the prison level to free the imprisoned Chrome Berets. This is going to cost them more money than they brought, but the Rats give them until tomorrow to raise the rest. The three head back to Gramercy Park. They plan to walk out of the Combat Zone to get to a bank and get more cash tomorrow.
The Cyber Revolutionaries are also back at the hotel having finished today’s rehearsal. Suzy, Donny and Kessie head down to the Rose Bar and J.J. goes into the adjacent Jade Bar. Cossack takes Celestine out for dinner at the downstairs restaurant. Suzy is sitting at the bar when a drunk, young punk harasses her over her performance as Suki on U.S. Marshals – Night City. She isn’t in the mood. The young woman just blows him off and turns back to the bar. The punk shoves her in the back and yells, “You’re not so tough, bitch, I can take you!”
Suzy turns around and is on him before he can react. Both J.J. and Cossack hear their friend unleash a stream of expletives so they run into the Rose Bar. Suzy has the punk down, his cyberarm pinned, and is in the process of breaking it! A sickening crack echoes across the room as the cyberarm is disabled just as J.J. jumps on the young man and helps hold him down. Cossack comes to assist and Suzy backs off while screaming, “Bitch? Well, who’s the bitch now!”
Hotel security now rushes in and ‘suggests’ that Suzy and her friends, do their drinking upstairs for now. The three along with Celestine retire back to their rooms.
***
Thursday, January 14, 2077:
The plan for the day is that the band will continue their rehearsals since the tour will open tomorrow night at the Skeleton Club on the Hudson River. The Team will walk down to the gate on 14th Street where the Walled Combat Zone begins. 8-Ball, Cossack and J.J. Hunter will go some local banks and withdraw enough money to pay off the Brass Monkey’s and the Sewer Rats. Paulie will help move the money back through the gate into the combat zone. It is forbidden to move that much cash into the combat zone, especially when it is destined for gang.
Gathering enough cash is easy enough, but they are discovered trying to move it through the gate by a Port Authority guard. Before he can call a superior, J.J. Hunter pulls out her U.S. Marshal’s badge and uses her Authority to convince the guard that this a covert Federal Law Enforcement operation and he should stand down. This ploy works and they get through with the necessary cash. On their way back to Gramercy Park, the group makes a quick stop at Harry's Ammo Emporium & Shooting Range to pick up their weapons for tonight’s operation. They also finish making the down payment to the Sewer Rats. 8-Ball has used his good relationship with the Gramercy Park security chief to arrange getting in and out of their walled enclave tonight. All there is to do is wait for tonight.
Meanwhile, in the morning, video stations in New York City have gotten a cybereye video clip from an unknown source, showing Suzy getting pushed by the punk at the Rose Room last night. She is seen throwing him to the ground and cracking his cyberarm, while screaming, “Who’s the bitch now!”
The stations link Suzy to her character, the villainous Suki, from U.S. Marshals – Night City, and the fact she can be seen this weekend playing with the Cyber Revolutionaries at the Skeleton Club. This gets the songwriters in the band thinking. Nancy Chang smiles to herself. She couldn’t pay for better publicity than this.
The Team going in will be 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter, Paulie, Suzy, Rue and Sargent Johnson. The Sewer Rats can get them very close to the lower cells where the “meat” to be slaughtered in the next fight by the “gladiators” are kept. There aren’t a lot of guards on this lower level and there is a door between this level and the next one up that can be barred from this side, if they get there quickly enough. The Team will be entering this dungeon through a drainage grate that is booby trapped with explosives. The Sewer Rats will disarm the bomb and re-arm when they leave, if they have the time.
The trip through the sewers is uneventful as the Sewer Rats have done their job well. The Rats have brought a ladder to get them up to the bobby trapped grate and the gang disarms it as promised. Unfortunately, before most of the Team gets up the ladder 8-Ball sneaks a peak around the first corner and is spotted. The attack has to begin before everyone is in position. Still, the Team is more skilled than the gang guards down on this level. J.J. Hunter gets to the door leading up to the next level and bars it before any reinforcements can arrive. The rest of the Team rushes the remaining guards and are able to bring them down quickly. The three Chrome Beret prisoners are quickly located, but they also find nine more prisoners slated for tomorrow night’s slaughter in cells. Cossack immediately sets them free. There is no discussion, no one is being left to die. Well, except for all the gang guards who are already dead.
The Sewer Rats are NOT pleased with all the extra people that need to be led out of the sewers. They balk at continuing, but are promised to be compensated. The Team’s excellent reputation carries the day and the gang agrees to go on. They reset the explosives, take he ladder and lead the group to safety. The extra former prisoners are released along the way at places where they can make their way home. Back at the agreed upon exit spot from the sewers the Team offers the Sewer Rats all of the weapons they have just brought along with the remaining ammunition. The gang is quite happy with this compensation.
The Team and the Chrome Berets return to the Gramercy Park compound and the Gramercy Park Hotel. Rue sees to the wounded and the (former) Chrome Beret prisoners. The extraction was a complete success and they were not seen. Of course, the Garden Men may figure it all out eventually, but the Team should be long gone by then
Next: Episode 70 – And the Tour Begins: NYC to Detroit!
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Just a reminder, the standard soft cammo for the Whyte Hat Teams (A, B, & C); the QRF and now the Ranger Platoon is made of Spy-Tex with a full set of ADAP inserts (arms, legs, torso and soft (boonie) hat). This gives an overall SP of 24 with an EV penalty of 0, until the armor is hit. Without going into too much detail a hit to a location will generate a -1 EV up to a usual maximum penalty of -3 usually for multiple locations. The penalty remains in effect for the round you are hit and also the following one. One the third round the gel inside the insert relaxes and the the EV is gone. The result of gel inside stiffening turns that location into hard armor, which is good for the wearer in a strike from a blade, but not so much for a shotgun slug. The ADAP inserts gives advantages, but also has disadvantages.
The Team has worn this armor before, in particular the first battle at Oasis against the Montello Madmen. Why did you think your ambush went unseen by the enemy, some of which were scouting with Thermographic vision? At the beginning of this tour I asked each player if they wanted the EMA-1 armor of the soft cammo with inserts. All the primary combat people wisely chose the EMA-1 armor with its rigid, power assist, built in sensors and immunity to gas attacks.
The Spy-Tex soft cammo suits are actually more expensive than the EMA-1 armor, which is why armor issue is either/or units authorized for their use. Also, the Spy-Tex soft cammo with ADAP inserts aren't available to the general public. It is strictly military and big corporate only. Thank Mitzi, your President and high level fixer along with her connections that got you this kit in the first place.
Both Suzy and Jamal came into the game with this type of gear, but they both have high level government connections.
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Zdravko was quite safe in his tree perch because he chose the Spy-Tex cammo soft armor with the ADAP plates instead of the Militech EMA-1 armor. The Spy-Tex clothing can absorb both IR and UV scans and is thermally treated making it hard to spot with thermographic vision. This material is forbidden in Florida, Wyoming and Texas but impossible to detect by simply looking at it. The Alabama State Police couldn't sabotage it like the EMA-1 armor, so it came through unscathed. The Serb chose his (tour) mission armor well. His Barret was quite loud, but it would have taken a coupe of more rounds of fire for the Alabama State Police to notice the muzzle flash high up in the oak tree where Zdravko was hiding, with all the autofire going on.
Flash suppressors are NOT generally illegal, but silencers are (except in Nevada). You can't buy them in a store. Viper got Suzy's silencer for her Militech Cyborg Rifle through his 'shady' contacts in New Orleans.
Your next scheduled resupply will be in St. Louis, MO after the Atlanta show and you pick up your new set of vehicles. That is when Universal records will be sending a new driver for the tractor trailer rig. Until then, Nancy as secured a local driver, who will be a non-combatant, and will leave after the Atlanta show. You are scheduled to travel by MagLev from Atlanta, GA to St. Louis, MO.
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A very understandable mistake. The original Thunderbirds were very sporty two door coupes. However as the years wore on they got bigger and clunkier until they lost popularity. When I was a teenager (so, so long ago) my father offered to buy my mother a new car. He suggested a sensible station wagon, but she insisted on a flashy, blue, two door Thunderbird convertible coupe. Mom had a bit of a wild steak inherited from her mother and my grandmother, Thora. I got to drive it that spring and would put bring my dog in the back as my wingman, pull up to the school at closing time and ask the girls if they wanted to go for a ride. I never drove away in an empty car. That was a far more innocent time. I have fond memories of that car, my dog from those times.
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Why are you assuming that the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV is a two door vehicle? It is described in the book, Tales From the Forlorn Hope, which introduced the vehicle to the game, as a sedan which means it has four doors. It carries one driver and 4 passengers. A coup has two doors. This is the standard definition. The HMMWV "Hummer" has the same number of drivers and passengers, but it isn't as well armored as the Ford-Mazda Thunderbird IV (SP 10 vs. SP20). This sedan is described further as "...an all-wheel drive (vehicle) with good ground clearance (meaning off-road capable). These models are designed for combat."
The Hummer does have a roof hatch but that puts the gunner outside its measly SP 10 armor. The Hummer does have four extra spaces which is why they can be armed with weapons. Armed Hummers are NOT able to be rented. They must be owned by a licensed corporation. Whyte Hat has the licenses, but its armed Hummers are out west and in use.
It is true that in some battles out west, it was helpful to have 8-Ball back in a command situation, but this isn't and wasn't a battle. It was a small scale fight where everyone was needed on the firing line. As for telling Zdravko targeting priorities, I don't think anyone anticipated an attack by heavily armed and armored SWAT. There is no shame or blame here only a lesson to be learned.
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Excellent point! (by Cossack) While the Barret M-90 is listed as a sniper rifle, it is more like an anti-material rifle. The patrol officers were well armored, but were still handle-able with the 6.5mm hybrid rounds. Perhaps the more skilled (rifle-wise) characters should have been putting 15 rounds into each target, rather than the 10 that most, but not all Team were doing. Zdravko's .50 caliber rounds would have wreaked havoc on the SWAT team. Rusty's lucky opening shot took out the BMW 2020 and its turret mounted mini-gun. Zdravko's being up in the tree gave him a good field of fire, but his lack of silencer and/or flash suppressor would have made him an easy target. Suzy went with the Miitech Cyborg Rifle with its .300 WinMag rounds, which while being 7d6+3 over the Team's standard 6d6-1, still wouldn't take down the SWAT guys fast enough. However, she used a silencer/flash suppressor, while always using "called shot head" and only fired at people who were looking her way. This was mostly done to protect Rusty. In her mind, keeping his RPG-A in action would be key to victory here.
One further weakness that this encounter revealed was that there aren't enough people in the lead car. Cossack is behind the wheel, leaving only J.J. to respond with a weapon at the onset of any fight. 8-Ball has already put forward that it might be best to have any new character be assigned to the lead car. [Hopefully this will be our new prospective player.]
We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that our attackers were dispatched fairly quickly and with minimal loss (a dead Usman). Luck was with the Team in the form of a opening catastrophic fuel tank hit on the BMW 2020 by the RPG-A. Still, Cossack's observation on the targeting of the .50 caliber Barret should be a lesson learned.
There has been some private discussion about cancelling the Tallahassee, FL and Atlanta, GA shows due to "security concerns". Suzy is opposed to this, of course, but she can be a little irrational at times, to put it mildly. More importantly, the Cyber Revolutionaries is a Rocker band. Celestine, in particular, has been imprisoned for her political beliefs and sees Governor Braxton Lowndes' campaign against the band as an attempt by an overbearing authoritarian ruler to deflect attention away from his failed administration by blaming others. She didn't back down from the corrupt Ukrainian government and is NOT about to do so with fascist Alabama. On this, the rest of the band is behind her 100%. To cancel those two upcoming shows is to let Lowndes win. Doing these two shows isn't going to bring Governor Lowndes down, but it will humiliate him and show him for the impotent dictator he is. Yes, he might kill them, but they are a Rocker band and they will NOT "stand down".
Nancy Chang and Universal Records will be seeking some security guarantees from Georgia for the Atlanta show, and if they get them, then the company will want the Atlanta show to proceed. Florida is NOT about to admit that they can't secure their own capital city.
In regard to 8-Ball's "championing" the 6.5mm hybrid round, perhaps I should have been clearer. The important part of this was having a standardized round and interchangeable parts over a variety of weapons systems. I still think it was an excellent idea and has improved relations with Militech, which has been key to the young company's survival.
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The Alabama SWAT Team was wearing standard Police Max-Tac armor with inserts right out of Protect and Serve. This gave them SP33 in the arms, SP 28 in the legs & 25 in the Torso and Head. It also inflicted an EV penalty of -3 which is way you pretty much always beat them in Initiative and made their auto-fire less effective hit wise. The regular police were wearing standard patrol armor also with inserts that inflicted the same -3 EVA. Only the driver and gunner of the BMW 2020 were NOT wearing inserts, but the gas tank explosion from Rusty's opening RPG-A shot made them a moot point.
It was never in Whyte Hat's planning that they would have to be fighting the police. As I remember it was 8-Ball who championed using the 6.5 hybrid round as the company standard due to its interchangeability of both ammunition, magazines and some of the parts with the Militech Mark IV revised and the Militech Dragon. This was a good decision then and I believe still is. As a result of these decisions, the company has a policy of replacing only approved ammunition types, if the employee in question has been qualified by the company in that weapon's use. Jamal was particularly interested in using the Militech weapons, so 7.62 rounds are on the approved replacement list along with 10 & 12 gauge shotshells, 10mm & 12mm pistol rounds and certain 40mm grenades. Sniper ammunition is also replaced (if legal), but in this last engagement, Zdravko is NOT sniper certified, so he is responsible to resupply his own rounds. Suzy is considering helping him out on this, since he did well in this last encounter and didn't fire on the two fleeing Alabama State Policemen. Those .50 caliber rounds aren't cheap.
Both police cruisers listed in the Reference Guide have an armor rating of 1. The rounds that hit the police cars were NOT fired at them as a target, so I am not going to track each hit and calculate damage for each shot. Besides being time consuming that means I would have to do the same for the Team's vehicles and a lucky hit (on what was really a missed shot as a person) would have stranded you very close to the Alabama border with no way to escape. If you want to target a vehicle then call it as your target, but unless the vehicle takes "buckets of bullets", they will all hit the "empty space" as a default.
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First of all, I have to say that the Team moved through the last episode like a well-oiled machine. You all adapted well and quickly to what was thrown at you. Although your throw down with the Alabama State Police would normally be the lead news story in the country with at least a mention all around the world, the hijacking of the zeppelin by Ricardo Vincent, which you were originally scheduled to be on has captured the world's attention. Your now bloody feud with Alabama Governor Braxton Lowndes is mostly a major regional story. Still important, especially to you all, but not really international fare.
Of the eighteen Alabama "Black Shirted" State Police, two escaped in one of their patrol cars. Neither Zdravko or Suzy wanted to shoot at them as they fled. Both Rue and 8-Ball provided medical attention to the four wounded left behind and kept them from dying. That left 12 dead cops on the field at the loss of Usman Katusi, your long time friend and big rig driver. A few Team members were wounded, especially J.J. Hunter, but Rusty's lucky RPG hit on the big police vehicle's gas tank knocked over their SWAT Team and killed its two crew members. This allowed the rest of the rogue police to be thinned out before the heavily armed SWAT Team could respond effectively. The Team has safely gotten to Miami and yes, the police trackers on your vehicles have now been removed. These could serve as more evidence of Alabama's attempt to frame the Team for drug smuggling. As it has been pointed out the Miami Police haven't come to talk to you about this incident yet, but it also didn't occur in that city's police department's jurisdiction. Also, the zeppelin hijacking has really captured the most attention in the news cycle. Florida authorities are very involved with looking for the bodies of people that Ricardo Vincent threw out of the airship.
As to Cossack grabbing a badge off a dead Alabama Sate Policeman wouldn't have gotten you .....
On 02/04/2023 at 14:58, TigerGuard said:in hella more trouble than we already are.
You are already in a hell of a lot of trouble and the next couple of days will decide which way this goes.
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First of all, I have to say that the Team moved through the last episode like a well-oiled machine. You all adapted well and quickly to what was thrown at you. Although your throw down with the Alabama State Police would normally be the lead news story in the country with at least a mention all around the world, the hijacking of the zeppelin by Ricardo Vincent, which you were originally scheduled to be on has captured the world's attention. Your now bloody feud with Alabama Governor Braxton Lowndes is mostly a major regional story. Still important, especially to you all, but not really international fare.
Of the eighteen Alabama "Black Shirted" State Police, two escaped in one of their patrol cars. Neither Zdravko or Suzy wanted to shoot at them as they fled. Both Rue and 8-Ball provided medical attention to the four wounded left behind and kept them from dying. That left 12 dead cops on the field at the loss of Usman Katusi, your long time friend and big rig driver. A few Team members were wounded, especially J.J. Hunter, but Rusty's lucky RPG hit on the big police vehicle's gas tank knocked over their SWAT Team and killed its two crew members. This allowed the rest of the rogue police to be thinned out before the heavily armed SWAT Team could respond effectively. The Team has safely gotten to Miami and yes, the police trackers on your vehicles have now been removed. These could serve as more evidence of Alabama's attempt to frame the Team for drug smuggling. As it has been pointed out the Miami Police haven't come to talk to you all about this incident yet, but it also didn't occur in that city's police department's jurisdiction. This whole incident is far from over. When we restart with Episode 74 in two weeks, the morning will bring a plane with your replacement Militech EMA-1 armor, and the sabotaged armor will be going back to Whyte Hat HQ in Wells, Nevada. Hopefully a reinforcement solo will be on that plane too.
Future retribution from Alabama is a serious concern, and the upcoming show in Tallahassee is very near the Alabama border. However, Tallahassee is the Florida state capital and headquarters of the Florida National Guard, so an official overt strike is unlikely, but not out of the question. Traveling into Georgia might be a concern too, but Nancy Chang is looking into that. There is much going on "behind the scenes" here, and Mitzi, Nancy and Suzy will be working their contacts to find out. For now, you have Miami to worry about and a show on the evening we restart at one of the most famous Cyberpunk clubs in the country. With all of the publicity the band and Team as generated, it is expected to be a sell-out!
Let us not forget that you did also, break up a New Orleans Police run sex trafficking ring in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. That case is now in the hands of the U.S. Marshal's Service. Yes, you did get away clean, but the odds are quite good that your participation will come out eventually. Fortunately, the Team committed no major felonies, but probably did garner some new enemies, along with some new friends. It would probably be best to let the Marshals and LEDiv deal with all that.
Meanwhile, the zeppelin hijacking drama is still being played out and that is having huge international repercussions. That incident is drawing a lot of official attention, which may explain why Florida officials haven't descended on you yet about the gunfight with the Alabama State Police in the panhandle. Expect a visit soon!
There are a number of individual questions poised above about smaller and personal interests which I will answer in PMs later today or tomorrow.
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As a reminder, called shot head (along with hands and feet) is +10; called shot torso (whole) is only +3; called shot arm or leg +4; with the torso being partially blocked by the rail in this case the torso would also be +4.
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I thought it would be a good thing to talk abut the use of the Paintball Assault Rifles that the Team will be using during the operation that will hopefully be finding Marilyn at the beginning of the next session. The initial shots on the outside guards will be at medium range for these weapons, but inside it will be short or possibly point blank. However, I would advise against getting that close. These weapons have a ROF of 1/3/20. The three round burst at close & medium range has a +3 to hit, but this might not be the best use of your weapon. There is NO double tapping with this (essentially) air gun, but everyone's Rifle skill is at least Level 5, with most being much better. The way we play auto fire is that the higher the skill level, the more control you have on the number of rounds fired. On this 20 round ROF weapon Level 0 to 1 is the full 20 rounds, Levels 2 & 3 can be 10 rounds, Level 4 & 5 is 5 rounds, Levels 6 & 7 is 3 rounds (but this isn't a 3 round burst), level 8 and above is as many as you want, since you are a Master Rifleman. Just 3 hits will probably take down the first floor Lookout down, but the railing on the second floor will stop 25% of the hits. Having the 3 best shooters concentrate single aimed called shots on him and his upper torso or an arm (all -4 to hit) might be a good plan. 8-Ball would be 18+ with this paintball rifle looking for a twenty. Cossack would be a 16+ at that range. This is just something to think about. When it gets down to 'Calling the shots' so to speak, this will be 8-Ball's decision.
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Yes, a person's MA is a game statistic, but 8-Ball has worked on many Ops with Cossack, J.J. and Rue. Rue is by far the fastest, but she is on the third pair. Of the remaining 3, 8-Ball is the fastest, followed by J.J. and then Cossack. You don't know how fast Viper or 'the new guy' are. Suzy suggests, "You might try having them run down the dock at Antoine's in the day and pretend you are all just playing stupid macho games as a cover."
If the take down of the outside guards goes smoothly, then yes, stack at the door. The movement will be in THREE PAIRS.
- The second person in the second pair opens the door which will allow the first pair to enter along with the first person of the second pair. The person who held the door should have time to at least be in the threshold.
- The first pair should remember NOT to set up their shots so the lead man of the second pair has to cross through your line of fire. Your speed should be no more than a hustle (i.e. 2x MA) as there are many tight turns to take. It might be best to walk (1xMA).
- The third pair will pull the 1st floor outside guard in and then try to find the basement. That should be their priority unless the first pair has 'fucked up' and needs rescuing.
Dragging drunk or drugged women inside suggests some kind of human trafficking operation, so every male should be drugged with sleep rounds. After they are all down, go through their pockets for IDs and phones. Keep these and PULL THE BATTERIES FROM THE PHONES. No phone leaves the building that is able to be tracked. Just turning them off won't do. Any skilled NET Runner can turn on a shut off phone . Yes, make a quick check for papers and electronics, but zip tieing the males quickly take precedence.
Do not take any males out of the building for questioning. We have NO AUTHORITY here. Whatever they are doing, if we take them away it is kidnapping! We are in Dixie, in a state that clearly hates us, since they wouldn't let our security be armed. You do NOT want to be tried here. If the women look like victims, bag them only if you are suspicious of them and bring them with us, but for God's sake don't put a bag over Marilyn's head. She is the only one that gets complete initial trust. Be kind and reassuring to any women that look like victims. In fact, only J.J. and Rue should talk to them. Any male voices will NOT be helpful, except Viper talking to his sister. Also, everyone is to remain professional. Regardless of what you find, here will be no handing out of street justice. If we have names and identifications, there will be time to deal will any deserving malefactors in the future when we are safely out of Louisiana.
One further note, since there is a railing that provides some minimal cover to the second floor guard, perhaps he should receive 3 round burst from the three strike team members targeting him. With Rue on the assault team, she should be able to get to him in time before he ODs from any multiple saves.
Ex-fill will be from the front of the house by the walkway since both boats can be loaded simultaneously. We should be able to be in and out very quickly. Planting mini-cam to see who comes in reaction to our strike is now nixed. All of these cameras have serial numbers and we don't have the time or proper equipment to find and remove these identification numbers. These cameras will be found eventually and might provide another way to track us down.
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No audio surveillance available since the drone would have to get too close. There is some form of sometimes verbal exchange and sometimes just a nod back and forth. The guard on the porch doesn't appear to activate anything to open the door. People just open the door and walk in.
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Well, the width of the door may be of little concern, but it is of some concern.
For the sake of planning, figure that it will take about 1.1 second for a character to go through an open door, so yes, three people, who are properly positioned and ready, can safely get through a door in one 3.3 second combat round. I will withhold judgement on whether a fourth can get through, when I see how the Team sets up to come through the door. Battering it down will take time and just trying to run through it will slow you down.
Please note that surveillance shows people just opening the door and walking through. It is possible that the front door isn't even locked.
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While this discussion is going on, Suzy just remains quiet and listens to both Zdravko and 8-Ball. Finally, she speaks in a calm, measured tone, "All right, a small change in plans. Zdravko will NOT be on the assault team; he will be with me in my sniper's nest acting as my spotter and watching my back. Also, he will bring his cyberdeck to help me scan for remotes and any other drones in the area. Rue will replace him on the assault team. Her medical expertise will be needed in case of wounds and to provide stims and other medial care, if any targets overdose on multiple hits from sleep drugs."
She then turns to 8-Ball and tells him, "Rue is to be assigned to the third pair entering the house and isn't to be first through any door."
There is a finality in her voice to indicate that this decision isn't up for debate. She goes on to state, "Zdravko and I will study the new aerial surveillance of the neighborhood to pick my sniper hide meaning we will be dropped off first a couple of hours before go time, while Paulie flies the Oracle so we will have an idea of he coming and goings in and out of the target house."
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The bridge is about four to six feet above the water, depending on the tide and current flow of the Mississippi. You have no idea whether the rear door can be used as ex-fil or if it secured in other ways besides being barred. However ex-fil by that one narrow door means only one boat can load and then only one person at a time, so that isn't a good method when both boats can pull up to the walkway / bridge. It should be considered if the front door is under fire. That is unlikely and Suzy has over watch on a great deal of the front if that happens.
Suzy hasn't changed her desire for the order of attack by the Team pairs.
The Grid Bug doesn't suggest anything in regard to the rooms being locked from the outside.
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OK, while there are things happening in the during the day of the strike on the Target house, I thought it would be best to give you the information that the next drone intrusion attempt on the target house will reveal. This occurs in the early evening about six hours before the attack. The Grid Bug is able to enter through the slightly rotted window frame at the other end of the back wall of the house. Suzy gets a good view of most of that second floor. There are two rooms that she dared not try to look in, since her drone would have to come out of the shadows, which might mean it would be spotted. She did move the Grid Bug downstairs and got a view of most of the first floor, but again didn't want to risk going any farther. The bug couldn't locate any door to the basement, but Suzy believes it may be under the stairs from the second to the first floor. That stairway to the basement, if it exists, would be out of sight of the Grid bug. So here are the composite pictures of the first and second floors.
First Floor
This is the first floor of the target house. Notice there is another door on the back wall (top of picture). It is securely barred from the inside. Aerial reconnaissance shows that it is several feet above the water and has NO outside handle. The people inside seemed relaxed and jovial.
Second Floor
This is the second floor of the target house. The blacked out area on the bottom of the picture are two rooms, which she felt the Grid Bug could not reach without being noticed. The bald man in the upper right corner of the picture is the same as the one that was there during the first Grid Bug intrusion. He has his pistol on the table in front of them. The rest of the people in the room are different. Again, everyone up on this floor seem happy and jovial.
Please note that Armed Lookout #1 is sitting in a chair and this upper outside porch has a spindle railing around it. Any sleep drug hits to the legs or lower torso have a 50% chance of hitting the railing. That means Locations 4, 7, 8, 9 & 10. This man could be a target for the 3 round burst setting.
This here is the total amount of information you will have going into this fight. It should be more than enough to plan the assault, especially considering the time frame you have to plan. As usual, I am open to questions.
Proposal for a Virtual Cyberpunk Game
in Cyberpunk RPG General Chat
Posted
It is important to read the description of Kansas on page 142 of Home of the Brave. You are located in the rebuilt town of Grinnell, Kansas just off Interstate 70. This area is a post-apocalyptic hell-scape with very few people left. The old town of Grinnell is just a group of scattered ruins with mostly just dust covered foundations and the shattered ruins of the old grain silo. All that is left of the people and town are sheltered just southwest of the town's old Interstate 70 connection. It is more of a walled compound stretching 50 meters north to south and 75 meters east to west. it is about 150 to 180 meters south of the Interstate. The old Interstate interchange had a bridge over it carrying Gove County Road 30, but that was destroyed long ago. The Bar and CHOO2 station is just off Gove County Road 30 to the west and the new walled Grinnell is a hundred meters west of that. The walls are are a mix of mud brick adobe and scrap metal about 4 meters high with barbed wire around the top. There are ruined towers which stood at each of the compound's corners with a large weakly fortified gate on the east side and a smaller gate on the west side. All of the small homes and businesses are also made of the same adobe mud brick. The large building in the northeast corner is the combination town hall and community center. All of the buildings are two stories tall.
The locals will tell you that the five Raffin Shiv that were in the walled town at the time of you liberating the Bar fled out the west gate into the coming storm. The others who ran grabbed some vehicles out behind the Bar and fled east away from the coming storm. The storm is close now and by the time Suzy gets the satellite uplink on line, she can't raise a satellite. All your radios are also out of range or useless against all the oncoming storm's interference. The storm will have to pass before any contact with the outside world can be made. This storm is passing west to east and is one of the worst in recent memory. However, you should be safe in the town.
The locals do give you some information because they are certain that they will be punished for you taking out part of the gang. There are 114 people in his town packed into the houses. Of them 50 are male and 64 are female, 24 are children, 30 are too old and not fit for any sort of use combat or otherwise. Of the remaining 60, 25 are male and 35 are female but only 5 of the men have any real combat skills and maybe 14 more are capable of defending themselves; the remaining 6 are pathetic and completely untrustworthy. Three of the remaining women seem sufficiently bad ass and capable of being useful in the fight. Another 12 can and are willing to fight, but have minimal skills. This gives you maybe 8 serious combatants and maybe 27 others who have some capability to help. The Raffin Shiv have killed anyone who they feared might oppose them. Only the very smart avoided death.
The problem with these defenders is that they have only 3 rifles, 4 shotguns and maybe 10 handguns that they managed to hide from the gang. They also have only five vehicles that are all electric powered. One car and one pickup truck (neither off road capable. On pick-up (off road capable) and two low power electric motorcycles (off road capable).
From the fallen Raffin Shiv you have obtained:
The sign saying that there was No CHOO2 at the filling station was lie to preserve the Raffin Shiv's fuel supply. The bad news is that Jesse Wayne fired the 40 Auto GL at the Raffin Shiv around the pump and detonated the remaining fuel as well as killing the rest of the gang. This leaves 44 rounds left in that 40mm Grenade belt. Well, the band, Skip and Rusty helped with that too.
You also have 4 prisoners and it is clear they all know who you are. None will talk, so Interrogation may a bit useless if they won't respond to anything you say. The town officials identify the leader of this group when they wake up. He was the wounded Raffin Shiv that Zdravko emptied his pistol into (Ganger #1). No matter, he probably wouldn't have talked with you either.
From the people of Grinnell, you learn that the Raffin Shiv are following the storm from the west down Interstate 70 and will probably arrive about an hour or so after the storm abates in the Town. They can't be sure. The storm should pass just after dawn tomorrow. The estimates of the gang's numbers range from about 120 to just over 200. They have a light plane they tow with them and have used to bomb towns that resist them World War One style. They have also used mortars to pound their enemies from a distance.
The locals will tell you none of the businesses on the map above are still in existence. The county seat at Gove City is an abandoned ruin. The towns of Grainfield and Park off Interstate 70 to the east sometimes have people, but they are generally lawless thieves. The Town of Oakley to the west of here does have a small permanent population, but it is an outlaw town probably allied to the Raffin Shiv. It is because of these people that every one must stop at the Bar before they can enter the walled town of Grinnell.
Above is the the area around new and old Grinnell. All of the roads except Interstate 70 and the road to the Bar and the Walled town are dirt tracks now. It is a dry and dusty landscape for the most part. Below is the first level map of the Walled Town of Grinnell. Consider the edges of the map to be where the walls are, however the location of the two gates are marked. The bus and the tractor trailer are two big to navigate the streets beyond the first plaza area. The Armadillo and car might be able to maneuver slowly.
In regard to a few other questions and statements, Both Cossack and Jessie can operate the turret on the Armadillo but only in a direct fire mode. The walls of the town are too high for them to fire over. Only Suzy has the skill to fire it indirectly as this mode falls under the additional Skill: Artillery Operations. After all, Suzy and her partner Samantha rigged the Whyte Hat Armadillo to act as a mobile artillery weapon to use their "Death Blossom" during the Battle for Rachel, Nevada.
FYI, this Raffin Shiv band is neither the Desert Devils or the Montello Madmen. Those groups are extinct thanks to you. As I stated when you destroyed them both, the few that escaped did go east out of Nevada to join other groups and that was years ago.
OK, the floor is open to planning and it would be good to hear from everyone interested in having their characters survive. One more thing to consider, what do you think the Reputation boost for killing 8-Ball and Cossack would be to these wasteland warriors?